Yeeeee haaaaaw

 Last night our friends invited us to come hang out in their box seats to watch the rodeo.  Of course when MJ heard there was a chance to see a rodeo she was all over it and said that we absolutely had to go.  She loves country music, cowboy boots, cowboy hats, camouflage and horses...basically paradise as far as she was concerned.  The other kids weren't as excited about the idea and would have rather stayed home destroying their brains on video games.  In reality Nate and I are a couple of hermits that would rather hang out at home or in our rv than do anything else and this is rubbing off on our kids.  It is like pulling teeth to get the kids to want to go anywhere where there are people.  I make us do things so that we don't turn into a bunch of trolls that don't know what to do when they run into a human being.  The crazy thing is that usually I will force something like last night upon my family and then when it is time to actually go I don't feel like it anymore and then I am the one that has to be drug out of the house.  We are a sad bunch, I tell you.  It was a lot of fun though.  Jared thought it was cruelty to animals though and had a wince on his face most of the time.  He especially felt bad for the little baby cows that get roped and tied up.  It was cracking us up.  When I explained to Emma that the bulls and horses buck because they get their balls yanked up into their bodies so they get really mad and buck around, the look on her face was priceless. I mean, what else do you need for a fun evening besides popcorn, soda, some cowboy hats to fully immerse yourself in your setting, horses, cute cowboys, friends, your family and the opportunity to experience something through your kids' eyes......and then make fun of them. :0)

MJ's 1st Job

Ok, so technically this isn't MJ's first job, but it is her first non-babysitting job.  As it is with anything new, changes must come.  Nate has had someone cleaning the office, but when we moved into a smaller office she didn't want the smaller price for cleaning it.  She wanted the same price for cleaning up after 6 doctors and 3 times the office space for now cleaning up after 1 dr and 3 times less space.  Sorry, this isn't the make a wish foundation.  Our daughter is always looking for ways to make money. She has her Dad's ability to save with a little sprinkle of my spending habits for things like clothes.  She wants to go on a mission for our church and go to college so she knows she's really got to get rolling if she's going to save enough money in the next 3 years.  So with this position opening up for cleaning the office once a week she jumped right on it.  She now gets to make twice as much money in 2 hours than she does for an evening chasing after energetic little kids.  Which is a concept that is not lost on her.  Even though she has to scrub an office and it's 2 bathrooms,  it's a much faster and stress free way to earn cash.  She is such a responsible, hard working young lady.  I'm so proud of my girl and I can't wait to see what things are in store for her.

Hearts

The kids and I love to look for heart shapes that naturally occur in nature.  The top left I found while on a birthday weekend with Nathan in California while on a canoe trip.  The 2 on the bottom left Jordyn and Ethan have found in the neighborhood.  There is a collection running the length of my fireplace because every time they find one they cart it into the house.  I have actually had to have them put some of them back because the collection was getting too big so we only keep the ones that have the best shape.  The one on the right is a permanent part of the black top road right in front of our house.  Don't know how we have missed seeing it all these years, but there it was.  You can find evidence of love everywhere if you just look.

Acrobats

We have been enjoying the school program at the performing arts center this year.  This time we got to see the Peking Acrobats.  Jared got a little grumpy about going and wanted to stay home and work on school work instead, but I dragged him along anyway.  They did some pretty cool things and were way stronger and more flexible than I will ever be nor want to be.  Jared admitted afterward that the beginning was a bit boring but that it was pretty cool.  I will call that a success.  Jordyn and Ethan love getting out of school so they could care less what we were doing but it is a bonus that they actually enjoy it.  My little Jordyn usually loves getting her picture taken but was not in the mood this day because her tummy hurt.  I had to bribe her with getting to choose where we went for lunch after to take a picture with me.  Emma had too much school work to do so she didn't come to this one.

Mustacheo

I took the kids to the mall to get some new shoes and Jordyn insisted that we stop in the popular kids jewelry store.  She had something specific she was looking for but refused to tell me.  She was just wandering around the store while I was trying to get her to at least try to describe what it was she was looking for.  I think she was just afraid to tell me because she thought I would say no and make her move on.  When I saw the rack of best friend jewelry I asked if this was what she was looking for and she answered me with a weak yes and pretended to look at it.  Well from where that stand was there was perfect line of sight to the sunglass and fake glass rack.  She jumped up and ran over there and started searching through the glasses looking for the mustache ones.  She begged and pleaded to buy these 12.00 glasses that look like they will break if you just look at them wrong.  Lucky for her I noticed that there were really only 6 dollars and if she was willing to spend her own money on junk what better way to learn the value of a dollar?  So after looking through all the several types of mustaches she decided on the bedazzled one and wore it through the mall entertaining everyone that passed us. She wore them to school today as well.  Her name while wearing the glasses is Mustacheo and Ethan's name is El Mustacheo.  Are my kids cute or what?

Hello Sexy Shorts

I have been having a problem with my hip and lower right back for about 6 months now.  I started out with some massage and then a pain doc for some injections that didn't do anything.  Then I went to my primary care and got put on some anti inflammatory, muscle relaxants and a nerve pain drugs to see if I could get enough relief to make it through physical therapy.  I have been in pt for 3 months now and I go 3x a week.  I had a week and a half break over christmas and I actually started feeling a little better.  That's when I started to question that I was doing the right thing.  I kept thinking about the old adage "no pain, no gain" or "it always gets worse before it gets better"  but this was starting to get ridiculous.  I have been going along accepting the fate of my neck and shoulder pain as a fact of life so when the hip got added to the mix I cried "uncle" and decided to see if someone could heal me.

