Parentheticals

On Monday we saw the Muppets Christmas Carol. They were showing it at the library, and we had never seen it on a big screen before, so it was super fun.  On one day we all got a big piece of paper and drew pictures together. We had giant underground spiders, castles, bats, lakes of lava, monsters, giants, and many other things. Mike also forgot to change his address on eBay, so he ordered some presents to the house, and the forwarding request was expired, so some of them went back to the sender. We eventually got them all fixed, but it was sort of annoying. Wednesday they had a young women's white elephant, and it was also fun  On Saturday we went to Richfield to attend the funeral of Great Grandma Poulson. It was a long drive, however, the kids are pretty good at driving, so we did well. A lot of people attended, and it was a good funeral. We picked some walnuts from Great Grandma's house while we were there too, which was fun. Timmy says that it wasn't even as bad as he t...

Last Sunday evening we went to the Stake Christmas Concert at our stake center, which was good. One of Grandma Sheila and Grandpa Mike's friends got us a puzzle Advent calendar. The kids have enjoyed opening up every little puzzle and completing them on the day they can open them up. They also like to go back and re-complete all of the prior days some times. The puzzles have been very popular, so it was a very nice gift. Dave and the other leader were going to not be able to make it to Activity dudes, so it was up to Mike to organize and execute it all alone. He got Brother Waters to agree to come to the activity so that there would be 2 adults present. He then invented plans for a Christmas tree pickle ornament out of felt and stuffing. The kids sewed it up and had a fun time. Mike spent pretty much the whole time threading needles and tying threads off. All in all it was successful. At the same time the girls went to see the Christmas lights. The temple grounds were under constru...

We missed writing blog post for 2 weeks, so we are going to attempt to remember what happened during those weeks.  Two weeks ago it snowed and the kids had a lot of fun time making snowmen and snow forts and playing in the snow and throwing snowballs. The snow only lasted a few days, however, we still were able to enjoy it quite a bit. After the snow had melted, and we decided to go on a walk one day because the kids were being grumpy. We took them to the local church because there isn't any local playground and they climbed on a big metal railing that is on the side of the sidewalk and played on that like it was monkey bars. After that got boring we climbed up the trees and played in the leaves and we threw windfall apples at the dog. Rocket is not traditionally the type of dog that likes to chase balls, however, he was having a lot of fun chasing the apples so maybe the problem is that the normal balls that we throw are too big? We have thrown him some windfall apples at other ti...

We missed writing last week apparently so, last week we did Halloween and probably did some other stuff too but I don't remember any of it. Elsa walked pretty good and kept up with us so we didn't have to split the group. Alison wanted Mike to stay home because he was feeling a little bit sick however since the group stay together we were okay. Sara performed the Thriller with her class at the elementary school Halloween party. She's been practicing very hard, and she did a fabulous job. Alison and the younger kids went to watch her (Rea was at her coop and Mike was at a service project at the cannery). We were very impressed! This week we celebrated Gideon's birthday. Gideon just turned eight, and we are very excited about that. Gideon got some cool Squirtles and other toys. Rea sewed him an amazing Squirtle plushy; Elsa absolutely loves it and carries it around and has it do school with her. Gideon is mostly very nice about this. He also got a stuffed frog with a Chri...

We made it through another week ... Barely The first thing that I recall was on Tuesday night Alison was feeling absolutely awful and we took her in to the emergency room and found out that she had a kidney stone. She was discharged at 1 AM and full of enough pain killers she was fine on Wednesday.  Thursday at 3 am she woke up again and felt enough pain that she needed to be taken back to the hospital. They finally found a medicine that worked on her (either that or the kidney stone passed) so we went home at 1 PM On Saturday we went to see Dracula vs Henry Botter at the OBT. It was super fun. We need to buy tickets for Christmas Carol II, the next play they are putting on Saturday evening we went to the Ward's chili cook-off. The chili was excellent and we had a fun time. We then remembered on the way home from the chili cook-off that Alison and Mike had both been asked to give talks on sunday, and with all of the sickness we totally forgot about it, so we spent the rest of the e...

