It's weird to think, but I was born when my dad was my age now. I couldn't imagine starting over and having a baby at my age. I'm tired and worn out already!
This is one of my favorite pictures. It's my sister-in-law, my dad, and me. 
My dad was so much fun and always spending time with his grandkids. He taught the boys how to shoot a bb gun, even making a homemade target where it would catch the bb's so they could reuse them (he was very thrifty). He played marbles in the dirt using a garden hose as the circle, played horseshoes, baseball, and even made a homemade kite one time and tried to fly it at the park with them. That didn't go so well. But it was a sweet gesture. 
Jason got another letter and CIF patch for his hard work this year. 
He also got Grossmont Conference All League Selection honoring him for outstanding achievement in water polo - 2nd Team All League. (I've never even heard of this award before:) Way to go, Jason!!
My favorite is that he got the Coach's Award. Coach Newman started at the same time Jason did 4 years ago, and they've been thru it all together. The team wasn't much 4 years ago, but it has really grown in numbers and their ability. It was really nice of Coach to recognize all of Jason's hard work and determination. Good job, Jason. I'm really proud of you!!!
And the topper today was that David was able to ordain Troy an elder. This is just another step in getting Troy prepared to serve his mission. It was so cool sitting in the single's ward Elders Quorum hearing all those men singing Called to Serve, and then hearing the special blessing that Troy received. Later tonight Troy was able to help Max give David & Jason blessings. I am so thankful that he really has a desire to serve. It's so awesome sitting back and watching him grow into a man.
It is a lot of work, and a lot of things that I have no idea how to do to get these two young men ready to leave the nest. I am so torn between getting them ready to leave and wanting to pull back those apron strings and keep them safe in our home where I feel like I can help keep them safe from the world. In 4 months Troy will be leaving, and if all goes according to plan, Jason will leave in 5 more months. I know it's the best thing for each of them to follow the plan we are working on, but it doesn't make it easy.
This past weekend, my girlfriends & I participated in the Silver Strand Half Marathon. Angie, Laura & I skated... Actually Angie wore in-line skates, Laura & I wore roller-skates. Emily ran it!
Enjoying a beautiful day (actually it was one of the rare down hill spots!)....
This picture is of us after we were all done & on our way home!
They played Helix High school, and won by one point. It was an excellent game. They won 10-9, Jason scored 5 of the 10 points, shooting 5 for 5. It was his best game ever!
During the pauses at the game, the announcer says funny things mixed with truth about the senior players. Jason's was that it was his fourth year playing water polo. His goal was to go 3 games in a row without being majored*, during his spare time he counsels for anger management, and in a movie about his life, he would like Oscar the Grouch to play him.
*Majored means ejected from the game for 3 flagrant fouls. In water polo, what happens under the water stays under the water, what happens above the water can be a flagrant foul. Since Jason has a knack for collecting flagrant fouls, it was funny. The players were cracking up at the comments, like they are in the underwater basketweaving club, and Justin Beiber would play our biggest player in the movie about his life. It's been a fun year. I guess since they are going to CIF, we're not done yet. Way to go, MV!! 
This year Halloween was pretty mellow. The boys started out in our good friends neighborhood & went out with all the smaller kids for a while. Then the older boys broke off & went to look for treats with their friends. I think they had a good time but weren't out too long.... just enough time to get some loot.
I thought I would post some pictures of Halloweens past. This one is from 2008: Nate looks like a jungle guy, maybe Tarza on a bad hair day? Zak was some crazy clown zombie with Fred Flinstone's Water Buffalo hat. Simon was his favorite - a bum (didn't take much effort, maybe just added the fake cigarette). Ha ha ha
The treats didn't help, and Sunday we went to Urgent Care. They took him over to the ER, and that's where we spent most of our day.
He was not happy I took pictures of him. I tried lots more with the IV in, but they were too blurry from me dodging his arm. Good thing he never looks at the blog. He'll never know!!
My favorite speakers were Ardath Kapp, Mariama Kallon, John Bytheway and Kris Belcher. Their stories were amazing and it made me so appreciative of the life I've lead and made my problems all seem so insignificant. Mariama's story, especially. My favorite quote that she said about wondering why she never married or had children was that "we all can't have everything". I guess you can have a different perspective when you have seen your family tortured and just be glad you escaped and live a wonderful life in this country. So many of us take that for granted daily. 
I will always treasure the time I had on my "time out" and am thankful that Katie invited me to tag along.
