Getting ready for Christmas

We finally got our tree up and our house decorated for Christmas. It is fun to have the house decorated and the kids are excited about being out of school and getting ready for Christmas. They have been working hard on a present for Daddy's birthday as well.

Another Toad Died!

Well, we lost our Beany toad the other afternoon. He had the same type of infection that Bud had, and it was not something he could not recover from. Now we have a terrarium full of superworms that are changing into big black beetles. The first one that changed really surprised us.

Bud, a good toad!

Today we mourn the loss of our toad, Bud.  Our kids and the Thacker kids found Bud at Palisades in the summer of 2007 (Dastrup Reunion).  At that time he was just a tiny little guy, about the size of Curtis' thumb!  Over the last year he gobbled his food and grew and grew.  It has been so fun to feed him, watch him grow, and even interact with him.  He used to sit and watch us eat, waiting for his turn for dinner.  Last week, we got really concerned about Bud.  He had been acting sluggish for awhile, and we thought perhaps he was getting ready to hibernate again.  But then we saw that his front legs were swollen, and his skin was tight and glossy--not normal.  We were concerned about him, and decided that we should do what we could to help him get better.  So, we took him to the vet.  We have a vet in Richmond that specializes in amphibians.  He gave Bud a shot and sent us home with some antibiotic medicine and some topical drops for the sores on his feet.  A couple of days later we were celebrating how good Bud looked and that he was getting better.

Last night, Raquel came in complaining about an earache.  I put some drops in her ear and then gave her a Tylenol to swallow.  We were in the kitchen getting some water, and I wandered over to check on the toads.  Bud look pale and his eyes looked funny.  He was in the same spot as earlier that evening.  I took him out and checked him for life signs, but he was gone.  I certainly hope that he didn't die in pain.

Since Curtis was at work, I text him about what to do.  We decided to wait until we were all together in the morning to tell the kids.  So, just before church as we knelt down for prayers, we told the kids how Bud had died.  We were all sad, and even shed a few tears for our little friend.  Beany (our other toad) looks kind of sad and lonely in the habitat.

After church, Curtis dug a hole in the backyard and we went out (in the snow) and buried Bud.  Glenn wrote a journal entry about the event:

We are sad that Bud died, but we are grateful that we got to have him for awhile, and that he doesn't hurt anymore.  Bud was a good toad!

Raquel's Date with Daddy

Raquel and Daddy went Miniture Golfing for their date on Wednesday Oct0ber 8th (good timing since it's now snowing in Logan). They had a very fun time.  Raquel says it was really fun and they had a really good time.  Raquel would like to have practiced before they started the game, because she didn't know how to use the club--but she got the hang of it as they went and did better than Daddy on some of the holes.  After golfing, Daddy on a quise to buy balloons and streamers,  took Raquel to Hobby Lobby.  They looked around the entire store to see what Raquel found interesting.  The next day Daddy went back to Hobby Lobby and bought a gift card to give her for her birthday present.  

All Day working on Cake Photos

Spent all day today (especially during Conference) working on pictures I took for Amelia.  Should have done them a long time ago, but never did!  She wanted them done now because of all of her "publicity"--she's famous you know!  Anyway, I have posted them all on my Flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/30880556@N04/)or you can look at them on Amelia's business site  Frosted Fantasy Cakes ( http://frostedfantasycakes.com/ ).

Shane's turn!

Shane took Daddy to the new Ryan's Place Park in Logan.  Dad said, "you should have seen his eyes when Shane saw the park."  None of the rest of us have been there yet, but it sure sounds like a fun park.  Daddy and Shane had a fantastic time playing on the playground.  They ran and ran and Daddy said that Shane was all over the place!  Sounds like Shane, huh!!!  They climbed walls, posed as Rupunzel's knight, excavated dinosaurs, and blasted off in a rocket ship and landed on planet "Nasty Fishsticks"--don't ask us where he got that idea, he's got his own imagination.  After playing for over an hour at the park, Shane told Daddy it was time to go get some lunch!  They went to KFC for chicken dinner and then came home and took a nap together.  It was fun for Dad and Son!