Nathan knows every doc in town and decided that I needed to see one of the ortho's that he likes and spent some time in residency with.  They were second year residents together.  I agreed because he has to put up with all my complaining and at least if the doc told me that I was crazy and the pain was all in my head I could move on.  Well the day finally came for my appointment.  After a long wait in the waiting room, I was escorted to the exam room where I was told to take off my pants and slip into these sexy shorts so that I could get x-rays and have my hip examined.  I literally started laughing out loud when the nurse handed them to me.  You've got to be kidding me?  This dr gets to meet Dr Ivey's wife for the first time in these things?  For real?  Do you like the nice air bubble the shorts make?  Pretty awesome.  You know what else happens in this hybrid type paper concoction while you are sitting on a plastic chair for an hour waiting to see the dr?  Sweat happens, that's what.  Lots of it.  It is especially nice when you stand up and have to peel the shorts away from your skin while said dr is looking at me waiting for me to get up on the exam table.

After the exam and he told me that it was definitely a problem with my hip and I was right to come in and see him.....thank goodness I'm not crazy...at least not for this reason.  We got to examine my x-ray together right there in the exam room on the very large computer monitor.  Do you know what shows up on an x-ray of your hips?  The distinct outline of your lady bits, that's what.  So know I get to look at my x-ray with my lady parts in HD with a colleague of my husbands while sitting next to him in my sexy shorts.  I was also happy to see that it appeared that my iud was in it's proper place and looking good.  Fantastic!  Could this day get any better? I guess I can be grateful that while he was jacking my leg all around trying to get it to hurt that I didn't let one rip because, let's face it, it coulda happened.  

Well, I get to endure an MRI on Monday and then we will discuss if I need surgery or if we want to try an injection in my hip.  After that we get to talk about my painful rice krispy sounding knees that need surgery to loosen my kneecaps so that I don't rub away all my cartilage.  Good times.  We are in the middle of trying to figure out our health insurance and what kind of coverage we want so this little revelation was not a happy one.  Surgery isn't cheap.  I asked my hubby if he was going to leave me because I am too expensive and broken and he said "at least I know you couldn't catch me!"  Hahahaha

Remind Me Again.......

Last night as Nate and I were lazily laying on our bed vegged out to the tv while all the kids and 2 of their friends were hanging out downstairs, Jordyn moseys into the bedroom to inform us that the cat went diarrhea.  Seriously, this cat is a pooping machine.  Because I can't have litter in the box since she kicks it all over the cage and the floor surrounding the cage, I have had to just put some newspaper in the box for her to go on.  Most of the time she manages to get that out of the box as well and then liquid poop lands nowhere near the paper in the box.  So.....you've got to get paper towels and clean it out that way.  We are talking 3-4 times a day.  It's not like she is getting a ton of food either.  I think the cat just hates us.  Anyway.......I turned to Nate and begged him to go take care of the diarrhea since he hadn't had the pleasure yet and Emma had a friend over.  He warned me that if he went he would just throw the cat out with the crap.  I decided to take my chances......because....well....my bed was really cozy and I couldn't make myself get up....especially not for that!

Nate had been gone for a bit and then he tromped up the stairs, into our room with the cat held out at arms length, a nasty scowl on his face and the question, "remind me again why we have a cat!" Uh oh! "This dumb cat decided to poop in her bed while I was cleaning out the litter box and she got it all over herself and everywhere."  At this point I couldn't choke back the laugh any longer.  I was getting a warning look and I still couldn't stop so I put my head under the covers to finish my laughing.  He then told me that if I didn't get up and help he was going to put the diarrhea covered cat right down on the bed for me to snuggle with.  Well, that worked and I got up to help.  This time I wasn't as nice to Emma about having her friend over and made her come out and scoop the poop out of Zazzles bed while I tried to wash her down without getting her incision soaked.  I have to wash the entire contents of that cage every couple of days because she drags poo around in there and gets it on everything.  I still can't figure out why on earth she decided of all places to relieve her bowels on her bed.  She had never gone anywhere but a litter box.  Ever.  Nate must have said some pretty nasty things to her to get her to pull that move.

So to answer the question as to why on earth we have subjected ourselves to a life of torment for the sake of 1 little cat.......temporary insanity.

Slight Addiction...

Nate was supposed to go to a medical conference in FL and he was going to take me along so that I could enjoy some sun and some beach, but after booking everything he decided that he didn't want to go.  He decided instead to go to a conference somewhere else a couple months later and take his staff so they could get some needed training.  This left us with some plane tickets and some already scheduled time off to use.  What to do? What to do?  As indicated by a previous post this has been a difficult year and especially difficult couple of months with the office move.  The one place that we get the most relaxation and feelings of zen and peacefulness are on the islands.  Now that we have a child old enough to drive we decided to leave the kids home alone instead of getting a sitter.  We tried and tried to convince Emma that we should get someone to just come stay the night at the house, but she would have none of it.  She wanted to go it alone because she hates awkward moment filled days spent with someone she doesn't know.  I was pretty freaked to do it, but I had all my neighbors on stand by and some other friends that lived minutes from the house in case she changed her mind or needed anything, or the boys tried to kill each other.  I called them 3 times a day to check on them and they did awesome.  I have such good kids.   

