So I had parent teacher conferences this last week. For most of the kids anyway. I don't know if they had any at the high school. HOWEVER, for the other 4 kids in school, these were the best meetings I have ever had with teachers, EVER. Not one negative thing. Everyone is doing fabulously. Everyone is extremely conscientious, and kind to others. Organized and responsible. AND super smart... I tell you after I talked to Jacobs teacher I almost cried. I have been "fighting" with Spencer's teachers for 10 years now and I was afraid that was normal. Until Sariah started school and they said she was perfect. I thought she was the oddball out. Not true! the rest of my kids have turned out to be great in school too! It makes me feel such... relief. You know how you wonder if you're messing up your kids because of your own insecurities and failings and whatever else, mainly because they behave like heathens at home?(maybe that's just me)...But then you find out that they really are OK, not just OK but excelling! Sigh, what a relief. Now if we can just get them to be that way at home....

So...Caleb looked at my hair a week or so ago and said to my husband, "Mom's turning into a grandma." That was it! I broke out the hair dye again.
I don't enjoy dying my hair so much anymore. It used to be fun, now it's kind of a chore. I don't have a choice though. It's either dye it or look like a 35yold grandma... So for those of you who have been blessed with the opportunity to have and keep your natural color...feel grateful and enjoy!
So I got the kids' school pictures...I put them on Facebook but since my husband still refuses to get an account, he has to see them here. They all turned out pretty good. I still don't know what's up with Caleb's hair, but everybody needs a school picture with messed up hair. And I see braces in the future for some of our kids, but for now let them be kids...snotty noses, messy hair and all that, because all too soon it will be over, they will be grown ...the last picture is proof of that.Jacob 5Caleb 7Gabriel 9Sariah 11Spencer 15

So...my kids had been healthy all summer. ALL SUMMER! and then (buh buh bum) school starts...AND we have already had HFMD(hand foot and mouth disease) run through all 7 kids. Last week, as a matter of fact. Then Gabe came home, decided it was time to throw up, and did so. I have taken to huffing Lysol. Not literally... well sorta, I'm spraying so much of it that some inhalation is inevitable. I have also grown quite fond of Germ-X. I'm thinking of starting a new line of perfume called "Ed du School illness." In favorite fall scents like Germ-X & Lysol Citrus Meadows.
as I said before, my husband was out at work for a month last hitch. This meant that he was only home for 12 days. Not enough decompression time if you ask me. He went back today, so it's on my mind. I also had the pleasant opportunity of tearing a bit of cartilage in my right shoulder. This causes a fantastic sensation of pain and on occasion some numbness and aching throughout my arm. Overall it has been a great experience. Sleeping is a real treat, too. so much fun. (I'm trying to have a positive attitude, is it working?) ((forcing a smile)) ANYWAY...I 'spose I should get some pictures on here of my kids, since they're all about a year older now. I'll find some good ones a bit later...((still smiling))

So my husband has been gone a WHOLE month and you think I would have taken time to write about something...I've been a little busy since he left. I started Sunshine Generation up here. Most of my time has been spent prepping for that, buying equipment (playing with equipment), and learning the songs a choreography that goes with it. I'm having a blast teaching, except for the fact that I have had to fire half of my own personal children after the first class. Methinks they're savages. Anyhoodle, my husband comes home tomorrow night. Sigh of relief. I sometimes feel like I am holding my breath until he comes home. Not always an utterly pleasant sensation, but after 4 years, I guess it's normal.
So along with Sunshine, I'm in the Primary Presidency again, and doin' P90X in the mornings and I'm singing again with the lovely group of ladies in the "Museum Singers" . Love it, love them. It's nice to be with grown ups and make some beautiful sound. Guess I'm busy. I miss art though. I miss the freedom that comes from creating something visual. If you're not an artist you probably don't get that. There is a mental escape that happens when I draw or paint. I get lost in my picture. I haven't been able to get lost for a long time. I have a room dedicated to art and craft stuff. It's the "craft" room...at least it's supposed to be the "craft" room, but to be honest it's the "crap" room. It's full of the catch all stuff that doesn't have a home yet. So no art or craft stuff is happening in the "crap" room. It will... eventually. Hopefully sooner than later.
The kids are all doing well in school. Even Spencer, (Holy Crap!) and it's about time for that. He's a good kid. Painfully smart to the point of being dumb sometimes. Sariah has all A's...except in math. That would be genetically my fault. Gabe is also doing well. He's peaceful to me right now. Caleb is...well Caleb and driving me CRAZY. Jacob is enjoying Kindergarten. It has helped him TONS, especially when it comes to sitting in Primary. Joey and Ellie are the only ones at home. There are even days when they don't try to kill each other. Joey goes to Kindergarten next year and then it will be just me and Ellie..........who knew it would go by this fast. Maybe then I'll organize the "crap" room...and draw pictures of the way "it" used to be.

