Happy Birthday Tami! My gift to you!

I don't know if they have birthday parties in heaven, but if they do I guarantee my friend Tami is throwing a big party today. Today is the day that she would have turned 35.

I met Tami when I was 15 months old. She was the first best friend I ever had and we were always friends until the day she passed away in January of 2002. In the 27 years I had the privilege of being her friend I think we went through and did just about everything that friends can go through and do together. She is one of the most incredible people I have ever known. She was and is a huge part of my life and helped me become who I am today.

Oh how I miss that girl!

My friend Chelle did a giveaway on her blog and although I was not the winner I'm going to pay it forward anyway. Since I can't give something to Tami, how about I give something to one of you? In honor of Tami and her birthday today I am going to do my own little giveaway. So here's how it works:

Leave me a comment, everyone is welcome - friends, family, friends of family, even you blog stalkers! Hmmm, but then you might be busted! HA HA! I'll choose the winner at random on Sunday May 3rd. The winner will receive something fanastic from me - I might buy it or I might get crafty and make you something! - but no matter what hopefully it will brighten their day they way Tami always brightened mine.
Happy Birthday Tami!

Inspiration

I was reading my friend "Meg's" blog today and her post today was about someone or something that inspires you. I had many thoughts today about who and what inspires me and figured it would just be some good "food for thought" for the day. But then I saw this on the fox news today and thought I would share.

It gives new meaning to the phrase

"Never judge a book by it's cover".

Hopefully she inspires you too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

"BUGZ"

AND NOW!

PRESENTING EMILIE & ADA BARNES
(and the rest of the 1st grade at McCarty Elementary)

IN "BUGZ"!

Last night was the 1st graders presentation of "BUGZ".

Emilie and Ada did a fantastic job singing all the songs and doing the actions. I'm sure most of you will be shocked to read that they did not have a speaking part ;-). They got to choose what kid of bug they wanted to be. Emilie chose to be a butterfly and Ada chose to be a firefly.

I only got a few pictures because they wouldn't let me take a picture of them in their full costume - but trust me they looked very cute! They were being more like stink bugs about it than a butterfly and a firefly!

The stage

Let the show begin!

Ada is circled on the left and Emilie on the right

The one and only picture they would let me take
Ada's bug she made for the backdrop
Emilie's bug she made for the backdrop

Great job girls!

April Fools? Nope, just a fool.

I thought I would share my embarrassing moment from yesterday since I am still laughing about it. I figured why not give a few other people a laugh too?

A few months ago I mentioned on this here blog that Ada dropped my cell phone in the tub and therefore it no longer worked so I had to get a new one. Well little did I realize that I when I was putting all my contacts back into my phone I was setting myself up for a big joke!

So yesterday I had a question for my brother Mike and called him up on his cell phone - at least I thought I was. Let me just interject here that if you know my brother Mike he is pretty funny. Sometime when I call him he will change his voice (and in my defense sometimes it can sound like a woman!) or say something funny etc. Let me also add that I was in the car with 3 loud kids and Hannah Montana playing, so my ability to hear clearly was not at it's highest. SO, I call him up and I'm not really paying attention as I wait for him to answer and then I hear a voice say "hello" and I then say "Hey STINKY PANTS!"

(just one of the many names I call him)

Dead silence. Then the voice on the other end says "Who is this?" At this point I realize it is actually a woman and not my brother! I'm thinking who in the world did I call? So I say "I was trying to call my brother." And she says "And I was wondering who was calling me stinky pants!" As I am trying not to laugh, I say "I am so sorry I obviously have the wrong number!" and quickly hung up. I'm dying. I am trying to figure out how I had the wrong number. Did he change his cell phone number? I don't remember him doing that and I got his number from Jeff's cell phone. Oh yeah, I guess I should mention that it was Jeff's OLD cell phone with Mike's OLD cell phone number on it. Bingo - joke is on me! What a fool!

