Rooms With A View

WEBKINZ

2008-01-28T20:17:00.001-05:00

Hi,this is Mitchell here to tell you about the latest craze,

WEBKINZ!!

WEBKINZ is an online virtual world. You purchase a stuffed animal which has your secret code on the tag. You give it a name, register it online , play games, and take care of it. Here you see Vinny (left) with her five WEBKINZ named Silverstream, Charlie, Randy, Star,and Dash. Mitchell (right) with his three WEBKINZ Elizabeth, Skyler, and Milo.

They are tons of fun! If you don't have one, go get one and give it a try.

LOCK'S OF LOVE

2008-01-27T14:38:00.001-05:00

About this time last year, Vinny decided she wanted to cut her hair and donate it to LOCKS OF LOVE. If you are not familiar with LOCKS OF LOVE, it is a non-profit organization that makes wigs out of donated hair for children who have lost their to cancer and it's treatment. In order to donate, you must have at least 10 inches of hair to cut off in a pony tail to send in. So, last year, Vinny had the 10 inches but it would have made her hair very short and she wanted to have long hair for her First Communion. When we trimmed her hair for school this year, she did not mention it so neither did I. I like her long hair, I think it sets her apart even though I think it is an amazing program.

So, today we went to get the kids hair cut and Vinny decided it was time to give it another measure. At first, Cindy, the hairdresser, told Vinny it would be up around her jaw and she said, go for it. Here she is getting the measurement...

And here is the first big cut..

And the next big cut...

And here she is right after..

So, as you can see, it turned out that her hair was to her shoulder, but not for long. Here she is when we were all done...

That is her pony tail she is holding. Doesn't she look adorable? The good news is she loves it. Here are some more photos...

The cute view from the side..

The boys also got their hair cut, not short, just some layers for Mitchell and a trim for Patrick.

Patrick is now very proud to be the family member with the longest hair. At this rate, it won't be long before Patrick will be able to donate 10 inches of hair to LOCKS OF LOVE.

LPS

2008-01-26T10:09:00.001-05:00

It seems that kids these days speak in abbreviations such as LOL (laugh out loud), IDK (I don't know),ROFL (rolling on the floor laughing), OMG (Oh my gosh);or the favorite around my house JKLOL (just kidding laugh out loud). There is also another very popular abbreviation at our house; LPS. LPS does not stand for LITTLE POOL SHARK (this could work for Vinny who can now beat her daddy in pool). It does not stand for LET PATRICK SKATE (Patrick loses the privilege of his skateboard when his grades are not stellar). Nor does it stand for LAUGH, POOR SHAUN (that was all I could come up with at this late hour). Ok, enough already, LPS stands for LITTLEST PET SHOP which for about a year now has been Vinny's obsession. She saves her money and does extra work around the house so she can purchase these cute little creatures. She is now the proud owner of 170 LPS

SALT LAKE, YOUR ROADS ARE SAFE.

2008-01-24T21:07:00.001-05:00

South Carolina, watch out! Yes, my baby received his learner's permit on my birthday. What does this mean? In South Carolina you must have a learner's permit for 180 days (must pass the written test) and can only drive with a licensed adult in the car. He can also not drive after 8:00 pm. After 180 days he takes a new test for a restricted license. This means he can drive without an licensed adult in the car, can only have two teenagers in the car with him, and still may not drive after 8:00 pm.

Here's Patrick showing off his new learner's permit.

We took our time getting Patrick to the DMV due to his grades. We did not see the sense of getting his license when he won't be able to drive without insurance which without better grades, we cannot afford. I am praying that he does well this semester so he can get his real license soon after his restricted license. I am looking forward to having someone to run errands for me. Believe it not, he is a very good driver. He must take after his mother.

FLY PATRICK, FLY, FALL PATRICK, FALL

2008-01-23T21:21:00.001-05:00

Hello, its Patrick again, here to tell you about an epic day of skateboarding in our driveway.

The day started out with a few warm up jumps.

Then I did a few one eighties over the wood.

Then we started trying for the best picture ever taken.

This picture is officially the coolest picture of me ever!

As usual, the day ended with an awesome fall. The cause of today's fall was a flaw in our ramp. the bottom had bent up and when my wheels hit it, my board stopped. Unfortunately, I didn't. I flew shoulder first through the wood and onto the ground. When I hit the ground, I heard a series of loud pops come from my shoulder and the first words out of my mouth were Oh (insert expletive here)I dislocated my shoulder! The cool thing was, I hadn't dislocated my shoulder. I actually don't know what I did to it but it hurt like hades for a few weeks. Notice our neighbor enjoying the show.

WHAT ARE THESE TWO CRAZY KIDS DOING?

2008-01-21T21:35:00.001-05:00

What do you think Mitchell and Vinny are doing here?

Or here?

They are trying to catch something on their tongues..

Yes, those are snowflakes you see in this photo. My kids are acting like they have never seen snow before.

This is what it looked like around 9:00 pm on Wednesday evening. We already knew that there was a very good threat of snow and ice and let me tell you folks who don't live in the south, people here, PANIC. My MS therapy was rescheduled from Thursday to Wednesday, the Grocery Stores run out of milk and bread, and the Principle at the elementary school told me at 10:00am before it had even started to rain, that there was a 99.9% chance that school would be canceled. My neighbors are telling me to get the candles and flashlights out and it is a good thing we have a gas fireplace. I am thinking to myself, boy, this is going to be one big blizzard. Now, I have lived through some pretty amazing snow storms in my day. In Salt Lake City, we could get 3 ft and school would not be closed. What I am not used to is the ICE. I guess that is what happens here in the South, after the snow, we get ice. So, here is what my yard looked like at 12:45 am.

This is a close up of the snow on our wall.

My cool photo without a flash.

We found out at 6:00 am that school was indeed canceled for Thursday. The next day, Friday, it was delayed for 2 hours. Mitchell could not wait to go out and play in the snow. Notice the foot wrapped up in the plastic bag. Vinny snuck out without getting her photo taken and Patrick was inside where it was warm.

Here is Mitchell and Jessie (next door neighbor) attempting to make a snow man.

Every kid in the neighborhood was out sledding, making snowmen, and simply having a great time in the 4" of snow that we received. Patrick and I were content to stay inside where it was warm. Charlie did try to take of photo of the beautiful ice garland on our trees. This photo does not do it justice, the ice actually made garland that went from one branch to another. It was quite amazing.

Here is a nice photo from our front porch.

Thankfully, it was all gone by Friday afternoon. It has been quite cold since Wednesday with highs only getting into the 30's. It feels like Utah weather. Fortunately, it is going to get back into the 5o's by Thursday the 24th. Have a great day!

BACK AMONG THE LIVING

2008-01-21T21:05:00.001-05:00

After a nightmare of a headache from my steroid treatments, bronchitis from the steroids, and then my Tysabri headache, I do believe I am finally on the mend.

I actually went shopping today with my friend Pegi and the two younger girls, Vinny & Robi. We went for hair color and it took us 3 1/2 hours. I was so exhausted when we got home I wanted to crawl into bed. It felt good to get out of the house. In the past two weeks I have only been out 1 day.

Sorry about the downer post last week and thank you to Charlie to posting for me while I was ill.

Sorry to disappoint you, no photos today.

VINNY, ROBI, SAM, BRYAN

2008-01-19T00:31:00.001-05:00

All my life I hated my name. I still get mail addressed to Mr. Shaun Paddock. So what do I do, I name my daughter Vincenza and nickname her Vinny. She has never complained about her name and perhaps that is because so many of her friends have names that were once more commonly used for boys.

Vinny and her best friend from Salt Lake , Sam, aka Samantha.

Vinny and her best friend in South Carolina, Robi (pronounced Robby) aka Roberts. Robi is named after her mother's maiden name, pretty cool I think.

Vinny also has a half sister named Bryan. Here she is with her two beautiful girls, Anna Maria and baby Isabella.

It seems to be the cool thing to have a name that most people would consider a "boys" name. I am so happy that Vinny appears to be confident and happy with her name unlike I was. I am finally at almost 45 ok with my given name. Now if people could only learn how to spell my name.

S H A U N

Shall we give Vincenza a try?

Not only will people not be able to spell it, they cannot pronounce it correctly. Remember, "i" in Italian is pronounced "e" and "c" is pronounced "ch" so it sounds like VENCHENZA.

Ok, Lesson is over for tonight.

GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS

2008-01-18T12:11:00.001-05:00

Mitchell went in on Friday of last week to get his foot checked confident that he would leave boot free. The good news is the foot is healing very nicely, the bad news is that the foot is not healed yet.

So, what does that mean? It means he can wear a tennis shoe around the house, the rest of the time, he must wear the boot. For how long? For 3 more weeks. The other good news is NO MORE CRUTCHES!

He was very disappointed; perhaps he learned his lesson this time? I doubt it.

Tonight he looked on as Patrick skated by..

And then his best friend Skyler..

Yes, I think he is getting bored being the spectator.

CHEWBACCA INCOGNITO

2008-01-17T00:20:00.001-05:00

It was a dark and stormy night. Chewie was hiding from the Empire's troops. But he had to go to a bathroom, which were all somewhere else. How could he get there without being spotted? In a flash, he grabbed Hans's sunglasses and headed for the door! "No one will know me!!!!"

