Canyon turns 8

Happy Birthday Canyon!! You are a special boy, we love you!

Beads Beads and more Beads

So i went to the Gem Faire yesterday and oh my gosh i was in Heaven or something close, cause they had everything. It was a little overwhelming, at first. Willie came with me and we were like wow, where do you start. We walked around for a bit looking, and then once i made a purchase, i almost couldn't stop. I wanted to buy so much more but i limited my self to $100 bucks. Guess i'll be busy making jewelry for a while.....

Preparedness

My dad sent me this, and I thought it was worth passing on:

Preparedness

An email from people in Texas who just experienced hurricane  'Ike'.   What testimony for preparedness.

Dear Friends:
 
We have a 6'x6' hole in our roof, no electricity or  running water. Trees down everywhere.  However, because we listened to the counsel of our Prophet we are prepared. In fact it seems to me that it's only the members of the church who seem to be calm, prepared, and helping one another with trees in roofs, flooding, etc.

There is a POD or Point of Distribution in Tomball where we live.  There you get water and ice IF you have enough fuel to wait in the  3-hour lines. We don't have to do that because we have 3 full water barrels, 75 juice bottles filled with water, and our pool, which is dirty, but we use it to flush.

It is very difficult to get gas.  Police guard the stations when fuel is delivered and you might wait half a day to get up to the pump just to have them say, 'Too bad, we are out'.   I am grateful that we have a generator.  We run it 4 hours a day to keep our fridge and light. I am grateful that we have had fuel for it. You can't even by gas containers as they are rationed.  We can only by bread once a week and limited to 2 loaves at a time.  Water is rationed by the case at the grocery store - 3 cases per family. 

The ATM machines do not have power.  For the past 6 months I have stashed small bills away because I have had such a feeling of foreboding. We have cash because of that.  LISTEN TO THE SPIRIT.  Get cash in small bills because the stores can't make change and credit and debit cards often don't work.  I had to pay 5 dollars more for an item because they couldn't make change for me. 
 
And --  PHONES ONLY WORK OCCASIONALLY.

Believe it or not...  I have not had a bath in 4 days, Today was the first day I got to wash my hair with pool water.  I haven't fixed my hair in a week!!!  It just doesn't matter anymore.   We cannot do laundry because we don't have water.  So, we wear our clothes until they are literally disgusting.  When we do finally get water we will have to boil it since it is contaminated.

I am grateful for my parents.  When we got low on generator fuel they drove 45 minutes to help us.  They filled up their cans and brought us 10 gallons of fuel, which kept us going until this morning at 6:oo, am when we finally found some gas.

A prepared Family and a loving extended family is the key to survival and making it through right now.  I know that my parents would drive to the end of the earth to help me and it's nice knowing they are there.   I know that I would do the same for my children.

I want all of you to know that I have such a testimony of following the counsel of our living prophet.  There really is safety and peace in your heart if you are prepared.  Please get your generators, 5 gas cans full of gas, canned goods, baby items, baby wipes to bathe, and all the water you can store... even if you have to trip on it in your home. Have your lanterns, crank flashlights, tarps, rope, etc., ready to go because you never know when it will be your turn to endure the test. It's overwhelming, but it's going to be ok eventually. I have a home,  I have food, and I have water, because I listened to the counsel of the prophet.  Please make sure you do the same. It's time to have your life in order. Tomorrow may be too late.
 
I love you all so much.  I wish you were here.  Take care! - Jyl
 

Here comes TROUBLE!

Just in case you were thinking my life is a cake walk now that 3 of our 4 kids are in school, this is a reminder, that is NOT true. I have this kid:

Ridge playing with the salt, thanks Sacoya for leaving it out.
Oh and our counting beans for math help, now in the garbage.
Diaper bag clean up, don't you just love when the kleenex gets pulled out of the little packages.
Tupperware, always a favorite toy.
And my favorite, bathroom help, i needed to mop the floor anyway, right?

