Parent's Day at School

While Laura is recovering from her illness, I have been trying to help out by filling in whenever possible. On September 30, I got to spend a half day with Emily at her school and took these pictures for Laura. From the cafeteria to the convection experiment in the science lab, from homeroom to choir, I got to enjoy being a "student" for a day, and even took a geography test. It was fun! Emily has some fun friends and classes. I bet Laura would have done a lot better than me on the social studies test, though!

Video Night Smackdown

Was it the horror movies? Or the $20.00 worth of sugary and salty snacks? Or maybe just the chained heat of 5 teens and one tween sitting still for several hours? Whatever the cause, this match was only one of several that Saturday night in September!

Of Course You Need a Laugh....

I found this on my Mom's computer, which I am now using, and had a really good laugh.

These are the pictures that turned out the best. It sure was a good time! We saw a lot of people we know, some we haven't seen in ages, you just never know who will turn up! There are even plans to get together with people and see them again. The band was smokin' hot, and although I didn't get a good crowd picture, the dancers were out in full force, and even sang along with a couple of Val's songs. Good times, good times....

Warning: NO CARE BEARS ALLOWED

Well, when it comes to kids things change fast.

So.

I bought two (very inexpensive) toothbrushes for the twins. After an elaborate ritual of unquestionable fairness to both, which included guessing a number between one and ten and which hand it was in, Paige got the purple toothbrush, and Brooke got the yellow one. See the broken-hearted expressions above!

The yellow one (Brooke's) sported the dastardly, evil Care Bears, while the purple one (Paige's) flaunted a very edgy and much desired Bratz.

The situation was resolved when a Garfield toothbrush happened along to replace the unwanted, rejected Care Bear toothbrush and the teeth appearing in Brooke's now happy smile were finally brushed. Lesson learned.

The Luau!

Family tradition: When the Squire boys' birthday month rolls around, it's party time. This year Margie and Mike hosted a luau, and if you don't think those grass skirts and bras looked cute on the guys, take a look! ! I would've taken more pictures but there were people there I didn't know very well. Val and I did a royal fire dance for the chieftains (Michigan legal fireworks suck, by the way. They wouldn't even set dune grass on fire...) and we also enjoyed a cozy bonfire outside with sparkly patio lights as a backdrop. Margie made frozen Margaritas, and we had fun telling jokes and scary stories. Oh, did I mention the food? It was great! Kudos to the cooks!

WSDA Recital

Emily posed for us after the recital.

Hip Hop Happiness!

Up in the dark balcony, it was hard to get a good video but I think Emily (front and center most of the time) did a great job, it was fun to watch!

Birthday Memories

I found this note from Jamie. She had a great 21st birthday party, by the way! The "fish" part on the bottom is what Ray wrote when he read what Jamie wrote.

As I said, I have been going through some old pictures. Be afraid!

AWW!

The year was 1973. We were living in a trailer on my stepdad's property in Whitehall, on a dirt road near a small lake. The trailer was next to a pine woods where the kids loved to play. This would have been in December, Laura just turned two. Awww!

Getting A Cast

That's Dr. Moulton putting on the first layers of my cast. The grandkids said I should get a purple one, except for Paige, who said I should get a glow in the dark one. Hmmm....tough choice, but I went with purple.

Fun With Blogs

Okay, here we go again, another "Did I or Didn't I?" The winner this year gets something special made by me.

1. While living in California, I once walked to a Dutch restaurant and ordered a cup of coffee. At that time I took cream and sugar in my coffee. They gave me a fork instead of a spoon and I was so mad and disappointed because I couldn't spoon the sugar out of the container!

2. I went dump-picking as a child, when my Dad would take our monthly load to the dump. I found and ate mints that had a candy coating (wrapped.)

3. I once used a floor tile I found to stick down the front of my tailored shorts to make my tummy appear flatter.

4. My English teacher in 7th grade was really mean. So I wrote a bunch of insults on a paper napkin and when the students filed out of the room, I made sure I was last and stuck it in a file drawer so it hung out. Then I lingered outside the door after she went back in. I heard her crying when she read it.

5. Urged on by a friend, I once ate an already chewed piece of gum that we found frozen to the bottom of a teeter totter. My friend said she would give me two dollars, but she never did!

6. I hid under my sister's bed so I could hear her gossip with her friend. After a while I had to pee, but they were still awake, so I had to pee on myself and the stuff that was under the bed, including a school library book. A few days later when my Mom made us clean our rooms, it was obvious what happened and my sister got blamed for it and got yelled at.

7. I once skipped school in a school bus that was parked in back of a repair shop. My feet got cold so I took those rolled gauze bandages out of the first aid kit, and used it to wrap my feet in and took a nap.

8. My cousin and I were asked to babysit for a neighbor who had a 5-month old baby. It was so pale and ugly, we put mascara on it's eyes.

9. I made this blog post because I lost my good camera and haven't had the desire to take any new pictures with my new camera because the last ones didn't turn out very well. So I lost my photographer's confidence and don't have any cool pics to put on here.

10. I like the smell of rank weeds and muck.

A Few More Wedding Photos

Getting used to a new camera resulted in some of the pictures not turning out. These are some of the better ones, in no particular order...my apologies to the ones who aren't shown due to the extreme darkness and/or blurriness in some of the photos. Editing helped, but not all the pictures could be fixed. I'm also still having trouble getting the pictures to load evenly, so scroll down, there are gaps.

We had an absolutely wonderful time, the wedding went off without a hitch, and the excitement and joy were obvious in every smile and hug! Congratulations to Mike and Margie, who are a great couple, fun to be around and always so good to us. They worked hard to make this day special, not just for themselves, but for all of us, and it couldn't have been better!

Facebook Tragedy

Got a great laugh out of this cartoon, as I recently joined Facebook to keep track of the grandkids, and found so many friends and friends of friends. I wonder if I am the only one who feels a little overwhelmed!?

Before I was able to discover all the features and how to use them, I found pillow and food throwing fights going on, got a pop-up that tried to fleece me by telling me someone had a crush on me and someone else thought I was an idiot, and got some bewildering requests....when all I really wanted to do was say "Hi" to a few people and keep in touch! I am still a blogger at heart, but one thing I do like about FB is that it's very current (new messages everyday) and you can keep in touch with more people, not just the ones who are patronizing the blog.

So I do apologize to anyone when I am unresponsive to FB requests, I am mostly a commenter as I don't know how to do much of anything else and have no great desire to learn.