Homecoming Dance

Riley and Steven Ball at Homecoming. She had sooo much fun! Thanks Steve!

Cora's Blessing

For more pics, check out Cara's blog! I lub that baby!

I never thought it would happen to me...

If you know me, you know that I have never been a reader. If I had spare time, I had a ton of other projects that I loved doing, so I just never read. Ok - I read my scriptures every day and went through times I read the whole ensign every month, but other than that, leisure reading was not for me. Along with everything else in my life, this too has changed. I can't stand being without a book. I read when I go to bed, if I can't sleep, when I get up for a minute, while I do my hair (maybe I should pay more attention to the hair - it might help), at the stop light. Wow!

The latest is this book - A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. I bought it for Riley's English class, but she didn't need it yet. When I first started I was appalled that her teacher would pick something so graphic. But oh man, its really good. Not fiction, vampire stuff, but true incredible experiences of a kid my girls' age and what he went through with the wars in West Africa. Something we should all be aware of as Americans. Pretty good reading. Well, if you're into that 'reading' stuff. :)

Soccer

Have you checked out our soccer blog. Perhaps the reason I haven't posted anything here lately. Its pretty cute if ya wanna check it out. Thanks to Cara and Matt for doing the background.

http://behssoccer.blogspot.com/

What have I become?

Oh my - I'm worried about myself. I found myself:
1. At the laundromat (see ** story below)
2. Eating a peanut butter sandwich (that I had wrapped in tin foil)
3. Reading that dang Breaking Dawn book again.

Can you say white trash? Yikes!

**So I put a small load of laundry in the other night. Just happened to be passing thru the laundry room about 20 minutes later and heard the water still filling the washing machine. I flicked on the light and sure enough, it was full. And running over. And still going. Oh gads! What if I had just gone to bed like usual. Needless to say, the bugger is probably too old to be worth fixing. Oh well, sounds like we'll just have to buy new clothes since we can't wash. Haha!

PS - Life is grand!

GIRLS ROAD TRIP!!

Woohoo! 7 of us to be exact. 7 girls. In the same car. You got it! You see myself, Riley (this pic is actually on the way home, thus the sleeping girl), Bridget, Caramie, and Britney is next to them but I didn't get her in the pic cus I took it traveling 80 somethingish down the freeway, and then see the two car seats in the back. Hadders swinging at the reunion. She wants to 'fly'!

Some of the cousins (yikes - we're ancient!)

Okay - now for a story. There always is one if you hang out with us. So of course the girls had to hit the mall. Grandma got to sit in the car in the shade with the girls, Hads asleep and Cora asleep too, laying on Grandma's chest while I read that dang Breaking Dawn book. Now that's a good day shopping right there! So anyway, of course we were pushing our time limit, but were gonna be ok. Then Hadlee decides she needs a 'BIG snack', which soon turned into 'I need a HUGE snack'. Heehee - it was funny. At first. Her mom said it wasn't funny after the 5 jillionth time. So anyway, we stop to get her some food and head on out, knowing we were gonna be late, but still probably ok. Then about 1/2 hour from Driggs, Cora decides she's hungry too. There's no way we can let her cry that long so we decide we can pull over and feed her, and the rest of us can freshen up. So, yup, that's us-along side the road, changing our clothes, doing our hair.... My! Then little girl decides she needs to 'poop'. Well when a potty training gal has to poop then thats just the way it is. So Bridget grabs her and hauls off to find a pooping palace. Not sure all what went on there, but no poop. Haha! But meanwhile back at the ranch, Cora takes care of that and blows clear up her back. By the time we get her cleaned up, Cara and I are both pooped upon and Cora isn't sure what has happened. Well, needless to say, we pull ourselves together and dash up the road. We got to the races like 45 minutes late. Cara stayed in the car to finish the feeding. We find the family, try our hand at pooping in the portapotty (of course no luck there either) and with a few more issues, settle in for the greatest show on earth...

The figure 8 races - the reason we went on up to Driggs. It is a demolition derby type of race, but they complete laps in a figure 8. Well, that is if they can stay inside the track. It was so much fun to watch. Number 66 (of course - Phillips 66 - get it?) is my brother Jim. I didn't get a good picture of Brandon's race, but he WON his heat by purely outsmarting everyone else. Jim ended up taking 2nd place overall. It was so much fun to watch. Next year you'll have to come with us!

Hadlee found a friend, Champ. She said, "HE IS BIGGG!!!"

Ah, this pic is so cute of Grandpa playing with Hads. I'm not smart enough to rotate it - I'll fix it when I get home. Aint it sweet!

We left early Sunday morning so I could get back to church to teach primary. Our Primary evidently 'doesn't have a need' for team teachers or called substitutes. I could probably give them a need or two or ten! Anyway, we arrived home at 12:10ish. I showered, prepared a lesson, finished a treasure hunt and made it to primary, calm and cool. Phew! Glad we made it home - it was a great sacrament meeting - thanks to Elder Pyle. We scavenged up a dinner after church, made some treats cus everyone was still hungry, then finished off the Sabbath doing our (Ri and I's) second job. Got done just in time for midnight to ring and finish up a great weekend .