Update on our smelly problem

It has now been 6 hours and 15 minutes since our little black and white friend chose to bless us with what God gave him. I wish I could enter scent on the blog so you all could share in our pain. Seriously though how fun for Heavenly Father to create such interesting beasts to torment us. My house is now 58 degress and smells just as bad as it did at 6:00. I guess I better go beg mom for a few rooms for the night!

Ugh! Ewh! Gag!

This morning I woke up to our new dog barking in our garage. I ignored her for a few seconds until I got the telltale smell! Yep Skunk! I ran to the garage and realized she had it cornered. I don't know how many times a skunk can spray but it smelled like it sprayed each time she barked! I put her outside and opened the big garage door in hopes it would take of and tell all the other little skunks not to come to our house ever ever ever ever! I went inside. It didn't take too long before I realized that I was going to have a very miserable day. The smell was like an invisible cloud slowly creeping into our house. I shut all the doors to the bedrooms while I went in to my room and called todd. I know he is in Layton but I had to complain. After all he is the reason we have the dog. (Don't tell him that I like her anyway) By the time I got off the phone, I walked into the kitchen and it was so bad I was heaving! I called grandma next door and begged for help. Then I sent all the kids over with three days worth of clothes. We didn't bother to grab the 72 hour kits as they need to be burned with everything else that we have in our garage! I couldn't grab anything except the clothes I wore yesterday because I did my laundry yesterday and it is still sitting in the laundry room which is, you guessed it, right next to the garage. Serves me right for procrastinating! I just got back from opening all the windows in the house. Please pray for lots of wind! Are there any fragrence bombs that I can let of in my house so we can live there again? Oh also any advice on what to tell your kid when he calls from school and said he threw up after opening his locker and smelling his back pack? Fun days, Fun days!

Tyson - CEO

Tyson is working on a project at school where they create a company, website, flyers, logo, business cards etc. His company is Ferson, a Custom T-Shirt company. This is his flyer and business card. They acutally sell the shirts and then the money is donated.

Time?

Ok it has been almost a month since my last blog. I feel like I never have a minute to myself. I used to do so much and have so much energy. Now I just feel like I barely make it from one thing to the next. Anyway, I love reading everyones blogs and I will try to do better, just as soon as I quilt two quilts, finish (start) Jessi's May Day dress, do the bills for ScrappyT and make 10 wreaths :)

Wild Neighbors!

Monday after the kids got home from school Annette called to tell us to look in her backyard. There were 10 deer back there. Jessi was even able to get close enough to the fence to get these pictures.

Wild Back Yard!

April Fools Day!

April Fools!

Happy April Fools Day (Yesterday)! Dad changed his password to the wirless yesterday so I wasn't able to get on. Our day was quiet eventful. It started the night before. In the middle of the night I had to tell Tyson and Justin to go to bed because they were up preparing jokes. And the day started. Tyson rolled Todd's deoderant down and then replaced it with cream cheese, he also turned the milk yellow, tricked Justin, and later Shonee, into preforming a "science project" where he had them stand with a cup of water held to the ceiling with a broom, filled Justin's jacket pockets with rice, closed off Justin's and Brecken's jackets so they couldn't put their arms in, tampered with the computer mouse and added yellow spots to the toliet. Justin turned the butter green and clogged the conditioner. Todd left 15 pound weights in Justin and Tyson's backpacks and left 5 chocolates for the kids with a note to make sure they would share (which no one but Shonee and Brecken would touch). Shonee tricked Jessi with the same science fair project and Jessi and Brecken with the weights in their backbacks. Someone put tinfoil in everyones shoes. This all happened before 7:00 am! Later Shonee, Brecken, Justin, Jessi and Nathan (a neighbor) all got water poured on them (all at different times) from a bucket perched on top of the door. Todd and Justin both had botched gel and flour gags. Brecken tried to trip Tyson with a pyramid of cans. As for me I stayed out of it ....... until dinner. I served chocolate straberry pie for dinner. (Great recipie from Family Fun!) Since the day didn't end until 12:00 we all slept with our doors locked. Do you blame us?

Congratulations Talan!

Talan was blessed yesterday. Congrats David and Robyn. It was a very nice day.

Jessi's Papers

Mom's have to brag and I guess this is one of the easiest forums to do so. Jessi recently turned in three papers to her english class. Vingnettes. Her teacher was very impressed and told the whole class that if they needed help to talk to her. Here are her papers.

