Piano Moved? Check!

Chuck and I discovered that the two of us can lift our piano, for a few seconds at least.  This week we moved the piano back into the front room on a moving dolly rolling across carpets.  We also got up most of the wall hangings. So I can say we're totally back in the front room.  And if we thought the piano was loud before, it really rattles the floors now.

Snow cousins.  (Kaitlin in yellow)

Family Fun

We've had a lot of family events going the last couple of months. It began with my nephew Joseph coming home from his LDS mission, and then my niece Callan's wedding, and now my niece Amy is leaving on a mission to Sweden.  We had a fun family gathering in her honor today and enjoyed hearing her speak about what has inspired her to go on a mission.




Ghosts in our House?

Ruth and Jared took these disturbing photos in our living room.  Are there ghosts living in our house? You be the judge.

The biggest thing going on this week was my nieces' wedding which kept us out with showers, rehearsal dinners, the wedding and reception. It was all beautiful and we had a very nice time visiting with family that we don't get to see as often. We wish Callan and Isaac much success in their new life together.

Beyond that, the things that kept us busy were the things that always keep us busy: Our lives.

Non Blog Worthy Content Ahead

I thought I'd talk about our daily lives, the things that don't usually make the blog.

Kaitlin is busy rehearsing for "Once Upon a Mattress".  These rehearsals keep her after school every day.  This week she had set painting on Saturday as well.  I'm trying to hammer out a carpool, but it isn't quite up and functioning just yet.  Luckily, the high school is just a few miles away. Still, I am so excited for Kaitlin to get her driver's license next summer.

Another parenting fail.

Ruth and Jared take piano lessons and are supposed to practice every day but they have been struggling with that lately. Last week I started a practice chart with graduated rewards, the top prize being a couple of dollars - cash - if you practice every day.  At the end of the week only Jared earned the first tier of reward which was a small candy bar.

Kaitlin has started up voice lessons again.  It happens that her voice lessons are the same night as piano lessons, so that whole evening is full of taxing kids here and there. She also got a chart; no, she didn't earn a prize.

These are Jared's gymnastics abs.

Jared loves his gymnastics class and is getting ready for a performance at the end of this month. He likes to go to the all boy class but because of conflicts with cub scouts he can only attend that class once a month. The rest of the time he is in the regular class - aka: the class that is all girls.

I've been a cub scout leader for a month now. I'm surprised at how a one hour a week commitment feel like so much more.  I think it's because it is right after school which is the busiest time for a mother.

Move over KFC, Jared has something meatier

Jared invented a new sandwich this week. It's a chicken patty with pepperoni, bacon and cheese.

I'm singing with the city choir.  We are getting ready for a Halloween concert in a few weeks.  They told us we would have to dress up and I decided to dress up as a mime and was pretty excited about that. I thought a singing mime was both scary and ironic.  Unfortunately, I found out this week that we have to dress up as a section and my section wants to dress up like medical professionals. Singing nurses are neither scary nor ironic.

This is an old picture from when the jacket was new.

Chuck  had to drive his truck to work a few days this week because of rain.  I told him it was to get him ready for the winter when he'll have to park his beloved motorcycle.  Chuck has all the riding gear now: the helmet, the jacket, the chaps, the boots (picture sports bike rider - not Harley biker).  His jacket is bright yellow so I call him Tron when he is in his gear.





We started to move furniture back into our front room.  It only took three months to finish.

We still haven't moved the piano in. Honestly, we aren't sure how to do it without scratching the floor.

Happy Birthday Ruth

Ruth turned 12 today.  It doesn't seem that long ago that she was a bright eyed newborn, but now she is a young lady.

On Saturday we hosted ten very excited and outgoing girls for a birthday party.  Ruth planned the activities. I helped the girls make bleached t-shirts, they had a dance party in the back yard and when it got dark they came in for karaoke.  All the girls seemed to have a great time, and could have easily gone on singing for half the night.

