Black Ops

Wednesday afternoon we had mist that froze all over everything.  Road conditions in town weren't too bad, but on the lesser traveled roads it was really slick.  Really slick, so slick in fact that I managed to total my mothers little Camry by taking out 6 mailboxes when the car did a 180 rather than slow down so I could make the 90 degree turn necessary to turn onto our street ...  

I hit the mail boxes perfectly ...

• perfectly to shatter the driver side window, when the far right mail box (in the above picture it's in front of the others sitting on the ground on the right) hit the top rim of the window, rather than have the mailbox come through the window and into the car/my face ... 
• perfectly enough to allow me to drive the car home with no problems ... 
• perfectly to take out the posts swiftly and completely -- had they not been there, the car would have likely gone on it's side or upside down given the grade of the ditch ... 
• perfectly enough that (as far as I know) only my mail got laid out for the night ...
• perfectly make the car a total loss because of how perfectly I hit the posts, rough estimates for repair are $3-4,000 ...  it's a 92.  
• so perfectly that I am not scratched, bruised or sore.  

 

Thursday morning GR purchased supplies to fix the mailbox posts and Bob and a neighbor had them up right again before lunch and mail delivery.  Amazingly, none of the mailboxes were damaged, not even a dent.  They hadn't been so lucky 2 years ago when a DUI took out all the boxes and ended up all the way in the ditch.  

Unfortunately, Mom and Dad value this car more than their insurance company does.  It's a sound little car whose transmission is doing great and isn't showing any signs of dying soon.  So rather than ditch it for something else, they will likely replace the door with something from a salvage yard and continue to drive it until the transmission has issues.  In the meantime we're investing in gloves, plastic and duck tape for the drive home.

Visit to Santa

Anna respectfully and determinedly declined every invitation to even stand next to Santa.  And that was with both Grandma's encouraging, suggesting and I'm going to assume bribing as well.  But Anna does an awesome "Santa, Ho, Ho, Ho!", you should ask her about it. 

Preschool Music Program

This continues to be my favorite event of the season, and we have missed it so for the last two years.

Alex choose to wear his suit and his gray sweater vest, he has a thing for sweater vests, loves them!  We laid out a couple of shirt/tie options and this is what he choose.  Once we got everything on, he looked at me and earnestly asked, "Do I look sharp, mom?"   Absolutely!  By the time he went through three hours of church, lunch in the car, and walking in to the preschool, he was done with the jacket, which made him look a little more like all the other kids up on the stage.  


He did a fantastic job.  This little kids LOVES to sing.  He and Anna both love music.  Alex learns lyrics really quickly.  Anna's been going to a music class once a week with Grandma.  I took both kids when she was out of town back in October and he's still singing some of the songs he learned in that one class.  

I had hoped to get video, but discovered minutes before the program that my video camera "magically" went from full battery to no battery overnight.  And I couldn't remember how to get my new camera to take video, so I have a couple of cute pictures of the program and that's it.

I did manage to get a couple of pictures of all five kids ... I was hoping for a Christmas card photo, but I'm going to try again when the lighting is better and when there aren't rows and rows of people behind me making for a very captive audience to perform for.  Although this picture does capture each of them, perfectly giving the viewer a hint of their personalities. 

Poor GR missed the entire program because of tithing settlement. I didn't consult all of my calendars when he ran tithing settlement dates passed me and once I realized the conflict, it was too late.  He's trying a new option this year to be more efficient with his time. He's only offering tithing settlement on a couple of days during the month; two Saturdays and a Sunday with huge blocks of time on each day.  If that doesn't work into peoples schedules they can schedule something independently. We're hoping this will allow him to help me pull of Christmas and celebrate the holiday with us rather than spending hours and hours and hours spread over four weeks at the church.  

Thankfully none of his appointments canceled or didn't show during Alex's performance.  Though if they had, I don't think he would have told me.  He teases that the only time you can really see his wife get frustrated is during tithing settlement.  I am amazed that people aren't more considerate of his time ... no shows/last minute reschedules, not signing up at all, or choosing a time that is convenient for them but leaves large gaps in his schedule.  It isn't intentional, they just don't think or realize what it means for the bishop and his family.  

