All Hallows Eve

our ghostbuster, Medusa, and a pirate

We spent the weekend dressing up for parties and trunk-or-treating.  We had a fabulous time.

We planned on not accepting trick-or-treaters this year, with today being Sunday and all, but because of a hot cocoa spill that kept Brian and I pretty busy at the ward Halloween party, we didn't hand out any of our candy.  So we are accepting tricksters.  I think my favorite part of the whole weekend is that our kids haven't complained at all about not being able to trick-or-treat on Sunday.  They understood when we told them why, and they've just been having a blast answering the door and giving out candy.  We haven't heard a single, "Why can't we go trick-or-treating?" and I love it!

Cousin Preschool Halloween Party

 Participants:  Eliza as Belle, Ethan as a dinosaur, Asher as Mario, Marcus as a ghostbuster, Derek as a knight, and Cecily as a knight

 We traced our hands on black paper and made bats our of them and put letter pumpkins in alphabetical order.

 We ate Halloween cookies at 10:00 in the morning.

We danced to the Monster Mash, played Pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern, and watched Disney's Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  It was a great time!

Tombstone Tales Weekend

Life is slowing down just a tad.  This weekend was insane, and we're still recovering and trying to keep up with the things that are still coming our way.  Friday I had Tombstone Tales in the morning and evening, and just after that Brian and I raced over to the stake adult Halloween party.  We used our Queen of Hearts and Mad Hatter costumes, and we danced and ate yummy brownies.

On Saturday I ran the Halloween Scream and Scram 5K.  I don't know how I did time-wise.  I had Runkeeper going the whole time, and according to that the race was a little bit longer than a 5K, plus I forgot to stop the timer for a minute after I stopped running.  Even if I might not have gotten a great time, I felt like I kept up a good pace.  I did 5 and 1 minute intervals, and I really tried to push myself while running.  My next race is on Thanksgiving morning, and I'm switching my training to try to run for at least 10 minute intervals.  I don't know - Logically, it feels like I need to try to get to where I run the whole thing without stopping, but I really enjoy the intervals.  I like running just a bit harder for a while, because I know I'll be able to rest soon, and I feel like I'm losing more weight this way than the times I would just run...and run and run and run.

While I was running on Saturday, Brian took the kids to the Primary Program Practice at the church, and then I raced over to join them as soon as I was done.  Our family sang "A Child's Prayer" in the program, and just before we got up to practice it, Brian's brother called and said that Great Grandpa Jacks had fallen and they were assessing whether or not to take him to the hospital.  He's in the hospital now, and we went to visit him last night for Family Home Evening.  He's a trooper!

I thought I would have time to shower before Tombstone Tales started, but with the phone calls and confusion of plans, I had just enough time to run home and grab my costume.  Megan and I were even late.  We arrived at the cemetery about three minutes before the first group was supposed to start.  I grabbed my costume and threw it on, grabbed the van key from the key ring to stuff in my boot, then ran across the street.  It was then I remembered that I had left my family's tickets in the car.  I ran back across the street, and pulled the van key out of my boot to unlock the car, only to realize that I was driving Brian's car, not the van.  So I ran back across the street, and in my stressful state botched the first round.  Then I gave myself a good talking to and did better the rest of the time.

This year for tombstone tales, I portrayed Eunice Freeman, who was a member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union.  She fought against alcohol and prostitution.  She rallied to get women the right to vote, which worked pretty well.  Women gained the right in Washington State ten years before the rest of the country, besides Wisconsin, I think.  Eunice ended up going to the prison system to help reform recently released convicts and help them ease back into society by finding them housing and jobs.  In 1919 she was visiting her home in Portland when Clarence Johnson, one of those recently released convicts, broke into her house to steal things and beat her to death with a lead gas pipe.  Quite sad, actually.  My station in the cemetery was right after a bootlegger, so we started things with me in his station just as the tour group was arriving, and I would yell at him for corrupting our community, and he would tell me to leave him alone and such, then I would stomp off, yelling, "You haven't heard the last of me, Mr. Clark!"  He would then have something incredibly witty to say about those crazy temperance ladies to start his spiel, and I kept waiting for him to say something like, "Yeah, she'll be back again in about twenty minutes."

So Tombstone Tales was very fun.  It wasn't nearly as cold as it was last year, and it only rained a little bit.  We did have the sprinklers turn on on us once, which was pretty exciting.  Brian forgot the camera when he came through, so I had my sister record me.  I'll put up a picture and the video when I get a hold of it.

Holy Cow, Life, Slow Down!

Wow.  We have been busy.  Busy, busy, busy.  We've been jumping from one activity to another, mostly with no time to catch our breath in between.  Starting with last week, when we went on a home school field trip to the West Pasco water plant, life is just tumbling together and making things, well, incredibly busy. 

Here's a couple of pictures from the field trip. 

This is the part of the plant that collects all the sludge after it's cleaned from the water.  Usually it's more watery than muddy, but things were temporarily shut down for maintenance while we were there, so all the extra water had drained out.  The tracks across the mud are from a frog that lives there that the workers call Fred.  Looking for Fred was one of the kids' favorite part.

While the kids and I had school and mowed the lawn and went on the field trip, Brian spent most of his Saturday at the bishop's house, cooking half a pig for the ward luau. 

 Brian and Bishop Christensen both agreed that they should have cooked the pig for longer, but they didn't have a huge amount of time to work with.  It was still yummy!

