Business Trip

 Business trips are no new thing here.  They don't happen too often, but often enough that they're not usually News.  The thing that made this one unique (besides the fact that it was to Oregon and we really wished I could go too) is that we had to pick Michael up from the airport.  So of course I took my camera.  The girls have never been in the airport before, so we parked and walked in all 100 feet you can go before hitting security.  They enjoyed watching airplanes while waiting for Daddy.  And of course we were very happy to have him back home where he belongs.

Ukulele Club

 So Kate has a ukulele.  It's awesome.  It's pink.

At school they have a ukulele club that learns / plays together.  This year they had a chance to play at a district board meeting (apparently our school gets a chance to perform once every 7 years, so this is a big deal).  I went along as a parent helper.

Unfortunately the bus never came to pick us up!!!  They finally got another bus in the area to come around, but had to wait 45 minutes, and were very late.  Oops.  The kids line up in height order for the performance. Naturally Kate is the line leader :)

The principal introduced the school and they played for the board members.  They liked it so much they asked them to come back and play again facing the audience.  First performance and they already got an encore!

Then the choir performed a couple of numbers and the ukulele kids squished around the door to listen.

I apologize for the poor quality of this video.  I had my camera but forgot my memory card so I had to do this all on really low res.  And I was at the back during this piece so I had to zoom way in.  Just don't get sea-sick.

The board enjoyed the performance so much they asked the groups to come perform again at a luncheon for the grandparent volunteers for the district!  My mom got to come along too as a helper at this one.  I love how she and Kate ended up matching.

We had to wait... and wait... and wait... in an itty bitty room with a lot of hyper kids.  It was quite something!

Then they finally got to go perform.  It was adorable.  And the folk songs they performed were favorites of the grandparents'!

I'm so glad Kate gets this chance to play something she enjoys for others.  I love when she makes up her own songs and sings them for me too.  

Happy 6th Birthday to Sabrina!

Ah, this girl!  She's a real kick in the pants.  Sometimes literally!  (If we're not "Friends" on Facebook you might have to ask me sometime about the WalMart goosing incident).  She comes up with the funniest, sweetest, most random things in the world.

6 years old.  Amazing.  Time flies!  It's felt like only about.... 6 years since she was born!

Sabrina's birthday was rather low-key.  I discovered the next day that I had strep, and I wasn't feeling well.  I tried to do right by my baby girl, though.  But mostly I just banked on two things: 1- she's still young enough that little things mean a lot.  2- Sabrina is a delightful gift-getter.  She can get SO excited about nothing at all!  (Naturally she can be a grump too... but we're going to focus on the positive.  She really is fabulous about rhapsodizing about any tiny thing.)

One of our birthday traditions is that the birthday girl (or boy if it's Daddy's birthday of course) gets to choose breakfast.  This normally includes some fancy sugar infused cereal.  Everybody gets one bowl, then the birthday celebrant gets to choose how to distribute the remainder.  I always expect them to gorge or hoard.  They usually just share it with their sisters though!

 Sabrina reading Foxtrot comics while eating her Cocoa Krispies

Since it was Friday (playgroup day!) we made some special cupcakes and went off to the park to share a morning sugar jolt with whichever friends made it to the park.

It was rather chilly.

Nobody else came.

 This was during Health and Safety week.  This day's theme was "I can keep my body healthy from the inside - out" and the kids all got to wear their clothes inside out.  See?  There WAS a purpose in her inside-out clothing.  This day.

So we went to plan B and dropped by unexpectedly at our old neighbors' house.  They even let us come share our cupcakes (see?  they're in cute itty bitty jars!) at 10:00 am :)

As an extra bonus they had the house all decorated to celebrate Sabrina's birthday!!!  Sabrina said "Oh thank you!!!  But I know it was really for Abish's birthday yesterday.  But it's still cute."  (Friend Abish there has a birthday the day before Sabrina's.  They've celebrated together before.)

