Marla got MARRIED!

Oh my goodness, I've known this girl since I was 13. We are exactly three months apart and I first met her when I was out in CA visiting my Aunt and taking care of my baby cousin, Chad (who is now like 23). She was in my Aunt's ward and was the only girl that really befriended me. We didn't live far away from each other, so we often would meet up at the ice cream shop down the street or go on walks around Glendale together. They were some good memories and I was grateful to have her friendship while out here for four months at such a young age. We kept in touch over the years, often seeing each other when I would come back to CA and then again when we were both up at college together. She came to my wedding reception. Our lifes took us on different paths. She has traveled all over the world (at least from my perspective), has gotten her masters and has worked as a soccer coach at various colleges around the country. She has finally met her dream man though and I couldn't be more happy for her! 

Luckily, her mom still lives in the house she grew up in and she had her reception there this past Saturday. I didn't get to talk to her much more than to say hi and congrats and take a picture, but I was glad I got to be there and help celebrate with her!

Bad timing of her hubby, but at least I got her face. This was their first dance. You could tell she was so totally out of her comfort zone. She's definitely not a girly girl. But I think she looked beautiful and I loved her dress!

A quick photo before someone else tore her away from me!

Her Dad passed away about 7 years ago rather suddenly. Luckily she has three wonderful brothers who stepped in for the "daddy/daughter" dance. I know her Dad was watching from Heaven and was so proud of his only daughter!

The ups and downs of the week so far

 Saturday night Ashlyn comes downstairs at about 11pm worried and visibly upset that her top front permanent tooth is loose. I look at it, wiggle it, and try to reassure her that it is not loose. She still claims it hurts and feels loose, so Paul takes a look with the flashlight on his phone and sees a lttle blister at the top of her mouth. Ugh…we knew right away what that was. Hand, foot and mouth disease. Luckily, she just got the "mouth" part of it since she is older and not putting her hands and feet in her mouth regularly….or at all. Not like a toddler does anyway. She was pretty sad and knew her mouth was going to be hurting for a while. She stayed home from church the next day. I was super sad for her because this week she had a lot going on. A cooking class was every night and her band camp was starting on Monday. Not to mention her other regular activities. So Daddy gave her a blessing Sunday night. And let me tell you, this girl has a LOT of faith. I'm just so constantly amazed by her strength and desire to be good and do what is right. The next morning she said she was feeling better but that her mouth was still hurting and that she didn't want to go to band camp. She was sad, but hopeful that she could still make it to cooking class that night. By mid afternoon she started feeling a lot better and was able to talk again and even eat something (which she hadn't for the last day and a half). She said, "see mom….daddy's blessings always work". So I let her go to cooking class that night and told her to not get in people's faces. I figured since she's older, she wasn't too likely to pass the germs. 

Monday morning, while we were having a kind of chill morning waiting to see how Ashlyn was feeling, I went in the garage to get on my elliptical. This was at about 9 am. Got in the shower around 10:30 and by noon, went back into the garage to put something away. It felt oddly humid in my garage so I turned around and saw this….water bubbling up out of the top of my hot water heater and spilling all down the sides and on to the ground. I know it wasn't like that when I had been in there exercising that morning, so it must have recently started. Thank goodness I was home because seriously there was NO sign of any problem just 2 hours earlier. And so I have to put in a plug to my in-laws who always encouraged us to turn the water off when we go out of town. Well…I can't say I've ever really listened.  Sorry in-laws…..I feel so sheepish. Lesson learned. And thankfully in not such a damaging way. I called the plumber right away and they were at our house within 30 minutes. Luckily I had gotten the oober 10 year warranty on this water heater just two years ago when our last one broke, so I didn't have to pay a dime to the guy who tried his hardest to sell me on a bunch of other things (including $400 for a pan that goes at the bottom of the water heater to catch leaks if this were to happen again). I went to Lowe's and bought a pan for $20 bucks and "installed" it myself. He pretty much knew I wasn't gonna buy anything else from him that day and quit pressuring me. Although I did have to agree with him that we need to replace our water pressure regulator, which is probably as old as the house. Plus he said if the water heater burst again, it wouldn't be covered under the warranty if I didn't fix the pressure regulator. So I gotta figure that out. But he wanted to charge me $1,000 for it. After the $400 charge for a $20 water pan, I decided I didn't trust him and passed. So after our garage door breaking last week, I can't say home ownership has been too kind to us this past week. 

But on a happy note, Brandon drew a sweet picture for each of us in the family. Looked similar to this one to Carter. Brandon's been tough lately. Very rough and rambunctious. Doesn't listen to me or follow rules much. So when he does things like this, it gives me hope that my sweet little boy is still in their somewhere under his 6 year old angst. Does 6 year old angst really exist? I thought it was only teenage angst I needed to worry about. Hm…..

