Cruise to Catalina Slide Show May 2009

Cruise'n

So I'm way behind but I finally have some of the pictures loaded from our cruise so it's picture time! We went on a 3 day out of San Diego and were supposed to go to Ensenada but with the swine flu scare ended up going to Catalina Island instead but it was still way fun. We went with my parents, my oldest sister Shelley and her husband Nathan, my youngest sister Joanna and her husband Jared and some friends from our ward Brig and Ali Hall, we had quite the group!




If any of you have been on a cruise before you know the main attraction is the food it is fabulous and more then plentiful but as much as the rest of us ate Brig put us all to shame! I think he had enough for 3 people at each meal and that doesn't include the 24 hour buffets and ice cream! He definitely got his moneys worth and probably for the rest of us too!




We drove over Thursday April 30th and left port that evening and that night they had a comedian come in for the entertainment. Then Friday May 1st we spent in Catalina where we walked around the shops and Brig, Ali & my Dad went on a glass bottom boat tour while the rest of us went snorkeling in the 60 degree water, thank goodness for wetsuits! It was cool because there were so many fish all around not to mention the other sea creatures our guide pulled up for us to see. That night they had a hypnotist for the entertainment. Saturday May 2nd we spent at sea and actually went to Ensenada but just sat our in the water for a couple hours to comply with their charter so we could see it but just not touch. It also got quite foggy most of the day so we hung out and played card games and mini golf in the 50 mph wind. That night we decided not to go to the show and went out to hang in the hot tub instead since the whole outer deck was empty for once it was fun! Then Sunday morning we were back in San Diego and got off the boat and headed home. Over all we had a wonderful time and wish all of you could have come too...next time right!

FREE COUNSELING

Most of you know Mike is working on his masters in Counseling but what you may not now is that he is now officially done with the class portion of the program and is about to start the practicum portion and what that means is that he will be working with clients at the University of Phoenix Counseling Center under the care of a licenced counselor to get the practice he needs. So here is the part where you come in. They need more clients!!!

It is FREE of charge and you get to talk to someone about anything you might want or need to. Now of course Mike would not be seeing any of you because he knows you but there are lots of other counselors available. It is completely confidential and FREE! There is an panic button in every room and they do video the sessions for training purposes so that they can go over them with their professors but then after that they are destroyed and clients can come as individuals or as couples and be anyone over the age of 12.

Some of the reasons people come in are:
*reduce stress and anxiety associated with balancing work, school, and family
*explore ways to reduce stress related to personal, work, or family relationships
*career development
*build and strengthen problem-solving skills in areas such as employment, parenting, and inter-personal relationships
*reduce anxiety related to public speaking
*depression
*anger management

So I'm not posting this because I think you all need counseling but I have to admit there have been times in my life that I wished I had someone to talk to and with the world the way it is there is a lot of extra stress popping up all around us. So think about it and tell your family and friends about it because you've got nothing to lose besides it totally FREE!

For more information contact:
Alia-Camille Mackins (602) 557-2217
Alia.Mackins@phoenix.edu

Thoughts

I just got this email from my mom and liked what she had to say so I thought I would share it with you.


Some thoughts I had yesterday.I was watching TV and I don't remember if it was at the beginning of a movie or at the end, but as it showed the world rolling through space the thought came to me "that is what our Heavenly Fathers sees when He looks down on earth,' then I thought "how heartbroken He must be seeing the wickedness that is so prevalent on this earth." Then as the picture continued a rainbow of lights started emanating from the earth ( and went into the logo of the production company of the movie) I likened the light emanating from the earth as the goodness and light that emanates from those who are trying to do right and be obedient. I had a great desire to recommit to my Heavenly Father to do those things I should do but am not, and do better those things and am doing, but need to magnify." I don't want Heavenly Father to look down on the earth and see a black spot where I am, I want it to be bright with light. I love you all, and appreciate the light I see when I look at and think of you. Love Mom


I too look at what is going on around us and it is heartbreaking but not all hope is lost there are so many people doing so many wonderful things, and I too hope to bring some light to those around me.

The New "Pretty Please"

Lately when Paige wants something this is her new way of asking for it and it doesn't matter what it is she is asking for food, a movie, toys, to go somewhere it all gets asked like this...

"Mom I want ...... Please, I love it, it Sparkles!"

I don't know why everything sparkles but it is sure funny and dang cute!

Lucha Libre

This is what Mike aka El Guapo, really does at work all day...and I thought he was an insurance adjuster???

The Hunt is On!

My friend Natalie hosts an Easter Picnic every year at the park near her house and it is usually the first egg hunt my girls get to go on and they love it! Not only to they get to hunt eggs but they get to be with friends, have a picnic and play at the park what more could you ask for! So here are a few pictures of the event.

I tried to get Rory to search near Paige so I could take their pictures together but it mostly turned out that Paige was just running behind her.

Here is the gang checking out their haul! It was funny,the kids were so excited to eat their candy they just shoved it all in their mouths then couldn't even chew so more then one ended up having to spit it out in to Natalie's (the one in red) hand, nice huh!

My Little Funny Bunnies!

Introducing ....

