Living the Single Life - Not So Nice

I always have such a hard time giving Dustin a gift that I know he will just love. Well I hit the spot for Father's Day. I bought Dustin a hunting license. He LOVES to go hunting and he was SO excited when he got his gift. It was great to finally give him something that I know meant a lot to him. So this past weekend he had an opportunity to go hunting. It was a holiday weekend and I was kinda bummed that he would be gone the entire weekend (Fri-Mon), but I still gave the OK. I knew how badly he wanted to go and how happy it makes him. So he went. He bought an elk tag for archery hunting. This would be his first time hunting with his bow. He was in Heaven the entire day before he got to leave; he could not wait. So needless to say, he got up there late Fri night, but early Saturday morning he got an elk quite quickly. He said it was almost boring - he just walked out, there they were and bam - it's over. I think the whole thing is kind of sad, but he does eat the meat, so what ya gonna do? So he had to wait a while to go get it and by the time him and his buddy were able to go try to find her they were not able to do so. Shortly after looking opportunity struck again and because he hadn't attached his tag to the first elk - he was able to get another one - TWO IN ONE DAY. He was thrilled. Beginners Luck, huh? It was pretty late at night and it was one big animal to haul down the mountain in the dark so they tied it up hanging from a tree (to keep it from bears and such) and were going to come back in the morning for it. Come morning, what do they find? A bear had eaten a pretty good bit of it. On the positive side, it only took them one trip instead of two to haul it down the mountain. Dustin was still pretty excited and was really happy to have gone. He already wants to go again, but I told him to slow his roll!!

So, single life at home - AHHHHHH. Mason tested me to the max this weekend. Sunday was a horrible day! It must have been something in the air because several of my mommy neighbors also stated that they had horrible days with their kids on Sunday. Please, someone tell me, what difference does it make if daddy or mommy takes the little two year old to nursery? Dustin can take him (Mason) and Mason will walk in like he owns the place - no looking back. I take him and he gives my leg a death grip and cries as if all the kids are lining up inside the door just to attack him. I did not have time to convince him that he would be safe and can go in. I was also holding Porter, my diaper bag, my lesson bag and fighting to get past/around the 500+ members in our ward that are piling into the hallway. Also because I had to go teach Primary class solo. It was a nightmare. I took Mason into my class with me and he just put on quite the show for everyone, I knew there would be no paying attention to the lesson. And to top it off, the teachers that teach the class next to us (same age kids) did not show up, so I got to add their class (and it's huge) to my class. Mason was dumping crayons all over, saying blee blee, bla bla to anyone that would look at him, it was ridiculous. Let's shorten this up. I finally got my bro to come watch him for the rest of my class - after I dumped Mason onto him I got back into class and the ten minute bell rang - I hadn't even started my lesson. Then my neighbors took him during sharing time. Thanks so much to those who helped because I was about to lose it. Lose it in the sense that I would have dumped my kids at church and taken off to who knows where and came back who knows when. Mason preceded to go nuts all afternoon at home. He continually strung food all over the kitchen and with Porter being so mobile now, I swept the kitchen, probably 10 times on Sunday. And Mason wouldn't stop picking on Porter and making him cry. It was just such a horrible day; I really lost my cool - yet realized I wouldn't want to be a single mom and Dustin really does help out a lot with Mason. He should - the two of them are so much alike.
Well, happy ending - Mason was such a different little character on Monday. Such a sweet loving boy all day. I decided I would keep him. And he showed his brother the ropes of tearing out some "lady things" from their boxes. OH CUTE BOYS!! Well, this novel is long enough. Sorry I always post SO MUCH. I've got to shorten this stuff.Mason made sure to put things in the proper place - ha ha (the 'nursing pad') and he was SO nice to give his brother a special hat. Ha Ha. How funny!!
P.S. I LOVE THE FALL - LET'S GO COUGAR FOOTBALL!!!:

