They Set Me Free!

What a cute little ear! I went for a follow-up ultrasound on Friday. At the first u/s the heart looked good, but it was so small it wasn't possible to see the smaller veins, so the perinatologist requested that I return in 6 weeks to get a better look. This time I took Curtis and the girls and Soren. The girls have been excited to 'see' the baby. The baby did NOT want us to see his face. This was as close as we got to seeing his profile. Although later the dr. did get a good look at the nose and lip area. No clefts.

So amazing to see all those functional body parts, bones, organs, etc. and realize that they are absolutely tiny still.

They were able to get a good look at the heart and the aorta and the pulmonary artery. Everything looked just like it should. They measured the main measuring points again and I'm measuring exactly right for dates. No changes to the due date! Rats! I was hoping they'd move it up. They told me that by the measurements the baby is about 10 inches long and weighs about 1 lb and 3 oz.

But the best part was when the dr. said, "I see no compelling reason why you should need to see us again." HOORAY!!

p.s. Much to my Sadie’s chagrin, it's still a BOY! She was really hoping it would have changed. Silly girl.

This girl!

How did my long waited-for baby girl turn into THIS girl? Wasn't it just yesterday that I was absolutely thrilled to be holding a baby girl after having 3 baby boys in a row? Wasn't it yesterday when she was going into Nursery for the first time? Or leaving me at the door on her first day of kindergarten?
I'm sure it was just yesterday that she was baptized and so excited to be heading off to Activity Days with the 'big' girls.
But now, here she is heading off to Mutual for the first time. She has been waiting for a long time to turn 12. And I've been dreading it for about the same amount of time. Know why? Cause I know that the next time I look, she be 16 and heading out the door on a date and then 18 and off to college and 20,21,25 heading off to get married and I'll still be wondering how it happened?

Something I've been wanting to do for years

For years I’ve been wanting to take some pictures of my kids with fall leaves in the background. For years it had not happened. Too many excuses ranging from non-cooperative kids to missing the leaves to just plain forgetting.

This year I was determined to give it a go. We had to go two different days to get these, but I’m happy with them. And the drives to the leaves weren’t too bad, either. Of course, I still have uncooperative kids, so I only got to take pictures of the four youngest. Raspberries to my #2 and #3 boys!!

These were taken at South Fork Park and on the Alpine Loop/Cascade Springs Rd.

Our Noble EPIC Adventure

One of the things we do with each topic is to "mind-map" the Key Points of the topic at the beginning of our study. This is to share pertinent information and excite interest in the kids to do further study. The Key Points are best presented in a way that reinforces the theme. On the sails of a drawing of a ship for the Roanoke/Jamestown topic, by giving each child a kernal of corn for each Key Point in the Plymouth topic, or in whatever way you think will help them remember the information a bit easier. For this one we played a matching game of the 13 colonies and tried to place each colony in its correct place, then we did the mindmap/key points for each of those 3 geographical areas. After the Key points are presented, then it's time for Inquiries. This is the fun stuff. There are inquiries about the topic in 8 different areas, math, language, science, social studies, art, music, etc. We do several as a group and then each child is encouraged to do as many as they would like to do. This is what determines the length of time we spend on any given topic. This is Cambria doing research on the computer for one of the inquiries she has chosen. This was one inquiry we did together. We laid out the dimensions of the little ship Discover (one of the three ships to bring settlers to Jamestown) on the lawn and sat within that area to read a book about Jamestown. It was amazing to see how small that ship really was (the reddish yarn you can see). I can't imagine crossing that Atlantic in that little craft.

Here are the two younger girls doing a replica of the Plymouth Colony. They made 21 buildings and using a map placed them where the colonists properties were and labeled them. We also have a timeline that we put markers on of each of the topics and events we are learning about. Cambria drew this one. This is our Liberty Tree. Each leaf represents an inquiry done or a theme book read. This tree is a great record of the things we have done in our study, I imagine by the time we are done it may well have taken over the entire wall. For each leaf on the tree the girls earn shillings to purchase things when the Yankee Peddler comes around. He/She is a traveling salesman with various tools/toys to purchase. No one knows when he/she will come, so they are busily storing up their 'shillings' and awaiting his/her arrival. These are some of the theme books we used in our Roanoke/Jamestown study. It's sure nice to have a good library. These are the ones we recently used for our study of the Plymouth colony. We are really enjoying our study this year. All the hands-on work is keeping the girls interested and having the subjects tied to the theme makes them much more palatable. I'll try to share more as we go along.

I have to acknowledge the hard and incredible work of the women who created and shared this EPIC Adventure, Karen Kindrick, Cynthia Black, Jeanne Bradley and Deena Ortiz. So much work has gone into preparing this for our use and I thank them for that. We are learning and loving to learn as we go.

I'm Tired!

I find that I am just absolutely wiped out at the end of every day. I seriously just shut down.


I think there are a number of factors, homeschool being one of them. But the biggest one is this:

Yes, that's a positive pregnancy test. #8 will be joining our family in March. I don't get sick, I just get extremely tired!