After school Grandma came over and we had a mini-party on the front porch.  The sun had finally come out and it was beautiful out there.  Besides, local flora improved the look of my top-notch wrapping.

 Before you judge my wrapping let me remind you: I had strep!

Sabrina was delighted by her presents from her sisters.

And her beautiful hand painted rock-magnets in the personalized box from Grandma

And from Daddy and Mommy she got the present she's been asking for since... July I think?  Seriously.  She saw this thing at Babies-R-Us when I was there looking for something.  She reminded me of it and found it other places all the way up to her birthday!  She was SO happy we remembered.

My favorite part is when she finally tore the top notch outer wrapping and squealed with delight: "Paper towels!!!!!".  I guess the bar was set pretty low for this gift?

After the mini-party we went as a family to see The Smurfs.  That was a grand sacrifice on the parental front, but the movie was actually decent.  We went to the Spanish 8 theater (cheap tickets and cheap concessions!) and had a great time.

Then we went home and Kate read a book about cats out loud to her sisters while I made dinner.  Sabrina's special birthday dinner.  I let her choose ANYTHING at all!  She chose...

Boxed macaroni and cheese.  Be not afraid, though!  It's the Phineas and Ferb shaped variety.  Cause that's how we celebrate.

My Little Punkins

I don't think these need a lot of words here.  Just felt like taking festive pictures of my girls :)

I just need to sift through the hundred (or so) pictures I took a the pumpkin patch and I may get around to posting again!  I also need to share photos of our adorable kittties :)

August... still?

I've been putting off this post because I'm lazy.  And I wanted to get the pictures all edited and organized.  Finally I gotta get this all done so I can get up to date!

Thus: August.

We got to go on a company activity with all the families of employees of Q90 where Michael works.  We each got a full day activity wrist band and we all spent the day together up the canyon at Snowbird Ski Resort.  It was gorgeous!!!

None of the lines were too bad, which was good.  These girls didn't have THAT much patience ;)

All three girls loved the bungee trampoline.  It took a little bit, but they all figured out how to do flips.  I don't even know how many times they each did the tramp.  I was exhausted just watching them!

There was a friendly $20 to whomever from the group could stay on the mechanical bull the longest.  Most of the big boys could handle up to a minute.  Kate stayed glued to that thing for 5 minutes!  I even got it on video.  It took some real work for the bull driver to shake her.  Lizzie's last time she got almost as long as Kate had too.  Sabrina was really sad to be too young for this ride.

The ski lift was tons of fun.  We rode up it to get to the alpine slide (which we each rode several times) and to get to the zip line (which none of the girls were heavy enough for, but I rode twice -- once with Michael, once with my mom who came with us too).

Up close!  Proof we were all there :)

 Alpine Slide

Ropes Course.  All the girls did really well on this!  The walkways are probably 15 feet above the ground but it was fun!

 End of summer splendor.  It was breathtaking at Snowbird!

We took the Peruvian Chair Lift to the top of the mountain.  It's a long, slow (45 minutes roundtrip) trip.  It was nice and cool and a very relaxing break between sliding down mountains and jumping on trampolines.

There were still patches of snow at the top!

 Passing over Daddy and The Girls while my mom and I were riding the chair lift to take our turn on the zip line.  Up and over them!

 We did apply sunblock before our fun day, but apparently we weren't vigilant enough.  I love how Lizzie ended up with a hand print of non-burned skin on her cheeks.  We were all pretty thoroughly burned and very tired at the end of the day!

To round out the wonderful day we had a company dinner at Brick Oven.  The balloon guy there (he's so cool!) made these brilliant creations.  Sabrina got Cinderella (who she determined made a great hat), Lizzie got a giraffe she named Linda, and Kate got an alien ray-gun shoulder-sitting hat.

We love the company Michael works for, and this is one little reason why -- they really care about the families of the employees.  This was the biggest vacation we had all summer but it was absolutely wonderful.  I highly recommend Snowbird Resort in the summer months.  And if you choose to go up there -- go for the day pass.  We did so many fun things it would have cost us several times what was payed for the passes to do it all!  (There were also a bunch of smaller kid bounce toys / rock walls / etc. that just aren't pictured here).

