Family Hike

We have had a busy day today, but it has been a lot of fun. Amber started off the morning by going to a 8AM performance for one of the young women. The high schooler called Amber a couple of days ago and asked her to play for one of her music solos at a regional high school event.

When Amber got home she grabbed Aylee and they went fabric shopping for a future bedspread/comforter in her soon-to-be new bedroom. While they were gone, I was experimenting in the kitchen and found a GREAT microwave recipe for Crunchy Carmel Popcorn. I was skeptical (any microwave recipe is usually a sham) but I tried it out and it was not only EASY, but it was really good.

When Amber and Aylee got home, I told everyone that we were going hiking and that we would have the carmel popcorn for a treat on the trail. We quickly loaded everyone up and headed to Rock Canyon, just above the beautiful Provo Temple.

It was a gorgeous hike. The kids loved throwing rocks in the cool, clear stream along the trail. I took our GPS unit and found that there was a Geocache nearby and so we let the kids find that one. Alayna was funny as she insisted to hike all by herself for the entire duration of our easy stroll.



We were tight on time, so we only hiked for an hour and we only went about 0.48 miles up the trail before having to turn back due to the little ones stopping here an there for this and that. Alayna was a trooper though. Going downhill was hard for her as she didn't know how to slow down. She fell so many times on the rocks and pavement. She even got a huge gash on her forearm. But she didn't complain and she didn't want to be carried, so we let her be.

When we got to the van, I was pretty proud of my performance. I made the hike up and back and my leg/back pain was very minimal and I was feeling great. I started boasting to Amber of my accomplishment (being the first hike since my operation). As I was telling her how well I did, I then realized, I can't be too proud of myself since Alayna was able to hike it all by herself too! :)



When we got home, we cleaned Johnathan up and sent him off to a birthday party. While he was there, I made some more carmel popcorn for one of Amber's upcoming meetings. At 2pm, she had some of the Young Women over for a YCL Young Women's Camp Meeting. One of the girls was babysitting, so she brought those kids with her. So, I watched the crew during Amber's 90 minute meeting.

When that was over, I went off to a Stake Priesthood Leadership meeting. While I was there, Johnathan headed off to a second birthday party. I got back at 6:15. Amber had a delicious dinner of corndogs and carrots on the table. We ate, and Amber went off to Choir Practice and the Adult Session of the Stake Conference.

It has been a busy one, but we sure have had a great time today. It gets me really excited for the warmer months of the year.

What are you reading?

Do you remember growing up and attending school. Doesn't it always seem like the kids now-a-days are learning things in school that you either never studied, or studied when you were a few grades older?

Well, last Sunday, I caught Aliece reading the "Articles of Faith" book. I know they try to get the kids to learn their articles of faith in Primary, but this is ridiculous. Back in my day, we were encouraged to memorize the thirteen, one-verse statements of our faith. Apparently, they have taken it a step further and encourage the primary kids to study the in depth doctrines on those pinnacle standards. Well, I guess it was bound to happen - Sunbeams class is just so much more advanced than I remember it!

Woah, Nae!

Well, I have to say, Nae, you sure got my blood running today. I read your blog and thought, she cannot be serious! I had heard that Chris was just a friend and that was it. I couldn't believe that Janae would be announcing an engagement over the internet!! In shock, I yelled across the hall to Jake, then called Amber. While I was talking to Amber, Jake was on the phone with Joe. After that, I got on the phone with Mom to see exactly what the relationship was with Chris and if it was a Joke. Mom was funny, I said, "Mom did you read Janae's blog?" Mom said she hadn't but that she was just replying to one of my blogs. I said, well you have to read Janae's blog. She said she had a lot to do, but that she would finish her comments, do those things and read the blog when she got to that point. I suggested that she read it BEFORE she did her other "pressing" tasks. So, I hung up. I then called Jen to ask her. Every time I called someone the had not read the blog, so I would sit on the phone waiting for them to look it up and then listen to them as they made stray comments such as, "whaa?", "huh uh!", "you've got to be kidding", "nahhhh!", "can this be true?!". Then we would talk about it. Well, while I was talking to Jen, Mom called and was nearly breathless. I joined Jen's call with mom's and then Dad got on...we wondered together if it were true and then decided that Mom and Dad should call Janae.

