Jet Fuel Engine Dreams

I had a moment tonight. We are back in the swing of school and things, and today Abi took Corey's car to Lyceum. He needed a ride home so I went to go pick him up from his dad's house at 8pm. As I turned west off of Wasatch onto 45th south, I was driving down the hill and the sun was setting and it was beautiful and I was praying for Corey and for his success with work. I was listening to the Killers and the lyrics of Boy were hitting the spot for my feelings (Lyric video):

Just give yourself some time
Head down
Wrong fit
Big deal
That's just growin' up
Untouched
Sixteen
Don't overthink it, boy
White arrows will break
The black night
But don't overthink it, boy

And when you're out on a ledge
Please come down, boy
There is a place that exists
Just give it some time
Drawn arrows unseen will fly

Heat wave
Slow lane
Small town
Only diesels dance
These streets
Weren't meant to house
Jet fuel engine dreams
White arrows will blast
The black night

And when you're out on a ledge
Please come down, boy
There is a place that exists
Just give it some time
Home drawn arrows, unseen, will fly

And break the black night
But don't overthink it, boy
Boy

Corey's mission scripture was 3 Nephi 13:19-20. And it kind of goes along with this song and with our life. Corey is trying to provide for his family, and I do still pray for his financial success, but maybe it's not going to happen. There is a place that exists where his and our dreams will come true, but it might not be here or now. But we will give it some time. If it never does happen in this life, that is ok, cause we are not trying to lay up treasure for ourselves on this earth anyway. We are laying up treasure in heaven. 

I think we're doing a pretty good job doing that. We have been blessed with 13 wonderful children and I'm so grateful for the experiences we have shared with them. Corey's got big dreams and we'd love more $ to work with, but this world and theses streets aren't meant to house our big "jet fuel engine" dreams anyway. We will still work for them, knowing that the experiences of work and effort is good for us. If the dreams are actually realized here or not, we know that Christ is preparing a mansion for us in heaven. John 14:2. 

Abi has also been talking about dreams, and I kinda laugh. You go for it. She is excited to leave home someday and travel the world. I told her to keep those dreams, but everytime I hear her talk that that, I think of this meme, ha!

Keep those dreams, Abi, but also remember that these streets weren't meant to house jet fuel engine dreams. I am pretty lucky that probably my biggest high school dream, which was to marry Corey, actually came true! It really is a miracle. It just feels like normal life, now, but I will remember that our union is a miracle, a wonderful miracle given to us by God. I've been thinking about all that stuff as I've been revisiting high school memories this past month and especially this past week as we get ready for the reunion on Saturday. I'm grateful that Mel and Hyrum are both around to help watch the kids. They will be on duty for most all the day on Saturday. I caught this cute pic of Mel reading to her favorite baby sister Katharine this morning.

And Katharine likes her big college sister too. 

I'm so grateful for this family that God has given me - my husband and my 13 beautiful children. My heart is full.

Just Dance

As I was cleaning this morning, I turned on some music. K and I were dancing and then I decided to turn on the songs via the screen so K could practice her Just Dance on youtube. 

It was super cute to watch, melted my heart. She'd just barely feel like she was getting the hang of one move (shaking down both hands), but then look up on the tv and see they were all doing something else! "Oh! They are pumping their fists in the air now! Got it!"

"Oh, nope... now they're doing a side to side slide..." But I loved it. Here are some little videos I took of her (unlisted on youtube but the links should work here hopefully? one, two, three of Dynamite and four) 

Katharine is so fun. We usually call her "Kafrin", with a "Ka - FRIIIIIN!" or "KAAA FRINNNN!" She's our favorite. She has been a roaming sleeper at night the past little bit. In the morning, the first thing I do is go find where she ended up. This morning, it was on the floor in the boys room. 

She rolled off of her pet bed and is tucked safely next to the wall. Where will she be tomorrow?

As we've been reading Alma this year, I've started doing something fun... like I was trying to wrap my head around the time frame of everything, so when it started saying in the "18th year of the reign of the judges" I decided "ok, I'll pretend that is 2018!" And then I went forward and backwards from there to get some time context for myself. I've been putting the year in the top corner of the page. And as I went back, I discovered that if Moroni was 25 years old in the 18th year, that means he was born in 1993! So not a 70s kid like myself, and he doesn't know the good life of the 80s, he was just one year old when I was graduating high school, and THEN he was the chief of the army in 2018?!? That's pretty wild.

