Time Out For Women 2009

Deseret Book just announced next year's Time Out schedule....
They'll be in Cincinnati on May 15 & 16. :o)

pumpkins & halloween

at collin's pumpkin patch field trip

collin's costume this year. he LOVES it, yay!

i made 2 pairs a couple years back. the smaller pair fits andrew.

this didn't make it for halloween..too hot outside--it's been in the high 80's/low 90's.


i'm going to go run out and get one more pumpkin to carve a picture of calvin's dad taking his picture, to go with this one.

our trunk or treat is tomorrow. so, that's when i'll take ivy & andrew's pictures. andrew's going as a bumblebee this year, since he can say "zzzz."

tom has been able to come back for fridays & saturdays, but has to drive back to san diego sunday mornings. he gets 4 days off for thanksgiving. kids are doing okay. they have little coughs that are almost gone(80's/90's in the day, 50's/60's overnight). i'm a little tired, but people in the ward are helping us out.

Be prepared for Halloween

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVnfyradCPY

Happy Halloween !

We had our church party last night so we got to dress up early. Harrison was an Army man, Gillian was Ginny Weasley (again), Rachael was the Corpse Bride, Joshua was a Vampire Hockey player (until he took the teeth out, then he was just a hockey player) And I went as myself in High school (my sister said it brought back disturbing memories). Hope you all have a Happy Halloween (or beggar's night or whatever else they call it).

collin's school picture

boy! those photographers are a lot faster than last year. here's collin's school picture. and yes, he's going to the dentist in 2 weeks(top tooth on his left, on the right in the picture). we had to switch to military dental for him so he can go to a good pediatric dentist that doesn't take our regular insurance.

this picture is such a huge improvement over last year's where he's not smiling or looking at the camera.

A Photographer always gets his shot...

I decided after teasing Sadie so many times (by putting my hat on her) that I needed a picture of it.

The first two tries, she looked rather bored. But, this photographer was determined to get his shot. So, before he could think of getting something to bribe her, he decided to give Sadie one last chance. And, it turned out rather interesting.

So, even by accident, a photographer always gets his shot.

And, I am now waiting to hear back from a couple places that I've applied now; Though, I am still sending out applications to other places as I think of them.

My 35th Birthday in Kuwait...

So... It's a few days late, but these are the last few (they already got me for 14) right after 36 (35+one to grow on) push-ups. And I forgot to have them record it, so here's the last few... gotta LOVE the Army. It doesn't seem to add up now, but trust me they got me for 35 and 1. Yea!

OH! And by the way, it RAINED yesterday! Its getting cold here in the desert, REALLY! It's down into the 70's and I have to wear a hoodie to stay warm at night. Ya heard right, 70ish and we're freezing. You have to realize that we have been around 130-140's for the past 5 months so that's a 60-70 degree change. Even now during the day it only gets up into the 90's so its still 20-30 degrees cooler when the sun goes down. 90 feels comfortable and we're not sweating all day like we were just a month ago. It's really like some one flipped a switch, not like Ohio or anywhere else I've ever been where the temperature changes gradually over a month or two. There is no spring or fall, just hot and really hot. It's like God's giant zen garden out here, and instead of getting snow drifts we get sand drifts, sand storms, sand devils (HUGE tornado like pillars of sand twisting in the air), sand in you hair, your food, your room and your boots. But, that said, it IS almost over! Our replacements get here soon and it is all downhill from there.

The Sharpe Family

We took a family photo for Halloween....

HAPPY SMURF-DAY, SMURFY-SMURF

Happy Birthday Jon. We love you.

Helper Signal

I'm trying to finish the kitchen by the end of this weekend. We would appreciate any and all help. Dad and Mike are coming over Wednesday night. Wednesday I'll be around after 2:30 pm. Thursday and Saturday I'll be around all day both days.Friday I'll be around after 7pm.

Hey everyone - it was unanimous that everyone wanted the book I called you about! Too bad I'm not getting some kind of commission :-))

If I didn't mention to you, this is my Grandma who as a young child played with Brigham Young's children in Salt Lake City.

Here's the info on how to pay. BTW, the shipping will be less if we combine orders by where we live, so I'll be glad to gather everyone's money and make one order for the 8 in Columbus - Mom & I, Jared, Alisa, Harmony, Brandon, Erica, Tisha, and Aaron. Please get the money to me in the next week or 2, although I'm going to go ahead and send the order now.

For everyone else, here's the info from Aunt Dwyn:

Dave,
here is some info

on ancestorpages.com is a page about the Mary Ann Chapman Richey book. click banner at top of page. Pay with bank card if you like, at bottom of Mary Ann page. or mail to

Alvin Rencher
464 E. 2260 N.
Provo, UT 84604

rencher@stat.byu.edu

I'll give him the count of 12 that your family wants.
Dwyn

To All Ohio Family:

I am going to start a once a month (or every 6 week) cooking group (if there is any interest)for anyone in the family who wants to come. What it will focus on first are cooking up ground beef, chicken, etc. and packaging it in meal size (usually 1 pound) packages to put in your individual freezers (fridge freezers ARE big enough) to pull out and use in simple meals, thus avoiding a last minute run to the closest fast food place.

