Asked to Homecoming

Pretty fun! Kale Barker asked Izzy to Willow Canyon's Homecoming dance.

She had a fun answer to answer his question.

Happy Birthday Wicket

This cute guy turned 6 years old! We don't normally do much for a puppy's birthday (Shayne would disagree) but we decided to have a fun day for Wicket's birthday.

He got a Pup Cup from Dutch Bros.

He got to go shopping at Petsmart and pick out his own toy!

He picked a great squeaky toy.

Enjoyed some great treats.

Happy Birthday Wicket!!

We sure do LOVE you!!

Garden Haul

Cleaning out our garden, we came across our carrots which we had pretty much forgotten about and got quite a haul!

College Life

Olivia sent a few pictures of life at BYU.

First Day of College

Olivia had her first day of COLLEGE! She has been WAITING and WAITING for this day for probably 2 years! Her first day was fantastic. She loved her professors and is excited for the courses she has.

First day of school picture with her suitemate Olivia.

Starting Seeds

I have a bunch of old seeds and I'm wanting to start my winter garden too, so I'm doing a little experiment to see if my seeds are viable. Here's our sprouting garden! Hopefully we get some great baby sprouts for our garden!

Emergency Prep Night-4

Emergency Preparedness Blitz-Month 4! 

We had our 4th Emergency Preparedness night in our series and it was a fantastic night! Here's a rundown of what we did.

This month we discussed how to prepare for trucks to stop running (strike, gas-prices, blockade, etc.) It’s pretty crazy to think how quickly everything stops here in the stakes without trucks. There are some tips on what to prepare for this emergency. 

Grocery basics order: wheat-2, rice-1, oats-1, sugar-1 ($35) you can Venmo/check @Jonna-Black to order. Put in the memo how many for which pack (ie. Grocery-3, extras-1). Get your order in before 9/15!

Extras pack includes: apples-1, carrots-1, potatoes-1, onion-1 ($35) put your order in before 9/15.  Notice the groceries and extras orders are a REPEAT from Month-1 so if you didn’t start at the beginning, you can double up this month!

Emergency Preparedness Item is an emergency radio. I really like this one because it is rechargeable, solar, and hand crank. It also access 3 radio types (AM, FM, NOAA-weather). It also has a flashlight built in, and can charge your phone. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MFCFKG5

We talked about everything First Aid! The handouts have a very extensive list on what to include-our conversation also added: coban wrap, silver nitrate sticks, and growing aloe Vera plants. There also is a link in the handouts to videos of basic first aid skills. Check it out!

Interested in learning how to get license and operate a ham radio? Want to see what is needed to get started? Sister Jillian Ashley is holding a Ham Radio Q&A:

Wednesday, Sep 7 · 7–8 PM

Google Meet joining info

Video call link: https://meet.google.com/xag-xxgs-rqk

Or dial: +1 515-758-0957 PIN: 528923009

More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/xag-xxgs-rqk?pin=9541952425895

This month is National Preparedness Month! If you want to test your preparedness skills, sign up for the 7 day challenge where they go over an emergency scenario each day for 7 days at: https://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/7day/

Or if you’d like something on a smaller scale, they have 15 minute prepping projects each day this month texted directly to your phone! Text 15minuteprep to 717-788-3663 to receive a daily prepping idea throughout September. 

The addiction

Izzy's baby blanket DeeDee has gone by the wayside many years ago. However, Olivia left one of her crocheted blankets at home for us to use and Izzy has tried to claim it as her new DeeDee, and has an addiction with putting her fingers through all the holes ALL DAY LONG! I may have to hide this blanket until Izzy goes off to college!

Honey Haul

We decided to take a few frames of extra honey from our new beehive and got quite a haul! Delicious raw honey that we harvested ourselves!!

Nothing better than fresh raw honey on some fresh whole wheat bread!

Thoughtful

Izzy was having a rough morning (school work-load and lack of sleep did a number on her emotions), and we had to work through a little melt down one morning before school. However, during the day her mood shifted, and when I got home from work, she was so thoughtful and got me a diet coke and a sweet note!

I am so grateful for the most thoughtful, sweet kiddos around!

Belch Battles

As many other 13 year old boys will do, Quinten gets into "Belch Battles" with his friends at school. They belch into their hands, roll it around and force push it at someone. Quinten, of course, thinks he corners the market on belching...little did he know his mom has had a belch battle or two growing up and could hold her own in a battle with her son...He was quite shocked!!

Millions of ducks

When we took Olivia to college, she left us a little surprise...tons of tiny ducks all over the house and a note that read:

I love you guys to much! I will miss you so much when I am away at school and I hope you guys miss me too. Just not too much,that is why i hid 150+ little rubber duckies around the house. In. Every. Room. That way, every time you find a duck, you think of me and how much I miss you guys. I'll be home before you know it.

Love you!

-Olivia

P.S. I may have cried a little writing this note thinking about how much I am really going to miss you guys!!

Since then, we have been finding little duckies EVERYWHERE!

First Full Inspection

We were lucky enough to have Cody come help us with our first full inspection. We were really hoping to find our queen. We didn't see the queen, but we were running out of daylight and we did see many signs that she was there and laying lots of eggs!

Too much venom

Taking care of bees got me a couple stings on each ankle. A few days later while working on our dripline, my ankles got attacked by ants. I guess I have pretty tough ankles, but a few days later the same ankles were bombarded by  mosquitos. Enough is enough! My ankles swelled up until I didn't have any anymore, it got painful to walk and I was dying! Got in to see the doctor and she told me that I just had too much venom in my ankles and my body was releasing all the histamine possible!

It took about a week on an antihistamines but I can finally bend my ankles and am finally getting some relief!

Off to BYU!

Olivia has been looking forward to this day for months, maybe years. She's had an app on her phone that was counting down for her. Me however? definitely not counting down! Although I am super excited for the adventures she is going to have, I am less than excited for the empty seat we're going to have

After shedding tears a few times the morning we were leaving, we took a last family selfie.

We got Olivia all packed up in the van. Pretty sure we were going to be bringing stuff home, there's no way it will all fit in a college dorm...yep, that's an ottoman in the van.

Driving 10 hours with these crazies...Got up to Tom and Ashley's house, ready to move her in!

We got to see Ashley's office up on campus. So glad that Olivia will have family close by.

Ready to move in!! She's so ready...Shayne and I were reminiscing about our days at DT, so excited for the new adventures ahead!

So glad we brought extra help to move ALL THIS STUFF IN. Where will it all fit?

Still more tears from me...

Finally got it all decked out! She has been planning this FOREVER! It turned out so cute!

Oh my goodness! It all FIT! Unbelievably! Even after three more store runs, couple hundred dollars more of purchases and she's set to go!

Olivia and Halle are going to Rock this year! It will be so amazing for them.

I just cried a few dozen times on the way home and for the next week and yeah...maybe I still break out in tears here and there and every day, but I am so excited for her adventures!