So along with Just Dancing with Kafrin, that's been something else that's fun that I've been doing. 

One other note... back in May, the nurse in Wesley's mission recommended he get an Endoscopy, cause he choked a meat again. I said ok and was mentally preparing for this to be a $2000 dollar expense. We can do this... The nurse said she got a quote for $400, but I didn't think that could be right. Then Wesley asked for $300 for his first office visit. When we were at the reception for Joseph and Eliza, Wes called saying he was at the doctor and he needed another $700, ugh, so I just told him to charge it. He had the endoscopy done on July 5. Today found out that $700 was apparently just the first payment toward a total bill of over five thousand dollars.... $5283.71 to be exact. I got the bill today from the medical center where his procedure was done. 

It made me cry. 

Katharine saw me in tears and said "You ok mommy?" Yeah. She gave me a hug. "You need a tissue?" Yes. She got me a tissue. I love Katharine.

So I'm fasting and praying. We need help. God knows it. He's waiting though. I don't know the reason, but I will trust. 

Tonight while I was updating Wesley's blog a little bit (had to catch up a few weeks) and this meme he for last week hit the spot. 

"Oh, I don't drink alcohol or do drugs. I like my suffering RAW. Thanks." haha. Yeah I don't take those to escape, I'm sure I'd eat chocolate or ice cream if I had any on hand. Instead I am going to start going to an emotional resilience class offered by our stake, cause our ward needs to send a person, and so I volunteered. Maybe it will help if I have a group of people I can be honest with about I need help. Ugh, this whole faith and patience and trust mortality experience is really hard. Good and wonderful and hard and exhausting. It goes along with that quote by Sarah Ban Breathnach: 

"Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend...when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that's present - love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure - the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience Heaven on earth." 

When things are hard, I'll try to just dance. 

First Day of Kindergarten!

The big day is finally here! Today was Peter's FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!!!

Class of 2037?!?! Wow. As Melodie stated "I don't even know if that is a thing..." ha. Cute little kids standing in line. 

Ms. Fenton's class behind, Ms. Simmons in the front. The parents were ready to take a photograph of the kids, and Peter was lucky that he had a spot in the shade. Most of the kids were going blind from the rising sun.

Oh, now Peter's got the sun in his eyes!

I walked down to the school to support Peter, while he waited at the bus stop. He beat me there. Before he left, I was helping Katharine inside, and Mel took the boys out on the stairs for some first day of school photos which started in 2011. Then the years started flying by... it was all girls in 2019 - now it's all boys!

Peter in Kindergarten (his 1st year tho... we'll let it slide) Daniel in 2nd, Owen in 4th... wait, they are all holding up the wrong fingers! Mel!!! This is not proper documentation.

Did she do that cause Peter doesn't know how to make a K in sign language? Maybe they are all holding up fingers for what year of school this is for them, not the grade. Well, it was cute seeing them run off down the street. Owen and Daniel rode their bikes a lot last year, but said they want to ride the bus with Peter. We'll see how long it lasts. Back inside, Corey was trying to leave for work but K was holding him hostage. But I have suckers in my purse... "Katharine, do you want some candy?" So I discreetly grabbed one as we walked out the door to go look for candy. We walked down the street, Corey was able to drive away, we waved goodbye, then we jumped on a neighbor's trampoline and then I pointed out to Katharine that there was a sucker! It looked like it was growing out of the dirt with the other flowers! We found candy! Mission accomplished. 

Peter was half day today and is half day for this entire week. On Friday they go "full day" but Friday is a short day so that's fine. Today he got home on the bus at 11:45, I was late getting there, and his friend's mom texted that the bus was there and the boys all wanted to go to Evan's house. So Peter was back from school at 11:45, but wasn't home until 3. After the kids all got home, it was back to reality with the checklist! The side room TV checklist works very well when there was someone around to enforce it. And lucky for all the kids, and for me, right now we have Hyrum here to be the enforcer. It's a task he is enjoying.

He's like the bouncer at a bar, but instead of throwing people out to the street, he will throw them back to their task if it is not completed to his liking. And for FHE, we did a silly drawing activity - we each had a paper folded in thirds. Everyone draw a head... pass it to the middle, everyone take a paper, now draw a middle and arms...

Lastly draw the legs and feet... Don't let anyone see your picture. 

They all got a real laugh out of their creations. A few were quite disturbing. You'll have to zoom in on the drawing Lily is holding. That one wasn't so bad.

