The end is near...

...or at least that is what I feel like after reading all those posts.  I was way behind in reading and just got caught up.  Scary but yet not scary.  I loved, loved, loved all the quotes and that is what makes it all less scary.  

Adam, I love the name for your labels.

Mind, I love your new picture...so funny.

Elly, you look adorable and that blue dress is amazing.

Hazel, Happy Birthday...late.

Oh crap, I knew I should have written down some of the stuff I wanted to say.  Oh,

Darla, good job on the blankies.  I need to get sewing, I haven't got much time before Alicia's baby will be here and I want to make him something.

LeAnne, I loved your blog.  I don't know why but I am emotional tonight and it was good to read it.  Again I love all of the quotes.

Well Ind is going to get tubes in her ears tomorrow so that is what's going on in my life.  That and a very busy week at work so I haven't been great at blogging.

I gotta run, it is 11:30 and I still have dishes, laundry, bills and I need to shower. 

I love you guys so much.

Jess

Seattle Bennett living in Colorado

so the hobby of beekeeping is starting to become quite expensive I started with 2 hives buying bees, suits, tools, and hives and then I thought to myself why not snag the two other wild hives we know of but it does give me a reason to use my dove tail jig and despite the 7 hours that I wasted making 4 out of 5 hive boxes the wrong size (reversed the jig) Friday night I now have nice shoe shelves/hidden hanger book shelves but Saturday in about 10 hours I knocked out 5 deep supers (where the queen lives and the bulk of the hive) and 5 shallow honey supers (where my honey is). so now I can get the 2 wild hives and still have an extra hive for a future capture. what Mindi didn't say was that when we opened our hives and started checking the honey we found that there was already 50-70 lbs and that was in less than a months worth of work for the bees so if things keep going at the same rate I could have between 150-200 lbs of honey with just the the 2 hives and by next year if I get all 4 preforming like my strong hive is I will have 600 lbs of honey or just over a hundred gallons. but there are 2 things you hear in beekeeping and that is "you get into it for the bees and out of it because of the honey" and the other is "next year will be better" so who knows but it is fun and Sierra and Kaia love it.

ColoradoBennett

I just found this blog:
http://everydayfoodstorage.blogspot.com/
Adam asked me how many blogs I've read in the last two days. I guess I have an addiction that is hurting my family life. I'm off to make cookies with Sierra (something we've done together maybe three or four times in her lifetime). Adam told her he would make cookies with her but he just left to give the sacrament to someone who is sickly. What Sierra doesn't realize is that I'm going to sneak some Cracked Wheat Berries into the cookies. A trick I just learned from watching a video on the above blog.

The belly has arrived

So this was ellynn getting ready for church. Her all white outfit shows the belly quite well.

Happy B-day Schmazel!

Well I guess Cory and Meagan and the fam were all up at the lake so Ellynn hasn't been able to get ahold of anybody to tell Hazel happy birthday. It's close to 11 o'clock at night and we're all in the backyard with the flatscreen set up watching "the sandlot" and ellynn told me to post a happy birthday note for hazel. So happy birthday Hazel! we'll be there next week to see y'all.
Jason and Ellynn

Dream.

"God expects you to have enough faith and determination and enough trust in Him to keep moving, keep living, and keep rejoicing. In fact, He expects you not simply to face your future (that sounds pretty grim and stoic); He expects you to embrace and shape the future - to love it, to rejoice in it, and delight in your opportunities. God is anxiously waiting to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as he always has. But He can't if you don't pray, and He can't if you don't dream. In short, He can't if you don't believe." Jeffrey R. Holland

 

These are the reasons I can't be too sad about going to Washington. I just can't wait to get to the lake!!!

 

 

 

Hazel,
you are such a little doll baby...., I mean big girl. We love you and we LOVE your name!! Dayne keeps talking about how she's gonna come live with Hazel and she's soo excited. We hope you have a fun and happy day!
love,
Geof., Darla, Cole, Dayne, and june june

Happy Birthday, Hazel!

Hazel we love you so much. We hope you have a great birthday!!

Love, Adam, Mindi, Sierra, Kaia and Tristan

more...

She does not like her hair being done. Pic below.

Happy Birthday!

These are some of my favorite pictures.

this is our sweet baby 3 short years ago.










our forever baby?
how time does fly!










now she is such a big girl.

Happpy birthday to you!!!!!!!!!

Hazel, you are so cute. I love you so much. I hope you have a good birthday. Are you turning 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????????????????????



I love you very much,
Jane

ColoradoBennett

I really love the new blog background. It reminds me of a pattern that you might find on a purse or an apron on some crafty woman's Etsy site. Meagan, I really like your friend's Etsy shop. I aspire to one day have an Etsy shop of my own. Perhaps I could make and sell lip balm and foot cream that I make from the bees wax that our bees produce. Our bees are doing really well these days. Adam and I got a chance to open up the hives yesterday and one is heavily laden with honey. The other has had a bit of queen trouble, but could catch up.
Adam spent a great deal of time tonight building new bee hives. He hopes to be able to capture two wild hives out on some property my relatives own. He and Kaia are making a late night run to Home Depot because they ran out of glue. Tristan is asleep. Sierra is making dessert with marshmallows, peanut butter and melted chocolate chips. I'm blogging like a mad woman, reading blogs, changing my blog, etc. Le Anne I love your blog and I love that Worldwide Leadership meeting. Brooke I'm so grateful to be able to sneak onto your blog and peek into the window of your life. You are amazing. That reminds me, I better go read the VT message right now.

woops

p.s. Le Anne,
would you like us to bring our washer and dryer out? I know you already know, but they're the energy efficient front loader type. Or should we sell 'em? Let us know if you want them.

p.s.

VA

 

I posted this on my blog too. I've finally completed my first REAL sewing project. I hemmed some pants a few months ago and they turned out okay. I made these blankets for my friend Heather who just adopted twin girls from Vietnam. I'm so happy for her!! My good friend Emily helped me out with it. It took 2 different trips to her house (about 5 hours in all) to sew a few straight lines. And it really doesn't look too good. BUT..., once I got the hang of it, I really enjoyed it. I did a flannel side and a soft cotton side. One side for summer, and one for winter. I don't think Emily realized how little I knew about sewing machines (nothing at all really), so when she finally showed me how to work the machine, wind the thread up, etc., I really got the hang of it and loved it. I can't wait to get my own!!

