Mo Tab

We found out that Caleb's school teacher sings in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir so I took Caleb and Michelle up to Temple Square for the broadcast of "Music and the Spoken Word." I'd forgotten how wonderful the acoustics are in the tabernacle. The singing and the symphony were wonderful. My only regret was that the kids have to at least 8 years old (we fudged with Michelle) due to the live broadcast-it would've been even a better morning if we could have enjoyed it as a family.

Flag Football

Caleb wanted to play football. I thought that flag football would be a nice introduction into playing the game without him getting squashed. What I didn't know is that the rules are different enough from tackle football that it made things more confusing. I personally had a hard time watching the game since I kept wondering why the play stopped even though the opponent was still standing- - it's called they pulled his flag so the play is dead - those are the drawbacks from watching my brothers play TACKLE football. Next year he wants to try tackle football - I don't know if me or my wallet is ready for that.

Canoe trip

We decided to take the kids canoeing so we joined Trevor's sister's family for an afternoon down at Mona Lake. Strapping the rented canoe up on top of the van proved to be a monumental task, rowing the canoe was yet another wonder especially since Gabriella insisted on holding onto my paddle. We made a small tour of the lake with all of us in the canoe, then Trevor and I went out, followed by Trevor and Michelle. Yet the total time the canoe was in the water was maybe 40 minutes. It turns out it's a lot more work to paddle that thing then we had thought. The kids had more fun playing and rowing their cousins' kayaks. We made sure plenty of pictures were taken though since this will be the last time we plan on ever renting a canoe again.

Caleb's 9th birthday

Caleb really is 9 not 6 - he was just a little impatient and didn't want to wait for me to find more candles. I can't believe he's already 9. It seems like yesterday he was turning 8. But it's been so nice to have him get older and more self sufficient. He wakes up by himself and is dressed and eating breakfast by the time I get back from running.

Happy Birthday, Caleb boy!

Birthday

This is actually the day after my birthday - we just never got around to taking pictures yesterday so I had Megan take this for me. I love my new haircut and I have never worn a t-shirt with more pride than my marathon t-shirt. I'm so happy to have completed the marathon that I have no problems with turning 37 years old. I actually feel healthier than I have my whole life and I love my weight loss so much I stand on the scale all the time just to see those numbers. In fact a few months ago my mom was concerned about me and said that I looked too thin. I laughed and told her she'd just given me the best compliment I'd ever heard!
Anyway, on with the birthday. Trevor made me breakfast and the kids could hardly wait to give me their homemade gifts. For lunch, Mignonne, Jennifer and Maggie took me to lunch - they even provided a babysitter for my 2 youngest. Thank you so much ladies it was the break I needed so badly.

Snakes and Turtles

Caleb had his last Pack meeting as a Wolf. My parents were in town so my dad was able to come watch Caleb receive 7 beltloops, 1 pin, and 2 silver arrows. My dad found this garter snake skin and gave it to Caleb.

Before my parents left to go back home they came by to give Caleb and I our birthday gifts. They also brought a turtle that they'd found walking across the street. Caleb was ecstatic! He named him Tubby before I even said if we were going to keep it or not.

I did a lot of research on turtles and tortoises. We took it to the pet store and confirmed my suspicions. We would not be keeping Tubby. First of all the setup for his home, etc would be upwards of $300. Second, tortoises are not the best pet for young kids since they tend to bite and carry all kinds of parasites and worms. Third, we already have one pet and I really didn't want a second. The kids of course cried but have since almost forgotten all about him.

Marathon!

I know it's not the best photo but when we drove down Main Street in Logan and saw this sign I got chills down my back. I think that's when it finally hit me that I was running a marathon less than 12 hours from that time.
Trevor and I drove to Logan on Friday and had a peaceful relaxing day.
On Saturday we awoke at 4 am which actually wasn't too early for us, just an hour earlier than normal. Trevor was unsure about how his ankle would hold up but was confident the cortisone shot he'd received would do the trick. Unfortunately, his ankle gave out at mile 9 and he walked(rather limped) to the aid station at mile 11. He was pretty bummed - but hey he still went 11 miles. I saw him at mile 9.5. He begged for me to go on running and finish. I got choked up and had a really hard time leaving my ailing husband to fend for himself.
For me the marathon went a lot better than I was expecting. The miles seemed to go by really quickly which I was not expecting. I also thought that by the time I got to the finish line I'd be so tired I'd collapse, but my mom says of all the races she's seen me finish I looked the best after the marathon. Don't get me wrong IT WAS HARD just not as hard as my overacting imagination thought it would be.
The day was bittersweet. I was so happy that I accomplished my goal and felt good about my efforts, but I was sad that Trevor and I couldn't enjoy it together.

Service

Last Monday night I challenged to kids to do a secret service for someone in the family. Obviously I needed to better describe service because Caleb reported his service was keeping his room clean and Michelle's service was doing her homework. However, Megan didn't realize it but she actually had done service. Without my asking her to she picked up all the the books and toys that Gabriella had scattered around their room.
This is the before (taken a week or so ago).

This is the after - not perfect I know, but better than it was.

Bikes

Trevor and I finally bought ourselves a bike. The very night we bought it Caleb begged Trevor to go on a ride with him. We don't exactly have any roads around here that are anywhere near flat so it was a bit of a challenge for Caleb; nevertheless, he was able to earn his Bicycling beltloop for Cub Scouts.

Take a good look at Trevor's right foot and you'll see that he was a good sport and even rode the bike wearing a boot brace.