The one Hyrum did gave everyone "Spirited Away" nightmare vibes. (I thought that review was funny, and that was the experience we all had. I can't remember where/why we first watched it...) So it was a good first day of school and we're looking forward to getting back in a routine around here. Once our high school reunion is over this weekend I'll really be able to finally relax. It's been kind of a crazy busy summer, but it's "all good things... all good things."

Nursemaid's Elbow & Pictionary

I learned a new term this evening. You can probably guess by the title of this post. New term: Nursemaid's elbow. Other names this condition is known by: Pulled elbow, radial head subluxation, annular ligament displacement, babysitter's elbow.

So Katharine and I were in the backyard after church. I was reading my scriptures on the grass, she was wearing gardening gloves and playing in the dirt in her dress. 10-15 minutes into our outdoor time, she starts to cry and I can tell it's a real cry, a hurt cry. She comes to me, we take off her gloves, she says her arm hurts, she's not dirty so she didn't fall, but she's really crying. I take her into Corey and I'm wondering what happened... Did a wasp sting her? Was there a spider in her glove that bit her? Did she break her arm?!? Like she's really sad and it's definitely her arm that hurts. I can't see a bump from a sting, and it's not swollen like I assume it would be if it was a break or a sprain. The only other thing I can think of from things I saw in the dirt was a small shovel, about 3 feet tall, that maybe she picked up and it was too heavy so it twisted her arm to sprain it? We did not know what was wrong. She asked for a bandaid, and we put a big one on it. She bravely said "It's all better!" and she forced a relieved happy laugh, but then moved her arm and cried cause it actually still hurt. Corey held her and he let her watch Bluey to calm her down. She fell asleep still holding her arm, wincing a few times in her sleep. 

It was sad to see. She was hurting and we didn't know why. So... what do we do? I broke my arm as a kid and I made due for a few days until my parent's figured it out. If it's broken, we'll figure it out, so maybe we just wait until morning and see how she's doing? I woke her up from her nap when it was time for dinner, and she started to cry right away. Corey took her back upstairs and held her as we fed her some garlic chicken and rice. She didn't want any chocolate cake. I look up the Instacare hours - they are open until 9. Debating to take her in or not. Then at 4:59 I sheepishly text our wonderful pediatrician and friend, Jon who we've imposed upon many times (although he's come over here of his own free will too!): "Hi... question, we think Katharine either broke her arm or got a sting by a wasp cause she's crying about her arm but there's no swelling and we can't see anything visibly wrong. If you're around I was wondering if I can bring her by? We're thinking we'll wait it out and if she's still crying about it in the morning we'll taker her to the InstaCare." He texted back at 5:03 "I'm happy to see her, bring her by if you'd like" and with that I carried her to the car, I held her in the back as Mel drove us over, and in their great love for Katharine, Natalie and Daniel both wanted to come too. Jon answers the door, looks at her arm, does a little feeling and gentle movements. He asks if I've heard of nursemaid elbow as he moves it a bit more. K winces briefly but doesn't cry. I'd never heard of it. He sends Molly runs to get a starburst candy. She brings it back, Jon holds it out for K and asks her if she wants it. She reaches for it WITH HER HURT ARM and she's fine after that. It was like some strange magic, the pain was gone and she was all better! Thank you Dr. Jon!! He's a miracle worker. Thank you Molly!

He was amazed that I'm 13 kids in and no one's ever had a pulled elbow. K ate her starburst, still snuggling me. I was trying to put the pieces together in my head - I'm guessing it was the shovel? That maybe she picked it and that made the ligament slips out of place? At home she sat on the stairs, we told Corey what happened. Everyone was happy she was not hurt and crying anymore! "Katharine! Did the doctor fix your arm??" She sweetly said "yeah!" and wiped away the last of the tears on her cheek. And then we gave her chocolate cake. Mel said "I want to be a doctor!" and "Can you imagine just knowing all the possible things that could be wrong with any part of a human body??! Like I can't even remember half of the vocabulary words from my anatomy class..." Yes, it is very impressive, and I'm grateful for him blessing us with his expertise. 