I don't remember what we did Saturday.  Oh, no, I remember.  Saturday was not a busy day.  Brian played something on the computer, I watched a couple episodes of "Castle" on the laptop, and the kids watched a whole ton of things on the TV downstairs.  A while back we went back to our rule of not watching TV on weekdays, and our kids just live it up on Saturdays.  That afternoon we went to Brian's grandma's birthday party at Granny's Buffet, then we went to her house to visit with everyone until way late that night.  Overall, it was a pretty laid back day.

But don't let that non-busy day fool you. We really have been busy.  Monday we had school, then hurried to have lunch in time to get Alyssa to P.E.  The boys and I went grocery shopping, then picked Alyssa up.  Just after getting home and putting the groceries away, we headed to the Empey's farm for Brian's brother's birthday party.  (Eric married Claire Empey, and her family has acres and acres of apple trees and other things, and they make Sheffield Cider, which is fabulous.)  We had a bonfire and barbecue out there, and the kids loved every minute of it.

Tuesday Alyssa went to MCP, the boys went to Cousin Preschool at my sister's house, and I went visiting teaching, and running.  I did some laundry after picking up the boys, then we picked up Alyssa, we all played in the front yard with the neighbor kids, then we had a quick dinner, and I went to Relief Society.

Today the kids and I spent the entire day cleaning the house.  Yes, it was that bad.  It took the entire day to clean it.  We've been focused on home school, and we've also been running to and fro and back and forth so much that the house has definitely suffered.  It feels so good to have everything clean!

So now that I've bored you all to death with the travel logue of our week (I didn't mean to, I promise) I'll try to sum things up pretty quick.  Maybe we haven't been as busy as it feels, but in between everything I've been working on memorizing my part for this year's Tombstone Tales.  This year I am playing a suffragette, and I get to shout things like, "Votes for women!" and "All alcohol created the same ill efffect.  It is from the devil!" 

Tombstone Tales starts bright and early tomorrow morning, and it will consume a huge chunk of my time until Saturday night.  We're also throwing in the Fall Ball, put on by the Pasco Stake, on Friday night, running a 5K race on Saturday morning, and then driving straight to a practice for the Primary program.  This is where life gets really busy.  I found a substitute to teach Gospel Doctrine on Sunday so I don't have to have that going through my head while I'm shouting in a cemetery. 

Even though it's going to be crazy, I'm looking forward to this weekend.  It's going to be great!

Check Me Out

No, seriously.  Check me out.

Hhhmm...

What is that from?  Is it Strongbad?  "Check me out.  No, seriously, check me out."  It's running through my head now in Strongbad's voice, and it seems to fit.  Ha!  We haven't watched Homestar Runner in years, and I'm still quoting it.

So this post was intended to give me an opportunity to brag about how proud I am of myself for keeping some goals I set while watching Conference last week, but now that I'm sitting at the computer, I can think of a whole bucket of things I'd like to brag about, so here I go:

1. Marcus's Ghostbuster Halloween costume is turning out to be so cool.  (And you have to say that the way he does, "Ztho Cool!!"  Notice the tiny little "L" at the end.  It doesn't get represented as much as it should.)  Brian found the perfect hand held vacuum attachment set at Value Village last week to fix to his backpack for a proton pack, and I'm having a blast hooking it all together.  Plus, the blue sweatsuit that Marcus picked out is way awesome now that it has the Ghostbuster symbol on the sleeve and "JACKS" on the front.

2.  On Sunday night I checked the race results from the Indian Summer Run.  I was just randomly checking and thinking, "Maybe I'll stop running for a while.  It's getting cold in the mornings.  I don't know if I want to do it anymore."  And then I saw the results.  I placed 19th out of 65 women, and 3rd out of 8 in my age group.  Pretty cool, huh?  That's enough to keep me running every morning.  I'm really working on improving my time, and it's fun to race against my previous times each day.

3.I have the coolest husband!  This morning when I got home from running, Brian was just getting out of the shower, and he told me to set out two plates and two cups of milk on the table.  So I went downstairs and got everything out, being careful not to wake the kids while doing so.  It took him longer to get dressed than for me to set the table, so I went back upstairs and he said that there were two brownies on the top of the fridge for our breakfast.  They were not just brownies, though.  They were yummy caramel brownies.  When Brian came downstairs he even played our song on my phone to serenade our unhealthy breakfast.  It was fun!

4. So the whole point of this post was to talk about how proud I am of myself for keeping the goals I set while watching General Conference last week.  I was only able to watch a couple of sessions, and Brian was only able to listen to parts of sessions on his phone during some of his boring classes, and we both felt sad that we weren't able to watch it together as a family, so we're watching it bit by bit with the kids before bedtime to catch up.  But last weekend, even though there weren't any talks that I listened to that were directly about this, I really felt that I need to clean up my TV watching.  For the past couple of years I've faithfully watched Grey's Anatomy, and last year I joined the world in watching Glee when it came out.  These are both shows that I should not be watching.  I finally realized how bad it really was when someone posted something about Glee on Facebook, and I thought, "She watches Glee?!?  But she's such a good person!"  And then it dawned on me, that I'm trying to be a good person, and I was watching Glee.  Then during Conference, I knew that it was time to shape up.  I made a promise to myself that I was done, and I told Brian so I could be held responsible.

So here I am, over a week later, and I didn't give in.  Honestly, I wasn't even really tempted to watch either show.  I think the draw for me in Glee was the music, and I can listen to that on Pandora, and really the draw for me with Grey's Anatomy was the cool medical stories that would tie in with the trials the characters were facing at the time.  It was quite clever, and the writers really aren't doing that anymore, so it's not as fun to watch.  I think I need to find a new medical show to watch, though, because I think they're fun.   Maybe I'll watch Reuben's "Which Doctor TV Shows Are Fake" again for a recommendation.

