December 2010

December 2010

Friday, March 30, 2012

New Heights!

11'6" to be exact.

I love these series pictures -









Sorry they're a little blurry...it's hard to get a good shot of a running target.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

St. Patrick's Day

Jayce was determined to catch a leprechaun! 
He set up a trap in his room -



 And he set one up downstairs. 
Those are gold coins leading to a sticky trap. 
 Note the sign to entice the little guys -

Unfortunately, those leprechauns eluded us again! They came and turned over all the chairs in the living room! At least they left us some chocolate!

This last picture is of Elder Parry teaching Jayce how to play the guitar. He is such a fun missionary!

I only have two more weeks of this semester, and then finals.  
I'm never taking five classes again!
I haven't cleaned the house in more than a month. The top layer gets picked up, but the bottom layer, well let's just say, it's gross. If I can get all of my assignments done earlier in the week, I can clean later in the week. That's what I say every week, though. Almost done!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Our Family


Here's our family, according to Jayce -

Aren't seven year olds the best?

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Spring Saturday - Pole Vaulting and Baseball Begin!

Yesterday was Cody's first track meet of the season. It was a distance running and field events invitational at Mt. Carmel. Cody won the gold medal for JV pole vaulting at 10'6"! 

Can you see the 10'6" sign?

 Here he is standing by the sign with his medal on (sorry, my phone doesn't zoom in)

I was amazed he won! He has only practiced this week after a long wrestling season. He's a lot stronger and taller this year. He'll only go up (no pun intended) from here! The varsity guys are jumping as high as 13' so he's got his work cut out for him.

Little League Baseball Opening Day was yesterday, as well! Fun stuff! The San Diego Padres are sponsoring our entire little league, so all 59 teams are Padres!! It sounds SO confusing to me. Anyway, there were Padre people there including the Friar! Derek identified them all for me... Friar, then Randy Jones (former Cy Young award winner for the Padres) is waving, and the guy in the suit is Tom Garfinkel, the COO of the Padres.

After the opening day ceremonies, Jayce's team had a scrimmage (with the Padres, of course).







Spring has definitely sprung at our house...Track and Baseball...wouldn't be spring without it!

Tender Mercies

The month of February was full of tender mercies. I always tell my children to give credit where credit is due and God has been particularly good to us this month. The month started with Pennie sick and I feared we lose her. We didn't. And somehow we were able to pay for unplanned and expensive vet bills.


I found this picture of when she didn't have gray hair on her face.

Cody had to have his wisdom teeth out and because they were growing in weird, his surgery cost more than twice what Derek's had. And we only had to pay for that last year, too. Another financial unfortunate.

And finally, our water heater quit. Water heaters are pretty expensive, if you didn't know. When it was all said and done, it was over $1,000.


Back to tender mercies...somehow (and I have been diligent about keeping and recording our budget for a solid year now - yay me!) we have been able to pay for all of these things. I credit it as a blessing plain and simple. The morning our water heater went out, Mark had already had his shower and was getting ready to leave for work. When he went to brush his teeth, he noticed that no water would come out when the hot side of the faucet was turned on. I was in the middle of an online class meeting and couldn't really stop, but I asked him (Mr. Fix Everything), what do I do about it today? He was in a hurry to get to a meeting at work, and he looked worried as he said, "I don't know." I asked, "Do I call a plumber, should I call someone to help us?" Again he said, "I don't know." This wasn't like him because he usually just acted like we'd fix it, and he'd work on it later. But, I sensed he knew he couldn't do it alone and was afraid to try. And I sensed he was worried about the cost and was stressed with work and other responsibilities. I had to step up and figure this out.


It was absolutely no coincidence that I thought to call the Daines' 
family. Actually, it was early in the morning and I texted Loralee to ask her if her wonderfully talented husband was in town and could I call him. She told me to call right then, they were just snuggling with their babies in bed! What are the chances I would think to text her? The chances are even smaller that Tim would be home because he took the day off of work to work on his car with a friend who was in town. Tim told me to call around to check prices from plumbers and on costs of water heaters, so I did. I reported back to him and he told me he would meet me at Home Depot to help me get everything we'd need. Because of Tim's help and saving us the cost of installation, we were able to get a higher quality model. We were back home by 1:00, Mark came home from work, and Mark and Tim spent the afternoon putting in the new water heater. Tim had the most awesome tools! He even had a torch! I actually think Mark had so much fun! He enjoys a good project, especially with someone who knows what he is doing.


Back to my original thought. What are the chances that all of these things would work out for us this month? Each of them were a worry, and all together they were kind of defeating, but we were blessed. Tender mercies. They happen every day and I don't think we notice as much as we should. As I look back over the month, I see them clearly.