WOW

When Mike first moved out here he lived in the boundaries of the Ludlow ward. The house he found us to rent was outside these boundaries, but he was already attached to the ward so we kept on going. The bishop said that was OK since we only had a 6 month lease. But unfortunately, the house we found to rent now was still outside the boundaries. Ever since we moved to our new house, I have been paranoid that we would have to move to a different ward. Every time I saw the bishop I would try to not engage in fear he would tell us we would have to leave. Mike said that the bishop knew where we lived but he didn't say anything. Perhaps it was because he didn't want to find someone else to fill our callings (ward mission leader and 1st councilor in the RS). It was almost like "don't ask, don't tell" and I started to let my guard down.

Last Sunday, Mike and I were pulled out of our classes into the Bishops office. I thought for sure we were being evicted. The bishop inquired about how our current callings were going and if Mike was OK with his load of law school and the calling. Then he turned his attention toward me and asked if I would accept the calling to be the new Young Women's president. I was totally blind-sided. I didn't see that coming at all because I have only had my calling since March. So I said "yes" and I have been stewing about it all week. Since he wants me to have this calling for the 2 years we have left here, I guess I don't have to worry about eviction anymore. :)

We didn't tell the girls until it was announced today in church. Chelsea was so sad when they announced the release of her beloved president. I felt sad to, but for slightly different reasons. I tried to watch her expression as they called me and I was asked to stand. I think it took a little while to sink in. She looked at me and said (with a glare), "we don't sing". I think she feels like I'm invading her territory. Brianna on the other hand was very excited once she clarified that I would still be there when she got into YW in 2 months. Time will tell.

So I'm excited and scared. We have some really neat girls in our group, but I've never been President of anything. But I've been in YW a couple of times. I hope I can have the wisdom of Trudy Oviatt and the creativity of Jodie Hansen (2 other presidents I have served with). I don't know if anyone has noticed the addition of YW websites slowly appearing on my list of favorites sites, but I could use any help you may have. If any of you Utah ladies hear of neat things going on or have good ideas, please share. Things run a little different here, but I hope to still provide good experiences for these girls.

Just for Lindsay

In honor of the Olympics...........Michael Phelps, the early years.

Last summer adventure - Bronx Zoo

We were invited to go on a day trip down to NYC and see the Bronx Zoo. We jumped at this chance to see something new and spend the day with friends. We caravaned down there with 3 other families on Wednesday morning and luckily the weather was perfect. We were also there with about 5,000+ of our closest friends from all over the New England area. I guess I should just say that it was CROWDED! We didn't get to see as many animals as we would have liked but we did enjoy the ones that we got to see. The zoo was quite large. We could easily spend another day there to see everything we missed. Most of our time (or so it seemed) was spent waiting in line for the Wild Asia Monorail, but I hope the kids thought it was worth it. We boarded a train for a 20 min ride and got to see many animals close up as we drove by. Cord was quite cranky while we were in line, but luckily seemed to enjoy the ride (or at least he didn't scream through it. I had flashbacks of our tour of Washington DC).

Here at the end of the day we were getting ready to go home. We sure enjoyed being with these families and look forward to another adventure. Where are we going next Noel?

Here's some proof that I have made some friends as well. Next to me are Noel, Amy, and Gail.

Bronx Zoo

We brought Dausha with us but the 3rd musketeer (Mercedes) was sick and couldn't come. The girls really missed being with her but got to hang out with her older brother, Gage.
We all brought in lunch and found a nice place to sit and have a picnic. Brianna is here with Julia and Roci.
This is on the monorail ride. The carts moved sideways which was interesting. Mason loved spending the day with Sam and Nicholas.
Aren't these 2 cute? Cord's little buddy is Mathew. Here they are racing up to the top of a ramp.
I just love spending time with my kids and hope they appreciate all the fun adventures we get to take while we are here. These are things that we may never get to see again when we move back home.

Zoo pics

Chelsea's favorite animal was the tiger. He was just lying there as we drove by so she got a great shot. Chelsea took most of the animal pics. She did a great job.

More zoo pics

Brianna loved the Seals the best. Mason couldn't choose a favorite animal. I was surprised about how excited Cord got when we saw animals. Or maybe he was just happy to be out of the stroller.

Cord says HI

Cord is becoming more independent everyday and loves to climb. Even something simple as working on the computer is more difficult because Cord wants to be right there on my lap helping me type. He was really funny when I got onto Shelley's blog because Cord noticed Addison right away and got excited. He kept talking to her like she could hear him and he tried to send a kiss. So we wanted to send a shout out to Addie from Cord!