Glenn's first lost tooth!

Glenn lost his first tooth Friday and the tooth fairy put 50 cents under his pillow that night!

New Ward--third one in 18 months and the same house!

We went to a special meeting tonight.  The Stake Presidency again took two wards in our stake and made three--and wouldn't you know it, we are in the new ward again. So, now we are the Logan River 5th Ward!  Really the only difference is that they took a few streets from our ward and added a new developing section further south (another section of The Springs) and called us the Logan River 5th Ward.  The section they took from our ward remains Henry's Point Ward, and they made a new division within the Green Meadows Ward--took some of them out and added them to Henry's Point Ward.  We still meet in the church house on 1000 S and 1000 W, and Bishop Bowman was recalled.  He was the new Bishop when Henry's Point Ward was created and now he is bishop of another new ward.  It wasn't what we had SPECULATED, but it is good.  Now we will be waiting to see if we will be recalled to our previous positions or not--obviously we all were automatically released.  

Master Teacher of an Ancient Game

Allison was so excited to go out with Mom tonight, and we had a lot of fun.  She desperately wanted to try a FH'zookie from FireHouse Pizzaria like Raquel did, so that was our first stop.  It was very tasty and we had fun creating cookie continents with ice cream snow caps and oceans where melted ice cream circulated imaginary tiny people.  Boy, that was a delicious geography lesson! 

After we had gobble up the world, we stopped at Macey's t buy a little game to play.  We bought a Mancala game.  I just learned today that Mancala is a broad name for a lot of games, our particular game was technically called Kalah.  Anyway, I'd never played it before, but Allison had and she was so excited to teach me how it worked.  She must be a master teacher, because I won all but the last game!  

It was a blast to go out with Allison.  My favorite part was watching her sheer joy as she talked and talked and talked about stuff she was interested in, and the things she and her friends were doing, and other things that were important to her.  Not only does her face light up, but her whole body expresses her enthusiasm--and it is very contagious.  And then she laughs and it is the most beautiful sound in the world!  She is an angel!

Extra! Extra! Read All About It--Glenn Cleans the Kitchen Sink!!!

Glenn's turn for a date with Dad tonight.  When Curtis and Glenn were deciding what to do, Curtis mentioned the "Kitchen Sink" at Angie's Restaurant and Glenn was intrigued.  He counted down the days until it was his turn for his day out with Dad, and at dinner he announced that neither he nor Dad could have seconds--cause they needed room for the huge banana split.  Only then he changed his mind and said Dad could have seconds (leaving more ice cream for Glenn to eat, see)!  He literally bounced out of the door when dinner was over and his hair was combed.  Looks like they had a fun time.  Curtis said Glenn ate 3/4 of the thing--actually served in a stainless steel, sink-shaped bowl with a drain stand!  "That was a lot of ice-cream" says Glenn when he gets home.  At least they went to the park for a little while after Angie's to shake it into their legs a bit.  He came home with a huge smile and a bumper sticker proclaiming his victory over a sink full of ice cream, whipped topping, and bananas!  Congratulations Glenn (and Dad)!

In other news, Allison and Raquel have written a couple of songs--Raquel composed the words and Allison made up the tune--I will have to record Allison singing them, they are amazing!  Watch for that!

This is a busy week (or weekend) for me at work.  We have two of our shows (Saturday, Monday and Tuesday) and my outreach events are Friday and Monday.  Lots of stuff to do and between getting people where they need to be and taking care of details, there isn't much time for any other work to get done.  Guess my teacher packets will have to wait again.  I think it will be enjoyable, however.  The part that worries me is that Craig (my photo professor) has asked me to be a participant in a photo show at the Alliance for the Varied Arts (AVA) for photo alumni and those entries need to be in next Wednesday!  Not alot of time!  Oh well, it will be great!  That show starts Sept 26th at the Thacker Young Mansion House.  (PS--you are all welcome) I am not sure on the details--I have them somewhere, but don't want to go find them!

Anyway--Life goes on!

Raquel asked Mommy out for a FH'zzookie!

