Nevada Winds

Probably the only thing I don't like about Fallon are the winds. I read in the paper that winds were up to 69 miles per hour. That is an F0 tornado wind speed! (Yes there is an F0) F1 tornado starts at 73 mph! CRAZY! Add the sand dunes east of town being whipped into it all and I had a natural skin exfoliant while I was outside trying to fix this.......

(after I took a picture, of course) You can see our fence and parts of it bent at a 45° angle! Our fence goes clear to the back 6 foot fence. Just this side of the 3 foot fence there is a gate. A few minutes after the picture was taken the fence broke away at the gate. So that corner is disconnected. UGH! It did help eliviate the pressure of the wind up against the fence but it still rocked like a flag in the wind. It was scarey. I went out to check on the trampoline and ducks.....trampoline was fine, started walking across the yard and the lid to the chicken coop flew off and was headed right at me! I ducked to the ground waiting to get hit, but never did (thank goodness!). It dropped on the other side of the 3 foot fence. The ducks were just fine. All huddled together. Anyhow, next mont we are gonna have to fix our fence. One pole (the metal ones you put chain link fencing on) totally broke off! The others ar all just bend right at ground level. Our neighbors complained about looking at bikes in our ront yard.....NOW they get a broken fence for a month until we get paid again! :-)

Yesterday the twins, Terra K & I were able to take 12 missionaries over to the Reno Temple. It was SNOWING in Reno on and off so that kindof threw our picnic idea out the window. All the Church Maintainence guys were up in Susanville, CA so we couldnt' get into a church. So my lucky niece and her husband were VERY gracious in letting 16 missionaries (4 followed us for lunch) and the 4 of us into their aparment to eat lunch. It was neat to see all those missionaries together. Makes me excited for my boyz to serve! Anyhow, the day was great! Great company to visit with and got to see the temple and eat some good food!


I was too cold to get out and take a good picture! The twins and I got pelted with hail/hard snow when we were walking around the temple while we were waiting for them. Grateful I have a beast of a vehicle to give the missionaries a ride! A friend to travel with and family to allow us to invade on last minute whim! And even though I couldn't go in the temple (minus when the twins both had to do #2!.....awkward going in the foyer in jeans!) I am grateful for templs and the covenants I have made there! I LOVE THE TEMPLE! Great day!

Another 'didn't learn anything' FHE

So we had the Jensen and 2 Wadsworth families join our new family obsession last night for FHE.....tennis courts and softball field. I realized I didn't take any pictures of tennis, which is too bad....some of those Wadsworths (Johnny, Brent, Natalie and Jane) took to the courts like wild fire! I LOVED watching them run around and chase the balls. It was great!

We then struck up a game of softball/tee ball. Brian Jensen served as pitcher for those not wanting to use the tee. Did a great job! His wife, Katherine, was in left field chasing tennis balls her and Daniel were 'playing catch' with. This morning he is still talking about having fun with 'that girl last night'. Thanks for making his evening, Katherine!

Here are some random pictures.....you can tell I was standing on 3rd base during most of these.

Nathan at bat

Jane W. at bat

Nathan running to 3rd base

Caleb W. taking a swing.....he had a great hit!

Kim & Lindy (I am sorry if I spell names wrong!) on 3rd base waiting to run home

Brian & Abby J at the pitcher's mound with Tyler J and Ryan on 1st base

Mary Ann W. & Alyssa J. on 3rd waiting to run home

Refreshments of popsicles, cinnamon rolls (YUM!) and butterfly birthday cupcakes (Happy b-day Lindy!) in the cafeteria afterwards. It was a fun time, no one got hurt and it was great to visit with friends in other wards! Thanks for the fun! We'll have to do it again, sometime!

Weekend update

So I am sure you are tired of seeing pictures of tennis, so I'll show other ones, but we attempted softball this weekend. But first, Saturday morning we got up and all the kids jumped in a we cleaned up our yard (1.13 acres....quite a bit considering we put 6 trash bags to the curb this morning) Anyhow, in just under 1 1/2 hours our yard was clean, a gate was fixed and the ducklings were moved in with QT and a sprinkler pipe was fixed. So a lot of work was done in quite a shorter amount of time than Kevin and I anticipated! It pays to have a lot of kids this time around! :-)

So we told the kids we'd go up to play at the HS. We did start with tennis. Then moved over to softball/tee ball. It was fun! The kids had a blast hitting the ball. Then I took Ryan and COmptyn in outfield and we played catch. Comptyn has a great arm! I was impressed! Ryan was very brave, too. He is so cautious but he did well. Then we all went into the field and Kevin hit balls to us. The boys had a lot of fun doing that! Plus the 3 older ones all have been passing things off for their scout requirements/electives! We then had a picnic which I didn't take any pictures of!