Because I'm so 'old' I have had to go the Maternal Fetal Medicine area at the local hospital for consultation with specialists. GRRRRrrrr!!! Don't get me started on this one, it has become my latest hot button! But the ultrasound there showed nothing of concern and I refused all extra testing. Don't need to know 4 months sooner if the baby has Down's Syndrome. We'll deal with it, if it's necessary, when the baby is born.

Oh, yeah, the u/s told us that the baby is another BOY.

We're all really excited and anxious for this little guy to grow enough to come meet us.

First Day of our EPIC Adventure!

9.10.08
After several attempts to start our EPIC Adventure, we finally had our first visitor of the year and were able to introduce our theme for the year. Captain Moroni was just so busy fighting Lamanites that he kept having to delay his visit. We were excited to finally hear from him about why he was fighting and what he was fighting for. He told us about and showed us the Title of Liberty (Alma 46:12). He then shared with us some food like the kind he would eat when he was soldiering. We had dried beef (jerky), dried fruit (apples), and fresh berries and water from the nearby spring (water cooler).
He got a chance to return home and left all his armor in camp. So we tried it on! It was a bit big on us. But it was fun to wear the armor and hold the sword.


This is going to be a great year when we learn about the founding of this country and the courageous people who defended and championed liberty. Hopefully, we will begin to understand our responsibilities and duties to defend our liberty as well.

State Fair

I have so many things I want to blog about, but keep putting them off. Things like my Education Week experience, how school is going, yada, yada. I will share this while it's fresh in my mind. These days, things spoil in there pretty fast. Yesterday we got the boys out of school a bit early and headed up to SLC for the State Fair. It was Family Day and they had a deal on admission and 1/2 price on all-you-can-ride wristbands. So we made a day of it. The kids had a great time riding the rides and they were all so good to go on the little kid rides with Soren. He had a ball, riding in the helicopters and the race cars. When we got there, there weren't many lines for the rides so they were able to ride anything they wanted pretty quickly, and that's what they spent most of the afternoon doing. In fact, I'm ashamed to say we did not look at any of the 4H stuff or Open exhibits. We did walk through the goat and dairy cow barns and through the stinky pig area. That was it. The rest of the time we rode rides and spent waayyyyyyyyyy too much money on food and games. But we had a blast. All the kids won stuffed animals and other silly(useless) toys. I'm sure if you asked my family they would say the highlight of the night was when their mother got to be part of the Kenny Ahern comedy show. That was really scary for me. But it was fun for the kids and they got it all on video. Cambria was laughing so hard the video is pretty shaky and I disappear from the screen often, but it's pretty hilarious. When he started heading into the audience for a helper and locked on me, I was really hoping he was coming for Hannah who was sitting next to me. But no such luck! My 3 minutes of stage time! I can wait an eternity before ever having to do that again. (wish I knew how to put video on here)

Why?

Why does it always happen? Ok, well, not always, but it does often.

There have been so many times when my dear hubby has been out of town and I have been so sick I can't keep up with anything, including the kids. This last time we all were feeling cruddy, so thankfully they were pretty easy to keep up with. The house got trashed, but we took care of that when we all got feeling a bit better. And thank goodness it was just colds/sinus stuff not the intestinal kind of sick.

I remember a time a few years back when DH was gone to Scout Camp and we all came down with stomach flu. It was not pretty! There were not enough toilets to go around! The weirdest part was that my BIL was in town for some work stuff and stopped by to visit. I sat in the living room talking to him, but had to excuse myself every so often to go heave. If I had been him, I would have run screaming from the house.

Every time this happens, it makes me wish all the more that my mom lived close by. I would love to call her and say, "Can you watch the kids for me for a couple of hours, so I can get an uninterrupted nap?" In all my married life, I've never had that luxury. Guess I just had to learn to buck up and deal with it, like it or not.

He's a Big Boy Now!

Just more proof that my baby isn't a baby anymore! sniff, sniff

WE PASSED!!!

Hallelujah!

We got enough done on this house for the mortgage company to be satisfied and release our construction funds from escrow. Now we have some savings again.

So, what did DH do the day after all this was over?






Knocked out the big kitchen window and the wall below it to form the new entrance into the dining room. That's the new 'doorway' into the dining room above. A preliminary step to removing the entire wall.



Next he will fill in the old doorway and frame my new pantry! The pantry will fill the entire wall you see to the right. The red tape on the floor indicates where it will be. Hoohoo, all my appliances can have a home someplace other than the top of my refrigerator.


Never ending fun around here I tell ya, but at least we don't have to have it done on anyone else's timetable now!

Never Thought It Would Happen....

