It's Shark Week

Our family has always had this thing about shark week on the Discovery Channel. Last year we tuned in as usual, but the almost-two member of the family was facinated. He had just learned what a fish was. He could sign the words fish and whale - but to see them on the big screen was fascinating. Drew loved the sharks. All year long he's visited fish. It's nice when they're two - a trip to Pets-mart fish department is like Sea World to him. He's been to Shark Reef (twice), Bass Pro Shop (a lot), Monterey Bay Aquarium, Drew loves fish.

On a trip earlier in the year (see Cruzin through April), I grabbed matching t-shirts for Grandpa and Drew to watch Shark Week together. Drew insisted they wear them backwards because the sharks were on the back and he wanted to see them on the front. Jenn happened to be in Southern California and at Sea World the beginning of the week, so she brought home a new stuffed shark for Drew. Drew's had a great week. More tv-viewing that his mother would ever let him have at his house, he's seen jumping great whites, scuba divers, tiger sharks, sand sharks, reef sharks. I think it's time for a trip to Sea World for Drew :)

Matt calls this Charlie's Aunt Jamima look. I'm trying really hard to get a 'good' picture of her. She's all smiles and giggles till the camera comes out. Ashley did take Charlie to a portrait studio and they were successful in creating a beautiful shot.

Rebekah has been busy. She teaches swim lessons at a private school every morning, but also decided to advertise for private lessons. She's now filled up all her afternoon hours teaching private lessons. That's pretty cool that she has this talent and certification.

I've been at inservice lessons every morning this week. I'm excited to spend a year with the Old Testament, I just wish they didn't call it early-morning seminary.

LAKE POWELL 2007

It was all fun & games....

Jenn the Chipmunk

Jennifer had all four wisdom teeth pulled last Friday. I think that just about explains what she did this weekend. The picture actually makes her look a little better than it is in person. Her cheeks are swollen, and are now turning lovely colors of purple and green. She gathered up some DVDs and spent the whole weekend on the couch. Today she made it to a half day of work and on to a night college class. I'm sorry she had to be in so much pain, but it was nice to have her home all weekend for once!!!

The other set of chubby cheeks in our family belong to Charlie - who is struggling in the teeth department as well. Bottom tooth #1 has broken the surface.

In other news around the house, a friend of our family, Brian Blakley, who was serving a mission in Raleigh, NC, has been released and wanted to return to "home" which is Las Vegas. Needing a place to stay, he's moved in to our home. Lucky for him there was an extra room in the Scott Wing which comes complete with access to the loft - otherwise known as Scott's family room - which has guitar hero and the new transformers game, pool table, fuse ball (they're lobbying hard for a refrigerator too). Brian has a full schedule for fall classes and is working towards transfering to BYU, so I'm not sure how long he's here, but if you see an extra face in the pictures, it's Brian. This picture is at an Open House we had for him. Jenn met Chase, Matt, and Brian on the church history tour 3 years ago. Two are home from their mish's - one to go! Stay tuned for the final reunion in 8 weeks...

(L-R Derek & Bryce Pittsenbarger, Mallory & Matt (who are now married), Brian Blakley, and Jenn)

REJECTED!!!!!!!

Our phone conversation went something like this:

g-ma: Hi, Drew, do you want to come spend the night at grandma's house?
D-man: No.
(obviously he's not comprehending)
g-ma: Drew, you can pack your suitcase, come spend the night at my house.
D-man: No your house.
(what? Drew usually loves to come over, he really must not be hearing this right.)
D-man: No your house. bye.
Finally Ashley get's the phone, she can explain to him what I'm saying.
g-ma: I'm trying to ask Drew to come spend the night.
Ashley: He has a play date with his friends tonight that he wants to go to.

What? He has friends? And play dates that he remembers? I was rejected for pistol pete's? But I bought you fish to feed....We have Nemo and Cars and popcorn....I even have koolaid that I don't water down when your mom's not watching.

From this moment on, grandma's house will have to compete with his friends. I am crushed.

Happy Birthday, Kara!

Here's Kara with the group

Kara with Charlie

Kara with her mom

Kara with Brad

Kara with the graduate

Kara with presents

We love you, Kara. Thanks for being a part of our family - and our pictures....I hope you have a great day.

I've been thinking a lot this week about Malcolm.

I usually go through my days and weeks having no clue whether A shift or B shift is on, and which shift is he anyway? I know he's told me, I know I can look on the Saginaw Fire Dept. webpage and there's a calendar for the shifts and I could at any time know his schedule. But that's a lot to remember, I just know he's always a phone call away. And I usually don't even think about his job. I've seen the fire house complete with it's cushy reclining chairs, satellite tv, fancy kitchen and bunk rooms with personal computers in them. So that's the image I think of when I think that Malcolm is at work. It's easier to think that.