Just kidding; this is my son on the last full moon.

A LITTLE BREAK

2008-01-16T00:25:00.001-05:00

Last week my Doctor insisted I was having an "exacerbation" or relapse. I had been having some balance issues for some time but was ignoring them since I do not enjoy the treatment. So, on my last visit, it was hard to hide these balance issues and he told me I either had the steroids or found a new doctor. He drives a tough bargain; you see not only are there not many neurologists in Spartanburg, but it just happens that I really like this guy.

I was scheduled to have my Tysabri (MS treatment of choice) on Thursday 1/10, and now we had to reschedule that. I had three days of iv steroids, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Tuesday and Wednesday were great, other than a little headache I felt pretty good. That was short lived; I came home on Thursday and within an hour had one doozer of a headache. Of course the kids were off early on Friday and did not have school on Monday so I was looking forward to a nice weekend with them. Instead I spent 5 days on the couch in the dark. We called the doctor on Monday and he called me in some Lortab which simply put me out. The reason it hurts so bad is the steroids are getting rid of the inflammation and my inflammation is in my brain, hence the headache. So like with every steroid treatment I have ever had I now have a sinus infection. It is now late Tuesday, I still have a little headache, tomorrow is Wednesday and I have a Grocery shopping to do, Patrick started a new semester today so he needs all new school supplies, we are expecting our first ice on Thursday which means school will most likely be closed and on top of all that , Thursday is my TYSABRI day. If you are not familiar with my TYSABRI day it is my once a month IV treatment that lasts for 1 hour with a second hour of observation to make sure I do not have a reaction then 5-7 more days of a headache from hell. (excuse my language). Sorry for such a downer post, I just wanted to let you know why I would not be posting for a while. I have a post with photos ready, just no writing.

So, I will leave you with some great photos my brother Brian sent me from Christmas. How I missed being with them this year. I did not even call, I fell asleep at 7:30 and did not wake up until 10 the next day.

Here are my handsome brothers..

Brian, David, Pat, and Jim

Here is my brother Pat playing what I believe are my great niece Grace's new drums.

And my sister in law Debbie playing the drums.

My family does know how to have fun. And to think I was sound asleep.

New Years and the Ball That Never Fell

2008-01-15T23:15:00.001-05:00

Hello! its Patrick again! I'm here to tell you the story of the Ball That Never Fell. But before I start this story, let me explain something about our television. We recently ordered Direct T.V. Direct T.V. comes with a cool little feature (I think it's stupid) that allows us to set viewing hours. This means that our parents can now literally control when we watch T.V. It also means that I can't get up in the middle of the night and watch T.V. The viewing hours on our T.V. are six a.m. to midnight. Now that I've gotten that cleared up, I can begin the story. It was New Years Eve and we had everything planned out perfectly. We invited two families to join us at our house to celebrate: The Bradhams, and the Cannons. Mom made enchiladas, and dad sat and watched the football game and drank beer with Dave Bradham. You know what? I'm going to skip all this boring stuff and get right to the exciting part. It was five minutes before the ball was supposed to drop, but we were busy getting ready to watch some crazy guy jump a football on his motorcycle. About two minutes before midnight, we switched over to the channel where the ball would be dropped. We sat and waited for what seemed to be hours but finally the countdown began. Ten! nine! eight! seven! six! five! four! three! And then all of a sudden the T.V. went off and up popped a little blue screen that said: We're sorry, you are outside the viewing hours, please enter the password to unlock four hours. We all started screaming and yelling at my dad to put the password word but his fingers were fumbling everywhere and he couldn't get the numbers right. When he finally got the password right the ball was gone and everyone in New York had gone home.

Here we are getting ready to watch the dude jump the football field.

After the ball didn't drop. Notice the lack of people in the picture.

The whole gang of kids from left to right: Vinny, Robi, Patrick, Mitchell, Skyler, David, Macy

The whole gang!

Well, at least it will be a New Years we will all remember.

Happy New Years!

Baci loves Jesus

2008-01-13T16:44:00.001-05:00

Baci has a new friend and the birds have a reprieve.

She looks like she is afraid I am going to take baby Jesus away from her.

And yes, living up to her name (Baci means kisses in Italian), she is actually kissing baby Jesus.

Anniversary

2008-01-12T18:57:00.001-05:00

Charlie and I celebrated our 11th anniversary on December 28th. Since the Duncan's were still here we decided to wait and celebrate it on Sunday the 30th. Charlie surprised me and made reservations at a Bed & Breakfast in Greenville. It was a nice beautiful place called the Pettigru Place.

It rained on Sunday night so we went to dinner and then back to our room. The next day was beautiful. This is the front of the home.

This was our room.

Here is Charlie relaxing in our room.

And here are the two newlyweds looking so very well rested.

Charlie gave me this beautiful necklace which is a tree with the families birthstones on it. I gave him a digital frame.

You may be wondering what we did with our children. We locked them in the garage in a cage with enough food and water to keep them alive for the 19 hours we were gone. Just kidding, we left them home by themselves. We decided that Patrick is old enough to watch them for one night. We made them lock all the doors and instructed them not to leave the house. I also let a few neighbors know what was going on in case the kids needed anything. We were only gone for about 19 hours. As it turns out they were just fine. Charlie and I had a wonderful evening and we are looking forward to many more years together.

GUITAR HERO

2008-01-10T02:48:00.001-05:00

If you have never played Guitar Hero, I must suggest that you give it a try. They have Guitar Hero for Wii, X-Box 360, PS 3, and PS 2. The object is quite simple, you have your guitar and the notes come up one the screen as dots and you must play them on your guitar. Don't worry, you don't need to read music to be able to play. They have Guitar Hero 1-3 and rocking with the 80's. Here are my boys playing on Christmas morning.

And Vinny playing while the Duncan's visited us over the weekend. She is actually very good at this game.

The boys were very excited for their big sister Megan to visit so she could try her hand at Guitar Hero. Megan loves music and as it turns out she LOVES Guitar Hero. Here she is playing with her little sis Vinny. Her oldest son Michael is in the background and is the only kid who did not give it a try. His taste in music runs more along the classical lines. He did enjoy watching everyone.

Kent was quite the player. He truly got into it.

The two biggest surprises were John and Matthew. John is not usually quite so we were not surprised that he liked it, we were surprised at how well he did for his first time. Matthew was the one who truly shocked us. He is usually very quite and reserved around us. But when we put that guitar in his hand and the music started to play, he was shaking his hips, and bouncing his knees and just gettin' down. It was simply amazing. Here are John and Matthew playing (Matthew is in the hat)

And here is John.

James likes to be one of the big guys so with a little help from Uncle Mitchell he too was able to play.

Here is the father/daughter duo of Megan and Charlie.

They did not score very well while posing for this shot.

I loved watching Megan play. She either had her pinky finger pointing out or her index finger. I was able to get a shot of her index finger. She is also fun to watch due to her amazing sense of rhythm and crazy dance moves. Now that she is pregnant with Duncan # 5 (YEA!) it won't be long before she will have to slow down. I hope she will be able to keep her grove as long as possible. We are all so excited about the new baby! We have all been praying for this for a long time. Congrats Kent, Megan, Michael, Matthew, John, and James.

DUNCAN VISIT

2008-01-09T01:05:00.001-05:00

Hi this is Patrick, here to write about the Duncan's latest visit. During this visit we learned that two members of the family, James and Kent, are professional athletes.

Here see James Duncan, four years old and already a professional pool player. You've probably seen him on t.v. multiple times. He's so good, that they let him move the balls around to wherever he wants!

James is also a very talented gymnast. Here you see him teaching Vinny how to stretch.

I'm afraid that Kent Duncan's professional sport is nowhere near as exciting or as well known as the sport his son plays. In fact, I think he created the sport, and is the first and only professional. He is a professional Guitar Hero spectator. Yup, that's right. Here he is in action.

There are also a couple of new athletes in the Duncan family that we did not mention. One is the newest Guitar Hero who will be profiled in a later post along with his trusty sidekick also known as his little brother. The other athlete came as a bit of a surprise to most of us and unfortunately mom did not take any photos of the event. She was too busy cheering him on to bother to take out the camera which she totally regrets now. The newest pool champion is (drum roll please) MICHAEL DUNCAN!!! Michael has played at our home before and loves the game and we have noticed some improvement with each visit but something happened his past weekend that put him in a new league. Some of you may or may not know this, my dad is a very good pool player, he has even beat my mom once or twice before and she is really good. So, on Saturday night, Michael challenged my dad, (his grandpa) to a game and what do you know, Michael won!

Christmas morning

2008-01-08T21:59:00.001-05:00

Well, Christmas morning came and Santa was not angry that we did not leave him any cookies. We were out so we left him a graham cracker. Below is the note that Vinny left him and his response to her. Be prepared lots of photos, it was hard to narrow it down to the few that I did. We had a great day and I hope you will enjoy our photos and commentary.

Our new piano which was an early Christmas present where Santa left the stockings.

The tree the with the presents.

