Happy Birthday!

We have had a nice week.  Last Friday Andrew was invited by his friend Aiden to come eat pizza and watch a movie.  I am glad that Andrew is having fun with friends.  He was telling us about their lunch time adventures this week too.  One day he and Aiden were goofing around a bit and fell in mud.  The front lawn of the school tends to not drain well and it had rained the day before.  Andrew got mud all over him and had to go to the nurses room and clean up.  Andrew told me he eats lunch outside most days.  He hangs out with four LDS boys, Aiden, Alex, and Adam.  We laughed and said “the four A’s” causing trouble.

Friday evening was our ward temple night.  Neal and I were able to go together and I enjoyed being there.  Our ward had been asked to do sealings and that was nice to be there with others from our ward.

Sunday afternoon Ruth and Andrew went to the BYD at the bishops home.  It was Andrew’s first one to go to.  I think it is fun he is a part of the youth group now.  He is enjoying it too.

Monday was the eclipse.  We only had about a 75 % coverage here, if I remember right.  It was still cool to see.  We had some interesting shadows but it didn’t get very dark.  It was like a cloudy day, in fact it was a cloudy day.  About 11:30 the clouds broke up some and I was able to see the sun and watch the coverage happen.  I was glad that I got some special glasses to see it.  Ruth enjoyed seeing the sun with a telescope that was set up at the high school for the kids to view with.  Andrew had some solar glasses that he shared with his friends at lunch time. The younger boys did a little at the school with it.  Caleb was able to go outside and view it, Spencer’s teacher didn’t take them out side but just watched some things on TV.

Wednesday was Spencer’s tenth birthday.  He was so excited for it to come.  He was so full of smiles.  I was surprised that he didn’t want anyone at school to know it was his birthday. He even asked Caleb to not tell any one.  That was hard for Caleb, but he only told one friend in his class. I think he didn’t want people to know because he is the youngest in his class and feels a bit self conscious about being younger than everyone. He is happy that he can say he is 10 now. Wednesday is early out day for the elementary school.  The boys had fun playing together that afternoon.  They have been playing a lot with the wood trains this week.  They have a big story going on about Legos verses Trains.  I am glad that they are enjoying their toys.  Spencer requested peanut butter pie for his treat.  I think I make this once a year, on his birthday!  We also had breaded shrimp for dinner, another request.  I am glad that he had a good day.

I was able to do some sewing this week.  I bought fabric to make a skirt for myself back in April.  I finally made it.  Wednesday I cut it out and Thursday I sewed it.  I look forward to wearing it Sunday to church.  I also have done a lot of yard work this week.  I trimmed bushes yesterday.  Today I was working to move the last of the cement out of my flower bed areas.  I didn’t like the way it looked.  I also think it was hard on the roses to be surrounded by cement. I like the way it looks now. I forgot to take a before picture, to show what I moved, but I will share a finished picture. We are also starting to harvest our apples and pears.  They taste great.  It is fun to have fruit trees in the yard, although they take a lot of work to keep up with them and keep the fruit good.  I learned that I could have thinned them more than I did.  Our golden delicious apple tree had so many apples on it.  I took off more than half of what set, but it is still over loaded and the apples didn’t get that big.  We are enjoying our tomatoes too.  I had my favorite sandwich yesterday for lunch, red garden picked tomato!  I will probably need to start canning apples and do more pickles next week.

I looked back and found this picture of the same area that I worked on today from last May. 

Here it is with the cement removed and just a few rocks in the corners. The pear tree is in this plot and you can see a few pears hanging.  The golden delicious apple tree is in the back ground, you can see a couple of green apples hanging,  it is very small tree and the apples are low to the ground. 

Our red apple tree, I think it is either a Fuji or a Braeburn variety. They are good. 

Today is the daddy daughter ward camping trip.  Neal plans on picking Ruth up from school and taking off to go have some fun camping.  I hope it is a fun trip.  Ruth had fun last night with young women’s activity.  They were decorating boxes as cars for a “drive in” movie next week.  She is doing okay with high school.  It has been more home work for her.  She is enjoying her French class and shares things she is learning with us.

School is Back!

