The Dickson 6

Wow August Already!!!!

2011-07-31T17:31:00.000-07:00

I can't believe the year is more than half over! As I was going through some pictures I came across some from last summer and realized that I've been quite the slacker. I can't believe all of the fun stuff we did over the last year and I never posted about any of it. So from this moment forward I'm really going to try harder to post pictures and update as often as I can. (hopefully more often than once every 6 months) As far as the present time goes here's the low down of what has gone on over the last 6 months.

In March AJ started track and field season and although due to weather they were only able to attend two meets he did great!

April was an exciting month for three reasons; JR turned 10 this year. I'm still not sure I'm ok with him being 10. The Girl Scouts had their 3rd annual Navajo Taco Dinner and we did great again this year! The best part was that my mom and dad came up for the event that made it that much better! And finally the girls had their last dance recital for the year. They were so cute and once again Allie stole the show!

May oh now this is a month that if it were up to AJ he would rewrite and redo. We finally, after owning a trampoline for 5 years, had our first broken bone. As AJ was coming down on the trampoline he twisted his ankle and broke the growth plate. The positive side is that track season was over; the downside is that it was the beginning of his summer, and his lawn mowing summer business. Needless to say it changed everything in the house for the first 6 weeks of summer. On a happier note my oldest nephew Trennen graduated from High School! I can't believe he's already that old.

June is when the other part of our craziness started. As we were making a trip to Billings for doctor appointments; we happened to somehow pick up a mesh plastic bag that wrapped itself around the front axle of our suburban. Needless to say we had to tow it home and it has remained parked! About a week later we were blessed to get Russ' little sister Keisha out here for a couple of weeks. We had so much fun I had a hard time taking her back but I knew I had to. We no sooner get her home and the next day we are in Cody picking up Tiya and Dreyson Mahi! It was wonderful we had them all to ourselves for about a week when John and Nancy came up and then the party began! The best part of it all is that it all landed at the same time as John and Nancy and Russ and mine anniversaries! Just the 4 of us went out and had an awesome anniversary meal! We had so much fun with all of the company during the month. I just loved it and would do it all over again! Oh the one thing I forgot to mention is that AJ got his cast off and was moved to a boot then to an ankle guard all during the month of June! The doctor says he's a quick healer!

July was just about as exciting as June was. We had a wonderful 4th of July out at our friends house the Bates! They have a farm about 5 miles out of town with beach like sand on it so we played an awesome game of volleyball, ate some yummy bbq food, and then had our own fireworks show, which was spectacular! About a week later the kids (excluding AJ he was at scout camp) and I decided to hitch a ride to Laramie and go spend a week there with my mom and dad. We were having a blast but were a little bummed about needing to head home when everything changed! My uncle had to go in for some more heart tests so my dad offered to come down and run their store for them while he was in getting his testing done. (Their store is the sister store to my parents store) Which meant he had to go to Farmington, NM. He knew I'd been begging to go back there for the past 5 years so he offered to take the kids and me with him and my mom in their 40' motorhome! I couldn't believe it, my wish was coming true; I was getting back down to NM to see my Grandma and Grandpa Rasmussen and all of my Aunts, Uncles, and cousins that live there! It had been 5 years since the last time I had seen any of them. This was the first time they had ever seen my baby boy who is now 4 years old. We stayed with my cousin Nick and his wife Sammie in their beautiful house and their way cute kids! It really was a dream come true all I could do was cry because I was so excited to be there and see all of my family again. I've missed them all so much. The kids had a ball they hit it off great with all of their cousins there; in fact they had so much fun that the one night Alexandra called her daddy and told him that we needed to move there! I must admit I'm all for that! While I was there I introduced my cousin Sammie to Geocaching. She truly thought it was some Wyoming thing until I told her that Mike my brother introduced us to it then she was determined that it was a Rasmussen thing. LOL Needless to say we Geocached everyday that I was there and in fact she's still doing it close to everyday! Well we finally headed back to Laramie on Russ' birthday. He called to surprise me; remember my suburban that has been broke down well he fixed it!!! The next day him and AJ drove out to Laramie to see us! It was just the uplift I needed after leaving all of my family in NM. My husband is awesome and I love him more each day! When heading back to Lovell we were able to snatch Russ' other little sister Miranda and we get to keep her for another week or so! We are loving it!

August will be here tomorrow and it will be close to time for us to settle back down and start to get ready for school. We have decided to put the kids back into public schooling for at least this year possible longer. At first I wasn't sure about it but now I am. I'm realizing that my kids are growing quickly and this is the last year that my baby will be home before he starts kindergarten, so I'm choosing to spoil him rotten and spend some time with him. However I say that but I will admit that I'm planning to do some substitute teaching this next year so I guess we will see just how much time we really get together. I know this was an extremely long post this time and I'm sorry for that but hopefully in the future they will be shorter! Pictures of all of the exciting adventures that we've had will be posted shortly! In closing I would just like to let all of my friends and family know that each of you have a special place in our hearts and we love you all very much!

Love,

The Dicksons

Sunday, Day 27

2011-02-22T21:05:00.000-08:00

For my first time ever I cooked the best pork loin ever! While in Billings on Saturday we went to Sam's Club and they had their samples out! I love sample time, anyways one of their samples was a Apple Wood Bacon Pork Loin, and it was so scrumptious! They twisted our arms just right and yep we bought one. So for dinner tonight I cooked it and made some yummy green beans with corn. Russ even requested that I figure out what all ingredients they used on top so that I can make the same thing only with other meats. What the heck there's just another something new I need to do and it's right up my ally I love to cook and create new things! Anyways there you have it for tonight can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!
Love to all,
Torie

Saturday, Day 26

2011-02-22T21:03:00.001-08:00

I can honestly say this is the first time ever that I've had a Powell Panther bus parked in front of my house! It was quite the site. Russ and I were heading out the door to go to the temple and there parked in front of our house was the bus! Funny thing is we live clear at the other end of town from where the bus should be. Oh well I guess. You guys have a great night.
Torie

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2011-02-21T18:33:00.000-08:00

Still did not get pics, but this is what I did for the WHOLE day! For about 8 hrs I worked on nothing but Algebra with my son. Let me tell you the whole dreaming about numbers and equations is really getting old. I know that's not much but I promise to bring something more exciting for tomorrow. Till then everyone have a great night!
Torie

Monday, Day 21 VALENTINE'S DAY!

