Pie Party

We prepared for the Pie Party this week and lived a very normal boring week! After last weekend's excitement, we were happy with normal.

Underfoot - Pack meeting was this week, and Underfoot earned a few more belt loops. He has wonderful leaders who help him along. He also had a dentist appointment. We learned that we will be practicing our flossing skills more. On Friday, he said he didn't feel very well. I thought he wanted to stay home and help make pies. He went to school and after school we took him temperature - 101.6. He went to bed and was allowed out or around any of us. His fever broke the morning of the Pie Party and hasn't returned. He reported that he only ate 4 pieces of pie and loved running around the backyard with friends.

Hurricane - Monday morning after the ER visit, Hurricane decided he didn't want to leave me home alone. He was determined to stay home by saying he was sick. After some discussion and walking him to his classroom, he went willingly and didn't say anything more about it. His concern was very touching. He learned at the dentist that he has another loose tooth with a cavity on it. Thankful the dentist said the tooth will fall out soon, and no treatment is necessary. Again we will be working on our flossing skills. Hurricane enjoyed being at the Pie Party and "set up" the table and pies at 10 am. When told he couldn't bring the pies out until 4:45, he asked how many hours until the event. We worked on telling time. He didn't report on how many pies he ate but made sure he had the first piece of Grasshopper Pie.

Sweetheart - He worked, shopped, carried, pulled things out the attic, and lifted things as I couldn't with my really sore chest. He cleaned up the backyard and treated our trees from California Red Scale that has attached itself to our citrus trees. We are hopeful that the treatment works. He reported as well that he only had 4 pieces of pie. Previous to the Pie Party we made a list of pies we would make. The goal was to make 12 pies. Normally I make 36 pies. I made 15 different kinds of pie. We had 6 whole pies for left overs which Sweetheart shared with people today after church.

Me - I took it easy and asked for help. On Veterans Day, I asked for the youth to come and help me clean our house and yard. Eight youth came and cleaned the inside and the outside of our home which took a huge burden off me to have a clean space ready for Saturday.

My college roommate traveled from Phoenix to come to the Pie Party. She has usually lived in Japan, Washington State, or Oklahoma. We are so thankful for all the people who came and shared their yummy food and friendship.

Be Well.

Family Pictures and Emergency Room

We had a quiet week. We started making pies for the Pie Party - the ones that go in the freezer. Underfoot and Hurricane went to school, piano lessons, and other school activities.

 

We also took family pictures. This is how they went. Sweetheart had a game night. He was super excited because he taught a new person how to play his game. We've taught our boys how to play the game Hearts. We play before we go to bed. The boys call the Queen of Spades the Old Lady.

Sweetheart writes:
Wendy and I started exercising this week, in an effort to trim waistlines and have improved health. We did pretty well until..... Prepare for a laugh....One thing we did was a lot of push ups. On Sunday she started to have pain in her chest. The pain caused her to take deeper breaths, which caused the pain to increase. The increased pain caused considerable panic in me.

We were driving home from church when the pain started. Wendy pulled over and had me drive. Wendy insisted that we take our children to a friends' house since I made the decision to call for help. She didn't want them to be concerned. I called the community fire station which led to an ambulance ride to the Emergency Room. Wendy kept ma

king jokes. The emergency personal didn't laugh at her jokes like she thought they would.

The pain wasn't a heartache like I thought it was. In the end, Wendy will be fine. She is sore and can breath again. The cause was one of the joints in Wendy's sternum and ribs got pulled, inflamed, or bruised. We aren't sure which. This caused a lot of pain. I must admit that I was really nervous for a while. I've never been confronted with the prospect of loosing her. I guess I am not very good at keeping my cool.

Be Well.

Stars Wars with a Friendly Cowboy Sheriff

Happy Birthday to Sweetheart! He celebrated his birthday by biking with the boys in a school race and dressing up as Han Solo for Halloween.

He isn't sure about being older this year. We had a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing - his favorite.

