Road trip to Boise and a BSA District Award of Merit

My Mom, Melanie and I drove to Boise for Pat Kibble's funeral. We left Thursday about 3pm.  Melanie was a last minute addition to the party, I just felt like there was some reason she needed to go.  She, of course, was thrilled to be invited on a mini vacation to hang out with mom and grandma and stay in a hotel and miss school.  Melanie had checked out some books on cd from the library so the trip seemed to fly by as we listened to a book and visited.  We got to the hotel about 8pm.  We were tired so we visited the hotel restaurant for a small snack before watching the ladies figure skating final in the olympics and turning out the light.

We woke up the next morning and visited the breakfast buffet in the hotel.  Melanie was thrilled to get biscuits and gravy.  We packed up and headed over to the funeral that began at 10am.  It was a funeral mass in the Catholic church with incense and candles and communion which was what I was expecting but I realized that Melanie had never experienced that before.  She was quite taken back by it all.  I realized that may have been the reason she needed to accompany us on the trip.  The funeral was a nice tribute to Pat.  The Catholic women's group had a nice luncheon after the funeral and we got to visit with Lisa and her family.  They are all doing well.  They were really appreciative we would drive up for the funeral.  We began our drive home after the luncheon and arrived about 7pm.  

Warren was awarded a "District Award of Merit" at the banquet for scout leaders. He was also officially put in as the district chair.  He was happy with how the awards night went and thought they had a good mix of entertainment and awards.  They got a compliment on how they kept the program moving so it didn't get too boring.

Saturday morning Tyler began the road portion of driver's ed and Warren took Jannik skiing at Snowbird.  They had a great time and enjoyed skiing through 14 inches of fresh powder.  They went on some challenging runs and Jannik came home a little sore from one particularly bad crash.  Tyler worked Saturday afternoon and Warren and Jannik went to see "Robocop" at Thanksgiving Point.  My big accomplishment for the day was getting everyone's taxes finished and filed.

The weather here today is just beautiful.  Sunny and about 60 degrees.  Milo couldn't be happier because Tyler and Melanie just want to play with him outside all day.

In RS today we were talking about this question: "What is your ultimate priority?"  It doesn't always show, but I want my answer to be, "serve God".

The discussion in class led me to take some time to think about what I want my daily and weekly priorities to be in my life and then take some time to "schedule" them in to my calendar.  I can have great intentions but if they aren't on my calendar they just don't happen.  I hope I can take some time each Sunday to review how I am doing with these goals.

Valentines Day and the State Swim Meet

Valentine's Day - Now that I am working part time it seems that holidays just sneak up on me.  I realized with less than a week before the holiday that we hadn't gotten out any of the valentines decorations. (That was remedied.)  I "heart attacked" the bedroom doors of everyone in the family with notes about what I love about them written on paper hearts.  I suggested to Jannik that he send a valentines gift to his girlfriend, who is doing study abroad in Illinios but he insisted, "Germans don't need a silly holiday to know they love each other."  (He is such a know-it-all.) It was with a slight "told you I was right" attitude that I gave him the gift his girlfriend sent for him.  

 Our dinner that night was: Strawberry Spinach Salad, Steak, red potatoes, gravy, heart shaped cooked carrots, fresh strawberries and rasberries, with "tuxedo cake" (chocolate) for dessert.

Two days this week were dedicated to the LHS State swim meet.  Jannik was swimming, Tyler was taking pictures, and Warren and I were timers.  It was all very exciting.  There were tears and smiles as swimmers tried hard to do their very best.  In the end the LHS team took 2nd.  Jannik will go home with some great memories.

**********************

Our new exchange student Maria has been emailing us - she sounds darling.  She ended with this sentence, "A big hung for all of you. I would like time to be quickly to meet you."

***************************

We lost two great women in our lives this week... Hester Rippy (of the Rippy Literacy Center)  and my friend Lisa's Mom (she has been sick with cancer) died this week.  This is what I wrote on facebook in tribute to Hester, "She touched my family for good. We lost a great lady in our community. My kids just love her. She always had a kind word and a candy for them when they went to volunteer at the literacy center. Years ago I used to drive past the cemetery about the same time everyday and I used to see her visiting the grave of her husband. I knew she must miss him terribly. I'm glad they are reunited."  

**********************************

It has been a dry winter here in the western united States and on fast Sunday we prayed for some moisture.  God answered our prays and it has been a very rainy (in the valley) and snowy (in the mountains) February.  Today the temperature feels March like and it was windy.  Tyler and Melanie decided to go outside and fly kites and they played outside with the dog for a long time.  Something funny about our dog - he LOVES to play in the water.  He thinks the fish pond in our backyard is so great.  Only problem with that is we really would like to have some fish in that pond this summer and because he is so hairy he is a MESS when he is wet.  Another fun thing about our dog is that when we got him Tyler gave him an blanket to sleep with.  Well, Milo, loves that blanket and carries it around with him everywhere. We call it his "wubbie".