Anyway, I think I'm done.  I can't brag about my kitchen floor, which badly needs to be mopped, and I can't brag about my bed, which needs to be made, and I can't brag about our school room, which looks like a tornado hit it.  Oh, wait, it did - Tornado Marcus. So I'm going to go clean now.  Just know that today I am feeling pretty darn good.

One Last Hurrah

 My original plan was to celebrate Brian's birthday with the kids for Family Home Evening on Monday night, but with Brian and I eating so much crazy food last weekend, we decided to wait a few days until the party.  Yesterday afternoon the boys and I baked and decorated a red velvet cake and hid it in the fridge, and I called a few people to set up a surprise party for Brian.  We didn't decide to invite others or to have the party be a surprise until after the cake was done, so I told Alyssa of the plan, hoping that she would keep it a secret.  I didn't tell the boys anything, because I hoped they wouldn't have the time to let the secret slip.  My plan was to send Brian to ballet with Alyssa and have everyone show up while they were gone.  We just invited Brian's side of the family, because I figured that having ten thousand cousins running around wouldn't be as relaxing for him. 

So Brian walked in the door a little earlier than usual, when I was just  putting the cake pans in the dishwasher, and Marcus said, "Happy birthday!"  Then a few minutes later Ethan said, "We made a cake for you."  Luckily, these didn't tip him off to the party, because Brian knew we were going to have cake eventually.

Brian and Alyssa went to ballet, and Brian's parents, Grandma Orton, and Eric showed up at 7:00, just as Alyssa's ballet class was ending.  Everyone parked down the street, and we waited excitedly in the family room, because he would be there, "any minute."

That minute came and went, and then some.  Eric and I kept sneaking to the quiet room (which is what we call our living room) to peak out the front window.  7:20, no car coming up the driveway.  7:25, still no sign of them.

It was just after 7:30 that they finally pulled in to the garage, and we turned out the lights and yelled "Surprise!" as they came in.

Apparently, Alyssa told Brian that they needed to drive around for a little while to give time for everyone to show up.  Show up for what?  "Nothing," she answered.  They ended up stopping at FroYo to get a small serving of frozen yogurt with  - wait for it - red velvet cake.

Here's all the party attendees, watching Brian open a present from his parents,

which was a beautiful German something that I can't remember the name of.  It's a wooden nativity scene with an arch above it to hold candles.  Brian's mom found it locally, but was thrilled that it was authentic, complete with the box and certificate of authenticity.  When Brian was reading the certificate to find out where it was made, she said, "Remember going there?"  Well, it's going to fit in nicely with the other German decorations Brian brought home from his mission.  It's beautiful!

This is Brian pretending to blow out the candle that he just extinguished, because the picture of the actual event was incredibly blurry.  With the cake, we sacrificed beauty for taste quality, because we substituted the crisco for butter.  The frosting slid down the sides of the cake and lumped at the bottom, spreading the brown trim.  It not might have looked like much, but it was sooooo yummy.

Getting Back Into The Swing Of Things

Seriously, we only missed one official day of school, and our vacation only lasted Friday plus the weekend, but yesterday I had such a hard time wanting to clean and home school.  One problem was that we needed to stick our hotel key into the thermostat for it to work and it kept timing out every two hours and letting the room get hot, so I didn't get any better sleep than I do at home.  So I was very tired yesterday morning. The other problem was that we had so much fun having celebratory birthday meals for Brian and his dad that I felt like a huge loaf from eating too much.  The birthday meals were fun, though.  Every where we went they were sung to and brought dessert.  Plus, we had to get cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory, (because how can you not?) and the huge slice of chocolate cake to share at Claim Jumpers, and after all that I didn't want to eat anything yesterday.

But let me just say that we had a super-ly terrifically wonderful weekend.  Brian and I actually talked on the drive over to Portland.  We talked without kids interrupting us or us interrupting ourselves to talk to the kids.  It was fabulous!  We checked into the hotel, then went immediately to the Ringside Steakhouse for an office doctors meeting, where everyone was in love with their meat of choice, and I had the absolute best asparagus in my entire life.

On Friday Brian went to classes pretty early, and I slept in a bit, then met up with Brian's mom to explore Portland.  Then we had lunch at Red Robin and headed to the conference center for the exposition fair.  I walked around with Brian while he talked with equipment companies, pharmaceutical reps, software people, etc.  We saw Justin Heintz (He's married now!  Yea!) and Trent Cluny (They finally invited me to their exclusive private blog!  Yea!) and it was fun talking to them.  After that we went to ToDai's for the official office birthday party for Brian's dad, Brian, and Amy.  ToDai's is sushi and sea food, so that was one meal that I didn't eat very much of, but what I did eat (chicken) was yummy.  Friday night we stayed up late in Brian's parents room playing Pedro. Brian and I won the first and second hands, and lost the third.  Right?  Am I remembering correctly?  We were way tired, but it was fun.

Saturday I watched the morning session of General Conference with Brian's mom, did some shopping at Ikea (That place is amazing!), then met up with Brian and his dad at Cheesecake Factory.  Then on Sunday morning Diane and I watched Sunday's morning session of Conference while Brian and his dad went to their last class, then we went to Claim Jumpers for that amazing chocolate cake, and headed home.

I guess this is a "just documenting" post.  It doesn't sound nearly as exciting as it was to experience it.  I think the best parts for me were not having to count little blond and brunette heads every time we went somewhere, and not having to tell people not to climb or run in buildings, and not having to tell people to sit down at dinner.  It was great!

