Rear-ended

Joey had an appointment this morning in Grapevine about 30 minutes away at 7:45. We left our house at 7 so we would not hit too much traffic. Well about 7:09 I was rear ended while getting on to the freeway. The girl said she was sorry and I said I was too because I needed to get going so not to be late. I called Peter who roused the other kids and met me at the accident. We swapped kids and he got Joey to his appointment just a few minutes late. An officer came and made a report but all accidents in Texas are civil so I needed to call my insurance and let them deal with it. It turns out we have the same insurance carrier- USAA. After the officer was finished I went to get her name and number and it turns out she is one of my "mystery sisters"- inactive and most of them unknown by any leadership in our ward but on our list and hard to track down due to poor information or just avoiding us. She said her name and I am sure my jaw dropped as I blurted out "No way!" I promised her I was not a stalker but asked if she lived off of Castle Rock (a road in my neighborhood) and sure enough it was her. I told her who I was and that I had seen her name on my rolls and it was nice to meet her although in not such great circumstances. I doubt she will be at church on Sunday but I hope that she now knows that the Lord is still trying to keep track of her even if she is a "mystery".

Oh and the damage was not too bad. I will likely need a new back door for the van and maybe a new fender. Nobody was hurt and her license plate was bent in and that is about all. What a day that is all I can say?!

Finally!!!

Today, after 14 months, we finally signed the papers to sell our house in Las Vegas. We have had multiple buyers and gone through the process of trying to get the bank to agree three different times. We have had lawyers ($$) helping us since I think it was February after the first sell did not go through. They were not too helpful at first but Peter is really good at bugging people until they do what they are supposed to do because we paid them to do it. Congratulations, to the lady who bought our house. She is paying $60,000 less than it was originally built for (which was obviously less than what we paid for it).

After signing the papers, we headed to the back to make the wire transfer of the money we had to pay for the sell. The man looked at us funny when we said we were selling our house and needed to transfer the money. He had to clarify that we had said selling and not buying. We made a deposit of cash and the teller asked if we got it at a bank- that is usually where money nicely wrapped in papers with stamped amounts come from. Peter had to verify his employment which is funny because most of the money paid came from what I made over the last year. Anyhow, all in all I could have bought our van again-in full. The joys of a bad economy. My heart aches for all those out there who are facing what we have been through or in the middle of it. I pray people will be able to find jobs and save their homes.

We are so grateful to have the home we do now and good jobs. We are grateful to be moving forward and we hope that this will never be something we have to face again!

No school-fun!

The kids had Friday and Monday off of school. Friday I made them run errands with me and they were actually really pretty good sports about it. Saturday was the pinewood derby so they had a great day that day- see post below. Sunday was a usually church day and I made them drive around some RS stuff at the end of the day - they did not love that so much. So Monday I redeemed myself with a trip to the Fort Worth Museum. I had forgotten that the Stockshow and Rodeo would be going on and if you bought admission to that you got free admission to the museum because they sit on the same property. Parking was double in price and packed as was the museum but it was still fun.

I don't think I have let my kids do this yet because it is usually too busy but this time suprisingly the wait was not too long. You have to try and drive the cattle using the horse- pulling the reins to steer the horse.
It was actually a bit trickier than you might think.

Arabella loved being on a "horse".

The area wher they have their traveling exhibit was set up for a children's art show in conjunction with the stockshow and rodeo. I liked it but the kids did not find it as interesting.

At the end of the day we played with the Keva wood pieces. An employee recent mechanical engineer graduate spent 2 1/2 hours building the above man- impressive.

You can not really see them but the kids are holding paper cup rockets that they launched through and air tube. Arabella's - the simplest- work the best first. After some tweeking we got Joey and Jon's working pretty well too. It was busy so we did not do everything the kids would have liked but it was still a grea way to spend 3 hours. Not to mention they kids watched The Little Mermaid on the way to and from the museum and Jon said "Oh yes! they got married that is so cool!" Oh I love my boys discovering the world of dolls and princesses it is so funny!

