Editor's note...me...Brian

O.K.
Just to clarify...there were no peace offerings..the dude was from the 80's and those "peace offerings" remind me of the 80's:)
The dog is actually in the pound for 10 days, and then it will be put down.
The owner will be fined by the city. He felt terrible.
Samantha should have had a few stitches but we did not take her in right a way so the nurse said to keep it clean and it would heal on it's own.

A blood sucking attorney (no offense to any attorneys we know) found out and had the following conversation with Brian:

Attorney: "We should pursue his home owners insurance and other legal action"

Brian: "The owner feels terrible, he gave up his dog, and will pay a fine"

Attorney: "What about the medical bills!?"

Brian: "It's a $20 co-pay and $10.00 for medicine...that's it".

Attorney: "Your daughter may need treatment down the road".

Brian: "She is fine and I am not going down that road!!"

This is a confirmation of what is going on in Washington and Wall Street. They are all law grads and want every dime they can get.

First dog bite

Well, we got our first dog bite in the family (excluding the mean New York poodles that snatched onto Brian during his mission). Jacob and Samantha always walk home after school past a house that had two dogs that are a pit bull mix. (Yes...another pit bull story) The owner just happened to let one of them out of his house as they were walking by and it immediately started running towards Samantha. Once Samantha realized the dog was coming she ran like the wind! The dog lunged for her tiny little thigh and bit her. She started to bleed, so the owner helped put band-aids and peroxide on her leg. She was able to walk the rest of the way home by holding on to the neighbors’ fence.
She has handled everything well, but I think all of the attention we have given her has helped.

Brian confronted the owner, and after an exchange of words (words which kept Brian from partaking of the sacrament the following Sunday..jk) the owner gave him the following peace offerings:
A hot pink KC light cover, a Bon Jovi belly shirt with cut off sleeves and a beer stain, and finally a Def Leppard cassette tape.

On a more serious note, we did call animal control and they are holding the dog for ten days. I am not sure what will happen to it after that. The owner did apologize and felt really bad.

Pioneer Trek Memories

I saw a picture of the pioneers crossing the Sweetwater River in Relief Society and it reminded me of when Brian and I were a "Ma and Pa" when we went on the pioneer trek in June of 2006. It was a wonderful experience and we were so grateful we could go.

I had one experience there that was really weird, but that I can look back at now and laugh. Each of us was given a name of a person that traveled in the Martin Handcart Company. My person happened to have died on the plains. The Stake Young Women's Presidency thought it would be meaningful if they separated out all of those that had died on the trek for the day. We couldn't be with our families, and we couldn't talk to anyone that was living. None of us dead people knew each other, so we were a bunch of dead mute people. It was really annoying and I thought quite dumb. I guess it was supposed to remind all of those that did not die how much they would have missed their family members.

The only thing I have learned from that experience is that if I am ever in charge of the trek someday, I will never make anyone be a dead mute.

On a happier note, Brooklyn is finally walking at 16 months, Samantha lost her first tooth, and Jacob lost his fourth tooth. His have taken longer to come out, so I am happy for the progress.

Halloween Happenings

With hat and wings

Without hat and wings

Running Club

Jacob is in a Running Club at his school. He has to run 15 laps around his school's big field and then he gets a keychain that is attached to a little plastic foot. Last year he did the same thing and earned about five keychains. He seems to really enjoy running. Maybe if I'm lucky he will run track when he grows up and then I can live my life through him. :)

Jacob has also started to write a book about his life. I asked him what he is going to write about. He said he could write about when he was a baby and he had tubes in his sides when he was in the hospital. Then Samantha said, "Don't do that. That will scare people." She gets scared easily.

On Monday I took all of our kids to the doctor. Brooklyn had her one year checkup, and Jacob had to get a wart frozen off. Then I decided to have all of my kids get flu shots. Jacob was pretty brave, but the three girls had a cryfest. It was way not worth it. I will never do that again. If they get the flu, then oh well.

First snow of the season

Our kids with a nice neighbor friend named Savannah.

They love playing hide-and- seek in our backyard.


Jacob, Samantha, and Amelia made lemonade stands

out of boxes and sat in our front yard. They had one customer: me

My mom gave us this gingerbread haunted house kit. The kids had a lot of fun with it.

Merrill J. Bateman, Starch, and WOO

Yesterday Brian and I gave talks in our ward. The topic was The Parable of the Talents. I talked about how we can develop talents through our jobs. I told the following story I haven't told a lot of people: I worked at the BYU Laundry when I was going to BYU. My first job there was to iron lots and lots of shirts. The hardest ones to iron were the ones that had a lot of starch. Heavy starch to be exact. Merrill J. Bateman was the President of BYU at the time and had his shirts washed there with heavy starch. It was impossible to get his shirts to be perfectly ironed. They would be sent back to me a lot to be redone. It was really frustrating. So everytime I read one of his talks or heard him speak, I would have bad feelings about him. I had to overcome those feelings with time. So from this job, I learned how to iron clothes and how to forgive or to not hold a grudge.