The kids had their own fun with cousins while we were away.  They didn't miss us a bit.

Everybody's Working For The Weekend

We're just finishing school for the day, and we have a huge list of things we need to do before Brian and I leave tomorrow.  I usually do a load of laundry every day, but I'm combining days this week to make up for us being gone, and yesterday I watched Running Wilde while folding the boys clothes, and it was so funny.  And while posting the link, I noticed episode 2 is up; it's a good thing I've got more clothes to fold.

Oh, I'm so excited for this weekend.  I know I went to Seattle with Brian in March, but that was the same week of our move, and even though it was fabulous to sleep in the hotel room while he went to his classes, I didn't know that I was going until just a few hours before we left, so I didn't get the chance to be excited for it.  But this time, I've had a few weeks to count down the days until I would have a child-free weekend.  And every time I hear Ethan say, "Mom, I have bad news," which happens quite frequently throughout the day, I just sigh and think, "Just two more days...just two more days."

Brian's birthday is on Friday.  He's been planning where he wants to eat his birthday dinner for the last month.  "Planning" is the key word here, because I don't think he's decided yet.  It sounds like it's a toss-up between all of his favorite Portland restaurants, of which there are many.  Brazil Grill, Todai's, Cheesecake Factory, I don't know which he'll pick, or how many others are in the running.  See?  He's excited, too.

The kids are thrilled to have Grandma Roses staying with them, and Alyssa and Ethan are super excited for their slumber party with cousins after that.  My parents are going to Spokane on Sunday to walk with my sister in Step Out*, a walk to fight diabetes, and they'll take Marcus with them, while leaving Alyssa and Ethan with Mike and Tallia.

So now that school is over, I need to get the kids lunch and get started on our to do list, so we'll be all ready to go.  We need to pick up pull-ups for Marcus, a prescription for Alyssa, finish all that laundry, change the litter box, pack all of our clothes, turn in our library books that were due yesterday, dye my hair 'cause I'm so tired of the gray sneaking in**, figure out the easiest way for the kids to have school with my mom on Friday, find someone to take Alyssa to her bird watching field trip on Saturday, and everything else that comes up.

Did I mention we're excited?

*My sister was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes 5 years ago.  If you'd like to sponsor her team for the walk, go here.
**I think Ethan's, "Mom, I have bad news"es are a big factor in graying my hair, along with the "Mom!  Marcus just-"s, the "Marcus has been-"s, etc.

We Did It!

So Brian and I ran the Indian Summer 5K on Saturday.  I discovered that I prefer running in the dark at 5:30 in the morning to running in the bright sunshine at 8:00.  I think I'll wear a hat for the next run, which will be the Howl n' Scream Scram on October 23rd.

On Thursday I ran for five minute blocks with 2 minute intervals of walking between, and it was actually pretty easy.  So I decided to cut my walking time down to blocks of a minute and 30 seconds for the actual race, and it was tough!  I beat my Thursday time, which was my goal, but it was definitely hard to do.  On Thursday I kept thinking, "Maybe I'll try to do the 10K in October instead of the 5K," but after Saturday I've decided that I should improve my 5k time and increase the time I actually spend running before I attempt a 10K.

Brian and I were walking and running at different times throughout the race, so we kept passing each other and saying, "Hello," which was fun.  Brian was about ten paces behind me at the end, so he caught up to me and grabbed my hand, and we crossed the finish line together at 32 minutes and 8 seconds.  At the beginning of last week I was praying that I would finish under 40 minutes, so I am quite proud of myself.

My favorite part of the whole thing was running beside two teenage girls, whose conversation went like this:

Girl 1: Are you sweaty?

Girl 2: Yeah, are you sweaty?

Girl 1: (slight pause) No.

Liar!  How can you not be at least a tiny bit sweaty after running two miles in the sunshine?  My goodness - I almost laughed out loud, but I'm glad I didn't.  When I told Brian about it later, he said she must have been "glistening" instead of sweating.

This Week Is Going By Way Too Fast!

I can't believe it's Thursday already!  Thursday!  Wasn't it just Monday?  Wasn't it just Sunday? 

Ah, Sunday.  Sunday I both gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting and did the lesson for Gospel Doctrine.  It was crazy!  I woke up Sunday morning and put the finishing touches on both, and I had facts and quotes and comments from both the talk and the lesson floating around in my mind all morning, and I was afraid that I would start to talk about Amos and prophets during my talk on prayer.  My talk went better than I expected, but I don't think I prepared for my lesson as well as I should have, because I kept getting lost from going between my notes and the lesson manual.  It felt so good when they were both over, though.  It was so wonderful to sit in relief Society and think, "I'm done!"

Monday was a great day.  Alyssa did wonderful at school, and after lunch we took her to MCP for P.E.  Alyssa has the best P.E. teacher, and she loves that class!  She was also so excited to see her new friend, Sara.  The best part of Monday was that I was able to drop Ethan off with my sister when we picked up her daughter (Emma) to take with us to MCP.  Marcus and I went grocery shopping (shopping with only one child!) and then we ran our groceries home and then hurried to the orthopedic surgeon's to have him check Marcus' broken collar bone, which is healing very well.

We practiced "A Child's Prayer" for Family Home Evening, because our family is singing it for the Primary Program.  Alyssa's extremely excited for that!

Tuesday is Alyssa's full day at MCP, which also makes it my day to mop the kitchen and dining room and catch up on other chores. I let the boys just run and play and watch tv on Tuesdays, to give them a break from our daily school routine.  Nothing significant happened on Tuesday, but it was a good day.

