Playdoh's fun for everyone!

Comments here, there and everywhere

*I will add pictures but it's not cooperating right now*
So FYI, I constantly blog in my head. Seriously. Sometimes it keeps me up at night thinking 'I really should blog about that!'. I'm such a dork, I know. =o)

Our lives are plugging along. Not a ton of exciting things but at least we're consistent! First of all, we are getting started on our house. We went out last Tuesday and staked out the perimeter of the house. It was so fun AND informative. We made a few changes afterward, like widening the garage and expanding the laundry room so there's no jog in the exterior walls. Making the garage bigger totally broke Adam's heart and making the laundry bigger totally broke mine. I made the changes in time for Skinny to take the plan to get bids at a couple different places. I am actually in the process of redoing it now that Skinny has had someone look at it because of some changes that needed to be implemented. I think it may be a continual process for a while but it's good to know that it gets us somewhere! We met with the surveyor yesterday. I had heard that the survey was pretty expensive and holy moley is it ever! Estimate is $2000-2500 just for the survey of the lot, $500-1500 for lawyer fees, and another $2000 if we have to have an engineer do the DEQ submittal. Plus the state has 60 days to review the DEQ submittal once we get it submitted and if there's something they don't like, we have to change and resubmit. Pray for us that the government decides to cooperate! I'm hoping to get our houseplan redone today so that I can get a materials list and start getting bids from lots of places for lumber, windows, concrete, etc. According to my book, the bank likes you to have bids from several different contractors, even if doing the work yourself just to see what would happen if you got injured or sick or whatever. It's definitely gonna be a learning curve!

I am now watching the Bender bunch every other Saturday while Crystal's at work, at least until Skinny is done this fall. I had them last Friday and Saturday because their daycare was closed. The older kids have so much fun together and they play pretty well. I almost never know there's extras, except that I have to make twice as many sandwiches at lunchtime. =o) Keira, however, has decided that she doesn't like Sarah. It's kinda funny. Sarah really just wants to play with her and be her friend but Keira wants nothing to do with her, doesn't even want her in the same room! She lets out this ear-piercing shriek every time Sarah comes in the room, gets closer than 5 feet, and especially if I hold Sarah. Gramma Jo Bean says that she does the same thing with her dog. I pretty much think that's hysterical. I am trying to tap into my pre-kids creative side and come up with activities for the kids to do while their here. It helps me have a break while they're entertained and it gives them something to look forward to! Friday we decorated birdhouses. Nothing fancy, I just bought the $1 balsa wood birdhouses from Joanns and let them go to town with washable markers. Once they were done, I gave them a quick coat of polyurethane. They loved it, although I did have an itsy bitsy problem of Porter and Kamber coloring all over themselves. Really all over. Porter even colored his junk red. (What is it with kids coloring all over themselves?? Sarah draws all over herself every time she gets a pen. Crazy kids!) On Saturday, I made edible playdough. It's pretty cool stuff. It has peanut butter, oats, honey, powdered sugar, flour, etc in it. Kind of like an eggless PB cookie dough. Then I set out bowls of sunflower kernels, chow mein noodles, chocolate chips, raisins and the like for them to work with. They all dug in and started making stuff, except Sarah. She picked up her hunk and just started eating like it was lunch-time, that silly girl. They had a great time, though they did gross me out a little when I served them lunch since they were still playing and they crushed their Cheese Nips into the dough. Truthfully they didn't eat much of it and I'm actually kinda glad because I think it would gross me out to watch someone eat something they had just played with for an hour or so. YUCK.

