Jared's Meetings

Ok so Jared showed this to me the other day and really made me laugh the true sign I spend way to much time around his work...it's rubbing off. Ok so I couldn't do the things he does but I actually got some of the inside jokes which in a way I'm kinda proud of. I feel like I deserve some sort of geeks badge or something. Anyhow if you want to see what really happens at these so called meetings he goes to check out this link.

http://www.secret-wg.org/

Ok so he wasn't at this meeting it was in Europe but they are all pretty much the same thing no matter where they are as far as I can tell.

Apple Picking

This morning we went apple picking for the first time. It was a lot of fun though next time I think it would be better if it wasn't so wet. We picked apples between rain storms so it was wet and of corce Ethan found mud puddles to play in and go supper wet. His shoes are still dripping wet so I think I'll have to figure out how to dry them in the drier.

Anyhow it was fun for the boys and over all a little stressful but not to bad. We picked 1/2 bushel of granny smiths and 1/2 a bushel of Ida reds. I never knew picking apples was so fun. The boys ran around while I picked apples. Danny was in heaven picking apples and eating them right there. His favorite fruit besides bananas are apples. Ethan climbed trees and was in general a wild man but that was ok. We got to spend time with friends and do something outside what more could you ask for?

Now I have all these apples and I need to figure out what I'm going to do with them. You would think I would have thought of that before I picked them all wouldn't you. Nope not me. I just thought it would be fun to pick apples and I figured I could come up with something to do with them. So I think I'm going to make some apple sauce and pie filling and attempt canning it. I'll keep you posted on how that goes but I have high hopes...umm after I get the stuff to try out canning. Small investment in the grand scheme of things exspecially if I start canning other things like Jam which I really want to try out one of these years.

Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch by our house. It was great the boys just loved it. Ethan loved picking out pumpkins so much we ended up with 5. Since pictures say so much more than words ever will here are a few pictures that capture our experience.

What I've been up to

Life has been hectic so sorry I haven't posted in a while. So what has been going on to make life so insane. Well Jared was gone for a week which was crazy and we missed him horribly. I've started doing a little more with this whole Christmas workshop thing. A little more work than I thought it would be but it's all coming together. So for the Christmas workshop they wanted a cookbook put together as kind of our gift to the sisters. I wasn't doing anything so I said sure I can do that. Thinking it was umm 10 recipes nothing big umm I probably should have asked more questions oops. Anyhow turns out it was a little bigger of a project. The book will have somewhere around 35 or 36 pages I'm getting it bound by a friend a cost luckily and it's going to be great but ugh a little more time consuming than I thought it would be. Still trying to work out the details of how to stay mostly on budget for the food portion (budget being $30 and feed about 33 people) that has actually been the problem taking up most of my time. I think we will be able to work that out though or at least cross your fingers and hope it will turn out ok. I've also been doing a few photo shoots here and there ...I'm actually about two shoots behind on pictures and should be working on those right now but I won't think to much about that. I also had the privilege of hearing Elder Bednar talk in person. What a experience that was!! I'm so happy I got to go even though Jared was gone. My only regret was that Jared couldn't be there in person...he had to settle for me talking to him about it pretty much nonstop for almost a week. Every time he would say something it would remind me of something Elder Bednar said which would lead to a 10 min story about something that night. On the other side if he would have been there all those thoughts would have just been running through my mind and I wouldn't have had a single person to tell them to. On other news I got a calling this last Sunday and I have to say I think it a great one. I get to go to camp again!!!! They called me as Ward Camp director which is going to be so fun. A lot of work it sounds like but hey I don't mind a little work. I also found out that our church building will be undergoing construction sometime in the next few months to make it bigger and here's the really great thing in my mind WE ARE GETTING PEWS!! I wanted to jump up and down when I got that little bit of news. Oh did I mention that Chelsea has decided to let me go ahead and form my photography group after all so I sent out sigh-up sheets this last Sunday. Things are going much better in the new Ward by the way. People have really started to warm up to me the last two weeks. People have started talking to me in the hall and smiling at me. I think I know at least 4 peoples names which is a real bonus for me. We have now made it threw two sacrament meetings without any major issues like umm Ethan pushing an entire row of chairs onto the legs of the family behind us (I think that was three weeks ago) I've started to notice it's not just my kids that have a hard time in sacrament meetings which makes me feel at least a little better. Of coerce I think we were the only family that bowed there heads for the sacrament prayer and looked up to see one boy running up one side of the church while the other runs up the opposite side. Ugh! So things are not perfect but they are getting better. On a funnier note our Primary program was this last Sunday and they let the nursery kids come up to sing a song at the end. So when they called all the kids up Ethan who had wanted to go up on the stage from the start ran to the front of the chapel past all the other nursery kids right to the microphone and with the biggest grin ever on his face leaned in...luckily it was right then that one of the primary teachers reached him. Thank you. He did a really great job and sang the whole song just not right into the microphone. As for Danny well his world is ending this week as he getting two eye teeth but hopefully we'll both make it through.

