Taryn's Christmas program

The first graders at Taryn's school got to participate in a Christmas program on December 2nd. They got to wear their pajamas and sing songs, dancing and clapping, and swaying to the music. The only pictures I could get were while they were all sitting prior to beginning since we sat too far away from the action.


She was having a ball. I can see why she is always saying she wants to be a singer or be a movie star. She loves to be on stage and the center of attention.

Avast ye mateys!

I took these pictures of Harrison while we were at Taryn's school for her Christmas program. He was hamming it up for the camera. His pirate look was hilarious.

Then there's his finger on the mouth, contemplative look:

And finally, the talk to the hand look:

What a clown!

And her wish came true!

Taryn's second front tooth on top has fallen out! Now she can truly sing like Alvin! She sounds funny with a little bit of a lisp, but it's endearing. She was so excited.

Beautiful tree

Every fall this tree looks fantastic. Every year I try to get a picture of it in all its glory. This is the best I've got so far. We pass this tree on the way to Harrison's playgroup four days a week. The people who live there go to our church.

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!

For a lighter side of Taryn, she just lost her first upper front tooth. The other one is loose. So, for Christmas (Alvin and everyone else sing along....)....All she wants for Christmas are her two front teeth!

What a snit!

When Taryn gets in a snit, watch out. She was upset at soccer because we were laughing at something and she thought we were laughing at her. I started snapping pictures because it was so funny. Man, we are dreading the teen years and PMS.

Pre-Halloween

I made the kids put on their costumes the other day so I could get some pictures. We always seem to get lost in the moment on Halloween and never get any pictures. Taryn picked out a red velvet queen costume. Rob calls it the "Queen of Hearts." How appropriate for her.

Your majesty!



She's so coy!



What a look! This picture makes me dread the teen years.

Harrison wanted to be Tow Mater. LOL! He's been wearing this all over the house.

My cutie pie.

I'm still alive!

How embarrassing to find I haven't posted in over a month. Where does the time go? Well, soccer season started for both Ian and Taryn and that leaves me running to soccer four times a week (two games and a practice for Ian and a practice/game for Taryn). Monday night, Tuesday night, Thursday night, and Saturday morning, with Wednesday night for Cub Scouts and every other Tuesday night also with Girl Scouts. Add in a PTO meeting and an HOA board meeting here and there and things get busy pretty fast.

Otherwise, we're doing okay. No big illnesses so far, knock on wood, and we've all had our flu shots except me and I get mine this week.

Karyl tagged me to post the sixth picture in the sixth folder in my picture files, so I'm putting that here:



This was two Christmases ago when we had a photographer come take pictures at the house. Obviously no one was paying attention in this one as Ian is about the only one looking at the camera. And you can tell this is an older picture because Harrison is so much smaller and it is before Taryn cut her hair.

Sailing....takes me away.....

I am finally returned from my four-night Mexican cruise with my sister-in-law, Karyl. We sailed aboard Carnival's Funship Elation (see below) out of San Diego with one port of call in Cabo San Lucas. This was our opportunity to escape from children, laundry, dishes, etc...you get the drift. We had a good time and are already talking about maybe trying to get more people to go with us next year.

Here is a picture of the Lido deck (pool deck) of our ship. We didn't spend much time here, except for when we walked past the pool to get to the restaurant where we normally ate lunch.

The Elation atrium...from not a very high floor. I could have gone up higher to take this picture.

We enjoyed sitting at the back of the ship eating lunch and watching the wake generated by the ship. The water was so blue and beautiful.

These were our dinner companions the first night onboard. We had sat for close to 40 minutes with no water, no waiter, and no one at our table but us. We were beginning to feel invisible. Then suddenly, they seated these four, young Mexican gentleman at our table. They were four from a party of six who had come from Tijuana for a bachelor party (apparently the bride-to-be would not allow them to party in Vegas). We laughed at the irony of them having come from Mexico to go on a Mexican cruise. LOL!

