scripture study from my point of 'view'

Right before we started reading scriptures, this is what my family looked like from my view. Ken's phone he was playing on is on his knee now. Nicole was 'conversing' with her magic 8 ball as opposed to the scriptures sitting on her lap. I'm not really sure about that face...She's funny...and 12.

 Matthew was just taking up far more than his 1 cushion. He did turn 180 degrees before it was his turn to read.



Good Times! We read Mormon 5 tonight. We should finish the Book of Mormon by Christmas...very exciting!

Birthday dinner

To celebrate my birthday which was last Sunday, the 24th, we went out to dinner on Friday to Red Robin--my favorite restaurant. I ordered the California Chicken Burger, something I don't usually order but used to often enough. It was not as good as remembered. They sang to me and we got a free sundae. I videoed them singing because, really it's no fun to watch a video of a person being sang to. My favorite part was when the waiter told the restaurant that I was celebrating my 21st birthday. That's correct too. 21 for the 12th time. Writing that makes me a little bit sad. I'm not going to lie.

Here are some pictures of Ken and me. The usual kind. The 2nd one reminded me of a Picasso painting...kind of.

The other thing I like about this video is Ken's face because he was embarrassed. muhahaahha Also, the singers seem to be SO excited, don't you think?

Halloween 2010

For Halloween this year the kids had their first party then we went to the 3 ward + a branch Trunk or Treat at the church.

Here is Nicole in her wedding dress...a beautiful bride.

 Matthew was an army guy.

 Ken was Charlie Brown.

 For our party we celebrated a lot of the holidays through out the year. First we made rest of the year resolutions.  The kids had to think of something they could do for the rest of the year to serve their families.

 For February they made valentines and put them in the stockings that were hanging off the kitchen counter for each of the kids. I forgot to take pictures of them.

For March we decorated shamrock sugar cookies. The recipe is AWESOME. I'll post it soon.

 Next we dyed Easter Eggs.

 For the summer months we talked about our love of camping and outdoors and then we roasted marshmallows on the stove.

 September was hunting season. They shot inflatable pumpkins with a nerf gun.

 November was thanksgiving. They are their cookies, eggs and we made bean dip with chips and salsa.

 We took random breaks between each activity to break out into random dances such as:

The Hokey Pokey

The Bunny Hop

The Cha Cha Slide

The Macarena

The Electric Slide

 More pumpkin hunting.

 Here's our group shot.

 Halfway through the party Nicole decided to change costumes. She'd been wearing the same thing for almost 4 hours! The horror!

 Here they are at the trunk or treat. It was the biggest one I'd ever seen. The WHOLE parking lot was full! Ken says maybe 150 cars. There is certainly no need to go trick or treating after that!

It was a fun day and I'm glad we have tomorrow to recoop from it before starting back to school on Monday! Happy Halloween!!

Apparantly I'm a composer...

Ken called me this morning around 9:40 and asked me if I could play the organ at a funeral today at 2. I asked him what the songs were and he told me there was only one, The Lord's Prayer. I told him  I'd like to see the music before I agreed to doing it because The Lord's Prayer is a HARD song to play on the piano, seems almost impossible on the organ.  Ten minutes later Eric, Ken's coworker called and asked if I could meet the soloist at 10:30. That added more to it,  I'd be accompanying someone...with almost no notice. I went to the practice and the sheet music below is what I was presented with. You can click on it to see it better.

 She asked me if I could bring it down a little lower. I was hesitant. I asked her if she really only wanted the note she was playing and she said it would be fine if I just made up the left hand as I went. HELP! I looked at the paper and luckily since it was 2 sharps, transposing it down 2 steps just means all naturals, one note lower. (Did you know that?) I agreed to play the organ for the funeral and went home and got to work writing a left hand. I'm not great at improv.

Here is a picture of what I turned the song into. You can click on it to make it larger but don't look too closely. I understand the time, anyone else might not.

The funeral was really nice. It was short.  They played Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer.  I cried a lot. I could never work funerals all the time like Ken does.  I mourn right along with the family. The soloist did a nice job on the song and I thought the version of the song was awesome! I think I should copyright it. haha

Don't forget to say your prayers!

You get what you pay for.

A few weeks ago, I believe in the middle of September, Ken and I were on a date at Walmart (like you've never been on a date to Walmart!) and we ended up in the kitchen section. Ken swore up and down that we needed a new can opener. Ours doesn't work he said. I told him I thought it was fine but he persisted. Finally he found a can opener that he thought would be better and it was only ONE DOLLAR. I tried to talk him out of it, my argument being you get what you pay for and in the end I believed we would be out that dollar. Alas, we bought the can opener for $1.08.

Fast forward 5 weeks. I have probably opened 3 cans with the thing. It's garbage. But when my 'good' one was in the dishwasher, it would work fine...until last night. I started to open a can of green beans and it got stuck almost immediately. I had the thought I should video the awesomeness known as the 'crappy can opener' but much to my chagrin, I quickly dismissed that thought.  Instead I moved the opener over a little, pressed the handle together to open a new part and just as I started to turn the handle, this happened.

