Hi everyone!!!! I am actually posting again!!! Can you believe it?!?! Me neither but hey! I had a spare few minutes and so why not? We have been a busy family. Tons of activities with the kids, Tom in school, traveling for work and his customary "game night" and me with my karate, ukulele and mandolin playing and all around erratic behavior has made for a busy life. This picture was taken on our trip to Savannah, Georgia last November. It was more than fun. We would love to go back someday. Tom is in Texas right now and will be flying to California tonight. He just returned home from Brazil (I'm jealous!!). Hopefully the travel will slow down in the next month or two. He will be graduating with his Masters in business in May and we are all excited about that. Hopefully, it will mean a little bit of spare time but who knows? I have been back at karate and have been LOVING it!! I am sore all the time but it is super rewarding and I think the kids benefit from it too (a more sane mom). I am also gearing up for an AWESOME garden this year. I am talking about corn, people. Just kidding, I am just trying to have enough plants in my garden that they will, hopefully, choke out the weeds!!! I am also going on a cruise next week. I am a little nervous but very excited about it. We will be going to Grand Bahama out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Woohoo!!!

This is what Keenan likes to do the most. He will play on Tom's phone ALL DAY LONG, if we let him. He is amazing at Cut the Rope and Angry Birds. He is in spring soccer and scored his FIRST GOAL EVER this last Saturday. He was super excited about it. He got high fives from everyone on both teams and both sets of coaches. It was funny. Keenan is really loving his swimming lessons. All the kids love them. I like that I won't have to be worried too much longer about my kids drowning, especially Keenan, who has no fear at all. Keenan is excited to start kindergarten this fall and asks me every day if it is fall yet.

Here is Coltrane at a class performance of the First Thanksgiving. Can you guess what he was that day? Cole was excited to wear his cool indian outfit. He has been doing fantastic in school and is reading like a champ. He started spring soccer and LOVES it. It is probably his favorite sport of all (besides playing the xbox.... if you consider that a sport). Cole is excited to start the hip hop class with his sister..... I think...... you never know with boys. Anyway, he is just having fun and looking forward to summer (he has a countdown going for how many weeks till school is out). He is a funny kid and a blast to be around, even when he cries in every line at Disneyland because he is afraid that the ride is going to be scary (including It's a Small World)

Here is little Quyn in diguise. I think it suits her, don't you? Q has been involved in tons lately. She has started learning the viola and is an expert at playing "mississippi hotdog" and the "ant song". She also is involved in girl scouts and got to sell super yummy awesome girl scout cookies a few weeks ago. Q has been doing ballet for a while and we are going to switch her to hip hop in May. She is excited for that. She is enjoying the piano more now that she can play a wider range of music but what she likes the most is just hanging out with her cat Lulu. Sometimes I feel bad for that cat but then I remember that I have to clean out her kitty litter and sweep litter out of the bathroom 3 times a week and I get over it.

So, all in all, we are doing great. We have really enjoyed the kids at this age. We go to movies together, miniature golf, arcades, board games, we even went bowling last week!! Bowling! We never could have done that before and had a good time. We are looking forward to camping as a family this year and perhaps some hiking too?! Well, hopefully it will not be more than a year till I post again but if it is, don't worry, we aren't dead, I am just REALLY lazy......

Hey everybody!! I know it has been a looooong time since I last blogged and I am not sure how to catch y'all up on the happenings at the Salmond fish bowl..... I'll do my best.

This first picture is when Q and I had a girlie evening. We painted each others fingernails, well, I painted her fingernails and she painted my fingers, we did each others hair and makeup. So worry not, friends, T has did not beat me up, I have not forgotten that eye shadow goes ABOVE the eye lids, and I am NOT stuck in the 80's with the powder blue eyeshadow. But Q sure looks cute. She begs to wear makeup all the time! Doesn't she know that it is a curse, not a gift?

Bounty Hunter C is on the prowl. He got this helmet and dart gun for his birthday and has totally loved it. It makes sounds and has a little microphone in it. He also got a Darth Vader helmet too, and that was perfect because now C and K fight each other. It is funny because they use "the force" when they fight. They open they hand and thrust the palm of their hand at each other from across the room and the other one falls over. Don't ask me why they love star wars so much but they totally do.

Here is a picture with our family and T's grandparents. We had a normal smiling one but I think those are so boring. T's grandparents health is faling but grandpa is just as cute and funny as ever and grandma is just as gracious as ever. Grandpa kisses me on the cheek every time we go up and visit and says "I don't know how Wilford snagged you but he sure is a lucky man!" I think I am the lucky one to have had the opportunity to get to know these wonderful people.

This is C's soccer team. He was so cute in soccer. I think we will put him in soccer again. He was a strong kicker, when he didn't lay on the ball. I can't tell you how many times he would kick the ball and then lay down in the crowd of kids. He got kicked in the head, stomach, legs, wiener (twice), and back. I told him, everytime he came over to me crying, that if he didn't lay down in front of all the kicking 5 year olds, he wouldn't get booted in the noggin!!!

This is a semi-bad picture of the fam at the red and white scrimage game. It was such a fun day. We went to the game then when to a pizza joint for dinner afterwards. The day was pretty cold and Q snuggled up in a ball on T's lap the whole game (I don't think that she is a football fan). They put little K on the big jumbo screen because he was dancing to the music. He does this little spiderman bum jiggling dance that is impossible to explain but priceless to see. The best part of the game was that UofU won the game!!!! I am not even going to mention that of course they won the game, they were playing themselves.

I have been working REALLY hard on the landscaping and that has taken the bulk of my time. I spent at least 3 hours a day on the landscaping for a couple months now (with the occassional day of total exhaustion). We have a ton of new plants planted, all our veggies planted, all the mulch spread (2 full dumptrucks full!), the entire lot deweeded (quite a job considering we are surrounded by fields and weeds), and 11 trees planted. I think one tree is dead but that isn't a bad ratio, 11 planted, 1 dead. I am planning on buying 3 more trees. But I wannt to be certain that this tree is a gonner before I turn it into firewood. I will take pictures next month when things are poking out of the ground better.

T turned 33 yesterday and we had a fantastic birthday barbeque. I invited all his close friends and they all came!! It was awsome to see them. We hadn't seen some of them in over a year so it was great to catch up.

I had been practicing the ukulele pretty regularly. I am working on finger picking. I have really loved my ukulele and am planning on replacing the strings in the very near future. I found out that my uke is a pretty ok uke but the strings are crap so if I got them replaced I would hear a big difference in the sound of the instrument. I have to have them sent from Hawaii, but at least the shipping is only 80 cents.

Q graduated from 1st grade and is very excited to live in her swimming suit this summer. We got seven peaks passes and she loves going there. They all do except C, who is very timid about any of the slides. He will play in the kiddie pools and the wave pool but if you even hint at a slide he cries. Q also has piano and dance this summer. She is VERY excited to try out dancing. I hope she likes it because she doesn't seem to like sport too much.

