This Is the Night We've Waited For!

Tonight for Family Night we drove the Bountiful loop (map) to see the fall leaves and they were BEAUTIFUL! However, the leaves were not the highlight of the trip for Greg...and no, Little Caesar's Pizza was not the highlight...look closer:
We saw not one, but two tarantulas on the road as we were driving. Greg was kind enough to catch one so the girls could see it "up close and personal" and I thought it was worth getting a picture to document the great hunter's capture.

Even more exciting than the tarantulas, though was the message that was waiting for us when we got back...my brother-in-law GOT A NEW JOB :) We are so excited for them!

Practice Makes Perfect

At present, Rachel is sleeping, I just cleaned up a tube of toothpaste from the bathroom floor, the stairs are covered in corn chips, the dryer is beeping, and I can't hear Sarah, so I REALLY need to go, but I just wanted to give a quick update that this past week has been relatively uneventful (aside from the little naughtiness that occurs regularly). So, don't worry, I am still around, still cleaning up crazy messes and still giving my girls lots of hugs and kisses, but I haven't been very good at posting them.

So, for anyone patiently checking and waiting for an update, here is a quick, cute story:

As many of you know, Becca started piano lessons at the beginning of the school year, and one day, during the second week of school, she came home to practice and said, "Mom, did you know that I am lucky?"
I asked her why & she said, "Because. Camille and I are about the only two people in our class who take piano, and so we are much better at typing "S" and "L" because our fingers are so much stronger than everyone else's. "
I couldn't help but crack a smile as I encouraged her to keep practicing and assured her that certainly her four days of practicing piano were assisting her keyboarding skills immensely.

What a Week!

Take one bed-wetter, two cases of stomach flu, one case of diarrhea, and one husband who is gone for a week and you have a partial summary of my week....(story continues after the break)




Greg left EARLY Sunday morning for a business trip to Maine. I had several people ask me on Sunday if there was anything they could do, but honestly, I wasn't too worried about it. The kids and I have had a pretty good system going lately for getting work done and I thought things would be smooth sailing...at least for the most part. Not surprisingly, I was wrong.
Sunday everything went pretty well. The girls were all really good during Sacrament meeting, we were there on time, we went to my parent's house for dinner and life was "smooth sailing" as I thought it would be.
Monday was cold and rainy, and apparently the weather affected the girls' moods because things kind of started to get off track there. After school I had a really hard time motivating Becca to practice piano & do her homework (she had a piano lesson that day & needed the review). When she got back, I noticed that she had forgotten to give her teacher the check & she refused point-blank to go back...very unlike her.
Well, we got in the car to go for a ride in the rain & to pick up a treat for family night, but when we got to the store I discovered that not one of my girls (other than Rachel who I provided for) had a jacket or shoes, so we turned the car around and talked about "common sense" on the way home for our lesson instead.
Tuesday, I decided to go to the church to help with our Relief Society Humanitarian Day, and while I was there Rachel got sick. She had a terrible case of diarrhea and so I had to leave early. However, it was lucky that I left when I did because I had left soup on the stove "simmering" on HIGH (oops) and when I opened the front door I was greeted with two feet of smoke hanging down from the ceiling.
I cleaned up the mess and started airing out the house, but after changing Rachel over and over (and over) again during the day I decided that my "sultry" name could be Smokey Diarrhea because that was what my house and I both smelled like.
When Becca & Ellie got home from school the windows were still wide open to air out the house, and Becca showed her sisters how she could CLIMB OUT AN OPEN WINDOW ONTO THE ROOF! Um, not her finest moment...and it earned all of the girls an early bedtime. Well, about fifteen minutes after I had put Rachel to bed she woke up screaming. Her back was arched and she was in obvious pain, so I ran her next door to see Brother Johns, who upon looking at her told me I should probably take her in to the emergency room because she most likely had some sort of blockage.
I told him that although she had been sick through the day that she had been happy until just recently, so he had me lay her down on the couch where he pushed on her tummy & decided that since she didn't seem to be in any worse pain when her stomach was touched (and since she had eaten a HUGE dinner) it would probably be fine to wait and see if her tummy would soften on its own.
Well, she was up for most of the night, but around two or three she was able to relieve herself of some SERIOUS gas and she was able to sleep more soundly after that.
Wednesday I discovered that my girls were little chefs sometime during the week & had dumped cake mixes (yes, plural) and water on their bedroom carpets...and let's just say that the carpet is still a little "crunchy" in places.
Wednesday night was also when Sarah decided to get the stomach flu.
Thursday Sarah still didn't feel great & Becca also got the stomach flu...naturally both girls had the throw-ups during the night when I was supposed to be sleeping :)
Ellie, not wanting to be left out, I'm sure, wet the bed every night this week, and so today, when Greg called to say that his flight had landed and he was just getting off the freeway, it probably isn't much of a surprise that he found me outside with the girls...arms outstretched to welcome him home.
He was also a very good sport and took the family out to dinner, when after a week of eating out I'm sure he would have preferred a home-cooked meal.
All I know is I am CERTAINLY glad to have him home.

