My Opinion on the Presidential Election

Donald Trump is still a disgusting, lying, adulterer who does not care about the nation, the unborn, or the natural family. I don't trust him one bit. My opinion on him is unchanged. But Hillary was clearly the worst choice. She is a criminal. She is involved in any crime in which she thinks she can make money including pedophilia as the NYPD discovered through Anthony Weiner's computers. She has a huge list of friends, colleagues, and employees who have mysteriously died. She is lawless in every way.

Therefore, I am less disappointed than I thought I would be in this election. I know most people who voted Trump did so because they want better for America. I cannot agree that a vile person can make America better, but neither can someone who has spent a life time actively trying to destroy it. And there is a big part of me that hopes with the republican sweep,Obamacare will die first thing.

This Week at Our House #45

1. I had a really busy week, so I did not spend much time with John. But he did take me on a very lovely date to the best sushi restaurant I have been to since leaving Utah. It was really yummy, a little too pricey, but very nice to be out together. John also very nicely took the van in to have the blower fixed before winter. He just took it and worked while he waited. I was so grateful to not have to do that. We went through the whole winter last year with no way to defrost the car and felt like it was pretty dangerous. I am glad to have this fixed before winter and before the baby comes. John also bought a desktop to help him with some work stuff, but also for the kids to have a computer as his laptop will still be his main work computer. That has been a nice addition and will help homeschool a bit.
2. I had a busy week trying to get things ready for the baby. I had my midwife appointment on Tuesday. They have been doing nonstress tests to see how the baby's heart is doing. So far, things are good. The heart rate fell a little at one point but was normal for most of an hour and a half. We are really praying that this baby makes it here safely. It is now 5 days until my due date. My next midwife appointment is in 4 days. John will come with me then because that is when we will make a decision about what to do if I have not gone into labor yet. We are not expecting to go in to labor by then as I usually just don't go into labor without some sort of kick start. 
3. I did not hear from Ruth much this week. She has been very busy with homework, exams, and art projects. She usually loves art, but I think this course is maybe ruining that. I hope not. She is actually quite good and has always enjoyed drawing as a hobby.
4. We've had trouble getting a hold of Kate's transcripts from North Carolina. We finally got them Friday and now need to mail them out. There was a lot of run around about where they went. We had to be transferred several times on the phone after the high school determined they did not have them anymore. Eventually we had to go to the school board and talk to the right person. Then we had to go back and pick them up. Now we will need to mail them out, All this rigmarole has stressed Kate out very thoroughly. She's learning about bureaucracy.
5. Johnny babysat a lot while I ran numerous errands once again. Since I am his teacher, I make him write papers on books that I assign him to read. He hates that. He will write for school teachers, but he always thinks it's unfair when I make him write. But that is just too bad because he needs to know how to write before college. This week I made him write a theme paper on Huckleberry Finn. He loves that book, but not does love writing about it.
6. Adam had his birthday on Friday, which he just loved! My parents came out today just for a few hours for his ordination to the Aaronic Priesthood. I was glad that my dad was there in the circle for that. Adam is now very excited to join the young men's program. 
7. On Adam's birthday Rachel got herself a serving of ice cream that was bigger than her head. I had warned the kids not to take too much because I did not want to waste such a nice treat. After a couple of kids took a lot, I declared that if someone got their own ice cream and then threw it out, they would be grounded from ice cream for a year. Rachel ate all of her ice cream!!!
8. Anya got to her first Isaiah chapter in the Book of Mormon. She spent 20 minutes reading and trying to understand one verse and then burst into tears because she just could not understand it. John and I thought that was adorable. She is definitely diligent.
9. Joseph may be a very active boy, but he sure is capable. He is only 7, but he can cook using the stove. In fact, he asks to help with dinner whenever he sees me cooking. He makes ramen noodles himself. I think it is time to have him start making brownie mixes.
10. I am just so excited that Joshua can read his Bob books so well. I thought it would be really hard for him to learn to read, but he memorizes well and is not too intimidated by sounding out.
11. Arwen got her new months supply of coloring books, but we are almost out of crayons. She sure loves to color. Arwen also came to me to tell me that she is a big girl. She does this a lot, but this was funny because she was playing with her skirt and lifted it up just like a little girl just as she was explaining that she is actually a big girl.
12. I have been talking to Susan about the new baby coming. One morning, I asked her where her baby was and she stuck out her tummy, patted it, and said "My baby is here."

