Aerobic Exercise over the Holidays

126. Being Home for Christmas. We were all there. All of us. And we laughed and laughed. We stayed up late talking. We stayed up late doing Christmas. We stayed up late and had sibling pow-wows, and the next day we stayed up late and cleaned out the basement, and the next day we stayed up late and got ready to leave and watched a movie. And every night we laughed. I love laughing with my family. We tried to get in as much as possible. More about the trip and Christmas pictures later.

Great Events - Crummy pictures

Some of these pictures are terrible. On purpose. Because I'm trying to give a flavor of what happened, and preserve other people's privacy on the web. Sorry. But that's how the tortilla rolls. I'll email or link you up with better pictures if you want them.

121. Happiness is... Today in junior primary the bishopric message was about what makes us happy, and what can bring us long term happiness. The children were asked, "What makes you happy?" The S-Train mentioned his spy club. And one little girl said, "like when Santa brings me a pony." Oh, yes, Virginia, oh yes. Just like that.

122. Thanksgiving with the group. We had a great time with the extended family for Thanksgiving. We got a great new family picture. Determination will get you everywhere.


You aren't convinced this is the final picture? You're right. The final picture does show everyone, I promise. This was just for fun.

Risk, Scrabble, and puzzles competed for attention with the biggest, baddest lego sets you've ever seen. Courtesy of Uncle J. Who loved spoiling his nieces and nephews (Other lego sets will forever seem tame.) and who put on the best wienie roast you've ever seen.

The men took the group target shooting. Uncle J saved a lot of two liter bottles for target practice. The girls painted their toenails. A quilt was tied for grandma.

And we engaged in a little black Friday excursion. We had a talent show. And the Christmas gift exchange finished early, because everyone wanted to see their presents opened. It was very sweet seeing the cousins getting to know each other again. And a good time was had by all.

123. Coming home to beautiful new windows. They look like they've always been there. They are beautiful!

124. The Spy Club lives. Meanwhile this last week, we've had some other exciting moments. Probably most notably the spy club birthday party. We got crazy with yarn laser beams in the basement, and made spy gear (decoders) and got our spy badges (thanks to a busy child on the computer.) Great fun!
125. Pictures framed. With a little paint, an old curtain panel that was taking up space, and some pictures photo shopped and then printed on card stock - Voila! My next cool project done.
Love it! It was so successful that I think I'll write a decorator blog. I'll have one entry.

120. I finished nanowrimo. A massive push to get 18,000 words written in 2 days. I may only cut about half of them.

119. A really, really cool family. They email lots of people from long ago. Those people email me with happy wishes! So there are also some really, really cool friends. You are all way too awesome for words. Happy Thanksgiving!

117. A new stove. Here she is! Bright and shiny! Who knew there were so many shades of white! (I think you notice it more in the picture.) Explained the new stove do's and don't's as part of FHE. ie. - Watch the lights to see if it's hot. Be careful getting things out of the microwave. And never, ever climb on it. :-) Not that they would, of course.

118. 4,500 Words today. Whew. I'm tired. And while I was doing that, the power company trimmed the tree so we'll still have power if there's ice. And we finished arrangements for the windows to get done. Most of the fall decorations got put up. And I got new planner pages and did a little Christmas shopping. Tomorrow I'm picking the kids up early for the Wyeth exhibit. It closes right after Thanksgiving, and with all the festivities, tomorrow is it! But I forgot to get the chat n chew flier out. Snap! I'll finish it up in the morning while I watch Nie on the Today show.

A Quick Movie Review

116. The Blind Side. The new Sandra Bullock movie. I went to see it last night. Very good movie. I highly recommend it. I even want to see it again.

A Handful of Fun Stuff

111. 3,000 Words yesterday! I'm catching up!

112. Introducing people to Write or Die! It works!

113. Random Dinner. Took all the kids' free coupons for prizes and got dinner!

114. The Primary Program last week. The kids did a great job!

115. Quotes. The unnamed oldest is trying to keep track of where all our quotes come from. Mostly Pixar and PBS kids, apparently. Although the latest stumper was, "And we're walking, we're walking." Can you name where that quote is from?

