Student Council

Trevin has decided to run for student council for 6th grade this year.  He was busy all afternoon writing his 250 word essay and I must say, he did a pretty good job with it.  I had to prompt him a couple times about the things he has done that show leadership, but he ended up getting it together and making it sound good.  This will be a good experience for him whether he makes it or not.

Here is his essay

Hi my name is Trevin Nielsen and I am in sixth grade and I want to run for student council.

I think I should be in student council because I love this school so much, and I love learning.

I have been on multiple teams like football, soccer, basketball, and baseball so I know how to be a team player and I want every kid at school to be one. I don’t want any poor sports. I think being a team player will help me be able to work well with others.

I have also held leadership positions in Scouts and enjoy being a leader and helping others out.

I want to make sure everyone is being nice to others. I am excited to help improve our school. I am a good listener and if any one has idea I will take it into consideration. I think it would be a lot of fun to help plan the assemblies for the year. I know it is hard work, but I am willing to put in the time to help wherever I can.

I hope this school year will be the best for everyone. My goal is to be student body president because I think sixth grade is a great adventure and this would make it the ultimate. If I am not president, I still would like to be on the council and help make Mt. Loafer the best school it can be.

Cleaning the Church

It was our turn to clean the church again for our Family Night activity.  We were with the Peterson family this time and it seemed to go faster than last time, probably because we knew what we were doing and didn't need to get trained, we could just get to work once Sister Ross made our assignments.  I made cheesecake and we had them over afterwards for dessert and visited for a while.  It was fun to get to know them a little better.

My Mockingjay book came in the mail today.  Luckily I didn't look in the mailbox until this evening or I probably would have spent the day reading.  Instead, I got my contest kit and reward contest kit finished and I'm going to read tonight.  So, this will be a very short post.

More and More scrapbooking

I had a thought at breakfast this morning on how I wanted to do my kit for the contest this week, so I didn't get a whole lot of housework done other than a couple batches of laundry and the grocery shopping.  I've been busy all day long designing.  I've been bummed that my Mockingjay book hasn't come in the mail yet, but it is probably good it hasn't because then I would be really tempted to read instead of getting this designing done.

Oh, I also made a pie for Britni McDonald's wedding reception.  The guy she married is from England and they will be moving there after the wedding.  The reception was at the Staheli's and was like an English garden party.  Her dress was beautiful and she looked like someone out of Pride and Prejudice or something.  It all seemed kind of old fashioned looking but so fun to see!

Still in the running.....

I've been busy busy with the designer contest I'm doing.  It has kind of been crazy.  I'm really excited and surprised I've made it this far, but two weeks of immunity from being voted off probably helped me a little.  I found out today that I made it through for another week, even without immunity.  We started with 70 and are now down to 11 with this week plus the final week to go.  Kind of fun!

I also have been busy designing some regular kits too and having a ball.  I really love this job.  I just wish we would sell two or three times what we do, then I wouldn't have to worry that processing is so slow.

Meet the Salem Hills Newest TV Broadcaster

This is what it says on the page

Travis came home from school the first day so excited! His first period class is TV Broadcasting and he is in the class with his friends Darren and Dakota. They found out that the TV broadcasting is going to be doing the morning announcements this year instead of the student council. So, the three of them volunteered to be the anchor men. He came home and said, “Meet the newest TV anchorman for Salem Hills High School.” On the 3rd day of school (since he has the class on his B days, they had their first opportunity. They also found out that they would be rotating jobs for the first little while to see who was good at what position. Travis was the weather man today. They get to wear 1/2 suits and bow ties that their teacher rounded up for them at the D.I. Travis stood in front of the green screen (literally, they had to tell him to move over because he was right in the middle.) and he gave the weather report. He said it was fun and he volunteered for the joke of the day next time because he said the girl that did it today told the lamest joke ever. Literally, she asked, “Why did the chicken cross the road?” He couldn’t believe she couldn’t come up with anything better than that one. He is pretty excited to get to learn to run the cameras, the tele-prompters, the sound equipment, the lighting equipment and try out all the different roles. They record it during 1st period and then the announcements are shown around the school on all the monitors during 2nd period. He thinks this is going to be one of his favorite classes this year!