Wednesday (yesterday) I ran my first practice run four our 5K on Saturday.  Going back and forth from running 5 minutes and walking 3 minutes, I did it in 36 minutes.  I was shooting for 40, so yea!  And this morning I shortened the walking from 3 minutes to 2, and I did it in 33 minutes.  I'm taking tomorrow off to rest.  I'm so stoked for the race on Saturday.  It's my first ever, and I really feel like I've prepared well.  Brian hasn't had time to go running, and he keeps saying that I'll beat him.  Wouldn't that be cool?  I highly doubt that I will, because Brian will most likely push himself hard and kill himself in the process, but it would be a huge ego boost to run faster than my long-legged husband.

Alyssa also had ballet yesterday, and I'm so proud that she's doing a better job of listening to the teacher and following directions without complaining.  Last night they had old tu-tu's for sale for $2, and Alyssa bought a bright yellow one with some of her birthday money.  She's working very hard on being able to do the splits.  She's such a cute little ballerina!

Tonight Ethan has gymnastics.  We started him in the Parks and Rec program, and he is loving it.  He's doing a lot of jumping on the trampoline and walking on the balance beam.  On our way into the building on his first night, when he had no idea what gymnastics was, he walked all along the curb like a balance beam, and I thought, "This is the perfect class for him!"  I think that he also likes to have his own special thing to do by himself. 

Home school is going splendidly.  We still have our moments, of course, but for the most part we have our routine down, and the kids know what is expected of them.  Marcus is our difficult one right now.  He is just so busy, and he's constantly getting into things.  I've started to strap him down in a booster chair to keep him from bothering Alyssa while she's working, but he likes to push the table over onto Ethan, which is just one of the crazy things he does throughout the day.  I've been looking on Craigslist, and I found two desks that are similar to Alyssa's that we're probably going to buy this weekend, so each kid has a space of their own, and a place to keep their school supplies.  I'm excited for that!  I know Ethan's ready to start doing more school-type work, and he will love having his own desk, just like his big sister.

Speaking of home school, I started this post during one of our five minute breaks, and the break has lasted just a bit longer than that.  I'm not even sure exactly how long, but the kids have been happily playing on the purple couch for quite some time now.  We only have Math left to do, then we can have lunch, and I'm hungry!

Have a great day, everyone!

Badger Mountain

the view from the top

On Saturday we hiked up Badger Mountain with my brother and his family. It was raining just before we set out, and it sprinkled a little bit while we were out. The rain made it nice and cool, and we had a great time.

When Brian and I were looking for directions to the trail head in case we got seperated from Mike and Tallia, we found this review of Badger Mountain on Yelp, which I thought was hilarious. "In southern California, we live by the mantra: Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.

It doesnt matter how much you spend on clothes or who designed them, if you are overweight, you are not going to look good. Piercings and tattoos cant make you look better in a bathing suit.

Remember, the only person who prevents you from staying in shape is you. Not a professor, parent or law enforcement officer. You dont need consent and there isnt a minimum score on an entrance exam. Nope. Just YOU vs. YOU. Its sad how many people value 45 minutes of eating over hours of being healthy and looking their best. Life is simply more enjoyable when you feel and look good.

There are four flaws in my argument, however. That mantra is almost true. Guinness, bacon, ice cream and cheese are known exceptions to this.

After moments of weakness (and/or weekend binges) there is a way to recover from your debauchery. Badger Mountain.

This may be the easiest way to burn 700+ calories and tone your core, butt and leg muscles. A one hour investment is all you need.

The cost to transform your body is nothing. Start at Badger Mountain today. Who knows, by summer time, you could be catching the attention of someone you thought was out of your league."

All of the reviews talked about how hiking the mountain made you use muscles in your legs that you didn't know you had, and I can tell you that it's true. I even got a bit of an extra workout carrying Marcus for part of the time.

Most of the group...and my finger

Brian, helping Marcus along when he didn't want to walk

Pronounced "Gecko," With A "W"

When Brian first started optometry school, and he first started attending the weekend event put on by the Great Western Councel of Optometry, I jokingly called it "Opticon." You know, "opti" for "optical" and "con" to make it sound like a crazy science-fiction convention. Yeah, I know...he didn't think it was funny either.

GWCO is every fall in Portland, and it is a huge event. It's the first big conference and Continuing Education opportunity that optometry students at Pacific University College of Optometry are exposed to, and I remember Brian getting excited for it each year. The students were allowed to enroll in the classes for free (they even needed C.E. credit while they were still in school), and they were also encouraged to volunteer as helpers for the conference. GWCO, for us, also meant that Brian's parents would be coming into town, and Brian would go spend the night in Portland with his dad so they could go to their classes together. Poor Brian usually had to sleep on the floor, but he still had a great time, probably because they would go out for sushi and other nasty stuff that his wife doesn't feed him.

I think it was Brian's first or second year of school that we went to one of the conference's dinners with his parents. I loved seeing all of the doctors who were done with school (it meant there really was an end in sight!) and it was fun to have a night out in Portland.

Now Brian's graduated, and he really wanted me to go to GWCO with him last year, but it was the same weekend that I was in Tombstone Tales. I missed GWCO, and Brian missed Tombstone Tales, and I promised Brian last year that I would go with him this year. Luckily, the two events don't cross over this year, and we'll be able to do both!

