August

I'm determined to get caught up with life and stop pushing off small tasks (like uploading pictures to my computer.)  Unfortunately, I don't remember much of what happened in August.  The Porters came to visit in the middle--I'll write about that separately.  I also think that's when I was released from the RS Presidency and got called to be a Primary teacher.  It's kind of a great feeling to be responsible for just a tiny piece of the branch.  I can teach a few kids every week, no problem.  I will not be getting any last minute calls about child care, meals, or visiting teaching.  :)  

Apparently I was feeling motivated one morning because I set up a sensory bin with all the beans I have had in my pantry for years.  I think they're actually older than all my kids.  

We had neglected the weeds in our backyard for way too long.  (Who knew weeds grew through astro turf...)

My efforts to entertain the kids before church one morning: buzz light year and a fairy princess running around the neighborhood on pretend Mars.

Just a daily occurrence.  A sink full of dishes.  I also may have taken this when our dishwasher was broken.  I can't remember when that happened, but we were hand-washing dishes for 2 weeks, and then got a black dishwasher that didn't match our other appliances.  Gotta love rentals.

I started a round of Whole 30 at the beginning of August.  My sister was supposed to be doing it too, but when I heard she was pretty relaxed about it, I too became relaxed.  And ultimately didn't have the motivation to complete more than 20-something days.  I probably didn't lose more than a pound.  But I discovered some delicious food, like plantain chips at Trader Joe's.  That's probably why I didn't lose weight.

Tiago kills me with his sleeping.  He is quite rebellious at bedtime.  This night, he didn't want to sleep. And when I came to check on him he'd climbed up to the top bunk.  He also slept with his 'daddy-doll' while Hyrum was gone.

Ever since we visited my mom's house and the kids got ice cream cones from Grandma, they asked for them constantly.  One day I caved, then regretted it because it was such a mess and the kids were still whining about the drips and the heat and wanting more, etc.  I guess it was fun for a few minutes.

Hyrum was gone for a week at the beginning of the month in Louisiana planning a training event later in the fall.  Then he left for a long training at the end of the month (here at Fort Carson.)  There was an accident during one of the live-fire exercises that resulted in a soldier casualty.  Hyrum's job involves a lot of the paperwork and coordination when there are casualties, so he came back to the office and basically worked around the clock for a few weeks before things were semi-caught up.  It was a big hit for the unit.  He was home after I was asleep, and gone before I was awake.  So a few nights I took the kids to his office to bring him dinner and let them remember what he looked like.