Mother of the Year

Paige has been complaining about foot pain since the Magic Mtn. cross country meet. Her achilles hurt. Her heel hurt. Her calves hurt. She stopped going to cross country. We iced. We stretched. I have had achilles/foot pain. I know what to do for it.

A few weeks ago she called Grandma Smith to see if she could borrow their crutches. We all just chuckled. The complaining worsened in the last week. She wanted a wheel chair. She started to walk with her feet turned out, kind of hobbling. Guess I should take her to the Dr.

We came home with a boot and instructions to be on crutches for at least 2 weeks. Stress fracture in her heel. I am thankful to friends with kid sized crutches. They even deliver!

As a mom I filter a lot of what my kids say. Once I filtered "Brady has a BROKEN ARM!" Sure he does I thought. I guess I'll walk out and see what happened. YIKES! Arm broken completely in half.

Other times I rush out in panic, only to find a little bruise, scrape. This time I filtered "My foot hurts." Over and over. Yet she walked, ran, sometimes. How's a mom to know?

The other day I came home from a run to see this.

My heart was filled with gratitude. I love where I live. I love that my kids can drive around and pick up weeds. Lots and lots of weeds, debris, tree limbs. We wanted to provide a place for them to work, to make their lives difficult. Give them a chance to feel a sense of accomplishment. There isn't quite another feeling like the one you have after finishing a job that took a lot of hard work.

It didn't hurt that they had a bunch of friends coming over that night for a Halloween Party. A good motivation to do what mom and dad said!

I Love Google

You can learn how to do anything on the Internet. I was getting a new dishwasher and had to unhook the broken, piece of junk, dishwasher. I only had an hour until the delivery truck showed. I googled "how to unhook a dishwasher" and did what the video showed me. Unhook water, turn off electricity, unhook drain hose, take off front panel, unwire.......I did it!

The best part was when the new one came Justin and I had it mostly in when Darren came home! I learned about all sorts of new tools! I had never even heard of a nut driver before. Now I don't see how I could live without one!

OK so, I saved us $129 on installation. Then as I was feeling so proud of myself, the first time I ran it a big SPARK came out and it stopped working! Darren and the boys were on their way to Scouts so I just had to wait.....was my new dishwasher broken? Worse, had I done it with my amateur install?

Darren came home and tightened down the ground wire, now it works perfectly! Whew!

Go Domestic Engineers!

Quite a Contraption

Can you only guess what is going on in this picture?
I will say this. I will have pumpkins sprouting up EVERYWHERE next summer!

Work So You Can Play

Saturday SIMBA had a trail maintenance day. Darren took the boys and met some friends to work on the infamous "Smitty" Trail. Yes, it is named after us! Darren and Brady mainly. The year Brady was in Kindergarten he and Darren spent countless hours building this trail. I've only ridden it a couple of times, it is pretty far back in this system of trails. But it is dang fun!

Cross Country

Justin and Paige ran Cross Country this year. Paige got to run in one meet (she is only in 5th grade) but they let them practice with the Middle School. She loves to run!

This was Justin's first year with the high school.

Justin is a "little" on the small side. Can you see him? HINT: he is behind the fro and is wearing red.

Here comes Paige. She took 20th out of 70 6th -8th grade girls! 4th on her team. As a 5th grader that is pretty amazing. I was SOOOO proud of her. Before the race I tracked her down so I could remind her that IT IS A RACE! I pulled her aside and whispered in her ear that she was to do her best and run her fastest! That means you don't wait for your friends! Girls! They practically hold hands at these things, she had been known to slow down and wait to cross the finish line. She is a bleeding heart. I'm glad she is a kind person. But it is OK to beat peolple, that's why they call it a RACE!

Justin coming down the finish he did awesome. He was pleased with his race. Magic Mtn. is the toughest race in the district. They run straight up the ski hill! I am so happy to see him doing so well. He and his body have had rough year.

Kimberly made it to State. At districts they race and take the top seven runners. The eighth runner is the alternate. I told him to take 7th or 9th. I didn't want to drive to Soda Springs to watch him not run! Terrible parent. Maybe so. He gave it his all - and 9th place it was! Whew! He had a great season and made some fun friends. The older boys really took the freshman in and made them feel important. Kimberly is full of great kids!

Favorite Girl

My kids are pretty healthy eaters. I just had to post this picture so I would remember Paige and some of the bedtime snacks she comes up with.

Avocado and tomato. A girl after my own heart.