2011-02-16T20:44:00.001-08:00

After Russ and I came home from our date our children surprised us with this...

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Sunday, Day 20

2011-02-16T16:59:00.000-08:00

So today had to be my laziest day ever! I slept up until 30 min before my meeting with the Bishop, went to my meeting, came home and went back to bed! I believe this is a first ever. My only thoughts are hopefully next time I will not miss church. Anyways I know this is short and simple but what can I say I slept all day!
Love to all,
Torie

Saturday, Day 19

2011-02-16T16:57:00.001-08:00

Wyoming traffic jam! This is why I LOVE WY!

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Friday, Day 18

2011-02-11T21:50:00.001-08:00

So today was my job interview for Eleutians! It was done via Skype and it was my first ever to do an interview there. Not to mention my first ever interview in the comfort of my own home! Good news I passed the first part and need to go to the second part, a 2 day training in Casper! If I pass I'm a new employee of Eleutian!

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Thursday, Day 17

2011-02-10T18:21:00.000-08:00

Today was another boring day.... negative temps., results in no going outside. Which means needing to find something new to do in the house. Let me tell you I'm quickly running out of ideas. But the one thing that I did is spoke with the person that I'll be interviewing with for a job tomorrow.

We did all of our communicating via email and the interview will be via Skype tomorrow. So my first ever for today was setting up a job interview via email.

1st- I've never done the entire process of application, set up interview, and interview via computers in my life! I never spoke to anyone on the phone or anything yet. Kind of weird but way cool.

2nd- I'm interviewing tomorrow with Eleutians and that's who I've been talking to all day. I'll try to get a pic of me tomorrow.

Well that's all for today hopefully more to for tomorrow. Sorry it's been a little boring lately but once the weather warms up I promise to make it more exciting.

Have a great night,
Torie

Wednesday, Day 16

2011-02-09T18:07:00.001-08:00

Ok so this one is kind of dumb but what can I say it was below zero again so I had to do something inside. This is the kids eating sloppy Jo's made out of AJ's deer meat. Can honestly say that's a first! It was actually quite yummy.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better weather so I can go out and find something more exciting.
Till then have a great nite.
Torie

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2011-02-08T12:27:00.000-08:00

Today was full of events so I'll just start at the beginning....

1st- It's 3:30 am and I'm on the route with AJ we turn and start heading up Rd. 12 when low and behold I almost hit a horse! Yes you read that correctly a horse! We look over and I kid you not there are at least 30 if not 40 wild horses running up the road! I pulled out my phone to video and take pics but nothing shows up!

2nd- I'm heading back into town now it's about 4 am, I've just passed Rd 16 and Ln 11 coming down the big hill when holy cow I almost hit another horse! This time there's about 10 wild horses running down the highway! I could not believe it, it was one of the coolest things I've ever encountered on my route before!

3rd- Now it's about 12:30 pm and we decide to go to the farm for lunch today. As we're traveling down the road we pass this field that has a dead deer laying in it. Perched on top of the deer is a Huge beautiful bald eagle, just below him on the ground are several crows bowing there heads to him! It was the coolest thing. We turned around so that I could get a pic but then they all flew away, I did however get a pic of them further out in the field and some video feed on them.

4th and final- We decide to go to Billings for the rest of the afternood and evening and I offer to drive. (Which turned out to be a good thing cause Russ just slept) The weather was total white out and slick roads the entire way! I can say I've never driven in complete white out situation before. Now it's 9:30 at night and we decide to drive home; Russ offers to drive so I'm all for it. You won't believe this....Dry roads, no wind, no snow, no ice for him all the way to Warren which is about 30 miles out of Lovell! Once we get to Warren he decides I need to take over cause he can't keep his eyes open, so being the nice wife I am, I take over. Now I kid you not... Only about 3 minutes down the road the weather does a complete change, wind (30+ mph), snow, ice on the roads, complete white out again! Needless to say all Russ and AJ can do is laugh, they think it's so funny, no not me! Now we're about 10 more miles down the road and they both crash! I can't believe it here I am driving in this awful stuff all the way to Billings and now for the last 30 miles of the trip with everyone sleeping again! Sorry I once again have no pics for you on this one all I was thinking about was getting home safely.

But I do have pics and some video feed on the eagle so I'll upload them. It will be quite exciting to see what I have for a first for today!

Sunday, Day 13

2011-02-08T12:21:00.001-08:00

So super bowl is over and we are needing to get Russ from his cousins house when AJ asks if he can drive! I've yet to allow him to drive at night in the snow! All I can say is we made it to CaMee's safely and successfully.

Sorry about all of the back ground noise. My kids sure like to make noise.

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Saturday. Day 12

2011-02-08T11:50:00.000-08:00

So today I did something really smart. Haha. My mother in law and I were driving around looking at stuff when I told her to just pull into this driveway and back out to get turned around. In doing so the car (Buick) sled and got stuck! I tried and tried to push us out but between the crappy shoes I had on and the ice and snow I was very unsuccessful. Luckily for us two very nice young men came out to help us out. They pushed and pushed and we were free!!!! Three things I learned today, 1 never to own a Buick in Wyoming, 2 there really are nice people still out there that care, and 3 for now on when we decide to go driving around we take my Suburban!

Sorry we have no pics however my mother in law says she will always have a wonderful pic in her head to keep her laughing! Apperently the faces I was making our priceless!

Friday Day 11

2011-02-08T11:42:00.001-08:00

So right after Girl Scouts it started to hail & JR suggested I jump on the trampoline with him with no shoes or socks! Let's just say COLD!

