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We woke up to snow. And lots of it. Zach was worried. Tonight is his super-awesome winter concert. The one where they get to use special effects. They are playing a song from Batman Dark Knight and the lights will be off and movie clips will be shown. And a Twilight Song called Bella’s Lullaby. Another of the bands will be playing Music of the Night with special effects. He has been talking about this concert for months. The band is ready. And all after-school activities have been canceled. He is not a happy camper.

He got his braces off last Tuesday (after 3 years) and was to get his retainer today. Thank goodness they called and canceled too, saying that the retainer wasn’t ready yet. They needed to schedule on Wednesday. Which is okay, the snow is supposed to be done by then. The only problem is it’s 30 minutes away, and it’s sandwiched in between the kids’ classes and the boys’ dentist appointments (which are at the same time as piano lessons, which will have to be re-scheduled.) All this before Wednesday youth and scout activities. So while Wednesday seems to be the day that will be manic, today as I sit and think about it all I actually feel that way! Just think, in 48 hours I can look back and say “See, that wasn’t so bad after all!”

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Our church’s children’s group wanted to do a service project at the Elim home here in Princeton. They were going to go in and sing some fun songs and then play bingo with them. They nursing home was very excited, until the director asked “What church do you represent?” and the organization president said “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” And then the director said “Oh, you can’t come here, you aren’t Christian.” Luckily we found another group that either didn’t find that to be true, or didn’t care. Either way, the children and the seniors will have a fun time.

But not Christian. Seriously? Now, I am not naive to what *some* other churches think of the LDS church. I know the arguments. I’ve done the debate. I don’t have a problem with that. That’s not what this post is about. However, I have plenty of friends and family who attend other churches who don’t agree with LDS church’s dogma, history, etc. and don’t resort to saying “You aren’t Christian, you are a (whisper) c-u-l-t” (Well technically if we look at the definition, most organized religion is, eh?) Because have you seen whose name is in our title?

OK, they still just worry and want us to go to heaven and want us to see the light before it’s too late. I am grateful for their concern. Let’s say I believed them and was ready to switch. Do you honestly think that I am going to switch to THEIR brand of “Christianity”? The one that actually holds classes on Mormonism and how horrible it is and how to witness to your Mormon family and friends and neighbors? Oh yeah, I’ve seen those flyers on the bulletin boards of their churches when I’ve been in them for Pinewood Derbies, Hunter Safety Classes, Red Cross Blood Drives, etc. That is VERY un-Christlike and the antitheses of what they probably hope they appear to be. Or do you think I want to switch to a religion who has mentioned those bad, cultist Mormon’s in their Sunday Sermon? BTDT too, by the way. I actually came to see what you had to say about, uh, Christ? So no thanks. Hey, I know. Go to an LDS messageboard and troll around how wrong they are, and suggest your religion as better. Yes, that’s a way to let your light so shine!

Here’s a hint. If you want to appear Christian yourself, if you want your religion to come across in a good light, drop the classes on anti-Mormonism. Drop the sermons on the other religions and preach Christ’s gospel. Drop the worry about labeling your fellow human beings and worry about the mote/beam in your own eye. Accept service that is offered. Even by Cultist 4 year olds. Sheesh!

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Last Wednesday was Alisa’s birthday. This year we are having a joint party for all the kids by renting out the high school pool and letting them all invite their friends for swimming. So we made her favorite food and had a fun night together. She picked barbecue chicken, potatoes, and blueberry cheesecake for dessert. She has no idea what she wants for her birthday, so she asked that we wait until her swimming party so she can think about it. In a couple of weeks it will be Ethan’s turn. He doesn’t know what he wants for his supper yet. The kids get to spend the nights before and after sleeping wherever they want and watching movies for as long as they want. I think they get more excited about that they parties or presents!

My Dad came up for a visit today and noted that I hadn’t written in the blog for a long time. Don’t I know it! I am really bad about it, that is for sure. I still have to post the cruise journal and Zach’s Eagle Court of Honor. It’s been so long that he’s actually earned his first Eagle Palm too. I think I mentioned that the cruise posts will be backdated though. They are on Zach’s laptop, so I have to get it to the library and post from that instead of my home computer.

Tomorrow is Laura Ingalls Wilder’s birthday. We don’t do anything to celebrate, but I think about her. I’ve told the kids that if I die they shouldn’t be sad because I’d probably be hanging out with her. Next year we should celebrate by cooking from the Little House cookbook that I have though!

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I actually have several blog entries to publish, but just haven’t gotten to it.  Many of them are of the journal I kept whilst on our cruise, which was fun.  One from Zach’s Eagle Court of Honor, etc.  But for now, just let me get past the Holidays before worrying about that.

