Introvert

The Knights of the Round Table Cub Scout Camp ended today.  16 hours of crazy fun!!!!  It was really well done, and a LOT of work went into it!!!!  I was glad to do my little part as a craft volunteer--we used gobs of duck tape at my station, haha!

However, my internal battery was seriously depleted by the time Wade and I got home today.  The interesting thing was that Wade was ready to go way before I was.  I had to bribe him to get him involved in the water games, the Best Activity Of The Week, where 50 other boys were running around crazy having the time of their lives on the water bounce house and water "wars".  I probed him with questions--were the boys in his group being nice?  Did he feel well?  What was wrong?  It was a little frustrating, but I understood how he felt, too.  To watch him with other boys at camp, sometimes he seemed like he was 10 years older than them!  He said he'd had a lot of fun, but after 4 nights and 1 long day he was just. plain. done.

Too much of a good thing for us introverts, maybe?

For kicks I took this online introvert/extrovert quiz, based on Susan Cain's book Quiet.  Here's the link:  

QUIZ.

Sure enough, even on a few answers where I wasn't sure, I was a definite introvert.  It explains some things: why I really do love having friends and being with people, but enjoy quiet nights at home with my family more.  Why I can substitute teach and have demanding church callings but NEED that quiet time at night to read and recharge.  Why talking on the phone can be torture sometimes.  And maybe, just maybe why I feel a LOT more comfortable writing than talking, haha! :)

That said, I was grateful for the quote on the website, too:

Remember, though, that no one is all introvert or all extrovert. Introverts attend wild parties, and extroverts curl up with their favorite books. As the psychologist Carl Jung put it, "There is no such thing as a pure extrovert or a pure introvert. Such a man would be in the lunatic asylum."

Thankfully I'm not to that point yet! :)

Books, books, and more books

I'm in book heaven right now, where I've been reading a lot and have enjoyed everything I've read.  First there was this one for next year's Battle of the Books list:

Then a Kindle freebie that I actually really enjoyed, a clean romance that held my interest:

Then these for Battle of the Books:

Stayed up late to finish this one last night  (WHERE has this book been all my life?  Surprisingly good!):

Waiting their turn on my nightstand:

Happy!

2014 Knights of the Roundtable Cub Scout Camp

Wade is having fun at Cub Scout Camp this week.  We're two nights in and he's already made a shield, a PVC catapult, a box fort, tried some ironworks, and fought his way through a really fun obstacle course.  Tonight his Blue Knights group gets their turn in the Armory (bb gun and archery stations)--those are his FAVORITE!  

He likes his den group a lot--nice boys and some great leaders!  I get to spy on him from across the room while I work at my craft station, helping groups decorate cardboard shields with massive amounts of duck tape.  I'm enjoying myself and really, really happy that I've been able to have my station indoors because the wind has been CRAZY the last two days.

At the end of the week the boys will get to "defend" their castles in a catapult battle.  Not sure how it's going to work yet, but I've heard they're going to flip wet cotton balls from their catapults and see if they can get them to stick to other forts around the room.  Should be interesting.  The boys will also be making PVC/foam insulation swords on Friday, and I'm hoping I can exit the building before I see too many concussions.  SMART camp planners to wait til Friday to make those, haha!

Update:  Wade had a BLAST at the archery and bb gun stations!  He said his coaches were great.  He was excited to hit some bulls eyes!  One of his instructors took this shot and texted it to Jason--nice shot, Wade!

Every. single. day.

This has become our game of the summer:

We  pull out the Monopoly board game and play it every single day.  I use the dog token, Wade is the car, and Rhiannon is the top hat.  I can only stand it in 30-minute increments, so that's as far as we play and nobody has won with more than $2500 or so, and we've never gotten to the point where people start buying hotels and homes for their properties.  For some reason the kids LOVE it!  Good times!

Maybe it will help us get a little better with our mental math skills!  (or at least help me--I'm terrible at it!)

Father's Day 2014

Jason's 2014 Father's Day is off to a good start!  We had bacon and eggs for breakfast, and then the kids asked him to open their gifts to him.  He loved them!

They're cute little books and perfect for our Darth-Vader-loving dad/hubby.  Too funny!  He also enjoyed his Jolt Nerf gun and his cards from the kids and the dogs, haha!

