An unexpected experience

Heber has been really good for reuniting us with old [as in we knew them when we were young and less wrinkly] friends. In June, I was shopping in the grocery store, and saw my best friend [from high school] Aleeca's mom in the store. No, she doesn't live in Heber, but she happened to be at that store on that day, and I was able to get Aleeca's phone number and re-establish contact with her.

About 2 weeks ago, Jared and I were on a date [shocking, I know], and noticed a man who looked a lot like the guy Jared used to go fishing with when we lived in Provo [about 10 years ago, now]. Sure enough, when he turned around, it was Jeff! We exchanged phone numbers, and arranged to go boating with him and his family last Saturday. :)Although the water was pretty cold [we are, after all, in the mountains], riding the tube was awesome. My kids were pretty excited about it, and pretty good sports about being flipped- Jeff doesn't believe in letting you relax on that tube.

Jared:

M and Jeff's boy riding tandem:

I had an unfortunate picture uploading experience, and lost about 50 pics. Now, most of those were either too blurry or too far away to tell who was in the picture, but there were a few I really wanted! Anyway, we stayed 'till dark, then I took all the kids back to our car and we listened to a book on CD while the other 3 grown-ups got the boat out of the water and hitched up to their vehicle. We were all pretty tired and sore come Sunday, but oh, we had a great time!

Okay, time to change subjects. W loves to get the mail, and today he got a letter addressed to him. M and H got letters, too. They were from the Utah State Fair, and each one contained a one-day pass to the fair, a coupon for a drink, another one for a carnival ride, plus a sparkly blue ribbon to congratulate them on being "a Read and Win Winner." They each had to read 10 books, and have a parent or teacher sign the form confirming that they read their books. W and M breezed through their 10 books in a week. H worked on his, and he read each one out loud to me :) Great job, buddy! They've been waiting and waiting and WAITING [not very patiently, some days] for these prizes to come.

Today, we bought new sheets for M's new bed. It's only her bed until we get visitors, then it becomes the guest bed :), but she's thrilled with it. Jared picked up the mattress and box springs on Saturday, but we had no full-sized sheets, so the bed sat in its plastic cover 'till today. That was about all the disorder I could stand :), so I set up the bed, knowing I'd have to find sheets to cover it before tonight. One more thing to check off my to-do list!

We took the kids out to the North Fields again tonight, and I cooked tinfoil dinners [hamburger patty, onion for flavor, sliced carrots and potatoes, all with butter] on the coals while Jared and the kids either read [W], or caught bugs [M], or whacked thistles with a willow wand "sword" [H]. I sat and knit, and enjoyed the cool evening silence. M came back from the river with some flowers she picked just for me, and a song she made up to accompany the gift. She can be such a sweetheart :) which absolutely makes up for when she isn't. We also had s'mores, except without graham crackers, since I forgot them. But who needs graham crackers when you can have chocolate and marshmallows?!?

One more thing: This year, to celebrate Myles' birthday, we're taking a donation of new clothing to the LDS Humanitarian Aid Center. While we don't expect participation from anybody, if you are interested, we would be honored.
*if you click on the above link, you'll go to the home page of LDS Humanitarian Services. the sidebar on the right of the page has several topics; click on "current needs" under "resources" to see what they have enough of as well as what they need more of. there are also patterns for the humanitarian kits available under "resources," most in .pdf format.

Gratitude List:
* NO NEW FIRES!!!!!
* Another chance to spend time outdoors with my family.
* Allergy shots that seem to be working :)
* Finding old friends.
* Jared's sense of humor to remind me that most things aren't as serious as I may believe.
* 3 beautiful, healthy children that I can see every day.
* 1 beautiful angel boy that I will see again someday.
* Music.
* Fresh, steamed squash from our garden [and my FIL's garden], served with butter and a bit of salt. YUMMY.
* School starts next Tuesday. :) and there was much rejoicing.
* Meditation time in the morning.
* I am so grateful that death is not the end; that I will see all the people I love again.
* There are some trees on the mountain outside my living room window that are changing colors. Beautiful.

And yes, I am still planning to post pics of my new haircut. Really. I'm just waiting for a copy of the family pics we took 2 weeks ago. Promise.

Some pics from last Monday's photo shoot

Our photographer [whose link is HERE], posted a few of the multitude of photos she took. Hyrum is up- here's his pic:

If you go to the site, you'll see pictures of [in order from top to bottom]:
Hyrum
Saxon & Bridger w/their mom's legs ;)
Saxon
Zachary
Kaylyn [Zach's big sister]
and Cal & Carson w/their parents' legs

Saxon, Zach, and Carson are 3 of the 4 boys that were born the same year as Myles. I love to watch them playing, exploring and poking into everything.

What to do

With Jared gone till Thursday night, I've been looking for things for my kids to do. Things that involve little to no arguing or fighting, specifically. I'm thinking I need to drop them off on the mountain and pick them up at the bottom, maybe. Give them a chance to get out a bunch of their wiggles and destructive energy.

Seriously, though, we are all ready for a change. Monday we went into Park City to pick up some school things- backpacks, lunch boxes, some shoes and clothing, and paper and pencils. I like having them try their clothes on, simply because they grow so quickly that I have a hard time keeping up with their sizes. But it made for a pretty long day. We were all a bit grumpy by dinnertime.

We have a visitor coming today [hi Mom!], and tomorrow we're going for a hike with Morgen's youth group. I'm still working on that darn quilt. I got it almost finished, but with the kids still home, I find too many other things that need to be done. Still, if I can get it tied by Friday, maybe I'll have the time to bind it next week. I keep telling myself "baby steps!"

School starts September 1st. I am excited to meet their teachers, and see where they'll be spending most of their time during the school year. I'm also thinking I will miss them a lot, and that I can get so much done while they're at school LOL.

