Happy Anniversary! Happy LATE B-day to Dylan!

Well, today marked 9 years together and looking forward to an eternity with the Man of my Dreams (Bruce has always been better than what I dreamed about). Except when he buys fixerupper cars.....

Well, I guess the longer you are together, the less it takes to impress the other, cuz I had no money to buy him what he wanted (a used base guitar) and he didn't even have gas in his car. We were looking pretty pathetic.

I was blessed with an amazing neighbor who was kind enough to give me some chicken today.

I decided to make fried chicken, but since I have never had fried, I made a poor judgement call to broil some chicken.

I don't recommend broiling unless you know how to broil or you don't mind it catching fire.

Which mine did.

I'm pretty sure I cursed profusely (Does it count if it's in Spanish and noone heard me?) but I don't remember now.

My kids were fortuneatly outside and did not witness my anniversary dinner debacle.

Funny thing is, I had already browned the chicken so I really didn't expect it to go downhill but ya never know, I guess.

So after browning, broiling, burning and then baking it, I served it with a heavy heart because I felt like I wasted all that precious meat.

ahaha, it was not meant to be!

It was still pink (cooking time of over 60 minutes) so rather than add to intestinal distress/ poisoning to my anniversary gift, I ripped it out of my family's hands and threw it in the pressure cooker, for another 30 minutes.

Thankfully, it was all eaten and not wasted.

Oh yeah, we got an anniversary gift from church, tonight even!

A STAKE CALLING! YAY!

Honestly, it was freaking me out. They asked me to go with Bruce but since I needed to unwind, I went to Yoga class;

all the while thinking; I'm gonna have to pray about it, if they call him to be a poly!

I don't know why I was thinking that, but man, the idea was stressing me out!

So I get home, wondering what they asked him and he has the gall to tell me;

'I'll wait till the kids go to bed to tell you- The kids don't need to know!'

What!!!!????

So after a tortuous 10 minutes of last-minute homework, I looked him in the eye and said

"SPIT IT OUT ."

He kept smiling and wouldn't look at me for too long.

He finally told me and I was thinking; "That's it?"

I told him of my fear/worry and he laughed and said 'that's illegal'.

He asked me how I felt about it and I told him that I felt it was great, cuz I had something scarier in mind.....

Dylan in retro; I have been so busy trying to please the school nazis' homework brigade that I haven't really been blogging so sorry to Dylan if anyone thinks that I don't love him because I didn't blog about his birthday.

We had a party planned, bought an Ironman cake in rainbow frosting- What boy wants a rainbow Ironman cake?! 20 minutes before the party doesn't leave time for complaining.

We were going to go to a cool waterplay park and after the kids got here, we called to check the prices and THEY WERE CLOSED! Oversight, I know.

I swear stuff like that always happens when I try too hard. I was trying to make his party a big deal because we haven't really ever done a big party for him.

I'm out, I feeling guilty about it again.

Check out this blog to laugh tho'

http://www.seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com/

Please pray for Dylan....

My sweet crazy boy has broken the 2 bones in his forearm; jumping off the preschool playground. I took him to Arlington Memorial Hospital and Bruce met me there.
Dylan has been in pain since 11:30am because the hospital was waiting for a orthopedic dr. to come fix him up, but never did.... so Bruce left that hospital.
Bruce is now trying to get him treated at Cook's. I really hope he doesn't need surgery.
Thanks for any prayers or thoughts.
Elisa

Yoga, Baby!

Hey all!

I passed my yoga written exam. with a 95! I should be getting my certificate soon.

Now comes the hard part; I need to teach real classes to be any good at it.

So my plan is to apply at HS Rec. Center and see if they will let me teach or substitute on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I would love to see familiar faces,

But Please know that it will be my first time teaching.

I am also hoping to teach a prenatal yoga class and a Zumba class if I get any people interested.

Some fun things we did when my sis was in town; political discussion about abortion,

Spray painted my daughter's hair.

Played Cranium;

This is a new family from Utah that we are so happy to have in our stake; Kim and Mike Z. Please say hi if you see them at church!

watercolor painted,

Nightmare come true; Child wounded on wall, to the shock and dismay of entire doctor's office staff while in the care of his babysitter. This was the day Nikki got into town, then later, I locked my keys in my car with all 4 kids at Walmart.

Yeah, not fun.

Jon-ton hanging out with the big boys.

Alteration to bird's nest egg. Does it look wierd? It's suppoused to be a bird.

