the heart of the matter

On the way home from school Ellie informed me that her friend Aaron gave her a letter and that she had made me a letter at school today. A few minutes later she said, "Mom, the hearts on the letter from Aaron do NOT mean that he loves me!"

Joy

The other night we had a dinner at the church for the Friends of Scouting. Our YM President put together a slide show of Scout Camp that was really neat. My friend Lesa Brazell was sitting across from us and her son Colby was in many of the pictures as a leader. He just left the MTC on Wednesday for Washington D.C. and they just talked to him . . . she is missing him! There were many tears shed watching that DVD.

On the way home Ellie said to me, "Mom I cried during that slide show. Do you know why??"

"Why?"

"From JOY!!"

I love that kid!

The Asay Curse Take 2

"One time I was dreaming that I was really cold. I woke up and went to the bathroom and realized that I didn't have any clothes on."

"One time I had a dream that I got hit by a rock and I had walked into a wall."

"One time I had a dream that I was swimming and I woke up and had spit all over my face."

(I'm so glad that I'm a girl and didn't inherit this curse!! Although I am bawling right now from my other curse!)

The Asay Curse

There is a small curse among the Asay men in my family. It happens at night. In their sleep.

Do you ever hear about people acting out their dreams??? Not just sleep walking, but actually acting out their dreams??

There are many stories about my dad . . . most I don't know, but when us kids get together we spend hours retelling some of the stories and laughing until our sides hurt and my make-up has all washed off from crying so hard (that's MY curse . . . crossed wires so that I cry when I laugh).

Here's one example: One time my dad was trying to save my mom and get her on the "raft" before she drowned. (the raft was the bed . . . can you just imagine how standing on your mattress would feel like you were standing on a raft in the water??)

Here's a more scary one: One time my dad tried to save my mom from a giant snake in their bed by choking it . . . can you guess WHO the snake was??? Thank goodness he woke up and quit choking her!

My brothers are the same way.

My brother Ross didn't like going to scout camp very much because of what he might do.

Here's a funny one . . . We went on a family camping trip and my dad hadn't unhooked the truck from the trailer yet. Ross used to sleep in the back of the truck (it was the best!! there was a mattress and you basically had your own room). He got up in the middle of the night and climbed out the window, got in the cab of the truck and started the truck, and for some reason turned it off and got back into bed. Can you imagine if he started driving off with things hooked up and all of us asleep in the trailer???

I even found evidence while typing up some family history that dated back to the pioneers in Utah of the Asay men doing this.

We have known that Austin was plagued with the curse for a long time. He will come out and have a conversation with you (one that doesn't make sense . . . but you will SWEAR that he is awake). Last night he told me some of the dreams he's had lately and I was laughing so hard!!

"One time I had a dream that a lion was attacking me and eating me. I woke up and I was biting my arm."

The Naked Truth

Do you remember a while back when I posted this picture??

Perhaps some didn't notice that Chloe was NAKED!!

I know that many struggle with kids who constantly strip down to their birthday suit.

I don't remember that ever being one of the things that I've dealt with (changing clothes a million times . . . yes . . . constantly wearing princess costumes . . . yes . . . wearing awful mismatched clothes . . . OFTEN . . . but not running around naked!)

. . . until NOW.

The little girls love to go outside and dig in the dirt, jump on the tramp, and play with the dog.

So screams of delight are the norm . . . nothing out of the ordinary.

How shocked was I to find THIS to go with those shrieks!

Notice Chloe pointing??? She's pointing to the roof . . . where she threw her panties!!

And a few days later the little girls were getting into the tub (Ellie knows how to fill up the tub by herself and so they get in on their own).

Again, this is a time when we expect shrieks and giggles.
After a while, Scott went and checked and told me that I needed to see just what was going on back there.

Apparently there was a spider in the bathtub . . . and you know that means you have to jump on top of the counter so it doen't get you right??




It's the naked truth . . . I swear!!

Countdown Blocks Tutorial

I have to laugh because I have become a little obsessed with blogs lately . . . craft blogs.

The Relief Society asked the Primary Presidency to give them an idea for Enrichment (at the time it was still Enrichment!), and we all went on the search and I found the Countdown Blocks idea here. It was EASY and it was CHEAP . . . perfect!

We should have had the sample made a few weeks ago . . . but life in Primary is VERY busy this time of year! (Not to mention that I am redoing my kitchen cupboards from another craft blog . . . I'm almost done and ready to post a picture of them!) So we printed out the idea (after getting permission of course), and showed everyone what it would "kind of" look like. I can't wait to bring the REAL sample today and show everyone . . . we are all in LOVE with how they turned out!

You can't countdown from a really high number, but you CAN do an entire month. (I just wanted to show a few more patterns of paper . . . ugh it is so cute!)






My friend Karen found the blocks online at http://www.craftparts.com/ and we ordered them a few weeks ago. They are backordered now . . . but I called and ordered another case because we all loved them so much that we want to make a bunch! We used the 2 inch fir blocks.


