Top Tianism

Sunday we had the missionaries over for dinner ( Okay, it was more like an hour of torture for them.  Not only did they have to endure Tian and Trace in show off mode, but we served venison...) and we were lucky enough to meet a new elder who just arrived in Des Moines fresh from the MTC.  We were asking him the usual list of questions: where are you from, what do think of Des Moines etc etc.  We asked if he had any brothers and sisters and he replied he had 7 brothers.  Tian immediately stood up and said," Then you must be Snow White!!"

Needless to say, his companion couldn't stop laughing and I am sure it is the name that will follow him fo rthe next 2 years.

Des Moines Sculpture Garden

A sculpture garden just opened in downtown Des Moines and the first sunny day over 40 we ran to check it out.  It was incredible.  We spent about 1 1/2 hours and everyone seemed to enjoy it.  I didn't think Tarce got too much out of it  ( since e spent mos of the time hearing me say,"Remember don't touch. Come back Tarce.  Trace get up.  Stop rolling in the grass. etc etc ")until he came to tell Tom about it.  HE remembered almost all of the sculptures and details about each.  I was impressed.

This was Trace's favorite...the giant Spider.  The artist created this in memory of her mother...I am hoping Trace was not thinking the same thing

My favorite.  It was hard not to touch this one

. As you can see Trace really want to kick the letters he knew...

Tian loved these guys

Tian wandered away and stood staring at this one tilting her head...hmm maybe she is a future art critic. Trace was more interested in "what is that bunny eating"

Ty said he liked this table and chairs because it made him think of Medieval times

 The coat reminded me of the Narnia books

What's a day at the park without a little pushing match :o)  They were both laughing so they couldn't get up.

Freezing in October

Great tree in Perry

Tian

We survived the Cross Country Team pasta dinner at our house this week!  It was actually VERY easy.  Every other year we have hosted we have held it at the park, and I was dreading how this one was going to turn out since it was too cold to have the dinner outside.  The kids were great and we had fed all 20 of them, had the kitchen cleaned up by 6:00!  It was great!  They are a nice group of kids.
The team did okay at the meet.  NOt as well as they had hoped due to some injuries .  Each runner had to place in the top 20 to be All District...unfortunately Trevor finished 21st.  I still think he was great.  After a week off he still ran it in 18:32 which is close to his personal best of 18:02

The kids had a great time chasing around and climbing trees.  The weather didn't help either in fact, we watched the JV finish from the car.  IT was cold, damp and drizzling.

Tian cried until Tom let her climb...she looks like she is enjoying it huh?

Ty in the tree

The kids tried to stay warm.  Ty had the little ones running then come back to tackle him....he looks a little frightened here :o)

Saturday we visited a homesite in Northern Missouri.  Tom is working on helping a friend sub contract his own home.  It is a beautiful site and we decided to come an see if we could find an Amish store - no luck :o(

All in all it was a good week and we are hopeful we may see the sun this week.  It peeked through the clouds today ( Sunday) and little Squirt ( orange kitten) has been following it around all afternoon.

Tianisms of the week:

Tian looks at her dad square in the eye and asks if if she will HAVE to kiss her husband on the lips when she gets married.  HE replied that he thought she would.  We were expecting some squeal of disgust, instead she looks at him eyes shining and squeals,"I can't wait."  We are worried....

Tian has been consumed ith getting married this week - who is she going to marry, where will she live, will I still make her food and clean the house ( that was a rude awakening for)  SHe also named her first child: Joanie....

Trace is too busy saying how much he hates everything.  "Hate "is definitely the word of the week and no number of timeouts can deter him.... I am hoping thi a healthly experession of his ecurity with us.  It is, isn't it?

Wyoming

Sorry for the gore...Trevor got an excellent 5x6 buck .  The buck in the back is my mom's. She got it without leaving the house :o)  There aren't many pics because we left our camera at home for Tom to document the house he finished last week.  It looks great. Here are a couple pictures:

WE had a great time in Wyoming driving my parents crazy.  Tian and Trace never stopped talking or running.  Leah came with Paige - her 2 1/3 month old new baby.  Poor Paige.  Tian and Trace LOVE her.  She is absolutely beautiful and I am not sure if she has any hair left  because Trace couldn't stop rubbing her head no matter how much we threatened him.  WE made my dad wonder how he ever survived 6 kids especially at dinner wih the usual spilling of he the drinks, falling of chairs, whining and crying for more before they had even started eating....

