Me--the last 6 months

Okaaay, I have gotten ridiculously behind, so here is my attempt to catch up a little. I can at least hit the major newsiness of the last while.

Well, my last post (but one) was about the pending arrival of baby #4. He's here! (But more on that later, he deserves his own post.) That was April. Not much to report during April and May, I stayed home with baby James, and just held him and looked at him a lot. :) I love new babies.

We started the summer off with a bang--literally. I was on my way home one afternoon in June and dozed off for a second (really, it happened that fast) and crashed into the car in front of us. It was pretty minor, everyone was ok, my car was even totally fixable, but I hit just hard enough for the air bags to deploy so it wasn't worth it. Ashley got a bloody nose--when she saw the blood she started crying, "I'm dead, I'm dead," but the bleeding stopped almost instantly, and she was fine. I'm the only one who even had any bruises. My left hand was a little bruised, and my middle fingers got jammed (the prongs on my wedding ring bent--bizarre--and had to be replaced). My arm was bruised, and burned from the airbag chemicals. My most impressive (color-wise) bruise couldn't be photographed (darnit) because it was from the seat belt. The girl in the other car was fine, she said her neck hurt a little the next day--mine was a little stiff for a couple days too. A policeman pulled up seconds after it happened, and he called paramedics. A couple minutes after that a few friends drove by and saw us, so they stopped and helped with the kids. The policemen gave my kids "Junior Officer" dog tags, and the paramedic (a familiar face--he used to live in our ward) put the heart-monitor thing on Ashley's finger as well as mine so she could see what it was. All in all it was very scary, but we were so lucky. The policeman didn't even give me a ticket, even though it was completely my fault. He just gave me a warning for "following too close".

So, the upside is that I now have a new car. It's nice to have something we fit in a little better, and I love being able to put two kids waaay back in the third row. It's nice that the kids can sit a little farther apart as well, it cuts back on the 'she's-touching-me' syndrome. It also has leather seats, cruise control, (although sometimes I forget it's there because I haven't had it for so long) a plug for my ipod, power windows, Sirius radio (for however long it's paid for, it's kind-of cool) and very little trunk space. ;)

After that I decided to try and stay out of trouble for a few months. I went to Arizona for my cousin's wedding in July. My parents drove, I took the baby with me, and left the other kids home. It was a nice--but short--break. We left on my birthday, and my parents gave me a present every hour while we were driving down. I felt so spoiled. :) We drove past the house where my grandparents used to live (we lived with them for a few months when I was in kindergarten). We visited the veteran's cemetery where my Grandpa is buried--that was interesting, there is no grass, just well manicured dirt. I got to visit my sister-in-law (she moved down there in June after she got married). It was fun to see family, and the Mesa temple is beautiful. I'm really glad I got to go.

The rest of the summer was filled with camping, "field trips" to Thanksgiving Point and Kangaroo Zoo, visits with family---all those summery things---and it went by way too fast. We went on one camping trip where I forgot matches. I'm not as prepared as Bear Grylls, so I went to the camp down the road and borrowed some. I am happy to report that I started the fire with a single match (AND, I didn't cheat with gasoline or lighter fluid or anything). When I was a teenager I carried flint on my key chain, maybe I need to do that again.

August brought the beginning of hunting season. [Here's a picture of me making breakfast on a big family camp out.] Jason's family and some friends of ours all went up with us. Opening weekend was fraught with peril of the vehicular variety (not for us, thankfully). David was hauling his 4-wheeler in the back of his truck; when he went over a bump it broke his back windshield. Then later he was driving his 4-wheeler, went over a bump, and broke off a cap to some sort of essential fluid. He spent the rest of the trip trying various patches and refilling the fluid. It's still not fixed. Scott had a little trouble too... I can't remember for sure, but I think he dented his fender, and broke a light or something on his trailer. Dan (friend) was driving his 4-wheeler when all of the oil suddenly sprayed out everywhere. His pants were soaked and smelly! Fortunately that one was an easy fix, he just needed a new cap. Anyway, it was exciting. Scott is the only one who got a deer that trip, but Jason shot a pretty nice buck later on in the hunt.

So, now we're back to the routine of school. It's going fairly well. We're having the regular struggles with homework, and trying to find time for everything, but life is good.

The first weekend in October started my antelope hunt. I had a permit that allowed me to take two "antlerless" antelope. For those of you who might not know, anything with horns less than 3" long is legal. So if you look really closely at the pictures and notice that one of the animals is not a doe, don't worry, he's still legal. The first day we went out I didn't have any luck--too bad, I would have liked to get one while my dad was with us--but the next week we managed to get both of them. I shot the first one around 10:30 in the morning at about 250 yards. She dropped right in her tracks, it was awesome! After that we had a hard time getting any to hold still--they ran as soon as we saw them. We had a little truck trouble around noon, and I was worried we were done for the day. But, the shop in town fixed us up quick (and cheap, thank heaven!) and we were back out. It was raining, and snowing, and hailing, and it was getting darkish, but I had one last chance. I shot the second (a small buck) animal at about 270 yards around 6:30 at night. I knocked him right over too--neither of them ran even one step! I was quite happy. :)

We took Ashley and James with us the first time, and all three boys the second time. James--typical of my babies--would fall asleep every time we were driving on the bumpy roads. He would wake up when we stopped, and then drop right back off as soon as we started bumping around again. ;)

So, that about covers the highlights of my last several months. If you read this whole thing you deserve a medal. ;) I mostly wanted to get this down for myself. I'm not very good at keeping a journal, so this is just about the only record of my life. Hopefully now that my computer is up and running again I'll be able to keep up with my blog--and other computer stuff--a little better.