Halloween 2014 fun!

Yesterday was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL.  Perfect fall temperature, beautiful sunset.  I sat and watched the last few minutes of Wade's flag football practice, sitting on the grass, and basked in a perfect moment.  It was amazing.  This is definitely the time of year to live in Ridgecrest.

The kids had a crazy fun time at a Halloween carnival last night, too.  Rhiannon and the other young women, young men, and their leaders put it on for the Primary kids and they did a GREAT JOB!

So, of course, after a wonderful day yesterday, I tossed and turned all night, couldn't breathe, and woke up super congested this morning.  It's like someone slammed the brakes on my happiness.  Not fun.  Thankfully I only have a few things I HAVE to do today, leaving lots of time for rest and fluids and taking it easy!

And thankfully these cool cats are old enough that they didn't need too much help from their mom with their costumes, either!  I think they look AMAZING!

At the carnival last night:  Rhiannon and her friend JenAi are Scotty and Spock from the starship Enterprise.  Last year they did the Dr. Who theme.  I love that they do things together!

Our sweet Bishop Washburn asked Rhiannon to do some facepainting for him!  

Our friend Tamara is Effie from Hunger Games.

Wade was pretty stoked with his Green Arrow paint job.

Green Arrow/Captain America!

I was so impressed that Rhiannon put this together.  Band-aids worked as Spock ears!

Live long and Prosper!

The taped-on Star Trek symbol is hilarious, too. :)

"Trick or Treat...baby."  Wade is the Terminator!  He'd been planning this for a long time when Rhiannon passed the jacket down to him.  He just needed some cool shades.

Lookin' good!

This is from 2008, but close to what Jason was going to wear TO WORK today.  I can't remember him ever doing that.  TOO FUNNY--I love it!

If I'm feeling better, I've also got an easy costume idea--I plan to go as "Identity Theft" and wear a bunch of "Hello My Name Is" nametags with different names on them.  

Maybe I'll black out some of my teeth, too, haha! :)

Happy Halloween!

Volume 5 and a personal goal completed!

I spent the last few days finishing up our fifth volume of blog books. I'm excited how it turned out, even though I ran into annoying glitches with Blurb's Booksmart software. I powered through them and got it done, though! Here's a sample of the first few pages:

Cushing Family Adventures Volume 5, January-December 2013 Ridgecrest, CA by Horseshoe Bend in Page, AZ | Make Your Own Book

It was time for a good blackmail post

The other day I was on the computer and heard Rhiannon giggling on the other side of the wall.  She had taken all of these with my phone camera:

I dare you to try looking at those without laughing.  I died!  And I'm STILL getting a huge kick out of it.  What a clown! :)

She is a beauty through and through!  She's only into high school a few months and we are watching her get older and wiser right before our eyes.  It's magical, scary, fun, and bittersweet all at the same time!  Love this girl!

A whopping birthday post--Wade is 11!

This boy.  We think he felt the love during his week-long 11th birthday festivities!

It started the Friday night before with a sleepover at our house for him and his three buddies, Carson Taylor, Jordan Benitez, and Nick Speredelozzi.  They played zombie tag and Nerf guns.  They had pizza.  They stayed up late giggling like girls and (trying) to watch Captain America: Winter Soldier. I'm glad we could make that memory for Wade!  They were LOUD but fun!

The morning of his birthday Rhiannon and I had a blast putting together our balloon tradition while Wade was in the shower.  His favorite balloon sayings were the ones Rhiannon made.  :)

For his class at school he brought Rice Krispie treats and some recess equipment.  His last night with the Webelos he brought candy bars and special chocolate for his two Webelos leaders, Judith Bal and Kiahna Williams.

He loved all the phone calls, texts, and Facebook birthday wishes that day, too!!!

In the evening we had Domino's pizza with our special guests Howard and Sandi.  They joined us for present opening, catching up, and some Baskin Robbins birthday cake!

The world is brighter with Wade in it.  He is a good boy who works hard, makes good choices, repents quickly, and gains wisdom from his mistakes.  He makes us very happy and proud, and we are glad he's a part of our family!  Love you, Wade!

