Up Date

The girls Christmas party turned out great. We had a good time but missed Mom, Aunt Ellen, Jayme, and Kristy. But we had added guests. Total there were about 12 or so of us. We're having the cousin's Christmas gift exchange at Bo and Cass's house tomorrow. It should be fun. The Nay family party is at Becca's house on the 17th and the Ray's party is at Kristy's house on the 22nd. Both of which we will attend. Mckall and I are going to the Nutcracker this Tuesday night and this Thursday the whole family is gathering up and going to Temple Square and then Bountiful to put a Christmas Tree at the cemetery for Casey. Shane and I are going to the Roof in a couple of weeks with couples from our ward and then seeing the lights again. It's going to be a fun filled December. It all will come to a head when all of Shane's family comes December 23rd to stay until the 28th. And they're staying in our house. It should be a good time. They're a lot of fun to have around. His sisters are a hoot. Last but not least is an update on Shane. He was released from his calling as primary teacher to the 7 year olds. He is now the Sunday School Pres. Wow. He's very excited. I'm so proud of him.

The Long Awaited Answers to Caitlin's list

Here are the answers:
1. Make-up horse
2. Barbies
3. Ponies - ones named Sunnydaze and ones named Sparkleworks - you would either have to be a genius or Caitlin's mother to figure this one out - good thing I'm both!!
4. Dress up clothes
5. Jewelry
6. Church clothes
7. Books
8. DVD
9. Doll TV
10. Popstar
11. Posters
12. Watch
13. Mirror
14. Toy wand
15. Popstar stuff
16. Microphone
17. New playstation games

So, Heather and Mason got 7 right and 2 half correct, Cheryl got 7 right and 3 half correct plus the title, so it has been determined that Nana is the winner. Congratulations - your prize is.. nothing other than your strained eye sight.

Thanks for playing and tune in again next year, same bat time, same bat channel, for Decoding Caitlin's Wish list season 2. (And if Cody doesn't improve his handwriting we might add him in as the bonus round.)

love, Cass

Me too, I have given up

Hey Cass, I have given up too. I printed it out on Saturday and strained my eyes as much as they would strain and I still couldn't figure anything more out. I am ready to read the answers. I have sent all the Christmas boxes and the first person who laughes at how I wrapped will have to give their present back. Ya'all know how I hate to wrap and when I am sitting at a small desk, it is even harder, so.......no laughing, ya hear. Love you all, mom

Caitlin's Wish List

Are you going to give us the answers yet? Mason and I want to know what her list said so that we can see how many we got right. Post them please.

Christmas Decorations

Heathey, you can use anything you want. Everything is up in the rafters in the garage and dad said he has a box of ornaments that has Casey's name on it. You can take all the Christmas stuff home with you if you want. We won't need them until next year, so use away. There might be a small tree stand, we bought one last year, but where ever you buy the tree, they can probably make one out of wood. Shane is brilliant, he can probably figure something out too.

I am still working on the Christmas list challenge. You can just see all the kids personalities when you read there lists. We are leaving now to go get my hair colored. It is raining so we can't take the scooters so we have to catch a bus....how fun is that. Love you all mom

Casey's Tree

Shane and I will put up Casey's tree. We'll by a real one. Dad, do you know where the decorations are for his tree and is there a stand some where. Mom and dad. Shane and I are borrowing your 3 trees that are bunched together to help decorate our basement for his family to come for Christmas and anything else we find that might make our house look great for the holidays. Is that ok? I promise to give them back! Love you and keep guessing on Caitlin's list. We've given up.

Guess the last two items

No one has guessed on the last two items- probably the hardest other than #3. There are 17 items. #16 is kinda hidden right under #15, and #17 is next to item #12.

MORE ANSWERS TO THE MYSTERY

This is better than compter games, and of course I am supposed to be working. I have figured a few things out, I think

The top says, "Caitlins Christmas and birthday list

1 - make up dress up
2 - barbies
3 - shoes (we haven-----something??????????)
4 - something lip gloss
5 - jewelry
6 - something clothes
7 - ????? (still working on it)
8 - DVD
9 - doll TV
10 - popstar
11 - posters
12 - ????????? (still working on it)
13 - mirror
14 - toy something
15 - pop something

That's all I got but I am spending more time on this puzzle.

