Impromptu

The one quiet moment of the day

SO glad Spring Break is almost over.

Even after waking up this morning with two of my children gone and only one friend spending the night here, today was the worst.  The kids and their friends weren't bad, they were just loud and everywhere and noisy and boisterous and loud.  Joanna Staten: "There's so many of them."  We had rain today so their outside time was limited.  GAHH.

Even so, I did a few things around the house (it's never much with a houseful of kids), picked up Carter from Carson's, took Bella and MK to the bank for money so they could go to P-town - Hubby left his bank card in the ATM last Saturday and now we have to go to the bank to get cash, how completely backward and Flintstones - and came home to more child-rific chaos.

Later in the day I took Harrison shopping.  It was fun hanging just with him.  We rarely get alone time.  I think I'll take these lovely children on more Mommy Dates - especially to Fred Meyer's bakery, because it's DA BOMB.  (Ahem, turtle brownie, and the samples just kept comin')

Hubby took Harrison and Carter to Harrison's soccer practice.  Carter went to Nathan's house to spend the night (hopefully the last of the sleepovers for a while).

Hyper Child

So, what are you doing this weekend? Here's what we'll be doing:

This Is Getting Ridiculous

YES I AM MAKING YOU LOOK AT ANOTHER SEEDLING PICTURE



As you can see, the family is expanding.  Things have been going so well - why this should be so surprising, I don't know, I guess I'm kind of a skeptic - that I went NUTS and made more planters out of the "new to me" water bottles I'd saved from the recycle bin, and went through the seeds I've had since last year (ahem, some longer) and we just planted our little selves silly. 

Roz helped me, selectively.  As soon as I started doing something that looked interesting she'd pipe up, "Mommy, can I help??" and I'd let her, but then I'd ask her to go get the broom and dustpan and then FFFFFFT, there went the helpfulness.  Then I'd start shoveling dirt or ripping open a packet of seeds and here she'd be again.  Catness became absolutely hysterical after I cut the water bottles in half and got out the string to cut wicks.  She had to go have a time out.

The crops planted today were dill, basil, green zebra tomatoes, "Sweetie" tomatoes, Walla Walla sweet onions, alyssum, marigolds, and one more I can't remember.  Since my daisies took about five days to sprout, I'm sure this will be the last pic of dirt-filled water bottles for a few days... happy now?

For the first time since Spring Break started, the kiddos started getting on each other's nerves, and their friends are REALLY getting on mine.  Rosalind's two friends, Emma and Kiley, are a little older than she is (9 and 12 - I'd really rather Kiley become "too cool" to hang with an 8- and 9-year-old, but that's just me), and they're completely boy crazy. 

When the girls come over, forget playing Barbies or whatever little girl thing Roz wants to do - they are all over sitting in the living room with the boys (playing Xbox) and basically goading and shouting at them.  The boys are oblivious and think the girls are annoying, but *I* know what they're up to.  If Carter or Harrison have a friend over (today it was Breven) then all heck breaks loose, and I actually have to get up and, you know, parent.  What the whaaaa??

Carter spent the night at Carson's this evening, and Bella went to the movies with MK (her name is Megan but we call her MK), and ended up spending the night at her house.  Breven spent the night here with Harrison. 

I didn't go to orchestra rehearsal tonight, because my nose went on a sneezing rampage and I didn't imagine that playing the clarinet and stopping every few seconds to sneeze would be such a pleasant experience, for me or my fellow orchestra peeps.  Sorry orchestra, you'll just have to live without my mistakes tonight.

Signs of Life

In the undergrowth 
There lives a Bloath 
Who feeds on poets and tea. 
Luckily I know this about him 
While he knows nothing of me.

 - Shel Silverstein

GROWTH Day 2

So only one bottle of Shasta daisies (bottom left) is sprouting. DANG IT. But compare this picture to yesterday's - the one I photographed yesterday had only two little sprouts and now it has, what, ten? - and I think we'll have a nice crop of them anyway.