These past few weeks have been fairly difficult. We all ended up sick we discovered bad news about our house and Gideon stepped on a goat head. As you all know we have been out of our house for about 4 months now because we have been having a home addition put on. We recently discovered that the contractors that we hired are involved in government investigations because they seem to be ripping people off and not completing their houses. Once we discovered this we immediately stopped paying them and also told them that they need to finish our house before we pay them anymore. We got a lawyer also.  We discovered that they never got a permit for construction, so everything that they have been doing has been illegal. We are currently giving them one last chance to get a permit and finish the job without us paying them and if they fail to do that we're going to have to find a new construction crew to finish the house. This has been very stressful and annoying to us. Grandpa Mike also g...

Last week the girls did pedicures with Aunt Laurie. They had fun, and it is good that they are able to spend time with her. Grandma Julie has also been in town this week, so Alison and the kids have spent some time with them. We got to walk the Rogers kids home from school and play with them for an hour. The kids loved that. Mike was informed this week that his general contractor might be being investigated by the Utah attorney general's office for taking people's money and never finishing the jobs he started, so he is pretty stressed out about that. He hasn't gotten in contact with the office yet to verify it, so he is not 100% sure, but wouldn't be super surprised, since they have been working so incredibly slowly. This week Timmy wrote another book. It is named The Willow Tree , and it is a sequel to The Great Expanse. He still needs to write chapter names, but other than that it is finished. Timmy also made a few video games this week on scratch. The first one was c...

On Tuesday Alison had a bunch of teen kids come over to do a discussion group. There are two other kids besides Rea, and Rea's friend Marissa Dalyai is going to start coming next week. They're discussing history primary sources, American literature, and doing a high school Biology course together. The first week went pretty well, and Alison is excited about it. On Wednesday all of the kids went to the dentist in order to get their check up. Timothy had a cavity which is pretty unusual for him. They were able to get him in to fix it on thursday, so it was a pretty fast turn around. Also on Wednesday Grandpa Mike was chopping down the tree in his front yard, and so on Thursday we helped him clean up all of the branches leaves and shavings that he produced in the chopping down event. Gideon helped the entire time and was very helpful. Timmy, Rea and Elsa both helped for a little while and Sara helped from the time that she got off of school until the time that it was done and she ...

Monday was labor day, so Mike took the day off. We went to Grandma Julie's and swam and had pizza. Wednesday was activities, and Dave planned s'mores for the dudes. The boys really enjoyed learning how to start a fire, and then mostly burning their marshmallows. Saturday there was a youth yard service day, so Rea and Sara helped some old lady in our ward to clean her yard. After they ended up going to a yard sale and spent some money to get cool things. Timmy and Gideon also helped Grandpa Mike on Saturday to cut branches of the big tree in the front yard. Elsa wants it recorded that she loves her dog, cat,  her neighbors (the Waters) and her family. She also wants to say that she knows how to dance the Macarena. We also noticed that Jell-O has not been escaping nearly so much recently, so that is good. Finally, we think that we are nearly done picking things out for the home addition, so hopefully they finish up with the work some time.

Since we have a season pass for each member of our family to see every off Broadway theater show this year, and since we don't tend to stay up late enough to watch laughingstock, we decided to see The Scarlet pimpernel another time with the whole family to use up those tickets. Since it was on the closing day they were pretty much as practiced as they ever could be. The show was really fun, and they had added in a couple jokes over the course of the time that they were putting on the play, so it wasn't the exact same play as we saw earlier.  This week we also talked to the cabinet guys on the floor guys and ordered cabinets and floors for our home remodel. Alison has done a lot of planning and is very excited about her new kitchen. It is going to look really cool and be organized in a way that is very conducive to the way that we cook.  On the left is the image of what Alison wants the final kitchen to look like, and on the right is the actual flooring that we picked. On Frida...