I was very hesitant to tell this story because somebody always knows somebody who knows somebody. The world is just way too small, especially in Utah. So if any of you go to family dinner this week and someone says "I got this phone call and some girl called me stinky pants!" or hear of this happening to a friend, yep, that was me.

But maybe we can keep this our little secret?

Girls weekend with Grandma and Grandpa

Last Wednesday (the 4th) Jeff's mom and her husband Richard brought Heidi and Eliza (Emi & Ada's cousins) out to Chicago for a girls weekend. Emi and Ada were so excited to have their cousins come. They had such a great time with them all here! Poor Sarah wanted so badly to join in the fun and hang with the big girls. Thanks Emilie, Ada, Heidi and Eliza for including Sarah in all your fun when you could! I know she had a great time with you here too!

Thursday morning they took the train downtown and went to the American Girl Place for lunch and shopping, hit the beach and then off to the Children's Museum. They stayed downtown that night and from what I understand nobody got very much sleep! Friday they went to the Shedd Aquarium and then took the train back to our house. Friday night Jeff, Sarah and I were excused from the house so they could make dinner together and have some more fun. By Saturday you could tell the exhaustion was setting in, but they weren't ready to quit having fun! They went to Airtastic for 2 hours to play. Then after dinner it was movie time with just the girls (Grandma slept through most of it!) Sunday was a quiet day of just church, dinner and some Hannah Montana on the Wii. Sadly on Monday it was time for them to go home. We were trying to convince them to stay another week, but unfortunately it just didn't happen. The girls had so much fun it took them a couple of good nights sleep to recover!

Here are just a few of the pictures taken to highlight the fun weekend

On their way!

Grandma, Heidi and Eliza

They made it!

Heidi, Emilie, Ada, Eliza and Sarah

Waiting for the train to take them downtown

The buddy sysytem!
Heidi & Ada Emilie & Eliza

This one is hands down my favorite!

By the Chicago River

All the girls - in the hotel room


Lunch and shopping at American Girl Place

Lake Michigan and the beach

The Children's Museum at Navy Pier

Emilie & Heidi Ada & Eliza

The Shedd Aquarium

(unfortunately the dolphins, whales and penquins were

"on vacation" but there was still plenty to see!)

Taking the train back to Aurora

Saturday afternoon exercise!

Eliza and Heidi as Hannah Montana on the Wii

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! Kath and Richard for bringing Heidi and Eliza out and giving Emilie and Ada such a fun and memorable weekend! You're the best! XOXOX

Finally! Something to blog about!

So I'll admit it - I just haven't been in the mood to blog. The most exciting thing going on here is that Ada dropped my cell phone in the tub and I had to get a new one. But that has been a fiacso and I'm in the midst of exchanging it for another.
But yesterday Ada came home with an envelope addressed to "The parents of" and when I opened it I found this:

I don't post this to brag, but rather because I couldn't be more thrilled for Ada. Emilie inherited an artistic gene from somewhere down the line (not from me or Jeff!) and not to say that Ada can't draw, but Emilie is better at it. Last year and this year Emilie had a picture chosen to be in the art fair. Ada didn't have anything chosen and I could tell there was a bit of disappointment. But she was all smiles when she handed me this and told me what it meant.

The first graders had to draw a "911" poster for art class and all the drawings were entered into a crime prevention poster contest. Ada's was chosen as a semi-finalist in the contest. It will be sent to the Naperville Police Department to be judged and if it is chosen it will appear in the yearly calendar they put out. We will find out the last week of school if it was chosen or not. Even if it isn't chosen, this letter was grand news at our house! Great work Ada! We'll keep you posted if her artwork is chosen or not!

Feeling Old

This morning as we were finishing getting ready for the day, Emilie and Ada were watching the cartoon Tom and Jerry in our bedroom. When I saw what they were watching I said "Since when do you like Tom and Jerry?" The girls then told me that they watched it at grandpa's house last summer and liked it. Then Jeff told them that we used to watch Tom and Jerry when we were kids and Ada's reply was "What? How is that because these are in color?"

Yep, when your kid thinks you didn't have colored TV when you were a kid, feeling old.