Noticing this new development inspired me to open the lounge closet and inspect the Livingstone seedlings - three of the bottles have sprouts!  So I think I missed one Livingstone daisy bottle and left it in the sun, where it did not want to germinate (and so didn't), and one Shasta daisy bottle went into the closet (where I think it tried really hard and may still succeed), and two bottles of Shasta daisy seeds just went *foof noise* and decided not to do anything at all.  *murmuring like Lemuel*

Today was a very nice day.  Nothing special, it just felt good.  Among my activities were cleaning up the kitchen and doing some laundry, having manicure and pedicure time with Rosalind (followed by a nap on her bed), taking her and Carter to the Fort for a quick visit, and attending a Young Women presidency meeting via speaker phone.  Ah technology.

The Fort was fun - Carter and Rosalind and I talked about dandelions, how the leaves are edible (and taste better before the flowers bloom), how soft the blossoms are, how they can dye things yellow, how the seeds wait "down below" for the yellow petals to die and turn to white fluff which will catch the air and send the seed into the wind.  We played in the gazebo and kicked around Carter's soccer ball and they climbed a couple of old apple trees.  It was idyllic and lovely and reminded me of my easy-going, countryfied childhood.  If I can't give my kids six acres to run willy-nilly on, at least we have the Fort.

Brennan spent the morning at orientation at the college for completing his classes.  He finished setting everything up, but won't be able to start classes till summer (and doesn't know yet when he can register).  Frustrating for him but a good development anyway.

Bella had me run her and Jaydn to IHOP to meet up with friendies.  Their friend Tyler P just moved here from Texas today.  (His dad is in our ward.)

Harrison's day was quiet until Hubby came home and took him, Carter, Roz and Bella to Roz's soccer practice.  He caught a movie, Beautiful Creatures, with some friends this evening.

Hubby's Day Off

Good news! We have seedlings!!

Hubby stayed home today and played with us. By "played" I mean, went to the store twice with me, took kids to the trampoline park, and went to soccer practice. And we ate ham, cheese, egg and biscuit sandwiches for brunch. I felt gross all day and was on the couch and bed a lot. I think everyone else had a good day.

SPRING BREAK

First day: My body played an April Fools trick on me by deciding it was wide awake at 3:30 AM. STUPID BODY.

Bella informed me she was having a YW camp presidency meeting at 4:30 and we went to work cleaning the house. I also worked on my room and unpacked another box!  Yay me!  The boys hung around doing whatever and Roz played with her good friend, neighbor Emma. I managed a nice nap around 9:30.

Catness did the same in Rosalind's Easter basket.

More proof our kitty is a basket case

Around 1:30 our good buddy Nathan L to spend the night with Carter. Fun stuff.

Bella made brownies and the meeting commenced. I cut and arranged the brownies on a plate and shamelessly eavesdropped. :) But I was also consulted about some ladies in McWard, as to their availability, who would be fun at camp, etc, so whatever. She knows I'm good for it.

Hubby took Roz to her soccer practice. Emma is spending the night with her, so we have a houseful this evening.

Song of the Day: This makes me cry happy tears, like Esme Hoggett.

I hope Jill and Kevin stay together forever, cuz they're awesome.  Which leads me to this:


Sigh. 

Easter 2013

We popped right up bright and early and made us some little Easter basket offerings to present to the kiddo gods. They were happy, mostly. We discovered that Russell Stover is almost on par with Palmer for chocolate grossness.

Then it was off to the piano to practice "Beautiful Savior" some more. I finally got fed up and wrote my own treble part. Dumbed it down quite a bit, shall we say.

Church was nice. The choir performance went fine. I messed it up but it was nothing I'll suffer trauma over. Harrison stayed home with a sore throat and snotty nose, probably just allergies, but he was also deathly tired and we tend to be really cautious about letting him get too tired, as it seems to be a seizure trigger. We had Brennan stay home with Harrison. Poor boys, missing church and home alone with nothing but baskets of chocolate, the Xbox and each other. What a way to spend Easter. *weep*

Came home, ate more chocolate, did the usual Sunday "lay around till the kids bug us to get up" thing with Hubby. Then it was off to the kitchen to assemble hot ham water (Arrested Development!), funeral potatoes (Mormons!) and other culinary goodness. No dessert, though. With all the chocolate we bought last night, we'll be lucky if we're not diabetic by sundown.

Ate dinner - it was amazing.