Last year Raquel read alot and got a coupon from school for a free FH'zzookie at the FireHouse Pizzaria.  We never remembered to use the coupon and the other day, Raquel found it on the fridge and asked me if there was a time that we could go and use it.  Thinking of her request, we decided as a family that with four weeks in a month, four kids, and two parents, we could arrange to have one parent-child date each week with Mom taking out the girls and Dad taking out the boys one month and switching the next month.  So, since Raquel was the instigator, we let her pick the first arrangement and went from there.  We are going to switch off girl-boy-girl-boy in a month, thus next week is Glenn's turn with Daddy and Allison's is the next week with Mommy, followed by Shane the final week with Daddy.  So we have finally really started something we have tried to do many times--but I think it will really work with this new arrangement.

And, this was so much fun. Raquel was not satisfied with just going for a FH'zzokie at the FireHouse Pizzaria. Not that she didn't enjoy it, but because she didn't want our "date" to end. So we went to Cache Valley Center for the Arts and I showed her my office (it wasn't that impressive, and I couldn't take her by the theatre because they had a production there tonight) and then she said she wanted to go walk around the temple grounds. We didn't stay too long, because it was cold outside, but it was sure neat. I asked Raquel if she had a goal of getting married in the temple, and she said she did. I encouraged her to reach that goal and not settle for anything less--if somebody loves you they should love you enough to marry you forever. And I told her about when Curtis and I had talked about getting married and he mentioned to me that wow, we were talking about forever. It was kind of a humbling realization, but also very special. After we were too cold to stay any longer, we went to the grocery store and picked up a few things and then had to come home--it was after all a school night! It was really neat to just have special time together. Raquel is really growing up, and we don't have alot of time to just talk, so tonight we caught up on some of that. And she was cute when we got home, she went in and told Allison all about it. It made me feel good that she had a good enough time to tell someone.

Crazy Day!

Well--September and school time in Logan!  We love this time of year--except for the getting up in the morning part.  Today was a case in point.  (FYI--we have been doing well so far--today was an exception.)

Some background--Curtis works Wednesday and Friday mornings so I have to get myself and the kids up and ready on time to leave for school at 7:40am.  Last year Curtis was so good to be the responsible one and get everybody up and ready.  I have been trying really hard to be responsible this year and it hasn't been too bad.  One morning I woke up on time and realized I hadn't even set my alarm!  I was so pleased.  

Today's story--As I said, we need to leave for school at 7:40am.  This morning, Shane came in and woke me up, "Mommy, I'm thirsty!"  Not an uncommon request.  "OK buddy," I say sleepily as I look at the clock.  Suddenly I am wide awake!  It is 7:40am!!!  And, of course, nobody is awake, let alone ready to leave for school.

Well, I ran down the hall and alerted the kids to the perilous situation.  Glenn jumped out of bed and pronounced, "I'm going to hurry because I don't want to be late to school!"  They all did really well.  They all got their clothes and shoes on and teeth and hair brushed.  As they grabbed their jackets and backpacks and loaded in the van, I finished up with Shane and grabbed some toast. (Which wasn't as fast as it sounds because I had to defrost frozen homemade bread enough to slice it before putting it in the toaster and then slathering butter and cinnamon sugar on top)

We drove from our house to the intersection by the school (which is only about 5 or 6 blocks) and parked the van and walked the rest of the way (another couple of blocks).  It was silly, but necessary--if we had taken the bikes, the kids would not have been able to eat any type of breakfast, and we certainly couldn't walk the whole way.  But we got there just after 8am and the first bell rang as I was wiping cinnamon residue off of Glenn's mouth.

That wasn't the end--now I had to go home and feverishly get myself ready for work at 9am.  I was a bit late, but not bad.  The only really hard thing was that Shane didn't want to let me drop him off at Amelia's house because he didn't get his morning downtime.  He was ok once I left and he got playing.

I was really proud of the troops this morning.  They didn't complain and helped each other out.  For that reason (and the extra sleep) I am tempted to get up at 7:40 every morning.  (JK)