ellie's influence

see what happens after lauryn has been hanging out with ellie??? :)
i can just hear myself in 13 years............ if ellie jumped off a cliff, would you do that too???

mashed banana

mashed banana, mashed banana,
mashed banana, mashed banana,
mashed banana, mashed banana,
banana, banana, banana, banana!
courtesy of the wiggles......
to those of you who now have this song stuck in your head like me, you're welcome!

king of the hill

amy jo,one of my childhood friends, came to las vegas last week with her husband todd. we spent the evening with them and had a lot of fun! amy & i grew up together in newburg. she was one of the few friends that actually lived IN town with me. we had countless numbers of sleepovers, lemonade stands, days of jumping on the tramp, playing kickball, riding bike, riding the golf carts, endlessly driving around town, talking about boys, talking about boys, did i mention we talked about boys??? she was the one who taught me how to shave my legs at about the age of 6. neither of us were very good at it...our knees were pretty bloody when her mom found us. i have so many fond memories of amy, but this one takes the cake............
it was a brisk winter day, typical of north dakota. we were in 3rd or 4th grade, playing king of the mountain at the end of the school day. we were waiting for the bus to pick us up & drive us from elementary school in kramer back to newburg where we lived. just before the bus picked us up, i managed to push amy down from the mountain of snow that she had been "king" of for most of the time. that didn't sit too well with her. needless to say, i was scared s*#@less because she was mad at me for toppling her. my friend teresa & i convinced the bus driver to let us sit on the steps on the way to newburg so that i could make my getaway to my house a block away from the school. teresa hollared, "run, jennifer, run!" as soon as the door opened & i ran as fast as my snowpants, winter coat, & moon boots allowed me. amy wasn't burdened with all that added material and she caught me from behind in front of teddy & birdie's house. i fell back on top of her. she told me to get off & i replied, "no"......not wanting to get up for fear of what would happen next. after lieing there for 30 seconds i realized eventually i had to get up so i did.......and amy got up & ran home.
the moral of the story is..........a friend is a friend forever, no matter what!

dennis in wales

dennis was in wales a few weeks ago working for hbo boxing via compubox. he was there to do punch stats for the joe calzaghe/peter manfredo fight. during the singing of our national anthem the crowd booed. how dare they! dennis said during the welsh anthem, the crowd belted it out at the top of their lungs. i wish everyone here did the same at sporting events for our anthem. unfortunately, i imagine that too many people don't know the words.
because of meetings, etc. he didn't get much time to take in the sites. he spent some time walking around and doing some shopping........in other words, buying us some souvenirs! the kids got some cute clothes & each got a stuffed animal. i got a shirt that is really cute.....hopefully sometime this summer i'll get to wear it. yet again, my husband bought me a shirt a size too small. who should be more upset?? dennis, who thinks i don't appreciate his sentiment - or me, who doesn't really want to walk around with myself poured into a small shirt, circa britney spears 1999? (me without the flat belly of course.) any whoo....i'm going to the gym in the morning!!!

attitude check

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I HAVE ATTITUDE???"

hope you all had a great easter! easter came a day late at allen fieldhouse. the kids had fun hunting around the house for easter eggs, playing with their new toys, &, as you can see, wearing their new "cool shades"! we had a great holiday & are most grateful that HE is risen!

Decorating Easter Eggs

on monday, isaac & lauryn had friends over to dye easter eggs. it was a big success! their eggs (& fingers) were perfectly dyed. :) kole & avary came to join in the fun, as well as olivia & her sister tess, and michael. they also enjoyed playing and having lunch together. the highlight for some of the kids was when the train came by, since it travels right behind our house.

isaac had his first t-ball game with his team the scorpions yesterday. he had a great time! they played 2 innings (the rules state the games run for 50 min. or 3 innings, whichever comes first). isaac had a couple of good hits & got to run the bases. no score is kept for this age group of 3 & 4 yr. olds. each team member gets to bat each inning, & in our case, we had only 6 players vs. the other team's 11. isaac & his buddy kole had fun playing their first game, eating snacks, and watching cars drive by.