Go Eagles!

This is just a little shout out to all of the youth wrestlers who finished the season strong. Carson didn't make it to West Side, but a lot of my little buddies did, and they did very well! Tyler, Cooper, Jace, Colby, Derrek, Ben, etc. So sorry if I didn't put your name down! Let me know! You all did so well. Also, a shout out to the coaches. You guys rock! I'll get you a small gift later . . .! We had a really fun season. I know you put in a lot of hours on your own time. Thanks!
Also, I know I was a (Highland) ram, and I'll try my best to be loyal to HHS forever, but I love Marsh Valley. Not just because that's where Luke ruled the halls, just because it's so much more personable, I love the people, and it's where my kids are going to probably end up going! Go eagles!

Thankful Thursday

This week I am going to have to say that I am most thankful for Heavenly Father allowing us to learn and grow. I know it sounds both crazy and preachy, but let me explain. First of all, Carson wanted to wrestle so badly this year. We totally supported him all the way, that is, until he wanted to quit. We don't allow quitting in our family, and told him he had to try his hardest for the rest of the season. I think the reason he didn't like it so much was that he wasn't very good to begin with. Well, his last couple of matches, he's pinned someone at least once! He is starting to enjoy it, even though the season is over tomorrow. I'm grateful he could try something, learn from it, and also learn that he has to practice to be good at something. Although, I will say, he probably won't wrestle next year. Even winning didn't change his mind that much!
I'm also working again full time at FW, so for the first time in three years, I'm not home too often. I had to give the kids and Luke chores, and they are failing miserably! However, it is good for them to see that if they want a spoon for cereal (we only own five spoons, because my kids like to take them outside to dig, and I'm sick of buying more each month!!) they have to do their chores. Yes, I am giving in and doing a chore for each one of them until about 2 a.m., but tomorrow night and Saturday I work until 1 a.m., so they are going to have to jump in and get 'er done!! This is extremely hard for me, because, like my mom, I just want to have it done right and now, so I clean constantly! Now, I come home to tractors and semis all over the ground, and trip over the baby stroller when I go in to kiss Brooks goodnight, but, the kids are healthy, and I need to realize that, for now, all is well! Don't worry, I'm learning!

Shout-Out Monday!

Today's shout out is going to a good friend of mine. She has done so much to help me these last few weeks, so my shout out today is going to:

NATALIE GUNTER! Congrats, Nat! (Sorry, again no picture! This time, however, she refused to let me take one of her!)
Natalie is my PTO Secretary, so these last few weeks, she's been busy, busy, busy! In fact, she's done more running around than I have, made sure our figures have been all adding up, keeping track of items, calling people, keeping volunteers in line, collecting money, etc. She's amazing! I need to hire her to be my personal secretary! Oh yeah, did I mention that she also volunteers to help anyone else in need on top of all this?! She's amazing! She fulfills her church calling to the best of her ability every week, is an awesome mom, and lives her life in the service of everyone else around her. She's such an awesome example of someone I would like to someday be. Did I mention she's amazing?!! (Nat, next girl's night, I owe you dinner!)

We're going on an egg hunt . . .

Today we went egg hunting! The kids all had a blast, and I'm totally exhausted! We woke up and went to mom and dad's ward's egg hunt and breakfast. The food was yummy, I saw some old friends, and then the kids all made a loot out finding eggs. Actually, Brooklynn was in the nursery, but she still made a haul! At first, she didn't want to pick up the eggs, but when I showed her that there was candy in them, she started picking them up in both hands!

Then, at mom and dad's house, they hid eggs in their back yard! The kids thought that was so cool! Grandma and Grandpa bought camo eggs for them to find, and let me tell you, it made it a little tricky! Brooklynn's were pink, so they were easier! They had a blast, and made a haul there, too! All in all, it was a pretty fun day! Tomorrow will be just as busy!

