I was upstairs cleaning up some of our family's miscellaneous clutter in Mom's attic yesterday. Leif hadn't had a nap yet but he was being good and entertaining himself downstairs. Next thing I knew, he'd found himself a healthy snack and a comfortable spot to rest on top of the table.

Notice his arm in the chip bag.

Pyramid Project

This past school year Jenny Hanson, Travis Hanson and I taught a science/math class for our Commonwealth school on Fridays. It was a great learning experience for me and I really enjoyed getting to know this wonderful group of kids! We had lots of great discussions, interesting field trips, and they worked hard on their presentations.

Randomness

I don't feel like making multiple posts, so this will be very random......just warning you.

Leif having a grand time at Hop 2 it. Isn't that such a look of joy?
Heidi and Hannah having a fun time together.
In our science class that we had this spring, we had a great friend-- Jim Cornell, come lead a rat dissection for us.

I loved having someone there who could explain what we were looking at. The smell brought back memories of all our dissection projects at Shoshone Falls and looking back at those photos I realize how fast everyone is growing. sigh.I thought this was a cute photo of Grandpa Pearson with Leif. Every 5 years the dams are supposed to open the spill gates to make sure they are in working order. It was so amazing to watch all the water come spilling out. Here's a before picture-And AFTER, with the spill gates open.
The spill gate right before it opens.
Well, enough of the randomness. I need to go change a stinky diaper!

Lagoon 2011

Our yearly trip to Lagoon for clogging finals was this weekend! The kids scored really well on their "Lonely Goatherd" dance and Hailey earned All Star All American for her Acapella and Acapella duet. Hailey with her friends Abby and Kia.
We had a fun time at the park but the hotel stay was awful- (Leif didn't want to sleep because he had a terrible cold, Heidi got a stomach ache in the middle of the night and moaned for a few hours, the curtains wouldn't close so the light from the parking lot was shining in my eyes, the beds felt like boards.....but enough complaining all ready! I should just know by now that when our family travels, it means sleepless nights.)

Because Heidi was still feeling a little woozy in the morning, she did kiddie rides with Leif and I all morning. We had fun riding the train, the sky ride and the little cars together.
Taylor shelled out the bucks for he and Joel to ride the Sky Coaster this year, which is a huge bungee jump done in the prone position, so our family calls it the Super Man. Oh WOW! It would have gave me a heart attack to do it, but they loved it. Here they are gearing up for the ride.
The beginning of their ascent up......up.......up. I'm glad Joel is brave enough to do fun things like that with Taylor, since I am a big chicken. I think I would have to be paid 5,000 dollars before I would consider doing this. And even then......I might back out. Hopefully this little video works.

My mind has been feeling so unsettled lately. Mostly because I am worrying about Joel's job interviews and wondering where or IF we will be moving and if I should be collecting boxes or not. I really dislike not knowing what the next few months will hold because it makes it so hard to make plans. Do I start to raise some chicks, or not? Should I dig a small garden area here, or not? Should I sign Torsten up for Drivers Ed. here in Hagerman, or wait? On grey windy days, the weather doesn't help and I get depressed about it all. I never realized until the last few years that my mood is affected so much by the sunlight, or lack thereof! But today---- well, it was a BEAUTIFUL day!! So sunny, no wind (amazing!) the lilacs are blooming and the birds are out in full force, and this morning it was warm enough to do school on the trampoline. (That is no easy task, between the inclination for the kids to bounce when someone is trying to write, and then the cat attacking Heidi's feather pen and scratching Reagan. :-) Then this afternoon, we went to Great Grandma and Grandpa's house so the big kids could mow the lawn and do tractor work. While they worked on that, I took the 3 younger kids and the 3 neighbor kids to my parents so I could plant flowers. The combination of the dazzling colors of the dahlias and gerbera daisies and smelling fresh dirt, and hearing the kids happy chatter as they explored the canal and found snakes, snails, and plenty of mud, made for a light and happy heart.
Later in the day, I took the kids to their Wednesday night activity, which was loading and hauling wood for a widow in the ward, and as I drove down the sun dappled street, surrounded by green trees, fields,plateaus and crossed over pretty Billingsley Creek, I realized no matter where we live, it's all good. It's a beautiful world!

Recent happenings: Grandpa Pearson came to visit us for a week for Taylor's birthday. It was so fun to see him.He brought boxes of grapefruit and oranges from his back yard. Yum! I've made a gallon of fresh squeezed orange juice.

Torsten trying out our new 100 dollar mower. We now own 4 working mowers which comes in handy for mowing at all our grandmas' houses. All these mowers have been either free or very cheap and just required some tuneups and small parts. Yay to Joel for being such a handyman!

Big Leif baby, admiring one of his favorite people in the world.
The combined birthday party we had for Taylor, Kyler and Mom.Life is truly good.

Recent projects

I've been in the sewing mood lately and it's been wonderful to get some projects accomplished.
Here is a picture of an owl purse that I actually finished at Christmas, but I thought I'd show it with the kitty purse that I just finished this week. I think I got better with practice, or maybe I just like the kitty fabric better..... or something. The owl was for Heidi who is not into pink anymore (sniff...sniff) and the kitty was for a sweet 5 yr.old friend of mine.
I sewed 2 pillows for Hailey and Heidi's room- the other 2 are from TJ Maxx. We've been working on their room lately, trying to make it more to a 13 year old's liking.
I started the flower pillow quite a while ago, but wasn't sure how I wanted to finish the edge. I wasn't happy with the zigzag applique look. I ended up doing a blanket stitch for the edge. I didn't get any photos of the Shakespeare costumes I've been sewing-- I will have to take some pictures tonight at the play. Torsten and Hailey are in "A Midsummer's Nights' Dream" production and it's playing at the Oakley Opera House today and tomorrow. I used to DETEST sewing costumes and grumble and moan the whole time, but now I find them kind of fun. Kind of. At least I find satisfaction in them when I am done instead of looking at the finished costume with resentment!

Currently I'm working on a baby quilt, bibs made from my scrap bin, and trying out scrappy paper piecing blocks . These are my favorite types of projects to do!

Lower Malad

Taylor and Joel went over to look at the big flume at the Lower Malad power plant. The flume, which is a deep concrete ditch-like structure that normally transports water to the intake of the dam, was empty because the water was being diverted. So, of course, Joel and Taylor wanted to see how it looked without water in it. At the intake the water is usually about 30 feet deep.The water is sent down the hill to the power plant in this big pipe. Actually, Joel informs me the more accurate word is penstock. :-)The view north from the flume. The next dam down the line is the Bliss dam.
Joel strikes a pose.Grandpa Pearson, I was thinking of you when I posted today. I thought you'd enjoy seeing a bit of Joel's workplace.