Alright - I have been warning you about a video coming....and here it is. Finally. I had a few problems with it. First of all it lasts 8:12. I love it but I'm letting you know so you can get comfy or put it off until you have time to watch it. Second, I could only download 2 songs, so one of them plays twice. It's alright again because I love the twice-played song. It is not my favorite version of the song, but none the less, one of my favorite songs. (You'll have to watch the video to hear the song). hee hee. Thirdly and lastly, the final credit screen -(watch all the way to the end) - has a few words cut off. The word for looks like fo, off looks like of, and the word just looks like jus. I did not misspell them.....I went back and checked my saved video, but on the youtube station they just didn't finish the lines. I hope you enjoy the show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJoqMAVyCLQ

A video is being worked on, but as usual, my music is not wanting to cooperate and be 'converted' to the right format. Here are a few hearts that have been hanging around my camera for a while.


This first one is a door at the place that Allan's improv' troupe practices!



Then, someone ate a fried egg and forgot to rinse their plate off.
I usually am mad, but today I will forgive easily because of the heart!
Lastly, a group of Shannon's friends went to JumpStreet a couple of days ago and this was out on the sidewalk in front of the door. It is the bracelets that they wear on their wrists when they are inside the jump area.

I guess someone tore theirs off as soon as they left. Good for me!

A few busy days have passed by. Sorry to all of you who look FORWARD to my blog! I have enjoyed reading everyone else's though. I'll tell you why I haven't done much - Monday the 11th we went to a place called JumpStreet. It is one huge warehouse type building filled with these massive trampolines right next to one another and they must be 30 or more feet long. It's an impressive sight...(pictures and video will be coming). 3 of our kids were able to go do their 'thangs'. That's what I was going to blog about but I haven't 'finalized' the disc yet and I hate finalizing if I haven't used all the disc space up - so that blog might be a while down the road. Actually, Shannon has a tournament today and I'll see if I can use it up on her. SO - I felt guilty about posting anything else because then it would have been out of 'life' order and......as you can tell I've been in a stupor of blogging. This morning I decided to blog before my day got crazy and just show a few fun pictures of things that have been happening since the 11th. Here are a few of Shannon's last tournament. Yep, she is a outside hitter! She actually plays the whole game, so both front and back rows, but she is a left front hitter and goes there after every serve. It's fun to watch her play.

We also had a sad thing happen to our good neighbors. Last Saturday their 3 year old daughter drowned in their pool. Today is her funeral. Both the mom and dad have HUGE (11 brother/sisters for the mom and 9 for the dad) families so they had to move her funeral to the Stake Center (a much larger church building than the one we attend). It will be a very hard day for them all. They have had a lot of their family here with them and so we offered our RV, which is now parked in their driveway, and our downstairs big bedroom (which they haven't had to use yet). Shannon has been asked to sing at the funeral with another young woman from our ward. They sound really nice together and it will be hard for me not to cry during the song I'm sure. Shannon's tournament will start at 7am: She will play for a couple of hours and then I'll go get her, we will attend the funeral, and then she will go back and finish the tournament. It's always so weird to me that life has to move on even though you'd like it to stop just for one day.

Lukas and Brooke were over to our house the other day and had a lot of fun on the trampoline.

I can't even begin to guess what this game was.

As I was taking pictures of them I noticed a HUGE piece of bird poop.Can you see how much bigger it is compared to the other ones? Yeah, click on that one for sure so you can see the size. When Luke first got on the tramp I saw some poop down there too and so I asked him to kick it off. I thought with him being on a soccer team he would do really well with that assignment, but he must have thought I said 'pick' it off. Ewww.....Gross.........

Big Toe Bruise

I can't believe it's been a week since my last blog! I have been super 'couponing' these past few days and made a great run at Target yesterday. My next 'hit' will be at Walgreens today or tomorrow. I think I'll make a killing of savings. If any one who lives here close to me does NOT use their grocery coupons, let me know and I'll pick them up from you.

Last Wednesday or Thursday we, Shannon, Allan and I, were 'rough-housing' and one of the activities we ended up doing was throwing the large exercise ball at each other. As I was making my way down the hall to my room, Allan tossed the ball at me and it hit my foot just at a funny angle and I swear I broke my big toe. I only took the picture this morning, but it was swollen and quite bruised. Yeah, you have to really look for the bruising today, but it is there. And tender - ouch!!! See? It goes clear around my big knuckle (is it called knuckle when it is on the toe? I'm not sure, but right where the words are is where it KILLS!!! Anyway, if it's broken what can they do about it? I'm just not wearing high heels again and walking a little slower. Here is the first bouquet of the season with the roses from our rose garden (haha- can I call it that if we only have 3 bushes?).