You need 12 different patterns of paper cut just smaller than 2 inches (like 1 7/8").


Paint the blocks and base whatever color you think matches your papers the best.


Then we used vinyl (much cheaper from a sign shop . . . although shop around, one wanted to charge me $65 and another it was $25), to cut the numbers out with my Cricut using the Alphalicious cartridge at 1 1/2".


We put the numbers on the papers before we used Mod Podge to glue them on the blocks. In order to have the right number combinations you will put the numbers 0, 1, 2, 6, 7, and 8 on one block and 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 on the other block.


(To Mod Podge you put a thin coat on both the block and the back of the paper and then stick it together, wiping off the excess glue)


Once it is dry you can sand the edges of the blocks and paper to age it a bit. We also used Tim Holtz "vintage photo" Distress Ink to antique it a bit. Once that was dry we put another coat of Mod Podge over the blocks to protect them from dirty fingers. We also did the bottom block so that it had the same texture.


The metal bracket was at our local dollar store . . . it WAS purple, but we spray painted it black and then put some red mini brads on it (we had to clip the ends so they didn't show).


We printed out the "days until Christmas" on some cardstock and Mod Podged it to the big block and then used the glue gun to glue the bracket to the block. (if using an ink jet printer you don't want to Mod Podge over the days until Christmas paper or else it will bleed)


And . . . voila!

days until Christmas Blocks

The Relief Society asked the Primary to help with the November Meeting.

Our ward didn't have a Super Saturday this year and so we really wanted to do a craft (which is also what the RS was hoping we would do).

We made the most adorable Countdown blocks!!! I feel a whole bunch more of these being made in the very near future!!

Curly Hair and Special Presents

Drew has anxiously awaited the Pillow Curler set that we ordered from Avon.

They finally arrived on Wednesday night and she immediately took a shower and we put her hair in curlers. She was a little frightened by the look when they first came out (before the curls relaxed a bit), but was thrilled by the time she left for school!

I made a trip to the local dollar store and Ellie picked up a scrapbook kit and made some Special Presents for her teacher Mrs. Brooks.

Cross Country Finale

Austin found a new passion this year . . .

Cross Country

(although we really love to tease him and call it "track" . . .

it drives him CRAZY!! lol)

His time improved on every race (except one).

He won two medals!!

Most importantly, he helped his team qualify in the top 3 so that they could go to state as a team (and even more exciting . . . if the team hadn't qualified he would have qualified as an individual!)

Here is coach Wilson giving them their last pep-talk at the state meet.

And here are the 7 members of the team lined up at the starting-line.

Here is a great shot of Austin running . . . he looks just like my brother Ross here!

He didn't have a great race at state, but he is thinking that he will do Cross Country next year rather than soccer. (Quite an impact when his mom made him join the team when he wasn't going to do soccer this year!!)

The really exciting part is that all but one of the team members is a sophomore!! Apparently it's been quite some time since Fernley had any kind of Boys Cross Country team.

(And one of our freshman girls WON the State meet!!!)

While watching the race, the little girls found a forest to play in and pick Juniper Berries.

Spooky Spectacular Stuff

The kids had fun on Halloween. Austin had a friend over for the night and then got together with some more friends later in the day and they messed around and then watched some movies together to kill the post-trick-or-treating-age-blues.

Chloe found a costume that she fell in L-O-V-E with & called herself a "Super Hero". Ellie could only find a black princess dress in her size so she became a zombie princess.

They enjoyed trunk or treating at our church on Tuesday as well as trunk or treating at the school on Thursday (Chloe had a BLAST handing out candy!), followed by a party (UGH can you say candy overload?!?!?!), and finally trick or treating around the neighborhood on Saturday.

The party at school just about did me in . . . I have never seen so much junk food in one place! And rather than having a buffet, they loaded up plates for the kids and had them at each of their place settings and then sent home all of the pre-packaged items in gallon sized bags. I let Ellie have some and gave her an extra shot at school. Then when we were loading up the gallon sized bags I had them leave most of the items out (one mom looked at me like I was the meanest mom on the planet---even AFTER I explained that she was diabetic! I really didn't feel bad about keeping my kid alive though).

After the party we had an appointment with our diabetes doctor & I was sure that our past two visits with low A1c's would be a thing of the past . . . it seemed like her blood sugars have been so high with starting school and being indoors so much more. What a surprise when it came back at 8.5!! (such an awesome score for a kid her age!!!)

Joslyn invited her friend over for some trick or treating and they were wonderful enough to take the two little girls around for us. Chloe didn't last very long (works for me!), but Ellie LOVED it!
When Chloe came back she would hand out the candy when the doorbell rang & then run back to the coffee table where she made herself a bed and have me lift her up on it. When Ellie got home and took over on the doorbell she really did fall asleep there.

