October is My Favorite!

Well, October is here! The leaves are changing colors and falling from the trees. I decorated for Halloween. The play I'm in is almost through, and Riley's 6th birthday is the 13th, and Halloween is almost here! Kaleb is going to be Spiderman. His new obsession. He thinks he is Spiderman. Zach is going to be a Warlock from World of Warcraft and Riley is going to be his Voidwalker. Could he have picked a harder costume? Most people don't even know what that is. I will be putting it together like a hunchback costume because voidwalkers are these big hunched over demons that warlocks can summon to help them fight their enemies. I love Halloween. It's my favorite holiday. I don't dress up any more, but I love dressing up the kids. It's so fun. I'll post pictures of Riley's birthday party next week. He's having a monster bash theme. So much fun!

Savior of the World

Well, I promised I would let you know more about the play I am in. I have a minute to plug it, so I want every one who is able to come, to come. This play has been a wonderful experience for me. I have auditioned for other roles and not gotten them, and I believe it is because this play is where I am supposed to be right now. This is what the Lord wants me to do. Honestly, I really wanted the part I auditioned for for a movie called Dear Jane, Dear John. But filming would have taken me away from Savior of the World rehearsals. I usually want every part I audition for. But that is beside the point. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for me. I just don't always know what that plan is.
This play is about the birth and resurrection of the Savior. It's about the story of Mary and Joseph and about the people who loved Him after he died and was resurrected. It's powerful and meaningful. My stake is putting it on, so not all of the actors in the play consider themselves actors. I know that they are doing the best they can, and they are wonderful. We have a lot of talent in our stake. So come if you can make it. Admission is free.

It's a Boy!

Ha ha! We'd like to welcome our newest addition to our family! This is Neji our new puppy. He is a lab mix. He was born July 9, 2008 to our neighbors around the corner and up the street. Zach and Riley came home from school September 2, and said they were giving away their puppies for free! I wasn't sure I wanted a puppy. But then I said I would go look. I fell in love with them. I'm not stupid enough to take them all home, but I called Kurtis and asked him how he felt about it. He said he was going to leave it up to me. So we got a puppy! The kids were so excited. Now we get to potty train a puppy. I just finished potty training a little boy. This can't be too hard, right? He is so cute and tries so hard to be good, but he is still so little that his instincts override anything else he tries to control. But he is sweet.
Oh, everybody always asks us where we came up with the name Neji. Well, our family really likes this anime show called Naruto. Naruto is a show about a boy training to be a ninja. His nindo (or ninja way) is "I never give up!" Which is why even though he can be a little annoying, we love him. Neji is one of the characters in that show, and it wasn't so Japanese that people would think we were nuts. We considered Kakashi (he's my favorite character), and Shikamaru (he always says, "What a drag!"). Here are some pictures!

He's already grown! When we took him to the vet, Neji was 10.6 pounds. The vet said that he would get as tall as he his going to be in 9 months and that he would weigh as much as he is supposed to weigh in a year. He also said that his weight should double each month, and that he should be 60 pounds by the time he is full grown! He's going to get big. Abbey, our other dog who is a beagle mix and 9 and a half years old, only weighs 36 pounds.


The boys like to run around and have Neji chase them!


Zach loves his dogs!


This is Neji from Naruto

Mourning Doves Part 2

Well, the update on the birds is that the big brother has flown away (as far as I can tell). Hopefully he or she is finding a mate and having little birds of his own. Well, the mom and dad did come back. Lots of people have asked me about this. Let me tell you what I know. When was 17, I worked at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge as a Youth Conservation Corps Member. We mostly fixed broken fences or helped the biologist count birds or picked up dead birds who had died of botulism so it wouldn't spread, things like that. It wasn't glamorous, but I liked it. Anyway, when I worked at the bird refuge, I asked the biologist there about the parents abandoning their babies if they smell like people and she told me that wasn't true. We were catching and tagging birds at the time. I was wondering about it because I saw a Cosby Show episode where Rudy found some baby birds and was trying to fry up some worms for them on the stove and her mom asked her what she was doing and told her that. The biologist said parents probably tell their kids that because they want them to leave the birds alone.

Let me tell you what happened after I last blogged. I asked Kurtis to get some bird seed along with the other few items he was going to get from the store on his way home, so we could help Big Brother not starve. I went looking for him after dinner that evening and couldn't find him at first, so I was just going to put the food by the garbage can and let him find it later. He was behind the garbage can! I went to put the food next to him and he flew into the middle of the road. He was just going to sit there, so Kurtis said I should try and get him to fly back over to the house (oh, and he wasn't flying very high, more like a hover, but he could go a good distance for a little guy). So I went to nudge him gently (I was really worried I was going to hurt the poor guy!) with my foot and he flew the rest of the way across the street into the neighbor's yard. So I let him be, just left him the food and water, and went inside. The next day, I went to see if I should just get rid of the food and take my bowls back inside, and he was back. I could tell he'd eaten some of it because there was food around the bowl. I left the bowl there, and went back inside. I came out a few hours later to check on him and he was gone. So I figure he flew away for good because we haven't seen him since. But now Zachary really wants a bird. I've decide to look into it. He has to take care of it, though. That's the thing that we are apprehensive about. We don't know if he is responsible enough and will rise to the task. And I don't know how much it will cost, yet, so we'll see.

