2014 in a blog-shell

 
Disneyland!

Need I say more? Our memories of 2014 are definitely dominated by our trip to California this summer to celebrate Mom and Dad S’s 50th anniversary.

Jeremy and I loved seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces even after spending long days on our feet. Morgan took two trips to the instacare – first for croup and then for an ear infection – and yet she plugged along and hardly complained.

Some favorites: Thunder Mountain Railroad, Cars Land, California Screamin’, World of Color, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones.I personally got a kick out of watching Jeremy and Caleb on the Winnie the Pooh ride. We needed it after taking the plunge on Splash Mountain. We also enjoyed a day at the beach and good food.

We say regularly that we want to go back, and I hope we can someday.

 

 








We decided to take advantage of being in southern California by extending our trip and spending a few days in San Diego. I don’t think any of us regretted it.

We tried to hit as many attractions as possible including Old Town, the Mormon Battalion museum, the beach, the San Diego temple, the USS Midway museum, and of course Sea World.

I solidified my crazy mom status by dragging everyone to a park with an awesome view only to find out it would close in about five minutes. Not wanting to pay admission, we turned around, found a spot to take a picture in the middle of a cemetery, and drove back to the hotel.

The summer also included a trip for ⅔ of the family to Oregon and then down to the cabin, partly for my 20th high school reunion [really?!?] but more to visit Mom and Dad B and see their new home.

One of the most memorable and hysterical parts of the trip was going “clamming” on the coast. I will forever have the image of my parents and the kids squishing through the mud with shovels in hand.

The cabin was of course refreshing. The morning we left I could see that Aiden was struggling. I asked him if he was okay and he started to cry, which is not normal for him. He said he didn’t want to leave, and I could totally relate.





















The reason the other ⅓ of the family stayed behind was because Caleb had committed to marching band. This was his first season, and he had a great experience.

He wasn’t overly fond of the parades, but he really enjoyed playing the synthesizer for the field show as well developing friendships with his fellow pit members.

His high school took 3rd in state and 4th in the region, which was remarkable for being their first year as a 5A band. He liked it enough to decide to sign up for the winter drum line, so we’re back to fun practice schedules. By now we should be able to drive to the high school with our eyes closed.

We’ve watched a substantial amount of basketball this year. Marissa was assigned to the 8th grade B team, but as the coaches watched her during practice they decided she would benefit from playing with the A team as well.

Aiden plays with a competitive team in addition to being on the 5th grade A team.

Caleb played with city recreation. That’s a lot of basketball.






In other activities, Marissa gave track a try in the spring and found she has a knack for the shot put. She took 3rd in regionals. If you consider her skinny arms, that’s pretty impressive.

Morgan took another year of dance but is taking a break right now. I’m still trying to figure out how to convince her to sing in front of other people. Caleb got his driver’s permit.

We said farewell to our old blue van after 13 years together, replacing it with a new-to-us-but-not-really-new-at-all red van. The first thing we had to do after we bought it from our Ute fan neighbors was to remove the Utah sticker on the back window just so Aiden could breathe again.

We’re all busy with church responsibilities as well. Jeremy perseveres as 1st counselor in the bishopric; I am still Laurel advisor and went to girls camp as assistant director; Caleb serves as his teacher’s quorum president, and Marissa is 1st counselor in her Beehive class. Aiden goes to scouts, where he just received his Webelos badge, and Morgan gets dragged all over the place.

School work keeps us hopping, as does work-work.

Life is good, and we count our blessings every day.


P.S. Please pardon the formatting issues. I think Blogger was feeling neglected and decided to act out. Either that or I'm way out of practice.








 

Story in a jar

I have recently caught the family history bug and have tried to use a little portion of my spare time looking for names to expand my family tree. As I do this, I realize the neglect given my own personal history. For Mother's Day this year, Morgan came home from school with a "Story In a Jar," accompanied by the following poem.

In this jar you will find,

Story starters of all kind.

Every night when you tuck me in,

Pick a slip and let the story begin.

Tell me about your life as a kid,

I want to know all that you did.

I hope you know that I love you.

You make me happy with all you do.

I've gone through a couple of the story starters with Morgan, but honestly I tell a better story when writing than when talking. So I thought in my efforts to improve recording my personal history I would work on some of the "Story In a Jar" here. It won't necessarily be the most entertaining or funny, but I feel it's something I should do. Here we go...

Q: "Were you ever given any special awards for your studies or school activities?"

A: Funny that this is the first slip I pulled, because I am such a nerd. If you haven't heard me mention that before, then you probably weren't listening.

I'm not sure this qualifies as an award, but it was something I was always proud of. In seventh grade, my English teacher submitted a story I wrote to the Reflections contest [at least I think that's what it was called back then -- now I'm not totally sure]. My story was selected for publication, and I was invited to attend a special program where each person published received a certificate and a copy of the book. I remember after they called my name and gave me a certificate, I was walking off the stage and a woman told me that mine was her favorite story. That was a big deal to me then and gave me confidence that writing was one of my talents.

