22 Oct 2010

Wanted to update my readers - I start a new job on Monday! I am the newest employee of a counseling company. My offical job title is Psychosocial Rehabilitation Specialist. There's a lot for me to learn - but the great part is I get to set my own hours! So, I can schedule around my girls things....It's one of those jobs where you sign a confidentiality agreement - so I won't get to tell great stories. Sorry! DJ and I see this as a temporary measure as our house is not currently rented out. His hours were going down, so something had to give! I think it's an idea way for me to see if I really want to work in the field I have a degree in! I have one of my background checks done and will do the other one on Monday. Quite the deal....

Anyway - in other news, nothing much else going on. Life continues as normal. The girls are enjoying school and staying busy enough. We're all looking forward to the end of the canning season - I can almost see it from here.

Hope all is well with you! Loves!

My recommendation for piano books

I am finally doing lessons with all my girls! Almost every Friday!~ I have found the most fun books for pre-readers - My First piano adventures by Faber. There are two books - a writing and a lesson book. It really is a charming book! I have each of my younger girls in different books - and each is doing well. I just like these the best - they are the most fun. Also - comes with a disk that they can practice with.

My piano friends - do you have any thoughts on these or other beginning pre-reading piano books?

The Big Southern Butte

In no particular order - the Big Southern Butte. We headed up in the afternoon - and saw the sunset at the top. The shadow is that of the butte falling across the valley. We spent the night in the Suburban at the top and woke in time to see the sunrise! Truly breathtaking!

Deer on the Butte - seen in the morning on the way down.

Pictures for Grandpa Gene

Above is Virginia Belle McDowall

This is Marque and Lola

For those who may wonder - I am no longer wearing the wrist splint with the thumb spike. Doing pretty good. Onward and upward!

Very Interesting!

Aaron tipped me off to a solution to a problem I was anticipating. I needed a phone number or contact information that wouldn't give too much information about myself - for family history. Enter Google Voice! I can now text you - any and all from that number for free! It has too many features for me to list. Take a look - it's used through your gmail account. More later....

9 Sept 2010

So a bit of an update is in order. Last week I substituted  - my first day of "work" in 13+ years! What a milestone. Over the weekend, DJ and I enjoyed camping at the top of the big southern butte. I'm going to devote a whole post to that great topic.....

That's about it for now. I'll get the butte post done sometime soon. Just busy researching family history. Some amazing things there!

26 Aug 2010

Second day of Kindergarden! I'm typing a bit slower - had to get a different wrist brace to help my thumb heal. It has a thumb spike (or something like that) - that makes it so my thumb doesn't move except at the tip. I wanted to catch up a bit today with pictures. Here they are:

Here's a picture for all who wondered about McKay's teeth. These are 2 teeth - just the shells left. The 3rd tooth was swallowed. You can see the one tooth broke into 3 pieces as it was being extracted. Thanks to Aunt Karla for the dental assistance! It was quite the fight trying to get these teeth out!



Kimball all ready to depart for the trek. She loved it!


Our family all dressed up for outdoor church. Yes - once a year we have church in the trees across the road from us. All 3 hours! Below you get an idea of the setup:



Next is the bunkbeds. We needed to give the girls more room - individual room that is, so they got bunkbeds. Works great! McKay was the least willing to sleep by herself and still sneaks into a sisters bed when she thinks she can get away with it.

The 3 younger girls did swim lessons this summer. The pool was closed after just one week - so they gave us an additional 2 weeks later. This enabled Hinckley to pass 2 levels. She is now in the same level as McKay! McKay and Taylor each moved up a level as well. The best part was going swimming with Daddy!

Took the next picture out of the window as we drove through the mountains this summer. I was determined to get a pic of a butterfly - but I think I ended up with a moth. Still - pretty good picture for along the road!


When we drive offroad - it is really adventurous. Here is Nate in front of us - fording a stream. We went through several streams along the way. Crazy fun!