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Day 10

2011-02-08T11:31:00.001-08:00

This was my first time doing girl scout cookie orders with my friend Beckie. We stayed up till midnight trying to make the numbers match correctly. All I can say is that I'm thankful that, that part of cookies is over!

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Day 9

2011-02-08T11:08:00.000-08:00

Ok so I know I haven't been posting everyday but we have ran into some problems with our property and house plan that we've been working on. So needless to say that has been my top priority. But here is the low down...

Today Russ and I went to check into purchasing an old motel here in town and convert it into a house, while there we went underneath it to check out the furnace and water heater. We had to go down some dark stairs into a low ceiling dark crawl space! Oh yes I was terrified but I did it. The only thing is I also left my phone in the car so needless to say Russ didn't get any pictures of me down there. But trust me I did it and it was terrifying for me!

There will be more to come for the next days that I've missed. Have a great day!
Torie

Day 8 Alexandra & KinCaid's birthday dinner

2011-02-01T18:46:00.001-08:00

Today is Alexandra's birthday so for our first ever we made cake, green beans, corn, & apples for the birthday dinner. Still trying to figure out of it's a healthy dinner or not. Oh well I guess sometimes you just make what they really want. Anyways everyone have a wonderful night and we'll have something new tomorrow.
Torie

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Day 7 week 1 is done!

2011-01-31T19:07:00.001-08:00

It was -30 with the windchill today so needless to say we had to get creative in the house. We invented a new food.... Fuji apples with crunchy peanut butter and chocolate frosting. It was actually quite yummy. Here's the killer of it I have a peanut allergy which is why the kids dared me to do it. I survived with very little reaction thank heavens. Anyways if you haven't tried this yummy snack before now is the time to try it! I'll see you all tomorrow so have a great night everyone!
Torie

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Day 7 week 1 is finished!

2011-01-31T19:02:00.001-08:00

Today it was -30 with the windchill so the kids and I had to get creative and this is what they came up with..... As a side note I had very little reaction so all is good! I'm hoping there will be better weather tomorrow so I can get creative outside! Everyone have a great night and I'll see you all tomorrow.
Torie

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Day 6

2011-01-30T18:07:00.001-08:00

For Day 6 AJ asked if I would play Call of Duty Black Ops with him. I agreed & have decided that is one of the most boring games ever. What boys see in this game I've yet to figure out. But now at least I can say I've been there done that.

I'm hoping for something with more excitement tomorrow. Have a great evening & we will see you tomorrow!
Torie

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Day 5

2011-01-29T12:17:00.001-08:00

For day 5 I was doing my volunteer work for Bountiful Baskets and asked John & Heather what I should do. John suggested I use the whip, needless to say I did it and was very nervous. It was quite fun and discovered that I need to get one for myself! Awesome way to get your frustrations out! May even be better than pounding on the drums!
Have a wonderful day and I'll be back tomorrow with something new.
Torie

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Day 4

2011-01-28T20:50:00.001-08:00

Here I am eating my way yummy chicken quesadilla at Topolo!

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Day 4

2011-01-28T20:48:00.001-08:00

For today I went to Powell and ate at Topolo Mexican Grill. Tonight was my first time eating there and I think I may have found my new favorite restaurant! The next thing I did was go & watch The Tourist, it was an EXCELLENT movie! Anyways everyone have a great night & I'll talk to you tomorrow.

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Day 3

2011-01-27T14:48:00.001-08:00

So for today my activity wasn't to adventurous but it was something I've never done. Allie and I went to KinCaid's school to celebrate his birthday. This was his first birthday in that school and my first time celebrating his birthday there. Hope everyone likes the pic!

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Day 2-6

2011-01-26T15:04:00.000-08:00

Day 2-5

2011-01-26T15:03:00.002-08:00

Day 2-4

2011-01-26T15:03:00.001-08:00

Day 2-3

2011-01-26T15:03:00.000-08:00

Day 2-2

2011-01-26T15:02:00.001-08:00

Day 2-1

2011-01-26T15:02:00.000-08:00

100 Days-snow angel, day 1

2011-01-25T13:24:00.000-08:00

100 Days

2011-01-24T18:09:00.000-08:00

After reading through my past blogs I noticed a couple of things; First of all I definitely do not blog near enough, Second however my life may have had it's interesting and exciting moments overall there's just not enough excitement.

So in order to make these changes in my life I have decided to try something new. For the next 100 days I plan to do something new and exciting in my life and blog about it! Now for something new and exciting that could be a variety of stuff; I'm talking about from trying new foods to visiting new places, possible even trying new activities, who knows I may just be crazy enough to bungee jump this year (not quite sure but we'll see). Not only do I plan to do this for the next 100 days but I also plan to take a picture of me doing that activity for the day and posting it! Now I must admit that I'm a little nervous about this but what the heck you only live once so why not live life to the fullest right?!

In closing I would just like to let everyone know that if they are feeling the same way I am, please do not hold out jump in and join me let's make this a year to never forget!

FEAR is the only thing keeping you down! Without FEAR you can CONQUER the world!!!

Love to all!

The Last 6 months!!!!

2010-11-18T08:27:00.000-08:00

Wow it's really been that long! O.K. let's get this going and maybe just maybe I'll be able to keep up with it from here on out; however I am not making any promises.

May: AJ finished out Track and Field with several awards and loving it! He has found his new love in life and plans to excel in it in every way possible. Not much more happened in May.

June: AJ was able to attend his first time ever Martin's Cove Trek; he came home a whole new person . He talked about the trek and all of the events that happened there for several months after, we could tell it was quite powerful and meaningful to him.

Russ and I celebrated our 10th anniversary! I know I can't believe it either! He surprised me with a necklace that I had wanted for ever, it was the match to the ring he gave me for our 5th anniversary!

