Hi everyone (or maybe no one!),
Time marches on, even in April. We've had some big changes this month in our family. Chris did get the bathroom finished - its beautiful. We decorated in a rainbow butterfly theme - each child now has their own color of towel so they can be sure they get returned to the bathroom and don't just disappear into the bedrooms, lost forever! So far its working out well. Easter went well. The kids decorated eggs with Dad - always fun. Easter Bunny hid them outside and with a little help from the dogs, we are happy to report all the eggs were found and made a yummy breakfast. John is now an official driver - at least he has a permit to learn to drive. He made an application for a hardship license and was approved for school and work on the farm so when he passes the driving test (will try next week), he will be able to drive all by himself during daylight hours within 50 miles of home and anywhere else with a licensed driver with him. The written test was a little harder than he expected - mostly due to the way they word the questions - at least he had the concepts down well. He took the test twice in Cody and didn't pass. That was OK because we found out that the official laminated wallet sized birth certificate issued by Utah wasn't valid anymore (and the state doesn't do refunds or replacements!!!) thanks to 9-11 so he took the test in Basin the following day with the other birth certificate we had and PASSED. Moral of the story: take the test in Basin. There was another girl in Cody who failed the test for her fourth time in two days. In other news, Michael is now the newest member of the family to get braces. His smile is dazzling but we like it! He is learning how not to bite his cheek with his new braces. Rachel has been busy putting her math skills into practice. She observed that it takes 3 wheel barrows of hay to feed her horse (still in the dog pen - but won't be for long at the rate she is destroying it) and then 1 1/2 wheel barrow loads to remove the "waste" products. Chris taught her how to do conversion ratios and a lecture on why horses aren't raised for meat. We are trying to get a personal FM system set up for Ammon for school next year and also one for home that we can use for his extra curricular activities. The speaker wears a small microphone which then transmits the voice directly to a receiver attached to Ammon's hearing aid. The advantage is he can hear the speaker across the room in a noisy environment just as if the speaker was talking right in front of him. It should be cool but as always, a lot of time is involved researching, meeting with school, audiologists etc. but hopefully we'll have something by the end of next month? Melissa and Becca are just busy and into everything as always. They can make messes faster than I and the four older kids can clean/pick up. Their smiles and laughs make it worth it though. We had an older gentleman stop by our house this afternoon. His name was Ollie Kooksie and he and his wife, Margaret, were the ones who built our house. It was fun to learn it was built in 1956 and cost $12,600. They also had constant problems with the septic system (one of the first things he asked about!) and the initials in the concrete are his and his wife's. We went for a drive with him around the farm and he described a lot of the changes and what was still the same. It was fun to get some history. Hope you are having a great month. Christine
Time marches on, even in April. We've had some big changes this month in our family. Chris did get the bathroom finished - its beautiful. We decorated in a rainbow butterfly theme - each child now has their own color of towel so they can be sure they get returned to the bathroom and don't just disappear into the bedrooms, lost forever! So far its working out well. Easter went well. The kids decorated eggs with Dad - always fun. Easter Bunny hid them outside and with a little help from the dogs, we are happy to report all the eggs were found and made a yummy breakfast. John is now an official driver - at least he has a permit to learn to drive. He made an application for a hardship license and was approved for school and work on the farm so when he passes the driving test (will try next week), he will be able to drive all by himself during daylight hours within 50 miles of home and anywhere else with a licensed driver with him. The written test was a little harder than he expected - mostly due to the way they word the questions - at least he had the concepts down well. He took the test twice in Cody and didn't pass. That was OK because we found out that the official laminated wallet sized birth certificate issued by Utah wasn't valid anymore (and the state doesn't do refunds or replacements!!!) thanks to 9-11 so he took the test in Basin the following day with the other birth certificate we had and PASSED. Moral of the story: take the test in Basin. There was another girl in Cody who failed the test for her fourth time in two days. In other news, Michael is now the newest member of the family to get braces. His smile is dazzling but we like it! He is learning how not to bite his cheek with his new braces. Rachel has been busy putting her math skills into practice. She observed that it takes 3 wheel barrows of hay to feed her horse (still in the dog pen - but won't be for long at the rate she is destroying it) and then 1 1/2 wheel barrow loads to remove the "waste" products. Chris taught her how to do conversion ratios and a lecture on why horses aren't raised for meat. We are trying to get a personal FM system set up for Ammon for school next year and also one for home that we can use for his extra curricular activities. The speaker wears a small microphone which then transmits the voice directly to a receiver attached to Ammon's hearing aid. The advantage is he can hear the speaker across the room in a noisy environment just as if the speaker was talking right in front of him. It should be cool but as always, a lot of time is involved researching, meeting with school, audiologists etc. but hopefully we'll have something by the end of next month? Melissa and Becca are just busy and into everything as always. They can make messes faster than I and the four older kids can clean/pick up. Their smiles and laughs make it worth it though. We had an older gentleman stop by our house this afternoon. His name was Ollie Kooksie and he and his wife, Margaret, were the ones who built our house. It was fun to learn it was built in 1956 and cost $12,600. They also had constant problems with the septic system (one of the first things he asked about!) and the initials in the concrete are his and his wife's. We went for a drive with him around the farm and he described a lot of the changes and what was still the same. It was fun to get some history. Hope you are having a great month. Christine
love hearing how you all are doing! :)
ReplyDeleteGood luck to Mike with the braces--those things are sharp! I think I still have all kinds of scaring inside my mouth from mine . . . probably better not to tell him that, lol.
ReplyDelete