Word to the Wise

(3:00am)  Have you ever been so tired going to bed at night that you just couldn't bring yourself to kneel and pray, but rationalized that a prayer is still a prayer even if it is said while lying in bed?  Maybe I'm the only one guilty of this, but I will admit that I did that last night.  I waited up for Todd to come home and when it got super late and he still hadn't shown up, I finally climbed into bed and sheepishly promised the Lord I'd be just as sincere in my prayer tonight as I normally am on my knees.

Well, funny thing... the Lord has such a sense of humor.  In my prayer tonight, I asked for some inspiration for some things in my life, the same thing I asked for the night before, and just wasn't getting any answers.  Finally, I ended my prayer and climbed into bed.  Instantly the inspiration started coming.  One idea after another.  An hour went by and still the thoughts were flooding my mind.  I finally got out of bed and got a drink.  My mind was suddenly at rest and I felt sleepy again.  I got back in bed.  The flood gates of thought opened again and I tossed and turned with a very active mind.  The thought occured to me.... as though someone was saying it, "If you're going to talk to me while lying in bed then so will I."  I got out of bed again and it stopped.  This happened several times and was beginning to feel like a prank.  SO.  I think I've learned my lesson to kneel and pray from now on!

We Have Kittens!

A friend of mine that had tried to help us find kittens earlier this week gave me a call today. I let her know the kittens from earlier were taken before we could get to them and she told me she would FIND ME some. With a mission she set out and I was so impressed and grateful. Her daughter lives in Ontario and lives in a very animal friendly neighborhood. Several of her neighbors had kittens. And the daughter, herself, had LOTS of cats, the cutest bull dog ever named Bridget, turtles, a house full of sweet tempered animals that all got along magically like millenium lions and lambs. She hunted down some kittens for me, 4 to choose from in fact (from two different litters), and kept them at her house until I arrived so I would be certain to be able to take two kittens home with me when I left. Such kind and helpful people!

I gave the kids some chocolate to eat in the car ride over to the house with the kittens. My way of making it up to them when they had to drive home disappointed without kitties on Tuesday. But that explains the chocolate ALL OVER Ashton's face in the pictures! We took home a little calico girl and a black boy with cute white mittens. We're still not sure what we'll name them, but Max & Ruby is what they are being called so far. You may have seen that cartoon on TV. Only they were rabbits.

The kids are SOOOOOO in love, and I have to say, they sure are cute kitties. Let's hope the mice don't like them as much! I heard one scurry across the ceiling's sheet rock in the attic today... yikes!

It's Only Fair

It's only fair that I feel this bored tonight and lonely as the kids have long since gone to bed. Todd is on his annual getaway trip with his brothers to Bend, Oregon for the weekend. They left today and come home Saturday night. Is it sad that I'm "bored" and "lonely" already and it's only the first day!? But I'll be going to Spokane in two weeks for MY getaway with my girls from way back when. So I'm trying to keep the complaints in my head to a minimum.

I just miss my sweetheart. I will not be one of those middle aged wives who goes bonkers when her husband retires because she gets sick of him, or can't get much done with him hanging around all the time, or feels like they have to get to know each other all over again. I will probably smother him until HE gets sick of ME! Todd stopped working Fridays several months back and I LOVE LOVE LOVE having him here more. We get that much more done and have tons of fun. I've never gotten sick of him and doubt I ever could. So he couldn't come home fast enough.

The theme for this week should really be "Unproductive" and/or "Lost My Marbles!" I got sick during my brother's wedding events two weeks ago and after canning all my grape juice and jam and beans, it really got the better of me. In fact, I think I had Swine Flu. I didn't know the symptoms until after I knew I was already getting better, so no Dr. appointments for it. But it definitely put a dead stop to all my canning ambitions for this week! No yummy spaghetti sauce, no corn, no applesauce. Everything short of the laundry, baking bread, and a couple batches of cookies for the football game, really slowed to a halt.

