So much snow! Let's go sledding!

snowy nights.

Visiting Temple Square

what happened last night when Raspberry served dessert.

Don't you wish your office had a tutu?

You smell good...

I had a friend stop by my office yesterday and when he left, I hugged him goodbye. I'm going to completely embarrass him, but he does smell good. So afterwards...

When I got to Raspberry's school, I picked her up and she said, "mom you smell good"
Her teacher who was standing next to her said, 'you do smell nice'.

When I was IN THE GROCERY STORE LINE... the older lady behind me said, 'you smell really nice.' What kind of perfume do you use?

The male kind.

sure you're not.

'MOM!!!
I
am
NOT
TIRED!'

What she yelled at me through her tears Sunday afternoon when I lightly suggested she take a nap because she was a little, (very) ornery.

Where I found her 10 minutes later.

TMI Mom! TMI!

*this is one of those mother/daughter talks so if you are easily offended, quit reading.

So this morning while I was drying my hair (head upside down of course), getting ready for work, I looked up to see my sweet raspberry shouting at me.

'Mom! Mom! Mom!'

'What's wrong? You are supposed to be getting dressed.'

'Mom! What are these?' ...pointing to two certain parts of her anatomy.

Sigh... I'm sure we've had this conversation before.

'Those are called breasts.'

'What are they for?'

'well, nothing right now really, but when you are older and a mommy, you will be able to feed your baby, it's called nursing, and they produce milk for the baby.'

horrified look...

'What! you mean you drink milk and it squirts out for the baby? That is SO dumb! Why don't you just give them a bottle.'

'No sweetheart, it...'

'stop mom! stop! no more talking!'

I guess I could have explained that better...

In case you get lost, leave a trail.

Me: Why is this game spread out in the hallway?

Raspberry: It's my trail to help me get to the bathroom from my room and back again.

Me: Wow. I like your trail, but we need to clean it up because it's bed time.

Raspberry: Mom! Don't ya know, that's when I need to find the bathroom the most! What if I can't find my way back?

Me: okay, okay, -- I wouldn't want you to get lost in our hallway. The trail can stay.

Raspberry: If I can't find the trail to my room, I'll just sleep in your bed tonight.

She's tricky.

Veggie Bible Tales or - FHE lesson gone awry.

I promised CC I would blog about our FHE lesson, since they always turn out so well. So here it is:

Setting-kitchen table Mood-serious, studious
Activity-mom giving a deep and meaningful family home evening lesson on Book of Mormon and Bible heroes.

Mom:
One of the Bible heroes we read about is Gideon. Do you two remember who Gideon is?
(bible open, ready to assist)

(long pause)

CC: YES!

He's the cucumber! He beats all the hairy pickles and saves the day! Oh...wait...wait...wait... and... and... he plays the tuba!

Raspberry: (laughing so hard she chokes and spits out her food on her plate)

Mom: Very funny.

Halloween.

Go Vote!

Although I didn't vote for our new President, he gave one of the greatest victory speeches I have ever heard.

To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right. Confucius

7th grade Mortification: Number 1

As your mom drops you off for school at your jr high, your five year old sister leans out the window and yells,

'did you zip up?'

raspberry art

Someday I will buy this wonderful wallpaper for my artistic raspberry, so she can happily decorate her walls and not my face.

Capitol Reef

We spent UEA at Capitol Reef with the Zeyer Family this past weekend
and had so much fun (despite the rock slide that took out our paint and the oil pan on the Zeyer's car).

We stayed in a little cabin in Teasdale, spent time with our favorite Zeyer family, climbed a mountain to see the arch and went on a lot of hikes. It was great fun.

The best part for me was hanging out with CC and raspberry 24-7 for three days.

I didn't think of work once. :)

Shopping with Raspberry 101.

1. Show her a rack of 20 coats in her size.
2. Walk past them like Vanna White, brushing your hand across the coats as you tell her about all the fun colors.
3. Announce how cute they all are and exclaim, 'won't it be fun to try them on'.
4. Suggest she try on the lavender, the light blue one and a couple of pink ones.
5. Watch as she walks over to the fushia puffy coat, takes it off the hanger, puts in on and pronounces that she is done shopping.
6. Be slightly depressed.
7. Be happy again and remember that there is still time to train her to be your shopping buddy when she is older.

