Working on the yard

I know this is about the yard but I stuck this picture in here anyway.
This is Takeshi eating his breakfast.
He'll make himself eggs 3 or 4 breakfasts a week. He's my little cook man and he loves it. Whenever we're in the kitchen he's in there too asking to help. Sometimes we let him and sometimes we let him watch lol.
He can make some pretty good eggs now though, which is great. I figured when they turned 12 they can do their own wash and cook a dinner a week. Takeshi might be demanding to cook sooner than 12 if this keeps up.

So we planted some plants in the front under the window and they weren't working out how we'd expected. We figured there must be too much shade.
So we swapped out plants out. We chose these shade plants and put the other plants in the front where we made the little berm.

So here's our shady plants in the front.
Firey bushes in the back and a bunch of hostas and a couple of throw in shade plants in the front.

Let's hope they work out.

We then put all the daylillies and the bushes, groundcover in the front berm. I'll be interested to see how they like it out there. Time will tell.

At least we've got something out there right?
The kids and I did all of these changes for our last day together before school. Then on this past weekend we got Dru's help to move the bigger shrubs from around the house to the front.
As it was the two really big ones he couldn't move. We're going to need a machine for that.



So now we water and wait and hope that they like it out there.

Back to school

My kids started back at school last week, Wednesday. Strange day to start school and they made it a short day, which was just fine by me, what whatever man, you just roll with it.
Here's Takeshi. He spilled eggs all down his first outfit, so this is his second outfit choice.
How handsome is this kid right?
So far he loves his teacher and his class and mates. His teacher is trying new methods this year and I'm excited for Takeshi. We'll see how it all goes.

Here's all his important facts for now.

Here's Yuki and what she wanted to wear for her first day back at school. Soccer shorts and her cosy jacket isn't a surprize to me. This girl loves to run around with her mates and be active.
She is loving her teacher and everything that goes with it. She has one really good mate in her class, so she's happy about that.

Here's all her important information for now. She starts soccer practice this week. Exciting for her and more work for her parents.

'What is Masaru doing with his hair?' you ask? Well nobody knows. It's a mystery. It's clean, however, and brushed, so I leave the hair to the kids and as long as it's clean and brushed there's not much more I'm going to demand. A kid needs to do what they need to do with their hair, even if you think it looks a little weird. It's a battle I'm willing to NOT have at this age.
He's loving 6th grade so far and I'm loving that. I hope he does well.
I'm keeping him in his math tutoring and Emiko will not be attending pre-school.

Here's all of his information. Can you believe he's 5 foot 2 already? Only a matter of time before I'm beat.

Here's all their bags hanging out waiting to be taken to school.
They were pretty pumped about returning to school and seeing what that'd be like for them.
I'm glad that after 2.5 days, it's going well.
I'm pretty happy with who my kids have for their teachers. Should be a good school year.


So it's just me and this cutie face for a few hours a day, just like last year. She's a good buddy and we work well together.
Now I'm just figuring out my new schedule, volunteering, mtb, cleaning, cooking etc. Once I have that all sussed I'll remain busy but happy, as per usual.

I hung out with Natalie that first school day. I think we may keep it as a tradition which I"m loving.
I always feel slightly sorry for myself when the kids leave and having her around helps me to 'keep it together man'
It's a sad day when summer is over and school begins. I transition, not so well, to it all.
I'm a bit of a softie man.
I miss my kids but they're happy where they are and once I get over myself I'll figure out my new routine and things will be great, as always.
Here's to a great school year for all.

Gratitude Friday

So I'm reading this book "The Gifts of Imperfection" and it's changing my life. I love it. I highly recommend it.
I like so much of what she has to say.
She does a Gratitude Friday blog post and I'm going to start.
Weekly you write about 'what I'm trusting', 'what I'm grateful for', 'what inspires me', and how I'm practicing my faith.'
It'll be pretty honest, but I'm down to 0-4 comments on a post, so my audience has dropped so my guess, is it doesn't even matter too much, which is just fine.

