Shoo! Shoo!

Ben is so funny. When I tell him to go somewhere, like down in the basement or to bed, I say, "Ben, go to bed... Shoo! Shoo!" Then he turns around and says, "Fray-Fray, why you call me 'Shoo, shoo'?" It's so cute and funny that I just want to keep telling him to 'Shoo!'

Gratification: Finishing a book

Have I mentioned before that finishing a book is one of the most satisfying feelings? It's weird, though, you get into the book, then you don't want to stop, then you finish it with this feeling of completion, then you get sad because your book is over... what do you do then? Start another one right away? Wait for so long between books so you don't get them confused? So you don't make the book you just finished feel like you're over it already? What then? Does it downplay how good the book really was? And then will the new book be worse because the last book was so good? Will they be competing with each other?
This is too much...
I have a passion for books.
But I'm not just going to read any book, just to say that I've read one! I want to read a book and be supportive of the author and have another read it too because I've suggested it and I want them to say, "Wow, Francie, you were right! That book was super satisfying to read!!"
So, to my readers... choose a book, read it, and if it's good, TELL ME!

The cabin was awesome!

This last weekend, we drove about five or so hours north east to this cabin that Nickie's family owns. There were a ton of deer on the road and side of the road and the guys kept wanting to stop and run after them, but Jason only got to the door knob of the door before the deer ran off... pretty funny though. Not having to worry about what's on TV or what needs to be done around the house... we played games like "Sequence" (a fun game that can be pretty competitive, and Jason and Danny think they're the best... yet they didn't play against Nickie and I...). We also played this game, can't remember the name, where there's a timer and a word holder and the holder is passed around the circle and the person with the word has to get his/her team to guess it, then it's passed to the next person. Basically whoever ends up with the word holder thing when the buzzer alarms, loses that round... yea, it was pretty addicting!
We also went on a walk/stroll to the river, through the woods... and it was such a nice sunny, breezy day, it reminded me of when I was a kid and played in the woods with my brother and sisters (remember being in teams and leaving clue for the second team to find the first one?)

Of course the river was too cold to even think about touching, but it was a very calming sound, combined with the perfect look-a-like trees and the perfect amount of sun and cloud.

Our fearless hostess, Nickie, modeling in the rugged woods (God's backyard).

I tried to cut fire wood...

but was given one of those super wet pine pieces that wasn't going to be cut anytime soon, so I had to grab a piece that was already split in fourths and exremely dry! The end result of my (and a whole bunch of others) efforts was a super warm/hot perfect fire with coals so bright and orange that I couldn't take my eyes off it!

Hey, is it just me? or when you guys look at a pinecone, do you think of mom and her addiction to these things? Remember the elephant size ones?

Well, the weekend ended, all too soon, but I havn't had a vacation like this in a very long time! I'm so thankful for my friends and the wonderful weekend of relaxation that should be repeated more often! Thanks Jason, Nickie, Danny, Ross, and Rob for such an enjoyable time with you all!

Maddie Paige

My 6-year old niece, Madeline, is super cute... I haven't seen her in a really long time, and she looks more and more like my sister, Shannon, (her mother). From her nose, teeth, and body structure to her personality and the things she says and the way she says them...
For dinner tonight, we had tomatoes, and of course, like Shannon, Maddie didn't like them and didn't want to eat them... it's so funny to see this as an adult!
She's super cute too, she has that photogenic attitude that Kristen, Jack, and Ben are not as excited about anymore and she also is obedient, too! When I tell her to hold her hands, sit down, jump on the trampoline, or look at the camera, she knows exactly what to do and does it right away! It's great! Here's a few photos I took of her yesterday afternoon...

Having fun with the kids...

I came over to visit with mom, Madeline, Jack, Kristen, and Ben today after work and took a few pics of the kids...

Personality Test... Who am I?

I just took a Personality test... check out the link for my personality and then check yours. Let me know what they think of you!