(they kept hitting the tee, too.....it's one of those 360° ones....so it moves)

Sunday was such another beautiful spring day we decided to go walk the railroad tracks. Sammy insisted on carrying one of the water jugs, mostly becuase he kept wanting a drink. Once we hit the tracks, though, he was OFF!



Here Sammy is waiting for us at a yield sign on the way home. He was tired. We had walked about 3 1/2 miles, we guess. Quite a long ways! They did really good.

Twins beat some of us home, so daddy told them they could get on their bikes and come get us.

Enjoying cold popsicles!


So tonight for FHE we are going to go play some baseball with some other families. Bryce will be happy to learn nothing again this week!

Bear Necessities

So Daniel & Sammy are into singing songs from Disney movies. Mostly Lion King and Jungle Book. So this is what I heard this morning:

"Wook for da beaaaaaaar neesssissies da simple bear nessessies. Forget about your worwies and your size...."

That is my new theme song! "Forget about your worwies and your size!"

Different Family Home Evening

So we have been enjoying the BEAUTIFUL 70+ degree weather lately. (Not rubbing it in, Trulee!) But today and especially tomorrow it's dropping back down in lower 50s and rain/snow. So I really wanted to do something outside for FHE last night. So we went and played tennis! There are perks to daddy being principal at the HS.....like keys to hte tennis courts! I have been collecting tennis and racquetball racquets from thrift stores over the last few visits to then and had enough for everyone! (younger 3 got racquetball racquets.....easier to hold) Anyhow, we had SO much fun! Few injuries (tennis balls hitting people, falling down) but a lot of fun! Gotta buy 2 more tubes of balls. Twins monolopized 2 of the 3 balls we had, so it was a little frustrating at first for the other kids, but once the twins got the hang of serving over the net, the balls were freed up more.









THEN we went to Dairy Queen! To celebrate 25 years of the blizzard (sad thing is I remember them coming out with blizzards as a freshman in HS....Butterfinger was my favorite!) they have a special.....buy one and get one for $.25! (thru April 25th) It was a little cooler by the time we got over there nad the kids got cold eating their ice cream, so here they are in the van with their blizzards. By the way, Banana Cream Pie is my favorite now! It was a fun night! I LOVE FHE!!!

So as we were unloading from teh van when we got home, I asked the kids if they had a fun FHE. Bryce said, "YAH! I like not learning things!" I'll have to remember that! :-)

A wonderful Saturday!

We haven't had any loose teeth in a long time. Well, Nathan started having one on Thursday and with enough yanking, pulling, wiggling, tugging, twisting.....VOILA! He lost his first tooth. A LOT of blood was with it, too. He was excited to get it out!

He got to loose his tooth twice, too! Once when it came out of his mouth and once when it was outside in a ziploc! Maybe he'll listen to his mother next time she tells him to put it in the tooth pillow. Maybe not, the tooth fairy still came!

Of course the twins wanted their pictures, too!

A few hours later family started rolling into town. Today was Bryce's baptism. I have never seen a more excited boy! It was cute! It was great grandpa Mecham's 100th birthday, too. We hope he was there in spirit. Grandpa and grandma gave great talks on the Holy Ghost and baptism. I even had the 'privlege' of singing a solo. The things you do for your children! It actually went pretty good! My prayers were answered! I was not nervous AT ALL! I messed up more playing piano than singing. The singing could have been better (like when I sang it in the shower that morning) but I feared it would have been a lot worse!





Anyhow, afterwards he told me his baptism was refreshing! It made me laugh! Funny boy! Good way to put it!

Here is Bryce opening his scriptures, case and hymnal. OH, and grandpa and grandma got him an Ammon figurine, too. He sang from his hymnal today, too.....thanks g-pa & g-ma!





I didn't get any pictures of family and friends there. But thank you to everyone who came! I didn't get a picture of my niece Andrea and her fiance, Gustav! I feel bad about that! They are getting married in the Reno Temple in July. We are grateful for that! Don't have to travel very far!

So a wonderful weekend! We are 3 for 6 of kids baptized. We get next year off! (3 years in a row we've had baptisms) and Nathan will be in 2012! WOW! We'll be ordaining Ryan a deacon in 2012, too! Their birthdays are only 2 weeks apart so we'll get to do that the same day, probably. My boyz are growing up!

Flashback picture

15 years ago I married an AMAZING man! I can't wait for the next 15! Happy Anniversary, Kevin! I love you!

(Pictures are Matron of Honor: Briana Johnson, Amy, Kevin & Best Man: Steve Loveridge)

The rest of our spring break.......

