Our Property

  We already love it, but we also have big plans for changes to the yard.  It sits on 2.6 acres of property.  I'll just post a bunch of photos that Kamryn and I took today.

This is the sitting area near the kitchen/dining area.

We're gearing up to make David's yummy strawberry/rhubarb jam.  The kids go gaga for his jam.  They really could use a jar in 2 days, so when we get lots of strawberries, we make jam.

Playhouse flowers--girls LOVE them.

Daniel and Kamryn play in here a bunch.  It needs a little TLC.

Kamryn took these from the inside.  I go in occasionally, but I'm getting larger and it seems to be shrinking.

This is the spot for my future zen garden/yoga place.  Right now, David has been thinning out those junk trees.  He'll put in some nice willows instead of the dying cottonwoods.  When we moved in, there were twice as many trees right here.  Many branches were black and dying because no light could reach them.  It looks much better now and still provides shade.  That hammock is what Emerson wanted for her birthday in June.  She loves that place!

The Garden

 Three Rows of corn stalks.

 Lots of onions

 Two apple trees.  We will plant many more fruit trees in the Spring of 2015.

 Asparagus--more than we would ever need.

 Crooked neck squash

Peas and Beans

 This is an old hammock on the south side of the pond.

 These are my two girls on the north side of the deck.

 This is our entry way.  The previous owners had a formal living room on one side and an office on the other.  We use their old office as Daniel's bedroom.  Since we have absolutely no need for a formal living room, David and I put our desks in there and Kamryn's electric piano.

 The driveway is huge.  You can see only the part nearest the garage is cement.  The rest of it is gravel.

 This fall we plan to cut down many of the old poplar trees putting so much shade in this undeveloped section.  Next Spring we'll plant lots of fruit trees for an orchard.

Kamryn has learned to transpose songs from the key of C to the key of F.  I'm continually impressed with the 3 year "Let's Play Music" program she is in.  This is her third year and soon she'll be ready for violin classes.  

Her electric piano sits in our front office/unpacking room--it's still a mess.  I have been busy with my doctorate classes (and been dealing with pregnancy sickness).  I haven't finished unpacking/organizing or decorating.  David has done so much work!  I'm ready to contribute now--as my classes just ended.

 David just found this canoe on Craig's list.  He's been hunting for kayaks and canoes and finally found this beauty for $250.  We love it!

 David is pruning down this massive lilac bush near the deck.  He already cut a huge pine down that was sickly and planted way too close to the other side of the deck.  Now we have a clear view of kids playing in the playhouse from the kitchen window.

 These flowerbeds next to the house are full of strawberry plants.

 There are 3 or 4 islands like this on the property.  The previous owners took really great care of them.  I think we'll simplify a bit.

 This is pumpkin our lone hen.  She forages for bugs and worms all day and then sleeps in the coop at night.  Her friend Oreo was snatched by a black lab during the second morning at our new house.  Oreo was the hen who had been attacked twice in our last neighborhood and needed 40+ stitches ;-)

 All of the middle kids love this tree platform.  Even the teenagers have invited friends to come hangout on the tree house.

 I find the rope ladder to be stressful.  I climbed up there the other day with Kamryn and Emerson.  We were reading book 2 in the Fabelhaven series.  My heart was racing from the scary climb even fifteen minutes into our 45 minute session.  Crazy!  I think I'll try to build a different platform in another tree, but my ladder rungs will be huge and secured right on the trunk for all the pregnant women who care to join me.  I believe David plans on having a zip line start from this tree platform and take you across the pond.

We work hard to keep up with these 2 rows of raspberries.  There are so many.  It's good we have lots of gobblers here to help.

 Here's the hen house near the garden.  The wheelbarrow doesn't get much use because we have a tracker/trailer machine that carries many more branches over to the fire pit.

This huge stretch of lawn has been great as our kids have gotten involved in soccer this year.  They were all terrible at the beginning of the summer.  It's been really fun to play and coach to get them to have age appropriate dribbling, shooting and passing skills.  Oh, I can't even describe how unskilled they were in June.  It was scary.  David and I are not really big into sports and we hadn't involved our kids early enough.  David's ex-wife hasn't involved her kids in anything athletic--she did come watch 2 of her kids' games.   My ex-husband would love for our daughters to be more involved.  Emerson had been in gymnastics and probably will again soon.