*What I'm trusting- So this week I was thinking about all the things we had to get done around the yard. Dru pulled me outside and showed me all these weeds on the side of our back yard and was wondering what we should do. We talked about it and I thought about it for the next couple of days.
I started thinking about how things don't matter. With how many weekends we've been home, we've gotten a lot of stuff done around the yard. I'm proud of us, but there's always more to do. We talked about ripping everything out with a machine and dumping stuff and maybe grassing things etc. It all sounded exhausting.
Dru wants to build a shop back there................eventually, so this would just be temporary until we do that in 8-10 years. Then I started thinking..........'what are we doing man' and started playing around with the idea of just building the shop now.
Our goals were to extend the kitchen and dining room and garage for a mudroom, but why do we really need that? We don't. I'm quite fine in the kitchen I'm in. Sure it'd be  nice to have a bigger kitchen, but I'm fine with how it is. The kitchen will be beautiful, that's great, but again, so what? What does it matter to wait? It doesn't matter. I can cook, entertain and will have to keep cleaning this horrible floor for a while. #firstworldproblems mate. BUT if we had a shop, it'd fix that section of the house now. Dru could have space to be creative and start building and teaching the kids how to build. Now is the time to be teaching the children how to do carpentry and how to fix cars and how to work hard. Having a new kitchen isn't going to do that, but having a shop is going to help our family in more ways than just more room. Dru will have projects to do and room and space to organize to his OCD's content. The more I listened and thought and (here's my point) trusted my instincts and what I was thinking, the more it made sense.
So I told Dru. It took a little bit of reasoning, but once he thought about it, he knew it was the right move and now is super excited hahahahaha
I'm excited for us and feel so good about this. I hate that stupid linoleum on my kitchen floor man, but I'm willing to suck it up for the greater good of everyone and this will benefit everyone way more than a fancy kitchen with cool 'stuff'.
I'm so proud of myself, I came up with a good idea!!! Maybe I CAN trust myself, my thoughts and know I can think logically too, not just Dru.

*What am I grateful for - I'm grateful for my kids. They worked hard all summer and helped me keep this house clean. They did what they were asked and are good to me. They also help me to relax while watching them play. I love to see my kids playing when they don't know I'm watching. They've had such a great summer with each other and mates. I love seeing them laugh, play and be happy. I'm grateful they have a public school system to go to. I was talking to Nawang's mother and she was in tears about how her schooling was cut short to help her family farm in Nepal. My kids are lucky man and we talked about it. They love Nawang's mother and so that meant something to them. I'm grateful for my kids health as well. They're all healthy and I'll take that.

*What inspires me - This book is inspiring me at the moment. I love that. Trying to live a more wholistic life where I love myself right now and know I'm good enough. Where I'm making time to create, sleep, help, serve and 'be' is so wonderful to me.

*How I'm practicing my faith - This one has be lacking in my life and I need to do a better job. I need to take it back to the roots with prayer. I'm neglecting praying to the Lord morning and night and that takes faith to me. Believing in a God whom I've never met feels good to me and I love my faith in that, but the light is a little dim due to my lack of kindling that relationship and I'm slightly disappointed in myself. So I'm going to try to do better at practicing simple prayers to Heavenly Father in the morning and at night.

Feel free to join me in your own Gratitude Friday blog posts. It's a great reflection.

Just life lately

Emiko was messing around in the front room and fell on her head on the side of the fireplace. I was downstairs doing washing and the kids came and said Dad wanted to see me. I knew it was bad.
There was blood everywhere and we were trying to figure out where the cut actually was. We ended up having to take her to the sink and pour water over so we could find the cut.
Dru never saw the cut, just me and it looked bad.
We tried to go to the urgent care facilities but they were all closed by 8pm and it was 8:30pm. We were bummed. So off to the ER we went.

Here's the cut. I thought it was just an open wound and was worried. By the time we saw the doctor he said that he could staple it if we wanted but it was just a skin wound, not a huge cut into her head. How was I supposed to know man? So they cleaned it, put antibiotic cream on it then sent us on our way. I felt bad man, but it was an open wound. I had no idea that it'd be ok.
She was a rockstar man. So on the way home we got her an ice cream. They promised her a popsicle and didn't give her one!!
It's healing really well and hasn't even been a problem.
You live and learn I guess.

Yuki's been working hard on this picture and finished it the other day and came and showed us. So great.