Ellie was very excited to have a turn at the door handing out candy. At first she just stood by the door and then it got a little too cold to have it open and so we got her a chair and she spent the rest of the night sitting on her little chair staring at the door anxiously waiting for it to ring.

In other news. . .

After the doctors appointment we did a little shopping and then headed over to Rancho San Rafael Park to watch Austin help his cross country team place in the top 3 which qualifies the whole team to go to state!!! Had the team not won he would have qualified as an individual! His coach had told him a while back that he was improving so much that he might possibly qualify so we were so excited to see him fulfill that dream! He placed 21st overall (this was for varsity too), and truly did help the team qualify . . . it was a close race for 3rd place!

On the drive home from the race Ellie asked me,

"Mom, when I die and go to heaven will I still have diabetes?"

"Nope!"

"YES!!!"

Trouble can't stop herself from pointing to each of the pumpkins by our door and saying "daddy, mommy, baby" before she will walk through the door. I tried to get her to do it on video and it really doesn't do it justice. For those Monk fans out there, she truly is my little Monk!!!

Throwback Thursday . . . Growing, growing GONE!

Here is a little tradition the kids and I have (although we missed this year!!! argh!!!!)

We love to go out to Lattin Farms and pick some raspberries (gold raspberries to be specific that are the sweetest, most wonderful tasting thing I've ever eaten!) and then peruse the activities.

My kids will spend hours feeding the goats and visiting with the other animals.

Look how little my kids look . . . this was just LAST year!!!

I don't know if I have mentioned it yet . . . Austin is officially taller than me! (His long anticipated growth spurt has arrived)

It feels like he will be gone so soon . . . :(]

I think I had better take the kids out to Lattin Farms to visit the animals, ride the barrel train, take some pictures in the painted cut-outs, see the pumpkin sculpture, ride the hay wagon to the pumpkins & go through the corn maze . . . I don't have many years left of that!!

a little of this and that

Here is a pictureless update.

Austin won his first medal last week at a cross country meet in Winnemucca . . . he took 7th place! Woo hoo!!!!

He is growing like a weed & is now taller than me (although I can still take him 3 out of 5 times in indian leg wrestling & give him a bloody nose!), and he has switched to the Tuba this year (everyone give a collected "huh???")

Joslyn has kept up really well on her school work so far this year!! woohooo!!

And she just started Jazz Band yesterday (*Joslyn sighs*).

She is trying to learn the flute part to a song for our Primary Program.

She had her first official sunday as a Beehive!!!

Saturday I took her and a couple of friends to Reno to see a movie and then go shopping for her birthday . . . they had a lot of fun!! We had a few things going on that night so we cut it a bit short, but they made use of EVERY minute!

Drew is having fun getting involved in school and doing the Student Advisory Committee (or whatever they call it).

We are in the works of possibly having her skip the 4th grade and move on to 5th grade this year . . . I think it's just up to us and if we decide to or not.

(Did I ever tell you that she tested at a 10th grade level for math???? She started the gifted and talented program this year and scored a 98% overall score . . . 99% is the highest possible score for this one and they want them to score over 94 in 4 different areas).

*insert funny story here* When I told Austin that Drew's teacher was talking about having her skip the 4th grade he said, "Great, now I feel like the dumbest one in the family!" I said, "Oh, you don't have to worry about that one!" We looked in the back seat and the little girl we call Trouble stuck her finger in her eye and howled, "AAAHHHH my EYE, my EYE!!"

Ellie is loving kindergarten!

She is constantly sounding out words and writing them down. It's amazing how quickly they learn when they set their minds to it!

She just went to her friend Ellie's birthday party yesterday and it was all she could talk about for a week!

Chloe has a new addiction . . . "Scooby Doo" and goes around singing the theme song on a regular basis (in fact when she asks to watch it she doesn't just say Scooby Doo . . . she sings it).

Apparently she has been paying good attention to "Super Why" and "Word World" as well, because yesterday when we got out of the car she went up to the license plate and started pointing at the letters and saying what they were & she got a lot of them right. I was amazed and asked her some of them in random order and she really knew them!

Scott has been sick for about a month now. He tends to have a difficult time getting over coughs (something he inherited from his mom I think).

He's been going crazy at work with so much to do and putting in a lot of hours. Some days I really miss DRI!!!!!!!

I am in the process of some projects around the house (we just had french doors installed in our dining area . . . I LOVE them!!!!). Too many projects to name!!

I'll have to take some before and after pictures.

Not ME!!!!

I have been very worried about something for the past couple of years . . . but, I think I will be okay now!!

I can't tell you how many time I caught myself on my way to give Chloe shots. It has just seemed so natural to me now to give babies/toddlers shots (not other people's . . . just my own). I always caught myself, but was so worried when I did . . . thinking that I might slip up one of these days and really give her a shot! I've even gone so far as to have her lie down . . . which she willingly did!! (sometimes she asks me to check her like I do Ellie, and has even asked for a shot a few times)

Yesterday I got the morning shots ready and started heading for Chloe instead of Ellie. You know when you are working on auto-pilot and you don't really hear what people are saying?? Well after about the third time Chloe's voice FINALLY penetrated my auto-pilot and I heard "nooo, not ME!!!"

