I found some funny New Year Resolutions

By Bill Watterson

For 2008...

I will not sit in my living room all day in my nightdress. Instead ... I will move my computer into the bedroom.
I will no longer waste my time reliving the past, instead I will spend it worrying about the future.
I will not bore my boss by with the same excuse for taking leaves. I will think of some more excuses.
I will do less laundry and use more deodorant.
I will avoid taking a bath whenever possible and conserve more water.
I will give up chocolates totally. 100%. Completely. Honestly....
I will try to figure out why I *really* need nine e-mail addresses.
I resolve to work with neglected children -- my own.
I will stop sending e-mail, ICQ, Instant Messages and be on the phone at the same time with the same person.
I will spend less than one hour a day on the Internet. This, of course, will be hard to estimate since I'm not a clock watcher.
I will read the manual... just as soon as I can find it.
I will think of a password other than "password."
I will not tell the same story at every get together.
I won't worry so much.
I will stop considering other people's feelings when they so obviously don't consider mine - if that unwashed fellow sits next to me again, I'll tell him he stinks!

Thomas's Christmas Story

December 26th

Hi, this is Thomas.

My dad wants me to write something on the blog, so I will tell you about my Christmas. This year we had a very enjoyable time together, and we had lots of fun. On Christmas eve we did the Nativity with all our friends like we do every year. We had the Jensen Family (Mark, Janice and their kids, Alyssa, Stephanie, Kyle, Emily, Kate and Tyler), the Giles family (Adam, Christie, Hunter, Andy, Kate and Peter) the Burtons (Kristine and Matt and their kids Sasha and Fletcher) and the Wights (Jeff, Rachael, Carissa, Blake, Samantha and Casey). All the kids played a part in the Nativity: Samantha was Mary, Hunter played Joseph, Brittany, Stephanie and Allysa were the Wise Men (or women in this case), we had a bunch of angels… Carissa, Brandy, Sasha and Kate and also a bunch of Shepards: Blake, Ben, Peter, Kyle and Andy and it was also full of animals… Hailey (the donkey), Emily (Sheep) and Casey was a pig. We had fun.
On Christmas morning we opened presents. I got an i-pod nano, stereo system, a nerf gun, some cool Nike basketball and casual shoes and a bunch of clothes and a few videogames for my Playstation and Wii systems. It also snowed in the afternoon, so we had a white Christmas!! I got to make snow balls and play with friends. It was a lot of fun.

Christmas Cheer and Almond Crunch bars

Hi there! This is Tammy. I hope you are all doing well!

‘Tis the night before Christmas Eve
and all through the house,
there’s not much a happenin’,
except for with my spouse…
He’s making me post this message on our blog,
when I’d rather be sleeping or drinking egg nog!
The kids are all nestled all snug on the floor, watching TV, and snacking,
could you ask for more?
We’re all waiting for Christmas excited as can be…
while presents wait for opening, all under our tree.
With carolers, hot chocolate, and raindrops galore;
the parties, and shopping, the visits and more;
we try to remember the reason we’re here–
for the birth of the Christchild which brings us good cheer.
We are so grateful for Christ…for the example he gave us, for the happiness He brings as we reach out to Him–He lifts us up to be complete, forgiven, peaceful, and happy!
We’ve had a great year and wish you all the best!
Here’s a recipe I thought I’d share which my mom makes every year. (I’m just about to make it for my neighbors)…
Almond Bark Crunch
3 cups of 3 kinds of cereals (Rice & Corn Chex, Golden Grahams, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, etc.–preferrably the square kinds) Total 9 cups of cereal
3 cups pretzels or chow mein noodles
3 cups pecans, honey coated peanuts or your favorite nuts
Melt a 1 1/2 lb. almond bark (or white chocolate) and pour over dry cereal. Mix well. (Can add m&m’s for color)
Enjoy!

Love, Tammy

Hailey's Christmas Post

December 22nd,

Hey, it’s Hailey. I don’t know what to write, but I thought I would contribute something anyways. This has been a very interesting year for me. There was lots of adventures. For Spring Break we went to Southern California and got to go to Disneyland and California Adventure. My favorite ride there was the roller coaster ”Screamin’” It has a loopty loop and goes really fast. I got to go on it four times. But this year I also got to ride on the Tower of Terror, and it was so much fun and thrilling, that I went on it a few times. The lines were kind of long though, especially for the fun rides. After the parks we got to see my best friend Ashley Oross. She moved from Oregon a couple of years ago, and I missed her. It was so fun seeing her new lifestyle and house in California. In June I got braces and they are such a pain in the behind… and the day after I got them I got to go to Girls Camp with my Church stake and it was so fun, but my teeth hurt really bad. After that I went to Utah for about a month in the summer and stayed with my uncle Brett and my aunt Shellie. It was a lot of fun and I loved spending time with my cousins Lexxus, Dakota, Saisha, Trysten, Takoma, Hunter and Phoenix.
Also, after I came home I got to go to Nike soccer camp with my “cousin” Audrey Smith. It was fun spending time with her and her brother Jerry as well. They live in Southern California, so I don’t get to see them very often.
In the fall I started 7th grade at Highland Park and saw a lot of my friends, and now I’m ready for Christmas. It’s good to have winter break and spend some time with friends and family.

