Loving Ogden!

So far, so good. We are really enjoying it here!

Between school days and life, my time to write has been limited. Just when I think we are finally getting settled and into a routine ...we are out of here on Thursday. First stop is Traverse City, Michigan. Josh's brother, Donovan, is getting married.

Then, Monday, the kids and I are off to Mexico! Yea! I miss the beach. I miss my dog!!

Caden's auditory therapy has been really good. He has completed the recommended 15 sessions, and we have seen a tremendous improvement in his testing scores. We have been sent home with our "homework" exercises, which we have just incorporated into our daily school curriculum. He goes back in November for re-testing to see how he is coming along.

I have also ordered him new curriculum, designed for all children, but is based on methodology used to teach dyslexics to read. Easton also loves it. So, I am planning to order it for him as well.

From the looks of it, I may need to find Easton more exciting curriculum ;)

School has kept us pretty busy during the week, but weekends have been lots of fun. We've been biking. It seemed to be a great idea. Toward the end of our ride, a 100 yard detour through the grass left everyone with punctured tires from the burrs. Luckily (and uncannily), we happened to be directly in front of bike shop, so it wasn't too hard to get them repaired!

We have been enjoying shopping at the Farmer's Markets on the weekends. Last Saturday was Ogden's Harvest Moon Festival. The kids and I strolled downtown to sample the local restaurants, see the local sidewalk sales, and kids' activities.

At the Harvest Moon Festival

Trying the Rock Wall

Both boys going at it

Farmer's Market every Saturday

Organic, Local Raspberries have Easton's approval

Caden's a fan of anything blue.

Both boys are growing like weeds. Caden grew out of his shoes. Again. We bought him new shoes that are very Sheldon Cooper-like. To be honest, they had a pair of Wonder Woman ones that I was very tempted to buy for myself.

Caden's First Pair of Chucks

They also have no winter clothes. As in, not even one stitch. So, we've done some fall shopping to stock up on a few things to keep them from freezing. The days are still in the 80s, but the nights are getting crisp and cool. Unfortunately, I think we are leaving just as the colors are starting to change --- which is my favorite time of year.





I have found a local dairy where we pick up our raw, whole milk. Sooo yummy! They work on the Honor's System: Take as many gallons of milk or cream as you need & leave a check or cash in the box. Open 24/7. I love that!

Johnny's Dairy

I have found some great sources for grass fed beef and organic chicken. I am amazed at the organic/sulfate-free meats you can now buy in your local grocery. Much easier than before!

Confession: I have also been couponing. No, I am not a crazy-coupon-lady. No, I have yet to get any items for free --- but I have come darn close a couple of times.

To be honest, I expected it to be a waste of time. I don't have room in the trailer to stock-pile inventory, the holy grail of couponing. We like certain brands of certain things, and that's a "golden no-no" of the couponing world. We eat healthy, and I always thought that coupons were for junk food. 

It started as a: I'll give it a whirl. Turns out, even though I break "couponer" every rule, I still save. A LOT. I saved $77 from our last grocery bill. Turns out that by couponing -- which takes me about 30-40 minutes per week, I have more than paid for the difference we are spending to buy organic foods, meats, eggs, and raw milk. I have saved at least 1/3 of every grocery bill.

Turns out, they have coupons for more than just food. We've also eaten at different restaurants for less than $10 each time for the 3 of us. (Josh has been on the road a lot this month.)

I also used coupons and scored the kid's winter coats, each $75, for $37. I ended up with a pair of Vera Wang jeans for 75% off.

All of these savings could buy Momma a lot of shoes!

VIDEO COMMERCIAL: Caden's School Assignment

Caden's school assignment was to create a video commercial for a public announcement or product. Below is the result. "Classic Caden" in so many ways...

Wow! We have been Busy!

We have been so busy, and there seems to be no end in sight!

The Museum

The kiddos have been learning about human bodies in their health class: the senses, what makes us different, what makes us all the same, how and why we protect our bodies, etc. One of the recommended activities was to visit a museum to see human skeletons. So, we trotted off to the Natural History Museum in Salt Lake City, which is only about a 45 minute drive from Ogden.

While the real stars of the show were the awesome dinosaurs (all discovered here in Utah),

they also saw the exhibit featuring the evolution of human skulls.

The museum has great exhibits, and we definitely didn't have the time or attention spans to go through all of them in one day. So, we bought a family membership, and we plan to go back often.

Traverse City, Michigan

Josh's cousin, Eric, was married in Traverse City, Michigan over Labor Day weekend, and Josh was a groomsman. So, we flew back to the Mitten for a great weekend of beach, sand dunes, and wedding cake.

Caden and his Aunt Megan

Easton and his Aunt Elizabeth

This is Easton's second cousin, Kennedy. She is in love with Easton
and he this she's 'a 'lil wound up'. I am sure that some day he will love
female attention, but for now he's a little daunted.

Josh and his sister, Megan

This is how you beach it on Lake Michigan on
Labor Day -- in a bikini and sweatshirt!
Mexico, Momma's comin' home soon sweetheart!

We took a scenic drive through Sleeping Bear Dunes.
We'll re-visit and hike when there aren't 10 gazillion people.

Visiting the little town of Grand Haven, just north of the
Sleeping Bear Dunes Park.

