Our Aniversary

We had our tenth wedding anniversary at the end of April and celebrated by going to a Dude Ranch just outside of Tulsa. We went up on a Friday evening and hiked a bit on the property. We stayed in a cute little cabin and then Saturday we did horseback riding, canoeing, gun shooting, tomahawk throwing, steer roping -with a little steel deer and archery. It was a lot of fun to get out together and do such fun things. It was a great weekend.

New Callings -in church and in life

A couple of weeks ago Dave and I decided that we would go ahead and homeschool our children next year. We found a program that we will use that is actually a public virtual school. It uses the k12 curriculum program, which is supposedly a really good curriculum. There will be a teacher that is assigned to us to be in charge of the curriculum and making sure the curriculum works for the kids. My job will be to teach what they assign the kids. By the time the child is in 5th grade, I think they do most of it themselves. So, I anticipate Jonathan being able to do a lot himself this year, even though he is in 4th grade. Jonathan and Matthew will be taking a few classes together to help me out with a few things. They will both be taking the same history, science and Spanish classes. So, I will be able to teach them these together and they will be able to help one another more with those too.

I am really excited about this and hope that I can get the house into order and ready in time for school to start. I am a bit nervous about it, but I think this is the right thing to do, so I know I will be able to do it.

Well, there's also another calling that I have gotten too. So, the homeschooling is my new calling in life, and Primary President is the new calling at church. These both happened around the same time. I am a bit nervous about doing all of it, but I know that the Lord will help me out with both of these things so I don't go nuts! So, as of now, I have not been released from any of my other callings... hopefully that will happen soon. I am still ward organist and I am also helping Dave out in Cub Scouts. I am also doing a volunteer calling (nobody has officially called me to this position) as ward choir pianist. I know that I will get released from the Cub Scouts soon, but the others might take a while longer. I have two wonderful counselors. I am very excited to have this calling and to be working with such wonderful people in the primary. I know it will be a lot of work and I hope that, yet again, I can get organized enough that it is not too big a strain on me.

So, anyone want to come and help me get my house organized? smile.

We had our pressure tank leak last week and soak our living room carpet. I took the shop vac to it and sucked up a lot of water. Then I had a fan blowing on it and the air conditioning turned on to help dehumidify the air. We had to replace the pressure tank and the fixtures attaching it to the water line. It has been leak free for a few days now and I think it will hold. We now need to figure out what to do with the carpet. I think I am really sick now because of it. My asthma has been driving me nuts for the last several days. I had to sleep in the family room last night so I could breathe.

Jonathan, Matthew and Rachel are doing a reading program this summer to get free books from Barnes and Noble. For every 8 books they read, they get a free book (limit of 2 free books). They are pretty good books too. We will probably sign up with the library and do a reading program there too.

Our garden is growing well and we are getting lots of strawberries, rhubarb and green onions right now. We're also using fresh dill and cilantro in things too. I am really excited about our garden this year and hope that I can preserve a lot of things for the winter. Our blackberries will be ripening in another few weeks. I don't think our fruit trees will produce much this year since they are still small. That's one investment that takes a while to pay off. I've tried raised bed gardens this year, and so far they are doing wonderfully.

Crazy Happenings

Some of you may have heard about the fires in Oklahoma on Thursday, April 9th. Well, there was a really big one right in our neck of the woods. When we were driving around this morning we saw some of the damage. There were houses that were completely gone. By "completely gone" I mean that they had no furniture, no roof, and no walls. Most of these houses were brick homes and all that's left of them is a pile of ash! We didn't even go to the hardest hit areas. We were just going to the park and home again. There were several close calls. We saw one house that had a completely black yard, front and back, and the house wasn't touched. Then, a few houses down the road was a house without a roof. All the ones in between were fine.

So, this happened in our ward boundaries. There were actually two different wild fires in our ward boundaries. 35-40 houses were destroyed in these fires, and nobody in our ward lost their homes. Even though some of their neighbors did.

I guess our family is getting a lot of experience dealing with natural disasters. We have lived through hurricanes. We've been close to tornadoes. We've been in ice storms. And now, we've dealt with fires. All of this has been in the last 4-5 years too. It is a good feeling to know that I am more prepared than I have ever been before for these sorts of things. There are still a few more things we need to get, but for the most part, I think we are set. Of course, we can always get more and be prepared to help more people as well. So, I don't think that we will ever stop preparing for things like this. I am really glad that we have listened to the Prophet and done the things that we have done to be prepared. It gives us a sense of peace when we follow the Lord, not that I was feeling peaceful while the fires were burning... who could?

I urge any of you who read this to get prepared. Be prepared for anything that could happen. Know what you would do in situations that might happen. Do what you can now to prepare for tomorrow, since we never know what tomorrow will bring.

