I think she liked them...

So I went Christmas shopping for our dog Kali today and got some treats and small toys for her. I left the bag downstairs and left to go out with my sister soon afterwards. Kali doesn't go downstairs unless someone else is there so I told Nate about the bag (he and the kids weren't home at the time either) and didn't think about it, until I got home.

When I got home I walked into my room and found this....


That is what is left of the treat bag that I got Kali.

The plastic bag it was in with the rest of the toys was found in a similar shredded fashion on my bed. So while Kali has shown to be picky about her treats in the past apparently this one is a hit. There were no treats left anywhere and I am glad that I only got a small bag.

So if any of you dog owners are looking for treats that also keep your dogs teeth clean look for this brand- the Filet Mignon Flavor is a hit!

'Twas The Night Before Christmas- Mom Style

I was sent this by email and thought I would share it this way. It has a good message for us mom's who tend to get stressed out- which probably covers all moms at one time or another.

Twas the night before Christmas,
when all thru the abode
Only one creature was stirring,
and she was cleaning the commode.
The children were finally sleeping,
all snug in their beds,
while visions of N-64 & Barbie,
flipped through their heads.
The dad was snoring in front of the TV,
with a half-constructed bicycle propped on his knee.
So only the mom heard the reindeer hooves clatter,
which made her sigh, "Now what is the matter?"
With toilet bowl brush still clutched in her hand,
She descended the stairs, & saw the old man.
He was covered with ashes & soot, which fell with a
shrug, "Oh great," muttered the mom, "Now I have to clean the rug."
"Ho Ho Ho!" cried Santa, "I'm glad you're awake."
"Your gift was especially difficult to make."
"Thanks, Santa, but all I want is time alone."
"Exactly!" he chuckled, "So, I've made you a clone."
"A clone?" she muttered, "What good is that?"
"Run along, Santa, I've no time for chit chat."
Then out walked the clone - The mother's twin,
Same hair, same eyes, same double chin.
"She'll cook, she'll dust, she'll mop every mess.
You'll relax, take it easy, watch The Young & The Restless."
"Fantastic!" the mom cheered. "My dream has come true!"
"I'll shop, I'll read, I'll sleep a night through!"
From the room above, the youngest did fret.
"Mommy?! Come quickly, I'm scared & I'm wet."
The clone replied, "I'm coming, sweetheart."
"Hey," the mom smiled, "She sure knows her part."
The clone changed the small one & hummed her tune,
as she bundled the child in a blanket cocoon.
"You're the best mommy ever. I really love you."
The clone smiled & sighed, "And I love you, too."
The mom frowned & said, "Sorry, Santa, no deal."
That's my child's LOVE she is trying to steal."
Smiling wisely Santa said, "To me it is clear,
Only one loving mother is needed here."
The mom kissed her child & tucked her in bed.
"Thank You, Santa, for clearing my head.
I sometimes forget, it won't be very long,
when they'll be too old for my cradle & song."
The clock on the mantle began to chime.
Santa whispered to the clone, "It works every time."
With the clone by his side Santa said "Goodnight.
Merry Christmas, dear Mom, You will be all right."

Sometimes we need reminding of what life is all about. Especially at times during the Holiday season, when all we seem to do is clean and bake and shop etc.... So stop for a moment and hug that little one so special, whether he/she is 2 months or 22 years, or even older than that.
For they are the Gift that God gave us in life...and what a gift to be treasured, far above any other!

The Pageant Review

Well, Spencer wants to be an actor. He loved the show and they talked about how they teach acting classes and he wanted to know all about it. If he wants to take classes we can find a place a little closer to home.

Jenna who still wasn't feeling well watched from Nate's lap and found some parts funny but didn't like when the Herdman's started fighting or being aggressive. But as we were leaving she did join in with Spencer to say what parts she did like.

Nate and I thought it was very well done and enjoyable. I brought my camera and asked the kids if they wanted to have their picture taken with any of the cast but they didn't so no photos.

I wondering if we should change our the angel's part in our Christmas pageant "Hey you! A child is born! He's over there! Get moving!" Gladys Herdman who played the angel was the most entertaining of the bunch.

And a bonus for the night- Nate was able to come home first (they told everyone to go home early). So Nate got home and moments later we all got into one car and left again.

Christmas Favorites

Okay Lisa, I have been meaning to do this for a while. Sorry it took me so long to answer to your tag. Here are some of my Christmas favorites or at least the ones that I remember right now.

