Well, lets see.... where should I start?

Sheesh, I hate it when I get so far behind on my blog (and everything else for that matter...)! I don't know where to start! We had a couple weeks of crazy (I mean more crazy than normal). The school carnival went really well (and thanks to my nice new Chaco shoes, I could still walk when I was done!) It was a lot of work, but it's only one week, and now I'm done with my major volunteering for the year. I'm helping in McKay's class once a week and helping with a few class parties throughout the year, but that is cake compared to the carnival. Right after the carnival though we found that a friend and neighbor died unexpectedly, and the funeral was last Thursday. It was, and still is, such a sad shock. My emotions and time have been all over the place the last few weeks. It's been kind of nice to be back into the normal madness this week (cross fingers that it stays that way for a little while!)

At the carnival, there was a photographer taking autumn pictures and making them into key chains. Malia and her friends got a picture taken:

Here's a picture of McKay when he got home from the carnival:

(If you look really closely, you can tell that I had been super busy all week... but not busy cleaning house.... Rik had it all cleaned up for me when I got home though...thank heavens!)

I should catch up on some of the stuff that happened while I was busy (so glad Rik helps me cover the bases!) Kayden had another cross country meet at Rigby Lake. He took another minute and a half off his time, which was really good, considering they were running in sand for this race.

Oooh....how fun! A "Where's Kayden" puzzle picture!

Kayden is still really enjoying cross country. He has a meet in Twin Falls on Wednesday, and then the team is camping and coming home Thursday (no school Thursday and Friday this week). They did a fun night run the other night too (the object was to get to the high school without getting caught. He made it about halfway, before getting caught.) He has gotten so tall. For a long time we were eye to eye, then he started getting taller and taller. Now I have a nice view up his nose! And here's another fun family fact: Kayden and Rik can wear the same shoes, and Malia and I can wear the same shoes. I don't know if this is some kind of family milestone that should be celebrated in some way.... anyone know?

Speaking of Malia, volleyball finished up Saturday, and she is already having volleyball withdrawals. They played glow in the dark volleyball for YW/YM tonight, and she was so excited because it has been so long since she played volleyball (like three days...) She decided to replace volleyball with joining a small singing group. They practice once a week, and have about 7 performances. She should love that (just like everything else she does.) I'm hoping we get her volleyball pictures back Wednesday, when they have their team party. Here's her school picture from this year:Kayden's pictures are lost, and I can't seem to remember to call the school and find out where they are. I'll have to get on that tomorrow I guess. McKay and Taisha had school pictures taken last week, and Anaya got hers done today.

Today I also had a fun treat: another fun trip to the dentist. I don't know what is going on in my mouth.... but I have gone years and years with very little work done on my teeth, just the occasional cavity, and all of a sudden, my teeth are falling to pieces....literally! A few months ago, every single tooth on the right side of my mouth needed work, and then I had a tooth that just fell apart for no reason! So Sunday night I was eating a fruit roll-up (yes, I was that desperate for a snack Sunday night...) and I could feel this weird spot on my teeth. Like the smarty I am, I tried to figure out how I got a pop-corn kernel stuck in my teeth, with no memory of eating popcorn (Rik had just made a bowl though... so maybe that's why I had popcorn on the brain). Then the light finally came on and I realized that my tooth fell apart! When I went to the dentist today, the hygienist said it was like someone look an itty-bitty melon baller and took a chunk out of my tooth! I repeated about 500 times in my head "Please don't need a crown!" and I think that's what made all the difference, cause it was an easy fix, and didn't require any shots! So my lesson for this little story is have lots of good treats in the house on Sundays (well, that's what I got from it anyway....)

The weirdest part of that whole dentist story is that I have had (that's the addict speaking.... STILL HAVE) a serious addiction problem to chocolate milk.... and have been downing the stuff like nobody's business. I would have thought the amount of calcium I'm drinking would help strengthen my teeth. Maybe I need to drink MORE chocolate milk... ya, that's probably it!

Sunday we did our Primary Sacrament Program, and it went really well. I'm so lucky to have awesome counselors and secretary. This was my 3rd program in this ward. (You would all be very jealous if you knew just how awesome my presidency was....)

We seem to be settling into our school routine. I have some really neat piano students this year (12 students this year!), but the year doesn't feel as crazy as it sounds (last year was definitely a little on the wild side....) McKay is making a lot of progress these days (and I haven't gouged my eyes out with a fork trying to teach him his stuff.....Yeah!) I have been using an online site to help him with his letter sounds: http://www.starfall.com/ Great Web site (as a bonus I get the "Short A" song stuck in my head for hours!)

