Beware---you can break your blog

I'm sorry to interrupt the chronicle of our daily lives but I am having a major blogging crisis.  Sadly, I have learned it's possible to break your blog.  It can be fixed but it is NOT easy.  I only share my story so that hopefully it doesn't happen to one of you.  Honestly, I sort of wish it did happen to one of you first, that way I could be reading about this on your blog and then avoid doing it myself.  Oh well, I guess I'm taking one for the team.  (Unless of course, you are a savvy and well informed blogger and already know this stuff.)  I might also mention, that if I had been following Blogger message boards, I would have known about this, because apparently I am like the one millionth person to do this!

So what happened?  It all started when I reached my "photo upload quota."  Did you know you have a quota?  Well, you do.  Once you reach the quota, you have to pay for extra storage space.  Nothing is ever free, but I was willing, I mean I have dedicated 3 years, countless hours and over 1,000 photos to this blog.  I'm not giving it up now.  In the process of updating my storage space, I learned that all your photos are stored in albums over on Picasa (didn't know that before.)  You have to log into Picasa to increase your storage space, well while I was doing this I saw that all my photos on Picasa were public.  I start thinking, not sure I want all my pictures out there so public, they are public enough on my blog, so I changed the Picasa web album setting to private.  Okay read this carefully:  DO NOT CHANGE YOUR SETTING because when you do this, you break the link between the Picasa album and your blog.  THIS MEANS YOUR PICTURES WILL NO LONGER APPEAR ON YOUR BLOG.  AND THE ONLY WAY TO REESTABLISH THE LINK IS TO RELOAD THEM ONE BY ONE BACK ON YOUR BLOG.  Just changing your setting back does not work.

Are you serious!!!!!???   Do you realize what I am saying:  I have to go back into my blog and upload every single photo again.  (Insert tears, gnashing of teeth, screaming, swear words, etc.)  The only thing that kept me from hurting myself was that by some strange chance only about 1 year's worth of photos were lost, the other two years are still appearing.  So instead of reloading and captioning over 1500 photos, I ony have to do about 600.  Aren't I lucky? 

I did immediately slurp my blog into blurb so that I have a copy of the undamaged part of my blog for printing.  I have decided at this point to repair the links for the last year.  If by chance the other links stop working, I am not going to go back and reload the pictures.
Aren't I lucky?

Ashley Update

Ashley is in choir again this year and had her first concert in November.  She also auditioned for a solo and was selected!  We were a little surprised because the director tries to give a lot of different kids opportunities and since Ashley had a solo last year, she wasn't expecting to be chosen again.  Needless to say, she was excited and a little nervous.

The theme of this concert was African spirituals.  The 7th grade choir is very small this year, so they have to really work hard and project.  They sang some songs I was familiar with as well as some that I had not heard before.  My favorite song was called, "River in Judea."  It really was beautiful.

Ashley's solo part was in the song, "Rock-a My Soul."

She also went to her first Young Women in Excellence night at church.  I am really enjoying being a Young Women's leader at the same time Ashley is in the program.  It gives us the chance to learn and grow together as well as spend some quality time together.  The theme of the evening was "Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful" based on this Mormonad:

We decorated using lots of flowers and mirrors.  We also asked the parents to select a flower that reminded them of their daughter and then present that flower to their daughter that night.  It was really very sweet to hear the parents talk about their daughters--and very good for their daughters' to hear what makes them so "beautiful."  For the record, Dave presented Ashley's flower and as an awesome public speaker did a great job.  We picked a pink Gerbera Daisy for Ashley, because a daisy represents happiness and is cheerful.  The Gerbera daisy is also bigger, bolder and bright in color.  It's got a little flair, just like Ashley.

For her project, Ashley sewed a pair of pajama pants, under the value knowledge.  They turned out very cute and she did a good job.  I keep telling her that she should sew pairs for me and Paige for Christmas!

One last bit of news for this super-achiever.  Ashley applied and was accepted into an engineering program for middle school girls.  It is sponsored by Northern Illinois University and supported by Motorola and the Girls Scouts of America.  It basically consists of engineering workshops two Saturdays a month and a summer camp.  The girls work in small groups with the assistance of mentors under the supervision of female professors of engineering.  Her math teacher recommended her and we think it will be a great opportunity for her to apply her math and science skills in a practical setting as well as help her to see what career options are out there in the field of engineering, if she is interested.  This is a new experience, but the program has come highly recommend so I'm hoping Ashley enjoys it.

Eight is Great!

