Parentheticals

Alison and Mike celebrated their 16th anniversary this week. We were so busy that we didn't really plan anything, but Mike ended up making a not very amazing chocolate mousse, which he called a malfeasance  (Because it wasn't a tort). Rea and Sara both continued to attend their play rehearsals this week. They are practicing Tuesday and Thursday nights from 6:30 to 9:30, and Saturday mornings from 9:30 to 12:30, so it's a lot! They are having fun, though. This week, Alison took them on the bus on Tuesday, so that they could learn how to do it. We're not sure how often they'll take the bus - they have to leave at 5:15 to get there early enough to not be nervous about being late, and Rea doesn't get home until 4:30 on Thursdays, so probably only on Tuesdays. But that's one less hour Alison has to spend driving them! Elsa got an award for friendship at school this week! That's not too surprising; she tells us that everyone in her class is her friend and alwa...

This week, Alison started going to a class at the kids' school. Parents and other adults are invited to come and do the free Science of Well-Being class that's been put online by a Yale professor. This is a topic Allison is interested in, and she's been working on getting out of her comfort zone and interacting with people, so it seemed like a good idea. The first class was fun. Rea and Sara have been going to rehearsals for their play multiple times this week. It is a pretty long drive for Alison to drop off and take them back, so she is planning on teaching them how to take the bus there. They have been enjoying the rehearsals and are excited to perform in the play. We invited to Buck and his wife over to eat dinner with us this week because they helped us so much in the process of getting back into our house. It was nice to have them over and to talk with them. Various members of our family have been getting sick on various days this last week. Seems like it's a mild...

Timmy has been making good progress on the Lion Knight's Castle - he has been working on it with some help from Mike; however, he has been doing most of it himself. He is also making up a story of how each new bag that he opens was a new stage in the development of what started out as a small farmer's house. We also got a robot vacuum that is either named "Stabby" or "Sharkie" (depending on who you ask and when. Alison decided that it would be a good motivator for the kids and would help them to clean up their floors without an adult having to check them out to make sure that they are done. The idea is that they clean their floors and then, when they are done, they get the robot to sweep them, and if they do a good job, it won't bump into things all the time. So far, they like it fairly well. Alison, Rea, and Tim are now attending Connect-Ed again. Alison is teaching new classes (she hasn't taught before, so this is a first time for her). They are ha...

The kids have all gone back to school, and things are going fairly well. Over the weekend, Gideon lost his shoes, so we are currently on the hunt for them. We know that they are somewhere around here; however, we just don't know where they are. We also went to a Connect-Ed open house last week, which was basically a get-together for all of the teachers and their families in the homeschool co-op that Alison is teaching for this year. On Friday, we went to 'The Importance of Being Earnest', which the OBT put on. We enjoy all of their plays, and are excited that they showed one of our favorites again. In November, they are putting on 'The Frightmare Before Christmas', which Sara (and perhaps Rea) is auditioning for, so here's hoping that they get parts. Sara has also gotten her aerial silks set up in the front yard; however, they are not high enough, since Mike can't find his taller ladder. He thinks it is possible that someone took it when they were taking hom...

(This post was written by Alison. That hasn't happened in over a year, I think, so it felt worth noting.)  This week we've been moving in. The kitchen is all done and the rest of the house is arranged enough that we got through a lot of boxes this week. Then the washer overflowed. So we got to spend Saturday pulling up all the flooring in the master bedroom, laundry room, closet, bathroom, and hallway, and emptying and drying the contents of all the boxes in the garage that got soaked. That was not fun. Actually, it felt like getting kicked when we were down. Bad form, universe. Anyway. Up until then, the week went pretty well. Mike went back to work and the kids and Alison went back to their schedule of going to the park and the pool everyday. Mike's been working very hard every evening to finish the moving-in process, and Alison and the kids were helpful off and on, when they were available (Alison) and in the mood (kids). We have one more week before school starts, but t...

