Weekly update

Ryder is totally potty trained except for wiping his own bottom. Well, the other day I was wiping him and I said, “Pretty soon you’ll be old enough to wipe your own bottom.” Ryder responded with, “Woah, I can’t do that!”

Earlier this week Ryder had a friend, Owen Thomas over to play. While they were playing upstairs, I heard a loud noise/bang. As I was on my way upstairs to investigate, I heard one of them yell from the play room, "Don't worry, we'll clean it up."

Conversation with Ryder the day after Halloween:
Me: "Ryder, if you want a piece of candy you have to eat lunch first."
Ryder: "I already had one."
Me: (Thinking to myself) "Yah, who am I fooling here....?"

Ryder was licking the ranch dressing (from pizza) off his fingers. I told him to use a napkin instead. He said, “No, I can just do this.” And then he proceeded to continue to lick all the ranch off of his fingers.

I was getting ready to go on an errand, and I told Ryder to get ready and put his shoes on. He looked at me and said, “You can’t go in your toes, that’s CRAZY!” (I was barefoot.)

When we were carving pumpkins for Family Home Evening he kept saying over and over, “That’s nasty!” or “Well, well, well, what we’ve got here!!”

Ryder just came down to tattle on Trevor about something. Trevor was supposed to be changing and he started playing with Legos instead. So Ryder came down and told dad, “Trevor is playing with Legos.” So dad yelled upstairs, “Trev.” And Ryder then said to your dad, “You’re going to have to go upstairs.” (It turns out Ryder tried to “discipline” Trevor and smashed his legos, so Trevor hit him. But the funny, or not so funny thing, is when Ryder said, “When I smashed them he cried.”)

The other day he wanted to play a game on the Ipad. He very matter of fact told me, “I’m going to play Jet Pack…I’m going to die.”

The week started off with our spooky dinner. It turned out so good! I loved it. I definitely can’t wait to have this be an annual tradition. After the spooky dinner we read some books that had glow in the dark pages. We kept the lights turned off and we all shined our lights on the page with flashlights to “activate” the page, then we’d turn the flashlight off to see it glow. I loved it. Tanner even complimented me and thanked me for all the hard work that I spent putting it all together. He also thanked me for decorating the house. That made me so happy. JWe also got news that President Craig Olson passed away after a long battle with colon cancer. He served as a counselor to President Don Evans in the Mountain View Stake Presidency a few years ago. That was when President Cowan was the other counselor. This week was crazy busy so I was really glad that Coach Callison cancelled all evening wrestling practices for Tanner.

Monday our Suburban didn’t start AGAIN. I politely called the dealership and told them that the starter that they had just replaced last month never sounded right, seemed to be having problems last week, and now my car wouldn’t start at all that morning. They thought it was my battery. So over the next 2 days, your dad took the battery out, and took it in to be tested. Sure enough, the battery was completely dead. Much to our dismay, the 3 year battery that we bought was just 2 months out of the 3 year warranty. We are just so lucky, aren’t we? So we put in the new battery, and I still felt like the starter didn’t sound right. Well, I was right!! (I’m not happy I was right.) The Suburban didn’t start again Saturday morning. I’m so frustrated by this whole thing. So now I get to call them again tomorrow. Now we’ve had all 3 cars in the shop about 5 times in the last 2 months. UGH! On a good note, I got to take a meal into a new sister in our ward with Amy Rasmussen on Monday night. Her name is Jessica Barker. They moved in by the Thomas family. They have expressed more than once how friendly they feel our ward is. They told the bishopric that if they didn’t come to church in their last ward, no one would notice. Well, if they don’t come to church here, people always drop by to visit them…people know them! J She just had a baby and her husband is out of town with work for the next couple months, and she has had some health problems. So we have been going in to help a lot. She commented to me that when her daughter didn’t go to mutual to stay home and help her, that Sister Klepinger came right over to bring stuff by. I love that! Mondays are always busy as Trevor also has piano and football practice. Monday night we carved pumpkins for FHE. We did a bat and Jango Fett from Star Wars.

Tuesday Ryder had Owen Thomas come over to play and they had a great great time!! They got along famously and laughed the whole time. I also had a “Review of Existing Data” meeting at Ryder’s speech therapy preschool at Entz. Basically I met with the teacher, speech therapist and a regular teacher at the school. We discussed his goals and his progress so far. They basically said he is doing awesome and will probably be graduated from the program (kicked out) this month. They are going to re-evaluate him in the next couple weeks, but I don’t think it’s going to change their mind. And to be honest, even though he’s still pretty behind, he’s doing really well. He’s got a lot of vocabulary, but right now struggles with comprehension of what he’s saying. With a lot of work, that will come. We just have to stay on him. There are test results now that say that speech delayed kids typically struggle in school later on. I’m a little worried about what to do with him for the rest of the school year, but I’m just going to keep asking around. It will be good for him to be around “typical talkers” anyways. Trevor also had football practice. Your dad taught his class at MCC as usual. On a sad note, we got news that morning that Brother George Kiene passed away. We will miss him so much. And my heart just aches for sweet, sweet Karen.