Mr. Creative aka Charlie decided instead of using name tags he would use post it notes with the every one's birth months. He did not tell the kids what the numbers were and they never did figure it out. We finally told them Christmas morning. Only those presents from Santa had real name tags on them.

One more tradition, the sheet. This sheet actually extended across the entire stairwell and the idea is to keep the kids from peeking. It was tricky this year since we put the tree down stairs and Patrick's room is upstairs and Mitchell's and Vinny's rooms are downstairs. I did not trust them so I made them all sleep upstairs where we could hear them if they tried to sneak a peek. The other thing I do is make them take turns opening presents. I hate having to wait all year for Christmas and then have it over in 10 minutes. So, we all take turns and that way it lasts about an hour.

They were good and slept until 8:45 and had to wake me at 9:00. Here they come down the stairs. I made Mitchell go first so they would have to go slow!

All Vinny asked for was Littlest Pet Shop items, a locket, and a Webkinz. Here she is opening her big gift from Santa which is her Littlest Pet Shop town.

All the boys wanted was a PS 2 with Guitar Hero. Here is the PS 2 part.

All I wanted was a Willow Tree to add to my collection. This is the "Courage" Willow Tree. The tag read, "to the most courageous woman I know" Charlie is so amazing.

Charlie does not want anything but his old mouse pad was looking pretty thin so we had a new one made.

Here are the boys with Guitar Hero 3 which they were not expecting. I love surprises!

Patrick gets the Guiness book of World Records book every year.

An Miss Vinny loved her heart shaped locket with her name engraved.

Charlie was surprised by his red baron snoopy pajama bottoms.

And I was just a little surprised and excited by Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0

Mitchell and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie.

Patrick and Tony Hawke's Proving Ground for PS 2

My favorite present was a beautiful picture that Vinny made for me.

Charlie received a new coffee cup with the kids photo on it.

More Littlest Pet Shops toys.

Patrick's plaid flannel hunting jacket, no he won't be hunting, they are just the cool thing to wear. Mitchell received a red one.

Mitchell is my artist and got so excited over a portfolio, art paper and colored pencils.

He also wanted a Webkinz, here is Milo, his new Pug. We pick names in our little family and I was his secret Santa. I scored some points on this one.

Mitchell was Vinny's secret Santa and got her the Racoon Webkinz.

Here is how excited she was! Gotta love sibling hugs!

I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas as much as we did!

TRADITIONS GONE BAD

2008-01-07T20:04:00.001-05:00

Every year I get a photo of the kids in their new pajamas. Here is the first photo of this year's pajamas. Not bad..

This is when they started to get silly. I should have stopped while I was ahead.

I thought it would be fun if they all pretended to be asleep. The problem is that Ms. Vinny got a case of the giggles.. Then Mitchell got them, all the while Patrick stayed asleep until the unthinkable happened which I was lucky enough to catch. Here is the series of photos..See if you can see what happens in the last photo.

Notice where Mitchell's hand is? Yes, he is grabbing Patrick's side. Mitchell is keeping his composer, Vinny is still giggling, and Patrick has totally lost it. This is by far my favorite photo. I am so happy that I did not stop with the first photo. I just love these three crazy kids and I adore how much they love each other.

TRADITIONS PART 5

2008-01-06T20:12:00.001-05:00

This is a tradition I stole from my oldest brother Pat and his family when Patrick was born. Every Christmas Eve my brother Pat would read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to his daughters. He probably still reads it but now to his granddaughters. Now, Charlie reads it to my kids.

TRADITIONS PART 4

2008-01-05T18:38:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite Christmas traditions goes back to when I was a child. Every Christmas Eve we would open up a present and it was always new pajamas. Now, we do this in my family. My kids love this tradition and cannot wait to open their new jammies. So, here are some photos of them opening the pajamas.

Patrick and his Led Zeppelin jammies

Mitchell and his Rock and Roll jammies

And Vinny with her Penguin jammies

TRADTIONS PART 3

2008-01-04T07:19:00.001-05:00

The holidays are over and we are well into 2008 and yes, I am just now posting about Christmas. So shoot me. I was kinda busy around the holidays and now I have some time to post. So, moving on to Christmas Eve, even though it is January 4th. Last year, or Christmas Eve 2006, we decided that we needed to start a new family Christmas Eve tradition in addition to the two that we already had. Something new, since the other two have been passed down from my family. So, we settled on making smores in our fireplace after dinner. This year, we went to mass and came home, had dinner and one of the kids asked Charlie when he was going to start the fire in our fireplace for the smores. He told them that we can't make smores in this fireplace because it is a gas fireplace. The kids looked like they were all about to cry. Vinny asked how would we make our traditional smores? Charlie told her that we could make them outside in the fire-pit. Oh yea, it is not freezing outside, we can do that here. Problem solved. I must say that it was a little nippy, so we did not stay out for very long. but it was fun. Here are a few photos..

METEOR SHOWER

2008-01-03T22:44:00.001-05:00

Around December 13, the kids came running in the house screaming about a meteor shower. Now, I had just had my MS treatment the day before so the last thing I wanted to do was go outside and look at a few falling stars. The kids seemed pretty excited so Charlie and I went outside to see what was up, so to speak. Well, fortunately, we live in the country, and the sky is very dark and we what we saw were not just your ordinary falling stars. No, these were actual meteors! They were a little scary at first because they were quite big and there were so many coming one right after the other which I guess is why they call it a "meteor shower". After a few minutes my fear went away and I started to enjoy the show despite my pounding headache. Below are a couple of photos Charlie took of the kids laying on our lawn enjoying the show.

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME

2008-01-03T22:26:00.001-05:00

NOT AGAIN, PLEASE TELL ME IT IS NOT SO.

CAN YOU GUESS WHO THE CHILD IS WHO OWNS THIS FOOT? IF YOU GUESSED MITCHELL YOU GUESSED CORRECTLY.

On December 16, Patrick, Mitchell, Vinny and Jessie, who lives next door, were playing in the woods that surround our subdivision when the boys decided to jump over the creek. To jump the creek they had to jump off of a 8ft cliff. Patrick made it safely as did Mitchell. The girls were smart enough to not attempt such a stupid jump. Patrick was successful at his second attempt, Mitchell was not quite so lucky. He landed the jump, and in doing so, badly fractured two bones in his right foot. The good news is they do not put casts on anymore unless you break the skin or have surgery which he missed needing my a very narrow margin. So, he has a boot which he can remove to bathe. The bad news is he is stuck on crutches and only allowed to put very light weight on his foot until January 21! Nice way to spend the Christmas break! Sorry, I did not mean to use the word "break". When I took him to the orthopedist, he said, "were you not just here in October?" Here we go again.

WHO KNEW

2008-01-03T21:48:00.001-05:00

Those of you who know Patrick know that he has a beautiful voice. He has been singing since he was in 5th grade at the Madeleine Choir School and was in the High Choir for three years. Patrick has continued singing, he sang in the choir at Wasatch Junior High and now at Dorman High School.

Mitchell has always loved to sing and in the second week of school was selected to be in the Honors Choir at Roebuck Elementary. On December 1st the Choir along with the Music Vision students sang for the Santa's Breakfast. The day before, the music teacher told Mitchell that she had selected him to sing a solo in the concert. He was thrilled. He came home and started to practice and sang all evening and I even heard him singing in his sleep.

The next morning Patrick and I asked the teacher where we should sit to best here his solo and she said that she had changed her mind and had canceled the solo. I was shocked and could not speak. Patrick told her that she could not do that to his brother. He would be devastated. He said that he had practiced so hard and he deserved this solo. She said that she would go ahead and give it a try. Here is a photo of the group.

And here is a photo of Mitchell.

Here he is getting ready for his big solo.

I really tried to put the video of his solo up but could not figure out how to so you are just going to have to trust me that he actually did sing. Someday we may figure it out and then I will force you to watch it.

LADY BUG

2007-12-18T23:09:00.001-05:00

We have a great arrangement with our great new friends the Bradhams. Pegi and David live in our neighborhood and have two children: Dave is 12 and is in the 7th grade, Robi is in the 4th grade at Roebuck. Dave and Mitchell are good friends and Robi and Vinny are best friends. So, Charlie drives Vinny, Robi, and Mitchell to school in the morning and then drops Patrick off. Pegi takes Dave to Middle school and picks him up. She also picks Vinny, Robi and Mitchell up in the afternoon. The kids love having her pick them up especially when the weather is nice and here is why...

Yes, Pegi drives the cutest car named Ladybug. It is my dream car. Don't worry, she does not let them sit up like that until they are in front of our house and she drives very slow. Someday I am going to own a baby blue convertible bug name unknown at this time. Pegi is the greatest. She has become my best friend and I don't know what I would do without her. She makes me laugh, she has the biggest heart, we share the same beliefs, and we have so much fun together. I am so thankful that I have her in my life.

VINNY'S OUTDOOR BIRTHDAY PARTY

2007-12-10T22:26:00.001-05:00

Did I just write outdoor birthday party? Yes, I believe I did. Vinny never thought she would see the day when she would be able to have a birthday party outdoors unless she wanted to go sledding or have her party in July.

So, imagine how happy she was this year. This is what her party looked like....

