It lives!

I was finally desperate enough for a camera that I dug out my old camera that I used in high school. The only draw back is that it is a film camera. It has been so long since I bought film that I had to research it before I made the plunge. I had to buy batteries, which was also an adventure. The sales woman finally asked me to just bring in my camera. The best part though is if I watch eBay I can find some awesome lenses for cheap (in a sense)!

Rick is finally done with his RN. We still have like 4 more years of school but he now can have a real job that makes decent money. We're just waiting for the school to release his records. I'm just going to go do it myself. I don't understand why it takes 3-4 weeks to be able to post grades and get a transcript. Can you tell, my patience has wore out!!

Scooby , Where Are You?

Rick has worked graves for over a year. You would think that I would be used to sleeping with out him at night. I have not. It took me at least 3 months to be able to go to bed before I fell asleep on the couch watching those murder mystery shows on Discovery channel. Somehow watching about Lizzie Borden before you go to bed doesn't make for a greats night sleep. I have however made progress, I can now sleep with out a light on and I have quit watching Discovery channel before I go to bed.

Is he or isn't he?

Well a few weeks ago I gleefully reported that my son was a new member of the church. I guess it is not so. There was an issue as to whether he went all the way under or not and now they have changed their minds on his covenant making process. Hmmm and President Stevenson is in Ghana until next week. It might be a while till it is official. I'll keep you posted.
You may have noticed that I have changed a few things. Libby was a little upset that she was on the internet naked. I said well then you shouldn't have been so excited to pose. And that is how your private collection of nude pictures end up on the internet. Your mother just it so excited to show what you have done.
Also please take a moment to make your opinion official. With out your vote we won't know where to go. It all depends on you!!

One Step Closer

What a relief, Rick passed one of his major tests so he can move on and be nurse Ricky. That means that we just have boards left in February to take so we can be done with this stage. It just means that he can get a better paying job. But never fear we still have 3 more semesters for our BSN and another year or two for our masters. You like how I say we, I think it only appropriate. So now he's trying to decide were he wants to go. Right now his choices are these: Alaska, California and as always Colorado.
So Halloween was fun and I wished that I had a camera. Alex wanted to be the blue power ranger but I couldn't find anything "cheap" (meaning under $5) so he ended up with superman pajamas. He was a little disappointed but once he realized it had a cape we were all good. Libby's was the best deal she wanted to be a cat and so I found her some cat ears and a tail for $2.00, what a find!!
Gus was mad b/c he wanted to be the grim reaper and he had to be Dracula, I promised him next year he could be the grim reaper.
On other notes of poopiness, I am getting tired of cleaning it up or off of someone. It seems that every time I turn around it is either ooozing out of Marcus or Alex just needs his pants changed. His days are numbered. It is time for him to move on.

Newest Church Member

Congratulations to Gus, he was baptized yesterday. We are so proud of him and the decision he made to be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. He had to go twice though, his elbow kept popping up but we finally got him immersed.

Matty's MVP!!

Rick said to me the other day "Did you get a squash from your Mom, doesn't that sound good for dinner? " I was suprised to hear that out of my husbands mouth. He picked up on my state of shock and said "Who would of thought; I'm eating squash and your watching baseball."
When Rick and I were first married I had to learn that we watched all sports religiously (football, basketball,baseball, hockey and even golf). And I didn't have a problem with most of them but baseball was my least favorite. We had gone to Coor's field a few times and I was a good wife but baseball was just sooo boooring. Now that I've learned a few more things about it and understand it a little bit better (it's kind of like the tour, if you don't understand cycling it's just a bunch of guys in spandex riding like idiots) I find it more interesting.
The best news is the Rockies are going to the World Series. Up above you can see that beautiful picture of my boyfriend, Matt Holliday. Who also happens to be an MVP. Last year I took a liking to him so now Rick refers to him as "your boyfriend". It's a good thing the Rockies are doing something because the Bronco's are no fun to watch right now.

New Move Ins!!

