I've found Garden City!

Let's see:  Teaching, lots of meetings, we only fed the Missionaries once this week (usually it's more), I almost got hit by a car biking to a meeting, lots of awesome rain, Kindergarten field trip (the afternoon Kindergartners anyway)...
We have to go to Garden City for Stake Conference, so we drove the little over an hour to get there today and discovered they have Target!  Woohoo!  So, we dropped Scott off for a meeting and went shopping at Target and Wal-mart (they have a teacher section)!  Great fun!  I got notebooks for 5 cents each and 2 packs of gluesticks for 7 cents.  Awesome!  I got more notebooks that were more expensive (they were wide-ruled)!  When we were done shopping, we went back to church and saw our old friend Rebecca from Emporia!  The kids loved when she babysat them!  So, they were excited to see her!  Then we got to eat before the adult meeting.  Super yummy food!  They had Young Women there to watch the kiddos during the Adult meeting.  It was super nice to be able to sit with Scott.  We hardly ever get to do that!  I'm excited to come back tomorrow to hear what else they have to teach us!
This next week I am going to try and have my House Party, so that everyone can find out more about the 6 week transformation.  I'll post a link when my computer stops going crazy!

New pictures!

I was super excited to be asked to take pictures of my Principal's two kids and nephew for her mom's Christmas present.  Then I realized that I didn't have a good camera (I had to sell it to move here)!  Luckily, my fabulous Para has a great camera and was willing to let me borrow it!  Woohoo!  So, I got to take some pictures and I only did small edits, but I think they look pretty fantastic!  Then I came home and did my kids' pictures while I had a good camera.  (By good camera, I mean one that takes the picture when I push the button, although it is a very good camera)  We wanted to go to the Land of Oz, since it's really just right across the highway from us.  It was super expensive, so we only walked around the outside and took pictures.  Then we went back across the highway and took more pictures on a cool blue fence.
Here they are:

I lost weight!

I've been biking to school everyday and have lost five pounds so far!  That means I'm a tenth into the weight loss I want to lose!  So, now I've added riding home from work too!  I desperately need to get back down to just me and not the fat me and skinny me.  Just one me is enough!  Anyway, I also brought Emma in the trailer on Friday!  She LOVED it!  It cracked me up when she's all squealing in the trailer as I'm sloooooowly pedaling uphill!  Then when I got home I was breathing super hard, and Cecilia and Josh wanted a ride in the trailer.  So, I stretched a little as Scott got them buckled in with helmets on and we were off!  It was just a little jaunt around the neighborhood, and Cecilia was mad when I turned around!  "No!  Go to the other side of the street!"
I also started doing Project Rock after school (it's an after school enrichment program).  So, I'm at school from 7:25 (ish) to five (ish).  I love it!  Emma's in my after school group (as are all of the Kindergartners)!  Ben and Kira started going to Project Best this week as well (the intermediate school version)!  They all love it!  They get snacks, extra recess, a lesson, and homework help!  I love it, because I don't have to stay up till ten every night helping Ben with his homework!  Just on Fridays when they don't have anything after school!
Ben is now in band doing the bells, and we've bought the bells!  It was $105, which really isn't bad!  It even came with a hard case and a dolly!  The kids love the dolly!  The set stays at school the first six weeks and then it'll be going back and forth so he can practice!  He has been cracking me up telling me about his breathing exercises!  He gave a talk today at church and was adding sound effects to his story!  What a fun kiddo!
Kira is a Student Ambassador for her class!  It's a big responsibility and she's super excited!  I'm a very proud Mama!  She's only gone to this school for a month (or so) and they're letting her have responsibility!  She is doing an awesome job helping Ben out at school!
Emma had a great set of birthday parties (one at my mom's house with the family up there, one at school, and one at home on her actual birthday)!  Kira was complaining, to which I had to remind her about her HUGE party for her 6th birthday.  Then she was quiet!  Emma loves her presents!
Leah is learning so well!  We're working on her name right now, so that way she'll be ready for Kindergarten next year!  I know what I want her to know before August, because she doesn't have the advantage of an extra year, or preschool!  She's super smart though!
Cecilia is growing up so fast!  Although lately she's started talking like a baby and wanting snuggles a lot of the time.  I know I'm not home much, so I try to fill her daily quota of snuggles!  She's so pretty (like all of my girls)!
Josh is quite the lil' man!  He gives the Missionaries hugs!  He is talking more too!  Yesterday he said "bye!"  Emma said that she heard him say her name.  He seems to be talking a lot more!  He really loves his cars!  He is such a sweetheart!
We're loving Liberal and are really getting used to how things go!  Yesterday we bought a couple of baby turtles for $20 (it even came with a home and food)!  That was after a lady backed into me and broke our headlight, but it wasn't bad!
I also just finished an amazing book called Invaluable by Holly J Wood!  I borrowed it from a Young Woman in our ward and I think it should be required reading for all young women!  It wouldn't hurt for older Primary girls and young men to read it as well (but I know that's asking a lot)!  It's about a sixteen-year-old girl that is on the cusp of dating and all that goes along with it, when she starts having very vivid dream conversations with her Great Grandma (that she's named after) that teach her the different Young Women values!  I loved that she was shown different parts of history to see those that extolled those virtues!  Fantastic book! I liked it so much that I looked to see if there was another one and there is!  It's Unconditional!  In it, they discuss the Relief Society "values."  She's grown up some and is now an adult with a lot on her plate!  I understand how confused she was, being 18 and already having so much going on that even older women would have a hard time with!  I wish she was older!  I haven't quite finished it yet, but I LOVE it!  I am loving all of the fantastic books I'm getting to read lately!  I can't wait to tell you about one that I'm reviewing soon.  I'll give you a hint:  think Slayers 2...

