This weekend is General Conference for our church. What is that? It's a twice a year meeting where the leaders of the church speak to the world to educate and edify anyone that wants to listen. (Directv users - it's channel 374 - byu tv or see LDS.ORG) It's a 2 day thing, and Saturday evenings there is a special meeting for the men, who are members of the priesthood, only. (Which, for the record, is just fine with me. I don't want another meeting to go to, nor do I want the priesthood. Plus, a transcript of the meeting is published in a magazine I can read later if I want.)
Today was extra special
, because while Mr. W will not be receiving the priesthood at this time, he was old enough to attend the meeting for the first time. When he got home he said "Mom, I'm a grown up now! I went to the meeting with Dad!" He and Mike were able to attend a pre-priesthood meeting pizza & rootbeer dinner with some friends of ours and their ward before the meeting. Tonight in Mr. W's prayer he said "Thank you Heavenly Father for letting me go to the man meeting." (I love that he called it that!) So, I wanted to share all this because I know that some of you were mighty curious if he would be attending, and if he did, how he would do in a 2 hour meeting shown on a movie screen broadcast from Salt Lake City. I guess he sat there and for the most part listened. Oddly, he didn't draw for the whole thing, and even SANG ALONG with the last 2 songs. (or tried to.) He came home very at peace and very calm. What a special night. We sure do love our 12 year old!
For Squish's birthday I told him we were going to have a family dinner at our place, and that it would pretty much just be a quiet dinner at home with both sets of Grandparents (Mike's folks were flying in that day for his baptism) and that his cousins would be there too. (the ones that live locally.) So, he went to school and I went into action. (Cue"mission impossible" music) I decorated the backyard with a bunch of streamers and Speed Racer stuff, decorated a Speed Racer car cake, and let in the bounce house man to set up what would make this "The Best Birthday Ever!" (At least, that's what Squish said.)
It went from this.....
To this in just a few minutes. I was worried that phone line would get knocked down or over with the bouncing, but it was just fine. My orange tree behind the castle didn't appreciate how often we deflated and inflated the castle, but the ki
ds loved watching it deflate and fill up again. It was a really cool combo bounce house that also had a big slide and a climb through tunnel. We've never had anything like this before and don't usually do "big things" for birthdays.
When Squish got home from school we told him he had to do his homework before everyone got there, so after he was done, I tied a ribbon to the bounce house and told him "I have a really big balloon for you, you just have to find it." I had wound it around in the house a littl
e, to give me a few seconds to run outside and turn on the camcorder. I hadn't anticipated how fast they would be, and oh, the happiness on those four faces!
"This is the life!" Says Mr. W (while doing his homework later than night)...
Cousin Ozzie enjoying the tunnel .....
Mike enjoyed the bounce house too...
Mike's folks...
Cousin Cakes
and here's my folks.....
And here's my Mom and Sister....
It was a great party, we had pizza for dinner, cake, and created lots of bouncy memories! The best part was that because it was our first bounce house the man left it for us overnight and didn't come back for it until 7pm-ish the next day! WoooHooo!! By the end I was almost forcing them into it. They wanted to keep bouncing, but it was a really hot day and they were just dripping with sweat. Being the good mother that I am however, (ha ha) I kept saying "No, you can't go inside and play video games! We don't know when the bounce house man will be back to take it to his store! Go play!" (Because he just said "I'll come get it in the morning, you don't have to be home") So I really kept thinking it would be gone any second. Let's just say the boys slept really, really well that night. They did their homework in there, and when I finally gave up and could tell they had bounced enough, they laid down inside the bounce house and played Nintendo DS video games and read books. You might say we got some serious mileage out of that castle.
Greetings to Ya'll - Happy Fall!
Today is Mr. Wonderful's Birthday - he is now 12 years old. We had a party for him on Monday at Chuck E Cheese while Grandma M and Grandpa J were still in town with my folks and my sister's family. Mr. Wonderful was sooooo excited. We didn't tell him where we were going, he had to guess the whole way. It went like this: "Legoland?" No, "Disneyland?" No." California Adventure?" No. "Toys R US?" Mr. W, it's a place we eat pizza at. "Pizza Port?" (in Disneyland.) No. You don't need a pass or ticket to go there.... Anyway, after naming almost every place we've been, I gave another hint...you've only been the
re 2 times. (By then, we were getting pretty close.) Then he figured it out. "Chuck E Cheese?!!!!?" Yeah! You got it! He was sooooooo proud of himself. He said something like "I've been thinking as hard as I could and I kept going and I got it!" It was truly adorable how proud of himself he was. We had a great party, here's a shot afterwards, with his brother out in front. (That's a red noise maker in his mouth, he hasn't taken up smoking red stogies.)
Mr W. has been really worried about getting his Halloween costume for 2008 since, oh, I don't know, Nov 1st 2007? Maybe since the day before that? Anyway, it's been decided for months that he HAS to be Superman. So last night we went shopping for costumes. Mike is going to go as Indiana Jones, Squish is going to be Link from the Legend of Zelda video game series and I will most likely be going to pirate route again. Mr. W found a great Halloween store while he does Community based instruction through his school, and so we spent about 2 hours there yesterday. I know it's really early to be buying costumes, but I wanted to 
be sure I got the right sizes and I'm glad I did because they weren't getting any more stock this year, so what was left was what they had. Do you think that Mr W likes his costume? I guess that made it worth the $54.99 they charged us for it.
