Sunday May 31

It was a nice morning.

The kids played nice together.

Dad stuck himself back in the basement.

Maybe we need to move that adjustable bed upstairs so he doesn't have to still be stuck in the dungeon if he is having a hard day!

Anyway.

I did enjoy the non-hectic-ness of how today felt.

I don't know if it is just because we are a bit more spread out.....all I know is I felt much more relaxed :)

I actually took some time to look on FamilySearch.....looking for more 'army guy' pictures in our family lines.

I found the testimony of my Great Great Great Grandfather (I believe).

His name was William Jex.

I really enjoyed reading his testimony, and I think it was just what I needed to read today.

I hope it's not against the rules....but I wanted to post it here :)

It's long.....

You can skip it if you want.....it's for myself and my future family to read anyway :)

*****

TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM JEX to his posterity, on his 90th birthday 

 ''Dear Family Members: "I am very happy to have you come together for our annual family reunion. As you probably all know, I am in my 91st year, enjoying fairly good health and it gives me much joy to meet you again in this capacity. You have asked me to talk to you and I want to talk to you and tell you some of the things nearest my heart, for I cannot hope to deliver many more annual talks to you. While mother was living, she was always asked to extend our greeting, as we met on her anniversary, January 1st. She always had something good to tell you, but as she has gone on the way, I shall be glad to perform that duty. "The olden Prophet said: 'There is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth it understanding' and our great English poet Shakespeare said practically the same thing in a different way when he wrote 'There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew then how we will.' My father died very suddenly leaving mother in very poor circumstances with five small children to support, but she had a sublime faith in God and she knelt by the bedside with us small children and asked God to bless and guide us aright, and it was thus that faith in God was kindled in my heart, a faith which has grown with the years. From that time until this day have had an unfailing faith in God and I know that His over-ruling hand has directed my course through all my life. "So today I want first to tell you that I know that God lives and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Let such a faith then be the guiding star of your life, and do not be led astray by those mistaken souls who would tell you that God is a being "without body, parts or passions" as we were taught in years gone by in the old creed of the Church of England, and do not follow after those who would say that God is some unorganized force and a being that none can comprehend, for I say to you that God our Father is correctly interpreted in the Bible, wherein we are told that we are created in His image, that the attributes He possesses in His glorified form, we inherit, for we are His children. ''It was this corrected, or true knowledge of God that set me right in my early life. It was the message of "Mormonism" that found me in my native land and gave me the glorious vision of life and its duties and responsibilities. The Savior said that if we do His will we should know of the doctrine. I did His will in accepting the Gospel of Jesus Christ as taught by the Latter- day Saints, and I have never had one doubt in the three- fourths of a century that I have lived. “Now I am telling you this to impress you with the fact that you should early in life get your feet firmly planted upon the rock of a true faith in God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and you will never doubt the Divinity that shapes your ends, or the inspiration that guides your spirit aright. ''With your having an established faith in God, you must diligently seek to do His will, for I know that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek to serve Him. You children all know that the desire to serve God acceptably has ever been uppermost in the mind and heart of your mother. Grandma Jex who recently passed into the spirit world, and myself, and that has been the secret of our happiness, and you all know that we have been happy in our faith and service. "It is true we have not reached the high places of life, as the world knows them, but we have been true to the common virtues of life and success. We have sought always to leave a good name, which is to be chosen rather than great riches, and I feel that we have left a name of honor and virtue among those with whom we have lived, and I am asking today that everyone of you here and the members absent will be proud of your heritage and maintain your name in honor and virtue in this goodly land, for without that you will never find true happiness. "I have just referred to this goodly land. It is a goodly land and ours is the one best government in all the world, for God inspired the men who laid its foundation. And how happy I was to acquire citizenship here, for I was born in the land of Kings and Queens; but here there is no royal blood; we are all enjoying equal rights and privileges. Let us all live worthy of our citizenship and support our country to the last minute of our life. Some of the best blood of all ages has paid the price to establish this great nation, and let us value its citizenship as one of the greatest heritages of life. I was proud to have a score of our family boys in the late war; one of whom paid the supreme sacrifice with his life; and it was a great sacrifice for liberty and peace, for he was as fine a specimen of humanity as I have ever known. ''And now, let me add, if you inherit the richest blessings of time and eternity you will have to pay the price. God gave His Only Begotten Son to teach the world the virtue of sacrifice and the truth; and so with us, if we shall acquire the greatest gifts of God our Father, we must sacrifice our time, our energies, our feelings and perchance, our life, to maintain the right and truth. I am proud that my name has been placed on the roll of honor of my country for service in time of need, and it was given without the slightest thought of recognition or hope of reward. And so I have doubly appreciated the recognition which was given me as an Indian War veteran. ''Take good care of your bodies — 'Man is that he might have joy. ' There isn't much joy if you are in poor health. Be simple in habits and remember that the Word of Wisdom is the key to health. You all know that I have been well and active to the last years of my life, which is a result of my efforts to take good care of my body; I think with another chance I could stretch the life span out to a hundred years, and I may do that yet. However, I am not worrying about that; I shall be happy to go when the summons shall come, happy in the knowledge of immortality ahead of me. Our loved ones who have gone before are busy in the spirit world, and I shall be happy to join them in the world of eternal progress. Life from the beginning to the end is a glorious privilege from God our Father, if we seek to know His will. I would not tell you that it is all happiness and sunshine, for I have passed through many trying, hard conditions and circumstances, but I have always felt bigger and better when I have done my best to meet and solve rightly the problems of this life, to get the schooling necessary for immortality. And so I leave with you this blessed motto of life: "It pays to do right." "I have perhaps said enough for today — take with you my love and blessing in keeping up the good fight of life. As a Patriarch of the Lord I bless you as our posterity and ask God to bless and direct you along the road to Eternal Life." 

