Maggie Moo's

There is a radio station called Y98 that has a deal going with this famous ice cream shop that when the temperature reaches 98 degrees at Lambert Internation airport, the radio station will announce that for the next 98 minutes there is free ice cream at Maggie Moos! (isn't that a great name for an ice cream shop?!) Trevor called this afternoon to tell us they had made the announcement, and we happened to be on the road anyway, so we decided to head up the freeway to the nearest location. Well, the traffic turned out to be terrible, so we pulled into the parking lot with a screech, knowing that we had probably just barely missed the 98 minutes. Sure enough, the employee outside the store said it was too late. But at that point we had already braved the traffic, and had earlier in the day had to leave the swimming pool after only a ten minute swim because of thunder, so to avoid another disappointment I decided we would just buy some ice cream anyway. But, as we got up to the counter, the store manager came up to us and said--I'll let you guys in on the the Y98, but you are the last customers. Great! Max had fudge, and the other 3 kids tried red licorice, which really tasted like Twizzlers. I had a delicious raspberry sorbet! Nothing like a little ice cream to pick you up after a frustrating afternoon.

Also, earlier today, we to the humane society to explore the possibility of getting a pet. Of course, Max wants a dog, and Emily wants a cat. We had pretty much decided that a cat was more what our family could handle, so we went in the cat room, but after about 10 minutes, Max was sneezing and itching. Of course that cat room had cats galore, and no ventilation, so I don't think it would be that bad at home, but we'll have to think about it. Emily was devastated at Max's allergy outbreak. She really had her heart set on a cat.

Speaking of Emily, she got her hair cut last night, and is SOOO CUTE! She looks more grown-up. The cut is very flattering, much shorter, and should be easier to style. I'll try to remember to post a picture.

our first tick

I was running my fingers through Max's now quite long hair on Sunday afternoon and felt what I at first thought was a scab or something. But as I parted his hair to look, I found that what I felt had legs! Ick! It was a rather large tick very firmly embedded in his head. Of course I panicked and called my friend kara for instructions, and then upon finding that our tweezers had disappeared into the vortex in our house, went next door to borrow tweezers from our neighbors. They offered a little more advice, which was to try dripping soap on the tick and holding a soapy cotton swab on it until the tick backs out. But that didn't work too well, and we ended up with the tweezers. That little bugger was really hard to pull off, and I'm afraid we ended up removing some of Max's skin, as well, but the tick came out whole, with no remnants left in the skin, so that was a good thing. We saved that tick, just in case of infection. YOu're supposed to be able to test the creature later in case of sickness to see if it had Lyme disease or whatever. Max was very brave, no tears, and so far no sign of infection. We felt like this was another part of our initiation to the culture of the Missouri hills.

Heat!

With the rest of the nation, we're roasting in this heat wave. We went to the pool today and Monday also to escape the afternoon heat. Yesterday we went to the Botanical garden early in the morning so as to avoid the worst of the heat. The climatron with the tropical plants and the chihuly glass exhibit felt amazingly cool at 85 degrees. We've had 100's for weeks now. Tomorrow morning we're going hiking--but early again so we don't get heat stroke. The news talks about the strain on the national energy grids and the heat hazards for elderly people, etc.

the kids are starting to get bored at home--too much wrestling and furniture jumping. We've had more time-outs than usual....Definitely starting to be able to tell that it's time for school to start. Max's teacher for 3rd grade will be someone called Mrs. Schmitz--and supposedly this lady has a really high-tech classroom with computers for all the students. So that should be kind of fun. in a few minutes we're leaving to take Emily to register and get her schedule for middle school. My hope for her is that she'll meet lots of new kids and nice friends in the new school. She's not sure that the friends she made last year are the kind of kids that she wants to be her closest friends (some language issues) and her church friends live pretty far away to just get together for an hour after school. Friends make a huge difference at this age, so I 'm keeping my fingers crossed.

cleaning the temple

Last night I went for the first time to help clean the temple. I had been told the usual jobs were things like polishing furniture, vaccuuming, etc. We ended up on a detail to polish and scrub the kitchen and bathrooms in the ancillary building. It was HARD WORK! Leslie Nelson and I were scrubbing the walls, grout in the floor, toilets, baseboards, etc. etc. etc. Whew! My house is never that clean! It was good, hard work and we came home tired. Even though it was a harder job than I was expecting, I was still glad to be able to do my part to help maintain the temple and grounds.

Activity Days

Had the activity day girls over to my house today from 10 to 3. Sister Davis came and helped the girls learn to use the sewing machine, and they each made a pillow. I taught them to make the little origami books, and we all made peach jam together in the afternoon. They had a little time to just talk together and hang out, too, which they always like. I think it was a pretty successful day. The jam turned out yummy, and was soooo easy! I'm going to get some more peaches and make some just for us.
Yesterday we went to the pool again and met our neighbors and the Andrews family. Kids had fun splashing. The pool feels really good on these hot days.