An eternity on the throne

Before we went to Laramie, I made a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up some snacks. Spencer was still at Scout camp and so that left Sariah to hold down the fort for 15 minutes or so. When returned all the kids were contentedly watching movie downstairs...except one. I found Joey in the upstairs bathroom waiting for *help* so that he could get down. I asked him how long he had been up there waiting. In his saddest voice he flopped over and sighed, "Thirty Years!"
"Wow, buddy. That's a long time." Is all I could say. Then I turned and busted a gut laughing.

Packing the car for a trip is like checking out at the grocery store...all the stuff you took out never goes back in the same as it did the first time you put it there, be it the cart or your trunk.
So...I just got back from my hometown. I drove my 7 dwarfs 5 hours to visit my sister and niece who just moved up from Htown. We went with the element of surprise to help them and my sister's friend, that she managed to drag up North with her (we really like her, and actually I think she came for the Wyoming experience willingly) to help them move in. Some help we were. I went to visit an old friend in the AM and by the time we got there to help in the process, the 8 missionaries, that my mother had wrangled into helping, had the whole job finished in an hour. But, nonetheless, it was still good to go and visit. My children did pretty well for being crammed into my mothers tiny house, and for the fact that some of us had to sleep in a tent in the backyard. Yeah, that tiny. I eventually chose to be the one in the tent because it was so hot in the house. Thank goodness it cools down at night. I finally got used to sleeping outside, even though I was always a little aware and awake for most of the nights. The last night we were there Spencer and I were the only ones out in the tent. There was threat of thunderstorms but when we went to sleep the clouds were sparse and I chose to start the night with the rain flap off. Sometime during the early morning the wind picked up and the sprinkle started. I ignored it until I felt the little drops get through the tent. So I had to wake Spen up to help me get the rain flap back in place. Once done and back in bed I finally fell into a deep peaceful happy sleep listening to the sound of the rain hitting the tent. And good crap was I tired. Right when I was really starting to enjoy the land of good dreams, I heard a knock on the tent. It was my dad in his Eeyore voice, "Your mom says that you should wake up and look at this rainbow." Are you freaking kidding me? I obliged. and stuck my irritated head out the door of the tent and peeked around the corner to see...I wish I could say "the most spectacular sight in Heavenly space" but I can't...it was just a rainbow. and not that bright...(I guess I'm spoiled because when we get 'bows at my house across the field they are spectacular.) Did I get to fall back into that heavenly sleep? OF COURSE NOT... The only people who can probably appreciate this are those parents of multiple children that can count the nights of *super sleep* on one hand.
The overall trip was fine...not super. I'm sure that someday I will be able to count this as therapeutic. It was an emotionally multilayer-ed trip. Of which, I will not currently bore you with specific details.
I'm glad that Dawn and Sam and Jeanne live close enough to visit now. I'm glad that Jennifer and Bill have found a house (in my hometown, read into that what you will) to live in while they go to school. I'm glad that I have friends like Ben and Krista who are in the same phase of life that Jason and I are. I'm glad that the people who watched me grow up and struggle understand the real *why*, and I'm grateful that they can see how I turned out alright. I'm glad I don't live in the same house I grew up in. I'm grateful to have married the man I did, he definitely brought me *up*. Most importantly I'm glad to be home... and I'm glad we found that the dogs didn't die while we were gone, even though Lucky threw up about a pound of grass when we got here. Apparently he has separation anxiety.
that's all for now
good day to ya.

Holy UFO Batman!!!

