I'm obsessed!

It is hurricane season - which I find fascinating. Mother nature can be ferocious and it can be so exciting and scary and SO many things all at once. It's not that I want people to die or get hurt, but watching these hurricanes come to be - how and why they form and what path they may take...it's all so intriguing. For a couple of years now I will go to weather.com almost every day to get a forecast on our weather, I am totally addicted to the hour by hour details, or to get an update on something else exciting happening somewhere else in the world at the time. But this season I have totally geeked out! Not only do I read the weather on the internet, I have been watching it on channel 362 - YES it's crazy that I know which channel the weather channel is. So the other day when all the Hurricane Bill hype was going on I decided to tune into channel 362 to just "listen" to the updates in the background. You see I had much to accomplish that day and I was afraid that if I checked every hour or so online I might get distracted and check my email or read and article that interested me or whatever, and not get my stuff done. I thought the tv would be my friend. Now mind you, up until this point I had only tuned into channel 362 maybe 5 times EVER! So I start my laundry, cleaning out kids closets etc and turn on the tv in the background. To my excitement they are talking about the Santa Clara river flooding that happened in St. George a couple of years ago. They were playing the actual footage of when the houses fell into the river. SAD - I AGREE - but sooooo interesting! I couldn't look away! I tried to pause the tv and do stuff in between but then "Storm Stories" came on. Then more good stuff - a show called "Storm Chasers" - all about TORNADOS and I was hooked again! And THEN some Hurricane Katrina stories come on...uh oh! They had a couple of different rescue stories going on at a time. Seriously, I had to watch - I mean I HAD to find out what happened to them, would they be rescued, would the poor dog die out on a piece of drifting wood for 12 hours. I won't go on. The bottom line is that The Weather Channel actually has some pretty cool shows not just weather updates on the "8's" and for some reason there is something about destruction that you just can't look away. Is it too late for me to become a meteorologist? I know you are all going to turn on the TV this week and check it out now! There is an area of disturbance in the Atlantic that might turn into a Tropical Depression in the next couple of days - along with Hurricane Jimena and Tropical Depression Kevin - oh yeah - I'll be watching! So maybe it's just me and Hunter obsessed with weather. But I know you ALL have something quirky you are obsessed with - so let's hear it!!

The sounds of EuPHoRiA
Today is over, I am sad, it was a good day. Scratch that, it was a GREAT day... some thoughts on why I am in a state of EuPhOrIa!
There was such excitement and HaPpInEsS in the air. The boys were excited that we finally got their bunk beds set-up. After I left their bedroom I could hear the muffled sounds of sweet voices talking about how much they love their new bed and just sheer excitement for the next day. Their little giggles and quiet shrieks and full body shakes just thinking about tomorrow is so cute! Kinda like going to bed when you are 8 on Christmas Eve. Around 9 the sounds died down. Now, the kids are asleep, the house seems so quiet. Their most favorite outfits out of all their new school clothes are laid out for the big day, right down to their underwear and socks! I can hear an occasional cough from Boog, and a distant keyboard where Dayt is working on a loan for someone. I can hear the hamster cruising around in her ball getting her nighttime exercise. She is happy that the upstairs is 75% hard surfaces * she can get in more miles that way. :) Occasionally I hear her bang into the wall or a barstool or the fireplace. It kinda makes me laugh to myself. She looks so funny when she does it. Her little body just runs like crazy, her little backside rotates back and forth so quickly, everything about it is cute! It makes me smile!
I just got off the phone with one of my most favorite people in the world, HUNTER Nelson. He is the cute little autistic kid in my previous post (February Fun). I love his random phone calls. Something about talking with Hunter always makes me happy, content, and peaceful. Mostly because Hunter is always happy! Hunter finds the pure joy in everyday, thrilled about the most simplest things. I would love to be more like Hunter. Today, I felt like him. What a fabulous day. We started off the day with a "back to school brunch." We made hashbrowns, toast, sausage, eggs and orange juice. Just a little something to celebrate school! I CELEBRATE back to school! I always loved school myself, so I get excited for the kids to go. New teachers, new friends to make, new experiences and things to learn. What fun! We had a great morning talking about it. We had family night and gave father's blessings. Dayt did an excellent job, each blessing really fit each child and their personality and each individual need. I am grateful for him to have the priesthood here in our home and to be able to bless our kids. It is a GiFt! We had a nice relaxing day. Not having church today because of the Oquirrh Mountain temple was actually quite relaxing and a great way to transition into tomorrow. It gave me a chance to take a breather and get everything in order. The rain, I loved the rain today! It makes me happy! Saw two rainbows tonight. Like always, it made me think about Noah and the flood. :) It makes me feel like FALL is right around the corner. I burned some nutmeg oil today. My house smells fabulous! Our home teachers came today - we love it when they visit. We always spend way too much time gabbing with them, I am sure their families were wondering where they were, very very good people! They talked about how good it smelled in my house. I told them that it made me want some cookies. About an hour after they left, Bro Z's cutest little kids brought over a plate of HOT delicious choc chip cookies. I just ate another one! They were WoNdErFuLL - I have GoOd neighbors, they make me happy! I was productive today - but not too productive. Just a good mix to feel happy about. The kids were good, they didn't even have quiet time today and I survived! :) We had dinner at my mom's - delicious and comfortable. Ok, funny!!! Dayt just came running around the corner saying, "Hamster's out!") I had just thought to myself that I hadn't heard Fancy's ball and that maybe she had gotten stuck behind a toilet again. he he he! Evidentally, she had run into the table hard enough for the lid to her ball to fall off and out she went. We captured her and put her back in her cage. Good thing RuStY and RuFuS were outside. One of them had caught a mouse this evening, it was on our doorstep when we got home. Fun! But I'm still smiling!
I can't wait for tomorrow. This is going to be a great schoolyear!
What will I do with all MY quiet time??? Maybe the sounds of silence won't be as fantastic as I imagine..........hmmm....I'll get back to that!
Good Night and have a pleasant tomorrow!
P.S. I have no idea why most of this post is in ENORMOUS type!