We're Ba-ack

All right. For all you interested. Here I am. Back Again. It has been an interesting week. Here we are. Still with no stove. Bookfair, Hallelujah, is over. We have a new tree house and windows for the downstairs on order. And it has rained for the past week. With all that, oh yeah, I haven't posted. But something made me laugh out loud this afternoon, so here it is.

106. We got rhythm. Sue was swinging her arms in great big arm circles why we talked. When I started to talk I started to speak. in the. rhythm. of her. arm. circles. And, apparently, bob my head in time to the beat. She started to giggle. Then the girls said, "What does she do when we do - this?" They lined up and started making various motions. Pushing their arms up and down or out and in or swinging them. Then they tried to get out of rhythm so that I would have a hard time talking in rhythm. I just started laughing. They said, "That's what she does. She laughs!" Then Mr. C. got in on the act and tried to get out of rhythm. The funny part of that is - he just came in on the half beat. Great syncopation, but apparently we all have too much rhythm and naturally get into sync, even when we're trying not to!

107. Critique group last night. OK. Not as good as last time. But - I had something! And sweet, kind H had gotten S and I light up sparkling tiara's and giant paper clips for our birthdays. And brought carrot cake. We wore the tiara's while we ate our treats and talked. :) Very happy.

108. Lou had a recorder concert and did a great job!

109. I'm over the 20,000 mark for nanowrimo. Over 1600 words today. This means I'm still behind, but not getting more behind. It keeps me even, and maybe I can get more in tonight. I must say that these are not high quality scenes I am writing. But later I'll edit them up into diamonds.

and oh, yeah 110. Clean laundry. Bookfair is over and we have some!

105. I figured out how to put that video in!!!

100. Getting to post 100! Still posting!

101. Lou was one of only two girls in her grade to reach the presidential level for physical fitness in the mile! She has a goal.

102. Sue has become very responsible at getting herself up and ready on time. This is trickier that it sounds, because she has three different start times, depending on which group is meeting early that day.

103. Bookfair has started. We haven't messed it up and are apparently making money!

104. Found this on a blog. It cracked me up.

99. Impromptu sleepovers. Just because. Because nature abhors a vacumn, and young girls apparently do too sometimes, if it involves an empty night. Sue had three friends over. One brought her VCR and popcorn, another brought the pop, and we supplied pizza, Swiss Family Robinson, and the floor space. I'm trying not to fall asleep before they do by adding a blog entry! We can sleep in a bit tomorrow though, that will be nice.

94. Fall. Again. I think it's official. I have a serious Fall obsession. I've easily taken 200 or more photos. Lots of them junk. I'm still figuring out the focus and metering with this camera. It tends to focus where it wants to and I'm trying to be sure it's where I want it to. I'm carrying around my camera perpetually, and stopping for random pictures. I have no idea what I'm going to do with any of them. But it sure is fun.


I love the tree with all the rainbow colors. Later the outside ones will actually turn purple. Also, in the leafless tree you can just see a bird's nest. That's my favorite part.

95. Sue's Concerts. She had a fun Halloween concert with the strings. She is in an extra strings group so she got to play in a concert with the High School kids. Our favorite part was the glow sticks on the strings. I don't think any of my pictures for that turned out great. A flash doesn't work to show glow sticks, and I didn't have a tripod. She has another concert tonight - choir. I'll add a picture once I take one.

The high school kids stood in the aisles and played with Sue's group using their memory and glow sticks to play with. It was a cute idea and lots of fun. If you look very closely you can catch a glimpse of Sue's blue sailor pants and white sailor hat behind the conductor. I took more pictures. They turned out equally as well.

96. Young Women's in Excellence was last night. The girls did banners of personal belief. I believe.... They were all beautiful and all so different. It was very sweet.



97. And then, of course, there is Teenage Problem solving. When some helium balloons floated up to the ceiling, we needed to get them down to give them to the activity day girls who were there. The young men were finished with their activity and decided to help. They first tried throwing each other up in the air and reaching for strings. Then, they tried this...


Because, really, how else would you do this?
Eventually the ladder came out, but hey, where was the fun in that?