We decided that since we hadn't been to the big island yet to see lava that we would do that for our adventure while we were there.  Nate was surprised that I didn't want to do anything this time.  Usually I have a mile long list of things  I want to do that involve money and high adventure, but this time I just wanted to chill.  He was beyond delighted!  We did however spend an entire day on the anticlimactic lava adventure.    Our shuttle picked us up at 5:30 am and took us to the airport for our 7 am flight.  Nothing in the airport was open so we didn't get breakfast :0(  anyone who knows me, knows that isn't a good thing.  I have the nickname of hulksmash for times such as these.  The funniest and most surprising thing happened when we were about to board our little puddle jumper, this group of people from either China or Japan (sorry, not sure) literally pushed us out of the way and got in front of us. Then they just did that laugh, smile, nod thing that they do.  It was hysterical.  What's your hurry folks?  We chalked it up to cultural differences.  They are also extremely unaware of getting in anyones bubble.  I think they live somewhere with oodles of people and you have to fight for everything you get thus they cut and get pushy.  When the plane landed the power was out at the airport so we didn't get a platform to get off the plane so we walked down the little airplane stairs and then got ushered through some back entrance and out to the parking lot.  So again, I was denied food!  But wait.  I see in the distance some vending machines.  Angels were singing that I had been saved from my hunger.  Um, remember, the power was out.  Yeah.  Denied food once again.  This was going to get interesting.  Luckily the pushy people were not on our tour so we loaded into our little shuttle bus with 20 other people and headed for our first stop.  It was in a little town called Hilo and I could see why we had never stayed on this island before.  Not many stay on that side of the island because of tsunami threats and all the rain so everything is run down.  I was able to procure some overpriced snack food and beat down the rising beast.  One of the funnest things about the tour was that their were 3 families from Australia so I just listened to them talk all day.  A little 10 year old girl was my favorite and she hung out with us most of the day, which I loved because her accent was adorable.  

We got to stop at a genuine black beach.  It was truly black sand.  Very black sand because it is crushed lava.  I love the signs in Hawaii and got a kick out of the warning about falling in the water.  I forgot the name of those huge trees, but they are so enormous and beautiful.  I loved just standing under them and watching the wind move through the branches.  We also got to visit and orchid farm.  I love orchids so that was fun to see all the varieties and stages of growth and just how long it takes to grow one.  It's like 7 years or something like that.  We also went into the state park to see where different lava flows had destroyed different parts of the park and villages.  (those are on the pic 2 up)  one of the coolest stops was where the lava had taken out a road and parking lot.  we walked around on it and that part of the road will never be reopened.  They made a new road higher up away from the path.  the main attraction was supposed to be at the end of the day when we visited this enormous crater that has active lava in it that glows at night.  Well, it is getting dark later and later and we had to leave by 6:15pm to catch our 7:40 flight back to Oahu.  We got to see a little bit of the glow once it got dusk, but when 6:15 hit it was still too light.  We came all that way and didn't even get to see the lava glow.  Our entire group was pretty bummed, but whattaya gonna do?  

So, one of my other addictions is eating good food, and I always have to leave my state to get to any.  So when I go somewhere with good food, all I want to do is eat.  My diet this time consisted of mostly pancakes.  We decided to try out this place called mac 24/7.  They have been on a tv show for their pancake challenge and they have a chef show winner as their chef now too.  So we just had to try these famous pancakes.  We decided not to do the challenge size but the size we got was still huge.  Nate hates fruit so we got the cinnamon streusel with vanilla coconut syrup.  My mouth is watering for them as we speak.  I took one bite of the most fluffy and flavorful and just down right divine pancakes of my life.  I couldn't believe that I was actually sitting there having the most amazing food moment of my life.  Because it was so amazing we decided to go back and try some "real" food from the menu and were not disappointed at all.  Nate had one of the best dinners he's ever had.  Well, what to you do when you are finished with such a great meal?  Have some red velvet pancakes to top the night off.  Again, we thought we had died and gone to some sort of pancake heaven.  The day before we left I went there for the last time to relive the cinnamon streusel  carb and sugar heaven.  I did eat some other food on the trip.  My other favorite was that shrimp truck.  Food trucks scare me, but I was feeling extra brave on this trip and actually drug Nate there.  I think he was afraid to go because I was hungry and when we go somewhere that ends up not being good when I'm hungry, things get a little hulksmashy.  This was so good.  There are trucks all over the island so it is hard to know which to go to, but with a little help from the internet you can pick the right one, and we sure did.  Nate got the garlic and I got the spicy and we had got the tip to ask for extra sauce for the rice.  The little salad was good and the pineapple had come from the plantation down the road so it was juicy and delicious.  The only down side is that you have to shell your own shrimp that are covered in sauce.  You just have to get a little messy and then go clean up in the sink attached to a hose and you're golden.  I also got to try a cupcake from a place that recently won a cupcake challenge on tv.  They were pretty good, but I'm a little sad that we didn't try to find the one I went to a couple years ago that was so good.  It was still fun to be able to say that I tried it and they were pretty good and the girl that won was actually in the store helping us so that was fun.  

While we were there we also got to see a broadway play.  It was a total bonus that they were there at the time.  Nate hadn't seen it yet and I had already seen it twice.  We were sitting next to a loud mouth kid (adult male) that was on a date and kept yelling out things to the cast like he was at a baseball game or something.  It was our first day there so it was a bit hard to stay awake because of the time difference, but I actually got to see the girl that played Galinda in Chicago at this one so that was extra fun because she does such a good job.  We also just hung out at the beach and soaked up some sun.  One of the days there was a little kid building something......hmmmm....there are two mounds.....close together.....he kept smoothing and adding sand to the piles at the same time......I wondered if perhaps he was still being nursed or mommy had gotten some work done.  hahaha I almost went over to him and asked him what he was building.  People watching is so fun.

Nate hadn't got to see the Temple or BYU while we were there several years ago.  The church owns a ton of land right there so the PCC, temple and byu are all in a line right next to each other.  When I was there last time with my friend, C, the Temple had just been remodeled so I got to go through for a tour.  This time we thought for sure we could go in and do a session, but before we left home we checked and it was closed for cleaning.  I have failed 2x now trying to do a session there. :0(  We were there on Sunday checking it out and it was fun to see all the people walking around in their church clothes on their way home from church.  We were stunned to discover 4 church buildings right there next to the temple and across over by BYU.

