Blog Musings or Musings on a Blog

I had written a long post to be accompanied by these pictures, but upon reading it over before publishing, I realized that it was "too much".  Just too much.  It's better to say too little than to say too much, don't you think?  And since I otherwise have nothing worth writing tonight - here are some pics of the kids.  Enjoy.  

the race car driver

the writer

the mountain goat

The start of summer

When it rains, it pours.  

We have had our hands full, as of late.  I, myself, have been ill the past week with a horrible case of strep throat, which all of the kids also have, but I was able to get them tested and medicated early.  So, it never got too bad.  But despite all of this, we keep moving on with our summer schedule.

The kids are now in "summer school", doing assignments three times a week.  They're good sports about it.  We did just take several weeks off to play and visit family.  Time to get back to the books.

So just a minute ago, I spouted off on here (with the help of a few choice words) about my feelings on home ownership. But with the help of my palm pad mouse thing (which I usually turn off) I somehow erased all of it.  But it was probably a good thing.  Try to keep things positive, right?

Right.

Moving on, I went to put some clothes away in the girls' closet and I was very startled to find this:  

So keep the antibiotics pumping, the newly reseeded grass a growin' (as is our water bill from all the $#!% sprinklers we're having to use), the home inspections a comin', and the new septic tank a stirrin'.  yippee.

What's left of my yard

A week ago, we wrote a big check to have four guys come tear up our yard.  They did a thorough job, by the way.  But no longer do I open my door to the smell of septic.  Gone.  Zilch, and it's lovely (the smell being gone, not my yard).

The back yard.  

Yes, my patio is perched four feet above the rest of my yard

My side yard when they were almost done 

(they had already dug and recovered three trenches by this point)

The after picture; all ready for the weeds that will inevitably grow.

But in my front yard, my hydrangeas finally blossomed after years of nothing.  When I planted them, the blossoms were blue and now they're pink - my favorite flower color!

                           

Now Ryan and I are busily trying to reseed the yard and do anything to make it look better.  It's going to be a long process.  At least we don't have as much mowing to do!  Count your blessings, right?

Just to sum up

We have been back from vacation for a few days now and I have been asked a couple of times how our trip went.  Well, we did a lot of things and had a lot of fun.  How do you put it all into words so that people won't lose interest?  So I just decided to post a few of my pictures, showing all who might be interested a sprinkling of what we did over nearly two weeks. 

We did a little of this: 

Archery with bows and arrows my talented Dad made

And of course some evening fishing

 And a new adventure, stand-up paddle boarding.  So, so fun.  My first time out was on a very windy day; the waves were very large, making it hard to stand up.  I didn't go down, but my mom and brother took a backwards somersault off the back on the board into the water.  There was a lot of laughing this round.

 Ryan's first attempt: took place on a much calmer lake.  It was so easy to maneuver this lake after the previous attempt.  We had three boards, so we all took turns going out together; it was awesome.

Lots of swimming and games

And some relaxing at the farm

And a mountain bike ride, complete with one injury

More swimming in the lake; this island was a hit with the kids

Cousins trying out the board.  There was room to paddle with one to two kids on board.  They took turns coming out with an adult.

More tractor fun

Uncle Dan knew endless water games for the kids to play

We had a wonderful time.  A special part was the kids getting to meet their new baby cousin (maybe pictures later, after I get mom's permission).  We spent time in East Texas, out at the farm, in Dallas at my brother's loft, seeing the sights and sounds of their new place, more time out at the farm and lastly, a long weekend camping with the whole crew in Arkansas.  Good times!!

Polliwog

The other week, after some rains, we went on a hunt for tadpoles.  We had seen some in a puddle in our neighborhood, but wanted to locate one not so close to the road.  Thus our hunt began.  We got very muddy and wet; and saw a giant dead snake, but not one tadpole.

There has to be one somewhere!

