The Parents

Happy Birthday! Dan turned 40 in May. How about some Pie!!?? He is still just a kid at heart and I love to hear him laugh. I just love him! He is a great dad and a good example to us. He tries to do what is best for us and he takes care of us very well. There is me~I am happy. Now you can go on and enjoy the next post with lots more news!

December 1, 2009

Per Margie's advice, I am leaving this picture here It actually belongs down with the paragraph about the picture, but I accidentally deleted it once and cannot get the picture back where it belongs. If this is confusing, please feel free to call me and I will walk you through the posting--no charge!

Brent Homecoming 2009

This picture belongs down with the other Homecoming picture of Brent and Lacie. I accidentally deleted this picture as well, but wanted it on here. Isn't he handsome?

August 19th--Brent went on his first date! He and his friend Allen set up the date for the last day of summer vacation. Brent had a great song he wanted to play that was about the end of the summer. They went to the park and ate by Candlelight (It was lunchtime). Then they played frisbee and other games and they all had a ton of fun. They came back to our house to listen to music and play cards. I loved listening to all of the fun. Dan and I are soooo amazed we have a child old enough to date. Time keeps on tickin', tickin', tickin' into the future.....

September 4th was Rebekah's 7th birthday. Kristin, Rebekah and I made a Barbie Cake for the occasion. Rebekah asked for this cake a year ago, so we had fun fulfilling that dream.

Grandma Clark made this baby doll blanket for Rebekah--it matches the blanket that Grandma made for Rebekah to match her new room.

Rebekah got a microphone that sings a song when you push the button from Grandma Lewis. Now, combine a microphone with 2 doll blankets and you get a concert --with curtains! The cousins all took turns "singing". They held the blankets up in front of who ever was singing until someone said,"Hit It". We got some great video of everyone. It was sooo much fun.

Now we come to Brent's first formal dance--Homecoming. Here in Rigby they do "Day Dates" so the group of couples that Brent was with hung out starting after lunch. They went somewhere and played Pool and jumped on a trampoline and stuff like that. They all went home and got dressed up and met again for a formal dinner. We had the honor of hosting the picture session. Brent's date, Lacie, has a sister and her mom who take pictures professionally. So, we got to see all of the couples dressed up. Brent had soo much fun. If you are wondering, the girl

with Brent is the same girl he went on his first date with. They are great friends and I just love her.

Here is Kristin ready for a Young Women in Excellence night.
They all dressed up in Prom dresses and had a formal evening. They talked about being princesses and the room was decorated like a wedding reception. It was very nice.

(Insert picture from the top)


OK. This is Tyler being silly while I was trying to get a picture of him. It is so real life for him. So fun-loving!

Rebekah's room! The first picture shows her room color as it really is. A grey purple. It is really pretty. Rebekah is holding the blanket Grandma Clark made for her. I am not sure why the other pictures came out more pink, but you get the whole idea of her very girly room!

Rebekah and I love the butterflies right at her bedroom door.

I have an office! The kids have done stamping in there and spread out other projects. Rebekah had a charm she wanted on a neckolace and I was able to go right to the beads and have a space to make the neckolace. I love having access to my stuff and a place to enjoy it! We also hung all the pictures from under our bed in here. I love to see them all hung up to enjoy. Tyler is in band. He is learning to play the Trombone. Go Tyler!

Kristin's room! It is soo peaceful in there. She likes to have lots of colors and we were able to incorporate what she likes into a peaceful setting. I wish the colors were better on the camera. The carpet is really just a light brown. The yellow on the wall is more calm than this picture shows, as well.

Kristin's toy hanger there has butterflies clipped to it. Very cute. She loves having her own space. I am glad we decided to give her her own room now instead of her continuing to share with Rebekah. She is glad, too.

Tyler's room! He likes to leave things a little bit more unkempt than Brent does, so this is another child who is excited to have his own space. He has a board with wheels under his bed that he pulls out to play legos on. He leaves his legos set up how ever he wants--I just request a walk space for safety reasons : ) We love the black with the green walls. The planet bedspread looks great, too.

We bought this black card table from Margie with the intention of using it in Ty's room for his desk. The picture in the corner is a charicature of Tyler as Indiana Jones. Fun, fun.

Brent's room! In the next picture down, you can see the color of the dark wall in Brent's room. He loves that color. The light blue is a bit darker than we planned, because the origional light blue didn't match, so we added the dark to the light until it matched. We love the results and Brent is very happy.