Yes, that is Vinny in the black and white polka dot dress shielding the sun from her eyes. The temperature was a mild 74 degrees on Saturday, December 8 so we were able to hold the main activity outside. As you can see, that activity was decorating gingerbread houses. I put 15 houses together the night before and then the girls and two boys (Mitchell & his best friend Skyler) decorated them at the party. They really had a great time even though they were hot. I asked them if they wanted to go inside and finish up but they preferred to stay outside. The boys were already inside.

Here are some photos from the day.

This is Macy, Skyler's little sister. She was smart and moved inside to cool off. She is only 5 and boy did she do a great job on her house.

They took a quick break to have cupcakes and open presents and then got back to their houses.

Skyler's house.

Vinny's house

Anna-Kate was the last to finish at 3:20. The party ended at 3:00.

Alli is the blond and Abigail is the brunette (she is Anna-Kate's identical twin). See the close up below for the reason for this photo.

Yes, the first thing they noticed when they arrived was that Alli's nail polish matched my front door and Abigail's shoes matched the door. They wanted me to take a photo next to the surfer door. When they saw my Christmas wreath, Abigail said, "what is this old fashion symbol in the middle? I know I have seen it somewhere?" See the photo below of my wreath and the old fashion symbol. I know I felt very old after that comment.

Yes, it is a peace sign wreath, the kids saw one in a catalog and asked if I could make one. So, I made two, one for the door and one for inside of the house.

Vinny's actual birthday is not until December 19 when she will turn 9. Wow, I cannot believe my baby is going to be 9.

Today, December 12 is my great niece Jessica's birthday! Happy birthday Jessie! We all love you and miss you very much and hope you had a great birthday! She is 10 today! Wow! Double digits, Becki how does that make you feel?

TRADTIONS PART 2

2007-12-10T13:36:00.001-05:00

We have another Christmas tradition which involves ornaments. Every year before we decorate the tree, we go on a hunt for new ornaments for each of the kids. When they were little the hunts were very easy, just one stop at either Hallmark or Target and we were done. Now that they are older, especially the boys, they are much more particular and we have to hunt a little harder. This year we started at Target where Miss Vinny immediately spotted this little number (she loves penguins) and she was set..

The boys could not find anything so we went to Michael's. They wanted to go to the Hallmark store but we don't know where that is yet. They were getting discouraged at Michael's when suddenly Patrick spotted these..

They are collecting keys to wear around their necks, the latest craze. So, they were set. The kids decided that Charlie and I should also get a new ornament so here is what Charlie picked out..

And here is what I picked out..

I have a thing lately for owls so I was very excited when I saw this little guy.

When we got home we got out the rest of the ornaments and we get organized by who they belong to and when they were received. Then we start with Charlie who puts on the first ornament which belonged to his mother..

Then the kids each put on their first ornament...

Patrick goes first

Then Mitchell...

Then Vinny

Then they continue putting on their ornaments in order of when they received them. The last ornament they put on is the newest one that we just bought. Patrick and Mitchell went together since they bought the same ornament.

Then Vinny put on her cute Penguin..

Charlie's new ornament is also a Penguin who is playing the violin.

And I put up my cute little snowy owl.

When they get married they will receive a nice box with all of their ornaments for their own tree. Charlie and I will have to start all over again with new ornaments by then.

The tree still has a few spots where there are no ornaments and spots where there are 4 ornaments all clumped together but I think that is part of it's charm. The kids are getting better at decorating it every year and I am getting better at leaving it alone every year.

DESTINATION AMERICA

2007-12-09T21:35:00.001-05:00

Mitchell's second concert last week was called "Destination America". It was not only the "Honors Choir" but the entire 5th grade. They did a variety of different songs and dances involving different costumes.

Mitchell's group was the 50's group. The boys had to wear leather jackets and jeans and the girls wore poodle skirts. They looked so cute. Here are a few photos from the concert.

Mitchell at home before the concert.

Mitchell and group singing. Mitchell is the one in the brown leather jacket with the pony tail.

This is just before the dance part of his program.

And here he is dancing with one of the girls from our neighborhood.

This photo was taken after the performance. Michelle is in the pink, she is one of Mitchell's best friends. Skyler is next and is Mitchell's very best friends and lives behind us. Samantha is next and is another friend.

One more concert to come. It was a great one but I need to figure out how to put in a video so it may be a few days.

Traditions

2007-12-07T11:49:00.001-05:00

We have many traditions in our family and one of my favorite centers around our tree skirt. We started this in 2001 after I read the idea in a magazine. I made the skirt and every year we paint the kids hands and they put their hands on the skirt. I label the year and their age next to their hand. It has been really fun to see how big their hands have grown over the last 6 years. Here are some photos of this years tree skirt hand painting.

Here's Patrick putting his painted hand down and Vinny looking very bored. She always has to go last and wants to be first.

Mitchell getting his hand painted.

And down his hand goes.

And finally, it is Vinny's turn.

And her hand is down for 2007!

And here is the final project..

This photo shows the first hands compared with this years hands. Vinny's 2007 hand is in the dark green and Mitchell's 2001 hand is in the silver.

More traditions coming soon.

Dickens Festival

2007-12-06T20:48:00.001-05:00

Spartanburg has a wonderful tradition. They kick off the Holiday season with a Dickens Festival in Downtown Spartanburg. People dress up in Dickens era costumes, and there are singers, dancers, a parade and of course Santa.

One of the groups who performed was the Roebuck Elementary Music Vision Students and the Honors Choir of which Mitchell is a member. Here is Mitchell prior to the concert and no, we did not cut his hair, it is in a pony tail.

Here is Mitchell with his best friend Skyler.

The children sang and acted out a short skit of the Christmas Carol. At the last minute, one of the children who had some lines did not show up and Mitchell was given his part. He had about 5 minutes to learn 3 lines. When he got up to say his lines we thought he would take the script with him. He did not take it and said the lines like he had be studying them for weeks. We were very proud.

It was a very fun night. This was the first of three concerts for Mitchell this week. More on those to come.

Hippies Do Thanksgiving

2007-12-05T18:41:00.001-05:00

I am not sure how my children ended up as Hippies. Yes, I was around in the 60's and so was Charlie. My children love the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley and others. So, this year we decided it would be fun to have a Hippie Thanksgiving. It was quite simple. We just came to dinner in our tie dyed shirts.

Early in the day we just relaxed and enjoyed the day.

Oh, did I mention that Mitchell was sick with Strep throat all weekend?

Charlie swore off his computer for the day so he played around on my laptop instead.

And Patrick is just relaxing in front of the TV.

Thanksgiving Preparations

2007-12-04T21:13:00.001-05:00

I know, it is December and I am finally posting about Thanksgiving. It is hard to keep up this blog when no one reads it.

So, Thanksgiving was going to be just the 5 of us which is fun and yet I hate cooking on a normal day let alone Thanksgiving. Charlie will eat anything, Vinny is getting much better and ate everything this year, Mitchell ate everything except the mash potatoes, and then there is Patrick. I swear, he must be the pickiest eater in the world. He ate some turkey and tasted the stuffing and the sweet potatoes and that was it.

Back to the preparations. I was inspired this year by my step-daughter Megan who is a fantastic cook. She cooks everything from scratch and I mean everything. Now, I always make my mashed potatoes from scratch and my stuffing with the exception of the bread crumbs. So, this year I decided to make the bread crumbs from scratch, it helped that the store was sold out. We decided not to do a whole turkey and just do a small turkey breast. The great thing about this year was my little helper.

Here's Vinny cutting up the bread cubes. It was nice making them from scratch because there were no crumbs which meant no mushy stuffing.

A little taste test.

Potatoes and Sweet potatoes cooking.

Vinny mashing the potatoes.

Here she is getting the sweet potatoes ready.

Lots of butter and lots of brown sugar. Yummy!

Vinny thought it was a good idea to make a "TO DO" list. A girl after my own heart. It was great getting all of this done on Wednesday so we could enjoy our day on Thursday and not be too rushed.

You will see #8 is Make pudding/ assemble pies. I asked the kids what they wanted for desert and they requested Chocolate Cream pies. Charlie had bought himself a Fruit cake so he was taken care of. Chocolate Cream pie is very easy and for the first time I did make my own whip cream from scratch. It was the best!

Next post will be on dinner.

Another word for DIG

2007-11-27T09:43:00.001-05:00

We have a great tradition in the Paddock family of playing board games/ shooting pool, etc. One of our favorite games is not a board game, and yet it does bring out the competitive side in some of us. It is called "Catch Phrase Jr." If you have never played "Catch Phrase" I highly recommend it. The game is very easy; you have teams of as many members as you want. You sit next to the opposing team member, so it is every other one, are you with me so far? The first person has this disk thing that shows a word and as soon as you push start a beeper starts and it slowly gets faster and faster until it eventually beeps for the last time. So, the first person must act out or use words to get his team to guess what his word is then once they guess he/she passes to the person next to him/her which is on the opposing team and they hit "Next" and get a new word and must get his/her team to guess the word and so on. Who ever has the disk thing in their hand when the beep stops loses that round. It can get quite heated as you try to get the disk handed off before the beeper goes off. Here is a photo of the disk thing.

