Making me laugh

So, Xiomara walked into the house with a weed stalk, proud of what she had found/harvested. It was about 1 1/4  inches in diameter and 5 feet 9 inches long. It’s a big weed stalk! Anyway, Ben sees her and gets all distraught because he had already cleaned it and left it standing in hopes that it might get taller and he could use it for some building project. Xiomara apologized because she didn't know he was going to use it and she took it outside. Ben lamented for a bit and then looked at me with a sad face. I said, "Best laid plans of boys and men." Ben quickly responded, "Are always destroyed by women!!!!" and swung his arm toward his departing sister. I laughed right out loud because it was just so perfect and just funny. I have a quick, witty, silly, creative, sarcastic, excitable boy on my hands. Crazy to think he turns 18 next March!

Youth Stake Halloween Dance

Benjamin dressed up as his version of Frodo Baggins.

Marissa settled for a scarecrow, 

which she has done before.

Emily got really creative and went as ...

pumpkin pie!

silly fun people

I am still working out the kinks in my picture taking strategies. I have another lens that just stopped working on the automatic focus setting. So now I can take pictures but I have to manually focus them. It takes longer that way so sometimes my subjects don't cooperate very well. Oh well, at least I am able to take pictures. I am not sure how many I will take but I will try.

August 5, 2018

August 8, 2018

She grew cantaloupes in her garden!

Sweet home grown goodness!

Eagle Scout Court of Honor

No kidding! He finished up all the requirements a couple months ago, went on the Eagle Scout trip to New York City, and had his Court of Honor with his friend, Paul Deibel. It was a little scary trying to get things put together but I think it turned out well enough. I did forget one little thing - the Eagle Scout neckerchief! Yikes! What was I supposed to do? Fortunately, Ben Boss showed up in uniform and I sheepishly asked if I could use his for my Ben. He said yes, no problem, of course (because he's that kind of guy). So, in the end we had a great time celebrating these two boys who worked so hard to accomplish this great honor! Good job, boys!

Seth Boss was the Master of Ceremonies

Dan Westercamp was asked to give a talk.

Kevin gave Ben's biography.

Grandpa Deibel gave Paul's biography.

Words from the Scout Master, Jared Boss

Scout Oath

Mother's pinning

Dad's pinning

Ben's remarks

The new neckerchief

Paul pinning on his mother

Paul pinning on his father

Ben's concluding remarks

Paul's concluding remarks

Ben gave his mentor pin to Dan Westercamp

Paul's gave his mentor pin to Kevin

Ben's borrowed neckerchief

Paul's neckerchief

Town Supervisor

Signing the Eagle!

What great freinds - or frenemies, as Ben says

This is the not so great cake that I made - Marissa put on the lettering.

We also brought no bake cookies - because Ben asked for them.

I'm not sure what else we took (since I'm writing this in May 2019)

It was a nice party for the boys!

Mrs. Cindy, from the library came, and so did Tracy, our neighbor! What a treat!

This is going to be weird

I guess you always know that some day this is going to happen. (You can't really tell but that's Benjamin in the driver's seat!)

When Ben turned 15, I waited for him to get on the ball about driver's ed. Now he has his permit and has turned 16, but he is in no rush to actually drive and get the hours needed for the next phase of classes and then move on to have his actual license. So, I took the opportunity to snap a picture of him in the driver's seat when he left with his dad this morning. He just has no where to go on his own - he goes to work with his dad, school is where ever he is, and his dad goes to church activities as well. Some day he'll want his license and will want to learn how to drive. He just really doesn't like the manual transmission. Some day he'll be able to wash the white van and drive that around.

Now you can see the damage

So we are keeping an eye on his thumb - well, at least he lets me check on it now and again. He still keeps it wrapped with ointment to make sure the skin stays soft. I'm glad it wasn't worse.

More thumb pictures

Can you see anything now?

Fortunately, it wasn't burned as badly as it could have been.

But it is still painful.

He keeps it wrapped with ointment to keep the skin from drying out.

Injury of sorts

The young men made potato "canons" at a campout last weekend.
Ben ended up not going so he was excited when they had them at the church tonight. After the young men activity, they went to the parking lot to try them out. It was sort of successful, and sort of not so much. I'm not sure of all the details but I guess they was flammable gas involved and Ben stuck his hand too far up and so his thumb was burned when the gas ignited. He decided what he needed was one of those goose neck Bic lighters so that he could bend it and stick the end into the canon and keep his hands away. At least some learning took place. We are hoping for a full recovery without any lasting issues.

 Bandaged up and ready to go to work.

Trying to get a look at it, but you can't really tell.

Owchie Oops

Ben was working on trimming some brush at the office, and he almost cut off part of his thumb. He was using a hand saw/bow saw instead of the clippers. I'm just gla it should heal up just fine.

Temple Trip

We had a ward temple trip today. The Primary offered activities for the 11 o'clock session so that's the one we went to. After that, we were able to enjoy the sealing of members of our ward - husband and wife to each other, and then sealed to their son. It was a very special day. While we were in the temple, the kids enjoyed all sorts of crafts and activities - even holding little baby Joseph B. The big kids stayed to help with the little kids. After we were done inside the temple, we went out to lunner with some of those present and that was yummy!

 

Ben with his sugar cube temple.

He even put the year on the corner stone!