Well, I think that is all for now because I am tired of writing. I am positive that I forgot stuff but it's all good. Hopefully, I will write again soon. Have a great day and an even better tomorow

Mom and I had an interesting experience recently. So last Thursday we went to the new walmart at about 9:15 PM. We were checking out shrubs and trees and stuff and so we were in the outdoor area sort of near the back. It was super cold and I was afraid that it was going to start snowing. But lady luck was not smiling at us that night. It started ice raining on us. You know ice rain..... it is rain that is not quite frozen enough to be snow so it drops like rain but kind of stings when it hits you, either from being so cold or from being slightly frozen. I say slightly frozen because it still drenched us from head to toe. I am not kidding you, it was a downpour. There were little rivers that had formed in the parking lot. Well, when we couldn't stand it anymore and decided to buy the plants we had. We went to leave the garden center only to find that the doors were locked. Mom checked her clock and it was after 9:30 and realized that a worker had probably not seen us and locked the doors. My first thought was "I can probably climb these bars and squeeze in between the ceiling mesh and the top of the bars". Mom's first thought was (so much more logical than mine) to grab her phone. She had the number in her phone already because she had to talk to the pharmecist earlier in the day. So she pulls out her phone, calls walmart and says, "we are stuck in the garden center, can someone come and let us out?". The chick said "sorry, those doors are closed. You'll have to go around". Mom, "No, we are IN the garden center, we picked out our plants and now need to get out". Chick, "I'm sorry, you'll have to use the front cashiers, the garden center cashiers have cashed out for the night". Mom, "NO! We are STUCK IN the garden center. We have been LOCKED IN the garden center and we want someone to come and UNLOCK the doors so we can get OUT of the garden center!". Chick, "The garden center is closed". Mom, "I know, you CLOSED it with us inside". Chick "OH!! YOU ARE STUCK OUTSIDE IN THE GARDEN CENTER!!!? I"LL BE RIGHT THERE!" So we stood there, like drowned rats pitifully waiting for the employee to come and free us only to find that when she got there that she didn't even have the keys to unlock us. She had to call for a manager. He was super apologetic and even unlocked the side door and let us back mom's car right up to the door so we could load the plants I had bought directly into her car to avoid the monsoon. I felt bad for mom because she didn't even have a coat on but she said that she wasn't even cold. I find that hard to believe because by the time we got home I was so cold that I had to take a hot shower to stop my teeth from chattering. It was funny though because as we were driving away I noticed the 2 emergency exits in the garden center. Here I was tempted to climb over the top when there was an exit not 7 feet away. The other funny thing was that we were so distracted about the garden center that we didn't buy the medicine that our family needed so we had to drive back around the front of the store, go back in, and buy the medicine and then race back through the rain to our car. All in all, the trip was a success but MAN!! the funniest things happen when mom is around!
So Tom had an experience on Friday night. He was playing with K and once again Lady Luck was frowning on our little family. He was putting his leg up against the wall in the hallway to make a bridge for little K to run under. So the first time he did it everything went fine. Well, he put his leg down and went to make a second bridge with the other leg but his toe snagged the rug runner and propelled Tom forward. He went flying into the wall. I was in my bedroom when I heard the BAM!! I called out "are you ok!? What happened!? Are you alright?" Tom anwered back "I'm ok, but the wall isn't". I went out and saw the carnage. There was a BIG hole in the wall where Toms elbow and foearem went through the drywall. It was a foot across and about 14 inches long. I asked what happened and when he told me, I laughed and said that he was lucky that his elbow went in between the two studs because otherwise his arm would be broken and not the wall. So he fixed it on Sunday and after he put on the patch and the spackle he went and layed down (because wehave all been sick). Well, I thought that the house was a little too quiet so I went to check on K and found him fingerpainting in the spackle. He was making pictographs on our newly fixed wall. He got a "I'm very disappointed in you" and a stern look (which is usually the worst thing you can do for him and Coley) and then I fixed the wall again. They didn't touch it anymore that day and now it is dry so no worries. Anyway, funny story though. Have a great day everyone.

Hello to all those who are as sick of the snow as I am (I am assuming that everyone is so over winter.... but I could be wrong). I hope all is going well for everyone. I feel like our little family has fallen off the continent. We have been sick and so have been staying around home a lot. Little Q has missed 6 days of school so far and still is sick. She seems to be on the mend but she can't seem to shake this terrible cough and cold that follows the cruddy bug that has hit us. I think she will be ok enough to go back to school on Monday. We can only hope!! After 8 days of being stuck in the house 24 hours a day, the kids are ready to get escape this prison they call home. Poor kids. I know that they have been in the house too long because of these little indications and clues:
1.My mother caught K throwing hunks of playdo at the tv last night for no reason, I'm sure, other than to cause mischief. It's a good thing that momma caught him and not Tom because there is a good possibility that there would be a murder in the Salmond home.
2.Momma also caught the 2 boys swinging on the cords to the blinds. We have already had to repair 2 sets of blinds (and another is in line to be fixed) because of blind abuse from the kiddies. I don't know what possessed the boys to become little tarzans. They know that if I ever caught them even playing with the blinds that there would be dire consiquences.
3.C cried when I went to take the garbage out today because he "wanted to come too". Can you imagine!? Wanting to go outside so bad that you are willing to take out the garbage!
4.They argue and snip and bicker about the silliest things like He got more ketsup than me, she is touching my giraffe, he made the bubbles pop in the bubble bath, he looked at me, she makes too much noise when she blows her nose..... the list goes on and on.
5.I am finding excuses to get out of the house by myself so that I can get away from the near constant bickering. Whether it is pulling weeds in the nongarden in the snow, or taking the garbage out one bag at a time, at least it gives me a little solace from these overstimulating conditions.
6.They sit by the windows looking out at the snow longingly (even though it is so cold out there that they wouldn't stay out very long anyway).
7.They keep opening the windows and doors to feel the breeze, which wouldn't be an issue except that it is 30 degrees outside.
8.They find evey excuse known to man kind to sprint out eh front door. For instance, yesterday we were unloading the crabapple trees we purchased (WooHoo!!) and about every 2 minutes a kid was standing on the fron lawn yelling things up to us. When we finally got them to stay inside and we went into the house too, Q ran out the front door because she saw a "flag" on the hill and she wasnted to go get it. It turned out to be a piece of garbage. C saw the neighbor goat on our lawn so he went running out to chase him back (this is an occurance that happens multiple times a day).
So I could go on but I keep getting distracted by the arguing chillies and since I am the fireman-police chief-doctor-xbox commander-waitress-snuggle expert, I have some duties to perform. I only wish that I wasn't sick too, I would be so much more patient. I have learned from past illnesses that nyquil is waaaay too strong for me so if I take half doses I can sleep through the night without clogged nose, sinus headaches, cough or sore throat..... and I can still get up in the morning with only a little struggle. When I used to take a full dose, it knocked me out so hard I couldn't wake up for at least 12 hours and then when I was awake, I was groggy and lathargic for a couple more hours after that. Tom isn't affected like I am. He took the nyquil last night, slept soundly, got up in the morning bright and ready and was fine by the time he got to work (with the aid of dayquil). Not fair. Oh well, so goes life. Well, as I said before, I have to go halt the next coming world war so untill next time.....Caio.

