"Gosh, It's Like, Easy."

I don't know what's up with me and blogging lately. Everything that has been happening lately isn't blog-worthy. I'll think of something and then dismiss it as too mundane. I've been waiting for my sister to blog about her surgery before I do. I've felt really complainy lately and don't want to blog all of my complaints because who wants to listen to some chowder-head complaining about how her life stinks when it really doesn't. I think about quotes I've heard that angels will quote from your journal entries and my blog has become a little bit of a journal for me. Why would any angel want to quote my complaining? So I'll try to come up with some interesting tidbits but it's probably not quotable.

Anna's surgery was successful. They removed the tumor from her back and she is now home recovering. The hospital stay was full of annoyances for her, one of which involved waiting over 2 hours to get a breast pump to use from the maternity floor. I could have walked home and back to get her a pump quicker than that. Recovery is tough because there are some things she can do for herself but most things she can't. To look at her, one would think she is fine and doesn't need help. However, she does and is very appreciative of the visits, well-wishes, aid and meals brought in. She cannot lift anything much over a few pounds including Lucy. I think that is the hardest part for her.

Chris has been going to Toledo doing awning sales a lot lately. I wish he didn't have to do that because I miss him being gone. Last Saturday he was up around 6 to go down and got home a little after 10:30. Tomorrow will be the same. He was down there on Tuesday, Thursday and is there now. He is having success in selling but we miss him all the same. He has lost a total of 45 pounds and has had some of his pants taken in over 4 inches. Way to Go!! Our home teachers are first hand witnesses to the fact that he has one pair that needs to be taken more. They were over on Wednesday and when Chris went to stand up, his pants fell to his ankles. It was probably the funniest home teaching visit ever and I wish there was a "Wacky Mormon Moment" in the Ensign that I could send it to. Luckily Bros. Brown and Clawson were able to find the humor in the situation and share in our laugh.

On Wednesday, we went to Music in the Park and heard my favorite kids singer, Guy Louis. I got up early and put our blankets and chairs up at Kellogg Park so that we would have a really good spot. It was Anna's first outing since the surgery. She brought a really yummy fruit bouquet to eat that Tony's work sent her. It was pineapple slices dipped in chocolate. Soooo good!! At the end of the concert, Grammy, the kids and I were all dancing in a circle. It was fun.








We went swimming with Jodi and her boys on Thursday and I have learned that you have to reapply your sunblock after swimming for a while. My nose and shoulders are red. Today, we went to Jodi's and had a fun (when the kids weren't fighting over whose turn it was) Wii party and a fun (when the kids weren't fighting over who stepped on them or who popped whose water balloon or who looked at them wrong) trampoline jumping party. It was Cameron's first time on the tramp and he ABSOLUTELY loved it!!! The kids bounced him all over and he laughed and laughed. The best part of going to Jodi's for me (besides her baked goods) is getting to talk and talk. It's better than any therapy available.

I had a midwife appointment this week and got to hear Lizzie's (yes, it's going to be Lizzie) heartbeat and know that she is doing well. I am measuring large--about 4 weeks large so I might have another ultrasound coming up but no real worries. The midwife keeps giving me pamphlets about birth control at each visit. I take them and listen to her spiel. I'm not sure if it's because I have so many kids that she thinks I need to take this seriously or what. My head says, "Oh yes, this makes sense," but my heart says, "You are doing fine and just let things be." I wish she would stop it. I had to do the glucose tolerance test this week. I had a little trouble keeping down the glucola. I hate that stuff. The guy who drew my blood for the test asked me if this was my first baby. I said no. He asks is it your second. I say no, my sixth. He says, "Damn, woman!" Only a black man could get away with saying that. I thought it was pretty funny.

Thankful Thursday 6/26/2008

1. Home Teachers

2. Aldi

3. Guitar Hero DS

4. Willow

5. Libraries

Weekly Top Five 6/23/08

Top Five Favorite Live Action Disney Movies

1. The Original Parent Trap

2. The Original Freaky Friday

3. The Shaggy DA

4. Escape to Witch Mountain

5. The North Avenue Irregulars

6. Swiss Family Robinson

7. Snowball Express

Thankful Thursday 6/19/2008

1. Dr. Steven Sullivan

2. Build-your-own Nachos

3. Tumors that just pop out like a grape

4. Morphine drips

5. Getting the first space in the parking garage

I remember gray carpet!

