November happenings...

As promised, an update! It's going to take me a bit to get everything in, but what better way to spend New Year's Eve than reviewing November - and resolving never to get this far behind on blogging again!

Two runs - a turkey trot for church - and one on Thanksgiving Day at a local park with tons of people there! Philip did great at the church one - he was fast and won 1st in his age group - and a $5 DQ gift card! He went out too fast on the Thanksgiving Day one and ended up letting his father beat him... well, better luck next year! Rik had an all time personal best on Thanksgiving - and he didn't do the church one, so there was no comparision! Me on the other hand, thought I did OK at the church one, but, was 3rd in my age group (out of about 3 people *in* my age group!), and, did a bit better at the Thanksgiving one, but was farther behind Rik and Philip than I care to admit. Call me a turtle. Philip is pictured in both photos - in the 2nd, he's the guy just ahead of the puddle in the white shirt and black shorts.

Then, cider party! I had never seen a cider press work. Actually, I had not even thought about how one worked until we were invited to bring apples and an appetite. So, it was really quite the process - first the press chopped the apples - cores and all - into shreds - and then it pressed the juice out of them! And, what great cider it was. The leftovers that I got to take home I made into hot apple cider the next few days. It was worth getting out of bed for! PS - I need the recipe to the soup we ate at the party (hint hint Ann!). Here Caitlin is helping press the apples.

An invitation...

No, this blog isn't dead yet. Expect an update any day now. You'll have to have an entire evening of reading to catch up with all I've missed - but I promise I will. Work is over for 2 weeks and I may get to do a few things besides laundry and cooking. ;) So, until then, you'll have to entertain yourselves with this invitation to our "New Years Event." We're not big party throwers, so, this is about as good as it gets... (The rest is written by Rik)

We finally have it all together and are ready to announce the 1st and 2nd Biannual Team Brenton Fun Run. It starts on December 31st 2009. You run, walk, cycle, ski, snowshoe, skip, whatever 2.5K (1.55 miles). Then on January 1st 2010 you do the same. Amy and I are going to do ours back to back to end the year running, and ring in the new year running. Anyone who will be in town is welcome to join us. There will be finisher medals, and hand made bib numbers. All ages are welcome. Registration can be done by e-mail so I can get you your number(s) and medals. A small voluntary registration fee can be paid to either of theses charities https://www.ikat.org/make-a-donation/, or http://www.cureblindness.org/. The first link is to the Central Asian Project. That is Greg Mortenson's project to help educate girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. These girls live in remote villages and have no hope of ever being educated. He is the author of "Three Cups of Tea" (Amy's favorite book from 2008). The second link is to an organization started by Dr. Geoff Tabin. He is helping cure blindness in Nepal by raising money for cataract surgery. They are doing cataract surgeries in Nepal for $20. Normally these people would go blind, and then wait to die. There are articles about this charity in both Outside, and National Geographic Adventure this month. Both of the men who started these charities are climbers by the way. We believe these charities to be honest and worthwhile. We hope to raise a few dollars that may help change someones life for the better, and have a good time while doing it. Take pictures, and send your times so we can post them here. Hope to hear from you soon.

(Back to Amy now...)

Yes, so - this could be fun! You're first 5K of the old/new year! Email me - let me know if you want to participate - in my "spare" time during the next two weeks I'll be helping Rik make bibs and medals - so - donate to a good cause - no mandatory amount is set - any amount is great - and then ring in 2010 in a healthy way - and much more memorable than our normal fall asleep on the couch and wake when you hear firecrackers in the distance! Like he said, if you're in town, join us, if not - anything is good - even your treadmill! Happy training!

Araviapa revisited...