JR discovered the instrument of his dreams. While we were at Mustang Days Follies (our town celebration week) he saw Mr. Mickelson (yes this is John's cousin for those of you who know him) playing the trumpet and his eyes lit up like a Christmas Tree! Low and behold with moms creative skills he's getting trumpet lessons! (Mr. Mickelson's son wanted to learn drums so mom suggested we swap! Russ still can't believe I asked!)

July: Hmm not much happened here we went back to Laramie for Jubilee Days and had so much fun! Oh and AJ and mom decided to take up a paper route.

August: Here goes.... to start out with we almost hit a deer out on the route, then a few days later we DID hit a deer and crunched up the front of our Nissan. Now that happened on the route around 4 am Monday morning; later that evening as we were heading home from the drive-in movie we stopped at Maverick to clean the windows and grab a drink. As I was proceeding to pull forward away from the red poles I apparently turned a little to sharp, I hit them! Only this time I was in the Suburban! So yes you read that correctly I had two accidents in less than 24hrs. with two different vehicles. Needless to say Russ wasn't so hip on mom driving for awhile.

About a week later we were blessed with some visitors! John and Nancy Mahi flew in from St. George to spend the week with us and we were so excited! We had everything planned it was going to be the best summer vacation anyone could ask for! Well, let's just say it certainly wasn't a dull boring one....

1st day: here we go out on the boat on the Big Horn Lake we were out there enjoying the beautiful weather the kids were having a blast it was great.....then the afternoon storm came in so we thought well we better get back to dock (understand we docked at Horseshoe Bend and we were clear up passed Barry's Landing it's about 10 or so miles away) by the time we got to Barry's Landing the wind was starting to come in but we figured oh going through the canyon shouldn't be that bad....(haha) Let's just say we had our adventure of white water rafting via boat style! The canyon walls created a wind tunnel so as the wind went through it whipped up the water, we were in what was like a hurricane! All of the kids were laying on the floor in the middle and back of the boat covered with towels John sat on the floor up front while Nancy and I sat on the benches up front and Russ was driving. I must admit I was scared to death! At one point I looked around to see if the boat capsized was there anywhere to take the kids for safety, and nope there wasn't just strait solid canyon walls. Thankfully everyone had on life jackets and we even had some extras just in case. After we were out of the canyon, back to land, and safe we all decided it was quite the adventure! John said it best though "That was Excellent!"

Day 2: After such an exciting day we decided to rest for a day and start our adventures on the next day.

Day 3: The adventure continues...we decide to take them Geocaching because they've never done it and really wanted to experience it, so what the heck let's go! Off to Blue's canyon we head only to discover it's closed for repairs! What!, no way. Oh but look we can take this other road, let's take it.
Here we go on the trail up the mountain...hmm the road seems to be getting thinner and thinner. It's alright though we can do it we're almost there! After much scare of all of us we finally make it to the top of the mountain right up by Devil's Canyon! We're looking around and we finally find the geocache, the kids were super excited!
We decided to call Val Russ' dad to ask if there's an easier way down. He says to Russ "so you went up on 4 wheelers right?" "Uh no dad we are in our Suburban." "What your suburban!!!! That road is for 4 wheelers not Suburbans! The only way down is the way you came but if there's a storm moving in then you either have to wait out the storm or get down before it hits because the canyon will flash flood!" "Uh o.k. so bye dad, everyone hold on tight and make sure you have your seat belts on here we go!" We made it down safe, in fact the coming down was much easier than the going up was. Once again John said it best, "That was EXCELLENT!"

About a week after the Mahi's left AJ started his cross country track season and he did AWESOME!! He took from 2nd to 5th place at every meet. He even beat some of the fastest runners from Wyoming Indian School. I am so proud of him! He has found his love in life and he is continuing to progress with it. His coach has him on a running schedule that he has to do every week.

As for September and October nothing much happened just a lot of cross country and swimming meets and that's about all.

November....yeah well the curse of my bad luck came back full force!
1st... I get sick with some sort of awful bug. I had to go to the ER on Saturday and get two shots, then all the rest of the week up till yesterday, Wednesday every time I tried to walk I would pass out it was the weirdest thing. Yesterday was the first day I felt like I was back in my own body again and I wasn't dizzy or passing out, which was nice let me tell you. Which brings up the next bad luck thing...

2nd... AJ asks for a ride to band, I decide what the heck I'm feeling rather well today I guess I could give you a ride it is a little chilly out there. We're stopped at the intersection waiting to turn left and just as it's coming up time when I can a car comes and rear ends me!!! Guess what car we're in this time, yep it's our Nissan poor little car it's been through way to much. So needless to say both AJ and myself are very sore today, but thankfully only the car is what got hurt not us.

Hopefully that will be the end of my bad luck for awhile!

I have to sit here and wonder why do I need to continue to go through these trials. I guess some day the answer will be revealed to me. Till then I'm just thankful that through all of the events no one has been hurt really bad. Till I post again everyone please have a safe and Happy Holiday season!

Love to all,
The Dicksons'

To Busy!

2010-05-02T09:31:00.000-07:00

O.K. I am officially to busy but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Over the last month I have been busy following AJ around with his track (I'll post pics soon) and I must say he is doing awesome! He does the 1600m (1 mile run), 1600 relay, 200 hurdles, 800m (1/2 mile run)! I'm so proud of him first of all for running all of the events but also that he'll do the hurdles there's no way in this lifetime that I would've done that. Even when I'm up walking the track AJ keeps asking me to step over them, no way man! :) So besides driving all over Northern Wyoming going to track meets and sunburning myself and my 5 children I have been busy planning the Girl Scout Navajo Taco Dinner! Good news is that we just did it on Friday and sold over 500 Tacos again this year! Yippee the girls were so cute and they had so much fun! So for the final thing that has kept me busy...As if being a Girl Scout and Cub Scout leader wasn't enough I had to start a new organization (Wyoming Home School for Northern Wyoming we have a facebook page if anyone wants to check it out) and become the new site coordinator for Bountiful Baskets here in Lovell. We're suppose to be starting it around the 22nd of May! For those of you that know Heather Mickelson she's my co-leader, to bad her and I don't know how to say no! :)

Wyoming Home School was started because I realized that in this area we have over 27 families in our school district alone that home school; so why not get together and start a P.E. class amongst other activities. We are in the process of planning a "Day in the Park" activity that will have several water activities, relays, and some kickball games!

