Youth Conference

 Our ward decided to hold Youth Conference in the winter this year.  We went up to the Heber Valley Girls Camp on Friday, February 5th and stayed until the afternoon of Saturday, the 6th.  I did NOT want to go.  At. All.  I whined and complained to David for a whole month before leaving.  I was absolutely certain that I was going to break my neck and die while I was there - or at least get injured pretty badly, leaving David to take care of our five kids alone.  I HATE being cold, and I really value my sleep.  I was pretty bummed about the whole thing.

Luckily for me, Heavenly Father ignored my temper tantrum and blessed me with a wonderful trip!  From the moment I arrived in the parking lot of our church, all the burdens of worry that I'd been carrying were lifted and I had a total blast!  Heber Valley Girls camp is AWE-SOME!!!  We stayed in log cabins - there was one for the boys, one for the girls, and one that we shared for eating, meeting, etc. The cabins had space heaters and bunk beds in them.   We had a fire pit, picnic table, 2 camp chefs (that came with the site) and a pretty nice heated bathroom not too far down the road. It was a super nice setting - I'm thinking about booking a family reunion there someday (either in the winter or the summer).

Here are a few pictures from the Rosewood Ward Youth Conference 2016 (there will be several names that don't matter to you, but our family history should include them so that we can look back at the people in our lives at this time):

These are the four YW leaders that went: Myself, Nancy Maughn (who, by the way, is our girls' new piano teacher.  She's so good - the Marilyn Gee of our town), Lisa Stevens, and Melanie Heiner (our pres).  I already loved them all, but this trip just reinforced how kind, funny, reliable, easy going, and spiritual they are.  They are amazing and I'm lucky to get to serve with and learn from them!

I was in charge of dinner.  It was a little stressful to figure out the logistics of it all - keeping things the right temperature for the hours that we drove and hiked into camp, keeping it simple enough to pack into the woods, but good enough that 50 teens would eat it, etc.  But in the end it all worked out just fine.
In this picture, Klarissa Hughs is in the cream coat and Ellie Lundgreen is the girl in the ponytail.  That's Wyatt dishing up his plate, and a spattering of YM leaders in the background.

Klarissa, Cassie Mertens, Ellie, and Jade Williams.  All of the YW that came (except one) were Mia Maids.  And the one Laurel that did come just barely left the Mia Maids.  The Beehives weren't invited - 14 years old and up only.  Too bad.  It would have been fun to go with Alison.  That's okay though.  It was a weekend with my girls!  

We had a fireside.  Our speaker was amazing!  Many of the girls said that her talk was the highlight of the trip for them.  

That night, we stayed up very late playing games, making up silly dances, telling stories, eating candy, and laughing a whole lot!  Some of our girls were sledding in the dark (you have to wear a headlamp, but you can totally go any time).  They were sledding until about midnight.

We also wrote really nice notes to each other.  It was a great bonding experience for us!  I didn't sleep a wink that night.  I'm serious when I say that!  I never lost consciousness. But instead of going crazy like I would have if I was at home, I just smiled and thought about how great my girls were, how kind they were to each other and how bright their futures are.  This photo is of Jessica Wiedeman and Zoe Mecham.  

In the morning, the YM were in charge of breakfast.  They made a fancy pancake/hashbrowns/sausage breakfast.  It was delicious!  But long before the food was ready, the kids were out sledding again.  They were die-hards!
I was just a second too late on this photo.  Brother Burt (from our bishopric) walked up to Nancy, slapped her in the face with his glove, and challenged her to a sledding duel!  He was totally joking (Nancy is in her 60's, and made it clear that she was going for moral support).  We all got a good laugh.  Brother Burt, on the other hand, was the craziest, most competitive person out there.  I swear, he had a death wish!  The other leader, on the left, is Mark Stryker, the YM pres.

 There are several fields to go sledding in, but since the road are blocked off to traffic, you can use the roads as well.  That's what we did.  We never even went looking for the fields.   It was a big, long, probably quarter mile stretch and it was plenty fast.  This photo is of Bailey Chatelain and Melinda Johnson.

The kids just kept sledding and sledding all day!  They raced.  They rode in every pair combination you could think of.  They had a game where one group of people held hands and sled down the hill like a stagecoach.  Another group, the robbers, tried to knock them off their sleds and break up the stagecoach.  It was pretty wild!  This is Jessica and Jade.  I don't think they fit on that sled. 

