Family Olympics

This video is from our Ward party on Friday night. We had a family olympics theme. We did a torch run, balloon release, and then played nine different games together as family teams. When everyone was finished playing the games, we met back in the gym for a closing ceremony presentation. This video was the closing ceremony. It was the debut as well as the closing tour of the Royal II Ward Syncronized Swimming team. Incidentally, our family did not win a medal. We sure laughed hard all night long though. It was a great activity and we had a great time.

On Thursday, my 8th-grader and I went on a fieldtrip to the amusement park Silverwood in Hayden, ID. We had a fun time even though it rained some. We left the school at 6 am and returned at 9:30 pm. Ugh. That's a long time on the bus, about 3 hours each way. I ended up riding the water ride with the kids at the end of the day even though I hadn't planned on doing that. So, my ride home was a little damp while they all had clothes to change into.

Kai gave a talk in church today. His topic was how the Aaronic priesthood blesses his life. He quoted a story that taught that holders of the Aaronic priesthood have more power than the President of the United States because his power comes from the voters and is limited to a 4-year term. An Aaronic priesthood holder's power comes from God and will be with him a lifetime, as long as he remains worthy. Kai said he feels closer to Heavenly Father and has a greater desire to do good and be good since he received the Aaronic priesthood one year ago.

What? One entire month since a post? That just tells you where I've been: away from the computer! Who's got the time?

We've been to ball games and glad to be done with the middle school season. It's been so fun to watch them improve their game this year. I've even had a request for AAU softball! That's how much they have loved playing ball.

I signed up the oldest three to be on a swim team this summer. We've watched our friends do it the last few summers and we 've never been able to do it but this year worked out. So, we're going to give it a shot! 2 hours of swimming every day.

We went on our annual shrimping trip a couple of weeks ago. We had a great time, again! My parents were able to come with us again. We're always so glad to have grandparents along to share our adventures with us. We went one day earlier than we usually do. That meant that we could go out Thursday morning earlier than we have before. The weather was not so great that morning and I got sick as well as my Dad. My mom was able to fight it off and never did throw up. Our 14-year-old and Justin had to really run the show that morning. Our almost 13-year-old was helping out on our friend's boat. Dad helped out as much as he could but our daughter and Justin had to do it all. I layed in the chair and tried to stay warm. Even with plenty of layers, I just could not get warm and shivered every time I had to move. When I finally was able to get off the boat, I headed up the floating dock to the stationary ground. The first thing that I found were two flat cement rocks. I have never been more happy to see rocks. I was so happy to see rocks that my body just layed right down, stetched out, spread the blanket over me and soaked in the warmth from the sun. I finally felt relief laying on the rock. I didn't think I would ever want to leave those rocks. I loved laying on the rock.The next day Mom and I were talking about it and she pointed out that that was so much like life. We get tossed about from one thing to the next and even at times become unhappy and miserable from the trials and tribulations and storms that life brings. If we can learn to find our Savior, plant our lives firmly in the Gospel, keep our covenants, and endure to the end, He will temper our sorrows and bring peace to our hearts.

More FYI: We bought a few more goats and Justin's looking at buying a few more still. The kids have named them all and are starting to love them. I hope they can part when the time comes.

I can't even think of what else to update on so I'll just have to try to log on every day when I think of things.

Last Saturday I ordered a hat and a headband with interchangeable flowers for my girls from sillygoosegifts.com. They arrived on Tuesday, even after I paid for the slow shipping! Wow! They are so super cute. Of course, they both wore them each day since then. I had to include a pic because I just love them. Because they are crocheted and knitted, they are soft to wear. I am planning on ordering several more flowers for the headband.

The other arrival this week was our 4th grade state history book, made by our 4th grader. She made it in conjunction with a state history quilt. So, of course, I had to include pics of that too. She is very proud of all her hard work and if is great to have something to show how much she learned. She'll also have better retention because she can look at the quilt and book and remember the things that she learned. Each picture on the quilt were drawn by her and represent a topic that she learned about. Each page in the book explains one of the pictures on the quilt. This project was a total pain and we wanted to just quit a few times but we are so very glad that we didn't quit. We love the book and the quilt and feel it was definitely worth the work. This summer, the quilt will be on display along with the other 4th graders from WAVA who also completed this project at the State History museum in Tacoma.

As long as I'm reporting on work accomplished, this just in: 52 quarts of applesauce in 8 hours. Jen and I worked all day yesterday and we finished 52 quarts by about 5:00. She kept 24 processed quarts and some for the fridge. I kept 25 quarts and some for the fridge. Yipee! I was visiting with the tellers at the bank last night and they asked how much I had made. When I told them, they called me crazy. I suppose it may seem crazy but I can't tell you how much I have fallen in love with food storage the last few years. I love having food on hand and not having to worry about if we will be able to eat for the next month if some aweful disaster were to happen and we couldn' t buy food. There is a feeling of peace that comes with having food storage, or it could just be peace as a result of obedience to modern-day prophets. I bet it's both. Either way, I love it.

Jen was worried about my kitchen. I wasn't. I thought I'd post a picture of it at it's wost yesterday, in the heat of the battle. The floor was terribly sticky by the end of the day and therefore collected a ton of dirt (the pic does not do it justice). My awesome wonderful kids did a lot to help clean up, including mopping the floor on their hands and knees. I had to leave for a wedding reception so, I couldn't help them. I'll finish what they didn't get done this morning.

Free dinner!

Tonight we ate dinner at the Chinese restaurant in Othello. When the waitress brought our take home containers she said that there was no bill because the man who had been sitting next to us had already paid for us. We were shocked! I hadn't recognized the man and so I asked the waitress who he was. She didn't know but thought that he was just passing through town. Then I asked if I should be nervous (I was alone with the kids). She said she thought he was just being nice. The kids wondered why someone would pay for a stranger's dinner. I have to admit, I watched my rear view mirror as we drove out of the parking lot, just to be sure we weren't being followed. I'm so paranoid. We went for dessert at the ice cream place we've been hearing about. It was yummy ice cream. What a super fun evening we had! Please tell me if this has ever happened to you so that I don't feel so abnormal and I can feel comfortable again. The waitress said that it happened to her one time at the fast food drive through. She pulled up and the worker said that the car in front of her had paid for her order.

Spring Break

We had our spring break last week and so the kids and I headed out to visit family. For the first part of the week we went to my sister's house in Utah. We had a fun time there, despite the snow. We were able to hang out with all my siblings and had a great time with them. We wish so much that we could do that more often. We painted my nephew's room (still waiting for a picture from my sister), took the kids bowling, visited my grandma, and ate dinner with everyone at the burger/pizza place where I had my first job (and my first firing; still great burgers!).

For the rest of the week, we headed to Rexburg, Id and more snow. Did I mention that this was SPRING break? Again, we had a great time with cousins. We played at the high school gym (Justin's brother is the principal), played at one cousin's house, went to another cousin's house, visited the cemetary to find family graves (I have ancestors from Rexburg area), told the kids stories about our ancestors, toured the college campus a bit, found the picture of my graduating nursing class on the wall in the nursing department, hunted easter eggs in the high school band room (remember the snow?), and played games until midnight.

Whew! and now we're home again and trying to remember how to work. Not having very much luck, although we are doing better as the days go on. I actually cleaned a bathroom today and washed up the baseboards in the entryway. Okay, that's only because the kids' ball games were cancelled and I had extra time at home. Otherwise, nada.