Engineer badge



Wade's floor plan of our downstairs--it was challenging to think about our house from a bird's perspective!

I've gained more appreciation for Jason by working in Cub Scouts!  We're covering the Engineer badge right now in Webelos and it is a lot of fun.  A couple weeks ago we had guest speakers come in and talk about different fields in engineering.  Jason talked about aerospace engineering, and we had an electrical engineer and  a software engineer, too.  Last night the boys made floor plans and created simple electrical circuits using a D-battery, wire, and a flashlight bulb.  We'd turn off the lights in the room each time the boys made their flashlight bulbs turn on--it was fun and the boys loved it!

"Engineers are problem solvers!"  I couldn't agree more and I'm thankful to be married to one!

The other cool thing was that Wade had a good time.  He'd had a VERY busy day that day with back-to-back activities.  Straight from school he went to piano, then dinner, then flag football practice, then Webelos.  He was a little stressed out and just wanted to be lazy!  He felt good on the way home from Cub Scouts, though.  After that long day, Wade said, "I had a lot of fun tonight at Webelos, Mom.  It was relaxing and fun, just like you said!"

Determination

5:45am:

Me: Ya know, you don't need to go to school if you don't want to.

Rhiannon:  (cough, cough + look of horror on her face) NO! Yesterday Coach Barnes told us we'd be running the mile today and there is NO way I'm going to be one of those girlie-girls who doesn't show up.

Me: (seriously impressed and a little scared by daughter's determination) Oh-kayyyy.

Be a good human

Saw this on Facebook this past week.  I love it!  Be a good human!

A gift for a special teacher

Earlier this morning I shared something that happened to me yesterday involving popcorn seasoning and feeling Heavenly Father's love for me.  Yep, the two are related.

Well, today that "tender mercy" magic happened again. 

At Wade's school this year I'm doing something new and helping with the Battle of the Books program.  My friend Becky and I meet with about 25 4th and 5th graders every Wednesday at lunch and prepare them for a book competition coming in the spring.  The kids are there voluntarily, missing out on recess time to be with us.  It's been a lot of fun for me so far, and challenging. 

Right now we're doing little "book talks," where we preview each of the 30 books on the list and try to psych the kids up to read them.  Today I decided to get a jump on next week's book and get organized for it.  It's Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan, a great book!

Thanks to Google Search, I came across this:

 

The man on the left is Steven Kellogg, a fantastic illustrator, and the woman is Patricia MacLachlan.   The man on the right helped design the book.

 

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Steven Kellogg's children's books.

 

I really like Patricia MacLachlan's Sarah, Plain and Tall.

 

Steven lived in the Sandy Hook village in Newtown, Connecticut for 35 years and was very, very sad about the school shooting that happened in December 2012.  He called up his friend Patricia and asked her to make a book with him.  Their collaboration, Snowflakes Fall, came out this year on October 29th. 

 

You can bet that my book talk on Sarah, Plain and Tall will mostly be about two friends coming together to heal their own pain and help others do the same.  Amazon.com shares a little more; that the publisher of the book, Random House, donated to the Sandy Hook School Support Fund and also gave 25,000 books to the national literacy organization First Book, in honor of Sandy Hook children.

 

Finding out about this book was a tender mercy. 

 

Realizing that I'd just stumbled on the perfect book for Wade's special teacher for Christmas was another!

 

Merry Christmas!


Post Script:  5 days later...today (Monday) Wade's teacher thanked us for the book.  I'd slipped it in her teacher box in the office on Friday.  She said that day she'd gotten chewed out by another parent over a small thing, and she was feeling low.  She went to her box at the end of the day and found the gift, at just the right moment.  The book was perfect, our letter to her was perfect, and she was very appreciative.  AWESOME!!!!!!!!

 

 

Little things

Yesterday I was driving around town between carpool trips like a crazy person.

WalMart.  Check.
Albertsons.  Check.
Gas station.  Check.
Post Office.  Check.
Library.  Check.
Other Albertsons.  Check.

