Q & A

After posting the About Me (below) it got me wondering if there is anything you might wonder that I've never addressed?

If there is, nows your chance!

Ask me a question in the comments and I'll put up a post in a few days with answers. :O)

Questions can be anything....well, maybe not ANYthing...but silly or serious I'll do my best.

About Me

I don't get too many new visitors to my blog...but just in case, here's a little bit about me, the writer of this here blog. My name is Laura aka. Duckygirl. I've liked little yellow ducks for as long as I can remember and somewhere along the way that nickname stuck. I am wife to a great man who makes me laugh and I'm a mother of 12 kids ages: 14, 13, 12, 10, 9, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 6 months and our Josiah who went to be with Jesus just before he turned 5. We live in the mid-west but we're west coasters at heart, having lived in Washington State most of our lives. I currently home school the 7 oldest kiddos. It may be a little noisy, a bit messy, and slightly chaotic around here but we try to have fun and somehow the Lord has kept me sane.



I'm using this to test something out...sorry if it seems like a strange post! :O)

Trip Bloopers

No trip with our family is ever free from a bit of craziness. I find the imperfect times are usually the funniest ones. Here's a couple....

~ The first one here is *my* blunder. I was clearing off a table of plates after the reception. I'm walking towards the garbage can with Theo in one hand and a stack of plates in the other. Theo decides to wildly wave his arms and knocks over the plates....onto the back of another wedding guest. :/ (luckily he was very gracious and he didn't get any food on him)

~ We're walking up the steps to the Lincoln Memorial, a couple kids had climbed up ahead of us. I look over to see Stephen sliding down the marble banister only to land with his legs on the 'NO SLIDING' sign.

Our vacation - A friend's wedding

Yesterday we returned from a fabulous trip to Pennsylvania! A very good friend of ours was getting married....in a castle! How neat is that?



This castle belongs to a missionary group called WEC International, which both the bride and groom's parents work for. They were extremely gracious and had a dorm style room all set up for us, better than any hotel we've ever stayed at!


The wedding was on Sunday and we arrived there late Wednesday evening, which gave us a bit of time to do some sight seeing. Rather last minute we decided to go down to D.C. (we had originally thought we'd tour Philly)

Our first stop was at the Smithsonian zoo. Fun to see the animals, but looking back we could have skipped this stop. (lack of planning, oh well)



We then left the zoo and headed towards the landmark mall. I didn't get any pictures of it but I'm pretty sure we were passed by the president in a motorcade!! Lots of police cars with sirens followed by several black limos and such...what fun that was!



The whole family in front of the Washington Monument.



This picture shows the rest of the gang that went with us, without all their help holding kids hands and giving shoulder rides...I just don't think we would have been able to do all that we did!

Most of the kids at the base of the monument.


Theo, Noah & I.
Ian, Josiah & Noah at the Lincoln memorial.



The only downfall to our trip was that the pool was under construction. :(


Here are several of the little monkeys in front of the White House, we got a few better photos but it was dark at this point.

We also saw the Capital Building, the World War II memorial, the Vietnam Memorial and drove past the Jefferson Memorial but I didn't want to bore you with hundreds of pictures!


Theo & Mommy

They did things a bit different and hosted the reception the day before the wedding. This is a picture of my husband & the grooms brother giving a toast.



Saturday night Ian threw a bonfire party, the kids had a ton of fun that night! I was a bit worried how it would work with Theo & Kathleen...but you know what? Theo fell asleep and Kathleen sat on the little rock wall content for hours. Truly amazing. Can you see her in the middle there in her little purple outfit? After dark the kids & I went to bed and all the guys stayed (a bachelor party of sorts).

There are so many more stories I could add but I think I'll stop there for today. :)

Saturday Confessions

I'm going to link up with Melissa today, seems like a good idea. :)


1. I had an eye appointment this morning at 10:00 a.m. Somehow everyone let me sleep and I wasn't woken up until 9:20 (this NEVER happens)

2. Ever since moving to Illinois I haven't been able to wear contacts, my eyes are just too dry here. I'm giving it one more try with a different brand, we'll see.

3. Trying to lose 'baby weight' is hard when you are lazy.

4. I started all of us back on a schedule this week, structure is a good thing for us.

5. I also ended up potty training Noah (he's almost 3 for goodness sake). He's doing amazing, but he's not fully trained. We leave for a LONG trip soon, I hope we can somehow manage not to lose ground.

6. Ian's been spending hours working on a family website, I think he missed his calling somehow. He seems to love that type of thing.

7. Baby Theo is four months old now and giggles. Cutest thing ever.

3 Things

I got this fun idea from my friend Leanne's blog.....and I thought I'd copy since copying is the best form of flattery, right?


Three names I've been called:
Mom
Lofa bird
Heather (by different people, weird. I don't think I look like a Heather)

3 jobs I've had:
Cart pusher for Fred Meyer
medical records filer
Sears portrait studio photographer

3 places I've lived:
Vashon Island, Washington
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Bloomington, Illinois

3 TV shows I like: (I don't have cable or satellite...we watch online.)
Cake Boss
The Office
Clean House

3 places I've been:
Disneyland
Redwoods
Pacific Ocean
(wish I could visit any of those again soon)

3 places I want to go:
a spa
to a masseuse
someplace quiet....haha!
(just kidding/mostly)

3 foods I like:
pizza
pad Thai
mangoes

3 things I'm looking forward to:
going to a friend's wedding in PA in a couple weeks! :)
real spring weather
everyday watching my children grow & learn

3 pets I've had:
a black cat named PITA when I was a kid(yep, it's an acronym for pain in the...well you get the idea)
NO OTHER PETS! Sorry. Pets are great for some people just not me. :)

3 entertainers I like:
How about the Duggars? That's more than 3 but they're pretty entertaining (Sorry Emily)

3 Christian artists I like:
Third Day
Jeremy Camp
Newsboys

3 drinks I like:
Diet Coke
water
ice tea

3 pet peeves:
people who don't use their turn signals
anyone playing with my hair
repetitive noises (kazoo anyone?)

3 favorite movies:
BBC's Pride & Prejudice
Sweet Home Alabama
Top Gun

3 favorite actors:
Steve Carroll (SO funny!)
Hugh Grant (more the movies he's in than him I think)
?? Can't think of a third.

3 favorite actresses:
Reece Witherspoon
Julia Roberts
can't think of her name but she plays Leslie Nope on Parks n Rec....she's hilarious!

3 books I like:
Pride & Prejudice
Unbroken
The Hiding Place

3 role models:
my husband
our Pastor
A very encouraging, wise friend from church

3 accomplishments:
making it through each day
5 years of homeschooling under my belt
surviving childbirth 9 times

3 goals in my future:
growing closer to the Lord
teaching/training my kids
growing my business

3 words that describe me: (I hope)
friendly
trustworthy
fun

And for the sake of keeping things real, I'll add:

3 things that DON'T describe me:
patient
organized
stylish (I go for comfort over fashion, ha!)