Future Athlete Maybe?

Megan loves exercise. She loves P.E. at school. She's not aggressive, so although we keep putting her in soccer, I'm thinking track might be a better fit for her. She's also the kind of girl who rarely says she is bored - only because she's so creative that she comes up with her own fun. Last night while I was doing dishes, she was doing all sorts of crazy moves back and forth from the living room, down the hallway to her bedroom. Turns out she was timing herself to see how long it would take her to go from her room to the living room, doing different moves. Here are her results (which she charted herself on a piece of paper):

• Snake (1 minute 25 seconds)
• Spider (36 seconds)
• Hopping on one leg (15 seconds)
• Kangaroo (10 seconds)
• Horse (9 seconds)
• Crab (32 seconds)
• Twisting (1 minute 26 seconds)
• Karate (13 seconds)
• Turtle (2 minutes 23 seconds)
• Run (7 seconds)
• Heels (16 seconds)
• Tip Toes (11 seconds)

My favorite was when she came into the kitchen (where I was) and said, "Wow! The turtle was a slow one!" I asked her what she did for turtle, and she showed me her super, super slow crawl. It was seriously hilarious.

By the way, we're hoping our new camera comes today! Megan's been forgiven, and I've learned my lesson that I'll only take pictures when she's not looking!

Hole-In-The-Rock

I thought some of the John family would like this. Maybe you know this, and maybe you don't:

Until about 2 years ago when I was reading Gerald Lund's book "The Undaunted", I had no idea that I had ancestors that were Hole-In-The-Rock Pioneers. As I read the book I kept reading the name "Decker", and I quickly learned that my Grandma John's relatives were part of this neat history. Anyway, there are some good websites out there: trekholeintherock.blogspot.com, and others, as well as a book called Hole in the Rock by David E. Miller that mention my ancestors. If you've read the book, or know the story, I think you'll like these paintings that I found online by a man named Lynn Griffin:

This one is of the last wagon:

I found out that the following Hole-In-The-Rock Pioneers are related to all of us John's: (I've done some reading to figure out exactly how they're related). Hopefully I've recorded it all correctly. Anyway, it's pretty neat to find out information about these ancestors online.

- Cornelius Isaac Decker & Elizabeth Morris (married; they are my grandma's great-grandparents)

- James Bean Decker & Anna Maria Mickelsen (my grandma's great-grandpa's son & his wife; his father is Zachariah Bruyn Decker, and his mother is Nancy Bean)

- Nathanial Alvin Decker & Emma Morris (my grandma's grandparents)

- Zachariah Bruyn Jr. Decker (my grandma's grandpa's brother) - he's married to Emma Seraphine Smith

- Zachariah Bruyn Sr. Decker (married to Nancy Bean; my grandma's great grandma)

- George William Decker (my grandmas grandpa's brother)

- Peter Mickelsen & Harriet Emily Decker (married; Harriet Emily Decker is the daughter of Zachariah Bruyn Decker Sr. & Nancy Bean)

Ever since I read The Undaunted I've kind of taken an interest in family history work. I thought maybe I was a little too young to be interested in it, but Elder Bednar's talk in conference proved me wrong. He said, "Many of you may think family history work is to be performed primarily by older people. But I know of no age limit described in the scriptures or guidelines announced by Church leaders restricting this important service to mature adults. You are sons and daughters of God, children of the covenant, and builders of the kingdom. You need not wait until you reach an arbitrary age to fulfill your responsibility to assist in the work of salvation for the human family..."

A little research on the new family search website taught me that I'm related to all sorts of Lords, Kings, etc. on my mom's side of the family. It's pretty cool!

A Halloween Primary Music Time

I'm the primary chorister in our ward, and we've been reviewing songs since the first week of September for our upcoming Primary Program. In preparation, the Primary Presidency gave me the entire 40 minutes of sharing time / music time this past Sunday. I know the kids are growing tired of the songs, so I knew I had to make the 40 minutes of music time fun. I was thrilled yesterday when all my work paid off! It was fun for me to see the kids creating these jack-o-lantern faces.

