Ordination Day.

Yesterday was Ordination Day for Sam.  Sam turned 12 on Saturday, so the next day he was ordained a Deacon.  The Bishop came to our home and we took care of business.

Here's the family.

Sam with Abbie and Poppy.

Sam with Grandma and Grandpa.

Sam celebrating the day!

Congratulation Sam.  We love you and are grateful that you are worthy to hold the priesthood and perform sacred ordinances on Sunday!

Art Night.

On Friday night Abbie and Poppy came up to take our family to dinner.  We went to Burrito Grande.  Obviously.  After dinner we went to the elementary school for Arts Night.  I headed to a kiva to be a volunteer curator for a bit.  Ruthie and Sam took Abbie, Poppy, Isaac and dad around to each kiva to look at all the art.  Abbie and Poppy bought Ruthie's art and then Sam's art.

After a bit Ruthie got on stage with the other 4th graders for their performance. 

They sang This Land Is My Land.  Awesome!

Shortly after that the 6th graders got on stage to dance.  Sam did some dancing and had tons of fun.

Then the choir, including Sam, got up to sing.  They did such a great job.  They ended with What Does The Fox Say.  Then some teachers got up and lip synched and danced to the same song.  It was so much fun.

It was a fun filled night.  Our school made lots of money from the art and auction to help purchase safety items for the school. 
Thanks Abbie and Poppy for coming and sharing with us!

New Things.

Ruthie went in for her 2 year eye exam.  She's wanted new frames for a while, so we got some.

She chose the "dork" look.  They are black on the outside and blue on the inside.  She is a doll!  And certainly NOT a dork!

Sam has this deal where he has to be constantly moving.  And if his energy isn't specifically geared in one direction, it gets splattered all over.  And we don't like that.  So I did what any mom would do.  I got him a mini trampoline.  Best Mom Decision EVER!  He just gets on it and jumps.  And jumps.  And jumps.  And jumps. And jumps.  And jumps.  And jumps.

And jumps.

It's awesome!

Sledding Sunset

Out sledding for FHE

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!!

Ranks and Badges

Last Friday night was out Scout Court of Honor.  That's where the Boy Scouts receive their well deserved rank advancements.  And, because we just got finished with summer, it was filled with merit badges. 

Isaac got his Star rank and 10 merit badges.  He did a double fist pump in the air as everyone applauded.  He's such a hoot. And he's such a skinny thing!

This was Sam's first official Court of Honor.  Actually it's his second, but we were celebrating my grandma's 100th birthday in California during that one.  Sam got 3 merit badges.  Not bad for an 11 year old.  He also has earned his Scout rank, but we still don't have it.  He'll get it along with his Tenderfoot at the next meeting.  Sam led the flag ceremony.  He was the only 11 year old scout there.  He was told what to say, so he said "please repeat the Pledge of Allegiance with me".  But no one was standing or saluting.  So we all quickly got up and saluted and pledged.  He did exactly what he was told to do.

Here is Isaac and mom and dad and Scout Master Steve as he received his Star rank.

We're proud of our scouts. 

But you won't see one of those bumper stickers on my car.

Cute Quips.

Last night as Sam was praying he said "Please help the school to be destroyed before tomorrow."  Daniel started laughing.  So Sam stopped and asked why he was laughing at him.  Daniel said the school will not be destroyed and he needed ask for help in a different way.  So Sam went back to his prayer and said, "Please help the school to be destroyed before tomorrow.  Or that I'll have a good day."

It was a good day.

Wax Museum And A Farewell.

Today was the fifth grade Wax Museum.  Sam said that when his teacher was pulling kids' names out to pick who they wanted to be, he was prepared.  When she said "Sa" he said "Unlce Sam!".  He wouldn't wear the red sweat pants I got him.  Oh well.

Here he is.

Wait..

That's better.

I want you!

Last evening we went to say good-bye to our favorite 3rd grade teacher. 

Ruthie will still finish the year with her, but it was her retirement open house.  She cried when she read the block we gave her.  We love you Ms. Nonnie.

You Say It's Your Birthday!

 It's Sam's birthday.  He's 11 and feeling good. 

We began with a trip to Abbie and Poppy's for Easter and birthday fun.  This is Sam with his birthday chocolate and moolah from Abbie and Poppy.

At home, he had to wait for dad to get home to open gifts.  He got his very own box of Swiss Rolls. 

He got lots of Godzilla stuff.  He was Samzilla in another life.  He wants to serve his mission in Japan.  Go figure!

And... he got his ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.  Aahhh.  Look at that face.  He was so excited.

Grandma and grandpa took Sam and the other kids to the dollar store where they could each buy 10 items for their birthdays.  Sam was on a roll and got 10 super fun things.  So did the other kids.  We had his birthday dinner at Burrito Grande where he got to wear the giant sombrero.  Cool.