Explaining the Inside Joke

So, I thought I should explain the joke on me.

I'm telling the story to Sean about the horses that were loose yesterday and I said that we herded the horses. 
Sean - "You herded the horses? I'm pretty sure that isn't correct grammar, shouldn't you say you heard the horses and what did you hear by the way?"
haha, he's funny isn't he
So as I continue with my story the next time I say that the lady in the other car shooed the horses to the opening in the fence.
Sean - "She shooed the horses?  That's pretty impressive.  It's amazing that she had everything needed to shoe a horse in her car with her."
haha, funny again
I continue again and the next time I say that we were rounding up the horses.  As soon as it was out of my mouth, I knew what he was going to say.
Sean - "Round up, that isn't for horses it's for weeds."
I can't win.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, read the post below

First Day of School

The boys started school today and I was supposed to start work.  I came upon a part time processing job and told them I would start today when the boys went back to school.  So, I took pictures and got everyone shipped off to school and then headed to Orem only to find out that they decided they really wanted me to work full time and wondered if there was a way to work it out.  I said I would be willing to work part time in the office as we agreed up on last week and then I could work from home if they are willing to do that.  They aren't so sure that will work, so he sent me home and said he would let me know if he thought that would work tomorrow.  So, we shall see if they can make it work.  The full time salary isn't worth the travel and being away from home when the kids get home from school, so if they can't do it the way I need to do it, I will have to look for something else part time or just keep doing what I'm doing and hope Sean gets busier.
NOTICE THE COOL PICTURE I TOOK OF THE SCHOOL!

So, on my way home, I'm headed up Elk Ridge Drive and there are 5 horses trotting down the canal road.  They turned up Elk Ridge Drive and I saw Sister Montague trying to catch up to them with one bridle in her hand.  The lady in front of me pulled in front of the horses when they stopped to eat grass to block them from going up any further and I pulled my car sideways so they wouldn't come back down.  Sister Montague opened the gate and we shooed or herded or rounded up (inside joke) the horses and got all but one through the gate.  The one on the outside started running back up the hill and all the others ran the same direction inside the fence.  When they got to the end of the fence, there was no fence on that side so they all ran out again.  The lady in front of me drove her car back up there and pushed them all back in and then parked her car there where they got out so they couldn't again while Sister Montague closed the gate she had opened.  Some guy stopped (I'm sure it was pretty funny seeing 3 ladies trying to herd 5 horses with their cars) and asked if there was a rope.  Sister Montague thanked me and I headed home.  Hopefully they got them all back to where they belonged.  I wish I had my camera with me.

The boys came home from school this afternoon loving their day!  I love it when they love school.  They are excited to not have to ride the bus this year.  Travis came in and said, "Say hello to the newest Salem Hills TV broadcaster."  Apparently he and two of his friends get to do the announcements every morning.  He is taking TV broadcasting as one of his classes this year and he is really excited to be an "anchor man".  Travis and Tyrel both love their math teacher and think their American Sign Language class is going to be fun.  Travis thinks his History teacher is awesome because he has a Rush Limbaugh poster haning in the room.  They were instant friends. He is also excited for his Physics class because they get to play with Hot Wheels tomorrow and the boys get to build a robot and the girls get to build a robot this year and then they get to battle each other to see who can destroy the other robot.  Tyrel got Brother Campbell for Seminary and is excited.  He was Travis' favorite Seminary teacher ever!

I hope they stay excited throughout the year!

