Mountain Man

Today at Evan's school they had a mountain man come and talk to the kids about living in the wild and the history of famous mountain men. It was a great assembly and the man, Scott Sorensen, was a great storyteller and speaker. The kids learned about trapping and tall tales. They were able to see skins of wild animals and hear about fishing and kayaking in the mountains. At the end of the assembly I was able to take a picture of Evan with the mountain man Scott! It was a fun time!

Miracle!

I believe in miracles!

The last few weeks of our lives have been very crazy. We have experienced a lot of changes and a lot of blessings. We have been trying to sell our house in Texas for over a year and were not having any luck. We loved our house, but we weren't too keen on the neighborhood and living so far out of town, so we were trying to move. It was not happening.

Then David switched jobs in July and began traveling to Nashville each week. We were really hoping the house would sell and we could all move together to Tennessee and start a new adventure there.

Then the job turned out to be crazy and unstable and stressful. It just wasn't a good working environment or opportunity for David. After 3 months of trying to make it work we felt it was time to move on. We didn't know what we were going to do, but we weren't going to continue down the path we were on with David gone all the time and working at a job he didn't like. So...we decided David was going to find a new job. The very day that David finalized his resignation with his company a man came to our door to promote his business. He was from our neighborhood and was starting up a business and was soliciting business. We had a nice conversation at the front door where I told him we were not doing any home improvements because our house was on the market but I would tell my friends about his business. He told me he knew how that went because he had moved in January and was being forced to move again in a few days because the house he was renting had been sold and they had to move. It was your average friendly conversation and he left. Then the lightbulb went on!

I went to talk to Dave about the guy at the door and I said to David..."he mentioned that he had to be out of his house by Saturday and was waiting to hear back on a rental at the beginning of our subdivision. Maybe he would want to rent our house. It's a long shot, but all he can say is no".

Well, he didn't say no, he said yes! He came back over and spoke with David for a long time. They worked out an 18 month lease and we started packing. We packed our 4300 sq foot home in 3 days and had our realtor draw up a lease and do background checks and get everything in order in 3 days. By Saturday we had loaded up 2 26 foot trucks, flown my BIL out to drive a truck, and pulled out with the RV for our 2 day drive to Utah! We moved home!

(The kid's last night on the floor of our house!)

I can't believe we're here. It's been such a crazy time and such a wonderful time all at the same time. Every time we turned around things fell into place. We know that we are supposed to be here right now and that his the right thing for us. We are living with my MIL in Draper in a wonderful basement apartment! We get to see cousins and brothers/sisters and grandparents everyday. The kids love it and are already adjusting in school. David is looking for a job and feels confident that the right thing will come along. It's been crazy, but such a miracle for us!

GT project

Evan was assigned a project for his GT class to make a structure using sugar cubes. Evan chose to make the Taj Mahal. He was very creative with his structure, using frosting as cement and Hershey kisses as the shiny tops of the towers. We think it turned out great!

Halloween

We were very busy around Halloween time, but I was also in charge of our Fall Festival at church, so we were still able to make time for fun.

Evan has been reading The Ranger's Apprentice series and so this is Evan dressed as Will from that book.
McKinley wanted to be a wingless fairy and this is the outfit that she chose to wear.
We had a great time at the Fall Festival. The kids were able to fish for candy, go through a haunted house, eat donuts on a string, have their fortune read, have their face painted, and participate in a cake walk. They definitely had lots of sugar and lots of fun!

TCU 31 BYU 3

This year we traveled to Fort Worth to see our beloved BYU cougars football team. We knew that it has not been a good year for them...but we are LOYAL fans. We also bought our tickets before the season began so we didn't know how bad the team was going to be. We headed out Saturday morning for the lovely 4 1/2 hour drive to Fort Worth. We had a hotel reserved for Ethan and McKinley to stay at while we were at the game and for the family to crash at after the game was over. Strangely Ethan and McKinley were ubber excited to go and "hang out" in the hotel room all afternoon and evening. I guess a change of scenery was good enough for them.

After settling them in for the afternoon David, Austin, and I made our way to the stadium for the game. Somehow we lucked out with a really close, free, parking spot and then headed in to the sea of purple! TCU is having a great season. They were ranked #5 in the nation then and I think they've gone up as high as #3 now. We were prepared for a slaughter!

Now things weren't so bad...until the last two minutes of the first half. Yes, there was no offense for BYU, but we did show tough defense and held them to only 7 points...until the last two minutes of the first half. They snuck in 14 points!

The second half improved a little with BYU getting their first offensive drive...and 3 points! And that was it. We sat in the hot, hot sun surrounded by other devout BYU fans and tried to cheer for any accomplishment. We counted first downs (8), we counted sacks (2), we counted TCU scores (31)...but you know what...we did have fun! It was a memory. And that's what counts.

(we love Evan too...he begged to stay home for a soccer game...and so he did. He scored 3 points and the team won 4-1.)

ATP

For AP science Austin had to make a model of a molecule. He chose ATP. He had to paint the styrofoam balls and assemble the chemical just right. He spent hours on this project and it turned out great. In case your wondering, this is what ATP does:

"Adenosine Triphosphate is a multifunctional nucleotide used in cells as a coenzyme. It is often called "the molecular unit of currency" or intracellular energy transfer. ATP transports chemical energy within cells for metabolism"

And it's a complicated molecule...just see the diagram above!!

Time Out For Women

This past Thursday-Saturday I flew up to Dallas to meet up with my friend and attend a women's conference there. It was such a great trip!

It was a lot of fun to hang out with Tiffanie. We spent a couple nights in Dallas and attended the conference on Friday night and Saturday. It was a good get away and it was a very renewing weekend.

It was good to get back home to the family, but these little get aways help me be a better person for them! Thanks for the fun time!