So, this past Thanksgiving weekend, our poor Mitchell had Strep throat. He got sick on Tuesday which just happened to be the last day of school before the holiday. On Friday night he thought he felt well enough to play a little "Catch Phrase". We should have known better. The teams were the boys vs the girls. It was Mitchell's turn and he yells out, "another word for dig!" I am sitting next to him and I am very curious what this could be so I look at the disk and I see the word "FIG". I was not aware that "FIG was another word for "DIG" Perhaps it was the fever.

A New Tree Grows in Roebuck

2007-11-25T20:55:00.001-05:00

What do you get a man who is turning 60? Charlie, believe it not, turned 60 this summer and he is very hard to buy for. So, since he is from New Orleans and loves Magnolia trees, his daughter Megan and her family and our family bought him one. July is not a great time in South Carolina to plant a Magnolia tree so here is what we gave him..

We shoved a shovel into the ground with a photo of a Magnolia tree on it with a gift card to a local nursery below that . That is Megan on Charlie's left, Vinny on his right and Patrick behind Vinny. We took him blindfolded to the spot where he might want to plant it. His first reaction was, "You bought me a shovel?". Here he is being led to the spot by Megan and Vinny..

So, after we asked him what the photo was, he finally caught on. A few weeks ago he was able to pick up his beloved tree. We changed the planting spot from behind the pool to in front of the pool. This way we can see it better. Unfortunately we could not afford to pay someone to plant it for him. So, here is the 60 year old man planting his tree.

And the tree still stands and we cannot wait for it to bloom in the spring!

Master bedroom finished

2007-11-24T14:45:00.001-05:00

Our Master Bedroom is finally finished! It has actually been finished for a couple of weeks now; I just now got around to taking photos of it. Below is the before photo.

The walls were a baby poop yellow/green, you know the kind, like when the baby eats squash and peas. The windows along with the rest of the downstairs had metal blinds, YUK! Here is what it looks like now.

The walls are painted Rhino from Behr. Charlie does not like a head board so I made the art work above the bed pictured below. I simply bought four artist canvas' and painted them with Gesso then painted them white. I then painted a branch across them with some flowers, and glued ribbon around the edges. They just did not seem finished so I started painting birds. Now, it is very important that I mention that I cannot paint. I had prayed to Charlie's mother the night before asking for her guidance on this project. She was there helping me because suddenly I had four birds that actually look like birds and I cannot even paint a circle.

I had these frames in Salt Lake with a different color mat and frame. I painted the frames and covered the mats in cardstock and stamped a tree branch in white ink very lightly and took new photos of the kids. I will change the photos every year.

Here is the window facing east with the new accordion blinds and brown curtains. The dressers, nightstands, and Charlie's chair are from IKEA in Atlanta. The cedar chest below was given to me by my father for my 16th birthday. This door is to our closet which has yet to be painted.

This is Charlie's reading chair. I bought the lamp at Target. The curtains were not quite as long as I wanted so I sewed a strip of material on the bottoms and also made a couple of pillows. The bench is from Walmart and stores our linens.

This is my dresser with a photo of Vinny waiting to be hung.

And the north facing window with a better view of the curtains. We love the room! It is very peaceful and serene. Next up is our bathroom and then our closet but not until after New Years. I have decided to take the rest of the year off.

Farmer's Day

2007-11-22T23:52:00.001-05:00

There is a long standing rivalry here in Roebuck when Dorman High School (Patrick's school) plays Spartanburg High School. It is called Farmer's Day. All of the kids in the schools that feed into Dorman are encouraged to dress like, you guessed it, farmers. Patrick did not participate but Mitchell and Vinny did. Here are my two farmers.

In case you are wondering, Dorman beat Spartanburg!

Why the birds don't like our bird feeder

2007-11-21T21:56:00.001-05:00

As a house warming gift, Charlie's daughter Megan and her darling family gave us a cool bird feeder that hooks onto your window so you can see the birds as they feed. We tried different windows and yet the birds were not feeding. Finally, one early morning we discovered why. Below is what we found when arriving in the kitchen..

For those of you not familiar with our family, that big fat furry thing sitting on one of my tall kitchen chairs is Baci, (Italian for kisses) our cat. Baci is never allowed outside and yet she seems to know that she is meant to play with or perhaps eat those flying things that keep trying to eat at the little house on the window.

The birds actually land on the little house and as soon as they see Baci, they fly away. Baci does not even have to move, not something she can do with ease given her size.

Now, every morning, I move the chairs in under the table so she cannot fit and thankfully I have been seeing blue jays, red cardinals, and other beautiful birds that only my brilliant grandsons could name.

NOT AGAIN!

2007-11-21T21:54:00.001-05:00

You know your son has broken too many bones when you no longer take photos just of the occasion. Well, I did take one of his hot pink cast last spring but only because the cast was so pretty.

See..

In Mitchell's 11 years, he has had two broken feet, two broken legs, a broken arm, pulled the ligaments from in his ankle (above), and I am sure I am forgetting one or two injuries. So, the latest is a good one. He, Patrick, and Vinny were coming home from a friends house which is just kitty corner from our back yard. There is not a fence so they just walk through the back yards. It was dark and they were running. The next door neighbors have a dog who likes to dig holes, just in case Mitchell should come running by which he did, and of course he fell in such hole and landed on his wrist with his thumb bent back.

These injuries don't even faze us any more. He was not crying but it was very swollen so Charlie took him into the local Insta-care just in case. They said it was a bad sprain and wrapped it up and sent him home. Over the next couple of days he kept saying that his thumb was asleep, and the swelling was getting worse so I made an appointment with an Orthopedic Doc. Did you know that the only way to cut the tendon in your thumb is with a knife? Well, Mitchell got as close as you can without the knife. So, he had to where this splint for a few weeks, no cast thank goodness, he could take this off in the shower, just could not use it, so Charlie still had to help him. I had to look hard for a photo with the splint and here it is. He is all healed now and we are happy that we have found a very nice Orthopedic Doctor since we are sure we are going to become very good friends.

Out of the mouths of babes or 11 yr old boys

2007-11-21T00:26:00.001-05:00

This story comes to you compliments of Charlie who for those of you who are luck enough to be on the receiving end of our yearly Holiday letter know he is a fabulous writer.

A few days ago, this was the conversation in our car. In back seat of the car are Vinny (female, age 8) and Mitchell (male, age 11). In front are Patrick (male, age 15) and Dad (male, age old enough):

MITCHELL: Hey, Dad; you remember that movie, "Penised"? Can we rent it? I want to see "Penised".

Silence all 'round. A rear view mirror check shows a face devoid of guile and trickery. Patrick and I exchange a look. Mine conveys, "Were you two talking?" His communicates, "I swear that we never talked about this! Really, Dad, on the bible!!!" OK.

DAD: What was that movie again, Mitch? It doesn't sound familiar.
MITCHELL: "Penised." Remember? The one about the guy who plays the piano? Can we rent it?

My wife had a similar experience with our daughter, Vinny, several years ago when Vinny was about 4 or 5. Her name is really Vincenza, but no one can pronounce it; so, Vinny it is. Anyhow, Mom and Vinny were standing at the checkout counter in a department store, probably in the girls' department. There were lots of other moms around, and Vinny's Mom is allowing her to buy a very desirable stuffed unicorn:

VINNY: Mom? I can't think of a name for her. What do you think I should call her?
MOM: <no answer because she is busy paying, but the other moms are all smiling.>
VINNY: I think I'll call her "Horny".

Luckily, she wasn't buying a toy piano.

Charlie

SEPTIC VIRGIN

2007-11-20T23:38:00.001-05:00

Lucky for you blog readers, all three of you. Charlie has written another post! I think he should start his own blog; then again, every one would read his not mine, and who would write for me?

If you have never lived in South Carolina or any state that does not have sewer systems, consider yourself lucky. This is the only difficult thing we have found about living in the South. Charlie is a little, shall we say, PARONOID, regarding our septic. He has calmed down a little, enough so that the shower schedule has gone out the window. So, our house is smelling much nicer these days and the kids are being allowed back into school.

Here is Charlie's take on living with a septic. It is a bit long, but well worth the read.

I have a septic system for the first time ever. Prior to this, I was not anti-septic, just a septic virgin. So far, the system seems to work, but I have questions, and a few notes. Here they are:

· Question: Do I still have to fertilize and water my lawn? According to an article that I read, solid waste settles to the bottom of the tank; oils, etc., float to the top; and only water, albeit dirty, makes its way out. I understand that if I see lush, green grass, it probably means that this dirty water is moving up instead of down, and that is not a good thing. Being environmentally sensitive, I don't need a lush, green lawn. Will the water that flows out of the tank, and generally downward, keep my lawn at least a shade above brown? If my lawn gets really brown and gooey-looking, does that point to a septic problem? I guess that is more than one question.

· Question: Where are the leeches? My drain field is supposed to be a leech field, but I don't see them. Since the system seems to work well, I assume that the leeches are underground, doing their thing. I thought that leeches sucked blood. Are these specially bred to live in soil and suck poop? Well, my only comment is that I am happy not to be a thirsty leech.

