Freedom!

I am so excited to let everyone know that I am driving again. My cute husband took me out on Sunday for a refresher course and I passed. He had me accelerate and brake hard to make sure that it wasn't too much stress on my ankle. He is the greatest! So I have been lots of places already this week-- my parent's house 2 times, Target 2 times, Fry's and the dentist. I also drove Aubrey to a friend's house and Pearce to scouts. Just your everyday errands that I am nearly giddy with excitement to be doing! And just in time for back-to-school shopping. It has been 4 months now and it feels so good to have my independence back.

It's Time

After much consideration, I have determined that I am officially ready for school to start. And while my children may not agree with this determination, they have begun to exhibit symptoms of back to school readiness. Do you see any of these symptoms at your house?

At our house we are: (and this includes the adults as well!)
HOT
CRANKY
LAZY
UNMOTIVATED
IRRITABLE
HOT
BORED
CRANKY
WHINNY
HOT
AND CRANKY.

I remember hearing a quote from Sister Hinckley about how sad she was when summer was over and she had to send her children back to school. I don't feel like that and for awhile I felt pretty guilty about it. But then I realized that it's hotter than Hades outside and my children can't play in the stream or down in the hollow all day and in today's world, they can't just roam free and be gone all day either. I am so excited to have them home when summer starts. And although this summer has pretty much stunk, we've still had a great time being together. But now, the above listed symptoms have set in and it's time to go back. So, bring on the new school year. Bring on the new routines. Bring on the going to bed on time and the getting up on time. Bring on the new chore schedule and the homework and the renewed sense of everything that comes when school starts. I don't know about you, but we're ready!

Quirky Me...Quirky You

I was tagged by my sister a little while ago. You have to list 6 quirky things about yourself. She said that she felt a little vulnerable after her post so I'm finally getting around to putting my quirks out there so she doesn't feel quite so alone in her quirkiness. Here goes:

1. I love to do laundry. Strange, yes, but true. I do it all on one day of the week, usually Wednesdays because I love to say "Wash Day Wednesday". I love to sort it, pull the warm clothes out of the dryer and smell them, I love folding and putting the finished products neatly in everyone's own baskets. Maybe I like it so much because all of my children are old enough to take their finished baskets and put everything away by themselves.

2. I took 2 years of high school Spanish and 18 credit hours of Spanish in college and yet I am scared to death to try and say anything to the cleaning lady who doesn't speak English. What a chicken I am!

3. If you are making a sandwich at my house, you better dang well think twice about putting the knife that you used for the peanut butter into the jam jar. Cause you'll contaminate the whole jar of jam. I like peanut butter but only when I choose to have peanut butter. When I want jam on my toast I only want jam and not jam that has been tainted with a peanut butter knife. So you had better wash the knife with soap, or better yet, just get a new knife all together! :)

4. I am terrified of a plane flying overhead and falling and crashing into my house. I can't remember any specifc reasons for this fear but it's always been something that I've been afraid of. And now that the Williams airport has so much more big plane traffic, I have to say that I get a little nervous when I hear them flying over.

5. I rarely finish a sandwich, or a piece of toast, or a hamburger, etc. Anything with bread and stuff on it. I seem to always leave the last bite on my plate. Maybe it has something to do with the last bite not having anything left except the bread, I don't know. Like I said, this post is about quirky things!

6. I never, ever, ever drink the leftover milk from a bowl of cereal. Once the cereal is gone, the milk goes down the drain. And I don't make my kids drink it either. By the time you are at the end of a bowl of cereal, the milk is warm and is usually a different color than when you started.


So there it is...my quirkiness out there for everyone to see. So help me out and share yours. I won't tag anyone specific but if I'm left out here alone for too long, I'll start naming names!!

Freebies!

I spent the morning on working on the semi-annual clothes sort. Getting out the boxes of hand-me-downs and seeing who has grown into what and, more often, who has grown out of what. I came across some little girls tap and ballet shoes (about age 2-5) that I would love to give to someone who could use them. With school starting soon, that usually means dance classes start up again as well. The shoes have only been through one little girl with incredibly fast-growing feet so they're in great shape. I have a pair of ballet shoes size 9 (little girls) and 4 pairs of black tap shoes:
size 7 1/2
size 9
size 10
size 11 1/2 (all little girls sizes)
Let me know if you would like any of them and I would be so happy so give them to you.

July is best spent in the White Mountains

We've been on two trips up to Northern Arizona in the past two weeks. We spent the Fourth of July weekend in Eagar, Arizona with Trevor's family and the following weekend in Pinetop, Arizona with my family. Here are some highlights of each trip. Sorry, there's a lot of pictures. I don't know how to post them next to each other so they take up less space. I'd love a suggestion from someone who does!

Highlights from our trip to Eagar:

1. The parade! We love a small-town parade! Each ward enters a float and Trevor's dad rode on theirs as Brigham Young. The kids look forward to the barrage of candy throwing. At first Ethan was worried about going into the street to get the candy (I was so proud!) so he swiped everyone else's candy from their piles on the sidewalk. We were surprised by a fly-over from some military helicopters along the parade route. What a spectacular sight!




