I SURVIVED!!!!

I did it!! And she did it!!!! I survived my first child getting their driver's license!!! Fruzsi (our exchange student) took her driving test today. I rode along because it's so cold outside and I had no where to wait. I was good and didn't make any comments although there were several times I wanted to remind her to use her signal and to brake sooner before a stop sign!! The roads were really slick this morning, too, so it was a bit worrisome to have her driving. I took her to a parking lot a few nights ago and had her drive around to feel what it felt like to skid on ice when going around a corner and trying to brake. She did *really* well!!!!! I'm glad we did that because it helped her today.
So, she's legal. We are giving her a set of keys for Christmas. Brian and I realized she doesn't even have a house key (although she knows the garage door code so she hasn't needed the key!). I'll put one of the garage door openers on a key ring along with a car key and house key. I think she'll really like it. Now the question is, do I really let her drive?????

December already???

Is it really that time of year again already???? Wow.
Let's see, I have 2 birthdays this weekend (Jonah is turning 10 and Ronan is turning 6!!) that I haven't even started to really think about or plan for, Pack night for Scouts on Wednesday (Jonah has earned his Bear), a company dinner party, I have several customer orders to get shipped out and oh, yeah, Christmas is next Tuesday!!!!! Life is busy!
The Christmas shopping is mostly done for our family. The boys are all getting new scriptures and Isabeau is getting some scripture/Church related board books. The boys will probably get some Legos or K'nex from 'Santa' and Isabeau is getting a new doll (although that is *not* from 'Santa', it's definitely from Mom and Dad!!!)
We don't really talk too much about 'Santa'. The kids have never written letters to him. We prefer to focus on Christ and giving, not receiving. He does show up despite our lack of attention but he is only allowed to leave one gift per child and a stocking stuffer (along with the candy, orange, etc. that goes in the stocking).
I love Christmas time!!! I love that people are kinder, more thoughtful of others. I love giving!! I love the nativities lining the top of my piano and often wonder if I should just leave them there all year. I love the music, lights, trees and decorations. I love celebrating the birth of my eldest brother and Saviour, Jesus Christ. It's such a wonderful time of the year!!

Officially in business!!!

I am officially in business!! I am a new Independant Mary Kay Beauty Consultant! My Grand Opening was today and it was great!!! With 9 people getting facials and several others dropping in to see us, it was a success! I made some money (pretty good, actually), got 5 bookings and have over 20 names to contact about doing facials for!
I've been using Mary Kay products for about 15 years. I've been looking for something to do from home for about a year. It finally dawned on me that I have had the perfect company sitting right in front of me!! I thought about it for about a month before deciding I was ready to go ahead. And everything has fallen into place very smoothly! I've had incredible support from my family that I can never express enough gratitude for!
I am really looking forward to this opportunity!

Back to reality???

We had a fabulous trip to Arizona last month!!! We loved traveling in the RV we rented and will definately do that again! If you haven't ever traveled by RV, I highly recommend it!
After getting home, I went to work in the potato harvest. Money is a "bit" tight and while harvest hours are long, school is out and I had built-in babysitters at home so it all worked out well. I worked about 125 hours in 2 weeks. And that is with Sundays off and 3 days of snow and rain when we couldn't dig. As I said, long hours! My longest day was 14 hours. The shortest was 7 (it started snowing and you can't dig potatoes in the snow!).
I'm glad to be back at home. The kids are back in school and life is returning to a sort of routine.

Are we there yet?

I can just hear it already. :-) We leave tomorrow to head for Arizona. Our plans have changed quite a bit and we won't be doing much touring around. Ah, the joys of self-employment. We will enjoy what we get to do and it will be great to see the whole family!!!
See everyone down there!

School!!

Yep, it's that time of year again! It will be an interesting year. I've had the amazing experiences of trying to find classes with two seniors in high school, taking a kindergartener to his first day of class and getting homeschool started for a 4th grader! Whew!!! All in one week!
Thank heaven for routine. It's nice to have one again. I'm actually cooking dinner again every night (instead of having leftovers, cereal or sandwhiches). My desk got cleaned off, too. Sheesh, at this rate, I might actually become a decent housewife!!! Now if I can just get the kids to understand the concept of putting things away when they are done with them. . . . . . . .. . . .

Experience the Exchange!!!