Key Areas of your Personality
Your personality stands out from the average person's particularly in the areas of:
Your High Curiosity Level
Your High Emotional Reactivity Level Your Low Distractibility
Your High Need for Control/ Predictability

Thought this was interesting too...
Social patterns: You are left-brained when it comes to interacting with people and recognizing emotions in other people.
What does this mean? Since there is a 'cross-over' in the human brain for visual information, it means that you tend to focus on the right side of a person's face when you want to figure out what they are thinking and feeling. This is a unique way of viewing the world. You are likely to be sensitive to 'micro-expressions' - the tiny movements of the muscles in the face that occur, for example, when someone is telling a lie.
Hearing preferences are an interesting exception to this left-right crossover. For example, if two people were talking behind a closed door and you needed to put your ear on the door to hear, you would tend to use your left ear instead of your right.

http://www.personality100.com/page/member/memb_home_mpb.xml?sessionid=sid20070326231704881

Halloween 2006

I'm the hot 80's chick and Jason's the sweaty trucker man...Our incognito for Halloween... We had a really fun time!
And don't worry, Jason's wearing a mullet wig and fake teeth! He looks a lot better than this picture gives him credit for... I also look better too and don't have as much hair!

It's a "Dead End"

Random thought... Have you ever seen a sign on a road that reads, "Dead End"? Am I the only one that thinks that it is super negative? Why not, "The road ends soon" or "Loopy culdesac up ahead"? "Dead End" seems so final, dark, gloomy, and DEAD!
Maybe they should rethink this and just have those signs by cliffs... then "Dead end" would really mean something, right? Would you want to live at the "Dead end" of a road?

Francie's book club...

So, I'm reading Step on a Crack from James Patterson (one of the best fiction/drama/suspense/whodunit authors). Patterson also wrote the books that are now movies, such as Kiss the Girls and Along came a spider. Kiss the girls was the first James Patterson book I read as a senior in academy 98-99. Step on a crack is such a page turner that I can't stop thinking about going home for lunch to read my book! Here's the web site if you want to check it out a bit more... http://www.jamespatterson.com/books_stepOnCrack.html
I encourage all of you to read a book... get a book referral from someone, that has book credibility, don't read the cover or what the book is about, and discover the book for yourself, make it come alive in your mind and add yourself as a character if you want!
I want to give someone credit for starting the passion for books in my life... that would be Rachael, my oldest sister. When I was 13 years old, she loaned me 7 books to read; The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan, Thicker Than Water, A Time to Kill - John Grisham, The Select, To Kill a Mockingbird, a Robin Cook book (medical thriller), and a Mary Higgins Clark book... (I'm pretty sure those were the original 7 that got me started reading for the past almost 14 years. Once I read those books, I used to keep tabs of how many and which books I read each year, that year was about 50 to 75. The number declined quite a bit, but I wouldn't have the craving for a book, the way I do now, if it weren't for my sister... Thank you, Rach.
I've got quite a collection of great authors, my latest favorites are James Patterson (here's a biography on Patterson) http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writer.asp?cid=968077&z=y and David Baldacci (here's a biography on Baldacci) http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?z=y&cid=881663#bio
Let me know what books you all are reading and what's good. I'll be starting a list of favorites here pretty soon...

An Invitation...

I am inviting all of you who'd like to leave a comment to do so... I have just recently learned that some people weren't able to leava a comment; therefore, I have adjusted one of the settings... Hope to hear your comments, now!!
Have a good weekend... I'll be in McKinley, Michigan.

See what I mean about "real" smiles?

Finally got the kids outside and Derrick gave them all bubbles to play with... they had a good time and I captured their smiles (true smiles, too!)
Ben...

Jack...

And Kristen!

So, I went to the dentist this morning, and...

I had to get up at 6 a.m. to get to the dentist for a 7 a.m. appointment, which was poorly planned for one that got the entire day off work! It was pretty warm this morning, but thundering and lightning and raining so much that a few times when I was actually able to see the road, the yellow line was running underneath the center of my car... kinda scary.
The dentist did something to me that I've never had done before, he measured my gums, which of course hurt really bad, but was a pretty interested thing to hear the 2,3,2,3,2,3,4,3,4,2,4... etc. (2's and 3's are good, but the higher you go, the worse). He did tell me that my bones (looking at the x-rays, where the teeth roots are planted into) were strong and healthy like a 16 year old! I also had to fill him in on my parents teeth, as I know it, and mentioned that I have the high gum lines above some of my teeth, like my mom does/did, and he looked at my teeth/bite and said that he could just shave a bit off and it'll fix that problem...
Warning to those who drink pop/soda... my dentist told me this morning that it will disintegrate your teeth... in fact, the worst soda is Mountain Dew (at least it's not Diet Coke!) he said that M.D. is the fastest way to disintegrate your teeth! I told him that I like the 'bubbles' and he said that the bubbles are acid and will swim into the mouth and that bacteria loves it... Makes me think twice about drinking soda... but how can I stop?
So, for any of you that are related to me and have certain issues, add your comments and fill us all in on what could be hereditary...