Good luck all - hope I win

MOM

THE MYSTERY WISH LIST

The mystery wish list. Boy Heather and Mason you are good. I looked at your answers and could figure some of them out with what you wrote, but................... Of course I have been gone for so long I have no clue what kids want these days. I think I will print it out too and dad and I can look at it together and see what we can come up with. Cody and Chelsea and Caitlin, you are so cute with your wish lists. Caitlin, wow - you wanted 17 things, Santa would need a sleigh just for your things. Of course Cody would want computer games so he and Mason could play computer all day. Chelsea is just prim and proper and writes hers neatly on lined paper so everyone can read it (well sort of). Heather, I am sending you a little box before Christmas. In it are three kangaroo Christmas ornaments; one for your tree, one for Bo's tree and one for Casey's tree. I hope someone does go and put a tree on Casey's grave, but if you don't, then please just leave his ornament on his headstone. Hopefully no one will steal it. Last year dad and I put up a real tree, it was less expensive that way but a headache trying to get it to stand up straight. Bo and Heather, you can do what you want, or not do anything, whatever. We just wanted you to have the ornaments from Australia to remember our time here. Love you all - MOM

Heather and Mason's guesses

1. Make up and something
2. Barbies
3. no clue
4.dress up clothes
5.jewels
6.checkers
7.roxy stuff
8.dvd
9. doll tv
10.Pop Star
11. no clue
12. Watch
13. mirror
14. no clue
15 no clue

fill in the blanks for us! Let's see how much we got right.

decoding the wish list

I'm going to need a little help from Mason on Caitlin's wish list. I'll blog later and tell you what he thinks. I think I'll print it out.

Christmas wish lists from the Ray kids

So here are the christmas lists that the kids made this year. These are actually the second version because Caitlin accidentally threw away the first lists. My main purpose in posting them was to start a little competition and see who could translate the most on Caitlin's list. If you get the most correct, you will win a fabulous........ well nothing actually because you are going to have to wait until my husband makes a million dollars first before I buy you anything. Post your answers on the blog and I will post the translation next week. Have fun!!
Love, Cass

Here is Caitlin's list. There are actually 17 items on her list. Good luck. If you can read them the first time then you must have the mindset of a kindergartener.

This is Chelsea's list. She already got all the basketball stuff for her birthday.

This is Cody's. In his first draft he also had listed: a TV in my own room complete with satellite hook-up.

I tried to make them as dark as I could but they just don't look as good when I post them to the blog. Hopefully you can read them okay.

Time for us to come home

Okay Cassandra, I can tell it is time for nana and papa Ray to quit globe trotting and come home and help. Of course, as you know, we will still be a ways away, Washington DC, but that won't be for long and then we can help out. I am glad you are not working nights any more, you need your sleep and your kids need you. Enjoy them while they are young, because boy howdy do they grow up fast. We finished our last Thanksgiving abroad, we hope. We were alone thinking of our kids and grandkids in the states. Here is a picture of us at Thanksgiving, 2006, in Sydney, Australia.

The Post Office...Ptthththththththt Who Needs Em

So, we have spent the last 32 days living in complete misery and chaos because I went back to work at the post office. I was working 5 nights a week on the graveyard shift from 11:30pm to 8:00am - and sometimes 10:00am. The laundry hasn't been done in weeks, the house looks like monkeys live in it, and the children are all acting out because mom is gone at night and tries to sleep during the day. Since I still had to take Caitlin to kindergarten, Chelsea to dance and deal with scouts and stuff, I was lucky if I got in 3 hours of sleep a day. So Bo and I decided last night that enough was enough and we would have to make it another way. We decided that last night would be my LAST night working at the post office. I felt so relieved as I got ready for work and left the house at 11pm for the last time. I got to work a few minutes early so I could turn in my resignation. Of course they tried to talk me out of it because they are so desparate for people right now and I was starting to consider staying on with cut back hours during the day. Then, there was one last thing. One of the supervisors asked me if I had another pair of shoes in my car. I told her "no". She then proceeded to tell me that the shoes I was wearing, ( a pair of those furry, mocassin, clog thingies that Heather gave me) were a safety hazard because they didn't have a strap across the back. I told her they were the same pair of shoes I had been wearing every night all month. She then told me that I couldn't clock in for the night until I went home to change my shoes. So I told them that if I had to go home to change my shoes, that I would not come back. So here I am now, writing in this blog during the time I usually spend as my lunch hour because I was not about to come home and change my shoes.

So if you are sitting at home this weekend, wondering where your letters and packages are that you were expecting,-- they will be late--, because the BEST and FASTEST keyer in the world has now quit the post office (for the third time) and is NEVER going back. I would suggest switching to email. Good night.

The beginning

This is the mother, Cheryl Ray, first starting this post to get her kids to start posting information about their lives, etc. and to get input regarding things of interest by anyone. Here is our info:

We are living in Sydney, Australia, and have been since April 3, 2006. We will stay until April of 2007 and we will transfer to Washington DC where I will work and Kelly will look for work. We have enjoyed our time in Sydney, but it is way too expensive to live here on one salary. We feel cheated that the US Consulate here would not hire Kelly, even as a veteran. I guess we weren't meant to stay here long, but feel grateful we were able to live here for at least one year. We will be selling our house in North Salt Lake, Utah, and for what we can get out of it, we will probably only be able to buy a small townhouse in Virginia. Oh well, we have always be adventurous so why not now. I hope to keep this blog going and hope my kids and grandkids will write in it. Here is a picture of me and Kelly one night on the town in Sydney.