Because Rilyn started kindergarten this year, we thought it would be appropriate to do a ‘family report card’  in lieu of a traditional letter.  Enjoy!

the front and the back

the inside

our Christmas picture 2009

I am a sucker for buying class photos and yearbooks.  Why?  For reasons below.  I knew my Lexington Jr. High (in Cypress, CA) yearbook would be useful one day! 

If you own a television, you have probably heard of the new Fox show, glee.  I do not watch it regularly, but I’ve seen an episode or two because some of my friends love it.  When I first saw the Spanish teacher Will Schuester, played by Matthew Morrison, I said to myself, “That guy looks just like I guy I went to school with-Matt Morrison.”   Nothing clicked.  ‘Matthew’ and ‘Matt’ are apparently totally different names to me. 

Finally a couple of days ago, at a totally random time of the day, it clicked!  I DID go to school with him!  But I had foggy memories of when.

I looked him up in my yearbooks, and it turns out I only went to 8th grade with him.  Apparently, I thought he was ‘funny’ as I wrote that below his picture.  (Yes, I went through every student I knew in my jr. high yearbooks and wrote something about them on their picture!  Again, it must have something to do with my curiousity for people.)  I remember he was in Theatre Arts at Lexington and I must of had a class or two with him since I thought he was ‘funny’!

Here is his 8th grade picture circa 1993:

Comment at end

5th December, 2009

THE DAILY MAIL … MAUL HAS HISTRIONICS OVER “BULLYING” A TYRANT,

A “WITCH HUNT”… & A PHONE CALL FROM A PRIME MINISTER

‘Bush and Blair misled the public… yes, it’s conceivable both could end up on trial’

SO, IT’S A TRIAL YOU WANT, IS IT … THE BRITISH PRESS?

I MEAN A REAL TRIAL?

The time will soon be upon us, as some of us have mentioned before, that The Mail and others will conclude that their “Get Blair in the dock” campaign has backfired. The Iraq Inquiry IS and always WAS a waste of time, money, effort and space.

Why? Firstly because Blair, if he comes out of it all relatively “clean” will have been, according to the antis, protected by a government and establishment “cover-up”. WE ALL KNOW that, don’t we?

Secondly, because if Blair comes out of it tarnished and is even charged with some offence relating to “lies” or “war crimes” at the Old Bailey and/or The Hague, the case will de dismissed before it starts. WHY? Because there are NOT sufficient people in this country/at The Hague, legally trained or not, with open minds. All thanks to the British press.

The press have been WARNED about this, over and over. They continue to fall into a trap of their own making.

There is clearly NO WAY that Tony Blair would ever get a fair trial in Britain or elsewhere in Europe, so decided are the ‘Decideds’ on his “guilt”. Any jurors who found him ‘not guilty’ would be terrified of repercussions.

The press’s fault. Again.

Read Julie on Blix (and The Mail) here

Julie quote, question to Blix:

Oh, one last question: WHY- if you were/are so damn sure that the war was illegal and no WMDs existed-WHY did you NOT say that publicly?

Because, according to Sir Jeremy Greenstock: “No member of the Security Council, not Hans Blix, not Mohammed ElBaradei, nobody, said to the United Kingdom, and I don’t believe they said to the United States, “We know that the Iraqi Government has no weapons of mass destruction.” (4th day of public hearings)

Answer Mr.Blix?

And Rentoul on Blix and the Mail report here

Rentoul quotes The Mail’s David Jones “browbeating the witness”. Some might call it “framing the question” to get the required answer:

“He is in no doubt that war was prosecuted unlawfully, then?

‘The war, in my view, was illegal, yes … ‘

Were Blair and Bush guilty of war crimes, as their fiercest critics maintain? ‘Well, some people…’ he begins, then stops himself, adding after a lengthy pause: ‘That would have to be tested by tribunal before you established it. I’ll leave that for others to decide. I’m not conducting any campaign.

‘But you have to be aware that the U.S. and UK acted on authorisation from Congress and Parliament.’

And what if Congress and Parliament had been deliberately misled? ‘Well, I have never said they acted in bad faith; that they knew there were no WMDs. As I say, the expression I would use is that they misled themselves, and then misled the public.’”

