Well, the first official week of 2016 is in the books, and it was a great one! Lots of ups, and of course, some downers.
I spent all day Monday in a meeting planning the the combined YM/YW activity that we have coming up next week to introduce the new 2016 theme for the youth, which is 2 Nephi 31:20 that says, 'Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the words of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.'
It is a scripture that I love and that I'm super excited to focus on this year with the Young Women. Susan Shepard and I were asked to put this activity together to introduce the theme, so we've been meeting to go over it. It's a pretty intense and cool activity. We are going to have the kids blindfolded holding on to an 'iron rod' and they will face temptations and trials. And they will be able to repent when they 'fall off' the rod. I'm super excited about it and we are both just praying that all goes smoothly and as planned. She is the YW president in the Pines ward, and since our branch combines for activities with them, we were asked to plan this by Bishop Anderson. One of my callings in the branch is the liaison between our branch and the Pines ward. Part of that calling is that I get to go to the BYC meetings for the Pines ward and that's how this all came to be. And with my calling as the counselor in YW, it just happened. Anyway, luckily Susan is a good friend and we've been working hard on this. Our short little 1-2 hour meeting ended up lasting most of the afternoon, but we got it all hammered out and feel good about our progress.
I went outside to get Tucker from school and as I was bringing in garbage cans, I noticed this beautiful ice on our bush by the garage. It might be hella cold and miserable, but I guess there can be beauty in it! :)
Taylor had gymnastics on Monday, as she does every Monday and Wednesday. Yes, my 5 year old does gymnastics 2 times a week and for 3 hours a week. Some days I think it's crazy to have her in that much, but she loves it, so I'm going with it. Kathryn happened to call me and told me that my dad wasn't feeling well and that she just wanted to get out of the house for dinner, and wanted to meet us at the mall for dinner since Taylor's gymnastics is close to the mall. And since I'm always up for eating out, even if it is just the mall, we obliged! :) ha ha I didn't think twice of it.
BUT! When I got home, I found this beauty in my kitchen! I can't tell you how happy she makes me. Sometimes I find myself just staring at it with a big cheesy grin on my face. SO in love. No more ice cube tray's. No more having to put most of our food in the garage because we don't have the space. She is just so beautiful! :) That dang Ben, I should have known something was up. Kathryn was totally in on it. (I did think the mall was a pretty random place, but...) :) Seriously a game changer for how dinnertime will be from now on.
Also, on Monday night, we had to say good bye to this one. I can't believe the time is already here for him to leave. He got set apart as a missionary and they stopped by here on their way home to say good bye. It's going to be so crazy without him in the branch or coming over to our house and laying on our couch and eating all our food! :) ha ha.
He sure loves these kids of mine, and I love him for that. And we love him! We will miss him, but he will be so great as a missionary in Mexico!
Also, I couldn't do the Christmas decor for a second longer. It all came down and I was done. I kind of liked the bare walls and sleek and clean decor with hardly anything up. I put up just minimal stuff. But I couldn't help make it a little bit more springy than I usually do right away. I am already ready for the sun!!! (even though there is currently a few inches of snow on the ground) A girl can dream.
We FINALLY finished our Star Wars marathon this week. We started it over Christmas break and finished #6 on Wednesday afternoon. I'm not sure why I was never into Star Wars, I mean, I knew the story and the names and I'm pretty sure that I had watched them when I was younger, but really wasn't into them. I'm sure it was because I just considered myself 'totally not into sci-fi' and alien types of movies and just wrote it off. And I'm so bummed I did because I freaking fell in love with these movies. I had no idea how the whole saga turned out with Darth and Luke and Leia. I just loved it. And watching all 6 totally put the story together for me and I just fell in love. I can't wait to watch the new one! Tucker really wanted to see the new one that just came out in the theater, but I told him he should watch the old ones to appreciate the new ones. (mainly because I wanted an excuse to watch all the old ones) So, over break we were to have a marathon and watch them all and then go to the new on in the theater together since Ben had already seen it. We didn't quite make all 6 during the break, but got close with watching 4 of them. This Wednesday we finally finished watching the 6th one and had plans to go to the theater for the 7th one on Saturday. I ended up getting sick (more on that later) and our date had to be cancelled. But I am SO freaking excited! Serious Star Wars fan for life here!
Watching the 6th one with my boys. Our whole family got into them and it has been so much fun to watch them as a family and get all pumped about the new one.
Thursday morning they had a free throw competition at Sunrise for 3-5th Graders. Tucker was so excited to try. I just love his enthusiasm and excitement about things like this. Even if he isn't the most athletic kid out there, he has heart! :) A lot of his good buddies were also there in the morning.
