Happy Anniversary to Brian and Celynda!

I think it's been 8 years for Brian and Celynda! Thank you Celynda for loving Brian and especially for putting up with him. (we all know what I mean, right?...) Okay, and thank you Brian, for loving Celynda as much as we all do! We love you both and can't wait till you are a little closer!
ps- Jill, let Jonathan know he is in my blog today. I know he doesn't read them unless he is mentioned or in it.

I don't know how pretty these pictures will be to you all, but when Allan and I were driving home from a race - the sun was setting and it was gorgeous! Enjoy.... Here's how Allan felt about me taking all these pictures while driving.....
I will say that these are only a FEW of the photos. I just kept clicking away all the way home. So Allan's look probably saved you from looking at ALL the pictures I took.

Okay. Here is a funny blog. Monday night I was fixing dinner and the boys were playing games and Shannon was playing the piano when the lights started flickering and the electricity went off and on quickly a couple of times. Doug came in and asked if the lights went off and on and we said yeah, and he told us that the electical box (on the side of the house) was sizzling. I suggested rather loudly to get out there and turn it off. I was afraid it would start a fire! So he pulled the switch and when he pulled out the main breaker - it had fried right out the side of the box! This was about 7pm. Luckily, I had barbequed some steaks and salmon, but we had nothing left to eat with them but rolls. (we were in the process of boiling water for potatoes and stuffing when he pulled the switch). I told the kids they couldn't open the fridge or freezer until it was fixed so we wouldn't lose any of the cold that was in them. It was dark and so we lit candles but I can tell you here and now - I need to buy 'unscented' candles. By the time a few hours went by I had a headache from all the different scents that were burning around the house. We loaded the kids in the car and went as a family (minus Katie who was at a b-day party for Brandon's brother) to Home Depot to get a new main breaker. No luck. So, we all drove down to the shop to see if Doug could get a parts store to open for him and we get the part that night. No luck. The only place that would be able to open was Graingers and the part was about $3000! So we decided to spend the night with the electricity abscent from our home. It was not a pleasant night. The weather had not quite cooled down like it is today. In the morning I only let the kids open the fridge for the milk and they had to do it one time quickly. Doug had left early to go clear into Phoenix to get the part and then worked on it all day - eventually haveing to replace the WHOLE panel because of a broken stem (or something). We didn't get our power back on until 2:30pm Tuesday afternoon. 19 1/2 hours of no electricity. We hadn't dared to open any fridges (we have 2) or freezers (3) so we were not really sure of what it was going to be like inside of them. Luckily everything faired well. The ice cream was very soft, but other than that it was good news.

Now the funny part. I had made these special 'head flashlights' (check my July 26th blog), 25 of them, for our wards girls camp play. They came in handy once again. We all wore them around the house for the rest of the night. There wasn't too much to do, so we read, threw things at each other, and actually went to bed at a reasonable time. But here are some pictures that I made Shannon and Allan pose for because we forgot to take some on Monday night.

Just one more quick one for today. Last Friday (Happy Birthday Kevin), Allan had a Cross Country meet. It was way the heck out to Queen Creek, actually at the same campus that Katie went to school, Poly-Technic of ASU part of the Chandler Gilbert campus, anyway - it was a HUGE meet. There were schools there from Alabama! Yes, Alabama. (where did that school get their budget?) There were so many kids that each individual group of kids ran separately. Like: small school freshman girls, large school freshman girls, etc. Sometimes they even had to divide the groups: sophomore boys from large schools into two separate races. It was crazy big. They even had independent schools run - so some races had well over 100 kids and other races had 10 or so. They would start the races every 15-20 minutes which was nice, but it was a long race. Here Allan is looking down. I had just handed him his cleat shoes that the coach suggested he wear, but it was a big mistake and I think Allan could tell right from the get go. Allan here at the very right edge of picture....And this is a photo of as much of the boys that I could get at the start. Mesa High (purple) is pretty close to the middle and Allan is the second kid back. About a third of the way through the race: At the end with a good time - although he has gotten a better time than that, but the shoes were not his friend. At the water station. We had to run home because we were having a group of people over for games that night and with it being about a 25 minute drive home from here we left as soon as Allan's coach let him go. She is NOT making this a fun year for Allan. I'm not even sure he'll run next year which is sad because he used to have what it takes to run but this coach has been, in our experience, not a very supportive one. We miss Coach Nissen.

Bathroom updates

Here's a quick update on our bathroom redo. We took advantage of this weekends conference time and worked when we could. (Even painting some while Elder Ballard talked....oopsie). This will be the last that you see of our disgusting linoleum flowered flooring. Hallelujah! I hated that floor. We quickly painted the two walls and ceiling by the washer/dryer and got them back into place. They had been 'ousted' to the family room for a week and laundry had been building up - especially for Kevin and his work clothes. We put them back into place and got a batch of laundry started before the next sessions started. I went out and bought just the right curtain on Monday and 'walla' - the one half of the bathroom is done. I guess I should finish the toilet room next. Although it is very functional it, lacks the finishing touches. I did a base coat of white to cover up the yellow.....yep, here is the last of it:

Oops - one tiny little speck left to get. We still need to add the mirrors and lights, but the shower, toilet and sinks work so folks can actually use the downstairs bathroom. Here are a few of the accessories that we will be using down there. I love the square look because of the windows that we've put in. It should look good. I'll post the finished project by next Monday. I think we'll need to work on it this weekend to get it done. Big story for tomorrow - stay tuned.