Cutest Cowgirl Ever, Strongest Storm Trooper, Speedy Buzz Lightyear, and Seriously adorable duck!

Before the (big) Halloween ward party, Trunk or Treat. I love this holiday. LOVE IT! Can't you tell I even dressed up at a pioneer, although I did try to do the FLDS hair due - but I thought that would be too political.

Cowgirl got the most compliments all night.

After a few shots at home, the family was off to the church's trunk-er- treat.
My honey never dresses up. We like to call him Scrooge this time of year. BUT he is still a trooper at passing out the candy.

Sweetie loved Pam's dog, Deuce. This dog really is king of their house.

Annual family shot at Grandms Judy's.


My house getting ready to go trick or treating.

COW and a Cowgirl - CUTE!

Little ones with me and Trev. The eight other kids went off with Laura.
Most of the big kids.
Travis passing out candy at home. Say hi to Scrooge, everyone. JK.

These two held hands most of the night. Adorable.
Candy swap:
That is the best reason to go in a group, so you can trade candy at the end of the night. This is the early candy swap. The other kids kept going and scored even MORE candy.

Travis has the magic touch and got Cow baby to fall aleeep. WONDERFUL note to end on. THANKS Honey for helping out. And thanks for my friends for coming over. Breaking the kids info 2 groups according to age really helps!

The day before Halloween - What did you do?

Well, I decided to upload some photos from this past week.
Here is a picture of the front hall table with fall decor. Soon to be the location of my new family photos. THANKS, Amy.

Here is a sweet picture of Sweetie eating fruit snacks from Tuesday. Mundane, but this one is for the Grandmas of our family.

Here is a picture of Sweetie from yesterday (Wednesday) drumming on the back of the chair with colored pencils. She was having fun. She colors on this table behind me while I sit at the computer and email all day. I love her crazy hair in this shot.

I also wanted to upload a silly video of Sweetie doing a small version of her shake your bootie dance. She has been doing this dance for weeks, but I haven't caught in on camera yet. This isn't a good video of the dance, but it is a good video of a 1 and 1/2 year old's behavior. Notice that I turn the camera off when she starts throwing me my shoes. I guess she wanted to go somewhere.

Later this night, after school and piano - I went to a board meeting for the school. At this meeting we went on a tour of the construction site. FUN!

This is part of the Board. The important one is pointing. If you can, notice his boots.

Below is the MPR room. It is as tall as it will go. The marks and little poles sticking out are the ceiling heights for the first and second floor, respectively.

This is a picture of the south east part of the building, but I really want you to notice the front door laying on the slab of cement. SO COOL!

Below is pipes for electrical, I think, but look in the middle of the picture for the yellow shovel. This is where all of the kindergarten toys are disappearing. HA! Not really, but that shovel is smack dab in the middle of the construction zone and I thought it looked funny. I can't figure out how it got there.


THE SHOE SHOT

The Board President brought his boots to wear out at the site, but the treasurer wore her adorable shiny red shoes. I don't know how her shoes didn't get dusty. Hmm, magic?

Tonight at the board meeting, our school voted in favor of offering half-day AND a full day kindergarten next school year. I know that I am allowed to say that much, because it is an open meeting and true. What I feel like I can't say, because I am VAPO Pres - is my opinion on the decision. I understand why it was approved (mostly to compete with neighboring schools who offer free all day kindergarten), but I didn't know how much I believed in 1/2 kindergarten till the vote came through. I gasped. Audibly in the meeting. Isn't that wrong?

It is not a bad thing. It is not a good thing. It is just a change and change is hard. Please don't think that I am talking as a Parent Representative right now. I am talking for myself.

Our school is a traditional, back to basics school. This isn't what I hoped for, but it is what I knew would eventually happen. I just never dreamed in a million years that I would be there for the vote and watch it happen. It was sad for me. Like I said, I didn't realize how strongly I believe in 1/2 day kindergarten till tonight. Although, my Sweetie will have the option of going to 1/2 day kindergarten, this is not the direction I thought my charter school would go. I seriously had tears in my eyes after the vote (and it is not even that time of the month!!).

