It's late...

It's late, it's late, it's late! I should be sleeping, but as I am apparently not, I may as well jot down a quick note on the old blogarooney. Since I last wrote...

...I colored and cut my hair. I posted a picture to show the new do, which doesn't even look like that anymore. It is a few shades lighter already... always happens to me. I have to color it extra dark for it to lighten up to the shade I actually want. I do like it, though. I quite liked the dark, but it's tough for me to get it to stay in. Why fight nature, huh? I have a lot of gray coming in now, though, and the highlight I had before was better at hiding that transition. A highlight may be calling my name, again, in the not so distant future. I gave Marin the same haircut and highlighted hers a bit, cut Audra's into a bob, and gave Vanessa some extra highlights, as well. It's been a busy hair month!

...two of our goats passed away. Our mama goat, Isabella, and her baby, Clover, passed away on the same night, but at separate locations. I had Isabella over to a neighbors to breed with his billy and he found her dead the next morning. I personally think the other goats were too rough on her and she didn't have anywhere to get out of the cold, like she does here. Had I not been such a comatose wastoid that day, and had checked out my neighbor's setup, I would not have sent her to her death. As it was, I was not feeling good, stayed in bed all day and sent the kids over with her. I didn't hear about how rough the other goats were with her until AFTER she was dead. She was totally healthy, though. Big bummer. Her baby, Clover, didn't grow as big and strong as her twin, Dora, and I think the cold just finally got to her. We could see she was ailing, brought her in that night to sleep in the pet porter, and she was gone by morning. Dora is fine and living with our other nanny goat, Belle. Still a sad, sad day for the van Uiterts.

...Kevin turned forty-four on December 4th. I wish I could say I made it a day he would always remember, but I had one of those weird allergic reactions I get, from time to time, which shut me down for the evening, was stressed about one of my daughter's school teachers, and ended up sending Kev to the ward Relief Society Christmas party alone. Poor guy. He's such a sweet guy... patient and understanding... and now one year older!

...our table caught on fire and was working itself into a towering inferno of plastic dishes and gingerbread house boxes when we finally discovered it. One or two of our beautiful children lit some candles and placed them way too close to a plastic bowl, which somehow caught on fire and turned into one to two foot flames licking upwards to the light fixture. I grabbed glasses of water and doused it in a jiff, but not quick enough to save the table from being seriously scorched on top. Maybe this is a blessing in disquise...my mini horses need another shelter and I think the table would do just the trick. Throw a tarp over it, and wallah... horse shelter extraordinaire! Really, though, I'm glad Marin spotted it. She, Audra, and I were busy hanging the last few ornaments on the tree in the front room when she noticed. It's not every day you see a real live fire on your dining room table. Kevin says we could have had a new house, had we not been so quick to discover it, and in some ways I could dig on that. But, truly, who would want to lose everything at Christmastime in a house fire? I actually dread that thought and fear, from time to time, that something like that will happen while we are gone (pellet stove, etc.) and my poor animals wouldn't have a way out. The three dogs, two birds, rabbit and the snake would be crispy critters, and I just can't stomach the thought of that. Anyhow... all's well that ends well, right? Catastrophe averted, Christmas tree decorated, table cleaned off (took a fire to do it, but hey...count yer blessings is what I always say...), and one less tupperware bowl to wash!

...I have made good friends with a sweet gal from Uganda. She lives down the street from me and I have felt impressed to visit her from time to time, and upon doing so, have found that we are like soul sisters and a great joy to each other. I feel for her, being so far from her family and home, and have encouraged her to plan a trip to Africa this year. Kevin has always wanted to go on a safari and now we have a friend that can show us around Kenya and Uganda. Maybe next year...

...I have been visiting Sandy Voge, who I call 'my energy lady', and she has been working on me every week to help balance my emotional/physical energy meridians. Through her work, she has found that my thyroid is not functioning properly, and that I am starving for iodine in my diet. A good friend of mine recommended that I have my thyroid checked out, because she had experienced similar problems in her life with emotional balance, fatigue, etc., and had a life changing experience by just taking iodine. I took her advice and had Sandy check me for it, and wouldn't you know... I need iodine. I'm just starting on it today and am hopeful to regain some balance in my life. Apparently, the thyroid is really important for proper body/mind function and mine has been jacked up for a long time. This could be the answer I've been looking for! I'm excited to find out!

...Dayton and Vanessa have been playing basketball up in Hyrum on Saturdays and are both really enjoying it. Dayton gets taller by the day, I swear, and Vanessa is fast on his heels. She is taller than I, now, and wears a shoe two sizes bigger than mine. Dayton is probably 6'4" now... I need to measure him again. All I know is that he was as tall as Kevin's brother at Thanksgiving and I think Brian is around 6'4" or 6'5". They are both finding their confidence out on the basketball court, though, and we've sure enjoyed watching them play. It's fun to meet the parents of the other kids, as well. Vanessa's friend, Milanna, is such a sweetheart and besides playing on the same team, they go to school together, as well. Her parents are simply marvelous and we've really enjoyed getting to know them better. They were kind enough to take us to a Utah State basketball game a few weeks ago and it was so much fun, we're even thinking of becoming Aggie fans, ourselves. We've always liked USU, but aren't true fans of ANY college sports team. We're thinking we might just have to do something about that :0)

Well, it's after 2:00 a.m. and I have to be up in four and half hours to take the kids to school. Field trip day... they are really excited! We have lunches to make, cameras and ipods to take, and no doubt naps for me and Audra when we get home from dropping them off! Goodnight!

