"A pair of hop-along boots and a pistol that shoots
Is the wish of Barney and Ben
Dolls that will talk and will go for a walk
Is the hope of Janice and Jen
And Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again"
Back to School
The kids were back in school bright and early on Thursday, January 2nd. Mallerie left with Matt in the morning so he could take her to the airport. It was just me...but not for long!
The Wassons and Caciques had tubing tickets and they needed a place for the babies. I was so happy to have them.
I didn't realize how non-baby proof my house is. Everything is down low, breakables included. However, nothing is terribly precious and I wasn't worried. Laurie seemed a bit alarmed though, "Maybe let's just bring them downstairs instead." I said, "Well...the kids are in the middle of a 500-pc puzzle, and Ava has all her beads spread out..." Upstairs was actually the safer place.
I brought up a box of toys for the baby boys.
Justin brought Orien in the back door and Ademir brought Danilo in the front door. I found it interesting that the babies remembered which door their dads left out of, and would periodically stand at "their" door.
Storytime...
They both did pretty well! When the dads came to pick up their boys, everyone else stayed in the car. It was a whirlwind of toys being put back in the box, diaper bags being re-packed, and babies being whisked away, "Thanks so much Auntie," and they were off. I'm not sure where they all had to go but they sure peeled out!
Ha! I got chuckling to myself for the rest of the day. What if when they came to get their kids, I had a big cocoa bar set out for them and I was pulling cookies out of the oven. I could just picture them going back out to the car, "Guys, we have to go in and chat..."
Bwahahahaha.
Ice Sculpting Tour
Wasatch County is where all the winter fun is!
Callie and I went to the Kholer Creamery and saw the ice sculpting exhibits.
As we drove through Midway, I had to pull over and capture this sky! Oh myyyyy! I was happy to see this sunset was featured on the front page of the Wasatch Wave the very next week!
Callie showed me her paper snowflake attempt, so I showed her mine...
"But the prettiest sight to see is the holly that will be
On your own front door"
Look how sweet! The Beehive Young Women's class showed Callie some love. I knew they were coming, so I tried to distract Callie. She could hear something going on on the porch.
This gesture was so sweet of them.
Coulda bawled again.
On January 2nd while we ate dinner, Callie asked me, "So when can I go to the temple?" I said, "How about right now?" It was a Thursday night so I figured there wouldn't be a wait. I didn't want her first experience to be sitting in the chapel for hours. I was right, there were just a handful of people there so, no wait!
It was neat that we could both be witnesses. I asked her if she wanted me to go first so I could wait for her, or if she wanted to go first and wait for me. She kept going back and forth and then said, "I'll go first." After I entered the font, I looked up to see her, but saw that she was long gone. This made me smile, she does her own thing. Matt later reminded me, "She's you." It was the sweetest thing to be in the temple together. We were home and in bed by 9 pm. After-all, it was a school night.
Saturday, January 11, 2020
Later in the month, after our family temple trip, we went to the mall to get Graham some new shoes. Big Al's (actually, I think it is just called Al's, but I like Big Al's better) has some great shoes!
After Graham chose this pair, I snapped a photo. He mumbled, "Ah geez, you're going to be one of those moms?"
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| Graham in his size 9 1/2 shoes |
Later, when I told him goodnight, I explained, "It isn't that I have to take a picture of everything, I just wanted to document the day that your feet measured larger than dads."
He smiled and nodded, "Ahhhhh."
Even though his feet are a 9 1/2, he's still okay with us referring to him as one of the babies. Well, I don't know if he's fine with it, but he doesn't object. One evening, after Graham and Callie got some food at Taco Bell, Matt was trying to figure out dinner. I told Matt, "The babies already got Taco TIME." Graham looked at me with an annoyed expression. I thought, "Busted, I can't be calling them the babies anymore." Graham responded with, "It was Taco BELL."
Phew!
Phew!
As all tweens, Graham gets a hankering for fast food. I, on the other hand, just like to eat at home. One Monday night he requested a FHE treat. I looked in the kitchen to see what I could make, "Let's see, I have some apples," I said. He complained, "Quit being so resourceful!" In the end, he didn't mind my warm apple crisp one bit.
Saturday, January 11th was Scarlett's first temple trip. Their family had already gone to the Provo Temple by the time we got down the canyon so she met us at the Provo City Center Temple and did more baptisms. The temples were nutso. At one point during the day, the Provo temple had to use the cafeteria as part of the waiting room. They kept running out of extra small jumpsuits. These little 11-year-olds are just so anxious!
I was at the temple on a Saturday as a patron instead of an Ordinance Worker. I saw a lady from my Tuesday shift who was volunteering that day. She asked me, "Who are you subbing for?" I looked at the card for the women I was going through for, "Christine Hertzel." She got it!
Play Ball!
County Ball. Grayson loves it. He plays on Tuesday nights so sometimes I come straight from the temple. Sometimes, I go home first and grab kids. The littles seem more interested in playing with each other than watching the game.
Grayson sure loves it. Playing ball that is. On Thursday nights he gets to play again at...
Church Ball!
While Ava was looking at this picture that I took at Grayson's game (he is way off to the left side) I said, "It's hard to get him in the shot."
She suggested, "Move the camera."
"Oh."
The energy at the church games is so blah! They need some music, or artificial cheering, or something. Grayson said his friend sunk a three! Silence. As his friend ran down the court, he said to himself, "Yaaaay! Good Job!" and gave himself a little fist pump.
Reverence is more than just quietly sitting...it's cheering your team on the court...
