Fall is Coming

I am feeling frustrated that I can’t get my camera to connect to my computer to down load pictures.  I couldn’t get it to work last week either.  It had been working fine and then it just stops working, so frustrating.  I have some fun pictures I wanted to share, but I can’t.

Last Friday Neal and I were able to go to the temple together.  It was good to go.  Afterwards we went out to eat lunch.  It was a nice date time and fun we can do it during the time the kids are at school.  That evening we had a ward dinner.  It was nice to go be with friends in the ward and visit while we ate. The kids had fun going outside and playing on the lawn.

Saturday was a busy day.  We left in the morning to go to the Balloon fiesta museum to meet a group from our Stake to do service.  We worked at cleaning up garbage from the fiesta grounds in preparation for the balloon fiesta to start this week.  Our family walked around on the field where all the balloons will be.  We didn’t find a lot of garbage there, but it was a beautiful morning for a walk. Talking to others who were there it sounded like more garbage was found by the fences and in the parking lots.  They fed us pizza at the end of it.  

After the service we went to a train thing.  There was an open house and activity going on to show a locomotive steam engine that is being fixed so it can run.  They did this last year and we went too.  It is fun to see the engine and look around at some model trains and talk to people who love trains.  They also were giving out pop corn, hot dogs and drinks.  We made a donation to the engine work and enjoyed more food.

We then moved on the the Valle de Oro wilderness refuge south of the city.  The cub scouts Bear den, Spencer’s group, were meeting there.  They had invited families to come to the refuge too.  It was fun to see many we knew there from the ward and visit as we became familiar with what was there.  They were doing a 4^th birthday celebration and giving a hay ride, with someone talking about what has been done for the land and what they hope to do.  We didn’t see any live animals running around but we did see some animal skins on display.  They also had crafts for the kids to do and cup cakes, so we got a dessert too.  We went for a walk and saw some birds and insects.  The kids had fun with the event.

We got home about 4:00, after being gone for over 7 hours.  It was a family activity day.  That evening Ruth and I went to the church to watch the Women’s session of general conference.  We enjoyed watching it together and went to a frozen yogurt place to get a treat afterwards.

Sunday was a slower day but still busy.  Church was good.  After church I went visiting teaching.  I have a new assignment.  I keep getting changed around and I guess it is good so I can keep meeting new people.  I went to visit two elderly sisters with my companion, who is also elderly.  So I had a different experience than I have had for awhile.  It was different talking to sisters who are grandmas and listening to their needs, so different than the young mothers I had to visit last month!  We also went to ward choir.  I decided to try going to choir again.  I haven’t sung with a choir since I lived in Provo.  I enjoyed being there.

Monday morning was a normal day getting back into school.  I was thankful, since I was remembering the events of the Monday before.  I went to the middle school to volunteer in the library during lunch time.  I didn’t do much, the librarian showed me around and talked to me and I checked out books to two kids.  I don’t know when I will go in again, they are still working out a schedule for it.  

Monday afternoon I took Spencer to the oral surgeon for help with his tooth.  After an exam and talking to him the doctor decided to do a procedure a little different than I was expecting.  But it went well and everything is looking good.  The doctor felt that Spencer’s tooth will come down okay and just needed help getting through the tough calloused gums, since he hasn’t had a tooth there for 3 1/2 years.  What the doctor did was cut into the gum and pull it up and exposed the tooth.  So now Spencer has a tooth there!  He was so good with it all and didn’t even seem to think it hurt much.  The doctor office suggested getting him a Frosty from Wendy’s to enjoy a cool feeling as the pain settled.  Spencer enjoyed that.  Now we wait and see what happens.  For about a week he has to be careful what he eats but he is doing great right now.  I took a cute picture of him smiling, and showing his tooth!  

The weather has been so nice.  It is cooling down at nights and then so sunny and pretty during the day.  I have noticed leaves turning colors.  I am thankful I live in a place with seasons.  Neal went with Ruth on a bike ride last night.  They went with a family that Neal home teaches, the father and daughter.  They enjoyed getting out.

Excitement

The month is passing by quickly for me.  Last week I was able to go into the school and help with a PTA fundraiser event, I was counting the money and checking the orders for a magazine and trinket sale.  I went because a friend of mine was in charge and I wanted to help her out.  It was a fun morning because I was also able to visit with some nice people there. I also enjoy going into the library every week.  I am making more friends at the school and enjoy being a part of the community.  I decided to do a little more at the middle school this year too.  I have signed up to help in the library during lunch time.  Next week will be my first time going in.  