Fight for You by Misty Moncur

Keturah fought her way into the army, but now she's in Judea building fortifications, and the only thing she's fought so far is boredom. The work is hard, and the other soldiers don't think she can pull her weight. Her brothers are becoming strangers, and Zeke's jealousy is getting worse - because Keturah is falling in love with the wrong warrior.

But she's not about to let cruel pranks and hurt feelings keep her from doing what she knows to be right. She completes every order with faithfulness - a hasty retreat from the Lamanite army, a spy mission into the enemy stronghold, a midnight assassination. From burying the dead to whiling away hours on guard duty, Keturah will do whatever it takes to protect her religion, her freedom, her peace, and her family.

But in a camp of two thousand boys, the most important thing she has to protect is her heart.

Fight For You is the second novel in Misty Moncur's Stripling Warrior series. Fall in love with these romantic novels set against a vivid Book of Mormon backdrop.

Misty Moncur wanted to be Indiana Jones when she grew up. Instead, she became an author and has her adventures at home. In her jammies. With her imagination. And pens that she keeps running dry.

Misty lives in a marsh near a very salty lake in Utah with her husband and children, where they cuddle up in the evenings and read their Kindles. Well, she does anyway.

Connect with Misty at the links below.

Visit Misty's blog
Like The Stripling Warrior Series
Connect with Misty on Goodreads
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My Thoughts

I loved it!  I had a feeling I would, since I love Daughter of Helaman as well!  I think this is a fantastic YA read with a well-rounded female lead-Keturah and some awesome guys surrounding her.  I would have a hard time choosing between all of those spiritual giants too!  It also shows how fickle a teenage girl can really be!  I remember liking different boys on different days, and it was hard on me.  Add in a war, and one of the guys not being emotionally available.  Plus add in another guy, and I'm dying to know how it ends.  Technically, I know in general how it ends, but I want to see how this trilogy is going to end!  I'm desperately hoping we don't have to wait another two years to read the next one!  Please?  In the meantime, it's a great read, but you need to read Daughter of Helaman first!

Crazy week!

Labor Day weekend brought us back to Olathe from Saturday to Monday!  I was super excited to meet my new nephew and niece and see family!  We even got to visit the Independence Visitor's Center and took pictures at the Temple!  My family threw Emma a party that was supposed to be little, but was actually huge!  Super nice of them!  I LOVED seeing my Mamaw and my family!  My kiddos were pretty excited too! Once I figure out where my camera cord is I'll be adding pictures! Scott stayed home to get things done (he really didn't want to ride in a car for 15 hours).
We had our four days of school and Scott's birthday was on Friday!  I felt bad that I didn't get a chance to do much for him, since he already got his HUGE birthday present a few weeks ago.  So, we ordered Pizza Hut to be delivered.  The kids were all super excited, since we've never ordered food to come to our house before!  It was pretty funny!  It won't happen again for a long time, so I know they'll be pretty excited the next time it happens!
School is going great!  The kids are liking their teachers, and I'm loving my Kinders!  It's been a learning process, that's for sure!
I rode my bike to school for three days last week!  Scott says I'm losing weight, but since I refuse to buy a scale, I'll just have to believe him!
In the meantime, I'm pretty shocked about how little I really make.  Apparently taxes are horrible!  Oh well, lots of budget shifts!  Nothing new to us!