Here we are in YC!

So, after being here for almost 5 months we consider ourselves practically settled in!


The girls are adjusting to being "Honkers" rather than "Indians", which is quite a feat if I do say so myself. Kaitlyn is going to try out for the tennis team in the fall and is starting her job tomorrow at Costa Vida and is so excited about that. She is planning camp as a YCL 2 and has made a lot of good friends.


Hollie tried out for the cheer team and made the football and basketball team and competition team. That should keep her pretty busy next year! She turns 16 this next week and is having a combined party with a new friend from seminary.


McKay is finding that a bigger city has more opportunities. He is running track and was invited to play the piano for the High School jazz band. Steve was thrilled since he LOVES jazz and it was quite a father/son opportunity as Steve would take McKay to jazz band and sit in and play the trombone with them which the teacher really appreciated since she is classically trained and doesn't know as much about jazz.


Maren is getting there. She and Chase go to a different school than most of the kids in our ward. So, it is taking her a bit longer to get to know the kids in the ward but they have been great to her. She is starting to get her "group" at school too. She has had a great teacher here and she loves her. She is on the swim team at the health club and enjoys it.


Chase has had the hardest time which really suprised me. Sometimes he says he doesn't want to be a "Lion" but a "Panther" like his old school. I have been able to help in his classroom once a week and he has an AWESOME teacher. He is playing baseball and in YC it is through the little league instead of parks and rec and this is serious stuff! He has been a red sox and looks so cute in his uniform!

Teeth falling out and other things...

So, many of you know that Steve is working at his job in Yuba City during the week and comes home on the weekends. With the kids and I going to see my parents in Driggs, Idaho during fall break then heading to Utah where Steve flew in but then I left the next day to do Las Vegas Ragnar (awesome race, one of my favorites so far!) we have seen each other 3 times in 3 weeks.
So, we planned a weekend get away where I would go to Yuba City and look at some houses on Thursday and spend the night and then go with him to Redding on Friday and watch him give a presentation at a convention. I was so looking forward to it. It started out great, we ate lunch at the City Cafe in Yuba which is so good and the atmosphere is great. Then I took him back to work and checked out a store per Kaitlyn's request called "Cakes by Nancy". (Kaitlyn is all into the cake decorating shows right now). I wasn't hungry for cake but they had carmel apples and got one of those.
About two hours later, I took a bite and my 3rd tooth(crown) from the back on my left side came out!!!!!!! Not just the crown, but the whole entire tooth including the post came out!!!!
Talk about buzz kill, I called my dentist and got an appointment for the next day @ 10:00 AM, right when Steve was giving his presentation...so back to Ripon we went. One day of a get away....it was nice while it lasted.

Look at us now...The Cavewomen!

23 years ago, I went off to Ricks College with one of my best friends from High School and dragging another girl from my home stake, Yakima Stake.

We were so displeased to find that we were put in the corner of Dorm 6, which meant that our front window looked out onto a wall-the corner wall and this apartment was dubbed as "the cave" therefore, we became the "Cavewomen".

There was another girl there from Washington, Deer Park by Spokane and she was a farmer's daughter and looked and talked like it. The two other girls were from a place called Rancho Cucamunga in Southern California, might as well have been a foreign country to us Washingtonians! We thought we would have nothing in common and here we are 23 years have passed and 5 out of the 6 still get together every other year!

We have done so many different things. Two of us served missions, 5 out of the six are married with children. One is ready to send off her son on a mission and another just had her first baby. But it doesn't matter how different our lives our, our love for each other binds us.

It was a GREAT weekend and I was ready for a break after being with the kids all week by myself with 3 out of the 4 women our household PMSing. We talked and talked and talked from crazy things that have happened to us and our families to poor Sandra Bullock being cheated on by Jesse James. Our tradition is to always go to church on Sunday together and we attended a GREAT sacrament meeting in McCall. I mean the sister who spoke could give a talk in Women's Conference or Education Week.

I talked to my sister Stephanie yesterday and told her, "I feel filled up" because of such a great weekend with my friends. Thank you for everyone who made it possible so we could get together and keep our reunions going!

Life Scout

McKay had quite an eventful day a couple of Sundays ago. He received his patriarchial blessing and also his Life Scout award at a court of honor. He is now ready to start his Eagle Project! McKay and I met with a man with Ripon City who has given other scouts their projects.

He would like McKay to paint all the handicapped parking places. He said it would be a tremendous help to the city because they don't have the money to pay for the people to do that.

It was so funny because McKay, who can talk your ear off (I know, Suprise, Suprise that I have a child who talks!) was soooo quiet because he was nervous! Steve was gone to his new job in Yuba City and told me earlier that they don't want the mother's to take over so I was afraid to say anything! Finally, after he explained the project etc. I turned and looked at McKay and asked, "how does that sound?" and McKay answered, "sounds like it is destined to be a success!" Well, what more can you hope for?

obagi experiment...

ok, most of my good friends and family know that I am sucker for face products and make up. I am just glad that there is hope for my saggy, starting to wrinkle, sun(age) spotted face.

