Blowing Up Pumpkins And Other Such Things.

Where have I been?  I've said it before..

Busy.

A few weeks ago we went to the Ranch to blow up a pumpkin.  We also went up to help the construction work in the building.  We also brought our 169 pound pumpkin to blow up.

Here's the tale..

Setting it up and putting a face on the large pumpkin

The large pumpkin with a face and arms and a ball on  his head

The aftermath.  See the black mark on the ground?  The older boys and Daniel took turns shooting at it.  One nephew hit it just right. 

Checking out the remains.  The third kiddo there on the left is holding the ball that was unscathed by the explosion.

Then it was time for the science fair.  I didn't do nearly as much work on this one to deserve a grade.  Sam did most of it.  He wanted to see how quickly nails would rust in water, salt water, bleach, vinegar and soda.  The bleach rusted the most, but the salt water rusted the fastest. Sam came in 19th in the 6th grade.  Only the top 13 go on to the next round.  Dang!

And with this shot there are a few things I want to share with you.

First, look at my lashes!  THEY ARE AWESOMELY LONG! I love them. I want to marry them.

You can see that I need my color re-done on my hair.  When Bishops are called they start out with color on their heads and when they are released they are white headed.  I didn't think it was supposed to be like that for a RS president.  But it's happening.  I have a white line going down my part.  It's also been almost 9 weeks since it's been colored.  But still...

You can also see my lovely Thanksgiving decorations on my table.  I no longer decorate.  But these were being given to those who wanted.  I took what was left.  So now I've decorated.

Last Friday and Saturday I got to spend time with some great gals at Time Out For Women.  It was so much fun.  We ate, we talked, we didn't sleep, we heard great music and listened to great speakers.  This tradition was begun last year and I think we're on a roll. 

I'm so glad it's almost Thanksgiving.  I'm hungry!!

A Day In The Life.

Monday...  Went to the school to help put back to school folders together.  Went to grandma and grandpa's for a bit.  I had an appointment with the dermatologist.  He looked me over and as I raised my right arm over my head, he noticed my insulin pump in my ... um... bra... and said "is that a pump?" to which I said yes.  He asked how long I'd had diabetes, I said 30 years, he said "I've seen a lot of pumps, but I've never seen one there". 

Got my cookies and bread back.  We are making our lists of baked goods we'll all enter next year.

Tuesday... Went with Isaac to the junior high to get his schedule.  He's excited to have Gate Tech, which is a 1 semester 8th grade version of engineering.  I voted in our mayoral and city council primary.  Isaac had an appointment to see an audiologist and ENT.  He has Tinnitus in both ears and we wanted to see if there is damage to the nerve.  No damage.  Yay.  But the ENT said the tinnitus is a tic from meds he takes.  We're gonna have to see about making a change to meds.  But we are very happy he doesn't have hearing damage.  Now I know for certain that he can actually hear me.  Isaac and Daniel went to a Stake Priesthood meeting and Christine and I went to do missionary visits.

Wednesday...  The kids and I went to see October Sky at the theater.  We  love that movie and it gets the boys excited about their upcoming science fair projects.  Ruthie asked about my wedding dress so I got it out to show her.  It's an ivory colored top with beading and such and then an ivory skirt that my mom made.  (my total wedding ensemble cost less than $100...and we're still going strong!!) I offered to let Ruthie try the top on.  It's not quite to good fitting yet..  but...

Thursday... Took the kids school shopping for supplies and tennies.  They needed Sunday shoes too.  Sam chose white dress shoes.  ummm.  Might start a trend?  This is Isaac at a local art gallery we visited several weeks ago.  I'll get a picture of those shoes soon!

Friday... Daniel and I had a date to meet at the train station, get dinner then head to the Bountiful temple.  When we got to the temple there was no parking.  At all!  We drove through the upper parking, lower parking and the street.  Nothing!  So we came home.  ...Darned Mormons think they have to go to the temple all the time...  This is Sam with grandma when they dropped of the piano.

