Randomness

So we're all feeling better, that stomach flu sure takes a toll. So I don't know if I mentioned the bat. A couple of weeks ago Lanny came into my bedroom and told me there was a bat in the kitchen window. I hardi-har-hard and told him I wasn't stupid and that I wasn't falling for his trick. He was adamant and continued to try to coax me into the kitchen. Aaron wouldn't go in either. Lanny had a huge dorky grin on his face, I mean really, was I suppose to believe his story was for real? Finally, since he wasn't about to leave us alone, I walked into the kitchen. I actually didn't get in the whole way before I flipped out at the sight of a small bat clinging to the window frame. My squeals convinced Aaron that the bat was real and he came running in. It sure was a squeaky little thing and not at all convinced that it wanted to be caught and tossed out. This of course, I heard from the safety of the bedroom, door closed, eyes closed, etc. Well, I thought we were done with bats until last night when we were listening to Fablehaven (fabulous books, we're on the third one (I've read them all before)...check them out...no Brandon Mull is not paying me for this endorsement...but he should be!). Anyways, Lanny mentioned how he was watching a bat swoop in and eat moths just outside the window. Once again, I immediately believed him, okay, not so much. You'd think I'd learn. So to prove himself, we all walked over and stared out the window. The moths were flitting in corners, attracted to our inside light. Suddenly, a larger flying object woooshed by. I told Lanny it was a big moth. Then the "big moth" flew straight at the window...thump! Yeah, I'm glad I had an extra pair of underwear near-by. Have I mentioned that I don't like bats, at all, for any reason. I used to think they were cute, in an extremely ugly kind of way. Now, that we cohabitate in the same house, I've decided they aren't cute, they are freaky. I'm just waiting for the werewolves to show up.
My cute friend Marla and her family came to visit us on Friday. We were sick, and I wasn't even dressed, but seriously, I'm always asleep or in my p.j.'s when Marla comes to visit, so I don't think it was really a shock to her. We had a fun chat and they continued on to a family reunion. Immediately upon their exit I started to cry and told Aaron I wanted to move home. I miss my friends. It was so good to see the Muirbrooks, but made me sad because I used to see them all the time. So please, if you're in the area, come visit, but I might cry, and I'll probably be in my p.j.'s, but still, please come. But wait.....what am I saying, I've decided I'm moving! Yesterday, I went to get a snow cone, only to find that they had closed for the season...yeah, I cried. You think I'm kidding, I'm not, it was very traumatic for me...don't know what I'm going to do with out my lemon-lime snow cones. The lady who owns the snow cone shack is in my ward, so I might have to start stalking her! Wish me luck!
In other news, I wanted to show everyone my table. I got it for 5 bucks at Meals on Wheels. I finally got around to sanding and painting it. I matched it to some pretty pillows I bought at Hobby Lobby before we moved. I love the bright color, it cheers up the living room. And yes, I sanded it, so the dings and knicks are on purpose. I figured, the kids would do it sooner or later, so I just got it over with.
The kids start school next week, so you'll all get to see pics of the first day soon...I can't believe it. The summer is over, but that's okay, a new adventure awaits!

Let's Compare....

...shall we? As a family we have struggled with having Family Home Evening (FHE) regularly. So I decided that new home, new us...I wanted desperately to be better at having FHE. I thought, just for fun, we'd compare our FHE's in Cheyenne vs. here. Let's start with Cheyenne.
Cheyenne FHE

• Opening Prayer
• Opening Song
• Lesson-This is usually where the yelling starts due to the fact that no one is listening. Sometimes we'd do a game instead just to really shake things up.
• Closing Song
• Closing Prayer
• Treat-Now the fist fights break out over who got the biggest cookie. There may occasionally be a bit of blood, someone bites someone else, etc. you get the idea.

In general we laugh, we cry, we feel the spirit and then immediately drive it from our home. That is a run down of a Cheyenne FHE. Now let's go over a Star Valley FHE

• Mommy prepares a wonderfully tasty picnic dinner of tuna sandwiches and chips...with fabulous homemade white chocolate chip pudding cookies for dessert.
• Daddy gets home and we all excitedly drive to the park.
• Opening Prayer
• We eat dinner...which consists of Mommy eating two sandwiches and everyone else eating a cookie with pop...nutritious!
• The games begin....children running everywhere...craziness ensues!
• Mommy cleans up the picnic.
• Kessie yells "Mommy watch me!"
• Kessie slips off the monkey bars...screaming starts (yeah, that was me and Kessie).
• Mommy runs as fast as she can, carrying Kel across the park. (Her fastest run is equivalent to a snail running backward uphill).
• Daddy gets to Kessie first. He shows Mommy how Kessie's upper arm is bent at an odd angle. This is where the yelling starts (see, we made it further in this FHE without yelling than the other one...."Get in the Car, move, move!")
• Mommy drives to the ER.
• Kessie is super brave as the hours drag on, they x-ray her, and different doctors pay her a visit.
• The doctors put a temporary brace on Kessie's arm and send her home.
• Oh, wait, this FHE ain't over yet....we wanted to add a little excitement so we drove to Jackson (a little over an hour away) at six the next morning so Kessie could have surgery.
• Two pins later, her arm is back together and she's sleeping of the anesthesia in the recovery room.

