Big brother had an appointment with the orthodontist. It's typically once every 6 months to see if he's ready for braces. He finally had enough adult teeth in so it was time for braces! They'd had a cancellation for that afternoon, so it all happened pretty fast. He was very excited to finally get his braces. I must say he looks pretty handsome!
Husband turned the big 40! We kept the celebrations pretty low key. The kids gave him presents and lots of hugs.
We skipped the cake and made him a banana cream pie. Keeping the candles upright was a bit of a challenge, but we managed! We love this man, even if he didn't want lots of pictures, lol!
We wanted to get in one last camping trip before school got going. So we headed up to the Uintahs for some camping and four wheeling. Big sister convinced us to bring along her best friend, Bigger sister. They had so much fun riding around together.
Little sister has decided that grandmas yellow 250 is actually pretty fun to drive, and little brother is absolutely thrilled to ride in front of Daddy on his machine.
We did turkey legs for dinner 'cuz they're SO yummy.
We had a visitor while we were having dinner
It was a great way to finish up the summer. My favorite part was after the sun went down. It's dark enough in the Uintahs that you can see the stars really well. Big sister and bigger sister were happy that they got to see the milky way and the littler kids were thrilled with the shooting star show we got.
School was ready and waiting for us when we got back from camping. Little sister was starting 6th grade, which meant a switch to the Junior High. She started a day before everyone else. They let the 6th graders have a short day all to themselves to figure everything out before the rest of the student body is there. She had a great first day and was feeling very ready to take on this Jr. High thing!
Big Brother headed into 3rd grade. We met his teacher before school started to discuss his IEP and some of his needs. He's got yet another teacher that will be gone for a while because she's having a baby. We keep getting those, lol! She seems awesome, though. I warned her that Big brother would be one of her favorites and she kinda gave me that "whatever you say, mama" look that I get from everyone. (At his end of year IEP meeting, she freely admitted that he's totally her favorite.) Big brother has this school thing down. We walked him to the playground and he found the sign for his teacher easily and just started walking in that direction. As he got to his line, there were several kids he already knew that were greeting him and excited to see him. He's got good friends in this class. Go take on the world, sweet Bucky!
Little brother was super excited to be going to first grade and, therefore, ALL day! His absolute bestest buddy from kindergarten was in his class, and they were thrilled with this arrangement. Best buddy has a peanut allergy so Little Brother reminded us nine gazillion times to make his lunch nut free so that he could sit with his friend at lunch. He can be quite the thoughtful kid. It turned out to be a good thing, because this whole eating lunch at school thing was very overwhelming to bestest buddy. Little brother stuck with him, helping him go to the office to call his mom, and reassuring him every day that he'd sit right with him all through lunch. It took a week or two, but best buddy eventually was able to get through lunch and decided it wasn't so bad. Man, I love this kid!
My boys, ready to take on elementary school!!!
Big sister is a turd. She left the house before I could get a first day of school picture! Like we haven't been doing this for a decade. So I had to get one of her after school while we were waiting for her brothers at the elementary. Ahem. Big sister started 9th grade - she's a freshman at the HIGH SCHOOL! Gah! I don't know how I got old enough to have a kid in high school, but there she is. She's taking some honors classes, and is excited to be in choir and in production. This girl just keeps getting better with age!
Niece Ashley came to visit us and we took advantage of extra hands. I taught Ashley and big sister how to make the jam and they made LOTS of raspberry and strawberry freezer jam. Thank you Costco for having a good sale on these, my jam supply was getting low.