Blair Foundation Watch links here to the blogs of Julie, Rentoul and me. Perhaps others with a more destructive aim in mind will start to understand that they are not free to disparage without comeback.

September, 2003, Independent Saddam “denying access” – WHY? – Note how The Independent drops Blix’s word “probably” from its title. Misleading bastards.

“When asked why Iraq failed to provide evidence that it had destroyed its weapons in the run-up to the war, Mr Blix suggested that Saddam’s regime chose to keep up appearances to deter attack. Such a tactic implies that Iraqi officials were instructed to obfuscate on the issue and impede UN inspections.

He said: “Iraq might have tried to fool them surreptitiously in believing that there was something. You see, if they didn’t have anything after 1991, there must be some explanation why they behaved as they did. They certainly gave the impression that they were denying access and so forth.”

“It is now over a year since the Security Council adopted resolution 1284 (1999) and established UNMOVIC. Neither the resolution nor UNMOVIC, which has been built up in the past year, have been accepted by Iraq, nor have any inspections taken place since UNSCOM left at the end of 1998. What will happen?

Iraq contends that all weapons of mass destruction have been eradicated, that the requirements of 1991 have been fulfilled and that the economic and financial restrictions should be immediately lifted. Public opinion in many parts of the world, sympathizing with the people of Iraq, supports a lifting of sanctions. At the other end of the spectrum, many warn that Iraq has not fully revealed its arsenal of WMDs and long-range missiles and that it may be taken for granted that more prohibited items have been produced and hidden during the absence of inspectors.”

[...]

“For its part, Iraq seems to be saying that, contrary to the view expressed by the Security Council, there are no unresolved disarmament issues and that it will demonstrate this by documents. It would be welcome if Iraq could volunteer new information that may shed light on issues – not least the biological ones – which were deemed unresolved, when inspections ceased at the end of 1998. However, such information will not obviate the need for new inspections. Given the statements of Iraq that all prohibited programmes have been eradicated and that this can be shown, it would seem natural that Iraq would avail itself of the opportunity to place relevant evidence, especially new evidence, before UNMOVIC as the professional international inspection regime set up by the Security Council.”

“So, yet another story of how the Butcher of Baghdad was not some evil, murdering, sadistic animal that needed to be taken out. I remember thinking, when the inspectors were allowed into Iraq, how comical is that? I remember pictures of Saddam standing with arms crossed and smiling heartily into the camera as the inspectors drove up in their limousines. Did they REALLY think the weapons were going to be there? Blix is wrong about the Iraqi scientists, too. Some of them “escaped” to Syria and are being “protected” there. That is a FACT. Maybe, this is the reason Blix is not being called. He simply does not have any credible evidence. Let’s face it, for the most part the UN has proven time and time again, just how useless they have become. What about Iran? Are we “inspecting” their nuclear facilities? They hid them for ten years?  “Desert Surprises”??? The inspectors are useless and that is what Blix is upset about. He knows it.”

More from the Recent Iraq Inquiry reference Blix:

DOWSE:I think we recognised that Dr Blix and we shouldn’t forget Dr ElBaradei as well, because the IAEA were also part of this that they were in a very difficult situation. They were, I think, acutely conscious of the fact that what they reported to the Security Council might make the difference between military action or no military action, and, in fact, it was an awkward position to be in. So one recognised that, but, as William says, they didn’t specifically come to us and say, “Give us another month or another six months and it will be done”. We were tending to hear that sort of message from some other countries on the Security Council, notably the French.

-

DOWSE: I think it does all go to give you the general picture that we were getting some hits, but and Dr Blix himself, I think, he had a rather good phrase. He said, “Inspections aren’t a game of hide and seek.” What we were looking for was for the Iraqis to be open to produce to provide the data which the inspectors could then go and verify, and that was not what we were getting. Again, it is this difference between passive cooperation and active cooperation.

-

FREEDMAN: Was Dr Blix, both in his report and in his more private conversations with you, puzzled himself by the fact that they weren’t coming up with more? He stated publicly that he expected to find more than he did.

