Talked to Jeff

Jeff flew out to Argentina today.  It's been 2 weeks later than he thought, but he's going now.  He got a little tired of changing companions at the MTC, so he is ready to settle into real missionary life.  He got to call from the ATL airport.  It was so great to hear his voice and just be able to chat for awhile.  Luckily we were able to 3-way call Tim then Drew so they got a chance to talk to him to.  He said he got through what he learned in 2 years of HS spanish in the first week and has learned alot since then.  Mostly gospel oriented stuff so he's not sure about politics and the weather :)  He is flying with a group of 5 missionaries all the way to Salta.  I was glad to hear he wouldn't be alone for the trip.  He also said both of his suitcases weighed in at 50lbs!  He is a packing genius!!  His carry-on weighed 26lbs so he is loaded to the gills.  I hope he doesn't get too worn out carrying all that stuff around Buenos Aires.  He said it was weird being in the world again around news and TV's.  He's been in a very tight bubble that nothing gets in to.  He doesn't miss politics too much, but wanted us to keep him informed of church news stuff.  So that's about it.  It was so good to hear from him.  It will be a bright spot for the next few days!

Happy birthday Tim!

It's Wed, Nov 11.  We wrapped up the presents.  Braved the 30 degree weather and grilled steaks.  We baked potatoes (which hasn't happened for at least 5 years) and fixed all dad's favorite food.  We had a delicious dinner.  Enjoyed a wonderful brownie ice cream treat.  The only thing missing was--Tim!!  He had a shareholder's meeting until 9:30 that night.  But I let the kids stay up to at least watch him open the presents.  So we ooohed and ahhhed over his new digital picture frame.  Someone mentioned the cool TV we saw at Best Buy while getting the present, and Tim went off on a rant of how much he hates TV.  So I quickly had the kids wish dad and happy birthday and run off to bed before he got started on politics, or healthcare, or the state of the world!!!  Happy birthday to you anyway Tim!  We had a good time even if you didn't.  (we did go to the hockey game together on Sat so he got some fun finally)

But the cutest thing about his birthday happened before dinner.  I had rushed to the grocery store on the way home from work to pick up last needed items and was just getting things cooking when I realized I didn't have ice cream.  I was moaning about having to go right back to the store when Jason said, "or we could go".   I asked if they really wanted to ride their bikes to the store and they said yes!   So even though it was pitch dark and 30 degrees, they loaded up their backpack and my cell phone and a $10 bill and rode off into the night.  A few minutes later I got a phone call saying they had already gotten it and were on their way home!   I was so proud of them!!  They made it the mile down the road, found the right flavor and brand on their own, and worked the self checkout machine by themselves!!!  I know plenty of adults who can't do that!  So they got a high five and a quarter tip for that.  My kids may not be able to out read or out shoot your kids at basketball, but they can out grocery shop them anyday!! :)

Halloween

We had such a good Halloween weekend! Halloween should be on a Saturday every year!!

The kids loved cleaning and carving pumpkins. And snacking on the roasted seeds afterward. Yum!

They always have to pick the biggest ones!

Drew refused to carve his, so Nick took advantage and did the puking pumpkin. It was a trick-or-treater favorite!

We had a wonderful chili cookoff and trunk or treating with our church Friday night. Nick wanted to decorate our trunk all by himself, which I thought was great because that gave me extra chatting time. He did a great job with the carved pumpkins, spider web, and electric candles. We went through 4 bags of candy in 20 minutes and had fun talking to all the kids in the ward.

Sat. night we had our ghostly dinner of mummy dogs, fingers, and eyeballs. MMMmm spookily satisfying.

Then went trick or treating in the neighborhood, and then went to a Halloween wedding reception. For real!! Everyone was in costume, and we had more fun checking out what the stake leaders dressed up as. Our stake pres and his wife were motorcycle gang members complete with earings in his ears. So funny!! I think everyone liked our theme with Tim as my prisoner. I was so excited that after 20 years, he finally dressed up! We had a blast. But it was good we had an extra hour of sleep from daylight savings. We were partied out!

