Twins Doing HW and Emma Humming

Jill found this "skirt" purse which is open at the bottom. She was certain it was a mistake and wanted to fix it with tape.

Jane and Emma worked on their math page when they got home from school. Emma likes homework and Jane doesn't, but both cooperated. Emma had her leg up and was humming. I had to take a little video:

After homework the girls went to play Barbies. I like to hear their little voices play and do dialogue.

And now August is over!

MAL for Abby

On Wednesday Abby had her gaite study appointment at the Shriner's Hospital. It was at the Motion Analysis Lab. They were going to measure her bones and muscles, specifically in her leg to determine how to move forward if we decide to fix her crooked leg bone/foot. She had the large room to herself with two kinesiologists for two hours. They did all kinds of tests, including one with markers and then capture the movement on computer, like they do with computer animated movies. Then they used electric probes with cords (she wore a vest that make her look like a robot--she even had "shoes" they taped on) and it captured the wave of her muscle movement on the computer. After we left the lab Abby had xrays done. They will be use all data, meet together in a team and decide how to move forward. We follow up in six weeks.

Ross took her to the appointment at 8:30am. Once I got everyone to school Jill and I went downtown and then Ross went off to work. We got Abby back to school just before lunch.

As we were leaving the hospital Abby was telling me about a clown she saw in the lobby. I hadn't seen him. And then as we were going to the parking garage Jill was ahead of us and pushed the elevator door, which opened and I noticed she took a few steps back. There was a clown that got right off and was talking to her. Right to his face she said, "you're creepy!". He said, "no, I'm a happy clown" and gave both Abby and Jill his clown card. We headed up the elevator and when we got to the car Abby said, "did you notice he didn't deny he was creepy though." Hahaha. Nope. I thought it was a little creepy too.

We had back-to-back soccer practices that afternoon (since the twins' coach wanted to move it since Tues and Thurs regular times were over 100 degrees... Wed was only 99.)

Ross met us at the twins soccer practice and we visited. The girls team just stayed in the shade. After practice he took Allen home teaching.

Court of Honor

Tuesday ...

• Jill and I went to two visiting teaching appointments in the morning. One was a new assignment. 
• I had a phone call with Patsy. Metformin seems to be helping a little more.
• Afterschool Emma wanted to play school with Jill and teach her the alphabet.
• Jane enjoyed the new desk from Isaac. Spent a lot of time drawing.
• Soccer practice was cancelled because it was 105.
• Allen earned 5 badges at the evening Court of Honor. We all went.
• The YW had basketball practice in the gym.

SportBrell

Monday night our new SportBrella came. Even though it's bad luck, Ross opened the HUGE umbrella and tried it out with the mat. We had this going on while we watched Wheel of Fortune.

Earlier that afternoon Jane was in charge of FHE and wanted to play the Kindles for her activity. We had her lesson on Sunday and the activity on Monday.

Belle & Lightning McQueen in Roseville

Ross sent me these pictures from his phone: we found Lightning McQueen and Belle in Roseville! One at our church parking lot and one at Saturday's movie.

No soccer practice today. It's 108 degrees!! The first graders did their math page and writing page. Abby decorated her name tag for library club and Allen watched an hour video about trombone playing. And I finally made snicker-poodles. No, that's not a typo. That's what I've been calling them. Emma requested them on the first day of school. I finally got around to making them. Kids had an after school snack and I dishes out three plates for visiting teaching tomorrow.. which is good because I forgot to set my Alexa timer and my last two batches burnt.

Eclipse Pictures from Courthouse

Ross just sent me this email from work:

Obviously we can't see anything in the second picture -- we're just smiling where we think Karen is standing. 

I didn't even ask him about this. He totally sent it on his own. That man knows I love pictures and love to put things on our blog. ☺️❤️

Abby's Primary Talk

Abby gave a talk today in primary:

In Amos 3:7, we read “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.  This means the Lord tells the prophets the things we need to know.

A few weeks ago our primary teachers taught us about Haun’s Mill. It was a tragic example of what can happen when you don’t follow the prophet. Jacob Haun was told by Joseph Smith that the people needed to leave because of mob threatenings.  Haun ignored the warnings and the mob attacked. 17 were dead. 30 were injured. This could have never happened if they had listened to their prophet. We must listen to ours.

 Our Prophet is the Lord’s servant who leads and guides His church today. If we listen and obey, we will be protected and blessed. Some of the things President Monson has addressed at recent conferences are the importance of the temple, being kind to others, keeping the Word of Wisdom and reading the Book of Mormon everyday.

I know that these are the things the Lord wants us to do, and that we will be blessed if we do them.  I also know that President Monson is a prophet of God. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Movie in the Park

After we took Berkeley home, we watched the end of Boss Baby, we ate dinner, kids took a bath (while Allen popped our popcorn), got pajamas on, loaded up, returned movie at Redbox and drove to West Roseville to a park where they were showing an outdoor movie--Beauty and the Beast. We had not seen it.