I'm working this week at the campus bookstore buying text books back.  It's my second buy back and I'm excited.  The money is decent (as long as I don't compare it to what GR makes) and I get to work with fun people.  Mom's here to help with the kids.  We've got major home work projects due this week, holiday parties on Friday and holiday gifts for the teachers.  Busy week!

The Brunch

The brunch this year was a huge success, one of our best yet, and I'm so grateful.  I was really nervous. I was hosting in the house everyone has seen so beautifully decorated and prestinly kept by Diane.  Hosting Thanksgiving helped me start to get things organized, rearranged and cleaned up. I got the carpets cleaned on Monday, a little too close to Saturday for comfort, but they look amazing! Once they were dry Tuesday, we I started decorating and I'm really pleased with how it all turned out.   

Diane and I continue to work on finding the right balance of sweets and savories with the menu.  For the 20+ years she did this in GR's hometown, the ladies only wanted sweets.  Here there is a totally different mentality ... they want savories and only suppliment with sweets.  So I'm now only making one or two sweets, and leaving the rest to her, since that is still where her passion is.  This year we both cut back on the sweets (this is all I put out - huge success by the way - the rest in in the freezer waiting for another occassion) and pumped up the savories.  I fell a bit short on the savory end, so notes for next year::  make two spinach artichoke dips, 3 dozen turkey florentines is not enough - shoot for 6, we should probably have 3lbs of shrimp.  Two wild rice cassroles and three egg casseroles was perfect.  

We had beautiful weather this year, allowing many of our friends to attend. I think we estimated over 50 women came, and they came steddily throughout the morning and lingering well past 11 - love that! The last couple of years preparing for the brunch as been more stress than fun and excitement. I always enjoy it in the end, but after last year I was seriously questioning if it was worth the stress and output. Thankfully, this year was easier ... still a lot of work, but easier on both me and Diane. We made the event more manageable and asked for more stretegic help and I think it really helped reduce my stress level. So thankfully I think we're both really looking forward to next year!

Thanksgiving Highlights

The Lesson 

 

I LOVE this picture.  Actually, I love the story behind this picture.  

The Obvious:: This is my parents with the two little ones and they are making something ... pumpkin pie, the morning of Thanksgiving Day.  Mom had decided a day or two before that we were taking pumpkin pie off the menu.  It wasn't really needed, and no one was going to miss it.  

The Not Obvious:: Wednesday night my father made a banana cake and Sam helped.  Alex really wanted to help too, and I'm sure Anna did too, cause that kid can really crack and egg!  Apparently (according to my father), he was a complete failure at knowing how to have two children help him make something in the kitchen.  So here is my father, intently observing my mother, in order to learn how to have multiple children help him in the kitchen.  He is amazing.  I love that he wanted to learn, that he wanted to be taught, that he made it important to learn. 

The Hootenanny

Many years, when we were young, my mother made this egg/butter/flour concoction and we loved it.  We loved it's taste, but more importantly we loved what it did in the oven.  How crazy is that?  A couple of years a go my brother revived the hootenanny, tweaking the recipe a bit, and adding blueberry sauce/compot to the recipe.   De-lish!  Thanksgiving morning, I made a hootenanny - learning later that 6T of better is better than 8T.  No blueberry sauce for this one, but we did discover than ikea lingonberry jam is a perfect pairing with a piece of warm hootenanny.  


The Turkey

Brined (Whole Foods), bacon wrapped, and smoked.  Yumm!

The simple spread and a few of the guests (and you can see the kitchen paint color). 

The Strategist

My little sis brought her beau for the holiday.  His first big introduction to the family.  He survived and we like him.  My crew can be a bit intense and he handled it well.  Beau is a game buff ... a strategy, game buff.  They were only here for less than a day and half and yet we played lots of games and he won lots.  We're going to have to do something about that winning streak if he's going to last.  Here, we're introducing Beau and the family to Scotland Yard. 

