She blogs, she scores!

OK, nobody faint! I know, it is actually me blogging! Thank you Megs for setting this up for everyone and thank you Mandy and Mel for getting me hooked up and probably everybody else for helping me some time or other to do this. Hopefully this will take and I will remember how to do it again tomorrow or whenever.
CJ your blog was fantastic and complete with pictures! Impressive.
I am sitting in my little studio watching the snow come down. The wind has been blowing hard and swirling the snow but it is calmer now. Dad and Justin are supposed to go snowmobiling today with Justin's boss and his dad. We'll see. It was supposed to snow a lot in the mountains so they will, hopefully, check it out carefully before they go.
Yesterday we had the house inspected. There are a few things that need to be checked out further, including one that could be a deal breaker so we will have to see. There is moisture under the stucco in some places. The year this house was built was the last year you could use junk stucco. So, it is probably the last house in the US made with it. Lucky us. It probably isn't too bad but the worst scenario is that it would have to be scraped off and the good stuff applied. It doesn't appear right now to be that drastic. In ways that would be ok as I could add some rock work to it. You know how I love stucco! Other than that things are just normal minor things-except for the furnace on the main floor that doesn't seem to work!
I am finishing up the 3 quilts the Beehives started. They pooped out after 3 weeks of it. I was way too ambitious for them and should have only made one with them! They also cut and tied about 5 pieces of fleece. They could chat all through that so they got those done easily. They are a fun group of girls and love to get together. The two new girls were each kidnapped close to their birthday and brought here for breakfast with the Beehives! Thanks for the waffle maker! We had waffles once and french toast the next time.
We also use the waffle maker for Waffle Saturday the third Saturday of the month. Yum. I think next time I will try a "specialty" batter and see how it goes!
Dad is enjoying his job a lot. It is good for him to be out with people and he likes making a little money at it, as well. It keeps him busy and happy. He couldn't ride his toy in the winter so needed something to fill the long hours! He may regret it when he can't ride all the time when Spring and Summer come.
Now you are caught up with our doin's.

Hot-lanta

Since I've been guilted into going through all the hassel of switching to the "new blogger" and blogging. . .

The Cahoon's are still in GA. We spent the last week (our Winter Break) being sick with either the flu or a cold-good times! The best part about it was that I didn't have to work or drive any of the children to sports practice.

Ciera just got put into the Honors program at the Middle School. Yeah!! She will be moved to a different set of teachers tomorrow and not have to deal with as much garbage that goes on in a regular classroom. She will also get first choice for electives in high school as well as be in the AP courses there. She made the middle school soccer team-two practices a week and Friday night games. She is somewhat diligently working on her Personal Progress-she wants a driver's license-eventually.

Garet spent three days at St. Simon's Island, GA with his friend Sammy Seymour. He came home looking like a surfer dude. (We're still waiting for pictures from this trip). He is doing great in school-if he's actually study he'd have 100's in his classes. He is working hard on his scouting merit badges. You'd better watch out Travis, Justin and Josh because he is determined to have more merit badges than any of you. If things go well he will have his eagle before he's 14 then onto the fun stuff scouting has.

Chelsi is so popular we have to have a calendar to keep up with her playdates. She is doing really well in school and is becoming a girly girl-fingernails painted, little purse at school so she can keep her hair brushed and lip gloss on, cute little puppy (Webkinz) to help her "think" on her desk. And at recess she's out there chasing the boys. She will be playing baseball in a few weeks. She loves all animals still-especially gerbils and horses.

Graden is Graden. He is excelling in school and driving his teachers crazy. He is working on not getting so frustrated with the other students-he finishes his work and wants to move on to the next thing, but no one else in his class is finished. He reads a lot-he's got over 220 accelerated reading points. (AR is a program that tests their comprehension on the books they've read.) Basically he's read 100+ books this year. His teacher set a goal of 50 AR points. The first one in the class that reached that would get "A Series of Unfortunate Events: The End" (the last book in the series) as a prize. Graden won it in less than a month. He just finished reading Eragon and will take the test tomorrow.

