4-13-08 Week in Review

PICTURES HAVE BEEN ADDED....YEAH!!!

Well, we had a great week! (disclaimer - I wrote this over the course of two days and tried on the first day to sound like it was really the second day so when the second day (today) came and It was time to finish up there where new things to add thus the seemingly disjointed rants at the end of a couple of the following updates.) Moving on...

Okay - 2nd disclaimer, blogspot is not letting me load up all my pics to this blog so it's looking kind of sad. I am working on the problem. Okay, moving on again...

Ryan - Ryan got the garden in the ground! Yeah! This year we are growing everything you need to make salsa (tomatoes, green peppers, many hot peppers, spices, etc.), squash, zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, onions, pumpkins, cantaloupe, flowers and a few other things I can't think of. Bring on the rain! Ryan also got our "new" Camry mostly running (It only ran backwards when we got it.). But 36 miles per gallon backwards is much better than anything we're getting on the other cars going forwards! Oh, Ryan just reminded me of something else....so we're at a friends house and they pull out the Wii. So Ryan's playing Tennis and hurts his shoulder. He claims it was because Jim threw a curve ball at him and he wasn't expecting it. My husband is getting so old! Ha ha!! Good thing I love him so much!

Christy - I gave away all my clovers then ended up going on a huge clover hunt this week as there were MANY folks who requested some. Luckily, I have a knack for it.
People who requested clover:

1. An avid collector of clover
2. A cheer leading team going to Nationals and then on to World competition (40 clovers)
3. A lady who's son and his best friend have life threatening rare disorders. She's framing a picture of the two of them and surrounding it with clover (30 clover)
4. And 3 for a man who's mom had her eye sight turned worse after surgery, his girl friend was just diagnosed with psoriasis, and he just got robbed at gun point and got a broken nose.

Dade mowed the lawn on Saturday so I guess that's all the clover for a bit (actually I found abunch of little baby 4-leaf clovers that were too short to be mowed down - I expect that makes them SUPER lucky!). At least it's not taking up space on my book shelf anymore!! I did make some more headway in the computer room. I spent a day and a half scanning all the family photos that have been sitting on these shelves for years waiting to be archived. My poor scanner is tired! It groans now and has gotten a bit slower, but I'm the same way so I can't complain. I found pictures I'd never seen before and in one of the pics from 1982 I saw a family friend with a video camera!! I'm going to try to look them up and see if they actually have the video. That would be so cool!

Dade - Dade started new classes in school this week. He's taking a roller blading class, a personal fitness class, and a painting class. That's 2 PE's! It's going to work out well though because he's going on a Pioneer Trek the beginning of the summer and they've encouraged all the kids to start an exercise regimen. Every year the youth from our church commemorate the journey of the early members of our church who traveled across the US to find safety in the Utah Valley. The youth give up all modern conveniences, dress for the time period and push and pull home made handcarts with all of their belongings along mountain trails for several days. The experience is highly spiritual and very physically demanding. I'm glad he'll be getting all this exercise to get him ready. He's also been working in scouts this week to make a home made catapult. He got his report card Friday and made 4 A's and 2 B's. He's really a very good student and I'm very proud of him! A woman came by Saturday to pick up some clover and commented on the amazing manners of the young man who answered the phone. He's really growing up fast. So fast, in fact, that I'm traumatized! So we go to buy him wrist guards for roller blading class and they have only 2 sizes - Child and Youth. So, I, of course, go for Youth because he is one and even though he's super skinny I'm hoping they won't be too big. Well...they're way too small!! Is he not a youth? Who are they to say that he's an adult because he's not! I find it extremely unfair that the marketing industry is deciding for parents when their children can advance to the next level of grown-upidness (yes, I made it up). There apparently must be another size that they failed to shelve called In Between (I just figured out the whole "Tween" label). It seems all the time lately I'm singing that song from My Turn on Earth that says, "I'm not ready...." Anyway, despite Target's marketing need to convince my son that he is in fact something more than a Youth I refuse to comply and have lovingly convinced him that he simply has big wrists that hopefully his future wife will love as much as I do.

Corben - Corben started baseball this week!! Yeah! He's on a local team called the Diamondbacks. He's never played before but is expecting to go Pro. He struggled a bit with getting to the ball during the first practice and needed some extra help with batting but the couches were GREAT! and very encouraging. They gave him some great suggestions and promised to work with him first at the next practice. He had so much fun and I'm really looking forward to this season! (I took pictures the whole practice so the coach has asked me to take pictures the whole season...fun!) Saturday Corben was out there in the yard practicing his swing and getting to the ball. I know he'll do great! He also got his report card today and got three 4's and two 3's!! A lot of teachers don't like to give out 4's but Corben is really a great student and I'm thankful his teacher doesn't hold him back. Corben has a Baptism Preview tonight that he's going to. Children in our church can be baptized when they reach the age of 8 years and so they're having a get together for all the children who turn 8 this year to let them know what it will be like and to help them get ready. Corben is really excited. First thing he said in the new year was, "This is the year I get to get baptized!". I sure do love my wonderful kids!

Ella - Ella is starting to talk in full sentences....of gibberish. But it shows that she's closer still to getting those real words out. She'll talk to you for five minutes never using the same made up word twice. She's also really into her picture books right now. She'll sit forever flipping pages pointing to each item and wanting me to repeat it's name. She'll sign the ones she knows and say the word if she can. She's really good at pointing to the correct object if I ask her to which shows she's really understanding a lot more than she's able to communicate.

Sylvie - Sylvie's had a rough week with teething and Ella picking on her. She's been really fussy all week but it hasn't slowed her down! She's pulling up on everything but sometimes cries if she can't get back down. Her bottom two teeth should be coming through any day now, I'm hoping sooner than later. She's almost completely weaned to a bottle except at night. I miss the close time but she's not spitting up anymore and that makes me HAPPY!! (Her, too.) We got the pics from the wedding we went to last week where the photographer kept taking pics of her. Isn't she cute! And isn't the baby in her lap cute too? - Oh and her husband.... :) - Okay I'm kidding, but seriously this little girl is in trouble. So I'm watching a movie last night with the family and I look over beside the couch to see this little creature standing in the hallway (I say creature because there's nothing in our house that small and humanoid that can stand unaided.) and low and behold to my utter shock it's not some creepy dwarf or something but my just-turned-7-month old smiling at me nearly a foot away from any stable structure which may have aided her rebel advancement. I am not amused! Must I cross-stitch it and frame it above each of their beds? STOP GROWING!! No need to worry, I am taking the threat very seriously and have paid off Ella (in goldfish) to pull Sylvie down any time she sees her pulling up on something! (Ok, so she started doing that on her own, and at first I told her it wasn't nice but now I'm like, thanks Ella! Finally, somebody on my team!) Sorry, we have rules in this house (no choking, no dying, etc.) and one of them is definitely No Learning to Walk before you're old enough to understand the word STOP!! (Side story - When Ella first pulled up on the couch oh-so-long-ago I called Ryan to tell him how his little girl was growing up and he said, "Did you spank her?" I don't think he's ready for them to grow up either! - and no we don't really spank our kids. - end of side story)

So that's our week. Nice weather sure helped out too! I truly am thankful for such a wonderful family. Heavenly Father has truly blessed me. Oh, yeah, and I have great friends too, all of you. Peace out!