2012 Blue Jeans Week 38

So last week was a seriously bummer week--my camera broke!!!!  I got two pictures for the whole week, and then it broke!  I am so sad.  I feel like my right arm was cut off.  I am in a quandary about what to do to replace it.  Ben suggested just getting me an iphone or itouch.  I am not too interested in that.  I want a camera.  I just want a point and shoot that is small and can stay in my purse, and I take everywhere.  The one I had was a Canon, and I loved it.  I think it just got dropped too many times (oops) from constantly being in my purse and going everywhere as part of our lives.  I am so sad.  So anyone have any suggestions about cameras they like?  Or cameras on your phones?  I am not a big fan of that, but maybe?  I am open for suggestions. . .

So. . .

here are my 2 pictures that I took this past week :)

We were playing Apples to Apples Jr, and I took this from the floor view.  I think you can see everyone's feet in this picture.  Love it.

I went to lunch and shopping with some of my awesome girlfriends this week.  We bought pumpkins and mums--fall here we come!

Some random thoughts about this week. . .

1.  The newspaper helped me out with my photos--they must have known my camera would break,  Miss A and Miss O were on the front page of the sport section different days this week for their cross country (Miss A got 6th in the varsity meet) and Miss O playing volleyball.

2.  Volleyball is over--yeah!  This last week was a killer with games Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and a 5 game tournament on Saturday--whew!  Time for a nap. . .

3.  Miss E is playing in a African Drumming Circle group after school on Mondays.  She loves it.

4.  Mr J will be glad volleyball games are over.  I think he was sick of sitting there, and sitting there and eating snacks I brought or forgot to bring, "didn't you remember to bring gold fish mom?"  

5.  Homecoming was this past week.  I wish I could have gotten a picture of us at the game.  We actually won, and Miss A's choir sang the National Anthem.  It was a beautiful night for a football game.

6.  I went with Mr J's class to watch the homecoming parade. I wish I had a picture of that.  The kids had so much fun, got tons of candy, and it was fun to see Miss A in the parade with the freshman float.

7.  Small towns are a great place to live, and I love our small town.

8.  I am making pumpkin waffles this morning.  I am so ready for fall.  Getting Halloween decor out is on the 'to-do' list this week.  We will see if that actually happens.

9.  I substituted at the kids' school most of last week.  My house is a mess, and dinners were crazy.  I just wanted to order pizza every night.  I have a whole new respect for working mothers now.  You are amazing!  I don't know how you do it.  I have a week of work at home to catch up on after working outside the home for a week.  Ugh.  I don't think my family enjoyed me working last week either.  It just threw our whole schedule, meals, cleaning, laundry, and life off.  Thursday night I told Ben I was so grateful he worked so hard so I could stay home.  He agreed :)  I am very grateful that I have that opportunity to be home.  It is a blessing I really appreciate, and my family has a greater appreciation for it too after this week.

Thanks for visiting and giving your camera opinions.  I need to get a new one ASAP so my life can get back to normal :)  Have a great week!

2012 Blue Jeans Week 37

A couple more 'things' that we love now and lots of volleyball for our pictures this week.  It is finally beginning to feel a little like fall, and we are so grateful!    

This is a picture of a few of the shelves in Miss O and Miss E's room.  They share a room.  They have their Harry Potter Lego display and then below that is Miss O's shelf of favorite books with her uncle's poptropica toys.  A few of her favorite things. . .

Lots of volleyball games this week for Miss O #26.  She is doing awesome on her serves. Yeah!

Sept 11--we will never forget

A got a picture of a few of Mr J's shelves in his room.  Cars and trains, trains and cars, and legos that make trains and cars.  Life is good as a 7 year old boy :)

More volleyball games this week. . . Miss O served for 10 points!  yeah!

Miss A is on the HS cross country team, and to make money for the team, they man carnival games and a picnic for a local factory and their employees.  The team needed lots of helpers, so Ben and I volunteered with some other parents and all the CC runners to man the picnic and carnival from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.  Ben and another dad ended up grilling over 800 hot dogs, boy did he smell good after that :)  but the team got plenty of money, and we don't have to wash cars or sell things people don't want :)  It was a long day, but worth it.  

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you have a great week!

Never forget

2012 Blue Jeans Week 36

Ever since starting my picture-a-day way of documenting our lives in 2009 I have loved the different things I have taken pictures of.  It isn't always people.  Often times it is things--things we love, things we have done, rooms in our house, physical things I want to remember.  As the kids look through our older albums from 2009 and on they love seeing those pictures not just of themselves, but of our 'things.'  I hear comments of, "oh yeah, I remember that toy.  It was my favorite," or  "oh, I loved that book!  I remember when Dad read us that!"  or "I remember when I had that.  I loved it!  What happened to it?"  That last one is a very good question, and the answer is usually who knows?  But at least we have a picture of it to remember.  So this week I have some 'things' pictures that will help my family remember some things they loved.  Enjoy. . .