Until Monday morning when the news was on with stories of flooding in the Fort Worth/Dallas area. Malcolm is on the swift water rescue squad. "Oh, Malcolm, I'm sure you're out there, be careful."

Later that night there was the story of the furniture warehouse fire in North Carolina that killed 9 fire fighters.

Suddenly the reality of Malcolm's job was different.

Malcolm, be careful. I want you to always be a phone call away.

Scotty Graduates!!!

You did it, Scott!

More pictures:

With G&G Mitchell - thanks for coming from Texas!

All of Scott's family support

With G&G Marx

They are a team. Jenn was a supportive sister in Scott's high-school years -- projects, homework assignments, ideas for asking girls to dances, making sure he left the house dressed right... Scott bought a graduation card for Jenn to thank her and even wrote her a little poem:
"Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
You got me a C
And for that I thank you"

Kara's Baby Shower

It was the perfect timing for Brad and Kara to come for a visit. I'm sure they were pretty tired after a week because they had various family activities planned every day. On Tuesday - right in between the two graduations - we all stopped to celebrate the arrival of Baby X in September. Kara's pretty tight-lipped on what her name will be. Since they're big Napoleon Dynamite fans, I'm bracing for Lafonda. Here's a few pictures from her party:

I'm thankful for great-grandmothers. How else would babies stay warm in this world?

Little Baby Girl Marx will be here before you know it, and she will be so well-dressed!

Jennifer got an A


Jenn's big news this week was getting an A in one of her summer school classes. She starts every semester off with "this semester I'm really going to do good in school." Congrats Jenn. There's three summer school sessions, and you really did it on the first session. Keep up the good work in the next two sessions!
These are the BYU Boys as they're called at our house (L-R Chad, Jeff, Tyson, & Shawn). These guys are friends of Jenn's who are here from Utah for summer-only jobs. After seeing their dietary habits during the week, she jumped into Relief Society compassionate service mode and invited them to our family Sunday night dinners.

And finally, Charlie looked especially stunning tonight in her blue polka-dot dress and cute little white shoes:

O.K., O.K....I'LL UPDATE MY BLOG

Sometimes I just get busy, the same as all of you, and I wonder if the day in and day out stuff is interesting. But after three people have commented that I need to update the blog - here's a few pictures from lately.

Scott went to prom with Kayla:

I love seeing them in tuxes - it only happens a few times in life.

Charlie continues to be adorable:

Ron, by accident, has started a new tradition with Drew. Drew stores his tricycle in our garage. He hasn't perfected peddling because I think since he's the oldest, he just hasn't observed anybody peddle anything so he doesn't realize the boost in his mobility that learning this skill will be. Grandpa decided to take Drew on his bike over to the park a couple of blocks away to play. After a few feet Grandpa decided this was going to take a long time and tied a rope to the frame of the bike to pull Drew along faster. Drew thought this was a ton of fun and now begs non-stop to 'go, ride'. I think we need to take him to our neighbor's house, the Roundy's, and let Drew watch their kids riding bikes and he'll get the hang of peddling. When this finally happens, none of us will be able to run fast enough to catch Drew in the neighborhood - so maybe grandpa walking around the block pulling him is o.k. for now! I'll have to get a picture of this in action this weekend.

Scott has had a fun two weeks of final high school activities. Here he is with Devon, a.k.a. Prom King, at the senior bbq. I was only there to take this shot because I was helping grill 450 hamburgers...

Monday is graduation. All of my kids will be graduated, so I guess I will officially be in the 'old' category?? This can't be! Oh, and in other news, a week from tonight I will be at The Police concert - holla!

Brad Graduates From University of Arizona!!!

This weekend was Brad's graduation. He majored in Communications with a Minor in Business. Grandma and Grandpa Marx were able to join our family in the trek down to Tucson for this event. It was sure a great moment to definately be shared with Kara. Brad met Kara in his first year of college, so she has been with him through all of his classess, assignments, and study hours; not to mention, Kara has worked long hours as their source of financial support allowing Brad to plow straight through winter, spring, and summer semesters achieving his degree in 3 1/2 years. They are a dynamic duo together.

Way to go to both of you!

We enjoyed a nice BBQ at their apartment complex after the ceremony with the Durhams. Here are a few pictures:

(note Kara's 'future Dodger fan shirt'!)

(Charlie slept through most of the ceremony - except when someone behind us got excited with an air horn...)
Congratulations, Brad, we're proud of you.