At last, she can talk, she can tell me NOT ME & then I can shake off the zombie feeling and realize that I'm heading to the WRONG kid for a shot!

Throwback Thursday - Make-Up Maddness & More

The other night Ellie asked if she could take a shower & get ready for bed . . . it was only 7pm & that is rather unusual for her. After her shower I had a good look at her face & she had apparently been playing in her big sister's make-up & was trying to avoid trouble by taking a shower.

This wasn't a first for her. She was about 2 and all was quiet in the house . . . not a good sign, so I went on the hunt and this is what I found . . .

Austin has been on a roll with Cross Country lately. His coach told him that if he keeps up the way he has been lately he might make it to state. He's liking it so much that he might do it again next year instead of soccer. He's not winning anything . . . but he is improving dramatically on a regular basis & he loves that feeling! (Not to mention the abs . . . lol) We had a local meet yesterday and he took over 2 minutes off of his time.

After the meet we hurried home to eat some dinner and change to head back to school for an induction into the National Honors Society ceremony. I don't know if they just do things differently here or what, because Scott and I were both in the NHS, but neither of us applied for it & there wasn't a ceremony or a club or anything . . . just a little card and the bragging rights.

I found Austin's application letter the night before it was due. It was the same night that he had run a meet and had a lot of homework. It was the same night that I layed into him about not applying for it. It was the same night that Austin wrote his essay and applied for the NHS.

They had a nice ceremony and the parents put a sash on the inductee. I totally missed my hug in public because I was trying to get a picture. DANG!


The big girls watched the little girls during the Cross Country meet (they came with us last time & I decided it would be better for all concerned if they stayed home this time!). When we came home I looked out the window and this was the sight I beheld . . .

Keep in mind that today was the first cold day of the year!!!

Joslyn just had her 12th birthday. When I asked her what kind of cake she wanted she asked if she could decorate it herself. So I got it all put together for her & she decorated it.

Today my house is so cold inside and something about that makes me GIDDY inside!!!!!

Throwback Thursday - flying games

When I was probably around 5 I took dance lessons from a lady who lived near us. She had a real dance studio in her house with giant mirrors. I was never very coordinated...I'm still not! Years later my friend's little sister told me that the teacher had made one of our class pictures into wallpaper in the studio & there I was in all of my 5 year old uncoordinated glory!! One of the only things I remember about that dance class was when Miss Mary Jane (yes I totally thought the shoes were named after her!) would put us on her feet and give us airplane rides.

I've adopted the airplane rides & have fun giving my kids rides (sometimes I go a little crazy and there have been a few heads thump on the ground...remember the coordination problem?)

I believe that this may have been Chloe's first ride...I'm not sure how much she likes it!

In other news...I was playing a game with a 3rd grade boy at school. His question read, "A brown cow gives white milk. REAL OR MAKE BELIEVE?" He immediately answered, "Make believe! Brown cows give chocolate milk!!!"

Throwback Thursday - Cannons

A few years ago my parents were serving a mission in Washington DC, so we took the opportunity to take our family on another visit to our nations capital. (I heart Washington DC!) I had been there a number of times as a youth...business trips with my dad (one time was shortly after my mom passed away and we all have fond memories of that trip and nightly gigantic sundaes at the hotel restaurant), with Close-Up in high school, with 4-H in middle school (that one my friend Jennifer Duke and I missed our plane thinking that it was on Sunday and not Saturday...they called and asked where I was and I replied "mowing my lawn" followed by a scramble to the airport...what an adventure!), another time we took our family there for a temple trip when we lived in Boston (that was our closest temple).

This time we packed up 4 kids to fly across country. It was the first trip we had taken with diabetes in our life. Ellie had been diagnosed in February and it was now April. She had only been walking again for about a month.

It was fun seeing all of the same things and taking my kids there. We did go out and see some new things as well. We drove out to Gettysburg and saw where all of the battles were fought...it was amazing!! At each stop they had different cannons along the grounds. The kids immediately ran to the cannons and we took a lot of fun pictures of the kids and even some fun family shots.

At the last stop one of the guides came over and asked us not to climb on the cannons. They were authentic civil war cannons!!! I felt sooo bad! I had no idea because there weren't any signs about them and they were EVERYWHERE

(I thought they were replicas put there for this very purpose!)

Apparently they now have signs there saying to not climb on the cannons.

I'm all Cracked Up

My kids have been cracking me up lately.

Ellie was looking at a Spiegel catalog that came to my house and there was something that I "needed" on almost every page. Then she hit the shoe section. There before her very eyes were a pair of GOLD shoes. "Mom, you could get these and wear them to drive me to SCHOOL!!!" (wow I must have a pretty exciting life if THAT'S where I'm wearing some gold shoes!)

