Farewell dinner: take 2

Tonight we braved the cold and met at Olive Garden for dinner. Tara is moving to Missouri next month and we will miss her. I have been so blessed to work with and get to know such amazing, brave, valiant, steadfast women. Love them.  Really there aren't words but these women are truely sisters in Zion.

Becky, Kelly, Carol, Jamie, Jodie, me, Tara, Jacque and Jocelyn.

frost bite on my ankles

BRRR! It is cold outside.  Right now it's 19 degrees with winds of 21mph.  Grace and I just walked the dogs and it was brutal.

Friday Grace has an elm's beach field trip.  Outside.  I need to get her some warmer footwear tomorrow.  It's insanely freezy out.  Tonight she had on her pink fluffy coat, and her black tundra jacket, and her hat and two hoods and a pair of gloves and she said it was okay except her legs.

I had my long coat but had on tennis shoes and the wind blew up my pants and froze my ankles.  Brr!!

Tonight Ethan and Hannah are at church.  Ethan is passing off 3 more merit badges.  Sports, citizenship in the community and personal finance.

After school today John came over to play games and Arden came over to make bracelets.  Hannah has been staying after school until 5 or 5:30 every day with play practice. They perform at festival this weekend and then again at the end of the month for her one act.  Then it should lighten up because she will only be in one performance instead of two.

Yesterday I subbed and we had girl scouts.  The girls finished their Amuse journey.

FHE : and inspired program

Sometimes FHE is really fun, sometimes we have wonderful lessons, occasionally we forget and every once in a while we have a disaster. 

Tonight was, you guessed it, one of the later. We started at the table because R was gone late and was eating dinner and I wanted to go next door to watch Downton Abbey after the kids went to bed. I wasn't really in a hurry but did want to start. Hannah wanted to practice scripture mastery and Grace wanted to play monopoly. Neither were too excited about stories from the New Era and songs. Ethan's foot touched Grace's chair and so rudely stayed there. Hannah made apple crumble but then announced she wanted to take it to school to share with her friends. The boys wanted to eat it.

Tears, off key singing of songs we didn't all know, a talk on the dangers of pornography and a few indignant eye rolls plus some huffy breathes and we managed to make it through. Then I prayed a prayer that was "lacking brevity", tucked Lu in bed and met Darlaina for some English manor romance and intrigue. 

Sabbath

The alarm went off at 7am. Our ward start time is 9 this year. I am embarrassed to say how hard it was to get up. Tomorrow is going to be brutal! 

Church was good, the children all at reverently.

We got home and just hung out. Hannah and Chelsea made dinner. We made sure everyone's homework was done and ready. Boys played soccer. R napped. 

This little cutie is a brand new sunbeam. It's been fun having her this weekend;)

Another picture from the dance.

Tonight all the big kids and R and Asa from next door are watching x-men, one last hurrah before school starts. 

citizenship in the community

For the citizenship in the community merit badge a boy must contact a community agency and find out what they do there, then they must volunteer for 8 hours.  Earlier this year we spent 6 hours as a family at Serenity Farm, where they work with Harvest for the Hungry and grow and donate food, as well as other efforts. Ethan needed two more hours so today he and Rob gathered a group of scouts and off they went.  They spent about 3 hours working and Ethan and Eric said they had a good time.

The rest of the day was filled with normal stuff.  The kids are finishing up their homework as school starts again on Monday.  We are enjoying have Chelsea and Eric and Alexis with us. 

Tonight R and I went to dinner with the Zawadas.  

It's been a good break, quick.

the day after New Years dance

Chelsea, Loraine, Asa, Hannah and Ainsley (it was her first dance)

Our stake doesn't have a new years eve dance for the youth.  When we first moved here I thought that was kind of dumb but I have come to really enjoy having them home for family celebrating and I appreciate the danger that is on the road.  Our MD roads are dark and treey and windy and deer dart across them, plus our stake center is almost in DC, inside the beltway and drivers there are nuts.  Not having a bunch of teenagers driving home in those conditions on that night is a good thing.  We do have a dance close to the beginning of the year and we make it a little special.  

Tonight I drove this cute crew to the dance.  They had to come early with me, 2 hours early.  We stopped by Costco for dance food, then I had a youth captains meeting (that's what we are calling our older youth that are helping with youth conference this year).  No one complained.  They also had to stay after for cleaning up time.  No complaints there either.  They are good kids.

Hannah dancing with Cewmonie

The dance was fun and well attended, with awesome snacks.  Youth conference planning also went well.

Tara and I often end up randomly matching

This weekend is Colleen's birthday, we have 3 of their kids staying with us.  While we were gone the boys designed rockets :) as well as played frisbee and other fun things.

New Year

We woke up and found that the power was out. Someone hit a power line at around 5 this morning and knocked out power for about 300 homes. The McCombs in typically awesome McCombs fashion offered to share theirs. The whole party from the night before showed up for tasty breakfast food, trampoline jumping, fun sharing.

In the afternoon Hannah went to the movies with the Nelsons. Grace painted. Ohio State plays in the biggest game ever tonight and the boys are looking forward to it.