purging the cell

There comes a time when after more than four years of using your pink Razor cell phone - complete with texting capabilities for the modern stone age woman -  you think it might be a good idea to clean out all your old cell phone photos. Especially since you're beyond excited, having finally ordered the Droid Incredible (clouds part... sun shines... chorus of angels sing) and are anxiously awaiting it's arrival in just a matter of weeks. There were a lot of surprise photos on my phone. Who knew my kids could steal my phone and take so many close-up photos of their FACES when I wasn't looking? But there were actually a lot of photos that brought back great memories and were such fun to see again! So here we go............ 

                          

Scrappy Angel and Upside Down Luna

Daniel and Kaylee and their trucks :)

         ANDY: "Hey, what's a 'spunow' bar?"

My friend's VW van and my Bug :)

Davy, Kaylee, Daniel, Sam, and the Mouse

Don't know how this sunset came out so well on my crappy camera phone, but it's sure pretty!

This would be Davy sitting in my Bug, filling out his very first job application (for Scooter's Jungle)

Andy, Davy, Jimmy - corner of Sunset Blvd, Hollywood CA - setting up for first performance @ the Whiskey

    a fun little cartoony painting I did about Luna & Angel... AND... a tour of the Warner Brother's Backlot :)

FRIENDS!!!

The original set of Central Perk coffee shop. I admit to humming Smelly Cat.

hey, it's ME. you KNOW there are going to be some vintage croquet balls around here.

This photo may actually be the single most important photo on here, and I'm not even going to tell you why. 

This is my precious cousin Shell - you may recognize her, as she's been on my blog before. I love & adore her.

Let's just say the waiter took one look at us that night, and this was the "size" of diet Cokes he brought us.

VanHalen back together with David Lee Roth at the Staples Center, w/ Eddie's son Wolfgang on bass.

~AMAZING~

(yeah... sorry 'bout that Daniel... you were up at school, you know... studying and all that)

celebrating Daniel's recent 24th birthday at California Pizza Kitchen - 

one of the rare times he was home for several weeks... right before he left for Uganda for 3 months - LOL :)

the red velvet cake was going so fast I almost didn't get a shot of it!

So I hope you enjoyed my wacky little tour of "Random Things From My Cell"...

if you're sick of seeing my kids or hearing how cute my dogs are... that's too bad because this is my blog.

some talented chocolate

My friend Wesla found this A-MA-ZING group - she always finds the coolest things.
* The Carolina Chocolate Drops *
Video 1 is a preview of their first album, entitled "Genuine Negro Jig" on Nonesuch Records.
It contains interviews with the 3 band members and clips of the songs they perform.
You will be in awe of how talented these musicians are, so take the time to listen!
The next 2 vids are more examples of their well-loved songs. 

I had to share them with you. SO AWESOME.

Hope you enjoyed! Sometimes we forget what *REAL* talent is like these days...

a covenant people

Last week John and I took our middle son Davy through the Temple, as is customary before serving a full-time, two year mission for our church. Davy will be serving in the Kennewick Washington Mission (WA state) and reports to the Mission Training Center in just under a month. The decision to enter the Temple is a life-changing commitment. It is one of the most important steps a person can take in this life. We were very proud of our Davy.

Greeted by the familiar gold statue of the angel Moroni, it was a beautiful day. In reference to the title of my post, a covenant is a promise between God and man. The Temple is considered the house of the Lord, and a holy place, a place apart from the world, a place of learning, a place to receive blessings. And it is here where you make covenants with the Lord. Many are symbolic, many are just common sense to keep you living a righteous life. Others frequently make the mistake of thinking what goes on inside a Temple must be very strange... there are topics we can discuss, but our covenants are considered sacred to us and we do not discuss them. 

the Temple grounds are always so beautiful.......

On our way out after a long and lovely morning - is this one adorable boy or what :)

Thank you Tom & Linda Tippets, for coming along and taking this picture for us!

(my hair was already soaked - I had been taking flower photos in da sun)

Davy (who has Peter Brady hair) & John (who is very proud of his son)

Me and my Davy (by this point, he's going please just take the picture - I'm going to faint I'm so hungry!)

❤ I LOVE YOU SO MUCH DAVY ❤

One Nation Under God

Happy 4th of July everyone!!! We are so blessed to live in the greatest country on earth!

WOW... some of these fireworks displays from all over the country are just SPECTACULAR!

~ Boston Harbor ~

A painting depicting Francis Scott Key, and the early morning scene which was the inspiration

behind penning his famous lyrics which became our national anthem,  "the Star Spangled Banner".

You may have already seen this clip - it was all over the internet like wildfire. But it is worth watching again - and if you haven't seen it, please take the time to watch it. No matter your political or religious affiliation, it will touch your heart. In a day and age when so many are afraid to stand up for their beliefs or divert from anything that may ruffle any feathers, this lone man - a former marine - decided he had seen enough of the way this country was headed. He reminds us through his beautiful and heartfelt rendering of the forgotten 4th verse of the "Star Spangled Banner" - our National Anthem people - that God is at the helm of our great nation and has been from the start. It's not something you just throw away. 

