New Adventures

Scott had his last day working as controller at the college on Sept 13.  He is now training and learning how to be a freight broker, as he bought a freight business to run with his brother.  Somebody very creative who he worked with at the college made the following going away gift.  

 notes on mailing labels on a freight box --very fun. 

And since his last day we have been a little busy getting our MISSIONARY ready to leave to Sendai Japan, with 2 months in Provo at the MTC first of course.  He enters next Wed Oct 9th.  I have felt exicted about it all and not sad but now the mom emotions are starting to hit me.

D worked in Utah this summer and came home almost 2 weeks ago.  We had some family come for his "farewell" talk.  Some stayed with us, some with my Mom and some in a hotel (I guess Scott's parents prefer the quiet of the hotel compared with 10 enthusiastic kids, 8 of them under 12, at our house).  Then we sent them all away and headed to Utah to take Dustin to the temple for his endowments, plus 2 more temples after that, and shopping shopping shopping.  And we spent so much at one store we got FREE LUGGAGE. Actually the shopping was pretty simple because we went to the Missionary Mall and they have, as Scott put it, "Everything you need and nothing you don't need." (and free luggage) And right across the way was Deseret Book which also has a Beehive clothing so we got more stuff he needed there. I let Scott and D do that and I happily shopped in the book store for an hour (all alone! no "Mom. look look")

The last thing on the list is family pictures!!! I really did NOT wait until the last minute. I had it on my to do list this summer then one weekend D up and left!  He got a job and said goodbye to us.  And we meant to do it the weekend he came home but that was the same weekend we had family and it rained too (no outdoor pictures) so we will get it done this weekend.  And it is so hard for me to think that this might be our last picture as a 7 person family (no, I am not pregnant!) because if B goes on his mission when he is 18 then D could be married by the time he gets back (because they will only overlap a few months).  Wow. hard thought. I would be a mother-in-law.

But, back to the present.  One more week with my BOY because everyone says he will come back as a MAN.  Yet I am so happy that my boy has choosen to and is going to serve the Lord.  and proud and stuff and yeah...

Summer Wrap Up

School has started and I have the house to myself again.  It's pretty quiet.
Three different schools this year--
          Brennen 11th grade
    Andy 6th grade
          Janessa 4th grade
      Cameron 2nd grade


Here is a recap of our summer: (more pics later)

A family vacation to Washington DC for a week to see the sights

We rode bicycles around the mall.  (Scott and Cameron)

Janessa siting on FDR's lap

Brennen and Andy in front of the White House--sort of.  gotta love the construction

RAGNAR--a trip to Utah for my hubby to run in the Wasatch Back Ragnar with his siblings, then we stayed to visit for a week the Grandparents and cousins.

Youth Conference in Flagstaff (Brennen)

Some birthdays (Dustin, Brennen, Scott, Cameron)

Family Reunion near Moab

Another trip to Utah (Scott and the youngest 3)

Camping in Colorado a few times

Piedra Falls gathering courage to jump in the pool at the base of the waterfall-brrr!

playing in the river at Middle Fork

Baby kittens--3 that we are now trying to give away

Cousins staying at our house for 10 days while their dad (my brother) gave my sister a kidney.

Swimming lessons (the 3 youngest)

Couple of scout overnighters (Andy and Brennen)

A few trips to Big Bounce--one of my favorite places to take the young 'uns

Rock climbing at the college climbing wall

Lots of swimming at the pool and a few times to the river

Night games at the park

Some reading (mostly Janessa--the rest of us read a little bit but she knocked out the whole Gregor the Overlander series plus some others)

Selling Kirby vacuums (Dustin)

Too much video games and netflix

    Now a new school year...and back to "normal"

Think Happy Thoughts

Last year I went to Time Out for Women and saw Hilary Weeks.  She gave a talk about positive thoughts and how using a clicker (counter) to keep track of every positive thought leads you to be happier and more productive and all that good stuff.  She has also made a website billionclicks.org where people all over are logging in their clicks to see if we can reach one billion happy thoughts.  It is a great website with positive blogs, quotes and stories, etc.  And you can buy clickers!

My sister bought me a clicker at Time Out for Women but I haven't really done anything with it.  I have visited the website often but haven't "clicked'.  I finally decided that I am going to join in and start clicking!  and I decided to include my family also.  I bought clickers for everyone.  I thought it will be a great way to start off our summer.  Last night I showed the video of Hilary Weeks http://www.billionclicks.org/page/videos to my family and we laughed.  (you should watch it because it is funny--and a bit inspiring).  Then I passed out the clickers.  Everyone seemed enthusiastic about it. We talked a bit about how to be more positive in our home and have less arguing, etc.

Then after a little bit my 6 year-old pipes in "What does 'positive' mean?"


so I guess the first lesson in teaching a lesson, is make sure your students know what the key word means! lol

I will (or might) keep you posted on how our "clicking" is going and if our home is becoming a happier more positive place. 

A "Ta Da" Moment

I read a great article a while ago about "moments of awesome."  We aren't perfect and make mistakes but once in a while we have moments of awesome and we need to celebrate and feel good about those moments instead of feeling bad that we have shortcomings.