Mandy & Matt we will all be out there to visit you in June. See what you get for trying to make us feel guilty.

Willie does suck for getting a picture with the trophy.

Megan I'm sending Ciera to live with you since you keep the same hours and shower at odd times.

GO MAVS!

the beautiful music of small children

So, Alyssa is quite the singer. I guess they teach them numerous songs in nursery and with older siblings in primary and a mother that sings "church songs" to you every night, how could you not know these great songs. She loves to sings and has the most adorable sounding voice. I mean honestly, is there anything cuter than a small child singing primary songs? She does quite well with the "new classics" as I like to call them, "I love to see the Temple" "I'm trying to be like Jesus" "In my Heart" (or "Search, Ponder and Pray" as you may know it) However, on occasion, she does struggle with the words.

On Monday afternoon, as Mom and I sat in Justin's torn up living room (you'll have to get him to blog about that) Alyssa sat on my lap singing many of her favorites, including "Holly, Jolly Christmas" (who doesn't love a Christmas song in February) She began singing "I'm Trying to be Like Jesus." As she started struggling, I thought I'd help her. Well, she wanted none of that, so she simply put her hand over my mouth. Well, when grandma tried to help her things weren't quite so polite. She was across the room and so Alyssa couldn't simply cover her mouth. So she said to grandma, "shut your mouth." When grandma didn't seem to be responding to Alyssa's request fast enough she said again and louder "shut your mouth." Immediately she began to continue to sing the words in her sweet little voice....."I'm trying to love as He loved......." Ah, the irony! Needless to say, I had to quickly stifle a laugh because I found it so hilarious (I'm sure Travis can relate!)

In the future (and for all of you primary workers) maybe we should also work on making sure these young, sweet innocent spirits know the meaning of the words they are singing in addition to knowing all the words. But for now, they sure do provide us with a lot of joy in our lives!!

Back to school, back to school.....

Yes, you are reading correctly, I am "back to school." Technically, at this point in time, I am almost done, but due to great guilt from Megan, I am posting as requested. I am nearing the end of Real Estate School. If any of you were wondering where all the idiots in the world are, they are in Real Estate School. I will be working with Pops and am actually quite excited about it. Needless to say, I am quite popular in my class and provide lots of entertainment for the other students. And, just to give you a little taste of how funny I am I will share a quick, funny story. One of the instructors told me I was thinking too much and just such thinking would get me in trouble when I went to take the State Real Estate exam. I told him not to worry and I would "dumb down" when I took the exam. Hopefully I will pass on my first try, otherwise I really will feel stupid!!

Hello? Is anybody out there?

Here goes:

I'm still working at Access Title in Orem. In case any of you wonder what I do there, I prepare the documents you have to sign in order to buy/sell your house. Thrilling: no, but it pays the bills and I like the people I work with. I still live in Provo with my good friend Hannah Terrill. She was actually in Josh's freshman ward oddly enough. We tend to never go to bed as early as we should and still manage to be nearly on time to work in the mornings. We've actually got a pretty good group of friends to waste our time with. I just got back into doing yoga a lot and I love it! When Mel and I go, there's usually more laughing than when I go by myself. Good times. I have a recent obsession with 30 Rock. Who knew Alec Baldwin could be so funny? (Though he was good on that episode of Friends) I recently decided to take advantage of my youth and singledom and will hopefully be going to Europe at the end of the summer, fingers crossed. So, on that note I'd like to end by pleading for monetary gifts from any of those who have a penny to spare. J/K. But seriously, how much do you think it's reasonable to spend for a Eurotrip?

Finally...

Because you're dying to know ...

Quick update from the Texas Stratton-Kotters:

• I officially started my new job on February 1
• Matt officially finished the MPA program by taking a 9-hour test
• I head to San Fran tomorrow for a couple days of training
• Matt tentatively starts his new job March 5
• Roger and Karen are coming for 4 days next week*
• Matt's bro Jason and fam are most likely coming in March*
• Matt successfully survived his Polar Bear camping trip last weekend

And that's all I have to say about that. What's going on with everyone else??

**I was trying to guilt some of the Strattons into visiting us ... did it work??**