Of Sharks and Sisters

Can you believe Charity let her favorite sister (me,of course!) be eaten by a shark?! Where's the love?!

Of Gas Masks and "Little Sweethearts"

Last weekend...I went to Provo--without the kids--which was (no offense, lovely children of mine) absolutely wonderful! I had the rare and exciting privilege of writing in the Young's "TP" notebook. It is a small notebook they keep by the side of the toilet so when you...uhhh...well...you get the picture. I hope they occasionally sanitize the pen!

I also got to see Dad's "Little Sweethearts" as he calls them. The six molting chickens they bought. Mom was slightly peeved (with good reason I might add) that Dad also refers to her as his sweetheart. Hmmm....

Another exciting thing was getting to go to Uncle Parr's birthday party. We had quite the crew there, with several of the Whites visiting, Ammon Lott, and of course, the Young girls. After Parr blew out his 53 candles, he disappeared into his room, then re-emerged wearing a gas mask because of all the smoke. Cousin Kristin was quite perturbed that her father only owned one gas mask, yet there are nine in her family. Let's hope there will never be a need for the gas mask, though Becca assures me she is the most loved of the daughters, so of course, the gas mask will go to her.

Best of all though, at least to me, was the chance to visit with my brother, Ammon, which hasn't happened for quite some time. What a stud! Are sisters allowed to say their brothers are HOT?! Well, he is. I am also so excited that he is planning on a mission this year. Awesome!

Right now, we have Joseph with us, which has been quite fun. He is a good brother, and the kids adore him.

BTW, anyone want a kitten?

Busy, Busy

Wow! What a day! Here was my schedule for the day. Dentist appointments at 7:00. Drop Maile off at preschool. Errands. Pick up Maile. Assemble 50 snack bags for the kids' mailbox. Babysitting until noon followed by voice lessons. Start laundry. Go to Idaho Falls for groceries. Stall on my cleaning by playing with kittens. Madly deep clean in preparation for Mother-in-law coming. City meeting about farmer's market--skipped dinner and went out for ice cream with Arden. Came home. Finished cleaning. Welcomed mother-in-law and friend. Caught up on e-mails and facebook, wrote in blog, and soon, off to bed. My favorite time of day. I think my grammar is a little weird in this blog.

Arden's funny quote: (Our neighbors recently aerated.) "Mom, we can't go into their yard, it's a poop yard!"

Of Wheat and Plants

Whew! Most of our 200+ trees and shrubs are in, thanks to Ben and Kayla's amazing help! I am just waiting on a few things I ordered in the mail, and our last two fruit trees that are sitting at the nursery. Then, it's bark on top of everything, and our winding flagstone path, and we are done for this year! Yeah! What a job!

Enrichment went well last week. I enjoyed teaching how to use one's wheat storage.

Maile started toddler lab at the college. She really enjoys it.

Not much time to blog nowadays.

Wish the wind would stop.

Of A Messy House

Why is it that on the rare day that I decide to put off my morning house cleanup that's when company always drops by unexpectedly?

Of Weddings and "Christiansen Shortcuts"

We spent this last weekend in Utah for Curtis' cousin's wedding. It was a lot of fun to visit with family members, and of course, it's always neat to see two people in love tie the knot. The ceremony took place at a lodge near Ogden. It was very nicely done, no thanks to my children. Curtis had told Arden that there would be food there, so the first thing Arden asked (very loudly) as we walked in to the wedding was; "Where's all the food?" Grrr....Then Maile chattered through most of the ceremony. Only by constant shushing did we succeed in not having to take her out. After the buffet began, she kind of wandered around picking up stray pieces of candy that people had dropped from off the floor and, of course, eating them as fast as she could.

The evening culminated with our little Saturn stuck in a snowdrift in the middle of a small dirt road (or a tiny river--it was hard to distinguish the difference at times) on the top of a nearby mountain with no cars for miles. (So much for our GPS' "quickest route!") Only through fervent prayer were we able to get unstuck from the snowdrift. When the road then turned into a solid 5 foot high mass of snow, we determined that was the end of the line for us, and our un-trustworthy GPS found us an alternate route to Grandma's house.

Fun adventures! Arden kept saying; "Wow! We are on Mt. Everest!" and Maile's comment on our snow adventure was "I'm only a little scared."

Wow! Aren't these girls amazing?! Maddy and Kendall are friends of my cousin Alli (on piano) from Arkansas, and apparently they used to play together quite a lot. They were doing a bunch of hymns for us just off the top of their heads. Very talented!

We were then favored by some songs that Alli's boyfriend had composed on his guitar. He is (obviously from the video) very talented as well, and what's more, he is self taught. Cool! I love being surrounded by brilliant people. (-;

(Sorry the lighting is terrible.)