We're sick of being sick

Yep, you guessed it, we're sick, again! This is getting ridiculous. In the last six weeks, at least one person in our family has been sick. This week, however, strep throat has three out of the five of us down. My voice is GONE. I squeak every now and then! I thought it was just a virus, and Luke had the same thing, but then it all came clear yesterday. Colton woke up at eight ready and excited to go to the school for western day. By ten a.m. he was asleep on my living room floor! He still didn't have a fever, so I let him go, on the account that he had to eat his chicken nuggets on the way to the school. He should have really been hungry by then, but when we got to the school he hadn't even touched one. (That is very unusual for him!!) I put him in the teacher's lounge, bought him a 7-up, and told him to come into the gym when he was done, but Kim brought him in about fifteen minutes later. She said he was just staring at the food. He hadn't even had a bite! That's when I knew something was really wrong. As soon as we got home from the school, I called Dr. Yost who was triple booked for the afternoon, but said to bring him in. The poor kid has a double ear infection and strep. He looks so sad! He didn't start throwing up until four a.m. this morning (just before Brooks finally fell asleep!) and he has really bad runs. He's already had two baths today, and just lays on the couch (he graduated from the floor) in his coat. (He refused to use a blanket, and if you know this crazy kid, he wears his coat in the house all the time. How fitting for him to wear it while he's sick, too!)
As for Luke and I, well, I hope that the antibiotics kick in really soon so that I can get my voice back (it makes for a long day at work at FW), and my kids are trying to enjoy my not yelling for awhile. (That may also be a good thing!) I promise I've Lysoled my house every time, but this year the bugs are not going away. It is getting really old, really fast!

Thankful Thursday

Okay, I'm finally going to copy the rest of the world and do a Thankful Thursday post each Thursday. This morning I was lying in bed and thought about all of the things I am thankful for. I have a lot to be grateful for. This isn't going to be easy to just choose one topic each week, so I'll try my best!
This week I am thankful for the birds singing each morning. We live on four acres with pine, maple, and aspen trees lining the backyard. I have a sliding glass door off of the master bedroom that leads to the deck. On the end of the deck is where the treeline starts. I absolutely love waking up each morning to the sound of these busy little creatures singing. I am so grateful Heavenly Father blessed us with these beautiful songs. I didn't realize how much I had missed them until I just noticed that they have started singing again, since the weather is getting up above 40*!
On a side note, I am so grateful for warm weather! The snow is starting to melt and I can see some patches of grass! It will still be a good month before it is all gone, and we may still get some storms here and there, but at least I know warmer weather is on the way!

Wrestling Match @ Highland High School

Today was Carson's third wrestling meet, and he did really well. He started off the first match with really good form, but also crying (again). I know that he keeps getting himself so worked up that as soon as the referee blows the whistle he looses it, but I can't really blame him, either. They wait about 15 min. after they get paired up, and you can tell that's when he lets it get to him. Here he is (the cute red-head in the grey shirt) with the first kid he wrestled. The other kid was 4lb. heavier than him and actually three times picked him up and slammed him to the mat! This was the first time Carson has ever been pinned, but he wrestled really well for the most part. This is a picture of him starting on the ground. He has really good technique (according to his coach, the guy in the back kneeling).

Then, on his second match, it happened so quickly! In fact, Carson had to wrestle back-to-back and so it caught a lot of people off guard. From the time the ref. blew his whistle to the end, was about 15 sec. Carson totally pinned the kid. In fact, he threw a couple of moves and it happened so fast that I don't think Carson even knew what had happened. It was definitely fun to watch him do so well! He did everything he was supposed to do, and it finally paid off! Way to go bug! I'm so proud of you! What made it even cooler was Grandma Ruth, Uncle Scottie, Jake and Elaine, Emily, Grandma and Grandpa Foster and a ton of his friends and their families were all cheering him on. He even had four high school wrestlers cheering him on! This last picture is him just before pinning the kid. If I would have know that it was going to happen so quickly, I would have done a video on my camera, but at least we got it on the video camera. If anyone knows how to put that on the blog, please let me know!

Western Day

Today was "western day" at the grade school! The kids all wore their western getup', and the DNCFR (Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo) Queens came to do an assembly for them. Yep, it's rodeo time again, and that means all of the cowboys and cowgirls from McCammon poke their faces out of the house to watch and participate! The assembly was actually fun. The queens all talked about rodeo and gear and stuff, and the kids participated in pretend barrel racing (where the boys were barrels and the girls took turns racing around them), roping each other, etc. They had a blast. It was even funny to watch, because all of the girls want to be rodeo queens, and all of the boys were smitten by the queens! (Except my son. He's crazy, but I'll let him stay this way for another ten years! I asked him who was his favorite today, and he actually said K.C. Anderson (the only male, and announcer for the DNCFR) because he could lasso the farthest! He didn't even care about he girls!) This picture is actually the whole school with the Queens hiding. Can you see them?

Shout-Out Monday!!