So, yes, we did take the kids to backpack Araviapa back in June, but I didn't get to see the whole thing end to end. And, my friend Ann wanted to see the whole thing as well. She tried to plan a trip where a bunch of us would go and meet in the middle and exchange keys so there wouldn't be a ton of driving involved, but that didn't work out. What did work out was us being driven to the east trailhead (150 mi away) and dropped off and us hiking through the 11 miles and then picked up at the west trailhead (70 miles from home). Weird how it's only 11 miles on foot by 225 mi by road! Good thing Rik is such a nice guy to spend his Sat dring us around or I'm not sure how it would have all worked out. I really owe him! 450miles of owing him!
Anyway, it was a BEAUTIFUL day for a hike. It was a touch cool when we started (but not as cool as the girl wearing the mittens nearby would have you believe!), but once the sun came up over teh canyon walls it was PERFECT. I was worried that all of that walking through the water in November would be a problem, but the water wasn't cold at all either. If you get a chance, you should go back and look at photos of my trip in June and compare it to the trip yesterday. The differences in the seasons were really cool to note - there were actually fall colors involved! Of course, I had to give you the beginning photo - we look ready - and the ending one a few hours later - we're just a little more wet (note my pants!) and tired. It was totally worth it though - wet shoes and sock and all! I can't wait to plan another adventure. :)

So,

Coupon Geek...

This is the coupon box that has served me faithfully for years and years. Probably at least 12. Maybe more. You can see I should have probably cleaned it up a bit, but I wanted to show it to you in it's "working" state. Unfortunately, in the past few months, I've been overwhelmed with coupons. Don't worry - it's a good thing! Figuring out how to get mutiple coupon inserts, printing off the internet, etc have all added up to me overflowing this box and nothing ever fitting right. So, I went in search of another system. The internet is filled with people who want to show you their coupon systems. I looked at several and finally decided on one that is very similar to what I was using, just better. I took all of my main catagories I had been using and added sub-catagories to them. Like in my Personal Care section, there is now a "dental" subsection, and so on. We'll just say it took some time to do this. But, I think so far it's well worth it in the time I'm going to save in looking for coupons. I did a trial run at Fry's the other day and it worked like a charm. Boy, it takes so little to make me happy! Maybe that's why I was thrilled when I got a full box of instant potatoes and a sample of Honey Nut Cheerios in the mail yesterday... along with some high value coupons to go get some more!

No photos...

Why? Because I am a good mom and took the day off from work to help escort 62 7th graders to Tohono Chul Park. Maybe good is not the word for it. More like insane! But, I didn't take my camera as to not embarrass my offspring. I only have this to say. As much as Philip can cause me grief, headache, and heartache... there is A LOT worse out there! In fact, I came home rather grateful that he is mine. I guess I just needed to see what the alternatives were!

Halloween...

OK - so sadly, this year I didn't get to make any costumes. No fairies, princesses, Jedi's, nothing. Caitlin didn't want to dress up and Philip told me he'd figure out his own costume. Fine. Be that way. Just remember that I have spent days (probably months!) out of my life creating the "perfect" costumes for you guys. Anyway, Philip decided to be a "rock star". Torn clothes, chain, and black hair was all that was needed. Don't look too closely. It was cold out that morning and I didn't get the black hairspray too even! The sullen look completes the outfit! The funny thing about his costume is that if you don't know Philip - he just looks like a kid at jr high. Very grateful he doesn't look like this in real life!

OK - so we decided to have a nice peaceful Halloween since everyone decided they were too old to trick or treat. We carved pumpkins, made jack-o-lantern pizzas (though Philip made his into a bat!), handed out candy, made cobbler in a dutch oven (YUM!!!), and watched a movie. It was about the most perfect Halloween ever - AND - I didn't have any leftover candy - and no candy was brought into our house to tempt me! Maybe it was worth not making the costume! Oh - I'm also not sure what's going on with Caitlin and the winter hat. Maybe she was dressed up?!!

Fall Break...

I love Fall Break - it's something we didn't used to have, but in the last couple of years we have gotten. A couple days off in October - what a treat! Rik even took it off and we went and saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, played soccer, went to lunch, visited Mt Lemmon (Rik was dying to do some rock climbing!), and visited the Botanical Gardens for their yearly butterfly exhibit. The kids and I went a couple of years ago, but Rik hadn't been. It was really neat to see so many butterflies up close and personal! It's funny how they inspect you as you go out to make sure you don't have any friends leave with you! PS - after seeing pomegranate trees with the fruit on them, I am quite convinced that I need one!

Fun things...

