Say What?!

I have never been one to make fun of someone's name. I mean, Alice WAS in the top 10 list of names (for 1910), and Cletus is surely to be on the list for next year, but we try not to be snobby about our names. I draw the line, however, at some of the names that Cletus tells me about from work. They are just asking to be made fun of .... so, here we go!

GMaster (that's right - pronounced G Master - it's legal and everything .. poor kid)

Myreekole (pronounced Miracle)

La-ia (can anyone guess this one? I couldn't! It's pronounced La"dash"ia!)

And then my favorites, the twins:
Orangejello and Lemonjello (put the emphasis on the "range" and the "mon" in the two words and you'll get close to the pronunciation)

And then, there is Female (pronounced fe-mall-ee ... I can only guess the story behind that one - something about the hospital labeling the baby as female, perhaps??)

Well, hope you enjoyed. I'm sure that Myreekole is writing on her blog right now about her dentist with the crazy name - Cletus!

Opposition

I got one of my New Year's Resolutions delivered to our front door just in time ...

For a tsunami called the stomach virus to hit us. Luckily, it was only a 24 hour bug and luckily Kate apparently has a stomach of steel. Unluckily, we discovered that Hayden was sick on the way home one night in the car ... what can beat the aroma of throw-up in the car ... on a cold night when the windows are rolled up? It is quite memorable.

Waterpark in January?

We headed north to Williamsburg to visit ... no, not anything historical, just the Great Wolf Lodge. It is a hotel/indoor water park that is an awesome way to spend a few days in January. We had such a fun time! Kate was too little last year to enjoy it, but was pretty brave and quite the independent little fish this year. We invited Hayden's cousin, Scott, to join us and those two boys played themselves into exhaustion for two days. I know that you don't want to see pictures of Cletus and I in our bathing suits, so I'll try to stick with pictures of the kids. They're cuter anyway.
We also headed to Yorktown for a little bit of history. The kids had the most fun, though, with this frozen pond. We don't see that very much 'round these parts (Raleigh). Some of the pictures look a little strange ... like they are standing on water. I mean, unfrozen water. If it looks cold, that's because it WAS! I was a party pooper and stayed in the warm car. Boys don't seem to care about temperature when it comes to playing outside.

Since you asked ...

I am: trying to cut back on the time I spend on the Internet
I know: how to make good homemade wheat bread
I won: the best catch in the Single's Ward 9 1/2 years ago
I want: jeans that fit me
I have: a car in the shop that I am missing terribly
I hate: the neighborhood cat that poops in our sandbox!
I miss: New Kids on the Block (just kidding ... kind of. I miss the beach)
I feel: so tired. It's the end of the day and I always feel drained by the kid's bedtime
I hear: Hayden practicing the bottom hand of "I Am A Child of God" on the piano
I smell: my citrus and sage candle from Yankee Candle
I crave: frozen pizza almost every night
I search: bargains wherever I go ... I even found some discarded poinsettas in the dumster behind Lowes awhile ago. They were still good! (don't tell the ladies I visit teach)
I love: being with my family when we are all happy and laughing together
I care: what people think about me, even though I'm trying really hard not to (so much)
I always: cut my boys' hair
I believe: that being home with my kids is the most important place I could be
I sing: a lot better than I use to
I write: in my journal not very often
I lose: Scrabble to Cletus most of the time
I win: Rummikub
I never: want to own a pet
I listen: to lots of crying and lots of laughing every day and I wouldn't change a thing!
I am scared: of losing somebody close to me
I need: to exercise more
I am happy about: my life.
I tag: Jessica Simpson, Kristy Simpson, and Crystal (Simpson) Barger

Cletus and Whitney

Cletus has always had a special relationship with Whitney Houston (only Tina Turner takes a close second ... I'd never even heard of the song Private Dancer until I met Cletus). If Cletus and I ever run into anyone who knew him in high school, inevitably, the first thing they bring up is Cletus' performances in running for school leadership offices. At the end of his sophomore year, he dressed up (from what I can gather) in a pretty crazy outfit involving suspenders and sang MC Hammer's Can't Touch This to win the race for Junior Class President. At the end of his Junior year, he sang Whitney Houston's Greatest Love of All to try and win the Senior Class President office. Surprisingly, he didn't win. But, the did succeed in prompting a new Garner High School Rule that students running for office couldn't perform in any way to try and get votes (I guess he was the only one who had thought of singing or dancing their way into student office .... until Napoleon Dynamite). So it should not have come as any surprise that on New Years Eve at Chuck and Linda's annual party he and Whitney were reunited again. Cletus performed a side-splitting rendition of I Will Always Love You that had us all in tears we were laughing so hard. We also played the dreaded Celestial Companions game that had some couples (including us) arguing for several days over our answers last year. And although we didn't win this year, we had fun playing and didn't have any residual arguments (yay for us!). Who says that Mormons can't have fun on New Year's Eve?

Pictures to Accompany the Last Post

Here is a family picture in front of this small, quaint little cottage that has .... 125,000 sq ft. That's 4 acres of actual living space! It was an amazing house and we were amazed the whole tour.








Hayden and Kate in Santa's sleigh at the historic Grove Park Inn in Asheville.

Another family picture at the Grove Park Inn. We are sitting in front on a stone fireplace that is roughly the size of the side of our house.

Our sweet Hayden as the Nutcracker in his school play. He was awesome!

Cletus was a shepherd in the live nativity at the Raleigh Stake Creche Exhibit. We're pretty sure this is why they had a record number of visitors this year.

Playing Catch-Up

I'm afraid I've lost the enthusiasm for posting very often on my blog. I would aplogize to all of my loyal readers, but I don't think I have any. My mom was a big fan, but her computer has been out for quite awhile. So not even my mom reads my blog any more. I'm just not one of those bloggers that gets 20 comments per post (Allyn Boney!). But I won't give up hope. I'll be like Bill Murray on What About Bob, "I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful ... I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful". Perhaps I just need to give myself a good pep-talk to get my posting commitment back up again. So here goes ...

Christmas was a whirlwind that I still feel like I'm recovering from. We took a 4 day trip to Asheville and came home (in a sputtering, sick car) on Christmas Eve. We stopped on the way home to buy stocking candy (umm ... just guess who was in charge of buying that - me or Cletus?) and found WalMart to be closed at 6:30 on Christmas Eve. Come on! Can't WalMart be open when you actually need them to be? We found a KMart that was open and joined the throngs there buying last-minute Christmas surprises. Although, I have to say that it was kind of depressing seeing all of the parents that saved their Christmas shopping until night before and were just buying whatever was on the shelves for their kids. Lots of them had their kids with them! Hmm ... nothing dispells the magic of Santa like being with your mom as she buys your presents on Christmas Eve. So we got stocking candy at KMart without our kids knowing somehow (did I mention that Cletus was in charge of buying the candy and he procrastinated?). We arrived home on Christmas Eve and Hayden and Kate opened their new matching pajamas that I had made for them. Yes, I know, I'm amazing.
And, from Christmas morning until now has been kind of a blur. We have visited much, opened lots, eaten way too much, and driven many miles. But, the kids had fun, we have lots of new toys to play with, and I have a new camera! That's right, expect to be blown away by the pictures that will start to appear on my blog. I LOVE it!
I can also now say that YES, I am from North Carolina, and YES, I have been to the Biltmore, thank you. Twice in two days, with kids in tow. Boo-yah!