I Love My Honey!

For My Valentine!


1-What is his name: Dennis Lynn Marker 2- Where did you meet? In Erie, PA where we were both serving as missionaries. We met again at our first mission reunion after we both got home. 3- How long did you date before you were married? Dated for 3 months got engaged then married 3 months later. 4- How long have you been married for? Almost 11 years. 5- Who said I love you first? I'm sure that he did. 6- When and where was your fist kiss? In his uncle's driveway. 7- Who kissed who first? He kissed me first, but I definitely kissed him back. 8- Who proposed? He did on one knee at the Fayette spring. 9-What's your favorite thing to do as a couple? Work out in the yard. 10-Do you have kids? How many? 4 and one more coming in May. 11- What does he do that surprises you? He very rarely surprises me but when he does it's because he's being spontaneous. 12- What's your favorite feature about him? His smile! He has a great smile!! 13- What's your favorite quality about him? Umm what to choose. . . probably his ability to see a need and do it. He's always helping me and other people. His work ethic is amazing!! 14- Does he have a nickname for you? not really. 15- What's his favorite color? Blue 16- What's his favorite food? Usually pasta. 17-What is his favorite sport? Basketball. 18- What's a hidden talent that he has? He's an amazing artist, but not too many people get to see it. 19- How old is he? 32 20- What do you admire most about him? How patient he can be. He doesn't judge or criticize people. 21-What's his favorite past time? playing basketball or any sport really. 22- Who eats more? Him I hope. 23- Who is taller? He is a foot and a half taller than me. 24- Who sings better? I love it when Dennis serenades me while he's playing the piano, what a sweety!! 25- Who is smarter? Definitely him, Mr I can read something once and remember it. 27- Who pays the bills? Me, but everything is on auto pay. 28- Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does, I'm usually the one who gets up on the wrong side in the morning (he, he) He's a morning person. 29- Who mows the lawn? It's not assigned. He doesn't have a lot of time when he gets home though so I try to get it done during the day. 30- Who cooks dinner? I do, but he will if I ask him to. 31- Who drives? He does. I don't like driving much. 32- Who is more stubborn? Me. Dennis is a peacemaker. 34- Who has more siblings? same 35- Who controls the T.V. remote? We don't really watch TV and when we watch a movie it's together. 36- Whose temper is worse? Mine. I like to vent and he doesn't. 37- Who does the dishes? We both help the kids do them. When they get stacked up he usually dives in and saves us though. 38- Whose parents do you see more often? Mine.

You can copy and paste this if you want. I would love to read them though so let me know you did it.

Photo Focus Club

For Christmas I got a new camera. A Canon PowerShot SX 10IS. It's nothing super fancy but a definite step up from my point and shoot. I have been so excited about it but, confession time, I'm a little intimidated by it also. I've tried going through the manual, but . . .well it's a manual, and not much help. And the big thing, I'm definitely a novice at photography, but love it.

So yesterday while I was browsing through one of my favorite scrapbook sites, (scrapgirls.com) I found a new club they started in January this year. It's called the Photo Focus Club. Each week they issue a challenge associated with a monthly theme, take pictures, share their best picture for the challenge and then, of course, scrap about it. All throughout this there are others there to make comments and give advice. I'm so excited to get started with this club! Already I've been directed to a new website that has lots of helps learning and getting used to my camera. It's called ShortCourses. I'm looking forward to reading through it.

I think it's just what I need to practice and get used to my new camera as well as improve my photography skills. So I've decided that I'm going to post my photos and layouts here so that I can see the progress I'm making. I think it's going to be so much fun!! So . . . here it goes.

Pay Day!

I don't recognize Pay Days too often. I feel overwhelmed, under appreciated and pretty much failing in my attempts more often than not, but boy when those special moments do come . . . they're golden! Things are a little lighter, my attempts, perhaps succeed more than I realize, and even if feel under appreciated, I realize that they really do need me and love me. So I just wanted to say thanks to my kids this weekend for the wonderful pay day. It makes being a mom so worth it!!