Hello, all!! It has been a LOOONG time since I have written a post. I normally write these during the day but ever since I started working at Tom's parents house 2-3 times a week, I just haven't had the time to even catch my breath, let alone write on the blog. So life has been fun around these parts. Tom has had to travel for business and has one more trip coming up, and I am jealous!! He gets to go to Europe. I realize that it is a business trip but he and his colleague are driving through a few countries to get from one training location to the next. His colleague is from Europe so he feels like he is a confident navigator. I'm sure Tom will have a good time and hopefully he won't come back sick from this trip..... but he probably will anyway because he always does.

So I have been going through some pictures for a project that Quynie has at school and I came across a few super cute ones. I am going to put some up on the blog and take a walk down memory lane. I apologize to everyone in advance because I can not, for the life of me, get the pictures to stay all on one side, and seeing as Tom is in Las Vegas on business, I guess the pictures are going to stay screwed up. Sorry, folks.

This first pictures is of all the Salmond sons. Going from right to left it goes Tom, Wayne, John, and Brian Ray. The funny thing is that they are sitting in birth order. I sometimes forget these fun times. This picture was at the PG 4th of July fireworks show.

This one is last year at fish lake with the Salmond family. We had a good time. The weather was wierd, though. Sometimes it was warm and sometimes it was FREEZING. What I remember most about that trip was seeing Starli and Q on the lake in the little yellow raft, frantically trying to paddle back to shore as they drifted so far away from us that they looked like a little yellow dot on the water! We took this picture about half hour too late. Starli and Mike had just left. That's too bad, but there is always next year.

OH! Don't you love dad's funny picture face!? It looks strangely similar to his normal picture face!

This is little Coley in his Bouncer chair. The wierd thing about this picture is that there was a party going on and he was sleeping through all the chaos and noise. He has always been our good sleeper. The jammies that he is wearing were my favorite summer jammies for all three kids because they were really thin but still long sleeved. Coley looks exactly the same now as he did back then, in my opinion. I just love how he is holding the strap in one hand and how cute his little legs are, poking out the bottom of the jumper. Cute baby.

Here is little Quyn with her poor dead father. Tom loved this halloween costume. I jerry rigged some shoulder and leg pads up for him using my karate sparring gear and then found some baseball pants from DI that could pass for football pants for one evening. Quynie is crying in this picture because she thought that Tom really had been cut on his face. She didn't like to look at him. In all the pictures we have of that night, she isn't looking at him in any of them. Wierd. OH! Did I mention that Tom is a dead football player?

Here is Keenan smelling the leaves. The park had such gorgeous colors that we went over and took some family pictures. Keenan was completely adorable the whole time. He mostly threw leaves the entire afternoon. Leaves and rocks. Leaves, rocks, and dirt....... OK! He threw anything he could find to throw, but it was ok because I don't think he hit other people with his projectiles.... well... maybe he hit a few people, but at least it wasn't on purpose..... I hope. Anyway, most of the pictures that we took of Keenan that day were very, very cute. His eyes are SOOO blue and his skin is SOOO light and his hair is SOOO non existent that the vivid colors just popped. He is a handsome boy and has such a cute personality that it makes his onory moments almost bearable.... almost. What a cute kid.

Oh! And I love the bare feet. Pictures where the kids are barefoot are almost always cuter than shoed pictures... don't you agree?

Last, but certainly not least, is our picture at the BYUvs.UTAH football game. That was such a fun day. The season was a series of ups and downs, amazing comebacks and fantastic games. We absolutely loved having season tickets and will get them again. This time we know what to expect. I will dress really warm every game and wear sunblock even if is snowing and it will be expected that Tom will not be able to speak the next day after each game and that he could very easily have 3 heart attacks each season. I loved spending so much time with Tom.

Well, there you have it. My little walk down memory lane. I will do it again next time I post. Hopefully that will be sooner than later....... but who knows.

I have been having major writers block lately..... maybe not writers block, more like writers lazy butt who sits around at the computer and plays the ukulele instead of writing the post that has been looming over head for over a week now. So I started writing today and my attention waned and I caught myself, five minutes later, messing around with some rubber bands that are sitting at the desk, seeing how many times I can wrap them around one of my fingers (my pointer finger). When I realized I was stalling, I grudgingly turned away from my little "project" and started typing this post. I might add that the rubber band is still around my finger and it feels REALLY wierd typing with it. Anyway, we are all really happy to have the man of the house back home after his lovely business trip to the Philippenes, where he was protected in a compound with high walls and guards with guns, not that it isn't safe there or anything (she said sarcastically). Anyway, we missed him. There just wasn't enough testosterone around here without him. I found myself doing totally girlie things with all the kids (painting toe nails, putting on face masks, making frilly valentines cards, baking heart cookies and decorating them in pink and red sprinkles... the list goes on). I realized that, although a lot of fun, my little men needed a little bit of man time. So I played starwars monopoly with them. The kids did really well, except for Keenan of course, and we found ourselves playing Star Wars Monopoly almost every day after that. We set a time limit so that the kids could see an end to the game and then we just played. It was a lot of fun. I think that monopoly is a poor substitute for a daddy though and the kids were very happy when he came home. I came to the realization that Tom is very calming for me, he is able to relax at home and play with the kids, whereas I tend to race around all day long, working, cleaning, cooking, doing whatever. I find myself scheduling time to play with the kids whereas Tom just plays with them. Sometimes it is aggrevating to me how much he messes around with the kids when there is so much to be done, but deep down, I want to be exactly like that too. Not that he doesn't work when he is home. Far from that. He works very hard, but he has a very good sense of what is important and is ok with letting the unimportant stuff go until later. A good motto, if you ask me..... Don't sweat the small stuff. It can be applied to choosing battles with kids, and to situations in life. So anyway, having him home has been relaxing for me because when he is around, I hang out more, probably because I want to spend as much time with the goof as I can. Q was very excited to have him home too because she lost her 3rd tooth while he was gone. She told him about the letter that the tooth fairy left explaining why she hadn't collected Q's tooth the day before (oops), it said that she had to collect lions teeth from a pride of lions and that lions are tricky to deal with so it took her longer than she had anticipated. Q got a kick out of that one. When she read about the lions, she turned to Grandma, all wide eyed, and said "for real!!??". So when she told Tom that, she was really animated. Super cute kid. So now she can shove corn, peas and cereal through her teeth without actually opening her mouth, and she does, a lot, like, all the time. She cuts everything super small so that she can push it in there. Kids are funny. Keenan has been very animated lately too. He has discovered this little demon voice that has possession of him when he is mad. It is a mix between a howl and a gutteral growl. He also has been laying on the ground and kicking his legs lately when he is mad. Needless to say, Keenan has spent a lot of time in the corner as of late. The funny thing is, he will stay there until I go and get him. It doesn't matter what is going on around him. He just stays in the corner, bottom lip out and crocodile tears running down his cheeks. He will learn soon enough appropriate ways to exhibit emotions... we are working on it together. Anyway, Cole has had a lot of pain in his legs lately. I can only guess that it is growing pains, because he hasn't been injured or anything. Sometimes it is bad enough that he won't bend his knees. Dressing him this morning was definetely a challenge. It is hard to thread on underwear and jeans without bending your legs. You should try it sometime. Not easy. We have had a lot going on but it seems like I can never remember what we did at the end of the day. Q had a bad ear infection last week, the doctors irrigated her ear and cleaned it out (she said it hurt A LOT), Cole has a new school computer program that he likes a whole lot, I am helping a friend paint her bathroom tonight (I really like to paint), Tom got sick when he got back from his business trip and stayed home from work, slept, ate chicken noodle soup and watched his saved shows, we made water babies for the kids (waterballoons with faces drawn on them) and they all love them, they made little homes for them and carry them around in blankets, I have been playing the ukulele and guitar a lot lately, I figured out a bunch of new songs, including a few from Coldplay (fun fun), valentines day was fun, we had dinner with Mike and Starli, hung around, laughing and talking. Tom gave me a air popcorn popper and I absolutely LOVE it, I don't really like flavored popcorn so it is perfect for me. Anyway, I can't really think of much else that is going on. I'm sure I'll think of something and have to post again soon but until then, that is the salmonds in a nutshell.

