Copper Mine

Jabon and I are the proud new owners of a copper mine. It's wonderful! Our copper comes already in the form of a penny, so it is ready to use. As long as we don't mind digging in Ashton's poopy diaper for it, we are quite possibly set for life.

What a surprise it was for me to be changing his stinky diaper, only to find a treasure inside! :)

Bet you are all jealous and want one just like it.

Last week of 'freedom'

The next college semester starts back up next week. I am really NOT looking forward to it. I'll be taking two classes. My geography class will be on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 5:45 to 8:45 and then I will take a business management class online. This is my last semester to go if I want to stop at an Associates degree. I am not sure if I will be okay with that or if I want to go for the Bachelors. I am just so sick of school!!

I am exhausted just thinking of the next 5 months! Yuck! 7 credits in school, 40 hours of work a week, church responsibilities, 3 children + 1 dad to care for, dinners to make, house to clean, laundry to wash, groceries to buy, etc. I'm glad my husband helps out and that Cody and Brett are big enough to do some things as well.

Jabon is also taking two classes this semester. He'll do one on Tuesday nights and one online.

Since we have such a busy Springtime to prepare for, Jabon and I are making sure we spend time with each other before the chaos erupts. We're gonna go out on a date next week. That might not sound like a lot, but it is. Trust me!

Hopefully, your next few months will be more enjoyable than mine. Don't be surprised if you don't hear from me much during that time.

This week Jabon is up in Oregon for a work trip. It's also the first week of Christmas break. I wasn't quite sure what to do with my boys, so I called up my parents and asked them if they didn't mind some company for a few days. It's nice that they only live 2 1/2 hrs away now and spending a few days with Grandma and Grandpa is a possibility.

My parents live about 40 miles north of the Mexican border. With about 20 miles to go, we passed through the border checkpoint but didn't have to stop. Cody asked me what the checkpoint was for, so I explained how if you are coming up from Mexico the border patrol wants to make sure you are not carrying back up illegal items like drugs or smuggling people. He chuckled and pointed out how we didn't have to stop going down toward Mexico so we (the U.S.) must not care what might be smuggled IN to Mexico!

So all my boys are gone this week. Jabon gets home Thursday and Friday morning I will drive down to Ajo and spend the day at my parents house. The boys and I will return that evening.

What shall I do with my lonely evenings?

Monday night: Tonight. I went shopping. Now I am just watching a movie and staring at the presents that need to be wrapped.

Tuesday night: I am getting my hair done and then going to see a movie. My sister will join me for that. We should have fun!

Wednesday night: Going to my niece's birthday party.

Somewhere in all that I want to get done a few things that are not so fun:

• Cleaning my bathroom
• Putting away the younger boys clothes
• Picking up their room

I miss all my boys and will be so happy to have us all together again in a few days!

Another Thing...

I forgot to mention a really cool trip I got to take in October. Jabon is a wonderful photographer and he had planned a weekend excursion to Sedona, AZ to take fall pictures. Thankfully, he invited me to come! His brother, Brighton, flew in from North Dakota (where he was on a job assignment) and a guy from Jabon's work joined us. We went on a hike to West Fork and took some pictures. Below are a few that I took.


I made delicious foil dinners for us and we roasted Starbursts. Don't knock it until you try it. And you must try it! We ran across a few critters during the weekend up there. We had a few skunks visit our campground at night and hang out with us around the campfire, we walked the trail with a goat and almost crushed a tarantula scurrying over the rocky path.

It was a lot of fun and I, as the only girl, was glad to be included in this trip!

Late September to November 2010

There have been many great happenings at the Eagar household in the last few months. I hope I remember each of them as I rack my brain of the past.

The Doubling of the Priesthood
In mid-September Jabon received the Melchizedek Priesthood. In October, Cody received the Aaronic Priesthood. It is great watching my son pass the Sacrament each Sunday. A week or so ago Jabon helped bless the sacrament and Cody passed it. It's so cool to have them hold something so sacred together!

The Birthdays
We've had many b-days. I turned 30, Cody turned 12, Ashton turned 2 and Jabon turned 31. It's scary when your oldest is almost a teenager! I am hoping the horrors I gave my parents when I became a teenager are not going to happen with Cody! And, they probably won't. He's a good boy and wants to do good. I hope that doesn't change.

