Witches Night Out

Gardner Village in SLC has a fun event called "Witches Night Out" that I went to Friday night with Kylee, Freda, Teresa and Stacie. It was so much fun to dress up and be there with thousands of other witches. It was insane the amount of people there. It was such a fun, festive atmosphere. I could have spent the whole time just watching people. We had a lot of fun walking around and trying to move our way through the stores looking for fun stuff to buy. Since the wait for dinner in the restaurant "Archibalds" was THREE AND ONE HALF HOURS, we were happy to just get a bowl of soup at a food stand. It was a fun activity that we plan on doing next year. At Teresas house in Bountiful.

Pooped at the end of a fun-filled evening.

Great Weekend #4

This may be our last consecutive great weekend. I know, hard to imagine, but really, there are no fun family things planned for this weekend. Unless you count USU's homecoming football game. . . and I don't. Or the boys merit badge pow wow. . . which I won't. So I'd better make this last one sound really good. The fun started on Wednesday night with the LHS football game in Ogden for Mike and the boys. Jessica went to the Bundy's to hang out and tend Emma and sleep over, while Ann picked me up for a movie, then to spend the night in Liberty with her along with Mike and the boys after the game was over. The boys enjoyed soaking in the hot tub, and even lured me in for a bit. We watched in amazement the discovery health show of the "treeman" with arms and legs that look like tree limbs but are actually warts. Yes, it's real! Thursday we spent the beautiful fall day in SLC- first going to the Hogle Zoo- a place I've never wanted to go. I'm not a fan of zoo's- and therefore have NEVER taken my kids to one. I was accused this summer by someone who shall remain nameless that that is child abuse, so I decided not to abuse my three youngest children, so we went! We had to do something outside since it was so nice, and we did have a fun time. We made a quick stop at "This is the place" since it's right across the street, then we had lunch at Rumbi Grill. We next went to the Bodyworlds exhibit which was very interesting and informative. We stopped at the Gateway for a bit before heading to Ogden to enjoy a delicious meal with the Bundys. A tiring, but fun day.

Saturday we spent quite a bit of time doing yard and house work, then took the boys to see the awesome movie "The Express." We highly recommend. Kylee, Brody, Jessica and Cale came over after than for a cookout of fresh trout (from a neighbor) and hot dogs, and a rousing game of scum. The kids spent a lot of time with their recently purchased new toys. Jessica bought a laptop which she's loved, Cam just bought himself an IPOD touch, and Jake got a new Wii game. We love spending time together as a family.

Great Weekend #3

We had to travel out-of-town for great weekend #3. We left Logan for Provo/Orem Saturday morning soon after the boys got done with their paper routes. We spent several hours shopping, then had a delicious lunch at the Romneys before the boys and Mike headed to the BYU game with Rick. The weather turned out to be not as bad as they feared- cold- but with no snow or wind (like there was in Logan when we left.) They had a fun time being there and wearing their BYU apparel without being scorned- like they are EVERY time they wear it in Logan.

Von and I had a lot of fun shopping along the way to SLC where we attended the wedding reception of a mission friends son in the Joseph Smith building.
Cam and I were the only ones who stayed awake past 9:30 in our family to help Von make some yummy honey candy. We had a great time stretching it, then eating it.
Sunday we were up early to make it to the 8:00 sacrament meeting in the MTC where Rick is serving as one of 50 branch presidents. It was awesome to be in the MTC and see what it's like for the 2,200 missionaries living and learning there. It was such a great experience especially for Jake and Cam to have an idea of what it will be like for them in a few short years. We had some time between meetings and lunch, so we took a quick walk around the Provo temple grounds. It might have been longer had it not been FREEZING outside. We got to eat lunch in the huge cafeteria, and amazingly saw and talked to a missionary we know who is one of Jessica's good friends. Thanks Von and Rick for that wonderful opportunity. We had a great time. Part of our drive home was in snow and slick roads, in fact we were stopped for almost an hour outside of Ogden because of a terrible crash. We enjoyed a meal at Tom and Fredas along with Kylee and Brody and Jessica when we arrived home. Jessica had spent the weekend babysitting three kids of a family in our ward earning a cool $200. She earned it though as the one-year-old was sick and she held him 90% of the time, and had to clean up throw-up and change many dirty diapers. She wasn't complaining however, and said she would do it again. The kids didn't want her to leave when their grandma came to pick them up.

On Sunday it was 16 years ago that I had our stillborn baby Michael, so as per our tradition, we all wrote a message to him on a balloon and released them into the sky, then watched until we couldn't see them anymore. I loved how Brody, who has a brother who died at 8 years of age got into the spirit of the activity by writing on his and Ky's balloon: "by now you and Ben are probably BFF's- tell him I said what's up." We all love this tradition, and I cherish the fact that the kids love it so much too, and write such sweet things to their brother.