We have a pet toad now. Max found him at the Nelson's house. We bought a terarium (sp?)for him, and crickets from the pet store. Never, ever, thought I would be buying a dozen crickets! Max is thrilled with him--and first named him George, but has now changed the name to Trevor. (not sure why the toad is named after his Dad...) For Max's sake, I hope the toad will live.

Pictures of weekend with Wheelers

Here are some pictures of this past weekend with the Wheelers. The city museum was really fun. We really wore everyone out! Lots of running and climbing, and it was hot, hot, hot! Thanks for sending the pictures, Julie!

Count your many blessings...

Count your many blessings, see what God hath done! After a week with the air conditioner hardly working, then a huge thunderstorm, followed by almost a whole day without electricity whatsoever...and sweating, sweating, sweating in the heat....today I am thankful for electricity! And all the luxuries associated with it, washers, dishwashers, air conditioning, lights, garbage disposals, etc. We take these things for granted, but they are truly great blessings!
p.s. air conditioner only half working now--but we think the home warranty will pay for a replacement. Another blessing to be thankful for!
p.s.s.--another grand blessing is the great friends that allowed us to escape the heat at their house for two days in a row! Thank you to the Nelson family!

Catching up

Haven't written anything in quite awhile. It almost seems like there is too much to write about now...maybe I'll think of things a little at a time and add them later. Here's a short re-cap of the past few weeks.
Long drive to Utah--not so bad on the way out, VERY long on the way back!
We had a great time at the Allen family reunion. Trevor's mom and sister were there from Oregon, and his brother from California. We don't get to see these families very much, so it was really fun to catch up and the cousins all had a great time visiting each other. We had a family talent show that was really fun--and a luau at Lundstrom park. I had prepared some games and crafts for the kids which went pretty well, and we appreciated the yummy food that Trevor's aunts and Tutu worked so hard to prepare.
The next day Trevor's dad took him back to the airport, and he flew home to work hard the rest of the week while the kids and I stayed to visit with family. Trevor did get a chance to go flying with my dad. Dad was really excited about the flights. Emily and Max were pretty brave and went up, too. Sam was dying to go, too, but we thought he wasn't quite old enough, but Papa took him on a little taxi around the airport. We took some cute pictures, which I will post later. I spent the next few days mostly with my sister--the girls all played American girl dolls, and the kids all put on skits and dances for Papa and Grandma Ann. We went to the pool one day, and my Dad took Max golfing! Max loved that! In fact, he wanted to hold the clubs all the way home! We had a birthday party for Dad--the kids made him some hats, and we had his favorite roast beef dinner, and played a game to find out more about Grandpa's life. Great fun. I met up with some friends at the park, and we went to get Aggie ice cream with Tutu and Papasan. We visited with Gladys and Grandpa Steve and his new "friend" Suzanne. (looks serious!) It was good to see Gladys, but I 'm worried about her. She seems very depressed, has lost a ton of weight, and just doesn't seem her usual self. She's still grieving and will be for a long time, I'm sure. On Saturday after we picked Trevor up at the airport, we went to visit my Great Aunt Elaine, whom I hadn't seen in 10 years! She reminded me a lot of Nana, and boy is she sharp! She remembers absolutley everything!
Trevor and I had a hard time staying awake on the long drive home, but we did have a fun stop in Iowa to visit our friends the Greifzus. We miss them! I think they may come here to visit us over Labor Day weekend. We finally arrived home at about 1:00 a.m. Monday morning, and poor Trevor had to get up to go to work! We spent the next week just recovering. We did get Emily's 4-H projects back from the fair. She got all blue ribbons, and her sewing project was selected for the state fair.
On Friday afternoon, our friends the Wheelers from Normal came down to visit us. We went to the temple, which was really nice. It had been way too long since we last went to the temple! On Saturday, we went to the City Museum, and did a good job of tiring everyone out. The kids always love the tunnels and caves, etc. there. It's a good place to run! In the extreme heat we all got hosed down by the fire hoses at the end of the day. Sam and Matthew had a great time playing together. It was nice to visit with the Wheelers. We miss all of our friends from Normal. We're having a major heat wave. Heat advisories for the next several days. And our air conditioner isn't working right. It got up to 90 degrees in the house! Trevor defrosted the system, so it's a little better this morning, but I think I'm still going to call the repair guys. Hot! We all slept in the basement last night!
Well, I think that's a pretty good summary. I'll post some pictures later.

Sandi's baby and Emily's 4H sewing project

water balloons

Had fun with the kids today. I hope I'm never too old to have fun playing with water balloons!

Max Baptism pics

nature reserve pics

Likewise, I wrote about this before, but here are the pictures.

pics of trip to botanical garden

I already wrote about this outing, but here are a few pictures of our outing to the botanical garden. You can see more pics on my other blog of Emily's photos. She took some really nice pictures in the Japanese gardens. http://mayfairygirl.blogspot.com

pics

riding horses at the Nelsons. Max and Sam never wanted to come home!