Well, I don't know how awesome it was, but I did have a "Ta-Da moment" yesterday.  I actually remembered before 7:30 this morning that today was CRAZY HAT DAY at the elementary school to start off reading week.  Not only were the hats ready BEFORE this morning, but also BEFORE bedtime last night.  We did it in the evening and had plenty of time to be creative.  (cuz that is really not my strong point).  What made it even better is that I came across the K'nex set (with crazy eyes, etc) in the closet while looking for supplies and so it was easy. And because the hats were ready early we even got to Skype Grandma and Grandpa to show off the hats.

Here are the crazy hats.

  Janessa found hers at a yard sale on Saturday which was an added bonus!  

 I used tape and safety pins to hold everything on. Andy of course just wanted to cut holes in the hat.


Well I used the webcam so the pics aren't great.  Cameron has pipe cleaners and a balloon on his with the eyes and propeller.

Most importantly, I had happy kids.

A New and Improved Month

Today is the second day of May and ALL my kids are in school for two days in a row.  Which is almost a record as of late.

April was sick month at my house.  It actually started the last of March.  Everyone in the house got sick at one time or another except Dustin.  He says its cuz he stays in the basement and the rest of us have bedrooms upstairs.  But only 2 people ended up seeing the doctor and got antibiotics for bronchitis.  However, after we got through the coughs and fevers, and everyone was at school for almost 2 full weeks, the stomach bug caught us.

Scott missed 3 days of work.  And collectively my children missed 15 1/2 days of school in April. And I got sick two separate times but I can't count time off of work because I am a mom and do mom's ever really get sick days?  Anyway, seeing that there are only 22 days of school in April, that means that I had at least one kid home with me most of the month.  Of course I love my kids and its good to spend some one on one time with them when they are home, but I do get used to having the house to myself and coming and going as I please so it just upsets the apple-cart so to say.  (Dustin does not work everyday but when he is home he sort of hibernates in the basement.)

Sheesh, complain complain.  Not really meaning to complain but it is pretty amazing how much down time we have had around here.  We got through winter without many hiccups so that is good.  Spring has just been a little rough.

But it is SPRING!  and the trees have leaves and flowers are showing their heads and the grass is greening up!  and my lettuce and spinach are sprouting.  When the wind goes away it will be perfect!

I am gearing up for a house full of kids and noise and energy and happiness (and a bit of bickering) cuz in less than FOUR weeks it will be summer vacation.  wow.  another school year come and gone...

Well, I Really Did Try

First--
The irony:
I ended my last post with "I hope I can stay up to the challenge of being a mother to my children."  Not 5 minutes after I posted that, my youngest came into the kitchen and lost his cookies all over the floor.  I could not believe that I just just wrote those words and a challenge came right to me.  All my kids were in bed asleep when I was blogging so I wasn't expecting anything challenging until the morning mayhem. (however, I am so so grateful he came into the kitchen thus saving my new carpet).

Now on to how I Really Did Try.

I have two "sets" of children.  My older teenagers and my elementary kids.  There is a bit of a rift or division between them.  Dustin gets along fine with the younger ones but just doesn't interact a lot with them--doing his own thing.  Brennen, as a typical teenager, gets so annoyed with the younger kids and how they don't put their stuff away, and are messy and loud, and dumb.  (Well he never said they were dumb but it seems to me he thinks that).  And the younger kids think Brennen is bossy and mean. (He is bossy, as most older brothers are I suppose).  Janessa's favorite phrase to him lately is "you don't have to get into everyone's business!"

I have talked to both sides but, yeah, not sure I am getting through.

So I decided we needed to do some "family relationship building" time.  Board games were (are) great for my older boys and we used to play so much with them, but not all of our kids are board games kind of people.  Plus its hard to play one with 7 people.  I got us all together and we decided to play charades.  Nothing formal, just impromptu.  We started with scripture stories.

Janessa and Andy went first.  They went into the kitchen to decided what to do.  When they came back into the living room Andy stood on a stool.  None of us said anything yet.  Janessa didn't do anything.  Except telling And he should stand on the smaller stool.  We waited for a few minutes and decided they weren't going to do anything else so the guessing started with "Samuel the Lamanite" and "King Benjamin".  It was Samuel.  Janessa then got mad because she didn't get to do her part.   She was upset that Andy used the big stool so we guessed it before she had a chance to do her part and of course I piped in telling her we were waiting but she didn't do anything (I said it nicely but still it was arguing I suppose).  I encouraged her to go ahead and do it anyway and we would watch.  She argued "What's the point!"  She got mad and stormed into her room and slammed the door.

Scott and I kind of looked at each other and laughed.  We didn't mean to laugh but it was funny that here we are trying to get the family to enjoy each other and within 5 minutes there is anger and conflict.

Well we kept going anyway encouraging Janessa to come back and join us which she did eventually.  Brennen only participated in one charade as his attitude was "this is dumb" but at least he was there with us.  Dustin participated pretty well.  Of course the little kids are the ones that kept wanting to do the acting.  We moved on from scripture stories to things in history.

It was fun and we laughed.  Maybe it didn't turn out like I wanted, and I should have taken Brennen's phone away first (since he was playing chess with someone I think), but at least I tried.  And it was just a random day, not family night or anything yet we all sat in the same room together without a TV.