The Letter

Emily found a letter that Fed Ex delivered for Travis today. This is what the return address looked like:

THE CHURCH OF

JESUS CHRIST

OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS

Emily rushed into my bedroom and excitedly announced:

"MOM!!!! YOU JUST GOT A LETTER FROM JESUS CHRIST!!!!!"

Isn't that sweet? I hope it was good news.........

Kate's Booger

The family was playing around on my bed last night and Travis noticed that Kate had her finger in her nose. He asked her why she had her finger in her nose and she said, "I have a booger in my nose." On a side note, I have never heard anyone say the word booger cuter than she does. A few seconds later, the booger emerged from her nose and was sitting on her finger. Travis asked her, "Now what are you going to do with it?" She looked at it for a few seconds and I went to get her a kleenex. When I came back, the booger was gone. I asked her if she had wiped it on my bed. She replied, "No. It's on daddy's pillow!" So funny! We really shouldn't have laughed at her, but how can we help it?

Have you been drinking?

Travis and our former bishop and friend, Mike Palmer, went golfing on Saturday. They had a hard time making golf fit into the busy day and the only time they could both make it work was 2:00. They had planned on playing 18 holes, so I was a little surprised when Travis walked through the door 2 hours later. He looked like he was about to die. He went straight to the bedroom, without saying a word, to lie down. I was a little concerned. I went to check on him and he said, "It was just too hot today to play 18." I was still a little worried and asked him, "Have you been drinking?" As soon as the words came out of my mouth, we both started laughing hysterically. What I meant to say was, "Are you hydrated?"

I am still taking quite a bit of flak from this comment. It still makes me giggle. I thought I'd better write it down. This is one I don't want to forget :)

First Day of School

Back to school. Sigh. It always brings me anxiety. I hate change. I hate how fast time it going. I hate that the kids are getting older. I really wish I could freeze them in time and keep them exactly as they are.

We had the traditional cinnamon rolls. I found a 1 hour recipe that I am very grateful for. I got to sleep in until 6 a.m. The kids were so excited. They were both up at 6:30 to help finish baking. Gavin was up and ready at 7:30. He was sorely disappointed that he had to wait until 11:25 to start afternoon kindergarten.

TYLER

Tyler started sixth grade today. SIXTH GRADE! I cannot believe it. He got Mrs. Adams as his teacher. She is new at Cook this year, so I don't know a whole lot about her, but she seems nice. His classroom is in the computer lab. Kind of weird. They are building a portable for their class, but that will take 3-6 weeks. He has a few of his good friends in his class and came home super excited to apply for student council. Here's hoping.....

EMILY

Emily started third grade. When I took her school shopping, she picked some clothes I never would have imagined. I always thought she would be a t-shirt and tennis shoe girl. Kind of like her mom. She was picking out darling clothes, but they were shirts with scarves attached, long shirts with leggings and fancy boots. Hmmmm. Who would have thought. She said, "Mom. I'm changing my style a little this year." Another sigh. She got Mrs. Price and Mrs. Horsley and loved both of them.

GAVIN

Gavin started kindergarten today. Huge sigh. I cannot believe that he is starting school. What am I going to do without him? I'm definitely the one with separation anxiety. I walked him to his class and he was ready to go. He hung up his backpack, got his blue bin and quickly found his seat. Then he wrote his name on his paper and started coloring a picture. I gave him a kiss and a hug and walked out the door. As I left, I turned to look one more time. I shouldn't have. I saw him sitting there so big just doing his thing. His entire life flashed before my eyes. Then I had to go back in and give him just one more kiss...... I had to remind myself that he would only be gone for two hours.

This is the last thing I saw as I walked out the door.  Now you tell me, would you have cried?

A pretty good looking bunch of kids!

As much as I hate how fast the kids are growing up, I am so grateful for each of them. I enjoy every minute I have to spend with them. I hope they realize how much talent, ability and potential they have. Most of all, I hope they know how much they are loved.

Some cute stuff

Kate woke up sick at 3:00 this morning. Travis happens to be out of town. She was asking me when he was coming home. I told her that he was coming home tonight, but she would probably be asleep when he got home. She replied, "HURRY!!! GO TO SLEEP SO MY DADDY CAN COME HOME!!!"

So cute. So sweet. And a little sad.

Preston Biathlon

Last year at the rodeo, we saw lots of runners and bikers. Dustin and I discovered it was a biathlon. We decided it would be lots of fun to run it together this year. Jamie, Levi, Ben, Tyson, Ashley, Dustin, Connie, Bailey, Stetson and I all participated. Paulette bought us all matching shirts to wear in Grandma's memory. I wasn't really worried about training too hard for this race. I had been riding my bike a little bit here and there and thought that the course was going to be flat so it wouldn't be that big of a deal. I ran my 5k in 29:38 and set out on my 14 mile bike ride. Much to my surprise, the course was ANYTHING but flat. I'm talking some BIG hills. I struggled. A lot. I really think I could have gotten off my bike and walked up the hill faster than I was riding. However, my pride wouldn't allow me to do that. At one point, I started feeling nauseous and thought I was going to die in the bushes. I closed my eyes for a moment and tried to breathe through it, and almost went off the road. I quickly decided that wasn't a great idea and focused on just getting through the race. Once again, Ashley came to my rescue. She caught up to me kept me company for the rest of the ride. It was a lot easier to finish with a friend! I ended up finishing in 1:45. Not too impressive. I was hoping for under 2 hours, but the winner finished in just under an hour. An HOUR!!! Regardless of my results, it was a fun experience participating with such an awesome bunch of people. I now know what I need to train for next year. And maybe a new bike wouldn't hurt. My $30 mountain bike just didn't cut it ;/ 

 Here we are, all ready to go!

Me and my running buddy, Connie



Post race photo.  Feeling a little disappointed at this point.

Dustin, Connie, Stetson, Ben, Levi, Jamie, Tyson, Ashley, Bailey and Steff

My favorite part of the race? The fans, of course. We ran by grandma's house twice and rode by it once. I was so excited to have the family cheering all of us on and adored the signs they had made. It was great to feel loved! 

I can officially say that I accomplished something hard.

Where've I been?

I have sooo much to blog. The only problem is that my computer's memory is full. I have 20,000 pictures on my hard drive that I am desperately trying to get backed up and off my computer. I cannot download any more pictures because every ounce of memory is used up. I decided that I'd better start blogging, even without the pictures, before I forget what it was that I supposed to be blogging. I will just add pictures when I get my computer problem worked out :)