Nick just had to do Owen's pose. It's every kids' dream moment!




And in the middle of all this, Jason went on his first boy scout campout!! We dug out all Jeff's stuff. It was bittersweet looking back and not believing how fast It's been since Jeff was 11 and facing his first chilly campout. But now, we're outfitted well so with lots of fleece and a sleeping bag liner, Jason did great and had a great time cooking over the fire and running around the river with his crazy buddies. I think he'll earn his tenderfoot soon!

Hope all of you have a great Fall. Our leaves are mostly gone, but have been just beautiful. and we've enjoyed cooking with all our apples. MMMMmmm happy cooking!

Another fun week

We dug out the last of our potatoes and got this big blue one! Big blue baked potato. Sounds like a Dr. Suess book!

Nick got to go on a cool field trip with the cub scouts. They went to the model train club in town and even got to drive the model train all around the room. Nick liked the tunnels a lot! And we ended the night with the excitement of mom driving the wrong way on a one way street. Woohoo! There's a story no parent wants to hear.

And Nick's best thing of the week: he finally got to paint his bedroom. He picked the color and trust me, this picture doesn't do it justice. It's REALLY bright jungle green. So I don't think designer is going to be a good career choice for him. But he absolutely loves it and says it's his favorite color. And I have to admit, it's good to get the room updated. It was still looking like a nursery. Now it is all boy!

Jason hasn't had too much happen except he took the wrong cello home from school. The other parent was in quite a panic, but we got it all straightened out. Probably should invest in some obnoxious stickers for the case.

Drew decided not to go to homecoming, but at the last minute, he and Nate still came over with dates and played games and made their own pizzas. I also made a fruit pizza for appetizer and it worked so great! I haven't done one in years and it just looks so impressive. I've got to try that more often. I'm just sorry I forgot to take pics of the whole night!

While I was getting ready for Drew's date, Tim took the little kids outside and cleaned the whole garage!! It looks amazing, and the snowblower is up front ready to rumble!

And even Pepper had an exciting week. It was the annual check up at the vet. First of all, he's a bit too big for his carrier, but we stuffed him in last year. However, this year he must be a bit stronger, because even teamed up 3 against 1 we could NOT stuff that cat into that little box! It was getting really comical. So at the last minute, I grabbed the Halloween decoration bin and tossed him in there. So in we walk with this giant tub for our little cat. Hilarious. He weighed in at a svelt 16.8 pounds! Cheers to Pepper for losing 1.5 kitty pounds!! And he must be a lean mean fighting machine, because the vet took one look at him and asked how long his chin had been swollen. We had no idea! So Pepper had to get an absess drained and hang out in the kennels for an hour. Then had to spend the rest of the night in Drew's bathroom so he wouldn't drip on the carpet. Neither Drew or the cat was very happy about this situation! But the wound scabbed and the bathroom got bleached so everyone is good again.

I'll just end with Nick's funny saying of the week. We heard a commercial on the radio that said, "2 years ago I was addicted to meth" and Nick said with disgust, "oh my gosh, addicted to math? What kind of life did he have??" I was cracking up!! So I guess I need to reinforce the joys of math in our lives. :)

Sports update

Just wanted to say big congrats to Nick for doing cross country this month! He just finished his second meet. He got his best time, 8:00 for 1 mile. He came in 10th place out of 6 schools of 3rd graders. He didn't qualify for all-city, but he had a good time doing it and really started getting better so it was a great experience. (except for mom sitting in the cold waiting for him to run!)

Speaking of cold, it has really dropped in temperature, and Jason has had morning soccer games the last 2 Saturdays and it's been in the 20's!! He's been trying to run around the field in ski clothes. Not easy, but they've still been winning. It's hardest on the parents sitting still. It takes alot of blankets and hot chocolate to keep warm!