A month or so ago we had a little issue with a child checking a book out of our library that I wish had never come into my home. Let's just say that I was shocked and appalled when I found out. I learned a few things, first, the library will allow anyone to check out anything at anytime.
Second, I better make sure I know what my kids are checking out and looking for at the library.
I had to go in and make some changes so that they are now not able to check anything out without my presence and permission. I also sat down and wrote a letter to the library expressing my disappointment that such a book was in the young adult section and that minor children were allowed to check out such books. I asked them to consider removing it from the library or at the very least marking it in some way that would make it impossible to check out without a parent's permission. I sent it off, never dreaming that they would do anything about it or even respond. Imagine my surprise when I received a letter in the mail this week from them. It stated that they understood my concerns and that they had discussed this book more than once since receiving my letter. The most that they felt they could do was remove its Young Adult designation and put an adult designation on it. Granted I know that in reality that means nothing, since all the YA and A non-fiction books are shelved together, so if a person looks up said book, it's probably still in the same place. I am just amazed that they took the time to discuss the book and the issue of its place in the library, and also to write me a return letter.

And, yeah, we have had a good, long chat with this child about what happened. I hope that now we are clear on what is and what is not allowable in the way of media in our home. I guess up til now I've still been in that blissful place called Naivete'. No longer, I've just had a rough landing in the land of Reality!

On the Primary front: As of tomorrow we will finally have a new Music Leader. HOORAY! I'll be glad to hand off that responsibility! Still working on the secretary and some new Nursery Leaders. Ugh!

Mission front: all's going well. Sent home some wonderful pictures and funny video clips from the MTC. With one of them I didn't realize it was a video until I saw my son walk across the room. That really gave my heart a leap, to actually 'see' him after so long. It was awesome. They were playing tricks on the elders just coming in that day and hiding in the closets! Silly boys!

House front: had our last building inspection yesterday with the city. They passed us on everything except we need to get our cabinets in the office area, to conceal the wires sticking out of the wall. Hooray!

School front: Boys are gearing up for school, we got all their school supplies this week, just need to get a few more uniforms for them. I have lots to do to get things ready for school here at home. Need to get a costume made for our first historical 'visitor' of the year. That's the most pressing issue right now.....getting excited to get going!

Have a great weekend!

Who?? Me??

"Are you kidding?"



"You can't be serious."



He was. The Bishop. Calling me to be the Primary President.



Yikes!





I haven't been the president of anything since I was in the Laurels YW class eons ago. This is all a bit overwhelming, but I can say I'm really glad I had a few months to be in Primary as the music leader so I'd know how in the world it works.

We live in a very transient ward, with a very small base of stable families and a large population of BYU married students. So the turnover is huge, about 3x a year. This happens to be one of those times, so I'm stepping into this with basically needing to redo the entire Primary. Makes my head hurt. Wish me luck!

Look What I did!

I've been getting some of my harvesting done which is a big deal for me. I usually lose all interest in the garden starting about now, when it starts to get HOT! But I'm really trying not to get apathetic about it this year and to not leave a bunch of stuff to go to waste.
So far, I've gotten about 8 cups of raspberries. I'm just freezing them until I have a larger amount to make jam. But they are YUMMY! Big and juicy.

I also harvested all of my spinach and cleaned it, tore it and froze it. I think we will be able to use it in green smoothies, at least that's my hope. Not too much salad eating going on around here this summer, not sure why. But I didn't want it to bolt and be useless, so I decided this was an option to still get the use of it.


Tuesday I went out and pulled up my garlic. I was happy with how much we got. We *heart* garlic at our house. I braided the smaller heads into this fun hanging braid. I'm still soaking the larger heads to see if I can soften up the stems enough to braid them as well, if not we'll figure out another way to store them.

I may make a gardener after all!



Nah!

*Update-This is the wrong kind of garlic for braiding. This is hardneck garlic and if it grows its scape (flower) then it's too stiff and hard to braid. The little bulbs hadn't done that yet, so they were pliable and braidable.

Okay, Here are the pictures.

Here are some pictures of my new dining room. It's 15 x 16.5 ft. That's a huge space compared to what we've been cramped into for the last 10 years. The old dining space is part of the kitchen and you have to go through it to get to the stairs. Such a pain. We figured with 7 children, we will eventually have huge family gatherings to host so we needed more space to accomplish that.


This skinny space is my new office/scrap/craft area. It started out designed to be a mud room with cubbies for the kids, but since I am now home schooling them, we don't have a need for all the backpacks and stuff and more need for a space for all of our school supplies. The wall on the left and wrapping to the back wall will have cabinets and counter space for my printers, computer, Cricut and sewing machine. I told C he can have one little corner for his 'stuff'. Hoping to get good drawers for art supplies and gift wrapping, and use the upper cabinets for my scrap-crap. Still toying with the idea of going totally digital and getting rid of all the other stuff. We'll see. I don't imagine I'll really sit in that little space to create anything, just a way to have it accessible yet mostly out of the way.






These next two pictures are just to show the wood floor I chose. Yes, I CHOSE! Anyone who knows me knows what an accomplishment that is. I'm a very indecisive person as a general rule. But I LOVE this floor. I love all the color variation and the knots and the smell. I thought it was hickory that I wanted but this is Australian Cypress. The color on the walls is Rejuvenation, Behr from Home Depot. Still not sure I'm crazy about it, it's a bit springier-green than I wanted, but I'll live with it for a while and see if it grows on me. It will probably look nice with the black or dark brown cabinetry we will eventually have.