Favorite Christmas song: I like Angels We Have Heard on High at Christmas but I like lots of them. I always tended to sing or hum Silent Night as a lullaby when putting kids to sleep.

What does your Christmas tree look like: it is a little sad this year. I like the tree- it bigger than our last one but the ornaments are scarce but we did make most of them that are on there. Perhaps I will take a picture later.

When do you start shopping for presents, on black Friday or the day before Christmas? I start shopping as soon as possible. I try to be done by Thanksgiving or the day after and I pretty much was this year but that doesn't always happen.

Favorite Christmas tradition: We now do the Christmas pageant and we have fun with that. It was a lot of fun last year because we were able to include several more actors. The best was Lindsay playing the star- I may need to upload the photo. Growing up we also used to have a night that we had unusual fruit- like star fruit. It was fun to try new things. I can't think of any others at the moment.

Best holiday memory: I remember that there is a church we always pass on the way to my grandma's house. It is in a small town and for Christmas they used to have candles lit all around the church. No need to worry about fire because the candles were set in ice holders that they would make in gallon ice cream buckets I think. It looked really cool. They don't do that anymore - perhaps because it hasn't been cold enough in December for the ice to stay solid. I also like just having fun chatting and playing games with family members.

Fake or real tree: This year it is fake. We tend to get a real one occasionally and then go back to the fake one for a few years.

Favorite Christmas movie: I do agree with Lisa and I like The Santa Clause, and who can deny a Charlie Brown special but the movie Elf has grown on me. I also love White Christmas.

What do you want for Christmas this year? (Imagine Bing Crosby) "I'm wishing for a white Christmas" That one may come true if the snow doesn't melt this weekend. And it would be great if we got a small dusting to make it look all nice and white again.
Can I also wish for a clean house? Ahh, I guess I need to put some elbow grease into that one if I want it to come true. Actually after having Jenna sick for a full week (she is still eating next to nothing and is coughing) I would really love for everyone to be healthy.

Favorite Christmas story: Luke 2, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Anyone else want to share their Christmas favorites?

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Growing up I loved reading this story every year. It just has a good message. This year I had Nate read it to our kids. I think they enjoyed it and tonight we are going to see a play that is based on the book. I think it will be a fun family outing although because of where it is located Nate has to meet us there since he will be coming straight from work. So it will be a family activity but we will be taking two cars. Oh well.

Twigs and Branches

I took the opportunity to finally start my genealogy blog. So now I have a space to share information with those that may want it. While I was the ward family history consultant I was amazed at the amount of information that I have managed to learn from others. At the time I was wanting to do a website to share some of the topics that I was discussing in the classes I was teaching. In fact I have wanted a genealogy website for a long time but was nervous to jump in.

So thanks to my Father-in-law who got the domain name that I wanted and through his and my brother-in-law Rick's help I have jumped in. So if you are interested in the site it is listed to the right or you can go right here.

Cool Web Site

So I was just surfing this morning and discovered the coolest website!

Of course my interest is mainly for genealogy but this is also a cool site for kids state reports.

The website allows you to color counties within the state and create a title and notes and then print them and it is FREE. How fun is that? Well, if you aren't researching your family you may not find too many uses for it but I am excited. Can you tell?

How cool is the internet!

With the internet I was able make shopping easier this year. I always use it to figure out directions. I use to find recipes or any other information.

But for researching genealogy it makes communication and information so much more accessible! The way that Family Search is allowing anyone to help index records is awesome! I have managed to index over 1000 names in just a couple of months- my gift back to the internet world.

This week I realized that a contact I made a few weeks ago was a gold mine of information! I am currently trying to read some German records that are in German script, so Nate can't read them, and is not in a table format and thus is near impossible for me to read.

The contact I made
1) has the same family name in common in the same village that I am researching
2) is from Germany and can read the German script
3) is currently living in Southern California as a German professor which means his English is very good also!

I am going to scan and email copies of the records I need help reading. How fast does the internet make this process! That is so cool. So that is my good news for the week.


The tough news is that I have been home nursing a sick little girl. Jenna has come down with the flu and has such a hard time recuperating. The rest of us have managed to stay functioning and hopefully that will continue. Ee have completed day 3 and she still isn't able to keep food down. But the fever has gone down and we have ruled out Ear infections, Strep and Pneumonia so it will just take time to get better. She has improved since yesterday but we just are not there yet - so she is getting another break from school before her two week break.

