Halloween 2008

Happy Halloween!

So this has been yet another busy weekend but a very good weekend so far.

Halloween was a ton of fun. The only sad part is that we didn't carve pumpkins this year. Ben was Elvis this year and I was Lilo (Elvis's #1 Fan). We had a ton of fun. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Then this morning Ben and I went door to door passing out door hangers for YES on Prop 8. We all met at the Bishop's house before going out to our different locations. The Bishop was quoting one of the Apostles (I don't remember which one, I think it was either Bednar or Packer) but he said something like, "How we work in the next 3 days will determine the outcome of prop 8". It was really exciting to hear this especially after seeing how many members from our ward and the Tongan ward had showed up in the morning and all the people out on the streets holding signs and those honking their horns in support.

This afternoon we went to, "The BIG Game" (football) at Mt. SAC. Our "Little" Samoan boys are on the team so I've gone to every game they've had so far. One of the boys calls me their "Lucky Charm" because they've won every game so far. I really knew nothing about football (NOTHING!) before this season started. I actually loathed football. Now, after only 8 games, I am one of the loudest fans and today I was even explaining the game to my friend Jackie. Today's game was really the "BIG Game". Currently Mt. SAC Football is #1 in the state, and is #1 on the JCFootball.com/JC Gridwire National Poll and the California Community College Football Coaches Association Poll. We are undefeated and today we played El Camino, who also was undefeated.

Final Score: 26-21, SAC Dawgz! Still #1 and still undefeated!

It was an awesome game and we really had a ton of fun watching and cheering for all the boys.

After the game Ben and I continued to pass out door hangers. It was fun doing it in the rain while counting the seconds between lightening and thunder. We finally finished and went and bought him a new suit from Walmart. Yeah, Walmart!?! Did anyone know that Walmart sold suits?! We didn't but were excited to find Ben a perfect fitting suit for under $80 bucks!

Well the reason we had to get Ben a suit is because he is giving our little nephew, Everett, a blessing at church tomorrow. None of the pants from his suits fit him and I really didn't want him to wear an unmatching suit, so we decided to go out and get a new one. Our only problem was that it was 9pm when we decided and the only place we thought we'd have a chance to find anything was Walmart. And boy, did we get lucky! It's actually a pretty decent looking suit. I'll take a picture of him tomorrow and add it to this post.

So yeah, the past couple of day's have been crazy busy and it doesn't stop tomorrow. We are doing phone calls for prop 8 all morning, going to the blessing and coming home for more phone calls.

I'm so excited! Doing the Lord's work is so amazing. We really are so very lucky! No. Not lucky, we are, so very blessed!

Reflections of Christ Slideshow

Copy and paste the following link to view the most beautiful slide show I have ever seen.

Reflections of Christ

http://mabrystudios.typepad.com/reflections_of_christ/2008/03/reflections-sli.html

Picture My Life

So this is a tag that I got when I first started blogging I just never found the time to do it but I thought it was cute so I saved it for a day when I had more time.

Ok so this is the deal, you google a photo for your answers to these things. Then you post them! (funnier if you try to make it not so obvious)

Age @ Next Birthday:

Place I Want to Visit:

My Middle Name:

Favorite Place:

Favorite Food:

Favorite Color:

Town I’m From:

Name of Past Pet:

Nickname I’ve Had:

College Major:

First Job:

Goal I Have For Next Year:

I tag anyone who wants to do it!

12 Days Till Halloween!!!

I am so excited. I love love love Halloween!!! I love the decorations, scary stories, carving pumpkins, spooky emails, dressing up and trick-or-treating. I love that the weather is starting to change and the air just smells like Fall. One of my most favorite things to do around this time is going to pumpkin patches and finding that perfect pumpkin. The first time Ben ever made any "more than just a friend" contact with me was at a pumpkin patch. (We went in a haunted maze done by the boy scouts and I acted like I was terrified, so he held my hand through the whole maze. I was walking on clouds the rest of the night.) So it's all kind of romantic to me. So anywho, I just wanted to share a few of my favorite Halloween pictures from the past few years.
Hope you enjoy them as much as I have!

Our "Little" Sons

I don't really know how it started but somehow, somewhere, sometime... it did.

Since the beginning of the year, Ben and I have acquired 4 new son's, T, Dalton, Bruce and Lewis.
Yes, we've been praying for children and yes, we are praying for multiples but I guess I wasn't specific enough in my prayers. Heavenly Father has quite a sense of humor. Sister Wright always told me that but I never really believed her. And my wonderful mother in law says when you pray for something you've got to be very specific. I guess that's where I made the mistake.

