I think we moved back to Iowa

and nobody told me.  It has rained here almost every day for the last three weeks!!! Which is great for the lawn, good for keeping the house cool during the day, and interesting for the garden.  There are puddles. And they have been there for more than one day, at this point.  The humidity is not as bothersome as it could be, since it hovers around 60 degrees when it rains.  I noticed that my kids are getting little curls in their hair though.

There have been hikes, and adventures, and everyone is home and safe and back on a schedule again.  Hooray :)

The canoe is still in our garage.  All the staples and screws were removed, and Jared  & Walker sanded and re-sanded and smoothed out and patched holes and now they have a layer of epoxy, a layer of fiberglass, and another layer of epoxy drying on the outside of the canoe.  The coolest part (besides the whole CANOE IN THE GARAGE thing) is that the fiberglass came in a roll, similar to curtain fabric.  And it looked a lot like silvery burlap because of its color and large, open weave.  However, once they applied it and the epoxy, the fiberglass turned see-through!  So when you look at the canoe, it has a fringe around the bottom edge, and the rest of the canoe looks untouched.  so.weird.

This was my walk today:

Gorgeous greens, even though August is usually the time of dry grass and brown hills.  And more standing puddles. It is awesome and strange all at once.

Morgen and Hyrum went back to school yesterday.  Walker (and the other students in the upper 3 grades at the high school) went back today.  The district chooses to give the freshman a day to themselves at the high school to give them the chance to find everything without the halls being super-crowded.

And on that note, I will be taking a nap.  In order to fit our family prayer and scripture study in before school, we are reading at 5:30am.  Which, if you are good at math, means I am getting up about 5:10am.  Bah! is what I have to say about that. BAH.

held together with glue and staples

In My Garage

My early morning project

Freshly baked bread.

Conversations in the car

Since my oldest child could speak, I have been having conversations.  If you are a parent, you have had or will have these talks.  Once we got to talk about (well, mostly we listened to a monologue about) Morgen's frog dream.  Another time it had to do with why we walk on the sidewalk and not in the road.  I remember overhearing an exchange between two of my children that began with:
"You're an idiot!"
And ended with:
"Well, you're something even worse- you are an IDIOM!!"
And, while they can be frustrating, they are also really funny :).

But with my younger son now 10 years old, I thought the days of these sorts of dialogues were over.  Not so, it appears.  A few nights ago, Hyrum and I went over to the high school to pick Walker up after his performance (Pirates of Penzance- last show is Saturday!).  We had gotten back into the car, and I reminded the boys to put on their seatbelts, like I always do.  And then this happened:
Hyrum- "I'm invisible! I can't wear a seatbelt because then you would see me!"
me- (trying very hard not to giggle because he totally makes sense) "It's an invisible seatbelt.  Wear it or fly home, superman."
Hmmmm.  Apparently, invisibility is not one of Superman's powers.  But it is one of Hyrum's.  Who knew?!

This is the costume that never ends...

Unfortunately, I am not speaking of Halloween costumes.  These are policeman costumes for the Pirates of Penzance.  And I will say only 2 things about them: first, period-authentic Civil War costumes, while they look AWESOME, are probably not necessary for a live theater production that does NOT take place in the USA during the Civil War. (hello, button fly!  you do not lend yourself well to quick costume changes.)  Second, TECH EDITOR FAIL.  It’s a very good thing that I (and by “I,” I mean “we,” since my MIL sewed almost all of the jackets, leaving me to cut out the pattern pieces and sew the pants together.  I know, she IS a saint!)  know how to put together clothing.  Also, that I (again, I mean "we,") am good enough to improvise when the instructions are MISSING BECAUSE THE TECH EDITOR IS IMAGINARY!!!  Or lazy. Or illiterate.  All of which are actually likely, considering the absolute disaster of a pattern…  Seriously.  They hired an imaginary, illiterate tech editor who was lazy.  Or aliens.  Aliens would work, too.

But all I have left to do at this point is to hem the pants and jacket of the second costume.  Originally they were meant for somebody who is about 6 feet tall.  After skipping too many practices, that person has been replaced by a much shorter person.  So, hemming.  Except I can't just chop off the too-long bits and do a simple hem, because what if they use these costumes again and need it to be for a tall person?!?  Which means hemming by hand, very carefully, to take into account the disparity between the hemline needed and the extra fabric involved.  Blech.

Okay, I feel better now :)  

This furlough thing- I would be much happier if none of the Senators were getting paid until they solved this problem.  Jared has to work, as he's considered essential personnel, but he isn't getting paid.  Assuming that the Senate gets their act together, he will eventually get reimbursed for his time.  However, this makes me grateful for our emergency fund and our food storage.

And on a much happier note, it snowed Thursday night!  Quite a bit, actually, and we had snow on the ground the next morning for my daily walk.

It didn't stick, but it surely was a beautiful sight!
Also, today and tomorrow my church has their semi-annual conference, which means I can feast on the wonderful spiritual messages.

So, happy things:
* snow!!!!
* and because of snow, hot cocoa and other delicious winter treats :)
* beautiful music
* spiritual messages
* lots of yarn with which to crochet and knit.
* good friends and neighbors.
* my family is loving and supportive.
* homemade jams and syrups (chokecherry and blackberry) mmmmmm.
* we're all healthy and we have plenty of food and clothing.
* God is good.

