ah... progress.

this is our house.

this is my kitchen. imagination people.happy wednesday.

Magic Beans...

You know how when you have little kids you get tired of just taking them to the park or chuck-e-cheese and you don't want to wait until their teenagers to give them a little culture?











On Saturday we took the kids to the Hale children's theater to see Jack and the Beanstalk. Totally darling, and the play was good too.

Nobody screamed, the atmosphere was totally casual and kid friendly. I'm in mother heaven...

Happy Kids= Happy Mom= Happy Family.

The end.

What is our world coming to?

Irena Sendler

I was sent this story in an email. I had to share for two reasons. 1. This woman was amazing. 2. I'm so disgusted with the end of it, ug... just read on...


*There recently was a death of a 98 year-old lady named Irena. During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an 'ulterior motive' ... She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews, (being German.) Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids..) She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize ... She was not selected.


Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming.



Cori note: When people start valuing liberal bandwagon agendas over true heroism in the face of real personal danger, that is when our world goes to hell in a handbasket.



I think if our forefathers were alive today, they would kick our butts.

happy today :)

it's friday. that means it's the weekend, which had always been exciting. but now more than ever. let me explain by telling you what our weeks are like.

monday: get up at 4:30 and 5 am (I'm the 5), exercise, Craig goes to work at 5:30, i drive Hannah to school (4 miles to our new nieghborhood that we still don't live in). I go pick hannah up at 3pm, Craig gets home for work at around 4:30, i head off to class an hour later and don't get home until after 9 pm.

tuesday: same morning routine. Craig works all day and then goes to school all night, and doesn't get home until around 11 pm.

wednesday: same morning routine again (and for the rest of the week) Craig get's home at 3:50 I beat it out the door to make it to my 4:40 class and don't get home until almost 8pm

thursday: Craig goes from work to school, and again, doesn't get home until 11pm. (So I'm alone with the kids all day and night)

Friday: Hannah has school, Craig has work and then NOTHING! NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING!!!!!

Two and a half slightly uninterrupted days with the hubby, and nothing but studying and 3 children to interrupt us. I love the weekends.

I'm mad right now.

That I wasted 2 hours and stayed up late, (meaning I didn't get up on time) to watch this stupid, ridiculous, disgusting excuse for a movie:

did they really finish that up and think, "oh yeah, that's a good one."

pathetic.

not even worth a redbox rent.

as long as i live,

I will never forget the sight of my daughter leaping from the car this morning, her turquoise tinkerbell backpack strapped tightly to her shoulders and hanging down past her knees. She was running to keep from being late, and her gait was so light and happy it was almost a skip. Her bright pink and white polka dot shorts stood out next to her white shirt, from the sea of other children and I could spot her across the field where I sat, parked, watching her skip/run into kindergarten. Her little a-line bob bounced up and down with her movement, her face was so confident, so determined, so focused on her run, thinking only of getting to class on time. It overcame me. I sat in my car, my boys strapped in back, all ready to go to the park, and all three of us watching Hannah, make her way fearlessly into school. So many kids still have their mom's holding their hand all the way to the kindergarten door. My Hannah is a champion. Watching my daughter run into school was like Christmas morning. Seeing the combination of such differing traits married into the perfect contrast that is my child overwhelms me. She is small, her features are dainty and pretty, she has more spunk in her pinky than most people have in their whole body, she is tough, she is sensitive, she is pensive, kind, aware. She notices things most kids would miss. I sat in my car watching her little body until she disappeared into the swarm of five-year-olds and Carter asked if we could go to the park now. When I turned around to answer him, I was crying.

"What's wrong, Mom?" he asked.

"I just love Hannah so much," I answered. "I love you all so much."

He smiled back at me, Ethan grinned (I tickled his legs) and we drove to the park with Carter's favorite monkey bars.

motherly musing.

I volunteered in Hannah's kindergarten class today. I don't know how kindergarten teachers do it, and still keep their voices so high pitched and cute. That's a whole lotta 5 year olds, mmm yeah. Hannah's doing really well. She's perfect in class, not surprisingly, and she tries really hard. Plus she has my brains, how could she go wrong? Just kidding, sort of...

But I noticed something today.

It is so much easier for little boys to be naughty in class than little girls. Or at least it seems that way. They are more rambunctious and wild, and consequentially they get in trouble more often.

Two little boys in Hannah's class got yellows today while I was there.

Yellow is bad.

But not as bad as red.

(Hannah's words, not mine)

I felt pleased about my perfect little peanut, who charms all the teachers, the yard duties, the people who help move the cars along through the drop off, and all of the kids older than her, with her tiny little body, beautiful little cherub face, and articulate speech. I couldn't help winking at her every minute or so. She's just so cute when she tries to wink back.

Then I started thinking about Carter. In two years I won't be sending a perfect little girl to kindergarten, I'll be sending a boy. Carter.

Carter's been struggling, I'm not going to lie. He's impulsive, and has a temper, and doesn't handle change as easily as my other children.

The move has been the hardest on him. For sure. It's been a rough six months. His behavior has been, how should I put this... less than ideal. And many, no- most times, I'm at a complete loss as to what I should do with him.

It gives me anxiety, makes me feel like a bad mother, makes me worry about how on earth he will handle kindergarten.

But I thank God for two tender mercies. 1. that he gives me little slivers of guidance with Carter. and 2. he has an October birthday, that means he doesn't start for two more years.

i love my life.

1.i love where i live, seriously arizona rocks.

2. i love my husband, he's perfect for me, patient with me, and still wants to hang out with my moodiness after 6 years.

3. i love my new house. it's just framed walls and a roof, but dang it, it's going to be mine!

4. i love my kids.

5. i love that my kids were pretty good in target today.

6. i love target.

7. i love my classes.

8. i love the book i've been working on for the past year and a half. it makes me feel like the worst writer in the world one day, and the best the next. and hopefully soon, i'll finish editing it.

9.i love my laptop. i love that i can carry it around to any room in the house with me; untethered goodness.

10. i love the jewelry screen i saw online and went ahead and made for myself. yay, decorative jewelry.

11.i love things that serve dual purposes.

12.i love that there's an anthropologie located exactly 12 minutes from my house so i can go in and bath in the goodness of that store whenever. i. want.

13. i love ann taylor LOFT. they sell petites, xxs and 00short. beautiful feminine clothes that actually fit. so i can love that i'm tiny and still dress like an adult.

14.i love my dry skin. sure i get eczema on my hands, but i have pretty clear skin too.

15. i love the superstition mountains. we have the coolest view of them in the east valley, and they look so cool and purple every day against the clear arizona skies.

16. i love being mormon. yes i do.

17. i love that i figured out how to handle carter a little better this week.

18. i love that the inspiration came from the Lord.

19.i love that in my literature class we are studying authors like jane austen and charlotte bronte.

20. i love that i love the classics and am still obsessed with twilight. (new preview posted on stephenie's website!!!)

21. i love how long this list is... i bet you do too.

the end.

labor day in logan.

a taste of the trip.

see ethan on an airplane.

see ethan dipping cookies in milk.

with papa. his favorite person.

dinner by the river.
nick and tash.
the mouth of the canyon.
hiking,
logan canyon. in flip flops. (didn't bring my hiking shoes)

i love my sisters.

the end.

if you're a super hero...

you must have a secret identity.

that way you can run around,

fighting bad guys, and defending the innocent.

and still have a normal life.

it's hard to be batman. (especially when batman is obsessed with spiderman.)