Way to go Nat!!

Grades 1A. FAM/CONSUMER SCI EXPLORATION - A (98.86%) 2A. MIXED CHORUS - A (100.00%) 3A. INTEGRATED SCIENCE 8 HONORS- A (100.00%) 4A. ALGEBRA I - A+ (101.25%) 1B. EXPLORATORY STUDY SKILLS - A+ (107.04%) 2B. EXPLORATORY HEALTH 8 - A (100.86%) 3B. ENGLISH 8 HONORS - A (96.55%) 4B. UNITED STATES HISTORY I HONORS- A (100.00%) Term GPA: 4.000 This kid is a breeze!! We haven't had to ever ask "Is your homework done?" Could this kid really be mine? This takes me back to our first Sunday in this ward and imagine my surprise when Brent Maxfield, or "Max" as we called him in high school, was in our ward. Now "Max" was my substitute teacher in Mrs. V's science class. Remember her? She loved Star Trek (that say's a lot about her!) Well she was on an extended absence and we had "Max" for several months as I recall. Well the big test day came and I hadn't studied (shocker!) but I knew that the earlier class had already taken the test so I just grabbed someone else's test and copied the answers and stapled her notes to my test. Hey, before you get all angelic on me, sophmore year was a rough one (at least the parts I remember!) I didn't realize that her name was on her note cards. Well, I totally got caught by "Max" and I remembered him the minute I saw him, unfortunately he remembered me too!!! He never hesitates to bring it up!! This experience of mine has been used over and over for various FHE lessons!

She's definitely on the fast track for BYU (sorry Monsen's!)

So, bully for you Nat with the straight A's and dedication. You didn't get it from yer ol' mom!

Please don't ________________!

Please don't jump off the couch and land on your knees. You'll need them when you're older Please don't run into my back end and tell each other how soft my bum is. I already know! Please don't release the spider back into the wild. KILL IT!! Please don't drag your jacket like a tail ever, but especially never while crossing the road. Please don't fight over who gets to be the mom and dad when you play house. Boy=Dad Girl=Mom Please don't tell the other kids in primary class that I always run red lights when the lesson is on obeying the law! Did I mention I'M THE TEACHER! Please don't remind me about the "eye for and eye" lesson when I hit you with a ball after you threw it at your sister. Please don't remind me that I said you could have ice cream after dinner when we all forgot and you've showered, brushed your teeth, and I'm tucking you into bed. Please don't tell your friends that I told you the truth about the tooth fairy so I can just hand you a dollar every time you lose a tooth (this was with Laurel, Brady still believes!) Please don't tell anyone whose seen Goonies that I can do a wicked "truffle shuffle!" I promise you I'll never show them!

HUGE UPDATE!!!

I have so much catching up to do I hope you’ll bear with me. Laurel’s trip to Washington DC was a huge success. Over the last several weeks she has remembered different things that she saw, or learned, and it has been so fun to hear all about it. Thank you to everyone who helped make it possible. Now that she is off track we’ll get serious about sending out her follow-up correspondence. Natalie is an official teenager. She turned 13 on October 2nd. I can’t believe it. Her birthday seemed so small compared to last year when she got the laptop and so many other things, but she is such a sweet and gracious girl. Derek had Bishop’s training that night so we had an early dinner of meatloaf (Nat’s favorite.) Then we just hung out. Sunday night we had cake and ice cream with Grandpa Dick and some friends. He brought his traditional “green” gift. Then on Tuesday my folks came over and had some pie. They had been in St. Louis visiting Brandon’s family. So the birthday was a week long affair.

I got a part-time job. The time has come. With the Boeing strike still going on in Seattle, Der’s future workload is uncertain and with three birthday’s, Brady's baptism, our anniversary, Thanksgiving, and Christmas before the end of the year, we figured now was the right time. Plus, we have really made a big push to stock up our food storage and get a wheat grinder and deep freeze, so this will allow us to do those things too. I have been making our bread for the past 4 months and my friend Becky keeps grinding our wheat.

I work on Thursdays and every other Tuesday in a dental office. I've been training the last two days and it has been kind of overwhelming. I haven't worked for nearly eight years and it was a little intimidating. But the schedule is perfect and the pay is great! So it will be a blessing for our family.

The Harvest Haunt we planned at Brockbank was a success. Brady is telling me it was "totally cold." I couldn't stay the whole time because I had to go to our RS Retreat at Heber Valley Camp where I learned the meaning of the word COLD!!

The PTA Reflections contest is coming to an end and I will be glad to finish that up. Sadly, PTA is coming to an end for me too. Now that I'm working part time I don't want to spend my other time away from home even more.

The kids go off track today and I am so excited. We always do a fun field trip day each week they are off track and that will be so nice. We're starting with the zoo this Friday. Throw in several library visits and some play-dates and it will be Halloween before we know it. This year costumes are a breeze. Danny wants to be a ghost, Brady want to be "The Fonze", Lolly wants to be a gypsy, and Natty is going to be a hippie! Easy costumes to put together.

The musical is in full swing and I expect to be sewing costumes here soon.

Today Brady has his class party and Natalie is headed off to Disneyland with her friend Rebekah and her parents. In the words of Napoleon Dynamite "lucky!"

This is my goony boy. Thanks to the White's for the hand-me-downs. Brady was stoked about the Halloween shirt.

Brady calls this pose "The Fonze." We'll have to teach him the real "hey" pose when he get's his cotume.

I think this brings us up to date. Kind of boring but that's our simple life!

Danny's First Field Trip

Yesterday was Danny's very first field trip. His preschool went to Pack's Pumpkin Patch.

Der took the day off to go with him. They had a great time.

The district made a mistake and sent a handicapped bus so there weren't enough seats for everybody, but Danny was a very good boy and a good sport. So they went in Der's truck.

The Pumpkin Patch had some cute activities for little guys. There were fun photo opps, and a little maze made out of hay bales.

They had a great time with their picnic lunch at a park afterward. It was a fun time for them both.