Instead of doing the things I should be doing (cooking, cleaning, laundry), I've been doing things that are a bit more fun... after all, Caitlin asked why she has to make her bed if she's just going to have to do it again. So, why do laundry if I'm just going to have to do it again? ;)

Anyhow... I was poking around at my friend Leslie's blog which showed me that she had been making these cool skirts out of old tshirts, which made me follow the link to find out how to make my own http://www.craftstylish.com/item/46369/how-to-make-a-two-color-a-line-tee-skirt and lots of other fun stuff. It was a very bad site for me to find because I also found out how to make reusuable lunch wraps and a car sunshade (no, we don't drink that much Capri Sun, but I work at an elementary school - remember?? The kids probably now think of me as the crazy lady who takes their empty Capri Sun packets!). No, the car sunshade isn't on the site, but it's in a book by the lady who wrote the pattern for the lunch wraps, Sewing Green by Betz White. Amazingly our library had it and I've had it checked out for about 3 months now. I think they will want it back soon. You don't have the Capri Sun side out, it's the silver side that reflects the sun. Caitlin actually wore this skirt, it only took about 30 min to make, and I got to use up some old Old Navy tshirts at the back of my closet that I would have probably never worn again (ignore the orange shirt - this was just what my "model" was wearing that day when I had her put this on!). This could be a really fun thing to make of tshirts that actually mean something to you!

End of the season...

I was kind of sad when I threw the cross country practice schedule away today... after all - it's been lots of fun watching Philip grow throughout the season - kind of starting with the kid who thought this was really hard - to the kid who knew he could do it and was killing himself to do well in races. His team ended up winning the league championships for the school. He was pretty excited. We've been to 4 meets in two weeks - so it probably is time to end the season and get back to our regularly scheduled lives! I'm not quite sure what to do with these afternoons of not standing along a race course - cook? Clean? Update my blog?? He's still talking about running the Thanksgiving turkey trot this year - so we'll see if he's dedicated enough to keep it up now that he's not forced by the coach into practicing every day after school. Here are a couple of pictures to end with - the first is from the Los Mesquites meet - it was hot that day and there were 257 boys running that day. He came in 44th. He was a little bummed that he didn't get a medal - but you had to be in the top 40 to do that. I know he gave it his all because he wanted to throw up when he was done! The second picture is from the league championships. He was running on the B team and came in 1st.

Sunflower Market... revisted...

Well, I am officially insane. You knew that right? Wednesday morning I dug Philip out of bed at 5am to go to the opening of yet another Sunflower Market not too far from our house. Luckily, Caitlin had a ride to school, but the poor child had to get up on her own! Philip I arrived at 5:30 am to find ourselves #91 in line. Wow - esp since the place didn't open until 7am! There were a bunch of motivated people out there! I heard that the 1st person in line got there at 6pm the day before. Hmmm... not so much. So, I must say that the swag bag of groceries was even better than the grand opening that we went to in January - and they threw in an actual sunflower and a bunch of coupons for free stuff (ice cream, onions, candy, milk) that we went back and got the next day. Gotta love all the cool tomatoes, bread, carrots, snacks of chips, etc that we brought home! They said that it was $50 worth of food (I'd believe that) and so I had 2 hours in it from the time we left until the time we got home. $25/ hour isn't too bad!

Spirit day...

Well, it's already time for Homecomings - I guess that means school has been going for a while and fall is here. Well, I think fall is here - it's not 100º+ everyday and the evening temps have been downright nice! Caitlin didn't care about going to the Homecoming football game or the dance following it, but she did care about dressing up for the pep assembly spirit day. She had me buy the colored hairspray for her and then, I made the mistake of not telling her to spray it on outside. I walked into our (only) bathroom the other morning and nearly slipped on the carpet of gold glitter covering the floor. Gold glitter covered everything from the toilet paper to the scale. The only thing that wasn't glittered was the bathtub/shower and only because it was covered by the shower curtain. The poor girl spent a lot of time this weekend cleaning gold glitter hair spray off of walls and floors. I wonder if she'll remember next time?

