My obsession

So, I have an obsession - and I suppose if you drive anywhere with me you just might notice it.

ROADS

My sweet husband said to me today (as we were out on a bike ride) "I just don't find roads fascinating" and I thought he was telling me that road biking is boring and that mountain biking is much more exciting... but that wasn't what he meant.  I had been pointing out to him all the new roads being built in our area "Look at how that one will connect the interstate all the way over to here" - or "check out how they are making it a dividing highway - rather than 5 lanes" - or usually in the car I will be pointing out how the construction has changed since I last drove the same path.  I guess he was just saying "I really don't care about that new road."  And I think I must be a a weird-o.  

I admit it, I'm obsessed.  I'm fascinated with the construction (irritated at times, too) - but I'm in awe of the scheduling, the  work in progress, and how it is constantly progressing.  I constantly wonder who has that job of creating the job chart with all the little things that have to be done, the timeline, and how much time and effort and money it will take to make it happen.  Absolute awe.  Who decides those weaving roads for us drivers and has decided this is the most efficient way to make things happen?  How do they build a bridge and then move it in place with hydrolic rollers?  When they put those big metal bars over the roads (to widen the interstate) - how do they make the road solid - so that they can pour cement/asphalt and make it a super-strong roadway?  When all those dump trucks line up in the middle of the night - do they have a detailed map of the "secret entrances" to the work sites?  And how do they  even connect a bridge to the regular road?

Perhaps there's a different job waiting out there for me - I'd honestly love to learn more about the magic of engineering all these ROADS!

Family Home Evening

I took the boys down to my parents house last Monday night.  Shayne was out of town for a couple days and I didn't have lessons that day (as I typically do on a Monday night).  I brought HUGE marshmallows to do a Family Home Evening activity with the boys and their cousin, Michael.  The challenge - to sit in front of the marshmallow for 5 minutes (I know, I should have done 15) and if they didn't eat them, they could have 2 marshmallows.  Afterwards, we watched a video together of Pres. Uchtdorf talking about this same challenge and patience.  It was a fabulous night for all of us!  I wish Shayne could have been there too.

Notice that Michael's is already gone!!

"I not touching it!"

I was amazed at Danny's determination - he wouldn't even touch it.

The rewards

The video:

Hamster Roller Derby

When we adopted/purchased our first hamster, Chewy, we were asked by the seller to PLEASE take Chewy to the PetCo Annual Hamster Roller Derby.  We had not heard of it - but we were game.  Chewy was a natural at rolling around in his ball!!  Well, since Chewy did not make it to that special event, we took Cookie.  The boys were super excited about it and kept saying that Cookie was going to win.  I would gently remind them that Cookie likes to SIT in the ball and go into corners.... so, she was not so likely to do well in this event.  

The store had a few people in charge of the event.  They had a track set up for the balls to "race" down.  Cookie was the only regular hamster - there were several dwarf hamsters and one girl even brought 2 rats - DISGUSTING.  The little dwarf hamsters were SPEED DEMONS and the boys quickly figured out that Cookie was in for a tough competition.  But, there's something about peer pressure - Cookie caught fire and we had a fabulous afternoon watching her roll her way down the track.  Some races she won, others she lost, and in the end, we were surprised that she WON THE ENTIRE EVENT!  She won herself a blue ribbon and a new home.  She's loving life, and she still rolls like crazy at home now.  

I had to include this picture of before the races.  I asked the boys to smile - look at the response!!  LOL

Here's Cookie.

Cookie's prize! Go Cookie!!

April fools pics

This is how I WANTED to post about April Fools Day:

What happens when you combine the following ingredients:

HERE is where I suggest you watch the video (next post) if you haven't watched it already)  Here are a couple of follow-up pictures of Danny still eating his yummy doughnut.  Did you catch at the end of the video that he said "I not crying!"  Nah, that mustard stuff is for sissies....  he thought it was a great addition to his fabulous doughnut!!

April Fools

Well, I officially filled up my blog, AGAIN.  I deleted a year and a half of posts and was able to add 1 post.  Lame.

I figured out how to embed a video of our April Fool's morning.  What is not included in the video is how I got Shayne:  I had a friend, a MALE FRIEND, climb into bed with Shayne at 7am.  Chris did not DARE cuddle with him - but finally said, "hey Shayne" in his most manly voice and that woke up Shayne in a hurry.  It was SUPER FUNNY!

Now, sit back and enjoy the video of us tormenting our boys!
(PS there's mustard, doughnuts, and salt-water colored like juice involved in this prank!)

Fun times

Aunt Jenny and our cousin Tyler came for a visit!  Too bad I couldn't capture how much Danny doted on his cousin - so sweet!  We had some good times in just a couple of days - we hope they come again soon!!

You can fill up a blog?

Evidently, there is only so much space out there and I have reached the max - well, the FREE max, that is.  So, I just printed my first year and a half of posts into a book through BLURB and it is AWESOME!  I'm so happy to have it printed.  I'm excited to do my next 2 books (in my freetime?!)!   And, now that I've spent some time deleting posts and photos, (I hated doing it - felt like I was erasing a part of myself) I hope to have more space to share some goodies from the past few weeks!

Is it a disease? Or a fashion statement?