Touch. Cry. Smile. Dance and Wink.

Our family 'happy' meter was running low this week. We had minor surgery on a neck and teeth, doctor visits, flu shots, tighting of braces & bands, too many needles, and stitches.

Luckily, we did have quite a few happifyers that helped us dump the 'blah' from this week.

Touch.
Sometimes you are made happy just by a loving touch.
Here are 3 scriptures on touch that I love. Found in Daniel. Dan. 10: 10, 16, 18
10 ¶ And, behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands.
16 And, behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips: then I opened my mouth, and spake, and said unto him that stood before me, O my lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength.
18 Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me.


Cry:
Flu shots are no fun and are certainly not a happifyer, but...





Smile.
then you can go to Cold Stone to eat and laugh.
Ice cream brightens up any sad face.









Dance.
The first 7th grade dance! We practiced in the kitchen. He wouldn't take a picture practicing, but I did get a shy smile when I asked him if he was excited to go. He did dance and helped out a very cool DJ that happened to be a friend of mom's. 'That was awesome mom'!







Wink.
Sometimes all you need to happify your day is a wink and a great big beautiful smile.

Tips

Parenting Tip























Happiness Tip


















Sleeping Tip

Housing Crisis Diverted

Due to the amazing efforts of my friend I am finally out of that incredibly stupid--I can't believe I even allowed that to happen in the first place--ARM loan and into a --hallelujah--fixed rate.

My friend has saved us from homelessness and I am dedicating this post to her incredible abilities to keep me and my kids in our home during the flood of foreclosures.

Hurray for FIXED rates.
Burn in the fiery depths of hell ARM rates.

Hurray for my friend!

Today's Church Chat

Sacrament meeting was really good, but hard this week because the kids are with their Dad. I realized that I missed my raspberry climbing all over me while searching for treats in my well used, stained, but much loved church bag. I missed CC coming to sit with me after passing the sacrament and leaning his tired head on my shoulder (while secretly trying to steal treats from his sister.) I missed raspberry's stacks of crayons and books scattered all over the bench and CC asking me to scratch his back with my nails for the 10th time. It was a good sacrament meeting though, and I did get to listen to all of it. That doesn't happen very often. There wasn't one bathroom or drink break. I think that might be a record.

Sunday School was great. I love those kids. Today we talked about Looking Beyond Yourself, selfishness vs. selflessness, and getting rid of your 'pocket full of change' (if you want to know what that means, keep reading). We spent some time in Galations and 1st John chapters 3 and 4, which the kids now call the love chapters.

Galation 5 verses:

14 For all the ^alaw is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt ^blove thy neighbour as thyself.

15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

16 This I say then, ^aWalk in the ^bSpirit,

They liked verse 15. We talked about how we 'bite and devour one another' whether at home, at school or with our friends. They had some great comments.

1st John love verses:
(chapter 3)
11 For this is the ^amessage that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
(chapter 4) - Covered most of the chapter. It's short and they enjoyed counting all of the love words again. They commented that John must be one sensitive guy - 'He's gotta a lot of love to give Sister J.', 'Yes David, he sure does'.

'Pocket Full of Change'
I told them that we should carry around a pocket full of change next week. As we give sincere compliments, help, or encouragement to another throughout our day, we can get rid of one of the coins. At the end of the day we should have no more change. KJ said, 'Sister J., I'm carrying around a pocket full of sunshine'.

I told them we could start with 5 or 10 pennies and they were actually insulted. They decided on 20, 25, 30, 45, 55 and 75 cents (in pennies) next week in one day.

That is a whole lot of compliments and encouragement waiting to be dished out by some incredible teens.

Go class go!

Who Loves You?

I began a game with raspberry a couple of years ago called 'Who Loves You'. It is now a nightly ritual squeezed in between rocks from mom, a book, and 'just one last drink of juice?'

When I finally laid down last night I thought about our game, hoping that she fell asleep with a list of all the people who love her in her head. I mentally rambled off about 20 names of people in my life whom I love. I then tried to make the list that Raspberry had just made but I felt silly. Oh to be 5 with no inhibitions.

Here is her list from last night. It's not too long this time. Sometimes she goes on and on, and once she runs out of names, she starts listing her toys.

I think that is a good thing.

