Johnny's Birthday Photos

I found these photos when I was uploading some other photos. I guess I never put them on my blog! Johnny turned 11 this past March 7th. He was very excited to receive a Swiss army knife for his gift!

Johnny's Birthday Cake--11 years old!

The birthday boy! Isn't he a great looking kid?

Self Improvement Project

As part of one of my classes this semester, we had to take on a self-improvement project. I decided to try to increase my level of activity each day since I had become so obsessive about studying that I quit being as active as I needed to.

I put a pedometer on my shoe as a visual and auditory reminder to walk every day. I also made sure I wore my tennis shoes by putting them by my bed each day. I had a post-it note in my car to remind me to park further away from places I visited. I also arranged to walk with others a few times each week, but that didn't work out as well as I hoped.

I went from an average of 2,500 steps a day to an average of 6,500 steps a day and I'm still working on it! I wanted to post my power point for you, but apparently I'm not smart enough to figure out how to do that yet.

I'm going to continue until I'm getting at least 10,000 steps in four days a week. Because I'm coming up on the end of the semester, I'm going to need to find new ways to get walking into my schedule. I'm going to walk 2-3 days a week for about 3 miles. I'm also going to start the couch potato to 5k program again, which requires three days a week. We'll see if I can get past the painful shin splints and weak knees and actually get to the point where I can run 3 miles straight!

Craziness

We were supposed to go as a family to the Mormon Helping Hands project at Lost Lake today at 8 am. I was really looking forward to it! But then, Kelly told me she had a practice test for one of her AP classes this morning that goes from 9 to noon. After that, Joe told me that he has an AP Study session from ten to noon. (Both at different high schools.) So unless I want to drive back and forth all morning (an expensive idea), our plans have been dramatically altered. The kids will just have to do service for mom this morning. We have PLENTY to do!

We also have a fund raiser today for the kids summer camps. I'm on the meal committee and I'll be helping out with that late afternoon. During the fund raiser, I'll be helping in the kids room. After the fund raiser, the kids and I are on clean up duty. I'll try to post some photos, assuming I actually take any.

A Night at the Improv

Tonight Laine had a performance at Bullard Talent for her Improv group, known as "Off the Chain." It was a very entertaining evening with students ranging from 6th to 8th grade managing to stay on their feet in the various shows. The teacher kept things moving pretty fast!

It's such a great thing for Laine, who tends to be uptight about things, to have a venue to just let her hair down and do things spontaneously. She always looks like she's having a blast on stage!

Some of the students tend to monopolize the stage, though. It must be hard to be the teacher of the group, because you don't want to stifle the creativity, but at the same time, you want all the youth to have a chance.

Regardless, there was a lot of fun had by all! The audience was laughing like crazy, and the little children who came thought it was hilarious!

The Minuteman

Johnny played a minuteman in his class play about the American Revolution.

Tonight we went to Johnny's school to watch him play his part in his class play. It was a silly, musical play filled with puns and educational information about the American Revolution.

We enjoyed it! Even though we couldn't get Johnny to smile for his photo. :D

Singing in San Diego

Laine went this last weekend to San Diego for the Heritage Music Festival. They left Thursday and drove until late in the night. Friday was their performance day, stuck in their uniforms from 7 am until 10 pm. That's a long day for anyone! On Saturday, they had a little break...they went to Sea World. While on their trip, they also took in a show and a bay cruise, then returned to Fresno Sunday evening.

Everyone missed her! Even Johnny.

Dung

Has anyone else out there felt like their life is full of dung? Okay, I'm only half joking here...sometimes the things we have to deal with in our lives are not pleasant by any stretch of the imagination.

I started thinking about this a week or so ago. When we were reading scriptures as a family, we read the allegory of the vineyard, where the Lord is tending to his vineyard. He talks about all the things he has done to help his vineyard grow. One of the things mentions is that he "dunged" his vineyard.

Dung. As in poop. Fertilizer.

My kids laughed every time they read the word "dunged." They read it multiple times just for fun. And it started to dawn on me (yes, I'm special ed in religious education) that our lives are filled with dung. We see it as poop...stinky, negative, undesirable, bad stuff. Yet in the world of vineyards and gardens, dung helps plants grow vigorously, produce fruit/vegetables, adds color and strength to the plant. Is it possible that the dung in our lives is meant to do the same thing? Maybe instead of seeing our trials as dung, we could look at it as fertilizer.

Just a thought to consider. I need to go and get some dung for my garden.   :)

Joe's growing up (sniff, sniff)

Today Joe walked in the door from walking his little brother home from school and stunned me with the first words out of his mouth.

"Mom, guess what? A girl told me I was cute today."

I actually had to make him repeat it to make sure I heard him correctly.

The girl (he doesn't know her name and she isn't in any of his classes) told him this between lunch and the next period. He thinks she's cute, too. She asked him if he wanted to go out with her.

He told her he was Mormon and that even though he might like to, he won't date until he's 16.

(Sniff, sniff) Can you say proud mom? I knew you could.

Of course, I've always thought he was cute, but I admit to having just a touch of partiality.

Small Wins

We received a letter this week letting us know that our home no longer falls within the Fresno High school district. We are officially in the Bullard High school district now, thank heavens! Now I don't need to stress about Laine and Johnny not getting granted a transfer to Bullard High!

Yay!

I just checked in to the grade center at Fresno State and discovered that I received two perfect scores...one for my reflective journal in the Psychology of Aging class, and more importantly, a perfect score on my research paper in my Multicultural Aging class, which was a huge part of my grade. Yay!!

Almost makes up for a night of terror. The wind was blowing so hard last night that I had trouble sleeping. Another disadvantage to being alone...no kids at home, and no one to hold my hand and say, "Don't worry!" I did pray, though, and that was comforting. As soon as it's light, I'll need to go out and see if there was any damage.

Yesterday the kids and I worked at the bishop's storehouse. We just love it there. I'm so grateful that they put up with us.  Sometimes the bickering between the children can be annoying, but everyone takes it with grace and just redirects them into more constructive activities. I feel so blessed for our chance to serve there!

When we got home yesterday, the kids continued to work in the garden, which is making substantial progress. Another yay!

Conference Weekend

It's been such a wonderful General Conference weekend. Erin and Nick came for the weekend, and we watched all the sessions of conference, ate yummy food and played twister. We loved being together!

Yesterday morning, we ate French Toast, then went to clean the chapel after the morning session. When we got back, we hurriedly made roast turkey sandwiches and tuned in for the afternoon conference. It was raining in the afternoon, so I didn't get to finish weeding my garden. :(  For dinner, I made pasta, which was delicious. We also ate applesauce cake and red/black vines, though not together. Then Nick and Joe went to the priesthood session.

This morning was bacon and egg sandwiches. At noon, it was everyone for themselves (I had an apple and an orange), but at dinner, I made chicken noodle soup. Nommy, as my kids would say.

With the kids being home all week, I'd better get some food in the house. They've already eaten everything in the fridge in the past two days! I've been getting all the laundry done, too. It's a lot of work!! I think I'm going to make the kids wear the same clothes all week so we don't have to do any more laundry before school starts a week from Tuesday.