My Little Bro

This is my little brother, and I only say little because he's younger than me (and he probably weighs less than I do with this ever expanding belly of mine). He's currently living in Nashville with his wife and two daughters working on his music career. Four of his songs have been entered in a contest at Famecast. He has the chance to win $10,000 in each category. He's doing well, but can use all the votes he can get. Please vote for him here. Click on the "video" tab and you will be able to view and listen to each of his four songs and then vote for them separately. He hopes that $40,000 would help him not be a starving musician anymore, but who is he kidding, he doesn't know how to cook anything but a mean bowl of Ramen.

Good luck buddy! We love and miss you all!

The End

There. It's done. I finally finished HP7. Now we can talk.

It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's...

Last night for Family Night, I decided to give a lesson on Manners. Now, I know the images are cheesy, but I decided to go with the superhero theme since my boys love that kind of thing (and my 2 1/2 -year-old daughter thought the girl superheroes were pretty). We talked about these specific superheroes coming to "live" at our house. After a slight interruption of our neighbor who was picking up their son who I had been watching all day, my 4-year-old started to cry. I thought he was sad because he didn't want his friend to leave. When we got him calmed down enough to understand what he was saying, this is what we heard:

"I'm just a little scared of those superheroes coming to live at our house".

Wow. I guess I needed to be a little more specific, Bob. (Kudos to whoever knows what movie that is from.) I had intended on posting the superheroes pictures on our fridge to remind us all to use our manners. This still scared him. He thought they could get off the fridge and fly around the house. (At least he's using him imagination, right?) To remedy the situation, I shrunk down the pictures and printed them to fit on one page and taped them to the inside of a kitchen cabinet (right next to the job charts). That way they "won't be able to get out unless we let them out". This seemed to satisfy him. Oh the things we come up with for our children.

Here's to many more adventurous family home evening lessons.

I Heart NY

My mom, sister and I recently got back from a weekend trip to the Big Apple. My mom is a flight attendant for Jet Blue Airlines so we all flew for free (bonus!). We stayed in Queens at the apartment of another flight attendant so our lodging was free (double bonus!). We took the subway into the city each day to do the typical touristy stuff...Central Park, The Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, etc. etc.
First up was Battery Park. We got our tickets to go out to Liberty Island. It's pretty amazing to see the Statue of Liberty in real life. Thunder and lightning started all around us, and we wondered if the safest place to be was standing under a 150 foot tall tower of copper.

The highlight of the trip for me was getting last minute tickets to Hairspray at The Neil Simon Theater. It was fantastic! The cast was fabulous! What could be better than spending a Saturday afternoon seeing Jerry Mathers (a.k.a. Beaver Cleaver) singing and dancing and grabbing Paul Vogt's breasts on Broadway? We had a great time and it was worth every penny. It is definitely something I could do at least once a year.

Because we were trying to get tickets to the Saturday matinée, we didn't get to spend as much time as we would have liked in Central Park. We really wanted to see Bethesda Fountain, one of the ice skating ponds and run like Phoebe Buffay through the park, but we ran out of time. You really could spend an entire day in Central Park. Next time, I'll make sure to visit a real New York deli before strolling the park.

Aside from the puking on the plane on the way home (I blame it on being five months pregnant), it was a memorable trip. Although, we stood outside Trump Tower and never once saw "The Donald". Oh well, maybe next time.

That's All I Have To Say About That

To the thief(s) who broke into my minivan in an LDS Church parking lot in Salt Lake City:

You forgot to grab the remote (which was in plain sight) for the DVD player that you unstrapped from my seat backs. Oh, and I really hope you enjoy Monsters Inc., The Little Mermaid, Ice Age 2, Over the Hedge and Shark Tale. They are all really wholesome family movies. Please tell your children where you got them.

Love,

Meemoo

p.s. Don't worry about the line of people waiting at the gates of Hell. Stealing from a church parking lot puts you on the expressway. Everyone will step aside, they'll be waiting for you directly at the gate. Have a nice day.