It is so hard when your kids are sick. She just isn't herself and she is so tired of being sick but unfortunately there isn't a whole lot anyone can do for her- just sit and wait.

I DO have a girl!

Jenna tends to be a tom-boy. Getting her to wear a dress to church has been a struggle. Forget about barrettes- just combing her hair has resulted in screams. She rarely plays with dolls but prefers cars or animals instead. But things are a-changing!

She started noticing shoes at first. She loves shoe-shopping! It is hard to get her moving once we have started the process of looking for shoes. She walks down the aisle- " I want to try those on, or how about those mom?"

She noticed that she only has one pair of shoes that she wears to school (because those are the ones with her expensive inserts in them). "Mom, the other kids get to wear more than one kind of shoes to school- I want more too!"

She has also started playing with dolls. Animals are still her favorite but she is beginning to collect Polly Pockets and she enjoys those! And at school she often chooses to "play house" with the other girls in her class during their free time.

She has been more willing to wear her dresses to church now too. She even picked out one of her nicer ones to wear last week! Of course, wearing dresses to school is out of the question for her and I don't worry about that (I didn't like to wear dresses to school either).

But the biggest event in her changing attitudes occurred last Wednesday before school when I found her in the bathroom trying to put a ponytail in her own hair! Of course it is a little short for a ponytail but she was willing to let me style her hair and pull part of it back so it stayed out of her face! AMAZING! and there was almost no complaints. She started to change her mind before school but with some minimal distraction she actually kept the binder in all day.

Bonus events have happened everyday since- she has not only had her hair combed and pulled back, but she has let me put in a small french braid and curl it too- also with no complaints. What a hurdle this has been and I am so glad that she has decided it is okay to act a little girlish.

But there will be no rushing out for big bows or ribbons for her hair- she isn't going for anything that fancy but at least the hair that is determined to grow forward into her face (which is most of it!) will be able to be tamed. I hope by writing this I won't jinx the trend.

Now I just need to improve her eating habits -that will take me a while!

Egg Hunt

Jenna was able to enjoy a different kind of egg hunt.

We have a friend who has chickens and while he was out of town he asked my dad to collect the eggs for him. I got a few pictures of Jenna collecting the eggs. They went out again recently and Spencer joined in this time. I wasn't there to take any pictures but apparently Spencer used gloves to collect the eggs since I was told they now need to be washed.

There is such a difference between my kids.

A note about fresh eggs (at least the ones we have)...
we discovered that the yolks can be a lot more yellow. This fact was very apparent in the deviled eggs my mom made recently and the breakfast burritos that Nate made.
It looked like we had added yellow food coloring- sorry no photo proof.

City Deer

So we had a fun surprise a month ago.

Spencer was at the kitchen table and yelled a deer just ran by!
While I was unable to get a photo of the doe we had another surprise.

Kali alerted us to another visitor

The buck stood there forever as we were all watching from our backyard
and a car watched from the street behind the deer.

Kali stood frozen like this for a very long time.

The buck somehow figured out that Kali wouldn't chase it

(it was standing beyond her invisible fence) and it slowly walked away.

A little while later it sprinted past my mom's sliding door!
Kali was apparently in pursuit from the other side of the house.

Photo Gems

As I was going through our photos to fill a collage frame

I found a few favorites...Enjoy!

What a great moment I captured with this photo!
That doesn't happen very often.
Spencer loved having his uncles come over and play with him
-he still does.
(EDIT: I agree this must have been taken in 2001 or so-
the digital date stamp on the picture threw me off)

Spencer and his uncle Brent were playing a podracing game.
Spencer got hooked onto Star Wars at an early age
with encouragement from his uncle Rick.

This is a picture of us at our first rodeo in Spanish Fork, UT
in July 2004.
Jenna had a BLAST!!!!
Spencer also did the Mutton-Bustin' that year.

This is from Christmas 2005-
proof that Jenna has had a few girly moments.
Doesn't she look "Fabulous!"

DONE!

It is 7:30am and we are calling the Christmas shopping DONE!

Nate & I and David & Lindsay went out at 1am last night because a shopping mall opened then. Most of the smaller stores and kiosks were open! (The kids got to sleep at Grockie and Papa's last night.) We got a couple of gifts and then waited for Kohl's and Sears to open (and Dave went home to sleep before work).

