Another unusual post...

So today I'm using the blog to gather information for work. Since I finished up the book about pregnancy, I'm now moving on to create one for infancy... birth to 12 months. Knowing that most of my readers are mothers, I thought I'd ask you for some input!

Thinking back to when you were a brand-new mom:

• What surprised you about being a mom?
• What questions did you have?
• What did you worry about the most?
• If you'd had a nurse coming to visit you each week to give you help and advice, what would you have asked about?

Thanks for any suggestions you can give!

Wardle Reunion Breakfast

For those of you who are regular blog readers, this post is going to seem very random, but I am in charge of organizing breakfast for 150 or so people at my upcoming family reunion and I needed a place to post the plans! So unless you're a Wardle, I'll catch you on the next post! ;-)

Wardle family - read this part!

The plan is to do build-your-own fruit kabobs and donuts for breakfast. According to Grandma Vonda Lee, we should plan on feeding 150. According to my calculations, that means that we will need 50-60 pounds of fruit and 15 gallons of drinks. I'm going to post a list below of things that we need, please sign up to bring something!

To sign up for something, just click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of this post and leave a comment telling me what you will be able to bring for the breakfast. (If you have trouble leaving a comment, you can e-mail me at taradon@hotmail.com or call me at 720-685-8616.)

• Fruit - Some suggestions for kabob fruits are canned or fresh pineapple, bananas, peaches, mango, papaya, kiwi, cantaloupe, melon, grapes, apples, pears, strawberries... or anything else that you would like! In your comment, please let me know what kind of fruit you can bring and about how much.


• Drinks - We need juice and/or milk. In your comment, please let me know what you can bring and how much.


• Skewers/Dipping Sauce/Plates/Cups/Donuts - I will take care of getting these things.

Please let me know what you can bring as soon as possible. I need to know whether to feel okay about the breakfast plans or whether to panic! =-)

Plan to have your items at the main breakfast area by 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 4th. This will give us time to set up, chop fruit, etc. before the planned start time for breakfast at 9:00 a.m.

I've tried to notify everyone about the plans for breakfast, but I don't have contact information for everyone. So please help me out by checking with your immediate family to be sure that they know about the plans and how to let me know what they can help with.

I think that's everything for now, but for any questions, contact me!

Works for Me Wednesday

This week's Works for Me Wednesday is about searching the Internet. I seem to spend half my life searching the Internet for one thing or another - usually for work, really! But it's time well spent! In addition to finding what I need to have to write my stuff for work, I'm earning prizes.

How does it work, you ask? Well...

1. Search. Search the web using http://www.swagbucks.com/ and get results from Google and Ask.com.

2. Earn. You are occasionally awarded Swagbucks as you search.

3. Redeem. You can spend your swagbucks on all kinds of prizes. Gift cards to Amazon or iTunes, collectibles, electronics, there's a lot of choices. I'm currently saving up for a new iPod Shuffle!

Give it a try and see what you think: http://swagbucks.com/refer/taradon

So, this week searching and winning is working for me! To see what works for others, head over to http://www.wearethatfamily.com/ for more WFMW ideas!

Memorial Day Weekend

For Memorial Day weekend we took advantage of the 3-day weekend and went to Grand Lake, just outside Rocky Mountain National Park for Sunday & Monday. Unfortunately, it rained the whole time!

We kept going to our favorite places to walk/hike. Every time we got to a trailhead we would sit in the parking lot and debate whether to go out in the weather or not. Then we would decide that it was too rainy and cold to take the kids out for a hike. So we mostly did a lot of driving around with a little bit of walking to look at the (wet) scenery. Oh well, at least it was a break from routine!

Not quite as scenic as usual, due to the gray and cloudy skies. But still a beautiful place to visit.



At one point, the rain stopped and we actually got out of the car!


I turned the camera over to Haley at one point. Unlike the great shots Tera's daughter took, this is what we got from Haley =)

The biggest hit (with the kids at least) was the hotel. Haley especially loved the bunk bed!

Another Camera Catch-Up

Once again I'm behind in posting. A lot has been going on, and I've gotten pictures of it all with my spiffy new camera (it's pink... because Haley helped me pick it out). But I haven't had the time to upload any of the pictures. But finally over the weekend I had some time to spend with the camera.

Wednesday was a big day for Haley & Preston. Haley graduated from preschool and it was Preston's 3rd birthday. So I let them choose whatever they wanted for breakfast. Preston selected chicken nuggets and peas.

Haley originally opted for Cream of Wheat, but once she saw Preston's peas, she needed some, too.

Haley's graduation was a field day at the park. Lots of fun!
Haley's own culinary creation - a strawberry sandwich. That would be a strawberry between two Ritz crackers. What can I say, she liked it!

We had a birthday party with pizza and presents for Preston at the park. (How many P words can I cram into one sentence?)
He was apparently amazed at the fact that he had presents!

Finally, we have a trip to White Fence Farm. The kids were less than impressed with the food (though Aaron and I thought it was very good). But they loved the petting zoo and playground!

Singing Time

Today at church they didn't have any speakers for Sacrament Meeting - apparently everyone who was asked to speak suddenly developed plans for Memorial Day weekend. ;)

So since they couldn't find speakers, they decided to have a musical Sacrament Meeting. They let members of the congregation stand up and tell a little about their favorite hymn and then the congregation sang a verse of the hymn.