Jr High cross country

And the season is off - with a bang. He's already been to 3 meets and one invitational. The invitational was on Saturday - and amazingly enough, there was some slight cloud cover and it wasn't quite as hot as it could have been. As a 7th grader, he's been doing pretty well in his races - coming in 22nd, 17th, and 19th in his meets (out of about 70 boys each time). At this invitational though, they divided the kids up into A team and B teams depending on their abilties. Well, Philip's team does exceptionally well at these meets - in fact they've won them all so far, so he wasn't in the top 5 kids made the A race. But, he got to run in the B race and it was very exciting. He was ahead the whole time. At the last corner, someone passed him, but he still managed to come in second. He was pretty excited about his 2nd place finish. In fact we all were and went out to lunch to celebrate! At church today, the manager of his team was there and had Philip's medal for him - it said he came in 1st place! The kid ahead of him wasn't in the race - he was missing the number and must have just fallen in somewhere along the course. Philip was quite excited to find this out!

And, as side note, the coach was kind of kicking himself for not letting Philip run in the A race. He was about 20 sec faster than the slowest kid on our team and that would have made our team come in 1st instead of 2nd. But, who knew how it would turn out?

Labor Day Run... again!

Well, my friend that I did the Labor Day run with last year and I talked about doing it again this year. But, then she ended up injured and decided that she had better not do it since she can only run about 3 miles before she is in some serious pain. This was the beginning of August. I then decided on my own that I probably wasn't ready for it. With our trip to WY and all I just hadn't gotten in the miles I wanted to. Even though we work at the same school, with how busy it is anymore, I seriously hadn't talked to her about anything since summer. Like how I wasn't going to do this race. So, a couple of days before, I went to my mailbox at school and there was this lovely lotion in it that advertised that it relieved tired legs. And a note from her that wished me luck. Oops. I probably should have mentioned my decision to her. So, instead of doing that, I went home and asked Rik if he wanted to run with me for Labor Day. He was game so I signed us up.

The morning of Labor Day I felt good, but I really had no idea how long 8 miles was going to take me. I was scared to even think about it. We started out and the last time I looked at my watch it said we had been out 34 minutes. That was at about 4 miles - in the middle of this terrible hill. Shortly after that, I kind of got my second wind and started having fun. I passed Rik and felt like I was kind of bounding to the tops of hills. Too bad right before the end he passed me again. He claims he just couldn't let me beat him. As I rounded the corner at the finish line, I was shocked to see the clock just pass the 1:10 marker. I wasn't expecting anything *that* good. Last year I finished in 1:13 and the year before it was 1:12. What would have happened if I had actually trained for this thing????

What would you think if...

You got this note in your science class? I'm sure Philip was wondering the same thing. So, he went to the principal's office and found out he had been nominated as student of the month - but the class was a secret. He brought home a bumper sticker, coffee mug, decal, and pencil. Friday morning I got to go with him to the Student of the Month breakfast. Way cool. Nine students were honored. Philip was nominated by his PE teacher and he had so many nice things to say about him. And, besides breakfast, they gave him this nice plaque, a t shirt, and a nice letter in this cool gift bag.

What we did last weekend...

Rik and I boarded an airplane and flew to Salt Lake, and then drove with our friends Kent and Janet up to Grand Teton National Park so that the guys could climb the Grand Teton (which is the tall one in the middle I'm told).

So, the weather forecast wasn't great - and it's pretty dangerous to climb mountains in the rain, so, Rik and Kent went on a hike through the Tetons instead. All of Rik's new climbing gear got a lovely airplane ride and still looks practically brand new!After that was over, we all drove up to Yellowstone National Park - I had no idea they were so close! It was amazing - we saw buffalo, hot springs, geysers - it was weird just driving by steaming pools all over the side of the road. It is really a beautiful area and I'd love to go back someday and spend more than an afternoon there.

Of course we had to see Old Faithful. We actually saw it twice. Rik wasn't *that* impressed - but I was totally excited because this is a piece of Americana that we were experiencing - another thing checked off of life's to do list! It was COLD there. After being here in the 100º+ range for months here - snow flurries in August (yes - they really were!) was a really nice change!