As always the time goes by too quickly, but we had such a great time and I love that my husband loves to take me places to spend time with me.  I'm a truly lucky and extremely blessed girl.  

Baby Bear

Last night as Ethan's Bear leader I had the privilege of giving him his advancement award and getting the mother's pin.  I'm a little sad that he will no longer be in my den, but happy that he achieved his bear badge and will be moving up to the webelos.  I love my little bubbaganoosh with his luscious hair.  The picture is a bit blurry because it almost didn't happen. I looked back and Nate and mouthed for him to take a picture and he shrugged his shoulders and said he didn't have a camera.  Haha I guess old brain sometimes kicks in and you forget about the technological advances of the day. Duh, use your phone. :0)  It was a pretty funny moment.  At least we managed to at least get one, even if it is a little blurry.  

SmOw!

This was our first Sunday with the new church time of 9am instead of 1pm.  We were enjoying our afternoon so much that after dinner we decided to try out the smore maker gift that Santa brought our family.  We had everything to make this an awesome good time.  Flat marshmallows (which are brilliant btw as Emma is demonstrating by putting the choc on top while you toast it to get it melted a gooey), chocolate marshmallows, starbursts (a family favorite thanks to their cousin Ally), chocolate, andes mints and graham crackers.  All was going along smoothly until jordyn decided to put chocolate on the end of her skewer...... she got what looks like a snake bite on the palm of her hand.  She was not a happy girl.  Not 2 minutes later what brilliant idea does Ethan come up with?  You guessed it.  Putting chocolate on the end of his skewer.  What happened?  When the choc broke away the skewer stabbed into his finger.  We were just waiting for Jared to injure himself next because he was heating up his to help get the starburst on easier (which may or may not have been my idea).  Emma figured she was safe because it was going in order from youngest to oldest so she only needed to worry if Jared hurt himself.  Luckily we finished up the fun with only the 2 injuries, but the night is still young...... :0)

MJ Driving

Well, the inevitable happened, MJ got her license.  After 6 months of logging every minute of driving time trying to reach the mandatory 40 hours of daytime and 10 hours of nighttime she finally got it.  The first day of eligibility we were at the DMV getting her legal.  I don't think I have seen her that happy in awhile.  First thing on her to do list was to go get some fast food.  Surprisingly in all those hours we logged she hadn't tried going through a drive through yet.  She was a little nervous, but brought her brother along for moral support and off they went.  I paced the floor that first time she went out until they were back home.  I even had to call my friend so she could distract me while I waited for them.   I can say that it has gotten much easier now that the reality of her driving alone has set in and she has been doing it for a month now.  But each new scenario gets me worried again.  Rain, snow, freeway, new area of town, taking a friend.  Luckily she is a grandma driver so I don't have to worry about her hot dogging around town.  I do have to worry about her reaction times though, because those are a bit too slow for my liking, but she is getting the hang of it.  Do I really have a kid old enough to drive?  I will be signing Jared up for drivers training this time next year.  Yikers!

E Turns 10

On our way home from Az, Nate joked with the kids that we were going to stay another night in a hotel here in town instead of going home because it had a water park.  It was a pretty mean joke because the kids thought he was serious and thought it was a marvelous idea.  So, when we were trying to figure out what to do for Ethan's birthday the idea came to me to actually take the kids to that hotel.  His actual birthday isn't until Monday but on Thursday night we came up with the plan and Friday we were at the hotel.  The hotel was in the process of a major overhaul (you can see the damage on the ceiling in our room), but the kids still had a blast and they thought it was pretty awesome that the beds were sleep number (glorified air mattress).   Jared forgot to bring a swim suit so he wasn't able to swim friday night, but Nate drove home on Sat morning and got his suit so he could swim before we left.  Following tradition, Ethan got to choose where we ate dinner and we had a bit of drama over that.  We can never find a place where everyone wants to eat.  It was Jordyn's turn to be unhappy and she refused to eat a perfectly good grilled cheese sandwich because for whatever reason she deemed it too weird or gross to eat.  There were lots of tears shed and unfortunately she didn't get to partake of the cake and ice cream we had waiting back in the hotel room.   Luckily it is 15 degrees outside so we were able to keep the ice cream pretty well chilled until we were ready for it.  Emma was only able to join us for dinner because she needed to be home to give the cat medications and be on diarrhea watch.  It was a pretty nerve wracking experience for her trying to get home in the dark on 2 freeways, but she did it all by herself. I was also pretty petrified and had her call me immediately when she got home so I could stop worrying.

The water park had 2 watersides, a lazy river, some obstacle courses, hot tub (lava pit) a wave pool and some kiddie stuff.  Ethan was the only one to really love the wave machine.  He did really awesome boogie boarding, although he didn't enjoy the water splashing in his eyes, he went more times than the other kids.  My favorite thing that he did was when he would crash he would get up and put both arms in the air with thumbs up.  He is such an awesome kid!  He was also looking the part with his long curly locks that he refers to as "luscious."  Dad keeps threatening to shave his head. I love the curly luscious locks.  His trademarked way for doing his hair is when he gets out of the shower immediately put his hat on so that it "combs" it flat for him and then the curls stick out the bottom and viola, perfection.   haha Jordyn even went, which completely surprised me.  She isn't that daring, I don't know what made her do it, but she did a really good job too.  Jared didn't enjoy the experience because he hurt his knee and Nate gave it a go but decided that he wasn't in good enough shape.  My neck and back have too many problems to go and do something dumb like that and end up in much worse shape than I already am.  We had to check out of our room by 11 and the park didn't open up again until 10am so we gathered all our stuff and headed to the pool where we hung out until 12:00.  We had to just change in the bathrooms there and then we stopped for a quick sandwich lunch and headed back home.  Ethan thought his birthday was totally awesome!