Correction

I know I reported on Saturday that Brianna got "a little sunburned" at the beach. I stand corrected. She got FRIED! I can't post pictures because they could be used against me for child abuse. She was so excited to get into the water at the beach that I didn't even think about sunscreen until it was time to go home. I know she is old enough to remember to do this herself, but I take some responsibility as her parent. When she got out of the shower we noticed that her face was lobster red as well as her back and shoulders. Last night she noticed blisters forming on her nose, checks, and upper lip. With school starting next Monday, we sure hope this calms down fast. We are putting aloe vera and lavender oil on it to see if it will help the healing and hoping Motrin will help with the pain.

Chelsea also got burned but not as bad. I did remember to put sunscreen on Chelsea, but she refused. She stated that it doesn't work on her so she wasn't going to bother to put it on. She put it on when we went to bear lake but got burned anyway. That's because we didn't reapply after a couple of hours. But she is also miserable. Both girls have been lying on the couch in their pj's, feeling sorry for themselves, and hoping nobody will touch them.

Let's hope we have all learned our lesson!!!

Mason Scout vs Spy

On friday our cub scout troup had a family campout out in the middle of the wilderness. By that I mean it was on a ward members ranch property so there were no bathrooms and we had to walk 1/2 mile from where we could park to get there. We opted not to sleep over for several reasons. 1) Ever since getting spoiled with the camper, there's nothing I can say or do to get Mike to sleep in a tent. 2) We did find the tent but it's been so long since we used it we don't even know if it works. 3) There was no way I was going to hike around for a bush to go potty in. 4) No body would get any sleep, especially Cord. 5) I had volunteered to drive the youth to the beach the next morning and we had to leave by 8:00 am. 6) There were a TON of bugs out there, even with bug spray caked on we all came away with several bites

But we did have a good time being with the scouts. We were there for dinner, the flag ceremony, the awards, and smores by the fire. We have some great scout leaders who make sure the boys have a good experience. Mason earned quite a few belt loops because of the camp he went to plus some stuff we did on our own (archery, bb gun, fishing, swimming, soccer, map & compass & computer).


The next day he decided he was going to be a super spy. You can see in the top picture all of his spy equipment. In the bottom pic he has all his gear on his body somewhere. I am always surprised about how creative he can be.

Back to School (for Mike)

Unlike when the kids return to school, there is a lot of homework to do before the first day of law school, which happens to be Monday Aug 25th. It's not like you spend the first day getting to know each other, discuss the rules of the class and talk about what a great year you'll have. Its more like, "Welcome to class.... lets discuss the case of someone vs something. Yada, yada, yada. So Mike gets to spend the weekend trying to get his reading done. I'm just glad it's not me. I just try and be supportive and keep the kids busy so he can read in his little office that we have set up downstairs.

Unlike the first year (called your "1L" year) where you are assigned classes, you get to choose most of what you take (there are three classes required during the "2L" year). This semester Mike is taking "Federal Income Tax I (Tax I)", "Immigration Law", "Family Law", "Business Organizations (BusOrg)", and "Wills, Trusts & Estates". He is also researching for the upcoming National Trial Team and AAJ Trial Team tryouts. We all know he is good at winning an argument so he is perfect for the team! (love ya honey)

Mike is still working at the school in the Office of General Counsel. He works a couple of hours a day. He gets to file lots of things with the court and since he works for the school, gets to go to court for them, it's called "pro se". He's also a member of the J Reuben Clark Law Society, Family Law Association, Federalist Society, Massachusetts Association of Trial Attorneys, American Assocation of Justice (AAJ), and is still acting as a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate). He was sworn in at the court house by a judge last month.

Hopefully we have all the things he needs to go back to school. A mountain of books, a case of highlighters, and a years supply of Mountain dew. What more could you need?

Yet again...more sand

The ward young women and men had their big splash activity at the Misquamicut beach in Rhode Island. I volunteered to be a driver because I LOVE hanging at the beach. Brianna turns 12 in a couple of months so they let her come along. The first thing I had to do was find Rhode Island on the map. Now I know where it is :)

This beach actually had much bigger waves than the last beach and the water was nice. The kids spent most of the day just riding the waves. They had a few boogie boards to share so it was as close to surfing as my kids will get. Chelsea enjoyed being with her friends Dausha and Mercedes.

The only time Brianna came out of the water was for lunch. She is quite wrinkled and a little bit sunburned. She really got into riding the waves. I don't think we could have ever spent enough time there for her. She got to bond with her Beehive friends as well. Since she is the oldest in primary now, she is itching to get to young women.
The boys didn't think it was fair that we got to go have all the fun, so Daddy took them for a drive to the top of Mount Holyoke. This was a great view of the valley for them. Mike is itching to see more of the horizon than just trees and the boys came back with chocolate ice cream on their shirt. So I guess everyone is happy!