Raspberry's 'Who Loves You?' List
butterscotch (her stuffed dog)
bluey (her blanket)
me
mommy
my brother
daddy
chelle
grandpa and grandma
grandpa j
aunt tanya
my cousins
heavenly father
jesus
my primary teacher
the bishop
the cats
aunt cush
hank and sarah
my pillow (me: why your pillow? her: because it is always soft for me.)

The videos were taken about three weeks ago.

My Baby is 13.

September 18, 2008

CC: mom guess what?

me: what?

CC: I'm a teenager.

me: I'm still the boss.

I'm sad, proud, happy for him.

A bit scared for the future, but

excited for all that awaits him.

He's the greatest kid ever.

Happy Birthday! I love you!

My friend Fish.

I have a good friend named Fish. That's her, sporting the fashionable WC namebadge, with my other friend Frog.

As of today, I have officially known Fish for 8 years (and 2 days).

Fish was the one who introduced me to the world of blogs. However, as of late, she has forsaken her blogging duties.

I have repeatedly asked her to 'update' but her standard answer is, 'we have been forbidden to blog on the sacred choir, so I have nothing to blog about'.

fine.


I will tell you about my good friend Fish.

She is smart. She is funny. She is pretty. She is Canadian.
(That last one says it all).

Here is a sign I dedicated to her last year on her birthday.


Go ahead and leave her a message here. Tell her to blog...

BYU Football

Last Saturday, my friend gave CC and me tickets to the BYU/UCLA football game. Heaven bless Mark, he gave us tickets on the front row! I've never seen my son so excited for a football game. We had amazing time--and he saw his hero (Pitta) up close--which was the best birthday present 'EVER' according to him, and watching the cougars obliterate the bruins made it a perfect day. Thank you Mark!

Note: To our city coaches in case they missed it: Articles on how to win football games with class or win with dignity by Bronco Mendenhall. No grudges - honest! :)

Sunday Chat. Don't carry your grudges.

I was going to post this yesterday, but every time I went near the computer, Raspberry would yell out, 'no computer on the Sabbath.' I think she was just trying to get even for my 'no TV on the Sabbath' rule. hmmm...

I teach Sunday School to the 14-15 age group in my ward every other week. It's great fun and they are good kids, (especially in class since my co-teacher doesn't take any flak whatsoever-she even scares me). Anyway, I was thinking that it might be a good idea to post what we discuss in class each week so I can remember it and perhaps use it again -- for next year's class. :)

Topic for today (or yesterday): Forgiving Others -- or in 2008 teenage terms 'don't hold on to grudges'.

I filled a backpack full of 15 heavy church books and called it the grudge bag. They each had to take a turn holding their bag of grudges during class (standing up, no leaning on things, no support from friends). They had to hold it for a minimum of 2 minutes. I was so proud of them, that bag was dang heavy--and they held it without complaint, some of them even carried it for about 5 min.

During the lesson, we incorporated this book by John Bytheway, this story from the OT and this talk from conference (which, except for the Tender Mercies talk, is one of my favorites). The kids participated and thanks to their comments, the class went really well. As I was walking down the hall to pick up Raspberry from Primary, a heard one of the girls say to her mom... 'She had us carry our 'bag of grudges', it felt good to get rid of it.'

It isn't as easy to 'get rid of it' when you are older, but it is something I work on everyday because life is so much better when they are gone.

26 towels, a lot of water, and our ward family.

After work yesterday, I returned home to a kitchen floor full of water.

CC's cats always dash into the house when we get home and they were as surprised as I was when I opened the door and came into the kitchen. Watching them flip out as they hit the water made the whole situation kind of entertaining...

Apparently there was a crack in the kitchen faucet underneath the sink and when the faucet got turned on at full force the small crack became a full rupture and water went everywhere.

I used every single towel in the entire house, plus the old towels in the garage (you know, the old ripped ones you save for car wash day). A total of 26. I didn't even know I had 26 towels. After a fun hour of clean up I decided I'd had enough and I left to go to our RS enrichment night. My Stake President was speaking, and if you know me, you know I love him and his sweet wife, so I had to go.

