Brinley and Parker's Tent - September 20, 2016

Tuesday - September 20th

I took some pictures of the wall in the kitchen and used my editing program to make the writing on the wall how I'd like it to look.  My sister, Missy, said she would make the writing for me.  I'm excited to have it look the way I'd like.

Brinley and Parker were getting along really well this morning.  I love when that happens.  They went out to play in the front yard and decided to make a tent.

The Power Went Out - September 19, 2016

Monday - September 19th

The power went out tonight.  It was kind of fun.  But I will get to that story later in this post.  I'm going to tell you about our day and the power outage happened at the end of our day, so I'll get to that at the end of the post.

Shortly after I woke up this morning, I got a text message from Robin Lawrence.  Her daughter Ashlea was being babysat by our neighbors this morning.  The plan was, that she would be at their house until it was time for her to leave to go to school.  But Ashlea ended up getting sick.  She started throwing up and was feeling too sick to go to school.  Lisa (the neighbor that had been watching her) had somewhere she had to be, so she couldn't keep watching Ashlea.  So, Robin texted me, asking if I could watch Ashlea until they got home around 10:30ish.  I told her that we could.  So, Ashlea came over.  Brinley, Parker, and her relaxed in the family room and watched tv.  I gave Ashlea a throw up bucket to use.  She threw up 4 times while she was here.  It wasn't fun.  It was a bummer that she was feeling so yucky.  I woke up feeling a little yucky myself.  I had stayed up really late with Alissa and Roger, watching 'Stranger Things'.  I had a hard time sleeping because I kept imagining the monster from the show and I had a headache.  When I woke up this morning, my head still hurt and I was not well rested.  So, I took some medicine and drank some Mountain Dew.  Eventually, I started to feel better.

We skipped our schooling today.  Ashlea left around 11:00, then I went upstairs to take a short nap.  I had to wake up at 12:30 to take Alissa to seminary and take Forest to the vet. (for his shots).  After all that, we did some yard work.  The bees kept swarming me.  It was horrible, so I hurried to get everything done.  I was almost finished, when they started swarming again.  I dropped what I was doing and booked it inside.  I yelled to Roger that I was done.  The bees were way too much for me to handle.  Brinley had been outside with me, but the bees weren't bugging her.  Our job was to clean up the poop and the plums so that Roger and Parker could mow the lawn.  Parker and Roger were out for a long time.  They got a lot of work done.  I'm glad that they are tougher than I am and were able to get everything done.  When they finished their work, Roger started a fire in the fire pit.  While we were sitting around the fire, we learned that the pears were ready to be picked.  So, we have a lot of picking to do.  We also learned that the grape vine looking plant covering the pergola is actually a poisonous plant.  They are Virginia Creepers.  I picked a basket full of pears and brought them downstairs to sit in a cool room for a couple of days.

When it got dark, Parker and Brinley went downstairs to play the computer.  Roger, Alissa, and I sat down to watch 'Stranger Things'.  We watched one episode, but shortly after the second episode started, the power went out.  I didn't have my phone near me, so I was asking Alissa and Roger to turn on their phone lights, when we heard panicked screams coming from downstairs.  Parker and Brin were scared and they couldn't find the game phone to turn on a light.  We all hurried down to save them.  It was kind of funny.  The power was out until sometime after 1:00am.  We used the headlamps we had and out phones for light.  After going outside and seeing our neighborhood with all the lights off (it was really dark!), we all sat down in the family room to chill and wait for the power to come back on.  Alissa read a book for a while, Brinley and Parker took turns playing games on the game phone, Roger checked out Facebook and watched videos on his phone, and I spent some time writing about what we were doing on the notes on my phone.  Eventually, Parker, Brinley, and I fell asleep.  Roger and Alissa stayed up watching Fail Army on YouTube.  Around 1:00am, they went to bed.  I woke up right after they went to their rooms to go to sleep.  Brinley, Parker, and I had fallen asleep in the family room, so that's where we were.  I woke up and went to the bathroom.  When I came out, I went to check on Alissa and she told me that she had just climbed in bed.  She wasn't tired, so she came into the family room and visited with me.  We had fun talking until the power came back on.  Then we went to bed.

Here are the pictures I took of us chillin' during the power outage.

Forest - September 18, 2016

Sunday - September 18th

Some more pictures of Forest.  I don't remember which one of the kids took these.

Spiral Jetty - September 17, 2016

Saturday - September 17th

Missy and Mikal were in Logan today, because Mikal ran a marathon there.  They planned to come and hang out if Mikal was feeling well enough after the race.  We decided to take them to see the Spiral Jetty.  I just think it is so fun to see.  I love the way it all looks.  The sand feels different.  The salt looks cool.  In some areas it sparkles like diamonds and in other areas it looks like ice.  This time when we went, the water looked pink and red in some places.  And there was lots of foam at the edge of the water.  I just think it is fun to see.  I had a lot of fun hanging out with Missy.  I don't get to hang out with her enough.  I was excited for her to meet our new puppy Forest and we were excited to take Forest out adventuring with us for the first time.  Forest did really well.  He loved it a lot.  We let him off his leash for a little bit and he stayed right next to us.  I'm happy that he doesn't try to run away.  It's fun when you can have the dog adventuring with you and not have the leash on.  I loved that about our dog, Mollie.