Ashlyn got to start her cooking class. Hooray. She's learned a lot of great things and has made some very yummy meals (most of which she's had leftovers of so I got to sample). This class is at a church down the street from us. They "forgot" to mention that the last 30 minutes of class is "gospel worship". Luckily Ashlyn is doing the class with Darby, my friends daughter, and Brooke happened to be there early the first night. After hearing from Brooke, I decided I needed to be in attendence for these last 30 minutes to make sure I knew what Ashlyn was hearing. I don't mind her being there, but I want to be able to answer her questions if she has any. After the first night she said to me…"mom, they're not very reverent. I'm glad we're Mormon".  Me too Ashlyn…ME TOO!!!! 

Goodness….I love this girl!

While Ashlyn is at cooking class, Leah and Carter have started swimming lessons. Carter has had some anxiety about participating, but we've been talking about it for months and he loves to swim so I thought he would be fine. And he would have been if it were not for 2 other little girls who FREAKED out the first day. Screaming, tears, hysterics…it was bad. So that made Carter start crying. I tried to console him and remind him how much he loved to swim, but I think he was too upset by these girls that were freaking out. So I had to pull out the "positive reinforcements" and tell him if he could do swim lessons everyday for the next two weeks with no tears, he could pick out a small toy at Target. Well, that dried his tears right up and even though he was still a little apprehensive, he warmed up within a few minutes and has been loving it since.

Leah's doing great as well and working on refining her strokes and swimming longer distances. I can see this girl on a swim team in the future. She really loves it! I'm so proud of her. She's definitely a go getter.

Tuesday we went to the dollar movie to see "Pirates: Band of Misfits". 

Wednesday, after Ashlyn's first band camp (she loved it by the way and said the two hours flew by) we went over to the Shell station to wash my car. Well, McDonald's happens to be next door so we "had" to stop for a little ice cream.

Thursday, there was another free event put on by the city that I took the kids to. This time it was "The Buster Balloon Show". Oh my goodnes, it was SO cute. This guy was an amazing story teller and had the kids (and me too) laughing and laughing. He had amazing balloon creations to go along with his stories and used kids from the audience to act out the parts. I was amazed at how brave these kids were and how much some of them got right into character to particpate. I was so glad we didn't miss this!

Carter was grumpy boy because he said I didn't bring the right snacks for him. 

Isn't that a cute grumpy face though? He fell asleep on the way home. I should have known he was tired. He did enjoy the show though. Was even more into it than the juggler we saw

As his final act, he literally put himself inside of a giant balloon. It was amazing! 

After the show, I dropped the girls off at watercolor class and headed home to swap out with Paul (who major props to him for coming home EXTRA early for me during a very stressful and busy work week), so I could go up to girls camp for the evening. Camp is at a beautiful site up in the mountains this year and even though it's smaller than the camp they were at last year, the girls all seem to be having a really great time. It was SO fun to get to see them. We got there for dinner and Bishop Livingston and his wife came up to do a little ward devotional. Afterwards, we stayed for testimony meeting. Most of our wards girls got up to bear their testimony. We may be very small in numbers but we have some pretty amazing girls and I'm so blessed to get to work with them. I hope they know how much I love them and care about them. It's a tough world for teenagers these days and these girls are trying their best to be good and do what is right. Two girls even brought friends with them!

I made Sharon take a selfie with me. She tried to refuse, but I gave her no choice. 

It was just the two of us that drove up together. It was so fun to chat with her. She's just one of the sweetest, kindest people you'll ever meet. Never says an unkind word about anyone! I just love her.

Today, there is NOTHING on my calendar until 6pm for Ashlyn's final cooking class. So we are being lazy slugs and lounging around the house. The 3 younger kids are playing with water balloons in the backyard and Ashlyn's working on a paper flower she found directions for in her "American Girl" magazine. It's nice to have some lazy summer days among the busy ones. I slept in until 8:30am. It was AWESOME! 

Week 1 of Summer

I look back at these pictures and think, aww…what a fun day. But really in actuality, this was a really hard day. And probably too big of an outing for the first real day of summer break. The kids were all kind of a wreck and I am afraid I wasn't too kind back. But we lasted for about four hours and had some fun moments, so I'll try to not remember how exhausted and frustrated I was by the time we left the park. 

Tuesday we did a reboot and had a much better day. I took the kids to see a juggler at a high school auditorium near us. It was set up by the city program and totally free to us. It was quite entertaining and the kids all enjoyed it. This guy has won 5 world records in juggling, so he was pretty darn amazing!

That night I got to go on a girls night to celebrate Emily's birthday. We went to dinner at "Tender Greens" and then saw "The Fault in our Stars". The evening flew by. I always love hanging out with these ladies, even if the movie was terribly sad and depressing. I was kind of in the minority with my opinions on it though.

Wednesday I took the kids to the dollar movie with some friends and then went swimming in the afternoon. Easy laid back day. It was nice. Oh except that when we got back from the movies, my garage door wouldn't open. Yup…it finally broke. So two days later, with lots of calls from the garage door guy swearing he would be there in x amount of time, it was fixed. It needed new springs and coils. Not terrible, but enough of a cost to make me depressed. 

Leah also started her first baton twirling lessons that afternoon, which she totally LOVED and can't wait until she gets her own baton to practice with.

Thursday was watercolor class for the girls. I'm glad they could do it together. Nice to have a buddy in new classes like this. The boys played Mario Brothers on the TV's at The Activity Center while the girls were in class, so they were happy waiting for their sisters.