I've always had budget washing powder my whole life. Which is fine you know, that's my life, budget. But there was a sale on some "nice" washing liquid. I've never washed our clothes in anything but budget washing powder. So I talked to Dru about it and he thought I was nuts. He's like "babe, if you want a little nicer washing powder, go for it" I couldn't believe it man. I'd never branched out before. Crazy right? Anyway they were on sale for $3 and allegedly did 33 loads. So I figured that was a budget I was ok with. I even got some fabric softener which was also on sale. I've NEVER brought fabric softener man. Any softener I've gotten has been free.
Anyway I was SO EXCITED to do washing that week and have kept a tally of how many wash loads this bottle REALLY does you know.
The kids can't believe how nice their clothes smell and our place smells so good.
I busted Takeshi smelling his T-shirt in the corner of his room the other day. I was cracking up for ages. I just can't believe it man it's SO NICE!!!
I dunno if I'll keep buying the 'nice' brands, but I'll tell you what man, the difference in how your clothes smell is so nice. Our clothes are softer as well. So I dunno we'll see.
There's some insight into my crazy!!

Saturday we were in town so got some things done. We finally finished the swing set and it looks amazing. I don't have a finished picture but you can get the point right? I'm so glad it's done and looking so great. I love it and hope that it works out great for the kids and all our leaves etc.
I tried to help out as much as I could but it was back breaking work man. I was watching Dru working hard moving all that gravel around and couldn't believe how strong he was and how hard working he is. It was almost 38 celcius (100 f) and I was dying. But Dru wasn't even bothered. I was thinking of men and women who worked all day and felt like a weakling man. I tried hard though but grew a deeper love and appreciation for Dru man. I said to him "Babe you are totally worth your weight in gold man" and he is. He's amazing. He amazes me.

I guess someone in the ward was getting rid of this file cabnet and Dru got online and nabbed it. He put it up in the room, just for me, so I could have a side table. Hahahahaha I love it and am so grateful. Now we basically match. Dru said "Look babe, black and white, just like us" hahahaha



I'm really emotional, as always, with the end of summer with my children coming. Last night was our second last night together before school starts.
I'm trying not to think about it too much cause I start crying man. So we decided to raft the river with Keith and two of his kids.
We found some rafts on sale for way cheap a month ago so purchased three and used two last night. Masaru was mountain biking but that kid has rafted the river three times already with mates, so I didn't feel bad for him missing out.
Turns out he's rafting it tomorrow with the scouts and again Friday with his mate from school for a party!!!

I went in the small boat on my own. None of the kids wanted to come with me, which I totally understand. I'd rather go with Dru as well. We always feel safer with Dad right? So I rode solo which was nice. Sometimes I was just floating down the river and it was so, so beautiful and peaceful. It made me grateful for my life and my loves.

Here's the circus.

Keith and his two kids.
We didn't raft the whole thing. We got out at the orange bridge so the kids could jump off of it and then go to the rope swing.
Turned out I was really cold though. So I didn't wanna jump or go off of the rope swing and get in the water. We didn't bring any towels either and so I was boarder line shivering man. Luckily I had a life jacket on and it was keeping me warm-er.
I got video's of the kids though.
Emiko is a dare devil man. That girl..................


Here are 4 of the kids trying to jump together. It eventually worked out.

Here's Keith going all out and jumping from the top part of the bridge.

Here's Yuki taking all her bravery and putting it into one jump off of the middle part of the bridge. So proud of her.

Then Emiko wanted to be part of the action. She asked Dru to put her over and then jumped!! Can you believe that? What a supergirl. Sorry my camera skills sucked though.

Then we moved down to the swing and the kids were keen. Here's Presley.

Here's Yuki.

Here's Takeshi.

Here's Emiko trying to swing but her little hands just weren't big enough to go around the stick secure enough to hold on tight. I felt bad for her. I was a little nervous about her doing the swing, I have to admit, so her not being able to do it was just fine with me. I do have limits as a mother with my kids, believe it or not!!!

Last day today with my kids.
I've LOVED summer with them. It's been busy but SO FUN. I love my kids man. They're hard working and loving and so so great and I'm going to miss them SO MUCH when they go to school. They're excited, which is just what I'd want them to be feeling you know. I LOVE SUMMER!! I'm going to miss the feeling and having these kids around man.
I'm going to cry FOR SURE tomorrow and feel sorry for myself. I need to work it out though, embrace the change, after tomorrow, and start figuring out life with just Emiko and I again.

