Illusions of Grandeur DASHED!

Dashed in the wake of technology, that is. There are times when I think I sing like a bird and dance like an alpha ballerina (hehehe - just made that term up). However, since we've discovered the free Karaoke channel on our cable and purchased Dance Dance Revolution for the Wii (an early anniversary present!), I've come to the sad realization that I'm just plain bad - lacking immensely in the talent arenas that seem so plausible while taking my morning shower. So, I've confirmed to myself that I will never try out for American Idol, and thus, I'll never be a Star on Dancing With The Stars. Yes, America will have to do without seeing my name in lights.

Thank you God, for keeping me humble!

New Blender

We got a new a blender. (cheaper than what the link shows, thankfully!). I love the shiny red, just makes me want to make smoothies, and crepe batter, and baby food. The only thing is, I really didn't want to buy a new blender but after what happened Friday night we kind of thought it the best idea.

At about 3 am, on Friday night (Saturday morning), Mike woke up and needed to use the bathroom. This, in turn, woke me up. My first thoughts were "oh, no - Mike's sick" but as he came back to bed, he assured me that he was just fine. Since I was awake, I figured I might as well go too. Lying back in bed, trying to go to sleep, I start hearing this "whirling" sound. I poked at Mike and said "do you hear that? what's that?" He groggily grabs the golf club we keep under our bed and heads out our bedroom door. He says from the stairs, "I think it's the vacuum!" Weird. So I'm now thinking one of the kids is downstairs playing with the vacuum. The whirling noise stops and I head downstairs. Mike informs me that it was the blender. I had left it plugged in without the canister on it. He said he saw sparks arching out of it. Not a good thing. Our corded phone in the office also was on the line, even while it was hung up. We figure some kind of power surge happened due to a thunderstorm that had come through earlier.

I believe God really protected us on Friday night. I am so thankful that we are okay and nothing major happened. So - Praise God!

From the mouth of babes....

I think I should make this a regular post. See what the Richard kids are saying now!!

We had a lovely lunch on Sunday. As we were leaving the restaurant (Chili's) Luke asked if we could go to the movie theater. Before the word "no" could fly out of my mouth, he tagged this along.

"Or we could go buy Mommy a diamond."

Now, really, I had to pause ;)

Before & After - House

Well, it probably seems like a bigger deal to me than to anyone else. But here is some "improvement" we did on the house. If you don't agree, I'll respect your opinion. We changed the shutters from green to black and the door from green to red.

Wickiup Bird Release

On Saturday morning we headed out to Wickiup Park for their wild bird catch and release. They put up these fine nets to catch the birds and then they tag and release them. It is a good measure of the bird populations. I'm also assuming that as they migrate, other similar programs can catch them and tell where they came from and when by the tag. Luke got to release one of the birds. We were surprised to see Pastor Steve there (he's in the picture with Luke). Although, he does talk about his love of birds every once in awhile in his sermons!

Since we were there, we decided to do a geocache or treasure hunt as we like to call it. Here is a picture of us trying to be "secretive" after finding the "treasure." After signing the log, Luke and Abby both took something and then we placed some of our treasure in it.

Abby's 3rd

Friday was Abby's third birthday. I think she started asking me about her cake at breakfast time :) So aptly, here is a picture of her birthday cake.

We then opened presents. I was so glad she liked the little apron I sewed for her! She also got a princess computer, princess clothes and a princess book. Hmmmmm.....I wonder if she likes princess things?

Teething Libby

Libby has been teething for a few weeks. She's been a little bit fussy (and drooly!) - btw did you know that "drooly" isn't a word? - Now she has another cold and has added snotty to the list of "y's" However, she still is smiley too.

A BIG week for Luke!

Luke started preschool last Tuesday. He's enjoying it. On Wednesday, AWANA started up again (and now Abby gets to go too!). Thursday was his 5th birthday! Wowza! And I don't have any pictures but his best buddy Caleb (and two of his siblings) got to come over Saturday evening. Life may seem a trite dull after all that.

Here's Luke with his "issued" school bag which we got to decorate.

Here are some pictures from his birthday.

My sad attempt at cake decorating. It is supposed to be a dinosaur (okay, a dinosaur breathing fire). Luke thought is was a dog while I was putting the green "details" on it. He needed to leave the kitchen for a little bit after that.

I don't have any pictures of him by the cake but we did video it :)

I didn't know...

Check out the little girl in this picture. When I asked Abby who it was she said "Abby" :) Bear with me here because this is a scan of a fax of a scan of an EARLY 80's picture.



Of course, this is the picture from earlier this year that made my mom think of it.

Funny

This morning, I picked Luke up and gave him a big hug. I thought to myself that he really is getting big, almost 5! I said:

"Pretty soon I won't be able to pick you up anymore, what am I going to do then?"

Luke replied, "I guess I'll have to take the bus."

:)