THE LAST SENIOR

We have early morning Seminary here in CA. So all of our kids had to get up and be over at the church at 6:30 am. If they were in the band or choir they had to go to early, early morning Seminary, and yes that is what they call it. It starts at 5:30 am. I got up and took the first 5 kids to Seminary. So when Allison came along I told Jeff it is his turn!!! He wasn't happy but for the last 3 1/2 years he has been doing it. We always find someone to car pool with but he has to do at least part of it.
I have enjoyed listening to him deal with this last child, remember this is his baby and he usually is pretty kind to her but after almost 4 years he is getting over it. It starts the same way every morning, "Allie are you up??" "Yes, DAD!!" she is very good about getting up to her alarm. Next, "Allie, did you eat??" and in previous years he added "Allie did you take your pills??" She had pills for her headaches she had to take every morning. Then there is a bit of a pause, you can hear her getting ready. Then it starts again "Allie, time to go!" about 1 minute goes by, (I have timed him!!) "Allie, time to go" then after 2 minutes and I do mean 2 minutes he walks down the hall "Allie, I will be in the car!!" and he leaves. This morning I was just cracking up. Allie came to see what was going on, I just laughed, "your Dad says the exact same thing EVERY morning". She says "yeah???" well you would think he would know you always make it to the car late and you always have to carry half your clothes to get ready in the car!! AHHHH the joys of the last child. We laughed and then heard the horn honk out front and she grabbed her stuff and ran for it. OK, here is the secret, when the car pool picks her up (at the same time Jeff takes her) she is totally ready to go. hmmmm I think she has trained her Dad????

I PASSED!!

I thought my head was going to explode, but when it was all done they gave me a piece of paper stating that I PASSED!! Miracles happen everyday and today is one of those days!! Yesterday, when I was studying my heart out, Jeff kept coming checking on me and brought me dinner so I wouldn't have to leave the computer. Then he gave me a blessing, I then knew that no matter what happened it was just fine!!

NO MORE TESTS!!

I am too old to take tests!! It does feel like I am 10 years old again and Mom is making me practice the piano or do my homework. I can think of a millions things that just have to be done before I can study.
The crazy guy in the hat was my instructor, he was a hoot, I do think I learned a lot from him mostly because he was always doing something crazy and that kept me from falling asleep! I was by far the oldest person in the room, it was interesting to see how fast or slow the younger people learned the material.
Well, I guess I have to go back to studying. I don't even want to sell Life Insurance, I just want to have my license to make me legal when I am talking to someone and I can give them advise on their application/policy.

ALLIE SPEAKS!

Today Allie gave a talk in Sacrament meeting. She has spoken several times in Sacrament meeting but the big thing about this time is, she wrote her own talk. I mean ALL of it! She wouldn't even let us suggest places to look or things to talk about. Her subject matter was pretty easy, it was the "Importance of Family". She referred to the Strength of Youth pamphlet and had a couple of scriptures then referred to a talk by a General Authority. She spoke in her own words how she felt about her own family also. (this was a little scary!!) All in all she did a great job! I am soooo glad she got to speak first, right after her was one of our full time missionaries. He is from Australia and she LOVES! his accent, I am not sure she could have spoken so clearly and calmly after he spoke, yeah, she is at the right age to really think the missionaries are cool!!(19 year old boys, 17 year old girls!! go figure!)

CONTRAPTION

This is CJ's contraption. If you ask what it does, he will go in to detail as to why each object is where it is in the contraption, then he will tell you what it does and why we need it. Petra tells me he goes in his room and she won't see him for a while. He comes out and has a new contraption to show her. All of his inventions are called contraptions. I have a brother that built weird stuff also. I was going to say that thought gave me comfort, but he is still weird (sorry Gayle!)

Christmas 2009

It's Christmas time- - - - - -

This is what Christmas is all about, Christ Birth is the most important but I love to see these cute faces. Petra was trying to get them all to smile at the same time and Isiah got tired of smiling so he gave one last BIG grin!
I love that Jenni is so excited about watching CJ open what she gave him, she doesn't even start opening her own gifts!!

Two happy boys, they can go to bed as batman and spiderman!
Isiah loves his packages!! He can't wait!

Hans and Shelli were a big hit!! The kids loved their presents!!

We lost track of these guys! Petra went to find them and found them under the kitchen table!!

CJ got a new toy and there they were all under the table playing with it. CJ is the ring leader, Isaac and Isiah are always willing to follow, because they know he has something new to show them or some new game to play.

The toys are all open and the fun was all had, and they end the day at their favorite place in Grandma and Papa's house. The mirror at the end of the hall!! Some things never change!