On the road with American Idol...

So, as most of you know, I tried out for American Idol last September. I drove all the way to Minneapolis, Minnesota "don't ya know" and spent two days/two nights enjoying the whole AI adventure, including shopping for about four hours in the great: Mall of America, eating breakfast in the coolest (and definitely the smallest) restaurant ever, (basically the width of about two escalators and about that long, but not at an up and down angle, obviously; but the cooks made our breakfast right in front of us and I've never had such fluffy "extremely over-hard" eggs before in my life!)

And of course, getting up at the butt crack of dawn, about 4 a.m. and standing in line for about an hour, getting ushered into the stadium, listening to Prince's "1999" song for about half an hour before we sang it for the cameras about 15 times, over and over again at about 6 a.m.

One of the coolest things? Seeing the cute and short "Ryan Seacrest"! Yummy!

I had a bunch of really phenomenal singers sitting next to me, although none of them made it to Hollywood, including one guy from New York with the best character, personality, and voice!

When it came down to it, I sang a country song for the producers and they said, "you have a really nice voice, but it's not what we're looking for this year!" Which, of course, they probably said to everyone else...

If I were to do it again, I wouldn't sing country... maybe "Only fools rush in" by Elvis Presley.

After walking out of the "loser's" door, I caught a cab to my car and drove home... maybe next year.

Well, that's the story, I may add more details later, but just wanted to give you a premise to this very special section: American Idol or Bust!

Cabin Fever

About a month ago, a bunch of my friends planned a weekend up north at a cabin with a creek and in the middle of the woods... I'm not really looking forward to the drive up there, but the company is awesome and the "realness" and "innocence" of nature is something I've been craving... I'm thankful for my friends and their sense of adventure and ways of changing it up!
Natalie, my sister, said it sounds like a scary movie... so, I promise not to drink the water!

What makes you smile?

Hanging out with Ben, Jack, and Kristen yesterday evening didn't miss any action... Want to get Jack to stop crying? Ask him if he'll help you with your blog page. He actually knew more than I gave that 5-year old credit for! I was wondering how to check something and he points to the screen and says, "why don't you try clicking on that?" Pretty impressive, let me tell you!

He also told me that one of the kids at school "actually thought I was 6-years old! Can you believe it?" That's 'Jackie Pak' for ya!

Kristen's getting really good at her guitar playing and I told her that Jason (my boyfriend) and Kristen should play something together... she said, "He doesn't even know how to play very well!" On shoots my defensive side and I say, "yes, he does... he plays for me all the time!" But in reality, he just likes to 'doodle' on the guitar (you know how people 'doodle' on paper instead of actually writing something... yes, that's what he does, and he's pretty darn good at it too!).

Ben also made me laugh with his perfect grammar and speaking skills... shocks me every time to hear this little 2-year old boy speaking in full sentences! He shows me how he puts a spaghetti noodle in his milk cup, stirs it around, and then wants me to taste it! I laugh... then he asks me, "Fray-Fray, why are you laughing at me?" Such a cutie... it actually didn't taste as bad as the uncooked piece of spaghetti he made me take a bite of earlier...

And of course, all the kids show me Katya's room, as if it's show and tell every time I go over there, and realistically, they probably show everyone that comes to their house...

It is pretty exciting too!

I love those kids!

And that makes me smile!

Auntie vs. Auntie

I just want to make sure that those out there who don't know me know that I am an Auntie, not an Auntie... That's right, call me Auntie (pronounced as ant-y not ahnt-y). I've always thought it weird to be an "Ahnt" as if I were from another country or an old Aunt, which I'm not! I'm only in my late 20's! Okay, well, that's it for now, just wanted to clarify for the future...

On Being an Auntie

So, being an auntie can be quite crazy and hectic but one of the things that makes it all worth while is that moment when you walk in the door and your nieces and nephews run to you and say "Auntie Francie, Auntie Francie!!" and start giving you hugs and kisses and trying to climb on you...