If you love half day, I am with you. If you love full day, I understand why some parents need it and some love it. I also think that it depends on the kid. Some kids would do fine in all day, but some wouldn't. I think that this transition can be done in a great way, but there will be lots of bugs to work out. To offer both will be interesting. I hope the school will pull it off successfully. (I understand that my friends go to a school where you can pull out your kids half day, but this meeting talked about offering a separate class for 1/2 day kids. Thus they would not be mixed in with all day kids, but only if enrollment was high enough for those preferring 1/2 day. Different trains of thought.) Interesting, huh? Time will tell, but I am hoping for the best outcome.

Not my house, but blog worthy...

Before

During

After

Before

During

After

Before

After

I love before and after shots, don't you?

I have a friend, Kathy, who recently redid her Master Bathroom. I wanted to do this post to celebrate her finished bathroom and her new found freedom. Now she doesn't have to babysit the construction workers everyday. HOORAY! Don't you think she should start a blog?

Running on Autopilot

I have no idea, why I do this, but I do. I confess. I run on autopilot. There are many times that I drive to school, even on the weekends when I need to go somewhere else.

Autopilot.

But I guess 11 plus years of being a mom has made me run on autopilot with my kids.

RHM talks to me and tells me all sorts of things. It is cute and I don't mind at all. He isn't annoying, yet. But sometimes, I don't really listen. He will talk and talk, then I will hear, "OK, Mom?" And I will respond, "That sounds great, RHM!" Well, I guess I missed something important a week or so ago, and this week he keeps telling me that I promised to have his friends over for lunch this week - since he is in PM kindergarten and all. No surprise to you, but I don't remember that - at all!

Autopilot.

I think he is turning into Travis.

Travis will tell me all the time, "I told you about this softball game, or this basketball draft. Don't you remember?" I think I go around the house on autopilot and I need to listen to my family.

What do you think? Do you find yourself on autopilot? Is it easy to tune out your family? Is it easier to tune out your kids or your spouse? I never thought I would tune out my kids.

Guilt is setting in.

Family shots

So on top of everything emotional that I had on Saturday, I also had a family photo shoot with Amy. Check out a few that she has posted here. I went to her house today and saw the rest. THEY ARE GREAT! So fun. Looking at these pictures makes me realize how fast time passes. My kids are growing up and I love them!

Impromptu Reunion

OK - college friends, here is a pop quiz - who is this? I will give you one hint. It is one of Travis' old college roommates.

Did you guess?

Well, it is Neal. He and Travis found each other on Facebook. They live 2 hours south of us and we are so excited they came to visit us this Sabbath day. As you can see Neal has a beautiful wife, Erica and 4 great kids ages 6 years - 5 weeks.

My RHM and Neal's 2 oldest boys. They love Star Wars and Super Heroes, too!

This is Neal and Erica's princess and #3. CUTIE!

This is Neal's 5 week old baby boy and my baby, Sweetie, loving him. She watched him all night.

me, Travis and Neal

Neal and Travis have decided to replenish the earth by themselves. HOLY COW! Can you believe we both have 4 kids.

8 kids!

WOW! Erica took this picture and my batteries were running low - hence no smiles. THANKS for the fun night reminiscing. It was fun to catch up!

Guess what? Neal is now a Doctor.

My own journey through the loss of a friend

I have been busy like normal, but my emotions have been drained this week. I feel the need to let you know that even though life goes on, sometimes it feels like it doesn't. Confused, yet?

I went through all of the motions this week. I took my kids to games, taught piano, carpooled to Activity Days, dealt with a new form of communication - a screaming 20 month old, went Visiting Teaching, went hiking 2 mornings, jogged one morning, set up for a teacher's dinner, went to 3 Parent/ Teacher Conferences, the list goes on and on - BUT I was not really there. My mind was always on Dawn and her loss. My thoughts and internal prayer were with her and her family. I would feel drained and weary emotionally all week.

I know that the Holy Ghost was with me this past week. I could feel guidance. I could feel strength when I was too weary to go on. Mostly I felt emotional strength. I needed it and the strength was there. Why did I need strength? Because I felt the need to be there for the family and not bring my emotional baggage to them. Every time I would talk to Dawn, I would say a prayer to say the right thing and be there for the family to fulfill a need. I did not lose a child this past week, but my friend's loss brought up my own journey of grief. A journey that I believe is ending another chapter. I only hope that now, I can be there for my friend, because I know her journey is still at a beginning.