In general we laugh, we cry, scream, and panic. Did we have fun? Yeah, there was that thirty seconds at the beginning that was pretty cool. Did we feel the spirit? Yes, we feel so blessed to have modern medicine and fabulous doctors. I am so grateful for our health, when something happens, you realize how good you really had it. Do I still have that same yearning to hold regular FHE? Not so much. I'm a bit leery. If we do have FHE again, it will be called something like, Group Gathering...please sit and stare...don't even think about moving.
This first picture is of Kessie in the recovery room. She slept for about three hours. I think mainly because she hadn't slept the night before. I had told her that they would do the surgery while she was asleep and so she wouldn't feel anything, and so she had tried to stay up all night so that she would be tired and be able to sleep through the surgery. I finally had to tell her that they had medicine to help her sleep and that she didn't have to fall asleep on cue. Cute girl! They allowed her to take her stuffed animals into surgery with her, but not her Mommy. I have never wanted to be a fat, furry, inanimate teddy bear so much in my life. It was so hard to have to watch them wheel her away. She was sobbing, and it was more than I could take. The doctors and nurses were fabulous, though. They brought me back as soon as she was out of surgery. They let her sleep for as long as she wanted, and while she slept, Kel and the nurses played peek-a-boo! This is a phone picture, so not the best.

This second picture is today when she got home from getting her cast on. It's got glitter! I had to hurry and snap a pic because Lanny came running in with a sharpie. I signed, "I love you, cowgirl! xxoo, Mommy". Aaron, however, thought he was signing autographs and signed, "Daddy "Big Fish" Johnson, yeah, he's a dweeb, somethings never change! Please note the shirt in both pictures. Yeah, it's the same, and no, I haven't washed it. It's the shirt she had on when she fell and she won't change it. I wonder what it will smell like in six more weeks...I guess we're going to find out!

Thanks everyone for your love and support and prayers. I have been amazed at the outpouring of love we have been showered with. Thank you, thank you. And if you're planning FHE, maybe have one like my first example. Although, exciting, I wouldn't recommend the second option!

Yummy!

So, although I am not a great blogger, I do love to read other peoples blogs. The ones I read the most focus on crafts or cooking, etc. Recently I tried a couple recipes that were nummy so I thought I would share them with you. Grandpa Steve, Aaron's father, loves sweets. He also loves potato chips, so when I saw a recipe that called for potato chips in cookies, I had to try it. We made them and then Lanny bribed Grandpa into taking him fishing if he wanted one of the "special cookies" we'd made for him. I thought they were really good, but the best part was the look on people's faces when we told them they had potato chips in them....priceless! So go to Landee See, Landee Do to get the recipe, and yes, this is a link you can click on.
The other recipe was a must for me. Aaron took me to a mexican restaurant in Cheyenne that had great food. The best part, however, yep you guessed it, was the dessert. My favorite was the cheesecake wrapped in tortillas and served with ice cream and chocolate sauce. Seeing as how I won't be getting that dessert in time soon (read that as never) I wanted to see if I could make it. There was a very simple recipe on Dishing with Leslie, so I tried it! (Yes, click on this link as well!) Yeah. Lanny started yelling through mouthfuls, "What is this stuff? Forget cake, I want this for my birthday!!!" It only makes a few, I managed to squeeze six burritos out of the recipe, but that wasn't enough for my family. Next time I'm doubling the recipe, so that would be in like 20 seconds, because writing about them is making me uber hungry!
Even though this post has no pictures, try these recipes, their yumminess makes up for the lack of photos!

Heads Up

Being the genius that I am, I have no idea what I'm doing. I just noticed that in some of my posts, random words have been picked and they link you up to stupid stuff. I did not make them that way, I don't know how to make links, I don't know how to get rid of them and I will not send you a $1000.00 Walmart gift card, or whatever. So, don't click on them!!! However, if you would like to send me a $1000.00 Walmart gift card, feel free!