Blessing from Above

Ever have one of those weeks that you just know someone up there is looking out for you? Bad things happen but without skipping a beat something nice happens to balance it all out and in the end your left feeling better than you were before. So here are my two little blessings this week...
(ok it might be a week and a half)

Last Thursday when Jared went into town to pick up Ethan from school he stopped at a gas station to get gas. Once he was done filling the tank he went to start the car but nothing happened. So after a few more attempts with the same result he decided to leave the car walk the two or three blocks to Ethan's school to pick him up and then come back to deal with the car. He called our friend Sara since he didn't know what was wrong with the car and being stuck at a gas station with a toddler is just a recipe for disaster. They walk back and get there about the same time as Sara who loves Ethan and volunteered to watch him while Jared and the Gas station guy looked at the car. Turns out the Battery just up and died on us. Luck would have it that there was an auto parts place right next door so Jared was able to walk next door and buy the battery without issue. The guy from the auto parts place came out with tools and helped him put the new battery in the car. Within half an hour they were on there way home. It really made me glad we live in such a small town where people are really willing to help out one another like that.

My second story is about our garage door. So last night I was up here looking at pictures when I hear this really weird sound kinda like a branch off a tree hitting the house...ok I thought Jared had fallen down the stairs but it turns out that it was the spring to our garage door breaking. Having never had a garage before now I didn't even know this was possible (umm or that there was a spring to be honest). Anyhow we realized pretty quick that without the spring 1.) it very very difficult to open the garage...we managed it with a jack and a lot of arm power and 2.) the garage wont stay open without it so Jared had to hold the garage open so I could quickly back the car out. So we called a guy this morning to come and fix it which was great but the bill was not so great at $169. So we were trying to figure stuff out for this month since Jared is traveling a lot which even though work pays for we have to pay for first etc. Anyhow in the mail today came a check we weren't expecting for just a little over what we payed to get the garage fixed. It means we don't have to dip into savings we are trying not to touch.

There is one last thing I am grateful for and that's the fact that both of these things happened before Jared left town. I'm sure I could have dealt with this but I'm so glad I didn't have to.

All I can say is thank you.

Crazy Morning

The kids have been sick with icky colds so we've been stuck at home for days. It seems like an eternity when I look at my house. Ashes all over my kitchen because the kids decided to make me ash soup before my brain was fully functional and able to make them breakfast this morning. Pans all over the kitchen because they decided to make me french toast again (They did this last week as well) while I was making them breakfast. Stuff animals all over the kids rooms because we had a stuff animal fight last night. Pop corn all over the entertainment room because all Ethan would eat yesterday was popcorn and I decided it was better than not eating at all. I've decided once the kids are feeling better then I'll worry about getting my house clean again so for now we have a disaster area but the kids like it.

