First weird craving this pregnancy

It seems like I have at least one strange craving with each pregnancy. With Adam it was green olives-- I loved them. Yesterday I was in Costco and they were doing samples, and one was sushi-- the fully cooked kind. It tasted so good, but I knew I would be the only one eating them, and at Costco, everything is extra large anyway-- did I really want 40 pieces of sushi. I told myself I would find something else that looked good that the rest of the family would share, but Ryan and I went through the entire store and nothing else looked good-- not even the candy bars and M&M's I was buying with my coupons. So I went back and got my sushi. Stephen gave me a really funny look when I walked into the house carrying it. And again when I was eating it while we watched a movie and he was digging into his bag of M&M's and the kids were eating popcorn.

And then tonight on our way home from the temple, I told him I was going to go home and eat some more of my sushi and a bowl of ice cream. I didn't mean together!!!!!! The sushi was for dinner and the ice cream was for dessert!!!! Oh well, I think it sounds better than pickles and ice cream any day.

Ryan's Baptism

I had wanted Ryan's baptism to be a memorable experience for him, and I can honestly say that I don't think he will ever forget it! I don't think most of our extended family will forget that weekend either. He was baptized on Sat. Oct 11th in Rupert. We drove down Friday evening and had nice dry roads the entire way. Not too long after we left, it started snowing in Boise. Enough to stick on the grass, but not on the road. We were a little worried the weather would follow us and make driving a little challenging for people coming to the baptism, but we had NO idea. We woke up Saturday morning to 3 inches of snow on the ground in Rupert. Talk about fun and exciting for the kids. We had packed a good amount of snow clothes for the boys for hunting, so they were right out there shoveling and having a blast. Stephen checked the weather and called his family to tell them it was supposed to be letting up. But it didn't. It snowed and snowed and snowed. By the time we were leaving for the baptism at 5:00, there was about 8 inches on the ground, and it snowed another 3 inches during the baptism.

To make it even more memorable, there were problems with the pump to bring water into the baptismal font, so they had to run a hose in from outside, across the snow into the church to fill the font. so the water was COLD! The baptism itself was really nice, with great talks by grandmas, music by Ryan's aunts, and a very excited boy. Afterwards we had root beer floats for refreshments-- a little ironic considering the weather-- but it had been 92 degrees a week and a half earlier.

Stephen's family was debating which way to go to get back to Utah, but the main freeway was closed, so their only option was to go through Pocatello. It took them 2 hours to get to American Falls, normally a 45 minute drive, but once they made it past Pocatello, the roads were fine.

The storm just hung out over Rupert and kept piling up. By Sunday, we ended up with 15 inches-- all of church was canceled except Sacrament meeting. In the middle of October! It was crazy!!!! And memorable!!!

Here are some pictures of the snow.

More than one way to get your oil changed

I'm a little behind posting. Two weeks ago we went to Rupert to my parents house for the weekend. Ryan was getting baptized and we decided to do it there because all of my family was getting together for the guys to go hunting and it is 3 hours closer to all of Stephen's family. The night before we left, I sent Stephen out to check the oil on the van as I was packing. He came back in and said it looked good. The next day, I drove the kids to co-op (30 minutes from home) and then went to my sister Karmas house afterwards. Stephen met me there and we left for Rupert (30 hours away).

We stopped in Twin for a bathroom break and to buy some snacks and Karma called and said we had left a bunch of oil on her driveway and might want to check. Now Karma tends to exaggerate, so when I told Stephen, he figured I meant a little tiny bit and didn't really take it seriously figuring he would check it again at my parents. He had been parked at the grocery store for about 20 minutes and when we backed out there, there were several wet spots under the car, but he didn't look too closely.

Another 20 minutes down the road and we get a call from Karma telling us her husbands plane has just been rerouted to Twin, so we pull of the interstate to see if we are going to need to pick him up. All of the sudden I notice smoke coming out from under the hood of the van!!! We jump out to look and the entire engine and bottom of the hood are COVERED in oil! It turned out that when Stephen checked the oil the night before, he had forgotten to put the lid back on. Amazingly enough, the lid was still sitting under the hood right where he had left it. We called my dad and he brought us more oil-- it took 4 quarts-- almost a full oil change worth. (Turns out there were about 6 spots at Karma's, ranging in size from a baseball to a dinner plate-- for once she wasn't exaggerating!).

It turned out that that was just the start of our interesting adventures on that trip. I'll try to post more--- along with pictures of the baptism--

A Chance to Try New Stuff

I found out a couple weeks ago that I get to be a part of the focus group for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine testing and reviewing new products. (This is the same company that let me give away a free subscription if I wrote a review back in August). And since I love their magazine and love free stuff-- even if I'm giving it away-- I was happy to review it. I posted the review on some of my homeschool email lists, but just put the contest part here--so if you wanted to win, you had to visit my blog. :)

So as part of the focus group, they will be sending me new products from a bunch of different vendors to review-- up to 50 over the next year-- and giving me the chance to do some giveaways. But I don't want that to get lost on this blog with all our family stuff for homeschool friends who are interested in it, and I don't want to bore my non-homeschooling friends and family, so I have set up a second blog where I will post the reviews: http://simplyschoolingreviews.blogspot.com/

I will post a link here when I add reviews, but anyone not interested won't have to read them, and I'll put that link in for my email groups, so people interested in the homeschooling aspect of my life-- not if my kids are sick or saying funny things, can just go there.

Anyway, I am really excited to get to try a bunch of products, several are things I've considered but not wanted to buy without seeing. In the long run, it will probably just end up introducing me to more companies and costing me money, but it will be fun. :)

Neighbor kids and bread

We have some neighbor kids who have started to come over and ask to play. They live a couple blocks away, and while I know where they live, I have never met their parents. So I told them they can play, but they have to stay outside until their mom comes with them sometime to talk to me and tell me it's okay for them to play inside. They can only come in to use the bathroom or get a drink. Am I mean? I would NEVER let my kids go play at someone's house that I didn't know!!! And to play without me there, I would have to know the family quite well. The kids are about 9, 7, and 5 years old. Any thoughts? I don't want to be mean, but I'm not comfortable having them inside without knowing their family at least a little bit. They seem like really nice kids and do a good job including everyone and I keep all the windows open so I can monitor them all really closely.

Anyway, they were here today and I was baking. I made bread, pizza, and was working on cookies when they all came in for drinks. They asked if they could have cookies and I said probably not because I wasn't going to cook them until after I cooked dinner and they had to go home at dinner time. But I told them they could have a slice of bread if they wanted. The oldest boy looked at me funny and said, "We just buy our bread, but we do make sandwiches out of it." I explained this is homemade bread and it was cooking in the oven. The expression got even more confused and he asked, "So is it just bread or is it from ingredients?" I just had to laugh.

(I ended up sticking in one pan of cookies before the pizza, so they got those instead of bread, then I sent them home so my kids could do their jobs while the pizza cooked).

What flavor?

I made potato wedges for dinner tonight instead of regular french fries. The boys then stated they don't like potato flavored french fries, they want chicken flavored ones. I just can't win. :)

What would Jesus do?

Today the boys had a bowl of Fruit Loops to share for a snack outside. Jeanisha came inside complaining that they wouldn't share with her and Adam. I told her she could get her own bowl, then she could share with whoever she wanted.
Jeanisha: "I'll just share with Adam, cuz the boys are not sharing with me."
Me: "Is that what Jesus would do?"
Jeanisha: "No." Sigh
Me: "What would Jesus do?"
Jeanisha: (thinks for a minute first) "Put them in jail, I think."