So yay, that was a memorable event from today. Wayne was here as all of that was happening. He came over for dinner, and after she was all better and dinner was over, we played what turned into a pretty intense game of Pictionary (cause board games are always intense around here). Wayne, Mel and Natalie were a team - the Three little pigs (with a pig lego as their game piece). They snorted a few times as their team chant. Hyrum, Daniel, Lily and I were the penguins of madagasar "High one!" was our cheer, along with an occasional slap on the shorts "Hey now!" Abi, Sophi, Owen and Peter were "Ducky" from Toy Story 4. I had to draw blind date, and I was stumped. I was impressed with Natalie's drawing that got the win for them.

Just the bare essentials, quick and to the point! Good job. Whenever it was Peter's turn to draw, Corey had to whisper the word to him to see if he approved. 

He passed on a few that we thought should have been good, like "cow" and "dad". 

He drew fossil though! And did a really good job. Some of the words: magnet, dragon, old, submarine, spaceship, house, pig, nose, neighborhood, shark, frog, Bigfoot, snail, double chin. Goosebumps was a hard one... Daniel was the most upset of all the kids during the game. He took it personally when he couldn't guess a word, like when I drew "numb" - no one was able to guess it, but he was mad at the world. He went from weepy to ripping paper, kicking the table underneath and throwing his head down in despair. We didn't give his rage too much attention. He was also pretty sad if he rolled anything between 1-3. We all had our fair share of 1s, which was hard to take for all of us, cause it really is pretty sad to win a round and then only get to go forward one space. We had two dice, and if I rolled a 1 for example, I'd take it back cause "It was Daniel's turn to roll!" and then he'd roll and it would end up being a low number too. We were accused of cheating, Mel and Natalie tried not to cheat like us and they rolled 1s and 2s, we all got our share of low numbers. Not a lot of 6s. It was neck and neck up to the finish!! Words: Swiss cheese, heart, nun... Pigs landed on the last square!... ahh, stop them!

Ducky and Penguin catching up - soon we were all on the last square and trying to win the final word. We got Stripes but then there was debate as to who said it first, so we did a draw-off. The tie breaker word: Diaper rash. The three little pigs won it. I had no idea what Lily was drawing... it looked like totally inappropriate things.)

And now I'm here blogging, K is in the tub, Wayne and Corey and most of the kids are downstairs watching Apollo 13. SCHOOL STARTS TOMORROW for the little boys. Peter is starting kindergarten. it will just be half day for him this week, then full day starts next week. If it feels like too much for him, I'm going to ask about him going 1/2 day, but we'll see how it goes. If he really likes it, I'm ok for him to stay all day. I plan on catching up on the blog during September, unless K and I decide to just spend our days playing in the dirt or going on rides with her riding shotgun. The world is our oyster. I'm glad she only had nursemaid's elbow and end up needing a cast today!

Breakfast After Cleaning

Happy Saturday. Corey and I took a ride early this morning before we had an 8am church cleaning assignment. He went to ruins, I turned around for home at the 3rd bridge, mainly cause my saddle sore was bothering me. Today I also did a handstand against the wall, some push ups and pull ups. As a reward for the kids help cleaning the church, we had a big breakfast at home after. The kids always like sausage and eggs. 

Corey buys those. I HATE the greasy mess it makes all over the stove top and whichever pan is used, which also gets all over all the other dishes as they get wet in the sink. I hate it so much I'm almost at the point that I'm going to swear off ever cleaning up after sausage again. Whoever buys it or cooks it can clean it up. It's such a big freaking mess. Now fruit and vegetables - those are so easy to clean up afterwards! I wonder if the mess they make or don't make in the kitchen are similar to the havoc they cause in our bodies? There might be a clue there. 

The kids worked off the breakfast with some Just Dance - Tonight's gonna be a good night!

A brief report on yesterday - Corey and I went on date night to Aubergine in Draper, then went to a wedding reception for one of Ethan's friends, who is the daughter of some of our friends. Lots of marriages going on! It's that time of year? Or is it cause we are in that season of life? Hm, one of those two things I think. Katharine yesterday morning. 

Melodie said she has a whole photo album of the pics Katharine takes of her feet. I could probably do one of Katharine sleeping on the floor. Seems like I've gotten one every day this past week. She's so cute. 

The reunion is in one week. I think things are ready enough for it. We'll see if this upcoming week is nuts cause it's crunch time, or if it's calm since we've done a good job with all our prep.

