Old Ephraim Mountain Man Rendezvous

On Saturday we walked down to the park with the kids because it was the first time since Monday that it wasn't raining. While we were at the park, I had the idea that we should take the kids & go to Willow Park (our "zoo"). Travis suggested we take them to the Mountain Man Rendevous instead. I had never been & neither had the kids. Travis went several times when he was in high school and thought we had gone with the kids once before (I was kind enough to remind him that he was building a house 2 years ago & last year he was crazy insane with work during the summer).
So, we headed back home and loaded up the truck. We weren't sure where to park when we got there so we just parked where we saw vehicles first. Turns out we had to walk 1/2 a mile after we parked! Travis said he knew we could park farther up but he knew I needed the exercise (I told you the pregosaurus comments would kick in soon!)
There weren't a whole lot of people there (we didn't get there until about 4 or so). The kids were pretty excited to see all the people dressed up like cowboys, mountain men, pioneers & Indians. Our neighbors (whose daughter Samantha would be attached to at the hip if I let her) participate in the rendevous every year. Samantha was pretty excited to see her little friend Jolie dressed up like a little Indian girl. At one point we even saw a lady with the carrying contraption on her back with a baby (papoose) in it. Samantha thought that was pretty crazy to carry a baby on your back like that!
We walked around for awhile and the kids got a kick out of seeing all the stuff for trade/sale. Somewhere they were shooting guns & occassionally a cannon would go off. Nash wasn't too sure about the cannon! We ended up getting Nash a wood machete (I'll take slivers over lost appendages any day!) & Samantha picked out a butterfly ring. Travis found himself a powder horn that he can take hunting with him this fall. (Did I ever mention he drew out for the big game draw? He's still grinning ear to ear about that one!)
Anyway, we had a good time and if it hadn't rained all week I think there would have been a lot more people there (personally I'm glad there wasn't more people there!).

Pre-School Graduation

Samantha had her preschool graduation tonight. I realized when her class stood together for their class picture that she is almost the tallest one in the class! There are only 2 other kids in the class that will be moving on to Kindergarten next year. Samantha has had lots of fun in her class this year and I think she will be sad to move on to Kindergarten (even though I know she'll enjoy it). It's a good thing Miss Kathryn just lives 3 doors down!

A Job! A Job!

I have a job! I guess I haven't been blacklisted after all!
I was offered a job on the spot at my job interview with Quest Academy today. They are a Charter School in West Haven (down by Roy - about an hour long commute). It is a brand new school so I'll have new everything (how nice is that?!). My class size will be about 25-27 and I pretty well had my pick of grades. I will be teaching 3rd grade & there are 3 classes of each grade up to grade six. I will be starting out at a second year teaching pay scale (trust me, significantly more money & WAY more money than Cache or Logan district offers). First day of school is Aug. 25th for the kids & I will start about a week prior to that. My mom said I'd better hope the baby comes a bit early so I have time to recover before having to set up my classroom. No worries here! I called Trav on my way home & he was shocked I was coming home with a job (he was feeling I was blacklisted too). He said the best he had hoped for was a really good interview. I told him that was what I had hoped for too! As he so kindly reminded me just the other day, "Positive thinking yields positive results."
Anyway, had to share the exciting news! Hope your day is going great!

30 Weeks

Well here is another fat girl picture. Yes, I'm letting Charlotte use my belly as a table. Every night she snuggles up to my belly & gets quite offended when I move her so I can roll over! Notice the ankles have now become kankles. Travis hasn't started calling me Pregosaurus to my face yet, but I'm sure if I give him a few more days he'll be right on top of that. We go to the dr. tomorrow. I get to meet a new dr. I found out my dr. isn't delievering any more after June (yea - SO not happy about that). I did realize the other day that I've already gained as much weight as I did when Nash was born. This is either going to be a really big baby or I'm going to have to work really hard afterward to get rid of all that "at least you have an excuse to gain weight" weight!


Trav has been a sport & has put in 2 of my flowerbeds out back. By putting in I mean he has boarded them off so grass won't get into them as easily. I still need to plant! I then proceeded to go out and shovel & weed (so I could plant) in them while we had some warm weather. To which his reply was, "If your mother sees you out here doing this, she'll kick my butt." I told him his mother probably would too! Guess it's either a bad year to be pregnant or a bad year to put in a yard. Either way, neither one is willing to wait! At least I'm not shoveling snow while I'm 7-9 months pregnant this time! My mom was REALLY unhappy about that one!!

As of Monday at about 10 am this week Nash had managed to put his teeth through his bottom lip twice already. Yea, think it's shaping up to be a good week. Boys. I did mention to Travis after last week's episode that we can't name the baby Travis Jr. (TJ) because I can't handle another child that's any more like him than the one we've already got!

I have a job interview tomorrow for a position at a Charter school in West Haven (think Ogden). They are called Quest Academy. I was getting a bit desperate on my job search so last week I faxed/emailed my resume/application to the Ogden & Weber districts. I mapquested directions for all the schools that had openings and all are within 57 min. So, I figured what the heck, I can't keep waiting on the districts around here to call & beg me to come work for them! I am still waiting to hear back from Thomas Edison South Campus and I asked about applying for an ESL position at Greenville Elementary. The principal there used to be Trav's parent's neighbor & was actually his brother's principal in high school and he really thinks the world of my in laws. I was fortunate enough to interview with this guy when I did my interview for Cache School District. Anyway, I figure I might as well apply for anything within an hour north & south of here because it's getting to the point that I can't be too picky any more! Besides, I keep telling myself all this rejection is a good character builder (not to mention all the "invaluable" interviewing experience it's giving me, right?).

