Kennecott Bingham Copper Mine

On Thursday, April 21st Kaymin's 4th grade class took a trip to Kennecott.  I have never been there and when Kaymin brought home the paper she was begging me to go.  I called my mom and she was so wonderful and told me I needed to go and see it for myself.  She watched my kids so I could go since the field trip was from 8:30-4pm.  A bunch of us "moms" drove down together.  It was a lot of fun and very interesting.  We stayed at the mine until lunchtime and then drove to a nearby park for lunch.  After that, the bus was headed over to the smelting plant.  They only drove there and flipped a "U" in the parking lot.  We decided to skip that part and just head on home.  It was so fun to go and see that especially when I could spend the day with Kaymin.

These are the actual tires on the trucks and tractors in the pit.  Each tire costs $25,000.  Some of those vehicles (semi trucks) had 10 on there.  They have tires that cost more than my whole house.

Last Batch of Baby Bunnies

On Friday our mommy bunny had the last batch of baby bunnies.  We are officially done with having them unless someone else begs us.  I really love seeing them grow, but I am so afraid that we will be stuck with them.  This is the only pregnancy that was planned.  She was two days later than she normally is and we were so afraid she wasn't going to have any.  I really wanted to have one more batch so we could take them and show the nieces and nephews on Easter.  She had 7 bunnies and so far all of them are spoken for.  I am so grateful.  We are going to keep three of them (I only want to keep 2, but Deilen is begging me for one) so I guess we will see.  Then we will have to get rid of the mom and dad.  I feel bad having to get rid of them, but we can't keep a million bunnies.

Deilen and Toilet Paper

Deilen has never been a nose picker.  My girls...well that is another story.  However, today Deilen kept picking his nose until it would bleed.  I made him go up into the bathroom to wipe the blood that was oozing down out of his nose.  He came back downstairs with a piece of toilet paper shoved into his nostril.  He started reading me his homework book and then decided he needed to go to the bathroom.  He was up there a while and then came back down with the toilet paper gone.  He began reading me his book again and then told me that he shoved the toilet paper clear up his nose and couldn't get it out.  So he poured a glass of water up his nose.  I had to get a flashlight and sure enough there was something white clear up there.  I got the tweezers out hoping that I could grab it.  Instead I had him blow really hard and it finally came out.  That scared me to death.  I think he learned his lesson about shoving toilet paper up his nose.

A Bad Couple of Weeks

It has been really rough here in our household for the last two weeks.  I came down with a cold that attacked my throat and chest.  I sounded horrible and had NO energy whatsoever.  In fact, half of the time I felt like I had the body aches.  Finally after 10 days it went into my sinuses and I had to get on an antibiotic.  The next morning Kameni woke up and had a double ear infection.  This was on Friday and it was my mom's birthday and so Gerrit, Kameni and I went out to breakfast with her and Jen at iHop.  I went straight from there to the school for Kaymin's Spring Fling where I was helping another mom run the water volleyball game.  Kameni just laid on the blanket on the grass and finally after an hour and a half we left.  Once we got home, Gerrit began running a fever.  On Saturday, I felt like crap still and so did Kameni, Gerrit was still running a fever, and Deilen began coughing and coughed so hard he threw up.  I was going to SCREAM!  However, it started to get better from there.  On Sunday we celebrated my mom's birthday and only Kaymin, Kameni, and I were able to go.  Blake stayed home with the boys.  Monday morning we woke up and Gerrit hasn't ran a fever, Deilen's cough is pretty much gone, mine and Kameni's antibiotics have kicked in and we are feeling much better, but now Blake has it.  Today poor Blake sounds just like I did.  I keep thinking...he still has about two weeks left of it.  Poor guy.

