First Day of School

 School started back in session on Monday.  Hooray for everyone.  I love our short summers.  It is the perfect length and it is always so dang hot, the kids may as well be inside learning instead of playing video games.  Derek is in Mrs. Martin's class (the same 3rd-grade teacher Dax had).  Here is him with his buddy Sean, who is also in his class.

Dax is in 7th Grade at Arizona College Prep- Oakland.  The same school as last year, but now he is officially in  Jr. High and he switches classes and gets to do all the fun Jr High activities.  His school officially changed names and got a new mascot and new school colors.  Instead of the mustangs with green, blue, and yellow.  They are now the Knights with Purple, black, and grey.  His uniforms also have the school logo on the uniforms now, but you can't see it in this picture because his backpack is covering it.  I wasn't excited about having to buy new uniforms, they are also a little more expensive now that they have the logo on them, but I have to say I really like them and I think the new colors look sharp.  Dax seems to be enjoying 7th grade and his school.  Which makes me so happy.

Goodbye 779-1450

I got an e-mail from my Dad yesterday saying he was disconnecting the home phone. He was the only one at the house and he always had his cell phone with him so it didn't seem reasonable to have both. I agree, but it made me a little sad. That phone number has been linked to my parent's home since August 1977 when we moved into that home in Flagstaff from Mesa, AZ. For almost 35 years you could look up my Dad's name in the phone book and you would find that number. I remember when we moved in, the next day we went down to the phone company to get phone service. The lady brought out two phones we could choose from, an ugly green or yellow. I remember I wanted yellow. Since the dark (army, olive, avocado, horse poop- whatever you want to call it) green was my mom's favorite color we got green. We had a green rotary phone with a sticker of our phone number in the center. We had that phone for a long time, then we eventually got a push-button phone about the time I was in Jr. High. I was so glad to see that ugly green phone leave. Now I think they are kind of cool looking, and I would love to have one. Maybe another color besides green. That phone number has been through three area codes. We started out at 602 when that was the area code for the entire state, then throughout the 1990s with the demand for new numbers with population growth and everyone having separate fax and cell numbers we changed to 520 then finally 928.
For a long time in Flagstaff, you didn't have to dial the entire number. Phone numbers had either a 774,779 or 526 prefixes. You could leave off the first two digits (77) and only dial 9-1450 to call someone. There was even a time for a few years when there was a God Father's pizza in town whose number was 774-1450 (one digit different in the prefix). We often got calls from people trying to order a pizza.

This was the number I called whenever I needed something, can I stay longer at a friend? can you send me money? Can I vent? The list goes on and on.

Sad to see it go. I hope it goes to a nice new person in case I call it out of habit they won't be rude when they realize it is a wrong #

#12

 Dax & Curtis July 22 ,2012

Aaronic Priesthood Day

Dax turned 12.  That is a big deal.  For his birthday we invited 5 friends (Dallin Thomas, Brigham Anderson, Cade Bleazard, Matthew Laden, and Chris Gibby) to Jump Street.  It is a place full of huge trampolines, fun music, and an all-around good time.  It was really fun and wore the kids out. Some of his friends are really good at doing flips on the trampolines. We told the guests no gifts, and we meant it.  I'm tired of having parties,  getting a house full of toys (or whatever) that don't get played with or any receive any kind of love. They eventually end up in the giveaway pile. 
With turning 12 Dax graduated from Primary and Moved into Young Men's.  We are really proud of Dax he worked really hard to earn his Faith in God award and memorized all 12 Articles of Faith before he graduated Primary.  He loved his first day at Young Mens and has a great attitude about all these changes.  He is a terrific kid.

Kids are growing up....

Trey had pretty much outgrown the crib/toddler bed.  It was safe to say we were done and no more babies were in our future. We were also having a difficult time getting Trey to go to bed, and stay in bed because he didn't want to be in his room alone, he wanted to be with his brothers.

It was time to make some medium-sized changes.  Our plan was to get rid of the crib, move Trey into the other room with a bunk bed and he would share a room with Derek, which Trey was excited about. Dax would move into what had been the Nursery for so many years and he would get his own room, which Dax was excited about.  The only one not happy was Derek.  He loved sharing a room with Dax and he was sad for that to end.

We found a nice bed on Craigslist for Dax, we were going to go on our trip to San Diego for Curtis' birthday and do all the moving around when we came home.  While we were in San Diego, I got a text from my brother, Darrell, saying that Stephanie was pregnant with twins and due in early December.  WHAT????   That was an exciting shock to everyone.  I think everyone figured they would never have kids for whatever reason.  I was happy we had found a new home for the crib, with minimal effort.  Perfect timing for everyone.

We came home and started doing all the moving around.  The nursery has now been converted to more of a "Teenage room".  Dax loves his new room, and his brothers love visiting his room.