Next big step

Now that Al is 18 he needed to get a picture ID.  It was so weird walking into the DMV with him!  Seeing all these other teens there to get their license - he felt like he was just where he needed to be.  I didn't tell  him the difference between their cards! And he has been told he can't get his license until he's as tall as his brothers.  (Not gonna happen!)

There was hardly a wait at all!  (We went to the Draper location instead of West Valley.  Will definitely go there from now on!)  He sat, I took his picture, they called his number.  Awesome!  But I still had to post a picture of him looking bored in the DMV waiting room.  It wouldn't be complete without it!

This gentleman treated Al with respect an adult deserves.  (Even when Al whined because he only got a temporary card!)

He didn't need his eyes tested for the ID card, but he checked it out anyway.

And here he is!  The proud owner of his first picture ID card!!  

Some pics



N got a haircut!!  The mullet is gone!  She looks so beautiful.  I will take more pics over the next few days to show it off.

 

 

And here's a few more pics of my Gracie Goo. OK a lot of pics of her!  She's sure finding her way into our hearts and family!  She sleeps in our room on her doggy bed and doesn't get out of bed until anywhere from 8 - 10 in the morning!  She's not a morning person!

 We found out she will be 6 in February!  That's old for a dane, but even if we only have her for a year, that's a year for us and hopefully a happy year for her.  We are her 2nd rescue - the people that just abandoned her this time had rescued her.  I don't get it!  But she's here now and happy - and so are we!!

Al and Grace

 

 What's wrong with this picture? 

 

Nothing until you see why she isn't on her bed!  Moose still rules the house, even with a dog 5x his size.  They get along great! No swats or fights at all!!  One time Grace tried to play with Moose and Moose just looked at her like, "Are you kidding me?"

 

Lady Grace!

 



Mo and Grace

N follows Grace everywhere!  And it's cute to see Grace 'tiptoe' around the kids.  She hasn't stepped on a kid once - not even by accident!

 

She goes EVERYWHERE with me.  We kinda like each other!  If she doesn't know where I am she freaks out a bit.  So I have found myself talking out loud throughout the house so she can find me!

 We went camping over Conference weekend and took Grace with us.  We actually only had her for a few days at this point.  Here she is hanging out with my niece B.  B is on HER dane's doggy bed.

 And look at this deer wearing hunter orange.  Wait!  That's Grace!  We didn't want anyone mistaking her for wild animals!

 

Is that enough pics of Grace for you?

 

OK.  What about a video!!  Moose is hiding in the box and Grace can't figure out why he's there.  I love her voice!!

 There's a story behind this picture; my dad wanted to sit in the hammock and relax a bit.  He just didn't center himself well enough.  We all watched him as he slowly but surely tipped backwards until he was on his head.  Then he looked over at us and said (in an old lady voice), "Help!"  Obviously, I was such a caring daughter I had to take a picture before we helped him, and I will admit I laughed till I cried for about half an hour.  It wasn't so much the slow motion falling as much as it was the weak-sauce "help" he managed to yelp. (That's Colby's dog Dex coming over to investigate)

 

And I love this picture of my Brutus tree - so named because Brutus ate it in half last summer and it survived.  This time of year is so beautiful to me and makes me grateful for all the beauty that surrounds us.  Happy Autumn everyone!



Al's first day of school - high school!!

 No, this isn't a mug shot, but I couldn't get him to smile.  He's a big sophmore in high school now.  No time for fun and games, I guess.

 He looks so small in such a big school!  I love the fact that his backpack is a Transformers one. 

And here he is with some of his friends and some peer tutors.  Mike and I take him to school because the bus drops kids off an hour before school starts and then the kids get breakfast there at school.  That would mess up his sugars in a serious way, so we just get him there with about 20 mins before school starts so he can still shmooze but not be there too early.

 

 

His teacher is Miss Heather, and so far so good!  They are doing well with his sugars - well, as well as can be expected.  He's a tough one when it comes to his sugars, and even though the docs would disagree with me, I know his sugars do wild swings with the change of seasons.  So they are having to learn real quick what to do for him.  And since his thyroid has been so wacky he isn't as able to tell you when he's low or high like he used to.  I think he just generally isn't quite himself, so it's hard for him to tell.  AND I've always said he doesn't regulate his temperature well (he gets cold so easlily and doesn't do well in heat) and their classroom hasn't been above 60 degrees this whole time.  Needless to say, he's been wearing lots of layers to school.

 

 

When we drop Al off (he's called Al at school because there is already an Alex and an Alec) we just call the classroom and a teacher comes and gets him at a certain door.  I walked him in the first day of school, and Mike took him the second day and the class phone wasn't working so Mike had to take him in.  First of all, Mike was appalled at how skimpy girls dress nowadays!  He said he had wished he had blinders on.  But he followed Al up to the classroom, hoping Al knew where he was going, but Mike said all the way in Al had groups of girls saying, "Hi Al!"  "Hey, Alex!"  "Good to see you Al!"  Second day of school and EVERYONE already knows his name. 

