Playing in the Puddle

So we went to Joy Simco's house today, to help her put up a shelf in the bathroom, and hang a carbon monoxide detector. Aren't I handy. Anyway, we had a lot of fun. We had lunch, and watched some TV with the little kids. I just love Joy! I'm so glad that she's "adopted" us as family.

Jimmy was tired, and went down for a nap at 3pm. Joy watched the little kids and Jimmy at her house, and I went to the grocery store. Thanks so much Joy! When I got back to Joy's house, and was ready to load the kids back in the truck, Jimmy and Joe wanted to play in the puddles. I didn't really mind, so I let them. Look at how much fun they had! Needless to say, Jim had to go home in his diaper!

How Long Have I Been Gone?

So I was messing around on the internet this morning (who wants to fix breakfast and get the kids ready....not me :) and I stumbled on these pictures of this neat skate park. And it's in my home town, at the park we used to play at growing up. My how time changes. Not that I skate or anything, but doesn't it look neat!

It's in Florence, Oregon, at Miller Park.

A Happy Suprise

I'm sure that all of you out there who have ever been to my house, or have even looked at my blog on a regular basis, know that my carpet is a disaster. Harty children are not kind on white carpet. Yep. Real genius, the guy who decided to do that. Sure genius. That's just what every mom wants. Especially mom's of boys!

Anyway, it was totally dead. I don't know when we decided it was totally finished off though. It was either the chocolate syrup, the bottle of windex, or the 3 waterbottles, right in a row. Take your pick. So, today, Brent and I pulled out all the carpet in 1 room. Worse case, we replace the carpet with more carpet. Best case, we resand the floors.

Well, luck was on our side. The floor just needed a good sanding, and restaining, and refinishing! I love hardwood. I've taken some pics of what we found. The yahoos who flipped our house didn't even lay down a drop cloth. White paint everywhere. Nice.



See how pretty it will look when sanding! This is the section that Brent sanded. The paint came off very nicely. We also had to go around and pull out staples all over the floor. Nightmare for bare feet! I think I got the last of them though. I'm headed off to bed, and Brent is still downstairs sanding. Bless his heart! I was so pleased with our find!

More Memorial Day Picnic Pictures

Brent and the brauts

Brent and Ed Soja. Ed works outdoors, so he has TONS of facial hair during the winter. This is hairless Ed. OK, he's not hairless, but it's a lot less than the winter!

Jim and Joy

Andrew Simco :)

A Cercone kid, Les Nicholas, Brent, and Ron Dodd. They had fun playing Bean Bags. Brent was happy because his team won :)

People at the Picnic

The guy in the blue shirt is our bishop, Bishop Visser. His wife Tracy is across the table in the white shirt. The lady next to her in the pink is Michelle Browning, and her husband is next to her. The guy standing up in the olive shirt on the opposite side of the table is Mirko Polyak.

Here's Denise Dodd, and a few of the young women I'll be going to camp with!

Eme!

Joe, I, Joy, and Jim

Joe, Joy, and Jim. Yeah, say that 10 times real fast!

Memorial Day Flag Ceremony

Thanks so much to Brother Simco for emailing me these pictures from the picnic. I remembered my camera, and took it out to get tons and tons of pictures, and realized that the memory card was at home. Nice. So I was so glad that he took all these great pics, and emailed them to me!

The Lopez Family

Aaron Lopez is our home teacher. He came over to see us on Memorial Day, and brought his 2 year old daughter, Rebecca. Later, his wife, Ashley, and their other daughter came over. Here are a few shots of us playing on the trampoline while the men burned things.

Happy Memorial Day

It was a fun day, but a long one. I woke up at 6am, checked my blogs (and friends blogs), read my scriptures, and headed out to the store. Joe came with me. We needed meat to grill at the picnic. Also, I had to get the paper products from the church. I forgot to pick them up yesterday while we were there. Silly me.