I'd gotten a lot done that day but was on a mission to find the best price on some Kernel Seasons popcorn seasoning  (haven't tried it?  it's amazing!) to throw in Christmas gifts for our neighbors up and down the street.  And nobody had the price I wanted or the type of seasoning.  I was getting frustrated and I only had a couple minutes before I had to get back on base and pick up kids.

All of a sudden, I remembered this crazy good coupon in my wallet for $10 off a shopping order (thank you, General Mills, producer of all the cereals we love).

I ran into the Stater Brothers grocery store.  Check.
Found the popcorn seasoning.  Check.
A dollar less than all the other places I'd checked.  Check.
So I grabbed 4.  Check.
Total on the order:  $11.96.  Check.
Turned in the coupon.  Check.
Final cost to me:  $1.96.  Score!

Could I have used the coupon another time?  Sure.  But at that moment, I was desperate to get a good deal and had been driving all over town to try to find it.

I didn't pray that morning that I'd find a steal on popcorn seasoning.  But I said a little prayer of gratitude in my heart when I got back to the van, because I could just FEEL the heavenly help on such a small thing.  I had completely forgotten about that silly coupon until just the right moment. 

With all my heart, I know that Heavenly Father knows us and loves us! 

No joke

These were the conditions for Wade's first flag football game yesterday.  Apparently the city league only cancels games if there is lightning....so they suffered through it bravely!  Hats off to the boys on Wade's Broncos team, their coaches, and the total of 7 parents who were out on the sidelines for both teams.  Everyone else stayed in their cars and honked when there was a touchdown!

Welcome to Ridgecrest, folks! 

Merry and bright!

Life is good!  Today we:

-- had a great time at church
--had a visit from our home teacher Brother  Robins
--relaxed at home
--the boys hung some lights outside and started a fire in the fireplace
--watched some football
--had a tasty dinner and devoured some chocolate chip cookies
--and all around enjoyed each other's company!

Merry Christmas!

A hurry-up harvest

It's supposed to freeze tonight, 20 degrees or lower here, which is COLD!  The kids and I got in the garden and did a quick harvest to try to save what was growing before it gets wiped out.  I'm happy and surprised by what we grew--we'll definitely have to do a fall garden again!

Hurray for kale, spinach, cilantro, and a few leftover radishes! :)

Jason did something COOL last weekend!

Jason stayed home with us for most of the Thanksgiving break, yay!  The guest bedroom is getting a painting/baseboard/crown-molding makeover, and Jason is doing about 99.99% of it.  It's going to look so good with the crown molding and the two "Aggie Maroon" accent walls!

He also took us to Thor: The Dark World, motivated the whole family (+ the dogs) to participate in a 5K Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning, and made several trips to Home Depot, all of which were breaks in between all the prep and painting he was doing.

So I was super happy that he could go have some fun, too, on Saturday at the Willow Springs International Speedway in Rosamond, CA, about an hour south of us.  Here's what Jason had to say about it, and some pictures to prove it!

On his Facebook page, Jason said, "After over 8 years of ownership, I finally gave my Infiniti a proper break in today.  I raced it at the ExtremeSports open track day at the Streets of Willow racetrack down in Rosamond.  It was an AWESOME time and I made some new friends with a local racing club.  There were a lot of great, fast cars there, but I feel like I more than held my own as a total newbie with a stock 8-year-old car.  Hope to do it again soon."

The kids and I drove down in the van as "race support" and had a good time watching all the fast, LOUD cars.  I had no idea this place existed!

ANT-agonistic

Boy howdy, I am exhausted and it's not quite 11:15am.  I've gone through a bottle of Windex and two rolls of paper towels this morning, cleaning up ants.  Merry Christmas to me!

The pesky ant problem from last night, er, escalated to a war this morning.  The weird part was that I didn't see ANY ants at all until Wade went to grab something in the kitchen for me before he left for school.  He's the one who first saw the moving counter top, poor kid.  It was soooooooo gross!

Our pest control service came to save the day about an hour later and set some bait out, telling me to call them at 1:30pm if the ants were still busy.  They assured me they'd seen worse, that Ridgecrest sits on ants and our house just happened to get picked today.  Fun.