Jake and I went to lunch and every five minutes or so we would say, the longer the time for a reply phone call from Mom and Dad, the more likely it is true.

Mom finally called and sounded really exhausted. I knew right away what the news was. She said softly, do you want to conference people in or should I just call everyone separately to tell them the news. I conferenced Jen in and put Jake on speaker. We listened intently as Mom told us somberly that indeed it was a joke! My goodness, You got us good!

I told Amber the news and she said it was just 38 minutes between the blog that Janae posted and her confession. That was a very long and nail biting 38 minutes!

My life changing weekend!

So as you all know Chris and I went down to Utah for the weekend last week. I got off work a few hours early and we began our escape from the stresses of Pocatello :). When we got to Salt Lake we spent about 20 minutes trying to find a place to park. Finally we parked and began our adventure. We had a reservation for the new movie about Joseph Smith at 1:30 however by the time we country kids figured out where to park in the big city it was about 1:30 and by the time we got there it was about 1:45. They said that they arent allowed to have a stand by line and that we would have to try and get one on Saturday. A little bummed out we decided to start playing. We went to the mall and walked around for a little while. We went into a lot of painting shops. And to deseret book. About 3:00 we decide to just TRY to get in with out a reservation. When we got there the lady quickly ushed us in and winked saying just remember next time to make a reservation.
Wow it was pretty much one of the most amazing movies ever! Well, we continued to play and then decided to go to Provo and stay with the family. It was sooooo good to see John and Amber and the kids.
All and all it was an amazing weekend and just what the doctor ordered.
However, there is a part of the story that NO ONE has heard yet. While at temple square and the movie and everything the spirit was soooo strong and Chris and I had a really good talk. We have decided in the near future unless he ends up going on a mission we may have some bigger news for the fam. It was just amazing how strong the spirit was there and we just new right then that we were meant to be together. I know this is the person I am going to be with for the rest of my life and I am so excited. We are still in high hopes that he will serve his mission first. But, we will find out soon. Just thought that for once I would keep you all updated on MY dating life. :)
I have debated whether to tell anyone or not for this whole week and when I woke up this morning I just knew this would be the best thing!!!!!

New Facial

Ok, here is another Amber-Left-John-In-Charge-And-Guess-What-Happened Story. Sunday night, Johnathan started vomiting again. We decided that on Monday, Amber would set up a doctor's appointment just to make sure nothing was terribly wrong.

The next day, Amber set up the appointment and asked me to come home for lunch so that I could watch the girls while she took Johnathan to the care center. I agreed and came home.

Sure enough, while I was home, I was doing some Novell work from my home computer. While I was working I heard a shrill scream from Alayna in the kitchen. I dropped everything and ran into the kitchen to find Alayna sitting on the kitchen counter. In her hands she had an open bottle of liquid cinammon that amber uses in her candles. Alayna had spread the amorous liquid frangrance all over her face and head.

I grabbed her and ran her over to the sink where I started to flush her eyes and hands first. Then I washed her face over and over again. It seemed like the more that I washed her face, the worse the sting would get. Her face started to turn red and little bumps of irritation were quickly appearing on the once smooth landscape of her cheeks.

I got to the point that I didn't know what to do. I tried Amber on her cell phone, but she had left it at home. I then called Dad at home and asked him if he thought some Aloe Vera would helpt he sting. He suggested that I use it.

The Aloe Vera did the trick, I put it on her tender face and soon her screams turned into exhausted sobs. I held her in my arms for about half an hour. After she had calmed down, she quickly bored of sitting on my lap and hopped down and went back to playing.

I cleaned up the bottle and put it up on the fridge. Alayna hasn't learned her lesson, though, Amber found her again, this time on the kitchen sink window sill trying to open the perfume of fire.

