Gingerbread Houses!

My awesome Aunt Lisa (pictured above) is one of the coolest people I know. One of the things she really likes doing is making ginger bread houses.

A couple of weeks ago, she told everybody, and I mean everybody; the family, neighbors, family friends, vagrant street wanderers, the she would bake the ginger bread if they wanted to come over to her house and make a gingerbread house. She ended up with a house full of people including packs of candy-hyped-up-kids. (So cute when they aren't your own! ;)




Lily and Lucy, my cousin's girls

The Moris's granddaughter.
I told her to smile and this is what I got.



The Crosby's work on their house together.

My lovely sister Katelyn snuggles up with Topher. She's a real hit with the 0-4 crowd.

Cheryl and her boyfriend Chet.

My cousin Emily showng off her best look.

Thanksgiving pictures for Christmas, maybe I'll get my Christmas pictures up by Valentine's Day

So this is incredibly belated. But here is how I spent my Thanksgiving last month. It was actually an awesome weekend. I went with my family down to Moab Utah and my wonderful parents rented a jeep. So much fun!


We went with some family friends, the Moris'. These guys are old hands at this stuff. On one of trails, "Hell's Revenge", the 4 wheel drive went out on their Jeep Cherokee. You would think that meant game over right? Nope, not for these guys, that didn't slow them down one bit.

But really it was just awesome to be able to spend time with the family. This is me and my brother (who, incidentally, got married last month) posing in front of "Lion's Back", one of the obstacles they closed to vehicles after a lot of people died on it.

Mom enjoyed the ride from the passenger's seat where she could see the view, have the heater blowing right on her feet, and still read her book.

Have a lovely Holiday Season and in the mean time...

Greetings all! I hope everyone is enjoying the winter weather the whole nation seems to be getting. This last weekend we got a few inches of snow and I decided to make the most of it. My two adorable nephews were hanging out with us and so I took them sledding. All of the sudden, I have a whole new respect for my mom. I had no idea just how much effort it takes to get to little boys into full snow gear. Wow! No wonder Mom never went sledding with us. By the time we got there, she was already exhausted!

But as for me, I was the super cool Aunt! Not only did I go sledding, I packed the sleds up the hill everytime. And boy did my nephews make the most of that! What a joy it is to see them having such a grand time. It was awesome.

I hope everyone has a magical month filled with moments of fun in the snow, new memories with their family, and lots of love all around.

In the meantime, I wanted to share something else with you. Enjoy! :)






WHO IS YOUR ROLE MODEL???
Try it without looking at the answers......

please don't look down until you do it, you'll love it I promise

GET A CALCULATOR or YOU CAN DO IT IN YOUR HEAD

1) Pick your favorite number between 1-9
2) Multiply by 3 then
3) Add 3, then again Multiply by 3 (I'll wait while you get the calculator....)
4) You'll get a 2 or 3 digit number....
5) Add the digits together

Now Scroll down .............
























Now with that number see who your ROLE MODEL is from the list below:

1. Einstein
2. Barak Obama
3. Abraham Lincoln
4. Helen Keller
5. Bill Gates
6. Gandhi
7. George Clooney
8. Thomas Edison
9. Marie Mines
10. Abraham Lincoln

I know....I just have that effect on people....one day you too can be like me.... :-) Believe it!

I thought it was worth a giggle

Just a quick update, life is wonderful! I am loving my new job, my new car and motorcycle. I'll get pictures and post soon but for now I got something from a coworker I thought was worth sharing.

Note sent the next school day with 1st grader...

Sorry Teacher.

That's not a dance pole on stage in a strip joint! ...I work at Home Depot.

...that's me selling a shovel.

-Mrs. Smith

From 6 wheels to 6 wheels

As many of you have seen, the vehicle I have been getting around is my parents. It is a Chev truck that has a double-cab, extended bed, duel tires on the back (meaning the truck has 6 wheels on it), and a shell on the top. I am sure you could not drive a vehicle any longer, taller, or wider without a commercial driver's license. It gets about 8 gallons to the mile,, err, that is, 8 miles to the gallon. Its a terrible truck to be driving around as a commuter vehicle.
Not that I am not grateful for my parent's generosity. But it was high time to get different mode of transportation with better gas mileage.

So this week I decided it was high time to make that purchase and bought not just a car, but a motorcycle as well! I am really lucky I have a friend who is a big time motorcycle enthusiast and offered his assistance in helping me make my selection. What would I do without friends I can take advantage of? ;)

So here it is! Isn't it awesome! It is a 1982 Yamaha 650. I can't wait to really get out there and ride!

Something within us?

Recently I saw the movie "Hancock". I don't know how many of you have seen this but I would encourage it. In going to this movie, one can not go with the expectations of seeing a classic Will Smith comedy that will be chalk full of laughs. This movie has lots of tragedy and struggle. Now as I said, I liked it, and it caused to stop a think.

There have been tons of movies and TV shows coming out lately about "normal" people discovering some special ability that makes them exceptional. I think the reason of the success of these movies is because people relate to them. In the same way that every girl hopes deep down inside that she actually is a princess and will one day be whisked away by her fairy god-mother, every person -male or female- believes that there is more to him/her than can be seen or is known.

As I am of the belief that there is more to us than we recognize in this flawed and imperfect world I think it is interesting to see how the world acknowledges that there is something immortal about us, but isn't able to put it to a better understanding than the ability to stick to walls, be invisible, fly, move objects with our minds etc.

Oh if we only recognized our true capabilities, our true value, our true abilities.

My Dad the Hero

For better or worse, I am a daddy’s girl. Don’t get me wrong, my mom is the most incredible woman living on the planet, bar none. But my Dad and I have so much fun hanging out and talking.


This last weekend he totally helped me out by changing my brake pads. You can see from the pictures, (Yes, the second one from the left doesn’t actually have a pad any more.) that they were in desperate need of changing. So I made plans to hang out with some friends on Saturday and when I woke up (at 11) and told my dad I needed to have the brake pads changed by two that afternoon, he went to bat and got it done for me.

My dad is amazing.