A moment in the week of a Keller

Time flies when you are having fun and boy did we have fun last week!

Our first really busy week of the school year.  We had 2 dental appointments and 3 orthodontist appointments, hair cuts, allergy shots, scripture and pottery class (mom), help at 7:45 with car pool, temple, choir, piano, guitar, acting, choir, young mens, primary program practice and a field trip.  Who would think we could cram more into our week?  

Obviously it wasn't enough for my children.  Thursday afternoon Grant and Ethan came home from the bus.  I tell Grant to step out and tell Morgan to come in because her ride to acting will be here to pick her up in 5 minutes.  I have her clothes and snack already so she can run to class. Grant informs me that Morgan wasn't on the bus.  Not an unusual comment from Grant so I tell him I'm serious and to get Morgan.  He again informs me Morgan wasn't on the bus.  I'm telling Grant to stop kidding and I'm thinking there is no way she missed the bus or she would have already called me to come pick her up.  We have that routine down (Morgan missed the bus quiet often last year).  Ethan pipes up and tells me that Morgan really wasn't on the bus and of course I believe him right away.  So I call the school and hand Grant my cell phone to start calling friends.  All the while I'm trying to think of other times we've lost Morgan how long I should wait till I call the police.  They finish searching the school and no Morgan.  At that exact moment my old cell phone rings and I answer and it's a neighbor who is picking Morgan and her son Jackson up about 3 miles away.  She hadn't called because she didn't want to hang up on the kids (smart) and then she couldn't reach me because our lines were all busy... as luck would have it Morgan remembered the old cell number (the spare phone, we'll never be able to get rid of it now).

According to Morgan, she and Jackson were walking out to the buses.  Jackson was telling her that one of the other buses also went up to NSL and he figured it might drop them closer to his house so he was going to try it.  Morgan said she'd try it too.  Now, these are two very bright children, but when I asked Morgan why, when she knew it was the wrong bus, she informed me she didn't want Jackson to be lost alone.  Go figure.  I had to agree, who would want to be lost alone?  So off they went on the wrong bus.  When the bus turned the wrong direction they told the bus driver to stop, but he wasn't going to stop until the next scheduled stop, so then Morgan said she wasn't brave enough to tell the bus driver that they were on the wrong bus.  Luckily, Jackson found a girl who had a cell phone and they got off with her and called his mother who kept them on the line until she found them.  Hurray for Moms!  Needless to say it was the first time I was glad that my kids are the last to be dropped off, because it didn't leave me with too much time to worry about it.  After our long talk on what you should do when you get on the wrong bus I asked Morgan if she was scared and she told me she almost cried, but she figured I was more scared than her and that I was crying, so she didn't cry.  (The more likely reason would be that she was with Jackson).  

So, Ethan must have felt that he wasn't receiving enough attention last week.  Friday he rode the bus home to his friends house.  They were out back playing when my friend noticed they had taken their backpacks outside.  So she stepped out to ask them to bring their bags back in so they wouldn't lose homework, etc.  When the boys informed her that they were studying Coyotes in school and they found a dead one and they were going to take it to school.  My friend then notices the dead animal head and leg that the boys had on the patio and asks where they got it and why they would touch it.  Only to be informed by my son that, "There weren't any flies on it."  So I get a call while they are in washing their hands over and over again.  I head up to get my cute, sweet Ethan...  and I of course had to check out the dead animal.  It turns out it was a dead, half eaten deer.  My friend then told me that she had the boys pose for a picture with the animal and the backpack that almost became it's new home.  She said when she asked the boys what their teacher would have thought my Ethan told her that they were studying carnivores in science and so they were going to take it to science class.  Oh, if their teacher only knew.  Here is the lovely coyote/carnivore eaten creature.

Sleepover

Troy is sleeping out in the playhouse with Morgan, Ethan, Grant and our cute neighbor Cassie.  We have the boys upstairs and the girls down stairs, how did the two girls get the bigger room?  I have a feeling Ethan will end up down with the girls.  Where is mom you ask?  In soft sheets in her own bed.  Mmmm, why would I want to sleep on a hard wood floor when I can have soft sheets and a comfy mattress...

Funny update.  Troy came in a little after 10 pm to read his book and watch a little TV, because the kids were asleep.  I was pretty impressed that they fell asleep so quick, while Troy thought it took forever and was really late for them to finally fall asleep.  The next morning Grant came in and got me up so I could help him make some pancakes before the boys went fishing with Troy.  While we were making breakfast Troy came in and informed me that last night he had been tricked.  He told us that when he went back out at 11:30 last night the girls were up playing and when they heard him coming they ran in and got in their sleeping bags and turned off their flash lights and pretended to be asleep.  Who know when they really went to bed.

