We have been keeping busy these last two weeks. I have been working like crazy, but despite that things haven't slowed down--haha! Anyway, Matthew got nominated for Homecoming Royalty. That meant he got to participate in a school wide assembly Friday morning. Each nominee got paired up with a student body officer team to see who could earn the most points. Matthew was on the red team and was quite excited though it all. Here he is on the gym floor with his red shirt on flapping his hands like crazy while someone is trying to calm him down enough so he can listen to the instructions:
Matthew got to participate in the bungee basketball game. It is kind of like tug of war, but only with a bungee cord and two people working against each other to make a basket with their basketball. I got a quick video of Matthew making his first basket:
I never did hear which team won the competition, but I do know that Matthew had a ton of fun.
Later that afternoon Josh had a cross country meet. That morning he had forgotten to put his contacts in and requested that Aaron and I bring his contacts with us to the meet so he could put them in at that time. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring the contacts, too. Josh really didn't want to wear his glasses so he decided to run the race without his glasses or contacts. I am glad he was able to see well enough to not get lost along the way--haha! Josh did get his face painted with Syracuse colors to show his Homecoming school spirit. Here is Josh running by as Sarah and Daniel are cheering him on:
On the finishing stretch:
After the meet the three youngest went with G&G T for a sleepover. It looks like they had fun playing Uno with them:
That evening was the Homecoming football game. During halftime they were going to announce the winners of the Homecoming royalty nominees. Before they announce the winners they introduce each nominee and their escort. I got to be Matthew's escort. Most the other nominees had one of their parents as an escort as well. Here we are before the game:
They had each nominee walk down the track as the announcer introduced them. Everyone got to hear about how Matthew loves to walk his dog Sophie and how he is the Human GPS. After hearing that Matthew got pretty excited and jumped the rest of the way down the track--leaving me to walk the rest of the way by myself--haha! When I got closer to the end an administrator came and walked the rest of the way with me so I didn't have to be alone since Matthew was too excited and left me in the dust--haha!
After they introduced all the nominees they then announced the winners. Matthew won Homecoming King for 2018!! I was so touched, excited, grateful, full of emotion my eyes got a bit watery. Matthew was so excited!! Here's when they announced that he had won:
The student body officer administrator came over and gave me a big hug because she was a bit emotional, too. The amazing thing is that only senior students could vote and Matthew got the majority vote of the school. It was an amazing experience! Here's my handsome Homecoming King:
Matthew was so excited it was hard to reign him in. He was offering to let anyone and everyone take pictures with him whether they wanted to or not--haha! I don't even know if he knows these students, but they humored him and took a picture with him:
I was glad Aaron was able to take the video of everything!
He was running around talking to everyone and getting pictures taken. It took us about 30 minutes to finally catch up to him and start walking out to the car. When we made it out to the parking lot a mom ran over to us. She then asked us if he had a date to the Homecoming Dance the next night. We told her he didn't and then she asked if Matthew would want to go with her daughter. She then explained that she was the head secretary of the high school and that her daughter was the sophomore class president so we wouldn't be too weirded out by a stranger asking Matthew to Homecoming. We said he would love to go. At that, her daughter then asked Matthew to the Homecoming dance for the next night. He said YES!! We were a bit nervous because Matthew can be a bit hard to handle sometimes, but we let her know that we could come and pick him up at any time if he became too much. Here's my cute King before the dance:
Here's the group he went with:
We knew Matthew was going to have a King/Queen dance during the actual Homecoming dance so we packed his crown and sash in a bag to be pulled out later for that dance. However, Matthew insisted that he needed to take all his pictures wearing his crown and sash. Good thing everyone was pretty good natured about it. Here's his date:
Matthew made all the girls take a picture with the King whether they wanted to or not--haha!
All the boys with the King:
They wanted to take a funny picture, too:
After pictures they went out to dinner at the Olive Garden and then on to the dance. I knew where they were going beforehand so Matthew and I looked at the menu to see which entree would be the least messy to eat since we had just gotten his suit cleaned that week. That way he would know beforehand what he was going to order without a problem.
I guess things went well at the dance. Aaron works with a few guys whose daughters had gone to the dance as well. They let him know that Matthew was walking around insisting and letting everyone take pictures with the King. Here's a picture that Aaron's friend sent him of the King and his daughter and friends:
I am afraid he may have sounded like a drunken Elvis as he went around the dance asking people to take a picture with the king--haha! It looks like he had a great time, though! Hopefully his date did, too! What an all around awesome experience!!