Sam, we love you and are so glad you belong to us.  Super Silly Sam.  Samzilla.  Samalicious.  Sammy Sam.  Sammers.  Samuel Lawrence.  Samuel L Jackson, etc, etc, etc.  Happy birthday!

Are You Jolly Or What?

Are you having a jolly week? I sure hope so. Considering tomorrow is the end of the world. But then again, maybe it won't end. So I hope your week is jolly so you can keep going after tomorrow with the jolliness. Or something.

 

I know it's been a tough week and it's kept me from blogging.  I don't want to move into funny and stuff too soon, but I also don't want to be sad.  Here is where I am...  We live in perilous times.  No laws or confiscations or medications or anything else will stop bad guys from doing bad things.  Or from getting guns.  Satan has got a hold on the hearts of the children of men and he will not let go or even loosen his grasp until Christ comes. I hope you are praying, as we are, that He will come soon.

 

On to the happy.  Because happy is good.  Happy is Joy.

Last week our cub scouts went to the Veteran's home in Ogden to pass out ornaments.  It was so fun to watch our cute cubs and their sibling go into the residents' rooms and give them an ornament.  Or 15.  I took pictures as they passed them out then took a picture of the group.  Sam wouldn't stand with the group so I snagged this one.  

Sam wrote this special piece in school.  I love the last line.

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AAAAGGGHHHHHH!!! Isaac just texted me from school and said his science fair project is going on to the district!!!!!   AAAAAAGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

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We got our tree up last Saturday night.  Sunday was the family party and since it was a Christmas party, I figured it would be nice to have a tree up.  Plus, it's Christmas next week.  Notice there are only like 2 decorations on it.  Those are Ruthie and Sam's ornaments they just made in school and gave to me this week.  The lights are part of the tree.  Luckily. And there are really presents under it too, much to our kids' delight!

And here is the play room minus the toys and games and clock and other such things.  Also minus the chairs and tables for people to eat dinner Sunday.  The basement, for which I have NO pictures, mostly because I don't go down there since Sunday because it was a disaster and there were games destroyed and toys EVERYWHERE!, is awesome.  Well, messy.  But still awesome.  And it was a big hit.  It was so hot and crowded in my house that it was a relief that it wasn't more crowded and hot because most of the children and teenagers were downstairs.

So now I'm ready for Christmas and am so grateful to celebrate with our home full of safety, peace, love, completeness and JOY.

On to more Jolliness!

Sewing, Bubbles and Cookies, Oh My!

All 7th graders take a class called CTE.  I only know the C stands for Careers.  T might be for Technology??  E may be for something that starts with E.  Just a guess on my part.  Anyhoo, Isaac's first quarter in CTE was all about wood and big tools.  He built a truss, a cart of some sort and other things that earned him an easy A.  This quarter is filled with clothing care, child care, family stuff, cooking.  And sewing.  Isaac was so excited about the sewing machine.  It's a machine and he does well with machines.  So I put him to work to cinch in his new church pants.  He got in there and sat down and asked if my machine was computerized.  ??  Um, no.  Mine is the cheapest of the cheap.  Story of my life.  I should show you my carpet.  So he threaded the needle and practiced a straight stitch on some extra fabric.  Then I put his pants in.  He had asked me to mark a line where he should sew.  Then he left.  I ended up sewing his pants.  But he did a fantastic job threading and getting the bobbin into place.  Do you know how funny it is to have your 12 year old son talk freely about bobbins?  Funny I tell ya. 

Sam was taking a bath and had asked Ruthie if he could use some of her bubble bath.  Sure, she said.  Then he called us in for a picture. Gives a new meaning to the term bubble boy.  Sam has recently made a list of all the Godzilla movies ever made.  I do believe he knows every single one.  There are 2 that are rated PG-13, so he has to wait a bit to see those.  He has big plans for his 13th birthday.

Sunday was the annual Abbie's Christmas Cookie Party.  We got to see our cousins who have been in North Dakota for a bit.  They're back and we are so happy they are.  Ruthie made beautiful cookies and even brought them home.  The boys left theirs on the table.  The other day Ruthie said, "We get our cuteness from mom and our tallness from dad.  I wasn't born from mom's tummy, but I am still tall."  So there you go.  I just so happy the cuteness came from me.  I'm glad it wasn't that they  had gotten hairy toes from me. Cuteness and tallness and so many other things that all 3 of my kiddos inherited from us.   

We still don't have our Christmas tree up.  Still in storage.  Daniel is home today so we can finish with the primer on the basement walls and ceilings.  I won't have time to paint colors on the walls till after this weekend.  The tree will go up Saturday and I'm putting a marbles circle in one bedroom and hopscotch runs in another.  Then the main area will have a rug and tables with toys and games.  The kids will be banished to the basement  for the evening.  Oh, did I tell you we are hosting Daniel's family Christmas party this Sunday?  Did I tell you that it should be around 55 people?  That's why the basement is being done quickly.  Though it's not finished, it's good enough to have people down there.  Pictures of the basement will be forthcoming.  But, just a warning, white primer on walls is boring. 