Spring is here

Well, it's been a while since I have posted. I have been really busy. My allergies have been really bad these last few weeks. The Bradford Pear trees, peach trees and redbud trees have bloomed. The first two are nearly done blooming. Our apple tree has started to bloom as well. I finally got the cool season veggies planted last night and today. I'm really excited about my gardening this year. I have made 4 garden boxes that measure 4 feet wide by 16 feet long. Into one of them I have transplanted strawberries. I have so many more strawberry plants that I am trying to get rid of. I've been telling people to come and get some, so come on over and get some. We have hundreds! One of the garden boxes has the cool season veggies planted in it. The others will be for the other crops, and then we still have 1/2 of our garden available for old fashoned planting. I will probably use that area for corn, potatoes and winter squash.

I've been trying to get Lizzie to use the toilet lately. It hasn't worked really well. She has only gone to the bathroom on the toilet a couple of times. On days that I try the underwear, she goes through 5 or so pairs by late afternoon when I finally get tired of it and put her back in a diaper. Well, today I had her in a diaper and she kept taking it off after she wet in it. Well, then she took it off after she pooped in it! Not only that, but she wasn't done pooping either. She walked across the house and pooped more on the floor in the family room, then stepped in it. Oh what a mess! I put her on the toilet and made her sit there while I cleaned up. I think she actually peed in the toilet that time! Sometimes it is hard to tell because a couple of my kids are good at forgetting to flush, so the water could have been a bit yellow before I put her there. So, I put a pair of underwear on her again (more absorbent ones) and hopefully she will learn a thing or two.

I went to a different Wal Mart the other day that still has fabric at it. There are two other Wal Marts that are closer to me, but I wanted to see the fabric. So, I found some and it is beautiful. I got enough to make a quilt (I hope) for my bed finally. I then came home and found a pretty pattern that I had to fgure out how big to make all the pieces. If my math on that is right, I should have enough of most of the fabrics for the quilt top and then some for borders. I will need to get more for borders, and more of one of the fabrics for the top, but they still had some of it left yesterday, so if I go soon I should be able to get what I need. I guess it also depends on if I will be making it for a queen or king bed. Right now we have a queen, but we keep talking about getting new bedroom furniture. I am not sure if it will be queen size or king size when we get it.
I am also thinking of decorating the master bathroom. Right now we have a mix and match (but not so much of the "match" part) of what we had when we moved in. I saw some cute bathroom decor things that I might decide to get. I still have the girls' bedroom to finish decorating too. I guess it is time to get cracking.

We are going to hatch a few more baby chicks again this year. We will probaly get rid of our roosters and keep some of the little ones that we hatch. We will not keep too many because we do not want to have many more chickens. Even now, we can't keep up with the egg output from the 10 hens that we have. We get about 6-8 eggs every day. It's wonderful. I've given so many of them away too and we still have 1 1/2 to 3 dozen eggs in our fridge at any given time. When we get close to the 3 dozen mark, I usually find someone to give half of them to. Jonathan and Matthew like cooking their own eggs for breakfast. I made the girls some fried egg sandwiches the other day for lunch. They thought those were pretty good. If anyone has any good ideas on different ways to eat eggs, I'm all ears!

I really enjoy living out here in the country. We are far enough away from the city, but not far enough that it is a pain to go to the store. That Wal Mart that I went to the other day was only 20 miles away. There are two that are closer than that, so it isn't bad. I don't know if I would ever be able to move back to a city. I like having the chickens. I love the sound of the roosters. I'd like to get more animals, but we can't do that in our neighborhood. Some of the people don't like the chickens that much, though I think most of the people do.

Well, that's the news from these parts. I hope you all take time to enjoy the wonderful things that spring brings and remember where we get it all from. This is such a wonderful time of year to remember all that our Savior did for us. We really do owe Him our lives. It would do us all well to remember that. If we are living our lives as Christ would have us do, we would all be much happier. There would not be so much anger or hatred. Let's strive to make our lives as close to Christ-like as possible.

Rachel, Lizzie and Gardening

Wow, what a time we have had. We all got ill during Christmas, but had fun with Dave's brother who came to visit us and had a brief visit with my brother when he stopped by. The boys are back at school and Rachel is continuing with her education now too. Things are going pretty well.

Rachel lost her first tooth the other day. It was really cute. She came in and was talking with Dave and I one evening as we were getting every one in bed. We were looking at her loose tooth and I commented that it looked like all she had to do was pull it and it would come out. I got a tissue for her to use to hold on to her tooth easier. I wrapped the tissue around her tooth and it almost fell off into my hands as I did it. I helped her grab the tooth that way and it fell out. She started going into hysterics. At first I couldn't tell if she was hurt or if she was just happy (because it was more like a scream than a laugh). I asked her if it hurt and she shook her head "No" and kept laughing. After she calmed down a bit she said that she thought it was going to hurt and was really surprised that it didn't. It was really cute.

