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Another weekend has come and gone. I’m always a little sad on Sunday nights, knowing that my children are going back to school and Danny is going back to work. We had another good weekend. I think that the kids are catching on to my “get things done” regimen. Saturday morning the kids were up at 6:00 like normal, and we let them hang out in bed with us until 7:00 then I asked that the kids get their rooms clean. I’m not just talking picked up, I’m talking clean. I went in with Tanner and helped him out, Emma was able to take care of her and Aubrey’s room pretty much by herself, then Danny and I tackled the kitchen and the master bath. I even cleaned my tubs jets. Then it was off to Tanner’s soccer game, which they won!-good job Tan. I stayed home from this game so that Alyssa could catch a nap before the days activities, and I worked on my calling so that I wouldn’t be worried about that during the day. They called the game early because it was nearly 100 degrees and they were worried about the kids.
We took off for Grover Hot Springs which is about 20 miles over the California border. The California border is the line between ugly and beautiful. They were nice and gave us a small chunk of Lake Tahoe, but it’s mostly on the line of desert and trees/mountains, with the trees and mountains on the California side. The hot springs are pretty warm, but Alyssa didn’t want anything to do with the cool pool, so I stayed in the hot pool with her. The other kids ran between the two pool, it was so nice.

When we were waiting to get in a lady told us about a hike to a waterfall, I’m such a sucker for waterfalls, I love them, and knew I wouldn’t be able to leave without seeing the waterfall. So off we went. What the lady neglected to tell us is that you have to climb rocks, lots of large granite rocks to get to the falls, it was worth every climb though. Unfortunately the kids weren’t in climbing shoes, so they hiked the 3 miles in flip flops, there was a little whining coming down, but they were awesome.

We climbed to the top of the waterfall hoping to find a pool to swim in, but the water was running too fast to get in, there were lots of lizards hiding in the rocks, and the temperature was perfect, so it was worth the hike, it’s something I’d like to do again in proper shoes so that we can explore a little more.

Of course I took pictures, the mineral water is a lovely (gross) color, and at first I didn’t want to get in. When I went with my parents to Alaska in the motor home with the kids we stopped at some hot springs in Canada that we hiked to, and it was in the middle of a river, they were so much fun, no cement pool, just wade into the river, but the smell was like finding an easter egg three weeks after it was hidden. Grover Hot Springs didn’t stink, but I enjoy the river setting over the created pool setting.

So here are a few pictures, sorry I deleted the ones of me in a swim suit, maybe another time… yeah right.

Top part of the waterfall

Emma was mad at Tanner because he wouldn’t put on a decent face for a picture, so I told her to join him!

Emma and Tanner were sorting laundry the other day and having way too much fun doing it, so I took my camera down there to see what they were up to. I still don’t know what they were doing in there, but I asked them to open the door and this is what I got. I like it when they get along especially when they have to work together, it makes the chore more fun.

In a recent post I was saying how Alyssa wont look at the camera, and refuses to acknowledge me at all if I have a camera in my hand, somehow that has been cured and she now has Aubrey’s problem. I’m assuming she has picked it up from Aubrey, but when she sees a camera now she says “cheeeeeessssseeeee”. I’m thinking I liked being ignored more. It’s cute though. Last night in the bath she was licking water from the faucet as it poured in and I thought it would be a cute picture, this is when I discovered her change of heart for the camera, she wouldn’t lick anymore she would just say cheese.

Here’s Alyssa looking too cute in her nightgown hugging her baby. How many times can I use cute in one post?

One more moment of “cute”. I was eating lunch and put on “Little Bear” for the girls to watch for a few moments peace. When I came to see what Alyssa was up to this is what I found, luckily I had my camera right there. Sweet little sister, a mother’s dream come true.

I wish I had something exciting to tell, but sadly, things are pretty quiet around here. Danny did get the fence put up and there are only 14 days of school left, I’m behind on laundry, but I’m not sure that qualifies as exciting. So I best not waste much more time here, and go get that laundry done, blech!

