Old friends never die and real Chinese food

My dear friend Vicky Holt came out from Indiana to bring her son to college.  She posted it on Facebook and all the Indiana people that have since moved to Utah stopped to see her.  We met at a coffee shop in Salt lake.  She looked beautiful and it was as if we had never been apart.  She is a dear soul to me and we will be friends into the eternities.  I dragged Gordon along with me for our weekly date night.  After visiting with Vicky Gordon and I were hungry for dinner.  My Chinese friend Amy had told us of a very authentic Chinese food restaurant near where we were so we looked it up.  When we walked into the restaurant and were THE ONLY Americans I was so excited.  I wanted to get "hot Pot".  That was what Amy was always talking about.  So I ordered a hot pot dish.  It had Tripe in it.  I didn't know what Tripe was.  I do now- Cow stomach and intestines.  They brought out our meals and we laughed through the whole dinner.  We tried bites of my hot pot but in between the flavor and the tripe and Tofu it was hard to eat.  Really hard.  We finally had enough but the hot pot was too good not to "share".  We were right by Jim and Ali's house so we took some to them to try.  Then we brought it home and let the kids try it.  The Next day was Sunday and I was teaching a lesson about Sabbath day and shared it there.  That hot pot made the rounds.  It was so gross and sun to try something new.  It was an adventure for sure.

Adaline's legal

Adaline got her driver's permit.  We tried to go out on Adaline's birthday but we got there too late and they wouldn't let her take the test.  She has been taking the online practice tests and early passing.  I told her she had to pass the first time.  We went Friday and waited forever.  But she did get to take the test and she did pass!  Yea and Yikes!

Adaline's birthday and Eleanor's first day of school

Adaline turned 15.  She is growing up.  She has had a queen sized bed frame ever since we moved to this house but only a twin size mattress.  For her birthday all she wanted was a queen sized mattress to go with her bed.  For her birthday we got her the mattress and got out all the cute pillows and sheets that we had bought for her.  Her bed turned out really cute.  We also went out to dinner for her birthday.  She wanted Korean food but we ended up picking up Emily, who was still in the hospital, and getting pizza.  Then we zipped over to Young Women's.

It was also Eleanor's first day of school.  She Loved it.  It was as if she was waiting her whole life to go to school and she finally made it.  I was a little sad.  It has been 19 years of having a buddy with me and now I'm alone.  It will be an adjustment for sure.

1st day of school

This has been a crazy week.  Cousins at my house, getting everything together for school, finishing getting the kids set up in their new schools (was so hard!!!).  I dropped the kids off at school and went over to BYU for education week.  It was a beautiful day!  I went to wonderful classes and left just in time to get the kids from school.
That evening I had my mom come talk to the Laurels about the temple.  I wanted it to be in depth and very spiritual but there were cell phones out and immaturity.  It was sad.  I felt sad.  I wanted to give them so much but they weren't ready to hear it.  i wonder if that is how our Father in Heaven feels sometimes.  He wants to bless our lives with knowledge but we are not ready for it.  My mom did a great job.  When we were done we got a call from Emily saying that her water had broke and that we needed to get home.
We got home and Gordon was doing research about where her insurance would cover and my mom, Emily, Malinda, and I were off to the hospital.  We were so excited.  I really was excited to see a birth but things went down hill really fast.  Emily had an emergency c-section.  She was bawling, Darren was in Oregon, and they wheeled her away with my mom.  It was so sad.  I'm still sad when I think about it.  We were so excited and it ended so badly.  Darren came the next day and was here for a few days.  Then he took all the kids but Gabe home to start school.  I watched Gabe for the next few days.  He is so cute and it was so fun to have a toddler in the house again.  Eleanor did get a little jealous though.
Emily and Luke were in the hospital for 10 days (I hate Timpanogos regional Hospital).  Then she and my mom went back to Oregon.  What a way to start the school year!

 

Education week, Registering Isaac, and back to school night. Phew!

Monday Education week started.  Malinda, Emily, and Marilyn all came.  Emily (who is 35 weeks pregnant) brought all her kids, Malinda brought Emma, and Marilyn brought Grace.  They all stayed at my house and would play together during the days while the women went to Education week.

I also finished registering Isaac for Junior high.  Then later that night I took Bridie and Jacob to their new school.  It is hard starting over.  The kids have new schools, new buildings, new teachers, new rules, new drop offs, start times, end times.  It has been really hard on all of us.  I'm sure it will take some time to adjust and then everything will be fine.  

