There was an eclipse! School started! And we went to a wedding!

Two Mondays ago, my kids got to meet their teachers. I was impressed with Emilia's teacher, and another mom I know took me aside and said we were lucky because her teacher is the best in the school. I hope that's true. Emilia has not been impressed so far. Mostly because she's talked a lot about the rules. Ugh! Right? And then she cut her cornea with a cardboard box and was flat on her back in a dark room for two days. Kind of a crazy start to a school year, poor lady. It was I who was underwhelmed with Mira's teacher. I didn't feel like she was a grandmotherly "love em and squish em" kind of teacher, which I was hoping for for Mira. She seemed like more of a disciplinarian. But that was a three minute first impression, so hopefully I'm wrong.

That day was also the solar eclipse. I'm such a last-minute person. I have a really really hard time planning things more than a day in advance. So I didn't get solar eclipse glasses. I called every store in the area that carried them that morning. I knew they'd be out, but Steve insisted. So I found tutorials online for making your own solar viewer. I spent a good part of the morning putting three of them together, so we could all view the eclipse. Then we went outside around 10:30 to start watching and a neighbor gave us an extra pair of glasses she had. It was actually really fun to have both. I'm glad we had one pair to be able to see the difference, but it was pretty much the same through the viewer or through the glasses. I had so much fun doing this with my family. It was cool to see the sunlight drop in intensity and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees, too. And then taking turns with the kids and talking about what was happening. It was great. I'm so glad we did not trek up to Idaho, though. Maybe next time.

if you enlarge this picture, there is a perfect capture of the the eclipse, but it's not that bright spot on the right. It's a tiny thing in the middle. That bright spot was just Steve not holding the glasses down tight enough to his phone camera.

Tuesday they started school. We actually got them there on time. And I didn't even go. Steve dropped them off. I'm already a been-there-done-that sorta mom, I guess! I didn't even think about going until they were driving out of the driveway and I was still in my PJ's. Oh well. I took pictures before they left. And Mira didn't seem fazed by it, so I guess we're good.

I took the first day of school pictures with my real camera, so I'll get those up another time. I'm too lazy to do it tonight.

We left after school on Wednesday to go to the wedding in Colorado, so Tuesday night and all day Wednesday was spent packing and cleaning the house. The drive was uneventful, though Cecily didn't even wait 45 minutes to start asking if we were there yet. We made the unfortunate mistake of going to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner at the half-way point and it was probably the worst restaurant food any of us had ever eaten. It was detestable. Every single meal. And it was expensive! Ugh. Those sorts of experiences make me glad for Google ratings (because I can leave one), but I'm also grateful that was the worst thing that happened on the trip.

Also, I have a fascination with clouds.

 

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were spent with family. I wish we'd been able to spend more time than we did all together. I positively adore everyone I got to see. A friend said, "You looked so peaceful in the pictures with them." It's because I feel at home when they're around. Love you, Richaus!

Steve had to take a detour down to Denver to see his boss and buy something important I forgot, so he took some pictures of the Denver temple.

Monday, I was so out of it! I didn't sleep well while we were gone, what with all of my kids in the room with us and not being used to the bed, and other people's kids being morning people. Gah! Some people's kids! (Haha! That just sort of came to me as funny because we used to use that as a fake complaint when we were teenagers.) Anywho--I was super grateful that Megan and Alex let us stay with them to reduce costs for the trip. And I was super grateful that Ariana gave up her bed so we could sleep on an actual bed the whole time. It was really ideal circumstances for what it was, but man was I wiped out Monday. I think I took three naps. (Totally serious there.) I went to help my friend Julia and she was like, "You look tired. You should go home." Haha! I did manage to drag all the kids to the grocery store so we'd have bread and milk to eat on Tuesday, and I think I got all the laundry done, too. Between naps that is.

We stayed home all day Tuesday and I worked on my query. A query is a letter you write to entice agents to read your stuff. If they read your stuff and like it, they can offer to represent you. Which is a necessary step if you want to be published through a traditional large publisher, which I do.

Wednesday was insanity. I got the kids off to school, exercised, did my morning prayers and scripture study, got breakfast for me and Cecily, and then my Visiting Teachers came over at 11:30am. Got us lunch, showered, picked up the girls early from school to take the three of them to a dentist appointment. None of them had cavities, but we apparently need to get Cecily to stop sucking her thumb. It's warping her jaw bone. They have a nifty device that makes it easy for the low low price of $450! *sigh* Every person I know who sucked their thumb as a child said nothing their parents did made any difference. They quit when they were ready. I'll keep you updated on *that* saga. But if you have any advice for something that worked for you or someone you know, please let me know!

