Cats and Dad (and Abby)

I finally let David buy his printer/scanner/fax/copy machine that he has been begging for since we got married. I am excited about it now only because I can scan in all of my pictures from forever ago before I had a digital camera! Chad found my tub of memories that I keep hauling around and there are so many funny pictures, old report cards, ACT & SAT scores (I have NO idea how I got into college!), and certificates for everything I ever did (lunch duty, crossing guard, honor roll, fitness awards, "Skipper" of the day, and some from piano lessons. . . I am sure that they had to think really hard of something they could compliment since I rarely practiced, maybe that's why I got the "good sight reader" award :)
I also came across the beloved poem that Ben and I composed! It was written in honor of Dad, but I think that both Abby and Dad now share the honor of having this poem dedicated, and titled, for them. Here it is!

Cats and Dad (and Abby)
By: Ben and Lorry
Published in February 2004

When my dad
drives down the road,
his mind is stuck
in just one mode.

He'll find a cat
and hit it hard,
either skin and bone
or a tub of lard.

When he targets
on the head,
his foot transforms
into a block of lead.

He pushes down
on the accelerator,
he says, "Ta-ta for now,
I'll see you later!"

The way he forgets
to use the brake,
you can tell that
he'll make no mistake.

He thinks to himself,
"Man must be best,"
'cause this cat's only
got ten seconds left.

You see the cat
shift left to right,
you can tell in its eyes
that it's full of fright.

He lined the cat
up with his wheels,
and listened for
it's pathetic squeal.

When he his the cat
most people would quiver,
that was because
we smashed it's liver.

After so many
it's not so bad,
that's one more down
thanks to my dad.


Who knows how we became such good writers :) and I sure am glad that this little gem didn't get lost! Needless to say, I am having a blast going through old pictures and all the things that I wrote about and all the memories that I get to remember! I just hope that I get through this tub of stuff before school starts next week. . . I can't stay up until 2 am goofing around like this if I want to get perfect grades again! But it sure is fun!

Flower Power Update

We were gone for a couple weeks and we left my neighbors flowers with another friend of ours.
The purple ones are struggling and I think it got too hot for them last week. This week has been cooler and we have been nursing them back to full strength. They are doing better each day I think!Here is what they looked like when we left. The purple ones were doing really well!
The sweet pea flowers bloomed a little bit which was exciting! They are the pink and white ones in the middle.
These ones on the end were just starting to bloom! I was sad to leave and miss the action! I could see the pink in the middle, and about four or five other buds that were close behind this one!
When we got back, the purple ones looked like they had a rough time
There was one giant sweet pea this morning, but when I went to take pictures this afternoon, it was missing. I hope we don't have flower snatching neighbors!!! There are three more pea pod looking buds that are about ready to bloom and they better not disappear!
These ones on the end are beautiful!! They are so tall and bright and were such a pleasant surprise to see!! I think that since they were planted so close together they feel like they need to reach out to show how strong and beautiful they are! I love them! I am sure Brett and Emily are so proud of these big guys!
I will see what I can do to doctor the purple guys back to full strength. . . unless their season of blooming is done now and their show is over now. I hope not, but we will just have to wait and see!

It's wedding time again!!!

We have been cleaning windows quite a bit lately and we took a little break from it to go home for my brother, Nick's, wedding!! We stole Nick away to get a good shot of him with his best looking siblings!!!
Christine was gorgeous of course!! Here they are cutting their cake. . . well I guess this was Christine's cake, because Nick was lucky enough to get a German Chocolate cake specially made by Christine! Sheesh! I got some good lookin' parents!!!
I'm pretty sure that we have some work to do to look as good as Mom and Dad!!
Everything went really well . . . except for the weather giving us a little bit of a heart attack the morning of as it was raining and getting everything wet! Luckily the clouds went away and it was a bright sunny afternoon! My mom is just a little bit relieved that there won't be any more weddings for at least 2 years with Matt going on a mission and Abby not even out of high school yet! My mom is Super Woman. . . 5 weddings in the last 3 years! We love you Mom!! And thanks for working so hard Dad so you can pay for all of them!!