EHRMAN: I think he was quite in his discussions with us quite carefully neutral.

-

FREEDMAN: Although Dr Blix, I think, compared favourably our support to the support they were given by the Americans.

EHRMAN: We can’t comment on the support the Americans gave, but they were giving support.

DOWSE: He described our support as the benchmark for assistance. Quite a lot of benchmarks.

-

CHAIRMAN: Is there more to be said about that or is that just it, in effect? There remained, of course, a very large number of issues of noncompliance as declared in Hans Blix’ final report before the invasion. Is that correct?

EHRMAN: Yes.

-

GREENSTOCK: But I don’t think that Hans Blix was clear in his own mind and he makes this very plain in his book that the Iraqis either had weapons of mass destruction or did not have weapons of mass destruction and, therefore, he was wavering on quite a broad spectrum, whereas the United States was wavering on a much narrower spectrum because they were of a mind to think that, if the WMD was not appearing, it was because it had been hidden, not because it was not there.

1. Just to add to the disparagement, vilipending and character assassination of Mr Blair in the Iraq Inquiry period, The Telegraph (soon to be followed no doubt by The Daily Maul) says: “Six Doctors demand inquest into death of Dr David Kelly”

[Ed: UPDATE: The MAUL has this 'story' too, as I expected it would. Thanks to Oliver Kamm for this.]

All of this despite the fact that Kelly’s family were happy with the result of the Hutton Inquiry. It WAS 13 Doctors who originally called for this, under the prompting of the agenda of Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker. This call should be dismissed out of hand. Apart from trouble-making what other purpose would such an inquest serve right now as the Iraq Inquiry is proceeding? Trouble-makers United … please go away.

2. Harris Poll: Blair more popular than Obama in America. And from here:

‘In the U.S., there are actually three other leaders who Americans have higher opinions of: former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (65%), The Dalai Lama (58%) and Pope Benedict XVI (54%).’

So, despite the British press wanting to lynch Blair, he is STILL considered a world leader and in the USA comes ahead of the Pope and the Dalai Lama, two years after retiring.  Of course, here in Britain we still rate the Big O higher than any other.

3. Telegraph, January 2009: “History will show that George Bush was right”

4. Canada’s McGill University links with Tony Blair Faith Foundation

5. Telegraph: Tony Blair funded by obscure oligarch. Tripe here. We are damned for not speaking to others, and damned if we do. Idiots.

6. All Links to the Iraq Inquiry Evidence Sessions – Witnesses

Go Cowboys! Go Aggies!

We love our college football and are looking forward to it starting this weekend!  Since 2001, my parents have had Aggie football season tickets and we enjoy going to the games.  This year, I’m afraid the only thing I will have to look forward to is the fashion.  (See previous blog post for our preseason ranking.)

Oh, you didn’t know the Ags have a fashion line?  Well, let the modeling begin!

Rilyn on her BIRTH day

Rilyn at 13 months

Rilyn at 17 months

Ella April 2006

From September 2006

From September 2006

From September 2006

From September 2007

From September 2007

From September 2008

From September 2008

From August 2008

From September 2009

Asher melts my heart every time we sing this to him!



“Bible” is now one of his favorite words!

Going Public (part 2)

This part of the book really encouraged me because I’m not just sending my kids ‘off.’  I can send them to public school and “homeschool” them!  I love it!

“Public-school parents, take heart! Not only is it possible for your kids to survive the public-school system, it’s also possible for them to thrive and become fine men and women who make a positive impact on others. And in the process, it’s possible for families of faith to help shape the public-school system and infuse it with the winsome fragrance of Jesus Christ.” (pg. 12)

“We consider ourselves to be our children’s number-one educators, and we will never give up that resposibility or privilege-even though they spend 30 hours a week in somebody else’s classroom.  We instruct our kids every day.  We look for the teachable moments that intersect with what they are experiencing outside our home.  We draw frames around their encounters and activities, showing how they fit within God’s greater perspective.” pg. 21

In this book, it is written that there are five areas that need the greatest attention from parents.  God gave these children to us.  He will hold each of us accountable for their upbringing.  We are their first and ultimate teachers.  What goes into their minds and souls is our responsibility.

