Only in Books...

"Only in books has mankind known perfect truth, love and beauty." -George Bernard Shaw



A while back on one of those meme’s going around on Facebook or through email where you have to check off all of the things on a specific list that you had done at this point in your life, one of the listed items was “Read at least 50 books in one year”. I rarely complete those meme’s and I don’t think I did that one, but it got me to thinking about how many books I do and don’t read. I can honestly say that I don’t think I’ve ever even come close to reading 50 books in a year. When I was younger I didn’t like to read that much. Oh, I read most of the Sweet Valley Twins books and all the Christopher Pike books I could get my hands on, but I just wasn’t a voracious reader. It might have been because I tend to be a slow reader, or the fact that I can’t have any distractions while I’m reading (I actually tend to listen to Jazz music with no words to help tune out any other distractions) or possible I just didn’t like a lot of the books I was “given” to read at school. Who knows, but then I worked at a book store one summer and each of the employees had to write up a little review of a book they liked to have it displayed on the “employee pick of the month” wall. So, I started reading more and fell in love! So, I decided that this 50 books in a year thing might be a fun challenge for me. It would have been a lot easier back before I was married and had kids and a full-time job because my “free” time was a lot more plentiful back then, but I’m still going to give it a try. What have I got to lose? Reading a lot more books along the way, of which I’m sure some will be wonderful and life changing, while others I’m afraid will be lacking. But how else will I ever find out.

I actually started this challenge back in February. So far I’m up to eight books! Since it is just for myself I’m making the rules however and I’m including books we read together as a family and books that I read with Ari. I am not however including books I read with Devyn...ha ha ha. I would be up to my 50 books in no time since I read multiple books a day to her. A few weeks ago Ari was complaining a little that I read at least two stories to Devyn every night at bedtime, but I don’t read to her anymore at bedtime. I kind of just thought she had gotten old enough that she didn’t care if I read to her anymore and she is a voracious reader herself so she if often trying to sneak in a few pages of whatever book she is reading at the moment at bedtime anyway. But, I decided since she asked it certainly couldn’t hurt to have a little one on one time with her so we started a book that she had gotten from a book fair some time ago but never gotten around to reading, The Giver by Lois Lowry. We also like to read together as a family, well the three oldest of us that can actually understand what’s going on in the story anyway, and we read all the time in the car instead of listening to the radio. Right now we are reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and I’m thoroughly enjoying them. That leaves 4 books that I read just for myself. The Book Thief, A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Last Song and The Lucky One. I liked A Thousand Splendid Suns by far better than any of the rest…a must read in my opinion! If you would like to follow along with my reading journey I will be tracking all of my books on Good Reads. I only tend to review books if I have strong feelings but I do always rate them. Right now I'm reading four books, The 4th Percey Jackson book as a family, Gathering Blue with Ari, The Color of Water on my own and The Lost Symbol with Ken! Also, if you have any suggestions for must read books I’d love to hear them…I’ve got a ways to go to get to 50 books :-)

While I’m on the topic of book suggestions, if there are any teachers out there, or just anyone who knows a lot about books, I’m looking for good ideas for Ari. She is a very good reader. In fact while we were at her parent teacher conference the a couple weeks ago her teacher told us she had the highest Lexile level (just a way for teachers to determine a student’s reading comprehension ability) in her class…even higher than the teacher’s (although it’s a bit of a misnomer seeing as the teachers was rated at 1500+ and Ari’s is 1502). The problem with this is that most of the books that fit into her reading range either aren’t necessarily appropriate for her or they are just not interesting to her. She is only 11, but wants to start reading more “teenage” type books like the Twilight series. Most of her friends have read it, her teacher even has them in the classroom, but I just don’t think they are appropriate for an 11 year old (especially the 4th book) so I’m making her wait. I told her she can read them when she’s 13, which she’s not thrilled about. But how do I continue to encourage her love of reading and encourage her to read at a “challenging” level without compromising on what it is that I allow her to read? Any suggestions would be helpful!!!

Best-Kept Secret

Whenever I get asked what I do and I tell people my job title I always get a look of bewilderment in return. No one has ever heard of my job and even when I try and explain what I do I get blank stares aimed in my direction. I’ve started to pretty much just preface it with “I’m a professional snoop” because that’s how DH describes it. He didn’t actually believe that it was a real profession and swore that it must be some made up job. Well, I suppose “professional snoop” does get to the nitty gritty of what I do and it somewhat sums up my job to help others to hopefully understand it. I mean, I had never heard of a Prospect Researcher (actually here we are called Prospect Analysts) before I just happened onto the position almost 5 years ago, how can I expect others to know what I do?