No they are not cute and cuddly like little babies but they sure do require a lot of attention and food. I make them breakfast every morning and take them to and from school and occasionally buy them dinner. Most of the time I'm playing mom to them. More then food they need someone to talk to and someone to encourage them and to love them. That's the part that's not always easy but it is very rewarding.



I feel I've learned a lot about parenting from these young men and maybe this is my practice before the real thing happens. Here are a few things I've learned:

1. How to feed 4 young men (weighing in at a total of 1180 lbs.) breakfast on $15 a week?

2. How to transport 6 full grown (and then some) adults to and from work and school in one vehicle?

3. How to send and receive text messages?

4. How to love unconditionally? (even if they don't know how to pick up after themselves)

5. How to aim air conditioner vents just right so I don't have to smell sweaty boys all the way home?

6. How to manage my time to make sure I'm taking care of my self and my husband too?

7. How to give love and attention evenly so that all the boys feel loved equally? (just recently learned how important this one is)

8. How to enjoy a football game even though I don't understand the sport at all? (I just cheer when everyone else does)

9. How to laugh and run while holding my breath, when one of them passes gas?

10. How to braid nappy, kinky, tangled hair?

I've also learned how nice it is to be needed and loved. Every night when we take the boys home they give me a hug and a kiss and tell me "Thank you Ben and Melonnie". I know these boys really appreciate us and that us being here is a big help to them both physically and mentally but I am really grateful for all that they've taught us too.



Thank you my "Little" Samoan Boys!

Fa'afetai tele lava!

August Birthdays

So in August I have at least 10 friends/family
members who have birthday's.
So here is a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY! to you all!

Happy Birthday Kimmie!
Happy Birthday Rosemary!
Happy Birthday Bruce!
Happy Birthday Jackie!
Happy Birthday Gemma!
Happy Birthday Everett!
Happy Birthday Sarah!
Happy Birthday Caroline!
Happy Birthday Brenda!
Happy Birthday Karen!

If I missed you please accept my apologies
and this Happy Birthday wish!

I have a funny birthday story.
So I used to decorate cakes for a bakery and one day this woman came in and asked me to write "Happy Birthday Michael" on a birthday cake for her and she went off shopping. Well when she came back she looked at the cake and said, "Is that how you spell Birfday?" I got so scared because I really thought I spelled it wrong so I looked at it and said, "B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y (pheww) Yeah it's spelled right." Then she said, "Oh, my bad! I fhought it was wifh an F! But I believe you Sweetie." I was so glad that she was embarrassed because she hurried off and I just started busting up.

I also have a delicious new frosting recipe that I made up that I'd like to share with anyone who wants it. I made a cake for my friend at work and normally I don't like frosting because it's too sweet.
So I just started throwing stuff together and came up with the following recipe.

1 package of cream cheese
1 container of Cool Whip
1 small box of pudding
Just soften the cream cheese and mix all
together till pudding dissolves.

I tried it one day with lemon pudding and then the next day with chocolate pudding.
It was really good and everyone at work really enjoyed it.

Welcome to the World Baby Everett

Today I got to meet my first little nephew. Baby Everett Jackson Haring born to my beautiful sister Caroline and her handsome hubby Aaron. Baby Everett was born on the 13th and weighed 8lbs and was 20 inches long. He is so dang cute and we really got to enjoy spending a few hours with him. Ben is such a proud uncle and excited to finally have a nephew!
Congrats Aaron and Carrie!
We Love You!

Baby Everett Jackson Haring

Welcome to the World Baby Gemma

My beautiful "sister from another mister" Sarah Armes had a new baby girl. This is Sarah's 4th little bugger and she was born on Friday, August 8th at 7lbs and 3oz and 20 inches long.
Congrat's Gee and Sarah!
We Love You!

Baby Gemma Armes

Washington Vacation Photos

Homesick

Has anyone ever heard of being homesick for a vacation spot?

Man, ever since we got home I just can't stop thinking of Washington. I've even dreamed about it several nights since we've been home. It was so beautiful and the weather was perfect (at least to my standards). It was around 72 degrees each day and everyday we were there it drizzled. Everything is so green and flowers grow like crazy. The sky is actually blue! We didn't really do the things that I thought we would but I still had so much fun.

My family was great! My aunt and uncle let us stay in their room which was like our own private little honeymoon suite. We had home cooked breakfasts and dinners everyday. That was a lot of fun and sooooo yummie! We even got to pick fresh blueberries that my aunt made into a delicious Lemon and Blueberry Flan. I will post the recipe as soon as she sends it.

My grandpa is so cute! It's been almost 15 years since the last time I really got to see him or spend time with him. It was really great. He spent one night sharing slides with us from when he and my grandma were young adults and when my dad, aunt's and uncle were just kids. It was really neat to be able to share their history and their memories.

