Merritt Memories

Rebecca Swiper of Funnies Subject is not armed, but can drive you crazy!! Kate Hoarder of Funnies Subject is armed with many funnies While taking my older children to school, we were talking about Horton Hears a Who. The night before we were invited over to Cory and Wendy's to watch it all together. Funny movie by the way! On the way back from school, Kate and Becca were sharing their favorite funny parts of the movie. These two together, well, you never know what will happen. Kate was sharing her part, then Becca shared hers, and so forth. Well, Becca thought a part was funny that Kate had already shared. She started yelling at Becca, "That's my funny! You can't steal people's funnies! Give it back Becca!" Becca turned to her and simply said, "No Kate, sorry. It's my funny." This made Kate even more hysterical. "You give me back my funny right now!" Becca shook her head. "Fine," Kate continued, "I'm taking it bac...

Did you need a thesaurus to know what I was talking about in the title? Why such the use of big words? Well, I'll tell you. Apparently, I should talk like this all the time. My cute little 1st grader, Grace, is expected to at her age. So I assume, I should as well (I'm being sarcastic if you didn't catch the tone in my voice). I am so frustrated and angry at what my daughter is supposed to know in her class. I understand that she is in an advanced class, but come on. Her new vocabulary words are: cork, reed, scandalous, commission, and dreadful. The list would not be so bad if the they didn't have to memorize the definition. Commission- the authority granted to an individual to act as an agent for another. Say what? You wouldn't think cork would be bad right? Cork- the outside of an oak tree used to make bottle stoppers. Why can't we just say, a wooden lid for a bottle? We are talking FIRST grade here. They need to understand the definition. Is it just me? Does ...

I couldn't find many pictures of the kitchen before. We always forget to do that! Here are a few. Say, " ahhh" to the handsome models in the photos. Before... Everything is more of a country feel. And what a clutter mess! After... Much better. I finally got organized and got rid of the clutter. We put the microwave above the stove. That saved a lot of space. Before it sat on a microwave cart to the side of the fridge. Our appliances are no longer mismatched! Dustin spent so much time on the cabinets. We painted them a bone white, then took a walnut gel stain all over them. I can say we because i helped, a little. He put in a new tile back splash and painted. It is kind of a golden brown. It looks much brighter in the picture than it really is. We also put hardware on the cupboards. I couldn't believe what a difference. Dustin's favorite part of the whole kitchen is the under cabinet lighting he personally installed! (sorry for the blury pic, if our flash is of...

The other day I was busy with the house. The girls were playing nicely together upstairs with their Polly pockets. The boys were playing the X Box of course. Becca came down and asked if I would help her put the Cinderella dress on one of the Polly dolls- sometimes it can be really hard! I struggled, but I did it! She was so happy! She said, "Thanks mom. You did your job!" She ran away so happy and content. I laughed a little and thought, "I guess that's what I'm here for, to put on Polly pocket clothes." This incident sparked this post. I asked each of my kids to tell me what they think a mother's job entails . Here are their answers. Ryan said a mother's job was to teach her kids how to be good people. She should be nice and love her kids no matter what! Aaron's answers were short. He got embarrassed and didn't want to participate. He managed to to tell me that a mom's job is to feed her kids, clean the house , and make sure they ...

Hi, my name is Larae , and I'm a volleyball-holic . Most of you probably already knew that, but I've always wanted to say that phrase and there isn't a whole lot of things I use/do in excess. It doesn't have quite the same ring to it as alcoholic though. I was at the church last night till almost midnight. I would have stayed longer, but I forgot I still had to go to the store. I'm feeling it this morning. I CAN"T MOVE! My shoulder is very tight. My knees are beat up from diving all over the floor. It sure was fun though. I love being able to do things that I love. It's nice to take time for myself. While most women might find something to relax them, I enjoy a GOOD game of volleyball! Nothing beats a good pass, set, spike! I love to dive too. Who wouldn't love hitting the floor at full force, the ground ripping the skin right from your knee? Massage? I think not!

Then just play with them! Lately I have been trying to play more with my kids. When Ryan and Aaron were little, I had a lot of extra time. We played all sorts of things. Once I had my girls life just got crazy. I'm sure it is because I became extremely busy just keeping up with each child we added to our family. I have learned that Kate is a lot like her dad. This is not a bad thing, but she had developed a gift to make you think she is perfectly right in all things. She manipulates the circumstance so she is always the one in the right. I have gotten a kick out of this. If we are playing and she doesn't like the way it is playing out, she has a new rule to implement. The funny thing is she acts like it was ALWAYS a rule! I will say she inherited my bossiness. I think it is just the chain of command. When Grace is there, she is in charge because she is older. If Grace is gone, then Kate becomes the dictator. I'm sure Becca is just waiting for the day she gets to reign, ...

For New Year's we went to a comedy club with friends, then back to their house to ring in the New Year! I can't believe how time flies! It's 2009! I told Dustin the other day that by now I thought we would be living like The Jetsons ! He informed me how far fetched a life like that would be, but I still think it would be cool. After all they have flying motorcycles now.