Funny things

Some funny tidbits about our family:

1. Thomas came home from school yesterday and said "Allison loves me."

"Of course Allison loves you!" I say. No- this is a different. Allison is a little girl in the 1st grade & has a crush on Tommy. What?! He told his Dad, "Allison wants to date me." We introduced Tommy to our family rule of no boyfriends/girlfriends until 18. He doesn't seem interested anyway.

2. When Tommy gets upset with Allison (his sister), he tells her: "I'm not going to marry you! I'm going to marry someone else instead."

3. I ordered Becca and Tommy's Halloween costumes through a Groupon deal and had to order them separately to get two. Becca's arrived yesterday (a pink hippie costume) and Tommy's (Stormtrooper) is still nowhere to be seen. Eek!

4. I'm trying to be a more balanced person after the move, etc. I was so focused on trying to make my blog work so that I could help support the family from home if I could. It's actually turned out to be a blessing for us! It does make some money for us on the side and that has helped us get reestablished in a new place. The crazy thing is that Family Fresh Foods opened when we moved to Ogden and they started doubling coupons in January. That's when I decided to start a blog. This week Family Fresh Foods is closing! So sad...

5. It's still summer here. When do the leaves change in Texas?

6. John is getting some nice perks at work in the way of food: free lunches and dinners, and even came home with a gift pack from a hotel full of cookies and snacks- wow! You're not going to get those kind of perks being self-employed. He took me to a BBQ restaurant last week that was to-die-for! The gift certificate for the restaurant came through work- yay!

7. I started teaching piano lessons again (our piano was shipped here from Utah- thanks to John's Grandma!) and I have 2 students so far. I am trading lessons for one of the students for hair services from his mom. I like the barter system.

8. John has a calling in the Cub Scouts- Bear leader and I am in the Nursery. The first two weeks in Nursery were HORRIBLE, but last Sunday was better. I'm with the older group, so they'll all be graduating into Primary in January! Hopefully, I'll get the sweet 18 month olds after that. Oh wait .....

9. Allison is auditioning for a solo in her school choir today, "God Bless The U.S.A."

10. Thomas made friends with a little boy in his class that lives about 4 doors down from us (so he's really close!) I went to meet his family last week and they are from Zimbabwe! It was really fun to meet them and talk to them- I felt like I was in London again.

11. Texas is a VERY conservative place and there are hardly any billboards around. (Nice!) Most Texans are church-goers on Sunday morning, but go to events on Sunday night like it's Friday or Saturday. Neighborhood parties, The Mickey Mouse show, concerts, etc. all happening on Sunday night!

12. My bishop's wife makes better rolls than I do. She's my visiting teaching partner so I'm pretty sure I can score the recipe.

13. There's a neighborhood here where all the streets are named after the Monopoly properties.

14. I went to Tommy's IEP meeting this morning- it's called ARD here. John joined us by conference call from work. It was him on the phone and 7 women at the school! Wow, Tommy has quite a team to help him. He will be getting resource help with his reading, but they determined that he is performing normally in math!

15. John received President Monson's biography for his birthday. (Thanks, Mom & Dad!) It's very funny and we've really been enjoying it!

16. Becca gave her best friend at school a pass-along card. She also attends church and was a new move-in when we were.

17. Tommy continues to amaze us with his musical abilities. John set up the practice pad and a few drums right in the living room. It's very entertaining!

18. No basement here and you cannot store food storage items in the garage because of the summer heat. We have three closets full of wheat, rice, beans and oatmeal!

19. I could go on and on, but I'll stop for today! This is an easy way to get our tidbits of news out to everyone! Love you!

Texas State Fair

We were able to attend the Texas State Fair on Saturday! It was John's birthday and our bro and sis down here got us tickets. It was a crowded, but very fun day!

Tommy and Henry are little buddies. Tommy is always disappointed when he comes to visit and can't sleep over. They are cute little friends!

At the Ford displays. These are our favorites, Josh! ;)

The Birthday Dad and son wishing they were rocking out on the stage behind them.

We loved this cute little farm they had for kids! Tommy got an apron and a bucket of corn and fed the animals at each station. He also got to put the milkers on the cow, gather eggs, and plant seeds in the garden.

At the end of the farm, you got to turn in your vegetables, etc. and get paid. They gave all the kids a paper dollar and they got to go to the "store" and buy a snack with the fake dollar.

Allison was a good sport through the whole thing and helped Tommy out at the farm. We liked the way Tommy's arm matched in this picture!

We are loving Texas. It's truly a wonderful place! We miss our sweet family and friends but hope that someday we'll have visitors...? I still can't wrap my mind around being so far away. I keep thinking we'll be back in Utah next week for a visit. Reality will probably set in around Christmas time. We're happy that we have blogs and such to keep in touch!

McKinney

Our poor little family blog is so neglected.... it's true. In my defense, I've tried for days to upload pictures and for some reason it wouldn't work! So here are the two handsome men in our family at our church in Frisco. The weather finally cooled off last week!

The kids have loved the long summer. They even went swimming between conference sessions on Saturday.

We had a few field trips to Old McKinney and loved the colonial houses. There are quite a few and they are kept up really nice. The kids were ooohing and aaahing over them and the girls told us which house they are going to live in when they grow up.

The reason we were in McKinney was for a less glamorous reason: laundromat. There's one miles away and it happens to be near these gorgeous older homes.

We finally figured out at home (on dryer #3) that there must be something wrong with our electrical connection. Well, actually, we weren't that smart, the Spirit told me that it wasn't these poor dryers fault!

Our dryer now works as of today and boy, do I have some catching up to do! I was kind of enjoying doing laundry only once a week. The laundromat is not a bad way to go, if you have to. I would wash loads all day on Monday, load up the wet clothes after dinner with the family, 40 minutes in the dryers, everyone helps fold- boom! You're done! Now it's back to the regular way.... a few loads everyday. :)

We had a little family party with Josh & Mary's family.... for Allison's big 13th birthday. She was so excited for her big day and really wanted to have a swimming party- she'd never had one and this would be a first! We unfortunately got rained out of that idea. We stayed inside and decorated these silly cupcakes and watched old home movies instead.

Yay for a cute new dress!

Henry's silly jack 'o lantern pumpkin. Mary saw this picture and said, "That is so Henry!" Such a sweet boy!

Janie likes to hide in the space between our fridge and the wall.

More of downtown McKinney. There are a ton of tourist specialty shops (including a ski shop??), the girls really liked this girly-girl party store.

Me and John Ryan. Thomas took this picture..... upside down!

They're ready for Halloween in McKinney!

Rebecca and Thomas in front of their elementary school. They walk back and forth about 3 blocks each morning and afternoon. It's a little opposite here- elementary starts early and middle school starts 40 minutes later. They also have full-day Kindergarten. We are very impressed with the schools and the staff- everyone has been wonderful! Becca is running for student council secretary and will go on a 3-day, 2-night camping trip for a field trip in December. She has all the luck when it comes to field trips!


More of McKinney! Sorry I didn't bother to put the pictures in order, I'm going to be elated to finally get them up! There are a lot of sidewalk cafes downtown as well- we can't wait to show the grandmas and grandpas around this place! The girls think this will be the perfect destination for their Daddy-daughter dates. We'll see....