va

I ran 9 miles today! Woo hoo! And I'm leaving now to do a session at the D.C. temple and pick up my sister and niece from the airport! Call Geof. and wish him a happy day (since he's watching the kids ALL day without a car!).

Enforced Silliness

Ruby loves me

I promised Le Anne that I'd send her a picture the first time Ruby wore this outfit. Le Anne put it together and left it perfectly folded in the drawer just waiting for Ruby to grow into it. She's still a bit small for it, but I just couldn't wait any longer. How fun it is to dress little girls!

Clear morning

It is hard to capture how incredible the view is from the new house. The iPhone camera is pretty weak and lately there have been a lot of clouds. Can you tell we are trying to get you to come visit?




-- Post From My iPhone

Check out Geof's moment of fame here. In case you don't know, you have to click on the video. Happy day to all those fathers out there. Geof. is a wonderful dad to his children and loves them to death and the best part is, they know that!! Thank you Geof.! And to you Ellery, I hope you realize how wonderful you've been as a dad. Geof. has nothing but good things to say about you. Happy Father's Day to all!

Happy Birthday Auntie Joan and Julia

I was thinking of both of you.  Does that count.  Joanie's is the one I can always remember without help because it is the day after dad's.  I hope you both had wonderful days.  

Julia, I am so excited for you to have your little baby girl.  Labor is so exciting.  Your house is so cute.  I know you and Brind will be awesome parents.  Noone is a better playing buddy than Uncle Brind.  Good luck with everything.  Keep us posted! 

Joanie, I found a picture of the two of us when I was eight months pregnant and I look hideous and you have your hand on my belly.  I was thinking back over the years and thinking how much I absolutely love your face when you laugh.  It's infectious.  I got that warm fuzzy feeling inside, I guess it means I love you.  Happy Birthday!

va

I won't lie, I didn't know it was Julia's birthday. Thank you, Mindi! Happy bday Julia. Hope it was wonderful. I'm almost positive you were spoiled rotten by Brind. That's the difference between Geof. and his brothers. (; Hey, I'm not complaining. I wrote up a post this morning on my blog. Read it here. It's hysterical (well, the fact that I copied Mindi and June fell asleep on her knees..ooh, now you're interested. You'll have to read it!). My brother in law Steve is up in D.C. on business. Staying at the same amazing hotel Ellery and Le Anne stayed out last time they were out for some Pizza Hut convention. He's coming down for the day to play. We can't wait to show him our beloved Richmond. Anyway, all is well. Work has slowed down and bit for Geof. (because interest rates rose half a point..er, percentage?), but fortunately, Seth, the guy he works for/with is pretty motivated and has done enough advertising to already get things up and rolling again. Thank goodness. Dayne woke up with an ear infection this morning. And we don't have insurance for her! We're in the process...hate that, though. Did anyone listen to Obama's speech a few days ago concerning health care? I have 2 friends out here whose husbands are in their last few years of residency and they're so ticked off! I'll have to do a little more research, but it sure sounds like we're headed into some troublesome times...especially in the health care department! My plan is to eat as well as possible and exercise in hopes that we can keep our dr. visits down to a minimal..

Happy Birthday, Julia!!

Pa!! We love you!

Dear Pa,
if only we could of gotten this done on your birthday! Please PLEASE forgive us. We miss you, Pa! We miss how upbeat you always are, how hard (and loud) you laugh at movies and my kid's silly behavior, how snuggly you are (especially early in the morning when Dayne came up to read scriptures with you), how often you offered to babysit (thank YOU, by the way!), how well you communicate and listen to Geof. and me complain about life..the list could go on forever. You're a wonderful person, Ellery. We hope you know that and have a great, successful (in every way possible) year!

LOVE,

the VA Bennetts

p.s. we have 3 families from Korea that recently moved into our ward. They're all so sweet, but nobody understands them. We need you here!!

What do you do in the summertime?

Joan, we hope your birthday was perfect yesterday.

Happy Birthday Pa!

Can you look at that smile and not just love this guy? Dad, I hope you have a wonderful birthday. I love you so much. Just today as I drove down the valley and contemplated our move next weekend (just trading houses) I thought of all your hard work last year. You are wonderful and I want you to know how much I appreciate all of your kindness and generosity and service throughout the years. Good luck this week!

Love,
Brooke

Basement Dwellers

As Mom mentioned in her post, we moved from Meagan and Cory's playroom to Mom and Dad's spacious and luxurious basement. We love it! Its nice and cool and light and there is more space than we have had in a very long time. we even have our very own bathroom that we only occasionally have to share with mom and dad when they don't want to squigee their shower. Finn has been in his own room which has done wonders for my sleep! He sleeps through the night about half the time and the other half. we just sooth him for a moment so he knows we love him and he cries himself back to sleep. it's fantastic. he usually wakes up around 6 or so to eat and then goes back down long enough for me to get a run with mom and in and a shower as well.