I hope, like a cold, you aren't contagious after having Swine Flue a long time because I was at a couple of large group functions over this past weekend. I haven't heard yet of anyone getting super sick. Aside from Church on Sunday, we went to the dinner last Thursday that the scouts put on with a cake auction/fundraiser. Friday evening we took our good friend, Justin Gibb and his kids to Todd's mom's pool. Justin's wife, my friend, Beth was out of town. So this helped him entertain their kiddos in her absence. And our ward did a harvest dinner on Saturday night that we went to. It was all lots of fun, it just took it out me.

As for losing my marbles... to start this week off, I spaced my kids' dentist appointment on Monday. Didn't even realize until that night! Never got a call from them, but I usually don't make apts. for Mondays so I didn't even bother looking at my calendar until way too late. Wish I could say I learned my lesson then and there.

Tuesday morning, a good friend that I visit teach called to ask if I could leave Brielle with her when I came visiting teaching that day so her daughter and Brielle could play a little while longer before being taken to school. Great idea! And SO glad she called or I never would have been there in the first place because I FORGOT about it! On top of that, when I hung up from that call, it dawned on me that I had never called my companion to tell her when the appointment was set for! Fortunately she was able to work things out and be there that day.

That NIGHT, I was on my way to Ontario with Brielle and Ashton having a pleasant drive to where I was given a lead for finding kittens, when Denise Myers, the Relief Society President called and asked if I was coming to our meeting.... the one that should have started 25 minutes ago. Our meetings are normally on Wednesday nights and this one was changed to Tuesday. Again, I didn't bother looking at my calendar because Tuesday evenings are USUALLY free. "Usually" needs to leave my vocabulary real quick! The only thing usual and predictable about my schedule anymore these days is that it is full of TONS of appointments that are NOT predictable. Turns out the kittens were all taken anyway, but Brielle and Ashton were very disappointed to turn back before even arriving and not have kittens at home to play with that night. I made it to my meeting, but very late. We're still in the market for kittens if anyone knows of any. We've had lots of leads and we're always getting our leads too late. I thought kittens were going to overpopulate the planet or something. Why can't I find 1 of them!? Maybe I'll try Craigslist???

I don't think I missed anything on Wednesday or today, but you can never be too sure! I was going to pick apples at the church orchard yesterday for my applesauce but that will have to wait. I do feel a lot better, but when Todd leaves, I feel less capable of juggling my life and getting everything done. He's the steam that runs this ship so while he's gone.... we.... PARTY and ignore that pesky calendar!!!! Movies and popcorn galore! OK not really. I do have the General Relief Society broadcast to go to on Saturday that I should get a babysitter for soon.

Here's a few of this week's Pic Picks of the kids:

Canning Boot Camp

I have finally had time to do some of the canning I've been meaning to do for a while now! I love storing up the fruits of.... other gardeners' labor. Hehe. Sadly, our family only planted enough in our garden this year to eat as we picked it. It was a trial garden and it did survive! So next year we will be more confident with planting more and canning what comes from it. For now, I am a scavenger for free picking here and cheap purchases of bulk veggies there. I bought my extra jars early this summer because I suspected I'd procrastinate until late season for canning and find the stores were out of them.

First up was grape juice! A very generous family in our ward invited whoever would like grapes to pick in their orchard for free. The choices were green or table red grapes. I chose green because they were INCREDIBLE tasting. Best I've ever had. I borrowed my sister in law's steamer/juicer and bought my own as well to speed the process. After 5 hours and 24 quarts of juice, I still had two thirds of my grapes sitting in grocery bags to be juiced, but I was DONE. So I made some calls and found homes for the rest of the grapes and called it a night.

While waiting for the grapes to steam, I made raspberry and blueberry freezer jam since it's super fast.

Today is green bean day.

One of the friends I brought grapes to was canning her family recipe spaghetti sauce. She offered the recipe and let me try it and it was SOOOOO amazing. Her in laws are Italian, literally- the grandma came here from Italy. They always have incredible Italian recipes and this sauce was no exception. So I'm very very very grateful to have had extra grapes and crossed paths with her that day. Very sweet of her to share. I'll be canning spaghetti sauce next! And tomatoes. Then applesauce. And maybe peaches. But I can only do one a day or I lose steam fast.

