Celebrate!!!

We are currently celebrating the fact that we have made it through the month of July with Scott's HORRIBLE schedule of being gone from 8 am to 10 pm and basically not seeing him at all even when he was home because it was filled with homework. He made straight A's!!! He had Medical Anatomy, English, and Psychology classes! Do you realize how much writing and studying that requires in just a month's time?!? We are all very proud of him and grateful we haven't damaged our relationship with him too much from not having him around!



So, I haven't written for awhile because I was trying to collect the pictures that went along with my stories, but the guy that has the pictures is a flight attendant and I haven't seen him at church for the past few Sundays and so I guess I have to document with words and the pictures will have to come later.


First was Alec, Calvin, and Ashton going to Scout Camp..."Camp Petty" (named after the Young Men's President, Brother Petty). Can I just tell you the amount of men that went and participated in this camp?!? It was impressive. They went to Durango, Colorado because most of the campground here are closed due to the recent fires. So, they went north...They had river rafting, fishing, hiking, canoes, etc. planned for the boys. Alec said that the overnight hike that he did about killed him. He said that the truck that they were riding had a hose that broke and so they had to use their water to put back into the radiator to get to where they were going to start their hike. So, most of the boys started off with little or no water. Then, I am pretty sure Alec had one of the oldest backpacks that are still around, but it was the only one that we had. We might need to invest in better equipment, especially considering the fact that this troop does this often. So, his 12 mile hike in was probably one of the hardest he has ever done, but he said that when he got to the fishing spot, it was the most beautiful place he had ever seen. He instantly pulled out his fly-fishing pole and just was in HEAVEN. Any of you that know Alec, know that he is one that loves to be out in nature. He could live off the land, in a tent with his dog and be totally happy. He could care less about money or anything like that. He just loves nature. Anyway, Bishop said that everyone else there loved watching Alec fish with his fly-fishing pole. He said that Alec was so graceful and made it look so easy and it was a joy to watch him. I am glad they got to see that side of Alec. Alec caught 9 fish and was on cloud nine. Calvin said that he had fun and his favorite experience was the "white-water rafting". He said it got his adrenalin going and the water felt so good. He said it was fun and scary when they would go down and then up this big waves and one minute see other rafts and then they couldn't see them. He said he fell in once and that was crazy (that's all he would say...). Ashton said that he had fun, but mostly played all week because all but one merit badge that they were working on, he already had. He was bummed because he really like earning a lot of merit badges at camp (probably because grandpa pays him for his badges!).



Dallen and I had a fun time during that week. We planned an activity every day so we could have something to look forward to. I really liked having time with just him. It was fun. He, though, by the end of the week was wanting to be around others...he wanted others his age! We went up to Sedona with Kathie and her kids to play in the river. It was so pretty and really fun. Below is a little slide show of that. Kathie has more pictures, but these are the ones I took with my phone. They caught SO many crawdads. The poor things were being packed into water bottles. There were easily over 40 of them. We brought them home and the thing with crawdads is that if the healthy ones see and are around dying ones, they start to do poorly...so, slowly, one by one they all died. But, Dallen sure had fun playing with them. Kathie's family had tadpoles and have been raising them into frogs. Very fun! Dallen and I also went to the science center and watched a couple movies at the theatre and I think his favorite was playing with cousins.


The boys got home from Scout camp Saturday afternoon and Sunday I told them we were going to St. George for the week on Monday. They were SO excited. The reason for the trip was that my Grandma Nyquist (Steurer) had decided to move into the Beehive Cottages. It's not the assisted living home, but the ones where they have their own apartments/condos and can come and go as they please, yet they have all their meals taken care of and someone around if they need medical attention. There is just a little more security there for her. So, my dad called and asked me if I would help her go through her stuff so that she could figure out what she wanted to keep and what she wanted to get rid of. This was a big task because my grandma has always been amazing at food storage/preparedness and how do you let go of feeling so prepared and being okay with the little that you do take? She was moving into a 700 sq foot home from at least 4000 sq feet...it was a task. I really enjoyed the opportunity to work with my grandma like this because I never thought I would ever hear her say the words "just get rid of it" or "give it to DI". She was amazing going through everything. She still took a lot (in my book), but most of it was memories of family and trips and ancestors. I literally did not see my kids all week. Alec took the car the whole week and transported everyone to friends and movies and whatever else they did. They were grateful that they got to see friends. Calvin mentioned to me that he was glad for the trip because he realized that he still had his friends and that nothing had changed just because he moved to Mesa. Alec went on a date (with two girls at the same time...they actually are his friends, but we never let him just "hang out" with them before). Dallen and Ashton played a lot with Porter, their cousin, and that was fun that they got to do that. They saw three movies (Harry Potter, Captain America, and Transformers). They were so happy about that. It was a crazy week for me emotionally. I realized how much I missed and loved my children and how I don't ever want "stuff" to come between us. It just isn't important, especially seeing how fast it can be taken away (we had cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. come in and divide up grandma's stuff...that was insane...even after all they took, there was still a huge load to DI!). We are grateful to Grandma, though, for the things she sent home with us. All the toilet tissue and paper towels as well as the bar stools that have made our home that much better.
This is just a small portion of what grandma gave to us. In the boxes behind the water jugs were all filled with Kleenex and everything you see is a couple layers deep! This seriously doesn't even scratch the surfice of what she had to take and give. There was SO much stuff and at times it was overwhelming, and I was grateful for the realization of how un-important it really is in our lives. I didn't realize how emotionally draining this project was. It's nice to have security for when things happen, and I will do my best for that, but there comes a point where things just don't matter and that my kids and my relationship with them matters the most. I love my boys! Speaking of which, I was really glad we got to see Derrek. I'm not sure he was too happy. I think he had just gotten used to the idea of us being gone and then here we were again. But, he and Alec hung out and he was awesome to let us see him and eat with the Graves and dip into his new world.