Trevin says his teacher is cool and he is excited that Garrison is in his class this year again.  That was pretty much all he had to say, but he usually isn't too much into explaining lots of stuff.  I'm just glad the 6th grade is still in Elementary now.  He just doesn't seem old enough for Jr. High so I'm glad he has one more year.

Not done cleaning yet

The boys thought we were done, but we went and sold our trailer, so for our Family Night activity, we got to clean out the trailer.  I can't believe how much stuff we had stored in there and most of it was NOT junk.  I think there were only a few things that got thrown away.  It was a nice storage unit.  Someday hopefully we can get another one.

It was weird to have all the boys go to bed early tonight.  We didn't really have any bedtime rules over the summer and I was going to get them trained to go early again the week before school started, but I didn't.  It is quiet here tonight now and hopefully they will all get themselves up in the morning.

Mother Daughter Relationships

That is what our lesson was on in Relief Society on today.  We started out by making lists of things we learned from our mothers.  Here are some of the things I had on my list that my mother taught me:
organization skills
how to cook
how to clean
how to sew
how to serve others
It was interesting to hear what other people learned from their mothers from funny things like how to make good brown gravy, to others learning from their mother's mistakes.  It was a very good lesson.  I don't have any daughters, but I feel like I have good relationships with my boys and hope I'm raising them to be good husbands.  I know they are good sons.  I love you mom and I love you my sons!

Isn't this a good picture of my parents?

Lisa's Baby Shower

We had Lisa's baby shower for McKynlee today.  First, I got up and did a few of my morning chores and then made lemon bars and got ready.  I then left the boys to do their regular Saturday chores and headed up with Diane and Haylee.   My job was the invitations, which I did a few weeks ago.  See above.  I thought they turned out cute! 

I was also supposed to bring some sort of treat for the dessert table.  They were already having crackers and dip, fruit and dip, vegetables and dip, peanut butter bars, chicken salad cream puffs, and little mini cupcakes.  So, I was trying to figure out what to make and Sean said, "Why don't you make those lemon bars you make that are really good."  The recipe I have for lemon bars I got when I was in high school in my Home Ec class I think.  I didn't even remember that I had ever made them for him.  So, I had everything for them and thought they would be good.  They were a hit.  Actually everything was really really yummy. I ate way too much at the baby shower.  I have lots of people that asked for the lemon bar recipe so I will have to type it up and get it posted.  Did anyone happen to take a picture of them?  I should probably put it in my recipe book since they were such a hit.  I took pictures of the cute little mini cupcakes, but didn't get one of the lemon bars.  Oh well!

The shower went great and she got lots of fun stuff.  Mostly pink stuff although Aunt Janet somehow missed that the invitation was pink and brought boy stuff.  We got a good laugh at that one.

When I got home after being gone from noon to 7pm, I ran to the store and got a few things and then grabbed some pizza's because I wasn't in the mood to make dinner.  The boys were excited since they had missed their regular pizza night since they went to Fathers and Sons. 

I went into my room to change and get ready for a speed scrap and witnessed a miracle!  Or at least something very thoughtful and nice.  On my bed were two batches of laundry washed, dried, folded and put on hangers.  Tyrel had done it while I was gone and I didn't even ask him to.  What a great kid!  Thanks Tyrel!

Fathers and Sons

So, I'm sitting home alone tonight while the boys are gone with Sean to Fathers and Sons.  I don't mind, but it would be nice to have someone to chat with.  I just finished a layout for my last Saturday's post and put it on my blog.  I really like how it turned out.  You can see it here if you would like.

I forgot yesterday to say thanks for my wonderful friend Janice who let me steal her internet access a couple of times so I could function without my modem.  You are awesome Janice!

The boys and I cleaned the scrapbook room yesterday.  Since I digital scrapbook now, that room seems to kind of just get junk thrown in it and left, so it was kinda cluttery but I think we finished it including baseboards and everything in like a 1/2 hour.  That was the last Thursday cleaning before the boys go back to school. We did everything except Trevin's downstairs bathroom so everything is pretty darn clean around here.  Thanks boys for helping do this project all summer.