On the plus side, I won't feel guilty taking a nap today AND my countertops and kitchen are oh, so sparkly, seeing as how I've been spraying everything down every 5 minutes!

14 more school days until Christmas Break

Only 14 more days of school until Christmas break, but who's counting?  :)

We really enjoyed a week-long Thanksgiving stay-cation--it was fun!  But this morning it was time to get back to reality.  Today Jason headed back to work and the kids went back to school.  I did laundry, worked on Christmas cards, did some more laundry, worked on some more Christmas cards, and I also caught a couple of Cyber Monday sales.  Then it was suddenly time to pick up kids from school--the day flew by!

Tonight I opened a cupboard in the kitchen to take down a cookbook and got a big shock to find that the entire shelf was crawling with ANTS.  SICK!!!  I haven't had a problem like that since we moved in 4 years ago.  I put a call in to our pest control service who can come tomorrow at 9:30am. 

So... the entire pantry is spread across the dining room table and the kitchen counter.  It's a lot of stuff.  I guess a silver lining is that I'll get to organize it and make it all pretty after it's all over.  Got to think positive, right?

Things that made me happy today

Things that made me happy today:

1.  Jason sporting a Christmas tie for church.

2.  Me making a mess opening a bottle of Martinelli's (leftover from Thanksgiving) and Wade grabbing paper towels and saying, "It's okay, Mom!  I'm on it!"

3.  Sitting next to a newly baptized member of our church congregation all through Sunday School and Relief Society and enjoying her friendship and kindness.

4.  Taking a short nap with Samson the dog.

5.  Rhiannon taking charge and doing laundry for the family; wasn't asked to do it--she just did!

6.  Painting baseboards together; appreciating Jason's patience with us all, knowing that he could do it a lot faster and better by himself.

7.  Reading Around the World in 80 Days on my Kindle.

8.  Our whole family fasting with our ward for missionary work.

9.  Taking a break from Thanksgiving leftovers (we have a lot left!) and eating DiGiornio for dinner, ha-ha!

10.  Pretty Christmas tree, all lit up!

11.  Wearing my turquoise scarf (that I bought on the Ensenada cruise) to church today and remembering fun memories!

12.  Having time today to soak up all the good fun we've had this past week and preparing mentally for the month of Christmas!

A wonderful way to start this month of Christmas!

This morning I took the dogs for a walk and thought about this special month.  I thought about things I could work on personally, and I wondered what I could do to make Christmas special for our family.  You can imagine my surprise when I sat down to take a breather just after getting home and watched this video.  It is EXACTLY what was on my mind today.

Merry Christmas!!!

A very Happy Thanksgiving!

It's 2:30pm and I'm enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells of a very peaceful, quiet Thanksgiving! 

Jason and Rhiannon are watching a football game on TV, Cowboys vs. Raiders.  Rhiannon just asked me who Garth Brooks is, ha- ha!

Wade is upstairs chillin'.  He instigated a "popcorn party" earlier while we played a board game called Blokus.  We're really excited by popcorn right now because we bought some Kernel Seasons to sprinkle on it--we've got Nacho Cheddar, Garlic Parmesan, and Kettle Corn, and they are ALL gooooood.  Looks like I need to stock up on microwave popcorn...

I'm sitting at the computer, half-listening to the game and commercials but mostly mesmerized by the smell of the turkey cooking in the oven--YUM!  The bird is tucked in a Reynolds oven bag, which cuts cooking time by at least 2 hours, and it's stuffed with limes and onions and covered in a concoction of Mrs. Dash seasoning and water.  Grandma Deb and Jaymie shared that with me a long time ago--I love it!  Holy cow, it smells good!  Have to give myself a pat on the back--I've come a long ways from almost passing out from turkey prep.  Now, hey, it's "no big thang."

This morning we started a new tradition, too!  We drove up to the community college and the whole family, dogs included, did the 5K Turkey Trot, sponsored by the Over The Hill Track Club.  It was fun!  And there were a lot of people there!  We were really proud of Rhiannon and Wade because they weren't too excited about participating, especially since their parents were making them do it.  I think they had a good time, though.  I walked with the dogs the whole way and did just fine, but my lower back is sore.  Sleep should come easily tonight! After we got home from the 5K, we all got in our swim suits and jumped in the hot tub--score!!!