Ellie has a friend named Ellie (who's dad is named Scott). She was over for a playdate one day and I was listening to them talk. My Ellie started talking about having "chocolate hair" and wishing that she had "vanilla hair"...it reminded me of Drew when she was 2 saying "Mom, why do you have bwown hair and Jossie has bwown hair and Austin has bwown hair and dad has bwown hair, but I have yewow hair? I wish I had bwown hair too!"

My friend Karen and I trade picking up our Ellie's from school. When I want to scold my Ellie in the car I use her full name "Ellie Bassett". After saying something along the lines of, "Ellie Bassett stop kicking the back of the seat!" Chloe said, "She not Ellie Bassett, she EL-LIE!" (Normally I can only understand about 1/3 of what she says if I'm lucky....I guess that's what made this so funny to me, because I understood the whole thing--she REALLY must have been upset!)

My boy turned 15 yesterday!!! I really can't believe it. I wanted to make a movie of our awesome spanking machine, but the camera that does that wasn't here & we've lost the other one. Scott had the zoom lens on the camera so all of my pictures I had to take across the room & they were still head shots. The night before I wasn't feeling well & was VERY tired (no not pregnant...seriously people! just getting over the flu), so I didn't get the birthday decorations out for him to come out to. I could see the disappointment on his face when he got up in the morning. So I had to make it up to him...I decided to clean his room & do his laundry for him. Then I was trying to clean up the house & get the decorations up when he called & said that his cross country (if you talk to him though call it "track" it gets his goat & is so funny!) practice was over. So I made him wait for a bit & then left Joslyn & Drew to put the streamers up. He was pretty happy with his surprise (and VERY happy there were decorations!)...and it made me laugh. I told him that there weren't that many 15 year old boys who would be happy that their mom cleaned out their room while they were at school...he really didn't get it--WHY would they be mad about something like that?!?! I love that kid!

Here is Austin getting a Subway gift card (thrilled eh?)

The video game he's been dying for--and it even works with VISTA!!

Austin is trying to think of a wish for Drew who just bumped him on the head.

A nice shot of the spanking machine.

Throwback Thursday . . . What do you wish??

This is a classic picture of Drew happily enjoying one of our family traditions. Joslyn is giving Drew her present (for her 5th birthday) while she chants:

Heavy Heavy Hangover

Thy Poor Head

What Do You Wish

With A BUMP

On Your Head!

Now Drew has to figure out something that she wishes special for the gift-giver for that upcoming year. I'm sure you've all played it!

We've been in the house close to a year in this picture and there is still nothing on my walls and we barely had any furniture at that point!

(Now I have LOTS on the walls and TOO much furniture!! lol)

Ellie Draws Austin

Here is a picture that Ellie (age 5) drew of Austin. She had a stack of pictures and was showing my friend Shannon who started laughing when she saw this one, so I had to take a look.

For the life of me (and Austin) I couldn't figure out how she would have ever SEEN him to draw him like this!!!

This morning I took the stack of pictures and started asking her about all of them, leaving this one at the end.

She showed me the roof, windows, door, and doorknob on her house. We continued to point out all of the parts of the pictures.

Finally we reached this last picture.

Mom: What's this of?

Ellie: Austin in his skinny pants

(Austin had bought a pair of skinny jeans for school)

Mom: In his what?

Ellie: In his skinny pants, see there is the button and there is the zipper!

WHEW!!!!

A Summer Update

This summer seemed to speed by faster than the Road Runner! I am so bummed that school has already started & I lose my kids every day to the scary world. It's good for them though.

Joslyn started the summer off by going to Girls Camp for the first time...she had a BLAST!!! She is so excited to turn twelve next month and start going to Young Womens!!!

The kids and I went to Utah for a week & visited family, then we dropped Austin off with Scott (who had driven to Spanish Fork with a van load of boys to take to Scout Camp) to attend Scout Camp, while the girls and I stayed with family for another week. We had loads of fun going to my brother's house in Bear Lake, my sister's farm near Bear Lake & my other brother's house in Spanish Fork.

Sometimes it's pretty painful to come home from Utah. In fact, every time we go it gets a little harder to come back. The kids all beg to move there and I can't say that I don't agree with them! Maybe...Some Day...

We came home and had about enough time to set up our pool and do our laundry to pack for another trip, this time to Monterey with my brother Ross' family & my parents (for a couple of days).

Austin and Ashtyn as well as Matt (not pictured) had a lot of fun catching crabs one day.

On the hunt for their first crab, they lifted a rock and found an octopus!!! It was the highlight of the trip...it even shot out some ink at them!

The little girls were mostly into playing in the sand with Josh whenever they got the chance.

Joslyn bought this white hat on one of our last days in Utah and it never left her head for the rest of the summer!!!!!!