It has been a long night, and it is going to be an even longer day!

I have been on a business trip in the Philippines all week, and was able to arrange my flights home so that I could get back in time for Valentines Day... but the schedule has had its issues. Last night at 1:45 AM I left the Philippines and flew to Korea where I landed at 7:10 AM this morning. I have have now spent the last six hours waiting for the chance to check into my upcoming flight... just so I can wait another two hours before I will be be allowed on the plane... which leaves at 3:30 PM. Once on the plane, I get to sit for 14 hours as we fly over the Pacific to San Francisco. I then get to wait another four hours until I can get on another plane and take a short two hour flight home. All in all the trip home will take 29 hours... although I will arrive in Utah only 14 hours I left the Philippines due to time zones.

The trip has been a lot of fun. I stayed at an incredible hotel that had amazing service and was right on the beach. The weather was about 85-90 degrees every day, and we were able to eat outside overlooking the ocean for most meals. The hotel offered every amenity imaginable, and even has massage therapists come into our meeting room twice a day to give free massages to all of us, we had a special Phillippines dance program performed for us on the beach, I ate tons of exotic foods including parrot fish, Asian soups, white snapper sushumi, etc. and drank more pina colada's than I could count.

While the trip was fun, however, I found myself spending most of my time thinking about home, and wishing I was there... all of the experiences mean nothing when I am unable to share them with the ones I love. And although I am now preparing to return home to cold, snow, the daily routine of work, home, family, scouts, church, etc... I can not think of any other place I would rather be.

So, while the trip home is going to be long... being able to spend Valentines Day with my incredible wife and my adorable children is the best Valentines gift I could ever receive... and would be worth a trip a hundred times as long as this global jaunt.

Contemplating family from a corner in the Korean airport,

Tomasina Cool Cat

I have to say, I now understand the expression "I want to pull my hair out!". It probably won't mean anything to you but pull up a chair (or a stump or a rock) and listen to my little pity party story. This tale begins in a quiet town full of quiet people and a very annoying mayor. The poor woman that this story is about naively goes about her business and works VERY hard to make life a little more comfortable for her little family. What does she do, you ask? Countless things, innumerable things, things that most people would scoff at and say they quit after being required to do them more than twice. But does this woman complain? No! Of course not........ OK, she complains sometimes. There, are you happy!? Anyway, she goes about, working hard and doing things that her family doesn't really even notice. One day she cleans from morning to evening, sweeping and mopping sticky, muddy floors, vacuuming carpet that a two year old so callously spit celery and carrot chunks onto, decluttering papers that have been strewn about by thoughtless fingers, cleaning the typhoid ridden childrens bedrooms that have been quarenteened for the protection of the public and doing dishes because the last clean cup was just used to drown Thomas the Train. She doesn't mind the work, it gives her time to think. And besides that, she likes the end result of her labors...... a clean, warm, comfortable home that the family can enjoy without threat of stepping on a stray lego, or bruising a toe from kicking a matchbox car. So she finishes her routine and that evening has an appointment that takes her away from the home. No problem, her responsible and caring husband is there to care for the little ones. As she returns home, a little later than she thought she would be, she is overtaken in the driveway by 2 superheroes who were screaming MOMMY!!!!!!! She is surprised that her children could become superheroes because she had hidden the superhero costumes on a high shelf, waiting to be pulled out next halloween when they would actually fit. She keeps a smile on her face and plays along with the excited power rangers, who are on a mission to show their strength by flexing their arms, which were bulging from the cotton that was stuffed into the outfits. She enters the, surprisingly, clean home and brushes off that the kids should have been in bed a half hour ago, once again, she has a smile on her face. As she ushers her children upstairs to prepare to retire for the evening, the superheroes request that they be allowed to sleep in their superhero outfits. Sure! No problem! She says positively, keeping the smile on her face. As she enters the childrens rooms, the smile melts into a face that can best be described with a scene of a movie. The movie is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. They have found the HolyGrail and the bad guys have to show their stupidity by opening the grail and looking at it and as a result, all their faces melt off. That's right, MELT OFF! So now you can imagine what happened to the poor woman from the story. As her face melted away, revealing the devil inside, she entered the war zone. Books spewn on the floor, wanting so badly to be on their empty shelves where they belong, all the bedding torn off the beds, every toy bin emptied and turned over upside down to create a haphazard drum set, toys flung about, unplayed with but still moved from their rightful place, clothes scattered to the wind, shelves emptied of their contents. No pebble left unturned, no item left undisturbed. The woman found a voice in her that, honestly, belongs in a grown, robust lumberjack. She baratoned her disgust with the unfairness of the world and her anger about the messy rooms and messy toys and messy kids and messy this and messy that and messy blah blah blah. Finally she stormed downstairs and pouted in the messy computer room. And do you know what she came to realize, after way too much time? She is a stupid, silly, onery woman who ruined a very good evening and a potentially good bedtime. The woman learned a simple lesson that evening. The lesson being, messes don't mean anything, they don't mean that you are a dirty person, or that you live a chaotic lifestyle. Messes are what they are. Nothing more, nothing less. Messes had no right to make a child upset, or sad, and neither did the woman. She blew it. She completely blew it. She put the cleanliness of the home over her children and husbands feelings. She realized her mistake and vowed to change. Luckily, her children and husband are forgiving and quickly helped her escort the lumberjack voice back to the reccesses of her mind, hopefully, to be locked away for a very long time. Then they expertly duct taped her melted face back onto her skull, showing only a hint of the devil inside through her expressive eyes. Next time, maybe the woman SHOULD just pull her hair out, I imagine it is easier to wear a wig than it is to reattach a face.

