Alas, the inevitable sneeking and the haircutting

After I tried to fix the damage

Being on crutches, I ask the kids to put most things away to spare me the hobbling. I asked Elody to put away a pair of scissors that were on the counter in the drawer they belong in, then turned my back. A few minutes later I saw cut hair on the ground. I look at her and freaked out! Beau had cut her hair for her! At least he didn't scalp her.  :)  The next day I bathed her and attempted to even it out. She' still my cutie-pie!

Beau's poor forehead

Beau with his first stitches. Elody wanted in too!

Today the boys were out on the trampoline after school. Talon and Jaren were on the tramp and Beau was on the outside of the net standing on the edge. From what I understand, Talon bumped into Jaren which made Jaren bump into Beau. Beau fell off and face-planted on the rocks. Gashed his head open about 3/4 of an inch. I called his doctor and we were able to get him right in and stitch him up. That was the same time that we received the x-ray results since we have the same doctor, Dr. Dave!  (I do have to say that it is one of our rules that they aren't to sit on the edge on the outside of the netting which Beau was doing. Of course, he isn't going to remember all the rules, but the other boys should have notice and told him not to be there, but they are boys! Rules, what are those?!) Elody insisted on being in the picture too. This 24 hours after his fall.

Poor Elfie

Elfie (all white one) and Oreo, her adopted Mom

Elfie, our baby guinea pig passed away yesterday. The little girls, Elody and Hannah, had Elfie in the loft and wanted her to fly. Well, guinea pigs don't fly. Safia found her later that day. So sad.  Rest in Peace dear Elfie.

What a way to ruin a weekend, make that a month :)

Last night, Thursday night, I was, of course, at Zumba! I was up in the front leading a song with Pam, the one who runs the class. I remembered the actions different than she did and for a split second we looked at each other and I just followed her moves even though I thought my move was the correct one. Anyway, my feet, my body and my brain weren't in sync and I sprained my ankle. I heard a pop and then a snap right after that. I am still debating if I should wait it out or go in to get an x-ray of it. Anyway, I called Matt and he rode his bike over to Pam's and stuck in the back of my Yukon. Then he came to me, picked me up, and put me in my car, and drove me home. Then he went to Walgreens and bought me an ace bandage. Jileigh brought me a bag of frozen peas to put on it and then switched it out for an ice pack. I took 800mg of ibuprofen and then a couple of hours later I took a percocet. An hour later I was finally able to fall asleep when I was finally out of pain. This morning, it's only swollen a little bit in the front of my ankle. I have to keep it elevated or it really hurts. I absolutely can't walk on it. So after my older kids got off to school on their own, I called Candy and she came to my rescue. She took care of the kids and cleaned my kitchen up and the front room and made us lunch. I So don't need this trial, but it could be worse.  :)
Talon made this cute make-shift leg holder to elevate my foot. He was pretty proud of himself.

My right foot

Same picture, just zoomed in. Check out the ankle bone.

I have a non-detached fractured ankle bone. I don't need surgery or a cast, but I do have to wear a boot for a month. We went to DI and found one for $3 and my own set of crutches for $8. We gave back the borrowed pair. Also, I can't drive for a month. Isn't that nice. Here I am a mom of 7 kids and can't drive. This is going to be a challenge. Most of them have their bikes, but Beau is not ready to ride his bike and he can't ride alone and I can't ride with him. I am going to have to call in for some help from friends, I guess.

It is now Sept. 13th, one week later. There is only a little bit of general swelling in the foot, hardly noticeable, but now the bruising is quite evident. Oh, and you can see Angelique's pedicure job!

I can now finally get up without my ankle being in pain. Up until now, I had to be elevated or at least level to not have constant pain. I still absolutely can not put any weight on my foot. I am getting use to the boot and the crutches. My hands and armpits don't hurt so much anymore.  The hardest part is asking someone everyday to take Beau to school. It's humbling.

I sent a text my my Zumba instructor/really good friend: Miss Me OK?! I'll miss getting to Zumba for a while.
She replied: That's so funny, I was just going to send you a text saying how much I'm going to miss you tonight!
Aww, She's so sweet and thoughtful! She has sent me a text nearly everyday asking how I'm doing.

Talon's14th birthday Aug. 28

Pumpkin bars- someone started serving it before we got the candles in.

He was pretty tickled to get his own phone.

My boy is officially 14 and can go to church dances!

Talon's Eagle Project

Temporary outdoor drinking fountains 

The city community center. It use to be an elementary school.

Spot dug out to pour concrete and extension to the sump

Talon and Matt preparing the concrete

Finished concrete

Talon went a little bit "Caution" tape happy.

Matt and Jake working on attaching the plumbing to the drinking fountain.

Talon with the installed drinking fountain

Talon and Chad drinking from the fountain

A nearby family anxious to drink from the new drinking fountain.

