Meet Merlin (the 9 years old boy)

This is Merlin.

This is a classic picture of him. His name fits him perfectly. There were no other names picked out for him. He just was Merlin. When he was a baby people would ask me all the time if I named him after the magician, and I always worried that he would hate being associated with that. When he turned four he was at an age where adults were starting to direct the question to him. They would say, "Oh, and what is your name?" and he would answer, "Merlin". Nine times out of ten the person would ask, "Merlin? Like the Magician?" Without skipping a beat, Merlin would always say, "No, I'm Merlin, the 4 years old boy!". I have loved watching his independance and his love for life. I am proud to be his Mother.

The Haunted Old Mill

This was the first time I had been to the Haunted Old Mill. Everything is fenced off so I did not get to see any ghosts... But we did see a couple of deer in the trees above the Mill! It is beautiful up there and the building definitely demands some respect!

The Grand Prize

98 Plymouth Grand Voyager

Finally! A picture of the Van I got as a result of the accident. I got it 10 days after the accident, the day the rental car (I sooo loved that car!) back. It is SO nice to have a van to tote all of the kids around in. And as an added bonus, it has air conditioning! lol. Daniel helped me find it (okay, okay, HE found it! :)).

My Toothless Beauty

If you ask Charlene what she wants for Christmas she will just roll her beautiful blue eyes cause she has defiantly heard that one before! She is currently missing seven of her front teeth. How she chews her food I will never know! I tell her she looks cute with no teeth and she rolls her eyes (isn't that supposed to start when she is a teenager? lol) and says Mom! I have teeth.. (and she points to her cheeks) back here! I love her toothless smile! They are just starting to grow in, but I will never forget my toothless beauty!

Awe... How sweet!

I couldn't resist taking this picture. We just ran to the store to pick up a few things for dinner and Charlene wanted to push the cart. Bella just kept leaning over and giving Charlene a hug and a kiss. This is what being a Mom is all about! I love these girls!

Can you see it?

Original picture taken with cell phone camera. Can you see it?

Slightly cropped auto corrected image in Adobe Photoshop (Brightness & contrast)
Now can you see it?

Cropped even more. . . . .
Can you see it now?

I saw this image while laying in bed. It was in the vanity mirror next to the bed. I say "was" because shortly after the picture was taken, I realized how dirty it was and Windex took care of the problem. I have no idea how long it's been watching. . . :)

Keep looking, because the longer you look, the creepier it gets. . . .

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is always really special to me. It is the one time of year that the Cemetery comes alive. There is an energy in the air that is only there during this time of year. And it always brings a smile to my face. We went to Memorial Estates last night to put flowers at Carolyn's grave. Daniel looked around and saw that there were some headstones that looked new although they were very old. We went home and he looked up how to clean a headstone. We went to the store and made a kit with all of the things necessary to polish a headstone. We went back to the cemetery and cleaned and waxed her headstone. It looks next to new now. I am so happy with it. What a thoughtful thing to think of doing.

Breitling Hill Haven

Harrison, Merlin, Bella, Charlene, Zoey

Zoey, Bella, Charlene

My Man

My Dad's family has a cabin in Mt. Air. Every year we go up and help clean up the grounds and do some spring cleaning inside the cabin. I have not been able to help for several years as I have worked on Saturdays forever! Well my schedule just changed at work so I have weekends off and today was my first Saturday off. I was really glad that we could go up and help! Daniel helped my dad with the heavy lifting and I helped rake the leaves that had accumulated. I helped inside a little bit, vacuuming the lofts. The picture of the kids up in the loft sure brought back a lot of memories! As we were leaving my dad asked Daniel to get up on the shed to hook up the tire swing. I just had to take a picture. Luckily Daniel is not scared of heights and so it was not to big of a deal for him to do that. I am like my dad.... I would have had a really hard time doing that! Thank you for all your help Daniel!

Indiana Jones

My work rented a whole movie theater at the Gateway for Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Lost Skull. Daniel and I took Harrison, Merlin, Charlene, Zoey, and Bella with us to the movie. It was fun to see Indiana Jones back in action. Although I would have to say that I was not too impressed with the story they decided to tell. It would have been more intertaining if they had chosen a story that I knew anything about! I had not even heard of a crystal skull until Discovery Channel showed a special on it, just for this movie. There was a lot of comedy in it, and it is always nice to laugh! It was nice to go out as a family!

What's the Debate?

Last week Daniel and I attended a dinner for Bingham High School's Debate team. Daniel's eldest son, Derrick is on their debate team.

I haven't been inside that school since I graduated ten years ago. What a strange feeling, but it was very nice to get dressed up and go out with my man...