Kohl's was a mess! I got the stuff I wanted but getting checked out was a serious maze- I don't think I will go to that mall again next year, opening so early made the anchor stores way too busy when they opened. Nate tried to get a TV at Sears but even though he was #2 in line they had "ZeroTVs available". The person in front of him was only able to get the floor display tv.

So we left the mall and went over to a Target that was NOT part of a mall and Nate was able to get a different TV and I was much happier about the price. It was so peaceful at that Target compared to the mall it was GREAT! So we were able to wander and finish up nearly all of our shopping- YEAH!!!! There is minimal stress to get the 1 or 2 last gifts and now we can enjoy the holiday season much more.

Well, I am off to bed and am leaving Nate to set up his new tv so that it is working before "the game" today.

I hope you all had fun and successful shopping trips- Go Longhorns!

Turkey Art

The kindergarten classes always send home a project to decorate a turkey picture with whatever materials you want (cereal, feathers, noodles, etc.) - and it can be a family activity. It is fun to walk down the halls and see all of the creations.

Here is Jenna's creation. We made it a family home evening activity.



I was surprised how much craft stuff I already had for her to choose from. We may have to do this again just to decorate our house- maybe snowmen!

Happy Turkey Day!

We are thankful for all of our family and friends.

We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a good night's sleep!
(or at least a few hours before you go shopping)

We are currently getting a dusting of snow and the kids and dog are going wild! Spencer begged to go out and shovel the driveway even though there isn't much to shovel. Jenna was right on his tail- "I want to go too! I LOVE snow!"

Anyone like pie? What kind?

Jenna has a homework assignment to survey her family and friends on what their favorite pies are- we would love to hear your favorites.

Some of our moments you have missed...

Sorry I have been so bad at posting- here are some of our moments from the last month.

Spencer competed at a Karate Tournament and took 4th place in his form!
It was a really close contest between 1st and 4th.

We enjoyed a fall day at a park on one of the few days it wasn't raining.

We took down some trees...

and watched my brother David practice his chainsaw skills.

Funny how his creation resembles Nate from a recent photo captured by Jenna.

But I think I prefer this photo, also shot by Jenna.

While I still have more catching up to do I will save some of those moments for another time.

Spencer's Karate Promotion

Spencer promoted to a Purple with black stripe last weekend.

Here is a video of him performing his form in front of the judges.
He is the one on the left.




Tomorrow he is going to a Karate Tournament. It is the only Saturday one of the year so we are letting him go (even though the price is outrageous!) but not Jenna (maybe next year) and Nate can't go because he hasn't been able to go to Karate since the accident- his neck is still too sore.

A good day...

So I have been good about writing about some of our bad days (and I didn't even mention how hard it is not having a car most days.)

I thought I would share one of my good days.

On Monday, I was looking at a microfilm that I had ordered to our Family History Center. I was researching my Buse/Ohm line and found the marriage record that I have been trying to find for years!

Because of that record -which confirms many details -I have traced back another 3+ generations on that line! I love it when a break through in my research happens. It is so cool to learn where our families have come from.

Family History is so much fun!

Music

Every night we go through a general routine for bedtime with the kids. PJs, brush teeth, bathroom, prayer, read scriptures, read stories, turn on music, lights out. Well, the music has never been a major issue in the routine- it is the kids favorite part until we got the new High School Musical 2 CD.

Now I got the soundtrack the week the movie came out. The kids still have nightly discussions about whose turn it is to listen to that CD at night. So most nights Nate and I are currently enjoying the sounds of dueling High School Musical CDs because each kid is listening to one soundtrack or the other. There are worse things to listen to but I am ready to make copies of the CDs so that the kids can each have their own.

What music do your kids like to listen too?

One of my favorite music CDs for the kids is one that our Primary handed out. They made CDs that contained all of the music for the 2007 Program so that it would help the kids learn the songs better. Isn't that a great idea!

My kids like music they can dance to but I don't know how that helps them to fall asleep- we had been giving them children's hymns and quiet music at night but now they are making their own requests.

School year bonuses

Bonus: I think that one of the benefits for me now that school has started is that I have a good part of my evenings free. (Of course this would be excluding the nights that I have Young Women's and have done the Genealogy Classes.)

