March Friday Family Funfest Ideas Week 1

Hello, hello. Let me start by saying Friday Family Funfests are not just for mom's. If you are an aunt/uncle, grandma/grandpa, older sister/brother, just THINK of how many memories you could create with YOUR little one. Always remember, it takes a village to raise a child. And in my case, I think three villages per munchkin.

This blog started out as a photo stop for family and close friends, but my continued frustration on uploading photos with any speed, has led me to ignore it.

But here's a new post, YAY!

March 2011 Friday Family Funfest Ideas:

Over breakfast one day the children started fighting over where they wanted to travel someday. I know, kids, right?! So we are going to spend some weekends discovering new countries. Here are the steps I'm taking and the relative cost of each adventure.

1. If you go to most big box stores they are happy to give you...big boxes! For free! By taking simple scissors, used cereal boxes and straws/sticks/leftover from summer skewers sanded down, you can make pretty good box airplanes. My kids LOVE the boxes and they make great indoor weekend activities for the winter. (we'll be making these February 26th and saving in basement until our travels in March)

2. Our local bank, and maybe yours, still have the old fashion savings passport books that you can make into F.F.F. passports. Also, easily created with inside out cereal boxes, blue paint, gold marker, second side of failed print jobs and stapler. Then collect stickers that match the countries of your destinations and each week they can add a sticker and fun fact about your "vacation". (we'll be making these February 26th and saving in basement until our travels in March)

3. Our first trip is to China!
Dinner: Chicken Helper Fried Rice (under $5) egg rolls bought at the Chinese Restaurant ($4).
Activity: Books on China from library, stamping/stickering passport (FREE)
Movie: The Great Panda Adventure (being put on hold at library this week so available for March 3rd) and Karate Kid (2010) now available on Netflix instant queue ($9.99/mo)

Because I'm lazy...

Because I'm lazy I'm not going to add photos. My posts take 3 times as long just for adding the pics. I don't know why my computer and blogger fight me, but they do and today they've won the battle...but not the war.

Ellis has started walking. Jacob announced that he is only going to read his book at the sitters and speak to no one. And Mena has finally decided to start wearing princess shoes I bought her over a year ago. They are all growing and maturing at their own rate.

Friday night I took Mena on a date to see Toy Story 3. I cried uncontrollably for the first ten minutes, and NO!... I'm not pregnant. Watching the animated Andy pack for college just broke my heart. When it's late at night and I'm exhausted from a day of mindless cartoon chatter, bickering siblings, and the need for a giant cold Diet Pepsi that doesn't exist in my refrigerator, I really do pull out the calendar and start counting down the days until their adulthood.

But then there are nights like last night. Mena fell asleep in the car coming home from Grandma's and had to be carried upstairs to the potty then put to bed. Jacob and I made up a new game "Kiss & Tell" where I kiss his nose, toes, fingers, etc. and tell him one thing about him. After that, those who were awake, went through the scrapbooks to find a page I could enter in the county fair this year, choice made, putting them away. Our sweet little Ellis finally began walking. Those are the nights when our home truly is our refuge from the world and our garden out back is eden.

Ellis then was up through the night with a runny nose and I am reminded that I'm too old to keep trying for more ( a thought this weekend) and that right now my job is to just adore the children I have and be grateful for the time we're given.

So instead of a photo this post, take a moment, close your eyes and imagine:

The bottoms of three, separate right feet belonging to an almost seven year-old, a four year-old and an almost one year-old. Lined up with their cute little toes angling down.

Those three feet belong to three amazingly beautiful, bright children who may cure cancer, travel around the world, or live in space. They may buy a home with their spouses and children in Fremont, Ohio or move to London, England. I don't know. But their mine, and I love them even when I'm screaming.

Mommy, Mommy, how does your garden grow?

Cousins, Riley and Ben, were spending the night. The late afternoon sun was shining, the children playing, the plants growing...the perfect photo opportunity!

A New Post!

