Mendenhall Summer Reading Program was announced today!

MENDENHALL SUMMER READING
PROGRAM

WHEN? June 1st – August 15th

WHAT? # OF PAGES READ FROM A BOOK OR BOOKS

PRIZES:
Most Pages read

1st prize: $75.00 VISA Card
2nd prize: $20.00 gift certificate
3rd prize: $10.00 gift certificate
For each book read you get a full size candy bar!

RULES:
-All books MUST be approved by MOM
-Cannot start reading until June 1st
-MUST fill out a book report on the book or books you read
- Winners will be decided by mom/dad



I try every summer to get the kids to read.....not just sit and veg all summer long. I am hoping that this incentive works. We will see what happens......

Happy Birthday Celebration

Skyler "Bud" turned 10 on Sunday. Time is flying by so fast. He had a great day of video games and hanging out with the family. Bud requested my spaghetti for dinner. His birthday cake was a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake with chocolate chip mint ice cream/chocolate cake and the Transformers theme. Mom also played a little trick on him....I bought magic candles that relit after you blew them out. We just kept laughing!! Bud got a Nintendo DS game system with two games, a skateboard and the standard CLOTHES!! LOL

Webkinz Extravaganza!! Part Two

So the phone rings around 7pm, it's the place where the girls and I went to the Webkinz event here in town. We are pleased to announce that Briggor won honorable mention in the coloring contest - He won a WEBKINZ! Then just about 3 minutes later the phone rings again and it's the same place.......We are pleased to announce that Tasha won 3rd place in the coloring contest -- She won a Webkinz gift bag!! What a great way to end the day. Prior to this event, the girls and I headed back to the event to play the games. Tasha won 2 webkinz in the treasure hunt game while Megan and Jade both won book markers in the same game. It was fun! The girls had a great time.

My Big Brother turns 54 today!

Today is my big brother's birthday! He is 54 years old. It's hard to believe that my brother is THAT old. LOL He doesn't look his age at all. I wanted to take this opportunity to let him know that I love him very much and that he is the BEST BROTHER IN THE WORLD!

One of my greatest memories of you and I is the trip we took to grandma and grandpa's house in San Diego. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was about 6 or 7 which would have made you about 20 or 21. I think you were just trying to get away for the weekend. You were packed up and ready to leave when I came to you and ask you to take me with you. You didn't think twice, you said sure and off we went to San Diego. I loved being with you. You were so much fun. A picture that stands out about that trip is when we got near the ocean and the fog was rolling in over the hills. It was so cool to see - it looked like a blanket unfolding itself. Do you remember this memory and picture?

I have been blessed to have a brother like you, Joe! You will always be one of my very best friends!

Happy 54th Birthday Joe!

Webkinz Extravaganza!!

So how many of you know what a WEBKIN is? Ask my three daughters, Tasha, 11, Megan 10 and Jade 8 and they will not stop talking about it. If you want the low down on this....go to www.webkinz.com - it will give you all the info. Megan was on this website the other day and noticed an announcement that stated "WEBKINZ EXTRAVAGANZA THIS WEEKEND" in your town. We looked up the information and it was happening at one of my favorite little stores here in Bakersfield. The girls and I headed over there to see what was up?? Daddy stepped in before we left and gave the girls each $20 to spend. We arrived and headed to the Webkinz section of the stores. The girls were ooooing and ahhhhing over the stuff. After some debating and adding, the girls ended up each buying a new webkinz for their collection. They each filled out their guess to win a prize for how many jelly beans in the jar? They also answered the quiz and placed that in the box. We purchased our webkinz and headed out the door. They went right over to the table for the coloring contest. Even Briggor colored a pictured. The girls were so excited and colored their paper to the best of their ability because the store clerk informed tham that they were going on the window for all to see and they were going to be judged in their age group. The winner will be notified by phone. We spend about 45 minutes here and the girls had a great time!!

Briggor Update

Briggor is feeling much better today. The challenge during the day is giving him his medicine. He hates it! No, that is an understatement - he detests it! This morning while giving him the medicine, he decided to let me know how much he dislikes it........he spit it back out all over me!! I was NOT happy. The challenges of giving a 2 year old medicine. And to think I have to do this for 8 more days!!! YEA!

Check out this movie??? Go See it....