The Polar Express
One of the many perks we get with Jabon working at Intel are raffle tickets. This year, he won tickets to take the family on the Polar Express. We drove up to Williams, AZ just south of the Grand Canyon to meet the train. It was AWESOME!! The train crew wore the white chef outfits like on the movie, Christmas music was playing, there were Christmas lights and decorations galore. We boarded the 100 yr old train and took off for our '3722-mile trip' to the 'North Pole'. While traveling, we got cookies and hot chocolate and listened to the story of Polar Express. After an hour on the train, we came to a stop at the North Pole and waved at Santa through the windows. When it was time to return to the depot, we rode past where Santa had been standing , but wait! He's no longer there! Where has Santa gone??? He climbed aboard and sat and talked to each child on the train, giving each one a sleigh bell of their own. It was such a fun night and I am so glad Jabon's work does things like this and we got the opportunity to go.

The New Job
I know, I know. Another new job for Tara. But this one I am sure I'll keep for a long time to come! I am now working at a periodontics office and am their Treatment Coordinator. I have my own office (yay!) and am getting the hours I need. My last job was more part time and it was just not cutting it when it came time to pay the bills. This new job gets me 38-40 hrs a week, the doctors are stable, and everyone is actually nice! I am really enjoying being here.

The Sealing
November 23, 2010 will forever be a day of rejoicing for my heart, and not just because it's my dad's birthday. :) On this day, our family was in St. George, UT. My best friend and I were sealed as a couple for all eternity. No longer will our bonds of marriage be dissolved at death. Our 3 wonderful sons were also sealed to us, transforming our earthly family into an eternal family.

We were so happy to have as many members of our family (and some friends) spend this special occasion with us.

The 5K
In August, my sister Shelly introduced me to the C25K program. It's a training program for getting from your couch (the 'C') to (the #2) a 5k run. It's a great program I would advise anyone to use if they want to start running in preparation for a race or just to get in shape. You are supposed to run 3 times a day for 9 weeks and each week you move onto the next week in the training, which means longer runs. I haven't been able to do it consistently like that--sometimes only running once every week and a half. But I have vastly improved as a runner and actually ENJOY it!! For the last 4 years a neighborhood close to ours has hosted the 'Turkey Waddle'. It's a 5k run/walk where all the proceeds go to someone in need. This year the program chose a young girl named Breanna Pena. She is in our ward and was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia this summer. I wanted to test my new running abilities and as soon as I learned the run was benefiting Breanna, I signed up for it. I was pleasantly surprised to see my sister Shelly the morning of the run, as she decided she wanted to help benefit Breanna as well. As sisters, we took off and ran side-by-side. 34 minutes and 44 seconds later, we crossed the finish line together! I was super impressed with myself, as the longest time I had run yet was only 25 minutes and Shelly and I didn't stop or slow down once. In fact, as we got closer we increased our speed and then had an all-out race to the finish line. It was so much fun!


Inbetween all these great events Jabon and I still were working and going to school and taking care of our boys. Life is crazy and is not looking like it will slow down anytime soon, but I hope it doesn't take me 2 months again before I can at least blog a little. Maybe a little at a time will be better than a lot at a time? I don't know.

Luck Ran Out

As parents, we want our children to grow up as strong, good, and well-rounded individuals. So, we make sure to take them to church, set up play dates, encourage good friends at school, and sign them up for sports or karate or dance classes. Four years ago after we moved to Arizona, Jabon and I decided to sign Cody up in full contact football at the suggestion of my uncle. My uncle had been coaching my cousin's football team for a year or so (this particular cousin of mine is about a year older than Cody). Cody was 8 at the time. He was excited to play but has always been a little nervous about getting hurt. If you caught what I wrote up above, I said full contact football. That means full pads, helmet and tackle.

Cody has been steadily getting a little more aggressive each year, which is hard for him. Not only is he scared of getting hurt (he was never one to be on the bottom of the pile) but he is just not an aggressive type of person. He doesn't like conflicts or fighting. This attitude, thankfully, has allowed him to escape from injury besides the occasional bruising, sore ankles, and scrapes. Sometimes, not being aggressive enough can get you more hurt, so he was lucky. This year, for whatever reason, he has started to really let his vigor for football come through. Instead of hearing the coaches call out things like: "Eagar, where were you with that one?" or "Eagar, stay on your man!" we were hearing shouts of praise like: "Good block, Eagar!" and "Alright, Eagar!" Cody has been working hard and he loves when he can throw his teammates around and is known as one of the stronger guys.