Imagine my surprise when I came across this article on the Best-Kept Secret Careers and lo and behold mine is #9 on that list. Well what do you know, it is a real job after all, and according to careerbuilder.com a pretty darn good one at that!

http://www.careerbuilder.com/Article/CB-1301-Job-Search-10-Best-Kept-Secret-Careers/?ArticleID=1301&cbRecursionCnt=1&cbsid=c30d45dbd2954fac883da5b318b26655-308857144-VN-4&ns_siteid=ns_us_g_10_best_jobs_prospect_

I think their description sounds a little better than “professional snoop” but unless I carry around a copy of this it still might be the easiest description...

And, for the record, if you went to a university chances are they have at least one of me too, searching for those of you who have any indications of wealth, but on my salary I’ll never be the one searched for, just the one doing the searching…ha ha ha! (As a side note, we don’t waste our time on anyone who can’t give us at least $25,000, but usually not even until it looks like they can give at least in the $100,000 range)

Me like

I was looking into getting a laptop and saw this:



Isn’t it adorable? Ok, I could take or leave the Asian girl on there, but I love the color and the tattooing…but most importantly I love that it says 1973! That’s the year I was born and I’m really weird that way...I have a particular fondness for things that I can tie to myself somehow. Is that weird?

It’s like Thanksgiving…it’s my favorite holiday and I think the reason is because my birthday falls on Thanksgiving every 7 years or something like that. Does that make me narcissistic? I hope not. Am I the only one like this? Would you want a laptop just because it had your year of birth in the design???

I won’t be getting this laptop for more than one reason:

1) I was looking into this before I found out that I’ll be taking a 6% paycut starting next month in the form or furlough days…you gotta love living in California during this wonderful recession!
2) I am NOT a fan of Dell computers because I have one and we got completely screwed over by them
3) And last but certainly not least my husband thinks it’s crazy to spend an extra $85 on the computer just because of the design, even if it does include my birth year…ha ha ha!



...but it sure is cute.

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind

All growing up my parents had a reel to reel tape player which my dad swore by for sound quality. Obviously the music that we had to listen to on it was a little dated, but I loved it and it's some of that music that flows through a lot of my childhood memories and are therefore intertwined in the fabric of my life.

One of those albums was a Peter Paul and Mary album and I listened to that thing countless times in my youth. Still to this day I love the songs of Peter Paul and Mary, so much so that when I saw this beautifully illustrated picture book of Puff the Magic Dragon I had to get it for Devyn. It comes with a CD, but I think it’s only Peter that sings on it at a much later date and it’s just not the same as the old recordings by all three of them. Devyn loves her “dragon” book and we were looking at it just yesterday and then I learned that Mary passed away last night of leukemia. So, this post is in honor of her and her amazing voice. These are just a few of my favorites…I hope you enjoy.

PUFF, THE MAGIC DRAGON

Puff the Magic Dragon -


BLOWIN' IN THE WIND

Blowin In The Wind (Remastered LP Version) - Peter, Paul and Mary


WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE

Where Have All The Flowers Gone (Remastered LP Version) - Peter, Paul and Mary


IF I HAD A HAMMER

If I Had A Hammer - Peter, Paul and Mary

LEAVIN ON A JET PLANE

Leaving On A Jet Plane - Peter, Paul and Mary


LEMON TREE

Lemon Tree - Peter, Paul & Mary

Johari vs. Nohari (Perceptions)

Have you ever heard of a Johari window? According to Wikipedia it “is a cognitive psychological tool used to help people better understand their interpersonal communication and relationships.” I thought it might be fun to post it here...along with the Nohari window which focuses on your not-so good traits. So, click on the links below and fill it out and then create your own and I’ll fill it out. You can even fill it out if you don’t know me very well...it might be interesting to see what perceptions I’m giving off. :-)

Johari

Nohari

Incoherent thoughts

Words can’t even begin to express my thoughts and feelings at the moment. Through a lot of effort and turmoil I finally know my son is alive. I’ve found him. At least I'm 99.9% sure it's him. I know his name and I’ve seen pictures, I have sat and stared at those pictures with a mixture of so much relief and yet pangs of agony. For so many years even the knowledge that he was alive and well was asking too much. Relief because he appears healthy and happy and over the period of a few minutes I was able to find out more about him than I’ve known for over 18 years. From what little I can garner about his life he appears to have a good one. He seems healthy and well-adjusted, and although that makes me so amazingly happy, it’s also a bitter pill to swallow. Does that mean that he was better off without me? I’d like to think not, that he has had a good life so far and was raised by wonderful parents, but that it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have been a good mother to him all the same.

