Our Visitor

Never in my life did I think that I would be the hostess in my home to a General Authority from the First Quorum of the Seventy. Elder David F. Evans was our visiting authority for our stake conference this weekend. He asked if he could stay in our home and of course we were delighted. We had to do some rearranging to make a place for him to sleep but as always he was so gracious and grateful. It is so special to have such a humble servant of our Heavenly Father as a guest in our home.

Elder Evans has served as a Bishop, Stake President, Mission President in Japan and as an area authority also in Japan. He told many interesting stories from his life and shared with us details about his family. We had such a wonderful time visiting with him.

We have had a few other General Authorities stay in our home and each one brings a special spirit with them. My favorite thing is listening to them share stories from their church service or tell about their personal knowledge and relationship with the prophet. What a great privilege it is to have them in our home.

Finally...

Well Gram has lived in her house for 4 years and today the outside was finally painted! Hurray for Seville Park Ward High Priest Quorum. They wanted to do a service project and gram's house was the one they chose. I have posted some pictures. They were also kind enough to paint my school. I am so thrilled. I have before and after pic's of my school but only the gram's house after it was painted.

This last picture is our wonderful Bishop (on the ladder) and a member of the Quorum that came to help.

The Rug

The other day Russ found this rug in a vacant house that he was preparing to list for sale. It is in perfect condition. He brought it home and put it on the floor in the family room. I thought it looked great as it broke up all the blue in the room.


Later in the evening Annie came by and announced that she didn't like that rug one single bit. Russ and I responded by telling her we liked it and it was going to stay put. "Well", she said, "just wait until my sisters see it!"


Well I guess the statement about the "sisters" was supposed to make us want to jump up and drag that rug out to the nearest bonfire. Poor Annie, she really did get stuck with old fashioned parents. Maybe someday she will look past our lousy taste in rugs and love us inspite of our age. After all age is just a number!

The Coupon Escapade

Friday I bundled up my coupons and decided it was time to head to Fry's and see what this coupon frenzy was all about. I really didn't have a ton of coupons (I am a newbie to couponing). I tried to plan it out so I would be organized and not have to crisscross the store a dozen time. I swear I was in The Hotel California where "you can check out but you can never leave". It was making me so nervous carrying those coupons around and searching for just the right products. It is a really time consuming ordeal. As I finally headed toward the front of the store to check out I started sweating wondering if the moment I opened up my envelope to dump out the coupons, the floor would open up and swallow me! Everyone hates couponers...especially me. I held my breath as I waited for someone behind me in line to throw a rotten tomato at my head. Fortunately, the floor didn't open, no one threw a rotten tomato at me and I quit sweating when the cashier finally announced that I had saved $199.71 (I promise it sounded like she was shouting it over the intercom). I still spent more than most couponers do in a year but I had lots of items without coupons too. And, I lived to tell this story. I guess I might try it again next week, if I can get up the nerve!

Wake up All You Bloggers!

The following statement is not intented to focus on my own family but rather bloggers in general.

I know many of you will consider me a hypocrite and you would be right! I really love reading other peoples blogs but I seldom contribute to my own. What is up with that?

I get so out of sorts when I check someones blog and they haven't blogged in a month (and in some cases months). PLEASE...can you put something new so I can enjoy keeping up with you and your family. Thank goodness we have enough family members that someone generally contributes to this blog every week or 2.

So, why am I whining about such matters? I guess it is because I have been looking at some new blogs lately and I really enjoy the good things I have read. In some funny way I am inspired by the good I see in others through their blog. I get to take a peek at good families, loving mom's, families having fun together, trials that people cope with (especially those that make mine look like a walk through the park), fabulous food ideas, new babies arriving, weddings, well you get the idea. All kinds of things. I wanted to make a New Years resolution to blog at least once a week this year. Oops! Looks like I already failed since it is the 3rd week of January.

Thank goodness everyday is a new day and I get to start over. Forget the New Years resolution...I think I will just start today. Consider this my new beginning to blogging more often. Hope you find me here next week!

Love to All,
Mom

P.S. I almost deleted this post because I didn't have a picture to go with it. Just seems like a picture makes it more interesting. But I resisted and posted anyway. Maybe you will see a picture next week.

Look it has my eyes!!!

Well I know how excited women get about that first ultrasound picture so here it is.

I can't believe it!

That's right! Our baby boy is a sunbeam. Ok so he really isn't a baby but it is hard for me to believe! Today was a little weird for me but we got through it and Cooper L-O-V-E-D primary. Our Primary Presidency did a really good job of trying to prepare the kids that would be moving up into primary. They started taking them into singing/sharing time about the middle of November and they went each Sunday. The first Sunday Cooper had a hard time because he was sitting there being really reverent like they asked him too and when it was all said and done and his Aunt Nichole didn't pick him to help with the songs, he melted. But luckily that has been the only problem. Last Sunday we started helping him prepare also by telling him that he would have a new teacher and he would get to go to primary. We were always positive about it and he was getting really excited. So today I prepared him a little bit more by telling him that in his new class he wouldn't have playtime and snack time. At first he seemed a little leery but then when we got to church he was perfectly fine. At one point during Sacrament meeting he said,"Momma do I get to go to my classroom with the toy cupboard?" When I replied ,"No" he didn't even blink and he just smiled and said, "Oh yeah, I get my new teachers!". I was so thrilled that he was OK with that! Once we got to primary, I took him to sit by his teachers and then hurried out since I wasn't sure if he was going to take a cue from any of the other kids and start crying as their parents brought them in, so I just watched him from another door and he did great. He had no problems and I am ecstatic! He loved it and I hope he continues to love it. But for me it is still strange!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

RAINY DAY PEOPLE

Caitlin and Kennedy got stuck inside the house while it rained and it sure didnt stop them! They just opened our costume chest and there was plenty of fun inside.