Charlie's Blessing Day Charlie's blessing was on May 6th. It was a beautiful day to match Matt's growing family. After church we gathered for dinner at Matt & Ashley's house. Ashley made some really yummy marinated chicken, it was so good! She better watch it or the Sunday night dinners might get switched to her house! Brad and Kara joined us from Tucson so that we were all together as a family.

And in the category of "Brad never takes a serious photo..."

Ron & Kim Cruzin through April....

We spent last week with Dale & Shelly Heward and Dave & Nanette Pugsley. Long time friends catching up on life. We all agreed that we see ourselves still very young, but after a few days it dawned on us that we were sitting on a cruise ship, talking about our grown children and grandchildren, comparing our aches, pains and diseases....could it be that we are getting old???

NOT!

We had a blast. The ports we visited were Costa Maya, Mexico; Roatan, Honduras; Belize City, Belize; Cozumel, Mexico. Kudos to Dale & Shelly who put up with a THIRD visit to Costa Maya. I will let the record stand with them and not even challenge it! Not much to see there, and definately not worth a 2nd trip. there was a cool shopping building that had a big tower, so we climbed to the top to get a look at the Mexican scenery. It had a ramiumptom-type feel to it. This picture of Ron with an iguana was taken there.

My favorite place was Roatan. I think I could be persuaded to fly back there and stay in one of the resorts and see more sites. I took a bus ride throughout the island, saw stilt houses, native dancing, jelly making place, and a cool rickety little boat ride through a mangrove forrest. Ron went scuba diving.

Belize was my next favorite place. Ron & I took a bus ride to the Altun Ha Mayan ruins. They are estimated to have been occupied from 200BC through 1200AD and an estimated 10,000 people populated the area. I like things like this. We also got an education on rain forest plant medicines and how all the different plants are used for medical purposes, even by the locals today. Do you really think I could leave this comment without a scripture reference? "And there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year were very frequent in the land--but not so much so with fevers, because of the excellent qualitites of the many plants and roots which God had prepared to remove the cause of diseases to which men were subject by the nature of the climate" Alma 46:40 Cool, huh!

Our trip ended in Cozumel, Mexico. Very tourist oriented. Ron went scuba diving again and I went into town with Nanette. We just walked around, got caught in a sudden downpour. Finally went back to the ship to take advantage of the spa's 'in-port special.' As I was arriving, Ron had returned from scuba and was going to go to town. I told him there was an Aztec wooden calendar that I would really like, I had them talked down about $100, but I wasn't even prepared to pay as much as they still wanted. Ron returned an hour later with calendar in hand - after bringing them down another $40 on the price. We have truly found Ron's talent in life.

On the second night Shelly and I were sitting waiting for the entertainment to begin when we decided we should play a digital-camera scavenger hunt game. So we came up with a list of 20 items that would need to be photographed on the remainder of the trip. the picture must contain you or your spouse in it. so the next few days we were all scrambling to get the pictures for our game. It may sound dumb to read about, but it was kind of fun. Maybe another blog will show some of the results of the game.

EASTER 2007


Wow - can't believe I'm even putting a picture with ME in it on this!!! Bad hair day and all. What can I say, it was just a Saturday afternoon around the house coloring eggs with Drew. The one of Drew alone looks much better:

We had a nice Easter egg hunt - and to see a picture of Charlie in her Easter dress, click over on Matt and Ashley's site.

March and April have been busy. Snuggles the dog spent the weekend at our house. She's not as potty trained as Bekah thinks.....and she also wasn't too keen on spending the night in her carrier, so she ended up in bed with Scott. Scott didn't get very much sleep that weekend because he was afraid of rolling over and squishing the dog.

Jenn and I went to San Diego for her friend's temple wedding. Guess who caught the bouquet?

And finally for the latest on Scott activities. His Friday night fun began at 1 in the morning when he and several friends decided to exact revenge on a young lady who isn't parking where he and fellow friends think she should in the school parking lot. After repeatedly blocking her in and being a nuisance, they decided Friday night to go 'barrow' her car. In the cover of night they drove to her house, gathered 'round her truck, picked it up and put it on the car dolly and drove away with her truck and left it a couple blocks away. They were kind enough to send her a text message explaining that they were now playing hide and seek with her truck. I haven't heard the final outcome but I'm sure it will involved something sticky being thrown on his truck and this will just continue to escalate the rest of the year.

We're pretty excited to hear Brad & Kara wil be having a GIRL in September. I think that's about all the news around our house. I still don't have pictures out of Ron's camera of the Mexican motorcycle ride....

Sunday, April 1st

Matt, Drew, Charlie, and Ashley