The Power of Laughter

I love my family!! It is so much fun when we get away from the TV and just play together. We do love movies and watching good things together. We went to see Grease at Regal Cinema together the other night and next week we're going to see Singing In The Rain. I can't wait for that. But when we sit down at the table to eat together or play a game, it is so much fun. Almost always, we get louder and louder until Kristina is begging us to keep it down cause her ears are ringing! Yet when it's time to hum "here comes the bride" because someone just landed on the marriage square in The Game of Life, she's sings as loudly as anyone. And when everyone but Heather loses on the spin to win, well her disappointment is as loud as anyone's! LOL And when I batted my eyes at her and asked her if she wanted to have another baby, she laughed so hard I thought she'd fall out of her chair. (She and I were partners in the game since there were 7 of us and only 6 cars! LOL)

I just wonder what Jaelyn must think of us. She's so quiet most of the time but it's fun to get her laughing. I think she and Heather were even arguing over the game a bit too! Oh how fun it is to have so many people in the house for Thanksgiving. And we're only up by 2. But the house seems full and the laughter just rings out! We've had such a wonderful week! I hope Jaelyn will get to come see us again. In the mean time, we're looking forward to Kristina coming home for good (well... for 3 months anyway) in just 2 weeks. Pray she does well on her finals. They could be the only things that save her from a failing grade in a couple of classes. But, we'll just take whatever she gets and laugh all about it later.

Laughter cures nearly everything and brings new friends into our family group. What a wonderful Thanksgiving it has been. The next big fun thing for us will be the Hot Chocolate Party. Yes 30 to 40 kids packed into my tiny house! Yikes! The noise and laughter makes it all worthwhile. You'd be surprised how much the kids at North look forward to this now annual party! Even those who have already graduated. And of course, there is secret santa coming up too! That provides LOTS of laughter and giggles every year. I love this time of year!

The Fog

Wow, did you guys see the fog last night? Just incredible! I drove all the way to Portland and back last night in that fog. The only time it cleared up was in Salem and JUST when you got into Portland. It was so disorienting! I don't know if fog has ever done that to me so much. You can hardly see 10 feet in front of you and everyone is going 70 miles an hour!! The only time I felt somewhat comfortable was when a BIG truck was in front of me and I could just follow it. But somehow the monotony of following truck lights and being unable to see anything else was really putting me to sleep! Not a good situation! So I'd zip around them and then REALLY have to pay attention cause I couldn't see anything. Then I'd be coming up on some car's red lights and I found I could not judge the distance between it and me. It was so weird. A couple of times it kind of made me feel like I didn't know where I was.. sort of a floaty kind of feeling. Very strange. The way home was much better though cause I had a bunch of giggling girls in my car who kept me entertained and awake all the way home. The things they giggle about is incredible. But the singing was wonderful! And as we sang, I marveled that I was going 70 miles an hour into this fog that I could hardly see 10 feet in front of me and there were no lights ahead to lead the way. Well... I suppose I did slow down to 60! But still! Somehow I felt safe and we made it home by 10pm with the most wonderful treasures in the back seat! LOL

Genealogy Junky!

Ok ok! I guess I have to keep up with this blog. Well at least it'll give me something to do in the evening when I get online and find I have no new emails from my friends and then wonder what else I feel like doing on DIAL UP! Ooops! Yea... it's dial up at home. which makes doing genealogy at home SUPER slow! so what else is there to do? Check my facebook... but yea, facebook would have emailed me if anyone had written to me there. Check myspace - yea but I can brush my teeth and take out my contacts in the time it takes just to pull up the first page. Then log in and go put on PJ's and txt Kristina for awhile till it comes up. I mean, it's not even worth getting online. So why do I keep it? Well.... it sure makes for some nice internet protection for the kids. LOL NOTHING has time to download! LOL

Oh dear! Ok, so my big hang up right now is genealogy! I'm on ancestry.com. Yea, surely if I can afford to pay for that I can get wireless internet, right? Sheesh! I'm a genealogy junky! In the last 2 months I've uploaded over 1000 names into my family tree! And then all the hints and records ancestry tries to hook each name up to. It's just unreal how much stuff they have. For every name, I have attached every census record and every other person who's researching the same name... for over 1000 names! Now tell me I don't have something seriously going wrong here! LOL I'm a junky! I admit it!

I'm actually hoping to turn my habit into something wonderful though. In January when it's time for Ryan's first trip to the temple, I hope to have 50 or more names to take with us. then each of the kids can take 10 names each and do their baptisms! We'll all do it together, in the temple! I'm so excited for that. I didn't get to help do any of the work for the first batch of names I sent to the temple in Dallas years ago. It was a bad time for me. So I just submitted all the names to whoever could do them in Dallas thinking I'd never get to go back to the temple again. Now that I can and I have worthy children too... well I'm digging for names who haven't had their work done for them yet! Hence... the genealogy junky! I'm hoping for a very spiritual FAMILY time at the temple. Something that will connect all of us with all of them in the spirit world! It will be a good day.

I had no idea!

I knew once a looong time ago that I signed up for a blog. I tried it out for awhile and then gave it up. But now EVERYONE seems to have a blog! So when I went to sign up for one too (finally!) it turned out someone already had my name - MelissaPOM!! The nerve!! So I put the name into the address they said I needed to sign up for and wah lah! My very own blog! LOL It just appeared! I couldn't believe it! So now I have it back and it's all there! Kinda weird but ok! I think I"ll get the hang of this.

So POM.... have you been wondering why I"m MelissaPOM? Well my name is Melissa. Hi. How are ya? Well when I got online in 1996 for the first time, I barely even knew what a window was, let along how to surf the internet! Well the kids' teacher told me her husband was a nurse and he was always going to this nurses chatroom and chatting. She said it was really fun. I figured I'd check it out since, up to then, being online was pretty boring. It was just some huge encyclopedia, right? Well I went to the chat room and found her husband - Jetski! He was talking to someone named Grey Ghost! Wow! I guess in a chat room you have to have a "handle" or it's probably against the law to chat! LOL So it was like 10pm and I was like 5 months pregnant with my 5th baby and I was VERY tired! What other handle would be more appropriate than "Pooped Out Mom"! So that's what I used and everyone knew me as that. It's a memorable name, don't you think? They shortened it to POM of course and that stuck all through my online career!

Now, that I'm not so online oriented anymore, I've combined the names... MelissaPOM. Tah dah! there, now you know a little something about me! LOL So write back or something so I know this actually works, ok?