In the midst of all the parties and fun, our sweet little baby turned 8.  As she already had her birthday party, the actual day was a low key family celebration.  Paige's birthday fell on a Sunday, which I was grateful for.  For her birthday dinner she requested Hawaiian haystacks, which I found sort of odd considering she doesn't eat the chicken (she is not much of a meat eater.)  I think she just likes to be able to put some coconut on her rice.  For dessert, we had already had a cake so we ate caramel apples instead.  She did get one extra present---a Paige brag book.  I had a bunch of pictures of her printed and bound in a book.  She liked having her very own picture book.



Enjoying her "Pages of Paige" book



Paige is quite the character in our home.  She's funny, smart as a whip, and very loving.  She has always loved to cuddle.  She is a great pretender and loves to play.  Everyday, she has to take a little time to herself to go upstairs to her room and play alone.  She usually lines up her stuffed animals and teaches them in "school."  She also loves live students as well, if she can convince someone else in the family to be her student for the day.

Paige is also a great friend.  In fact, she has so many friends that I can't keep up with all the playdate requests.  Whenever we go to activities or school events, she is always greeted by a group of friends giving her hugs.  At her school kids get tickets for showing good character.  They can then put the tickets in a drawing held once a week.  When Paige first got a ticket, we talked about how the "odds" weren't too good for winning in the drawing, to which she replied, "I don't care if I win, I just like being a good kid."



Her island diorama

Fortunately, Paige also does very well in school.  She is in advanced groups, gets 100% on her tests, and knocked the socks off the standardized tests this year.  She enjoys learning and is a quick learner.  She is also very meticulious about her school work and won't rest until she knows all the details and has everything figured out, which sometimes can drive her parents nuts.  We also know that she won't be parlaying any of the school success into a medical career.  Paige has absolutely no tolerance for the sight of blood or even the talk of blood or gore---she's a fainter.



This year, besides playing soccer, Paige is also taking piano lessons and joined a Girl Scouts Brownie troop.  She is a busy girl but has lots of fun.



Just returning from a Brownies field trip
to pumpkin patch



She always gets the best cards from
Gpa/Gma Church



Lastly, I can't forget to mention one of my most favorite things about Paige:  her FRECKLES.  I love them!

This is Halloween!

Halloween always includes a trunk-or-treat at church.  This year the party was held the Saturday before Halloween and the youth groups were in charge of organizing, so after a couple of years off---I was back to doing the trunk-or-treat.  Originally, I didn't mind and agreed to help take the lead, of course, little did I know how busy the month of October would be for me!  Fortunately, I recruited some great people to help me out, and the young men and women also stepped up.

The Young Women, specifically, were in charge of decorations.  Another leader (aka super creative, party planner extradordinare) came up with a cute idea to make "bats and hats."  So we gathered all the materials and had the girls help us put them together.  I think they turned out pretty cute--the paper lanterns even lit up!

As often is the case, when you are busy "working" during an activity, you never get any pictures.  I only got two and neither of them do justice to the how the room looked.  We coordinated efforts with the other wards we share the building with, so we ended up with great wall decorations and puff balls hanging from a the ceiling as well.

To include the teenagers, who are a little too old for trick-or-treating, they were asked to provide a little entertainment and boy, did they deliver.  The Young Women did a flash mob to Michael Jackson's Thriller.  I worked with a couple of girls who choreographed a dance that we taught to the rest of the girls.  I thought it turned it well; they did a great job considering we only practiced once!

The Young Men also came through with their very own "Haunted Hallway."  This was the first time we have had a spook alley and I think it was a lot fun.  The guys really did a good job.  In fact, it was so good that the fire department came.  Yep, you read that right.  The fog machine set the fire alarm off.

Let's just say there was a period of some confusion as a blaring alarm deafened everyone and as some people evacauted outside.  At this point, dinner was finished, the Haunted Hallway was wrapping up and we were just getting ready for the costume parade, so we just decided to skip ahead to the trunk-or-treat.  All I can say is that you have to look on the bright side---I mean we got a huge firetruck with flashing lights and firefighters to come to our trunk-or-treat and now we all have a good story to tell.

Plus, this year our whole family dressed up.  Ashley was a medieval princess, Paige a princess bride, Dave was heavy metal headbanger, and I was a flapper.

Both girls came home with tons of candy that they pretty much tripled when they went trick-or-treating on Halloween night.  Our city sets trick-or-treating hours from 4:30 to 7:30 pm, which doesn't give you much time to get ready after coming home from school.  Halloween was also on a school night, so we ended up going out early to trick-or-treat first, then ate dinner later.  This year both girls went out with friends.  Paige and I stayed in our neighborhood and went out with one of her classmates and her mom.  Since I was with Paige, I have lots of pictures.  Paige dropped the "princess" in her costume and opted for the masquerade mask.  Her friend dressed up as Marie Antoinette--how cool is that?  I swear I want to dress up like that next year.



