Roanoke Trip 2008

We had a wonderful time in Roanoke. It was so nice to see everyone and let the kids get to know all of their family members on the east coast. I used to think that once all of the cousins grew up, that Roanoke would no longer be the same. I was completely wrong. There's now a second wave of cousins that live a lot like we did when we were young.

We originally planned to tour around Roanoke and visit several sites in Virigina. What we ended up doing was spending all of our time with family and swimming at Aunt Joyce's pool. The kids swam for hours and hours every day. They also ended up sleeping over at different family members houses almost every night. I think Madison spent the night with us maybe twice the whole entire trip.

I am so grateful for such loving and accepting family members. They accepted everyone into the family without missing a beat. Ireland had a blast with Heather's son Justin. They are the same age (5) and Ireland was convinced that Justin was his only cousin. When we were at the pool he would ask where his cousin was. When we told him that all of the thirty kids (not overestimating) in the pool were his cousins, he would shake his head and say that only Justin was his cousin.

All of the kids seemed to find someone that they bonded with that was close to their age. Anna and I used to do a lot together and it was funny that Tyler and Anna's daughter were buddy buddy too.

It was also great to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa. They are doing well. Grandma struggles with her mobility, but overall they are pretty dang good for their age. Grandpa is 90 and Grandma is 87. I hope that I am doing as well as Grandpa is at 90 if I make it that long.

It was fun to hear their stories and to have them interact like they did when we were kids. Grandpa loves to tell his altered stories i.e. of their running off to get married, and many other things and Grandma tells him he is full of it and tells us what really happened. They make a great comedy act. The last night we were there a ton of family came down and we got Grandma and Grandpa to tell us stories from their past. It was so much fun. I heard a ton of things I had never heard before. We got a lot of it on video thanks to Panasonic.

It was sad to leave. It will always be home for me even though we moved to Denver when I was twelve. Several of our kids begged us not to go. They loved the fact that they had so many kids their age to interact with. It still is its own little safe haven from the world.

Afraid of the Washing Machine

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been charged with packing my four kids for our trip to Roanoke. I failed to mentioned that that also entails having to do laundry. After much deliberation and text messages to Janese, I now have three or four potential loads of laundry piled in the laundry room floor. My problem is that I am afraid to put them in the washing machine. Don't even mention dryer!!

From my pre-trip instructions from my lovely wife I was told to keep the darks separate from the lights/whites and anything red should be washed in a red load. When I walked into the laundry room to start the process I noticed there was a purple pile already started. What in the world am I supposed to do with purple!?! Luckily Janese had just landed back in Salt Lake City after a quick trip to California when I texted her again for help. She told me I can decide on my own whether to put the purples with the reds or the darks with the purples. Is one better than another? Does purple bleed? What benefit could I potentially get by putting purple with red? Does it ultimately come down to the number of purple items I end up with after the final sorting? Is purple a red load filler? If I put them with blue jeans is there the potential of ending up with purple jeans? The pluses and minuses of my purple pile of laundry are coursing through my head.

Damn you purple!!!

I am also completely confused over what is considered a white/light. I of course know what white is, but what do you do with those mixed articles of clothing? While going through the sorting process I discovered a white shirt with dark blue stripes or maybe it was a dark blue shirt with white stripes. In what pile does that belong? Is it a dark or a white? Even more confusing are the oranges, pinks, and yellows that are now scattered throughout my potential white pile. Should I create a pastel pile? I am almost to the point of washing each individual article of clothing, currently lying in haphazard piles on the laundry room floor, one piece at a time. I think that way I would avoid causing anything to bleed over (ask me about my pink underwear on my mission) and being yelled at from every kid in the house for ruining a favorite shirt or pair of pants. I think at this point I will skip the dryer all together. Who in the world created those hieroglyphics on the tags of clothes these days anyway? How am I supposed to tell by some squiggly line whether I can throw it in the dryer or not?

Wish me luck. I am heading for the laundry room and need all the prayers I can get.

Damn you purple!!!

Preparing for Roanoke...Aaaaaaahhhh!!!

Happy late Fourth of July! Janese is out of town with her four attending a Gillam Family Reunion in Utah, so the other kids and myself are holding down the fort. Yesterday we attended the Highlands Ranch 4th of July Parade and the local fireworks display later that night. It was a fun day. I got in a nap, which made it even better.

This next week the kids will be back at their mom's and I will be a bachelor with the designated task of packing myself and my four kids for our adventure to Roanoke, VA. We are going back to my home town to spend some quality time with my grandparents and other family members. I have been pretty concerned about driving 23.5 hours one way with eight kids in the van (insanity!) and how in the world would we make it in one piece, mentally and physically. We know from past road trips which kids need to be kept seperate and which kids work best sitting next to each other. For example, Q and Madison do not mix, especially for anything over 30 minutes worth of drive time. If seats are not assigned ahead of time, blood will be spilt.