Family Reunion

Not sure why I didn't write about such a huge event as the family reunion.  I guess there was just too many thoughts I had that I couldn't write down.  Thoughts like everyone was there except for one family and some of the sisters were not happy about having their picture taken and it was just making me grumpy about trying to write about the experience.  Why I couldn't just give a play by play like I'm about to do is beyond me but in 2013 I am going to try and not get so far behind and tell fun and interesting things about what is going on that make it more fun to read instead of doing a bunch of posts at one time with the bare minimum of story telling.  

Our first stop was in tri-cities.  This is where Nathan grew up and some of his family still currently live.  We got to visit their home on Whitman street and the old elementary school and middle school where Nate went.  We had an activity day in the church building they spent a lot of time and where they still use the Eagle that Ed got for all the eagle scouts to be honored for his project.  We also got to have some fun on the lake.

We then made our way to Oregon to the coast to play in the ocean and have a bunch of fun.  There were 4 houses between all the families.  Shawn and his family shared a house with us and then Jason's, Shayla's and Jenny's family shared a house.  Ed's and Mom and Dad shared one and then Alonna's had their own.  Aaron's family wasn't there.  As you can see by the pictures we had so much fun playing in the ocean.

One of the days we decided to go grabbing.  It was a bit cold.....I seem to always be cold now that my blood has thinned out in the desert......and there were no crabs to be had.  We could only take the males and they had to be a certain size or we had to throw them back.  Pulling the baskets out of the water without loosing all the crabs was no easy task and I was getting grumpy on our deadliest catch little adventure.  Between the 3 boats we ended up with 2 crabs that we were able to keep and have them cook up for us.  We bought 2 more and had ourselves a little crab cracking fun.  We of course had to get clam chowder while we were there and took over one of the local restaurants when the entire family showed up for lunch.  Our house was off the beach but by a lake and one morning there were 2 deer just hanging out outside across the street from us so I ran out and took pictures and we just deer watched for awhile that morning.

We also go to do one of my favorite things.  Sample cheese and eat ice cream at the tillamook factory.  There was even a dessert there named after Drew it was called drewlicious.  haha  On our way home we stopped in portland and met up with my Mom and brother and his little girl.  It was a quick visit but it was so good to be able to see them.  We had a blast and were sad when it was over.  We wish we could live by all our family all the time.

Summer in Review

Rather than a bunch of separate posts I decided to just do a little review.  The fact is, that I don't remember enough details about these events to make it a worthwhile thing to do them separately.  So I will just give a bit of information about each of the events and call it good :0)

 Our dear friends the Ridgway's came with all 7 of their children for a visit this summer and we got to spend the 4th of July with them.  We had so much fun and it was really sad to see them leave.  We did a few of our favorite things like going to the zoo and swimming and basically just hanging out and enjoying each others company.  It was also their first trip with the beast or creeper van.  :0)

 Ethan and Jordyn took a cooking class from the next door neighbor that was once a week for the summer.  Megan and Sarah got to go to one of the classes with them.  The kids loved it.  Ethan always likes to be silly so he is sporting a pair of goggles for eye protection against splatter, I'm guessing.  :0)

 Emma and Jane decided to start a cupcake and cookie business.  They would bake their goodies and then send them with Jane's dad who worked in SantaFe and he would peddle them for the girls.  The funnest thing was watching them trying to come up with a pricing structure for the baked goods.

 Three of the kids joined the swim team.  The only one that really enjoyed it though was Jordyn.  Turns out she is a little natural fish.  Her best stroke is the butterfly and it is amazing to watch and so darn cute because she is so little and it doesn't seem like she should be able to do it.  The hardest thing for the kids was learning to start on the block and actually dive in and not jump.  The boys also thought the uniform was a bit on the creepy side.  haha  Ethan and Jared were both doing great, they just needed more practice time to which neither of them were into.  Hopefully they well join again this summer.

We also filled our days bowling.  The kids bowl free in the summer and I bought a pass for myself.  Poor Jared is so darn competitive that it was hard for him.  Especially when Ethan only wanted to goof around and be silly and he still bowled better than Jared.  We just kept going hoping that everyone would just calm down and have fun.  We kept track of all the scores and had a lot of fun.  We even got to take Megan and Sarah one of the times too.

So, there you have it.  Our summer in review.

My Bday

Looking back through the posts I've done compared to the pictures I have it is apparent to me that I was in a pretty bad mood last year.  I didn't write about anything.  Now there are more posts in a couple of days than I did all year.  I want to get this year turned into a book so I am hurriedly documenting the events of the past year and then just ignoring the little bothersome detail about the dates.

So, obviously my birthday is in June when this trip to SanDiego happened.  Ca is one of my favorite destinations but my birthday is the worst possible month to go there because it is always freezing and dreary.  This year was no exception.  I even took a picture of a random girl with her kids in a bikini because I thought she was certifiably insane considering the temperature outside and the temp of the water.  I was wishing for my big down coat, I was that cold.  There was sand art all over the streets and it was so fun to look at and I pretended that Nate had them put there just for me.  We also got to visit the mormon battalion museum there and it was so informational and so inspiring.  I got to eat real mexican food and realized that I have turned into a new mexican because I was missing my green chili.  Crazy, I know!  On the beach with the crazy bikini lady we also played in the rocks there looking for crabs and Nate tried to help this super cute little brother and sister catch some but those little critters are fast!  Back at the hotel one of the nights there were fireworks, again I pretended that Nate had them go off just for me and my birthday.  I am a spoiled girl and very loved.