When I logged on here I had over 200 comments, so I bulk deleted them all.  Most were definitely trolls just hoping to get their name into Google or something.  Why waste your time, it won’t be approved!

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great Holiday season, and I’ll catch up sometime after then.

Love, all the Foedes

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Hello family and friends!  To update my last entry, Zach did indeed pass his Eagle board of review.  Parents aren’t let into the board, but apparently he is well-spoken and mature, and was told it was one of the best, especially for also being one of the youngest, boards they had done.  Apparently they don’t do many LDS boards, where the boys are often encouraged to get Eagle before the scent of perfume and/or gasoline take priority.

 School has started.  Zach is going to seminary at 6:15 in the morning, studying the Book of Mormon this year.  He then goes to the high school for art and band classes, which so far he loves.  I pick him up at 10:30, bring him home, and then half an hour later bring Gabby to choir.  We have a nice schedule and system down.  It means waking up at 6:30 for me so that Mark and I can exercise before he teaches her math and science, but I am finding going to bed at 10 isn’t such a bad thing after all.

Everyone else is doing well.  We have 2.5 months until our cruise, and we are getting excited for that.  The children will be staying at Grandma Bonnie’s house, though we haven’t worked out the logistics of it all yet.   Zach’s Eagle Court of Honor will be on October 10th, 2009 at 11:00 AM with a lite lunch following. (Any potluck items will be appreciated, but not necessary!)

We went to the MN state fair with Alisa, Dylan, and Reese and had a nice time.  They didn’t want to leave, but enjoyed the park and ride bus enough that they didn’t throw a fit too badly!

I hope this finds you all well!

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Because I promise, my last post feels like it was just yesterday!  Somehow this summer has gotten away from me.  Between Wisconsin Dells, Gabby’s play and Girl’s Camp, Zach’s Eagle project, Scout Camp, and Board of Review, the oldest 3 doing their standardized testing (and getting great scores!) babysitting a friend’s son while they deal with their other child having leukemia, and school approaching (I still haven’t found a language arts curriculum I like for high school!) we’ve been swamped.  Ask me what I did or got for my birthday and I don’t think I could even tell you.  I even had a money-gift that didn’t make it to the bank until today (sorry Mom Foede! But thank you so much!)  Summer isn’t supposed to be like this.  A whirlwind of activity that leaves one breathless, and no vacation to speak of!  I told Mark I was taking a two month trip next year around the country, starting with visiting all the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites I’ve wanted to see for years. (Later on is a picture of her uncle’s grave.  If you’ve read the books you met Peter in Little House in the Big Woods, and I learned that he is buried 15 miles from here!)

Zach’s Eagle Board of Review is tomorrow night.  There is no reason he shouldn’t pass, but I am still a nervous mom.  I am invited to go into the room with him to hear the decision, and I am not sure my nerves can handle it.  I know this is why I wasn’t sent children who are future Olympic athletes.  I just wouldn’t be able to support them, LOL! Well, I’ll post the resultes as soon as I can.

So, like I said, the testing went well.  The kids got 99,97,and 99 percentiles and post-high school scores.  Zach didn’t do as well in “Study Skills”,  but it’s an older tests and has questions about card catalogs, LOL, so  I don’t worry too much. He can work the library computer catalog just fine, thank you!

Gabby’s camp went well.  They had cold, rainy weather (unlike Zach’s hot, sunny weather) but she had a nice experience and showed herself to be a positive, sweet girl.  3 of the girls sneaked off at midnight and I am proud to say that Gabby declined the invitation knowing it was against the rules.

Reese is doing well.  The ‘terrible twos’ have hit in a gentle manner, so we are thankful!  Dylan is still our precocious sweetie.  Still afraid to go to sleep at night because he doesn’t want bad dreams.  That makes me sad.  A 4 year old shouldn’t have to deal with that.  Ethan is doing great in scouts.  It’s hard to believe he’ll be a Boy Scout in 6 months! Alisa is loving reading now, and has really blossomed.  She is excited to have spelling this year.  Mark and I are doing fine.  We’ve chosen a cruise, but part of me still thinks “Ya know, you could skip the cruise and get new flooring upstairs…” (The carpets when we bought the house were in horrible condition.) But I also know that making memories and celebrating our marriage is good for the soul!

OK, so on to some pictures. Gabby at camp.  Reese feeding Mark a marshmallow. Zach trying to cook on his Altoids grill. (Ask him, not me!) Reese eating a marshmallow. Reese, sleeping on Zach on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Peter Ingalls grave. Gabby’s Snow White cast. Gabby’s fellow ‘Ravens’.  Zach and Dylan mowing lawn.  Pretty Gabby.)