My senior year I received a couple of honors that also meant a lot to me. I worked hard in school. Jeremy likes to tell the kids how smart I am, but I always feel I need to qualify that with the fact that I worked at it. Some things came easily, but other things didn't. I studied, I read, I stayed on top of my homework, I asked questions when I didn't understand. So I felt like my work payed off at the end of my senior year when I was named English Studies Student of the Year and Social Studies Student of the Year. I also respected the teachers of those classes a great deal, and I deeply appreciated their recognition. Somehow I also got the Attendance Award, which still baffles me.

When I headed off to college, I was able to start at BYU with a half scholarship. There were times I thought for sure I wouldn't be able to keep it, but after my sophomore year they upgraded it to a full scholarship. Not only was this an honor, but since Jeremy and I got married that summer, it most likely saved our poor college finances from totally biting the dust. In the end, I managed to graduate cum laude.

Help wanted

The kids celebrated 100 days of school this week, which means I marked 100 days as a recess duty guard. Yes, I spend an hour-and-a-half every school day monitoring the playground. My job description, according to Aiden:

"You get paid to make kids cry."

Not really what I'm shooting for, but if that's the job description, I am succeeding with flying colors.

The irony is that many of those same kids end up being my recess buddies. I like to think it's cause they know I only discipline them because I care about them. More likely it's cause they want to point out all the other kids who are being naughty.

While the job doesn't exactly fulfill all my hopes and dreams, it has its perks. For example:

• I get to see my own kids and give them hugs every day. Their friends say they wish their moms were duty guards.
• I work with a couple of the best women ever
• I have little friends who seek me out daily
• I don't have a vitamin D deficiency
• I get some extra exercise 
• I have a whistle and a bag full of band-aids
• I'm honorary "grandma penguin" - why I have to be the grandma, I just don't know - and get to lead penguin conga lines
• I get invited to things like ballroom and story-telling competitions
• I get to wear a florescent orange vest...well, maybe that's not a perk
• I am serenaded with "Frozen" songs
• I can tie wet shoelaces when my fingers are icicles
• Kids tell me stories, share their successes, trust that I will help them, wave to me, give me hugs
• I see little friends around town and hear them whisper, "That's the duty guard."

That's me...

Happy tears

I told Morgan she was going to have a new cousin, to which she said, "That's so sad!"

Huh? I didn't get this response, so I asked her to explain.

"Because," she said. "Babies are so cute that it makes you want to cry."

Aha! Even though most of the time I can't see it, here's evidence she must be my daughter.

Who needs goodreads?

Okay, so I am a goodreads member and enjoy their periodic emails updating me on books my friends have read. It helps me add even more books to my mental wish-to-read list. I just can't make myself update my profile. I don't have the patience for it and it's like #723 on my list of things to do. But I've got to stick with precedent and record exactly how nerdy I am. Here's what I read in 2013 (I had a hard time keeping up on it this year, so hopefully it's all correct, not that it really matters).

• Laddie by Gene Stratton Porter
• Allegiant by Veronica Roth
• Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale
• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson
• William Henry is a Fine Name by Cathy Gohlke
• Insurgent by Veronica Roth
• Divergent by Veronica Roth
• Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas
• Forest Born by Shannon Hale
• True (...Sort Of) by Katherine Hannigan
• Molokai by Alan Brennert
• Beyonders: Chasing the Prophecy by Brandon Mull
• Ida B by Katherine Hannigan
• River Secrets by Shannon Hale
• Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
• The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen
• Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
• The Year of Goodbyes by Debbie Levy
• City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
• Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
• Blood Red Road by Moira Young
• Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
• The Gates of Zion by Bodie Thoene
• Boys Adrift by Leonard Sax
• Ten Miles Past Normal by Frances O'Roark Dowell
• North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
• Austenland by Shannon Hale
• Enna Burning by Shannon Hale
• The Candy Shop War: Arcade Catastrophe by Brandon Mull
• The Curious Incident of a Dog In the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

I may have to call this the year of Shannon Hale. She certainly seems to dominate the list. Overall, though, I feel like I covered the genres fairly well. Heavy on the YA fiction, yes, but I'm really okay with that. And never fear, I've already gotten a start on my 2014 list. Good books make me happy.

To: Earth

Last Sunday we were singing hymns during our Christmas program at church. We were working on the second verse of Once In Royal David's City. I wasn't thinking particularly deeply about the words until Aiden tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to the first line. "Mom," he whispered. "It says 'To earth from heaven'. Like a gift!"

To: Earth
From: Heaven

What a perfect observation, and how I wish I might have been the one to notice it! Because Christ was heaven's gift to the earth on that night so many years ago, the gift that still gives today and will give eternally. This is the message of Christmas and the reason we have cause to rejoice.

And with that, here's how Caleb's advanced percussion class showed their Christmas spirit. If you can't find Caleb based on height, your second clue is tent.

Merry Christmas!