The last picture is my RED wall. I've always wanted to have a red wall so since this wall will eventually be removed when we do the final steps of our addition I thought it would be a great place to test out having a 'red' wall. This used to be the back wall of our kitchen, hence the windows. When we remove it the only part of it that will be left is the small portion with the breaker box on it, everything else will be gone. And I'll have an L-shaped kitchen with a HUGE island and a large pantry closet (where our table currently lives) instead of the dinky little U-shaped kitchen, with no storage, that I have now. None of the plumbing has to be moved and the fridge is the only appliance to be moved. So except for the cabinets, it's really a cheap kitchen redo.

I'm hoping soon to move my dining table out here and to get rid of all the construction junk and tools. Not sure what we're going to do with those honey supers. That's the stack of white boxes. That's our harvest of honey from last year that we never got 'spun'. They weigh about 45 lbs a piece. Yum! Guess it'll serve as some sort of decor until we get it 'spun' out.

Well, what do you think? Worth the last four+ years of turmoil? There were many times I wished we had never dug that blasted hole, but I'm so happy with how it's turning out and the extra time has allowed us to rethink and revise and make more practical decisions. For me, it was definitely worth it!

Nutso-rama!

I was really thinking that our summer was going to be so laid back. We didn't have any grandiose plans to go anywhere and with the cost of gasoline, we were just going to kick around at home. Oh, well, yes, there are a couple of scout camps in there. . . . and a youth conference. . . . . and a trip to see some plays at the Shakespeare Festival, but that's not much. HA! I'm starting to feel like this June was a repeat of last June. We didn't go big, fancy places, but one or another of us has been gone to something, somewhere for the last 4 weeks. Montana and Ford have been gone to Youth Conference since Tues and should be home sometime today. It's been rather strange and VERY quiet around here. Next week Ford heads off to one last Scout Camp at Entrada, near Moab. I think he's about worn himself out. On the missionary front: Jordan is now in his first area; Helena, the state capital. He likes his companion and had dinner with some people who knew his Grandpa Welch, but that's about all we've heard. He's never been one to use too many words. (roll eyes) We miss him a lot, but are getting used to only having six kids at home and all fitting around the table for meals. On the Addition front: We are this close to getting our addition done. Siding is on, not painted yet. All the lights and outlets are connected, just need to do one more thing in the breaker box, or something, not sure I understood what he was saying to me. The wood floor is gorgeous, I love it and I'm so glad I got what I loved rather than settling for something cheaper. We will have to wait a bit on cabinets now, but I'm okay with that. I'm looking at cabinets for my scrap/office area. Just the cheapest white ones at IKEA. I am going to get the upper ones now, and just use the long banquet tables til we can get the base cabinets and countertops. So excited to get all this stuff out of my bedroom! On the Homeschool front: After learning about EPIC Adventures and how they can work within a TJEd framework and heeding the feeling that I really needed to concentrate on the Founding of America this year, I am excited to have found at a bookstore in Cedar City a pre-written Epic Adventure called A Noble Birthright, Defending the Title of Liberty. I had looked at purchasing a downloadable version but really wanted to see what the inside looked like first, as I already had a type of US History format I was going to use. I was thrilled to find it at Classic Books in Cedar City and to find it for $10 less than the download price. I have read through it twice now and yesterday I took the time to plot it all out on the calendar so I could see how it could all fit in the Sept-May time slot. This will be mostly for me, I have felt so strongly the need to study this subject more, but this will be such a fun way for me to do You, Not Them and Inspire, Not Require and just invite them to come along for the fun with me. I have also already come up with some ideas for another Adventure, maybe for the following year? Not sure I feel up to writing my own, but maybe I'll feel braver about that after doing this one. The kids are doing well, the youngest girls are gearing up for their birthdays in the next 2 weeks. Hannah will be 9 and Sadie will be 7. Then Montana will turn 16 in August. He just got his wisdom teeth out plus another tooth for some orthodontic work, so that will put back his Driver's Ed for a while. Even with ins., the dental work was spendy! Ouch! He was such a cute little chipmunk! Thought we got a picture of him, but can't find it on our digital cards. Oh, well. Soren is getting to be quite the 2 year old. He is getting very ornery about helping out or picking up messes he's made and is so bold as to tell his parents "NO!" when asked to. He's learning to sit on his bed until he's ready to do what he's asked to do. So fun! He's still such a joy, though, and he makes us laugh all the time. He's just testing out his limits a bit and we know he's really a sweet kid, somewhere under that two-year old cover. Whew! If you made it that far, give yourself a smack on the forehead! You've got better things to do than read this.

Oh, Summer, Where Art Thou?

