The Newly Wed Game

Rob and I were invited to a pre-Halloween party last week and there we played the Newly Wed Game. This is a game that will get you into trouble! The guy whose wife owned the game answered the questions in such a way that he would not get into trouble. Unfortunately, she realized this and then got mad at him for not playing the game right. One of the questions was "I don't know where she gets _______, it looks like it comes from _________." He put in there "I don't know where she gets her good looks, they look like they come from a good looks store." It still makes me laugh. Rob was really sweet. I answered that he put in there that he didn't know where I got my teeth from, because they looked like they came from a beaver. He chastised me for saying something like that and said he would never say anything like that about me. And he is right- he never would. He is always very complimentary and I know he loves me and thinks I am pretty. He had put that he didn't know where I got my long beautiful legs from they looked like they should be on a model. Everyone oohed and aahed, but I thought, "if you were a girl and took that wrong, you would say, the rest of me must not look so hot, if he doesn't know where I got the legs from!" I tried not to think that way, though. Another question was about what you feel they put too much emphasis on and what they don't put enough on. We have already discussed that- see my first post. So we got that one right. He thinks I put too much emphasis on my hobbies and not enough on Rob time! Unfortunately, one husband didn't know how to stay out of trouble and put that she didn't put enough emphasis on the laundry! Woops, I think he was on the couch that night. Another one was what they do to annoy you on purpose. One friend said it was not letting things go, but her husband had put down that she talked to him while he was watching sports. I asked him the next day while we were running how the rest of his night went and he said that he was up until 1:30 am, not letting things go! For one of mine it said something like "His _______ doesn't match his _________" Rob thought I put in his ears don't match his head, but I put in that his height didn't match his stature. We had a few couples mad at us after that one, for being so nice to each other. I don't know, I think we played the Newly Wed game just right, even though we didn't win. I guess that's because we aren't newly weds! How would you do on a game of Newly Weds?

The Learning Curve

Today, I heard Joseph start to cry and yell. I found him with a spongebob bandage stuck completely in his hair. I pulled and worked on it for a while until I finally got all but two parts out. I told him we would take a break. He was crying quite a bit by then. So I left him and went and did some dishes. I hear the wailing increase and the yelling start again, so I went back to see what was happening and that kid had stuck another one in his hair! I just don't know about tis learning curve! We did successfully dislodge all the pieces of both bandages in the end!

The Brother's Big Tower

On Sunday's we do various activities to enjoy the Sabbath, but also keep it holy. As an LDS family we don't shop, do sporting events or other things that may not be in keeping with the Sabbath day. This is what the brother's decided to do today.

Wow! Look at that. We brothers made this with our mom's help. We almost made it to the ceiling. I guess we had 53 blocks. Wow look at that- man its big! Sam

Have You Ever Wondered?

The Black Sea

Have you ever wondered where the black sea is? I thought I would shoot you this

link so you would know where Robert is when he is in the Ukraine.

From at least the 9th century, the territory of present-day Ukraine was a centre of medieval East Slavic civilization forming the state of Kievan Rus, and for the following several centuries the territory was divided among a number of regional powers. After a brief period of independence (1917–1921) following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Ukraine became one of the founding Soviet Republics in 1922. The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic's territory was enlarged westward after the Second World War, and again in 1954 with the Crimea transfer. In 1945, Ukrainian SSR became one of the co-founder members of the United Nations. It became independent again after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.

On April 26, 1986, a reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, resulting in the Chernobyl disaster, the worst nuclear reactor accident in history. The disaster was the result of a flawed Soviet reactor design, lack of a containment vessel, and serious mistakes by inadequately-trained plant operators. The disaster contaminated a large area of Belarus and Ukraine to such an extent that a 30 km exclusion zone was established around the plant. Other parts of Europe were contaminated in varying degrees.

Ukraine is a republic under a mixed semi-parliamentary semi-presidential system with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The President is elected by popular vote and is the formal head of state.

