50 Mile club

This weekend, Doug and Bret joined the deacons and a few other dads on a 50 mile bike ride in Carlsbad, California. The boys have been working on this merit badge for some time and now all of them have earned it! Doug only took one photo of the whole affair. Bret looking thrilled for the ride. It rained during the entire ride making it a little more difficult and loads more soggy.

YW New Beginnings

Hannah, Erin, Millie and ReganStake YW leaders


Em, Mary, Q and Hay

The older girls singing

Our newest girls

Look at Rooster's face. Jenna thinks it is pretty funny too!

Last Wednesday night we had our New Beginnings night for all of our girls. The focus of the night is the girls new to the program. We used 'Be the girl of your dreams' as our theme and all the girls and leaders came dressed in their pajamas. Even Doug and Bishop were all cozy. It ended up being a great night and everyone had a ball.

2nd annual Fatburger Triple King

Well, okay, so this year attendance was down. This because we didn't tell anyone, but still, MLK day means the Triple King challenge . Joey, Johnson and Doug all set out to eat the beast. Last year we had about 30 people show up and put it away. This year, these three fine eaters did it quietly, with an audience of only Millie and myself. Bret went over to visit his mom for the day, but I suppose we willbe taking him up there tonight to do one. Ketchup only, no cheese.

Next year we will have to make patches or something and invite folks to attend. Are you ready for the Triple King challenge?

FACEBOOK MANIA

So, if you have not yet signed up for facebook, I suggest that you do. Nothing compares to what I have been experiencing for the last 3 or 4 weeks. I signed up for facebook over a year ago. Maybe two. I was a total embarrassment to Joey, but I kept up with what he was doing on there through my participation. Anyhow, over Christmas break facebook exploded with members of my high school class. Every day brought a new friend request or two from the likes of a Chem class lab partner, a cheerleader from my squad, or even those who suffered alongside me in Algebra II. It is a regular High school reunion everyday.

Oddly, most, and I mean pretty much all, of my friends just recently started to have kids. I am not talking about just my 'inner circle' of friends either. I am talking about the whole big group of kids I went to school with. One or two of them have an oldest child that is a year or two younger than Millie, but the rest, they all have toddlers and infants. Really. My best high school pal has two boys. I believe they are 6 and 4. Other friends have children that are even younger. Infants and two year olds. It is really interesting to me. Most of them have been married for 10 to 15 years but are just getting started with children. I can hardly imagine getting started now with little ones. I am thinking college and they are thinking preschool. Doug and I have considered having just one more child, but lately, I have been thinking we are too old for another one. Not just Doug and me, but all of us. I mean, if I had one today even, that child would not be in Kindergarten until Millie and Bret were seniors in High school. So realistically, the child would start kindergarten the year Millie and Bret started college. You know, starting cub scouts when Bret left for his mission and leaving for his mission when Joey was 35 years old. Wow, too freaky. I can't even imagine.

Anyhow, Facebook has been a blast. Connecting with friend after friend, and hearing all of their stories. It is so exciting to see their pictures and their children. In my mind, all of my High school friends are still 18. Seeing them at 40 has caused me to smile and think, that so many of us become our parents. One gal in particular. Looking at her is like looking at her mom. I wonder if my old friends are thinking the same of me. I hope so since my mom is adorable. ;-)

One thing for sure all of my friends want to know about my parents. Everyone always loved them. Many Friday nights my friends and I would spend hours on the coaches at my folks house watching movies. My dad always cooking up a storm. Big breakfasts before the games found us in my kitchen, and lots of nights I would arrive home from a date to find many of my 'guy friends' talking sports or college choices with my parents.

I hope that years from now, Doug and I are remembered by the friends of our children with such fondness.

So this was exciting; In one day I got friend requests from 3 people who all attended grades 1-12 with me. Talk about memories. It's like coming home.

From this week's WSL web report:

SAN DIEGO – Team 510 came to the 2009 Adrenaline Challenge with a roster full of players who are used to playing against each other.Berkeley, Piedmont and St. Mary’s are league rivals during the spring, but this weekend they came together to form a Bay Area all-star team.
“At first, it was a little weird,” said St. Mary’s attackman Connor Jackson. “But then the rivalry just kind of disappeared.”Winning will do that. Jackson finished with a game-high three points on a goal and two assists to lead 4th-seeded Team 510 to an 8-3 victory over the Las Vegas HS Starz in the championship game of the boys high school division.Attackmen Robby Inch and Matt Dobbes each added two goals, middie Jon Chee had a goal and an assist and dominated on face-offs and Trevor Wolf and Zeal Levin each added goals for Team 510, which finished the event with a perfect 6-0 record. And, for the record, that’s pronounced “Five, One, Oh,” after the local area code.In a losing effort, Joe Mecham, Harrison Krueger and Kieran Eissler all scored one goal for second-seeded Las Vegas, which went 5-1.
The game was tied, 1-1, about midway through the first half when Jackson scored the go-ahead goal to spark a seven-goal run. About seven minutes after Jackson put Team 510 up 2-1, Wolf extended the lead to two goals when he stole the ball from Las Vegas goalie Conner DeVane with a stick check and then beat DeVane with a low shot.Chee made it 4-1 just 10 seconds later when he won a face-off, streaked down the field and scored.By the time Inch scored his second of the game with 12 minutes remaining, Team 510 led 8-1.“It’s fun to play with these guys,” Jackson said. “We just clicked. There was nobody who wanted to be the star. Everyone had confidence in each other. Everyone has real good stick skills. I think it was just a real good combination of people.