We have a foreign exchange student with us for the school year!!! We picked her up from the airport on Wednesday and I think she's finally getting over the jet lag! Her name is Sinthu and she is from Norway. She left Oslo, Norway, at 10:30pm (our time) on Tuesday and arrived at our local airport at 11:15pm on Wednesday! What a trip!!!!! And that isn't taking into account that it took 9 hours to get from her home to Oslo!
She speaks very good English although we're going to have to rid her of her British accent. :-) She will be a senior in school. She will still have one more year of school when she returns to Norway. She plays soccer and went to practice on Saturday and will go again tomorrow. She's been playing for quite a few years so I don't think she'll have a problem making the team! She is very outgoing and has already made friends on the team.
The kids are all adjusting quite well. They've even started bickering with one another in front of her. Not sure that's a good thing.
This is our second time hosting a student for the year. And we might just have 2 for the year (the program we are hosting through, EF Foundation, allows that). There are some students who haven't been placed with families but are on their way here. One family wants to host but has a son who will be having surgery this week. Once he is recovered, they might still be interested in hosting. So, until that decision is made, we will be having Frazsina from Hungary living with us! She arrives on August 30th. If the other family decides they can't host her, we will have her here for the rest of the year. We are actually very excited about it! She has been dancing (ballet) for 13 years, speaks 4 languages and wants to learn to play ice hockey! Right up my alley!!!!!
So, if you haven't ever had an exchange student, I highly suggest it!!! Even if you have just young children, having a teen in your home is quite an experience!! Brandon was only 7 when our first student came. We have loved it!!! I know my Mom and Dad could make a recommendation for it, too! We will continue in the years to come although next year we will have to switch to having boys. Brandon will be a bit too old to have a teen-age girl living with us! I'm sure having boys will be just as great!

Spelling Issues

Well, I used to think that I was pretty good at spelling. In grade school I was always one of the last 2 or 3 people out in a spelling bee and a lot of times, I even won. My husband is constantly asking me how to spell (even with spell check on his computer, he doesn't do very well sometimes) and I usually get it right.
Then came the dance festival. We hosted dancers from a far away island in the Pacific Ocean. I thought I knew how to spell.
Just for reference- it is not "Phillipines". It is "Philippines". If I had looked at the t-shirt they gave me I would have known a lot sooner. :-)

Tagged and posting

4 Jobs I've had:-
Motel cleaner (ugh)
Restaurant hostess
Receptionist at a law firm
Head of scrapbooking department in a craft store (best job I've ever had!!)

4 Movies I could watch over and over:-
Sleepless in Seattle
The Lake House
Return to Me
Kate & Leopold
(and lots more but it says 4)

4 Places I've lived:-
Sacramento
Gold Beach
Rexburg
Arequipa, Peru!!

4 TV Shows I enjoy:-
Tv??? What is tv??? We don't have it.
I used to like-
ER
The Cosby Show
Little House on the Prarie
The West Wing

4 Places I've Vacationed-
The Oregon Coast
Yellowstone-
Telluride, CO
Montana

4 Places I like to eat:-
Home
Olive Garden
Marrakesh (in Portland)
Bajio

4 Websites I visit regularly:-
Family Blogs
msn.com
my bank account
google

4 Places I'd rather be:-
Sleeping
Montana (Brian is up there)
On a date with Brian
Reading a book

4 People I'm tagging now:
Well, lucky for everyone, I don't know anyone else with a blog that hasn't already been tagged. :-)

Can I sleep yet?

What a busy few weeks we've had!! Our town hosts an International Dance and Music Festival every year. The dancers are hosted by families around the area. We decided to host this year. We had 3 dancers from the Phillipines stay with us for 9 days! It was an incredibly wonderful experience!!!!
There were many short nights and long days with the busy schedule they had. We were responsible for taking them to practice, perfomances and anywhere else they had to go. Some nights, we didn't get home until 11:30pm! I wouldn't have missed it for anything! Our ladies cooked for us several times. I've learned to use some new vegetables. I loved everything I tried!
We had a family reunion during the same time. I was helping put it together so I had a lot to do that week. The reunion was great!! My brother and his family came up. My parents surprized us at 11:30pm Saturday night by knocking at my front door! They had said they weren't going to be able to make it but decided at the last minute to come. It was a nice surprize! Our house was almost overflowing with 9 extra people sleeping there on Saturday!
We said good-bye to the dancers on Monday morning. They headed to Bountiful, UT for a folk dance festival there. I was sad to see them go but it wasn't as hard as I thought to say good-bye. I have made some wonderful friends!!! We plan on doing it next year, too!
Tuesday, I made an overnight run to Salt Lake City. I left home around noon on Tuesday and was back in town by noon on Wednesday. After doing some errands, I collapsed in bed and slept quite soundly for several hours!!
It has been a fun time but I'm glad I can sleep again!!!!!
Oh, but next week our exchange student comes. Hmmmmm. . . . . . . . sleep?? We'll see.

