Ballroom Dancing

This last summer a girl in our ward asked if Erik would be interested in Ballroom dancing. In order for her to be on the team she had to find a boy for the team.

"NO WAY" was the reply.

The local teacher was offering Summer classes as you go for just $5 each week, so I told Erik that all I wanted him to do was try it once. If he didn't like it, he didn't have to do it. He went and was hooked.

This fall he tried out for the team and made it. The high-school age group is quite large with many popular kids in it. (might have something to do with several shows on TV)

He has enjoyed going to the practices, but refuses to demonstrate what he has learned, so I was pretty amazed when I saw that he had learned so much. I had to share the video. It may be the only time you see him dance;o)

He starts out in front on the right, but most of the dance is on the back left.

Fun Photoshop Ornament

I have a friend that has a preschool and she wanted me to see if I could make christmas ornaments for her to put the kids pictures in for an art project. Here is what I came up with (except hers were all red). Kinda cute. I can e-mail the template for anyone who wants it and has any version of photoshop.

I've got gas and I'm smiling

I drive around town with a big smile on my face. I almost felt giddy the other day when I went to town and the price for gas was down to $1.71 a gallon. Only a few months ago it was nearly $4.20! I felt like I couldn't go anywhere, and then when I did go to town It took all day, because I combined all my errands into one trip.

It not only made me feel like I couldn't go anywhere, then everything else started going up too!

The high gas prices we suffered over the summer did make me stop and think every time I had to go somewhere. I even got a bike so that I can run smaller errands. Perhaps it was a change for the better. I try to plan things a little better now, and don't take the luxury of a vehicle for granted anymore.

The Season is here shhhh....I won't tell.

At My house my husband outwardly insists on having nothing to do with holiday cheer until celebrating Thanksgiving is over before we can get in the "holiday spirit" No red and green decorations, no Christmas music, and certainly no merriment or anticipation before Thanksgiving. NO putting up the tree earlier than the day after Thanksgiving!

The day AFTER Thanksgiving is another story. Neither Paul nor I grew up getting up and going shopping for great deals at 5:00am after being pumped full of tryptophan, but when Paul sees all the electronics that he can get at a fraction of the cost, he can't help himself. We have kind of made it our annual date the last few years.

If the kids only knew how excited their dad gets on this day. I won't tell them weeks ago I caught him looking on the Internet to see who will have what on sale. This is Paul's Christmas.

The kids have their own way of ushering in the season without their Dad knowing. The other night I went down to make sure everyone was asleep, and I had to smile when I could hear strains of Christmas carols coming from both the girls and boys rooms.

I have nothing to wear!

Do any of you remember going through this phase when you were a teenager? We had an episode of that this last Sunday at our house.

Actually, I don't know that it ever really goes away, you just learn not to fall apart so much when you can't find anything you feel like wearing in a closet full of clothes.

I just have to laugh, because not more than a few days earlier we were at the mall and I asked my oldest if she needed anything.

"Nope, I'm good"

Weekend Project

Here's what else we got done this last weekend. I put the drawers together a few weeks ago, but Paul took the day off Friday and we got the shelves built. Now I hope the LEGOS can stay off the floor! LOL.
I had fun in photoshop making the "LEGO" paper and elements. The boys thought it was cool that I figured out how to do that.

Now I just need to paint the walls so that it isn't all monochromatic!

Rocket Science

Does it take a Rocket Scientist to have fun? YES!
For those who didn't know, Paul WAS a rocket scientist in Grad School He was the project manager for the UNITY IV rocket that several universities worked on and launched out at Dugway.

Building models is fun, but it gets even better when competition, fire and dangerous explosives are involved. Paul stayed up late for several nights building the rockets. (an engineer HAS to design the fins in AutoCAD you know!) He even made the older kids design their own rockets. We met our friends at the fairgrounds and had a picnic lunch. It was a perfect way to spend a fall Saturday afternoon.

I had great fun trying to capture perfect blast-off pictures. I got up to 1/3200 second to get the shot. Having too much fun with the new camera!

After they launched rockets Paul and Erik worked on Erik's science fair project using rocket motors to see what would melt. Wow! Hot enough to melt steel!

Last weekend Paul built Nicole a wind Tunnel for her science fair project. Fin design. She will be competing against Erik this year. The last two years she has gone to district and then placed in region. It will be fun to see how each of them do this year.

Fall leaves

Isn't this what Fall is all about?

It was bound to happen.......

I think we own every Calvin and Hobbes book there is out there....I'm pretty sure that we have duplicates too! So it really shouldn't have been a suprise when we heard unusually loud splashing noises in the bathroom.

Thank goodness there is a drain in the floor and tile everywhere. When Natalie emerged from the bathroom, the rug and "pretty" outer shower curtain were soaked. There was even water by the door eight feet away from the tub.

"Natalie...what were you doing in there?"

"I accidently splashed a little bit."

"A LITTLE BIT?"

"a lot."

"Have you been reading Calvin and Hobbes?"

guilty look

"Yes."

I couldn't stop laughing. I always thought it would be one of the boys to try that...not cute little Natalie.

It's easy to give the cat a bath

I've been Tagged

I've been tagged by Deena. I am supposed to write six quirky things about myself , and then tag others. It actually took a day or so to think about this. Here goes.

1. I don't like colored towells. You can't bleach them.
2. I am extremely afraid of being run over by a semi truck on the interstate.
3. I must wash and moisturize my face every night even if I didn't wear makeup that day.
4. I can't sleep without putting chapstick on.
5. I always have to have nuts in the house (Thanks Grandma Barney! She once told me that if she had nuts in the house, things were finantially OK....depression era thing)
6. I cook with one hand on my hip. I never noticed it until my husband told me I looked like my mother when I stand in front of the stove.

I now tag Shannon, and Kristen...when you get a minute!

silly putty and costumes

Apparently Karl was trying to get the silly putty to stick to his forehead by pressing it against the window.
Here are the photos from the ward costume party/annual chili cookoff. Paul had fun playing with the new camera. The only one using flash was Natalie's makeup (taken on the little Canon Powershot) The rest were on the big camera in the Gym at 3200ISO.

Haloween this year was unusually mild. It did sprinkle a little, but no one needed a jacket. Nicole dressed up but pretended not to trick-or treat (she still got a few)

Here is a picture of my front room. When I saw this scrapbook kit from Scrapbook-Elements.com I couldn't help myself, I just HAD to buy it! It matches!