Backyard Track

I spent a ton of time outside yesterday, and for an hour+ of it I was barefoot digging in the dirt with Katharine. I'm experimenting with "grounding", so figured I'd do silly stuff like this before I buy a grounding mat, pad, or sheets. I also left my phone inside, so I wasn't listening to podcasts and I wasn't getting any notifications or calls - it was just me, my thoughts, and the kids. It was good for my soul. If you've seen Ethan's video "The House" (7:45), you know that if I get inspiration, it can turn into a project. Well, we went to the wedding reception for a friend on Friday night (the Moons) and Mary has put so much work and love into her back yard, it was beautiful. I was definitely inspired as we walked around and tried to take it all in. And it was simple things too, like a bench made out of rock slabs. I loved that so much of it was NATURAL. I came home and started pondering what we could do to make our back yard more inviting for ourselves and for the kids. I brainstormed and made a list of things I'd be interested in: Sandbox, Tree house, Cargo nets, Logs, Bridge, Boulders, Stones, log table, stump stools, Climbing wall, Ninja warrior stuff, Zip lines. Yesterday I went to pinterest and searched "yard natural children" and found a few more ideas that I liked thanks to this link, I added a few: Mud kitchen, Music center - tin can drums, Toy truck quarry, Erosion River (boat races), Endor Forest , Miniature play treehouse, Log step pillars, Natural play space, Wilderness imagination (ropes, climbing) Green tent.

I worked on it a little Monday, raking pine needles (our never ending pine needles...) and walked around a thought. Didn't get too much done before it started to rain, It rained a lot Monday and again yesterday. This morning I started a bike ride up the canyon at 8am after making sure the kids were up and at it for their first day of school. I drove to Lisa falls and did Techy twice, then a climbs up to the ruins, techy again, ruins and techy... for a total of 2 Ruins and Techy 5x. After the rain yesterday it smelled sooo SOOO lovely. Wow, I wish I could capture the smell in a bottle. I wanted to get back up in the mountains again. My bike got a little muddy, so I went in the backyard to hose off my tires, and then I had to finish loading the garbage that I had left there Tues night with pine needles and took that out to the street for garbage day, and then I filled up another bag of needles and hauled that out, and we found a cute little mouse in the process... it was so tiny!

Mel and Daniel wanted to keep it. 

We let it go, hoping that I hadn't disturbed it's habitation too much and that it won't relocate into our home! And one thing led to another and I ended up doing one more thing and "Katharine's poopy" and I change her then take her diaper out to the street and get pulled into the backyard again. Peter was hungry "Ok, just a minute..." and I stayed out there until 1:20! Like I was thirsty after my ride and still hadn't paused to take a drink. I started moving a table to make a quiet secluded corner, and I thought the pinterest idea of a mud kitchen would be fun, so Mel helped me get Lily's broken gate down from a tree - it was a door she had put up there (used to be the gate between us and Felix's, and it was hard to get down, I have no idea how she got it up! But with Mel's help I got that down and then moved some cinder blocks that we still have from Corey's ice rink, and those are the legs of the table. So I was out there digging and hoeing and clipping trees and branches for a few hours, and as I was making a path I somehow got the idea of making a biking track! I was like "well duh! Of course!" and was a little surprised that I was searching for ideas and scratching my head about what to do - this will be perfect! I've wanted to clean up the basement so we could have a track down there like we did 4 years ago, but in the back yard... it can be way bigger back there! And then I kept thinking about it and was like "oh this is gonna be good...) and started hoeing like crazy trying to get the track connected and cleared off enough so I could go call Owen and Daniel to come try it out. My back was hurting and I was tired and thirsty but I kept wanting to just do a little bit more. I got it cleared off enough, hurried in to get O and D, showed them what I had been working on and what the idea was, and then I passed the baton to them cause they took a few laps and saw where it needed work, and Owen went to it! "Trial is closed for work! I'm the worker!"

Daniel waiting for the worker to finish. Ha, Daniel helped too - 

Earlier he was helping a lot when it was just path, they liked the idea I had for a bike trail. 

We were thinking earlier of havign pine needles as our walls and barriers, but hopefully we'll be able to clear those out in garbage bags or at bulk clean up, which I think should be happening next month. Daniel helped me set up the table for "mud kitchen" by the shed, but then I decided I wanted that to be part of the track, so I moved it - 

I like it! Katharine does too.