We love going to CA (just for a visit) and searching the beaches and tide pools. It was a fun trip had by all (although I think we all enjoyed the trip last year to Crescent City a bit more...if only we could have taken our hotel with us!)

It feels like we've been home for a week (even though it's been at least a month) & it was time for school to start.

We tried to do some fun things together this summer & reinstate our "Family Fun Day" that was such a HUGE success a few years ago. We went to a movie, bowling...and I can't even remember what else!!!! But, there was definitely an effort...and the kids DID have a good summer.

Maybe I'll get over my blogger-block and be back!!

Throwback Thursday

Scott and I went to Lagoon & had a scandalous picture taken of us. (It's one of the ONLY pictures we have of us when we were dating) This must be sometime around 1989 or 1990.

(wow it was humid that day! check out the frizz)

Throwback Thursday

My friend Candy does a fun thing called "Throwback Thursday" where she finds an old picture to post on Thursdays. I've been meaning to join up, and am finally attempting it!! Here is our Christmas picture from 2004...one of my FAVORITES!!!!

We got a package in the mail a few days after the Red Sox won the World Series from our friend Rae Ann...she had bought Championship t-shirts for all of the kids!
My friend Ellen found a way to make money from one of her talents & made her own business. She sent me a card with this picture on it and it is one of my MOST favorites!!!!! This is at the victory parade after they won the series...it was such an AWESOME year! (for all of you non-baseball fans...the Red Sox' biggest rival is the NY Yankees...Jeter was their #1 player & Manny was one of the Sox top dogs. He is holding the sign & it is PRICELESS!)

History (because you just HAVE to understand how fantastic this was!): They hadn't won a World Series since 1918 (you know after they sold Babe Ruth & everyone claimed they had a curse on them) & they were playing the Yankees for the AL Championship and had lost the first 3 games in the series & were behind 4-3 in the 9th inning. They came back and were the first to win a series by coming back from a 3-0 deficit & then swept the Cardinals in the World Series.

Ramblings

Hmmm...one post in May...I need to do better! I think I know why...I've just had little bits here and there to write about. So here is a chunk of tidbits.

This is the last week of school...hooray!! As I was cheering yesterday Scott turned to me and said, "what is the deal with you and summer??" I guess he really didn't know! "because as soon as school is out I have my slaves home...they take over all of the house work--it's WONDERFUL!" After dinner I begged for the kids to do the dishes because I was too tired (a familiar theme at my house as of late--the tired not the dishes), Drew said, "Hey it's not summer...we aren't your slaves yet!" And then they all hopped up and did the dishes!!!! Some days I REALLY love having kids!

Chloe is being potty trained. It isn't going the best...not the worst either...but, it could be going better! I stripped her down for a week and she didn't have a single accident...but, Austin couldn't take the naked little girl running around anymore and so I put clothes on her. Sometimes she decides to go potty...sometimes she decides to pee her pants. And last night she went commando outside and Ellie came running inside in a panic, "Chloe just pooped and Sadie ate a piece!" I followed her out and Sadie had finished the rest of it off.

Ellie had her 5th birthday...she goes to school next year! She received a bunch of money from grandparents and one sibling. The next morning (her birthday was on a Sunday), she had her money all in a purse and said, "can we go to the store today?" "Why?" "Cuz there might be someting that I want to buy if I'm rich." Sure enough she must have been rich and found something at the store to buy!

I took the kids to the local pool on Memorial Day. Drew couldn't find anyone to go with her, Joslyn found a friend, and Austin realized that he didn't have anyone to hang out with as we arrived. The three girls played together and a bunch of Austin's friends were already at the pool. I took the two little girls to the kiddie pool where Chloe spent the time climbing in and out of the pool. (Scott sent his iPhone with me so that I could listen to the Red Sox game...that went GREAT until someone decided to chat with me & I spent the rest of the time chatting. The chat had a lot to do with how her husband's family all has Phd's, but her husband didn't want to do that and is much happier working at UPS...by the end I felt like such a loser having a Bachelor's degree and being married to a guy with a doctorate from Harvard...what a waste! We would be so much happier if he were just driving for FedEx!)

We've attended a number of band/choir concerts/award ceremonies.

Scott took Ellie and Drew each to an Ace's (Triple A Baseball team in Reno) game and then to Circus Circus for a daddy-daughter date. Joslyn is awaiting her turn (they don't have home games for quite a while!).

Austin is lamenting the end of golf...it's his new passion!

Scott got me an iPod Touch for Mother's Day & I have been loading it up with songs that I have been having a blast searching for on-line! (side note: Austin is now OBSESSED with Rush...I'm so serious!!! He wants to buy all of them and whenever we get in the car he always turns that on. Kind of funny how this all happened about two days after I forced them to listen to 2112...they made fun of my the first 6 minutes that there is only music--whatEVER!)

Scott has been home a lot more!! He's not rolling in around 6:30 or 9:00 at night...he's home around 3 or 4 in the afternoon now.