It is Friday afternoon of the first week of the new school year.  The kids have enjoyed going to school this week.  They have all been happy and positive about their classes.  Ruth started high school at Eldorado.  Things are going well for her there.  Her first day she came home all smiles and said high school was going to be great.  Andrew is in middle school, 7th grade.  He was a bit overwhelmed the first day but is doing better now that he has had time to adjust and get organized.  Spencer is at the elementary school in 5th grade.  He really likes his teacher and is happy with his class.  Caleb is in 2nd grade this year.  Last spring he was tested for giftedness and qualifies for some gifted services.  He missed the cut off for the full day program, but will be in pull-out classes for reading and math.  He is really enjoying his teacher and seeing all his friends in class.  So the first week of school has been a success.

To back up a bit to when I last wrote.  Andrew had a great birthday.  He went camping with the boy scouts from the 4th to 5th.  He enjoyed it.  They went fishing on the trip and he caught two trout.  He was so happy about it.  Neal went with him on the trip.  I am thankful that Neal is able to go on trips with Andrew and that he spends time with the children.

Andrew didn't want any cake.  So we just had his favorite ice cream, Mango!

Neal has been working with Caleb to teach him how to ride his bike better.  Last Saturday Neal took Andrew and Spencer to their train club.  Those are a few things that he does for them.  Neal is busy with work yet he is always concerned with the children and wants to help them.  Neal is taking Ruth to seminary every morning and helping her there.

On the 5th we had Neal’s sister, Andrea and her family of eight kids come for a short visit.  They stayed with us on Sunday, then Monday they continued their trip into Utah for a family reunion.  It was nice to visit with them and spend the day with them.  The kids enjoyed playing games together.

We also had a nice music time. James brought his cello to play for everyone.  Charlotte was enjoying the piano.  Ruth got out the guitar and they three of them worked at doing a song together.  I thought it was fun to hear and be around for.  They are all such good kids.  That Sunday evening Ruth had a seminary fireside.  I went with her to it.  James wanted to come with us, since he was missing his seminary fireside at home.  It was nice to have him along.  It was a good meeting.  Ruth has enjoyed going to seminary so far.  She is doing great getting herself up and ready on time.  It makes for a long day but she is doing well.  She also has noticed that high school classes require a lot of work and has had homework this week, something the boys haven’t had yet.

Being with cousins is the best!

Our last week of summer vacation was good.  We spent time at home relaxing.  I let the kids have more time for play and we didn’t do work book sheets that week.  The electricity line finally got fixed, after seven weeks of having the temporary line above ground we now have the regular line fixed and working, underground.  Since the electrical line was gone I let the boys play in the fountain with water.  They had fun with it for a couple of days before we emptied it out.  I am glad they got some water play before summer vacation ended. I also took the boys to the science museum one afternoon.  We enjoyed going around to their favorite areas.  Ruth went to a party for the library volunteers from the summer time.  She enjoyed doing that this summer.

Last Friday in the morning I was getting ready to go on my last early morning walk of the season.  Caleb woke up early and saw me and asked if he could go with me.  He hurried and dressed and came with me.  I enjoyed walking with him and had a nice visit with him.  He likes to talk.  That afternoon I took the kids to Fuddruckers to use their coupons from the library reading program to get a free meal. They enjoyed it and all thought the hamburgers were the best.  It was fun to go with them.  I thought it was funny that Spencer asked “why do we only come to places like this when we have coupons?”  Because it is expensive!  I am glad they could enjoy it. That evening Spencer and Caleb went with me to the elementary school for “meet the teacher” night.  They were excited and happy to be back in the school.  Earlier in the week I had been with Ruth and Andrew as we went to their schools to get schedules and looked around at their classes.  Ruth enjoyed going to a freshman orientation day. This year we get to be involved in three schools!

Over the last week I have taken the kids and myself into the dentist for visits for teeth cleaning.  I went to the office three times this week, just the way the appointments worked out.  I am glad that we are all doing well, no cavities and no reason to go back until another six months has passed.