Saturday... Have you seen these?  They are like the Samoas that you pay a lot for from the girl scouts.  And you can get them anytime.  Yum.

Sunday...  Daniel had to find a new place for the container we use for trips.  He came up with the pulley system just above the truck so all we have to do is lower it down when we need it and then pull it up when we're done.  He did this on Saturday, but the cookie picture and this one got mixed up.  We went to church and then had home teachers come.  We stayed up to watch Rocketeer for our movie night.

School begins tomorrow!  I still would like one more week, but since they won't listen to me, we'll go with tomorrow!

A Day In The Life.

Whew!  What a week that was. 

Monday... Merit badge classes for Isaac and Sam.  They worked on Family Life and Personal Management this week.  We began to get our stuff together for the fair! This is a giant moth who came to sit on our front screen.  See the kids' hands on the window?  It was that big!

Tuesday...  Grandpa bought us this beautiful keyboard.  He came to drop it off and help put it together.  It's a full keyboard and is very talented.  Each of the kids and Daniel and I have taken turns playing it and getting our piano groove on.  It has headphones, so you'd never even know it.

I got my cookies and cinnamon bread baked and brought to the fair.  When I got my score sheets back yesterday, I had a full 100% score on my cookies.. of course.  My cinnamon bread got 94/100.  I was docked because there was not enough sugar in the center swirl.  But the judge wrote "suger", so I figure if they can't even spell sugar correctly, they probably didn't even know what they were talking about.  Still... it was a blue ribbon!

Wednesday... Took the goats into the fair.  Waffles jumped right through the fencing.  Problem.  I figured we'd just keep them locked up behind the barn door until Daniel could come and put something up.  We got back later that afternoon and put up a mesh lining.  That kept him in...  Kind of. 

Thursday...  The gal in the next stall said Waffles got out.  She put him back in.  Darned goat.  By now we smelled officially of barn. Feeding and watering in the morning and evening and cleaning the stall daily.  Isaac and Sam went to the last of the merit badge class today.

Friday... Two different people at two different times came to tell me they put Waffles back in the stall.  Booger.  So we took him home with us then brought him back for the show.  We got the goats all washed and brushed and the kids all dressed up for the show.  As we sat waiting until we could head back to line up for our class, there was a father and daughter behind us.  The little girl was bored and kept sighing loudly.  Then she said, as the dairy goats were on the third group and looking for a grand champion, "Dad, when will the goat show start??" To which the dad said they must not do tricks or anything.  So they left.  I thought it was pretty funny! Our kiddos did awesomely terrific.  They each got a blue ribbon and $3 to boot!

Sam went to a scout overnight and Ruthie went to a party at a friend's house.  Isaac and I went to get us some dinner and then sat around.  Smelling slightly of barn.

Saturday...  We spent some time at the fair and looking at the exhibits.  We took the goats out early.  Shhhhh.  Isaac went to a friend's house.  Then we went out to dinner for being awesome.  We spent the rest of the evening at the demolition derby.  Which was mighty boring.  We decided the Weber county sponsored derbies are not as much fun as Stirrin' Dirt.  I am loving the dirty diet coke stuff going on lately.  Limes.  Love. 

Sunday...  Church meetings and such.  We were all extremely exhausted from the week's activities.  So we got our jammies on after church, took naps and watched North By Northwest.  Isaac figured out how to spell The Docter with 2 $1 bills.  Notice Doctor is spelled wrong.  But I let it go. It's summer after all.

On to our last week of Summer.  I really feel we need one more week after this before school starts.  But I'm not in charge.  We start next Tuesday.  Ready or not.

A Day In The Life.

It's only Tuesday and Look!!  I've got last week's stuff here.  Although only two of the pictures are actually from last week, and two are just apples from my kitchen, and the other three are my kids from when we went to The Leonardo... it's here.  Ta Da.