Tiny Tim

Anna is taking a Music Together class with grandma on Tuesday mornings.  Anna loves this class!  Her favorite song by far is a song about a little frog named Tiny Tim.  This morning I took a little video of them singing this song, seconds before Grandma came to pick up Anna.  

Since it's hard to understand what they are saying, here are the lyrics.  

"I have a little frog who's name is Tiny Tim. 
I put him in the bathtub to see if he could swim. 
He drank up all the water.  He ate up all the soap. 
Then he burped last night 'cause a bubble in his throat." 
*burp* "Excuse me!" 
*burp* "Excuse me!"

Pumpkin Carving

Remember our chili and pumpkin carving get together a couple of years ago.  We wanted to do it again this year since we'll be out of town next weekend.  With no school Friday, and Papa's schedule clear, last night was the perfect evening to have everyone over.  

We did some quick decorating yesterday afternoon.  I saw a cute idea on MADE with bat cutouts taped to the wall.  I thought our entry way would be perfect for a swarm of bats, and it was!  The kids loved this project, and with four of them working, they quickly had 50 cut from construction paper ready to use.

We had such a great time with everyone.  It was fun and relaxed, and some amazing pumpkins were carved. 

Rebecca did the ghost/grave yard on the far left, Sam did the bat flying in front of the moon, Alex and GR worked on the dragon, Anna's is the baby pumpkin to the right of the dragon, and Emily's is the skull on the right.

Even the best get caught in the end

GR was home from work today, thanks to a dentist appointment and Dad's Day at preschool.  He put Anna down for a nap in our room and I went to sew.  Shortly before putting my project away so I could wake up Anna and go and get the big kids from school, she walks into the craft room looking like this.  Both forearms are painted with mascara, she has a bit on her face along with what I believe is moisturizer, but I'm not totally sure.  She doesn't have any, other than that bit of smudge up by the collar, on her dress, and very little is on the comforter.  All in all I'm very impressed with how cleanly she made her mess, choosing to "paint" very washable surfaces, a courtesy her siblings have rarely shown, so we're seeing genetic progression (can you see that within the same generation, humm?).

Season Finale

Our fireworks distributor had an end of the season show last night, lighting off $15,000 worth of product in a 20 minute show.  That is a lot of product in short period of time.  We've attended their spring preview show, but this was our first time attending the end of the season show.  We got together with the core of the 4th of July shooting team and their families for Chinese and fireworks.  We had a great time.  And seeing $15,000 go off in such a short time frame really is impressive. 

 

We were worried the weather would be chilly, but it was perfect.  The kids only needed light jackets at best.  A couple of us were wishing it'd been just a smidge cooler to justify hot cocoa. 

 

As amazing as this show was, I still prefer GR's.  The pace is just a bit slower, allowing you to enjoy and appreciate each shell, without it feeling slow and sluggish.  In an unofficial exit poll of our show this summer, when asked how long the show lasted, people estimated 18-20 minutes when in reality it was ~13 minutes.  

Our weekend's comings and goings

Saturday started with soccer games for Sam and Emily, and Hobbits for Alex.  While Emily played her game, kids were sitting in the car listening to general conference via my phone!

 

Saturday afternoon was out exploring gravel roads in search of a bee farm, a multi-generational farm, and an alpaca farm.  For the last 5 years or so our area has had a farm tour the first weekend of October.  It's something we enjoy supporting, though the scheduling makes it difficult for us to attend each year.  The weather was beautiful and the kids had a great time seeing the different animals and learning about each farm.

There was some discussion about whether or not we should order one of these for Thanksgiving this year.  I never got up the courage to even ask about the cost.  

Sunday we continued our general conference tradition ... everyone helped us make a batch of monkey bread to eat during the morning session.  And the kids got special conference activity packets - these were provided my by very sweet visiting teacher, saving me a precious hour, printing and compiling activity sheets from the church website.  I kept my hands busy during both sessions crocheting the edging on to the pillowcases I made for Rebecca's birthday.  They turned out so cute!  I totally recommend You Go Girl's Posh Pillowcase tutorial.  

 

A couple of Sunday's ago, our high council speaker mentioned that after April general conference he took on the challenge of listening to one conference talk a week until the next conference.  GR and I are going to do this over the next six months.  We rarely get to really listen to all the talks live, so I'm looking forward to taking on this challenge.