I haven’t contacted him, and probably won’t, at least not for a long while. He’s only 18 years old and I haven’t a clue what is going on in his life. After 18 and a half years of not even knowing if he was dead or alive I’m not willing to jeopardize a relationship with him by imposing in his life at a time when I’m unwelcome or unwanted. It’s heartbreaking that as the person who brought him into this world, having done what I believed/was told was best for him, and having loved him every day since that I have to worry about that, but I do. However, I know his name, I know where he grew up, and I can look at his face and wonder if he resembles me, things I didn’t know and wasn’t able to do until last week, but most importantly, I know that he’s alive! What sweet relief!

Listening Preferences

My first real job upon graduating from college was as a marketing coordinator for a small non-profit. One of my responsibilities was to purchase all the advertising for our events.

One day I was at one of the local radio station offices talking to the sales rep about the target markets of the three different stations run out of this office. We were discussing the demographic of who was listening so I could decide how much and where to advertise. Many of our events were targeted to young families, so obviously I wanted to concentrate my small advertising budget on the stations they most listened to. During the course of this conversation he mentioned the station that was my station of choice in the area and said that their demographic was too young for what I was looking for. He said almost like clockwork people changed their listening preferences starting at about 27 years old and no longer listened to this station. He and I had worked together on a number of projects so I felt comfortable in retorting that I was 28, a parent and I still listened to this station. He laughed and said, “That will change, mark my words. You will change the type of music you listen to within the next few years.”

I contemplated this conversation wondering if he was right and if I would soon move on to a station with a much more mature listening audience. Eight years later I can now say that he was only partially correct. For better or for worse the stations I listen to depend upon who is around when I’m in the car. I don’t listen to the actual lyrics most of the time. It could be one of my most favorite songs and I couldn’t tell you half of what it was actually saying. I don’t know why I’m like this, but I am. Even if I know the general message of the song I tend to overlook inappropriate lyrics and such. Back when I was 27 and had a very young daughter I didn’t think too much about what I was listening too. I think it was when she was 4 or 5 and she knew all the words to a Nelly song by heart that I determined it was time to monitor what was entering her little brain. Now that she is 10 years old and she very definitely listens to the lyrics I tend to be a lot more careful of what is playing on the radio. I still listen to those stations that the sales rep said I wouldn’t listen to anymore; I just do it when I’m by myself in the car. Country is one of my stations of choice when the kids are with me because the lyrics don’t tend to be as bad.

So What - Pink
I was listening to and thoroughly enjoying this Pink song the other day and wondering if I was too old to be listening to that type of music anymore, which reminded me of this conversation. So, how about you? Did you like clockwork migrate to a more mature station at 27 years old? Have you changed your listening preferences over the years and if so how come?

Way more than you ever wanted to know about me!

Ok, it's been forever since I posted anything and since National Adoption month is long over I'm going to finally do the tags that people tagged me for months ago. Oops!

Nicole tagged me with the following list:

I am: A wife, mother, friend, sister, daughter
I think: I’m a good person at heart
Everything in life: Happens for a Reason
I want: To make a difference in someone’s life
I have: More than probably 90% of the world, but why does it seem like I never have enough.
I dislike: When people judge others without having walked in their shoes
I miss: My best friend Nicole, who lives too far away, and getting to go home for Christmas
I fear: For the future and of what the world will become for my children.
I feel: Worn down from life right now.
I hear: The hum of my space heater keeping my toes warm. Maybe I should stop wearing sandals until Spring.
I smell: My Gardenia hand lotion that I just put on.
I crave: Good friendship because I don’t have any really good friends here.
I cry: a lot more since becoming a parent
I search: For my sense of self
I wonder: If my son will ever want to meet me.
I regret: Trying to be who others want me to be.
I wish: I could see what God sees in me
I love: My Family
I care: Too much for my own good sometimes.
I always: Try to be caring and understanding
I am not: An organized person, although I wish I were.
I remember: How easy and carefree it was to be a child and I wish it could be like that now.
I believe: My husband loves me
I sing: Only when I know no one can hear me.
I don't always: Make the best use of my time
I argue: Rarely, I don’t like contention.
I write: To work things out in my head
I win: Never…if I didn’t have bad luck I’d have no luck at all
I lose: My temper too easily.
I listen: To literally almost any kind of music. R&B, check. Country, check. Showtunes, check. Hip Hop, check. 80s, check. 90s, check. Top 40, check. Classical, check…and on and on it goes.
I don't understand: Why everyone can’t just get along.
I can usually be found: At work or at home.
I need to: Learn to like myself.
I forget: To enjoy the little things in life because I’m so worried about the squeaky wheels (like bills to pay)
I am happy: When either one of my girls’ gives me a great big hug.

Heather tagged me with the 8 things tag and Tina tagged me with the 6 things tag so I combined the two and if I could think of 8 I put 8 , if I could only think of 6 then I put 6. You get the picture.

6 TV shows I watch
My Name is Earl (one of the best shows ever although probably a little crude for a lot of people)
Desperate Housewives
The Biggest Loser
All of the CSIs (but only when I happen to catch them on)
Lost
So You Think You Can Dance

8 Favorite Restaurants
Cheesecake Factory
Red Robin
Costa Vida (unfortunately we don’t have one here)
Panera
On The Border
Thai Nakorn
California Pizza Kitchen
Texas Roadhouse

6 things that happened yesterday
I actually made it to work on time which is a feat in and of itself for me
I talked to Nicole on the phone which I haven’t done in a long time
I made grilled chicken salads for dinner and Devyn loved the veggies in the salad more than the chicken :)
Devyn walked around terrorizing the house and Dante (but that’s nothing new)
Ari and I watched the end of some Christmas show on TV
I stayed up too late and now I’m tired today

8 things I look forward to
Christmas
Having the extra time at home with my husband and my girls for the Holidays
Going on dates with my husband
Payday
Moving back closer to family and friends (although maybe this should be on my wish list)
All the great movies that come out around Christmas


6 things on my wish list
Meeting my son
Being a stay-at-home mom
Quitting my job (although it's a really good one so I can't complain)
DH getting into (and then finishing) PA school
Buying a house
Becoming independently wealthy so we could travel the world doing humanitarian projects

Then Heather also tagged me with 6 Quirky Facts about me and Sue tagged me with 7 Random facts about me so I have combined them because they are kind of the same.

Quirky Tag Rules:
1. List person (s) who tagged you
2. Mention rules on your blog
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular Quirks of yours
4. Tag 6 fellow bloggers

1. Heather, I couldn’t disagree with you more…the toilet paper has to be coming from on top of the roll, not under. You have it all wrong!

2. This one Heather got right…I do not like leftovers, with very few exceptions. Although my husband has gotten me out of this one a little bit because he made me feel guilty for wasting food. That’s what happens when you marry someone who has lived in third world countries.

3. I will not touch a public bathroom door handle. I will open the door with a paper towel and then hold it open with my foot and use my insanely good basketball skills (ha ha ha) to lob it into the garbage can, wherever that might be.

4. I’m an insanely picky eater. I could probably share dozens of examples, but these are just a couple of examples. I will not eat any pressed meat…no chicken nuggets, no hot dogs, no sausages…none of it! I also pick the little white things out of the eggs before I cook them and won’t eat eggs that others have made because I'm sure they haven't done this because they aren't as anal as me.

5. One of my life goals is to climb the Tetons and ever since I mentioned that to my professional mountain guiding husband it has now become one of his goals for me as well :)

6. My dream when I was younger was to become a fighter pilot for the Navy and fly this little beauty. I even started college as an engineering major, but that only lasted for about a year and a half before I changed my major. I'm glad now though, who would want to spend all that time away from their family. I would still love to get my pilots license though.

7. I love shoes! Heels are my favorite, the taller the better since I like to pretend I'm not short. Although at 5'4" DH likes to remind me that I'm not short but average to which my reply is why settle for average?


Wow, I almost hate to post this one because those first few makes me sound a little crazy!

