A Week at the Meeks!

Monday to Monday, with the Mechams.

We had no school last Monday or Tuesday. As I mentioned in an earlier post J and B were visiting their mom so I was here with just the big guy and the 2nd to biggest guy for the entire time.

Our usual chaotic family night involved just the three of us. It was very peaceful and gave us an opportunity to enjoy just teaching Joe. We also grabbed a little something for dinner instead of the usual big dinner we make on Mondays.

Bret came back Tuesday to go hunting with Doug and we met up with Jenna Tuesday night at our ward volleyball game. By the way, we won and are now moving on to the championship game. Doug got back in time to go to Roundtable.

Jenna and Bret went over to the mom's Wednesday after much discussion about what to get her for her birthday, we settled on getting her a Red Robin gift card. Just try asking a kid what their parent likes to do. You will get the funniest answers, even from a 13 and a 12 year old. Somehow I don't think their mom needs another Magic Bullet...you know in case she wants to make a smoothie and a milkshake at the same time.

Wednesday night we had a joint activity for a super service scavenger hunt. It ended up being great. Joe invited inactive boy to come out and he did! Joe is the Teachers' president and Jenna is the Beehive president so they were both big in the planning of this activity. On another note, Joe 'remembered' at about 3pm Wednesday afternoon that he had a chemistry project due Thursday. The project involved creating a mole ( a mole is a unit of measurement). His mole had to be a character and involved SEWING!!! Now I can cook, but sew? Nooooooooo. His mole was Spidermole, and it took us a while to work it out, but we did.

Thursday night found me at a RS activity. It was a lot of fun even though I must admit, I was like, really, three nights out in a row is too much this week. We all brought food to share. I made a yummy creamy ham and potato soup, but my favorites were Darla's wheat chili and Cindy's cauliflower. We ate soups and painted Christmas decorations. A shout out to Katrina Hunter who put it all together. My stars were pretty lackluster, ( I am craft impaired) but I did get to see the handiwork of some really creative folks. Doug was home alone with Millie so they went out on a daddy daughter date and discussed her campaign. Millie is running for school historian. Joe, well he had lax, what else?

Speaking of lax, Friday night Joe tried out for the Vegas Starz lacrosse team. It was something he wanted to do, but we were unsure about his chances. There was about 80 kids for 36 spots and it was mostly older players. Many seniors and juniors were out there and Joe was one of a handful of younger sophomores. They sent the kids home and told them to check the website in the morning to see if they made it. HE did! He was very pleased and is excited about being part of this team. It means lots of trips. Doug and Bret are also excited as they accompany Joe on all of them!

Bret was off at a camp out with the scouts Friday night and got back late Saturday afternoon. His pal Coop broke his wrist on the bike ride. Ouch!

Jenna and Millie raked in the cash this weekend babysitting. Friday night they were over at McCormacks, Saturday they were watching the cousins over at my brother's house and Saturday early evening Millie went over to the Hancock' house to watch Jesse while they went out for a quick dinner.

Joe invited me out to lunch Saturday for a mother /son date. He said, 'I'll buy if you drive.' We went out and got some sushi at our favorite Sushi Bar. Joe had seen an ad that let him know it was customer appreciation day and all prices were half off. We ended up getting all you can eat sushi for $20.50 total for both of us. It was so cute when the tab came and my young man reached out and took the check. The waitress just grinned fro m ear to ear and so did I.

Later Saturday, I got all of my Christmas shopping done . Before you get too jealous let me explain, I got the gifts for everyone except the kids and Doug. Teachers, friends, visiting teaching gals, Doug's home teaching families and also, my folks and Doug's mom. I am so happy to have that finished! This weekend I will get them put together and put away in the storage room til it is time to give em away!

I also got my 10 by 10 recipes finished. Q.T. (Queen Tif), has started our ward on a new mission. If we all get the ingredients to make 10 dinners ten times in our food storage room we will have a three month supply of dinners. I have slowly been hammering away at this. Not just getting the recipes together, but also gathering the ingredients. Oh and by the way, I really like that Tif's new nickname can be CUTIE too , get it Queen Tif=QT=Cutie. Anyhow, more about this 10 by 10 idea in a later post.

Saturday night our neighbor's came over to practice a song for Sunday. Doug ended up playing the piano for hours while all the girls sang. Have I mentioned how much I love love love that he plays the piano. Madison and Grace sang for me in my Gospel Doctrine class Sunday. They did a great job!

Speaking of Doug, he spent a lot of the past weekend at work, but he was able to get some painting done. I figure we started the painting on Labor day and with the way both Doug and I operate, maybe we will be done by Memorial day.

Sunday we had a youth fireside over here. Again, Joe invited out that same boy from our ward, and he came. It went really well. You can only see about 1/3 of the gang in this shot. There was no way I could get them all in!

That brings me right back to Monday. Today we saw the dentist for teeth cleaning. Millie ended up having to go to the Doctor after school to have her check on a recurring stye.

Tonight for family night it was back to the chaos that I love. Millie planned a charades activity and we all had a lot of fun guessing the scriptures that we took turns acting out, with out any props. I talked to the kids about why we keep our eyes closed while we pray. What was born of an impromptu conversation with Bishop became a very meaningful lesson for our family.

All in all it has been another great week in paradise!

Oh and one more thing. Jenna won TWILIGHT tickets last weekend while at her Mom's house. I am glad she won 4 tickets because that made room for me and Millie to go with Jenna and her mom! Oh and I almost forgot the best part. We get to go to the show TOMORROW NIGHT!!!!!!!