Misquamicut Beach

Here are some pics of the beach we went to. For some reason, when I'm blogging I can only post 5 pictures at a time. But I noticed that some of ya all can put more than that on. If anyone has a trick, let me know. The beach was very crowded because there are only 2 more saturdays until school starts and today was a beautiful sunny 80 degrees with a nice light breeze. We really would have stayed longer, but Mike starts school on monday and has a lot of reading to do. I figured we were pushing it already to get home at 5:00. Now I have to get some energy to clean the house and get the kids all bathed for church tomorrow. Any tricks there???

Yankee Candle

Today we loaded up the van and headed down the freeway with the new Jonas Brothers CD blasting on the radio. We were headed to the "Scenter of the Universe", the Yankee Candle company. Everyone we have met have told us we need to go there, so we did. It was an amazing, huge candle store that we wandered through for over 2 hours. They call themselves the Disneyland of candles with several different themed rooms to explore.

This was the black forest where it snows every 4 minutes. There are several Christmas trees and the biggest Christmas village you have ever seen. (you know those little villages that people put out at Christmas time.) We loved looking at all the little houses, each one with their own little surprises.
Is it to early for Christmas? You know there are only 126 days until Christmas according to the Christmas countdown clock. This Santa is there in his workshop reading all the letters that kids write to him. It's so early that Mason didn't even know what to ask for.
Here are my royal children in the castle. There was a waterfall and several knights around the room that was completely filled with nutcrackers.
There was a complete toy store (reminded me of FAO Schwartz) inside along with the biggest stuffed animals I have ever scene. The kids kept telling me we should re-do Cord's room like a safari with all these animals. Yeah right - does anyone have a couple thousand dollars to blow on stuffed animals?

I let the kids pick their own little candle which turned out to be a very difficult decision. How many candles can you smell before they all start smelling the same? Chelsea picked a Mango Peach Salsa, Brianna chose a Cherry Lemonade, and Mason picked Vanilla Cupcake. I came home with a pumpkin pie spice and have been burning it in my kitchen since we got home. It reminds me of fall which is fitting since the weather is cooling down here. I love to leave my windows open so the cool breeze can blow through. I have even started seeing some color on the trees. I can't wait for my first New England Autumn.

Candle pics

Don't worry, Chelsea isn't trying to decapitate her brother. She is just knighting him. Chelsea found her "knight in shining armour" there.






Brianna made friends with a toy soldier in Santa's workshop. Mason loved the Lego section (loved the Bionicle). Cord LOVED the stuffed animal room.

more candle pics

The kids got to dip their own candle. They picked the shape they wanted then dipped them into different colors to make their own designs. Chelsea has a candle, Brianna has a sun, Mason has lightening bolts, and Cord has a teddy bear.



Above the kids are by a snow wall in the Christmas village, putting on a puppet show for Cord, and trying on goofy hats. There was also a section for Halloween. I guess we can't jump right to Christmas right?

Strike a Pose

This is what happens when your kids are raised with a mom who takes a billion pictures of them. Cord was helping me with the dishes and he was so cute. I grabbed the camera and said "Cord say cheese". He put his hands up, crossed his legs, and stuck his chin up. This picture totally makes me laugh because he is such a poser.
Later I had him in the bathtub and Chelsea brought in her camera (I wonder where she gets that?) Again she told Cord to smile, and we get this pose. :)
If you look closely you can see a new tooth on the bottom (his right). We have had a lot of cranky nights and out pops this. Mike had to deal with most of the bad nights because I was at work. I would come home and find them both asleep on the couch or Cord in my bed with Mason on the other side. Then I knew it had been a bad night. We will have a few more sleepless nights in our future judging by the empty spaces on the bottom.

Drama Queen

Since we still have a few weeks of summer left, we decided to go to the community center to buy a family swim pass for the month (It costs 9.00 a person to swim so a pass is well worth the 100.00). While we were there we saw Brianna's drama coach from her last play. He said they were in the first week of a 2 week drama camp and invited her to join them for the last week. Since she hasn't had the chance to do her own thing this summer (Chelsea had girls camp and Mason did the scout camp) she decided to do it. They met every day from 9-3 and made up their own musical. They preformed the play for us on friday. I was impressed that they made it up and pulled it together so quickly. She had a lot of fun, but then she is my little DRAMA QUEEN.
It was set in a beauty salon where the hair dressers are really secret agents or secretly villians. The villians decide to steal all the toothpaste in America so everyone's breath is stinky. Brianna was one of the news cast reports who have to share this tragic news with the world. She memorized her lines after the first day and would be singing the songs all day which drove us crazy.

We love watching her preform because she really gets into her parts and has a lot of fun.