We seem to have missed most of spring this year and I'm wondering if we will miss summer too. This has been the coldest, dreariest spring I can remember. My poor little garden plants are in stasis, I think, because they have grown to a certain point and there they sit. I'm not sure they dare grow anymore. Summer break has not begun as I would have liked. I've had some medical issues that have kept me from being as active and getting the kids up and going as I would have liked to have done. However, I'm on the mend and soon we'll be charting course for the summer break. I'm trying to set up a reading group/discussion with my boys. We have talked about a book we could all read and discuss, but we haven't pinned one down yet. I really want to start a study of the Constitution of the U.S. and the Founding Fathers, so I'm leaning to The Real George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, or the Autobiography of Ben Franklin or something of that sort. We'll see how it goes. I've also discussed with Cambria about setting up a reading group with her friends where they all read the same book and then we have a fun discussion/activity to go along with it. I think it would be good for her. Hannah and Sadie just got invited to become part of a 4H club that meets weekly. They are excited about that. We are a family club but we haven't done much yet. We'd like to make some things to put into the county fair. I'm getting excited for my excursion south with Ford to the Shakespeare Festival. We are seeing three shows this year that I absolutely love: Taming of the Shrew, Fiddler on the Roof, and The Sound of Music. It's an intense three days, but so much fun. I'm sure if I didn't go with the 8th graders I wouldn't get there at all. Jordan is still doing well. Only a few more days in the MTC, then it's off to Big Sky Country. It's probably cold up there, since it's still a bit nippy here. Hope he bought good warm clothing!

He's Alive!

It's so weird to not hear from your son for 6 days! Nothing, no email, no letter, nada.

I had to go with the 'No news is good news' theory on this one. I figured if he was not doing well, they would certainly let us know.

Today, a lovely little white envelope showed up in our mailbox. It was short and sweet, though.
He says he's doing quite well, learning a lot, (quickly and efficiently were his words) and that he likes his companion who is anxious to serve.

After years of seeing his face every day or at least being able to call him or email or text him when he was out of town, this has been really difficult. There are so many things I keep wanting to ask him.

Like: "How in the world do I unlock the screen on your(now my) Ipod so I can use the blasted thing?"

"What do you want me to do with all the clothes you left hanging in the laundry room and in your hamper?"

"HOW ARE YOU DOING TODAY?"

I miss him. . . . . .

I am officially a Missionary Mom!

Well, we did it! Finally got all his stuff put together to take, all his other stuff boxed up to store, fed him well, and put him in the MTC. I have been through that experience once before, when Curtis and I went with his brother, Nathan, when he left for his mission to Chile. Let me tell you, it's a lot more emotional when you're there as the mom rather than just a Sister-In-Law. I really didn't want to cry, I didn't even take any Kleenex. But, I did. I guess I wasn't ashamed to let my tears roll down my face for all to see. I'm going to miss him a lot, but I'm so happy that now he's moving on, with a purpose to his life. He's been in such a limboland, playing the waiting game for months now. I'm excited for all the experiences he will have and the spiritual growth he will have. He was quiet and pensive, but he said he wasn't really scared or nervous. He said it wasn't nearly as bad as it would be if he were leaving the country. He didn't cry much, that I could see, (which wasn't much cause I was crying) He's going to be a GREAT MISSIONARY!

Swiss Family Robinson Day~

We finished up our reading of Swiss Family Robinson a couple of weeks ago. We spent a few days planning and preparing for our Swiss Family Robinson Day. The girls were really excited about this and worked hard to make it happen.

(Tree Climbing Contest)

Did you know that in the book the Robinson Family has four boys??

Disney always has to change things.

(making candles)

Did you know that they are never attacked by pirates?

(picnic lunch of bread, fruit and cheese)

This is an action filled book with tons of animals, boys would love it!

(cracking open our coconut)

No one but Mom was brave enough to try the coconut milk, but the fresh coconut was delicious!

(Here is "Fritz", with his eagle, Pounce, on his shoulder)
(Here is "Franz" with his flamingo, baboon and dog)
(Here is "Jack" with his pet, Master Knips, the monkey)
(Archery contest underway)

It was not as easy to make that arrow go where it should as we thought it would be.

(slingshot contest)

We were a little more accurate with the slingshot. At least we could hit the barrel!

Update

Argh! End of year stuff drives me nuts! 

  ~Last Friday we were able to go to the temple with Jordan in preparation for his mission.

SWEET experience.

I've thought for years about how it would be to go with my child and it exceeded my thoughts. It has finally hit me that he is really leaving for 2 years. I didn't think I'd get all choked up about it, but I'm sure I'll be a blubberer when we drop him off next Wed. 

  ~Got to attend Lauren's wedding on Sat. Another fantastic experience, since my son was able to go with us and see what a temple wedding is like. It's always fun to have family in town and of course we had to get together to talk and eat way too much, as usual.

~Our newest niece, Emma, was born on Tues morning, just after her grandparents flew home. This is beginning to be a pattern, as that's what happened when I had my youngest. They had been here for two weeks at Christmas and I had my baby the day after they left. Oh, well. We're happy that our new niece is here safely, mom and baby are doing well.

