Holy-Giant-Balls-of-Hail-Batman!

Last week we were shocked out of our lackadaisical Sunday afternoon by a sudden and freak hail storm. It didn't last more than a few minutes but the size of the hail was shocking. Richard reconsidered going outside when his hand was immediately hit by a huge ice ball! We got the pictures of the hail in Richard's hands after it stopped.
We all stood at the windows in awe of this awesome display and amazing feat of Mother Nature...after all, we've had recent temperatures as high as 113 degrees. Guess that's why they call it Climate Change!

Because there is a serious cockroach issue in India almost everywhere you go you will notice little white moth balls in all the drains of bathrooms, sinks and showers. After taking the these pictures Little T says "They look like the toilet thingees Mom". We all had a good chuckle about that!

Childhood Memories

At first glance this photo may appear to be a simple portrait of a cute, little 6 year old boy (MY cute, little 6 year old boy) but take a closer look....at the socks?

This is how my cute, little 6 year old son left the house this morning for school. Bring back any childhood memories of your own? Leg warmers, tube socks, tucking the bottom of your shirt through the neck hole to make a cute little mid-drift.... you know you did it!

Where's your retainer?

We were all waiting for Mo again this morning for early morning family scripture study. When she finally wandered in looking dazed and confused I noticed she didn't have her retainer in her mouth. Just as I was about to ask her where it was she turned her head and there it was, dangling precariously from a tuft of hair behind her right ear.

I've woken many a morning to find gum, jolly ranchers, chocolate, suckers.... stuck in my children's hair, but this one takes the cake. It was so funny it took everything I had not to fall to the floor in fits of laughter. Instead, I told her to stand still and not move while I rushed to the closet to get the camera. By the time I returned I was laughing uncontrollably and she was already in the bathroom trying to figure out what was so funny. I quickly snapped this photo, I couldn't manage a second one as it only took her a few seconds to find the source of my amusement and promptly removed it!

Afterwards I couldn't stop myself from randomly giggling all through scripture study. I’m finding it hard to not laugh out loud as I’m writing this now. :)

Girls just wanna have Fun...

My trip to Bali was brought about by my good friend, neighbor and extreme X-Box player (not really she's just pretending) Julie.

Julie had a week of time share available for use and since our hubbies had just recently come back from their excursion to Mt. Everest, she decided we should do a 'girls' vacation and luckily I got to be one of the 'girls'. Yeah for me!

Anyway, all of the above pictures we took in the Singapore airport. What an amazing place. It was more like a mall than an airport. Complete with gyms, salons (where we got foot massages), restaurants, free internet access, playgrounds, X-Box play stations where you could play free video games, and as you see in the pictures a beautifally landscaped pond full of HUGE coy. At first I thought the plants were all fake but...NOPE! What a great beginning to a lovely vacation!

One of the fist things we did after we arrived and hit the beach was get some Henna tatoos. If you can't tell, I love temporary tatoos. So much fun. By the time we left Bali we each had 3. These pics were taken in UBUD at a place call Monkey Forest. Obviously named for the MASS amounts of moneys. As you can see they were pretty friendly, one even took a little swing from my purse and another one crawled up my arm onto my hat and then up a tree. SO cool! I love monkeys!

Our other favorite pass-time was eating! On our way back to the hotel from Ubud we stopped and bought a half dozen donuts each and managed to eat 2 donutes each before we made across the street to the McDonalds drive thru! That double cheesburger tasted AMAZING! Don't look at me like that...I haven't had real beef in a year!

Our excursions included: White water rafting (TR, TL), Shopping in Ubud, Monkey Forest (BR), and a three island tour on a speed raft (BL, BM & TM).

For me, the best part about the trip was the once a day full-body massages by the pool! The Traditional Balinese Massage is my new favorite!

We had a great time enjoyed a relaxing week away from the everyday hum-drum of life. We are thinking of doing it again next year! Thanks again Julie for a great time, can't wait to do it again!

I NEED muSic!

I need a favor from ALL of my loyal Readers...yes, that means all 6 of you!

I'm completely bored with all the songs in my "Running List". I run at least 3 times a week (thank you...yes, thank I know) and I am finding it very hard to stay Motivated with the same 'ol songs!

Please give me one or two suggestions of your favorite motovating songs that you exercise to. Be sure to use the Chat Wall to the right > so everyone can see your wonderful suggestions.

Parenting Joys

The following is an email I recieved from R while on my vacation in Bali....

.....little T locked his room with all the keys in his room today. I don't know what he is going to wear to school tomorrow as all his cloths are in his room and he wore a swim suit for most of the day today! Thinking about putting him in some of Mishy's cloths to teach him a lesson.
Also he had a poopin accident today and a piece of it feel on Mishy's floor. He didn't tell me about it and so he ground it into the carpet trying to clean it up and then put Mishy's little green carpet thingy on top of it! What a
day!

Happy Birthday Mo!

Just want to wish one of my most favorite people in the whole world a Happy 14th Birthday!