Accidental Poem

Last night, after our back to school dinner and FHE, I felt really full and fat from my latest indulgence.



Get recipe here if you have the peanut butter craving. I couldn't stop thinking about this pie, so I had to make it so I'd stop wanting it!

I said to Matt:

I made it,
and it was fun.
I tasted it,
and now I'm done.

It just came out rhyming. I didn't mean to make a little poem. We laughed.

Who wants the rest of the pie? It can't sit in my refrigerator any more!

I'm Lovin' Back to School

Today was the first day of school for my kids.

Emma- 5h grade



Josh- sophomore


Chelsea- senior


Last year together in high school


I love and hate back to school time. I choose to focus on the love part though. But really, the "hate" part is based on love... I love having my kids at home with me during the summer. And so I hate to send them back to where influences aren't always for the best. But I love to have peace during the day and get house, church, and volunteer work done in quiet. But sometimes there's too much quiet. I love to take my kids shopping for school supplies and clothes. I hate that the prices keep going up for supplies and registration/sport fees. Love/hate.

Yesterday was a good day. I shopped for groceries and did laundry all day. Does that sound like a good day? Well, it was. In between loads, I planned our back to school dinner and family home evening.

Dinner was simple. Nothing fancy by any means. Earlier in the day, Chelsea said that she didn't want a special (meaning "don't make a big deal of it, Mom) back to school dinner cause it would make her nervous. So I decided to grill hot dogs and serve mini tater tots and tuscan cantaloup. We also had a rare treat of bottled orange creme sodas. I have been wanting to make The Pioneer Woman's Chocolate and Peanut Butter Pie so I decided this was a good occasion to do so. I added Reese's PB cups to the top of it. Mmmm. Way too rich but way yummy.




I added a few things to the table to add a little back to school touch... like giant Smarties, desk name plates, old fashioned (from the 70s) multiplication flashcards, our old homeschool educational place mats, and a tin school bus that I have had forever.



I have to give a shout-out to my friend Elena Daniels for this idea I got from her blog a week or two ago. She had done an FHE lesson on attitude. I thought that would be a great topic for our lesson last night. She mentioned an Old Testament scripture story that went along with attitude. I wasn't familiar with the story of Caleb and Joshua, so I looked it up on lds.org and read a talk that Pres. Hinckley gave in which he mentioned this story. I loved that I learned a new scripture story and that I could teach it to my kids. After that, I used her other idea of splitting into teams and doing a "Mad Lib" to illustrate how our choices can influence our outcomes. Fun. We were going to watch the cute short film "Boundin" to further the topic of choosing to have a good attitude, but we needed to get to the most important tradition we have at back to school time. Fathers blessings.

We have had this chair for a LONG time. In 1999, when Chelsea began kindergarten, the kids started to sit in it for their father's blessings. We have been keeping track of the dates of the kids' blessings on the bottom of the chair. We have since given away the table that this chair went with, but we kept the very important chair. Now it sits in the corner of our garage waiting for this special time of year. We call it "the blessing chair" and the kids love it.



I'm so thankful for Matt and that he is willing and worthy to give our children (and me) priesthood blessings on a regular basis. It is comforting to me to know that Heavenly Father is mindful of each of us and cares about what we are doing in life. He wants to bless us and to help us through our "amazing race" on earth.

I'm having a positive attitude about this whole "back to school" thing. I'm glad that the good can outweigh the bad. It's gonna be a great year!

Running Checklist

Friday morning I went for a run. Just me this time. No partner. Here is what I took with me...

My legs and my shoes with the Nike+ sensor:


My iPod. I run with music when I'm not with Natalie, my running sister. I knew it would be a good run when this song came on first:


Today I chose my hot pink running hat:


My lime green tank:


My newest running skirt with sparkly hearts. This pic doesn't show the slight sparkle to the fabric:


My Nike+ wristband. It keeps track of my pace, calories burned, and miles ran. Here it shows my run at 4.18 miles:


Here's me at the end of that 4.18 mile run. Sweaty and red faced. A good sign that I worked hard:

Our Annual Boise River Float

A few years ago, we floated the Boise River for the first time. Now we make sure we do it at least once a summer. Saturday we decided to rent a five person raft and all go down together. It was an absolute beautiful day for a lazy river float. The trip lasts about an hour and a half from Barber Park to Ann Morrison Park. We certainly weren't the only ones with this plan. There were lots of rafters enjoying the water that day.