~Got the Mother's Day song for Sacrament meeting over with. I spaced it off and we only had two weeks to practice. It was a mix of two different songs so it was a bit for the kids to learn, but they did great. We were even in our new chapel and we had a different pianist and it still came off. Whew! I had a nice Mother's Day. There were lots of leftovers from the wedding luncheon the day before so we ate those for lunch on Sunday and I got a nice nap. What more could a girl ask for than to not have to cook and to get a nap in? Cambria got me a darling little figurine of a mother and daughter that says 'Forever My Mother, Forever My Friend'. That really touched me because she and I have our days!

~It finally feels like spring here and we have loved being outside more this week. Yesterday I took the girls to Bicentennial Park and we had a great time looking at the wildlife: ducks, butterflies, dragonflies, birds and we walked on the boardwalk through the wetlands and learned about why wetlands are important and what purpose they serve. I think we will go back often until the mosquitoes come out in full force. The girls have worked really hard this week and have added lots of corn to the corn jar. It will be full soon and we will then have a new trampoline in our backyard! 

~Tonight is the 8th grade's production of 'Much Ado About Nothing'. They have been performing 1 act all week during school and tonight they will do the entire play for the public. I'm looking forward to watching the play, but we will all be glad to have it done. Only one more week of school!

Finally!

Need a surefire way to get some volunteer hours in at the school your children attend?
Volunteer to help sew Shakespeare costumes! After all, you can do them at home!
No matter that you don't have the correct instructions or that the fabric is really fabric intended for furniture, you'll be able to get those hours in, remember????
After finally tracking down the correct instructions and spending a few hours sewing, unpicking, sewing, unpicking and sewing and then sewing some more (by hand), these dresses(?) are FINALLY done! I am not a dunce when it comes to sewing, (except putting in zippers, huh, Mom?) but honestly, it is really helpful to have the right set of instructions. I could not figure out the ones I was given, seemed some pages were missing. I even went to the school and looked at the original and it was still just as confusing. I got a thought, not my own I'm sure, to go to WalMart and look in another pattern to see if we had a page missing. Lo and behold, we just had a misprinted instruction sheet that had one side of instructions for a completely different pattern than the one we were trying to sew. Didn't notice the discrepancy in the pattern numbers until I compared the two sheets at WalMart.
What to do? Didn't want to buy another pattern just for that sheet. Another idea!! Get my digital camera from the car and take a quick picture of the correct instructions. Whew! Problem solved.

Really, things went much better after I got the proper instruction sheet! Really!!

Well, except for the unpicking and resewing! But hey, that's the way I sew....

100th POST!

I was actually surprised to see that this would be my 100th post when I signed in to Blogger.

I have nothing very profound to say in honor of it being my 100th post, nor do I have a give-away. That's okay, though, cause I'd have to pick myself, as I'm the only reader of this blog...hehe!

I started this blog as a way to record the happenings in the lives of my kids and myself. I thought of it as a journal of sorts, never imagining that anyone else would possibly be interested in reading it. However, as I've spent the last year and a half in 'blogdom' I have come to realize that much can be shared, ideas, experiences and testimony, in this very unique way of communicating to diverse people. I personally have learned so much from other bloggers and I am so thankful for their willingness to share of themselves. I have hopes that someday, something I say may be of use to someone who may happen to read this blog. So I'll keep writing and trying to share things I've learned, experiences that have changed me for the better and also all the funny, dorky things that happen when you live in a house full of kids. ;-D!

Change is Good, Right????

Yesterday at church a letter was read requesting all adult members attend a meeting at the stake center at 7. Very mysterious! Actually, our stake has been needing to be split for quite some time as it has 14 units(wards & branches). So we figured that was what the meeting was for.

Wrong. Sort of.

The two stakes to the north of us have been declining in numbers and ours was huge, so the stake boundaries for all three stakes were realigned. What does that mean? They moved the boundary south and we are now part of the Bonneville Stake, rather than the Provo Stake. Four entire wards from the Provo Stake are now in the Bonneville Stake. The only real change we will see will be a new building to meet in, and I mean NEW! We're hoping the A/C and heat work better than the ones in the building we've been meeting in. We will also now be known as the Bonneville 12th Ward, instead of the Slate Canyon 2nd Ward. I'm actually a bit excited about this. Looking forward to meeting more people and expanding my horizons a little.

In other news, the girls closet in their new room is now usable and we have moved all their stuff out of the old room. Now I can move all of the two year old's clothes and toys out of our room and into the room just vacated. WaHoo! It's really starting to come together. Now we just need to put doors on the new rooms and closets. Once we get the trim up, I'll post a pic. Yeah, I know, I always say that!

Where, oh where did April Go? and other random thoughts!

It literally blew past me I think, like the wind that's been blowing all the dirt from southern Utah northward! Guess that's what happens when you take a week of for spring break. Not much time left when you get back.

We had to make a trip to SE Utah to visit the dentist. The kids had a whole boatload of fillings to be done and I had a tooth that needed some attention as well. That's not a particularly FUN way to spend spring break, but we threw a few other things in there as well.