I've decided now I am more concerned about how in the heck am I going to pack clothes for the kids?!? We are going to get to Roanoke and they're going to look like mismatched clowns for a week. I can just see Quinton freaking out and going around shirtless, because I accidently pack him one of Megan's shirts to wear that day. I can't tell whose clothes are whose! It is going to be really interesting when Janese gets back from Utah the day or two before we leave for Virginia and goes through my selections. I guess I will do the best I can. She has threatened me with my life if she comes home and nothing is done. If I have to, I might grab the kids from their mom's during the week and have them double check my work. I am amazed that Janese can pick up a sock and know who it belongs to!! I think socks should be disposable and biodegradable, so that eventually they just disappear in the washing machine. Aren't they already like that?

Grandpa Christley is very excited for us to come out. I am ashamed to say that I haven't been back in ten years. My last trip home was when Tyler was four and Zakary was 2. Grandpa has already called me several times from his cell phone wanting to know what type of milk we drink and the breakfast cereal we eat and when we expect to be there. I told him repeatedly that we are going to bring food and shop while we are there and feed them. Hopefully they let us serve them. They are wonderful people and I am so exited for Janese and the kids to meet them. I will make sure I post pictures and blog entries about our trip when we get back or somewhere with Internet connection during the Self Imposed Insanity Summer Tour 2008.

I am off to pack. Wish me luck!

Panasonic Family

It is official! We have been selected as one of the Panasonic Living in HD families. It is so awesome to have all of the incredible Panasonic HD equipment in our home. The kids are all experts and do a great job using almost every piece of equipment. The people from Panasonic have been great. They actually sent out a person to train us on how to use everything (Panasonic school) and to make sure it was all set up properly. They also sent out an installation crew. We are in heaven!

To see us on the Panasonic web site go to www.panasonic.com/livinginhd/. Once at this site you can click on Meet the Community and by clicking on the picture of us, read about our experiences Living in HD.

Almost all of the pictures on our blog have been from our Panasonic digital cameras.

Thank you Panasonic!!!

Dad's Kicking Butt

My dad is kicking butt on Isagenix. He is down 80 pounds since December 13th. I am very proud of him. Here is his before picture taken on December 13, 2007 and his latest picture taken on June 1, 2008.

Down 30 Pounds!!

Before (February 2008)

After (April 2008)

I know what you are thinking, "why would you want less of such a good thing"? The weight loss is actually an awesome side benefit to the Isagenix cleansing program that Janese and I have been doing. I am still pain free and doing great! I am also wearing pants that I haven't been able to wear for the past three years. They have been sitting in the "some day" section of my closet and have been almost on their way to Goodwill several times. Janese has lost 14 pounds and looks incredible, but I was told that if I put her picture up I would be killed, and I believe her.

Slacker!!

I have been such a blog slacker these past couple of months. I do not know how these bloggers that do multiple posts a day stay on top of things.

We have been very busy since my last post. Janese and I took it upon ourselves to paint the entryway and the upstairs and downstairs hallways of our home. It took a lot of paint, tape and sweat equity. Also since Janese can climb a really high ladder, but can not function once a few feet off the ground, I had to tape and paint all of the vaulted sections of the entryway. It went very well except for one night when I did not have the ladder high enough on the wall. In the middle of painting the ladder started to slide back down the wall. I started screaming like a little girl and Janese had no idea why, because it was a slow slide. Finally I was able to get some coherent words out of my mouth and she saved me from plummeting to my death. I was actually more worried about dumping a gallon of brown paint all over the entryway. It was the only gallon of brown we had. I also made enough noise to bring almost all of the kids running out of their bedrooms, after being down for the night, wondering what the heck was going on. The kids didn't appear too concerned about my dangerous situation and seemed more to enjoy telling me I scream like a girl.

Everyone is very busy. Tyler started a new season of hockey. His first game of the season is this Saturday. Madison, Zakary, Tanner, Megan and Makena all have some type of music lesson on top of Scouts, Young Womens and Activity Days. We need a full time chauffeur that can cart all of the monkeys around for us.

I'll post some picture of the new paint job and of the kids. Our new landscaping is starting to bloom and grow and it is very exciting. Once we get more growth I'll have to post a before and after picture of the landscaping as well.

Since my gorgeous picture below I have done two more cleanses. I am not down 26 pounds and several pant sizes. The weight loss, living pain free and new energy is awesome! The expense of buying new clothes is going to suck.