My mom wanted to take all nine grandchildren to The Living Planet Aquarium on Monday as kind of a send of to my 8-year-old nephew who was moving to Texas a week earlier than the rest of his family. The favorite attraction was the touch pool where the kids got to touch the sting rays, although my kids would have nothing to do with that (they just splashed in the water).
It was quite a nostalgic for me actually, and I will tell you why. The building that the aquarium is located in used to be my place of employment as a craft store. I spent three good years at Mac's Hobbies and Crafts starting as a cashier and ending as an assistant manager and doing everything in between. It was a great job. I loved the people I worked with and I (usually) loved going to work everyday. The only reason I left was because my husband was transfered to St. George. I was so sad when I heard that the store closed. At least I discovered it's competition in St. George, Robert's Arts and Crafts, where I worked for many years before moving again. Now I live in Pocatello (which I cannot dub "The Armpit of Idaho" anymore after having recently been to Blackfoot), and we have no craft store comparable to Mac's or Roberts. The nearest Roberts is 45 minutes away in Idaho Falls.

It Is Most Definitely A Boy

Eris wanted to know the second we knew for sure if we were having a boy. Well, judging by this picture (if you know what you are looking at), I don't think there is any mistaking it. It is most definitely a boy. And what a boy!

I Guess I'm It

Tagged by the The Duchess

Here are the rules to play:

1. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
2. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
3. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.

My 8 Randomosities …

1. I'm due to have a baby on January 1st, 2008. (I want all the cool presents for having the first baby of the year, not another tax deduction!)

2. My better education and new vocabulary comes from daily crosswords puzzles, yes, I'm one of those. (The most recent clue? "A numismatists find." I credit Eris for my knowing the answer.)

3. I have the ability to fall asleep fast, whether tired or not. (My husband is so jealous of this.)

4. There are 54 first-cousins on just one side of my family.

5. I live in what is affectionately known as the "armpit" of Idaho. Chili's just opened in these parts and the natives are ecstatic.

6. I have never seen a "Die Hard" movie.

7. I drink 72 oz. of water ever day (and pee a lot!).

8. I am slowly learning everything a parent needs to know about Pokemon. (I am considering writing "A Parent's Guide to Understanding Pokemon" or "Pokemon For Dummies")

Wow, that was a hard task. I, seriously, must be the most boring person I know. On top of that, I don't know any additional Bloggers that haven't already been tagged.

The Fun Never Ends

Well, it was one of those nights on Saturday night. We had just spent the evening at the Primary Talent Show. Now, the kids are cute with their singing and piano and violin playing, but when 4-year-old Little Little Mr. Meemoo says he wants to tell jokes for his talent, we knew we were in for a treat. He stood right up on that stage and with microphone in hand, rattled off some serious knock-knock jokes. Well, only one knock-knock, the others were the more traditional fare. We had to drag him off of the stage or he would have kept going all night. At least the audience was entertained.

On our way home, we stopped at some neighbors to check out their swamp cooler. Yes, we are in the market for some kind of cooling system for this summer. Still, I don't know how Mr. Meemoo feels about cutting a big, gaping hole in the side of our house. We may opt for a portable air conditioner. The older Little Mr. Meemoo decides he has to go to the bathroom but didn't know where one was (did I mention that our friends have the exact same floor plan as we do?). Needless to say, there was an accident. Then Little Miss Meemoo decides she has to go (luckily she is still in diapers).

As we are loading everyone up in the car, I sarcastically exclaim "Wow, the fun never stops at our house". The 4-year-old (fresh off his joke telling) replies "Uh-huh! The fun does too stop at our house!"

Yeah, we never let our kids have any fun.

Strike Three and Your Out!

Rough night last night. First of all, while watching our Tivoed copy of the Saturday Night Live Special that was on Sunday night, Tivo did not pick up the start of the Jazz game. (Strike One)

Secondly, while watching the Jazz game (already in progress), Tivo (which is having major issues, as Eris can attest to) made us choose between "Heroes" or "the game". (Strike Two)

My thought was "watch the game, we can always catch "Heroes" on the internet". But Mr. Meemoo, who is battling finals and papers to grade, says "I'm going to bed, I'd rather it get "Heroes" so we can watch it tomorrow. I can always read about the game".

Wow! That really did just come out of his mouth.