We were able to be at Natural Bridges National Monument on April 16 which happened to be the 100th anniversary of the Monument. It was a nice sunny day, although a bit breezy, and we attended the little ceremony they had at the visitor's center and had a picnic and the kids hiked to one of the Bridges with Grandma. Grandpa can't hike, (bum knee), so he, the 2yr old and I occupied our time hanging out in the car. My great grandfather, Ezekiel Johnson, was the first custodian of the Natural Bridges and worked there for nearly 20 years. There were lots of his descendants at the Bridges that day to honor his work.

The kids got to play around in the hot tub and with the mules. We also rode four-wheelers and hiked again on Saturday down the 'causeway' in Butler Wash. It was used by pioneers for several years and is another example of a road hung on the side of a canyon. Not quite as high or steep or scary as the one they built at the Hole-in-the-Rock, but it was a nice hike. The cacti were just getting ready to bloom and the other wildflowers were out in profusion. Did I have my camera? No!

Since we've been home, we've had Science Fair projects to finish up, Sonnets to write, Activity Days, Mutual and I am sewing some more Shakespeare costumes. I tried working on them tonight and bent my only sewing machine needle. Typical!

I have attached myself to a healthy eating/exercise challenge over at Angie's. I actually got on my treadmill today! That's a first. Just need to get up earlier and go longer and faster. That and stop eating all the in-between snacks. Wish me luck!

Core Thoughts....

Thoughts on Core phase, that is. If you aren't familiar with the term, read A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver Demille. The core phase is the most basic phase all people need to have in their learning. It is best done in the earliest years at home with parents. This is the time when basic core values and morals are taught; "right/wrong, good/bad, true/false, relationships, family values especially spiritual culture, family identity including family history and mission, family routines and responsibilities, accountability, value and love of work and play" taken from Leadership Education, the Phases of Learning by Oliver and Rachel Demille.



In our efforts to implement this type of education in our home and family, my girls and I have basically been working on our Core Phase this year. There are a few bright days but lots of others where it's obvious we need to continue to work on it. And that's just it! It's a phase we never leave. We work on it all the days of our lives.



One of the things we do daily is to have a devotional in which we sing a hymn, pray, recite a scripture we are memorizing that coordinates with our monthly theme, say the pledge of allegiance, and write in our journals. We take turns picking the hymn to be sung and often we discuss, after singing it, how it can tie into our monthly theme or pick vocabulary words from it to look up.



Last month, our theme for March was virtue, specifically moral goodness. My daughter, C, chose to sing #307 In Our Lovely Deseret. As we looked at it and began to talk about it I was struck that the entire song is a list of things to be learned in our Core Phase. We quickly got out a piece of paper and began listing all of those things. My daughter then asked if she could make all of us a poster of those things to hang in our rooms to remind us of the things we need to be working on each and every day. This is one time when Inspiration spoke to all of us, and we heard it!

Holy, Moly!

So much for the promised pictures. Curtis moved my washer and dryer before I could take 'before' pictures and the 'new' laundry room is still such a mess, drywall torn up to move ductwork and such that I don't want to take any 'after' pictures yet. But I promise, when this is done, I'll post a boatload.
Today they went and got the siding for the addition part. That is all we are siding right now, just need to have a 'finished' addition to satisfy the lenders. Eventually we will do the whole house. We are using Hardie board plank siding. Here's the color we want. It will be 7 in. planks with 5.5 inch trim around the edges and windows/doors. At the gable ends we have a 12 in. 'belly band' and above it will be board and batten. They got the trim up on the addition today and it's going to be AWESOME. I will have the coolest looking house on our street.
The trim will be all white, the cedar plank siding will be 'heathered moss' and we will have black accents, (lights, shutters, doors, etc.)
C got all the sheetrock hung, but he is having trouble with his right wrist and arm so we may be hiring a friend of ours to do the actual taping part, if he's willing. I didn't know til last night that C has been hurting for over a week. No wonder it's been a slow process to get all the sheetrock up, he was having trouble gripping the sheetrock and the sheetrock screwgun.
We also picked out our flooring. We decided to go with unfinished solid wood hickory. I LOVE hickory, I love the contrast in color and grain. Love the warm tones it brings in and I love that it's harder than oak, so I'm hoping it will wear well. We decided to go with painted/distressed black/brown cabinets on all our base cabinets and the uppers will be painted oatmeal with a dark brown glaze rubbed on. We may even throw in a red or green cabinet here or there. Love the mismatched look. I thought we would go with IKEA cabinets, but they are all so modern looking and I'm just a country hick at heart. I need a farmhouse, rustic look to feel comfortable.

Happy Easter!

May we all remember the real reason for Easter.

Today's progress. . .