Today is General Conference (that is where 2 times a year we don't go to church but we watch sermons from our Prophet and leaders on TV) and we enjoyed relaxing around the house and playing games.   Ruth got some great gifts including brightly colored socks, a lego set, feathers for her hair, and a surprise gift for both her and Kaitlin. You can see what the surprise is by watching the video below (you can hear Kaitlin hollering in glee in the background, but I edited her out of video at her request because she was still in her pjs).

12 is a special birthday in our church because at 12 you graduate from the children's class and move into the teenage group. At 12 you can also go into the temple and participate in some of the services there.  Ruth has an interview with our bishop on Tuesday and we plan on going with Ruth to the temple on Friday.


Wolf

This week Jared earned a rank advancement, from Wolf to Bear.  He was pretty excited when he learned how close he was to getting his advancement that he has worked really hard the last couple of weeks to get his Wolf early. You scouters out there will know what I'm talking about when I say he also got 5 arrow points. He has 2 months until his birthday to earn more.

Jared also received his Religious Knot, which was presented to him by our Bishop.  He's worked hard to get this award all year including filling out a family tree and teaching our family about Joseph Smith.   He was pretty proud to get this award as most boys do not get it until they are 9 or 10.

 

The Adventures of Pinocchio

There were 3 choruses of about 30 kids each.

This weekend was Ruth's musical, Pinocchio. It was a musical for all elementary aged children so Ruth was one of the oldest kids in the production.  Ruth had a solo line which she sang well and with confidence and it was clear that she was a leader in her group. She had a great time doing the show and was sorry to see it end.

Pino and Sister in the whale.

While Ruth did a fantastic job, at first I didn't care for the show itself, but after watching it a a few times though it started to grow on me. There were a lot of lyrics and jokes I didn't get after only watching it once.  I remember how hard it was to have 30 kids in Joseph enter and exit and sing and do their choreography, I'm sure it must be exponentially difficult when it's 100 kids.   They break the kids down into choruses and then have each chorus sing a few numbers.  In this way you can put a whole musical together in only a month.  Here is a little clip from one of the songs Ruth's choir sang, "The Big Bad Badguy Machine". 

Sure, I Can Do That

The weekend before the show I got an email from the director asking if I were willing to paint a forest scene on a bed sheet - a last minute piece of scenery for the play.  I agreed. What I discovered when I went to get my supplies is that it wasn't just one bed sheet she needed, but four, two sewn together to create panels 14x8.  So Monday I set to work and by afternoon I was done.  My guitar teach asked me how I learned to do such a thing. I shrugged my shoulders and said, "I made it up."   My mother always was taking on different sort of creative projects, everything from dance decorations, to costumes, to play scenery.  I guess I always believed that we all can do this sort of thing if we put our minds to it.  But for those interested I've made a little movie of the progress of one of my panels.

Picking and Processing Peaches, Oh my!

Our peaches came on this week and after no fruit last year, this year our little tree did its best to compensate.  For Family Home Evening this week we picked the peaches and then I spent the next several days this week canning those peaches. We've also enjoyed some fresh peach pie. There just isn't anything better than a fresh juicy peach.

24 Quarts, 24 Pints, 3 batches of Jam

Pinocchio 

Ruth has been practicing hard for our community's children's production of  "The Adventures of Pinocchio".  It is an original script and music written by local people designed with large groups of children in mind.  Ruth is is one of three choruses that perform during the show.  It's this Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 and I think it costs a couple of bucks for a ticket.  I, personally, haven't seen the show yet so I'm excited to see it.

A Stressful Audition

Kaitlin auditioned this week for her high school musical "Once Upon a Mattress".  There were a lot of kids that auditioned and the process was long and stressful.  The day the list was posted, Kaitlin's name wasn't on the list and she was heart broken, but she had the inspiration to ask the drama teacher to double check and sure enough, she was chosen for the ensemble and her name was accidentally left off the list.   Her rehearsals start next week.



International Coastal Clean-Up Day 

Jared and Kaitlin with their shovels.

