5th Ward Reunion

We went to a reunion that was held last night for the Val Verda 5th Ward (single's ward that no longer exists). The kids weren't so sure they were thrilled to be going, but when they saw there was a playground by the church bowery, they were happy. And when they saw Russ and me with name tags on, they each wanted their own. When it got to the point that we thought we should get going, Jimmy didn't want to leave. He was having fun.

Since it was "finger potluck", I took some meatballs in the Yoshido's sauce that you can get from Costco. Apparently everyone liked them because I didn't have any leftover to take home. I had filled up the crock pot with the meatballs and wasn't sad when I didn't use up the whole package of meatballs since that meant I could make myself more later.

It was fun seeing people from that ward. There seemed to be a pretty good turnout for it. I was glad for the name tags though. I am horrible at remembering names of people I haven't seen for a while.

Driving home, I pointed out the Bountiful Temple for Emma. She asked me a few days ago which temple Russ and I got married in. Molly and Jimmy seemed just as excited to see it and all three would call out, "Saw it again!" as we drove and the buildings and things hid it from their view for a moment.

Should we talk about the weather?

Can I just say that I love the weather lately? I am so glad it's not really hot anymore. Even though one day it's warm and the next on the chilly side, I love it! Kind of nice being a little cold on the chilly days, too. Jimmy and Emma have spent a lot of time lately out on the trampolene. During the summer they would wait until later in the day when the trampolene was finally covered by the shade of the trees. It's been nice enough lately that they don't have to wait for the shade. They often try to get Russ to go out with them after he gets home from work and even though he's tired and would rather not, he goes out with them. Kind of fun watching the 4 kids on the tramp with him.

I also find it funny how the weather forecast changes so much. I looked at the forecast online this morning and again a few minutes ago. It had changed. (Still forecasts a high of around 80 for today. I'm not sure we will make it that high. My house has stayed cooler today than it has for the past couple of days. Last I checked, it registered at 69.) Of course, tomorrow is supposed to be cold enough and stormy enough that there is a chance of some snow flurries mixed in with the rain. Even that sounds nice to me. I got very tired of the heat. Might have to let Russ make his chili tomorrow, like he's been wanting though. Maybe I'll pick up some hot dogs, too.

Some people make me shake my head...

I have to chuckle. Russ told me that Mossy went up to him today and said, "I guess we aren't welcome at Contempo anymore." Russ asked him what happened. Apparently Rich heard how they were going out to lunch with friends from Contempo and so he told Mossy that they aren't welcome there anymore. Guess he's afraid they're trying to get everyone to go over to Dal with them. Especially since the sales at AO have been down a little bit since they've left. Ah, well. Just hope that Chris at AO doesn't get in trouble when they find out that Russ went in there on Saturday and bought some mapalath from him. Chris gave him a really good price on it. Russ thinks it was pretty close to cost. One of the other guys at AO even asked Chris if he was going to put in a fake name for Russ. I laughed. Thought it was funny. Maybe he should have.

Cool Cones...

Today is Kaysville's annual Cool Cones & Cool Cars celebration. Which basically means a car show with entertainment and free ice cream cones by the clock tower. This is the 4th time they've had it since we've lived here and the first time we've made it over there for it. It was close enough that I decided we should just walk (see the post about being out of shape...).

After getting the ice cream cones, the kids stopped and listened to a story read by the man who started the ice cream cone tradition. He started it more as a family thing 20 years ago to celebrate the birthday of the ice cream cone. In 2004 the city took over when it was the 100th birthday of the ice cream cone. I let them stop and play a little by a fountain on the way home. They actually wanted to stop at the park, but I really didn't feel like staying a long time.

Anyway, here are a few more pictures for you to enjoy.

Feed the ducks

We had most of a loaf of bread that was getting stale so we decided to go feed the ducks at the ponds last night. Kids were all very excited to go. Need to remember to bring extra bread. Never seem to bring enough.

I laughed when we were walking down the hill from the road toward the ponds. Across the way we could see some ducks and geese. About the same time they saw us, actually. The geese perked right up, started honking and made a run for the water. We walked along the path they have there until we got to the bridge area. That seems to be the best place to feed them. We didn't have to wait long until the geese came waddling over to us. Or rather, right up to us with a look like, "Where's the food?!"

