Love this boy! Happy 9th, Wade!

Man, we love this kid so much, and we are excited to celebrate his special day today!

HAPPY 9th BIRTHDAY, WADE!

 

LOVE YA, BUDDY!

 

 

 

 

Wade and I type back and forth

Italics--Mom
Regular--Wade

(This was a little back and forth exchange at 9:30pm tonight--we were standing right next to each other at the downstairs computer.)


Guess who's turning 9 tomorrow?

Mom is the best person in the world right now.

Ah, shucks. Why's that?

Because you are.

I'm just a tiny bit excited for your birthday. Can you tell? :)

Definite y e s.

I'm getting sleepy. I wonder when Rhiannon is comin' home???????

I know,right

The sooner we get to bed, the sooner 2 hours and 28 minutes gets here, heh, heh. Man, my mental math STINKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My mental math is a-w-e-s-o-m-e.:)

You definitely get that gift from your D-A-D-D-Y. I could work on it if I spent some time with it. But it's so hard, sniff-sniff.

What's 1x636278176372618636.

Hey, I know that. It's 636278176372618636. Isn't it weird that we're typing instead of TaLkInG? :) Welcome to the 21st century...........

See,you are smart.

Thanks, man, thanks. We need to find some kind of typing "class" online that you and Rhiannon could practice to make your finger FLY over the keyboard, yeah, baby! :)

I CANNOT WAIT FOR B_I_R_T_H_D_A_Y IN 2 hours and 24 minutes! Finally,I got it right for once.


Shall we hit the bed trail? What do you think is in the BIG box??

Yeah, let's hit the bed trail.

Pleasant dreams.............................................................P.S. I love you, squirt.

Mom's dinner report

Every night at dinner we each give Dad a report about our day.  Most days my brain is turned to mush by dinner time and my response is short and sweet.  But today I thought I'd take some pictures to document most of my day, at least up until 1:00pm! :)

Today I:

--took middle school kids to school
--took Wade to Walgreens to pick up more of this:

 --worked out a dinner meal plan for the next 5 weeks and wrote out a grocery list

--took elementary school kids to school

--went grocery shopping:

 

 

--worked on washing/drying laundry (the kids will help me fold later):

 

 

--continued update on 72-hour emergency kits

 

 

This gives you an idea of what's in each person's backpack.  Then we've got a duffle
bag full of food and several Mountain House packages.

--tried to organize pantry a little bit:

 

 

 --then cut up all the meat I'd purcased earlier and divided into smaller packages to put in the freezer:

 

 



 

--took this guy for a walk:

 

 

--sat down for lunch:

 

threw some romaine, mushrooms, strawberry slices, and balsamic vinegar
together.  This was surprisingly tasty.  Also had some veggie straws
and some cookies!

 

--watched a Season 1 episode of this on Netflix:

 

I think I'm getting attached to these characters because I got a little emotional during this episode.

 

--listened to music:

 



--updated the blog and then messed around on Picasa!

 

 

--read some great talks that I'd missed during Conference weekend (click on their pictures to see their Conference talks):

 

"I Know It.  I Live It.  I Love It."

 

"Can You Feel So Now?"

 

 

 

Who knows what the rest of the day will bring, but I've enjoyed today! :)

 

 

 



So long, Toby! Thanks for everything!

I'm not going to lie, it's a little weird without Toby the Tortoise around.  Too quiet, for starters.  We all got used to his scratching around in his box.  And then when I went to the grocery store this morning I bought way more lettuce than I needed, forgetting that Toby doesn't eat dinner at our house anymore.  (We'll be eating lots of salads the next few days!)

 

Long-term we're thankful Toby is in a better home with people who really know tortoises, and hopefully he'll get along well with Richard the older tortoise who already lives there.  I'm sure Toby is having WAY more fun in their yard, where there's no pool and no crazed "puppy" dogs.  Short-term, I'm enjoying reclaiming that lost counter space where Toby's box sat for 2 years!  Change is good.  

 

Here was Toby back in July 2010:

 

And here are some fun pictures we took on Toby's moving day.  Look how much he's grown since we got him!!

 

 

 





A great Columbus Day weekend!

On Saturday morning we got out the door early and worked in the front yard together.  The plants around the front pond were so overgrown!!  It was great to get that done together--it made for a much faster job.

We got inside and turned on General Conference.  Well, the downside of that little family project was missing the "big announcement" firsthand about the missionary age change!  Thank goodness for traffic on Facebook that filled us in on that.  We also had satellite issues and only heard the end of President Uchtdorf's talk.  Thankfully we didn't have too much more of that the rest of the weekend and enjoyed all the wonderful messages and counsel shared. 

That night some young men and their dads came over for ice cream after the priesthood session of General Conference.  A smaller crowd than usual (plus me going a little overboard on toppings) meant one thing--lots of leftovers for another time!  :)

We enjoyed more Conference on Sunday, and then on Columbus Day we got up early and celebrated Oscar the Dog's 1st birthday with exercise!  Jason ran over 5 miles up and down this huge hill to the community college, and Rhiannon, Wade and I did close to 2 miles with Wade on his bike, Rhiannon jogging, and me being dragged by Oscar.  Fun times...no, really, it was fun! :)

That evening we hosted a "Polar Bear Challenge" swim and bbq party.  It was a blast--we had some old friends over and some new ones, too, to celebrate the end of summer and the glorious return of Ridgecrest's best season of the year--fall.  LOTS of good food, plenty of kids running around trying to brave the cold pool, and, you guessed it, ice cream and toppings for dessert.  It was a fantastic way to end the long weekend!

Last night we attended Rhiannon's fall concert for Concert Band.  They played "Band Avenue March," and music from Jurassic Park and Pirates of the Caribbean.  Rhiannon came across loud and crystal clear on the mallets, chimes, and bass drum.  She did a great job!

Tomorrow we will say goodbye to a family member--Toby the Tortoise is moving on to bigger pastures with the Green family a few streets away.  We've been thinking about him/her/it all summer and were concerned how to care for him long-term.  Toby has outgrown his box on the kitchen counter and is the right size to move outdoors now, but our swimming pool and big, active dog aren't the best combination, with the in-ground pool being our biggest concern.  Tortoises + pool = no more tortoise.  Realistically, if Toby really wanted to get to that water, the chain-link fence wouldn't stop him.  I feel bad about it, bad that we didn't think things through too well when we got him, but I'm grateful for the lessons we've learned from Toby about taking care of a pet and taking responsibility for it, even if that means finding him a better place to live.  We're grateful to our friends for being willing to give him a new, bigger home!