This first photo is part of our traditional documentation of our babies' first Mama's meatball. She of course loved it. Our kids are awesome eaters until they attend pre-school, then they think all meals should be "snacks" and begin a hunger strike that Jacob is just now coming out of.

Well, my dad was in town last week to help us put in our first garden. Poor guy, he was as sick as a dog the whole time. But he persevered even when I asked him to just go in and rest. That's the macho man in him but I wish he hadn't felt so lousy.

We're calling this our practice garden. We've planted potatoes, corn, cherry tomatoes, big tomatoes, eggplants, green beans, peas and carrots. I thought I had a big area but it sure got smaller as my paths between veggies became tighter.

I love my house. It's not big but it feels like the right size for us. I love my yard because I have so much dreaming room. This time of year I check out loads of gardening and landscaping books that I pore over. But in the end I only have the time and money for one new project, and this year it's the vegetable patch. I did buy 2 hanging pots and impatiens from daughters of friends that were a fundraiser. But that's just my usual spring, curbside appeal, planting. And so I still have the library books and dreaming of next year's project. I'm thinking it's going to have to be my made from scratch patio planters and bench. I've been waiting on those for awhile.

Jacob

My friend Megan asked me to update her on Jacob's gifted panel results via my blog. So here it goes.

He's a smart kiddo. We already knew that. So I'll start from the beginning of Jacob's story.

The day our son was born, his father picked him up out of the clear cradle that the nurses wheel into the room after birth. Dad puts his son up to his shoulder. Our little baby then proceeds to amaze the nurse and look around. She says she has never seen a baby at 1 hour do that. He then proceeds to stay awake for his first twelve hours of life, apparently another first for these ladies. He has never gone back to sleep. Jacob's never required much sleep and loves to "look around". His Aunt Jean Yowpa, who has two VERY smart sons of her own, told me early on that non-sleeping can be a sign of intelligence. Not much comfort to an exhausted law school widow far from home.

At 18 months I started counting his words because What to Expect the First Year told me too. He was suppose to have 50, he had a 100. Then sign and word recognition began at 22 months, though not true reading, still ahead of the curve. By 26 months he was asking to follow our finger and repeat our words as we held family scripture study at night. While a solid 2 year old he could put together puzzles all by himself up to 50 pieces without looking at the box. He just recognized how the shapes should fit.

We knew he was smart. We knew he was smart when he started reading Harry Potter and the Book of Mormon by himself, half way through his second pre-school year. And when he went into kindergarten testing (one month shy of his 5th birthday) and tested into the 2nd grade. So why didn't the school know it?

They did. In pre-school the principal would come in and work with him one-on-one because the teacher wasn't "allowed" to teach reading. In kindergarten his teacher told us he was the smartest child she had taught in 30 years. But the principal was tried of stealing drugs from the nurses office this past summer and the teacher spoke to the principal who told her gifted programs weren't available until the 4th grade. And every year he was asked to be an "aid" to a special needs child. Which of course I said yes, so as to continue his emotional education.

Last summer I spent a lot of time on this issue, and talked to most of you about what to do. My biggest sounding board being Kristen, who is HIGHLY gifted, hard working and ambitious. As well as having grown up in rural Ohio until sixteen. But after much prayer and meditation last May I thought I found my solution... they can't make him stupid.

I felt that the lessons he was suppose to learn by attending our local public school would be respect for all people, kindness, compassion, humility. He's not the best artist in his class nor is he the most athletic, these too have a place in a child's education. And then we would support his academic interests at home.

For crying out loud, the child read the dictionary and encyclopedias of focused topics for fun! At 5! We spend a lot of time at the library and conducting science experiments at home. As well as a zoo pass and science institute pass.

I was good with this solution, while trying to manage a third child, Phil being gone so much building his business and Church calling, and finishing college, and my returning to work.

Then I learned he was being physically bullied by 4th graders during lunch. Now mom's mad!!!

I went straight to the office and sat down with the principal and vented my anger at what I feel has been a completely wasted year with a nasty old worn out teacher who loves the Jacob sits quietly and completes homework while the other 23 children run amok. AND now his isolation is furthered by these fourth grade punks.