Lyssa went running up to one and looked like she was going to try to grab it. Fearing that the goose really wouldn't like that and would let her know, I stopped her before she reached it. She grinned at first as one came right up to her and put its face in hers. Until that started scaring her. It was as big as she is. After that she was a little nervous around the geese and would often grab my leg to hide from them. The others were just as nervous when they saw the size of the geese. Despite that, they all had fun and were sad when we ran out of bread to feed them.

Here are a few pictures. A couple would have been really cute had they not been blurry.

Standing at the bridge during the short wait for the ducks and geese.
You can almost tell that Lyssa was trying to get away in this picture.




This was one of the blurry ones. Really don't know why it was blurry.
Molly was actually running away from the geese here.
We were about to leave and the geese started to follow us again. I thought it was funny.

How out of shape ARE you?

Man, I am so out of shape. Enough so that I almost consider exercising. Probably won't actually happen until being out of shape stops being funny to me.

Take, for example, the fact that last week I was playing games with Jo, Kathryn and Lisa. I managed to pull a muscle in my thumb by shuffling the cards. Now who pulls a muscle shuffling cards?! Seems rather silly, myself.

I push my double stroller with Molly and Lyssa in it to walk over to the school to pick up Emma from her kindergarten class. They sometimes ask me to run. That, in itself, is laughable. I would call it more of a trot than a run, really. By the time I get to the school (granted, I don't "run" much along the way), I am usually a bit out of breath. And my knee has been hurting me for the last few days. Only thing I can come up with that would have caused it (besides a possible barometric change) is the short walk.

Then came today. Russ and I went to help out Dave and Michelle by setting some tile in their bathroom for them. I didn't do much, really. Mostly watched Russ work. I did make the tile cuts and stapled in a little bit of the mapalath. I got very tired just watching him. My wrist started hurting me there, and now is tight enough that it hurts to move it at all. Took me a while to figure out why. Next time I help Russ set tile, I'm not going to volunteer to mix up any of the thin set. I mixed up one batch. Hey, it was hard. For me, anyway.

I really should try to get into better shape. I'll consider it. After I finish off the rest of my caramel layer brownies.

Always seems to happen...

I really should learn to wait to post things about Russ' work until after he gets home. Always seems to be that when I post things about his work, he will come home and tell me things that I think would be good to add with it. Guess it gives me something else to post about.

Anyway, I was talking to Russ yesterday about work and he told me that the guys at Dal call him, E, and Mossy (still don't know if I'm spelling that right) the "A-Team." Larry, the main manager there, came out and heard them saying that and said, "No, they're not the A-Team. They're the A+ Team."

He also told me that E told him that he looks happy again. He hasn't looked happy for a long time with Contempo.

After he told me this, I asked him if work is getting better. Kind of a duh question, I know. He said it is. Feeling appreciated goes a long way toward making work easier.

The continuing saga of the old job...

Okay, so I couldn't come up with a better ending for what the saga was. Didn't think "Russ and the job" worked any better.

Anyway, Russ told me that E starts working at Dal on Monday. And from the things he's told me, I have come to the conclusion that it wasn't really Russ they wanted to get to quit. It was E. Russ was just fallout. Not very long ago, E went from working at the AO branch to working at the main Contempo branch. Was no longer a manager. They went up to him and told him they'd be cutting his pay because "only managers" should make what he was making. I guess he took a week off and gave them a week's notice on Friday. Yesterday they went up to him and said not to bother with giving any notice. He won't be starting any sooner at Dal, so will have a few days off.

I honestly do not understand why Contempo would do any of this. E has been a good employee for them, and has worked for them almost as long as Russ had. I can't help but hope that they find out what they lost in all of this. Ah, well. May never understand it. Just like I will never understand why Molly thinks it's a good idea to take an unopened thing of salt, open it, and dump it all over the changing table (after throwing everything off the changing table). But that's a different story...

Anyway, for those who are wondering, the only things Russ has really said about how he likes his job so far is that it seems like it's getting harder instead of easier. Said there's a lot to learn. I'm sure he'll like it better once E is there, too.

State Fair

Thursday we went to the opening day for the State Fair. Went for a couple of reasons. One was that it only cost $2 to get in, rather than the usual cost of $8. The other was because Jimmy's den leader suggested going since they have a little fishing pond there and will teach you how to fish. Since we haven't ever taken Jimmy fishing, we thought that would be a good thing to do. Unfortunately, we didn't find where to go for that until it was closed. I think the next time we go (which probably won't be until next year), we will need to plan to go earlier in the day.