School Days . . . I did it

Well, I was SO brave and I let my Charly girl ride the bus to school. I have even let her do it everyday. She started Kindergarten on the 12th, she was up at six am, eager and anxious to start this new phase of life. We didn't have to be there (I got to go with her on the first day) until ten, so I sent her back to bed. The next day, however, when I went to wake her up at seven to get ready for the bus, the fit arrived. She didn't want to get up and had decided that she doesn't want to go to school anymore. Oh, man, only in Kindergarten - we have such a long road ahead of us if she doesn't want to go to school already. After I finally got her to eat her breakfast and have a bath, she had a mood change. And actually, we had to go convince the neighbor boy to come out from behind the couch and ride the bus with Charly. He was scared too. She has enjoyed it thus far and is proud to tell me everyday that she didn't even get into any trouble. I am, so far, relieved. You know how they act at home, and can only wonder how they act when they are not around you. So, here are some pics of her first couple of days of school and of my brave little girly girl riding the bus. I only choked up a little bit, but was able to control it in front of the other moms that had far more sanity over their kids riding the bus than I did. I even made sure Charly had the bus number memorized so she would get on the right bus to come home - the mom's just laughed at me - thanks guys!! :)


These last few pictures are of the boys waiting for the bus to come pick up their sister and of Porter working on his sitting up skills. He's learning these things so quickly and much earlier than his sister and brother did. He's determined to be up and about - I'm not ready for him to be so mobile, but what can ya do when he is ready to get up and move? He is already just about to crawl and only started trying to do so about a week ago.

Never A Dull Moment . . .

I was sitting on my couch today, working away on a blanket for Charly, that is going to take me FOREVER to finish, and all of a sudden I see this car, going backwards across our lawn. I thought for sure it was going to hit our house. My first thought was . . . Mason; I just knew he had gotten into somebody's car and backed it up somehow onto our lawn. I was so relieved when I remembered that we had already put him in his room for his nap. Luckily the palm tree next to our front door stopped the car from hitting the house, however the palm tree did not survive. I go get Dustin real quickly and tell him that a car had just rolled up on our lawn, barely missing the house. As we go outside to check out the scene all the neighbors are coming out too. They had seen it. All thought maybe somebody passed out, fell asleep, had a heart attack or something, but no one was in the car. Come to find out, the guy way up the street had left his car in neutral (running) while he ran inside to open his garage and his car rolled backwards and ended up at our front door. We are all SO very lucky because normally we have like all twenty kids that live on our street outside playing and such, today none of them were outside, so no one was hurt. Anyway - just an interesting event today. We are so glad nobody got hurt, the car was even okay, no damage to the house or anything. We just felt bad for the poor guy that owned the car.

That warm fuzzy feeling . . . .

So, there I was, sitting in the back of the chapel (as usual on Sundays) wrestling my three kids and demanding that they (excluding Porter because he can't really help it at this point), be quiet and sit down. It always feels more like a McDonald's Playland than a Sacrament Meeting in the back there and you can see it in the faces of all the surrounding mom's that are also fighting their kids to be quiet, sit down, quit taking other kids toys - you get the picture. I'm sure many can relate to the feelings of "why do I come every Sunday?" "what am I even getting out of this?" Plus let me add the hubby and I teach Primary - which is great - but those of you that have ever been involved with Primary know it's not the most spiritual uplifter. I would have really liked to have been able to hear the talks today - I think they were on the heritage/making/etc of St. George and the bits and pieces I caught were interesting. But hearing wasn't happening today. Then came the (what I call) musical half time. I love music, so I always look forward to this part of our program. This lovely lady in our ward (LeAnn - also one fantastic visiting teaching partner) gets up to sing a solo (In Humility, Our Savior). She starts singing without the piano at first, immediately, tears sting my eyes - it was so beautiful and so nice to feel the spirit - at church. It didn't take long for the tears to stream - now I'm sure I'm looking good, fighting kids and bawling - what on earth were those around me thinking about me? I thank LeAnn deeply - it was a great feeling. And of course, I know every Sunday why I need to go every Sunday, despite the fact that they DO NOT listen - it's where my kids need to be (and us too). But I thank LeAnn for sharing her beautiful voice and reminding me that the Spirit does dwell at church.