"Isolation?" she asks. YES! He reads at a 5th grade level and doesn't want to play the same games as the other children in his class. "I didn't realize". Well of course she didn't, she's young and new. So she hasd the gifted coordinator call me and he kind of poo-poos me that all moms think their child is gifted and if he was, why isn't he on our radar until the 4th quarter. Good question. Why don't you ask his lazy , sour-puss teacher? Who by the way lives three doors down from us and I have had social run ins with. Even though I thought we were both playing nice while Jacob was in her class.

So they test him.

And the results are in.

Two weeks after the first talk, a panel of five very smiley adults, and one blank face stare, look across from Phil and I. Each take their turn. The gifted coordinator gushes about how much fun he had the couple of days he tested Jacob and what a pleasure he is to talk with. Oh and I'm retiring on Friday but am running a kiddie kollege at the local community college this summer and you should sign him up.

The woman who tested his reading had to stop after the 6th grade levels, but feels confident that he would've passed into 7th easily. The literacy specialist swooned with pleasure at having this conversation with us because usually she's discussing IEP's, instead of how to advance a 5t wearing 6 year old. His teacher? Oh well he does finish his assignments on time.

GAH!!!!!!!

She was of course, a waste of space. The asst. principal relayed how she regularly eats lunch with him because he's so much fun to talk too. And the school psychologist then proceeded to share how his cognitive testing went. She had to score his as average because he didn't complete enough to be bumped into the gifted area. Why? Because he finished each with such precision that the quantity of completed activities were low. He would have scored much higher if he had done more even if they were wrong. So she HAD to score him low even against her personal judgment just to fit the parameters of the test. That's cool, I was ok with that. But she was very apologetic.

They talked, we talked, for two hours. For now, he'll be attending a 3rd grade class for reading, so as to have more advanced conversation than he's getting in the 1st grade while still not being too far ahead socially. He also will be visiting with the school counselor, and two other "gifted" 2nd graders, once a week for smart games. It's something. They can't do a whole bunch because the state of Ohio doesn't provide funding or services to schools until the 3rd grade. In fact he's still not technically "identified" because the tests aren't suppose to be given until the 2nd grade. So he'll have to do them all again next year. Which he's good with because he thought they were lots of fun and of course, he enjoyed the adult conversation during his day.

It was nice to sit and hear how wonderful your son is not only because of his intelligence but because they each enjoyed their time with him on a social level. And again the inspiration came very clearly to my mind, he will always be smart. That is his God given gift to him. But it is my responsibly as his mother to teach him to be a productive member of society who is gives back, who is loving and thoughtful and hard working.

Plenty of smart people end up in the gutter. It's not the numbers, it's the package that contains them.

I love that kid. He drives me crazy. He makes me work too hard as he follows me from room to room with his incessant questions and thoughts. But I'm working to live up to him. Not bring him down to make things easier on my ears. Though a new conversation in our home is....

Jacob please pay attention to non-verbal clues for when others are just not available to listen.

Hello again!

I suck...I suck...I suck...I suck...I suck...

So I bought a new camera before Christmas so as to not miss any more photo ops. But I can't figure out why the exact same brand one generation later doesn't download as easily as my last camera. Which was found at the end of January.

I still have crappy Christmas pics.

We went to Nashville to visit the Gates for New Year's and had a blast and I never remembered my camera, EVER!

We've had great snow storms and kids playing but I think I just have them at the door and one of Rudy.

Ellis has broken her first tooth and is crawling. Still in spurts but definitely crawling. We had a lovely Superbowl evening and mom and Rob's and a sweet family breakfast to celebrate Valentine's day.

Jacob is becoming a momma's boy again. And I kinda like it. He's hurt himself and called for me twice in two days. He's always been so tight with his dad, which I encourage, but it's still nice that he needs mommy to kiss the boo-boos.

Mena is a GREAT big sister and just adores "her" baby. She even likes to play baby school where she "reads" to Ellie.