*****

We all went to church today.

Elsie was feeling just fine all morning and we seemed good to go :)

Dad stayed for all the meetings today....first time in many months!

Those chairs and benches are the worst for him to sit on, so he may pay for it tomorrow.

But it sure was nice having him next to me all day.

And since it is the 5th Sunday, we all met together, with Madi too, and they talked about a new website called justserve.org.

It seems pretty darn cool.

The community getting together to provide a way if people need a service, or want to serve.

People in your area can post a need and you can go and choose what you would like to do.

What a great way for a community to come together.

We missed the last little bit of the presentation because Sis Cluff came and got me cause Elsie said she had a tummy ache!

I went and got her, Cassi was with her in the bathroom.

I had Cassi go and get dad and Madi and I got Port and we went home.

I did not want her puking at church!!!!

She was just fine when we got home.

I think she still had a lingering tummy ache, but has seemed fine all evening.

We did watch the last little bit of America's Got Talent that we had to cut short last night.

So dad could lay down and rest his back and we could still all hang out together :)

Then after that we had dinner and relaxed a bit.

Cassi had a book report to finish.

But had not finished the book!!!!!!

So I read to her, which was surprisingly fun :)

I have never been a reader.....but I enjoyed reading to her.

While I read she worked on the picture she drew for the book report.

I liked reading to her so much, I think I want to try and read a book series to the kiddos over the summer.

But what books would they ALL be interested in????

Anyway, it's a thought :)

I never got through the Little House on the Prairie books......maybe I will start there.

Saturday May 30

We started the morning with the whole family going to the church to clean.

It was fun to go all together!

Then we came home and we did more cleaning here.

We had some fight us (Port) saying that we already cleaned at the church, it's not fair we have to clean here too!!!!!

But we got a lot done :)

That doesn't mean that there still isn't a million more things to get done, but at least our list got a bit shorter!

Elsie bug put up a big fit when I asked her to put her swim suit bottoms away before she could get on the kindle.

I mean.....over the top meltdowns.

That girl!

Finally, we got her to pick them up and start to put them away, until she decided she wanted to wear them :)

I mean come on....how could I not let her?

It was darling.

Then while we were sorting socks, i found these leg warmers and told her they would go awesome with her outfit :)

My little '80's workout chic.

So silly!

Cassi had some friends over to practice a play they are doing on Monday.

After lunch we got ready and Dad decided we needed to get out and so we went to the movies.

We went and saw 'Tomorrowland".

I really liked it.

It had a great message, one that I think applies to our life right now actually :)

When we got home, we actually just sat outside by the tire swing and hung out for a good 1 1/2 hours all together.

With mostly no fighting :)

Makes a mama happy!

Then we had dinner.

Elsie wasn't feeling so good.

