a really big nutshell!

{After finding a renewed desire to blog, I have posted only twice! Not because I haven't thought of what to blog about, I have! Every day I have a blog dialoge with myself that just doesn't seem to make it past my brain! But, I started October already behind in ALL of my responsibilities which means I just don't make it to the computer with time to write! This post was suppose to be our crazy October in a nutshell, but it has become a really BIG nutshell (post). So, don't feel obligated to read it all. You'll get the gist if you read the headlines. And hopefully understand why I have posted so infrequently!}

Sunday, October 1st
A life changing General Conference!

Today is the second day of General Conference and I am feeling quite overwhelmed by all the speakers that are talking directly to me! I want to reread several of them right now!! Do you have any favorites? I SO needed Elder Ballard's counsel for simplifying our service in the church. And didn't you think Elder Perkins was right on when he said Satan's tools are false inadequacy, exaggerated imperfections and guilt! Could you listen to Elder Holland without weeping? I could go on and on, but just want to say that I am SO grateful for the opportunity to hear our prophet speak and to receive direction from the leaders of the church. As I start this month so far behind in everything I need/want to do, I have gained some perspective and insight that brings peace and hope to my heart! This gospel is GLORIOUS!! How blessed I am to know of its truth!

Fabulous Fall
(Remember my post, long ago, about our fabulous day at Sundance? Here are the pictures finally!!)
























Mondays
Music Lessons- wonderfully chaotic

Kate finally has a piano teacher again. Megan is back at violin after taking two months off (her teacher is pregnant and had a really rough first trimester). So, I am back to enforcing music practice and running the girls to lessons on Monday afternoons. I drop Megan at 4:15, then take Kate at 4:30, pick-up Megan at 4:45 and pick-up Kate at 5:00 so we can get home and make dinner and try to have FHE!

Tuesdays
Dance
Kelly and I are taking a dance class through UVSC's Community Education program. (Same way I took my photography class last winter and if I wasn't going to miss two classes, I would be taking a bookmaking class! I LOVE community education!) Can you guess what class? Ballroom? No. We took that class a couple of years ago and had a great time! But you only learn a couple of steps for each of the four dances and we never have anywhere to dance them! Bellydancing? No. But that's what my brother guessed. Comedian.
We're taking Salsa dancing!! Yep! And it is SO fun! We hope to use it on our cruise. We are not very stylish when we dance, but we are having a good time!

Presidency Meeting
The way schedules have worked out, the "best" time for my presidency to meet is after dance class on Tuesday nights. So, without dinner and in my dancing shoes, I head over to the church to discuss the needs of our primary. I love the women called to serve with me, but I haven't been getting home until after ten. It will be nice when my evenings are not so busy and so late!

Wednesday, October 4th
Activity Days, SEP's, Bookclub- all in one night!

Seriously, we were lucky to survive this day! Kate and Megan both had Activity Days from 4-5pm. I picked them up early so we could head over to the school for SEP's. For those of you who don't have school kids yet, SEP's are the same thing as parent-teacher conferences. I don't remember ever going to one as a student but now the student comes too and we review how the child is doing in school. What this really means is that I had ALL my kids in tow!

I worked really hard to schedule all my SEP's on one night. I visited with four teachers, the principal (he asked me to run for community council and wanted to make sure I voted for myself- funny huh!) and the speech therapist (Megan is still having trouble saying her R's). It went great, but made for such a crazy night!!

• Kate was first at 5:00pm. Her teacher said that Kate is a great student who works hard and she loves how much Kate loves reading and talking about books.
• Next, we went to Emily's class. Her teacher loves her! I am stunned because at home, Emily is a beast. She slams doors and yells at everything and everybody. But at school. so far, she is great and her teacher loves Emily's laugh, the way she talks and that she works hard at everything she is asked to do.
• We had a little window, so we went to the book fair. That was crazy, but we picked up a handful of new books since my kids have read everything we have in the house!!
• At 6:00pm, we met with Megan's teacher (and the speech therapist to sign all the paperwork so she can get help). Megan is of course adored and scored the highest in the class on their big Math review.
• Finally, we met with Soren's teacher at 6:30pm. She loves Soren and his happy disposition. BUT, the first time I have ever had a "but" at an SEP, he is having trouble following the rules and he is talking during work time. I'm not surprised, I have the same problems with him at home! And she was really positive about it and suggested ways to improve. So, we'll work with Soren on following directions better!