Fridays are the big day around here for getting a lot done on this addition. Our good friend and neighbor, D, is a building inspector for Provo, but he used to own his own business and that man loves to work with his hands and build things. So, since he doesn't work for the city on Fridays he comes to work here instead. He is the one who helped us with our design and the technical schtuff when we planned this addition. He has been a great mentor for C, teaching him much about framing, plumbing and anything else C asks about.
Today they removed the old back door that separated the new part of the house from the old. This is a precursor to finally getting to remove the wall that separates the kitchen from the new dining area. D spent the afternoon working on a new step for the area where the door jamb used to be. That door was one step down from the kitchen floor, with a landing at the top of the stairs that go down. So he had to build the new floor out into the area where the jamb used to be to meet that landing properly. I keep looking over there and thinking that I need to go shut the door. It will take some getting used to.
We also got all the plumbing in place to move the washer and dryer to their new location. C still needs to pour a little concrete around the new drain and put up some drywall behind where they will be, but they will be in their new home by tomorrow and I can finally be through with my laundry dungeon. Seriously, for the last 11 years my laundry area has been a tiny, windowless corner that I had to squeeze past the water softener to get to(a tight squeeze when I was pregnant!). I'll post a picture of the before and after tomorrow.

On my end of things, I finally got the three costumes made for the Shakespeare play. I needed a few more volunteer hours so I offered to sew costumes. I will take them to the school on Monday and record my hours. I sewed a vest for last year's play and it was a bugger. The material was so thick and hard to work with. This year's pattern was much simpler and the fabric much easier to work with. Hallelujah! I guess I ought to be thankful that my mom was a Home Ec. teacher and taught me to sew. I don't do it very often, but it's a handy skill to have when it's needed.

YUM!!

Baked Potato Soup
4 baking potatoes
2/3 C all purpose flour
6 C 2% milk
1 C cheese
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 c sour cream
3/4 C chopped green onions, divided
6 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled.

Bake potatoes, in oven or micro, til tender. Cool, peel and coarsely mash. Discard skins.Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup, level off. Place in a large pan, gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until blended. Cook over med heat til thick and bubbly (about 8 min)Add mashed potatoes, 3/4 C cheese, salt and pepper, stirring until cheese melts. Remove from heat.Stir in sour cream and 1/2 C onions. Cook over low heat 10 minutes or til thoroughly heated(do not boil). Ladle about 1 1/2 C soup onto each of 8 bowls. Sprinkle each serving with 1 1/2 tsp cheese, 1 1/2 tsp onions and about 1 Tbsp bacon.
Yield: 8 servings

Made this for dinner tonight and it's so yummy. I thought you might like to try it. It's way easy. You can make it more diet friendly but using low fat or no fat cheese and sour cream.

Moving Along

Well, as the deadline to finish our addition draws closer, its easier to see progress. Today we had the sheetrock hanging/texturing guy over to give us a bid and the electrician was here working all day. He will be back to finish up tomorrow. As soon as he finishes and we get our framing inspection we can put up the insulation and we'll be ready when the "Muddy Boys" show up to sheetrock next Monday.

Can I just tell you how exciting this is to me? The end of this overly long, four year project is almost in sight. This has been a good experience for us even though it's been a pain more often than not. I do not believe we will ever put ourselves through the headache of building anything again.

Certainly not a whole house.

I think we'll just keep looking til we find one that is already built that meets our needs/wants.

Or, we'll simply stay put!

p.s. I'll post a picture after the sheetrock is done!

Here We Go Again. . . .

We received news yesterday morning that my DH's grandfather had passed away. He was 98.
So we will be attending yet another funeral this week. Thankfully, his passing was quick and relatively painless. It would seem he had a massive stroke as he was getting ready to have a bath, and he never regained conciousness. We are so happy for him to be free of the infirmities of a body that has been around for nearly a century, but sorrowful for Grandma who will now be alone. She's also 98. The burden of caring for and checking on her daily will hopefully be shared now by her children and grandchildren who live near her. She's in good health, but I wonder if she will stay around now that her main reason for getting up each day is no longer here.

I don't think I've ever contemplated death as much as I have in the last five weeks. Since President Hinckley passed away and then my grandpa and now DH's grandpa. I ponder on why I feel the need to cry for them, when in each case it has been such a blessing. Guess I've always been a blubberer. Sometimes I'm afraid of death, the process is such an unknown thing and I don't like not knowing how to do things that I have to do. Mostly I'm afraid I won't have done all that I should have or could have or needed to before that day will come. That's the scariest part to me. So I'm really trying harder each day to live better, to love more and to serve more. I am really trying to find out what Heavenly Father expects of me and needs me to do each day and giving my will to him. He's made a much better person out of me than I was doing. Hopefully I still have many years here to prove myself worthy.

I first met DH's grandparents when we were dating and we lived near them when we were first married. Then we moved away and I thought we would likely never really see them again before they would be gone. But after nearly 8 years we moved back to Ut Valley and they were still here. So we decided that we would go to their home once a month for Family Home Evening to give our children the opportunity to get to know them and learn from them. After all, they couldn't be here much longer, they were old. Now it's been nearly 11 years since we moved back and that's a lot of FHE's. I'm so thankful that we have had so many years to share time with them. It has blessed our family and I know they have appreciated the consistent visits.

Grandpa, we'll miss you and your growling at the kids, trying to poke/hook them with your cane, a rousing rendition of I Had a Mule Named Willie, "Where's my left ear?", "Ohh, I can't follow your conversation, so I'll just be quiet."

We LOVE you!