Our little town has a festival called Oodles of Noodles, I guess it is to celebrate the Chinese influence on the town’s existence, Dayton was settled by Chinese mine workers, and used to be called China Town, although I see no Chinese influence in this town at all, and I’m not sure what noodles has to do with anything, you’d think Oodles of Rice or something… I know it doesn’t rhyme, I get it, but I don’t really get it… Anyway, this is going somewhere, I’m just taking the long way there! So what you do is buy a ticket and that allows you to sample different pasta dishes from local business and then you vote at the end for your favorite. So one thing that really bothers me about living where we do is our local brothels. The Bunny Ranch sponsored a booth and made a pasta dish and had their little “bunnies” out their serving it, and to top it off the noodles are shaped like yep you guessed it bunnies. Cute huh? They sell the noodles in packages with “The Bunny Ranch” on them if anyone is looking for souvenirs. Tanner and Emma came up with me to get our sample of pastas sigh, I guess everywhere has it’s problems.

Yesterday for FHE it was my night to choose activity, and I chose to go hiking on the Tahoe Rim Trail. So I packed everything up, stopped by Subway for some 5 buck foot longs, picked the kids up from school, fetched Danny from work and headed up. We had a wonderful time, but I forgot my camera, I was so disappointed, since starting this blog I’ve been so good about capturing everything we do on camera, and I think it will make a great family book, but my camera is very large and not conducive to hiking, I need a small camera that I can keep in my car for such outings. The kids had such a great time. The first mile and a half of the hike is up hill to a large out cropping of granite rocks. We usually stop there for dinner and then head home, but we wanted to go further this time so we continued on, the hike is actually hundreds of miles long, Google Tahoe Rim Trail, it’s pretty amazing. So we continued past our regular spot, but it was getting so cold and Alyssa was starting to fuss, so we ate dinner on another granite rock, I wish I had pictures, it’s so beautiful. Tanner told us a scripture story, Emma shared a lesson, and Aubrey had us singing songs the whole way down, it was delightful, and the kids had so much fun, except Alyssa who’s diaper starting leaking, I can only assume from the pressure of the back pack between her legs so she was unhappy. Aubrey made the 2 miles up without any help and didn’t slow us down at all, Danny carried her a little ways back down, but it’s nice that she is getting big enough to join us on our adventures. We were all pretty cold when we got back to the car, so we stopped by a Starbucks on our way home and the kids got hot chocolates and Danny and I got steamed skim milk with a little flavoring, Danny’s idea, he was on treat.

My friend Heather is off on a cruise this week, good for her, but really, I’m jealous!

Breakfast in bed consisted of a mushroom omelet, fresh berries and lemon poppy seed muffins. It was delicious, but I love that the kids sit in bed with me and eat my breakfast with me. The kids all looked cute for church and they couldn’t have sang any cuter. Aubrey got to go up and sing for the first time and when she came back she threw her arms around my neck and said “I did it just like my big kids, didn’t I Mom?” Emma being the big sister took good care of Aubrey on the stand and held her up a few times so that we could see her. I beamed with pride. The youth spoke about their mothers and one of the young ladies that spoke said that mothers need to live more in the moment, I thought “I live in the moment”, well most moments… some I’d rather not live in. Even with a picture perfect mother’s day there were a few moments I didn’t want to live in. How about Tanner coming to me 30 minutes before church saying his church clothes weren’t clean. I fixed that problem. We were late for church today and that NEVER happens, but we took seats in the back and we were separated. Danny was sitting behind me and during the Sacrament, Alyssa was getting trollish, so Danny hands her a new tin container of Altoid mints to play with. She promptly opens it up and they sprinkle for a full 30 seconds all over the floor, of course we were late because of Tanner’s pants, so we were in the back on the wood floor so we heard plink, plink, plink, CANDY, CANDY,plink, plink, CANDY etc… Yes Alyssa can say CANDY, and everyone knows it, what a great word for her to learn, now everyone knows what a great mother I am that one of my babies first words is candy, and she wont stop saying it. Then Aubrey had to go to the bathroom, and refused to let anyone take her but Tanner, so I called her bluff, and she eventually settled down. So this is how my Mother’s Day went, but I truly remember it as picture perfect.
When we got home from church I settled in with my sweet Tanner and read a couple of chapters of Harry Potter, we just finished Hatchet, and he couldn’t wait to do another book with me. I read the odd pages and he reads the even. We then laid in bed and he shared secrets with me, I’m so grateful that he’ll still snuggle in bed with his mom and tell me things that are important to him. Picture Perfect!