Her face was so messy from a chocolate chip cookie that she bought from a neighbor for 2cents. Zach came knocking on the door selling cookies for 50 cents, Katharine seriously went and I think found Daniel's pennies and gave him 2 cents and he took it and gave her a cookie. Peter was sad he didn't get such a deal. So K had chocolate on her nose, pb and jelly on her fingers (she likes to slowly finger and lick off all the toppings on her pb&j and leave the bread for the trash) and she was walking around barefoot, so I did too (my feet got totally dirty in flip flops anyway). Owen had dug a "mine" for minecraft but it was where the track was going to be. He said "I worked so hard on that..." and he did, but he was willing to let it go for the track. I have a vision of it being a dip before a jump/climb over a rock, but we'll have to wait for things to smooth out and get packed down. Today Owen's mining hole was a slide for Katharine. She called it "my slide!" and "my hole!" 

We both had a good time. We were out there again from 2-6, until I had to come in and make dinner. I washed my feet and started dinner prep, K sat at the counter eating, then she started to fall asleep, but she was so dirty... I didn't have the heart to wake her to give her a bath, so I laid her down on my floor with her dirty pants and feet...

And she threw dirt in her hair too, of course. She was not happy when we woke her and put her in the but. The boys weren't outside with us, I was hoping they were not watching a movie in my room. I came in and my room was locked, yay, so where are they? The house was so quiet... I found Owen and Peter both asleep in their beds! 

I guess working outside wears kids out! I woke them for dinner too, Mel was the bad guy and woke K for a bath, dinner was rice salmon teriyaki bowls tonight. We're out of bread again, I think I'm going to do more rice... After Corey got home and ate his dinner, the kids called for him to come outside and showed him the track. Mel got everyone to working on it some more and we tried to clear out weeds around the playground. Owen wants us to get woodchips for the ground there. That is a good idea buddy. There are 100+ things we can and should do to improve the yard. We'll put that on the list and will see what we can do. Corey watched them do loops and thought Peter's challenge with "the hill" was pretty funny. He'd come up to it, like it's an elevation of maybe 12 inches and he'd grunt "uhhh!!!" Cute boy. I thought the boys did great taking the corners around the trees. I bet I could do it with a smaller bike, but as it is, mine is too big. It's like biking through a door frame. Possible, but a little too tight to do quickly, so I kinda walk it between the trees and around the corners. It's fun though, I think it's going to be a good thing. I'm just kicking myself that we didn't do this until the last week of summer break! They could have been busy with it all summer. But it got us going and maybe we'll be thinking up improvements over the winter and then will get excited to get out in the spring and summer next year. 

First Day - The Girls

Happy first day of school to our Skyline and Churchill girls! Tomorrow will be the first "normal" day - today was a late start for Abi, Lily, and Sophi, as they are familiar with their schools. Natalie was the first one out the door, cause she's the only one in a new school. 

Calling out to her to have a good day ~

She left early for orientation with a neighbor. Elasha sent me some pics of them as they set out to find their classes and such. 

Cute 6th graders! Neighbor Dallin (tall younger brother of Talmage pic 6) and Natalie. 

And I took a pic of Abi, Lily, and Sophi before I headed out for a bike ride. 

There were the outfits you all wore on your first day of school! (It's a big decision!) Sophi left with jr high carpool at 9:15, Abi borrowed Mel's car and went early around 8 for breakfast at a friends house. Lily went with carpool at 10. 

So it's back to reality for the girls. I'm not quite back to reality yet cause I have Mel and Hyrum at home to be my helpers still. Hence why I was able to go on a bike ride. The boys start school on Monday. Then it will be another step closer to reality for me. We've taken a break from trumpet lessons this summer, but that will be starting up again next week. And regular violin lessons. And carpool - I'm taking Churchill on Tuesday and Friday mornings. Might need to get a Momentum membership again. Mel is heading back to BYU on Friday, I have Hyrum until Sept 6th. 

Watermelon Cake

The kids were still feeling off from not having a cake yesterday for Hyrum's birthday. Melodie to the rescue! What do you make for a healthy man? Why a watermelon cake of course!

And raspberry chocolate protein shake smoothies. Let's sing!

Happy Birthday to you!

The kids were all having fun with it.

Would you like a slice of cake?

Thank yo Mel for making healthy fun. 

Corey's bike is back. They loaned him a new shock until his gets repaired. We left at 7:25 am for a ride, he went to ruins, I turned around at techy so I could get back so Mel could go to the temple at 9. Tonight, watching a bit of the news and letting the kids know a bit of what is going on in this world that they are growing up in. We are not excited about Trump. Once again, we do not have good choices in this presidential election. But the children are worry free. I will try to be like a little child.