Spring Break

Today marks the first day of the kids' spring break.  We were looking forward to warm weather and playing outside, but Mother Nature had other plans.  It is snowing today.  So far we have about 2 inches and it hasn't let up yet.  I promised the kids I would take them to the Layton Surf and Swim.  I only had three of my kids, because Deilen's friend, Preston, invited him to go swimming with their family.  Of course, Deilen would rather go with a friend than his family.  It was so much easier watching three kids than four.  Truthfully, I only had to watch the girls.  Poor Gerrit is so terrified of big bodies of water, he wouldn't let go of me.  He cried for the first 1 1/2 hours and then finally stopped.  I really need to help him overcome that fear.  Hopefully we can work on that during the summer.  The pool had so much chlorine in it that our eyes were burning and the kids were coughing so hard we had to leave after a couple of hours.  The girls thought it was cool that we got to swim in the big bubble.  I remember thinking the same thing as a kid.  Blake and I just hope all of this snow we are suppose to get in the next couple days and low temperatures, don't freeze our blossoms on our apricot tree.  That happened last year and we only got 9 apricots on our whole tree.  Both of us are keeping our fingers crossed.

Planting the Garden and Other Stuff

Last Friday since it was SO nice outside (68 degrees) and the ground was somewhat dry, I decided to till the garden area.  I looked at the forecast and it was suppose to be warm Friday and Saturday and then ran for the next 8 days.  So I got ambitious and tilled the garden once and then Blake came home and tilled it for me the second time while I finished up weeding.  Earlier that day I met my friends, Carol and Shari, at the Riverdale park and took Gerrit and my friend's two boys I was watching.  When I got home it was so nice outside that we just stayed and I began my work in the yard.  On Saturday I went to the nursery and bought seeds and set to work.  The morning started off nice and dry, but by the time we were planting it was beginning to blow and started sprinkling.  However, we were able to get in our onions, garlic, peas, beets, carrots, peas, beans (the nursery said I could plant them, but my mom is freaking out that I did), and cabbage.  I even fertilized the lawn.  I was so excited with everything we were able to get done.  However, on Monday, our phone started to make horrible static noises.  The static was so loud that you couldn't hear the person talking.  I called Qwest and they did a test on their end that found there was a problem with a cable connection.  Now this cable runs right through our garden.  Our first fear was that we somehow cut the cable or did damage to it with our tiller or shovel or whatever.  This morning around 5:30 a.m. our doorbell rang and then someone knocked really loud on our door.  Maybe it wasn't harder than normal, but at that time of morning when our house was quiet and I was asleep, it was LOUD.  Blake went downstairs and opened the door.  It was a police officer.  Apparently they had a 911 call from this house and then they hung up.  Dispatched tried calling back, but the line was busy.  CRAZY!!!  Blake told the cop that it was weird since our phone was down and wouldn't be fixed until today.  He offered to have the cop come in and check to make sure that we were all okay, but he said it wasn't necessary since when he pulled up our lights were off and our house was quiet.  So I am not sure what happened with that, but I do know our phone is up and running...temporarily anyway.  Our cable between the house and box is bad so the Qwest guy ran a temporary cable from our house to the box.  It is laying on top of the ground and in the next couple of weeks a contractor will be coming to bury it.  I am just nervous because it is right through our PLANTED garden.  There is curbing, rocks, decorative bricks, railroad ties, sprinkler system, fence flowers...well, a million things that are in the way.  I am nervous of what is going to happen to our stuff, but I am keeping my fingers crossed. 

Kameni Lost Another Tooth

Kameni is so funny.  One of her front teeth was super loose on Thursday.  She worked on that poor tooth all day and night to get it to come out.  When it was still stuck in her mouth Thursday night she began crying saying that she really needs money and the toothfairy is the only way she is going to get it.  I finally got her settled into bed telling her that once the tooth comes out she will be able to get some money.  I even told her that it would be really exciting for her to loose her tooth at school.  In Kindergarten, Kaymin lost her first tooth at school and she still remembers it.  I mainly told her to get her excited and to GO TO BED!  I went to pick up the Kindergarten kids on Friday and sure enough...Kameni pulled her tooth out at school that day.  She was so happy that the toothfairy was finally going to come and bring her that money she wanted so badly.