Awesome Birthday Presents!!

For my birthday this year, Michael and my kids bought me a Bosch mixer that also has a blender attachment and special cookie dough beaters. I was also lucky enough to get a new wheat grinder because my other one quit working. I used them the other day for the first time to make whole wheat bread. The bread turned out great and it was fun to have new "toys" to use!! I had Annette come over to show me how to use both of them. It's so much easier to make bread now - and we eat a lot of bread around here! Thanks to everyone who helped make it possible.

Changes

This is Dean bringing wood in - can you tell it's cold outside? (Oh - and BTW, Happy 15th Birthday, Dean!)

I have finally been shamed into another blog entry. I was checking other family blogs and...sure enough...they have my blog listed and now it has the date and title of the last entry for my blog as 7 months ago. I'm totally embarrassed and decided I better get back in the swing of blogging again. Coming to my own defense, we have had a few changes in the past few months. Our empty nest has become full again. At the beginning of October, Tara, Scott and Dean moved in with us and 2 weeks later, Jared, Arleen, Treven, Skylar, Noah, and Kayla moved in as well. It really is fun having them here. We're a bit short on living space, but we have been drawing up plans to add on to the house in the spring. I had forgotten about work charts and chores - Tara and I got that done right away for all the kids with rewards for when jobs get done quickly and with good attitudes. Every day the boys have to bring in kindling and wood for the fire (we don't use propane for heating because it is too expensive), they feed the 7 dogs, pick up dog poop (they like to do that in the early morning because it's frozen), help with dishes and help with other household duties. Tara, Arleen, and I make menus every two weeks, make a grocery list, and do the shopping. Things are actually working out very well. Our only complaint is that sometimes it just gets crowded, we'd like more space, and we all miss our family in the valley soooo much.

The kids like their new schools and are doing very well. Dean was "Student of the Week" last week and currently has straight A's!! He's really trying hard. Tara is the Ward Music Specialist and Choir Director, Arleen has been called as Cubmaster. Because Scott and Jared are only here on the weekends, it's been hard for the bishopric to give them callings or even get them to talk in church. The kids are really liking "snow days" (they have had 2 so far since they moved up here) and are hoping for another one later this week! We all hate the mud that inevitably comes after the snow melts, but we are even learning to deal with that. Whoever said that the only sure thing in life is change was sure right. But we have chosen to find all the wonderful things about the recent changes. Nothing is ever easy, but we all choose to be happy way up here in the White Mountains! I promise to post more regularly and will get some pictures up soon!

A Wicked Day!!

Tara, Ami and I had so much fun Saturday! A huge THANK YOU to all who made it possible for us to go. Our day started out unusual because as we neared the airport, I thought I had left my pain medication back at Tara's. Tara turned the car around and headed back to Queen Creek. At about Dobson St., I found my pills in another pocket of my purse. So, speedy turn around again and headed back to the airport at a speed we were hoping wouldn't get caught by radar. Needless to say, we were rushing through security to get to the gate. And, we got stopped to have our bags checked because we forgot to put our liquids in baggies (yes, all of us). After we got through security, we ran to our gate (having to abandon the idea for Einstein bagels we were so hungry for) just in time for boarding.

Once in LA, we got the rental car and were on our way to the Santa Moncia pier - which was so beautiful. (We all decided that the traffic was so not worth living in CA.) The day was perfect, but more humidity than we get in AZ, and our hair got frizzy because we were so close to the water. We walked along the pier and took pictures and Ami and Tara rode the roller coaster. Oh! And we saw a family of sharks swimming alarming close to a family playing in the water near the shore (can you say, "scaaaarrrry"?) (Ami has a picture on her blog.)

We left to go to downtown LA in search of a nice bathroom to get ready for "Wicked". I was praying the whole way that we'd find a bathroom with electrical outlets... We parked near the Kodak Theatre and went inside on our quest to find a nice, unoccupied, clean bathroom with electrical outlets. The Renissance Hotel connects with the Theatre, so we went inside and found just what we were looking for! We got ready as quickly as we could, given the fact that we had to steam clothes and re-straighten our hair. Then we were on our way to the play! WOOHOO!

Most everyone was dressed in jeans and capris - but, hey - we looked GREAT! We absolutely loved the play and didn't want it to end. The music was amazing, the sets incredible, the costumes unbelievable, the acting better than anything you can imagine. What can I say - IT WAS AWESOME!!

After the play, we went to dinner, then changed our clothes and walked along the street with the "stars" of the stars, did some shopping and people watching. We got back to the car and Tara asked me for the keys, which I had put in my purse earlier. You guessed it - no keys. I remembered taking my phone out of my purse at American Eagle, so Ami jogged back to the store (only 5 long blocks - each way...) and luckily found the keys right where I thought they would be. Good thing she can run marathons...