We have spent our first full week in the Brown's house. So far things are working out. We ended up making meals the nights of the week and having the Browns cook for us the other nights This week was also the first week of school for Sara and the kids. Sara has been having fun and really enjoys it. The other kids have been fussier than usual, however, Alison says that this isn't really all that unusual. On Friday we went to a picnic at Sara's school. We are with the Plastows and had a good time. Friday night we were invited to a barbecue at the Water's and after that, Mike and Alison went to see the Scarlet pimpernel again. It was enjoyable -we like the way they tell the story and the songs they added. We might end up seeing it again this next weekend with the kids. On Sunday Timmy was sick. He threw up at 3am and we kept him gone from church. Here's hoping it was just him eating poorly (sometimes kids forget to eat any real food all day if you don't watch them ...

With Jell-O living outside in his Catio, he has taken up a hobby of escaping from it periodically. Sometimes it is because someone forgot to zip up the door, however a few times he affected an escape through trickery. One time he apparently chewed a hole through the wall (Mike is not sure how that could have happened, since it seems pretty amazing, however they're definitely was a hole in the morning.)  One time he also was put into the polson's garage because it was raining and then took a nap in a place that we couldn't see and didn't respond to us for about half an hour, so Sara was pretty sure that he was missing. Either way, wherever he gets off to he has always come back as of yet. We are hoping that we can stop him from escaping. This weekend we moved from the Poulson's house to the Brown's house because Sara was going to begin starting school next monday. We have gotten pretty good at moving considering that we've moved so many times in the last few ...

Last Sunday we went to a Brown family dinner. It was fun. We talked, ate, and the kids watched something on their TV, so it was a pretty normal family dinner. Timmy has decided to save up for the Lion Knights' Castle , which must be one of the biggest Lego sets ever. It is going to be a lot of work for him to save up enough money for it, however, he is motivated, so here is hoping that he succeeds. We had activity dudes and young women's this week. Activity dudes was a bunch of sponge based water activities, and young women's was a barbecue and seminary graduation. The girls had a fun time, and the boys did too. There was also a combined Relief Society and Young Women pool party this week, which was fun. The girls mostly swam and played and the ladies mostly talked, and there was a barbecue and potluck, and everyone had fun. On Thursday we watched the movie of the Scarlet Pimpernel in preparation to going to see the play at the OBT on Saturday. We find that if we watch the ...

We missed posting for the last two weeks, so this one is a triple post. The workers got their act together and actually got some work done on the house two weeks ago, so the Car port was half removed and a lot of things were taken off of the walls and more floors were ripped up. We are still not sure how long it will take for the whole thing to be done, however, there was certainly progress made that week. Two weeks ago we also celebrated Sara's Birthday. Rea and Sara planned it, and threw a Harry Potter 2 themed party at the park. They made a decorations, planned various activities, and invited the Rogers and Wilsons. The first activity that they did was decorating mirrors (through which you could look at basilisks safely). After that they played "Pin the pixie on Lockheart". Instead of putting their pixies on the cage like they were supposed to, they mostly ended up on his face, but I guess that that is what happens when you are a bad teacher at Hogwarts. They ate ice c...

This last week the girls went to girls camp. The only thing that I can get out of them is that "it was fun". While they were gone Timmy was the biggest kid, and he did a good job being the responsible one most of the time. We had an extreme heat warning for most of the week, so we stayed inside more so than usual. That being said we still did get to the park a few times. On Tuesday we didn't meet with the builders since they hadn't gotten anything done over the last week. Mike is getting frustrated with their lack of progress. They finally got a container to the house, so we moved stuff Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. At the present time we can't recommend them to anyone, but we will see if they start getting stuff done finally perhaps we will change our opinion. They say that this upcoming Tuesday the plumber will arrive, so if they can get the demolition done before then then perhaps we will stop falling behind. We also moved to the Waters House on Saturday...

Two weeks ago on Monday the girls went to Owl Camp. I'll camp is a activity that is put on by the library for kids who enjoy Harry Potter. Owl camp was really cool -they did a bunch of classes where they learned about ocean animals and electricity, and about herbs and they learned how to read tea leaves. They also did 'common room' where they did crafts, games, and trivia. They liked the teacher that was supposed to be Snape the best because he got into character the best. Rea was in Hufflepuff and they won the house cup and some free books. For the last two weeks we have been at the Poulson's house since our house is still under construction. For the first bit things were fairly normal (or what passes for normal at this point of time in our lives), however, last week was the Poulson family reunion, so we had all of the Poulson's over for the week. The cousins all had a lot of fun playing together every day, and Mike worked out of Grandpa Mike's office because e...

