Saturday the Thirteenth

Last Saturday was CRAZY! Rich was in charge of the wheat grinding booth at the Emergency Preparedness Fair in Bozeman, and we wanted to go to Helena after the fair. So he left to set up at 9am, and the kids and I did some chores and followed him at 10:30. He did a demonstration for the whole 4 hours, so we have lots of great fresh ground wheat, AND we learned how great the impact grinders are. The fair was really cool-- there was a lot about creating, managing, and rotating/using your food storage, but also lots of first aid, fire prevention, financial planning, water storage and treatment, and alternative energy. The fire department had a cool mobile home there called the fire house and they took kids though to teach them about fire safety and they climbed out the back window at the end. They even served free lunch and lots of food storage samples. It was great fun! Here's Addie in the leaves outside the Stake Center.

LEAF GIRL! While Rich finished up at the fair, we went down the street to the Museum of the Rockies. Since we are members, we get mailings about new exhibits (over the summer it was King Tut's stuff) and the girls couldn't wait to go learn about bats.
The exhibit was wonderfully interactive and we had so much fun! See the girls hanging like bats? After that, we went upstairs to the Discovery Center...
...where the girls fought over this cool dinosaur costume...
...and Heidi hogged this cute little log cabin. James enjoyed "the pit" full of foam pads and cubes to stack and jump on. Sadly, I don't have a picture of that cuteness.
Crazy Addiegator
Here's are the girls having sun in the reading corner.

At 2:30pm, we picked up Daddy and drove to Helena. We went to Posties to help them with tile and see Uncle Michael. We wanted to see the Lehmans, too, but Darrin's mom arrived the same time we did and we never met up. We did, however, have a BLAST with Matt and Michael (Poor Amie had to work, but we stopped into see her around 8pm).

Our kids jumped out of hte car and immediately began playing with their cousins, Jake and Sam. They were all so happy to see eachother. Here's Ad pulling the wee ones around.
Heidi, Sam, James, and Jake.
Later, after dinner and furious playing, all the kids took a bath to get ready for Sunday. Once they were all clean and in their jammies, we headed home to Livingston.

Thanks, Posties, for all the fun! It was so fun to see you, Mike!

Retro: The First Week of October

Blogger and/or my computer has been acting up lately, so I haven't posted many photos. Tonight things seem to be going well, so here are a bunch of pix from 2 weeks ago. (Click to enlarge any photo)First of all, this is how the streets looked on October 1st. I took this picture as a birthday present for Debbie, but then I realized it would probably make her sad (down in the 90-degree Arizona heat, homesick for Montana)...but Deb, I hope you had a happy birthday!
This is how Addie looked when I picked her up from school on the 1st...later that day she lost her top left tooth!
On the way down to Utah, we stopped and visited my Dad and Becky in Pocatello. Dad made us such a delicious dinner, and the kids had so much fun playing in his (massive) backyard. My step-sister Casey's daughter was there--Becca is only 6 weeks older than Heidi and they are quite the pair. We had such a nice visit--dad & Becky, thanks so much for having us over! We had a great time!
James Ole exploring Grandpa's kitchen 10/03
Sweet Baby James sleeping in our hotel room in Utah.

Jill whipped up an amazing Mexican feast for Sam's birthday...the haze is from the smoke from his candles.
Addie, Heidi, & Uncle Sam ready for some cake.

Audrey, Kristen and Will at the bowling alley. Cosmic Bowl was Sam's Bday activity of choice.
The boys tried really hard to beat the girls...
...but Kristin beat EVERYONE! My score for both games was around 163...hers was 220 or something like that!

What the....?

Some of you may have already heard about our new theory about the end of the world. Remember, we were watching the History Channel (dang that channel, it always sucks us in...it is useless to resist). Within a couple of days, we saw a show about Mayans and then another show (The Universe, the Sun episode) about how the sun shifts polarity in these big old solar storms with flares so strong they can overwhelm our atmosphere and cause spontaneous combustion, magnetic shifts, and all kinds of other havoc. We learned that the Mayan Calendars end in December 2012, AND that the next big solar thing would happen in 2012. Hmmm...Rich said, "Okay, I'm callin' it...the world ends in 2012." Kidding...mostly.


[Turns out, we're not alone. In fact, it looks like we're the last to know...read here about the Mayan thing and here about the solar thing]

Add to that the fact that Hillary Clinton could be our next president--perfect! She can screw up the world enough so Jesus will have to come fix it. And we can all wear THESE T-shirts, as seen on The Colbert Report during "The Road to Armageddon" segment (Stephen, like me, often contends that conflict in the Middle East just leads to Armageddon and speeds up Jesus' return...he also has a T Shirt that says Welcome Jesus on the front and Welcome Last Imam on the back--heh, heh).

Also, Al Gore just won the Nobel Prize, which makes me want to poke out my own eyes. It's gonna get a whole lot warmer, Albert, when that solar flare cooks us and your friend Hilary makes us lose WW3. [It's Environmental Blog Action Day. My action is to promote preparedness (see links below)]

AND... on a not-so-funny note, the prophet has told us not-so-subtly that it's time to get REALLY serious about food storage and Emergency Preparedness. I mean, a whole Ensign centerfold this summer? Geez.
We got the hint.
Did you?

On a lighter note, here's our theme song:

Tuesday is Ballet Day

On Tuesdays at 4, Addie puts on her ballet clothes...

...and we stop to pick up her friend, Boston, to go to ballet class.
When we get to ballet at 4:15, Miss Kathleen greets all the students with the ballerina doll (Boston is behind her on the right; Addie is second from left)
After warming up, we practice the five positions at the barre.
Addie is learning how to hold her arms and point her toes and turn out her ankles.
After lots of practice, we sit in a circle to practice straight backs and beautiful arms and hands. One girl gets to "wind up" the other "sleeping" dancers.

