Wedding bells

Tom and Lindsay

and everyone else outside the temple.  All seven kids home.  We missed Shon and Emily the the kids who stayed behind in Australia and Ohio but we had a great weekend.

Typical mid-January week

This is how we all feel in the morning.  And the afternoon and Evening.  I think we need a trip to Hawaii.  Or even better Australia!

We have had a  run-of-the mill week around here.  School, scouts and music lessons are all in swing.  The mornings are darker than ever and the ground fluctuates between frozen solid and mushy and muddy.  No kind of weather stops the kids  from playing on the trampoline that has graced our back yard since December 25th.  We love it!

Dallin and Landon both earned their star scout awards this month and they have figured out that if they stay on schedule they can earn their eagle awards by next December.  This requires a lot more work on my part than I ever imagined but I have decided that if scouts will teach my boys so many awesome life-skills is won't kill me to help out a bit.  They have a camp out every single month.  I seriously think scout leaders have earned a special place in the here-after.  Ten 12-year-olds in subfreezing weather cooking their own food??!!!  And I hear a rumor (I do catch bits and pieces here and there...) that they are planning a camp out with their mothers.  And the boys will cook all the food.  I think it could be fun.

Jenna had a run-in with an unidentifiable virus that caused an unidentifiable rash.  It looked like carpet-burn-polka-dot-splotches all over her arms and legs and cheeks and they itched like crazy and she had a fever of 101 for one day.  By the next day everything disappeared almost as suddenly as it started.

We have had so many weird rashes over the years.  Is that normal?   I think the kids should be entered in some kind of study.  Austin had some post-viral rash all over his lower body that lasted for three months.  As toddlers Dal and Lan had one that  left sores that were bad enough that there were still marks on toes and feet several months after the rash.  I can't even list them all. The doctors always say "yep that's weird--why don't you leave through the back door..."

The only time a rash has actually been a diagnosable/treatable disease was when Benson got Scarlet Fever with a strep infection.  That one was red and felt like sand paper.

Austin and I bonded all night last night over a large pile of end-of-the-quarter assignments that had to be turned in.  I think we both cried at some point... But everything got done.  That poor child inherited his mother's organizing abilities. 

Rustin is always busy keeping everything afloat at church, work and home.  We have lots of great people surrounding us and that makes everything easier.

Tomorrow is a half day of school (yea!) and next week we are excited to have Tom and Lindsey get married right here in Twin Falls.

We just started reading the Great and Terrible series.  It is different and interesting.

The boys are all counting down to the Percy and the Olympians movie release in February.  It's always fun to have something to look forward to! 

mid-January-blah...

I could see my breath this morning in the car.

AFTER I had already dropped the kids off at school.

That says something about the level of cold going on around here.

It doesn't make me smile.  I want to go back to bed and wear socks all day.  Except then my feet would stick to the kitchen floor because I haven't finished mopping up the conglomeration of hot chocolate and sugar that now coats it.  But I did load the dishwasher, does that count?

I think this cold-melancholy state actually serves me right.  I had been feeling sorry for Juli who had to eat mangoes and kiwis and go to the beach for Christmas.  She asked me one day to describe the feeling of unprotected skin as the freezing air hits it first thing in the morning.  I felt lucky to go into my cinnamon scented house and stare at the Christmas lights.

Now today, Juli is snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef.  And going out on a big boat to watch for whales.  And her kids are out of school on summer break.  Again. Which means she doesn't have to sheepishly send any of her kids to school with their homework not completed.

I have to play board games with (very bored) Benson and try to figure out long division and help draw comic strips for a book report.  (Have I mentioned that I stink at homework?  Not fun for me.)

So this morning I am reminded that everything has its good and bad.  I don't want to trade I just want to figure out how to see more of the good than bad.  I'd make that a resolution but then I'd have one more thing on my list of things I have to remember.  I think I'll just go play Guess Who.  Again.

Post-script--I mopped the kitchen floor, washed two loads of laundry and read a seed catalog so I'm feeling better all ready. woohoo!

Post-post-script--okay the laundry is still in a pile on the floor but my kids need chores, right?!

Year end tribute (in poetry!)

Christmas was awesome

we all had a blast!

It took merely hours 

for the house to be trashed...

Snowboards and petshops

Wii wished for more snow,

then off to Sam's wedding

in Utah did go.

New Year's parties are fun

but we stayed home instead.

Sick with the flu 

Dad and I stayed in bed.

A new year has started

we all set some goals.

Gratitude, organize--

keep up with the clothes!

One thing is for sure

as two thousand nine ends,

We have surely been blessed;

Thank You family and friends.

Random Christmas pictures 2009

 

So I can remember--

Christmas morning hot chocolate.

3/4 gallon whole milk scalded

1 entire jar mint truffle hot chocolate mix

2 cups fresh heavy cream softly whipped with 1/4 cup sugar

4 loaves freshly baked  bread toasted with real butter

 

Gifts from each other aren't opened until after breakfast.  The Favorite part of the entire morning (the kids all say...)

This year we had a progressive dinner, Kendra's house for appetizers (yummy mushroom tarts!), our house for salads and dinner entertainment (thanks to Ethan, Jenna and Benson) and then steak and shrimp at Mom and Dad Patterson's.  Yum!  We missed the Kendricks this year for the first time I can remember... and we really missed the Hatch party this year (but we got to add Ariel to the family--not a bad trade off!!).  Next year we will cut down trees and make wreaths and trade presents and have a talent show...  
P.S. to my house.  I am sorry you didn't get to put on anything pretty this year.  Thanks for sheltering us from the storms anyway.   I have fun plans for you next year.  I promise!