I'm not affiliated with the political party presenting this clip, nor the person running for office. I'm not a member of a tea party effort. In fact, if I had my choice, I wouldn't be a member of ANY political party except the "may the best person for the job" party. I don't know how we allowed our leaders to get so slowly but surely off kilter. We have strayed so far from the Democratic nation so many gave their all to form, with God running through every fiber of this choice nation he himself preserved for us. BUT. I love my country, and will always believe in her.

*special note: I had posted a special article on here earlier, entitled 

"What Happened to the Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence?"

An anonymous commenter left a "snopes" report claiming many inaccuracies in the article...

I read the "snopes" report and, sure enough, there were inaccuracies. I pulled the article - honesty over interest. 

I'm going to post the "snopes" link here however, because the accurate history was very interesting to read:

 SNOPES - the men who signed the Declaration of Independence

I suppose the most important thing to gain from any of this, is the reminder that FREEDOM ISN'T FREE

God Bless America!

Have a really wonderful 4th of July everyone! xoxoxo

AND PLEASE REMEMBER: MORE OF OUR PRECIOUS PETS ARE LOST ON JULY 4th THAN ANY OTHER DAY OF THE ENTIRE YEAR! THE FIREWORKS AND STRANGE, LOUD NOISES THEY MAKE ARE SO TERRIFYING TO SOME DOGS THEY WILL RUN AWAY NEVER TO BE FOUND, OR SADLY GET HURT AS THEY ESCAPE. PLEASE TAKE EVERY PRECAUTION TO KEEP YOUR BELOVED FAMILY MEMBER SAFE AND FEELING SECURE! DON'T LET THE CELEBRATION OF OUR NATION TURN INTO A TRAGEDY.

my head is 5000 degrees

sometimes there are just no other words.............

Sandpoint Saturday

Sorry you didn't get your Sandpoint pics on Friday but I was busy coughing up a lung. 

Now here's where the Sandpoint story starts to get a wee bit messy. We had told the boys that if we moved to a rural area, of course they would be getting dirt bikes. I mean, come on. So here we are, on top of our mountain, and the bikes are delivered, and it's like Christmas four times over, and the boys are so excited they're peeing their pants, and they're riding all over the place, and the mountain sounds like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. 

Well, we had a slight suspicion when only 3 out of a mountain full of neighbors came to welcome us when we moved in. But it wasn't until the Dirt Bike Incident as it has come to be known, that we found out for sure. Except for those 3 houses of genuinely nice people, all our neighbors were old farts who hated anyone moving up on THEIR mountain. And we had not only just done that, we had also broken the number one Unwritten Rule: if you insist on being here, DO NOT MAKE ANY NOISE. In other words, our old fart neighbors now hated our guts and didn't mind telling us so.

In an effort to patch things up I actually wrote out neighbor cards with our names and phone number on it, and after church the next day, we all marched around to every house and introduced ourselves to every single old fart. That's right, we painted smiles on our faces, knocked on their doors, lured them out of their dark holes into the daylight, and got into their faces and made them speak. Bless all my boys, they didn't even complain. It was comical that they were all so nice to us, though we did see a few spouses escape into other rooms and refuse to come out. Apparently the damage had been done. We had infiltrated their precious mountain, broke the Unwritten Rule, and would never belong. I let my dogs pee on their grass.

Aw, just wook at dat widdle Mousey. He onwy 8 yeaws owd.

Well, the timing was indeed off, and I guess we really didn't belong on that mountain. At least not at that time. But for the time we were there, the boys so enjoyed those bikes. They made a track in our back acre through all the trees. My favorite memory was when Davy launched himself off a large root and ended up stuck IN a tree - bike and all! Hahaha :) They found some great trail rides off the mountain too. The Mouse became quite an expert at a young age, and has continued to love riding dirt bikes ever since. 

I often wonder who those old farts are tormenting now? Just as we were moving, they were trying to get everyone to agree on installing semi-permanent speed bumps all the way up the mountain road. All the young careless people, you see, were driving much too fast. Miserable old cusses. Come to think of it, they would have made great speed bumps themselves........  

the dingo ate your baby

Surely you remember the recent past, when poor Angel was miserable with her amount of genetically mutated fur. When the shedding began, I felt bad for Angel and also for myself when her floating fur stuck to my lip gloss.  

Just look at the poor thing. Waddling like an armadillo. How can she hoist that gargantuan amount of fur around?

Obviously she did not get far. Angel went places by going in little spurts here and there, and napping in between.

Meanwhile, Luna lived in her perky fantasy world as Queen. I didn't tell her it looked like she had baggy pants.

Speaking of lions, look at the mane on Luna herself!

I can't help it... I love Luna's tiny little chicken legs :)

But I digress! Remember how the above photo was the result of just a few times from brushing Angel's BUTT??? Well, I called in the big guns. Meaning I called in our groomer Jennifer who comes to our house. It's always fun to see the look on Angel & Luna's faces when they see Jennifer at the door! HAH! Angel only tried to nip me once, and I only had to drag Luna out of my closet like a wet noodle one time. Which is so ironic, because they always feel SOOO much better afterwards, and they run around and play like puppies because they are so happy! And this time was no different - thank you Jennifer! You can see their transformation below. Such a transformation!  

Awwwwww, look how cute and smiley they are now!

"I'd like a junior breakfast burrito, and small fries, and a diet Coke......"

They can wear their little girly camo t-shirts now

(only those who watch Seinfeld are going to get that reference)

Luna as Martha Washington

sorry - I just couldn't help myself