Anyway, we're doing good here. Hope you are having a great week (at our house that means all appendages are still attached by Saturday!).

9 & 7/8 jr.

Ok, so for those that don't know - One of the guys that works with Trav started calling him 9 & 7/8 last summer after he got his finger cut off. It's been the big ha ha but he's taken it in good stride. Well, today I learned my son follows in his father's footsteps a little too closely!

Nash & Samantha had been downstairs playing. I told Nash to come up and use the bathroom (we're 3/4 of the way potty trained). When he came upstairs I noticed he had a handful of pencils in his hand. I asked him if he'd been in my office, which he had. I told him he needed to stay out of my office b/c he could get hurt (all my sewing & scrapbook stuff is in there & I know he had to climb onto a stool & then onto my desk in order to get the unsharpened pencils). Well he asked me if I had a pencil sharpener. I told him no that him & Sam had lost it and besides that he wasn't allowed to have a pencil anywhere other than the kitchen table b/c he colored on my walls yesterday! After assuring me he'd stay out of my office he headed down the stairs to go play so I went into the laundry room to change laundry. Not 10 seconds later I hear screaming. Nash comes running into the laundry room & shows me his thumb which is covered in blood. I hauled him to the kitchen sink & ran his thumb under water only to discover he'd taken a nice gash out of his thumb right around and on the top joint. After holding it in cold water for as long as he'd let me I wrapped a towel around it and applied pressure (fingers bleed SO much!). Well Nash didn't like the towel around his hand but when he'd take it off he'd freak out b/c of the blood. So after trying to call Amy's house across the street & calling my mom & not getting an answer I threw the kids in the car & headed for the shop b/c I knew there was a first aid kit there & we were definately in need of something other than a bandaid! We were able to just barely catch Aunt Cass & Grandpa Larry as they were leaving & got him all bandaged up. When I got home I took Nash downstairs (b/c I was sure that was where he had been when he got hurt) and asked him to show me what he got cut on so that we could pick it up so no one else got cut. He kept telling me he wanted me to hold him & rock him but since there isn't a rocking chair that I can get to right now he was out of luck. He finally told me "bedroom" and I thought he meant that he wanted to go lay down in my bedroom so I took him upstairs and put him on the couch and started a movie. He fell asleep a few minutes later & Samantha wanted to watch cartoons so I took her in our room to turn on the TV. That's when I found the culprit. One of Trav's big knives with the blade laying open and sitting on the floor next to our waterbed. The pencils were on the dresser so I knew that was where he had been. I'm just glad he didn't end up with a knife in his foot! Heaven only knows we lucked out this time!! (After telling Trav what had happened he remembered he found this knife with the blade open the other day & the thought had crossed his mind that Nash had gotten it open. He closed the blade & was going to move it but got sidetracked and forgot.)

Happy Birthday Nash

Well, my baby is 3 now. I can't believe how fast the time goes by. Nash is getting so big so fast I can't believe that I'm going to start all over again in a few short months.
This year Nash wanted a Lightening McQueen birthday cake, so that's what we made him. He was pretty dang hilarious to watch open his presents. He had his cowboy boots on that he got for Christmas with his shorts and no socks (he and the other kids had wanted to go outside but we convinced them to stay inside by letting him open presents). The whole time he was opening presents he was growling like a tiger & jumping around. I wish I had had a video camera to tape it - it was definately cheap entertainment at our place last night!
Nash got a basketball hoop and a Diego rescue center. He also got a magna doodle type thing, a baseball bat & ball & some clothes and I made him a fleece Mater blanket too. He got a picnic table for outside (which he ate some breakfast on this morning despite that it's about 40 degrees out there!). Pretty spoiled kid, just like his sister! He had a great time though & it was fun to have all the family and friends over for cake and ice cream.
My mom took more pix on her camera so I'll have to post those as soon as I get them.

Samantha's Dance Recital

Here is Samantha's 2008 dance picture. She has been taking at LaShar's again all year (this is her 2nd year of dance). Her recital is Sat. May 10th at Logan High School at 6 pm and after that she will be done with dance lessons until Aug. She loves dance class & I'm a bit worried she's going to be upset if she has a different teacher in the fall (she's had the same teacher for 2 years in a row). Hopefully she'll adjust quickly! I thought about signing her up for lessons during the month of June b/c they do a performance at Ragaing Waters at the end of the month. But, it's twice a week instead of once & I don't think this poor fat girl will be able to do that much running for too much longer!



I had her standing under this tree to take her picture and as soon as I tell her to "Say cheese" she strikes this pose (I think she takes after her Aunt Jamie more and more every single day!)

28 weeks

Well, we're down to about 2 1/2 months now...unfortunately, my shirts (XL in maternity thank you) are getting TOO SHORT! I'm afraid I'm going to be like I was when I was pregnant with Samantha & have to start buying plus size clothes in order to get them to be long enough to cover the elastic on my pants! Ahh...the joys of pregnancy!