We completed our online adoption profile. Please share. We are hopeful.

On Monday, we decided to find Halloween costumes. We were going for a a Star Wars theme. Hurricane found a horse costume on the rack at the thrift store.

He decided he was going to be a sheriff cowboy riding a horse. So we bought it. Underfoot found 2 different Star Wars costumes.

After looking we found a vest that was black for Han Solo. I finally got to play the role of Princess Leia.

The boys got to trick or treat 2 nights. One was at the Fall Festival for Cub Scouts, and the other was in our neighborhood.

The boys went with a neighbor door to door while we passed out candy. Underfoot said that next year he would stay home to pass out candy, and Underfoot could care his treat bag. We said that wasn't the way it work. He then changed his mind.

Underfoot and Sweetheart participated in a pumpkin activity. Each student brought a pumpkin, estimated how many seeds were in the pumpkin, and then counted the seeds. They had a lot of fun together.

The boys decided they were going to ride their bikes for the Spooky Run instead of running. They had a good time.

The Pie Party is November 14. Come if you are in the area.

Be Well.

3,715.8 Miles

Underfoot, Hurricane, and I traveled to see my sister, Katie. Our round trip took us on an adventure of 3,715.8 miles. Sweetheart stayed home and worked. He got to play board games if that is any consolation. Hurricane doubled the number of states he has been to, and I entered Oklahoma. Previously Sweetheart and I had been to every state surrounding Oklahoma.

On our trip we saw:

- Carlsbad Caverns National Park and the bats that flew at night

- Oklahoma City National Memorial

 -  Jared and McKenzie Armstrong

- Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

- Oklahoma City Temple

- Iwig Dairy where the milk is bottled in glass bottles and they sell unique flavors of ice cream

- Sunshine Rae, Bubba, and Katie Stokes (We saw Uncle Shaun later.)

- World War I Memorial

- Kansas City Federal Bank Reserve

- Played Catch with Aunt Katie (This was one of Underfoot's request for the trip.)

- Union Station Train Display (Hurricane's request was to see a train.)

- Science City

- Kaleidoscope

- Hallmark Visitor's Center (We got to see bows being made and then took the bows home)

- Kansas City Market (The smells were amazing! The boys had a coconut water from a coconut!)

- Pony Express and Pumpkinfest

- Independence LDS Visitor's Center

 

- Liberty Jail LDS Visitor's Center

- Nauvoo, IL

- Lincoln's Home National Historic Site

- Lincoln Museum next to the Lincoln Presidential Library

- Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, Missouri

- Gateway Arch

- Columbia, Missouri for dinner with Uncle Shaun who is doing an anesthesia audition there

- Sadie's Preschool and Aunt Katie as the teacher (Aunt Katie's an awesome teacher!)

- Movie Night Party with cousins, popcorn, candy, and nail polish for the girls

- Brown vs. Board of Education National Historic Site in Topeka, Kansas
- 2nd Lost Tooth

- Soda Fountain in Hays, Kansas

- Lisa and Brian Miller + family in Colorado

- Garden of the Gods

- Sante Fe for supper in honor of our Aunt Jill. The restaurant was super yummy! Jambo was its name-o.

- We watched the Tucson LDS Temple groundbreaking via the internet in Albuquerque, New Mexico after swimming the hotel swimming pool. The only swimming we got to do.

- Returned home.

Once we were home, we returned to school. The men in the family participated in Make a Difference Day last Saturday. It has been a full 3 weeks.

We hope this finds you well, healthy, and happy.

Campfire and Lost Tooth

Hurricane lost his first tooth. His goal was to lose it at school so he could get a tooth treasure box.

I came at the end of the day and encouraged the tooth to leave his mouth so he could meet his goal.

I attended another continuing education class. It wasn't as exciting as the one a week before. The topic was anxiety in children and adolescents.

Saturday was the first meeting for LDS General Conference with the Women's Meeting. I really enjoyed the messages shared and the hope that they give to me.