The day after Andrew’s birthday, August 6th, he was ordained a Deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood.  Neal was voice in the ordination and Glen (Andrea's husband) along with his son Peter, who is a priest, joined in the circle.  I thought it was special to have some family there that day.  Then last Sunday Andrew passed the sacrament for the first time.  He did a great job.  He told me afterwards he was a bit nervous but once he started doing it things just calmed down in his head and he felt confident and knew it was the right thing to be doing.  He is a good young man.  This Sunday he has an appointment to visit with the Bishop for his temple recommend.  I look forward to going to the temple with him and Ruth soon.  I am thankful for my children and their testimonies.  They are examples to me.

Last Sunday we had the missionaries over for dinner.  It was nice to have them in our home.  It has been a while since we fed them.  With summer time busyness and also with me being in primary and not always seeing a sign up sheet, it has been a few months since they were here.  I enjoyed having them in our home.  They are good young men.

On Tuesday Andrea’s family came back through on their way home.  It was fun to see them again and hear how their vacation had gone.  We didn’t have much time for visiting since they were just here to sleep and left Wednesday morning to drive home.  I am glad that we could see them.  Wednesday evening we had Camilla and Rosemary stay with us on their way to Idaho.  Again we didn’t visit much since they got in late and left early.  It is nice we can help out family in their travels.  We love seeing family.

I have enjoyed our garden produce.  The green beans taste so good this year and they keep growing!  We have had a lot. The tomatoes are getting ripe and the boys like to go out and look for them and pick them. Caleb said fresh picked red cherry tomatoes are the best! This week I made some sweet pickle relish out of our cucumbers.  Last night was activity days and the girls enjoyed the lesson/activity I did with them. This week I went into the school for a library meeting and signed up to volunteer again this year.  Then I went into the school for a meeting with Caleb’s teachers and did an IEP or individual education plan, for him with the gifted program.  Here in NM giftedness is under state regulations with being under special education.  It is a bit more formal than the program Ruth did in Texas.  It has been a busy week for me.  It is nice to get back into our school time routines.  I do look forward to the week end though.

Camping and Adventure

Another week has flown by.  Actually two since I last wrote.  Last week Neal was in Amarillo Texas for work.  It was a busy week with him not home.  It is always nice when he comes back from a trip.  I am thankful he doesn’t travel very often.  

The kids have been busy with learning and doing.  The boys built a Lego village around their HO train track.  They had lots of fun putting it together.  They even built some train cars and engines.  They took the plastic covers off their HO trains and put on Lego covers.  One day they rode their bikes to the elementary school and played.  They have enjoyed playing outside in the yard with their cars and small animals.  They can be rather creative with things.

Ruth enjoys writing.  She is working on a story and likes to spend time on the computer typing it up.  She had a fun afternoon last week with a friend, Kaitlyn.  The girls are friends from school and enjoyed talking about their summers activities. 

When we were visiting the Hubbard’s this summer Caleb enjoyed playing a card game called “Bohnaza.”  It is a card game where you plant bean fields.  It is an entertaining game.  Caleb decided he wanted to buy the game and we found it on Amazon and ordered it for him.  He was so excited when it came and has played with it a lot!  

We enjoyed doing some activities at the library last week too.  Andrew and Spencer went to an architecture class and learned about how to design a home.  We went to a music event and listened to some fun songs from Andy Mason.  The funniest was a chicken song that he put on a chicken suit for.  This week we went to the science museum.  We went to a free showing of a IMax film on space.  The fun thing was it was in 3D and the kids loved that.  (3D things give me a head ache, but it was cool to watch.)  

We are doing well with our garden and have enjoyed picking lots of green beans and yellow squash.  We also picked lots of cucumbers and this week I made a batch of pickles.  Yesterday I took Andrew and Spencer to the doctor for their yearly physical.  They are doing well.  We have had lots of rain this week.  We are getting another storm in right now.  I like all the rain and the cool air it brings. Plus, it is making our yard look so green.

Yesterday I went to a back to school activity for Activity Days.  The girls enjoyed fixing food for lunch and talking about healthy things to bring to school for lunch and have for snacks.  I enjoyed being with them.  Wednesday I took the boys swimming and we had fun there too.

