Greetings

Sorry that I haven't written sooner but things here have been crazy. Last Monday morning I received a early call from bethel school district if I would like to start work that day. Needless to say that my brain has stopped working since that call. I don't know if I like my job yet. All last week they had me working in the dish room and help serve during lunch. I felt like I was back in Basic training doing KP. Today they had me helping the cook and serve. The good thing about it is that they will pay for some of my college. so that is a big plus.

As you know we all just celebrated Halloween. The girls had a great time. Sam is my cake walk demon. We had a party at our ward the Friday before Halloween and Sam had won 7 cupcakes in the cake walk. she ate 7 cupcakes before we left. The next day we went to a party at the girls school where Sam won a box of cookies at the cake walk. They got a lot of candy from that party too. On Halloween the girls went trick-or-treating in two neighborhoods with some friends and their grandma. she also took them to a neighboring churches harvest festival and guess who won a chocolate cake at the cake walk. you guessed it, Sam.

Ashely is now done with volleyball. she had her last game on Saturday. They lost two games and won one. the last game they played was really close. Ashely has improved so much. she has gone to watching the ball go over the net to going after the ball and diving for it. i think next year we will have to get her knee pads.

Alex is spending a relaxing week out in the field this week. Any thing to get away from work. I don't think that he is really looking forward to sleeping in the cold and the weather calls for rain. it builds character right. well we hope that all is well with you and we will talk to you all later.

What a week

Well we here in Harmonland had a pretty interesting week. The girls had half day everyday for parent/teacher conference. I remember when the schools closed for two days so the parents could meet with the teachers. I guess they really want the kids to stay in school. Thursday we had a really bad wind storm come though. We lost our power in the afternoon. The girls were outside playing when they rushed in to let me know that a couple of our neighbors lost some trees and another one's wood fence blew over. Since we had no power we went out to eat thinking that the power would be back on. To our surprise it wasn't. So we lite a few candles and set up the monopoly game. It was great family time. Luckily our power was restored by the morning.

Friday the girls and I carved pumpkins for the very first time. They were really excited until I cut the top off their pumpkin and the got a big whiff of it and saw what was actually inside. Talk about girl-ly girls. They wouldn't put their hands in it to scoop out the insides until they saw me do it. Ashley was scraping out with one hand while holding her nose with the other. Sam had to help Ashley finish up her pumpkin. Ashley was gagging to much to do it. They really did enjoy the carving part. I'm sure that if i asked them now if they want to carve another pumpkin they would say no but I'm sure that will change next year for they won't remember how bad it smelled.

I am happy to report that i now have a piano in my house. i got it for free from a lady in my ward. the only catch was i had to go get it. i brought it home and Alex was waiting for a friend to come over to help him bring it in the house. well it started to rain so he and i had to get it out of the truck. we got it out and pushed it up our drive way into the garage. when our friends came he and Alex lugged it up about 12 stairs. they were hurting afterwards. i felt bad for them but i was really happy to have in my house. now all i need to do is learn how to play it.

well that's all that has been going on here. we hope that you all are doing well and we will talk to you all later.

Strike a pose

I know that it has been a couple of weeks since I last wrote but that's because our live are boring. There really hasn't been much going on here in Harmon land. Ashley is still loving volleyball. She had a game yesterday. Even though her team lost they still had a great time. Alex finally got to see a game. It seems that he always has something going on, on a Saturday morning. I didn't get to go. We had super Saturday at my ward. It was really nice being able to craft with other women.

The girls had Friday off from school. I took them to go bike riding and then we had our bi-yearly photo shoot. It was a lot of fun. The girls really loved getting dressed up and doing their hair. Sam got her hair curled and both of them were able to wear lipstick. I had hung up a dark sheet in my family room and did black and white pictures. After that we went to the park to do outside pictures. Sam kept asking me if she could pose. You think she was auditioning for Tyra Banks. All in all we had a great time with each other and I got to see a new side of my kids.

I did get a new job. I am going to be working for the school district as a cafeteria worker at Graham High School. It will be perfect for me since I will be able to work while the kids are in school and I will also have the same days off the the kids do. I don't know when I start I still have some paperwork to fill out and need to have a physical done. Hopefully I will be starting sometime next week.

Well that seems to be all that is going on here. I will write again soon. Take care and we love you all.