My little stinker keeps me busy most the day, in case you were wondering!

New zip code

So we bought a house, and will be changing zip codes soon. I'm thinking mid to Late October. We are pretty excited, sad to leave all our wonderful friends and neighbors behind, but ready for a change of pace. Their is not even a stop light in this town. It has beautiful views of the Wasatch and the drive to town isn't so bad now that the freeway is two lanes. Kids are a little freaked out but it will be good for them to stretch a little. We all get too comfortable sometimes. So if you no anybody who needs a great house, spread the word, we still have one for sale!

Mickey Mouse

It has finally happened, you know that moment when your baby starts liking something other than you! Ridge has become obsessed with Mickey Mouse. When he sees or hears anything Mickey, he immediately starts to sing the song. m-i-c-k-e-y-m-o-u-s-e, you know the one. He claps when "Mickey's club house" comes on TV. He will even watch it almost all the way through, which is a great thing for me, cause I can actually take a shower now without him tearing the bathroom to pieces. For Halloween we bought him a little Mickey costume, it's sooooo cute. Good thing I held on to this bobble head from my grandma's cereal box cause that's what started the whole thing.

me and my driver license

ok so about ten days ago i forced myself to go down to renew my driver license. i seriously didn't want it to expire and have to take the dreaded test again. so anyhow, when you get there, you wait in line at the information desk, while quickly filling out your paper work, and dragging your child, purse etc.. around the the counter so that no one will get in front of you kinda thing. That takes about fifteen minutes, during which a few people just walk in the door strait to the desk and pretty much butt in line. Annoying but we all just stand there and do nothing, crazy i know. once you get to the information desk, you are given a number and you proceed to wait some more, only this time you can sit in the provided chairs. this takes another 15-20 minutes. Luckily i brought ridge with his new squeaky shoes and he was able to entertain everyone or at least annoy them a little. when your number finally gets called, everyone looks around at you and you can instantly sense a little envy that it's you not them. At the counter they proceed to go over all the information and of course charge you a fee of $25 dollars, (nothings ever free). They get your john hancock, and then the dreaded eye test. i'm not sure how i passed it, but i wasn't going to make a fuss, all i have to say is people with actual vision problems, must really suck at those tests. Then you get to wait again for them to call your name, only about 5 minutes though. And this is where my story actually has a point. It's picture time, and i suck at pictures, especially the kind where you are standing in a public place and everyone is starring at you and a big flash goes off. But to my surprise, my picture actually looked normal, or even on the hey not bad side of things. So imagine my surprise when i open the mail today, and my brand new driver license has a big utah square and the letters DP right over my face. i don't get it? I've waited ruffly 19 years for a decent picture and they ruin it with a decal? You can't tell so much in the photo, but it pretty much covers my face. I guess the upside is if i get pulled over, i could say, hey that's not me!!!

I splurged!

Ok, so I splurged a little. I've been to several art shows this summer, and didn't buy anything. Last year I waited to make sure Willie had a good show before I bought anything, and by that time, everything I had looked at was gone. So this year I bought what I wanted (not everything, but a few things) the first morning it opened.

I love this bag, it has the best colors.

And this bracelet, that says "love is patient". I need to remind myself of that every so often. You can add or remove bead strands. Very cool.
O- and this gourd. I picked one out last year, but it was gone when I went back to buy it. Lucky for me, they were there again this year.
and these cute shoes for Ridge. They are called "The Squeaky Shoe". Yes, they actually squeak every time he takes a step. While mildly annoying, they have provided much entertainment. At Willies moms house on Sunday, the dog chased him around the house every where he went. Ridge loves them, he jumps and jumps and jumps.

They had much, much more, cute wrapping paper, loads of cute jewelry, tons of cute house decor items, ect. If you've never been to Swiss days, you should plan on going next year. But make sure you go early cause things go fast.