She wouldn't eat anything and she looked real pale :(

After dinner we were gonna play a game, but Dads back was hurting from having the brace on for so long today, so we went down (to the dungeon....) and watched 'America's Got Talent'.

Well, we watched it until Elsie threw up all over herself and Wuvey :(

Poor girl!

We got that all cleaned up and Elsie got to take a bath in her new bathtub!

She has been waiting almost a year for her bathtub!!!!!

She was super happy about it!

And her tummy felt a lot better too....so that was good.

I am thinking maybe just too much popcorn and junk from the day.

Maybe.

I hope....I don't want her to be sick!

After her bath, Port jumped in.

Then I caught Elsie, almost asleep at the top of the stairs with her piggies dangling.

Oh poor girl.

We got the little ones to bed and she was out like a light!

I hope she is feeling better tomorrow!

I also hope that Dad has a better day tomorrow.

He is feeling some major stress right now.

His sick leave and vacation time have run out.

He would need to go back to work the 5th.

It would be light duty work, but he still feels like he is not ready.

He feels very overwhelmed and just wants to be done with the brace and go back to his life.

He has also been thinking a lot about the wreck....I think some feelings he has just pushed off for the last few months.

I know things are gonna work out.

I know there is a plan in all of this and we just need to have faith and stick together and everything will be as it should.

It's just so hard when I can't just fix it for him!

Friday May 29

(I just realized I never posted last nights post....whoops! 

It's posted now :)

Aaron Hale stopped by this morning to see how things were going and wants to get things started on the covering for the eaves......for the life of me I can't think of the name of it right now!

Then I went to Cindy Peterson's house and planned a fun YW/YM activity that we are having later in June.

It is gonna totally be awesome!!!!!

Hopefully the kiddos all go along with it, cause it's a good one!

I picked Porter up on the way home and then he and dad left on their Dad/son day.

He really just wanted to spend time with Dad.

So he took him to McDonalds and they planned out what their next Dad/son day activity would be :)

While they were gone I got some stuff done around the house.

I should have sorted laundry.......

But I ate lunch, made a grocery list, took the kitty for a walk around the house.

She is so cute!

But I can't have her in the house....makes me sneeze so bad!!!

So I make them keep her in a box in the garage and we let her out so she can learn her new surroundings and where she lives.

I did a few other things and then Drew and Heather stopped by around the time dad came home.
They hung out for a lit and talked for awhile and they took their trailer back home with them.

It was so great of them to let us use it for our visitors!

Then Port went and swam at Cannon's house.

I went to Walmart and did some shopping.

Got a new shower curtain for the bathroom, so that's exciting!

I also got a gift for Port to take to a bday party he was going to.

Then I swung by and picked him up, then got the girls from school, and took Port to the party.

At home the kiddos played while I got the bathroom fixed up a bit.

And Dad got the A/C working!

Yay!!!!

I picked Port up from the party.....

Then Cassi went and got Cannon and Avery cause we were watching them at our house while Stacia took the other girls for rehearsal stuff out in Middleton.

Madi left to a party around 6.

Her first boy/girl party.

I have been texting her all night telling her to send me picture of what they were doing :)

You know.....keeping an eye on her.........

She was good and sent me pictures.

She's a good one, that Madi :)

Stacia came to get the kiddos and they stayed and played for a while and Stacia helped me fold and hang Porter and Elsie's clothes :)

So that is great to have that done!

Kyra taught a little dance to Elsie and they performed it for us.

I have a video, and should load it.....it is super cute!

But it is taking too long!

I told Kyra I would just pay her to be Elsie's dance teacher :)

Cassi took a shower tonight......the first one in the new shower.

fun things going on around here :)

Thursday May 28

I took the two little ones for their dentist appointments this afternoon.

Port has his first cavity....dang :(

But Elsie has none, so that is great!

We had our heating and plumbing guys over today again.

We have a working bathroom!!!!!

Still no bath or shower tonight while the silicone is drying.

But we have sinks and a toilet and it is all very exciting!!!!

We also had dinner brought to us by Caroll Fuhriman.

She is so sweet.

They have done so much for us already!

I just love our ward family!

But it is gonna be SO HARD to repay them all!!!!!!!

*****

Port was anxious to move his dresser into his room.

Me too.

His floor has been covered in clothes!