I passed up the option to bag corn with my sisters in law this year. My step father in law is a farmer here and always has the tips on when to get baby sweet corn from Purdums, another farmer in town. But I didn't eat all of mine this past year because I was always trying to avoid starchy foods and keep my weight gain down during pregnancy. I thought it would go uneaten if I did it again this year as Todd and I are both trying to lose weight. But we are getting much closer to our weight goals now so I'm kind of wishing I had done it with them. I still might do a little on my own next week. But it would have been much easier with a crew of people working together.

I'm excited to have home made white grape juice! I always LOVED my grandma's concord grape juice. We only broke it out for special occasions and my siblings and I devoured it. We always wished grapes could grow in Alaska so we could make more of our own. One of the things I'm looking forward to most with having property (when we finally build on it) is being able to plant grapes!





This is Lainey helping Todd open the DVD he ordered to teach children how to swim. She must be eager to learn! We were so impressed with it! It has modules for ages 6 months to 2 years, 2 to 4 years old, 5 to 12, and finally teen lessons. This lady actually has 3 year olds swimming beautiful free style strokes! And 2 year olds that can float and swim around in water on their very own. If anyone is interested in teaching their child to swim instead of paying for swim lessons at the public pool (which were a joke for my kids last year), try this award winning DVD! It's called "Waterproof Kids" and the website is www.waterproofkids.com.

Devan and Maura's Wedding

It's official! Devan and Maura are married! What a beautiful couple they make. We enjoyed the wedding and receptions.

Monday, Labor Day, we flew out to Salt Lake City, and drove up to Brigham City for Devan and Maura's family shower (girls and guys invited). Tuesday we took a drive up Logan Canyon. My parents arrived that night and we all went swimming in the hotel pool and visited a while.

Wednesday was the wedding (09/09/09). They were married in the Logan Temple and had a reception in Ogden. It was held in a lovely reception center called Ivy Lane.

Thursday, Levi turned 23! He and Rachele had to head home for work. We flew out to Denver then drove to Fort Collins with my parents. The next day we had a BBQ with Maura's parents and Todd and I drove to the airport to pick up Scott.

Saturday we decorated and then attended the reception there in Fort Collins. It was a busy week! And we felt it! Lainey and I came down with colds in the end. But we are so happy for Devan and Maura!

This is Maura's sister, Monica and her little two year old, Ryland.  He and Ashton had a great week together making mischief!

We have a Kindergartner!

Well, it's official! Brielle is a school girl! Her first day of Kindergarten was Monday, the 31st of August. I took her to school and she was SOOOO happy. It made it hard for me to be so sad to see her go knowing how thrilled SHE was.

Ashton almost died of a broken heart on the second day of school when we walked Brielle to the bus stop to take the bus to school and he couldn't get on it with her. He was so hurt walking back home! But we had fun at home together this week.

We went to the fair a couple weekends ago- forgot to mention it in the last post. But while there, we bought a reconditioned Vita-Mix blender. We have LOVED it! The last two weeks have been filled with fruit smoothies, soups, homemade frozen yogurt, homemade baby food, and fast chopped foods!

We spent some time at Todd's mom's pool this weekend and I tried to learn the free style stroke a little better. So far when I swim, I do whatever keeps my face out of the water: the side stroke, back stroke, breast stroke. But Todd ordered an instructional video that breaks the free style down pretty basic and is actually helping me! I never thought I'd get the breathing down!

Todd also ordered a video teaching "Chi Running", where you run in a certain way that puts much less stress on your joints and allows you to run farther. We took the family to the track Saturday afternoon to practice and I LOVED it. It makes you tuck your pelvis for better posture and it's working my abdomen, which I NEED. There's a lot to it, actually. But it really helps my bad knees!

This week I got Lainey and myself in to see the dermatologist for super dry skin we both have in patches on our faces. I figured it only made sense that they be the same thing, but mine is Rosacea and hers is Eczima. But they are both finally getting better.

This week was also another Enrichment Mtg. It was all about preserving the harvest since our Stake President challenged the members to grow a garden this Spring and many who hadn't ever before, did. We had a lady from the extension office come and do a demonstration. I learned a lot even though I have done canning a couple of times. And got some great recipes! She did a fruit leather dehydrator demonstration in the end and I'm super excited to do that more often.