So... when we were in SLC, wandering about a mall with 10 of *someone else's children*, and 2 of our own, Sariah bought a copy of Twilight. She's a crazy avid reader and so I figured the time would come, sooner or later, for her interest to hit these books. I conceded and let her read it. I've already heard all the books on CD, so I knew there were a few "mature" ideas floating around quite prevalently throughout the series. Regardless, I let her read it and then let her buy the other 3. Then I started to read them. Way better in print!
Late one night,(late, late, one night around midnight, after all the kids had finished watching a movie and fallen asleep) I was reading and getting ready for bed at the same time. I had just finished reading the part of the 3rd book where Jasper is telling his story about the newborn vampires, when I opened the door of my bathroom that leads to my bedroom. I looked down to watch my step as I walked out and my eyes met Lucky's, (he's the old dog.) There was this crazy excitement in his eyes, the same look that you might get from a tired 90-year old man if you showed him a picture of a lady in a bathing suit. I hadn't seen that kind of sparkle in his eyes in a long time. This is where the chain reaction started to happen. All of the following occured in about 5 seconds but some very distinct things happened in this order: First; question in my head...why are you looking like that? Second; What is causing you to look like that?(side note... we have a moth problem here. Well, I guess it really isn't a problem. They just find ways to occasionally get in the house and fly around the lights. No biggie. So as Lucky is starring at me with this "guess what I just saw!" look, I saw something flutter by the door. let's go back to what was happening in my head.)
Third; Wow, that's a big moth! Fourth; (as it flew by again) that's the biggest moth I've ever...WAIT a minute...that's not a moth, (flies by again) that's a bird! (Flies by again) WAIT that's not a bird...THAT'S A BAT!!!! SLAM goes the bathroom door panicking ensues. Think, think, think... Grab towel... thinking that I can flutter at it and send it out the door. Tip #1 Do not flutter a towel at a bat. They use echolocation to find where they are going and if you flap and flutter, they think you are either a threat or family and they will fly AT you. So there I was on the floor of the hallway, (we actually got out of my room), and I sent the dogs after it. The bat flew out to the living room and hung upside down off the popcorn ceiling, I kid you not. I was able to get a good look at it, from a distance mind you. It was the size of a medium sized Robin (that's a little funny) but it wasn't at the time, with its leathery wings wrapped around its body like a cocoon. It then flew back toward me and into the craft room. Its detour gave me the chance to shut the little boys room and all the other doors then run downstairs to retrieve the Boy Scout, Spencer. The conversation went like this, I said, "SPENCER, GET UP THERE'S A BAT IN THE HOUSE!" Spencer said, "cool."
We let the dogs outside. Boy Scout reminded me that there was a chance for the dogs to get bit and then that whole threat of possible rabies although statisically blah blah blah, thank you Spencer, how the crap are we going to get the BAT out of the house.
The next part of the story consists mostly of a lot screeching (my own), crawling around on the floor (me and Spencer), head covering (remember the towel), avoiding getting flown at, laughing (me and Spencer, mostly at each other, for crawling around on the floor and screeching),and Spencer saying "Holy Frack!"
We somehow managed to lure the bat out into the kitchen. We have fluorescent lights, I thought that maybe, just MAYBE, the bat might be attracted to the slight noise that comes from the lights. Maybe that wasn't the case, BUT, for whatever reason, the bat followed us out into the kitchen where we opened both sides of the french doors and waited while bat explored the kitchen and, what felt like, every area close to MY head. Eventually, the bat flew out the doors and we slammed them shut after it.
Needless to say Spencer and I were both a bit jumpy for the next couple of days. Any time a moth fluttered by, or a surround sound speaker (about the size of the bat) fell off the wall while we were watching a movie, we'd jump and have to fight the huge internal desire to hit the floor and screech, or throw out a "Holy Frack!"
Good day to ya

Jason bought me a new computer. Well lets back up. My old computer broke. boring. So I have been borrowing a friends for the last 3 months. Nice friend, I know. Because of that I haven't been too thrilled about downloading pics and doing "unnecessary" tasks on hers. Blogging was, what I thought, an unnecessary task. At least I thought that until my husband actually confessed that he missed my ramblings. How can I deny him the pleasure of reading my perspective of the chaos that is our life. Not to mention, now I have this nice new shiny computer, that he bought me, with which to ramble on. I will have to schedule time to blog, I s'pose. I may just trade my facebook time out for blogging. It's getting a little old over there in social land. So I'll get back to the good stuff. Me, my kids, and the occasional rant and random thought. So thank you, Jason, for the computer and for really paying attention to me, (when you're home) and this silly little blog, (when you're at work.) Love you.