It has been 3 weeks since we posted, so we have a lot to talk about:  3 weeks ago we went down to St George with Alison's family. We had a lot of fun. Elsa played with Victoria with the dollhouse. Chauncey brought over X-Wing ships and the boys played X-Wing regularly. We also went swimming regularly and went down to the river.  On the day that we were leaving Timmy hurt his foot, and because of that Mike kept him out of the water for the first two days. Timmy was very disappointed about this, however, his foot healed properly so that was good.  It was nice to be with the Poulson family and have a lot of fun. Last week Rea went on trek. She made her own pioneer dress and looked very authentic. She did very well. Her cousin Logan was there with her as well. They walked 14 miles a day, and were very tired afterward. While they were at trek, we worked very hard to finish up the house. While Mike worked on the plumbing Grandpa Mike worked on the flooring with Aunt Amy and Sco...

Last week we wrote up a blog post but never posted it, so this one is going to be another twofer. Early last week, we celebrated the 4th of July. Earlier in the day we went over to the Plastow's house and had a barbecue while it was raining. The rain was really nice given how hot it has been recently, and the barbecue was very good with lots of tasty food. We invited the Plastows, the Browns, the Plastow grandparents, and the Rogerses over to our house and all lit off fireworks. It was successful, and no one got hurt, and nothing got lit on fire, so that was pretty good.  Last week, Mike took most of the week off from work and worked on the house the entire time. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we painted. We started installing the cabinets on Thursday; however, they took forever to do, and we finally finished them Saturday evening. While Mike was working on the cabinets, Rea and the kids worked on installing lots of floors. The bathrooms and playroom are already done, so we have been ma...

On Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday Timmy, Sara, and Rea (respectively) went to Owl Camp. For those that don't remember, Owl Camp is an event that the library puts on. It is Harry Potter themed, and they dress up and do Harry Potter things: games, crafts, etc. The kids really love going to it, and it was fun this year just like previous years. We also celebrated Taylorsville days this week, which has carousel and Ferris wheel rides as well as other rides. The kids loved going on lots of rides, and had fun there. Most people's favorite ride was the carousel, and Rea and Sara did the Ferris wheel. The dragon was unexpectedly intense, and the obstacle courses were a surprise hit. Elsa also did a pony ride. While the kids were involved in lots of festivities Mike was installing structural plywood, doors, and tubs at the house in an attempt to get them all in before the drywallers arrived. It was a ton of work, and Mike was pretty exhausted by Friday (when the drywallers began), howeve...

We forgot to post again last week, so here we are with another double post. Not this week but the week before the garage door installers came over and installed a new garage door in our house. It looks pretty good and opens and closes very easily. That week we also had the four-way inspection again and finally passed it. That opened up our ability to finish wrapping the house and also installing insulation.  We scheduled the insulation installation as soon as we could (Monday of this week). Late last week we moved to the Waters house because they had gone to Africa and we wanted to be closer to our house and our Ward. It was great too stay at the Brown's house, however, it is also nice to have an entire house to yourself and to be able to walk to the park and church and our friend's houses. Last Saturday we went to a wings of fire convention which is named fan wings fest. Everyone at the convention was interested in wings of fire series, and the author of the books was also in ...

I started a blog post last Sunday, but we were too busy to actually write the things up that were in the post, so I am now converting a bulleted list of things to write about into an actual post, and then adding all of the things that happened last week as well. Rea recently created an Etsy shop. Here is a link to it: https://ecogiftcreations.etsy.com . She is selling notebooks, candles, hanging stone decorations, and bags of polished rocks. She made all of the things herself, and is planning on saving the money that she makes for college. We also received about 200 lbs of expired strawberries from the Waters last week and processed them for storage. Many were moldy, but we ended up with a lot of good ones as well, so the freezers in the Brown house are all full of strawberries right now. The kids have been going at them with a will and have made multiple strawberry smoothies every day, so they are getting used up. Mike also made a gallon of strawberry syrup, which is being used to mak...