Now the reason why I can see the light at the end of the tunnel is because this Saturday is supposed to be AJ's last meet, next Friday is the last Girl Scout meeting, Cub Scouts is over, and the Home School event is on the 21st! At that point I think I may be able to breathe for about a week:)

Then summer starts with summer marching band (which Russ has been asked to be in charge of the drum line!) (talk about putting him on cloud 9!) along with Cub Scout camp, Girl Scout camp, parades for all the above, and AJ's trek at Martin's Cove; all of which are supposed to be done by the middle of July! So maybe for the rest of July and August we can breathe!

So in conclusion I would like to apologize for not posting as you can see we've been a little busy! But I promise to post some pics as soon as possible. I hope everyone else is doing great! We miss and love you all!
Love,
The Dicksons'

I'm a slacker!!! :)

2010-03-28T20:36:00.000-07:00

O.K. so it's only been what two months since I last blogged! Oh my goodness I'm such a slacker! So whats new and exciting in the Dickson world.... Not a whole lot! Russ' grandmother has been in the hospital so that has taken up some of my time then we had a wonderful time visiting with cousins whom came out here from Tenn. and Alabama.

Besides all of that our life has been somewhat calm! That was at least until last week and this week. Last week A.J. decided to join track and he is loving it! His first meet is Tuesday (tomorrow) and I can't wait to go and watch him! The bummer side is that his meet is one of the wonderful new events that just made this by far the worse week ever! Russ just got switched to a different crew so this week he was supposed to have his 7 days off only now he's working overnights instead... We already had scheduled PAWS testing every morning from 8am till 12pm Monday through Thursday in Powell for AJ and JR (that was switched last minute too), dentist appts. Monday starting at 1pm till 3pm in Cody, Tuesday grocery shopping day in Cody and now a track meet at 3pm in Greybull (for those of you not familiar with the area Cody is 45 mi SW of us with Powell on the way, while Greybull is 30 mi SE of us the oppisite direction) needless to say Russ will be running on about two hours of sleep because he's going to need to drive to Powell get the boys and meet me in Greybull! Then comes Wednesday! Testing in the morning again and Russ and I have our Dentist appts. in the morning in Cody! (again Russ no sleep!) Thursday last day of PAWS yipee!!!! Oh and I forgot to mention everyday this week AJ also has practice at 3pm urgh!!!! Then Friday off to Casper for my Arthritis appt. I'm a little excited but yet nerveous. Excited because maybe I'll finally get some good medication so that my pain is limited but yet nerveous because I may have to get shots!!!! Then we go to Laramie for the rest of the weekend so that I can recoop!

As if that wasn't bad enough wait till you hear about what happened to me today in Cody.... Today in Cody they were having 60 mph winds to start off with.... While there dealing with the winds we (my neighbor and my 4 youngest children if that wasn't hard enough!) went to Wal-Mart as I went to open my car door the wind caught it and ripped it open out of my hands and slammed all the way back; thank heavens it didn't hit the car next to us! I bent up the hinges on the door, I had to force it shut, and then I could no longer open it! URGH! That was about 10am (we didn't get home till 5pm) for the whole rest of the day I had to climb through my car just to get in and out because the driver side door was no longer usable; needless to say my neighbor got a great kick out of it! What timing right! When I got home I went to my friends auto shop and they adjusted it the best they could for now. The door will open and close but the wind still blows right through it! I just can't wait to travel to Laramie with my door like that. I tell you what I would like to go to bed and wake up only to discover it was all a bad dream!
Now that I've let all that out perhaps I'll be able to sleep tonight right?! Any how I promise to be more persistent on my blogging and update more often. I hope for the rest of you this will be a wonderful week with slightly less excitement! We miss you all and would love to see everyone again soon!
Love,
Torie

What A Wonderful Day!

2010-01-20T21:36:00.000-08:00

Today was a beautiful day. My day was lined out and jammed packed with events. Here's a look on what was on the schedule for the day... School with the kids, Cub Scouts with J.R.(which I'm one of the new leaders :)Love it), Girl Scout (yes still a Girl Scout leader Love it!) cookie sale with Addie, dinner, Boy Scouts for A.J. (Klondike check in)(Any questions about Scouting just come to me I've got one in every part of it!), shower and bed for kids, and night time clean up. I was sure that I would not be able to finish all of the projects but I did! School was finished by 2 p.m., Cub Scouts done by 4 p.m., A.J. handled cookie sale with Addie, dinner by 5 p.m., A.J. off to Boy Scouts with all of the Klondike stuff by 6:30 p.m., kids showered and in bed by 8 pm, and night time clean up finished by 9 p.m.! How I managed it I'm not sure but I'm loving the fact that everything is running so smoothly! Not only does it help my house stay cleaned up, but it seems to keep smiles on everyone's face, and our house at peace! So as you can see life is grand! I hope everyone else had just as wonderful of a day as I did!

One last thing that topped my day off was finding out that my cousins' wife just had her baby this morning at 7:30 am! Congratulations Mark and Karen!!!! We can't wait to see her!
Any ways I should close this and head off to bed so I'm rested for another eventful day at the Dickson house!
Love,
Torie

Oh Man!

