What if?

So, after looking at my cousin Lori's post yesterday, I just had to check out the yearbookyourself website. What fun! But as Tony and tried it out with pictures of ourselves, it had us asking, "What if?"

What if I had graduated with my dad?

What if I had been born 20 years earlier? I could have been my mom's best friend, or possibly TWIN??? This is a little freaky, don't you think, Mom?

Even if I could have been a high school senior in 1994 instead of an 8th grader. Then I could have had the hair of my dreams! What if Tony gained 100 lbs?What if he had lived in the 50's? Can you say teen heartthrob?

Or what if he had been born just 10 years earlier? Would he still be sporting this sweet mullet?

Who knows?!?

Graveyards . . . ugh!

About a month ago, I got a call from a lady who lives in the valley here. She told me that she and her husband wanted to go on a cruise with his parents for their 50th wedding anniversary. Their only holdup was the fact that two of her children, both of whom have disabilities needed nighttime supervision to monitor for seizures, and they couldn't go if they didn't find a provider. Since I'm a certified respite care provider, she got my name from the list and gave me a call. She told me that the provider would need to be awake all night, and that it would be for 4 nights from 9pm to 6am. My initial response was, "I don't think so." However, after hanging up the phone, I thought a little more about it, and realized that my excuse of being a mother of two small children sounded pretty lame when considering what she does. She and her husband have adopted 10 children, almost all of whom have disabilities. She has two that have cerebral palsy and seizures, two that have Downs Syndrome, two in wheelchairs, one blind, one deaf, and one dumb. I immediately talked to Tony, and we decided that I'd do it. I called her back, and she was ecstatic. She wanted to go so badly, but was worried that they wouldn't find anybody willing to take on the job. So, thanks to Tony's sisters and a friend, my kids will be taken care of during the days so I can get some sleep this week, and I get to spend 9 hours each night in a bedroom with two boys, praying that they don't have a seizure. In the meantime, however, last night, I was able to get 7 digital scrapbook pages done, read some from my book, get some respite paperwork done that I've been meaning to get to, and enter all my JV volleyball stats onto the computer. All this while trying to get one of the boys, who is deaf, to lay down and go to sleep. Hopefully he'll sleep better tonight. He had a rough one. Anyway, after meeting her chidren and thinking about what she deals with everyday VOLUNTARILY, I'm sure she's headed straight for the Celestial Kingdom. And although I'm tired, I guess I'm grateful, too, to be able to give a saint a much-deserved four night break. One down, three to go! Wish me luck!

Finally!

So, I finally got the FHE blog set up. To see it, go to www.fheswap.blogspot.com. If you are interested in sharing FHE ideas, please email me at taffymicheli@yahoo.com and I will email back to you the username and password required to get on the blog and post your ideas. Also, I would like to have an element on this blog where the ideas are sorted by categories, so instead of having how many posts were made in October, it would have something like Prophets (3) to show that there are three lessons about prophets, and you can just click there to get all three on your screen. Does anybody know if this is possible, or how to do it? If so, please let me know! I think this would make this blog really handy. Finally, I would love to know who posts the different ideas, so will you please include your name under Labels for this post. This should be fun!

FHE Swap, Anyone?

So, I was looking online for some ideas for my primary lesson last week, and I came upon a blog where different people had posted FHE ideas. I think this is a great idea, and was wondering if any of you would be interested in being a part of this. I think I would just set up a new blog, and then email the username and password to whoever wanted to join. That way, you could log in anytime and post something. I also would like to set it up where the archive is sorted by topic. That way, over time, you could click on a topic and have all relevant posts come up.

For those of you interested in joining, I would ask that you make one post a month. You can do more if you'd like, but at least that much. That way, we could really get a good base of ideas going. It could be an entire lesson plan or just a tip to make FHE more fun and effective. If you are interested, please leave a comment with your email address, or email me at taffymicheli@yahoo.com. I hope to get this set up this Sunday if there's a good response. This could be tons of fun!!!

Choices, Choices . . . What's a Mom to do?

So, I just got our CD of pictures from Ashlie. Thanks again, Ashlie! She did such a wonderful job on these. The only bad part is that I have to choose now what I want to have printed, what sizes, where to put them, etc. So I need a little help from my fellow bloggers. I'm going to post my 3 favorite pictures of our family, of Connor, and of Mylie. Please give me your input about which is your favorite. These are to print in large sizes and hang on the family room wall. I hope to get a slide show made of all the other great photos soon and post it here, so be watching for that. Thanks to all of you who will try to help me out a little with this!

Random tidbits

First of all, Ashlie Hilton did our family pictures last Monday, and I have been patiently waiting for a sneak peek at some finished products on her blog. And finally this morning, they were there! To see some of our family photos, click on my link to Ashlie and Clint. Fun stuff. Thanks a million, Ash! You do outstanding work!

Secondly, last Saturday, Connor and Tony went to Laramie for the Cowboys football game. They had a great time despite the lousy outcome (The Cowboys lost 23-3.) Connor was cheering for the Cowboys the whole game. His grandpa asked him if he'd cheer for Air Force for $10. Connor said no. Then he offered $50. Still no. He made one more offer, and Connor came back with, "Not for $1,000!" My dad may disagree, but Tony and I figure we must be raising him right. He had a great time with his cousin who lives in Cheyenne. Connor idolizes him.

Finally, two weekends ago, Tony went to Denver and competed in a race called 8 Hours of Triathlon. He was on a team of 4 with his brother and 2 of his friends. Their task was to complete as many sprint triathlons as possible in the 8 hour period. They do it tag-team style. Tony did 3 runs, 2 bikes, and one swim. Their team completed 6 1/2 triathlons. Tony loved it and is already planning for next year: possibly the 24 HOUR VARIETY!!! He forgot to take the camera, and I wasn't there, so not pics. But he brought home a souvenir that the kids think is GREAT: the swim cap they had to wear so they could be easily spotted in the resorvoir. Here is Mylie posing with it. She's so silly!

Oberg Disease

I never thought I would admit it, but I do have the Oberg disease, aka "Bloomin' Idiocy." See, in my mom's family, gardening is a way of life. I grew up quite sure that it wasn't in my blood. That all changed last year when I planted my first flowers at my own home. Surprisingly, I loved it! I loved watering them, pruning them, and watching them grow and become beautiful! Thankfully, Tony is also pretty into making our place look nice, and has done a lot of work on the landscaping. We still have a long ways to go, and I will be shocked if my diasease ever grows to the proportions exibited by my mother, aunts, or grandma, but I'm pretty proud of our little place. So, I thought I'd post a few pictures.

This first one kind of gives you the idea of the big picture. The vinyl fence is a nice new addition this year as well as the sod out front. We hope to lay sod on the side of the house next summer.

The next four pictures are Tony's handiwork. He spent a lot of time hauling and placing different types of rocks, gravel, wood chips, gnarled tree stumps, and old farm equipment to do something with this slope we have out front. I love how it turned out. It looks like we live in the country, but not just in the middle of a weed patch. The tie wall terraces were a big project! I love you, Tony!

These last three pictures show a little more of MY work--the flowers. Thanks to my mom and her wonderful greenhouse business, I was able to try a wide variety of things this year. Some grew better than others, but overall, they turned out wonderful!