Young artists

Max really likes to draw. And since Sam does everything Max does, he likes to draw, too. They are both huge Harry potter fans, and have been spending a lot of time drawing wands and swords, etc. Max has a pretty good eye for detail on this sword. Sam's drawing is of the showdown between Harry and Voldemort. Duel of the twin cores.
Pretty good for a 6 year old.

Merry Christmas!

After much bribery and threatening, we finally ended up with a decent Christmas picture. Honestly, wouldn't you think they would just cooperate so they could get it over with?! Anyway. Here it is. The official 2007 Christmas picture.

me compared to Ringo Starr by Emily

This little school assignment that Emily wrote really cracked me up. HOpefully I will be able to figure out how to get it to show up on here.

Ringo Starr and my mother have many things in common, but are also different in many ways.
They have an awful lot of differences. Ringo Starr has a fake name. His real name is Richard Starkey. My mother has only one name, Karen Teuscher. While Ringo is world famous, my mother is only famous in our ward for her flute music. Richard was a member of a band. My mother was only in marching band. Ringo was a fantastic actor, my mom can't pretend to be asleep. Ringo was only average height, my mom is quite tall (for a woman.) Ringo has a quite prominent nose. My mum has only a medium nose.
Ringo lived a rather depraved childhood. He was sick for several years and missed quite a lot of school. He spent more time in the hospital than at home. My mutti lived a normal, up-and-down childhood. She was sad sometimes, but all in all, she had a very nice first twelve years. They chose different instruments, Ringo the drum and Karen the flute. Some would say that means their personalities are quite different. I agree with that. My mother is as normal as teenage complexion problems, and Ringo wrote a song called "Octopus' Garden." That in of itself is well... strange.
While they are different in more than a few ways, they are alike in quite a lot of ways too. Both are accomplished musicians. They both dedicated quite a lot of their lives to learning music. They are both still alive, which, thank goodness, means my dad doesn't have to cook my meals. They are both fun to hear about, and have interesting stories to tell. My mother blamed things on "a nony mouse" when she did something naughty. Ringo was the star of several movies and a member of a very cool band, the Beatles. All of those things would make interesting stories.
Both are hard working. They completed their dreams, being a mother, and being famous. If lives like that aren't considered full, I don't know what a full life is.
Here is more information on my mother. She is thirty-seven. She is the mother of four children. She has two sisters.
Mr. Starr is an only child. He didn't get to write very many of the Beatles' songs.
In conclusion, although they lived and are living very different lives, both are really cool, and very musically talented.

Preschool snow day

S is for Snow! WE sang lots of little snowflake songs. Counted snowmen. Colored S worksheets. Played and drew in fake snow (shaving cream), and made some glittery snowflake pictures. It was funny how some of the little girls did not want to get their fingers dirty at first, but they soon warmed up to the idea.

Sam's Kindergarten program

Sam did a nice job of singing and reciting winter poetry in the kindergarten Christmas program. We discovered he is a bit of a "ham". He was a little nervous, but proud of himself after it was over. (Sorry you have to tip your head to see the picture. I forgot to rotate it. and am too lazy to go back and do it now.)

Snow!

The kids love to play in the snow. It's just so hard to find them any matching mittens!

Thanksgiving picture

We had my sister's family and my Dad and Ann over for Thanksgiving. Fun to have the cousins play together. I think I wrote previously that we all attended the Nutcracker together followed by the feast. Anyway, here is a picture of the festivities.

Ginny's Birthday

We had a princess party for Ginny with her little friends from preschool and our neighbor. Our theme, since it was part of preschool was "P is for Princess". It was fun to act out the stories of the Princess and the Pea, the 12 Dancing Princesses, and to make crowns, etc. The girls had a lot of fun. I had fun, too!

Who is that unmasked man?!