Sam has finally lost his two front teeth.  The permanent teeth had already started to come in and for the last couple of days he's been sporting a very good Nanny McPhee look!  GR told him if he hadn't gotten it out by tonight, he'd take him to see Ginny and have her pull it.  His simile is going to be perfect for his Halloween costume ... he's been talking about being vampire, perfect for a kid who just lost his two front teeth don't you think?!

GC Goodie Bag

I stumbled across this just a day or two before April General Conference and was able to pull it together for the sisters I visit teach, thanks to the Micheal's dollar bin, and little things I had on hand at home.  There were a few little modifications I needed to make, but the end result was fun, not only for conference weekend, but afterward too!  I'm looking for a little something to give this time around - so far I'm coming up with nothing ... so if you see anything, let me know!

Sam's Talk

Sam gave a talk in Primary yesterday, we wrote it during the 2nd hour, thankful that he didn't have to share his talk until the later portion of the 3rd hour.  GR tried to help him write it out Saturday night, but Sam had spent the entire day at an airshow and was so tired he couldn't pull together any sentences.  I got home late Saturday night and remember GR mentioning something to the effect that he hadn't gotten Sam's talk written ... 

His topic, My love for Jesus Christ Grows when I Pray.   He shared two different experiences from this year where his prayers were answered, helping him gain a testimony that Jesus Christ is real, He loves us and our prayers are heard and answered. 

"My Aunt Barbara served a mission in California.  Earlier this year, while on her mission, she lost her wallet.  She looked everywhere for it and could not find it.  It had everything she needed in it.  She was really worried.  our family prayed everyday for two weeks for her to find her wallet.  Finally, someone walked into the mission home and gave them Aunt Barb's wallet.  Our prayers were answered.  Nothing was missing and Aunt Barb was able to continue spending all her time teaching people the gospel."

"This summer Aunt Barb came home early from her mission because there was something growing in her body that shouldn't be there.  As soon as our family knew Aunt Barb was coming home to have surgery, we prayed that she would be healed.  Grandpa Art and my dad gave her a priesthood blessing.  Her surgery went very well.  Her body is whole and she was healed."   

I am so grateful my children have had experiences like these that I can use to help them see their Father in Heaven's love for them, and for our family. 

A few more details about the experiences Sam shared, for the family history record... 

The Wallet Story:: The big concern, other than her wallet seriously containing every possible card/id she owned, was that Barbara would need to get a CA drivers license, which would nearly guarantee her jury duty - something she simply didn't have the time to do as a full time missionary.  Right as all the adults in the house had all but given up hope of the wallet being found, someone walks into the recently relocated mission home and drops off the wallet ... amazing.  We have no idea who the individual was, or how they found the mission home. 

Surgery (aka a good part of our summer):: We got word on July 11th, that Barb was coming home and would need surgery.  We knew no details.  She had a softball size mass on her ovary that needed to come out asap, and they wanted her to be with family for the procedure and recovery process.  We met up with her in StL for Sam's birthday on the 15th ... and stayed with her through her surgery two weeks later.  What was thought to be the size of a softball or grapefruit turned out to be more the size of a cantaloupe.  The surgery took only 45 minutes - the best possible time! - and they were able to take just the cyst, without anything else being damaged.  A miracle.  Her 8 week recovery has been phenomenal and complete, and we are so grateful!

Snapshots

GR and I went to the Chief's game last night ... our one non-Sunday game of the season.  We were very excited to go for a MONDAY night game, and had grand plans for our evening.  Sadly none of them really came to be, an unexpected highway closure made caused it to take over two hours to make the two mile trek to the stadium entrance [considering where we parked, we'd have been better off parking on the highway and walking] and walked in right at kick-off time, about the same time the rain started [the rain that wasn't suppose to start until 2am].  Our seats are situated such that the back half of you stays dry, and if the wind cooperates, you won't get soaked if you stay standing and lean back.  We had a blast and never once considered leaving early, thanks to the Chief's winning over the Charges, 21-14.  BTW, the second touchdown ... caught by our friends (with the apples and the cows) nephew ... so proud!  It was a great night with friends who were such troopers in the chilly rain.  We made it back in around 2am, [the above picture taken right as the game ended!] sending Grandma and Grandpa to bed, and shedding our damp cloths for warm pjs.  


