GENERAL CONFERENCE
I really loved conference this time. As usual :). It's always so nice to be able to sit around in your jammies and be edified. We had our creamed eggs on toast for breakfast. For the first session on Saturday we just decided to have everyone just watch and listen. They were able to have snacks here and there. Most of them chose to take notes, Luke and Erika chose to play Conference Bingo. It was nice and pleasant and very uneventful as far as the kids go. I was pretty proud of them. During the second session we did the whole treat thing with the words on the treats, when they say a word you get that treat. We've done this lots and I feel have settled on the perfect way to do it- they keep track of how many times a word is said and then gather them at the end of each talk. Cuts down on traffic and noise. The kids love it. It's definitely a tradition. They all did really well even during the half hour that Nate was gone which is always iffy. I loved the talk that was given right as Nate was leaving about family councils. Our Stake has made a big push for this and we've actually been doing REALLY well at it! I'm not sure it's all that it could be yet, but we're getting there. I loved the ideas given in the talk. I wish I could remember who it was, but I"m thinking it was Elder Cook?? Anyway. On Sunday we woke up a little late, so conference started shortly after. During the first session I let the kids "earn" tickets by listening to the talks and telling me what they learned, also for taking notes, and then for the second session I let them "buy" treats and snacks with their tickets :). It was great! I was happy to empty out the basket of goodies that has been filling up in the pantry. They loved it. It's always hard to listen to the last session (in my opinion), so I was proud of them for sticking with it. Nate was gone for the second session which was a bummer but the kids totally kept the reverence level up. It's so nice to be able to listen to conference these days! I definitely need to go back and read them because I wasn't really able to take notes with Molly in my arms most of the time, but it sure was a nice peaceful weekend. I just love conference!
IDAHO MAYNESES
We had the pleasure of tipping off and then TOPPING off our Spring break with the Idaho Mayneses. They came down again for a session of conference at the Conference Center and needed to pick up the CD with Hannah's pictures, so we decided to make a meal of it and have them for dinner. It was nice that it was Charity's night for dinner and that she was more than capable of making Spaghetti and Meatballs for 15 instead of just 8. She did an excellent job, everyone loved it. It was fun to see them even if it was just for a little pit stop. They did introduce us to Chocolate Chex treats... so yummy! 4-3-16
ALWAYS HAPPY
When I was at the school doing fitness testing for Luke's class I got to meet the mom of the girl he has a crush on, which was fun :), and she said the sweetest thing about Luke, that her daughter had said. She said, "Luke is so funny and always just so happy!" Made my day :). And I had to agree of course. Luke keeps us rolling and with a smile 24/7. Ya never know what you're going to get with that kid. But he's more than a math whiz :). 4-4-16
FHE
Charity gave a really nice, well-planned and thought out lesson on health. She covered all the areas, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. She did a great job. Incorporated all the different ways of learning. I liked it. We went and got donuts for the treat. Thank you Bowman's :). 4-4-16
BASEBALL
Noah started baseball this week! Wahoo! I'm excited :). Probably more excited than anyone else... including Noah. But that's okay :). He does love it so far. 4-5-16
JEWISH SEDER
We had a really cool Relief Society night Tuesday where Martha's mom came and taught us all about Passover. I really wasn't sure I wanted to go, I hate to be gone so many nights in one week, but I really did want to learn about the symbolism. I'll admit it was difficult for me to get into most of the eating part. I tried. I felt awkward. I kept praying to feel something, this is something that's been a struggle for me in a lot of places lately, feeling, but I never really felt much about the food. I did have a lot of thoughts about Christ and what might have been going through his head during the last supper. How he must have been feeling. Kind of interesting. I wish we had more information on his feelings through it all. But toward the end when she started talking about all the symbolism in more detail (or maybe just simpler terms) I REALLY got into that. I love learning all the symbolism. Especially the part about how a mother lamb will only feed a lamb from a deceased ewe if the new lamb is covered in the skin of her own. Pretty cool. COVERED. I loved that part. It was nice to visit with Abbi Gadd a lot too. She's such a cute girl. Can't believe she's going to graduate and be gone to BYU soon! People need to stop growing. 4-5-16
PLAYGROUP