Unrighteous Dominion

This is Amber writing again:

For some reason, lately Alayna has been having a really hard time calming down and falling asleep at night. We have found it helps a lot to have someone else in the room with her. Since eventually we would like to have Aliece & Alayna share a room, we thought this might be an opportune time to try it out. I can't say that they go to sleep very quickly, and they aren't very quiet either, but at least Alayna isn't screaming and crying.

Well, this morning, Aliece came into our bedroom and said, "Alayna is having a hard time settling down. I think she needs a good little spankin."

And, just now as I was writing this, Aliece came into the bedroom and said, "Alayna is making me stay awake. Can I give her just a little spankin?"

I don't know where she could have learned that spanking a person is the answer for behavior modification!

Easter Weekend

I wrote this to blog and then forgot to send it. It was written on the Monday after Easter. . . . .

OK. . .first of all, I have to say I really really enjoyed the blogs from John and Amber’s family! They are hilarious and kept me laughing on a dreary Monday sitting at work and wishing the weekend were longer. I just love it. I’m going to laugh right now cuz I know my time will come. . . and when it does. . . .I expect you’ll laugh also!

It is so nice to have a car and feel that we can go anywhere anytime we want! I still can’t believe we haven’t had a car for the 6 months of our marriage and 9 months total! It was a wonderful Easter weekend as Dave and I stayed in Salt Lake with his family on Friday and then headed to the valley early Saturday morning. We relaxed a lot and felt that we did a whole lot of nothing, but it was sure nice. It’s nice to see the valley it begins to green up. We enjoyed the Thunder and Lightning storms and just being home. Church on Sunday was wonderful. There were some great talks and the Hayden girls sang a song and it was beautiful. Alisha Hayden returned from her mission and it was good to see and talk with her. It was nice to go to Relief Society and I realized how much I miss it where we have been in Primary. It was a nice day.

Here are a few pictures of our weekend. . . . . . . .

I NEED A RAISE!!!

Since we have changed the way our computer is set up, and I don't know how to log onto my own blog account, I'm writing this on John's account. Warning: any one thinking of having children in the near future should not read this!

As you all know, Adee & I had a fabulous time at Capitol Reef last weekend. I was happy to get out of the house for a couple of days, not only to enjoy my sister, the beauty of nature & some good exercise, but also to get a break from my four lovely children who had been experiencing excessive diarrhea.

And, as you all know, while John did keep the children alive in my absence, I returned to a state of near chaos. With children throwing up all over the place, and remnants of Aliece & Johnathan's hair scattered around the house, I told myself that it is good for me to be at home, to keep things under control, and devote my efforts to teaching & training our children, and maintaining order & cleanliness in our home. I felt a minimal sense of pride in knowing that I have a job to do, and that quite frankly, I do a pretty good job of it!

Well, today that pride gets flushed down the toilet -- well it would if we had a toilet that was working! I had a busy morning planned: as well as my "normal" morning routine of getting children fed and clothed and off to school, cleaning the house & getting myself presentable, I also had a camp meeting at our house and an appointment to close on our house immediately following. Everything was going according to plan, and I thought I'd run to the bathroom really quick before my meeting started. I walked into the kitchen, zipping up my pants, and found Alayna in the middle of a mess of broken eggs. Apparently I had neglected to lock the fridge. The door bell rang, and Aliece answered the door as I continued to mop up yolk, whites & shells....

My meeting went well -- for the first 5 minutes or so, until Aliece realized that she didn't have my undivided attention, and began going through every tactic she could create to regain some ground. To sum things up, she basically screamed her head off the rest of the meeting....

Things went fine at closing (I left Aliece with a neighbor :)), and I returned home and began fixing lunch for my children. There were some camp things I needed to discuss with a sister who was not at the meeting, and I figured that while the kids were eating lunch, I would sneak into my bedroom and make the call. And you know what? It worked... the whole time the phone was dialing they were quiet. And, as soon as she answered the phone, they all 3 ran into the bedroom screaming, fighting and crying. I eventually got them back to the kitchen, returned to my bedroom alone, locked the door, and went into the bathroom so I could hear myself think....

