Excerpts from Family Home Evening

Tonight Bryan thought it would be a good idea to teach the kids some emergency preparedness stuff. We covered the basics; 911, fires (Milli suggested that to put out a house fire we run outside, grab some snow, and throw it on the house), and strangers in the house.

Bryan teaching the kids about escaping from fires:

Childhood

I find myself re-creating my childhood in any way that I can. It must have been a good one. When I was a little kid, for much of our entertainment we would slide down the stairs on a super slickery pad that my dad made. He sewed a super slick cover for it so it would go down the stairs all speedy like.

After much coaxing, pleading, and promising to be safe, I talked my dad into making one for my house. All the kids love it, of course. I even went down once, for old times sake. Not the best idea. However, if you weigh under 50 pounds, it's a great idea.

Getting Old

Before Bryan had our kids to entertain  during church, there was me. 

I just found this old meeting program as I was cleaning out my disaster of a laundry room. Makes me laugh still. 

Bryan and Pam when they get old and scary.

Orange Grove Room

Bryan is the best. He finished Babymans room this week, and I think it looks great. I love it.

Daddy's been busy 2

How cool is Bryan? He's refinished 2 dressers for me in a week.

Birthday Pranks

This morning we woke up to a decorated garage door - very cute. As we pulled out of our driveway and headed to work, we saw signs like these posted ALL OVER for a mile and a half:



Seriously, at least a hundred of them. Bryan did get calls all day, about 30, most of whom were from people he didn't know, wishing him a happy birthday. This prank was pulled off by a few neighbors. Overall, he had a great birthday, and certainly a memorable one!

The Show

The night of the big show came. I made it to the gallery with the kids at 5. The show didn't open until 6, but I set up the 8 dozen brownies and 6 dozen donuts. I also still had to hang my title cards. The kids were pretty good as long as they were eating, but, that didn't last long. My sister Katie came and took them home around 6:30. Throughout the night we had many fun visitors including Todd and Jeni, my boss and some other coworkers, lots of family, including dedicated uncles, aunts and cousins. I'm really too tired to go over the whole thing right now - the past week we've averaged 3-4 hours of sleep per night. We had a good time and the overall response to the work was great.

There was one strange comment. I'm not sure if it was positive or negative, but a strange man yelled out "who are the artists" I said I was and I reached out to shake his hand but he just said "these are really cartoony". Other than that, not too many comments from strangers. All my family was very supportive and it was especially nice to have them all be so understanding. By that, I mean, many people commented that they were astounded that I could squeeze this into an already overbooked life. It made me feel good that people appreciated how difficult this was to do.