Watch out HGTV ... there's a new interior decorator!

Okay, well, not really. Honestly when Ed asked me what color I wanted the living room to be, I mentioned that I was looking for a neutral - maybe in the sandy beige category. He said okay and then asked what I wanted in the bedrooms. I said, "I don't know, maybe the same?" He said, "you're kidding, right?" Little did he know ... I am more intimidated by selecting colors than I am by power tools! However, in another flurry of growth inspiring experiences, Lynn brought me over a war-and-peace size book of color tiles and told me to pick some colors ........

She then took pity on me and gave me some suggestions as to some different decor ideas and effects they have used and then told me to write down the colors (I have to stress the plural here) I wanted. Can you say stress!!! I have taken calculus tests I didn't worry so much about! After much scribbling and re-writing, I came up with some colors - which will appear shortly. This morning Lynn & Ed were up at the house early and had the entire place primed before I even made it up there. Then they headed off to B-town to pick up the colors I picked. Here are a few pictures of the primed walls ...

Living Rm

& dining rm

kids' rm

still the kids' rm (they get the big one)

after a few mishaps during the day - most noteably their truck malfunctioning in the canyon, Lynn, Ed & the paint made it up to the house. We started at about 3pm ... by 6:30 pm, the walls in the master bedroom, dining room, living room, and the 1st color in the kids' room were done. It looks so cool (if I do say so myself) and Ed only had to fix one of the colors I picked, so for me that is a fantastic average! Here are how they look right now ...

Dining rm (done in pale ivory w/french sonnet trim)

& Living Rm (done in glacier green with what was supposed to be a sage trim ... but done better by Ed the "color man"

Doesn't that bar look tons better?

the kid's rm (it will have a lighter green on the bottom and white ceilings)

(frogs for boys, flowers for girls ... still green!)

and the master is also done in golds ... for my Camelot theme

The last bit of "construction" left to accomplish is the hallway. There was a little square recessed light and a large, rather clunky return for the ac in the small hallway. Byron decided that life could not go on if that light remained. Okay, so maybe not quite so melodramatic, but I'll bet your smiling anyway. Anyhow, Harley came over tonight and patched up the square hole and I will finish knocking down the popcorn around the vent tomorrow morning. Then Ed can texture it and Harley can cut the new round hole for the new light. We are also going to attach a square vent over the other opening ... just so that it looks better from the outside, I think. I honestly got lost in the back-and-forth between Harley and Byron this afternoon. I'll have to just wait and see.

What's on the schedule for tomorrow? We finish the hallway, paint the ceilings, kitchen, bathroom, and the rest of the kids' room. Then I can start putting the furniture in!!!!!! I am also hopeful that the phone issues will be resolved tomorrow as well. Speaking of those, I forgot to tell Byron about the mixup and this evening he went up to check out the paint while I fed the kids. The next thing I know he is calling the cell phone from the house to tell me that the phone is now "working." I told him that we were not to use that phone because it was someone else's line and if they happended to pick up their phone we could have a party call! He then told me that it would have been nice if I had mentioned that earlier since he had just finished calling his parents!!!! On the plus side, I have me one of my neighbors. Of course, I would prefer to have met under circumstances other than calling to inform her that there might be unidentifiable long distance charges on her telephone bill that I would take responsibility for, but then I always have been a bit of a party pooper. She was very nice about it and told me that she had a flat rate for all inter and intra state long distance calls so it shouldn't be a problem, but that she would keep and eye out. What a conversation!!!! Can't wait to see what happens tomorrow!

