First Day of School

Another school year has begun...sigh...I really do love summers with the kids and Jared being home. We have fun together. Jared always says whenever the summer begins that I'll be so sick of him by the end of summer that I'll happily send him off to work again. Well, he's been wrong every time. I can't wait till next summer comes again!

The kids started last Thursday. They were so excited. Their alarm goes off at 6:30 a.m. but I went weight lifting at 5:00 a.m. and when I got back Kenzie was already up and asking if it was time to get up yet. I told her to go back to bed and wait for her alarm. We have a cute CD that sings "Woo woo woo, we're late, we're late, it's time to get up." One minute after sending her back to her bed, it went off and the girls got out of bed faster than I have ever seen them get up before. (If only that would last!)

They began their morning schedule.

Get up, get dressed, brush your hair, eat breakfast, brush your teeth, family scriptures and prayers.

Of course this morning we had to take a first day of school picture.

Kenzie (3rd) Lexie (2nd) Eli (K)

Jared went outside with the girls to wait for the bus. It's nice with him there because cars see him and remind them not to blast through the bus's stop sign so our girls can cross safely.

Eli has afternoon school so I drop him off later. On this special first day of school, I was watching my niece, Jayne, and nephew, Max. They were excited for Eli to go to school.

Jordyn (2), Eli (5), Jayne (5), and Max (2)

 Eli in front of his school sign. (It seems like they could have fixed the missing 'o' from the sign sometime during the summer...but I guess not. )

Sorry it's blurry!

 Eli ran and got right in his class line. When the teachers started leading the kids inside a bunch of kids started crying and clinging to their moms, but not Eli. He was very ready to go.

 After school, all the kids ride the bus home together. I love that they can watch out for eachother. I sat in the lawn, per tradition from when my mom did that for me as a little girl, and waited or the kids to come home. They came running to me and hugging me. I love my kids so much!

So here's to a new school year! I hope it is a great one for you and your kids too!



Story of our back splash

After taking out our foe brick back splash, when we took out our old counters, we decided that we would go ahead and splurge on a proper back splash. We didn't want a brand new kitchen and have a nasty looking wall behind everything.

 So, I went searching for a tile that was neutral, that wouldn't clash with my counter tops, and looked like kitchen tile and not bathroom tile.

I went to Lowes and started searching. After looking a while, I called up my sister-in-law, Megann, and asked if she could come and give her opinion. I trust her decorating sense. She happily obliged me and once she showed up, we set to work finding the perfect tile. I initially thought that I wanted white subway tile but once I held it up to my counter/cabinet/floor samples it was too bright, too shiny, and too white. With that idea nixed, we thought glass tile...but it was too expensive. REALLY expensive. I said splurge on tile, not go bankrupt with tile!

We found some other tile that worked but I wasn't sure I loved it. Then...we found it. It was an 18x18inch tile for $1.50.  An associate was walking by and so I started to ask him about possibly cutting the tile into 4x18 strips. He said that it would cost 25 cents per cut which meant that it was going to cost me a lot of money. I mentioned that my tile saw at home wouldn't be able to handle that long of a cut compared to their industrial tile saw but having to pay for that many cuts would be to much for my budget. After a little bit more talk, the associate all of a sudden says, "You know what, we'll cut them for free." I was so happy!

(Now...depending on who you talk to, Me or Megann, you'll get a completely different story. Megann says that I flirted really bad with the guy. She said I was shameless. I don't know what in the world she is talking about! I was completely surprised that she said that. I was truly just being friendly! So, I may or may not have flirted with the guy to get him to cut all my tiles for free. It took him 3 hours...What? It's his job!)

Here is my beautiful tile.

 We borrowed our friend, Kaly Shippin's, tile saw and so here I am making some little cuts for around the light sockets.

 And here I am putting the tile in place. (See how nasty the wall is behind and how horrible it would have looked if we left it like that?)

 All finished. Pretty isn't it!

I have finished pictures of the whole kitchen but they are grainy so I am going to try and get some really good pictures for you to see....soon...ish.

Or you can just come to our house and see it in person!

Summer Fun

One of the favorite things for us to do in the Summer time is to go to the drive-in. You can get a double feature of two new movies and the kids only cost a buck and adults are only $7.00. We love to go! We take out all the seats in our van and fill it with blankets and pillows. Usually, the first movie is a cartoon movie and then the late movie is an adult movie.

 (Not adult as in bad but adult like PG 13)

The kids always fall asleep by that point.

 Jared and I set up our lounge chairs in front of the kids and we all sit back and enjoy.

 Another summer fun thing we did is join the Stake (9-12 LDS congregations make up a Stake) in celebrating our pioneer heritage. They had a pie eating contest. Jared did not want to have anything to do with it. He didn't even sign up. As a joke, our friend,  Shawn Marshall, signed Jared up thinking that he would just do it for him. He is new around these parts and didn't even think that everybody knows Jared and so he can't act like he is him without somebody knowing.

So...Jared did the pie eating contest...

He hated it!

 He scratched up his face from the graham cracker crust...

and had pudding up his nose.

 In the words of Cassidy, Shawn's wife, Jared says, "I will hate you (Shawn) for the rest of my life!"

(That is what Cassidy said would happen if Shawn signed her up for the pie eating contest too. Lucky for him, he didn't and she doesn't hate him, nor does Jared. )

Jared lost...and officially retired from pie eating contests!

RESPECT

I have a dear friend who did something pretty amazing. She admitted that she was wrong. Now, I don't know about you but when someone tells me that I did something wrong, I become defensive and excusive (I know that isn't a real word but you know what I mean when I write that...)

My friend, Mysti Lee, had a pretty frustrating day. She found out that her parents (they have their reasons) were taking back their car and phone that they had loaned to Mysti which resulted in her hubby not having a way to get to work. In a moment of passion, she wrote some very very strong explicatives on facebook for all to see, including me.

I have a really hard time with cuss words. I hear them and they stick in my mind and linger for days. Now, I don't cuss but my mind races with words that are pretty horrible and I have to try my hardest to not let them drowned my thoughts. So when I saw the explicatives printed right in front of my eyes on facebook where adult or youth could see, I just couldn't look the other way. (I don't like confrontation, I don't like telling people my opinions who are friends of mine but not ones that I see daily and who I am 100% myself with. I don't like to hurt people!) I had to say something to her, and I did. I wrote, "Why Mysti? You are so much more intelligent than that!"

Now, as little girls, it was funny because my sister, Kim, and my sister-in-law, Autumn, both were nanny's for Mysti's family. Vocabulary wise, Mysti's family had a lot more colorful things to say and when my sisters were babysitting for them, if the kids said bad words, they would get in trouble, a punch in the arm or something along those lines. (Punching the kids you babysit....not something I would do, but hey, whatever worked for them.)

So hearing me get after her for using such strong explicatives to vent her frustration, it knocked her back to her childhood. She knew she had done something innappropriate and instead of getting all huffed up and mad at me she sent me an apology. A real apology. A heartfelt apology. It meant so much to me that she would do that!

 And then, she went on Facebook and wrote this..."I said something today that i should not have said/posted. I got a reply from a great friend that knocked me bk to the old days of when her sisters used to babysit me and i would get punched in the arm for saying such words.. lol Well let me tell you i sure felt that punch today and i promise to watch what i post and say on this lovely facebook.. lol xoxoxox

Not only is she sorry for what she did, she is going to try and change her ways too. I don't know how much it matters to people if they have my respect but Mysti Lee Borum is at the top of my list. I look up to her for what she said to me and posted to everyone. Thank you Mysti for setting an example to me of taking criticism and becoming better because of it. Thank you so much!!!