98. And last, and, who knows, maybe least, Nanowrimo. I have a couple of writing buddies keeping me on track! I'm up to almost 8,000 words. The goal is 50,000 for the month. I'm not sure how many of those will be worth keeping, but at least I'm making progress. You can't edit a blank page. And my new favorite writing tool is Write or Die. You can check it out here http://writeordie.drwicked.com/ Set the timer. If you stop typing, the screen starts to flash. Eventually alarms go off. If you go Kamakaze - stopping too long will cause it to start unwriting what you have written! Great fun.

93. While looking for picture of primary kids for the annual video - I came across this. It made me smile.

92. Kid Logic. On the way to school there was an older boy walking with us. We also had a neighbor walking with us. The S-train said to the older boy - "I'm 5 and he's 6!" the other boy said, "Well I'm 10!." Without skipping a beat the S-Train said, "But together, we're 11!"

So - I guess that wins! (Only from there it went into dog years.... and then it was too complicated to hold anyone's interest.)

91. Officially Halloween! A fun day of carving pumpkins, rolling down hills, trunk or treating, shopping for stoves, more pumpkin carving, seeing neighborhood friends and trick or treating. Then the kids (Lou) were bored.??!? I think everyone was on such a sugar high that coming home was a shock to the system! While trick or treating our usual outdoor voices were even more outdoor than usual. We certainly weren't going to lose the S-Train!
Our nautical Theme. The S-Train switched to being a pirate so he could go along with the theme. We nixed the true pirate bare feet, though. And it's kind of hard to tell, but the unnamed oldest has eyes on the side of that sweatshirt. She's an octopus.

89. Halloween! Even though it's not officially Halloween, it is at school. Here we are all dressed up for the costume parade! My favorite was when people asked if we made the jellyfish costume. (Yep. And glue gun burns to prove it.) I just said, "yes." But then, where would we buy it?
90. More Fall pictures. I just can't resist. And that crunchy leaf sound! I thought I had taken a little movie of crunching leaves. Then I discovered that when I clicked the camera to stop, I was actually clicking go.

Fun Fall Activities

86. Fall in the midwest. We've been driving around taking pictures of fall in our neighborhood. I downloaded and found out we had over 100 pictures of fall on the camera. Here's a collage to show you what we see. Just click on the picture if you want to see it larger.

87. Bike riding with friends. Another fun picture.

88. Owl show at the nature center. Cool lightning bugs.

I haven't posted for a whole week! Probably because it's been RAINING the whole week. My oldest is in heaven (loves these rainy days.) I am not. Can I just see the sun??! There wasn't a whole lot that made me giggle out loud this week. It was really rather ordinary. Which we are very grateful for. But we will find a few things to fill in a post.

82. Cleaning and the Farmer's Market. That was our Saturday. We were all home during the day. I took Sue and Lou with me to the farmers' market to get veggies for the week. I got some good pictures. The farmer who's veggies I took pictures of, said he once had a man come and take picture after picture of what he had with his cell phone camera. Then he conferred with his wife on the phone about what she wanted him to get.


Then I came home and had everyone clean like mad. They called it Fall Spring cleaning. Which it was. But the house was driving me CRAZY! It needed it bad. The good thing about this is that we got a lot done. And the house has stayed cleaner than usual this week. We cleaned out closets and baskets and off table tops. We moved furniture and washed the floors underneath and under the rug. The couch even finally (after 2yrs.) got its new feet!! Thanks Mr. C! The bad thing is that now my expectations are higher, and after all that work, I'm grouchy when it gets messed up. The other sad thing is that there is STILL SO MUCH TO DO! We worked all day and mostly did the main floor. And there is still more we could do there. And yet, I'm not rushing to do it - I'm typing my blog.

83. Friends who will pick you up in the rain. One day this week, the S-Train and I decided to walk to pick up the girls. It had been cloudy, occasionally sprinkling all day. There was no reason to suppose it would not continue to do just that. And a walk in the fresh air with a few drops never hurt anyone.