Oh, how fun! I left you a nice little riddle on this blog post (really hoping this will work on your subconscious..... it would be so good for me!!) Always fun times on my blog.... puzzles and riddles and stuff!

Extra Sensory Annoyance Detectors

**Warning ** Extra long, extremely whiny post**

So I had a bad week last week and I thought maybe if I wrote it all down, I could see some humor in it and have a better week this week. But before I get started on my week, I thought I would preface with an email that one of my friends sent me this week:

UCLA STUDY (VERY INTERESTING & SHORT)

A study worth sharing with friends both male and female: A study conducted by UCLA's Department of Psychiatry has revealed that the kind of face a woman finds attractive on a man can differ depending on where she is in her menstrual cycle. For example: If she is ovulating, she is attracted to men with rugged and masculine features. However, if she is menstruating, or menopausal, she tends to be more attracted to a man with duct tape over his mouth and a spear lodged in his chest while he is on fire.

No further studies are expected.

Oh I laughed and laughed over that one....

Last week I seemed to have super human extra sensory powers (maybe from the mine-mutated mosquitoes in Soda Springs?) for detecting all the really annoying things around me. Here I'll share a few:



My alarm clock. Actually this is Rik's alarm clock which he got before he went on his mission, so it's 19 years old. I should just replace the thing, since it's old, ugly, and has a mean streak, but you know how I am with wasting things. Right now I have two couches in my house. One we picked up used to match our emerald green carpet that was in our last house (does that give you any idea how lovely that couch is?) Anyway, I found a slip cover on sale for a really good price, and used one of those 20% off coupons with it and with some upholstery nails and staples, covered the emerald green and pink with brown. But it still has to be tucked and have no one ever sitting on it for it to look good. But as long as it is still functioning I just can't replace it. I think it is going to have to spontaneously start on fire before I ever get it replaced! The other couch is downstairs, and was a nice couch, but to move it out of our last house we had to saw off one third of it. But Rik did a nice job sawing it in two, and so we still own it and use it... because well, it still works and I just have a hard time wasting anything. I also have a kitchen table that seats 4.... with a family of 7.... but we just keep making due, because there is nothing really wrong with the table... and I don't want to waste it! One of my piano kids brought me a ginormous zucchini (the thing is nearly 2 feet long....) and I am already feeling all stressed trying to figure out how to use all that zucchini, because I don't want to waste it! Well sheesh, that was a little off topic, what was I talking about?! Oh yeah, my gripe with my dumb old alarm clock. In it's day it was probably awesome. It has the dual alarms and a cassette player, and for setting the time it has a "slow" button that goes up or down and a "fast" button that goes up or down, which is pretty handy.... if it worked properly. Right now those buttons aren't working very well. If you want to know the truth, I think the clock has got it out for me. Let's say I want to set my alarm for 7:10 (which is what time I get up on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays). I push the buttons trying to get to 7:10 and end up at 8:36, so I push the down button and get 6:42, then I push up just a little tiny bit and get 11:50, so then I push the down button and get 9:02 and 25 minutes later I finally get 7:02, I figure that's as good as it's going to get. It would be ok if I could just leave it at that, but I have to get up at 6:30 on Tuesdays and Thursday because of early morning piano lessons. So I have to deal with the alarm clock every night. Last week I seemed especially bothered by the clock and felt the need to throw it across the room, but didn't because that would be wasteful. So I was all conflicted inside. And had bad sleep. Which didn't help my mood.

The weather has cooled down a lot lately so the spiders are taking refuge in the house now. So the other day I went downstairs to do some laundry (which is a gripe all in itself.... Malia and Kayden are going though double the clothes with their sports. Malia has a favorite pair of volleyball spankies, and she swears she plays better with them than her other pair, which means that they have to be washed and dried every night.... but again, that's off topic....) anyway, I picked up a load to put in the washer and this huge spider went scurrying out from under my pile. Normally the spiders head off to find another hiding space, but this one went a foot or so down the hall from me, so it could get a better look at me, decided it could take me down, got all aggressive, and I was forced to smash it with a 2x4. Between the spiders, the never ending supply of wasps in the backyard, and the flies that have free rain of the house because my kids can't close a door (and my heightened sense of being bugged...hehe...no pun intended...)... well, it just added to my bad week.