So he was a good helper and got it pushed to the stairs for me.

Nothing much else exciting happened today.....

Cassi had a paint project she worked on outside.

Painting a giant cardboard airplane.

The little ones had fun playing with other cardboard pieces, cutting, and coloring.....

Oh, to be a kid!

*****

We have had some MAJOR grumpiness around here though!!!!

I know we have been getting to bed late quite a few nights in a row....maybe we are just exhausted.

But man, everyone has been mean and ornery!!!!!

I hope tomorrow is a better one!

And that we just keep going uphill from there!!!!!

Wednesday May 27

Computer seems fine this morning...but I haven't done anything with it except move pictures to my hard drive......

Over 20,000 so far.............

That's a lot of pictures.

I might have a picture hoarding problem ;)

But that is beside the point!

So I actually went on a run today.

I hope to start up again....for real this time.

I need it for my sanity......

I also took Madi back to the back Dr for her follow up.

Things are good.

She just needs to keep taking it easy for a few more weeks and keep doing her exercises.

And work on her posture!

That girl is so tall, she spends her days with her back curved down trying to not be so tall.

Such a silly thing to do....but she is a teenager.....try telling her that something she is doing doesn't make sense!

When we got back home, Dad and I ran to Lowes to get some more stuff for the bathrooms and a few more trim pieces.

Dad finished up the windows in the front room.

Around 4 we had our plumber guy come out and hooked everything up for the bathroom.....now we just need to water heater :)

Tomorrow we will have a bathroom for the kiddos!!!

Yay!

The little girls had activity days and then after that we had dinner before Madi and I had to rush off to YW.

Sisiter Klann brought us dinner tonight.....like enough food to feed us for a whole week!

She was just so sweet.

And it was a crazy day and I was even more thankful than normal to not have to worry about making dinner!

For YW, Sister Peterson and I split the time between me teaching the girls how to tell direction by the sun and stars, and she taught basic good nutrition.

I think it was a fun night and the girls learned a lot :)

We will go on a hike in two weeks and pack a meal and use what we learned tonight.

Drew came over with his little girls to help out our heat guy and a help Brent out.

Our heat guy says we should have water heater and air conditioning hooked up tomorrow!

Yay!!!!!

(I will post pictures from today when I sit down and post all this last weeks pictures......

Right now, I just gotta go to bed!)

Tuesday May 26

Computer completely died :(
I'm kicking myself for not backing up all the photos.
feeling a little stressed.
But had to post a little from today.
Blogging from my phone,  So please forgive any mistakes :)
Dave and Cindy headed to home about the same time I took the kids to school.
We had the best time with everyone here!
So I got to go on Port's field trip to the zoo and discovery center.
It was a fun LONG day!
I won't lie,  I took a nap when I got home :)
Then it was crazy one thing after another all afternoon.
I hope my computer is okay!
Fingers crossed!
I sure have a lot of blogging and adding pictures to catch up on!
If I can get those pictures if said computer!!!!!!!

Monday May 25

(Don't look at the pictures if you get queasy easily!)

Well, the day started out fine.

We started doing more work on the house.

Getting some trim put in and bringing some more stuff in the house.

We have a bed frame that we were getting ready to bring in the house, but it was dirty so we were washing it off.

This is a bed that i want to refinish.

And I started thinking, if we get the bed and frame in....it will be forever before we get it refinished!

So I wanted to at least sand it with the sander to get the natural wood color.

So Madi, Dad and I started walking the bedframe back to the shop.

While down there i started to hear blood curdling screams!

I bolted up to the house.

I lost my shoes on the way up there.

Dad and Madi followed behind me.

I could hear Madi yelling "Don't run Dad!"

He hadn't heard the screaming so he had no clue why i just started running towards the house like that.

I thought maybe the headboard had fallen on top of Elsie or something.

Elsie and Cassi were just screaming.

I saw Elsie on the ground just screaming and pointing to the house.

I run in and Cassi had Porter and held his hand up to me and he had a finish nail through his thumb!!!

He was crying a bit, but not very much.

I have to laugh because the first thing he said to me was "What, now do I just have to have a nail in my thumb all the time????"

It was the cutest thing!

A real concern that he had :)

Cindy and Dave and Dad weren't too far behind me and Dad did what he could.

Tried to see if the nal would be easy to get out.

