Home improvements, a close call, change that adds up, what good is a boat if you can't share and youth football...is it worth it?

So, since we've finally bought our own house, and since it is twenty years old, we have some home improvement projects to do.  We've started first on the outside.  Our boys this summer dug a road for us to park our trailer on.  I wish I had before and after pictures but I don't.  And, although I can take after pictures because the road is complete, unless I have the before pictures you just can't understand how much work went into the digging out of the road.  Needless to say my children spent hours out there with shovels and pick axes this summer digging out the road.  Our second project, a cement driveway.  We only have a gravel driveway and for us to put up our basketball court (and to be able to shovel all the snow we get in the winter properly) we need a driveway of cement.  So first, we had to take out the sidewalk that lined the garage.  Don't ask me why there was an actual sidewalk that lined the garage but no driveway, but that was the way it was.  Brad set the children to it right away with sledgehammers and within a couple of weeks, the cement was broken up and the ground was ready to be leveled.

We thought Jake was a little too young to be swinging that sledgehammer.

We took the kids out of afternoon school to help with the pour.  Brad thought he'd need everyone and quite frankly he did.  Jordan and I screeted, the boys edged and Kenzie took pictures and cleaned tools.  When the cement truck driver saw our crew, she was a little worried that we wouldn't pull it off.

 

And though she doubted us, our little crew pulled it off quite nicely.  Of course, on the second day Brad did accept help from a friend and that made it a lot easier.

 Speaking of our friend, not only did he alleviate the burden of the pour that we took on, but he also ended up a hero to Jake.  On the second day of the pour, we decided to keep Jake in school for the afternoon because he was SUCH a big help the first day providing the kind of help that only a six year old can provide.  So, on his way walking home from the bus stop he saw a snake.  He thought it might be chasing him but he wasn't sure.  Just as the snake had gotten close to Jake, Mason (our friend who helped us with the pour) came driving up out of our driveway and ran over the snake not even knowing it was there.  Jake came home and went on with his afternoon.  Later that evening he told Jordan the story about the snake.  Incredulous Jordan asked Jake to show him the evidence.  So Jake took him up to the sight of the dead snake.  Upon seeing the snake, Jordan recognized that it was a rattler and went to show his Dad.  Upon seeing it, Brad immediately texted Mason to thank him for saving Jake that day.

  Okay, he didn't immediately text Mason, first he cut off the rattles so he could take a picture of Jake holding them for evidence.

On to other topics.  Brad never keeps his change.  He always brings it home and gives it to me where I put it in a jar to save for special treats.  The other day Kenzie discovered this jar (that I still haven't used for special treats) and decided to add up the change.  In the process of counting she decided to make some neat designs and take pictures of them.

As I sat there watching her meticulously placing the coins I wondered why she has enough patience to do something as tedious as stacking coins but no patience to help me clean. 

Speaking of Kenzie, she got braces and she looks so SPECIAL.

That's the look she gave me when I asked for a picture.  And then, she gave me a good one.

She kind of looks cute right?  Have you seen this video from studio C?  I think it's funny.

Two more things...we took the young women boating before the first day of school and taught them all how to ski. 

Most of them knew how to wakeboard but none had ever skiied because, as one of them told us and I quote, "skiing is soooo 90s".  We had a lot of fun.

And finally, we've put Ben in youth tackle football this year.  He has had 3 games.  Each game he's had less and less playing time.  Just yesterday he was only in for 4 plays.  They supposedly have a 10 play rule, but Ben didn't get his ten.  So my question is this.  Is 5th grade too late to start football?  If someone starts that is new, how can he ever get experience if he never plays and finally, is all the sacrifice of time for the family worth it?  These coaches move up with him next year.  Do I keep having him play where it affects his confidence or wait until 7th grade when he has new coaches?  Any advice would be appreciated.  Honestly, if any of my kids were custom made for football...it would be Ben.  You think the coaches would be working with him until they got what they wanted from him.  He's pretty coachable.