Sunday:  Ben is usually in charge of bedtime stories.  Lately Mr J has been insisting on having these.  Calvin and Hobbes is something Ben has loved forever, and I really didn't know about until I met him.  Ben has every book of theirs, and they have become Mr. J's favorite bedtime stories lately.  

Monday:  Playing games is something my family really loves.  Tonight we played Clue.  What a classic!  Mr J just has to learn to hold his cards the right way so he doesn't show everyone his hand every few seconds :)

Tuesday:   Typical after school shot from our house.  Miss A doing history homework, and Mr J working on spelling.

Wednesday:  After the kids leave for school is when I exercise.  I walk.  I love to walk.  Lately I have seen these wild sunflowers up everywhere in the country where I walk.  I love sunflowers and captured a picture of them as I walked by today.

Thursday:  Volleyball!  Miss O is playing school volleyball this year.  It is the first year they can play school sports.  Today was a home game, and she did awesome!  It is so fun to watch your kids play.

Friday:  Sometimes I work at my kids' elementary school.  Today I was working in the library where my mom is the librarian, and so my kids came there after school.  Nana always has a fun project for them to do. Today they were writing Japanese pen pals.

Saturday:  All 4 of my kids take piano lessons.  I start them the May they finish kindergarten, so with 4 we have a lot of piano music at our house, and the piano is a big deal.  Lately Miss O has gotten it into her head that she needs to be getting ready to play Christmas music early--like September early, so she went through all our Christmas music and has been practicing it every day.  It is kind of fun to hear 'Jingle Bells' on a hot, sunny September day.  Christmas music is her latest 'thing.'

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you have a great week!

2012 Blue Jeans Week 35

Monday holidays always mess me up.  I am always thinking, "so is tomorrow a Sunday or Tuesday?"  Where am I and what do I need to do?  But it is always so nice to have a holiday.  Our weekend was really fun.  We played more on Saturday, so we could really labor on Labor Day--like doing our Saturday jobs and painting our new windows inside.  So here is some pictures from our week.

We are so extremely blessed to live near my parents.  They came over for Sunday dinner, and after Mr J likes to read with Grandpa.  

Three years ago we replaced half of our windows, and this week we replaced the other half, so all our windows are new--yeah!  Cross that house project off the list and move onto the next.  They are vinyl outside and wood inside, so now we get to paint--another item to add onto the never-ending house 'to-do' list.  Anyone else have a list like that???

Okay, I did finally get up to see Ben's seminary class this week.   I am so not a morning person (at least not a  happy one) and waking up early is not my thing, but I did it today and got a picture of the awesome kids and my amazing husband who occupy our basement every weekday morning for New Testament study.  Way to go Ben and kids!

Today was Miss A's first ever high school cross country meet.  She is a freshman, and her coach felt she was good enough to run in the varsity girls race.  Gulp!  My freshman baby running with juniors and seniors, I was a little worried, but she did awesome!!!!  There were about 90 girls running, and freshman Miss A got 10th!!!  Way to go!  She was amazing!  It was so hot that day, and her cute teammate has a glass of water ready for her as she runs by on the 4K race.  Go Miss A!  It is going to be a great season!

If you know us very well at all, you know we are huge BYU fans.  Ben and I both graduated from there.  Both sets of our parents graduated from there also.  We sadly don't live anywhere near the campus and miss the games, but we always check the schedules to see if our team is playing anywhere near us.  This year the BYU women's volleyball team was playing in a tournament a few hours from our house this weekend, and we decided to go.  It was so fun!  We were able to see them play 2 different teams, and they won the whole tournament.  After the last game they had a big team huddle, and we saw the coach look over at us and then the players and then when they broke their huddle the whole team came over to us (there were not many people there, and we were sitting court side) and they gave us hugs and high fives and thanked us so much for coming.  The kids were super excited!!!  They got autographs and pictures.

This is Jennifer Hamson who is 6'7" and is an amazing player for BYU.  She is also on their basketball team.  The girls were super excited to meet her.

Mr J was excited to have her sign his shirt :)

Thanks for visiting and have a great week!

** A special note to my Japanese friend Marie, yes, my browser translates your blog so I can read it.  I am happy you are going to church!  I love you and your family!