Friday Sept 7th
Got a new jogging stroller – that won’t tip over on the way to school hopefully. Almost done putting together bike trailer, fixing up bike. Heather’s teacher said Heather was doing really well. Ruthanne and James might come over and stay with us, so clean the house tomorrow. Poor little Autumn, she was rough housing with James, fell, and punctured her lip with her front tooth – just like James did when he was her age. Now we know to treat such a wound at home without running to the ER. Autumn and James have a lot in common!



Sunday Sept 9th
Doug had a headache. Took the kids to church – always a bit hard. We were late, ended up sitting in the metal folding chars in the overflow. Spent sacrament meeting trying to keep kids from using their crayons as drumsticks on the chairs. When the sacrament meeting ended, Heather and James ran for the back door – at least they like their primary class! Poor little Autumn has 8 months to go before nursery though, so playing the piano in relief society required Karen to stand with a crying, tired baby down the hall. RuthAnne, big James, and baby James over – luckily church kept us out of the house long enough for him to recover before company arrived.



Monday Sept 10th
Fun day. Walk Heather to school with new jogging stroller, then went to the zoo. Out to lunch with Doug to a really good Thai restaurant, then for a swim with Holly, Ruthanne, and kids. I should not do this to company – dragging them around all over Houston instead of letting them get some R&R. Made it to see the elephants, giraffes, tiger, sharks. Fun talking with Ruthanne. They will be closing on a house next weekend. Poor little Heather – the finish on the pool is a little rough, and made the bottom of her toes raw, so she had to stop swimming. The combo lock on her bike chain broke, could not unlock it, so had to leave her bike at school. Ended up putting 3 kids in the 2 person bike trailer, but it worked out well, and they had a fun ride. Heather missed out on the zoo because she was in school, and then she caught her finger in the swing chain. Bandaged up her feet, then let her watch Cinderella.



Tuesday Sept 11th
Quiet day, jog to school with new stroller, was able to get there much faster, made a big difference. Biked home, Heather jumped into the trailer with James and Autumn, and we bumped over the grass to the bike lot out back. No more lock for Heather’s bike – but there are a lot of bikes without locks, so we will just hope for luck. We went for a swim, had an early dinner. Dr. Sloan, Doug’s old advisor is in town – Doug is out with some other grad students, meeting/dinner with Sloan trying to figure out who can take his place when he retires - keep the hydrate lab running and keep industry support. Heather invited to Annah Juel’s birthday party at Pump it up.

Wednesday Sept 12th
Rainy day, had to drive to school, what a bummer. Still cloudy in the afternoon, but chanced it and went for a jog anyways. Heather was chosen with Kate to be in charge of the class while the teacher was busy – sounds like she is making a good impression on people at school. She was able to count to 100 too! Worked with James on colors, shapes, numbers etc… played the “ball game” – let Autumn in to play too. Sold the sit-n-stand stroller on KYS. Doug drove the church youth to a temple night thing. Neither of us remembered signing up to volunteer for this – maybe we did and just did not remember? In any event, canceled Heena’s lesson again – felt really bad, this is the second week in a row. Will be second night in a row for Doug getting very little sleep (Dr. Sloan meeting/dinner last night.) He made it back around 10:30. Called people on my new VT route. I get to work with Susan – am really looking forward to getting to know her better. Little Autumn has a runny nose, so got all the kids to bed early.

Thursday Sept 13th
Nice day out – contrary to the news. Granny called and was worried about a tropical storm that was supposed to be hitting us. Jogged to school in the morning, biked in the afternoon. Heather came home with a post card from Kate – saying Kate missed her while she was on her trip. Heather has been writing little notes to all her friends at home, and sneaking them into their backpacks at school. Today a boy fell and starting crying, Heather said I would be proud to know that she went and helped him – twice. There was a sale at the grocery store for candy – I picked up a bunch of “nerds” and “nerd rope” as Doug was running out of stuff to give them in the morning. The candy I got was way to big – all week they have been toting this horrible stuff around. I will have to remember not to do that again! Put on the “Moose” CD from Yellowstone, Autumn was really getting down to it! Talked HOA into painting over graffiti on the greenbelt benches. We will see how long the new coat of paint lasts.



Friday Sept 14
Holly and kids over for a swim, then went for a swim again with Heather after school. Pizza night.

Saturday Sept 15th
Baby Daze sale in the morning kind of fun. We were going to finish the floor today – but found out that 6 out of the 9 boxes of wood they gave us did not match, so had to take them back and re-order. Spent hour at Lowe’s trying to get this done. They had to refund the money, then re-order it. They made the mistake of refunding 9 boxes instead of just 6. So, instead of coming out of it even, have an extra $250 in our account. Pointed out their mistake – they were so impressed, they gave Doug a $25 gift card, but were still unable to fix the problem. Said they would try to fix it again next week when we picked it all up. We went for a swim, dinner from Taco Cabannas.