They were very polite and gentlemanly and engaged us in conversation. We were very surprised. The one on the far left is involved with bio-fuels engineering, the one with his hands up works in "meat", the one with the blue striped shirt is an architect, and the far right is also involved with bio-fuels engineering. They told us they were all college roommates and we discussed the differences in the college experiences in the US and Mexico and also talked Packers football! Go Pack!

Unfortunately, we had already requested to switch to the different dinner seating time and this actually worked out for them as the maitre'd was going to move the remaining two from their party (who somehow had ended up in the other dining room) and seat them all together for the remainder of the cruise. We hope they had a good time...we sure did.

This is one of the pictures I took in Cabo San Lucas. This was taken from our ship as we sat anchored outside the port.

One of several "towel creations" we found in our room in the evenings. They were adorable.

This is a picture collage that Karyl created from some of the photos she took. You will note some duplicate scenes, but it was so neat, I added it to my blog, too.

School's in!!!

School started this past Wednesday, August 20th. Oh Happy Day!!! I had two days where I accomplished a great deal more than I had on any given day over the summer and on Thursday Harrison and I met daddy for lunch at our favorite Thai place and then I took Harrison to Chuck E Cheese, just the two of us. Tomorrow marks the start of the first full week of school and I have a million things I want to get done so I look forward to it.

Harrison will start his Mother's Morning Out on Sept. 2nd and he will attend four mornings a week from 9am to noon (only weekday he doesn't go is Wed.). I am working on a list of all the things that have been piling up and that I need to get done during those 12 hours in the week. I am excited at the prospect of possibly getting caught up on a lot of things that have been put off for far too long.

Karyl tagged me

Shame on her! Karyl tagged me and now I'm supposed to post about six of my quirks. I'm a little bit stumped as I sit here, though I'm sure Rob could list many. So, here's my attempt.

1. Toilet paper. While I admit to strangely having a similar compulsion to make sure I have a lot of toilet paper on hand (I buy a bunch every time I go to Sam's Club), I am seriously annoyed when no one changes the toilet paper roll and/or if they put the roll on with the paper coming off the bottom rather than over the top. It has to be done a certain way or I have to fix it.

2. Diet Coke. I do not like Diet Coke from a can. If it is not from a restaurant or movie theatre, or whatever (i.e. a fountain drink), I don't like it. This probably applies to most soda drinks, except cream soda. I will literally drive to McDonald's for a Diet Coke before I will drink one of Rob's cans out of the fridge.

3. To do lists...I make a lot of lists. I keep one on the computer. I often sit down at night and map out a schedule for the next day including the times I expect to be doing certain things. Can anyone say anal retentive? But I feel a great sense of accomplishment when I can delete five or six things off a list for the day. I feel like I actually got something done. My lists always seem to get longest on Sunday as I think about what needs to be done the coming week.

4. A place for everything and everything in its place. I oftentimes will complain vehemently that the kids do not help clean up the house. However, I will also turn around and just do it myself because I want things to be where I put them, in a certain order, or in a certain place...sorted a certain way. If I let the kids do the clean-up, everything just gets thrown together. That drives me insane.

5. Folding laundry. I used to haul all the laundry upstairs and dump it on the futon to be folded. This habit stopped when I realized five loads of laundry would pile up there and I just wouldn't go up and do it. I now fold laundry in the game room while I watch TV, but the piles are always in the same place. I can map out the coffee table and half the couch by telling you exactly what goes in what pile and where it goes. I'm also very particular about what order and how things are loaded back into the baskets for their journey upstairs. LOL!

6. Washing your face. I do not wash my face with soap and water or any other facial product very often. There is a very valid reason for this. There is a strong correlation between washing my face and breaking out with zits. When I don't wash my face, I hardly ever break out. As soon as I wash it once, I break out with zits. Just happened to me recently. I felt particularly sweaty and grungy one day so I took some nice cleanser and washed my face. Two days later I broke out with one zit and now I have like four or five. I hadn't had one in months prior to this. I do take a hot, wet washcloth after a hot shower or bath while my pores are open and rinse my face off, but if I use anything more than water, watch out!

