Highlights of our 2009 New Hampshire trip

* Camping with my siblings(10 adults 23 kids)
*Going to my family reunion


*playing VolleyBall

*The creek

*Getting together with my dad's family

*Swimming in the lake and playing in the sand

*Our once a year dinner at 'Margarita's'...don't feel bad for our waitress..she got a cool 40% tip...!

*NEW YORK! (half of us decided to stay in New York for the last night of the trip)

*David, Trey and Melissa made themselves really comfortable on the ferry ride to Manhattan...these poor guys thought they were going to have a quiet lunch...!)

*Eating New York Pizza for lunch...GOOD STUFF!!

*Showing the kid's where the plane landed in the Hudson and how the ferry boats were able to show up so quickly....(lil Nick tried to get out of the picture, but I got him!)

*Ground Zero..in the background you can see the "Freedom Tower" being constructed right next to the Memorial site where the Twin Towers once stood...I love what they have chosen to do for the memorial...

This will be what the Memorial will look like at ground zero...

*Statue of Liberty...after a slight snag in security ,"Can I get my scissors and spoon back on my way out?", and helping a homeless man, "I'll take that knock off purse for $24, thank you Mr. Homeless man", we took the ferry over to Liberty Island, where we showed our tRuE tourist colors....(Note Shawn, all the way to the right, poor kid, cursed with me as his mom and Dana, Tracey and Katy as his Aunts..)

*nice

*Riding the Ferry back

Where have I been??

to, count them, 19 different events in 7 days!! It has been lots of fun, going to picnics and parties and social events celebrating everything from the end of the school year to the end of baseball to birthdays.

The kids and I are super glad school is out! Here are some photos from the past 7 days....(and I know it looks like Shawn isn't loved, I just didn't have my camera at his games!!) (I love you Shawny boy!)

Melissa with her hair colored from a party with her buddies. We had to go straight to a baseball game from the party, so she looked BEAUTIFUL for the game!

Melissa swimming at our "end of the year swim get together for friends"

David taking a break from swimming at the same party

Greg and his friend ,Jack, collecting worms and keeping them from getting into the pool, Thanks fellas!

Alex (with new hair cut) with Dale and I after his fifth grade graduation ceremony....I cried after seeing my little guy's baby picture in the slide show..I can't believe he is 11!! Seems like yesterday that he had 22 ear infections before his second birthday!

Alex, during his Simulated Congressional hearing ..he did great!

Alex during a baseball game, ...

Alex's teammates during the baseball party...(I swear Alex isn't my favorite child, I just happen to get the batteries back in my camera befor all of his events started!)

Dale recieving his assistant coaches gift at the party...a book of pictures from the season. We are lucky to have such a great team with parents that we absolutely love! One in particular, Rita, (pictured above in the center) always takes beautiful pictures of our kids and puts together the greatest memories of not only our baseball seasons, but also soccer. She also puts together the memory book for the school! If that isn't enough, she gave a bunch of people a cd rom of pictures of our children that she used to put the memory book together!! So now I have a bunch of pictures of my kids that other people, including Rita, took throughout the whole year at different school events!! How amazing is she, and I know she would absolutely die if she knew I posted this on a public blog about her, but I have to because I think she has to be one of the nicest people I have ever known! Did I mention that she also has a full time job in addition to being a mom of two and she still does all of this?!?!?!

Team photo, (courtesy of Rita!)



I had a lot more events that we attended, but I don't have photos...

Today I went ice skating with David, Melissa and Aunt Wendy...

Melissa on her skates...

David, Melissa and Wendy taking a break from skating...(I had to make David sit, he said he needed a break, walked off the ice for 20 seconds, then said he wanted to go back on...) After 90 minutes of skating the ice got pretty choppy, so we left...



Wendy, Melissa, Alex and David playing chicken in the pool after ice skating...we figured out that Wendy is closer in age to Shawn than she is to Me, so that explains why she is one of the funnest aunts to play with!

More kid quotes...

David and Greg were giving me a dental exam on Saturday ...Greg started it, "mom, mom open wide, I want to see if you have a silver toof...is it shiny??"

as David was prying my mouth open (I was not a willing participant in this exam), words were flying out of Greg's mouth, "Open mom, wide, wide mom! I want to see the silver toof!, I want to see if yo' teef is brokin, c'mon mom, i got to see, hodder David, pull hodder"

I gave in and relaxed my facial muscles and David got my mouth completely pulled apart (the kind of pulled apart where I actually said to myself "my face is going to freeze like this")

Greg's nonstop chatting kept going, growing more and more excited as he could actually SEE in my mouth, "Mom, mom. yo' mouf is red! it's all red! you do have a silva toof, you do! I see it ! I see yo' tongue, I see all of yo teef!! look at them all! they are white, whats that ? open wider David, open wider! OOOOOh mom, I see yo' boxing bag!! I'm going to punch it!"