Happy Birthday Adam!

Our Adam is 12!!! He has been counting down to this birthday since July. He will be ordained to the Aaronic priesthood on Sunday and join the young mens program. Adam is and has always been everything classic boy. He loves to eat. He loves sports. He loves fights. He loves hands on projects and building things. He loves to wrestle and tease. He is fun and wild and good. He has always been very capable and one of my more helpful children. He will do just about any chore for money or candy. Out of all of the kids, he willingly changes the most dirty diapers. We sure love our Adam and look forward to see how he progresses through these next few formative years.

This Week at Our House #44

1. John worked many more hours this week, so he did not exercise as much. He came with me to my 37 week check up and then we went to the Temple together. We were glad to get in one more Temple trip before the baby comes.
2. I am now 38 weeks pregnant and definitely counting down the time and looking forward to meeting this new baby. We had an eventful week. We carved pumpkins and had trunk or treat at the Church. I spent a lot of time checking off things on my "before the baby comes todo list." It looks like I will get them all done. The biggest one is getting the van repaired, which will happen this Thursday. We had the primary sacrament meeting presentation this week. I had 6 kids up there with 6 parts. It was so fun to watch. We will never have that many kids in primary in time for the primary presentation ever again. 
3. Ruth calls every two or three days. We love hearing from her. She has Kate's math teacher from Legacy Prep. He is a great guy and asks her about our family. Ruth attends the Temple almost every week. She is in walking distance from it. She says she spends all of her time on homework, but I think some of that time is spent helping other people with theirs. 
4. Kate got most of her stuff completed for her college applications including getting her transcripts from various high schools ordered. She has been a bit nervous about it all. Kate spends a lot of time playing with the little kids. They have a lego game that she has joined them in and they ask her to play often. 
5. Johnny did a lot of babysitting this week while I ran a lot of errands. I am very thankful for my older kids who so willingly watch younger kids so I do not have to take them on all of the boring errands anymore. 
6. Adam finally got his new glasses. He has been wearing broken glasses for a month and a half. His glasses were ready to pick up when John and I went to my 37 week check. When we got there, they were the wrong glasses. The were sparkly purple and very small. We thought it might be another month before the right ones came in again. Fortunately it was only one more day. But it meant that I had to take another trip to the Raleigh area. That is always at least 3 hours of driving. It is a definite downside of living in a smallish town. But there are many upsides like being closer to the beach and no traffic.
7. We got the car seat for the baby in the mail and Rachel made the box into a little house. She has been hiding in it, having Anya ask the younger kids a question and then Rachel yelling the answer out of the box while Anya pretends it comes from her.
8. John and I are still astonished at what a new person Anya has become. We spent a couple of months forcing her to read the scriptures and repeat back what she had read. She could not do that before. Now she can, but it seems to have extended to every part of her. It is like she had no idea that you could read something and then know about it. Now she tells us about her scriptures and the books she reads. She even reads one thing and then compares it to another thing she has read before. She is remembering things much better now too. We really had no idea that Anya was reading without learning. She learned to read early and easily. She had no trouble reading out loud and was often in the hardest reading group. I never really had trouble getting her to read chapter books or anything. I am glad we caught this young and I love seeing how much her world has changed.
9. Joseph dropped a homemade stuffed toy into the toilet, fetched it out, came downstairs and had everyone touch it because it was wet and then confessed how it got wet. Ughhhh
10. Joshua held onto the microphone during his part of the primary presentation so it squealed and you could not hear what he had to say, but he did have his part memorized. I bought these great little books for Josh. They are called Bob books. They are very simple and Josh is loving that he can read them. 
11. Arwen loves to color. She colors several hours a day and goes through 4 to 5 coloring books a month. Each month near payday, I go the dollar store to buy more books.
12. During Church I said, "Stop it, Susan!" She responded back, "I am not Susan!"

