Lake Powell

We had a great time at Lake Powell. We had to watch Kyle like a hawk as he wasn't afraid of the water at all. He even jumped off the deck into the lake. Here are a few pictures of our adventure.






Robert couldn't stand not skiing even though it hurt his swollen leg. Surfing didn't hurt too bad but the air chair hurt him to where he was limping pretty bad by the time we got home.

Robert's adventure in the Provo River

Robert and his friends got a little wild building a raft and floating down the river. Robert might have to stay home and go to work instead of skiing at Lake Powell now. Bummer for him.Vickie nursed Robert's leg while Bob gave support. I watched and learned since I now have to start taking care of my kids injuries when Bob and Vickie leave on their mission. (I'm scared as Vickie has already removed stitches twice for us this year). Kyle heard Vickie tell Robert he needed to ice his swollen ankle and he went in the house and prepared a bag of ice himself. It was so cute.

summer time fun

Boys will be boys. Ouch!

Yea, finally good weather. We can play the day away! (we got a fence in the backyard)

Getting breakfast in bed for Joanna's 13th birthday Ok it's not much of a breakfast but it is lucky charms which is a treat for our family. Joanna got her ears pierced and a make-up consultation for her birthday. It was fun .
Bad hair day!

My baby Kyle is growing up




Everyone is pretty white from our long winter

root canal

Three years ago my life was so overwhelming to me that I seriously felt like going to the dentist was a break. I remember getting a crown done on a tooth and thinking how nice and peaceful it was to be able to sit in a chair and not be interrupted. I realized later my thought processes were a little twisted but life was crazy! Well, the tooth I got the crown on still had pain so a year later I went to a different dentist and he redid the crown hoping that it would get rid of the pain when I chewed on hard things. Well, it didn't work either. The next year I had a crown done on a different tooth and was pretty much out of money at that point. Another year passed and I finally got fed up with a tooth that hurts and decided to finally get a root canal done to help the troubled tooth. The endodontist explained that I must have a crack on the tooth and a root canal MIGHT help it if the pain is inside the roots and not on the outside of the roots. I decided to give it a try. As I lay in the chair this morning I was happy that I actually wished I was at home and I didn't feel like being at the dentist was a break. I will admit though that while I am not totally overwhelmed with life anymore, I still must be tired because I think I fell asleep. At first I thought it was going to be horrible because they put this mask over my mouth, (and being a Shields), we tend to breathe through our mouth and so it made me claustrophobic . I realized I could breathe through my nose and calmed down. Well, I am hoping after many dentist appointments and a few thousand dollars later that this is going to work. If not the next step is removing the tooth and getting a fake one. I'm not certain but I can imagine that will cost a pretty penny. Its sad when you want to get a job just to pay for your dentist bills. When we had dental insurance we hardly had any work done but thats the way the cookie crumbles I guess. I am glad that I must have had a good endontist as it didn't seem that bad. I'm still numb however so maybe I'll change my mind in an hour or two.

funerals, vacations, and aloha

It was so much fun reading everyones blog that I hadn't read for awhile and writing in my own that I decided to try again today.

I didn't mention Lynn much yesterday so I'll briefly catch you up on his life. I finally decided to give my ok for him to get a buzz cut which he has wanted for awhile now. I kept telling him I wanted him to keep his hair long as long as he had hair since he probably won't have it much longer. He got the buzz and I doubt I'll ever see it long again. He loves it and rebuzzed himself 2 weeks later. It is growing on me.
He has been busy with conducting 3 funerals in the last few weeks. Hopefully he will take a break from that for awhile. Two of them were elderly but one was a 16 yr. old that died from diabetes that she didn't even know she had. It was sad.

We haven't had any vacations yet this summer but now have 3 short ones planned. Lynn's boss has invited us to Lake Powell for a few days which will be a blast for the kids. I am nervous about everyone coming home safely but I hope we will be fine. Then we head to Bear Lake with Lynn's family, and the day after we get back we are heading to my family reunion in Arizona.

After that we say goodbye to Lynn's parents who just got their official mission call today to Hawaii for two years. They will be working at the PCC. I am proud of them for being willing to go and serve. They leave in one month and are very excited. The kids are already telling us they want to save their money so we can go visit when they are done. It would be nice if it was only them who had to save their money and not us.

We will then celebrate Dallin's Roberts, and Lynn's birthdays and school will be here. Wow, I'm tired just writing down what we are doing. I better go take a nap!