 I think that looks like Ellie, but I can't be sure because I don't remember her wearing a coat.  She was in a short sleeved shirt most of the time.  It took all of one run before we started sweating.  And the day was beautifully sunny, so all of us were taking off layers.  I was out there with them for a lot of the time.  I'm old!  And out of shape!  But I had a ball!  

Bailey, Zoe, and Kira Evans.  Several of us brought snowshoes, and the ward rented a few pairs as well.  A group of us went for a long snowshoe hike around a lake.  It was lovely! I wish I'd gotten pictures, but my battery died.  We ate lunch, then started packing up.  We were home around 4:00 that afternoon.  What an adventure!  I can't wait to go again!  And next time, I'm going to be excited about it from the beginning.

Marissa Meyer

On February 3rd, the author of Alison's favorite book series, "The Lunar Chronicles," came to Salt Lake City.  Alison marked it on our family calendar months in advance and talked about it often.  As the day approached, I started researching the location and decided that I was uncomfortable driving deep in the heart of northeastern Salt Lake City in the dark (I'm a pretty wimpy driver).  David, an avid reader and lover of books, didn't hesitate to take Alison to the signing.  He understands her - they are kindred spirits when it comes to books.  

So the one and only, fabulous David Gee met us at a gas station in Rose Park (in North Salt Lake) right after he saw his last patient.  He then drove Alison to a small bookstore in Sugar House and spent the entire night (not returning home until nearly 11:00 pm) with a bunch of squealy fan girls and a YA author.  What a man!

Marissa Spoke for about an hour, then she signed books.  They called the attendees up in groups of twenty based in the alphabetic letter you were given when you arrived (which was based on when you purchased a book, I think).  Alison had the letter 'O."  It was a very long wait.  Luckily, she had Marissa Meyer's new book to keep her busy.

I love this picture.  David called her name and took the picture as she looked up.

After a long wait, Alison finally got to meet her favorite author.  She said that she totally choked!  She didn't know what to say, so she sounded a little goofy. She's wearing my coat, by the way, because she forgot to bring her own and I wouldn't let her go without anything.  She looks a bit like a hobo in the big thing).

I kind of wish that Marissa could have known how HUGE this was to Alison, but how could she, really? And what would I want her to do if she did know - hug her? give her a lock of her hair? exchange emails?   (yes to all of those, probably)  

Again with the hobo coat!  I feel bad that she didn't take it off because she dressed up like the main character, Cinder.  She had on a white T-shirt, jeans, a ponytail, a wrench in her back pocket, and a glove on her hand.  You can't tell because she covered it all with a huge old-lady coat.

It was a very special night for Alison,  One she'll never forget.  I'm so glad that she has such a great and patient dad to take her and share in the excitement.

Snippets From Our Lives

Just thought I'd share a couple of cute things about our kids while I'm thinking about them.

Ali is in 7th grade.  I'm learning that Jr. High is no joke.  It's tough trying to figure out who you are socially and fit in with the other kids while trying to keep up with intense homework - even my most stable Mia Maids have struggles.  Ali is happy and confident most of the time, but once in a while she makes comments that remind me that she's not immune to the stresses of teenage life.  Personally, I think that background only makes what Alison did last week all the more impressive.

Last Friday, Alison packed a home lunch of mayonnaise.  It was actually white chocolate pudding in an empty mayonnaise jar, but it looked pretty real.  I wish I could have been there when she sat down at the lunch table with her friends, casually pulled out a jar of mayonnaise and a spoon, and started eating!  It took a couple of minutes for anyone to notice, but once they did, it was pretty spectacular.  "Are you eating mayonnaise?!?!" "Ahhh!"  "Alison! You're going to get salmonella and die!"  "You're going to be in the hospital going, 'Oh I wish I'd listened to my friends and not eaten that mayonnaise'!" "I'm going to call an ambulance for you right now!"  The whole time, Alison kept a straight face and said, "No, guys.  It's okay.  I read on the internet that mayonnaise is healthy for you." Her friends were like, "But, it's lumpy!!!"  She said, "Yeah it's expired, but that only makes it healthier." It went on for a while.  You know, teenage girls throw the best fits!  Ali said it was epic.  I love her for being crazy and brave and self confident enough to do it.  (one side note: once her friends found out that it was pudding, a couple of them were still totally revolted!  They were like, "Do you realize how much pudding you just ate?!?!?' Love it!)

These photos were taken in the morning before she went to school (and before she combed her hair too - she'd like me to point out).

