Busy, Busy, Busy

OK, so this summer has been INSANE.  I really wish I had the time to sit and show you every day or at least once a week what we've been doing, but there is just not the time.

Lake Powell was just fantastic.  We thought we wouldn't be able to do it by ourselves.  I think we surprised ourselves and found out how independent we really can be.  

We had a Tirrell Family Reunion at Bear Lake, a Judy Family Reunion at Clifford's Mountain, finished up Tessa and Kellen with their baseball teams, a day here and a day there with friends doing different activities.  I think one of the favorite days was when we went to Blacktail with the Meek family and stayed ALL day.  It was real fun learning the things they could teach us, air chair, wake surfing and we shared our stand up jet skis with them.  All in all I think it was a fabulous day.

Claylyn got to go with the priests in our ward to high adventure camp.  They slept out in someone's parent's backyard in Provo and then hiked Mt. Timpanogas one day and the next day they hit Lagoon.  It was such a rough high adventure this year!  (Claylyn is the only teacher in our ward so they just let him hang with the priests which is cool!)

Orion went to Scout Camp and was voted to go do Order of the Arrow, which he will be doing next week.  Pretty cool!

Sasha is "learning to use the potty".  I've been finding her running around the house with a bare hiney because she takes her diaper off to go and then can't get it back on again.  She finds her panties but can't get those on correctly either so they are usually backward!  I wish there was an easier way to get this done.

A man Rodney knows gave us THREE HUGE salmon.  He took them to our friend Dan's house and he helped him fillet them.  We are having a big Salmon fry on Friday and Aunt Michalene's Salmon Sauce is going to be a hit!

Speaking of Aunt Michalene, she and Uncle Leonard are going to be home around Thanksgiving!  Pretty exciting!

Well, I was released as secretary of our RS.  The whole presidency was because our president received a calling into the stake and one of the counselors moved.  My point?  I got a call to be the nursery leader...imagine that.  Haven't been in nursery since Claylyn was in there.  Didn't REALLY want to do it but oh well, could be fun!

We went camping last weekend at Heise and had a lot of fun.  Claylyn's friend Eric Vane came with us and our nephew Tanner came and hung out with Orion.  I think we burned through a lot of gas for the 4-wheelers and motorcycles.  Got some cool photos as well I think!

School starts on the 31st and I'm not that excited.  I'd just as soon keep the kids home for another month.

As I'm sitting here, it's lightening outside, very cool.  I love thunder and lighting and rain, it's very neat.

Claylyn and Orion went to Rexburg today and rode their motorcycles on a track next to Rexburg Motor Sports.  I think they had a lot of fun all though Claylyn biffed it pretty hard and hurt himself.  No blood, thank goodness but, he's in some pain with some extra aches and pains.

Adult Lake Powell trip is coming quickly.  I'm really looking forward to it!

Thanks for reading!

Lake Powell - Land of Second Heaven on Earth

We are back. We just had about 10 days at Lake Powell, we think of it as heaven (next to Idaho of course!) We had a fantastic time. Rodney and I drove seperate vehicles - he pulled the ski boat and I pulled the jet-skis. Needless to say it was a LOOOOONG drive there and back - I am NOT a good long distance driver.

We left Sasha here with the Merrill and Good families and took Claylyn, Orion, Tessa and Kellen. They worked so hard and everything went SO well. We were worried not having another family there (to caravan with and help with the houseboat and boat) but we actually had the best week we've had in a long time. We worked and played together and really enjoyed our time together. It was very relaxing - I read 4 or 5 books and watched a couple of chick flix.

I'm sure Uncle Dustin and friend Darin better watch out for Claylyn and Orion on the stand-up jet skis...they are really good! We set up a buoy course and they are amazing to watch!