Trevor shaved his beard after 13 1/2 years! He did it late one night as a surprise. The kids did not recognize him in the morning! The people at the BookTable didn't recognize him at work, either. He really does look completely different. For me it is like a time warp. The last time I saw him beardless was when we just got married! Too bad I can't suddenly drop my gray hair and extra 50 pounds to jump back to what I looked like on our wedding day! I told Trevor that I'd bet a lot of money that he wouldn't last 2 months without the beard, and he said he didn't think he'd take that bet. So, it'll probably be back soon. Kind of fun for now though.

Hair update

UPdate in the continuing saga of me trying to grow my hair out. Trying and failing mostly. I've made it 4 months since my last hair cut. Maybe I'll actually succeed this time.

Emily in her children's choir costume

Here is Emily in her dress costume for the Cache Children's choir. She looks very nice, but she hates it. The first day she had to wear it (for a nutcracker performance) she cried for at least a half hour about how there was no way she could possibly "maintain her dignity in such a ridiculous outfit!" (direct quote). A week later, she can laugh at herself, which is why I can type this on the blog. The choir sounded absolutely wonderful at the nutcracker performance.

A Nony Mouse

When I was a little girl, about age 4, I once sneaked a handful of chocolate cake before dinner. Though the evidence was clearly all over my face and hands, I of course denied that I had been the culprit. My mother asked me if it was our friend A Nony Mouse who had stolen the cake. Poor A Nony got in a lot of trouble over the years!
Well, this Thanksgiving, A Nony Mouse struck again at our house! None of my children seem to know what happened to this Thanksgiving pie!

Emily in the opera

Emily successfully completed her opera performances this weekend. She's exhausted, but she was glad she participated. She learned a lot of really good life lessons in addition to the musical education. Things like: sticking to something when you are tired and frustrated, learning how to be patient with a director who is a little crabby, making friends with kids you've never met before, etc. The opera was really cute, and very professionally done. Very family friendly. I was very proud of her for all her hard work. She was wonderful! My dad came to watch on Thursday night, and Trevor's Dad, Suzanne, and both sets of his grandparents came on Saturday afternoon. What a treat to be able to have family attend these kind of events!
Here she is in her costume.

Emily in homecoming parade

Here is Emily marching in the USU homecoming parade. She is singing with the Cache Children's choir this year and this was one of their activities. She is also singing in a production of Hansel and Gretel with USU opera, and a small choral part in the nutcracker at the end of this month.

Sandi's visit

My sister Sandi stopped here in Utah on their way to Texas. They finished school in Oregon and are headed down south to be closer to Scott's family. The plan is to work for a year to get residency and then Scott will finish his degree. WE had so much fun visiting with them. Sandi said she hadn't seen my kids in 3 years! Her baby boy is so adorable. Cute smile and very good natured. My kids loved their dog, Peanut, too.

Camping at Lava Hot Springs

Over labor day weekend we went up to Trevor's Dad's property at Lava Hot Springs in Idaho. WE all needed a little break. It was fun to camp in Grandpa's trailer and swim in the hot water. We had beatiful weather. WE took a little hike, fed the chipmunks, built a fire and cooked on it for Max's scout requirement, played with rocks, etc. It was a nice relaxing weekend. Trevor's dad has really worked hard on this camping property. They have hauled tons of rock, built a nice fireplace area, and shed, etc.

Sam and Ginny's birthdays

Since I've been out of the blogger loop for awhile, I haven't posted anything about the most recent birthdays. I think Ginny's pictures are still on the camera, so I'll have to add those later, but here are a couple of pictures of Sam at our family party. Both kids had a little party with friends, and a family party with their grandparents. It's so fun to be close to family for these events!

