Poor Jenna

When we got home from taking the kids to their first day of school Jenna went into her room and a few minutes later I could hear her crying. I went in to see what was wrong and this is how I found her. I thought she was sad because the kids were back in school, but no she said "I don't want to take the kitty away". I need to back up a little to fill you all in. Remember the little kitty we "adopted," well she kept coming back and more often and now she spends most her time here on our front porch. The kids named her Rocky (because she looks like the rocks in the yard with eyes) and have become quite fond of her and she of them. The problem is Mike is allergic and it seems all of the kids except Rylee are as well. They would come in from playing with her and their eyes would swell up and be red and itchy. This morning the first thing Jenna did was go outside and play with Rocky and when she came in her eyes were so swollen and red I knew we had to do something. So we told the kids we were calling animal control to come get her. So that is why Jenna is so sad. We told her they would find her a good home where the kids weren't allergic so they could play with her. Hopefully they really do, she was a sweet little kitty.

Up, Up, and Away....

Yeah!!!! Today was back to school for the kiddos! I think we were all ready for school to start, for all different reasons. The theme at our school this year is Up, Up, and Away and this is what it looked like when we got there this morning.




This is the third year they have done a flag ceremony outside with all the students and parents to start the year. I think it is a great tradition! Today they had the 2 hot air balloons there and all the kids got a helium filled balloon to release. (to those eco friendly people out there, the balloons were all biodegradable, I didn't know there was such a thing) It was really neat to see 600 different colored balloons floating up, up and away. A beautiful sight!


The kids all ready for the first day!

Back in time...

Today was the first day of classes for the fall semester @ SLCC. I felt like I had been trasported back in time (to the fall of 1993) and I did not like the feelings. It was soooooo crowded everywhere on campus: parking, the bookstore, & just walking around. I saw all the first time college students searching for their classes and trying to figure out how college "works". It reminded me of my first day at Idaho State all those years ago, and all my insecurities and fears: will I find the right classroom, will anyone talk to me, will I do well in my classes, will the cafeteria food be ok, etc? I fear new experiences and am very insecure, but today I was feeling ok, just those awful memories of that long ago day. (I survived then and had a good experience at ISU and I am sure all those "lost" students I saw today will too).

The Zoo

Yesterday we went to the zoo with my sister, Sara and her cute little family. They are still here visiting form Las Vegas and wanted to visit the zoo while they were here and my kids have been asking to go all summer so we went, despite the heat. It was fun, I hadn't been for more than a year so there were a few new things to see. The Asian Highlands was neat and right now they have a white crocodile (1 of 10 in the world) that was pretty cool. It was fun to spend some time with my kids doing something fun. With my school we didn't get to do as many fun things this summer as we would have liked and my fall semester started today so free time is limited again.

Family Home Evening

This evening we met up with some of my family at the Church Museum of Art & History or whatever it is called for family night. They have a great exhibit for kids right now called "I am a child of God". The kids enjoyed playing games, coloring there own stained glass windows, playing in the nursery, building temples, and more.


McKay, Noah, Cole, Jenna, Mara, Rylee, Wyatt, & Eliza
Cole & Noah showing me the temple they built.
Mara & Jenna taking good care of the new babies in the nursery.

Mike's New Friend?

For those of you who know Mike you may be a little surprised to meet his new friend. She has been visiting the last 3 nights and I think Mike is growing more fond of her each night.





Mike is really not much of a cat person, actually he pretty much hates cats, at least I thought he did. This cute little yellow cat showed up late Saturday night while I was at work and Mike was outside. He gave her milk and so of course she came back. The weird thing is she only shows up at night after it's dark. We are not sure if she has a home or not. But I smiled inside when I heard the excitement in Mike's voice tonight when he told me "my little kitty is back".

Girls Day Out

Today the girls and I joined all the girls from Mike's family for a fun afternoon out. We went to lunch at Litza's in SLC, then to the Gateway to see the movie, Hairspray! It was fun to just hang out and visit and enjoy one another's company, something we don't really get to do as often as we'd like. The movie was GREAT!!! We loved it! Here is a picture of Jenna enjoying her huge ice cream cone.