I hope this fulfills my quirk quota. I'm not sure who I can tag since I don't know many other people who blog besides Karyl. In fact, I might know one other person and that's it. So, I'm just blindly tagging anyone who reads this. LOL!

Definitely not my child

While it is common knowledge that I am about as white and freckled as can be, apparently Taryn has not inherited my skin type as you can see from her fantastic tan she has accumulated this summer swimming in grandma's pool. You can clearly see the shape of her swimsuit delineated on her back. LOL! And while I was careful not to take a picture of her entire behind to put on here, I did get a picture of her leg where the tan line stops.

Even sunscreen hasn't prevented her from getting a very nice tan this summer.

Meow, kitty Taryn!

We had a block party tonight for National Night Out, put on by our HOA (which meant a lot of work for me!). Taryn got her face painted like a cat and we had to take a picture. Bear in mind, she looked even cuter than this before her black lips wore off and some of it was smudged.

Taryn's BD Party

Once again, I am late in posting details of Taryn's party, which took place on July 26th at Chuck E Cheese. Oh joy! Taryn had a good number of friends attend and had a really great time. Happy Birthday to Taryn who officially turned six on July 28th! Here's some pictures from her party.


Taryn opening presents.

Taryn and her princess shirt from Molleigh.

Ian and Harrison playing skee ball.

The birthday girl!

Taryn's cake....baked and decorated by Auntie Jen and Auntie Susie.

Uncle Marc & Cousin Kailyn.

Some of Taryn's friends!

Rob's new vehicle

Rob has got a new vehicle...well, a used, new vehicle. The Jeep was never really a practical vehicle for us to begin with and has become less practical as the years went on, so yesterday he went and got a 2005 Volvo S80 T6, whatever that means. I think the "T" stands for turbo, though why he would need a turbo charged vehicle escapes me. It is nice, though, and not a bad price for the car. Here's some pics of the kids enjoying daddy's new vehicle.

Been a long time...

It was pointed out to me tonight by my husband that I haven't posted on here in awhile. But it's the summer and there's not been a whole lot to report. The kids have been taking private swimming lessons again with a lady from our ward. She also teaches in the YMCA swim program and is very good. Taryn has improved a lot this year and Ian is doing very well when compared to the boy who wouldn't put his face in the water.

Harrison continues to attend his "playgroup" on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9am to 1pm. They've even taken a field trip to the movies to watch Bee Movie. I hear he behaved better than he does when I take him to the movies...thanks, Harrison.

Taryn is attending an Adventure Camp with the City of Rock Hill Parks Dept. this week. She goes every morning from 9am to 12pm. The last two days they have spent the morning learning about different animals and sea creatures and making a bunch of neat crafts. She's having a blast!

Ian is just bored all the times. His friends can't play when he wants them to or I don't let him play often enough, and he is nowhere near earning enough money for an Xbox, which he wants really, really bad. Thanks, Uncle Dave for getting him hooked on that. LOL!

I find that the calendar once again starts out pretty empty for a week and rapidly fills up. I took a Pilates class yesterday for the first time (had two free sessions I had bid on at the Silent Auction for the kids school in May). Wow, is that hard. I'm sure you eventually get better at it, but I have muscles hurting today that I didn't know I had and I told the instructor I felt a lot like I was trying to pat my head and rub my belly at the same time. There's so many things you have to remember all at once. I am going back next week and I may continue with it, if I continue to feel that it's doing some good. It definitely worked my abdominals...my obliques are killing me today.

I haven't taken enough pictures of the kids lately, but I'll try and remember to get some new shots and post them on here. Later!

Axe murderer!

Well, not really, but she might as well have been one. The lady at the salon today butchered Taryn's hair. I specifically showed her a picture of Taryn's hair from the beginning of the school year. It was adorable...perfect length. I said, "this is how I want it again." This is what she got:

And this is what it looked like at the beginning of the school year last fall:

A vacation we'd like to forget!