Here is the weird thing - I didn't cry at the funeral. I cried some earlier in the week, but I really cried Saturday night when I was alone with Travis. He is my safe place. He is where I can break down and still be loved. I love my family. I love my husband. I love the comfort and strength I have felt this week.

Why am I sharing this? I am not sure. I just want to remember what an impact this past week has had on my life.

Many Miracles

I have witnessed many small miracles this past week. My friend lost her baby and the school community has really reached out. My friend's story was on the news and now a company who is making a car seat alarm with On-Star has contacted them. My friend has decided to make it her new mission to educate people on the dangers of leaving your kids in the car. (It should be noted here, that Maya's story is NOT one of neglect. Maya's accident was just that, an accident. Everyone thought someone else had gotten Maya out of the car. Routine was broken and a larger group of adults were present. Maya was born at home and she died at home.)

Another miracle is the peace and comfort that this family has felt through this tragedy. I am sure there will be ups and downs, but the prayers of many is helping this family.

Another miracle is that this little girl gave the gift of sight to another child. Dawn, the mother, finds this very comforting.

Another miracle is the school community has rallied around this family. There are lots of unexpected expenses that have come up and our school has really helped this family out. I memorial fund in Maya's name has been set up and these donations buoy Dawn and Wes up. People that don't even know them have donated and this helps in many ways.

Another small miracle is that Maya died in her sleep. She never woke up and struggled. This is a comfort to this family at this time.

A miracle that I witnessed this week was with a request from the mom, Dawn. She wanted to release balloons after the service yesterday. Well, my PTA organization needed to find the money to make this happen. I asked the CEO at our school and within the first 5 minutes $40 was donated toward this balloon release. The office staff all pulled together and raised enough money to pay for 100 green and purple balloons to be released. Maya loved Tinker Bell, hence the green and purple.

Dawn and Maya went through the drive thru almost everyday at Chic-Fil-A. Well, Dawn went through the drive thru this week and they asked where Maya was. Dawn told them about their loss and Chic-Fil-A donated a ton of food for the reception after the services on Saturday. Another miracle. This reminds me of the loaves and the fishes.

Dawn has also expressed comfort in the knowledge of the impact Maya has had on this world in her short life. Many people have stopped Dawn and told their stories of Maya to this grieving mom. Maya was a forced to be noticed and loved. I will always remember Maya asking me for purple grapes at a Homeroom Mom breakfast, repeatedly. Only purple ones would do. I will remember Maya climbing on the librarians desk at school throwing paper clips (she was very comfortable at the school's library and every loved her for it). I will always remember Maya playing kitties with Sweetie in the strollers at Maya's house while her mom and I were doing budget stuff. Then I will never forget that Dawn emailed me later that day, telling me that Maya was asking for the Stinking Baby(Sweetie had a poopie diaper earlier at Maya's house) to come over and play kitties with her. Maya will be remembered.

Still Grieving

Not sure what to say. My friend Dawn lost her 2 1/2 year old this past Saturday. Miss Maya Moo was left in a hot car on October 18th when the high that day was 96*.

I am surprised by the notion that some people think, "How could this happen?" I respond quite simply that this could happen to me. This could happen to anyone. None of us are beyond the possibility of accidents.

Maybe I can respond like this because I know the family and they are the best. This family loves their children and are the most giving people in the community. Both Dawn and her husband Wes give back over and over. Dawn not only volunteers hours and hours at the school working on book fairs and treasurers duties, she also works for a Catholic charity with teenage pregnancies. She is a breast feeding counselor. She is an adoptive parent and before that they were foster parents. Amazing people. Her husband Wes, works for Cox and loves his job because he can work 4 10 hours days and be home with his family more. Wes helps out every year at the school with book fair and any where else he can. This family has 3 boys left on this earth and one little angel looking down on them.

I am grateful for my knowledge of where Maya is and I know the family is grateful for this knowledge. The family is planning a celebration of Maya's life on Saturday. I am bringing Dawn dinner on Wednesday. I am overwhelmed at the emotion that I feel as I interact with this great family. I am still very much grieving. I still cannot imagine how this family is getting by. I have spent many, many hours on the phone this last few days making plans to help this family. Right now, I ask that if you are reading this that you keep them in your prayers.

