New Form Of Punishment

I really like Zac's teacher. She really does a great job in not only teaching her students to be good students, but also to be good people. She has a rule in her class that when someone gives you something you have 3 seconds to say "thank you" or they get to take it back. She also has them write thank you notes whenever anyone comes into their class to help. They have written thank you notes to me and they also made b-day cards for me on my b-day (since I'm the PTA president) and they made cards for me when Addison was born. Yesterday Zac forgot his homework folder at home. I was gone all day and didn't realize it until school was almost out or I would have taken it to him. Whenever someone in her class misbehaves or forgets their homework or anything she makes them stay in from recess and write a "responsibility". This the the responsibility Zac wrote yesterday. I share it with you because I love it and have decided to come up with "responsibilities" of my own to have my kids write when they misbehave at home. Here it goes:
I am an intelligent and responsible person. I want to be happy and successful in my educational experiences. I realize that certain good habits and behaviors can contribute to my success. I will make more of an effort to take personal responsibility for meeting our class expectations. I wanted you to know that I am trying to make the needed changes and I need your parental support. I need to complete my homework everyday and bring it to class.
I love it!

Miserable Failure

My attempt to launch a political debate failed miserably. On my previous post "Irritation In The ER" I expected some feedback. I figured at least one of you (whom I shan't name) would disagree with my viewpoint. But nobody said anything. I was in the mood for a good argument and everybody just ignored me. Oh well. Maybe another time.

Dinner Out Doors

We eat dinner at my parents house every Sunday after church. It was such a beautiful day yesterday we ate outside on their deck.

Isn't She Just The Cutest Thing Ever?

Addison has a new toy. So it's not really new. My parent's gave it to her for Christmas. She was too little then to use it, but She is the perfect age now. I just put it together the other day and she LOVES it. She gets so excited when we put her in it. I just couldn't help but take 500 pictures of her because she was being so cute. Click here to see the pic's.

He Actually Wanted To Poke His Eye's Out

My sister Kristy got me started on this Newsies kick last week. She had watched The Prestige and was talking about how it reminded her of when she was a young girl watching Newsies and falling in love with Christian Bale. And then I went OH MY GOSH! That's who that is! DUH! He is just all grown up now. I can remember watching the new Batman movie when it came out and asking Steve, who is that??? And I knew he was so familiar and I just couldn't remember. Steve never having seen Newsies (tragic) had no idea that he was the star of Newsies. Then I remember watching The Prestige and asking the same thing and Steve said "he's Batman" and I was like, "I know, but he is someone else too." Thanks Kristy for getting it all straight in my head. So since she brought up the who Newsies subject I haven't stopped singing the songs from it yet. The kids and I have been listening to the CD all week. So I could stand it no longer. I went out and bought the movie yesterday and declared "Family Movie Night". I kept the movie top secret because I knew that someone very near and dear to me would not be too thrilled to be watching that movie. He just likes Batman so much and I felt like he needed a new perspective on him. The dancing and singing side of Batman. So we watched it and it was even better than I remembered and I had so much fun watching it. Steve on the other hand said something about wanting to poke his eyes out, but I wasn't paying too much attention, I was busy singing along. I just knew once he watched it he would be like, "Honey, that was such a good movie, thank you for introducing it to me. I really have been missing out all these years." But he wasn't. He said it was the worst awful movie he has ever seen and the accents in it were horrible (duh, Jersey accents are horrible) and the singing was horrible and Christian Bale was the worst of them all!!!! Can you believe that? He even asked if we had actually spent money on that movie. Oh well. He said now I have to watch 2 movies with him of his choosing. Ok honey. Like he doesn't know I fall asleep in the first 20 minutes of movies anyway. (except the one we watched last night)

Irritation in the ER

I just watched last Thursday's ER. (I never watch anything at it's scheduled time, I record it on my DVR and watch it when I have the time) I am so irritated! I have been watching ER since it began over a decade ago. In the past few years though it has really been bugging me because the writers use the show sometimes as a forum for their own political beliefs, which are not my own political beliefs. It really bugs me when they do that because they don't even try to do it covertly. It is just so blatant. I am thinking, are you that talented of a writer that you can't slip it in there more non-chalantly, you just have to stick it in there just to stick it in? Anyway, the latest episode had one of the EMT's on the show with a really bad cough and he thought it was from when he went to help at ground zero after 9/11. He was blaming the government for not telling them that they needed to wear a mask when cleaning up the debris. Ok, I feel really bad for any heros of 9/11 who spent countless hours sorting through the mess and cleaning up and who might be suffering health problems now due to their courageous efforts. But really, is that the governments fault? I mean think about what was going on right after 9/11. No one was prepared for that. Everyone was in shock. Everyone was doing the best that they knew how. No one had dealt with anything like that before. But, don't you think people might think, maybe perhaps, they should put a mask on, all be themselves? I wasn't there, but I could see the smoke and debris in the air for weeks after when I watched it on TV. I wear a mask at my house when Steve is sanding drywall. No one had to tell me to do it. I just figured it out all by my little old self. I just think that people should be able to think for themselves, like big grown up people and not have to have someone constantly telling them what to do. Is that what the government is for anyway? I don't want the government constantly telling me what I have to do in my life. Do you need the government to tell you to wipe your butt after you go to the bathroom? Hello, we live in AMERICA, land of the FREE and home of the BRAVE and sometimes bravery has a price. Can't people make decisions for themselves and then face the consequences of those decisions, weather good or bad, knowing that it is a result of their own choosing and not have to pass the blame onto someone else- especially when they do it only when it is convenient for them. Grrrrr....

