Sports Sports Sports

I knew what I was getting into so I can't complain.

When I first met my husband and learned he was majoring in sport management, I assumed sports was an interest of his. I then learned my husband came from a family of 9 boys (no girls). Hmmm. And then, after attending my first family get together, my suspicions were confirmed. "How can they all know EVERYTHING about EVERY sport?" I wondered. Those boys were spewing forth stats like an auctioneer on auction day. Since I was already crazy about my husband, I quickly decided it was better to join him than fight him. So, over the last 14 years I've become a bit of a sports junkie too. With this in mind, here's a recap of my weekend:

Friday - Attend Gonzaga basketball game. This was actually a scrimmage that was free to the public. It was a blast. The "kennel" was packed and the players even treated us to a dance before the game. Our kids loved it

Saturday am - Soccer. Both Nicholas and Natalie were on teams this year. I have to admit I love soccer. Our family has a "sports" quilt. We take it to the games and snuggle in it, drinking hot cocoa and rooting for whatever family member we're supporting that day.

Saturday pm - WSU football game. Nothing says fall like cool, crisp air; kettle corn; and our family huddled together at the stadium, rooting for our beloved cougs. They even won!

Sunday - Okay, I know I really shouldn't have anything sports related to discuss on the Sabbath, BUT . . . Andrew and I have an agreement, no sports on Sunday except the Super Bowl and if the Red Sox are in the World Series (his favorite baseball team since he was a little boy). Well . . . it was game 4 of the World Series and the Red Sox were up 3 - 0 in the series. So we all stayed up late and THEY WON!!! We celebrated with sparkling cider and lots of cheering.


Here are some pictures of all the festivities:

Mr. Adam Goes to Preschool

I've reached a milestone - my baby is now attending preschool. Yippee!!! He walked right in the first day and never looked back. I was so excited for him. The funny thing was that my eyes were watering like crazy that day due to my allergies, so it looked like I was crying. I have to admit it was nice getting those sweet, knowing looks and smiles from other parents, but I have to set the record straight and admit I was NOT crying. Anyway, here's a picture of my little guy. He refused to look at the camera (there were way too many other fun things to look at in his preschool room), but at least he smiled (kind of).

The Replacement Post

As expected, Andrew thought I did too much gushing over him in my last post and wanted me to replace it ASAP so it wouldn't be the first thing that popped up when people opened my blog. I guess I could post some things that drive me crazy about him to balance the posts!

Seriously though - I'm having a hard time coming up with a topic today, so I'll share a little gaffe from yesterday. Recently, I was asked to attend a school meeting as PTG president along with a school staff member who was filling in for another staff member who couldn't make it. This lady's name is Christi. Anyway, Christi picked up a packet for the missing staff member, so I e-mail the missing staff member and told him "Christi has a packet for you." EXCEPT I forgot to add the "i" at the end of Christi's name and the e-mail actually said, "Christ has a packet for you." The staff member called the typo to my attention yesterday and got a good laugh (especially since this staff member is Jewish). Oops! Do you think I can count that as missionary work? :-)

Becoming We

It was a warm fall night in 1991 and my college buddy was coming to pick me up to go to a party. She pulled up in the driveway of the house I shared with 4 other friends. When I ran out to get in the car a handsome guy got out of the passenger side and pulled his seat forward and climbed in back. Hmmm - who is this handsome guy I was thinking (I was also telling myself to "knock it off" because I had a boyfriend). I learned his name was Andrew and that night a friendship began.

Fast forward to December 1992 . . . I'm home from college for Christmas break and I run into Andrew while hanging out with my best friend Candy. Candy comments, "Introduce me to that guy, he's cute." That comment was all it took to make me realize, I like this guy (nothing like a little jealousy to get you in touch with your true feelings). I dropped the hint that I didn't have a boyfriend anymore, Andrew asked me to the movies, and we were married 8 months later.