BUMP, SET, SPIKE

Hey y'all. Well we had a good week. Ashley had her first volleyball game yesterday. Her team played a double header. She had so much fun even though her team and the other teams had a hard time serving the ball over the net. It was funny because once a team did get it over the net the other team just watched it go over. They did sometimes return the serve and have a good game going. Ashley's team is the Roy Mustangs and they won their first game but lost their second. All in all they were great games.

As most of you know yesterday was my birthday. Believe it or not I am 31 yrs old. It hit me that I am officially in my thirties. I feel really old. We didn't do much for the occasion. Went to a volleyball game, took a nap and went out to dinner. The girls each got me a movie and Alex got me a gym weights set. Oh and I am supposed to let everyone know that it is what I wanted and not that he thinks that I am out of shape. LOL

Some of the ladies in my ward and I started a walking group. It has been really nice walking with others and I have made a couple of new friends. Alex is still working really hard. He has been acting 1st sgt this last week. Well we hope that all is well with you. Take care and we will talk to you all later.

Greetings

hey there y'all. Not much here has been going on in the last couple of weeks. The girls are really enjoying school. Sam seems to be getting the challenging work that she needs to keep her busy. Ashley has started on geometry in the fourth grade. She seems to be handling it better than I did at that age. Ashely also started volleyball this year. She is really loving it even though she can get upset sometimes if she can't hit the ball over the net when she serves. We keep trying to tell her that she isn't going to be perfect the first time she plays. All that matters is that she is having fun. Her first game is going to be on Saturday. She is so excited. I'll let you know how she does.

Sam found out that she can do basketball this year. Practice doesn't start until late next month but she wants to start practicing now. I guess now is the beginning of our Saturdays being filled up with going to games.

Yesterday we got to meet up with Nana Barb, Aunt Ashley and Britten. We all had lunch and got to enjoy each others company. The girls had a great time playing with their cousin. Alex and I had a great chat with Barb and Ashley. It was really great seeing them again.

Alex and I are doing good. Alex is still working hard. I think that if he was asked to volunteer to go to Iraq or something I believe that he would go. He needs a vacation away from work. :P I on the other hand am going to be looking for a job here soon. I decided that I want to go back to school and don't want to acquire the loans to do it. So I plan on working and saving it for classes. My goal is to start when the kids go back to school next year. Well there isn't much else going on. We will talk to you all later. Take care and we love you all.

Hello everyone. This has been a really crazy week. To begin we ended our Labor Day weekend like every red blooded American family with a trip to the emergency room. Samantha had hurt her hand when a shelf holding my canned dry good and all of the tomatoes that i had canned fell. She doesn't know how she hurt it though. I took her to the ER just to make sure that nothing was broken. Her finger was pretty bruised and swollen for a couple of days.

The girls finally started school on Thursday. YEAH!!!! I took them to school since it was their first day and was going to walk them to their classrooms like I do every year. Well this year was different. They told me that I couldn't walk them to class because I would embarrass them. I was shocked and hurt that my kids would think that ;). I admit that it made me laugh. You know that you have finally arrived as a parent when your kids tell you that you embarrass them.

Ashley had a doctors appointment and was told that she is now not allergic to peanuts. She was so excited. She has not eaten peanut butter in over four years. She is now making up for it. I am surprised that she hasn't OD on peanut butter.

We did end up going to the Puyollup fair yesterday since Alex is off this week. The girls got to skip school to go. We did see someone there that we haven't seen in years. Aunt Ashley and Britten. I got a picture of the three girls and sent it to grandma lane on her cell phone. It was really great to see Ashely and Britten. We got to chat with them for a while.

Well nothing else is going on so we will chat with you all later.

STRIKE! STRIKE!

Hey everyone. Well not much has happened this week. The girls were supposed to start school on Thursday but their teachers went on strike that day. I will have to admit that this is my first teachers strike to deal with. The girls and I are hoping that it will be over by Tuesday. We did got to the open house at the school on Tuesday and were able to meet their teachers. Ashely has her first male teacher this year. Sam's teacher seems to be a challenging teacher which is what she will need. Now all we need is for the school year to start.

I had a good week. I canned my first batch of tomatoes. It was really interesting because it was the first time I had ever canned tomatoes. I have another box to do but I think that I am going to make salsa with that. Well I will try to keep you up to date with the whole school thing. Talk to you all later