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!

your nuts, mom!

we woke up the other morning to pistachio nuts all over the kids' bedroom floor. when i asked them what the mess was, elizabeth piped up.
"your nuts, mom!"

this is a time, where the correct punctuation was VERY important!

visits

oh, how i love visits from my family! the problem is that they never last as long as i'd like.

my grandparents normally go visit my family every july/august. they are getting on in years, and no longer like making the 20 hour drive (can't say as i blame them. i'm only in my early 30's and I don't like making the drive). this year, they brought my family out here.
mom, dad, benson, and nathan, left home early evening on friday the 20th, and got to my house in sugar city early afternoon on saturday. they stayed with us until monday evening. they had to be in provo to help spencer and molly move tuesday morning. how the rest of their visit went and will go, i don't know.
the problem they run into when they come out, is that they have so many people they should go see. we are the only ones in idaho. grandma and grandpa perry are in the ogden area. grandma brady and spencer are in provo. it's hard when you have to divide your limited time among so many people

neccessity is the mother of invention

we had quite the day yesterday. we had some errands to run in town, and decided to take advantage of the free lunches still going on at the park. while we were there, shannon had to go to the bathroom, so i sent her off. she didn't make it in time.
i didn't have any extra clothes for her. i also didn't have the time or the gas to go back home and get some. so, we took a dish towel that we did have, and made a "skirt" for her. i keep some safety pins in the emergency kit in the car. it kept her covered, and we were able to finish our errands.
when we got home, we put a pair of undies on her, and she continued to wear the dish towel until it was time for bed.

as the day continued to be crazy, unfortunately, i wasn't able to get a picture.

sigh...

so, my get up and go, has busted
my give a darn is broken
my heart is healing, i think

sigh

I thought it was Tuesday. But it sure felt like a Monday this morning.

I was nursing Michael, and Shaun was trying to wake up. The older two were allowed to sleep on the porch again, and the two little girls went out there after they woke up. Everyone was inside for breakfast, except for Ashley. Shaun called out to the older kids to find Ashley. Elizabeth came back in saying that Ashley had blood on her chin, and all the way down to her toes. Shaun went out to investigate. He came back in just after I finished feeding Michael. As Elizabeth had said, she did indeed have blood on her chin, and it had dripped all the way down the front of her to her toes.

Shaun discovered that she had been in or on the back stairwell, and had fallen. There are blood drops in the stairwell.

I got her cleaned up, and decided that she needed to go in and get stitches. I finished feeding Michael, got dressed and took her in.

3 stitches, and 2 x-rays later, we are doing better. We did the x-rays because she was complaining about her arm, but there was nothing obvious. Nothing showed on the x-rays, but she's kept complaining about her arm. The doctor told me to come back in on Thursday if she's still complaining about her arm. I'm a little frustrated that he only put 3 stitches in. after we got home, she started bleeding out of one of the corners. I made a butterfly and put it over the corner. If he had started a little closer to the end of the cut, he could have gotten 4 stitches. I know that the butterfly will hold, so I'm not too concerned.

What?

The kids and I have tried to start reading every night. Our track record is pretty bad with this. I think we've only read one once. I suppose I should start the book over again. We only got one chapter into the book, so it shouldn't be too bad.
We started the Percy Jackson series. One night at dinner, we were talking about it, and the fact that there is a movie came up. I told them that the book came first, and the movie came later.
Elizabeth all of a sudden pipes up and says, "They decided to make the movie, like a head in a cake."

WHAT?!

Funny daddy

Michael, last night, spit up quite a bit.
Shaun, noticing this said, "you'd better be careful, or we'll have to start calling you Barfolomew!"