On the blog again

I don't know why I didn't figure out until now that it is a good idea to write down the passwords you set up because they are easy to forget. I had forgotten my password to my blog and couldn't get into it until Amy came over and helped me redo another password which I actually wrote down. Thank you Amy! Now if I can just remember where I wrote it down when I need it I should be good to go! She also helped me change my blog background and I'm hopeful that I can remember how she did it so that I am not stuck with orange forever. I wish I had more patience and learning ability when it came to things on the computer. I know I am too young to get away with saying I don't want to learn, so for now I'll do the best I can and try to improve little by little.
I can give a good excuse of saying I don't have a lot of time to give to learning new things because summer is crazy! I was very upset when I found out the job Robert thought he was going to get (at the corn stand) didn't pan out. I then had a "wonderful"(said with sarcasm) experience helping Robert make a resume , and go job hunting. These are some quotes from Robert during that experience "Mom, you are taking this way too serious, I don't have to correct mistakes on my resume!" and, "I don't need references on a resume" and finally ,"you don't need to make follow up phone calls, they will call me if they want me." Needless to say his job hunting didn't have much success ,but fortunately Lynn was able to talk to his councilor about Robert getting a job where he works which is Euclid. It is a place in Heber that makes those decorative wood pillars that a lot of homes nowadays have on the outside of their homes. It was a stressful experience getting him to actually go interview and get started but it worked out! The only down fall is that it isn't a full time job and he doesn't go until 3:00 p.m. I will be glad when he gets his first pay check in a few days and sees that it is all worth it. I have been proud of him and happy that he is learning to be responsible.
Six kids home all day is challenging. I start my morning by jogging before any kids wake up which gives me sanity before the storm. Once I walk in it is a few hours of piano practicing, breakfast, jobs, jogging, reading, etc. I am worn out by noon but I usually fix something for them to eat before I get Kyle down for a nap and let the kids have free reign at the Wii and computer ( I'm so grateful for both of them) while I try to get caught up on whatever it is I need to do or if I'm lucky I get to lay on my bed (my favorite place in the house )and read a good book. (I'm into Lynn Austins novels lately) Then Robert leaves for work and I take a big breathe and congratulate myself for surviving the morning and afternoon with a teenager in the house. Now, I have to start thinking about dinner which is my worst chore of the day. I hate it bad. don't mind fixing breakfast because my kids eat it but dinner is a different story. Before I know it Robert is back home raiding the pantry and sticking his nose up at what we had for dinner. I I start breathing deeper and deeper until the night time activities are over and finally it is bedtime. I tuck in those cute little kids and do the routine of teeth, medicine, prayers, drink, song, back rub, etc. Then all of a sudden Robert becomes a normal human being and wants to talk or watch a movie. I enjoy evenings with him but it no small task getting him to bed and by the time he is in bed Lynn and I are exhausted. We hit the bed and can't believe it when the alarm rings the next morning.
All in all it is a good life and I wouldn't trade it, but it is overwhelming at times.
This summer I have been strict with Robert finishing up his duty to God church award and some of the things he has to do have been very challenging for him. For example, he has to jog for 3 times a week for 30 mins for 3 months. He hates it! He prefers the treadmill which is insane to me with the wonderful weather and scenery we have. I go jogging 3 times a week with my friend and we have a place we go that is beautiful. There are fields all around with horses and cows and it is so peaceful. My friend says she just wants to live a good enough life to be able to own a farm like it in heaven. Though I think it is beautiful I am much more shallow and told her in heaven I want someone fixing dinner for me every night. I decided I to show Robert this place in case he was tired of staring at 4 walls while jogging. I told him I had a place where we could jog together and there would only be 1-3 people that would maybe see us. I bribed him to try it just once and he finally came. Even though it was pretty much deserted he still didn't like to jog beside me. He survived until 3 1/2 miles where we finally started walking together. After complaining about how stupid it is was that he was out jogging with his mom he then said ,"who would ever want to run a place like this?" He happened to say it at the exact spot that my friend had told me the day before it would be her dream in heaven to own something like it. I had to laugh and tell him what she said. I have finally learned to ignore most of what he says and just be grateful he is doing it. I don't know if I am crazy that I envision someday I just might get a letter from Robert ( which I will frame) saying that he appreciates me and forgives me for all the things I made him do that he didn't want to and says he is actually glad I did.
Here is a cute story to end on today that happened the other day when Kyle said to Joanna he wanted to play house. He told Joanna to be Robert and he would be a kid. Joanna then said "what do I do? " and Kyle replied, "you're supposed to beat me up!"

Porto Alegre Brazil

I am on a week long trip to Brazil and Venezuela. This is a picture from my hotel room in Porto Alegre. This is a really nice place. The food is really good. We ate at a Churrascaria (Brazilian Barbecue) and it was some of the best food I have had. There is a Elder serving his mission down here from Midway named Kyle Kohler. He is Mike Kohlers son. I brought a package down here from his parents and hope to be able to see him while I am here. Talk to you later.