Just like that

We are starting to experience the full-blown teenage years, where our kids start to spend LOTS more time with friends.

It happened out of nowhere, just like that.

Last night I dropped Rhiannon off, by herself, in this sea of teenagers, so she could watch her high school's homecoming football game with friends.  She had a TOTAL blast and kept texting me highlights from the game.  The funniest one said something like, "I think I'm getting into football!"  Almost every weekend she's been gone to a birthday party or a movie night or "kick-the-can" fun at the park.

Then today Wade went to an out-of-town birthday party with a couple friends to an indoor trampoline park called Skyzone in Riverside.  Gone from 9AM to later tonight, and he is having the TIME OF HIS LIFE.  I'll need to thank his friend's family profusely later for spoiling our son with this fun day!  (and not think about my own debilitating fear of trampolines, haha!)

So almost overnight, our weekends have changed a little bit, driving kids here,there, and everywhere.  Thankfully Jason and I have a few friends of our own--we're going to a game night with friends tonight.

And thankfully, we still have plenty of times when we are all home together, basking in a quiet evening of absolutely no commitments, appointments, games, or activities, haha! :)

Life is good!

A request

I felt like crying after leaving Wade's class this morning.  Crying in a good way.

Most Fridays I come into his class for 30 minutes and help with reading groups.  Today I helped with Accelerated Math and had a good time.  One of the boys in my group said, "I want to be in your group next time!" Haha, I think he was just excited because I got to check their answers to make sure they were right BEFORE they submitted them on their Chromebooks.  Easy grade of 100. :)

Just as I was leaving, Wade's teacher, Mrs. Kyte, pulled me aside for a minute outside and asked me if I would do something for her.  There's a student in her class who is in foster care and has had a really good experience with the foster family he's been living with.  He will be going back to family members in a couple weeks, and Mrs. Kyte was very worried about him.  She asked me if I'd please add him to our church's prayer roll (in the temple).  I gave her a big hug and told her I'd be happy to do that!

I've put family and friends' names on the prayer rolls of our LDS temples in the past, especially for serious challenges and struggles, etc.  But that request from Mrs. Kyte just opened my heart wide and reminded me of the very real power found in prayer, faith, and temple service.

I went home and did what she asked as soon as I could find a number to the temple.  I'm grateful for this sweet teacher's faith and the reminder that God knows us and does hear our prayers!

Hard.

Here in Ridgecrest we have 4 wards, or congregations, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We are blessed to have two buildings, and two wards share each building.  I never realized how nice that was until one of the buildings was condemned (until further notice) and all four wards needed to share the older, smaller building.

We are all VERY grateful for that little building!

To accommodate everyone, we shortened our Sunday meetings for the past two months to 2 hours, instead of 3.

And it was super nice!!!

Today we went back to 3-hour meeting blocks, still with the 4 wards, by overlapping.  

The hardest thing wasn't sharing the building--it was going back to three hours! :)  Boy, it was a LONG afternoon, haha! :)

All joking aside, I'm grateful for the Sabbath day and being able to attend church with my family and rub shoulders with wonderful friends, our "pseudo family" here in the desert!  I love singing the hymns, hearing inspiring messages, and feeling the Spirit.  I'll keep telling myself that as our family adjusts to the three hours.  :)

"Good Neighbor" FAIL

Last night a police officer approached us outside, asking questions.  We learned that a home in our neighborhood was robbed--in broad daylight thieves took furniture, paintings, and firearms.

The worst part is that I saw the guys in the act of doing it but didn't think anything of it.  There have been so many people in and out of the house over the past two weeks since the wife of the elderly couple living there died and the husband went with relatives out of town.  Carpet cleaners, realtors, and many more.

So, when I saw that the "For Sale" sign was removed earlier this week and these guys were moving furniture out of the house, I assumed they were getting the house ready for new occupants.

EPIC fail.

It has been a big wake-up call for our neighborhood, to be more vigilant and take note of suspicious things, to take better care of each other.

I was running an errand this morning and saw three strange cars in front of that house again, so I stopped and asked them what they were doing there.  One man at his van looked at me like I was crazy, spit tobacco juice out the side of his mouth right in front of me, and replied that he was there with the realtor, changing locks.