Since January, we have been planning a week-long trip to Milwaukee to visit everyone. All the Stroble kids were coming home to Milwaukee for a semi-family reunion. Susie had a wedding she was standing up in and we had been planning to go in April, but just delayed it until June so we could all come at once. Steve and Karyl came from California, and Mom and Jen also came from SC. Everyone else arrived before us, either on May 30th or 31st. We left late the evening of June 3rd so the kids wouldn't miss as much school, even though it was the end of the year. As it was, they ended up missing the last two days of school, including Taryn missing her Kindergarten promotion ceremony (poor girl - she said her friend Lily was crying the last day she was there).

Anywho...we left around 10pm on the 3rd and about 2/3 of the way through the flight, Rob brought Taryn back to me from their seats 10 rows ahead and said she needed to use the bathroom. As I was helping her, I just happened to brush my hand across her forehead and discovered she was burning up with a fever, which apparently had just appeared after we boarded the plane. By the time we landed late in Milwaukee (around 11:45pm their time), we had to get our luggage and rental car and make a quick run to the 24-hour Walgreen's to buy ibuprofen before heading to our hotel. It was close to 1am before we got to bed that night. The next morning she began to vomit and her fever was once again very high.

To make a long story short regarding her illness, she ran a high fever (103 and above) for about five days and we had to keep her medicated with ibuprofen and Tylenol on a regular basis to keep it down. She vomited when her fever got too high, and I spent about three hours with her at St. Luke's ER in the wee hours of Thursday morning. She managed to muster enough energy to smile during our family pictures later that morning and we trudged back to our hotel. She did not eat much the entire trip and I am convinced she lost weight.

Moving on....the weather in Wisconsin did not cooperate on our trip either. We had tornado warnings two nights in a row and on Saturday night, we spent the evening at my brother Paul's house because he had a basement and the weather was ominous. Upon attempting to return to our hotel, we found the road to our hotel closed due to flooding. After trying to divert to Mom's hotel on several different roads, all of which were also flooded and/or closed, we managed to find the freeway open and hopped that up to the next exit to their hotel. We got the last open room and paid an additional $100 to stay there. Two hours later, upon getting a call from our original hotel that the road was now accessible from one direction, we packed the sleepy kids back up and went back to the Holiday Inn. We figured we'd rather be flooded in to the hotel where all our stuff was then stuck somewhere with no change of clothes or food.

It rained again the next day and we had to cut dinner at Dad's short because we were worried about getting flooded out again. All told, parts of Milwaukee got over 9 inches of rain in two days and I'm sure all of you have heard on the news about flooding in the Midwest by now.

To cap off our wild and crazy week, I managed to lose the portable DVD player at the Milwaukee Airport upon our departure. The one bright spot? I called the airport when I got back home and a Delta gate agent had found the case and turned it in. US Airways sent it to me FedEx and we got it back today.

We are all supremely exhausted and won't be planning any vacation for a long time after this debacle. Next time, everyone can come South!

Here's a few pictures from our trip:


This picture is for all my SC friends so they can see what green grass really looks like! LOL!

Ian and his cousin Jack.

Taryn and Logan. I think my kids were more excited about getting to play with the dog than anything else.

Cousin Jack, Harrison, Ian and Taryn all playing with dominoes at Grandpa Stroble's house.

Cousin Jack, Harrison and Taryn making a mess with water and rocks in the fountain.

Harrison at the Brewer game on June 4th. I'm not sure how much he enjoyed it, but he did like the fireworks after a Homerun. He behaved really well.


The ominous sky seen from the Walgreen's parking lot on Sunday night as the next wave of storms rolled in.

Taryn at dinner Wednesday night. She didn't get to go to the Brewer game that day, but mustered up the energy to come to dinner. She didn't eat much but got to open early birthday presents.Ian and Taryn and their great-grandma Stroble.

Uncooperative Harrison with great-grandma Stroble and big, fat me. Nothing like seeing a picture of yourself to realize how much weight you need to lose.