Our New Babysitter!

I wasn't worried anything bad would happen . . . maybe a little worried they would fight . . .

but here is what they were doing

when we walked in the door after being gone for an hour and a half:

Mckay seems to be enjoying his own book!

Ryanne is a good babysitter. She had read a whole stack of books to Leah and Elias and before that she played games with them!

It was so great to see them all taking care of each other!

Ryanne is growing up so fast.

She seemed to enjoy the responsibility she was given.

She did an excellent job!

Ties

As part of Red Ribbon Week and "say no to drugs" the kids' school had the kids wear ties. It's funny how they get so excited over such little things! Leah was extatic when she found out that Wes had a pink tie (thanks Aunt Christy).

Elias says, "where's my tie guys?!"

The Tree Fort

Every October the kids have eight half-days of school in a row. This is for parent-teacher conferences and also to get parents to

A. go nuts

B. get creative

C. both

I know, for all our happiness, I have to get the kids out of the house. There is an empty field about a block from our house (conveniently owned by the church). The field is barren. Elias and I do a little scouting. We find rabbit holes, gophers galore, trash, old iron bed springs, and rocks. There's an olive tree at one end of the field that looks more like an overgrown bush. I bite one of the olives. UGH! Gross! Elias laughs. We later look up the tree in my book and find that there are olive trees that you can eat and get oil from and wild olive trees that you can't do anything with. Let me tell you, don't try eating one of these!

In the field we also find two other trees. One is a scrawny excuse for a tree. The other looks promising. As we crawl under its low-hagning branches, Elias is delighted to find two old swings ready for use. They have been left by some long-gone explorers. I analyze the tree as he swings and decide it will work.

So, when half-days start, we have a project! We push my stroller down the street filled with rakes, hoes, shovels, hammers, nails and any scrap of lumber we could find. The neighbors are giving me strange looks, but I don't care. We are on a mission to build a secret fort!

The kids do a lot of work, but especially Ryanne and Elias. They rake and weed around that tree for an hour. Leah and Mckay are trying to help, but they keep getting distracted and taking "breaks". I help and pretty soon we have a nice, sandy, weed-free patch. Ryanne and Leah set to work building a "protective circle" around the tree with rocks. This is to keep out goblins.

I begin framing. Granted, I have no professional skill. I use way too many nails and only have old mismatched boards. I think if Wes or his Dad were here they would have a lot to say about what I am doing wrong!!! Nevertheless, I proceed. I am drawn into reminiscing about all the tree forts I hammered out as a kid with my two brothers and my sister. We had so much fun!

Slowly this one takes shape. It is a small platform now, but we have ideas for additions later as more wood becomes available. The kids are climbing all over me. They use large rocks to hammer in extra nails (poor tree). They feel pretty expert about hammering after a little practice, especially Mckay. They are also climbing the limbs of the tree like monkeys.

For some reason, this all makes me feel euphoric. Childhood! It makes me think of my own mom and all the fun outdoorsy things she did with us.

The kids have been playing for five hours without thought of food or water. The sun is going down. I am trying to finish the last little bit and can hardly see the nails. The kids gather round to watch the show-- I am missing the nail on every other slam. The darkness gathers round and so the sparks of my near misses glow. The kids are impressed. Here is one moment in life where they think their mom is sooooo cool!

These photos are from the first day when we started building. Mckay was at his friend's house this time. He came along the next day (when I didn't have the camera). We found a birds nest in a hole in one limb. We found a wasp nest too. We have also finished the bottom platform and added a higher platform since these photos!

But mom, there is nothing to sit on. Are you sure this is going to work?

"Ball Face"

Mckay loves recess. What eight-year-old boy doesn't? Mckay likes to play ball and gets very competitive. He plays this game that is sort of like dodge ball except it has only two players. The boys stand in squares drawn on the ground and throw the ball at each other. There are a lot of complicated rules about how you can and cannot touch the ball and how many times it can bounce, etc. I never have been able to figure these rules out, as they are always evolving.

Anyway, Mckay throws the ball as hard as he can and therefore, I do not like to play with him at home. It just hurts too much even when I do manage to catch the ball!

But at school he is an avid player. About once a week he ends up with a big burn on his chin from the ball. I guess that chin is usefull in stopping a fast approaching face ball! He is proud to catch it, despite the burn it creates on his chin. So he goes around all the time with this scab on his face.

Yesterday Ryanne informed me that at school all the othe kids call Mckay "Ball Face". He doesn't seem to mind. As long as he gets to play!

Conference Donuts

A tradition we have: We buy donuts Saturday morning before General Conference and have them for breakfast. It is the only time we ever buy donuts, so it is a real treat for all of us, especially the kids!

Crazy Car Crash

Today Wes and I had quite a fright. We were on our morning run with Elias in the stroller. One of our main routes takes us down a narrow two lane road with sandy shoulders. Cars can go quite fast in this spot, up to 50 mph, so we run against the traffic and pull over when we see cars are coming. It is only a short quarter mile stretch and often deserted of cars, so we feel safe jogging here.

Today, however, we were surprised from behind. A car going our same direction approached the only curve in the road and lost control. Because it was behind us, I did not know the car was approaching. I was in the curve (off to the side, of course) and Wes and Elias were about five feet behind me. Wes watched as the car rounded the curve and lost control. He was so frightened for my life that he didn't know what to say or do and stood wide-eyed and mute. I heard squealing brakes and glanced over my shoulder.

A car was careening straight toward me. Silly me, all I could think was, "please, don't hit Elias". The car was still behind me and I couldn't tell what it was going to do. I felt impelled to freeze where I was and not move. As I stopped I watched the car skid toward me and then spin completely around twice. It then shot off the road backwards and got stuck in the sand about ten feet in front of me. We had to dig the sand away from the door to get the teen driver out.

After we ensured that a tow truck was on its way and everyone was okay, we went on our jog. I have to admit that I started to cry about a hundred feet down the road. Elias wanted to know why I was crying. He thought it was all pretty "amazing" (his word). I told him I just felt so blessed to be alive at the moment and my tears were tears of gratitiude.

I know some may say I was lucky, or life is all chance. Not so. I know God preserved my life today and felt His angels protecting me. The spirit is our guide and though He most often guides us away from temptation and sin, He also inspires our minds to protect us. I felt that protection and guiding voice today as I stood and watched that car spin toward me.

Sometimes we succumb to illness, death, or accident. Sometimes the wicked cause pain, suffering, or death. Sometimes our own follies can cuase us pain, illness, or despair. There is oppostion in life as part of our growth. Often it is troublesome to understand why some may suffer while others don't. I struggled with this thought frequently as we tried to love away the tortures our foster kids had gone through at such a tender age.

It often doesn't seem fair for God to allow some to die and some to live, some to suffer while some are left to ease. But I know that this is where we excercise our faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. All shall be resurrected. All shall be eased of their burden through the condescension of Our Lord. Those things that do not seem right shall all be appeased and the Lord will heal our hearts and sufferings if we let Him.

In the life beyond this one, we shall be reunited with those we love. Our sufferings and sacrifices will have been consecrated to our spiritual gain. Our joy will overwhelm any tragedy we knew in mortality and peace and forgiveness will overflow our being. This I know is true.

4th picture from 4th file tag

Having been tagged by several friends . . . I am sad to say that I recently deleted all the photo files on my computer (after copying them to CD of course). So I do not have a fourth file of photos. The closest I came to was the fourth picture in the only file I had on there.

Elias is helping me cook. I never get over the looks of pure joy and excitement that cross his face! The simplest things in life are monumental to him. I should take lessons.

This is how Elias and Mckay BOX!