Underfoot participated in a Cub Scout den campfire. He taught "I Stuck My Head In A Little Skunk's Hole" to the group. There were skits, jokes, and a roving story. They roasted marshmallows at the end to make s'mores.

 This was a family event. Hurricane was thrilled to participate in the Cub Scouts. He wants to every week that Underfoot goes.

The school met their reading goal and were given a day to dress up as a superhero. The boys made their own symbols made out of duct tape and wore them on their shirts.

Be Well.

Boring Week

Parent Teacher Conferences: The boys both got great reports. They are happy in school and learning many good lesson like how to be kind to others and being observant in addition to the ABCs and Math. 

Continuing Education Class: I attended a seminar on The Habits of Happy People. The presentation was one of the best ones I've attended.  Now that's saying something when I have to get 20 credit hours each year. Here is one of the videos he shared during his presentation:

Emergency Responders: Hurricane was asking about emergency responders and what they do. We were giving examples of what the responders do like helping someone who is choking or cut themselves badly. Hurricane says, "Or like when somebody tazes theirselves." We shared with Aunt Mimi, and she said, "That is an EXCELLENT example! If someone tazes themself, they are going to need someone to respond in more ways than one."

 Traffic Reflectors: Hurricane was asking why there were so many on the road. He then wished he could hold out a bat and knock them all over. I said that Grandpa Kirky had that wish as well. Hurricane just smiled.
 

Temple:

We attended the temple and got to visit with Aunt Merris and her family.

Junior Cactus Ranger: On Saturday evening, Underfoot attended his first Junior Cactus Ranger meeting. Because of his interest during Junior Ranger camp, he was invited to participate in activities throughout the year. He had to be nominated for this. The group learned about the moon, its different phases, and then taught their families about it.

Be Well.

Lemonade Stand and Bake Sale

Hurricane planned a lemonade sale then added a bake sale. We called his Uncle Aaron to get some help with marketing the event. As we talked together, we added pre-orders of chocolate chip cookies, brownies, and yummy syrup (caramel syrup.) For Labor Day, we started making things.

Our friend, Shelby Ryckman, came over to help us. We canned 42 jars of yummy caramel syrup and made a few dozen cookies and few pans of brownies. The rest of week was making cookies and brownies and making deliveries. While Sweetheart was out the week before, he printed the flyers Hurricane had made. The flyer explained the purpose of the bake sale.

Later in the week we made another batch of yummy syrup.

On Friday night, Sweetheart and I stayed up to make cookies.

We made 24 dozen in addition to what had previously been made. On Saturday, we sold out of cookies and syrup.

The boys were wonderful with people.

If someone gave them a tip, they sang them a song.

They were thrilled to go to the bank to open an account for adoption.

That night we went to the church's youth road show. The boys enjoyed the different skits and olios.

Previous Week -
Birthday Party: The boys were invited.

I helped with a carpool. They had so much fun.

Garden: I built a flower garden in Underfoot's classroom. She said I could make any flowers I wanted.

I put most the flowers that I can't grow here - daisy, lilac, water lily, columbine, daffodil, sunflower, tulip, and then 2 made up flowers. I had a lot of fun creating.


Bedroom Painting: When we replaced the carpet, we painted the baseboards and door jams in the Master bathroom. It didn't quite get finished before the carpet went in. Since that time, we took off all the doors and painted them. I finished the touch ups. It took me 6 months to finish. That's a little embarrassing that it took so long. The bedrooms are all done. Now we have 1 bathroom and the rest of the house.

Tub: Our bath tub has been dripping. Sweetheart had the time to change the cartridge on his off Friday. He started the process but couldn't get the coupler to loosen.

In the process, he broke the handle. After he called and got help to fix it. It took the 2 of them 15 minutes to loosen the the coupler. Sweetheart fixed it without problems after that. I'm so grateful he has the skills to make things work! He has great skills!