 

Monday... Went to grandma and grandpa's where Isaac tried to mend grandpa's computer.  Daniel and the kids went back that evening so he could look at it and fix it up.  Isaac and Sam went to a Scout merit badge class for Citizenship in the Nation. I love our nation's history. Though they had to watch the national news for 5 nights.  Yuck.  When the senator stuff came on we decided the first 15 minutes were plenty.   

Tuesday...  Marsha came over to do eyebrows.  I had a full load of people for her and it went beautifully.  The best part is when my friend Mandy comes and has to lay down on my couch to get her lashes tinted for a long time and I have to hold her cute little baby boy.  Oh my heart.  Isaac and Sam finished up the merit badge class and I finished up new member discussions for a couple of girls who were baptized several months ago. 

Wednesday... Doctor appointment then, because the merit badge class didn't have to meet today, we went to a summer movie and saw Jumanji.  Fun!  Boys had Scouts and hump day was done.

Thursday... The first PTA meeting of the year.  We discussed some stuff and then had a couple of guys come and give their spiels for fundraisers.  We ate yummy brownie bites but didn't like the cheesecake.  So we went with another company.  I am the PTA secretary again this year and will not be the Popcorn chair!  Another gal said she'd do it.  So I volunteered to do the PTA blog.  We'll see how that goes.

Friday...  We had a ward/neighborhood BBQ.  Daniel suggested that when we were finished eating we head up to the Ranch.  So we called grandpa the night before and invited them to come up.  Daniel and Ruthie went over on Thursday night to help him load a 4 wheeler into his truck so he could take it up.  It broke the window in the shell.  Oops.  But Friday night we headed up and got there late.  We stayed up even later to watch the Apple Dumpling Gang. 

Saturday... We slept in a little and then the boys were put to work.  For another merit badge (family life) they had to do projects and put the family to work.  So Isaac took up watering trees and put Ruthie, grandpa and dad to work.  Sam took up weed whacking and mowing.  Sam and I got to use the ax to chop some of the weeds that had turned into trees.  We had fun!  Then we got to ride the 4 wheelers around as our reward for lots of hard work.

After getting home, we pulled the baby goats out and trimmer their hooves to be ready for the fair.  Just like trimming fingernails.  County fair is just next week!

Sunday... Went to church.  By the time we left, my head was screaming. I got home, ate something, took something and went to bed.  Hours later I woke up and still felt horrible.  So we decided to not go to Daniel's sister's house for the family get together.  Bummer.  I told them I didn't have anything for dinner because we were eating at Jennifer's.  So Daniel made waffles and then we watched Charade.

This week is crazy busy with the county fair and goat show coming. 

Hope your week is eventful too!

A Day In The Life.. On Vacation!

This will be a multitasking blog post.  Why??  Because I'm busy.  And we just got back from a trip.  And I forgot to post last week.  And I just have to do it this way.  It will make me happy.  And I'm hot.  So happy is good!

So let's go back 2 weeks for a day in the life.  I'll go day to day for these last two weeks and share our vacation trip along the way.  Plus I don't have pictures for the first of the two weeks.  I didn't take pictures.  I was busy.

Monday...  So this was a Monday when we went to the local pool.  The kids swam and I read a book.  It was lovely.  Below is a picture in Lava Hot Springs.  That's where we spent last week. 

The boys.

Tuesday... This Tuesday was stormy.  I went to do missionary visits and then it began to rain.  The plan was to go to the drive in, but it rained and rained.  So we didn't go to the drive in.  The picture below is to prove that I, Jennie, wore swim gear and even went in the water.

The girls.

Wednesday...  This paricular Wednesday I went into the dentist.  I have had a molar hurting like crazy cakes and thought for sure that if I didn't go in that I would bite down on something hard and break my tooth and we would be up in Idaho. So I went in.  Nothing.  That was the verdict.  There is just no explanation for the pain.  There's no swelling, no infection, nada.  So he gave me a script for an antibiotic.  Just in case.  I should fill it and take it and see if it helps. 

We also had the missionaries and our neighbors over for dinner.  Lots of fun!

