Clarifications and other family info

As this blog has progressed along, we realized that we may be unintentionally misleading some of you.
So now we will take a moment to make sure that all (if any) of our readers understand some of these things.
Firstly, someone asked me the other day why our blog is named Gus's Family. Well the answer is:
In the process of developing the blog, we tried to think of a "catchy" name, like some of the other family blogs that we have seen, but we realized that with the Smith last name, this can be hard, so we named the blog after our dog Gus. For those of you who may have thought that we had a secret hidden family member, we don't, this is just our effort at being clever. (you may be the judge as to how that worked out)

Secondly, I realize that the post lists Mike as the writer, this too is incorrect, in order to create the blog, you needed a compatible email address, his was compatible, hence, he gets the credits at the bottom. Now please don't get me wrong, he does contribute, either by choice or because living with him is just so fun, and he is always doing funny things that we can share.

We are now firmly entrenched in the routine of school and it is so nice to have the dinner schedule back on track. Let me explain, as our children are now getting older, and in order to help them become well rounded individuals, and because I now work full time, we created a dinner schedule. This is a huge help for me, as I now only cook 2 days a week, one of them being Sunday, and the kids each have a night in which they are responsible. I have to say that Mike and I are so impressed with the level of skill that they have developed and the diversity that they have shown us in the menu!! They even look up recipes on the internet and if we are missing ingredients, they purchase them on their own. We have enjoyed much success with this effort, except for Friday which is Mike and Reids' night, and that means that we usually have pizza or some other such thing! The girls keep bringing up the word"cheater" when we discuss this, but I think that secretly they are happy to eat the pizza!

Reverence in Church
This Sunday, our family, more correctly Jordanne, Dallas, and I got the giggles during sacrament. Now please don't misunderstand, as reverence has always been of the utmost importance to our family and it has been many years since we might have disturbed a meeting. Except for this Sunday, let me fill you in. Reid was passing the sacrament to our row, as Jordanne took the water, somehow (and I seriously do NOT know how), she managed to get the cup stuck onto her top lip. This then caused all of the water in the cup to pour directly down the entire front of her shirt. Now if that wasn't bad enough, she then began to panic, as the tray was passing her by, and she began to grab at the cup and twice was unable to dislodge her lip from the edge of the cup. Once she had reached the complete panic stage, she finally grabbed that little plastic cup and yanked it so hard that she almost pulled her lip off!! I am not exaggerating at all, and have yet to ever see anything so entirely funny in my life. Needless to say, I began to giggle, so did Jord and Dallie and each time we thought the situation was under control, someone would giggle just a little bit more. You must know also, that I am the YW President and we were sitting on the 4th row from the front right in front of the Bishopric.

We are all still repenting, and hoping that we will be forgiven.

Indian Summer

Like many of you, we are currently experiencing a fantastic heat wave. This weekend was Youth Conference and the girls and I all got sunburnt. I just have enjoyed the heat so much. We all have. Hopefully the weather will hold, and we will enjoy a beautiful fall. The sky has been clear and lots and lots of stars out in the morning when we are out delivering papers and we have really enjoyed that!

Well that is all for this week. Hope everyone is well.
Love to you all.

Back to the Routine!! By choice...or not!!

Well September long weekend is over and our girl is home. I had a wonderful time having a quick visit with my family on Sunday, as I drove down to Lethbridge so that I could pick up Maddy in Waterton on Monday after she finished her last shift. It was wonderful to see everyone and I even got to feel my nephew's foot through his mommas tummy!! What a cool experience. I was hoping that he would have been born before I got there, as he was scheduled to arrive on Sunday, but he didn't cooperate and now we probably won't see him until he's 4!!! Oh well, thank heavens for email and Facebook.

The drive down was not great, the wind was ridiculous all the way from Edmonton and I used over 1/2 a tank of gas, which I have never done before. It probably didn't help that I still had the topper on the van acting as a great big sail for the wind!!! It was even worse on Monday from Lethbridge to Waterton. I was very relieved to get to Waterton, I passed motorcycles that were driving and leaning sideways to stay upright!! As much as I love Southern Alberta, I am so glad that we don't get that crazy wind.

So everyone is back in school and we are back to some basic routine things, such as oatmeal for breakfast which the kids are not too fond of, but cereal is just way too expensive, especially when we have to feed Ried, so we only have cereal in the summer and all there has been a slight rumbling noise each morning when the kids come up to eat. Seminary is started so Jordanne, Dallas and Mike are out the door by 6:15 am, this can be a bit of a challenge depending how fast or slow we were doing papers in the morning. So far we are doing ok. I have to admit that I do like the forced routine a bit, as I do feel a little more organized.

Maddy is home and it is so great to have her back!! Hopefully it hasn't been too painful for her to adjust to home life again. I know that she has definitley enjoyed having free access to food and meals.

We had a great adventure this Monday. Jordanne decided to make a chocolate cheesecake for Maddy to welcome her home and as she was carrying it to the basement to cool in the extra fridge, she tripped and threw chocolate cheesecake all over the basement stairs and walls!! She was devastated and I couldn't even get mad at her for it. If you want a laugh, go on her facebook page and watch the video that she made of the adventure, it is hilarious. I am happy to report that the most fantastic steamcleaner in world was able to remove all of it yesterday and Jordanne no longer needs to be afraid!!

Reid was invited to be part of the Leadership Team at school, which is very exciting. He is very proud of himself and hopeful that this will help him gain entrance to the Challenge Program in Junior High. We are glad that our "late bloomer" has matured somewhat and is beginning to understand the importance of doing well in school. Yahoo!!

Mike and I are great, back into the groove of routine and busy as always.

Hope all is well with your families.