Ogden Dinosaur Park

Last week we visited the dinosaur park when the kids were out of school for UEA. Grandma Ann took us there. It was a lot of fun. The kids were given some cool geodes from an educator there, and we had fun watching the mechanical dinosaurs move. There was a scientist cleaning fossils in the lab inside the museum. Ginny's favorite part is the sand pit where the kids can discover fossils and clear away sand with paint brushes. It was done up for Halloween so there were some pretty creepy scenes with human body parts hanging out of dinosaur mouths. I was worried Ginny would freak out, but she didn't. (Good thing my sister Nancy didn't come with her kids....) I did get a giggle out of a giant T Rex skeleton with a small Halloween skeleton riding it's back like a cowboy. Yee Haw! These pictures were actually taken when we visited the park earlier this summer, but I didn't ever get around to posting them at the time. It was a fun day. Thanks Grandma Ann!

cousins

Here are a few pictures with our fun cousins. Emily with Anna and Leah. Leah and Lance. Sam with Adam. my kids with Aunt Sandi, Uncle Scott and cute baby Mannix. Cousins Roman and Malcolm at Roman's birthday party this summer. These were all taken this summer, or early fall.

project peace

Okay, so since the last time I really wrote anything, our family has completely been in chaos. The move was really hard on us. My kids have been struggling more than I thought they would, and the charter school thing has been tricky. They really have a lot more homework, and much less time to play and relax in the evening, which doesn't help the psyche around here. We're up late with homework almost every single night, no matter what time we start. I will say that it has gotten better, and the kids are slipping into a routine, but it's still tough. Child number 2 needs more time with friends. There aren't kids his age right on the block, so I have to call to set up play dates, which is tough to make happen very often with everyone's busy schedules. He needs more fun and friends to balance the frustration in his life. I'm adding this as a priority to help improve project peace.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle sibling rivalry and power struggles? We've left behind the tough years of babies, diapers, and chasing toddlers, for much more emotionally grueling struggles of kids, tweens and an almost teen.

At the adult session of stake conference this past week, the stake president outlined some concerns, counsel, and promises. The promises were just what I've been praying for: Peace amid worldly turmoil, war, economic recession, and personal struggle. Help from the other side of the veil in raising our families and doing family history work. Peace and help. Just what I pray for daily. I want to lay claim to those promised blessings, so I am really going to do my best to follow his counsel. WE were asked to read the book of MOrmon and mark all the scriptures that speak of Christ. (isn't that all of them?) Prayerfully stretch and increase our temple attendance, and re-center our priorities to be around gospel centered homes. Choose what is best among the good things like Elder Oaks said in conference. The last thing was to choose and fellowship a less active family. That one is more of a challenge because I don't know anyone in this ward yet.

OUr ward here is really nice, but neither Trevor nor I have a calling yet, not even home/visiting teaching. It's hard to really feel like you are a part of things until you have a job. This is part of what I was worried about when we decided to move back to Utah. I guess you sort of feel like they don't really need you here. It's a good feeling to be needed, and feel like you are really helping the ward in whatever calling you have. I've been attending choir, so I guess I've met a few people that way. I suppose we'll just keep trying to meet people and attending meetings and hope they ask us to help sometimes soon. Maybe they don't want to give us a calling because we are renters and won't be in the ward for too long? But we really will probably be here for a couple of years at least. That's longer than we lived in Missouri.

Boy, am I whiny today! I know I just need to buck up. Trevor is working really hard and seems to have a steady flow of instruments that come in for repair. We're figuring things out. I successfully filed our quarterly sales tax reports last week. Small triumph to have figured that out on my own. There are so many details to running a small business! It's hard, both and emotionally and financially. I think in generally things are good, though. People say that it takes at least two years to really have everything running smoothly in a new business. Trevor spent Saturday trying to re-organize the shop. With summer rush, he never really had time to get everything ship-shape, so he wants to improve his organization and thus his efficiency now. This week I need to call a bunch of band directors to schedule visits to their schools.

Last thing....I am officially starting a diet today! All the stress of the move and business are showing up on my waist line. (What waist line?!) Back to regular exercise and counting calories. I'm not going to do anything special other than cut back portion sizes, and skip dessert. I'll try not to eat after 8:00 p.m. too. I'd like to say 7:00, but it's not realistic with our schedule. Pilates, yoga, walking, etc. Wish me luck!

Back Online!

