Zach, Zach, and More Zach

Today is his birthday! Hard to believe he is 17! Zach has always been such a joy in our family. As a baby he very rarely cried. In fact, when he was about two years old he fell and bumped his head and cried just a smidge. Sara Stephenson exclaimed, "That is the first time I have ever heard him cry." Zach always works hard at everything he does and is highly successful He never brags about himself - ever. You will never hear about his accomplishments from him as he is very modest. Zach is quite the gentleman, even to his sisters, which is very rare among siblings I have been told.


One of Zach's favorite photos! Soon he will be testing for his black belt.


Last night was the induction to the National Honor Society.


Once again, Zach's modest self - see there are lots of kids here joining NHS, it is no big deal.

Big Mystery Solved!

On Friday, during the announcements at Pasco High School, Zach heard his name announced. He had no idea what it was all about but he figured he would just read the announcements online later (boo, hoo, they are no longer online), so he didn't worry about it too much. Later in the afternoon, before Zach and I got home from picking him up after eighth hour, the high school called but wanted to talk to only Zach or one of his parents. They didn't leave a message, nor a phone number to call back. I tried calling the high school, but they were already closed up for the week-end. Zach went online to see if he could find the announcements, that's how we know they are no longer there. We figured we would figure it all out later. Courtney Moon asked Zach what the announcement was all about but we didn't know. The next morning when Zach was looking on Facebook, one of the kids from school congratulated him on winning the Masonic Achievement Award and was sorry he was missed at the recognition Friday night. I felt bad that we had missed it, but without any information, it is sure hard to go. So I thought I would recognize Zach online.



This award is for then entire Tri-Cities and is for only ten students, five girls and five boys. The awards are based on character, leadership, participation and service, perseverance and resourcefulness, and academic achievements. So kudos to Zach and all of the hard work he does with school, scouts, Duty to God, paper route, taekwondo, Order of the Arrow and Key Club. We are "well-pleased" with Zach. Good job!

Pi Day

Zach has proclaimed our family as the ultimate Nerd Family. We talked about square root day on 03/03/09 and today we celebrated 3/14 or pi day by having pie. We ate two kinds of pie at dinner time. One was our main course which was taco pie.

Then for dessert we had fudge sundae pie.

No More Excuses!

I use to have so many excuses for not adding to my blog. First - it took quite a few weeks before we had phone or internet or satellite service. It seems that along with the post office and the school district and UPS, there is no such place as Jacobs Lane. Even now, we still aren't on Google Maps. We ordered the three previously listed services and the companies would assure us that someone would be out on a certain day. That day came and went. I had stayed home for nothing (unpacking boxes - so I guess it isn't exactly nothing). I waited a few more days and then went to our old house and called since we still didn't have phone service and thus hadn't disconnected the other phone yet, and the various companies said they couldn't find us. I once again gave specific directions as to our location and set up another date the following week. By now it is after Thanksgiving and we have been in our home for more than two weeks. Finally, after having the various technicians and installers call us for directions we finally got all set up. Then after a couple of weeks, our modem went bad and we had to send for another one. Of course, they said they will be sending it overnight, but since UPS couldn't find us, it took a week. Second - Christmas came upon us then and all the kids were here, including Erin and her boyfriend. It was a great time for all. Third - Tons of boxes to unpack and sort out and throw out, etc. Fourth - now I am out of excuses, so I guess I had better get back to keeping up this blog, so my kids can know what is going on with our life.

First Five

First Five......
The first FIVE people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!2- What I create will be just for you.3- It'll be done this year. (might be a little while)4- You have no clue what it's going to be.It may be a story. It may be poetry, shoes, bags, or a little invention of my own! I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. Believe me... it may blow your mind!The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!Sounds like fun, right? So, let's play!

MOVING DAY!

Yesterday was moving day. I can't believe how many people showed up to help us move! People we know and love from both 2nd and 8th ward, and people from the 8th ward that I am sure will be our new friends. I asked Kylee to write down everyone's name so we could send thank you's but she and I didn't know them all. Brother Ashton brought over his huge trailer and loaded up the entire storage unit and brought it over to our new house. Of course, he had tons of help, but the huge trailer made for only one trip instead of many. Brother Empey and Steven made many trips and hooked up the washing machine and then came back and hooked up the stove and frig. They also helped with our food storage last week too. Sister Ashton brought over scones and Sister Hall brought over cookies. Everything was at our new house by about 10:30. Can you believe that??? We started around 8:30. So that was amazing.

Zach is having a crummy time. He is pretty depressed about having to change wards and Priest quorums and the funny little inside jokes they all have. I didn't think he was really close to many of them as he never hangs out with them, but apparently he just likes the fun they have together shoveling people's snow as a surprise, or going camping together, or scripture time by the Bishop during Sunday quorum meeting...

And then today is Kylee's birthday. The house is all in a jumble so I think we will be celebrating later. Oh well! Kaitlin was and still is stuck with that as her birthday was on November 1st and we were in CA then. We did go to Old Country Buffet and have cake and ice cream, but no presents as I did really shop while I was there other than to take David grocery shopping. So we owe a couple of girl's a birthday celebration. Perhaps we will have to surprise them with something. I don't know. I guess we will have to figure something out.

Kind of a Sad Day

We all got released from our callings at church yesterday. I guess that's it then. Time to move on. We haven't figured exactly when we are moving - still have cleaning to do and selling our house so... But it will be weird for everyone to just go to church and have no responsibility.