Monday we got to go to Lewistown to see our friends the Allens. Rachel and Shiloh live way out in the DC area so we don't get to see them much. We got the news that they would be visiting Shiloh's family for the week and the boys made a plan. When we first arrived, they were getting ready for a horse ride. Shiloh's mom asked Paige if she would like to come with her while she took care of a couple things and Paige came over and asked if that would be okay. I said yes, that she's a friend and Paige hopped right in and left. I couldn't believe it!! She is always so shy and reserved around people she doesn't know, and especially when she's out of her comfort zone. Jan must have that special touch! Me and the rest of the kiddos followed down to the office after the riders left. Paige was there playing hide and seek with Mariah, the daughter of one of the employees. They were obviously fast friends and I was shocked again at Paige being so outgoing! They added Porter to the mix and kept on playing. It was fun to watch. Once Adam, Rachel, and Shiloh were back, we all headed to Shiloh's parents house. They just took us in and took care of us: made us lunch, gave my kids snacks, cleaned up after us and the whole deal. There are few places in this world that I feel that comfortable and that's saying a lot! We got to take our kids swimming at the Lewistown pool. They were like little fish! Watching baby Harper 'swim' with Shiloh was pretty fun too. It was also nice that Rachel and Shiloh's sister Arielle were taking as many pictures as I was. Don't know what it is about swimming but I just love pictures at the pool! All the boys went fishing after we went swimming. Adam caught 2 fish, one of which Porter reeled in. The funniest thing about it was that when they got back we asked Porter lots of times what he did while they were out fishing and his only answer was 'Nuffin.' Must've made a huge impression...lol. Paige and Shiloh's nephew Jordan played so well all afternoon that I didn't see Paige for hours. At one point they must have been playing house because Jordan's mom, Jill, heard Paige call him sweetheart. =o) They fed us an awesome dinner of kabobs and then we had to reluctantly head home. We got home around 11 pm but it was worth it. I even managed to stay awake the whole time due to Mountain Dew and copious amounts of good chocolate.

So on a final note, congratulations for making it to the bottom of this post! Just to satisfy my curiosity, will you please leave a comment? It doesn't have to be anything earth-shaking, a period, asterisk, or something will do. I'm curious if anybody actually reads this thing. =o)

The Great Outdoors

We just got home from camping at Gibson Reservoir. Literally. I still smell like campfire. The kids are covered in dirt. That right there proves we had a great time, right?

We loaded up after church and headed out. We set up camp and I attempted to cook dinner. I say attempted because I had this genius idea. I bought charcoal briquets and lighter fluid so I could just cook with them instead of having to build a fire every time I need to make food. Smart, right? Nope, guess not. I went through two batches just to get my dutch oven to brown my hamburger. I finally put Adam's boy scout skills to the test and made him build me a fire to finish the meal. It worked great! I retired the briquets after that.

We went fishing after dinner down by the boat ramp. Let's just say we are NOT fishermen. We bought Paige and Porter their own Barbie and Buzz Lightyear kiddie fishing rods before we went. Adam let them carry them from the Suburban to the water (i.e. not that far) and in that time Porter managed to break his. Apparently if you give a fishing pole to a 3 year old he will wind and wind and wind and wind and wind and wind it until all the line wraps up in side the spinner and breaks off. It's pretty sweet. Adam got him and Paige's rods set up and I sat on the beach with a pair of pliers taking apart Porter's rod so I could assess and repair the damage. In the meantime, Sarah fell over a rock and took out a chunk of her right cheek on the tackle box. (Did you even know that was possible??) Once I got the repairs finished, we got Porter set up and the three of them went to fishing. They managed to catch nothing and lost about 6 hooks to snags on the bottom. Paige just kept asking when she was going to catch a fish and why it was taking so long and telling us that just sitting there was boring. Seriously. I swear if you look up fishing in the dictionary it says boring. Fishing = Boring. The end. (lol)

Sarah was exhausted and cranky by the time we got back to camp. Adam helped the older two with Smores while I got jammies out and made beds up. We all finally got into bed and it was like someone had slipped Sarah something. Paige and Porter crashed almost instantaneously and Sarah was just bouncing off the walls. She is the craziest kid like that! You put her in her crib and she crashes. You put her in bed with another human being and she gets a second wind and goes crazy. I had to lay there and rub her back and tell her to lay down constantly before she finally gave in. I don't even know how long it took because one minute I was laying there fighting her and rubbing her back and the next minute I woke up and everyone was asleep!

After breakfast this morning we drove down the bridge and took a little hike. We showed the kids the Indian handprint stuff on the cliff-side, Checked out wildflowers - me and Paigey's favorite, and looked for places for Adam to fish. We found a nice little place that had a sandy beach and a rocky point where Adam could go out and cast while the kids played. It was almost like magic. The kids were happy as could be playing in the sand and Adam was out there casting and withing 5 minutes he caught this little brown trout. I'm not sure who was more excited, him or the kids! He came running over to show the kids the fish on the end of his line and looked at me with this big smile and said, "This is the first fish I've caught since I was 12!" We got pictures of Porter and Adam with the fish, then Adam decided to put him in a little water to let him breathe and that little sucker came back to life and wriggled right off the hook! Well, after one success it was on. Adam was determined to catch another one. He kept moving us further and further and further and further down the trail looking for another little place to catch a fish. He started telling the kids that he would pay them a dollar to catch him a grasshopper for bait. Paige was pretty much appalled at putting a grasshopper on the hook. So funny. She looked at Adam as he was baiting the hook and asked, "Is he DEAD??" Adam replied, "Well, he ain't happy!" You should have seen her face...hee hee. We finally convinced Adam to head back to the car. As we were climinb up the hill to the trail, Porter said, "Mom, I'll give you three dollars to carry me up the hill!" We tried to drive down to show the kids the diversion for the irrigation canal but there is a NO TRESPASSING sign courtesy of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. I wouldn't let Adam take us down there. Seriously, who wants to get busted by the Feds??