So I thought that I would put some pictures of the kids on this entry. The pictures I chose are some super cute ones. They are doing one of my very favorite things that kids do..... they are sleeping. Kids look so serene and peaceful when they sleep. I love sleepy pictures. Sometimes we catch the kids sleeping in wierd places or in odd positions and that is the jackpot. So enjoy the kid sleeping pictures.

I must say, this weather has been very odd lately. First, a huge snow storm that left everything under a beautiful blanket of white, quickly to be sledded over by little 2 and 6 year olds. My 4 year old refuses to sled down anything but our driveway and uses his tiny red snow shovel to cover a path of the driveway so that he can sled with everyone else (it is only a little annoying that he is putting snow ONTO our driveway, especially when he does it directly after I plow the whole thing). Second comes the nice, springtime jacket weather that melts the snowbanks on the sides of the roads down to little snowhills on the sides of the roads. The weather gave me spring fever and I think the only cure for my illness is April (I guess more cowbell could cure me too..... inside joke). The kids played outside on their bikes, wearing boots and jackets. Because of the melting snow there were MAJOR mud puddles, which my nephew Liam discovered when he was riding a little too quickly down the driveway on a razorscooter, Lucky for him, his superman flight was ended in a puddle of mucky slime instead of the bumper of our car or the asphalt. He was no more worse for the wear, other than that he looked like Arnold Swartzenhagger in Predator (you know the scene; the one where he hides from the predator by basically bathing in mud in order to have the advantage he needs to kill the monster). Anyway, just as we were becoming accustomed to the nice semi-warm-not-freezing-tolerable weather.........In comes number Three, the slush storm. It's the kind of weather that you look out the window and say "WOW!! That looks so freaking cool!" but then you go outside and you say "WOW!! This weather bites!!" and then you run back in the house, too late to salvage your hair or your socks. The slush stays on the roads and in the trees and on the sidewalks and on the grass and that night, the world freezes, leading the way to a frightful drive to church in the morning. A beautiful drive, save the horrified looks from the people within the car, as we realize that we are going to die if we press the breaks too hard. The funny thing is that within the 3 hour block of church, the world warmed up and the drive home was completely fine. Sometimes god blesses the terrified, I guess. Fourth, the fluffy stuff comes again and hides all the ugly slush under yet another blanket of snow. It is kind of cool though because the ground is still hard enough from the frozen slush that you can walk on top of it without falling through. So, all is pretty again. I have learned something positive in all this. There are things worse than freezing snow. It is called SLUSH!!!!

Ok. So Tom has taught me many things about the computer like how to turn it on, how to navigate the internet, how to turn the volume up AND down and how to write an email. He has not, however, taught me how to move a picture around so that I can write a blog without taking up a TON of space, but oh well. So I expect that Tom will look at this blog, sigh in resignation, and then fix the pictures himself. All of these pictures were taken by the kids with their new Kids cameras. They have both (Quyn and Cole) taken more than 300 pictures apiece, since christmas.

We have had a fun couple of weeks. I was able to sell the 59 BelAir last week, and MAN!!!! Does it feel good to have a 2 car garage again!. I am a happy camper, and I got exactly what I wanted for the car, even though the guy called me a head strong pitbull. We will be using the money to landscape the rest of the front lawn (even though we are half tempted to say screw you Cedar Hills and do nothing and get a 50 buck fine forever!! It's almost worth it except then I would have an ugly lawn forever). Anyway, So now mom has a place to park her car in the winter. And another good thing happened when we sold the car. When they moved it we found our missing green sled underneath it. So the kids were VERY happy about that. Who knows when, or if, we ever would have found it had we not sold the car. So, go us!! Another thing completed from the list of things to do.

We are gearing up to start the basement. We have enough to get a really good headstart on the framing. I am looking forward to slowly finishing over this year. Hopefully, there won't be too many problems and my goal through the whole thing is to do my best not to disagree with Tom too much..... ok, maybe I'll disagree but I will try to communicate with him about my disagreements. How about that? Better? I thought so.

The kids had their cousin Liam sleep over the other night and they slept in a tent up in the loft. They had a really good time and we (the haggard parents) finally got them to go to sleep at 11:30 pm. But I guess that is ok, they didn't have school the next day and everyone was playing well with each other, they were just REALLY noisy. But they did have a really good time and nobody was onery the next day.

Anyway, all is well in the Salmond home. We have been busy doing the type of things that nobody can remember the next day, we only remember that we were busy. It's all good though. Have a good day and a pleasant tomorow.

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Hey all you Rock Band enthusiests!! Wazzup!! I just wanted to tell ya'll that Tom and I have started a small band (consisting of me and Tom). We are excited about it and know that soon, all you cybergeeks will be talking about Penz n Payper at the water coolers during break time at work (do they even HAVE water coolers in offices anymore?). The name was really up in the air for a while there. We were considering The silver screens, with names like Katherine Hepburn and such but I didn't want to pigeon hole our band like that, so what did we end up with? Penz n Payper. I am Penelope Penz and Tom is Peter Payper (it sounds a lot like like Peter Piper doesn't it?ha ha ha). Our motto is Nine to five?.... I think not... How about dusk to dawn!! Anyway. Tom plays the drums (of course) and I am switching between the bass and lead guitar (because I am crazy like that). We started our little band in an attempt to have more hangout time with each other which doesn't include lounging on the couch, watching the tv and being lazy..... oh, wait...... that it exactly what playing rock band is!!!!!!!!!!! My plans have been foiled once again. Oh well.

We have had a great week. It seems to have flown by. I don't know why, but ever since our christmas break our little family has been getting along really well. Aside from my kids eating like birds and Coley constantly having accidents, our little family is doing fantastic. I guess it takes the perfect combination of patience, strictness and medication (ever heard of valium for children, all you Saturday Night Live fans?). Just kidding. OK. Let's do the run down. Ready?

Tom- Man who works hard and plays hard. Favorite past time (besides the obvious hanging out with his freaking awesome wife) is playing computer games over Hamachi with, usually, his daddy, and occasionally other friends and family members. He recently had some (potentially) bad moles removed from his back and is looking more and more like Frankenstein every year, with all his scars and stitch marks. He does not like the cold weather and does what he can to stay warm, except the obvious wearing a coat. He is a fantastic Sunday School teacher and I get the feeling that the 11 year old kids that are in his class actually like him as a person and not just as a teacher. He recently attended a city council meeting and fought Cedar Hills over a fine that they were giving us and we won. He stuck it to the man!! Go Tom!! He is a distractable, lovable, easily discouraged, teaser who hates to stop a movie half way through, even if it is REALLY late. Tom thinks exercise is typing really fast or taking the garbage to the curb (which is why he is so overweight). Tom loves his family and as long as there is respect for each other, he stays in a happy mood, usually. We love Tom more than dog poop (inside joke).