Marcus has started a stage where he does the scream/cry when he doesn't get his way, and I've spent the last couple of days continually saying, "This is a tantrum and tantrums are unacceptable" while putting him in his room and telling him to come out when he's happy. That strategy has been working pretty good, because he's quick to figure out that screaming isn't getting him anywhere, but with the whole scenario I've been having daily headaches that last for hours, and by the time the day is over, I am ready for bed. I've also been cleaning up poop and potty, because Marcus is officially potty training (and doing really good the last two days!) and Ethan, who is usually our best behaved child just needs to learn to stand up for himself instead of whining, "Mah-hawm! Marcus fill in the blank with any unbelievable this you could think of. Wahhh!" That's not too much fun either. My mom and sister-in-law have wonderfully accepted to watch the kids for the weekend, and I am so looking forward to having the time off.

So the whole point to this post is this: We're going to GWCO. Is anyone else going?

A Beautiful Baptism

Alyssa's baptism a couple of weeks ago was just wonderful. She was so excited all day long, and it was fun to do her hair and get her into her pretty white dress. She was baptized with her cousin Marian and her friend from church, Ashley.


Ashley chose the prayers and songs, and Alyssa and Marian each chose a speaker. Marian chose her mom and Alyssa chose Grandpa Jacks. We sang, "Keep the Commandments," and "I Know That the Savior Loves Me," and all three girls and their brothers and sisters and cousins sang, "When I Am Baptized" for a special musical number.

I loved being a part of the baptisms as a mom. It was so fun to help the girls change into their white jumpsuits, and I loved being able to stand with them as they watched each other be baptized, and I especially loved the behind-the-scenes view from the side of the font as I watched Brian baptize Alyssa. I know that she was making a good choice to follow the Savior's example to be baptized, and I felt the Holy Ghost testify of the truthfulness of the ordinance of baptism and the love Heavenly Father feels for these girls.



While Alyssa and Marian were changing out of their wet clothes together they were exclaiming, "I want to do that again!" and "That was so much fun!" My sister and I enjoyed watching them talk with each other about how they felt and how excited they were. They are such sweet girls, and I know they're trying to make good choices to be closer to Heavenly Father. I'm so proud of them!

A Brand New Day

Thank you, everyone, for all those wonderful comments yesterday. It helped me so much to feel that support and to know that I'm not the only one who feels as I did.

Today is going to be so much better. Brian and I were both asleep by 9:00 last night, and when my alarm went off this morning, it was so much easier to get out of bed. I went running with my sister again. We're doing the Couch to 5K program, and we completed Week 3, Day 1 this morning. At the end of every run we say, "That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be." We'll see if we're still saying that in a few weeks. Brian and I have signed up for a 5K on the 25th, so we're preparing for that. I'm excited!

Anyway, Ethan must have woken up while I was gone, because he was asleep in our bed when I came home, and all of the kids slept long enough for me to have enough time to decently get ready for the day. And, yes, I'm wearing makeup today, and I do feel better about myself.

We have our September progress meeting with our adviser at MCP this afternoon, mostly to talk about our weekly schedule and plans for home school, then Alyssa has her first ever Achievement Days activity. I am so excited about that! I can't believe she's old enough to go to Acheivement Days.

It's funny, because the things that have been weighing on my mind lately are still there, but they're not weighing me down as they did yesterday. It's amazing how much a good night's sleep can change your perspective on life.

Blech

I know, I'm a horrible blogger. Probably not such a thoughtful mother, either. Alyssa was baptized on Saturday, and I haven't blogged about it. She deserves a beautiful post to go along with her beautiful baptism, but I don't think it's going to happen today. Instead, I am selfishly posting about myself.

I don't feel up to posting a happy-go-lucky, life-is-wonderful post today. Believe me, life is wonderful - isn't it? - I'm just not having a very good day. It started out okay, though. I woke up at 5:20 to go running with my sister, and we talked and laughed and were out of breath the whole time, and we even stood in her driveway and talked for ten minutes when we were done. But then as I walked in the door, I heard Marcus coming down the stairs, and I wasn't ready for him to be awake. It was only 6:15.

I guess it didn't help that Brian went fishing last night, and didn't get home until way late, and I couldn't get to sleep until just a bit before he came home. I am seriously cranky.

So Brian was getting ready for work, and Marcus was so happy that he was awake early enough to see Dad in the morning, and it was really cute to watch. But then Ethan woke up, too, and Brian left for work, and when I told the boys I needed to shower, they both wanted to join me, so I gave them my phone and told them to sit on my bed and play Angry Birds while I attempted to shower as fast as I could while praying that they wouldn't find the Emergency Call button and dial 911. But Marcus didn't want to share the phone, so Ethan kept coming in and whining that Marcus wasn't sharing, so I stopped hurrying and just let the hot water rinse over me for a while. I would have locked the door to begin with, but I wanted to be able to listen to the boys to monitor them and their game-on-the-phone use.

It got quiet after a minute, and after I got dressed, I found all three kids at the computer watching some penguin show, and they all complained when I turned it off and told them to get ready for the day, and I went to brush my teeth, but I didn't put any makeup on. I've been trying to wear makeup every day for the past year or so in order to: 1) not feel like a twelve year old trying to look grown up when I do my makeup for church each Sunday, and 2) to feel pretty every day, even if it's just my kids (mostly my kids) and my husband seeing me, so I can feel good about myself and not feel like a frumpy mom, which happens sometimes, although it doesn't happen as often as it used to. But I just didn't want to bother with it today.

The kids did reasonably well at breakfast, although Marcus emptied the entire kids cup drawer after I filled it, and even though it was cute that he was building rocket ships out of them, it was also a bit frustrating, too.