THEN... I ran over to Collette's house for bookclub. Luckily I finished the book early in the day, although I can't remember for the life of me what we read- that's how crazy this month has been! I LOVE bookclub- in the midst of such a crazy life, it always rejuvenates me! We met again last week for Kite Runner, which I liked. Now I wish we were meeting again sooner! Once a month just isn't enough of such good friends, good food and good conversation!

Saturday, October 7th

Today we had Stake Baptisms (I was in charge this month), a birthday party, a BYU game, grocery shopping to do, a messy house to clean and packing to start. Sheesh! Is October over yet?

October 10th to 16th
The Evergreen State
My kids don't have school Thursday through Monday, so we decided to drive to Seattle! Crazy, I know. Five kids in the car for fourteen hours... but we survived and had a great time! It added to the chaos of last week, to be packing and making trip preparations. But it was SO worth it! We could not have asked for better weather, better accomodations or better company!

We stayed at "the lake house". The name carried over from my grandma's original house that had to be knocked down. It sits right in the corner of Kitsap Lake. There is very little left from when I lived there as a child- no ponds, very few trails, even the driveway isn't quite in the same place. But, the house is beautiful and you couldn't help but feel happy and relaxed in it. The side facing the lake is all windows, providing a beautiful, serene view of the water and the trees. {Kelly was so funny, he could not get over the trees in Washington. They are not like trees here. It's not just that they are tall, although they are, but they seem to envelope everything.}

We were able to do a lot in our few days there and still feel relaxed, like we were on vacation! Some of the highlights include:

• eating fish and chips at Ivar's Fish Bar on the Seattle waterfront- 3 times!!!
• riding the ferry boat
• walking down to the dock each morning to feed the ducks/geese
• shell hunting on the beach in Indianola- two wonderfully rare, sunny hours!
• driving by my old houses in Poulsbo
• exploring the lake property and finding the love seat I helped my grandpa Paul build
• eating blackberries right off the bush!
• Paper Source and Impress Rubber Stamps (if only there had been time for Crate and Barrell, the Container Store, Papyrus and many other fun stores!!)
• playing with cousins Rachel, Tyler and Rebecca
• catching up with Elizabeth
• pizza at Tony's, Scott's treat! Thanks Scott!!
• standing next to the Space Needle
• the Frog Hopper at the Seattle Center
• pink champagne cake
• visiting the grave site of my Grandma Fran and Grandpa Paul, who raised their family of eight children on the lake property we stayed at

Wednesday, October 18th
Happy Birthday Soren!!

With our trip and all the other stuff going on, I sort of spaced Soren's birthday! So I had to pull a last minute birthday "party" together. Angela, Micah and Nathan were all gracious enough to meet our family at Chuck E. Cheese for pizza, games, and a few presents. Luckily, my kids are pretty easy to please. I felt really bad for a few hours and then decided, it was the best I could do at the time. He was happy with everything- why should I care if it wasn't a fabulous friend party with all the fixings?

In celebration of Soren turning seven, here are seven things I LOVE about Soren:

• He has the best smile! Ear to ear on this kid!
• He is my best dishwasher loader. He hates it, but he sticks his hands in the muck and gets the job done!
• He is really athletic. Too bad his mom and dad won't sign him up for sports!
• He is a huge football fan. Mostly BYU, but he'll watch any game and is quickly learning the rules, calls, and positions!
• He loves school.
• He is so enthusiastic about things!
• He gives the best man hugs- a term coined by Uncle Ben when Soren tried to give him a good night hug and kiss and Ben said, "No Soren, men do it like this," and he shook Soren's hand and slapped him on the back with his other hand!!
  

it's okay, breathe!
So, the third week of October meant home & regroup from trip on Monday, dance and presidency meeting on Tuesday, birthday on Wednesday, temple night on Thursday, community council meeting on Friday, practice for the Primary Sacrament Meeting Presentation (did I mention that I wrote the program and came up with the seating assignments!) and watching the kids from our temple night trade on Saturday, and ward council on Sunday. And October is still not over! UUGhh!

Sunday, October 29th
Primary Sacrament Meeting Presentation

I think our Presentation went really well. I sat on the stand, inbetween the piano and the organ, so I couldn't see what the parents did. But, I received many compliments after it was over and all through the week. Of course, the first thing Angela said to me afterwards was, "Do you want to know all the embarrassing things your kids did?!!" I said no. I'm choosing to believe we did a great job and got our message across.