Yay Pictures!

Well, we couldn't figure out the problem with posting pictures to my blog.  So we had to move into Flickr and work through that.  I have finally figured out how to get everything done using Flickr.  So I have pictures.  For some reason I have been unable to just write-blog due to the lack of pictures. 

Here we all are with my 99 year old grandma.  We were so excited she got to come to Utah to see us all.  She will be 100 next April and we hope to have a big party for her!

 Isaac is taking Art at school.  He loves to draw so we figured it would be a good fit.  He is awesome at it.  His last assignment was a city drawing.  It was technical.  Here he is holding it.  He is next to he picture of my brother Aaron.  Aaron drew like this.  In Isaac's drawing, he added a little homage to his uncle.  He put a crack in the sidewalk with a flower growing out of it.  It's something my brother drew and titled "Beauty Amidst Bleakness".  (I need to put a close up picture on sometime!)  At parent teacher conferences yesterday, Isaac's art teacher was talking to another student before us and telling his dad that this assignment was a tough one and his B- was excellent.  Then we get up there and Isaac had 200/200 on it.  An A.  His teacher was so impressed with his work. 

Last week was our annual Cub Scout Pinewood Derby.  Officially it is our family's last one.  Not officially, I will be doing Pinewood Derbys as a leader for a while yet.  Sam's car came in 6th overall.  He had fun, though, which is most important.  Sam earned his Webelos badge a couple months ago (I'm so far behind) and has a compass point to boot.  He has been working on more badges to earn more compass points.  yay Sam.  (hi Laurie)

Isaac worked on his 7th grade Science Project recently.  I can honestly say I took no part in the creation and putting together of this project.  I will be earning no grade this year.  Isaac chose to use the hop switch on his air soft gun to shoot at 10, 15, 20 and 25 feet.  He had a great hypothesis and the results were very different than he expected.  And that's as far as I go.  Because I didn't do it, I didn't help, I didn't put the data in.  All I did was buy the board and glue where he told me to glue.  I will, however, much to his dislike, be judging the fair this year.  Only I can't judge his.  But it is awesome!  And this is the basement before the insulation and drywall.

 So here is a recent lesson I've learned.  First, something I already know.  I have a condition called Aquaphobia.  It's a fear of water and it's very real.  So I used that fear as a reason to never have my children learn to swim.  Sick, I know.  But you would think that I would have had them learn very early so that they wouldn't drown.  I mean, I wasn't going to jump in and save them.  But then I would always have Daniel with them in the water.  So it really wasn't a problem.  But then my dear Isaac was working on his 1st Class rank in Scouts.  And one of the requirements is to pass the BSA swim test.  Now Isaac can swim pretty well enough as a self taught swimmer.  But the BSA swim test was more complex.  So I did it.  I signed them up for swim lessons. 

Here is Ruthie (in purple). She is a great little swimmer and has no fear.  Luckily.  She began in level 2 and has advanced to level 3.  Ruthie has recently been sick.  She finally went back to school yesterday.  Whew!

Sam is a little more timid in the water, but he is an awesome swimmer too.  He was in level 2 with Ruthie and advanced to level 3. Here he is doing the back stroke.

Isaac loves this.  He was in level 3 and I was told level 3 is the most difficult level to pass. So I just reasoned that the next set of classes we do they will all be in level 3 together.  No such luck.  Isaac passed and is going into level 4.  As soon as he can do the 75 yards without tiring so much, we'll do the BSA swim test.  Cool!

And then there's the basement.  We had the dry wall guys come in all day Saturday to put it all up.  They are coming each evening and doing tape and mud. It's a long process and my house stinks.  By the family Christmas Party on the 16th, we hope to have  primer on all the walls, the ceiling painted, light fixtures put up and maybe the walls you see here painted.  But most likely the walls won't be painted.  I borrowed a large piece of carpet from my brother and that will help the floor.  Then we'll put some tables, chairs, games, toys and stuff down there.  In 2 of the bedrooms I am going to use chalk to make hopscotch runs and marbles rings.  Then the kids will have something fun to do and the carpet will go down over it all later. 

So there you have it.  There is probably so much more I need to catch up on, but I can't remember right now.  And now that I can get pictures back up, I hope to be blogging more.  After all, this will be a volume to add to my blog book collection! 

Having A Bad Day?

Come on over to my house.  When you come to my front steps you'll see this...

No, not the rotting jack o lantern at the bottom.  Isaac will get rid of it after school today.