Last month we celebrated our 14-year anniversary. I'm so thankful for that fall evening in 1991. Andrew is a wonderful husband and father. He's humble, funny, easy-going, dedicated to his family, hard-working, loves to serve, never afraid to share the gospel, dedicated to daily scripture study, and non-judgmental. A matter of fact, he's so humble he's going to be embarrassed that I exposed all his goodness on my blog. But, that's the price you pay for being so wonderful!

I'm so thankful our paths crossed and Andrew and I became "we."

Back To School

I can't believe summer is over and it's time to resume a "scheduled" life again. Back to packing lunches, supervising homework, waiting at the bus stop, hiding the take-home papers in the bottom of the garbage can so my kids won't see that I'm throwing them away (if found, that discarded math sheet becomes the prize project that only a mean mom would throw away), and so on. But to be honest, I love it, love it, love it. I'm so thankful for my 3 little students (4 if you include my preschooler who starts preschool later this month).


Natalie and her friend Anna

Nicholas forbade me from taking his picture in his classroom, but I snuck this one.

Ally and her friend Kimmi

A Prehistoric Saturday

I have to first admit I haven't been a fun mom lately. As most of you know, I'm the PTG president of my children's school this year. Well, I knew it was going to get crazy during the month of August, but I WAY underestimated the time commitment. For the last 2 weeks I've been attached to the computer and phone trying to get the parents ready for the upcoming school year. I've also been working on my "pet projects" which are setting up a PTG room at the school and organizing childcare for our PTG meetings. I am really hoping to pull these off. Now couple all this with the fact that the end of August is usually my most busiest time of year at work (we like to work extra hard to make up for the relaxing summer) and you can see where I'm going with this.

Anyway, my husband gently reminded me on Saturday that we were going to spend the day as a family - no phones, no computers. Ah, this man knows exactly what I need!

We decided to visit the local museum which was exhibiting a replica of a T-Rex discovered in South Dakota (it helped that Ally, Nicholas and Natalie earned free tickets from the local library for reading 15 books this summer!) Now tell me if any of you can relate to this conversation:

ME: Oh shout, I forgot my camera.

ALLY: It's okay mom, you can use your cell phone.

ME: But I don't know how

ALLY: Here, mom, I'll take care of it.

She then proceeded to take a couple pictures and then e-mail them to me so I could use them on my blog. So, who's more ancient, the dinosaur or me????

Look What Came Walking Down My Street!!! by Ally

Jack and Jill came up the South Hill

Looking for some water.

Jack looked around and said,

"This looks like a nice cul-de-sac"

And Jill came following after.

I've Been Tagged

I was just catching up on everyone's blogs and noticed Lucy tagged me with 5 GREAT questions. I had to put some thought into these answers. Here it goes:

1. If you could change one part of your body what would it be?
Well, if I have to pick only one, it would be . . . the chest - ugh! Where did they go???

2. How much do you think you need to make to be "really comfortable" (think annual salary)? This is an interesting question because the "really comfortable" amount has changed for me over the years. When Andrew and I were first married, we talked a lot about the "6-figure amount" and that this amount would be sufficient to comfortably raise a family. As we've grown older (wiser?) we've realized it's not just about supporting our family but it's also about having the means to help others and being able to put a decent amount away each month for college, missions, retirement, etc. So, now, I think the comfortable amount is closer to double the "6-figure amount."

3. What is your greatest God-given talent? This is a hard one for me to answer because I use to wonder, "Do I have any talents?" It honestly wasn't until I was called to Primary I realized how much I love children (well, I knew I loved my own but I didn't realize how much I loved everyone else's!) If this can be considered a talent, I guess that's my answer.

4. Winter Olympics or Summer Olympics? Gymnastics! Enough said.

5. If you could have any career, and you were GUARANTEED success (no tests to get in, no auditions, no worrying about daycare, or money or time) what would you do? Hands down, Kindergarten teacher. I love my current career, the law still challenges and excites me, but, in light of #3 above, I'd love to spend the day with 5 year olds.

Thanks Lucy for the tag.