GR ended up taking the day off today.  Anna and I went to her little music class this morning and then shopping at Target ... LOVE their new toddler clothes!  GR and Alex went to lunch and then GR installed a new leaf catcher to help us keep up with all the walnut leaves.  I went out to get the scoop on how to clean out the catcher and Anna followed.  As soon as she saw GR's feet in, she quickly and quietly took off her shoes and socks, and got in with him ...

Charmingly 2nd Grade

As seems to be 2nd grade tradition, Sam's music program was tonight, Musical Seuss, a mere 4.5 weeks into the new school year.  

As always the performance was fantastic and the kids beamed the entire time.  They had fun performing and you could tell they loved the music and were super pleased with how they did.  Samuel has a very expressive face, it was great fun watching him do the choreography complete with facial expressions! 

BTW -- we swallowed our pride and took the mega lens with us so the pictures would turn out ... it was more than a little embarrassing to walk in with a camera larger than my purse, but GR got pictures with the correct lightening and now, that is all that matters!

In other news the weather held enough that Alex was able to attend his extra midweek soccer practice/camp this evening.  Grandpa is taking him and Alex LOVED every second of it. 

Sam is now on his correct soccer team and his new team is so grateful to have him.  When signing everyone up, we inadvertently put Sam in the wrong age level, and got that straightened out so he's playing with boys his age and skill level.  His new team started with only 4 players and now has 6. 

And Emily's team now has a willing and skilled coach - not reluctant parents!  She's playing on a co-ed team, something she hasn't done since she started playing soccer and her coach plays for a local collegiate club team.  She's been playing soccer since she was a Anna's age and helps her father with soccer camps for young kids.  I'm hopeful that this will give her added training to improve specific skills she needs to be more confident on the field, and grow as a soccer player, something she's showing personal interest in doing.  

Labor Day

We had a wonderfully full day!  At the days end, we reflected with friends that a day off of work should follow Sunday more frequently!  

Friends own a farm some miles East of our place, and invited us to come spend the morning on the farm.  We gladly went!  They have a growing orchard and we were enlisted to help pick windfall fruit from the ground so it would not rot and cause a huge insect problem in the Spring.  

We quickly cleaned up the section of trees they had for us to work, filling two large trash cans with green fruit, setting a side the 1/2 bushel or so that was ripe.  

We all rode on the trailer to assist in dumping the green fruit and then after drinks of cold water and ice cream bars, the children went to call the cows ... five very pregnant mama cows ... to hand feed them some treats.  

We discovered cows don't have front teeth and their tongues are rough, gritty like sandpaper.  The Mama's a due to give birth soon ... we're kinda hoping we get a phone call so we can all come watch.

 

We closed the day with good friends grilling, talking, a little swimming for those who wanted to brave the very cold, somewhat green water, playing soccer and roasting marshmallows, squeezing it all in before the heavens opened and we had an intense, but short lived, 10 minute thunderstorm.

In other news, it looks like the will finally begin hooking up our geo-thermal system this week! 

All His Own

A certain someone started soccer this season with his older siblings.  He's really, really excited.  Papa came home Wednesday night with new shin guards, which he presented to Alex Thursday morning.  They didn't come off all day.  He wore them to playgroup (note the "shorts" ... they look a lot like Anna's cropped pants don't they), and all through his late afternoon crash on our bed.  Friday he wore them to preschool in flip flops.  I love it. 

Giant Roasters

A couple of weeks ago my Mom sent us a package with things we'd left behind from our trip.  In the box she included a bag of Giant Roasters, Campfire Marshmallows.  These are huge marshmallows ... about 2" x 2" x2" and tonight we discovered they make the best s'mores!  

Because of their size they take some patience to roast and get soft all the way through, but their size allows them to hold the heat long enough to actually melt the chocolate!  