They each got to shoot 10 free throws. Tucker made three. That was probably the average. :) Most of these boys aren't used to shooting on a 10 foot hoop and it's a lot different. His good buddy, Jason, in the blue Nike shirt is the one who ended up winning, he got 6. And his other good buddy, Brayden, on his basketball team got second with 5. They both got to go to CV on Saturday and compete against other boys from other elementary schools in the district.
The biggest news of the week--Ben got LASIK eye surgery on Thursday afternoon!WOO-HOO! He has been wanting to do this for so long and just could never justify spending so much money on himself. And I am so glad he finally got it done. Funny story though. At the beginning of November he went into a free consult to find out prices and stuff. We were paying cash, so I think he was hoping for a great discount for paying cash upfront. It didn't end up being a great discount and Ben was bummed. It was $2000 an eye and only $200 off per eye for paying cash upfront. He wanted it so bad, but just wouldn't spend the money on himself. This was the same doctor that Ben made a video for years ago. This Dr., Dr. Fillmore, has a yearly video competition and the winner of this video competition gets free LASIK. Ben had made a silly video and a video ended up winning that was more emotional/ heartfelt. Ben was too bummed out to every try again. Anyway, his free consult was at the beginnings of November. And Ben told me in that consult, that just as a joke, he told the nurse or medical assistant, whatever he was, that if Dr. Fillmore was interested in a trade for a fence, Ben could do that! :) Ben said the dude didn't even give him the time of day about it and just went on his merry way. Well, fast forward a few weeks, and Spokane is hit with this nasty windstorm. And Dr. Fillmore calls Ben himself telling him that his fence was knocked down, and asking him if he was interested in a trade!!! It was such a huge blessing for Ben and I am so very glad that it worked out for him!
He went in on Thursday afternoon. I was going to take him, but the night before he found out that kids weren't allowed even in the waiting room at the surgery center. I felt really bad for not being able to come, but it was kind of too late to figure out kid schedules and babysitters. Plus, it was only like a 20 minute surgery, and Kirt offered to take him and bring him home to our house. So, I waited to take care of him when he got home. It was kind of like having a blind man that first day for a few hours. He had to stay away for 2 hours, putting eye drops in his eyes every 10 minutes. So, that's what we did. He was still his Ben self and said that his eyes just stung.
I had to go pick up Tucker from school, but Jackson was in charge of keeping him awake for the 10 minutes I was gone.
He didn't know what to think of the whole thing, and about daddy wearing those goggles. :) Taylor was freaked out. When Ben first walked through the door, she ran and hid in her bedroom. I finally found her and had to force her downstairs to see Ben. I think the whole thing just freaked her out, and she didn't know what to expect from him. I didn't understand her reaction until I picked up Tucker from school, and I reminded him that daddy had had the eye surgery that day and Tucker asked me what color his new eyes were. I wasn't sure how to respond to that, but apparently Ben had told them he was getting new eyes and they thought that he literally was getting new eyes!!! :) ha ha. So, Taylor was freaked out by it and Tucker just wanted to know what color his new eyes were. Our poor children and having to deal with their father! :)
Every 10 minutes for the first day, even after he woke up! He finally got to go to bed and slept until about 11pm and woke up and said his eyes felt great and he could already see better!!! It is so amazing to me that one little surgery can have such an effect on him! It's amazing! After being up for a few hours, they were getting sore, so he went back to bed and woke up the next morning being able to see perfectly and feeling great! It was a great recovery and this is what I get to sleep with every night for the next two weeks. He has to wear the goggles at night for 2 weeks so he doesn't rub them! So sexy!
While Ben was sleeping, a package from Grandma Glo came with some more Christmas presents. Our house was littered with little toys and spirographs, and googley eyed glasses, and floating discs, and stuffed animals, and iron catapults from castles in England and blow up dinosaurs and books and all sorts of goodies! We love packages and my kids are so lucky to have such fun and loving and wonderful grandparents. Tucker said, 'MOM, this is like our 4th Christmas!!!' :)
Watch out if you come to our house, you just might get an M&M in the eye! :)
Taylor working hard on her homework. I just love watching this girl craft and glue and cut and work on homework and art. She is so intense and loves it so much! And I love her!
The next morning, she just looked too cute in her new duds from Grandma Glo.
And another one with her coat and backpack. This is what I get to kiss goodbye every morning and she is such a sweetie!
Then I got to hang out with this turd for awhile. I had places to go and things to do, but I just couldn't help but sit her and take pictures of him while he colored. He has just recently gotten into coloring and the way and intensity that he does it just makes me smile so much!