This guy that Rick and I used to do a lot of work for called me the other day, "I need an apartment touched up, can you do it?" I can't seem to ever say no to the man. He owns like 50 or 60 units and we used to get them ready for new move ins. He's not a slum lord and keeps his places generally pretty clean. Cleaner than some places that I have moved into. So I usually had a small checklist of things that he wanted clean and stuff. Generally the new tenants are okay with the place when they move in. Well yesterday they weren't. I guess she was in tears. Honestly, it wasn't that bad. So a job that was supposed to take just a few hours turned into an all day project. NOT what I had planned for the day. I got lucky and Alex and Marcus were very good all day. Alex kept bringing stuff over from other peoples places. Like a bike and a toy lawnmower. The best was when he says "Mom, Mom I got a prise for you", he is standing there holding someones Halloween decorations.
So our new bishop decided that everyone with children needed potatoes. So we got our Smith's bag full of potatoes. They were huge. You know those potatoes that one could feed a small tribe in Africa for a week. So I baked two and fed my family and still had some left over. Don't get me wrong, I am really greatful for these potatoes, I am just commenting on their size.

We're still here!!

I haven't been as ambitious to post since my camera died, but we are still here. This last week was Gussy's first pine wood derby race. He took fourth overall. He really wanted to win and kept talking about winning. Rick says to me "I haven't said anything about winning, where is this coming from?" So I tell Gus "This is about having fun, not winning" Gus "well they have these 'dervy' kits as prizes and I really want a 'dervy' kit for next year". The whole time I'm thinking, I can go buy you one at the scout office, it's no big deal. Any way he ended up taking 4th overall out of 17 or 18 cars. The winners were all seasoned veterans except Gus. So I told him he should be proud of himself.
Rick went to do his psychology clinicals this week in Evanston, WY. He was gone for 2 days and he got back last night at 7:30 and then got up at 2 a.m. to go do his preceptorship. He only has like 2 more yeah!! Before he started doing his preceptor I kept telling him to go to days. Then when he started and had to leave at 2:30 a.m. I decided that graves were better. I don't like being alone at night, but when you leave that early I'm still alone for the majority of the night. And it interrupts my sleep. It's all about me.
So we have been discussing how painful it is to get out of bed in the morning. Rick told me he thought it was the bed. I was thinking that it was just b/c I'm fat and out of shape right now. When he came back from WY, he said by the way I slept straight thru the night and it didn't hurt to get out of bed. And that was at the Best Western. I guess we need a new bed. The couch is actually more comfortable to sleep on than the bed.
Marcus has another ear infection. That makes what 3 this year. So he has been loads of fun!!

Happy Birthday Gussy!!

Today is Gussy's birthday. I would show pictures of his cake and etc., BUT I still have no camera. He got a baseball glove and ball so now we can play catch and all that good stuff. We fixed him hot wings and french fries and had an awesome cake.
Rick and I have been finishing a sprinkler system that seems to be taking forever. But that happens when you only work on it every few days. We are so out of sprinkler shape or either that we are getting old.

This Ones For You Scott!

So say hi to Jazmine Isabell. This isn't a very good shot but you can see that she is unable to do up her pants. She has a few issues so pray that all continues to go well for her.
We spent the day at the cannery. Canning corn and tomatoes. This is what we looked like when we were done. Valeree and Mom went over to Tremonton to pick tomatoes this morning. She said that she only picked like three bushels. When she showed up at the cannery I told her that she had way more than three bushel. (Dad said that she was crazy wacko and mom blamed it on Valeree, saying that she kept telling her she needed more. They will all like their goods come winter.)

This was what we ended up with. It was lots of work, as usual, but it will sure be tasty come November or January. We ended up doing 93 2# cans of tomatoes, 2 five gallon buckets of tomato juice to make devils bru with and 40 cans of corn. We thought we had done alot but the lady that runs the cannery did 200 cans of tomatoes on Tuesday!!
Here is Valeree's savage dogs trying to eat Alex. Just kidding but Alex better watch his fingers. They seemed to have eaten one of her MIL's chicks and a kitten that wandered to close to there cage.