You're It! 'tagged by Tiff4 places I visit over and over:

You're It!  'tagged by Tiff4 places I visit over and over:

1. My (our family) blog
2. Target
3.  Allergist's office
4. Barnes and Noble
4 people who call, text, or email me regularly:
1. Troy
2. Suzie
3. Diane
4. Mom
4 favorite foods:  (I'm not good with one answer)
1. veggies: corn, green beans, squash
2. fruits:  strawberries, pears, watermelon, raspberries, peaches
3. Chicken Fajita Salad at Plates and Palates 
4. treats: Chocolate Ice Cream and Kit Kat
4 places I would rather be:
1. I like being home in my house (took a couple years, but I like it now)
2. warm: Hawaii, Belize
3. city: London, NYC
4. close: grandma's, bear lake
4 movies I would watch over and over: 
1. Pride and Prejudice (BBC & Keira, any Jane Austin)
2. French Kiss (any Meg Ryan)
3. Scarlet Pimpernel
4. Any of the X-Men Movies
4 bands or groups I love to listen to:
1. Tom Petty
2. Jack Johnson
3. Most Musicals: Jane Eyre, Mamma Mia, Scarlet P, Wicked, Joseph, Secret Garden
4. Any good 80's music 
4 people I am tagging:
1. Any one who reads this and hasn't done it
2. 
3. 
4. 

lots of typing

Here is Troy working hard in Delaware.  A few rooms like this were their offices for the past couple weeks at a hotel in Delaware.  They've finished things up and will hear the Judge's ruling in a few weeks.  I think it would be stressful to be a litigator and have to wait for the rulings after all the work you've put into the trial.  

I spent my week typing away.  Three years ago I spent every Monday for a few months interviewing and tape recording my Great Grandmother, so we could record her history.  I really enjoyed it and it's been fun to listen to the tapes.  I had typed up the first tape that year and then our hard drive crashed and no one could retrieve anything off of it and I sort of lost my momentum with the project.  About a year later I got six of the eight tapes typed and then I haven't done anything with it for the past year.  So I decided I needed to finish it now that the kids are in school and I have some quiet afternoons.  And, yeah, they are all typed up.  Now they need a bit of rearranging and editing and I'd like to add some pictures and my mom even mentioned adding recipes.  So I have a bit more to do, but it feels great to have the foundation finally done.

Picking Dad up from the Hangar

What a fun Friday I had.  With the kids off to school I talked a friend into going and seeing Mama Mia with me.  I hadn't seen the movie version yet and obviously everyone else has, because when we got to the theater (12:25 showing) it was completely empty.  We had the whole theater to ourselves.  I'm thinking I might have to go to a noon shwing more often!  Suzie was saved, right after the film started two other women came in.  I told her if it had just been us I would have danced and sang through the entire thing.  I love all the Abba songs in the show.  My childhood friend Becky and I used to dance to Abba in her family room with the dusters all the time!  Love it.

I met the kids off the bus and Grant went to Simon's to play and Madison came to play with Morgan, so Ethan was feeling totally bummed that none of his friends were around to play.  After a bit he took some popcorn over to our neighbor Cassy and played with her.  Finally we got everyone rounded up and headed off to pick up Troy from the HANGAR.  He got to fly home on the Corporate Jet instead of his planed flight Saturday morning, Yeah!  So he came out and asked the kids if they would like to see the jet.  Of course they were all filthy and barefoot after playing out side all afternoon, but Troy said it was ok.  So we went on a little tour of the corporate jet and no, Troy can not stand up in the plane at any given point, but it is longer than I thought it would be, but also a little narrower than I thought it would be.  There is one comfy, padded, swivel chair at each window and a separate room with chairs and a bed for the Chairman.  We met the pilot and saw where the snacks were kept.  I think Ethan enjoyed it the very most.  He had a lot of questions about the plane for Troy after we left.  The pictures were all taken with my new iPhone, which doesn't have a flash so they are a little dark.  The first picture we are in the plane, then coming out of the plane and the last picture is the plane President Monson flies in parked on the other side of the hanger.  I was amazed at how big and clean the hangar was, it didn't look so big from the outside.  Very cool.  

Our Crazy Dog...

Ok, so I've been trying to think of something to write about all week.  I really didn't think I would enjoy blogging so much.  I thought we'd do vacations or something, but I've really enjoyed writing about our family and the pictures we take.  So you know I'm pretty desperate when I start writing about the family dog!  You'll know it's really bad when I start a day by day journal of what I'm doing with myself now that all my kids are in school.