 

Thank you Le Anne for your thoughts. Things are pretty scary right now, we're completely up in the air about what we're doing. I'm pretty tired of it all. Geof. is applying to all jobs right now, trying to find something that can comfortably support our family. Starting in the fall, I believe, his airline will drop all American Airline flights, leaving many pilots without a job. Geof. will still have his job, but his seniority drops that much more, making it that much harder to upgrade to Captain. So..., we're done. We are happy and grateful to be moving to Washington, but sad that our time in Virginia is over. I took the kids on a long, sweaty, humid walk tonight and loved every minute of it. As soon as the sun was down they chased fireflies all over the place. Oh, how we'll miss the east coast!!
We've made some good friendships out here and I get pretty choked up thinking of leaving them. I've made a very good friend out here who isn't LDS. She and her husband have been so kind to us. I haven't known many people as Christlike as them. I pray that I've made some sort of influence on her and her family and that one day they might have the desire to learn more about the Plan of Salvation. I think I'll share that quote with her that Brooke has on her blog.
As difficult and confusing as things are right now, I can't express how grateful and at peace I feel to know of God's plan for me. I'm so blessed to have made covenants with my Father in Heaven in the temple, covenants that act as a protectant against the evils of today. Why don't we share these truths with others more readily (or is "willingly" the better word?). I have seen Geof. grow closer to the Lord these past few weeks. Trials are blessings when we turn to the Lord. We need to think that way more often. I'm rambling. My kids are running around naked, gotta run!

computers... not as amazing as hazel wants them to be

i was just showing hazel the vacuum she is getting for her birthday on the computer and she asked me if i could get it out.  "please mommy just push a button and get it out, please can you?"  how cute is she?

for whatever reason i  can't publish a comment and i can't hold a thought  long enough to put all my comments in my blog.

leeshie, i remember so fondly you backpacking with me, kathleen, and the good doctor.  you were planning to stay for a few days after-wards and instead stayed for 6 plus weeks.  remember swimming in bg lake and then coming home to warm up in the hot tub. scarey  about little maddie. chloe will rule the school just give her a little time.

when geof. darla and kids get here. i can hardly wait because he's in charge of the hot tub. not near as big as their apartment complex pool but it will have to do. i figure i will just have to keep putting water in it every day to replace what gets splashed out.  one solid party coming up.

mindi, your new self portrait is hysterical!!!!!! you are so danged funny!!!

jason and elly belly we can hardly wait to get you up here. cute picture.

moni i am so glad you are alive!!! so sorry to read about your friend's death.  hard on those that are left behind. patti moved with her little family wed. she texted cory a picture of the temp on the rearview mirror of the suburban just like rob used to do every time they went to utah.  now he's really gone.  looking back is sometimes too painful-good times are gone-bad things can not be undone.  i like looking forward to what needs to be done and what fun stuff i get to do.

when i wake up in the mornings is when life comes crashing down on me.  maybe my dreams are better than i remember.  i am forever grateful that it happens in the morning because i usually roll over  say prayers and start the day. at night i think if it happened i would just lay there wishing i could go to sleep and be too tired to get up and do anything.

anyway yesterday i woke with that crushing feeling.  i don't know of anyone that has worked any harder than geoffrey to get through school.  he graduated cum laude while working 3 jobs, with 2 1/2 kids, logging 1,000 hrs. of flight time to become a pilot.  darla was able to stay at home with their children in various apartments  and endure poverty while having a husband that is gone all the time. no mean feat!!! he was promoted to pilot and demoted to 1st officer all in less than a 24 hour period.  the upside was they were used to living on $20,000.00 a year.  what about all those other pilots that were used to $60,000.00 plus a year? 

if you want to hear the woes the airlines and  our country is facing pick up a paper, try to buy gas. (i paid 4.79 in CA last week) or talk to any of you that are looking up recipes for new cassaroles that use  government cheese and top ramon. pizza hut will be looking to get some of that cheese soon as their price for cheese is spiraling  out of sight. everything is starting to tank. BIG TIME!!!

I kinda thought when the end came it would be all at once. to go out incrementally  i guess gives you time to prepare some more if we will heed the warnings, but if we can't work to support ourselves. . . ?  even if we haven't gone into debt. which we have unfortunately. it won't take long to incur a lot of debt if we have no income. we could sell our homes if anyone can or will buy them etc. does this sound familiar to anyone?

anyway, when this crashing thing happened yesterday as i lay there contemplating life in the early hours of the day. i prayed, and then followed it up by reading the article by pres. packer in the "worldwide leadership training meeting."  he said:

     "When you young people who now look forward to marriage and a family life look around and see the dangers, there is only one place on this earth where the family can be fully protected, and that's within the ordinances and the doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Live the gospel, and you're going to be all right.

     The world isn't a very pleasant place to live in and there are challenges and disorders and patterns of life and death and all of the problems that come to us, and yet the answers are found in understanding that the family is the fundamental unit of the Church."

i feel i can take that literally and i know we will be blessed. the blessing poured in yesterday.

My neighbor called and asked me a few days ago about finding someone for her to work 1 maybe 2 days a week. Gerdia is a little german lady, 84 and in poor health. i love her to death. i thought about it and decided i wanted the job if she would have me.  she was so happy and is just fine when i have someone else come in weeks i am not home. she loved julia when she worked for her or meags, darla, or ellynn. so i now have a job that doesn't interfere with my being a mom to all my grown up and needy, but way fun children.

meags and the kids rode their bikes up to help me go through adam and mindi's trailer. it was kind of sad.  last year we thought we would have them here with us. oh well, we went thru the bins and pulled out enough clothes for ellynn to have quadruplets. 2 boys and 2 girls plus a box full for baby june. and a giant bag full of clothes a. and m. kids had grown out of that we were loading to take to d.i. when our r.s. pres. showed up and said it was a blessing she knew some people that could use them.

about the time we  get to the food storage that is in the trailer.  we get phone calls from both adam and mindi. they haven't been able to get a hold of each other but they know it will be alright---just keep the food storage.  you have so much of the family moving up there you might need it and we will just buy more. it makes me bawl to even type this. i am so blessed with the family i have, my sisters and their children, ellery's family. 

"...The family is the fundamental unit of the Church!"

"Live the gospel, and you're going to be all right!"

