Spring storms

(Trent, Savannah, Charlotte, Rachael, Joey, Matthew, Isaac, and Jacob)

Spring in Tennessee means rain, lightning, rain, thunder, rain, tornadoes, and did I mention rain. This has been an extremely wet spring for us. Our grass/weeds are green and healthy and growing faster than we have dry days to mow. A few weeks ago a large storm came through and brought with it huge amounts of rain. At some point the accompanying wind began to move in a circular pattern and the kids in school ended up having to get into tornado safe places for several hours during the day. The afternoon buses had to run late because the school district didn't want students on the roads in the case of a 'touch down'. I decided to pick up the younger boys so they would get home before dark. While driving home I asked them how their day was. Joey complained, "I had to stand in the girls bathroom for more than an hour." Poor Joey, guess his class is assigned to the GIRLS bathroom in the case of tornadoes. Jacob was thankful his class was assigned the hallway and not the bathroom. He informed me that he hopes he doesn't get a certain teacher next year because than he would have to stand in the girl's bathroom for tornado drills, Yuck!!! When the storm finally passed we went exploring. We discovered the woods behind our house had flooded. Matthew and Jacob ran down to further investigate and quickly discovered the usually dry area now contained over 4 feet of water. As they played in our new "pool" I ran in and got Trent. He decided it was plenty deep to pull out the canoe. Once the boat was settled we called our neighbors and invited them to come play as well. They all enjoyed hours of fun and it was a good thing they took advantage, because by the next day the water was gone, in fact by that evening it was dry enough to mow our overgrown lawns/weeds, YEAH!........the boys were thrilled;P

Why were you crying?

Today I was given the opportunity to teach the 'Temple Marriage' lesson to the Young Women. Heidi (the new YW president) asked me earlier in the week, and I really enjoyed getting the lesson ready. I loved being able to wander HobbyLobby and let my creative juices flow as I reflected on what to make as a handout. By Sunday all came together and the lesson went well (thanks to lots of prayer and prep time). Of course I cried as I was able to testify about the importance and blessings of the temple. Anyway, we came home, made lunch and once done Trent and I went into our room for our Sunday afternoon nap.

Joey followed and stood at the edge of the bed talking about little things. After a minute or two I said to him, "Hey, Joey, I cried at church today". He looked at me and asked why. Rather than answer I asked him why he thinks I cried. Joey said, "Maybe because you had to do a talk, sometimes people cry in a talk". I told him, "I did cry when I gave my talk, but why do talks make some people cry?" He thought for a minute, "Maybe because they say the wrong words." We laughed and then he added, "or, maybe because they don't want to give a talk." We continued laughing, but then were able to use the teaching moment to talk about the Holy Ghost and how sometimes we can feel the spirit so strong that we might cry. Also, we talked about when the Holy Ghost might talk to us and how. The whole incident was about 5 minutes, but I sure am thankful for those small opportunities to teach my children, times when they are truly ready to listen. I do love being a mom:)

My 2 year old teenager

Yesterday Rachael was angry because I was chopping veggies and couldn't pick her up. By the time Trent came in she was into a full blown tantrum. After raising so many two year olds I can pretty much ignore anything, but Trent was having none of it. He firmly said to her, "If you can't stop, than you can just go to your room!" To my surprise she stopped, looked at him, and then turned and stomped to her room. Then, just to give us the full "teenager" affect, she slammed the door. After a couple of minutes, her door opened and our happy little girl emerged, and crawled into her Daddy's lap. They sat at the table snuggling until I finished. It was funny and cute.... this time, but I'm not sure how cute the stomping and slamming will be in 10 years.

What's that smell?

So... I have a two year old in the house. You would think with her being child number six I'd remember to keep things up and out of the way. Honestly, I thought I was doing a pretty good job. I have a door knob blocker on the bathroom and try to keep all the sharp and poisonous stuff out of sight and out of reach. Rachael's latest passion is cool, creamy, gooey stuff. Doesn't matter if it's lotion, butter (which she loves to eat and feed to the dog, by the way), medicine (we've gone through several tubes of Neosporin in the last few weeks), glue (we have to really watch where we keep glue sticks, she thinks they are chapstick) or toothpaste. The first time it's kind of funny, but once the numbers get into the double digits, it sort of stops being funny and I'm tired of cleaning it all up. A few nights ago she walked into the kitchen completely covered in toothpaste. I did snicker, but I think Trent thought it was a sigh of exasperation. He grabbed her and volunteered to clean it all up. I was fine with that, and continued to work on the computer. The next morning we were in a bit of rush and as I was brushing my hair and heating up my flat iron, I was telling Rachael to find her shoes. Still distracted, I grabbed the flat iron and started straightening my bangs.... I immediately heard a strange sizzle sound and then smelled something burning. I quickly pulled the iron away from my hair and took a closer look. I guess Trent didn't see the big globs of toothpaste all down the side of my straightener. I touched my hair and, yep it was nice and crispy, but at least I smelled minty fresh.