Personal Progress

One of the conditions we put upon our kids for driving is that the girls have to have their personal progress completed and the boys have to have their eagle scout.  Emma got hers done just in time and we are very proud of all the hard work she put in to complete the program.  This picture was taken at a program where she and other girls that were working on the program received awards.  Her friend and neighbor Eliza also earned hers.  She will now be working on her honor bee.  I thought it would be fun to document the projects she did and the value experiences that she wrote in (there are 3 pre selected experiences that are mandatory and then you do 3 more 2 of which can be ones that you design) The projects need to be at least 10 hours worth of work while the experiences can be any amount of time.

Faith     Value Experience: 8 make a mormon add poster for yw in excellence, 9 sing a duet at my little     brothers baptism.  Project: make a testimony book or make a memory book full of church things that are important to me

Divine Nature     Value Experience: 8 planned, prepared and made a meal, 9 make "lead me, guide me, walk beside me" blocks.  Project:  plan and proceed to redo my room

Individual Worth     Value Experience: 8 help set up for church dance, 9 overcome fear of trying out for a show choir in front of lots of people.  Project: preparing a show to bring to Denver with my show choir and I am going to drive up there to do it.

Knowledge    Value Experience: 8 helped make canned apple pie filling, 9 learn to play tennis and compete in matches.  Project:  open a checking account and learn to manage money  Also get a savings account.

Choice and Accountability     Value Experience: 8 make a time capsule to open after marriage filled with temple picture, letters and colors, 9 make a memory book.  Project: Making the decision to attend Seminary a year early

Good Works     Value Experience: 8 helped Jordyn organize and clean the heap of mess that was her room, 9 at youth conference helped clean cemetery.  Project:  learn to make and can different things with apples.

Integrity     Value Experience: 8 keep a schedule and stay on track for cyber school, 9 go around telling people not to use, use the Lord's name in vain, or date.  Project: to participate in church documentary and find and do the work for names from my family history.

Virtue     Value Experience:  there are no write ins and the project is to read the entire book of mormon and then write your testimony.  She had a competition with her friend Tyler to see who could get it read first and she won.

To earn her honor bee she will need to complete and addition 40 hours of service.

Electoral

This was our year of political activity.  I got in all kinds of debates on-line about politics and we had yard signs and we even helped a local candidate and friend.  Our scout troop needed some service hours and their leader just happened to be running for state rep.  The boys spent a saturday holding signs at all the polling locations and then went out for pizza after.  Nate and I also went around the district pounding signs into the ground.  It was a fun little adventure dodging traffic and toughening our skins while people yelled obscenities at us while we were putting the signs in.  All our hard work paid off and he was elected....unfortunately our pick for president was not.

Cowgirl Jordy

Jordyn also had a choir performance for Christmas.  It was called The Hoedown.  One of my favorite songs that they sang was Grandma's feather bed.  They also did the Grinch which is of course Jordyn's favorite song.  It was super cute with all the decorated cowboy hats.  This is also a story of how Jordyn almost didn't have a costume!  So I had a paper from the teacher talking about what was needed and when and somehow in my mind she didn't need the hat until Wed and this was Tues.  When I droped her off early at school for a rehearsal we saw lots of kids walking in with their hats on.  I turned to her and told her not to worry that they were probably just excited to have the hats, but didn't need them until the next day.   After I dropped her off I went to my  Tuesdays  Temple day and my phone is left in the car.  When I got out to the car there was a sad little message on my phone that Jordyn needed her decorated hat and choir shirt.  I was stupefied.  How is my brain this broken?  I quickly called my son who stays home to do school and asked him to read me the paper again over the phone.  Sure enough today was the day for the hat and I had an hour to get it to her.  I jetted on home and stopped at the dollar store where I knew there would be a hat and some decorations.  I raced home and whipped out my trusty glue gun.  Bedazzled the heck out of the cowboy hat.  Ironed her shirt at lightning speed and even managed to find a handkerchief all in 5 minutes.  I bolted out the door and headed for the school and raced down to her class room.  I got a shame on you for being a bad mother look from her teacher with a "she was really worried you weren't going to come with her things" scolding.  My poor baby girl was probably stressed out for 3 hours wondering if her looser of a Mom was going to come through.  The teacher wouldn't let me take her to the bathroom to change saying that she could change at recess which was directly before the performance.  When Jordyn got home from school her brother asked her where the hat had come from and I told him.  He couldn't believe that I had made the hat in the short amount of time I had been home.  Yep, desperate times call for desperate and quick measures.  The parent performance was the next night on Wed and no one knew that the day before for the school performance my sweetie pie almost didn't have a costume. Yea, I managed to beat off being a flake mom another day.  :0)

Neighbor Gift

This year for my neighbor gift I decided to give something that would make everyone's home smell delicious for the holidays.  I get so tired of getting food from everyone during the holidays.  Not that the plates of goodies aren't yummy, my butt just can't handle consuming that many calories and I feel guilty throwing the leftovers out.  So I figured that I could help everyone else's butts cut out a few calories this year by not contributing to the consumption.  I found the idea online so I'm not that brilliant, but it still makes me look brilliant anyway.  There is an orange, some cinnamon sticks, cranberries and some cloves in there and you put it all in a pot on the stove with some water and magical smells emanate from the pot.  I got lots of calls and txt that it was such a great gift and was so yummy smelling.   Last year was the tape dispenser with the magnet on the back.  I had people ask me if I was giving it out again because it had saved the day on many occasions and they needed another one.  My own pot lasted for a week before I threw it out.  I love giving useful gifts.

