Randomness from August

The problem with not blogging as regularly as I used to, is I get gummed up with lots of things I still want to blog about, but don't want to devote an entire post to.   I wonder if there will come a day when I give it up completely (or that I'll blog more regularly again), but for now, I see what a treasure this blog has been to my family and I am still drawn to keep it up at least on a minimal basis.   

So, I'm making this a random post with a little glimpse of August in the Goold house!  

Cami's mission started using Facebook to share the gospel and it's been fun to see her smiling face occasionally beaming out to us among the drivel that fills my normal Facebook feed!

My cute Ellie liked this sign at the grocery store! 

My dad had a stroke right after his birthday.  

The stroke was on the minor end of things as far as strokes go,  but he had to spend a few weeks in the hospital and rehab before he was allowed to come home, so it's been a tough time for him and my mom.   He's doing better than the doctors expected, but we were sad that it caused them to have to cancel their trip out to visit us in September.  I decided that was my cue to buy a ticket and go out to see them in a couple of weeks.   We are also heading there for Thanksgiving. 

When Emma packs food for a trip, she goes all out.  These are homemade Larabars she made.

We stopped by Busch Gardens on the way home from seeing the solar eclipse.  

We hadn't been in a couple of years and it was fun to have one last hurrah before school started again!

Me and my cute hunny! 

One day I noticed a little trail of blood all over the kitchen.  I totally got mad at the kids and demanded that they take care of whatever injury was leaving such a mess.   They all denied having any injuries, then randomly pointed out that my toe looked to be bleeding.  Oops!  I didn't feel a thing, but I had quite a little chunk of skin off the top of my baby toe and bled through several bandages (and made a much bigger mess before I finally got it under control)! 

A white dove hung out around our house for an entire day.  I had never seen one in the wild before and haven't seen one since, but I took it to be a good omen and a sign that we need to powerwash  our gutters. 

I found this cartoon when studying for my psychology class (that I'm teaching this year) and it totally struck my funny bone.  My dreams usually involve being unprepared for something and babies that I forget about.   

A random butterfly that we came across one day. 

And with that bit of randomness, I will declare myself officially caught up on blogging through August.   Now onto September! 

Taking Notes...

I am one of those people who has to learn something new in two or more ways before my brain really processes it.  When everyone else in college said I could skip attending the physical science class because "everything on the tests came straight from the book," it took approximately one test to realize that that method would not work for me.  To get  good grades, I needed to hear the teacher teach it, take copious notes on what the teacher taught, and then still read the text.

Because of the way my brain works, I always assume that that's how everyone else's does too.   I even got binders for all the YW in my ward, so that they would have a place to take notes, draw diagrams, and answer questions from the Sunday lessons.  I make interactive and often illustrated lesson outlines whenever I teach, because even preparing it that way helps me to teach more effectively.

So when I went to the homeschooling conference, I knew that in order for me to learn what I wanted to learn (and to stay awake) that I would need to attend as many classes as possible and take as many notes as my hand muscles could handle.    Too bad that I didn't expect the distraction of the beach being in view at all times,  as well as most of my friends I was there with who spent most of their days at the beach.  It was enough for them to just read the outlines of all the classes that were included with the registration materials.    Unfortunately I knew that wouldn't work for me!

Despite the lure of the sand, waves, and sunshine, I managed to stay on task {mostly}.  I sneaked out to the beach at lunchtime and in the evenings, but mostly tried to absorb as much as I possibly could from the people who'd been down the path before me. In the end it was well worth the effort and I spent the three days feeling inspired and rejuvenated for another year with the kids at home.  

On the final day of classes, my family came to join me at Virginia Beach.

While we wrapped up the amazing three day experience with some inspiring words from John Bytheway...

my family played and frolicked on the beach.  

I never got in the water myself, but I understand that it was still a tad cold.  That fact didn't stop the kids from having a great time though. 

We were all crammed into one hotel room, so Spence and Cam opted to sleep on the balcony.   

Luckily the weather was absolutely perfect for sleeping outside! 