School beginning means that the kids need their sleep. The evenings are darker helping to convince them that it is bedtime. As much as I love my children I like the sound of my house quiet and that I can choose what I want to do and what I may want to watch on tv. My kids are also more cheerful in the mornings and that has been good too. A couple of those evenings have included playing our Wii but only a couple.

Bonus: A schedule always seems to help things run smoothly. Because of school we are required to plan ahead and schedule activities. This helps both the kids and me. In truth with the recent calling at church I have too many calendars running around and I need to combine them so I stop forgetting things but it will happen and then at least when we are busy we will know the "who", "what", "where", "why" and "when" and then we can take time to figure out the "how" to get there.

And another bonus: I have told myself that starting today- I am claiming some of these free afternoons for studying for my Independent Study Class.

Rough Day

So Nate had a rough day yesterday.

It started out with him still dealing with a severe cold that has hit us. So he wasn't feeling very well at work. Work, by the way, is rather stressful at the moment and they are in high gear trying to complete their project before their deadline.

Nate was planning on working really late at work... but because Jenna wanted him to come home so they could wrap presents for Spencer while he and I were at church last night...he decided to come home and work from there (after presents were done of course).

Well, I got a phone call from him but I didn't hear it while running an errand ...but when I called him back he was changing a flat tire and he was obviously running late.

He called me back once he was on the road again. We chatted only briefly when his phone went dead. Now we have had trouble with our cell phones losing reception so I didn't think too much of it but when he called me back...

He had just been rear-ended by an RV! And then he was pushed into the car in front of him. He was stopped in traffic when he was hit and now my parents' Buick that Nate drove to work is a few inches shorter now. I will post a photo later. This happened 6 miles from where he had just changed the tire.

So I went to church with Spencer (and Jenna in tow) and waited to hear how things went. Well, Nate called when he got home- the car was still drivable at least. But to make his day worse he started to ache once the adrenaline wore off and was having trouble thinking straight.

So my dad drove him to the ER last night since that was the only thing still open. Once he was finally seen they said he had a mild concussion and something else (essentially whip lash, I think).

So yesterday was Nate's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

He is staying home today.


[UPDATE] Here are the promised pictures of the carnage.



The top of the bumper was sheared off and pushed a foot forward into the trunk.






Notice the sad little spare tire.

Karate Promotion for Jenna

This month Jenna promoted to a green belt with a black stripe. She was really excited because it means that for now she is the same belt as Dad! Here are some photos and also a video of her sparring.

We have kept Spencer alert at the promotions by letting him be the camera man. So I get a lot of photos but not all of them are posting quality- but he has gotten some good shots. We had to take the camera away for a while because he was starting to distract her!

Here her partner is doing self defense on her.

Holding the pad while they are showing knowledge of their kicks.

Jenna is on the right - this is just after she received her new belt.

Jenna is the larger of the two kids.

Somehow we managed to miss recording the sparring match

when her opponent ended up on his back!
Sorry, no sound. We used the digital camera for this.

NOTE: I could use some tips from those of you who have been successful at putting videos on your blog. This has not been a smooth process and I don't know if it even works. Email me any tips and I will update this page when I can.
UPDATE: Well maybe it does work fine- my connection must have been really slow yesterday- it took forever to load onto the page and forever to view the video.

It's Apple Season!!!

I love the fall... the leaves changing color, walking on crunchy leaves, the cool weather and apples! For possibly only the second time the apples on my parents trees were in good enough condition to pick this year. They have two trees one Jonathan and one Courtland. On Monday night we picked, cleaned, cut and froze enough apples for 29 pies or crisps. I don't think that my sealer has ever been so useful. The kids had fun helping with the picking.

The crew for the other steps included most of the available adults so there wasn't anyone to man the camera. We had quite the assembly line going with my parents, Lindsay, David (for part of the time), Me and then Nate when he got home. There are still apples to pick so perhaps another night will be either applesauce or drying apples or even more pie filling.

My dad and I were commenting on how I need to find a spot in my yard to plant one or two Honeycrisp apple trees- wouldn't that be cool! Now I need to figure out how to get one of those trees and where to put it so that it won't shade the blackberry bushes that I hope to plant someday too.

One of Spencer's goals- he has so many of them- was to climb a tree.
Well he enjoyed that on Monday.

Jenna was in charge of putting the apples into the buckets.

She was on a ladder later I am told but I didn't get any photos of that.