Here is Grandma's new kitty. His name it Tiger. We decided that she needed some cats to take care of the mice she has out here. Notice that I said "cats". Unfortunately Squeaky met an untimely demise today. SHH we still haven't told Libby. She is the care takers of the kittens.
This was part of the $40 roast that dad went to the grocery store to fetch while we were canning. He just knew that we would be famished when we came home. I think this roast was 13 lbs. Dad also went to the garden and dug up the mashed potatoes that we had. Valeree then added 1/2 a cube of butter to the potatoes. Although tasty, not very healthy on the arteries. Valeree was helping in the kitchen. It went something like this

Libby: "Valeree I have something to tell you"

Valeree: "Just a minute, I'm cutting up your meat"

Libby: waiting patiently

Valeree: "oh my gosh they're on fire"

In case you were wondering if Dad has gotten any cleaner this should let you know. These pictures don't do the mess justice. Mom has decided that she is not going to clean it up. She has been so busy canning that even though it is bothering her she is too "busy" or tired to clean it up.

I finally got my rejection letter from Weber State today. It went something like this , impressive application but we have chosen to go another way blah blah blah.

Waiting with anticipation

I've been waiting now 2 weeks to hear back about my interview with weber state. I can't wait any longer. The anticipation is killing me and I can't put on any more weight. I called last week about it and they said that within a "couple of days" they will be letting everyone know. I said it doesn't say who got the job? No it doesn't, that would be nice though. They shouldn't have said that they were going to decide that day who was going to get it but that it might take a week or longer to let them know. If they already know lets get this going. I would even take a rejection notice at this point in time. I need Rick to steal me some anti-anxiety meds.

It's never there when you need it!

Alex fed Marcus like 3 fudge stripe cookies and his face was covered with chocolate. I needed a picture of it but like all things when you really want it, it is never around. Perfect photo op. By the way the camera is only going to cost $94 for them to open it up who knows how much parts will be (they will only be 5 cents but for them to put it in, it will cost another $94)
I had big plans for today, like finish all the laundry. The majority of the time was spent trying to find Alex. I was looking for him every thirty seconds or so. Marcus is also getting more teeth so he is not being very good either. He doesn't have his front teeth but he is starting to get his eye teeth, strange. So I doped the baby up and he finally went to sleep so the rest of my time was focused on Alex. Thanks to the big rain storms I was able to do some laundry and cleaning today. Not much and now I am exhausted.

What am I going to do?

Well my camera has had an unfortunate accident. I don't know what happened but it is not working and I had lots of fun pictures to show of what we have been doing. Hopefully I can get it repaired soon and will be back on my way.

Friday we went to Rick's work party at the North Ogden swimming pool. It was really fun. It was a nice pool. The bottom was made up of some plastic stuff so it didn't tear up your feet. Then Saturday we went to an Ogden Raptor's game. Again free tickets from Ogden Regional. We lasted all of an inning or two before Alex was too much for one person to handle. But we had a fun journey.

Libby started school yesterday. Sunday she was all worried. She told me that she was certain that she wouldn't like her teacher Mrs. Reutzel, but Monday came and went and she changed her mind. Mrs Reutzel was going to be okay.

Rick also started back to school yesterday. He was not happy that he had to be there AGAIN, but you gotta do what ya gotta do. So everybody pray that we have an uneventful semester. I told him that I was going to fast all semester long till he was done. Oh yeah, pray for my camera, I feel funny with out it!

Yeah School is Back in Session

So I was trying to get a good picture of her for school and she kept giving me these really cheesy looks, as seen in the 2 above. Then I finally caught her with a more 'natural' smile instead of so 'posed'. The sepia one was purely accidental. So her first day was relatively uneventful, although Darian was up for teasing her, which made her feel bad.

He is just so happy in his bouncer and so darn cute I can't help but to take lots of pics of him.

I have an interview tomorrow with Weber State and I am so nervous. I really want this job, it has benefits. I don't think I'd know what to do with benefits. Wish me luck.

Hey Mom Look What I Can Do!

Not only are we getting new teeth but we are learning new tricks. I think he has been the only child of ours to roll over. I guess crawling is next. Maybe he'll just do the monkey scoot like everyone else.

What Do You Do In Your Spare Time?