Wednesday, Trevor had his first Battle of the Books competition. He did well. His team only missed one question and is tied for 2nd place right now. The team in 1st place didn’t miss any questions. I was very proud of how well his team did. He conferred with his team each time and they seemed very confident on every answer (except the one they missed). Ryder also had his regular music class. He got to dress up in his Halloween costume…which he loved! He is a fireman this year. Then he went to a friend’s house, Landon Broadbent, to play some more. This was great for me because I was able to finish up your Christmas package and get it mailed off. I have been working like a crazy person for the last couple days to get the last couple things I needed and mailed off so you would have it in time. The shipping place said I needed to have it mailed by the end of October to get to you in time for Christmas. I was totally awesome and got it ALL DONE!! I even sent presents for your companion. I didn’t know if you would have the same one or not, but I couldn’t handle your companion (whomever it might be) not possibly getting anything, so I sent pretty much 2 of everything. You will see it labeled simply “Elder” in the box. That night for mutual and scouts Tanner, Trevor and your dad went to the stake center to watch a special broadcast about the church doing scouting for 100 years. I haven’t watched it, but I have heard from several people, including your dad, that it was amazing. There was even a musical number about “Mom got the Eagle but they gave me the badge” or something like that. I am proud to say that my three Eagles I think worked very hard for their badges. You boys were awesome, worked hard and learned a lot. I recorded it off of BYUTV to watch. Tanner left a little early to pass out fliers for the ward chili cookoff on Saturday.

Thursday was Halloween. The Spuhlers have a neighborhood party every year with popcorn, snow cones, hot dogs, games, a bouncer, etc. They put fliers on every house in the ward boundaries about it. So we started off with going to that. I also dressed up and was very proud of my costume. I dressed up like Flo from Progessive Insurance. I pulled the costume off very well if I do say so myself. I even had the bright red lipstick and blue headband. (I do think I need a wider headband though.) Trevor went as a gladiator (Tanner’s old costume), and Ryder was a fireman again. Dad couldn’t come with us because he had to teach his class. Ryder had such a great time in the bouncer with his friends Calvin and Landon. He did NOT want to leave. While we were at the party Trevor left with Sister Thomas to go meet up with Clayton and some other friends in the Triana neighborhood. He hung out at their neighborhood party for a while and then they trick or treated for a long time. They ended up at our house with a TON of candy. They weighed it to see how much. Trevor had 5 lbs. 10 oz. Clayton had just under 5 lbs. I don’t know how Trevor ended up with so much. Tanner met us at the Spuhlers and watched Ryder so I could visit. What a good son. When Ryder wanted a drink, we left to go to Bishops. You have to pay for hot dogs and drinks at the Spuhlers party. (It’s a donation thing really.) But at Bishop Goodman’s house they BBQ hot dogs and hamburgers and have homemade root beer for everyone that comes by trick or treating. What a treat that was! That was yummy! Then when we got home, I took Ryder trick or treating while Tanner handed out candy. We finished up about the time your dad got home. Ryder was so cute. At first he tried to give people candy back when they gave him some. But it didn’t take him long to get the hang of it. He was very good and always said “thank you.” We ended up going with Brylee and Sister Palmer and that was fun. We started out with the Krummenacher’s neighborhood and Ryder’s bucket was completely full. So we dumped out his bucket and went up and down out street. I can’t believe how he didn’t get tired. We didn’t have as many trick or treaters as usual so we had a ton of candy leftover. Brent Spencer dressed up like Fred from Scooby Doo. On my goodness, you should have seen the wig he was wearing. It was awesome. He looked hilarious! Pam said that’s why she married him, because he used to have hair like that. Haha Tanner went to a party that night with some friends. He had a great time. He didn’t dress up like last week.

Friday I went to the temple to do initiatories. I made a commitment to go to the temple weekly. I also committed to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. After school, I ran some errands with Tanner. We went to the mall to get him some jeans and get me a new watch battery. We also went to the library and to Costco to get your new glasses. I’m so bummed they didn’t make it into your last package. Tanner also had a little “discussion” with me about how he doesn’t like to drive with me because I “freak out.” I told him that he needed to be more teachable when I correct him like his brothers were, especially Chase. So he got upset and called Dad. Dad told him that both his brothers said I was harder to drive with but they learned to deal with it and that if I wanted to drive that he better learn to deal with it too. Sorry. Later that night, we hung out here at home while Tanner, Nate and their friend Kyle went to some haunted houses at Fiesta Mall. They met this really creepy guy that really freaked out Nate. In fact, to quote Nate, “That was scarier than the haunted houses!” The story is so funny to hear him tell it. I will have Tanner write you and tell you what happened. Your dad and I stayed home and watched a movie, “42” about Jackie Robinson, the first black player in Major League baseball. It was so inspirational.

