Cabin Fever

This morning my friend Teri (down below) and I

went on a hike in the White Tank Mountains.

There is this pretty state park not too far from our

house that has tons of trails. This has been the first hike

of the season. The weather has dipped into the 90's so

it is nice and pleasant. While we were driving up

Teri was saying that she was having a bad case of

"Cabin Fever" I thought that was so funny. Because

here we are taking the "first hike of the season" and

my other family are getting ready to hunker down for

winter. I was looking down at my skin and thinking,

now I can work on my tan. Laughing again because my

cousin Alicia is probably getting sad because her tan

will be fading away soon. It has taken some

adjustment to living down here. But it is growning on

me. I do miss fall and winter, but luckily with Ben

living in Flagstaff now, it will be easier to visit my

favorite seasons. I do miss evergreen trees and the smell

of Salt water. (Not the Great Salt Lake) I do miss the turning

colors of fall. But I am loving it here now too. So Happy

Fall everyone, I am heading out doors to do some hiking, running,

and biking. Come down this winter for some relief from the cold.

We would love the company!!

This is Troy (and the missionaries)
This is Teri and Troy

I have been meaning to write a blog about this

for awhile. And since I should be working, this seems

like a perfect time to do it. :) Teri and I got called

to be activity day leaders earlier this year. Marchish

I think. And since then we have been having a

great time. And she is truly a great friend. She has

been married to Troy for 15 years. And has two kids

Taylor (a little older than Sam) and Tatum ( a little older

than Liz) which is part of the reason we get along so well.

We can complain about kids. Teri has been a member all

her life and Troy just got baptised about a week and a

half ago. Teri and her two kids have been really active

in the church for a couple of years now. Now our Stake

did a pioneer Trek a few months ago and Troy thought

this was an interesting thing that they were doing. And

being a Firefighter, voluteered to do Medical for them.

Teri's son was old enough to go, and Teri was asked to

be a big sister. There was a lot of excitement in

the ward as the Trek came together. As a New Stake,

just organized in January, they did a great job pulling this

together in such a short amount of time. Anyways,

longer story short. Troy came home from the Trek,

and told Teri some of the experiences he had on

the way, and decided he needed to learn more

about the church. He talked to his brother in law

who is a member and who baptized him. And after a

good long talk from him, his brother in law said he should

call the missionaries. So Troy called the Bishop. (At 10:30

at night who was asleep, he had been on the

Trek too). Now, a side note: Troy and Bishop are

great friends. He called him and when Bishop got on

the phone, Troy said, "Bishop I think I need to talk

with the missionaries" there was a long silence on

the phone. Then Bishop said "Troy this isn't a good

time to joke around." Troy told him he wasn't joking.

So Bishop told him he would introduce them at church

the next morning. Well Teri told me that Bishop

called the missionaries at 6:00 the next morning

and said that if they screwed this one up they

would be in BIG TROUBLE. So I was oblivious to

all this ofcourse. But I caught Teri really quick that

Sunday to ask her how was Trek. And she said it was

good but she had to hurry, because the missionaries

were going over that night. And I thought, that was

nice, they are going to have the missionaries over

for dinner. I think she knew what I was thinking,

because she said "NO, the MISSIONARIES are

COMING over." I thought for a second, and my

eyes got big and I said, "For Troy?" "No Way!"

I told her she had to tell me what happened

when she had the time. The thing about Troy,

was that he always supported Teri and the kids

going to church. He was friends with the bishop,

who was earlier their Home Teacher. He came

to church occasionally to support the kids. Teri

always wanted him to become a member but never

asked or pushed the issue. And when the time came

he blew everyone away!

Well fast forward to his baptism. He is a well liked

man. He is a firefighter, and had many firefighters

that he worked with that were LDS as well. It was

decided to do his baptism in the Chapel instead of

the Relief Society Room. Which was a good thing too.

All of Teri's family were there. Most of his Family was

there. (They are not LDS but boy they are very supportive)

Alot of ward members, A ton of Stake Members from the

Trek. And his Firefighter friends. Lets just say, that

the chapel was filled all the way to the back.

When it was time for him to be baptized I just told the

kids that we would stay behind, so his family and friends

could watch him. When they started coming back, a

friend from the ward who had gone and watched the

baptism, I asked her how crowded it was, she said,

Wow, you can barely fit 80 primary kids in that room, but

try and fit 200 adults and it was no, problem. I was

thinking, darn it, I missed the miracle of the room

being enlarged for the whole group!!

I just want to say that through these past few weeks

I have gotten to know Troy and Teri even better.

They are such great people and I can't wait for

a year, when they can be sealed together!

2nd Place!!

Jake's last shoot was last weekend in Prescott.

He won 2nd place in Traditional and 2nd place

overall. We are so excited. Now he is getting ready

to shoot in Border Town down in Tombstone at

the end of October!!

The Reward

All right I will let everyone know what

the reward is. You probably will think we

have lost it. And maybe we have. But we

were desperate, and desperate times call for

desperate measures. First of all let me explain

the problems we had with homework. Both kids

were frankly not doing it. After dinner I would sit

them down and ask what they needed to do for

homework and for the most part they would lie

and say they had none. So my next line of defense

was that it didn't matter if they had no homework

or not, they had to study for 30 minutes. That didn't

work either. We tried paying them for A's and B's

I think $10 for A's $5 for B's $0 for C's and

any D's of F's canceled the whole thing out.

That didn't work either. Every night was a fight.

I would go through notebooks, bags, see what I

could find. I was emailing and talking to teachers.