I gave up on having school this morning, because I know that I need a nap. I know that just a little bit more sleep is going to change my entire outlook on life. I just hope the kids don't burn the house down while I'm sleeping. Alyssa is downstairs watching Jim Henson's, "The Storyteller," and Ethan keeps coming upstairs and asking when I'm going to be done with the computer, because he doesn't like what Alyssa is watching.

I probably look like such a whiner. My mom and sister probably think I'm such a whiner, because I already called them this morning, and both times they helped me feel better, but also after both times something happened which made my mood plummet again. But does anyone else have days like this? Days where you feel like no matter how hard you try, you're always behind, or days where you don't feel connected to anyone and you just get lonely for no reason at all, or days where things aren't going right and the part that just kicks you in the pants is that you sit down to write a cheerful post about your daughter's baptism and instead you look at everyone's blogs and get jealous of all the crafts and activities and home improvement projects that you wish you had the time and money and energy to do?

And now the post is over, and I'm realizing just how therapeutic it is to write all of your feelings down. I really do feel better already. I'm also realizing that when I write therapeutically, I use very long, drawn out sentences with very little grammar.

So I'm going to secure the children as well as possible, put a load of laundry in the wash, and go to bed, and when I wake up in an hour or so, we're going to start over. We'll have school, lunch, probably some more school, then go meet the bookmobile at the park (I'm really excited about that!), and come home for dinner. I know today will get better.

Isn't She Gorgeous?

We got word on the final time for Alyssa's baptism next week, so I got up this morning and worked on the invitation. (School kind of happened on Monday, and it hasn't happened since. Next week will be much easier, because everyone else will be in school, too.) I copied the idea from someone's blog - just someone I found by googling "lds baptism invitation," and I love how it turned out.It helps that I had such gorgeous pictures to work with. We took them in Brian's parent's yard last week, and it was so much fun. Alyssa was coming up with all sorts of poses, and there were a bunch of times I had to say, "Just look at me and smile." And then once I felt I had enough decent "baptism invitation" shots, I told her to just go around the yard acting like a princess. Which, of course, she did perfectly. The "ball pose" she came up with all by herself. She planned it that morning, and even asked Marcus in advance if she could borrow it.

Back to School

Oh, holy cow - there is so much that has happened this summer that I've wanted to post about, but didn't. The Jacks family reunion to Yellowstone, Alyssa's eighth birthday and all that went along with it (her first slumber party and getting her ears pierced), and Cousin Camp. I hate not posting about things, because then I feel like I need to catch up before I post again, and then I don't catch up, and the posting is delayed even further. But we have had a fabulous summer, and I actually love that I've barely been on the computer. I actually spent most of my summer reading Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series, which I think everyone should start reading right now, because it was that good. We also spent a good amount of time at my parent's house, swimming and running around the yard with cousins. But most of all, we've been bumming around the house watching TV all day. That's Alyssa's favorite part of the summer, because usually TV is only allowed on the weekends, and she is our movie freak.

Marcus broke his clavicle last Thursday. He and Alyssa collided and fell to the ground while they were playing hide and seek. He cried and cried, and he almost fell asleep on my lap, so I put him in my bed since it was nap time anyway. When he woke up, he was just-woke-up-cranky, but mostly he would cry when I tried to pick him up, which seemed like something wasn't right. I thought it might be a dislocated shoulder, so we took him to urgent care and then to the emergency room, where they diagnosed him with a dislocated elbow, because they thought the pain in his shoulder was radiating from that. We waited through the weekend and took him into the orthopedic surgeon yesterday afternoon. Around Saturday, when Marcus started letting us touch his shoulder, Brian found that there was a spot that would kind of crunch together when you touched it, and yesterday we found out it was his broken clavicle. He's a touch little kid, though. He's acting normal, and the doctor was impressed at how well he was doing for it just happening on Thursday.

Yesterday we started our first day of school. We're getting a late start this morning, because I slept in and Marcus is still sleeping, but we're going to have Math and Reading this morning and then call it a day. We're definitely taking things slow this week to work back into our regular routine.

We decorated the school room, which is a huge upgrade from the blank walls we had all last Spring. After I put up our letter wall and a few posters and a huge map of the world, I thought, "Wow, it was really boring in here before." I love our school room now. I still want to eventually paint and start decorating in our Alice in Wonderland theme, but for now I'm quite happy with how it is.

We got a classroom mouse from Eric and Claire, and the kids are absolutely in love with her. Her name is Artimus, and she is very sweet. With Callie the Cat and Artimus the Mouse, we actually have four pets now, if you count the caterpillars the kids have brought in from the back yard. We have one that's already formed a cocoon and another that's scrunching around the canning jar, eating every bit of leaf it can find.

So we're very excited for the school year. Opening our curriculum materials when they arrived was like Christmas. I loved seeing all the books we're going to read and the activities and experiments we're going to do. Even though we've started school, I don't feel like summer is over, because Alyssa's still home with us, and we're taking it slow, and we're still planning loads of fun stuff to do before it gets cold.

Marcus's New Cooking Show

Destroying the Kitchen
with
Marcus

Today Marcus will be making a new creative dish, Brown Sugar Cocoa Noodles! To prepare the brown sugar-cocoa mixture, go to the kitchen in the morning (You really want to have at least five or six hours for the mixture to sit.) while your mom is in the shower and dump some cocoa powder in the brown sugar crock. Be sure to leave the cocoa box on the counter so your mom finds it when she comes downstairs to get everyone rounded up so she and your dad can go to a funeral. This next step is one of the most important in the whole recipe: say, "Sah-vee" in a very sweet voice when your mom yells, "Marcus Christopher Jacks, this is not your kitchen! You need to stay out of my kitchen!" That apology is what is going to make your mom trust you enough to put on a movie in the afternoon so she can take a nap to give you a chance to finish the dish.