Progress

So much has been accomplished this weekend ... the house is absolutely unrecognizable in its improvement. On Saturday I finished knocking down the last ceiling (in the smallest bedroom). Just to show you how much of a novice I am ... I worked steadily for over an hour (and feeling fairly proud of my ability since I was working all by myself) and was down to the last strip of ceiling (about 2 ft x 10 ft). Ed came in to check on my progress and told me I was doing good and said "here, let me help you for a minute" He then took down the entire strip in about three passes ... hmmmmm. The misisonaries came over to see what they could do and Ed put one of them to work sanding back bedrooms and the other headed up into the rafters to knock down that pesky ceiling box. I am rather glad that I didn't try to do it since I would still be up there. That silly thing was all but welded to a specially built box in the attic! Brute strength prevailed, however, and the box was finally beaten into submission (or at least out of the ceiling). Under Lynn & Ed's direction, I taped, sanded, patched, and in general made a nuisance of myself. By Saturday evening, however, the back two bedrooms had new ceilings and wall. The difference is amazing! While all this was going on, Dad was measuring and placing speaker wires and boxes for cables and television connections. Lynn (to the rescue once again) climed up and belly-crawled through the two feet of insulation in the attic to help thread the speakers in the corners. Dad might have gotten a chance to finish, but I didn't have a long enough S-video cord to string from the computer (which will be next to the fireplace) to the TV (on the opposite wall). Still the wires look beautiful and I am thrilled to have them not stapled along the ceiling as they are in the old house. Thanks Dad!

After a lovely dinner brought in by another wonderful sister (I need Carol's meatloaf recipe - seriously!), we packed up and headed home where I bathed the kids, put them to bed, did the dishes, and headed back up to the new house. Jenny joined me and we wiped down what had already been done and vacuumed ... just putting things in order generally for Monday. Harley appeared at the front window - startling a good decade out of me in the process - and complemented our progress. He took violent exception to the spindles however, with the result that they are now in many pieces in the back yard (hurray!). I didn't really think that it would make that much of a difference since they were so skinny, but having them gone really opens up the room! He also insisted that we paint the beadboard there white (I got the impression that if we didn't agree we might come into the room in the near future to find the words PAINT ME WHITE sprawled across the board rather like a dusty car that has had a similar message traced into a dusty window) fortunately, Byron and I agree and white they shall become. Sunday we rested ... and I mean that literally since I actually took a three-hour nap with my children. This morning, I got up bright and early and cleaned this house (which was looking really bad), did the laundry, and made it up to the new house by 9am. I put the kids out back with the little DVD player and a box of toys. They did incredibly well! Ben and Ginny really more or less kept to the porch and Joshua wandered around in the yard pushing a truck. Robert found a climbing tree that enabled him to see everything that was happening and he just hung out there. Over the course of the day, the living and dining rooms now have new ceilings and walls. It looks amazing and I am even more amazed at Lynn and Ed ... I don't normally mess with power tools. Believe it or not, they intimidate me, so other than the odd job with Byron's little cordless drill, I don't have much experience. Ed threw me the texture gun and said "point there." That was my entire training. Still, I got the hang of it, but my arms and neck were killing me in no time at all. Ed sprayed the actual pattern over the entire ceiling and walls all by himself ... go Ed! Tomorrow, we paint! On a side note, Harley pulled the cooler apart and found that the pads had petrified. Once those were replaced, the cooler worked great. Thanks mate! Of course, all could not be sunshine and roses, I finally found a bit of a thorn today. My telephone was supposed to be transferred up to the new house today (remember I was going to move in over the weekend, ha ha). Tim came up and looked at it and low-and-behold there is no physical line for my information to be tranferred to! Plus, as soon as the information left the old house, that line was given to someone else!!! So what now? I have computer access until it doesn't work anymore (which could be at any moment) and no phone until one comes availble - basically until someone else cancels their service. How fun is that? You would think that here in California (the land of red tape and permit-happy bureaucrats) when a new house is built the phone company would make sure that there is a physical line available to the property (don't we have to do that with the other utilities already?) before the house is finished. But no, they don't and so there is a shortage here. Joy. At the moment, the only way to contact me is via e-mail or by cell phone ...