Yesterday afternoon I went down with Travis and Tyrel for the high school open house.  I can't believe I have two in high school this year.  I really cannot be that old.  They are both excited to get back to school and as I thought, wished I wasn't with them so they could have stayed and socialized longer.  I'll have to remember to let them go on their own next year.  I guess I just don't want them to grow up that fast.

Today I worked on my part of a hunting kit and I like how it is looking.  I also made a new template set.  Those of you that don't digital scrapbook have no idea what I'm talking about do you?

Well, I'm going to get back to scrapbooking while the boys are away.  If anyone is bored and close by and wants to come hang out with me and digiscrap, come on over. 

A No Good, Very Bad Day

It started out good, we had scouts.  We took them swimming at the Moody's pool and passed off lots of stuff and had tons of fun.  I brought my 3 boys to help us herd and lifeguard all the boys and it worked out very well.

We came home and I found out that all of my underclothing was in the washer.  So I had to eat lunch and sit around for an hour in my wet swimsuit until it dried.

So the really bad part comes in because I am doing this designer contest.  I had requested all my teammates get me their stuff by noon today so that we had plenty of time to get the preview done, separate, zip, upload, post and link everything.  I wanted to get it done tonight so I didn't have to stress about it in the morning.  I had one teammate that didn't get me her stuff.  I was emailing her, messaging her in the forum, and no response.

So, while waiting, I started on dinner.  The boys wanted lasagne so I got it all assembled.  Just as I was about to stick it in the oven, our power went off.  Great! 

Sean came home shortly thereafter to find us all playing cards in the kitchen because that is the room with the most light.  He asked if we should order pizza and I said we should wait for a little bit to see if it came back on.  It was after 5 and I knew I needed to get dinner cooking or we wouldn't have time to eat before the evening activities.  I sent Travis down to tell Sean to order pizza and the power came back on.

Still nothing from my teammate.  So, we cooked dinner, ate dinner, sent Trevin to Scouts and all the sudden my Photoshop program quit working and so did my printer.  Not a good thing since I needed Photoshop to do the previews.  Not that I had all the stuff to do the preview yet so I headed off to my ward book club.  It was fun but not relaxing because I was stressed the power would go off again and that I wouldn't be able to get Photoshop working.

When I got home, it was working again and the power was still on, but still nothing from my teammate.  She finally sent everything over around 9:00.  So, once the previews were done, I had to zip and upload everthing to the server.  Post the previews in two forums and one gallery and link everything up for people to download.  Not as easy as it sounds.  I didn't finish until 1:23 a.m.  I hate procrastinators, that is why I wanted to have everything by noon so I would have plenty of time.  I guess I'm cranky because I didn't get very much sleep.

In the meantime, for the immunity challenge, one of the other teams figured out how to be able to vote multiple times and gained about 60 points in 5 minutes before someone figured it out and shut it down.  That put my  team down and we had been ahead all day.  Luckily, they also figured out how to take all those extra votes away and we ended up winning immunity!  Yay, I get another week of stress.  Really, I am excited to get to move on again.

So, I wake up this morning and come in to check the votes to see if we got immuity and I have no modem.  Good thing I uploaded everything last night because my team would have hated me.  We did win immunity but we would have been disqualified because I didn't get the stuff uploaded.  So glad I decided to stay up. 

So, I had a morning of no internet.  Sean got a new modem and installed it just a bit ago so we are back in business and hopefully today will finish off being a better day

Miracles do happen

So, I was working in my office this morning and the boys come in around 8:30 and ask if we can get going on the room we are cleaning today.  What??  We have been doing this like clockwork every Tuesday and Thursday all summer long and I usually have to drag them kicking and screaming to get the cleaning done.  Plus, if I forget, which I've only done once, they for sure aren't going to mention it.  So, needless to say, I was shocked that they were asking to get started.