This Week at House

Halloween 2016 Photos

Kate--A Superman fan

Johnny-- Clark Kent

Adam-- Pirate

Rachel-- Butterfly

Anya-- The Cutest witch in the world

Joseph-- Batman

Joshua-- T-Rex

Arwen-- Fairy

Suzy-- Dancing Unicorn

Recent Susan Tales

I looked over at Susan and said that she was almost 2 and a half and needed to start talking. Johnny said that maybe Susan is just shy. Kate and I kind of chuckled and said that Susan was definitely not shy. Susan then jumped up, ran toward Johnny and said very clearly, "I, not shy!"

We got a new car seat for the new baby in the mail. The three youngest kids were playing around it. Susan sat in it, pushed Arwen down and said, "Sit down! You not a baby!"

This Week at Our House # 43

1. John took Kate and Johnny to the Temple on Saturday and lost his glasses. Now he wants to get contact lenses. He sees that I wear them always, but I doubt he would be as comfortable and as determined as I am about contact lenses. It's an expensive experiment. I suspect he will do it anyway.
2. John and I were reading back in my blog in 2008. Ruth was 10 to 10.5 at the time. We lived in Wichita, KS in a nice home. We had never really gone through anything harder than a car repair we couldn't afford without credit. I was young and pretty energetic, and worked quite hard to keep our house spick and span clean. The kids had never had to deal with anything hard. It was interesting to read how light hearted we all were. I think we laughed a lot more. Since then, we have become more serious and much, much busier. I do not have to time to keep the house so perfectly clean. The kids help a lot more around the house-- both the older kids and the younger kids. Our understanding of life and the gospel has increased as we have experienced a lot of personal difficulties. The world around us has changed substantially. I am more involved in things other than motherhood. I had no worries about sending my kids to public schools. It really is amazing to see how much our family has changed. I think it would be better if we joked more again. But I know we can never go back to those easy going, light-hearted days. Even if we hadn't experienced so much difficulty, the changes in the world, our nation, and society have been too substantial. The easy days of American life are over. With the exception of bloodshed, I am sure we will never again be as free as we were in 2008.
3. Ruth seems to be doing well. Kate and I had the opportunity to help her personally by doing some editing for her history class. She had a date, so she did not have time. We were glad to help.
4. Kate spent time working on her BYU and BYU I applications. She has seen the Bishop for her first half of her ecclesiastical endorsement. I suspect after another two more weeks, everything will be completed and it will be time to wait. Kate is not too excited about the whole application process, but I know she looks forward to college.
5. Johnny has started computer programming as part of his schooling. I think he likes it because he has been diligent about it. 
6. Adam is excited for his birthday. He will be 12 in less than two weeks and he has been counting down since August. He is still wearing broken glasses. We hope his gets his new glasses this week. 
7. Rachel is excited for Halloween and was quite good about picking out an affordable costume.
8. Anya was very excited for computer day this week because she is ungrounded and could play for the first time in months.
9. It's primary program time again. Joseph has a long part, but apparently memorized it all on his own just during the practice last Sunday. 
10. Joshua played Super Smash Brothers with Anya and won. Anya thought that was awesome and amazing.
11. Josh scratched Arwen on the nose and while John was looking at her, Arwen said, "Don't take it off."
12. Susan is talking a lot more. She has been behind in language skills and I have been mildly worried. But she seems to be saying more and more sentences. I keep doing double takes and looking who said that.

Tender Mercies

1. There really isn't much to report. Things are going really well for all of us and no one really needs anything. That is a huge tender mercy.

This Week's Pictures