It was about 8ish when I got home. I had time to make pasta salad and take a shower. We got the kids ready, and about 10:00, were ready to head to the picnic. It started at 11am. So, I started packing things into the truck. The kids were playing around outside. Brent was upstairs writing his Memorial Day thing.

As I was loading the truck, Tom yells down that Eme's bleeding. Thinking it was nothing, I tell him that it's fine, and that I'll look at it later. Well, about 3 mintues later, I come up and take a look. It's pretty bad. There's a lot of blood, and it's a little gaping. Nice. Just what I need. Brent comes down and takes a look. He says that it looks fine, and to just get a band-aid. I think it looks worse, and needs stitches. There was a little tension there :)

So, we decided not to take here to the ER, and just go to the picnic. We're there at about 10:30. We get the tables moved around, and the stuff unloaded from the truck. Everyone starts arriving about 11:10. A little late, but better late than never. Brother and Sister Simco come about that time too. Or a little earlier.

Anyway, she works at the hospital, so I have her look at Eme's cut. She says it looks ok, but that it needs cleaned out better. She loads Eme up in her van, and goes to her house to fix it. She comes back with a cleaner wound, and a butterfly bandage, and ace bandage wrap. She's good for the rest of the picnic.

By 11:30, there are quite a few people there. We have our Flag Ceremony, and remembrance thing for those who served and died in wars. Brent really did a great job. It was wonderful!

We started cooking the meat at about 11:45, and people were eating and having fun. There were probably about 100 people there. About 23 families. Lots of food. 2 sisters in the ward were in charge of bring games and activities. Others just brought things to do also. There were tons of activities.

The water balloons were a bunch of fun. Brother Dodd walked around and was the "water" patrol. He took it upon himself to get people wet who he thought were not wet enough. It was pretty funny, because he kept getting Brent, who hates the water. Made me laugh!

The picnic died down around 3:00. We cleaned up, and headed for home. We brought the Dodd's boy Nathan with us. His mom was gonna come and pick him up after she went visit teaching.

When we got home, I made Eme soak in a bath, and tried to clean out her wound a little better. It wasn't working so well. It was pretty dirty. I got out a q-tip, and dug for a while. Still no luck. It was pretty nasty, and opened quite a bit. I decided that I was going to take her to the ER.

We got there at 4pm, and by 5:30, she had had an xray, the wound was cleaned, numbed, stitched (4), bandaged, and we were ready to go. The longest part was waiting for the discharge papers. We were home by 6:00.

Our home teacher, Aaron Lopez was there when we got home (with his 2 yr old daughter, Rebecca). After his brief lesson, he and Brent loaded up our trailer, and headed up the hill to collect the fallen branches from the neighbor up the hill. They stayed out there and chatted with the neighbor for quite some time. They seemed like nice people.

Then, they were gonna start a bonfire. Aaron went home to collect his wife Ashley and other child. They came back for the bonfire. It was quite fun. We put the kids to be at 9pm, and the Lopez stayed and chatted until 10pm. It was a lot of fun to have company (I just wish my house was a little cleaner :)

So now I'm posting and checking email. Things are good at the Harty home. Busy, but good!

Brent's 100 Factoids

Here's Brent's Factoids. Click on his picture to see them!