This is probably one of my favorite recent photos of the two kids.

I finally made one...

I have been wanting to do something different as a gift for when my friends have babies. For a while I wanted to make burp cloths (perhaps stenciling a cloth diaper), or crocheting an edge around a baby blanket or burp cloth (something I still want to learn) but I have never gotten around to either of those ideas.

I think that some of the most useful gifts that I have ever gotten were the hooded towels that Jeri made for my kids. Thank you again, Jeri! They have loved them as much as I have so I decided to make a couple of these this week. They were nice and easy for me. The hardest part was finding a ribbon I liked and towels that I wanted to use. I found them both at Walmart, eventually. I made three while I was at it so here is Jenna posing with one of them for me.

MN State Fair

So we all enjoyed our trip to the MN State Fair- it's called The Great MN Get Together. What did we see? Well, we ALWAYS go and see a horse show. This year we enjoyed watching the Canadian Mounted Guard? I think that is their name and it was so cool- they did this show to music and all of the time the horses movements were choreographed. It was like watching a marching band (at a performance not during a parade) but without the music or the instruments. Jenna kept trying to count them and Spencer really liked the uniforms.

There was the miracle of birth center- where they have lots of animals that are VERY pregnant and are due to give birth during the fair. If you are lucky you get to see it happening. Jenna loves this- Spencer does not. We saw some very newborn sheep and some chicks and other baby animals.

We had to walk through a few barns to see animals and the kids got cow neckerchiefs for finding out the questions to a cow knowledge test.

We walked around and saw a few things. Nate and I went another time without kids- that was kind of nice. We got to see things that the kids didn't have patience for- we looked at large prize winning vegies, lots of bonsai trees, seed art displays. My sister-in-law did bingo cards for us about the different types of people, look-a-likes, hairstyles, clothes, etc. you tend to see when in large groups. That made people watching a very entertaining part too.

There was also lots of food-of course.

Renaissance Festival

So we took the kids to the Renaissance Festival on Aug 25th. Spencer was excited- the history buff you know. He really didn't know what to expect and this was our first time too. Next time we will be able to plan the day better but we still had some fun. My sister-in-law Lindsay was dancing there so we were able to spend some time with her and my brother David as well.



Among the things we saw --- some Highland Games, Lindsay and others doing Highland dancing, some jousting, a juggling show and other displays.



Elephants? Are they part of that time? I don't know but how many times do you get a chance to ride one- even if it is only around in a small circle. Jenna and Nate were all over that.

King of the Log.
They were supposed to each take a bag and with one arm behind your back - try to knock the other person off the log. Spencer won all of the matches but Jenna got some shots in too.





Weapons- an intriguing part that the boys were not able to pass up. Nate and my brother had fun trying to throw axes. Their form needs a little work.




Spencer tried out the crossbow and didn't do too bad for his first time. There are 4 arrows there- Apparently they didn't feel the need to post up new papers until the other ones fell apart. He was aiming for inside a star and came really close on one of his shots.




We arrived later in the afternoon and there were several things that happened earlier in the day that maybe we will catch another time. We were all happy with the day and ready to go home afterwards.

1st Day of School Photos

So school FINALLY started here this week. Jenna has been counting down the days and Spencer has been excited too.

I took their photos in our front yard and maybe the tree photos could have been better but here they are. Spencer started on Tuesday (while Jenna only visited her class that day) and Jenna started on Wednesday. That's why there are separate photos of them.



When I asked Spencer how is day was when he got home he replies "It was between good and great!" I think he likes school. This is the first year that he has gone to the same school as the year before so he was excited to know so many kids.



Here is a close up of Jenna. She was more than willing to pose for photos and she was okay letting me take photos of the bus too- I don't think that Spencer would have liked that so I didn't try with him. I was lucky to have him pose for 1-2 photos before heading off to the bus stop.

Here are a few more photos of her first day.

At the Bus Stop.

Here comes the bus!

Onto the bus- not nervous at all- and she didn't do too bad either!

And the two kids return home together- Gosh they look grown up.

It was nice because Nate was working from home that day and he was able to see Jenna off and see them come home too.

Wow! New Focus!

As some of you have already heard I have been called to be the Young Women's President in our ward. That means that I am in charge of the girl's program (ages 12-18) at church.

