What was he thinking?

Okay so I guess start with the bottom picture first! Owen thought it would be funny to put all of his pencil top erasers on his face. It was kind of funny and we all had a laugh until he took them off. Oh, yeah they left like little hickey marks all over his face. The bottom picture was like 3 days ago and the top two pictures are today. Yeah, he still has the marks and they are not fading. I am glad that picture day was last week other wise he'd have picture of pock face boy. I am sure that the school will be calling me tomorrow asking what is wrong with Owen. Good grief I do not understand boys sometimes. What a goof ball!

First Day of School Picts

Here are some first day pictures of the kids. We are starting on our 3rd week of school tomorrow. Finally the kids are getting into the routine of homework, practicing guitar (owen), and riding the bus. Frans is in 1st grade and a very responsible student--always gets his homework done fast...he might get in trouble if he doesn't. Owen's in 4th grade and trying to deal with the major increase in homework load, he is also excited because he made the top reading group (which also increases the homework load). Haylee is in 6th grade, her last year in elementary school, she is much more into her looks this year. I guess this is a good thing but I am having to adjust to the mom just doesn't understand attitude. She has gotten pretty tall over the summer she is now 5'1 I only have 4 1/2 inches on her! Life keeps moving on at a fast pace for us.

A string of Bad Luck

Okay so I guess lately I have been feeling like I have a rain cloud following me around! Seriously I have had a huge string of bad luck. First, I woke up in the middle of the night to get Jax a bottle and trip on my brand new laptop cord...it fell and broke out the dvd drive! I had only had it for a total of 3 weeks. I hadn't even tried to use the dvd drive yet. Then a week later I break my brand new cell phone...only had it two weeks! (I get to send the phone back though) Then I read in the newspaper that they found west nile virus on pump access road...the road I LIVE ON! Not to mention the fact we have more moisquitos in our house (Mike takes a fly swatter and kills them every night before bed)--ya think we are at risk?? I mean please what else could go wrong. I haven't dared touch the new ipod I accidently bought off ebay for fear that I will ruin it. I must say I have been obeying the speed limit and such as I am afraid I might get into an accident or something next--or maybe a ticket. Good grief! Here's to hoping I will be much more lucky in the next few weeks--I could use it!

Work, Work, Work!

Okay so today is really the only day that I have been coherent in the last week. I have been working nights for Cherry harvest. I work from 7 pm til 6 am and then on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays I work down at the library for about 3 hours a day. It hasn't really been too bad staying awake at night. It is just letting the kids go wild all day long that is kind of a problem. As I now can sleep through just about anything during the day. I am glad that it will only last two weeks. Hopefully the kids will survive and me too. I better get to sleep as I have to start work at 1:30 am Monday morning.

Vegas 10's!!

Okay here are my Vegas 10's:

Top 10 things you must do in Vegas: (Okay I actually have 11 because of a tie)
10. Go to the Buffet at the Wynn
9. Watch the Volcano errupt at the Mirage
8. Walk the Strip at night--people watch
7. See the Bathroom in Le Paris Hotel (and the Hotel is pretty awesome)
6. Walk through the Forum Shops at Ceasar's Palace
5. See the celebrities at Madam Tousouses(spelling??) they are shorter than they look on T.V.
4. Watch someone gamble at the tables--its amazing when you see someone throw down $800
3. See a Cirque Du Solie (spelling?) preformance
2. Tournament of Kings--knights fighting--pretty awesome
1. See the Las Vegas Temple/watch the Fountains at the Belligio

10 Things to Beware of:

10. Traffic on the strip--took us 2 hours to go three miles
9. Casinos are mazes on purpose--look for a map in each lobby
8. If you hear a taxi honking get out of the way or it will run you down.
7. The dealer ALWAYS wins--always! I saw lots of people just waiting for their luck to turn trust me it won't.
6. Be prepared to smell smoke...and smoke...and more smoke-from cigars to pipes to cigarettes
5. Realize that driving a moped, motorized wheelchair, or trike while drinking is a bad idea especially for the other people on the sidewalks!
4. Girls in swimsuits and stillettos--everywhere--give me a break ladies its really not that flattering--seriously (maybe if they were sober they might realize that their butt cheek is hanging out flapping around--gross!)
3. Realize that sometimes its just best not to watch the ads on all the video screens everywhere--ignore it.
2. There will be slimy guys and girls trying to pass out pictures of topless--ugly (I think didn't look so I am just guessing by the amount that was discarded on the ground) women
1. When you sit down at a table take into consideration that it has been known that at some establishments women may have been dancing on said table--therefore wiping their thong clad butt all over said table. Plus the chair you are sitting on has probably been sat on by some chick walking around in her bikini and stillettos when she ate her lunch. I am just saying--not the cleanest part of someone's body being swished around on the table or chair!

For the most part Vegas can be a lot of fun. If you want to find bad it is definitely there but there is also lots of good things to do and you can avoid the bad if you choose to do so. If you decide you would like to take a hand at Blackjack or gambling--do so realizing that you will eventually lose and it is best to try the night or day you leave and bring to the table a dollar amount you are willing to lose and nothing else that way you don't spend you entire vacation trying to get back what you lost. It is best for most of us to just enjoy watching others lose their money and keep yours in your pocket!

Jax's First B-Day!

Jax is 1! I can hardly believe a year has already gone by. It seems like yesterday that Jax was born and we were so worried he wasn't going to make it. What a miracle it was! He is not walking yet! He is too chicken. We finally got him to stand and Jerry tried hard to get him to walk at his party but no go--he just folds his legs like an accordian. Oh well in his own time. Jax loves cars and he plays like they are cars, with the sound and everything! He even tried to make my water bottle a car. He loves balls--ever since Brick tried to get him to throw him the ball at the Hokanson reunion Jax has been all about throwing and playing with balls! I can't believe this is our last winnie the pooh cake! No more first birthdays for us and I was a little sad at the thought on his birthday but I look forward to so much more fun as our family begins to change from being full of babies to full of pre-teens. What a wonderful life we have!!

$50, 23 Loads, clean laundry...priceless!

I am finally back to the land of the blog!! We had the Hokanson reunion and in our preperation for everyone to show up Mike loaded all of our dirty laundry into garbage bags and threw them in our room. Really ( I should of taken a picture but wasn't sure I really wanted that picture floating around for postarity) it was so bad that I would walk in our room and think a mouse must of died because of the smell. It was seriously bad, so I had enough! It was time for me to take control of the madness of Laudry. After a discussion with Mike (where we seriously contemplated if our junky washing machine could handle it) we decided I would take all the laundry to the laudry mat in Mattawa and do it all at once! With the help of my angelic mother I was able to complete 23 loads of laudry! All washed dried and folded! It was awesome!! The only sad thing is that when I came home I discovered another 5 to 8 loads left amongsnt the junk in the house! Still there is nothing like the smell of clean laundry!!!