I got off the phone, restored things to order, and sat down for some lunch. While I was eating, Johnathan went to the bathroom -- he, Aliece & Alayna still have diarrhea. I jumped up as I heard him yell, "Oh, NO!" and entered the bathroom in time to see poopy water spilling all over the sides of the toilet onto the floor.

I tell you, whoever wonders what women do all day at home has no idea!

All I can say is: Happy Mother's Day, JoAnn! I know it's early, but I hope you enjoy a nice yolk-whites-shell-screaming-fighting-tantrum-poop-FREE day! Heaven knows you've Earned it!!

Anybody want to come gun shopping with me?

Early Wednesday morning I woke up suddenly, like you do sometimes when you’re in the habit of waking up at the same time every day. When I looked at the clock though, it was only 2:15 am, I had to look two or three times because I felt so awake I was sure it must be wrong. I was finally able to fall back to sleep but at around 2:30ish the door bell rang; Jen said something like “oh my goodness that’s weird!” and I said something like “what was that?” (I was still half asleep). She told me what it was and I ran to the door grabbing the only weapon I had on hand, a small 5” knife that I have in our room, while Jen called out for me to not to open the door. When I got to the door I didn’t see anyone through the peep hole and was about to open the door to see if someone left something, almost believing that we had imagined it all (we both can have pretty interesting conversations in our sleep). Just as I put my hand on the door a head appeared and I heard the sound of a bag sliding on the concrete as the person lifted it to their shoulder. Now I was awake and at the window, there was a man casually walking down our porch steps with a large duffle bag over his shoulder. He headed for our neighbors to the East got to their van and got inside. So I figured he must just be drunk and forgot which house was his. So I tried to dismiss the whole thing, and went back to bed.

Jen and I were both wide awake though with our hearts still beating fast. I couldn’t help thinking about the whole thing, and the silhouette of the man with the bag over his shoulder; my first thought had been that it was a guy that works for my company. He’s a temp worker but we’ve had him for over a month. He’s a nice guy but we’re all pretty sure he’s a serious alcoholic. He only lives about five blocks to the West and he knows where I live. A few times when I have come out of our house in the morning heading to work he’s there passing in front of the house; he never used to come down our street until he found out where I lived… so all these thoughts are going through my head as I lay in bed staring at the ceiling. Then Jen said how she was worried about Julie, she may have opened her door if someone knocked, she said “in the morning I’ll call her three times but I’m not going to go down there” (Jen and Julie go to the gym in the morning). I said we could go check on her right then if she wanted; so we did. I checked the house while Jen went in to see if she was still breathing, luckily she was fine. When we got back up stairs I went and looked out the window again. The man was just getting out of the van (which I thought was kind of weird), then he turned away from the house and kept walking East down the sidewalk. At that point I finally realized that something wasn’t right (I know I’m a little slow, or naive or something) and we called the police. I gave them the best description I could, but it was pretty dark and I didn’t see much. After that we both went back to bed, but needless to say nether of us slept well. I’m not sure if I slept at all, most of the time my eyes were open and my ears straining just in case, so of course I kept hearing things. Once I was sure I heard a knock, so again I jumped up and ran to the door, but this time there really was no one there but as I looked out the winder I saw a police car passing slowly, it was about 3:30 at that time so I guess they ether didn’t see anyone yet or Provo police is just really slow. Ether way I figured the man that was on our porch was still wandering around outside… maybe hiding in our back yard?

Portneuf Floods

Dad told me yesterday that David's fields were flooding. Troy sent this picture to me tonight of David's house, and the flood. As you can kind of see from this picture, his haystack is in the water also.

I am sure the flooding will only get worse with the kind of weather we have been having this week. Here in town we got a skiff. Mom tells me Arbon got a wet six inches!