Happy Birthday Jacob

Today Jacob is 10 years old. He's been looking forward and planning his birthday all week. Tonight we're taking him out to dinner, with just mom and dad. I'm looking forward to the time to spend just with him. It doesn't happen very often.

Jacob has always been a very obedient son. He always does what I asks him to, even if it's amid a few grumbles, but he still does it. He has a very sensitive heart and his conscience gives him a rougher time of it than almost any punishment does. He's been telling us a lot lately that when he grows up he wants to be an inventor, (uncle Jared clarified that today "Inventors" are called Engineers.)

Jacob enjoys playing games. Video games, board games, and sport games. Right now he's involved in basketball, piano lessons and Weblos. He's a very talented boy! I love watching him grow. Love you so much Jacob! Happy Birthday!!

Isaac's Baptism

Isaac was baptized on January 2, 2010 by his dad in our stake center. It turned out to be just a great day. Grandpa and Grandma Marker did great pitch hitting for us. They filled in with the music, since we didn't have a music leader and Dennis was on the program to play the piano. Isaac asked his uncle Ammon to give a talk about the Holy Ghost and chose "When Jesus Christ was Baptised" for the closing song. It turned out really well. We had a lot of family there and the Wallace's also made it home from their trip in time to come. It was really special for Isaac and made his day very memorable to have so many friends and family there. His only comment on being baptized was that the water was really cold.

We were able to get together at our house after for an early lunch of roast turkey sandwiches and lots of fixings. I ended up making lots of goodies for New Years Eve so I was grateful for the clean up crew.

On Sunday Isaac wanted to bear his testimony about his baptism and told me that he wanted to write it down so he didn't mess it up. It was very cute. I can't believe that he's 8 years old already! What a special guy!!!

Teddy

OK, I missed blogging a bit of holiday news. We have a new little boy to welcome into our family. Curly blond hair and. .. a wet nose. Yes, our little boy is a puppy named Teddy. Santa sure did surprise us this year with this little addition. He's a 6 month old Lhasa apso. He's the most docile dog you ever saw!! He doesn't shed, loves the kids, is so cute with his major under bite, did I mention he doesn't shed! We're working on the separation anxiety, and house training still but he's just sooo cuddly and just loves the attention! He fits right in and amazingly enough helps with the energy level in our home. He follows us where ever we go. The kids are having fun teaching him tricks and playing with him. The dilemma every night is who he gets to sleep by, or rather, who get's to sleep by him. He's restricted to his kennel at night.

So, in doing a bit of research on Lhasa apso's we found out that they were trained to be watch dogs in Asia. Yea, we learned this part the very first night. He's got a very alarming bark!! We usually put our cat out for the night, but when she wants to come in she'll paw at the door. He heard it and let us know!!! So, he's been "getting used to the cat" now. Mainly we think he would like to eat her, and she really is leary of him which is very unusual for our feisty feline.

Welcome 2010

Aaauuugh, (long releasing sigh) the new year!!! Welcome 2010.

I know most people are usually sarcastic about new years resolutions, but being the very goal oriented person that I am, I actually love making new goals and find that yearly evaluations tend to motivate me more than feed me full of guilt.

Almost 10 years ago I made 10 year goals to put in a family time capsule. Unfortunately I didn't make a copy of these goals, (yea I know what's the point then), however I do remember a few of them. I think it's about time to check them off the list.

1) Learn Spanish
2) Learn to play the guitar
3) visit another country

Now that the holidays are over I'm more than ready to get back into our regular life routine. This means school and house work instead of so much down time. I need to dust off my house keeping system which has kind of slipped too. I've found the best "guilt free" system for me comes from HouseofOrder.com. It's the only system I've found where I'm not constantly cleaning, not constantly full of guilt and still doing the things that I like to do, all with a clean(er) house.

So here we go!!