I brought my camp chair and all was well with my hips. Sad that this is what this post has come down to, but it really makes a difference. I'm not sure my emotional state can handle playgroup socializing and YW socializing all in one day. I was pretty exhausted by the end of the night. Not sure what to do about that. 4-6-16
NICE BOY
So again, I was at the school doing fitness testing, on this time in Bradley's class and I met the mom of the girl he has a crush on- this is starting to sound made up, I know, but it really happened!- when she heard who my son was, she got all excited and said that her daughter says he's "one of the nice boys"!! AWWWWWW!! I loved that. I am loving the compliments people, keep 'em coming :). HA! I'm kidding. Sure made my day though. 4-6-16
CAKE DECORATING
We had Alana come do cake decorating with the YW tonight and I have to admit I was slightly disappointed. There were too many girls to do anything real spectacular so it ended up being more of a "here's a cake bag, see what you can do". Which is fine and I think I'm the only one complaining about it :). I just wish we could have done more. Gone into more depth or something. I don't know. I think she should have utilized Bliss and I who know how to do it. Oh well. Can't win 'em all. And Alana is totally adorable with the girls, she's going to be great at Girls Camp. 4-6-16
BOWMAN'S DONUTS
We woke up to 4 large boxes of donuts on our front porch Thursday morning! It was extra special because in my head, as I was coming down the stairs after waking up a little late, I was thinking, "I wish we had some easy breakfast today". Easy breakfast- there it was! With it was this cute note from Bro. Tenney saying how at Bowman's, whatever doesn't get sold, the workers get. So he left those on the porch for "The Maynes Family and Bradley". I'll have to post it. I learned the details when the boys woke up. I guess when Bro. Tenney (Bradley's old Primary teacher) drove by, he stopped to talk to the kids for a minute and then as he left, Bradley called out, "I want donuts!" Just jokingly of course :). It made me laugh that he had left SO MANY, but the kids made good use of them. They were thrilled with the idea of taking a Texas one to Trenton because Trenton had been singing, "I'm not going to stop singing until I get a Texas donut" the day before. That was cute. They quickily left it on his porch. I was proud of them. What a fun surprise though. 4-7-16
NEW LOW
I think I hit a new low on Thursday. I am blaming it on too much socializing all week. I really don't know what got into me. I hate feeling like that. I'm really grateful that I was able to talk myself off the cliff (so to speak, not literal), and I was able to climb out of it for the most part (I still don't think I"m all the way out). I am grateful for the occasional voice of reason that seems to come to my rescue when I need it most. I wish I knew how to avoid these days. It's just not okay to feel like that. I hope it's just hormones. Which I have been breaking out a ton lately, zits EVERYWHERE, which could either be from hormones or that the soft water isn't working, but anyway. I was glad I pulled out of it. I think Dodgeball was one of my saving graces that day as well. Not to mention, Kelly was in a surprisingly good mood as well. So,... anyway. Not sure why I want to document this. 4-7-16
DODGEBALL
The coolest thing happened at Dodgeball Thursday night. Annika Jacox, who is probably the TOUGHEST competitor there ever was for any sport, especially one where you can throw balls at people :), was in attendance. I was glad to see her since she can't always come to other things. She makes me laugh with her serious personality. She seriously throws bullets when she plays. The girls were even warning Kara (our newest Beehive) that she wants to be on Annie's team because of how hard she throws it. So, pretty intense! Well, during one of the team switch-ups they decided to have team captains and pick new teams. Kelly was one of them, and this other girl from another ward was the other one. She was the one who went first and she of course picked Annika. Kelly picked Mahala who is comparable to Annika in intensity and skill. Then I saw the coolest thing ever! Annie was coaching the team captain on who to choose for their team and proceeded to choose all of the girls were not as good as the rest. It was so cool. She never ceases to amaze me. Made my day. 4-7-16
CONSTITUTION BOWL
The day finally arrived for Bradley to show off his stuff at the Constitution Bowl. He has worked SO HARD!!! We both have!! It's been very educational as always :). I really did push Bradley into this and kind of made him do it. But it was for a good cause. I really love having my kids learn that stuff. I think it's invaluable! But it's of course also fun to put it into a competition form. I just wish they could change how it is done. The way they do it really leaves kids feeling no closure. We got to Adelaide pretty early, sat in the car and ran through all the cards one more time. We went through the usual scare of kids not showing up and having to forfeit. Happens every time. Bradley did great every time he was up, but that first team they were up against was INCREDIBLE! They were buzzing in two words in to the