Growing old

Okay here's a funny, but I don't want you laughing at me, just at life.
We, Adam, Aubree and me, were sitting at the dinner table eating dinner. Adam had his shirt off because he had a sunburn. When he lifted his arm to put food in his mouth I laughed at the underarm hair. I teased and said, "wow, you are starting to be come a man." He said, "I'll show you man, look at these muscles." And so he flexed for us. I laughed and said that wasn't a muscle. He then said then show me yours. Of course this was my response. "I'll show you a muscle." I whipped my arm up into my flexing position. Both my kids started laughing their heads off. I looked down at my big muscle only to see that my lower arm was waving in the wind. WHAT, that can't be, I've been a religious worker-outer!! I'm still young and strong right? Adam and Aubree would lift their own arms but with the other hand they would wave their flexed arms. Adam said, "You have Relief Society arms." They thought that was the best laugh there was. I said, "Don't you tell any of your friends this story." Well they did, so I thought I would too. HOW sad is it to get old and flappy.

Halloween Party

So Aubree has now had her halloween party. I have started this thing where my children turn 12 and will not be able to go trick or treating, so we throw a party for them instead. It turned out well. The theme this time was the "mad scientist" who's favorite book was Frankinstein. He then wanted to make his own "Franky" kind. I made gruesome brains, had the big gummy hand and foot and eyeballs which they had to hunt down. But he was missing the heart. So in our haunted "lab" the mad scientist held the heart and yelled, "It's alive!" (gary did a great job) Aubree's generation now needs to watch Frankinstein, I don't think they made the contection. I guess the most important was that we scared the "bugukey's" out of them. HAHAHAHA
Who knows what we will come up with once we do it two more times.

Sickness

Okay so this is the first time in a long since I have had a cold. But it hit me hard. So heres AUGH!! to all those sicknesses that we get! Sure makes you appreciate the healthy days. Hope everyone out there is surviving.

Birthday fun

Katee just turned eleven. I wasn't too sure what I was going to do for it. So one day an idea came to my head, "Crafts." I told a friend that I had to come up with a craft to do, she told me about a blog that her friend had that had craft ideas on it. So I looked it up. In no time I had decided what to do: headbands. So I went to the store and grabbed some material. I ended up sewing (which is quite the chore for me to do, I'm sure you know what escaped my mouth a few times) I sewed 16. I didn't want to waste the material. I also was borrowing the neighbors sewing machine because my wasn't working right, so I had to get it all done before I had to return it. I do have to say they turned out plenty cute. WHAT we won't do for our kids!! I guess it's a good thing we love them.

Chicken update

I think we have finally figured out how to keep the chicken's from flying the coop. We clipped their wings. It has been wonderful to not be chasing the chickens back home. (too bad the cussing hasn't let up though. HA if only I felt bad about it.)
Well I just got a new calling, Bear Cub Leader. Thankfully I will be working with a friend in the program. I'm not excited about wearing that yellow shirt though. (me and uniforms just don't mix)

Founder's Day

Here in Wellsville they celebrate their beginnings on Labor Day. We start out with a Cannon that goes off at 5:30 in the morning. I remember the first year that we heard it burst into the air, we thought the end of the world was here. At seven, they host a 5K and a 10k run. Aubree and Katee joined the neighbor and ran the 5k. Then at 10 is the parade. They do real well with their floats and candy. (Candy is the most important for some) A sham battle is played out for their audience, a cowboy and Indian war. The Indians are painted with red dye and they all have long black hair. The contenders battle it out with fake blank shots and wrestling. Pure craziness. After the parade they have booths to visit at the park. Come 6:30 that evening their is a children's rodeo. Kids sign up to ride a sheep or a cow. It's hilarious to watch the kids fall off and then come crying to their parents like, "I can't believe you signed me up for this." Cheap entertainment, at the expense of the child. Ha. They have a critter run, where children under 6 run into the arena for an animal; a bunny, chicken, rooster, cat. Every now and then they have a goat. It's fun to watch them. They catch an animal that the parents don't want to have and the animal ends up going home. That's how we ended up with our bunny. A calf run for the women is also done. Women 18 and older run after the tails of calves for a two night stay at Sherwood hills. Pure craziness. Never did I think I would be involved in such fun events. It reminds me of Manassa on the 24th. I feel fortunate.

Dispite his wife

Well for my birthday yesterday we watched Gary get set apart in the new Bishopric of the new 10th ward. (1st Counselor) Amazingly he got put in even though his wife cusses at the chickens 24--7. Our stake changed boundaries and created two new wards. Our meeting time will now be 8:30 until the new building is built. So, lots of changes for the coming year.

chicken hell

Okay so I'm like going crazy with our chickens! hey are going to have to take me to the crazy house---soon. We have done the stinking fence three times and they are still getting out to roam the neighborhood. If fact today as the children were waiting at the bus stop, a chicken crossed the road (Now my version of joke about why the chicken crossed the road would be "to get ran over!") The children at the bus stop yelled, "there's your chicken." and then they laughed. I have to admit I was embarrassed. As soon as it went into the neighbors yard I knew I had to chase it home. Damn chicken. So here I'm out in my jammies chasing the chicken home. Come to find out four more are out!!! Aurh! I hope I make it through the year. (maybe they will freeze this winter like our bunny did)

School days, school days...