· Note: My contacts and jewelry are theoretically retrievable. I haven't worn contact lenses in several years. By the time lens makers fixed the astigmatism issues with contacts, I had moved on to decafocals. I tried wearing one lens in one eye for distance, and nothing in the other for reading, but all that did was slow me down enough so that I didn't do much damage when I ran into something. When lenses hit the drain, they were history. Now, though, they would only travel as far as the septic tank buried in my yard. Between the leeches and the sludge, though, they might as well be at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Jewelry is different. If a ring or earring or whatever makes it beyond the trap, there is still hope, slim though it may be. Do the trucks that suck stuff out of septics have screens that can sift jewelry? If they do, how do they charge for this search feature; maybe by the pound? If I owned a septic sucking company, I'd screen every truckload that came back to my facility. I'll bet that septic searching is a nice little side business.

· Question: What will archaeologists find in a few thousand years, and how will they interpret their results? If I were an archaeologist, I might have to take note of the fact that during the Poop Age, humans buried their dead far away from home but kept their excrement nearby, in a sarcophagus. From there, it is only a hop, skip, and jump to a connection with the ancient Egyptians. And how would you explain all that jewelry if not as the result of human sacrifice?

· Note: Septic systems are designed for 20 - 30 years of service. What? Septic tanks have been around since the 1870's and that is the best we can do? Granted, life expectancy back then was pretty low, which is probably why septic systems were invented. But today, life expectancy is almost 80! Surely we can invent something that will last as long as I am expected to last! Just another way we sock it to our senior citizens; let'em get old, then charge extra for toilet privileges.

· Note: If the grass is greener, don't go there. My neighbor has two lush, bright green lines of grass running across his yard. At first, I thought that maybe he was trying to make something visible only from space. Thanks to the internet, I now know that his effluent is rising, not sinking, which will make him less affluent. How do I tell him? I don't even know his name (shame on me). "Hi. My name is Charlie, and you are in deep doo doo. I'm serious! Your leeches have stopped driving your poop water down, so it is floating up, and you are in deep doo doo!" I guess I could wait until the day everyone comes outside trying to figure out what that smell is.

· Question: Is the earth's core really iron? Not! It doesn't take rocket science to figure out where all that stuff flowing down is going. Jules Verne missed that in 1864 when he wrote Journey to the Center of the Earth, but septic tanks weren't invented yet. What if there is intelligent life down there? Up top, we only have to worry about space junk, hail, and the occasional meteorite. Those folks down below have much bigger problems.

Clearly, the owner of this septic tank has problems, but I'll bet there are leeches aplenty!

FALL IN THE SOUTH

2007-11-17T23:35:00.001-05:00

Fall in Utah was one of my favorite seasons. I truly thought it could not get any better. Well, I was wrong. In Utah, the prettiest part of the season was high on the mountain and you had to drive through the canyon's to see it. Plus, it did not last very long.

Here in South Carolina, the colors are everywhere. Patrick noticed it first and said, "I feel completely surrounded by the colors of fall". Mitchell said, "The colors just keep getting prettier and prettier." Vinny said, "The sides of the roads look like a collage of colors." Here are a few views in our neighborhood; I took these photos on 11/14.

Across the street to the west.

Across the street to the east.

Directly across the street.

A tree in our front yard.

Directly east.

A tree at the entrance of our sub-division.

AND my favorite part of fall in the south...

I took this photo at 12:43 this afternoon. This thermometer is located on our back porch. The device faces due North so it does receive a little morning sun, not much, just a little. This is how warm it was today! Now, tomorrow it is only going to get up to 67 and the low on Thursday night will get down around 34 which means we must turn on the pool. We did not close the pool since it is salt water and salt water does not freeze until it reaches around 20 degrees. We turn on the pool just in case when the weather threatens to get close to freezing. This has happened a few times in the last couple of weeks, only at night, the days are always in the 50-80's. I was asking my friend the other day when she puts their summer clothes away and brings out the winter things and she looked at me like I was crazy. She said, "what do you mean? I have put the swim suits in a separate drawer and put the beach towels at the back of the linen closet; is that what you mean?". I just nodded and said yes, that is what I mean.

Gotta love the south!

Best $80 I have ever spent

2007-11-17T23:00:00.001-05:00

After spending the weekend in Atlanta with Kent and Megan, Charlie thought it would be a great idea if we invested in a fire pit. So, off to Target I went. I found one for about $79 and quickly bought it. That night we burned our first fire. We ate dinner around the fire and talked for two hours. Now, we eat dinner every night together and yet as soon as we are done eating every one is off doing their own thing.

The fire pit has changed that. Instead, we sit around and talk, play games, and just hang out together. Mitchell wanted to make smores so we finally went for it last weekend. It may look cold since Mitchell not only has a coat on; he also has a sweat shirt on underneath.

You will see that Patrick only has a sweatshirt on.

And Vinny has a long sleeve t-shirt. You cannot see me in the photo; I am in a short sleeve shirt and so is Charlie.

It was a fun night, sticky, gooey, sweet and fun. Tonight we only roasted marshmallows since we ate all of the chocolate.

Spooky House

2007-11-15T17:27:00.001-05:00

I had to share some photos of my house decorated for Halloween. I could not take any photos at night for a couple reasons, one I was too busy passing out candy and two I was too busy drinking margaritas. What you don't see is that everything including the spider web glowed in the dark.

How to stay warm on Halloween

2007-11-15T17:16:00.000-05:00

Halloween has never been one of my favorite days. Perhaps because growing up in Utah, most Halloweens we either had to bundle up so many layers under our costumes or where a coat over it. Many years we actually had to trudge through snow up hill both ways with holes in our snow boots.

Well, those days are over! Welcome to Halloween in the South. The weather was a balmy 70 degrees in fact, Vinny, the one with the blue bunny slippers actually got hot early on with her robe on. She and two friends, Kathryn with no robe, and Robi (Roberts is her full name, a perfect friend for Vinny) in the middle were sleep over girls. Robi's dad Dave and Charlie took the girls out while Robi's mom Peggy came over to help me pass out candy and stay warm.

Mitchell wanted to be a skateboarder, no surprise here. I told him no, you are a skateboarder every day. Why not be a skate board? He loved the idea! Then I had to actually come up with the skateboard costume. The wheels are not quite proportioned with the board but other than that I think it looks pretty good.

Here he is with his very good friend Michelle who was the cutest pirate in all of South Carolina. Notice her coatless attire.

I put the word "SKATE" on the front just in case no one knew what he was. This was a big year for him; I let him go out alone. Well, not alone, but with a group of friends.

You may be wondering what Patrick was this year. He was too old. So, he stayed home and helped me run the cd player with scary music. Halloween in our neighborhood is like nothing I have ever experienced. I had heard it was big but nothing prepared me for this night. The police actually shut down the entrance to our subdivision to all traffic so you can only walk. I went through over 800 pieces of candy, yes, 800! We were giving 2 out at a time but toward the end of the night we started giving one at a time. The trick or treating starts at 5:30 and ends promptly at 8:30. Don't think you can answer the door and close it and then answer it a few minutes later. No, no, they never stopped coming. So Peggy and Linda (Michelle's mom) and I took our pitcher of Margaritas to the front porch and just sat there. We needed the margaritas in case it ever got cold. If it did, we never noticed.

The most interesting costume of the night belonged to a 3 month old baby. Her father spent 3 months building this carriage around a baby jogger for her. The man has way too much time on his hands.

Bring it on!

2007-11-15T13:53:00.000-05:00

"Ok, since my rebuttal to my first nasty comment, I have received two more comments. One was not truly nasty, just wrong, IN MY OPINION. Here is what Anonymous wrote...

"When you choose to make your blog public, you have no other choice but to take the good with the bad -that's how it works. And not just you, but EVERYONE is entitled to an opinion in an open forum. What the blogger said may not have been what you WANTED to hear, but it was just his or her opinion, and they are entitled"

Yes, I agree that making my blog public I have no choice but to take the good with the bad. And yes, everyone is entitled to their opinion. The problem I have with the first nasty comment, was it wasn't stated as her opinion. She accused me of making my children do this to their hair and she called my boys hair disgusting. To me, she was being judgmental, not stating her opinion. If she wanted to share her opinion, she should have stated like, in my opinion, your boys' hair is too long. That is an opinion!

So, now on to the latest comment. At least this person had the guts to include her name.

"I gotta agree, it is pretty bad. Leaves an impression of really poor hygiene."

Now, tell me that by growing your hair long, means leaves an impression of poor hygiene. Does that mean that my daughter's hair which is down toward the middle of her back also leaves an impression of poor hygiene? Does it matter that my boys wash their hair every day and brush it every day? Why is it that people feel it is "disgusting" and "pretty bad" for a young man to grow his hair out long but if a young girl has very short hair, that is ok? Do you think anyone would leave nasty comments if my daughter decided to cut off all of her hair? I sincerely doubt it. In my opinion, this is a double standard.

GETTING OLDER, YOUNG STYLE

2007-11-15T13:42:00.001-05:00

With three children it can get pretty pricey to have a big birthday party every year. I try to keep the parties to every other year; this way I can keep the costs down and my sanity at a normal level. Last year was a Mitchell year even though only a handful of kids were able to come and the party did not cost me anything since we had it at a skate park. Since we moved to a new state this year and Mitchell has so many new friends I relented and let him have a big party on his off year. Plus, this way, his off year will be his 12th year and his on year will be his 13th!