In a couple hours our good friends Howard and Sandi will join us for dinner.   We've been cooking for this dinner for 2 days now--can't wait to dig in!

Happy Thanksgiving!

800th Post: Halloween 2013

Halloween was fantastic this year!

Jason:  Chicken Hat man
Verity:  bag of Jelly Beans
Rhiannon:  Dr. Who
Wade:  Ironman (make sure you know it's the Ironman 3 one!)

We had a good time at 3rd Ward's trunk-or-treat, seeing old friends and passing out candy.  Fun!

For Dr. Who lovers:  the Tardis, River Song, Dr. Who, and a weeping angel all in one parking lot!

Ridgecrest turns 50!

Small town living has its appeal!  On November 2nd we helped our town of Ridgecrest celebrate 50 years!  It was a big weekend, with a big parade, time capsule ceremony, and incredibly successful street fair.   We sat on the sidewalk at Home Depot to enjoy the parade, and then we walked to Balsam Street for the fair.  We saw so many people we knew, and even more that we didn't. 

 

This picture below of crowds from the street fair makes me sentimental for another reason, too. 

 

Just a week earlier, our sleepy desert town had been turned upside down on a Friday morning when a very disturbed man committed murder, drove near a school shooting guns out his car window, and was pursued by police down to Kramer Junction, about 45 minutes out of town, where he was shot and killed when he started shooting at officers and at the people he had trapped in his car trunk.  People were terrified, schools went on lockdown, it was seriously insane.

 

So, to see this huge turnout the following weekend meant a lot, a WHOLE lot.  

 

Wade's Fall Piano Recital

Wade did a great job at his fall piano recital the first weekend in November!  We're looking forward to the Christmas recital in a few weeks--Rhiannon and Wade will be doing a duet to Jingle Bells, among other pieces.  I love this time of year, when the house is filled with the sounds of Rhiannon and Wade playing Christmas music.  It's awesome!!!!!

Waiting to go inside--love this pic of the kids in red! :)

Alma 30:44

Facebook comes alive with "gratitude posts" in November.  I've been doing my fair share.  This was from November 12th:

"At 6:00am this morning, the sky looked like a scene from Independence Day, cloudy, black and gray, creepy, like an alien invasion was rolling in. But 5 minutes later, after Rhiannon and Jason had left for school and work, I took the dogs for a walk and saw a truly breathtaking sunrise--the sun lit those clouds up in pink and orange and purple and it was amazing!!! It lasted for maybe 2 minutes, ...and then it was over. I'm thankful for those tender mercies and reminders from God, that He loves us, is aware of us, and is fighting for us. Reminded me of part of this scripture in the Book of Mormon, Alma 30:44, "...The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." A wonderful start to my day."

 

Jason took a wonderful picture of it!

 

 

 

Cool places: Horseshoe Bend

This world is filled with beautiful places.  One of those places is definitely Horseshoe Bend in Page, Arizona!  After the 1/2 marathon, we went there with the Tomlinsons and Whitings.  It was a little trek through soft sand to get there, but so worth it!

A HUGE accomplishment

Back in October Jason did something really, really big.

He completed his first 1/2 marathon!!!!!!    He did 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 16 minutes!!!

We made a family trip out of it and traveled to Lake Powell in Page, Arizona to see him do that.  It was inspiring to watch him cross the finish line, especially knowing that he'd gotten injured early in the race.  What a trooper!  His friends Rob and Crystal Tomlinson, Ridgecrest friends and Ragnar buddies, also finished the race.  We had a great time with their family.

Early start--they're ready to go!!!

Here's a fun little video of the start line!

Greeted by Rhiannon just after Mile 7

A few feet from the finish line!

THEY DID IT!!!!!  WAY TO GO, GUYS!

Inspired and impressed?  Why, yes, yes we are!  So happy for Jason!