This was quite cool as well - the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. I think that most people think of Old Faithful when they think of Yellowstone - this needs to be what they think of instead - it was magnificent. I loved standing at the top of it and looking down - the magnitude of water flowing through there is just incredible!

Oh - one of Rik's new favorite places to eat is called Kneaders and can be found in the Provo, UT area. These are seriously the biggest pieces of french toast ever - and what makes it great is the sweet cream butter that they serve with it. They say it's all you can eat, but, I'm not sure how anyone makes it past the 1st plate!

I also took a picture of the anters in Jackson Hole, WY. There is a park where this arch is on each corner. Very unique!

On the way home - Rik took a few pictures. He had never been on an airplane before and I think was a little underwhelmed. He thinks the pilot should have done a couple of loops to make it worth our time and money!

I can't even tell you how horribly hard it was to go back to work last Tuesday morning!

First Day of School!

ALREADY!!!! August 6th - who starts *that* early???? Well, apparently we do! Caitlin is a freshman this year and Philip is in 7th grade. They both ended up with new backpacks this year (thus the photos!). Caitlin saw hers, fell in love and spent her hard earned money, while Philip ended up with the free backpack from Staples (yes, how cool is that???). Did you notice Caitlin's contacts as well? It was something she did this summer. So far so good.

The first couple of weeks seem to have gone pretty smoothly - except for my pocketbook (graphing calculators, dance fees, and the list goes on!!!). Philip even brought home the grade printout showing he is getting 100% in math yesterday. I know - it's only been 2 weeks - but I have lots of hope!

Just in case you hadn't heard...

I was a "guest blogger" at one of my favorite LDS blogs a couple of weeks ago. It was kind of fun to have my 5 minutes of fame!

http://lightrefreshmentsserved.com/2009/08/07/guest-post-amy/

Why my kids hate summer...

We have this giant mesquite tree in front of our house. Actually, we have two mesquite trees, it's just the smaller of the two has been replaced due to the first being broken in a summer storm, and has never caught up to the giant one. The one that gives us enough mesquite beans to feed our entire neighborhood (yes - you can eat these things!). So, about half way through June, our yard starts looking like snow in summer, but upon closer inspection, it's discovered that the mequite beans are falling and it's time for the kids to get out and pick them up. I'm mean, I want a 5 gallon bucket picked up every day. Whining, groaning, and moaning ensues. Tears, fighting, and grouchiness are accompanied by the hot summer mornings that mean the yard is getting cleaned up. In the end, the yard looks great. But the kids continually live in fear of NEXT summer. Poor things - someday they will tell their psychiatrists about their summer memories, not of swimming pools and barbeques, but of buckets of mesquite beans and sweaty summer mornings!

I'm back from Girl's Camp!

Yes, again this year I had the opportunity to be "mom" to 10 lovely girls as they took part in a week of spiritually fun filled adventures! It was so nice to be out of the heat for a few days! Though, I did have a headache for most of the week - not sure why - it was a nice week overall. The girls got to participate in lots of activities - hiking, archery, classes, crafts, and even a zipline - which I am pictured here about to go on. And doesn't Caitlin look happy to be there as well?!? It only really rained hard the last night we were there - I was really worried that we were going to be sopping all week! Even though it was a nice week and I didn't have to cook, I was ready to come home to my real shower and a nice mattress! Philip, well, I'm not so sure he was happy to have me back. It sounded like he pretty much did whatever he wanted to - stayed up late, slept in, watched movies, played video games, ate ice cream for dinner... well, you get the picture!

Happy 12th Birthday Philip!

Can he really be this old? Wasn't he just 2 a few minutes ago? Now he's as tall as I am wanting a guitar for his birthday and an iPod cake. I think he had a great time. I didn't really plan more for him than family to be over, but he managed to invite 3 friends as well over during the day of his birthday. Good thing I had lots of cake and ice cream!

A mini adventure...