McCall weekend

Dru has a workmate who owns a place in McCall and asked if we'd like to stay there one weekend. Of course we said yes. Their place was really nice. It was actually a little too nice cause I was stressing about the kids touching stuff. Oh well.
We invited our homies the Braun's for the weekend and that was a great idea. We love spending time with them.

We went mtb on Saturday morning and Keith decided to come with us and try it out.
It was a ton of fun and he did a great job.
I love mtb up there man. I kept working on my jumping all the way down. If I can jump, then that'll help with my skills and help me to be faster. I also need to learn how to corner better.
Nydia stayed  home with the kids which was super nice of her.

Masaru found this deer close by and wanted to get a picture of it.






Masaru giving us the 101 of the deer sighting hahahahaha

Nydia caught this shot of these two walking down to the lake. Pretty cute.


Look at these cute kids.

Splash pad.

Once we came home from mtb we headed down to the beach for some play time.







The kids borrowed some toys off of some strangers.

They found this log and decided to jump off of it.

















The house had two kayaks and so we took those down with us.

There was a park 20 feet from the water that we hung out at for a while.





They found some people fishing and wanted to be a part of that action. The people fishing were great about it.

Any time we weren't having fun outside we were inside eating and watching the olympics of course. It was so great. I love the olympic's so much.
We made dinner friday and the Braun's made dinner Saturday and it worked out great.
The kids hung out outside with Takeshi's remote control car and with each other hunting deer and black bears.
One neighbour told the kids to go inside because there was a black bear outside. So they did as they were told and came in.
There was plenty of room for the kids to sleep. There was a room that had 6 places to sleep people and a 'hang out' room upstairs that the girls slept in then two other rooms that the adults had. It was just perfect.
My rash is still flaring up and so I showered and stayed up and put stuff on it while watching the olympic's and feeling sorry for myself.


The next day Dru and I woke up and went mtb again together. We started off and Dru lost his chain back on the trail. So we had to stop and go hunt for it while not being run over by a DH'er. Here he is fixing it.
It was just fine and his bike did great the rest of the weekend.

We continued to have fun down the trail while Dru kept giving me pointers on my jumping.
Here's a video of me finally getting this one jump.



It felt good to finally be able to jump that rock with my two wheel landing properly. I'm not a natural on the bike so I have to work on stuff a bunch. I know it must be tough for Dru to tell me something that comes so naturally to him since he's been jumping for years you know. I just need to keep practicing.


Here's me trying to capture how high Dru jumps these set of jumps. Turns out I was in the wrong place. You can see him at the beginning get so high on that table top jump.
It was a fun time together, like always and we enjoyed the biking we did.
I wish we could bike more together.

When we got home we showered and headed down to the beach where Keith had rented a jet ski for everyone. We had it from 2-6pm and the kids just loved it.
















We had tons of fun and came home and fed the kids then us adults took our bikes out and grabbed some sushi from a local restaurant.
It was pretty good. It was nice to be together and chat without the kids for a little bit.
We came home and the kids were doing just fine. We all grabbed some ice cream and then watched the olympics all night into the wee hours of the morning, except Dru, he needs his sleep!!

The next day we got up and started cleaning and packing up a little bit. We watched the olympic's and worked the best we could.
Then the Braun's, Dru and Masaru all went to Jug mt and did some mountain biking while I stayed home with the kids.


Dru sent me this picture of some drops. The first one is 1 foot then the next is maybe 2.5 and the last one is 4 foot. If I had something like this in my back yard that'd help me get better and bigger drops. Dru said he'd make it for me. That four foot drop seems so scary to me. Dru assures me it's just like the 2 foot one once you have jumping down. I dunno man, it just seems scary. It must mean I need to work on my mind.


Here's me and Eden hanging out.


I let the kids watch some lego youtube channel for a bit and then we headed outside for some park/water time while the adults mtb'ed.
When the others came back we finished cleaning and packing and getting things together.
We then headed out to swim again.

Here's Yuki doing some sand work.
We all swam and hung out for a while and then went back and changed then headed out to dinner at Grandma's place.

We then headed back to Boise where Emiko threw up in the back seat. So we stopped to clean that up. I tried to help as much as I could, then kept on trucking home to the smell of throw up the whole time. So great!!

We unpacked while watching the olympic's and Masaru found this guy!!

It was a great weekend with great mates.
I'm glad we went and had so much fun and nothing went wrong and everyone was safe the whole time.
Now for the unpacking, washing, getting ready for school week !!!