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!

Back to School

We've had a full and fun summer.  Just before school let out I had dreams of spending this summer like we were in a summer house ... like families would do in the 40s ... mom and kids off at a summer house somewhere while dad stayed behind and worked, sometimes joining them on the weekends.  Spending the entire summer as a vacation, for everyone.  GR's summer was filled with deadlines, so he worked nearly non-stop most of the summer.  There were weeks when the kids would go DAYS without seeing him ... not far off a 40s summer, eh.  While the summer wasn't a constant vacation, it was fun and oh so memorable, and looking back, it was probably one of our best, and for that I'm grateful.

I took Alexander to his preschool to pay his tuition fees and show him around a bit.  He doesn't remember it.  He didn't want to go.  We talked about it being Sam's preschool and how much Sam liked it, and how he and I would take Sam there.  He said he didn't want to go to, Sam's preschool.  He wanted to go to preschool at his friends houses.  He ran and played, while I wrote out checks and signed my name.  He met one of his teachers and they talked about The Jungle Room and what it would be like.  They hugged at the end and we went and got ice cream before picking up the big kids.  I think he's excited to go now.  I think he's decided that he doesn't hate his teacher, either.  Let's hope he doesn't change his mind in the next three weeks.  

Nine is Fine

Sunday Emily turned Nine!  Can you believe it?  We got back in town last Sunday, giving us just enough time, thanks to the wonders of the internet to plan a friends birthday party - something I don't think she's had since she was three.  School starts Wednesday so it served as a little get together before school too.  The girls swam, broke open a pinata, and had chocolate cake and ice cream.  

FYI: Sparkler candles while fun and super cool, are best used and enjoyed outdoors.  Lesson learned.  Thankfully the smoke detector didn't go off!

* * * * 

Sunday birthday's are always a bit tricky in this house given Papa's responsibilities and this was no different than Becca's birthday this year.  It means one-on-one conversations with papa and the birthday child expressing love and his the need to fulfill responsibilities.  Hopefully we are finding that balance, while still helping them feel special and the center of attention.  Last year it was a wedding, for Becca it was a fireside, this year stake priesthood, where the Bishop felt a great need to lead by example in an effort to have a greater number of the priesthood brethren rise to the occasion and attend. 

Consequently we took every opportunity this weekend to Emily's birthday.  Saturday night we had friends and Grandma over for dinner so GR could practice making his ribs for next weeks contest again, and ended the evening with ice cream at our favorite local shop. Sunday morning we had our traditional special birthday breakfast ... many of her favorite things.  We did gifts before Papa left for the evening, and we ate chicken stir-fry for dinner - another request of Emily's.  Monday we had her afternoon birthday party and then went out to dinner, as it was already 6:30 and we didn't have anything in the works for food.  She was smiles all weekend long.  I'm thinking getting to open presents three days in a row helped!

Annual Retreat

The annual women's retreat was Friday night, and I hosted.  About ~20 sisters come and we had a grand time ... someone later described us as a group of misfit toys - not your typical group of stalwarts that come to relief society gatherings - and while I missed the regulars, I'm so glad we had the group we did ... we all had so much fun together!

For our fourth year (my first to plan) we mixed it up a bit - more out of necessity, and thankfully, this year, as it always seems to, it met it's purpose.  We opted to not have the overnight-er to make the planning easier and to lessen the burden on others (so few were able to stay the night, it hardly seemed worth the time).  We started late ... after date night and/or kids were in bed ... had a chocolate fountain! (yum!!  Thanks Becky!) ... and door prizes and goodie bags - cause that's what Oprah would do.  We sat and ate our chocolate and talked.  No workshops, no speakers, no singing, just talking. 

For the door prizes, we asked each sister who came, to give a little of themselves to be a door prize for another sister.  The donation should be one of time or talent, and take no more than an 1 hour of time, in order to try and make things equal.  I loved watching their faces light up when they drew out their prize as they left for the night.  So fun.  I'm making Valarie a jar of bath salts.  

I really enjoyed the challenge of making the goodie bags.  It was time intensive, but the challenge kept me busy and creative for a solid month!  I wanted the sisters to take home something fun, but also functional.  Since we didn't have any workshops or classes during our evening together, the goodie bag not only served as a fun take home, it was essentially, a workshop in a bag.  Everything was handmade with materials that were inexpensive and easy to come by (the goal was to keep the contents to less than $1 and I did it, easily!), and something a novice could make.  I included instructions (email me if you want a copy!), so they could duplicate any of the projects to gift to neighbors, friends, sisters, or visiting teachee's later on.  

Each bag contained ... 