I went to see the Night Blooming Cereus plants a couple of weeks ago. I've seen them on the news in the past and always thought it would be fun to go - but it wasn't until a friend called with an impromptu invitation that I actually went. What made this so interesting is that they normally bloom only once a year - but at the garden we went to, this was their second blooming of the year - a very odd thing. And, from seeing this on the news, I always thought there was one plant that everyone gathered around and looked at. It turns out, there are many, many plants out there and the paths were all lit up to go see them all. During most of the year, they just look like ugly sticks, but, during this one night (OK, two this year!), they turn into beautiful flowers. I am definitely taking the family next year. Not only is it really fun to see these plants, I didn't get home until 11:30 - wouldn't they just love staying that far up past their bedtime!?!

Caitlin can cook?

The big joke around here is that Philip does a better job in the cooking department than Caitlin. She proudly says that she can cook cereal and toast, while Philip can make eggs, french toast, mac n cheese, and choc chip cookies. Can't wait for Thanksgiving at her house in a few years! ;) But, it turns out when summer is here and there isn't a lot going on, she actually has the inclination to make things - AND - they turn out! Caitlin wanted to make pretzels, so we found the recipe that she made back when she was in kindergarten. They turned out beautifully - and she made them 100% by herself! Now we know there should be no excuses. Thanksgiving 2020 might not be so bad afterall!

This that and the other...

A few things that are neither here nor there, but are things that I wanted to mention...

*First, on Tuesday the UPS guy just brought me a new pair of Keens. I don't know why I like this brand of shoes so much, but it is now the 3rd pair I own, and they are fantastic. Here is the pair I got the other day... I don't think the picture does them justice, but they are really cute in real life! I have a pair of Keens that I got about 3 years ago and they look like they are brand new. I have worn them from Newport RI to San Francisco, CA and every place in between. When I am someday rich, I'll just have Keen send me a new pair of shoes every time they come out with a new design!

* Summer homework??? That's what Caitlin thought when she got the letter in the mail a couple of weeks ago and opened it. She signed up for Honors English this next year and the teacher has sent out quite an assignment. There is a list of vocabulary words a mile long, parts of speech questions, reading assignments, and the list goes on. To guarantee that these kids won't blow this off until the day before the first day of school, the teacher has promised a test on the second day of school and has said that you won't do well if you don't get started soon. After looking at the vocab words alone, I agree! After the initial shock of getting the homework, and the whining about how her teacher already must hate her, Caitlin has buckled down already and started the dreaded summer homework (welcome to the real world Caitlin!!!).

* Philip has decided that he wants to be a rock star. And when the schedule for summer school classes came out in March, he begged me to let him take the beginning guitar class that will ensure his success in his newly chosen career path. I finally relented, but with strings attached. I would let him take the guitar class provided that he would take the Intro to Jr High class along with it. Caitlin took it a couple of years ago and I thought it helped her feel a lot more comfortable getting started. He's three days into these classes now, and is fine with the Jr High class, but is loving his guitar class and thinks that he should get a guitar for his birthday now!

*Basil is growing everywhere I have planted it in my front yard - and more! I really really really love those tomato/basil/fresh mozzarella appetizers that are so popular lately, and decided to try my hand at growing basil. It's not to bad - even here in this hot climate if I make sure that there is shade they seem to do well. I even have renegade basil growing in a pot that I didn't plant it in, but am letting it grow anyway. How fun it is to run out and pluck a couple of leaves off and put it on my sandwich, pasta, or omelet. I haven't actually done my appetizer yet for fear that I'll eat the entire thing at once.

* Philip got a cool letter in the mail a couple of weeks ago inviting him to be on the jr high cross country team. The letter said that he had been noticed in elementary cross country and they really would like him to run with them this fall. They are having community runs on Tuesday nights this summer. We finally went to one this week after having been out of town so long, and I think he was happy to see all the other kids there. Lots of high school kids were there as well so I think it acts as inspiration to the younger kids. Now to buy him a decent pair of shoes.

* I have a love/hate relationship with chorizo. I love it, but hate that it's bad for you and kind of get a little grossed out if I think of all the animal parts it's probably made from. So, it's easier just to avoid it. Caitlin loves it a lot though, so when I was in Trader Joes yesterday, I thought of her. There was a package of Soy Chorizo! Who knew? It was only $2, so I figured it was worth the risk and brought it home. I made it for lunch and no one could tell that it wasn't the real thing. And, for once, I ate my chorizo and thoroughly enjoyed it!