The chair

This is the finished result. I am still amazed I was able to put it all together.

October books

 Daring Greatly

Spirit Animals #6

Spirit Animals #7

The Lion of Mars

Tennis Shoes Book #6

Tales of an 8 bit Kitten

The Gift of Imperfection

The Left Behinds - Kirby Heyborn narrated this audiobook!

The Unexpected Life of Oliver Cromwell Pitts

November looks to be just as busy with books. I'm excited and love that we've been reading so much as a family. 

*J.K. Rowling wrote a Christmas book. I should be getting it sometime this week. Can't wait to read it to the boys.

Where did October go?

This is going to be a post full of pictures. At the beginning of October it looked like the month would drag on forever. But, it actually went by super fast. 

At the beginning of the month I bought Luke a new computer chair. I was so proud of myself for getting it put together.

We also made a trip early in the month to the local pumpkin patch. We went on an abnormally warm day. We weren't even there an hour. The boys got so hot! But, we got our pumpkins. We even took baby along and got her a mini pumpkin too. Peter thought it was so awesome being able to ride in the back of the car for the short drive home. That kid is getting so big! We are both pretty sure he surpassed me in height this month.

Adorable school thing I cut out this month. My neighbor helps at our local school. She sometimes has too many things to do. I told her 3 years ago to start sending me all the cutting jobs. This is in my top three favorites. I think they are adorable!!! I hope I get to cut out more outfits. Don't you think Christmas clothes for those animals would be adorable! 

I bought myself a leaf vacuum. It does exactly what I needed it to do. Why do something manually when a power tool can do it. I love it!

I'm making the boys quilts to keep at Brandon's house. They will be Christmas presents even though the boys know about them. This is Luke's. I finished tying it in just 2 weeks. It's so relaxing and easy. I just worked on it 10 minutes here and there. I'll start Peter's in November. It made me remember all the fun times I worked on typing quilts with old ladies in Spring Lake and with my Mom. Such good memories that has translated into an ability to make my own.

One night Peter took over making dinner. He did a fabulous job. I just sat and watched while he did the entire thing. This kid loves to cook! His skills are getting really great - thanks to Brandon who often has Peter help him cook.

Both the boys have been washing their own clothes since they were 8 years old. Recently though, there has been a whole lot of funky smelling Peter. So, I took over his laundry. These pair of shorts were particularly pungent. Thankfully, they now smell marvelous. Not sure what it was, but I'm glad it's gone. I wasn't in the mood to buy Peter a new wardrobe. It will be a super funny story in the years to come.

The trees right now are so incredible. I love where we live. Even though the leaves are a nightmare to rake up, they are so beautiful. 

Baby's foot compared to Peter's big toe. Peter and baby have such a cute relationship. She smiles and smiles and smiles at him. On Friday Peter even picked her up just because he wanted to. It is adorable to see. Luke is also starting to like her more. He will often pat her head and say "Good baby". Hahaha. My favorite part of the day is when they practice piano while she watches. She actually loves to sing and dance when they are playing. I can hardly hold onto her because of how much she is moving around. It's hilarious.

 

A big thing for me

I am so proud if myself. This week, I reached a big milestone. I have l taught 3,000 classes with Qkids!!!

I really wanted to reach this milestone, but didn't think I would get the chance. I am so, so glad my job lasted until I received it.

I have enjoyed the past 2 years and almost 4 months. I had hoped the job would last many, many more years. Sadly, regulations in China are forcing foreign teachers out. My last day is Nov. 6th. I have learned so much about the culture in China. I've loved most of the students. I will always laugh at the memories of pets in classes, lots of Elsa fans, and little boys that can't get enough of Ultraman. I will also always laugh at the memory of students picking their nose on camera or taking their ipad with them to the bathroom. 

I have learned to adore dumplings, noodles, lychees, longans, and happy parents that love talking with the English teacher. I hope in some way I've been a postive example of love, kindness, and a lot of laughter. The students are so easy to love. Most of them are so excited to see you.

