Just finishing their job!

We were so happy and grateful when we were robbed that they didn't break our sliding glass door.

Last night while Marty was mowing the lawn this happened!

Again we are grateful.

  It only went through one of the windows and one of the panes and no one got hurt (we hope that will continue as it isn't replaced yet)

My motto lately is "when it rains it pours"!

Muscleman becomes Al Capone!

W. had such a good time at the "bouncy park" aka "dump park" that he wanted to go back again the next day.

On Sunday morning we were doing our activity for "family home evening" (yes we do it on Sunday) and W. was in charge.Can you guess where we went?

At this park they have retaining walls built out of large metal cages holding large decorative rock.  He was walking along one and fell.

 

So Muscleman

 

 

becomes

 

Al Capone

(ok so the cut is in the wrong spot - I'm using literary license)

 

It made for a very crazy and stressful Sabbath but it sure helped me get all the kids to the immunization clinic bright and early the next morning.

W. we hope all heals well and your days of being a famous gangster are short lived.

I've got muscles!

The weather is so very very nice this time of year we decided that we needed to hit a new park. 

What park would it be?  Hmmm...  We heard the new "dump" park -- Yes that is right the park built over a landfill-- was great so we called friends to meet us there and were off to play. 

I was sticking with William while he was going down the slide over and over.  All of a sudden he sees another kid as he is finishing climbing up a ladder and announces proudly "I have big muscles"!  A short while later he announces to another unsuspecting child  "Hi my name is W..."  It was so cute to see him confident and happily socializing with other children he doesn't know.  Since he is the youngest he always seems to have a sibling to play with.  This was the first time I saw him happily "making his own friends". 

W.  I am so glad you are growing up as such a happy social boy!  I love being your mother!

J. takes a trip to the spa

Today J. went to the

She has never been to a nice salon or spa in her life and had no idea such "fancy" places were out there.

Why did I take her there?  

Because they are such an awesome place that when I asked if they gave a discount for "Locks of Love" haircuts they said "I believe that is a no charge"!! 

I was so excited since the last salon (said with french accent) did nothing of the sort.

So I had to "advertise" for them here.  They deserve it!

So here she is Before

During

After 

Thank you Christine for not only giving my daughter such a great haircut but for helping her feel wonderful as she was doing such a great service.

J. you are beautiful inside and out! I am so happy such a giving girl is my daughter!
Thanks for being wonderful!

Growing time for Mama!

Ok I am in LA to "help" my sister-in-law have her baby (yes she came the day after I left) and I get a phone call from Marty a bit earlier than usual. 

Why?

W. was on his way to the ER.

Why you ask? 

He got hit in the head with a golf club!  A child's golf club but still.

My friends saved the day --Thank you Mary, Andrew and Mindy!

Marty got there just before the stitches went in.  The report I got was that he was very very brave!  I am so proud of him.  It was stressful not being able to be with my little one but it is always good for Mama to stretch!

 

He has a funny look on his face but you can see he is not traumatized!  I am so glad he is such a happy boy! 

I love you W.!

Changes

I have been thinking a bit the past two days about the changes we need and do make all the time.

Why?

Well for the past few months I have been going pretty hard and fast.  The past couple weeks even harder and faster.  As of yesterday morning I came to --ok trying too come to a screetching hault!  It is quite difficult to make the change.  I tell myself that it is good for me to chill a bit but I still find that I am wound up and wanting to do another project or two or maybe three or four.  You get the jist.  You see I am at my Sister-in-laws house hangin with them for a week.  Why am I here you ask?  Well she is expecting her 3rd baby any day now.  You see why I just need to wait -- and I am not even the one who is pregnant!  Hence the pondering of making changes.  I think that when I go home I must revamp how I spend my time. 

Another change is that I now have a blog to share all of the fun things going on in my life and I don't even have a camera to share them with.  Grrr!  Another shift I need to make.  I hope to catch y'all up when I get a new camera.

Thanks for letting me share my ponderings a bit.

Tuesday's Treat!

Ok so some of you may have heard of the adventure in the Hoffman house on Tuesday.  I was not here (very happy about that) during the real event but I get to participate in the remainder.

 What am I referring to you ask? 

Why the breaking and entering, buglary, ya know that kind of adventure!

I was only gone about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  I assume they were watching when I left and saw their chance.  Little did they realize that our house was the best one on the street to break into.  After all our 10yr old 26" TV is really a good find.  Not to mention the case of beans and maybe oatmeal from our storage.

Ok joking aside we really don't have much to take to take that the pawn shops are interested in.  Well obviously they didn't know us very well (that is comforting).

I let B. go into the house before me (don't the older kids always make it in first while Mom gathers everything up to take into the house).  W. was "coming in" very slowly so I ran in quickly set my stuff down, listened to the message we had and went back out to get him.  W and I went to the mailbox (just a couple houses down the street) and came in. Then it went something like this:

I looked at B. shooting hoops out on the patio and noticed a screen out on the patio.

"Odd.  Why did the kids do that?"

I saw a window was open.

"It had to have been J or J as B isn't strong enough to open it"  

"Hey that means it was this morning when it was cold and the heater was on"

"Grrrr"

I close the window and see that the "locks" are still in the "locked" position.

"huh?"

"Screen on patio, window open, broken locks...."

I start really looking around.

I see the sliding glass door frame is pulling away from the wall as if someone had tried to pry it open.

I look and see if our computer is still where I left it. It is!

"we couldn't have been robbed, our computer is still here...."

"Yes! You have been robbed.  Hello, the window was open, broken, and the sliding glass door has been tampered with...."

I look at the front door (which we never use) and it is open slightly.

"Oh gee! B., W. come out side with me please!  Don't touch anything!"

I called the police and the rest is history.

They were quite sloppy and they definitely missed some things (aka computer!) but it still is a pain.  Our biggest concern is they took our camera and now I don't have pictures to add to my blog!  Priorities here!

Just kidding!  Really our concern is the data they took, in the form of an old laptop (broken but data is still accessible) and a portable hard drive with a copy of all our files on it as backup.  And then it was pretty hard on the kids to have there "life savings" gone as well as J doesn't have his Ipod Nano that he just got for his birthday.  Grrr!

There are two very funny or rather ironic parts to the story.  We had 2 laptops (one worked the other didn't) and 2 Ipod shuffles (one worked and the other didn't).  They took 2 laptop and 1 shuffle.  They took the 2 that didn't work!  Hee hee hee!  That helped me laugh about it which helps a lot!

We are grateful that no one was home.  No one was hurt and that the house wasn't very damaged. We feel very blessed in the whole thing and that we still have our computer so Marty can still job hunt!