All tucked in

I tuck hope in every night. It is pretty pathetic. She probably gets way hot but she lets me. 

Walk to the Shoals

Hope loves going out on the trails. She goes crazy sniffing everything. You really have to hold her leash tight so she can't run off trying to get whatever she smells. Justin, Hannah and I took a walk this morning. She wasn't really sure of the water.

 Hannah sure loves this dog. Hope didn't want to look at the camera.

Sorry

Isaac had his friends Gabe and Wilson over tonight. I made waffles for dinner. I loved that instead of going straight for video games, they pulled out Sorry and played a round of that. Not too many teens would want to play a board game on a Friday night.

New calling

Last Sunday I was released from being the YW president. I was very surprised when President Marcom asked to speak with me and Justin three weeks ago and he gave me a new calling since I had only been the president for just over a year. He called me to be the 1st counselor in the stake YW presidency (Brother Driscoll, the High Councilman over youth later called me to let me know it was supposed to be the 2nd counselor and I still accepted. Ha). I think this comes at a perfect time. I have been feeling like the girls might need a new leader as I now have every girl who I had as a MiaMaid (14-16 year olds) in the Laurel class (16-18) and Hannah had just moved in as well. It has been great to be with them for 2 1/2 years but I think it will be good for them to have a different perspective and Hannah to have someone other than me as her leader. She needs to have her circle expanded to more adults than me to talk to. I still get to work with the YW at the stake level and go to girls camp. Now I will just have a lot of meetings to plan girls camp! I was a little sad on Sunday saying goodbye and leaving them my testimony and advise. I was so touched to get this card in the mail today. It makes all the stress and time of being the president worth it. The new president is going to be so awesome! It is my dear friend LuAnn King. Since stake conference was just a couple weeks ago, I have been doing both callings so it will be nice to just have one.

Total eclipse

For the last week, all the kids can talk about it the total eclipse that was coming today, first one in the US in 26 years. You had to buy special glasses to be able to look at the sun for it and schools were letting kids miss school to watch it with their families if they wanted. Justin and I didn't make any plans as Justin had to work. Marianne Potter gave us a pair of glasses. There were areas within an hour and a half of us that were supposed to get the eclipse in totality. Hannah had plans to go with Spencer's family to north Georgia. Isaac and Nathan wanted to stay home so they all three missed school. I had no idea what to expect. Knowing now, I might have driven to see totality too. It was pretty cool. Rylan and Chandler came over and I ordered pizza for lunch. It was scheduled to hit our area about 1:40 so we went outside. Rylan had a pair of glasses too so we all took turns looking at the sun. It got darker and the temperature dropped. It was kind of eery. Everything had a green hue to it for a minute. After, the shadows on the ground from the trees were really cool. It was like you could see each individual leaf. Hannah was able to see it in totality. They didn't get home until after 9 since traffic heading back was very slow. There is suppose to be another one in 2024. Maybe we'll see totality then.

 Hope had no clue what was going on but enjoyed being outside running around in the grass.

 Hannah got some great pictures!

First day at KSU

Today was Nathan's first day of classes at Kennesaw. He will go to English, Government, and Arabic on Tuesday and Thursdays and Psychology on Fridays. He has both English and Government with Haley and Kate from our ward. Kate posted the second picture on her Instagram of Nathan. I was happy to see a little of his first day through the picture. I hope he has a great first semester!

First dress day of JROTC and boyfriend??

For JROTC Isaac has to wear his ACUs (Army combat uniform) every Monday. I had told him to get everything together last night so he would be ready in the morning. Of course, he didn't so he was rushed and in a grumpy mood trying to get out the door. I still made him take a "first morning in uniform" picture. Ha. He was so happy (can you hear my sarcasm?). Maybe he will learn to be organized this year!

A picture of Hope because she's cute. I still don't want her in my house most days but then she looks at me with those big brown eyes. Ugh.

Isaac came home from school much happier. He had practice after school for Raiders. Raiders is a competitive team made up of the JROTC kids. They get to do all sorts of physical stuff. Each meet will be a little different based on what events the school's courses have but will usually entail running, climbing, rope bridge (they have to make a rope bridge between two wood poles and get the whole team across it and then take it down) and other physical challenges/obstacles. He is hoping to be able to be on the male team for the school.

 Hannah has been friends with a boy named Spencer for about a year now. He is in the Woodstock ward which is about 35 minutes away. They met at church dances/youth activities. Justin and I were pretty sure he would ask her on a date as soon as she turned 16. He has been to our house to hang out as a group before and we knew they liked each other. Last night, Spencer called Justin and asked if it would be ok if he asked Hannah out. We both thought that took a lot of guts! Well, silly us, we thought he was asking to take her on a date. Justin said sure. The next day he showed up at the house with a flower and a candle and asked her "out".....as in to be his girlfriend. Whoops. Justin's answer might have been a little different if he had put that together. They live 35 minutes apart, go to different church buildings, different schools and neither of them can drive. Maybe this is a good setup!