Isn't he so HOT gluing the pipe!

The tractor dug maybe half of this hole. We dug the rest. Rick ended up hitting the line with the digging bar so we had to shut it off before we wanted. We had some angry farmers because it had to sit overnight. Oh well.

In case someone should think that we are bored, this should set the record straight, we are not! So we promised my mother that she could have grass by October and so she shall. So we have to run this 4" line like 1000 ft. It takes both of us to fit this pipe. I think we are 1/3 rd of the way done with just this line to get to her house. We haven't started her sprinklers yet. I am going to have to put in extra hours to get it all done.
Marcus wouldn't cooperate with me so I could take a picture, but he now has 3 teeth. After a few days of being held constantly, I finally figured out what was ailing him. He is definitely not a happy teether. Thanks to the manufactures' of acetaminophen he is now a more pleasant baby.

A Day Late, But We Did It

I know this is not a very good picture and some tend to think that maybe these numbers should be switched around but there is no mistake here.

This is sooo hot!!

Alex liked the picture of Rick with cake in his teeth sooo much that he wanted one of his own.

Yes Gussy is wearing lip gloss. Jorie was causing some gender confusion.

After Rick slept all day we decided to celebrate his birthday. The kids had to beg him to "let them eat cake" and he relented behind his half closed eyes at 8:30. But if you ask him he was watching the Rockies.

Happy Birthday To You, Happy Birthday To....Rick

We just want to wish Rick a happy birthday today. We love you!! Any way we have big plans for his birthday today. He went to work and I went to the cannery to turn these lovely beans into our food storage. Good times picking beans. I was very glad to be done at least with the picking part. Jorie came back from youth conf. on saturday. I don't think I've ever missed her so much. So life was good again. What am I going to do when she leaves and I still have all these little kids? Maybe I'll have it figured out then but somehow I hardly think so. I just had to add this cute picture of Marcus and those crazy blue eyes. Well those beans are not going to snap themselves.

Where Have I Been?

I had to beg Libby to come in. After this shot she ended up in her underwear. Who would've thunk she would stay in there so long.

So Monday we went to Tony Grove to say good bye to the Coles-Ritchies and there was this paddle boat that you can see in the background behind Libby. Someone says hey this paddle boat is here all the time go ahead and take it out. Three or four families take this paddle boat out. My kids take this paddle boat out and this family comes along and this perturbed man says I want my paddle boat back. He was giving them the glare down. Poor Jorie! Any way the boat had been sitting there for a couple of hours so I didn't really feel bad. As popular as that place is and he expects it to sit there untouched for hours? So they resorted to the huck finn raft seen above.

Bad choice, I let Marcus eat this whole casco. I paid for it the rest of the night!

Jorie went to youth conference today. Sad day for me. I lost my baby sitter. I guess that means I have to be the mom. They went to Price and it sounds like they are going to have lots of fun. I know what you are thinking, Don't you have to be 14?, But since we only have 3 young women they decided to let them go. I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted. But I will catch up with lots of pics!!

That Famous Preston Night Rodeo (and carnival)...

Rick's self portrait to prove he was still smiling at the end of the night

Jorie and her friends

Alex not wanting to go home

Gussy being scared on the dragon

Perennial favorite wackadoo

Who thought this would be a good idea

Okay so we went north for the yearly parade and carnival to get our fill of white trash for the year and we were not disappointed, white trash did abound. The parade was longer I think than some years. By the end our kids quit picking up candy, it was a duty to pick it up so trucks and horses didn't smash all that wonderful taffy into the asphalt. The carnival was very entertaining as it took both Rick and I to contain Alex. He was so excited that he galloped around the grounds not walked or run but this gallop. The famous dragon ride about did Gussy in when he was the same age as Alex. He was terrified. Alex and the little boy that he is riding with were trying to climb in the exit, so the carny worker picked them both up and put them in the ride strapped them down first and he didn't take our tickets, thank you Mr. Carny. Alex laughed the whole time and if you look close you can see Gus' terrified look on his face. We had to bribe Gus to even get on the dragon. Most expensive ride he took. All in all fun was had by all, except for when it was time to go home!!