They decided to do the "rest of the kitchen".  We had already done all the upper cabinets and blinds one day and all the lower cabinets and closets another day.  So, today we did the baseboards, the TV cabinet, all the crevices in the chairs and the refrigerator.  It was a good day to do it and good that we did it early so the garbage man could take all the rotten food and it didn't have to sit in the garbage cans all week.  My refrigerator and freeezer look like they could be in a television commercial.  All nice and clean and shiny and orderly.  It looks beautiful.  I caught myself going in to the kitchen a few times today and just opening the door and looking at how nice it looks.

After lunch we ran some errands and finished up Travis' school shopping and thenwe all went out for 60 cent cones at Artic Circle.

Combined FHE

We had our combined Family Home Evening last night.  Melisa was in charge but we had it at our house on our deck.  She gave an awesome lesson on prayer and then all the kids got to paint prayer rocks.  Even my big kids got into painting their rocks.  It was fun!  Thanks Melisa!

New Home Teachers and a funny

We got new home teachers today and they came!!  So exciting.  I think it is important for us to have dilligent home teachers, because it sets a good example for the boys.  I need to be more dilligent as a visiting teacher too.  Our new home teachers are Jeff and Porter Barnes.  We had a good visit, talked about the message on temples and they brought us yummy cookies which I'm sure are compliments of Sister Barnes!

We talked about Proverbs in Sunday school today and this was the closing scripture we read.

‎"It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house." Proverbs 20:9

Too Funny!!!

The continuing saga of the wave runners.......

Some of you might remember when Todd and I sunk the wave runners at Utah Lake a couple of years ago.  Sean spent lots of time reading stuff online and trying to get them running again.  Most people said we would need to buy new engines and there was no hope.  He kept working and did finally get them running again.  Time got away from us last summer to go try them and almost again this summer.  But, he could start them up in the driveway so we thought we would take them out today.

We loaded them up, all got changed and loaded in the car.  Tyrel said he wanted to be first since he was bummed he didn't get a chance to ride them last time (2 years ago).  We got to the lake.  Sean and Tyrel got on the wave runners.  Sean's started but Tyrel had no luck once he got into the water.  So, we put that one back on the trailer and Tyrel traded Sean and took off.  I told him not to go very far just in case it killed again. 

Sean tried to work on the other one and could get it to turn over but no spark.  Tyrel drove around for a bit and then rode back to the dock to give someone else a turn.  When he was almost back to the dock, it killed and he couldn't get it started again.  Wouldn't even turn over.  So, he paddled to the side and we loaded it up and came home.  Sean thinks the battery is dead.  So, Tyrel had a bit of fun but the rest of us didn't.  Hopefully all is not lost..............

Surprise for dinner

Sean and I missed our lunch date because he was in Millard County working for the day, so we decided to go to dinner.  So, we place our order and are sitting there discussing the 4 or 5 families that are there that we know and in walks Kirk and Heidi.  They were on a date for Kirk's birthday, so they ordered and sat with us.  It was a fun surprise and fun to visit with them.

I totally spaced that yesterday was Thursday, so we didn't get our room cleaned, but I had the boys busy this morning.  We cleaned out the lower pantry, the other closet in the kitchen, all the drawers and the lower cabinets. They look so awesome.  We were about 3/4 of the way done and I was just going to  comment on how nice it was that they weren't complaining and just jumping in and getting the work done when the bossiness and arguing started.  Oh well, we got it done, it looks good and maybe next time we'll make it through without any contention!

We Won!!