At about half-way there it started to sprinkle. By a little over half way it was clear that it was not just sprinkling anymore. And we were starting to get wet. I was wondering how long we were going to have to wait at the school before we wouldn't end up looking like wet poodles on the way home. The S's came by and gave us a lift in their suburban. Such nice friends. The kicker - it wasn't even time to pick them up. I'd forgotten about math club after school that day.

84. The S-Train's request to his Sister. Write Upside Down, but not Upside Down! It took me a minute.

85. Coming up with bulletin boards for the book fair. This was very fun. Sue and Lou helped me put it up. Destination Book Fair. Read around the World. is the theme. So we came up with lots of places from books and found pictures or maps of them and posted them on our bulletin board. Monday I'll post names of books, a week later names of places, then I'll connect the three with string and it'll be fun to see what you knew already. We had everything from Chincoteague to Neverland.

What places in books can you think of?
Especially ones that I can get maps or pictures of. So far we have - with the two above - the Cay, Wonderland, Luster, Narnia, Mr. McGregor's garden, the Hundred Acre Wood, Green Gables, Little House on the Prairie, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Hogwarts, Oz, AlCatraz, Geopolis, a BoxCar, a Treehouse, and possibly a few others I'm forgetting. I've got some more suggestions from Mom, that I still need to find and get up, but do you have anymore?

77. Fun videos! As usual, R has come up with some amazing videos to make us happy this week! Piano stairs or crazy Brazilian bike races, anyone? Mr. G has them up on his blog, so I'm not going to double post - and I think anyone who knows about this blog already got them - but they sure are a fun pick-me-up in the middle of the week. Also a new favorite - Michael Buble's new song, "I Just Haven't Met You Yet." Cute video. (I might stick it in if I can figure out how.) And the song is now going through my head. It's alternating with Inside Out's "Peanut Butter and Jelly." Though the only video we found for that on You Tube was not quite as cute as the song. The S-Train likes to sing that one with Peanut Butter and Peach - not Raspberry - jelly, because that is what we are having at our house right now. I don't think that peach jelly is going to make it clear til next peach season. (I know, random topic change.)

78. S-Train conversations this week. Include - why God didn't put dinosaurs on the earth at the same time as people. Subtopics included why dinosaurs aren't around, (He made the connection himself that if all the plants the plant eaters ate died, then the plant eaters would die, and T-Rex would be out of luck for lunch.) How do we know what dinosaurs looked like, and how do we know how their bones go together? Also things like - What is the planet closest to the sun? And can you cook cupcakes in its craters? If someone gave you 1,000 eggs for 3 cents would you take that deal? How much would you pay for a mushed up pumpkin at the pumpkin patch, if you could even carry the pile of mush? We are always thinking over here. Always thinking.

79. Crazy Hair Day! Such fun you have never seen. (You will, when I get pictures from the camera downloaded.) Everyone had their crazy hair materials and ideas laid out the night before, so it went pretty quickly in the morning. As the kids were leaving they were all hoping that it really was crazy hair day and they hadn't mixed it up. I saw a kid walking into school, the front part of his hair spiked into a ridge and colored fire engine red. There were no other kids with crazy hair in sight. He looked very worried. Lucky for him the fun was waiting inside!

80. Pumpkin Patch. Pictures are here. Had a great time today at the pumpkin patch. The rule is that you can only pick out a pumpkin you can carry. The children are getting stronger.
Lou looked a very long time for her pumpkin. It needed to be perfectly round with no dents or holes. And at one point, no dirt. But it was so muddy that rule had to be abandoned.

A perfect pumpkin?

This nice shot was set up by the unnamed oldest.

Beautiful fields.


Mugging for the camera.

The end of a fun day!

81. Critique Group again. From our regional advisor who comes to help us out - "You are getting better. This flowed really well." Ahh. Praise. It's going to my head. In a good way - it's making me want to write more! But as always, there was still plenty to hash out. I just felt good when there were two or three whole paragraphs she hadn't marked up!
Also - from last month to this I have cranked out 22 pages. (That includes the 15 I was all excited about last week.) It's not amazing output, but I'm getting close to averaging a page a day. Go me. I have about 51 pages so far. I think I can say I have a WIP - work in progress. But I have this character who is hijacking the story. If I keep going at this rate, the original main character may end up getting axed. Or getting her own, entirely separate story. We'll see.