Here are the first "rapids" that we encountered. On the second set of "rapids", we actually got stuck on the rocks. Matt and I had to partially get out of the raft to push us off. A big, pointy rock was poking up in the center of the boat. We were a bit nervous that it was going to rip through.


None of us wanted to get out of the boat and get wet on this particular outing. But I almost fell off the side when we were going under a bridge, and we bumped into a cement pole. I had been rowing while straddling the right side. Luckily, Emma grabbed my left leg and hung on until Matt got hold of me and pulled me back just as I was about to slip over. I'm glad I did not plunge into the cold water.


With the price of the raft rental came five life vests, so we didn't bring our own. These Ada County jackets are pretty dorky looking. Life vests are required on the river, but most people don't bother obeying that law. But we aren't most people! Josh was particularly embarrassed and wanted to take his off. We told him it was his choice, but as parents, we weren't giving our ok for him to take it off. I don't know if people were looking at us funny, but Matt and I didn't really care.

So, come to Boise in July through September, and we'll take you on a little ride! You can even wear one of the dorky vests!

You'll Never Believe This Unless You See These Pictures!

Matt is having lunch.

Sandwich, chips, and a Diet Coke. Normal everyday type of lunch. Or was it?

What is that you see? A slice of fresh garden tomato? You got it. Matt ate a BLT for lunch and.... he loved it.

He even added a little more tomato to it after the first couple of bites. He now gets why people love tomato season.

Getaway With the Girls

I went on a road trip with my baby girls. Josh and Matt were busy with scout camp and work. So off we went in the little white Honda. Chelsea and I took turns driving. She is a good driver, and now has lots of experience working the cruise control. Chelsea had a yucky cold all weekend, but she had a fun anyway.

On our way to Utah, we stopped in Burley and visited with my lovely Grandma Fillmore. She has been declining in health so it was nice to get a chance to be with her for a while. She always tells me the story about how my grandpa cried when I left his home after I was born and it was time for my mom to move on since my dad was back from deployment. Apparently, my grandpa rarely cried. I love that story and will miss it when she can't tell it to me anymore.





I had the chance to go help my sister, Heather, set up her 3rd grade classroom at her elementary school in Sandy, Utah. She had to move rooms this year and was feeling a bit overwhelmed with the task. It was fun to hang posters, number the coat hangers, organize supplies, and most of all be with my little sis. Emma was in heaven setting up a REAL school room. She loves to play school at home so this was the real deal. She and Chelsea filled the desk bins with the kids' school supplies. How would that be to not have to buy school supplies?! This school district provides a lot for the families.



Chick-Fil-A. The perfect chicken sandwich. I'm in love with it, but alas, it is something I can only have when I'm in Utah. But maybe if I had it more often then it would lose its luster. Nah. I don't think that could happen. Why in the world is there not a Chick-Fil-A in Boise? Someone could make a butt load of money. (Did I just say that? Sorry mom) It is always so busy whenever I'm there. Oh, and I can't forget the delicious waffle fries and lemonade that one must partake of when eating their chicken sandwich. Yum.



I finally took the time to stop in at IKEA... just for a quick minute. Ha Ha. I think we were there for an hour and a half. My mom shopped there all the time buying stuff for missionaries' apartments when she lived in Sweden. So she showed me products that she would often buy. We had fun looking at all of the cool things one could buy in that 310,000 square foot store.



Emma modeling a super cool little table


Chelsea likes this lounge chair


I would like to have this in my closet. Not those ugly shoes, but the pull out shoe racks.


I'm for sure coming again. Next time I'll bring Matt.


The next day, I took my girls shopping. Chelsea and I bought jeans at Charlotte Russe. We will be twinners now. Emma enjoyed naming the headless mannequins on the dressing room doors. She cracks me up. Em got jeans, too, at a different store.



We drove to Herriman and visited Uncle Erik and Aunt Kimi. David and Vanessa were there too. Alex was down in his "cave" probably sleeping after a scout camp. I forgot to pull my camera out of my purse, so I didn't get a picture of them in their beautifully decorated Dominican inspired house. Wish we could live by them. That would be loads of fun.