Friday morning I went to the elementary school for a Patriotic service.  The kids did a nice job with their songs.  It was outside and short, but I enjoyed being a part of it. I also enjoy being close enough to the school that I can walk there easily.  

Friday afternoon Andrew was all excited as he helped me fix some food for him to take on his first boy scout camp out.  Neal went with him.  It was fun to see how excited Andrew was about it.  They had a great time.  They went to a scout camp, the Gorham Scout Ranch, where they camped and did some service.  They helped to break a new trail.  Andrew is enjoying being in boy scouts and likes being a part of the group.  He is making good friends in the ward too.  One being Aiden, who also plays trombone in the band.  The boys enjoy talking and doing things together.  

I did a Friday night movie with the other kids.  We watched “E.T.”  I hadn’t seen that in a long time.  The kids enjoyed it.  I guess I am exposing them to old things because that is what I know.  If anyone has any suggestions to a good clean family movie that we can see for free on Netflix or other Roku channel I would enjoy hearing your suggestions.  

Sunday I taught in Relief Society about families.  I love my family.  I am thankful for my parents, siblings, in-laws, and of course my own children.  There are so many meanings to the word family.  

Monday morning started off normal.  I was getting ready to leave to take Spencer and Caleb to school when I got a phone call from a friend in the ward.  She said that the middle school was on lock down and that Ruth and Andrew were out on a field and I could come pick them up, she had just picked up her daughter.  I hung up with her and got a call from Neal saying he had a message from the school district that the school was being evacuated and asked if I was okay with getting the kids.  Then I got a call from the school district with the recording.  It was all a bit different.  I drove the younger boys to the elementary school and then drove towards the middle school.  The road got all blocked up and wasn’t going anywhere.  Then I noticed that police had blocked the street off.  They were directing parents to park in the neighborhood and walk to the school and others they were making turn around.  I found a place to park about 1/2 mile from the school.  As I walked over I was filled with a calm feeling that all was well.  Other parents were walking quickly and quietly towards the school.  There were a lot of police around blocking off things.  I guess it felt odd walking past them as they stood guard with rifles.  I got almost to the field where the kids were and realized I had left my picture ID in the car, so I had to turn around and go back to get it.  I wasn’t thinking about officially picking up the kids and needing ID.  I got in line where the parents were waiting to meet up with kids.  The teachers were helping to get the kids from the crowd to the right parents.  It was all very organized and calm.  I was thankful that the kids were handling things well, standing quietly with just a few people crying.  But no chaos.  Ruth and Andrew got to me and I got them signed out and we walked to the car.  They told me what they had seen and heard.  They hadn’t even been in the school more than the cafeteria.  They still had all their stuff, so that was good.  We learned that there had been a bomb threat before school even started that the school district and police were reacting to.  They at first directed all the kids into the cafeteria and library as they were getting to school and then they decided it was better for them to be outside and to evacuate everyone.  That is when we started getting the recorded messages from the school.  They had the police and K-9 dogs search the school and nothing was found.  I am thankful that everyone was safe and that everything went so smoothly.

Ruth and Andrew enjoyed having a day at home.  They did some school project work and music practice.  Then they met with a group of friends at a frozen yogurt place and then went to a friends home for a bit.  They had a fun afternoon with the friends from church.  I am glad that they had something fun to do to help them not be too concerned about what was going on. I wish we didn’t have wickedness in the world, but the fact is we do.  We can’t always be safe from it but I am thankful that this ended safely.

Yesterday I took Spencer and Andrew to get new shoes.  They were happy that they got them.  I seem to always wait until their shoes are falling apart before I make time to take them to a store.  I had known for a few weeks that I needed to do it and just kept putting it off.  Then last week I saw Andrew had hot glued pieces of cardboard that he had covered in tape to the bottom of his shoe.  He said he was trying to cover up the holes in the soles.  I felt really guilty and made sure we got new shoes this week! 

Things get busy for me.  Neal has been working a lot and I often feel overwhelmed and tired by the end of the day.  I am thankful for quiet mornings, like today, that I don’t feel so stressed and I hope that I can handle the things that happen in our family.  Life isn’t a piece of cake, but Ruth did make some delicious sugar cookies for our FHE treat this week, they have been nice to have.  Ruth and I also got some things hung up in her room.  I want to get her curtains up soon too.  We washed them, now we just need to get the rod installed and hang them.  I have a goal to get all the pictures hung up before the year ends.  I miss seeing my family pictures and want to remember my family more and have them in my home.