I am hoping to get to the movies this weekend to see this movie. Check out the website below that talk about this movie and GO SEE IT!!!


http://www.expelledthemovie.com/


Ben Stein's Expelled Has Strong Opening Weekend
by Jennifer Mesko, managing editor
Documentary challenges evolution's dominance in the classroom.
Ben Stein's new documentary, Expelled, which chronicles the censorship of teachers, professors and students who question the theory of Darwinian evolution, performed well at the box office over the weekend.
It's a message that garnered Dr. James Dobson's endorsement and seems to resonate with Americans. The documentary, which opened Friday at 1,000 theaters nationwide, brought in $3.2 million. It finished fifth overall in per-theater earnings, according to Box Office Mojo.
Tom Neven, editorial director for Youth Outreach at Focus on the Family, called it a "very good showing."
"It shows that thousands of Americans decided to ignore the propaganda being put forth by those who would wish to expel Expelled from theaters," he said. "The campaign of half-truths and smear tactics actually caused many to want to see for themselves what the fuss was about, and they came out of theaters seeing that Ben Stein makes a good case — both on the screen and in his response to those who would censor him."
Mark Mathis, executive producer of the movie, said the strong showing should get Hollywood's attention.
"There's a lot of garbage out there in our theaters," he told OneNewsNow. "And when investors stick their necks out and risk their hard-earned money to see a movie like this produced, they're taking a big risk — and they're hoping that people will honor that and go see it."
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Listen as Dr. Dobson talks with Ben Stein.
Visit the Expelled Web site.
Read CitizenLink's interview with Ben Stein.

Emergency Room Visit...

We spent a few hours in the Emergency Room with Briggor last night. He woke up yesterday afternoon running a fever. He has not been sick other than pink eye. I gave him some meds and he started to feel better and ran around. By dinner time, he was starting to get worse. He started getting lethargic and Megan noticed that his upper lip was turning blue. He told me that he was cold. I put him in the bath and watched him. He didn't get any better. He was breathing really hard. I told Mark...we have to go to the hospital. So, off we went. It was terribly crowded but since we have "worked" the emergency room before, Mark and I went right up to the desk and said our baby is having trouble breathing and he has been turning blue. After a few signatures we were in the door seeing a nurse. The whole time, Briggor just laid on my chest and didn't move much or talk. He wasn't well. They gave him some meds and took his temp. It was 103.5 degrees. Very high for a baby. We had an chest x-ray which came back with nothing but a whole lot of gas in his belly and they tested him for RSV, which is a respiratory virus, and that came back negative. The RSV test was the nurse taking a large Q-tip and placing it up Briggor's nose. Briggor DID NOT like that one bit. After looking into Briggor's mouth, the dr discovered that his tonsils were swollen and very red. That explains the high fever and not wanting to eat. He said it was probably strep throat and he was going to treat it as that because a strep test would take 2 days to get results back and he didn't want to wait. They gave Briggor a breathing treatment because his oxygen level was at 96% and he said that a baby this age should be breathing at 99 to 100. The meds started to kick in again and Briggor wanted OUT OF THERE. We got our discharge papers and prescriptions and we left the building. So the final verdict was "strep" throat or swollen tonsils, gas in the belly and a possible-look out for-asthma? - the breathing makes the dr a little concerned with that concept. Briggor has a dr's appt with his personal dr next week so we will ask a few questions of her and I have a few questions to ask her also.

Briggor's Vocabulary

Here are some of Briggor's famous words at 2 1/2 years old:

"Hungries" means I'm hungry
"Ki - Ki" means his blanket
"Ca - Cakes" means pancakes
"Ne - Ne" refers to Nettie
"Drew" refers to Andrew
"O-plane" means airplance
"Hair-copter" means heliocopter
"Ship" sounds like SHIT when it comes out of his mouth LOL

Can you believe this??

Did anyone read the paper today? or hear this on the news? "British researchers are being billed as the first HUMANS to show a link between a woman's diet and whether she has a boy or a girl. " WHAT??????? I say. The article goes on to state that "It is not proof, but it fits with evidence from test tube fertilization that male embryos thrive best with longer exposure to nutrient-rich lab cultures. It just might be that it takes more nutrients to build boys than girls."

After I read this article, I just sat and laughed. I hope God was laughing too. I do think that God has a wonderful sense of humor, don't you??? If that is true, Andrew, my oldest, was made from In N Out burgers and Pepsi's!!!! LOL Briggor, my youngest, was made from guacamole, chips and salsa and Cold Stone Ice Cream.

It amazes me that people still want to believe that we were created from evolution and that there is NO WAY that we could have come from God. Or that we, as humans, can produce other humans with just a change in our diet. How absurd! I believe that God gives us gender on what HE thinks we should have. Isn't the world a pretty balanced place? God is an organzied God. If all women started doing the "diet" to all have a boy, wouldn't we unbalance the world. God would NOT allow it.