Several people at church expressed concern about who was going to run the Family History program now but everyone was supportive of the call. Until they call someone to replace me I am going to continue teaching the Thursday classes for the month of September since I already announced them in the monthly newsletter. So I am going to be really busy.

Right now there are only about 12 girls total in the program so I am a couple of staff short -we don't want to out number the girls - so for the time being I am also the Laurel Advisor (there is only 2 of them) and the Secretary! It is kind of funny - but my mom is my second counselor so we get to spend lots of quality time together - good thing we get along so well! The shock is starting to fade but now I am just trying to figure out what I am supposed to do and to try and get organized. Wish me luck!

So Jeri- you and I haven't followed each other in callings for a while? (Thank goodness because I don't think we wanted too.) But did you want to start again? Is it your turn to be in Young Women's too?

One more thing...

So I finally got Jenna's eyes checked today. At her early childhood screening they said she didn't quite pass the test and I should take her to get a full eye exam. So we did that today- forgot the camara though. As it turns out she needs to get glasses (if I read the prescription right she needs a -1.00 correction in both eyes) so that is one more thing that we get to take care of as we are getting ready for school.

So now I am in the market for glasses for Jenna and will start making the rounds to compare prices and deals. Wish me luck to find the glasses and that Jenna won't lose or break them right away.

Hotdish- welcome to the midwest

So I was having fun checking out facts about the MN State Fair- it starts up today and we are trying to figure out when we are going. Wikipedia had some interesting facts about the MN State Fair and it referred to the term Hotdish because at the fair you can now get "hotdish on a stick" as one of the many offerings of food served on a stick.

Hotdish is basically a term for casserole. Around here when people are talking about bringing food to a potluck the term casserole is generally only is used by those "not from around here". But of course the Minnesota Nice personalities don't make fun of those who say casserole- we know what they mean. The requirements are usually a can of creamed soup and a cheese topping with the other ingredients usually including meat, pasta or potatoes, and a vegie or 2.

There is also a difference between hot dish and hotdish- check out the above link for this peculiar term from "up north".

Anyone else have know of other regional terms for food. I know all about the "coke" and "soda" debate- I'll stick with "pop" thank you very much.

No Power- A new list of essentials to get

Okay- it doesn't seem that long since I blogged about losing my internet connection. Now I don't know why I was complaining.

We lost power completely for 3 days. A storm rolled through here Saturday morning around 3:15am (our weather dog was kind enough to tell us it was coming- with her shaking and all around panic). We lost power around 4:30am and didn't get it restored until 5:10pm Monday Night.

My poor kids didn't know what to do with themselves. Plus our whole routine was off so that was hard for them too. Of course they wanted to watch tv and computer but that wasn't as disturbing as not having night lights, or music to listen to at bedtime. Jenna went to bed one night with a flashlight and pushed the play button to her music that she listens to at night. It didn't work obviously and I told her that her radio didn't have any power either. She was a little panicked and said "Now how am I going to fall asleep?" so Nate lent her his IPOD to listen to High School Musical. She kind of enjoyed that and requested it the next night too.

Note to self- Batteries are important and especially the big batteries (C and D). I realized that I didn't have batteries for the radios and flashlights.

A new item that needs to go on my preparedness need to get list is a generator. A tip from a family friend was that you get a smaller generator and just rotate it between the different appliances (such as the refrigerator and freezer to keep them both cold) every 5 or 6 hours.

I was even thinking that would have been a great idea so that I could have temporarily plugged in my stove to cook too. Having a gas stove would have been a plus since I would have been able to cook but no mine is electric but that isn't going to change anytime soon (I like my smooth top surface).

Also on my list is having food that I can prepare without power. We had all of the water we wanted but it was hard to put the food storage that I currently have into meals without needing a stove. Another item to preparedness list- camp stove.

Yes, I could have BBQed or used the camp fire but -as Spencer was constantly commenting- we need "fire utensils" to be able to cook more than just hot dogs and marshmallows. So another item should probably be pots or pans that can be used on the grill or fire pit.

After being so happy about getting power last night we had another huge storm roll through. I was a little nervous that we were going to lose power last night but thank goodness we are not one of the households without power this morning from that storm. I hope that it affected new areas- just for the sanity of those that had to be without for so long.

Luckily we didn't lose too much food and today is garbage day so the stuff I did lose gets picked up today- phew! We had just stocked up our big freezer for some future BBQs and I think that the large amount of frozen food worked well to keep things cold. Although I had a lot of frozen berries and I think they may have thawed a bit and now I may only have berry mush but I can live with that- we'll just have a lot of smoothies and things.