While I was there, the husband of my close friend went to my house and took the faucet apart, made sure the water was off, and cleaned up. When I got home from the church our Home Teacher called and told me he was picking up a new faucet tomorrow and would put it in (not quite sure how my Home Teacher found out). One of my sweet friends told me she wanted to come over and get the towels to wash them. I hugged her and told her she has five kids, she has enough laundry to do. My cute RS President stopped by later in the evening to make sure I was okay, she said my bishop was concerned.

President Hinckley said this,

"There is no end to the good we can do, to the influence we can have with others. Let us not dwell on the critical or the negative. Let us pray for strength; let us pray for capacity and desire to assist others. Let us radiate the light of the gospel at all times and all places, that the Spirit of the Redeemer may radiate from us." Gordon B. Hinckley, "The Need for Greater Kindness," Ensign, May 2006, 61

Since it is 9-11 today I think it is appropriate to say that there is still great kindness in the world. Our ward family radiates it and our little family is extremely grateful to be surrounded by it.

Quote for today.

Heavenly Father has a picture of you on His dresser.

From

The Peril of Hidden Wedges By President Thomas S. Monson

Self-Realization

Today I was in SLC so my friend Chelle and I decided to stop at the World Market. We also stopped at Paradise Bakery. I would have to be an idiot not to stop there. Seriously, have you tasted their cookies?

Anyway, the World Market is this great eclectic store that happens to have, among many other things, a large array of very cute hats. While waiting for Chelle, I tried on a few, thinking that I would look oh' so cute because, of course, that hats were cute.

I then realized where Raspberry got this comment.

The pain was lessened somewhat by the fact that Courtney cut my hair yesterday and it looks dang cute. So who needs a stupid hat when they have cute hair?

Raspberry's Heaven Part 2

Guess what Google Maps found for me? A berry farm just 5 minutes from our house.

Who knew? Oh, and their season is August to October. Perfect! I took her on Saturday morning. We picked and ate blackberries. Next week: Raspberries. I'm such the queen mom! How cute is her face!

From now on I will worship all things Google.
Did you know they have a church?

My favorite comic strip

Raspberry's Heaven

I just found a place to take Raspberry next summer. She would be in heaven. I would be queen mom for at least a month.

It's a pick your own berries ranch in Nampa, ID.
I wonder how far that is from here?

Sunday quote of the day

I was hoping for something spiritual but this just came from Raspberry, who is upstairs, and I had to write it down.

"ooowwww!!! Mom! I think I broke my bottom."

We made it one year!

Today is the 1st year mark for our family blog. So, in honor of our blog being 365 days old, we (CC, Raspberry and I) are going to list 100 things we are grateful for. I wanted to have them list 365, but they are moaning, so we are only going to 100. So in no particular order, here we go.

1. CC & Raspberry
2. Mommy!
3. Daddy!
4. A sister that makes me laugh (mom and CC).
5. Blessings
6. Our Savior
7. The Gospel
8. Heavenly Father (we are on a theme here)
9. Hugs
10. Sleepovers at Daddy's
11. Family plus Grandpa and Grandma
12. Mom's friends
13. Chelle - Raspberry insisted you get your own line.
14. Kathy - you too.
15. Kari, Nicole, Amanda, Chuck, Bri, Anna, Suzy, Ann and Jean
16. Our cousins (especially Ryan)
17. Maddy and Heather!
18. Aunt Tanya and Uncle Dave (and their family)
19. Music
20. Raspberries
21. Cheese and apples
22. Scriptures
23. Flowers
24. Kindergarten
25. Our President Monson
26. The Bishop
27. Our Stake President
28. General Conference
29. Kindness
30. Our ward
31. Primary Teacher
32. YM Leaders
33. My kindergarten class
34. Being out of elementary
35. My toys
36. Our house
37. Wind
38. Stars
39. Sunny days
40. Rain (I think they are on another theme)
41. Musicals
42. Golf
43. Kisses
44. Rocks with mom
45. Swimming
46. Our car
47. Family Home Evening
48. Crayons
49. Walking
50. The sacrament
51. Temples
52. Birthdays
53. Scriptures
54. Raspberry's big innocent eyes
55. Playroom
56. Disneyland and Disney World
57. Dancing in the kitchen
58. Tears
59. Butterscotch (stuffed animal)
60. Bluey
61. Visiting Teachers
62. Home Teachers
63. Laughing until it hurts
64. Trials (they don't agree)
65. Forgiveness
66. Reading
67. Balloons and kites!
68. Sleep
69. Warm blankets
70. Our dryer - because without it, well, no warm blankets
71. Whip cream and strawberries
72. Jumping
73. Sliding down the stairs
74. Shadow and Soda
75. Pillow fights
76. Fireworks
77. My bike
78. My braces coming off.
79. Christmas!
80. Halloween and the corn maze!
81. Video games (mom does not agree)
82. Football
83. Computer
84. Yummy food and cold water
85. CC's strawberry shakes
86. Apple juice!
87. Popcorn
88. Going to the movies
89. Running
90. Raspberry is grateful for her shoes
91. Lightning and Thunder (Raspberry says no)
92. Fall colors
93. Our friends!
94. Hot chocolate
95. Dark chocolate
96. Our family blog
97. Tithing
98. Sundays
99. Blessings
100. You.

