The reason I have a constant eye twitch...

We are going out to pick out graduation announcements, get a suit over coat altered, and run other errands with my mother-in-law, Barb Brown. My 18 year old comes out of his room in a raggy shirt and jeans with holes in them. I stated, "You can't wear that! Your grandmother will think you don't have any nice clothes to wear and she will ask me why I am not providing you with nice clothes to wear!" He shrugged his shoulders and informed me he sees no problem with his choice in clothing. I told him go change, please......

He stated, "All my pants have at least three holes in them."

Me: "How?? I know you have pants without holes??"

He then said, "They have to have three holes.....how else would I get in them?"

OH SHEESH!!

He does clean up okay....even with three holes in his pants.

The Reptile Man

The Reptile Man came to the kids' elementary school this week. He put on a show on Thursday night for anyone who wanted to come. It was  only $1 per person. I found the price to be within our budget so we took the whole family! Some members were more excited than others. But by the end of the show we all came to the same conclusion...he puts on a good show.

Here he is with an alligator snapping turtle. It is even uglier in person.

 This is just one of the many snakes he brought along to share. She was so big the kids in the front row screamed as he swung the tail out over the audience. All the animals were very well trained and had their venom glands removed.

 He had a huge python. It was so long it took eight kids to hold it. I wanted to get a picture, but as you can imagine it was very crowded and I tried to be sure not to get random pictures of kids in my photos because I did not feel like hunting down parents and asking if they minded that their kid's picture would be posted on my blog. The girls did get to pet the snake and collect the scales it was shedding. I now have a nice pile of boa scales on my table.

 For $5 the kids could get a picture with one of the boas or the alligator. We tried to get Jake to get a picture with the alligator, she was such a sweetheart, but Jake was a no go. The girlies wanted to get a picture with the snake. He was very heavy. I love the look on Anna's face in this shot.

We got home and I had to give the lecture we are not getting any pet snakes, alligators, lizards, or alligator snapping turtles. The only pets we have at this time are the dust bunnies that live under the table bench and I am completely okay with that.

Adios Muchachas...

I have a section in my address book dedicated to best friends that have moved away over the past 13 years.

You don't believe me that I have had enough move away to warrant this??

I have compiled a list!

Sheryl D.
Julie W.
Holly S.
Mikaela S.
Traci M.
Christy O.
Monica G.
Lanae L. x 2
Nicola T.
Anna N.
Brinn E.
Linda R.

If you ask me this list seems a little long. Suspiciously long. Is this normal to have this many people move out of a person's life?

It seems unusual to me and frankly I am sick and tired of it!! I have a hard time relating to people and therefore struggle making really good friends and it sucks to have them just move away.

The most recent one to move away is really bringing me down. Brinn and I have been besties for the past 5 years. She's been my workout buddy, painting buddy, got me through the loss of my husband, and in general just put up with me (which is really hard to do). I am gonna miss her!!

Dental Hygiene School...year one

So this has been an extremely busy two quarters of school. The program is insanely intense. But it does have its fun side too. 

I got to participate in a tour of our clinic with the speech and hearing program. The kiddos were just adorable.  

Also was able to teach a class on how poverty affects dental hygiene. As you can see, two of my classmates were just enthralled with the topic. ha ha

The kids are good. I will try to post more of what we have been up to over spring break in between the assignments we receive to work on over spring break.

Eagle Graduation Ceremony for the Class of 2013

So the Inland Northwest Council hosted a graduation for all the boys who had earned their rank of Eagle Scout this past year. Daniel received an invite in the mail and wanted to attend. I must say they put on one heck of a show. We had a lovely dinner and the speakers were great. 

They had each scout tell where they are from, what they did for their eagle project and what their next step in life is.

In this picture they has all the boys take the eagle oath as well as recite the Scout Oath, Pledge and Promise.  

In this picture I tried to show how many scouts were there that night. Daniel knew only three of them. There were boys from all over the area. I believe the count was over 100.

Each boy was giving an eagle scout coin. It is beautiful and was lost by Sunday ( the next day ) but then found again. Ha. Ha. Ha.

From left to right: Robert Birkby, has written the last 3 scout books, Mike McGinnis, Council Commissioner, Daniel, Tim McCandles, Col. Brian Newberry, and George Nethercutt, former Washington State Senator.

The Graduating Class of 2013. 

You cannot see Daniel in this picture because he stood in the very far back and hid between to people. I was NOT happy. He better not do something like that again.

Our Christmas Break

This Christmas break was low key for the Brown/Guhl household. Being so busy with school this fall quarter I wanted to just enjoy the little things with my family.

It started off great with snow coming down in buckets the first day of break.........
No snow since. Now just a yucky, muddy, rainy mess. POOO!

1. Stayed up all night watching Christmas movies to start off the break.
2. Drinking ridiculous amounts of hot cocoa.
3. Going to the YMCA to play in the pool or play pool.
4. Trips to the library.
5. Visiting with family.
6. Enjoying all the treats the holiday season has to offer with my family.
7. All of us making gingerbread houses and then delivering them to our friends.
8. Relaxing on the couch with my hubby and watching a movie. (Been a few months since that happened)
9. Sleeping in!
10. Taking the time to enjoy each of my children individually.
11. Grow out my nails and polish them up all pretty. ( I have to keep the super short and NO NAIL POLISH ALLOWED!)
12. Use my good smelling lotions and perfumes. (also a big no-no during school. If they feel we have too strong of a perfume smell from soap, shampoo, lotion, ect. we will be sent home for the day)

This Christmas was bittersweet knowing that this will probably be my last Christmas in a long time with my WHOLE family. Daniel will be on his mission for the next two years and I see his leaving as the beginning of all my little birds leaving the nest. This day seemed like it was just some unimaginable date in the distant future, but now it is here and I am not ready!!

Spelling Leessonz

Isaac bought a game off of ebay. It came in the mail Saturday. He was super-duper excited. He was also just a tad bit paranoid that someone else would play the game before he could. 

Isaac came up with a genius plan, he would write on the envelope that this was his game and that no one else should play it. So he wrote, "Propartee of Izick, do NOT Tooch. I am not sure was tooch means or what a pro-partee is but it sure sounds fun so I went ahead and played it. 

I leaned that tooch means the game is lousy and pro-partee means it should be broken into a zillion little pieces.  Isaac quickly informed me I was wrong. The words are obviously "property" and "touch". Gosh, I think I need some spelling lessons.

Ike is taking ceramics this semester in school. He brought home a bird house that he made. It says on the front, "Welcome Birdiez"  As we were all admiring the craftsmanship of the birdhouse Anna took it upon herself to point out the obvious......"Birds can't read"  Oh snap! ha ha ha ha