Hubby took Carter and Rosalind out to try Roz's new sidewalk chalk. Looks like it works.

 

Happy Easter y'all!

What's the Saturday Before Easter Called?

We woke up this morning and headed to the ward Easter breakfast/Easter egg hunt. Our group consisted of Hubby, Bella, Carter, Rosalind and me; Harrison was off at the beach with the ward young men, clamming his little heart out. And Brennan was perfectly okay with not going. :)

At the ward breakfast, we met up with our good friends the Ts, and before the shindig ended they had invited Bella to join them on their Donut Excursion. Bella ended up spending the rest of the day with Jaydn, riding bikes and playing ultimate frisbee with some peeps they met at the park, attending a free concert in P-town, watching Dr. Who, eating burgers... fun stuff.

Hubby and I proceeded to go nuts on the house. Hooray! First we dumped the old couch outside. Just for fun we tried to pull out the hide-a-bed and it was STUCK. So glad I didn't have my high school friend David B. come to look at it (he expressed an interest in the couch when I mentioned on FB that we were getting rid of it). Embarrassing!

We swept and decluttered a bit more in the lounge, then moved the tan chaise couch from the living room into the lounge.

 

Then rearranged the living room thus:

Catness went back and forth between running, climbing, and jumping around, and stopping to follow us and sniff at whatever we were doing.  It was like having a four-year-old around.  "What are you doing with that?  Why are you moving that?  Where's that thing going?"  We tuckered her out.

Took off the door from the kitchen to the downstairs and put it in the attic.  YES!!

Put away all the cross stitch supplies I inherited from Uncle Tom and Aunt Betty.

 
Later, Hubby took six bagsful and a boxful of stuff I'd accumulated to the DI trailer (hooray!!).  The kids kept Hubby busy as well, as he took Carter and Rosalind to see Wreck-It Ralph, and then picked up Bella and Jaydn from their concert.  Busy, busy Hubby.

Harrison finally made it home from the beach trip, which he mightily enjoyed.  The clams were in abundance; he said they caught sixty-something clams, and of those he caught around twenty.  Our boy has a talent!!  Too bad he hates clams.  He came home very tired, but determined to still make it to the school dance.  Hubby took him a little while later.

I spent the day dreading playing the piano for the Easter choir number tomorrow.  How on earth could someone take a beautiful simple song like "Beautiful Savior" and muck it up till the pianist has absolutely no desire to play the thing?  It was IMPOSSIBLE to learn (maybe because I'm impossibly stubborn). 

Hubby and I went shopping later in the evening.  Easter baskets will be assembled in the morning.  The kids aren't little anymore, we don't have to be ready for Easter baskets (or pistols) at dawn.  Whew!

Daisy, Daisy

The very first thing this morning, Bella came into our room and said, "I had a dream that I went on my mission and it was to Gotham City...." Awesome.

So I've been dying to start a garden for a long time, at least a decade, and I've started seeds indoors before but was never organized enough to help them live.  They'd sprout, I'd be all excited, then life would pile up around me and I'd ignore them and not water them and they'd die.  But this year, while noodling around on Facebook, I saw that my friend Sherri J. from Logan plants seeds in recycled water bottles that have a self-watering system.  HOW COOL IS THAT.

Basically it's a water bottle cut in half, the top half turned upside down with a hole punched in the lid and a knotted string strung through the lid, which acts as a wick, and the top half filled with dirt and seeds and placed inside the bottom half of the bottle, which is filled with water.

I saved some water bottles, which wasn't hard because my children always drink about half of a store-bought water bottle and then leave it in the car for eons until it's a science experiment and no one will touch it, let alone drink out of it, ever again.  My dear friend Heffalump sent Livingstone and Shasta daisy seeds to me for my birthday in January (we have a thing about daisies), and I had some potting soil.  Brennan helped me by hammering holes in the plastic lids.  The planters are so easy to make.  I made a dozen and it only took about fifteen minutes.

"Now seeds.....start growing!"

I put them in my very sunny bedroom window, and there they be.  A couple hours into their sunbathing, I read that Livingstone daisies must have darkness to germinate, so then I had to do a little digging to discover which seeds were Livingstone and which were Shasta (they're easier to spot), and hopefully the right planters are in the lounge closet on a shelf, germinating away. 