 Yep, it broke. (And I could have gotten it on camera! boo) We are out $1.08. Here is the top of the can, you can see how far it went before I had to try again.

 A little ad for Del Monte Beans. :) I can't really taste a difference in any kind of canned vegi. These were just on sale. I guess this should be an ad for Albertson's.

Our rusty old can opener that works when it wants to, if you speak kindly and apply the correct amount of pressure which is never the correct amount of pressure twice.  It likes to be mysterious. The poor thing is 13 years old. It's tired!

Any recommendations on a good can opener? We really do need one.

Practicing the Organ...

I've been practicing the organ everyday.  Am I improving? Maybe. Will I stop ruining Sacrament Meeting? Hopefully. Today I played a hymn using the foot pedals. I've never done that before! You see, mom and I had a deal. When Ken got a job here and we moved back to Washington, she was going to teach me how to play the organ. We talked about that very thing in the middle of February, this year. So, here I am in Washington, trying to learn the organ. I'll get it. I'm just having to go about it a different way than I first hoped.

 Click on this picture below. Don't notice all the dust on the pedals that I didn't clean off. Notice my AWESOME plaid toenails. My niece, Regann painted them. She's a talented girl!

Here's a hymn for you, not using the pedals. Any organists out there that can give me tips, I'm open to them. I'll take all the help I can get in this area.

The Violin

Matthew started playing the violin last month. In Kansas the children don't start playing in a band or orchestra until 6th grade. Here they start in 5th grade.  During his first week of orchestra he came home frustrated everyday because he didn't know how to play and the teacher didn't want to spend time helping him because there was a whole class of kids working on their second book. I spoke with the teacher and asked if he could be moved to the 5th grade orchestra so he could get some instruction and then I told Matthew that he's going to have to practice twice as hard so that he can get caught up, because in 7th grade he has to be at level. The teacher agreed to move him down and Matthew has practiced like crazy. Today his teacher told him he's doing well enough that he can start back with the 6th grade orchestra class on Thursday. He's pretty pleased. Here is a video of him playing Jingle Bells. The end is a little iffy, but he just learned it yesterday, so I'm sure we'll see more improvements as time goes by.

Since he started playing 7 weeks ago he can play:
Ode to Joy
Hot Cross Buns
Jingle Bells
and he's almost got Old McDonald down.

WAY TO GO MATTHEW!

My kids are bloggers!

These pictures bring my heart joy. I love to blog. Whether my 6 readers enjoy it or come back as a form of masochism, that is to be determined at a later date, but for me--I love it.  Nicole and Matthew have caught the same bug I have. Nicole more so than Matthew. These are pictures of them both working on their blogs last Saturday...at the same time. I was a little jealous that I wasn't blogging too, but I had to capture the moment anyway.

Their blogs are available to read over on the side bar. ------>

Today, October 25, 2010

• It took the kids over 2 1/2 hours to get in an hour of practicing on their instruments.
• Ken made dinner tonight. He put stuff in the crock pot on his lunch. He may be in charge of dinner from this day forward.
• Every time I hear Hoedown from Rodeo by Aaron Copland the sentence, 'Beef, it's what's for dinner' comes to my mind.
• When we were reading scriptures tonight one of the kids read the phrase 'and make preparations to defend our-selves' as 'and make preparations to defend our-slaves'. It make me chuckle.
• I want new scriptures but I can't decide between the compact burgundy quad and the standard size burgundy Triple and Bible. SUCH DECISIONS!
• Nicole's reading level had gone up TWO grade levels since we started homeschooling her less than 2 months ago. Hooray for Nicole!
• I made sugar cookie dough today that we're going to cut out and bake tomorrow. It's a new recipe. I'll let you know how it goes.
• I like the word Zamboni.
• I bought a pair of wool suit pants for Ken tonight at Value Village. They only cost $10.00. That's a steal for suit pants!
• We had the Vest's over for Family Home Evening tonight. It was really fun. We are teaching our children the scripture mastery scriptures in the Book of Mormon. Then next month on the 5th Monday we are going to have a mini scripture chase. The kids had a great time marking blue Books of Mormon. It was a nice evening.

Did I already show this photo? I took it at the church I went to growing up. I love these steps! They are crooked and scary and I still love them.

Good Night! 

Falling Leaves--this post may or may no be a waste of your time.

Saturday Nicole pointed out to me that the tree across the cul de sac from us was rapidly losing leaves again.  We watched it a few weeks ago before Matthew's bee sting (which prompted me to purchase batteries) but alas, had no batteries to take fantastic or mediocre photos. I tried to capture it on Saturday but it seemed that each time I had my camera ready to shoot, the leaves took a break from falling. So here is what I did.

This is the tree that we have been watching for a while. There are a couple leaves falling, but nothing spectacular.



