Today's Adventure

Today we all walked Stephen and Annie to school and we stopped at the park on the way home. We have to walk right through it to get home and I just can't tell Ellen and Naomi "yes we're here at the park, but you can't play." I had my camera with me and I took a ton of pictures. Here are some of my favorites from today.

This water tower is right next to the park and we spent a few minutes looking at it and talking about it and I had to share what Ellen said. "It's just like a big sink." And now I can see it. It looks like the bottom of a big sink with the drain pipe coming down. What an observant little girl.

Stephen Picasso

Stephen came home from school on Friday and drew this picture.

After he finished and gave it to me we had this conversation:

Stephen: Mom, guess which artist we learned about in school today!

Mom: Picasso?

Stephen: What? How do you know about him?

Relief Society Broadcast

I went to the Relief Society Broadcast last night and just had to blog about it. It was so wonderful! Sister Beck, Sister Allred, and Sister Thompson all gave really good talks, but President Uchtdorf's talk was totally wonderful! Create and be compassionate. So simple, and yet so absolutely true. I think that is going to be my new motto. If anyone missed it, or if you want to watch it again you can go here. You can watch the whole thing or just one talk in particular or even a musical number. The Church website has a new media player that is really neat. It is pretty much just like the one on BYUTV if you've ever seen that one.

Scripture Stories Online

I just went to the Church website and saw that they now have the scripture stories available to download here. You can download text, audio and video. There are some pretty neat pictures in these books. I had to check out the story about Noah, of course, and I really liked this picture. Just thought I'd share.

Three Years Ago !?!?

Three years has gone much too quickly.

Happy Birthday Joseph!

On the Way to School

Today's Thoughts

I went Visiting Teaching today and it was my turn to give the lesson. I think my favorite part was the scripture at the end. Doctrine and Covenants 78:18 "Be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours." It always makes me smile when the Lord says "Be of good cheer." There really are so many reasons to be of good cheer and it is nice to be reminded to think of them.

Slow to Anger

Last night for Family Home Evening we talked about this Mormonad. It was a great way for the kids to visualize an argument and what happens when you argue and get mad. Then we talked about this quote from President Hinckley's talk in Conference last year.

“So many of us make a great fuss of matters of small consequence. We are so easily offended. Happy is the man who can brush aside the offending remarks of another and go on his way. Grudges, if left to fester, can become serious maladies. Like a painful ailment they can absorb all of our time and attention. . . I plead with you to control your tempers, to put a smile upon your faces, which will erase anger; speak out with words of love and peace, appreciation, and respect. If you will do this, your lives will be without regret. Your marriages and family relationships will be preserved. You will be much happier. You will do greater good. You will feel a sense of peace that will be wonderful.”

Funny Face

Noah kept making this face over and over the other night during supper. We were having spaghetti and I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it or not. Either way it just cracked me up.

Fun at the Fair

Last weekend we went to the Latah County Fair and had a pretty good time.

Recent School Papers

Stephen brought home a little thing he wrote about eyes, and I really liked it. Evidently it's just a rough draft so I'll have to post the finished product when he brings it home. Here is the rough draft with original spelling.

Eyes

by Stephen Mobley

My eyes my eyes. I like to see the crocodile at the Zoo. My eyes let me see where I am. My eyes remind me of my favrite game marbels. My eyes are round, round as can be. My eyes are made of circles.

Anne brought home this picture she painted at school. I thought it was so pretty!

Ellen is working on the S sound in speech and colored this neat snake.

Wordfull Wednesdays

Another explanation. Wordfull Wednesdays comes from a blog I like to read.
Chocolate on My Cranium

This is Me

I am a wife to a super husband and a mother to five incredible children.

I am a child of God.

I’m almost 30 and I am really looking forward to it.

I try, and I try and I try. I am not perfect. I learn, and I forget, and I learn some more.

I’m really, really good at putting things off. Well, things that I don’t want to do, things that don’t sound so fun, things I am scared of.

I am a morning person. I love to see the sun rise. I love the peace, the calm, and the quiet. I love the time to put my thoughts together, compose myself, take a great big breath, and then wake everyone else up.

I love to walk.

I make pizza. A lot.

I love Primary and Primary Songs.

I wouldn’t say that green is my favorite color, but whenever I am shopping for myself I am always attracted to green clothing.

I come from wonderful family and heritage. My family means more to me than I can say.

I enjoy watching old movies.

I am afraid of water.

I think babies are just about the most amazing things on this planet.

I love simplicity.

When I grow up I want to be a Temple worker. One of those beautiful ladies in white who is always smiling, helping, kind, and full of love.

In Honor of Dixie Day!