After this adventure, I walked to Bella's school for her honor assembly.  She received a certificate for keeping her GPA between 3.3 and 3.59... we are very proud of our smart hardworking girl. 

Smarty Smarterson

Later, I visited Heff at her mom's house here in town and gave her one of the planters I made.  She gave me a sweet but mystified look as I handed her this thing.  "Here's a water bottle cut in half with string coming out of the lid."  I'm nothing if not generous.  We had a fun quick visit and then I drove quickly home so Hubby could take some kids to soccer practice.

Orchestra was awesome.  We really worked hard and intensively on a few pieces.  I love it when we do that. 

Wookin Pa Nub

I'll be so glad when this house is finally sorted out. Good grief. Some rooms are still so "moving-y", I can hardly think.

So I tried giving away the old dead hide-a-bed on Craigslist, because someone could use it, right? I received two "nibbles," one from a lady in a city north of us who didn't feel like driving that far, and another lady whom I kept trying to call back, but she never answered the phone - her family members, though, were always there with a "Can you call back tomorrow?" What, really? It inspired this Facebook entry (with a little help from my friends):

Status Update: Starting a new book called "Oh the Weirdos You'll Meet on Craigslist"

Me: Chapter One: Telephone Etiquette
Me: Chapter Two: Selling Your Ex-Girlfriend's Stuff Without Her Knowledge
Me: Chapter Three: Your Family Owns a Phone, Why?
Me: Chapter Four: Read the Posted Location Before You Call About the Ad and Find Out It's Farther Away Than You Feel Like Driving
Me: Chapter Five: You Better Answer the Phone Yourself Since No One in Your Family Can Find a Writing Utensil
Me: Chapter Six: It's Free. How Nice Could It Possibly Be?
Emily B: May I write the prologue, discussing the ins and outs of negotiating the price AFTER you've come to collect the item?
Me: Chapter Seven: No Seriously, Your Family Is Completely Telephone-Challenged. I Think They Have Community Ed Classes For That
Me: Em, YES.
Me: Chapter Eight: Developing a Good "No, Your House Doesn't Reek of Cat Pee At All!" Face
Mark P: PM me for advice on how to get rid of your cat pee smell.
Robin B: Has a few claw marks on the back of the couch, Interpreted as looks like it came out of a feline blender
Me: I don't have cat pee smell. Other people's houses do.
Jenn B: Chapter Nine: When Non-Negotiable Means To Offer Half.
Jenn B: Chapter Ten: Its For Sale But I Will Never Respond To Buyers
Me: Chapter Eleven: I'm Here With Money to Buy Your Unwanted Thing. I Don't Think It's Any of Your Business if It's "Going to a Good Home".
Robin B: Not my boat,it's not for sale, I don't know why it would be listed on craigslist are you sure you have the right number? "reads add to phonee" divorce sale what divorce....
Me: Chapter Twelve: I Called You About My Ad Yesterday, Your Idiot Brother Told Me You Weren't There and I Should Call Back Tomorrow. I Was Stupid and Took His Advice. Today I Got Your Grandmother and Her Stupid Yapping Dog and SHE Told Me To Call Back Later. I'm Starting To Wonder If Your Family Is Illiterate
Me: Chapter Thirteen: Giving Up and Sticking the Thing on the Curb With a "Free" Sign
Cousin Lynda: Chapter Twelve: How to deal with showing up to pay for and collect the item said seller agreed you could buy, then driving 2 hours out of your way to pick it up only to discover the seller is retarded and has since decided to "save" the item for another buyer who isn't there and called after you. And when you tell them what you think of this new development they threaten to call the police. Someone should work on the title of chapter twelve... I'm not sure how to shrink that all down. Lol
Suzanne S: Nat, these are hilarious!
Robin B: You pull up to the sellers home, the garage is open and looks like a picture strait out of the show Horders, The seller come out and they tell you, yeah, it's right over here in the back of the garage. You immediately ask for a rope lifeline and a GPs tracker before going in.
Carrie C: Chapter 14: After finding a great car for the price you wanted to pay you call and leave a message to a seller you had a appointment with to see their car to tell them you already found a car and won't be coming. The seller calls back a leaves a message calling you a yuppie and you're the ruination of this country. Sorry dude we didn't buy your car. We don't handle disappointment very well do we?
Me: A Yuppie?? What an AWFUL insult!!!
Me: Chapter Fifteen: Before You Open the Door to the Person Who Answered Your Ad, and Told You They'd Be Coming Over, Put Some Dang Clothes On and Act Like You're Awake
Jenn B: Chapter Fifteen: When To Give Up Because No One Is Buying Your Fill Dirt
Jenn B: Okay Sixteeen....
Jenn B: Chapter Seventeen: How To Legally Sell Your PeePee Mattresses.
Me: Chapter Seventeen: Tell Your Churlish Father Figure to Head to the Bedroom If He Can't Be Pleasant To the Nice Couple Who Came to the Door
Carrie C: I know! I always assumed yuppies could afford new cars not 10 year old cars for no more than $3,000 that hopefully does not have too many miles on them . You're buying this car all because your teenage son just wrecked your mini van. Maybe he's confused about what a yuppie is?
Me: Chapter Eighteen: Don't Freak and Call People Yuppies if They Reject Your Car
Jenn B: Chapter Nineteen: How To Remove "Kerry Edwards" Bumperstickers and Other Decals Before Selling Your Car
Jenn B: Chapter Twenty: How To Read The Dating Section Without Saying At Least Once, "Dude, No Wonder Youre Single".
Me: Oh yeah. The dating section is a whole 'nother book.

