Working hard...

We have been doing good the past few weeks.  Lots of work opportunities in the summer and we are grateful for that.  This last week, Dallen and Ashton have been helping a couple of sisters clean out their mom's house, who passed away a year ago.  The mom was sort of a hoarder and so there is a TON of stuff.  This is good and bad for my boys because I have taught them to find treasure in trash (so to speak) and so while the sisters are throwing things away, my kids are wanting to dumpster dive!  It hasn't been that bad, but close.  They sisters made a deal with the boys.  There is a car there that was their mom's.  It isn't anything fancy and right now it doesn't even work.  They think it is just a dead battery from sitting so long and the mom was a shut-in and never really went anywhere.  It was filled with junk, though!  Anyway, they offered the boys the car for working this last week.  Ashton's eyes were BIG with excitement.  One of the days, the boys were taking a break in the car and the sisters came back from lunch and they asked Dallen and Ashton what they were doing and Ashton with his arm hanging on the steering wheel said "chillin'".  They thought that was funny and said, "well, you haven't earned it yet, so let's get back to work".  It was a good experience for the boys and the sisters have called Scott several times telling him that they really enjoyed the boys over there and that they are good kids and have a pleasant demeanor about them.  So, they finished the job and should be able to try and jump the car this week and at least get it over to our house.  One of the sisters is going to call the DMV and see what needs to be done to transfer it into Ashton's name!  I'm excited for them and it has really been a great experience.  If anything, they can you-tube how to fix it!

While working, though, Ashton had a couple little accidents.  He did this to his lip (well, actually Dallen threw something at him that was metal and it hit Ashton in the lip and went through!).  We had to go to insta-care because I was afraid of what would happen if food got in it and stuff.  It was big enough to stitch, but the doctor said it would abscess and so he left it open and gave us an anti-biotic to rinse with.  It is starting to heal.  Then a couple days later, he had stepped on a nail and it went into his foot.  Good thing we already got him a tetnis shot from the lip accident and so we are good!  I am not sure I could afford much more of this job!.

Speaking of jobs, Ashton is now officially working at Celebrations as a dish washer.  He is doing what Calvin did.  He works every day this week except Thursday.  That's a lot of dishes to wash!  Anyway, he seems to like it and it will be good for me to not be around him and the other ladies will have to teach him how to do things.  He actually is pretty good and knows what needs to be done.  Dallen will probably help out next week because all the dishwashers will be gone and then he can earn some money.   I am grateful for the opportunities they have been given.

Calvin is going down to Phoenix for a couple of job interviews.  Keep your fingers crossed!!!  One is for Target and I am not sure about the others.  He will be down there while Charity (his cousin) gets ready to leave for her mission this Wednesday!  She will be missed.

at the rodeo!  

We got to go to the Rodeo for the 4th of July.  It was actually held on the 5th.  I worked on the 4th and because nothing was going on in town for the 4th (because it was all being held on the 5th), working wasn't that big of a deal.  The rodeo is always fun.  Except...it's monsoon season and sure enough...the clouds rolled in.  It poured on us.  We usually stay, but it started lightening and I get nervous sitting on the metal bleachers while it is lightening.  I kinda wished we stayed because 10 minutes later, it let up and the rodeo was back on.  We saw most of it.  Just didn't get to see the barrel racing and the bull riding.  Those are my two favorites.  I just have to post this picture of Dallen.  He was so excited to wear his hat and boots.  He is the cutest cowboy :).  I'm glad I got one!  Now I just need one that wants to play sports and then I can die happy!  I might have him convinced about that, too...we'll see.

 Here is another thing that happened a couple of weeks ago.  Ashton managed to get in his first accident.  Luckily it wasn't a bad one, but my car seemed to get the brunt of it!  He was pulling out onto Main and it was dusk.  The other car looked like it was in the far lane and so Ashton turned right into the close lane.  Well, the car wasn't in the far lane and Ashton clipped the guy's back tire (hence the black marks on the bumper).  The guy was really nice about it and Ashton was given a ticket for not yielding.  He has to go to court on Wednesday to see what his ticket will be because that's how they do it here.  I keep wondering if taking them to court helps the kids to be more conscious of what they do.  It seems to be working for my boys!  I have been there with every one except Dallen (Derrek doesn't count because he's never lived here).  Anyway, good thing Ashton has a job and also that it wasn't worse than it could have been!

One last picture. So, Scott had all week off, literally.  It wasn't planned, but he had a lot of extra comp hours that needed to be used and they weren't busy at the mortuary, so Jason said for him to take the week off.  So, Scott took the boys camping in Show low area at Scott's reservoir (fitting, I know!).  They took canoes up there and had a good time.  Calvin even went and we love it when Calvin still wants to do things with the family.  Anyway, I couldn't go because it was in the middle of the week and I needed to go to work.  Scott actually came back one of the mornings so that they could take the cats to get fixed (yay!), but that's beside the point.  Anyway, one of the nights they were gone, I decided to do something from Pinterest.  I love that site and I pin stuff all the time, so every now and then I decide to try stuff that I see.  I was feeling festive and sometimes for work we make cakes and I thought this would be fun since I was head cook on the 3rd and working on the 4th.  But, I needed to see how it looked before I served it to people!  It turned out ok. The cake was from scratch, and I think I would find a different, better tasting recipe.  This one was okay, but tons of butter and I'm not a huge fan of tons of butter.  The boys said it was good.  Anyway, I didn't get to do it for the restaurant because someone had already made another cake, but that's okay...it wasn't perfected at home yet :).  Maybe next year!

Well, that should catch us up for now.  July is already in full gear.  The calendar has the 1st day of school on it already and so it won't be long until we are doing that again!  So excited to have both boys in high school this year.  They have Friday's off and so we can probably do more...well, if I'm not working so much!