STAR Student

Lea: 3rd quarter Honor Roll assembly (3 for 3!!) Receiving her award from Principal Hardiesty, Dr. Levey and Mrs Zwick

Lea, Charity, Jaylyn, Arianna,

Mrs Zwick’s star student. Lea came home with this poster and we put together “All About LEA”. She wanted us to see her talk about the poster and her teacher was kind enough to have her tell about it right after class started – her teacher is AMAZING!!

FAVORITES:

colors: pink & purple

animal: puppy

food: Miss Erin’s fried rice

7 years old, family photo

Twin Lakes

wants to be a teacher

loves to ride her bike

Wishes for $1 BILLION – (don’t we all) It started as 1 mil, but she added a few more 0’s.

Good job, Lea! Love you girl!

Happy birthday Mom!

Happy birthday to my beautiful mom! Sorry you had to buy us all dinner (some buffet in Avondale)……your kids, in-laws and grandkids love you! Oh and dad too. Glad to have you home!!

'nuff said - (Taylee and Grandma)

A day at the lake

My parents went from this: Trondheim, Norway (Dad, Rustin, Kristin & Dallin going sledding)

To this in a matter of weeks: Lake Pleasant, AZ

My brother Steven has been wanting to buy a boat for a while now. My dad wanted to ski, thus the purchase of a boat, several water skis on craigslist (left Jeff and my dad in charge one night to put the kids to bed – they took all of them to North Scottsdale to buy a waterski……not exactly the bedtime routine I was thinking of, but all the kids were asleep when they got back…….) Off we went to try out the boat and enjoy the warmer weather – 80ish degrees. Up first, Dad. Sad we didn’t get one single photo of him, just the video I already posted – made up for that by getting still shots from the video.

Shay and Steven skied – she wanted to go, that water was COLD!!!  She got in, tested the water, then agreed to go. She had fun til he put her feet on the skis….not to fun anymore

Tanner skied (10)

Next: Steven. I have always been impressed with how well my brothers ski. I have never been much of a daredevil on skis (1 or 2), just the fact that I can go back and forth across the wake without hurting myself is a great accomplishment for me. But my brothers are amazing and fun to watch – so is my dad. Never seen my mom ski, but apparently she was pretty good in her day.

Brianna and Lea decided to jump in while I was debating whether I wanted in that freezing cold water. I love Lea’s face in the first picture – that’s how cold it was. Lucas wanted to ski, but put his feet in and said “No – that water’s as cold as ice cubes!!!”

I finally conceded, put on a cold, wet life jacket and got in. 3 tries later and numb (I always forget how much work it is to get up and my stomach muscle aren’t what they used to be), I made it up!!  Who can pass up that water – it was perfect!!

 

 

A day well spent on the lake. (Brianna, Lea, Lucas, Tanner, Abbey, me, Steven, Dad, Shay) (mom took the photo)

Kindergarten screening

I had to take Lucas in today (Saturday) for a kindergarten screening. I told the screener/teacher, he’s color blind so just be prepared if you ask about colors. She assured me they weren’t doing colors. Okay good he’ll be fine.

While he was in the gym with her, I took Abbey to the playground just outside. She ran with the big kids and held her own against 10-15 kids more than twice her size and 4 times her age (she’s only 2). We went back in to get Lucas and headed out to the car.

So………………………………………………………

What did she ask you?

We did numbers, letters. Big letters, small letters. Big and small numbers. And I had to write my name. (YES! He’s a pro at writing his name and has been for at least a year – during the parents meeting last Wednesday, he wrote his name perfectly on the hat he was currently wearing…….then why???)

I wrote two A’s in my name instead of a C. (WHAT?!)

Um, why?

Because I couldn’t remember how to make a C, so I made a small ‘a’ and a big A. A lowercase ‘a’ and an uppercase A.

*sigh* great. (moving on) what else did you talk about?

(conversation continued)……

 

good luck to you kindergarten teacher.

Hello April!!

Well April certainly brought the heat. Wow – almost 100?!? Was looking for a nice slow steady climb up the thermometer…..guess not.

Hoping Mother Nature is playing a joke and we’ll get to enjoy the slightly cooler temps for a while longer.

Not too sad to say good-bye to March.

Good people

The world is full of good people. Sometimes it’s hard to see that if you watch the news at all or read anything online.

But there are truly genuinely good, kind people.

Just in the last month we’ve seen the outpouring of others kindness. We did not ask for handouts nor did we play the wo-is-us card. Yes some days were more difficult than others and the stress of not having future incoming was ever looming in our every move and thoughts.
For me to deal with the stress, I found looking to help others was a good way to not focus on our problems so much. It could always be worse – we have minor, manageable health problems and if the worst thing we have to deal with is unemployment, we can do it.
Now I wasn’t talking about myself when I was writing about those good people (although I’d like to say I spend most of my time in that category – just don’t ask me at 3 am or 5-7 pm. haha!)

My parents came and stocked us up at Costco and took us out to eat several times.

The week Jeff lost his job, I had to pay for Lucas’ preschool. I mentioned it to his teacher  and asked her to not deposit the check until Friday when he got paid again. A half hour after preschool ended (I didn’t get it for another couple days), she sent me an email and told me that her and her husband agreed to accept this last payment and it would cover the next 2 months of preschool too. I was in tears. I knew they needed the money too and was a deeply touched by their sacrifice.

A freezer is being given to us by some strangers in Las Vegas – a lady in my in-laws ward is giving it away and they couldn’t think of anyone in their ward who would want/need it. So my mother-in-law offered it to us and is driving it down this weekend. I have wanted a freezer FOREVER. yeah! Did I mention it’s totally FREE!!! and apparently in good condition too. Can’t wait to stock it full of frozen pizzas and ice cream. just kidding…..well maybe only half full of those items.

Last but not least, two days ago, we received a small envelope in the mail addressed to Jeff. Normally these come and there are receipts for church or something like that because Jeff is the Stake Clerk. I opened it up and my jaw about hit the floor. I checked it over, over, over again to make sure I was seeing it correctly. Someone( s)  had given us a money order made out to Jeff for a significant amount. I called Jeff to see if he was expecting anything. Nobody owed us that much money and if anyone owed anything it was probably us owing someone else. No return address, no signature on the money order and it was mailed from here.

Random acts of kindness that I could never have imagined and I am deeply grateful. While Jeff has started work, we still have not received any part of severance due to when the papers were turned back in and of course has not received a first paycheck either. So this was a much needed blessing and I hope whoever sent it, knows how grateful we are to them. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

We hope to be able to pay it forward and help others in need when we can.