 

I had emailed the wrestling coach to see if Al could 'earn' going to wrestling practice once in a while.  That way he had something to look forward to AND it would hopefully cut down on his wrestling everyone he comes in contact with because I can say, "Nope. It's not wrestling practice."  Surprise, surprise!  The coach wants him on the team!  When I told the coach I didn't know if that was such a good idea because he didn't know anything about wrestling or the rules, moves, etc.  Coach said, "That's what practice is for!"  What a nice guy!!  Wrestling starts in November.  We will have to see how that goes. 

 

So Alex is a sophmore in high school!  I'm very proud of him and how he is trying to be a big kid.  I miss him around the house all day, but it is so good for him to be with other people other than just mom and a bunch of 3 year olds!

 

When he gets home from school - if he has earned it - he always wants to go next door and play their video games for 20 minutes.  Kelsey, his friend next door, is a sophmore, too and is becoming a busy high school kid so she's not home for his beck and call as much anymore.  So I texted her the other day to see if she was home and if Al could come over.  She wasn't and then I had to laugh; How many sophmore in high school get a text from their friend's mom asking if they can play?  I think these 2 are it!  Sure glad he has good friends!  One of the boys in our ward (Nash) is in Al's basketball class, and he is so excited to play against / with Nash because Nash is "real good!" 

 

Just for info sake, Al's classes that are integrated are basketball, art (drawing which he calls coloring), choir (he hasn't sang a note, yet), and ballroom dance!  His vote isn't in yet on dance class.  At first he loved it, but now that they are actually dancing - and much faster than his little body can move - it's a bit overwhelming!

 

Good luck Al!  Class of 2015!

A little more summer fun...

One of the last things we did before school started was go visit Josh at his job site; it's Alder construction and they are re-vamping the water towers there.  The old ones are old, old and so they are building new ones.  We really didn't care about the water tanks, but the tractors were soooo awesome!

 

 All Alex wanted to do was rub the dirt off of the tractors.  He could have been there for hours doing that!

 We took Reggie and her 2 boys - Mc and Ev.  Mc is a HUGE tractor fan!  He knew the proper name for all of the tractors.  To me they were just scoopers and dumpers.  Shows how much I know.

 More rubbing off the dirt...do you think he could get a job at your work site Josh?  You would have the cleanest tractors in town!!

 The 3 boys in one of the scoops; yes, Alex is rubbing the dirt off o it!

 Al posed for me in front of some of the tractors.  You can see he's thrilled to be walking instead of rubbing dirt off the tractors or throwing rocks.

One more shot in a scoop; this time with Oak, Mc and Ev.  Thanks Josh for the adventure!

And this pic was taken the day before Lou died; that's how things are rated now.  Before and after she died.  I know it kinda sounds morbid, especially since she's still alive, but that was a big chunk of time in all of our lives and it just seems fitting to have it be a timepiece.  Besides if you don't laugh about things, you will go crazy!!  Anyway, Mike and I went for a little bike ride to see the cabin where girl's camp was for the summer.  It was so nice to spend a few hours with him.  Besides, he looks so hot in his motorcycle gea!!

The good, the not so good, and the random...

Let's start with the good news....

Cali is home!!!  She got home late Thursday night.  (They came to our house so Cali had someone to help her while Josh was at work) It took so long to check her out of the hospital because she had so many doctors and nurses that had to come give her a hug and say good-bye.  She made a big impression on a lot of people.  There were a many people who felt the spirit while with Josh and Cali, but some of them didn't know that's what they were feeling. They just knew they felt good when they were with them.

 Oak didn't want to let her mommy out of her site.  This is a picture of her playing with a toy and singing a song right next to Cali, but as you can see the meds had kicked in and Cali really could have cared less.  But the important part is they were together.

 Tomorrow is the big yard sale that the Hinckley family has put together and we have 1/2 of a garage FULL of items for the sale.  So many people have been amazingly generous; even people that don't know us, the Hinckley's or Cali and Josh.  A young woman in our stake made these tutu's for the sale.  They didn't make it to the garage!  The girls wore them all morning!!

And now the not so good news...Colby and Kierra are dangerously close to the fire in Eagle Mountain.  They have not been evacuated yet but some houses nearby have been.  They have taken out valuables, some clothes and the dog and have been camping out at my parent's home. 

 This is the view from their neighborhood last night.

 And this is the view from their driveway.   Too close for comfort.  And a lot of dry land still to burn.

And now the random...

I've mentioned before how talented TJ is, well here's more proof.  This is what she gave Mike for Father's Day; she painted a dolphin on either side of his gas tank on the motorcycle.  Beautiful, isn't it?!  She did a fantastic job.

The other night I had to have some wood cut up at Lowe's.  Al tagged along with me and when the saw started going he ducked behind this fork-lift, put a crate on his head and covered his ears with his hands.  Definitely not one who likes loud sounds!!  But I still thought it was an adorable picture.

Thank you for your concern, your prayers, your faith.  We couldn't have made it through these past two weeks without them!