Allie's Owie

It was a pretty nice weekend. We all got to sleep in and enjoy saturday. I went to get my hair done because I couldn't stand to see my 4 months of gray staring at me anymore.. It is so expensive to get your hair done out here. I can get my hair done 3 times in utah for the amount I pay to get it done once out here so I really try and stretch my hair appnts. Anyways it took 4 1/2 hours to get it done.. Can you believe that... It only took about 1-2 hrs at the most to do it back home.. Anyways I was really planning on coming home and relaxing and spending the night with my family but as soon as I got home my husband was like are you going to go to the General Relief Society broadcast and activity. I was like no I dont want to go I'v been gone all day and I dont know anyone who is going and have no idea how to get to our stake center. Its quite aways out there along some crazy windy forresty back roads. So my husband was like you really should go go call a couple ladies and see if they are going and see if you can go with them. So I was a little annoyed and felt like I was being pushed into going. I called a sister I have been getting to know a little better and she said she was in the same vote I was and didnt know if she really wanted to go either. I said if she wanted to go I would go and if she didnt I wouldnt either.. I dont know if that made her feel guilty and responsible for my spiritual well being or not (LOL) but she decided to go so that meant I was going too.. I am so glad she made that decision and my husband coaxed me into going. It turned out to be a great night. They had booths set up all around the gym with samples of food and recipes for food made with stuff from food storage like breads and desserts and soups and rice dishes and wheat dishes. It was great and very informative. They had booths on first aid kits and 72 hr kits. I was able to get alot of information. Then they served us dinner and then we went into the chapel to hear the R.S Broadcast which was wonderful. I am so glad I went..

Today was a pretty layed back day.. I am in the process of trying to organize and refresh our 72 hour kits and emergency preparedness stuff. After my enrichment night on Sat about emergency preparedness and food storage and then sunday we had a combined lesson in church really talking and pushing emergency preparedness and food storage.. Hmmmm I wonder if they are trying to tell us something? Anyways our ward had done a survey a couple months ago on how much food storage each of us had and what kind of supplies we had.. We came to find out that 68% of us only had 1-3 months worth of storage. So they are organizing some groups to start putting together some items in a few diffrent categorys that will be made available for us to purchase. So like the young women are going to make first aid kits and the priesthood is going to make a 72 hour kit in a back pack and so forth so it really got me thinking and in the mood to start organizing ours.. I dont think I have even looked at our 72 hr kits since austin or jessie was a baby so I dont even have clothes or anything for the kids that they could fit into...

Steve took the kids to the park after dinner tonight so I came after with my camera to take some picts. They were playing freeze tag. I couldnt get the camera to focus very well so sorry for the blurryness. On the way home we had a little accident. Allie was riding her scooter and had the dog leash tied up to the handlebar of the scooter and he went to pull away from her and it jerked her off the scooter and she did a nice belly flop on the road right in a nice mud puddle. I was back aways so I didnt get to see what happened until I arrived at the house but when I looked I saw blood running down her hand and arm. I tried to get some picts but had a hard time getting the camera to focus up close. It really did look painful. The one on her elbow was really pretty deep. It took several layers off. I think she may have sprained her other wrist as well. Poor kid.. On this trip back home Jessie fell off her bike twice as well but was unharmed. And Logan this morning to the bus stop and this afternoon to the bus stop both times she tripped over a raised part of the sidewalk and scuffed her hands up too.. Steve said we had a bunch of handy girls on us.. Klutzy in otherwords.

And thus ends the excitement of the scraped hands and body parts today.. Alas we will live to see another day.. It is good the kids get tomorrow off for rosh hashana. We may have an accident free day knock on wood..

Our busy week

Gosh it seems like ever since school has started my life has gotten way more busy and kaotic.. I thought it was supposed to get calmer with the kids being gone??


Well I am sure it will eventually.. Partly its been my fault.. I have tried scheduling all our physicals and dentist appts in so we can get them all done before the year is over.. Plus each kid has had their back to school night going on. I had 2 this week and 1 last week plus running the kids to their various lessons and activitys it seems I am constantly going. We had allie into an orthodontist last week and found out her mouth is a mess with impacted teeth and lots of crowding so we are starting the process of spacers and head gear and eventually braces. I think from here on out we will have braces coming out our eyeballs.. Austin needs them too but he has to wait a year for more teeth to come out. And most likely Jessie wont be far behind him.. Who knows with Logan.. We better start saving now!!!