The next day we checked out of the hotel (only having to pay for two of the three nights) and drove to Busch Gardens.  We got season passes this year, since we knew we'd be down that way a few times and the passes only cost the same as a one day admission price anyway.  

Glen took off for the roller coasters with the three oldest  while Ellie, Adam, and I stayed on the tamer rides together.   The three of us were taking  turns choosing the rides we went on, but I still managed to pick one that freaked Ellie out and you can see her eyes are all red and puffy in the picture.  I let them choose all the rest of the rides after that.  

We ate like champions...

and even met a little cuckoo bird!

Between the conference and the mini family vacation, it turned out to be a perfect getaway.  The weather was idyllic, Glen and Spencer both only got warnings instead of traffic tickets, and we left the park by 5:00, so I could get back in time and prepare my lesson for Sunday! 

I'm already looking forward to next year! 

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The Story of the Beans

Once upon a time there was this Mom who was at the end of her rope. Every time she tried to get her kids to help around the house, all she could hear was a chorus of, "Awww! Do we have to Mom?" quickly followed by some well-practiced avoidance maneuvers...like fast-moving fits of severe fatigue and vitally important phone calls that had to be made immediately. It was getting out of hand fast!

So thinking back to her days as a psychology major in college she devised this great "positive reinforcement" project in hopes that it would help get her kids excited to help. She and her clever husband picked a super exciting prize and a date on the calendar and promised the kids that if they filled this large jar with beans before that date that the whole family could take a day off of school and work and go to Busch Gardens one last time before the season ended.

Sounds good so far...right?

Of course it could not be as smooth as that. Within a few weeks of the commencement of their new bean economy it was discovered that the chosen date also happened to be the same date as the school Fall Festival and even more disappointing the church's annual trunk or treat activity! Think friends, costumes, food aplenty, and tons of candy and you'll see the appeal!


So now the dazzle had started to wear off a little, after all the alternative of not filling the jar wasn't too bad either. But with some last minute adrenaline pushes and motivational speeches they finally made it!

Then it was time to make good on the promise. On a beautiful autumn morning in October the family set off in the car for the two hour drive to the land of roller coasters!

Good fun was had by all, young and old!

Some new family members were added to the family!

All was well...

then the kids started hearing about all the excitement they'd missed. Even the Mom started feeling a little disappointed that she hadn't been there to defend her pie title.

Mixed feelings of disappointment and jealousy ensued when she saw that the golden pie plate has been passed to other hands...at least until next year when there will be a grand face-off. Worst of all, she didn't even get to try any of her competition's winning pie...a disappointing fate for a pie connoisseur ! :(

Then, since they'd gotten back home so late at night from their trip, the Mom's eleven mile run got pushed late into the morning, which resulted in running 8 of those miles in the wind and pouring rain. Hence the red-faced, dripping wet picture that her son was kind enough to shoot of her. Thanks Spence!



All that because of some beans.

So what's the moral of this long-winded story?

• Don't choose a prize/date where you have to take a family vote over which place they'd rather go.
  

The end.

It's a Small World After All...

...especially in Williamsburg.

It seems that in our lives that most small world happenings (hereafter known as SWH) we have tend to have something to do with the church. For instance last year when we were in Williamsburg (in torrential downpours) we looked on the internet and randomly picked a ward to attend on Sunday. In classic small world style about 10 minutes after we'd sat down--in walks Glen's best friend from BYU--Brad, who joins his family sitting just 2 rows in front of us. We had lost touch with them over the years, and last we knew they were living in UT. And we just happen to sit 2 rows away from him in one of several wards we were choosing between...2000 miles from his last known location! (SWH#1 )

Hop forward 11 months to Williamsburg 2007. We were at Busch Gardens and it was HOT HOT HOT, which consequently meant we were constantly looking for places to find liquid refreshment. So imagine our surprise when we happen upon Eloy working at this drink stand.

Who is Eloy you ask? Good question. In a rare small world occurrence having absolutely nothing to do with the church we had happened across Eloy who happens to be the person we bought our house from 6 years ago!!

So after he and his wife retired to Williamsburg, they got a little bored with the golden years and decided to spice up their lives by working at Busch Gardens every summer...where we run into him and get major SWH #2 in Williamsburg!!