1.  Biblical Worldview-The battle between good and evil, light and darkness, the unique place of God’s people in offering His love to humanity, the fact of absolute truth, the coming day of accountability to an eternal God.

2.  Creation

3.  Sexuality-you can ‘opt out’ of public school’s sexuality unit due to it’s failure to address the moral dimension of human sexuality.

4.  American Heritage-Due to a desire to be politically correct, most public schools teach a very skewed, stripped down version of what guided the founding of this nation.

5.  Spiritual Life and Devotion-The public school is not even going to try to expose young people to God’s Word and prayer on a daily basis-and it shouldn’t.  That is our job. pg. 158-160

Going Public part 1 here

Rilyn had her 5th birthday party on Saturday and we invited Cinderella to be our hostess!   She was lovely and the big surprise was Prince Charming popped in to present Rilyn with a diamond necklace!  (Really Prince Charming was Rilyn’s aunt’s boyfriend who is such a sweet heart for renting a costume!  And it was totally his idea!)  Rilyn was very shocked and started blushing!  Her party was so much fun because I didn’t have to host it!  (I highly recommend this route in party planning!)

I always wonder why you want to ‘hit’ your favorite character.  You would think the pinata should be the ugly stepsisters or something.

So this is how Rilyn’s face was the whole time Cinderella told the story about how she got to the ball.  It was so cute!

Let me tell you, she wanted very badly to answer every question that Cinderella asked!!  And she got every answer right too!  “Who knows the names of my stepsisters?  What is their cat’s name?”…

Prince Charming, Rilyn, and Cinderella

Rilyn wanted a Barbie Cinderella cake.  I like how Cinderella will even hold your child’s hair so it doesn’t catch on fire!

Rilyn is in her 3rd dance recital dancing to ‘Broadway Baby!’

From June 2009

This is Ella’s 1st dance recital and she is dancing to ‘A Spoonful of Sugar’!

From June 2009

The actual recital is tonight so wish them luck! (Although no matter what they do at this age, it’s adorable!)

From June 2009

From June 2009

Rilyn knows her mommy loves to take portraits on her actual birthday (part of my OCDness).  But, she got to go to Build-A-Bear next door afterwards so I think she was alright.

From June 2009

From June 2009

From June 2009

Asher is walking!  Well, technically, he is walking from one piece of furniture to the next, but I know he’ll be walking around everywhere in a matter of days.  Both Rilyn and Ella walked at 13 1/2 months so all my kiddos are par for the course.  Here’s to a new stage in my life!

From May 2009

From May 2009

My Oma (grandma in German) plays soccer.

Rilyn-17 months old

My Oma carries canoes on her head.

From November 2008

My Oma has Battlefield (pc game) birthday parties.

From May 2009

Does yours?

James’ mom is super fun and our kids are blessed to have her!

Ella had splash day on Tuesday at her preschool and, well, I’ll let the pictures do the talking…

warming up and getting in ‘the zone’ for the big water slide

Whoa! This is steeper than it looks!!

(Anna, and a boy who obviously likes her, Jake, and Ella) Hike up that bottom girl!

Again, this boy must really dig Anna!  Ella is leaping for joy?!?

From May 2009

Today is our 8th anniversary!  It’s always fun to remember back on the day we were married and bring out the old wedding album…but I thought I would share some honeymoon pictures this time!

stitches in a Mexican hotel “doctor’s office”

James with his chin bandage

What?!? Your honeymoon pictures don’t look like those?  You mean your new husband didn’t try to do ‘tricks’ on a water slide in Cancun, Mexico and crack open his chin?  Well, I must have been a lucky wifey on my honeymoon!

excuse the picture, I scanned it from an old scrapbook

Here is the ‘Space Bowl’ with James in it right before he tried to do his trick and “hang” in the bowl!  Haha!  Sharing my life with James is always full of humor and adventure and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

We actually already celebrated our anniversary Monday, (when you get free babysitting, you celebrate), with a round of golf (we take turns planning our anniversary and it was my turn to plan for him).  I actually bought golf shoes this time so I guess I’m stuck with a new quasi hobby!  I did, after all, beat James on one hole!

a Tuesday looks like this next week:

9:30-10  -Awards celebration for Ella at preK

10-11  -Splash day and then p.j. day at Ella’s preK (must go to take pictures)

12:30-2:30  -Rilyn’s field trip to Crowe’s Nest Farm (I’m a parent volunteer)

7-9  -community group

8:00  -moms for moms (church group) celebration night at La Madeleine’s

And, oh yah, it will be our 8th wedding anniversary that day too!