Our little Kumquat!

Yes that is right we are having another kumquat ...I mean baby! I am 10 weeks along which means baby is little over an inch long and weighs less then a quarter of an ounce but already has finger and toe nails growing! I'm due October 26th and have been feeling pretty crummy but other then that we are very excited! Both Rory and Mike think it's going to be a boy so we'll see. Just wanted to spread the news!

Happy Happy Birthday Paige Dear!

So my little baby isn't really little or a baby anymore,

our sweet little Paige turned 2 on March 8th!
I know I'm a month behind but I didn't want to let this celebration pass me by. Paige is such a joy in our lives and
we wouldn't be the same without her! She loves to run, play, laugh, eat, and share!
She is as busy as can be but also as sweet as an angel!

We Love You Paige!

So Sweet!

When I saw this I couldn't help but grab my camera!

Valentine Valentine

I know I'm a day late and a dollar short but here is my Valentines Day post anyway. Mike and I Celebrated on Friday night while the girls were at my mom's house decorating cookies with all the other grand kids. I went to drop them off and stayed for a little bit because Mike told me I couldn't come back until 6:30 but when I got home there was a candle light dinner waiting for me! He make steak, garlic potatoes, the fancy salads like you get in the restaurant and desert all in the hour that I was gone! Amazing I know and everything tasted great! The funny part to me was that later I walked by the computer and the web site that was up was how to boil and egg...of all the food prep he did it was the egg that got him! So anyway it was a wonderful evening at home with just the two of us and the girls had a great time with their cookies too! On Saturday, actual Valentines, following in the tradition of my mom we had pink pancakes but I took it a little farther and made pink eggs and we had pink (strawberry) milk. I was pretty proud of and both Rory and Paige loved it! We went to see Grandparents too and one asked Rory to sing a Valentine song and she just busts one out and it was a real song she learned in preschool but I didn't even know she knew it so I was just as surprised as they were. I goes like this: (tune of mary had a little lamb)

Valentines are made to share

made to share

made to share

Valentines are made to share

with our friends at school

I made you a Valentine

Valentine

Valentine

I made you a Valentine

It says I love you!

Cute huh and only after hearing it once Paige started singing it too so all in all we had a nice day and I love my big and little valentines!

Get a little Culture in your life!

Okay so here is the deal I has recently signed up and have been trained to be a Community Coordinator with Education, Travel, and Culture, or ETC. Education, Travel & Culture (ETC) is a Pacific Northwest-based non-profit organization providing international exchange opportunities for high school students.

So what I would be doing is finding host families to take in these amazing high school students from around the world and then doing follow up with the students and the families throughout the time they are here. I'm really excited to start finding host families and placing students.

Families are strictly volunteers and are only expected to provide room and bored, the students are responsible for their own personal expenses including school activity charges, class fees, clothes, travel expenses, entertainment, bus passes, long distance phone charges, and lunches purchased at school.

This organization has three different lengths of time you can have a student. 5 months for one semester, 10 months for one school year, or one Calendar year if you want a Korean student. All the students are between the ages of 15-18 and speak English fluently. You don't even have to have teenagers yourself to be a host!

ETC places students all around the country so even if you don't live in AZ you can still be a host. If you want more information or know someone who might please visit their website at http://www.edutrav.org/ or just contact me and I can tell you more and even help find the perfect student for your family!

Beautiful Girl

Don't I look Beautiful Mom!?!

Burn, Baby Burn!

Yesterday was not one of our best... It started of normal enough, we went to the gym and came home and the girls watched a movie while I took shower and then while I was getting ready Paige came up stairs and was hanging out with me in the bathroom. As much as I Love her I don't like her being in my bathroom because she gets into everything. Well she had climbed in the tub and I had to get her out because she was getting all wet since I had just gotten out of the shower then she started to unload my cupboard under the sink so in the course of trying to put the stuff back in the cupboard she grabbed the curling iron cord and pulled the hot iron down and it landed cradled in her right arm! She of course started screaming and didn't even react enough to try and dump it off so I had to grab it off. My poor baby had two major burns on her arm and was trying to figure out what to do. I put cold water on it ant tried to call my pediatrician (which every time I use I want to change but don't ever think about it until I need the doctor again) anyway of course they have a 5 min message before you can actually talk to anyone and then on top of that yesterday of all days there is something wrong with it and it just keeps repeating itself! AUGH!!! So I hang up and happen to find a nurse hot line number and finally get through to someone and the dumb nurse keeps asking me about my insurance and how to spell my name! Seriously it's a free hot line what does my name and insurance matter just answer my dang question! All the while Paige is of course screaming her head off and the nurse actually told me to put her by the sink and let her run cold water over it and walk away so she could talk to me without all the screaming...ARE YOU KIDDING ME! So after all her non help she says I should probably take her to an urgent care or er to have it checked out anyway...that is all I wanted to know!!! So I put them both in the car and go to the ER at the hospital right by my house and they took us back right away but then of course we didn't see anybody again for 1 1/2 hours Paige did finally calm down but then just wanted to get down and go because by this time it was past lunch time and was into nap time. The doc finally came and told us she was lucky because if the burn had been in the crease where her elbow bends they would have sent us to the burn center but just gave us some cream to put on it and we have to change the dressing twice a day. So two and a half hours after the actual incident we were leaving the hospital and stopped at sonic to get some lunch for the girls and then went home to try and take a nap. Even as tired as she was she didn't get much of a nap because every time she laid on her arm it would hurt and wake her up. She did however sleep really well last night and has been doing surprisingly well, you wouldn't know anything was wrong other then the fact that she keeps trying to take the bandages off. So my heart was hurting yesterday but I'm glad my baby is okay!