Well, I'm off to pack. We are headed to Utah tomorrow for my brother, Devan's wedding! Woo hoo! We are SOOOOO excited for him and Maura and stoked to see all of my family. I love my family :)

Summer Summed-Up

Well, it's been a busy summer! Lots to catch up on, too much in fact. So for my journal's sake, I'll list a few highlights so we can keep this thing maintained!

To start the summer off, my sister, Rachele, graduated from TVCC. She and her boyfriend, John moved to Lewiston, where he's from. And we miss her very much.


That same week we bought a hot tub! We have used it almost every night since. It took us a couple weeks to really understand what we were supposed to do to keep the pH levels balanced and maintain the filter, but we've mastered it now, and we have absolutely LOVED it. My chiropractor bills were just reduced to 1/8 of what they used to be. So it will quickly pay for itself.

On a sad note, this summer we lost our sweet cat, Pip. Either he ran away or died. We miss him tons and are now in search of a new very sweet kitten if anyone knows of any.


In July we had a wonderful family vacation, just Todd, the kids and I. We did a road trip through Washington State. We visited Seattle, Port Angeles and the Olympic Rain Forest area, Victoria, and the Great Wolf Lodge. The highlights were the Seattle fireworks on the Fourth of July, the Bouchart Gardens in Victoria, the rain forest hikes, the best berries I've ever had at a Sequim U-pick farm, a brief little stop at a "Twilight" store in Port Angeles (couldn't help myself- I bought a Twilight sweatshirt to wear to New Moon's opening night, hehe), and the Great Wolf Lodge water park. That place was awesome.
















On our drive home from Washington, I got a text on my cell phone from my brother, Devan that he was engaged! Such a great way to end a wonderful week! He and his girlfriend, Maura had visited a few weeks earlier and we loved getting to know Maura. They are getting married September 9th, so it's coming up! 09/09/'09. Yes, they chose that date for its special numbers. :)



Right after our trip I had a root canal done on the same tooth that has already had a root canal done two times before! It was finally done right. What an expensive and PAINFUL tooth!

My first Enrichment since being put in my calling was in July. It was on the book "The Five Love Languages". I love that book and highly recommend it for a great read on relationship skills.


This summer, we've spent LOTS of time at Grandma Lee's pool during the hotest parts of the day. Brielle learned to swim without a life jacket her first try. She's pretty good at it!


I spent my summer training (I use that word loosely) for a triathlon the first week of August. I began not being able to run AT ALL and built up to 4 miles. But I'm still very slow at running. I built up to half a mile swimming, and biking as long as I wanted to, as my bum doesn't get sore anymore. So I was ready when the race came to at least FINISH it. That was my goal, not really to be competitive. I did lose 8 pounds in the process, which was less than I had hoped, but something. Woo hoo! It's just so hard for me to lose weight when I'm nursing. So I'll take it! The race was SO MUCH FUN. I did it with my father in law, Rex, and his wife, Cindy. We had a blast. I had a goal of doing it in less than 2 hours which was supposed to be hard to beat since my practice run was quite a bit slower than that. And I did it in 1 hour and 49 minutes! I was so happy!


Todd and I are now training to do more races next year. Todd is also signed up to do a 50 mile bike race in WA with his dad in October. We both got new road bikes and love how much faster they are to ride. We just really enjoy the triathlon life style. It's so much fun to do a combination of work outs instead of strictly jogging. And the atmosphere at a race is so filled with happy healthy encouraging people. We've decided to make this a family hobby and get the kids involved in the kid events as they get old enough. Ashton got a bike and he LOVES it, so we're getting him started young!

We haven't done as much camping as we would like to have. Just one trip with the Elders Quorum camp-out which was fun. We're hoping at least one more trip in next month.

Ashton introduced the scissors to his hair for his first time. He cut it shorter than I though was possible so even his new buzz cut can't hide his work. But I do like his hair this short.


Ashton also got a big boy bed this month and he LOVES it.


And Lainey is getting so big!