Look what Tom did while we were gone. The slate left from the renovations in Wisconsin that got moved by mistake is now...on our front porch!! I can't wait to get the stone installed on the wall ( I know always just one more thing!)

                                                             

Pics of TJ

We heard from TJ today, September 27, and he is doing well.  He even assured me he is brushing is teeth :o)  He is busy teaching an English class and trying to perfect his French.  His new companion, Elder Marani is from Tahiti and only speaks French and Tahitian, so TJ had the opportunity to sink or swim and so far he feels like he is swimming. YEAH!!!  At one point, he felt like he could ony understand some people, but that is improving.

Guess who found a machete?....He tells he climbed a coconut tree ( wonder what his tummy looked like)

TJ and a few of his fellow missionaries.  I think the Elder standing next to him is his companion Elder Marani from Tahiti ( pray for him :o) he does have to live with TJ !

Zone conference - this means all the missionaries met with the Mission President from Fiji - President and Siter Ostler.  The older couple on the ens are the Mautz' see the link above to their blog.  They are the assistants to President Ostler and have to make sure all the missionaries are....being....responsible :o)

TJ is temporarily serving as District leader  and has his first big meeting on Tuesday....he is nervous so please keep him in your prayers.
Here is an excerpt from his latest email home:

"Had an awesome exchange and have been trying to step further out of my shell and talk thats pretty hard.

Other than that the week has been ok. The Releif society had a fireside the
other night it was a musical talent show/ kareoke? thing. It was pretty cool

People we are teaching our progressing investigator is the grandson of the 2nd

consulor in the branch presidency so its pretty good. We have another

investigator with a baptismal date. He's right on however, he is supposedly moving

to another branch right before the baptismal date the 18th of oct...."

Work is slow for them, but he sounds good.

Work, medals and puppets

Drum roll please....after months of sleepless nights Tom's new company has landed its first big contract.

Here's the story...one night I drove Amelia home and decided to drive down and turn around in the culdesac and noticed about 8 brand new houses that looked empty.  I stopped and asked Amelia's mom, Millie, what the story was with the "ghost town", and she said they had been that way for YEARS!!! and happened to know which bank owned them.  So, being a pushy wife I came home and suggested ( read as insisted Tom may say commanded) Tom call the bank and propose finishing them.  HE did and after weeks of NOTHING (except for a follow up call which told him that they were getting a bid from another builder who was a customer argh!!) he met with the Board of Directors and formally presented his proposal and walked through the homes on Tuesday.  Wednesday morning they called with questions and at this point we are hoping they want ot proceed with just 1 of them.  Thursday evening about 5:00 they called and gave him the go ahead to finish all 5 as soon as possible!!!  Needless to say, we have been working like crazy people.  Tom got a dumpster delivered Friday, the lawns were mowed by the city ( thank goodness) and so we had to go pick up junk, pull weeds out of the driveway joints and clean the houses of constructon debris so work can start Monday.  Here are a couple pics so you can get an idea... we also started a blog http://www.tomthebuilder.blospot.com/ to allow the bank that owns them and other potential banks who may have similiar assets see the progress.

House without even siding - Poor slave Trevor

The house in the best condition - only needs flooring and countertops...not sure why it wasn't already on the market

Trace and his puppet he made this week

Trevor earned a medal this week at the Creston meet - time 18:34, but everyone sadi the course was longer than usual

Who's is cuter?

It was a fun week and we are so grateful that a job came through!  I am still smiling.

Running, shocking suprise, broken bones...

Watching a cross country meet can be exhausting :o)

Yes, he is SOUND asleep. You know I love it! I am 5 for 5 with book lovers!

Poor Squirt's new hideout.....actually poor Kela

Sorry not a lot of pics, but we weren't short on weird-ness!

Monday- picture us sitting on the couch trying to gt Ty through his Science reading. There is a loud, high pitched chirp. I yell at Trevor to stop playing with the bird call thing and go on reading. It continues- to which being a even tempered mother- I threaten to make Trevor my personal slave if he doesn't knock it off. Again with the chirping. I get up, planning to really lay into Trev and instead see the cat intently staring at the little bookcase at the end of the stairs. I get down and look and there is the fatest cipmunk I have ever seen huddled in the corner. By now Trev is taking a look, Ty and Kassie are both laying on their bellies trying to catch a peek. I grab the colander, Tom a wooden spoon and Trev, the only smart one, a blanket. We start to formualte a plan and out the little chipmunk runs over the top of Kassie, into the kitchen, through the dining room and back to the front entry. We looked like the group chasing the gingerbread man. Trev finally throws the blanket over the top of him and I seal the trap with the colander. After a little running under the blanket, okay I missed the first time, he was safely returned outside. Needless to say, Ty never did finish his Science....