 

 

We love this guy so much!  We test his patience sometimes, but we know he loves us and is always there for us.  Jason is a great example to me of how to work and play hard.  He is dependable, kind, loving, FUNNY, and wise.  

Looking forward to a rib eye steak dinner later!

Happy Father's Day--we love you!

SUMMER.

If we forget how to appreciate summer, Oscar the Dog reminds us:

That is a picture of contentment, or..maybe how to deal with desert heat, haha!

We've had a good start to our summer vacation so far:  time with friends, a sleepover for Rhiannon, LOTS of swimming (finally!  We hardly used our pool in May because it was windy and cold!), lots of popsicles and popcorn, movies/Netflix, haircut for Wade (he was hoping to grow it out, but it needed CUT!), piano playing, a little bit of sleeping in (I let the kids sleep in until 8:30am today and they were SO excited, haha!  I'm such a mean mom!), bike riding, grocery shopping, errands galore, picking apricots and all that entails, and playing Monopoly every day.  I introduced the kids to Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (good!!!), and Jason spoiled us by taking us to see X MEN: Days of Future Past at the theater--we really liked it!

Hurray for summer!  We're looking forward to Cub Scout Camp, a St. George, UT Cushing reunion, Jason's Wasatch Ragnar race, and Girls Camp for Rhiannon.  Somewhere in there Wade would like to have a pool party for his pals, complete with hot dogs and hamburgers, haha!  Summer plans rock!

8th Grade Promotion Ceremony

Rhiannon is an official Survivor of Middle School!  She did it with such grace and ease and very few speedbumps the entire 3 years--we are very lucky parents of this wonderful girl!

Happy parents, super-excited daughter!

So glad Sandi could make it to help us celebrate!

Rhiannon and her buddy Ethan

Rhiannon with Emily--those two friends had EVERY SINGLE class together this year!

Sandi gave Rhiannon this cute bag with graduation goodies in it.  Every item had a cute saying on it about graduating and moving on to high school--so thoughtful!

  

One of Rhiannon's coolest accomplishment was keeping a perfect 4.0 grade point average the entire time she was in middle school.  She was in good company, too--26 other kids were awarded with that, the largest group ever in the history of Murray Middle School to do that.  AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our beautiful girl turns 14!!!!

A few weeks before Rhiannon's birthday she came downstairs and said, "Mom, I've had a swim party for my birthday several years in a row now and I'd like to try something different this time!"  She had a point!  So this year we took some friends to the USO building for their Open Mic night.  Our friend Matt had reserved seating for us, which was funny and sweet at the same time because it was a sparse crowd that night with the high school graduation going on, haha!  He also got some other musicians up on the stage with him and they sang a very rousing rendition of Happy Birthday for Rhiannon--it was FANTASTIC!  

We think this beautiful girl had a terrific birthday--we love you, Rhiannon!  We're excited to see you take high school, seminary, and stake dances by storm!

So glad that Howard and Sandi could come celebrate with us!

We had Domino's Pizza for dinner with them

"How did you know?"  With a little help from Mom, Wade got Rhiannon some of her favorite Baby Lips chapstick.

Cute birthday crown from Sandi and Howard!

WHOA!  Look at that blaze!

Cute friends.  we thought it was hilarious that they all chose to sit on the stairs.  Made a great picture, though!

Sheila, Emma, Sarah, Izzy, Emily, Rhiannon, and JenAi--CUTE, sweet friends!

Jason was a sweetheart and went home to get some of Rhiannon's music.  She performed a Coldplay song and a song from Lord of the Rings.  

At our "reserved" table--the guy on the stage was GOOD!

We went back home at 9:30 and let the girls play some Rock Band til parents came.  It was a great night!

A new church assignment

In the middle of the very busy month of May, one of our church high councilors came by to talk to me and Jason about a new church assignment.  I was ONE HUNDRED PERCENT sure that he was going to ask me to help out with Girls Camp, and I was ready for it.

SO,

when he asked me if I'd be willing to serve as the stake's young single adult institute teacher, I was ONE HUNDRED PERCENT shocked.  Totally, completely shocked.  I did NOT see that coming, not in a million years.