73. Two New Cousins for my kids! - one first, one second cousin. On the same day! - Monday. I don't know if the parents of the second cousin know we know about him - but that's what happens when you publish a blog. Your family finds out stuff. Like new babies! What could be happier? It was a great weekend for the family. Two new babies, a baby blessing, and an ordination. New babies and new deacons. I love happy celebrations of life.

74. Hanging out with my kids at night. Sat on the couch and read books with the S-Train and Lou. Quizzed the unnamed oldest on English grammar, Chinese and geography. She has lots of tests this week. It is the end of the quarter after all. We have a good time together. I always heard teenagers were hard. Maybe there's some hard part later - but right now we're just having fun together. There just isn't enough time left. Hmmmm. I'll have to make one of the next two nights Sue's night. Last night she was just all quiet and reading up in her room.

75. Going on the youth temple trip last Saturday. I just love being in the temple. Just breathing the air there does me good. It doesn't matter that I spent almost the whole time in the bathroom directing people to showers and handing out towels. That was so wonderful! It's like a warm blanket around your shoulders, only you breathe it in too, and it calms you down and warms you up inside. I could live in temples.

76. The temple trip was also timed right because it coincided with tomato sauce making day. Apparently the S's came over and helped with making 48 pints of tomato sauce. They took home a bunch and the kids had a great time here. I missed it. That's too bad. ;-) I love having homemade tomato sauce. I always feel like I'm feeding my kids something healthy and organic when we have it. But boy making it is a long hot day. Thanks to all who participated. Especially from those of us who didn't, but will get to enjoy the sauce anyway.

Small Things

71. Dick and Jane. A couple of weeks ago we got a book that was a collection of Dick and Jane stories at a garage sale. The S-Train sat down and read us six stories that day. He's now done with the first section of the book and is continuing on to the next. I think these books were around so long because they work. You can see your child learning to read with them. It's amazing how easy it is for him with these stories. And it's the pictures that make it interesting. As you can see, he didn't wait til we got home, but started reading in the car.

72. Once there was a Snowman. My unnamed oldest brought home a new singing group from the ward youth temple trip. Inside Out. They sing primary songs a capella. You've never heard so many versions of Once there was a Snowman! In fact, they are being sung over and over at my house as I type. You should check it out. They're a kick!

70.b. Hee Hee! Two Followers! Thanks other sis!

Energetic Children

68. Math Club Competitions. The agony and the ecstasy of it all! Lou and one of her teammates (on her team of three) were very animated during competition. As his mother pointed out, they couldn't sit still. YES! and the Tiger Woods arm when they were right. O-OH. and the looking at each other and slumping when they were wrong. ARGGGH. and the hands pretending to tear her hair out when she realized she should have done something else. WHEW. and collapsing on the table when it was all so exhausting. And AHHH. With the hands in the air and down (deep cleansing breath anyone?) when it was all over. It was so fun to watch that who won was almost irrelevant - oh - except to Lou's team - who won 1st place. All the aerobics must have helped bring their oxygen levels up for some good quick thinking and teamwork. Great job Sweetie!

69. The S-Train and questions. Questions. Questions. Remember that post about numbers? That is a very typical conversation. A few weeks ago he got a bat book from the school library. The next couple of days sounded like this - nonstop. "Mom, what happens to bats when it rains? Do they get wet? Or does the water run off like ducks? Mom, are bats related to birds? Mom, can bats fly as far as grandma's house? You don't think so? What about the school? How far do they fly? Can they fly very far in one day? Why do they only fly at night? They're nocturnal? What's nocturnal? Why are they nocturnal? Because the insects they eat fly more at night? Why don't the insects they eat fly during the day? Then they could fly during the day. Where do bats live? Can we see some bats come out at night? I'm your pet fruit bat." "Go get some fruit, fruit bat." Comes back with a banana. And at various times during this is dressed like a bat with a cape as the wings. "Do I look like a bat? Or not really?" He found directions for a bat house in one of his books and now wants to make one and to know where we can hang it.

