Honey, I Shrunk the Kids!

Actually, these are just giant weeds that have overtaken part of our backyard.
Embarrassing...I know!
To clarify the weeds weren't actually in the yard, they were back by the fence and the fruit trees.
They wouldn't have gotten that bad if we could have just mowed over them, ha ha!

Anyway, say what you will, sometimes you mean to get to things and then you don't.

Or your life is in such upheaval that some things don't matter...until they do :)

I knew that we needed to get rid of a good portion of the weeds in the backyard,

so I finally forced my kids to work and my mom is just a saint so she helped us.
P.S. You know this weed is tall if it's taller than Dallin!

My dad is awesome too...he hauled away a bunch of weeds and other trash for us!

As we were working we would come across the exact same weed in it's small form

Check out this little weed...this is what we should have been taking care of all along instead of letting them grow to this...

There's an object lesson in there somewhere :)

Something New For Me

I got a job at the elementary school as a Teacher's Aide.

This week was my first week. I went pretty well.

I had been volunteering a lot and one day I just decided to stop in at the office and ask if they had any job openings...I got a job that day! It's a blessing since Mike is still looking. I won't make that much and won't have a ton of hours, but it will be something, and getting paid to do what I was doing when I volunteered can't be a bad idea. Another bonus is that I'll actually be with Isaac and Anna even more. 

I'm excited for this new opportunity, I know I will learn a lot.
I'm also really happy because when they first hired me I was told that I'd be working with the 3rd grade. Not a big deal, but I don't know any of those teachers and don't have a kid in that grade. I was super happy on my first day when I walked in the doors and ran into Nicole Sperry (one of the 6th grade teachers and Anna's 3rd grade teacher from last year) and she told me that they requested me in the 6th grade and so that's where I will be!

So I will mostly work with the 6th grade, but 3 times a week I will also be in charge of teaching what they call Hawk Time. It's when the kids are given choices of several different classes they can go to. They go to the same class for the 3 days in that week and then choose something different the next week, so you teach the same hawk time all month, just to 3 different groups of kids. The hard part is that I will have to come up with what I want to teach during hawk time. I think I might rope Mike into coming and doing a Chinese one that I can help him with. 

Anyway, I'm sure that this will change the dynamic of things in our lives for a little while, but I think it will be good and hey, my commute is the best ever...I just walk across the street :)

Peaches and Pears

Here's what I've been up to lately!

A few days ago I bottled peaches with my mom and my sister Marcy.

(I did some peach freezer jam too...just to try it out)

and today I did pears with my Mom.

We had Dallin help some too because it could count for his Cooking class assignment.

The tiny jar he will take and show to his teacher as a sample.

A homemade fruit cup :)

 Grace and Anna thought this pear was so perfect and cute!

I have to agree, it's pretty cute. It was very small too.

I'm loving taking the time to preserve all this food, I know we will enjoy eating it!

Noah's First Paycheck!

I think it would be an understatement to say that he is excited :)

Noah's First Job

My brother Greg works at KT Tape and he told Noah that he could get him a summer job there working in the warehouse. KT Tape is the official tape of the world cup so right now they are putting stickers on all their boxes to indicate that.

Noah is very excited to have a job and I think it's going to be great for him!

(Thanks Greg!)

Dont' fence me in

Since Sasha joined our family we have been wanting/needing to finish up our fence in the back yard. 

We had to replace quite a few posts and then attach the chicken wire stuff. Last week Mike was able to take the time to get it done. He had some help from the kids too. 

I'm not sure Sasha likes it. 

Sorry girl, it's for the best!

Hard Working Kids

On Tuesday the kids participated in Job Shadow Day. Mike took them to work with him and I tagged along.

They had a great time and GRS did a wonderful job of making it a good experience for them. When they got there they had to sign in and get their badges,

then they had a meeting in the conference room with the Executive Vice President, she was so good with them.

Here they are ready for the meeting.

Listening and taking notes.

Asking and answering questions about the company.

Isaac of course was, Isaac, and made quite an impression, making sure to ask if he could keep the pen he was using.

They all got lanyards, pens, coasters and water bottles...
they thought that was pretty cool. 

Ms. Simmons told the kids that sometimes after a meeting you need to go and get coffee and think about the meeting, so she gave us a gift card to Starbucks to take the kids for hot chocolate.

Then they had another meeting with Dad...

...and explored his office too.

It was a fun day for them, and for Mike.

A big Thank You to the wonderful people at GRS for taking the time and making the effort to help the kids feel welcome and special.

On the way home I told the kids that they would be job shadowing me for the rest of the day. I think they thought I was kidding, but I was serious. They actually had a great attitude about it and I got some good help with...

lunch

cleaning and doing laundry

and dinner

We are blessed with some great kids. 
All in all a fantastic day!