The Force is Strong with this one

So last night while I was attending the General Relief Society Broadcast up at the Church, Jacob was home with the kids. When I came home, Star Wars was just ending and Cindy was completely and totally engrossed in it. She has seen some of it before, but hates "Dark Vader" and usually loses interest by the end. But last night she seemed to have stayed right by dad and watched the entire thing. So tonight, while television is a wasteland, we put in The Empire Strikes Back. We told her we were going to watch another movie with Dark Vader. She seemed kind of excited, until the opening scrolling credits began- she groaned real loud and said "Dad, you put in the same movie again!!"

Freddy and Cindy Sitting in a Tree

Cindy's preschool class all takes turns bringing home "Freddy the Frog". They spend the day with him and then write in the Freddy Journal about what they did. After a long day of amphibian togetherness, Cindy was so tired she fell asleep after one book of Five Green and Speckled Frogs. It was a froggy kind of day. Cindy wishes to add the following:

fufuv
freddy
cindy
hhgdfuufuhfumom
dad
lukeruo jfjub5yhhfidhbtbrtjbrtiutvkouyguvgughtyjtrhiuvgfuihthuvgjhuhgvjhhv, rv hiytgknynhgurehfjjfjfkgjgjddskdkgzxiijkfdkkjgkfj

D is for Dog, Sparkles the Dog

This past week was 'D' week at Preschool, hence, Cindy came home wearing the latest in canine headgear. All the kids were wearing these when they came out of class and it was fun to see all the different names the kids had come up with (Rex, Spot, Pluto, Flower, Darth Vader, etc.).


And of course, what dog can resist the 23 Flavors in a Diet Dr. Pepper? Rrrruufff!

Addicted to...

I buy these for Cindy to eat for snack time at preschool and pretty much I end up eating most of them. Oh, sweet and creamy, will you marry me?

A Luke Quickie

So today I was getting ready to take Luke and Cindy outside. This is always a moment of great excitement for both of them and as I asked Luke, "outside? You wanna go outside?" Sure enough, his face lit up and he started booking it towards the kitchen door, when all of a sudden he stops dead in his tracks and announces very loudly "SOOOOOS!!!" and he goes running back to the living room and points to his blue cow shoes up on the top shelf. Gotta love watching your kids learn right before your very eyes.

You gotta Love Craigslist

So I have some projects around my house that I thought I would advertise on Craigslist. Then I would have people give me bids and if I thought anyone was a good deal, then voila! the work was their's. So first up was my ad "So who wants to cut down this disgusting tree/bush?"- because as it happens, I have this disgusting, nasty, overgrown, retarded crape myrtle tree that I can't stand and want gone. So, I posted it on a Monday afternoon and got so many responses that I took it off that night. No lie, this is the first response I got- and I quote:

"i fu want it dwn and villiage pick it up 500. i have no mean haul away i neet it near road u call village they will come get it"

Does that make any sense to you? $500 to cut down a bush?? Really?? The other part of craigslist that I love is the barter section, where you can see what people want and what they will trade you for it- the best ones I have seen lately include:

Approx 9ft Albino Snake/ Wanna trade for????
Home made trailer....too lazy to finish....$50
Exercize Gym....too lazy to use...$200 (Maybe that was from the same guy!)
You wrap my van, I do eyeglasses for your family!
airboat for hot dog cart
Metal detector/trade for 8 ft dingy (Jen, you need a metal detector?)
SANDING FOR STUFF!!!!

Ahhh, good times in Polk County.

Goal Setting

I am pleased to announce that I have made plans to view the October 8th 1:34am launch of the space shuttle over on Cocoa Beach. So there you go- I am finally doing something about acheiving my life long dream. I just need to make sure that NASA or Mother Nature don't screw things up. It is going to be so awesome....