*********************************

Dinner with Jannik

On Tuesday night Melanie and Tyler went to a joint activity where they were serving dinner and Dad had scout meetings from the time he got off work until late at night.  I told everyone that I was not going to make dinner.  I have some gift cards that I earn and work for Zupas so I decided to ask Jannik if he wanted to go out to get a sandwich with me.  He was like a different kid, so chatty and he even paid for both our sandwiches.  Years ago I gave my four kids a "test" to find out what their love language is and all four came back with "time".  I decided that time must also be Jannik's love language.

Happy Valentines Day

We decided to do a family photo shoot so we had a valentine to send to our missionaries.

Tyler and Melanie both spent all day last Saturday at the Roots tech conference.  The opening speaker was John Bytheway, they also heard from Apostle Anderson, and got a sneak peak of studio C season 4 with all of the characters.  Tyler was a volunteer at the event.

YW in excellence "Diamonds in the Rough"

Tyler was able to finish all but the final exam for his on-line driver's ed class. He should be able to take the exam the first of next week. He did the range and one day got partnered up with his "girlfriend" from preschool Silvie Sue Taylor. He said they had fun "catching up". He is really hoping to be done with driver's ed in time to get his license on his birthday. The Winter Olympics began this past week and we are watching a lot. So far things are going well.

Dog wash and Flying

It was an interesting and exciting week around here. On Monday evening we decided to attend the LHS celebration for the Chinese New Year. It was really well organized and very well attended. It is the year of the horse. There were many different activities like writing chinese characters, making different crafts, eating with chop sticks, face painting, and a show with chinese dancers and a yo yo demonstration. Melanie had a great time painting a terracotta warrior.

 On Tuesday, Milo got left outside all morning and when I got home he was muddy from head to toe. I decided we were not going to let him back in the house in that condition. My visiting teacher had told me about a dog wash that is part of a car wash on main street on the way to Willowcreek. We decided to check it out. What a great invention! There was a raised tub with a ramp leading up to it. They had yellow plastic aprons to put on so that you don't get all wet as you wash your dog. The water sprayer is kind of like the car wash - you can decide what comes out of it according to what you select. You could have different kinds of soapy water come out or conditioner or just plain water. When the dog is all clean you can choose to suck the water off them with a vacuum hose or blow them dry with an air hose. The very best part is that all the dirt and hair is not all over my bathroom tub. We will definitely be back.

 Dad had some meetings for his new scout assignment in St. George this weekend. We both took Friday off work and headed south once we got things taken care of at home and packed. I went with dad to his meetings on Friday evening and they had a dutch oven dinner that spouses were invited to. I told Dad on the way down that we had reached a new milestone in life - the ability to leave overnight without getting a babysitter. Grandma came up and picked up Melanie after school and took her home to spend the night. Tyler and Jannik were on their own. They were very busy with the Regional Swim Meet. On Saturday morning I dropped Dad off at his meetings and went to the temple. I was early for the session and started to read the Book of Mormon. I happened to read in Helaman chapter 7. Versus 6 and 7 stood out to me: Helaman speaking to his sons, Lehi and Nephi: 6 Behold, my sons, I desire that ye should remember to keep the commandments of God; and I would that ye should declare unto the people these words. Behold, I have given unto you the names of our first parents who came out of the land of Jerusalem; and this I have done that when you remember your names ye may remember them; and when ye remember them ye may remember their works; and when ye remember their works ye may know how that it is said, and also written, that they were good. 7 Therefore, my sons, I would that ye should do that which is good, that it may be said of you, and also written, even as it has been said and written of them. These words resonated with me because "help me be good" is something I pray for. I started the session and got to see one of the new films. I don't know if you have gotten to see either of the new temple films but if you are it is the one with Dallyn Vail Bayles. It was my first time seeing this film and I very much related to the actress portraying Eve in this film. She too, seemed to just want to be "good" and do good works. After the temple I took myself out to lunch at cafe rio with a gift card I got at work and then went shopping for some new work clothes at the DI. Dad and I headed home about 2:30. The regional swim meet began at 3:30. They post the results on-line in real time so we were keeping up with the boys as we drove home. The meet turned out to be close between Lehi and Lone Peak. In the 100 yard butterfly race Jannik came in 4th place with three other boys ahead of him that were not from Lone Peak. The boy who came in first place ended up getting disqualified for some reason bumping Jannik up to 3rd place (and Tyler to 14th). In the end Lehi won the meet by only 5.5 points meaning that Jannik's clean butterfly race time could be said were the points that put them ahead of Lone Peak in the end. Tyler's high school swim season is now over. Jannik will swim in the State meet in two weeks.