I like working for Phil and look forward to adding a day when Ellis is in all-day kindergarten and I won't have to pay for a sitter. But I'll always only work 4 days. I'm still going to need a day for bon-bon eating and hulu, am I right my sisters?!

So Very Sad

Let me tell you how sad I am this morning...I can't find my camera.

Now, let me tell you how happy I am that this is the only thing I'm sad about today.

But because I can't find my camera I can't upload pictures of my beautiful children. I have gone Thanksgiving, decorating the tree, and now Fremont's Holiday Parade without any pics of Ellie's firsts! And I'm close to having a panic attack. I'm already behind on Mena's scrapbook (please don't ever let on that I STILL haven't scrapped her first birthday and have to get pics from Aunt Allie to boot). But now I'm REALLY behind on Ellis. And I love that little sweetie pie and want to scrap it!

Ellis is my pretty, pretty princess. Mena I've always called my little pink princess and now we have a pretty, pretty princess. She totally rocks our house! When she makes noises to be fed at 3 in the morning, you go to get her, and she's kicking and giggling. No joke! It's hard not to like those early mornings when she makes them so pleasant. She only screams when she's super hungry. And well heck, that just makes her a Wylykanowitz...

It's funny, but all she asked from Santa was a cropper hopper 24 drawer scrapbook organizer. And that lucky girl is going to get it! She whispered in my ear to tell Santa that her greatest Christmas wish is to help Momma clean up her supplies so that she can have a super duper baby book.

But I can't find my camera!

Her Ruby Slippers

So I've finally started working on a story that's been percolating for over a year. And Stephen King says that you shouldn't share ANYTHING that you write until you have finished and done an initial editing, but....

Here it is. The story is about a woman who is looking for herself again after 15 years of marriage and two kids.

Her Ruby Slippers

Chapter 2:

When Taylor was around five, she asked me, “Mommy, is Daddy your prince?” Of course I said yes. What do you say? “Well actually sweetie, River Pheonix was my prince, but because of a particularly stressful, college freshman, dying mother, day I led your father astray under the stars in the back of his pickup truck. I used the line that I was so cold that March night and needed his body heat. I was real smooth honey and now my prince forgets to take off his black socks when he changes into shorts after work.”

It makes me smile to myself when we receive wedding invitations that say things like, “Now I marry my best friend”. Really? Does he just love to go shopping with you and listen to you prattle on about weight loss/gain and the fashion industry’s vanity sizing? Can you just not wait until he gives every last minute detail of his fantasy football team and his standings in the league comprising of every known male relative in a tri-state area? Because honey, that’s marriage.

If you’re real lucky you might like a couple of the same shows in which you will belabor plot and character to death just to avoid the boredom of talking about the kids…again. So if you’re truthful that invite should read, “Today I marry someone I think is relatively attractive and who isn’t repulsed by me”. And when the gods look favorably on you and your significant other, ten years down the road you can say, “I’m married to a great guy who is sometimes the only person who is friendly to me when I’ve been acting like a real shit”. I love Tom. And thank heaven for “Law & Order” or I’d have to hear about every single old lady patient who forgot to turn up her hearing aid, and I’d be left to anecdotes from the produce section.

p.s. Jacob LOVES karate, Mena is still in heaven as our little ballerina, and Ellie is a giggling, smiling doll who is just the joy of our home. Will post pics very soon. Really looking forward to BGSU's writers weekend, Winter Wheat, tomorrow. Here's to crossing my fingers that I got my 1st pick for classes.

What is a blog?

I never wrote further about Mena's dancing, because the last time I posted it wanted to underline everything. And I couldn't have that.

I have been so restless lately. I'm just a bundle of nerves. I've restarted Weight Watchers again because of a friend's little girl who asked when the other baby is going to come out of my tummy. My friend thought this was cute and passed it on thinking I would laugh the same way. I didn't. I smiled for her sake, and have been just furious inside. Mad at her for passing along something hurtful, and mad at myself for just not taking care of something that has bothered me ever since it was brought to my attention in the fourth grade that I'm soft. I have spent the first half of my life eating as a way to...survive? Emotionally? I don't know, but I don't want to waste the second half like this.