Here was our lunch stop - everyone was having a great time being out of the car. We even cranked up the music and got the little ones dancing! It was wonderful!


Had to put the next one in - the colors are SO my unforuntate events colors! This is Taylor jumping off the diving board to one of her teachers. She was so scared about the life jacket - and it was almost funny because she was the bravest kid in the class - telling the teacher - move back, I'll jump further than that (without the life jacket on). So then she's holding on to the side of the pool in the lifejacket! We finally got her in the water and she took to the jacket when she realized she could trust it. I love this picture - there's no going back!


And here's the first day of school! She is doing great and loving school. The girls are taking their lunches this year - and getting to make what they want! So that's her lunch bag in front of her. The little lunch boxes just didn't have enough room for the containers we're using. Have you seen the new divided containers? Can't remember the brand....but perfect for lunches!

And that pretty much catches things up. HOpe your day is great!

25 Aug 2010

The kids are all back in school. Doing great! Yesterday was Taylor's first day - I know many thought there would be tears - but there were none. I did feel a twinge in my heart.....maybe another day. I think it was like when my mom came to help after all my babies: When she left the first time, I cried. The second time, it was less, the third time, less tears still. The last no tears at all - of course she did stay 2 weeks with the last one. :) Anyway, it is a milestone.

It's been too long since I posted. I know there were things I wanted to write about - but have forgotten in the mean time. I'll try to do better. Some things are too good to forget.

Well, it's Family History Center day - so I better get going. Have a great day!

6 Aug 2010

For a minute there I was back in 2009. Crazy! Just a quick update - I'm working on several projects (nothing new there) and getting ready for the kids to go back to school - in about a week and a half. Going camping next weekend. I'm signed up to substitute teach - so cautiously optimistic about that. Just the days that Taylor is in school - all day kindergarden. And just the younger grades.

Life is good and busy. Hope your summer is wrapping up well! Loves!

FHE idea

So we had a really great Sunday - and sharing time went especially well. The primary is learning about Miracles this month. I really debated about what do emphasize in music - not a lot of songs about miracles in the children's songbook. The idea I landed on and that worked really great and taught me was that Prayer is a miracle. I had my cell phone and showed the kids it - nothing fancy. I then asked who we could call with this - and where. They quickly decided we could call anyone in the world. I then asked if we could call Heavenly Father on it. The idea perplexed the junior sharing time a bit - but not for long. They agreed that didn't work. I introduced the idea of prayer being a miracle to them - a miracle that we can take part in anytime. Heavenly Father always wants to talk to us. His end of the connection (as it were) uses Priesthood power (the power of God on the Earth). Our end of the connection uses faith (our faith). No fancy equipment is required. I even demonstrated the procedure for making a call (folding arms and bowing my head).

How I connected this to music: We sang Book of Mormon Stories (a few of the verses that refer to miraculous events - 2,000 sons of God, Samuel the Lamanite, and the first verse about crossing the ocean) and Follow the Prophet (verses like Noah, Jonah, and our day). The verse about our current day talks about following the prophet. I had a song I'd been wanting to teach them and it fit perfectly - words by Gordon B Hinckley - Don't ever forget to Pray. So - I did the phone demonstration after the music lead-in. I learned more than the kids did I'm sure. In this day of technology - it helps to understand who has the real power!

22 July 2010

Swim lessons this week and next - just keeping my head above water getting everywhere I need to. I'll be back posting later....Just wanted to let you know.

13 July 2010

So today it's more pictures....

My girls at the doctor's office before Kimball's 2nd dose of Gardasil. TMI? Well - we also took a picture on the sly of a look-alike. Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced boo-kay).

Like I said - it was on the sly. Here's a image from the internet of the actual gal:

It was very strange that this real-life look alike didn't have a British accent.

Well, we're getting ready for reunion - should be great fun! Kimball is preping for the trek. Life is going well. More later....