100 More Factoids About Me

1. I like cookie dough better than cookies.
2. I named all of my children “old fashioned” names.
3. I only like bananas if they are very fresh (no squishy bananas for me!)
4. I don’t like it when the trees are bare in winter.
5. I love sledding.
6. I enjoy sewing.
7. I’m learning to crochet.
8. The only bone I’ve ever broken is my pinkie toe, and I’m not 100% sure it’s broken.
9. My house was built in 1894.
10. I like to turn all the lights on in whatever room I’m in. I love the light.
11. I used to be afraid of our hallway growing up.
12. We used to watch the bears in the dump in Alaska (while we were looking for “treasures”)
13. I don’t do baseball hats.
14. I have a big head.
15. I have small teeth.
16. I love mirrors.
17. I love having my picture taken.
18. I love taking pictures.
19. I have 4 blogs that I work on.
20. I don’t like to use big spoons.
21. If I could, I would have a clock in every room of my house.
22. I invented “Lenny the Leprechaun”, who turns things green on St. Patrick’s day for my kids.
23. I like the water.
24. I’ve swam in the northern Pacific Ocean (the cold part).
25. I hate cleaning.
26. I make my kids do chores.
27. My parents didn’t make me do chores.
28. I can be kind of mean.
29. I enjoy cooking and baking.
30. I installed all of the ceiling fans in my house.
31. I’m handy.
32. I don’t like spiders.
33. I don’t like squishing carpenter ants.
34. I made the curtains in my house.
35. I call my husband on our cell phones from the driveway to have him help me with my groceries.
36. I call my husband on our cell phones from the kitchen when he’s just upstairs to tell him things.
37. I don’t drink enough water.
38. I don’t drink sugar drinks.
39. I’ve moved 10 times since I was married 10 years ago.
40. My friend has the same wedding anniversary as I do, just 1 year later (June 14^th).
41. My grandma, my brother, and my niece all have the same birthday (May 2^nd).
42. I love candles.
43. I sleep on my stomach (yah, try being pregnant and sleeping on your stomach when your pregnant).
44. I currently have 3 callings at church (RS chorister, Activities chair, YW camp director).
45. I started wearing glasses when I was in 2^nd grade.
46. I started wearing contacts when I was in 7^th grade.
47. I got my ears pierced when I was in the 6^th grade.
48. We don’t have a land line.
49. I wish I could be rude to telemarketers, but I don’t have it in me.
50. My grandfather and my uncle were stock car drivers, and volunteer firemen.
51. I’m a civil war reenactor.
52. I have a friend who lives in Kodiak Alaska.
53. I get car sick if I don’t sit in the front, and don’t watch where I’m going.
54. I like to eat grapefruits without sugar.
55. Sometimes I eat them like an orange.
56. I don’t mind snakes.
57. I’m intrigued by fire flies (they didn’t have them in the Pacific Northwest).
58. I like earrings.
59. My major in college was Speech Language Pathology, but I switched it to Sociology.
60. I attend BYU for 2 ½ semesters.
61. I was offered a scholarship to go to Ricks College before it became BYU Idaho.
62. I had my first date when I was 16.
63. I was married when I was 20.
64. I had my first child when I was 21.
65. I had my last child when I was 29.
66. One of my favorite shirts is an Alaska shirt that my mom had when she was my age.
67. I love the smell of gasoline.
68. I love watching movies.
69. I get headaches when I go to a movie theater.
70. I love jumping in puddles.
71. I count my steps when I go up or down stairs.
72. I like peanut butter on both sides of my sandwich when having a PJB.
73. I have unwanted lip hair, which I shave (I’m sure you’re all glad for that!).
74. I enjoy fresh flowers.
75. I was born in 1975.
76. I like country music.
77. I like Rascall Flats (they’re fun to sing along with).
78. I call them Rascall Flatch.
79. I don’t like to be touched when I’m sleeping.
80. I don’t let kids sleep in my bed.
81. I made my kids sleep through the night after 6 months age (no more night feedings).
82. Out of a total 7 classes a year offered in high school, I took 9 (including before school jazz band and seminary)
83. I once found a band-aid in a piece of gum.
84. In high school, I learned to type on a typewriter (they got computers the 2^nd semester).
85. I played the Tenor Sax in Jazz band in High School.
86. Our mascot was the Viking.
87. I love reading.
88. I sometimes hide from my kids.
89. They always find me.
90. I was on the Quiz Bowl team my senior year of high school.
91. I dated a Junior when I was a Senior.
92. I’ve been to coastal states on the West and East coasts.
93. I love thunder storms.
94. I graduated in 1994.
95. I never took a study hall in high school.
96. I have my kids drink applesauce out of the jar with straws.
97. I try not to put too much salt on my food.
98. I like my steak medium rare (more on the rare side).
99. I’ve helped skin a deer.
100. I graduated with 11 more credits than I need in High School.