Apparently, the people who we bought our house from were really popular. Everytime people in our ward ask us where we live, the conversation usually goes like this : "We live in the Larsen's home." And then they say, "Oh, we love them. We miss them. They were such amazing people." From what I have gathered, "Sister" Larsen was basically a motivational speaker in the ward. So I've decided that she has the gift of WOO: Winning Others Over. Do any of you know people that have this gift?

Bumping into Trees and Other Things...

Jacob's teacher sent home a newsletter that quoted what each student liked or didn't like about school. I read one from a boy in his class that made me laugh, so I will share it: "I do not like school. All you do is write and eat lunch. Everything is boring. At recess I bump into trees and fall down."

I took Samantha, Amelia, and Brooklyn to the University Mall to see if their tree house play area was ready. A year ago there was a flood right by it. Then recently there was a fire. So I guess the tree house is not meant to be!

I have recently had a Jane Austen marathon. It all started when I watched the movie Becoming Jane. So I read Sense and Sensibility and Emma. Then I watched Pride and Prejudice and Emma. Now I just have to watch Sense and Sensibility to finish the marathon. Even Brian enjoyed watching the movies with me. (I think it helped that I rubbed his back most of the time.)
I love the dresses and hats the girls wore back then. But the men's tight pants are another story. I am glad they are not the style now. They give me the heebee jeebees (sp?)

Brian started taking down the wallpaper in our house. We borrowed a steamer from a lady in our ward. The downstairs was not too bad, but the upstairs is going to take a lot more time.


Our new home. We are going to either cut down that big tree and plant another one, or just wait until the Spring to prune it and poison the cherries.

We took a quick trip to Arizona to visit Brian's sister Lisa and her family. She just adopted two girls, Angel and Tiana. They were baptized and then their new baby Caleb was blessed. The day after that, we went to the Mesa Temple to watch Lisa and Sergio be sealed to Angel and Tiana. It was a neat experience. It is so simple, yet lasts forever.
On the way there, Brian got a speeding ticket. It was on an Indian Reservation, so it doesn't go on his record. Luckily, the ticket will only cost $50 made payable to the Navajo Nation.

Stiff

A nursery teacher brought Amelia to me during Sunday School and told me she was having a bad day. I asked if she was fighting with the other kids. She said, "No, she is stiff." Amelia was mad at Samantha for coloring all of the princess pictures during sacrament meeting. When Amelia gets mad, she balls her hands into a fist and puts her arms straight down. I guess "stiff" is a great word to describe Amelia :)

My favorite parts of our new home

I am so grateful to have a dishwasher! I have been washing dishes by hand for the past ten years( nine years of marriage plus college).

We bought this piano because it was a good deal. It was kind of a quick decision. It is about 100 years old, but in good condition. It is very heavy. I felt really bad for the piano movers. Especially because they had to lift it up our porch steps in the back of the house so they wouldn't ruin our inside stairs. (Our house is a split-level) . I have started to teach Jacob and Samantha piano lessons. Jacob is ready. Samantha is just beginning. I will probably teach them the basics and then in a few years they will have to take lessons from another teacher. It has been 15 years since I have taken lessons, or had a piano in my home. But I am grateful for it.

We just bought our first home in Orem. I took pictures of my favorite parts of it, but I forgot to take a picture of the actual house. I will put it on my next post. This is a picture of our cool mailbox we share with our neighbors. We love our new ward and neighborhood. Everyone has been really nice and friendly.

First week of school

I found this note that Samantha wrote. Either she was mad at me or being dramatic. It says, "I love you mommy but I can't stay here. I have to go away."

We have been walking to school to drop Jacob off in the mornings because we only live about two blocks from the school. Jacob is in second grade, Samantha goes to kindergarten in the afternoons, and Amelia will go to pre-school one day a week.

Bailey, Colorado

We went to Bailey, Colorado at the beginning of August to visit my brother Brent and his wife Amanda and their new baby Parker. Colorado is really beautiful! I've never seen so many mountains, trees, and lakes! We enjoyed spending time with my parents, my sister Stephanie and her family, and my brother Doug. We rode on paddle boats, got in a water fight in canoes which I wasn't very happy about, visited an amusement park that is a mini Lagoon, and slept in cabins.

June 2008

Jacob: 7 years old

Brooklyn: Turned one in July
Samantha: 5 years old Amelia: 3 years old