The BEST Anniversary ... so far

Today Byron and I have been married for 5 years. We've had the ups and downs that naturally come from living in close proximity, yet I feel more blessed to have him at my side than I did 5 years ago. We are completely opposite in most ways - have next to nothing in common in the way of hobbies or interest - and yet we complement each other. Byron brings out the best in me. He supports me (even when he would rather I didn't want to do something ... like scrape popcorn off my ceilings in a last minute change of plan). More than that, he really loves me. When things get difficult for him (we call that "growing pains"), he really tries. He does his best to uphold his priesthood and be a loving husband and father, even when he has had a long day. At his absolute crankiest, he is still the gentlest man I have ever known. Byron, I love you forever ... okay no more mushy stuff, on to the day!

This has been the best anniversary I have ever celebrated - even if I didn't even get to see my husband all that much. ;-) Byron gave me the best present in the world: a dozen roses and a completely kid-free day, and I mean the entire day ... I seriously have not changed a single diaper today. Then, as if that were not filling my little cup of joy, my friends and neighbors got together and made my little cup of joy overflow. As mentioned in my last post, I planned to do my best to get the extra wood-burning stove out and clean carpets ... possibly even get the kitchen done. Well, my friend Jenny (who is recovering from a ridiculously severe sinus infection) decided to come help ... and we were joined (thanks to Jenny's incredible coordination skills) by other wonderful friends (also known as Marcie and Leslie). If that weren't incredible enough, she coordinated for sisters to bring our family dinner for the next couple of days so that I didn't have to stop what I was working on to feed the family. Jenny, thank you so much for thinking of me! Jenny, Marcie, and Leslie came and just flew around! We got the kitchen completely cleaned - cupboards lined (at least until I ran out of liner, but that doesn't really count). We even found the keys to the back door which has not been opened in 2 years because no one could find any keys. I don't think I will be able to thank Leslie enough for tackling that door ... creepy! And Jenny!!!!! Jenny (who you must remember is under the weather, to put it mildly) brought a sqeedgy (I know I did spell that right, but you know what I mean) and got on ladders and washed all of the windows (inside and out) and then brushed the ceilings (we'll get to those presently), washed walls, and vacuumed ... she is absolutely amazing!!!! Here are a few highs (and lows) for the day:

The Stove - Hurray, the wood-burning stove is no more! I got most of it disconnected this morning before Byron made it up to join me this morning (he had to go to the "office" for a bit). Then, with the help of Harley and Steve, Byron got the stove itself moved out to the garage. The backing board (can we say cheesy?) was bolted into the cupboards, but not even finger tight so I managed to get it all done with two screwdrivers and a crescent wrench - of course I owe it all to those many hitherto deemed wasted hours watching McGuyver ... more than just a pretty face apparently. ;-) All that is left is the square box right at the ceiling which is apparently riveted from above ... that is on my tomorrow list along with patching the hole. Also, under the temporary hearth stones (just pavers in a frame) I found perfectly intact, if rather flat, carpet. This was good news!

The Cooler - we tried the cooler, but it didn't seem to work very well. First we found that the cover was still on it (thanks Harley for fixing that). Then we couldn't find the water line (Jenny found it ... in a closet I had just spent several minutes looking through). Then we found that the cooler had no pump. Harley continued his "walk about" (you have to say that with an Australian accent ... or at least try) down to the hardware store where he found that there was one left in stock. At that point Byron drove up and we sent him down to procure it. Once installed, we could hear the air, but we really didn't feel anything. We found that two of the vents were plugged, but the rest is a mystery. By the late afternoon, there was a nice breeze blowing and once combined with sweat even caused a little bit of cooling sensation. Better luck tomorrow!