There really was no hope.

Yesterday, CC tried out for his junior high school golf team. I went to the golf course early to watch him come in. As he came off the 9th tee and walked down the fairway I watched him for signs of dejection, sadness, maybe some hostility (emotions I saw prevalent in most of the other groups before him) but all I saw was a happy kid sauntering down towards the green.

As he walked off the 9th hole, he was counting up his strokes on his scorecard and he had this huge grin on his face. He said 'Mom, I shot a 60, so I won't make the team, but that was so much fun!'

Dang it. He was hit hard by the golf gene. I was really hoping it might skip a generation, but it didn't happen. There really was no hope to begin with. Between his Dad who plays, his aunt who is a 1st assistant in Florida and his Grandpa who is a swing coach at the Y, the kid was bound to get some type of golf gene. I tried to prevent it, but it just wasn't possible. His aunt, Grandpa and Dad are thrilled. He is such a cute kid, who is just happy to be able to play. I'm so lucky.

Okay. Last golf story. While I was watching the groups come in, a Dad of another player came up on the balcony where I was waiting. He was quite the friendly guy (and --my students will love this--kind of handsome). We chatted for a while while we were waiting. He seemed quite nice. When his son walked off the green, he called out to him and asked him how he did. His son did this thumbs down thing and yelled back a high score at his Dad. This Dad then yells out a string of profanity at his son. I think I just stood there with my mouth open staring at him with evil mother eyes. Uh. Yuck. I should have pushed him off the balcony.

Quote of the day

This quote of the day came from one of the students that work in our office.

"But Jenn, he had really good qualities on Facebook!"

What apron strings?

So the other day I was harassed a bit by some friends who accused me of being a bit overprotective toward my 12 year old.

I'm trying hard not to be 'that mom', so I sent him off with a hug and a 'be safe please' to Mt. Olympus on Saturday with his deacon quorum. A short hike up and back that started at 6:00 a.m. and was supposed to end at 2:00 p.m. (which somehow meant 5:00 p.m.) I wasn't panicked since he did call me at the point (9,000 ft.) and said he was having a great time and the view was 'amazing mom'.




He only had a few blisters and was filthy when he returned, but then 'the moms' got to me on Sunday. Apparently they all ran out of water when they got to the point, he had some "alone" time on this 7 mile trail (he and another deacon took a wrong turn), he jumped over a rattlesnake, and one of his friends has heat stroke.

And people wonder why mothers are overprotective?

The ambulance ride was fun!

This latest post comes from my sister-in-law. My sweet, tiny niece took a huge tumble on Friday and scared us all, but thankfully she is doing much better today. Hank said her favorite part of the whole ordeal was the ambulance ride, which she loved. Here is the email from my sister-in-law...

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! We have had quite an eventful weekend, and want to thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for our sweet little M.! She is now back to her normal high-energy self, and is miraculously not feeling any pain whatsoever. We truly appreciate all your help through the last few days, and definitely have felt the effects of all your prayers. It's great having family members with a "direct line" to Deity! ( Sometimes our own lines don't receive clear reception in the heavens. :) )

She fell (along with the stroller she was trying to climb into) down the steep embankment by our driveway, to the asphalt by the basement door. After untangling her from the stroller, it became apparent that she could not see. She then in turn went to sleep. After some intense hours of waiting for x-rays to be read and cat scan results, we were made aware of the fracture in the back of her head. She was then transported by ambulance to Primary Children's.