Mourning Doves

Well, we had an interesting morning today. Let me tell you about it. I was just working out on the excersize bike (I wish it was a treadmill), minding my own business (it's a little after 10 by now probably) when Zach comes running into the house (or was it Riley - I can't remember) yelling, "Mom! Mom! There's a baby bird that fell out of it's nest! Come out and see!" I said that I would when I was done working out because I only had like fifteen minutes left, but not to touch it because I didn't want it to make them sick. He said okay and ran out the door. Then, they come in and Zach has the poor, terrified creature on his Spiderman mask. They want to keep him! "Um, get that thing out of my house right now!" I yelled, fighting the urge to go kick their butts right there (I'm still working out). Couple of crazies. After my work out (which suddenly seemed like twenty minutes instead of five minutes later), I went to see what they were doing. They are so cute. They were digging for worms to feed him. Aww! "No! You don't get to feed him!" I have no idea what he eats. So I go over to the tree and look up. There in the nest is the daddy bird sitting so quietly and calmly trying to be invisible. I took pictures. They are posted below. I know it's the daddy, because I looked it up (after, duh). Any way. I put on my gardening gloves, get out the ladder and try to get the daddy to fly away, so I can put the baby back in his nest. The dad doesn't budge. But then Zach decided to climb the tree. He scared the daddy bird away and as I climb the ladder, I see why he did not want to leave. Baby has a Brother (or sister, I know, but I have all boys - these are boy birds. I'm the author; I decide!). Well, putting Baby back scared Brother, so now I have the situation I didn't want. There is a baby bird on the grass in my front lawn. Yep, I scared Brother so much he tried to flee. Great. Well, I'm not picking up the other one, too. So I've been keeping an eye on him. Daddy came back to the nest and everything is fine for Baby. I really hope Brother makes it. We may have to adopt him and feed him until he can fly. The kids would love that! So, I did a little research on the internet and compared my pictures to the ones on the internet and the birds are Mourning Doves. Very interesting. They eat mostly seeds. The ones in the trees are not squabs, so much as they are juvenilles. (Great, I'm not sure if I'm ready for a teenager!) The dads nest in the midmorning until late afternoon and the moms nest in the evening and nighttime. How's that for cooperation! They work together. When the dad flew off the nest, the mom was right next to him, pecking at him yelling (not really), "Why did you fly away and leave my babies to die!" She did peck him on the head, though. Here are the pictures I took:
The pictures are mislabeled and it's driving me nuts, but for some reason, I can't fix it. The caption on the side of the first picture goes with the second picture and the caption on the side of the second picuter goes with the third picture. Sorry for any confusion.

This is Baby in Zach's Spiderman mask. He's so cute!
This is the daddy, but I thought he was the mommy!
This is big brother! He's pretty scared I bet.

Oh, the Irony!

Well, honestly, nothing too excellent has happened lately. I had an audition yesterday (which since I haven't heard anything means I totally bombed), I cut four inches off my hair. I think it makes me look older, but nobody else seems to agree with me. I'm overly critical of myself. But who cares.
Anyway, Kaleb flooded the bathroom today. That was exciting. I'm guessing (since he wouldn't tell me what happened) that he put the entire roll of toilet paper in there, flushed and started screaming. Heh heh heh! That's what he gets. Anyway, I hear him screaming, and I run up the stairs thinking he must have fallen in (yes, he has done that before, too), only to find him standing in oh, a quarter of an inch of water that is over-flowing out of the toilet and onto the floor, and a little into the hall. So much fun to clean up. Well, Zach helped me by getting me the towels we use to dry Abbey off after a bath, because the mop wasn't moving things along very quickly. Luckily for Kaleb, the bathroom he flooded was the downstairs closet of a bathroom with only a sink and a toilet. It's really quite funny, though. I was just instant messaging with my friend about how there were a couple of times I thought he was going to flood the bathroom. Life is full of ironies. Man, it seems like I talk about toilets a lot. I need a more interesting life.

My Birthday!

Yesterday was my birthday! I am now 29 years-old. My friend who is 30 likes to tell me she is old. I am just a year younger, so next year I will be old, too I suppose. Whatever. We're not old! I don't feel old. My hip still hurts sometimes, but so what. Advil works great. :) And I am officially too old to audition for American Idol (which I don't watch, my agent sent me an email about the auditions - that's all).
Anyway, I had a pretty good day. The kids were pretty nice to each other. When they would act up, I would say, "Be nice! It's my birthday!" And they were nicer. We made cookies. The chocolate kind with chocolate chips and white chocolate chips. They turned out yummy! :) Later, the kids asked my why we didn't have cake. I told them because we had cookies - that's what I wanted and it's my birthday! They didn't like that so much. Too bad. My awesome sister-in-law watched the kids for us while Kurtis and I went to the temple in Bountiful. It was nice. So calm, peaceful, and quiet. Then we got Winger's to go, picked up the kids, put them to bed, and watched the movie Hairspray. Ha ha! I loved it. It was pretty funny and entertaining. I love musicals. Beauty and the Beast is still probably my favorite, though. Our city put on the play for the 4th of July and they did a very good job. I wish I wasn't so scared of auditioning for musicals. Perhaps I will overcome them soon. Our stake is putting on Savior of the World in October (more details to come!), so perhaps this will help. I have the part of Salome and I have lines and a one-line solo! Woo-hoo! Ha ha! It will be fun, and I'm a little freaked out about that tiny solo.
Here are some new pictures of the boys!

Riley's T-ball game

Helping Daddy weed the garden

At the zoo!

The white crocodile at the zoo is so cool!

We have a pretty cool park

Swings are always fun

Taming the beast!