This picture was taken just a few weeks after we moved to Denver. Dixie was 4.

This was the weekend Dixie got baptized.

This was Pensicola in 2001.

This was Christmastime of 2004.

With Luke.

Happy Birthday Dix!

The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King

Just to explain real quick: I really love to read. I go to book club once a month and read books for that, plus other things here and there. I also really want to keep my brain active and usefull. I'm pretty sure that my brain is like mush compared to what it once was. So ... I decided that I should write a little bit about the books I read. Kind of like a book report. Kind of. So why am I posting these little book reports on the blog? Well, I need the motivation. If I think that people are going to be reading what I wrote, I'm going to be much more careful and thoughtful about it. Does that make sense? Here goes nothin'.


I am fairly new to mystery novels. I enjoy watching mysteries so I should have known that I would really enjoy reading them. Up until recently though, the only mystery books I’ve read have been a few of the Mrs. Pollifax series by Dorothy Gillman which I would highly recommend. But that all changed when The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King was chosen for the book club I attend. I read it and loved it!

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice is written from the point of view of Mary Russell, a 15 year old orphan who meets Sherlock Holmes and then becomes his pupil. The Sherlock Holmes in this book could be quite different from the Sherlock Holmes written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I don't know. I do look forward to finding out, though.

Holmes and Russell work on a few cases together, all the time building up Russell’s experience and intelligence. At the same time the teacher/pupil relationship is slowly changing to one of partnership. Russell brings different views and talents, such as the ability to throw like a boy, to the partnership that Holmes comes to depend on. Russell herself says, “Holmes the painstaking, Holmes the thoughtful, calculating thinker, Holmes the solitary operator who never so much as consulted another for advice, this Holmes I thought I knew was now proposing to launch himself into the abyss, trusting absolutely in my ability to catch him.”

Finally Holmes and Russell themselves come under attack from an unknown foe. Some clues are deeply hidden, and yet others are very blatantly left to be discovered. And it seems that no matter what lengths are taken to evade and discover their attacker, nothing works. It does appear that at last the great Sherlock Holmes, along with Mary Russell, has met his match. Only reading the book will tell.

12 Rules to Live By

This qoute is attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson, but I really don't know for sure. It's still a good thought though.

12 Rules to Live By - Robert Louis Stevenson

Make up your mind to be happy. Learn to find pleasure in simple things.

Make the best of circumstances. No one has everything and everyone has something of sorrow.

Don’t take yourself too seriously.

Don’t let criticism worry you. You can’t please everybody.

Don’t let your neighbors set your standards; be yourself.

Do things you enjoy doing but stay out of debt.

Don’t borrow trouble. Imaginary things are harder to bear than actual ones.

Since hate poisons the soul, do not cherish enmities and grudges. Avoid people who make you unhappy.

Have many interests. If you can’t travel, read about places.

Don’t hold post-mortems or spend time brooding over sorrows and mistakes.

Do what you can for those less fortunate than yourself.

Keep busy at something. A very busy person never has time to be unhappy.

Red Jammies

I love these red jammies. All of the kids have worn them now that Noah is wearing them. They're just plain red jammies, nothing really special. But seeing them, even on Noah brings back lots of neat memories of each of my babies. Stephen used to wear them sometimes when I would take him for a walk in Cheyenne, when it was just the two of us. Sometimes Annie would wear them when we would spend the night with Ben and Lynsey in their first apartment, then the next day James and I would go to the temple. Ellen was wearing these jammies when we moved to Moscow. Naomi wore them on her first Christmas. And now Noah. I have to wonder what I will remember about him in these jammies. I really love these red jammies.

Stephen and His Trumpet

Stephen started band this year and is playing the trumpet. He has been so excited about it! He goes to band every Monday and Wednesday after school from 3 - 4:30. He didn't have any trouble getting sound to come out of his trumpet. The first time he put it to his lips he just started tooting away.

Naomi-isms

"Mine finger got lost!"

First Day of Homework

We did it! We survived the first day of homework. School did start last week, but no homework was assigned until today. And there were two of them this year! I'll admit I was, and still am a little, nervous to have to help Stephen and Anne with homework and still get dinner ready and take care of three smaller people. But today things went really smoothly. Anne had to practice writing numbers, reading sight words, and had to read two books the teacher sent home. Stephen's seemed a little easy so maybe his will eventually get harder. He had to read (anything) for 15 min. and work on his "Me Bag." Stephen is supposed to choose 3-4 small objects that will all fit in a small brown paper bag (lunch size) that tell about him. Anne also had to fill a "Me Bag" but she had to bring it for the first day. Anne included a picture of Noah, her favorite beanie bag teddy bear, and The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown. The book just barely fit.