Brent has built in shelves in his room. He has Lego creations and Bionicle creations and momentos. His own space. Have I mentioned that? Well, I can tell you that the kids have lots of "sleep overs" in each other's rooms. I love that they like to be together. they have a choice of being together or having there own space. Sounds good to me!

Notice Brent's poofy hair. He wasn't feeling well the day we took these pictures, so we thought we would show you what his hair is like when it is not offically combed. It gets even poofier!

The stereo in this picture is Dan's old stereo with some of Dan's speakers. Dan is nice to share. Brent loves having music on. We had to experiment with how loud he could have it at different hours of the day. : )

And now, the bathroom! I love this room. Dan and I picked the wood -hickory- and a friend of ours made cabinets for us. I went to Dan's cousin's tile shop and the Interior Designer helped pick out tiles that I absolutely love! The color is truest in the picture on the left. The one on the right is the sink backsplash. The counter is quartz --a reminent from the tile shop. There are two sinks in this bathroom with a tall, skinny cupboard between the sinks.

Here is the shower border. The tiles that look purple are actually grey-blue. Love it!










This is the cupboard in the bathroom. It shows the wood really well. The wall is a calm grey-blue. I was very nervous about getting the right color here, and I am very happy with the results. I love having a bathroom downstair. I also love how it is so easy to put the towels away in this bathroom. Not very far from the laundry room. It is the little things in life that make me happy!

This desk is in the downstairs hallway. The space was origionally intended for a linen closet. We left that out and ended up getting a desk here. The origional bathroom cabinet our friend built was too long, so we had to take out the section between the two sinks and make it narrower. Well, then we had this set of drawers, so our friend made us a desk top and here we go! a custom desk to match our custom bathroom! Dan and I feel like we live in a mansion for rich people!

I thought you would love to see the hallway! I absolutely love having the mirrored doors on this closet. The space is so light, it doesn't seem like a basement. You can see just a sliver of the desk as the hallway turns left after the mirrors. That gives you an idea of the layout. That is Tyler's room at the end of the hall, and when you turn left, there is Brent and Kristin's room. Kristin's room is right under ours. They could all hear us arguing the other evening. They couldn't hear us when thier rooms were upstairs. I suggested that they move back upstairs and no one went for it. Oh well. I have to learn how to be angry in whispers. Honestly, the real sound that carries is from downstairs to up, so as long as I like the song that Brent has on, there isn't a problem! Dan and I rarely argue loudly anyway!

Our custom video closet. Love it! No more movies stashed in different places. This closet was origionally supposed to be a part of the closet in the bathroom, but we split the closet in half and left this part toward the hallway. Love storage space!










And last but not least, the closet under the stairs. Who can say "Food Storage"!!!??? We love having so much storage. Wait a minute. I think I said that already. Oh well. Guess what? Some of the shelves in the hall closet are empty! I know, I know, they will all get used up sooner rather than later. But for now, they are empty!

OK, so there is a bit of a tour of my house. What do you think?

Announcement!

Brent passed the AP Bio class with a 4! I am so proud of him. He was extatic! It is now the start of a new school year and he is in 2 classes that count for High School and College. Hurray for him. Big news! He went on his first date! He talked a friend into asking someone after he had already asked his date. They had a blast. I got to be in on a little of the fun with the planning and they came to our house after eating and playing at the park. Such fun! ebekah turns 7 tomorrow. I was looking for something in her pile of stuff that goes in her bab book and found the pictures we took on each of her month-days. How ever you say that. It brought back so many memories and was really quite overwhelming. I am going to show her tomorrow. She is such a special little girl. Tyler started Middle School and is doing very well. So far, he is caught up on homework and is meeting new people. Way to go Tyler! Kristin decided not to take Advanced English because it was too much stress-even though she got an A. That was fine with me. She has started some Medication to help with Anxiety and sleep and so right now she is more sleepy than usual. I am hoping for good things. Today she told me she is "Amazing" I am hoping she is starting to see things through different eyes now--with less anxiety. I am having less anxiety with my meds that I absolutely love and have been having fun with life. visiting, setting up appointments and keeping them. All that good stuff that normal people do. AAAAHHHHHH. I LOVE IT! Today I am very wiped out because I have been having fun and taking care of my family. That is OK. I know everyting is more of a bummer when you are tired, so I will wait till tomorrow to dwell on anything. Dan is tired and busy. Carpet is in the basement! The bathroom cabinet should be done any day now, and then the counter installers will come. There is a working toilet in the bathroom! How long I have waited for a working toilet downstairs! But alas, I do not use it since there is no other running water in there. Soon, soon. Patience, patience. (What's new?) Love to all of you!