Our Jobs

I wanted to do a post about the different ways we all earn money each day. I'll start with the biggest money maker. Mike has been doing retirement plan administration for almost 21 years. In Mesa he worked for a company for over 8 years, then started his own company -called Jensen Consulting when we moved to Logan 12 years ago. He has an office right now with a CPA firm and just rents out his room. He has about 140 clients- mostly doctors and dentists. He has several killer deadlines throughout the year which cause him to have to work an insane amount of hours, but the past 2 years he's had Kylee working for him 6-10 hours a week, and that has helped a lot to relieve some stress and extra long hours. This year for the October 15 deadline, for the first time in 21 years, he hasn't worked one Saturday! That has been very nice.












This is the desk where Kylee works, so it's good that they like each other- otherwise it could be too close for comfort!














This is one of the shelves with files of his many clients. I'm proud
of Mike for how hard he works to support us at a sometimes not too fun job.
















This is my third year to work as an aide at Mount Logan Middle School with the ESL (english second language) kids. I go in every day from 12:30-3 and help with grading papers, helping the kids with assignments, making copies- running errands for the teacher. When she doesn't have anything for me to do, I just sit quietly at my desk and write in my journal or read! I enjoy being there with the boys (jake my first year, both boys my second year, and now just Cam this year). Cam and friends like getting a ride home with me at the end of the day. I love having some extra spending money each month for the many misc items that come up all the time in the family, and always save half of what I make in our vacations savings envelope.

























If you know Jessica very well, you'll know she has her dream job working at a preschool/daycare 24 hours a week. She's with the 2 year olds, and absolutely loves it. Even changing dirty diapers doesn't bother her. When she was interviewing for the job this summer, I asked her how much they paid. She said she didn't ask- didn't care really. I told her it might only be minimum wage, and she still didn't care. She truly loves kids and is also enjoying the classes she has for her major at USU- early childhood education. I'm glad that Jess is spending her time at a job that will benefit her in the future.



Cam started a paper-route in our neighborhood in July '07. He's done a great job of getting up every morning (unless he needs to call one of his trusty subs- me or Mike) without complaining. He throws to about 55 houses, and it takes him an hour from start to finish. He prefers walking to biking, but does bike to throw about 10 papers which are a little farther away. He earns between $160-200 a month depending on tips. He has some real faithful tippers, and some that do occasionally. It's a great job for boys busy with friends and sports after school, or who are too young to get any other type of job. Cam's a great saver of his money. He has probably 8 or 9 hundred saved right now.




Jake started helping Jessica with a route in our neighborhood three years ago after Kylee decided she didn't want to anymore. Then, the summer of '07 when Jess had had enough, he took it all on his own. He too does a great job of getting it done w/o complaining- as long as I'm willing to fill in for him occasionally and give him a sleep in morning. He prefers biking to walking- even on cold snowy mornings. Both boys have biffed it when it's been extra cold and icy. It always makes for a funny story later, and almost always there's no one around to have witnessed the fall. Getting tips is what helps a lot, and he has several regular tippers. One older couple on our street gives him $10 a month just for putting it in a box by their front door. If you are a newspaper subscriber, please tip your carriers! It makes a huge difference. Jake has about the same number of customers as Cam, and makes about the same per month. We make them save 20% each month for savings, and all their tip money goes in an envelope to pay for half of a cruise we're planning in the coming year (s). Between the two boys, every house in our ward except three is on one of their routes, plus about 17 on Jakes from another ward. I'm proud of both the boys for sticking with it- esp. during the cold, dark months of winter.

Great Weekend #2

Dang! I uploaded these picts in the wrong order so I'll have to start with the end and work to the beginning- cause I'm not starting over! We LOVE General Conference Sunday. It's so awesome to just hang out at home and listen to inspiring talks and just relax. Here are Mike and the boys taking a break between sessions. What would conference be without our traditional picnic during the afternoon session. A great day.

Cam's football team played in a tournament Saturday in Roy. They won all three of their games to win first place! It was great with the exception of the rain the entire time- including a downpour for 20 minutes. Cam didn't mind at all, infact after the game he said it was fun to play in the rain. Boys!

After a six year absense, the BYU football team paid a visit to Logan to take on the Aggies. As always, USU gave the cougs a game, but still BYU came away with a 34-14 victory. I would have liked to have seen a real thrashing because so many people in Logan HATE BYU and so I was wishing they wouldn't have had any ammunition with which to rail on my beloved school. Now I have to hear how the mighty UCLA bruins weren't able to score on BYU, but the lowly Aggies were. . . there's always something. We enjoyed the evening game with the Romneys and Trace.

I went on another beautiful fall hike Wednesday with my friends Nan and Janae and a girl named Kristin I didn't know but who is a friend of Nan's. Now I know her and like her! We hiked Crimson Trail in Logan Canyon and I enjoyed it very much. It was a harder hike than last week, so more invigorating, but very enjoyable.