QuynhAnh- Girl who is a born leader but doesn't understand the finesse it requires to be a GOOD leader. She has moments of pure sugar and moments of pure acid. She plays very well with friends and sometimes well with brothers. Favorite past time is..... I would say.... definitely doing arts and crafts. She is always creating something or cooking something or drawing something. She loves animals and wants to be a horse rider when she grows up. She can get the next door neighbors furry four legged friends to come to her and often walks the fat little pygmy goat around on a leash (the perfect pet... someone elses). She enjoys school but not school lunch and doesn't like to walk home (but does anyway, if it good weather). When she is tired she becomes a diva, demanding things a certain way, refusing to let anyone touch her and demanding everything she wants..... then she goes to bed, because I will not have a diva in this house. Quynh loves us. She loves her little brothers and often is the one who solves the problems when they arise while they are all playing together. Her favorite color is pink. She started piano recently and seems to be catching on as fast as I did. Her favorite toys are Lovsey (a faded white plush dog with pink ears) and Little cutie pie (a little white dog who barks and moves around when you pet her). We love Q more than eggs.

Coltrane- Boy who is shy to strangers and very boisterous when he is comfortable. He has been known to whisper to me for an entire evening if there are people over that he doesn't know. Cole almost always asks permission to do things or have a snack. He won't touch the Xbox because I told him 1 time that he wasn't allowed to. Coltrane has a hot temper and if you hear "Isss not faaaa!!!" (It's not fair), it will always be Cole. He goes to his room often and has yet to learn that throwing fits makes things worse not better. Cole like to play trains with Keenan and will line up every car, train, and plane in the house, end on end and makes long snakes of vehicles all over the upstairs. Cole doesn't like to brush his teeth and will only let me do it is I sing the Star wars theme song. He will play the Xbox all day long if you let him. He is struggling with potty training and until recently was having 5-7 accidents a day. What changed, ask you? I told him that if he has an accident during the day then the next day he can't play the Xbox at all. It seems to be working. Coltrane sings star wars about 9 hours a day. He is nervous around animals and won't pet small dogs (they intimidate him more than big dogs, for some reason). We love Cole more than skunk stink.

Keenan- Boy who is entering his terrible 2's with a vengeance. He has a temper sometimes, too, and I can't help but chuckle when I hear him screaming non-sensicle words at people. Needless to say, he goes to the corner a few times a day. But he will stay in the corner all day if you don't go and take him out... sitting there, tears rolling down his cheeks and his bottom lip out. Keenan LOVES to play outside, rain, snow or shine. He plays in the dirt all summer and the snow all winter. Keenan loves carnation instant breakfast and would probably drink that every meal if I let him. He goes to sleep when we tell him to and sleeps with a Dr Seuss bear that he names Tiger. He likes to roll in the rugs and seems to get pleasure from destroying tidy rooms for no reason. He likes to be tickled and hugged and kissed. He also likes getting his hair cut. Keenan makes a lot of messes and is a very curious little guy. He still has a big head but it isn't half the size of his heart. He is quick to apologize and quick to hug. His favorite book is the little caterpillar book that turns into a butterfly in the end. He likes that it eats holes in all the food. We love Keenan more than rotten rotten food.

Julie (me)- Woman who shows her emotions on her sleeve, usually. She doesn't want to lose her identity by doing the same old thing every day so she and Tom try new things and have fun dates often. Julie cleans, cooks, gardens (sort of), takes care of children, and tries to get it all done before Tom gets home from work so that they can relax in the evening. Julie is discovering that her relationship with god is a lot stronger than she had feared it to be. She exercises 5 days a week and that seems to keep her mostly sane. She loves her family. She enjoys having her mom living with them and is not looking forward to when her mom moves away. Julie has finally learned that the most important thing in her life is her little family and so she tries very hard to keep them all loving and close to each other. She has a few New Years resolutions but only uplifting ones this year. She plays the ukulele somewhat, and is trying out shotokan to see if she likes it or not. She recently got a kickbutt haircut that she LOVES!! She likes to paint her toe nails black. Julie always has dry cracky skin in the winter and she hates it and wants to do something about it but absolutely loathes having lotion on her hands so she is at a loss as to what to do about the dilemma. Oh well. We love Julie more than Keenan poo.

So that is our little family in a nut shell. We are doing really well and are having a good time with each other. We are excited about church this year (11 AM!!! Sweet!), we are planning our trips, planning on how to finish the basement and the landscaping, planning, planning, planning! Anyway, I feel like we are finally getting everything put back together after a couple of years of struggle and tension. So this is what peace feels like, huh? I think I like it.

I must say, I wasn't incredibly optimistic, before the game, about the outcome of the Sugar Bowl. But because I am a true fan or I was afraid of jinxing the game (which one, I don't really know), I guessed that Utah would win over Alabama by 3-5 points. In my mind I was saying "It could happen.......Shaw! And monkeys could fly out of my butt" (Wayne's World plug), but I never would have admitted that I didn't really believe that they could pull it off. I think that Tom was much the same as me, only he predicted that the Utes would win by 3 million points then later revised that statement to 10-13 points. We had family over, which was super fun, and we all watched as Utah schooled Alabama. They came out in the first quarter like they were on fire! The scored really quickly 2 times and caused mass coronary failures across the country, including one in our living room. After being resessitated, Tom kept his emotions in check by yelling for the next 2 1/2 hours, randomly screaming insults at the referees, jumping up and down at every first down (and Utah had a lot of those) and punching and slapping siblings on the back after the good plays. So Tom pretty much behaved as if he was in the stadium with the rest of the screaming Ute fans. It was a phenominal game, with a lot of ups and a lot of downs. The score at the end of the game was Utah 31, Oklahoma 17. At the end of the game sportscasters across the nation were eating their words that they had said prior to the slaughter. We earned our win and we earned the right to say that the BCS is a screwed up system. I must say that the referees were amazing........... amazingly blind. I wonder how much they were paid by the BCS to throw that game. However much it was, they still couldn't stop the Utes. I mean, how could they? I'm not much of a Brian Johnson fan but he could throw a football over the mountains if he wanted to (Napoleon Dynomite plug). How about another one? Run! Asiata! Run!! (Forrest Gump plug). Anyway, it was a fantastic end to an even more fantastic season. I mean, it is so cool that this was our first year to get season tickets. We can't help but believe that we did our small part to help them have such a good season. You know what I mean....... our subconscious minds were hard at work telling the offensive coodinator to call an intelligent play once in a while, our mindless screaming and yelling to support our team in hopes to keep their spirits up, our outcries at the refs bad calls, our heckling and teasing of other fans just for the fun of it, our occasional prayers and pleads for a little heavenly assistance (I'm pretty sure that God is a sports fan)...... all these things add the ambiance and nature of football. We were a part of that and it was very fun. Will I speak ill of Alabama? No way! They were a good team, but they just couldn'at handle our crushing defense. Besides that, I'm afraid of jinxing the Utes by speaking ill of their opponents. Karma, man, karma. Karma reined supreme at the Sugar Bowl. So will we get season tickets next year? Need you ask? We have been hooked on the idea of season tickets. Now if only the season tickets came with babysitters on game day.