It was not.

It was in there good.

So we loaded him up in the car and Dad and I took him to the ER.

He was SO BRAVE!

Not any crying.

You could tell he was worried.....but he was so brave.

So brave!

We got to the ER and they all kept saying they couldn't believe how brave he was being.

The nurses were so sweet with him.

He sat there and watched cartoons and was so calm.

The doc came in and checked it out.

He numbd it up.

Port was so awesome again.

Dad has had those shots before (remember that nail in the hand incident), and he says they burn and sting and hurt a lot.

He was surprised that Port was so awsome through it.

We then got xrays that showed it right through the bone, with the head of the nail in the bone.

There are two way to go out.

Continue in the direction in was going, or back it up.

Well, there was much less to get through if we kept going the way it was headed.

And backing up might not take the same path it took going in.

The doc decided to try to pull it out the way it was headed.

But that meant pulling that nail head, which is just a little bit bigger than the nail, through the bone the rest of the way.

Ouch!

Port was so good.

Doc grabbed hold with his pliers, and got ready and pulled it out.

Again, he was so awesome!

What a brave boy!

Well, after cleaning it out and getting popsicles we had to drop by Walmart to get some antibiotics and pick out a Lego set that was promised him :)

That boy!

He is just so curious.....

Plus he has that Matthews blood in him.

Dave, Andy and Brent all sat and talked about what nails/staples/foreign-objects they had in what body parts over the years.

And many other Matthews names were named as well :)

It's just a right of passage I guess!

He said he didn't know what happened.

His arm just went up and pushed the trigger, and didn't do anything of course......

So, hmmmm, what would happen if I put my thumb here............

Apparently having a 'Safety' on your power tool means nothing to the Matthews boys!

But you gotta love them!

I do have to say, they get some work done!!!!!

We got so much more done today, even with a trip to the ER!

Lots of trim got up, we cleaned up the shop, got M&D's bed in....not the frame....I still plan to get that sanded first :)

We got the roll-top desk in.

Dave hooked the microwave up.

Lots of good stuff.

And some visiting time too.

It has been such a fun time to have these guys stay with us!

Andy and Meagan left about noon.

Poor Andy has not been feeling good.

I hope he feels better soon!

Also, when we got home with Port and started having lunch, I noticed that Cassi did not look good.

She was pale and cold.

She had laid down for a while when we were gone.....but she still didn't feel good.

I think it was the adrenaline rush that made her sick.

I mean she was the one who found Port with the nail in his thumb, and was responsible for finding someone to take care of him.

She was panicked for sure.

I am sure it was some shock too.

Poor girl.

She eventually started feeling better.

The Young girls all came to visit.

Kara helped Madi hang some stuff on the walls.

When Cassi started to feel better she and Aubree hung some stuff in Cassi's room.

Then Heather took the two big girls and took them to their house to swim.

The got a little bit of swimming in before they got rained out!

Back at home we worked some more....we also had lots of MayBelle playing time....

She's gonna be a spoiled kitty!

Madi found a handy way to carry her around with her, in her sweats pocket :)

Then we ended the night with some S'mores that Aunt Cindy made in the oven, and we ate them out on the deck while watching the rain pour down outside :)

It was pretty great.

Little Elsie bug has been so tired....she about fell asleep on the deck!

I sure hope they all get good sleep and are well rested for school tomorrow!

So Port has been doing good.

It was numb most of the day, and when it started to throb and hurt, I got him some medicine.

But he has been tough.

And was still able to put his Legos' together with a bandaged thumb.

He fell asleep good.

I am sure tomorrow it will hurt him pretty bad though :(

Sunday May 24

It was such a good day today.

All the kiddos slept good in their rooms last night.

Port did come down to me around 4 a.m......but that is not unusual.

Hopefully we can kick that habit quickly now that he is in his real bed!

So we spent time talking this morning and eating a big breakfast together.

We all had time to slowly get ready for church while visiting with each other.

Port started asking me about my parents parents and their parents etc.....

So I told him we can look all those people up on our Family Tree app.

He was so excited and actually spent a lot of sacrament meeting looking at the faces of his ancestors.

He was so excited to find a picture of a guy in dads line wearing a soldier uniform.

His name was Samuel Hutchinson and he kept talking about him and wanting to find out more about him.

It was super cute how interested he was in these family tree people!

