Thanksgiving

MARCIE CAME!!!! That's it. That's the best part. We're thankful for Marcie and that she came all the way from Portland for Thanksgiving and it's a good thing, because we don't know how to do Thanksgiving now without her.

Okay wow, that last sentence is one hot run-on grammatical mess. See how I get when I think about Marcie??? We all love that girl!! PS... we didn't take very good pics...we just hung out and laughed!

TURKEY WEEKEND

ODE TO CODY

Maddi is Boss

Maddi got straight A's this semester!! WOOHOO!! So, she failed calculus last semester. Tried to drop it, professor said no, stick it out...downhill from there. Do-Over this semester and she gets a 96%!! (different teacher helps plus major major studying). She had to overcome her hesitation to camp out at the math lab and shake that feeling that she was annoying the tutors who are being paid to tutor. Sociology...she said she could have done better but wow, all that time studying calculus cuts into other classes so she ends up with an 89%. How disappointing. So she emails and talks to the teacher, he does account for attendance etc. and WA-LA...bumped to an A!!!
YAY MADDS!!!

Here's some fun in ThatchNasty as they lovingly refer to their school town...

1. CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS of course
2. Tubing w/roommates, hometown of Lindsay
3. Halloween, Maddi is a sailor...Steph well, hot Mama?
4. This is how they play tennis
5. Monster drinks for studying...duh, made her sick
6. Jumping somewhere random in town
7. 3 Pretty Girls downtown Thatcher
8. ...and they brought along a guitar ;)

Homecoming 2010

Jarom's first Homecoming...turned out great (ok he pretty much skipped all the festivities his freshman year...so this is his first real Homecoming experience!) Jarom and Duncan were ever so spirited-twice...WOOT! Dressed up for Nerd Day and BLUED-OUT for the game!

Duncan, Miranda (one of my Laurels) & BigDaddyJ

The infamous Duncan and his cohort in crime...BigDaddyJ

J-Town and Madeline

Maddi was home for the weekend and we managed to blindly match the perfect, complimentary shirt to Madeline's dress :) We are that good folks. Madeline's BFF Alex came along with her, Jarom and the group...everyone had fun and looked great!

For the big date, he and friends organized a group...his good buddy Duncan's mom and sister offered to save the gang some cash and decorated their patio Italian style, served salad, breadsticks and lasagne so they all got to be together without the mean waitresses who HATE the groups of teenagers. I love this because the restraunts really are too expensive anyway and the kids don't get good service since well, let's face it...teenagers don't tip well and are loud. That means an angry server even before they sit down.

Preston, Andrew, Jarom, Seth and Duncan...do any of them look like big tippers?

Thanks Lori and Cami! It looked fabulous and the kids loved it!!

Look at those 3 on the end...Jarom, Seth and Duncan. Fine Priests in the Bellair Ward. Do you remember the conference talk "I love Loud Boys"? Read it, see picture again...it'll mean more to you. Look at them...do you think they can sit together quietly?
Look at those faces. No they can not.

Getting a boy off to homecoming was wildly simpler than GIRLS!!! Don't grow up Mikki :) I'm getting spoiled!

ALL THINGS JAROM

Jarom has been busy. First...his summer job was saving lives and looking cool as a lifeguard at Wet 'n Wild.



This was a grueling job which also required a 6ml bike ride to work...and yes, 6ml bike ride home. Poor little fella :/ He was a trooper and did not complain and folks...it was HOT!! He always left in plenty of time, never called off with some lame teenage excuse, he did save some lives, schooled a few punks and called security. se-CUR-ity, SE-cur-ity...this man's got to go! One 6yr old was tumbling in the catch pool beneath the slide who didn't pop back up so Jarom pulled the unconscious boy out, got him in proper position, lifted his legs and then the boy started breathing...a couple girls passed out (yeah right, at the mere sight of him right??) from heat exhaustion probably and then he had a college aged young man breaking rules in the lazy river (not using the required tube) that Jarom had to confront; the young man barked out clever obscenities but Jarom remained calm and cool & and only handed him a little bit of lip when the punk went around actually IN a tube-- Jarom in true Regan F. spirit says to him.."ahh good job man, you can follow a simple rule!"

School has started...he's running Cross Country and busy with homework. Football season is here, Homecoming is coming...and this boy is 16 yrs. old so he asked Madeline to the dance in this clever way...
Mikki chalked an outline of his body as if he'd fallen in death, murdered let's say, on Madeline's front driveway. We roped off the area with crime scene tape and made some posters that said..."Madeline, I would die to go to homecoming with you!" Madeline was at dance while we "murdered Jarom" so to her surprise when she got home from dance she was very alarmed to see the house taped off and didn't know what to think...after a minute of her in wonderment, she finally gets out of the van and checks it out & is pleasantly surprised!! Jarom then came out from behind a bush with some flowers. It was a HIT..and she said YES!