Saturday, your dad and I both went to the gym. I went to Brent’s spinning class and then ran a mile on the treadmill. I hadn’t been to the gym all week, so it was good to get back there. Your dad works out at Fitness Works now. He runs up to the gym (approx. 4 miles), lifts weights, and then runs back. We then went to Trevor’s flag football game. They won 51 to 0. It was their first win. It was good for them to play so well. Last week they lost by 2. We then came home and did some jobs and got ready for the chili cookoff. We also got to google hangout/chat with Jordan for about an hour. Tanner told him about our “conversation about driving” and he basically confirmed what Dad said. That I “hold the roof and brake on my side,” but that you just deal with it. Was I really that bad? Jordan seems to be doing okay. He says he is doing pretty good in his classes. He goes to a lot of parties.

My friend, Angela, that I knew from BYU, who lives in Washington DC is thinking about moving here. She came here this weekend to check things out and had Matt Winters show her around some houses for sale. So I went to look at some houses with her and Matt. Later we all went to the chili cookoff. It was a huge success. I invited several people from the neighborhood. Leah Boyd and her daughter Regina and her husband Eddie came. Eddie came, helped Daniel Palmer set up the lights in the park and even made chili. On a good note, one of the neighbors came up to me and said, “Hey I need to come to one of your ladies meetings. I haven’t been able to come the last couple times you’ve invited me.” Bonus!! And also, it seemed that there were a lot of non-members from elsewhere in the ward. We had a fishing booth, cupcake walk, snow cones, cotton candy, train rides, etc. My friend who came brought her 2 kids. Her son has autism and is a little odd sometimes. But he came up to her and said, “I want to move to this ward, everyone is so nice.” Tanner went to another Halloween party with Nate and friends so your dad and I just hung out and watched another movie, “World War Z.” I’ve decided that we are going out on a real date next and Tanner needs to babysit! J We actually could have on Saturday, but I was really tired.

Church today was so great. Kim Hale (Dallin Hale’s dad) was called to be an advisor in the Teacher’s Quorum. Tanner seems excited about that. Tanner also got 2 new Sunday School teachers. He was REALLY excited about that. He has had Sister Rivington every year. Don’t get me wrong, she is great and he has liked her. But he was ready for a change. His new teachers are Zach Martin (newly returned missionary) and Jake Heywood (Valerie Goodman’s husband and Shey Heywood’s brother). I always love fast and testimony meeting. Your dad bore a beautiful testimony about how he knows Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to be happy. Then Sister Kiene got up and bore her testimony. She just wept. She said that she “didn’t know it would be so hard” for George to be gone. He has had dementia for a while and so she has mourned him “being gone” for a while now. She also said that with her knowledge of the plan of salvation that she didn’t realize how hard it would be. But she said it is still so hard. And then she apologized to all of us for crying in her sweet “Sister Kiene” way. I think she gave all of us about 10 hugs each today. Then Brother Shaun Allen got up and talked about how his dad had passed away Friday night. We had no idea. He had been joking with us and helping out so much at the chili cookoff on Saturday, I had no idea that pain he was in. He just wept and was sweet as he talked about how grateful he was for the gospel. He said if Sister Kiene didn’t have the gospel in her life that he could imagine her still in a church somewhere. But he said he was so grateful for being born in the covenant—being born in the church. He said he was fearful of what his life would be without the gospel. He doesn’t know if he would be married or have kids. He said he didn’t think you would find him in a church because of the “selfish” person he could be. It was so beautiful to hear him express how grateful he was for the covenants his parents had made and for the plan of salvation. And one other thing, I don’t remember who shared it, but I loved it. They said we need to remember that we can get through trials no matter what they are because Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are there helping us along the way. It reminded me of a scripture that Elder McGrath shared on facebook earlier this week: "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." (Isaiah 41:10)

I also helped substitute in Sunbeams today. When I was coloring with them after the lesson, Andi McDowell told me, “My picture is better than yours.” I told her that I thought both of our pictures looked good. Her response to that was, “Mmmm, no, I think mine is better.” Another funny story is that we made “shakers” because the lesson was on music. We talked about how music can make us happy and how music shows Heavenly Father we love him. Jenna Van Leuven taught it and she brought cups, filled them with noodles and then we just put a lid of sorts over the top. We then shook them in class as we sang songs. After class Maycie Rasmussen ran down the hall and yelled to Amy “Mom, I made a cup of noodles.” I explained that it was a music shaker. So hilarious!