First Day of School!

Yesterday, was the First Day of School...

Is it a good thing, or Not??

I have really mixed feelings about school starting this week. In some ways, I much prefer the kids to be home. Yet, in other ways I so love it when everyone is at school. I really like having a schedule and I am much more organized with my time when they are in school, but I really don't enjoy the homework patrol. I'd rather have them doing what I need them to do when they get home. They've been in school doing the teachers work all day, why do they need to come home and continue to do their work?

Anyway...I actually made them a french toast breakfast to start the day out right.

Ben and Beth are the first to leave. They start at 7:30am. They walked out the door and I almost forgot to take their picture. Ben tried to run away when I came running out the door with the camera! But he did come back and let me take it, but as you can see this is no cause for celebration that this was the first day of school.

Steven was trying to say he wasn't excited, but I think the idea of actually being in Jr. High now was kind of exciting. He was ready pretty early and was able to go and check out his locker and see if he could remember where his classes were from when we were there at Back to School Night. He starts school at 8:10am.

Then there's my Elementary clan. They don't start until 8:50am. They will normally leave around 8:30 but on this day we had Back to School Morning and had to be there at 8:15am. We go around to all the classrooms and meet the teachers and fill out papers. Then we go outside and for a school wide flag ceremony, then they herd us all back in for the kids to go to class and the parents for a short PTA meeting. After that they have a kindergarten Orientation thing. I am so glad I don't have Kindergartner schedule this year!!

Aren't they cute!!!!

They all came home and reported that they had a good day!

Cookies!!!!

Boy, do we love cookies!!

The kids try to come up with any excuse to have Ben (our expert cookie maker) make us cookies!

This weekend was a perfect example...

The kids said, Mom, is our last weekend before school starts...We need to make cookies!

Sure why not???

Natalie, had her first taste of homemade chocolate/peanut butter chip cookie. She thought it was yummy, of course!!

I decided they could eat their cookies during scriptures and prayer, that should keep them quiet, right? Well, it proved to be quite the distraction. "Can I have another cookie?"

And of course, we can't have cookies without milk! Look at Doug in the background!

Next time, you can have cookies, after we're done.

New Car!

Ben went and did it...He bought himself a new car! Well, new to him!! (With Dad's help, of course)

He bought a Plymouth, Neon. He actually bought it about a month ago. He felt he needed to have it in order to get from school to work and home again. It's little scary for me, he's still a pretty new driver and it made a pretty good dent in his savings. He assures me, he's going to work hard to replenish his funds. I hope so!!

So anyway, This could be another watch out, when your on the roads! I would expect him to be a little more careful than he would have been, since he paid his own hard earned money to buy it. We can always, hope, anyway!!

Watch Out!!

Bethanie has her driver's permit, so if you live in the area, Watch out, Cause here she comes!!

She's a little perplexed as to why I won't take her out driving. My policy is to not have anything to do with the first 10 to 15 hours of driving, I'm a nervous wreck even after they get their actual license! You'd think I would be used to it, her being our 5th driver in almost as many years. But no, I don't think I'll ever get used to putting my life on the line while teaching my teens to drive. You see, being the teenagers they are, they think they know everything, even while learning to drive. "Mom, don't worry, I know what I'm doing!" As they are swerving, speeding, or coming up too close to the car in front of them.

Too Smart for her own Good???

It never ceases to amaze me at how early these little youngsters watch and learn. We often trap Natalie into the living room with gates. Lately, we've had to shut and lock the sliding door to the bathroom because just shutting it isn't good enough anymore! She has figured out how to slide the door open. (Well that back fired on me today, poor Tiff!) When I need to get into the bathroom I take a credit card from the kitchen drawer and slide it in the door and lift the latch. Apparently, Natalie has been watching...

Here she is reaching in the drawer for the card, she can barely reach because she has to stay on her side of the gate.

Once she gets the card, she runs to the bathroom door and tries the get the door open...

She somehow knows she needs to slide the card between the door and the frame!

It looks like it's only a matter of time before she figures this out! She just turned 16 months, she's definitely too smart for her own good!!

The Carpet Christening!

I knew it wouldn't be long before my newly cleaned carpet would be "christened".

The first night after we put the furniture back, Shawn was sharing his red slurpy with the younger children and sure enough, Tiff spilled it onto the carpet! Boy that was tough not to be hoppin mad! Most of it came out, but not quite all.

