There is so much to catch up on… I’ve been so terribly busy that I’ve hardly found time to brush my teeth in the morning. Writing all the Herd adventures is important so if you have “heard” these then I apologize. You must remember this is our family journal.

On our way to Sea Side during Labor Day weekend our reliable reddish/purplish/Barney colored van made a funny sound then the power steering crashed. We pulled over, checked the power steering and decided to move on until we could find a place to fix it. As soon as we arrived onto the interstate ALL of the dashboard lights started blinking like crazy, the little orange temperature gage pointed straight to H, a loud “ding..ding..ding” rang in our ears and of course the children started fighting in the backseat. I truly thought we might blow right up! We pulled over and parked by a closed service station and checked the time. It was 5:47 pm on Thursday night. We figured if we were to catch a garage open then we only had until six so that gave us 13 minutes to find one.

I left Nathan with the kids, the dog and his IPhone and then jumped out of the van to run for help. I ran and ran. I found a body shop to ask for help… no luck but a suggestion on where to go so I ran and ran some more. I ran a few more blocks in my sandals and found a closed garage so I turned the corner and found a Nampa Auto Parts. I literally threw the door open and saw two tired men. I explained, “Our van broke down and I could use help. Do you have a garage? (knowing I saw two garage doors on the side of the building).”

They replied very confused, “No. We only sell parts.”

“Is there anything you can do to help me? Do you know of a place that may be open?”

Very causally they say, “nope. There’s no place open that I know of.”

You can imagine my dismay so I practically yelled, “LISTEN! I HAVE FIVE KIDS AND A DOG IN MY VAN AND I NEED HELP!!! DON’T YOU KNOW OF ANYONE I CAN CALL?”

“Well, umm… maybe we can call a couple of places for you.”

So they called one- no answer, they call another and sure enough Bob answers. He explains the situation and then hands me the phone and I re-explain the situation.

He said, “Sounds like you broke your belt. I can fix that but you’ll need a new belt.”

Nampa had the belt! I bought the belt paying for it by calling Nathan for the credit card number. I then ran and ran and ran (never looking both ways before crossing the road) all the way back to the van.

Bob had told me to meet him there at the van but as I was running back I saw Nathan driving away! I ran even faster screaming, “STOP! STOP! STAY THERE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!”

Soon I found he was following the mechanic back to his shop.

An hour later Bob wrapped that belt around the correct parts and BAM It was fixed! Even the Nampa guy whom I previously screamed at pulled up in his motorcycle to check if we were all right! (of course Naomi had to admire his motorcycle before he left)

Bob only charged us twenty-five dollars and offered us a box of peaches for the way home! Can you believe it?! We are so grateful!

My last post was all about how hard school has been for the boys so to the shock and utter dismay of many friends and family members, we have pulled the boys out of school! They were invited to attend my friend’s home school group. This is the same group that hired me to teach their preschool kiddos. Our first week was last week and it was wonderful but extremely busy!

I also pulled Ethan out of the punk soccer team and placed him in cross-country. He really loves this! The coach was so kind and welcomed him!

The boys still wake up at the same time and so far we are spending more time learning at home then they did at school. Ethan is still in band and both the boys want to sign up for drama club. We listed the pros and cons, prayed about it, read about it and then decided to give it a shot. Who knows how long it will last but so far so good.

The last couple of months Ethan was getting terrible headaches every day and really not eating well. He looked pretty sick. All week he never mentioned a headache yet still worked hard in all of his assignments.

Emerson misses his friends but says he prefers this for now. He is already improving on his math. I have so much one on one time with him and I think this is what he needed.

The home school group they are in is marvelous! These women have been teaching for nearly twenty years. I think this will be a great experience for them.

Grandma and Grandpa came for one last visit before they head to South Africa on their mission. We had a marvelous time.

The average daughter in-law spends a fair amount of time cleaning her house before her mother in-law comes. The average daughter in-law likes to impress her mother in-law and would like her mother in-law to believe she is capable of taking care of her son and her son’s children.

With this being said, the bathrooms were spotless, the kitchen was sparkling and the carpets vacuumed. There was only one problem… I had 60 pounds of pears that needed canned ASAP! My sweet, kind and thoughtful mother in-law volunteered to help me with this intense job. We had a great time talking and giggling while canning 34 quarts of beautiful, ripe, juicy pears straight for the orchard next door.

I am one of those food storage junkies with nearly 75 buckets filled with wheat, sugar, oats, salt and beans. It’s all organized quite well if I don’t say so myself but I made one mistake. One very large mistake! One hugely, enormously terrible mistake!

Salt and Sugar taste very different from each other yet look so similar…

Nathan decided to make the children a kool-aid slushy for lunch today. He mixed the ice with the kool-aid with the water and sugar but for some reason the purple slushy looked grey.

“That’s strange. I wonder why the slushy is grey.” He says.

“I’m sure it fine. Let me taste it.”

I take a huge spoon full and gulp with a whopping gag, “It’s filled with SALT!”

Nathan is cracking up and then it dawns on me- THE PEARS! “I used this bucket with the pears!” Yes, every single jar was canned with salt water! They are ruined!

The pears mom and I worked so hard on! They are RUINED! No wonder they looked so beautiful.

Nathan went to New Orleans last week. He was gone the whole week. I’m not one to mope when he’s gone. In fact, I just hold me head straight and forge ahead but when he came home last night, I nearly melted. I’m pretty good at making myself believe I don’t need help so it wasn’t until he came home did I realize how much I missed him.

Natalie won student of the week. She said the two principles were waiting outside her door at the end of the day to present to her a new necklace and a picture with the principles. She felt so privileged and honored. We are very proud of the hard working and kind girl she tries to be.