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Thanks to everyone who made it to Reese’s birthday party!  We had a lovely time.  You should be able to see pictures here:     

 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=88161&id=579103778&l=49b5284d22

We tried to do a evening party because we’ve dealt with working around  for 14 years, and because we thought we’d avoid the heat of mid-day.  It turned out to be a fairly wise decision, in that it was a hot sunny day.  But Reese had an awkward nap schedule the day before, so she was up late and falling asleep in her supper anyway.  And we were still running around like crazy people, trying to sew the canvas for the sandbox we made her. (My machine didn’t like upholstery thread.)  But we had a nice turn out, about 35 people.  It sure is a lot of work though! And when from my side only 1 sibling and one parent can make it anyway (remember I have 9 siblings) one wonders why not just take it easy or take a vacation instead.  Reese will never know, and Mark will appreciate not having me pick out a cake from the internet and say “Hey honey, think you can duplicate this?” (No hard feelings of course, I know people have plans and priorities and life is busy!)

Zach made it to Scout camp.  This year they had all the LDS scouters throughout MN at a special encampment.  Zach went up for the week and Mark went up for 3 days.  Zach seemed so much older when he came home, talking about pre-majors at St. Cloud State (he wants to be a chiropractor).  Mark said he was sitting down observing him at one point and it struck him how mature he has become, and how much he steps up around his peers and siblings.  We had a couple of discipline issues in our troop, and I am so glad that Zach wasn’t involved.  I am proud of him. But sad that my baby is growing up so fast.  Now Gabby will be off to Girl’s camp in a few weeks.  She too is growing up.  And becoming such a beauty.  I’ve always thought that she was gorgeous, but lately her face is becoming more chiseled and she is all eyes.  Sometimes she reminds me of Twiggy, the supermodel from the 60’s.  My sister Karyn even asked me at Reese’s party if Gabby knew how pretty she was.  I’m not sure.  I think Gabby knows she is a cute girl, but does anyone ever recognize their true beauty?  It reminds me of when Gabby was 2 and someone said “Wow, what are you going to do when she’s a teen?”

My friend Stephanie’s little boy Tyler was diagnosed with ALL, infant leukemia.  He is a rarity in that it was diagnosed when he was only 4 months old. Tyler was simply looking a little pale and the checked his hemoglobin as a precaution, and was then whisked to Children’s Hospital and diagnosed.  Last week we had their older son Dawson for 6 days and 5 nights, and for the next 5 weeks or so we’ll be taking him for about 36 hours in the middle of the week.  His grandma will have him M-Th and his Dad and Mom will care for him on weekends.  Our prayers go out to them!

We had a nice 4th of July at Mark’s parents.  Friday we had a hot dog cook out and did fireworks, and then Saturday the great-grandma’s came over for lunch.  Afterwards we left and went home and went to the big Princeton fireworks which everyone loved.  And surprisingly, despite no bug-spray so we wouldn’t have to do showers after, very few mosquitoes.  The park board must have sprayed! I’ll upload some pics of that and Zach at camp once I get them edited.

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We made it home from camping, and had a wonderful time.  For pictures, you can go here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86866&id=579103778&l=e48e0e0ab6

In our church ward there is a man who is in charge of the Boy Scout Camps.  He was able to arrange it so that the ward went up to Many Point Scout Camp Family Camp and utilize their cabins and tent sites for free while we did service projects.  We cleaned the cabins, trimmed trees and brush, scrubbed the shower houses and lodge, mowed grass, and put in a new playground.  It was hard work, but well worth the money we saved and the service we rendered.  About 22 families came, and it was fun getting to know them better and letting our children run around, and feel safe letting them go off and explore.  The weather behaved for the most part, with the exception of a rain shower about 2 hours before our scheduled potluck and testimony meeting, and some sprinkles the day we left, but that is a good thing as it made it easier to leave. 

The man who arranged it isn’t a member of the though church, though his wife is.  After the potluck (we brought walking tacos and cut up veggies) we went down to the group area for a testimony meeting and he (Jim) started a fire in a log tower (made of 3 sections of hollow logs) filled with tinder.  It was really cool! Then we waited around patiently and after everyone showed up, Jim and the bishop showed up in their white jumpers and went into Many Point lake and Jim was baptized.  We’ve only been in the ward a little over a year and a half, but apparently a few years back Jim came sporadically, and then made friends and 2 years ago came every week.  Even his wife didn’t know about the baptism and some called out “Hey Jen, why is Jim in all white?” She whipped her head around and didn’t get it at first, but when she understood what was happening, the tears started flowing from everyone’s eyes.  OK, dunce that I am, I admit my first thought was “Huh, Jim and bishop are putting on a skit about baptism!” and then it hit me too.  So it was very spirtual and memorable and I am grateful I was able to be there for that.

