Sweet Little Pumpkins

Come along with me as we enter a world of dreams come true. . .Yes! Believe it or not - there is actually something growing in our backyard!!! These are our pumpkins. We don't see actual pumpkins yet, just some blooms, but the leaves are big and healthy. I'm excited.You can't see them very well in this picture, but there are tiny little tendrils here and there. Here's one curling around the stick that says "Pumpkins." Aren't they cute - I'm so proud!Oh, and here's a praying mantis. Jenna spotted it on one of our front windows. She said she'd never seen a real one before.Some other quick updates:

I'm sick. I've had an annoying cold. It's now progressed to the persistant cough stage. Corey seems to have it and I think Randy had it, too. Grrr.

Dion officially started his EMBA program. All last week he was either at BYU in classes or on field trips. They got to go to Camp Williams, divide into teams, and try to accomplish all sorts of difficult feats using poles, ropes, barrels, brick walls, etc. while trying to not fall into water. They also got to go to a GIANT farm that raises pigs to sell. Dion said it was pigs as far as the eye could see. I think he said there were 750,000 pigs there. It sounds like a sad life for the pigs. In the middle of the week I attended a dinner with Dion where I got to meet several other members of the EMBA program and their wives. He will start his every-other-weekend classes in downtown Salt Lake in another week or two.

I got to be the spotlight in the Relief Society newsletter for our ward a couple of weeks ago. That was fun.

I'm trudging through A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. It's hard reading.

We had our garage sale and made about $175. It just feels good to get rid of stuff!

I've signed Corey up for K12 this year. I almost did it last year, but I backed out. Now that I have a taste of homeschooling I think K12 may be helpful. We'll see. They keep track of lessons on line so that makes it easier for planning, they set up field trips and such, and it's free since it's really just an on-line public school. We are currently waiting for all the materials to arrive. I wish I could be more unschoolish, but I just can't get my brain to go with it - I'm too uptight. Plus, with Jenna being in the public school world it's difficult to be divided - regular public school vs. relaxed homeschool - every day. So, that's another reason I think K12 could be good. In fact, if I like it enough, maybe I'll have Jenna do it next year. (Or even this year - the school got a new 2nd grade teacher on D track and they're asking for volunteers to switch to the new teacher's class. I don't want to switch Jenna because she's on A track with friends from church. If they don't get enough volunteers, they may just choose kids randomly. If Jenna has to move I may become bold enough to pull her out.)

That's it for now. (Cough, cough, cough, cough - I feel like Mr. Poe from Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events.) I'm sure there'll be more fabulous posts soon - we have the Neighborhood Night Out Against Crime, Back to School Night, Randy's eye doctor appointment, and a Balloon Festival coming up. The fun never stops.