The New Office

Our Christmas vacation was full of moving excitement.  The day after Christmas we had to move everything from the old office to the new temporary office space.  There is a lot of heavy equipment and tons of supplies.  The 2 oldest went and helped while I stayed home with the 2 youngest.  Ethan managed to get a fever and a cough so I couldn't even go for some of the day to help.  The next day we went in to hook up all the computers and unpack everything.  I got Nate's personal office unpacked and organized and then I hung all the pictures on the walls and broke down a million boxes.  The third day of moving is when I took these pictures.  The little ones hadn't got to see Dad's new office yet and we had some things to check on to make sure everything was up and running and ready to see patients.  The kids love to play with the wheel chairs so we had some races.  Jordyn was pleased to see the picture that she had drawn and then crumpled up and thrown in the garbage because she thought it was bad because of the head being big, was rescued and hanging in Dad's office.  The new location is right off the freeway and we are very excited about it.  The permanent office space is being built right next door.  In fact there is black tarp separating the 2 spaces.  We are looking forward to all the new things we will be doing this year with the office and patient care.  Our fingers are crossed that between the fiscal cliff and health care changes we can continue to make a living.  We may have to start excepting chickens and goats for payment because it is adapt or die.  btw, do you think that computer monitor is big enough?  Good grief, he must be getting old man eyes to need one that big!

Cat Tales

I am going to take a break from catching up on old news to tell of some recent events.  On Saturday MJ decided that giving the cat a bath by herself was a good idea and found out just how talented I really am when it comes to cat bathing.... Zazzles took a flying leap out of her arms and onto the floor while soaking wet.  When she hit the floor her leg snapped and she immediately started hissing, crying and limping.  This caused MJ to freak out and come running up the stairs to tell me that she thought the cat broke its leg.  Well isn't that fan-flippin-tastic?!  Sure enough when I got downstairs and assessed the situation there was little doubt that a broken bone was what she had.  I called our vet and was told we had to see another office that had the capabilities to handle that sort of trauma.  I called the other office and they said to bring her in right away.  It was about 5pm on a Saturday night.  We got there and had to immediately fork over the "walk-in" fee of 75 bucks.  Walk-in? I called.  Cant we count this as an appointment?  I drug Nathan along because I knew that there were going to be some tough decisions and I didn't feel like facing them alone.  So It was him, me and MJ at the vet.  I let the 2 of them go back and I stayed in the waiting room because I was already becoming nauseated with how much this little adventure was going to cost after the upfront fee.  Poor MJ was crying uncontrollably because she loves that darn cat and she felt horrible that it was in her care that the cat broke her leg.  Well, they got x-rays and had to call in an orthopedic surgeon.  Did you know they have orthopedic surgeons for animals?  All I could see where dollar signs floating in the air.  We got the news that it was a nasty break that would need a plate and she would need to stay in the "hospital" until the surgery on Monday to help control the pain and keep her from further damaging herself.  cha ching.  Then we got the proposed bill and I started looking for a hook in the ceiling to hang myself from.  I know, I know, I can be overly dramatic but it provides a great deal of entertainment for my family.  The bill for fixing a cats broken leg? $1800.00.  Seriously?  I did not sign up for this.  Nate asked the dr about the option of just killing it and it did not go over well......Even worse is that the kids were supposed to be hunting with Dad but the boys had both come down with a fever so the trip got cancelled.  If they had been hunting not only would they have shot an elk but the cat would have never broken her leg!  There were tons of elk just running around in plain sight and our friends shot one the first morning they were out.  So sad!

So we visited Zazzles everyday in the hospital and the kids were very sad and worried about her while she was gone.  She had her surgery and we brought her home on Tuesday.  She looks pretty funky with her cone of shame and shaved hind quarter.  She has to stay confined to the cage for 2-3 months.  She is on pain killers and antibiotics so I feel like a full time cat nurse.  The story gets better because she is having a hard time with the litter box in the cage.  She keeps making a huge mess.  We tried newspaper and just a tiny bit of kitty litter and she just keeps making a mess.  Well the antibiotics kicked in and hit the ole stomach and produced a pretty nasty case of diarrhea.  What did this super smart animal decide to do?  Roll in it!  The kids came screaming for me.  I could smell the problem coming long before I hit the room.  It was everywhere!  All over the litter box.  All over her food dishes.  All over the towels.  All over her cone of shame.  All over her.  All over her bed.  All over the wires on the cage!  Holy crap!  The problem was trying to not get the incision wet and have a place to set her where she wouldn't re-get herself dirty.  I had to keep folding the towel in on itself when I would get a patch of her clean so I had a clean place to set her.  She did not like the process and was trying desperately to get away, covering me in crap in the process.  I finally got her cleaned up and the contents of her cage thrown in the wash with tons of bleach and cleaned up all the other contents of the cage.  Why.  why.  why.   why.  why.  why.  why.

After I scrubbed myself down I had to make good on a promise to take the kids to pizza for lunch (I owed Jordyn for a foot rub).  This was fine because we really needed to give our noses a break from the stench and give the house some time to air out.  I decided to throw some make up on first and because the cat was at the vet and not getting her weekly bath she is full of dander, which I am highly allergic too.  So I have been sneezing non stop since we brought her home.  Well, while trying to put mascara on.....I sneezed....the mascara was wet.....I looked like a freakin clown.....really?  we need to add that too?  I almost just went out of the house like that just daring someone to ask me what my make up was all about!  Instead I cleaned it up and called my husband and told him that I was calling for the express purpose of him feeling sorry for me and the only thing he was supposed to say when I was done telling him of my ordeal was that he was sorry my life sucked so bad.  He played his part well and made me feel better. :0)