So, on the 27th we had 20 of his closest friends over for fun games and pizza. Charlie had already planned on going to Atlanta to play grandpa to the Duncan gang which meant I was going to be alone. I decided it might be a good idea to have some help. I had Patrick ask a few of his friends if they could come over and help me out and I would pay them each $5 and all the pizza they could eat. Well, this turned out to be one of the worst ideas I have ever had. Here is a photo of the nice, quiet 11 year of boys at the beginning of the evening.

and here are the big boys eating their pizza.

The girls decided to hang out by themselves and eat their pizza.

Before the pizza was finished the big boys had started to act a little crazy which in turn made the younger boys act a little crazy. I finally was able to get them all a little bit settled down so we could play some fun games. Patrick's friend Tyler was awesome! He took one group of kids and I took the other and they competed in a relay race with a balloon on a paper plate. It was more fun than anyone really anticipated. Here is a photo of Mitchell and his friend Ben going head to head.

The next game was a total bust. It was a spooky/land version of Marco Polo. In this version the "IT" person has a blind fold on underneath a scary mask. Instead of saying "Marco Polo" they moan. Then the other players are supposed to moan back. The problem was the other players all wanted to where the mask so they stood right by the "IT" person. On to the next game.

This game was really fun. We had three teams, two all boy teams and one all girl team. Each team had a set of of skeleton bones that they had to put together correctly on a red poster board on the wall. Who won, the girls of course. The photo below was my favorite. Notice the femur running down the middle of the skeleton's body. The kids had a blast with this.

The other game was a fun game of charades. We had two two teams and each teams had a big bag full of balloons. Each balloon had a piece of paper in it with a spooky character (witch, Frankenstein, etc.) written on it. A player would pick a balloon, pop it, then they had to act out the character and their team had to guess who they were. It was absolutely hilarious. I had one team and Tyler had the other team and I was busy collecting the pins used to pop the balloons so I could not take photos. Trust me when I tell you that it was really fun.

During these fun games, Patrick and his other two friends were off being crazy while his friend Tyler was busy helping me out. I was tempted not to pay the other two; they certainly did not earn their pay. In the end I did pay them all.

This photo is Mitchell in his Beatle's beanie, definitely his favorite gift. It was a great party and I am so happy that I decided to throw him this welcome to South Carolina Birthday party.

Bad blogger, bad, bad, bad blogger

2007-11-14T22:54:00.001-05:00

Yes, I have been a bad blogger. Let me see if I can explain my way out of this. Since July, I have been receiving a therapy for my MS called Tysabri. I go in once a month and receive an IV for an hour then I am observed for a second hour. During the second hour I get a headache. Each month the headache has gotten worse and has lasted longer. It started off lasting 3 days and last month it lasted, well let's just say that tomorrow is my next treatment and I still have the headache. My doctor believes that I know have migraines so he has me on a new medication that is helping a little. I am hoping that tomorrow does not make things worse. So, I have drafted about 10 blog posts which I just need to send over the next couple of weeks.

I cannot post without a photo so here is my latest entry into the local scrapbooking store's contest, the one I won last month. I did not win this one; it was still fun and forced me to think outside of the box.

Yes, that is me dressed like a pumpkin. The kit consisted of the rik rak, paper, basket, and metal "P", and the green button. I won't bore you with what I wrote.

This next page is my just for fun layout that I have done in months! I ran across this photo of Mitchell and I knew right away what I wanted to do and that it needed to be done quickly. We all have nicknames for each other in our family and my nickname for Mitchell is "Studmuffin". Here is the layout.

This is the first time I have just played, I did not worry about any rules, or measure anything, I just played. I love how it turned out and of course Mitchell was thrilled. All of his long haired fans out there should love to see him with short hair.

Speaking of my fans, I received one of the most intelligent comments yet regarding the long hair debate. The young man who posted the comment happens to be my niece's boyfriend. When I first met Micah, I must admit that I was a little nervous. He had spiky hair and more than a few piercing on his body. I met him at our family's annual Christmas party. At some point in the evening I noticed that Micah was standing alone so I decided to go chat with him. I was amazed at how intelligent and articulate this young man was. I instantly knew why my niece was in love with him. I learned a very important lesson that day; never judge a person by their appearance!

So, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Micah had left me a comment a few weeks ago. Here is what this very intelligent young man had to say...

"I suppose the "open forum" does invite comments of all color, no matter how IRRELEVANT or IGNORANT they might be. I would be willing to bet that the brave "anonymous' people believe in some form of Christianity, so does that mean that Jesus Christ had really poor hygiene? Many many women have long hair, does that mean that these women have poor hygiene as well? What a weak statement. It speaks of the truly shallow nature of America today for people to be condemning children for their choice in hairstyles, like that was a valid way to gauge someone. I think my future cousins hair styles are awesome, nuff' said. "

The only shocking part of this comment was the last sentence, "future cousins". Is there an engagement that no one has bothered to tell me about? I hope so, I would be proud to call this young man my nephew!

Run, Vinny, Run

2007-10-25T09:50:00.001-04:00

Vinny joined the Roebuck Elementary School Running club a couple of weeks ago. Charlie and I were a little shocked that she wanted to join this club, she has never shared with us that she likes to run. So, on Tuesday they had their first fun run. At this fun run, students from 5 different schools participated in the long jump, 100 yard dash, and 400 meter run. The students are put into groups by grade and then each group goes to one event. They do not keep track of who wins, which is great! Vinny did awesome in the 400 meter and the 100 yard dash. She was quite the trooper in the 100 yard dash; about half way through the race, her shoe flew off her foot, she kept running, picked it up, and finished the race. She barely slowed down when she picked up her shoe. Her group was unable to participate in the long jump due to an injury in the first group. By the time they were able to move the injured girl, it was too late to continue. Here are some fun photos of the event.

The students are screaming to attempt to win the spirit stick. They won!

Here she is running the 400 meters. Maureen, recognize the shoes?

This is just before her shoe flew off her foot. She ended up coming in 4th, but remember, they don't keep track of who wins. As a mother, I cannot help but keep track!

Vinny and her friend Raven.

First nasty comment

2007-10-20T06:19:00.000-04:00

When I started this blog, my hope was that it would be a fun way for my family and friends to keep up with the adventures of my family. I never intended it to be an avenue for strangers to leave nasty comments. Don't get me wrong, I have loved receiving comments from people who I greatly admire like Jeanette Stieringer, Monica at Scrapfreak,and Linda at Restyled Home. I even received a comment from Elizabeth Kastner who recently won Creating Keepsakes Scrapbooker of the year.
I never imagined that someone would leave a very judgemental comment that criticizes my children!
Here is the comment, <em>"Your sons' hair is pretty disgusting...How can you do that to them?" Signed, Anonymous.
This person did not have the guts to sign their name. Now, many of you know my boys, Patrick and Mitchell. They are your typical boys in many ways and not so typical in other ways. They skateboard, do well in school, have great friends and can drive me crazy at times. They also both sing in choirs, Patrick is in the Dorman High Choir and Mitchell was recently selected for the District 6 Honor's Choir. They both love children and never fail to stop and smile at a baby. They both worship the ground their little sister walks on. They both have very strong faith in God, and pray for me every night. They are simply great kids. So, yes, they have very long hair, big deal. It is clean, brushed, and they both get compliments wherever they go. I did not do this to them, I allowed them to grow their hair because it is not worth fighting over. I believe it is important for children to have the opportunity to show their individuality and not follow what everyone else thinks they should do. As long as no one is hurt by their hair, grow it out!
Below are two recent photos of my handsome boys, long hair and all. And below that are two photos of my two boys with very short hair. Do I prefer the short hair? No, I love their long hair and I hope that next time someone decides to leave me a nasty, critical comment, they will sign their real name. If not, then please keep your judgemental comments to yourself.

I WON!!!!

2007-10-18T23:44:00.001-04:00

While shopping in a local scrapbooking store in Greenville in early September, I learned that the store conducts a contest every month. You pay $2 and recieve two sheets of 12x12 patterned paper or one patterned and one cardstock, a small 4x12 cardstock6 and a few embellishments. The kit for September included a small button, all of which were different. My button said &7. You must use everything in the kit and cannot add anything. You can stamp, use the computer, pen, marker or die cuts.

I have never entered a contest or submitted a page to a magazine. I thought this would be a great way to get my mojo back since the move. What to do with the &7 button was the tough part. I had the whole family thinking about it but it was Vinny who came up with the winning idea. She suggested I scrap a photo of me at 7 and one of her at 7. I could not find a photo of me at 7, it is still in a box somewhere and none of the photos of Vinny at 7 were very clear. So, I used a photo of me at 5 and took a photo of Vinny attempting to look like my photo. The journaling reads...

Can you believe how much we looked alike when we were both 7? Do you know that when I was 7 I was already dreaming of you? I was, honest. I cannot believe how lucky I am that my dream came true. Now we scrapbook together, cook together and have fun just hanging out together. I never dreamed that when I had a little girl she would be so beautiful, smart and kind. I am so proud of who you are and what you have accomplished.
Remember my little "smore" that I love you more.

