Conferences

Christian and Robyn came to town for General Conference. We tried to take the kids to the pumpkin patch in between sessions, but we got caught in a rainstorm so we had to hurry home. We had dinner at Don Tequila for Hannah's birthday. Unfortunately, they were super busy so she missed out on the fun birthday song. But the food was amazing as usual. No pictures of the weekend, but they really did come!

The next weekend was our Stake Conference. It was a much anticipated event because Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles was coming. There was a commemorative fireside on Friday night for the 10 year anniversary of the improved Historic Kirtland sites. Jonathan played in the orchestra and attended with Natalie and Megan. I went to see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 (aka Floating with Enchanted Meatballs) with Karen and Isaac (couldn't find a babysitter).  Saturday morning we met at 8am and did a Family Fun Walk up around the temple and back down to the sites. We had a pancake breakfast and eagerly awaited Elder Ballard's arrival. The Primary children sang a couple of songs to him, then they all got to shake his hand.

Jonathan headed back to Kirtland that afternoon for a Priesthood leadership meeting, then I met up with him that evening for the adult session. That is always my favorite session of Stake Conference and it did not disappoint. Elder Ballard was traveling with Elder Gay and Elder Seldon (from Kirtland) of the Seventy and they were both fantastic speakers as well. Sunday morning we were up early again and back to Kirtland. Natalie, Megan and I attended a youth session in the Kirtland Temple (how awesome is that?!), while Jonathan, Karen and Isaac saved seats at the Stake Center. Natalie conducted the opening and closing hymns for that meeting. Then we had the general session of conference. It was all awesome. I got to shake Elder Ballard's hand in the Kirtland Temple. I love living here and I love my Kirtland heritage (Philo Dibble and Edward Partridge).

Speaking of living here, Jonathan got a new job! He will start with Moen (you know, the faucets) on October 28. He will no longer be commuting to Wisconsin. We hope this new opportunity will keep us in Ohio for many more years. He will be a Director of Supply Chain (promoted from a manager) so it is also a great career move for him. So proud of him and his hard work in his almost 10 years of employment since MBA school. 9 years, 7 jobs, and 6 houses later, we are back where we started in July 2004.

September News

Time is flying by! I hated my dining room chairs for almost 10 years. We finally spent the money and bought new chairs from Sam's Club. I love them so much! I love the shape of our table, but it needed to be refinished. So we painted the top gray and the legs a lighter gray. It turned out amazing. Instant make-over in the dining room.

I was invited to participate on a marathon relay team in Akron. I knew one of the ladies running, but she ended up not being able to run due to a stress fracture. I met up with Katie, Anna, Rachel and Roni on Friday night and we went out to dinner. Even though I had never met them before, it was a lot of fun to meet them and get to know each other. The next morning, Anna, Roni and I went to the start line for Roni to start us out. She ran 3.8 miles. Anna and I walked to the exchange zone. I got to see my neighbor run by--she was going for 1:14 in the half marathon (which she won with a time of 1:14.22--qualifying her to try out for the 2016 Olympics). She was cruising!! I ran the 2nd leg--4.8 miles. I felt great. It was so fun to run with so many other people and the whole time I knew I only had to run 4.8 miles, not 13.1 or 26.2. I passed a TON of people. Anna and Roni walked over to the next exchange zone, where I handed off to Anna. She ran 7.5 miles--I wasn't envious of her leg. Roni and I headed to the finish line. We got our food and hung out until Anna met back up with us. Then Katie joined us and we went to watch Rachel finish. Then we got our medals and picture taken. Then that was it! Jonathan and the kids came down too so we got ice cream, then headed back home. It was great! It was so fun to participate in a marathon without actually having to run a marathon. I would totally do it again.

Isaac announced during dinner one night that he wanted me to give him riding lessons after dinner. I knew he could do it because he could balance on a scooter. So we went out, I held on to the back of his seat and off he went. And that was it. He could ride a bike. He's been riding nonstop ever since! I love it!!

Natalie has been participating in cross country. For a 13-year-old freshman, she is having a great season! She wasn't motivated to run during the summer, so she had a slow start to the season, but she ended up running Varsity for a couple of races and improved her times a lot. Her PR for a 5K is 22:27. She is an alternate for the District race (is it bad to hope someone can't run so she can?). She's motivated to run next summer so here's hoping for an even better Sophomore season. And Megan will be running middle school XC next year!

Back to School

Ahhh, that blessed time of year when kids go back to school. I was a little apprehensive all summer about Isaac starting full-day school. He struggled a little bit with his behavior in Kindergarten. He mastered everything academically so repeating Kindergarten wasn't really an option. And I think his behavior will improve by 1st, 2nd, or 3rd grade (based on what I hear from other moms of summer birthday boys) and at that point I want him in the grade ahead and not the grade behind. So I'm plowing ahead with this. On the first day of school, he was super excited which made it easy on me. I got busy at home with housework, running, scripture study, lesson planning, etc. and the first time I looked at the clock was the time he used to get home from Kindergarten and I was so glad that he wasn't coming home yet! I realized that full-day really isn't full-day and he's home by 2:20. So it's all good. And so far so good after a week.