When the kids have no cavities at the dentists, they weirdly give them vouchers for a free ice cream cone, so we went and got their ice cream, then ushered Emilia off to an end-of-summer Activity Days pool party. I'm pretty sure we had eggs and toast for dinner that night because it takes me 10 minutes start to finish. Phew!

Since my mom has been updated her house to try to sell it, and since she's been in Colorado for two weeks, she had apples on her tree that she wasn't going to be able to use. So Cecily and I drove up on Thursday to pick the apples. My friend Gina met us there and we talked and picked and ate some lunch, then drove home in time to pick up the other girls from school. That night, I borrowed a victorio strainer from a lady in our ward, and a cherry pitter, so I could make applesauce and cherry pie filling on Friday. Cecily was such a cute helper for that! You can see a video of it here.

Yesterday, I sent out another six queries and got a rejection a couple of hours later from one of them. That's pretty impressive for an agent. They usually ask for 4-8 weeks, not 4-8 hours. I'm not sure if she was just super efficient, or if that means something about my query. Hrm.

I also went shopping for a little while to see if I could find a totem to take with on our trip to Europe in (a little less than) two weeks. I want to find something little that will be fun/funny to stick in pictures of the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben because I want to do something different than just have a billion pictures of things other people have taken much better pictures of than I can with my phone and no helicopter. I didn't find the perfect thing, but I got some ideas. I'll keep searching. Any suggestions?

Today was fast Sunday and Steve's parents were out of town. I was glad to fast and I was glad to have a night with just our little family. I'm so grateful we've got family nearby to share Sundays with, but sometimes it's nice to do our own thing, too. We had nummy Ribeye steak, parmesan sweet potatoes, grilled zucchini, and watermelon. Then we played Five Crowns, Jr., had some ice cream, and went for a walk. It was perfect.

graduates

What a great week we had. The most exciting event of the week was Wilda's graduation. My mother-in-law graduated with a bachelor's degree from BYU at the age of 64 this week. It took her 8 years this time, plus two years before she quit back in 1973. It was amazing to watch her work her way through all the challenges that came from going back to school and actually complete her goal. We realized as we were pondering on this amazing accomplishment of hers, that all of her children and all of her children's spouses have college degrees (and all of them from BYU!) (I'm counting Ryan here Heather--I hope that's okay--I didn't understand what Steve was saying about the Army.) All of her girls made the trip to Orem for the convocation and then we had a nice dinner at The Harvest afterward. On Saturday, we all went bowling together at BYU and did a quick tour of campus to see all of the improvements that BYU has done, even since I was there 9 years ago.

I also got to get another pedicure on Saturday. This one was with my mom who'd never had one before. And the girls got haircuts in preparation for school starting on Tuesday. Steve and I went to the adult session of our Stake Conference last night and then watched The Arrival after the kids were in bed. We both really enjoyed it. The ideas it puts forth about communication and about vulnerability were profound and intriguing. I would recommend it to anyone. (There was 1 f-word, put in solely to make the movie PG-13 instead of PG. There was nothing else questionable that I can remember.)

I haven't done gymnastics for a couple of weeks now, sadly. I hurt my wrist the last time I went and it hadn't healed by the next week (yes, that's an injury for each time I went), so I skipped that week. Then the next week, they'd cancelled the class because the schedule for the entire gym was changing. They hadn't started the adult class back up again this week, so we'll see if I get to go anymore. I'm sure glad I went when I could!

I also took my girls shopping for new school tennis shoes, which was a humorous endeavor, since they wanted every shoe they tried on.

Last week, we go a flyer on our door from some girls in the ward putting on a "Princess Training Camp." They wanted $7 per child. Emilia was too old for the camp, but she REALLY wanted her sisters to be able to go. Perhaps I'm just a scrooge, but I thought, "What in the world are they going train them to do? Sip drinks with their pinky up? Walk with books on their heads?" Needless to say, I didn't send them. And Emilia was so-o-o disappointed in me. So disappointed, in fact, that she asked if she could do her own princess camp for the younger neighborhood girls who were too young to go to the other camp (or whose moms were too mean to send them). She entertained seven or eight girls for like 6 hours (some of them were her helpers, but still). They did nails and makeup, talked about etiquette, learned to walk properly, eat and drink properly, colored princess pictures, dressed up in princess dresses and more. At the end, Emilia made them diplomas and gave them treat bags that she decorated herself from the girls' stash of art supplies. It was truly impressive. I was proud of her creativity and drive.