Nice weather we're having

Later: I just caught the sound of my children singing Buh-weet's version of "Bette Davis Eyes". It does my heart good to see the indoctrination working.

We finished out the night by watching and enjoying the crazy disturbing goodness of Suddenly, Last Summer. Whoa!

Believe It or Not

All right. So Mom and Bob spent the night at Aunt Betty's, and after I dropped the kids off at school, I drove up there and picked up Mom, and we were off (like a... never mind).  We were finally going to go shopping for my birthday, hooray! Now if I could just think of something I wanted, life would be grand.

I was tired of my mall (who isn't), so we headed to Washington Square Mall in Beaverton... but while driving around trying to find it, we happened upon a cute little mom-and-pop home and garden store, and before long we were inside, inspecting their wares. We ogled the baby chicks, ducklings, and turkey-lings (what are baby turkeys called?) and reminisced about our little family farm in Brookings, including our baby turkey named Hugh Beaumont (seriously) after the actor who plays Ward Cleaver in "Leave It To Beaver." We watched the reruns every day after school, and Ernie named the turkey after him. We brooded the baby chicks and the turkey in our bathroom.

"Remember the day we came home from church and there were three dead baby chicks nose-down in the toilet?" she asked.
"NO!! How horrible!!"
"Well... I guess we didn't tell you guys about that."

Yikes.

This store's prices were INSANE (but not good insane) so I dialed up my trusty GPS lady to find the nearest Coastal Farm and Ranch, since it's just what the country needs, except when you can't find it and you drive all over Creation and past the Nike campus, and your mother keeps saying "I don't think this store exists" and you tease her back with, "It's just over those hills!".

Stupid GPS lady.  What a big stinky liar she is. 

So, back over the river we went... sigh... to my mall.  I still didn't know what I wanted for my birthday, but no matter, we were having a good old time anyway.  Once at Macy's, we meandered aimlessly toward the bedding department, when it hit me that we needed a new bed set ("needed" being a relative term) and Mom was alllll over it - a lot more all over it than she would have been about setting me up with baby chicks.  I can't blame her.

I ended up with this:

ahhhhhhh

At first I was going to get something completely different from our old set, but then I remembered the batik bird picture and we went with the same color scheme.  Which worked out great, because I kept two throw pillows from the old set and now it looks all FANCY.

Then we picked up kids, went to the store, picked up the last kid, stuffed him in the clown car with the first two kids and the groceries, and headed back to my house.  Then it was back to Aunt Betty's. 