The good thing is - these are awesome questions. The sad thing. I know none of the answers. The problem. The questions don't stop long enough for me to look up the answers to them. And with google today, it might be possible for me to answer questions like this in a way my mother's generation could only imagine with a curious child.

This week our talking is running around Halloween. This is one excited about Halloween kid! "Do we have any Halloween decorations? Why don't we have more? Can we put them up? Can we put them up now? How about now? I want our house to look more spooky every day. Can we get some spiderwebs? I really want some spiderwebs. We can get them at the store. Can we go to the store and get some? How about now? What are the spiderwebs made out of? Is it the same stuff as in quilts? It won't stretch as far? Why not? What is the quilt batting made our of? I'll put up those decorations. (My children did put out most of our decorations themselves. Looks pretty good.) I'll take those pumpkins. This is my pumpkin. This is your pumpkin. (Shows me a stuffed pumpkin for each member of the family.) (At the store.) Can we get a skeleton? Why don't you like the spooky decorations? I love them! What's this? I want this broom. I could be a witch. Watch out! (Swings giant plastic grim reaper scythe.) Can we get this pumpkin? This is cool. What about this?"
Etc.

The enthusiasm is contagious. In the past this has become background noise to me. I say yes and no and answer in the appropriate places, but if I listen hard to everything, well, I'm tired. But lately I'm finding that the harder I listen, the more I'm realizing that this kid asks really cool questions, and can be really funny, and has more energy than a jeep full of monkeys bouncing down a dirt highway. (Don't ask me why that image, I just tried to think of something that had a lot of energy and didn't stop.)

70. I have a blog follower! :-) Not bad for a semi-private public blog.
Thanks Sis.

Two months in and still publishing!

60. Football game fun. Friday we went to pass out water to the band after the pregame show. The football team was about to come out. The cheer leaders were holding up a vinyl sign, velcroed (sp?) down the middle so it would break apart and the team could run through. I said to the S-Train, "See that sign? The football team is going to run through it." He looked at me, puzzled. "How are they going to get through there?" "You watch." So he did. Very intently. As the team burst through the sign his eyes got big and he burst out with, "WHOA HO!" So fun to see the reaction.

61. Big Mouth Frog Book. Isn't it great when a book tickles a kid's funny bone? The Big Mouth Frog did that to the S-Train this week. When we got to the part where the crocodile asks, "Who are you? And what do you eat?" And the frog scrunches up his mouth and says, "Me? I'm just a little narrow mouth frog. and I'm OFF." and jumps away, the S-Train just cracked up. And kept repeating the book. I love sunny moments like this.

62. Fall. The leaves are turning. The air is perfect for our walks. We don't have the heater or air conditioner on. Mornings need jackets, but you're plenty warm at the end of an afternoon walk. It's fun to see the progression of the leaves in their march off the trees. The advance troops have fallen and the next round of reinforcements are gearing up.

63. Dad's Retirement. It's amazing that it happened. I almost didn't believe it ever would. But here's to work well done and a well deserved change! (Notice I did not mention slowing down.) Congratulations!

64. Knocking out projects and learning new things. I have this drive to finish sewing projects. I'm slowly but surely making headway here. Sometimes the projects I choose aren't the most pressing, but all have been waiting awhile, so it's nice to knock out a few. Also, I've been having fun with photo shop tutorials online. There's no way to learn photo shop except to do it - so sometimes, I am. I count it as continuing ed. Besides which, it's a great way to have fun and avoid vacuuming the baseboards and air vents. (One air vent is seriously bugging me right now and I may have to go vacuum it after this before something hairy crawls out and escapes with a small child.)

65. Watching conference in our pajamas. Isn't the internet great? We spent all day Sunday in pajamas. I think spending the day in your pajamas is a great thing to do every once in awhile. It makes you slow down and enjoy what you are doing at home. A day in pajamas says - this day is off limits to anything I had to deal with yesterday or will have to deal with tomorrow. Hallelujah.

66. Homemade kites. The kids had the day off of school and made kites. I forgot the camera when we went to the park, but it was so fun to watch them run across the lawn at the park, happy, full of life, and enjoying the moment.