Isaac is in first grade

Karen loves school! Her teacher this year is Mrs. Green which is pretty funny. We are at a new school this year so many of the teachers are unknown to us at this point. Our district went from 3 elementary schools to 2 and the teachers got divided between the new schools. The new school is so nice and I'm excited my kids get to go there.

Karen is in third grade

Elementary school kiddos

Getting on the bus

We also got a brand new middle school that Megan gets to attend. New schools are fun! She had an issue with her locker--she got put in the wrong wing and ended up being by herself. I emailed the counselor about it and it was fixed. I'm not sure what the mistake was, but Megan got moved over by the rest of the sixth graders and isn't all alone anymore. Other than that, middle school is going smoothly for her.

Megan is in sixth grade--middle school

High school! Natalie is a little envious of the nice new middle school that she passed up in order to start high school a year early. But she's doing great in high school. Our issue with her is figuring out her math class. Since she skipped 8th grade, she didn't officially take algebra (although her 7th grade enriched math class included algebra). She's in an algebra class now but she hates it because it's so easy and she's not with high achieving students. We're hoping to get her moved to Geometry which would also put her on track with most of the other freshman. Her algebra teacher is going to give her the midterm and final to see if she can test out of it. She started early morning Seminary this week. 6am!!

Natalie is in ninth grade--high school

Finishing up Summer

Jonathan and I attended the preseason NFL game between the Cleveland Browns and the Detroit Lions. It was a BYU alumni event because Ziggy Ansah, a former BYU player, was drafted by the Lions. The game wasn't very exciting (although Ziggy did play quite a bit). But we loved the dachshund races at half time and the streaker that made it all the way across the field was pretty entertaining. It was also fun to be downtown Cleveland. Something we haven't done much of. The weekend before, we went to see Fiddler on the Roof with a group of BYU alumni. The play was so well done.

Robyn and I arranged a cousin swap. We met at a Wendy's in Youngstown and swapped Karen for Aaron and Hannah. I had 5 kids for the week, but it felt much easier than my usual 4. Isaac and Aaron played so well together, as did Hannah and Megan. And Natalie was busy with cross country and friends. And I heard that Karen had a blast with Rachel and Nathan. We swapped on a Wednesday and met up at Wendy's the next Monday. I wish I had more pictures. I got one of Isaac and Aaron dressed as the cutest witches I've ever seen.

Our ward had our second annual milk jug raft race. We improved our design from last year by securing the PVC pipe together with screws. Last year our raft fell apart as soon as it hit the water. Megan tied for first place in the first heat. It's a fun event.

Jonathan and I went to Steak-n-Shake with the youth as a back to school activity. The catch was we went there at 11:00 at night. It's a tradition that died last year and the young women were anxious to bring it back. It was a lot of fun and we had other fun youth leaders/parents to visit with.

Other than that, we played with friends as much as possible and watched waaaay too much TV.

Gracie and Karen

Fun Youth Activities

I got called as Young Women president in June (after serving as first counselor for about 5 months). I love serving the young women but I sort of miss being second fiddle. We've had a few super fun activities the past few weeks. First up was glow-in-the dark tag. We all wore glow stick bracelets and necklaces and played tag in the dark gym. Before the games we watched Elder Bednar's Patterns of Light videos on the Mormon Channel.

 

Another week we learned about the Transforming Power of Faith (Elder Scott). We used an object lesson of "getting creamed" if you don't keep yourself unspotted from the world. The girls had a blast playing with shaving cream.

Isaac got in on the action too

For our combined activity we went ice blocking. It's something the youth always love to do. They never went last summer so I was happy to bring back the tradition. It took some doing to track down ice blocks, but thanks to the Amish in Middlefield (and my friend who knew the right spot) we got some!

Hannah and Brielle had fun with my phone while they were holding it for me so I could ride down the hill

I also got to attend the last day of Youth Conference in July (the day after we got home from Utah). We started with a devotional in the Kirtland Temple. Then breakfast, a hilarious stand-up comedian and testimony meeting. It was great to see the young women again after being gone for a month.

Jenna Kim Jones

Run or Dye!

Natalie, my friend Rebecca, and I did a Run or Dye color. It was a blast! There were so many people and it was a really fun atmosphere. We covered ourselves in various colors of dyed cornstarch (imported from none other than Spanish Fork, Utah!). It didn't take long for us to be a colored mess!

Before picture

Rebecca's creepy hat was useful for finding her in a crowd.

We stood in the start chute for quite awhile waiting to go. They would send off 500-700 runners at a time. We were maybe in the 6th or 7th wave. We ran through 4 different color stations where people would throw yellow, green, blue and pink powder on us. I wish I had more pictures of us doing the run, but it was hard to have my camera out because it was so messy!

After the 5K, we met as a big group and all threw dye in the sky at the same time. It was pretty cool! It was a really fun way to run 3 miles. My time was one of my slowest ever, but it went by so quickly because we were having such a good time. You kind of wonder before what will be so fun about running and getting colored powder on you. But once you experience it, it's just really fun!

Before and after comparison

We were all color stained for a couple of days following the race. My stomach and back were a greenish yellow--I looked bruised!