February 2016 update!

February highlights for our family:

More Crossfit for Jason
Drumline and Jazz band for Rhiannon
Subbing here and there for Ver
Piano ensemble recital for Wade
4-Day Presidents' Weekend and Valentine's Day with the Houston Sheens here!
Another blood drive for Ver
Jason and Wade running together
Rhiannon and Wade preparing for ward missionary open house

The usual:  Scouts, Mutual, fun with friends, early morning seminary, lots and lots of homework, church callings, orthodontist visits, work, Ragnar preparation, misc. meetings, etc

It's been a surprisingly fast month for us all!

Tomorrow will be a busy day, too.  Wade will go to the stake's Youth Service Day, a community event cleaning up around the stake center.  Jason will go for a run and oversee garden prep when we get a load of manure delivered.  Rhiannon has a master piano class.  And both kids will be participating in the open house at the church.

All we can say is....TWO MORE WEEKS UNTIL SPRING BREAK!


I have been stressed out the past couple weeks over "first world problems," particularly the neighborhood dog that consistently wakes me up with its barking between 4-4:40 am (I guess I should be grateful that no one else in my family hears it?), school calendar woes (our academic calendar for next year is RIDICULOUS), and our ward's Scouting program.  I'm feeling better about things today, but it's a slow process coming to grips with the very irrational feeling that I need to fix everything.  As soon as I let that go, I start to feel better and my neck/shoulders don't feel as tense.  But I'm not gonna lie--it's been rough for me!  I haven't been sleeping well--a sure sign that I need to chill out because anyone who knows me knows that sleep is usually NOT a problem for me, haha!

Some pics from the last couple weeks:

Derrick, Traci, and their kids Max, Maggie, and Moses rolled into town over Presidents' Weekend, and we had a lot of fun with them!  Adults went on a double date Saturday night (Vietnamese food and Baskin Robbins), we got some walks and shopping in, boys shot guns, we played at the park, ate good food, and checked out Classic Burger and the Indian Wells brewery together, too.  It was a fast, fun couple of day!

Wednesday mornings we have an extra 30-40 minutes before school starts.  It's been nice.  One day I took the kids to Starbucks with me to help me use my birthday gift card that a kind neighbor gave me.  You should have seen us newbie-Starbucks Mormons in there.  We had no idea what we were doing, haha!  We got some delicious hot cocoa and enjoyed baked goods, too.

During my big "Minimalism Game" clean-out, I got rid of a lot of unused items but also found some beautiful treasures.  This Hungarian tablecloth was one Jason and I picked up on our anniversary trip back in 2007.  So lovely!

JASON IS THE BEST!!!  He got me and Rhiannon gorgeous roses for Valentine's Day.  So thoughtful!

Another Wednesday morning pic.  Love these cute kiddoes of ours--they are growing up fast!!!!!

Wade with his friend Tucker Anderson and piano teacher Melanie McDonald.  Wade and Tucker did a great job on their fun duet!

Just one of many gorgeous sunrises this month.  Most of the pictures on my phone are sunrises or sunsets, haha!

We're still here

We're still here.  Just super, super busy with last-month-of-school activities, group projects, basketball games, volunteering, youth conference, business travel, and getting the pool open and ready. I got to speak at stake conference, too!

A longer post will happen later.  For today, just two things:

First, a tender mercy.  Tuesday was so crazy.  After an already packed day, that afternoon I had to have the kids in two different places at the same time on opposite ends of town.  I knew I could figure it out, but I was so, so, so tired all of a sudden.  I rested my head on the table for just a moment to calm the crazy, and right at that moment the phone rang.  A friend was calling about carpooling to one of the kids' activities and it helped SO much!!!!  I realized I could ask for help (!) and asked another friend to help get Wade to and from--she helped me so much, too!  Such a tiny thing, but that kindness opened up the evening for me and gave me the strength and sanity I needed to get people where they needed to be and then steal an hour of precious prep time before my institute lesson that night.

Second, our family has been playing this together as much as possible lately, a card game called Dominion:

Uncle Brett introduced it to us last summer, and our friends the Littons brought their set over a few weeks ago and played with us.  We liked it so much that Jason bought it, along with an app for different game scenarios.  It is a T-O-N of fun.

A nice break in the middle of all the chaos! :)

A long, busy day

It's 4 pm and I'm sitting down to take a breather.  It's been a busy day for me, by choice, and I'm happy but tired.  So I'm trying not to complain TOO much about my feet. :)

Worked out
Took dogs for a walk
Subbed for a 4th grade class
Did carpool for elementary kids
Did carpool for middle school kids
Picked up prescriptions
Took Wade somewhere for a haircut
Stopped by the grocery store
Dropped off items to the church
Made a potato salad

Home.  For a little while.

Then I'll finish up with helping to decorate at the church for our Relief Society birthday dinner tonight, enjoy that activity, and then clean up.

Jason took the kids to Taco Bell for dinner and they enjoyed a quiet night at home.

Tomorrow will be a little less go-go-go and more get-stuff-done-at-home!

Update:

The RS activity was a blast.  There was a light but tasty dinner, homemade ice cream cakes, and a gift exchange.  Good turnout, lots of fun!  And I got home by 8:30--yay!

Downer was when I pulled out of the parking lot and the tire light came on in the van.  This morning the back left tire is totally flat.  Grateful for a 3rd vehicle, and grateful for Jason who has a couple new tires ordered already!  :)  After all I did yesterday, I felt really grateful that the tire went kaput at the end of the day and not in the middle of all my craziness!  Thankful!

Morning Music

From Saturday:

I still have a lot to catch up on (EPIC Christmas in Texas!), but today is a busy day, and that will have to wait. 

Today Jason is off on a campout and Wade will be busy, busy, busy with back-to-back-to-back baseball evaluations, flag football game, and a Cub Scout activity.

For now, enjoy a picture collage of my birthday cake decorator and the beautiful roses Jason got me for my birthday, plus some music the kids have been working on.  We were really proud of Rhiannon yesterday--she participated in her school's variety show and did The Lord of the Rings' song "Minas Tirith."  It was amazing!