Isaiah Talky

Isaiah demonstrates how to solve a Rubik's Cube!

My Weekend

After a weekend of vegging out on the couch
Hard to think about going back to real life.
We had no kids this weekend.
We watched movies, caught up on
each other's lives
Enjoyed the peace
Slept in
Went to church
out to lunch
Made movies of my pictures
from school this past week.
My kids did plays.
What a blast.
Can't wait to show them their pictures.
Everybody loves to see slides of themselves.
No school tomorrow
A full WORK DAY in my classroom
No meetings
No students
Nothing but me and my grades
and my messy classroom.
Time to try to find my desk again.

Passport to Purity

I mentioned last weekend that Luke and I had gone out of town to do this thing called Passport to Purity!
It was an amazing weekend.
We went to a Holiday Inn Express in St Croix Valley, WI.
We left town on Friday night.
We ate dinner out and began our Passport Weekend.
Luke and I went through a book together while we listened to corresponding cd's.
There were five object lessons that I put together ahead of time.
One of them involved a puzzle.
Luke put together two of them by the end of the weekend.

By the time we were finished, we had done 5 sessions.
Luke and I had some great sharing time as we learned more about each other, as well as what the bible says about sex.

We were also supposed to have an activity as part of the weekend.
We drove to Wisconsin to go snowboarding and skiing at a little
ski resort called Trollhaugen.
UNFORTUNATELY...
last weekend was the coldest we've had here in a few years.
We were in the -20 degree range.
I am pretty sure that Luke could have handled the temps,
but I couldn't have.
I am the biggest wimp ever.
I get cold when the temps are in the 70's.
SO, after much brainstorming, we went to a place downtown
Minneapolis called Game Works.
This is a huge arcade type place.
But, this is a more high end type of place.
We had a great time playing air hockey,
Deal or No Deal,
as well as
shooting games and driving games.
I even beat Luke at one driving game.





We ended the weekend at Cracker Barrel.
Luke signed a contract regarding his purity,
and he received a purity ring.
What an amazing weekend.
I would definitely recommend it to any parent.
I would say 12 or 13 is a great age to do this.

Fame is a Trap

I just had conversation yesterday with my colleagues at work.
We were talking about how fame is such a trap.
How it corrupts people.
How it screws peoples heads up.
Fame makes you believe you are,
often times, someone that you are not.
We see it again today.
Heath Ledger....
Dead at 28.
Excellent talent.
Beautiful face.
Sadness so deep....
Amid all the fame.
Amid all the people...
Amid all this.....
he died naked and alone.
Can you feel how bad it must have been for him?
My heart breaks for his pain.
Pain that is now over for him.
Pain just beginning for Matilda....
his two year old daughter.
You can never tell how sad a person is on the inside....
There is hope.
Hope in the ONE who loves us....
The ONE who died to give us eternal life.
So many people who don't have any hope.......

Rock Band

I wrote an email to the makers of the video game, Rock Band!:

I am very disappointed in the song choices for Rock Band.
I would appreciate a new game with much better songs.
More Journey, Styx, Foreigner, 38 Special, Kansas, Van Halen, AC/DC...
Now THIS would be a game that would be fun to sing along to.
Right now, the songs are NO FUN to sing along to.
My two cents worth.
I'm just a 41 year old mother of three who wants to ROCK!
Kari Simonson



Today they wrote back to me:

Hello Kari,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. We have been super busy
with the recent launch of Rock Band and have been answering a high
volume of e-mail following the holiday season.

Thanks for writing in with some band recommendations for Rock Band.
When putting together the track listing we tried to provide as much
variety as possible, but unfortunately we'd never be able to include
everyone's favorites. I think we did a pretty good job maintaining both
diversity and quality in the selection, with tracks ranging from Classic
Rock, to Metal, to Country tinged rock, to Pop Rock, to Alternative, to
old school Punk.

I agree that it would be pretty awesome to have some Van Halen or AC/DC
in the game (Foreigner's Juke Box Hero is one of my favorite tracks in
the game by the way) and we'd love to have the opportunity to work with
them in the future.

If you would like, you can post your own suggestions using the song
request feature on the rockband.com community website. Here is the
link: http://www.rockband.com/request_song

We are also making new songs available every week as downloadable
content for the PS3 and Xbox360, so be sure to keep checking in to see
if your favorite bands make the Rock Band line up.

Keep on rocking!
-Aaron

Aaron Trites
Community Development
Harmonix Music Systems, Inc.
RockBand.com

I love it!

Talky Blog

It is time for another talky blog.
Sorry if it is a little chaotic.
We got a few laughs out of it.

Weekend Away

This weekend Luke and I went out of town.
We did an amazing thing called
Passport to Purity!
Google it if you want to read more about it.
What an amazing time we had.
We went to St Croix Valley, WI to go skiing at Trollhaugen.
UNFORTUNATELY.....
the -20 degrees put a kink in our plans, so we didn't end up snowboarding and skiing.
I'll post pictures later today.

We really had an EXCELLENT TIME!
Thanks to all who were praying for this weekend.

Ryan Turns 16

On Monday Ryan turned 16!!
We started the day out with double chocolate muffins for breakfast.
Then, after school, we went out to dinner to the Olive Garden for pasta.
Ryan has grown so old and wise that he thought he heard the
pasta speaking to him.

The people came and sang to Ryan too.
The memorable thing that happened on THIS birthday was the fact that Luke and Ryan spilled pasta all over the back of the van.
A to go box did NOT make it safely home.
This was very reminiscent of Chloe's birthday
when Isaiah got a slushy in his lap.

Ryan received an Ipod from us, and a new snowboard from his dad.
Ryan picked out pink Barbie cupcakes for his birthday cake.
They were a big hit. The kids were even
arguing over who got the better ring.
He said he had a good birthday!


Now we are just waiting for the two
16 year olds to get their licenses.

Luke Soccer 07

Just a little Mom bragging on my part!

Reclaiming Order

Seth returned to Georgia

SO...
last night no kids
we took down the tree
put away the decorations
reclaimed the house
you know how it is

your house looks so clean
did it always look so nice?
it's more orderly
put together
calm

in another 11 months
we do it all again
this time pulling out all the things
we so carefully put away
life is funny like that

ANNOYING!

Rock Band

We ALL wish we could have been rock stars in some way or another....
Thanks for a great night Cross Family!

Benazir Bhutto's Son....

My First Talky

Here is my first talky video taken with my new web cam! Stupid, I know...

HAPPY NEW YEAR~~

Tonight we went to Buck Hill
to ring in the New Year.
The kids went snowboarding and skiing....
Angela and I hung out in the chalet.
We packed a bunch of snacks, a thermos with coffee,
and a cooler full of soda, water and makings for
our special coffees.
We played Cribbage (without the board), and Five Crowns.
Buck Hill had wacky hair stuff, as well as a ton of
other activities going on.



The kids took part in a torchlight parade coming down the hill just a few minutes before midnight.


Then, at midnight, we enjoyed an excellent fireworks show.
It was fun to be so close to the show.
The kids had a fun time...except for Chloe who wasn't feeling quite
herself.


It was a fun way to bring in 2008.
Hope your celebration was good as well.