The Crown Jewel of Idaho

We just returned from a week at Priest Lake, which the locals call the "Crown Jewel of Idaho." I honestly think any large amount of water surrounded by mountains is such an amazing gift of beauty from our Heavenly Father that I could never pick just one as the "Crown Jewel," but Priest Lake is a treasure to our family because of the memories we've made there over the last 6 years.

This year we got a little adventurous and decided to teach Ally and Nicholas to water ski. A big task for 2 inexperienced parents. Unfortunately, they take after their mother and didn't get up. Here's a picture of Nicholas getting ready to say "hit it!"

Aren't those skis suppose to be perpendicular to the water???

My grandparents also came up. My grandpa LOVES to read with the kids. I'm so thankful for his patience. Here's a pic. of Natalie and Grandpa reading on the hammock. Note Natalie's outfit: I let the kids pack their own suitcases this year. When I opened hers, I found 2 swimsuits, a swimsuit cover up (which she's wearing) and A LOT of Barbies. What more does a girl need???

We also went on a 6-mile hike to Upper Priest Lake. This portion of the lake is only accessible by boat or on foot. It's so pristine. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the lake, but here's a picture of us on the trail. If I did a close up of our fingers you'd see the purple stains from huckleberry picking. Yum - homemade huckleberry ice cream - another family tradition at the lake.

Here's some more pictures from our week at the lake:

see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil

Natalie Kayaking

All smiles

Adam - tube extraordinaire. I kept telling my kids they were "totally tubular" - it's so great to use those 80's sayings!

non-skiing siblings - maybe next year??

And, last but not least, here's a picture of the cabin where we stayed. We use to stay at another cabin nearby, but met the owners of this cabin last summer. They offered to rent their cabin to us this year, something they've NEVER done before. The owners are a cute retired couple who feel their days of maintaining a lake house may be numbered - enters our family who is dying to buy a lake house. To make a long story short, we're hoping when they decide to sell, they'll sell to us. It's a perfect fit for our family, there's lots of room for friends, and it's across the street from the lake rather than right on the water, which means it's less than a million dollars! :-) We're waiting patiently . . . .

Main cabin - sorry it's hard to make out through the trees.


Back yard of main cabin

Guest cabin next door

OUT WITH THE "OAK" - IN WITH THE NEW

Last week I got the "home project" bug. Those who know me well know I don't get bitten by this bug often. A matter of fact, I've found that I'm even more content with my house since my husband started throwing away my Pottery Barn catalogs before I can look at them.

Anyway, last week I was antsy to replace the oak dresser in the boys' room because the drawers were falling apart. I envisioned a nice, navy blue replacement. I even thought to myself, "This is it, my last piece of 90s oak furniture will officially be out of the house!"

But, a navy blue dresser was not to be found. To improvise, I found a white one and bought blue paint. I came home and started on my project. I quickly realized my navy blue dresser was actually the color of those exit signs off the freeway that let you know there's food or gas at the next exit. My dresser looked like a giant, bright blue warning sign!

I went back to the store and got a darker color. I applied it and LOVED it. I even applied polyurethane to protect the dresser against chips (again, those who know me will be impressed I even know about polyurethane!)

Here's the final product:

After feeling so proud of myself and my move into the 2000s, I walked into our formal dining room and there staring me in the face was my large OAK dining room table.

Oops, I forgot about that! To my credit though, it's in the one room in our house that's almost NEVER used. Seriously, when we have friends or family over, no one ever goes in the formal dining room. We mainly use it when the missionaries come over for dinner. So, it's not too far of a stretch that I'd forget about the furniture in that room. I began hatching a plan to replace the table and chairs - but felt too guilty since they've rarely been used. So alas, I still have a little 90s oak. Maybe if I hold out long enough it will come back in style. My black stretch pants did!

SUMMER FUN

I've really enjoyed reading everyone's summer recaps on their blogs. It's so easy to catch up that way and feel connected even though we're all busy going in different directions this summer. I've attached pictures with desciptions to fill you in on what our family's been up to.

Adam at our neighbor's birthday party. They had it at a Fire Station. What a great place for a bunch of 3-year-old boys!

