BFFs and Good Times

Our next door neighbors are the absolute best. Their three youngest girls are friends with Kyson and they truly are his BFFs. He's always asking if he can go play with his friends, and we can use them for any form of bribery. If he's being bad, he can't play with his friends. If he won't eat dinner, he can't play with his friends until he eats; I even threaten to send his friends home if he won't try going potty. Friends are great leverage. Occasionally, their friend Rebecca will come over too. They sometimes play games, play on the jungle gym outside, or just watch TV. I don't think Kyson cares what they do as long as he's with his friends.

The girls really like Kodi and the dogs too. They always want to feed Kodi, cuddle with her, play with her, and what-not. They also do really well with Leroy and Fran, which is a very good thing because Fran gets a little cranky around children. It's just great for everyone.

When Kodi isn't playing with her friends,

another favorite pastime is playing in the mail. Every so often, I'll go through a large stack of mail. I throw the stuff to be recycled on the floor and make piles of other things on the table. Kodi loves to come and play in the pile on the floor. It's quite cute to watch her get so excited about paper.

Kyson and Kodi also have a play tent.

Occas- ionally we'll put it up and let the kids play in it. We haven't put it up for a very long time because Kyson gets a little too excited and starts beating up the tent. This most recent time, he did get a little violent, but he managed to settle down so we could keep it up. Kyson and Kodi watched Avatar (the last airbender cartoon) while laying in the tent. It was so adorable.

Checking In

This year I planned to review my goals quarterly so I could follow up on how I've been doing with everything. I missed my review in July so I haven't checked in since March. I hope I'm not failing.

Personal Goals:
1) Floss at least once a week - preferably every day.

F - I had formed a pretty good habit, then Kyson took my floss and I got back out of the habit.
2) Finish my nightly prayers without falling asleep.

B - The year started off terribly, but I've figured out that I have to say them out loud and sit in a very uncomfortable position. Kneeling puts me to sleep.
3) Read the lesson/scripture chapter before Sunday for Sunday School and Relief Society.

F - I think I gave up on this one in the first month. Next year I'll choose a goal I'll actually do.
4) Exercise at least 3 days a week

F - Once again, I started the year strong, until my coworkers and I stopped working out before school started.

Family Goals:
1) Have Family Home Evening at least once a month - preferably every week.

D - I started off strong, but about April I lost it. I haven't organized any formal FHEs, but I've been making sure we spend quality time together. That counts for something, right?
2) Invite company over more often - preferably once a month.

C - We've done it it on and off. It hasn't been consistent at all, but I'd say may be half of the months we've done something, even if it's just inviting our parents over for dinner.
3) Potty train Kyson

B - We started full force in July and he's doing really well. I hope he'll be in big boy pants by Christmas. Some days, he's awesome, some days he is awful.

Project Goals:
1) Clean and organize the garage.

B+ - This goal was revised to be finish the back yard. We have it almost done. I have to finish one part of the wall and plant the trees. We tried to plant this year, but all the trees left over were crappy. We'll officially finish in the spring.
2) Scan all my grandmother's old picture books and put them into one book with captions and dates.

B+ - I don't know if I'll finish by Christmas, but I have 200 pages done of her new picture book.

Home Improvement Goals:
1) Finish painting the upstairs - preferably the whole house.

F - It's not going to happen; maybe next year
2) Fix the broken drawer in the kitchen

A+ - Done!
3) Replace the broken blinds so we don't look like white trash.

A+ - Done!
4) Replace the cracked window in our bathroom.

D - It's not done, but I just got a rebate form from Questar to buy a new one.
5) Get a curtain for the living room.

A+ - Done!

I've noticed a pattern and it seems to be typically for my life. I focused on projects and making things better for everyone rather than focusing on my personal goals. I also think I like the project goals better because I can see a finished product which gives me the feeling of accomplishment.

Fun at the Zoo

A few weeks ago we had plans with Rusty and Amy, and their cute little boys, to go spend some time at the zoo and give all the kids time to spend together. We had to cancel because of the fire - we had too much to do. We rainchecked it for this weekend and I'm so glad that we did. I was able to go have fun without stressing too much - I could just enjoy. Kyson had so much fun with his little cousins. On the way to the zoo he was getting so excited about seeing the animals, the insects in particular. He wanted to see spiders and potato bugs. I know there aren't any potato bugs at the zoo, but they did have a little guest that they were letting people pet. It was a hissing cockroach. All 4 of the little boys just loved it. I think that all 4 loved just spending time together and I loved watching them. It was a fabulous day.

I Kneed a Cake

Kodi officially turned one on Friday, October 1st and it's hard to believe it's already been an entire year. I never thought I'd enjoy a girl so much, considering I'm much more of a "boy" person. Of course, she still doesn't have hair that I have to do, and she's not asking to wear high-heels and make-up. I guess we'll see if I'm still so excited when that stuff comes.

Her birthday party went well. I was so stressed about getting the house in order before her party, but we pulled it off (and of course, she doesn't care). Our families were very generous and she got an entire new fall/winter wardrobe which I'm so excited about. She got some cute shoes, jackets, and dresses. She also got a giant wagon from her grandma and grandpa Bodily. Kyson was much more excited about it than she was, but in time she'll grow to appreciate it like he does. he now watches television in it. We gave her the traditional chair so that each kid has their own little chair. We gave one to Kyson when he turned one and it has been one of the best gifts we ever gave him.