Exciting 4th -

So we had quite the 4th of July this year. Let's see - where to begin. Dustin did not sleep a wink the night of the 3rd or the night of the 4th. I was quite worried about him. His body had the "wiggles" and he could not relax long enough to go to sleep. We did not know why this was happening or what to do. He was suppose to work on the 4th and the 5th. He called in on the 4th, but went in (exhausted) on the 5th. Some know - some do not - Dustin has been sick with all kinds of weird, different symptoms since basically the beginning of June. We could not get into a doctor until July 9th because no one was taking our insurance or those that were were not accepting new patients.Or if they were accepting both there was a waiting list. GRRR - how annoying and frustrating. Needless to say - every last one of his symptoms was related to this medicine he has been taking - I was so relieved - so we're switching the meds. And I'm so glad nothing serious is wrong. Okay - so also on the sleepless night of the 3rd we got a text from my sis-in-law at 4:30 am letting us know that her water had just broke and they (her and my brother) were on their way to the hospital. Yeah - I was so excited. So baby Bryton Douglas King was born on the 4th of July. The next morning, I jumped in a quick shower, thinking all would be well with the kids if I'm fast. Well I got out and saw this:

Crazy kids! And Porter never even made a peep - he just took it all - poor guy.

Charly drew a picture of our day's plans - she is adorable. So I wanted to share her picture (she normally writes her numbers the right way - guess she was too excited to focus.) She showed me the picture and said - first fireworks, then dinner, then bed.

Early afternoon we went to see the new little baby. Yes, Porter has a huge head, but he's still so cute.

After seeing the baby, we were exhausted from no/little sleep the night before and went home to have a family nap. It was 6:00 pm. After we woke up (around 8 or so) we got ready to go to the church parking lot (across the street from the St. George temple) to watch the fireworks. We were so excited when we got out in the car and saw it was 99 degrees instead of 110 - ha ha. So here's some pics from the fireworks night. Porter loved chewing on his glow stick. And the temple was glowing beautifully. Hope everyone had a great 4th too!!

The next day we had family coming down from Salt Lake to also come and see the new baby - as I was cleaning the house Dustin kept the kids entertained outside. He played the guitar for them and let them play a little too. It was so cute. The neighbor kids got involved and had a good time and it was so sweet for him to keep the kids out of my hair so I could clean up. This is Ethan serenading Charly and Whalen and Mason actually sitting together without fighting. Then of course, my forever smiling, Porter!! :) And Mason - who loves to do whatever daddy does, playing the guitar.

Happy July!!

So, I have been working (and not as hard as I would like to be) on losing some of this dang baby weight. I try to get my 'Turbo Jam' workout in and also (or just) a walk around the neighborhood for at least 30 good minutes, with my kids (daily). So a couple of nights ago we are walking out towards (what we call) the money truck, which is just a big truck with a money amount stickered on the side, it's to sell the nearby condo's. Anyway, we're walking along and of all people, our KIDS, run into this: I don't think they realized the danger of getting so close. The snake was all sprawled out, just relaxing, it was way long and before I could grab my phone to snap a pic, of course, Dustin had to touch the dumb thing and make it fold up or whatever, so it's not the best picture to show off it's size. I guess this is stuff we have to live with if we are to live in the Desert.

On a cuter note, Porter is now eating solids, so we pulled out the good old High Chair, however, it's hard to even get Porter in it because it's now the favorite seat to sit in and both Charly and Mason always want to sit in it to eat. I watched Mason eat his lunch in it the other day, and try so hard to talk to me while falling asleep - it was adorable. He refuses to wear a bib, so we go through many a t-shirts daily. Porter is moving around more, and still always smiling and giggling at everyone around him. Here is a picture of him working on rolling over, and then a picture of him catching the flash in the corner of his eye and checking out what is going on. Cute little boys.