It is now after six o’clock and I am still helping kids with homework. Just as I answer a question for Marin, then it’s Dayton’s turn…then Marin…then Dayton… You get the picture. If Vanessa wasn’t babysitting, we could throw her in the mix. Instead, she’ll probably call as soon as she gets a chance to work on her homework, and if not, we’ll be up late tonight. Luckily, Kevin got back in town late last night and is thus here to help Audra with hers. Hers is actually pretty quick… thank heavens. We are working on prime factorization for math and maps for history. I don’t remember ever having to know all the different types of projection maps available. In fact, I might indeed ask “Why is it necessary to memorize them?” Unless my child plans to become a cartographer, I see no need. And yet, here we sit detailing the strengths and weaknesses of each of the four common map projections. If Marin wants to be a cartographer someday, I’m sure she could have speedily memorized and learned about these in her cartography class. Welcome to public school… the source of certain pertinent information, but also decidedly the source of oodles and oodles of unnecessary fact memorization. I guarantee you that none of these kids of mine will remember what kinds of projections there are in a few months. And the amazing thing is that they won’t NEED to remember them… EVER. Boy howdy, do I love to waste my time, or what?! And yes... you guessed it... I'm a little bit grouchy.

On a happier note, Marin, Dayton and Vanessa are all on Student Council. They made posters and gave campaign speeches. Marin is the Secretary, Vanessa the Treasurer, and Dayton is a Class Representative. Now, we'll just have to see if they have any TIME to be on Student Council after all of their well spent time regurgitating stimulating facts about the Winkel Triple Projection Map. Sorry... just couldn't help it.

Audra is busy sewing papers together for homemade books that she makes and plans to give to all of her friends and family. She's been making them for a couple of months now and likes to copy text from other books. You can open one and read about Simba and Timone, or open another and read about Dorothy on her way to Oz. She's a sweet girl... most of the time. We actually quite prefer her when she is NOT sticking her tongue out, hitting, kicking, or telling a story about how she "didn't do it!"

In other news: our lovely snake is loose in the house. Whither he goes, we know not. I hope to find him alive and preferably not hooked onto anyone's toes. I suspect that this is Kevin's hope, as well. (but, my, doesn't Kevin have delicious looking toes? I should say...)

And with that, I bid you adieu... a final farewell. Vanessa shall grace us with her presence in a short period of time, at which point I can restart the tutoring process once again. Anyone game for a jolly time with predicates, prepositional phrases, cardinal compasses, or prime factorizations? If so, applications are being accepted during normal business hours, which at present is between the hours of seven a.m. and ten p.m. Plenty of time to submit...no excuses...

Camp Bartlett July 27 - August 1, 2009

Picking the boys up on the last day... boy were they tired!

Gerrit and his Kodiak claw necklace

Me and the Sweaty Boy... it was pretty darn hot!

Can you tell what pals these two are? This picture is deceiving because Dayton is only a few inches shorter than Kevin now... he's standing down hill in this photo!

Dayton and his buddy for life, Dane Trauntvein, spent the week at NYLT (National Youth Leadership Training). What a great experience!

The Countdown...

to wake-up in five hours is getting closer and closer! It might help if I actually went to sleep (easier to wake up that way). We are heading down to Farmington for a niece's baby blessing and living out in the boonies means we've got to get off early! So, I'll keep this brief. (yes... I can do that)


We picked up the boys from NYLT (National Youth Leadership Training) and the Kodiak camp at Camp Bartlett. They were up there for the whole week and had a fantastic time. I even missed them (yes... I can do that, too). I'll be posting pictures just as soon as I bring the camera in from the car and IF... IF Kevin's computer cooperates. You see, my computer has taken the much needed vacation I was longing for and refuses to turn on. Eee gads. The HP should have been named the TP, since flushing it down the toilet may be all it's good for anymore!

Summer is almost come and gone for us. I can't believe it. School starts in a wee few weeks and I am definitely not ready for that. We're still making some decisions on schools... nothing like waiting till the last minute. Didn't Carly Simon write a song about us? Pro-crast-in-a-a-tion is making me wait... right... (I really do know the real song, but I have to humor myself somehow) I'm going to miss my kids being home. I suppose I can just be grateful I've had them home as much as I have with the whole homeschooling gig over the years. We have the two youngest girls signed up at a charter school about twenty-five minutes away from us and we are still contemplating that decision. What fun is decision making if you can't rehash the same options over and over again and remake it once or twice? Double the fun, I always say.

Barbara's oldest gets married on the 15th of August and I am heading down with my other sister, Laura, her gorgeous daughter, Cadence, and my one in a million folks, Loren & Julianna. Should be nice and hot in Phoenix just about then, so obviously, I'm looking forward to it. Nothing like having a sweat ring in your wedding photos, huh? Nice visual. Really, though, I am looking forward to seeing my sister and her family, and her family's family, and so on and so on. Megan will be a beautiful bride and I love her dearly... thus I will also love the 120 degree weather dearly and the fourteen hour drive dearly... but who's counting?! Certainly not me.


Just as an update: Snake eggs are kaput. Sorry to all of you who were looking forward to my little hatchlings as much as I was, but the eggs went all moldy and sunken in and got the stink of death about them. Anything with the death stink has got to go... wait... except for my teenage kids who quite often have the stink of death about them, but are much too dear to throw out like a tupperware dish full of snake eggs. Who ever said I didn't care... see? I care...


In conclusion, you should all take note that a Sara Lee pumpkin pie does not taste any better at one in the morning than it did during the coherent hours. Let the record reflect that bad is bad, no matter what the hour. And with that, I bid you farewell...adieu...auf wiedersehen and goodnight!

A Few More Pics...

Earlier today, we attended the ward auction and activity day, where Dayton got to take part in the trap shoot competition. They shot clay pigeons and goose eggs above the river - what a blast! Here's a few more photos of Brad's visit, as well.