Lost dog...

Today when we pulled into the driveway I saw a pair of black animal legs out of the corner of my eye.  I thought it was a black cat that pokes around our yard every so often.  I parked the car and Colter jumped out of the van, one second later he screamed: "there is a really big dog in our yard!"  He ran around the back of the van and opened the other door to escape.  The dog followed right on Colter's heels and jumped in the van.  Colter scrambled through the other open door and into the house.  Adell and I were left with a panting, drooling, dog who had made himself at home in our van.  I had Adell get a bowl of water, which the dog lapped up lickety-split.  

We wrangled the dog into the backyard and I checked the dog's collar.  Thankfully, there was a phone number on his tag.  The owner had to come from San Francisco so we had a dog for about an hour and a half.  Adell was in heaven!  She wants a dog so badly!  She fed the dog some peanut butter and chicken nuggets.  I had to run to the high school to pick up a kid.  We didn't have any rope to tie the dog up and our fence is still in pieces.  More thanks, the dog stayed put in the backyard!  

This would have been a thing that put me over the edge for the whole day.  I would have been stressed and wrecked emotionally.  But I managed to think my way through it.  I was able to adjust my thinking to: "I want to be a good neighbor who helps keep my neighborhood safe.  It's a pain in the butt...but it is what I want to do. "  It made me feel so much better to acknowledge the good reasons I was getting caught up with this dog, rather than focus on the stress it added to my life for an hour or so.

The owner arrived and took her happy dog home.  All was well.

Ropers in the family...

Adell's class had a field trip today and I got to chaperone.  We went out to a ranch at the base of Mount Diablo and learned about early California history in our area.  It was interesting.  We also got to meet the current roping champion in the state...I cannot remember his name...sorry.

Adell got to try out roping some haybales/cattle.  A friend snapped this picture of Adell roping for me.  It looked very similar to another picture I've seen from my family.

This is my paternal Grandfather, Frederick Davis.  He was a Tugboat Captian, is that cool or what?  This is a picture of him when he was younger and a deckhand or something less than a Captian, I think.  My Aunt Colleen gave me this picture.  She said it was taken and used in a trade magazine, either for an advertisement or article about rope.  So cool!

Camp, camp, camp it up...

Camp Liahona Redwoods treated us well again.  We went back for an October weekend this year instead of Labor Day (too crowded anyway).  The weather was great (chilly but great).  We made Lorien go for her very last trip before college.  She will thank us later.

The kids came up with a great skit about a high school freshman being harassed by all the different groups at school.  We thought it was funny.

Colter broke his toe Friday afternoon.  He had a boot on for camping but it didn't slow him down at all.

Mostly we just sat around and talked and ate lots of food.  It was perfect.

Oh, these are pictures from our high school skit.  After our family skit, the Moms and I put on a beatnik poetry reading of the Fresh Prince of Belair.  I slowly recited the rap and the moms snapped and quoted parts of the rap after I did.  I thought it was hilarious and had a great time doing it.

Fire, fire, fire.  The dads built huge fires and the kids were in heaven...or hell?

Colter made friends with a boy his age, Asher, and a boy Wyatt's age, Jay P. 

Wyatt and the other teenagers spent most of their time up in the hills shooting airsoft guns.

Will organized a quick hike before we all left Sunday afternoon.  It was another great camping trip.  Colter barfed on the way up at 9:30 at night...in the dark.  No one barfed on the way home.  You win some, you lose some.  We watched a bit of general conference and caught the announcement about the switch to two-hour church.  That will be different...

Smashed toe...

Ugh, I had been busting my butt to get the house cleaned up and our family packed for camping this weekend.  I had just pulled out the cooler and the sleeping bags (the last stuff to be pulled together before packing the van) when Colter started screaming.  He was climbing off a bar stool and pulled the stool down with him.  His big toe caught the karate chopping edge of the seat and his toe was smashed and bleeding.

Colter had a nuclear level freak out.  We were all trying to calm him down.  I finally got Lorien on the phone with urgent care for me and snuggled him while we started Star Wars.  Colt was a little calm when one of the girls called Will to tell him what was up.  Like any concerned father, Will wanted to talk with Colter.  Colter got on the phone and to Will's inquiry of "I heard you smashed your toe, buddy."  Colter responded calmly: "yeah, and I am totally freaking out, listen."  then he proceeded to scream and wail again.  This kid.

We got an appointment at the minor injury office.  Lorien got her first long highway driving in while I sat with Colter comforting him on the drive down.  Will met us there and helped carry Colter to his appointment.

