Pearly whites

After 47 months Joe is braces free. I snapped this of him at our 'painting party' so ignore the mess behind him. Something was up with the flash so the photo is a little yellow. Luckily his teeth are nice and white! Oh, and have you noticed that in every picture of Joe on this blog he is standing in the kitchen? I think this is no accident. He just likes to be near the food. Where he puts it all, I don't know. If I had a sound track running you would hear him saying, "Mom, I am starving! What do we have to eat?".

Labor day

Labor day: A weekend to relax and enjoy the last surge of summer fun before really settling in to a school routine, right? Wrong. Doug decided that this weekend was a 'family workend". Yup, all of us were commissioned by Pa to paint the house. Doug had all the kids taping, scraping and painting. Joe and Bret put up new blinds in our back windows too. It was quite a lot of work. I had to leave for a few hours with Ana to do some visiting teaching, but otherwise, I was on the clock with the rest of the brood. Doug is a master 'cutter inner' and did not once nick the ceiling. I on the other hand couldn't keep the paint from jumping off my brush.

What color did we go with you may ask? Well, we used the same beige we had on the walls before. All of the kids begged us to do these wild colors. Doug and I liked a certain yellow color, but we had a bunch of kids contesting that choice. In the end, everyone said they like the color we have, so we went with it. I am doing an accent wall in the kitchen a brick red and we are keeping the trim the whitest white. I talked Doug in to doing a wainscoting in the hall so that should look great.

All in all it was a most productive day. I am really very proud of the children. They worked all day long with out one complaint. Now if I could just get them to clean their rooms with the same attitude.

Curvy?

Ok, so those of you who read my old blog may remember this, but I just had to laugh the other day when I was at the GAP. This is the photo they have to go along with their 'curvy jeans'. Now mind you, they have 'long and lean', 'classic boot cut', 'straight' and many more. Here is the little blurb that goes with these jeans

Who needs perfect genes when you've got fabulous jeans?

Insinuating that these are the jeans for the gals with, you know, a little 'extra fluff'. What the heck! Look at this girl. She has the figure of a twelve year old boy. Curvy jeans? Please.

Marriage Tag

I got this marriage tag in some random email. Kind of fun..
Marriage Tag
How long have you been married? 6 years but we say 18...we give ourselves 3 years for every year so we can catch up to our peers. After this year we will start counting by one so next year will have our 19th.
Where were you married? Las Vegas Temple
Honeymoon? Yes, San Diego and St. George
How old is your spouse? 43 in one week! Which is 3 years older than I am.
Kids? Yes, 4
Who eats more? Have you met Doug? :-) He does
Who said I love you first? Doug. We were at a park in Spring Valley eating Baja Fresh after we watched the dedication of the Nauvoo Temple at his old Stake Center. It was June 27, 2002. How's that for details!
Who is taller? Have you seen me? Doug is taller.
Who sings better? Doug, hands down
Who is smarter? Language and reading- me/ Math and science and everything else-Doug
Who controls the T.V. remote? Doug
Whose temper is worse? Mine
Who does the laundry? Me
Who does the dishes? Me. (Maybe all this cleaning is why I have such a temper!)
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Doug
Who cooks dinner? Me.
Who is more stubborn? Doug
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Probably me
Whose parents do you see the most? Mine, but we don't see either enough!
Who has more siblings? Me
Who wears the pants in the family? Doug...I would rather be happy than right...but every once in a while, I try to tell him which pants to wear. ;-)
I tag: Jori, Tasey and Becky

On my Honor

Did I mention that Sunday night our ward had a court of honor for four boys recieving their Eagle? It was great. Ricky and Conner left the next day for BYU. Bo had to come home from SUU for the event and Justin is preparing to leave for his mission in the winter so he is doing culinary classes down here at the college while he gets ready to go. To my surprise and delight when it came time for the boys to present their Eagle mentor pins I was asked to come forward. Each boy chose one adult as their mentor . Justin told the audience that he had long given up on attaining his Eagle but with my help he earned the rank. It was really sweet and I was blubbering! My kids all giggling at my tears! Millie snapped a photo though. (She thinks like a blogger)

Last night, we held a board of review in our ward. Many of the boys in Bret's class earned rank advancements. Bret earned his Star rank which is quite a feat for a 12 year old. Doug and I are working hard with him and we expect he will be an Eagle before he is 14. I have to get him to finish up personal management and personal fitness this month. We have been working on them since June. He only needs a handful of required badges and 'time' as we put it before he can get going on his project. He tells Joe all the time that he will get his Eagle 'younger' than Joe did. We think it won't be long before both our boys are Eagles. Anyhow, I am really proud of Bret.

School is IN

First day went with out a hitch. Up at 4:45 to make a big breakfast for our only seminary student. The rest of the kids got up early and ate with him, so we all had an early start today. Oh how I wish the kids would be this ready for school every day! Even Bret had his hair done! Really!

First day photos 2008! Take a look!

Goodbye Summer!

The things I will miss:

1. Staying up late with out a thought as to the next morning's alarm. (Like this night at the Breaking Dawn Party!)

2. Bare feet

3. Flip flops: Back to school means for eight hours each day I have to wear real shoes!

4. Being the only one awake for the first hour or so of my day. Doug leaves before I get up but when I do I get the house to myself for an hour or more before the kids arise.5. Phone calls: I really can't talk to Dee or Sunny all day long? Impossible!

6. Joey's shaggy hair: He reminds me of Moondoggy on the old Gidget movies. Remember how he came to pick Francis(aka Gidget) up for a blind date after summer was over. If you saw the movie you get my point. Here he is all cleaned up and ready for school.7. Millie's tan. Yes she does get a little bit less whitish blue in the summer.

8. Summer reading. No not the school kind. Just enjoying books with out feeling like I should be doing 200 other things.

9. Traveling. Even though we didn't venture too far from home this year, we still got away plenty.

10. Getting paid while not working. I know it sounds almost too good to be true, but it is one of the terrific things about teaching. Be it July or January, my paycheck just keeps coming.