Hello, everyone! I hope everyone's holiday was as fun as ours. We have had a BLAST (surprisingly) having the entire family home for 2 weeks. It has come as a shock to me that our kids have been so happy with each other and with their annoying parents. We had a great christmas day. Fun day, the breakfast casserole turned out AWESOME!, the kids were happy with their gifts, as were we, we were able to visit with extended family, we hung out in out jammies all day and we were able to talk to our brother, Jeff, on the phone for a couple hours. He is on a mission in Ghana, Africa. It was cool to hear that he is doing well. In the past week I have spoken with him 4 times. He called to set up the time for christmas day, then on christmas morning he called and said he was having trouble with his calling cards, then we spoke to him for about an hour, then the next day he called again because he had 10 minutes left on his card and wanted to use it up. He is doing well, teasing companions as always. He told me that he had thrown an exploding firecracker under his companions bed when he was talking to his family. Same old Jeff. We love him.
We have gone sledding a couple times. It isn't hard to go sledding when you live in Cedar Hills. We basically just have to walk outside. There is a great hill in the field just past our back yard. Quynie and Keen love to play in the snow. Coley, on the other hand, has no use for the cold weather and would just as well play Lego Starwars on the xbox 360. But anyhoo, Keen has a great time "shoveling" the driveway with his miniature snow shovel. Basically he pushes the snow back and forth on the sidewalk and driveway.
I have felt the after christmas hangover and now feel like I am in the yearly winter lull. What is there to look forward to now? Valentines day? Nah.... We aren't super into that holiday. I guess I am looking forward to spring........ If that ever comes.
Tom has enjoyed being home for this holiday, and we have really taken a break from life. It has been nice to just hang out and do whatever, not cleaning much, and the house shows it, we only started doing the laundry today and I have to say that I am glad that Tom is around to help because otherwise, I think I would drown in the sea of smelly clothes (and I do mean smelly.... Coley is still working on the no accident thing). You know when you need to do laundry when the four year old has no pants, shorts, pajama pants or underwear left. He wore a pair of Keenans pajama pants yesterday. Oh well.
All in all, life is really fun right now. We are having a good time. I will post pictures that the kids have taken with the new kid cameras that my mom gave them for christmas. I have to say, I have lost the magic of taking pictures of every little randomn thing that I see. The kids love to take pictures, of what, it doesn't really matter. The kid cameras don't have super high quality but the kids don't care. Now, if only I can figure out how to download them off of the cameras onto the computer....... I am going to have to get my computer whiz to do it for me.......(Coley). Just kidding, he is the computer whiz apprentice to Tom.

Merry Christmas! We miss all of you who we don't see often enough and we love all of you who we see too much. We have been so busy this christmas season that it has really flown by. But I am happy and delighted with the kind of busy that we have been. It has been the kind of busy that leads to tighter family ties, smiling childrens faces, full tummies, and warm hearts. This year has been a series of ups and downs, with the economy how it is and all the moral issues that surround us all the time, it is such a relief to find that christmas still brings the feelings of old. I feel like kid again, anxiously waiting for christmas day to come, but for different reasons now that I am grown. I can't wait to GIVE. I can't wait to see the shining faces of my children on christmas eve as we read about the TRUE meaning of christmas. I am so excited to feel the magic in the air as the children lay out the cookies and carrots for old St. Nick, hoping that maybe, just maybe they will catch a glimpse of him..... or at least hear the sleigh bells. But above all, I love the feeling of closeness that surrounds christmas. It seems like silly, petty annoyances become a little more silly and petty at christmas time. The cold weather and the snow brings us closer to each other, literally and figuratively (sometimes that is unfortunate, as Cole and Quyn DO NOT play well together). Whatever it is, I don't care. I am happy and so is my family........ usually. So Merry Christmas to all, we love you all, and hope that your season is as bright as ours.

1. Where is your cell phone? nonexistent

2. Where is your significant other?upstairs

3. Your hair color? dishwater?

4. Your mother? monumental

5. Your father? trying

6. Your favorite thing? love

7. Your dream last night? WEIRD

8. Your dream/goal? comfort

9. The room you're in? office

10. Your hobby? varies!!!

11. Your fear? murder

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? school

13. Where were you last night? xmasparty

14. What you're not? perfect

15. Something on your wish list? individuality

16. Where you grew up? Orem

17. The last thing you did? sang!!

18. What are you wearing? clothes!!

19. Your TV? annoyance

20. Your pet? imaginary

21. Your computer? evil

22. Your mood? harmonious

23. Missing someone? always

24. Your car? COLD!!!!

25. Something you're not wearing?wedding ring

26. Favorite store?Kohl's

27. Your summer? awesome

28. Love someone? TOM!

29. Your favorite color? changes

30. When is the last time you laughed? today

31. Last time you cried? today

TAG!!! You are it

Julianne
Emily Gerber
Patricia Ravert
Elder Ravert (if you time, dude)

I had the pleasure (and pain) of taking a skiing class with my mother. We showed up to Alta as Skiing novices and after 3 lessons left there as Skiing Semi-novices. Go us! We rock. Learning to ski was on mom's bucket list (now she can die happy, I suppose). She found out, in the first lesson, that she was a "little" out of shape, as she couldn't put her ski boots on by herself. And a ski slave was born (she named me that, for the record). My job was to help her get her gear from the car and to the skiing area, put on her boots, help her up if she ever fell, take her skis to the car at the end of each lesson, take off her boots (because she was completely fatigued), pull off her snowpants, put on her shoes and drive her home. Now, I am not complaining, I had a ball. It was so fun hanging out with mom and seeing her try new things that I didn't mind being the ski slave, although in the future she may want to get some young buck to take on the job (GO MOM, you cougar!). I did learn a lot from the lessons, and had the last lesson not been in a blizzard I would have had a BLAST on the slopes. The problem was that the snow was falling horizontally, I didn't have adequate gear for the freezing tempurature and my glasses were completely fogged up the entire way down the mountain. So if you can imagine a blind popsickle skiing in a blizzard you have the correct picture of me on the slopes today. I got to the bottom and practically skiied directly INTO the lodge in order to save my limbs from the impending frostbite. Well, I waited and waited and waited for mom. After what seemed to be an eternity here a snowmobile comes down the mountain carrying none other than my mother. She was too tired to finish the run (partly because of some heart medicine that she is on that makes her fatigue easily and partly because she had been hanging onto a tow rope for an hour prior to going up the lift). We decided that skiing in a blizzard is NOT an enjoyable hobby and IS completely insane. So we left and drove SLOWLY down the mountain. I only lost control one time and luckily no one was around to witness it (except for mother who started clawing at the dashboard). I got us back in control with no damage done (except to maybe the passenger side dashboard). All in all, we had a great time. Mom came away from it with damaged shins and a check mark on her bucket list. I came away from it with the thought that maybe I am a snowboarder in a skiers boots. Oh well, there is always next year, I am going to try snowboarding and become a Semi-novice shredder. I love you mom.

