September 2018

We started September off with a visit to Walla Walla Fair.  All of our kids entered a few things in there and received free tickets.

Elizabeth and Olivia’s summer quilts from Grandma Quilt Camp were entered along with their cousin Lydia’s quilt. Elizabeth’s is black, white, green. Olivia’s is red, yellow, white. Lydia’s is the striped one with the yellow flower.  Thanks for helping them learn how to make beautiful quilts Grandma Mary!

We wandered around to find everyone’s entries.

Elizabeth entered the quilt she made at Grandma Quilt Camp earlier this summer and a painting of Vincent she did for the Walla Walla Fair this year.

Olivia entered her Grandma Quilt Camp Quilt, a braided bracelet, and a cross-stitch for the fair.

 

 

Vincent entered a pinewood derby car he made to look like a Bulborb from a Pikmin game and a Lego in the fair.

Abby entered a painting (Neon Butterflies) she did at Art Camp this summer and a string of finger-knitting for the fair.

And then we went on a few rides. This one is my favorite.

Elizabeth and Olivia opted to shop instead of ride rides.  Vincent and Abby rode the kiddie coaster together and Abby rode the other ride with Grandma Mary (who liked rides as a kid, but hasn’t ridden many lately).  They had a great time.

Thanks for helping get the entries and forms where they needed to be MOM!  The kids loved having their things there and spending time with you and dad.

And I enjoyed our fair funnel cake too!

Olivia is loving volleyball season.  She made the 8th grade A team (although honestly only 13 girls from each grade tried out, so they all made the A team. lol).
They are learning and growing and improving each time they play.  Olivia is hard on herself more than she needs to be and is working on her serve and trying to be more confident in her actions on the court.  Her coach says she does better in practice than in the games because she gets nervous.  She enjoys it all whether they win or lose!

In this set of pictures Olivia was at the net and even jumped up to block a ball.  She’s getting there!

A few weeks ago we played Farming Game for game night.  It started all empty like this, but ended with my spot full of crops and cows.  I conquered the regulars!

We had our official store Grand Opening mid September.  Some people seemed to think we were closed the whole month… People get confused about things sometimes.  But then again, we also had people who came inside our store when two moving trucks were in front hauling bookshelves out wanting ‘just one thing’…. sorry.

Much more settled after a few weeks.  Boxes are all unpacked and everything has found a home!

Not so fun: Going to get blood drawn and having them try five times and fail five times….
Andy’s work has a wellness program we can sign up for and do a questionnaire about health and habits and it also requires an annual blood screening to compare the levels of all kinds of things in blood.  Sounds annoying and it kind of is, but it saves us $100 per month on our health insurance, so we get to do it every year. Worth it. Anyway, the trouble is, they only allow us to go to a few places where they accept just the test without a doctor reviewing it (ie: paying for the test and a doctor ourselves.)  One of the places listed is in Pasco.  Cool, just a few minutes away; however, the place there doesn’t have a professional phlebotomist, just RN’s and an MD who run the clinic.  And I know it’s always tough for my blood to be drawn, so I drink a ton of water, keep my arms warm with a sweatshirt even when it’s warm outside, and let them know that the butterfly needle is usually what they end up using on me.  We must have been in there at least 40 minutes with the warm water filled glove on my arm, but still, they couldn’t get it done there.  They tried really hard and they were nice, but they just couldn’t.  (Andy’s was taken there and took two tries and his is usually easier to take.)

The next closest location was in Yakima (1 1/2 hours away), so we looked at schedules for the next week and picked my day off to have a little day date (drove the company car and used company gas and Andy was on the clock still), but that means it used up most of my day off that I usually catch up with things at home, run errands, REST, and help with school things, church things, etc. Anyway, I called the company to see if there was any way to get it done closer and they said that I couldn’t without paying for it and having the doctor verify it (and they didn’t have any appointments for another two months!), so I called the Yakima location to see if we could make an appointment or if we just needed to walk in (walk in) and off we went to Yakima.  I drank even more water over the weekend (I was floating) and traveled in the car with my sweatshirt and blanket (let’s be honest, I always travel with a car blanket).  We got right in there.  The phlebotomist lady looked at my paperwork and my giant bruise (see pic above) and started looking for a good vein option.  She found one and had me go put my hand in warm running water and then took it from the back of my hand.  First try.  Hooray.