Love to All, Aunt Le Anne

Update on "El Preggo"

So Jane requested some pictures of Ellynn's baby belly, which by the way has started to pop out a little bit now, you can definitely tell there's a chubby Willmore baby growing in there....
This first one we'll post is a few weeks old, back when she just started to show. Mostly just looks like she had a big meal. It's kinda late as we're posting this so we'll wait til tomorrow to start snapping off photos of the current belly, but at least this is a start right?

Hazel

Just a friendly reminder that Hazels birthday is on the 28th. Not that she reads the blog, but for phone calls and so on.

Love,
Me

Okay, hopefully this is cool with everyone

My friend Megan had a very cool link to leeloublogs on her website. She has really cool backgrounds. This one seemed kind of vintage, you know, like our moms:), okay, like our grandma's era. I really liked it. My only problem is that she wants a link put to her site on each blog that uses her background and for some stupid reason I can't get it to transfer correctly. Would one of you more savvy computer nerds do it for me? Aunt Jack, I hope this doesn't bother you, it's in the same color scheme! If it bugs we can take it off.

We are all doing well here. I have to share with everyone that we still don't have our stupid orders but we are supposed to on Monday. If we don't Mike has given me full permission to raise hell. I always hesitate when Army is concerned/ Mike's job, reputation etc... So frustrating, but nothing new.

We have two dogs now. Two yorkies. I don't want to hear it. They are cute, they don't shed, they have each other to wear out and then they are mellow around the kids. Yes, it will be a pain in the butt during the move but after that we should be good.

Kids are great. Jane is dying because everyone is moving to Washington. I just feel incredibly lucky that we will only be 11 hours away. That is amazing considering the last 12 years we have lived days and days away. It will be SWEET!! If we ever get there.

Funny story- I went with the kids to H&M the other day to get a bikini top to go under my swimsuit. I have a more than ample chest right now and my friend Amy says that my swimsuit (when I'm not wearing a tank top over the top, which I was) says "I want action" more than "modest mormon mom." So... until I am done nursing I am going for the layered look. Anyway, went to get a top. Tons of bikini tops on hangers covering one wall. Sadie looks around and says, "okay what size?" I look down and Sadie has both her hands spread out over my "chest" "okay, this size." And she walks away with bear paw hands to find the perfect top. Jane and I were dying.

I have a mosquito bite somewhere on my ear. It hurts, I look like Hitch or some wrestler with cauliflower ear.

It is very hot and very humid here. We have two fans running in our family room almost all day every day. It's still beautiful though. Yesterday Ellyn's respite person came with me so I could take the kids to the pool. I had a pleasant surprise. Ellyn can push off the bottom now and with floaties on she swims like a little fish. She kicked herself all over the pool. It was awesome. Now I can take the kids by myself. I will post some pics that Suzanne took of all of us later.

Well it's late. I have been trying to wake up early and get stuff done for the move while the house is cool and the kids are asleep. Sawyer and Ellyn were both doing a great job sleeping through the night- until last night.

Ellynn, I'm sorry about Edward. When I first read your title my mind immediately jumped to Twilight, am I pathetic? To be fair I had just watched the trailer on Melinda Beechel's blog and a little blurb on my sister in law Tracey's blog. I had Forks on the brain. Mom, I keep forgetting to tell you that I loved The Host. I read it in two nights of staying up till 3 am and reading at stoplights. Jane thought I was crazy. Leash, I loved your blog. I'm sorry about the job stresses. It is amazing how much these gas prices can impact so many. Not amazing in a good way, more in a disconcerting and scary way. I was reading reviews on autos (for my minivan) the other night and I was so sorry for american car companies I was getting a sick stomach. Not sorry enough to not by a Honda though. Well I love you all. Blog out.

Adventures in Edward

for those of you who don't know, my car's name is Edward Lexington IV. He is everybit as high class and hoity toity as he sounds. okay so he's a 17 year old grandma car (although adam did say that the fact that he has duel exhaust makes him not a grandma car). But he truly is the love of my life, second only to Jason of course. this past week jason and i have been debating trying to sell Edward, his jeep or both. the jeep runs great and so does Edward really but he has some minor issues such as the a/c going out. so i've been stuck driving a maroon car in the dead heat, pregnant. i don't like to be hot anyway but being pregnant and still being sick magnifies this by roughly 12,000. i take edward in to get an estimate on getting the a/c fixed. long story longer, my compresser went out. the part is so old it's really difficult and expensive to get your hands on one. in fact the difference between getting that part and putting in a whole new a/c system is only about $9. so all tolled it would cost about 22 to 25 hundred dollars! i kindly thanked the man and told him that instead of having the work done i would pick up the car and drive it off a cliff.
okay so that's the first and worst part.
part II i go to get my tires rotated and balanced. Last time i went in to do this, they told me my back tires were shot and i needed to replace them. I called Jason, he wasn't happy but we did it. this time i go in and they see a bubble on the front right tire that they claim is gonna go. Fine replace it. i come back an hour later and they tell me that they found that my front left tire was separating so they already put a new tire on there would i like to replace that one too or have them put the old one back on? oh hell's bells! leave it! so now i have 2 new tires. i didn't want to call Jason this time so i just sent him a text and it's a good thing too cuz he was even more upset than last time about the whole thing. Luckily the oil change went smoothly and now the real test will be to see if Edward makes it to washington. If not, i think my husband might make me walk there to teach me a lesson. he's already very tempted to make me drive the thing all the way there through the idaho heat with no a/c. good thing i know he's way too nice and his mom would kill him!