That evening Trev had a meet in Ballard. He ran well 18:28 - but place 28th. He was disappointed, but this meet had the 6 top runners in the state. I was impressed!

Tuesday - We are outside eating on the beautiful new deck when we here the strangest yelpy-bark from Kela inside. ( She was put in to finish her breakfast in peace) I jump up and, of course, everyone follows. Kela is in the kitchen standing guilty faced in front of the garbage. I peak in and at the bottom of the bucket is the new kitten. Poor Kela figured while everyone was otside she could be naughty and eat a little trah, instead she got a furry, hissing surprise :o)

Wednesday - was just normal chaos

Thursday - Trev was trying to defend his honor. All week he had been working on Rosetta Stone Language program and he said something to Ty - and said that's Spanish for "get on the airplane" and Ty looks at him and says very lovingly,

"No dummy, that's Chinese." As you can imagine a sweet, brotherly exchange began. I asked Trevor to repeat what he said and confirmed it was Chinese. Trev was fit to be tied. He flew ino the library to grab the language cds to show us how stupid we were and instead realized, he had been practicing Chinese all week, when he thought he was studying Spanish ( I know, I too am a lot worried about his language skills...) In the meantime, Trace is climbing on the back of the computer chair with his arms behind Trev's back and hitting him with his head. Trev leans back and tells him to knock it off, when we hear a pop/crack noise and Trace starts screaming. I am worried his arm is broken, trev is upset because he know he was rough because he was angry that we were teasing him..anyway after several hours of hand wringing ( there is no swelling etc) I finally decide we should see a docor. ( I didn't want to rush into anything..) 5 x-rays later we discover Trace has "nurse maids elbow" ( the elbow is or of the socket) . Our WONDERFUL pediatrician - twists and bends his arm and pop- wallah he is instantly cured It was awesome.

Friday- was the homecoming parade around the sqaure - it was fun. The cross country team did not run the ball this year since they played ATlantic- so that was disappointing. We got an offer our biggest and best lot...bummer it is for 1/2 of wat we are asking. In other words we paid more for the vacant ground. At least there was an offer...right?

Saturday - we had a wild homecoming party (not) We spent the evening with some family friends and Ty is hoping his eye will turn black from the "pear war" he kids had outside after the parents went in. Luckily, trevor threw the pear and hit his own brother...

Sunday - we enjoyed church and naps and waiting for your email TJ

I think that sums up a usual week at the Turners. Trace has been enjoying picking and choosing whom he loves and doesn't...reminds me of Ty and his "love levels", Tian is Tian. She loved ballet again. She followed directions for the entire class. She informed JAke Thomas, as only a mouthy four year old can," YOu have a BAD haircut..." NO mercy from the littel raven haired beauty., keep in mind Jake is recovering from brain surgery last month.

Running, birthday and ballet

Jefferson Meet - Winterset took 2nd
Winterset line up

TOm is old!

Look at Trev #1 - Winterset Meet
His number in the first slot

That's Trev behind Montross in the cart ( he isn't riding he is the runner in the back) with noone in sight. ( He is in first place) :o)

pre run huddle
Trev - Jefferson Meet running Varsity

Tian...thinking about listening

It is true - her teacher, Miss Holly, is 8 months pregnant, let's hope Tian doesn't maul her as she feels more comfortable in class...This picture was before Tian warmed up. BY the end she was actually listening, following directions and was...GRACEFUL!!!
Playing with the hoop
One of the few who could sha-shay ( No mom she did NOT get the skill from me! It is true I still cannot skip,so sha-shaying is even further out of the question)

Busy week at the Turners. School is fully underway as well as, cross country, ballet and everything else :o)

Trev's meet - he was AWESOME! He took first in Winterset (team took 2nd) then went on to compete in Jefferson on the Varsity tem. He took 9th overall with time of 18:28 in the 5K. His team, Winterset , took second overall.

Tian had her first ballet class Saturday. She was the tallest ( the first Iowa Turner to claim that notariety) and the roundest(an Iowa Turner tradition at 4!)