Friday morning Ashlyn had a check up with Children's Hospital, so I got a sitter and we headed down there (siblings aren't allowed). Her doctor wants her to go see a Geneticist, so that's the next step for the poor little girl. But she's doing great and responding to her medicine well with no bad side effects. Hasn't grown much hair back after her terrible flair up, but she's taking it in stride and we're continuing to research to see if anything can help.

We stopped for a quick lunch on the way home. Any girl who has to have blood work drawn regularly and be shlepped around from doctor to doctor, deserves a little lunch out with mommy from time to time. She's a tough girl.

And then super lucky us, the other Ashlynn came into town with her Dad for the weekend and the girls had her over to play for a few hours. We went to the pool and the girls had a lot of fun. Not more than a moment after she left, Leah said, "aw…I already miss her". We'll have to have her come back with her Dad again soon.

That night Paul and I got to go on a group date with The Smart's and the Osmond's to the Temple and then out to a yummy Italian restaurant in LA. It was a really great night with fun friends (but I got no pictures).

Saturday

In the morning, Paul took the kids to Michael's for a craft morning. They were having a "How To Train your Dragon" perler beads craft. I needed to finish up my lesson for the next day, so I stayed home. I thought the kids would do well because they always want to do perler bead projects at home, but I guess the boys got bored pretty quick and Paul ended up following them around the store for an hour. Needless to say, he wasn't too thrilled by the time he got home. Oops!

Later that evening, Paul took Leah (and the boys) to a baptism of one of Leah's good friends. The only other girl in her primary class. Leah is thrilled that Piper will be in Activity Days with her now!

While they were gone, I took Ashlyn to go see Grace and Nicholas perform in "The Wizard of Oz". It was a super cute play with amazing sets and props and really great acting for a group of kids (I think it ranges from K-12th). Some of those older kids had some pretty amazing voices. It was a great night and I was so glad that Ashlyn and I could go to watch them. They did a great job.

Probably should have broken this into multiple posts, but oh well. It was a good first week of summer. Still working out the kinks. Getting the kids to do their chores before the TV goes on. Figuring out how to handle the fighting while they adjust back to being around each other all day everyday. We've had some snags, but it'll work out and we'll get in a good groove. Either that, or I'll give up and let them just take rein of the house while I hide in my room. LOL. Just kidding. ;-)

The Game of Life

I got to help a little this year with Youth Conference. My friend Becky was asked to head up "The Game of Life" on Saturday for the kids. It was basically a real life game where the kids had to manuever their way through the church building making choices that would impact their future. They were given a certain amount of money, some blessing cards and some fate cards. The kids could buy a "car", get a "house", go to "school" and even play games, go to a spa, or bounce in a bounce house. Every 30 minutes or so they were to open a fate card, which told them their next step. Some would say, "You had a baby. Go to the hospital and pay $5,000". Or "your house got flooded. If you don't have insurance, you owe the bank $10,000." Or even, "you didn't pay your fines. Go to jail". Things like that. There was a bank where they could take out loans if they didn't have enough money and an insurance company where they could insurance their property. The kids weren't given a whole lot of instruction. They just kind of had to figure it out as they went. Kind of like the REAL "game of life". I was in charge of the concession stand and we were just there to allow the kids to get a snack while they were playing the game. It was so fun to watch them run around trying to figure everything out. I heard a couple of kids say "this is the hardest game I've ever played". The kids could go to "work" and could even choose to get married in "Vegas by Elvis" or go to the "Temple". The Temple required more effort and time. They had to get a "recommend" and wait a certain amount of time. After a couple of hours of playing the game, you started to see people slowly "disappear" from the game. And afterward they had a speaker talk to the kids about the choices they make and what is really most important in life (the Temple and their family). Everything they had won while playing the game (there was a carnival with prizes) was taken from them when they "died". Some kids were really truly upset to lose their prizes. Other kids caught on and were proud of the choices they had made. It was so cool to see the impact it had made on them. At the testimony meeting that night, so many of the kids talked about the game and how it changed their perspective. And what was most interesting to me was that they got different things out of the game. It was really cool and I was so glad I got to be a part of it, in some small way. It was also just amazing to me to see all the many many people who stepped in to help. Hours and hours of service given. It was truly incredible. 

 The Temple was amazing. They transformed the whole primary room into a "celestial room" and it really had a sacred feeling to it. I wanted to just sit inside of it the whole time. 

My concession stand. It turned out well, I think!

Two youth from our ward with their respective "children". The kids weren't actually "married" to anyone in particular. Just in general terms. Some of the kids chose to "marry" each other though. It was pretty funny!

The spa!

A couple of carnival booths.

The bank

And university. They had some really fun "teachers" come in and teach the kids on different subjects. So they actually got something out of their school experience. 

This murual was amazing! Hand painted by a guy in our stake. I was thoroughly impressed.

Becky and I didn't leave until about 9pm that night. By the time we loaded up the car, their wasn't much room for us, so I ended up with a jungle of flowers surrounding me. Maybe we were just exhausted, but it was hilarious to us. Yeah…we must have been exhausted!