The rest of the time went well.  Everyone fished as often as they could, mostly getting rock bass and bluegill sunfish.  Dylan’s Lighning McQueen rod caught the most fish, LOL!  The kids went swimming, and Dylan didn’t have his trunks on.  He asked to go get them and I said “Dylan, they are all the way back at the cabin!”  And a friend said “Just don’t go naked Dylan, we don’t care!” and she and I both chuckled about it.  A few minutes later one of the teenage girls said “Dylan, what are you doing?” and I turned around and there was Dylan with his shorts and underwear around his ankles.  I said “Dylan, she was just KIDDING!” and he pulled he clothes on and we went to get his trunks. Mark got up one morning at 5:30 AM and went around taking pictures.  There is a lot of Yellow Lady Slippers up there.  There are also a lot of dragonflies that ate the mosquitos, so we had very little of them.  And lots of ticks, both deer and wood.  We found a few wood ticks, but no deer ticks that we know of.   One night we watched an outdoor movie on a sheet and that was lovely too.  It was a good time, but I am looking forard to getting Reese’s birthday party on Saturday out of the way, getting past next week’s Scout Camp for Zach, eye appointment for Alisa, and well-child appointment for Reese out of the way and being able to relax for a month before Gabby is off the Girl’s Camp through the church.

I’m still not seeing a link to the Eagle Scout story in our local paper.  My friend Steph says newspaper article do go it, it may just take a while. One day we’ll just scan it ourselves perhaps?  Zach and Gabby are all signed up for band/choir next year.  We looked at electives for Zach to take, but the ones he wanted (drawing, art, woodworking) were full.  We looked at getting him into chemistry or a foreign language but they have an odd trimester schedule and chemistry would have been “Intro to Chemistry” and he needs a more advanced course than that.  French would have been at an odd time of the day, having me run into town twice, so we’ll just carry on at home with that too.

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This is the problem with waiting so long in-between blog posts.  I cannot remember what I’ve written about.  For example, Zach’s Eagle Project was almost a month ago, but did I update it?  He has made a wonderful binder that has all the info about how it went.  I think I’ll ask him to transfer it to a blog page so that all can read the specifics.  He was also in the Princeton Union Eagle, but I can’t see a link on their webpage for the article.  So far I don’t know if they don’t post their articles online (which would be weird) or if it just takes a while to find it.  I will add a link here, if I come up with one.

Madison was nice.  I have been posting with a group of ladies on a messageboard who all had all 2007 babies within a month of each other (except for those of us who went early or late!)  We drove up Saturday morning (originally it was going to be Friday, but Gabby wanted to go to a friend’s birthday party) and went straight to the Zoo.  The drive was pleasant, everyone stayed away, we stopped for lunch from the cooler and a potty break, and got there in about 5.5 hours.  After the Zoo we went to Old Country Buffet with our group of 24 people, and then swimming at the hotel pool.  The next morning we had breakfast then went to the incredible Olbrich botanical gardens which are lovely and had Mark and me salivating for beautiful plants as opposed to an empty berm! After the drive we went to the Wisconsin Dells and were able to check in early.  We went to the outdoor waterpark, then the wave pool, then the indoor waterpark.  The next AM we checked out and went to the indoor waterpark again.  The kids had a lot of fun, as did Mark and I.  Dylan insisted he was big enough to go on a ride, which was a 40 foot waterslide on a raft.  He got to the top and changed his mind and walked down all the stairs.  Then at the bottom changed his mind and insisted on going up again. He sat on the raft, and as the guy running the ride pushed it over the edge he said “No! I don’t want to go!” but it was too late and he screamed “I said no!” the rest of the ride.  On the wave pool he wanted to ride on the raft but was too small and slipped right though and was underwater until Mark picked him up by his feet.  So he had a kind of traumatic time, but recovered nicely and had fun in the lazy river and kiddie-pool. Then we came home and rested.  Just in time to go camping at Many Point Scout Camp in a couple of days.

I have video of Dylan’s ride, and also had he got progressively more annoying singing on the way home at youtube. I’ll try to embed here, otherwise the addresses are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRzy06fLHwc  and  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_leJeOSDEU

I also have a ton of pictures, which can be seen at Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=84523&id=579103778&l=2f96747abf

(However, I admit I don’t know if you have to be a FB friend to see these.  When you upload them there is something that says “Share these pictures even with your non-facebook friends) so if this doesn’t work I will try to find out how!)

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