Stuff

My Mom sent out a newsletter style update of what they’ve been up to in Nevada.  She invited the rest of us to send an update as well.  I just wanted to save what I sent out so here it is: (It was written on Wednesday, October 15.)

Hi.  We’re all doing well and wondering where the first quarter of the school year has gone!  It ends in 2 days and hardly seems like the kids have been in school long enough to be this far into the year.  But we’re glad as we seem to go from one day off to the next, always aware of when the next break will be.  And then before we know it, the school year is through!  Hooray!

Sam is busy with violin.  He plays with Eastern’s orchestra for the first concert each semester.  Of course he’d love to do it for every concert, but rehearsals are on the same night as youth activities at church.  As it is, he misses about 4 months of church activities each year then goes for the other 8.  This semester’s concert is “Fright Night” which is on November 2.  The orchestra wears costumes and the kids who attend can wear costumes and they have them parade around the audience at some point in the evening.  The conductor does a great job and always has first rate performances.  Sam is excited to get to play in the brand new building which was just completed in time for school to start in August.  It’s very nice.  It sure beats the old gymnasium where they practiced and performed while it’s been under construction!!  In other Sam news, 7th grade was a huge adjustment for Sam and the rest of us.  It’s run very differently than middle school was for me and it’s also different from the 6th grade.  But he’s doing well and thinks he got straight A’s first quarter.  We’ll find out next week.

The rest of the kids are also doing well.  Sterling’s first grade class only has about 15 kids and over half of them were in his Kindergarten class last year!   It’s a fun class, but so far has been mostly review and Sterling is BORED!  He wishes he could go half-day.  I wish he could go half-day.  I’m anxious for P/T conferences next week to discuss our options for him.  He’s a bright kid and loves to write stories with elaborate illustrations.  He’s a Star Wars fanatic lately and would be happy if he could change his name to Luke Skywalker.  Or maybe that was last week.  Currently he also can’t seem to get enough of Calvin & Hobbes and left us a note the other day saying that he was “seceding from the family”.  What 6 year old (besides Calvin) does that?  We’re glad he changed his mind.  He also wishes he could change his name to Calvin.

Well, I don’t really have individual reports on each child, but things are going well.  We’ve been happy to pick up a little more Amerityre here and there as it’s been on sale so much lately.  I’m noticing that, even though food prices are going up, I find the things I need on sale fairly frequently so we haven’t been hit too hard with the financial crunch yet.  We’re thankful to be prepared and have a little put away for such times.

Love, Missy and the gang

Checkers

This little kitten showed up on Saturday afternoon.  The kids thought they were in heaven and proceeded to feed “him” and play with him for several hours.  Soren named him Checkers.  He looks right at home in Jeff’s flower beds (much to Jeff’s dismay).

To the kids’ delight (and much to Missy’s dismay), Checkers was still around when we got home from the reception Saturday night and when we left for church the next morning.  When we got home from church, we didn’t see him and the kids were worried he had gone back to wherever he came from.  No such luck.  We found him curled up in a bag of clothes intended for good will that we’d put on the porch.  This morning there was no sign of checkers and he really looks like a cared for cat so I suspect he’s gone “home”, wherever that is.  But his visit sure cheered up the kids!

Dancin'

We attended a wedding reception Saturday night at an Amish buffet.  It was SO fun!!  This picture is the groom, Lloyd, dancing with his Mom, Debbie.  Debbie just happens to be one of my favorite people.  Their family is always fun and willing to do anything for anyone at a moments notice.  We love them!!  Anyway, aside from the delicious Amish home cooking style meal, there was some serious dancing going on that night.  It’s been a long time (too long) since we’ve been to a dance and we all had a great time.  So thanks, Lloyd, for getting married so we could come and party with you!

A friend, Carrie, who happened to be in town “getting down” with my kids.

Soren loved the Y.M.C.A.

Sadie made me carry her around at first, but once she got down (no pun intended), she was a wild little thing for the rest of the evening.  She and her friend, Aftyn, chased each other around and danced their little hearts out!

Sterling thought he was pretty hip and danced this same move all night long.  Crazy kid!

Jeff and I got a little dancing in ourselves.  We got to do some country swingin’ and even slow danced a time or two (woo woo)!   It was a great evening.

The Homecoming Parade

Growing up in Utah, we always celebrated Pioneer Day on July 24th.  There’s a huge parade in the heart of downtown Salt Lake with amazing floats and top notch marching bands.  For years, my Dad’s office was on the parade route.  Since Wall Street doesn’t celebrate Pioneer Day, we’d all go visit my Dad at work and watch the parade in front of his office.  It was always a fun time and something I remember with fondness.

This past week was Homecoming for our little University.  We always attend the parade on Saturday morning.  It doesn’t even compare to the floats and other attractions I remember from my youth, but I honestly can’t remember ever enjoying a parade more than I did on Saturday.  My heart was completely happy and I loved every minute of it.