Other happenings of the week

Salmonella

How many times have I heard don’t leave your tooth brush on the sink, when you flush the toilet… Salmonella
How about that chicken on the counter… Salmonella.
Advertising companies, “buy our product it kills Salmonella.”
I’m not sure what Salmonella really is, I know it’s a bacteria, no maybe it’s a virus, but I’ve feared it for a long time because I’m told to fear it.
In R.S. a lady took this whole chicken and a pair of kitchen shears and started to hack away at this bird. The point being that it could save us money if we learned how to hack apart a chicken. I think what I learned was that frozen chicken from Costco was worth the extra money. So I was over at a friends house this week, and her house smelled divine, I asked what she was cooking, and she said a chicken. Instantly I stopped listening, nope, not me, I’m not hacking apart a bird, and giving my family Salmonella. But she assured me that all you have to do is take the bird wash it and huck it in a crock pot.

I guess I’d have to do the math to see if it really saved money or not, with the weight of the bones and all that is wasted with a whole chicken, but the bird cost $4.50 and it was delicious!

Our strawberry plants have all blossomed, and are looking good, can’t wait to enjoy the berries if I can get to them before the kids do that is.

I went out with Danny on Saturday morning and pounded out nails from the planks while he hammered them back up, it’s a long tedious job, and we aren’t even half done. I’m sure when we get this part put up with the winds around here it wont be long until another section goes down, I suggested that we just start replacing it with vinyl fence sections, because eventually the whole thing is going to go down, but I was veto’d.

Tanner’s team won their soccer game on Saturday!
I think that does it for this week. Oh if anyone has a few moments, Aubrey is desperately looking for mail everyday, drop her a letter and I promise I’ll help her write back.

I took the kids to the library yesterday, and Tanner checked out some Star Wars Books to read, something about the Queen of the Empire, a continuation of Star Wars. I’ve never read them, but they came from the kid section, how dangerous can they be…? This morning Tanner is reading and throws the book down, and starts saying “Ewww, gross, I can’t read this, that’s disgusting.” He does a little “so grossed out dance” and goes outside to take the dog out. So I grabbed the book fearing the worse, but find a small little kissing scene, nothing inappropriate. So Tanner comes back in and I tell him it’s just a little kiss, and he said you didn’t read the next page, so Emma grabs the book and reads the next page, and you won’t believe what she read… Han Solo, and Princess Lea got married, and he’s so grossed out about it. Silly boy. Did I spell those names correct, I’ve been unable to ever watch the movies, for some reason they have a sleepy effect on me and I’m snoring by the first fight scene… but then I was thinking that I did hear that Han Solo and Princess Lea were brother and sister, is that right, if so I might can see what he was so grossed out about, but I don’t think that is why he was grossed out. Boys are just cute!

Aubrey wanted donuts and chocolate milk for FHE treat last night, and so we decided to ride our bikes to the store to get them. It’s about a 5 mile ride to the store on a rough trail that goes along side the highway. The kids were loving the big dirt hills and the bumps, but their chains kept coming off their bikes. It was very frustrating, probably more so for Danny who had to keep putting their chains back on. For the trip home we decided to take a longer route but a smoother route. River Road meanders here and there, and there is little traffic so we were able to make good time on the way back. Donuts taste so much better after a 10 mile bike ride. I was proud of the kids though, they were tough, and Tanner kicked all of our butts, and rode ahead of all of us most of the time.