 

Here was Jason's report on the experience:

 

"I really did it! My official time was 2:16:00. I was as close to the middle of the pack as possible, #107 out of 212 finishers, 7th out of 13 in the male 35 to 39 group. Not bad for having to run for 8 miles on what probably is a mildly sprained left ankle and only getting in 5 weeks of quality training. I learned a lot doing this, one thing is that there is a reason you don't see many 220 lb runners, this was tough for a big guy. Mainly I learned that I can set goals and do hard things. I don't think a full marathon is in my future, but I think I'll run a half again sometime! Kudos to the Lake Powell Half Marathon organizers for putting on a great race."

What an experience, and what a great example for his family!  Love you, babe!



Wade celebrates a DECADE!

I've got some catching up to do!  For starters, this awesome guy turned TEN!  For his actual birthday he got 10 balloons on sticks greeting him when he woke up that morning, we brought Oreos to school to share with his class, got pizza for dinner, and celebrated with presents and cake!

Love this kid so much!  Can't believe he's a decade already!!!

 

 

Wade got lots of wonderful gifts for his birthday, but I think my personal favorite was the one he got from Rhiannon.  She wrote him a long, nice letter telling him she loved him and threw in a 25-cent Iron Man giant eraser.  She'd asked me what she could do because she didn't have a ton of money at the time, and I told her a hand-written note would work!  Glad she took me up on it, because it made Wade really happy.

 

Baskin Robbins cake special!  Yum!  It was the perfect size, too, but a little heavy on the frosting/icing for everyone in the family except me.

 

 

10 things we love about Wade:

 

1.  Responsible

2.  Intelligent

3.  Funny

4.  Kind

5.  Clever

6.  Respectful

7.  Lego/Movies/iPod/Video Game lover

8.  Good friend

9.  Makes good choices

10.  Makes us happy!

 

Love you, buddy!

A kind service

We had some youth visitors drop in on us last night.  They were doing service for their Mutual church activity and asked what they could do around the house, so we had them vacuum, do dishes, and dust!  Thank you, Rhiannon, Lettie, Trini, Rachel, Kayla, Seth, and Josh, and to their chaperones Tara and Lee.  My baseboards, window ledges, and door trim haven't been that sparkly since we moved in 4 years ago! :)

4th Grade Clubs

Wade is a good kid. 

Before I report on birthday celebrating, I have to share something that Wade experienced this week.  Some of his friends got together and created a "Little People" club at recess, where you have a name and an "issue."  I think Wade was "Small Man" and he had "anger management issues."  There was Mini Man and Tiny Man, etc. (4th graders are smart.)  The club was going to meet a couple times a week at recess to discuss their little people.  I told Wade that it sounded fun but that he needed to be inclusive, not exclusive. 

Sure enough, the next day a kid (a really fun, nice kid) wanted in the club and was turned down by another of Wade's friends.  Feelings got hurt and Wade was a little worried about it and confused.  We talked about it a lot, practiced "what to say," and after pounding it into Wade, I finally gave it a rest.

The next day Wade reported that there was a new club, a Marvel Super Heroes Club.  He was Peter Parker, and some of his friends were The Hulk, Wolverine, Iron Man, and Captain America.  The boy who'd been turned down before was now part of the club.  I asked, "So, who started it?  Who's the president?"  Wade said he was!   I told him I was proud of him and reminded him to be inclusive, asking him what the plan was once they ran out of Marvel Super Heroes, plan for female club members, etc.

 

Ah, fourth graders are fun!

A Mystery Dinner and one heck of a soup recipe

Jason and I had a great time with our first mystery dinner experience!   Our friends the Workmans hosted the evening--it was a blast!  The "archaeological dig" in their front room was a tent!  We ate dinner and read the script inside it.  Thank goodness for the script and clues--I thought going into it that we had to make everything up and stay in character as we went--an actress I will never be, ha-ha!

 

 

Ashley R. Sonnyste and Con Iver

Jason borrowed Rhiannon's Doctor Who bowtie--he looks great!  I loved that we "matched" with the turquoise scarf and bowtie, ha-ha!

 

Fun with some good friends!

Archaeologically Speaking: It's the Pits!