Long story short, Primary Children's Hospital was great! I feel so lucky to have it just across the valley. They fortunately found no internal bleeding and continued to monitor for swelling. She enjoyed her sleep-over at the hospital, eating milkshakes, and watching movies. She did not enjoy the sticky electrodes or the IV tape.

She is on a reduced activity regimen with no high speed activities...which for her is only when she's asleep. Her little brother has been assigned a no-sister wrestling month, and we have hidden his bat. Again, we appreciate all your help and prayers through the last few days. We love each of you very much!

To find out who you really are... go to this Web site.

I have discovered THE WEB SITE. It will tell you what type of personality you have. All you have to do is type in your name and there you go! So what I should have done, is typed in my favorite names before they were born and picked the name with the best descriptions.

This is what it said about me (and the thousands and thousands of women who have the same name). (It is too bad my parents didn't have this available).

What Jennefer means (along with a few short comments):

You are fair, honest, and logical. You are a natural leader, and people respect you. That's nice to hear.

You never give up, and you will succeed... even if it takes you a hundred tries. Sure...

You are rational enough to see every part of a problem. It's called 'over analyzing'

You are great at giving other people advice. Mostly to my siblings who don't want it.

You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. So true...

You work hard not to rock the boat. Well...

Your easy going attitude brings people together. Can't argue with that...

At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. Hey!

But for the important things, you pull it together. Glad somebody noticed.

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. Nice.

You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. No comment.

You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. I gave up on trying to interpret signals long ago.

You are loving, compassionate, and ruled by your feelings. Didn't it just say I was wise? Who wrote this anyway.

You are able to be a foundation for other people... but you still know how to have fun. Not sure if they would want a flake to be a foundation.

You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. That's me. Rebel mom.

You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. Oh brother.

You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. oh please.

You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated. I don't have time to be intimidated.

You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want. Give me a break!

You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way! This is the stupidest thing I've ever read.

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. blah.

You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. There's that red in me coming through...

You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row. Ha! Michelle will love that!

You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace. Oh yes, they all bow down when I walk in the room.

People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. Because most stubborn people usually go with the flow...

You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Light hearted and accepting, that's me. I'm going to read this to my kids. See what they think.

Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. Somebody asked me that at church yesterday...

You are a free spirit, and you resent anyone who tries to fence you in. No fencing here.

You are unpredictable, adventurous, and always a little surprising. A great challenge while I'm being headstrong AND going with the flow..

You may miss out by not settling down, but you're too busy having fun to care. What!

Who are you?

Three things I won't do again

1. Let my daughter hold a fork while sitting next to a bag of powdered sugar.

2. Leave the front door open when I go outside for a few seconds after daughter has taken off powdered sugar clothes (little streaker).


3. Leave my lipstick in the kitchen.

The Essay Punishment

The essay punishment came from my friend Jolene. When her boys got into 'serious enough that I had to call them on it' trouble, she invoked the essay punishment. They would have to write a page about what happened, why it was wrong, and what they learned from a gospel perspective, including quotes from church leaders, and a few scriptural references. Then, along with mom, they would pick their punishment. She said that their personal punishments were far worse than any she could dish out (sometimes she actually felt guilty and would reduce the sentence).

Well, the other day, without getting into specifics, I caught Raspberry lying to me. I didn't have to prod too much; the child wears every feeling she has on her face – including guilt. Yelling at her would have been pointless, so I implemented our first essay punishment. I told her to write me a letter saying sorry for what she did and then we would talk about it and pick her punishment. After receiving the note, we talked about lying and then decided the punishment. She thought about it and came up with these:

No more salt at dinner.

Only one more red popsicle.

Have to put away my shoes in the basket.

We ended up canceling our movie and popcorn night. She cried and then fell asleep. The next morning she said, 'I'm hungry and starving from lying. That is so dumb!'

I'm not positive, but I think she might be writing a lot of essays.

Photoshop Playtime

I am back practicing again. I haven't for a while, so I've lost some of my skills. Which, sad to say, weren't many to begin with. However, I remember my friend Al talking about filters, so here are my latest creations practicing with filters.


I couldn't figure out how to make Raspberry's nose more prominent and I cut CC out way too fast so there are a lot of little mistakes. I guess I will have to keep practicing (darn). How ever rough my photoshop abilities are though, the captions fit perfectly.