The next week, I literally crashed to recover from the trip to St. George. I didn't realize how much it took out of me and I could only imagine/have sympathy for grandma because if I was this worn out, I can only imagine how she must be feeling. Seriously she was amazing. I really don't remember much about that week. I remember Heidi came back from her trip to Colorado and we went to Peter Piper Pizza with all the mom's and kids in the family...that's always fun. It's funny because Rachel had just gotten back from cleaning her mom's house (who has hoarding tendancies) and so we were telling stories. I had mine of Grandma's 8 or more black trash bags full of brand new Kleenex boxes and just as much toilet paper and paper towels. It was amazing. Rachel found sheets that were in a laundry basket since she lived there in high school! It was therapudic! Rebecca also has a mom that keeps everything and sent us a funny comic about the subject that she had been saving since 2002!...we thought it was funny...


We have been getting ready for school to start. Ashton finally decided to get glasses again. I have been trying to get him to wear something, but he kept telling me he could see just fine without them. Well, finally he decided it was bad enough to wear glasses again. He was funny in the doctor's office. When he had to read the chart he said "I could actually see the last line. That's never happened to me!". Then he got his glasses and was so excited to be able to read what was on the t.v. (come to find out that his brothers had been reading it for him!). Calvin and Alec sold some stuff (iPod and wakeskate) and bought a XBox 360. They were so excited...little did they know that they would need me to put in another $100! That was the ticket for them to let Dallen and Ashton use it. Anyway, this last week I have not cared that it is on all the time. It's time for school to start! It starts this Wednesday, August 10th. It will be an adjustment and I know Calvin and Alec are really nervous...for me I get nervous for them at lunch time. I hope that Alec and Calvin at least have lunch together so that they will have someone to sit by. That is the worst! Or that someone will invite them to sit with them. It is such a hard age, especially being the new kid. Ashton seems a little nervous. We need to go walk through the school so he will know where to go, but other than that, he doesn't seem to mind. Dallen is super friendly, and so I am not too worried about him fitting in quickly. He is still nervous, but he does know some kids from church and so I am glad that he can eat with them at lunch!


Still no job for me, but in a way it's been a blessing and our needs have been taken care of without me having a job and I am so grateful for those blessings. It's been amazing to see. I did, though, get a calling at church as Primary Chorister. It is seriously one of my favorite callings (this will be my 3rd time). I love being goofy with the kids and teaching them the Primary songs and having those songs stuck in my head ALL WEEK LONG! It's already been so much fun. I found on a web-page an idea that I fell in love with. I made "wiggle weebles" (that's what I named them) and they had wiggle songs attached to them, but the only way they could "come out and play" was for the wiggliest kid to pick it out...so the kids had to wiggle the best that they could in order to pick one of the weebles. It was funny because one of the boys in the back said "I can't do it anymore...my head hurts!". It was awesome and soon all the wiggles were gone :). Scott doesn't have a calling, and the funny thing is that one member of the Bishopric comes up to him every Sunday and asks a question of his schedule or likes or things he's done in the past or something and then they say "we are just trying to find the right calling for you...it's going to be good". I am pretty sure he hasn't gotten one yet because he literally was gone and wouldn't have been able to do anything. Now his schedule is 8-5...school in the morning (if he gets in the program...we find out tomorrow) and work in the afternoon. It will be nice to have a schedule...for all of us.