Socktoberfest

So I was surfing the internet, looking at knitting websites when I stumbled onto one that explained a celebration of the accessory that we call the sock.  It is a knitting festival that has knitters all over knitting socks this month.  On October 1st you cast on your sock and knit socks all month long.  Then at the end of the month you post a picture of all the socks that you knit.  If you are a newby then maybe you didn't even finish one sock and if you are an expert you might make 16 pairs of socks.  So that made me think.  I have been knitting since my grandmother taught me when I was 7.  That is a whole lot of years and yet I have never knit a pair of socks.  I have thought about it, bought yarn and patterns for them, but never actually made socks.   So Mandy and I decided that we were in.  We were going to celebrate the sock all month long. 
On October 1st we sat in our living room, Mandy with her neopolitan ice cream yarn (pink and brown) and me with my giggle year (flecks of green, blue, purple, pink, and white) and we cast on our first ever sock.  We have knit when we have had a free moment and with conference we were able to knit alot.  This is so much fun.  Here is my sock so far.

Conference was amazing.  The speakers gave me much to think about.  I often think of General Conference like a grand feast--one that fills your soul up to full and then keeps on filling.  The music was joyful.  Our entire experience was one of peace and harmony.  I am thankful for technology so that we could watch it over the internet.  We are blessed.

The McCrud

So what happens when you have 2 children working at McDonalds, they just happen to have big wigs coming to town and well one or more of the workers are sick?  You get to pass the McCrud along to all the other workers.  I am here to announce that it has hit the entire family with the exception of Ethel and Matt.

Mandy was the first to go down.  Then I got it, followed by Bill.

Josh was next, and he wasn't so much sick as his blood sugar was totally wacked. 

Daniel was next and his messed up his asthma and sounded more like the croup than the others.  Daniel gathered all the things that were fluffy--including the cats and made a nest in the living room. 

 I think it is morphing.  Jessica was the last to go down with it.  She is the most healthy of the family and it only took her down for one day. 

Trivia question????  How long does it take a family of 8 people and 2 missionaries to drink 1 gallon of orange juice??

5 minutes 30 seconds--most of that is used in finding glasses and pouring the juice.  We have consumed massive quantities of OJ, vegetable soup, and herbal tea.  Most are feeling better now.

Homecoming week

Since I have a child in High School--Jessica. And since I have a child in the band--Jessica.  I need to be involved in homecoming.  One thing I learned this week is that I do NOT take good pictures at 5:30 in the morning.  However. . . homecoming=spirit week=wacky days.  Here is Jessica.

Dress up day

Wacky Holiday--she is the blue bunny of Easter--think ice cream

Cartoon day--Felix the Cat

School Pride Day--I so wasn't awake yet

Game Day just before she put on her band uniform.

I was going to take pictures of the band on the field, but well there was a big thunder and lightning storm and so the band got sent home, due to the instruments making great lightning rods.  I just loved it when the announcer said "We are required by law to inform you that the metel stands you are sitting on may draw the lightning."  Talk about the mad rush to leave.  Oh the football team had to stay and finish the game.  We lost.

When my steps were put in, the two flower beds that I had on either side of my walkway were stomped into mud. I looked at them, but though "who cares I am getting new steps. I can plant new flowers later. I also thought that perhaps some of the flowers would come back. I was major surprised when all that grew back was weeds. Today I decided to go out and weed the beds a see if I could get Bill to let me buy new flowers to put in these beds, perhaps mums in burgandy and yellow. So I was pulling weeds and there it was. . . just the smallest rosette of leaves growing. There were my Missouri Primroses growing back. They will bloom once again in the spring. But they are there. It is amazing how Heavenly Father makes some plants so strong that they can be totally mashed into mud. Mashed so much that there was no sign that they ever were there. Then a few weeks later, there they are, pushing up from the ground, determined to show the world that you can't keep them down. I believe that I am like these Missouri Primroses. I can learn much from them.

Trying Again

When I started this blog I had it open to anybody like my sister, and got a lot of bad emails. So I restricted it. Well I have decided to open it back up and try again. It will make it easier for those I love to get in and see what is happening with my family. I will just have to see how it goes. Thanks to those who comment. I love you all.

Grandma Comes to Town--game night

This year at the begining of August my Mom came for a visit. We asked her what she would like to eat and she said to the children decide. Mom you were a great sport about eating the most outragiously named food they could find. For those that don't know--we eat pretty normal food, but my children have pretty much renamed most of the dishes--think Addams family for the type of names. On Sunday evenings we have found that we are pretty much all home for the only time most weeks. We usually play games together. This paticular Sunday we played Yatzee. We do better if everyone has their own dice. You had better be careful with your roll though as we have a family rule that if the dice go on the floor, you loose your turn and have to cross something off your score sheet. Daniel won.

After playing Yatzee, we thought we would play dominoes. We are new to dominoes having just learned to play this summer. Who knew dominoes was a game and not just to set up and knock down? Mom put lots of thought to each move--She didn't win. Mandy had to keep up a text conversation with a friend while playing--she didn't win. Bill kept track of the points on the table at all times--He didn't win.



Many in the family believe that if you line up your dominoes just right it will be good luck and you will win. I use a classic V-formation--I didn't win. Matt made a wall of his pieces--He didn't win. Jessica put hers into neat little rows--She didn't win.

Josh used the mystic powers of stone henge--He didn't win.

Daniel doesn't have any particular way to set his up. He constantly moves his pieces around using them as some sort of building block, building new things after each turn--Daniel Won again!!

Building Steps

The stairs of our home are pretty much toast. They are all crumbling. So with the help of our home teacher Chris Roberton, the Missionaries, Elder Jensen and Elder Calquin, and the ward Missionary leader Doug Southwick, Matt and the children worked on the problem. First the tore out the old steps. This proved much easier than we thought. The hard part was transporting the rubble to the back yard where we will recycle it into the landscaping.

Brother Southwick knew that Matt would be wearing his worker hat and so brought his hippy hat to help with the work. Note the grey pony tail. Brother Southwick is pretty much bald when not wearing the hippy hat.

The forms were built using wood that Brother Southwick saved when we helped to clean out an old hobby store when they went out of buisiness. Brother Southwick told Bill and I that you never knew when it would come in handy. Two years later we found this to be true.

After pouring the cement we put yellow caution tape around it to help keep the neighborhood kids form stepping on them. We also had to be on our guard to keep them from writing bad words in our steps. We live in a bad neighborhood. Most of the time we are left alone, but we feared that new cement would be a temptation. As it turned out, one of the neighbors told the others that he would take it as a personal insult if the messed up our stairs as we were good people and didn't judge on peoples looks. Who knew? We feel very blessed.

We feel very blessed have these new steps. We know that we have 2 more sets to do, however we can only eat this elephant one bit at a time.