Things have turned cold so my tomatoes have stopped producing. I did get one last batch of spaghetti sauce from them, though. Until next year!
Occasionally I will get really severe headaches. I can usually handle them okay as long as it doesn't happen very often--usually only a few times a month. Unfortunately, last week they were pretty bad. I would come home from work and usually be pretty sick with them which was unusual. After a week of nonstop headache Aaron took matters into his own hands. I had been talking about maybe getting the Daith piercing to see if that would help me. The Daith piercing supposedly rooted in acupuncture with a certain pressure point to help with headaches. I had talked to quite a few people who really swore by them. I really didn't want to start medications unless I had to so we thought this would be a good thing to try before I started on any meds. Aaron made me an appointment at the tattoo parlor and away we went. I was pretty nervous. I didn't fit in very well at the tattoo parlor/piercing shop since I don't have any tattoos, ear gauges, or crazy piercings unlike everyone else there. I got even more nervous when we were called back and I got to see all kinds of diagrams of different piercings on various body parts. Those piercing diagrams looked like they would be quite painful to say the least 😳. Anyway, luckily the Daith piercing is in the ear not in my nether regions like some of the diagrams. However, I will say getting it done was pretty painful in itself. I have a pretty high pain tolerance. I would say my most painful experiences would be as follows going from most painful on down: natural childbirth, gallstone attack, broken arm, road rash and stitches from rollerblading accident followed by these piercings. These HURT!! In order to get them in the right spot the piercer poked around inside my ear with the point of a toothpick until he found the pressure point that made my head stop hurting. He then got the huge needle, attached the earring and sunk the whole thing inside the cartilage in my ear. The first one was not fun, but the second one was worse since I knew what was coming. Yowza! Here's what they look like:
Right side:
Left side:
I am happy to say that with these piercings and if I keep hydrated it has kept the headaches at bay so far. It has taken some getting used to, though. I have to carefully put in ear buds to listen to music and I have to carefully put in my stethoscope if I need to use it as well. Other than that it has been pretty smooth sailing. Hopefully, it will stay that way.
I have always wanted to try and indoor wind tunnel so for last Christmas Aaron got me a Groupon that included an indoor surfing experience, rock climbing experience and wind tunnel experience for two people. I had wanted to use it for a while so we finally made an appointment last Monday and used them for our Family 'Home' Evening even though we weren't at home. They let us split up the Groupon so everyone got to try something. Josh and Daniel got to do the indoor surfing. It took them a few tries to figure out what to do, but they finally got the hang of it riding on their stomach. Here's Daniel:
Josh:
After a while they both decided they wanted to try it standing up. Daniel finally was able to stay standing up while holding on to the rope for a few seconds:
Josh was finally able to let go of the rope, but I didn't video that accomplishment--whoops! I did get this one as he tried standing up with the rope and did pretty well:
Next Matthew, Sarah and Noah tried rock climbing. They had a free climb area where you didn't need a harness. Sarah and Noah practiced there for a while:
Aaron helped belay Matthew as he climbed the wall:
He wanted to give up a few times, but kept going.
He actually made it to the top:
Sarah and Noah made it to the top of the free climb area, too:
Sarah then tried out climbing the wall as Aaron belayed her:
She made it to the top, too:
Next it was our turn to try out the wind tunnel which is supposed to be like skydiving, but without falling from a plane. They made us watch a safety video and then we got to dress up in jumpsuits along with helmets, goggles and ear plugs. We were truly bringing sexy back--haha!
Hubba Hubba--haha! Let me just say those goggles were TIGHT!!
As we entered the waiting area to get inside the wind tunnel I posed for a picture:
As we were waiting as they got things started Aaron and I tried to talk, but it was so loud we couldn't hear each other.
I got to go first. We each got two times to fly for about 1 minute each. The first time I was on a learning curve and was just trying to stay afloat without running into the walls.
Here goes nothing:
Aaron was on the learning curve at first, too:
The second time I knew what to do so it was a lot more fun. The instructor actually started doing tricks with me, too. I got a bit dizzy, but it was pretty cool:
Aaron didn't enjoy the tricks as much as I did. In fact he said he was yelling lots of &%$#@ so he was glad the wind was so loud no one could hear him--haha!
Our kids were a bit impatient as they waited for us to have our turn in the wind tunnel. Here's what Josh did on my phone to pass the time:
After our turn was over we got to take off the helmet, the TIGHT goggles and jumpsuit. Seriously I am bringing sexy back--haha!
Like the goggle lines?!
It was a really fun experience!! That was an awesome Christmas present for sure!!
Matthew had a field trip last week to Black Island Farms hayride, corn maze and pumpkin patch. His peer tutor sent me a picture of him on the hayride after he picked out his pumpkin:
I have been incredibly busy working this last month. I have had all of 8 days off in the last month so it has been pretty hectic. I have been all the way from Logan down to West Valley and even to Orem doing clinics. Luckily, this job is short term so Aaron is truly counting the days when it winds down and he doesn't have to be a single dad anymore. I was able to do the clinic at my kids' elementary school last week. Aaron brought the kids over to get their shots and his done by yours truly. Most of them did great. There were a few tears, though. While I was doing their shots Noah snuck over and took four suckers while I wasn't paying attention. He then shoved all of them in his mouth at the same time. **Sigh** Gotta love it, right?! Here's four of the kids after their shots:
Matthew was at his after school program so when he got home Aaron brought him over later so I could give Matthew his shot, too. We are all good to go until next year's flu shot, right?!
The kids were getting creative with their Legos the other day. They all made their names which looked pretty cool:
I always love summer because it is sandals season which means no socks. Although I love fall I really HATE sock season since no one can put theirs away. UGH!! Here's all the socks from just one day from the family room that I got to gather up and put in the laundry room. Maybe I will try to talk the kids into wearing sandals year round. I am sure that would go over great especially when it starts to snow--haha!
The elementary school has started a program called Watch D.O.G.S. It stands for Dads of Great Students and encourages the dads, grandfathers, uncles, etc. to get involved in their kids' schools. Aaron signed up to spend the day at the school last Friday. He got to volunteer in different classrooms, help out as a playground duty during recess, and eat lunch with the school kids. Here Aaron is with the kids before they left for school that morning:
Each dad, grandfather, uncle etc. that volunteers gets their picture taken with their kids and put on the Watch D.O.G.S. wall. Here's Aaron's picture:
Aaron even got a free meal ticket and enjoyed lunch with Sarah and Noah:
He also got to help out along with Noah at recess as a playground duty:
Aaron was glad he could spend the day as a Watch D.O.G.S. with the kids. Noah is already asking when he can come again...
We finally made it to Frightmeres at Lagoon last weekend. We got inside Lagoon and then got in line for a haunted house. Aaron and I stayed in the long line and waited while the kids got to go around and ride a few rides. They also had different photo ops around the park that they kids couldn't pass up. Here's Noah and Daniel posing:
After about an hour wait it was finally our turn to go into the FunHouse of Terror. Here we are right before we entered:
Inside they have you wear 3D glasses so everything stands out which is pretty cool. We made it through unscathed and had a pretty good time. Here's another photo op we couldn't pass by:
We then did two of the kid trick or treating areas where Sarah, Noah and Matthew got candy.
More photo ops:
Sarah:
Noah:
Daniel:
This sign fits with the teenage personality--haha!
Some of the characters posed in this picture with the kids:
We did go on a few rides, but it was a bit chilly and crowded so we didn't stay for too long. We will be back since they are open during Fall Break this year--wahoo!
Aaron and I tried out a new restaurant this week. This place had something called Poutine which is a Canadian favorite. Aaron was excited to try it since he ate it on his mission in Canada. Let me just say it is not the healthiest dish...It is French fries, covered with cheese curd and drenched in brown gravy. Although this restaurant's version wasn't quite the same as the stuff in Canada it was still fun to try.
Last Saturday Josh got to help out at the Share Walk with the Clinton City Youth Council in Layton. It is a walk to shed light on infant and child loss. Here's the group that got to help out:
Aaron tried smoking funeral potatoes and burnt ends for dinner Sunday evening. The kids really loved it. That is a 5 pound roast that Aaron turned into burnt ends and there was very little left over from dinner. Let me just say our kids eat SO MUCH FOOD!!! I think these recipes will be keepers, though!
Yesterday afternoon we were surprised when we heard the doorbell and found this note on the porch. It was for Matthew, but unfortunately, Matthew had just left to take Sophie for a walk. DOH!! We went and found the girls and told them we were going to find Matthew and bring him back home so he could see this sign. After driving around Matthew's usual walking area, Aaron found him and brought him back home. The girls rang the doorbell and hid so Matthew could follow the string to find his date to the Sadie Hawkins dance.
He was so excited to open the front door and see the sign on the porch. This picture is blurry since he was jumping up and down from excitement:
Following the string:
He found his date and was pretty excited:
She's a cute girl and Matthew is pretty excited to be going to the dance in November!
Wahoo what a ladies man!!
