The Geni in a bottle

Are you into your ancestors? Do you enjoy working on your family history..... do you run out of table space trying to map it all out. Well if any of this applies or you just want to put pictures up for other family members and link it to certain people or events for future generations. You have to try out Geni Everyones Related it is a great website to help you with family genealogy. I have been putting all of my family on and then you put in your family members e-mail and they are invited to put in the information that they have... so it is constantly growing. This is a great program I am already up to 5050 relatives of which 613 are blood relations.

We've got a partner!

well actually Ashleigh has a partner. We will be having an Israeli teenager staying with us from March 16 to March 27 as part of the L.A. Hebrew High Tel Aviv Partnership.

We got the first e-mail and we know that our partners name is Shira... we will let you know more as soon as we do.

She had a little left over fabric

after they altered her dress and in the style of her green blogocholic Aunt... she asked me to do something with it.... like make a purse... so I did....and since there is 950 miles between us I couldn't think of a better way to show her what we did with her little bit of left overs.....

Kikiwabaman

so if you were from the Fond du lac Band of lake Superior Chippewa Indians you would know what that means...but for those of you who aren't fluent in Chippewa... it is the equivalent of Shalom.

O.k. so I didn't know what it meant either until our most recent Dinner for 12 Strangers. Where one of our guest students Jared Dunlap greeted me with kikiwabaman (spelling does not count) and brought me a bag of wild rice that is grown on his reservation.

If you are looking at Jared and thinking I know him but his name is not Jared... then you are correct and you probably know his twin brother (who is also at UCLA) who's name I did not catch. But just the fact that he is an identical twin gave him and Barry plenty to talk about.

I was very impressed with Jared and expect to hear great things about him in the future he is a wonderful representative of his tribe.

Do you know what D12 is?

o.k. so neither did I until last night.... pretty good since I had been hosting them for the last 9 years...so what is D12 you ask? Why it is UCLA's dinner for 12 strangers. I know by the time they got to our house they were already friendly. But before they got to our house these 10 kids and one professor (she left before the picture) did not know each other and this was an opportunity for them to meet other students and some alumni to see what the adult world had waiting for them .

We had 10 kids ranging from freshman to seniors and all different kinds of majors and one professor. Usually we try to invite a kid or two that we know who are in the college application process however this year all the kids we invited were sick... so it was just the bruins and that was o.k. because as you can see Shomer had a really great time

The program has been going on for 40 years and I can tell you of all the things we do with UCLA and the Alumni Association this has got to be my favorite.

What Love means to a 4-8 year old . .

What Love means to a 4-8 year old . .
Slow down for three minutes to read this. It is so worth it. Touching words from the mouth of babes.

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, 'What does love mean?'

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined See what you think:

'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore.
So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.'

Rebecca- age 8

'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.'

Billy - age 4

'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.'

Karl - age 5

'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.'

Chrissy - age 6

'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.'

Terri - age 4

'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip
before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.'

Danny - age 7

'Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.

My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss'

Emily - age 8


'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.'

Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)


'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,'

Nikka - age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)


'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.'

Noelle - age 7

'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.'

Tommy - age 6


'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.'

Cindy - age 8


'My mommy loves me more than anybody You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.'

Clare - age 6

'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.'

Elaine-age 5


'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.'

Chris - age 7


'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.'

Mary Ann - age 4

'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.'

Lauren - age 4


'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.' (what an image)

Karen - age 7

Love this one
'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross.'

Mark - age 6

'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.'

Jessica - age 8


And the final one

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's
yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,

'Nothing, I just helped him cry'


When there is nothing left but God, that is when you find out that God is all you need.

The wedding is getting closer

The days just seem to be ticking away...closer and closer We have plane ticket (well almost all of them) and we have hotel reservations...now I guess it is time to buckel down and find some dresses well a suite for Barry... we have a color but that will be for another entry...today I am going to talk about the Barn... The McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse Octaginal Barn.

stay posted for more info

Hi again

it's been 2 months I know but I don't quite know how the time got away from me...So what it happening since I last blogged...

Celia and Sean came for the week between Christmas and New Year it was nice to see them
Sam came home for winter break it was nice to see her
Morgan stayed in Fl to work ... she was missed terribly
Ash was home when she wasn't off running with friends here or there...

oh yes and we had a youth hostel ..... first we were a Nativ Hostel when some of Sam's friends came into town early to staff USY International Convention and then we had the kids from CRUZY....staying at our house for pre convention. And then we went back to Nativers when they were done staffing the convetion. Oh what a busy winter break.... and then it was all over Celia and Sean went back to Portland, Sam when back to Davis, Morgan was still in Florida which left just Ashleigh, The Bear and Me... oh yeah and Shomer....

so now I will try to get back to regular postings and keeping you all up to date.