Captain of BOB

Brittany joined a team/club this year called BOB (Battle of the Books). They read all the books on the assigned list, and then they need to be able to answer questions on the books. It has been good for Brittany to put her love of reading and good memory to work. At yesterday's meeting, the sponsoring teacher split the group into teams and assigned captains. Brittany is the captain of her team. Brittany explained to me that the captain is pretty important because if the 4 girls on the team disagree on the answer, the captain has to make the final decision. I am sure Brittany will be a great captain. Congratulations, Brittany.

Megan's self portrait

Construction = Mess

From Easter Egg Hunt 2009

This is not construction that we are doing. If you look carefully at Kyle’s photos of our road, you will realize that it is no longer an asphalt road, but only mud. The city made the decision to replace the water and sewer pipes and then replace the asphalt with a new concrete road.

They started with the utilities at the end of January. That work is now done, and it wasn’t too bad for us. We had only a few small holes dug in our yard rather than a trench across the entire yard as the neighbors across the street had to endure. Josh and Paul enjoyed watching the tractors and machines at work and up-close, so I humored them and spent hours watching the boys watch the work. The interruptions in water service were also only a minor inconvenience and short-lived. After a couple weeks, the bad taste from the new water pipes even went away.

Now comes the new road. Right now the asphalt has been removed, leaving us with a dirt road. For a few days, that was just bumpy to drive on, and Brittany and Megan enjoyed riding their bikes over the ruts. Then Saturday night it rained. It was a good, long soaking rain, which we really needed. But it left a road that was complete mud. I was glad Kyle drove to church yesterday. I’m never quite sure what I’m going to find when I open the garage with the hope to drive somewhere. I might have to dodge tractors and trucks, which I am learning the names for (since my boys are very interested in these things). I feel that I have to warn anyone coming to my house of the hazards, but I’m never quite sure exactly what to warn them of. There were will be several 7 week periods (for the curing of concrete) when I will not be able to access my driveway (or park on the road). That will be a challenge, with 3 children not in school, and 2 children who must be taken to and picked up from school every day, plus piano lessons and baseball practice, and library story time and playgroup, and whatever else needs to be done that week. We will get a lot of exercise as we walk back and forth to the van.

Oh well, there’s nothing I can do about it. At least there will be a nice smooth concrete road in 2 or 3 months.

More photos!

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Job openings

If you know of any job openings, pass them my way. We are looking to help a number of friends/ward members who are out of work.

Thanks.

Another General Conference Under our belts

Our children are definitely NOT the sit around quietly and listen to conference type. They need incentives to listen...so Shawnie came up with a great idea to get them listening to General Conference.

She wrote on three sticky notes three lists of words. The rules of the game were if the children heard the speaker say a word on sticky note, they could get 1 piece of snack from bowl.

I wish I'd taken a picture or video of them watching conference. They were glued to the words being said. Megan especially did well. Everytime one of them would hear a word, they'd all pounce on the bowl. Paul and Erica weren't sure about the rules, but they were in there as well following their older siblings.

I even twisted the game a little bit for this morning's session which we watched at the Stake Center. Megan watched the whole session and noted three hundred instances of different words on the lists. Her reward was two extra cookies at lunch. She was elated and so were we. We only had to wrestle with Paul and Erica, instead of all five children!