Grayson still follows all things sports. He reads articles about stats and players and discusses them at length with his friends. This probably takes away from homework time, but he found a way to make it count for both. He was supposed to turn in his English notes to be graded. Unfortunately, he missed the part where he was supposed to save his notes and had promptly thrown them all away. He became resourceful by copying and pasting a BYU Basketball article into a word document and stapling it on top of a bunch of his math papers. He turned it in and got full credit. Whatevs.
Grayson was the one who told me the tragic basketball news...
How can we write about January and not mention Kobe Bryants death?
I think it is one of those things where everyone will remember what they were doing when they found out. I was making dinner. That night we had delicious stew, and then watched "The Sound of Music" downstairs. Kinda sad. The Hills Are Alive, but Kobe is not.
RIP –– Jan 26, 2020
I think it is one of those things where everyone will remember what they were doing when they found out. I was making dinner. That night we had delicious stew, and then watched "The Sound of Music" downstairs. Kinda sad. The Hills Are Alive, but Kobe is not.
RIP –– Jan 26, 2020
Christmas Take-down
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| Callie is moving swiftly through the Harry Potter series. Thankfully, we got a brand-new set for Christmas! |
We left the living room tree up through Valentines, but the basement tree came down mid-January, much to Callie's sorrow. Good thing we could play the mini-series of Pride and Prejudice while we wound lights.
January is a Jane Austen kind of a month. I re-watch it every year!
Student Council
Callie decided to run for Student Council. She has wanted to run every term but she thinks about it too late and never has a poster, or an idea for a poster, by the time election day comes around. But this term, she was serious. I asked her what some of the kid's posters were like in the past—the kids who won. She said they all had to do with class inside jokes. I asked what her class teases her about. She said, "POE!" Her teacher calls her such things as, "Lover of Poe." Well then, Poe definitely needed to be on the poster.
Do you like my Poe-ster?
As her teacher unrolled the poster to hold up for class he chuckled, "Very funny..."
For Callie's speech, she had it written out on papers, like subtitles. Instead of talking she meowed.
Oh yeah, I knew this cat campaign would be in the bag.
Nailed it.
She felt bad because her dear friend, who was also running, obviously didn't win. I asked what her friend's campaign slogan was. "Don't be a turd bucket, vote for me."
Ouch.
Continuing Education
Speaking of sub-titles. Here is a screenshot of my Spanish homework. I go to the elementary after school on Thursdays for an hour lesson from Callie's Spanish teacher, Maestra de Espanol. Some other moms and teachers are in my class, clasé. It's been very interesting for me to use this rusty part of my brain.😝
Wednesday nights are different for me now. Instead of bustling out the door for Young Women's, I am left home alone! Ava usually works, and the rest are at youth night.
So one Wednesday night in January, I attended an Envision Heber meeting. With all the rapid growth that has come to our valley, there is a committee trying to put together a plan for the future. After the presentation, we could go to the different stations and rate what concepts are most appealing to us. We would then stick a star next to the ones of most importance. We could also write our own suggestions on sticky notes. I liked my suggestions so much, that I stuck my stars to my own notes.
The meeting was held across town at a different elementary school.
Look at this Chihuly made from water bottles!
What a blessing it is in my life to have a reason to study the gospel on a deeper level each week since being called as the Gospel Doctrine teacher. I always feel like I am cramming for a final. Matt asked, "Do you need to study so much?" In class, I don't have time to present nearly all I've learned, but I still like to learn all I can. Class discussion is still my favorite. I at least want to know what people are talking about!
I mean, under what circumstances would I study Hebrew customs in the 7th century? And why else would I make a map of the Arabian desert?
This year's Come Follow Me is The Book of Mormon, "Yaaay!" (little fist pump).
The Tonight Dough
I hadn't heard from Katrina in a while, and knowing she had been sick, I texted her, "Hello?" She texted back immediately, "I'm in line for Jimmy Fallon!"
I watched later that night, and sure enough, there she was in the audience.
Katrina texted me, "I've made it! I've made it in New York mom!"
I showed Callie this picture and asked if she knows who Jimmy Fallon is. She was practically offended, "Yeah! I got the Tonight Dough once!"
January Blahs
With the decorations down, and Mallerie's laughter gone, January seemed extra gloomy. This seemed to affect Ava the most. One night, while Matt and I were in our room we could hear that she had a friend over. Matt asked me who it was. I didn't know, but I answered, "I don't care if it's the Grim Reaper...Ava's laughing!"
I suggested that we hit the bowling alley on a Saturday night. It was league night, so we just had dinner instead. It's what to do with tweens on a Saturday in Heber City.
Clay Pigeon Shooting!
Matt went with the Deacons on their January class activity. Since it was a Saturday and Grayson didn't work, I asked him if he wanted to go with them. I was somewhat surprised when Grayson said, "Sure." I found out later that Grayson thought it was only Matt and Graham who were shooting. He was a little surprised to see the Deacons there. I said, "I bet they loved that you came. The younger boys look up to the Priests." He admitted, "They all did better than me though."
Book Club book:
It was a good one. I think Graham would really enjoy reading it since it touches on the WWII era.
Graham is also still obsessed with air-soft...he just doesn't have anywhere or anyONE to play with. After school one day, when his friend invited him over, I happily said, "I'll take you!" Enough snow had melted that they could finally play outside. When we got to his friend's house, Graham went to the door to see if their other friend was there yet. Graham came back to the car and said sheepishly, "I guess we were supposed to pick him up." This would take another 15-minutes but who cares! "Hop in, we'll go get him." I picked up the friend and they both were excited to get their air-soft on.
And maybe I was a little excited too.
Graham returned the favor soon after by accompanying me to the grocery store, where we shopped for our neighbor who is legally blind. On our way out of the store, another January sunset bedazzled us. January sunsets can't be beat.
And yet...we weren't terribly disappointed to be moving on to February!
