Things that my kids say that make me laugh...

First I wanted to let you know who each of my kids are with their internent names. They choose their own names.

This is Alice: She is the one in the red jacket and blue pants. :)

This is Luke:

This is Chlorine: I asked her why she choose that name and she said that it is a beautiful girls name if you don't think about the stuff in the pool.

I have been keeping notes on little things the kids say that I find funny. Here are a few:

Alice: I only have to make a poster for homework. It’s not due for a week so I have time. It’s only a poster.
The details of the poster:
· One page report on the Great Depression and World War II in Utah.
· A timeline including important events and/or people
· Artifacts from that time period
· Pictures from the same time period
· Map showing everything (mines, mountain, cities…..everything) Also all natural resources during that time period.
· Prepare a 3 min oral report on what you have learned.
“IT’S JUST A POSTER!!!!!!”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Luke: “Mom, I have made a commitment to myself.” “I am going to watch just a little bit of TV on the weekends and on the weekdays I am going to………watch a little bit of TV.”
Mom: so what changed?
Luke: nothing but now I have made a commitment.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chlorine: Alice and her friends were talking and giggling about boys. Chlorine leans over to me and says, “they grow up so fast, don’t they?”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chlorine: I had a bad dream
Mom: Really what was it about.
Chlorine: Me and Luke took a trip to the moon. We missed the balloon that was suppose to pick us up. We didn’t have enough air in our tubes. It was scary.
Mom: I am sorry, it is a good thing you don’t have any trips to the moon anytime soon.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mom: Son, if you could pick anywhere in the world to serve your mission where would you pick.
After some time to think about it…….
Luke: I want to serve in Kansas.
Mom: Kansas, why there?
Luke: because they have cows.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chlorine signing in the bathroom, “I am free, free falling.”
Chlorine - “my favorite veggie is the white broccoli.”
Chlorine – “Mom, if you wore those clothes on What Not to Wear, they would take them away.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I needed to take the scouts on a field trip. The scouts were in the back talking…..so I just listened. (ok so this wasn't any of my kids, but still made me laugh)
Webelos (speaking with intensity): In Japan they use just chop sticks and a spoon to eat. They eat sticky rice and if we stop shipping them sticky rice they would starve because they only can eat with chop sticks.
ME: I am laughing a little bit to myself.
Webelos: (even more intense) All the rice fields are here in the US and we want to stop sending them sticky rice but we can’t because they will starve!
ME: I had to butt in at this point, “So you don’t think they have rice fields in Japan.”
Webelos: No they only have them here in the US.
ME: So you don’t think they have rice fields in Korea? Or even China?
Webelos: No
ME: “ Well they do have rice fields in these places, I’ve seen them.”
Webelos: Silence.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chlorine – “mom, when I was 3 I was sssooooo cute and then I turned 4 and now I look like this."
Mom – And you are still sssooooo cute.
Chlorine – “Yeah, I am, but I liked my chubby cheeks when I was a little girl."

Colin's crazy plan to run through San Fran!

Hello Family!
Colin has asked me to spread the word of his crazy idea to run through San Francisco (isn't that the hilliest city?) at the end of July. I will be there to support him with a Starbucks latte in my hand as he attemps to run his first marathon. Better him then me....

With that being said, I'm very proud of him that not only is he VOLUNTEERING to run this far, but he will also be raising money for The Wounded Warrior Project. If you would like to check out his letter or donate go here: Colin’s Marathon Details

Other then working on Colin's fundraising campaign :) things are good here, just busy at work. But I'm glad that I'm busy and still have my job with the handful of layoffs. A couple of weekends ago I went to Montreal & Quebec with some friends, what a beautiful city! I will try to post a couple pictures once I download my pictures.

Happy Mothers Day!

Family Time

Colin came through here for his work a few weeks ago. We were so excited to get to spend some time with him.

Manny and I went on a cruise out of Mobile, AL (I'll post more about that on my blog later). We drove right through Atlanta, so we were able to meet up with Kelli and her boyfriend, Mark. We had dinner at a really yummy local restraunt. We don't get to see family very often living so far away from everybody, so we love it when we get to spend time with family. Love you guys!

Tummy Troubles

Adara has been going through a series of tests, including various scans, injections, biopsies and scopes to see what is causing her tummy so many troubles. Ever since she was dubbed "Typhoid Adara" as a 2-year-old who got the intestinal flu every two months, she's been having digestive problems.

The doctors (and we) are a little concerned because it's gotten worse lately. Her weight has dropped to 100 lbs and she can't seem to eat anything without feeling terrible.

Her specialist believes it might be gallbladder issues, even though earlier scans came out negative. We are awaiting results on her most recent tests. Hopefully they can find something fixable to fix!

Over the river and through the woods....

to play the wii at grandma's house we go.


We enjoyed the bowling tournament against Aunt Joyce and Grandma.

Lunch Conference

I attended a lunch conference yesterday for the PMI chapter. This is for people who are members of PMI (Project Management Institute) and have earned their PMP (Project Management Professional). The conferences are once a month and have great food and a speaker. You get to sit with other PMP’s from other companies around the northern part of the state. The speaker was speaking about what he does for his job. He basically rescues failing or troubled projects. So he creates another project to oversee the failing project. To be honest a lot of the speakers are boring. I was kind of interested in hearing about how he did this because I was wondering how many projects to you create to oversee a failing project, what if the overseeing project starts to fail? Do you create another project? J Well, the reason I am telling everyone about my boring day is because he told a story that I could relate to at the end of his session. In this story he wanted to give an example about what his company does to rescue these projects. I found the story really funny and cute.

He said, “I was teaching my daughter how to do the dishes, so we created a project. I taught her about the tools that are needed to do the dishes. The water needs to be warm, you put the soap in this side and warm water in the other side. You can put the dishes that are clean over here. You will need a towel to dry the dishes before they are put away. You need something to scrub the dishes with. We talked about technique on scrubbing the dishes. We also talked about the pressure that was needed on each type of the dishes that she would see as they came through to get cleaned. We talked about the time line on getting the dishes finished and when the project ends, (when the dishes are put a way). She started doing the dishes and I checked on her and saw that a knife that was in the clean area was still dirty. Now this is where my company comes in. We analyze if we should terminate the failing project or rescue the project. I determined that the project needs to be rescued. I could just take over the project and finish the project as a success, but then the root company will not learn. Most Project Management books will also tell you to stop the project until you can fix it. If I stopped this project and pulled my daughter into my office and started over by talking about scrubbing techniques and about the correct tools I would lose the base of the original project (the suds would be gone and the water would be cold). I would have to start over. Instead I just observe. I watched her wash the dishes. She grabbed a pot and used the correct pressure and was able to clean that pot exactly how she should. I continued to watch her and each time she did a great job. Then she grabbed another knife, she was holding the knife wrong and wasn’t putting the pressure she needed to clean that knife. I asked her why she was holding the knife like that? She said that she was afraid the knife was going to cut her. So we stopped doing the dishes and I taught her different ways to hold the knife so she wouldn’t get cut. Now the project missed its original deadline, but we found the root cause of the failing project and addressed the root cause.”

Now by this time in the conference everyone was laughing because of his example. I was really happy I went because I realized that I need to observe my kids more instead of taking over the “projects”. I am glad that some of the speakers show their human side, it makes it less boring.