bad hair...years

My sister sent me some more of our old family pictures. I am aghast at how awful my hair was - for most of my life. Ugh!! Have a good laugh!

no hair! Ackkkk!

Umm. Little House on the Prairie much?

What was I thinking? Perms should be banned!

I look like carrot top in this one. No, I didn't color or bleach my hair...I have no idea what is wrong.

Does anyone else have some goofy pictures like this? I can't be the only one...can I???

Samuel flashback

The following took place October 5, 2005...

We had our first ER visit with Samuel (age 2). In the car on our way to park day Sam stuck a couple of raisins up his nose. At first I thought there was only one. So I pulled over and had him blow his nose. One raisin came out so I figured we were in the clear. (No pun intended!) We continued on to the park. However, a few minutes after we arrived I noticed that his eye was all teary and his right nostril was leaking raisin juice. So I called John and we went to his office- I figured we could have Daddy take the raisin out. John was all confidence until he used his otoscope to look up Samuel's nose. The raisin was lodged all the way up his nasal cavity blocking off where the eye drains out, which is why Samuel had a watery eye. John had no intention of trying to get that raisin out! Jesse, a PA who worked with John, jokingly called him a wimp and said that he would get the raisin out. However, after a turn with the otoscope, Jesse agreed with John. So next we called the pediatrician. They laughed when I called and told me that they had another kid in the office with something up his nose too! They said to take Samuel to the ER. So we loaded up in the van (John came with us to expedite the process) and headed for the hospital. Just as we were pulling in to the hospital, Samuel let out an enormous sneeze. Jokingly I asked him if he got the raisin out, but I didn't turn around to check. When we went to get Samuel out of the van, sure enough, there was the raisin the size of a grape on his lap! We went into the ER to borrow an otoscope to make sure he got all of them out. Thankfully, John sounded the all clear! (pun definitely intended) The rest of the day we couldn't stop laughing, especially because Sam kept saying, "No raisin in nose. No raisin in nose."

The moral of the story: Take care and watch out for those raisins!

the William Penn curse

Last night the Phillies beat the LA Dodgers 5-1 to seal up their shot in the World Series. The last time the Phillies made it to the Series was 15 years ago, 1993, and they didn't win. I remember watching that World Series with my mom and brothers in Utah. John Krunk is especially memorable with his wad of chewing gum and too much facial hair. I thought the Phillies played well and was surprised they didn't win. Now that I am a Philadelphian, I understand why they lost. It all comes back to William Penn. (read more about it here)

Scoff if you must, but ever since 1987 when they built the first skyscraper that was taller than the hat of the William Penn statue on top of City Hall in Philadelphia, none of our major sports teams have won their ultimate competitions. That means no World Series, no Super Bowl, no Stanley Cup and no whatever it is basketball wins (can you tell that is not my sport?). When the Eagles made it to the Super Bowl a couple of years ago, some of the local athletic stores started selling William Penn Curse t-shirts. Philadelphians are nothing if not skeptical of our sports teams to begin with. With the curse overshadowing us the prospect of a victory looks doubtful, no matter how talented the team. When the latest skyscraper in the city was completed the owners placed a mini statue of William Penn on top, hoping to somehow counteract the curse. With William Penn's hat once again the tallest thing in the city, let's hope the Phillies have a chance!

fun pics

It has been a while since I downloaded my pics from the digital camera. Here are a few of the fun things we have been doing lately.

We went to the local fire station with some friends from church. The fire fighters gave us a tour of the fire house, let the kids climb inside and on the truck and let them shoot a fire hose. They were a big hit!

John and I took the boys for another hike through Ridley Creek State Park. On the path we came across the shell of an old house...

as well as some old farming equipment. It was pretty cool.

Doesn't James look thrilled?!

book review

I just read a very entertaining book. It is called My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins and Fenway Park. I breezed through it in about a day and enjoyed every minute of it! The book is about a group of ninth/tenth graders and is written in the form of English assignments, text messages, emails and notes during study hall. Through their various communications you follow their current predicaments and gain a deeper understanding of how their past has shaped them. It also contains a pluthra of theater references and baseball stories and for those of you -like me- who enjoy that sort of thing.

Just a warning for those of you who are conservative...one of the main characters is flamboyantly gay. So if that bothers you, you might want to skip this one. I thought that particular character was the highlight of the book myself.

the nature of COLD

The temperature took a serious dive the beginning of this week which started John and I on our traditional fall discussion - turning on the heater. John is on the conservative side. He believes that unless the snot dripping out of our kids' noses is turning into icicles, the house is warm enough. I, on the other hand, believe that keeping the house colder than 70 degrees is torture far worse than anything they can come up with in Guantanemo Bay. Of course, I was born and raised in the desert so anything under 80 degrees is cold and anything below 60 is frigid.

The crux of the problem is that John doesn't understand that keeping the house at 68 degrees in the summer is different than keeping the house at 68 degrees in the winter. Why is that you may ask?

1) Insulation in these older houses is sub par.

2) When you walk inside the house dripping sweat a cool house is relaxing; when you come into the house after being so cold that you feel like your joints have frozen solid, 68 degrees is barely warm enough to melt the icicles in your hair.

Of course the debate isn't usually about keeping the house at 68 degrees, it is about when to turn the heat on for the first time. When we wake up in the morning and the house is below 60 degrees, I believe heat is a must. John takes a little more convincing. I can't figure out if this is because he is so financially conservative or if he is so used to the cold that it doesn't affect him the way it does the rest of humanity.

Does anyone have a similiar issue?

props for Normal Mormon Husband

My sister-in-law, Rebecca, just sent me this link. I was laughing so hard John was worried maybe I really had lost it! Check this out. It is the best laugh I have had since the VP debate.

http://mormonhusbands.blogspot.com/2008/02/twilight-series-for-dummies-and-totally.html