Howdy Doo

I'm spending the night here at mom's (Kev is in Pocatello and I'm too scared to sleep at my own house. When exactly, would you figure, that I'll actually transition into an adult? Maybe when I stop replaying a particularly scary scene from Chainsaw Masacre 2 in my mind. It was seared into my brain when I was a child. I still remember how Stan wanted to be that guy for Halloween and he was showing it to us so my mom could sew him a costume. I wish I were kidding) and I am saddened every time I get on the blog. I'm missing so much! Everyone has their own cute blog and I love it.
Anyway, everything is going pretty well with us. Four more weeks and counting and I couldn't be more ready. I could never understand those women that would waddle about, holding their backs and complaining about how they could never get comfortable. Well, now I am one. I was still running at this point with Maddie and now I'm happy if I can make it to 10 pm without collapsing. I keep asking Kev if he thinks my strength will ever be restored. Maybe I'm too old now. I don't know. Anyway I won't bore you. I'll just comfort you all with stories about my little Whoskie (by the way, I'm not allowed to call her that anymore. I called her it the other day and she's like, mom, please let go of that dream). So we went to register for kindergarten the other day. She is disturbingly nervous about the whole thing. As we were walking in I told her to look at all the cute kids eating lunch. "I can't, I'm too nervous," she said, closing her eyes, "just lead me in." It was sad and funny. She isn't as crazy as she used to be, but Maddie is doing her best to fill the void. It's nice though, because compared to Chloe's old fits, Maddies are just cute.
Speaking of Maddie, she had her first full-blown asthma attack at Cherry Hill the other night. We know that when she gets wet and cold, she gets wheezy, but never like this. Well, she just started coughing and wheezing like she couldn't catch her breath. Yeah, it was terrifying. We're driving home and I calmly asked Kev if he could drive any faster (He later recalls it as me screaming CAN'T YOU DRIVE ANY FASTER? I really can't remember. Unfortunately Chloe does, and retells it as such). Anyway, once she gets her Albuterol treatment she's fine. It really isn't fun. I was telling Aunt Joan that I didn't sign up for this crap. No one in my family has asthma, this is all Kev's family stuff. She reminded me of this months visiting teaching message and apparently I did sign up for it. I can't imagine I was in my right mind though at the time. Maybe the Heavenly workers were withholding food. I would've agreed to anything then.
Anywho I love you guys and as soon as I stop worrying about the skyrocketing price of gas slowing the purchase of cars, forcing Kev out of a job and plunging me and my family into a diet of government cheese and Top Ramen, I'm going to get the internet back. Until then, I'm working on my food storage. Seriously. Love you, Leash

bglife

the ward drama is really getting me down!  i can't wait for my sisters and brothers to move up here so i won't care any more.  the whole... who's getting invited to what and who isn't and why.  we have some "new" friends that are really cool.  probably because jason is soo much like adam and actually melinda is kind of like mindi ....they are both very reserved in person, but you get them on their blogs and they are very out going! 

darla is bringing the kids tomorrow or thursday and they think that they are burdening me.  but, i am so excited!  who doesn't want two five year olds and two three year olds running around?  i think we might even take them camping and to the lake.  see if cole can give my kids some swimming lessons.  poor mama still isn't fully recovered and can't do much which is killing her but at least i can talk her into playing with us more, because there is not much else she can do.  and with her at least i will have an extra set of eyes. 

i need to go help mom cut out pieces for the quilt for the family reunion, i guess i should do that while i still only have four wild darlings.  benny and wil are up cleaning out one of her dressers.  we are condensing so that the toys can go into the kid's rooms.  hopefully ellynn and jason will be the only toys left in the toy room. 

we are so excited.  i think the neighbors will be too when they realize that we will have a young couple moving into a room with two huge windows and no curtains.  and jason incase ellynn didn't tell you there is wireless internet in the house so don't be afraid.  i am only telling you this so that i will have more time to play cards with my sister. 

cory brought me home a new bike!  ok, new to me, but it is so sweet.  it is a "city" bike.  just the right "ugly" but with all the goods.  at least that is what cory says.  i think it is beautiful and it is all mine!  so the kids and i are going to take the big trip to the library by bike tomorrow.  i will be bringing some bungy cords just in case wil doesn't think he can make the whole trip.  then we can strap his bike onto the stroller and he can get in.  elly i hope you are bringing your bike and that you have no reservations about riding around town with your baby hitting your knees.  i think is will be sweet.

so was that random enough?  oh one more random thing.  i cried when i read brooke's blog on her site about selling the pilot.  i loved that car as well and any time i see one i think of my sweet sister and all the fun times we have had together.  even strapping three car seats into the very back.  (cory just asked if i really cried and i truly did.)

ok now i am done. love to all.....................me

VA

My cousin made one of these and actually did some sort of presentation at an Emergency Essentials/Preparedness type fair. She made a cake and I guess it turned out splendidly. I wanna do it as soon as we come to WA! Or better yet, why not at the family reunion?? I still don't know how to type in "this" and have you simply clck on the word, so here's the link:
www.lilieslane.com/Resources/Preparedness/Applebox_oven.html

almost gone...VA

 
 
 
 
Just some recent pics of my fam. Geof. is in charge of fingernails and toenails. Kind of funny, I know, but the kids don't trust me (maybe because I've cut 'em WAY too short)! Even little Junie is calm with Geof. I know Geof. has a reputation of high stress, but he's calmed down quite a bit, and definately brings a peace to our home whenever he steps through the door.
Dayne: future hair dresser? SHe's OBSESSED!! SHe wants to do everyone's hair, but unfortunately pulls and tugs a little too much until "client" has to stop her. Poor Dayne. She's so determined in this pic with her little tongue hanging out. And my sweet friend Emily was so patient and allowed Dayne to finish, which she did. She got 2 hair things in and did a pretty good job!
I probably take way too many bath pics, but they're always so happy in there. June's all over the place now, splashing and slipping and crawling over Dayne and Cole. She's so funny.
Pool time. Cole is in and out and always begging for the towel, even on the hottest days. I told him when we grew up we never got towels and we just had to lay on the hot cement to dry off. Remember that?

ColoradoBennett

I've been working on Beech Tree Blog Book: Year #1 today and I found this treasure of a post (and I'm not just posting it because Alicia gives me a compliment therein):

Un-yon
Sometimes we call Clo Un-yon and pretend like she's our little Taiwanese adopted child. It's just a fun word to say in a sing-song like voice - Un-Yon! Anyway not much to say. I lost Chloe again at Wal-mart today, but what's new right? I'm yelling her name this time because my alarmed little embarassed voice gets me no where. Today someone actually asked what she was wearing and eventually helped me track her down. "Her?" she asks, pointing a moving finger at something darting between racks. I angrily pick her up and whisper sweet nothings about throwing away all of her dresses and princess shoes and something about the longest time-out of her life. If we could just stay within the safe confines of our home, we would get along just fine. Oh, and she's calling me by my first name all the time now. It's kind of fun. I just pretend like I'm her hip, fun aunt and if only my sister could learn to control her kids. Anywho, Mindi you're amazing. I was just thinking about you yesterday as I was reading the birthday card you sent to Lyd. You are truly a wonderful person and I don't know how you do it all. I seriously feel like I'm just barely keeping my head above water. I did however hold Family Home Evening two weeks in a row and we're doing great with family prayer. Clo the other day was saying it and was going for a record. She was blessing everything she could think of, then proceeded to bless everything she could see in the room. "And bless - what that mom?" as she points to the fan. Fan, I say. "Bless the fan, bless Maddie Boo (she puts Boo on the end of everyones name, my favorite is Kev's - Big Daddy Boo) - I love her so much, and bless Heavenly Father and Jesus - they love me so much." It was pretty cute. Anyway, I'm seriously considering getting the internet hooked back up at my house. Maybe we could go without gas or something instead. Later, Leash
Jan 31 19:23:00 2006

