Puppy Love

Anyone who knows me will find this very hard to believe, but we now have a family dog. He is an indoor dog, which I did not realize existed until I moved out of my home town. Where I grew up, all dogs were free, as in, they didn’t cost money to purchase. They were given to you by a neighbor trying to get rid of their puppies. They also were free to roam around the whole neighborhood. No one had fences, and dogs never came in the house. It took 13 years of begging and pouting for my husband and four sons to wear me thin enough to agree to get a dog. As I knew would happen, I am the one who gets up with the dog at the crack of dawn, I am the one setting his schedule, house training and feeding him. I even pick up 75% of the poop. The boys swore they would pick up all of the poop before we got the dog. As a result, the dog loves me best, and cries when I am gone. This morning Ollie and I were having our morning nap. He wakes up between 5 and 6, so we are ready for a nap at 7:30 when Richard leaves for work. Ollie was asleep on my lap and Richard bent down to kiss me good-bye. Ollie sprung from his sleep and went into a barking fit. So my new BFF is either jealous of my husband, or trying to protect me from his romantic advances. Isn’t he cute?

Crazy Food Storage Shortage

I'm beginning to get a little concerned. Despite the fact that I have been Mormon my whole life and heard the council to get a years supply of food stored up, I have never really done it. Now things are going to heck in a hand basket and I'm really wishing I had been a little more obedient. I'm curious if other parts of the country are having such a shortage as we are here in Boise. We have had to disband our monthly dry pack canning in the ward because our cannery will only allow us to purchase 50lbs per person, per day. And they are usually out of things like wheat, and rice unless you wait in line for two hours before they open. I decided to add up the total cost for a family of 6, one year supply of only wheat, flour, rice, oatmeal, milk, sugar, salt, oil, beans. $2,200. I sure would like to put my economic stimulus check toward some dry goods, and do my part to stimulate the economy, I sure hope it works. Anybody want to go in on a wheat grinder?

The Host

Okay, I know all I ever talk about is books, but what can I say, they are my life. So I finished the new Stephenie Meyer (sadly, we are not related) "The Host." I loved it. The range of genres I enjoy nearly rivals the types of music I like. I am a huge fan of Sci-fi, and this one really delivered. I had no problem "buying" the premise of the book, and as usual, our BFF Steph, gave us captivating characters that make us laugh, and cry and fantasize. While Jared is no Edward, you can easily enjoy the chemistry in this novel. I also enjoyed the way the love triangle was resolved and unlike the "Twilight" books, we were not left hanging. I don't have an unquenchable thirst for a sequel. I do think this would make a fab movie even my husband would enjoy.

New Calling

Well, if you thought I never blogged before now, it's about to get worse. I was just called as 1st counselor in the RS pres. Sadly, I can't even find my camera to upload the pictures from the pinewood derby or the blue and gold banquet. I am having a lot of fun and enjoying my work and family, so that's the 30 second update.

The new Sense and Sensibility

Masterpiece has done it again! I loved the new Sense and Sensibility aired on PBS a few weeks ago. The actors had such chemistry. The sister bond was painfully realistic, and the tension between the lovers was crazy. I was more emotionally vested in this one than the Emma Thompson version, a must see if you missed it. It's available on Netflix, just look for the 2008 version.

I can't believe it

I am actually posting, and it has been so long I really don't know where to start. I'm sure no one reads my blog anymore anyway, and I don't blame them, seriously, over a month without one post! It is 10 minutes to 2 am so I'll be brief and say that things are going great. We are all healthy and happy and business is good. Maybe next month I'll have time to download some pictures off my camera.

We had a nice visit to Blackfoot to wish Jake well as he leaves for his mission, and can I just say, he is one amazing guy. I got a little choked up when he got up to speak Sunday and was so witty and charming, cause he's my baby brother, and it really caught me off guard to see him as a total adult, even wearing his whites. He went to the MTC this morning, hope my mom and dad are holding up. They should be proud though they raised some really fab kids.

Trip to St. George

Sadly, I have no time to blog anymore, so this will be a quick bunch of pictures from our trip to visit the Boulter's in St. George. We had a great time, the boys loved being together and Michelle and I had a great time. Blake was a saint watching the kids more than a little bit. The drive was way easier that I had imagined. It was a great trip. Landen and Rhett on the swings at the fab new park in St. George.
Korbin and Landen on the awesome playland. Note the cushiony "turf" easy on bare feet.
Ryker, Braxton and Brekkon quickly discover the dirt mountain, by the end they even had Rhett up there. Can you picture Michelle's washer after a load of clothes from seven very dirty little boys. Not pretty. I have never done so much laundry on a vacation before, if you could measure fun by the dirt level of the kids, they were off the charts.
Michelle and I doin biznas, we had a great time at her Usborne kick off party.
The boys on the playstation, only Rhett is missing from the frame, he is off to the right. It was a marvelous pack of boys.
Our hibachi chef.
Michelle and Julie, girls night at Samurai 21. I didn't get a picture of bookclub the next morning, but we discussed "Book of a Thousand Days," by Shannon Hale. Loved it.