Basketball Camp

Cora has had basketball camp all this week.  This year it is from 6-9 at night.  Cora and her best friend Meghan had both signed up for the camp and then both ended up moving away.  Meghan is 4 hours and we are only one.  We decided to make a one time exception to our no sleep over rule and have Meghan stay with us for the week.  Since camp is in the evening, they have been having lots of fun during the day.  We had originally planned to have her parents met us at the farm.  Then we remembered about the release forms that needed to be signed and Meghan's grandma got sick.  As a result they met us at camp the first day.  Cora was a little disappointed not to be able to show her the cows that she always talks about and our new house.  After camp the first night they stayed up till 11:30. We had a great breakfast the next morning, and they just hung out, played games, went for a walk, etc.  Tuesday straight after camp we drove out to my parents house.  Arrived very late and they still stayed up till 2.  Crazy girls.  Cora has been looking forward to showing her this farm also for months.  It was the perfect hot day.  We were a little worried after all the rain and chilly days, but it was awesome.  We started off with a special shoe burning ceremony.  

My dad has had these shoes for 45 years.  The back seam is ripped apart and the top is all separated, but the sole is still fine.  He told me what they where made of, but I can't remember.  He knows he got married in them and thinks he might of even had them on his mission.

There was quite the dramatic little speech before hand that made us all laugh. Then we burned them.

After lunch we went tubing down the canal.  The boys were a little nervous at first that they would not be able to get to the side afterwards.  As the ride went on they got at little braver and in the end they both jumped off the bridge a few times.

Meghan was determined that she was not going to jump.  In the end she did.  Many times and loved it.

 Meghan said many times she thought it was a really great day.  She loved the activities, thought my parents were so nice, the farm was beautiful, food was so good, and she thought Natalie was just so funny and sarcastic.  Natalie even whipped her up a quick croquet belt.  Meghan thought that was the nicest thing.

On the way home we stopped for traditional ice cream.  We wanted her to have the whole experience. A fast dinner then back to basketball. Another late night.  I think they are trying to fit in as much as possible.  Both have still been happy and fun all day tho.  Spent a while drawing a circus on the trampoline.  I went out to get a better picture, but it had rained.  There have been theme days for camp.  One was 'Your favorite basketball player'.  They chose Will and Charlton from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.  Today's theme was 'Retro'. Cora had wanted to get a small gift for the girls she always babysat. (They had written her a cute little letter.  Inside were some pictures they had drawn also.  When it arrived she was so happy.  Cora is really going to miss those sweet girls. She has decided to write them back) Anyways while at the mall they found these awesome tanks and headbands for cheap.  All ready had the sock.  I thought they should get a prize for those awesome costumes.

I love these girls.  I love how strong they are together and the great things they accomplish.  I love how they inspire each other and how they be silly and don't care what anyone thinks.  We are really going to miss Meghan.  This has been such a great week. And they are loving basketball camp of course:)

First Official Week.

We had our first official week out at the farm.  Tuesday Dave and I moved a few loads of bails.  Friday Amber and Jared finished almost the entire rest of the field.  We only did one and a half loads and then moved over to another field.  After one load there, it was to dark to continue.  We came in and unloaded a few more boxes and got some other stuff settled.  I feel a lot better about leaving the kids in the house, now that they have a place to go and not in Grandmas way all the time.  Saturday we loaded up the grain truck and took a load to the dump.  Dave wanted all the kids to come.  He was excited to have them all there helping.

It has been so much fun to spend  time together.  We hung out all day.  After the dump we went down to the field to get a few more loads of bails.  The girls each took a turn driving the tractor and learning how to shift.  They did very well.  Leah was very nervous at first, she thought a bail would fall on her, but after she got the hang of it she did great. 

It felt great to get back in the tractor.  I really do love being on the farm.  I wish we could have given Cora more time here. She is the one that is the most excited about the move.  

I also can't wait to get them out there more.  Our goal is to have the kids and I do as much as we can while Dave is at work to free up some of his time. Hopefully we will get started early on this next year.

We start school in a week.  We attended church in our ward on Sunday.  Everyone was so friendly and happy to have us there.  We felt very welcome.  I love that we can go anywhere in the world and have the same lessons and spirit there.  Truly a wonderful thing about the gospel.  To me it just further proves how true The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is. The gospel is the same no matter what, no matter where.  Truth is not changed. We have yet to get time to work on the house.  Hopefully soon.  Dave has not had time to work on it since February. Poor house has just sat there.  But it has been so nice seeing him every night.  Even when we have come in at 11:30 at night, and the kids are asleep, they know we are there and it has made a difference. It was the perfect first weekend together. 