Another thing that's taking up useful brain cells is my writing, or lack there of. I have excused myself for not working on my craft by writing (usually) witty little notes on facebook. I've also not blogged because these fb sentences have felt creative enough. But there not. Of course there not. Nobody pays you and publishes your facebook sentences. I'm constantly whining about my financial situation (which drives my husband ABSOLUTELY bonkers! I might add) but at the same time I don't want a "real" job. I want to be a writer. I want to publish and walk in literary circles. I want to be a visiting professor at universities, discussing the actual craft of fiction. The importance of setting, character and plot. The boring yet pivitol need for well maintained sentence structure. How varying sentences size and style lends itself to a reader's understanding of character.

So it's 5:43 a.m. and I'm thrilled because I've gotten up the second day in a row before the gym to work on writing. But instead I signed up for BGSU's annual writer's weekend next week. I hope I get all my first choices for workshops, I'm very excited. And now it's time to go work out and be proud of time well spent, blogging and FB-ing. The novel will just have to wait until tomorrow...again.

Mena, Mena, Ballerina

Pics of my darling little Mena in dance class on Wednesday the 14th of October.

Upon the roles of the church she'll be known as Ellis.

On Sunday, September 27th, Ellis' dad Phil, along with Grandpa Elison, Grandpa Ridoutt, Uncle Ron, Uncle Ammon and Uncle Robert and Branch President Smith gave her a special blessing conferred upon an infant. In it her full name, Ellis Grace Wylykanowitz, is stated so as to be placed upon the roles of the church.

This blessing is special because it is the beginning of her journey in the gospel. Though she won't be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints until she accepts baptism, her name is now recorded for genealogy and posterity. Then the blessing continues and a child is given specific blessings according to how the Spirit inspires the priesthood holder administering the blessing.

The morning I dress my babies in their blessing clothes I try to take a quiet moment alone with them to think of how special their little spirits are and where they have so recently come from. I also think about how this white outfit is just one of three very important spiritual experiences they have the opportunity to partake in. Their blessing, their baptism, their marriage through the sealing ordinance of the temple.

Ellis' blessing gown is my favorite of the three. Jacob's I bought at Deseret Books in Portland, Mena's was a dress I had found in a thrift store when I was 20 and had held onto all those years in the hopes of someday having a baby girl, but Ellis' was handmade by her Aunt Emily and the "E" on the bodice came from the monogrammed handkerchief of my Grandma Elizabeth, the mother of my mother Joan in California.

This morning my little family will gather in our back room on the red couch and listen to General Conference being broadcast from Salt Lake. These semi-annual conferences are like holidays for me. They are my favorite four days of the year. It's a chance to truly feel like our home has a place in Zion.

In the Book of Mormon, Mosiah, Chapter 2, versus 5-6, it reads,

"5: And it came to pass that when they came up to the temple, they pitched their tents round about, every man according to his family, consisting of his wife, and his sons, and his daughters, and their sons, and their daughters, from the eldest down to the youngest, every family being separate one from another.
6: And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them;"

That's what General Conference means to me, it's an opportunity to sustain living prophets and to turn our home towards them and the words they share with us. Words that lift and inspire us to be better in all that we do and that help prepare us to be an eternal family.

First Day of School Pt. 2

Mena started school last Wednesday, September 9, 9009. She is in Miss Dori's class and her assistant Miss Kris. Her good buddy from church, Alexa LeJeune, is in her class. And so far her favorite part of school is playing outside. She also likes the puzzles and reading time.

We were a little worried that she wouldn't be going to pre-school this year because over the summer she kept saying that she didn't want to ever leave me. But we said she had to give it one week. If she really wanted to stay home this year she could. She is only 3! And barely three at that. But she really likes it, except for having to do her hair ever morning, those la-la's come out the minute she comes in the door.