Mom had mentioned to Betty that I like to cross stitch, and Betty had promised me all the cross stitch supplies I wanted, since Uncle Thos was also an avid cross stitcher - he was seriously an amazing man, cross stitching is just the tip of the iceberg.  We went through her closet and boxed all his cross stitch things up and they were now mine.  It was hard.  It's been a year since Thos died, and I never had the chance to meet him, but Betty had a hard time here and there and I wished with all my heart that Thos were still around so she wouldn't have to be so sad.

I drove home with my new stuff, grateful and glad to have it but feeling terrible for poor Betty.  And Bob, who lost his only brother.  And Mom.  CRAP I hate death.

Later I happied up with this:

 

Happiest TV show theme song EVERRRR.

Oh Good.

New-to-us couches!!  Hooray!!  Mom and Bob brought over the ultra-comfy leather couch and loveseat set that Mom bought in Walla Walla years ago... we are so grateful.  THANKS Mom and Bob!!  They brought other goodies as well, including a batch of Mom's Blarney Stones (they were covered with Easter egg-ish colored sugars and coconut flakes and chopped peanuts)... to die for.  Oh.  How I love Mom and Bob.

We visited with them and Hattie the Dog for a while, then it was off to Aunt Betty's for them to spend the night.  See you tomorrow!

UPDATE: This morning we found out that our little Girl Scouts sold all their cookies and get to go to camp. Yay! Glad they had enough people come out. Kayelyn certainly did her part.

MEAN.

My round Pampered Chef baking stone met an untimely death today when it was used to make cheesy biscuits (the perpetrator shall go unnamed), and, while still hot, was placed in a sinkful of not hot water. Snap, crackle, pop! The poor child who caused this sad accident was later heard to say, "I forgot how to physics." Well, dear, Mother has made silly mistakes too. I'm not interested in replacing it, because I don't know that I want to own anything more high-maintenance than I am. Rest in peace, Pampered Chef baking stone. Sorry about the hot watery death.

Can you believe the way someone duped those poor Girl Scouts? My bloggy friend Kayelyn didn't have any Girl Scouts knock on her door to sell cookies this year, so she sent us some money and we're going cookie shopping tomorrow. So awesome of her. We might have to buy a couple boxes for our not-needing-cookies-at-all-but-are-suckers selves.

Trying to get rid of this thing.

I placed a "free" ad on Craigslist and mentioned we were giving it away on Facebook. ACK! The horribleness!!

Just.  Ugh.

Also: I went to orchestra rehearsal and came home with "Popular" (from the musical Wicked) stuck in my head. And I only know the one part, and it keeps replaying over and over again... Grrr.  It's so hard to be me.

FINALLY

But first: Bella, for the last two days, has awakened with GUNK leaking from her ears. First one ear yesterday, and the other ear today. So we made an appointment and went to the doctor (which is always fun, she absolutely loves being around doctors) (not), and guess what the dip doctor said? "HER EARS ARE PERFECT."

Our lovely HMO, while I really do love and appreciate it, has a way of making us feel like a family of hypochondriacs sometimes. Her ears! Were leaking!! At what point do you not freak out and call the doctor about that?

The doctor (who was not a dip, but was the slightest bit condescending, lecturing us about the importance of Hepatitis A vaccines) said it was probably just some drainage from Bella's most recent cold. GEEEEZ. I promised myself I would not take any of these children to the doctor again unless a limb fell off or they were bleeding out their eyeballs. (not) (but sort of)

It's about dang time

I don't know, and don't want to know, which year it was that I started this stocking.  I know it was a January because I thought, I'll stitch one of these per month for each of the seven of us, make them all into stockings in August, and we'll all have new stockings this year.  Cross stitched, by me.  How heroic will I be.

Glad to have it over with, but not looking forward to making the other six, so much.  I'm not a fan of stitching the same thing twice.  And it took so long, I may have grandchildren before I get them all done, and yada yada... Just don't let me do stuff like this anymore.

In other news: A few people went skating tonight.

That's All I Ask of You

This morning I woke up and looked in the mirror and thought, Holy Bedhead Batman! I forgot about this aspect of short hair. Time to go hat shopping.

Tonight while we were trying to go to sleep: The kids are watching Phantom of the Opera, and I guess I should be happy about it but I mostly feel like telling the TV to can it. 

Good grief, just END IT already.