A new beginning

My oldest starts high school tomorrow.  I know a lot of you have already been through the whole high school thing, but this is a first for me.  I think I feel more sentimental about it than I felt about my last entering kindergarten.  It just seems that high school is so busy and it goes by so fast and I know before I can even catch my breath from it all he will be leaving and another one soon thereafter...until all my children are adults and I'm left with an empty house and heart. I guess what I'm trying to say is that high school, to me, is marking the beginning of an end and I wish I could just make time stand still.  I know I've said that before...but I'll continue to say it again and again.  I want them all to stay just like this:

Of course, I could do without the fighting:)

He is as tall as me now, you know.  My high schooler that is.

   He's getting lean and lanky and muscly...and girls are noticing him and he's definitely noticing them.  Hmmm....wish I knew how to deal with all that.  I just tell him he doesn't need to get serious with anyone yet.  Like them all.  Find out what you like best character wise, and have fun.  I think he listens...most of the time.  Sometimes I'm not so sure though...he definitely has a teenage brain right now or maybe it's a man's brain ;) At times it seems as if the only time he does listen is when I tell him there's food or girls involved. He's a tease.  He teases and teases and teases.  Sometimes a little too much but most of the time it is fun.

This one, she's complicated.  She's all alone this year for the first time EVER at school.  She's always had Jordan or Ben on one side or the other.  I hate that she's in middle school.  It's the worst time for girls.  They're mean.  I tell her don't get involved in the girl thing.  It's better not to.  She says, "I want to be around girls.  I hate my brothers," and she probably does feel that way at times.  Especially when Jordan teases her.

Of course, then again, she says she hates the dog too.  But she feeds it everyday.  She plays with it every day and at times I hear her tell him that she loves him.  She may care for Harley more than Jordan cares for Harley, especially now that the cats are gone and he's not chasing them anymore.  It's the same way with her brothers.  She can say whatever she wants about them, say she hates them, but if anyone else says the same...oh boy!!!! She will mark you as an enemy.  Trust me, she hated a girl's guts for a year just because she didn't like Jordan back when Jordan thought she was cute.  And another girl was definitely rebuked by her when she once called Ben obnoxious.  Like the dog, she loves those boys.  Hopefully, she will look back at her childhood and not mind that she was the only girl and hopefully being the only girl in a family of boys will come in handy when all the mean girl stuff starts this year. (Can you tell we watch a lot of studio C at our house?)

Ben, he's my sweetheart lately.  One day someone's going to be lucky to marry him.

Yes, he's a little cheesy.  But, do you know who opens my door for me?  Ben.  Do you know who gives up a seat for a girl?  Ben.  Do you know who my hardest worker is?  Ben.  He's sensitive.  He notices when I'm upset and he tell me he loves me.  And he's not only sensitive to me, he's sensitive to Brad too...and to Kenzie for that matter and everyone else in the family.  Really moms, he'll be a good catch one day.

And then there's his best buddy, Riley.  They are still best buddies you know.  When I put Ben in tackle football this year and not Riley, I got an earful.  He wants to do everything that Ben does.

Because of Ben, Riley has all the confidence in the world.  Riley's a natural at everything it seems.  However, he does have things come to him so quickly that if there is a challenge, he will at times easily give up.  For example, when he didn't get up on his first try waterskiing, like his brother Ben did, he was very distressed.  So much so that he didn't try again until our 4th time out in our boat.  Of course he did get up his second time.  He's SO competitive, just like his daddy.  If you're playing a board game with him his competitive side comes out so easily that you have to watch him at times, he's my cheater.  He cheats just to win.  But, then again, he's so smart that he doesn't have to cheat very often.  He's my peacemaker.  He's the one that Jake can hit over and over and he will usually not retaliate.  He's my one that will sneak in beside me just to snuggle. He's quiet and still.

Jake, he's not quiet or still.  Sitting at school will always be a challenge for him.  Staying quiet will always be a challenge for him.  Jake is the one to tell you everything about our family.  Just the other day in primary, at church, he told everyone about Kenzie's suffocated cat, Taz, and how they found it dead in the cooler.  I was there to hear it all.

  Jake's my happy child, for the most part.  He has his fits and outbursts of anger (mostly at Riley) but he's content with who he is.  He sings all the time.  His newest song he's learned is Gone, gone, gone
by Phillips Phillips from the new spiderman movie.  He also has a unique ability to quote movies that he's only seen once.  His newest favorite movie to quote is the Lego movie.  In his robot voice I will overhear him say "What do you mean you have always been a robot."

Wouldn't you want to freeze all that?  What will I do without them?