The main reason cousin Ashley was here with us was to take care of us while wife was recuperating from carpal tunnel surgery. Earlier in the summer while we were fourwheeling, my hands went totally numb. They've always gotten tingly and I knew carpal tunnel was an issue, but this time I was having a hard time gripping the handle bars and using the front brakes. This is especially disoncerting when big brother is on behind me. So I didn't really ride most of the summer, which sucked. It basically took the whole summer to get into a doctor and decide to proceed with surgery. After consulting friends who'd done one at a time and both together, I decided to bite the bullet and just do them both at the same time. I figured I'd be out of commission either way, but at least if I did both I wouldn't be out of commission twice. Plus the added bonus that I didn't have to pay for two separate surgeries, so it was a bit cheaper to do both. I was a bit nervous for this one, My hands are kinda important to me so I was a little worried about something going wrong. I didn't sleep much Sunday night, and was up pretty early Monday morning. The most painful part was getting my hands numbed. The doctor said that part wouldn't hurt too much. The doctor LIED. They basically stick in a needle and fill your palm with novacaine to numb everything. It STUNG. Holy crap. He started with my left hand and I was trying to just breath between saying "Ow, Ow, Ow!!!" He asked if I wanted to stop and I said no, let's not delay the inevitable let's just get it over with. The right hand was no picnic either. But they finally got the novacaine in and pulled the needle out. Youch! My cute nurse looked super familiar and we finally figured out we'd been in elementary school together. Crazy small world! Once I was numb, they stretched out my left arm and did the surgery. Husband watched, I did not thankyouverymuch. It felt a little odd, but didn't hurt. Once they stitched me back up and bandaged it, they did the right side. I'm really ok that the part that hurt the most was the shortest part. It didn't take too long, and we were on our way home. Husband got me settled and went to get my meds. Niece Ashley was a saint and really helped me out. For most of the day I was till numb, so it didn't hurt too much. I definitely couldn't do a whole lot for myself, but using the bathroom and feeding myself were not a huge problem. I was just a little slow. Ashley was so good to run all my kids to and from school and take care of dinners and me. Niece Kylie was around a little, as well, and helped out where she could. I did not cancel piano lessons that week, so Monday afternoon I was teaching away with numb hands. I discovered I could still play enough to teach a piano lesson, so hooray for that! Two of my dear friends stopped by with a "sunshine box" to encourage my recovery. They basically went to Walmart and bought everything they could find that was yellow. It was absolutely hilarious and I am so grateful for amazing friends! Husband had to help me brush my teeth and get ready for bed. Thank heavens for really good pain meds - they just knock me out and I slept all the way through the night. I woke up hurting pretty bad, so Husband was quick to jump out of bed and get my ice packs and some pain meds. As long as I stayed on top of my meds, the pain was pretty manageable. Ashley stayed for about a week and a half, and I definitely couldn't have done it without her! It was rather amusing when she and Kylie tried to do my hair for me. It took both of them twice as long as it usually takes me, and I kept smelling burnt hair, lol! So basically, I let them help with my hair and husband help with a bath and teeth brushing once, and then I was determined to do it myself. Wednesday afternoon I managed to shower and do my hair and makeup all by myself, thankyouverymuch!
The reason I made so much effort on Wednesday was because we had an appointment with the Stake Presidency. This was planned before the surgery so we'd had a couple weeks to panic about what they wanted this time. Husband was still in Elders Quorum and hadn't been in the new presidency for very long. We knew our bishopric was due to be reorganized, so we were a little nervous. Husband had to work until 9, so we'd set our appointment for 9. Fortunately the Stake President is Husband's supervisor, so he was understanding about Husband's schedule. Ashely drove me to the church and walked me to the door since my hands weren't strong enough to pull the door open. Then she headed home to take care of my kids. Husband got there a couple minutes later. After speaking to us separately, they brought us in together with the entire stake presidency and asked if Husband would accept a call to serve as second counselor in our new bishopric. We were both (understandably) overwhelmed, but the spirit in the room was SO strong and confirmed that this call was coming from Heavenly Father. We talked for a few minutes about when everything would happen, and who the bishop and 1st counselor would be. It was the end of August, but due to Labor Day and the 1st counselor being out of town, they told us it would happen on September 9th. So we had a couple weeks to get used to the idea. Husband felt very overwhelmed and inadequate, so that spiritual confirmation was nice to have. Since our church didn't start until 2pm, we had a chance the morning of the 9th to tell the kids what would be happening. During Sacrament Meeting, they first released the old Bishopric. Then, the Stake president asked husband to stand and there was a very audible intake of breath from the entire congregation. Haha! I think people thought Husband was going to be the bishop. They only asked him to stand first because he needed to be ordained a high priest first. So it was kinda comical to me. Our new bishopric was sustained and they invited the old bishopric and their wives to bear short testimonies, then asked our new bishopric and their wives to bear a short testimony. I wasn't expecting that! With my bandages still on my hand I looked a little like a prize fighter in a dress. The meeting was filled with the spirit and that was just awesome. Since Husband's father couldn't say the words to ordain him a high priest, he asked our stake president, his boss, to ordain him. We are so grateful for this man and his friendship to us. We would've loved for Husband's dad to do it, but since he couldn't it was an honor to have someone we know and love so much step in. Husband's parents came, so his father was able to be in the circle as Husband was ordained. It's been a humbling, crazy, wondrful, stressful, faith-promoting experience so far.
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