I can hardly wait for next year…. ugh.  Actually we decided next year, we will just plan a trip to Yakima for both of us, but it’s silly that we can’t go down the road and have it done there (I took a survey and told them so.)

Our Young Women’s group had a special Mother-Daughter Temple Baptism night in September.  I invited Grandma Mary to come too.  We looked for family names, but have trouble finding any that are legit.  Others found some though and it was a great night.

Everyone participated and it was really special.

We ended up with not quite enough men to help, so I called Andy at the start to come over.

 

We seem to always hit the jackpot with great neighbors. Our next door neighbor, Kelly, texted yesterday to see if Abby would be able to come over and paint birdhouses with her this morning. They bond over rock collections and all kinds of other things too. It’s the best to have so many people involved and excited to be friends with my kids.

One day earlier in September she brought an abandoned bird nest she found in an orchard at work.  (Another day she asked if her son could ride with us to the school Elizabeth goes to and we came home to a giant box of apples).  SO nice!  She really likes Abby’s energy and personality and they have a fun time hanging out.  I get random texts from her that she misses her during the winter, so I send her over.  Abby watered her plants over the summer and weeded her flowerbed too.  Very nice.

We got a baby niece (or two) this summer!  Paige is Andy’s sister’s baby.  Her blessing was the last week in September. She is their third girl and is so cute!

Andy and Elizabeth had to go back to our ward as soon as the blessing was done so Elizabeth’s not in this cousin picture.  Plenty of other cousins aren’t in it either, but I was testing out the spot for the parent/grandparent photos just after this.

My brother and his wife had a baby girl just a few weeks after Paige was born.  She is their seventh baby and her name is Reagan.  We are excited to meet her in a few months (date not determined).  She’s beautiful too and I love seeing pictures of their family.

Andy was out of town several times in September, but it all worked out with my work and all the kid stuff.  Oh, and I think the etiquette night for the youth went well.  I was supposed to be a 20 minute lesson on etiquette before the dinner and talk about dating for the youth in our ward.  I decided no one wanted to listen to me talk for 20 minutes, so I decided to have them do some skits/charades instead.

We did a little ice-breaker first. Table setting challenge: Two Teams of two (one with map on each team and one follows directions without seeing map). I had a team of girls and a team of boys and it was funny to see them react to so much silverware.

Then Handed out skits/charades to groups of two or three and gave a few minutes for them to discuss a plan for a 30 second skit.  I let them choose whether to show the correct way or the wrong way (several groups wanted to show both and did a two-part skit). They told what the manner/etiquette was at the end or had everyone else guess.

1. Show us how to (or how NOT to) give up your seat in a bus or crowded room to elderly, women, or children.
2. Show us how to (or how NOT to) behave with cell phones during a meal or during conversations.
3. Show us how to (or how NOT to) display gratitude and accept gratitude (please and thank you.)
4. Show us how to (or how NOT to) respect personal space (ie: don’t crowd person ahead of you in line.)
5. Show us how to (or how NOT to) introduce people in a group.
6. Show us how to (or how NOT to) put your napkin when you sit down to eat.
7. Show us how to (or how NOT to) properly cut food and eat politely.
8. Show us how to (or how NOT to) tell someone they have food in their teeth.
9. Show us how to (or how NOT to) display table manners (elbows/sitting).
10. Show us how to (or how NOT to) respond when you have food in your mouth.
11. Show us how to (or how NOT to) break into conversation (interrupt).
12. Show us how to (or how NOT to) pass food across/around the table.

    Note: I’m not awesome at plenty of these, but it was fun to watch them take a few minutes and come up with a plan for their skits. Two of the groups were the adult leaders, so that was extra fun.  And I even got to stay for dinner and the dating talk.