Beauty School Here We Come!

So this is a little late in coming but I had to share it anyway. Christmas Night when Mike and i went upstairs to go to bed I walk into our room and see some scissors laying on the floor and I looked at them thinking "I don't remember leaving the scissors out?" but it was Christmas so maybe there was some last min wrapping going on and we forgot but then Mike, who had walked into the bathroom, says "What's all this Hair doing in the garbage?" my reply "I don't know" then I put two and two together and go wake up Rory so I can look at her hair and this is what we found! So needless to say we had to go get it fixed and the whole time the girl was cutting her hair kept asking her "now are you going to do this again?" "NO" "what don't we do?...cut our own hair" etc. So hopefully she got the message but I think it must be in the water because two of her friend have since been guilty of unapproved scissor use as well. So anyway her hair is now just a little below her chin and I'm just glad she didn't cut it to the scalp!

back logged

So I wrote a post about our snow trip the first weekend in Jan but didn't have the pictures to go with it at the time so I saved it as a draft, now I added the pictures but is posted it under the original date of Jan 7th so if you want to see pics from our snow trip you'll have to scroll down a little past the last two posts!

Happiness

Happiest Countires in the World
1 Iceland
2 Sweden
3 Denmark
4 Netherlands
5 Australia
6 Ireland
7Switerzland
8 Norway
9 United Kingdom
10 Venezuela
The United States ranked 13th

5 months=age when a child can tell a happy song from a sad one

71 is the average age of the happiest people; older people tend to engage in activities that bring them joy

10 is the friend minimum at which you have a better likelyhood of being happy (people with fewer have only 40% chance of being happy)

18 min was the average amount people laughed in the 1950's
5 min is the average amount people laugh today

112 the number of time a child laughes during the day ( the average for a 42 year old is 6 times a day)

Laughter
10 = min it takes a rowing machine to get heart rate up to same rate as after 1 min of hearty laughter
15 = number of min of laughter a day that will result in 4 lbs of weight loss per year
50 = calories burned during 10 min laughter
27% = amount of increased endorphins and HGH (anti-aging hormone) produced with laughter

6,854,265,026 and counting = people who recgonize the smile as a sign of happiness

Protect Life & Fight FOCA!

Aurora Nicole Hanchett 9-11-04

Paige Millicent Hanchett 3-08-07

Dear Friend,
I'm writing to let you know about a terrible piece of legislation called "The Freedom of Choice Act" (FOCA).
FOCA would establish the right to abortion as a fundamental right (like the right to free speech) and wipe away every restriction on abortion nationwide.
It will eradicate state and federal abortion laws that the majority of Americans support and prevent states from enacting similar protective measures in the future.
Please read the expert analysis by Americans United for Life (AUL) and sign the Fight FOCA petition at:http://www.fightfoca.com/
Thank you!

Snow Trip --- Jan 6th & 7th

My sister and her family have been to the snow twice and we weren't able to go either time and Rory was starting to feel a little left out so we had to plan a snow trip of our own. It felt like a trip just trying to get everything together to go to the snow... I had to scour 5 different stores to find snow clothes for my kiddos, then go to my parents house to get gear for Mike and then to my sister's house to get boots and sleds! Once we got it all together Mike's sister, Cindy and her husband Doug, were kind enough to invite us (or let us invite ourselves) up to Doug's grandparents home in Heber area. We left Friday night after work and came back Saturday night, it was quick but we enjoyed it! We had hoped that there would be enough snow just to walk out the door and play but it was pretty patchy there, not that it stopped Rory and Paige from playing in it anyway. We did end up driving back up the road to Forest Lakes but there was plenty of snow there in fact so much so that we kept crunching though up to our knees and higher! Our hill wasn't to big but it was enough and we all had a turn going down. Rory even went by herself a few times. Paige went with mom and dad but mostly she just wanted to walk around and eat the snow. Plus she had her uncle Kevin there to pull her around on the sled whenever she wanted so the hill wasn't that big of a deal I guess. I was so glad my girls did so well and had so much fun they didn't complain at all about being cold and best of all when we drove home that night the slept the whole way and then got out of the car and went to bed, that makes for a nice easy trip! Thanks Doug & Cindy, we love you SNOW much!

A Special Treat!

We got tickets to the Nutcracker for Mikes Mom for Christmas and she took Rory with her. Neither had been before and I didn't even know how long it would be or if Rory would like it but the both ended up having a wonderful time. They were sitting on the aisle so Rory was able to get out and dance along with the show. This is a picture they had taken with one of the Sugar Plum Faires. I think maybe I'll go with them next year.