Makin a "Hooch" in the wild

That's the back of our house.

Our new house has a lot of wilderness behind it.  That is one of the reasons we wanted to live here. Our backyard is pretty much just dirt trails and juniper trees.  Sometimes there are animal bones out there.  And a whole bunch of trash.  For some reason people who are too lazy to drive out to the dump just drive out here and dump all their junk.  We have seen old tires, scrap metal stuff, old mattresses, big plastic containers and on and on.   The up side of all the garbage everywhere is that it is super fun for kids to play with.  (No, I do not encourage this.)  What they say about people's trash being treasure could not be more true.
One of Ian's favorite tv shows is "Man vs. Wild" where a guy has to survive out in the wilderness in different types of locations.  The guy in the show is always building shelters out of stuff, which he calls "hooches".  One of Ian's favorite activities is to use the old junk he finds out behind the house to make a hooch, or a fort.  We just gotta watch out for rusty nails, broken glass and rattlesnakes. Hmm, kind of sounds like the real wild.

Crash and Burn

Now that we live on the edge of town Ian has a whole lot of wilderness to explore.  He went with the scouts last week to see some petroglyphs that were not too far from our house. Ever since he saw them he couldn't WAIT to show us.  He rode his bike down a dirt and gravelly road while Kent and I walked behind him.  And then we saw him crash. Hard.  He had actually crashed (again on some gravel) in front of our neighbor's house just a few days before. This kid is an animal.    After the crash he was a kind of light headed and dizzy so we let him chill for a few minutes.  We stuck him back on his bike and Kent and I pushed him all the way home.  We didn't make it to the petroglyphs.   We will have to go back another time.  When we got home we cleaned up his arm and couldn't decide whether he would need stitches.  It was about 8:30 on Saturday night and I knew the Instacare closed at 9 so I decided to just take him.  He ended up needing 6 stitches.

Long Time No See (Welcome to Crazy Town)

I couldn't even log in to my blog today at first because it made me enter my password since it has been so long!  I changed my password awhile ago and didn't remember it.  Yeah, it's been that long. So, what have we been up to these days (and not blogging about it?)

We have been up to:
Piano lessons x 3, dance lessons x 1, kids in school x 4, part time job x 1 and college classes x 2. And we just started soccer x 2 and we have been babysitting an extra kid after school x 1.  And we have Let's Play Music x 1.  And YW x 2 and scouts x 1.  And sewing classes x 2  I think that's it.  So, basically instead of blogging I have been driving around all over the place and doing homework (not housework... that's another story.)

It has taken me a bit of time to figure out what my college path will entail.  Since I am non-traditional, there are a lot of questions about the classes I have already taken, what will count, what I have to take etc.  The problem is that 1. most of the classes I have taken only count for electives so I have to re-take several classes (which is dumb) and 2.  The people at SUU don't know what to do with my situation.  Literally.  I go there to talk to *insert person here* and they say, "you need to fill out this form/go talk to someone else/write a letter/call the secretary blah blah blah...".  Then I do that and the run-around just keeps going on with the next person referring me to someone else who fills in another piece and then passes me along to someone else. It has been quite frustrating really.  I think I finally have things figured out though so now I'm on the road.  I'm actually more than just on the road. I have completed one class (a re-take actually), introductory psychology.  I did it through BYU Independent Study.  Right now I'm working on statistics (blargh) also through BYU.  This summer I decided not to attend SUU because the classes are SO dang expensive if you take them one by one. Instead I have 3 more BYU classes to take online during the summer and in the fall I will start at SUU and be ready to not have to pay for classes a la carte there.  I'm almost halfway through stats.  I will be glad for that. I don't find it to be fun at all.  And I keep thinking, "who would choose to study this for their life?  UGH!"  I have requested my 2nd exam and hope to get that taken next week.  Sometimes when I am slogging through regression lines and residuals I think to myself, "what have I done.  I'm totally crazy to be doing this".  And then I repeat in my mind what I have told myself many times:  I don't have to do it all today.  If everyday I do what I have to do "today", then in 3 years I will be done and will have conquered this.  And just in case you are wondering, next fall I am going to have all the kid stuff but I won't be working part time or doing sewing classes. That should free up a few brain cells, hopefully.

Emilia is 15!

This lovely and talented girl is 15!  One more year til she gets her driver's license.  That is scary for sure!  She can actually get her permit after she takes the written test. I'm leaving that up to her. When she wants to do it she can get it scheduled and do it.  I'm not pushing the matter!

Emilia has had a great year.  She started Success Academy and is a Freshman.  Success Academy is a difficult high school program that gives kids the opportunity to take college classes concurrently with high school classes.  This year she took the ACT and was accepted to college.  Next year she will start her college classes.  When she graduates from high school she will also have an associate's degree.  I am hoping we will both graduate at the same time.

Emilia loves to draw and has really grown as an artist. She can look at a picture and draw it.  She has also somehow gained an appreciation for languages, especially European languages and is taking German at school.  She is fascinated by Sweden and Finland and is super excited about going to Ephraim in May for the Scandinavian Festival.  And as always, this girl loves birds and can recognize almost anything by it's call or how it looks.  She's an awesome girl and we love her so much.

I am noticing that Ian is pretty much always in everyone's birthday pictures. He wants to be where the action is for sure.

These girls don't look excited do they?  They are doing what they call "fan girling".