Isaac's first church dance

It is hard to believe that Isaac is old enough to go to church dances. Tonight was the first one since he turned 14. It was about 30 minutes away from us. Nathan and Hannah weren't going so he was not going to go either but his friends talked him into it. I'm glad he did. He went with Asa and Spencer. Asa's mom drove which was really nice. He said it was more fun than he thought it would be and did dance with a couple girls.

Meet Loid (Lloyd)

Isaac decided it was finally okay that I took a picture with Loid. After a week, he thinks that he will keep him. Loid is definitely a healthy bird. He is a little crazy. He likes to talk and is very active. I think it was a little intimidating to Isaac at first since Floid was so mellow (probably sick). He is learning to mimic Isaac and step up onto Isaac's finger.

Water activity

Justin was released as the ward clerk and got called to be the Teacher's Quorum advisor. That means that the whole family gets to go youth night together. Tonight the Teachers were in charge and they planned water games outside. It was a perfect night for it.

Last activity for Roman before taking off to Provo for college.

Hope

The last week has pretty much been all about Hope and figuring out how to have her in our house. We started with just in the basement and putting her in the crate at night and when we leave. She doesn't like to be alone and I don't want to be in the basement all day so that only lasted a few days. She hates her crate and whines and thrashes around all night. We tried leaving her in the basement kitchen when we were gone shut in by the sliding doors and she tore the blinds down. She chewed the base of her crate up as well as her water bowl...not sure how as they were very hard plastic. She just wants to be with people. She really is the cutest and sweetest dog. Whoever had her before trained her really well. She still doesn't bark. She is quickly wrapping herself around everyone's fingers. We do let her come upstairs to the main floor with the kitchen which is where so spends most of her time. She is not allowed upstairs in the bedrooms though. She has snuck up and couple times and has gotten really excited to jump on Hannah's bed. I don't want dog hair on bedding or clothes so we will all learn to keep our doors shut. Everyone takes turns walking her. The hardest part for me is feeling like I've lost the freedom to come and go as I please and be gone all day. We will continue to learn how to be pet owners I guess. She loves being outside.

 She was trying to take over the bean and I didn't want it to always have her hair

all over it so I bought her a bed. The next few pictures are from the first day trying to get her to use the bed. She didn't want to get in it so Nathan showed her how. She just wanted his blanket.

 He gave her his blanket in the bed and she sat there for a few minutes.

 I took the blanket away and folded it up so she went and sat on that instead.

 Silly dog.

 She did finally sit in it for about two seconds. I decided that may not have been the best bed for her so we went back and got a mini "bean".

She liked that a lot better!

I bought a gate to see if that would work better than having her tear up the doors. About two seconds after putting it up, she attempted to jump over it and almost got it. She then took a running jump and kicked off the bench next to the wall to jump over it. I took it down and brought it back to the store before she would make a scratch on it. That was obviously not going to work.

I tried just leaving her on her bed at night instead of in the crate and she went right to sleep and stayed there all night. I guess that is what she is trained to do! No more crate.

 Hannah thinks it is cute when she is naughty and gets into things I tell her to stay off of.

 She has decided I am her friend and picks me to cuddle up on most of the time. Maybe she knew she would have to win me over with her cuteness to stay.

Braces off

Isaac's day started out a little better than yesterday. Before school he was able to go and get his braces off. That year went by fast! He didn't want to pose for a picture so this is the best I could get. Looks great!

First Day of School/Goodbye Floid

Today was the first day of school for Hannah and Isaac and the first day of seminary for all three of them. Hope had not slept at all and I had slept on the hard floor next to her meaning I didn't sleep either so I was a bit grumpy making sure all the kids were up and ready. Isaac had asked me to make pancakes so I did and when I came upstairs, he was not eating and I didn't see him so I hollared for him. He was on the couch and I told him he needed to eat so they weren't late. My tone was definitely not as nice as it should have been. He snapped back that Floid was dead. What??!! He said he heard him walking around the cage in the middle of the night and when he got up to take the blanket off his cage in the morning, he was dead on the bottom of the cage. My heart broke for Isaac. He was so sad and had to go to his first day of high school and seminary feeling crushed. He was worried he somehow killed him but I honestly think he came to us sick as he never did act the way we were told that kind of bird did. He never tried to play with any of his toys and never made any noise. While the kids were at school, I took Floid back to the pet store and got a refund for him. He came home still very sad. I told him that we could go get another bird if he wanted. He decided to go to a different store and get a conure he had seen a couple days before buying Floid. I was glad we went because on the way home he opened up and told me all about his day at school. He had a great day and loved that you didn't have to stay with your class/grade. He liked that his Freshman class was right next to upper classes rooms and some classes even had upper classman in them. He really liked his JROTC class and is excited for that. He has a good friend in lunch so he had someone to walk with and sit by. Yay! A successful first day of high school! Hannah had a good day as well. She had a couple friends in her lunch period. She is sad her art teacher is no longer teaching and wasn't so sure about the new one. I hope they both have a good year! Isaac wasn't up to having his picture taken with his new bird as he wants to make sure he is going to keep it.

Poor Isaac. This is the sad face he left with. His eyes were red and a little puffy too.