It was wonderful! I loved singing so many hymns and hearing the stories people had to tell about why a hymn was a favorite. It was a wonderful and very spiritual meeting - I was even less annoyed by my misbehaving children than usual. I hope we can do it again sometime!

More than 1,000!

So as I logged on to read the blogs in my feed this morning, I happened to catch sight of the hit counter for my own blog and saw that it was at exactly 1,000. Hard to believe that 1,000 times people have clicked in to read what I have to say! Actually, I guess it's more than that, since this is the 2nd blog I started. But still...

It's not as if I generally have anything profound or earth-shattering to share. Just little musings and rambles about our life, random things that pop into my head and the occasional embarrassing secret (such as my love for Donny Osmond).

I do love blogging about those random things, though, and I love checking comments later to see what anyone had to say about my entries. I have also become seriously addicted to reading other people's blogs. I enjoy reading the ones written by my friends, but I also just read some by complete strangers. I feel like I know those blog authors, even though they mostly have no clue that I'm out there reading about their lives. And then of course, it makes me wonder if there is anyone random out there reading about my life (if you are, seriously, leave a comment. I'm curious!).

So, thanks Melissa (Howell) for convincing me to start blogging. I'm glad to have found this new hobby. And thanks to the rest of you for reading! =)

Works for Me Wednesday

Another Works for Me Wednesday is here... and this week I'm posting about pool noodles. You know those long pieces of foam that you use as pool floaties? Well, I've found a new use for them.

My kids are very into pirates and sword fighting right now. Anything long and thin soon becomes a sword so they can have a sword battle. Naturally, I don't like this. Things get knocked down, messes are made and inevitably someone gets smacked with the "sword" and crying ensues.

A few days ago when the swordfighting began again, I spotted our pool noodles (really just one that I cut in half to make 2 - the original was too long for the kids to manage). I had a brainstorm and made a new rule. All swordfighting must take place outside (I don't know why it took so long to come up with THAT rule!) and the only swords to be used were the pool noodles.

It works great! Nothing is knocked over and broken and being hit with a pool noodle doesn't hurt enough to end in tears!

So that's what works for me. Head over to We Are That Family for more WFMW ideas!

(Please ignore the way-too-long grass in the yard... unless of course you live in my neighborhood and have someone who wants to earn a few $$ by mowing my lawn!)

I'm embarrassed to admit it...

Here's another Tag, You're It post. What music do you listen to that you're embarrassed to admit to?

For me, it would have to be Donny Osmond. It all started with "Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" (I think I've mentioned before that it's a favorite of mine). But it didn't stop there. No, I have several of Donny's new albums. I bet you didn't even know he still HAD new albums, did you?

So I listen to the Joseph soundtrack (and watch the Donny version of the Joseph DVD). I was disappointed when the Donny & Marie show went off the air. I enjoy listening to his new albums, and I even like to listen to some of the old stuff. Come on, how can you not have fun listening to "I'm a Little Bit Country, I'm a Little Bit Rock & Roll"?

So that's my embarrassing musical secret. What's yours? While I'm waiting to hear from you, I think I'll listen to a little Donny...

His Name Is Jesus, by Max Lucado

I recently signed up to be a book review blogger for Thomas Nelson. They're a Christian book publisher and I get free copies of some of their books in exchange for reading the book and posting a review on blog for others to see. So you'll see book reviews popping up on the blog every so often...

Summary
I just finished reading His Name is Jesus by Max Lucado. This book would make an excellent coffee table book. It’s the sort of book that you leaf through or read a bit at a time. But it’s not really something you just sit down and read cover-to-cover in one sitting. The illustrations are beautiful! It was really a pleasure to read because of the wonderful artwork.

My Reactions
The book is organized into three sections. The first section is about Jesus’ life, the second about His death, and the third about His resurrection. Each page presents a story or thought about Jesus. You can open to any page in the book and read a short, inspiring thought. I think it would be great to use as a source of spiritual thoughts for a daily devotional.

If you’re a fan of Max Lucado and have already read most of his books, this book may seem repetitive to you. It’s a bit like a “greatest hits” collection, as it pulls passages from his other works. Then again, you might appreciate having all these inspiring thoughts pulled together into one book!

Overall, I liked the book. The way it was organized took you on a journey through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. I’m glad to have it in my library just for the wonderful artwork, but I also appreciate the inspirational messages.

Playground Pics

Another afternoon at the playground with the kids. It's our favorite thing to do after I pick them up from daycare!

Better late than never... Brekken's birthday

Well, with all that's been going on with Preston (he's doing very well, by the way) I didn't manage to get any pictures of Brekken's birthday posted. I finally had a few minutes this morning while waiting for tech support to fix my work computer, so I'm able to post this using the laptop.

We had cake, of course. This one was a last minute pick-up because we had been out of town. Normally I order a special cake ahead of time that's more personlized to what the child is into... oh well. Next time! The important thing is that Brekken REALLY enjoyed eating that cake. (By the way, he doesn't ALWAYS run around in just a diaper... we just knew that cake would be messy. ;-) )






He was slightly interested in his gifts, but the cake was the real hit of the evening.