As we thought over our vacation we tried to think of one bad thing that happened or something that went wrong...we could think of absolutely nothing. All our equipment, toys, boats, houseboat - everything worked. We found a beach and set up easily, we were able to do everything we wanted, we ate when we wanted, we watched movies as a family (which we like to do anyway) and just had a fabulous time. I think the only thing we may have thought of was that we all missed Sasha a great deal - she just wouldn't have had fun on our hikes and we'd always be worried about if she took off her life jacket, wandering in the night, falling off the boat, the heat, the loooong drives - just stuff like that. We picked her up on the way home. She got so much attention from the Merrill's and the Good's I know she was spoiled rotten and had a great time without us.

Now that the cars and boat are empty, now all we have to do is the mountain of laundry and clean up the house and yard. FUN FUN FUN!!!!!!

I will be posting some photos of our wonderful trip and hope you all enjoy them.

Movie coming!

Well, Annie hooked me up to yet another great link. I watched a movie that hadn't even come to theaters yet! It's called "The Accidental Husband" starring Uma Thurman and Colin Firth. It is soooooooooooooo good (one short VERY covered scene - at least they ARE married) An A++++ and thumbs up movie!

Also, for anyone interested I bought the North and South BBC version and it will be here in approximately two weeks so if anyone is interested in seeing it with me, come on over!

I got my whole garden and all my flower pots planted. I even planted marigolds in my garden! I am determined this year to have a good harvest from my garden and beautiful flowers all summer. Hopefully my best crop of weeds will be put at bay as I'm an expert at these plants.

Does anyone have a good idea on how to get a two-year old to stay in her bed at night? How about even going to bed at a decent hour? In her own bed? I've never had this problem before. Crazy baby.

Congratulations to my friend Courtney Morrison on her engagement to Jake Kearns. They are getting married in September! The ring is amazing and he is adorable!

They are releasing us as a RS presidency. Janice was called as a councilor in the new Stake RS Presidency so we are going to have a new RS Presidency. I will really miss working with these wonderful ladies. Adrianna's husband got a new job in Missoula, MT and we are going to be losing theirat whole family from our ward, which really is rotten. I wonder who the new presidency is going to be. I really loved being the secretary.

I found a description of the movie!

Set against the backdrop of Victorian England's industrial north, it follows the fortunes of Margaret Hale, one of 19th century literature's most original heroines.

Played by Daniela Denby-Ashe, Margaret is a privileged, middle class southerner who is forced to settle in the northern town of Milton.

Margaret takes instant offence to the town and its people. She becomes terribly lonely and hates the dirt, noise and lack of civilisation, blaming their new way of life for her mother's ailing health.

Her distaste for the town and its people extends to handsome and charismatic cotton mill owner John Thornton, (Richard Armitage), whom she believes epitomises everything she dislikes about the North.

However, Margaret gradually begins to settle in Milton. Her social conscience awakens and she befriends some of the local mill workers, learning about their poverty and workplace struggles.

As events conspire to throw Margaret and Thornton together, the two spirited characters have to overcome their repressed physical attraction for one another and conquer prejudices of class and circumstance.

Go to www.guba.com/watch/3000125396 which will take you to part 1 of 4 and there you will find a link to parts 2, 3 & 4!  Good luck!  This is sooooooo good and is real gem!

A new movie to check out!!!!

OK, so you all know that I'm a DEVOTED Pride and Prejudice fan.  I have every version ever made and I watch as much of it as I can.  Well, my sister Annie just told me of a movie that she thought I'd like....well, she was correct-a-mundo in a MONDO way!  It is a BBC mini-series that is called North and South, based on a book by Elizabeth Gaskell.  Margaret Hale moves with her father and mother from the South to the North.  Things are just done differently in the North and she is always making a "fool" or faux pas of herself every where she goes.  Of course there is a man involved.  Mr. Thornton is in trade as a mill owner.  The story goes on as the ups and downs of their involvement get better and better all the way through.  Of course you'll have to see the show to appreciate it but it's almost the same story as P & P but almost better (probably just because it's new and fresh).  Fantastically done, well acted and lovely stories within.  I know all you P&P fans out there will love it.  I'm trying to figure out how to put a link in so you don't have as much trouble getting to it as I did.  But I did hunt it down just because it was sooooo good!