    * Bath Salt Pouches for the shower or bath - yellow and lavender wash cloths, top left of picture
    * Clothes Pins* - middle right of picture
    * Washer Pendant necklaces - bottom middle of picture
    * Petite Notepad - lower left corner of picture
    * Lemon Sugar Hand Scrub (not pictured, but were packaged in size 2 baby food jars)

I LOVE the versatility of a white lunch sack!  Everything got bundled up in the white lunch sack that I punched using a MS craft punch I found on clearance.  So pretty, so casually elegant.  GR made fun of me for spending 30 minutes punching 40 white lunch sacks.  "No one will care", he said.  Ha, ha, and ha!  While it didn't matter one way or the other if the bags were punched, it was one of the first things they noticed, and I'm grateful to those who noticed that little detail and said something about it.

The crazy thing, I hardly made a dent in my paper scrap stash.  I really thought making 40 of these paper projects would make a bigger dent in my supply.


* There are a hundred different ways to do this ... just ask google.  I used matte decoupage glue and found that cutting my paper strips to the size of the clothes pin worked best - 3/8" x 3-1/8."  They are clipped to a plain 3x5 card and had I had the cash, I'd have put them in a small baggie, but I didn't so the hung free.

In the mail ... I promise.

Special thanks to my 'reality sisters' who let me detox with them after trying to take this picture ... thank goodness the camera doesn't capture all the pre-picture taking drama. 

A Dozen Surprises

1. Having GR walk through the door at 5:30pm on a Wednesday ... totally unheard of and on any other day of the week we're lucky if we see him by 6:30 or 7, especially over the last month+ and telling me to pack for a four day anniversary trip, "your parents left a hour ago, they'll be here by 8:30pm." Hallelujah! ... hours later I was able to pry out of him two clues, we're driving, and the weather, low 40s - high 60s.
2. Actually having more than one conversation with my husband in a week a day.  He drove the entire trip and let me sleep whenever I wanted to, what bliss! 
3. Arriving in Breckenridge, CO at a beautiful, beautiful bed and breakfast. 
4. Having dinner at an amazing little place in downtown Breckenridge called Hearthstone, where I had New Zealand Elk with a blackberry demi-glaze, baby carrots and mashed potatoes.  GR had Idaho trout stuffed with crab, asparagus and mashed potatoes.   Hands down our best meal of the weekend. 
5. Finding out what was in the Eddie Bauer box that arrived weeks ago and had to come on the trip ... apparently they are needed for Thursday mornings surprise.  

Thursday morning, signing my name 2 dozen times on a three page release form so I could participate in our next surprise adventure, that unfortunately didn't come with a granny speed or with a granny course ... but did come with a 2 hour climb through the mountains, covering about 20 miles and 2000 some feet in elevation, and breathtakingly beautiful scenery!  Man did we have a blast!  And I only, nearly hit a tree once ...  


6. Riding through beautiful old mining camps straight from a book I started the day before we left.

7. Driving through Independence Pass and stopping when ever we wanted to take pictures of anything and everything.  

8. Having lunch in Aspen ... walked past stores that were way too rich for me to even walk in front of. 
9. Watching a fox look both ways and cross the main street in downtown Breck, as we drove home after dinner.
10. Having our early Saturday morning surprise adventure rain out and loving the alternative just as much ... walking in the rain, window shopping, having lunch in Keystone on the top of the mountain (thanks to a great gondola ride), chilling in our room watching a redbox movie, ordering Pizza at the best place in town (based on the recommendation of the guy @ Mary's Mountain Cookies - we brought 2 dozen home for the kids) and having enough left over it will last us a week (we tried to offer a couple pieces to the guy in the cookie shop, but he just started P90X and turned us down ... but gave us the local's price on our two sandwich cookies we bought for dessert!)
11. Waking up Sunday morning to beautiful, huge, white snowflakes falling outside our window and 5 inches of snow on the car.  Then stunning thunderstorms across central Kansas. 

Thank you, my Love, for an planning every detail for an perfect weekend together.  
Thank you for always making our getaways a total surprise. 
Thank you for getting me out of my comfort zone so I can experience new and exciting things I would never consider doing if it were left up to just me. 
Thank you for loving me for my strengths and my failings. 
Thank you for taking care of me, for being my man, while still letting me and expecting me to be independent. 
Thank you for making the last twelve years a good solid foundation for the next twelve years, and the twelve after that.  They've been filled with one surprise after another, and I know the future will bring much of the same. I wouldn't want to experience it with anyone else.

