HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Soccer Season Ends

Today we spent the day closing out the girls' soccer seasons! Whitley had her final game last night, and then her party this afternoon. She has had some really fun girls on her team this season. Some she knew from before, and some new girls! They went undefeated this season, and were awarded the sportsmanship award from the league.

Whitley with Coach Bullock
Maddie, Chantelle, Whit and Emily
The whole team doing some funky dance! Way to go Thunder! Can't wait for the next season

A Day in the Life of...

Tuesday November 17

3:30-3:45am - Kennedy wakes me with "Mom, I peed my pants! I didn't even feel it, but I peed!" She never does this. I have no idea what happened! Crawl out of bed, and take care of that mess.

4:45-5:10am - Alarm goes off to wake Colton for basketball tryouts. Make him some breakfast, and make sure he has everything he needs for school.

5:10am - Leave to take Colton to basketball tryouts/school.

5:30-7am - Crawl back in bed, and pray you can go back to sleep. No luck!

7 am - Wake Kennedy for a shower, since she peed her pants.

7:15am - Strip the sheets and blankets off Kennedy's bed since she peed her pants.

7:30-8:30 am - Make breakfast for the girls, and get them ready for school. Also pull myself together to go workout.

8:30am - Leave to take the girls to school.

8:45am - Drop the girls off at school and head for the church.

9- 10am - Play basketball at the church. Almost died! Will definitely be sore tomorrow.

10-11am - Go with a friend, who needs to vent about basketball, for a bagel. MMM, Einsteins!

11am - Finally head back home for a shower.

11:15am- 12pm - Take a much needed shower, and get "cleaned up".

12pm - 1:30pm - Wash the sheets and blankets from Kennedy's bed, since she peed her pants.

1:30pm- Leave for the school to help in Kennedy's class.

1:45-2:25pm - Help out in Kennedy's class.

2:30-3pm - "Pit stop at a friends house, before I have to get Colton from school.

3-3:40pm- Pick up Colton from school. Remember that Colton needs his math book for homework so we fly back home to pick it up.

3:40pm - Pick up the girls from school, and head to Heidi's.

3:40-4:15pm - Help Colton and Kennedy with homework. Get Kennedy dressed for
gymnastics.

4:15pm- Take Kennedy to gymnastics. While on my way to gym, Colton calls and needs another school book. Call my mom, and have her bring it to Heidi's house so he can finish homework!

4:40pm - Take Whitley to the church for activity days. They're going to a rest home to visit the elderly people. When they get there, they can't go in because of the swine flu! Back to Heidi's.

5:10pm - Leave Heidi's, with Colton.

5:15-pm - Pick up Kennedy from gym, head to KFC for dinner. Mac and cheese. It's what they wanted!

5:30-5:50pm - Eat dinner in the car in a friends driveway (pathetic I know). Send Colton in to friends house, so they can give him a ride to scouts at 7pm.

6- 6:10pm - Kennedy and I head to the softball fields so I can ref softball. Finish up Kennedy's homework in the car before it starts. Somewhere in here, Whit gets dropped of at the ball fields. Thanks Kim! Give her her mac and cheese that she eats on the bleachers. Mother of the Year!

6:15-8:30pm - Ref YW softball tournament. Girls run amok with friends, and play in the dirt! It's freezing outside, and I get yelled at for some of my calls. I talk back, cause I'm not in the mood! Probably should have ignored them!

8:35-8:45pm -Pick up Colton from scouts. He brings a friend out who needs a ride home, so we take Mason home.

9-9:15pm - FINALLY arrive home. Put the sheets back on Kennedy's bed since she peed her pants.

9:15pm. Girls are finally in bed. Completely filthy from playing in the dirt for 2 1/2 hours! Kennedy keeps saying that she's clean. That only her feet are dirty. Showers in the morning. Too tired.

9:25pm - After a shower, Colton is finally in bed. He had no choice but to shower tonight. We have to get up at 4:45am for basketball.

9:30pm - Check in with Landon. I miss him!

9:45pm - Lights out.

Primary Program 2009

Today was our Primary program. I wasn't sure what to expect, since our ward split 2 weeks ago, and the Primary presidency has only been in since the split YIKES! I have to give it to them. They did a great job. The kids sang their hearts out, and my girls both deliver their parts beautifully.

Veteran's Day

I took the kids to the zoo to celebrate Veteran's Day, and to get them out of the house! We took Rowdy with us, to give Heidi a much needed break! The weather was perfect, but I wasn't the only person with the idea to go to the zoo! For as busy as the parking lot was, we didn't have any trouble seeing the animals. It was a nice day off, for all of us.

Kennedy really did enjoy herself! Really, she did.

SOMEDAY

Do you ever get the feeling that just when you think you can't handle one more thing in your life, you get dumped on?? And maybe that "one more thing" isn't huge, it's just the straw that breaks the camels back. Life is stressful. I'm use to that. I can handle that. I like it better when my husband has a job that lets him live in the same state that the kids and I live in. And it's even nicer when we live at our own house! That doesn't seem like too much to ask for. But until that is, I can handle life. I don't like it, but I can handle it.

Sunday after church I took a nap. I always come home from church, get back into my pj's, fix pancakes for my kids and take a nap. It's not glamorous, it just is. Sunday was no different. Only it was. Somewhere between the stripping down to my pj's, and getting up Monday morning I lost my wedding ring. I always put it in the same place. ALWAYS. It's not there. In fact, it's not anywhere. We have torn this place apart looking for it. It's like it just vanished! I am so sad.