And he really could color for hours. He really has started to love it! And looks especially cute in his 'Dinosaurus' hat! :)
Friday afternoon we had our McDonalds group playdate lunch. I love these lady friends of mine! It was Hannah's birthday and would have been a perfect excuse to take a picture of us, but of course, the only one I got was of the kids 'cleaning' McDonalds! :) We were so into our conversation that none of us noticed for a while what the kids were doing, and we looked over and they were doing this:
I am so very lucky for Hannah (and Paige), Dori (and George and Giles), Marianne (and Crosby) and Amber (and Maggie). I love our friendship and the love and support these ladies bring to me and my life. They make me laugh so much and we all just click and I feel very blessed to have them as friends. We've made it through a windstorm together, we can get through anything!! :) Marianne's grandma had just passed away the day before so we were crying and laughing with her talking about her sweet grandma. And it was Hannah's birthday so we were munching on cake pops and I just love these women so much!
Friday night basketball. Love the basketball, don't love that all of our Friday nights for the past two months have been spent here at the HUB. Even a day after his surgery, Ben was there coaching the kids. They love him so much and he is such a great coach. And the parents love him too, which I'm happy about! :) I feel like Tucker is finally coming around and getting to be a better player. Now that there is only one week left of the season! :)
But really, I'm just glad that he is enjoying it and gets to play with some friends, and have his dad as his coach.
Friday night was a double header, 5:15 and 6:15. Marianne was there for the 5:15 game and so I was distracted and enjoying myself. She headed out after the first game and Mike came. And during that second game, my head really started pounding. I could tell a Migraine was coming on. I had woken up at 5 on Thursday to go to a class at the gym with Abbey and Meg, and even though they both wussed out, I still went. So, I don't know if it was the early morning combined with the late night with Ben the night before or what, but something hit me hard and it was a bad Migraine. After the game, I was able to get the kids outta there pretty quickly, I really just wanted to get home and go to bed. We were going to go out with the Mortensens, but I told Ben I couldn't. He ran to the store really fast and I took the kids home. I didn't even make it home before having to pull over to the side of the road to puke out my door! It was so lovely. Migraines make me puke. That is what I'm learning. I've only had 3-4 in my lifetime, but they are miserable and I'm afraid that I'm just going to keep on getting more and more as I get older! POO!!! I was going to take Tucker to the new star wars movie on Saturday and to see his friend Jason in the free throw competition, but everything on Saturday got cancelled, and I stayed in my jammies all day with a headache. I took Migraine medicine on Friday night, but I've also learned that a dull headache usually lasts for a few days after. Plus my body was just so weak and sore after barfing so freaking much. It was a bad barf!
Saturday night was the priesthood and adult sessions of our stake conference, so I had to miss those. Ben went to both on his own.
I was able to wake up on Sunday morning, still with a little headache and I went to the general session of stake conference, BY MYSELF! It was so wonderful and I'm so glad I went. I almost let my headache keep me home. But Ben said he would stay with the kids and let me go since he went the night before. I just wasn't up to dealing with the kids through 2 hours of having to sit still. :)
Sweet Taylor left these two pictures on Tucker's bed. She is so thoughtful and always wants to create things for others.
Jessy texted me and asked me if I could make a baptism announcement for her son Will. That is totally my thing. I spent a lot of the week working on this, and I just love doing stuff like this. It's so fun for me, and then I can email her the print and she can do what she wants with it. It was so fun!
Although, I'm not sure how I get anything done with this guy always at my feet:
He doesn't like me to have my attention on anything but him and will yell, MOM MOM MOM over and over again until I give him the attention he needs! :)
I did however manage to get a few other things done this week. Little booklets we will be giving out at the YM/YW activity next week:
I was pretty pleased with how they turned out! :)
Also, Stake Conference inspired me to write down some goals that I've had in mind. I have a lot of things floating around that aren't offical goals. Like going to the gym more, (3x's a week per Ben or my new membership to MUV fitness is bye bye) and blogging weekly so I can remember the little things better and to better keep track of a 'family journal' type of thing. (like remembering that Jackson calls dinosaurs dinosaurus's right now) But the number one thing I'm working on this year is my spirituality. So, I've come up with 2 things every day, 2 things every week and 2 things every month I'm going to do. They are simple and easy things, and things I should be doing anyway, but they are the things that are so easy for me to skip for some reason, so I'm holding myself accountable.
Ready & Pray every day.
Sunday School & FHE every week.
Fast & Temple every month.
So far, so good for the year. I love the change I feel in my life when I'm doing good at these little things. I know that they make a BIG difference! So, here goes! I even made myself this pretty little chart to color in every night!
Here's to a great 2016!
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