A New Swingset

Hooray! We got a new pile of rust. You can kind of tell it's a swingset. Actually, in a small picture, taken from a ways away, it actually looks okay! No, seriously, we are all excited about the new, old swingset. We are even having a few days of sun this week to enjoy it before it cankers for the winter. You can see in the picture that the kids didn't even bother to go inside and take off their backpacks yesterday.

After they had been playing for a while, I heard some screams and the kids came running in the house. "There's nobody on the swing, but it's moving and creaking!" "I think it's a ghost!" I had a good laugh, until midnight, when I was startled awake by two bloodcurdling screams. Seriously, I thought there must be an axe murderer in the boys' room. Or a rat. Or at least a big spider. Oh, no. Benjamin saw a monster and screamed and woke up Joshua who screamed. After I recovered from my myocardial infraction, I went to check on Samantha (who usually wakes at the drop of a pin) but she managed to sleep right throughthe shrieking banshees. This morning I asked Benjamin if he saw a monster last night. "Yes." "But it was just your imagination, right?" "No, it was skeery."

This next group of pictures is from a quasi-5K that Joshua and I ran last weekend. I was so proud of him! I love the picture of Joshua running with my dad (I was able to drop Joshua off and pick up the pace a little for the last mile) except I'll have to photoshop out the random guy (sorry random guy!).

And last, but definately not least, Samantha. She's upset in this picture because everyone is outside playing without her. LET ME OUT!! I love how much personality is in that teeny-tiny body.

How many men does it take to change a light bulb?

Apparently, three. Plus, an unwilling preteen boy to actually do the light bulb changing. You see, we've got this random light in the ceiling of our stairwell. It's ridiculously high up, and thus, has been burnt out for the better part of our seven years in this house.

Yesterday, I heard some clanking, and low and behold, it's Luke with the ladder--trying to find a way to angle it on the stairs so that it's sturdy enough to climb. After about seventeen different tried and failed ideas, he headed to the neighbors' houses. Our neighbors (who, incidentally, are twin brothers) headed over, and the three grown men do what men do best. Spend an hour trying to find an elaborate solution to a relatively simple problem. Seriously, here are some snippets, "Do you have any duct tape?" "What weight is this sheet rock?" "Do you think one of the neighbors has a 25 foot extension ladder?" "scaffolding" "rig it up"...you get the picture. Finally, they ended up using brute strength. Duh. Oh, but even that wasn't simple. They had a full ten minute discussion about who weighed less and was more expendable--me, or the neighbor's boy--first of all, you could have just asked us how much we weighed; second, the boy is completely expendable so he wins automatically, even if I may weigh an ounce less. So, one man held the ladder at the base, two held it at the top, angled, while Travis climbed the ladder and changed the bulb. Whew! Saturday afternoon pretty much wasted...

Also, it finally happened. Joshua knocked over Samantha's high chair while she was sitting in it. This one defied description.

He redeemed himself last night, though. We were at a wedding reception at the church and he began the dreaded potty dance. We started running for the bathroom, when all of a sudden he stopped and said, "This is Heavenly Father's house!", folded his arms, and walk-potty danced all the way to the bathroom. No compromise, no exceptions! That's my boy.

Proposition 8

A friendly reminder, exhortation, pleading, bullying, encouragement...to any California residents who read my blog.

Vote yes on Proposition 8 on November 4th. Please.

And encourage, remind, exhort, plead, or bully your friends and family into voting "Yes" as well.

We are blessed to live in such an amazing country, but the only way to preserve the freedoms that we enjoy is to continue to preserve the family. The foundation of any society.

Thanks!

Barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen

Well, I'm most definately NOT pregnant, and it's too cold to be barefoot, but I have been IN THE KITCHEN nonstop these last couple weeks. Harvesting the garden and fruit trees has brought a flurry of domesticity to my kitchen. The kids and Luke need to enjoy it while it lasts. In the last couple weeks I've picked apples and pears, canned the pears (19 bottles from my two trees!), will can the apples tomorrow, frozed about 10 quarts of zucchini from my garden, and bottled three quarts of salsa from my meager tomato harvest. I've also discovered that baking bread is not that difficut with the help of the bread machine's dough cycle and a rolling pin (Yes, I've been married for seven years and I just got my first rolling pin). We've enjoyed homemade bread, hot dog buns, and cinnamon rolls near constantly, along with our new favorite breakfast, lunch, and dinner--homemade granola. I've even made banana bread a couple of times, and crepes...mmmmmm....crepes...(but my blender broke yesterday, no more crepes I guess).

Whew!

I fully realize that most of you reading this probably cook a lot, or at least regularly, but I don't, so I feel pretty accomplished right now! We haven't eaten frozen chicken nuggets in at least two weeks, it's some kind of record.

And that's it. Sorry there are no pictures today. But Luke's family will get a kick out of this one...

There was a visitor in Joshua's primary class today. In the car on the way home I asked what the visitor's name was. "John." For some reason (I can't even imagine why, "A"), this was hysterical to Gus, who started saying, over and over, "Jo-ohn." "Jo-ohn." "Jo-ohn."