Today I went to the temple. I try to go on Tuesday mornings. Helps me get through the week. When I got out of the temple, I had a message from Landon to call him, so I did. He then proceeds to inform me that his truck, that we just spent a boat load of money on to fix a few months back, is back in the shop. Only this time, it just needs A NEW ENGINE! A new engine??? I'm no mechanic, but that can't be cheap! What to do? He can't sell it like that, and well he has to have a car. It's not like he can use mine until he figures something else out!

And so here we are. Sunday morning, I didn't think my life could get much harder. Today, I laugh at that naive fool! Someday, this will all be a distant memory, and hopefully I will have learned something from it all and will be a much stronger person because of it. SOMEDAY...

This Is It

I went and saw "This Is It" last night with a bunch of girls friends. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect. I mean, I liked Michael Jackson but wasn't necessarily his biggest fan.

I really liked it. I thought it showed how bazaar he really was, but also how musically gifted he truly was. He was timid and quiet, yet completely in control of that production. The musicians and dancers were just in awe of him. He was an amazing entertainer and will definitely be missed.

Scoutmaster Jim

About a week ago they realigned our ward boundaries. That is never easy, and you always end up losing great families! One of the people we lost was Colton's scoutmaster. Oh how we loved him. A couple of days after the split, I got this email from his. It made me love him even more!

Landon & Amy,

Since I’m terrible verbalizing my thoughts… hopefully this email will do better.

Now that I’m getting over being moved out of the ward, I want to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU!.

Colton is the model Deacon and Scout. It was sooo nice being his Scoutmaster. I’m totally bummed I won’t be there anymore.

he is respectful to leaders and fellow Deacons. He lives by the Scout Oath and Law.

At last week’s camporee, a man at the flag ceremony gave a little speech about being a “doer”. He said “every scoutmaster has boys in his troop that are doers and some that aren’t” I immediately said under my breath, “Colton and Chip”. They are the ones I go to when I need something done without arguing, debate, whining, or hesitation….. and do it happily! It’s obvious Colton has been taught well at home. Boys like him make being a scoutmaster a blessing.

I didn’t want this to sound too sappy… just some of my thoughts and feelings. You can/should be very proud of Colton and the way you’re raising him.

Keep up the great job!

Scoutmaster Jim

As a parent, you try your hardest, and sometimes think you're doing okay. Most of the time you KNOW you can do better. It's just nice to hear every once in while that your kids are turning out okay! I love Colton so much and am so proud of the young man he is becoming.

Crazy Hair Day

Today was yet again another half day at school. When it's half day at the elementary, it's also a "spirit" day. Today was Crazy Hair Day. It was ALSO "Bring you Dad to School Day". Whew! Well, our dad is in Seattle, so Kennedy asked my mom to go with her. They had a great time. I went with Whit to her class, which was also having Colonial Days. We made butter, and corn husk dolls and all kinds of good stuff! The girls got a lot of comments about their do's.

My mom drove her own car since she was leaving before me. There were a million cars because of all the dad's so we had to park along the street in a neighborhood. I parked first, and my mom parked in front of me. She wanted to get close so that she didn't get hit. (We parked near the corner) I'd say she got close enough!!

October (In a Nutshell)

Okay so I am busy, but not so busy that I can't sit down every once in while and blog a little. It's just that once you get so far behind, you kinda don't know where to start. This is my one and only "catch up" post, and then I'm looking forward from here on. Please don't feel any obligation to read on, or really look on as most of this will be pics.
I spent most of October in my car. The kids and I are still with my parents, which really hasn't been too bad. My parents are great, and so helpful. And with all of the stuff we have going on, we're really not here too much. It's a good combo. Here are a few pics and details of the last 30 days...
Colton on cooking breakfast on a scout camp out. They "camped" on a houseboat, and went skiing the next day.

Colton getting his football jersey.

The weather has been beautiful here. Kennedy still loves to go and feed the ducks that live near Grandma and Grandpa

We've spent a lot of time with Heidi and her boys. We stop off at her house while in between activities! They are moving to Utah at the end of this month, and we are going to miss them sooo much.

We have spent countless hours at soccer games and practices. Kennedy is doing really well, and following in Whitley's footsteps.

After a frustrating flag football season, Colton made the All Star team. He loved playing with the All Stars and his school took 2nd place!Whitley has had several of her soccer games on Friday nights. It's so nice to sit in the cool air, and watch her play under the lights. Her team is undefeated so far! This is the only picture I have of her "soccer" and it's of the sunset before the game even started. Don't worry, I have plenty of pictures of Whitley playing soccer! It seems like the kids were out of school a ton in October. They get a whole week of for fall break, and had several half days. On one of the half days, the girls and I dipped pretzels in caramel and chocolate. YUMMY
And then of course Halloween. Whitley's class made homemade ice cream the Friday before Halloween.
And Kennedy's class did lots of fun art projects.

Landon was able to be here for the Halloween weekend. We went to our ward trunk-or-treat, a neighborhood party (in the neighborhood where we're going to buy a house) and then the kids went trick or treating alone this year. Well, when I say alone, I mean with 10 to 15 of their closest friends, Landon and I sat on the driveway of our goods friends, laughed our guts out and handed out candy! By the time the weekend was over we were trashed.

Kennedy was a Skele-Rocker

Whitley was a Cardinals Cheerleader
Colton was Mr. Firley

So there you go. Way more that you ever wanted to know about what we've been doing!