I tag everyone who reads my blog so I know I’m not the only crazy person out there. If you don’t have a blog of your own, feel free to just post your answers in the comments :)

National Adoption Month

You may or may not know that November is National Adoption Month. What I find a little interesting is the way I’ve seen it being promoted. I read a lot of blogs that have to do with adoption, some from all sides of the triad, because so much of who I have become has been shaped by being a first mom. Most of what I have read concerning National Adoption Month has been from adoptive families who are promoting adoption, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but in a way that I don’t either see as 100% ethical or what the month was intended for.

National Adoption month was created in 1976 in Massachusetts as an Adoption Week because there were so many children in foster care that needed permanent loving homes that they wanted to highlight the situation. That same year President Gerald Ford decided to make a National Adoption Week to highlight the same problem nationwide, which then turned into National Adoption Month in 1990.

Let’s face it, you don’t need to encourage adoptive families to adopt healthy infants in this country…there’s a line out the door and down the street of willing families ready and able to adopt and love any healthy infant placed for adoption in this country. I think it’s a shame that the true intent of this month is being overshadowed because there are hundreds of thousands of children right now as I type that don’t have a place to call home. They don’t have a family that they can turn to and know that they have someone to be there for them when the chips are down and that’s what this month is all about.

On the government child welfare website it states:

November is National Adoption Month, a month set aside to raise awareness about the adoption of children and youth from foster care. This year's theme of adopting teens from foster care builds on the Ad Council's new public service announcement (PSA) campaign of the Children's Bureau, the Adoption Exchange Association, and The Collaboration to AdoptUsKids.

Go here to find out more about it.

Just an FYI: If we had a big house and I could convince my husband I would definitely be adopting older children from foster care. I believe every child deserves to have a family that loves them unconditionally. I'd also like to adopt from Haiti for the same reason and to get children out of the Hell that they live there, but DH has been to Haiti and said that if it means he has to ever go back that won't be happening!(I’ll continue to work on my husband *wink, wink* so one day if we get a big enough house we’ll fill it with kids too :)

Quizzes

A couple of my friends had quizzes on their blogs recently so I thought I’d play along.
My friend Nicole posted this one. I am not the dream housewife of the 1930s, but my husband loves me anyway so that will have to do :)

52 As a 1930s wife, I am Average Take the test!

(Please note that this is 52 out of 100 so it's not that great)
My friend Shauntae (her blog is private or I would link you) posted this one. All and all it’s fairly accurate, especially considering it trying to figure out my personality from my feet!?!

What Your Feet Say About You:

You are pretty average in your expressiveness. You can express yourself well, but you don't always want to. You are a very passionate person. You are highly charged and easily inspired. You are an assertive person at times. You'll pull out all the stops to get what you want, if it's worth it. You take a while to fall in love, but once you do, you stay pretty attached to your partner. You are not easily frightened, but you have a few strong phobias. You are intellectual and philosophical. You are more concerned with thoughts than action. You are an amazingly hard worker. You aren't spoiled and you don't mind getting your hands dirty. You are easily influenced by other people. You're quite impressionable, so you should only be around people who are a good influence.

What Do Your Feet Say About You?

Happy Birthday Mom!

( I couldn't find a picture of just my mom, so here she is with my Dad and my two girls!)




I just want to post a quick note to say Happy Birthday to my Mom. She is far and away the best Mom anyone could ever ask for. (Just ask Ari, she tells me she wants me to be more like my mom :-)



I love her so much and I'm so grateful for all she did for me and all that she taught me growing up. (Click here to read a little more about her)



Have a wonderful birthday Mom, and know that we are missing you today.

Are you picky when it comes to matching?

Remember the shoes at the end of this post?

I loved them so much that I had to get them, but Devyn had nothing to wear them with. So what do you do when you have a pair of shoes and nothing to match? Why you make something of course! This is no small feat for someone who is NOT a seamstress, but I’m picky enough that I had to try.