My little cousins are just the cutest girlies. It was really fun spending time with them and getting to know them better too. We realized that we have the exact same smile and noses. Even our laugh lines. They were awesome.

Ben got along perfectly with my family so that was really great too. My Dad, Uncle Jon and Ben have the same type of sense of humor so it was really entertaining to watch and listen to them joke around. Eric, Nana and I just pretty much laughed at them the whole time.

We pretty much went on hikes everyday and I just couldn't stop taking pictures of all the beautiful nature all around me. Everything is green green GREEN! Moss grows on everything in Washington. The song "Your a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" kept popping in my head everywhere we went. We also went on a cool ferry ride to two other islands. Again it was really great! I didn't realize how close we were to Canada. It was only like a 30 minute ferry ride to Victoria. It would have been cool to go but we didn't bring our passports. Next Time!

We also got to see a ton of wildlife. We saw a family of deer just hanging out in someones backyard. We saw dolphins swimming in the wild, a seal, an otter, a tree frog, a bullfrog tadpole, squirrels, a snake and banana slugs. I grossed everyone out when I picked one up! The slime on that thing was so strange. It wouldn't come off no matter how much I scrubbed. My uncle sprayed my hands down with Simple Green All Purpose Cleaner and even that didn't work. We finally had to use some stuff called Dissolve It.

I hope that if you are reading this that you will enjoy the pictures that I took and that sometime in your lifetime that you will have the opportunity to visit the beautiful state of Washington. As soon as Ben is finished with school, I hope that he will want to move up there because I know I sure do.

3 More Days To Vacation!!!

I'm so excited and anxious and I just can't wait! My Dad, Kayla (my other mom), Eric (my cousin) Ben and I are all going on a trip to Anacortes, Washington to see my grandpa! We are going to be there for 5 days and I'm so excited! I really need a vacation and I think this is going to be a really relaxing one. I'm so excited about flying. This will be Ben and mine's 1st trip on an airplane together since our honeymoon. I love flying! I've been looking up Anacortes online the past couple of days and it looks like such a charming place. It' has forests, lakes, 12 miles of coastline, antique shops, whale watching, bridges, hiking and organic farmers markets. Everything that I love! Ben and I already talked about collecting "Homes for Sale" magazines while we there. Has anyone been to Anacortes Island? If you have, please let me know of anything that we shouldn't miss.

The only part of this trip that I'm not looking forward to is leaving Peanut and Otis behind. We've decided to leave them at Ben's mom's house and I'm so nervous about them falling in the pool. Everyone please pray that they will be safe at Grandma's! On our last trip we boarded the pups at a kennel. When we picked them up, Otis was so skinny and loosing his hair. The owner of the kennel said that he wouldn't eat the whole time because he was so nervous. I'm hoping that they will be more comfortable at mom's since they've been there so much before. I just hope they stay warm at night and out of the pool. I know I'm totally psycho for worrying about this but these little guys are like our children.

Introducing the Newest Member of Our Growing Family - Maddison Ellie Baran - Born on the 4th of July!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is my dad's 60th birthday!
My dad is one of the greatest men I know. He raised my 2 sisters and I and my cousin Tony by himself and is now raising my 3 little cousins with his
wonderful wife Kayla.


Dad and The Boys and Papa and Nay-nay

My dad always made sure we had what we needed. I always felt that we were #1 in his life. He is always joking around and goofing off. Everyone who knows my dad will describe him as 1. Very Silly 2. Very Loving and 3. Very Accident Prone. I really love those qualities about him. I always wanted to marry someone just like my dad and I think I totally succeeded!

On Saturday we had a Birthday Party for him and many people came to celebrate.



It was a lot of fun and there was even a broken window by a stray bb. It was exciting but not as crazy as his 50th where we did a "Hawaii 5-O" pool party (complete w/Super-Soakers, a garden hose in the house, and jumping out of the 2nd story window into the swimming pool). Good times all attendees will never forget!


My Dad and His "Little" Sister - Dad and Aunt Virginia

Tonight we celebrated with a lovely dinner at CPK. Then we went to my dad's to watch him open some of his Birthday cards. He received over 70 cards all of people expressing their love for him and their fondest moments with my dad. What really impressed me was that the cards were from people of all ages.


Dad and the Boys and Dad and the Girls

The recurring complements were that he is always so funny, Christlike and loving. That's my Dad!

One of his gifts was a T-shirt from my little cousins that says "Old Guys Rule". I think that sums it all up very nicely.



Dad, they say that 60 is the new 40!
(even if you still act like the old 15)!

Dad, if all men were like you our world would be a SOOOOO much, better place.

Happy Birthday Daddy!



I love you soooooooo much!
Thank you for being you!