Matt Goes to the MTC

Elder Matthew Helm flew to Utah today where he will enter the MTC.  Emotionally our family is having a difficult time with this as we will miss him very much.  In a great effort to hold it together, we forgot the camera.  We used his camera and a soldier took a picture of the 3 of us at the airport.  When he sends it I will post it here as well as updates and pictures from his mission. 

We miss him tons and have been crying all afternoon, perhaps soon we will smile again, but not now.  We are proud to have a missionary, it is what we have prepared him for since he was born,  but letting my son go is just too hard for me today.  Right now, I am too sad to write anymore.

Family Night--Dancing To The Oldies

Family Home Evening is our favorite time of each week.  One of the really cool things is that with all these teenagers and almost teenagers, we can have some really cool discussions about the scriptures.  We have been asked by our local leaders to have our lessons from the Preach My Gospel book.  So we are currently working our way through the section titled "Attributes of Christ"  Each week we take a different sub heading, learn what there is to learn and mark the scripture chains in our scriptures.  After we finished the scripture part of our evening, we thought we would get out the old record player and play some of what our children call "the oldies", or in other words, music when Bill and I were young.  I don't remember getting old, but if my music is the oldies then I guess that makes me old.  Anyway the evening went as follows.

Bill was the DJ for the evening and started out with "The Streak", we all especially like the phase in there where the man calls "Ethel you put your clothes back on"

Ethel put on an truly horrified face for the camera and the laughs began.

Next thing you know, Mandy is rocking at the table, because really, who can stay still when there is good music to be had.

The next song Bill put on was "King Tut" and the children felt that we needed to add all appropriate movements.  By this time they are all up and movin and groovin.

During "The Hussel" (probably spelled wrong)  Mandy showed Jessica that you could do the Macaraina to the Hussel and so forth. 

Next thing you know all are doing the Macaraina to the Hussel and the floor is rocking.  (Note to self, check 100 year old floor joices before next oldies night)

Rocking on with "Taking Care of Business" Mandy and Daniel are so in the groove.

Then out came the drum sticks and Josh volunteered to be Daniel's and my drum set.  (we never really touched him)

The night finished with Bill singing "Domo Arigato Mister Roboto."  We laughed so hard.  It was a great night.  We are blessed as a family for this time together.

I love to see the temple, I'm going there some day. . .

Yesterday we took Matt to the Winter Quarters temple to recieve his endowment.  It is a wonderous thing to watch your child serve in the temple.  They begin when they are 12 doing baptisms for the dead and then when the time is right they go back to recieve their endowment.  Going on a mission is one of those times.  It is an exciting time, but sad too.  Life will never be the same again for my son.  He will come back changed, as all things must.  I feel as those women of the indian tribes long ago who sent their sons out for their vision quest, setting up a tepee for them while they are gone because they knew that they would return full men, ready to take on the responsiblities of an adult in our culture as well as our church.  But for today we are joyful.  There were 14 of our ward family there with us to experience this event.  I am thankful that they took the time to share our joy.

Meanwhile back at home, Mandy had a day of fun planned for her brothers and sister.  They went to a corn maze. 

They went in extreemly excited.

And were given a map.  There were 4 checkpoints along their path that they had to be at to be successful in completeing their course.

Consulting the map.

The boys figure that they know the way and so run ahead.

Mandy goes the wrong way and Josh turns her around to help her back on track.

They are successful in reaching the end.

All are happy.  Following the maze, they all went on a hay ride.  It was an enjoyable time for all.  Now to go home, make pumpkin muffins and curl up in polar fleece blankets--made by Rachel-- and watch a good movie.

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.