Life in Crazyland

I can't believe how much I wanted to write about and how I didn't get to ANY of it! It's been seriously crazy. First off, let me start by saying that last Saturday Luke's soccer game was played in the rain and with half his team. I'm guessing they didn't know that they play soccer rain or shine? Anyway, there were no breaks for those poor guys and they lost miserably. It was fun to watch though! Here we are on the sideline.Then Sadie finally got to pick the watermelon she planted and happily ate half of it. It was a small, personal size one and it was really good!

Maia is finally mostly potty trained. She still has some accidents when she can't quite make it to the potty in time but we're actually diaper-free! I still go by the diaper aisle and wonder if we need diapers before I realize we don't use them anymore. I'm not surprised after seven solid years of buying diapers! Wow. Even I can't believe it. It's no wonder we're broke.

I got a haircut. And not just any haircut...Casey didn't even recognize me when he came to pick me up! He really was standing next to me looking for me. I think it's shorter than it's ever been. I'd say it's right below my shoulders and layered. It was just soooo long that I couldn't take it anymore and had it chopped and I love it! Now don't get me wrong, I'm going to let it grow out and it probably won't be this short again but it's a nice change. I'll have to get a picture one of these days when I don't look like a tired, rundown house wife and post it. In other words, maybe tomorrow after I've been away camping! ;)

We had a cat adopt us. I don't know where it came from but it's hung around for quite awhile now and comes running everytime the kids go outside to play or we head out the front door. It's a really nice cat and even lets Maia carry it around nearly choking it to death. We don't know what to name him yet so we're open to suggestions. So far we have Prince Carlos, Snausage, Snowball, Cat and Cloud. Anyway, so if you come over expect to see it!

Other than that it's been isolated incidents of craziness. The other day I looked out my back window and saw two cows in my backyard! Okay, THAT surprised me. Not much does anymore, but that took me off guard! They ate the apples off my trees for awhile and left. Not many people can say that's happened to them so I feel kinda lucky in a weird way. Then they've changed the kids' bus routes and our bus driver seems to keep forgetting to stop here. She drove right past us Wednesday morning and then drove past us again yesterday when she was supposed to drop off Luke. Luke waved as they went by, I waved back and then called the bus place. And the list goes on and on. I needn't bore you or embarrass myself with all the rest but be assured that life is certainly crazy around here. Poor Amy...

Amy's here!

So for those of you who don't know, my sister Amy is staying with us for a little while. She plans on going to BSU and while she tries to figure everything out she'll live with us. My kids couldn't be more excited. Luke was asking me again this morning if Amy was really going to be staying with us and when I told him "yes" he did his little happy dance. It's nice to have her around. I actually have someone to talk to!!! She's already hooked up a wireless router so she can get internet on her laptop,so when Casey gets his he'll be all ready to go too. And since we had family home evening yesterday, she's been officially welcomed to the family (and put to work)! We love you Amy!!!!

Hat's off to Luke Again!

As if I couldn't be any more prouder as a dad with how impressive Luke was with his Spanish, he also amazed us all on the side lines during his soccer game Saturday. In his first game last week, he was unsure what to really do and didn't want to hurt anybody when he was trying to get the ball. He didn't score and was kind of sad he didn't. Yesterday he was the opposite.

During the whole game he gave it his all and was very impressive on the offense. He scored three goals, yep a hat trick, and took out two different kids on a dead sprint toward the goal. One of them was even a slide tackle (which I didn't know he knew how to do). Plus he ran from out of nowhere and booted two balls that were about to cross the goalline out of the area. It was amazing. It wasn't even like any of this was by accident off the back of his head or as if he didn't know where he was. He actually looked great! The assistant coach officially named him MVP of the game. Luke runs around and tells everyone he is the PTA of the game because he can't remember MVP. Here are some pictures.

Here is Luke dancing after he scored a goal.

And to keep him humble he did have to lose something.

His other front tooth is loose also. Soon he will be a hockey player more than a soccer player. But anyways great work Luke! We are proud.

Are you Smarter than an Eighth Grader?

Today I was preparing a PowerPoint lesson for my eighth grade students here at home and I decided to see if Luke could fare better then they could. Let's see how he did.

Still Learning

We had a flower arranging class at our Young Womens activity last night. (Just to clarify for those smart alecks out there, although I AM a young woman, relatively speaking, I am just a leader. OK. Now that that's out of the way....geesh.) I really needed to learn something about flower arranging so I was excited to have a lady come who's actually made alot of money making arrangments. I must be the only one clueless about flowers since I was the only leader making an arrangement but, hey, we all learn at our own pace in life. Now, mind you, this is pretty much my first arrangement EVER so I was quite proud of my novice little attempt. Sadie was proud too. I knew I could count on Sadie!

Canning, Canning and more Canning

Whew! It must be fall because I don't see an end to the canning! I've already done some peaches and two batches of salsa but the peaches just keep coming! We went and worked in the orchard again to help pick peaches and I guess if the peaches fall to the ground they don't want them so I gathered a bunch up and brought them home. They are my project for the day. The peaches on our tree are ready too so today we'll be picking them and then I'll be canning those tomorrow or Wednesday. We have a tree full of plums as well and some apples that are good enough for applesauce so there seems to be no end to my options! That and since Casey has had some of my homemade strawberry jam and loved it, he's afraid that it will run out too fast so I need to make more of that too! Goodness! We'll see if I get to it all! On a side note, anyone have some good recipes for plums? This would be a great time for me to try a few!

The Jaguars

Yes, we've FINALLY signed Luke up for soccer. His team is the Jaguars but since they got their jerseys and they're fire-orange I think the kids were changing it to the Fire Jaguars or something like that. He's had a couple practices and his first game was Saturday. He did pretty well considering it was his first game and they won so that was fun too! It's funny for me to watch him because he's left footed so I'm always expecting his right foot to get in there to the ball and it never does. It throws me off every time! He really liked it but got tired from the running. Here he is with the little "star" of the team. This kid is really good! I guess most of the kids have already been playing for a couple years. Crazy!

Yup, he's #10. Casey and my mom, who know something about soccer, were really excited for that number. I guess it's a good one!