Jimmy, Emma and Molly are still telling me how they had fun going there. Molly was asking me today if she can ride the "horsey ride" again. Anyway, here are a few pictures from the fair.


These pictures were all taken at a "little hands farm" or something like that. It was probably their favorite part of the fair. They went through various parts of farming and at the end were able to "buy" a treat.




The reason we don't have a picture of Jimmy on the merry-go-round is because he didn't want to ride it. He went on a different ride. Wanted to get a picture of him on the other ride, but he was too fast going on it.

Emma and Russ

Emma's first real day of Kindergarten was today. She seems to have really enjoyed her first day. Practically skipped the whole way home. She was excited as she told me she had music today and had recess. There are four boys from our ward in her class. Two yelled bye to her as we went down different streets in our neighborhood. She is excited about her little homework book she has. I really like the homework book. I thought it really helped Jimmy learn to read. Although Jimmy was a lot harder to get to do anything in his homework book. He would get frustrated and say he couldn't do it. Emma keeps asking when she gets to work some more in hers. She tells me that she's going to like it tomorrow, too. I decided to post a picture she colored today in class. She has gotten a lot better at coloring in just a few short months. (She told Molly that she didn't have any help at all with her picture.)
Today is Russ' third day at his new job. He says that he'll like it better once he learns everything and gets the new system down. The company is usually very busy (for example, today he was supposed to go to lunch at 11 but had a customer that needed help and wasn't able to get to lunch until after 12), more so than he is used to, which makes him wonder why he turned down an extra dollar an hour. Hopefully things will get easier as time goes on. He does find it funny that he throws off a lot of the contractors. They will come in and see him and wonder briefly if they are in the right place. They are used to him being at A.O.

Just a new thought

I just wanted to say that I think that my twin sister Stacey is one of the most beautiful people I know, inside and out. And I'm not just saying that because we look alike. I've always admired her and have wanted to be just like her. And I miss having her around since she lives in a different state from me.

Molly's birthday

Today Molly turned 4 years old. We had a bbq at our house yesterday since today is her birthday and yesterday was Labor Day. Of course, I made a cake for her and some cupcakes. She was very excited about them. She loves the gifts she received. Thanks to everyone who came. I hope everyone had a good time.

Also should wish a happy birthday to everyone who will be having birthdays this month besides Molly. So happy birthday to Brianna, Russ, Joshua (his 1st!), and Autumn!

Here are a few pictures from the bbq (and of the cake).

Molly's cake and the cupcakes. Probably should have taken a picture of just the cupcakes.
Molly waiting for everyone to finish singing so she can blow out her candles.
Emma was happy to get a cupcake.
Some just hanging out and chatting after eating. Below: Dave on the tramp with some of the kids, and video of Molly singing as she plays with one of her gifts.

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A couple of happenings

Congrats to my nephew JD, who was baptized today! I thought I wasn't going to be able to make it to the baptism today because I was a little sick yesterday and kind of expected to feel worse today. Luckily, I felt better. Good thing, too. I really didn't want to eat the whole thing of the marshmallow brownies I made for the food after (don't worry...I used lots of hand sanitizer before making it). Also thought we were going to be late because we didn't leave when I thought we should. We still made it in time, and I didn't even speed. Well, more than what I usually do, anyway.

I thought the service was very nice. JD looked excited for his baptism. Chuckled to myself that the closing song was "I Am a Child of God" because Molly wanted us to sing that song as we drove to the church. Actually wanted us to sing it several times.

Yesterday was Russ' last day of working for Contempo. When he told Aaron that he decided for sure that he was going to quit, Aaron changed his last day to Friday since it was the last day of the month. So Russ will start working for Dal on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. Russ said it was kind of sad saying good-bye to everyone. They did have a Mexican food lunch for him on Thursday. He cleaned out his desk that day, too. He did tell them when he left that he was sure he was forgetting something so would be back in sometime. Today he remembered what that was. He left a couple of hoodies and coats hanging up by his desk. Russ also said it was kind of too bad he didn't start working for Dal earlier. They have today and Monday off as paid holiday. Ah, well. Really hope Russ enjoys his new job and that things will work out better for him there.