The person in charge of activities in the single's ward has fond memories of David's haunted houses from the past. She asked if David would put on another one for their ward party. Yesterday we spent the day preparing for the event. Here is some of the outcome. The first room was Eric laying on the table with Thavee chopping off his leg and Don shooting them with the nail gun (no nails, of course, only air). Then they crawled through a maze. Jessica hid around a corner with a rat that rolls and flashes its red eyes. She would scream as the victims came by and set the rat off. Then in the next room Robert and Mark would scare them out the door to Jason who chased them with the chainsaw (again, no chain). I really like this guy!! Mark sat in the empty chair holding still to look like he was fake too, until they walked by.
Hopefully the singles enjoyed the fright.
Troy received his call letter yesterday to serve his mission. He is going to the Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission, Tongan speaking. He will report at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, on March 30. He will serve for 2 years. At the MTC, he will learn lessons and practice speaking to people, as well as start learning the Tongan language. Here is a link to the website where there is more information about the MTC... http://www.mtc.byu.edu/. Several people have asked "Where is Tonga?" Here's a map. Hopefully you can zoom in. It doesn't appear to look very large here. It is near Samoa & Fiji, between Tahiti and New Zealand near the international date line.
We are so excited for Troy to have this opportunity to learn more about the gospel, share it with others, and grow his own testimony. I can't imagine a more exciting place to him to go. Of course, I automatically think of the movie, "The Other Side of Heaven", which is based on a true story of one of the first missionaries sent to Tonga. It was quite the experience. I am a little afraid for Troy, but I know that was many years ago and I'm sure they have updated things a little bit more there, and hopefully rats won't eat at his feet!!
This is the LDS Temple in Tonga. I was a little surprised to find there was even a temple there. That's so exciting! Mormonism is the 2nd largest religion in Tonga, with chapels in almost every village. Troy was so excited and asked an elder in our ward who is from Samoa if there is lumpia there. The elder said that lumpia is "this big" and held up his little finger, and that they will feed him "the whole pig", and said that Troy will be fed 2 meals every day by the members. It looks like we will need to get elastic church pants for that boy!
It seems like March is so far away, especially since we got his paperwork in almost as early as we could thinking he would go right near his birthday in January. We will need to get him a passport and visa, I think, and finish preparing our first child to pack his bags and head to a foreign land where the people are humble and embrace the church. I really do believe that Troy is meant to go there, that our Heavenly Father has lessons to teach him, and in turn, lessons for him to teach others to help him become the man, husband and father that he is meant to be. I am so thankful for the friends and mentors that he has had in his life to help him get to this point. It takes a village to raise a child, and now our child will be going to a village to help others. So thanks to everybody that has helped us get him this far. We are truly blessed to have so many loved ones in our lives.
(some are missing) I will really miss the girls. I was asked, "now who will act like my 2nd mom and get after me"? I'm only a phone call or a text away!! Always willing to do my share of nagging - ask my kids:) 
Wed night we had a combined youth activity. They got several choices of items to choose from. All of the items had different names listed, so they had no idea what they were ordering. Some were served water in a bowl, apple juice in a sippy cup, etc. Jason didn't order a plate, so here he is being served waldorf salad and olives directly on the tablecloth. Others ordered salad dressing and olives, but no salad. Thanks to everyone that helped! It was a really fun activity. 
They get really physical. I get tired watching them.
Jason's in the center here, getting the ball from his opponent. (above) Do you see his opponent? That's that thing under Jason's face. Zoom in and you can see there's somebody there.
Eric is playing this year, too. He's the red cap on top of the little boy drowning. Anything to get the ball, but that's the better end to be on!! He plays novice and JV.
Here's Eric again. He's doing pretty well playing, but doesn't enjoy it as much as swim. He also is totally wiped out at the end of the day...not always such a bad thing. Last night he came home at 7:30 (after leaving before 6am) and still hadn't had dinner or done his homework. Hopefully he will be able to keep up this schedule and hang tough. 
Eric is a little more happy to be a freshman. I tried to take his picture outside by the pool like I normally do, but it was so dark it turned out pure black even with the flash.
I asked them how school was when they got home. Their response: "gay". 
This morning this is the text that I got from my
While I was sitting there I thought of a friend who likes to jet ski and didn't know about anywhere to go in San Diego. It's not even crowded in the middle of a Saturday afternoon, and here's the proof.
There were a lot of jet skis parked, but nobody was using them. What a shame!!
The boys all had a good time. They took turns driving and had a blast! Meet our adopted son, Mark:)
I went out by myself for a few minutes. It was kinda scary. I think I prefer being in a boat or else on dry ground on my quad, but it was still a lot of fun.
Jason, Mark & Troy
Here's Eric driving his dad. It was such a fun day. We had never ridden jet skis before (is that even a proper sentence????). It was a fun new experience. And yes, David still wants a boat. I think I only heard "Can we go buy a boat now?" only 5 times yesterday:)