Washington Bennett living in Utah

"When Jesus gave His disciples a new commandment to 'love one
another; as I have loved you,' (John 13:34), He gave to them the grand
key to happiness in this life and glory in the next.
"Love is the
greatest of all the commandments--all others hang upon it. It is
our focus as followers of the living Christ. It is the one trait that, if
developed, will most improve our lives."
(Joseph B. Wirthlin, "The Great Commandment," Ensign, Nov. 2007, 30-31)
i just wanted to start with that because i think it's beautiful and profound.
so this last weekend was Juhannus aka the summer solstice. that is a huge deal in Finland so for the last 3 years a bunch of kids from my mission have gotten together for the weekend. it was 2 years ago this weekend actually that jason first developed a crush on me. who knew it would come to this! anyway this year we went camping up squaw peak. we were going to this amazing field that geof. and darla discovered and took us camping at. however there was some sort of mock battle going on up there so the field was completely filled with tents and there were cars lining the road for almost a mile. and lots of men in camo with their faces painted. it was insane! really creepy too actually. i wish i had taken pictures to show you. so we kept driving and finally found this tiny little spot that had a fire ring but not even any good space for tents. we made the best of it. we made finnish food (in the dutch oven no less) hung out and swatted misquitos. it was really fun. we had to set up the tents in the dark so didn't realize how uneven the ground was. we couldn't find our blow up mattress in the storage unit and in the process of packing all the food, firewood and camping chairs for the entire group, we forgot our therma rests. needless to say it was the worst nights sleep of my life. i kept praying for the sun to come up so i could just get up. despite all that it was really fun and a great way to say goodbye to our friends.

Happy 34th Anniversary...

Thank you for being the greatest example of true love

VA

 
 
 
 
On Saturday we went with my cousin Ivy and her friend Emily to King's Dominion. It's our closest amusement park here. The airline union paid for it, and although Geof. had to work, ): we didn't want to miss it. They gave us unlimited drinks for the day, plus a pretty hardy meal that evening (the meal included some pretty boring union speeches that June and I stayed for). Emily took the pics and "posed" Cole and Dayne when in reality she was trying to get pics of all the crazy people who were carrying around these HUGE stuffed animals that they had won. We couldn't believe it!! I guess some people like collecting these things, but the majority of the people we saw where well into their 20s or 30s. I love amusement parks and the thought of having to lug something like that around makes me sick.

Bavaria

Well we should know what day we are leaving by Monday or Tuesday. I'm getting a little stressed thinking of everything I want to have done and organized before the movers come. You know, everyone's bedding washed, Mike's stuff sorted and stored at a friend's house, important paperwork set aside, hotel rentals, car rental, Ellyn's meds. etc... Thank goodness I have Ellyn's respite provider lined up for a few days next week. Oh, I also need to paint my entryway. I have been doing a few things every day and now that I have the Pilot sold and everything in place for our new minivan I'm feeling better. I also managed to clean out several "church bags, diaper bags, school backpacks etc...." You know, the travel bags with two or three diapers a size too small, an old water bottle, two or three crackers smashed to bits in the bottom, crayon stubs, etc...

Well Sawyer is awake and making it nigh on impossible for me to type anymore and... writing about church bags reminded me that I am teaching Relief Society tomorrow. I had better go work on that while my kids are asleep, except Sawyer of course.

Hi

Dear Family,

Hope that this is OK, if not I can change it back! I thought that I read somewhere that someone said that a change would be good, but if not just let me know. Love you all Aunt Jack

Washington Bennett Living In Utah

But not for long!!!! July is fast approaching but not fast enough i'll tell you that right now. although there are things and people here that are going to be so hard to say goodbye to. i have made some truly wonderful friends here that i'm going to miss. not to mention jason's family. they are the best a girl could ask for. it has been so fun living near (and with) them and building the relationship with them that we have. i love them. i'm excited that now jason will have a chance to build that kind of relationship with my family. although he and cory i believe were soul mates in the preexistence, now he can bond with the rest.
Well i don't have much else to say other than HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULES!!! julia i just want you to know that we none of us would have let your birthday go by without a call, a card, a big dinner in your honor, whatever you will! but see the first couple years we have a new member of the family it's kinda hard to remember birthdays (no one remembers jason's yet). and so we kind of count on our siblings *BRIND* to give us a heads up. so i am so sorry that i didn't call you on your birthday and i promise i will make it up to you when we get up there. just remember that i love you like water! or like a fat kid loves cake. or like a pregnant girl loves sleep. you may not understand that one, but you will someday and then you will think back on this blog and you will realize the depth of this love.

Happy Late Birthday Julia!!!

I don't know if you read the blog but HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! Like Meags said, I'm sure you were spoiled rotten. We love you and can't wait to live a little bit closer so maybe we can play more. love, Brooke, Mike, and kids

ColoradoBennett

Yikes. I didn't think Brind and Julia read the blog, but just in case, I'll join with Meags in a belated birthday shout out.
Now that I'm here posting I wish I had something exciting or funny to say, but I can't think of anything...
How 'bout a love poem:
Poems of Sara Teasdale
Primavera Mia
As kings who see their little life-day pass,
Take off the heavy ermine and the crown,
So had the trees that autumn-time laid down
Their golden garments on the faded grass,
When I, who watched the seasons in the glass
Of mine own thoughts, saw all the autumn's brown
Leap into life and don a sunny gown
Of leafage such as happy April has.
Great spring came singing upward from the south;
For in my heart, far carried on the wind,
Your words like winged seeds took root and grew,
And all the world caught music from your mouth;
I saw the light as one who had been blind,
And knew my sun and song and spring were you.

happy late birthday to our newest sister

quess what i/we forgot?????  yesterday was.................

julia's birthday.  oops, i am so sorry.  brind a little heads up would have been nice:)  i hope you had a great birthday!  i'm sure brind spoiled you rotten.  he is pretty good at that stuff.  hey next time you come over i will make you a lttle birthday cake and sing you a sweet birthday song. 

love................meagan and the rest of the allen clan 

ColoradoBennett

I've always liked everything about the girl from Elf (I just learned her name is Zooey Deschanel). I heard her voice the other day while the girls were watching Surfs Up and once again I thought, "I really like that girl". I love the sound of her voice. Turns out a lot of other people do too. Today this blog popped up on my Google Reader list (coincidence? I think not):

http://rosylittlethings.typepad.com/posie_gets_cozy/2008/06/missy-blue-eyes.html

Her duet with Matt Ward titled "When I Get to the Border" is great. Maybe one day it'll be our family theme song.