Classy, dude.  Thanks for changing the locks, but I've got my eye on you now!

Chimney Creek camping trip

As soon as Wade got home from school on Friday, we piled into the truck and headed to Chimney Creek for a family overnighter campout.  The drive through Nine-Mile Canyon is a little crazy, and the dogs sure didn't like the bumpy road to the campsite, but once we got there, we had a fantastic time.  It was maybe an hour's drive, tops.  So close and such a change of scenery!

Chimney Creek was NOT crowded.  There was one other camper next to us, but we couldn't hear them at all (unfortunately they probably heard US a lot).  Normally when we've camped we have been surrounded by lots of other campers.  Maybe because this is a very rustic site (no water), it's not as popular.  We liked having the place to ourselves!  We brought water and firewood with us, and there was a "bathroom," so we did just fine.

Our camping menu included:

--hamburgers, chips, fruit, and veggies with dip for dinner

--campfire dessert was roasted Starburst and a different take on s'mores (put a roasted marshmallow between two Fudge Stripe cookies; I loved that it was less messy, but the family preferred the old-school version)

--For breakfast we had Smokies sausages, pancakes, and fruit.

We used the campfire to cook our desserts and used the wonderful RoadTrip grill to cook everything else.  Love that thing!!!

Rhiannon and Wade had a blast climbing the rocks around the campsite and taking TONS of pictures together.  We could hear them giggling and having a great time.  Wade got a small injury on his head from hitting a branch, but he was fine.

Probably one of our favorite things was the night sky, filled with stars.  The absolute stillness of the campsite sure added to the majestic atmosphere.  The only thing I heard besides ourselves was a couple of birds in the morning--it was THAT quiet.  It was fun playing card games in the tent at bedtime, too.

Camping with the dogs was interesting.  Overall, we think they did well.  It was ALL new to them, so they were hyper and edgy and on full alert the whole time, especially Oscar.  We probably need to camp with them more often so they chill out a bit!

If we did this campout all over again, the only things I'd change would be to bring more warm bedding for the dogs--it got pretty cold when the sun went down, and I'd pack bug spray!  We were fine once the sun went down, but the rest of the time there were lots of little pesky bugs flying around.

What a blast!  Hurray for family camping trips!

Many thanks to Rhiannon who took these wonderful pictures!

The dogs whimpered and whined most of the drive there.  They were FINE on the way home, though! :)

We're not in the desert anymore!

Thank you, Daddy, for the perfect campfires!

One of MANY sibling selfie shots taken up on the rocks

Dogs are a lot like toddlers on camping trips.  They are under foot and don't want you to be out of their sight for an instant, or they freak out.

Cute boy!

Watch Dogs

Trip Photographer--what a cutie!

Fun!  Loved camping with this girl!

Peace!

Hiking boot selfie

Yay!  We got Dad in a picture!

Rhiannon called this "Twinners."  Glad we could make memories together and have a great time camping at Chimney Creek!

Verity's "happy" list

I thought I'd share my "happy" list of late, things that have made me smile or made me excited!

#1:  Working on Couch 2 5K.

This morning I completed the week 5, day 3 workout, and it was pretty tough for me.  I'll probably have to re-do it, and that's okay.  I am loving some things that make this attempt easier for me, though:

--running in the dark with the dogs while Rhiannon is at seminary.  I've done it for 5 weeks so far, 3 days a week faithfully.  This is big for me.

--the 5K runner iPhone app.  Genius.  Love.  It cues me when I need to start running, and I can play my own music over the top of it.  It's silly, but I also like the little "badges" I've gotten from reaching certain milestones.  The "Hidden Athlete" badge made me laugh but also made me feel good, too.  It's the little things, right?

--setting my exercise clothes out right next to my bed the night before.  This makes a huge difference.

--playlists on my iPhone.  Some songs that I've found particularly motivating so far are:  

"I Just Wanna Run," by Downtown Fiction

"I Will Wait" by Mumford & Sons

"We Are Young," by Fun.