Of course the parade included floats:

The theme this year was “Rock ‘n’ Roll, Pop ‘n’ Soul”.  Don’t you love the yellow submarine?  :)

There were also a variety of people:

The World War II veterans.  We won’t see them at many more parades.  The man looking at the camera is Don.  We’ve got several pieces of furniture in our home handcrafted by him.  He just works out in his garage every day making furniture.  You can go and buy what you see or tell him exactly what you want and he’ll make for you.  He and his wife are very welcoming and stopped in on Christmas morning one year to visit.  Nice people.

This guy was born in the wrong generation.  Seriously.  He isn’t just dressed up here for the parade, but those are his real sideburns and I sometimes see him around town, always on his horse and always dressed from the 1800’s.

The Association of International Students.  I love that there are students here from many countries.  I wish I could invite them all over to my house to teach us about their homeland.  We’ve done that with some of Jeff’s colleagues and it’s always a very enjoyable and educational experience.

This is a “cheer” squad, but I’m not sure where they’re from.  They weren’t representing a particular school, but man, these kids knew how to get down!  They were really putting on a show.

This man is in our ward.  He and his wife run the local haunted house.  Actually, it’s an old, abandoned mental hospital which makes it that much more creepy!!  Sadie wasn’t especially fond of him at the parade.  He was carrying a chainsaw and scaring the “bejeebers” (as my brother would say) out of all the kids.  Nice guy, really!

This girl gets the award for most dedicated marching band member. 

Mr. Recycle Man

One of the most handsome parade watchers!

And last, but not least, the vehicles:

Old, new, green, BIG, and what would a parade be without the Shriners?

My favorite was the University library staff all dressed up as hippies.  They were carrying signs like “Give Books a Chance”, but the best one was:

The kids’ favorite part?  The candy, of course.  They ended up with a whopping 10+ pounds.  Yes, they weighed it.  Guess what we’re giving out for Halloween?

Camping

For one reason or another, Jeff and the kids all had the day off of school last Friday. Realizing this only a few days before, we decided to take our first family camping trip. We left Friday after lunch and headed north.

Settling into our campsite, we quickly realized that there were little black flying biting bugs everywhere. EVERYWHERE! They swarmed us and all of our equipment. I was feeling very discouraged wondering how we could possible stay. We slathered ourselves in bug spray, but it didn’t make a difference. Jeff suggested we leave our stuff and go down the road to a clearing where there was a playground and a fishing spot. We’d let the kids play and fish and then we’d decide what to do.

We enjoyed fishing and playing for a couple of hours. Before heading back to camp, we had a family prayer. Jeff asked Heavenly Father to take the bugs away so we could enjoy our time together. When we got back to camp, believe it or not, there were no bugs. None. We were all relieved and grateful and quickly went about setting up camp and cooking dinner. The odd thing was that as it became very dark and we had the lantern burning that evening, there weren’t even any bugs or moths swarming the lantern. They were just gone! Hooray!! It was so reassuring to know that Heavenly Father heard and answered our prayer even though our request probably sounded pretty trivial when you consider the problems in the world. But He loves us and He knew this was important to us.

Here are a few other highlights:

• I lost my contact in the dirt when it was pitch dark. We actually found it, washed it off, and I was wearing it again the next morning.
• I hung Savannah’s bra from a tree. It was pretty funny when she noticed it.
• On our way home, we drove past a gas station. Sadie was looking out the window and said, “I see Santa Claus.” Sure enough, a group of bikers were filling up their motorcycles with gas and one of the bikers was dressed in a full Santa suit, complete with beard, hat and boots. Where’s my camera when I need it?

We all had a great time and I hope it will become a tradition!

Sterling (a.k.a. Luke Skywalker) using the force.

Savannah and Jeff cooking our bacon and egg breakfast.

The troops! (Sterling, do not pour that water on your brother’s head!)

Fall

Here’s a little glimpse of the fall colors in our little corner of the world. Fall seems to be coming on gradually with the trees changing a few leaves at a time. The maples all over town are so pretty with their colors ranging from deep green to bright orange. This picture is from a tree a few houses down the street. The colors are brighter this year than I remember in the past. Within days I imagine the oranges will take over and we’ll go for our annual Sunday drive through the state park to see the display. I love this time of year!

The next picture was taken at a state park about 30 minutes north where we camped last weekend. This tree is all decked out in a pretty pink, but the trees around it haven’t started changing yet. I love the contrast!

Say What? # 4 and #5

Sadie and I stopped by a friend’s house the other day to drop something off. Her little friend, Avery, was at preschool so we didn’t stay. Sadie thought she should have been able to stay anyway and was pretty upset with me all the way home. She told me Avery’s house was more fun than ours and that our house was boring.

So I asked her, “What can I do to make our house more fun?”

She didn’t skip a beat before answering, “Paint it pink and put Avery’s toys in it!”

Today at lunch, Sadie decided she was finished eating although there was plenty of food still on her plate. She climbed down from her chair and before running off to play, announced, “Mom, I’m fasting!”