Big shout out to everyone that voted for my team in the designer competition I'm doing.  I really disliked the immunity challenge we had to do this week, I doubt it is something I'll ever use again, just not my style and I didn't like what I came up with.  But, we must be good marketers because we won immunity which means no one on my team can get voted off this week so I'll be around for week 3.  The actual week 2 challenge was huge!  We had to make commercial use products for a huge back to school mega kit.  Each team member had to do 6 paper overlays, 12 elements, 2 word arts and then we had 2 team members that did alphabets too.  My team worked well together this week and everyone participated and got their stuff in on time.  Most of the time, these kinds of kits are done in shades of grey and then the people that use them can recolor any color they want for their kit depending on their specific color scheme.  I figured everyone would do their previews to post in just the grey, which I thought would be really boring.  So, I suggested that we pick a color scheme and color ours.  I even volunteered to color everyone's pieces if they didn't want to.  I'm so glad we did because the other teams didn't and our preview looked SOOO much better.  This is my part of the kit

and here is just the boring greyscale preview

See, color is much better dontcha think?!

I spent my evening working on a snorkeling kit.  Isn't this cute?

To The Pool We Go

Heidi and her kids came up today to finish their school shopping and then after lunch we took all of the kids and went to the Payson pool.  The kids had a blast and didn't want to leave.  I sunburned my knees.  Mr. Independent (Tyrel) said he could sunscreen himself.  Yeah, right!  Needless to say, he is kinda splotchy now.  I told him he should have let me help.  I'm old and I still have people help me.  There are just places you can't reach by yourself.  I didn't take my camera because I've already taken too many pool pictures this summer.

Yep, we are still at it

For those of you that think we've given up on cleaning the house, you are wrong......  We are still at it every Tuesday and Thursday.  Today the boys cleaned out the two closets in the kitchen.  Doesn't sound like much, but they had not cleaned out their backpacks from the end of school last year, so it was actually quite a chore.  I was in the other room and all the sudden I hear the vacuum.  I go to see what they are doing and after they had emptied out all the papers and books, they vacuumed out their backpacks.  Silly boys.

Travis and Tyrel had scouts tonight.  They went swimming at the Smith's pool.  No one had called Travis again, so he didn't know what they were doing, so he didn't go in a swimming suit.  He said he hung out a while and then went over to Devin and Dayan's to hang out with them.

Designer Survivor

Well, since I have been gone and the internet connection at our hotel was awful, I have lots to catch up on with the Designer Survivor competition I am in.  I did make it past the first week and now I'm on a new team. 

This week, between the 5 of us, we have to make a huge commercial use mega kit.  We have to have 60 elements and 2 alphas, and 30 papers.  That is a lot of stuff.  The theme is Back to School.

So, I have spent all day getting that stuff done in both greyscale and color.  What a chore!  It is kinda fun though.

I did a couple loads of laundry to get caught up with from the trip.  Unpacked everything and put it away.

I was so not in the mood to cook dinner, so the kids volunteered to make their own and since we had ripe tomatoes in our garden finally, I made BLT's and fried some squash for Sean an I.

Tyrel gave us our Family Night lesson.  Trevin fed us ice cream for dessert.

The long drive home

It seemed like it took us three times longer to get home than it did going out there.  We had to stop for more potty breaks and the kids were sleeping, bugging each other, not very talkative on the way home so it made for a long trip. 

We actually got up and went to church, well everyone but me.  I put on my dress, bent over to pick up something as we were packing up and the zipper on my dress split.  Great!  So I sat in the car while everyone else went to church.  Travis said there was not even one young woman in the ward, so he is glad we don't always go to church there.  LOL

We ate lunch at a park before we left Denver and then headed out.  I don't remember the places we stopped at, but we did have dinner in Green River and made it home around 8:30ish.  It's nice to be home.

The Egg and I continued......

Imagine our delight when my grandparents wanted to treat us to The Egg and I again this morning!  The kids were so excited and full of discussion on what they would order this time.  Thanks grandma and grandpa!

After breakfast we headed to Kohl's for some more shopping.  I think we are all done now except Travis may need some shoes.  We are still debating that idea.