The Ceiling - Okay, before I do this, I have to shout out a huge apology to Jenny who, as I mentioned before, worked very hard on the ceiling, walls, and floor. I really had no plans to knock down the popcorn today ... honestly! I figured I could live with it for a year or two. Then I walked across the street to Lynn's house for a completely unrelated reason and she (with lots of help from Ed) was talking about how much easier it would be to just knock it down before I put any furniture in the house. While I have acknowledged that point before, there is the fact that I would like to have a finished ceiling of some sort and I didn't think I was ready to put the new ceiling up yet ... I have received lots of instruction, but I have never actually done it myself. So what changed my mind? Lynn picking me up in her truck with all of her tools to take it down with me ... along with the offer to help me put the new ceiling up. It was a blast - I had more popcorn in my hair than was actually on the ceiling I think. Still after just a couple of hours all but one room is popcorn-free and I completely re-cleaned the front of the house (I was actually hoping to get it done before Jenny could see because I didn't want her to feel like her work had been wasted, but my husband ratted me out (to be fair he had no orders to the contrary). Still, I have to say Jenny, that it was not wasted. Thanks to the extra vacuuming, most of the furniture and even the hearth marks are practically gone! And Yes! we have no more popcorn ... we have no more popcorn today!!! (are you humming along?) Can you tell I don't like accoustic ceilings?

Misc Nuggets - Marcie found an entire box of green tile (to match the kitchen countertops) in one cupboard. What a relief - now I could completely resurface the fireplace to match the kitchen (kidding!!!!). The washer and dryer left behind are complete pieces of junk (no surprise) and the dryer needs to run on propane. Mine, of course, is electric. Anyone want to trade? (not kidding) Also, everyone was in agreement that the light fixture in the dining room needs to be replaced almost immediately due to its extreme ugliness (I am understating this).

To make a very long story just a little bit longer, this day has been awesome for me. I got to really focus and had wonderful gifts of service and love and friendship. Who could ask for more? I know I couldn't.

A Very Exciting Day

It is now official ... Byron and I are in debt 'till we die. In other words, we got our house!!! After my last rather premature post, I wasn't going to say anything until I actually got the keys (and made sure they actually went to the right house - thanks Papa). I received the keys at 10 am this morning - and then proceeded to call all of the utilities. We will have electricity and water tomorrow, there is already propane in the tank but they will fill it next week, the phone will move on Monday, the computer connection on Tuesday, and we will officially begin to receive mail there also on Monday. Whew! Now I am just gnashing my teeth because I want to get everything done NOW!!! First thing to be done - remove the extraneous wood-burning stove (hoping against hope that there is still carpet under the temporary hearth they laid down) and patch the ceiling where the pipe comes through. Byron and I are going to attempt that bright and early tomorrow morning - so that he can have the measurements he needs to get the patch materials I will need to finish the job (yes, I can patch the ceiling, thank you sooooo much for the vote of confidence). On the plus side, he is taking ALL of the kids with him so I should be able to get the kitchen done and (if the water/electricity is turned on soon enough) possibly get the bedroom carpets done too. That is the goal. On Saturday, my wonderful father-in-law is going to come and help Byron put the wires for the surround sound, TV, and TV-Computer into the walls so that it looks nice and neat ... won't that be wonderful??? I also (drying time permitting) intend to move up the bedroom furniture. Soooo, if all of my goals are met, we should be sleeping and eating (and watching movies) up in the new house by Sunday!

I also have to mention my failed tree experiment. About three years ago a lovely lady in our ward offered me a few tree saplings if I wanted to plant some trees. My land lady was a bit nervous, but just asked me to keep them far enough away from the house that when they were fully mature there would be no damage to the house. I beat my usual planting average by having one (out of three) actually survive ... flourish even (although there has been a debate for a while as to whether it was a tree or a bush by those of my neighbors who don't think I prune often enough). Just this year, it started looking like a tree and (quel horreur) we find that it is a "fruit-bearing" mulberry. What that means is that it makes a huge mess - and you can't even make a pie or anything. So I decided to pass along the tree to a friend who live on 2+ acres and is looking for trees in general and was not put off by the "mess factor." She and her kids came bright and early this morning and we dug it up. Now wouldn't you know that I would manage to plant that tree right over the ONLY pipe in the front yard???? As we were digging it up we found those roots lovingly wrapped clear around that silly pipe - I am so grateful that we dug it up this year! Even though we are moving, I would have felt horrible when that pipe got busted in half (easily within the next couple of years). Such is my luck - I am just glad that someone up There is looking out for me. :-)

Reality Check...