The initial diagnosis was a broken toe and a four week wearing of the boot.  (After the radiologist read it he said it wasn't broken but pretty banged up and Colter should stay in the boot for three weeks.  We are counting it as a broken toe.)

Colter calmed down once we were on the way to the doctor's office.  He was brave for the checkup and x-ray. 

Lorien snapped these pictures as we walked out of the doctors.  Sometimes I see myself in pictures and think, "Do I have a big butt or what?"  I always answer myself, "yeah, I do but that's ok." 

Will let Lorien drive his car on the freeway home.  I took myself to Panera Bread for food and Will packed up the van for camping.  I'm a lucky girl.

We got on the road for camping around 6:30 after a little debate if we should go or not.  Off we went.

Wrap it up September...

One night for family home evening I had the kids write all the bad words they could think of on note cards.  Nothing was off limits, they could write any and every word they could think of.  Colter, surprisingly, knew a lot of swear words.  Anyway, I let the kids who wanted to (a few were too embarrassed or uncomfortable) read them out loud.  I read mine out loud and Will read his.  Then we burned all the paper cards in the backyard and committed to use good words.  I thought it was a worthwhile activity.  We will see how traumatized the kids are over it.  

Several months ago we had the kids make paper weapons (an ax, bow and arrow, sword etc) then we talked about the things we do to cause fights or wars in our house.  Each kid wrote down one thing they did to cause fights and we buried our weapons in the backyard.  We agreed to not used our weapons to cause fights in our family anymore.  I wish I could remember what everyone wrote down.  I do remember that I was impressed with how well the kids knew themselves.  They each were able to think of something (easily) that they did and they knew it caused contention.  Interesting FHE nights at our house.

Colter has been improving with swimming.  I am so proud of him!  He swam all the way across the full length of the pool without stopping to touch the bottom or grab the lane floaties.  He earned the next ribbon color!  He was so proud and happy!

Clare turned 12 and a 1/2 on the 25th.  I still haven't pulled together her birthday party.  Ugh.

Adell and her best friend, Maggie, have been planning their joint costumes for Halloween.  They settled on toy soldiers.  I have to make these suckers.  Wish me luck.

Lorien had her senior portraits (actually October 4th) for the yearbook.  She was a pro!  She knew how to tilt her head and body and the whole session was done in a couple of minutes.  Lorien only blinked at the flash once.  All of those years of training, sitting in front of the TV finally paid off. 

Beach Opening Social...

We've been sending our kids to the opening social every summer since Lorien was 12.  Every year we drop our kids off at church and just expect them to be fed, sunscreened and cared for until we pick them back up at church in the evening.  We figured after four or five trips we should take a turn driving and chaperoning.  It was also during my birthday week and I wanted a beach trip for my birthday.

Lorien didn't want to go this year.  We took the youngest two kids along for the fun instead.

Wyatt and his friends ran a-muck trying to catch seagulls with beach towels.  It worked...

Adell splashed in the waves and boogie boarded to her heart's content.

Clare did leaps and turns all over the place.  One of her friends managed to snap this super cool picture.

We stayed until the sun slipped beneath the waves.  It was glorious.

Hiking...

Will and Lorien went on a hike today.  Lorien got some fantastic pictures as the sun was setting.  Gorgeous!

Citizen of these United States?

I am trying to get a passport so we can go to Mexico sometime.  I sent in all the regular crap but I got a notice back in the middle of August saying my evidence of citizenship wasn't enough.  

I was born on September 13th, 1980.  At the time, my mother was under the spell of the neighborhood witch and this witch cursed me. This witch convinced my mother to have a home birth AND to not report anything to anyone official.  Great.  As a result, I am cursed.  I didn't get a birth certificate until I was a teenager.  So I actually have a "delayed certificate of birth".  Apparently, this is not sufficient evidence of my citizenship.  

Exciting.

Stupid witch.

So I get to try and jump through a lot of hoops to try and give the government more proof of my existence and hopefully citizenship.  I need to supply as many of the following as possible and they should be as close to by birth as possible:

Certificate of baptism

Early school records

A census report

Medical records

A signed affidavit from a witness to my birth

Let's just take all of these things one at a time, shall we?  The curse continues...

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  We don't baptize our infants.  We wait until they are eight to baptize them...when they can hopefully decide for themselves if they want in on this church business.  So eight is not really close to birth.

School records, well my home school district purges their records every ten years and asks parents if they want the records before tossing them.  My mother has always declined.  

The census, I was born in September of 1980...the census from that year was taken between April and June!  So the first one I was counted on was 1990...I was ten.  