With a friend, both girls were willing to stay out longer to trick-or-treat
and brave the spooky houses.



 

As for Ashley, she went to her friend's neighborhood, so I don't have any pictures, but she had a great time and game home with a FULL bag of candy.  She also went to a Halloween party earlier in the week, so she got to wear her costume a number of times.

And if you were wondering, no I didn't wear my flapper costume around the neighborhood...too cold!





Let the Halloween Festivities Begin

It is sort of weird how much time and effort go into Halloween.  I'm guilty of it, but there is just something so FUN about Halloween that it makes you want to celebrate.  Sometimes it just good to enjoy life.  So here we go on an marathon of Halloween festivities---one after the other, after the other, after the other, after the other...

This year, I pulled out the Halloween decorations from the basement, but pretty much had little time or motivation for decorating.  Thankfully, Paige was happy to take on this task.  She put up garland on the stairs, hung up some ghosts, and helped with the door sign.

Then we were pleasantly surprised to find out we got "Boo'd."  The night after roadshows we came home to find a bucket of Halloween treats on our doorstep.  The girls were thrilled and very excited to put together our own buckets to deliver to some of our neighbors.  We put the ingredients for caramel apples and a few Halloween games and light sticks in our buckets and the girls delivered them to two unsuspecting neighbors.



Getting ready to deliver "Boo" buckets



For me this was the best part of the evening.  My girls have never gone up to someone's door, rung the bell and run.  It was pretty hilarious listening to them plan out how they were going to do it, followed with their chatter about not getting caught.  I'm pretty sure this was the best part for them too.

On the way to make the deliveries



Another activity, was painting mini pumpkins for FHE.  I have to admit that this year, we just didn't get around to carving pumpkins.  We had the pumpkins but not really the time.  Honestly, I don't feel too bad about it, because 1) Paige carved a pumpkin earlier at a friend's house, 2)pumpkin carving usually ends up being more of a parent project than a kid project and 3)neither of the girls seemed to mind skipping this.



Next up is the elementary school Halloween party.  This year I am the head room mother for Paige's class, so I helped to organize the Halloween party for her class. 

Paige had big beautiful bride dress.  It is Giselle's dress from the Disney movie "Enchanted"

Paige at the elementary costume parade



After the parade, it was party time.  We started with a scratch-off pumpkin craft and then prepared our snack.  Katie W. gave me the idea and it was a hit.  I brought in some apple peeler/corers and the kids used them to peel and cut their own apples.  We served them with caramel apple dip.  The kids thought it was pretty fun.  After snack we played three games---toss the spider on the web, ghost relays, and mummy says.  I was in charge of "mummy says" aka "simon says" and I had the kids flapping around like bats, screeching like cats, and walking like Frankenstein.  Paige has such a good class and a wonderful teacher, it was easy and really fun to be at the party.

2nd grade

 

Riding in Style

My girls are so lucky to have a super lovey, SoCal gal for an aunt.  My sister Debby loves to have fun and spoil her nieces and nephews.  She called me recently with a "great idea!"  She wanted to give my girls a special present for their birthdays this year----a ride in a limousine for them and some friends.

Again, they are lucky to have Aunt Debby, because I wouldn't have thought to buy this for them.  Of course, the girls were beyond thrilled.  We decided to go on a day the girls had off of school.  So they each invited some school friends and viola---we were riding in style.

To enjoy the ride, we decided to go have lunch at the Cheesecake Factory which is about 40 minutes from our house.  Ashley and her friend had a good time being the "big" girls.  Paige and her friends were so giddy and excited, they couldn't stop hugging and kissing each other.  They couldn't believe they could actually stand up and lay down in a car.

We had a full stretch limo with drinks and a tv.  We enjoyed a great girl's day out and some yummy cheesecake too.  Thanks Debby!!!

Soccer Season

Both the girls played soccer again this Fall.  I am glad they both play, it is good exercise and they really seem to enjoy it.  It does however make the months of September and October very busy, as they have practice 3-4 nights a week and the games pretty much consume every Saturday.  I have to admit that I let out a "tiny" sigh of relief when the season ends.  I also give an adamant, "no, thank you!" every time other parents ask if our girls want to play indoor.

It also looks like my girls are natural defenders.  They both play really well on defense.  It doesn't seem like they will be taking after mom as a midfielder :)



posing for a picture




I absolutely adore Paige's coach.  He has two daughters himself and is so cute with the girls that I think he should be an elementary school teacher rather than an electrician.  This year he would teach the girls a special soccer move and every time they did it during the game he would give them a treat.  It was pretty funny to watch the girls get the ball, start dribbling down the field, then stop and do the "cool move" at a completely inappropriate time.