Sacrament Meeting Protocol

Dear Jim:

You've been in the bishopric for a long time, and thus have not been present for much of our children's sacrament-meeting-behavior-training. Now that you are sitting with us, I thought it would be a good time to go through a sacrament meeting refresher.

Customs and regulations regarding diplomatic formality and precedence in sacrament meeting:

"Keeping the kids quiet" does not include handing a child your iPhone to play "Tap Tap Revenge".

Writhing on the floor is not allowed for children eight years of age or older.

Making paper airplanes out of the sacrament program = bad.

Our children are not allowed to keep the sacrament cups. Seriously.

Two of our children cannot sit by each other. This will bring about consequences previously unknown to you. If this law is broken, it will bring about castastrophic results. Think 2012.

Yours truly,

Your loving wife.

My Scooter Man

Scooter was our first baby. We went to the pound (the best dogs are pound dogs) just to look around. We took a walk down the hallway of cages. Dogs of all shapes and sizes were going nuts. Barking, howling, jumping, and throwing themselves at the cage. We walked past a cage which held a small black dog. He wasn't barking. He was sitting still. He saw us and laid his ears back. I bent down and coaxed him over. He timidly approached us and licked my fingers through the cage. We asked to play with him for a little while and found out that he was on day 2 of his 3 day stay. (they only keep dogs for 3 days, then euthanized them if they're not adopted). We adopted him right then.

He was skittish - so we called him Scooter. He was afraid of Jim, and all men. We soon theorized that he had been either the recipient or observer of abuse. Jim came home one day and went in the room to change out of his work clothes. Scooter walked in just as Jim was taking off his belt. The poor little guy ran out and hid behind a chair for hours.

When Hannah came along, he loved her too. He tolerated all her poking and pulling, and I would often find them like this:

He was so protective of the kids. When Hannah was born and we had lots of visitors. He would discreetly position himself between the visitor and the baby. If the visitor got up and moved around, Scooter would get up and reposition as well. He slept under her crib. Up until a few weeks ago, when he could no longer go up the stairs, every night he slept underneath Emma's crib.

He loved to join the kids in the street riding bikes and playing. Near the end, he couldn't join them, but he loved to lay outside and watch them go up and down the street.

I keep looking at the spots in the house where he would always be. By the stairs, under the desk. And he's not there. He's not here anymore.

People say "he's just a dog". He was much more than that to us. He was a comforter and protector, a friend and loyal companion. He is part of our family and we love him. We'll miss you so much, Scooter. There'll never be another dog like you.

only mormons do this...

We just built a room where our tandem garage space used to be. I guess we got tired of all the food storage in the office, under the beds, in kids closets, in the linen closet, and in every nook and cranny of our house. When it was done, it looked so pretty, I could think of a hundred other cool uses for it (a rockin' movie room with big screen tv? A sweet photo studio?), but food storage room it must be (mud room too). These are the "before" pics.

One More...

At Target, I had some cash in my hand as we left the store. Emma leaned over the shopping cart and kissed it.

"What did you do that for? Where did you learn that??"

"Mr. Krabs did it."

You can tell me why I shouldn't let my kids watch SpongeBob. It's ok, I've already been told I'm a bad mom for doing it. I am fully prepared with my theory about how SpongeBob is actually a pretty good role model. That's right. You heard me. Bring it.

Secrets

Thanks to the inspiring Holly, who wonders what life is really like behind all the perfectness we put on our blogs.

I NEVER wrap the cord around the vacuum properly. I lasso it and throw it on the hook. It drives Jim NUTS.

Sometimes I really like to drive Jim nuts. Like when he places the kitchen towel on the knife block (because he thinks hiding them behind a towel will prevent an intruder from finding and using them) and heads up to bed, I will take the towel OFF and chuckle to myself because he will be sleeping ALL NIGHT not knowing that the knives are TOTALLY EXPOSED! [insert evil laughter here!]

One day recently my kids were acting like complete crazies. So I sent them in the backyard and locked them out.

Emma and I went out for fast food three times last week....

We don't let our kids watch TV on Sundays. But during fantasy football season, I sneak upstairs and watch my players...

I don't let my kids have pop, but I have at least one Diet Coke every day.

My office is messy. All the time.

Last Friday, I vowed to myself I would finally reach the bottom of the laundry basket. Instead, I watched a live police chase for an HOUR and a HALF, then took Emma to lunch at Jim's office...

Ok, I've totally exposed myself. I urge you to do the same. It's very liberating.

I ♥ faces

This is so fun! Another week, another challenge at http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com. This week's challenge is "Completely Candid".

I ♥ faces

I'm excited to join this fun weekly contest! They have a contest every week, just for fun. The challenge this week is "contemplative" and "pets". Click on over for more details and to enter your own photo!