Such a fun Summer!!

We went with a bunch of friends from church to our very first DEMOLITION DERBY!
We loved it and thought it was so fun! It was so goofy to me to think that all these "men" got these junk cars and put whatever in them so that they would function, and then they would see how many times they could drive and slide through a mud pit and crash into other cars like these until their car would start smoking and spewing some sort of fluids!! It was so crazy, but we really enjoyed it!!We got some yummy snow cones that changed our mouth's colors!
What a wild date night!!! On the drive home we all had the love of a good crash in us. As people were pulling out of the parking lot, we almost wanted to cheer them on to go crash into another car!! Don't worry, we took good care of our good 'ol grandma car and she made it home very safe!
We went with some friends to an International Dance Festival that comes to Rexburg every year.
This is the German dance group. Sorry I was going to post a video but it doesn't work. There were 10 different groups from Mexico, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Lithuania, Romania, USA, and one other one I think I am forgetting. It was fun to watch the different teams and the variety that they brought. They all dressed in some traditional clothes. . . and those dresses from Germany, I am sure Julia is hiding one somewhere and a little bonnet too!! I am sure you love to dance around in it all the time!

David Graduated!!

OK. . . so I started writing about these adventures a few weeks ago. . . and now it is all off to me. So sorry for the delay!

Now that school is out, we have been able to relax and play however we like and we have been loving it! So much has happened in the last week!

Last Tuesday, David's dad came to stay with us for a few days to see David graduate. We were pretty busy until Thursday to really do anything with him, but he was just worn out watching us wake up early, come and go to and from classes, and then study. Who knows when or what we ate during that time, but we survived. So Thursday night we went to David's graduation. David was so excited to have people cheering for him as he walked down the aisles and he would stop and hold up the line behind him so he could give us a big happy grin for the cameras.

It wasn't too long of a ceremony since they split it all up into the different departments. I wish I could be done now too, but my turn will come soon!

I only have one semester left here on campus and then one semester of student teaching somewhere. We are still hoping to go to Boise, but the school is giving me a rough time about not wanting to stay in Rexburg. Long story, and annoying process, but we are hoping that we will still get to move to Boise in January. We will have to see!

As a graduation gift, David's dad gave us Settlers of Catan, and I think we have played it at least twice every day that we have had it! We are so glad we got it! He gave David a few other things, but this was my favorite of the things he got! Now we are wanting so many other games to add to our game collection!

David's dad, Ken, likes to feed the ducks with us, and so we popped up a few bags of popcorn and went out to the nature park here in Rexburg. I was nervous since last time we went there, the ducks were full or something, and ignored all the bread we threw at them. . . and the rocks I threw at them when I got mad at them. :)

Our popcorn hit the spot though and we had all the ducks swarming us!
When we ran out of food, I decided to try to catch one that was fat and happy and taking a nap by us. . . but I wasn't very successful :( We all loved it though and were sure glad they were all hungry!

We also spent some time at Chad and Amber's house playing with the new puppies and the girls. Will was gone on a camping trip, so there were a lot of fingernails painted and princess movies watched!
Here is Edison holding Maggie, my parent's new golden retriever puppy! She is such a cute fluffy puppy!
Chad also got a puppy named Chloe. She is a mix of a gillion different types of dogs, but she sure is cute! Her and Maggie love to wrestle all the time and it is so funny to watch. Maggie is a lot bigger, but Chloe is a lot faster and has the energy to run circles around Maggie until she can plow into her and take her down! We can't wait until we get to get a puppy of our own!
Chad and Amber also got three little kittens. Ken was talking on the phone with his daughter Rachel, and this kitten was just climbing all over him! They are just barely cute enough to not care what they do!
So we had a lot of fun with Ken here for the graduation and the start of our summer vacation! I am just worried that this 7 week break will fly by too fast!!!

Flowers

Our neighbors,Brett and Emily went home in between the semesters and left us with all of their babies. We have been so privileged and trusted to "plant-sit"! We have been watering and watching over their flowers and watching the new flowers that bloom. We don't want them to miss out on the action, so we are going to update them as their flowers grow up!!