• First, I went to pumpkinlady.com and found some great jack-o-lantern faces that I dragged onto my computer desktop. I hand drew the mouth, nose, & eye pieces that I liked onto yellow construction paper. Once I had as many as I wanted (I ended up making 14 of each), I put masking tape on the back of each piece and taped them onto an extra white board that I have. Then I made 14 different shaped pumpkins out of construction paper.
• I had all of the pumpkins hung up on the chalkboard with magnets when the kids came in, and had the marker board (with face pieces) on an easel low to the ground. Anyway, the whole concept was to make it fun for the kids to sing through all of the primary program songs, and to encourage them to sing the best they could. I told the kids that I would be looking for the best singers, and that they would be the ones that I'd choose to come up and pick a piece for our jack-o-lanterns.
• So the singing went great! After each song we sang, I chose a child (well, normally about 3 - 5) that sang the song well and told them that they could choose an eye, nose, etc. The kids completed one pumpkin at a time, so we could make sure each face got completed. They turned out real cute I think! Of course, about the last 5 minutes was spent saying "Who hasn't had a turn yet?" and making sure they all got a chance to come up. It helps that we have a small primary. Every single child got a turn, and at the end I invited one girl who sang awesome the entire time to come up and have a second turn. I only had about 3 pieces left over, meaning that we had about 38 kids in our combined junior & senior primary. See, sometimes a small ward has it's advantages. You nearly always get a turn!

Going to that website: pumpkinlady.com made me wonder why I still think and think about how I can carve my pumpkins each year. From now on I'm going to that site (or one of the gazillion others) for my inspiration! Megan's called dibs for the pumpkin that is on the top row, second from the left (That's why it has eyebrows. She used the extra eyes and turned them into eyebrows.) Anyway, that's how she wants her pumpkin carved this year! Paige wants her pumpkin to have "woman lips" like the pumpkin on the top row, 2nd from the right! :) She's funny. That's actually the piece she put on during primary time. :)

Book titles to pass on

My blog will temporarily have to do without any photos, due to the death of our digital camera #3. The blog is to blame actually. I was taking a photo of something cute, and by doing so upset my daughter, causing her to knock it out of my hands - causing it to die a sudden death on the ceramic tile in the kitchen. It seems not everyone is happy to have the cute little things they do photographed.

I actually wanted to write about some of the books Brad and I have been reading. I don't know what has happened to us, but lately we both love to read, and will stay up late just to do so. I keep a long running list of books I want to read, and I'm always adding to it. A few months ago I searched online for "Clean Reads", because I was tired of checking out a book, only to find it filled with language I didn't want to read. I found a couple of excellent websites. On one of them, a suggested book was "The Witch of Blackbird Pond".

I never read this in school, and actually thought maybe it would be a good book to read before Halloween. It was actually more a story of independence, friendship, & romance, and had absolutely nothing to do with Halloween. I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! I finished it last night (early this morning at 12:15), and am convinced that I want a copy for my book shelf. There wasn't a single boring page in the entire book in my opinion. It actually reminded me a lot of Little Women. Most people have probably read it, but I hadn't, so maybe you haven't either. Anyways, GREAT book, and a quick read!

You'll be surprised by the titles of these books that Brad is reading. There's a story behind these. Dan Wells (the author of the series) actually worked with Brad as a writer for ICON HEALTH & FITNESS in Logan. Brad and I became friends with Dan & his wife while we lived up that way. Anyway, Dan wrote his first book series. Our library didn't carry the books, so Brad put in a purchase request. The librarian laughed at the titles and said "Are you going to leave those books lying around with your girls in the house?" The first one, which he just finished was "I am not a serial killer", and now he's 30 pages from finishing "Mr. Monster". The third book in the series is "I don't want to kill you". Keep in mind, this guy (Dan) is a good guy - we had no doubt that they were going to be clean books. Brad has really liked them, and thinks that they are really clever.




We both liked The Mark by Marilyn Bunderson


I loved this book, and am excited for the sequel that's coming out in November:


Brad recently read and liked:
Slathbog's Gold - ML Forman

The Horn of Moran - ML Forman


I read "Flipped" by Wendelin Van Draanen, which I'm hesitant to recommend, because it does seem like it had some language in it. It was good, just not my favorite. However, when I finished it I couldn't stop thinking about the message of the book. One chapter would be from the girl's point of view, then the next was in the boy's point of view. You relive the same exact instance two chapters in a row, but completely differently. It's all about how sometimes we judge, but we don't know the whole story. What we're thinking might actually be totally wrong. It did have a great message.


I'll be taking a night off, so I can watch TV. It's Biggest Loser tonight! By the way, anyone else liking Terra Nova? Those are the only 2 shows were even watching. Maybe that's why we have time to read! :)

Fall Photos

Since winter weather is supposedly hitting tomorrow, I thought I'd better get around to posting these fall photos we just took. Fall is a fun time, but it just doesn't last long enough around here! Brad and I have enjoyed taking fall pictures ever since Megan was really little - just for fun. I'll be thinking of my sister in Arizona tomorrow while I pull out the winter coats.

I LOVE Ashlie in this picture - I kind of think she steals the show! :)


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