You may remember a post from January about goals I set for myself this year. Here's a little update.

I have successfully cleaned and organized Cameron's room. I devised a plan for my basement. I am spending an hour every morning working on it. At this rate, I hope to finish by the end of July. Today was day one. I am making the kids help and we are all working on it together. I can see carpet at the bottom of my stairs today. We put 2 full baskets of clothes in the laundry room and took out one bag (the first of many) of garbage. Chris cleaned out our closet for me (I helped a little but mostly complained). Chris was able to trade his services with a landscaping company to do their marketing and they did our landscaping. The crew came out last Thursday and our back yard really looks nice now. All I have to do is maintain it. I sent my book off to 8 publishing companies and have gotten rejections from 2 of them. I'll keep working at that one.

The rest of the goals are still in my mind and I think of them often. I haven't perfected any of them yet but I know I will eventually!

Weekly Top Five 6/16/08

Top Five Favorite Cartoons

1. Spongebob Squarepants

2. Smurfs

3. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

4. Hey Arnold!

5. Ren and Stimpy

You say it's your birthday...na na na na na na...it's my birthday too yea!!!

Yesterday, we celebrated Cameron's 2nd birthday and Chris' 36th birthday. They fall on the same day, June 8th. We had a fun picnic at Lion's Club Park in Plymouth. Attending were all us Vos', Chris' parents and his brother's family, the Onofrio's and the Heiner's. We had a really fun time.

Chris spending a moment talking with his mom.

Cameron with the cake.

Messy cake boy!

Christopher, Calvin Tyler and Jamison playing football.


Opening presents with help from Anna.
He loved this light up bag that the present from Jeff and Jamie came in.

All right! The noisy lawnmower toy! I love it!

My first wheels!


Getting scooter advice from some pros: Christopher, Calvin and Gavin.


You know you have a perfectly good uterus just sitting there doing nothing!!

On the go with Emily!

I didn't do one of my usual birthday posts for the two of them because I was without my computer at the time. So I'm going to tell you three reasons why I love each of them so much and make them really special to me. First is Cameron.

1. He is happy, happy, happy. I love being with him and spending time with him because he does everything with such joy. Whether its putting on his shoes, eating his breakfast, watching Spongebob, playing with cats or going to bed--he just loves to do everything.

2. He gives the very best kisses and hugs.

3. He loves to snuggle. On Saturday mornings, they kids get him up out of bed and bring him to me and he lays on my pillow and pulls the covers up to his chin and snuggles with me. It is very sweet.

Now for Chris:

1. He is not afraid of anything. Not the governor or a really mean person calling from AT&T or neighbors who are yelling at me or stupid waiters. He will stand up for himself and me and our family with no hesitation. I love that about him.

2. He is always trying to improve himself. Whether its losing weight to be healthy or learning Chinese to continue his education or doing better at serving in his church callings. He works hard at whatever he puts his mind to.

3. He is the most forgiving person I know. I'm thankful for that because I need alot of forgiving.

Happy Birthday to two of my favorite boys!!

You catch up with us there. If he falls, fine. If not, the sword

I am way behind on my family events of the past few weeks. Here's a little catch-up:

Spencer had his last day of preschool and a preschool graduation. Chris did a fun magic show for the end of year picnic. It was fun!

All grown up and ready for Kindergarten!!

Cameron enjoying an ice cream sandwich.

Chris doing magic with the kids.

Cameron found a girlfriend.

We finally graduated!!

Spencer and Mrs. Lloyd

I love it when I get to watch Lucy. Here she is playing Bob the Builder with the boys.

The Plymouth spray scape has officially opened for a wet, screaming good time. We have already been three times and it is wonderful.

Funny pic of Cam sitting on his bucket. At the spray park, Cam is hilarious. He spends time in the water, but he also loves checking out what everyone else brings. He likes to talk to other moms, look in people's baskets and bins and drink out of other kids sippy cups. It is a laugh riot to watch him.

Anna and Lucy at spray park.

What a cutie pie!!

Last day of school for the big kids was Friday. They came home very excited to be moving up. Emily will be in 7th grade next year. I repeat--my daughter will be in 7th grade. Amazing. Christopher will be in 5th and Calvin in 3rd. Smith School will enjoy the Vos Trifecta with Christopher, Calvin and Spencer all there next year.