Chatter Box

As I was typing the quick rundown of our trip, I thought it would be good to include some fun stories, but was afraid that this would get lost in the middle of the day to day, so I have to say that my favorite story from Jackson was when we had a kid-swap and let Sarah ride with Josh & Lauren ride with us.
When we got to our destination, Deanne got out of the car laughing because as they were driving, Josh looked at Sarah and told her. SARAH, YOU TALK TOO MUCH.
The funniest part being that apparently, Sarah was completely undaunted by the comment and kept her running commentary going until they got out of the car.
When I asked her about it, she said, "Yeah, Josh said I talk too much," and then just kept going with another story that she had told him in the car.

Jackson Summary in One Minute

OK, so I realize I haven't posted in a while...We went to Jackson Hole last week, went to Red Butte Gardens on Monday for Labor Day, then I got sick and am still fighting a chest cold.

So, since Greg still has the pictures on his phone, I will just give the brief rundown of events until the fun part (aka pictures) arrives.

We headed up to Jackson LAST Wednesday morning, bright and early. The kids were very well behaved, I'm sure in part to Greg's last minute purchase of portable DVD players for the car. We got to the Cheese Factory just in time for an early lunch, did some shopping & got the girls some fishing poles, went swimming, and got settled for the night.

Thursday we had our big Yellowstone day, where we were lucky enough to hit Old Faithful right as it went off...twice. The last time we went, it was cold and raining/snowing, and Old Faithful wasn't as faithful as it was supposed to be, so after 20 minutes of waiting in the cold we took our kids back to the car just before it went off.
This time, however, we walked up, watched it steam, had some lunch, came back just in time to watch it go again, went hiking, had some ice cream and left right as it was getting ready to go again. We could have stayed another minute or two to see it again, but we had other things we wanted to see.
Yellowstone was beautiful, and other than Sarah gagging at the smell of the sulphur, everyone had a great time.
Friday was Jenny Lake day. We took the boat across the lake and hiked to Hidden Falls, Inspiration Point & started going back a little further in the canyon, but had to turn around when our girls started complaining of exhaustion and hunger, but I was very pleased with their ability to make it to inspiration point.
Friday afternoon we rode the tram and chair lift at Teton Village. The view was breathtaking, and it only made my hands a little bit sweaty to watch my girls bounding around the top of the mountain like goats.
That evening, after dinner, we went looking for animals and found a bunch of elk, but not a lot of variety in the animals.
Saturday we did more hiking, went to the Visitor's Center, and then went back to the condos for more swimming and a fun gondola ride that leads to a really nice steak house. The girls thought the gondola was the best "tram" because it was enclosed and fit our entire family, but nobody else, in one car.
Sunday we drove home, stopping for church in Idaho Falls...which broke up the trip quite nicely...then took the rest of the afternoon to just relax.
Monday, as I mentioned, we went to Red Butte Gardens, where the kids enjoyed playing in the children's garden, feeding the fish, and hopping across the stepping stones in the river, and I had a great time walking with Greg, and literally taking time to smell the roses & other flowers/herbs along the way.

The rest of the week has passed by in a bit of a blur...with the kids getting back in school and me trying to get better. Hopefully I will have some fun pictures to show soon, but until then, at least I got a little bit down to read.

A Post about Posts

Does anyone out there ever post something & think it is perfectly coherent only to go back and be totally embarrassed by what they have written.

Take for example my previous post. I think I wrote "You see" as a sentence introduction about 17 times. Granted, I was emotionally and physically exhausted, but I really thought that I had written a well-versed post.

So, may I just make the following statement in my own behalf:

Ten years ago I considered myself to be a fairly intelligent, well-spoken person, who could express myself fluently in the written word.

Now, I realize that I have fried the better part of my brain cells, my communication during the day consists of 75 percent of my sentences being repeated and or simplified...most of those sentences being simple commands...and I am well aware that my written skills are not what they used to be when I was thinking & speaking on a "college level."

That being said, I wouldn't trade my life now for what it was back then & I certainly have a lot more entertaining things about which to write now (even if it isn't expressed very eloquently anymore).