Andersen Ranch & Farm : HOME

Does anybody know what today is???? Happy Birthday Mom! I hope you enjoy your special day and have a little fun. Have a great day!

Love Jen

Just couldn't make it

(These are one of those pictures your kid will kill you for when they are a teenager and you let her know you posted this on the Internet for all the world to see)

After enjoying a nice 30 minute episode of Andy Griffith with Amber last night, we shut off our lights, locked the doors and headed to bed. I was in the lead down our long hallway when I noticed Aliece, flat down in the hallway with her legs tucked under her - she was fast asleep.

Aliece has been known to sleep in wierd positions and places, so I didn't think much of it until I got closer to get her up. I had turned the hallway lights off, so I couldn't see much, but I though that she must have been wearing some pretty skill colored underwear that was form fitting because that sure looked like a little four-year-old bum protruding from her pajama tops.

I had to turn on the light for some verification. Upon further illuminated inspection, I found that there were indeed no pants (under or over) covering that little behind. I had Amber come check it out and we laughed about it. Amber wondered outloud why her pants would be pulled down around her ankles while she slept in the hallway, and that is when it dawned on me. I gasped and slow, "oh, no". Amber inquired of my reaction and I shared my hypothesis. "I think Aliece was headed to go to the bathroom when she fell asleep halfway". We turned her over to verify my scientific guess. Sure enough, there sat a small pudding of water.

We knew she was tired that night, but we had no clue she was THAT tired. I guess that is three of four kids that have now had creative nocturnal potty stops. When Aylee was that age we caught her squatting in the toy closet in the hallway doing her business. Last year we luckily caught Johnathan before letting it all out in one of the kitchen drawers. Last night, Aliece collapsed from fatigue and did her work while fast asleep in the hall.

I wonder what Alayna has in store for us.

Hair Cut

While Amber was away, I was doing a very good job of working from home. Howevever, that meant, I was not doing a very good job of watching the kids. On Friday, I let the kids watch Star Wars VI. Of course you know how engrossed Johnathan and Alyee get in the movie. Aliece isn't as mesmerized by the spacey light shows provided by the movie. I came into the family room to do a sanity check and found several toy cups lining the family room window sill. I also found a wet comb, a pair of kid scissors a large pile of hair, and yes, Aliece. She had butchered her hair. I was starting to boil over when I noticed, sitting in the green chair just in front of Aliece was Johnathan staring into the silver television set - he now had some bald spots in his recently buzzed head. In his rapt attention to Yoda, Luke, 3P0, and Ewoks, Johnathan didn't pay attention to what was happening on his now soggy, hair-matted head. Luckly his hair was already rather short. Aliece on the other hand had a very crazy looking head. The above picture of aliece after her work.




On Saturday, Amber went to work on Aliece's garbage disposal hair and did a pretty dang good job improvising. Aliece's hair is now pretty short, but it is cute once again.

Easter Activities

Adee stayed for our Saturday Easter activities yesterday. We painted eggs together and I decorated some sugar cookies for the crew. We enjoyed having Adee over for the easter fun. Although we had some illnesses, everyone was excited to participate in the activities.

Vomit, Vomit, Everywhere

We have had sick kids throughout the week. Most of the illness affected the family while Amber was gone to Capitol Reef with Adee.

This is a wierd sickness because those infected do not really feel sick. They just have diahrea really badly, and some have some vomitting during the night. Up until Saturday, Johnathan was the only infected one to throw up.

Saturday morning, however, I was walking by Alayna's bedroom door and smelled something horrible. I peeked in, and man, I wanted to leave the house. Alayna sleeps on the top bunk of a bunk bed. It is the type of bunk bed that has a small bunk on top and a full size bed on the bottom. Well, bright red puke was spread all over her bed, clothing, face, and bedding. There was red vomit lining the entire wall near her head. Because the bottom bunk extends beyond the top bunk, there was red chunks all over the bottom bed also. The carpet has badly stained and the vomit had dried in many spots leaving hard residue.