Happy 4th of July to everyone - hope the fourth is fun for all.

I see His hand in many things . . . .

Finding the good in the bad!
So this past week has been pretty interesting. For a while now, our dang car will just die on us, but after a few hours, it will start back up. Well, it finally quit on us - it died as my hubby was driving to work, luckily he coasted into a parking lot and even made it into a parking spot. It sat there for a couple days until we could get someone to help us tow it back to our house. It obviously decided not to start after a few hours. It sat dead for several days, at the same time, Dustin was sick as a dog. He works as a CNA (he's working on moving up the totem pole, but for now is CNA). He had been working a lot of doubles, overtime, re-roofing my mom's house, working more doubles, etc. It caught up to him and he was exhausted and one day slept for about eighteen hours, without even moving. So I went out visiting teaching the other day and was just chit chatting with the ladies and we were talking about the price of gas, so I mentioned that our car was dead and Dustin has been sick and unable to check it out, so maybe it was a blessing to have our car dead 'cuz we can't go anywhere and therefore don't have to buy outrageously expensive gas. We finished up with the first lady and went on to house number two. After being home for about thirty minutes or so, my phone rings, it's a guy in our ward. He says, "hey, I hear Dustin is sick?" I said, "how do you know that? We haven't really told anyone." To shorten the story up, he then said he knew our car was now running and that he had received his info from another guy in our ward, who is the son of lady # 1 that I went to visit teach. He then went on to say that he is in Idaho for a month and has his truck just sitting in his garage, not being used and told us to go get it while we work on getting our car fixed. It was such a blessing. I have never experienced ward members reaching out like this to help. We are probably far too prideful to ever ask for help and it was so great and the biggest blessing for these two men to jump right on the "service band wagon" and help us out. Otherwise we had no idea how we would go about getting parts for the car, and all that kind of stuff. So after Dustin's LONG day of rest, he was on the up and up. I went to google and just typed in 'my jeep won't start'. Lo and Behold others in this world have had the same problem and had asked the same question. An answer kept coming up several times - change the crankshaft sensor. So Dustin heads out to the car, finds the sensor and is a bit frustrated as he says he can't reach it and he doesn't know how anyone could without the high-tech tools that are used in a shop. So I return to google and ask how to change a crankshaft sensor. Again - lots of answers - but one little one shined the brightest - 'you need an extension.' So we go to Walmart (good old Walmart) thinking, they won't have this tool, just because we need it. But yet - there it was.
Dustin laid under the car, remained calm (even while working in this 110 degree weather) as he fought changing a crankshaft sensor in the tiniest amount of space to work with. Needless to say, he eventually got it changed out and it was do or die time. He went to start the car - we were so nervous, but it started. I was such a baby and cried. I knew what stress it had been to him to know that our car was not working and would possibly end up costing us a lot of money that we just do not have. And I could see in his face and totally feel the relief of stress leave him. It made me so happy. So, let's see - there is good in bad:
Bad, being of course - the only car we own braking down and us having no transportation. The good in the bad:
- My visiting teaching partner is so great at keeping us up on our VT.
-Lady #1 was caring enough to share our misfortune, that I jokingly mentioned, with her son, who is our home teacher.
- Two men in our ward were so willing to be of service and did not hesitate to lend a helping hand.
- Our car broke down in the summer, when we only really need to get Dustin to work, and do the occasional errand running. It could have died when we had to take Dustin to work and to school and also take Charly to school.
- Google :)
- Walmart :) ( although being able to go there puts us out of house and home 'cuz we love to go there and always end up spending far more than we need to.)
- There were others before us with the same problem, which helped us to fix our problem.
- It cost us much less than we thought it would to fix it.
- Dustin - what a blessing it is that he is so smart and so handy, I'm telling you - the boy can fix anything. I love him.
So moral of the story is, when things go wrong it's easy to get mad and place blame where it does not belong, but instead we should find the good in the bad because His hand reaches forth, and often times in the goodness or mishaps of others. And clearly there is obviously more good in the bad than the bad itself.