And speaking of fulfilling life long dreams, Cindy finally bought something from the ice cream man the other day. I thought she was going to wet her pants, she was so excited. I must say that I found the prices to be pretty reasonable, I mean, most everyone can find a dollar somewhere. Cindy happened to have $2 that Grandma Sweeney gave her in a small basket, just waiting to hear the music of the passing truck. So, in the end, she chose the "Two Ball Screwball" which has, drum roll......, GUM inside it!!!! That really has be one of the true highlights of her life thus far.

Now That's What I call Using Your Food Storage!

Cindy and Luke formed a rockin' food storage band today. So I introduce to you
Potato Pearl and her Quick Oat. They totally rock...

Running Down a Dream

This past Saturday was the 7th Annual IMC 5K Race down in Homeland, about 20 minutes south of Lakeland. I had never even heard of this race before, however, my friend Michelle who ran the race with me, has competed the last three years. And I do mean compete. This was a true Cross Country race. I thought people used that phrase just to denote a long distance, not actually running through the "country". But this race was on a trail out in the middle of a giant field of 5 foot grass. It was sandy, uneven, full of holes, wet from the dew of the morning, and as the race was underway; HOT. I started strong but about the mile mark the phrase, "I'm dead" seemed to repeat in time with my steps. And even worse, as I ran up the beginning of a long switchback, the many runners ahead of me who were coming out of the switchback were all at least 20 years older than me!! A truly discouraging scene. So I just put my head down, and decided I had to finish and whatever happened to just keep going. I looked behind me to see my closest competitor. It was a man about 60. All I could think was I CAN NOT let THAT guy beat me! So as long as he was about 100 yards behind me, I was good. Plus, Michelle had brought her husband, kids, mother-in-law and two other friends from our ward as a cheering section and I could not look like a total running doofus in front of them. So when I hit that last turn and came up on to the hill and heard them all cheering, I ran like the wind. It was a nice feeling. Overall I placed 19th out of 29 people and ran 3.1 miles in 33 minutes, something I still am astounded I can even say. As you may have calculated, this race was not exactly a packed house, so yes, I did get a trophy. Second place in my age division- with 1st place going to Michelle (she finished 2nd overall). I felt like a little kid again, going to my parent's house and showing them the trophy and having them gush about how proud of me they were. Cindy has since commandeered the trophy, named her Lisa, and broken her left running shoe, but still I am glad to have the trophy and the experience. The tri is going to be so much harder than I realized! But if new experiences are supposed to push us, I am being shoved!

Preschool is "M"arvelous!

So here in Florida you get FREE preschool for the year if your child is 4 before August 15th. (Ususally I abhor government subsidy on such a large scale- but in this case I think it does help a lot of people.) They officially call the program VPK, which stands for Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten, and it is supposed to make sure that kids are ready for actual Kindergarten the following year. Some of these VPK providers are more like a daycare and some are more like a school, so you have to do your homework to find the best ones out there, and I think we did! Cindy has an amazing teacher (Mrs. Kristie), they are always doing projects, crafts, they are learning all the letter sounds, they get to play outside and have snack, and best of all Mrs. Kristie loves worship music, so Cindy now can sing songs about the Bible, JOY (Jesus, Others, Yourself), Jesus, making friends- oh, so cute. This week the letter of the week was M- hence we have Cindy modeling the latest in "Moose" fashion.

Yeah, I just cooked a Turkey over the weekend...

MY dad has discovered pressure cooker canning, so we canned some cooked Turkey over the weekend. I had this bird in the outside freezer since last year, so I cooked him up, saved some meat and had full on Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday (complete with sweet potato pie, mashed pots, cranberry sauce, rolls, Mmmmmm). It was so delicious. Cindy did not share the affinity I had for holding a thawed turkey and making it dance, talk, etc. so I made her conquer her fear and hold the bird. I am so proud! (Sniffle, sniffle...)

OH, the Humanity!!

Things were a little too quiet around the house on Sunday and I couldn't figure out where Luke was or what he was doing. Unfortunately, I finally found him and realized the reason for the silence. Curse you, nightstand, for being only 2 feet tall! (Yes, that is a view of my glasses from the front...)