I found a really cute eyelet lace material that looked good with the shoes and found a pattern that said it was easy and away I went. I had to make it harder than it should have been of course because I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t make everything I did harder is some way or another. By choosing the eyelet I had to line the fabric, and since the edge was just finished with biased tape I couldn’t quite figure out if I should sew the material to the lining first or what. So, I called my mom, who is an amazing seamstress and got some advice before moving on. Then came the biggest challenge of all. I couldn’t find a dusty rose colored biased tape and didn’t like any of the colors I could find. So what did I do? I made my job even harder, that’s what I did. I then attempted to make my own biased tape out of the scraps of dusty rose colored eyelet fabric. I was cursing myself through that process, but in the end I’m glad I went to that extra effort. And I think it turned out pretty cute, for a non-seamstress, if I do say so myself!

Me – Visually Summed Up

My friend Nicole did this on her blog and I thought it was an interesting idea to sum oneself up in twelve pictures, so here I am:

1. Desi(Red), 2. cpk, 3. nov8-005, 4. Black & White, 5. There's just no one like you !, 6. Diet "Pepsi" & baby, 7. Child in Tanzania, 8. Cheesecake, 9. Humanitarian Aid, 10. Raccoon Family, 11. insecure, 12. Sumatran Tiger

Try it out yourself and then come back and leave me a comment so I can go and see what you look like in 12 pictures or less :)

Here’s how you do it:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.b. Using only the first page, pick an image.c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What high school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. Favorite drink?

7. Dream vacation?

8. Favorite dessert?

9. What you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. One word to describe you.

12. Your favorite animal?

What would you like to learn?

Ok, I’m pretty much terrified of public speaking. It’s interesting because whenever I tell people this who have seen me speak they don’t believe me and say that I’m a natural; perfectly at ease, when in reality, my heart is beating so hard and so fast that I feel like it’s going to beat right out of my chest.

Well, I’m the Relief Society secretary for my Ward which is pretty innocuous, except a member of the presidency is in charge of the first Sunday of the month lesson, and my turn is in August. Now that the first Sunday in July is over with I’m already getting nervous because my turn is next. I realize there are other lessons between now and then, but mine is the next presidency lesson! I know there is nothing that I can teach that the women in my ward don’t already know more about then I do so that is a little nerve wracking also.

Here’s where you come in. I need a theme for my lesson. I need to pray for an inspired theme, which I will do, but I figure if I have some ideas in mind it might help the inspiration come. So, what are some Relief Society lessons that you’ve had that you particularly enjoyed or a motivational topic that you would like to learn more about? And, along with any great topics, great resources would also be appreciated. I like visuals or music to go along with my lessons, so if you know of books or articles or songs that would help “drive home” the message let me know those too and I’ll head on over to Deseret Book online and pick up one or two.

One of topics that I was thinking about was Finding Peace…

I found these books online and thought they might have some good info. Has anyone read them? Would this topic interest you? Do you know of any songs that might go along with this subject?




Another topic was either Judging Others, or Judging Ourselves Against Others Accomplishments. Would either of these interest you? Do you know of any songs that might go with this subject?

I’m totally open to suggestions so comment away!

Oh, and thanks for your help.

* I forgot to mention that the lesson needs to apply to women between the ages of about 25 -85. Tell me that that's not quite the span of ages. :) *

I'm Proud to be an American

I can’t even begin to tell you how proud I am to live in this country and call myself an American. I feel truly blessed by the freedoms that we enjoy and am continually reminded of how blessed we are when I hear stories of human rights violations or tyrannous governments that don’t have their citizens best interests in mind. I realize this is a few days late, but we had a very calm and relaxing 4th and I wanted to share a little of what we did.

Our day started off with…

Ari and I were messing around on my bed when she fell off onto a screw that was sticking out and got this nasty scratch. Not the greatest start to the holiday, but she was fine after Daddy bandaged her up.

Then we went and did some of this…

Ok, I didn’t do any of that because I won’t put my body into a swimsuit. But everyone else did. The local community pool was free for the day so we took advantage and the girls had a good time. It was Devyn’s first time in a public pool.

We painted these...

Which got kind of messed up while swimming.

Finally we went to the park and did this…

and Dante did this...

While Devyn did some of this…

and this…

and this…

This was Devyn's first time on one of these types of swings and we thought it was hillarious how she kept "running" through the air as the swing decended.

and then she fell asleep while we ate some of this...

Which was made mostly by Ari, and it was delicious!

and watched some…

I hope your 4th was as fun and relaxing as ours and I hope you had a chance to reflect on how blessed we are for the country that we live in. I wish I could personally thank all the men and women who have ever fought to give me the rights and freedoms that I have. I will forever be in their debt.