Just to give Sir Squish a moment in the sun, I wanted to mention that yesterday Mike and I spent part of the afternoon at his school "bbq." I put it in quotes like that because it's a cafeteria hamburger or hot dog with cafeteria type side dishes like applesauce and warm choc. milk. YUM! But it was worth going, we got to see Squishy with his friends, and after lunch Mike went on the playground and played what the kids call "kickball" (this is where you kick the ball in the air and everyone tries to catch it without crashing into each other) with the 2nd graders. One impressed 2nd grader was overheard saying to another with awe in his voice "Wow, he (Mike) kicks the ball higher than you!" A proud moment for our family.
On Sunday, Sept 28th 2008 Squishy was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was a great day, with lots of dear friends and family. I just can't believe he's 8 years old. Wow.
The baptism opened with "When Jesus Christ was Baptized" and the opening prayer by Peggy Q. Then Squishy's maternal grandma spoke on baptism. Following the talk, Squishy was baptized, with both of his Grandpas standing as witnesses. Then the primary children in attendance sang "When I am Baptized" while Squishy and his dad changed and we passed out 4x6 index cards for everyone to write a message to Squishy on, that I later placed in one of those pocket photo albums for him to read. (This tradition was started a long time ago by a very dear brother in our last ward, Larry R. Everyone gets the chance to write something - it can be funny, inspirational, a memory, a scripture, a cartoon, whatever - and we have the kids all draw pictures. It is really fun to read the cards - if you are looking for an idea for your baptism I highly recommend it!) After all that Squishy's paternal grandma spoke on the Gift of the Holy Ghost and then Squish was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Those that stood in the circle were: Dave and Nick J, Grandpa J, Pop, Mike, Charlie P, Jerry L, Fred P, Larry R, Pat G. The closing song was "I am a child of God" and Squishy's primary teacher, Cheryl G gave the closing prayer. Afterwards our about 60 guests enjoyed cake and milk with us in the cultural hall. I want to thank everyone that made Sunday possible. Our family, all of Squish's primary teachers and leaders, kind members of our ward - past and present - & friends, everyone that helped with the program, and the wonderful sisters that saved me from having to serve all that c
ake and milk. What would I do without the Relief Society?
This is a photo of some of our family and friends that attended. We're so lucky we could be surrounded by so many loved ones on Squishy's special day.
Hello!
I am really new to this whole blogging thing, and I never understood why people wanted to create them. But, after blowing a few hours playing with the customize features of this page, now I understand. It's fun! It's like playing dress up with a web page. A little bling here, a few links there, and poof! Here we are. Well, welcome to Mikybarb-land. I hope you purchased an annual pass because while the stuff here may not be "e ticket" I hope you enjoy it.
Why Mikybarb? When creating our first email address as a married couple my husband wanted to have both our names in the address. Thusly, Mike and Barbara had to be merged. He speaks spanish, and knew that "and" in spanish is "Y" (pronounced "e") So he smushed us together with Mikybarb. We pronounce it "Mike - e - Barb" but I've heard it said other ways as well. Kind of silly, but 14 years later I can still usually find that name not previously used for thing
s like this.
I'm calling this Mikybarb-land mostly because Mike suggested it, and he thought in honor of the happiest place on earth, it would be a good name. We do love Disneyland, and have had passes for almost as long as we've been married.
Our family consists of Me, My hubby Mike, and our boys, Mr. Wonderful and Squishy. Mr. Wonderful has autism, and loves to draw. Squishy is all about NOT being "demanded" (told what to do) and last night his Grandpa J introduced him to Calvin and Hobbes. I'm pretty sure that Squishy is Calvin, or that at the very least the comic strips are an instruction booklet on naughtiness. Squishy feels like there are too many rules in the world and we all need more time for legos and video games. (Hence the comic on my opening page.) Our family does have one more girl, my husband's daughter from his first marriage, a wonderful brown eyed young woman we'll call Belle - short for "brown eyed love" and then accesorized. (there I go again!)
Well, that's all for now, glad to meet you World Wide Webbers!
-Mikybarb
, because while Mr. W will not be receiving the priesthood at this time, he was old enough to attend the meeting for the first time. When he got home he said "Mom, I'm a grown up now! I went to the meeting with Dad!" He and Mike were able to attend a pre-priesthood meeting pizza & rootbeer dinner with some friends of ours and their ward before the meeting. Tonight in Mr. W's prayer he said "Thank you Heavenly Father for letting me go to the man meeting." (I love that he called it that!) So, I wanted to share all this because I know that some of you were mighty curious if he would be attending, and if he did, how he would do in a 2 hour meeting shown on a movie screen broadcast from Salt Lake City. I guess he sat there and for the most part listened. Oddly, he didn't draw for the whole thing, and even SANG ALONG with the last 2 songs. (or tried to.) He came home very at peace and very calm. What a special night. We sure do love our 12 year old!
