Red sun. Blog book in progress.

Having a hard time coming up with a catchy post title today. :) Oh, well! On Saturday we had a bunch of smoke drift into town from down south. Made the house smell like smoke and left a nice layer of ash in the swimming pool, but a friend put things into perspective for me. I ran into her late that afternoon in the grocery store parking lot and I was complaining about the smoke, while her concern was for the people who were losing their homes or worse because of the actual wildfires. Good wake-up call for me. Here's a picture Jason took:




Yesterday I sat down to work on the book I'm making out of our blog. I haven't touched it since April, so I'm catching up. The plan is to "send it in" once our summer trip is in there. Maybe this picture will motivate me to keep on, keeping on! :) Happy Tuesday--have a great week!

Back-to-back-to-back-to-back

This week was speedy and our calendar was packed! I still can't believe it's Friday already.

On Sunday Jason and I gave talks at church and got ready to start our new callings. (Jason is the Young Men's president and I'm the Primary president.)

On Monday Rhiannon went to a fun birthday party after school.

On Tuesday Rhiannon had her very belated well-check with the doctor. That night I went to Back to School night and met their teachers.

On Wednesday Jason and I had an awesome lunchdate at Miso Sushi. That night he went to his first Mutual with the youth and Rhiannon went to ANOTHER party, this one was a swim party with Activity Day girls from church. This meant Wade and I had the house and pool to ourselves, so we had what Wade called some "mommy-son" time in the pool!

On Thursday I had my first presidency meeting (long but very productive). We all joined Howard and Sandi for a great dinner out at Bernardino's (YUM!), then I stopped by the church to check on Cub Scouts and went to a book club for a bit.

Today and tomorrow we'll get over to 706 Randall and do a little here and there so it's ready for a second Open House. (Yes, we still need your prayers on that one. :))

The kids have had a wonderful second week of school. Wade comes home every day talking about a new friend he made and Rhiannon LOVES her teacher and has a lot of fun at recess time.

I really need to get some pictures on here--I'll do it soon! I DID put a ton up from our crazy awesome summer, so maybe subconsciously I'm taking a break from that. :)

"My mom's on Facebook"

On his second day of kindergarten, Wade was excited to tell me that his new friend's mom was on Facebook, too! It made me smile--I don't think I knew what a computer was when I was his age. I hope he doesn't share anything TOO personal about me at lunch! :)

It's safe to say that Wade has had a good first week of school. He likes his teacher, loves the class pets in his room (especially Beastie, a super-sweet three-legged rabbit!), and enjoys recess. He's mentioned a few names of kids he likes to play with, although he didn't like it when one boy said "he wouldn't be friends anymore" if Wade didn't go along with his Lego builder idea of everyone being trash men... (?!?) I've already noticed he's writing his name better. Yesterday he mentioned that the books his teacher read to the class seemed kind of babyish--I told him to hang in there, and then I talked to his teacher about that briefly this morning. I knew she was getting routines down this week, but I wanted to give her a heads-up about Wade's reading. She was very enthusiastic about it and assured me that we'd get moving with that once she tested kids next week. We'll see how things go there.

Rhiannon is doing well, too. She's trying to learn people's names and says hi to them, she's scoped out some cool places at recess, and she's trying really hard to prepare for timed tests in math. She's done some interesting things to help her cope, too, like wearing the same suncatcher necklace every day, making sure we both are using the same color pony tail holder, having me touch or kiss a little charm on her bracelet for "good luck." I was so happy today when her teacher took a few minutes with me before school--I just said hi to her on the playground but she walked over and visited with me. I was super impressed--she showed real concern for Rhiannon and wanted her to do well and be comfortable in her class. I could go on and on about our conversation, but I'll keep it short and just say that Mrs. K is a keeper!

Should be a nice weekend--Jason is FINALLY out on the golf course today, we've got a wedding reception tonight, tomorrow I have RS Super Saturday, and on Sunday Jason and I give talks and get some new callings...we'll keep you posted! ;)

First day!

Well, I'm surviving. I only have 260 minutes left until I can pick up my buddies and find out all about their first day of school! We had a perfect first morning, too--Rhiannon was up shortly after 6am; she helped me wake Wade up. :) We got ready, had breakfast, did morning chores, and took pictures before we realized we still had 30 minutes to kill! School doesn't start until 9am for them.