Slight change of plans

It's still going to be the trip of a lifetime, just a little closer to home! With Matt getting married in Arizona instead of England, we're planning a trip to the Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, Four Corners, Zion's National Park and a couple of other national parks that I can't think of right now. Oh yeah, one of them is Arches. We visited it very briefly 2 years ago but it was *very* brief and I would like to go back.
Oh, and we'll go to the wedding, too! Now if we just knew when he's getting married. . . . . . . . . .

Happy Birthday to me!!!!

Well, I'm another year older. It has been a quiet day. Brian is out of town and they boys didn't realize it's my birthday until late morning. I wasn't expecting anything so there was no disappointment. :-) Brandon did make me a cake and after a suggestion from my sister, Judy, we had it for dinner!!! Can you hear them singing "Mom is great, gave us the chocolate cake!"? (sorry, a Bill Cosby routine reference)

Mini vacation!

Brian is working on a big project in Big Sky, MT. He took the company's 5th wheel up to a campground and parked it for the 10 weeks that it will take to do the rough in. Brandon went up with him this week and worked hard. He's very excited about the paycheck he's getting. Being the good boy he is, he has mentally taken out tithing and missionary fund money first and still has a good amount to play with.
I took the other 3 kids up on Wednesday for a mini vacation. The campground has a swimming pool that they loved!!! I enjoyed sitting on the sidelines reading a book. On Thursday, Ronan and Isabeau played on the steps into the pool and Jonah was out in the deeper water. I suddenly looked up in the middle of reading a sentance. At first I didn't realize what I was seeing but that lasted about 1/2 a second. Isabeau was floating/flailing out in the pool!!! I yelled something (I don't know what) and started for her. There was another Mom in the pool who was closer and got to Isabeau first. She handed Isabeau to me on the side of the pool. Isabeau coughed for a minute and looked a bit surprized but other than that, she seemed to be fine. I'm the one who had a slight heart attack!!! After I made sure she was all right and held on to her for several minutes, Isabeau went right back to the pool and played in the water. No permenant damage done. Thank heaven for the protection she had!! I didn't go back to my book and didn't even bring it to the pool on Friday! Once was enough for me!!
Other than that excitement, we had a quiet few days. It was boring and wonderfully so!! Brian was ready to come home for the weekend so instead of staying through Saturday, we came home Friday evening. Everyone is a bit sunburned despite the slathering of sunscreen they all got but not so much that it hurts.
We're looking forward to heading back up there several times in the next couple of months. I'll remember to bring a few board games and other things next time. And I'll remember to bring my shampoo, conditioner and soap home so I don't have to go buy more the next day!!!

Owwwwie!!

Brandon had a float trip with the youth yesterday. He used sunscreen but forgot that it washes off in water! His legs are sooooo red! Having been through numerous sunburns myself over the years, I know exactly how much it hurts! He couldn't even put long pants on. Thank heaven for that lotion stuff that has lidocaine in it!!!

Trip of a lifetime!

WAHOO!!!!!!! My youngest brother is engaged!! His fiancee, Ruth, is from England. They are getting married in England in September. I've always wanted to go to England (and Ireland and Scotland). Guess where we'll be in September??!!!!!! Of course, we're just going for the wedding.

Our Family

Our family portraits. Taken December 22, 2006.

Isabeau and Jane

Jonah, Brandon, Brian and Ronan.

Our beginning

We have finally succumed to the peer pressure of posting on a blog. We don't talk to family and friends on the phone often enough so I thought this might help keep everyone up to date.

Life is as busy as ever. Brian is in town for now, the boys are out of school for the summer, I'm busy sewing, knitting, washing laundry, and all the other day-to-day things a Mom has to do!

Brian thought of the title. He wondered why I was setting up the blog. He decided it was peer pressure after talking to our brother-in-law David about the blog he and Melissa write.

We'll see how long it lasts.