After Sacrament, we all came home, except Madi.

She wanted to stay for class, and I had to go back to teach the Beehives.

So once I brought the fam home we went back.

Britt and Leith needed to get back home at a decent time, so they all came home to visit for a little bit.

After church, we all gathered together for a yummy dinner that Dave and Cindy made for us.

We got to use my new double ovens for the first time!!!!!

So exciting!

After dinner we gathered in the front room and started looking up family members on Family Tree.

Port wanted me to print out a picture of Samuel so he could hang it on his wall.

We found out that he died in Amy and is most likely buried in the cemetery next to Dave and Cindy's house.

They are gonna check it out for us.

We found out he dies in a mine explosion when he was 35 along with two of his brothers.

Sad :(

And that he had 8 kids.

Family history really is so neat!

And I just love that it was my 6 year old that was so fascinated and wanted us to dig deeper to find out more.

We still need to figure out what kind of soldier he was, not sure of the uniform.

But it was a fun time.

Then we headed outside to play on the tire swing and talk some more.

And Madi convinced her dad to bring home a kitty form Bubble's house.

She is darn cute......and Madi plans to name her MayBelle.

She has a M marking on her forehead and is pretty stinkin' darling!

And I don't like cats.......

So that was fun.

It ended up being WAY TOO LATE again once we got the kids into bed.

But it was a very nice sabbath day and I enjoyed every bit of it.

I have loved having these visitors and it hasn't been hard at all with our bathroom situation.....

We thought it would be a whole lot worse!

So we are excited to get some more work done tomorrow.

These guys have been so great and I am so very thankful for all the things they have done for us!

I feel like things are really starting to come together.

And that really makes me happy!

I have tons of pictures, but they are on my camera and I am too tired to get them off.

I promise to fill these last few posts with pictures soon......

But I will add this picture of Samuel, because of one little boy that wanted it printed and hung on his wall, I have it saved to my computer :)

Saturday May 23

So much has gone on today!

Dave got working first thing in the morning.

And they havent; stopped all day!

We have much of the kitchen in place, which is exciting!

We got the kids beds and dressers etc. moved into their rooms and they are sleeping in there tonight :)

We will see how it goes!

I'll take lots of room pictures tomorrow....it is so much fun to see it actually happen for us to move into the house!

Just beyond awesome!

And we have so many people to thank for being able to move up here.

We are so grateful!

After dinner we wrapped up the work and headed to Britt and Leith's hotel and went for a swim.

All the kids had a fun time.

And then we got home and now they are all tucked up in their beds :)

It has a been a long day and I still need to wrap up my lesson for the Beehives tomorrow........

I hope everyone sleeps in!

Friday May 22 (add pictures)

Big day!!!!

We are in the house!

Yay!

We passed inspections for our occupancy!

(Internet wasn't working last night, that is why the post is late :(  )

We have visitors in town for a few days!

So fun!

Dave and Cindy along with Andy and Meagan, and Brittney and Leith and their boys, Teagan and Cooper :)

We have been having a lot of fun!

Pictures to come....maybe ;)

Thursday May 21

Both partial inspections....plumbing and electrical....passed today!

Tomorrow the guy comes to pass us for the occupancy.

Brent and I got the handrail put on out front.

So we are all set to go!

Yay!!!!

So exciting!

We will also be getting some visitors tomorrow!

FUN!

Dave and Cindy are coming!

As well as Britt and Leith and their boys, and Andy and Meagan!

So fun to have visitors :)

The kids are so excited!

*****

We had the Roto Rooter guy out because the shower downstairs clogged up again.

But it was the same guy we had last time, and didn't charge the full cost because it was the same problem we had a couple months ago, and a couple months before that!

Hopefully they have it fixed this time!

*****

Madi mowed the lawns and we got some stuff cleaned up around the house.

I did get a lot of laundry done :)

*****

We had dinner brought to us tonight by Serena Huff.

Which was awesome....cause I was so side-tracked today with getting everything right and ready for inspections!

It was a huge help not to have to worry about making dinner!

*****

Tonight was Port's Kindergarten graduation program.

They sang songs and they all had parts.

Porter's speaking part was "Watch out, Here we come!"

He was so dang cute.

And completely bored :)

Ha ha.....

Okay, not bored, maybe it was more stage fright.