I'm back! It's been ages since my last blog entry because we moved, and haven't had internet until just a few days ago. It's crazy how much you miss the internet when you don't have it. WE had to remember how to do things the old fashioned way!

We are mostly unpacked now, but a few boxes remain downstairs. The first month or so was really horrendous trying to keep up with regular life things like homework, church activities, after school activities, helping trevor down at the shop, to say nothing of laundry and dishes, amid piles and piles of boxes. it was hard to find anything! Good grief! Now things are better, and we might have to stay in this rental house for an extra year because I don't want to move again for a really, really long time.

Kids are calling. I'll write more later.

project peace

Project peace started out okay today, but ended up a dismal failure. Homework trauma.
I guess we'll try again tomorrow.

Up late

The house is quiet, and I can't quite bring myself to go to bed. These peaceful moments are few and far between. I don't have a book to read right at the moment. I finished the first Fable Haven this morning and have to wait for my husband to finish the 2nd one before I can start it. It's very imaginative, and I recommend it to people who like fantasy books. Children's literature that an adult can also enjoy.


You know what I wish for? Peace. Peace among my children. Internal peace even amid the pressures of work, etc. I accompanied my friend kristen as she sang in church today, and the words of the hymn really spoke to me.
Be still my soul
The Lord is on thy side
With patience bear, thy cross of grief or pain
Leave to thy God to order and provide
In every change, he faithful will remain
Be still my soul, thy best, thy heavenly friend
Thru thorny ways, leads to a joyful end
Be still my soul, Thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as he has the past
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake
All now mysterious, shall be bright at last
Be still my soul: The waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

The melody to this hymn is absolutely gorgeous, as are the harmonies, and so I think that most of the time when I sing or hear this hymn, I pay more attention to the music, but today I was really listening to the words. The poetry is lovely, but beyond that, isn't it comforting to think of the Lord as close by to "order and provide?" That he is nearby to "guide the future as he has the past." I wish I had thought more about this last week as I was agonizing over the school decision. I think sometimes I take things a little toooo seriously, when I should employ more trust.

I have a plan for trying to bring more peace into our home. First, I'm going to pray for it daily, and ask for this to be included in family prayers as well. I'm going to talk this all over with Trevor, too, and ask him to help me with this goal. Second, I"m going to search the scriptures for references to peace. Third, I'm going to consciously try to compliment everyone in my family at least twice a day. 4th, I'm going to handle discipline items more quickly and calmly before the explosions surface. 5th, We can center family home evening discussions on respect, love, and obedience within our family. 6th--when problems have already occurred, I want to help the kids learn remorse and repentance, sincerely. I'll be praying over exactly how to do this--besides obviously by example. I'm hoping that these efforts will help to change feelings and that we can all learn how to peacefully resolve conflicts and work through frustrations. The sibling rivalry has been really heavy lately. And everyone has been feeling stressed out, including the kids.

Be still my soul
The Lord is on thy side
l

finally a blog entry

Haven't updated blog in ages because of the complete chaos in our lives. This summer has been sooooooo stressful, but we're getting through it. Trevor is finishing the last of the school instruments this week and then he will be able to catch up a bit. I shouldn't have to work as many hours in the shop after this week, and will try to catch up on the accounting. Trevor has averaged 70 hour work weeks, and I've worked 20-30 hours each week as well, relying on grandparents, Emily, and friends to help with the kids. I don't know how full-time working parents keep up?! I'm really looking forward to a more normal family life. I'll probably take some students this fall, but am hoping to not take toooooo many because I want to be able to help my own kids after school. It's a lot of work to keep up with 3 kids' homework, practicing, etc.