Just a couple of minutes away from Erik's house was the "Up" house. It is a model home built to look just like the house in the movie "Up". Apparently, it is a fun way to get people to come look at the houses being built in that neighborhood. We drove by and saw the line of people with Parade of Homes tickets. The ploy is working. I saw pics on line of the inside, and it's a nice home. Re-do the exterior paint, lose the balloons, cover up the two movie inspired murals on the inside and you'd have a great house to live in.



Next stop was Hebe and Carley's house. We awoke the sleeping pregnant Carley and disturbed Hebe's tv golf viewing. But they were gracious and let us in for a quick visit. Their sweet little baby girl is due in four weeks. We got to see the nursery that they are working on in preparation for her arrival. We can't wait to have a new baby in the family.



That evening, we spent some time with Grandpa and Grandma Eastman. Lucile made us a yummy taco salad dinner with some of her outstanding homemade salsa. We showed them our Trek movie after we ate. It was nice to be in their home and to be able to talk to them. Next visit, we'll stay there and get to spend a little more time with them.

Here's my mom and dad. They sit and eat every meal just like this. Place mats, vitamins, silverware lined up, napkins in place, salt and pepper shakers, and my dad wearing his apron like he has for as long as I can remember. Even if they are eating a bowl of cereal, this is what it looks like.



I snapped some pictures of pictures around my parents' house. How weird is that? This first one is of all of their grandkids. Below them are pictures of both sets of my grandparents. Three out of the four have gone on to heaven.



My dad in his younger Navy days.


Wedding pics of me and my sibs. Around the corner are pics of my sister and two sisters-in-law. Pretty soon, my sis will have a beautiful bridal portrait here too. The guy just doesn't know it yet, so we have to wait until he decides to show up.



Poofy-headed bride with poofy sleeves


Me and my sibs each at age 5. My picture has faded terribly.


This is me in my mommy's belly.


Here's my dad's senior portrait and my mom's nursing school graduation portrait. My, they were young and wrinkle-free!


Lastly, I took a picture of my mom's pole beans. I want to get this teepee thing for my garden next year. I'm loving it.


It was a good girls' get-away. But it was great to come home to my guy and my boy.

YW Mountain Retreat

Back up to earlier this year when the bishop announced that we would be doing Pioneer Trek. I was a bit upset when it seemed that YW Girls' Camp would be replaced by Trek due to cost and time commitment by all of the leaders. But as it turned out, a shortened girls' camp was approved. BUT, I knew that after roughing it for four days of Trek, the girls (and especially ME) would not want to do anymore "dirty" camping this summer. So, I was able to arrange what I called a YW Mountain Retreat. We would basically do similar girls' camp activities... just without the tents and pit toilets.

We rented a "cabin" that belongs to a family in our ward. It is up on Cascade Lake in Donnelly, ID. I'd like to move in permanently, please!



I had a wonderful lady, Jami Hawkins, as my camp director again this year. She was the YW President before me. She is excellent and helped me pull this shindig together. All the ladies on my YW Board were so helpful too. We only had 14 out of our 22 girls come because of family vacations, etc. But it was successful nonetheless.

The girls were united and had lots of fun together. We did crafts, ate lots of good food, had a "treasure hunt" while playing hide and seek, had spiritual devotionals and a testimony meeting, and played at the lake. Thrown in there was a bit of left-over camp certification, too.

Oh, our theme this year was "We Seek After These Things" and centered around the mutual theme of the 13th Article of Faith. We used pirates and seeking for eternal treasures to add a little extra fun. The girls made signs to go up around the house that said "Captains Quarters" for the leaders' room, "The Galley" in the kitchen, "Crows Nest" up in the loft, "This Way to Walk the Plank" for pointing to the docks, etc. We used a treasure box for putting kind notes to each other and giving "secret sister" gifts to one another.

Here are some pictures of my beautiful girls having fun:



Making bracelets:














The leaders hid really well in the trees while the girls in groups came and found us and wonderful "treasures". Each time a group found me, I took their picture:










YCLs "egged" the younger girls:


The girls made sun prints with twigs, leaves, and flowers:


14 girls plus leaders: