Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Checking In...

For awhile I felt like there wasn't much to blog about, but after looking through pictures (and wanting to blog about Valentine's Day) I saw that a few things had happened!  Enjoy the pictures from everyday winter life.

On a random Thursday Lee and I had a date.  It was my turn for the date that week and I think Fast Sunday was coming up, thus the mid-week date.  We like to have treats during our date, so the first Saturday of the month isn't a good time to have one.  We played pingpong, got a blizzard (yay for coupons in the mail!) and looked at a house that would be an awesome rental. But we don't have $80,000 cash lying around to buy a house ha ha. Someday we plan on buying rentals though!
Jan 15 2015

We took a couple of trips to the community center. This must have been when Haley was on a date with Lee.
Jan 17 2015 (2)

We bought a bunk bed awhile back, and it took us a long time to put it up.  Before Lee and the boys set it up I got the bright idea of painting their room.  So I did.
Jan 17 2015 (3)

Jan 17 2015 (4)

On New Year's day we normally have Scotch eggs. That is if my mom is visiting!  We didn't do them on New Year's day this year, but I did make them one January morning.  YUMMY!!!
Jan 17 2015

Haley has always enjoyed getting her picture taken.  And likes doing "selfies" too.
Jan 18 2015

For our young women New Beginning's program I made a pendant banner that read "Embark".  The theme for the youth (ages 12-18) in our church this year is from Doctrine and Covenants section 4, verse 2: "Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day."  We all need to memorize it.  My friend Maren has been having her family memorize a scripture per month.  I love that!  She even has it written out on a cute framed chalkboard.  I need to hunt around for one.  Clark has this memorized, but we should make it a family affair. The kids helped me with the "Embark" sign.
Jan 20 2015 (2)

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It was a great evening and the cupcakes were delicious!!! Our friend Courtney made them.
Jan 21 2015

My brother Sam emailed telling us to get on chat that night for an annoucement.  Almost all 10 of us siblings were on!  He told us he was taking a new job in Seattle.  They actually will head out tomorrow.  We are so excited for this new opportunity for them.  He is in food science and will be working in research and development (R&D) for a beef jerky company. 
Jan 21 2015 (2)

Something that Lee and I would love to happen is to have the Dave Ramsey's high school course Foundations in Personal Finance taught here at the local high school.  A packet came in the mail for me to pass along to a teacher.  I finally was able to meet with a personal finance teacher and discuss it with him.  I hope he wants to teach the course!  If not it won't affect my kids because we'll teach them either way about money, how to be a wise steward, and not go into debt.  But it would be so beneficial to the kids in this area to learn these things too.  It's so amazing being debt free. Why not teach high schoolers to go into college and then a career debt free too?  My brother and his wife are getting their bachelors right now at Brigham Young University.  I've been so proud of them as they are working hard and going through school debt free...vehicles and all.  My parents and my sister Stephanie did the same too. 
Jan 20 2015

I saw this post on instagram from Your Home Based Mom one cold afternoon.  I actually had all of the ingredients and made these amazing oatmeal Carmelitas for an after school snack.  Check out the recipe here!
Jan 22 2015 (2)

Every year our elementary school reads the same book together.  Of course they read it in their individual classes with their teacher.  This year the book is about animals, and there have been displays all over the school.  I wonder if there are doing some sort of competition with each grade for the best decorated space?  Anyway, this is the 2nd grade display in the main hallway.  Such a fun rainforest theme.  They even have a motion sensor sound thing that makes it sound like you are walking through a rainforest! Shanna and Haley were able to make a butterfly to add to the display.
Jan 22 2015

One day school was canceled....it sure was a blizzard!
Jan 23 2015

When we made our temple trip in January, Darrell and Stacie came the same day too.  That night we went to the visitors' center to watch the new film "Meet the Mormons".  It was so fun seeing it!  We had a small theater all to ourselves.  I love that this is only 3/10ths of my family!  (Siblings that is!)
Jan 24 2015 (2)

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There is a new model in display of the Washington D.C. temple.  So gorgeous!  The kids loved seeing it.  There is a similar model of the Salt Lake City temple at a visitors' center on Temple Square in Salt Lake City.  If you are ever in Salt Lake or DC, check out the visitor center!  It's fun to see the display of what the inside of the temple looks like.  And I am SOOOO excited to take my kids to the Philadelphia temple open house in a year or so.  Anyone, whether a member of my church or not, can walk through a temple before it is dedicated for use.  They are so beautiful and lovely.  What a treat and a blessing to have a temple just two hours away! We love going often.
Jan 24 2015

Another snow day....or a day off... I finally helped the boys clean their room since their bunk bed was assembled.  It was pretty bad, but we got a lot organized and thrown away!
Jan 26 2015 (2)

They had a fun time that day playing and going on outings.
Jan 26 2015 (3)

Pop Rocks!
Jan 26 2015 (4)

And more community center fun.
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Jan 26 2015

Along with the book that the whole elementary school is reading, each class has a stuffed animal that they take turns bringing home.  They record their experience at home with the stuffed animal.  I didn't take pictures of Cal and Haley's animal, but we documented Elden with the panda.
Jan 27 2015

And to throw this in, one night the young women went ice skating for their activity. It was very fun!
Jan 28 2015

I went on a field trip with Shanna and Haley.  They were supposed to go to the local TV station to see the weather center, but their class couldn't go in....long story.  Anyway, instead they made weather instruments.
Jan 29 2015 (2)

Jan 29 2015 (3)

And they played at the children's museum too.
Jan 29 2015 (4)

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Jan 29 2015

One afternoon Cal and Elden helped me make chocolate chip cookies.
Jan 29 2015 (8)

Haley decided to take pictures of "cool" cars she found online one day.
Jan 29 2015 (9)

One weekend Lois and Jeff and co. came down to hang out.  Oh yeah, and do a time share tour at a local resort (Massanutten) so we could get a free hotel stay and waterpark tickets.  Let me say they put us through the ringer and would not take no for an answer!  Well, they had to take no for an answer as neither of us bought a timeshare, but boy did they put on the pressure. What horrible people we are that we just waste money on vacation every year.  If we had a timeshare we wouldn't be wasting money. (TOTAL SARCASM HERE!) I finally stood up and told them we had to go.  Anyway, I could go on and on.  It was quite the experience.  We went in just to get the free stuff.  And that we did. I would never buy a timeshare by the way!

They stayed for Sunday too.  The Superbowl was on that Sunday.  For posterity sake,  we never watch the Superbowl, even growing up (never seen it!). Sometimes I realize after that fact that the Superbowl happened.  Kind of funny.  I don't see how it would help me personally keep the Sabbath day holy.  And really, I need all the help I can give myself to keep the Sabbath holy as I am far from perfect in doing so! And really, I could care less about sports.  Anyway, that night we wanted a yummy dessert, and decided on homemade hot fudge sundaes.  We actually had the ingredients for everything too!  Jeff was very nice and made homemade ice cream.  We should pull out our ice cream maker more often!
Feb 1 2015 (2)

I made homemade brownies.
Feb 1 2015 (3)

Feb 1 2015 (4)

And homemade hot fudge.
Feb 1 2015 (5)

Feb 1 2015

Feb 1 2015 (6)

Oh so good.
Feb 1 2015 (7)

We had a nice Sunday evening together.
Feb 1 2015 (8)

The kids enjoyed building with Legos too.
Feb 1 2015 (9)

Feb 1 2015 (10)

For Family Home Evening one night Cal did a shoulder angel act.
Feb 2 2015 (2)

We started incorporating a family history moment into our Family Home Evenings.  Thanks Daniel and Amy for the idea!  That night it was my turn.  I seriously don't have a good memory and can't remember many stories.  I called up my mom, who has an AMAZING memory, and she told us a fun/crazy story how my great-grandpa Thompson killed five rattlesnakes one night (that were in his CABIN!) and hung them on a pitchfork.  The snakes were so long they hung past the handle on the pitchfork.  And pitchfork handles are long!
Feb 2 2015

Thanks for checking in on the regular Robertson happenings! 

3 comments:

Andrew Bosley said...

I've been missing your posts Ruth! And what a surprise to see you mentioned me! I'm glad you like the scripture idea. FYI: I just bought the frame at goodwill, painted it white, got a cheap piece of wood to fill the space, and then painted it with chalkboard paint. Totally easy! Let me know if you make one and how it turns out!
maren

BWei said...

Great update! We totally agree about the Superbowl. That homemade ice cream is making me hungry!

Lois said...

Loved the post! That was quite the experience with the time share, lol!