3 kids in school! Sam started school this week and is so excited about it. He loves it so much, and asks me several times each morning if it is time to go to school yet. We did enroll all 3 kids at the charter school--there has been some drama about that decision, but I'm way too tired to write about it. Sam comes home and gets right to his homework, and has told me several times that he is "smart," and his teacher likes him. I have a few concerns about this school for him, but so far he seems really happy. Max is struggling the most. It was like this for the first month or so in Missouri, too, but then he seemed to settle in. I think he'll be fine after a little more time. Emily has started to mention a few kids by name, so i hope she's starting to make a few friends. I personally am feeling bad because the start of school is usually such a big event, especially the first day of a kindergartener, and I feel like it has really taken a back seat to the stress of the business. I hope they can forgive me for not being fully "mom" at an important time.

We did settle in on a house. It is right down the street from tutu and Papasan's house, and less than a mile from my Dad's place. 4 bedrooms, office, large family room, 3 bathrooms, enclosed yard, laundry room. Reasonable rent. So it should be a nice place for awhile.

Sam celebrated his 6th birthday on Monday. He was so excited to be 6 at last! He asked me if he would be 6 tomorrow, too. I took him out to Mcdonald's for lunch, and we had a family party with grandparents in the evening. He felt special, and it was fun. We're having cake and ice cream with some of his friends at the park this afternoon to finish the celebration. That was as much of a birthday party as I could come up with right now.

Well, the house is a mess, the kids need attention, and there is more work awaiting me than I have time to do, so I better get going.
Maybe one of these days I'll have time to post a few pictures.
But probably not until after we move next Saturday.

Harry Potter mania

Harry Potter Eve. At the park today, some of my friends and I were discussing our predictions for the last book. We were all optimistic about the fates of our favorite characters. I still want to think the best of Snape, and think Dumbledore had some grand plan that we are yet unaware of. WE'll see...soon! Trevor's new shop is inside of a book store, and he has volunteered to help with the Harry Potter Party. They are going all out and have tons of activities, a Hogwarts school laid out in their basement, etc. Trevor is dressing up as Filch, of all the characters.... Anyway, we borrowed a wig for the costume, which needed a little fixing to make it work, and Emily ended up using her hair straightener on it. It was just too hilarious NOT to take a picture. Also, Trevor took a picture of the books the store had received earlier today still in their boxes, all ready to be sold at midnight tonight. We're all going to the party. Should be fun!
p.s. Trevor and I also went to see the new movie last night. We both liked it and thought they did a good job with the editing, etc.
Harry Potter mania! We're currently making a schedule for who gets the book at what time of day, and Max is upset that he is last on the list of readers, but all is not fair in love and Harry Potter.

Blah!

Today was sooooooo boring! I'm so bored that I'm having some serious empathy for my kids, who are also bored. Not that I didn't cross off many things on my to-do list today....we did. I made a Walmart trip, practiced the flute, worked on some business accounting, helped the kids do chores and practicing, got the laundry folded and put away, etc. So we had stuff to do, but we definitely need a little excitement in our lives. Being new here, we don't really know that many people, and the people we do know have lives and schedules, as opposed to us newbies who are floating around without a schedule (other than work). So....yawn!

And today is definitely a fat and frumpy day. I always give myself a haircut on these days, and today was no exception. Emily was disgusted with me. I'll never be able to grow my hair out. Everyone in the family wants me to grow it out, but I just can't do it.

Ryan's Place Park

The kids and I went to visit a new park called Ryan's Place, which was recently built in a neighboring town in honor of a little boy who died. It was evident that the whole community had really come together to build the playground. There were little plaques everywhere telling about the donors, etc. I got a little teary walking around it thinking about the family who had done this in honor of their son. Anyway, the kids loved the park, and had a great time running and climbing. There were fun make-believe elements as well as just plain good climbing.

OH my heck!

Emily had a great time at girls camp this past week. I think she really got to know a lot of nice kids and had fun with the certifications and crafts, etc.
She said she wanted to come home the first night, but bravely stuck it out and ended up having lots of fun. She came home completely exhausted. Everyone knows these girls don't sleep at camp...then the evening they got home she also attended her first session of baptisms for the dead at the temple. She's really growing up!

Her comment after girls camp, "Mom, why does everyone here say "Oh my heck" all the time? My only response, "Welcome to Utah."