The tradition of the Easter egg, known as pysanka has long roots in Ukraine: these eggs were drawn on with wax to create pattern; dye was then added to give the eggs their delightful colors — the dye not affecting the wax-coated parts of the egg. Once the whole egg was dyed, the wax was removed leaving only the colorful pattern. The tradition is thousands of years old, and predates the arrival of Christianity in the country.
Ukrainians cuisine is, in fact, generally pre-Christian in origin. The Ukrainian diet includes chicken, pork, beef, fish and mushrooms. Ukrainians eat a lot of potatoes, grains, fresh and sour vegetables, different kinds of bread. Popular traditional dishes include varenyky (boiled dumplings with mushrooms, potatoes, sauerkraut, cottage cheese or cherries), borsch (soup made of beets, cabbage and mushrooms or meat) and holubtsy (stuffed cabbage rolls filled with rice, carrots and meat). Ukrainian specialties also include Chicken Kiev and Kiev Cake. Ukrainians drink stewed fruit, juices, milk, sour milk (they make cottage cheese from this), mineral water, tea and coffee, beer, wine and vodka.

He will be in Odessa, Ukraine which is their major port city on the Black Sea. Mostly he will be on the black sea, on a boat doing exercises. From the link you can see where Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran are. This is the reason they need to do exercises on the Black Sea.

Now you can wonder about something else ;)

Dentally Challenged

We have had some fun dentally. Joseph lost his first tooth. I can't believe he lost one at 5. The other kids were well into their year 6 before they lost one. Emma was checked by the dentist and told she only has one more visit from the tooth fairy in her. Mom got her wire changed on her bottom teeth, but the ladies couldn't get it to go in. There was two of them pushing with all their might and then it finally started moving. I felt that. After thinking, Ok, my mouth is going to hurt tomorrow they tell me that I have to wear rubber bands now, too. Fun for me!

A Start of Something New

I decided to start a blog. I have been viewing a couple of other blogs off and on for about a year and finally decided I wanted to learn how to do it. When I asked my husband to look at it this is what he sent me back:

OK,
Your profile has been viewed twice, by me. (It looks good - by the way you are great at everything you do!!)
You know that time constraints require you to narrow your hobbies. How many are you up to now????
Let's see - to start from the top you should be giving at least these minimum amounts of time to each/week, and then my unsolicited assessment of each:

Rob (One on One time) = 14 hours (2 hours a day) - not even close on this one.
Children = 28 hours (4 hours a day, I went ahead and included soccer practice, shopping and house work) - perhaps getting this one done.
Sleep = 56 hours (8 hours a day) - with work I bet you are missing this one, now.
Family Group time = 3.5 hours (1/2 hour each day, i.e. playing, reading, family home evening) - perhaps close.
Spiritual/Church = 6.5 hours (3 hours for church, 1/2 hour each day for personal study i.e. prayer, scriptures, meditation, temple, relief society, visiting teaching, personal progress, primary, etc.) - oh you put this time in and sometimes much more.
Physical = 7.25 hours (2 hours for marathon and 45 min/day for daily exercise, weightlifting, aerobics, soccer practice, etc. ) - I believe you are missing some of your personal physical time.
Social time = 3 hours (I simply cut Physical and Spiritual in half to give friends this time). I believe you are getting this done.
Mental growth = 3.5 hours (1/2 hour each day) - you seem to be off and on with this one.
Work = 15 hours (that is with travel time included) - you are committed to this one, like it or not.
Personal time = 3.5 hours (1/2 each day) - we all need this time, are you getting it?
There are 168 hours in each week. Let's count down shall we?
168 Total Weekly hours:
-14 Rob
-28 Children/Family chores
-56 Sleep
-3.5 Family time
-6.5 Spiritual
-7.25 Physical
-3 Social
-3.5 Mental
-15 Work
3.5 Personal
= 27.75
That leaves you 27 hours and 45 minutes to do all your other hobbies, i.e. TV watching, scrap booking, blogging, card club, wall covering, needle point, etc. It looks like you can do it, but be careful not to cut into the minimums of the above.
PS since my work jumps from 15 hours to 40 hours I only have 2.75 hobby hours. That is why I have nooooo hobbies. :(
Love, Me

My handsome husband the Engineer through and through!

One thing I found while I was blogging (e.i. wasting time) was someone who decided on having a word of the year. I have decided on a word for at least the rest of this year. The word is Balance.

I loved the talk by Elder Dallin H. Oaks in General Conference this past October about finding what was good, better, and best for you and your family. We are stretched pretty thin and the one thing we need to find is a little bit of balance in our lives. We have been criticizied a few times for a couple of things we don't have time to do and therefore don't. These people think that these things are better or best, and maybe they are for their family, but not for ours. We have to stand firm and we have to reevaluate all the time to make sure that what we are doing is best. I know there are probably a few things I could cut out or cut down on so that I could spend more time with my kids. It all needs to be balanced well or it will come tumbling down somewhere. That's why the rest of the year at least I am focusing on Balance!