Kiss Me I'm Irish

In Middle school and High school I always wore a pin that said "Kiss me I'm Irish" on St. Patty's day. I really don't know why, I guess I thought it was funny. I think I'm part Irish somewhere down the line. I never did get any takers though.

I just learned from daytime tv that the leaves on the clovers mean: faith, hope, love and luck. I've never been lucky enough to find a 4 leaf clover though. I never had enough patience to search for them in the many clover patches around the house I grew up in.

I'm home today with a painful back so I'm relaxing, watching tv and blogging.

I need to go put on something green.

Something I've never done but would like to do someday is to learn how to dance like in Riverdance and Lord of the Dance. Michael Flatley here I come.

Quote of the Day

"Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity."
~Margaret Nadauld

Valentine's

The kids got a package in the mail last week from g'pa Mark and g'ma Paula. They loved all the treats, the $5 and .....

the gel hearts we put on the back window. Thank You!

Jeremy and I went to a Stake Dance the night before Valentine's. We had a great time slow dancing and being with our friends.

Mason made this for me at school on the computer.

George wrote this to me. Quite funny. Great handwriting even though for some reason he wasn't enjoying it. I guess I'm glad he was being honest. Too cute.

Lucky You

Lucky you!

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you!This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year. (might be a little while)
4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows?
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did, win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

25 Random Things about Me

I never do tags, but I did this one on facebook and thought I would post it here too. It's been fun reading friends random things. You learn alot about them, so maybe you might learn something new about me. Kinda fun.

1. I love to play volleyball and softball, my favorite sports.
2. I love to decorate my house. It's a never ending process, but I love it. I'm always working on a project and looking for a great deal.
3. I love to read, mostly fiction, sew, making crafts.
4. I've been playing the piano since kindergarten. I use to be a lot better. I hated piano lessons and recitals. I get so nervous and really don't like playing in front of people. I play much better by myself.
5. In middle school I learned how to play the harp. I really liked it and want to play it again someday. It's a lot like the piano. But since there was only about 4 of us in the whole town that played, it brought on a lot of attention, which I didn't like, so I stopped.
6. I also know how to play the guitar. I learned how my senior year.
7. I originally went to college to be a dental hygienist. But then while in college I got a job with an orthodontist and loved it. So I finished with my AAS, and kept working as an assistant. As soon as I had George I quit.
8. I'm a sucker for reality tv.
9. I grew up in a town in Washington. Had a group of friends that went from kindergarten to our senior year together. That doesn't happen very often.
10. I love my friends, can't live without them.
11. I love to laugh and be happy. Jeremy makes it his goal everyday to make me laugh.
12. I love, love, love treats with peanut butter.
13. I have a really long tongue. I can touch my nose with it.
14. When I walk or drive by street lights they randomly turn off. It happens a lot.
15. I don't need affection to know that I'm loved.
16. My favorite food is Chinese.
17. When I take the first drink of pop I always hiccup.
18. I was an extra in the TV show Everwood a few times along with my friends Sophie and Maegen. The show got cancelled a couple years ago. It's harder than you think to pantamime especially without laughing.
19. I'm a hard worker.
20. I love my amazing kids and husband. I don't know how I got so lucky.
21. I love fruity flavors for candy and drinks.
22. I do not like milk at all. A glass of milk just grosses me out.
23. I like to sing, but in groups.
24. I never got sick while pregnant. I love being pregnant, just can't handle the kid part. Hence 3 kids and we're done.
25. I'm always dreaming of living where it's warm all year round. I've never lived in a place where it didn't snow. It would be nice for a change.

George at Disneyland

George at Disneyland
Originally uploaded by alysatoponce

George loved the Indiana Jones ride, the Teacups and Soaring Over California. He didn't like any of the rides that had big drops. We made him go on everything once, but after that he had to wait for us on some of the rides at the exit on the rides he didn't want to go on again. Look close at the picture of us at Splash Mountain, in the log, his face is terrified. We never knew this about him until this trip. So now we know and maybe he'll grow out it for next time. Since we got to be there for 3 days we had time to go on the Mark Twain boat and do the canoe boats where we paddled around the island. George loved shopping for trading pins to trade with the cast members and collecting pressed coins for his book. He found some cool necklaces to buy and a mickey mouse shirt with his c-mas money. I can't say he loved every minute of it, but he loved most of it. Those darn fast and fun rides, he just doesn't have the stomach for them. Good thing he found other things to love about Disneyland.

Mason at Disneyland

Mason at Disneyland
Originally uploaded by alysatoponce

Mason loved every ride and couldn't get enough. His favorite rides were Space Mountain and Indiana Jones. We tried a couple times to get him on the Indiana Jones ride, but he was wasn't tall enough, but just by a 1/4 of an inch. So we got smart and put folded up paper towels in his shoes. Next time we'll do it to MJ too, so she can go on it. He and George really got into collecting the pins for the lanyards and trading them with the cast members (employees), and collecting pressed coins to put in their new collecting books. With his money he also bought a big rubber snake and made a light saber by picking the parts and putting it all together with light and sounds. He loved every minute of the 3 days.

MJ at Disneyland

MJ Disneyland
Originally uploaded by alysatoponce

Maryjane's favorite ride was the Snow White ride. Her second favorite was Space Mountain. Her favorite princess is of course Snow White. She got to go on every ride except for Indiana Jones. Those darn highth requirements. She loved meeting the real Mickey, Minnie, Buzz and Snow White. She loved shopping in the cute Main Street stores. She bought a pirate Minnie, a princess Minnie, collectable pins to put on her lanyard, a butterfly necklace, a princess picture frame, a pressed coin book and all this with her own money she got for c-mas. She also loved watching the fireworks everynight, they were pretty amazing.

C-mas '08

Christmas Eve we at dinner by candle light. A tradition I have continued from my childhood. The kids love it and can't wait 'til we do it again.

Christmas morning.

They are so excited to get started opening the presents.

Jeter got a bone that he loves and won't let go of.

G'pa Mark and G'ma Paula sent us Disneyland passes. Yippee!! We were all very excited. Thank you so much.

The kids had asked Santa for money. They actually wrote in their letters "Please send cash". So that's what he did. The kids kept opening up boxes with money in them. They each got $80. So with a few other stocking toys that was there c-mas this year, Disneyland passes and money. So we decided that since we were all off for c-mas break, we left for Cali. 2 days after c-mas. I'll post that later.

C-mas day we braved the snow storm and went to Midway to spend a couple days with family. We had a wonderful dinner and the kids always have a blast playing.

They couldn't resist playing in the waist-high snow in the back yard that night.

Paul taught Mason the cup stacking game. He caught on quite well and was really proud of himself being better than George. I tried too, but no one's as good as Paul.

G'ma has a sewing machine that embroiders patterns. The kids each got a towel and chose a picture and put their names on them too. I loved learning how to do it. Someday I'll have a machine that does all that.

We had a great C-mas this year. More pictures to come of our Disneyland trip.

Christmas is Coming!!

The kids are so excited. Putting up the tree and ornaments are a favorite of theirs, and mine too. I love the feeling the tree makes with the warmth and glow of the c-mas lights. It changes the mood of the whole house.

Santa came through our neighborhood last week riding the fire truck. The whole nighborhood was outside waiting for his arrival despite the freezing wind and snow.

He passed out bags of candy to all the kids.