Last Day of Summer and First Day of School

On Tuesday, we celebrated "Building Day." Together, we (Roderic, Hyrum and I) worked on separating the Lego sets and then building them. (Sabrina was at her final exam for Pre-algebra at the start, and didn't participate when she returned.)

Roderic's patience ran out quicker than mine, so he went to play with the sets, break them a part and rebuild. Roderic really likes Legos. He currently says he wants to work for Lego when he grows up so he can continue to play with them.

Can you believe our builder is so cheap that he expects me to help? Well, he isn't. I just thought it would be a fun diversion from Lego building. And it was. Sabrina took the photo, trying to have John out of the shot to make it look like I was doing all the work. There were 2 other guys lifting it at the same time. I felt like I was a part of the barn raising scene in "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" but without the fighting, or the singing.

We have some exterior walls! The plan is to get this section covered with a roof before tearing of the rest of the existing roof for our addition.
John took this shot and emailed it to Ryan with the caption: Malauna demonstrating proper nailing technique on the addition

Those nail guns have quite a powerful kickback. I put in 2 nails.

School started on Wednesday this year. With Sabrina going to Junior High this year, we're going to have to change our routine for morning family prayers. ie. We'll have one family prayer at 6:15am with Sabrina and parents and have another one at 8:15am with the boys and parents.

Sabrina only had to go to Les Bois on the first day of school, since it was early release. Treasure Valley Math and Science Center (TVMSC) does not operate on days when the junior high school has early release. Since she had no class at Les Bois until 4th period, she got to sit in her "homeroom" class for the first 3 periods of the day, listening to the teacher give her "Welcome to my class rules and routines" lecture. Then she got to listen to that same teacher in 5th and 6th periods when she actually had her. She said it was quite boring. In the future, when she doesn't have TVMSC, she's going to stay home until 4th period starts.

Both Roderic and Sabrina woke up happy and excited for the first day of school. I got to ride bikes with both of them. I was the only parent out on a bike with Sabrina, but there were a lot with Roderic. I hope the bike-riding weather keeps up through the end of October!

There Let the Way Appear...

Steps Unto Heaven

The staircase framing is complete! I told Roderic off hand that our builder was putting in a stairway to heaven. He told me, "We don't really want one of those because we don't want Heavenly Father to confound our language like happened in the Book of Mormon (Ether 1:33)." I'm glad to know that he is listening when we read the scriptures as a family, to apply them to his life experiences.

We're going to have amazing views of sunsets from our new upstairs.

Praying with Hyrum

Hyrum was asked to give a blessing on the food at lunch today. First off, he said:

Bless that we can always buy delicious little pickles.

Which is a good thing since he REALLY likes to eat pickles. And somewhere in the middle he said:

Bless the construction workers to be careful while they destroy our roof.

Construction has begun. Part of the roof was cut out yesterday to install a beam to support the new roof. When building is complete in 6 months, we'll have stairs, 3 additional bedrooms, a family room and a half bath.

And today there is a little rain. It has been a dry summer up until now... They got a tarp over the hole before the rain started.

They're Married!

Introducing Jesse and Keturah Moller:


It was a beautiful day at the Sacramento Temple. Cool breezes. Wonderful family. Beautiful.

California Here I Come

It isn't every month that I get to spend 2 weekends in a row with my parents and siblings. This is an extraordinary month. First, July 11-13, I got to spend a day and a bit with some of them in Nauvoo, IL (no group pictures were taken, silly us!). Where we attended the Nauvoo Temple and watched the Nauvoo Pageant together.


Next, July 21-25, I drove (Ryan was at Scout Camp) to California with my kids to be at my sister's wedding, except the wedding didn't take place as planned, so we went to their open house, ate delicious wedding cake and the next day attended church at the Oakland 9th Ward.



And to finish off the month, July 29-30, I get to return to California to witness my sister be sealed in the Sacramento California Temple. This time, I'm flying by myself. Our whole family would have driven, but the children all declined. Can you believe it?

Lego Parade

I gave Roderic a writing assignment this morning. He need to write a story about legos and the 4th of July. First, he told me that he needed to build it and then he'd write about it. He spent an hour just building.













Then he wrote the story:


In case you can't read his writing, this is what it says:
By: Roderic and Hyrum
July 4th. It was a beautiful day. Blue skies. No airplanes. Some soldiers were marching in a parade.

Hyrum-ism

This one happened in March, but I ran across the paper I wrote it on tonight and thought I'd post it.

Hyrum: {burp} "Excuse me, Leo."

Leo: looks at Hyrum with a quizzical look

Hyrum: "He's saying, 'Tell someone "Excuse me" that's your own size.' Leo there's no one here my own size to excuse."


In other news, this is what I was wearing when I went to sing with Syringa Sound Chorus for the Veteran's Welcome Home yesterday afternoon. It is our 'summer costume' with minimal makeup.