Paint and Rooms

One of the things Trevor and I have been discussing for over a year is the kids' room situation. We finally came to the conclusion to move Caleb into our playroom. It previously had all white walls so we thought we could spruce it up for him. We chose the colors then set to work painting while my parents were here so they could help. This is how my mom and Caleb helped.

My dad actually knew what he was doing.

Trevor's painting merit badge in scouts finally came in handy.

Now a week transpired between the above and below pictures. Trevor had to wear a boot brace on his foot and didn't couldn't move around well enough to finish the painting job. I was impatient and didn't want to wait for him so I did it myself. Mind you I have NEVER painted a room in my life so there was a huge learning curve.

Even after 2 coats the green wall didn't look very good. Trevor was able to help me with the 3rd coat so we could paint much faster and now the green walls look great.

BEWARE these are some gruesome pictures. Michelle and Caleb have serious issues with cleaning their room (hence one of the reasons we had to split them up).

Now that Caleb has his own room he has taken pride in keeping it clean (miracle of miracles!)

It took us a long day of cleaning to be able to see carpet again, and now that we can see floor I've given Michelle specific instructions of keeping her things picked up. As you can see she took that to mean things picked up off the floor but her bed is fair game for anything and everything.

As if we didn't get in enough painting yet, we're still needing to paint Michelle's window wall blue. As soon as the painting is done Megan will share this room with Michelle and Gabriella will then have her own room.

Now where do you think all the clothes from the floor of their room ended up - - you guessed it-the laundry room floor. Obviously my kids think there's a magical laundry fairy that washes and folds all their clothes. Little do they know that I'll be having a folding party and all of them will be participating.

Michelle's 7th Birthday

Michelle was born on me and Trevor's wedding anniversary. This year we decided to celebrate the festivities down at my parents' house. My dad made all of us a great french toast breakfast (french toast that Caleb insists is even better than IHOP's).

Of all the cakes, pies, brownies, ice cream, etc that Michelle could have chosen for her birthday she chose pumpkin pie.

My mom also arranged for Michelle to have a pony ride.

My parents gave Michelle a hulu girl outfit from their trip to Hawaii.

Michelle even wanted to join the guys on their fishing trip. Good thing too because she caught 3 fish within 15 minutes of getting to the lake.

After all the fun things for Michelle's birthday, Trevor and I were able to leave our kids with my parents so we could go out to dinner for our 11th wedding anniversary.

Megan's First Day of School

I've been kind of worried about how well Megan would do at school. Socially I think she'll do fine, academically she'll do fine, I'm worried about when she gets upset or frustrated. One of Megan's favorite phrases that she spouts off at people when they don't do as she wants is "You're Fired!" Trevor tells me she learned this phrase from the movie "Bugs Life". She's also been known to call people "evil" which she's picked up from Disney's "Phineas and Ferb".

I'm quite pleased to report that I never got a phone call from her teacher today so I'm going to assume Megan refrained from using either one of those phrases. However, she probably came close. As reported by Megan when I asked how she liked her teacher she said "Fine, except she interrupted me!" She then told me how she had just found a book about the 3 little bears when the teacher told her to put it back on the shelf. Hopefully she'll learn that there's a time and for everything and sometimes it's not when she wants it to be.

Back to School

As ridiculous as it sounds, beings as it's only the 17th of August, the kids started school today. Half of me is jumping for joy to have some quiet time for myself, but the other half is groaning because I'm not ready to face the morning rush OR the nagging homework time after school.

Michelle is starting second grade this year. So far she has had all the same teachers as Caleb has had. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing since Michelle and Caleb have such different personalities.


Caleb is starting 3rd grade this year which means he's already made it through half of elementary school since our school only goes through 5th grade. In some ways it's like time goes too slowly but then other times I realize how quickly he's growing up.

Megan is starting kindergarten this year. Her first day was actually today instead of Monday like the Caleb and Michelle. She was really excited and I don't think very nervous which is a good thing. I just spoke with Trevor, who took the kids to school and walked Megan into class, and he said that she shed no tears of separation which is a relief.

Movies

The kids start school next week so we thought we'd treat them to a movie today. Trevor has taken the kids to 2 movies this summer each time was when I was out of town running a race. So today was our first ever FAMILY trip to the movies. We saw Ice Age 3 and had a great time. We even splurged and bought popcorn and a drink (it was only water but I'm sure Trevor paid too much for it - I actually made him buy the snacks since I promised myself long ago after working at a movie theater that I'd never buy food at a theater).

County Fair

Several months ago I got the notion that our family should participate in the County Fair. So on Monday the kids and I took our submissions to be checked in at the fair.

I could hardly wait for Thursday night so I could see how we did. I truly wasn't expecting us to win anything so I was pleasantly surprised with all the ribbons we won.

Caleb and Michelle each entered a Lego creation but unfortunately they were in the same age category so Michelle's "Shadow Ship" took second and Caleb's "Mars Miner" took first place.

Megan's drawing of a boat took second place.

Michelle's drawing of her and her dad took first place.

Trevor's star shaped chocolate chip cookies took first place.

I entered 2 photographs that took 3rd place but the biggest surprise of all was my loaf of braided bread. It not only won first place but was one of only 25 overall items that won Best of Show! And to think that a year and a half ago I had never made a loaf of bread in my life.

Along with the ribbons came prize money too which greatly surprised the kids and made them really excited to submit something next year too. First place earned us $3, second place $2, third place $1 and Best of Show was $25.

We had a great experience and hope to make this County Fair thing a summer family tradition.