The prophet of our church asked that each church plan a day of service to provide the members an opportunity to serve in their communities this year.  Our Stake President (the President of all the churches in our area) asked us all to work with a local conservation group to participate in International Coastal Clean-Up Day.  What? You haven't heard of International Coastal Clean-Up Day?  Neither had we.  And I guess the fact that we don't have any coast here in the desert does not exempt us from participation.   Our family drove out with other families from our church to a conservation area that is specifically set aside for migrating birds.

Holding open the bag (Ruth) was one of the more dangerous jobs.

We were broken into teams and our group was assigned to walk down the side of the river and remove noxious non-native invasive plants, also known as: thistle.  These were nasty plants with poky leaves the punctured through gloves and clothes.  We had several hundred volunteers and we were able to fill many bags full of these weeds.  We also saw a heron, a rare sight in our area - which was cool.

The dry ones were super poky.

Phase One

Phase One of our home improvement project is nearing completion. Chuck was able to get the last of the hardwood laid in the hallway this weekend.  Our next step is to add the trim and then move the furniture back in.

Although our floor is nailed, in front of doorways we had to  temporarily fasten  the boards together and cut them all at once.  This was very tricky and time consuming. 

Finding his Own Path

You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned Chaz in a few weeks. That is because he has mostly been working and when he is not working he has chosen not to take part in any of our family activities.  He has been unhappy in our home, feeling bound down by our family values, rules and our expectations of him.   So this week Chaz decided to move.  We assume that he has moved in with someone from his work.  I say assume because Chaz has chosen not to tell us where he is. We think this is because Chaz knows we would disapprove of his new  lifestyle choices.  Chaz has asked us not to contact him, but Chuck was able to talk to him today and confirm that he is fine and is looking for a new job in the new town he is living in.  We don't know much more than that.  While this is hard, I understand that part of becoming an adult is making your own choices. Chaz is doing that and he is financially independent of us so we just have to step back and let him find his own path. 

This isn't even all of them.

Mystery Solved!

On the light side,  Chaz's room has been so jam packed with stuff that it has bugged Chuck for years.  On Saturday we started to sort through the piles of things to try to reclaim that area of our house.  While sorting we discovered 11 bath towels, 8 hand towels, and 4 washcloths.  For the last six months to a year we've had this strange shortage of bath towels, but no more!  Now my linen closet is fully stocked again. 



It's Looking Great! Slowly.

Over the Labor Day weekend we worked two full days putting in the first phase of our hardwood floors.  The work isn't hard except for corners and closets and those sorts of things.  Chuck's gotten adept  at nailing the boards in and I've become pretty good at the chop saw.  One more day and we will have phase one complete.  Next phase:  kitchen cabinets. 

Family Fun

We've had a few fun family events this past week.  While Chuck and I slaved away on the floor, the other kids spent the day boating with their cousins.  They had a great time, and Jared got high praise from everyone for being a knee boarding prodigy.    On Sunday, we were able to go to my sister's house to hear my nephew speak.  He had just returned from an LDS Mission in Texas and it was fun to hear about his experiences there.  (Check back for boating pictures!)

All those gymnastic classes are paying off for Jared.

Now that I'm Jared's Wolf leader we were able to go to Cub-o-ree together.