The outing was fun. The movie was not. Lame in my opinion. I thought Belle's singing was fine. The scenes were too dark--Disney needs to add more light (maybe symbolically too) and color to their movies. Very hard to see most of the scenes on a screen. (I thought the same thing with Maleficent and Cinderella and Jungle Book when we saw them outside.)  Their modern style is more dark colors and it's tough to watch. The ending finally had enough light to enjoy the characters. I thought the style of the enchanted objects was weird. I didn't love the extra scenes they put in about missing mothers... I don't need Disney to tell me what happened--my imagination can do that. I hate when re-do movies come out with something new or a twist to tell you how to think. I had heard people complain that Belle wasn't a singer. I'm not either though and I sing all the time. Belle not being a singer seemed more natural on how a musical should be--it's not the person performing, it's just emotion. The wardrobe was a professional singer and I couldn't stand her. Give me Belle and natural singing over that please. So with all the hype I heard, articles I read, that my young women wouldn't stop talking about it for months and constantly playing the soundtrack ... I figured it would be well done. Nope, I thought it was lame. Even with a loaded cast. And it wasn't just me who thought that. My kids weren't impressed either. I have never been to a movie where I've had to intervene and get them to sit down so much. They just didn't get into it, even from the beginning. I was surprised. I guess they were disappointed it was a dark re-do like I was. We missed the bright, vibrant, creative other one. Oh, Disney why do try to re-do Masterpieces? ... sigh. On the bright side, we enjoyed the enjoyed the popcorn and soda!

Special Playdate with Berkeley

On Saturday Abby had a soccer scrimmage. The kids played on the toys. Benny, Jill's friend, found a frog!

That afternoon Ross went to the Judge Callahan's annual reunion in Stockton. It's over a 100 so he left smelling good with extra cologne (I had to tease him about that!) to mask all the outdoor sweating. :) The event takes place in her backyard. It's catered and nice to visit with former workers. Last time we went because Ross was getting an award, but the kids put their feet in her pool and then their whole bodies (without suits--just street clothes) so we opted to stay home this year.

Before Ross left he and Abby picked up Berkeley and they went to the Sparkles ice cream shop and then home for play and painting. Berkeley is having a birthday party on Sunday and since we don't attend parties that day I asked if we could have a special play date the day before to honor Berkeley. The mom loved that idea and said that she'd keep that in mind next year when she plans her party. We bought her a present and they girls had fun! They get along really well. And I watched Boss Baby and liked it much better than I thought I would.

Temple Date

Friday morning for breakfast we had sausage, eggs, banana bites and donut holes. Had to take a picture before it was gone! That night we went to the temple with another couple, the Barnetts. They are Abby's primary teachers at church. Always fun to go to the temple with a friend and then find more inside, also from your ward! We did a session and used four of my family cards. The sister I went through for was a New Yorker (Laura H Whitford, who I researched and ended up finding 90+ more names for the family tree!), Ross did a Brit, Tadd did a Canadian and Kelly did an Aussie. We stopped at the Parlor after. Abby did amazing babysitting. She had everyone in bed asleep (including herself), sent me a few updated texts to how things were going and straightened the house. I checked out Boss Baby at Redbox for the kids and they loved it!

Let's Get Organized!

Thursday after school we organized Allen's room after school and I created a shelf for the girls to put all their school papers everyday. Hopefully we can sort through papers every few weeks and keep things organized around here. The top photo is a picture Jane drew and the bottom are a bunch of 6th grade maps Allen made for social studies last year. He was throwing them out. We threw away lots of papers and put many things into hanging files for him.

That night there was no soccer practice. We went to a bird park to look for birds for Allen's Nature merit badge. He had to find 8 birds.

Tucker Bus | Fruit Flowers

Wednesday Brett came over early and hung out with us during school drop off, storytime and park play.

I got a call at the park that their was a delivery for me to sign for. ... Wait, What? (I just figured it was another crank call from all the vendors I've been getting asking for Roneka Mitchell that lives at 8160 Red Oak Dr in Elk Grove--I've blocked hundreds of calls for her in the past four years and answered several from friends, pastors, people in jail, doctor's office, dentist's office... so annoying! Usually when we move those kinds of calls stop after at least a year. I hate to change my number now because that's how everyone gets a hold me). I hurried home for a surprise. In an email two days ago I told Catherine how I was--really was. Then she bought me fruit flowers. What a friend! And included was the sweetest note. She's cheering for me from Texas! :)

Napping Jill | YW Temple Picnic

Tuesday Jill took a nap. All by herself. She wanted to watch a movie, but when I noticed marker on the wall I told her I wouldn't put it on until it was fixed, meaning I needed to scrub it and probably paint over it. But at the time I was finishing up emails (and overwhelmed and discouraged!) and told her she needed to wait until I could get to the wall before she could watch cartoons. She curled up on the couch and was out. Can't remember the last time she took a nap. She stopped at age 2.

That night the Young Women had a picnic at the temple. We took photos, they enjoyed some food, they wrote future letters to themselves and just bonded. The Mia Maid leaders had a standards game prepared, but decided to let the girls just hang out. It seemed like they were all tired from school and just wanted to take it easy.