When the boys were spray painting their Halloween costumes on the grass, Sam got the can and sprayed "Hi" on the sidewalk.  I started to get after him then thought better of it.  It's a permanent welcome mat.

So come on over to my house if you need a great "Hi". 

But don't come in, my house is a disaster.

Catching Up Again.

Remember when I said I killed the last fly?  Um.  Never mind.  I wish a cold snap would come and just stay.  It's November for pete's sake.  And I'm not even gonna capitalize that pete.  I still don't know who he is or why we are concerned for his sake. 

So if November is here, must mean October is gone.  And I need to catch up.  On Halloween.  How was yours?  Ours was fun.  We had 2 jack o lantern pizzas from Papa Murph's.   

We do homemade costumes.  Have you seen the prices of costumes?  We have done store bought in the past,  but homemade and ingenuity are far more fun.  Ruthie was a Gypsy.  She didn't have her crystal ball for the picture, but she carried it around with her.  She had loads of fun and loads of candy.

Sam was not committing to anything costume-wise.  He was just gonna go as a person.  When he got home from school Wednesday he said he wanted to be a pumpkin head.  So we cut open the biggest pumpkin we had and cleaned it out and put it on his noggin.  He almost fell over 'cause it was so heavy.  So rather than be spine squashed and not able to stand, he copied his brother's idea.  He found a box and used the rest of the spray paint and we cut out the eyes and he became a creeper.  It's a Mine Craft thing.  You can tell who plays Mine Craft as kids yell out "It's a creeper!" with much enthusiasm. 

Isaac is the original creeper of the night.  He has been planning the outfit for weeks.  Weeks I tell ya.  He stole the box while we were loading up the storage unit.  Now we have to go get another one.  The green spray paint is what had me in Walmart earlier in the week when I met the sweet swearing old lady.  Isaac met up with some friends and apparently got some good houses.  Apparently full size candy bars means you're rich.  Guess where he'll hang out next year?  He got home late and had a haul.

So now November is officially here and that means....  It's Ruthie's month.  This gal will be 9 on Monday and so tonight we went to Jade Buffet for dinner.  Tomorrow she will have some friends over for a little party and Monday, the big day, we will take treats to Goat Club.  Isn't that where you want to spend your birthday?  If there's cake?  Why not?

Ruthie ate some octopus and my boys are creeps.  I mean creepers.  I'm gonna go kill some more flies. For the last time.

I Vant To Test Your Blood.

So I have just swatted a total of several dozen flies in my house.  And the amazing thing is..  There are dozens more.  My family came for dinner and hanging out last night and the flies joined in.  How many flies have you swatted recently?

And then there's this.  A couple of weeks ago I took Sam down to Primary Children's Hospital where we saw a pediatric Gastroenterologist .  While there, the doc went over the blood work that was done on SammySamSam when he was having the explosive bloody noses.  He mentioned his blood sugar was 64.  It occurred to me that maybe his blood sugar could be a cause of some of the crazy times we have with Sam that cause him to act as if he were having a hypoglycemic episode.  Hmmm.

Last Tuesday night was one of those times.  Sam was crazy boy.  He wouldn't eat, he wouldn't stop crying, he wouldn't stop fighting and arguing.  So I suggested we test his blood.  He freaked out.  I don't know why.  I mean it's just a poke and a little blood.  Honestly.  Just let me poke your arm and get a little blood.  After some time and a couple of bribes, he accepted the $5 and candy bar bribe and held out his arm for the poke.  We tested.  His blood sugar was 26.  Now I would be on the floor needing an injection of glucose at that point.  Sam said he felt fine.  So he ate the candy bar and a ham and cheese sandwich and I called the doctor in the morning.

The appointment was for Friday afternoon.  We tested his blood before breakfast, after school, at dinner and at bedtime.  His blood sugar dropped around dinner time each time.  At the doctor appointment we talked about other signs of type 1 Diabetes.  She then called an Endocrinologist to see what they would recommend.  The recommendation was to draw lots o' blood and see if he was predispositioned for Diabetes.  They can look for anti bodies that would eventually attack the insulin when it's secreted which would then cause type 1 Diabetes. 

They took 5 vials of blood from this boy.  I remembered when I was 12 and going to the hospital every month to have blood drawn.  Vials of it.  My mom would always joke that they kept all of my blood in the basement and fed vampires with it.  Seriously, they took a lot of blood.  So I joked with Sam that they will feed the vampires in the basement with his blood.  He wasn't amused.

This morning I got the call with the results.  Everything came back normal.  No predisposition to type 1 Diabetes. We just need to test when he starts acting like it's low.  In other words, when Sam is crazy, test his blood. 

I am relieved that there isn't anything to worry about with Diabetes in the future.  I am grateful that we can get in to see our pediatrician quickly and easily.  I am grateful to be the only type 1 Diabetic in my family.