That about sums up our summer. Which, sadly, is at its end. Brielle starts school on Monday. While she is super duper majorly excited, I am torn. She's my oldest, so I'm losing my helper half the day. I don't see how that will make home life any easier like I hear sending kids off to school does for some moms. I will miss her too. I think Ashton will too. That poor little guy is going to think our neighborhood is a ghost town! All but one kid will suddenly be gone for school! And that one is a little girl who he hasn't spent much time playing with. Maybe he'll make a new pal of her this Fall. I guess school shopping for Brielle was sort of fun. As fun as school uniforms are to shop for... Brielle looks stinking cute in her uniform clothes! We're headed to an open house tonight to meet her teacher, Mrs. Sitz, for the first time.

Summertime At Last

I don't usually go this long without a post, so there's a lot to update on here.

First, sadly, I've had another aunt pass away. Aunt Kathy, my dad's oldest sister (of 16 siblings) passed away Friday night of heart failure. My dad is young but he is the tenth of the children and this sister was old enough to be his mom. It's sad. I didn't know her super well, but she reminded me so much of my grandma on that side of the family. I can't seem to find an obituary for her on the internet, but when I do I'll post it.

Mothers Day was wonderful. Todd did a BBQ. Lainey started sleeping through the night the week before and it was the best gift she could give me! Todd got me an iPod and I've had tons of fun with it. I've never had one before. It's gotten me out jogging and biking on a daily basis. Woohoo! (That and the sudden good night's rest each night.)




We had a couple families over. First, the Jenks, who we've wanted to have over for over a year now and our schedules never lined up! But we had a great time with them and were happy to finally have them. The Arnette family came for Family Home Evening last week and we made home made ice cream for the treats. We just got the ice cream maker and experimenting with it was very yummy- as well as fun company for guinnea pigs!

Brielle graduated from Mrs. Heather's pre-school class this month. This was her second year attending it and she misses it already. They had a cute little presentation on Mrs. Heather's back porch for parents to watch on chairs in the back yard. It cracks me up when kids preform. So many impromptu quotes like, "Can I go to the bathroom?" while on stage. It was awesome. Brielle memorized her lines super fast. It's a talent, but also a little bit of a curse. When I try to teach her to read, she just memorizes the books as we go so that she can repeat them the next time I try to get her to read them. I used to do that too as a kid, only not so flawlessly or effortlessly!







After reading the Twilight series, I broke down and read my all time favorite movie's book, Pride and Prejudice. And of course, when I was finished, I had to watch both the Kiera Nightly version and the BBC version. They'll never get old! I love Jane Austen's stories. I want to read her other books now- I have all the movies of them. Time to read them.



Memorial Weekend was mostly a bust. It started out good. We started the Friday with a landscaping party with Todd's mom and brothers' families. We had a large portion of our yard full of weeds waiting for landscaping for quite a while after ripping out junipers our second year here. Now two years later, we finally finished it!



But we were out in the sun all day and I thought maybe Ashton got heat exhaustion because he threw up in his bed that night. The next day was one diarrhea diaper after the next.

Finally, on Monday, he seemed completely fine and we went to Todd's mom's house for the Memorial Day holiday. Brielle swam in her pool and Ashton played around the yard. The next day Ashton was suddenly at his worst. He threw up all over the kitchen at dinner time and was so lethargic from dehydration (he refused to drink all day no matter how hard I tried to make him, and he layed around on the carpet during all times that he was not in my arms) that we decided to take him to the hospital where they gave him an IV to rehydrate him. He lost about 5 pounds, but he's fine now as of last night. No more diarrhea or fevers. Lainey also seemed sick for a couple days but she seems better today. She's sure a happy little baby. She had her 2 month check up today- 75th percentile height, 90th percentile in weight. She's a cute tubby one!!!

I'm feeling more adjusted to my new calling. Once the reality of the amount of time required for it started to set in, I felt my nerves fray a little. I had to stop Physical Therapy cold turkey because it was just TOO many different appointments. But I feel great now and sure love the sisters I work with.

We got a little kiddie pool and set it up yesterday. The kids spent most of today in it and they are LOVIN' IT!!! I love summer time with the sunshine, the warmth, the flowers and green shady trees, the popcycles, swimming, biking, jogging, reading on the back patio, BBQ's, it's candy to the soul!!!