  This is a picture of the kids in the tent watching the laptop.  Ruthie is telling her brothers to shut up.  They are giggling and hiding from the camera.  Sheesh.

Thursday...  This is the day I took the hoodlums, I mean my wonderful children, to the Leonardo.  Fun museum for sure!  Go!  You'll love it.

This is my husband.  Striking a pose.

Friday...  Ruthie and I went to get our hair cut.  Always a good thing.  Daniel and I went to the temple on a date.  Good stuff.

This is supposed to show my eye that was bright red and just all around bugged.  I went through 5 contacts from Monday to Friday in my right eye alone.  I wore my glasses most of the time.  I don't know what was going on with the eye, but I'm all clear now.

Saturday... We got up early and headed to the cemetary to help a boy in our ward with this Eagle project.  We cleaned up headstones-trimming and edging and sweeping, then recorded names and took pictures.  All the information goes to be recorded as family history records.  It was so much fun.  All our family was able to be there to help.  Thanks Nate!

We had a family reunion with my mom's family.  It was fun to catch up with my aunts and uncles.  We played games and ate good food.

Here are the kids and Daniel watching the laptop.  See the fence behind them?  We were in a spot with a fence around it. It was so peaceful to not have neighbors right next to us. 

Sunday... Went to church and then packed for the trip.  Finally... The trip!

Sam, in the car.

Monday...  Took off for Lava after Daniel had a dentist appointment.  This was just a 6 month cleaning. We spent the rest of our afternoon setting up camp and walkiing into town to sight see a little.  Here are Daniel, Isaac and Ruthie on the river.

Tuesday... The plan was to hit the river and then head to the Olympic pools.  Instead we packed a lunch and treats and just went to the pool.  The first two pictures are all of us at the pool.  We spent most of the day there playing.  This is Daniel, Ruthie and me on the river.  Sam went down and then got in the car.  He had had an allergic reaction to the chlorine on Tuesday and didn't want to go back on the raft.

Wednesday...  We spent a couple hours on the river.  It was low so we bumped our bums on lots of rocks.  Here's our site.

Thursday... Time to pack up for home.  Sam in the tent while packing up. After getting home we decided that we were still on vacation.  So we packed up quilts and treats and really went to the drive in.  We watched Turbo and Monsters University.  We didn't get home unitl 1 am. 

Friday... Sleep in, laundry and grocery shopping.  Daniel went to work.  I made dinner for a gal in our ward who is having contractions but so not close enough to her due date. 

Saturday... Lazy day.  Yard work, house work, more laundry.  Daniel had put the pool up and found holes.  He tried patching, but to no avail.  So the kids slashed it with a razor and shot at it with a BB gun.  Daniel finally took it down and threw it away.  I spoke at a baptism for a woman in our ward.  It was so fun to be a part of it.  I love convert baptisms.

Sunday... Meetings, church, choir practice, home teachers, home teaching and family get together.  We went to my brother's house and hung out with cousins for a while.  Time to get back to the normals of life. 

Here are the kids at the drive in Thursday night.

Have a fun week!

A Day In The Life.

I know. 

We've been busy. 

At least I have now gotten to another week of a day in the life of the busy family with the mom who hasn't had time to sit and blog.  For days.  So here it is....

Monday...  Isaac and Daniel left for Scout Camp.  Can you tell he's excited?!  He is thinking "I am so glad I get to go to Scout Camp and learn new and exciting things.  My mom and dad love me so much and I appreciate everything they do for me".  Actually, out loud, he said "I hate this.  I don't want to go.  It's too early and it's just gonna be stupid up there." I don't care. Go.  He went.  Meanwhile, back  at the homestead, I took the remaining children to see Epic.  We liked it. 

Tuesday...  Sam watched his cousin up at the Ranch make Ramen in the microwave.  Awesome.  He just puts the noodles and some water in a bowl and nukes it for 3 minutes.  Then he adds the season packet.  Yum.  The kiddos and I went to Lowe's and purchased curtains for the downstairs windows.  I hemmed them and put them up.  They still need a liner.