I also roped Steve into talking with a financial planner that found me at the splash pad. Steve was super hesitant, but we needed someone to help us with investing for retirement past Steve's 401k and I really liked her. I thought it went well. I realized I have quite a passion for helping families make finances a priority. We'll see what happens with that.

I'm excited that this coming week the family gets to go to Colorado for my cousin Doug's wedding and EVERYONE from my mom's side will be there. We haven't all been together in almost 10 years. More about that in probably 2 weeks, since we'll be traveling home next Sunday.

dead phone

So...my phone died this week. Dropped it perfectly to leave everything intact except the screen. And I didn't even break the screen itself. It's just a green and black blur. I'm very sad about this. Looking at new phone options, none of them are as good as the phone I had. *sigh*

I helped Julia again on Monday. Tuesday, I took the girls to a book signing for Song Breaker. The author was my mentor two years ago at Storymakers Conference. We learned a Finnish folkdance, made crowns, ate Finnish holiday bread, and got our faces painted. I bought the book, but I haven't read it yet. Steve played LOTR with Ben on Wednesday. Ben brought his oldest, Dylan, with him and she got to stay over night and play with us all the next day. Thursday, I had a doctor appointment in Salt Lake, so afterward, I took the girls over to my parents' house so I could help out a little more. They got to swim in Nana's pool for a little bit, so they were happy. That night, a couple in our ward invited us to go shooting at Springville's outdoor shooting range. I shot a .308 rifle, a .22 rifle, a 9mm glock, and another handgun that was more powerful, but I can't remember what kind it was. Steve sustained an injury that night, though luckily not a bullet wound. :) He sat down to shoot the .308 and was aiming through the scope. He took the rebound in his shoulder just fine, but his face was too close to the scope and he now has a really nice crescent moon scab in between his eyes. Friday and Saturday were sit at home and do nothing days. Even though I still did lots of work. I just didn't leave the house at all. And my kids stayed in their pjs all day. Today was a pretty normal Sunday.

Unfortunately for you, there will be no pictures of pretty sunsets or adorable children. Because my phone is dead . . . and I am sad.

out-of-the-ordinary, sometimes time-consuming, but fairly normal stuff, plus a hike

We did a lot of out-of-the-ordinary, sometimes time-consuming, but fairly normal stuff this week. :) Steve took Emilia on a date Monday to let her spend the last of her birthday money, so I took the younger two to the Bean Museum. I got to have lunch with my friend Gina on Tuesday. I went for a short hike with a friend above our house Tuesday night. The sunset was gorgeous. I helped a friend get her classroom ready on Thursday. We had a playdate Thursday--it involved watching a movie and playing mini-air-hockey/mini-pool/Candyland. I went up to my parents' house to help them with getting their house ready to sell on Friday. We went to Vance Benjamin Frohlich's baby blessing today.

Our big fun thing for the week was a hike with Grandma and Grandpa Watts on Saturday. We were going to go to Cecret Lake in Little Cottonwood Canyon, but Grandpa read an article in the newspaper saying it was so popular this year that you had to be there by 7am to get a parking spot. Wake three kids up at 5:30 in the morning so we can get ready and drive for an hour to get to the trailhead? Yeah right. Thus began a search for another hike we could do with kiddos and grandparents that wouldn't be totally boring for the adults or WAY too difficult for the kids. This was far harder than I thought it would be. Apparently, there are lots of 4 mile round-trip hikes with 1400 foot elevation gains around here. Or half-mile hikes with no elevation gain that are clogged with all the people who can't do the 4-milers. Finally, I stumbled upon the Buffalo Peak hike.  Hoorah! A one-mile hike with a 300-foot elevation gain. Perfection. And it's also to the summit of a mountain. How fun does that sound? Cecily got to summit a mountain at the age of 4! And I only carried her on the steepest 100 feet. ("ONLY" *pants*) Emilia was reading this as I wrote and wanted to make sure that I mentioned that Grandpa took us out for lunch at Culvers afterward. I guess that was a highlight of the trip. :)  (Thanks, Grandpa!)