Thankful

Today has been quite the day. First of all, it is my wonderful husband's birthday. He is a great husband and father, and I am so thankful to him for all he does. He has been sick for awhile and just can't shake it, but still tries to make all his marks. We are just going to have to put off celebrating until he gets better. Hopefully that will be soon.

I have been trying to get Jason to work on his college apps for a month. Time is ticking and the deadline is approaching. When Jason gets stressed, he just freezes and can't go any further. Plus, he's been sick for weeks! Yesterday he started looking at the apps and I knew we may get somewhere. To apply to the BYU colleges, he needs interviews from his Bishop and Stake President, and a paper filled out from his seminary teacher. After church, Jason found the Bishop and asked for an interview. He was just interviewed for something else, so we didn't think it would take but a few minutes. Guess we were wrong, and sorry to Bishop's family for keeping him out so long!! And thanks to Bishop for understanding a stressed out teenager with a deadline.

Jason's still not sure where he wants to go to school, but this is a start.

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.

I really am thankful for the men that live in my home. All 4 of them are unique in so many ways and I am so blessed to have them be part of my family.

Per Dee Dee's Request - can't deny the birthday girl....

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!
As we were getting ready to start we looked around & wondered why no one else there was doing this on roller skates. Well when Laura & I were the last of the skaters (no others in sight) we understood why! Next time (if there is a next time) we will be rocking some good in-line skates!
It was amazing the different size wheels some of those suckers had! No wonder some skaters were done in 30 minutes!!
This was our before photo - you can't tell but it was pretty darn cold.

Although it was painful & I occasionally thought I couldn't make it, I'm glad that I did. It feels good to know at my age, with very little training I set a goal & actually accomplished it. I couldn't ask for better friends to share it with!! (thanks for the encouragement too!)

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!

Here we are (Laura & I) almost to the FINISH line... TOO bad the road was awful & full of rocks. They sabotaged us skaters. I'm sure if it hadn't been for that we would have gotten a much better time! Ha ha

Happy Birthday Dee Dee!

Today is Dee Dee's birthday! Dee Dee is one of my favorite sister in laws... we've been around a long long time! (Just ask our husbands). We've had some fun times over the years, but as you can see I don't have many pictures of her!! I could not find any of us together either! For shame.
Dee Dee is my blogging partner, family member & friend. I am so thankful for all the wonderful memories that we've shared together. If anyone deserves a wonderful birthday, it's her! Since she is just a tad bit older than me, I'm guessing she's turning 30 today... YAY! Happy Birthday Dee Dee!

Water Polo Senior Game

Thursday night was the senior game for water polo. It's my favorite game of the year. They call all the seniors out by name. This year each one had a flower for their mother. It was so cute! Jason came and gave me the flower and a hug in the stands. 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!

They are on their way to CIF now. 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!!

Halloween Part II

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.
Here is a picture of all the kids here.






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









These two photos are from last year (2009). Nate was Asian & Zak as Peter Pan & Merissa was a pirate.

Good times... long gone are the days when I get to pick out their costumes for them. Sometimes I wish I still could.

Hope everyone had a happy, safe Halloween!!

Halloween

For Halloween Troy dressed up as a patient. (I could've worn my scrubs and then we would've been a cute pair.) He has been sick since Friday. He called me Friday night from the ward Halloween party to come home. It's so cute when your kids who never need you all of a sudden want you when they're not well. Not sure what he wanted me to do, but he needed his mommy. Ah, how sweet. I went to the store and got him lots of gatorade and sprite. 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!!

He had TONS of blood work done, two urinalysises (????), a CT scan, and a blood sugar test. And guess what....NOTHING IS WRONG WITH HIM! It's a stinkin' miracle. Maybe when he starts eating and gains some of his weight back, I may believe it. Until then, he's very quiet and just lays around alot...not that I'm enjoying it or anything.

Hopefully he'll be back to his old self again. He needs to get a lot done in the next 5 months!!