Next thing I felt was a fist colliding with my mouth! everything quiet, exam over.....






then on sunday (note: this conversation happened AFTER he punched his mom in the mouth)

Greg: Mom why did Jesus Have to die?
Me: well, because he loved you and all of us so much that he chose to.
Greg: Why? Why did he CHOOSE to?
Me: well, he knew that we were going to make bad choices and he wanted us to be able to say sorry
Greg: *I* wasn't going to make bad choices, so I don't have to say sorry and he shouldn't have choosed to die.

(We will have the lesson on "choosing to accept the atonement" when he is a little bit older)

"You've come a long way, baby".....

As I begin to write this blog about feminism, some might find it ironic that I am up to my elbows in baking dessert for the Relief Society meeting tonight.

The other day I went on a field trip with Melissa to The Baltimore museum of industry. We saw many wonderful things and participated in terrific activities, but one activity I found interesting was the "Cannery"

The chidren were given identities of real people who worked in the Platt's Oyster Cannery well over a hundred years ago. The children were going to spend some time becoming their new identities in the Mock cannery.

Melissa was first assigned to be a 28 year old black women named Olivia. Olivia was an Oyster Shucker and spent sun up to sun down, six days a week, shucking oysters in the Oyster Cannery. Olivia was paid per pail of shucked oysters. Back then, the workers lived in company owned housing, and were paid with company tokens that could only be spent at the company store. So Melissa/Olivia worked shucking Oysters, at the end of the "day" Melissa/Olivia was paid for her work. Melissa/Olivia and the other workers(classmates) were excited to be paid, because the company store had some cool items that they wanted to purchase, including toys. After each student worked hard, and really understood what the life of their person was like, they were anxious to spend there earnings at the company store.

We escorted a group over to the store, where the store clerk collected a certain number of tokens for food, rent, and heat. Every worker/student found they had no money left for the toys. They asked how they could make more money, the tour guide explained that if you were not a white male, the only way to make more money would be to work harder, for most immigrants,women and african americans this meant eliminating your 15 minute lunch and just getting by on raw oysters throughout the day. For white males it meant learning to read and write, or trying to get into an apprenticeship. Life was incredibly difficult for minorities and women back then.

With the civil rights movement, and feminist movements, we have certainly come a long long way. I know the slogan I selected came from a Virginia Slims ad campaign in the 60's, but I believe it is the most well known slogan for the feminist movement, so I chose it. It also represents how a movement that was founded upon such great ideals, the idea of equal rights for women, can get so off track. The ad campaign consisted of women shunning their aprons for "freedom" from household obligation. Here we are, almost 4 decades later, in what I believe to be the most exciting time in history for women. No longer are we stuck to the lowest paid jobs, nor do we believe that being housewives is oppressive. Now, when one of our daughters says, "I want to be....", she can complete that sentence anyway she likes. She can be president, or she can be a housewife. The feminist movement has given our women, and therefore our families more oppurtunities than has ever been afforded before in history. I have many friends around me, some are doctors who quit to be housewives, some are housewives who decided to be teachers, the women's experience is now one of complete freedom, the freedom to choose whatever we want. Complete freedom to choose is wonderful, but also scary, because with complete freedom comes something bigger, complete responsibility for our choices. We are now completely independant and completely responsible for the choices we make.

My heart went out for Olivia,and women everywhere who lived in those difficult times. Olivia had no choice, she was a shucker all her life, until her grandchildren could help support her. How difficult that must have been for her, knowing her own capabilities, but being so limited. What it must have been like to work so hard, and not even have enough for shoes. I imagine she never took a vacation. I imagine that she relished the Sabbath, her only day to be completely free.

I know that politically I am a conservative,(will likely register independant soon!) but I definately concede that the United State's biggest asset is that we have two main political parties. Conservatives, who promote capitalism and allow it to flourish, and Liberals, who promote programs to help all in the pursuit of happiness. What a grand system we have and what a wonderful country we live in, and what an amazing time it is to be a woman!

Melissa/Olivia and "co-workers" in the company store, unhappily paying their last token for heat.

Melissa and her best buddy, Anabel, two wonderful girls and future wonderful women!