Justyn's Arrow of Light

Tonight Justyn recieved his Arrow of Light. His leaders put together a really nice program to honor him and present him with his award. Ken had to work security at the temple tonight so I took the kids over. Since the mom's always end up right next to the boys when they recieve an advancement in Cub scouts, Zach was left to run the camera. Here's his version of what took place.

This old Indian Chief asked Justyn a lot of questions about what he did to earn his Arrow of Light. His leader, who was standing right next to me on stage, proudly announced that Justyn had earned every pin possible for the Webelos scout age. The Indian Chief then began to quiz Jusytn. What did he do for Readyman? Justyn just stood there. What did he do for Fitness? No answer. What did he do for Outdoorsman? Silence. Did he go on a campout? YES!! Did he have fun? YES!!! Did he play any tricks on other scouters? YES!!!! (Nervous laughter from his other leaders in the audience. They are the ones who camped with him and taught him how to play tricks on the other boys.)

Then we sat down to listen to some old Indian stories about climbing hard mountains and rising to the top. I think Justyn enjoyed the stories.

Then he was awarded his Arrow of Light, the highest achievement in Cub Scouts. He had to pin the Mother's Pin on me. He quietly asked if he could pin it on my sleeve. I love that Mom's are honored at these types of things but it is really awkward for the boys to stumble over trying to work those tiny pins and get them on their mom's shirt without much of a scene. My sleeve worked out well.

Then they had him cross the bridge from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.

Here's his new and super fun Boy Scout leader waiting to welcome him.

He received a new book, a neckerchief and a slide. NICE!

While all this really cool stuff was going on, Zach decided the most important thing to photograph was me, smiling proudly in the background. Do you like my vampire eyes?

Then I had to walk across the bridge and promise to continue to help and support my son and his leaders. I thought my job was done once they finished the Cub program. I was happy with the thought of sitting back and watching his new leaders earn the rest of his awards.

Then they presented Justyn in his new uniform in front of the Tenderfoot emblem. Zach got the emblem but apparently forgot that Justyn was standing right there and missed this picture perfect moment.

This is a re stage after it was all over. Do you think the sandals are Boy Scout uniform approved? He's pretty cute!

And another re stage. This man's name is John Gordon and he did a great job on this presentation.

Congratulations Justyn!

Shaelynne turns 9!

Last week was Shaelynne's 9th birthday. I spent the day shopping with Zach getting him ready for scout camp so she went with a friend's family to Dierke's Lake to play for the day. That evening we had cake and ice cream and then I took the kids to the Drive-In. We watched Wall-E and Prince Caspian. It was a fun evening.

Here's 8 things about Shaelynne:
1. She is a perfectionist in every way possible from her hair to her grades to how she expects others to act to how my house looks. Sometimes she sets the standard a little too high for the rest of us and then it's not so pretty around here.

2. She has naturally curly hair around her face and neck. She hates it. It is pretty tight curls but the rest of her hair is super thick and very straight. We've tried many different hairstyles and her favorite is slicked to her head in a pony tail. She is obbessed with making sure there is no curl. We rarely see her with her hair down.

3. She loves to clean. I wake up to the sound of her doing dishes. It's her self-appointed duty to keep my kitchen clean. I don't mind.

4. Shaelynne is always writing little love notes to everyone. I love to find a "thank you" or an "I love you" note on my bed or the fridge.

5. She loves to sing. All day long I love to listen to her. No matter what she's doing, she always sings a song.

6. I always know when she is tired because she gets really grumpy and she cries and nothing can calm her down and she refuses to admit that possibly she might be a little worn out and it's impossible to reason with her and finally she just gets really really mad and cries herself to sleep and then she is an angel when she wakes up and is full of lots of hugs and apologies. We only go through this about every other day.

7. Shaelynne is very picky about what she wears. She likes new things and she is very polite and never says whether she likes something or not. She just hangs it in her closet and NEVER wears it again. Drives me crazy! Though she hates her clothes, she continues to wear the cut off jeans and ratty t-shirt because she is comfortable instead of trying something new.

8. She has a big heart. She wants to be friends with everyone. She never wants anyone to feel left out or hurt in any way. She used to come home from school last year and tell me that the teacher yelled at one of the kids and made them cry so she cried with them. When I moved her to a different school, she cried because she didn't want her friends to cry alone. She wrote them notes every week and sent them to school with Alexys so that they would know that she was still their friend.

9. She is my big teddy bear. She loves to snuggle and gives hugs. She is good about stepping aside so that the younger kids get my lap first but if I ever slide them aside and invite her to sit by me, she suddenly becomes my little Shaelynne again and takes all the love she can get.

Shaelynne is a sweetheart. I'm lucky she's my little girl.

Blue Angels

Today I looked up and saw Angels.



They are performing in Twin this weekend and we live 2 miles directly north of the airport with a perfect view of the show. We have 2 days of practice and 2 days of shows. Oh, yea, this is going to be a great weekend!

Wordless Wednesday

A Closer Look Meme

Jenna, who is absolutely amazing in every way possible(check out her blog if you don't believe me), tagged me to do the one tag I have been hoping to avoid. I get to take you all on a tour and show you the inside of my home.


1- My Kitchen Sink:

Shaelynne-derella has not shown up today to clean my house and do my dishes. Bummer for me. The good news is that only one sink is dirty dishes. The other sink is clean (at least it was before the kids dumped all their half eaten bowls of cereal down the wrong side of the sink).