Crazy, I know, but I have been wanting to do something like this forever, and have never gotten around to it! There are a ton of awesome people in my life, and I would be so ungrateful to not introduce them to the rest of the world!
Kinda silly, yes, (normally they won't be so sarcastic) but this one fits the bill! This week's shout-out goes to . . .

SCOTTIE! (My little bro.!)
Sorry, no picture just yet, but Scottie was named "Taco Bell Employee of the YEAR!!!!" I know you don't want to take all of the credit, Scott, so I will help you spend your "$25.00 gift card to Walmart! So stinkin' funny! (Yes, that's all he got for being employee of the year!)
First, I know you would want to thank your judge. Without him, you wouldn't have a felony on your record and you would probably have a normal job with normal people!
Next, I want to thank the Idaho Falls Taco Bell for forgiving you for walking out on them. You really didn't mean it, and the Pocatello Taco Bell knows that!
I would also like to thank your boss and managers for nominating you even though you tell them to grow up and other rude stuff all the time!
And, finally, I would like to thank you, for never giving up on your dream to build the best spicy crunch wrap supreme you know how! You deserve it!!!

Seriously, now, I do want to tell you congrats, and I will put up a decent picture when I get one. Other wise, I'll use that one . . .

I love this quote!!!

I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.
I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.
I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk's lawn.
I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children.
I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden.
I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.
I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.
By Sister Marjorie Pay Hinckley

WARNING . . .

I just wanted to take a minute and post this warning to everyone who reads this blog (and the comments left by others.) I have been having a problem with a virus leaving me a message, and when you click on it, it could affect your computer, too. PLEASE don't click on any unfamiliar names or comments that aren't left in the open. I have contacted blogger, and they are looking into it. I was also notified that I needed to change my comments so that only registered users can leave a message. If you would like to contact me, please don't be embarrassed even though I don't know you! You can also e-mail me @ farminfamily@hotmail.com. I would love to hear from you!

Book Fair is OVER!!!

Yes, I'm alive! The majority of you have seen me around this week at the book fair, but for a select few, I'm still kickin'! What a week! It wasn't just the book fair, either. I was super busy every day! I changed my wake up time from 7:00 a.m. to 6:45, since I had to have all the kids ready for the day and at the school with me at 7:30 a.m.!
The hardest part about book fair this year is that we had so many kids stealing. Yes, that's right, elementary kids had the stealing thing down to a science. They would do a number of things I would have never thought about. They would put the merchandise behind the stands that the books were on in the fair, and walk out and pick it up and walk to their classroom. They would also pretend to be looking at books and put one on the actual library shelf. Then, later, they would come back and get the book off of the shelf. Those sneaky little boogers! I would have never thought about doing that when I was in grade school. Besides, I would have been so terrified that I would be caught!
Our decorations and setup was so cute! The theme was "Take a road trip to reading fun!" We had a road made out of colored masking tape that lead from the door to the front of the book fair. Hailey, Tracy, and Kim S. also made way cute decorations and fliers. Even our thank you notes were road signs! That was fun. We also made over $600 than what we expected, but better yet, about $700 from last years figures! All of this with two different fund raisers going on in our community!
Thursday night (the last night of book fair) was Grandparent's Night. Don't you remember Grandparent's Day at school? I loved it! Well, now with more and more working grandparent's, we hold it at night. The kids showed their grandparents around and teachers did a few things with them in the classroom, and then at 7:00 p.m. we had a small program in the gym. Each class sang a couple of songs and we had cookies. It was a fun night!
All in all, this week was busy! I promise that I will try to keep in touch more often. Between book fair, wrestling, tumbling, Colton's eye appt., feeding and taking care of sick cows, and trying to get taxes done, this week is finally over!! Next week I should also have my camera fixed, so there may be pictures back in our lives!

Graham Crackers and Frosting

No, we weren't the richest house on the block when I was a kid, but we were always well fed. (I don't mean that I loved everything mom made, and tuna casserole is in the well fed category!) I even remember having yummy snacks quite frequently. Today I was digging through my cupboard (which is almost bare!), and found about five whole graham crackers still in the box. I knew I had some frosting down in food storage, so I managed to find a yummy snack for the kids! Big deal, you say? Not to me! One bite, and it reminded me of the fun snacks I had as a child. Yes, some of them were at daycare, while others were at the Simmon's house. I love days like today that I am easily reminded of my childhood, and can remember to enjoy the "small stuff"!

