This is the first time I have checked the blog since way before the Family Reunion. Michelle is right about using it more. I am the worst! (This is Jen.)

I am feeling super stressed lately b/c I have started taking an advanced art class. It is way more advanced than I am. The third class was Thursday and I have felt so incompetent that I haven't picked up my paint-brush since. I have been so down that I haven't even gone running which I usually like. I need to get back into it b/c I have lots of homework every week. I think everyone else in the whole class graduated from college in art. I think I will ditch next week. :)

On the lighter side, the elementary school had a walk-a-thon yesterday. A week ago, the boys came home from school so excited to get pledges for the walk-a-thon that they went straight to work. They were canvassing the neighborhood and basically bugging all of our friends and neighbors. I even put a $2/lap pledge for each boy. A lap is 1/8 of a mile. They would have 50 minutes to run as many laps as they could. Roy misunderstood and thought that they could run up to 8 laps and pledged another $3/lap/boy. There were lots of prizes for the most laps, the most money earned, earning over $100, etc... So they were super motivated. By the next night each boy had about $50 collected. Then Joey started getting nervous that one of his friends would get more money then he. So, he decided to "train" for the walk-a-thon. He was using the elliptical every day and running around the neighborhood. Well, yesterday was the event. The newspaper was there to cover it. I helped mark off laps for the kids. After it was over we owed Will $115, Joey $165, and Andrew $170. Will did 23 laps (almost 3 miles!), Joey did 33 (a little more than 4 miles!) and Andrew sprinted the last five minutes to beat Joey and got 34 laps. I am very proud of them. Next year we will not be pledging $5/lap. But on the bright side, every penny goes to the school for technology, school activities and classroom supplies. $450 eeeck!

You want an update and a funny story...

okay then...here you go.

Gary: "Quinny, you have a rooster tail to take care of before school."
Quinn & I watered it down as we made rooster sounds.
Me: "Okay, I think we took care of it."
Quinn: "Does that mean I'm a chicken now?"

And now to the update:

Going...

Going...

Gone!

All I can say, is of the three near deaths we've experienced this past month, I'm glad the van was the only real fatality. RIP old pal. It was a good ten years.

What's the Point of this Blog!

So we have this blog, why aren't we using it? I LOVE hearing and seeing your lives and want us to use this more. Put funny things on that your kids say. Put fun pictures of things that you are doing. Post recipes that you find that are amazing and totally easy (for people like me). I am just as guilty as anyone of not posting on here enough. Let's have some fun and get more involved in knowing and sharing our lives! For example, yesterday I went to Renee's after work for mate, and she had some soup in her crock pot. It smelled SO good. I asked what it was and she gave me the recipe and I went home and made it and LOVED it. It was so good. It was a cream of zucchini soup and the kids liked it a lot too. She should post the recipe it was that good! I miss hearing from you guys and because I work, I don't usually know what's going on as much as the rest of you maybe. Although I will say, I LOVE my job and am so happy right now. I smile almost every day and love what I do. Weird! I never thought I would say that. So share your lives people, I want to know what is happening :)

Getting ALL of the kids off to school.............priceless
Seeing Quinny enjoy his first sport...............priceless
Helping a friend out.....................................priceless
Keeping kids active in Church activities.......priceless

Doing all of this for 3 days.....$49.95 & 211.7 miles on the van

It's that time of year again...

maybe that's why Quinn's favorite song to sing as of late is
"We Wish You a Merry Christmas".

COUSIN SWAP 2012
Jenkins: Jane, Andrew, Joey, Adam, Sammy
Hammonds: Jack, Jessica, Clara, Grace
Rasmussens: Lucy, Davie, Jimmer
DeLongs: Davis, Ryan, Rebecca, Will
Hills: Katy, Elisabeth, Zach, Isabel
Rices: Lily, Quinn

As always, feel free to swap.

Come on already...it's June

Start praying for warm, sunny days in Northern Cali or we are going to be camping in the snow and spending long days indoors. (I'm only sort of kidding...).
Time to rally.

Cupcake Wars

I am so excited for the family reunion! It is going to be awesome! There are some really fun things planned. The last few nights Ryan and I have been experimenting with cupcakes and different flavors. This is turning out to be harder than I thought. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with.
So, here are the rules and details on our Cupcake Wars:
1. Every family will receive 6 chocolate cupcakes and 6 vanilla cupcakes (I will be making a total of 48 chocolate and 48 vanilla, there will be tons).
2. I will have vanilla frosting available to everyone. You can use as much as you would like, or you can make your own frosting. I am making chocolate ganache for myself and Lisa, if anyone else needs some let me know so I can make enough.
3. You will need to supply your own flavors, toppings, mix-ins, etc. Other than cake and frosting there will not be anything else available, so plan accordingly.
4. To vote for your favorite in each category (chocolate and vanilla), your family will receive a card. On the card you will score every other families cupcake according to taste and presentation (so make it look good too). You will not be scoring your own cupcake. The highest score wins. There will be a prize for chocolate and vanilla.