Maria

I learned something really cool yesterday that tied a song from "Paint Your Wagon" to the practice of naming storms after women. This is from the wiki entry for "They Call the Wind Maria:"

 "In George Rippey Stewart's 1941 novel Storm, he gives the storm which is the protagonist of his story the name "Maria."
The success of Stewart's novel was one factor that motivated U.S. military meteorologists to start the informal practice of giving women's names to storms in the Pacific during World War II. The practice became official in 1945. In 1953, a similar system of using women's names was adopted for North Atlantic storms. This continued until 1979, when men's names were incorporated into the system.

 This novel was also the inspiration for the song. Isn't that cool? Stewart wrote a novel, which inspired Lerner & Loewe to write a song, which led meteorologists to name storms after women.

 I really like the internet.

this is my favorite version, because it uses the minor key in the second verse, which sounds so much like the wind moaning. there are others available on youtube :)

and my happy list:
* good friends.
* it snowed in the mountains yesterday!
* hot cocoa to warm me up.
* reliable cars.
* a mother-in-law who sewed 2 costumes for w's school musical.
* h did his homework without me asking him to!
* w did a load of dishes without me asking him to!
* m cleaned up her breakfast mess without me asking her to!
* kids who do their chores without me nagging :)
* good music
* warm house
* podcasts
* the internet
* i have lots of warm things to wear
* God is good.

Volunteering

So a week ago last Thursday (Sept 5), Jared called to let me know he might be working out of town over the weekend.  It was disappointing, but after 9 years in the military, we've learned to be flexible.  Friday afternoon he texts me, "Forgot to let you know that I agreed to the family speaking in church Sunday."
I sent back "very funny" and he replied "not kidding."

I was eager to spread the happy news, and when the kids got home an hour later, I greeted them at the door with the exciting information that they got to give talks in church in less than TWO DAYS!!! HOORAY!!!!!

They did an amazing job- W and M wrote their own talks, and I pulled a few church magazines out and handed them to H.  He wrote his own talk, had me edit it, and I made him read it through several times.  Then I wrote my own talk :) and put in lots of extra research just in case the kids were quick.  They were, which left about half the meeting for me to fill.  I managed, with the help of Heavenly Father and some divine inspiration :).

Today, the choir performed a song, "Draw Near Unto Me."  (i looked on youtube, but couldn't find a complete rendition of the song. oh well.)  Despite the fact that it has taken much more preparation and time than did my talk, I enjoyed leading the choir so much more than I did giving that talk.  I feel much more comfortable in a musical setting, I guess.

School is progressing well, I think.  H is playing football- tackle football!!- and has practice 3 times a week, plus 1 game a week.  It means he has very little free time, since he has to fit in scouts and homework on the days he has no practice.  However, he absolutely loves practicing and playing.  As in, he's ready well before he needs to be, and bugs me to drop him off early so he can in some extra practice.  I'm really glad he has found something he enjoys so much.

M is doing well- she likes most of her classes, and loves her art class.  She is still working a few days a week, and we've had at least one episode of staying up really late Sunday evening trying frantically to finish up homework for Monday.  She is learning to better manage her time, though, which is good.

W is busy with play practice (performances are October 18, 19, 21, 23, 25, and 26 at 6:30pm).  He's had several tests already, and works hard to keep up in all his classes.  However, he's already talking about what classes he wants to take next year, as well as his senior year.  I cannot believe how quickly the time is passing- I still remember taking him to the bus stop for his first day of kindergarten!

Jared is working a lot, and preparing for the upcoming hunting season.  He has big plans for an elk- he and Morgen will be hunting this year.  I'm not sure where we'll put all the meat if we get more than one elk though.

Gratitude List:
* running water.  hot and cold both!
* flush toilets
* blackberries (we made jam from the ones growing in our yard- delicious!)
* a juicer and water bath canner.
* fish for dinner.
* cooler weather :)
* music, both sacred and secular, that inspires me.
* good friends
* family
* Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father
* podcasts, and the ability to store a lot on my iphone so i can listen to them.
* Jared is home this week, barring any unscheduled emergencies.

Vacation Rental pictures

view of the driveway entrance from the house:

side yard- lots of grass, volleyball court; you can see the edge of the deck on the side of the house here:

side deck- dad's trying out the deck chair and you can see the volleyball court on the far right:

deck wraps around 3 sides of the house- here's the front view of the house/deck- i'm standing on the far right corner of the deck in the same place i stood to take pics of the side yard.  deck surface is poured concrete, railings are pine:

view of the backyard from the deck- underneath my feet is the downstairs patio area which has a hot tub and a gravel-covered ramp leading up to the backyard:

 the tree line at the back of the volleyball court is where the dry creek bed is located:

closer look at trees behind the volleyball court, you can see the rocks in the creek bed behind them:

view of the back of the house from behind the volleyball court:

you can see some of the extra parking space available behind and to the side of the house here:

pictures of the back deck- the french doors open into the dining/kitchen area of the house:

 those red deck chairs are the ones dad was trying out earlier:

dining room table with doors going out to deck:

kitchen and island:

garage side of the house:

Birthdays

Well, Hyrum is officially in his double digits now.  10 years old- however did it happen?!?

He wanted a birthday party at the local gymnastics gym, and we were able to reserve it for an hour of jumping and playing.  The boys loved every minute, and I was glad they had a good outlet for their energy!

I believe this was Hyrum's favorite part- he managed to do a few back flips while in harness, and has talked about it the rest of the week.  I'm so glad he had fun :).

We ended the day with cupcakes and presents, then watched a movie until the kids had to leave.

Gratitude List:
* my family members are all healthy and happy.
* cool nights even in the summertime.
* allergy medications.
* our garden is growing
* rain and sprinklers
* morgen is home safely from girls' camp, which she loved.
* good books
* good music
* God is good.