Joshua makes me laugh

Joshua has Spring Break for 3 weeks and it started today. I like year round school, but it is tough to transition to having another kid around all day. Still, it was kind of fun to have him with me and Delaney. So today we were driving to pick up the girls from preschool. We passed a large group of Marines in cammis on the PFT course doung a unit run. I pointed out the large number of men running in formation and Joshua said "Oh, its like the 2000 Stripling Warriors!"

That totally made me laugh. And I was impressed that he knew the story.

The girls had St Patrick's Day parties and events at preschool and had a great time. Here are some pictures of them in their classes.

Marian made that hat and wore all the way home. She was so cute. Below is Callie in her class. She didn't want to stop doing her puzzle when I came to get her. She loves her class. She said "Owen is my fwiend, and Jack is my fwiend, and Ma-wy is my fwiend." She is very social. Takes after her brother, I guess.

Movie Night

I should have mentioned that I got a girls night out tonight. We went to Movie Night at Heather's house. It was a small group, but we had a good time. I love the women in this ward!

We watched "Dan in Real Life" and it was good. The company was better, and the snacks were to die for. Heather made this fantastic fruit salsa stuff and it was so yummy. Brook brough real, homemade popcorn that was perfect. (I always have too much butter in some places and not enough in others. Brook's was perfect!) And Sickerdoodles. I love Snickerdoodles. I brought my pecan pie bars.... except I didn't have any pecans, and I used walnuts. Gooey and tasty stuff it was.

It was lovely to get out and have girl talk and watch a chick-flick that Dan would not have enjoyed. He was fantastic and put the kids to bed and held down the fort. He's great about making sure I get out and have fun away from the kids. And now I need to go to bed!

Blog into a Book?!!

I am so excited by this discovery. I may have mentioned already that I love the blurb.com books. Granted, they do not have as many options as some other programs, but for the price, you can't beat it. Seriously, $12.95 for a paperback 7x7 book up to 40 pages?!!! I have made a book for each of the kids, plus one about me, and I also went for the 8x10 hardbound version and put all of last years photos in it. LOVE it! So, there is my plug for blurb.com and thier books.

What I have now discovered is that you can put your blog into a book! Yep, you go to blurb.com. You download their book program. You start a book and choose the blog option. It asks which program you use and your username and all that. Then it actually downloads all your blogs into a book!! Amazing! I may have to move all my jurnalistic tendencies into my blog and make it a book at the end of the year- instant eternal journal!

Since I was so excited, I tried doing this. I have to say, that as fabulous as this concept is, there are a few issues you will want to be aware of.
1. It downloads ALL your blogs. So if you have had a blog for several years, that is a lot of entries! On the plus side, it lists them all and you check the ones you want in the book and it only downloads those. So you can choose just the entries you want.
2. It doesn't put your pictures in like it looks in your blog. It has certain formats for text and photos. When I tried it out, it put my blogs with pix onto pages with a 6 picture format, even though I maybe only had 2 or 3 pictures in that entry. Odd, but true. That means you still will have to go in and clean it up. On the plus side, you can choose the format you do want- you can go with different sizes of pictures too. I like options.
3. It only puts one blog entry on each page. Annoying if it is a short blog. On the plus side, you can just cut and paste so you have more per page.
4. This is just a good thing: It gives you the option of adding pictures. So you can add pictures that were not originally on your blog. You can also add more writing should the desire overcome you.

So, an exciting idea with many possibilities! It requires more work than it initially looks, but I think the results would be worth it. I must try it myself! I may decide to put all my weekly letters on here, rather than emailing it out to my family and friends. Then I could print this off and have a lovely record of me. I know, so fascinating that everyone will be thrilled. But hey, the prophet said to keep a journal and I'm just finding more fun ways of doing that!! And I do love the blurb program. I love that the prices are great and right up front- no wondering if adding a page is going to break the bank. It doesn have drawbacks- they only do 7x7, 8x10 (in portrait and landscape) and a huge size. And the hardcover has no pictures or writing on the cover itself- it has a dustjacket with all that on it. Not my favorite thing, but for the price, I'm happy with that! If you want to see the ones I've done so you know if you want to try it, ask me. I absolutely LOVE their stuff.

Playgroup at the Park

Today we went to the park for Play Group. It was a beautiful day and the park was a lot of fun. I mean, the kids had a great time running around with other kids, and us moms enjoyed getting them out of the house and having some grown-up time to talk. Callie thought she was hot stuff, crossing this on her own. She has such a wonderful, mischievous smile!

This was Delaney's first time at the park now that she can walk. She wasn't interested in walking on ths uneven ground; She was more interested in trying to eat it. She did have a good time on the play stuff though!

Ahhhhh, Marian loves the swings. She can get going pretty good on this. She was okay with sharing with Callie for a few minutes, then she was off......

Look at her go! She totally LOVES this!

This was the cutest thing. Callie and Amy went up onto the slide and down it together. I'm so sad that I didn't get good pictures of it, but except for this very second, right here, they were holding hands! It was adorable!

That's my Marine!

Last night I finally asked Dan if he was getting sick. He's been sounding a little raspy the last few days, but he never complained (I would have!) and he didn't look sick. He said he felt pretty rotten and was getting worse. He sure was. He had a sky-high temperature, and coughed all night. He was really sick this morning.

Unfortunately, he had to fly to Parris Island for a trial this afternoon. Um, let me clarify that he had to fly there this afternoon, the trial is tomorrow..... I asked if he could cancell it, and in a voice dripping with condecention, he said no, the judge was booked (oaky, he didn't say "booked", but I can't remember what they call it!) and he had to go do this trial. Oh, and even better is the fact that we took the van in to get worked on, and it will be in the shop til Dan gets back. That left the delimma of how Dan was going to get to work this morning. He intended to get there by two foot shift.

I thought he was insane to try to run in to work feeling that sick. I remember how truly awful I felt 2 weeks ago when I was sick and there was no way I could walk around the block, much less run 5 miles. Aparently my sweetie is made of much stronger stuff. He was out the door before I could suggest we abandon the kids (since we can't fit 4 kids and 2 adults in his 4 door Galant) and I'd take him in. He did make it to work and to the safety brief he had to attend at 0730, and he made it to South Carolina without any problems. He is so my hero!