Dear Ann Landers

I may not always agree with Ann Landers or her sister, but one thing I feel their advice has done is given me a glimpse of who they are personally.  I always figure if you REALLY want to know someone, ask their opinion on something.  You could find many things: they could be/possess: compassion, diplomat, sarcasm, seriousness, wisdom, unethical, joyful, pessimist, optimist, patient, insensitive, intelligent, way off (from my way of thinking), or right on the nose, etc., etc., etc.
I have always meant for my blog to be my personal journal.  I don't write, nor scrapbook, or record myself.  Publishing my blog in a book is all my kids will have of me when I am gone.  I really want my kids to have a sense of who I am so they know where they come from.  Whether they agree with my thoughts or not, I want them to know how strong my convictions are to me.  I can do that by putting up thousands of pictures (since they say a thousand words), but even more importantly, I feel the need to really delve into my heart, my ideas, my personal opinions, myself. That to me is worth even more than a photograph.  I feel I have done this a few times with some of my posts.  That's where I have felt the real 'me' has come through.  I can process some things in writing that can never seem to make it eloquently off my tongue and past my lips.
So, I am going to you (my blog readers) to help me out.  What are some topics that would be good for me to write about?  They could be heartfelt, journal entry related material, totally freakishly odd things (which seem to come more natural for me), or just ask my opinion on something.  I'll take your comments and emails and randomly do posts about them.  Not so much to be a 'Dear Jen' psychiatrist, but to help my family and children know more about me, and through writing, more than anything, I learn more about myself.  It's usually through someone else's questions to me which cause me to ponder things, some of which I blog about, so I am safe to say my ideas and inspiration come best from you.

Feel free to be anonymous.

Rah

One of the great joys of kids...you get to re-live your own glory days.  With Brynna's vision and partial blindness she is unable to do sports.  If she were to receive trauma to her other eye she would be totally blind.  Luckily for her, she's not into sports.  She was so excited to try out for cheer and worked extra hard at it.  She was even going as far as to use my pom poms from the early 90's for practice.  Anyone remember those?  They are heavy and ginormous.  But notice her little arms in the picture...getting all tone and buff.  (:As I watched her cheer in her first game last night, I thought of my 8th grade year of cheer.  I also had the skinniest legs and arms, was smiling from ear to ear, was daydreaming about the boys I was cheering for, and loved every minute of it.  As I sat in the crowd, it's still so much of who I am.  I can't help but yell and scream for the team and players. (It's also given me a fantastic 'mom' voice) These years for Brynna will develop much of who she is and provide some of the best times and adventures of her life and I am thrilled to still be a cheerleader, HER cheerleader from the sidelines.

DES Squad

Performing at the quarter.

Best Friends.

The Karate Kid

Nathan has been taking karate for a few months.  In January, they had their awards ceremony for advancements.  We decided karate would be a good sport for him so he can learn to channel all of his energy.  At times he isn't very focused and has little self control (I know, shocker).  If anything, it's given Jason a little more competition in their nightly duels.

Look at that determination and focus.  It's like they gave him Benadryl.

They had to use their mad skills to take on an adult.

The take down.  The smiles are very fierce.

Nathan's Sensei.  He is amazing.  When the kids aren't giving him their undivided attention he makes them do push-ups.  The kids have learned to really respect him.

He not only advanced to yellow belt...but the yellow and black striped belt.  He will come in very handy in my future Black Friday outings.  Good job grasshopper.

