Benson Barracuda's

Suzie and I had been driving our kids into Tucson every day for swim team. It is a long drive for a sport, but this is southern Arizona in summertime, if your kids aren't swimming what else are they doing for exercise? You can't very well send them out to play a game of soccer when the heat is in the 90's (ahh Benson is at least 5 -7 degrees cooler than Tucson, let me tell you it does make a difference!). We had hopes of starting a swim team in Benson next season when we could learn more about the surrounding communities swim team league. I had made a serendipitous call to the Cove in Sierra Vista to find out who they competed against, I was shocked when they listed Benson as one of the swim teams. I then called up the city of Benson to find out about this team that never was listed or advertised. The lady in charge said they were trying to start up a team but nobody had done a swim team before and weren't sure how to start. I asked her what she needed , a coach, and swimmers. Done. Between Scott and Suzie's 5 swimmers and our 2 we had seven willing kids to start the Benson team. Suzie's and my goal was to have a least one other kid who was not a Howe on the team. We accomplished it, there are about 13 kids on the team and we are hoping our numbers will grow when word gets out. The city of Benson's pool is 25 yards so smaller than competition sized pools (25 meters), but there are plenty of private leagues in Tucson that use that size pool. Unfortunatly the pool doesn't have lane lines or hooks in the pool to string lane lines, but after brainstorming with my Father and sister Hillary we came up with a plan. We got pier blocks, rope and fun noodles strung them together and voila, lane lines. It's been a lot of fun starting the program, the kids love that their Mom is the coach, and it is great that we have Scott and Suzie's teenagers to help out (and score points) for our little team. The meet was awesome we had several top places. The first video is of Bella doing her thing in backstroke, she got first place, not that it maters ;) The second video is of Olivia, Sydney and Bella swimming free style. Bella and Sydney continue to touch the wall simultaneously as 1st and 2nd. Olivia is in the far lane plugging along like a champ, we are so proud of her, bless her for being born in a swimming family. She will learn to love it, yes she will :)

Our New Castle

I am living in my dream house! No our house has not been built. We have decided to rent a place (or rather i encouraged Benjamin). There was no way i could endure the summer with four children in a small travel trailer. At Least during the school year the girls could escape, I mean go to school, and the boys and I could have a little more elbow room, but the summer would have been too much. I know my limitations and I had passed them.

So what is this dream house..... A double wide! We now not only have one bathroom but two! The master bathroom even has a garden tub to boot! No more port-a-potty...... It is grand! There is a boys room and a girls room and an awesome wood paneled kitchen, oh yeah! But the laundry room is my personal favorite. Having used a laundry mat for ten months, it is so nice to pop in a load at will. It sits on an acre with mature mesquites and a fenced yard, a must for my escapee Parkin. It is amazing how when you go with out how appreciative you become ( I know their are people who have lived in worse, I can empathize on my own scale). So here is a list of forgotten comforts.

10. A sink large enough to wash dishes without flooding anything.
9. One step better a dishwasher!
8. Room for everyone of my kids to have a bed (instead of 6 people to three beds).
7. A normal size fridge!
6. Room for toys indoors.
5. A vacuum. My favorite chore, little effort with amazing results.
4. Couches!
3. Elbow room at the dining table, a dinning table.
2. bedroom doors
1. Indoor toilets, did you have any doubt that wouldn't be number one!

We are at this rental for a year and the way things are looking with the bank, our future build is uncertain to say the least...... My new phrase has been, "The lord giveth the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord." We may not get our "dream house" but for right now I am so grateful for the comforts we are enjoying.

I thought of putting in pictures, but I thought it best for your mind to imagine how cool the house is, because its just so great!

Bella's Baptism

I can't believe I haven't blogged about this yet. Thanks to Kim for posting about Kaylee's she reminded me to do it :) Crystal too is on the ball with writing about her son, I will get there.

It was so neat to have family and friends come down for the special day. Bella has been waiting for this day for a year. Benjamin and I have also been doing last minute cramming making sure Bella remembers everything that she has learned. First and foremost that after baptism she can always repent when she does something she knows is not right, and that those mistakes can be forgiven too. What a comfort that it doesn't have to last only a day.

Bella was baptised in the dress that I was baptised in and she and I made the dress she wore afterwards.