This has been an interesting week for our little family. First of all, it was a VERY busy week (in the evenings). We had something on our schedule every evening. Monday we had family night (which royally bombed!). On Tuesday we went on a fun date with some friends (dinner and board games). We went to a birthday party for a neice on Wednesday (it was really fun, even with the 20 children who were there, not kidding). Thursday I babysat my nephews over at their house and Friday we went to a ward christmas party (the second of many). Saturday I went skiing and we went on a christmas cruise, which consisted of sitting in a row boat while floating down the Provo river that is haphazardly decorated with strings of lights. Sunday is the Fairbanks christmas party, we are bringing a yummy fruit salad.
In addition to those things, we closed on our refinance for our house this week. That was not a pleasant experience because the amount that we were told origionally to bring to closing wasn't quite right. They told us 2 hours before closing that the actual amount that we had to bring to closing was 1800 dollars more than we had planned. So we are completely broke (eternally) and we now owe people money (fun times). Oh well, so goes life.
We are also battling the "great city of Cedar Hills" at the moment. There was a misunderstanding concerning the landscaping of our yard and the city councel decided that instead of listening to our side of the story, they would just fine us 50 dollars a month untill the issue was "resolved", meaning, we have to have the gardens planted or we are out 50 bucks a month. Oh, isn't the government swell? We are still fighting it, this battle is far from over, friends.
I don't mean to sound negative, believe me, I am not feeling negative at all. Far from it, I am happy. I am with my beautiful family, safe in a warm house, I have friends who love and care for me, and it's christmas. You can't get much better than that, well...... maybe it would be better if I had all those things AND and a billion dollars. But I don't know, I will tell you all if is better when that actually happens.

So here is the question of the week. If you were a camera that was being harrassed and abused by certain children, where would you hide to protect yourself from them? I will give you options.
A. Behind the frozen peas in the freezer
B. In a black sock in Tom's sock drawer
C. In a hole in the frame of couch, next to the springs
D. On the very top shelf of the cans cabinet, pushed behind the refried beans and hominy.
The answer will be found at the end of this post.

So, Here is a picture we took of our AWESOME christmas tree. It is about 18 feet tall. I absolutely love it. I must love it because there aren't many things that I will put up with even though it drops things all over the floor (the needles), demands to be fed 2 times a day (otherwise it will drop even MORE needles), pokes me every time I walk past it (that's what she said), and takes up half the room with it's extra long arms.
The tree has been targeted by the fraternity of junk flinging children. It has been the victim of many run by attacks. I have found many things in it's poor boughs including Q's coat (about 7 feet up), cars, paper airplanes, balls, spoons, drum sticks, food (they found out that cereal sticks in the needles......haha, sooooo funny..........she said sarcastically), blankets and couch cushions. Someday they look at the tree and see it for exactly what it is..... a pretty tree, but at the moment it is the funnest toy in the house.
It also has been constantly stripped and robbed of it's jewlery and clothing (christmas lights and ornaments), leaving it's bottom half constanly naked and exposed (it's a good thing that the tree is ambiguious and not a female..... or male for that matter, I suppose).
We have been having a very fun holiday season so far and are looking forward to a great rest of the season. I wonder if the kids are sick of my constant caroling. If they are, then they are Scrooge McDucks because I am not about quit. I only have six weeks to get in all the christmas I can handle and I plan on taking advantage of every second of it, except at 3 in the morning, I suppose.
If any of you guys truelly know me and how I REALLY operate, you already know the answer to the quiz question above. But for the rest of you the answer is C. In a hole in the frame of the couch, next to the springs. I searched every couch and finally found that it had fallen through a small hole in one of the couches. I was hoping that one of my "little treats" had fallen in too and given me a little surprise but alas, I only found the camera. Oh well, the camera is a good enough surprise by itself.
OH!!!! Another cool thing happened last Saturday. Tom and I were out to eat and guess who we saw!!!?? The winner of Survivor China!!!! He looked like every other young punk kid, he had a curly, shaggy mohawk, tight short pants and pink keds. Yes people, I said pink keds. I pointed him out to Tom and it was cool for about 30 seconds and then we moved on. I must say, I would love to play survivor, although it would be so hard to be away from family for so long.
Well, we love you all and hope that this message finds you all safe and happy. Merry Christmas

I was hoping to include a picture with this blog but the kids have been snatching the camera and taking random pictures of stuffed animals, red balloons, toe nails and each other and so I, being a responsible adult, hid the camera. Yes, I hid it. So well, in fact, that I can't find it now. I have been known to hide things in couch cushions and heater vents so I have quite a search in front of me. Anyway, Thanksgiving went very well. We invited my brother Brian and his cool family over for football and turkey gourging. We also invited my father and his wife, DJ. We started the day off with a haphazard game of football that turned out to be really fun. Next came a late lunch (which was marvelous), the fruit and jello salad went over very well, I must say. We played games, ate pie and watched a movie. It was just a pleasant day with people we love.
Our next pressing issue was the cutting down of the all-important christmas tree. We went into Wallsburgh canyon, which is a little canyon that to get to you must go through Walsburgh, the wierdest town on the continental United States. There are not many places that you can see outhouses (most likely still in use), parts from what looks like an old byplane with a tv antannae attached to it, and a scarecrow dressed in army fatigues (doesn't that defeat the purpose of getting birds to notice that there is a "person" standing in a field?). Anyway, It didn't take too long to find the perfect tree and we were lucky, it was near the road. It is funny how in the forest a tree looks so puny and little standing next to it's gigantic, statuesque relatives but as soon as you get home, you realize that it take up half of the family room and you have to cut the branches around the tv so the children can see their oh, so important spongebob and Max and Ruby. Such was the case of the xmas tree of '08. Not that I am complaining, by any means. It is a beautiful tree with no bald spots, it doesn't leak sap all over our carpet (like the tree of '03), it is the perfect height (18 feet), and it has a beautiful shape. But it was a beast to decorate and seeing as half of our christmas tree lights did not work, it isn't quite as "lit" as trees have been in the past. We decorated the entire house and are all ready for christmas. Now if only we had our christmas shopping done.........