After the sugar and cocoa gets a chance to sit, get out a bowl of leftover plain spaghetti noodles that your mom usually puts cheese on for your lunch. Place it on the floor and dump your sugar-cocoa mixture on top of it. Keep a cupcake pan handy, just in case you might need it, but place it on the floor upside down (this is very important!) to, uh, keep it clean. Have your mom move the bowl to the counter before she thinks to take pictures, and enlist her help in trying to salvage your ingredients before throwing them away.

Place the sugar-cocoa mixture in a 9 x 13 inch pan, and mix it up with a fork. Smile for the camera when your mom takes a picture, and then yell, "Me? Me!" after every picture.

Once the sugar and cocoa powder is sufficiently mixed, dump it in an extra bowl and spread the spaghetti noodles into the pan. Look cute.

Spread the sugar-cocoa mixture on top of the noodles, cover in plastic wrap, and cook in the microwave for a few minutes.

Enjoy, and throw away the leftovers. Really. You're going to be the only person in your family to take more than one bite.

I've Been an Awful Blogger

Brian has pulled up my blog on his laptop multiple times over the lat few weeks, saying, "Maybe my wife updated her blog today. Every time I check, I think that this will be the time..."

There are multiple reasons I haven't been blogging lately. Three of them are named Alyssa, Ethan, and Marcus. They're on official summer vacation, and they've been occupying the computer a lot more than I have. I've also been working on some projects around the house: flowers along the side of the house, planning what colors to paint the school room, etc. And I've been reading Brian Sanderson's Mistborn series, which are very good. Oh, and I got the flu, too. That wasn't fun....at all.

The other day we went to my parent's house for a baked potato bar and swimming party, which was great. Alyssa was the photographer for the evening, and I just put the pictures on the computer. Let's see what we've got.

Cecily

Callie

The other side of Callie

Whirlpool!

The girls

Alyssa and Kenna, picture taken by Emma

Kenna and Emma

Marcus

A shoe?

Brennan

And don't forget the seal/dolphin thing, relaxing by the tree

Lawn Gopher Do

Have you ever played Mad Gab? My parents got it forever ago and my sisters, my mom and I sat around for hours just going through the cards. "Lawn Gopher Do" had us stumped for quite a while!

Let's just say that I've been meaning to post for a long time. Actually, I've been meaning to get on the computer for a long time, but I just haven't.

We finished school on Monday, along with the public schools, and we have definitely been enjoying summer vacation. We've been driving with the windows down, which gets Alyssa very excited. As soon as the windows go down, she shouts, "Turn up the music!" and starts bustin' a move in the back seat. The kids have watched a ton of movies while I painted the family room. Green, by the way. The exact shade of green that we had at our old house. I really liked it.
Ethan just came home from an almost-day-long fishing trip with Brian's dad. He caught three fish, and I think his grandpa caught six. They called me about an hour or so after they left, and Ethan exclaimed, "I caught a fish!" He had a blast!

Since Ethan got a surprise this morning, we surprised Alyssa and Marcus by inviting over a couple of cousins, Callie and Cecily. They played princesses, Harry Potter, army, Star Wars, and who knows what else while I put the family room back together and cleaned the kitchen. Yes, it took me most of the day to clean the kitchen. Yesterday I went back to bed after I got home from my walk, then I let the kids help themselves to breakfast while I slept in for a bit. Believe me, the milk spilled across the table and dry oatmeal spread throughout the kitchen and dining room was well worth it. I went ahead and left the mess while I continued painting, then we had some Marie Calendar freezer meals, which usually go to work with Brian, for dinner last night. I finished painting just before dinner time yesterday, and that's when the kids started getting interested in what I was doing, so I sent everyone up to the school room and we had a picnic dinner while watching a movie on the laptop.

Last week we went up to Brian's parent's cabin with his dad so Brian could help fix a broken pipe, and so we could go mushrooming.

Brian found a lizard, He picked it up in a ziplock bag, because he didn't know if its skin was poisonous or not. Don't worry, we let it go after we looked at it for a few minutes.


Ethan found a couple of mushrooms. This was the first time we went that he was old enough to pay attention and know what to look for. Mostly, though, he just loves being outside!

Brian and Kimber love each other, very much.

And going with the love pictures theme, Alyssa found a heart stump and wanted her picture with it. I love how she finds things like that.
!
Brian's dad found a fawn, just laying out by itself in the middle of nowhere. He called us over with the walkie talkie. It was so sweet! We got about five or six feet away from it, and it just watched us, holding perfectly still. We watched it for a few moments, then left it alone. We're hoping that its parents were hiding somewhere nearby, because when we went back to look for it a little later, it was gone.


And last, but certainly not least, a couple of weeks ago Alyssa had her first ballet recital. She looked so beautiful! About a week before the recital she worked herself up to tears and sometimes hysterical crying, because she was so nervous about it. We kept telling her it was nothing to be worried about, and that she had watched her cousins in the same recital before and that they had had a wonderful time, but she wouldn't listen to us. Then one day she came up to me, laughing, and said that she remembered when we went to the BYU Fairy Tale ballet show, and they had all of the kids come up on the stage to dance during intermission (which was genius, by the way) and she said that she wasn't nervous at all then. Her conclusion was that if she could dance in front of "all those people!" at that ballet, then surely she wouldn't get nervous just dancing for everyone's families.

She was so excited to perform, and she did wonderful! As soon as I figure out how to get the video off of my phone, I'll put her performance up.