2010-01-19T20:58:00.000-08:00

Oh man oh man how time flies. For the past two weeks I've been saying I need to go in and update and here we are almost to the end of January! So ready or not here comes KinCaid's 6th birthday, Allie's 4th birthday, and Valentines! I can't believe that my baby girl is really turning 4 this year. Oh how I miss it when she was just an infant. I also can't believe that it's almost been 6 years ago that I moved away from Beautiful Michigan. Oh how time flies when you're having fun! (or growing old)
Speaking of time flying this last Christmas I had the wonderful opportunity of hearing a story from Russ' cousin EmRee. She was telling us about this lady she knows and how she names her years of life... hmm now there's an idea right?!
So I've decided this is going to be my year of re-organization and de-clutter. In moving towards that step I also learned about this awesome website from my wonderful friend Heather Mickelson (yes this is John's wife poor girl, for all of us whom know John, understand that), the website is www.flylady.com she takes you step by step as to how to keep your house clean and organized. She also teaches you how to de-clutter and how to become oraganized again. Her first step is to shine your sink everynight. Oh my what a difference it makes. I love waking up in the morning now to see my bright shiny sink smiling back at me! Anyways I could go on and on about this wonderful website but I'll stop there.
On a side note; I've decided to make blogging as part of my re-organization, it gives me a moment to let things out of my mind and get them on the paper. So not only am I re-organizing my house but I'm also re-organizing my head. Hmm now thats a scary thought! LOL
I hope that over this next year I don't bore you with my re-organzing of my head while I blog; but please feel free to jump on board and offer some suggestions with organizing a house full of very energetic children, mom who's way to busy, and a dad that works shift work. All comments and suggestions are gladly accepted. For now I hope that everyone out there will find their name for the year and run with it and have fun.
Once again Love to All,
Torie

Russ still Amazes Me!!!

2010-01-05T21:38:00.000-08:00

So the other day while we were in Billings we used some of our money to get Dance Dance Revolution 3 for the girls. Now understand it was marked wrong so we actually got it $20.00 less than what it was supposed to be, score right?! We intentionally bought it for the girls to have a game since 90% of our games are boy games. So this morning first thing AJ says to me is can we open it. Sure what the heck. I did not realize that he was going to be glued to it. As the day progresses through I'm finally able to squeeze some time in there for Addie to play and try it out. Evening is here and Russ is home so he decides to try it out, now mind you he was all against getting it..."That won't be any fun for us boys". It's now 10:46p.m. and he's been on it for going on two hours and I don't see me pulling him away from it anytime soon. The best part is that his favorite is the difficult stages where he has to move fast.... Yes you read that correct Russ is moving fast. If only this would've came out 30+ years earlier. And who would have thought that all we ever needed to do to get him moving was purchase a dancing game for the Wii. This you see is why Russ still Amazes me!!!! Oh how I love him now matter how slow or fast he chooses to move!!!!
Good night to all and keep on dancing!
Love,
The Dicksons

I'm A Very Tricky Mom!!!

2010-01-04T23:40:00.000-08:00

Today was a wonderful day we as a family decided to go to Billings!!! Now Russ being Mr. Budget sat down on Saturday and fine tuned our budget to figure out exactly how much we had to spend on our Billings trip. (Sure glad he's a budget stickler or we'd never have any money) This morning he finally informs me of the exact amount. I explained to him that there was no way to get everything on our list (list has been growing for over a month now) and stay within that budget. Low and behold we did it!!! In fact we came in $70.00 under!!! (Tithing works!) But the best part of the trip was the trick I played on my baby boy Donavan.
Here's the background... Now that we have reintroduced him to "Cars" we have watched it on an average of 6 times a day for the last ohhh 2 weeks now. Let me tell you everyone in the house can quote that movie line for line. In fact he is so in love with Lightening McQueen that he has rediscovered KinCaid's Lightening McQueen blanket and claimed it his! He'll every so often take a break from the movie and sit by the front windows and wait for cars to drive by then he comes running through the house yelling "Cars Mommy Cars".
Today we decided to take the DVD players with us to Billings and oh what the heck lets bring "Cars" for Donavan. The kids no sooner get in the car and it's started "Cars AJ Cars".
Once in Laurel (approx. 15 mi from Billings) we decide to get some lunch and stop at the Wal-Mart there. AJ proceeded to turn off the movie so that we could go eat and then shop but oh no the Donavan monster came out! Talk about a 2 year old tantrum in the car! So mom has this great idea...."AJ start the movie and just follow my command, Russ you follow along K; turn off the car, AJ undo your seatbelt, and watch...." I then unplugged the cord and yelled "Oh no Donavan the DVD player broke hurry we better get in to see if we can find the part to fix it!" (Donavan)"Hurry mom Lightening McQueen fix, come on mom hurry, lets go in, get part!" And we went in!!!!
Round 2; now we're in Billings and need to go into Costco and guess what, yep the DVD player quit working again funny thing is mom found another part to fix it there too.
So if ever any of you moms need a way to get a two year old out of the car and away from the DVD player just let it brake (unplug it). We know this trick won't work for very much longer but it'll be great for now!
One last thing Happy New Year! We miss and love everyone out there!
Love,
The Dicksons

It's really been 4 months!!!!

2009-12-29T14:10:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that it's really been 4 months since the last time I blogged!!! Holy Cow! So I've decided to for my New Year's resolution I'm going to keep up on our blog spot and upload more pics of our family and our adventures. Over the past 4 months what has gone on hmmm......

Let's see Addie turned 7 and realized that she is only 1 year away from being Baptized she's so excited already!

Our new next door neighbors/friends were married and they asked Russ and I to be their witnesses; it was such a beautiful ceremony and I'm very thankful that we were able to be part of such a wonderful day!!

A.J. made me a really old mom he turned 13 this year. Yes we really do have a teenager in our house now. With him becoming a teenager we decided to take him back to his home town of Big Ol' Laramie to watch his favorite football team get crushed by his least favorite football team. UW vs. BYU yes it was a very sad day for all of us but we sat through the whole game and still cheered our beloved Cowboys on! While we were in Laramie we finished getting the supplies for our new adventure in life! We've started a clock and sign making business it has been a joy but also a stress in our life. Though we didn't get to stay all the way till Thanksgiving we did get to head back down the first week of December which at that time we celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, and our first ever being snowed into Laramie. That made for a very interesting trip to say the least. After that trip Russ made me promise that we wouldn't even consider going back down until February or later. Well that pretty much wraps up all of the highlights for the past 4 months.