Here are the cute little ones. There are about 15 or so of them and more keep coming every day! The ones in the middle seem to be struggling and the flowers on the end are trying so hard. It looks like they might be ready to show their colors in the next couple of days! We are pretty excited for all the flowers and we are so proud of the wonderful flowers they grown up to be. We will keep everyone updated on our adopted little babies.

Summer Festivities!

Wow it has been a long time since I have updated this thing. Right after my last little entry was midterms and it seems crazy, but we are coming up on finals in a couple weeks! The time flies by so fast, and I never thought it would since they are summer classes and I thought I would want to get out and play more. . . no worries, I squeeze in all the playing time I can get!
Since I last wrote, we had our 1st anniversary, my 21st birthday, we were "dam volunteers" for the Teton Dam Marathon, we got called to teach Gospel doctrine in our ward . . . but have yet to be asked to teach the lesson. . . and went out to the Oregon Coast to spend the 4th of July with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, siblings, in-laws, and who knows who else!

Chad and Amber made me a cake and brought the kids to come play for my birthday. Nick and Christine came to play for a bit as well. I still give Nick a hard time because he came and played and ate cake not even realizing that it was my birthday until the next day! He felt really bad, and like a dope! It just made me laugh. . . he is definitely a Bare! Mom wasn't much better though. I talked to her the next Sunday and she told me that she had just flipped he calendar to June and noticed my birthday had passed. . . it was almost halfway through the month! Good thing I was busy all day and didn't have time to sit around waiting for all the birthday wishes! I think I learned from all the birthday pool parties that wouldn't happen until July or even August! But I can only imagine how 10 birthday parties a year might get a little crazy! Here is a video of Will and Eddie and their balloon fight! I am sure that the people who live below us appreciated the festivities!
Nothing else too wild and crazy has happened except for the time out on the coast. . . we really do know how to stay up late and bust a gut. . . or as Dad says it, "gust a butt." sorry Dad, Love you!
It was a quick vacation and a long drive, but it was much needed and appreciated for my own sanity! Ben, Elizabeth, David and I all carpooled out to Tillamook. We went to the sand dunes and got nearly everyone to climb the dune! Grandpa Bob even beat Mom and Dad up. . . he said he couldn't wait any longer for them to catch up, so he had to go up with out them!

We played a good game of beach volleyball, and lots of big group games with the cousins. Of course we ate lots of Tillamook Ice cream! I was able to eat a scoop of bubble gum, cookie dough, and a new favorite, Wild Mountain Blackberry! OOOOOHHHH I can never get enough! We celebrated Matt's 19th birthday with the crowd, but I think we forgot about the birthday kisses/spankings! Most of all we couldn't forget to play the Farming Game!

Rockaway beach was a little different this year because we are all grown up and we don't get to dig for the money in the sand pit, or do the crab walk race. We are all getting too grown up for those races! Sad day! I guess we better get going on the little kiddos so we have someone to watch and coach for the races!
The fireworks seemed to get a little lost in the clouds, so those weren't as fantastic as they usually are, but we were digging into the s'mores for sure! I think Matt ate at least 5 in one sitting! David was proud of the one I made for him. He even said he could taste the love. . . can't forget that ingredient!
So we loved the vacation, and can't wait until Nick's wedding when we get to go home for a while and maybe go on a camping trip with the family.
So school is about over for the semester which means. . . only 2 1/2 weeks until David will be a COLLEGE GRADUATE!! He is way excited to be done! Not too excited to take his CPA exams, but we think that he will be able to finish those in the next 5 months before I graduate in December. He really can't make up his mind about what he wants to do yet. He is debating plenty of options and of course they all have their pros and cons. He is going to do at least on of the following: work as an accountant at a firm, go to grad school, start his own business (there are about four ideas for those), or work wherever he can if nothing else works. so who knows what he will decide. It changes about every other day!
We do know that we will be moving to Boise, ID in January. We figure any of his options can happen there, and that is where I have designated my first option for student teaching. So we are excited to see what happens there in Boise for David!