But alas all good things must come to an end. Jason has not been able to find another job here so we will be moving back to utah. we're not sure exactly when but hopefully sometime in the next couple of months. Jase will go down for a week and look for jobs while i pack and then Jason's parents will be driving up here to help us move. if anyone knows where we could get ahold of an encloed trailor for less than an arm and a leg, that would be great. Wish us luck!

Should I watch this movie?

Great site for parents: Common Sense Media

The Grand Tour...

Ladies and Gentlemen, by popular demand, we give you our new house....

A few notes... we have a TV on our coffee table and a VCR on the couch because I was feeling so sick one night I couldn't fall asleep... and when I finally emerged from our bedroom that next morning, I found Brind had lugged them out of the garage and set them up in the living room. I thought one TV was sufficient in the living room so I asked what they were doing there and he said, "I know you're feeling crummy, so I thought you might want to watch Beauty and the Beast." Its my very favorite comfort movie and we only have it on VHS. He kills me! What a sweetheart! And Violet's room has a couch in it because.... well, there's no place else to put the couch. Ah...um... her room is still a work in progress. (She won't be here for six more weeks, thats enough time to make a nursery, right?)

Thank you to everyone who helped us get our new place in order! As you can see we're having so much fun playing house ;) We love you - Julia and Brind

PS. If you didn't catch Brind's subtle hint in the video, I picked the paint color for our bedroom based SOLELY on its name. Porpoise. So when people ask us, "Was your room that color when you moved in?" We can reply, "No, we painted it this color on porpoise." On a more serious note, I would never ever ever recomend buying paint just for the name... no matter how funny it is.

Forgot to Mention

Possibly because it was before Denver trip that Meags, Ellynn and I went over to Brind and Julia's apartment and painted 2 1/2 rooms. So much fun you will have to ask Jules why she chose the color for their bedroom. Violet's room as you may well guess is 2 lovely shades of. . . ? and I hear Julia's Dad got the chair rail up and it is beautiful. The front room/kitchen we just did an accent wall. Thankfully Brind liked it much better after the 2nd coat. He says it now looks like milk chocolate. The only thing better would be dark chocolate. Julia made us a wonderful lunch, which it is easy to see why Brind has put on a few lbs. it would be hard not to.
We don't see much of them. You would think they were still newlyweds, but it is fun when we do. Brind called for Mothers Day and promised me 2 hrs. or was it 4 of yard work. What is really fun is I have been cleaning out my closet and ran across an old Mothers Day card where he promised me 4 hrs. of yard work. The boy knows how to please me. It is amazing what I can do with that size man power at my disposal. Now if I can convince Julia to come up and make us lunch my life will be complete!!! Now I think I have covered the family.
Le Anne

LAST NIGHT GOODBYES

A very brief update is that we found out we had faulty pipe so luckily Shell Oil Co. who manufactured it had to pay to have our house completely replumbed. What a nightmare involving Many Many holes in walls and ceilings. Some as big as 8x10 through out the house and lots of dust and mess for 3 weeks.  Poor Darla and kids had their last days here in an absolute disaster!

Mon. May 11th I woke up at 3:30am to take Ellery to the airport for a job interview in Texas. Ruby, Ruby, Ruby was born. I went to work. And Darla, Cole, Dayne, and June Bug moved back to Richmond.

Tues. I went to work--left a bit early to catch my flight to Denver to Play with the Denver Bennetts for 2 weeks, YEAH!  That day they finished mudding, sanding and spraying all the holes. Scarey eh? Not really because Ellery comes home and digs in with the help of the sister missionaries to clean up the mess AND. . .

Jason, Ellynn and Finn move from Meagan and Cory's playroom to our spacious, 1200 ft. basement apartment.  Elly makes it her own as only the Tetris Queen can! Everything cleaned and in place.  Wonderful!

Now all I have to worry about is the painting, yard and the ---- deck!

FOR the goodbye part--Dang it is hard. It seems I am missing someone no matter where I am, but our family cannot seem to stay put for long. We miss our Richmond Bennetts. Fun while it lasted!

The last night Cole was here he and Wil had a "slumber party"  with G'ma in my bed.  We put a movie in my little dvd player and snuggled down together.  I asked about a Harry Potter movie.  Wil told me that wasn't a Sunday movie. (Our little apostle) We settled on The Last Mimsy. (is that better?) They were so tired, but had to stay awake to the end. They both wanted to sleep next to me so lucky me, I got middle! I was snuggled all night between two stinky sweaty little six year old boys. Not stinky nasty sweaty just the smell of little boys that have jumped on the tramp and wrestled and played hard outside for most of the day smell. No place I would rather be as I knelt over them for my prayers and asked Heavenly Father to bless them that they would always love each other, be close and be good boys!