Ever hear the saying "if it sounds too good to be true then it probably isn't [true]"? That has been ringing in our ears for the past 24 hours. We went in to sign the loan papers for the house and there is a problem. Really, is anyone actually surprised about this? I mean besides us ... okay, we're not surprised either. At least it isn't our fault this time! The seller is having issues with the agreement - the issue being that her understanding doesn't mesh with anyone else's. As of this morning everything is back to where it should have been yesterday and Byron and I have actually signed the papers. Now the seller has to sign them and the bank has to actually send the money they have said they are willing to loan us (I keep waiting for the "just kidding" message on that).

It's all okay though, if the house falls through - I get to go to Disneyland for my anniversary ... Byron is soooo praying for the house to actually happen. :-)

Even among our challenges, however, I am shown just how blessed I am. Last night after our attempt at Family Home Evening, we knelt as a family to hold family prayer. Byron and I were frustrated - Robert was bored - Josh was focused on "his turn" and Ginny was doing her best to run away as fast as she could. Little Ben, however, was still and quiet as he waited with his arms folded to say the prayer. Lately, in our home, we have been having multiple prayers. Josh always wants to pray and he does a beautiful job. Last night, after Dad prayed, and Josh got his turn, we were all getting up and Ben started saying "my tern my tern!!" We got everyone assembled again and he started right off - he even let Byron prompt him as he went along. His little beaming face just brought tears to my eyes. I have such wonderful children - every single one of them and I live for little moments like this!

Canebrake Days ... and Great News

Well, we have had lots of fun these past couple of days. I had intended to record something each day, but that resolve lasted all of about 24 hours. Here is what we have been up to ...

Canebrake Service Day - We went out to clean out the horse corralls again (this is going to be a weekly thing for us). The kids have sooo much fun out there. I don't let them into the pens with me while the horses are in them, but as you can see, that hasn't stopped Ben. Yes, he climbed all the way up that fence on his own ... and he managed to get back down without falling off too! Josh was by far the most helpful. When Keith came out to feed the horses, Josh just tagged along asking every .5 seconds "Can I help u?" Keith was a great sport and let both the boys feed the horses. I just missed them each putting in a handful of hay for the baby horses. Josh actually managed to lift and push the little feed cart all over the place. When that boy wants to do something ... there is nothing too heavy. After the pens were clean and the horses were fed, we started weeding. This wasn't as much fun, but Robert dug right in with me and Josh continued to follow Keith around - Keith let him put the weeds he shoveled up into the pile. I love to see them so excited about helping and I want to encourage that. Suggestions anyone? We had a great time and the boys are looking forward to going again later this week.

School Is Back for Everybody - We are back to the educational grindstone. Of course, Robert will tell you that we never left it because I don't believe in educational holidays, but that is another story. Apart from our little school at home, Byron starts his second step toward his doctorate this month - a class on health and wellness which he thinks I could use. It should be fun! I am going to join in an extension class offered by George Withe University (out of Cedar City, UT). It is held in a mentor/group format and will be one Saturday a month through November out in Rancho Cucamonga. I am really really really excited about it - it is on Political Economy and our first reading to discuss is Understanding the Times: The Religious Worldviews of Our Day and the Search for Truth, by David Noebel. It is apparently 900 pages long and the first discussion meets on Sept. 20. Well, if I can finish Breaking Dawn three times over in a week, this should be a piece of cake ...

Landowners ...almost - Well, it's nearly official - we are buying a house! We got word on Saturday that everything has been approved and so we should be able to close escrow this week. This experience has taught me a couple of things (1) the escrow process is pointlessly ambiguous and (2) I need to work at a title office for a while to fix #1. I'll just put that on my todo list. Speaking of lists - I have put a poll up this week and I need EVERYBODY to vote. There is a fireplace (red brick) in the living room. I have been toying with the idea of (someday) painting it. What is your opinion? Is it bad to paint brick? Since we don't have the keys yet, I am not putting up any more house pictures as of yet (don't want any jinxes), but we are getting pretty excited as you can see ...

