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!

Our Family

Here's our family, according to Jayce -

Aren't seven year olds the best?

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.

Getaway Day

For Valentine's Day, I gave Mark the thing he always wants most - a day away. We didn't go on Valentine's Day because it was just too crazy. We got to go this past week because it was a week off of school. Cody stayed with Jayce, and we went to Del Mar (15 minutes away) for a mere 20 hours.

We arrived at our hotel in time for sunset-

Then we went to the Fish Market in Del Mar for dinner. I love this place! I love to eat yummy fish, especially because I rarely cook it at home.

In the evening we watched two movies and had a fire in the fireplace. It was dreamy!

In the morning we took a walk along the bluffs above the beach - 

We're so blessed! 

We are blessed to have each other. 

And blessed to live in such a beautiful place!

A Whole Lot of Love

Remember that line from the movie Cars...

"There's a lot of love out there, you know, man?"

Love can be a painfully wonderful thing, or a wonderfully painful thing. Love hurts when someone I love is hurting or is far away. Love is joyful when I reflect on how grateful I am to have so many to love and who love me. This week we had some of each, the pain and the joy.

Last weekend, Pennie, our little dog was super sick. She wouldn't use her back legs and it seemed like it was painful to her when she tried. We took her to the vet on Saturday, got medicine, but then we were back on Monday for x-rays. The doctor didn't see anything, but she recommended we see a specialist right away. She feared it was a neurological problem that could get worse rapidly. So, I saw a veterinary neurologist (didn't even know they had those) with her on Tuesday. We left with more meds and a hope she'd get better on her own. The next option was a dog MRI (didn't know they had those either) and we didn't want to spend that kind of money nor is it warranted yet. The good news is she seems to be doing much better on the medicine. We'll see how she does after she is done with the medicine.

Tuesday was Valentine's Day, of course! Jayce had a fun party and the Park Village jogathon. I didn't get to stay because of the vet appointment. I usually have a fun dinner or something, but we were just too busy. I did get flowers, though! And I made cut out cookies! And we heart attacked the house, as usual. And Jayce gave us sweet Valentine's. It was a fun day!

Cody has been fighting a terrible sore throat and cold. He doesn't get enough sleep to kick it. I've been really struggling to keep up with all of my school assignments. It's been way stressful this week! Luckily we're off ALL next week, so I'll have more time to work on school. And Cody will be getting his wisdom teeth out, so I'll be able to take care of him.

A few thoughts on love...

I am madly in love with Mark.

I love my children so much it hurts. I hope such great things for them.

I love my little dog. She worships the ground I walk on and she never talks back.

I love the understanding I have about the purpose of life. I'm glad there is something grander than the life we live now.

Wrestling

I have decided I don't like wrestling. It is way stressful to watch. I watch Cody and I feel like I'm going to throw up or wet my pants for the entire six minutes he's on the mat. I've tried yelling out my frustrations while he's wrestling and Mark says I break his concentration. And Cody says I shouldn't yell stuff if I don't know what to yell.  All I know is I'm about to explode when I watch him wrestle and it's not a good feeling. I'm not as bad when the other boys on the team wrestle, but I'm still all tense. I think I burn as many calories watching a wrestling match as I do running four miles...

Here are the latest wrestling pictures -

If they make you squirm, I completely understand. It's wrestling and it takes some getting used to.

This week we had a dual match against Torrey Pines. It always starts with a little dancing around...jockeying for position...seeing who can get the best shot for the leg.

This guy kind of missed his shot on Cody...

 Cody says he should've grabbed his chin/head and pulled it in. Whatever...this sport is so confusing!

 And before we knew it, the guy was in position to turn Cody over.

It was a disappointing loss since it was his last match.

Last Saturday he was at the County JV tournament at Mt. Carmel. He won his first match, then lost the next two.

This was a big match. It was against Ramona. They bale hay and carry cows over there. This boy is the brother of a girl Cody knows from the dances. And we know their family. The girl was even there...talk about pressure!

 I'm not just saying this because I'm the mom...Cody really dominated this match.

 The boy worked hard, but Cody was in control.

 With ten seconds left in the third period, Cody had him on his back. Why didn't the ref blow the stinkin whistle?!!

This match went the full three periods and Cody lost by points 17-16!! Unbelievable!

So, he's just finished his second season of wrestling. I totally see him improving all the time. He doesn't see it. He's so frustrated he ended the season 6-8. But he won a lot more this year than he did last year and he is learning. I'm very proud of him for working so hard. This is a ridiculously hard sport. I had no idea.