Anyhow today I thought we would get out just for a quick trip since I'm pretty sure both my kids have gone crazy cooped up in our house for umm let see 3 days so after feeding them breakfast...oat meal for Ethan which had to be the peach kind since we didn't have strawberry and Cheerios for Dan who was thoughtful enough to share them with the cat who strange enough likes Cheerios...we headed off to the store to buy Ethan's Halloween costume. Ethan has decided he is going to be a dragon because Daniel Cook was a dragon (Daniel Cook is a Disney TV show with a kid who looks just like Ethan). In the car after 5 mins of whining from Ethan I pulled over turned around and informed him that we were going to get his Halloween Costume, he was going to like it and he was going to be happy the rest of the trip. I hate loosing my temper with the kids and honestly that should have been my sign to turn the car around and head back to our insane house but no I decided not to listen to logic and just forged ahead. Danny of coerce fell asleep in the car on the way to the mall but we were there so we might as well go in right? Surprising enough Ethan followed my orders and was happy and cheerful after our little road stop. He said he wanted to help and after I got him out ran around the car to get Danny out. When he saw Danny was sleeping he said "Look mom Danny's sleeping I'll wake him up." He leaned over and gave Danny a big kiss and said "I love you Danny. It's time to wake up." That made the winning in the car not seem so bad. I was sure that going past the play area at the mall was going to delay our little outing but I was ok with that however much to my surprise even though some of Ethan's friends were there he wanted to go get his costume first. Off to Children's place I went Ethan pushing the stroller with a groggy Danny and me hoping they wouldn't hit anything along the way as I tried to keep up. We found our Dragon costume at children's place and Ethan was thrilled. While I was looking for the right size Ethan took the head off the little girl manneken next to the rack. I looked up from dozens of little tags to Ethan saying "Look mom" and holding a head like a ball he was about the throw. I told him as calmly as I could that he needed to put the head back. He at least followed those instructions. He then hid in a rack of cloths because he wanted to play hide and seek. After some pleaded on my part mainly for my sanity he reluctantly came out. While I was paying he took apart one of the display that holds the socks and was drumming with the pieces on another display. At this point I was reminded why I never I repeat never take my children shopping with me. It's really for there safety and ok a little for my sanity. So at last Ethan, Danny, the Dragon costume, and I leave the store much to the sales woman's relief. The kids are playing on those little kids rides that cost $0.50 so Ethan decided he wants to join and I decide he hasn't seen anyone in days it's ok. Danny tired of being in the stroller wants out so I let him sit on a the roller coaster ride while Ethan playing with some friends. Things were going great until I looked over and Ethan was taking apart part of the little train. there is a bell on the front that he had completely taken off...much to my shame I could not get it back together the way it was before. At this point I moved both kids to the play area and all was fine for 5 mins. Then Danny decided the play area was not the place to be and just ran off. After retrieving him 5 times I told Ethan Danny really wanted to go for a walk so lets walk to the water fountain since I wanted to poke in Gymboree anyhow. Well we made it there without issues and the boys had a great time playing on this play mat outside of Gap...really cute. The problem was when Ethan wanted to stand on the edge of the fountain for some reason I didn't think that was a good idea silly mom. After a few debates on the safety of said issue I decided let go see what's on the TV in Gymboree and I can look at cloths for you guys. Ethan didn't like the show so we only stayed long enough to see yes there jeans are on clearance but I need to go back to see how much on clearance. After this I decided I didn't want to fight my way to the car because if we did I was pretty sure not all of us would make it home...mainly me. So we got cookies with the agreement that we would eat them on the way home. Ethan was so excited about his cookie that he pushed the stroller all the way to the car as fast as he could. Luckily no Danny's were harmed in this endeavor. Not my most shinning mom moment but one I think I'll remember for at least a while.

The good points of my day after all this happened. After lunch Danny fell asleep and slept for almost 3 1/2 hours. While Danny was sleeping I decided to watch cartoons with Ethan because I just didn't have the energy to figure out something else. Somewhere in the middle of an episode of Tom and Jerry me and Ethan fell asleep together. We all really needed naps I think. Ethan said our prayer for dinner "Heavenly Father, Thank you for this day, Thank you for our food, Jesus Christ Amen." Tonight after taking the boys for a car ride to get them to sleep...With the colds the boys have a hard time falling asleep so it's just easier sitting up...I put Ethan in his bed and he turned to me and said mom we need to say goodnight to Heavenly Father. Even though the morning was a little crazy I am so glad to have my boys.

Photography group Blog

Tonight I finally found some time and put this together. Point of View I tried an in person thing but it just didn't work so here is my second attempt at a photography group. Anyone wanting to join let me know and I will add you to the authors list.