Ridgway Sealing

On Dec 22, 2012 little Jake and Ben were sealed to the Ridgway family for all time and Eternity in the Mesa, Az Temple.  We made a quick road trip out of the event.  We packed up the kids Friday afternoon and drove to Flagstaff where we got to see some snow!  That night at the hotel Jared slammed the sliding bathroom door on Jordyn's nose so we had to go out for some advil and pack it with ice.  She was worried about looking weird.  Wherever we go drama seems to follow.  :0)  The next morning we got up and put on our dress clothes and hit the road.  We needed to be in Mesa by 11:30.  We got there in plenty of time so we were able to go and check out the bookstore and the emergency store near the temple.  The kids were feeling jipped that I wasn't one of those super cool moms that was doing Elf on the shelf so I broke down and bought one to do for 1 day this year and then have it for the next.  I surprisingly was also able to buy a picture for Nathan's new office and hide it from him in the car without him ever seeing it.
The temple there in Mesa is one of the temples that they do a big light and decorating production at so it was fun to wander around the grounds and see all of the displays.  There were also about a million people there for weddings.  Apparently it was a popular day to get married.  It was a little zoo like there.  When we finally got to go in for the sealing poor little Ben was not happy and screamed throughout the entire thing.  Our kids wandered around outside and hung out in the car while they waited for us.  We had a super yummy lunch back at Jo's house and then had a fun gift exchange.  The kids loved using Nate as a human jungle gym and gave him a really good work out.  Jared and Jordyn spent the night there and partied all night while Emma, Ethan, Nate and I went to a hotel.  The next morning Jo was sick and throwing up so we piled back in the car and headed home.  Like I said, super quick trip.  But, it was worth it. The kids did amazingly well in the car (since we are spoiled by traveling in the rv) and we stopped at one of my favorite places to get a turkey dinner and muffins when we got back to town.  

Pajama Pants

 Every year for Christmas Eve we open up a pair of pajamas.  This year I decided to be all domestic and make the pajamas myself instead of buying them.  I found a super easy pattern that uses a pair of pajamas your kids currently wear as a pattern and went to town making 8 pair of them.  I decided to make a pair for 2 of my nieces that live here in town as well.  The older kids and Dad matched and I matched with the younger kids.  About half way through the project my sewing machine broke so I had to go and get it fixed to finish up.  So, by the time I finally got around to making mine, I was tired and done with sewing.  I forgot to take into account that the pair of pajamas I used as a pattern were low rise therefore there was no room for error.  Well, error I did.  There isn't nearly enough fabric to cover my bum.  The kids thought it was hilarious so I did a little hip shake dance for them trying to convince them that I made the pants like that on purpose.  My entire rear end is exposed when I sit down so keeping an extra long shirt on is essential to wearing these.  Oh well, not everyone can be a perfect domestic goddess....at least I'm entertaining :0)

Christmas Play

Our church has a Christmas dinner every year.  This year the kids put on a play about Jesus' birth.  Ethan was a wise man.  He was cracking us up. He constantly is in entertainment mode.  He was having too much fun with his beard stroking it and doing silly poses.  Jordyn was part of the choir and Emma helped to serve ham.  At the end of the evening Santa made an appearance with 2 of his elves.  It was a lot of fun.

Jordyn's Play

Jordyn decided to join choir this year and I am loving hearing her sing.  This was actually the third grade play called the Incredible Reindeer.  It was really cute and there was an asteroid threatening to take out the north pole.  Luckily some super heroes saved the day.  She did an excellent job.  Our gym is apparently too small to house all the families of the 3rd grade because even getting there a half hour early we were sitting in the very back and really couldn't see anything.  I managed to sneak up and get a couple of pictures of my baby girl.  The play got off to a bit of a sad start because one of the girls that was playing a foggy, foggy night dancer had died in a car accident a couple weeks prior to the performance.  Her name was Heaven and she was on her way home from her grandfathers funeral in AZ with her family and her and her Mom and a cousin were killed in a car accident.  A couple weeks before that one of the 5th grade girls lost her battle with leukemia and died. It has been a sad few months at the school so it was nice to see the kids enjoying themselves and putting on a fun little performance.  

Work Party

It has been a wild and crazy couple of years.  It started when Nate's partner decided to take a job with a hospital here in town.  Then Nate decided to merge with another local doctor that had 3 associates at the time.  We moved into the building and started cost sharing and moved towards a merger.  It was a terrible time.  We were seeing less and less of him because he was trying to blend 2 completely different business and customer service styles together.  At one point I told him that I felt like he was the captain of the titanic.  I instantly regretted the comment especially when he kept using it to describe our situation.  In October while he was  out hunting I told him that he needed to go out into the woods where he could be alone (away from the other guys) and pray out loud to once and for all figure out if he was supposed to go through with this merger or not.  Did he want to blend reputations, was trying to train this other staff in proper customer service going to kill him etc...  So, after a year and a half of proceeding with a merger we jumped off the titanic.  We had to move offices yet again over the Christmas break, but all that chaos feels sublime compared to how we were feeling before.  With a smaller office again we could get back to the "family" feel and have a Christmas party at our house.  Small and simple where we can care for the needs of our staff and our patients the way that we would want to be cared for is the way for us.  Nate's staff bought the Drs (nate has an associate) their favorite things.  Nate has always wanted a gully suit and now he has one.  He was like a little kid on Christmas morning when he opened it.  Life takes its twists and turns but nothing is ever for naught.  There is a purpose and plan to everything.  Sometimes you have to go through some pretty tough stuff to figure out who you are and what you want to be and what is important.  We are looking forward to 2013 living the life we were meant to live.

Pumpkin Carving

I forgot that I took some pictures with my camera of the kids carving their pumpkins.  I also have a picture of Jordyn in her detention girl costume.  I guess what I didn't get was a picture of the completed pumpkins, oh well.  Next year I am going to do a better job of keeping up on my blog.  I have gotten really behind this year and just not even posted a lot of what I normally would.  I guess I just haven't been feelin it lately.  The kids love looking through the books I make and it is that time again so I better come up with something to say for some of the pictures I have.  :0)