Moving forward to the story of my day.  I took Percy in to Becky to get his hair and nails trimmed, doesn't he look handsome.  When I drive around with him in the car I shut the end of his leash in the car door and when we are on neighborhood roads I roll down the window for him.  Side note: if he's in the car I have to lock the windows because he paws at the window button until the window rolls down.  So we are driving home and are close enough that I roll the window half way down and before long it's all the way down.  I have this fleeting thought to roll the window back up and lock it and then I think that is stupid, there is no way he'll jump out of the car.  So what does the crazy dog do one block from our house?  Jumped out the window!  Did I notice?  Unfortunately not until I was pulling into the drive way.  So I turn around and go look for him.  I was so afraid it hurt is neck, ok I thought it may have broke his neck, because the entire leash was gone from the door.  I'm driving and no Percy anywhere.  I went home to see if he made it home and had a message from this guy who found Percy limping on the road before our street.  He brought Percy by and I thanked him and then I noticed he was just sitting in his car for a bit.  Should I have offered him a reward?  Anyway, Percy is fine and running around.  I'm super glad because I really didn't want to explain a dead dog to my kids.

Cold Season

Morgan came home from school Wednesday with a runny nose, which usually happens the first week of school.  So I was thrilled that we made it through two weeks before our first cold made it through the door.   I've been having us all drink airborn, which only Morgan hates, to try and keep the rest of us from getting sick and maybe nip it in the bud for Morgan.  

This morning Morgan was lingering downstairs and being slower than usual with the hopes that I wouldn't make her drink the airborn and so I wouldn't find out she had a cough and keep her home from school!  Grant or Ethan would fake a cough if they thought it would keep them home from school every now and then.  Needless to say I let her go to school with her cough, her teacher is going to hate me, but it's one of those fights I have to keep for when she's really sick.  Do I warn her teacher that even with her adenoids out and tubes in her ears she tends to have a runny nose all school year long and will still get at least one ear infection during the year?  

I think these are the two things she inherited from me.  Can't miss school, although mine was strictly out of fear and hers is more for social reasons and having a terrible immune system.  Oh, she also inherited my allergies poor kid.  Otherwise I think she is Keller through and through.   It is sort of funny that people think she looks like me until they see or meet Troy and then they say how much she looks like Troy!  It makes me laugh because I don't think she looks at all like me.

Well here's to another school year, wish us luck!

Carlin's Never Ending Birthday

Troy was going to be out of town on my birthday so we took the family to the Mandrin for dinner the night before.  It was so yummy!  And guess what I got for my birthday?  An I Phone with accessories.  Very fun and exciting.

With Troy out of town on Thursday I figured it wouldn't hurt to slack off a little on my birthday!  I really didn't even have to try, it all sort of happened.  I got up and dressed and checked my email when my dear friend Diane called from Colorado.  Very exciting and we chatted for over an hour (nothing unusual).  Then Suzie called to see if I wanted to go to lunch, which with no other plans how could I pass that up?  So we headed off to Plates and Palates in Bountiful and had a very enjoyable lunch.  She had never eaten there so it was fun to introduce her to one of my favorite lunch spots.  In fact we ran into my neighbor there who I usually eat there with.  Suzie and I ended up hanging out until the bus came with the kids from school.  I got the kids snacks and started on home work and had a message on Facebook from a friend on my I-Phone so I checked it out on the computer (still easier for me to reply on the computer).  And my friend in DC had sent me birthday wishes and cake.  Then my door bell rang and my friend Heather had brought me by a chocolate cake.  And on the door step were brownies from my visiting teachers and cute, yummy soap from Sara.  I was just spoiled all day long.  To top it off Suzie brought bread and jam to go with our dinner and then I left Grant in charge and went out to the movies with my mom and sister!  What a day....  

Wait it's not over!  Troy invited my whole family and Brady and Jamie's family over for cake and ice cream on Sunday.  I had to post the Keller family pic, it might be the only family picture we get of them!  We ate left overs from the neighborhood party we had at our house Saturday night.  Then some cookies, cake and ice cream.  And Kathryn even came up and played her guitar for me!  So spoiled am I!
Thanks hun!!  Love ya -- Grant took this picture, pretty good shot.  (better if I had worn heels!)

Grant's Guitar

Grant worked hard this summer moving dirt, rocks/gravel, mulch and flag stone so he could earn a lot of money and thus he ended up with a new guitar!  Now with a month off of playing we've got to get back into practicing so he can play it!  Good Work Grant.