question! I couldn't believe how fast they were! Bradley was fast too, but they were insane! So we lost that round. Then we watched two other teams compete before it was our turn again and they were BOTH HORRIBLE! The very first question was the very first question on the packet and neither team was able to answer it!! The preamble even!! Sheesh!! Brooke and I were both wishing we could have gone up against them. Unfortunately, we went up against another really good team for our second round and they barely beat us. Such a bummer. This is the third year in a row that my kid has done this! It's too bad too because Bradley was the most ready out of all of them, and had a pretty good team which is more than I can say for Charity and Kelly. It was over and time to go and all Bradley could say was, "at least we don't have to miss more school!" He really was disturbed by the fact that he was going to be missing class for that! Funny kid. Not sure if we really are related or not :). jk. I wish they could get a little more recognition for all their hard work. Memorizing 100 questions and answers of information that really doesn't come naturally is pretty awesome! But Mrs. Badger did throw them a pizza party. I love that it's given us something to do together though. We don't have much else these days :). I'm proud of him. I hope he does it again next year and that we can talk Luke into doing it as well :). 4-8-16
4.0
Charity got her first (I keep calling it "her first" because I can see this becoming a habit :) ) 4.0! I am so proud of her!! Nate and I wanted to do something special with her to celebrate so at her request we took her to Red Lobster for dinner. It was so much fun to visit with her. She was feeling so talkative. It was fun to get the latest gossip and listen to the wisdom of our cute little 14 year old. She really has a good head on her shoulders. I just couldn't be more proud. I hope she can keep up the good work. 4-8-16
JAZZ VS. CLIPPERS
Nate and I got to go to the Jazz game Friday night! This was Nate's Christmas gift from my Dad, so very much anticipated! They played so well! It was such a close game the whole night! Then we even went into overtime, which they stayed pretty much tied the whole five minutes. It wasn't until the last 0.2 seconds that the Clippers scored a three pointer. So it was pretty sad when our attempt to tie failed. It was sad. Nate was sad. Kind of a bummer to put that much heart into something only to lose, but whatever. It was a fun night for us. Molly even seemed to like the game a little. She did sleep through a quarter and a half, but was so cute when she woke up. She looked like she was all disoriented and looking around, wondering if we'd won while she was out :). Funny girl. I love how easygoing she is. All I have to do is smile and she knows everything is okay and then she just puts up with whatever- kinda cute. Especially with all the noise and yelling. Good times. 4-8-16
SCONES
Everyone brought home their "straight 3" report cards Friday and we wanted to reward them so we took them to Grannie Annie's for breakfast scones on Saturday morning :). What a fun time that was. Minus Erika spilling her ice water all over the front of her when they pulled her in for a picture... Everyone was happy and feeling cool for getting such good grades. I have to mention Kelly! She did such a great job this quarter!! She brought so many of her grades up! She had all A's except an A- and a B+!!! Pretty impressive!! I am just so proud of all of them. They work so hard. It's nice to see them putting effort into life. 4-9-16
VIEWMONT/DAVIS VS. OLYMPUS
Kelly had her first Lacrosse game today!! WAHOO!! We had to drive all the way out to South Jordan and wanted to get there well before it started since her coach had said that the first 11 there get to start :). She was the first one there! She got to start and did SO AWESOME!! She plays defense. She played during the first part of the game and the last part. Pretty fun to watch! It was so thrilling every time they got a goal! We won 7-4!!! Grandma and Grandpa were so close we had to invite them as well and it was fun to have them there to cheer Kelly on and keep us company :). Pretty cool stuff!! Kelly was exhausted when we got home :). I think she'd worked herself up pretty good beforehand. Lots of fun though! 4-9-16
PLAYING BASKETBALL WITH JACK
Jack's latest thing is wanting me (or whoever is available) to play basketball with him. He takes you out by his little basketball hoop and just wants you to stand there, watch and cheer him on as he makes basket after basket. It's hilarious. He is very particular about how you watch though. He make sure that at least once while you're out there, you run your finger around the aiming square and say, "hit it here". Once in a while he wants me to "try to get it" while he's shooting, but for the most part, I'm just supposed to stand there. He no longer allows me to get the ball and make a shot myself. Such a funny little boy. Tonight, though, I was able to teach him how to dribble :). He accepted that and MIGHT do it once or twice, just out of necessity. Makes me laugh. 4-9-16