Jade High Runner Von Thor - Weimeraner

So, Jade has been getting older, 10 years this 26 July to be exact.  He got hit by a car a few years ago and has been getting progressively worse and worse since with arthritis.  It is really sad to see him in so much pain.  The boys came to me over the weekend and said, "Mom, we have to take Jade to the vet tonight, he can't even move."  Sure enough, he hasn't been moving.

Well, I took him to the vet yesterday - Monday.  The vet said that even if she just gently laid her hand on him, he flinched and didn't like it.  She said dog temperatures usually range around 100*F and he was down to around 97 which meant he wasn't regulating his body temperature well enough for an outdoor dog.  She figured the arthritis had moved into his spine from his legs.  She moved his feet and he couldn't even stand, it was as though he had cold-cocked him, he went right down.

This is how the treatment was going to start...they wanted to begin with $200 worth of x-rays (that's just the beginning), then perhaps send him to a specialist (I didn't even know they had those for dogs and didn't even want to know how much that was going to cost), keep him kenneled at $100/day for a minimum of 4 days and then go from there.

Well, we decided that we would try some meds - at home - for a week and see how he did on those.  If those don't work, we may have to put him down because he's in too much pain and can't even get up to go to the bathroom.

He is such a good and patient dog.  I can't believe what he has put up with being mauled by our kids all his life.  He just lets them love on him and he just takes it all in!

The kids ran out to the backyard yesterday and I could hear him literally crying.  I ran out to see if the kids were bothering him and he was just laying by the back door crying.  I helped him up and he limped out and went to the bathroom (man he's a big dog and heavy!).

Last night we spoke with the kids and told them about Jade and what may have to happen so they are prepared.  They didn't like it.  They were very sweet in their personal prayers, praying that Jade would be all right and live.  Tessa feels an especially strong bond with him because he and she are the same age and she's know him all her life.

I had my good cry in the vet's office yesterday.  Jade makes these funny almost purring noises and he was really trying to cuddle with me and wanted to be petted.  I laid down on the floor with him and spoke to him and cried a little.  Sasha was sweet, "You c'ying mommie?" and patted me on the head!  I noticed when I got out to the car that I must have cried harder than I thought because my face was really blotchy red and a little puffy.

That big, sloppy, untrained, darn dog...I love to "hate" but I would sure miss him.  He is a completely loving dog.  He just wants love and petting and that's it.

American Falls Trip

Hey, I just had to get on here real quick and add some more photos.

Rodney bought an old Ford fixer-upper to work on with the kids. It just may turn out to be a very cool project. There are a couple of photos of the truck and the kids the day we picked it up. I think it will be cool when they finish it. Of course it will be a long process as are many other projects but this will be a good one for everyone!

I also threw a family photo in. It's not very good (a little dark) but you can kind of see it. About a month ago, we decided to spend a Sunday going for a drive (yes, we skipped church). We drove down to American Falls. It was a really fun day. We stopped a lot along the way. We stopped and skipped rocks one place and Rodney let Claylyn drive around the parking lot. Then we drove around town just looking at stuff and then over to the top of the dam and then under it. It was real neat because we could see some fish trying to jump up the falls. It was a beautiful sunny and warm day. The kids climbed all over the rocks and explored everywhere. We took a ton of photos. Then we drove over to the fish hatchery and that was pretty cool. TONS of fish and didn't even smell at all (of course it was outdoors). They also had a feeding pond and so we dug through the car for quarters and dimes and bought lots of handfuls of food and fed the fish. That was fun. Then the kids and Rodney tried catching some of the fish by hand without falling in the pond...they never caught anything...and never fell in either (thank goodness!). Sasha loved throwing the food in and watching the fish come and grab it. She had her little pile and boy if anyone took anything from her pile they were in for it! One pellet at a time...takes forever. The kids actually stayed pretty clean all day.

Good times and memories!