Giant Roaster S'mores are made with one giant roaster marshmallow, two full graham cracker rectangles and half a bar of Hershey's chocolate (their recipe calls for a full bar, but we cut it in half and that was plenty ... two rows of three chocolate pieces run very nicely down the middle of a graham cracker). 

FYI - Our local HyVee has these marshmallows!

Preschool!

Barb surprised us with a visit last night!  We are so excited to have her with us for a few days.  She and I have grand plans for painting my kitchen while she's here.  

Alex and I visited his classroom for an hour.  His first full day of class will be Wednesday.  He want his picture taken with Aunt Barb and opted for me to not bring the camera with me into class.  I figured there would be plenty of other chances to take pictures during the school year.  

He came downstairs and woke me up, saying he was all dressed (picked the clothes out himself) and ready to go to school.  I'm pretty sure he's excited about preschool, and is going do wonderfully this year.  

The three older kids had the same set of preschool teachers, and Alex was slated to have the same team.  But a few weeks before classes started the director needed to make some changes in the classes to create a better learning environment for all the kids ... namely grouping children more by age because of a large group of 5 year olds attending preschool this year rather than kindergarten.  And Alex got placed in a different classroom.  The director was really worried about having to move Alex, but I'm confident it is going to work out so well.  Mindy is a good friend of mine, and Leslie is a teacher I have admired since Becca was a Pre-K Preschooler.  

The majority of our hour in the Jungle Room, was spent playing with this toy ... Magformers.  We are in desperate need of major toy overhaul here at home.  We don't have much by way of "older" or universal age toys and I'm thinking this could provide some great fun among all the kids.  I'd originally thought of getting a couple sets for Christmas, but I'm thinking they'll need to make an appearance earlier than that.  We shall see.  

I'm off to start cutting in ... we're using this color, wish me luck. 

Banana Cream Cupcakes

The girls and I made cupcakes this afternoon for a little birthday celebration for Grandma tonight, Banana Cream Cupcakes.  Yum.  They are light and not super sugary sweet the way some cupcakes are.  I used my pastry bag contraption with the filling tip to fill the cupcakes with the banana pudding.  Sadly, this method was a complete failure, and I didn't know it until we ate them.  The cupcakes were way too dense, no room for the pudding, so most of the cupcakes didn't get much filling in them.  Next time I will cut out the center like I did for Rebecca's filled birthday cupcakes.

S'more fun!!

Last night Rebecca and Emily had their friends from church - the Activity Day Girls - come for a night of swimming and s'mores.  The idea was for it to be a last hur-rah for summer.  This week the humidity has really dropped as have the temperatures.  So it was a bit chilly for an evening swim, but the girls still managed to enjoy it.  All 16 of them (and a few couldn't make it - wow!) moved between the pool, fire in the fire pit and play area throughout the evening.  

 

We did this same activity back at the end of June and I learned how much 8-11 year old girls love s'mores!  WOW.  So fun.  This time I put out more, but decided once it was gone, it was gone and not to go back in an replenish the supply ... 3 - 6 packs of chocolate (broken into fourths), two boxes of graham crackers (halved) and two large bags of marshmallows came very close to satisfying them.   


 ** Note to the two locals/ former locals still keeping up with this blog ... help me keep Mama's and Papa's happy, no outing our location OR name of girls.  I know these babies are growing up into beautiful young women so quickly, I'd hate to have to delete one to keep everyone's privacy safe.  xoxo!

Giggles ...

All the grandparents are in desperate need new "school" pictures of the kids.  This year I will likely take the kids pictures we have printed and hang in the house.  I'm tired of spending $35/kid to get pictures of them when they are hardly ever captured at their very best.  

I took pictures of Alex and Anna this morning ... in the middle of our little photo shoot, they started kissing each other on the cheek, giggling all the while.  Ahh so cute!!  It took us quite a while to get back into doing the individual shots I wanted, but I got them and am about to send them off to be printed while I run some much needed errands - pray for me, will you?

 

I hope to be back soon to post about our summer, and yes I will be post dating things so I can maintain my flawless image with future generations - ha!