fair art

shaun entered 5 pieces of art in the county fair this year. every piece he entered, won a prize.

 this is "The Emerald City of OZ." it won first premium, and reserve grand champion.

"Gryphon's Departure." it won second place, and first premium.

 this is "The Great Dragon Bastian." it won a second place, and first premium.

 "Bottles" it won a second premium.

"Rainbow Socks" won a first place, and first premium.
the proceeds from the winnings totaled $133. for a man who thinks that his art will never make money, he seems to keep finding ways. strange how that works out, huh?

i'm trying to convince him to enter Rainbow Socks into the state fair. and i'm trying to convince him that giving up his artwork is not a good idea.

smokey air

this is what my sun looks like around 6:30 every evening.

all the fires west of us, make it look pink, red, and orange

sleepy, sleepy, sleepy

this is the sight that i found when i got up to feed michael one night.
funny girl!!!!

small

i tend to have small babies. and they tend to stay pretty small. but, i've had one that went beyond small, she stopped growing period.
i seem to have another one that's going down that same path.
michael had his 6 month check-up yesterday. he weighed in at 13 pounds 2 ounces and 26.5 inches long. small, but not short. and since his last checkup in june, that's only a 1 pound gain.
i have started supplementing. i HATE doing that, but i no longer seem to be able to make enough to satisfy him. he always seems hungry.
i think the culprit is the heat.

good intentions

you know the saying, "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions"? i wonder if others good intentions pave our paths as well as our own do.

my two older children have been difficult lately.

last saturday, a lady in ward showed up at my door. i was surprised to see her as we don't normally associate together. she asked me if i knew where my kids were. they were out playing, but i didn't know exacts. she then proceeded to tell me a story that upset me.
they run a horse breeding facility about a half mile west, across the train tracks, right next to the highway. one of her hired hands, found my children climbing on the corrals, and trying to play with the horses. for the most part, these are not docile animals, and particularly not the studs. they didn't listen when they were told they needed to get down, and they didn't give their names when asked for them. it wasn't until they were yelled at and informed that i would be told what they had been doing that they finally did what they had been asked.
when they got home, we had a LONG talk about their behavior. they had their bikes taken away for 2 weeks, and they were grounded to the yard for 1. the rules were also tightened.

normally, my kids are free to go searching for someone to play with. they know they aren't supposed to cross the tracks, or the highway/main street. because of the above incident, they are no longer free to go searching. they must inform me where they are going, and if they decide to change that position, they are to come or call home and let me know.
apparently, the new rules didn't get beat into them hard enough.

this afternoon, they told me they were going to the school to play. i'm ok with that. it's just a block away, and it has much better toys than we do. dinner time came, and the kids weren't home. shaun went out searching for them. he started at the school-they weren't there. he then walked around the neighborhood-he didn't see them. he went out in the van, and i started calling people.
no one had seen them this afternoon. everyone had seen them this morning for a bit, but not this afternoon. i called the relief society president, and she offered to go out looking for us. i called my visiting teacher, and she went out looking as well.
taylor finally made it home on his own. shaun had found elizabeth. i'm not sure when and how they got separated, but they did. taylor was by the church, and elizabeth was at the park (across the highway).
they'd been home about a half-hour when there's a knock on the door. someone had called in that my kids were missing. i had a police officer at the door.
although, i'm grateful that someone was trying to help, that should have been my decision whether to call the police or not. no one i talked to mentioned it, and shaun didn't say he had anyone call either. i wanted to ask the officer who made the call, but i doubt he would have known.

little miracles

i am continually amazed and humbled at how the lord has met our needs. just as things start looking truly grim, one of the earthly angels comes along, and things are momentarily better.

i had had to pull out the cloth diapers, and all of the disposable ones were gone. i used them for about a week. my sister-in-law was over one day talking to shaun, and asked me what sizes the kids wore in diapers. she got us some.

we were on our last rolls of toilet paper. a member at church stopped me in hallway afterwards, and gave me  some money. he hadn't wanted to get flowers for moms funeral, cause honestly, they aren't very practical. he wanted to do something a little more substantial. i was able to put some gas in the car, and get some toilet paper.

my glasses broke during the 4th of july festivities. they are still wearable, but, they broke all the same. my sister-in-law and nephew are going to get some epoxy and fix them for me.

some might look at these instances and say i was just lucky. but i know better. the lord is looking out for us, and he will never leave us wanting and alone.

bees

there is an old dryer vent on the north side of the house. at some point, my in-laws decided to move where the dryer vents to, and "filled" the old one. pieces of foam are rolled around each other inside the vent. this year, there's a wasp nest behind the foam.

taylor decided to take a stick and poke around in the foam tonight. he got himself stung for his efforts.

 this is his normal sized ear.

this is the stung ear. bright red, and about 2 sizes too big!