Best news of the week

This week I renewed my teaching license!!! (HIP, HIP, HOORAY).

It is good for another 3 years.

It cost:
$105 renewal fee
$100 or so for fingerprinting. (This would be cheaper if I lived in the state where I am licensed, but I don't)
$600-ish to attend a professional conference for 2 days in 2010 (my mom stayed with me in a hotel so I could nurse Eddie--thanks MOM)
Swapping babysitting with my friend so I could volunteer at school--thanks FRIEND
$163/credit hour of college classes . . . . this time I took 5 of them
$100-ish in fees at a local testing center to take tests for my classes
 Around $1500 every three years--thanks HUSBAND.

Fall Wall

This year it's a little different . . . .

 It's a half-wall that divides the living room and dining room. It seemed like the perfect place to put the pumpkins. The family who lived here before planted them, and we happily harvested them.

My favorite are the small gourds with high contrast.

Fireside

More September candles this week.

Ordination coming soon--it will be fun to watch him pass the Sacrament soon.

His Primary teachers brought him this great poster:

Today one of the girls said, "Mom, you're getting old, you have a son who's getting old."

I hadn't really felt it until tonight . . . . when I dropped him off for his first fireside.
Maybe I am old.

Saturday at the Zoo

I found out that Caitlin wanted to go to the zoo for her birthday. We needed a family fun day, and the last zoo we went to was in TX, so we decided it was time.
We used our last football free Saturday to go, the one before Labor day.

I think giraffes are my favorite zoo animal

Everyone loved the komodo

I saved seats for the sea lion/seal show--worth the wait

Dear Family Veterinarians--why is his hump laying down???

We packed a lunch and enjoyed it in the shade outside the zoo. It was crowded, it was hot, but it was a great way to end our summer together. We drive to Denver mostly for the temple, this time it was nice to go for fun.

Throw it out TH

Nearly every day when I wake up I feel overwhelmed. Actually, I usually feel great for a couple of minutes until the barrage of thoughts about commitments I've made and things I have to do floods in.

I don't have very good systems in place for taking care of paperwork. Clothes that are too big and small, and clutter in general have been bogging me down, too. And then there's the shoe closet. If I showed you a picture of it, you would die. Perhaps I will take a before and after picture of that one.

I am de-cluttering.

I named TH, "Throw it out TH." I will make an effort every TH to declutter my house, brain and life.

I started in the laundry room but didn't stay long . . . . . then I moved to paperwork.

I threw out 7 expired vehicle insurance policies.
(Ha, ha, ha, how many do you have--hopefully less than 7).

4 copies of summer activities in my city.

Found a $10 gift card that belongs to Andrew.

Have a small load to take to Goodwill. (DONE).

And I feel happy--like I made headway instead of just worrying about it.

(Still have a missing library book that I might be paying for soon--can't find it anywhere, and I need another recycling bin in my office, and my email inbox has a lot of emails I can delete).

If you join me for throw it out TH, let me know.

More summer visitors

I know this is late . . . but better than never.

My sister's family came to visit. We went with them to the rodeo. They took us out for Old Town pizza, and we spent a few hours at City Park pool. We loved having cousins play. There was many a nerf gun battle in our mostly empty basment.

Later, in August, my brother's family came to town for the day. They wanted to see what swimming at Horsetooth reservoir was like--so we spent time doing that. I loved it. I'm a big fan of lake swimming--so it was right up my alley.
(I think it's probably due to spending the summer of 1995 next to a lake in NH).

I have no pictures of the lake--but this one is evidence they were on my front porch.

The last visitor of the summer was Kerri, Nathan's cousin. She came to run in the Wild West Relay with Nathan's team. It is a 200 mile relay race, and takes about 30-35 hours to complete. They ran from Ft. Collins, to Steamboat. I have to get some of Kerri's photos, because Nathan had no camera. The race went well, and my children loved having Kerri stay. We hope she'll come back.

(We also had June visitors--Nathan's mom and dad came to help us move. That's not a very FUN vacation, but we really appreciated having them here. They will probably appear in another post . . . . ).

Counting candles

She requested Cinnamon Rolls again . . . don't think she likes cake

I keep asking her to stop growing up, but it's not working. Baptism coming later this month.