Don't Know Where This Came From

Things have become pollen-y and blooming-y enough around here that I finally broke down and popped a fake Claritin today. Ah, the first allergy pill of the year... Such a milestone.

I love it :)

Always After Me Lucky Charms

Hair Update: I can still make a ponytail! YESSSSS

Bella's team played their championship game today, and Hubby normally passes off Sunday coaching responsibilities to his two co-coaches, but one wasn't able to be there today, so Hubby dressed in his church clothes and left for the soccer field. We (minus Brennan) took off for church.

As usual, about an hour before church started, we remembered Roz had been assigned to give a talk in Primary, and couldn't find the assignment slip with the topic "Jesus Christ is our Savior" until we were running out the door, so I spent Sacrament meeting plaigarizing paraphrasing True to the Faith's section about the Atonement.

The Rhy...s spoke about their temple mission in Hong Kong, from which they had returned just a week or two before, and the meeting was awesome. The Hong Kong temple is my favorite.

Hubby met up with me later in the Primary room - he was glowing so I knew the girls WON the championship! Hooray! Roz did an excellent job with her talk - Hubby and I were very proud.

The new 'do garnered a few comments - Bishop shook my hand and asked if I was a new sister in the ward.  However, I did not wear green to church today (I don't think any of us own anything green). I was pinched three times. RUDE. (But not by the bishop)

After church, Breven came back over to hang with the boys. The home teachers later joined us for a half hour or so. We had dinner, roasted chicken and potatoes. Breven ate with us and told us a little bit about his family. Such a sweet funny kid.

Bella had a camp meeting at the H building, so Hubby stayed with her instead of coming home and going back to get her.

Longview, New 'Do

A busy, busy soccer day that was over early enough to get some other things done. Yay!

Hubby was on the run all day, picking up, dropping off, coaching, what have you. He had me and Bella meet him at the H sports complex, and passed off Carter to me. Carter had already played a game with his regular team that morning, but for some reason I'm unaware of has also picked up another team (because we don't play enough soccer in this house - wink, wink).

The game was in Longview, which I was happy about because I'd been getting a little bored with sticking around town all the time. So Carter and I left, and since we can't lock the Clown Car's doors (because the tip of the key is still in the ignition), I pulled out the soccer chair and sat on the grass next to the car for the game.

He played well, but the poor team lost badly - something like 9-1. Carter tried to get Goal #2 but a kid kicked him in the ankle, so he spent the rest of the day with a slight limp. It rained just a bit. I had an umbrella but no blanket, darn it.

Afterward we went to Shari's restaurant in Kelso and had a lovely lunch. I had a turkey half-sandwich and caprese salad and marionberry pie with ice cream. Carter had macaroni and cheese. All of it was wonderful as always. Carter was a perfect gentleman during our date... though he did make me pay for lunch.

Starting around yesterday I was getting really sick of my growing-out hair, especially the gray and split ends, so I called up Marisa B in McWard.  She did this:

 

And this:

Well, I added the clippy on my bangs.

The bangs ended up really short, but otherwise I LOVE IT.

School Days

This week has been a big Mommy-at-school week - first the field trip on Wednesday with Carter, and today I met Rosalind for her school lunch time.

Afterward we went to the book fair, and then back to class, where she gave an awesome report about koalas. I enjoyed being with her.

These were waiting for us at home.

"Every Day We Fight the Fight"

Man, did we ever fight it today.

I helped chaperone Carter's class field trip to a local nature center today.  Absolutely exhausting and I wore the wrong shoes.  But he had fun, so there.  I had fun seeing him interact with the other kids and made a couple of fifth grade friends.

Betcha never smelled a real school bus before.
 

Trying to collect specimens

It's about dam time.  (Sorry)

Note to self: NO.  MORE.  FIELD TRIPS. in these shoes.

After school, we brought Tyson home to play with Carter. Roz had dance class followed by Activity Day. In the meantime I loaded up all our fire supplies and portable fire pit for a Young Women's activity. Good freakin grief, the things we end up doing when we open our yaps in presidency meeting... From now on I am giving NO suggestions, I don't care how uncomfortable the silence gets.

Now home in bed, and Hubby asks why I keep sighing. Just de-stressing, dear. Pass the chocolate chips. :)