Political posts

Hey, so obviously I hit a nerve about Obama
and so I would like to publicly invite anyone to leave comments
and write the facts that they know,
So, let's have a discussion, no name calling though,
as you will see that I will moderate comments (but I try to post it all.)
I understand that Obama has a powerful persona and image and honestly,
it's a little scary, but I don't know enough about Bush 2
and I would really like some more info, so enlighten me please.
Thanks!

Michelle Obama?

Did anyone hear Michelle's speech? Holy crap, she is a good speaker! She did not look, talk or act nervous and she really got her message out there! I was impressed.
Anyway, for all you undecided; Let hope, not fear, be your guide.
I know who I am voting for! Above voting and beyond my opinions, I do want to clarify that I will do God's will, no matter what.
I am sorry if ya'll think ill of me for my choice, but if John Mcaine is going to continue Bush's policies and antics then, no thank you! I might give him a chance if he completely detaches from Bush and does what he does best; fight for what's right.
By the way, I did vote for Bush.... but only the first time. I defintely did not know enough about him or the other candidate. This post is not an attack on anyone and I'm sorry if anyone took offense. I have different beliefs and feelings about many things, I want to tell you that I respect the difference that exists between all people. I also love and cherish the similarities we all share.
I was not trying to offend anyone and please don't take it personally but I would rather be hopeful than scared. Like my adopted lovely last name- Hopewell! I love the Hopewell's!

Galveston anyone?

We love Galveston!


Here are some pics. The bikes were so fun!
This is the only souvenir shop we went into and One of the kids (?) got ahold of the price gun and proceeded to 'price' everything. The ladies who worked there were not happy with all the stickers, but I pretended not to notice, bought my $1 sunglasses, walked away as fast as I could. Hehehe.
As I was taking these pictures of the (rats w/ wings?) I'm pretty sure I missed a bomb by an inch. Eva wasn't scared of poop at all and fed the birds twice.
This was Roxy's birthday party for all the august Birthday's. I think it's safe to say that It was more like for all of Summer celebration and was a yummy fun surprise to celebrate w/ cake, ice cream, goody bags and all kinds of fun stuff. All the kids!

I found these shells at the beach, in front of our hotel/room. They are much prettier in person but extremely delicate. These are dyed pearls that I looped thru the shells.


Diane taught me how to boogie board. Yay! Dylan/I on the ferry. Best 10 minutes of my life.....

Lilli loves babies! She never stops loving on them, even when they cry and push her away. I wonder where she got that from......?
Ethan found these awesome hermit crabs and for some reason there was a dead fish on the cement by the pool. I told Ethan to feed it to the crab but I don't think he liked the smell.

The bikes were awesome. Daddy Hopewell refused to pedal so noone wanted him to ride w/ them. Poor Josh and Jeni got stuck w/ him! There was one time when he tried to jump on our bike but since we were ahead, he had to grab John and Diane's bike, while it was rapidly moving out of his path. It was so funny! We also played bumper bikes with John and Diane.

Bruce the shark!
We were dying on the way pedaling back, notice the both of us biting our lip.....

It would have been perfect with the Bjorns and Jordan. Crazy, but perfect!

August

First day of school and I already love it. Of course, my kids haven't come home yet, but it will be okay! The kids had their last three days of vacation this week and we wanted to do something fun together.

So, I found an awesome article in "Texas Monthly" magazine about the top 25 water-swimming holes in Texas. Most of them were around Austin, but then I found the only one in Tarrant County!

So Bruce took Moday off to hang out with us (yay!) and We ended up going to a Spring-Fed lake in Fort Worth. We had a blast, Stayed there for 5 hours. It was a little pricey for me $12, but kids under 6 are free.

We rented a tube, and slid down the slides (Eva top)

Ethan went down this crazy tall slide 3 times, twice alone, once terrified, despite being held by his daddy.

Bruce swung on a trapeze a few timesI just just soaked it all in.... I tried to play with the kids but I guess jumping on the tube when you're sitting on it, is a lil' scary for some.

Oh, the best part?

Finding out 2 days later, that the "Pool" that we had visited/enjoyed so much was one of the first places where the bacteria 'Crypto' was detected and had an outbreak.

I don't know if we are lucky, foolish or blessed but we sure did have fun. Oh, by the way, I was very strict when it came to keeping the babies from 'messing' in the pool.

Have a great weekend!

August B-days in my family!