After the baptism we went over to Kartchner ponds for a barbecue, and thanks to cousin Madison a swim too. She went in the water and started the trend. The kids had a blast.

Mothers note to Bella:

Bella we love you so very much! You are the perfect older sister, always lovingly helping your younger siblings who adore you and you genuinely adore them too! Thanks so much for being an awesome example of always looking on the sunny side of life, your attitude is contagious! Keep up the great job we have all the confidence in you! XXXXOOOO

Tie Breaker

We thought that given this stage in our life it was a perfect time to have a baby. Why not we have such luxurious living conditions, three beds for six people, a port-a-potty conveniently located near our trailer and now running water. Heck a friend gave me a washing machine so I can do my laundry one load at a time right here on the property. Life couldn't be more stress free.


We are calling the baby our tie breaker. Right now we have an even number of boys to girls. So we will see which camp gets a new member. The tie breaker will join us late November or on Holman's birthday December 1st. On June 22nd if our little guy (yes I think it is a boy) is corroperating we will find out exactly who is "winning". Surprisingly that doesn't seem to far off to me.


I am just so thankful that the house is going to be completed by the end of November. Thank goodness who wants three to a bed anyway?

The answer is blowing in the wind

Goodbye tent, hello 55mph winds.

The winds have been getting stronger lately so we knew this was going to happen especially since the wind ripped the giant hole in the tent as seen in the picture.

Luckily we have cleared most of our items out like our couches, piano and all our clothing. We now have a new dressing chamber, that doesn't, at lest not yet, blow in the wind.

Goodbye tent, you made for such fun stories. I will not miss the smell you gave my clothes though.

Monkey See Monkey Do

It's official, Parkin has learned how to climb the playhouse and now he can sit on the roof just like his brother and sisters. He was very proud of himself as shown by him lifting up his shirt to show his belly, a gesture that he does when he thinks he should be rewarded. We of course tickle it, who could resist an open belly. The dismount I am told was quite eventful, Benjamin couldn't stop laughing,.

Better Than Fiction

In the early morning I woke up to a terrible nightmare. The kind that you can't go to sleep afterwards. I tried everything, sing a song, say a prayer, no relief to my suffering. I am so sick of dreaming, I hate the chases, the foreign lands, the spy's the old friends from elementary school and all other random things my mind comes up with. I will gladly trade the ability to fly for just a dreamless sleep.

Anyways because of the nightmare my day did not start off well. It didn't help matters that I remembered that Olivia was in charge of snack for her class (why do they need snacks again?). Now I not only need to make sure the girls are dressed the boys must be semi dressed as well, to go shopping to get the snack before school. Parkin never did make it out of his PJ's. Anyways I needed to do my laundry so I was racing to get that all ready to go. We make it to walmart, get the snacks for both girls (bella has it later this month, 2nd grade has snack rotation !) we check out and thats when I realize I left my debit card at home, so I can't get cash back, which i need to exchange for quarters at the laundry mat. I drop the girls off at school drive all the way home again and pick up my debit card. I have to go back to the walmart to get some random item so I can get cash back. We make it to the laundry mat and i drop the boys off inside and go back for the clothes baskets. I try to carry everything at once, and that's when my laundry soap hit the pavement and crushed the cap, spilling over half of the already low level laundry soap. I get all the loads started and have to guess with how much soap to use. Meanwhile the boys and I go back to the car to watch a show on our dvd player. Finally the washing is done. I start to put the clothes into baskets to transfer to the dryer and in walks a lady with a bunch of wet clothes in baskets and she proceeds to fill the remaining available dryers. ARRRG. So I wait for other dryers to become available..... Meanwhile a lady starts smoking outside, close to our open window movie theatre. I reach for the keys to role up the windows so we can role down the other side windows , only to realize I can't find the keys. Twenty minute late after I have gone through two trash cans ( because I always clean out the car while we are waiting) we find the keys on the back seat, giving the lady just enough time to smoke a pack and fill our car with her addiction. The dryers finally become available, the clothes dry, I start to fold them and I find Holman's PJ"S that he had peed the night before. I hold them close to feel the warm and notice they smell like hot urine..... I guess the measuring cup for laundry soap is actually important.

After we leave the laundry mat the boys and I go to the Library to request new books because the ones we want are never there; I over hear the librarian complain that he is having a very off day. I bit my lip and thought amen brother, amen.