Rachel and the Silver Bullet

Rachel got her driver's license this last November. Of all our children she has been the most cautious when it comes to driving. We have two Ford Ranger's we use here on the farm. When it's not in use, we have been letting Rachel drive the silver one which the kids have named "The Silver Bullet" to school. Adam is driving the white Ranger which the kids have named "Danger Ranger".

The first snowfall of winter last December Rachel was worried about the roads being too slick to drive to school. We told her to go ahead and drive but to test how slick it was by tapping the brakes to see if the pickup slid. We watched her out the window as she headed down the road. We saw her brake lights go on and the pickup did a little fishtail. She went around the corner tried it again with the same results. We then saw her turn around at the neighbors, come back home and asked her dad to take her to school. We laugh about the fact that she's the only one of the five who would have ever come back whether the roads were slick or not.

Tuesday morning we had two inches of fresh snow on the ground. Even with the snow the roads weren't slick and it had melted off by the afternoon. Wednesday morning the roads were dry as Rachel headed off for school in the Silver Bullet at about twenty after eight. Her friend Katie usually rides with her but that morning she didn't. At 8:36 Roger got a phone call from Rachel saying she had slid off the road. She said she was OK and that people were stopping to help and someone had called 911. It seems that the road was dry except for the spot where Rachel slid off. It was a big patch where the snow had drifted across the road then had turned to ice. When she hit it she spun around 90 degrees just missing another car and went off the other side of the road into a snowy field. The pickup then rolled clear over a fence and ended back on its wheels facing the direction she had just come from. Of course she had her seat belt on. She wasn't quite sure if she had even rolled. We think she probably closed her eyes. We turned down an ambulance ride and I drove her to the doctor to have her checked out. The doctor said she might be a little stiff and sore but she is fine. Roger had one of his friends who lives near by pull the pickup out of the field with his tractor and Roger was able to drive it home. As you can tell by the pictures there's a pretty good dent in the roof. The windshield is also cracked, the side view mirror shattered and it has a few new scratches.



Thank heaven for miracles.

Rachel's Gingerbread House

Rachel made this cute gingerbread house in young women's a couple of weeks ago. Check out the Snicker candy Santa. I think he was the first to be eaten. The back of the house's brick wall was Starbursts. They are mostly gone now too. Between Tanner & Rachel they didn't last long. One of Rachel's YW leaders made and baked all the gingerbread walls and roofs for over 20 girls so all they had to do was decorate them. She is amazing! Right now Rachel's Mia Maid class is doing the 12 days of Christmas for a family in our ward and they are having a lot of fun doing it.

Powder Puff & Homecoming Week

This last week was homecoming at the high school. Rachel was having fun attending the many activities. I asked if she was going to play on the sophomore powder puff football team and she told me no she was just going to watch. Wednesday afternoon she called me to say she was playing powder puff that night at six. The sophomores didn't have enough players for a team and since her friend Courtney's boyfriend was coaching the team, Courtney, Rachel and Katie were recruited to play at the last minute. Which is really funny because Rachel has no idea of what is going on at a football game. She goes to games to visit and hang out. But with 30 minutes of coaching before the game she was ready to play! Roger and I were quite impressed with her aggressiveness. We saw a side to our mild little Rachel we hadn't seen before. She had a lot of playing time and played in both games. In the first game she was able to snag the flags off a senior girl running with the ball and came near to snagging the flags again a couple of other times. They still lost 24 to 0. In the second game they tied the juniors 6 to 6. Rachel had bruises on her shoulders the next day from blocking but she had a lot of fun. Rah Rah Rachel!!!

Rachel, Katie, Courtney & Coach Kelly

They also had dress up themes for each day of the week. Rachel thought some of the themes were kind of lame. I think one day was "Ninja/Pirate Day". What is that? Do you dress up as both or one or the other? Another day was "Grandparent Day". I offered her one of my grandmotherly dusters to wear but she declined. I understood. The one day she wanted to dress up for was "Hippie day". She and her friends tie dyed matching shirts the night before. I thought they turned out pretty "cool". Rachel did have a few boys inquire if she had a date to the homecoming dance on Saturday night but of course she had to advise them of her only being 15 status. She went out to dinner with her dad and mom that night. Oh well, next year.

Rachel's Summer Job

With the start of school Rachel's summer job has come to an end. She has been babysitting her nephew, Tanner, three days a week. She would usually watch him at Mike and Kim's house but sometimes she watched him here at home. On the days she would watch him at Kim's, she would get on her bicycle and ride the three miles to Kim's house for her morning workout. I don't know if you could really call it a job. I think she had too much fun playing with Tanner, eating Kimberly's food and watching movies while Tanner napped. Rachel already misses seeing Tanner almost everyday. You can tell Tanner also thinks Rachel is pretty special. He gets so excited when he sees her. Rachel really likes being the favorite Aunt. Tanner now gets to spend a few days with his Grandmothers and one day playing at cousin Michelle's house with her boys.

Here are a few pictures of Rachel "working"

Tanner showing Rachel how "tuff" he is.

At Long Last -- Rachel's Braces Are Off!!

On July 29th, after two and a half long years of orthodontic torture, Rachel has finally had her braces removed. She was hoping she'd get them off before starting high school this fall. As you know it would be the kiss of death to start high school with braces. In her opinion it just wouldn't be cool.

Last Year with braces

Now, without braces.

Yes, those are some very straight teeth on my pretty little girl. High School are you ready for this smile?

Happy 15th Birthday Rachel!

A Day at the Circus

Last week Rachel called me from Kimberly's house where she was babysitting Tanner. She had just seen a commercial about an upcoming circus in Idaho Falls. She was so excited. She said she had never seen a circus (I had taken all my kids when she was three but she didn't remember). She really wanted to go. She feels like she is the caboose of the family and has missed or doesn't remember all the fun stuff the older kids have done. So being the kind of mother I am, (guilt ridden) I told her we would go.

So Tuesday I took Rachel and her two friends, Katie and Courtney to the Circus. In my defense, Katie and Courtney had never seen a circus either. It was a lousy day weather wise. The circus was outside at the Sandy Downs Rodeo Arena and the wind was blowing about 40 miles an hour. You could see dust in the air. Plus it was cold. There were still quite a few people there with lots of little kids wearing their winter coats. The girls were excited about all the acts. Some of the high wire acts could not perform because of the high winds. The tight wire walker got blown off his wire doing a back flip but he was only 8 feet off the ground, thank Heavens.

Balancing bear.

Trapeze artists. The man is holding them both up by his neck and teeth while spinning.

The girls squealed with excitement when they saw the elephants.

To make the experience complete we even bought very expensive cotton candy. I wanted to take a picture of the girls with a clown that was in the grandstands, but it turns out Courtney is afraid of clowns and wouldn't go near him. Even though we had to huddle together for warmth it was a fun afternoon.