The last statement of this article is "The bottom line is, we still don't know how to advise patients in how to make boys" LOL

SICK BAY....

Looks like our house is turning into a sick bay. After going to the dr yesterday to confirm my findings that Briggor had "PINK EYE", Jade looks at me and her one eye is starting to get red and she tells me it's itching. Her comment to me was......." maybe I got the infection that my friend has had at school?????" "WHAT??" I say!! Here comes the Lysol and LOTS of washing of hands and sheets and stuff. Then I wake up this morning to Megan and Ryan complaining that their stomachs were hurting and they were up all night. We have been fighting a 24 bug of intestinal problems in our house since the weekend. Even our visitor, Mark's brother, Mike, is suffering from the intestinal thing today. AAAAHHHHHH! So, again, out with the Lysol and spraying everything down.

Regarding Briggor's pink eye....he has to have drops in his eye 4x a day. Not an easy feat for a 2 1/2 year old. He actually hates it!! This, my friends, I will have to do for the next 7 days. I hate doing it to him as much as he enjoys having it in his eye. But, we should be seeing results in a few days.

I am suffering from phantom symptoms regarding pink eye. I walk around thinking my eye is itching and I look at myself in the mirror to see if it is turning red. LOL Life of a mom.

Hopefully, I will get this house under control and get back to "normal", whatever that is......

Today we....

Today we moved all the Grandma Mendenhall stuff out of her little apartment. It's so final. So over. Just putting stuff into boxes and taking them out to the car knowing that this stuff is not going to be going to a "new" place for Grandma. A thought crossed my mind while I was packing up - death is so final. You take absolutely nothing with you. It is left for others to weed through and see what there is to keep and not to keep. What to do with all of this? We emptied out the apartment and it looked so bare. It is now a memory. A place where she once lived. Grandma used to tease us that she was going to "run away". I actually think that she figured it out and did a good job at it. She found a place to run to where we can't go and get her.

Just a thought

I was standing at the kitchen sink this morning lost in thought. Do you ever find yourself drifting away to another place and time. Reminicing about memories. I was this morning. I was peeling an orange for Bud and remembering the time my dad would peel an orange in ONE peel. Watching my dad peel that orange in ONE peel had me believing that my dad was amazing!! I still believe my dad is amazing but when you are little and your dad pulls off the most amazing feat - you think that your dad is better than anything in the world. I remember trying and trying to accomplish this task - peeling an orange in ONE peel. It took a lot of years and I had to watch my dad over and over again to really see how he did it. Most of the amazing part is that it takes time and patience. You can't just hurry and peel it. I eventually peeled the orange in one peel but it took many years and I can't remember now when and where I actually did it.

On this morning, Bud wanted an orange and I decided to be AMAZING and peel the orange in one peel. When I was done and I showed him the peel, his mouth dropped open and I do believe that the "AMAZING" factor showed on his face. Isn't it great when we can pass on this wonderful trick to the next generation? Thanks Dad for showing me this awe inspiring trick.

Our Visit...

Well, Mark and I went and visited Grandma Mendenhall's apartment last week for the first time since her passing. We were quiet as we arrived, not really talking or looking at each other. We walked into the housing complex holding hands and probably not sure how we were feeling at that moment. Neither one of us has had to do this....neither one of us has had to deal with something like this. Mark opened the door with his key and we opened it hoping to find out if this was just a dream. We were waiting for the familiar sounds of Grandma yelling to us " Just a minute I will be right there!" But there was nothing....just silence. It was like time stood still. It looked like Grandma was going to come around the corner any minute or come up from behind us. When you walked in and looked around, you saw what she was doing before they sent her to the hospital. Her reading glasses were sitting on a book by the chair and table in her living room. Obviously, she was interested in the story. She was very much settled her. All her drawers, kitchen cupboards bathroom were all organized with her stuff. Her bed was made. I haven't known this lady for too long but I just broke down and cried. I cried at the fact that when she left her place....she had no idea that she was never coming back. Grandma teased both of us that she was going to get out of this place and that we weren't going to find her. LOL Well, I guess she accomplished that task. :) What a reality check this event was.....our lives are just a moment. It can be gone in just a moment and all that is left is the memories. Mark and I just looked around - shut the light off - closed the door - wiped the tears from our eyes and walked down the hallway holding hands - thinking of the memories!

Funny thought?

The Silent generation, people born before 1945.
The Baby Boomers, people born between 1945 and 1961.
Generation X, people born between 1962 and 1976.
Generation Y, people born between 1977 and 1989.
Why do we call the last one generation Y?