These last two weeks some weird sickness has been making the rounds around our round family. It involved coughing and sleeping a lot. Timmy got it last, and hopefully no one else comes down with it. Timmy's birthday was on Tuesday. He got video games, bedroom decorations and a plush chain chomp (from Mario) which Rea made for him Another thing that happened on Tuesday was that Mike went to see our house which is under construction still. Mike was surprised to discover that construction has been progressing at a greatly increased pace, however, he was also surprised to discover that the kitchen is entirely torn apart.  This wasn't originally a part of the plan, however we have decided that now that the kitchen is torn apart we might end up remodeling it to have a more open connection to the front room which will make both rooms feel bigger.  Here are some plans that Mike drew up for the modified kitchen: Wednesday was Juneteenth, and mine for the day off of work. We didn't r...

Last week Rea and Sara went to Oakcrest. They had a really fun time. They played a game called Feed Fred. Fred is a tree with a mouth cut into it, and they were trying to throw rocks into the mouth. They also later threw fruit snacks at Vannie - their camp counsellor. They also did a giant swing and zip lines. Rea also enjoyed that. On Tuesday we went and saw the house. The workers have not done as much work as I would have expected, but they did make some progress. Gideon broke his computer this week as well, so we got him a temporary one. Here's hoping that that one stays in one piece.  Friday night we went as a family to get Beard Papa's Cream Puffs, which were very tasty. They make ones of multiple flavors and with lots of possible fillings, so it is a choose your own adventure to build your puff. This Saturday was Elizabeth's birthday. She got her presents and had noodles and meat for her meal. Her dessert was blueberry brownies with blueberry frosting.  Rea sewed get ...

On this Memorial Day we didn't have a Memorial Day party this year because we were too busy packing for our trip. Throughout that week we completed packing our house successfully. It took a lot of work, but by Sunday evening we finished packing it all into the rooms that will not be impacted by the add on. Friday last week the kids were invited to a sleep over at Grandma Poulson's house. They had food and fun and cousins over, and that is a recipe for a good time with them.  Either intentionally or not this aided the packing efforts, since having no kids is good for getting work done. Sunday night we went over to Grandma Julie's house in order to move there while the worst of the building is going to be taking place on our house. Mike has a place to work from in their house and they're allowing us to live in the basement. Grandma Julie and Grandpa Craig will be gone for a few of the weeks so we'll be taking care of the house for them while they're gone.  Rocket ...

Throughout the week Mike has been slowly packing up things and moving them box at a time into his office and the carpet room. The front room is completely empty and the kitchen is as close as we can get it without moving anything that is completely necessary to living and eating in this house. Mike's office is pretty darn full right now, however it still is possible for him to work in it. On Wednesday the Water's kids found some mushrooms in their yard, so we decided to see if there were any mushrooms up at the dell. We found three morels, a few clusters of oyster mushrooms, and a cluster of wild onions. We picked one of the onions to transplant to our yard and gathered the mushrooms to make into some sort of mushroom food in the future. Mike sauteed them and froze them, so the next time we make pizza we can have wild mushrooms on one. On Thursday the kids were bored, so Mike cut up some dowels that we had sitting around the house and made some drumstick sets. He sanded them do...

On Monday we dropped off our car at the auto repair shop because for years our doors have been slowly degrading. It got to the point where everyone had to climb in through the front doors and then climb over everything to get to wherever their seat was. After dropping the car off the auto repair shop looked it over order the parts and got it fixed by wednesday. We are super excited to have a car whose doors work again!  While we were out of a car Grandpa Mike lent us his truck so we were not entirely unable to get around. On Monday at dinner time we also discovered that Elsa had some incredible eyebrows. We aren't quite sure exactly how it happened, however her eyebrows were very impressive. (Alison mentions that it is nice that Sara has someone to practice makeup on.) Early this week (Tuesday or Wednesday probably) Timmy started having an allergic reaction to something that we aren't quite sure what it is. It seems that it flares up when he goes outside so we're guessing i...