She's our little cutie! And such a big girl, even though she is the smallest in her class and her book bag is almost as tall as she is, LOL!

First Day of School Pt. 1

What a handsome big guy! Jacob's been doing some growing this summer.

He now has two little sisters who he has said he'll "lay down his life" to protect. (he gets his flair for the dramatic from you-know-who) On Saturday he rode his first "adult" ride at the county fair with a wristband saying he's TALL enough for the 42" rides. And today he went off to school for his first full day and a lunchable in his backpack!

We'll also be working this month on having him walk home by himself. Even though we live across the street I have been trained by the news and NCMEC to be a fearful mother. He did walk home alone by the end of last year but I stood on the porch until he was in front of the house and then I'd walk him across the street. He also was let out with only other kindergartners. This year he'll be walking home with big kids as old as 6th grade! But in talking with my friend Kristen Truong and having been doing a little self-educating, I'm ready (sort of) to assist my children in being free range kids.

I don't know how my mom was able to put Emily and me
on a airplane by ourselves at 7 & 5 to fly each summer to visit our dad. (I do know she couldn't sleep the week before and often spent her nights crying) BUT she did it none the less. I walked to and from kindergarten, 3 blocks away. I've moved all over the country, many times just me and a pal with a loaded down car or truck. I was a free range kid and I'm very self-sufficient and independent. Yet, as a mother I'm a hoverer! Completely! Especially after the broken arm.

But here he is, the first step of the rest of his life as a full-time little man!

A little summer photo shoot.

It would be nice if she opened her eyes for one of these photos, but one can I say? She's a sleeper.

Ellis Grace Wylykanowitz

My little darling is now 11 days old and I haven't written about her yet! What the heebie-jeebies is wrong with me?! Well I HAVE been awfully busy looking into her beautiful blue eyes and stroking her very strawberry (sometimes red) blonde hair.

She was born July 28th at 8:28 am, 7 lbs. 8 oz., 20 inches long.

She sleeps like a champ! We didn't even need to buy our customary television series box set to get through midnight wakings. We feed her and she's down again. Her brother and sister love her and enjoy feeding and holding her.

I'm more tired and sore than with other two and am still taking minimal pain killers whereas before I didn't need any. But hey, I'm older and she is #3, at least that's what the doctor and nurses kept telling me the difference is. I'm not really complaining, it's a great excuse for not cleaning, doing laundry, or well...anything. I just sit in the rocker and hold her and usually Mena is on the other leg and we three girls just kick it, lazy style.

So here she is! All my worrying and tears for naught, really, thank heaven.

My last night of possible sleep....

But it wasn't. Jacob manipulated himself into our bed last night claiming he needed some mommy cuddles before the new baby came. Oh, he's good, isn't he? How could I resist? Then I forgot my Tylenol PM and so was up from 12:30 am until 3:30 am in which I got so sick of tossing and turning (which requires getting up on knees to accomodate massive belly) that I went downstairs and read a chapter of my homework that I need to finish before we leave at 4:30 to drop Rudy off at Ammon and Margarida's and then off to Emily's.

Because of being so far from the hospital, love that rural livin', (ok a GOOD hospital) we are staying at Emily's tonight after eating dinner with her family and our dad who just got in. Then we are spending the night with her since she's only 20 minutes from the hospital and we are close to an hour. She's taking care of the kids for us and with her being close they can come and go with Dad.

I have to admit that I'm scared.

With Jacob's arm, my appendectomy, the financial strain of our medical situation on top of having come to terms with no more babies only to find out I was pregnant after all with only a 3 day window before loss of insurance. The loss of my grandparents in such a bizarre manner, our continued insurance nightmare. Oh yeah, no one will cover us for six weeks after Ellis's birth so all of our follow up care will be out of pocket. I keep thinking that the rug underneath is not finished being pulled out.