Moose Encounter

Last weekend we went on a church camp-out. This was our first, and our last camping trip of the season.  I am just not a camper and thankfully my husband isn't either.  But as far as camping goes, this weekend was just as nice as could be expected. We had a very beautiful camp ground with covered eating areas and a small lake, canoes provided.  We paddled the lake and had some fun fireside time with other families from our church.  A group of young adults were sharing the campground with us which was fine until it was past midnight and the young adults were still in full swing and all of our camp were trying to sleep.  Anyway...   The next day we had a big breakfast with the church and then headed off, map in hand, on a two mile hiking trail.  We should have known by how unused the trail was that an adventure was in store.  The first part of the trail was a steep incline that leveled out in a highland. The meadow was full of wild flowers and bees, millions and millions of them. Jared hates bees so that set him on edge, then we had to stop several times to get june grass out of his socks. He was not happy at all and let us all know how much he hatted this trail as we went.  As we came around a bend, almost to our lookout point, a big female moose was standing directly in our path ahead.  We regarded the moose, the moose regarded us.  *Cue High Noon Music* We were over half way on our trail, do we turn back?  What if the moose has a baby? This might be a very dangerous situation, so we decided to  do a test to see how the moose would react. We would walk a few steps forward, if she stood her ground we'd know to back off. So tentatively we shuffle forward a few steps.  As we did, the moose stepped back a few steps.  Yay!  We shuffled forward again, and again the moose retreated off the path.  We kept going back and forth this way, never taking our eyes off each other, until the moose was far enough off the path that we quickly skirted safely by.

This was after the moose had backed off our trail into the trees.

After leaving the moose behind and enjoying a fantastic lookout, we headed down the last part of our trail through some wetlands. We came to a muddy section (it said "spring" on the map) that looked like a real shoe eater.  After some experimentation we decided that quickly sprinting across was the best course of action. That went okay, but Jared some how got splattered all over shirt and arms. After overcoming the mud obstacle we found ourselves in a jungle. Yes, a real live jungle through the wetland with tall overgrown plants and a barely decipherable trail.  It wouldn't have been so back but I noticed a sudden intense itching and burning on my arms and legs where I had brushed against some of the plants. I was breaking out in hives, and so was Ruth. We pushed on, (what can you do?) and Chuck, who was in the front, called out a warning that he heard something in the trees ahead, as we rounded another the next corner we were startled sudden loud crashing and thumping that seemed to shake the ground and scared us all half to death.  This was enough for Ruth, who had been trying to have a good attitude, she was done! Done with hiking forever! She hated hiking!  So it was a muddy, itchy, grumpy family that headed down the last part of the trail and back to our camp site. As we passed the lake we saw a large bull moose along the shore. We wondered if we had startled a similar animal on our adventure. Luckily, a good wash in the cold spigot with soap and water and some hydrocortizone took care of the worst of our hives, and a thorough picking got rid of Jared's june grass and beggars lice. No lasting harm done. As we packed up our tent and headed come, we were confident that the best part of our hike would be our memories.

High School Here She Comes!

Kaitlin was so excited for school to start she could barely sit still. I woke up with her early (like 5am early, yikes!) on the first day to make sure she was all ready and everything was perfect. I sent Kaitlin out the door to the bus stop (it was still dark outside) and then went back to bed. She likes most of her classes and her new teachers. She was excited that her Spanish teacher actually cared about accent, and that she got 100% on her first Geometry assignment. She has a few friends in some of her classes but there are a lot of new faces and it will take awhile for her to find out where she belongs in this sea of 2000 students. She will start by auditioning for the musical in a couple of weeks



Happy Birthday Chuck

There was some debate and confusion about how old he turned, but regardless of the years, Chuck celebrated a birthday this past week. We had zucchini brownies and giant balloons.  Chuck got a new camera and a tie and between piano lessons (Ruth and Jared) and gymnastics (Jared), we spent the evening playing Disney Trivia - which Chuck lost. Happy Birthday, Honey!


New Church Assignment for Becky

I few weeks ago I was talking with a leader in our church and I mentioned to him that I'd been serving with the children in the primary for 5 1/2 years and I was feeling pretty burnt out. I'd just been working with children for so long, it really can be exhausting. So this week I was released from doing the music in Primary and got a new assignment.... as a Wolf Leader in Cub Scouts. Now I know what some of you are thinking and I told my Bishop just that: I don't like scouting (I then proceeded to list off all the reasons why I didn't like it. My Bishop just smiled and told me that I could commiserate with his wife (who also doesn't like scouting, who by the way, is the other Wolf leader)) but being the committed lady that I am, I told them I'd give it my best try. And you know, working with 17 8 year olds will be a nice break from working with children; I was pretty burnt out on working with children.