Meet George

George Washington Jones loves swimming, soaking in pools, nature, hopping, and the sound of crickets in the night.  He would love to be your date to any Christmas party this year.  You know what they say:  "You have to kiss a few frogs to catch a prince!"

George is actually a firebelly toad.  It's Zach's Christmas present from Mom and Dad.  He's so excited.

Gobble Til You Wobble!

For Thanksgiving, I thought I would ask my kids what they are grateful for.  I found Kaleb first.  He said, "I'm thankful for my family."  When I asked him why, he replied, "Because I love my family.  I love my family too much!"  I asked him if there was anything else he was thankful for.  He said, "And I'm thankful for the food, and I'm thankful for the dentist." "Why are you thankful for the dentist?" I asked with raised eyebrows.  "Because I like the dentist.  He gives me toothbrushes, and toothbrushes are good."
Then it was Riley's turn.  He said, "I am thankful for the holidays."  Then he went and got a picture book he made at school and read it to me.  "I am thankful for cool, crisp, green grass.  I am thankful for brown earth.  I am thankful for swishy, wavy, blue water.  I am thankful for prickly pinecones.  I am thankful for green trees.  I am thankful for rocky, beautiful, purple mountains.  I am thankful for the shiney, yellow sun.  I am thankful for the pretty blue sky."  Then I asked him if he wanted to come up with his own ideas.  He said, "For our family.  I'm thankful for the world, I'm thankful for Jesus, I'm thankful for my mom and dad and brothers and sisters."  To which I replied, "Sisters?  You don't have any sisters!" I laughed.  He replied, "But other people do."  "But you don't."  "Brothers!  I'm thankful for my brothers!"
Then Zach said simply, "I'm thankful for my family and everything I have."  I asked him if he would like to elaborate, and he said, "No.  What else is there to say if I say I am grateful for everything I have?"
Word.

We went to my grandma's for Thanksgiving this year.  I was asked to bring some pie.  I made a cheesecake and put blackberries on the top.  So yummy!  I also made a chocolate stawberry pie.  Divine!  And I also made a vanilla pumpkin pie.  I don't like pumpkin pie, so I thought maybe I would like this one.  Nope. Not so much.  Kurtis liked it though, and the other people who actually like pumpkin pie.  Some of my aunts and uncles and cousins also came.  It was fun.  I missed those who weren't there.  My dad went to Colorado to help his parents and be with them  Grandpa Sharp is getting old.  He is old I suppose.  It makes me feel sad.  Michael (my brother) is in Washington DC going to gradschool.  He told me he would be with a classmate, and then studying and writing papers.  Hopefully he will make it for Christmas. Michele and her family.  They came in June for Zach's baptism, though.  That was fun.  Other aunts and uncles and cousins who live out of state and/or had other places to go this time around.  I love my family. 

I am grateful for a husband who loves me so much he will warm up my side of the bed when he's waiting for me to get in it.  I am grateful for our home, our freedom, our livelyhood (even though it's been turned on its head a little bit), technology, and my religion.  I am grateful for music, and acting, and that I get to sing and act as much as possible.  It's just who I am.  Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope it was wonderful!
Here are some picture of our festivities so Michele and Michael and Dad will know what the missed and feel sad they weren't there. :D  People.  If you don't know I'm kidding by now. You shouldn't be reading my blog.

Ben tried to take a nap under the table, but we kicked him instead.

Left to Right:  No, let's go Right to Left:  My cousin, Travis, his mom Aunt Kim, Uncle Danny, Uncle Steve, and an old mission companion of Travis's who tagged along for the fun of it.  He's nice.  We'll take him.

Emily kept hiding from the camera. Punk!

Aunt Junko and Uncle Danny.  Spencer and Jason (cousins) wouldn't get in the picture.

Rodney and Ben jam to guitar hero and Kurtis sleeps on the bean bag before the festivities begin.  If Kurtis isn't asleep - it's not a good party.

My grandma.  Getting ready to sample some pies.  Mmmmm! (The pies!  Not my grandmother, you weirdos!)

My mom converses with her brother, Uncle David.

My cousins, Sara and Andrew listen to music while Ryan reads.