So even though they didn't win the whole thing, they did very well. There were over 30 teams and the boys from Vegas were outstanding. We are really proud of Joey for being part of the Vegas Starz. He had a great time at the tournament and played very well for his team. He can always be counted on to score a few and is very generous with the ball, getting just as many assists. We are looking forward to the season ahead and those yet to come.

Final exam week

Already half way through this school year. I can hardly believe it. Blog friends, say an extra prayer for all the kiddos you know in Vegas. Exams are this week and it can be difficult for some. I have a few in my own house whose score on the exam could mean the difference between an A or a B in certain classes.
If you are a mom or dad and living in Vegas let me give you a few pointers from my many, many years as a learning strategist:
Make sure your kids get enough sleep this week.
Eat good food and be sure to eat a good breakfast including fresh fruit and protein.
Eliminate stress by getting everything ready for school the night before. Nothing brings down a child more than a morning filled with "Hurry up! Find your backpack! We are late!"
Just as your child is ready to leave, tell them to do well. Tell them you know they can and that they are smart.

Sounds simple, right? Well, it is simple and it really will help.

...By small and simple things

Happy exams!

Really a miracle..Really

Off of my list.

FINAL EXAM- done. Ready to be copied and handed out next week to 150 little boys and girls who learned lots about Food and Nutrition this year. It is a long story and I have no time right now to explain it, but I am GRATEFUL that HE watches out for me.

Joy Joy Joy!

Back to school and...

...Lacrosse and basketball and cheerleading and NJHS and volleyball and student council and young men/scouts and young women and...

Carpooling. Dee called me tonight in a panic. The reality of scheduling carpooling for this season's many, many activities has finally set in.

Saturday is a special day

I gotta tell you. Today is a rather sad day for me. You see, last Saturday and the Saturday before I felt literally no pressure to be DONE with everything on my list. I knew I had Monday just a'waitin for me on the other side of Sunday. Mondays that meant both sleeping in til about 8am and getting ready at a leisurely pace to do what needed to be done. Whether it be grocery shopping, or doing laundry, or cleaning the bathroom. It would get done, just later. Back to school for me means EVERYTHING has to be DONE today. Monday, on just the other side of Sunday, is a work/school day. Up at 5 to get oldest son breakfast and off to seminary and then out the door by 6:40 myself with the carpool gang. The upcoming season is one of particular chaos for us because it means lacrosse is in full swing. Starting this week, all 4 kids have sports 2 nights and youth activities on one night. Joey is gone next weekend to San Diego for a tournament and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Bret, Jenna and Millie all have there own agendas including sports and school activities, all of which require taxi service care of yours truly. It really does not quiet down til the end of May. Do I love all of this? YES. Is it a little crazy at times? Uh huh. Would I trade it? Nope, not for a million bucks.

So today, I say good bye to leisure, although I do think leisure rules (Ferris Bueller, 1986), and hello schedules.

I resolve

Resolutions about exercise and weight always seem to get lost somewhere in about the first week of February. Resolutions about having a perfect, planned and ready FHE last til about mid January when the kids start cracking up during one of my canned lessons and we scarp the whole lesson and just sit and talk about something the kids want to discuss. So this year I am just making one resolution that is not a 'give up chocolate' or 'do more family history' kind of thing...This year I just want to continue trying.

Trying at lots of stuff. I want to keep trying to be the best wife and mother I can be. I want to keep trying to be a good friend. I want to keep trying to be a good YW leader and teacher. I want to keep trying to learn new things and keep trying to read a lot. I want to keep trying at so many things that my list could go on forever. That is it for me...2009. Just keep trying to do my very best.

New year's eve

Every New Year's eve we spend the night with good friends at the Moody's house. I laughed and said, "All of these photos are the same as last year, we just have on different outfits.
The girls always spend the night at the Ellsworth's and all the boys always have a shin-dig over here. Now that the girls are old enough to babysit, the Ellsworth house has changed a little and here, well, Joey is no longer in on the action. He has bigger fish to fry over at the dance, but Bret kept the tradition going with all his pals.
At midnight, the few, the proud, the TRUE polar bears jump in.

Happy New Year!

The babysitters

The 'boy party' at our house

The grown up game night at Moody's

The plunge... as the clock struck 12

Me

Bret

Doug's splashThe Ellsworth's (is this cheating?)

Fun was had by all. The morning brought a whole new batch of jumpers. Jenna and Millie made it in and Joe will go tonight when it gets dark and COLD again. The Moody's actually ran out of patches which means there were over 100 jumpers. Quite a change from 6 years ago when just our little crowd was jumping in.

Jenna's splash

Millie in the cold pool
Happy New Year!