From this point on our life is yet to be seen we just pray that the future is full of good health and happiness. For everyone out there in the Blogging world I would just like to send to all of you a wish for a Happy New Year that is filled with love, excitement, and good health.

Love to All,
The Dickson's

When it Rains it Pours!!!

2009-08-12T14:26:00.000-07:00

I'm sure all of you are familiar with the old phrase "When it rains, it pours" for our family we're to familiar with that phrase. Here's a glimmer of a day in the life of the Dickson's.

About 2 months ago the plant that Russ worked at finally had to do some layoffs and guess who was one of the firsts to get laid off.... You're right Russ. After about 2 months with no pay or insurance he finally lands another job at Georgia Pacific. Things are going great until last weekend. Allie fell and split her head open, then the boating trip that the kids have been dying all summer to go on (this is different than our normal trips we're going to have the PONTOON BOAT out there with their cousins) falls through because the boat still isn't as finished as we thought it was, so CaMee and I take off to do our shopping only to discover that takes longer than expected.

Here comes Monday oh boy... we're finally going to do this family boating trip with the PONTOON BOAT so Russ, CaMee, and myself with all of the kids take off to the lake with the ski boat ahead of Travis and Brent (their bringing the other boat). We go out on the lake and do some tubing and knee boarding realizing it's getting to late and the other boat never showed up. Once back to the dock we find out that as they were turning the corner they discovered water leaking out of one of the pontoons. So that idea went bye bye quickly. While Russ is trying to pull the boat up on the trailer he discovers the the engine won't lift. 2hrs later we finally get it out of the lake and the engine lifted and now were rushing home so Russ isn't late for work to his new job. We're not done yet in fact we're just getting to the exciting part.

Now it's Tuesday.....
We own 4 vehicles; '75 GMC truck, '78 Olds., '96 Nissan, and an '04 Suburban so one would think out of 4 vehicles we should have no problem having a car when needed right? Oh know not so much for us. First a piston goes out on the Olds. which at this point it's a matter of is it really worth the work. Then the tire blows out on the Nissan and it won't start, sounding good so far right. While we were in Cody which is about 45miles away from us, grocery shopping the fuel pump on the Suburban goes out on us, leaving us stranded for oh about 6hrs. We finally make it back to Lovell around 10:30 p.m. just in time for Russ to make it to work. Once arriving to work he here's this hissing sound and watches the back tire on the truck go flat. Oh boy!

There you have it that's the update on the Dickson family. I have decided that after every large rain storm there's always a rainbow. The theory goes that if there's a rainbow then there's a pot of gold waiting at the end with Leprechauns. I'm hoping that when my rainstorm ends I'll find that little piece of Irish luck hopefully the good luck and find that pot of gold!!!

Speak To Early!!!

2009-08-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

You know when you say something only to realize later that you spoke to early. Well that just happened to me recently. I put in my last post that we had to take Bamm Bamm to the hospital and how grateful I was that it had been a 1 1/2yr. since our last visit and I'll probably not be back for awhile. Spoke to soon; just Friday night we were back in the E.R. with Alexandra this time. She sliced her head open above her left eye. When asked how it happened we found out that since we wouldn't let the kids go outside and jump on the trampoline, they (meaning J.R., Addie, Bamm Bamm, Alexandra, and Donavan)decided that the couch in the front living room would work. Never mind that mom and dad both have told them not to jump on the furniture, that furniture is for sitting on not jumping on. As she was attempting to jump from the couch to over the foot stool and land on the floor she discovered her jump wasn't nearly as far as her brothers and sisters; well hers was short quite a bit. She never made it over the footstool, instead she landed head first between the footstool and the couch knocking her eye on the corner wooden piece on her way down. Quite the ordeal as you can see. But the most exciting part was at the E.R., the Doctor decided to just glue it shut. He used PURPLE glue oh boy!!! She was so excited, because purple is her favorite color. On our way home from the hospital she informed mom and dad that when she got home she was going to tell all of her purple friends about the purple glue the doctor put on her head.:) Oh boy!!!! This is why we love her, she always makes us smile :)!!!

Update 1 month Later LOL!!!

2009-07-25T17:27:00.000-07:00

Holy Cow!!! has it really been a month since I last wrote on here? I'm really trying to keep up with it but haven't been successful. However I've stayed very caught up with my farm on Facebook. Lets see what have we've been up to over the past month. Went to Laramie while AJ was at scout camp. Received a phone call from him while he's at camp wondering if I was really in Laramie what a world we live in now. While there changed my hair color oh and that gets even more exciting later on! Came home on the night of the big firework show in Byron only I was sick so we had to miss it. Bummer it's the best fireworks I've seen in a long time they're so awesome. The next week did Girl Scout camp for 3 days, learned alot! Learned next year it needs to only be for 1 day. Learned I love kids but that many girls ages from 6 to 9 is to many to have together for 3 days. Also very thankful that the Lord blessed me with only 2 girls with 4 years apart in age:) Russ started a new job so far so good. Went swimming out at the farm and once we got home and showered from swimming discovered that chlorine really will turn your hair GREEN!!!!! Yes I really do have GREEN HAIR!!! To bad it wasn't Halloween huh!!! :) Russ says leave it alone and have fun with it. I'm not so sure but I can say this AJ informs me that if it's not fixed by Sunday he's not going to sit by me in Church. LOL Oh and he won't go out with me in the public with my hair like this ("It's embarrassing MOM") So if any of you want to know how to embarrass your 12 year old just go and die your hair Green!!! Anyways that's about all of the excitement, oh I almost forgot the most exciting thing was last weekend KinCaid BamBam fell on a nail that went right through his knee. That was our latest ER visit however I must admit we haven't been there since we first moved to Lovell so it's been about a 1 1/2 years, I think we're doing good.
Well that's all for now hopefully I'll post quicker next time. God Bless America and everyone!!!
Love the Dickson's

2009-06-21T18:54:00.000-07:00

Hello again, so I just posted the post I had put together over a month ago. To update everyone the run for Bridger was quite a success. At this point we have raised over $2000.00!!!! Way to go Lovell and thank you everyone who has supported this wonderful cause.