Oh and we didn't take photos of the undeveloped area that will be our campground.  We'll have a fire pit and paths between pine trees.  That is where we'll make a more gradual slope in the bank of the pond.

8 Days Post Trauma oh and a couple of Birthday Celebrations

So, Oreo our hen is doing great!  We put in over 30 stitches last Saturday after she was attacked by a neighbor's dog.  Today, we went into remove the stitches, but discovered some infection, so we opened a third of it back up, cut out the infection, cleaned out more space of feathers and dead tissue and then closed her up.  I have some photos this time.  My mom wanted to "see" what was happening.

Our scrub nurse, Daniel comforts the patient.  Oreo was a little less out of it this weekend.  Last weekend, she was in such shock that she didn't fuss much at all. 

There was a thin layer of grossness that had to be sliced off and removed.  Sorry for the goriness, but I know my mom wants as much detail as she can get.

Kamryn's Icy Igloo cake with hershey's "penguins" on top.  She is easy to impress.  I love being her mom.

 The pinata after the attack.  All the kids loved hitting at it. Philip successfully emptied it after everyone had a couple of turns.

Emerson and Kamryn decorated David's office door at work.  We left early as if we were going to the gym, but really we announced to the local science people that David is now 40.  Kamryn even cut up her birthday crown from school she wore the day before to help make his door more festive.  She really loves her step-dad.  Emerson was just excited to play a trick on him.

 David got this great quilt from his oldest sister.  She made it out of some of his mom's clothing and material.  David lost his mom to cancer a few years ago, so this was a tender mercy to receive.

We reserved a walleyball court on campus to try out.  It was a blast!!  Daniel loves going to campus with us to swim or play any type of ball game.

I was wrong; She is a Trooper not a meal.

Yesterday, my daughters and I went to the BYU-Idaho Center to play futsal (indoor soccer) and basketball.  We've been doing this early morning before school, but today was Saturday, so we slept in a bit.  Our Saturday plans included gym time, chores, Kamryn's friend's party, planting kale and spinach and then swimming at the BYUI pool in the afternoon.  Our day's plans changed when we came back from the gym around 9:00 am and David told me that something had attacked one of our hens.  It could have been a dog or a hawk, but Oreo had a bad wound.

I immediately thought, "Okay, let's slaughter her and go pick up a few baby chicks."  David's tender heart was working a different plan in his brain.  He removed Oreo from the hen house so that Pumpkin wouldn't peck at her wound.  As I was leading my daughters in chores, David was turning our laundry room into a level 3 trauma center.  As he trimmed away feathers, he could see the wound was much worse that we imagined.
With the chores completed, we were heading out for a birthday present for Kamryn's friend and David asked us to get some antibiotic from the C-A-L Ranch store.
$35.00 for some antibiotic wound care!!!  This took me several minutes to wrap my head around.  I finally decided it was way too much money, but left my phone at home so I couldn't break the news to David.  I bought the pricey stuff, but held tightly to that receipt.  I was sure that once I returned home, David would agree that it was too much money to be spent on a hen and I would get to go back to the Cowboy store to make a product return.
Not so.
Apparently, Dr. David had decided that Oreo also needed stitches.
I thought, "Okay this is crazy.  I need to put a stop to this."
But I looked into David's eyes and then at the wound.  Oreo had lost so much skin in the attack.  I wish we would have taken photos, but it was rather gross, so "you're welcome for no photos".  The wound was circular across her chest and neck.  You could see her breast tissue and organs covered by thin tissue, but NO SKIN or Feathers.  The diameter was between 4 and 5 inches in length.
I got the fishing line and a needle to pass over to David.  This was his deal; I wanted to wash my hands of the insanity.
David pointed to a bucket of wheat for me to pull up and sit on so we could begin the procedure.  I told him my feelings about putting her out of her misery.  She couldn't eat or sit down.  She just stood there in the box staring at us.  He suggested that she wasn't miserable, she had recently calmed down after being in shock for a few hours.  He also encouraged me to take this opportunity to practice the imaginary skills that I had learned from watching Grey's Anatomy.  Hmmmm.  I still did not think there was enough skin on the edges to connect this huge circle.  I was not convinced that our efforts would bring any success, but my the love in my husband's eyes pushed me forward.
We need to try.  His eyes were so loving and pleading.
I suggested we pray first.
I said the prayer.  I was so doubtful as I began the prayer, but in discussing the problem with my Father, I felt comfort and confidence.
David had already cleaned and sanitized the wound, so I began stitching.  At first we took turns, but after 3 stitches and a knot, I took over.  My eyesight is better than David's and I was in a better position as David had the bird in a towel on his lap with its talons toward him and the wound and head closer to me.  Let me be completely honest, mostly, I took over because of my doctor drama TV experience.  I really like to pretend that I'm a surgeon.  I lost count of the stitches and knots after 22 stitches.  It was thrilling.  The skin is amazing.  It stretched so well and closed the huge circle left by the hawk/dog attack.  I put in at least 35 stitches and it took over 90 minutes.  I was exhausted.  It was intense.

