Update

Hello everyone -
It's time for a quick update. This will mostly be based off of the pictures on my camera, because other than that, I don't have anything terribly exciting to tell you.

If you are wondering how my job is going - it's fine. I will be a lot less stressed when things have settled down. For example, right now we don't have the music we are going to play for our first concert because it is still in the process of being ordered. The children's choir will start next week. This Friday is the big rivalry football game.

All I can say is, I wish I was going to Connecticut tomorrow.

First things first. A few weekends ago Mollie came up to Idaho since we couldn't make it down to Utah to see her while she was there. She got a ride up with Aunt Karen on Saturday, and then rode the shuttle back early Monday morning. So on Sunday, we went to Yellowstone.

We saw painted pots, springs, and finished the afternoon at Old Faithful. I guess pictures of Old Faithful are on Mollie's camera because I don't seem to have any. We ate Subway and lots of snacks but didn't see very many animals. We saw some antelope on the way out, but that was pretty much it. Not even any buffalo.

One day, I was home doing I don't know what, when I thought the dog was being suspiciously quiet. I walked into the other room to find this:


The little puffball that used to be at the end of his hat is one of Lady's favorite toys. She'll carry it around in her mouth and spit it out at you when she wants to play. Dogs are silly.

Then, as I mentioned before, the van died at the high school after unloading all of the band equipment after the first football game a couple of weeks ago. Chad replaced the fuel filter, it worked for about a day and a half, and then quit again. A guy in our ward offered his help, having had replaced the fuel pump in his Suburban twice. He came over and tested some other things before deciding that it was, in fact, the fuel pump. So we went and bought a new one, and he put it in. Er, I mean, he "helped" Chad put it in. In the process, he told Chad that our van was definitely a female because of how stubborn she was with everything. Well - that means "his" name can't be Jermaine anymore. I think it should be LaFawnda. LaFawnda and Leonard - now there's a pair. Anyways - here's the offender.
But, $275 later and the van lives to see another day. We were planning on spending the weekend in Utah for Adelaide's baby blessing. Instead, we spent Friday night and Saturday fixing the van. We took the Subaru up to West Yellowstone to see Christian in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Playmill. The show was awesome and we were really glad we got to see it. As always, Christian set us up with good seats and treats. Thanks Christian! (He's in costume, by the way - this isn't his everyday wear)
We didn't feel confident taking the van down to Provo after it was immobile for about a week, and then we worked on it all evening/morning. Since we were planning on the baby blessing since about May, that was really disappointing. But I guess she got blessed even without us being there. Unfortunately, that means we still haven't seen the first Dickerson granddaughter and probably won't for quite a while. But I don't even know when we'll get to see Kyle and Jess's baby. That's what happens when babies are born hours away and you work full time.

On Monday, we decided to go to the State Fair. This was our sorry attempt to replace our trip to the Big E. No giant eclairs could be found. Nor clam fritters, nor giant cream puffs, nor Maine baked potatoes (or even Idaho baked potatoes, surprisingly), nor nasty maple candies, nor a giant building full of as-seen-on-TV products. We settled for teriyaki chicken bowls for lunch, and a Tiger's Ear (giant fried dough) from the Scouts booth. Chad said we had to be swindled before we could leave, and got talked into a reusable rubber lint roller thingy and a travel size one for $11. It seems to work pretty well, and didn't even seem that expensive. We do go through a lot of lint rollers, so it was even a useful purchase. While we were there, we saw this sign on the ticket booth for the rides:
You'll notice the "No pregnant or intoxicated people". Because we belong in the same group.

They also have a little petting zoo at the fair, where a pet store from Pocatello brings puppies to sell. They are always super cute, and sometimes they're really picky about who they let hold them. You have to look genuinely interested, because they don't want their little puppies being man-handled by a bunch of little kids. They let us see this little guy:

HOW CUTE IS HE?!!! And he's a dachsund/chihuahua mix so he probably won't get too much bigger. Just under $300. Sooooo tempting. Aunt Karen ran into us while we were ogling. In the end, we gave him back to the guy, and walked away.

And with that, we left the fair and came home - without incident, thank goodness. (2 years ago the brake booster went out on the van on our way to the fair)

This last week was more work for both of us. Chad's parents were here from Wednesday night to Saturday morning to bring Stephen back up to school.

Yesterday I was in Porter's just hanging around. When I walked in, there was a girl, about 10 years old, running around playing a harmonica. I found Chad and talked to him for a few minutes. The whole time this girl is playing the harmonica. And then I asked Chad if Porter's sells harmonicas. Why, yes, yes they do. She's going to buy that right? Probably not, he says. The lady at the register finishes checking out (where 10 feet away, her daughters are BOTH playing harmonicas now) and tells the girls to put their things down and come on because she's leaving. So the girls put their harmonicas back in the cases, and ditch them on a shelf in the toys/games and leave. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!?!?!?! And Chad isn't allowed to say anything to the customer because "That's rude". Really? It's rude for him to say "Uh, you opened that, slobbered all over it, you are old enough to know better, you're mother was standing around the whole time, and then you shove it back into the case, stuff it on a shelf somewhere and leave - I'm sorry, but you'll have to buy that." What is WITH parents these days? Are parents of this generation like this everywhere? Or is it just in this little Idaho/Utah bubble? It seems like parents take no responsibility for what their children are doing - and often leave them completely unsupervised. But I think it's worse when they ARE "supervising" their children and they might as well not be.

Chad tells me horror stories from work all the time where parents let their kids run around, break things, make a mess, slobber on stuff, and then they just put things back and leave the store. Why should they have to clean up after themselves? Or pay for what they broke/used/destroyed? But when I saw this in action, I was completely appalled. I just don't get it. When Chad made a comment to a lady at work that his kids weren't going to be like that, she said something along the lines of "Yeah, we'll see. Good luck with that." Why has this kind of parenting become socially acceptable? And, as grandma said, what's wrong with a little spanking every now and then? Anyways - sorry, that's my little rant for today. And I know I don't have any kids yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to walk into a store, hand my kid a stuffed animal off of the shelf, let them slobber all over it while I shop, and then put it back and walk out.

*Sigh* It's back to work for us tomorrow. The school is splitting my 35 student guitar class so I will now be teaching 5 classes. I am getting more anxious to have a baby. And more anxious that I can't stay home with him all day. (We are currently watching him rock my belly.)