Ballet Class is FUN!

Dim Bulb & Bright Autumn

Two Pumpkins: James 10/8

I am having the hardest time updating the blog--or doing anything on the computer--or doing ANYTHING besides sleeping, laundry, and snuggling my kids. And I am TERRIBLY absent-minded...scary! I DID upload and crop all the recent pix on my camera, so I will take the next big step of uploading them ASAP.


For now, you must enjoy these HAPPY FALL pictures of the Melin Kids, taken Monday 10/08

Heidi, Addie, & James

.

ZZZZZZZZ

We got home late last night from an emotionally and physically exhausting trip to Utah...I don't think I am quite up to traveling yet, I felt terrible most of the time and most of the people we went to see weren't especially happy to see us.

But we LOVED conference (Scott's and Oaks' talks are the ones resonating right now); Rich had fun and did lots of work at Jeff's and we did have a blast with the Petersens and at Sam's little 30th Birthday party--Jill made him a great taco dinner and we all went Cosmic Bowling afterward (you can see Jill's blog for weekend details). We also had fun traveling with Peter and Zuzana. They continued on to Arches for an adventure and came back and toured SLC on Saturday. Zuzana caught her plane home to Slovakia early Sunday morinng, and I think she got home the same time we did! :) We will miss our cute little Zuzi! Peter is here for a few more weeks.

TodayRich left at 4:30 am for a conference in Great Falls and won't be home until Tuesday night. So me and the wee ones are gonna take lots of naps and live on PBJ for the next coule of days! As for now, it's naptime! Later, loves...

ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY...

September 30, 1971, my homegirl Susan Shanks was born!Hope you have a great day, Sooz!

Yay! Health Update...

Today (Tuesday) Dr, Reid left me a message telling me she wanted to see me in her office at 1:30pm so we could talk for a few minutes. This kind of scared me because I thought she would give me my diagnosis over the phone since we had talked about most of the possibilities and treatments earlier. But when I spoke with her, she confirmed that I had Graves Disease and told me the course of action. First, we try Tapazole (sp?) to regulate hormone production and "calm down" the thyroid. We start with the lowest dose, testing my blood for progress (in lowering my T4 count, which I think she said should be around 24 and mine was 89, and raising my TSH, which was zero). When we find the dose that works, we stick with it for a few months and see if it causes remission. If so--good. If not, then we have the radioactive iodine ablasion (sp?), which kills the thyroid and then I take synthroid pills the rest of my life.

So I guess either way, I will be on some kind of medication for most of the rest of my life. But if it works, I am totally fine with that (sorry, Dad...I didn't feel very good about the natural remedy this time...). I am so excited to be myself again!

What Heidi Gave Me For My Birthday...

- a wake up birthday song and a hug
- a spilled juice mess to clean up
- lots of sass
- spilled ice water wiped up with clean clothes I had folded the night before and placed in a basket that was, unfortunately, near the spill site
- grated cheese sprinkled all over my bed (don't ask--she was "feeding her elephants")
- two stinky diapers
- Three changes of clothes by 10am
-Saw a picture of Adam and Eve, then explained to me that Adam and Eve made "trabbles to the witch's house so June and Rocket could save them." I slowly realized that she had Adam & Eve confused with Hansel & Gretl from a recent "Little Einsteins" episode.
- a tantrum at bedtime
-a goodnight hug that erased all the bad stuff

I love my Lynners...

Birthday #36: Party Pix

My fabulous MIL made the most wonderful turkey dinner for my birthday! It was sort of a harvest celebration because all of the food (besides the turkey) was grown at the ranch! We had mashed ranch potatoes, sliced ranch cucumbers and carrots and tomatoes, cole slaw with home-grown cabbage, and bread with homemade freezer jam! It was such a treat to (a) have my favorite meal, and (b) not have to cook or do much clean up...thanks, Mom Melin!Around the dinner table: Rich, Danny, Grandpa Tom, Addie, Angie, Little Rosalie, James, and Heidi.
After dinner we opened gifts...this one is from Angie & family
And this one was from my M & FIL...new towels and a mini-cuisinart.
This one from Rich was SO FABULOUS...a t-shirt (so fun) and an ipod Shuffle (see it clipped to the shirt?), already loaded up with about 20 of my favorite CDs to listen to while I walk! Woo-hoo!

My hubby and kids also got me this jerky maker to use with the dehydrator I got last Mother's Day. There are a bunch of spices in the box, which can be added to ground meat, then extruded out of that gun I am holding up onto the dehydrator trays and voila! You've got jerky! Fabulous protein source for food storage and a great snack (I LOVE it made with ground turkey, and it's often about $1. pound)
My helpers: Addie, Danny, and Heidi
We finished with cake...my mom made a Chocolate Spice Zuchini bundt cake, and it was HEAVENLY! I am not a cake or pie fan, but this was SO GOOD!
Thanks for a great birthday, family!
XOXOX

PS: I also got lots of cute cards in the mail, and my mom sent me a box of cute scrapbooking stuff...THANKS!

My Funny Girls

Sunday Night Family Prayer, Addie: "Dear Heavenly Father, please let Jesus know that my prayer is for the whole family and the one Heidi is going to say is just for her."

Oh, the competitiveness!!

Rich and I were just laughing about our favorite Heidi funny: whenever we listen to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," she lays down and pretends to sleep, and then when the "weee-a-weee-oh-momma-way," part comes on, she gets on all fours and roars at everyone dancing around her. Luckily, we caught this on video, so when I get around to uploading all the video from the past month, you'll see for yourself!