Kamryn and Emerson, dressed in swim suits, patiently watched over my shoulder for most of it. They really wanted to get to the swimming pool. I was pretty focused on what I was doing, but I remember thinking how grateful I am that I am not a surgeon in real life.  I love to walk to school with them and walk home right afterwards.  I am never on call or stuck in a surgery (well, except for rare poultry emergencies).  I can be a mom first and a teacher while they are in their own classrooms.

David encouraged Oreo and me throughout the stitches.  Oreo watched most of the procedure, but at times closed her eyes and rested.  Only twice did she make a fuss and try to wiggle free.  David and I now feel confident that we could clean and stitch up any of our kids if we are camping or far from real doctors.  It was a great experience and Oreo is doing really well.  She's eating now and has been calm and comfortable laying down, sitting or standing for the past 22 hours.

School Teacher Update

I thought blending families would be the most difficult part of my marriage to David.  It hasn't been.  The only difficult result of my marriage has been teaching in Idaho.  As most of my readers know, I have taught in many schools.  I've taught in Hawaii, Malaysia and 2 districts in Utah.  Altogether I have taught in 8 elementary schools.  Each school has had great things happening and some had room for tweaking.  In this district in Idaho, the employees brag that "it is the best district in the state".  I feel like I have taken a time machine back to 2000.  There are so many areas in need of improvement and progress.  Positive behavior modification guidelines and school-wide systems of expectation along with professional learning communities are difficult to identify.  It's been depressing.

Nevertheless, I love my students and my classroom.  It is a warm, safe place where students encourage each other and monitor each other for success.  We have fully implemented the 7 Habits in my classroom.  The learners are talkers and workers and forgivers.

Today we had a pancake party because my 2nd graders had earned enough synergy points before the end of the month.  It was held during our math block, so I had the students work to figure out how many cups of mix and water we would need to make 48 pancakes instead of just 6 like the recipe produced.  They did so much thinking to convert 2 cups and 1 1/3 cups into the huge recipe.  There were debates, model drawing, full pictures, toolboxes full of manipulatives.  I didn't offer any help at all as they struggled and taught themselves all the while hungry for pancakes.

When there was agreement at the whiteboard in several colors of dry erase markers, I was ready to mix.  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring measuring cups (doh!).  I didn't tell them that though.  They had put so much time and effort into the exact number of cups needed of mix and water, I would not disappoint them.  SO, I announced that it was math game time.  While they excitedly grabbed materials for card, dice or domino top-it, I snuck into the back of the room for pancake creating.  I just dumped the whole box of mix and then added water until it arrived at the right consistency.  Voila!!

After that, I assigned two apple experts to segment the apples, one hot chocolate specialist to monitor the huge thermos of cocoa and 2 pancake cookers.  The party was a huge 20 minute success.  We cleaned up and then I arranged for another 30 minute session of math learning while my principal observed the kids for my formal observation.

Later in the day, seven of the students taught science lessons that they had prepared because they were ahead of the rest of the class.  Those seven scientist did an amazing job--they have better management skills than many of the college interns that have worked in my classroom.  One 8 year old taught about the solar system and had a total choreographed performance of people as planets spinning and moving as other people as stars stood fixed.  Another 8 year old had the class members make musical stringed instruments out of different widths of rubber bands and box lids to discuss sound waves.  One 7 year old taught the phases of the moon better than I ever could.  He checked to make sure every learner understood that the moon DOES NOT produce its own light.  He was really intense ;-).  Watching those young teachers, I realized what a privilege it is to teach.  Regardless of the system or the district.  I love my students and I'm grateful to create a safe, positive learning space for them. I'm really going to miss these little friends during Thanksgiving break.