Back Row: Conrad Iver, Major General E.B. Sawtedd, Hamilton MacTorr, Lester A. Fayre

Front Row: Ashley R. Sonnyste, Terra Sunder, Anne T. Ickwitee, Lady Mellissa N. Lynke

 

The first course of the dinner was this SUPER TASTY soup.  I asked for the recipe and had to post it!

Pot Sticker Soup:

 

1 T sesame oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic

32 oz chicken broth (two cartons)

2 green onions, chopped

another 1 T sesame oil

1 package (15 oz) frozen pot stickers (I used 16 pot stickers, I don't know how many ounces that was)

1 package (12 oz) frozen stir-fry vegetables

 

1. Heat 1 T of sesame oil in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in chopped onion and garlic; cook and stir until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Pour in the chicken broth, green onions, and remaining sesame oil. Bring to boil over high heat, and season to taste with salt and pepper. (Probably just pepper- it's plenty salty)

 

2. Reduce the heat to medium, and add the frozen pot stickers and stir-fry vegetables. Cook until the pot stickers float, about 8 minutes boiling.

Make it soon before you forget how good it was because it really is an easy recipe. Grab a bag of stir-fry vegetables, toasted sesame oil, and some pot stickers.

Mondays

Rhiannon does not like Mondays, poor thing.  She loves her weekends and being able to get some regular/extra sleep!  Who can blame her, when she's waking up at 5:15am or earlier every week day.  We sure love this dedicated, responsible, hard-working girl!

 

Here she is with Oscar and Samson, trying to sum up some Monday courage!

 



 

A visit to Zion National Park

We had some fun adventures this past weekend on our way to and from Page, AZ for Jason's 1/2 marathon in Lake Powell. 

 

Our Ridgecrest friends Rob and Crystal Tomlinson were also running in the race, so they invited us to join their family and make a weekend out of it.  We stayed overnight on Friday at Crystal's parents' home in St. George.  It was fun to meet her parents Mark and Cheryl--they were so outgoing and kind and made us feel welcome.  (They're leaving to the Philippines to serve a church mission in a few months, too!)

 

On Saturday we all got on the road headed for Page and were treated to a drive through Zion National Park.  It was BEAUTIFUL!  The mile-long tunnel through the mountain was fun, and then just as we exited the tunnel we pulled over and parked in this little lot right next to the start of the Canyon Overlook trail.  We were all glad we did that before the race, ha-ha!  It wasn't hard but had some tricky spots.

 

Visiting Zion National Park was a great memory!  The views were stunning and the company we were with made it even more fun!

 

 

 

 

A Movie Party

 Jason and Rhiannon closed down the pool today.  I felt bad for not being more involved in that huge project, but Wade and I were pulling off a 10th birthday party at the same time!  It has been quite a busy Columbus Day! 

 

Wade doesn't officially turn 10 for another week, but today was the best time to celebrate with friends because of upcoming weekend conflicts.  Wade had the option of inviting 10 kids, but he wanted to keep it small so he invited 5 and 4 were able to come.  Jordan, Jacob, Ben, and Nick were great party guests--we had a really good time with them.

 

Today's party was movie-themed, of course:  Iron Man 3!  We watched the movie, had movie treats, opened gifts, and ate pizza and cupcakes, too.  It was simple, fun, and easy.  PERFECTO!    

 

The movie lasts 2 hours, but the boys BARELY finished it in 3 because they kept pausing for movie break-downs and explanations, potty breaks, and food breaks.  It was hilarious!  One kid said, "Man, it's nice being able to pause it!"  I had to agree! :)

 

Iron Man 3 welcomed guests at the door

Fun sign!

Hard to tell from this picture, but that's a cardboard replica of D.U.M.-E. from the Iron Man movies

You know what's pretty amazing?  There was almost no popcorn left to pick up after these guys. 
They're good kids who don't make big messes--SCORE!

Wade was super excited for "intermission" when he could open gifts!

I love this picture of his friends watching anxiously.  Boys are fun!

Say cheese!  Oscar and Samson "watched" most of the movie with us, but they were crated
once the pizza and cupcakes came out. :)



Wade was happy, and that's what matters.  So happy this movie-lovin', all-boy son is in our family!  Happy (early) 10th Birthday, Wade-O!  We love you!