Back to School

My kids have some character don't they? You gotta love these outfits, compliments of Aunt Wendy. So yes, school started. My kids are all in school all day. Wow, what do you do with your time, you ask? So far my time has been absorbed with visits, cleaning, appointments, lawn care, and grocery shopping. I'm not sitting home eating popcorn and watching Oprah. Wait, I don't watch Oprah anyway. Bad analogy. The point is, I keep busy. And school is starting for me tomorrow which means, I'll still be busy.
The kids did great the first 3 days. They leave together and they meet up together after school. Weston did say that staying that long at school is hard, and there is a boy in his class that is already starting to be a bully, but otherwise he likes school. The girls have no complaints. I am diligently enforcing the music practicing in the morning, but for some reason the kids don't really like to practice. I think its harder to do housework than sit and play an instrument, but they have been opting to do a chore rather than practice. I actually practiced Savanna's violin one morning while she did the dishes, trying to show her how easy and enjoyable it is to sit and play while someone does the house work. She got all antsy because I wasn't doing it right and eventually took the violin and showed me. I can now play a D major scale and Twinkle Twinkle on the violin.
Here are the back to school on the first day pictures.

Letters to Heaven

August 22 was Lillian's death date. It passed by as mostly a regular day, it was Sunday and the choir did sing and I secretly dedicated their song "Our Savior's Love" to Lillian. The FHE prior to this we had a lesson by Savanna and she had us write letters to Heavenly Father. We all miss Grandma Sandy and Lillian. The kids wanted to tie balloons to the letters and send them to Heaven, but I wanted to keep these letters forever. (Jared wrote one too but wouldn't let me scan it.)




My letter to Heaven would pour out my thanks to Heavenly Father for my life, my family, and my Savior. What a wonderful family I have been blessed with. I'm grateful for the strength the Lord gives me every day to do what I need to do and knowing I don't have to do it alone. How wonderful forgivenenss is, and faith, and healing, and I'm thankful for His love and the Spirit. I'm thankful to have the ability to serve the Lord and to be served by all my spirit brothers and sisters on this earth. "And at last when I've completed all you've sent me here to do, in thy Holy habitation may I come and dwell with you!"

Bought a violin

Savanna has been making significant progress on her violin in the last 2 months. Granted, 2 months is not a very long trial period, but we couldn't go on borrowing her teacher's violin for much longer without something ill befalling it, so I started looking for student violins on craigslist and KSL and found an affordable one in PG. I drove through a thunder/lightening/rain/wind storm to see it, and it looked good to me, so I bought it. Then I was worried since I don't know a good violin from a crummy one, so I took it to Savanna's teacher's home, who is my visiting teaching companion, and had her examine it. She tuned it up and played it and said it looked really good, and it was a good price. Now I just have to brain wash Savanna into continuing to practice every day. She has been practicing, enough to complain about the sore tips of her fingers. But you never know when the assignments are going to push her over the ultimatum edge of "I'm never playing the violin again!" She likes to work in extremes. Maybe if I let her practice in a wig and with a camera, she made several videos of her playing her violin and took pictures and that seems to help her like playing. Her first recital is the end of September.



Here is Weston. Yes this is Weston.

The kids have been having a creative time at home. They love to get a hold of this camera and capture their creations. This one is Weston being pillow man.

This is Fiora being a zombie or corpse or something.

Weston being a zombie or something.

Savanna dressed up.

Fiora dressed up and posed with her $2 dog from the DI.

Weston rolled up in the rug like a burrito.

And, one day they dressed up little cousing Bailey too.


Since this is the last official summer night, not a school night, I just had to write a post and show what fun the kids have had this summer. Home a lot and just finding ways to entertain themselves. We played games too. Those ended up in lots of arguments. One day we all went outside and played in the sprinklers, then the kids made nachos and brought out otter pops and pretended they were on the beach. Selling snow cones and reading happened a lot less often than I envisioned. But we went to the library every week with high hopes! A lot of music was blared, as that is the #1 motivational force for doing chores around here. FAREWELL SUMMER BREAK!

Farewell

Friday was my last day at LDS Family Services. I was just starting to feel comfortable with my routine going there every day, and now its time for a change. The above picture shows the adoption team, Connie Mason, Pam Taylor, Shantel Pettit, Amber Anderson, Charlotte Jensen, Eileen Romney, and Ruby Rasmussen. I sort of phased out my last week, working only four hours every day except Wednesday. They had me working right up until the minute I left Friday, sending me to visit a birth mom who just had her baby at the hospital as I was walking out the door. I am going to miss my associations there.
The other half of the days this past week I was shadowing the current intern at the state prison whose place I am taking over this fall. What a contrast, I'm sure I'm in for another rough learning experience there, and as soon as I'm comfortable it will be time to graduate. The kids were really glad it was my last day on Friday, they wanted to celebrate. I am having a break now, and will overwhelm myself with home projects I have been putting off all summer I'm sure.
My dad went four wheeling with my husband on Saturday, he had fun but I think Jared wore him out. Jared has been getting up early in the mornings to hike and four-wheel, he summited cascade mountain for the second time Thursday morning. Next week he is going to summit Timp.

Fiora's Future family

This is what Fiora drew in church today. I thought it was pretty funny. She sure is going to catch a fine husband.

Cascade mountain

Jared took me on a little getaway up the canyon. We had Karli take the kids to Grandma Barrett's house Friday, and Jared had his big hiking backpack all loaded with a tent and sleeping bags, small air mattresses, and food and a little burner, lots of water, and two little camp chairs. We hiked two miles with all this on our backs to an abandoned old scout camp by big springs on Cascade mountain, Jared had about 3 times more weight on his back but still my shoulders were hurting. He made me work for my dinner that night. We were the only ones in this camp spot,heated up cans of soup for our dinner, and slept in a tiny lightweight tent, with only the screech owls and the wind to accompany us. It was fun to sit in the beautiful nature and talk. The next morning we were awoken at 5:40 AM by a few vehicles parked 10 yards away, unbeknownst to us our camp spot was the respite point for a 62 mile mountain race. We ate breakfast and packed up and stashed the backpack, then started up the mountain to the summit. We passed those 45 insane runners and cheered on each one of them. It was gorgeous at the top, and we shared some trail mix and patted each other on the back. Steep hike, you go up 4000 feet in 3 1/2 miles. We are sore today. But it was worth it and we had a good time together.
We picked up the kids from eagle mountain that afternoon and thought we'd treat the family to macaroni grill since they were good and we were exhausted. Jared and I quickly came down from our lover's cloud nine as we argued about what to get the kids that wasn't a big rip off. The kids didn't even appreciate their kid meals anyway, I can't wait until their taste buds grow in. We won't be visiting another nice restaraunt with the kids for a while. We will stick with Jason's deli with a coupon so Jared doesn't go into cardiac arrest and the kids eat their food.

PS. Weston sang "The Lord Needs Valiant Servants" in church today and did an excellent job.

Family Pictures

These Schauers family pictures were taken in March while the whole family was in town for Grandma's funeral. The big ones need some photo shopping because of background, but otherwise I thought they turned out really nice.