I played in the alumni band concert on the university quad last night. It was fun to reconnect with old musician friends. Always fun to hit the Stars and Stripes on piccolo. One of the fun things about being back in Logan is the musical connection. There will be more playing opportunities here. I've already had a lot of people ask me how many students I'm willing to take.

Summer at last!

It's finally summer! You may say that it has been summer for a whole month now, but for me, this afternoon, summer finally settled in. We set up the little wading pool and slip and slide in the backyard, and spent 4 hours just playing in the back yard. The kids had a fabulous time, and so did I. for the first time in ages, I actually felt relaxed.

sabbath blessing

I think that since we have moved here, I have appreciated the Sabbath day more than at any other time in my life. When God says, six days shalt thou labor, and then to rest and keep the seventh holy, I believe that commandment is truly meant to restore our souls. I feel it deeply now as Trevor, and even the rest of us are working ourselves to a frenzy 6 days in the week to get the business up and running. Sunday is our only truly restorative rest to mind, soul and body.
I am especially grateful today for the blessing of old friends. I attended my dear friend Kristen's blessing of her newest baby boy and was really touched by the strength of old friendship. Trevor and I actually had a chance to talk with several of our old friends there. Isn't it lovely to have friends that really love you for who you are, even after all these years. They don't see the extra pounds and grey hair, but just me. Truly a blessing.
Trevor enjoyed playing in the alumni band concert this afternoon. We're taking turns. Next week I will play while he stays with the kids. I took the kids and met tutu and papasan at the concert. The kids were actually remarkably well-behaved, if a little impatient toward the end, and I enjoyed listening to the music.
We're looking at possibly putting the kids in a charter school. It is K-8, so all three kids could attend the same school. Also, they have a great arts program, advanced academic programs, and small classroom sizes. Emily was especially excited about it. She begs me every day to let them go there. I'm filling out applications and we'll see what happens.

visit with Raquel

Trevor's mom came out to visit us the second week we arrived in Utah and helped with the kids a lot while Trevor and I were working like crazy. The kids had a great time visiting parks and going to a movie, etc. We also all went out to a chinese restaurant with tutu and papasan. The horse pictures are at Trevor's aunt Heather's farm. We had a nice family dinner out there. Beautiful country!

Emily

Emily's bday photo and a photo of her with her friends after their band concert this spring. Meant to post these ages ago, but just found the pictures. A little old, but still wanted to document. She really misses these friends and emails them all the time.

running races

Max has been practicing his running, and my Dad even found a family track meet for him to run in. Max ran in the 400 m, 50 m, and did the softball throw. He ended up taking 1st place in his heat in the 50 meters. I think he also had the 3rd best overall time. Pretty good for his first time out! Sam also got to run in an exhibition race for all kids 8 and under. He actually took 2nd place in his race, and the girl who beat him was obviously a couple of years older. He was thrilled. Today the kids wanted to practice running again, so we went down to the high school track and ran for fun for awhile. Ginny was pretty fast, too! Poor mom brings up the rear. I think I'll stick to walking. Max is going to work on running and maybe golf for a 4H project this summer. Emily is going to work on knitting with my friend Valerie who is an EXPERT. You should look at her blog! shoelessval.blogspot.com While you are there, you can donate to the virtual lemonade stand she is holding to raise money for children's cancer research and read about the miraculous recovery from cancer of her 2 year old daughter. They had a lemonade stand here in town last weekend, and I think they earned over a thousand dollars to support cancer research.