Sunday Sept 16th
Church this morning, Autumn fussy, so we listened from the fourier. Doug had to leave Heather and James unattended to get up and take attendance, came back to a bench covered with water and mushie tortilla stuffed into the back of the cushon. Then he had Autumn while I played in the piano in RS. She was asleep by the 3rd hour meetings, but kept him out of 2nd meetings. I should not enjoy hearing about Doug’s little experiences with the kids, but I do. It’s good to have similar experiences to chuckle over. Relief society and New testament class both happened to be over similar subjects.
1 Cor 11:3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
First talked about relationship between Christ and God which is one of sacrifice, obedience, love, unity. Then translate these to husband/wife. I liked the word “unity”. Unity takes all unfairness out of anyone being the “head”. Unity makes you equal. Also talked about how to stay close as a couple. Quoted out of the littlest Prince – conversation with fox about the rose. One discussion was to talk with your spouse about things other than a “to-do” list. I need to get better about this.

Monday – Holly watched the kids while Autumn and I went Vting to Nona’s. She is a sweet lady, but with many health problems. Diabetes, arthritis, etc.

Tuesday – Park play date with Janessa Tucker – Autumn is on her own at the park now – she runs around with the other kids, and will not let me just hold her. James and Autumn both ended up with fine sand caked in their hair. We were all quite a site when picking Heather up from school!

Wednesday – VTing Jensen’s, Heena’s piano lesson. Poor little Heena, she gets frustrated and discouraged. Tried to tell her that work solves most problems in life – don’t despair that you cannot do it, just practice until you can do it.

Thursday – VT to Karren r’s, then my VTers came over. Swim with Holly and kids, Heather’s feet raw from rough pool again. Math and science night at the school + book fair. Each grade had a table set up with a different science activity – there was bubbles, magnets, raisens dancing in Sprite, filling up balloons with backing soda and vinegar gas, sucking an egg into a bottle, and finding how raw vs boiled eggs behaved. Tin can telephones, etc. etc. The kids had fun I think.

Friday – Potty training James, clean-up for weekend.
Friday Bonds book discussion
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Platinum rule – Do unto others as they would have you do unto them.
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(ie – don’t buy your husband a diamond necklace because it is what you want him to get you – think about their needs, and give them what they want – not what you want). Finale to the “Christmas story” – True story of couple who had been arguing over Christmas preparations, wife trying to get hand-made presents for everyone in neighborhood/church/family – driving husband crazy with her demands, seeming to take all the fun out of it. Wife frustrated the her husband unwilling to help with Christmas preparations – if it was not for her, there would be no Christmas at all etc… story ends well – husband finds new affection for wife, starts helping her not out of obligation, but simply helping because he loves her. Wife becomes more considerate of husband, some projects go unfinished, but it is ok. The change of heart not something that they forced themselves to do – it was a gift from God.

Saturday
Yardwork whie Doug finished the floor in the new room, swim in the pool, to Pei-Wei’s to eat. Went through the drive-through car wash – James and Autumn were not too happy about it. I was just kidding around pretending to be scared when the big rollers came at the car – it really was scary for the little ones. Ordered a big freezer for laundry room – am now a member of Nicole’s “hot cookin mommas” group of moms – we are going to swap frozen dinners – ie cook the same thing to feed 100 – split it up – swap dinners – now everyone has variety of dinners for a month while only having to cook one meal. We will see how it goes! Went and got some movies – ended up being really weird ones, O well.

Sunday 23rd September
Church in the morning – talk on prophets by the Hansen’s. Interesting comments about Adam as the first prophet, that he had spent time walking, talking, face to face with God. It would have been pretty neat to have learned from Adam. RS lesson on standing for the right. The bishop sat in with us today, we were talking about all the things that help us stand for what is right – friends, scriptures, prayer, etc… the Bishop said “self” that we should have confidence that we are stronger than we think. Also made a comment about Martha and Lazerous – that when the going gets tough, if He does not seem to be with us in the storm, to be like Martha, running to the Savior for comfort after the storm rather than allowing the experience to distance ourselves. Bro Johnson’s lesson from 2 Cor. He brought in a jar os white sand (sugar) with pearls in it. If you know there are pearls in it – do you throw away the sand – or sift through it first to find what is precious. He sifted the sugar, and revealed pearls. Analogy of vines with sins – he had been taking vines off the trees – the vines formed a canopy over the tree keeping out the sunlight, weighing down the branches, and killing the tree. Removing vines a hard thing, and even once they were removed, new ones would start growing. Lesson on adversity – that it is not so bad. We would not be humble if we did not make mistakes, we would not need a Savior, would not need each other, would have more shallow untested friendships, a lot of good things in adversity.