AH! We laughed SO hard!!!

sad goodbyes part 2

we buried my mother-in-law yesterday. life has been crazy.
we've had so much food brought in, that my fridge is overflowing.
i'm bone tired.
even though i got a decent night's sleep, as decent as the baby will let me get, i'm still exhausted.

one of these days, i will start feeling normal again. whatever normal is.....

sad goodbyes

today my heart hurts again, but for VERY different reasons.

shauns mother passed away on friday. it was very quick, and VERY unexpected.
she'd had brochitis the week before, but didn't seem to be getting any better. she and i talked about it one day, and chalked it up to the fact that she had diabetes, and she was older. never suspecting the truth.
this thursday, she got tired of being cooped up, and des took her out for a drive. when they got back, shaun was helping her out of the car, and she passed out in his arms. des decided to take her up to the hospital, so we put her back in the car.
they did testing, and discovered that she had a massive blood clot in her heart (the entire bottom half, was one big clot). her heart was unable to beat correctly. they tried everything, but were unable to save her. he passed away shortly after midnight on friday.

the days since then have been a blur. on top of mom passing away, i have sick kids.

the funeral is set for tomorrow at 11am.

hand, foot, mouth

we are a sick family. and it's a really bad time to have people sick.

ashley, last wednesday, started running a high fever, near 104. when i took her into the doctor on thursday, he didn't find anything. he told me that they had been seeing some hand, foot, mouth disease, and some strep throat. because the fever had been so high, we decided to do some testing. blood work came back with elevated white counts. urinalysis came back slightly abnormal, but just barely. we decided to go ahead and start on antibiotics, cause you never know.
friday night, she was up half the night. shaun came in and had me look at her feet, cause she had what looked like little bites, all over. because of what the doctor had told me, i looked up hand, foot, mouth disease online. the images, and ashley's feet, looked the same. she now has blisters on her feet, her hands, and her bum.

friday, shannon was running a fever. saturday morning, she ended up with blisters on her feet. she now has blisters on her feet, her bum, around her mouth, and a few on her hands.

saturday, taylor was running a fever. so far, i've not seen any blisters. but, only time will tell.

the other two, seem to be fine so far. but, again, only time will tell.

heartache

today, my heart aches.
i've waited a long 11 years for the news i got the other day. because it means that all parties have been able to move on.
and although i am SO very excited and happy, i am still sad.
although i am resigned in how things have and continue to happen, i am still sad.
and with the last part of the news today, i am truly sad. my heart aches, but i love that someone has done it right.
someday, perhaps, this heartache will heal, and things will be infinitely brighter. until then, i will continue to be happy for those who follow that path.

to garden

i FINALLY got the garden in. my wonderful nephew, talon, came down and helped me out. i have pumpkins, corn, beans, onions, peppers, carrots, and tomatoes.
the onions, peppers, and tomatoes are for making salsa!
i'm SO excited!!!

updates

most of the kids just had doctors appointments today.

taylor, as usual, is great, with no problems. he weighs 56 pounds, and is 51 inches (4 ft, 3 inches) tall. no major problems or complaints with him.

elizabeth is also doing great. she's 60 pounds, and 50 inches (4 ft, 2 inches) tall. we have started getting concerned with her consistent bed wetting. i buy night diapers for her, but it's gotten to the point that she soaks one every night. she had been going through one every 3 or 4 nights, then it got worse. we are putting her on a medicine that should stop the night wetting. we'll give it a few months, and see if it kick-starts her system. if not, we'll probably put her back on it for a few more months.

ashley has been better. turns out she has an ear infection. which accounts for some of the crabbiness. the rest is just her attitude (she IS 2). she currently weighs 25 pounds, and is almost 33 inches tall.

michael is also doing great. he weighs just over 12 pounds, and is 26 inches long. WIC has been concerned with his "lack" of weight gain. they say he isn't gaining enough every month (i wasn't aware there was a minimum amount!). i had them print off their charts so i could show them to the doctor. he's not concerned about it yet. we had had some concerns about his forehead. his frontal bone had shifted, and it looked wrong. i just noticed that his front soft spot was quite small as well. his forehead doesn't look quite as distorted, and the doctor said his soft spot isn't small enough to be overly concerned about. if it gets much smaller though, we'll need to take him back in.

shannon has an appointment on monday for a physical for head start. once we get that and her dental appointment done in 3 weeks, we can turn the paperwork in.