Drew had a fun thing happen this weekend. A friend he made at the Eastman summer camp came down to visit from Alaska. She and her mom were on a road trip to visit colleges and friends. He took her to The apple festival at Greenbluff. Then came back to our house for dinner, then she took my ticket and Tim, Drew, and Wendy went to the symphony. She said she'd never been to an apple orchard and she's a musician so I know she loved the symphony. It was fun to talk to a teenager from Alaska. It's a different life having the teenage hangout spot be a glacier and having king salmon show up on your doorstep from the neighbors. She even knew a girl that moved up there from our ward! So we had fun talking to her too.

As for me, I'm mourning. I knew this day would come and it really is sad. I went to put up the ghosts on the tree outside for Halloween and no one would help me!! I guess nine is just too old to enjoy hanging holiday decorations. So I hung ghosts and pumpkin lights all by myself. Boo hoo. I don't miss the tantrums, but I do miss having my holiday buddy.

The Shiner

So this is our biggest black eye ever!! And who would have guessed it came from cross-country?! What a day. Drew had his follow up at the ENT after school while Nick was in Cross country practice so I thought I'd be ok. But the minute I got all the way downtown, the school calls and says he needs to be picked up right away there's been an accident and he's crying. So I panic and send Amy over to the school and leave Drew and fly up the hill. By the time I got there he was fine, but had a giant goose egg under his eye. I guess he took a flying elbow at the starting line. So we race back downtown with the pediatrician on the phone and Nick crying again because he doesn't want to go to the doctor. They say he doesn't need to come in, and we pick up drew. So now we've been going through every color of the rainbow on his eye and he attracts alot of attention wherever we go! I still wonder if there's an orbital fracture under there, but I don't guess they could do anything even if there was. Hopefully his beautiful face isn't disfigured forever!!

Otherwise, it's been an uneventful week. We've settled in to the soccer, scouts, and symphony mode so we're always on the go. We had a nice kids date seeing Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Cute, but same story line as "chicken Little" You could probably wait to see it on DVD. Then we had a big people night with the Mosses at the symphony opening night. Brandon & Drew came and we met Brandon's friend, that's a girl. :) It was a really fun night all in all. So we're heading into another week with the same busy-ness! Too bad it's finally supposed to feel like Fall. I've thoroughly enjoyed our record warm September!!

Happy Birthday Jason!

Ok, it was last week, but I finally got it together. Jason decided to take some friends to Triple play. He wanted to ride those go-karts and play the best mini golf course we've got. So we filled the van after school on his big day and rode out to CDA. The place was empty! So we got a nice long go-kart ride. Then a pizza dinner and cake. Jason was very specific about his cake. No fancy stuff. Just white frosting with sprinkles and blue writing. So that is exactly what he got! (soon he'll be Drew and not even want a cake :( Anyway, then they got the run of the arcade and had a wild laser tag game. Where's the mini golf you ask? That is the only sad part of the day. When Jason announced he'd picked go-karts and mini golf, his friends boo-ed and yelled who votes for laser tag? I informed them that we were playing golf because that's what Jason had picked and it was his party. After pizza, he came and told me they were playing laser tag. I asked if he was sure. He said yes. Darn that peer pressure!! So we had a little talk later that night about standing strong even when your friends want you to do something really bad. I hope the lesson sunk in. But I think he still had fun. We got home, and he got to open the family stuff and got lots of hoops and yoyo stuff (from Hallmark) http://www.hallmark.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ECardPersonalizeView?eo=true&topNav=false&personalizePage=true&categoryId=179558&URL=ECardPersonalizeView&partNumber=hyg1043_DK&s=hyg1043&r=&p=&ssd=Knock-Knock+Birthday&n=DEFAULT&st=%2Fproducts%2Fecards%2Fhyg1043_120.gif&productId=881861&tabOn=ecards&catalogId=10051&sn=Knock-Knock+Birthday&cardType=free&e=DEFAULT&storeId=10001&date=DEFAULT&mid=7000000000000000051&nv=true&template=o&CatIDsList=147551%3B-102001%3B11443%3B-102034%3B179558
He even got a pillow with their voices in it he can snuggle to every night!! So he had a really good day. He is very excited to start big Boy Scouts and also he's playing soccer on a regular size soccer field with 9 players! He just really seems almost grown up! It's hard to believe.