But he hardly looked away from his teacher.....and he sang maybe 6 words the whole time.

I did happen to catch a few smiles from him :)

Okay, so maybe he isn't a performer.....

But he is darn cute :)

Wednesday May 20

Happy Birthday Emmy!!!

We love you!!!!

We we up early and called her before Madi left for school.

We got to facetime her :)

The kids were so excited to wish her a happy birthday!

*****

It has been a good day.

We went to the doctor appt.

All morning Brent tried to see if we could get anyone out to give him a blessing.

It didn't seem like it was going to work out.....

But Drew called and Paul Morgan was able to get a window in his sched.

They both came out just 5 minutes before we had to leave and gave him a blessing.

It was a great blessing.

And I am so glad we had it.

I felt all riled up and nervous and scared......

And after the blessing I felt calm.

Whatever the doc said, it was gonna be okay.

So we got to the appt.

And doc said he likes how it is looking.

No surgery!

Yay!

In 5 weeks we will go back for more x-rays and hopefully get rid of the brace then.

And once he gets rid of the brace, he can start PT.

So there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel!

We are gonna have to start figuring out what to do for work.

We are quickly running out of sick leave and vacation time to take.

So that is another thing to deal with.

But no surgery.....that is something to celebrate!

*****

We put in the cabinets into the bathroom upstairs.

It looks really good.

Very exciting.

*****

Stacia brought us dinner tonight.

Yummy Taco soup.

And with enough to freeze for a second meal!!!!

Andrea Loveland also brought us a frozen meal to use later on.

Seriously awesome!

When I get a good up-and-running kitchen, I am gonna make a million frozen meals and take them to everyone when I can!

Tuesday May 19

I got the last coat on the bathroom floor this morning.

So now we can work on getting a working bathroom for the kiddos!

And the guy came today to put those last 5 rails in the stair case.

Yay!!!!!

Dad fixed the receptacles that needed to be GFCI.

We still need to do the hand rail out front......we will do that tomorrow.

We can't get inspections done tomorrow because we will be gone for Brent's dr appt.

And you don't sched a time, you have to have the whole day open :(

So we will have to do it on Thursday.....which means we should be able to occupy on Friday!!!!!!

So exciting!!!!

Oh I hope it really happens!

*****

So like I said, tomorrow is the day.

The day we go and see the doctor and he decides if they like how his back is healing....or if they want to do surgery.

We have been praying that we can avoid the surgery.

So please, keep him in your thoughts and prayers for a good day tomorrow.

We are hoping for no surgery, but of course we want what is best for the long run.

So please pray that we can feel peace with whatever needs to be done.

He has been feeling quite bummed the last few days....and hurting a lot too.

It's hard for him to feel optimistic.

But I am.

I am trying to.

I know it is gonna be okay.

It is just whether or not it is a hard road, or a harder one......

But we can do it.

Especially with the support group we have in our lives.

We are beyond blessed, and we know that.

*****

Tonight for the RS activity, we had a service project.

And it was a mother/daughter thing for girls 8 and up.

So i got to take all my girls and it was a fun night.

We put together hygiene kits for homeless teens.

And made fleece blankets as well.

And we also collected, cleaned and sorted new/used book to give to low income families.

It was a really nice night and a fun way to serve with my girls.

Monday May 18

We went and got new x-rays done today.

Our x-ray technician was not very tactful.

After she did the x-rays, she came in and said "Have you seen x-rays of your back???"

We said that we had seen the first ones.....

She had this look on her face and said "It just looks like parts are missing.......but I never saw the first x-rays.  Your doctor will go over it with you when you meet with him."

Then she ended with "Well, at least you can be grateful that you are able to walk!"

Come on lady!!!!

That is not the helpful encouraging words we could have used at that point in time.

She should have just said that the x-rays were all finished, and to have a nice day.

Brent was already having kind of a lousy day.....

So he was pretty grumpy after talking with her.

We are both anxious and scared for Wednesday, but also just want to get it over with so we can know what our next step in the plan will be.

Anyway.....

*******

Earlier in the morning I got the first layer of topcoat on the bathroom floor.

Yay!

*****

We did have some awesome news today.

The electrical inspector guy came by.

He is only asking us to change a few outlets to GFCI's and he will pass us for occupancy!!!!!!!

HUGE relief!