Finally Bit the Dust

About 5 years ago, Dave's dad sold him the old blue Oldsmobile for $1.  We were in need of a new (to us) car and they had bought a new one for themselves.  I remember them sitting at Swiss Chalet and signing the papers over.  It was an older car and didn't look the prettiest, but it sure got us everywhere we wanted to go.  It was great on gas, awesome in the snow, and we could pack a ton in it.  Made the perfect ski vehicle.  The last couple of years as Dave has been travelling so much to the farm and back we have really worn this poor car down.  A year ago it started to give us trouble.  Dave has done some tweaking and fixing.  At one point we even prayed that we could just get a few more years out of it.  And we did.  Finally a few weeks ago the sad thing just could not go on any longer.  Dave tried a few more things and really didn't want to be done yet, but it was time to take it to the Metal Yard.  Friday we followed him in the Tahoe, so he would have a ride home.  We were hoping to drive it all the way.  Then the big hill, coming out of the coulee did it in.  At a stop light it coughed and died.  All the kids jumped out of the Tahoe and helped push it off the highway (luckily we were right next to an exit) and about 1/2 block.  I have awesome tough kids:) There it sat over the weekend. Today we went to finish the job.  Dave tried to start it.  Nothing but noise.  We ended up towing it the last 2 miles.  Not the most legal move, we took a chance.  Since I did not know where we where going, I sat in the car.  At one point we crossed the double lane highway.  Dave literally had my life in his hands.  It was a bit of a nerve wracking experience. The kid at the metal yard was very impressed with the miles we had gotten on the car.  574000. He was a great kid.  I think he really loved his job.  Dave asked if he could squish it right there for the kids to see.

Pretty awesome.  The crazy thing is, Dave's truck has not been running good for the last couple of years.  In his few spare moments he has worked on this also.  For the last 6 months it has just sat.  The day the car died he started it up and it ran great.  Has been running fine ever since.  I tell ya, it is a dang good thing we pay our tithing.  Feeling blessed.  The kids think they have had a very exciting day. 

Scattered Thoughts on Moving

I have known and planned for our moving day for a couple of years now.  I think that part of me never really thought it was going to happen.  The kids are registered in their new school.  We have switched our membership.  We have sort of packed.  Weird packing.  Some is in storage.  Some is moved.  Some will stay till the house is sold.  Some we are taking with us.  I went out for a walk around town this morning and had all these random thoughts.  Crazily enough a lot of them contradicted each other. I will miss seeing the mountains every day.  I can't wait to not have neighbors so close, to be out in the middle of the pea field we are building in.  But I think it will take me awhile to readjust back to not being able to just run into town.  I haven't lived out on the farm for almost 20 years.  I will not miss having kids knock on my door and asking if they can play in my house.  I will miss being able to send Blake to the park and ride bikes with his friends.  I am very excited to have my kids ride the bus.  I am going to miss being able to walk up and get them from school. Dave and I enjoy going for a walk in the evening when he is home.  We just tell the kids we are going on a date and they need to be in bed when we get back.  Most times they are.  This we will still be able to do, but I will miss the street lights.  I am very afraid of the dark, or rather what is in the dark that I can't see.  I will miss the friends we have made here.  We have not been very social the last year, but we have great friends.  I am excited to finally do this.  We feel like we have been living in limbo for a while now.  At least we can now get on with it.  I am so nervous for this next step.  It is hard for me to meet new people.  New school, new ward, new life, kinda.  I am looking forward to having my husband around every night. I am sad that I will no longer be on the way to town for my parents. No more calls to say 'Hey we are doing 'The Loop' as they call it. Or Nicole stopping in to use the bathroom on the way.  We are still close enough for people to day trip, just no able to pop in. There are so many different thoughts and emotions about this day. This is going to be a fun, challenging, exciting, harder, easier, sad, great, relieving, stressful new step in our lives.  I know this is where we are meant to go.  I feel like I am totally walking on faith right now.  I have no idea what I would do with out the gospel to guide me in these huge life changing decisions.

Birthday Boy

Blake is 9!! He wanted to get up early before Dave went to work to open his presents.  (It is a good thing today was not his birthday, Dave went to work at 3 am)  

He was slightly sleepy, but very excited.

Sorry my pictures are fuzzy, maybe the camera was not quite awake either:)

Leah got him a Lego set.  Cora has been waiting months to get him 'Wreck This Journal'  There are instructions on each page about how to destroy the thing.  Take it in the shower, draw with dirt on this page, punch holes here, tie a string around the spine and swing it around hitting trees etc.  

And he we gave him a BB gun. (I had bought balloons and had planned to blow them all up and fill his floor with them after he was asleep.  I was so disappointed when later in the day I remembered.  I think it would have been so fun.) The kids and I packed a picnic and went to the Birds of Prey Center.

I did not know that bald eagles' head turns white only after they are 5 years old.  Apparently they are often mistaken for golden eagles until then.  Thought that was neat.