Emma’s teacher is determined to challenge her. She has thrown every spelling word that she can at her, and Emma has known them all. She told Emma that her goal is to have Emma miss all 20 words on the pre test which is given on Monday without having a chance to look at the words first. Emma has been enduring this torture for months now without missing more then 5 or 6 but this last test the teacher came close, Emma missed 11 of the words so I thought I’d share some of the words that her teacher has dug up for Emma. Just so you know it’s all in good spirit, Emma’s teacher loves to harass Emma, she says that is the only way she can challenge her.
1. atmospheric
2. bankruptcy
3. asparagus
4. buccaneer
5. chandelier
6. conscientious
7. daffodil
8. domineering
9.efficiency
10. exhilarate
11. flimflam mer
12. facilitator
13. gourmet
14. gymnasium
15. hacienda
16. hygienist
17. inauguration
18. intricacy
19. jeopardy
20. judiciary
Bonus Words
1. narcolepsy
2. incisor

Now she has to write sentences for all of these words… YIKES.

As for my Tanner boy, he scored the highest in his class on the state reading test this week, actually he scored higher then a lot of 4th graders on the test. I couldn’t be prouder of him!

I want to be a family that does, not one that sleeps in and watches from a far. I posed this to my little family on Friday night, and proposed that we get up early on Saturday morning, and get all of our chores done, so that after Tanner’s soccer game we could go to Lake Tahoe and play and not be stressed over our undone chores. Not that the kids will be stressed, but if I’m stressed over undone things, I’m not relaxed and able to enjoy myself. So Saturday morning we rose, and Danny mowed the lawn while Emma and Tanner jumped into the van and started to clean. I then took the kids on a bike ride, all 4 of them while Danny swept the front porch, those wind storms caused all kinds of debris to blow into the entry way. So with lawns mowed, van cleaned, and the house mostly in good shape because I was able to get everything cleaned during the week we set out to Tanner’s soccer game. Their team won and they are undefeated. Yeah, yeah, I know that isn’t whats important, it’s team work, and excercise etc… but who really wants to lose? Tanner played goalie the entire game and the game was close. I felt bad for Tanner because he missed a couple of shots, and I could tell he was disappointed with himself, but he really did stop a lot of shots, and did a great job. I was proud of him.
Anyway, we were up to Lake Tahoe by 1:30ish, and I felt like we’d accomplished so much, and I was able to just sit on the beach relax and watch the kids play. Even Alyssa was getting into the water, which is very cold this time of year, around 45 degrees, but she was so intrigued by the whole experience. There of course was the token naked sun bather, luckily she was laying face down. She seemed uncomfortable with us there, because I posed the kids on a rock right above her for some pictures, but I figured if she was uncomfortable then maybe she should put some clothes on. There are nude beaches at Tahoe, find one of those.
Anyway, things got interesting up there with Tanner, I’ll put it like this.

This is Tanner

These are Rocks!

This is Tanner on the Rocks!

This is Tanner after falling ten feet off of the rocks and into the freezing cold lake, and being fished out by his father. Only minor injuries, a few scrapes, bruises, and a little terror, I think he learned his limits on how far he can jump from one rock to the next. Good thing Emma was with him, he was deep in the rocks and we might not have known where he was if she wasn’t there to direct us to him.

Here are a few pictures of everyone having a good time on the beach and on the rocks.

The half naked lady is just below Tanner’s right foot.

OK, these are some of my favorites.

We had a good day at the beach. Not the best time to take pictures with the glaring sun and all, but I think they still turned out cute. I reminded the kids that the only reason we were able to do this is because we were up and ready and had all of our chores done before 9 am, it just makes for a better day.