Get On The Bus

How sad is it that my current favorite song is "Get On The Bus" by the Doodlebops??? I seriously can't stop singing that song. It is even getting on Aubrey's nerves. She started crying yesterday and said, "Mommy PLEASE stop singing that song." Sad when your 4 year old has to ask you to stop singing a song from her favorite TV show. I don't know what my problem is. I really like Bus Driver Bob for some strange, and slightly disturbing reason.

Books, Books, And More Books

You might notice a few things have changed around here. I got tired of my old template for my blog. I have also changed the name. When I first designed my blog, I did it as an easy way to share pictures of my kids and stuff with our family who live all over everywhere. Hence the name "Steve & Allyson's" blog. I felt a name change was due since A) Steve has never posted anything on here what-so-ever and B) it has kind of evolved into mindless ramblings on my part and C) my last post was about pantyhose and I am sure my husband wants no part or credit for that. I have also added 3 new page elements all to do with books. My sister Kristy added one to her blog and it is "On my nightstand" and pictures the current book she has, well, on her nightstand. I was also reading my cousin Kathy's blog yesterday and she was talking about books and well, by golly I got all excited. I love books and I love to read. I am always reading 3 books at once. I started a book club in my neighborhood about 4 years ago and so I read a new book each month for that. The book this month is "The Wedding" by Nicholas Sparks. I have to tell ya. I never ever ever EVER planned on reading this book. Too much hype and I just wasn't interested. But it was selected by others as our book club book for April. And I must say, it is so good. Who knew? I guess all them millions of people who made such a big deal about it and gave it so much hype in the first place knew. Oh well, live and learn. I am also always listening to a book on CD in my car. Right now that book is "Rachel and Leah" . I also read to the kids and the book we are currently reading is "Ida B. ...and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World". Kathy asked for recommendations for books so I thought I would take a minute here to recommend some of my favorite. These are some that we have read in my book club that I have really enjoyed: Eat Cake and Julie and Romeo Get Lucky. Carry On Mr. Bowditch which is a juvenile book but I loved it. The Kite Runner which is about 2 boys who grow up in Afghanistan-good,good,good, Mrs. Mike from which I learned not to judge a book by it's cover, The Hiding Place which was an excellent book about the Holocaust- you know how most books about this subject matter are depressing, this one is actually very uplifting. Girl With A Pearl Earring is excellent and I have read all this authors other books (hey, I just found out she has a new one I haven't read yet!) and they are wonderful also. They are all historical fiction. Follow The River is a great book. It is a true story about a frontier woman who gets kidnapped by Indians and escapes and makes her way home. It starts out gory but if you get past that you will NEVER NEVER NEVER forget this book. One of my favorite books we have read in book club is The Time Travelers Wife. Sounds science fictiony, but really isn't and I loved it! I am warning you that is does have some language and adult situations so it might not be the book for you. Kristy I know I have talked to you about this book before and you said you didn't think you could read a book about time travel but I know you would LOVE this book if you read it. Oh, and Rebecca is another one of my favorites but it takes a while to get into it. And my favorite book of all time that I have read at least a dozen times since I was about 12 years old is A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. The book we just read last month in book club is The Goose Girl which is very good. I recommend listening to it on CD because it is not just a person reading it, it is acted out by different actors and it is very well done. And I also really like the Women of Genesis series by Orson Scott Card. Ok so there are a few of my suggestions. Happy Reading.

Spanx Me

I have found something every woman should have. I learned about Spanx on Oprah and have wanted to get some ever since. I bought some the other day when the girls and I were at the mall and I LOVE THEM! They are footless pantyhose and a body shaper all in one. And they have a new product called the High-Falutin' Pantyhose. I love them because they go all the way up to the bra line. I have always been a firm believer in the body shaper, slimmer, whatever you want to call it. Even if you are skinny. It just helps to (slurp) suck everything in and make things smooth. I love the High-Falutin' one because most slimmers stop right in the middle of the stomach and so you have tight and smooth goin' on below and mushroom cloud above. And then if you wear it with pants, HELLO! You can see the band around your leg. These are footless and you can adjust the length to anywhere you want. I wore them on Sunday with the leg band all the way up above my knee because I didn't want them to show. The girl in the store who sold them to me was wearing black ones with the leg band about mid calf like leggings and it was so cute. So there you have it. You can order them off the website, I got mine at Nordstrom's.

Hippity Hoppity

I asked Zac this morning what the date was and he told me it was the 10th. Hello! April is 1/3 over and I missed the whole first 10 days somehow. We had a fun Easter. Steve and Zac went with Steve's friend Scott and his little boy to Moab on Friday and Saturday to ride ATV's. They had lots of fun and came home dirty and tired on Saturday night. The girls and I spent Friday and Saturday at the mall (malls) shopping for Easter dresses. We came home clean and tired. We quickly boiled Easter eggs while I gave everyone a bath, then the kids decorated the eggs in record time. I knew we would be doing it late and I had a ton of stuff that I need to do before I went to bed so we cheated and just stuck Easter stickers on our eggs. We went to church on Sunday morning. My sweet little Aubrey Anna gave her first talk in Primary. She did a wonderful job. She spoke loud and clear so everyone could hear her. That night we went to my cousins house for our annual family Easter egg hunt. There were over 400 eggs and under 10 children hunting so the kid LOVED that. It was fun. Click here for more Easter pictures.