Our life lately

Did I mention yet that I love where we live right now? This is the view from our backyard patio, and it's only April! It gets better all summer. The housing market is a bit slow, so we haven't shown our house much. I've been pretty lazy with keeping it clean, but last night I learned my lesson. Someone called to look at our house while I was teaching piano. I had 30 minutes after finishing up teaching to get the house ready. I thought, no problem. But after running around like a mad woman wiping counters, mirrors, picking up toys, sweeping, etc and sweating buckets by the time I was done, I realized maybe I should just try to keep it cleaner.
Even though we don't know if we will be here or not, we planted a garden. I would be so sad if August came around, we were still here, and I didn't have anything to harvest! So here is Tyson tilling our garden. We might have raspberries this year! Yeah!In other news, I am training Grant to go blue. Aggie blue, that is. While in Logan last weekend with my sister, I couldn't resist buying some memorabilia. I also got to visit old roommates, visit a former teacher, and walk through the education building where I spent my last year of college. Good times!! Here's a random picture of Grant before church. He loves wearing my necklaces. And here is a picture of Tyson. Okay, you probably can't see unless you make the picture really big, but there is a plane there! Grant and I saw him from our backyard. Fun! Here's Grant with Jackie, my sister's dog. Grant loves dogs! It's the only picture I have of Grant in his Easter outfit, so thanks Shelley!

Hey Diddle Diddle

Interpretation:
"Hey diddle
cat fiddle
cow jumped over the moon...
jumped over the moon
dog laughed
see sport
dish with spoon."
This nursery rhyme makes absolutely no sense, but I sure love hearing Grant say it!

Agnes

I never did like the name Agnes. I remember as a teenager going to Olive Garden on vacation. Our waitress's name was Agnes, and I just felt so sorry for her! But I just read the book David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, and I've changed my mind. Agnes is the loveliest name! She is one of the main characters, and I can hardly think of anyone more selfless, generous, beautiful, gentle, or lovable. That was one of the best books I've ever read. It was really long, and not the kind of book you can read casually, but so worth the time and effort. (I'll admit, at about page 300 I was wondering whether I could continue. But both my mom and my sister Joyce recently read it and said they loved it, so I kept going.) Oh, the characters are so memorable! It took me through all sorts of emotions and left me spiritually uplifted and hoping to be a better person. I highly recommend it.

Alphabet Soup

I lead the music in Primary and last Sunday, I came up with the idea to hide the letters in the word "family" in a bowl of dried beans. Sounds exciting, huh? The kids would come up and search for the letters, and each one would stand for a song. Really it's wasn't that great, but the bonus was Grant loved playing with it after church! (Even though he's good at not putting things in his mouth, I definitely have to supervise this activity.) He digs around to find the letters either with his hands or a spoon and squeals each time he finds one. He's learning his letters, colors and numbers, and this is perfect for all three! Plus it's fun and once again, free. The letter beads were from a previous project (they were a couple dollars at Wal-Mart) and the mixture of dried beans were from an activity I did while student teaching a LONG time ago. But if you want to try it, dried beans are less than a dollar for a whole pound. You could use any kind, but I don't recommend lentils--it takes forever to clean them out of the carpet!
Sorry if my posts have been about food and Grant. Let's be honest, that's what takes up a lot of my life! :)