So I got a new calling I’m the new primary chorister. This is a very scary calling for me because I have no knowledge of music. I did my calling for the first time today and I felt like a one man circus act, but the kids all seemed to have a good time and they were all attentive. I have to lead them for Mother’s Day next Sunday and then the whole ward will know that I just wave my hand with no intent to lead anything… sigh, hopefully they will all be looking at their little ones, and pay me no mind (pay no attention to the man behind the curtain).
If anyone has any thing they have done or seen work in their ward that was fabulous, I need ideas, lots of ideas. Our ward primary is HUGE, and I’m SCARED. OK, my cry for help is out there, someone somewhere send me something please don’t let me think that no one is actually reading this…

I’m watching a little boy today. He’s Aubrey’s age, and they are having a good day. I decided to take them to the park for a picnic, and this is what I heard.
Nicholas: Can you bite your tongue?
Nicholas: Does it hurt when you bite your tongue
Aubrey: Yes I can bite my tongue, OUCH!
Aubrey: Yes it hurts when I bite my tongue
Nicholas: OUCH! It does hurt (giggle, giggle)
Aubrey: OUCH!
Nicholas: OUCH
Aubrey: OUCH!
Nicholas: OUCH!
Aubrey: OUCH!
Please tell me that there is hope for these children.
It went like this for the whole drive to the park. I’m thinking I’m really in need of some adult conversation!
Aubrey asked me if it hurt when I bite my tongue, and believe it or not I bit my tongue, and it does hurt.
Luckily tonight is my night to go out with Danny, we swap with another family once a month, they take our kids, we take theirs. It couldn’t have come at a better time.
Have a good weekend everyone, and don’t bite your tongue it hurts.

Most days I have a moment of dorkiness, (spell check says dorkiness isn’t a word, but jerkiness is why? I like dorkiness) some days more then one, but today’s was a little more monumental. I decided instead of going to the gym today I’d ride my bike to school with the kids. It’s a 4 mile ride so 8 miles round trip. I get the little girls into the trailer and head out with the kids. My first realization is what a horrible mother I am for making my kids ride their bikes to school. It’s stinking cold out here, and my hands are going to freeze off. The ride to school went smoothly though, and I made a mental note to make my kids wear gloves when they ride to school. See I learned something from this. On my way home though, there is this hill, it’s loads of fun on the way there, but on the way home it wasn’t nearly as much fun. So I’m watching the teachers pass me on their way to school, some parents I know wave at me. I live in a neighborhood, I have decided that everyone drives their SUV’s with their puppies sitting on their laps and their hair is always done. The mothers look beautiful in the morning in their nice cars, and I’m sweating profusely. I’ve had to shift down since I have a 60 pound trailer on the back so life is going by in slow motion but I’m pedaling super fast, then my pants get stuck in the chain and gear thing while it’s shifting so now my pants are shredded, I’m still sweating and panting, and everyone is waving at me… YIKES can’t I just get home. There are a few lessons learned though.
1. The gym works, I rode that bike both directions pulling a heavy trailer, uphill and down without having to walk the bike once
2. Don’t ride a bike wearing yoga pants.
3. Go later to the school so that I don’t have to look like an idiot with all the parents and teachers waving at me.
4.Give my 3 year old a snack while in the trailer so that she doesn’t keep asking me why we are going so slow.

That’s it for me today! I shouldn’t be let out of the house.

This little place that we live is known for it’s wind. The high school mascot is the dust devils, and often the highway that leads to civilization is closed due to dust storms, but lately the wind is just brutal. I mentioned before about our fence blowing down while we were in Washington, well today I watched another part of the fence wave like the ocean, and then blow into our neighbors yard. It’s a strong wind to snap a 4X4 like a tooth pick. We have a grown up swing in the backyard grown up, that’s what the kids call it. It’s sitting upside down now on the lawn. The kids picnic table is in multiple pieces. While I was at the gym this morning, a neighbor tucked my garbage can in a safe place, thanks to whichever one of you did that nice thing. We haven’t even finished fixing the first downed fence. To top things off with mother nature, Reno has been hit by over 200 earth quakes in the last couple of weeks, with a few of them over 5.0. They are warning us that they are building and to be prepared for the worse. Yikes enough already.