The other Mother turns "18"!

Alissa will hate that I have posted this picture - But this is the only one we have - With the camera broken we used Chris's iphone after Dinner and a Girls Church Basketball Game - Alissa still loves to participate and take it to the hole! As you can tell living in Utah, BYU has a big affect on us and Alissa's shirt says it all "I've been Jimmered" .

18 years ago today, I had no idea Alissa was coming and we got the biggest and best surprise of our lives - Being Induced into labor and 4 1/2 hours later we we handed this amazing little girl that has changed my life forever.

We are so proud of the woman Alissa has become. She has worked hard for everything in life and proven herself by her hard work. In this current phase of Alissa'a life, she is deciding on Which University to attend, being accepted to both BYU and SUU on Scholarship, Starting her 4th year on the RHS Girls Golf Team, Starting back at work at the local Golf Course, getting ready to graduate and excited to have the college experience.

Happy Birthday Baby - You are 1 in a million!

Zoey Quotes....

You know I love this girl and I am surprised at times the things that come out of her mouth - Seeing she has had a job for 4 years teaching dance, can remember dance moves for dances she was in at age 10, 11, & 12. She choregraphs for girls when they need solos - and then I here this from down stairs:

"Mom, where are you? Is 1 half of 2" A little bewildered, I repeated what I could not have actually heard; "Zoey, did you just ask me is 1 half of 2?" (Mind you this is my 3.75 gpa 11th grader, soon to be senior) "Yeah is 1 half of 2? - I am having a really hard time thinking right now."
And so there you have it the Quote of the Week - my almost 17 year old - has reverted back to 1st grade math, maybe I should take her back to school with me, so this never is the issue again? What the X#$&*!

Reverence Combined Activity

I am posting this for my purposes only; The Mia Maids were in charge of a combined YW/ YM activity in February which needed to focus on Reverence, after much deliberation and meetings with my presidency this is what we came up with:
The leaders acted out a a very ad-lib skit about all the kinds of irreverence we are too used to being around when we attend Sunday Church or Weekday church activities, We had the following adult leaders doing the following things.

Gum Chewing and popping, game playing, texting, food passing around, walking around, leaving the room constantly, know it all, tickling backs, laying on the floor, feet on chairs, falling asleep, throwing papers, are we done yet?

This went on for about 10 minutes, quite the entertainment for the youth and then the youth were put into 10 teams of 7 and they had to make a Reverence Mormon-ad (Poster) to display in the church as to what we need to be doing to show reverence with the church buildings.

(Now, a little disclaimer, we have over 100 youth and we had 73 show up for the activity, so yes it was loud and crazy, but during the skit - they were awesome.)

The activity turned out awesome and all the kids had a great time! I was really proud of the girls and leaders who helped put this all together!

Sweetheart's 2011 for Zoey & Alissa

I am catching up on February before March hits me in the face in 2 more days---ARGH!

Alissa & Zoey attended to Girl ask Guy RHS Sweethearts dance on February 12, 2011 - Alissa went with a cute friend named, Jake and Zoey went with her BOY/ Friend, Corbin. Alissa spent most of the morning decorating at the school for the dance, an SBO's job is never done, Zoey joined in the decorating as soon as she was done teaching dance for the day. They then went to D.I and bought crazy outfits so they could all go to DISCO skate night at Classic Skating - The crazy safe fun the kids have I am proud of the choices they are making.

As you can tell we were able to be with Alissa to get pictures, funny story, there was snow on the ground and Jocey, didn't bring shoes with her, so she hopped on Mom's back so I could get a few pictures of Alissa and her date; cause she thought he was HOT!

However we had to CRASH the dinner party for Zoey cause they both left the house at the same time. We went to another person's house, who we did not know at all, and just started snapping pictures of all the couples and their date and of course we had to get the infamous best friends photo of Sam, Zoey & Nat! Still trying to get back in time for Stake Conference -

So the life we lead - They had a great time.

Service brings Humilty !

We have been getting ready for Stake Conference this past month, and the Stake Presidency asked that each family do specific reading and FHE's and perform a service to someone. So as a Stake Presidency, the came to decision that, our families would go and serve dinner at the Road Home Shelter in Salt Lake City. Of course I was feeling a little picked, seeing as I had to use my day off to prepare and cook all the food assignments for our family and everyone else in our family just had to show up... So the humbling part begins, we show up and get set up and the kids took over the serving and talking to the people and helping the little kids: I was definitely in awe of their love and compassion for those who have hit hard times and are trying to get their lives in order and back on track! Tracy's, Blake's, Juassi's & Gibbon's Families you ROCK!!! I am so proud!

