Colorguard competitions have begun, Swim-a-thon, Fall Decorations, Rain, and Sunday afternoon cookies

This week marked the beginning of competition season for the band and color guard.  On Tuesday, they had an exhibition meet at Weber State.  The color guard girls have to wear their hair down and "very curly".  It is no small task to get all of Melanie's thick hair "very curly".  On Monday night, Maria helped me roll Melanie's hair into about 40 pink rollers.    For Saturday's competition I spend two hours getting her hair "very curly" with a curling iron.  On Saturday we had quite a rainstorm that lasted ALL day.  At the time the LHS band was to compete there was lightening and so the competition had to be canceled.  

On Friday night the LHS swim team held their annual swim-a-thon fund raiser.   Tyler and Maria were both scheduled to begin swimming at 10pm.  Maria was a little nervous because she hadn't ever swam that far at one time.  Both Tyler and Maria swam 200 laps without stopping for any breaks.  Both of them were the first ones finished in their lanes.  Tyler swam about 190 of the laps with Nathan H. right on his heels drafting off of him.   In swimming like bicycling if you are close enough to the person in front of you the front person "pulls" the person behind them.  I thought that would make Tyler mad but he said he was ok with it.  They both got out of the pool and drank a whole water bottle full of water.  They then went out for "breakfast" at IHOP with some friends.

 All the rain on Saturday kept us from working outside in the yard but gave us a chance to get a few things done inside.  We needed to do some fun upkeep kind of things inside like clean out the drains in the bathtubs and cleaning out the dishwasher.  (Warren took care of all of that.)  We also put away the spring/summer decorations and decorated for Halloween/Fall.  Maria was the only one home during the decorating and she was a good sport about climbing up on top of the pantry to change out the decorations and dust.

Tyler and Maria decided that Sunday afternoon was a good time to make some sugar cookies.  They put on the superhero aprons Warren and I got for Christmas last year.

doTERRA Convention

This week was very tiring.  It was the doTERRA convention and I worked a lot.  doTERRA payed for me to stay in the Radisson hotel in SLC because I was working so early in the morning and so late at night.  It was a very comfortable hotel.  The conference seemed to be a huge success.  The president of the company said in one of his talks that they project doTERRA will double in size by December.  It is just growing crazy fast.  I got to work a lot with my new friend  Mary Melanie. (No joke, that is really her first and middle name.  She goes by "Melanie").  I first met her when your sister Melanie was trying out for color guard.  Her daughter was also trying out.  She mentioned she had been layed off her job and was looking for something new.  I told her about doTERRA and suggested she apply.  She got the job.  Most of the time we were working in the store where they were selling their new (and old) products. I estimate they brought in about 6 million dollars in three days... it was really busy.

I did get to sneak away to see Nathan and Becka be sealed in the SLC temple.  I also went with your dad to their reception that night when I got off work.  I got to talk with Aunt Leslie (Uncle Kyle did not attend) and Aunt Deborah and Uncle Ron and Aunt Brenda and Uncle Chris and Chris's new wife.  Ron and Debbie are doing well.  Chris's new wife is very nice.  The wedding was great.  Becka will be really good for Nathan.  They make a great couple.

Dad and I went to a benefit concert put on by doTERRA to raise money for their charitable foundation.  They put together some great talent for the event and it was a fun evening even though I was beyond exhausted.  It was nice for Dad and I to have a date.  The group Diamond Rio (country) wrote a song and debuted it at the concert and I LOVED it. It reminded my of Graigry. It is called "Walking by beauty" and is based on this true story: A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk. A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work. The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on. In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition. No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars. Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100. One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

Saturday Night Fun

Instead of coming to the concert with Warren and I, Tyler, Maria, and Melanie went to the Dollar Store and Target and took silly pictures of themselves trying on things.  They laughed a lot.

Maria and Melanie tried to find the ugliest clothes they could and took a picture in the dressing room.  They are such pretty girls it is hard to find clothes that looks bad on them.

Tyler bought him a new Halloween costume.

Homecoming

The first date dance of the school year is Homecoming.  Both Maria and Tyler wanted to attend.  Maria was asked by Nathan Huggins on the swim team.  Nathan also used to be in the same piano classes as Tyler with Ms. Billie.  He gave Maria a poster covered in Hershey's kisses that said, "Now that I've kissed the ground you've walked on... will you go to Homecoming with me?"  She then had to look through the kisses to find his name.  Maria didn't immediately know who Nathan was, we had to show her a picture of him. She answered him with a box of doughnuts the next morning at workout that said, "It would be sweet to go to Homecoming with you."   I took Maria to my sister Connie's house where her girls just happen to have a closet full of formal dresses in her size.  They set her up with a beautiful dress with shoes to match.  

 Tyler had a little drama with the first girl he asked to Homecoming this year and he withdrew his invitation. (Turns out her boyfriend DID plan to ask her.)  He then asked Ellie, who he knows from swim team.  He made nine signs with one of the following words on each, "Ellie will you go to home coming with me?"  He then got nine boys from the swim team to hold a sign and they ran around Ellie during their morning workout at the high school.  Once she had seen the question they ran back around her showing the other side of the signs which had one letter from his name on them.  (He is known as "Benji" to the swim team.)  Tyler then gathered up the signs and handed them to her. Ellie answered him by doorbell ditching a hamburger and milkshake on our doorstep one evening.

Four of the boys on the swim team got together to plan a group date.  One of the boys had a connection and got them a good deal to do a three hour mission at the space center for their day date.  Melanie got to entertain Nathan while he waited for Maria to finish getting ready for the space center.  She didn't mind that at all because "he is really cute".  Ellie was running in a track meet and couldn't go to the day date so Tyler asked Missy Arnold to go with him.  She is in our ward and sits by him in English class.  She didn't get asked to the dance and had to work anyway.  Tyler said they had a good time at the space center.  Tyler was the captain and Maria was Security.

The boys had a little trouble finding someone to be their photographer.  Every stake  in Utah county has stake conference this weekend because there will be a regional broadcast on Sunday and all of their potential photographers wanted to attend.  He ended up asking Kara Atkisson to be their photographer and she did a really great job.  She came down early to Lehi to scout out good locations.  She then came over and helped Maria finish getting ready.

Tyler left to pick up Ellie and Maria stayed to wait for Nathan.  She had her first experience pinning a flower on a boy and she was nervous but she did fine.  Warren walked with them out to the car so he could get a picture and said he gave Nathan a little pep talk after he put Maria in the car.  Nathan was really nervous and Warren told him to take a deep breath, smile and just have a good time.

Some of my favorite pictures from the photographer, Kara.