Austin tested for his new rank in karate last week and did really well and has moved up to a blue belt now. He is now in the advanced classes of karate.. He is really excited to be so close to a black belt and cant wait to move up. We wre thinking there will be another rank test sometime in Dec and he will be a senior blue belt.. Then he will only have 4 more belts to move up with the 5th being his black belt. We are very proud of him working so hard for these achievements. I decided to give picasa a try so sorry if you cant see the picts very clearly. It took me forever how to figure it out and how to get it on here.

The weather had really cooled down out here this week. Its been it the 50's for the low's and 60's for highs.. Its been raining here all day and all last night and is supposed to continue through the weekend.. I love days like this.. Its my excuse to just stay home and be lazy and watch tv or play games.. I am seriously thinking about making my hubby make a fire tonight.. There is nothing better then curling up by a fire and watching a movie...

Looks like all the geese are starting to come back for the winter.. Out here in NJ it is crazy you will be driving down the road and you will see a thousand geese walking in a field or on the grass of a buisness or in front of the schools. Its crazy I have never seen so many geese at one time like out here.. I will have to get a picture when more of them get here. There was a couple times allie had said some geese got into their school last year and they had geese droppings in the hall.. You cant walk on the grasses out here at buisnesses they are usually covered with geese droppings.

Well it looks like their may be a possibility we will be heading back west come summer.. There is a position that may be opening up by the beggining of the year which would cover Utah, Idaho and Montana. However after talking to my hubby about it, it may be better to live in Idaho verses utah because he will be spending more time there. I would rather be in utah but I guess we will have to see. It will require him traveling every other week so if he has to travel anyways I think it would be better to live as close to family as possible in my mind.. Time will tell I guess.. Anyways that was good news to me.. We really want to get back home.. Our lease out here doesnt end until June so we have to wait until then to move out plus I dont want to move in the middle or towards the end of the school year either it is just way to hard on the kiddos. But yeah I am excited and hope it works out...

Jessie got a new cowgirl hat and she wants to wear it all the time.. I think she was meant to be a cowgirl and ride horses. She looks so natural on her horse when she is riding.

Well thats us in a bombshell for the past week.

Starting Early

I know its a little early for Halloween but when I went to a friends site Jodi and saw how she was posting on christmas already I got excited and I just love Holidays. It seems like they come and go so quickly that by the time you get ready and in the spirit of them they are over.. At least that is how I feel about Christmas. I put my tree up right after Thanksgiving but by the time I finally get in the christmas cheer and actually start to enjoy it it is over... So I am starting early this year.. I cant wait for christmas... Last year was horrible because we moved to New Jersey christmas week.

We flew out the 20th and had to stay in a hotel for 2 days because the house we were moving into its heater had broke and was spilling carbon monoxide into the house so we were put up in the Marriott for a couple days. We had to try and unpack our house with no heat and with 4 kids freezing to death and no where for them to go or do.. No fun.. We finally got a christmas tree up the 23rd but by then there was not much time to enjoy it and everything was so kaotic it was not a fun christmas and I couldnt wait until it was over.. Nobody was in a good mood for christmas. We were all sad because we were not in utah to enjoy it with some of our familys... Thankfully my parenets were there to help us move in and was able to share christmas with us.. I dont think I could have made it without them... How sad because I usually love Christmas.

I have been checking out some costumes for my girls this year. I have a friend who used to be an old neighbor who is extremely talented and has been making some costumes and they are so darling you can check them out here. Such fun... I have always loved halloween. I think its just because it means candy and I have such a sweet tooth. I just love candy... Plus there is so much fun stuff to decorate with.. If I could have it my way my whole yard would have the grave stones and the skeletons hanging from the porch and the goblins and other spooky creatures lurking through the yard and house. The windows lit up and cob webs everywhere, I love decorating for the holidays.. It drives my hubby nuts... One year I had a halloween bunco party and had soup in pumpkin bread bowls with jello in the mold of a brain with eyeballs it it. and we had punch served from a cauldron with the dry ice putting off the smoke or fog whatever you call it and for dessert a yummy choc eclair sheet cake topped with the crushed oreo cookies for dessert and the gummy worms and spiders on top.. It was alot of fun.. Doing holiday cooking is about the only time I really love to cook......