And lastly in much more normal small world style, and not anywhere near as cool as the first two... as we were leaving Water Country USA to head back home we decided to stop at a restaurant there in Williamsburg for our dinner. Immediately we happen across 2 Elders who are dining with an investigator, who happen to serving in Brad's ward. (SWH #3)

Just as we're settling down to enjoy our meal in walks a group of fifty or more young adults who are seated very near us. As they're filing in I can't help but notice that not even one of these people is wearing a tank top or even shorts..and it's over 100° outside. I whisper to Glen that I bet it's a youth conference or something since there is no possible way on earth that you'd get a group of youth dressed that modestly on such a stifling day. As Glen is expressing his doubt on the matter an observant youth notices Glen's BYU hat and and informs us that it's actually a giant field trip for a history class at BYU-Idaho. A field trip where they spend three weeks touring the major historical sites along the East coast then hitting all the church history sites on the way back to Idaho. How fun is that? So there's SWH#4 for you.

Then after we'd left my sister, AnnaLisa, realizes that the familiar-looking professor leading the trip, had actually been her D & C professor when she attended BYU-Idaho before her mission.
(SWH#5)

So that rounds out our plethora of small world happenings in one small city!

110° and still smiling!

It's been a LONG time since we've been to an amusement park...1999 to be exact. Last year we really started getting the itch (and the begging from kids) to go to Busch Gardens.

Twice last autumn, we planned a vacation to Williamsburg to take the family to Busch Gardens. Twice last autumn, we were foiled in our plans...once by hurricane remnants and once by torrential all-day downpours. So this year we decided to try a little earlier in the year in hopes of missing the main hurricane time.

It worked--we finally got lucky this year! No hurricanes and nary a drop of rain! Instead it was a major heat wave with highs in the hundreds and super high Virginia humidity that made our skin glow with perspiration!

Here are four of the kids on the first ride we came to in Busch Gardens...they were so excited!

And lest you think from looking at the previous post that Emma had a horrible time...we saw a lot more of this cheesy, happy Emma than the sad little girl 1/2 inch too short for the ride!

Not only was she happy but boy was Emma a nut! She went on every roller coaster and scary ride they'd let her on and she'd get off giggling about how much fun it was!

EEEEEK! Are my kids touching a fifteen foot long python??

Cute little matching girls!

Friday at Busch Gardens seemed about as hot and sticky as any day could possibly be, but much to our surprise Saturday was even hotter! We seriously had a layer of sweat form on us walking from the hotel door to our car at 10am. Ugggh!

Thankfully Saturday was for Water Country USA. So we slathered sunscreen on every square inch of exposed skin probably 95 times and had a fantastic time playing in the wave pool, shooting down water slides, and relaxing on the lazy river.

And the highlight of the weekend for Glen?

Pompeii! As this 4 1/2 foot dolphin is dubbed by our kids. Glen made a 3-point shot in one of the basket shooting games and won this ginormous prize. He was really excited about his manly achievement and the kids were ecstatic when he let them choose which one to take home...however he did not quite receive the enthusiastic response from me that he was hoping for. I immediately questioned not only how we were going to carry it with us the rest of the day but where on earth we were going to keep it when we got home??!! It was actually pretty sad, I literally rained on his macho pride, nonetheless "Pompeii" is here at our home...taking up an entire twin sized bed.

I shouldn't admit this, but I'm actually hoping he'll get a hole in him soon so I'll have a good excuse to dispose of him.

We were completely exhausted by the end of the weekend...so exhausted that Ellie slept until 10:30 Sunday morning, but what a fun way to end a long summer!

3 feet 11 1/2 inches...

We just returned from a trip to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg...our first amusement park trip in the 21st century!

Most of the big rides had a required height of 48 inches and Emma was just barely below the bar as you can see from this picture. However because she was so close most of the ride operators still allowed her to ride...except for "Tradewinds". One of those super fast, spinning rides that make my head spin just thinking about it. She was really pumped about going on and did not take the news well that this would be her first rejection of the day. Even after a little gentle persuasion on Glen's part they just wouldn't budge...poor Emma!