A fruity fall

This morning it was over cast so I took advantage of the nice yard working weather and did a bunch this morning.  It was nice to work without the sun on me.  I decided to pick the rest of the pears, so I cleared the tree and picked 29 pears.  Some look really good and some have been really good to eat, so I hope we can enjoy these.  I had been really good about spraying them with Sevin every four weeks but missed spraying in August because I wasn’t sure when they would be ready for harvest.  Now I know that I need to spray in August and harvest in September.  Hopefully next year I can remember that and we will have less wormy pears.  I also worked in the front yard flower bed.  I had talked to my mom about the phlox that was growing there and she said it was easy to thin and spread out.  So I did that today.  I hope that it takes and grows well next spring.  I really like phlox and had tried getting it to grow in Texas but never had success with it.  I also moved around some other flowers to have things look more even. 

The pear harvest

These flowers have been so pretty and they attract 

hummingbirds and that is fun to watch.

The pear tree

A pretty, sweet smelling rose in the back yard

Views of the front porch flower bed

Last week I went to the middle school for a parent night.  It was so busy and I had a hard time finding a place to park.  I have two kids at the middle school this year so I had to pick what classes I visited but I did three of Ruth’s and three of Andrew’s.  It was nice to meet some of the teachers, see the classrooms and learn a little about their classes.  They had us go through the six periods and rang a bell every 8 minutes and the parents would move to the next class.  I asked Andrew what his favorite classes are and he told me math, science and band.  He is having fun with the trombone and enjoys practicing it every afternoon.  Ruth is enjoying her art class.  They are both making friendships and enjoying going to school.

After the parent night I came home and got the kids to bed and then I left to go to a party at a friends home.  Ladies in the ward take turns hosting a “girls night.”  We just get together and visit and eat treats.  I felt like a “bad” mom sneaking out after the kids were in bed so I could go party.  Neal was working late that night.  I didn’t stay late and when I got home Neal was home, so the kids hadn’t been by themselves long.  I do like having older children that I feel that I can leave for a bit and they will be fine. I enjoyed visiting with the ladies there that night.  I am thankful for the times I can build friendships.

Our Friday night movie this week was “Wizard of Oz.”  Caleb loved seeing a tornado and had lots of questions about it, but thankfully wasn’t scared of it.  He said he loved the movie, the other kids had remembered seeing it before and said they enjoyed it too.  

Saturday morning the boys had a practice for the Primary program.  Then Sunday they did the program at church.  It is always nice to hear the children sing and say their parts.  The boys did a great job.  I could tell Andrew was enjoying singing, I could hear his voice and see him singing all the songs.  He said he does like singing.  I think all the boys did a great job saying their parts and I could hear them clearly, so that is good.  That was Andrew’s last Primary program to be in.

Saturday evening Neal took the kids out to an Astronomy night.  He has been noticing an Astronomy society web site and their times they go out and for public events.  This was the first time that it worked out for him to go.  The kids were excited about going.  I didn’t really want to, I am not that interested in that and an evening at home alone sounded better to me.  I enjoyed some quiet reading time.  They had a great time seeing stars and learning about the solar system.

Saturday afternoon I decided to work on the apples.  I bottled up 6 quarts with Spencer’s help.  He did great turning the apple peeler and kept up with me trimming the apples and getting them into the pan.  I think they turned out pretty looking.  We still have a lot of apples to eat fresh.  It is nice to go to the store and not need to buy much fruit since we have all these apples and pears to eat!

Monday afternoon I went for a hair cut.  I was debating about what to do with it.  I have thought about going short again, but then chickened out and just kept the same style but cut off about 7 inches.  So it doesn’t look different from the front, but my pony tail is a lot shorter.  

Today is early out for the elementary school.  The mornings always go by quickly on Wednesday.  It is nice that they can have a little play time every week.  Most school days they are busy with so much that they wish they had more free time.  I am thankful they have good schools to attend.

Beautiful Fall

We have had another busy week.  I will share a few highlights.  On Friday evening the kids and I watched the movie “The Peanuts Movie” that came out last year.  I checked it out from the library and we were excited to see it.  I remember all the talk it created when it was in theaters so I wanted to see it.  I was enjoying the story and the characters and then Caleb said “mom, where are the peanuts?  I haven’t seen any.”  It made me laugh because he thought the movie was about the food peanuts.  I paused the movie and explained to him who the “Peanuts” are.  It was a highlight of the evening for me.  

