Coming Next...

Prom report and Musicals x 2!

Hopefully this will encourage some of our other bloggers to contribute - hint, hint:)

Basketball

Jared LOVES basketball. If you ask him what his favorite sport is even though he also likes to play baseball, he will tell you basketball. It helps that he is fairly tall for his age, has long arms and is pretty fast. I think he could be really great if he didn't like video games an tv a little too much! He had another great year with a good team. He is lucky to have two fine coaches who have become the coaches of envy not only for basketball but baseball as well. They do a great job bringing out the best in the boys.

Jared is a rebounder. He will even take it to the floor if needs be!

The girl in this photo happened to be one of the best players on the other team AND Nicole's niece.

The team this year was made up of 3rd and 4th graders. Although most of the team was 3rd graders, they certainly did a great job only losing one game!

Bring on baseball!

Scouts - Wolf AND Bear

Between my Young Women callings, I was called as Bear leader. Let's just say I was not so excited to be wearing a scout uniform. This was my "first" pack meeting as a new leader. Jared was earning his Wolf and moving on to Bears.



Before becoming a leader I was not so interested or excited about scouts. Poor Jared was lucky to have any badges on his uniform (Is it ok they were Brandon's old ones?). In fact, it was really not complete until I had to put the badges on my leader uniform before his was up-to-date. I had bad memories of sore fingers in trying to get them on for Brandon back in his cub days. Luckily I got to borrow the "Strong as Nails" glue from an "experienced" leader and wallah...no more sore fingers! Wish I would have found that YEARS AGO!

Maybe due to my non-love of scouts Jared felt it necessary to embarass me in front of the entire group as he was pinning my mother's pin on by telling EVERYONE that I had done NOTHING at all to help him earn his wolf. You can see mine and the other leader's amusement/nonamusement as we listened to his answer of what I had done to help him earn his wolf. I WILL have you know that is NOT TRUE!! I had done quite a lot!!



Although doing NOTHING to help Jared with his Wolf, the Sunday they sustained me he was THRILLED to find out I was going to be his leader and lucky for me I had a GREAT and well-trained partner. Shawna and I were able to get both our boys (and a few other boys) their Bear in less than five months before being released to go to young women's. Not bad!



Good thing Brad's the artist! That is his job to get him all painted up.



Great job Jared! We are proud of you!

Happy Birthday to Me

DAY 1
I am one of the lucky ones who had a 3 day birthday celebration last weekend. I guess we deserve that every 40 years or so! Still recovering from my foot surgery, I haven't been going very many places. Before we begin this little narrative, I would like to say upfront, I DO NOT LIKE SURPRISES!!

Brad, however, pulled off a NICE surprise party on Saturday night which was quite miraculous, because he got me out of the house so the kids could set up the party, and I was actually dressed for the day - not in my pajamas!

I was not even a little bit suspicious when Brad spent the morning cleaning my kitchen and living room - you know the "Mom Clean" version? He even pulled out the Rainbow Vacuum and cleaned all the floors. I thought THAT was the birthday present:) But no - there was more to come! Next he had told me I should come with him to pick up Brooke from play practice that afternoon. Although I was almost finished with my book, Brad had worked some horrible hours this week, so I consented since I had not had a lot of time this week to visit with him. Then he mentioned it would be ok to take my book with us if I wanted to keep reading (WHAT?!?) I thought he wanted to visit! We picked up Brooke, were having a nice VISIT when Brad told me we needed to pick up my cake so we could take it to my mom's house for dinner the next day. I was a little confused because I had placed an order with my mom for my favorite Strawberry Cream Cheese Cake. Our next stop was Arctic Circle for the kids (we had promised them for a few nights) and that is when I got REALLY annoyed. I knew I didn't want Arctic Circle for dinner (the only thing good at Arctic Circle is milkshakes and fry sauce - not a great dinner choice), so I tried to get Brad to get Chinese Food for us. He told me we would take the food home to the kids and then go BACK out to get our food. Now I was ANNOYED! My foot was throbbing and I did not want to go all the way home and then back out again!! By the time we pulled up to our house, I had decided I was not going back out and I didn't even care if I had dinner that night. That is when I saw the cars in front of my house. When I walked in the kitchen there were two full tables set up with black tablewear and black balloons and streamers everywhere. Friends were there to greet me and more arrived shortly thereafter. I will have to say I was mighty surprised! Brad had assigned out all the food which was very yummy (much better than Chinese) and we had a great visit with friends. The Schroeders were able to come and one of the highlights of the night was for me was to see Traci WALKING!! There is hope for me yet!

(sorry we snapped this picture after Traci and Quint left)

DAY 2
Mom invited us to Sunday dinner the next day. I was a little worried about the long drive and my foot, but I put it up on the dashboard and made it ok. The dinner was VERY tasty and the visit even better! It was very nice to be there, and yes, Mom made my Strawberry Cake:) Thanks Mom!

DAY 3
The ACTUAL day of my birthday was nice too. Brad had taken the day off and so we enjoyed a nice day before going to get my hard cast removed later in the afternoon. I was so excited for the cast to be gone! Now I am in a walking boot, trying to again learn how to walk. I can't believe how great it is to have a "normal shaped" (albeit a little swollen, scarred, and scaly) foot! My calf is smaller than Allie's right now. We compared last night. I can't wait to be able to exercise and get some muscles back again.

Thanks to everyone who was apart of my birthday celebration!