February's FUN!

Now I remember why I haven't posted my spring pics yet.....because I have A.D.D. and when I put in the disks and immediately remember why I never posted Feb thru April. My camera had frozen, pics were lost :( and when I got the pics off the camera they were NOT in the order in which I took them. When I pulled up the 300 + pictures of 20 + different activities (slight exaggeration) they were all jumbled up and out of order. For someone with A.D.D. to have to sort through them, it is WAY overwhelming. Today I tried my hardest to keep my composure and work on some of the old pics. Here is the first stage, February. Slowly but surely I will have all the pics back in chronological order and posted on the blog so I can print my 2009 blog book without missing any of the months of the year. That's priceless...right? I can do it...anyone have some Adderall XR laying around?

Here is some pictures of Hunter's 14th birthday party. It was a little bitter sweet for me. I knew they were seriously considering moving back to AZ at the time so all I could think about was how much I was going to miss this family, and how many of Hunter's birthdays I would start missing again. I LOVE this kid!
For those of you who don't already know Hunter, he has autism. For those of you who don't know me....I have a special connection with cognitively challenged (what I like to call it) kids since I was little. I have worked with many of them in many different aspects of life. It is soooo rewarding and I miss not being able to be as involved as I was in the past. Anyway, Hunter holds a special place in my heart and I miss him. I talk to him every once in awhile on his cell phone. He just learned to text - THAT has been lots of fun!!

He chooses a "surprise" party every year - look how excited he is!!

Here he is eating some of his favorites...chicken strips, and Freschetta cheese pizza! He only eats about 10 different things.

He was just dying for some hula hoops this year. Here he is doing some tricks....TrIcKy!!

Two more of his "staples" cheese Dorritos and "red" Skittles

Valentines Day in AZ

We took a very spontaneous Trip to Arizona this year. We haven't been in years so it was a much needed trip. We miss AZ so much. We only wish we could've stayed longer so we could have a chance to see all our friends we left behind. Alas, it was just a quick visit for just a couple of days so the cousins could have a chance to see each other. Next time - and we hope it is sooner than two years - we can visit everyone!

The kids were soooo excited to head out on a road trip. We hadn't done a 12 hour drive in a long time! Actually, when we first broke the news to the kids that we were leaving the next day, Josh cried. He didn't want to mess up his perfect attendance record at school! Yeah, I didn't expect that from Josh either :) We gave him the choice to stay at grandma's because he was so devasted, but in the end he told me that he would have plenty of other years to get perfect attendance. Ha ha ha!

I looked back to check on the kids a couple hours in and this is what I saw...no shirt again. This was when he was going through the "no clothes" phase. It was February and COLD outside - he couldn't possibly have been sweating - just getting ready for the AZ sun I guess!

I am so sad that I lost most of my pics from this trip. Why does that always happen when the pictures you had taken mean so much? Here are just a couple.

Josh literally played basketball CONSTANTLY! Basketball is his first love and the Stones had just put in their new sport court just weeks before...he was in HEAVEN!

The weather was nice. I was hoping for sunny rays - a good change from winter weather here in UT. But unfortunately, AZ was experiencing a cold front so the weather was actually quite cool, we wore jackets while we were there....bummmmmer!!!! It did make for nice hiking weather so one of the days we hiked Thunderbird mountain. That was lots of fun and something we hadn't done before. We also got to take a peek at Cardinal stadium. When we moved it wasn't finished being built yet so it was fun to see the finished product! Too bad we couldn't take in a Cards game!

This is Josh, playing late into the night, he couldn't get enough. Jantz and Brady joined in on the fun. The big kids had to wear their jerseys, but Jantz was just fine being "skins"!

One day we saw a coyote in the wash so later that night the kids stood on the deck and made coyote sounds to try and get them to come out of the bushes. The neighbor dogs were going crazy barking, and I am sure the neighbors themselves were not thrilled with all the noise.

We couldn't get a suntan because it was too cool, but we did get to eat outside!
This pic is blurry but unfortunately it was one of the only pics I have been able to recover so I had to post it.

We had such a good time. Usually these cute cousins only see each other once a year but they just pick up like no time has been lasped in between visits and just immediately start running around finding things to do together. I love it!
Thanks for having us on such late notice Stones! Let's do it again!

OCD...Maybe!

I have been feeling so lousy about not posting recently. My July was absolutely crazy! As a matter of fact, this year has been strange in oh so many ways. As many of you know!
I have never been the one to care about things being in their place, or organized, or anything like that. But lately, I have been thinkin that maybe I am a little OCD! I am freaking out that I haven't had a chance to post my spring months. It is like this mental roadblock, like I can't post anything current until I get that all caught up. It's weird I know! But hey, this is my family's photo album and I can't have it printed while it's missing a couple of months in there, that would be crazy!
Soooo, long story short, I am uploading all sorts of photos from the spring so I can get caught up, and then I can post about SUMMER. We have had a really good summer so far...and it is coming to an end so I better get to it! Stay tuned! (Isn't it funny that I talk like there are people out there that are really anticipating my blog posts! A ha hahha!)