Diary of a whimpy kid...

A few months ago Grant and I took the boys to see Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the lightning theif. During the previews we saw the trailer for "Diary of a whimpy kid", my kids MOST favorite book of all time. They have read each book about 5 times, and have traded back and forth with about 4 other boys. So, as soon as they saw the preview they started making plans. They invited all of their friends, earned the money, and arranged the carpool.
When, the day arrived two of the boys were a little bit sick. One of them being Alek. Both boys toatlly pretended not to be sick. I never thought I would see the day that one of my kids "pretended" to be healthy.
Anyway, the day came and all the boys were out of control and excited. It made me giggle. I was the carpool, so I got to take the boys to the theatre, buy the popcorn and drinks, and get them situated in their seats. As soon as I did all of that both Jayce and Alek looked at me and said "bye mom". Ok, so I guess it was a good thing I didn't buy me a ticket, I wasn't really invited. It was fun to see them sitting there with all of their friends, teasing, laughing and having a good time.
When I picked them up, they had huge smiles on their faces, and were repeating whatever parts of the movie they could remember. The drive home was VERY loud and full of laughing boys. Totally worth it!!!

The video game Vs. The haircut

My sweet Jayce loves to grow his hair long. He says it's because his hair is curly and he like his curls. I honestly think it's because he likes to torment me. He thinks it's funny!

I ask him all the time if he is ready for me to cut his hair. He always smiles and tells me "nope". So the other day Alek got a video game that he has been working really hard to earn. Jayce was devastated and started bartering with me. He offered to clean my house, scrub my floors, take out the trash, and so on. I refused all of his offers, and explained to him that he should have started trying to earn his game sooner. He sat there for a few minutes then looked and me smiled (Mari) and said...I will let you cut my hair! So of course I jumped at the offer. And now Jayce has short hair. I actually felt a little bit bad. But he looks so handsome!

Grandpa Holyoak

Last night Aly sent everyone in my family a message via facebook! In her message she recapped an experience she had during church earlier in the day. It is such a sweet story. I am re-posting the message so that everyone that I know (or that reads my blog) will know what kind of family I come from and everyone will know that I am proud to be my grandpa's grandaughter.

Hey Family,

I had a cool experience today and I thought I would share it with everyone! Today I was sitting in sunday school and we were talking about missionary work. The teacher asked if there were any converts in the group who were "self converts". Meaning they went out and investigated the church themselves. One of the kids raised his hands and this is the story he told. I will try to remember it as close to how he told it. He, himself, is not a self convert, but his mom was. She grew up in Utah. When she was about 13 or 14 years old she was reading a teen beat magazine (or something of the type) and read an article about Donny and Marie Osmond. In the article in mentioned they were Mormons. She went to her grandma, who was raising her at the time, and asked what Mormons were. Her grandma told her to stay away from Mormons. Her being a 14 year old did the exact opposite as her grandma said. She knew her band teacher was a Mormon and had a close relationship with him, so she went and asked what Mormon's believe. He gave her a Book of Mormon and told her to read it. After she read it, he had the missionaries go to her house and give her the discussions and she was then baptized. After he told the story he mentioned that his mom still has a picture of herself and this teacher hanging up in the house and tells everyone "That's Mr. Holyoak, the man who changed my life." Turns out that man was grandpa. What a small world, eh??

Afterword I went up to the kid who told the story and told him that's my Grandpa and he got teary eyed and told me how excited he was to tell his mom he'd met Mr. Holyoak's grand daughter. I'm stupid and didn't even ask what his mom's name is. I'll ask him next week at church. His whole family lives here in Orlando now. Just thought I would share the story with you. I thought it was pretty awesome.

Love you all!

Aly

I know this story won't have the same affect on you as it did on me and my family. But I wanted to share with all of you the pride and love that I felt.

I was very close to my grandpa and I love him sooo very much! It's amazing to think that my grandpa had that kind of impact on somebody's life (Although it doesn't surprise me). I am sure this is only one of many stories about him. He was an amazing man, and I miss him everyday. Heaven is lucky to have such a great man.

Thank you Aly for doing what is right and being in church so that you could share this story with our family.

You can fly...

Peter Pan is one of my most favorite Disney cartoons. I think because it reminds me of my mom.

When I was little my mom was a cross guard. While she would escort the children back and forth across the road Chris and I would wait in the car. My mom bought disney books on tape to listen to while we waited for her. The two tapes I remember are The rescuer, and Peter Pan. Ever since then everytime I hear the song "you can fly", I think of my mom and all that she has done for me. I think of the times that I got to just hang out with my mom and be her "little girl". I miss those days. I remember the way I felt, the way the car smelled, and the way the air felt outside. When I hear or watch Peter Pan, all of these feelings come rushing over me and somedays I wish I was still a little girl sitting in the car listening to Peter Pan, waiting for my mom.

If I had to chose a moment in time to be stuck in, this time of my life would be on my top 10 list.

You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!

Think of a wonderful thought

Any merry little thought

Think of Christmas,

think of snow

Think of sleigh bells-Off you go!

Like a reindeer in the sky

You can fly! You can fly! You can fly!

Think of the happiest things

It's the same as having wings

Take the path that moonbeams make

If the moon is still awake

You'll see him wink his eye

You can fly! You can fly! You can fly!

Up you go with a high and ho

to the starsBeyond the blue!

There's a Never land waiting for you

Where all your happy dreams come true

Every dream that you wish will come true

When there's a smile in your heart

There's no better time to start

Think of all the joy you'll find

When you leave the world behind!

And bid your cares goodbye!

You can fly! You can fly! You can fly!

A little bit of everything...

This week has been quite the week. Sunday night I started feeling a little sick and by Monday morning I was out and out sick! It started in my chest and moved to my ears, nose, and throat. Wednesday afternoon my left ear decided to plug up and I couldn't hear anything. So, I decided to go see the Doctor. I HATE the doctor!!! They scare me to death!!!! So admitting that I needed to go was hard for me. But I went, and boy am I glad I did! While at the doctors office they did the normal tests, temperature, blood pressure, oxygen, and so on. When the doctor came in and asked me what was going I told him my ear was driving me crazy. He looked at me kind of confused and said "is that all?" So I said, "well I have a cold, but Ya, that's it!" He looked at me again and said, "um, you are very sick!" Your blood pressure is through the roof, you have a fever, and your oxygen level is at 84. He then proceeded to check out my ears, nose, throat, and lungs. Come to find out I have bronchitis, a sinus infection, two ear infections, fluid behind my left ear, and a little bit of fluid on my lungs. I was a little shocked to say the least! I just thought I had a cold. He gave me a shot (one of the reason's I am afraid doctors), gave me a breathing treatment to get my oxygen levels back to normal (it was actually four before I got to an acceptable level), a decongestant, cough medicine, an inhaler, and a few other things I can't quite remember.

Now that it has been a few hours and all the meds have started kicking in, I feel much better. I didn't realize that I felt so crappy. Thank goodness for my plugged up ear. I still get to see the doctor one or two more times to monitor the fluid in my lungs and ears to make sure they don't become a problem, but for the most part I think I am out of the woods, and I didn't even know I was in them!
I am very thankful that nobody in my family has shown any symptoms. I have them taking vitamin C every hour and drinking lots of water. Hopefully they will stay healthy.