We took the kids to Grandpa and Grandma's for lunch and Heidi and I met up with Michelle, my childhood friend, for lunch at Chili's.  It was so fun to get to visit with her.  I think it has been 7 or 8 years since we have seen each other.

When we got back to my grandparents, the kids had gone to a matinee so Heidi and I got some stuff ready for dinner and then just visited with my grandparents.  It was fun to have some more time to hear more stories.  Grandma told us about an apartment they stayed in that had bed bugs when Ron was a baby.  Someone told her gasoline would get rid of them so she rubbed down all the wood on the beds and then stuck Ron's crib feet in dishes of gasoline.  She is apalled now that she did that.  She could have caused a huge explosion, but she did get rid of the bed bugs. 

She said that after that they moved into a little house that belonged to a man whose wife had passed away.  She said there was oil cloth on the cupboard shelves and she took it out and there were cockroaches crawling everywhere.  She was so disgusted with it!  It didn't sound like they stayed there very long.

Sara and her husband JT came over for the picnic along with Ron and Laura and aunt Terri.  Micki and Wendy dropped by to visit too.  The food was yummy and after dinner the boys really wanted to go over to Sara and JT's.  They are in a band (or two) and have their basement set up for practices.  So we went over and had a jam session.  Hope we didn't discourage them from ever wanting to see us again.  Everyone was playing different stuff and it was pretty much just chaos, but they had lots of fun.

I'm not looking forward to the ride home tomorrow but I am excited to get home and sleep in my own bed.

The Egg and I

My dad's brother Ron manages one of The Egg and I's in Denver just up the road from where we are staying.  Sara, his daughter and my cousin, works there also.

Mom and Dad treated us to breakfast there this morning and it was so yummy!  After that we got directions to the mall and headed out to do some school shopping.  Travis and Tyrel got approached to watch a movie for 1/2 hour and get paid $15.  I knew it was not going to be as good as they thought it would be.  So, they watched.  They said it was horrible!  They got their checks and were then told that they had to spend $7.50 of it at the food court at the Mall.  So, they got lunch and their $7.50 in change.

We went back to my grandparents for everyone else to eat lunch and then took the kids swimming at the Rec Center.  They had fun although Tyler got kicked out because he had basketball shorts on instead of swim trunks.  Luckily, there was a nice life guard there that had a spare pair of trunks in his locker and let Tyler wear them.  They said it was because of health reasons that you have to wear swim wear and you can't wear a T-shirt either.  Can anyone explain this to me because we couldn't think of a good reason?

For dinner we went to Casa Bonita.  This was always a favorite when we were growing up.  The food isn't so good, but the atmosphere is really fun and the kids had a great time.

We went back to my grandparents and watched a DVD of pictures of my grandma growing up that Terri had made her for Christmas.  It was fun to hear her commentary and to see the pictures.  The kids asked some questions and we learned about the car grandma learned to drive, that she worked in a matress factory making trailer cushions, what she did when she worked with IBM and about lots of different places that they lived.  Grandpa told us that he never got shipped out to war, he took electronics classes in the military and his whole group got shipped out except for him.  This happened three different times and they eventually asked him to be an instructor for the electronics class.  I never knew that electronics is what he did.

pictures to follow

Headed to Denver

This morning we got up bright and early and headed to Denver.  Sean ended up with work (I guess that is a good thing!) so he didn't get to go with us.  We met my parents and Heidi and her kids in Nephi at 8:00 and headed out.  Heidi and Derick rode with us and Tyler and Kaitlyn rode with Grandma and Grandpa.  The boys were having a great time all the way and Heidi and I were able to visit so it was a fun drive.

We stopped in Grand Junction for a picnic lunch and to get gas then stopped again in Eagle I think for a potty break.  When we got to Denver we checked in to the hotel and went to a buffet for dinner and then went to Great Granpa and Grandma's to visit.  They have recently moved into a retirement home but have their own little house and it is really nice.  Everything on one level with not steps, not even out the front door.