After 2 weeks that went by way too fast I had to say goodbye to my little babies in Denver. All of them. I had so much fun with them!!! I owed Sierra 2 chapters in Fablehaven. We were right at the scary part. I asked her if she wanted me to stop and she could read it with her mom in the daylight the next day. She assured me she was fine. Her eyes got bigger and bigger as I read to her by the light in the hallway. Just like old times when my kids were little. Kaia, wise little woman that she is  told me she was going to go to sleep. Which she promptly did. Adam stretched out in the hallway using a pile of books for a pillow. Mindi called to Tristan to climb into his crib. He said he wanted to snuggle with his dad. He is such a cute little kid, who can say no.  He goes into his room, grabs a pile of books off his bookshelf, brings them out and lays down next to his dad using them for his pillow.  They are always watching your example.

Hard to say goodbye, but I am grateful for the times I get to spend with them. So good to have Brooke and Mike relatively close. I have really been blessed to be able to see all them as much as I do! And my little Allen kids and Finners---LIFE IS GOOD!!!

Love to all, G'ma Dana

D-Day, 65 Years Ago Today

I am in awe of all of the brave men that fought on the beaches that day. Their courage is something I cannot even comprehend. I feel very privileged that our family was able to visit the beaches of Normandy and get just the tiniest glimpse of the sacrifice made by so many. I am so proud of our American soldiers, time and again they step up to the plate and do what is asked of them. Thank you.

va bennetts

Last week I went with Cole on a fieldtrip to the Richmond Metro Zoo. It's not too metro, out in the country, actually.., but it was great. I loved being able to spend that one on one time with Cole. On another note, I'm somewhat trying to train for a half marathon. I ran 6.5 last weekend and tried doing an even longer run this morning..to no avail. My left knee was killing me as well as shin splints on both legs (worst on the left side). What do I do? My new shoes are comfortable and I even ran in my older ones today to see if my new ones were the problem. Same thing. Dang it. Anyway, hope it gets better. Still happy and lovin' Richmond. We bought our first real bed last night, 10 yr. warranty and all. Geof. even agreed to get the $99 bed cover (worth more like $300) so that if we did have any leaks on the bed (thanks to our kids, mind you!) that we'd still have the warranty. Even the cover comes with a 10 yr. warranty. Yea for us! We're off to the Strawberry Festival in Ashland, a cute railroad town about 15 minutes north. I'll try to remember to take pics.

A Late Comment

Jess, I don't know if I am the one to be suggesting this with the nightmare of a house I have in Oklahoma, but... if you didn't want to sell or you couldn't sell with the current market you could always rent it out. If you did credit checks and you were there to make sure it was being maintained you could move in with your mom and dad, rent it out, keep building up equity, and have your house back if you wanted it when you were done. I can't say I'm totally for it and you have probably already thought of that, but it is an idea. As for the moving in, I think it is a great idea. It can be hard, but part of what I found hard was trying to keep mom's house clean with my crazy kids and that is still a little ways down the road for you.

New Site

I have a new site that I have set it up that you can look at pictures. I'm trying to decide between this one and winkflash, so lets vote! Love you Aunt Jack http://rigbyslife.shutterfly.com/ p.s. hope that it works! 

"Our Name Is Our Virtue"--Jason Mraz

I'm supposed to be sleeping.  Adam has the "three noisies" at the pool so you would think conditions would be perfect.  I was up till who knows when trying to get Ruby to fall asleep last night, so I'm definitely tired.  Nap time just didn't happen for anyone today so again...I'm tired. Sweet little Ruby was sleeping soundly until a few moments ago.  I tried to nurse her back to sleep, but to no avail.  Maybe it is because everyone in the neighborhood decided to mow and/or weed eat their lawn tonight.  Is that a chain saw I hear too? I dunno.  Adam took the camera to work a few days ago and I decided I was way behind on taking pics of Ruby.  I started using Photo Booth here on my Mac.  Something about the camera made Ruby's stomach decide it was time to eject buckets of milk.  That is what is happening in the picture above.  But to prove she is a delightful little cutie see photo below: Reddish brown hair, blue eyes, light olive skin, delightful personality--maybe I'm biased.  I think she is mad about her name, though.  Oh, she likes "Ruby", we all do.  It is the middle name that is the problem.  I want her middle name to be "Josephine" (my dear Grammy's middle name--well, her birth certificate says "Joe" because her dad wanted her to be a boy, but her mother always called her "Barbara Josephine").  Adam wants Ruby's middle name to be "Danger".  He is still upset with me for not letting him use that middle name for Tristan.  Pfssshhh, like I'm in any shape to raise a "Danger" for Pete's sake.  

So what do you think?  Should it be "Ruby Josephine", "Ruby Danger", or "Ruby No-Middle-Name"?  We'll keep putting off the baby blessing (just like we did with Tristan) until this is resolved.  Ruby needs your help.