VBS - SonQuest Rainforest

Alexander blew me away last night.  I was working with Sam to help him memorize the scripture for tomorrow ... John 3:16 (the girls already have it memorized from primary earlier in the year).  Sam was thoroughly convinced he couldn't memorize it - totally reminded me of half my seminary students - he clearly picked something up from them in utero.  

After working with Sam on the scripture for five minutes or so he totally had it down pat.  I turned to Alexander and asked him what he new about the scripture.  He had picked up all the core concepts, all while dancing around the girls room where Sam and I were working, not paying a bit of attention to us, that it only took a little bit of work for him to have the scripture memorized too!  When he recited the scripture to "parable parrot" for a cracker this morning after VBS, she was blown away that this little preschooler was doing it.  I love how Alex recites it too ... so cute.  I've gotta try and get a video clip done and loaded on here.  

But pictures ... 

As you walked in these two large "trees" flanked each side of the registration and information table.  I love how all of the decorations used were handmade ... half crafted or constructed art, like this tree, and the other half created art in the form of traditional painting or drawing.   They did use a few purchased props - stuffed monkeys, plastic frogs - but for the most part everything else was done with some sort of paper as the main structure.  And the effect was fantastic for everyone!  

Each morning the children gather in the "gym/cultural hall" and on the stage was this huge 4 panel mural. 

On the far right of the stage, was the jungle lab used by two characters who helped the VBS narrator talk to the kids about the days theme. 

On the walls in the entry/foyer surrounding the registration tables, were mini murals with the daily scriptures the kids will focus on each day this week. 

New Wallpaper

Desktop wallpaper that is.  GR's been desperate for new collages for his work computers, and last night he gave up waiting for me to do them and did them himself.  I teased that I was going to throw them up on the blog as a post and then decided it really wasn't a bad idea since you haven't see all of them.  He just wanted to make sure I didn't take credit for making the collage, which I'm not going to do ... but I can take credit for taking 10 of the 14 pictures shown below.

The kids are attending a bible school this week with their good friends from our old neighborhood. I was completely blown away by the set up this morning when I took the kids in ... there were TONS of kids and the entire church was decked out better than any prom I've been too.  Seriously.  They are encouraging the kids to memorize scriptures.  Really, one for each day, along with a challenge verse.  We're having the kids learn the verses in King James lingo, but they are so excited about it!   I hope to get pictures taken so you can all see just how amazing this set up is.  

The Girls

Picture of my girls snapped last night before bed. So cute!!  Emily right now is all about hair ... has been for most of this school year.  It's always fun to see how she's braided or done up her hair for the day. 

I made the dress Anna is wearing Monday afternoon melding two different tutorials out there, this tutorial for the pattern, and this for the embellishments. I'll write more about the dress on my TS blog in the coming weeks.

Berry Picking

A week ago a friend stopped by and said she needed my help and to grab a couple large kitchen container.  After sending me back to the kitchen for larger containers, she proceeded to dump the contents of two large ice cream buckets into two largest mixing bowls.  Beautiful, red, juicy strawberries!  

She's getting a bumper crop and has more than she knows what to do with, and we got her "leftovers" - such a sacrifice!  If only we were asked to help out like this more.  Saturday she called to say the patch is still loaded with berries and wondered if the family would like to go out and pick berries sometime.
 

As you know, we really like to pick berries, so today, after attending a pancake breakfast and flag raising at the church to benefit the boy scouts, we drove out to the strawberry patch and picked berries for about an hour, coming home with 15 qts or so of beautiful, sweet strawberries.  I'm thinking I may need to make jam this week!  Especially since the kids want to go back later this week. 

On a side note.  We discovered the super scoops featured in FamilyFun Magazine a while back make excellent berry picking buckets, specifically for kids!  Even Anna could pick up a jug and walk around the patch without spilling any berries.  If your picking berries on larger bushes ... say blue berries or black berries, tie the jug around your waist with a belt or length of rope threaded through the jugs handle.  That way you can pick with both hands and not have to bend over to dump the berries in your bucket.  I'm also thinking these will make good containers for the kids to use in the garden (if it survives our really wet spring!) when it comes time to pick tomatoes, peppers, green beans, peas, our own strawberries, and onions.

I've been using a half dozen or so super scoops in the craft room to hold some of the kids craft supplies ... markers, glue, glue sticks, scissors, etc.  I like that they are made from something I have all the time.  I like how easy they are to make, and how nicely fit on the cupboard shelf.  And I like that the contents are always so easy to access for me and the kids.  I think it would be cool to hang them from a rod along the wall using an s hook of some kind maybe, but for now, they are fine sitting on a shelf, or floating around the house from art project to art project.