When I did sleep last night I had horrible dreams with lots of pain, blood, and death. Gruesome? Yes. But our year didn't start January 1st. It started July 31, 2008 when my son shattered his elbow 2 1/2 hours before our insurance kicked in and has left us $20k+ in the whole and ending on July 31, 2009 with a daughter I pray with all my heart, will come home with us, because sometimes they don't.

But this is my deepest fear. The one I've only begun to admit to myself this weekend. That everything is going to be ok should be a given, but the one thing I've learned in the last 12 months is that life has no givens.

And yet, at the same time, I have really grown in my understanding of repentance and faith. But fear and faith cannot co-exist. One comes from love and the other... I have especially come to a fuller understanding of the power of Grace. And it is these powers that I am trying to draw upon 24 hours exactly from when Ellis's and my operation begin.

* Rane, Walter: Add to Your Faith. Unframed giclée print (www.ldscatalog.com)

I'm faced with the reality that I'm a loser!

So I go on my sister Allison's blog this morning and see her live feed widget. I have seen this nifty little gadget on other blogs I follow but have not succumbed to using it. Until...TODAY! in which I think it's a great time to get rid of my "Suggested Baby Names" section and put in the feedjit instead.

Great plan, right! EXCEPT, now I know that I am the only one who actually returns to my blog with any regularity. FOUR, count them, 4 times today! Now I do this as part of my return to the computer ritual each and every time. I log in, delete spam from my yahoo account, check my school e-mail for new grades, check blog only to check my blog list to see if there's anything new that you have written, and then head to facebook.

I swear, I am only checking my blog list every ten minutes. REALLY, it's not a cry for love or to see if anyone thinks my posts are witty, intelligent, and life changing. really. really. ok, maybe, a little.

Please, comment. Please tell my that my little blog is as important to you as the latest issue of People magazine. That when I post I am claiming my 15 minutes of fame that is an American inalienable right!

Maybe I should remove the feedjit. It's tapping into my psyche and playing havoc with my insecurities.

The Wanderer

Put an X by the states you have been to. The average is 8; how do you match up?

Just for fun, put an O beside the states where you have lived.

Airports don't count!

Alabama -
Alaska -
Arizona - X
Arkansas -x
California -XO
Colorado - X
Connecticut -
Delaware -X
Florida - X
Georgia -
Hawaii-
Idaho -XO
Illinois - X
Indiana- X
Iowa - X
Kansas -X
Kentucky - X
Louisiana -
Maine -
Maryland -XO
Massachusetts - X
Michigan - X O
Minnesota -
Mississippi -
Missouri - X
Montana -X
Nebraska - X
Nevada - X
New Hampshire -X
New Jersey - X
New Mexico -X
New York - X
North Carolina -
North Dakota -
Ohio - XO
Oklahoma -
Oregon - XO
Pennsylvania - X
Rhode Island -
South Carolina -
South Dakota -X
Tennessee - X
Texas - X
Utah - XO
Vermont -
Virginia - XO
Washington - X
West Virginia -
Wisconsin -X
Wyoming- X

That would be 33 visited and 8 lived in.

What's in a name? That which we call a rose...

So it's official. Little Baby Girl W. has a name. (drumroll please....)

Ellis Grace Wylykanowitz!

ELLIS: My grandmother's full name was Miriam Ruth (Ellis) Elison, and we wanted to name her after my grandma long before she passed away.

GRACE: The way she was able to join our family sandwiched between my appendix operation and the end of our maternity insurance was a truly lesson in grace.

Thank you all for your suggestions, it was fun! I'll be copying them down for her scrapbook.

For John

.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I had promised my brother John that I would create a photo essay of my town for him back in April. Only I didn't really know how to go about doing it until I saw a smilebox creation on my friend Heather Goodworth's blog.

Emily and I hired a babysitter and spent an afternoon tooling around the countryside and many of these photos come from that afternoon in June. A couple are from 2008 as well as the Sandusky County Fair. Jacob and Riley on the trampoline was taken at Emily's house and the final photo was at Maddie Householder's blessing at the Findlay LDS ward building.

I hope you enjoy the tour!