Wednesday...  Sam had his friend Colton come play, then they went to Scouts together.  We ordered pizza too.  I went to get my eye brows done.  Yes, addicted.  Sam mentioned at some point during the week that we should try to make Oreo McFlurries like McDonald's does.  So I got the vanilla ice cream, put it in the mixer, got it all nice and creamy.  Then I added Oreos and mixed them in.  The kids thought it was yummy. 

Thursday...  Okay, now to Scout Camp.  Daniel took some pictures, so I'll share with those.  Isaac took the Rifle shooting merit badge class.  It was a tough one.  But Isaac had so much fun!! Really. 

Friday...  On Monday, all the boys needed to take the BSA swim test to be able to go into the water at all.  Isaac had already told us not to pack his shorts.  He wasn't going in.  After passing the swim check in the fr-ee-eee-zing cold water he wrote me a very nice letter, in calligraphy, which he sent to me by carrier pigeon, telling me how lucky he was to have a mom who packed his swim shorts and a towel despite his hesitancy.  He could never show me how appreciative he was of my extraordinary parenting skills.  Then he never went in the water again.

Saturday...  This is the day they came home from camp.  But during the week, this is Isaac with some of the boys.  I don't know what they're doing.  Or if something stinks. 

Sunday...  We all went to hear our cousin Jilynne speak in her ward.  She just got home from her mission.  Then we hightailed it out to Jessica's (another cousin) talk.  She is leaving soon for her mission.  I love cousin sister missionaries.  Ruthie is excited to follow their examples.  Isaac also took an Art merit badge class (along with First Aid, Environmental Science, Leather work, Basket Weaving and Rifle Shooting) He loves to draw and so this was an easy one.  Though he would never say it out loud again, he was heard saying that he had fun.  He may have even used the word awesome.  One of the leaders did all the cooking and the food was a highlight of the trip.  Although shooting a rifle is pretty high up there.

So there you have it.  A busy week at our house.  This week is just as busy, except everyone is home, so I think it's just more busy.  This week we are down to 5 weeks until school starts.  Yikes!

Have a terrific day.

A Day In The Life.

Monday...  We made all these slushy syrups so we could have icy treats.  Yum.  We also went to grandma and grandpa's house.

Tuesday...  Remember the bench I repainted?  I put these fun cushions on it.  Now you can't see the hole in it!  Hah! We went to see a summer movie and worked with the goats.  I had an appointment with my diabetes gal.  Everything is good and she's retiring.  Bummer.  P.S. Don't sit on the right side of the bench.  You'll fall right through!

Wednesday...  Look! I have white pants.  Can you believe it? And now I have proof.  I just think white is a horrendous color for a mom to wear.  I guess I'm horrendous. 

Thursday...  Up to the Ranch and then Malad for fireworks.  We had a fun day with grandma and grandpa and a couple of cousins who went up too.

Friday...  Isaac is doing an art merit badge at scout camp this week and a prerequisite was to go to an art gallery.  So we headed to Kaysville to see the Leconte Stewart art exhibit at the library.  The artist gave Daniel's parents an original sketch.. he lived in their neighborhood, so it's cool to go see the real thing that's well known and stuff.

Saturday...  Daniel's birthday!!  Yay.  Our cousin Olivia was baptized in the morning and then we went to hang out at her house with all our cousins.  We saw Ephriam's Rescue at the cheap theater.  Good movie.  Uncle Clark is in it but we didn't see him.  We had a birthday dinner at Burrito Grande, then had some cake.

Sunday...  Why, church of course.  We got to have all of Daniel's family over for dinner and stuff.  We were setting up for outside, but the weather turned.  Wind and then rain.  So all forty something of us were in the house.  But it was still fun.  Sam got all of his Godzilla movies, figures and poster lined up for a picture.  "This is all the Godzilla stuff I've collected over my lifetime!"

Onto a new week.  Hope your summer is awesome!