The Hansen children started today... maybe they can tell us how things went? Okay...

(this picture was taken at Treasure Falls at the base of Wolf Creek Pass this summer)

Watch Dog

As I ran on the treadmill, I saw a silver car drive into the subdivision. (My view is great from the loft where my treadmill sits in front of the window) I saw it slow by the house out in front then make the turn. It then stayed the mailboxes up the street for a while. I was confused, I didn't recognize this car, what was it doing? It then proceeded towards our line of mailboxes (about four) I stepped off the treadmill to see if it was going to stop by ours too? It did. And I could see the individuals open every box. That was when I was put on alarm. What were they doing? Taking mail? I ran out the front door down to the mailboxes. I yelled, "hey, what do you need?" But the hurried on their way. I wasn't sure what to do? SO I called a neighbor, they said to call report it. SO I did.
A friendly officer came to my house to ask questions. I told him the man in the car got out at one time and was in a red shirt. The neighbor I had talked to told me that across the highway a friend suspected his mail to be stolen. Once I finished talking to the officer, I figured that was that but hoped they didn't take anything that wasn't theirs. About ten minutes later the cop called to say, "I found the car and . . . it was the mailman, his car was broken down so he and his wife were using her car to deliver mail. Okay so I didn't know whether to feel dumb or relieved.

Rodeo

We took the kids to a rodeo this weekend in Preston, Idaho. They enjoyed it. Of course the part I loved the most was the rodeo clown. I've never been a rodeo fan, but it was nice for the kids to see one. We then let them take a ride at the carnival (boy is that expensive.) Sadly my kids memories of such events will not be like mine, living in the valley had it's perks. ( the parades in Manassa were great! ) At least they can say they did it this year, right?

The Break

Grandpa and Grandma Vance have the kids this week. So I've been slowly getting out of bed and slowly getting around to my chores. I'm on vacation, right? So today I watered the garden and pulled some weeds. I then read some out of my book, checked emails and spent time on revising a new book I'm writing. It was around 4:30 and I was still in my workout clothes but had not worked out yet. After finding out that Gary was going to be later I decided to finally get on the treadmill. It happened to be a cool night so the heat in the house wasn't bad. After I had finished my exercising I opened the front door. The back door was opened too, but it had a screen. I went into my bathroom to clean up. The scouts were going to be coming around 7 and the neighbor was going to be picking up some equipment around 6. I had only been in the bathroom about a half hour and decided to turn on the AC since the temp. was raising above the desirable number. I walked to the front to shut the door and noticed the chicken poop out on the sidewalk. My thought was, "They been in the front yard? Those pooping creatures." I then walked back to the kitchen. TO MY SURPRISE, 6 chickens were standing in my kitchen. I screamed. They had poop everywhere. I started to shoo them out the side door but they just ran around the kitchen table. I screamed some more. I couldn't let them get on my carpet! I shoo again, still they didn't know where to go. My cat "Coco" just sat and watched me freak. I grabbed the flyswatter and swatted. I needed help but didn't dare leave for the phone! I asked coco but he didn't budge. Finally I was able to scare four out the door. Amazingly, I was able to scare the others out. But not without them pooping a few more times first. I couldn't believe it! Thankfully, they walked through the front to the kitchen were there is tile. Not one pile of poop ended up on my light colored carpet. I'm definitely counting my lucky stars for that one. (oh, having chickens has been so much fun---not)

Hereditary?

Hereditary or not? Okay so this post is going to be odd, but I just had to post it. When I was younger I used to love to tease my mother and grandmother (her mom) about boogers. They would gag at the word. It was soo much fun to watch them freak. So now that I'm getting older I'm starting to be more like them. Is it in my jean-makeup? I laugh at how easy it is for me to gag over the thought of them. Katee has been that way for a long time. She can't even hear someone blowing their nose without having that gag look on her face. So could it be something we've inhereited? Strange I know but very likely. What is something you've carried on?

gift certificate

The other day Gary had a fund raiser set up for the scouts to do for camp money. He needed eight boys to help with a bike race. Only four boys were available to work, so our children and the neighbor kids went to help. They came back with red Hawaiian shirts,tons of food and a gift certificate. Katee's name was drawn out of a hat. It was $100 to a Bingham Cyclery. I looked online the cheapest bike was 289. and it was a kids bike. Other bikes got as high as 2,000 or more. So I wondered what our measly $100 would get her. We ended up buying six water bottles--the nice camelbak. Katee got a bike bell and we got some tire gue. It was funny how lucky we all felt to have a $100 certificate when in reality it wasn't much at all.

