Cam's mission call

I spent the week last week at Girl's Camp and had a great time! Though, I have to admit, my only son's mission call was heavily on my mind. I fully expected him to get it while I was gone. Luckily for me, he had started the paperwork while we lived in the rental and it took a couple of extra days to get to us. So, on Saturday we gathered at a park with Tom's sister, her husband and her kids and families, and our good friends.

Shelf Reliance giveaway

I have been drooling over this awesome food storage system for years! I found out through other blogs that they are having a give away.

In between conferences, I try to make sure Tom is in the room for the commercial, but so far, I am without this great system. I am doing everything I can in a selfish ploy to get one in my home. So if you want a chance to get one for yourself go here. (Except my sister, she already has one. Stinker)

Houston, we have a sixteen year old.....

Last Friday, Courtney had a party to celebrate the fact that she was soon to be sixteen. (Much to her father's dismay. Not about the party, the fact that she is sixteen and there isn't a thing he can do to stop it!)

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful young lady in my life. She is a great example to me. I saw her reach out to someone who doesn't have many friends and has had a difficult time in school. I am very pleased with the kind of person she is becoming.

Because her birthday was actually on Sunday, we served cake and ice cream "sundaes".

Saturday was our stakes youth conference at a church camp an hour and a half away from here. One of the young men leaders snagged this picture and emailed it to me. Tom definitely doesn't want anyone "cutting in" any time soon. Unfortunately for him, she already has two dates this week.

If anyone in the ward needs to get a hold of the Bishop, you'll find him target shooting out back.

Bathroom etiquette

After spending several minutes plunging a stubbornly clogged toilet, Tom was very frustrated. This was not the first time he had been given the honored job of toilet fixer. Someone in our home has decided that if a little bit of toilet paper is good, a LOT of toilet paper must be even better. This, of course, results in a mass of toilet paper (and other stuff) refusing to flush! Tom suggested that we have a discussion on the appropriate usage of toilet paper.

This morning, as I was getting some members of the family ready for school, I decided to take the opportunity to have this discussion. I told them when they used the bathroom, they didn't need to use so much toilet paper, and if they really felt like they needed more, they would need to flush and then use more. I felt like I had gotten my point across very well. They looked like they understood what I was trying to tell them. I asked them to try not to let the toilet get clogged again. One child's eyes lit up and eagerly said, "It wasn't me, I don't use any toilet paper!"

I guess I get to have another discussion on toilet paper.

Blonde joke

Did you here the one about the teenage blonde in line to get her driver's permit at the DMV?

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Yeah, me neither, because its not FUNNY!!!!!

p.s. Let me know if you want me to warn you!

If I could turn back time....

Oh how I wish I had the power to redo yesterday! I have heard that bad things come in threes, and after what happened yesterday I believe it.

My nephew called and asked if he could show our house to someone who was interested in having him build her a house with the help of our builder. As I was quickly picking up, I took a step back and felt my laptop under my foot. I didn't know I did any damage until later when I finally had time to sit down and boot up my computer.


Yes, a big 'ole crack in the corner of the screen. I was sick!

If that wasn't enough for one day, Cam was replacing the fuel pump in his car with the help of his dad and a friend. I asked him for a phone number I knew he had saved in his phone. He pulled it out and there was nothing on his screen. His phone was in his pocket and when he leaned against something in the car, it cracked. Ugh!


I really just wanted to climb in bed to get this day over with, when, I remembered that I promised Mckenna that I would make brownies for her teacher for teacher appreciation week. I decided to be creative and bake them in a heart shape pan. I should have known with the day I was having that it wasn't meant to be. Of course, the middle stuck to the pan. Grrr!

To end this post on a positive note; my computer will be fixed Monday. (an expensive lesson I hope never to learn again) Cameron replaced his phone with a cheapo phone, and the kids got some yummy, but crumbly brownies!

Breaking ground and teenage girls

Last week, our stake broke ground for a new stake center. Our ward is pretty excited to have a building closer to home. I took Cam, Court and Maddy with me to the ceremony. It was fun to see lots of people that I know and love from other wards that I don't see often. Tom has been exceedingly busy with work deadlines, church meetings and broken cars; he was more than willing to stay home with Mckenna who had spent the previous night and morning rejecting the contents of her stomach, over and over.

After the official ceremony was over, anyone that wanted too, could have their own ground breaking pictures with the fancy shovels. I would have none of that! I spent one dollar on our special shovel, and I was going to make sure we used it again! (If you want to see how we used it the first time see here.)

The kids were less than enthusiastic. I don't understand why.

Through gritted teeth, "Please mom, get this over with, I am so embarrassed!"

"No, I am not going to bend down for your photo-op." Party pooper:(

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Courtney has a fantastic group of friends. Once or twice a month they have what they call "Friday night". They get together, giggle; watch movies, giggle; make their own music videos, giggle louder; sleep a little bit in between more giggling. She had made plans to host a Friday night last Friday, when I told her that we had made arrangements to head up to Teancum timbers for the stake clean-up day, I thought it would be fun to invite them to camp with us. She willingly agreed, and Tom, unwittingly, stuffed seven HUGE overnight bags in the back of our Suburban and put up with over an hour of estrogen overload. I am sure he had no idea what he was getting into.

The girls

They had fun! They even managed to do a little service. Not much, but some. Where we camped was near a creek that seemed to be stuffed to the brim with noisy croaking frogs. When I looked, I couldn't see anything, but they were LOUD. I thought they would keep me up all night. Then, I remembered, if anything was going to keep me up, it would most likely be the group of giggling gals. The little girls, and Tom and I slept in our tent trailer, and the big girls slept on cots in our tent next to the trailer. I did fall asleep, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the sound of teenage girls.