Directions

joanie, here are the directions to make your own blog: Click on the blogging B like if you were going to post. It should take you straight to the page where you need to sign in. Somewhere on the screen it will say create your own blog with three easy steps. You click on that, and it will guide you through the whole thing. Then after it says that your blog is done and after it tells you to click on the arrow to see your blog, you go to make your first blog and click on settings and it will then you have to click on edit and will ask you how you want to have your blog,(do you want it private? do you want to have people beable to email this to their friends, and so forth...). Then... TADA! YOU HAVE YOUR BLOG!

love you,
Jane

Happy Fathers Day!

Guys I am sorry that I am so late on this, but anyways. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

Happy Father's Day...

Today at church, the lady speaking mentioned how she had driven by our house yesterday and had seen Tony mowing the lawn with Indie in the backpack.  She said, "now there's a good dad."  All I could do was cry...I couldn't agree more.  You always wonder what type of father your husband will be, and I knew Tony would be good but I had no idea he would be this good.  He has far exceeded my expectations.  I couldn't ask for a better husband, daddy, and friend.  

My dad is amazing.  I cannot think of anyone who serves others more than him.  If anyone has a project they need help with he is there to help and chances are he is an expert at whatever needs to be done.  He is a great dad and an awesome "crampa" (as Maddie would say.)   

I love you both!

This is our Dad!

First, no he didn't play and second this is our Dad. Love all you Dads and hope that you had a wonderful day!!! Love you Aunt Jack

ColoradoBennett

We just sold our house. It took almost excatly one year. Now I want to buy this:

http://www.rmlsweb.com/v2/public/report.asp?type=CR&CRPT2=BgUFB2ddDnZaUVJcRVVTRxiisZhGTPTI6xK%2BoaC%2BZw%3D%3D

And Adam wants this:

HI

I decided to take it off, I will wait a little while and see if I want to put it back on.

excuses, excuses....

I just found our camera that I'd left in our bike trailer (we got a old Burley brand on craiglist, yah!), so here's the video that I've been meaning to do for the last 2 days. Unfortunately, Geof.'s out of town and isn't in the video, AND the quality's not great. Sorry Pa! We love you!!! Happy Birthday AND Father's Day! love, the soon to be WA Bennetts p.s. Joanie, happy 30th!! (;

Double Birthday Shout Out...

Happy Birthday to Joanie

and 

A late Happy Birthday to Uncle Ellery

I hope you both had wonderful days.

Joan, I was meaning to text you all day and then I didn't I am sorry.

We love you both!

Love,

Jess, Ton and Ind

VA

Cole graduated from pre-school last Friday. I wasn't able to make it because I was down at an education conference at Southern Virginia University, HOWEVER, lucky for Geof., he and the girls went and Cole was adorable (as always). Even though he complained almost every morning about school, I'm glad he was able to do it and make such good friends. I think school also helped him with his desire to learn things and asks questions (or maybe it's just the age). I wish it hadn't been so long, all day, everyday, but he only did it for about 5 months. Also, check out the adorable video of June on my blog. I don't know how to highlight "my blog", so just look it up I guess.
*I tried uploading a video of his graduation, but it won't work. I have a lot to learn about computers!!

Happy Birthday Auntie Joan!!!

I hope you have a great day! I can always remember your birthday because it is the day after daddy's. Can I just tell you that you have the sweetest daughters? Jane loves Cortney (I might have spelled that wrong, I'm sorry) and all her cute comments on the blog. You are a wonderful person and I love you.

love, Brooke and the rest of the Stinchfields

P.S. Aunt Paula I missed your birthday and I'm sorry. I love you too.

Happy Birthday Pa!

Pa, I hope you have a great birthday! I love you.


LOVE,
Jane

bglife

we love love love our 'pa'!

  the kids could spend every second with him.  when he comes home for the weekend, they say "well this is his first day back."  then on the second day he is home they say, "but mom it is pa's

last day".  how do you argue with that?  we never get enough pa time.  we can't

wait for the day when he doesn't have to work anymore and he can live next door.  (it's just a little wish we have in our heart!)

happy birthday pa i love you!

Happy Happy Happy B-day

We hope you have a wonderful birthday! We love you.

Love,

Adam Mindi Sierra Kaia & Tristan

Happy Birthday Pa!!!!

Hi Daddy! I hope you have a wonderful birthday. You should celebrate, go out for pizza or something! We love you dad.

Love,
Mike, Brooke, Jane, Sadie, Ellyn, and Sawyer

ColoradoBennett

Along the same lines as Jessica's shoe question, I want to know how you bloggers keep track of your finances? I've tried free services like PearBudget but was frustrated by the lack of categories (ex. I want to tag things in minute detail). I heard about http://www.wesabe.com/ a few months ago and set up an account there. I was really excited about it until this morning when I downloaded all our accounts and it showed that I spent twice as much on food as I thought I spent. I'm sure there must be a mistake somewhere, but I don't have time to find it. All I have time for is panic. I want to micromanage, but I don't often make the time to do so. Adam hates micromanagement. He just wants to look at the credit card statement and if it is more than he'd like it to be, he gets grumpy. I read a story on Wesabe about a couple who was $40K in debt and they went on the "All Cash Diet" and managed to pay off their bills in an impressive amount of time. We aren't in debt like that, but it sounds like a great plan. I know Meagan and Cory use some sort of cash system. I'm worried that I would lose my month's supply of food money then I would just curl into a ball and die. Anyone have any great money management tips for me?