I've been home more this week. Emily, her cousin katie, and I finished up sorting all the pads and corks. We had to measure each individual pad with calipers, which let me tell you took hours, and hours, and hours of time. We finished today! Hallelujah! In other good news...my sister Sandi finished her masters' degree and is now a proud stay-at-home mom! Hard to believe little mannix is nearly 6 months old! She says he is almost crawling.

progress

A little progress. Trevor worked about 70 hours this week to get the first big high school order delivered. I myself worked about 40 hours with him, and his Dad and step mom worked with us diligently for 3 days. Nor can we forget the faithful souls who helped babysit so we could work so much this week...chiefly my diligent Emily, Tutu and Papasan, Raquel, my dad and Ann, my good friend Valerie, cousin Katie, and a couple of Emily's friends. We just feel so much gratitude it is impossible to thank everyone enough. It's like the scripture in Mosiah...when you thank the Lord for your blessings, he pours out more blessings, and you can never catch up! Anyway, this has been one of the hardest months of my life--trying on every level, and I've spent many nights in tears, but we are starting to see the light, and have been supported with time, prayers, and words of encouragement from family and friends near and far. Thank you!!!!! One night this week as I was crying my eyes out, I read in the Book of Mormon about how the Jaredites were being tossed on the waves of the sea, and their little boats would be sunk in the depths, but then be raised up, and through it all the stones provided light. That night I prayed for God to show me the light even as we surrendered ourselves to be tossed on the waves of the sea for awhile. I couldn't see it that night, but after thinking on it for a few days, I think the light is hope; the light is family; the light is friendship; and faith, which although mine seems lacking, is still at the foundations of who we are and what we hope for. I'm holding onto these things while we make this journey--hopefully to our own promised land.

arrived and crazy

Arrived in Utah last Tuesday early in the morning and hit the ground running. Exhausted. Completely exhausted.

almost the big day

Trevor's home. Hallelujah! WE missed him! This afternoon is our pre-signing for the closing, tomorrow we load the truck, which means today is the final packing frenzy. That means I shouldn't be here typing this blog when I have so much work to be done. Next blog entry will be from Utah! I can't believe we've made it this far in the whole process. Starting our own business and moving at the same time has been something akin to climbing Mt. Everest--definitely a one step at a time deal. When we get to Utah, the climb will be far from over, but we'll definitely be into the next phase.

turmoil

We are officially in chaos! We had a yard sale yesterday. Always have to wonder if they are really worth all the extra work. Emily helped me a lot--stayed up late to help me do the pricing, and then manned the money all morning out in the sun. We made $100--maybe $130 if the people who were interested in the entertainment center call back.
Max had his cub scout pack meeting last night and earned a bead toward his Bear award. The kids had fun playing at the Cluff family's acreage. Max and Sam went zipping down this giant hill on their bikes with absolutely no fear. Br. Daniel showed the boys a frozen copperhead snake that he had killed. The point was to show them what to stay away from and he tied it into a scripture lesson. But then, he skinned the thing, and they iced the snake meat to serve at the next Boy scout dinner. Ugh!

Trevor is so swamped. I wish I could help him more. Meanwhile, in less than a week we'll be leaving. I'm working hard on the packing now. The kids are out of school on Thursday. We pick up Trevor from the airport that evening. I'm praying that all will go well with house sale, etc.

Ginny's quote of the day...."Mom, my toot-thingy won't stop tooting!" Makes me wonder what she ate yesterday!

Happy Birthday Emily!

Emily is 12 years old today! How did this happen? 12 is a big landmark for her because she will join the young women at church. She's nervous about it, but will love it once she is in there. We'll have a family dinner tonight. She picked macaroni and cheese with angel food cake and strawberries for dessert. Easy! She's easy to please. Tomorrow night she is having her friends over for a slumber party.

Last night Max did a great job in his school talent show. He played Sakura, Sakura on the trumpet. He says he wasn't nervous, and he really did well. The talent show itself was something of a marathon--2 1/2 hours. Way too long. Sam and Ginny did great for the first hour and a half, and then we were walking the halls. But, I was proud of Max. I think he was proud of himself, too.

I've got to get packing!!!!!

Emily's 4H photos

Here are a few of the photos we took at the nature reserve. Emily has a really good eye for artistic photos. The tadpole is underwater. It was so fun to see all the tadpoles that day. Hundreds of them darting all around in the water. I've never seen so many in one place. My favorite is of the purple wildflower with the sunlight forming a spotlight.