Translation of James' Post

Upon arriving home from Grandma's with the biggest pumpkin from her garden James stated "Mom, we should grow a dinosaur in our garden next time....it would be little....and it wouldn't growl ..........um, no we should not grow a dinosaur, I was just kidding" It made me laugh. Today we played Doctor for quite some time. We turned the coffee table into the operating table, and then put teddy bears on there where James did surgery. He gave them shots, listened to their hearts and even gave them breathing machines (a plastic bowl over their mouth) Then he took them into the harry potter closet shut the door and used the remote to take x-rays. Then we played around on the computer and took about 100 pictures. Harrison loved seeing himself on the computer. James loved to make funny faces and take pictures. Yep it was a fun day.

James' Post

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Use it up, wear it out, make do or do without.

The past few months have taken a toll on our finances lately. We put another $1000 worth of repairs in our car last month, school started for Ben which meant tuition and books. Tuition was quite a bit more than I was expecting and last month we went on a camping trip. I realize the trip was not a necessity, but for my sanity it was. Anyways, so we have been pinching pennies lately trying to get our savings back up and since we found out yesterday that James needs hand surgery on both hands, we will probably need those extra pennies. So, I have once again adopted the motto "Use it up, Wear it out, Make do, Or do without." I love that phrase. I always think of it when I am shopping or dreaming about beautiful furniture for our home. It makes me realize how much of that stuff is simply not needed. I have spent quite a bit less on our grocery bill lately, but I have to say that we have still been having quite good meals. Our garden put forth way more food than we thought it would. It was great for many a salad or sandwiches or other yummy meals. It was crazy to see how much just a few vegetables could add to our meals. Also I have begun making bread again. I forgot how much I love to make bread. I know this sounds weird but I love the feel of the bread dough after kneading it for a while and it is just that perfect smooth soft feel I am looking for. I also discovered a use for all of Ben's worn out old jeans. Make little jeans out of the big jeans for my little boys. It is really quite simple. You use the same side jeans and hem so it keeps that "jean" look and then just sew the inside seams and waist and badda bing, a pair of jeans for James. They aren't the best looking but they will do for playing around the house. I remember when we were saving for the down payment on our house. We were living pretty similar to how we are now and I made James' entire summer wardrobe. I really enjoyed making those shorts. Plaid shorts were just coming back in style so he actually looked pretty darn cute. He still wears them and even after 2 summers they look okay. It is amazing how much you can save and use when you really try. It is actually kind of fun to get creative and seen what different things you can do to save money. I will say this though. We most definitely cannot take all the credit for any money we have been able to save up over the years. We have always found that when we are trying our hardest to save and paying our tithing and a generous fast offering, money just seems to come our way some how. When we had Harrison we were saving for a house and knowing that a baby was on the way we didn't know how much we would be able to save. Well we decided to double our fast offering. Our bishop had told us that when you pay fast offerings you would definitely see financial blessings. So we gave it a try. I seriously cannot count the blessings that came our way that year. Here are a few of them, My student loan for 10K was forgiven (long story there), Ben got several contracting jobs, and was able to earn extra $$. After we turned in our taxes we got a note from the IRS saying they owed us more money (no complaints there), Harrison was premature and had to be in the NICU for a while, & somehow we were able to pay all those bills and still have the down payment we needed. And during all this time we were plenty comfortable with food, clothes and whatever else we needed. So this is what I am saying, when you need an extra buck, pay more fast offerings and never skip your tithing no matter what. We have seen that money a thousand times over, you can't count the blessings you get in return. What a great blessing tithes and offerings really are.

Gone Fishin'

This last Saturday Grandpa Morrise (Marshall) took James fishing. At the start of the summer he told James that he wanted to take him fishing. He has mentioned a couple times since then, but no plans were ever really set in place. A couple weeks ago in Nursery James was sitting at the table telling the rest of the class that his Grandpa Morrise was going to take him fishing and he was going to catch one. I thought to myself "oh man, I had better remind Marshall or else James is going to be one sad boy" Fortunately though, He kept his word and they went. THey went to Salem pond. They were there for several hours, but finally, James caught a fish. He brought it home, cooked it up and ate it for dinner. I thought it was great. I guess after they had been fishing for a while James started to get bored with it and wanted to go play at the playground, but then when he caught the fish he said " I want to keep fishing", and did not want to play at the playground or go home anything else. I think they had a good time. Susan told me that whilke they were there anytime he ate a cheeto or a snack of any kind he would ask each of them if they wanted some too. yep, there is that heart of gold I was telling you about. Sweet little Boy. He and I have been going for bike rides lately while Ben is at school. I have Harrison on my bike and then James pedals along behind me on his trike. He actually keeps a pretty good speed, I can't imagine he can go any faster on that thing. But we go around the entire neighborhood (which is a mile and a half) and he always wants to go around another time. I have found that it has given me good opportunities to teach him about crossing the road safely and watching where he is going and all that. Plus it is nice just to spend time with the boys. It has been great fun and a good way o get the boys ready for their afternoon naps. :)

Goodbye Summer.

