Trek and Treating

Ashlyn, our little angel (most of the time)

Lauren as a wood nymph

Caleb our "red-neck" hillbilly

Nate as an old-fashioned golfer

For Halloween, we went to a local walking path, where neighbors set up spots and the kids walked around the path "trek-or-treating." Besides a lot of candy, we also had hot dogs and hot chocolate. The weather was perfect...warm and dry. After the trek-or-treating, the girls, Steve and I went out for some traditional trick-or-treating, to make sure the kids don't forget how us old fogies did it way back in the day. Although the boys were willing to go out to the trek-or-treating, they decided they were too old for the "kiddie" trick-or-treating. I figure they received enough candy and weren't willing to work for more.

Carving Up Some Fun

We continued our annual tradition this year of carving pumpkins for Halloween. Everyone picked their own pumpkin and pattern for carving. While I was at the stake center, officiating volleyball, Steve got the gang started on scooping out the gooey stuff from the pumpkin.

This year was the easiest year yet, because everyone except Ashlyn could manage most of the carving on their own.

It was a fun evening, and another successful pumpkin carving event. The pumpkin seeds with the garlic salt were a hit as well. The end result was well worth the clean-up afterwards!

Weekend Wedding

This weekend we traveled to California for Mike and Melissa's wedding. It was a whirlwind weekend, with our arrival in Sacramento on Friday, wedding on Saturday, reception in Redding that night, and return home on Sunday. Luckily the kids behaved well, even after being in the car for over 28 hours. (Blessings on whomever invented the portable dvd players and books on cd)



The wedding colors were purple and purple.



Trying to find purple for the girls outfits this summer was nearly impossible. It took three determined mothers and all the stores in three counties to find what we needed. But, wouldn't you know that now there is purple in all the stores, because it is the hottest color for Fall. (Murphy's Law strikes again)

Interestingly enough when we asked the kids what was the most memorable part of the trip, it wasn't seeing Mike and Melissa married (sorry Mike & Melissa), the 30 wild turkeys on the Sacramento Temple grounds, seeing Mt. Shasta and Mt. Lassen, or staying three nights in three different hotels...it was a breakfast at a casino just west of Reno. That worries me just a bit.

Our Typical Week

I've recieved a little bit of abuse because I've stopped updating the blog. I am sorry... I figured I'd give you a run-down of our last week, so you could see that I'm not ignoring this blog. I just haven't found the time. (This is a typical week.) With 4 kids in soccer, there is soccer training or soccer games every day of the week-excluding Sunday (along with the other activities). I love soccer season, and the running around is part of the craziness. However, In a few weeks when soccer season is over, I will definitely be glad.

Monday-
7:20-Nate and Caleb leave for school.
8:00- Steve leaves for work.
8:30-Lauren and Ashlyn go to school.
9:00-Lana substitute teaching.

3:15-4:00-Lana and kids are home from school. Quick snacks, jobs finished, piano practiced and homework started.
4:00-Ashlyn's soccer practice. I'm coaching Ashlyn's 1st/2nd grade soccer team. Nate and Caleb are my helpers.
5:30-Lauren's soccer practice.
6:45-home and finishing homework/starting dinner.
8:20- eating dinner
8:45-getting kids to bed, cleaning up the house, and preparing for substituting on Tuesday.

Tuesday-
Morning to afternoon- usual routine of getting to school and work.
5:30-soccer training for Caleb and Nate. (Of course both are in two different locations-30 minutes apart)
6:15 UAS meeting for Lana
6:30 Soccer game for Ashlyn. (Rainy game-luckily I was in my meeting, so Steve got to hang out in the rain with Ashlyn)
7:00 YM for the boys.
eating dinner around 8:45.

Wednesday-
Morning- piano lessons for Lauren and Ashlyn (7:30 and 8:00).
Afternoon-piano lessons for Nate and Caleb, and gymnastics for the girls.
Caleb game at 5:30.
Nate referee soccer game.
7:30 home from Caleb's game, starting dinner, homework and jobs. Eating dinner at 8:20.

