Happy New Years!! Happy Birthday Ben!!

Ben is now 26 years old! He is so lucky because he never has to go to work or really… do anything on his birthday! He gets to sit and watch football and veg…lucky!! He also always has a big dinner, this year he has steak and shrimp with cheese cake for dessert. We ate, played games, he got to open presents and he got to hear from lots of brothers/sisters and nieces and nephews. Even though he is growing older, I think he still loves birthdays just like he was a kid!!

Organization Freak

Ben and I are listening to a motivational speaker on CD about strengthening marriage relationships (it is called “For All Eternity” by John Lund and I would defiantly recommend it). In this CD it talks about setting boundaries in your marriage and that one spouse or partner can not control everything- or else it is not a marriage but parenting your spouse. He state that you must be willing to compromise and say will want this done, but I will let this go, because my marriage is more important to me than that one material thing.

Through this CD and other events, we have recently begun to discover that I am an organization freak. When we lived in our own home it never was an issue but now that we are living with Ben’s parents (the life of job-less college grads) I have begun going crazy that everything isn’t how I would have it or that the house isn’t how I would run it. I have had to step back and remember that my family is more important than having the towels folded correctly or the laundry done on the correct day; so I have been making an effort to compromise in my insane organization.

The Newson’s have been SO patient with me and have been giving me things to do around that house, that let me feel like I still can have my grip and handle on my own crazy organized world. Here is one example; they let me organize the pantry. It seems like a small thing, and maybe an awful job to someone else, but I LOVED IT!! (Yes I even labeled the tubs.) Slowly I will get over my controlling organizational behavior and I am learning to love a little chaos (a very little) in my life!!

Manhood in the Snow

Bocci Ball is an ancient game dating back to the Roman Empire and is a symbol of masculinity. “This ancient game, whose modern adaptation most closely resembles bowling, requires skill, strategy and just a little luck.” (How To)
This game, which is usually played by seniors outside in the warmth of a beautiful day, was the main attraction to the Stones Family Men on Christmas. Out in near freezing weather they showed their manhood as they threw 3 lb balls across the partially snow covered yard at a target. We will see if this attraction is still as exciting in the summer!

Merry Christmas

For Christmas this year all of our Christmas traditions were reversed and messed up (both families did things backwards and WRONG)!! But in the end it was a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas and it taught us both that it doesn’t matter what you do, but the spirit that you do it in and the family and friends you share it with. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas filled with the Saviors love!!

Car Wars

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away…
We went together to run errands and while on this voyage of extraordinary undertakings we found ourselves on a journey of a greater magnitude and caliber. At first we realized our ship; the old blue millennium falcon would not survive much longer if not sanitized from our previous passage through the asteroid fields of Laramie. We had to do something; we had to save our ship. In this season of our planet Tatuin-Lafayette, our two moons have failed us the weather is so severe to repair the damage of our ship, we had to leave. Through our journey we got stuck in an asteroid and large scrubbing like minocks attached to the ship, chewing through our power cables and leaving us without any weapons to arm ourselves from future battles. Just then we were bombarded by large robotic jets, which shot at the millennium falcon throwing off the minocks and cutting off all communication with our commanding Rebel base, therefore putting us directly in the emperor’s hands. At this point we had no way of communicating and no way of defending ourselves. The one thing we hand now was to jump into hyperspace. However as Ben tried to put the millennium falcon into light speed it stalled and nothing happened. “I fixed it, its not my fault!” Ben roared as he quickly tried to repair the ship before we were overtaken by the dark side. Just then the princes, Brea (but with better hair) fixed the ship and they made the jump into hyperspace, blowing all water and debris off of the ship as they went. It was a close encounter with the dark side but the force will always prevail.

As we pulled out of the carwash and went on with our day we realized that we have extraordinary imaginations and that we probably need to get more exciding lives!!