We love Northern Michigan and won't have to wait long to see it again. Josh's brother, Donovan, is also getting married in Traverse City at the end of the month. So, we'll be back soon, and I'll be ready for more cherries!

The Ogden Valley Weekly Market

Last night, we visited the Ogden Valley Market, which they have every Thursday evening in the summer months, through September. The market has local, fresh farmer's produce, live music, and booths from area artisans.

To get to the market, you have to drive over a mountain pass that is National Forest land and down into the next valley. It was a gorgeous drive and another area we hadn't explored yet. So, it was great that we went.

We picked up some freshly picked, organic corn on the cob as well as some organic raspberries and raspberry freezer jam.

On our way home, we stopped at a strange rock-something that we had passed on our way in, but couldn't figure out what it was.

Do you know what this is?

Turns out is was a kiln (and basically a huge chimney) that was used to make lime in the late 1800s for construction in the valley. There is a hold on top that the lime was shoveled into, it was heated in the kiln and removed out of the doorway at the bottom. The forest service uncovered its ruins when they were clearing a trailhead and volunteers restored it.

Schulz Family Life

In other non-adventure news, we have finally figured out why Caden has been struggling in school with his reading and math and why I, after a few weeks of homeschooling am ready to leap from a rooftop. Caden
has been diagnosed with an Auditory Processing Disorder and Auditory Dyslexia.

Basically, he doesn't process at the speed children his age do - especially when he hears it rather than seeing or feeling it. Children his age have an average response time of 70 miliseconds. Caden responds in 255. Which, would explain why he dances so horribly. He thinks he is on beat, but he's actually way behind.

He also has dyslexia issues. Turns out dyslexia isn't just writing your letters and numbers backwards, which he doesn't do at all. Although, he used to confuse B and D sounds horribly, but he has had LOTS of tutoring which has pretty much resolved that issue now. For him, it basically means that he cannot recognize letter patterns which is how we all learned to read through phonics. He basically cannot sound out words. Instead, all of the words that he can read are ones that he has memorized.

Between his slow processing time and his dyslexia, the kid has had a rough row to hoe.

So, it's back to the drawing board. I have ordered new curriculum for him, based on a methodology to teach dyslexics to read. Hopefully his online school will be on-board with the change and he can remain enrolled. I have submitted the proposal to the customization board and am awaiting their response. If not, we're still marching forward and hopefully his school will refund our mostly unused tuition for this school year.

He has also been taking Auditory Therapy Classes where he is making improvements in re-training his brain to react faster to auditory stimuli.

The Trailer

On our way out to Utah two of the brand friggin' new cabinets door fronts cracked. So, we took those in to be repaired under warranty.

We have this strange septic smell that we can't seem to kick out of the bathroom, but we are making various adjustments that seem to be making it better.

As summer comes to a close, we realize that we may have made a logistical error in selecting the floorplan of our trailer, despite the hours/days/weeks of our research. We love the kitchen; we love the "toy hauler garage" which allows us to have a Washer/Dryer, place to store bikes, grills, fishing/hunting gear, etc. while on the road; we LOVE our side patio that folds out. What we don't love is our living space because with all of the rest, it turns out that there really isn't any. There is 1 couch along a side wall and a TV that if you turn at an awkward angle, you can watch. It hasn't been an issue because we have been outside. But, come cold weather, it's going to be awfully weird lined up on one sofa. So, not sure how we are going to resolve that one. To be continued...

Our mattress was terrible and really doing a number on our backs, mine in particular. Turns out, a regular mattress with springs can't fit through the doorways of the trailer. So, they basically give you a piece of foam that offers little in support. It also makes shopping for a mattress difficult because you are basically limited to mattresses that come in a box: either a Sleep Number Air Mattress or a Tempurpedic Foam Mattress. So, we went shopping for a new mattress and ended up ordering a Sleep Number Air Mattress, which we both found to be very comfortable.

Its box arrived yesterday! So, last night, when we arrived back from the market at 9 pm, Josh and I couldn't wait to assemble the thing. We hauled our old mattress out -- That was a task! Then, got to work assembling our new one.

Page 1 of the instructions: "You must have an electric drill and small saw to begin." An electric drill we luckily had. A saw; not so much. But with after some digging, Josh found a drill bit that allowed him to make a hole big enough in our bed's platform to allow the cords and hoses to pass, so a late-night WalMart run was averted.

Ok, back to assembly. We got the bottom half of the mattress set up. We got the 2 air chambers in. We connected all of the cords and hoses. All that was left was to fill up the chambers, zip on the top, and (finally) go to bed. So, we pulled out the remote and set the air chambers to 20 to allow them to partially fill. Turns out the 9 volt battery was out of juice. So, Josh went to a nearby gas station for another battery and Wendy's Frosties for everyone. After our Frosty break, we were back at getting the mattress ready. This battery was also dead. Figure the odds. So, Josh went back for a 3rd battery. He returned and we had the same issue -- remote won't work and battery light is flashing. Turns out, it was the remote.

At this point, it was midnight and nothing else we could do. Josh slept on the sofa, and I slept with the kids in their bed.

Things I learned:

1. The kid's mattress is thin, flimsy piece that is horribly uncomfortable (Way worse than ours was). So glad I am not them.
2. We need to find a remote today.