Let Your Light So Shine

This song was written by Jancie Kapp Perry, and our RS teacher wanted it for special music for today. It was a little bit early 90's, but not too bad. Too bad I finished the video 3 hours after church. But you all can see how cool it should have been for church!

Bethany's Movie

Quality Time Outside

The thunderstorm and tornado warning had past, so the kids went outside to play. It was a little soggy, but they had fun!

The Door is Fixed

We've been having problems with our screen door. It was hanging a little crooked, and Jim kept kicking out the mesh. Nice. He used that bottom part as his own private trap door. That'll keep the flies out, for sure. Anyway, last time we were at Home Depot, we found this metal mesh. It's used to keep dogs from doing the same thing. 1 year olds....dogs.....very similar :)

New Boxes

Last week when I went to the thrift shop, I found a wooden box. It was the perfect size for our civil war stuff. We take plastic boxes right now, but they don't really fit in. So, it was on $2. Not too bad. Well, Brent got to looking at it, and decided that he could make some more. His is a little different than the original, but frankly, I like his better. Isn't he good!

Where Is My Family?

We had our stake girls camp meeting this morning at 9am, at the church, and I went. Well, I am the ward camp director. Anyway, I woke Brent up before I left, 'cause he was watching the kids. So it lasts till 11am, then the YW prez and I meet for about an hour, and decided what we still need to do to get ready (neither of us has been to camp in this ward).

After that, at about noon, I head off to Aldi and Wal-mart to shop for our Memorial Day picnic on Monday (I'm also the Activities person). So, that takes until about 1:30. I pull into the driveway, and no ones there. The truck is gone. I go inside, and all the lights are on. The basement door is wide open. The back door is hanging open. The kid's doors are all open. What's up with that. I call Brent, and his phone rings from the entertainment center.

So my question is, where is my family?

100 Factoids About Myself

1) I'm in the 1st half of my 30s.
2) I have one younger sister and one younger brother.
3) I've been married for nearly 11 years.
4) I have a daughter who is coming up on 6.
5) I was born on the Oregon coast, as were both my parents.
6) I have a sons who are coming up on 2, 4, 8, and 10.
7) I'm almost 5'8" tall.
8) My nose has a slight bump.
9) I started to go gray at 21.
10) I have a large mole on my nose, and near my eyebrow.

11) I'm not allergic to cats, but my husband is.
12) I use my toes to pick thing up, like a monkey. You all wish you could too, I know!.
13) I had natural childbirth 5 times, and no drugs 4 times.
14) I went to public schools and my children are doing the same.
15) I had my first boyfriend in 6^th grade (we held hands in the hall!)
16) I started playing the clarinet in the 6^th grade.
17) I was always an overachiever, probably why I have 5 children.
18) I got my worst grade ever in college human anatomy (D).
19) I received my first computer as a high school graduation present.
20) I lived in Alaska from age 3 to age 8.

21) My first job was a motel maid.
22) My shortest job was dishwasher at the MTC. It lasted 1 day.
23) I've worked as a stay-at-home mom ever since my kids were born.
24) I mostly like my job.
25) I don’t have a pet. I would like a cat, but see #11.
26) If I had to get a job outside the home, I wouldn’t mind preparing taxes, or being a bus driver. Nutritionist also sounds fun..
27) I was on my high school track team during my junior and senior years of high school, but only to improve my resume.
28) My husband and I enjoy walking.
29) I lost 55 lbs after my 3^rd child was born.
30) I don’t do nail polish on my fingers.