Our friends, the Murphys, were in town from Nevada. They use to be in our ward, but moved about 3 years ago. Here's a picture of Jodi, Valynn, me, and Crysti having a BBQ at the park. We now have 16 kids between our 4 families!

Andrew had a business trip in Park City. I joined him for a couple days and left the kids with a young couple from our ward. This is the first time I've done that. It worked out great! I highly recommend it!

While going for a walk in Park City we looked up and saw shoes in the trees. Must be a Utah thing! ;-)

Here's where we stayed.

Alpine Slide - bring back any memories Utah girls???

Andrew taking a little rest on the 6-person chair lift. I've been skiing a long time and I've never seen such a large lift!



Here's a picture of "The Best Thing I Did This Summer" (i.e., joined a club with an outdoor swimming pool - worth every penny!)



My new favorite treat - Apple Pie Caramel Apple. They'll even cut it for you so it's not so messy to eat.

4th of July - watching fireworks from Grandma and Grandpa's backyard and wearing $5 Old Navy shirts!

The Missing Crab by Ally

On June 9, 2007, me and my friend Holland played with my hermit crabs. After we were done, we put them back in their cage. Later that night my sister took one of the crabs out, Anna (MY hermit crab) and left her on the carpet unsupervised. She crawled away.

Later, I asked my mom, "Where's Anna?" She said, "I don't know." My mom looked EVERYWHERE. She looked for a whole week!

On June 15, 2007, my dad came home late at night. He didn't know Anna was missing. The next day, he asked me, "Where is Anna?" I told him she had been lost for more than a week.

On June 17, 2007 which was Father's Day, my dad tore up the whole upstairs looking for Anna. I asked my dad, "What are you doing?" He said, "Looking for Anna."

After chruch that day, me, my dad, Nicholas, and Natalie walked home. Sometimes we like to walk home and talk. My dad asked us, "Have you said a family prayer for Anna?" I said, "No, but I said a personal prayer for her." We decided when we got home we would say a family prayer to find her.

My dad gathered everyone together for a prayer. 10 second later, my mom went to put her church shoes back in her closet and THERE WAS ANNA!!! I was so happy to see her alive.

We then said another prayer, thanking Heavenly Father for answering our prayer so quickly. I then went in my bedroom and said a personal thank you prayer. Do you know what my primary lesson was about that day? Gratidue and telling Heavenly Father thank you.

I had a lot of emotional feelings.

I felt like I witnessed a miracle.

New Title

I had one of those "ah ha" moments today and decided to open my blog to all my family members to post instead of just me. This mainly stemmed from Ally asking me today to have her own blog, "like yours mom" she pleaded. Then it dawned on me that she, or the others, could just post on mine when they wanted to share thoughts, feelings, or stories. Accordingly, I changed the name of my blog to "The Acanna Collective." Can any of you guess what Acanna stands for??? :-)


Ally is working on her first post (she's handwriting it out first - how cute is that?) Keep posted for more to come . . . .

ALL "THOUGHT" AND NO ACTION

Andrew is in New Jersey this week. I had BIG plans to accomplish soooo much while he was gone. In my mind, I pictured me posting on my blog each night, finishing the book of the month for my book group, rearranging my bedroom furniture (when Andrew's out of town I love to pick one project to do around the house and then wait to see how long it takes him to notice - it's a little game we play), and maybe, just maybe scrapbooking a page in each of my children's books. Now, let's compare this list with what I actually accomplished. Let's see . . . oh yeah I did NOTHING!

Well, I shouldn't say nothing, I did take care of all the day to day tasks that moms need to do (cooking, cleaning, chauffeuring, etc.) I also got to do some service, which I've been praying for lately. Nothing really grand and amazing but small things like babysitting, bringing a meal, substituting a church calling, etc. I also got to enjoy the last week of school with my older children. There has been such excitement in the air all week. It's been fun planning end-of-the-year gifts for their teachers and enjoying a week without homework. With Andrew gone, I even got to get out my dusty softball mitt to play catch with Nicholas. He's convinced he needs to practice EVERY DAY so "the Boston Red Sox will pick him." I love the way an 8-year-old thinks! I also got to go to the park today with some of my friends and their children and celebrate the last day of school. This was probably one of the highlights of my week. I really love my friends, new and old!