Saturday I picked the rest of the apples from the red apple tree.  They have been good.  I sorted them and cooked up the ones that had obvious bad spots on them.  We have enjoyed eating them this week.  I plan on bottling the rest and eating many fresh, they have been very good.  The pears are ripening and I am sad that most of them have worms in them.  They are a good tasting bartlett, the parts that we can eat.

I thought we got a good amount of apples off a small tree.

Sunday I went to a teacher training class at church.  I enjoyed going.  It is a new program the church has to help teachers learn how to teach.  I am enjoying my calling and am feeling more apart of the ward all the time. Last night I helped out with the Activity Days night.  They are a cute bunch of girls.  I think I have about half of their names down now.  

Monday was Labor Day.  We enjoyed some time relaxing and being with the family.  For the afternoon we went to Thane and Judy's home.  They are friends that live here in Albuquerque.  They had invited us over for a barbecue.   We enjoyed visiting with them.  Thane’s father was also there, he has recently moved in with them, and Neal enjoyed visiting with him about astronomy.  They invited us to come back some time, when the weather is right, to look through his large telescope, the kids thought that sounded great.

Recently we talked about how nice it is that I am home during the day to care for the children and help them when they are sick and can’t go to school.  But, I thought, they aren’t sick much and so that isn’t that big of a concern.  We have been blessed with healthy kids.  Then Tuesday Andrew got sick to his stomach at school and I went and picked him up.  I am thankful I was able to do that and he was able to sleep the afternoon away.  He felt fine by evening and Wednesday morning felt back to normal, so he went back to school.  

Wednesday afternoon I took Andrew and Spencer to the orthodontist for another consultation.  We went to him last year and he had suggested we come back in a year.  He is still not recommending braces yet but did recommend some treatment.  I hope we can help Spencer get his tooth to come down!  It was recommended he see a oral surgeon to help.  Andrew still has too many baby teeth and the doctor was concerned that they aren’t coming out.  He said to give it a couple more months but we might need to have one pulled.  He felt if one was pulled it might stimulate the others to come on their own.  Andrew will need braces, but not yet. 

Caleb has been enjoying learning how to solve a Rubics Cube.  He has been learning from Neal and working on it a lot.  Spencer has been working on ideas for a robot, he said it was a writing assignment for school.  He has fun dreaming about all the things it could do. This week the boys moved all their Lego to the spare bed room and have made a Lego village on a couple of folding tables.  They are enjoying having a place to play with it. And it has made their bed room look so much bigger to have it all out of there. 

We have had a lot of rain the last two days.  I looked at the weather report and found that we are on the fringes of the hurricane Newton and that is why we have had the rain. I found that interesting that we could get the effects of a hurricane here, so far inland.

Last night Ruth was able to go to the temple and do baptisms with a youth group.  I was able to have some family cards ready to send with her.  I am enjoying the work.  I just wish I had more time to do it!  Last night Spencer and Andrew enjoyed their scouting activities too.

I hope everyone can enjoy a beautiful fall time!

The Grand Canyon

We are keeping busy with our little family.  A couple of weeks ago we were given some frozen fruit that was a couple of years old.  The family has fruit trees and haven’t been able to keep up with their fruit.  We have enjoyed it.  It was a lot of apricots that I have thawed and cooked, so they are like bottled apricots and they taste so good.  I might try the frozen cherries next.  I have enjoyed working in the yard too.  I am starting to feel like it is my yard and I can change things and do it my way.  We are enjoying eating apples off our trees.  I will probably bottle some next week.  The roses smell good and I enjoy being outside, especially since the weather has turned cooler, it feels so nice to have windows open and enjoying the fresh air.

The boys have fun playing in the water in our yard, they enjoyed making little houses along the stream and playing with their toys out there. 

This rose bush is the most fragrant, I love the smell of it

The pears are about ready to harvest

We only got about 20 of the green apples, they have been very good and sweet, I think they are golden delicious. The red apples are also good, maybe they are a Braeburn or Gala.  

My sister Rachel shared some family history names with me that my Dad had been working on.  She is trying to go through things Dad was working on and find out where he was at on his research.  She passed names on to me to look over and research.  I am glad that I can help with this project.  It is addicting though, once I start working on it I have a hard time stopping.