So here is what happened the rest of our Spring Break last week:

First, on Tuesday when we were putting our bedroom back together something funny happened. Under COmptyn's bed are 3 drawers. Well behind those 3 drawers is some storage space. So Kevin had taken the mattress off and it was dirty under there. The kids like to crawl under and play. So Kevin called COmptyn and Bryce to clean it out. Bryce was throwing a fit. Finally he got back in there. Long story short, he was being a pistol and all of the sudden crawled up on Kevin's lap. (Kevin was sitting and waiting for me to pack a box.) Kevin said, "Bryce, this is so nice!" Then Bryce looks up at Kevin, giggles and the warm fuzzies turned to warm wet fuzzies as Bryce says, "I'm peeing on you, dad!" That's our boy! So proud! Keep in mind a few days later he turned 8! This isn't one of the 4 year old twins! Well, he got out of cleaning under the bed! Smart boy? SOmtimes you have to laugh or you'd strangle your kids!

Wednesday and Thursday Kevin and I went and spent those days in Reno. (The 14th is our 15 year anniversary) Kevin's parents came and watched the kids for us. We headed ove and went straight to the temple. We did some initiatories and then did an endowment session. Kevin gave me some money for our anniversary, so we headed to SAVER'S! I LOVE thrift stores! Anyhow, bought a few skirts, jeans, and some shirts for me. Got some books for the kids. Kevin even got a few things. We headed across the street to Lowe's to pick up some tiles for some craft projects I use them for. We checked into our hotel at the Peppermill and then went down to Texas Roadhouse to meet our niece Melissa and her husband Travis. We had a delicious meal there! We then had some Cold Stone Creamry ice cream. YUM! Then went up to the temple again and did some sealings with Melissa and Travis. It was a GREAT day!




So Thursday morning we went back to the temple. 15 years ago Thursday I went thru the temple for the first time. It was a very emotional session for me because I kept thinking of everything that has happened in 15 years and how directly related they are to the temple. How blessed my life has been because of the temple! My life, my family, none of it would be the same without the temple. After the temple we went to The Melting Pot. (FONDUE!) It was SO much fun and delicious! I LOVE making my own stuffed mushrooms and dipping them in tempura batter and frying them! I loved the Ahi Tuna and kiwi-lime shrimp! It was fun to not have to do all the work, but a WHOLE lot more expensive, and I didn't get as long of breaks in between each course! My stomach had pains in it so bad I thought of making myself throw up to eleviate it! But I didn't want to waste the fondue! :-) So we went to the other Saver's in Reno and walked around. Got hte kids some roller blades, a scooter and some books. (I love books! and so do my kids!) So then we came home!

What we came home to was Ryan had set his duckling over the hole of the fence post and it fell in! Comptyn and Bryce had buried and been throwing their ducklings. Needless to say, they were not only lucky I had spent 2 days in the temple, but that grandpa and grandma were still there! They lost their duck privileges for a while! Ryan's duck they duck the fence post out and then dumped it upside down and banged on it to get it to slide out. I had to grab it's fur and pull it out. It was still alive (after 1 hour 40 minutes in there) but it didn't look good. Something was wrong iwth it's neck. It kept doing a twiching thing. It wouldn't eat or drink. (I guess it drank a few sips at first.) Legs wouldn't move. I sat and helt it for aobut 20 minutes. It peeped only 2-3 times. Then we put it in a box on the counter next to a water feeder. About 30 minutes later she was standing up peeping like CRAZY! Eating, drinking and walking around. I told Ryan our prayers were answered! And maybe he should change her name. It's now Angel. We think she had some "POST" traumatic stress disorder (PUN INTENDED!) for the first hour or so. But she is now fine. I feel bad for what pains in the butts our boys were for grandpa and grandma. Kevin's not going to go to girl's camp with me now because of their behavior. We can't subject mom and dad to an entire week of that!

So Friday was mom's birthday and Sunday was Bryce's. So we celebrated it together! Cousin Josh had games in Minden so BethAnne and him came over. Melissa came from Reno. We had a fun party! Strawberry shortcake for cake! YUM! The twins and Nathan were cemented at grandma's feet during present time! Bryce LOVES legos and we have been introducing them to the Star Wars movies so he now loves them. So a Legos Star Wars kit jsut seemed perfect! It was fun!



So Saturday morning we headed down to Minden for some ball games (which they won them all!) and a picnic and play time at a really nice park.








The above picture is dark, but it's of Josh reboudning the ball! It was the first picture I took....changed the setting and got better pictures!


We had a fun week! It was fun to have family here. Now back to our routine and the continued arranging of the bedroom. I still have a bathroom full of stuff to find a place for! But I still LOVE the color!