ColoradoBennett

I was excited to see the "Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting: Building Up A Righteous Posterity" show up with the Ensign and Friend this month. Sister Tanner, talking about the "Proclamation" said as a young single adult she "remembers hearing them preach that we were to get married, to have children, and to get an education, sort of all simultaneously, as impossible as it sounds." Then Elder Holland said "you shouldn't miss the ties that bind and the experiences that link us together in our youth and in our hardship and in our sacrifices as well as in senior years when maybe you've got a little more money." I took that one out of context a little, but I really liked what he was saying about the "experiences that link us together" when we marry and have kids before we are "in the money". Then my favorite, Sister Lant said "Having children is a lot of work. And we have to not be afraid of that, because it's that very element of working hard and being willing to do whatever it takes that makes us who we are. It's the sacrifice that makes us who we are. I want to bear my testimony of the joy that comes from having families, from having children, because there's not only the commandment from the Lord to do it, but there are great promised blessings."
A young woman told me this week she has three goals in life: to become a doctor, to not get married, and to not have children. After telling her that two of those goals were in direct violation of God's commandments, I started thinking about how lonely that would be. Coming home to an empty house, no one to nurture and love, no one to pull you through the highs and lows of life. It is heartbreaking to contemplate.
Who would want to miss out on silly, creative moments like this?:

This is what happens when I get distracted on the computer. They taped their eyes, noses, ears, and mouths shut. It was hilarious (sounds dangerous, but no children suffocated in order to obtain this picture).

Are you a "shoes in your house" person?...

Question:

Do you allow shoes in your home?

We all grew up in homes where our moms didn't allow shoes...did it rub off on you?

(side note: did grandma allow shoes?)

Sadly, I haven't been in a lot of your homes so I don't know what your rule is.

Moni and Cam, I know you guys don't and I know Leash and Kev don't but what about everyone else...

Brooke, Meags, Mindi, Darla?  How about our newlyweds Jord, Elly, Brinders, Chels, Cort?

Did you continue the legacy or did you marry a "shoe wearer?"

I married the latter but I have done my darnedest to rid him of the habit.  It's a continual battle but I think after 5 years I have almost won.  At least we are to the point where he won't wear his disgusting hospital shoes inside (that's another story altogether, he doesn't think the hospital is any dirtier then any other place.  Okay babe, you show me a mall with blood, puke and poop on the floor and then we will talk.)

My next question is, if you don't allow shoes, how do you get people to take off their shoes when they come over?

I am at a loss on this one.

I have seen a few signs: 

If you are coming in, your shoes are coming off.

or

Welcome to our shoeless home.

But really I don't know what to do.

Any suggestions?

Mindi, you've got to be kidding

Mindi, I don't know what you are talking about. I get so little done in a day it kills me. I change lots of diapers and clean up lots of messes. It takes an act of Congress to get anything monumental done around here. Also, in a million years I don't think I would ever be as thoughtful as you are. I can BARELY keep my head above water and I'm not kidding. Yesterday one of those chariots that Aunt Jack wrote about would have been very handy. Ellyn plopped down in the parking lot across the street from her school and refused to get up. Jane had taken Sadie to her class and was going to meet me at Ellyn's class party and after waiting for me for 10 minutes she came out to find me still standing in the middle of the parking lot. I was holding Sawyer and I was too far from our car to put him down and I could do nothing. Poor Ellie had little hicky marks on her wrist from me trying to pull her up. I felt like the biggest jerk mom ever and impotent to boot. So don't ever feel like you need to live up to anything I'm doing. Also, I do not get any phone messages, they all go to Mike's e-mail AND my ringer was turned off for about a week before I realized it. So... if you tried to call here I am sorry. Also, we will be stateside soon so don't mail Sadie's package (also another thing that you are way better at than me, I don't even always get a blog in). You are wonderful. I am so sorry to read about your dad. That brought tears to my eyes. Okay, I would love to write more but I have started The Host, it's 11:12 and I promised myself I would only read to 12. Why, when I get no sleep, because it is the thread I am grasping to keep me sane right now. Reading, love it, have to do it. Blog out.

Me

Yesterday I had a good day. We ran some errands and found a place that we think we might sell our car from. Went to the PX because I remembered that my friend had told me that she had seen a whole bunch of trampolines. We went there and the PX said they would call us and they left an answer on our answering machine, (well, at least they said they did), and they were supposed to save one for us and they did. So, we took it home and arranged for my best friend's family to come over and help us set it up. We took it out and it seemed too light, so my mom looked at customer reviews. Non of them were good, so we took apart the small part that we had put together in the box to take it back today. Earlier in the day my friends mom had bought a watermelon. She offered to cut it up and bring it over here. So we did that and... me and my friend had an idea. We are doing a summer party in my back yard. We are going to have a mini raffle, games, soda, and chips. I think it will be a blast. It is only 4 people besides my family and hers, so nothing big. She stayed till eight planning and making invites and we all had fun. Earlier in the day we had gone to Ellyn's end of the year party. That was fun. Ok one more thing before I forget, the other day me and my mom were going to the and we were on post there is a guy running along a side road trail thing in black sweats and carrying a machine gun. Weird and a little bit freaky. Well I better go...

LOVE,
me

bglife

mindi you are so good, i made that commitment to never drive where i could walk, but after a few days of sun the rain came back and i lost all of my ambition.  however after cory gave me my envelopes of money and i put $50 worth of gas in the car and it only got me 1/2 full i have renewed ambition.  so anyways this morning was the first time i could show my determination.  of course it was raining and unseasonably cold and we were running very late, but i wasn't going to let that stop me.  so we set off and poor wil's hands froze on his handle bars, jack and benn were sopping wet and hazel was so cold and wet she even stopped whining.  we all lived, and got warm and dry and my car got to rest this morning so that we could drive to salmon creek twice this afternoon.  once for wil's dr apt (which solved nothing!) and once to take benn to ballet.  every little bit helps right.  i hope the weather starts cooperating soon. 

i love, love, love the quote that jack put on here.  things like that really renew my spirits.  i know that the Lord is on our side and with Him we can not fail, but sometimes i forget and having reminders as powerful as that really helps. 

mind we are praying for you house deal and you know washington is always an option.  if adam put you in charge he really can't get mad.  we are also praying that gas prices go down and the price of groceries. 

love to all...............me

Hi

Alicia found this and I thought that you would all find it as comforting as I did. Love you all Aunt Jack

“In the gospel of Jesus Christ you have help from both sides of the veil, and you must never forget that. When disappointment and discouragement strike—and they will—you remember and never forget that if our eyes could be opened we would see horses and chariots of fire as far as the eye can see riding at reckless speed to come to our protection. They a will always be there, these armies of heaven, in defense of Abraham’s seed”