He was the guy we were worried about!

And Brent called the plumber guy to ask if the kitchen sink we have in the basement would count as the kitchen sink he requested we have.......

AND IT COUNTS!!!!!!

So all we need to do is replace those GFCI's, put the hand rail out on the deck stairs, and get the 5 posts put in the stairs railing!!!!!!

Then we can move in!!!!!!

This is such great news!

We could really be moving in there by this weekend!!!!!

The kids are so excited!

*****

I took Elsie to PT today and she did a great job.

She was super tight today, so things were a bit harder for her.

But she pushed through :)

She lost her tooth at school today.

Not a drop of blood.....

But she still cried.

She hates the actual loosing of the tooth :)

Silly girl!

But she is super excited to have it gone and under her pillow!

*****

Bubble and Eldon stopped by tonight and we visited for a while this evening.

We always love visits with them :)

*****

And Cassi did a fun FHE tonight.

She had a bunch of quotes and we had to guess if they were from an apostle or from a disney movie :)

It was pretty funny and sometimes it was hard to choose.....

And then we talked about the talks that the quotes came from.

It was a good time for everyone!

Sunday May 17

Madi did a great job on her talk today in Sacrament meeting.

Her sweet friend, Karly, came to watch her.

She sat with us and my kids were on super good behavior.....

Maybe I need her to come every week ;)

As soon as she got done with her talk and sat back down, she started getting spots in her eyes and knew a migraine was coming on :(

Darn-it!

So I took her home when I took Dad home.

Poor girl!

But before I could take them home, I needed to help Porter give the prayer in Sharing time.

When I told him he had the prayer, his eyes got big and asked if it was in sacrament.

I told him, no, he was safe from that for quite a while......

He was relieved :)

I helped him with the prayer, but the teachers were doing an inservice, so his teacher wasn't there.

Well, he refused to go without knowing who his teacher was!

They had subs sitting in the room watching the kids, but no one in particular for Port's class.

Well, Caroll Furhiman came out and convinced him to sit by her and play with some magnet toys she has.

That was so great of her to step in and help me out :)
So I got Dad and Madi home and into their beds.

Back at church I got to enjoy my YW lesson.

I am so glad that  am not the lesson person for the girls.

Cindy does such an amazing job with giving lessons to the girls.

She makes it relatable to their lives.....

Anyway....I hope one day to be able to give lessons like she does!

After church we had our Home Teachers (Jason Woodland and his son) come over.

We haven't had HT's over for years......so it will be nice to get back to that :)

Kids finished up some homework, then we found out that they have Granite Flats episodes on Netflix.

So we tried to get caught up on last season so we can watch the newest ones.

*****

Oh, and Elsie has a loose tooth.

I should actually call it a dangling tooth.

I don't even know what it is still hanging on to!

But she refuses to pull it out, won;t let anyone near it.

Silly girl.

She might have already swallowed it in her sleep!

Saturday May 16

There was a bit of running around this morning for things here and there....

But mostly the day was cleaning bedrooms.

I tell the kids that if they just kept it clean everyday, then they would have a free Saturday morning!!!!

Madi worked on finishing up her talk that she is giving in sacrament meeting tomorrow.

Cassi was at a birthday party a lot of the day.

Porter played with Max and Graham and Cannon all day.

Elsie bug kind of just hung out......until about 6 when she and I went to Hallie's Ballet performance.

Elsie has been so excited to go to this!!!

It was a performance of Wizard of the Oz.

Elsie wants to bad to "Be a Ballerina"!

She had so much fun sitting there and watching them dance.

(She did get a little restless at the end cause it was getting late....)

But she just loved it!

Hallie rocked it!

She is a definite natural dancer!

It was fun to watch her.

Elsie loved it!

So it was a fun night for the two of us.

As soon as we stepped in the door (even though it was 8:30!) she put some dance clothes on and started dancing!

She will be dreaming all night of being a ballerina!

I really need to get her in classes.

Just try it.

I worry about her not listening.....or throwing a fit when something is hard.

But really, how will we know unless we try it????

On the drive home I asked her a ton of questions...

What if they do something that is hard?.....I will just do it!

Would you dance in front of that many people?........Hallie did it, so I can too!

Would you listen to your teachers?........Yes!

Then she said, 'But we would have to get me ballerina shoes!'