Pinewood Derby 2011

Pretty much every night last week was consumed with something to do with the Pinewood Derby and Saturday was the big day. Peter being the cubmaster had a ton to do but he has great leaders that he works with and they were very helpful. It was also turned into a ward activity so there were going to be an unknown number of people in attendance. Peter being the amazing person he is handled it with style and grace. We had one tense moment where I did not think he should drill new holes in the track and he thought he should. He did in the end and I concede that it was the better choice. Oh, Peter you were right and I was wrong. (There written for all to see.)

The Outlaws

L to R: Bro. Webster's propelled mousetrap car that smoked everyone's in the end; Bishop Whites Millenial Falcon- Luke and Chewy have on ties and Chewy is hold a Book of Mormon; Bro. Dunstan's airplane car- he is a pilot.
The cubscout's cars with a few of the leaders cars. Perry the platypus is the primary president's Sister Ostermiller. The car just left of the one on the blue stand was the overall winner. It is the Weasley's flying car from Harry Potter. It was fast!

These are the other ward entries that for the most part followed all of the rules including weight limits and such. The missionaries cars are: Elder Kerbs is the truck that has a missionary on the hood of it because he was hit by it and Elder Duke has the batmobile.

These are our boys. Jon wanted one million on his car but settled for 500. Joey's was called the shark of the track. Jon had the second fastest car of the day (3rd if you count the mouse trap).

For refreshments we had a popcorn machine-like movie theatre style- and a cotton candy machine. It was buttery/salty heaven with spun sugar clouds. Delicious!

The stickiness to prove it. I never caught Joey's car going down the track but this is pretty good!

This is a picture of most of the racers, at least most of the scouts and leaders.

Jon's car is racing and you can see him running by the track.

And finally as you watch this video, I hope you laugh as much as me and my friend Alisa did. We both had our cameras out and ready to take pictures. Arabella hopped up and ran out the door- the nursery was open across the hall with some toys out and a movie. She returned in just a few minutes and had her camera. She took pictures of the racing, us taking pictures, the treats, and other people. I love the posing but I really love her willingness to share and take turns. (The little boy is Corbin- Alisa's son.)

Snow, again!

After last year when it snowed a few times, my kids kept asking when it would snow again. Well, yesterday was the day! It had rained for about 12 hours and when we came out of sacrament meeting it was snowing!

As you can see it did not snow too much but my kids did make the most of it.

We don't normally let them play outside on Sunday and had said no a few times. Then, Joey was smart enough to present the idea as a service: get the snow off of the trampoline (which never happened) and get the snow off of dad's truck. It was funny to me so I caved and let them go outside. The cold got them back in within 30 minutes and just 5 minutes for Arabella.

Joey used just about every bit of snow in the yard to make his big snowball which they rolled into the driveway.

"I don't like the cold, let me in!"

This is how Arabella is enduring the cold weather today, watching Strawberry Shortcake with her doll who has her own pillow. She learned this viewing position from Jon.

We tried sponge rollers for the first time last Saturday. She would not sleep in them but I put them back in Sunday morning for a few hours and some of it stayed curled the whole day.

The Sunday after Christmas we drove to Houston to visit Peter's Grandmother Omelia Rabner. We had a delicious dinner at his Aunt Deena's house. We also stopped for about an hour and a half to see our friends the Larsens. It was so fun to see friends and family during the holidays.

Tender Moment

Today after church Peter and I had both been delayed due to different people needing to talk to us. So, by the time we were heading to the car the kids were done. Jon had disappeared again so Peter went to find him and asked Joey to take Arabella's hand and walk to the car. As I walked out of the building, I could see Joey and Arabella hand in hand which was sweet enough but then, I hear Joey say this, "Arabella sing after me ABCD (pause for Arabella to try) EFG (another pause) HIJ ..." You get the idea. She really was trying and he was so kindly trying to teach her. It has to be one of the most rewarding moments of motherhood I have experienced-seeing my oldest child striving to teach his little sister without being asked. May the picture of it always live in my heart.