Riley our sentence boy

Our second grade Riley’s school work. His teacher put at the top, “Excellent sentences.”
These are typed as he spelled them. The ones in italics are the ones his teacher circled. I guess that is the word he is supposed to use in the sentence.

1. Do you know what inqisitive means?
2. We will protest against clinging to a tree.
3. Let’s collaborate to aim an arrow.
4. We are going to a magnificent gallery.
5. We will plunge into coloring a vivid picture.
6. It is futile that I’ll ever be famous.
7. I’m marooned in this ridiculous desert.

I laughed at how well he made up sentences. I told him he would have to be the writer since he writes better than I do. I even had to ask him what marooned meant. He said, “it means you are alone.” Like okay mom I’ll educate you.

The Covet Conference

For a wanna-be, that's what a writer's conference is. Lol. Well is past weekend I spent two days on my butt listening to authors instructing me how to write. The first day was a thirteen hour day. I left my home at five a.m. so I could attend "boot camp." This is where you sit at a table and read ten pages of your stuff for comment. It had its good with its bad.
The most inspiring was the video they showed: it was football practice. Some players complained about the upcoming season so the coach had one of the players come forward. He asked him if he would be willing to do his best at the task he was going to have him perform. The kid agreed. He then blindfolded the player and told him to get in the man crawl position--an exercise where the man crawled with his hands and feet while carrying another player on his back. It was intense and hard. Once the other player was on this blindfolded football players back, the coach said he wanted his best. And wanted him to make it all the way to the end zone.(ten yards was usually all they did) Well with this impossible task the player moved forward.
Being blindfolded actually helped him push further than he would have with sight. (profound) The coach yelled, "you can do it," harder and harder as he trudged forward in pain. A few times he was about to give up, but with the help of the coach he endured the strain of moving on. Finally he couldn't move any more and fell to the ground. By then he had made it into the end zone.
I had a lump in my throat. Isn't that life? Aren't there times when we feel like we can't go on any more? As I watched this simple video, I was inspired. Why not push foward even though you are in pain, disappointment, blinded? As long as we do our very best, it's worth it.
That was definitely the highlight.
Writing is a craft that takes all you've got, but I'm going to try my best and not give up.

WRITERS

so tell us about your writer's conference...

chickens?

We would love to hear about the chicks! hope Coco is doing well with them!

Haircut

Okay, so Gary and Riley needed a haircut. I started with Gary but Riley was told that he was getting one too. He whinned. When it was Riley's turn he fused like a three year old. I even had to count to three to get him to up and sit on the stool. Gary helped encourage Riley to relax for his haircut. As Gary was talking to Riley, who was finally sitting on the stool, I plugged in the buzzer. So in one hand I held the buzzer and in the other I held the attachment. I was telling Riley I'd hurry, and quickly thought, "I'll trim the bottom first." But in the rush, I took the buzzer and swiped it up his head. Seconds after doing this it was obvious that I didn't put the attachment on. He was now bald. I couldn't believe it. I have never butchered my boys heads, ever. I've let Grandma do it to Adam once, but I have never done it myself. I couldn't believe I had just lost my train of thought and butchered him bald. I proceeded to finish the haircut as normal, leaving the bald swipe in the back of his head. I was going to leave it like that but Gary said it was to obvious. (How could that be it was the back of his head, right.) My belief was it will grow out. So finally after feeling pain, I buzzed the rest of his hair. The bottom half is buzzed to the scalp and the top half has hair. Its the bowl cut. It doesn't look that bad, but it will never happen again. Thank heavens we don't have to take any pictures. And . . . I'm holding my breath . . . . the weather is suppose to get better.
So All I can say is, "It was his fault for whinning and throwing such a fit." Right?

Surprise Party

We threw a surprise party for Aubree's twelfth birthday. The thing I loved the most was she had been coming up with ideas for a party since Dec. so she had no idea it was coming. I told her we can't have a party on your birthday because her dad had a camp out, but that we would have it the following week. She ended up going babysitting with her sister Friday night (on her birthday) but she was anxious to make her birthday invitations for the following week the next day. Her neighbor friend asked her to go to the mall (see we were just getting her out of the house). When she got back, she came in and SURPRISE! She was really surprised. It was fun.
We played 'growing up' relays. First one: the new wheels took a ride down to the gas station. (a wheelbarrow with a driver and a passenger) they had to guzzle down a cup of water and run back until all the team had gone. It was Aubree's friends against the family (and the neighbor's family which is family) The girls won. Second one: dressing up and texting (each team had a BIG bra that they stuffed with balloons and some BIG panties, then a dress to go over them. They ran to a table to text, "dressed and ready to go") The family won that one cause the girls cheated and didn't put their arms in the dress. And they weren't young and perky cause their "stuffing" didn't stay in their bra. IT was soo fun. Gary looked real good! HA Third one: donut on a string. They couldn't touch it with their hands only mouth, first one done won. Needless to say the games were a hit and the party was a blast. This was our first surprise party ever.
SO if any one needs to borrow a BIG bra have two. HA.