67. Being healthy and well fed. Spaghetti with homemade sauce and green beans, plus homemade bread sticks that we made when we made pretzels. Homemade mall pretzels. YUM. They turned out pretty good! (I'm always excited when this happens.) What a content feeling.

And now, here comes the rest of the week! Bookfair orders, piano, presidency meeting, relief society meeting, bulletin boards, renewing drivers liscences, dentist appts, birthday parties, temple trips, football games, dinner parties, choir, strings, math club, oh, and homework, baths, and scripture study in there somewhere. Whew! it's the fun crazy stew we call our life right now!

Being Looked After

59. Tithing Blessings. We had missed a few tithing payments lately. Just gotten behind. They were in the computer but that's it. So - we caught up recently. And apparently we had been living a little large without noticing. And after the zillions of school fees last month as well, things got a little tight. So this morning I am going over bills, and thinking, aren't there supposed to be tithing blessings that come our way when we're trying hard to do the right thing? Because I'd really like to see one of those right about now. So today - one more bill was the only thing in the mailbox. Groan. Thought I'd check to see how much and when it was due. It's our gas bill. We have it on budget pay so it's the same amount every month and doesn't go up and down wildly with the seasons. Apparently they have just recalculated for next year. We have some huge credit and the amount we owe per month this next year has been cut almost in half. It's huge. Over half the cost of piano lessons for a month, or over half a week's worth of groceries. Just one more testimony that we're being looked after. Thank you!

Also noticed - a friend came over with brand new tennis shoes - just the right size for the S-Train - the day I noticed he had just worn a hole in his. They were a gift and were too small for her son. Really nice shoes. And a haircut coupon came in the mail the day I wanted to get my haircut there!! Half price. Yea!

Paper, Pen, and Pictures

57. Writing Output! Between last week's frenzied typing and yesterday I've done 15 pages this week! WuHu! Go me!

58. Finishing a photo book. I got a free code for a book from a friend. I decided to do a Christmas book for the kids I watch. I started one for them last year, but didn't finish, and this time the templates were all laid out for me. I had to dump in pictures and do a bunch of fiddling around, but not nearly as much work as starting from scratch. That said, it still took me all day. I was going to go on an outing with friends. I called and said I'd better hold off because I wanted to get this book done. (today is the deadline.) That was a very good thing, because the nurse at school called not 15 minutes later and told me I had a sick kid waiting for me. Poor Sue. Her lips get bright red when she has a fever. She did not feel good. By tonight the motrin had kicked in, and she was doing a little better. Oh well. Something's going around! It came around here!

PS. The next day she was completely better except for congestion and a slight headache.

Smiling and Tearing Up

56. I'll go where you want me to go. A beautiful family in our ward has received a call to attend a branch in the area. The mother is our Relief Society President. Their daughter, a laurel now, was in my beehive class. They spoke on Sunday. I will miss their talks so much. I always gain great insights whenever one of them speaks. Our ward will miss them. But now they are on to bless another congregation with their bright spirits. They aren't moving, but we won't see them very much. You can tell that they are sad to leave, and yet sure of the Lord's hand in this new chapter in their lives. I can't help but think that their willingness to change wards when the Stake President asks is a greater testimony to their teenage daughter of going where the Lord needs you than all the Family Home Evening lessons or church moments or talks in the world could be.

Random Musings

And here we are in no particular order for the last week or so

46. You know you have musical children when...... They are teasing each other with flat notes. Lou was singing to herself while setting the table one day this week.

Unnamed oldest said, "No! No!"
We all looked at her and said - "what?"
She said, "That song. That's not how it ends! It ends on a different note. "
We all looked at her. ??
"Here. I'll show you." She went over to the piano and played it the way it should be and the way it was being sung.
"So ..... It's a little flat?.... She's just singing it for fun."
"It's two whole half steps flat!"
So.......
"It's driving me crazy!" (Covers her ears.)
Lou immediately grins and begins singing it again - and ending flat.
"AHHHH. Stop! Stop!"
Followed by louder singing. etc.
Until Mom says, "all right you two, cut it out and set the table."
Ah, musical children.