Our garden is in and we are already harvesting lots of lettuce and spinach from it. We can't figure out what is up with the peas though...they look better than EVER, but there aren't any blossoms or peas...what's the deal?!

Enough rambling...I need to do my virtual farm on Facebook...may latest obsession! I love the name of my farm...but only 4 people would "get" it and none of them do the Farm Town stuff or read my blog...what a waste of a good joke! (it's named "Vision Quest"...Joslyn thought she had it all figured out & that it was from me trying to get better vision with Lasik--no go--& now back to contacts...WRONG!)

ta ta!

Dear Mr. Papelbon Sir,

Sir, you almost gave me a heart attack last night when you loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth inning with 2 outs with the batter at full count (aren't you impressed with my baseball know-how?). I will admit that it was a BEAUTIFUL strike out to end the game and luckily my screams of delight didn't wake up my sleeping children (I kept mine to an excited scream much like the one that you gave . . . minus the expletives that I could read coming from your mouth following said scream).

I really am okay with you just striking the batters out minus all of the suspense, so if you just want to strike them out in your next game, that would be okay with me!

From Your Biggest Fan

PS Why don't they ever zoom in on your awesome pitching expressions anymore???

I Break for Spring

W-O-W it is 8am at my house...the kids are all gone to school and I have two little ones STILL asleep! I can't remember the last time that has ever happened...oh that's because this has NEVER happened!

Spring Break was so much fun! We were so lazy and slept in clear 'til 7am every morning! That is, except for one morning . . .


Picture it . . . snow falling through Donner Pass (you know the place where the most infamous recorded instance of cannibalism in US history occurred??) . . . no not even snow falling in Donner Pass stopped us from our drive to Oakland to watch the Red Sox play the A's. I mean, what are the chances that the Red Sox will be scheduled to play the only team that we live close enough to watch??? Doesn't that mean that we are SUPPOSED to go . . . nay our very DUTY to go??? We had timed it just right as to arrive in time for batting practice & as we pulled into the parking lot the attendant looked at our white van (white from dried salt water) & said, "You JUST came from Nevada didn't you?"


Our Sox were not starting the season out very well & had already lost 2 games to the A's . . . we still had hope, but were mostly just excited to be in the same breathing space as Youk, Papi . . . well I could go on and on there! You should have seen us as we looked through the binoculars and were so excited when they came out of the dugout to warm up (batting practice was canceled that day), "Look! There's Papi...it's really him!! And there's Youk & Pedroia!! Who's that guy??? He must be new this year" There are lots of Sox fans at the A's games (Scott & Austin have gone before), but of course we were surrounded by A's fans. They were nice though. The Sox ended up winning the game and Wakefield almost pitched a no-hitter (made it to the 7th inning with no hits . . . they did finally get some hits, but he did pitch the whole game). On the even better side . . . they haven't lost a game since! (They just swept the Yankees . . . it was beyond wicked sweet!)


Drew, Scott, Chloe & Ellie at the game (the rest of us are there too . . . SOMEwhere!




After the game we drove to Fairfield and stayed in a great hotel. The kids got to swim their little hearts out & the next morning we went to the Jelly Belly Factory. We didn't do the tour (we've done it a number of times & Ellie & Chloe aren't quite old enough to really "get" it yet), instead we just went for the samples and the flops. Ellie bought a post-card and when we got home she filled it out to the Jelly Belly Factory and it said, "Jelly Belly Factory I love you!" and wrote them a separate letter . . . sealed them all in an envelope and I mailed it off.


the kids with their "goods" in front of the Jelly Belly Factory




We gave the kids a choice between the Sacramento Zoo, IKEA, or shopping at the outlets on the way home & they (except for Drew who wanted to go shopping) picked the zoo. I think one time is sufficient for the Sacramento Zoo! Afterwards we all wished we had gone shopping instead! We dropped Scott off at his car so that he could go teach his class & then headed home. We had planned on staying in town and shopping (at least for groceries), but decided that we really just wanted to go home. MAN those CA roads are rough!




Chloe checkin' out some fish at the zoo


Austin got to spend a day with friends bowling & Joslyn got to have a friend sleep over. It was a nice spring break & I'm ready for summer break now! (Especially since we've slept in late the past to mornings & Austin missed seminary this morning!)

Catch Up

The following is mostly rambling with some important milestones added in for extra flavor.