What teacher wouldn't love these two? :)

As we walked through the crazy mass of school kids, I wondered what Rhiannon must be thinking. She recognized a few kids from church, but not many. When I asked her how she was doing, she responded with what has to be the most perfect coping mechanism EVER: "Oh, I'm just singing a Coldplay song in my head." TOO COOL!

Lookin' good, Wade-O!

What a doll--she's going to do great!

So, as Wade's class lined up and started the walk to their classroom, I felt like I was going to lose it. THANKFULLY I didn't cry there, but I couldn't resist calling out to him, "Have fun, Wade! I love you!" He looked right at me as he walked by and said, "Love you, too!" He was the strong one, sending me off for the day instead of the other way around.

They'll be fine. They've both got GREAT teachers, and they'll begin to notice there are a ton of kids from the ward who go to that school, too. I'm going to go "eat some bon-bons" (aka mop the floor and go grocery shopping), and I'll keep you posted on our new school adventures!

A shout-out!

I loved this.

Swimming, shopping, and "a steal"

Last week the kids had a great time taking some one-on-one swim lessons with our friend Matt (who just returned home from a 2-year church mission to Brazil the weekend before that! Talk about getting into the swing of things quickly!) He is a super teacher and the kids learned a lot from him.

Rhiannon prepares to kick off into a backstroke. (She perfected her freestyle that week, too.)




Working on getting those leg kicks just right.

By the end of the week, Wade could swim freestyle to Matt, without the noodle or any other kind of aid. That was cool!

Wade "torpedoes" to Matt.

Of course the kids LOVED the little party at the end of the week--the raft was so fun!

On Saturday we made a day trip down to Lancaster and Palmdale. It's a 90-minute drive there, but with that handy DVD player in the van now it sure went by fast. We did some school clothes shopping, got lunch at Chili's, and stopped at Costco. We got back in the early afternoon and had the rest of the day to relax, too. We loved it! (and we will try to do that more regularly than we did in the past).

One more highlight of the weekend was making a "steal" on a beautiful used bedroom set for the guest bedroom. After chasing around town looking at garage sales, we called the last phone number on our list and brought home all of the following for $500:

Queen bed mattress set, headboard, footboard, bedframe, 2 nightstands,

large dresser, and

a huge mirror!

We are very happy with it and think our guests will be, too (hint, hint!) :)

Bricks

Did anyone else have that scared/nervous/anxious feeling every year when school started? Regardless of how old I was or what grade I was in, I ALWAYS felt it. If it hadn't been for our traditional father's blessings from my dad, I would have been a COMPLETE basket case.

Well, I started to feel that same sensation this morning. School isn't for another week and a half, but I woke up feeling like there were bricks on my chest. I'm not going to school, but BOTH. OF. MY. KIDS. ARE!

I thought I'd be singing in the streets at the thought of so much "alone time." Time to do projects! Time to catch up on things! Time for lunch dates with Jason! Time to clean! Or, as my family imagines, time to eat bon-bons and watch Oprah all day!

The fact is that Rhiannon and Wade aren't simply good kids; they're my buddies and helpers. They're my little shadows. They're my party planners when it's time to party, my pleasant background noise when it's time to chill. They're my "paycheck" that arrives daily, not in dollar bills, but the other kind that makes you feel wanted and needed and very, very special.

Well, I'm thankful for the brick sensation. It reminds me of my greatest blessings in life--being a wife and mother. And just like all those past "first days of school," I know I'll feel better once I get moving and doing, finding new ways to "enjoy the journey!"

SUPER South Dakota spots!

Hmmm...you know you've been pretty busy when you realize your sunglasses have been on top of your head for two hours straight! :) After cleaning windows at 706, making a Walmart run, working on laundry, and taking the kids to swim lessons, I don't feel guilty sitting down for a minute.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in South Dakota. Mount Rushmore was AWESOME! We also had a great time at Old MacDonald's Farm and Reptile Gardens in that same area. We learned a lot and soaked up the scenery and beautiful weather. Everyone should try to see Mt. Rushmore in their lifetime--I'm glad we were able to do it.

Cookie run

Tonight we made our move official and delivered plates of cookies to our new neighbors. There's nothing quite like a plate of warm chocolate chip cookies to help break the ice! We are definitely in an "established" neighborhood--the four we stopped by tonight have lived here for 35+ years or more. Hopefully we won't disturb the peace--we do have a VERY noisy, elusive frog but don't know what to do about that! :)