31) I had 2 sets of earrings in my ears as a youth, but took out the 2^nd set.
32) I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
33) I struggle with reading the scriptures daily, but have been on a streak for the last 2 months.
34) I vote Republican.
35) I had my first church calling at the age of 16, as Primary music chorister.
36) I support President Bush and the war in Iraq.
37) My mom took my picture the first time I got to vote for president, right outside the polling place.
38) I am conservative, but always seem to live in a liberal state.
39) I ALWAYS wear my seatbelt.
40) I don’t do favorite colors.

41) My favorite current TV show is Jericho
42) I don’t watch rated R movies.
43) My favorite season is Spring.
44) My favorite thing to put on a hot dog is Miracle Whip.
45) My favorite calling was in Nursery.
46) My favorite sport to watch is football.
47) My favorite sport to play is ping pong…..wait, is that a sport?
48) My favorite soda is A&W Root Beer, diet.
49) Growing up, I said Pop, but now I say Soda.
50) I got lost going from Plano, Illinois to Joliet, Illinois.

51) I cannot eat egg whites, they gag me.
52) I don’t iron my husbands clothes.
53) I didn’t know how to use the washing machine when I went to college.
54) I’ve never tried alcohol or cigarettes.
55) I enjoy sewing.
56) I have friends who home school, but I do enjoy my kids in public school.
57) I prefer Coke over Pepsi.
58) My husband is neat, and I’m messy.
59) I suck at all sports involving a ball, because I’m afraid that I’ll get hit in the face.
60) I have a hard time staying up late at night.

61) I am the only member of my immediate family who does not have health insurance..
62) I am not squeamish at the sight of blood.
63) I learned to count to 10 in Tlinget (Alaskan Indian Tribe) as a child, and can still do it.
64) I love board games.
65) I don’t do spelling.
66) While I love being on-time, I married a man who doesn’t seem to know how.
67) I can’t juggle.
68) My partner and I were the 7^th grade ping pong champions.
69) I love food.
70) I don’t do spicy.

71) When eating broccoli, it need to be overly cooked.
72) Milk chocolate is my weakness.
73) I’ve been on some sort of diet all of my adult life.
74) I wish that food wasn’t my coping mechanism.
75) I hate talking on the phone, except to my close friends.
76) I love science fiction.
77) I love Harry Potter books.
78) I love scary movies and romantic comedies.
79) I can't stand TV news programs.
80) I look at my blog obsessively.

81) I have been told that I look like I should weigh less.
82) I can easily disguise my emotions.
83) I shook hands with Thomas S. Monson.
84) I like to pick at zits and scabs.
85) Sometimes I go too long without showering..
86) Sometimes I forget to put on deodorant, but I don’t stink……do I?
87) When I drive, I like a large cushion between myself and the guy in front of me.
88) I still claim to be from the Pacific Northwest.
89) I wear socks with sandals.
90) Pregnant pauses in conversation make me very uncomfortable.

91) I’ve been known to cut my own hair.
92) I cut my children’s hair.
93) I’m very thrifty.
94) I enjoy thrift shops.
95) I drive an old Suburban.
96) I’m doing most of the same parenting things that I mentally criticized my friend for doing when I was much younger.
97) I didn't get my license until I was 18.
98) I enjoy 3-6 month olds to newborns.
99) I never drove the truck we owned when I first got married.
100) I’m really a pretty nice person.

A. O. Marshall Elementary

Here are a few shots of the kids Elementary school. It's a really neat old building, 3 story. Just this past year, they got A/C. Our kids were so excited. Now they don't die from heat every day :)

In the Truck

Here are a few shots of the little kids in the truck on the way to our walk. Eme wanted to bring her coloring stuff for the way. It seemed silly at the time, because it is only a 5 minute drive. But we ended up stopping at Jacob and Thomas' school, which took 10 minutes. So she ended up looking like a genius, with fun stuff to do!