MAYLIN2007

We went to Idaho to see my family for Thanksgiving this year. The roads were TERRIBLE 60 miles outside their town. What usually takes us about 45 minutes, took us an extra 45 minutes. At one point we went one mile in 15 minutes. It was white knuckle driving. We made it thankfully. The roads home were perfect! We had a great time. My mom and I did the dinner together and my brother and his wife along with one of his son's and his wife came over for dinner. Dinner was nice and afterward we played some fun games like "Find the hidden Turkeys" and a game called "Don't Eat Tom." My sister-in-law and brother both won that game. The night after Thanksgiving we went to my brother's home and ate another dinner with his other son and family and his daughter who were unable to make it on THE day. We had a great time. The kids played and we watched the Boise State game....ohhhh, that ended sad. We also helped my parents put up their trees. We had to take the 'do...

Two years ago we went to a reenactment of the first Thanksgiving. It was so much fun. We decided to go again this year. It was great. There were lots of activities like eating deep fried corn (the settlers deep fried theirs the Indians would roast theirs), hard tack, goats milk, oysters, eel, and duck. These were all at a special tasters table. There were also board games like Nine Men's Morris and The Goose and the Fox. They had corn husk doll making and many picture opportunities. They also had a tug of war and they taught us a dance. Alex was chosen to come up from and help Myles Standish shoot a musket. I still don't have my camera and am using a little point and shoot I bought for one of my kid's Christmas gifts....so I borrowed it early. It was do dark to get a good shot...I was sad.         For the dinner, there were no forks as they weren't invented yet, so we used a spoon, knife and our hands. They had us put our napkins on just like they did then; girls tuc...

We have been busy, busy, busy around here. We are so looking for toward the holiday break. No school ALL next week! Yesterday, was the busiest day of all. I had to get Maylin to preschool by 9 and then I wanted to get to my Zumba class by 9 as well. I was 10 minutes late. Then I had my religion class at 10 to 11. I was 10 minutes late to that too. Then I helped the neighbor lady who has been so sick. Then I tried to clean my own house, but that was tough when it looked like a bomb went off. I was also trying to wash all these donated sheets I got so the ladies in our church could help cut and tear bandages out of them. This was scheduled for last night too. I had to be at the church by 4:30to set up and Maylin had her first gymnastics class at 4:45. I had to have Austin take her. I got home in time to get ready and then left at 5:30 with Alex as he had a football banquet. Austin fed the others when he got home from gymnastics and Kens went to the church later with Maylin to babysit so ...

These pictures were taken before the camera fell to its demise and after we got the dog, obviously. Aren't they so cute?! Maylin just loves the dog. They are buddies....it is more one sided, however. See how she tries to spend every moment with him! Cute.    

I am lost without my camera. It made blogging so much easier, but on the positive side, not having a camera is making me write more feelings and this is my journal so I guess it is a good thing after all. A couple of things to share: Dog: Doing okay. Still lots of accidents, but they seem less everyday. Less is definately good news! Maylin loves him so much that the dog sees or hears her coming and runs and hides. Too much squeezing apparently bugs him. :) He likes me the best. Don't figure since I like him the least. Thief?: Maylin has had, from the moment we brought her home, the urge to take anything from anyone in the family and put it in a secret spot. We have had cell phones vanish for a year before we found that stash, toothbrushes (the other day we found 11 in her drawer...we had been missing so many and replacing so many), wallets, homework, books, glasses, you name it she takes it. It is only from family. I do want to clarify that. I don't want people to be afraid to ...

I have been thinking lately a lot about the words, "The End." I am not sure I like those two simple three letter words. First, I started to think about all the things in my life that end and how I feel at that moment. Most of those feelings are around disappointment and sadness and most don't last very long because they are small items in my life. My thoughts first went to how I feel when I am at "The End" of my favorite dessert, at "The End" of the ice cream, at "The End" of the weekend and to "The End" of a really, really good movie. I thought a lot about when I read a really good book and get to "The End" and how it is a bittersweet moment. I can just picture myself closing the book, thinking and reflecting about how that book changed my life or made me feel or what it taught me. There is a part of me that is so sad that the experience of the book is over. Those are small and simple things I know, but we face those ends...

To re-do or not re-do the chores that were not done correctly, that is the question? Each week we end up fighting at our house over chores. I give the kids a list each Saturday and they have to have the list complete before they can play or do anything fun. Sometimes, things go okay with one kid, but there is a fight usually with the others over doing them at all, or doing them right. I don't think we have ever had a Saturday without a complaint. Today's contention caused this post. I asked one of the boys to clean the living room. When I got home, there were pillows on the floor, papers everywhere and dust. The floor hadn't been vacuumed. The area around items looked like it had kinda been dusted, but not really. I think maybe, maybe, a dry cloth got thrown quickly over the dustable areas. So I called this kid. They had called me (I was getting chicken food) and told me their chores were complete and they left to a friends. So, I called them and told them they needed to re...

Finally....pictures of Halloween. These pictures were taken the day before Halloween thankfully. Because later that day, my camera fell out of the car and hit the parking lot of Costco. It no longer works. It is being repaired. Because of that, Halloween pics were taken by my phone and I am not good at transporting them. Since this is a fear, procrastination takes over and pictures don't get uploaded. .       Jay took Maylin out and the other kids went with their friends or to parties. I stayed at home with my parents who were visiting and handed out candy. Even in the cold and rain we had a great turn out. My kids looked cute and had a great time. Maylin went as a flower, obviously, and Kens went as a pumpkin. Austin didn't know what to do so at the last minute he dressed in the items he had brought home from Jerusalem. The blue dress is Kens', but he borrowed it for the evening. Alex is an assassin. Kens' friend is a zombie. Alex really cleaned up. He got about 8 full...