Last week we did a family camping trip.  Friday we packed up and drove to Fenton Lake in the Jemez mountains.  It was a pretty place.  The boys brought their fishing poles and tried fishing.  There were a lot of people fishing and no one seemed to be catching anything.  One man said he thought it was a bit too hot for the fish.  We enjoyed being there and the beautiful scenery.  The kids had fun playing with the cat tails.  I was thankful that we didn’t get rained out.  It was cloudy most the time we were there, but only had a few sprinkles.  

One sad part of our trip.  At our family reunion in Utah we had an auction to earn money for the reunion fund.  Spencer had bought a swiss army pocket knife at the auction with his own money.  He was so excited about this knife.  It was a large one, over an inch thick, and had so many little gadgets and blades.  He loved the knife.  Well, on our camping trip Spencer was cutting and carving things with his knife and put it down somewhere.  He realized he didn’t have it and we spent some time looking for it before we left the area, but couldn’t find it.  He was so sad, it broke my heart watching him.  It is so hard to see your child hurt so much.  Ironically it had started to rain while we were searching for the knife.  We did stop at the camp ranger station and asked if they saw the knife to contact us.  We wondered if it fell into the water when he was playing at the edge of the lake.  Most likely it is gone for good.  So sad.

Ruth bought something fun this week.  She has been wanting a chair or bean bag to sit in while reading in her room.  We looked on craigslist and found a bean bag.  It is large and just what she was looking for.  She was excited about it. I had to wait for Neal to get back from his work travel to go get it because the person selling it lives in military housing on the air force base.  Neal has access to the base with work, so when he came home we were able to go to the house and buy the bag.  Ruth has loved using it this week.

Today Neal and Andrew went with the 11 year old scouts on a camping trip.  The scout leaders wanted to do one more camp out with Andrew before he turns 12.  So this week end worked for us and them.  Andrew was excited to go.  He was in charge of some of the cooking.  He is close to getting his 2^nd and 1^st class scout ranks.  He told me with the things he will do on the camp out he should earn both ranks.  I am proud of him.  He is doing many good things.  Last Sunday he fixed us a recipe from Germany.  It was good and he did a good job with the cooking.  This week he has helped me in the kitchen a lot.  He really enjoys it and I am thankful for his help.  Tomorrow is his 12^th birthday.  Last Sunday he had a visit with our bishop.  He is a good young man with a strong testimony of the gospel.  He will be ordained a deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday. 

I have done a lot of yard work this week.  There always seems to be something to do.  Today I worked at spreading some fertilizer, weeding and then watering things.  The kids also helped with the weeding this week.  I enjoy working out there. I enjoy my morning walks too.  It is always so cool and pleasant.  I enjoy that quiet time.

We only have one more week of summer vacation.  The kids are ready to go back to school, at least they show that by their behavior.  I think they need more for their minds to think about.  Even with doing work book sheets every day, music practice and reading, they are ready for more.  Next week will be busy with school registration and Ruth’s freshman orientation.  

This week we had the power company, PNM, come out to fix our broken electrical line, finally.  It has been six weeks since they came and put a temporary line in to give us power.  Yesterday they located the problem spot and thankfully it was in our garden area, not under any cement or our fountain, so it was easy to get to.  Today they dug a hole until they found the line and saw what was wrong.  The one line had burned out, it was broken in two.  Interesting that it would do that.  They will come out Monday morning and splice the line back together and it should work and they wont have to do any more digging.  I am glad that it wont be too bad on our landscape.  It is disturbing our garden some, but they are trying to be careful with the plants. 

Last Sunday we went to choir, as usual.  We have some new families in the ward this summer and we had some new people come to choir this week.  Ruth was grateful that the two new sisters who joined choir are both sopranos, some weeks Ruth is the only soprano to come to choir practice.  We had a lot of people there Sunday and it sounded nice.  I hope that it can grow and we can enjoy singing together.  After choir Neal was talking to Ben Newton, who is new to the ward.  They realized that they went to high school together.  They believe they had classes together since they remembered the same teachers.  They didn’t know each other well at school but they still had fun reminiscing about it.  The Newton’s invited us over to their home for dessert and more visiting time.  We enjoyed spending time with them that evening.

I hope that everyone can enjoy their summer time.  We will enjoy celebrating Andrew’s birthday and our last week of vacation!