"Miracle Mile," by Cold War Kids

"Lightning Strike," by Snow Patrol

"Crazy," by Gnarls Barkley

"Try," by Pink

"Move Along," by All-American Rejects

"Calling You," by Blue October

"Radioactive," by Imagine Dragons

"Chasing Cars," by Snow Patrol

"How You Like Me Now," by The Heavy

This endeavor hasn't been without its challenges, meaning that I am SORE as all get-out some days, but I'm pushing through and trying to be smart about it at the same time.

And just so we're clear, my "run," is more like a really fast walk. :)

#2:  Making progress with emergency preparedness.

Last month I "sorta" participated in Food Storage Made Easy's 7-Day emergency preparedness challenge.  I found myself thinking about it and making lists more than doing the challenges throughout the day.  That's okay.  I've been doing a lot of different things over the past few weeks, such as:

--updating 72-hour-kits

--updating first aid kit, throwing out expired supplies

--purchasing honey and chocolate in bulk orders (important, right?)

--purchasing a mobile washer for washing clothes in a bucket, flashlights, sanitation items, etc.

Right now I'm working on an emergency, grab-and-go binder with copies of important documents.  It's slow going but the fact that I've finally STARTED it is a big thing.

#3:  Scorpion on CBS.

This show just started, folks.  Don't miss it.  It's got my favorite things:  nerdy, super-smart geniuses with low social skills saving the world in a government-backed group.  So far I LOVE IT.

(Grandpa Rod, have you DVRed this one?  You should!)

#4:  My institute class

Last nights's institute class was my favorite one yet.  We spent nearly half the class time talking about our favorite General Conference talks.  It made me happy to realize that every single person in the class had watched Conference carefully and come away with something they needed.  We all felt the Spirit as we talked about the messages that had impacted us.  Then we dug into Doctrine and Covenants sections 42 and 44, had cookies, and sang "Happy Birthday" to one of our class members who CAME TO INSTITUTE ON HER BIRTHDAY.  Even I don't have that kind of dedication, and I teach the class, haha! It was a great night.

#5:  Kindness of others.  

I'd posted on Facebook a couple days ago, asking what to do about sore hamstrings.  The next day my friend Carol showed up in my driveway with a yoga DVD and a foam roller AND a list of massage people in town.  It made my day, and I was really impressed that she cared enough to do that.  I can learn a lot from that, to be more pro-active instead of using the standard, "please let me know if there's anything I can do."  What a sweet friend!

#6:  Cushing Family Camping trip this weekend!  WOO-HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Life is good!

General Conference weekend

We

Love

General 

Conference

weekends.

The speakers, the messages, the company, the relaxation, and the food.  It was a fun weekend!  I'm looking forward to going back and reading the messages again.  We felt happy inside as we listened, and we also felt inspired to do better and be better!

Here are a few fun random pictures of the weekend.

Rhiannon took this with my phone.  It is classic Oscar. :)

Arrow of Light Recipient!

The Arrow of Light award is a big deal.  It's the highest award you can earn in the Cub Scout program, so we were VERY happy when Wade earned his award last Thursday at his final Cub Scout pack meeting.  He will turn 11 this month and move on to Boy Scouts!

The pack meeting was wonderful--there was a good turnout and a good spirit there.  Our Cubmaster Stan Loughmiller let parents say a few words, and that was neat to be able to do that.  Our friend Sandi Collins came, too--yay!  One of Wade's Webelos leaders, Judith Bal, a good family friend of ours, made arrows for the boys.  What an awesome keepsake!!!

We are proud of Wade and hope he'll carry this work ethic into Boy Scouts!

Wade and his friend Jon Nation received the award that night

I love this--too funny!

Arrow of Light selfie!

The box on the table was fun, too--they dimmed the lights and had parents and Cub Scout leaders add glowsticks to the box.  The arrow lit up nicely!

Thank you for all your efforts, Judith and Kiahna!  Wade was blessed with amazing leaders!

Support from his big sister

So glad Sandi could make it on such short notice!

Another of his Webelos leaders, Sister Williams--Wade has had a great time in Webelos and will miss these ladies!