Annual Photo Shoot

It started like this:  Halloween at the Beal's checking out Quenton's new documentary video he helped take part in for The Maine.  Along with other projects like music videos for Eyes Set to Kill (of which 'Broken Frames' was filmed at his house (very hard core, but still a very artistic video)), Authority Zero, Foxy Shazam, and Breathe Carolina.  He then began to show me some of his photography of random things.  Outstanding. He is a natural artist. I showed him a photographer whose work I love.  Quenton has similar style. I asked him if he has done pictures of people...'a few.'  He has an edge about his work that I really, really like.  I asked him if he would take some pictures of our family.  I told him I wanted to go somewhere totally different and be different.  He called and asked how I felt about a lumberyard.  I immediately called April Allen and gained access of Sage lumberyard...along with everything within it.  
His style is different than with any we have worked with before.  With Quenton, nothing is posed.  Every picture was just 'us' being who we were.  No faked smiles, no 'look here on 3', and no 'straighten your back', or 'put your chin down.'  Just very, very real.  The man took over 1000 shots and worked with us until the sun went down.  So far has presented us with these:

Sorry my pic is so fuzzy....but give him a call or email him for more info.
Quenton:  623-363-3262email:  quenton.beals@gmail.com

A Few of Our Favorite Things

Do you care what we got for Christmas?  Didn't think so.  But WE DO!

Brynna had the smallest Christmas list of all and somehow ended up with the most stuff. (Not all from us.)   She got new scriptures, Vans shoes, Perfume, clothes, socks, boots, jacket, watch, jewelry, ipod touch bling cover, and her most prized possession:  a cell phone...that came with very strict rules.  She wasn't able to get it until she had straight A's.  She didn't quite hit it with a B+ on her final report card. But she pulled that grade up from a 82 percent in 2 weeks and we are very proud of her for her extra hard work in doing so.  I must say that I enjoy her having it too.  Now I can actually reach her when I need to and don't worry about her being without a phone when she babysits.  My favorite gift she received was a mood ring from Nathan.  It wasn't so much he wanted her to like it, but so HE could always know what kind of mood she is in.  :) 

A word that sums up Nathan's Christmas:  Legos.  He spent most of the week assembling and building. One day he had spent too much time and practically had a mental breakdown as we caught him throwing pieces everywhere.  We had a discussion about taking breaks and letting the brain rest.

He also received Pokemon cards.  I hate the things.  I think they are a waste of money...so Santa brought them.  Nathan only asked Santa for them because he knew Mom would say 'No', so he was thrilled that Santa heard his pleas.  He was busted this year for 'trading' some of his expensive toys with a boy at school for Pokemon cards.  Now life is good again...thanks to someone who struck a deal for some very inexpensive cards.

The man is usually so hard to buy for.  He either wants nothing or something that costs over 500 dollars.  This year was a little easier.  Since he graduated, he has dedicated what used to be 'school time' to now working out.  He has lost a total so far of 45 pounds.  He is doing awesome.  So, I bought him some new Nike shoes and a heart monitor calorie burner thingy.  He also received Dicks sporting good gift cards and he is set.  The cologne I bought was a gift for me for when he is done working out.

I hinted for about 2 straight months of Coach Poppy perfume.  I also got a new bag, jewelry, jacket and yes I actually wanted a vacuum.  I heard Dyson's were great, but no one told me I would actually love it.  The thing is awesome.  I vacuum even when I don't need to...just for something to do to keep me entertained.   We do a lot of research now before we buy products and the only negative we could read about was that it was 'ruining someone's carpet because of too much suction power.'  That was all I needed, I was sold.

And then, there are my new Aasics.  I have tried Nike, Reebox, New Balance, and so far Aasics are the best running shoe.  I end up tearing up the tread on my shoes within a year.  These are my new babies.  AND... for this year I hired a trainer.  Hopefully good results to be posted within the next several months.

Christmas Eve after church.

Hope your Christmas was magical and filled with love.

The Parentals

During November the parentals came for a visit.  They are always so good to us and we love spending time with them.  Dad is always looking out for me and lets me drive their fancy sports car while giving me full permission to put the pedal to the floor.  He's always known I am a sucker for (fast and pretty) cars.  He also taught Jason how to lay our marble tile in our house. They achieved it with only one squabble.   Mom and I shopped, cooked, played LOTS of Scrabble, and talked about pretty much everything.   The kids had fun at the zoo and going to movies and just spending quality time with them.  We are so blessed and miss seeing them as often as we did in Cali.

Just HAD to get a picture of Dad on the horny toad.  :)Much love.