Then just last night little Nattie girl I guess jerked her little tummy and threw up in front of the couch. Poor little thing didn't know what to think, she had milk coming out her nose.

I believe after today, I can say that my carpet is officially totally christened! Tiff, poor dear, made a run for the bathroom, the door was locked, so she threw up in the hall all over the carpet yet again!

What can I say??? I knew it was inevitable, get the carpet cleaned and someone has to pee, throw up or spill something just because it was cleaned!!

Boy, am I grateful for Resolve carpet cleaner!

American Idol Auditions Continued...

Well, I guess it's about time I posted about what happened at the auditions last week.

We were told to show up at 5am on Tuesday. We got there just before that and literally stood in line without moving until about 7:30am. Then they put us on the stairs of the Energy Solutions Arena and waited there for a bit. Then we spent about 45 minutes filming the opening of the Salt Lake Show. A lot of screaming, waving people. Then they finally let us go inside and find our seats. Where we did some more filming and screaming. They finally started to set up the audition tables, explained the process and actually got us started. This was after 9am. Just after we barely got started, they stopped everything and Ryan Seacrest showed up and we did some more filming. We did all the "see you after the break" kind of shots. We were so done with clapping and waving at the camera. Then he left and we resumed auditions.

They had to have a seat ticket, arm band, and release papers to get on the floor. Then they lined them up in rows of 4. Each row of 4 stood in line in front of the judges. Each stepped forward and got their 10 seconds of singing then stepped back. The judges deliberated and then all 4 step forward and you are either dismissed or given a golden ticket to move onto the next round.

Jon noticed that one of the judges were eyeing him a couple of rows before he got to the front. Right before it was his turn to sing, she called a 3rd judfge over. They had him sing his 10 seconds, another judge (making 4) came over to listen. Then asked him to sing another song, they wanted to hear him project. They asked him to step back. They had one guy step back from the line before Jon, step forward again. They asked him what he was doing there, he said he wanted to sing, so they sent him through. Jon said he was horrible, he's sure they sent him through to make fun of him. (I guess we'll see, won't we?) They had the rest of the line sing, including Shawn. (I couldn't hear them, but Shawn felt he did well, too. The judge was bobbing her head while he was singing) Then they did their deliberations and dismissed all 4. We were in shock! We thought for sure they were going to send Jon through because they didn't usually ask them to sing more. Needless to say he was confused and very disappointed. He was wondering if he wasn't as good as the other guy was bad. A lot of people that have heard Jon sing were surprised to hear he didn't make it. We have to remember that it's really not a singing competition, but a show for entertainment. We figured probably 2/3 of the people that got tickets that day were not because they were good singers, but because they were bad singers and they plan to make fun of them on TV. It's still disappointing for these singers who are really good. We knew that the first auditions were not with Randy, Paula and Simon, but we thought it would be later that week. We found out that it would be sometime in September. Those that got tickets have to come back to Salt Lake a second time.

It was a good learning experience. When we were finally finished it was about 1pm. We were the lucky ones, we were in the top half of people waiting to audition. It really paid off to go early to register.

Life goes on, back to the daily grind!!

Off to EFY!!

Some of my older kids are off to EFY this morning. Especially For Youth is a church run program for youth 14 to 18. They have fun activities, dances, classes, talent shows, devotionals, etc. A whole week in the dorms of different universities with their peers learning more about the gospel and being with other teens. It's like a week long youth conference.

They are so grown up, I sent them off in their own car to Rexburg, Idaho to BYU-Idaho. Usually, I take them and drop them off and go pick them up. This year, Melanie is driving so I don't have to.


Melanie, Benjamin and Bethanie are going. Shawn and Jon are too old, and the rest are too young. I am a little nervous about them going so far, but I have to admit it's nice to not have to do it. They will be gone until Saturday, I know I am going to miss them for a few different reasons.

When I ran back into the house to grab the camera, they jumped in the car and tried to get away!! What do you think that means??? :) Do I take too many pictures? Do they not want to be on the blog? Were they just being funny??? I decided not to analyze that too much!! :) I laid on the front of the hood and took a couple of pictures. That didn't work as good as I hoped, so I asked Melanie to roll down her window and got this better one.

It'll be nice for them to have a break from babysitting, work and chores. I think a nice way to finish the summer.

We only have 3 more weeks left of summer vacation, then back to school! I have mixed feelings about that!!