Cake time was fun. She's really into bugs right now and I went to 3 different stores in search of a bug cake. I finally found one at Peterson's and because it was her first birthday they threw in a free smash cake for her - how exciting. She didn't exactly use it for it's purpose. It should have been called a kneed cake becuase that's what she did. She just played with it like a baker. We've also been really working with eating solid foods so she could eat her birthday cake, and she didn't even try it - only kneeded it.

Now that her birthday is out of the way, I'm excited for Halloween - she's going to be a lady bug.

Cleaning Up

After the fire happened, I planned to take care of the house cleaning myself. I spent every day after work cleaning, I took one afternoon off of work to clean, I spent all day all weekend cleaning and was feeling discouraged by the amount of work that needed to be done. I even planned to clean my couches by myself and then eat the costs to get the carpets cleaned. I hadn't thought about all the other details that were brought up to me later.

When I began, I started with all surfaces and I noticed that even though we got the smoke smell out of the house, when I started cleaning, the smell came back. I had stirred it up cleaning. I cleaned the ceiling fans, the plants, the baseboards, the pictures on the walls, all nick knacks in the house, and what really discouraged me was when I started the upholstery. I cleaned my couches 6 moths prior and I took a picture of what I got out of a single couch. It was then that I spoke with the National Guard.

When I spoke with them, they told me to stop killing myself and get some help - they'd cover the bill. So I called a company called ServePro to come out and give me an estimate. They said that because of the demand from the fire, they were now charging $125 for a "free estimate" and they were rude. I called someone else - Utah Disaster Kleenup. The amount of work I needed done in the house was over $3600 and I the inexperienced consumer went with the bid, not knowing any other options.

Later when I talked to the guard for reimbursement, I found out that Utah Disaster Kleenup was gouging the prices and taking advantage of the situation. I was furious. A woman I spoke with at the guard hired an independent cleaning woman to clean all of her walls, baseboards, and blinds for $500. I did all the work myself. She then broke up the same work I needed done on my house - carpets, upholstery, and airways and vents, with other companies and had more work done for less. I also needed an "air scrubber" which was a gigantic machine to take the smell of smoke out of the house. It worked, but took up the entire living room.

I really learned a lesson with this. I hope I never have to go through anything like this again, but if I do, at least I learned from this experience.

The Machine Gun Fire

As many know, we were affected by the fire in Herriman. Camp Williams decided to do machine gun practice even though it was a red flag day and the winds were very strong. Even after they accidentally started the fire, they thought they could contain the fire themselves and waited 3 hours before calling the fire department. While I'm pretty disappointed with Camp Williams, I'm so grateful for the firefighters who saved hundreds of homes.

Around 6:00 Sunday evening, we decided to go to my parents house because we could smell smoke and thought someone was doing a prescribed burn in the area. As we pulled out of the driveway, we noticed it was literally raining ash. We wanted to get some clear air and figured it would be cleaner air when we returned. Around 7:45 we were packing up to go home when my sister called me at my parents house, telling me that there was a fire near my house and I needed to get home immediately - assuming I could even get in at this point. She also told me that the Cove had already been evacuated (I live in the subdivision just East of them).

As we drove into Herriman it was like something you see in a movie. The entire mountain side was on fire and there were emergency vehicles everywhere. Cars were stopped all over the roads to look at the fire, causing roads to back up. We headed up toward our neighborhood and the main entrance to the neighborhood was already blocked by the police so we turned around and tried a back way, successfully. We got into the house and immediately started packing important documents, picture CDs and computers. We also packed enough stuff for over night. For nearly 2 hours we were in the house, bathing the kids and deciding what we should do. In that 2 hour time period, Kris threw up 4 times and I had a sore throat from the thick smoke in the area. We decided it wasn't worth waiting for an evacuation for health reasons and we left.

Leaving the area was surreal. Every street intersection was blocked off by police allowing people out, but no one in. I've never seen so many emergency vehicles in my life. The roads were blocked all the way to Bangerter Highway off two exits. As we drove out, we could see the entire mountain on fire. I took the dogs to my parents, and Kris took the kids to his brother's. When we arrived at Rusty and Amy's we didn't realize at the time, but we smelled terribly of smoke and when we went back to the cars for our belongings, the cars had filled with smoke too and we didn't realize it until we were in clean air.

We spoke with our neighbors who never left and one of their children was throwing up through the night and still coughing the next day. I'm glad we left when Kris has a breathing problem, Kyson has asthma, and Kodi had RSV last winter. It wasn't worth it for us. The next day the neighborhood was still blocked off by the police. 7 schools were also closed in the area so Kyson's preschool was closed.

I needed more clothes and medication because I only brought a 24-hour supply so I was going to see if I could get a police escort to the house. Fortunately they had taken down the barricades to our neighborhood by Monday afternoon so I was able to get in without any hassle, but the smoke was too thick to stay. I opened the windows and planned to air it out so we could return the next day.

Tuesday morning Kris returned to the house. The smoke smell was faint at this point and there appeared to be no damage or problems from the smoke. Before we evacuated on Sunday we turned on all the ceiling fans, closed all the closet doors, and closed up the furnace and laundry room and put towels under the doors to try and keep the smoke out. I had also replaced my furnace filters only 2 weeks before the fire. I believe all of these things really helped keep the smoke out.

In all this fire burned 3500 acres, 3 houses were destroyed and one other was damaged severely. When I look at the burn lines, it is so scary to think about how bad it could have been. The flames were traveling 25 mph and it truly is a miracle that only 3 houses were lost.

The view from the neighborhood

Hundreds of houses could have been burned

Too close for comfort

It's a miracle - the fire burned all around the house

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