Wrestling Meet #1

Today was Carson's very first wrestling meet @ Malad High School. Carson wrestles?, you ask! Well, we signed him up last night (and they had their very first practice), and tonight we drove 30 min. to his first meet. He seriously didn't know what he was doing. He didn't even know how to "pin" someone, or what a "pin" means! I felt horrible for that, but he was also one of the only first grader's who hasn't wrestled since age 3! I am also a very unprepared mother. I thought it would be a small, fun pastime for him to do. Hello! Almost any parent with a child between three years old to sixth grade, from Idaho Falls all the way to the Utah line and back was at the meet (and will be at all the other's!)
Okay, so back to Carson, well, he was all psyched and ready to go! We made it on time to weigh in, I found a Marsh Valley coach who showed him what NOT to do, and then turned him loose. The pre-K and Kindergartner's go first. They put them in groups of four according to their age, and then they wrestle the kids in their group. Carson watched, but soon they called for his grade. There were probably 150 or more first graders! Carson is tall and skinny, so his weight was dead in the middle. He waited about an hour and a half for his turn, and I could tell it was eating at him. The other three kids he was going up against had all wrestled for at least two years, and they knew what they were doing! Poor Carson, as soon as the referee blew his whistle, all of his anxiety let out and he began crying. You can't do anything when you're crying. To make it worse, all of his friends were standing right there to cheer him on. I have to hand it to him, though, he stood his ground. He was never pinned. The other player, or whatever they are called only won by points both times. Carson put moves that I have never seen before on these boys! So, on top of his nerves and crying, and lack of knowledge of the sport, I'm proud of him! I told him that as long as he does his best, I will always know he's a winner. (Great mom talk, hu?!) He told me afterwards in the car that he was so scared he was going to hurt someone (like when he wrestles with Luke and Colton), so I could also see why he had some hesitation there. He did say that the part he didn't like was the waiting. Duh, I could see that on his face the whole hour and a half he waited! Good job, Bubba! You did your best. Sorry I didn't get pictures tonight. I also learned another lesson while I was there. If Luke's working the video camera, don't take Brooklynn so that you can get pictures!

Ear Infections

Wow! My little (big) boy is seven, and I would have never thought about another ear infection for this kid. When he was young, he averaged about four a year for the first three years, but then they went away. Last night, I went to pick my kids up at my mom's, and the weather was horrible, so I stayed at her house and planned on waking up and going home to get ready for church. Well, my plan didn't work out exactly as I planned. I went to bed around eleven thirty (thanks to the darn t.v. that I don't even watch at my house!), and Carson came into my room just as I was getting cozy. I knew something was wrong, since he usually doesn't ever wake up once he is asleep. He was crying, and told me that his ear hurt. I gave him some Tylenol, and we said a prayer together, and he laid down next to me in the bed. It took forever for him to go to sleep, even with me rubbing his back and tickling his neck (something all of my family loves for me to do!) Well, he was up off and on all night, and I knew when he was eating breakfast that this wasn't just going to go away, so I called his Doctor. Now is the time to give Dr. Yost yet another shout out. I love that I can call either one of them any time of day, day or night, and they will meet me at the office. We've called several times on Sundays, once on Thanksgiving, once on New Year's Day, etc. I hope you get my point. They are amazing. They don't want you to go to the emergency room or see another doctor, because they don't want your child's care to not live up to their expectations. When Carson broke his leg and we took him to the emergency room and then to a specialist, Dr. Yost said he could have easily taken care of all of that if I would have taken him to his office. (It would have saved me a good $12,000., too!) Anywhoo, he met me on my way home, and sure enough, Cars. has a double ear infection. In fact, Chris said it was so bad, he prescribed a high does of something. The generic cost $140.00. I about flipped! I hope he gets better soon, because my ears are hurting for him!

Girl's Day

What an awesome treat! Roxann called me Saturday morning and asked if I had plans for the day, yet. I wanted to take the kids to my mom's, since she randomly sees them anymore, but other than that, I didn't. She told me to get ready, because she would be there in about 45 min., and that we were going to go to Logan for the day! It was such a fun surprise! We were able to go to lunch at Olive Garden, and then went shopping. We didn't get very much shopping in, however, because it started to snow and rain together, and the weather just kept getting worse, so we decided to head home before we got stuck in Utah! I had so much fun! I haven't gotten out of the house a lot lately, so it was a fun day! I really need to get another girl's night together . . . so if anyone out there is reading this, find me a date in April! (March is literally all booked up!) Thanks, Roxy, for a fun day!