The pool is open and we enjoyed a Friday afternoon swimming and dunking and floating and yelling and diving and all things pool related.

We had to coordinate the first jump in so that everyone could say that they were the first one in the pool.

Cameron loved the slide and even jumped off the diving board all by himself. What a big boy!!

Uh, Liz? Beth? Bitsy. Bitsy! That's right.

So, I'm having some trouble with my new baby's name. My plan was to name her Elizabeth Gloria Vos. I really like the name Elizabeth. My mother's name is Gloria. It was perfect. I was planning on calling her Lizzie. I love Lizzie Bennett from "Pride and Prejudice." When she gets older, she can be Liz if she wants. I have only good associations with the names Elizabeth and Lizzie and Liz.

Lately, I am having second thoughts about Elizabeth. The reasons are several. First, Lizzie is really close to Lucy. I have already refered to Lizzie as Lucy and she isn't even born yet. Having a Lizzie and a Lucy just 11 months apart might pose problems. I can't make it work in my head. Second, I have considered Ellie as a nickname for Elizabeth. However that is too close to Emily. Emily and Ellie. That doesn't seem to work either. I don't want to call her Elizabeth. Third, I am feeling more and more that I don't want to relegate my mom's name to a middle name. She was too important to me to just throw her name away.

So I am toying with Gloria as the first name. Does it fit with the rest of our names? I don't really know. I wouldn't name her Gloria Elizabeth because I don't want to throw Elizabeth away. Maybe our next girl :) could be Lizzie? I would choose Carolyn as the middle name if Gloria was the first name because it is a combination of my mother-in-law's first name and my middle name and also the first name of another woman that I really admire. So what's your opinion? Gloria? Lizzie? Or something totally different that I haven't even thought of? Suzy, you supposed to be some kind of self-proclaimed name guru--help me out.

You may wonder why I don't consult Chris with this problem. It's cause he has no say. We made a deal before we even got married: he got to choose the first two boys names and I got to choose all the rest with no say from him. He got his Christopher, Jr and his Calvin Stephens and now I could name this baby Minelli Ripozo and he couldn't say anything. I guess he could say something but I wouldn't have to listen. Best deal of my life.

Thankful Thursday 6/12/2008

1. Spray Park

2. Mangoes

3. Almond Paste

4. Catfish

5. Serene Surroundings Landscaping

Weekly Top Five 6/9/2008

Top Five Really Good Actors That Must Have Lost a Bet to Play This Role

1. Hugh Laurie in Stuart Little

2. Steve Carrell in Evan Almighty

3. Tommy Lee Jones, Clint Eastwood, James Garner, Donald Sutherland in Space Cowboys

4. Robert DeNiro in Meet the Fockers

5. Jason Lee in Alvin and the Chipmunks

Mortimer, we're back!

Some of you may have noticed that I disappeared almost two weeks ago.

My disappearance had to do with some problems with my computer. My computer and I have been the best of friends for almost four years. I built it from scratch (with the help of some Dell professionals) and have been caring for it like a baby since the day it was delivered. It has let me install all kinds of stuff from the internet on to it without ever catching a virus. I introduced over 10,000 pictures to it's hard drive over the years without one complaint. It let me install WOW on it without giving me a hard time. It was like the little engine that could. "I think I can. I think I can."

Several Sunday's ago it just had to give up. It had had enough. I picture it like the toy soldier who gets stepped on in "Toy Story." It gave all it could give and then urged me to "go on without him." I turned it on that day and got a blue screen with a scary error message. I called Tony, computer guru extraordinaire. He took a look at my baby for me and while all my data was safe (phew!) the baby was going to need some new organs and to be majorly vacuumed. He replaced the parts yesterday and I was able to take it home today. I kept thinking about it all night last night. I was going to be reunited with my baby. Would it still love me? Would it still respond? Would we share all our familiar jokes?

Today I picked up my dear CPU and brought it home to it's familiar spot on my desk. Home at last! I turned it on and it is running great. It was so happy to see me! It's like I was reunited with an old friend. I was reacquainted with my familiar haunts...the imdb, my google reader with all the blogs I read daily, the Toledo Blade obituaries, facebook. All the sites seemed like they were really happy to see me. "Jennifer, welcome back!"

So, I'm back and ready to post. I've missed writing in my blog and reading all of the blogs that I normally stalk. And Suzy, please tell me your blog name because I can't remember it and I can't get to it from anywhere on the net.