I know Better

Where I live, life is simple. Unless you know better. The big dirt pile across the street that all the kids play on after school looks unremarkable. Until you go closer and realize it is really a space ship, with the cockpit disguised as an old piece of abandoned farm equipment, with danger hiding in the tall grass. Everyone knows that the old boney tree surrounded by morning glory up the road is haunted. And not to EVER go outside at night, because having a wild gully in our backyard brings us closer to some wildlife than we like. Scarier things are out there. Real things…
Sightings of lithe monsters. I’ve seen three myself. Walking up the road on a warm 4th of July night, there were two young ones prancing across our neighbors car. Another time, after a wild, savage wind ravaged our yard and all but destroyed our legendary climbing tree, I was with my grandpa when he pulled me to a crouch next to him and was very quiet. A male mountain lion, with russet fur and yellow eyes slinked past us heading towards its home in the mountains that guard our valley.
Black masked villains will rob you if you aren’t careful. It’s not always them though. Sometimes it’s an out-of-towner. A pine marten perhaps, or a mink, or maybe even a skunk. Deer roam freely on our street, and twice we have had to tread cautiously between my grandma’s house next door and our own because of moose.
My neighborhood is riding our bikes to Fonnesbecks with two well earned quarters clutched in our sweaty palms to buy a soda from the machine. It is swinging on the old, red rope swing in the front yard. It is knowing where the wild plumb trees are hidden in the gully. It is knowing better.

Window


When I was young, my dad would tell us stories, I remember the feeling of comradely as me and my two brothers snuggled up next to him. In that warm safe place he would open a window to another world. A world where life was simple as going and picking berries and fixing water to make dinner. Each aspen leaf would quiver in vibrant detail, the rugged snowcapped mountains stood like arrowheads pointing up against the sky. The alpine firs stand as sentinels over our little valley, and the sound of birds singing made us feel like home…
The call of a black capped chickadee startled me. I looked around the woodsy mountainside where I lived with my father, mother and siblings. Our cabin was about half a mile form the huckleberry patch where I stood. My small, fiber woven basket had tipped when I jerked up and a few of those precious berries, their smooth reddish purple sides almost ready to burst with their sweet juice fell almost in slow motion, the noonday sun filtering through the dense trees and casting long thin shadows on the pine needle carpet, illuminated them as they finally hit the ground and bounced slightly once before coming to a rest. The thick fragrance of the forest filled my lungs as I sighed. The chickadee called again, laughing merrily at his joke, and flew away in a flicker of black and white. The spring tinkled gently. The warm air was making me sleepy.
I yawned and snuggled a little closer to my dad. I would dream of a beautiful valley. A valley made by my father just for me.

Antique

I have a name found in the dusty antique corner, studded with garnet and wreathed in deep purple velvet, held together with aged, tarnished brass buttons. I was named for a rebellious hors woman in the movie “Man from Snowy River” although I am rarely called Jessica. Most people call me Jessi. With and I. It is a little girl’s name. Little and cute, which I guess is what I am, but that’s not how I feel. Everything about Jessica tells me to be responsible. Which, unfortunately, I am not. My name weighs me down like a thick wool coat in the middle of June and stumbles awkwardly off my tongue when I am asked who I am. In a way I am lying. I am not an antique.
My parents considered naming me Rhiannon, before they decided on Jessica. Stevie Nicks, a regal woman dusted with magic and old songs, and smelling of roses, sings about Rhiannon. Rhiannon was the daughter of Heyvedd the Old. She was the Welsh goddess of the moon and of horses, set to marry Gwawl, another God. But she was in love with a mortal king. But unlike most stories, hers is not a happy one. Rhiannon is now considered the guardian of all those who are forced to speak against themselves. Everyone who must repeat a lie so many times, he or she begins to believe it. “She rules her life like a bird in fight...” Smelling only of the fresh cold wind.
Rhiannon became something she was not. I won’t become and antique.

Wreaths

We did wreaths, wreaths and more wreaths yesterday! We did 60 in all. My kids think I am a slave driver. I guess they are right.

Family Fun

Monday we spent Family Home Evening playing with the balls the Easter Bunny left. We had a mean game of four square complete with an impromtu rap song. Thats right rap. Tyson came up with a four square rap and beat boxing. Rhett came in and added his style to it also. Tyson now thinks that he should go public with it and make it big. After that we played lighting. I was able to stay in more then one round for the first time in my life! Rhett was about to make a basket when I yelled Rhett don't get me out. He listened. Now how can I train my own kids to do the same?

Pat's Memorial

Pat's Memorial

We had a very nice Memorial for Pat (Our neighbor across the street) yesterday. Grandma and Grandpa Skinner, Robyn Dave and Talan, Annette and Cameron (another neighbor) and Mike Morgan (Pat's Friend) were there with Pat's Son Ron and wife Patricia and kids Jordan and Elizabeth. We shared memories of Pat and then had a balloon release. We love and miss you Pat!

Easter Fun!

Easter

Saturday Easter fun! We started out the Easter fun with the Mendon Easter egg hunt. Jessi, Tyson and Justin were in charge. Shonee and Brecken hunted for eggs. Then we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Skinner's for another Easter egg hunt. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! Then we went home and decorated easter eggs! What fun!

Just getting started!

Ok, it has been so fun to read Lezlie's and Kim's Blogs that I decided to try one. Maybe we will be able to keep in touch with everyone this way!