The other day, during family scripture study, Nicki was trying to read as quickly as possible.  She was busting through her verses and she accidentally said that we need to care for the "poor and the nerdy."  We all got a pretty good (and honestly, much needed) laugh out of that!  And it's probably true!

This is a photo of Nicole on the day of her 5th grade colonial day.  They spent the whole day in character - the teachers were super strict, had dunce caps and corporal punishment (fake, of course), they learned dances, made bonnets, played colonial games, ate soups and pies, etc.  It was a very fun day.

Josh is so super sweet to me.  He's a bit of a punk to the rest of the world, but he sure loves and protects and cares for his mom.  :)  The other day, he was headed off to school with the neighbors.  He blew me a kiss and I reacted like it hit me in the face.  He thought that was pretty cool. Next, he shot me a kiss with a finger gun.  I returned it with a bow-and-arrow kiss.  Then, he pulled out the big guns and sent a kiss with some sort of mounted armor piercing machine gun.  Now THAT's a kiss!  I think we'll be launching kisses to each other for a while now.

Bron is very much into computer games and Pokemon TV shows right now.  He always wants to talk to me about each of the characters - their strengths and weaknesses, how they level up, evolve, or become ultimate, etc.   His infatuation with these games/shows permeates everything he does.  For instance, the other day he explained to me that when he gives a one handed "I love you" sign (which is actually the "hang loose sign in his case, but he won't change it no matter how many times we tell him)  it means he loves us, but if he does it with both hands it means he ULTIMATE loves us.  So, using two hands is like "leveling up" the love, so to speak.  Hmm. Makes sense, I guess.

Quinton is taking his sweet time learning to speak.  He usually gets his point across with hand gestures and grunts.  But he is picking up a few more words lately.  It takes a trained ear to differentiate between "Josh,","Jesus," and "juice."  And just this morning, he learned to say Nicki's name - before that he called both girls "Ah-yee".  My personal favorite is "more."  He's been using the sign for "more" for almost a year now (it's a pretty important word in a big eater's vocabulary).  A few weeks ago, Nicki taught him how to say it.  He says the word in two syllables, with a  Bostonian accent.  It sounds like "Moo-ah."  Pretty cute, I tell ya.

Here is an example of a time when he was probably saying, "Moo-ah!" to me.

So, there's a little window into our daily lives around here.  It's never dull.  That's for sure.

David's Run In With The Law

David's work is so great in so many ways, but it's not without its challenges.  One of those challenges is that he occasionally has a block of time with nothing to do.  For instance, if a patient cancels their appointment, or if he just isn't able to set up an appointment at a certain time, he has an hour to kill.  He's too far from home to drop by, so he has to do something else.  In the past, he has used his time to do a number of things: nap, go shopping, gas up the car, listen to a book on tape, call me, eat, go for a walk around a park, etc.  Lately, in a resolution to be more proactive and productive at work, he uses the time to do his documentation and to study his old PT manuals.  I am very proud of how hard he has been working at it and how well he is doing!

This morning, David's 9:00 appointment canceled, so he drove to a park a few blocks away from his next appointment and parked in the parking lot.  Then, he finished the documentation from his first appointment and pulled out his PT text book.  He was deep into study when he was startled by a knock at his window.  It was a police officer.  A little surprised, David rolled down the window and said, "Good morning."  The cop explained that they had received a complaint stating that David was smoking from a glass pipe in his car.  HAHAHAHAHA!  This cracks me up (no pun intended - get it? -- CRACKS???)   I'm sure the cop took one look at this 46 year old man in khakis and a plaid button up shirt reading a text book and thought, "What a druggie!"

Seriously?!?!?  This is the guy we're worried about smoking crack in his car?!?!?  I guarantee that THIS is the closest thing to a mug shot  David will ever take.  This man won't even sneak candy into a movie theater!!! (and I love him for it!)

The cop asked David several questions about why he was hanging out in his car at a park (I guess that might look a little creepy - but of course, once you know why, it makes perfect sense).  He asked questions about where his next appointment was and with whom, etc. He said, "Why do you think someone called in and said you were smoking a glass pipe?"  David said, "I don't know.  I don't think I chew on my pen when I'm studying, but maybe I do."  The cop inspected David's pen.  He took David's driver's licence and ran it through the computer.  Nothing.  So he was forced to let the hooligan get back to his studying.  Just kidding.  David said he was a very nice cop and that he thanked David for being so cool about the whole thing.  Then he said, "I don't think anything's going on here." and he left.

You know, sometimes when we meet new people, I introduce myself as David's parole officer.  Perhaps I should rethink that....