Can I be at all these things?  Probably not, (and seriously not when Asher goes to school!)  Some days, I wish I could just duplicate myself.

We were supposed to have a bounce house at Asher’s first birthday party, but due to lack of electricity at the park, we couldn’t get it blown up!  What a bummer for the kids, BUT we did get a raincheck!  So today, just in time for the perfect weather, the kids got the bounce house in their backyard.

Fake Mickey bounce house

boing boing

this is a swing!

James took the kids to a new park on Saturday morning (before all the rain!) so I could continue to scrapbook our Disney trip.  (Thanks babe!)

Wow, parks are sure changing these days!  James came back with lots of pictures, (seriously James, I’m trying to catch up on my scrapbooking!) of all these crazy looking structures.  He said the park was very cool and I’m looking forward to going this summer!  Here is the link for all my Austin friends-Mueller Lake Park.

not your average play equipment

James and the kids had a picnic under willow trees

biking/walking trail

Like ‘teacups’ that spin as you wobble around

like a merry-go-round except way cooler

To make myself feel better about turning 30 today, I looked back at some old photos of myself.  Wow!  It was pretty brutal.  I feel like I look younger today than some of my photos back then!  Take for instance this one when I was about 12.

From May 2009

Look at me!  I have shoulder pads, an old lady dress on, pearls and a straw hat with some shrub growing on it! And this was Easter day, so I probably really took the time to make myself look good!  (Don’t ya just wish someone told you to pluck your eyebrows when you were that young?)  Ha!

My dear daughter knew how to make me feel good today.  Rilyn told me, “Thirty isn’t old mom because it has a zero in it!”

My mom thought it would be so cute to make me wear this crown, wand, and necklace she bought me!

First, let me say Happy Mother’s Day to my dear mom!  I love you!

my sister, Jessica, brother, Jeff, my mom, and me!

For an early Mother’s Day/birthday dinner, we ate at The Melting Pot. The dessert was amazing! Dipping brownies and strawberries in chocolate and peanut butter is probably the best taste ever!

look at that chocolate dripping off of my strawberry!  Yum-O!

Here is Ella ‘toasting’, (and obviously she enjoyed the dessert as well!)

From May 2009

The kids all planted some flowers (ok, maybe not Asher…) next to their footprint stone in our front yard for Mother’s Day. How sweet!

From May 2009

The best part of the day was after church when James and Jeff Richardson took all 6 of the kids in one car and brought them home so Jen and I could go out to a leisurely lunch and shop! Wow!!! Thanks guys-that was the best ever!
I told James to take a picture of all 6 kids in the car so I could give him props on the blog!!!

Back row: Cole, Rilyn, and Ella.  Front row: Caden, Anna, and Asher

For Mother’s Day, James asked me to pick out a mother’s necklace that I wanted on etsy.com

I just got it in the mail today and I love it.

But it made me think of some past necklaces that I used to wear 24/7…

From May 2009

I was the ’st ends’ in this BFF relationship(I love ya Kristy)! What girl didn’t have this necklace growing up in the 80s?

And then, when James and I were dating, he gave me this James Avery necklace on my 19th birthday and I wore it pretty much everyday until I had Rilyn!

From May 2009

And then the kiddos came, and wearing things around my neck wasn’t the smartest idea unless I wanted to be choked or tugged at…
But I’m braver now, and ready to take on another necklace!

That is their birthstones above their names

He doesn’t want to stay in the clean wading pool outside.  He wants to eat and play in the mud, where a boy belongs.