Hopefully this is clear and we are all on the same page. I think this is going to be great! I can't wait to taste your creations!

Done

Alrighty....I ordered all the shirts yesterday and they should arrive here early next week. I am pretty excited!!!

Thanks for getting me sizes and colors so quickly (like there was ever a doubt that you wouldn't).

REUNION SHIRT INFO!!!!

Hello Family!

So it seems we are going with the pigment-dyed shirt. Sam suggested that we each pick our own shirt colors and then print the same logo on all of them. It is a great idea! The logo will be all black for simplicity in printing. Below are the links to the four different shirts; mens, womens, youth, and toddler. Go to those links, pick the color you want and then e-mail that info to me. DO NOT order it yourself; if we all order them together then we will get free shipping; plus then I will have all the shirts here to print on. You may notice that the women's shirt is a different brand than the other two...they are completely out of stock on the original one I looked at and plus this one is cheaper. I received the sample shirts in the mail today and I really like the feel of this women's shirt.

Here are the links:

Men's: http://www.jiffyshirts.com/authenticpigment-1969.html

Women's: http://www.jiffyshirts.com/comfortcolors-C4100.html

Youth: http://www.jiffyshirts.com/authenticpigment-1969Y.html

Toddler: http://www.jiffyshirts.com/bella-201.html

On sizing: I ordered a medium - it fits, but is a little snug through the shoulders and hips. I will probably order another one in large. I think a medium would fit Lisa, but anyone with any chest (Michelle and Jen), broad shoulders (all of us), or hips (me) would probably want a large. I would think the older girls like Katy and possibly Becca and Lizzy would fit into a women's small if they didn't want to go with the youth shirt. I will be up at Mom's on Friday evening if any of the locals want to come and see the shirts first hand to decide. (Lisa, let me know if you want a medium and if you want it in chili - don't feel obligated, I will still wear it, but if you want it, it is here)

I ordered Scott a medium in the men's shirt and although it looked big at first, once he tried it on it fit great.

I ordered Adam a youth small - it is way too big and fits Lily. In store sizes, Adam wears a 6/7, so my guess is that an XS would equal a 6/7 and a small would equal 8 or even a 10.

I didn't order a baby one, so those of us with babies will just have to guess. I will tell you though that the company that manufactures that shirt is a little higher end in the t-shirt printing world, so I am guessing that the sizing will be fairly accurate to the retail market.

Like I said; I will be at Mom's on Friday so feel free to come and look then to assess what sizes and colors you want. Also, Scott ordered a black one (it is kind of a faded black). We thought it might look cool because then the printing would be kind of subtle. We will try and make it soon and let you all know how it looks on a darker color. I think this will be fun.

Also, I wanted to let you know about pricing. Shirt pricing is based on market values and fluctuates a lot. So when you go to these links and see one price but then are charged a different price it is because the price of the shirt either went up or down at the time I placed the order (it will probably go up since the price of commodities in general are going up). But it won't be too much different than the price you see - it really only fluctuates by about 50 cents to a dollar.

One last thing; Lisa asked if for her older boys' shirts I not print the family names on the back. So I am not putting that part on the back of their shirts (which I can understand...they may not want to walk around with a shirt that says Lulu, Jimmer, and Gracie on it). If you or your child would also like to opt out of that feature then just let me know - it makes it no harder to not print that on the back of some shirts.

It would be great if everyone could let me as soon as possible which color shirts they want. That way I have time to see if it is in stock, get them ordered, shipped to us, and then printed. Let's say that everyone let me know no later than June 3rd. Let me know if you have any questions.

I am so excited for the reunion. I think it is going to be awesome!!!!

Thanks a million!

So Saturday was a GREAT day! It was so fun to see everyone at Lily's baptism (Lisa we missed you guys) and it was especially fun to have everyone over for lunch.

Knowing the kids were eating everything down in the basement I had mentally prepared myself to find Hurricane Katrina down there. I figured I would find fruit salad and frosting smeared into the carpet and on the walls. Can I tell you how surprised I was when I went to down to the basement after everyone left and it almost looked like the little cleaning fairies had visited me! There was not a single stain!!! In fact the only trace of food I found were a couple of lingering paper plates and a few bread and cake crumbs! Not only that, but the majority of the toys had been put away and cushioned put back on the couches. It took me all of five minutes to get the place cleaned up, vacuuming and all. What GREAT nieces and nephews I have!!!!! And what great parents they have for training them to be so well-mannered in someone's home. THANK YOU!!!!! It made it all that much more fun to have you here in my little house!

Just in case you'd all like to become educated on our life with Zachy, check out this site:

http://www.hspsupport.org/main/afterdiagnosis.html