Lastly...Saturday chores saved Jarom's life this past weekend. Back story first...we had noticed the seams in the drywall of the ceiling were splitting, then later it was sagging and noticeably splitting and the cracks extending. So, we were going to repair it and nail it back and reinforce with dry wall screws etc etc. Well, Saturday he had slept in long enough and I went in to roust him out of bed and he said...HEY Mom, that ceiling was crackling and creaking in the night! We decided we better take down the ceiling fan just in case and do something until Dad got home. Jarom first of course gets a quick bowl of cereal and suddenly...BOOM!!! Down came the ceiling right on his bed. WHEW!!! Luckily our mancub was up and outta there, it would have been a RUDE AWAKENING!!

Let's do a movie review shall we?

Courtney, Mikki, my mom and I went and saw this new cute movie. So, it's a slow one but enjoyable...I don't mind slow movies tho. Had an issue with Anthony Edwards from ER. He will always be Goose or Dr. Greene for me. He is majorly type casted in my opinion...as the NICE guy. In this movie his character is horrible and I just wasn't buying it. He can't do dumb and mean. He's GOOSE!!! Plus narration in the movie was trying to be Wonder Years or A Christmas Story and didn't quite make it. I know, I know...trivial things but all in all a good movie!

I'd say...this is a rental and you're not sleepy...or a matinee showing. And that's a movie review for ya right there...how bout it??

No blogging and Bon Qui Qui

Mikki asked me why I haven't updated my blog lately. Honestly, no one reads it so why update it? Even dumb Courtney and Maddi rarely read it or even give it a glance. Right girls??? Are you reading this now? And that's dumb even if you do because you don't comment cuz you don't have a gmail or google account with which to comment. Stupid.

So, Mikki said to just put this....

JAROM AND MIKKI RUN LIKE BOSSES EVERY DAY IN CROSS COUNTRY.

The girls at work call me QuiQui because of this video...I at least "feel" like this with some of the phone calls I get...my face is dead on but I swear I'm trying to sound all funky fresh. Most days I'm almost irritated they're even calling ;) Of course I don't work fast food and I'm not dealing with the public LIVE and in my face...but still. It's fitting.

Nuh uh Sir do not get loud with me OH NO, do NOT get loud with me
(click WATCH ON YOUTUBE)

Father/Son pie making and other shenanigans

Every year for Regan's birthday he wants this strawberry pie his Mama used to make called "Amish Strawberry Pie" and I must say it is delicious!! Now the mancub wants pie for his birthday too...with their May birthdays during strawberry season they can make this demand every year but I'm here to tell you they are a PAIN to make. Maddi calls the pie filling "sap" so ... this is father and son pouring on the sap, all the while...TWO SAPS are in the back being bizarre which is their specialty :)

Happy Birthday Jarom and Regan...thanks for being born!!!

Hot Pink track shoes in ACTION again

This is Mikki's first year on the track team & she inherited Maddi's hot pink track shoes & runs them PROUD! WOOT! She decided to try hurdles and loves it! She's still a hopper :) but Jim Stone, hurdling champion from Idaho, is coaching her and has her doing some exercises etc. to help with that trail leg. Soon she's going to be winning like Bethany (lane 2, 2nd from RT). Mikki is lane 6 (2nd from left) and comes in 3rd but PR'd. GO MIKKI GO!!

ATTN!! AFTER PRESSING PLAY-CLICK THE VIDEO FOR FULL VIEW...WEIRD YOUTUBE UPLOAD!!!

She finally was also chosen to be on the 4x4 team which is quite the drama you see...the "head 8th grader" saw potential in this little 7th grader. We do NOT know why the coaches don't coach, time at meets etc & determine who runs what event. So "head 8th grader" chose Mikki when one of the other girls dropped out, then she also decided what legs everyone ran in. She is not aware that this little 7th grader has the fastest time of the 4 girls and uses her in the 2nd and 3rd legs. Awesome!

Bob Shark Lives

My best friends from high school know who Bob Shark is. He was doodled on every note, letter, phone book and ward list in existence. (Any doodlers? While chatting for hours on a NON cordless phone in my youth--I felt compelled to doodle. Just ask my mom, I'd doodle on any paper lying around which was usually the ward list or the phone book) So anyway, Bob Shark was actually a drawing based off a Sea World toy shark. A couple years ago at Sea World, I found the toy again and bought it...the fun ensued as Jarom used it for photo bombing & we posed the shark everywhere & used it in our "Stone Witch Project" video through the corn maze. Our family realizes that only we think it's funny. Then the shark broke :( Oh how we've missed Bob. Well, looks like we scored!! Some friends who went to Sea World for spring break are bringing us back a new Bob Shark! Yippee!! We're going to take much better care of him this time and not let Maddi use him in the Mr. DV pageant for a skit. Here's to you Bob Shark...here's some fun we've had in the past and if you see a random shark in future pics--now you know the story!