We Never Really Named Him. Just Called Him Mr. Froggy Frog

I have all boys, and the back of my children's school is a wet land (yes, it's fenced off and safe for children), so I'm not really sure why I was so surprized when Zachary brought home a frog Wednesday afternoon.  He asked if he could keep him.  I had been trying to clean my house and get all ready to host bunko the next day, so what with being a little stressed out (okay, maybe a lot, but I think I had calmed down a bit by Wednesday), and all, I just couldn't handle the weeping and wailing and nashing of teeth that I knew was inevitable if I said no, so I said something like, "Fine.  Just don't put him in the snail cage in the house."  They let the snails go in the front yard, and put the frog in the cage.  I was texting my friend when they arrived, and texted her that Zach brought a frog home and he wants to keep it!  I probably sounded a litte freaked because I was.  I know nothing of taking care of a frog!  Frogs are my favorite animal, but I am more of a let them be free kind of girl than a keep them caged up so we can stare at them all day kind of person.  Especially when they were in the wild to begin with.  Any way, my friend told me to calm down, she has everything I need to keep a frog and she will give it to me Saturday (today).  I relaxed.  She said all I needed to do was get crickets to feed it.  All day long, the boys were so happy and excited to have their new friend.  Kurtis came home and told them that if they couldn't feed it by finding bugs for it, they would have to let it go.  Yes, he can be unreasonable sometimes.  The next day, was bunko, so I went and did my shopping - stopping at the pet store to get some crickets.  Kurtis took the day off to help me out (because he's awesome!), and came with me.  He and Kaleb had fun wandering around the pet store looking at all the fish and mice and such.  Kaleb wants a ferret.  No.  That's not going to happen.  Oh, and he wanted a snake too.  But I draw the line at snakes.  My children are not going to have a pet snake in my house! (Shivers run down my spine at the thought).  I just don't like the idea of them slithering around my house if they ever got out.  The crickets freaked me out a bit!  Jumping all over in their bag.  It's gross!  Kurtis fed the frog for me because I am having nothing to do with that!  The worms we almost bought are alive and squirming too!  Ew!  But I can deal with worms better than crickets.  Worms can't jump extremely high and get away very well.  My favorite part though, is that the crickets would sing.  At first I didn't like it.  I thought oh, crap.  That's going to get annoying.  But it wasn't.  It was kind of nice.  The cricket would sing more when I turned the radio on, too.  It was funny.  Any way. When the boys go home from school, Kurtis thought it would be funny to tell them he let the frog go. It wasn't. Zachary cried like someone had died tragically and unexpectedly.  Thursday night or Friday morning, Kurtis convinced Zach to let the frog go because he belongs in the wild.  He also said, "And you never know.  That frog might have been a mommy."  Zach realized that we needed to let Mr. Froggy go, but we promised them that today, we would go and look at pet frogs and perhaps next week, we will get one.  So, as a family, we took him back over to the school and let him go.  He (or she) will be missed.  For about two days.  Zach told me last night that he felt good about letting the frog go.  I was glad.  I think the frog is back where he belongs.  Here are some pictures of our friend.

Natural Gas Will Make Your House Expode!

So tonight, we had what we Mormons call Family Home Evening.  We're supposed to have it every Monday.  Something about building relationships with each other as a family and building a strong bond.  It's a good thing I suppose.  I'm getting better about doing it.  Any way,  That wasn't the point.  I was just bragging a little bit there. (Hee hee!)  So today, I was screaming mad at the kids because they wouldn't stop fighting and Zach didn't do his homework right away like he's supposed to, blah, blah, blah (the list is much longer and another blog post in and of itself), so I opened up Zach's scout book and said to Kurtis, "For Family Home Evening, I want you to do all of these!"  And pointed to achievement number 9.  "I'm going to do the dishes.  Have fun."  Then we realized Zach wasn't done with his homework yet, so we had to finish that first (ARG!).  When that was over, Kurtis began talking to the boys about safety and responsibilities.  Achievement 9 is the one where you talk about the things in your home that can kill you.  Kurtis told them about why we should be safe and what to do to be safe.  He showed them where to turn the water off and where the circut breaker is.  Then he showed them where to turn the water off under the sink.  Then he came to the stove.  We have a gas stove, and he spoke to them about how gas is a good thing, but we have to be responsible with it.  He's good.  He tied everything back to being responsible.  He explained to them that natural gas is flammable and the whole house could blow up if it there was too much gas in it, and that if you breathed it in for too long you would suffocate.  Riley's eyes got really wide.  I could tell he scared him a bit. (Yes, I am laughing - it's funny!)  Then Kurtis tells them that's not going to happen; you know tries to calm them down.  He turned on the gas and had them smell it and asked them what they should do if they are upstairs playing or downstairs and smell gas.  They looked like they weren't sure, so I said, "Get out!"  And Kurtis said, "Tell us you smell gas, and then get out."  The rest of the night, Zach and Riley kept coming up with worst case senario situations.  It was pretty funny.  I remember when my parents would do this for FHE, and it would always freak me out!  I was afraid my house would blow up for days.  I got to hear it five times too because I have five brothers.  Ah, the joys of parenting.  And so I pay homage to a more innocent time with these pictures.  Families are forever, so you'd better be nice!

Me and my big sister, Michele.  It was 1980, and I was 6 months old.  We're still pretty much like that, except she lives way too far away in my opinion.

That's me in the purple pants.  Emily and Ben weren't born yet.  So it's Ryan in the front, Michele, Me, Michael, and then Jeremy in the baby carrier, my dad!, and Rodney in his arms.  The back of my picture says it was July 2, 1986 at the Continental Divide, Independence Pass.  I don't know where that is, but at six years old (I wasn't 7 yet!), I was pretty much just along for the ride! :)

Here's the entire clan in our backyard.  It's August 1991.  Michele is on the left, Ben is in my mother's arms (she's trying to control Rodney who has his arms crossed), Jeremy and Emily are on Dad's lap.  He must have taken his glasses off for the picture.  Ryan is on the end, and that's me and Michael in the back (don't ask what he's doing.  I can't figure it out).  I hate those glasses, but when I got them (in 4th grade) I really liked them.  I got better frames later in the spring 1992.

Mom? Oh, You're Not On the Phone? It Can Wait.

I have a rule in my home which is all too frequently broken:  When I am on the phone, no one is allowed to speak to me untill I am off the phone.  The kids don't care.  Riley came to me today and asked, "What happens if you kill yourself?"  I was shocked, well, okay, not shocked, but more like "Where did that come from?".  Luckily, I was on the phone with Mr. Jones - he's patient.  My reply was, "What? You die."  With wide eyes, he responds excitedly, "And you don't go to jail?"  "No,"  I answered, rather flustered and wanting to end our conversation because I was on the phone.  Then he says, "Because you are already dead?"  "Yes."  "Because you can't go to jail if you are dead!"  It was pretty random.  I suppose his logic is if you kill someone, you go to jail.  Then it wandered to, but what if you kill yourself?  I'm lucky.  He's not afraid to ask me stuff.  I just wish he would wait until I've hung up the phone.