As a sidenote: this seems a fitting farewell to summer post as we got enough snow today that the girls made a snowman!  I expect it will get warm again, but it sure is cold today!

Goals: Update 11

1- Sew at least one new item of clothing for me. -- a little detail work still needed.  Ugh.

2- Make great room (and/or family room) curtains.-- With the addition of our kitties I think the lace draperies in the living room will need to be changed first!

3- Go one mile (run/walk) in 12 minutes or less -- 

4- Clean out and sort jewelry boxes

5- Catch up one year of scrapbooks-- Oh my.

6- Read the entire Book of Mormon
 
7- Get a new family picture taken
 
8- Clean out my bedroom closet

9- Sort my craft type items (including sewing) -- This is making good progress!

10- Make a new temple dress (does not fulfill goal #1) -- 

11- Be involved in at least one PTA project at the elementary school 

12- Get last year's blog book printed and bound 
 
13- Make some nice hair pretties for MY daughters
 
14- Read some classic literature -- Finished Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jane Eyre,  Treasure Island, and let Michael chose my next book.  Up next: Les Miserables.
   
15- Plant something and keep it alive 
 
16- Improve dysphonia to be able to sing again with less pain -- I have worked on this.  It's not working very well, though.  Mostly I have to take a lot of breaks between singings.  

17- Learn two new hymns on the piano -- 
 
18- Plan and enjoy a family vacation (even if it has to be in Utah County) 
 
19- Back up all digital photos on new DVDs (or other storage device) and store safely  -- I found my external drive again!

20- Participate in fruit and vegetable co-op when possible and learn new ways to enjoy produce 
 
21- Create a 7 generation pedigree chart

22- Finish quilts for the girls' beds -- 

23- Take a class through the community programs -- Concert in a week and a half!
 
24- Follow FlyLady principles to get/keep the house in a happy state.  -- I am learning to also accept the baby steps I'm capable to completing.  

25- Read a book by a church leader 
 
26- Spend $1,000 to improve financial outlook (pay off debt faster, put in savings, etc.) 

27- Look at the stars more 
 
28- Clean the Sharpie "artwork" off the playroom walls 

29- Update our family's emergency preparedness --  Definitely time to get this one addressed!

30- Learn to use the lenses and settings on my camera 

31- Return and report progress on my goals -- Ready or not, my birthday is coming!

One Year

So much can change in a year!  This is what I was doing a year ago.  Nasty surgery.  Fourth surgery within 7 months.  Strangest combination of calmness and terror ever.  I decided in January that I would keep track of my healthy days to help me realize how much healthier and pain free my days are than I imagine them.  Alas, it was a good idea which backfired.  My body doesn't do pain-free.  Most days are mostly decent.  That's good enough I suppose.  I've had it bad enough long enough that I can be grateful for manageable pain levels and understandable medical issues.

In the last 12 months since the major surgery I've only had one anesthetized procedure (an upper digestive scope) and just a few visits to the ER (post-op issues, severe upper digestive pain still not diagnosed).  For me this is a good record!  I have had the physical strength and energy to do what I needed to be able to do this last year (what with the move and all that).  I'm finally starting to lose some of this stubborn weight.  If I could get some of my meds balanced out again I may even have the motivation to get other things (like dishes and laundry) accomplished!

One thing that made life easier through the medical issues is that my husband and daughters were quite healthy.  This year was less cool that way.  I would rather have had another hospital stay than have Lizzie in the hospital for a day with pneumonia.  I decided a few years ago that I'd be fine with continuing to take the brunt of the medical misfortune as long as it meant the others were healthy.  I wish that was something I could get an assurance on.  Unfortunately I've had to learn to be the one who wants to fix something but cannot.  I hate feeling helpless though.  Especially to my children.

One year without surgeries.  Let's see if we can make it two!