Gratitude List:
* My family. I love getting random phone calls from a sister, just to talk ;)
* Jared's commitment to serving our country. I am so proud of you, babe!
* My kids got all their chores done by 11am today.
* Internet access :)
* Meditation time
* Exercise is good for my soul
* We have enough [too much, actually] to eat, a home to shelter us, cars that run and are paid for [YES!], lots of clothes to wear; we are truly blessed.
* God is mindful of me and my challenges.
* my ipod, and instant access to music :)

Catching up again

Seems that I'm always blogging about stuff we did last week, instead of getting it up the day after. Summer is so busy, though. Our last two weeks have been filled with family activities, resulting in tired and grumpy kids, which eventually resulted in grumpy parents LOL.

Tuesday last week we celebrated my nephew Bridger's birthday. Saxon [Bridger's big brother] and Hyrum convinced Jared to dogpile Walker and tickle him, while they were waiting for cake. I don't get the whole rough-and-tumble playing, but I could tell from the giggles and shouts of laughter that all the guys [big and little] were having a great time!

Morgen wanted to play with Bridger the whole time- peek-a-boo while he was eating, and pulling him around the pool in a raft later on.

This past week, we had a lot of excitement at home. Last Saturday, we were headed over to Midway for a family reunion w/my grandpa's family. On our way out the door, we discovered that an unidentified child [I think I know who it was, but since there were no witnesses, I cannot be certain...] had taken a birthday candle and some matches, and had melted the wires going into the downstairs light switch. This one light switch works all the downstairs lights, so we were without light for a few days. I was pretty upset- electrical fires are scary! Jared actually got angry enough to threaten them with a spanking [and Jared NEVER loses his temper]. So, we had power, but not to any of the lights. Lucky for the kids that we had to leave, and so they got a stern lecture but no grounding or extra chores.

Sunday was Church, and hanging with family time. Monday we got together with all Jared's siblings, their families, and his parents, and had pictures taken at a beautiful park near the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Park City. There was an awesome willow tree- I'm guessing 60 or so years old from its size- that the kids were swarming like monkeys, when they weren't needed for photos. I'll post a picture as soon as I get one :)

Tuesday we hiked up to Timpanogos Cave. It's a steep 1 1/2 mile hike up, then about an hour tour through the cave itself, and another 1 1/2 mile hike back down to the base of the mountain. Not too bad, if you have the time to rest, because the altitude change makes it hard to breathe easily. Jared was at work, but the kids and I made it up to the top. Caves never fail to amaze me- the stalactites and stalagmites, the helictites that look like curly spaghetti noodles- and they take hundreds of years to form! Wow.

Friday, Morgen and I met Melinda and Colleen for a pedicure date. We had a wonderful pampering session. Mom ended up with gel nails on her toes [I had no idea they did fake toe-nails!], and got some sparkly powder layered over the top of the polish. Melinda's polish was also sparkly, and so was Morgen's. Mine wasn't sparkly, but I still liked it :) Here's a pic of our feet- Morgen's got the tanned toes with sparkly turquoise polish :) She inherited her dad's olive-toned, gorgeous skin.

Friday night we went out to dinner to celebrate my BIL Nate's birthday, and Saxon's birthday at the end of the month. Hyrum and Saxon were two wild boys! Walker blew on Bridger's tummy, and got some great big giggles from him.

Morgen went with her Grandpa on Saturday morning, to help him clean out the fridge of the condo they stayed in while they were visiting last week. While she was gone, we discovered the remains of another fire in the basement. Again, I have no eyewitnesses, but I am pretty sure which boy was responsible. Sadly, when Jared got back from mowing weeds, the boys experienced "the wrath of dad." I am hoping that my fire-happy son will abandon his hot little experiments. Otherwise, I'm tempted to make him a fire-resistant, concrete cell in the backyard. *sigh* Why is parenting so hard?!?

Saturday night we drove over to Rockport and met up with some friends of ours. We had a nice dutch-oven dinner, then the kids went fishing for crawdads. It got pretty chilly- 50 degrees or so- but when we camp in the mountains, we expect cooler temps at night. I think we're already headed into fall, because this morning I found frost on the grass in our backyard. :) All I ask is a few good, ripe tomatoes before the plants die.

Gratitude List:
* Our house did not burn down, despite my child's attempts to start an electrical fire in the basement.
* The wires were relatively easy to fix [thank you honey!]
* Lots and lots of good family time.
* Pedicures :)
* Wonderful cool weather.
* Plenty of rain this week.
* Yummy food to eat, and playing some pretty funny games with Jared's siblings.
* Playing with my nieces and nephews. I wish, so much, that Myles could jump in and play with his cousins. But, it eases my heart a little to see his 4 cousins who were born the same year he was. They are running, climbing, playing, and fighting with each other. And my kids spent a lot of time playing with these boys.
* I am glad that my family still talks about Myles. I don't want him to ever be forgotten.
* God. Everything I am, everything I have is because of His love and blessings in my life.

Our recent life

We've been to an awful lot of family gatherings lately- reunions, birthdays, etc. And, while I have a lot of pictures to prove we were there, I also have a few more family gatherings to attend, which prevents me from uploading all those pics right now. But, because I really need to do this before I forget, I'm posting a link to the most wonderfully fabulous pasta dish that I found through a friend of a friend.

The recipe is here- scroll down to the "quick yet yummy pasta" posted 9 July 2009: Follow Your Bliss
And if you have time, try out the other recipes listed. I have yet to read one that does NOT sound absolutely delicious. :)

More family togetherness photos coming soon!

Gratitude List:
* family, and the time to spend with them.
* God
* good food
* meditation time
* Jared and our kids