Recharging my battery

It's been a long, good week. Very busy. This morning I didn't have to be any particular place, run any particular errand, or see any particular person, so I decided to pencil in some time for myself and recharge.

The first thing I did was pick up this month's Ensign. If you haven't read it yet, DO IT NOW. There were so many wonderful articles in there, it's hard to pick my favorite. Everything from President Uchtdorf's wonderful message about righteous women to the ideas for strengthening marriage. It's all good, and it really hit the spot for me this morning. (Click on the magazine cover for a link to the text!)

Lots to look forward to in the coming month:

1) General Conference

2) a visit from Grandpa Rod and Grandma Deb

3) Wade's 6th birthday

4) getting through the Primary sacrament meeting program!

The other night Wade predicted that our 706 house would sell in October. I admire his faith and hope for that to happen, too. :) Thanks to everyone for your continued thoughts and prayers with that!

Two Students of the Month!

Today was a VERY good day for our kids. They were BOTH chosen by their teachers to be September's Student of the Month. I have been grinning all day just thinking about it. They both were recognized for playing at the chess tournament, and they both were able to attend the school's Super Star activity (along with 300+ other students who did well this month. ;)) Wade had another unique honor of getting called up 3 times for reading awards--the only student to reach the top Triple A kindergarten reading level. Not a huge surprise to those who know Wade well...and should help get him moving in the reading programs reserved for grades 1st-5th.

We are SO PLEASED with Rhiannon and Wade--they're trying their very best, and it shows!

Plan to be surprised

A few weeks ago Jason asked if the rose plants were dead in the backyard. He kindly reminded me that they weren't hooked up to any automatic sprinkler system and needed to be watered by hand...so we've been working on that. Unofficially it's become Wade's job, and he's doing great at it! For less than 2 minutes of watering a day, the payoff has been amazing, and the roses are beautiful!

I am this close to finishing the blog book! I'm anxious for it to turn out after all the work that's gone into it, but we'll just have to wait and see what the final product looks like!

I'm also "crushing" over a movie I finally watched this week, the Steve Carell one called "Dan in Real Life." Lots of funny lines in that movie, but my favorite one makes me think. It's Dan's final lines in the movie:

"Dear Readers: For most of you, this is my first column in your paper. In the future, I will be answering your questions, but today I want to take a break from my usual format and talk to you about the subject of plans. Not so much my plan for this column, more like life plans and how we all make them, and how we hope that our kids make good, smart, safe plans of their own. But if we're really honest with ourselves, most of the time our plans don't work out as we'd hoped. So instead of asking our young people, "What are your plans? What do you plan to do with your life?"...maybe we should tell them this: plan...to be surprised." (Peter Hedges, Dan in Real Life, 2007)

I love that! Too many of our best-laid plans don't turn out the way we want them to, but, like my friend Kathryn's blog says, that's life. And that's okay!

Too short but very, very sweet!

My brother Brant called me last week and said he was flying to Ontario Airport on Sunday (from Dallas) to do some work in Victorville. Yesterday we prayed and crossed our fingers that his flight would land on time and he'd be able to zip up here to see us. Brant now has the very special honor of being our first visitor since we've been back in Ridgecrest, AND he was also the first one to see us when we were out in Virginia. :)

The kids were so excited to show him the house, and we had a great time catching up and visiting. The time went by way too fast, but we loved every minute of it!

Not many people would brave almost 5 hours of driving for a 2-hour visit, but Brant did and we love him for it. Thanks for coming, Uncle B!!! See you in December!

4-day weekends rock.

I liked Tommy's picture update, so I'm copying him. :)

Had a very relaxing weekend. In no particular order, here's what we did:

Jason bought and assembled a super-nice 3 burner Weber Genesis barbecue grill. All that's left to do is get a propane tank, get some steaks, and crank this bad boy up. And, yes, I'm completely okay with this--while Jason thinks steaks, I think fuel for emergency preparedness! :)



Jason and I had an indoor date night on Friday and finally watched "The Dark Knight" for the 2nd time. (We've had the DVD since Christmas!) I think I enjoyed it more the second time around, but it is still definitely not for kids.




On Monday we joined our new ward for their traditional Labor Day breakfast--tons of food, tons of people, tons of fun. Who said 2nd Ward is small??




After the breakfast, Rhiannon and Wade participated in their first chess tournament of the school year. It's a really neat program--different schools and organizations support it and every kid that plays comes away with something, either a ribbon or a trophy. We had a good time.

Rhiannon got a shiny chess medal--there were close to 40 kids in her 4th-5th grade category. Dad teased her about going easy on all the boys she played against, but really she needs to learn some strategies now that she knows how the pieces move. I was very happy for her--she did great after her 2-year hiatus from chess tournaments! :)




I wish I could capture the look on Wade's face when he first got his trophy. "Glowing" is probably the correct term. Out of 17 kids in the K-1 section, he got 8th place. I'm pretty sure he'll want to go to another tournament sometime. :)

2 pictures are missing from this picture update. I pulled weeds at the 706 house on Friday, and we swam a lot this weekend, too. :) Hope you and yours had a wonderful weekend, too!