So, Andrew returns home in a few hours. I didn't accomplish all I hoped, but I'll keep my list in mind and hopefully accomplish SOMETHING the next time he has a business trip.

Nicholas' Special Day

On May 18th (Mt. St. Helen's Day), Nicholas turned 8. I know that I have some friends who read my blog who don't go to the same church as I do, so I'll first explain that in our church, 8 is the "age of accountability" and is the time when our children are baptized. The first Saturday of each month is when all the children who turned 8 the month before get baptized.

We used the 2 weeks between Nicholas' birthday and his baptism to turn his focus from his party and his presents to the more eternal principle of baptism. We had such "grown up" discussions during this time about Christ and what it means to follow in His footsteps. I should also mention how thankful I am for my husband's relationship with Christ and the time he took to spiritually prepare for the big day. While I make many mistakes as a mom, I feel one thing I did right was giving my children a righteous father.

The baptism went great. Although I've come to the conclusion there's a reason moms are not bishops - there's NO WAY we would be able to keep our kids off the stand every Sunday!!! I sat on the stand with the other members of the Stake Primary Presidency during the baptism, and by the end I had 2 of my 4 children up there with me.

Speaking of bishops, ours had a great message at the baptism. He placed his cell phone in Nicholas' shirt pocket and then called it once while it was on vibrate and once while it was set to ring. He explained this was like the Holy Ghost - sometimes we feel him and sometimes we hear him. I loved this object lesson.

After the baptism we headed straight to IHOP (Nicholas' choice - I would have picked brunch at Luna or even the Davenport!) But, funny face pancakes it was. We all had a great time and then headed home for some time in the pool (the 1-foot, blow-up that is!)

Below are some pics of Nicholas' party and his baptism:

Volcano cake from Nicholas' Mt. St. Helen's B-Day Party

My little man

Future missionary???

Father/Son Camp Out . . . Mother/Daughter Hang Out

We found out just a few days ago that our church scheduled its annual "Father/Son Camp Out" during Memorial Weekend this year - usually it's held mid-May. We had already made plans to go to the Tri-Cities for the weekend. But, we knew our 8-year old son would be crushed to miss the camp out, so we made a quick change of plans.

We decided Andrew would take the boys (including Adam) to the camp out and I would take the girls for just an overnight trip to the Tri-Cities.

The boys had a great time doing what boys do . . . and us girls had a great time doing what girls do. We started with a trip to the mall, of course. While there, we shamelessly copied what my friends in another ward did during their ward's Father/Son Camp Out - went to Build-a-Bear Workshop. Natalie and Ally had so much fun picking their bears and outfits (thank you Kari Ann for blogging about this so I could "borrow" the idea! :-) We have never done this before and I was surprised it wasn't that expensive.

While at the mall I got an e-mail to my cell phone from Andrew. It was pictures of the boys camping. I e-mailed back pictures of the girls at the mall. Isn't modern technology amazing?!?

After a trip to Bath and Body Works, where we all came out smelling "fruity," we headed back to Grandma and Grandpa's house for some "hang out time." The next morning we made a trip to the cemetery (I love my grandparents who gently reminded me of the reason for Memorial Weekend). The cemetery was packed! I'm not sure if it was due to Memorial Weekend or the wedding taking place there (the nearby church must've been booked!)

On a more serious note, My children have lost 3 out of their 4 grandparents, so it was touching to put flowers on all the graves and talk about what it means to be a forever family.

Next pedicures and finally, the highlight of the trip, an afternoon by the pool. It was a great trip, but I'm glad to have our family back together again.

The girls filling out their bears' "birth certificates"

The girls and their bears

30 painted toes!

All smiles

What's down there, Natalie?

I can't believe I'm posting a picture of me in a swimsuit (yuck!) but wanted to show that I'm wearing my new Shade swimsuit.

The girls ready to jump in.