Here is the page that I submitted. The journaling is inside of the arrow.

How to surprise your birthday boy, again

2007-10-16T17:08:00.001-04:00

Last year on Mitchell's birthday, I got him really good! I picked up an old, worn out, trashed skateboard deck and painted it really frilly. This was a deck that Milo Sports was going to through out, so they gave it to me. When he opened the present, he said it was the most beautiful deck he had ever seen. His friends and brother all looked very sad for Mitchell. On the back of the deck was a second package which I told him were the wheels. When he opened this package up, he found his new IPod. That was good, hard to beat but I got close this year.
Mitchell has wanted a cell phone for a few years now. We truly did not feel that he needed one. Patrick got one in 5th grade due to singing at the Cathedral downtown and after he missed the bus one night, I got him a cell phone. Mitchell bugs us constantly about getting a cell phone. So much so that we told him he would never get one. So, I told him that if he ended the year with straight A's I would get him one at the end of the year.
Fast forward to last Sunday, after church we went to IHOP for brunch. At 12:00, a phone in my purse rang. I answered it and handed it to Mitchell. On the other end was his best friend Skyler. Skyler said, "I am so happy to be the first person to call you on your new phone". It was great! The look on his face was priceless. Below are the photos of the event in progress.

Happy birthday Mitchell!

Makes a mother proud

2007-10-16T16:59:00.000-04:00

Mitchell and Vinny received their first report cards last week. I am so proud of both of them! Mitchell made the Honor Roll which is all A's and B's and Vinny made the Principles Honor Roll which is Straight A's. They also recieved perfect citizenship. They have always brought home great grades, but after being forced to move 2100 miles away from the only home they have ever known, and having to attend a new school, these report cards are even more meaningful.
Patrick's school does not send home report cards for a few more weeks.

Mitchell received a blue ribbon and Vinny a green ribbon

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

Patrick engaged!!!

2007-10-07T20:02:00.000-04:00

Made you look! Just kidding, Patrick is not engaged. He is wearing a tuxedo for his first Choir Concert in South Carolina. The Dorman choir and orchestra performed at Converse College on Tuesday night to a crowd of around 1000. I must say, that it was one of the best concerts I have ever heard. The orchestra was as good if not better than the Utah Symphony and the choir put the Choir School to shame.

So, you might be asking, who is the adorable young lady. Well, here name is Kaci, she is a senior at Dorman High and is Patrick's girlfriend. Yes, you heard me correctly, my son the sophmore is dating a senior. We absolutely adore her. She is bubbly, outgoing, smart, and is on the color guard in the Dorman Band. She twirls the rifles, swords and sometimes flags. Since she can drive, and Patrick cannot, and she is old enough to date, and Patrick is not, if they want to see each other outside of school, she must come over here. Here is a photo of the cute couple tonight after dinner.

Speaking of choirs, Mitchell was selected to participate in his district's Honor Choir. Our district which consists of about 8 elementary schools, selects students from each school to participate. The choir will have 125 members this year. They are chosen for their voice, attention, and participation in their regular music class. The choir will have numerous performances around town throughout the school year. Hopefully Mitchell's performances will not be on the same night as Patrick's. We are very proud of our newest singer.
Have a great week!

The rec room is completed!

2007-09-30T11:08:00.000-04:00

The rec room is finally finished! The reason I am so excited about finishing this room is due to the size. The room is 51 ft x 14 ft. That is one big room. I painted it in sections, that way I would not get burned out. Well, I got burned out anyway! The room has many functions. Charlie's office is the first dormer and then the pool table is across from the second dormer. We have not put anything in the second dormer, suggestions are welcome. Next is the kids computer area and the beginning of the scrapbook area. The third dormer is full of scrapbooking materials and the fourth is too. Across from the scrapbooking area is the the bookshelf with books, photos, albums, toys, magazines and some cardstock. Next and last is the tv area. We have two sofa beds, one orange and one blue. The cubbie on the wall had built in CD storage but we could not get any cds to fit, so I put a spray painted some twigs and put them in a vase and it fits into the the cd spot perfectly. The walls are blue to match the blue couch and the dormers are burnt orange to match the dormers. The old walls were baby poop brown, very dark and depressing. Now it is bright, filled with light and very calming. We all love it.
Sorry for all of the photos, just too many to choose from

Rec room before we moved in.

Rec room after the paint is completed.

The back of Charlie's desk, we put up a fabric covered bulletin board while he was away this weekend and surprised him.

Charlie's office.

Kids computer area and the start of the scrapbook area.

Pool table

More pool table area.

The built in cubbies with the cd slots too small for cds

TV area

The fourth dormer

The second dormer and scrap supplies.

The other side of the third dormer.

My cool new desk from IKEA. Notice my new wide format printer that my awesome husband bought me!

Bookshelf with paper and magazines.

Newly covered photo and memorabilia boxes, got the idea from the awesome new book "The Organized and Inspired Scrapbooker" by Wendy Smedley and Aby Garvey.

More boxes. The above mentioned book really helped me to organize this whole room. I still need to lable a few things and I am going to cover the front of my orange drawer units with patterned paper.

The view from the TV area

The end of Vinny's scrap table also from IKEA

More of my area. Charlie bought Vinny and I the "S" and the "V" (below). The colors were bright blue and yellow so I painted them to match the room.

Vinny's scrap area.

And last but not least, the two scrap tables side by side. I still need to get Vinny a chair and I have a few pictures to hang on the walls, other than that the room is done! Next on my agenda is the master bedroom. Photos in a week or so.

Have a great week!

Last photos tonight.

2007-09-17T22:26:00.001-04:00

Here are the kids surprising daddy upon our arrival at our new house. We called him a few miles from the house and told him we were just leaving Ashville which is 1 1/2 hours away. He was a little surprised when the door bell rang. That is Mitchell jumping into daddy's arms.

Here is Patrick hugging daddy.

and Vinny!

and what was the first thing the kids did after unloading the car? Went swimming in their new pool of course. This is Mitchell attempting to dive, nice form.

Even Daddy got in for a few minutes.

That is all I will bore you with tonight.
Shaun

More fun photos of the drive

2007-09-17T22:17:00.001-04:00

Patrick skating in Wyoming, I think.

Mitchell skating somewhere, perhaps Wyoming.

Of course Baci the cat made the trip with us. Here she is in the backseat taking a nap.

The kids with at Mt. Rushmore, one of the coolest sites we have ever seen.

And the kids at the arch in St. Louis. We were actually on the Mississippi River for this shot enjoying a river boat cruise.

Perhaps I may need one more post tonight.

Better late than never

2007-09-17T21:52:00.000-04:00

I realized tonight that I have not shared photos of our drive to South Carolina. I will start off with the "Welcome to ..." signs in no particlar order.

South Dakota, 2nd stop

Wyoming, 1st stop

Iowa, 3rd stop.

Missouri, 4th of 5th stop.

We also stopped in Kentucky where we spent the night but the state sign was over head on the interstate, how stupid is that. We did not stay in Iowa, just took a photo. We passed through Tennessee, again, sign in a bad spot, North Carolina, raining to hard, and of course South Carolina, which was in a spot with no shoulder.

More fun photos to come!

Shaun

Patrick's room

2007-09-12T21:27:00.001-04:00

Patrick's room before we moved in.

And Patrick's room after.

He wanted me to paint the top part of the ceiling to match his comforter.
I must say that I got it pretty close.
Thanks for looking!

Vinny's room

2007-09-03T13:46:00.001-04:00

Vinny's room before we moved in.

Vinny's room after.

Mitchell's room

2007-09-03T13:36:00.000-04:00

Mitchell's room before we moved in.

And Mr. Bob Marley's (aka Mitchell) room after.

First Blog

2007-09-02T20:55:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my new blog, "Rooms with a View". Stop by to see what is happening with our new home, what is up with the kids and Grandkids, my latest organizing finds, or just what happens to be on my mind. I may occasionally post a scrapbooking page. So, here goes...

THE MOVE
We moved from Salt Lake City to Roebuck, SC on June 21st. Charlie went out first a couple of weeks before us. The kids and I drove through Mount Rushmore, saw the arch in St. Louis, and skated in Cheyenne, South Dakota, and Missouri. We had a great time and it was fun to see America. The first thing the kids did when we arrived at our new house was jump into the pool.

THE HOUSE
I knew I would have some work to do on the house when we bought it. Every room is either covered in ugly wallpaper or painted a baby poop color. The living room is baby poop yellow, the rec room is baby poop brown, and the kitchen has black wallpaper with camels and elephants. Mitchell's room was first since he kept his room the cleanest in Salt Lake City. He wanted a Bob Marley room. I painted the walls yellow and added green, yellow and red stripes. Then I painted a large black peace sign on one wall. He loves it. Next was Vinny's room. She decided on purple walls with polka dots. I used a scrapbooking stencil and painted different size polka dots consisting of little dots in teal, pink and darker purple. She too loves it. Patrick wanted to have his lower walls brown and the upper walls orange tye dyed to match his comforter. I used a wallpaper brush and was able to work my magic on the orange walls. Being a teenager, he has not voiced his pleasure but I know he likes it. I will try to post photos.
Thanks for reading.