Lisa Leonard Designs Jewelry GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Lisa Leonard Designs Jewelry GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

BlogHer giveaway

A few of the BlogHer ladies got an awesome opportunity to test and review some amazing appliances and are sharing the wealth with $200 gift certificates to 8 lucky winners.

Fridge (RFG297AARS)
Microwave OTR (SMH9187ST)
Range Electric (FTQ387LWGX)
Dishwasher (DMR78AHS)
Washer (WF448AAP)
Dryer (DV448AEP)

I would LOVE to have any of the awesome Samsung appliances. I live in NYC in a prewar apartment with the bare minimum of appliances and i think any one of the beautiful appliances would make my life easier. An electric range would be a nice upgrade from the crummy one we currently have ditto on the beautiful fridge. A good working dishwasher would be such a treat! And a washer and dryer would be heavenly (no more lugging loads of dirty clothes to the laundry mat!)!!! An OTR microwave would also be great because my cramped kitchen could use some ventilation (no more stinking up the whole apt while cooking)! Any chance Samsung would be willing to remodel my whole kitchen?! ; )

Another School Fundraiser- Please help

Friends,

My school, OUR LADY QUEEN OF MARTYRS, has just kicked off its fundraising campaign and I was wondering if you would help? We are raising funds for special programs and materials that are not in our budget. Not only does our school earn a large percentage of every dollar you spend, but I will have a chance to win some really cool prizes!


Simply go to www.cherrydale.com to see the exciting collection of gourmet chocolates, beautiful giftware and assorted gift wrap and accessories. If you like, you can buy or renew one of your favorite magazines too.

Shop online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - everything is shipped directly to you. Just click here and all of my school's information will be entered automatically at check out!

Student ID#: 58183
School ID#: 122203

Our fundraiser will be running from NOW through October 26th. Please help me by placing your order before the end of our sale. You can continue to order all year - the school will get credit until December 31st, but I can only earn prizes during the sale.

Thanks, my school and I really appreciate your support!

Sincerely,
Emma Ransom

Starting a New School Year

The start of this school year couldn't have gone better. I had been talking school up for the last 2 weeks and the kids caught on to the excitement. Emma was SO excited to buy her school uniform and wanted to wear her new school shoes home from the store. Owen was a little more apprehensive about going to a new school but was excited to be a big kid, kindergarten-er. School started last Wednesday and Emma woke up in the morning calling out happily "I need to get my school buniform on!" and was anxious to leave as soon as she got it on. That excitement hasn't subsided. We are lucky that she is in a 3yr old pre-k with the same great teacher she and Owen had for summer camp. Owen likes his new teacher as well. I ask him each day what his favorite part of school was and the answer is always "going to lunch". He also tells me that he plays with friends but can't tell me any of their names. :) He rides a bus to school and absolutely loves it. The first day riding the bus he was very excited until it came time to get on and then he wasn't so sure about it. I walked him up the stairs and the bus matron buckled him into the seat next to her. I went out and smiled and waved to him from and got the most ecstatic smile and wave in return. I will have to post a pic of that soon.

The start of a new school year is a lot like New Years. I have used this time to make a lot of resolutions and it has been a great way to regulate our schedules. I can't tell you how grateful I am to have kids that go to bed before 8:30/9pm! Hopefully we can keep up this great momentum {knock on wood}.

*sorry if this is a little jumbled I am writing it on a short break at work.

FHE

On Monday the kids talked about temple for Family Home Evening so the family drove to them temple we were married and looked around. The kids were very excited to touch the temple mommy and daddy were married in. so cute!

Gone to Grandma's House

The kids started their summer vacation without us and are spending the week at Grandma Ransom's house in Utah. It has been really weird to be childless for the last few days but a nice chance to relax and try to catch up on a few things not the least of being sleep. The kids are having a wonderful time and from as far as I can tell don't miss us one bit. While it is good to know they are happy and well adjusted kids who love their extended family it is a slight bruise to the ego. ;)

Here are the kids with their first little Ransom cousin Baby Michael and aunt Melissa.

ice cream!

The kids have lately grown tired of preschool and the other mundane aspects of day-to-day life-- going to bed, personal hygiene and grooming, playing nice, not stomping or screaming. So we resorted to bribing this week. "if you don't cry and let daddy leave when he drops you off at preschool you can have an ice cream." "if you go to bed and stay there all night we'll get you an ice cream" etc, etc. We'll they finally got the promised ice cream and it looks like it was worth it :)

aspirations

A member of our ward recently gave a talk where he read an excerpt from his journal when he was 3. I thought it was cute that his mom wrote in a journal for him when he was little so i decided to ask owen and emma a few questions. i asked emma first what she wanted to be when she grew up and she told me "um, like a princess. a princess with a pretty bracelet." I then went to ask owen.

"owen what do you want to be when you grow up?"

"a pilot!"

i was fully expecting something train related especially since he was watching his favorite video Working on the Santa Fe. so i decided to ask further, "a pilot, really? like grandpa bailey?"

"who's grandpa bailey?"

"you know grandpa bailey. he flys airplanes"

"when?"

"every two weeks."

"when?!"

"in alaska, every two weeks."

he seemed a little incredulous. I think well have to show him some pictures and have dad tell him about it when we go up to ak.

I'm a Fighter

A while back I had a stake seminary activity at the east side building, so I decided to take the kids since Celeste had something else going on. The building is really beautiful - 5 floors. Owen had a hay day with the elevator. He wanted to stop at every single floor. When we got to 4 it was dark and desolate, it is apparently being renovated. Owen was scared. The activity was actually on the top floor, and after being quiet for 90 seconds, Owen and Emma wanted to run off.

I was getting set up for the activity, so I didn't notice they had left until I heard the bell on the elevator, and ran over to see Owen trying to send Emma down by herself. The doors had shut and Emma was inside, Owen stood there laughing. Luckily none of the buttons had been pressed, so it opened when I pressed the call button. Emma wasn't even phased. I grabbed them and brought them back to the main room.

We sat down at the table and I started talking to one of the other teachers. Owen kept interrupting me.

"Can we go down to 4?" he'd ask.

"Not right now, Owen."

"Why not?"

"The activity is starting."

"Why can't we go down to 4?"

"It's dark down there, do you really want to go down there by yourself?" I asked.

"But I know how to fight," he replied.

"What? Who taught you how to fight?" I asked, fully thinking he had picked it up from preschool.

"David."

"Is David in your class?"

"No."

"Who's David?"

"David and Goliath," he said, as if I should have known. The other teacher and I started laughing.

Owen then tried to convince me that he knew how to use a sword, and recounted how David had cut off Goliath's head. He was confident that he had the skills to defeat any monsters that might be on the 4th floor.

I was torn between the PG-13 aspect of the story, and the fact that it is part of the Bible. I've decided I'm just going to keep anything that could be used as a sword out of his reach and leave it at that.

"T" is for....

We found this paper the other day. It's a page from one of Owen's homework packets. Celeste pointed out a couple of interesting things about it to me. First, Owen decided his name was going to be Owey. How he learned to spell it correctly, I'm not sure. Maybe he really is gifted and talented, despite what the NY school system thinks. Second, Owen noticed that the most important "T" word was mistakenly left off the list, so he added it to the bottom. I'm guessing he wrote it in all caps to emphasize that point. We had a good laugh.