Cool Christmas Story

December 18th

Less than a week before Christmas!! A friend of ours just sent us a story that we wanted to share with all of you…
It was the day after Christmas at a church in San Francisco. The pastorof the church was looking over the pulpit when he noticed that the babyJesus was missing from among the figures. He hurried outside and saw alittle boy with a red wagon, and in the wagon was the figure of thelittle infant Jesus.
So he walked up to the boy and said, “Well, where did you get yourpassenger, my fine friend?”
The little boy replied, “I got Him at church.”
“And why did you take Him?”
The boy explained, “Well, about a week before Christmas I prayed to thelittle Lord Jesus and I told Him if He would bring me a red wagon forChristmas I would give Him a ride around the block in it.”

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!

Brittany's Year... so far!

December 18th

Well, It is that wonderfultime of year and I’ve been having an incredible time. School is great and I love my friends and family. One of my favorite classes at Southridge is leadership. In the past few months I have been, as junior class president, in charge of our school canned food drive, blood drive, and a “powdertuff” game. It has been very rewarding and I’ve had a lot of experiences that I will never forget. The powdertuff game, first, is a school event where the boys come and play volleyball while the girl’s varsity team, coaches them. This year, one of our fellow juniors passed away; his name was Cason and he was one of the smartest, kindest, nicest gentlemen I have ever met. While we were planning the event, we decided to make it all for Cason. We raised money for his family to put in his scholarship fund that they created after he died, we had all of the shirts say “cason” on the back and, we invited his family to attend the event. When Sam Place and I greeted Cason’s mom at the door, she was amazed to see all the boys in the “cason” shirts. She looked around and started crying. I will never forget that moment. You could tell she loved it and was very happy to see us remember her son in such a big way. To start the event, Sam and I Welcomed everyone and told them that his parents were present and we gave them “cason” shirts. To make this wonderful story short, it turned out to be an unforgettable event, and one of the highlights of my junior year. I made the Varisty Soccer team this year and had we had a great season. We earned our spot at second in metro and made it to state playoffs. Although we made it to playoffs I wasn’t able to play… Soccer ended for me at our second to last metro game with a blow to the foot. A girl from the opposing team tackled me and I ended up with an injured foot. I found out that I tore ligaments in my main arch in my foot, and I’ve been wearing a boot ever since. The podiatrist said I have to wait untill January to see if I need surgery or not. Fun stuff… L Something unusual for a girl my age… last month, I had my own room. Now, I share a room with my best friend, and sister Hailey. After thinking about it I decided that some of the best times I had with my sister were when we shared a room while we were younger. I only have a year or two until I move out of the house and I want to spend as much time with her as I can. Without asking my mom or dad (opps) I moved all of my clothes and belongings into my sister’s room decided that, that would be my new room. I love sharing a room with my best friend and I’m happy i made the move J There are many other things that I could talk about but I think I will end it here. I am so thankful for my beautiful family, and all the time that I get to spend with them. I’m grateful for my friends, and I am very grateful that I can eat food, after last week when I couldn’t eat anything due to the fact that I just got my tonsils out. I hope everyone is having a fantastic time and Merry-almost-Christmas!

-Brittany Molina

Some of Our favorite Things

December 14th, 2007

Because it’s Christmas we decided to list some of the things that make us very grateful this holiday season…
A – All our friends and relatives out there
B – Brittany, Brandy and Ben
C – Candy and our cat, princess Chloe
D – All the Dennetts out there
E – Easter and the resurrection of the Savior
F – Family, food and fun
G – Good books and a great soccer game
H – “Home” –Hailey, Henry
I – Imagination and Islands… especially Maui
J – Jokes and Jacuzzi time at the end of the day
K – Kisses… and the chocolate kind too J
L – Laughing together
M – The Molinas and “moms on missions”
N - Nice kids, nice people and nice weather
O - Opinions, and don’t we have one for you…
P - Portland, “our kind of town”
Q - Que Pasa? And speaking Spanish
R - Rest… and eating out at our favorite Restaurants
S – Sunshine and summer (we live in Oregon…)
T – Thomas and Tammy
U – The good ole’ USA and Uruguay
V – Vacations anywhere…
W – Watching movies and making fun of “reality TV”
X – X-tra hugs and snuggling with the kids
Y – The “Y” of course… Go Cougars!!
Z – Our Zoo or so called “family”

Let's give thanks...

Trying out for size

December 11th, 2007

Well, it’s that time of the year… Christmas… time for resolutions for 2008, and also time to try new things. For me it is about time for the Molina’s to get on cyberspace and try out writing a blog for size. With my new gig at Nike, we’ve been talking a lot about blogs, blogging, wikis, and all that stuff, so I thought I would give it a try. I guess in a couple of months we’ll figure out if this is the right thing for us or not. It is exciting but at the same time scary, mainly because we don’t know how long it takes to regularly populate the site… but since there are 7 of us in the family, and everybody can make a contribution here and there, I thought that this might work out. That plus the fact that I’m not really good at recordkeeping at home, so keeping a family journal here might be the way to get rid of the guilt of failing miserably at that :)
So, as you can see by the photo, we are set for Christmas to come and the kids are more than ready for the “jolly, round” guy to drop by for a visit and leave some “souvenirs.” Let’s hope they behave good enough to receive some good stuff…