Tomorrow's My Birthday!

I'll be 37. Anything special about 37? Well, I made it this far! That is a good thing. Dan is going to take me out to dinner. I didn't want to throw myself a birthday party. A nice quiet evening together sounds lovely. Steak, anyone?
I have been waiting to have good news to update on my health, but I thought it had been long enough. I am having yucky reactions to the medicines I have tried, so I am still searching. This is what is going on today--screaming headache and nausea (had that for 2 weeks) because the thyroid medicine is too much, Panic Attacks brought on by medicines that weren't right for me, I have a big scratch on my leg that got infected--a flook thing after scratching my leg above a bug bite, so it is itching, which is a good thing, becuase it is finally healing. I had to get antibiotics for that, so I am having some fatigue and mucle weakness due to that--but not as bad as the last two times I had antibiotics. I get cranky after having a headache all day. I have tried lots of things to get rid of it. The lucky thing is that I can go to sleep and it goes away while I am asleep. Then I have a few minutes before the headache comes back when I wake up. The nausea increases and decreases through the day and makes it extremely hard to ride or drive in the car.
Back to the crankies. Tyler doesn't like it. So, today, we all had a moment together to cry a bit about mom not feeling well and I vowed again to not make this agony on my kids. Luckily, Brent is working at Scout Camp, and so he is blissfully unaware of mom's stuff. Lucky him.
I have been reading alot of books and yesterday I watched the TV shows I had on the DVR. I think after the kids catching up on chores today, we will start a "Harry Potter" marathon since we will see the new movie while we are on vacation in a couple of weeks. Can't wait!
Note to self: Don't read off of the computer too fast--it causes a wave of nausea.
Dan and I are trying to find a place to take out Travel Trailor for 2 nights for our 17th anniversary in August. I am excitedly trying to find a place in budget and not too far away (just in case the nausea has not left--we must plan for these things.) I am thinking down by Pocatello, so we can go to Costco. : ) So romantic!! I wanted to go to West Yellowstone, but Pocatello is half the price. They don't have Old Faithful. But they do have Costco!
Kristin and I picked up some little craft projects for the kids to do and that has been a great thing. (Thank you to my Visiting Teacher for doing to driving that day) Right now, Rebekah and Tyler are in their swim suits in my tub pretending it is a pool. With Bubbles.
The Basement you ask? And the yard? Well, PROGRESS! We did some yard details, like remove rocks that were not supposed to be there and put rocks where they were supposed to be and then on Saturday, July 4th, it was the birth of our lawn! Ta Da! We have grass seed in our yard. We were so excited. Dan, who has been nothing but stressed about all of this, smiled! Alot! Then, he found out a friend builds houses and so he hired him to finish the trim and caulk it and hang a couple of doors. He is working right now. Oh my. We picked out carpet, too. The shower is almost tiled and the floor is started. Oh my. We love it. I can't wait until it is done, only so I can show you pictures: )
So, in conclusion, there is alot of yucky stuff happening, and there is alot of good stuff! Wait, isn't that always the case?? Life. I am enjoying the fact that it is summer. Love it. We went camping with friends. It was fun, except that is when the Panic Attacks started, so I had that going on while the kids fished and played in the water and ran around. Kristin had a blast at Girl's Camp--no migraines : ) I went up with Dan, he stayed all night, I stayed an hour. I got 25 bug bites and itched so bad I didn't get a full night's sleep for 4 nights. (Then comes the infected leg where I scratched).
Oh, wait! That was supposed to be my conclusion paragraph. I guess this one will be. Onward and upward!

Update

Dan is finishing drywall today in the bathroom and his friend is hooking up the outlets and the light fixtures. I picked a paint and got a sample to slap on the wall. Then I found another one that might be better. Oh well. It will be a greyish blue. Not bright or clear.
This last week, my mom has been working on a new blanket for Rebekah. It is so adorable. pink, green, yellow and blue are the colors. It will go with her new room. I will post a picture when it is all done.
We have pushed back to goal date for the basement to be finished to August 4th instead of July 4th. Too many interuptions, like being sick and stuff. It's all good. Isn't that the way these things work anyway? You set a goal and then adjust as needed? But, this means we will be going camping with our friends--we are all looking forward to that.
2 and 1/2 days left of school! I am so excited, I think I might be a bad influence on my kids. School is important and good. I just love summer time, though. It is so much more fun! Bring on the summer time!

