Cousin Fun

Since we did so many fun things while we were in MD for 5 days I will break it up into a few posts. It was so much fun watching all the cousins play. They had a blast playing together. We sure did miss Suz and Emily.

The first night we got there (the only time with Chuck before he left for Dallas) we of course broke out the PlayStation 3 with NCAA football and Rock Band. Chuck and Todd stayed up till the wee hours of the morning satisfying their video game fix.


You can tell Nick has older sisters (and a mom) who love Hannah Montana. This video does not do justice really how well he sings the song. Leland even became attached to this doll and was singing along by the end of our visit. It was hilarious.

Afton wanted to play photographer taking pictures of Leland. She dressed her up and set her in poses. Leland was a good sport then Nick joined in the fun. Here are some of the best pictures.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St Patrick's Day from our crazy little leprechaun!

This morning we went to a small St. Patrick's Day party with some friends. All morning Leland kept saying we were going to HER birthday party. I corrected her saying "No it's a St. Patrick's Day party" and her reply was "It's not Patrick's birthday, it's MY birthday!!"

City Driving

Yesterday I had to take Chuck to the airport in Baltimore. On our way into the city there was a major accident on the freeway (the opposite direction than we needed to go). It caused four lanes to go to only one. As we drove past miles and miles of dead stop traffic, I realized 1) This is one of the moments that I'm grateful to live in a small town, 2) I was going to have to drive back in the dead stop traffic.

After dropping off Chuck I opted to drive through downtown Baltimore in order to get to a different freeway that would take me back to my sister's house. As soon as we got into the city we almost immediately hit all of the unavoidable pot holes.
Leland says..... "Mommy it's too bumpy!"...... "Why is it so bumpy?"....."I feel sick!"....."Can you stop bumping?" Luckily she didn't get sick.

A little while later as I sat at a stoplight I watched a delivery truck trying to back into a unloading dock. His truck was obviously too tall to fit under the awning to back up far enough to be out of the lanes of traffic. So what did he do? Left his truck perpendicular in the street blocking a full lane of traffic, got out, and started to unload his truck! Seriously?!?! My light turns green and now I can't even go anywhere. I was so frustrated.

There are a few things I miss about Baltimore, mainly my sister and few friends that still live there. But I do not miss the ridiculous traffic and inconsiderate driving.

Linger Longer (2)

We had our second Linger Longer on Sunday. We stay after our regular church meetings to eat lunch together as a congregation. Chuck and I are in charge of coordinating the activities so it was a busy Sunday for us. This time the Activities budget did not provide any food and it was going to be purely pot luck. I had sent around sign-up sheets for 2 weeks and called everyone on Friday to remind them of their assignment. We were nervous about having enough food and having a good variety. We panicked on Saturday night and I went to buy 2 frozen lasagnas just in case.

After the first hour of church, we decided to cook both lasagnas because it didn't look like we were going to have enough food. Well, we were pleasantly surprised by the amount of food that was provided when it came time to eat. Apparently, a lot of people had food in the car. I could not believe the spread we started to get. We could have set up a 4th table for food.

It was nice to feel the support of the members of our ward. So many people commented about how nice it is to just sit and visit with everyone. It is also fun to taste other's dishes. Next time I might provide little cards for each to write who made the dish and what it is. I heard many people asking around trying to get recipes.

The highlight of my afternoon was to watch an elderly lady with a HUGE smile on her face get her empty dishes from the kitchen. It made her so happy to see that other's liked her meat loaf and chocolate cake. She said "I can't believe everyone liked MY meat loaf so much!"

I made Andes Mint Cookies and they were a hit! (Thanks Erin) Another hit was someone brought individually wrapped PB&J and cheese sandwiches for the kids. I'm sure it took a lot of time, but I saw one on almost every kids plate.

Our next Acitivity will be in May. We have a great Yoga instructor in our ward that would like to have a Yoga morning. We are also thinking of "Spring Cleaning" our building. I would love any ideas on how to make a "Come clean the Church" activity more inticing.

Small Town Living

(This is an old draft of a post from 3/08 that I found when cleaning up my blog files. Sure made us reminisce about our beloved Lexington.)

If you haven't heard me say it before, I'll say it again...I LOVE our small town.

I love....

• that I am usually one of only 3 people shopping at the grocery store after 8pm


• that the only traffic is the VMI game day traffic on Saturday afternoon


• that the streets of downtown are lined with American flags on the weekend


• I see at least 3 people I know at Wal-Mart everytime I go


• the ladies at the library know my daughter's names


• our mechanic and dentist moved their families here 'just because it seemed like a great place to live'


• that I realized I don't need a mall to survive winter with kids