We just did our first Summer hike this weekend. We hiked to Bucking Mule Falls and it was wonderful. It was a 4 mile hike all together but through some very beautiful country. Once I have all of the pictures than I'll post them for all to see. We hope to hike around 20 to 50 miles this summer and yes we do hike with all 6 kids believe it or not. We're looking for some more suggestions for good hikes in the Big Horns so please let us know. I better run Russ is gathering everyone up for a family game for Father's Day!!! Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there. I promise to post something soon!!!!
Love to all,
Torie

Way Too Busy!!!

2009-05-07T21:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything. Life seems to be in a constant whirlwind. Ever since we came home from our wonderful family vacation it's been non stop something. Lesson learned: never go on vacation and come home one week before your child'sbaptism. It makes for a very stressful baptism. We now have two kids baptised and only 4 more to go. I ask you, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Good, because they're able to receive the two most wonderful gifts ever: becoming a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the gift of the Holy Ghost. Bad, because that means they're growing up and I'm getting older. (Ugh on the older part:-))

Just 2 weeks later, my Girl Scout Troop decided that we needed to do a Navajo Taco Dinner as a fundraiser for summer camp. We were planning on 200 to 300 people. Boy did we guess wrong. We had over 500 orders! It was great, other than that I've never made that many Navajo Taco shells in my life. We figured 50lbs. of hamburger was going to cover us. Not even close; we had to buy more. Maybe 25 lbs. of flour would work? Try 75! Two #10 cans of olives? Nope, we needed 12!. We bought the local restaurant, fast food joint, and grocery store out of olives. I can't even remember how many tomatoes. And sour cream? Holy cow, 4 Costco size tubs and everything the grocery store had. Not to mention every biscuit package off the shelf to try to expedite the taco shells. It was insane, but well worth it. And I am so thankful for the town of Lovell for supporting our fundraiser; everyone here is so awesome. We made enough money that we should have no problem with camp this summer. For all of you whom are not familiar with Lovell we only have one grocery store here, and one building that has Blimpies and Taco Johns for our fast food. The restaurant I was talking about is in the next town 6 miles away.

As you can see, it's been very hectic. Easter was in there somewhere, but I'm not sure I could tell you when or what the kids received. I do think they received something.

I'm looking forward to a relaxing summer (I hope). I do have one very major event coming up on June 13th. I'm organizing a Run/Walk for Russ' 5-year old cousin Bridger. He's going to have a Bone Marrow transplant soon and will have to live away from home for several months. I plan to do a write up on it here shortly with links to go to to learn more about him.

In the craziness and planning of everything I forgot something very special in my life also. The sad part is so did Russ. As we were planning this run we realized there was something else special about that day; we just chalked it up as Ethan (Russ' cousins son) is also getting baptized that day. However, the other night when Russ and I were talking about that day, we both kept saying and feeling that there was something else going on that day but couldn't remember what. It wasn't until 1:30 in the morning that it finally donned on us... That's Donavan's 2nd birthday; the same day:-)!!! Now my question is, can I just pass this off as I've been a little overwhelmed and that's why I couldn't remember my sons birthday? Or is it because he's child #6? Or is it that getting older thing that's catching up to me? In about two weeks I turn 32 and that's scary!

There you all have it, that's the low down on this wild, crazy, running in every direction, Dickson family. I plan to update my pictures soon. So please bear with me:-).

BRIDGER (MONCUR) GUSTAFSON

Bridger is JanaLee Moncurs' son, she is Russ' cousin and lives in Dallas, TX. JanaLee, Blake (her husband), and Bridger all moved there last summer they hadn't even been able to unpack all of their boxes when Bridger ended up in the hospital very ill and struggling to make it. After numerous tests and procedure the Doctors were able to diagnose Bridger's disease. He has Chronic Granulomatous Disease (CGD) his white blood cells don't create hydrogen peroxide, and aren't able to fight off typical bacteria, molds, and fungus's. He is currently taking nine different medications to help prevent further infection. The only cure available is by having a bone marrow transplant. The hospital was able to find a match once that procedure is finished he will need to have other follow up procedures and will need to stay in the hospital in Houston, TX for 4 to 6 months. Therefore we (CaMee (JanaLee's older sister) and myself) are putting together a Run/Walk for Bridger on June 13th. The registration is $15 and you'll receive a t-shirt. If any of you would like to register to be in the race just call me @307.548.2581. You may also do a strait donation if you would like. We have a bank account open for Bridger at The Bank of Lovell that you may call them and do a donation or send them a donation. Here's their information Bank of Lovell 179 E 3rd St Lovell, WY 82431 307.548.2213. Also if you have any other question or want to know more you may feel free to call me or email me and I'll feel you in on all that I know. Thanks in advance for any support and donations the whole family greatly appreciates this.

In closing we send out much love to everyone near and far.

The Dickson's

Urgh!!!!!!!!!

2009-03-30T21:33:00.000-07:00

O.K. so I'm still learning and trying my best but how on earth do you change the header color? I'm sure I'm looking right at it. I was hoping to add more pics and everything but I'm very frustrated at this point. Could someone please help me!!!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!! Hopefully in the next couple of days I'll have some updated pics. Love to all and Thanks to everyone!!! Torie

WE HOPE THIS WORKED!!!!!

2009-03-05T21:10:00.000-08:00

Yes I did it or at least I think I did. Now I'll try to add some more pics and fun stuff to it. I hope this worked. Let me know what ya'll think. I'll try to update some more and keep ya'll posted on everything.
Love to all,
Torie