Opposition in all things

Life has been a little stressful... About 10 days ago I woke up to a horrible smell coming from somewhere in the house. It smelled like the geysers at Yellowstone, if you know what I mean. As soon as I thought they'd be open, I called Sewer Bee. The guy was able to come out in the afternoon and said our septic was full, so he pumped it ($200), but that really didn't explain the smell. He recommended we call a plumber... not something I wanted to hear. I called the one that was recommended and he was able to come the next day. He looked up at the pipes for a long time. He asked several questions, like if we had any drainage issues, which we do. He figured out all our drainage issues and then fixed the smell!!! He also replaced a pipe coming from the kitchen (it wasn't giving us any problems, but he said the T-joint was upside-down and eventually it would cause problems. He didn't write it down or anything, I think it just bugged him and he had to get it out of there) He also fixed the pipes under the kitchen sink so they would stop leaking. ($400)
I was starting to feel like everything was back to normal when I went out to check on our newly acquired lambs. The one that had been the most frisky was now hobbling all over the place and was very thin. I called Trent and then my friend Heidi. Heidi brought some of her sheep supplies and we fed it a bottle and forced some medicine down its throat. After a few times of doing this and a few days rest it was much better.
I'm not used to so much drama and was so glad to relax a bit. Friday night Maddie came over, she's the other Webelos leader. We were planning out the next few months when I noticed how hot the house was. The ac was running, but it wasn't blowing cool air. I turned the unit off and planned to call Budget on Monday morning. Monday morning the bus took the boys to school and I planned to feed the animals before I called Budget. I noticed the little white lamb wasn't looking well. I picked her up, and she was almost dead! I brought her out to the back of the truck and looked her over. Her stomach was blown up like a balloon and she was quiet and limp, not a good sign. I called Trent and then ran and got the sheep book. I made a mixture the book suggested to help with the bloating. Trent called several people and finally we decided to have her checked out by the vet. I know we're raising them for food, but we decided it would be good to talk to a vet about our little flock, get her advice on what we can do to possibly help this one and keep the rest of them healthy. It was a good call. She thought the sheep was too far gone, but gave us some things we could try. She also gave us advice on what immunizations to administer and what we could do with the rest of them. The little guy actually pulled through. When I called the office to thank the vet, she was shocked it had survived. We did all the things she suggested for the rest of the lambs as well and all seem to be healthy, Yeah!!!
After this crisis was over I called the ac guys. The Budget people who installed the system 3 years ago told us it was still under warranty,... the parts, that is. He told us it would be $950 in labor to repair the system! What!?!... are you serious!. We paid the diagnostic fee and sent him on his way. I'd had a good experience with Hiller so I called them again. Nathan, from Hiller, was able to fix the problem in less than an hour and the grand total was $209, a far cry from the $1000 the other guy would have charged, what a Wiener!!!
Things seem to be going well now, Thank Goodness. I sure am glad life isn't like this all the time. We're told there is an opposition in all things, I guess I needed a lesson in appreciation for the good things in my life:)

"Mack"

Rachael loves all her brothers, but she absolutely ADORES Matthew. She has always called him "Maff-yew", but lately her usual name for him has turned into "Mack". I think it is very cute, but Matthew keeps trying to teach her to say MaTT rather than the less favorable MaCK. Over and over he'll say "MaTT", then she replies "MaCK".

Earlier this week she was playing in the back of the house when the bus pulled up and a few seconds later the door opened. She joyfully screamed ,"MACK", and then ran to the door to jump into his arms. Matthew is very good to Rachael and I can understand why she adores her kind, gentle, even tempered big brother.

Spring Break

(Jacob and his friend Justin)
Spring Break was more than a week ago, but because it takes so long to upload pictures and then the writing (I have a dial-up connection) it's taken me forever to find the necessary time to sit down and write about it. Anyway, the kids had 5 days off and Trent was able to take 3 of those days off himself.
If it were up to the boys they would spend their entire week sitting in front of video games and the computer. The weather was a bit crazy, one day it would be gorgeous outside and then the very next we'd be on the alert for tornadoes. On one of the nice days we took advantage and went to a park on Post.

(James and Matthew enjoyed climbing in the trees. Once on the ground a group of them found fallen limbs and a 'sword' fight ensued)
Originally, it was going to be just the little ones and myself, but after all the sitting around I informed the rest of my brood we'd all be going. I told them we'd have a picnic and then they could go fishing. Of course, most of them grumbled and complained, but they did help with the food and found all the fishing equipment. Once at the park the majority of them took off to find the lake. James stayed behind and played with Rachael. They fed the ducks in the stream and then he pushed her in the swings. When everyone returned we ate, and then some fished while others explored the very large and inviting trees. (My boys love the movie 'Swiss Family Robinson'... can you guess why?)

During some of the other days Trent decided it was time to put everyone to work. We have a pole that carries electricity to the barn, and whenever the wind blows it takes the pole with it. So, to stop this from happening, Trent made a cage and needed it filled with rocks. Ah, rock collecting, sounds like a perfect activity for sedentary boys, and a busy little girl. While they were doing that, Trent kept working on his duck pen.

We bought some Mandarin Ducks several months ago and Trent has been building a pen for them. Working full time, being a dad and a husband affords him little time to actually work on the pen. These few days he took off allowed him the time he needed to finally complete it!!! He did an amazing job, the ducks have places to nest, swim and get out of the sun or storms. Rachael and I are outside quite a bit, watching the ducks, and they really love their new home.

(Until the pen was complete the ducks were in the chicken coop with the chickens)