Driving down the freeway on Saturday I saw this.... Enlarge it and look at the brake covers! Are they just too cute. I'm thinking I want a slug-bug just for those alone. I love it!!!!!!! And lastly.... Allan (ran) and I (bike) went on the usual 1.1 mile run and then I went 3 more miles, but while I was with Allan I thought I saw a heart on Clovis Ave. , so I circled back around and yep, there it was. (this is a very tiny heart). I took the picture and then tried to catch back up with him and I couldn't do it! He was booking it! And yes, we were close to home, but not so close that I didn't think I could catch up. Good job Allan!

Two weeks ago I was a mean mom and 'demanded' that Allan start running again. He must run Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The first week he did well, with a lot of walking between running spurts. (I despise running and so I just ride my bike next to him). The first day I nearly had to just walk my bike because of the slowness, but day by day he would improve. We went about 1 mile. I would then continue riding on adding a little more distance in my ride. The second week we didn't do any running/riding because it was Spirit Week and that took most of our morning time. So, we began again this week and we are doing well. This is the view I see most. Anyway, I rode my bike Monday with Allan - Tuesday alone and again today with Allan. Today I ended up riding approximately 4 miles. Monday after my ride I decided to clean out my drawers and closet. Over 150 t-shirts, shorts, pants, sweaters, coats were bagged as well as shoes and books. Out to the car they went. It felt great. Tuesday Shannon was off of school for AIMS testing and where did we go? Yep, Goodwill. Now we really went there to drop off the bags but we had to go see what was on sale....right? I came away with 6 things....a meat grinder, a calendar, 1 new shirt and 3 pillowcases. Of course Shannon found several things she loved. Here is a cute picture of her last week at her Choir Festival: Also, my rose bushes are in total bloom..... During my ride today I ran across this funny um....statue?....I guess she's decorated for Easter. (I hope she's not bare). And lastly, one of our favorite missionaries serving in this area, Elder Thomas, got transferred today and so he came by for a quick picture last night. (We were all in a hurry here - we had to pick up Shannon from volleyball practice, Katie had a game to get to and Elder Thomas still had a few places to get to before 9:30pm. You can tell that as soon as picture #1 was taken we were all 'off' to our places as Elder Scott snapped this last photo. You're funny Elder Scott.

The return of regular Allan...

Now the reversal of Bobcat spirit day antic's. First of all, I want you all to know that during Friday's Pep Assembly, Allan was voted most spirited and was given a lovely 'crown?' When his name was called the whole gym went crazy loud, cheering for him. It made him feel good about all the work. The award for most spirited? The top of a pinata that they had used earlier in the assembly. Cheers to Allan, well deserved. As you can tell, his painted body held up well all day long. A few minor scrapes here and there, but all in all I'd say it was a huge success. He wanted to shower in my house to 'scratch, abrade, chip, whittle and whatever else it was going to take', to get this paint off of himself, but, I banished him to the back yard. I offered him a choice - hose or pool - neither of which he was happy about. However, he knew the look in my eyes was not one he was about to argue with. (sorry I couldn't turn this one) He started to use Toby's water bucket, but realizing that it was going to take more work than just swishing - he relented to us holding the hose and we all scrubbing. And then he wanted to go it alone with the holding and scrubbing thing, because he felt 'uncomfortable' that his mom and dad were um....rubbing him down. Hey, okay with me....I can take more pictures now! For the haircut.... I was worried that the letters had been so closely shaven (? - is this even a word?) into his head he would have to almost be bald when we tried to even it out. But it really didn't turn out too bad. Okay, he is almost bald isn't he. Our heart for the day......the center of a scone that Doug cooked on Sunday morning.

space galore....(regarding last blog)

What ever that big space is in my last blog, I can't remove it! Sorry.

Spirit Week at Brimhall

Most of my kids have participated in Spirit Days at school. Crazy hat day, crazy hair day, super hero day, crazy sock day, etc. However, I have only had two kids that have gone to the, what I call, MAX on dress-out days. Kevin and Allan. Shannon holds a very close 3rd, and Jill an awesome 4th place. Don't be offended you other kids, I think you will agree with me on that statement. So this was another Spirit week at Allan's school. I'm not sure how many people dress out, but I do remember when Shannon and he were going together to these spirit days, they were the only 2 I ever saw dressed up. (And that means more than a t-shirt). Case in point - last year, Dr. Suess Day.

Jill's Brimhall Spirit Days....the 70's look, Crazy Hair Day, and Look like a Pilot Day....Just kidding Jill!

Okay, so now that Shannon has moved on, and yes she also supports spirit days at her school, they must not be so 'unusual' that I take pictures of her. Enjoy Allan's week of Spirit!

Day #1: High School Day....of course Mesa High..

.

Day #2:.......Hippie Day....

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Day #3....Professional Day....

Day #4..Sports/Jersey Day......

Day #5.....Bobcat Spirit Day.....(Brimhall school mascot)

We started with a little shave/shape/cut?.....Then we taped over it to spray paint his hair...

Next came the body painting....Now..off to school. Uh, oh....first casualty...

I'm not too sure Grandpa believed he'd get out,

so he rode with us to Brimhall. Yep! He did it!

We love you Allan.....and I'm glad Spirit Week is over.