So, naturally, it came as no surprise to me last night when I went to pick him up for football practice and found him standing on the sidelines with an ice pack on his hand. (I will insert here that normally either Jabon or I stay at his practice to watch but we were both at our church for a talent show). Upon inspecting his left hand, it was very easy to see where he got hurt. His thumb was so swollen that it looked like he shoved a golf ball under his skin in the palm side of his thumb. As I was determining whether or not Cody needed to be taken to the emergency room, I drove us back to the church house. I had taken Ashton with me to get Cody, so I knew whatever I had decided to do I needed to drop Ashton off. There was no way if I was going to pull an all-nighter at the ER that I wanted to drag along my 2 year old.

Cody and I showed up at the ER by 9:00 last night. We got through triage and x-ray in no time at all--30 minutes--and I was hoping that was a good sign. I was wrong. Way wrong. He was officially discharged at 12:30 this morning after waiting for hours to see the doc and have a splint made for his hand. I got to see the x-rays as they were being taken and it was pretty clear to me where the break was. I think x-rays are so cool!

I have to tell you this funny story: Cody and I were led into triage where the nurse took his vitals. Then the doc came in to determine his needs. He walks in the room and says, "Hi, Cody. So, what's going on?" Cody replies, "Oh, not much." I told Cody, "I think he wants you to tell him what happened." This made the doctor laugh and I heard a nurse on the other side of the curtain giggle. So we were teasing Cody by saying that we had just come in to say hi and see how their night was going. It was pretty funny, but you probably had to be there.

So, by the time we left the ER, went to the 24 hour Walgreens and got his pain med rx, and went to Walmart to pick up the half time snacks for his team's game today and got home, it was a little past 2:00 this morning. And of course, Ashton came in my room at 7:30 this morning to wake me up. I love getting almost 5 hours of sleep. It's so stinking refreshing. Do you feel my sarcasm? Hope it doesn't hit you too hard.

We will call the hand specialist Monday morning and schedule a follow up with him for this coming week. We hope all will go well and his bone will heal correctly and quickly. He may be out for the rest of the season, which is a bummer since their first game was last Saturday.

Cody with his splint on.

Here are the other two boys. I had to take a picture of them since a camera was out. They are not shy.

I know you've read a novel here, but I will tell you that Brett is really enjoying kindergarten. He loves to learn. I think his biggest fault is the fact that he doesn't want to do anything wrong so he is too hesitant to try to spell words for fear that it "won't be perfect!" Ashton is progressing with his talking. We can mostly figure out what he wants. He is really good at saying please, though sometimes it sounds like 'peas' and sometimes it sounds like he is letting air out of a balloon: 'psss'.

I just love my kids!

Random Eagar Tidbits

I have seriously slacked on my blog postings, I know. Considering my life, I don't feel too guilty. Tighten up your seat belts, because I am going to take you through a whirl of Eagar happenings!

Let's start with today. The boys and I went with my sister Shelly, her husband Josh, and their kids to the Saturday Kids Workshop at Home Depot. They made mini Foosball tables. They are really cute and the boys had a lot of fun! Once we got home, they decided to paint them. I don't have a pic of that, but please enjoy these:


All the kids with their projects (Brett, Cody, Nephew Matt Niece Abby, Niece Emma):


Now let's reverse to 8 months ago. Cody turned 11!! Yay!! It is amazing to think that I have an 11 year old child! When I meet new people and they ask me if I have any kids, then ask their ages it is fun to see them stumped when they hear I have an 11 year old. Makes me feel like I still look relatively young. I'll take that! Anyway, back to Cody. He really liked how I 'creatively' decorated his cake. I thought it was heck-a smart. I drew an 11 on a piece of paper, cut it out, then laid it gently over the icing and sprinkled a ton of sprinkles in it. Simple yet impressive. He will be turning 12 in just 4 short months and he is excited to become a Priesthood holder. He has also found a new interest in horses. See this post if you'd like to read more about that.

Now that my older sister is living just a few houses down from us, it is fun to have our families together and we do it often! Here is a picture of two of the youngest great-grandchildren of my Grandma Pearl (my mom's mom). She lives with my uncle about 15 minutes away. My Ashton is on the left and my niece Millie is on the right. They are exactly 2 months apart, Ashton being the oldest. This picture is a few months old:

Ashton and Millie love to play together. This is picture will take us back to the present time. This was taken in our backyard just a few days ago. Here, Ashton is pulling Millie in our old wagon.


And here is just a random pic of Brett and Ashton in their church outfits. I think they are so handsome!