First Day of School

The day is starting earlier and earlier around here. Zach and Bailey have early morning seminary so that they can take their classes over at the college so we are up before the sun (well...some of us). I woke Zach up an hour before he needed to leave.  Ten minutes before we ran out the door we discovered him still sleeping.  I've never seen someone shower that quickly.  Bailey was very excited for her vet class.  Unfortunately for me she has to deal with 18 foot boa's and I spent the day trying not to think about it.  Kaitlyn had a fabulous day of Junior High. The smile on her face was priceless.  Jacob did great all by himself at his own school.  He was thrilled to see his friends again.

I cleaned the kitchen at about 9:30.  At 2:45 it still looked the same. I'm not sure that has ever happened in my house before so I had to capture the moment on camera :)

When Life Gives You Celery...make...Flowers

Today should have been a magical day.  Something that I've been dreaming of for about a year now happened.  I was so excited and as with so many things that we plan for and hope for it didn't go as planned. Arguments ensued and the atmosphere in the home was less than ideal.  I take EVERYTHING personal and so of course the morning events meant that everything is bad and ugly and nothing would ever be "right" again. I am the first person to point out and acknowlege God's hand in the every day happenings around here and despite the fact that I KNOW that he has he been here every step of the way I felt somewhat forgotten.   There was no beauty to be seen anywhere around me and with nothing but despair I made my way to the kitchen to make dinner.  I grabbed the celery and started hacking at it forgetting about the inner leaves and the dirt on the bottom and just took all of my frustration out on the poor vegetable.  I got down to the base and prepared to discard it in the trash with great flourish when I noticed what had been hidden beneath...

In all the years of cutting celery I have NEVER known that it could it be created into something beautiful.  It was a good reminder that even though we can not always see the beauty in something around us that it does exist...that HE does exist.  My object lesson quickly turned into a "hey everybody...come and look" moment. The atmosphere in the home changed and I'm not ashamed to say that tears fell. Never forget to see the beauty in the unexpected places and NEVER forget to see the miracles that happen every day.  Don't judge something or someone on their dirty exterior, there is beauty in everyone. 

It is Great to be Eight

 

Jacob's baptism was fabulous.  I was so worried about him turning 8 but it turns out it was for nothing..he's just as adorable as he was at 7.  Today while watching Soul Surfer we got right to the dramatic part when the girl loses her arm and he says, "oh no..how will she text".  While playing a game I made a poor move just to speed the game up and he says, "ah ha...I see a "flea" in your plan"..oh how I love that boy.

Summer in a Nut Shell

It is August....wow...when did that happen.  It has been a crazy and fun summer and here are the bullet points.

Shad and Sandra came to visit the first part of June and our days were full of fun.  We went to Antelope Island and were able to convince the ranger to let us passed the gate and were able to get within feet of the buffalo.  I'm not sure what I was thinking, I woke up the other day and realized exactly what that meant..buffalo are not tame and they're a tad bit bigger than your average animal.

 Animals tend to poop when I'm around.  I think I'm a very relaxing person.  While looking around the barn we saw what we assumed was a dead animal.  The lighting was off and I didn't want to get very close but the big heap of something started moving and suddenly little quills started to show and we realize that this was the biggest porcupine ever to exist.  We sat and watched him for a while as he stretched and sat up on his hind legs..we would have taken him home if we thought we could sneak him past the HOA.

The girls thought this little wind tunnel at the local mall was fun, I was just glad they spent their own money on it.

Gardner Village is always a favorite.

We discovered the Daybreak park and Jacob thinks that he is Spiderman. Bailey, as always looks lovely.
 

Kaitlyn is a little monkey.

Zach hasn't been around much this summer.  He has a new job working at Smiths and it keeps him pretty busy.  The only time I seem to see him is when we pass in front of the microwave.  I love going into Smiths and seeing him him working.  The customers and the management seem to enjoy his sarcasm.

My angel turned 8.....EIGHT!  I had a few crying fits and I'm sure more will come as he is baptized this weekend.  He gets more imaginative and more darling every day.  For his birthday he got a bunch of squirt guns so he could soak the neighbor kids.  One of our teenage neighbors was complaining that he was dehydrated.  Jacob walked up to him holding a giant water balloon and said with great swagger "so, Ezra, I hear you're dehydrated" and threw the balloon right at him.

Kaitlyn was hit by an ariel firework on July 4th while at a neighborhood party.  She had a horrible burn but somehow despite her pants catching on fire it was only her hand to get the worst of it.  She developed a staph infection (of course) and missed out on a lot of summer play time but is healing up beautifully.

Oh so cute!

We had MAJOR snake issues this year.  They deserve a post all of their own.

We hosted a group of students from China.  It was a great experience and even though they've been gone for a couple of weeks I'm still trying to recover. 

My little Kaitlyn who will be 12 this month is such a beauty.

I love his smile.  He is the happiest kid I've ever met. 

Building Walls?

I have been doing some soul searching this week.  It is probably because I have the plague and have been convinced on more than one occasion that I was all but done for. (Kaitlyn says I'm a big baby and then in great detail gave me the symptoms of the plague and why I don't have it).  I have been thinking about social media AKA Facebook, and how it has made a difference in my life.  I love that I have been able to connect with old friends and find out what new friends are doing at the touch of a button.  I have thought that in some way this was my way really being connected to people.  I have realized, however, that the communication is not genuine, not real and not all that I think it is.  I am pretty open and share with people what is on my mind, in fact, maybe a little too much BUT that isn't always a good thing :)  I was telling one of my friends the other day that I felt she was building up walls to see who was willing to tear them down....I think that is where I am.  I am not done with Facebook...it is an invaluable tool, but I think I am going to be a bit more selective with who I am communicating and how.  I want genuine real relationships.

World Tragedy

I was watching the news of the horrific earthquake in Japan this week.  There were houses washed away, cars destroyed, lives forever changed.  Jacob looked at the images and said, "they're ok mom, they have food storage".  I wanted to explain to him that food storage probably doesn't help them much when they're houses are washed away but the faith in his little eyes was too strong.  I simply said, "yes Jacob, they'll be blessed".  I pray they are.

One YEAR!!!!

We have had Waffles for one year this month.  I don't love dogs.  I like the idea of dogs and have always felt that every child should grow up with one.  I have tried big dogs, little dogs, medium sized dogs and I had just about decided that I was not meant to have one.  I had this nagging feeling that I had to try one more time.  Zach convinced the shelter to let us "borrow" dogs over night and see what we thought of different ones but I didn't like any of them.  I did a lot of driving back and forth to the Humane Society looking.  On a whim I checked out a dog that was at one of the local shelters.  She wasn't at all what I was looking for but for some reason I just had to meet her.  I took Jacob with me because if  dog doesn't like Jacob then it was a big NO.  This dog loved Jacob immediately.  She was well trained, thanks to the animal control officers who saw her potential and worked with her.  They let her roam the shelter and had her very well socialized.  I decided to give her a chance. I took her to several different vets offices trying to figure out what kind of mix she is.  Each one came up with "lab mix"  each vet had a different breed they thought she was mixed with.   It took some work getting her trained to find the door to go outside.  It was worth it.  She is my favorite dog ever and I love that she keeps an eye on my babies when they're playing and that she eagerly answers the door with me.  People ask about her name....Waffles. I honestly didn't think we'd end up trying her out for more than over night so when we thought about names I just threw out the name of something I had eaten that morning.  Thankfully, it fits her personality.