2. Launching water balloons across the field
3. Playing with puppies and trying to convince me to take one home. No Grandma, you can't send one home with the grand kids. Good try!
4. Camping out in the backyard. My favorite way to camp, I decided. On nice, level grass just a few feet away from indoors and bathrooms and showers!
5. Spending the entire day outside in absolutely beautiful weather.
6. Sitting around the fire pit every night making marshmallows and pies in the fire.
7. Dodgeball on the trampoline

8. Throwing cousins in the playpool
9. Dressing up for a tea party hosted by Grandma Whitmore

10. Launching rockets and finding them afterwards across the field





Highlights from our trip to Pinetop:
1. Family cabin with 11 adults and 14 kids and still having plenty of room for everyone
2. Playing "Take Two" with Scrabble tiles AND a dictionary. "Ok, just one more game!"

3. Downpour on Sunday



4. Grandpa needed pine needles cleaned up from around the cabin so he promised the kids $5.00 for each trash bag that they filled. I don't think that he was planning on the kids filling 35 bags but he paid up!



5. Roasting marshmallows outside in the new fire bowl.




6. Building forts in the forest and having pine cone wars.
7. Staying up late every night playing games...the adults, that is.
8. The men's fishing expedition where they really did catch really big fish.




9. Target shooting at the pit


10. Goofy golfing and go-kart racing. I golfed with my crutches. What do you think my handicap was for this golf game? :) Parker was my caddy..he would hold the crutches while I putted and then carried my club in between holes. The park had a go-kart track for the little kids to drive on by themselves, a family track that the older kids could drive on and a fast track just for the adults. Truly, fun for everyone.







Wow, if you made it all the way to the end you are a really nice person for looking at all my pictures. Thanks and have a great day!

Hold Them a Little Closer

I consider it a privilege to attend a funeral. To me, they are the most uplifting of meetings. The Spirit is so strong. I like to listen to what is being said about the person who has passed on, all of it good, and think about my life and what I want people to say about me at my funeral. It's like I go home and want to live up to all the good that was shared about the person. Trevor and I attended a funeral this morning, and it made me want to be better in a different way. Eden Ridgway passed away on Saturday. She was 4 months old. I've never met her parents. Trevor became friends with Eden's dad, Marcus, when they were in the same patrol at Wood Badge. Eden was born with Down Syndrome and also severe heart problems. She had open-heart surgery twice along with countless other procedures in her very short life. She never even left the hospital to go home with her family. Her parents started a blog to share her story, which I read everyday. It was an honor to attend her funeral and pay respects to a little girl and her family who I only know through their blog. Both of her parents spoke at the funeral. Their testimony was so touching, to say the least. Their bishop spoke of how fitting it was that she passed away so close to July 4th, Independence Day as she is now liberated and free from pain and suffering. There's really nothing to compare with feeling overwhelmed by your own trials and then witnessing the faith of someone who is going through something so much worse. I've heard it said that if we put all of our individual trials on a table and got to choose which ones we wanted to endure, we would end up choosing our own right back. I find this to be so true. My faith has been strengthened so much by my very remote connection to Eden and her family. Today I am going to be more patient with my own family and hold my children a little closer and be thankful for all of my blessings.

What was in the box?

Stacy wanted to know what books came in my Barnes and Noble box. This is what I got:

1. Ida B-- a children's book, I sat down and read it in about an hour and a half without putting it down. One of my new favorites. I highly recommend it to anyone.

2. Austenland-- recommended by friends on the Good Reads website

3. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle-- I saw it on the Barnes and Noble site ranked at #3 so I'm taking a chance on a book that no one that I know has read. Hopefully it won't be trashy! I'll let you know.

I ended up reading Ida B before I left (and to my husband in the car on the way up..our kids were already up there). I took Fablehaven 3 with me and read it in Eagar. What a way fun series. I borrowed them from my son and his friend. Kind of like Harry Potter but not as dark. Written by Brandon Mull, an LDS author, but it's not a "church" book. I expect to see a movie to be made sometime.

Does it get any better?

I found a gift card that I had forgotten about the other day. It was from Barnes and Noble and I called the phone number on the back of the card and there was still $35.00 left on it! Oh happy day! Well I couldn't drive to the store but if you order online you get free shipping on an order of $25.00 or more. This day just got happier. So I ordered new books that came in the mail yesterday. A fantastic cardboard box that was so exciting to open because inside were 3 brand-spankin' new books just for me! We're going up to Trevor's parents' house for the weekend and since I can't get around very well I plan to campout under their giant tree in the backyard on my reclining lawn chair. Just me and those 3 books and a cool mountain breeze. My only dilemma is deciding which one to read first. Well, I read one of them this morning, so now I only have to decide between two. So...other than all of that "I'm so upset because I still can't walk" stuff from my earlier post, life is good. I'll deal with the learning to walk again stuff next week after we get back. Have a great weekend!