Fair Week

So the fair just got over, and I'm tired. I didn't even do anything but eat snow cones, and I need a nap! The kids decided they wanted to enter a few things. Lanny entered a pencil drawing and two flies that he tied. He got a first and third on his flies and a third on his drawing. Louie entered a pencil drawing and some cookies. She got a second on her drawing and a first on her cookies. Kessie entered a pencil drawing and cookies also. She got a second on her drawing and a best of show for her cookies...she was so excited about the huge ribbon for best of show. Also, the money they pay out was a huge surprise and plus for the kids. They have decided that they are entering every category next year! (I bet you can picture how excited I am about that!) The girls also showed horses on Thursday. They decided they wanted to and so Grandma has been working really hard with them almost every day for a little over two weeks to get them ready. Kessie showed in lead line and Louie showed in walk/trot. Lead line is where the child still tells the horse what to do, but they have an adult that "leads" the horse in case any thing goes crazy. After two weeks of practice, Kessie has decided that she doesn't need any help, she now tells Grandma to turn her loose on her own. Grandma and the girls got all gussied up and lookin pretty and then had to wait for hours before it was their turn, but they were troopers. Kessie's competition was first. There were 15 kids in her competition. She looked so cute. They all walked around in a circle and then stopped, switched directions, walked and then stopped. The judge went around and asked them all if they were having fun. Seriously, I have no idea how this competition was judged, but much to my relief, and Kessie's joy, she got 6th place!!! Yippee! She got a big green ribbon, a horse brush, and a popsicle (which ended up all over her shirt!). Afterwards Kessie told Grandma that she figured Comanche was her horse now, since she had won on him. Wow! I didn't know they gave horses as prizes! The next post has pics of Louie, but I was so proud of both my girls. They both did fabulous, and looked so darling in their white (boy) shirts. Kessie had even said that morning, when we put her shirt on. "I look nice, but I look like a church man!" Here's a tip for all you first timers out there....don't get your nice clothes on until minutes before the competition. In three hours, that shirt can get awfully dirty!

Look how straight she is sitting! That is exactly how you ride...so proud of her!

She loves, loves, loves, Comanche...he can do no wrong, and he was very good with her!

Walk/Trot Competition

Louie particitpated in the walk/trot class. I was seriously so nervous. She was the first one through the gate and as soon as she got in, Wendell tried to turn and go back out. Yikes! She got him turned around, and he did it again. I honestly thought she would burst into tears and give up, but she stuck with it, got him turned around again and started him off into the arena. There were 5 kids out there. Even to a novice like me, I could tell how well trained Wendell was compared to the other horses. The judge had the kids walk their horses, turn them and go the other way, trot them, and stop them. Louie did fabulous, and even though Wendell and I have a history (he tried to kill me a few years back) he did great too. He listened to Louie, and she looked so amazing up in the saddle. She didn't even act nervous. They usually give out 6 ribbons, and since there were only five kids competing, I quickly did the math in my head and came to the conclusion that no matter what, she would get a ribbon. They started announcing the places, Louie had stopped with her back towards me, so I just kept staring at her number 196. When they announced the second place child, I burst into tears, because my Louie had won. Not that I can take any credit, because it was her and Wendell and Grandma that had worked so hard, but I was so proud. She's only been riding for two weeks and didn't anticipate the amount of effort and time that showing horses takes, but she stuck with it. She is already gearing up for next year! I thought now that the fair is over we would take a break from riding, but no, first thing this morning, Kes and Louie asked if they could ride. Oh well, I guess it's in their blood!

Wild and Free

Although I'm not a horse person, I do love to watch my mother-in-law ride. She is so comfortable on a horse, and makes it look so easy. I would love to go dashing across the meadow on the back of a horse, but unfortunately, I usually manage to fall of at a brisk walk....oh well. She showed in the free style competition. This is where you can dress you and your horse as crazy as you want, you pick your own music, and make up your own pattern (as long as you still have required moves in your pattern). She did her routine to "Knee Deep", or whatever it is called, thus Wendell T. is covered in the ocean. She did awesome, and even with them messing up her music, took second. She trains her own horses, and she has done a fantastic job with all of them. The girls loved the dolphin painted on Wendell's rump, yeah, she paints too....if we didn't love her so much, we'd have to hate her because she is so uber talented!

Baby "J"

Yep, he's here! My brand new nephew was born on July 31sr at around 2:30 in the afternoon. We are close enough now that we got to go see him the next day! He weighed 6 lbs 7 oz. and seriously, I was disappointed. The kids and I made a wager as to how much he would weigh. I guessed 6 lbs 8 oz. Louie guessed 6 lbs 7 oz, so you can bet she rubbed it in my face that she was smack on! Oh well. He belongs to Aaron's brother Clark and his super awesome, totally sweet wife Debbie. Oh, you want to know his name...it's Jace Clark, cute huh, just like him. The kids were thrilled to meet him, so was I. If you notice in the picture, I think he looks a lot like me, don't you? I mean we're both adorable, he just weighs less than me! Actually, my first thought was how much he looked like his big brother, Logan! Both cuties! Congrats to Debbie and Clark and Logan...we are thrilled for them, and so excited to have this angelic addition in the family!