When we returned the car, the place was packed with a lot of other people doing the same. It took nearly 40 minutes (not planned in our schedule) and we were stressing about catching our flight home. I paid the shuttle car driver to take us directly to our SW terminal and we actually got through security pretty fast (we already had our liquids in plastic bags). Thank goodness airports are fairly quiet on Saturday nights. Ami got through security first and went to check which gate we needed to go to. When Tara and I got to Ami, she was jumping up and down saying, "They're paging us for our flight!" We still actually had 30 minutes until it was supposed to leave, but we ran to the gate as fast as we could yelling and trying to keep up with each other. Ok - I was trying to keep up with Tara and Ami... When we got to the gate, Ami asked why they were leaving so early and was told that everyone else was on the plane and "they like to leave as early as possible". How nice...

We got to our seats and were exhausted and extremely thirsty. Tara had a headache, so I gave her 2 Aleve tablets to take as soon as we could get our water. When the flight attendant took our order we asked for water and ice - and lots of it. He brought us our drinks and when he handed me my glass of ice, I didn't really have it in my hand and the ice fell all over Tara. We were all hot, but she really didn't want to cool off that way. We were brushing ice off of her and when she opened her hand, she only had 1 Aleve left. So, we started looking for that and couldn't find it, so I just gave her another one from my purse. A few minutes later, the flight attendant came back and asked us if we could possibly have lost an Aleve. We responded that we had. He said that after he had served us, he went back to get a glass of water for himself. He poured water into a cup of ice he had had on the cart and sure enough - a blue Aleve tablet floated to the top of his glass. (We felt WICKED for giving him drugs...but at least it was an OTC drug and not my Rx.) He simply stated that he was going to have to keep an eye on the three of us. We laughed so hard tears were running down our cheeks - for 30 minutes. Later, when I was telling Michael the story, we were laughing so hard again, Tara almost had to pull the car over to the side of the road because she couldn't see to drive.

After we landed, to add to our day, we couldn't find the car. We walked from the east end of the airport to the west end and back. We were all so tired, that was the last thing we really wanted to do. But in the end, Tara had been right all along and she found the car.

Bed and sleep never felt sooooo good!! I left the next morning, making every attempt to make it to my church meetings. And, you guessed it again - I got a speeding ticket. Can I help it if the cop car was disguising himself between 6 other cars on THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD????

We decided we'd like to make this an annual tradition, but that next year, I'll be in better shape physically and we will take TWO days instead of just one! (And they might want to leave me at home.)

Check out Ami's version of our day at http://thebetheas.blogspot.com/

Unbelievable!

We took the puppies in to the vet this morning and they all weigh between 15-16 pounds already! It's hard to believe that at 8 weeks they can weigh that much. Michael finished the dog run at the back of the house today (wohoo!!). I was getting exhausted cleaning up after them all day and now they can be outside all day and only have to come in at night. They absolutely love being outside, but now they get very dusty and dirty. We're still getting calls on them, so hopefully we can get them all sold in the next week or so - they're eating us out of house and home!! We're thinking of getting a horse trough just to keep enough water outside for all of the dogs. I'll post some pictures of the dog run when we get them. In the meantime, pray that we will get them all sold. They're cute, but getting expensive with the vet visits ($161 for shots) and dog food ($46 a bag - and between all the dogs, we go through a bag a week now) - but the fun of having them around and watching them play is priceless!

New Home

Well, we sold one of our sweet puppies on Friday. They named her Alexandra and call her Alex for short. They have 2 other dogs, a Rotweiller and and a Heeler, like Mollie. You'll see how much their dog looks like Mollie. Christine said that the puppy sleeps with her new sisters and doesn't even cry. It is rewarding and exciting to see the puppies go to homes when you know that they are going to be very loved and well taken care of...maybe even spoiled! (We wouldn't spoil our dogs, though.)

Snuggling with My Sista

These puppies get cuter and cuter every day. They are going to miss each other when they go to their new homes. We have already sold a male and a female and are still getting calls. WE are going to miss them when they go to new homes!!

Stephanie's Graduation

Michael went to Stephanie's graduation from Dental Hygienist College last Friday. Stephanie was chosen to speak to her graduating class and gave an amazing speech and had everyone laughing. She and Brooke will be moving to Queen Creek to join Jason in the next two weeks. She can't get a job in AZ until she passes her state boards here, but she is excited about her new career opportunity. We're excited that they will be moving home!!

Way Too Smart!

Tonight I heard a lot of commotion in the kitchen. When I went to check it out, two of the puppies had pulled up the vent in the floor (don't even ask me how...) and were attempting to put a toy down inside. Mind you these puppies aren't even 7 weeks old yet. They really do keep me hopping - it is like having 3 sets of twins! Where do they get all this energy? We are starting to get some calls now, so maybe we'll sell some this weekend. And yet, we're not sure how we can say goodbye to any of them...