Grandma

I don't know which will be quicker getting the message out email or blog (I probably should just call everyone -- and may end up doing it anyway).

Grandma went to the hospital for a blockage in her bowel. She needed surgery today and Trish said the doctor said it went fine but the next 24 hours are critical. Because of her age, if she has complications, they will occur within the next 24 hours; if she survives the next 24 hours, she should be okay.

Trish is beginning her fast this week right now and suggested any of us who wanted to could as well. She has contacted my siblings and suggested to them the same.

Your faith and prayers will be appreciated; no matter what you choose to do.

Love you all.

The saga is complete

Well, the saga has finally been completed. The electrician came and completed the last of his work; the general contractor brought over his handyman who completed the rest of their work; and Mom and I added the last touches (shower rod and curtain, towel bar and towels, mirror, toilet paper holder, etc.). Our bathroom in the basement is now ready for occupancy. Enjoy!!

Here are the final pictures to give you an idea of what to expect.

Hillary's children

Here are a couple of the fun things with did with Hillary's children while they were here (okay, one of the fun things). We really enjoyed hosting them for the evening. They probably stayed up too late, however.

Halloween party

We hosted our Halloween party this passed weekend. I'm hoping to make it an annual affair. It was lots of fun and here are some pictures from it.


We had more people come this year than last year. I think this helped it to be more fun.

Charlie was a monk and I was a Greek goddess. I wanted Charlie to stuff his tummy, but he didn't think that was such a good idea. He did wear the balding/circle of hair wig most of the night though. What a good sport he is! Heather came as a geologist. Kurt wanted to be dental floss, but didn't have time to make his costume. Maybe next year.

This is the brain and fingers I made for eating.

These are the eye balls I made to eat. I think they turned out pretty good.
I have to give a special thanks to Mom and Dad for taking my kids that night. That was such a nice help for me. Thanks Mom and Dad! You're the greatest!

Yeah Jack-o-lanterns!

Last night we carved pumpkins. This is what we got...




This is Charlie's pumpkin. The side of it had rotted so he cut it out and made it look like a wide-open mouth. All the pumpkins, but Chelsea's, came from our garden. The frost came too early for some of them to ripen up, but they carve just as well.

This is a silly picture. Jaxson had the bright idea to put one of my knee highs on his head and Chelsea decided it was funny enough to follow suit. I don't know where Jaxson came up with the idea in the first place, but they all got a huge kick out of it.

New family pictures

We had pictures taken this weekend with Harvey and his cousin, Oliver. You can check them out here. I can't believe Harvey is 2 already. We got his hair cut and he looks like a real little boy now rather than my baby.

Run, Jason, run!

Jason and some of his friends have been training for a half marathon. The race will be December 6th to support St. Judes. He started the actual running schedule about 2 months ago and this morning he ran 10 MILES! I'm proud of him and wanted to share...he made it to the double digits!

Late additions

I forgot to add a couple of pictures from today. You can see the toilet and part of the vanity and almost see the new shower head.

Bathroom update

We have gotten to a point that we thought we would post the progress of the bathroom so far. It is going to be great! The plumber came this morning and hooked up everything and completed all the plumbing work. Now the painter needs to come and paint and then whatever finish works needs to be completed and then it's done. Here are the pictures; Mom's been great at keeping up-to-date with the progress.








Notice we've added a heat vent to heat the bathroom from the basement cold. We also added a tile stripe in the shower (thanks to Hillary for the suggestion) -- it looks great! We hope to post the finish picture sometime next week. We think you'll like the completed project.

Post

Now, on with the updates. The kids are doing well in school. We just went to their Fall Festivals celebration that the PTO sponsors. It was lots of fun and it was good to see the kids hanging out with friends. I'm glad that they've been able to pretty easily make new friends. Lexi and I volunteered our time face painting. She loves art and especially drawing so I was glad that she said she would help. She is the only one of my kids that doesn't really like her new school. She seems to be doing O.K., she would just really prefer to go back to the charter school. I can understand where she is coming from. The kids at the charter school were more like her than they are now. But in the long run, it will be better for her to stay in school in this area so she can make friends to go into high school with rather than having to make new ones while starting high school. We've started piano again too. Lexi is doing so well. Makayla and Chelsea are taking lessons too. It's Chelsea's first time and Makayla started in Wisconsin, but hasn't had lessons since. They are all happy to play. Merrit was going to have lessons but has since changed his mind. I'm a little disappointed, but I'm not going to make him play if he doesn't want to.

Charlie is doing well in his class. He is almost finished for this semester. He's going to take at least the next one off, maybe the next two so he can focus on wrestling. There really is no way that he'll be able to do both. I'm doing pretty well in my classes even though I'm feeling swamped. My computers class will be finished in a week. That makes me happy. Then I'll only have three classes to worry about. I'm already looking forward to the end of this semester. Too bad it's so far away.

Church is still church. We are going to be having some major changes soon with callings. The young women's leader is moving next weekend. With that move, that calling will need to be filled and in our ward when you fill a calling like that it means shuffling every other auxillary around, perhaps even some of the priesthood calling, to accomplish that calling-filling. So I'm waiting to see what the bishopbric decides, since Charlie isn't at liberty to tell me anything.

The house work is on hold for the time being. We probably won't do anything else, major, until next summer. I'm happy with how it is for now. I'm happy to be finished working on it for now too.

Hope everyone is doing well. Hope to hear from you soon!

Zoo

Oliver came down to visit us this weekend, along with Jacob, Trish, and Dave. We spent today at the zoo, and had a great time, despite the colder temperatures. Here are some shots.


Starting out, in the wagon Heather picked up at a Mom 2 Mom sale yesterday. It worked out great.


Some cool butterflies.


This was a little room off of the butterfly room that had butterfly cocoons.


A snake statue in the reptile house.


You'll want to look at the bigger picture for this one. On the far left laying down is the world's largest rodent, a capybara. On the far right is a bunch of geese for size comparison. Yes, it's the size of a person.


Giant anteaters!


Here's Heather deliberately disobeying a sign.


I promise the boys were having fun.


A prarie dog.


Harvey's imitation of a prarie dog.


The family animal!


Riding the train back to the front.


Going through a tunnel on the train.


Saying goodbye in the parking lot.

There are a few more pictures on flickr that I didn't put in the post here. Check them out.

Thank You For the Pictures

Thank you for posting the apple pictures. You guys are pretty good photographers. Here is an up date on the bathroom; the plumbing is all roughed in and the electrical is all in place. Hanging the drywall is the next step. They couldn't get the shower surround down the stairs, so they're going to have to tile the shower. Actually, I'm kind of glad, it will look a little bit more custom made than it would've with the surround, even though it won't be very expensive tile.

Advent Calendar for all!

Last year we made our own puppets for the nativity puppet show. What are the chances that this year we can all make the same Christmas advent calendar that you have, Mom? It could be this year's annual craft. I realize the ornaments may be expensive, but I'd be happy to pay for the materials. I just haven't been able to find one I like as much as yours. Let me know what y'all think.

Enjoy!

From here down are pictures from Erwin's.And from here down is another cider mill (starts with a P) that Mom took us to earlier in the week.