 When we first got there, Roger, Mikal, Parker, and Forest hiked up to find a geocash.

 Forest was getting thirsty, so everybody who wanted to head back to the truck went with Roger and Forest.  Missy, Alissa and I stayed by the water for a while longer.  It was fun to hang out with them.

 Alissa, Missy and I were talking when I accidentally called Missy Alissa.  I apologized and Missy pointed out that Alissa and her have the same name.  Alissa mae is Melissa in pig latin.  I was like, "No way!  That is awesome!"  I got super excited about it.  Missy looked at me like I was crazy.  Then she reminded me that we had this conversation the last time I saw her...and this is the third time that she told me and I got really excited about that fun coincident.  I remembered when she told me.  We all had a really good laugh about it.  I don't know if I explained that well enough.  I just think it is funny that every time I see her, we have the same conversation and I get super excited about it each time, then Missy reminds me that we've already had this conversation.  I guess that's one of the joys of having a bad memory..... you can hear the same story over and over and it is always just as exciting as the first time you heard it.

 Missy was throwing foam in front of the camera so it would look like it was raining foam.  It didn't work as well as I imagined it would.

Play dough and Another Hat - September 16, 2016

Friday - September 16th

I posted my hats on Facebook.  There was lots of interest in them, but I only got one order.  It was from my neighbor, Kenneth Unsworth.  He ordered a Bobo Fett hat.  I didn't even know who that was.  I asked him to find a picture of the hat he wanted.  So, he sent me a picture and I made it.  It took a few days for me to be able to get it finished.  I stayed up late last night to get it done.  Roger was kind enough to pose in it for me.

After Roger went to work, the kids had friends over.  Brinley had Ashlea, Melody, and Nyla over.  Parker didn't have a friend over, so he spent his time playing the Xbox.  Alissa's friend, Alice, came to hang out with Alissa.  Alissa and Alice wanted to go for a walk and they needed to go to the library, so they decided to walk there.

After they left, Brinley and her friends were looking for some barbie stuff but ended up finding our play dough toys.  They really wanted to play with play dough after that.  I decided to make crayon play dough for them.  I had them dig through the old crayons to find the colors they wanted, then I got to work.  In the middle of my making play dough, Alissa called.  She said they found a dog that was stuck in a fence.  Her and Alice saved the dog from the fence, then called the owners from the number on the dog's tags.  The owners said they were in Logan right now.  They gave the girls an address and asked them if they would put the dog over the fence in the backyard.  So, the girls were calling to see if I was okay if they went to that address.  I told them to be careful and listen to their instincts.  If either of them had a bad feeling about it, they were to stop and call me.

After I got off the phone, I noticed my neighbor, Lisa, outside.  She was chasing after her little boy, Owen.  He was in our driveway because he wanted to come and play with his sister's who were at our house.  I went out to talk to her.  They ended up coming in for a little bit.  I gave her the hat for her husband and she wrote me a check.  While we were visiting, Alissa called.  She said they couldn't find the address and they were kind of in a sketchy part of town.  Lisa agreed to stay with all the kids so I could go and help them.  I found them and tried to help them find the address.  But there was no house at the address they told me.  We drove around for a little bit, looking.  Then it clicked in my brain that maybe they heard the address wrong.  So, we went looking at the house that we thought it was.  The fence was too high.  The girls went to the door to see if anybody was home, then they were going to go to the neighbor's and ask if they would take the dog.  While they were at the door, the family showed up.  They were happy to see their dog.  They gave the girls a $10.00 reward.  The girls were very happy about that.

I got back home, Lisa and her kids left, and I spent the next hour or so finishing making the play dough.  I was exhausted by the time I finished it all and the house was a mess.  I was too tired to deal with it, so I decided to go to bed and deal with it in the morning.  It was a good day, but very busy.  I was too busy making the play dough, so I didn't get to take any pictures of the kids playing with it.  By the time I finished all of the colors, the kids were tired of playing and it was time for friends to go home.  I felt like I needed to at least take one picture, so here is a picture of the finished play dough.

Storms - September 14, 2016

Wednesday- September 14th

It was stormy last night.  When Brinley and Parker went up to bed, they heard a really loud thunder.  It freaked them out, so they decided to sleep downstairs, in the family room.  I helped them set up their beds and it didn't take them long to fall asleep.  It is still storming tonight, so they are sleeping in the family room again tonight.  Anyway, last night was kind of rough for me, because it turns out that our cute little puppy, Forest, is also scared of thunder.  We woke up to his crying 2 times last night.  We don't usually wake up to him crying.  I set an alarm and wake myself up, to take Forest out to use the bathroom, so he doesn't usually get to the point that he needs to cry to be taken out.  Anyway, so he woke up twice.  The second time I was up with him, he was really scared of the thunder.  The thunder crashed and he came racing over to me and jumped in my lap.  It was so cute.  I love it when he runs to me to protect him.  He snuggles up on my lap and makes the cutest little faces.  I love it!  Forest is sooooo.... cute!  So, I didn't get a lot of sleep last night.  That wasn't fun, but I survived.