Thursday-
Morning to afternoon- usual routine of getting to school and work.
Community Council mtg.
Nate soccer training

Friday-
Morning to afternoon- usual routine of getting to school and work.
Lauren on extended fieldtrip
Nate away game at 6:30-home at 10:00

Saturday-
Caleb's away game. Leaving house at 7:30.
Baptism for Sydney, our next door neighbor
Nate refereeing game at 12:00.
2:00-3:30-Cheering on our Cougars-wasn't that a great game!
3:30-Lauren's soccer game.
5:30 heading out to Nate's soccer game.
9:00-home and working on dinner.

Sunday-filled with 3 hours of church, 2 meetings and dinner with family.

Since I've been subbing this week, I am now truly amazed at Mothers who can work and keep their house clean. I'm not sure where they find the time. I am satisfied with a load of laundry and a load in the dishwasher each night after I've tucked the kids in bed.

I've been cleared to substitute teach from Kindergarten to 12th grade. But, Nate's asked that I stay out of his classes. (Though he wouldn't mind me subbing in his school- so I could take him out to lunch on those days.) It is very interesting to see how the kids have reacted to me working. I think they are worried, because in each family prayer they bless me and my substitute teaching. It makes me wonder how they act when there is a substitute in their class. When I come home from a subbing assignment, the first question they ask is how was the class. I may just get the opportunity to find out how they behave-we'll see.

I'm falling asleep right now as I write this post. Time for bed.

One Year Older and Wiser Too

I can never remember to buy candles for birthday cakes, so here is my one back-up candle-which won't melt down to quickly.

Nate turned 14 on the 3rd. He starts High School in a couple weeks. It's no wonder that I'm starting to see a few strands of gray hair and more wrinkles. If he wasn't such a good kid, I might have even more. (That reminds me of the story of a father talking to his son saying, "everytime you do something wrong I get another gray hair." The son thinks about this for a minute and then with eyes full of surprise he says, "So it was you that gave grandpa all his gray hair!")

I wanted to record a few of his favorite things, so he can look back and compare them in later years.

Nate In a Nutshell

Favorite Color: Green

Favorite Meal: Navajo Tacos

Favorite Dessert: Cookies or Double Fudge Brownie ice cream by Dreyers

Favorite Pasttimes: Can't decide between soccer, hunting, or fishing.

(I would say his favorite pasttime is teasing his younger siblings.)

Favorite School Subject: History

Best Friend: Blake

Favorite Movie: Oceans Eleven

Favorite TV Show: History Channel's Dog Fights (it's about WW II airplane fights, not re-enactments of Michael Vick's past criminal history)

Most memorable experience this past year: ?

Most embarassing experience: My Mom trying to coach my soccer team.

Biggest challenge this past year: Trying to gain weight, or getting my Mom to stop blogging about me.

Conehead

Sunday night Steve went out to feed the dogs. After a short time, Ashlyn ran into the house yelling that there was something wrong with Marge, one of our pointers. I came out to see what was the problem and saw that Marge had somehow managed to cut open a 3 inch gash on her hind leg, just above the knee. The cut was wide and deep, but luckily it wasn't bleeding. After a quick call to the Veternarian, we decided it could wait until the next morning. On Monday Marge went in for minor surgery to clean out and sew up the cut.

We opted to put Marge in a cone collar, in order to keep her from chewing on her stitches. But she managed to get that off her head and pull out all her stitches a couple days later. Back to the Vet and an upgrade to staples. A few days later Marge somehow worked out how to position the cone so she could reach her leg, and she pulled out all but one staple (of course it was late Saturday night and the Vet office was closed). We haven't returned to the Vet yet, because amazingly the wound has remained closed. I would post pictures of her cut, if it wasn't so gross. Once this heals completely, Marge will have a nice scar to remind us of our ordeal.

Playing Catch-up

Time is speeding up and our summer is quickly coming to a close. The knowledge that school will be starting soon is a bit of a shock. One day you are enjoying your carefree summer activities and the next you are looking through all the newspaper ads for the best back-to-school deals. Ihave neglected this blog for a few weeks to attend to the kids activities. Here is a quick update of what we have been doing, in no particular order.