August 23^rd was Spencer’s 9^th birthday.  He was so happy for the day to come.  I enjoyed walking to school with him that morning, listening to his chatter and holding his hand.  After school Ruth and Andrew helped me decorate the house, they get home before Spencer does, and they surprised him when he came through the door by singing to him.  Spencer choose to have a simple family gathering for his birthday.  We enjoyed a nice dinner with him and peanut butter pie, he doesn’t like cake.  He was so pleased with his gifts.  His grandparents gave him a hat, that he loves! and I gave him a pocket knife and a lego kit.  

Spencer's new hat

He was so excited about the knife.  He opened it and started looking at it, and cut himself a little. Thankfully it wasn't a bad cut, it just helped him learn some respect for the tool. 

I visit teach someone who had a baby this week.  I decided to make her a little flannel blanket and bought some frozen dinners for her family.  When I brought it by her house a couple of days before the baby was born she was so thankful.  She said it was like I had read her mind, that fixing meals was becoming a burden to her and she wondered how they would manage.  I am glad that I could help.  I feel that I was blessed with the promptings to do that.

Neal did his first Pack Meeting with the Cub Scouts as the new Cub Master.  They were at a park at the base of the mountain and roasted marshmallows.  It sounded like a fun activity.  I didn’t go, I stayed home to help Ruth and Andrew get to their activities that evening.  Andrew is enjoying being a part of the Boy Scouts now.  Yesterday I finished sewing on patches to his scout shirt.  I should take a picture of him in it, I will try to remember to do that.

Another big thing for Andrew is that he is in beginning band this year. They took the first couple of weeks of the school year to introduce instruments to the kids and have them try the ones they liked.  Then the teacher worked with each child to choose an instrument that he felt would work well for them.  Andrew choose the trombone!  I was a little surprised about that but did a bunch of reading about trombones and what kinds are out there.  I also read about different makers of them too.  Then I called about 15 pawn shops in town and asked if they had any trombones.  I found three.  I got more specific information about each and then turned it over to Neal.  Neal went to look at them and came home with a nice looking Bach Trombone.  I would guess that it is older and has sat for a long time.  The case was very dirty.  Neal took time to clean everything up.  Then I took the trombone to the music store to get a small part fixed, which they were able to do while I waited.  I bought the other things Andrew needed, like grease, a mouth piece and the band book.  Then we were in business.  Tuesday evening we showed Andrew the trombone.  He was so excited.  He had played some on one at school while we were gathering supplies so he already knew some about how to get it to play.  He was smiling so much that he had a hard time playing at first, but then he got out some good sounds.  I took a short video of him yesterday, which he was nervous about, but he did get some sounds out. The video doesn’t sound that great, but really I think the horn has a good tone and that we found a good one for him.  Neal wanted to buy a horn and not rent one, because Neal wants to learn to play it too!

The other day I was leaving the school after working in the library and Spencer was at recess.  He saw me and came running up to me and gave me a big hug.  I thought it was so sweet that he would do that in front of all his friends, I am glad that even at 9 he isn’t afraid to show emotion and love.

Well, the big thing the last two weeks was that we took a trip to the Grand Canyon!  We decided to go at this time because the National Parks service was celebrating 100 years and there was no admission charged to get into the Park last week.  We met with Neal’s sister, Holly and her family.  We went camping at a pretty place with lots of big trees that was just outside of the Park.  We spent a lot of time site seeing and visiting with family.  It was a nice trip.  It was also a hard trip.  We had a lot of rain that we hadn’t expected and things got wet.  I am thankful we did sleep soundly and dry, even through it rained both nights we were camping.  The canyon was beautiful and I am glad we could go.  Neal and Karl took the older kids on a hike down into the canyon and they enjoyed that.  Holly and I had the younger children with us.  Even the little ones were wearing out after walking around on the easy rim path.  So I went on with Caleb and Chet and enjoyed a nice walk down a path with markers talking about the geology of the canyon.  We ended at the geology museum and had Holly pick us up there.  It was a fun morning.  The group that went on the longer hike also made a stop at the train yard.  They had some old trains out that they could see and displays about trains.  I didn’t realize that was there or I would have suggested going with the younger children too.  We enjoyed our trip but are ready to be at home for awhile.  Taking vacations with a family isn’t always relaxing for adults. 

Thats me, good thing I brought lots of layers to keep warm.  I wish we could have seen the canyon more without the rain, but the clouds did add a beauty to the view.

Trying to stay dry

At the end of our walk, Caleb and Chet were fun to be with

Ruth enjoyed helping with her little cousins

This week has been busy again with school and activities.  I wonder sometimes if I will keep up with everything the family needs!  We are thankful for our busy lives and hope you all are doing well.