Jake and I were so frustrated, that when the end

of the year came we were actually glad to get a break

from homework. The kids grades weren't so bad.

Mostly b's but with an A here or there. And there

was a scattering of C's D's and and F once or twice.

With these grades came groundings. No TV, no video

games, no friends over......on and on and on.

You get the picture. And the bad grades came

from not doing homework. I was beside myself.

I was being a good mom and making sure they had

time away from distractions so they could do their

homework. I would look in their bags for it, I would ask

them "what" homework they had instead of

asking "if" they had any homework. I was going crazy.

So over the summer Jake and would talk about it

together and not really come up with anything.

We were tired of the lying and the fighting. It was

wearing on us both. So a week before school started

I was doing something in the kitchen and he was

reading on the couch. The kids were out swimming.

He all of a sudden said. Ah ha!!! I figured it out. I

know how to get them to do better in school.

I was pretty flabergasted when he announced his

idea. All I said is all right, if you think "we" can

make good on it.

So we told the kids. This is reward is stricktly for

All A's on a report card. We wouldn't count mid-terms.

Just quarter and semester grades. If they got

any b's or below they wouldn't get anything.

(We don't think getting b's are bad, but we

needed to shake things up in our household)

So if you get all A's 1st quarter you get $25.

I know it doesn't sound like much especially

since other like bribes like that didn't work.

But just wait....it gets lots better.

(atleast for the kids)

All A's for the 2nd quarter $50

All A's for the 3rd quarter $100

All A's for the 4th quarter $200

Total: $375

This is each person.

Are we crazy? Probably. But let me tell

you. The kids got very giddy when Jake

unrolled the plan. I got light headed.

But since school has started, there is no fighting

over homework. Even if they have one

problem in Math left to do from earlier in

the day, they do it at home instead of

trying to get it done at school the next day.

They are actually studying for tests.

They are telling us about projects when

they find out about it not the night before.

And working on them right away.

Now we are not going to let the kids spend

every penny on frivilous nothings. The money

is going to be put in the bank till the last report card

so they have the full amount. Then they will get a big

chunk probably $100 to spend how they want,

then they save the rest.

When I saw Sam's mid-terms I knew that this

was worth it. 5A+'s 2 A's and 2B's. He was my

biggest fighter. Being a teenager. He loves to fight.

But he loves money like they all do, even more.

And he has never had the opportunity for

this much.

The other great thing about this, is since the

mid-terms have come out, Sam and Liz have

come to me on there own, about how they are

going to raise their grades from B's to A's.

And none of those plans are make sure I get

my homework in, because they already do.

Liz talked to her teachers on her own and

found out that her B's were from quizes that

she didn't do so well on. So she is making

sure she studies and makes sure she understands

the concepts. Sam did the same thing.

I was a little scared when they started Cross Country.

I was sure they would be too tired to do

homework. And it would be a battle again.

but, they just come home, take a quick dip in

the pool, eat a snack and get back to work.

It is great. Now I am a realist. I don't

know how long this will last. I hope it lasts through

high school. But I know my children. It may get old.

But until then, I am enjoying "homework time".

I am enjoying not fighting.(Well over homework atleast)

And I love seeing how proud they are of

themselves.

1st Cross Country Meet

Sam and Liz had their first Cross Country Meet

on Wednesday. They had to run 2 miles. They did

such a good job. (Ofcourse I am biased) They were

both in the middle of the group. Sam ran it in 22 minutes.

And Liz did hers in 31 minutes. I think it is pretty good

since they have only been running for a couple of weeks

and haven't been in any other sports for a couple of years.

On another note. We are so proud of the kids.

Last year we all struggled with grades and finishing

homework. So this year Jake implemented a heavy

"reward" for getting A's. I won't get into the reward

we have promised, however I will show you the results!!

Last year Sam and liz were getting B's C's D's and F's

and most of it was because they were not doing their

homework. This year, Sam so far has 7 A's (5 of them

are A+'s) and 2 B's. Liz has 6 A's and 3 B's now

granted this is only their mid-term. But we are so

proud of their hard work!!! And they are keeping

their grades up while running in 100 + degree

weather. Good Job Kids!!!

Dog Sitting
Since our fun Labor Day plans fell through
because of Jake's mid-terms, we helped out
a friend and watched Peanut for the weekend.
He and Shadow tried to figure out who was
the dominant one all weekend. It was kind of
funny. Neither one of them gave up. Peanut
reminded us of a little Ewok. His little face
and his little growl. So ofcourse that inspired
us to do a Full On Star Wars marathon this
weekend. All 6 movies. It was great fun!

Mr. Fix-IT!!!

Well our TV is now fixed. Our TV has been

broken for about a month now. And personally,

it has been HEAVEN!! I told Jake how much I

loved not having the TV. He did not share the

same opinion. When he bought the TV it had

been a floor model so we knew that sooner or

later that we would have to replace the lamp.

Well the time came and getting quotes was scary.

They said it would be $700-$800. And we didn't

have that much money to spend on the TV. So

with a little research we looked up the owner's manual

and figured that it would be easy to replace. We ordered the

part for $200. (Which included a new remote, and overnight,

Saturday delivery on shipping.) And it took Jake only 5-10

minutes to change out the lamps. I am so glad that

we figured it out on our own. I have to say I love

the internet, this isn't the only time it saved us a

bunch of money. When I needed to turn my little

company into an LLC, it was going to cost us

$500-800 to hire a lawyer. But then I hoped online,

downloaded the paperwork which was easy, self explanitory,

and drove downtown, and turned it in and paid $97!!