47. A fun dress that looks so great on Sue! Couldn't have a better dress. So good looking and grown up. And yet she still looks her age. Love it!I had her twirl too, to get the full effect.

48. Winning a tennis match! Yea!

49. Lou does her homework on the way home from school! Walking? Yes. And tries hard to have it done by the time we get home. She even gets the answers right!

50. Walking home with friends. We've been walking a lot to school this year. Most of the gang isn't in a sport at the moment, and we need the exercise. We feel so healthy. Luckily the weather has been cooperating.

51. S-Train and backpacks. There has been a rash of playmobiles hiding out and trying to go to school with the S-Train. But did you know that when you back away from your mother holding your backpack and saying, "NO, NO, NO!" It only means she is 100% going to have a look in your backpack?

52. Superhero day at high school. Kids with the confidence to wear polka dotted pajama pants to school with a cape, may just someday rule the world.

53. Packing quickly if we ever need to rough it. The S-Train would not eat dinner. Until his dad told him that he had to eat dinner if he wanted to go on a campout the next day. (Fathers' & Sons campout) Instant model citizen. In fact immediate packing. The clothes, peanut butter and jelly jars, and bread were packed before you could say tweedle dee. The kid knows what he needs to survive. We just aren't sure if he remembered the knife or if he was planning on spreading the peanut butter with his fingers.

54. Eating lunch at school. Chocolate milk and Corn dog Friday!

55. Another critique group. The pages were written, output was achieved, and yea! I made it to another meeting with awesome ladies. In fact, a description of the day might make me smile now.

I thought- since I had quite a bit written in a notebook I would just need to type it up, polish a little and be ready to go. I thought I could get that done in the morning while the S-Train was at school. Then I could finish up another project in the afternoon. Unfortunately, a one sentence hurry-the-plot-along summary turned into about 6 extra pages and took a lot longer to write than anticipated. So the quick typing up turned into this....

Walk kids to school. Home. Shower. Breakfast while watching morning news. Type Type Type. Check email. Type Type Type. Look up something on the internet. Type Type Type. Answer the phone. Get a snack. Type Type Type. Make a phone call. Type Type Type.

Ack! Time to get the S-Train. Get lunch. Try to direct the S-Train to a project. More phone calls in. Type Type Type. Mom.... can I print out pictures on the computer? Mom.... where is my winter hunting coat? Mom... Can you write.. Mom... How do you spell... All while trying to Type Type Type.

Time to get the kids. Walk home with friends. Direct everyone to get a snack and practice and do homework. Can they take care of things while I Type Type Type? Type Type Type. Recorder (musical instrument) going. Homework happening. TV on. Turn off the TV until the homework's done! Mom... I can't figure out how this goes on the recorder. Mom.... I can't figure out this math problem. (It's because your remainder is the same as the number you're dividing by.) Type Type Type. I can't do this recorder!! Do you want me to play it for you on the piano? Thank you mom. Type Type Type. Done. Maybe? Print and outside for uninterrupted edit time. The recorder follows. Edit Edit Edit. People out and in. The S-Train playing in the leaf covered fort outside. Mom... do you think.... Mom is this right... Back inside for applying edits.

Mr. C comes home. Honey, I'm really sorry - can you do dinner? PLEASE? Thank you so much. Quit throwing legos. Type Type Type. Deer meat being defrosted. Math homework being done. Spelling words being quizzed. Throw the legos again and you lose them. Type Type Type. Dinner being cooked. Set the table! The legos are stuffed into a plastic sword sheath and blown into. It sounds like a rain stick. Type Type Type. Almost done! Check directions to critique members house. Ack! supposed to be there in 10 minutes. It takes 20. Thought our start time was an hour later than it is. Call critique group. Leaving ASAP. Final Type Type. Print. Sorry ladies, only one copy. Time is of the essence and printer is almost out of ink. Ten minutes later. Love you. Finish homework! Shower! Practice! Love you! Bye. Drive. Arrive. AAAHHHHH. Nice people who seem to like me anway have intelligent conversations about writing. Eat apple pie. Talk some more. Go home. Sleep.