This is an exerpt from my President's Message:
Our theme in Primary this year is I will Trust in Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ: Their Promises Are Sure. “Sure” is a small word. Just four letters. But when we say that their promises are sure, we are saying that we have confidence in them. That we do NOT doubt them.

In Primary, we have talked about many promises Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have made to us. We have learned where we can find a record of those promises. And we have felt the Spirit testify to us that indeed those promises are sure.

It is our prayer today, that through the words, those spoken and those sung, the Holy Ghost will teach you that Heavenly Father loves you. He has a plan for your happiness. His Son, Jesus Christ, lives. He is our Savior. And Their promises to us are sure.

After I spoke, the children sang Holding Hands Around the World. When we first started learning this song, I was really annoyed. If felt like one of those LDS contemporary songs that did not belong in a church setting. But it has become my favorite. EVERY time the children sing it, I get weepy because I believe them when they sing it!
The sweet, tender voices of the girls sang first,

There are children singing all around the world,
Happy voices ringing out the joyful word:
We are children glowing with the gospel light,
Standing tall, walking strong, choosing right.

Then the boys,

There are children leading out in ev’ry land
Who believe in keeping all the Lord’s commands.
Like the stripling warriors, we go forth in faith,
For we know that the Lord is our strength.

Then in full volume, all the children-
from the youngest sunbeam to the nearing 12 year olds

We are children
holding hands around the world,
Like an army
with the gospel flag unfurled.
We are led by His light,
And we love truth and right.
We are building the kingdom of God.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is NOT my favorite holiday. It is really quite chaotic and stressful. We spread out the "fun" this year and it helped keep me in a good mood.

Sunday: We had Angela & Micah, Ben & Melissa, and Nathan all come over. We had our traditional Halloween dinner:

• Blood and Bones soup (tomato soup with popcorn)
• Pumpkin Toast (bread and cheese cut with cookie cutter and toasted to melt the cheese)
• Spiders (hot dogs cut into four on each end and boiled to make legs)
• Eyeball Punch (white grape juice with peeled grapes floating in it)
• Ghost Toast (toast cut with a cookie cutter, spread with cream cheese and raisins for eyes)
• Witches Toes with Fungus Sauce (carrot sticks with olives on the ends and green dyed ranch dressing)

We carved pumpkins while we had lots of hands and they turned out great!! I would not have enjoyed this without such great help! Thanks gang!!


Monday: We made sure all the costumes were ready. From undershirts to sock to gloves to headbands, everything was gathered BEFORE the big day. We put the candy in our cauldon, ready to hand out and hung our trick or treating bags by the garage door.

Tuesday: Everyone, but Soren who had a field trip, put on their costumes and we were ready for school with minimal fuss. But the rest of the day was typical of Halloween.

I spent the morning helping in Emily's class. My job was to read stories. Then I came home to get ready for the evening. Of course, Ethan was highly disagreeable so I got nothing accomplished (including my window decorations, usually a big hit) and after school I had to head over to Target with ALL my kids just to get film.
It was NOT worth the trip! We were there too long. We tried to come home but ran into several accidents (I only live 7 miles from Target for heaven's sake!) and even had to detour from our back road to the freeway! I kid you not! We raced in the door at 5:10, quickly fixed hair while Soren threw on his costume (Ethan just went without one!) and we headed out the door at 5:20 for "trunk-or-treat" at the church. We forgot the camera, but arrived just on time. I handed out treats while Kelly walked with the kids. We were home by 6:10!
We ate Gandalpho's sandwiches (I asked Kelly to pick them up and he was smart enough to even call first and they were ready when he got there so he got home in time to go to the church! Isn't he a smart guy!!) Then, Kelly took kids around the neighborhood. Kate opted to stay home because it was so cold and windy and Ethan had enough treats from the church, so the two of them answered the door and I read! What a treat after a crazy day!! And how relieved I was when the lights went out and the kids went to bed!

{That was October- in a nutshell (ha ha!!) We survived and even had some high points.

I must like to be busy because November is starting off much the same! I am sure though, that I do NOT like crazy! How did my life get to be so crazy?!! I keep saying I'll get to things when it slows down, but that is looking like March! So, for now, we try to make some time to breathe, to sit and to remember how blessed we are! Blessed to have family and friends that help us. Blessed to have good health and strength to do what is asked. Blessed to have hope and peace from the gospel amid all the chaos in our lives!}