Amber and I spent a couple of hours on that room. We had to move the bed around, clean carpets, matresses, bedding, walls, and electrical sockets. I was amazed so much gunk could come out of such a little tummy.

Aylee started getting the stuff on Saturday afternoon and I got it on Saturday night. Aylee ended up vomitting last night, and I luckily have only had sit in the bathroom for hours at time.

The hard thing about this sickness is that we don't really know when we are better and not contagious. We feel fine when our heads aren't stuck in a toilet bowl and our opposite ends are not similarly engaged. We have decided to give it a 24-hour rule. If you are clean for 24 hours, you must be good to go. That means Johnathan and Amber will be the only ones attending church today.

Capitol Reef

On Thursday and Friday Amber and Adee went on a backpacking trip to Capitol Reed National Park in southern Utah. From what I hear they saw some amazing land formations and cool old buildings.

They were able to hike many trails and they said they found the perfect camping site for the night.

Train Station

A couple of weeks ago, our kids had spring break. I took the Wednesday off, and we went up to Ogden to the Union Square train museum. It was a pretty cool place. There were trains outside that you could walk around and look at. Inside of the museum there were smaller museums. There was geological and native American artifacts, the Browning Gun Museum, an old Automobile museum, and finally the train museum. Each part was impressive. After a couple of hours, the kids still wanted to stay much longer but we were supposed to meet Grandpa Reed in Salt Lake for lunch at McDonalds.

After McDonalds, Grandpa Reed took us to his Hotel and we swam in the pool there and ate pizza. It was a pretty dang fun day.

Are you strong?

Yesterday at church, I picked Johnathan up from his class. As we were walking out of the foyer, Johnathan saw one of his buddies. He stopped and they both hunched over and flexed their muscles as you would see body builders do in those full color magazines on common grocery store isles. Once they did this for a few seconds they both relaxed and resumed on their way.

I asked Johnathan what they were doing. He said, we were seeing who is stronger. I replied with a simple, OK. However, Johnathan wanted to explain further. He said, "Dad, do you know how who is strongest?" Of course, I told him I wanted to know. He answered, "Well, when you flex your muscles you see whose face turns the most red - and that means they're the strongest." I replied with a hearty "Wow" and he then mentioned that if you are REALLY strong, you're hair will even turn red when you flex your muscles that way.

So, for those of you looking to bulk up a bit. Start flexing and wanting your head in the mirror. You might be surprised how strong you really are!

Sold!

Last night at 9pm, Amber and I sat around our kitchen table and signed the Purchase Agreement papers to sell our home of the past 6+ years. With Amber's wisdom and direction we did not advertise our home on the Realtor website for Utah ($400.00) nor did we advertise in the local paper ($140.00). We did not go with a realtor ($11,300.00). We just put a sign in our yard ($15.00) and made a website ($7.00). The house sold in nearly exactly one week's time.

The closing date, of course, is later in the month or early next month, but they are pre-approved on their financing and they are the parents of one of our neighbors who want to live closer to help with their grandkids (Cool Idea!).

We enjoyed our visit with them as we signed the paperwork. Aylee was torn up about it though. As I went into the bedroom to make copies of the documents, the poor sweetheart was near tears. She asked why we had to sell our house rather than rent it to them. She also didn't understand why we felt we needed to leave our house that we loved so much.

I knew how she was feeling because many of the same feelings have come into my mind. It is funny how a house can be so personal and an emotional thing.

My website to by used by Penn State University

I thought you all might find this interesting... I did :). I received an email from a student at Penn State University. He had been doing research on pornography and he came upon my website: mykidsbrowser.com for a Kid Safe Internet. He wanted to credit the writer of the website for the stats listed there. I told him my name and also told him who I received the stats from. I told him that he should send me his paper when he finishes. If I find it relevant to my website, I might publish it there.
Anyway, I got pretty excited that people are actually finding the information I have worked so hard to compile. The fact that he is citing me in his research paper is even better :) !