From May 2009

From May 2009

Today was the first day that the good ‘ol wading pool came back out and I let the girls ’swim’ in the backyard.  I had only two rules for the girls to follow:  No chalk in the pool and no sand in the pool.  They repeated the rules back to me and knew them.  I go back in the house and am pleasantly surprised how entertained they are and how much fun they are having.  I love watching them through the window when they think I’m not looking.  Awhile later I go back outside to find…dun Dun DUN…sand in the pool!  Rilyn immediately starts bawling when I asked who did it and she confesses that both her and Ella brought sand into the pool.  “Well, that’s it,” I said.  “No more pool for today.”  (Both girls are crying their eyes out now.)  You both broke the rule, and the consequence is no more pool/backyard for the rest of the day.  (You really would of thought I sentenced them to life in prison by the way they were crying-but this is how my girls are-DRAMATIC)  Then Rilyn, through her blurry eyes, looks up at me, ever so innocently, and asks if she is still going to heaven.

Wow.  I quickly say a little prayer for God to give me the words…

“Yes!  If Jesus is King of your life, nothing can separate you from Heaven.  Not the worst kind of sin you can think of.  And God wants to forgive our sins if we ask Him.”

I then explained to Rilyn and Ella that I sin everyday too, just like them.

“I think we should all ask God for forgiveness right now,” I said.

After our prayer and confession, I told the girls that God has now forgotten that they put sand in the pool!  Their sin is no more!  Rilyn then asked, “Does He still love me?”

“He will ALWAYS love you.  He gets disappointed in the wrong choices you make, but now He forgave you!”

“Where did our sins go?”

“Remember, when we went to the beach 2 weeks ago?  Our sins have been tossed in the deep part of the ocean.”

“Wow!” is all she could say.  And then they both wanted to cuddle.

Lord, let me be Jesus with skin on.

Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more.”

Micah 7:19 He will again have compassion on us;
he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

**Shock!  There are no pictures of the girls in the wading pool because I’m trying to cut back my picture-taking in May, (a little bit of a detox if you will), since I have over 250 pictures to scrapbook right now of Easter, Disneyland, and Asher’s birthday!

Scrapbooking. Oh how I love it!  It combines my love for photography and crafting all in one!  Endless stickers, ribbons, paper, eyelets,…it’s just dreamy.    The key to scrapping is that you have to stay up-to-date or else you begin to waiver in your passion.  Pictures add up FAST in this household with three kids and so I have to scrapbook everyday just to keep up!  (1 or 2 pages a day can easily be done during naps.)  We are remodeling our study, (well really my scrapbooking room) and so James had to take all my scrapbooks off of the shelves to move everything.  Once placed on the floor, it was a sight to see!  I’m on my 21st scrapbook since 1998!  (That number excludes my 6 ’special’ scrapbooks-3 baby books,  2 ‘thru the years’ books of James and I growing up, and my honeymoon book.)  For my birthday next week, James is giving me one whole Saturday to scrapbook uninterrupted all day long!  I know, you’re jealous! 

Yes, that is white dust from all the sanding James did in the room.  We forgot to cover my books and now I’ll have to dust them all!

Occasionally I like to check my blog stats to see who my ‘referrers’ are, (the links from other websites that people clicked to get to my blog), to make sure there is no monkey business going on.   Well, the other day, this website showed up as a referrer:

http://righthealth.com/topic/Bruise_On_Forehead/overview/google_imagesearch?img=5

If you click on it, and scroll down a little, you will see my poor Rilyn with a big, ugly bruise on her forehead!  I was a little taken aback, but then James told me when your blog is public, any website can do a search and find pictures/articles they want and use them.  So, in the name of health, Rilyn’s picture (from fall 2007) will be displayed to other parents who frantically search the web because their child just konked their head. 

We had Asher’s first birthday party at a local park on Saturday evening.  A few of his baby buddies came along and it made for some cute pictures.  You know how when one baby cries, they all start crying?  Well, I’m not sure who even started it…but it went something like this…

Halle, Malachi, Caden, Asher, Halle, Gracie, Ella, Gavin, Cole, Dee, Reece, and Rilyn

Malachi Suh getting his cry on

Asher getting his cry on

Caden Richardson and Asher getting their cry on

Happy Birthday Buster, we love you!!!

From April 2009