What was interesting is that Nate and I were just starting to stock up on preparedness items. We have been focused on the food aspect but now I am going to work more diligently on the non food items so that we are stocked up for the future.

Anyone have any other ideas of what essential items need to be on a preparedness list do to your own experiences?

I've been tagged...

Alright- even though I have already posted twice today I thought I would answer the challenge/tag from Callie. Don't get too used to multiple posts in one day though.

Jobs I’ve Held:
1. I worked in a root beer barrel (yes, you read that right) at the MN State Fair a couple of years (My uncle owns them and he sells just drinks-Pepsi products and yes...Root Beer)

2. Filene's Basement- A clothing store. The store I worked at closed.

3. Babysitting- lots of it.

4. Working at The Oasis a seasonal hamburger/ice cream restaurant as manager for my aunt (she is married to the root beer barrel guy!) The place is no longer however - After she sold it I think it became a parking lot.

5. I worked as an ESL tutor in Orem while going to school at BYU.

6. I did Data Entry for Signature- Nate worked there too and that's when he switched to programming after college. That company is gone now too.

7. I am currently working at our YMCA in the Kid's Area about 3 hours a week- sometimes more. I am just working for the free membership.

Movies I Can Watch Over and Over:
1. Totally Modern Millie "Soy Sauce!!!!!"

2. I love Musicals- 7 Brides for 7 Brothers, Singing in the Rain, The Happiest Millionaire, etc.

3. I really liked a few action films too- Batman Begins, The Bourne Identity (I don't like the filming of the other films), the others escape me at the moment.

My Guilty Pleasures:
1. The theme for us moms is catching those rare naps.

2. Doing Genealogy when I should be cleaning or doing other chores.

3. I am sure that there are others but I cannot come up with any right now.

Places I Have Lived:
1. Minnetonka/Hopkins/Maple Grove/ and Minnetonka again- all in Minnesota

2. Provo, Utah

3. Nearby Spanish Fork, Utah

Shows I Enjoy:
There are far too many shows that I enjoy so here are the ones I will admit to...

1. Monk- I love mystery shows. I grew up watching Murder She Wrote and Matlock and Columbo.

2. I'll admit that I enjoy the CSI shows

3. House

4. I was a Gilmore Girls fan and a West Wing fan but those are both lost forever now.

5. We also enjoy several shows on the Discovery Channel- Dirty Jobs and Mythbusters to name a couple.

What were likely the 1st things you thought when you saw your significant other for the first time?

Well, the first time we met we were on a group date with different dates and he was trying to overcompensate for the dullness of the girl he brought. He seemed nice but she was lame and since I didn't know either of them I spent the night talking to the others in the group. That was just before he moved into our apartment complex.

Places I’ve Been on Vacation (other an the U.S.):

1. Does having lunch across the Canadian Border count? You may say yes except that it happened while I was on a Boundary Waters trip- it is a canoe area on the MN/Canada border and it wasn't really obvious that anything had changed. We were just on the other side of a lake.

Favorite Foods:
1. Pasta- gotta have it.

2. I love Nate's smoked Chicken- okay I like anything that Nate smokes on the BBQ. I never want to cook a turkey the normal way again.

3. I enjoy ice cream- many flavors.

Websites I Visit (almost) Daily:
1. My favorite Comics

2. Family and Friends Blogs

3. Star Tribune Website- to keep up on the local news

4. Ancestry.com and other genealogy related websites

5. Google to search for everything

6. Wells Fargo

Nicknames I’ve been called:
1. Kimmer

2. Kim is technically a nickname and almost everyone call me that

3. Kimba -from those who know me from college

Now I Get to pick 4 other Blog buddies to do this!

I don't know that many people who blog who haven't already done so- so if you haven't done this yet- consider yourself tagged and then let me know!

Wildlife in the Burbs

We have had a lot of wildlife to observe around here. The most recent is a woodchuck. My mom has been trying to catch it for almost 2 weeks. It has been living under their shed and it has been getting into her garden- never a smart move. It was tricky to catch and in the mean time she has caught 2 raccoons and a red squirrel (all of which were transported to nearby -buy not too close- parks). There may still be another woodchuck in the area so the trap will stay baited. Here is a photo of the prisoner.