Anyways so here's to all you ghouls and goblins out there.

I'm Still Here

Just wanted to hurry and post that we havn't died or fallen of the face of the earth. Since school started life has been so crazy and busy...By the time I finally get a moment of spare time I'm just to tired to blog.. I am trying to get myself a little more organized so hopefully things will get a little better. We are still just trying to get through another day and dealing with all the ups and downs life throws at us. It has been crazy weather here with crazy heavy rains then hot humid temps you would think it was July if it wasnt for the changing and falling leaves. I am looking forward to winter because that means we will have been here a year already and hopefully find us a position back in utah come next summer. Not that I dont like NJ or anything its just that we miss our friends and family horribly... I'v actually come to love the area we live in and how beautiful it is here. I actually dont mind a little humidity either. I still get lost and curse this crazy place and its still too expensive to live here but it really has grown on me.. But not enough to make me want to stay... LOL

The kids are settling into school pretty well I think.. Austin is getting ready to test for his blue belt in Karate this week. He is excited and we are very proud of his accomplishments. Allie is becoming quite a pianist and jessie still has the dream of becoming a rodeo girl and is still begging for a horse and is loving her horse lessons. Poor logan she is still stuck at home with mom and can hardly wait for her school to start in November. She hates not having any friends near by to play with. She is becoming quite the singer and dancer. She puts on little shows for us all the time. I even was told by someone in our church who is in primary that she is quite a good singer and she just belts out the songs and will just sit there in class and sing to herself. She is quite a happy little girl when she doesnt have jessie or austin to fight with. LOL

Anyways that is our little update for today.. Hopefully I will get a little better and keeping up with this.....

Yo Dum Dum Give Me Gum Gum

The last day of freedom for the kids before school started and we decided to take the kids to New York and go to the American Museum of Natural History. It was really cool.. Of course we were a little dissapointed to find out that alot of the things they put in the movie Night at the Museum were not really at the museum. For example there is no Sacajuwea or the Huns things like that. But they did have some really awesome things to see. It was so big you almost need 1 1/2 days to see everything. We got to see a real cool pre historic sea life movie in the imax theater. They had this beautiful butterfly made up of colored diamonds in the gems and minerals showroom. We were lucky to get to see it because it was only there for 1 week then it travels around the world to other museums. It was absolutely breathtaking. I cant imagine what its value is.. We tried to get a picture but it didnt work because the light reflected off the glass. Our battery was low on our camera so we didnt get as many picts as we wanted and some didnt turn out due to them being behind glass and casting a glare in the picts. The kids were pretty tired of walking by the time we were through. We were going to go take a walk through Central Park but were all to pooped out to do it.. I highly reccomend seeing the museum if you ever get to New York. Definently worth it..

Today the kids started their first day of school. The girls were scarred and Austin couldn't have cared less.. Jessie was pretty nervous being in 1st grade and having to go a full day and eating lunch their and not having austin there to ride the bus with her and show her where to go but when she got off the bus today she said she had a great day and she had too many friends who all wanted to play with her. I am glad it went smoothly for her.. I think I was more nervous then she was.. Allie said it was alright (other then having to wake up at 6:00)and it would take some time getting used to the building and not getting lost and she was relieved when she was able to get her locker combination open the first time she tried it.. We had her practicing before school because she had some trouble with it at the school orientation. I am so surprised how much they do out here. I dont remember getting lockers until junior high which was 7th grade she is in 6th and has lockers and 8 periods in the day.. Pretty crazy.. I think I would have been scarred to. Austin loved everything about it.. He says his teacher is the best and is so nice.. I am so glad... Maybe we can make it a week or two before ending up at the principals office this year!!!! (LOL) It will be good for the kids to all be starting at the beginning of the year and be in the same vote as everyone else instead of trying to come in half way through the year and trying to make friends and catch up in work... All in all a great first day of school..

Poor Logan was way upset she couldn't go to school today and she had nobody to play with.. We will have to have some good Mommy daughter times to help with the change.