I was reading this blog the other day and came across a quote that I loved.  She said, "Mothers aren't raising children.  A child, at the moment it arrives, creates a mother."  (You can read the whole post here)

I love these children of mine and I love the opportunity they've given me to be a mother.  Here's to another year!

Sunday August 17, 2014

So, it's been a while since I've written.  I love my blogs.  Not because I'm a great writer or anything but because they show everything that's happened through the years.   They remind me of all the many good things that have happened even through the tough times.  So, although I far from being a regular writer, I have discovered this, I need to keep writing.  It's a good history of all that our family has passed through.

We've had an eventful summer.  Last fall we bought our first boat and it seems like when we're not working we're boating.  Everyone has been up on two skis.  Even Kenzie who thought she'd never get up and (at the beginning of the summer) thought Dad was the meanest for making her try every time...never mind that she loves it now.  Even Jake, who only is up for a second.  Brad bought a tool called the barefoot boom that helps the new beginners learn.

It's even helped me get up on one ski.  I still can't do the deep water start but I am getting up on a rope off of the bar.  Even Jordan and Ben have been able to barefoot off the boom.  It's a pretty nifty teaching tool.  And of course, since Brad has been skiing all summer long he finally has a picture that he'd like me to put up of himself.  

Jordan attended his first youth dance last night.  It's strange having kids the age that you remember feeling you were old.  I think that is the first time I really felt old, when I was old enough to attend dances.  And I remember the boys I liked at the time...Brian and Danny.  I remember trying to see them at dances and the excitement I felt if I did actually dance with one.  Thinking about all that...I'm not sure I want Jordan going.  I'm not ready for any of that romance stuff.  If only I could control the rest of his life...

We've discovered  that we're not meant to own cats...really.  You remember this one:

the one I got for Kenzie for her birthday, we named her Taz.  Well, Taz is no more.  She climbed in an old camping cooler we were about to throw away and somehow the cooler got shut while she was in it.  Kenzie found her the next day...suffocated.  She was crushed...as were all the kids.  We had a ceremony and buried Taz that evening.  The inscription on the cross the kids made for her said:  "Here lies Taz loved by Jordan, Kenzie, Ben, Riley and Jake Belt."

So I decided to get her another.  I found two, brother and sister.  Alex and Jewel.  Jewel was the first to disappear.  Eaten by a coyote or fox.  Alex, well he hung himself.  Really.  Riley tied him up to a bike on our porch and Alex walked off the porch and well...again the children found him deceased.  Riley doesn't want me to write this because he doesn't want you to think that he did that on purpose.  He was very upset when they found the cat dead.  Me,  I decided we're not going to try cats again for a long while.  On the bright side though...this all did open up discussions of why we don't climb into trunks of cars or twirl around with the strings of blinds around our necks.

I went to Seattle and had a wonderful, relaxing time without Brad and the kids.  When I got home though...this is what I was greeted by:

which I guess looks kind of cool when they're done up but when they go to church and comb them down they kind of look like creepy old guys with combovers as illustrated by this picture Riley took of he and I today.

Brad promised me he'd shave them all in time for school.

Finally, funny story from today.  Brad found a place where one of our children had carved on our computer desk.  He asked who did it.  No one confessed.  So, as is common with Brad, until one confessed, he sent them all to bed.  Well, sometime while they all sat in bed, the older children convinced the youngest that it would be his duty to confess.  And the youngest agreed.  After all, he'd rather get spankings than be in bed all day.  So he comes down, confesses and because he was willing to take the blame for all the children even though he didn't do it (which Brad found out through his quizzing techniques) he was rewarded a popsicle.  Jake then proceeded to run upstairs and came back downstairs seconds later informing us that he had to take off the five pair of underwear he had put on in preparation for the spankings dad was going to give him that he knew were going to be really hard :)

Lake Powell

I've been meaning to post these pics for a while.  It was my first time ever going to Lake Powell.  Busy, hot, but lots of fun.  We had a blast with the family who invited us.

Obviously we all skiied a ton:

and swam as much as we could to stay cool.

The food and company were great

No matter how much sun screen we put on:

 We still ended up a little red

At times brad snuck in some little suprises for the kids:  

                                                    

                                                
                                                     Our favorite activity:  cliff jumping

even Jake and I got in on it.