Then I decided that since you couldn't have the pleasure of seeing the leaves fall (which also brings in the assumption that you've never seen leaves fall) I could at least take a picture of the beautiful puddle that was getting larger by the second. I love watching water getting rained on. As you can see below, that photo didn't work out very well either. The detail I want didn't show up. (Is it the camera or the photographer?)

Lastly, I decided to try video. If you see a leaf fall it means you have good eyes and if you don't, then we are in the same club. At least you can enjoy hearing the rain fall. I always enjoy hearing the rain fall.



math summary:

mediocre photos + mediocre video =mediocre/lame post. You can't win them all.
Did you really care this much about the leaves falling off a tree in our cul de sac? I didn't think so, but at the time, I thought it would make for an interesting blog post. Oy.

Dear Netflix,

I've recently come to notice (just now) that although I have sent back both movies previously borrowed from you, I still have one in my possession. I have come to the conclusion that instead of returning 'The Revolution' which teaches about the beginning years of our great nation, I have instead included in the handy red envelope "The Restoration" which is a movie about Joseph Smith's first vision.

Sincere apologies.
Dedra

Happy Birthday to ME!

Today is my 33rd birthday. It's not really a big deal, birthdays never really were in my family. Growing up we got a cake and an honorable mention and that is okay. As a gift I rewarded myself with a new package of vacuum bags...we've needed them for a while. Instead of gifts, I've found 33 things that I love and am grateful for...in no specific order. I tried to order them but that venture was unsuccessful.  So, here goes!

Nicole Roylance Cheney. I love this girl! When I was pregnant with her we were told she was a boy. We didn't find out until she was born that the Dr. was wrong. (Huang, haha) What a great surprise!

 Matthew Kent Cheney. I love this boy. I call him my best boy. He told me the other day he hopes we never have any more boys in our home because he needs to be the best boy.

 I LOVE this book! I've read it twice this year. You should too...at least one time.

BEST MOVIE EVER! This is the first movie I saw in the theater 2 times. I still watch it a few times a year and we quote it All. The. Time.

Duck. Tape. I had checks with this immage on them. It makes me happy. AFLAC!

I Love to sew. I love this sewing machine. It's not fancy but it does everything I need it to do plus it has a needle threader. I can't really ask for more than that!

My beloved cellphone.

Snow days! They're the best.

Willow Tree Statues...I love them all. I have this Nativity Scene. It's my favorite Christmas Decoration and I'm going to put it on my Mom's organ this year. A little rebellious way to honor

her. Maybe it should face the wall.

Whirlpool Cabrio washer and drier. Who knew laundry to could be tolerable?!

I'm glad we have a car that works. Before we got this car we were driving an OLD VW Jetta. It was a replacement car after Ken totaled ours. The Jetta was a money pit. The muffler was non existent. We lost the exhaust pipe driving down I 84. If we had too many people in it, the wheel well would rub on the tire. Any of our friends in the Columbia Ward in Troutdale can attest to this. They knew we were coming a couple miles away. They were all happy for us when we finally replaced it 4 years ago.

This is proof of the 1 and only time ever, that my mom went down a slide with me. Gina says the same thing. Mom freaked out going up the stairs and tried to turn around and go back down, but we wouldn't get out of her way. She had to go to the top them we reminded her she'd get down faster if she just rode the slide.

These are delicious.

Beautiful!

Love this camera.

The Seattle Temple. I did most of my youth temple trips to this temple. All my brothers and sisters went through for the first time here and were married/sealed here, that are of age. Ken and I were married here. It's BEAUTIFUL and my favorite.

Best hair gunk ever. LOVE IT!

Celtic Thunder. Guys in kilts. I like both.

The glorious Kitchenaid. Red just makes it better.

My Mom and Dad. I love them.

I LOVE KANSAS! I really miss my friends there and the awesome weather...minus tornado warnings.

Grandpa Price. Best. Grandpa. Ever.

I like google. This was their logo on an April Fools Day a few years ago. I also enjoy Topeka.

Do these next two pictures look similar to you? I love to blog. That's the one on the bottom. The picture on the top I took while driving home from the Wichita Airport in Kansas. It's somewhere between Sterling and Chase on a back road. Beautiful.

My piano. I enjoy the piano in general but this one makes me especially happy. I got an awesome deal on this almost new beauty and I paid for it myself.

I love him. (I tried putting him at the top and as you can see that didn't work well at all!)

28. I'm thankful for the opportunity I had to hold my 3rd baby, Robert, and for the knowledge I have that I am sealed to him forever.

29. I love the smell of Fall on the first day of school and the magic of Christmas morning.

30. I love living in the Pacific Northwest. It rains a lot. The tall trees bring me comfort. Knowing I'm so close to 6/7 of my siblings and my Dad also brings me comfort. I breathe much easier here.

31. I hate snakes and zoos scare me.

32. I am inept at the remote control and the microwave. I burn food and can't find my show even when I'm just trying to turn the volume up.

33. White Musk perfume is my favorite because #1 it is cheap and #2 it smells nice.