It rained a lot last night, but it cleared out when we woke up this morning.  When we went downstairs to do our homeschooling it was sunny and bright.  We had been working for about an hour, when we heard a loud crash of thunder.  We all looked out the window and were a little confused, because all we could see was blue sky and sunshine.  I wondered if something else had made the sound.  Brinley said she would go upstairs to see.  I heard her waking around from room to room, kind of in a hurry, and I wondered what she was doing.  When she came back downstairs, she told us that there was a really big storm coming.  The clouds looked really dark and scary, but you couldn't see it from the side of the house we were on.  She said that she hurried and ran through the house making sure all of the windows were closed.  Then she asked if we could take a break from homeschooling, so she could sit under the table with a show on her phone and headphones to help her not hear the storm.
She has always hated loud storms.  It scares her a lot.  I agreed that we could all take a break and wait for the storm to pass.  Brinley, decided to put blankets over the table and make a tent so she would feel extra safe during the storm.  She is so funny.  I love it.  So we took about an half hour break while the storm passed.  It ended up not coming over us.  It just passed right by us, but it was close enough that the thunder was still loud.  Brinley kept her tent up for the rest of the day, so she could hide if the storm did hit us.  One of the passing storms came over us.  Brinley had a friend over at that point, so they both hung out in her little tent under the table.  While Brinley was hiding under the table, Parker took a Jib Jab break.  He had fun making Jib Jab videos.  He thought it was a fun break from school.

I've quit doing Brinley's K12 as part of our homeschooling.  That program really doesn't work for us.  It causes us way more stress than necessary and really makes homeschooling difficult.  I'm relieved to be quitting it.  I will be calling them tomorrow, so we can arrange to send their things back.

We have a bunch of curriculum books.  We really have a ridiculous amount of homeschooling books.  I'm really happy about that, because it gives us a lot to work with.  I spent the first 2 weeks of school feeling more stressed out than I think I have ever been.  It was rough.  I was feeling completely overwhelmed.  We just kept going though, and I kept hoping that eventually it would get better.  I just kept telling myself that it would.  And I spent a lot of time praying, researching, and pondering ways to make it better.  I decided to simplify.  I realized that I had too much going on.  Simplifying was the key.  I'm feeling much better about things.  I feel like we get more work done, since I decided to simplify.  Before, we had too many things to do each day.  It was so overwhelming and we would barely get through half of it (that's why I was so stressed out).  Now, we finish all our work, plus some.  I'm loving it and the kids are loving it.  I'm glad that I figured it out.  I hope it will continue to go well.

Here's Brinley downstairs showing of her curriculum book.  We were done with school for the day, but she still wanted to work on her math.  She is really good at math.  She seems to whip through it really fast.  I'm glad she likes it.  All of our little ones really like math.

This morning, before we started our schooling, Parker said the prayer for us.  At the start of his prayer he asked that we could spend time learning about our family history and working to learn more about our ancestors, then he went on to say most of the usual things we say to ask for help with our schooling.  I thought it was really odd that he said that, because it's not something we have talked about at all lately and he hasn't been to church or any church activities in a while, so I know he didn't hear it there.  Anyway, so I figured it must have been inspired.  Alissa wasn't with us when we said this prayer.  She was still in bed, so she didn't know Parker had prayed for that at all.  Anyway, Alissa woke up and went to seminary.  When I picked her up from seminary, she said that she felt really inspired today that we need to learn our family history.  She felt that our family history is something that will really help us right now.  I love that both Parker and Alissa got that inspiration today.  I am definitely going to have a spend a few days or more learning about our family history.

It was storming outside again and Brinley was sitting on the floor to play with Forest.  Forest got scared and ran to Brinley and climbed on her lap.  Brinley thought it was so cute, she wanted a picture of it.  It is so cute when Forest climbs on our laps.  I imagine that he will be funny like our dog Mollie was and still climb up on our laps when he is big.  I always thought that was so funny when Mollie would climb on our laps like she was a little dog.  She was so big, it was uncomfortable, but it was also cute and funny.

I gave some of the neighbor kids crocheted hats today.  I'm trying to get more business.  I'm hoping people will see their cool hats and ask them where they got them.  I also, started advertising on Facebook last night.  I plan to make some flyers to put up and make some business cards.  I really hope I can get a lot of business.  I could really use the money.  So far, I've gotten one order and that was from our neighbor next door, Ken Unsworth.  He asked if I could make a star wars character hat.  I had to look it up.  I had never heard of the character before.  I asked him to send a picture of the hat he wants.  He sent me a picture and I am working to get the hat done.  Hopefully I can have it finished by tomorrow evening.

Roger was chillin' with me before he had to leave to work today.  I was crocheting and the witch hat I made last week, was sitting on the counter, so Roger decided to try it on.  Then he took some selfies.  I pulled out my camera and took some pictures also.  I love my goofy Roger.