Dinner with the Family

Thanks to a new device I found called Kaboost, Ginny had dinner at the table tonight. She was sooo exited about it. In fact, tonight would be the first meal in about a year where she DIDN'T throw her plate on the floor!!! My little baby is growing up! And Josh is officially a cheese ball ... he just needs to see a camera to say "cheese me Mommy!" To be fair, he wants to see pictures of everyone else too.

A Very Very Very Long Day

Okay, so I decided that it was time to return to those bygone days (about 2 months ago) where I actually get out of bed at the hiddeous hour of 5:30 am and get the kids up and ready to go so that we can read scriptures as a family in the morning. I have been trying to do this for a couple of weeks now, but it just wasn't happening. Soooooo I made plans with a girlfriend to take the kids out to where I ride horses and do some service. I figured that since I had someone outside of the house counting on me to show up I might actually follow through - isn't that terrible? As bad as it sounds, it worked today! We were up and dressed by 6:15 and even got some scriptures read. Go Family!!!!

We headed out to the horses. It was funny - Josh wanted to know where we were going and Robert, not very thrilled muttered "We're going to pick up horse poop." After that, everytime I paused or stopped along the way Josh would yell out "Are we picking up horse poop Mommy?" (you have to imagine an adorable little toddler who enunciates every syllable ... horse pooopppp) Several people at the gas station loved that! It was a good experience. Robert stuck it out and managed to keep up with Dani and I as we cleaned two round pens in the hour we had before playgroup. The younger kids ran around with Dani's girls and just enjoyed themselves. Ben was a bit put out when I wouldn't let him in the pen with us and the horse (can we say speed bump?), but he got over it when Josh showed him that he could scale the fence.

After our work, we raced back to join our friends for a playgroup swimming party. It was a blast! Ben has really gotten the hang of swimming with his little life vest - he goes everywhere and is very impatient with walls or anything else that gets in his way. Every once in a while he will overbalance and end up with his head under water, but he is getting pretty good at righting himself and just moving on ... once today he even remembered not to breath under the water and so didn't have to cough up the lungful of water that usually comes with getting dunked. In a new breakthrough, Josh (who has been terrified of the water) decided that he could swim. Once he decided that he could do it - he was everywhere! He doesn't have the same trouble with overbalancing that poor Ben does. In fact, he gets around pretty darn fast! Both boys wanted to go down the slide, but I told them they had to jump off the edge first so that they could see what happened when their heads went under water and that ended that. I'm sure that they will be jumping in very soon. Ginny, on the other hand, decided that she was done floating. She is just ready to swim. She kept trying to climb out of her little ring. She managed to get her head under the water several times - each time she would pull back very surprised and splutter and just try again. I was at a bit of a loss as to what she was trying to accomplish because she didn't want to just stay in my arms either - onery little snot. She is beyond independent ... not sure where THAT came from. :-)

I was hoping to add pictures, but my friend Krissy hasn't sent them to me yet (hint hint)

Back to Life

Well things have almost returned to normal this week. Robert is home and we have resumed our pre-summer routine ... almost. Here are some memorable moments this week:

Ginny's nap time dilema ... I tried to stretch out her morning so that she took a longer nap in the afternoon. She had a great time all morning - and made it about two bites into lunch. From the looks of it, bite number three came after she actually zonked!

Fun outside with the hose ... our little pool hasn't lasted as long as I would have liked so I let the kids play with the hose one afternoon. The experiment has not been repeated because only the one holding the hose had any real fun ... and Ginny wasn't interested in any thing but the dog food. Poor Boggart!

Dinnertime with Daddy ... Ginny has decided not to eat in her high chair anymore. Daddy isn't used to watching her so very closely. This is the result of an upended bowl of Corn Pops ... compliments of the little diva.

Saturday was a Relief Society retreat where I got got to go hang out with the ladies. It was great, but there were these "homemade" facials for everyone to try out. As pictured here with my friend Krissy (who went with the safer honey/avacado) I decided to try the one made of crushed tomatoes (1) because it said it was for oily skin which is what I have always had and (2) because no one else had tried that one yet. The fun part came when I tried to wash it off and my skin stayed as red as if I still had it on. I apparently hadn't gotten enough attention just by putting the silly thing on in the first place ... I had people telling me how awful I looked for the rest of the event. My "blush" faded by the end of the event - which was great. I even got to swim in the the pool ... without kids!