"Mom, you STILL have a huge crush on David"--Emerson

David and I had our 1 year anniversary on June 22nd.  His kids were away that Saturday, so we got a babysitter for a couple of hours for my girls.  We rode our bikes all over and had a picnic lunch near a small branch of the Snake River.  While we were dating, we both wanted to have active nature dates. We both felt like you get to know someone better when you're doing stuff instead of simply spending money and calling it a date. Both of us came from former marriages where our spouses liked and expected restaurant and a movie or a hotel get-away kind of date.  We don't.  We had a blast.

(Written the end of July) This last weekend, David's kids were away and mine were away with their dad and his family at a resort, so we had Thursday evening until Monday morning to ourselves.  We missed our kids a bunch, but we had a wonderful time together.  Originally, David wanted to go overnight camping. Yep.  He wanted to backpack and survive in the wilderness.  We negotiated.  We ended up camping one night in the back country of the Cache National Forest with cows, snakes, sheep and wild chickens and then we reconnected with civilization.  The Utah Opera Festival was going on in Logan so we stayed at the most budget-friendly motel for 2 nights and saw Fiddler on the Roof.  We ate mostly the fruits and vegetables that we brought from our home and garden, but we did go to Tandoori Oven.  It was delicious!  Another meal we ate tacos from a street vendor.  Also really good.  We hit the Pepperidge Farm factory store to stock up on fishy crackers for the kids.  After visiting a congregation on Sunday, we packed up and went to Tony Grove in Logan Canyon.  It was gorgeous!  We inflated the rowboats and paddled around the small mountain lake.

I had quite a dopamine rush there on the quiet lake.  We were the only ones using the lake for the first hour and I heard only the sounds of nature.  David had paddled far enough away to do some scientist kind of observing.  I pulled my paddles into the boat and laid back.  I felt a powerful sense of God's love for us and for our family.  I felt peace there as every other lake experience we've had this summer has been filled with kids and I am the ever Lifeguard on Duty.  Now I only had to keep myself from drowning and I had the chance to just think and breathe deeply.  After a couple of hours of clear skies, dark clouds quickly took over.  We paddled to our shore as fast as we could and hiked up to our campsite.  We beat the rain and David covered our tent.  While it rained, we cuddled in the van and listened to the book To Kill A Mockingbird.

The Taco Bus

My girls and I hoped on this bus.  It comes with the Mexican Soap Opera Channel.

The tacos are deliciously authentic.  

I only ordered one drink.  Emerson and Kamryn shared it.  Emerson doesn't like my spit anymore because I kiss David so much and kissing is gross.

Brushing Teeth is Like Exercise--Am I a kid or a grown-up?

I exercised regularly in high school, but in college, I got out of the habit.  I would exercise on and off but not regularly and not intensely.  If I did exercise intensely or regularly it would only be to lose 10 pounds and then I would get lazy again.

For the past 4 years, I have been pretty regular in my exercise.  The past 2 years I have consistently met my running goals and weightloss goals.  There have been periods of time though I have skipped workouts.  This past week it happened to me.  I got less sleep, felt fatigued and unmotivated.  After a several days in a row without intense exercise, I did 3 workouts today and feel fabulous.  It amazes me what at least 30 minutes of getting my heart rate to peak does for me emotionally and physically.  The exercise-induced high makes me smile for hours after and infuses me with energy that carries on for over 24 hours.  I also sleep much better.

I want to compare this need for exercise to our need for brushing our teeth.  As an adult, we all want to brush our teeth first thing in the morning and we can’t sleep with dirty teeth.   We love the feeling of clean teeth and we recognize the benefits of preventative care over time.

 Kids have to be reminded to brush their teeth morning and night.  They don’t even seem to notice the layers building up on the enamel until each tooth is wearing a tiny little sweater made of plague.  Some second graders have confessed that they even take the time to turn on the bathroom faucet and make sounds that come with teeth brushing, but without letting the brush touch the mouth.  Parents hear the sounds of dental hygiene, so they believe the child is obeying and the dental bills will stay low.  All the while the little cherub is deceiving the gullible grown-up.

Why can kids bear to wear tooth sweaters?

Why can I bear to go several days between workouts?

I CAN’T!  It doesn’t feel good and if I don’t make time for exercise every day NOW, then I will have to make time for illness later.

Kids will be kids, but I am a grown-up and I expect more of myself.