Eleanor's back to school night

Eleanor starts school in 2 days!  We went to her classroom and it was the same classroom I had gone to kindergarten in over 35 years ago.  She loved every minute.  Every time I am sad about her leaving I think about how happy going to school will make her.  She is so excited to finally be doing all the things she has grown up watching her older brothers and sisters doing.  So I won't be sad....

 

Adaline the hair dresser and Young Womens

Adaline loves to do her little sisters hair and they love her to do it.  She does all sorts of cute braids that she learns from Pinterest.  I have been called as the Young Women's president for our new ward. It is so intimidating.  I had a few weeks to pull together a presidency.  It was so hard not knowing anyone because we are new.  I called one person to be my first counselor.  She said no.  I called someone else who said yes but later said no.  I thought I was going to loose my mind.  I felt like I was stabbing in the dark.  I called people I had never met before.  It has turned out and I am going to love the women in this Young Women's group.  The first week before school I wanted to give the girls "back to school kits" and try to let them know how much God loves them and that they can feel close to him.  It went well and I was so happy to have it over.

Bridie's note

I love my kids.  They all have such different personalities.  Bridie is my little spunky one.  She is organized, self motivated, and knows what she wants and is going to get it type of girl.  I find lists she will have made for herself fairly often.  This was her note one day...I'm not sure why the dresser will explode.

Taking Adaline back to my old school

Today was Adaline's registration.  It was so weird taking Adaline back to the school I went to.  So many memories, feelings of stress, inadequacy, joy, pain, and all the thousands of emotions that a teenage girl feel.
It was strange to know so many people that were helping us register.  It was as if I was in a time warp.  We got her schedule, found her classes, and paid her fees.  I hope that she will be a joy to others during her high school years.

Eleanor is going to kindergarten

Eleanor is so excited to go to kindergarten that she made a chain.  Part of my heart broke.  It'll be so sad when she leaves.  I am so happy for her though.

Aquarious

I wanted to do a backpacking trip in Montana.  And I did' want it to be easy.  I wanted it to be soul-searchingly difficult for my kids.  I wanted them to know that they can do hard things.  I wanted this trip to give them the confidence to try hard things.  I think this trip was maybe a little too hard but we did it and lived to talk about it.
Gordon, Me, Matthew, Adaline, Isaac,  Jacob, Darren, Paul, Ellie, and Kyle all went.  We left early one morning.  The hike is a total of 7 miles.  about 2 on nice trails, 2 in down timber that is hard.  Climbing over logs- it is hard.  Then the last 3 miles was straight up on rocks.  That was mentally and physically exhausting.  One hill I literally crawled up because it was so steep.  When I got to the top I wanted to bawl- maybe this was as good for me as it was for the kids.  When we started to get up high there was bear scat everywhere!  That made all of us a little nervous.
When we finally got to Aquarius Isaac wouldn't talk to me for about and hour.  He was ticked he had been tricked to go on this.
We set up camp, and started fishing.  They caught so many fish!  Nearly every cast they caught a fish. I played on the rocks and just enjoyed.  It was so beautiful.  To be in the tops of the mountains.  It was so peaceful.  I loved every minuted.  I dreaded going back down the rock slides we had just climbed up but the evening we got up there could not have been better.  We all had dinner and then turned in about 9 pm.  Then the storm came in.  Isaac, Adaline and I were in on tent and Poor Gordon, Matthew and Jacob had the leaky tent.  I loved laying in the tent listening to nature unleash it's furry.  I drifted off to sleep to that sound.  Poor Gordon didn't have such a great nights sleep.
The morning did come and with it the beautiful sun.  It dried everything out and we had breakfast, did a little more fishing and then packed up.
We started our hike out.  Some of the kids wanted to fish at the little lakes along the way.  I wanted to get down the rock slide so I could relax a little.  So Adaline and I pressed forward.  We got down rock slide and stopped for a snack and to watch everyone else come down.  Darren, Paul, Kyle, Gordon, and Jacob came down together.  But Paul tripped and fell into a rock that split his leg open about 3-4 inches.  Gordon and Darren bandaged it up and gave him some pain meds that Gordon had on him just in case something like this happens.  Paul was as high as a kite walking the rest of the way out.  We booked it.  It was fairly traumatic and we were all freaked out that he had gotten hurt.  On our way out we did see a black bear.  I have never seen bear spray be pulled out so fast.   The bear saw our huge group and ran the other way.
Paul got tons of stitches in Cody and it was a HARD hike but it was so worth it.  WE will remember that experience forever.