After lunch I was sitting in a chair around the fire pit. Adam asked what I wanted to do with the afternoon. I looked up and told him I was doing it. He was pretty unimpressed. We eventually took another hike down Mortimer Gulch trail so he could show us the back part of the lake where he and Mark had ridden last summer. (For more on that story you should check out the post last June about Adam being crushed. Morbid side note - Paige looked at the river at one point and said "Mom, can dogs drown in that river?" Me: "Um, yes... they can." Do they ever forget anything??) Let's just say that afternoon hikes with tired kids in the hot sun don't work out so well. We made it down to a point where we could see more but these crazy wind gusts kept coming up that were freaking the kids out. I can only imagine what it's like to be that little and have such a wind come up when you're standing in the middle of a somewhat narrow trail. Sarah almost fell asleep in my arms by the time we made it back to the car. At one point, Adam was even carrying both Paige and Porter. We got back to camp and Adam tried to go lay down with Sarah in the tent so she could take a nap. See above. She went crazy again. I went to go lay with her and Adam took the other two. Guess who fell asleep. Yep, me. Sarah crawled out and went to play. Another side note - Adam learned that if you think that taking your children's shoes off will keep them from wandering far, you're wrong. Kids can't feel pain apparently. Shoeless children will run all over the place in the forest.

We decided to cut things short after dinner and come home. All we were really missing was one more night sleeping in the tent cause we had alread cooked our smores right after dinner anyway. Those crazy wind gusts kept coming up and who cares about sleeping in a tent when you can sleep at home?? Not me!

Rough Stuff

I am having trouble sleeping. I found out yesterday afternoon that the 3 year old little boy of a friend was accidentally killed last Friday. I remember when his mom was expecting him, when his dad blessed him in sacrament meeting, and most of all that he was born just shortly after my own sweet 3 year old boy. It has been all too easy for me to imagine what they must be going through. His dad lost track of him for a few minutes. How many times have I lost track of any of my own children for a few minutes?? I didn't freak out. I assumed that they had just run off a little ways but couldn't be too far. Especially at a family gathering. Especially at the end of a fun day. A day where it would be hard to convince my own little ones to leave. How my heart grieves for them. I am so grateful that they have the gospel and they've been sealed in the temple and that it gives them some peace knowing they'll be together again. But it makes me think.... how will they answer when someone asks how many kids they have? how will they feel when his birthday rolls around? at Christmas? at a now painful 4th of July? I talked to my sister after I found out. Her response was "This kind of stuff makes me want to crawl into a hole with my kids." Me too. Maybe it's a reminder for me to be a little kinder, a little more patient, a little more loving, a little less busy and a lot less worried about time.

Long May She Wave

I get a little introspective this time of year, being around Independence Day and all. I was once accused of being un-American and perhaps un-Patriotic because of my love for Germany and the German people after serving my mission there. I have to tell you that it stung a little (okay, a lot) but it has made me think about my feelings about being an American. I LOVE THIS COUNTRY. I am grateful for my freedom and for being governed in a democratic republic, even if we have crazy politicians who don't always handle things in the way I think they should be handled. (At least they have the freedom to mess up and we have the freedom to vote to change our leadership or not - there's something to be said for everyone have a choice, just ask anyone who survived a communist regime or dictatorship!) Did you know that I get misty eyed every time the flag goes by? (Yes, I was crying a little behind my sunglasses at the parade on Sunday.) Or that I cannot make it through singing the Star Spangled Banner without choking up? It's true! And why you might ask? Because I know for sure the God Blessed America. No other country in the world was established by such wonderful God-fearing men as ours. Seriously, can you even utter the phrase "God Bless America" and not feel a twinge inside? So, I love this country. I consider myself tremendously patriotic, not in a left wing or right wing or any other wing way. Just in a middle-of-the-road, middle America,from the peaks to the plains, from sea to shining sea, from the North to the South kind of way. Isn't that what makes America great?