Oh I've been a busy girl and to prove it, I have photos!
Here are some of the things we've been up to this past week;

We picked apples from a local tree for FHE,we came away with four-ten gallon buckets and a medium size box. Lots of fun. It's great to have two extra helpers.



That night the boys got asked to Preference, a formal- girls choice dance. They were excited and it took three days for the girls to reveal who they were.



Of course, we had to answer so I rented a helium tank and bought 100 balloons which be blew up and attached to a pumpkin.



Each balloon was filled with a strip of paper that had a smiley face on it. After popping all 50 balloons (two girls, 50 balloons each) they realized the real message was buried in the pumpkin. (I drilled hole in the bottom and shoved the small, saran wrapped note through.)




Great week but I had to take a nap on Saturday! So much fun!

Marathon Prep

These are the things one must do to prepare for full Marathon Cheering!
Encouraging signage:


The inspirational music:



A full route map complete with parking instructions and alternate routes:



We are the BEST MARATHON SUPPORT TEAM EVER!!!

Going, Going, Gone

I'm on my way to Washington for the weekend. My sister is walking the Portland marathon for the THIRD time! We are her official cheering section complete with T-shirts and bull horn. I'm super excited!

Boo

Our fifteen year old exchange student is afraid of ghosts. I mean really afraid of ghosts! It's not the Halloween kind or the Casper kind, I mean the evil spirit kind. I happen to believe in those too but not to the level of sleeping with the night light and talking the other exchange student to sleep in my room.

I'm not sure how to help our fifteen year old. He has had an experience in the past he says, one on which he has not elaborated and I haven't pushed. My plan is this; to explain that yes, I believe in evil spirits also but that we don't invite them into our home. In fact, not only do we not invite bad spirits but we do try invite the Holy Spirit to comfort and guide us.

What saddens me is that he does not feel safe and ultimately, I can't change that. I hope that in the next few days, through prayer we can help him to feel comfortable again.

ksl.com - Experts hope more kids learn how to argue

ksl.com - Experts hope more kids learn how to argue

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What I've Learned From the Belgian

Life is pretty fun with a 17 year old in the house. Things I've learned since I added an exchange student:

*I have good taste in music
*Rules are important to lay down from the get go
*By the age of 17, they seem to outgrow the need for constant food
*You can say anything when you say it with humor
*High school girls are still the same (even after 20 years)
*High school boys are the same (even after 20 years and even if they are from another country)
*One person can make/break a household
*My oldest likes having an older "brother" to look up to
*Facebook is a secret organization that is quietly taking over the world
*Apparently no one makes their bed until they graduate from college
*It's nice to have a big family where all the chairs are filled at the table

International House Of.....

Exchange students! Last night we welcomed exchange student number two, Quentin Vander Eede (17) from Belgium. We are super excited to have Quentin here, he speaks excellent English and is super outgoing and kind. He and WonSeok met a few weeks ago at a get together and hit it off so it was a pretty easy choice to host Quentin when we heard they were having trouble finding a host family.
As we were trying to decide, we couldn't help but think of my Grandparents and all their efforts to offer their home to many and we felt so impressed to follow in their footsteps that we said yes. I will admit though that I am secretly hoping for Belgian chocolate someday in the future! We'll see.

I'll post some pics of our Benetton ad family soon!