We love Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is our favorite holiday among the smaller holidays at our house. It has nothing to do with myself working in cardiac ICU while pregnent with each of the kids. But mostly because you get to eat chocholate for breakfast and you get to eat Red Hots. The hard little candies with cinnamon in the middle. I remember teaching both of them how to eat red hots one at a time by placing them on the end of their tongues. To this day they still do it that way.

Weekend Camping Trip

Our Girl Scout troop went to Camp Misty Meadows this past weekend with three Junior troops. (All were fourth graders based out of different schools) The weather was perfect on the outside, we had heat on the inside at night, and we had the best time. I have always said that "the girls" were the "best" and this weekend they proved it. I still have 8 girls and that is amazing at this age. They played games with the younger girls, taught them camp songs, took them on two hikes, and cooked dinner on the campfire. And they even cleaned up without being asked too!! We have come a long ways in 11 years.
The Juniors went horseback riding on Saturday morning but our main purpose was to complete the requirements for being able to earn the Gold Award. After meeting with them one on one I can honestly say I'm impressed with all 8 young ladies. Their projects are as different as they are. The hardest part in the last year has been pulling them apart becuase their Gold Award projects have to be individual. I have compared them to a fine oiled machine that you have to take part. Because they have been together for so long they know each other strengths and weaknesses and they play off of those to make whatever they are doing work.
To say I love each one of the girls is an understatement. I know when they walk across the graduation stage in two short years it will be a bittersweet moment for me.

Working Out the Bugs

We hope and pray we have everyone able to view this blogsite. Kyle will be blogging tomorrow for the first time. This is a very hectic week at our house Brandy is taking semester finals as is Kyle. But at least the projects are complete and turned in to all the teachers. Lots of things that we are still working out between each other to make this a great year. I feel that we take the people that we live with full time for granted and after 25 years of marriage that is what has happened to us. I just feel like the kids are along for the ride. The weekend after Christmas we went to Holiday in the Park at Six Flags. As kids Mike and I had rode the run away mine trains many many times. And even the kids have rode it with us. But riding that ride in December when it is cold...is a totally different sensation. The last climb before the final free fall you are in a decorated house sitting looking around enjoying the antiques and then...you are dropped into a mine shaft dark as night! That pretty well describes our lives in the last year and put a new prespective on my life. Because after the drop into the "black hole" you resurface on level ground again. I think that is the lesson Mike and I were suppose to learn..and also to trust that the other one is not going to work out after all these years. In the last couple of months, Mike has started stopping by on Friday (he's off that day) and brings lunch for us to eat. We are relearning that it is truly the little things that count.

Mike Laurie Brandy and Kyle

My Closest Pals in the WORLD (ILY)

The people i am about to list are part of my life becasue they make my life entertaining, crazy, and complicated in a good way.

*Mysti- my closest friend, she is shy but after a while she opens up and can be just as loud as all of my other friends. She is crazy and somewhat insane but it is okay cuz she is like me. Her brother adores me and he is a trouble maker. She is a Senior almost ambassador Girl Scout working on her Gold Award.

*Kari- my closest friend, she loves to read as much as i do and is in history class, she is crazy, likeable, and outgoing, and i just want to say that she is going to be the famous one out of my group of friends. She is a Senior almost amabassador Girl Scout working on her Gold Award.SHE IS A TWIN!

*Kandise- my closest friend, she is the one who will be doing hair and make up for the famous, she is wonderful at what she does, she is crazy, outoging and probablly the only gir li know that has blue leopard tights and wears them to school on a cold day. SHE IS A TWIN! She is a senior almost abassador working on her Gold Award.

*Larissa- my closest friend, now i have to let the world know she is the biggest band geek ever! (ILY LARISSA) she plays the basson and is amazing in Spanish, she is awesome, and is a Senior almost ambassaodr working on her Gold Award. she is insane but we all are.

Brandy (Spaz)

New Year, New Beginning

2008 is one year that our family is grateful to see in the history books. We sat down at the kitchen table this last week to talk about what we wanted to do differently this year. All four of us set goals but I feel that the change that we all felt needed to be made was to put the four of us first before others. The last year we learned many lessons about ourselves and others and especially our parents. Even though Mike and I are the oldest in our families we learned that our parents are people to and not always our parents. That was a major Aha moment for the two of us. And now we know why Kyle has a hard time with is parents and Brandy. He lives in a house with three oldest and he's the baby!! We show no mercy on the boy!

I hope to be able to have the kids blog some on this site so they can write about their own lives and have pictures to show what they are up to.

May 2009 be peaceful at your home as well as ours!!

Mike Laurie Brandy and Kyle