They were so excited to see us and the kids.  They both seem to be doing okay,  just getting older.  They were in better shape than I thought we would find them in.

Getting ready to go

Today we spent the day doing laundry, packing clothes and running around like a maniac.  I felt like there was a hundred things to do.  I made zucchini bread, took my salad stuff to Heathers, got Trevin's haircut, got the oil changed and all the fluid levels checked on the car, had scouts at Kelly's, plus about 100 other things.

Scouts was fun, we got a lot of things passed off and then Kelly blew up her big inflatable water slide thing for the boys to play on.  There was a hole, so it didn't hold air as well as planned, but I think they still had fun.

Trevin went on a hike with his scout group to the Grotto this evening.

We had a mishap with Trevin getting his hair cut.  I had a coupon for 1/2 off at the beauty school.  We have had good luck there in the past, so we took him there.  I told him he wanted it spiked on top and pretty short on the sides.  She looked doubtful, so I even told her what number of the blade guards to use.  I went to the waiting area to read my book.

45 minutes later, still no Trevin.  So, I walked back there and he was buzzed!!!  I asked her what was going on and she said she had cut it up too far with the short blade in the back so she had to buzz him.  You've got to be kidding me!!!  I had to point out all the little tufts of hair she had missed too.  I'll definitely avoid her if we ever go back.

I hope the saying "The difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut is 2 weeks" is true.  Hopefully he will look decent by the time school starts.  On the upside, he doesn't have to do anything in the mornings with his hair and we got a coupon for a free haircut.

Another Driver

For my August date with Tyrel, we headed to Nephi to get his learner's permit.  He has been studying off and on this summer and felt like he was ready.  We arrived at the place where Travis took his test only to find it empty.  I asked upstairs and they said that it had been moved to a new office.  By the time we got to the new office, it was 11:30.  They told me that they could do the paperwork and I could pay, but that he wouldn't have time to test because they were going to lunch from 12 to 1.  I'm not quite sure why all 6 of them have to go to lunch at the same time, shouldn't they be able to go on a rotating schedule????

Anyway, we went to lunch too and then sat in the car and I quizzed him.  He went in and took the test and missed 1 too many to pass.  He felt like he could pass if he took it again, so they sat him down for another try (they allow 2 in one day) and he did pass the 2nd time.  He was too nervous to drive all the way home, so I drove to Payson, where we got Tyrel's hair cut, and then he drove home from there.  He did pretty good. 

So, we now have two extra drivers in the family.

19 AWESOME years!

Sean and I celebrated our 19th anniversary today.  I can't believe it has been that long.  I'm not that old am I?  It has been full of fun and had it challenges too, but I love him more and more each day.  Thanks for being a great sweetheart!

Sean came home from work early and took me to dinner.  Then we went for a ride around the neighborhood in the golf cart and just talked.  We came home and sat in the hot tub and visited some more.  I love you Sean!!

Visiting Teaching

I've been feeling really guilty about this lately, I feel like I haven't been doing very good for like the last year!  Brother Newman really made a profound statement in his Sunday School class today, which wasn't about visiting teaching but was about doing the little things we are asked.

He had a calculus professor at BYU that told them one day they would all be in careers where they would make a lot of money and since it was a hard class, they were probably praying they would pass and asking Heavenly Father if he would help them pass the class, they would pay lots of tithing and give to the needy and stuff like that.  Then he said "but will you do your home teaching and visiting teaching?"

I know lives are blessed through visiting teaching.  I know I've been blessed many times and I know I need to do better, so I'm resolving to do so starting this month!  I'm making zucchini bread to take to my teachees tomorrow.

Oh, I forgot to mention, one of Travis' friends from school got baptized yesterday.  She asked him to come and then asked him to say the opening prayer and then a couple days later asked him to be a witness along with her Bishop.  He did all three and had a great experience.  So glad he is worthy to do those things.  Love you Trav!