I seemed to have lost all my pictures of the hawks and eagles.  We go there just as they were starting a flying demo with a hawk.  Blake's favorite part was when the instructor was telling us how to tell if a bird is about to take flight.  They will flap the back feathers, shift from foot to foot, and 'poop to lighten the load'.  The hawk promptly pooped and took off.  Blake felt the need to share that story with us again many times and laugh. He truly is a 9 year old boy.

Blake had requested make your own pizzas and Nathan's chocolate cheesecake for his birthday dinner. We ended up having my parents, Levi, Natalie and her three boys come.  Blake had also asked weeks ago if we could all please go swimming for his birthday. It was fun for him to have lots of people to swim with. 

He wanted to light his own candles.  As he was blowing the match out he kept doing it over the candles.  So the candles would go out also.  After 3 times we just sang to him with what was left.

When we got back from swimming, Dave set up a target for him to try out the BB gun.
Everyone had a go, Dave awarded and tallied points.  I think Blake was the winner.

Blake deemed it a fantastic birthday.  Happy 9th Birthday Blake!!

Little Things

I like to do little things for my family.  I have never been one for the big gesture.  Not that I would turn it down:).  But I like to let them know I was thinking of them while out shopping, while they where at school/work, brighten a  crappy day, etc.   I love to send them little notes in their lunches.  Sometimes we will eat the cookie dough instead of cooking it.  So much better that way.  Tea parties.  I know they love fun paint cards to use as book marks, so I stopped and grabbed a bunch for them as a surprise.

Once in a while I will buy a favorite treat and slip it in the lunch box.  I like to go for walks at night with everyone.  Leah loves gum, a few days ago she was not having the best day.  I picked up a pack for her and brought it home.  A few weeks ago I thought it would be fun to fold the toilet paper every time I was done with it.  I was going to just keep doing it until someone said something.  It took 3 days and Cora mentioned it first.  The joke was on me tho, because Dave had seen it the first day and instead of saying something he started folding it also.  I had no idea.

I love taking them to Shakespeare in the Park.  Dave told us about this last year and the kids loved it.  A last minute trip to The Fix is always a surprise and loved.  Sometimes we will pop into a movie at the cheap theater.  Or movie night at the library.  It is fun to surprise them with a favorite meal, or something they have been mentioning they haven't had for a while.  Fresh baked cookies or scones when they get home from school is always a hit.  Walking around our local lake.  I love my family and love to show them that I do. For me it really is the little things in life that make a big difference. What do you do for your kids?  Do you like the big gesture or little things?  Any other neat ideas I could use?

A Few Moments this Week

Blake had swimming lessons the last two weeks.  Dave was able to attend with him on parent day.  We didn't know if he would be able to, so I went prepared to swim.  Blake was so excited when he showed up just before hand.  Dave said he was doing really great.  Both interview days his teacher said he was doing good and everything looked great.  Monday we went to pick up his report card and were shocked to find out he had failed.  I have never had a kid fail before.  Blake was devastated. All the card said was he needed to slide his arm into the water instead of slapping it in, and to get it a little higher.  If he would have mentioned that we could have worked on it.  I told Blake I was counting it as a pass.:)

He loved swimming lessons.  He was nervous at first because this is the first year that his sisters did not have lessons also.  But in the end he was counting down the hours every day till he could go.

We have been scrubbing our house like crazy this week.  The kids have worked so hard.  We had the elders over for dinner on Monday and they helped us move all the furniture out of the house so the ceilings could be sprayed.  Myrna was there also and helped do some more painting and we stuck plastic all over the house.  Tuesday we took it easy, not much we could do with no furniture and plastic all over.  I took the kids to the cheap theater to get them out of the way as the ceiling was being sprayed.  The next day we moved all the furniture in by ourselves.  We wanted to surprise Dave and have it all done.  Dave had gone to the farm for a couple of day ,in the evening right after work, to help with the bailing.  The kids decided it would be fun to go to his work and have a picnic. Thursday we pack one up and up we went.  Dave reminded me the spray park was open and so we took the kid's suits.

It is a spray and fitness park.  The fitness part is so much fun.  I would love to have these in my back yard.

Blake would fill this bucket and just wait for it to dump on him.

The girls pretending that the water were lasers.

Today has been very busy.  We started early and worked hard.  We are so close to being ready.  My house is incredibly clean.  Inside and out.  We have been scrubbing everything.  Taking things apart to scrub or using toothbrushes and Q-tips.

Today alone we have dong through 6 Litres of Vinegar, 3 boxes of Baking Soda and 1/2 a container of Dawn.

The kids petered out about 5:30.  Cora had gone babysitting at 5, so around 6 we said OK you can be done.  Now at 8 I am preparing the Sunday School and Primary lessons I just got asked to sub and
Dave is still going strong on final painting and putting things back together.  It has been a long week, but it was so nice to have that little break and cool off with a picnic and spray park.