As you can see, Talon, for his Eagle Project for Scouts, helped install a new outdoor drinking fountain at the city community center just in time for the annual Peach Days celebration, which took place the next day! I pretty much had to "hold his hand" through the entire process. First, He had to put together a proposal. He filled it out once online, saved it, and forward it to my computer. Somehow, it didn't save. So we printed out the form and had him hand write it in. His scout master wouldn't accept that. So we did it again on the computer and printed it off right then and it worked. He had to get 4 different signatures, but it was then approved.  Then we had to get all the materials donated. A plumbing company that Jake works for donated all the plumbing supplies. A local concrete company donated the concrete and gravel for the sump. Then Ace donated some last needed things like the anchor bolts. Matt and Talon and his cousin Austin dug out the dirt where the concrete went. Then the delivery for the drinking fountain was postponed 3 weeks and then never came, so the city had to find another source and it was delivered 1 week later. Then the weekend that I went to California, The scouts and some family and Talon and Matt dug out the trench and the sump and the next day Jake put in all the plumbing and hooked it up and filled the dirt back in and put the grass back on it. They did such a good job that you can't hardly tell where the trench and sump hole were dug through the grass just 2 weeks later. They had to leave it like that until the delivery of the drinking fountain. Then they were able to do the concrete and then the installation of the drinking fountain. One story to add to this is that on the day where the plumbing was being put in, Matt had a terrible vertigo attack. All he could do was lie there on the grass with his eyes closed and block out the world for about 3 hours.  Luckily his brother Nathan was there helping and was able to take over to get the 35' trench dug at the right slope then back-filled, and the 5'x5' by 4' deep sump hole dug then filled with rock, wrapped in weed barrier, and backfilled.  He did a ton of work helping out.  Jake was also there doing the plumbing rough-in and helped with the shovel work.  Thanks Nate and Jake! I felt so bad for Matt and felt bad that I was in California and not there helping. We originally did not plan for these to events to land on the same weekend, but they did. Matt agreed to let me go and that everything would be fine if I left. Everything in the end worked out, but I still felt bad about it.

Jaren's scout pack mtg at the park

Rain Gutter Riggata 

Jaren's boat won first place!

We had a dinner at this scout pack meeting. They had us all bring side dishes and they would provide the grilled hot dogs. Well, they brought charcoal, but not lighter fluid. A few of the scout leaders were trying to get the coals lit and to stay lit. They couldn't. I finally went to get Matt who was watching the races and told him the situation. As I expected he could, he stepped in, found some dead branches and got the fire lit and the hot dogs cooked. My potato salad turned out good too!

Matt's 41st birthday

Jileigh made Matt a card on the iPad. It was cute.

I had no idea what to get Matt for his birthday. He doesn't ask for much and when he needs something, he just usually gets it for himself. So went to Walmart with Jileigh and wondered around the electronic section. They've been on a "Bourne" kick lately and were having a hard time getting the movies at the library. I found the three Bourne movies there at an awesome price, so Jileigh insisted we get them for him. Twist my arm! We want to go see the fourth one in the theaters, but it has the "F" word in it so we will wait to get in on DVD so we can watch it using the ClearPlay DVD player. He was happy about getting them too. 3 date nights at home!

Jileigh YW project

For one of Jileigh's YW projects towards her medallion, she wanted to make winter hats and donate them to humanitarian aid. And so she did!

First day of school Aug. 15, 2012

Yay! The first day of school!
Jileigh is in high school, 10th grade.
Talon is in middle school, 9th grade.
Angelique is in intermediate school, 6th grade.
Jaren is in elementary school at another school an hour away in 4th grade. He is in an accelerated learning program (ALP). He rides his bike 1 mile to the library, locks his bike there, and catches a carpool to the DMV 10+ minutes away and then catches the bus and rides it to school another 45 minutes. Then the reverse to get home. I pick up the carpool after school two days a week. It's been really good for him.
Safia is in 2 grade at the elem. schl. She rides alone, but it's also only a mile away.
Then Beauchene is in kindergarten in the afternoon at the elem. schl. I drive or ride him in the bike carriage to school along with his scooter so he rides the scooter home with Safia or I send one of the older kids to ride home with him.

One day the first week of school, it rained. That was so not cool!

My weekend get-away

My dear sweet niece decided to drive to California to my dear sweet nephews farewell. Her husband wasn't going with her and said I could if I wanted to. I totally jumped on the opportunity. We drove up Friday night and arrive at almost midnight. My sister Jeanette and her family were there too and they brought my mom and brother Nathan. Saturday morning we just all visited and in the afternoon, we went to the beach. Ahhhhh...... It has bee so many years since I've been to the beach. I went out with Millay and jumped the waves for awhile. Then I went out with the boogie board. The waves were pretty harsh so it took a few times to get the hang of it. One time the wave flipped me over and the top of my swim suit went up and the bottom went down. Oh that was so embarrassing! Then I tried one more time and it was a success. It was so much fun. Then I helped the kids there make a sand castle. I guess I'm still a kid at heart. That evening we grilled doggos (hot dogs wrapped in bacon) at Aaron's house and visited. At church the next day, was Clave's farewell talk.  He gave a beautiful, clever, even entertaining talk. Then we had lunch and traveled home. My family was happy to see me! Before we left, Becky, Aaron's wife, gave me a couple of bags of hand-me-down clothes. These two dresses my girls are wearing were in those bags. The are beautiful in them!

Day 5 traveling home from our trip up North

This was our traveling home day. We left mid morning and returned home mid afternoon. We managed to get the car unpacked and laundry going. We grilled hot dogs for dinner and had cucumbers out of the garden. Recovery day. Not much to say.

Day 4 of our trip up North

Elody at the Planitarium

Beau at the Mars Display

Elody at the Mars display

Matt, Beau, Talon, Jileigh, Angelique and Safia at the Rocket display

Tessa, Daniel, Jared, Talon, and Beau

Elody looking at the moon rock

Elody and Beau at the lunch area.

The family at Salt Lake City Temple Square

The kids in front of the Christus in the Visitor Center.

Sister Missionary Kyli with her sister Miki

The kids got the biggest kick out of riding the escalator up and down.

YW quilt we saw at the art museum. Incredible!

Angelique and Millay learning to dance!

Several of the families got together and went to the Planitarium, had lunch, then to Salt Lake City Temple Square, and then to the Art Museum. It was a really long exhausting day, but worth it. We got to see my niece Kyli serving a mission at SLC Temple square. Later that evening we went to Jen's for a potato bar dinner and more visiting.