Monday, Monday

A start of another week. What shall we do this time? Probably some homework, although Rebekah's homework load has been cut back since the state testing is done. Kristin says school may as well be over since the testing is done. So, it sounds to me like they make a big deal out of the testing. She is reading "Pride and Prejudice" for English and is loving it. She had started the book before, but was not interested. Maybe this will open up a new kind of book for her.
An update on the cavities. Brent weighed in with none, so we are still at one cavity. Dan doesn't usually have cavities and his appointment isn't until June, so we will mark ourselves a winner!

This weekend, Kristin and I went shopping together. It was so fun. She really keeps me entertained. She has been pretty tired lately and struggling to want to get homework and stuff done, but she had a great day on Saturday and it really helped me have a great day. Brent is working on studying for the big AP Biology test next week. If he passes the test, he gets college credit for the class. We shall see. He has definitely learned alot in the class, so I am happy. He signed up for dual credit classes next year. That means he gets High School credit and college credit because they are college classes. This summer he wants to work at a scout camp. He would be gone Sunday evening to Saturday afternoon. He is really excited about it because a few of his friends are working there, too. He will turn 16 after about 2 weeks of that and then get paid. So, he is trying to find out if there are any positions available for him. He went to their big information meeting and got positive feedback. Should be fun for him. I would have leftovers after dinner again!

Good news! Dan has been able to work in the basement again! He has had some good help, too. The trim is done around the doors and this week he and a friend will be doing the windows. Then I can order blinds. Dan and his dad got the sprinkler hose hooked up--it goes through the ceiling of the downstairs bathroom. The sprinler guy came and did his thing in the ceiling to have things ready, and then Dan and his dad started drywalling the bathroom! He is thinking we should be able to paint in a couple weeks, now that he is a mud and texture expert. We really appreciate the help. It is great how every step changes the look of things. Progress. I like progress.

I got a new calling at church. I am in the Primary Presidency now. It is actually a very fun presidency, I just hope I can carry my load. I missed a meeting and a Sunday already, but at least the President knows what she is getting into. I told her it wouldn't hurt my feelings if she ever felt she needed to release me. But, until then, I am going to do my best! I am in charge of getting the Primary Program written. wow. Big. I haven't done that before, so I am excited and nervous about it. I am excited to be in there with Tyler and Rebekah. I was in Primary with Brent and Kristin alot, so now it is the other's turn. Should be good. There are some great new primary songs I don't know, too! Very fun.

Tyler got up. It is early in the a.m. He is reading Harry Potter #2. Yes, another Harry Potter fan! Lookin' forward to the next movie!

a Trip to the Dentist

Only 1 cavity out of 4 people! Hurray. Kristin's first cavity. She said, "Let's celebrate!" I was a little confused. On the way home, we got to talking about how they take care of the cavity, and now she is not happy anymore. No more celebrating. Oh well. We will have to find something else to celebrate. How about the other 3 people that didn't have cavities? We shall see what Brent does next week.
On to other news. We having another Turkey dinner with the Lewis clan on Saturday. I love those. It will be warmer this weekend than the last time we cooked a turkey, so it shouldn't take as long to cook as last time.
Other news. Bronchitis. And more Bronchitis. And more Bronchitis. And you guessed it, more Bronchitis. 4 out of 6 Lewis' have had Bronchitis in the last 4 weeks and recommend that you don't join us on that. We have had so much sickness this winter, that I am so looking forward to the sun coming out and the weather warming up. It hasn't happened yet. I wish we could tell the future so we could know when the Spring was really going to be here.
Right now I am listening to Kristin practice piano. I am so glad she didn't quit when it got rough. We really weren't sure if she was going to be able to pull it off with all of her homework, but she decided to stick it out and she actually loves playing and has fun with it. What a relief!!
The other thing I am doing while I type, is watching last night's "American Idol". Danny Goeke is one of my favorites. I have to admit that his name is one of the reasons. I love his singing, though. Allison is fabulous and Adam always keeps me interested in what he is going to do next. Anoop has his moments. Kris sings a great ballad. Who do I think is going to win? Allison or Adam. That is my official opinion!
Rock on, Ya'll!!