Visit from old friends

So, some friends from Utah were in town and stopped by Sunday night. So glad they did, but I wish the whole family was around. Trevor and his son "big T" came by and were in Phoenix to visit a friend from school that "big T" has kept in touch with. Next time I hope to see Tiffany and the whole crew!

Patrick (moved about 20 minutes north), Trevor (moved to Utah), and Travis (my honey - lives right next to me - where ever that happens to be)

This is a bad shot of these guys eating my brownies. They needed to stand up so they don't look so pudgy (sorry honey).

Oldest and "big T" hanging out with the bearded dragons

I love catching up with people who have made an impact in my life. Friends like these are hard to come by. Gotta love it!

RHM and "big A" shooting guns at me when I am trying to capture bonding time with old friends. Boys will be boys.

tragedy in the PTA

My friend and treasurer in the parent organization at my school lost her 3 year old daughter in an accidental death this afternoon. My heart aches. My mind is turning. I went to visit her tonight. I feel for her. So, so, so, sad. It is honestly my worst fear, to lose one of my children. I know it can happen to anyone. I know there is a plan. My friend knows her daughter is in a better place and she knows she will see her again. That is comforting, but in this moment tragic. Just tragic.

I wish I could be there for all of my friends, but I can't. Right now, I am praying for my friends to feel peace through my prayers and the prayers of others for them. Peace. Love. Understanding (on some level). That is the hard one. How do you understand what is so hard to except? That is when faith steps in, I suppose.

On an extremely selfish note, I am emotionally drained. I called people from school, rearranged some committees, and organized some set up for a charitable account for the family. Planning and preparing in the wake of a tragedy is hard. If I feel this way, I can't imagine how my friend and her family feel. Honestly, can't imagine. Hug your baby a little longer tonight. I am going to do that right now.

Adventures in Reading

We had our first annual October picnic pack meeting. It was fun, at least I think so. It was too dark and there was no microphone, but all in all a great night. It was more of a social than an activity and I think our pack needed that.

Theme for the month was Adventures in Reading. I asked for donated books from the pack and some members of the ward. The books were given away as prizes for the night, but really everyone just got to pick 2 more more books.
We also had a donut eating contest (below). I thought of this idea today and thanks for Amy for buying the items when I didn't have time - it was the hit of the night. SO fun!

Here is my time to say thanks. I have great den leaders and other leaders in cubs who help me SO much with pack meeting every month. I couldn't do it by myself. Bridget saved the picnic table area for us ahead of time. Larry picked up the table, flags, and cross over bridge to the evening. Joe and Mark helped with everything having to do with set up, including threading and tieing all of the donuts. Mark's girls even helped with set up. Carrie helped run the relay and pass out the books. It was so nice to depend on others. What about all of the parents and leaders who donated books for the prizes? They are the best! SO NICE!!! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. (I guess I should email them personally. I don't think any of them read my blog.)
Why do I feel the need to say "thank you" publically? I am so glad you asked. Tonight we had an Arrow of Light ceremony and cross over to Boy Scouts with this awesome boy who happens to not be a member of our church. This boy, let's call him B, comes from an awesome family who goes out of their way to THANK me after every pack meeting. I am going to miss them for many reasons, but mostly for their example of appreciation.
Why did I tell you that B was not a member of our church? I am doubly glad you asked.

1. We are an LDS pack in the Boy Scouts of America
2. I have a theory - that church members expect you to do your job (calling) and non-members actually appreciate your work in a job (calling).

Do I need to clarify? Maybe. I think church members appreciate most things in their heart, but mostly we are so busy in our own callings that we NEVER outwardly THANK someone else for the job that they did. I know I never thank the canning specialist for what she does month after month. I know I never thank my VT coordinator for calling me and doing her report. I know I hardly ever think about my daughter's Activity Day leader unless it to complain about not having another activity. I need to change and be more thankful, like B's family in our pack.

Great shots of people eating their donuts. I did it too! FUN FOR YOUNG AND OLD.