The handing over of the CHECK to the IRC

SO i am little behind on posting so i am catching up on the past weeks: On February 4, 2011 the SBO's and Class officers at Riverton High School had the opportunity to finally present the IRC (International Rescue Committee) with the official check for the amount they fundraised this December for SILVERRUSH 2010. The were invited to the Salt Lake Library, fed a wonderful meal and then had a program with come of the refugee families. Alissa and Zoey were very touched and proud to be part of this entire experience.

The Good, The Bad and What the?

Without a doubt, life does throw us curve balls, now how we handle those curve balls is up to us? Well I think up to this point I have been pretty patient and understanding and gracious at times - But now I am not so sure....
Last week ended on a high note, with;

• 2 potential job offers for Chris, I say potential cause they both said they want to employ him, we just had to wait to see the terms...Attended a BYU game and Utah Jazz Game
  
• Ms. Alice was back to work and the 1st graders were happy to see her.
• Alissa was getting better and acting more like her self (Although she is stick thin...) Was able to go see BYU's, Jimmer Fredette in the biggest game at the Marriott Center with her DAD.
  
• Jocelyn had a few days off from Drill, after they didn't make State, Oh Well they got screwed... Sleeping in made her happy, with 2 weekend nights of parties.
  
• The High School boys basketball team had 2 wins this week, Fun & Crazy games (Water Boy did awesome - I love going and cheering even though I do not have a kid on the floor - Well at least not a blood related kid? )
• Stone & Hunter had 4 basketball games, 4 practices, a 2 day baseball hitting tournament and they both had amazing #'s in their hoops.
• Zoey got to hang with Corbin and Teach Dance - The 2 things that make her the happiest...

As my husband would say the cup is half full - I on the other hand hate to admit that I look at the cup half empty. (Especially if the kids have been sneaking my Diet Coke)

Monday8:10 am
Text message: Chris, Thank you for your proposal, I have changed my mind. - Nothing Else, just those 2 lines - What happened, maybe we will never know 1 job down, 1 to go... Sucker Punched is how he felt, but he, as always, said maybe it's for the better! 20 years with this man and he never ceases to amaze me with his FAITH! Waiting to hear from Job 2 ....

Monday Night 8:00 pm
Jocelyn begs me to take her to The SLCO Rec center to get a Lifeguard's job application.
This is how the conversation went:
J: Mom can you take me to get an application
M: Jocelyn you don't know how to be a life guard.
J: I can swim good
M: You have to be trained and take courses
J: No, that what they do for you there.
M: Jocelyn, I don't think you understand what it takes to Lifeguard, not just sitting the sun getting tan in a swim suit watching boys all summer.
J: Mom, I told you I can swim
M: Jocey, I have had friends and family do this and it takes years of training and lessons - You have not had that - Just summer swimming won't cut it.
J: Well mom so and so are doing it and I can too.
Off we go to the rec center against my better judgement - But deep inside I figure this could be a big come to Jesus Party for Jocey. Jocey enters the Rec Center- talks to the front dest about 5 minutes, comes out and says;
J: Mom I need 10$ so I can sign up for the Pre-Test before they give me an application.
M: I'm not giving you $10, See if you can pay when you come to take the test, Oh yeah - when is the test and what do you have to do? ( In my mind I'm thinking - this may be the deterent)
J: I think I have to swim 300 ft and get a brick off the bottom of the pool or something like that.
M: Really that sounds off, maybe it's 300 yards - Go check.
After Jocey goes back in for 5 more minutes she returns with a flier in hand explaining the procedure and the reality hits her in the head.

1. After 3 hour pre-test must be able to come everyday for 3 -5 hours of training , take classes and Emergency Medical Training and Swim 300 yards and retrieve heavy objects from the deep end of a pool - etc...
2. Jocelyn reads this to me and I just wait for a response - What no response??? - I guess this is a big deal and not an easy job anyone can have.
   

So on the way home I explained to Jocey, that however glamorous being a lifeguard may sound, you still hold the lives of all the daily swimmers in your hands, as well as the sun worshipers, you have to medically trained as well as life-guard certified and you have to clean pooh or barf out of the water when a kid or adult doesn't make it to the bathroom.

I haven't heard another thing about becoming a lifeguard - I wonder if I will?

What the *&?% was she thinking?
For that matter what the $#@& was Job #1 Thinking - BAD FORM!