2- My Fridge:

Not too bad.

This fridge, on the other hand, is sparkling clean. Totally 100% EMPTY! Why would I have a fridge that is clean and empty? Well, you see, it's in my garage and last week the power went out and tripped the plug and it was a couple days before we figured it all out and, well, I guess needed to get rid of a few things anyways. I wouldn't really recommend this as a great way to spring clean your meat freezer though.

The stuff in this feezer was a little harder to throw away. I have sweat and tears invested into this stuff. It's just fruit but when it thawed (it didn't completely thaw, just mostly thawed-Ha!Ha! from Princess Bride, when Wesley died....okay!)the juice seperated from the fruit and now I'm happily going to be jamming ALL of it. I wasn't really sure how much jam I wanted to make and how many bags I just wanted to keep as frozen berries but now I'm so glad I don't have to stress over that question anymore. Phew!

3. My favorite shoes:

I love shoes, lots of shoes! but when I find a really good pair, I tend to hang onto them for forever and wear them everyday, everywhere. Also, I hate to have my bare feet on the floor. I can't stand feeling crumbs and sticky or wet on my feet so I always have a pair of shoes on my feet.

This is my 3rd summer loving this same pair of sandals.

My other pair which I actually love more than my sandals are these. When I shop for tennis shoes, I have to try on every single pair in the store until I find exactly the right fit with the right price. It's an all day event but the shoes last me a very long time! I bought these last fall and we are pretty much inseperatable. They have just started squeaking though so I suppose it may be getting time for a new pair.

4- My Bedroom Closet:

The smallest, most annoying space in my house. Let's not talk any more about this one. Moving on...

5- My Laundry Pile:

Well, this is a horrible location for my machines because it is in my doorway to my garage so this area stays generally pretty clean, out of necessity.

It's the rest of my house that is always piled high with clean piles, dirty piles and ironing piles.

My bed:

My hallway:

My yard: (The boys just got home from scout camp)

6- What are my kids doing right now?

Not a clue...and there's no sign of Justyn

The girl in the back of this one is not mine, but I feed her often enough so she definately could be.

Look closely and you can see their chiggar bites from camp. They are heavily drugged up on Benadryl.

7- My Favorite Room: the front room!
In this room I am surrounded by so many things that I love. This is the one room that I insist on staying clean. That's tough when our house is small and our numbers are not but at least once a day, usually at night, this room turns into my own personal sancutary.

Why?
There's my piano that I prayed really hard for my mom found it for me in the newspaper and I bought it for a wopping $250.00 and the bench that my dad made for me, which happens to match perfectly.

My awesome corner shelf that I found at the D.I. for $15.00 and lovingly repainted it and gave it a whole new life.

My last name. After this last year and all the drama with Ken's family, Ken wanted to change our last name. I decided I needed to take action so I found these letters at Michaels (very cheap) and painted them. Our last name is now displayed, loud and proud, in our front room and hopefully it stays that way for a very long time!

Ken loves this clock, I love my fake, never need to be watered so of course they'll never have to die lillies, some of the kids favorite books and our scriptures.

This is a frame that Ken bought me while we were at BYU. It had a ding so it was on clearance. He surprised me with it and since this was way out of character for Ken, it's one of my treasures.

This picture is from my sister-in-law and I absolutely love it. It's kind of 3-D the way she did it and I love this picture of Christ. It has a very reverent feeling to it.

This is my life motto. I take things way too seriously. I'm trying to enjoy more and stress less.

This plant is from Ken's granparents. We got it after they died a year and a half ago and what makes it even more special is that it was given to them when Ken's aunt and uncle were killed the year before. So it's my little reminder of all of them.

This is the first and only plant I bought when we moved to Twin Falls 9 years ago. We're still here and so is it.

This plant is from my cousins funeral. I was not able to attend because I was having a D and C that day (I miscarried twins and my cousin was only 17 so it was a really sad day) so my mom brought it up to me to cheer me up. It was twice that big when I first got it and apparently has really struggled to live with me but I think we have finally figured each other out and it looks like she has agreed to be happy. Not really growing but still green.

I love to look out the front window at my hanging baskets . (Yes, these are the same baskets that killed our little kitten.)

This plant is from Henry's birth. To me it symbolizes the end of one phase of my life and the beginning of another.

This is my family praying. Aren't we cute? And my Dad made the base. Our faith and family grounded on the foundation of previous generations....(I'll keep working on that one)

This is our family road map, our daily reminder to be a little better.

And finally....My Most Priceless Treasures of all.

That was really, really long. Oops!


8- My Most Recent Purchase:
Nothing fun. Just supplies from Target. I did buy Randy Paucsh's book "The Last Lecture" on CD and we listened to it on our trip last week. It was really good. Ken even liked it. Don't buy it though. You can just borrow mine. It was good but maybe not THAT good.

9- My Dream Vacation:
If I could go anywhere I would go visit my family and friends, no deadlines, just enjoy those I love. And my first trip would be to Utah. I'd start in Tremonton with my sister and go all the way south to here, my cousin's back yard, visiting every single one of you in between. Someday......



10-A Self-Portrait: sort of....

Now I tag Stacie W. and Jen W. Both are married to my cousins and they live a really long ways away and I'll probably never in this lifetime travel that far and I think that they are amazing women, they have to be to survive our family, so I'd love to see their lives more up close and personal. So, ladies, if you have the spare time, humor me ;)