China will always hold a special place in my heart because I was able to experience many tender moments with students from my side of a camera lense. 

Who knows, maybe one day life will lead me back to China and a culture I have come to honor and respect.

What I'm reading

Recently, I had a mentor recommend I start reading the self-help books written by Brene Brown. I just finished her book called Daring Greatly. It was so good! There are so many things that I need to work on at doing better. I feel inspired to be a better person, and most importantly, a better parent. Our neighborhood bookclub also decided to read her book called, The Gifts of Imperfection. I can't wait to dive in and then share what I learned with the ladies in my neighborhood. 

Word cloud

This week I have been working on some job related things. I discovered this cool imagine thing called a Word Cloud. As I have been working on building a job profile on LinkedIn I decided to create a word cloud with some of the things about myself that I treasure.

I am hoping that I can convince the boys to create their own word clouds this week. I think it will be a great thing to show them all the wonderful things they are good at. Look for them on the boys school blog: busybrothers.blogspot.com

General Conference

This Conference has been so amazing! I've never taken so many notes. There has been so much that has been said that I have taken to heart. I've also been encouraged that I'm headed in the right direction. What a blessing the prompting of the Holy Ghost has been in my life - especially in the past two months.  Conference also gives me a great over-arching feeling of love, acceptance, and peace.  

When Sister Eubank stood up to speak I gushed out loud about her hair. I love it!  For future hair cutting trips, I needed to document it. I also love what she is wearing. She looks like an amazing Grandma. I wish I could welcome her into my home and have a lovely chat with her. Someday I want to be as amazing as she it!

God lives, He loves me, and I love him. 

Party Time with Tryazon

I was so lucky to get picked to host a party night with games sent to us by Tryazon. We received the games a few weeks ago and we had eagerly been counting down the days for our planned game night. Peter was able to take the games over the Brandon's so they could play them before the big night.

We had so much fun with Aunt Amy and Uncle Morgan. Sadly, other family members we invited weren't able to come. But, we still had a lot of fun together. These spinmastergames were hilarious.

The first game we started with was Headbanz. It was so funny. We had two groups competing against each other. It was so cute to see Luke really get excited about this game. When he had to word "poop" he guessed it right away. We laughed and laughed and laughed. 

Next up was the Netflixs. This game is very similar to Apples to Apples with a few unique twists. We all enjoyed this game. It was very clever and fun even though none of us have Netflixs. This game was for older kids that are good at reading and making inferences. Luke wasn't interested in it at all. I also need to go through the cards before we play it again. There are a few cards that are not appropriate for our home. 

The Harry Potter game was next. Whew, this one is so fast paced. We weren't much of a face-paced group and had a hard time with this game. Maybe with time, our skills will improve. Harry Potter is much loved at our house, so I hope we will get the hang of the game soon. 

Jumanji was such a fun game. The board design is AMAZING! Electronic and a bit spooky all rolled into one. I loved playing this game. Peter said it goes too fast. That's not always a bad thing, especially when you have a lot of friends playing. The adventure element was enjoyable and it was really fun to solve the clues using the picture cards you had. Really, this game is fun in and of itself, but the board design makes this game completely amazing!

We ended the night with Beat the Parents. This was a great trivia game that some of us liked, and others didn't. The kids did a great job guessing the answers. Even when I got confused and asked them a parent question. Smart kids and Smart Adults. Lots of laughter and interaction. 

We were so lucky to get chosen to host a game night for these games. It was so much fun and we will be looking for more Spin Master Games for Christmas gifts. Tryazon has a great coordinating team and they communicated well with me throughout this entire process. Thank you for reading!

#spinmastergames #tryazon 

@spinmastergames @tryazon

A baby in the house

Seeing these sit on my counter bring me so much joy. I have a baby girl that I watch a few times a week. All the pink she brings with her is SO much fun!

September books

Books abound here and I love it! I hope we can get through all these books this month.