Elder Jeffrey R Holland, “For Times of Trouble,” BYU Speeches, 1980, p.45

ColoradoBennett

So after calling almost every female Bennett relative I know (not you Ellynn, I still need to call you because I messed up my hair dye again) and not hearing back from them I started to think I had too much time on my hands. "Perhaps no one calls me back because they are genuinely too busy and I need to be more busy," I thought. So yesterday I vac/mopped, rode several miles to the middle school to get my kids a free government lunch (see my blog for more info), came home in time for a YW to come over to "help" me during nap time (I had to set up a secret plan for this girl to apologize to another YW to try and bring peace back to the program), painted the front and back door and touched up some gutters (we have a guy flying in from Oregon this weekend to look at buying the house, please join us in prayer that he gives us a great offer and this year-long house selling can finally end!), had YW "help" me make bread and honey butter, fired up the grill and made us all dinner (I had to add this because this YW said "girls don't grill!" to which I did my best to scoff and produced the best hamburgers and hot dogs of my grilling career), made another attempt to mail Sadie's birthday gift but UPS wanted to charge an outrageous amount so I'll have to keep trying (the reason this is so difficult is that I've sworn in my wrath that I'll never go into a post office with three kids again and I always seem to have three kids with me), coerced YW to write an apology letter and drove her to deliver bread and honey butter as a peace offering to other YW, dropped her off at home, filled up my truck with gas while listening to a man predict that gas would soon be at $6 a gallon (later Adam affirmed the truthfulness of this statement), wanted to burst into tears because my legs hurt from biking the kids around so much (plus doing the Tony Horton work out videos that Adam and I bought), stopped crying and told myself I need to be a better Bennett woman (just kidding I wasn't crying and Kaia has been requesting me to read a book every day that talks a lot about being a better Wemmick (can you guess the book?)), met Adam at Costco where we felt like a normal stock up on food cost about $100 more than usual, helped a pregnant lady from our ward (pregnant with twins and literally about to deliver any minute) in Costco put 25 lbs. of sugar into her cart so that she could make jam the next day (she asked Adam if I make jam, to which he had to reply "no" but said something about me saying I need to make bread more often because of the rising cost of Costco bread), buy groceries (several comments from other shoppers "boy you sure do have your hands full" in reference to the wild children prancing all around our cart), unload groceries at home, have FHE (lots of yelling and fighting about which story we should read from the Friend), put kids in bed, do dinner dishes, make several phone calls relating to YW, tried really hard to collapse in bed but couldn't fall asleep for another hour and a half. Woke up and read Brooke's blogs and realized that she does all this and 10 times more plus she does it with no sleep. The rest of you do a lot more too. Next month we are looking forward to a week at girl's camp, a week at the family reunion, and moving (we still don't know where, Adam just called to say I need to figure that out today). Busy, busy blog out...

Sadie's Elf

Sadie called me in to the dining room a couple of weeks ago to show me her milk that spilled in the shape of an elf. Thought I would add it to our pics but then I forgot about it until today when I was going through pics.

uh nothing

Hi its me. Well nothing exciting going on. I am not used to school being out and when I went to take Cody for a walk my best friend was outside riding her bike. Shes playing hooky, isn't she? No, no. schools out. So we had a picnic out side because it was really warm. So that was fun.

Love you all,
Jane

Bavaria

I can't believe that in about a month "Bavaria" will be "Monterey." That is kind of bittersweet. Every time I look at my little Ellie and think of her getting everything she needs I feel the tears start to well. I am so, so happy. We still don't know exactly when we will leave. I will keep you posted.

Well I just got done with another night of almost no sleep. For one there was a stupid fly that would periodically come buzzing into my room and if any of you doubt whether or not your reflexes really do slow down when you are driving and tired try this little experiment- try to swat a fly with The Friend in the middle of the night. It would have been comical had I been in any mood to laugh- I wasn't. I also had the most different dream I have ever had in my whole entire memory of dreams last night but I won't go into that. Maybe it was a vision or something.

Okay, I am trying to embrace self tanners since Mike says my legs better be paper white for the rest of my life. My problem is this- they all smell. I am mastering the blending but the smell kills me. Anybody have one that doesn't scream- Stinky Self Tanner?

Darla, your pictures and comments crack me up.

Life is busy as usual here. Soccer just ended, school gets out Thursday. We are so ready for that. It's crazy, you would think we were in Alaska or something, I swear it only gets dark here for three hours. It has really been throwing off Ellyn's sleep schedule and thus, mine as well. I do love it though, I do.

Well it is time to go lay down the cutest male child ever and go clean my kitchen from dinner last night. We had our missionary couple over for dinner last night. We LOVE them. We love you all, me

bglife

i taught relief society today.  it was great.  it was the least prepared i have ever been, but thanks to the wonderful women in our ward and their insightful comments it turned out to be a very good lesson. 

the kids are wonderful!  i think i am counting down more than they are for school to get out.  i am ready to have them to myself and make my own schedule.  it has been easier waiting out this year because with all the rain and cool temperatures it doesn't feel at all like summer.  last summer was a very lonely time for me with out brookie or any other siblings around that wanted to play with me (brind), and the whole allennett thing falling through.  so i am very much looking forward to the possibility or having geof. and darla and ellynn and jason.  and maybe if they are around then brind and julia will want to come play with me.  then i would be in heaven.  not complete heaven, because i would be missing brooke and mike and adam and mindi, but i will take what i can get.  poor mom i think she is ready for a break from always trying to keep me entertained.  she likes to work and stuff and i don't want any part of that! 

so.............gas prices hurt and.............ok i can't think of anything else to write so i had better go help cory get the kids in bed.  i have the best husband.  but i'm pretty sure he doesn't know it because as you all know i can be pretty mean to him.  well that is something else i am working on. 

love to all...............me

ps don't forget daddy's BIG 60 is on friday.  i think geof., darla and the kids are going to try to fly out yeah!!!!!!!!!!!

...just a few more pics from D.C.

Ellery and Eleanore.
I'm not sure how new FDR's monument is, but it's pretty incredible. My cousin Ivy knew all the symbology behind it (thanks to frequent phone calls to her husband SHane who's in Montana!) and was quite the knowledgable tour guide.














Le Anne's happy she didn't have to suffer through the Depression. I bet she's also secretly happy her chest doesn't look like this old lady's.
















Here we are trying to take a serious pic of the poverty sticken Bennetts (these guys are in line looking for work..., or food?) and look what Geof.'s doing!