Hip and with it...

Marty tells me I'll be "hip and with it" if I post my regular ol' family letter on the blog. Ok, he didn't really tell me that, but I think that's what he was thinking. So, here's the letter I wrote to my family incase anyone wants the nity grity updates on our family. :)


Dear Family,

I think it's been almost twice as long since I have written as mom but I doubt I did half as much in that same amount of time! What a busy month for you mom!! Things for us have been going well. As mom mentioned, Angie has yet another ear infection (her 7th) so the doctors recommended getting tubes. We hope that they will keep her from so many ear infections and such terrible pain. Besides that though, she has been cute as ever. She thinks she's such a little grown-up lately. She is always pulling up to things and tries to stand on her own. Unfortunately this makes for bruises on her forehead and cut lips more often than not. Regardless, she is still set on learning to stand.

Marty is approaching the end of the shool year and is working hard to finish grading in time. In fact, we can thank him and a late night grading stint for providing me with lots of time to finally get this family letter written. Besides that, scouts is going well. They are getting ready for scout camp which is in a few more weeks. We've also enjoyed a few weeks off of graduate school and are bracing ourselves for the summer semester. We are still working on securing a summer job that will pay for grad school but we'll figure it all out soon enough I'm sure.

As for me, things have been keeping busy at home. I've been helping babysit for a couple of my neighbors which ends up taking a lot of my energy but it will only be until the end of the month. A couple weeks ago (over mother's day) we had Strep but we are happily over that now. Unfortunately I think we passed our sickness on to our dryer though because as soon as we got better the dryer stopped working. Lucklily we have a clothes line and I really enjoy the natural-down-to-earth feel of drying our clothes out on the line----it's only a problem when we get bouts of rain. Besides that, my work at the nursery is going well. Our nursery contract will be changing in July which means we will no longer be open on weekends. They also have to start having two people in the nursery at all times so they are offering me 20 hours a week in the nursery in exchange for my one weekend a month. I will probably end up doing it through the summer and then try to cut back come fall.

Well, lets see....other than that....we had a really great time last weekend with the Reeder's all in town for Sadie's wedding. It's always fun to see all of Angie's cute little cousins. The wedding, open-house, and luncheon were all spectacular. It was fun to realize through talking to people that we weren't the only one's who are really impressed with what a good match Sadie and Christian are.

Well, Angie is calling for some comfort so I best go. I don't have any new pictures with me so I'll have to send some later. I hope everyone is doing well. I hope you have fun in Korea Joseph, April, Jacob, and little girl!!

Love always,
Bonnie

Sadie & Christian's Big Day

The Girls

We had such a good time at Sadie's wedding. The West's were great and the Aggie ice-cream open house was the best! I don't know who made the tablecloths for the dinner, but all I can say is WOW! and that must've taken hours. Also the flowers, by Elise were, as usual, incredible. Anyway...we did it. We are all now officially married and so I think we should have a family reunion every year now, since we won't be going to anymore weddings. I propose that the first be at "our cabin." Waddya think? Anyway, hope Sadie and Christian are having a great time in Hawaii.

Happy Mother's Day Dona

There are many things we can learn from this video. Here are some highlights:

• You can call each other fat and ugly but never make fun of another person's mudda (mother).
• Mother is spelled M-O-T-H-E-R
• You may never know when you need it so it is always good to carry a microphone; I want to say in your back pocket is a good place but it looks more like Mr T had it stashed in his pants near the small of his back for some reason.
• We should treat our mother's right.

Happy Mother's Day

Nana Dona: Mom, Grandma, Teacher, Wife, and Person Extraordinaire

Happy Mother’s Day Nana Dona! Today as I struggled through bits and pieces of motherhood myself, I reflected a little on my own mother and what amazing things she did for us. I see, now that I’m a mother, that mom devoted herself entirely to us. It’s pretty amazing, actually, and with the approaching marriage of her youngest baby…she must be pretty amazed. I myself dream of this day…in eager anticipation of “washing my hands” of my children. But mom, thanks for all the things you did for us and taught us and as I reflected today…one thing that really effected me was all of your selfless acts. The one that tops the charts (in my book) is the Valentine’s Cookies for the widows. I tell so many people this story and it has become such a part of our family history…it’s something that my kids will certainly know about…and perhaps their kids too. I hope that my own family can have experiences like that (and others) and that they will remember growing up with as happy memories as I have. Thanks again for everything you did and still do for us…what would we be without you. Love ya.

I thought it was just Marty

Does anyone remember how Marty used to read encyclopedias? I always thought that it was a little strange. Well, I have a child who does the same thing....only she can't read yet, so she must just be studying the pictures. She has been known to sneak them to bed every now and then. Little miss Clayre-bees.

This morning I went upstairs. The T.V wasn't working so while Clayre and Kate were waiting for me to come up and fix it, they got out all the World Book Encyclopedias (good gift, mom) and were going through them. Clayre said to me, "I didn't know train had two O's in it." I'm not sure what that means. Maybe she was "reading" about Choo Choo trains?

Anyway, the T.V. is back working so after they but all the books back (Clayre sang the alpha-bet song to know the order to put them back, right. Genious!) ....it's off to learning how to count to 10 in Spanish from who better than, Dora the Explorer!

Graduation=Cool Things

Now that I have graduated from college, I have noticed that I have a lot of things that I didn't have before I graduated from college. Like a new camera. Actually, that's the only thing, but it's pretty nice.

Happy Birthday Lily!

Happy 7th Birthday Lily.
Here's a cake for you.
Too bad you don't live closer.
It was yummy.

Love,
Parly, Clayre, Kate, and Maggie

Happy Birthday Little Dazer

Here I am teaching a class full of 9th graders about King Arthur when I remember it's my sister's birthday. It's amazing how willingly my students sacrificed 20 minutes of learning so that they could let me call Daisy and sing happy birthday to her (I mean, we had to go through a few practice runs first). It was at this moment that I realized that we owe a lot to little Dais, and here's why...Feel free to add any more I left out:

• "Taking turns" scratching backs
• giving Isaac a birthday present of service cards for ways that he could serve you
• Scarlett and Rhett butler frame with pictures of your boyfriends
• Dole stickers
• List of "things to do" (I always remember seeing some)
• million dollar inventions (really, you're good at that)
• juicy journal entries (not that I would know)
• always being able to find anything missing once we announce a reward
• always being picked out with Emily as the "ring leader"
• good phone conversationalist
• contains a welath of TV and celebrity knowledge
• great blogger

That's a whole lot to accomplish in a mere 29? years.