As I watch the sun set sooner each evening, and feel the first hint of a chill in the air, I am sad to see the summer come to a close. I have always loved the summer, I love going for hikes and camping. I love being able to take the kids walking with me each morning and not have to worry about them being too cold. I love the many bike rides and summer strolls. I love the kids playing outside in the sprinkler and spraying the water at the sliding glass door and laughing at me from the other side. I love sitting in the warm sun. I love running and the feel of sweat running down my face. It always makes me feel like I am running even harder. I love the summer races and parades. I love the look of a freshly cut lawn. I have loved my flower garden this summer. At the start of spring I went out and bought beautiful tall bright pink flowers, and had pansies and alysum surrounding it. I think I got to know more people in my neighborhood because of that garden more than anything else. I enjoyed watering each evening and visiting with neighbors as they passed by. I always kept my front window open so I could see the flower garden each time I passed. I grew a vegetable garden in our backyard as well. I was pretty sure nothing would grow back there. It was mostly gravel and leftover construction supplies from the builders. But I spent a good afternoon raking and cleaning it out and bought some decent dirt and put it in. Then I put in several tomato plants, cucumbers, bell peppers, jalepeno's, and chili peppers. (Ben likes the spicy ones). My garden grew more than I could even handle, my tomatoes are out of control, the cucumbers started to grow over the air conditioning unit. Needless to say, we have enjoyed many tomato and cheese sandwiches and many salads. The best part about our gardens was James' enthusiasm for them. He helped me doing everything for them. Each day he went out looking for weeds and pulled any that had started to come up. Now that the tomatoes have ripened he goes out there on a daily basis and picks all the red ones he can find. He comes inside with a handful of cherry tomatoes and excitedly tells me he found even more red ones. Then he washes them up and eats them in a flash. I think he has eaten more tomatoes than the rest of us put together. I also have enjoyed making jam this last month. I picked tons of Raspberries from my parents garden and made it all into the yummiest jam ever. So while I am sad to see summer go, I am certainly enjoying the harvest.

My little boys.

I haven't written a blog in a little while, probably becase not much has ben going on. Just the usual life of cleaning, shopping, cooking, cleaning, sleeping, watching an episode of Heroes, etc. I guess it was Ben's birthday last week. James was so excited for it. He went B-day shopping with me and consequently told Ben everything we got him as soon as Ben came home from work. I let James decorate the cake entirely by himself. I was quite surprised at what a good job he did. He was so proud of himself, and was so excited for Ben to blow out the candles and finally eat a piece of it. I bought James a suit coat this week. It was on super clearance so I went ahead and bought it and some khaki pants to go with it. He looked so grown up today wearing that little suit. Ben was helping him with the tie and it made me cry just to see the two putting their ties on. He really liked being all dressed up today and looking so grown up. Sheesh. I remember the first time we ever took him to church. He was 2 weeks old and wore a little polo shirt/onesie. It was striped, dark blue, white and gray. I remember thinking he looked like a little man in that outfit. I can't believe that he is 3 1/2 now, before I know it he will be 6 ft tall, trying to get some girl to notice him, and be 100% nerd. He can't help that, look at his parents. It is so funny to me to watch James and Harrison. James always tries so hard to be funny and even once said " I don't want to be good, I want to be funny" And it is true, he always wants to make people laugh, and tries a little too hard doing so. Harrison is funny by nature. You just look at the kid and his smile or whatever look he has on his face will make you laugh your head off. He is 100% tease. But he is a wimp, whereas James, he is a lion. I always said he was a lion. He is a lion with a heart of gold. And Harrison is the court jester. Ha. My two boys.

Family Camp Out

Okay so we went on our usual family camp out this summer, and I am so happy to say that we had the greatest camp out ever!! I was really worried that it might turn out to be a huge disaster and that the kids would be miserable, but they weren't and it was great. James absolutely loved it. He was so excited to go that starting the week before we went he would ask me every day, "Are we going camping now?" He asked me this at least 100 times a day. And 2 days before we left he woke me up at 6 am completely dressed, with his bug catching kit in one hand and his camping chair in the other and said " I ready to go camping, are we leaving now?" It was so cute I was so sorry to tell him that he would have to wait a couple more days. However, the day eventually came and we had the best week ever.

We got the biggest camping site ever, seriously it was huge. That was perfect for us because the kids could just run around and do whatever and I could still see them and not worry. Harrison probably ate at least 20 rocks and a several handfuls of dirt, but I guess that's all part of being up in the mountains. He loved sitting in James' little camping chair. HE would scoot his little bum right into it and plop down and just chill for a while. It was super cute. James loved hlping ben get firewood, as you can tell from the picture. He was really proud of himself for bringing in that big piece of wood himself. He loved helping ben get the fire ready and then roasting marshmallows, but who doesn't love that? There were several squirrels that came to our campsite throughout the day and james gave them the name of jumpy squirrel. Whenever one would come over to the table James would shout "jumpy squirrel, jumpy squirrel!" It was fun.
We had planned to go on several hikes, but we enjoyed sitting around and going on "adventures" with James so much that we only went on one hike. The "adventures" we went on were, going up the dry river bed, go to the "castle" it was really just stage made out of rock, and looking for bugs. We caught a few ants, but that was all. I was a little worried about seeing bears because I guess they have had a few down there this year. One night I woke up and had to pee, but I surely did not want to take the long walk to the bathroom to do so. So I just hopped out of the tent and went in the nearby bushes. Suddenly, I heard a lot of crumpling bushes nearby and a very gruff growl/bark sound. Yeah, you can bet that I seriously just dove right back into the tent, zipped it shut, woke Ben up and told him there was something out there. Yeah I was 100% terrified. At that point James woke up and wanted me to go get him a snack. I told him to go back to sleep, nothing was going to make me go back out of that tent. Anyways, I can't think of much more to say about our trip except that it was exactly what we needed and that we just had a super great time.