 Keep looking

 This is getting old

 Defeat

So we went to a different locale - a local park that is essentially a muddy trail through the woods next to a fast running creek and around a giant pond.  We love this park, but it has its hazards.  We saw lots of frogs jumping into the pond as we walked by, but no tadpoles yet.

A little story: Ryan and I were leading the way down the path with the kids trailing behind.  We walked over a wide earthen bridge (covering a large drain pipe) that had no railing and dropped several feet into the pond.  Well right when I walked over the bridge, I had the thought pop into my head that I should turn around and wait for Rose to cross.  Right when I turned around, watching Rose come to the bridge, she wasn't looking where she was walking and walked right off the side and started sliding down the steep bank that dropped off to the water far below!!  Ryan was closer (he turned around when I stopped to wait) and screamed and grabbed her on her way down.  Now I'm sure had she fallen, we would have been able to quickly rescue her, but it would have been terrifying for her (and us).  That little girl has angels watching over her, I am sure!

In the end, we went back to our original sighting, caught one tadpole the kids named Jeffrey, which Ryan killed when he tried to change the water :(

Highwood General

A few weeks back, continuing with our money unit, the kids and I set up our very own general store.  Elizabeth (Claire) was proprietor.  She later hired James (William) as her stock boy and assistant.  

 The store was complete with all things old-fashioned, even the prices weren't bad!

But what's a store without some customers?  Enter: me.  My elder sister taught me well in all things theatrical.  With the help of a dress-up box and some very fine accents, I was able to assume the roles of:
*Martha Jane, a country woman
*Rich lady, complete with velvet gloves and sounded just like Catherine Hepburn, Dahling!
*A Princess (I had to wear my wedding gown for this, it was slightly immodest as I couldn't zip it up over my guns) who beat up the snobby rich lady and stole her purse
*Gypsy named Bertha who tried to steal everything under her shawl
*Jim Bob, an old country man
*Old blind lady (I can't remember her name) - I went in with my eyes closed, knocking everything over, the kids were in hysterics

at this point, I was running out of useful costumes and getting to the dregs of the dress-up box, so....

*a scary ghost names Duke
*a nice ghost who was a bit of a klepto
*a delivery guy who brought everything bought back so the kids could restock the shelves

and a few more characters I can't remember.  All in all, I think there were 15 customers.  Each time I came around the corner, the kids had no idea what to expect.  They always treated the customers kindly, helped with purchases, totaled the money, made change, and James helped me carry my purchases and even had to act as a security guard at times.  He has a firm grip.

We had so much fun.  We played for about 4 hours and we were all worn out by the end, but the kids begged me to do it again.  I think I may need to come up with some new costumes before then!

Nauvoo

Yes, this post is about our weekend to Nauvoo from a few weeks ago.  But please don't close this window - I promise to make it as painless as possible.  I don't usually like to include pics of our vacations, because who likes that?  But I had a few thoughts I wanted to share.

We stayed in a restored log cabin taken from a settlement in Wyoming.  It was affordable and the kids loved it.  We stayed in one of the smallest cabins, but here you can only see half of it.  

Our cabin.  It was a little scary how much the kids loved this place.  They already picked out which cabin they want to stay in next time.  Locals - look into it if you have kids.  If it had just been Ryan and I, we would have chosen one of the nicer hotels, but this was great and fairly inexpensive (cheapest thing besides camping)!

It wouldn't be a proper post about Nauvoo without a pic of the temple - so beautiful, that temple.

Rose was calling out happily "I am hummus!!" Whatever that means.

We had a great time.  The weather was cool, but perfect with a coat.  William refused to wear his coat - in typical boy fashion - but didn't refuse when I put a corner of my blanket on his lap on the carriage ride.  Silly boy.  We're so lucky to live so close and the drive was gorgeous (we didn't take the "main" road there, if you can call it a main road).  Spring is a good time to go: it's not hot, there aren't many people, and the kids get plenty of attention and loving from all of the senior missionaries.  Good times!