Buzz Boys ... all of my boys are way overdue for haircuts. I decided to just do it myself this morning. I could open my own wig shop just from the hair I cut from Robert - Josh is bringing up a close second. I think my little fuzz-balls are adorable!

On Road Trips

Okay, so we are back from our semi-annual marathon across the dessert. Byron and I have decided that we are just getting too old for this. We managed to leave for Utah by 8pm on Thursday night (that was two hours better than in June!). I had some weird allergic reaction happening in my eyes - which felt like they had both been bruised, AND I got the Hobbit to listen to on the trip (one of my favorite stories) and the narrator put me to sleep almost immediately. Still, we made it by breakfast time (thanks for the bacon Brian) to the Slagle Mansion. Byron and I have decided that if we actually get this house we are trying to buy that we will call it the Thompson Love Shack ... TMI?

Byron spent Friday helping my father tile my brother's new house, and I drug around with Brandy - literally since I was so hopped up on allergy medicine that I doubt I was coherent even half of the time. There was supposed to be a family temple trip Friday night, but I managed to leave my recommend at home so Byron and I had kid duty ... at the mansion ... with real TV ... We actually watched HGTV to find remodelling tips. If we don't get this house, I am definitely going to cry - we have had more fun planning this than I can remember. Another "age" note, Brian and my sister Cyndi made to one of the midnight bookstore parties for Stephenie Meyer's newest book, Breaking Dawn. Brian had the coolest "Edward" costume ready. He even managed to get his hands on a few pairs of colored contacts to turn our eyes yellow. He was going to take my all of us "girls" with him as his "coven" (yes, we are just that weird). Unfortunately, Brandy was still getting things ready for Saturday and I just couldn't do it (tired, sick, eyes, etc.) ... and for those of you who know how I feel about getting to plan dress up, that is saying something. Bummer!!!!

Saturday we attempted family pictures at a nearby park. It was 102 in the shade! We could have stayed home for that! My kids definitely do not do pictures well. My cousin, Nathan, was the brave photographer and I cannot wait to see if/how they turn out. He had a great idea to have individual families walk toward him across a bridge for family shots. Of course, in my family's case, it was a run ... hope the bridge was long enough Nathan! After that, we went over to watch little Spencer get baptized. It was great ... a couple of fun parts include Nick forgetting a dry shirt (good thing everyone lives pretty darn close to a church in Utah). Also, during one of the confirmation prayers (not Spencer's thank goodness), someone's kid (thankfully not mine) pulled the fire alarm. The father giving the prayer was a pretty good sport about it. As he finished, he looked up and said "No one told me about the 5-minute prayer limit!" Still, a great day for Spencer. We all then made our way back to the Mansion (notice the capital?) for a great lunch. I am sooooo glad that Brandy has such a large house AND that she is such a good sport about messes. There were so many people it would have been horrible anywhere else. As it was, it was fun to visit (and I got to start on the new Stephenie Meyer novel too) and the kids just went riot. There is a toy room to die for downstairs and the coolest playground equipment out back. Josh and Ben were in 7th heaven. We headed back to the church after lunch for Brooke's baptism at which no one pulled a fire alarm, but Brian got to dunk Brooke twice (I think he planned it so as to have a better story than Spencer's fire alarm). All in all, it was a great day. I loved the warm fuzzy feeling when I saw all of the worthy priesthoodholders from our families place their hands upon those children's heads to bless them ... I am so grateful for a worth priesthood holder in my life, I just can't tell you!

We left that evening - about 6pm - and headed back across the dessert. My eyes were still not working well, so poor Byron drove the entire way. We made it home, without incident (although Byron still cannot remember actually driving through Primm which is rather scary) at about 4am. We even made it through church!