Medical records, my mother didn't take me to the doctors until we moved to Maine.  I think it was after school started when the district said we all had to be immunized.  So I am six or seven in my immunization record.  Not really close to birth.  It's like this witch super hated me and cursed me extra.

And the signed affidavit?  None of my family members were present at my birth.  My father was away helping with a service project.  My older siblings were not present.  I don't know who actually witnessed my birth.  Probably the neighborhood witch and she whispered that curse right as I took my first breath.  Stupid witch.

So far I have managed to find my immunization record, a report card from the 6th grade, my high school diploma, a census report from 1990 (did you know the living have to request and pay for census records...dead people can just get their records on the internet.  Stupid witch and her stupid curse.) and a signed affidavit from my oldest brother Chris.  He didn't witness the birth but was around me as a baby so here's hoping!  

It is crazy.

In all the searching I found a project I did in high school of a timeline of my life.  I got most of the years wrong but it was a good project.  I wish the passport would have accepted this as proof of my citizenship.  I got an A.

I also found a journal we had to keep for Senior year English.  I remember we were supposed to write in it every day and turn it in at the end of the week.  I would just make crap up about what was happening in the news.  Some of the entries are of actual stuff happening to me instead of world events.  I really appreciate all of the entries now.  It was fun to look back and read.  Check out this thoughtful entry about where I thought I wanted to live when I grew up.

Maybe I escaped the witch's curse after all?

1..2..3..August is over?

I've just got to get caught up now.  Life is going by too quickly and I am too behind in the family blog.  It is actually October but I am going to back date all of these.  Wyatt and Will just hiked Mount Whitney and we are prepping for Halloween around here.  Lorien is 1/2 way done with her first semester of Senior year.  It is WILD around here and I need to document it!

So August.

Lorien got her permit (finally!).  The stinker came out of the testing room and shook her head "no".  I totally fell for it.  But she passed and now we are trying to get her practice driving...it is nerve-wracking.  (August 8th by the way, on her 16 and three quarter's birthday).  When Isabel was here from Alaska, Isabel and I made Lorien take the online test and sign up for a permit test.  Way to go Isabel!

Lorien had her very last walk through registration at the high school...and Wyatt had his very first.  This crap makes me weepy.  I cried for a second on the way up to the high school.  These stinkin' kids...how dare they grow up?  HOW DARE THEY?!?  Also August 8th.

Wyatt thinks he is officially taller than I am now.  But no one could get a good photo with the level bubble tilting up towards him so I am going to go with me still being taller.  It just feels right.  Also August 8th.

Colter is gaining skills and confidence in the pool.  We are all so proud of this guy!

On the Saturday before school started we made the kids do yard work, loads and loads and loads of yard work...because we are the very best parents in the whole wide world.  We promised them a cool reward when they were done.  It was so cool, I cannot remember what we did...if we did anything!  See, the very best parents in the whole wide world. 

On the day before school started, we made the kids get up early (for summer vacation) to go on a Sunday walk.  We really are the very best parents in the whole wide world!

And...on Monday August 13th...school started!  Grrrr.  My position on school starting before Labor Day has been well rehearsed on this blog.  I hate it. 

It happened, the Senior, the Freshman, the 7th grader, the 3rd grader, and the Expert Kindergartener all left for school!  It was a garbage minimum day so they were all back after a couple of hours but they did leave.

Colter has a new teacher who hasn't taught at Greenbrook before.  He also has a friend from church in his class.  He has mixed feelings about being an Expert Kindergartener.  We never say he is repeating Kindergarten and neither does he.  He did ask a few weeks into school if he would have to have an "expert" first grade year too, meaning do first grade twice.  I said no.  He misses his friends but we still feel good about keeping him back. 

Lorien likes to practice driving and I like to practice having heart attacks so we are both getting what we want?  I'm kidding.  I hate this.  It is so scary and hard.  I know freaking out will only freak her out but man, it is terrifying.  I am getting all of my comeupance for being a crappy teenage driver in my youth.  It is awful.  I want to quit. 

Speaking of quitting, Lorien quit her job at In and Out after six weeks and has been working at Menchies (a frozen yogurt place).  I wish I got a picture of her at In and Out.  I love that place!  It was fun to have her working there.  Most of our friends saw her working there but I never did, darn it! 

I got to meet up with an old friend from our Stanford days for a little hike.  It was cold when I left our house so I stayed in jeans.  Of course it warmed up and I am out of shape so I was gasping for breath and sweating 10 minutes into our hike.  It was a disaster but we had fun catching up!  August 28th.

September 2nd, we walked down to Osage to play in the park before church.  I was fasting and nearly fainted when we got home.  Smooth move!