So, 3 years ago when I was moral support for a friend at a plastic surgeon's office, I sat and saw an infomercial for a face product called Obagi and have wanted to try it ever since. I have told my sweet husband that if he could work out a deal on Obagi with a doctor to please do it because I would love to try it but would never pay full price for it.

Luckily, my husband does not judge me for my wordliness and this past week was able to get the Obagi products at cost from a good friend of his.

I told my sisters that I was going to offer this great "sacrifice" and be the guinea pig for the family and see if this stuff really works. My sisters who know I am vain and wordly thanked me profusely for my "sacrifice" but are demanding weekly pictures of my face on this products so here it goes....

My face without make up and before I use the Obagi product.

I am wondering why no one has ever told me that my nostrils are so incredible crooked! Good thing I have other things to worry about then crooked nostrils!

Now on the products, there are big warnings letting you know that for the first 6 weeks, the products bring out all the icky stuff out of your skin and you could see an increase in "wrinkles, acne, redness, dark spots etc"

But I wasn't quite prepared to wake up to this! Yes, it is THE BIGGEST white head I have ever seen! Suffer to be beautiful as my grandma would say!

a little overwhelmed...

I am totally overwhelmed with this move, in that I am looking for the "perfect place" to move to and I need to realize that we make the perfect place, right?

This Sunday, we are going to go and visit a ward in Yuba City on the way back from houseboating (excited to find out what that is all about!) with Keri/Larry and fam. We visited our ward in Kaysville, before we moved there and people chided us for that, I mean what do you look for in a ward?
We have loved our Ripon ward, but if some people were visiting that ward for a few testimonies when one lady testified that she "literally sees dead people" doing family history...no one would have moved in!
So, I guess I will mostly be looking at the kids, how they dress, what their hair looks like-how it is cut or if it is cut (boys), are the YW wearing too short of skirts, too much make up etc. Is that shallow?
I think the kids will really tell me what they think but I am afraid they won't be open minded. We have visited my sister's ward and our old Kaysville ward and McKay was fit to be tied that they were rude to their teachers and texting during class. Hollie said about my sister's ward, "you can tell that their leaders love them, but they don't love them back-that is sad" She also noticed that they called our friend who is in the bishopbric by his last name and not Brother so and so. They are picky and biased and I don't blame them. We have had great wards and hope to find another one.
The school thing is also driving me crazy with worry too. Do I go to Yuba City High School, Home of the Honkers-the girls die at the thought. Student Body 1848-twice the size of Ripon High and intimidating to the girls. The other school is a block schedule and we can't transfer there in the middle of the year. Do we live in Sutter? 5 minutes from Yuba, ASB 700 along with Wheatland High-if we live in Plumas Lake-15 minutes from Yuba City. Lincoln High, has 1400 students with Block Trimesters that said will work with the girls as long as we get there by November 12th. That will be 1/2 hour commute for Steve in Lincoln which he says he is happy to drive. But I worry, and this shows you how I am almost clinical with this worry now, that if I go to Education Week or a race etc. Steve will be 1/2 hour away from the kids if they need anything during the day when I am gone. Is that silly?
I am praying that when we find the place, I will "feel" it. Otherwise, I am ready to put the towns and schools on a dart board and start throwing. That would probably take awhile because I usually don't hit the board that often! :)

Two interesting books I have read....

The first one is called, SARAH'S KEY. I bought it for my friend Areta because she took such good care of us on our last trip to Kaysville and she was going out of town and I wanted her to have a good book to read. April McMurtrey recommended this book to me and so I bought it for Areta. OH MY HECK!!!! This is NOT a book to give to a friend who is going on vacation! I didn't know it until Areta gave it to me to read after she was done!
It is a book about the Holocaust and it is a good book, but a hard book to read. I sat in my bathtub and SOBBED reading this book! I called Areta and apologized for giving her this book to read on vacation!
I talked to April about it tonight and April said, "it is the best book I have ever hated!" So, read it if you want to sob and be reminded of how great and easy you have it.

The other book is called A RELIABLE WIFE. I saw this book when I was looking at books for Areta but I didn't know if it was "safe". I saw it at the library this past week and decided to give it a try. Apparently, it was on the best sellers list etc.
It was a weird book, a book that was written by a man-if that makes any sense. I can always tell when a book is written by a man except for MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA (I LOVE that book). Men have a different slant on things, everything has to do with sex and not that it was described in great detail like a porno book but it is like the reason for living. 3 main characters which are very flawed and I for one would never forgive some of the things that these characters did and yet they are supposedly "redeemed" at some point during the book.

I think I am sick of the world's view that sex=love. I don't know how many books or movies or songs talk about love anymore. I remember one of my friends really liked a guy because he was cute but he wasn't good and I asked her, "is this the kind of guy that would hold back your hair while you are throwing up in the toilet because you are pregnant? Is this the guy who will eat oatmeal every night for dinner for a month (and not complain) because it is the only thing you can make that doesn't stink? Is this the guy who will give your baby their first bath in the hospital, who will change diapers and will stay up with the baby because you are so tired? Will this man hold your catheter for you while you get out of the shower after having surgery? Will this man promise to pluck your chin hairs if you go senile?...that is love, that is the kind of man that you want...maybe I should write a book about that!