Happy, Happy Birthday Heather Dear!

{Because it's her birthday I opted for this picture instead one of the incriminating ones I have.  Heather would rather I avoid anything that involves weed whacked hair, spoons or blue leggings.}

I tried to hack into Heather's personal blog in order to post this there, but apparently she changed her password on me.  What the!?

I just had to give a little birthday shout out to my sister.  Today she is 31 years old and for the last 10 or so of those years we have been best of friends.  I wish I could say we were always best friends, but sisters will be sisters and we wasted a lot of time growing up fighting and not getting along.

I am so thankful for Heather for a number of reasons, but one my very favorite reasons is our ability to laugh together.  We laugh constantly together and it always brightens my day.

I love that we are so close and I love that we talk about anything and everything.  Sometimes we call each other just to get a little help with dinner ideas and sometimes we call each other just to vent our frustrations.  Not a day goes by that we don't talk at least once, but usually two or three times.

I am so grateful for her and for the friendship we share.  Happy Birthday H!

Cookin With Judd & Caitlin

Heres a few silly pictures of one of our best meals, Spicy Chicken Sandwiches! YUM they were good

Giving Thanks

I am so glad that I remembered to take a few pictures at our 2010 Richardson Family Thanksgiving dinner. We had a wonderful and delicious dinner. Bethany and her family are in Wisconsin presently so they were the only ones that weren't with us. We missed them but we look forward to another Thanksgiving when we can all be together. We had to set up 3 tables to have enough places to put everyone. As I watched my family enjoying the great food as they laughed and talked, I realized my family is my joy! I appreciate the goodness I see in my children and the loving bond they have for each other. What more could a mom ask for?

The first picture is the table we set for the young ones (6). Next is the table for adults (16). And the last one is the older kids table (4). This didn't include the 2 babies we also had with us. I have a lot to be thankful for and it all starts here!

Horsey Ride

There are some things our sister needs to be a part of.

Bethany, you may have missed our annual Halloween party tonight but Dad wanted to be sure you got to see our crazy brothers in action.

Hyde Russell Hales

"I'm not so sure about all this nonsense."

Hyde Russell Hales. Born on Saturday, October 23, 2010, at 8:18 am. He is 8 lbs. 7 oz.

The Moment We Have All Been Waiting For...

The construction on Edustar Preschool has finally been completed. School begins this Tuesday. What a beautiful classroom! I am so excited to begin teaching my little students about the world around them and giving to them skills they will use all their lives. Take a peek at our hard work:

Here is a corner to corner view

Front of the school

Check the next post for more pictures.

Pictures for Your Viewing

Here are some pictures of Edustar Preschool

Every good preschool classroom has a 32" flat screen TV.

This is half of my work/storage area

This is the other half of my work area
This is my corner of the room. Don't you love the flowers Russ gave me?

This is our group learning area. I love this rug. It was my gift to the school.


Students library. I love books!

Froggy wall. He tells us the weather for the day. He sits right above the reading bench.

Each star will have a picture of a student inside.

I can't help but love this room. It has a really good feeling inside. I am excited to begin teaching my students all about their world and giving them skills they will use for life!

Mercy!

Dad got this card from Flint's dad and thought it might be fun for everyone to see. We all have a pretty good idea of the blood sweat and tears that went in to the MD behind Flint's name. We are proud of Flint and Bethany for their tenacity and willingness to do whatever it takes to stay on the path the Lord has prepared for them.

It's a girl

This morning at 7:09am Kobie and Jared welcomed their third child into their family.  What a sweet and tender baby she is!  Kobie was amazing and truly blessed thru her labor and delivery.  She was amazing in every way.  We are all so pleased to welcome this little angel.  She has yet to receive an official name so we anxiously await.  Kimber and Addie are excited to have a new baby sister.  Way to go Kobie we love you!

Part I --- Preschool Construction Begins

Today is June 28th and it is the first real day of construction on my preschool. The first thing that had to be done was foaming of the roof. Below are some pictures of what took place. Tomorrow workers will be here to pour the floor. They will actually be poring over an existing floor. It is going to be so nice! This is so exciting! Let the fun begin!

This is how it looks up on top of the roof . Below will be my preschool classroom.

Here is a view from the east side.

The two men on the roof are the guys that do the actual foaming. They have a big hose that shoots foam on the roof.

This is the view from the south end of what will be my classroom. Parents will pick their students up from a door that will be located on the southwest end of the room.

Preschool Preparations

It is no secret that I will be opening a preschool (not to be confused with daycare) this fall. There are so many things to do to get ready. Well, today I went preschool shopping. It was so fun! My problem wasn't what to buy, it was what not to buy. I did end up putting a few things back but I am happy with what I purchased. I spent about 1/2 of the money I had set aside. That means another trip to Lakeshore Learning. Now that store is a teachers dream store. It has everything and then some. We will start construction very soon. We have been so blessed! Things have come together better than I could ever have imagined. Let the fun begin!