Malia and Kayden get home from school between 5:30 and 6:30 everyday (and they come home STARVING... so I have to have dinner done and waiting for them, or else they might die... like one night I was making eggs, sausage and hash browns for dinner, and everything was done except the sausage needed another few minutes... but Kayden came home STARVING, and couldn't wait three minutes for the sausage... so he had to make a pot pie in the microwave to hold him over until dinner was ready 5 minutes later!) Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh ya, by the time they get home and eat dinner they have limited time to get everything else done before I need the house settling down and getting ready for bed. Malia has to get her piano practiced and Kayden seems to need some downtime every day or else he gets really grumpy (I mean more grumpy than his normal 14 year old self). He likes to wind down playing Rockband. So every night there is this really loud battle of the bands of sorts. Malia is playing the piano as loudly as she possibly can, and Kayden has Rockband full blast through the TV. Until the basement gets done (another gripe for another blog) my front room is my piano room, my family room and my toy room. Malia actually practices longer just to bug Kayden, and is getting to be such a good piano player, at least as far as I can hear, because I think I might be getting deaf in one ear.... and thank heavens for that! Between this and the nightly alarm clock procedure... I just about go crazy!

I don't generally volunteer for very much, but if you come and tell me you need some help I automatically say "Sure! I can do that!" You could ask me if I could do a trumpet solo, and I would so "Sure, I'd love to!" and my brain would be screaming "You idiot... you don't even know how to play the trumpet... don't own a trumpet... and don't have time to practice!! What are you doing!!!!" And then I would spend all sorts of time that I don't have watching YouTube videos learning how to play the trumpet, I would rent one, and sure enough I would play some hideous trumpet solo. All because of this personality disorder I have. So the last two years I have helped with our school's carnival. I am in charge of the food. All the food. And there is major food. I have to write the letters to have the food donated, collect a fleet of vehicles to pick of the food, and then live in the kitchen until the carnival is over. Our school does lots of food.... pizza, BBQ beef, hot dogs, chili, caramel apples, nachos, cotton candy (500 bags that we make the night before... all night long...), tator tots and everything else. This year I decided that I didn't think I could handle being in charge of the food. I could probably help out in the kitchen, but I just didn't think I had the time for being in charge. So the carnival lady that is in charge of the whole thing, stopped by and I had every intention of telling her that I couldn't do it.... until she showed up with her twin toddler girls, very pregnant. This was clearly the wrong person to talk to about having too much on my plate. So the carnival is this Friday. I pick up the food on Thursday so we can start slow roasting all 35 roasts for the BBQ beef. I wonder if there is some kind of pill I can take to fix my "can't say no" thing.


So by Saturday I thought maybe if I spent some time outside in the yard, my mood might improve. Rik and Kayden were canoeing and kayaking with the young men in our ward (they had so much fun.... Rik was the first one to fall in the water... and those were the first words out of Kayden's mouth when they got home). When we went to Soda over Labor Day weekend Rik stole a nice big rock from his mom's land (this is the 4th time he stole rocks from their land.... I think he has a problem). Anyway, the rock has been sitting in the back of my van ever since then. I have been waiting for him to move the rock by the tree that I planted (well I mostly planted.... My dad had an extra tree, and brought it over to my house, so thought I would plant it in my front yard. I removed the grass and started digging, but couldn't get my shovel in the ground even an inch. So I went and picked up a pick ax from my dad to hopefully loosen the ground a little. I was hacking away (not making very much progress with the hole... but making some pretty impressive sparks hitting the rocks in the hole!) when some nice just barely graduated boy stopped by asked if I needed some help, and when I said I was fine, he said he'd get me started (which I thought I had started... there were a few little holes...), and then proceeded to dig the whole hole for me! How nice was that!) Anyway..... I was wanting to plant some tulip bulbs around the tree, but wanted to wait for Rik to move the rock over so that I didn't plant tulips under the rock... but he has been so swamped lately! So I decided I would move the rock over myself. I got the wheelbarrow (which was still full of the rocks and grass from planting the tree), slid the rock to the edge of the van, carefully balanced one leg over the opposite side of the wheelbarrow, so it didn't tip over when I slid the rock in and tried to move the rock... which was hard because well, it's a big, heavy rock. I finally managed to get the rock into the wheelbarrow, pushed the whole thing over to the tree, tried to gauge where to park so that I didn't hit the nice tree with the rock, wrapped my leg around the opposite side of the wheelbarrow again, so that it wouldn't tip, and flipped the rock onto the ground (and missed the tree...phew!) When I flipped it though, it ended upside down, which at that point I was ready to leave it that way, but the whole reason Rik likes these rocks so much is because of the pretty mosses that grow on the top (or bottom in my case), so I got down on my knees and flipped the rock over, got it in the right place, adjusted all the dirt and bark around it, and decided it looked pretty good. Right then the missionaries walked by and asked if I needed any help. I just smiled and said I didn't think so (because duh.... all the work was done.....) Then I got all my bulbs planted and weeded my other flower gardens and was pretty happy with how the yard looked by the end of the day... and I didn't throw my back out....bonus!


