I copied this from my sister's blog who chose not to tag anyone, but invited anyone who wanted to, to play. The invitation is extended to you... Copy and paste into your blog. Highlight the things you've done.
1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars (Nights on the trampoline as a kid -- good times!)
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning...fish tacos from On the Border, not fun!
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (actually I took the elevator)
18. Grown my own vegetables...tomatoes every year
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France ...I've been to the Louvre museum in Paris where the painting is hung, but I didn't have enough time to make it to the Mona Lisa which is down in the depths of the huge museum.
20. Slept on an overnight train...I just slept on the "Orient Express" in Germany in September, anyone who's ever played Monopoly might recognize the name of the train line! It was a much better experience than the super hot and sweaty overnight trains my family took in Mexico when I was in 9th grade.
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (mostly as a kid when I wanted to skip school...as an adult I was always too nervous I'd get caught in a lie if I tried to fake sick--it wasn't worth the effort!)
24. Built a snow fort.
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping (my husband talked about it from the pulpit at church...talk about most embarassing moment!)
27. Run a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person ...we aren't too far, maybe Spring Break?
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language ...does pig latin count?
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa...no, but I'm going for my 40th bday in a few years
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted -- Does my dad's pencil drawings during church count?
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy...does my blankie count? I still have it.
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar or escargot
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book...no, but it's on my list of things to do before I die
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating -- the turkey on pioneer trek -- not fun.
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury...no, but Brent did for the first time this week
91. Met someone famous...I got to meet quite a few famous people while an intern at the Supreme Court in Washington DC. Los Lobos invited me to be a guest at their show after the fabulous tour I gave them (but I didn't end up making it...no car to get there).
92. Joined a book club ...still miss my N.Cal book club friends. All our husbands would get together for dinner with the babies while my girlfriends and I socialized, snacked, and talked about books.
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Been to a foreign country

They are beautiful, aren't they?

I've been a little preoccupied with Facebook as of late and have abandoned my little blog. Anyway, if anyone is still checking-in I thought I'd paste up one of my fav photos for the season. This was taken at the corn maze...no shortage of corn or corn mazes out here in the Midwest.

Ethan - He's three and so adorable right now. He loves to chant E-T-H-A-N - so proud of himself that he can spell his name. He often sings to himself and loves to show us how he can "read" books all by himself ("read" meaning look at the pictures and tell the story-- he doesn't realize that is any different than what we do).

Isaac - Just had his 7th birthday complete with a Pokemon party to celebrate. He had a few favorite gifts, but one we all loved was the Nerf machine gun blaster. Okay, I admit, I NEVER would have purchased this toy myself. I'm not a big fan of guns. But holy moley, it is crazy fun to watch the boys just light up every time it fires off 24 Nerf darts in rapid sequence (when I say boys plural I include Brent in the list).

Morgan - She's performing as a gymnast in the Nutcracker this season, she just had her first gymnastics meet of the season, and sadly said goodbye to her beloved soccer till Spring. She loves her creative 4th grade teacher who does fun things like using Oreos to learn about earthquakes and writing spelling tests in shaving cream. She had straight As on her first letter grade report card.

Brent - Super busy at work these days and when he's home he's remodeling the basement bathroom.

Me - I'm proud to say I'm actually helping a lot with remodeling the basement bathroom. I finally vacuumed my car after weeks on end of neglect (this was a feat, so I include it on the list--sadly we've now lost 1/2 our food storage). I'm trying to get geared up for Christmas shopping, but as of yet have only bought three items--this is the week to kick it into high gear.

Can I Fly Like Superman?

Ethan, my 3-year old, says to me today, "Mom, next time we are in the car can I unbuckle so I can go fly like Superman out the window?" It takes me a moment to realize what he's talking about. For years we've told our kids how important it is to buckle-up so they don't go flying through the window in the event of a crash. What I realize now is that my 3-year old thinks it sounds pretty cool to go flying out the window...like Superman. From here on out I think we'll focus more on the bashing-head-into-glass part instead of the flying part.

Speaking of 3-year-olds, Ethan's preschool teacher just turned us onto a great website that Ethan has been loving www.starfall.com. It's a cute site with fun (and free) learning games and no annoying pop-ups or ads. Enjoy!

Our Trip to Germany

Make a Smilebox photobook

Is it Just Me?

Okay, I finally read Twilight. And I must say I was unimpressed. Is it just me? Everyone I talked to has LOVED it. I'd love to hear if anyone else felt the same way I did. At this point, I'm not planning to read any more of the series...does it get any better? Should I try the next one? Or, will it be more of the same?

For those of you who are not hooked-up with me on goodreads, here's my review:
Like an over-hyped movie often fails to measure up, the much hailed Twilight fell flat for me. The one-dimensional story line lacked sub plots and depth. The whole book was all dialog and very little action or plot. The female character, Bella, was annoyingly and unrealistically helpless and her boyfriend, Edward, seemed all too consumed by his "duty" to protect her from herself--to the extent that I found his comments on her clumsiness to be condescending rather than chivalrous. Sadly, Twilight was not for me what it has been for so many others who love the series and are smitten by Edward.

The Right to Vote

The story below came to me by a forwarded email. I don’t know who wrote it, but it hit home with me. Thursday night I was out with some friends discussing politics over dinner and I realized how unengaged I’ve become. I used to be passionate about this stuff. Back in 1993 when I was an intern in Washington I had an opinion on all the issues. But in recent years I’ve checked-out. Mostly because I haven’t found time to read up and really learn for myself which candidate best represents me. So this year, with my 8-hours a week of child free time :-), I’m committing to take some time to figure out where I stand (I’d like to try and find the movie mentioned below too…I wonder if I’m related to Alice Paul). *****************************************************************This is the story of our Grandmothers, and Great-grandmothers, as they lived only 90 years ago. It was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote. The women were innocent and defenseless. And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'They beat Lucy Burn, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cell mate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms. When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because--why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.Voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said. 'What would those women think of the way I use--or don't use--my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'HBO released the movie on video and DVD. I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum. I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know. We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote.If you are interested in more history - go to the following website:http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/suffragettes.htm

Pagosa Springs Colorado

I love my little community in the Midwest - great families, fun things to do, great city, etc. But, man, when I visit the West how I miss the mountains!!! The last two weeks in July we visited Utah for a week, then drove down to Southern Colorado with all five of my siblings and spouses and all 13 of our kids (plus my brother's girlfriend's 2 darling kids came along too). If you've never been to San Juan National Forest in Colorado, I highly suggest it (Whitney and Jen B - you have no excuses, get yourselves there). It's breathtakingly beautiful. Of course I'm not around mountains much anymore, so maybe I'm easily impressed. But I'm telling you it was amazing. I could go on and on...but my sister already did. So, I'll let you click over to her site for more details and more photos... http://werewinginit.blogspot.com/2008/07/trip-to-colorado.html. Thanks Sheree!