August 2018

Sorry so late… September coming soon.  Life doesn’t slow down even with all four kids in school…

Things to note from August:

Elizabeth finished her driver’s ed drives with the driving school and just needs to practice more and do her written and official driving test between now and when she turns 16 in February. Started her sophomore year of high school!  She was busy babysitting for a friend of a friend the end of summer and drawing and reading and helping me move a bookstore.  She was a huge help with the registers taking them apart and putting them back together (they worked!)  She was our tech girl.
Olivia completed her Young Women’s Personal Progress Recognition in just under a year and received it the Sunday before she turned 13. She worked on it a lot this summer. So proud of her ambition and determination!

Olivia turned 13 just before school started.  I can hardly believe it’s been that long, but also feel like she was a baby just yesterday. Time is funny like that. Love these pictures of her!

She spent the day at the middle school picking up her schedule (and hanging out at the middle school PTA table with me because I’m the PTA president this year and was helping with memberships.) Then we went to lunch with her friend Cambria before I dropped them off at volleyball open gym.

After volleyball our ward youth had a Temple Trip to do Baptisms.  It was a birthday well spent!  We celebrated a few days later with a few friends and some cheesecake.

Vincent took the summer off for piano lessons, but is excited to start again with school starting. He’s spent most of summer reading or playing video games.

Abby shared something interesting in our Fast and Testimony meeting about Samuel the
Lamanite. She said that he was protected from arrows like we can be protected from distractions or sins. She is a deep thinker.

With all the smoke from fires stagnant in the air most of the month, kids were getting a little antsy to be outside.  They went down to a neighbor’s house to invite their friends to a picnic.  Their mom helped them have a picnic inside and sent me a picture while I was working.

Abby and Vincent met their teachers the day before school started and then had a popsicle.  They dropped off the few school supplies they needed to bring this year.  Our school district provided everything for elementary schools in our whole district other than ziplock bags, backpacks, and earbuds/headphones.  It was fantastic!

We are loving our teachers this year and off to a great start!

Kids started back at school the end of August. Hooray!  Grocery budget can get back to normal now and I won’t have to run the dishwasher daily. =)
I (NaDell) am enjoying this no calling thing. I am still subbing in primary fairly often, but I’m enjoying regular classes anytime I get a chance to go. I get to help with an etiquette night later in September for the youth too.
Biggest thing of the month for me was helping to move the bookstore I work at.  That was a LOT of work!

Started with a mountain of boxes on a Saturday night.  Needed about six times this amount before we finished packing… at least.  We kept running out of boxes and having to send the owner for more.

We packed the statues and big artwork on Saturday night after closing, took Sunday off, packed all day Monday (brought Elizabeth with me), packed the rest and moved on Tuesday (brought BOTH Elizabeth and Olivia with me), and set up all day on Wednesday (Elizabeth and Olivia switched babysitting Vincent and Abby partway through the day so Andy could get work done.) Reopened our store on Thursday!  We didn’t finish unpacking for another few weeks, but all of the important things were shoppable.

New store with empty shelves as we moved in and tried to figure out where to put things.  (I was up high on a ladder hanging pictures on the wall-I call it tetris-ing them because I was trying to fit the most pictures I could on the wall that were all different shapes.) Thank goodness the owner hired a moving company to do all the real lifting and moving of the shelves and boxes.  Three moving trucks showed up that morning and just cleared it all out.

Olivia and I spent a lot of the moving time setting up our new Sweet Salt Clothing store connected to the bookstore.  The company sent a lady to help us go through the 51 boxes of clothes that were sent to get the store ready for Thursday.  Aren’t they cute!?

Meanwhile on the bookstore side… everyone else worked to get the never-ending boxes of books put onto shelves and looking good.

Busy month for sure!  But we LOVE the new location and we were told we won’t be moving again!  =)

 

Andy had a few trips in the last bit for work, but nowhere too far. He still likes his job. He is keeping busy with Elders Quorum and we still do our weekly game night with friends too.