Our Champion

Yesterday, Gramdpa and I had the exciting opportunity to see Sydney show her new horse Bell. She was awesome. She won 3 ribbons for her collection and looked so cute on that big horse. We are so proud of her. I don't know much about horses but Sydney seemed to handle her well. She got her to do what she wanted and looked like she had fun. Way to Go Sydney!!! We love you!

It Was A Party

I am finally getting around to posting a couple of pictures of our amazing 4th Annual Halloweenie SleepOver. We went ahead and had the party the week of the flood. I manage with the help of my work horse hubby, to get the house back together and we partied into the wee hours. I made each guest an apron tucked in a bag with lots of goodies. My theme was skeletons so they got a bandana covered with the motif to match their aprons, along with a necklace of bones and an eyepatch. They were all the cutest pirates this side of the islands. We had chili pepper with the trimmings for dinner. Everyone was plenty full though they all wondered why I didn't have little name tags for each item on the menu, like last year. Sorry kids, you were lucky to get the party at that point, what with the water rising and all. We did all of their favorite things from Man on the Moon to hunting ghosts. We watched falling stars and talked on the tramp until it grew too chilly even with every blanket we could find in the house . Then we bedded down to a movie and all were asleep within half an hour. Next morning, we cooked ghost pancakes, scrambled eggs and then played until noon. It was especially memorable for me as I do not anticipate Kaylie will be with us again. She is now 12 and gone off to foreign lands to be famous. Next year we will have new guest list that includes 2 more boys so the dynamics will be entirely different, but I am sure just as joyful. I look forward to it with anticipation and new ideas to make memories that will hopefully last a lifetime for both them and me.

The Missing Pirate

For some reason I do not seem to have a picture of Sydney in the chair. I thought I had everyone that night. Maybe she was off hunting ghosts but I do have one of her the next morning in the yard so here it is. Sorry Syd, I don't know where the other picture went or if in fact, there was another one.

More Halloweenie Party Pirates

Here are a few more pictures from the party I just posted about.

Should'a ! Could'a ! Would'a !

It was around 11:30 pm, just drifting off to sleep. I heard the water come on and thought, "hm, that's odd,I don't usually hear the sprinklers. Oh well, don't wake Tom, he probably just wants to wet the grass really well for the seed." I then turned over and drifted to sleep, listening to the lullaby of water running. 3:30 AM
I hear Tom saying,"Dear, ya better get up, we have a huge mess!" I bounded out of bed to a squish and a splash! I should have shook him awake, I could have, I had the thought. I would have but I talked myself out of it and now.....Ahh,hindsight!! We mopped for a couple of hours and went back to bed. At that point we thought it was contained in the laundry room where the pipe under the sink broke. When we got up this morning and surveyed the damage we realized how extensive it was. We have taken up all the pad and carpet from the bedroom, the wood in the hall closet is still oozing water, the wood in the hall is drying and we are hoping it won't buckle. We have unloaded the bookshelf in the family room, ready to take it apart to get the carpet dried under it. The water seeped to a few feet in the middle of that room. We are hoping to dry it out with a shopvac and some more fans. The house is pretty much in disarray and so I sit here and share the whole of it with my keyboard. Went to stake conference and heard a great talk by Nicki Olsen on how life is a test. Sure enough it is and I am "immersed" in it at the moment. But things always have an upside to them if we look. Like, this could have happened when we were out of town for the night. Tom could have slept straight through and it would have run another few hours. Some of it drained out in the laundry room floor so that's a plus. And it's just water, carpet, and a mess. No one is hurt or sick or dead! A mess can be cleaned up with patience! Well, that's the tale of our 2009 flood. I hope I get it all put together by Friday or I will have to re-schedule the Halloweenie Sleepover to next Friday. That would be ok as it would be the weekend of Halloween anyway! So, everyone out there, have a great day for me!!!