Trek

Chris and I had the amazing experience to be a Ma and Pa for our church's youth Trek trip. We left our kids with Grandma Dixie (a Saint!) dressed up as pioneers, 'adopted' 7 teenagers, pushed a handcart, walked a lot, slept in tents and used porta-potties for 3 days.

We feel we were blessed with such great, helpful, kind, interesting, strong, smart kids for our Trek Family. They were all kind of quiet - well, all but one. Emma Grace doesn't fit that word.  I really surprised myself with how quickly and how strongly I loved each one, like my own child.  I was worried about being able to really love them, because sometimes I think teenagers can be a little obnoxious in large group settings from an I-just-met-you kind of standpoint. But with these kids, I could see their strengths and their hearts and I just loved them - Emma, Kobe, Tyson, Derrick, Madelyn, Brody and Jessica.  Chris and I had so much fun talking with them, playing with them, working with them, dancing with them and just watching them.

Another pleasant surprise from the Trek experience was how great it was to just be with Chris.  I love that guy. I loved watching him interact with our Trek kids. He's a great conversationalist one-on-one and loves to look out for the hurting ones. He is a great square dancer, a willing partner-in-crime to whatever I wanted to try, a master packer, and the best kind of quiet leader. I love camping with him as it provides him with many chances to "save me" from the bugs and spiders. Oh, and he looks so HANDSOME in pioneer clothes.

The hard parts were bugs, fear of bug bites, a little chaffing, the heat, and trouble sleeping super great at night. But those aren't so bad. I loved being out in nature, wearing long swishy skirts, feeling a breeze on my face under a bonnet and holding Chris' hand as we walked. I loved the adrenaline rush of getting the handcarts over tricky parts of the trail - over big ruts, through streams, between trees, etc. We even had to unload most of it and tie it to a rope to get it down and back up a big, steep gully. My favorite physical part was the awesome challenge of pushing/pulling the handcart during the Womens-Only pull. I wish it could've been longer. My daughters and I pushed away some of the kind but unnecessary offers of help and did most of it by ourselves! Chris was great and respected our wishes and only helped when he absolutely had to...which he (and another Pa) did or we would've had a run-away-cart on our hands.

Trek was a BEAST to prepare for (making most of my clothes, gathering all the supplies, getting our real kids taken care of, etc..) and some things I would do differently but I would be happy to be involved again. If Chris is with me, I'm game for almost anything.

Charlie baseball

Charlie wanted to do coach pitch baseball this year because some good friends from his class were doing it. It was our first time our family did anything with baseball and it was a lot of fun! His season overlapped with his soccer season a little bit so it got kinda busy for a few weeks but the heavy rain has helped keep some evenings free. 

Charlie is a good little baseball player! He never struck out and everytime got on base except for once in the championship game, they got him out at first. He got a pop fly once and was pretty dependable overall. We had a lot of fun watching him and we're glad that the playground was so close to his field.  Frederick is such a busy toddler. Literally. Always. Moving. We've got to keep a close eye on him with the fire ant piles all over the place. 

Charlie's team did really well, only lost 1 game. They had a fun pizza party and gave out little baseball bat trophies at the end of the season. 

Even Grandma Dixie got in on the fun for his second to last game. She flew in town to watch the kids while Chris and I went on the pioneer Trek for our stake church youth group.  The championship game was going to be while Chris and I were gone so we told the coach Charlie wouldn't make it and he was like, 'no! We need Charlie!' And offered to come pick him up from our house and take home home again! Coach said Charlie never spoke a word the whole time! I knew he was nervous but he also was willing to do it. I love our courageous Charlie. 

Trip to Memphis

Our nearest temple is in Memphis and so is the nearest Costco. We occasionally clear a Saturday to visit both places.  This particular time, we decided to make a little overnight trip of it. We leave just before school gets out and 3 hours later have 10 minutes to eat pizza at CiCi's before dropping me off at the temple to help work the Stake new member baptismal night. Meanwhile Chris checks into the hotel and then shops at Goodwill for some clothes for Trek with the kids. Then the next morning, it's Chris' turn to attend the temple while I swim with the kids in the hotel pool. Then it's out to lunch followed by a trip to Costco. Then we get home around 4pm. Kind of a long weekend but it's a good way for Chris and I both to have a turn in the temple and the 6 hours in the car is good practice for our cross-country drive to Seattle coming up in a month!!

No more mud! House color ideas

We've had this mud pit in front of our new garage that holds standing water for days after a big rain. Its Freddy's favorite place. He loves to play in dirt, throw dirt, sit in dirt and water just makes everything better in his opinion. 

After waiting for literally weeks and weeks, we finally got the concrete crew to come! But then I saw them putting the forms up and it was different then I thought it was supposed to be. So I nervously put everyone on hold until Chris could come home and look at it.  After talking with our contractor, we got it worked out but then the concrete crew never came back. I worried for more weeks of delay but it was only a day later that the concrete went in! Yay!!!! No more mud right outside our door. 

Also, we had to get serious about picking paint colors for the outside. We painted a bunch of samples on the outside and then took a picture and uses the computer to simulate the different colors across the entire house. It's tricky to try and match our existing style of house with the somewhat more modern style of the garage addition. 

In the end, we decided on the following two colors. But with rain, and frustrating we-lost-the-paint-color-samples-again problems, we haven't been able to see anything actually painted yet. Hopefully by the time we get back from Seattle. Hopefully. 

Mudroom and playroom

Big changes! Carpet is in in the playroom, stairs and kids' bedroom. 

Mudroom floor is finished! I went with the big squares and I love it! So glad I took the risk. 

Designed the mudroom shelving. I go crazy over getting stuff like this just right. I have no one to blame but myself if I don't think of everything I might want it to have a place for. Kinda stressful but in the end, it turned out good!

Charlie's soccer team

The rain cleared up long enough for Charlie to have his last soccer game and take team pictures! He had a lot of fun this season.

Also we had a little stomach flu going around between the kids this week. It started with Charlie and he stayed home from school once. Then Gwen, and she stayed home from preschool. And by the end of the week, Alec was feeling left out decided he was too sick to go to to school on Thursday. (I had a hunch he was faking it, but whats the harm in taking a personal day every once in a while?) As long as he rested for the entire day, it was fine with me. :) He never got sick but did manage to spend almost the entire school day within a few feet of the carpet. Either sleeping or reading Harry Potter. 

New carpet and tile

Trying to decide between large checks or small checks in the laundry/mud room. 

We tried to save on money and demo-ed the old carpet ourselves. The kids sure had fun yanking it off the tacks and rolling it up with the duck tape.

Woooo-eee! We've had some problems with the connection between the house and the septic tank. Its been raining so much, we haven't been able to dig it up to see what the problem is. Our contractor, Joe will send some of his guys, usually Shane or Ross, to pump it out (a few hundred feet out into the yard) every so often. But that is basically like sweeping the dirt under the rug. It provides aesthetic relief (which is nice!) but doesn't solve the problem. I can't wait for the rain to stop. 

Plumbers came and fixed the piping in the floor of the 1/2 bath off of the laundry/mud room where we changed the location of the toilet so we could fit a sink in there. 

Also, this week, the carpet came! I was pretty nervous about how it would look on a large scale. I feared it would be too dark and purple-looking. 

And the tile in the upstairs bathroom got put in! I love how Wade did it with the striations going different directions.

We are getting so close!!!!!!