I started teaching the very next week and finished up the Book of Mormon class they'd been doing.  Now we are starting a Doctrine and Covenants class.  We meet every Tuesday night form 6:30pm to 8:00pm at the stake center, following the local community college's schedule.  (This means I'll get a LONG 5-week break around Christmas.)  So far I've had anywhere from 8 to 14 people attend, and that's a very tiny percentage of the young adults here in Ridgecrest.  An area to work on, for sure!

Getting released from my Webelos assistant calling has been bittersweet.  I was super sad at first, and so was Wade.  I have LOVED being his Cub Scout leader!!!  But as I've prepared and slaved over these institute lessons each week and get ready for several hours of training over the summer, I'm also grateful for the release.  It's a bigger deal than I thought, this institute gig.  Among other things, I had to have a 4-year college degree and a current temple recommend!  That's a first!

After the second lesson, though, I was hooked.  Teaching young single adults makes my heart sing.  Those who attend want to be there, and they do a pretty good job teaching ME with their comments and their spirit.  It's wonderful!

Rhiannon's final middle school band concert

Band has been a good experience for Rhiannon in middle school!  She played mallets almost exclusively the entire time and really enjoyed it.  She went through two band directors, Mr. Lacher in 6th grade and Mr. Peterson for 7th and 8th.  The two directors had very different styles, but Rhiannon had fun and did her best.  She got to go to music festivals, Disneyland, and elementary schools for band trips.  And she made some great friends!

It will be fun to see where band takes her in high school.  We attended an orientation there with Mr. Austin, the band director, a few weeks ago and it was a LOT to take in!  Rhiannon will be in the Cadet band at Burroughs High School for her freshman year but says she'll "wait and see" her sophomore year.  Cadet Band students attend the same 2-week summer camp that the older high school students do, but they don't have to get to school at 6:30am during the school year and only play at one football game and one or two parades.  The symphonic band does a LOT more.  With seminary and a heavy class load (she's decided to take all honors classes her first year), she's a little worried about the time commitment that band might require.  She's excited to try it out in high school, though!

Here are some videos from Rhiannon's final middle school concert--you can see her standing at the right playing the mallets. :)

Another winning cinnamon roll recipe

I try to ignore most of the yummy recipes floating around the Internet, but when my friend Molly posted a picture of the cinnamon rolls that she and her friend were devouring at college, I could not resist.  I made 3 batches and they were NUMMY!  Thanks, Molly!

Shortcut Caramel Cinnamon Rolls

Makes 8 rolls

Adapted from BHG.com

Ingredients:
16oz frozen bread loaf
1/4 cup melted butter, cooled
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup caramel bits
1-1/2oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 Tablespoon butter, softened to room temperature
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 teaspoons milk (or more or less)

Directions: 

1. Thaw bread dough using the refrigerator method indicated on the package (I let mine thaw in the fridge overnight.) Let dough come to room temperature for 10 minutes then lightly flour a clean, dry surface and roll dough into a 12×8″ rectangle. Combine sugars and cinnamon together in a small bowl, then spread melted butter over bread dough, and then sprinkle cinnamon-sugar mixture on top. Sprinkle on caramel bits (if using) then roll dough into a log, pinch seams to close, trim ends off, and then cut into 8 equal slices.
2. Spray a 9″ round baking pan very well with nonstick spray then arrange slices inside. Cover with a tea towel sprayed with nonstick spray then let rise until doubled in size, 30-45 minutes, in a warm place (I place the pan on top of a heating pad set to low.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees then place baking pan on a baking sheet and then bake for 20-30 minutes, or until golden brown.
3. Meanwhile, combine cream cheese and butter in a large bowl or in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat until smooth then slowly mix in powdered sugar. Add vanilla then beat to combine. Add milk 1/2 teaspoon at a time until frosting reaches spreadable consistency. May need up to 2 teaspoons milk. Spread frosting on warm caramel cinnamon rolls then serve immediately.

And here's the link, with pictures:  Shortcut Caramel Cinnamon Rolls

2014 Feller's Cake Bake

Wade has done some fun Feller's Cake bakes for Cub Scouts.  One year was a baseball cake, the next was piano keys for his sister's birthday, and this year he did...a Lego Movie Benny the Astronaut Cake!  It turned out really great!