Yesterday I worked my "sitter" off! I got laundry done and folded, cleaned the house (including scrubbing my shower...HATE that job!!!!!! Note to self: NEVER have tile shower again!!!), among other things. After picking Joslyn up from Jazz Band (I don't think I've mentioned that she is in Jazz Band...her awesome band teacher says that she's really good at the flute), I dropped her and the two little girls off at home while I ran to Fallon to pick up some stuff that I ordered (this was to save them all an hour of driving in the car). Drew got home just as I was leaving and as I arrived home Austin had just been dropped off from golf (have I mentioned that he is on the golf team at school??). Within minutes of arriving home there began a storm of apologies and "what do you want me to do to help?" statements that I was having a hard time sorting through (it takes me a while to wind down from so much thinking allowed by being ALONE). Finally it sinks in that there is Trouble (notice the capital "T"). And coming from my house I'm sure everyone knows who that Trouble is!!!! Drew (no not her) had bought some finger paint and decided that the place for it to be put away is in the art cubby...the same art cubby that her little sister sometimes investigates with a chair or a stool. All five containers of said finger paint are now dumped all over the carpet in the playroom. No pictures...I really don't think that moment will EVER be funny!



After an awesome session of General Conference I resolved to better make my home a place of refuge for my kids. After the finger paints I found it to be difficult to look at my kids and want to "save" them!! So I made a decision and helped in the efforts of the older girls to get Ellie to clean up her stuff (that is quite a battle!!!), and said that I had a surprise as soon as she was done...not only did she finish, but she asked for MORE!! I grabbed a story about Easter and some apples, chips & water bottles and loaded everyone in the car. We went to McDonald's and bought some burgers and chicken nuggets and a couple of fries (I only had $11.00 and it came to $10.96!). We drove to the park and layed the back seat down and put a blanket down and sat in a circle with the back open while we ate our dinner and had a FHE lesson. Then we played at the park and had a blast until we came home and Joslyn threw up from spinning on the tire swing for too long (I warn her EVERY time!!).



Scott was absent from our exciting evening. He had to schmooze with some University folk & take a visitor out to dinner...he didn't know that he was doing the "taking" until the bill came and he ended up forking out $200 for it!!




I am one of those exceptional moms who strives for excellence in my kids. I give them great advice on things like...let's say the science fair..."do a good enough project to get a ribbon...just not good enough for first place." (reason: first place means that you move on to the next fair and when you move on they always "recommend" that you ADD to your project...GRRRRR). This year Drew and Joslyn each did Science Fairs. Drew did it with a friend (her friend had never done a science fair before and it ended up being a lot of work for me to try and keep us parents out as much as possible and not turn in a project that was obviously done by a college graduate...I felt so guilty throwing away the beautifully typed thesis statement that the friend's mom brought to the house...Scott was quite impressed by it and said that most of his students couldn't write that well!!!). My other criteria for my kids and science fair is that it needs to be something that can be done in a day (no growing things...no keeping track of things...all lessons learned from having an older brother!!!).




Joslyn took soda pop and kept some in the fridge and then put some in a pan of very hot water. She shook them up and opened them to see which one fizzed more. You should have seen the hot ones explode!!!! She took first place at the Middle School and moved on to the high school. We showed up for the awards and she didn't place at all (strange since we only have one middle school and so there isn't any MORE competition!). After the awards we went to get their boards and the notebook sitting in front of her project was someone else's notebook.


(Austin opened the cans because Joslyn couldn't get the hot ones to open...or she was too scared)


Drew & Kat took first place at the Elementary school. They moved on to the high school. They took first place at the high school (%$@#). We changed the bare minimum on the board...totally lazy I know! They moved on to the Regional (they said that they consider it the state fair because 17 out of 19 counties go to this one and it has 4 times the number of entries). We got notice that they took 3rd place! Wow! Austin went to Regional's twice but never placed. Drew, Ellie and I had a fun trip to Reno to get her award and then do some major shopping (for food that is!).





We've been without heat for a week as of today. We woke up last Monday and the house was only 60 degrees inside (thermostat is set at 64!), Scott was on his way out of town until Wednesday. The mornings were spent sitting by the windows where the sun came in and by afternoon the house was warm enough. After much trouble-shooting: me climbing all over our garage to flip breakers, a quick trip to Lowe's to buy a new thermostat (installed by none other than ME!), and going through the troubleshooting instructions in the manual we finally narrowed down the problem and a part is on it's way. The weekend was SOOOO cold!! We spent it in blankets and coats and huddled together to watch General Conference. I hope the part comes soon!!




Austin scored a 99% on Rockband (that is for Nevadanista because she will appreciate it)




Ellie had an appointment with her Diabetes doctor and it was AWESOME!! She gets a blood test done every 3 months that tells us how her blood sugars are for the past three months...it's called an A1C and the lower the score the better. Last time she was 10.2 and this time she was 8.2!!!! There was jumping and cheering done by mom!!! She changed her insulin the last time we went in to a new one just out on the market and it is AWESOME! She also had her yearly blood panel done and we got a call back (never a good sign to get a call back!) and it looks like she has hypothyroid (same as me!). It's not that bad yet and we are going to wait a few months and test her again to see if there is any change before we start medicating. So for her next appointment we will be testing her thyroid and screening for Cyliacs (I sure hope THAT one comes back negative!!!!).


Enough rambling! Can't wait for Spring Break next week!!!!