Weekend Roundup

Robin- a little more than a week ago, my good friend Robin called and told me her plan to come to Utah for a few months to complete spring and summer terms at BYU. She asked, if needed, if she could stay here with us. I told her that I was sure we could work something out. But I kind of didn’t think she could actually make all the arrangements and come to an agreement with her ex about the kids, but she DID it. She arrived on Tuesday night, and stayed here until she found a place that would accommodate both her and her bunnies. My kids LOVE her bunnies, but we just can’t have such attractive allergens around here.

Women’s Conference- Thursday and Friday I traipsed off to Provo myself to be uplifted and spiritually filled with many great talks. I wish I could remember every great word I heard. I wrote so much down, and have many things in my life to examine and hopefully make better. It was really great. By Friday afternoon, though, I couldn’t sit through one more talk, so I was happy to leave campus with Robing to go look at an apartment. That one didn’t work out, but she found a great one on Saturday.

Cole’s trip- Wednesday evening, I took Cole, two of his friends and one of his advisers to the airport, so they could all fly down to New Mexico for the Academic Decathlon Nationals. They have been studying SO hard and SO long, and were ALL glad that the weekend of the competition was finally here. I got a few texts about how things were going, and Ryan watched a bit of the superquiz that was streaming live on Friday afternoon. For their first time ever at Nationals, they didn’t do too badly. Cole earned a Silver medal in speech, and we’re so proud of him. I have no idea how much money he owes from his trip, as they haven’t finished their fundraising, but if any of you would still like to contribute, Cole takes checks. He came home Saturday night, and we were thrilled to hear all about it. You can read his take on it at his blog here.
Here’s my niece wearing some of Cole’s medals.

Chicken enclosure- For a while, now, I’ve been trying to figure out the best configuration of dog runs and coops for our chickens. Well, Saturday we took two separate 10′ x 4′ dog runs (both acquired for FREE, I am proud to tell you) and made one 14′ x 14′ enclosure.
It took almost all of us to get everything moved. One chicken coop in enclosed within the fence, and another is attached to the side. So I can let the chickens out, and they will hopefully have enough space to not pick on each other. I am not quite to the point of just letting them all roam with no chaperone, there is no cover over the run, and we have lost chickens when they were scared and flew up and over the fence, so we really need to get that covered. We’ll work on that this week.

Mom’s birthday-Saturday was my mom’s birthday, so I invited the whole family over for dinner on Sunday. I think we had 32 people over here, and they created quite a cacophony of noise! It wasn’t quite warm enough for everyone to go and eat outside, even though we had worked to get plenty of outdoor seating ready. I did eat my dinner outside and it was so much more peaceful than the chaos inside. But I think my mom appreciated having everyone together, yet not having to have the party at her house. My sister’s little boy started having an allergic reaction to the birds (who live in the corner of the kitchen), so that wasn’t fun. I was just so impressed that they had come, and brought all 13 kids. Yes, I mentioned that it was crazy, right? Between me and my sisters, we have 22 kids. I was outside trying to make sure none of them wandered off. I will admit that I didn’t totally clean up after everyone left. Our family just settled in to watch the Amazing Race (so sad that Mark and Bopper were eliminated) and I put it off until the morning. Messes will ALWAYS wait for you, I have found.

It was quite a week, and a wild weekend. I am personally very thankful for a boring Monday when I can get a little caught up. Well, until the kids get home from school, that is. Then I need to find a tux for Cole, take the kids to piano lessons, help with homework, make dinner, have family home evening….