Hopefully next week I will be better about updating on a daily basis but this week has been so crazy that I just haven't had time! So, here is a recap!

Monday - Labor Day

I ever so kindly persuaded Jack to go with me and the kids to a bbq and tie dye party with a bunch of people he had never met. Anyone who knows Jack knows that he would rather walk a mile with a rusty nail through each of his feet than have to "socialize" with strangers. But he was a good sport and did it for me. The kids got to tie dye t-shirts. We had never really done official tie dying and it is quite an art form. Who knew? I guess I should say that I tie dyed the boys shirts and they told me what colors they wanted. Alyssa did hers almost entirely by herself. When we get them back, I will have to post pictures of how they turned out!

Tuesday 9/04/07

Tuesday evening the storm clouds started to roll in. I had been on the phone with a friend of mine who lives in Tooele. Her husband saw a funnel cloud coming out of the sky. It didn't touch down but was a good indication of what was to come our way. Me, being a storm loving person, was beyond excited. When the wind started to blow, I knew that we were in for a good one. When the kids toys outside started flying through the air, I knew it was time to go out and weight everything down. Before I could do so, our inflatable swimming pool flew up over our shed and then over the neighbors house, into the school yard behind them and kept on going. We went looking for them but trees were falling and we figured it was just a pool. (It actually showed up back at our doorstep a couple of days later...). One of our neighbors said she saw a play pen fly by her second story window. These are not the kind of storms we usually see. Aside from the fact that my kids were terrified that we were going to see our house sucked up into the sky (too much tv), I was in storm bliss. The wind continued to blow. Our neighbors who live across the street and who's house our pool flew over, lost a section of their fence. They took it well though.

After the wind came the rain and the lightning. It was amazing and I wish I had a picture of it. It struck a transformer nearby and left some of our neighbors powerless for at least 24 hours or more. Usually, if anyone in the valley has a power outage, our power decides it sounds like fun and follows along. So much for free thinking power lines huh? But, amazingly enough, we didn't even get a blip!

I borrowed some reader submitted photos from KSL's website:

As far as storms go, it was amazing. And I am so glad that we didn't suffer any real damage to our home or our things.

Wednesday 9/05/07

Today was Mason's first day of school! He started Kindergarten. He is an older kindergartener because last year at this time, he lived in a land of make believe and I was really concerned that the teachers wouldn't be able to teach him reality based concepts such as letters and numbers.

Preschool was great for him though. He learned a ton and had an excellent teacher!

If you can't tell in the background of this picture, it was pouring rain. It had been beautiful all morning long and well, up to about 5 minutes before we were supposed to take him. Now, I love a good storm but I wanted to walk him to school on his first day. Anyone who knows me though knows that I handle not getting my own way just fine.

As soon as we got to the school, Mason made a friend. His name was Joseph. Mason's comment to him? "Wow, Joseph is a funny name. Don't you think my name is funny too?" Not sure if the look from his mother to me was one of contemplation as to whether or not Mason is a funny name too or whether she was displeased that the first thing said to her son on the first day of Kindergarten was another kid telling him that his name was funny. And since when is Joseph a funny name? But that is my kid!

He had a great day at school.

We also went that day and took some other photos of damage from the storm the night before.

They are here:

Friday 9/07/07

Alyssa had a great opportunity tonight. We signed her up for Taylorsville High Schools Mini Drill clinic. She had two nights of practice and then tonight they danced at the halftime of the football game. She did great! I was so proud of her and of course I think she was the best. What else is a mother supposed to think right? This other photo is of her on the field. It was too dark for a good photo and the flash made it darker because of the distance... but she is just so dang cute!