If you're interested- the tentative first day will be Sat. Nov 1st- at 9 AM. It shouldn't go longer than an hour and a half (maybe shorter, depending on how many come). Obviously, you would have to pay for your own meat. I am just starting to enjoy this whole "only cooking for 3", but I am willing to purchase supplies (meat, baggies, etc.)so you don't need to make a shopping trip out.

After that, whoever is interested can generate the decision of what adding to our food reserve/saving money get-together would be. If another day or evening would work better, let's talk!

Any interest? Building up food storage and everyday meal planning and also saving $$$?

Skype...

Hey yall. In our effort to keep better in touch (ex. this blog), I think more of us should sign up for Skype. It's FREE calling via your internet, AND video if you have a web cam. It's way cool. I talked to a classmate in Germany the other day with video. How cool is that. I hear there's some guy in Kuwait (at least for a couple/few more months) that would be cool to talk to. I don't really have much else to say about it. There's a couple/few of us signed up already. I just thought it'd be cool to shrink the globe a little more.

Ivy's school pictures are back

amazing! she just took them a couple weeks ago. i don't know that i'll have her redo pictures. i really think this might be as good of a smile as we're going to get. she has no problem smiling, she just freezes up when she knows her picture is being taken. which is why i take a lot of candid photos of her. by the way, this is the dress i made her.

what do you "experienced" parents think? keep the pictures or have her redo them, in the hopes that she'll smile, but not guaranteed? although, i can recall some awful ones of me that mom kept(maybe 3rd grade. i had a green dress w/a chewed collar, braid on one side, the other one i tried to *fix* myself right before my turn to take pictures, and missing teeth)

Missing Yard Sign

We've been talking a lot in church about getting Prop. 8 to pass (see protectmarriage.com) so the CA judges can't overturn the voter's choice again about how marriage needs to be defined. All the zipcode leaders in our ward(ours covers 4 zipcodes) just got the little yard sign things to put up this weekend. We got ours after church. When I got up today(6:30) the sign wasn't in the yard or anywhere in sight. For the last almost 3 hours, the wind has just been howling. I just looked it up on weather.com, 34 mph wind!!! That hardly ever happens out here. Don't think Satan wants it to pass. Looks like I'm driving Ivy to school today instead of walking, and then have about an hour to find our sign before Andrew starts his Speech Therapy---btw, he is finally learning to pucker his lips(the speech therapist was concerned about him not having enough muscle strength to do it) and he's starting to make a B sound--what he should've been doing 10 months ago. yay!

hmm..I just did a quick drive thru of the neighborhood after Collin got on the bus. Either ours blew away, or someone took it. All the other signs in the neighborhood are up.

Wedding is coming up fast!!

Good morning, everyone! Here is an overview of the wedding/reception details:

Sat(this Sat. Oct 11th)-

10 AM- anyone who would like to help set up tables and chairs at the Gateway building would be appreciated. It should be fairly quick to do. I will have king size muffins for the helpers!!

12:30 pm: Arrive to the Temple. Sealing is at 1:15pm but you need to be there by 12:30.

1:30 PM- Erica & her girls will arrive to put tablecloths/centerpieces on tables & be there when cake & food arrives & is set up.

2:30 PM- Family photos, Michelle Beck & Breezi Kohrman arrive to help with food. I will have some Chicken alfredo and mac and cheese in roasters available for family then also.

4 PM- 6:30 PM- Reception

6:30 PM - 7:15 PM- Take down and cleanup after reception. Any helpers would be appreciated!

7:16 PM- Relax & go home!!

Am I forgetting anything????

In Case You Were Wondering

Josh's dad really IS the man!!

We won!

Boeing is giving Tom the job offer back now. Their lawyer's email made us laugh though. We think the truth is they got caught & tongue-tied as to how to explain themselves. Good night to celebrate w/pizza! Tom's calling in the morning to finalize everything(they want to make it official by Friday), since he goes to San Diego on Sunday. His voice is barely there today after a long day of local training.

"I advised you[ESGR, who was helping Tom out] that I had previously counseled Mr. Rinella that it was b/c of Mr. Gee's unavailability, not his Coast Guard reserve duty, that was the basis for Boeing's decision to rescind his prior offer. Since then, however, I further reviewed the USERRA regulations and in particular some case law of which I was previously unaware that made clear to me that the courts consider my reasoning invalid and thus decision to w/draw Mr. Gee's offer based on his unavailability to start w/Boeing when needed was unacceptable under USERRA.

Accordingly, Boeing will withdraw the rescission of its employment offer to Mr. Gee and reinstate the offer."

conference

i missed what pres. monson said or did in the first session that made everyone laugh. what happened? it was right after he announced the 5 new temples.

*10/5: okay, so i was able to go back on lds.org last night and re-see the video clip, but still don't know why everyone was laughing*