I'm feeling a little better about things now. The marker came out of my bed spread (not the chap stick though.... but at least it was a nice plum color.... so it blends in and is hardly noticeable), the yard is looking good, I finished my expository for honors life science... I mean Kayden finished...whatever, I think I got the toilet to stop spewing water out of the tank, the carnival will be over this week, our first practice for the primary sacrament program went off without a hitch and I found out that someone in the bishopric has a crush on me! There's nothing better than that. Also, it seems my super human extrasensory annoyance detectors have vanished. Good thing for that! I am a little stressed about that zucchini though.....

Odds and Ends

This is Taisha at Back to School night. The whole class was sitting there all quiet like that.... it looked funny from the front of the classroom.



Malia's school held a volleyball invitational on Saturday (I still can't feel my backside from sitting in the bleachers for so long....) Malia's team won every match EXCEPT the championship match... so they ended up taking 2nd place. Apparently I have no idea how to take pictures in the gym. The pictures turned out terrible! If I wanted a picture of her face there was this net in the way, and when the net was out of the way, I could only get the back of her head. And then they were always moving and jumping and stuff...



I slipped away from Malia's games long enough to take Taisha, Anaya and McKay to Micheal's for a little crafty.



Anaya finally started school. She was so excited! Her only complaint was that I didn't get her new shoes. She's such a girl. I'll have to get on that I guess.

McKay is doing good at school for the most part. He had to sit by the teacher for talking too much to his neighbor, and today he said he had to put his card on the teacher's desk, which he said is REALLY bad (in his over dramatic 5-year old voice). He said it was because he didn't follow the directions on the teddy bear page. Ya, I have no idea what he's talking about either. He did get his phone number (542-6124) and address learned though...finally! He's not really a memorizer, so I thought I would come up with some nice little songs to help learn everything, but nope, that didn't help (we would sing the song about 100 times in a row, and then McKay would say: is it 5o1 261o? And then I would want to about strangle him or myself). So then we tried visual learning, and I had the phone number printed out and hanging all over the house. I came into the front room at some point, and he had pulled them all down and thrown them away. So next I though we would just try learning a little bit at a time... like just 542 or just 61 or just 24. Which McKay would say: is it 54321? And then I decided I needed to take a little break from this activity (so I could throw myself in front of a bus....), and I told Taisha to teach him. So she used gummy bears as bribes. It looked a little like she was training a dog. Taisha: Say 542 McKay: 542 (gummy bear in mouth). This didn't work either and really only gave him a sore tummy. Then the other morning I could hear McKay singing the phone number song... with all right numbers and in the right order and with no letters and everything! I was praising him up and down, and he said "ya, I knew it the whole time!" He was just messing with me. It just might be a long year with him!

Kayden had his first cross country meet, and lucky for him it was in Soda Springs! His Soda relatives got him all decked out... Subway and drink, and his very own cheering group! He really enjoyed the meet and said it was a lot of fun. I think they got a picture of him, I'll try and get it from them.

We've been enjoying the garden vegetables now (lots and lots of cherry tomatoes, which I didn't actually know I planted cherry tomatoes... and I didn't want any this year....) But unfortunatly, there was a vole that also enjoyed one of my garden boxes. I don't think we are going to get any cucumbers this year (cause the critter lived under and ate the roots of the cucumbers (noticed I said livED). And it also ate some of the potatoes. But it wasn't living in the tomato box... so lots and lots and lots of tomatoes.

Labor Day weekend

We headed up to Soda for a little boating and some yummy food on Saturday. It was so fun to see everyone and hang out and relax a little.... until the mosquitoes came out!! No relaxing when you're being eaten alive by the nasty little bugs. I swear they are bigger there in Soda. I think it's the mines there.... making the squitoes into giant menacing bugs. McKay asked if it was like Spiderman... you get super powers when you get bit by a mine-mutated squito. Um... no super powers so far... just itchy legs and arms and face and back.






Sunday we had a nice big BBQ (in the garage... cause it was windy and raining) with lots of yummy garden veggies. It rained and rained on Sunday, so my kids played in the rain, and then made boats to float (or sink...) in all the water in the gutters. After the kids dried off, Anaya put on a magic show.... she kept telling us to close our eyes for most of the magic to happen... things would disappear and reappear while our eyes were closed. It was amazing!



Monday we were going to get up and go for a little hike, but the weather still wasn't the greatest for hiking (especially for us non-outdoorsy types)... so instead we did hiking Alexa-style... we went to Johnny Carino's for dinner... well, there was a certain amount of walking to get from the van to the restaurant... we had to park really far away! They have an awesome Monday family deal that was really yummy! I guess it doesn't matter where you spend your family time, as long as you are together (and if I don't have to make dinner then it's REALLY nice!)