Lizzie loves her brothers and sisters. One day as I was getting her ready for a nap she didn't want me. This is very odd because she is a HUGE "Mamma's Girl." She was in position for a diaper change and was telling me that she wanted Hannah. Not that Hannah can change her diaper, but she wanted her still. So, Hannah came in and played with her a bit while I changed her diaper and got her ready for her nap. When some of the kids are away, Lizzie often runs around the house calling for them and looking for them. I love it when my kids show love for each other. They all do it, and I think Lizzie is the one who feels the most love from them because she is still a "baby" and doesn't make them as mad as easily as they do to each other.

Gardening season is coming upon us here. We planted our tomato, pepper, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, egg plant and okra seeds for FHE on Monday. We will be trying egg plant and okra for the first time this year. Hopefully I will be able to figure out a good way to prepare them since I have never done that before. We are going to be trying some new techniques for gardening this year. We will be making a raised bed garden. I will construct 4 or so "boxes" that are 4 feet wide by 16 feet long and 8 or so inches tall. We will make some good soil (hopefully) with the compost that we have been making over these last few years of living here and a few other additives. We are very excited to try this new method and hope it works out well. We can start planting some things out doors in another month or so for some of the cool weather veggies. So, I guess I better get going on those boxes. I love the spring!!

From the Mouths of Babes

We have had a great week so far. On Sunday, I was able to play my flute in Sacrament Meeting with another sister and a two others were singing. It was such a beautiful fun thing.

On Monday the boys went to school and the girls and I started going through all the toys to get rid of the broken ones and the ones that nobody plays with anymore. We also made some orange rolls with cranberries in them for dessert. We had a fun family home evening and then went to bed.

On Tuesday, I let the boys play hookie from school and we went to the zoo in the morning and then went to McDonald's for lunch. After that we went to the Science Museum until it closed at 5:00. We went to the store after that to get things for baking today. By the time the kids got home, they were really tired and Dave got them some food and turned on a movie for them (I was still finishing up at the store since Dave met me there and took the kids home.) Jonathan told me as we were going to lunch that it was the best day ever. He said, "The zoo, McDonald's, the HOwells (friends who went with us) and the Omniplex. This is how every Tuesday should be." Needless to say, all the kids had a great day and loved it.

Today we are going to finish going through all the toys and get the family room as ready as we can for a remodel. We plan on remodeling it during Christmas break. We will be building a den/office and a storage room. We also want to extend the current bathroom a bit too and make it larger. It would be nice if we can get it mostly done in the two weeks that we will have to work on it. We are also going to bake pies today as well.

Well, Rachel is quite the girl! She always keeps us thinking and laughing. On Monday, Rachel was helping Dave get the FHE lesson ready. Dave mentioned to Rachel that kids that are not good do not get presents for Christmas. Rachel thought for a minute then replied, "That's okay Daddy, I will share my toys with Hannah."

I hope you all have a great laugh sometime today, and perhaps I helped!

New Callings

Well, Dave and I have new callings now. I will be leaving the primary as chorister (though I will probably stay and help out until after the program is over in a couple of weeks) and Dave will be leaving the young men. We have both been called as cub scout leaders. So, we will be working together a lot now on this. There are a total of 8 cub scouts. There are 3 Wolfs, 4 Bears and 1 Weblos. So, we will have to see how we are going to separate them and who will be doing what. Jonathan is very excited for this. He is a little bummed that we are not having scouts this evening.

Life has been so busy lately. We went on a trip to CO, UT and ID a bit ago for my grandpa's funeral services. It was a long trip and we figured that we drove equivalent of 7-8 hours a day during the 7 days that we drove. It was a trip full of business, but we were glad to have the chance to see everyone. I met some of my cousins for the first or second time. I saw family that I haven't seen in years. We saw my sister's grave that I haven't seen in years. We also were able to spend a day with Dave's Mom for her birthday, and visit his Grandpa's grave. We went to visit BYU and bought some lovely shirts from the bookstore. We spent time with Curtis (my brother) as he showed us around his work (he does some pretty cool stuff), and my little sister, Brittany. We also spent time with Dave's brother, Daniel.

It was a nice trip, but I'm glad to be home. We did too much stuff in too short a time! Now I am still trying to get back into the swing of things at home. It seems like it's harder to catch up after a trip like that. I had to do a bunch of canning when we got home and I still have more of it to do. I have a bunch of pears in the fridge that I need to take care of. I will probably can some and make jam out of the rest.

I feel that I am now coming down with a cold. Probably because of all this running around and stuff. A couple of the girls have a cold now too. I think Dave might also be getting a bit sick. But, a runny/stuffy nose is better than other things, so we are still doing really well.