I am so far behind--ugh! Here’s the highlights of the last three weeks.
Last week I got a call from Matthew’s bus driver. I HATE getting calls from school. I picked up and reluctantly said, “Hello.” However, it was pleasant conversation. She said that Matthew had wanted her to call and tell me that he was going to help out. They would be having a substitute bus driver the next day and Matthew had volunteered to show/tell them the route so the bus driver sub wouldn’t get lost. Matthew was going to tell her all the roads to take to all the stops they make. That made me smile. Matthew truly earns the title Human GPS!! Speaking of Matthew he got to take a class trip to Lagoon yesterday. He has been so excited about it!! He has called me, Aaron, Josh, Daniel and G&G T multiple times a day for the last two weeks to tell us about it. I am glad he finally got to go yesterday and enjoy himself. Matthew’s summer program that he has attended has not been able to get enough staff for this summer. That means we had to look around for some different companies to switch to for this service. We interviewed two companies this past week via Zoom. Now we need to check out their facilities to figure out which one would be a good fit for Matthew. Hopefully, we can get it all done in the next week so he can start on his first day of summer. That has been a bit stressful, but I think we are almost done getting everything finalized.
We got Noah’s soccer pictures and he finished out the soccer season. He did really well and loves to play soccer.
We ordered the graduation announcements, too:
A few weeks ago Daniel realized that his baseball season was starting soon. He wanted to get some practice in so he rounded all of us up (minus Josh because he was working) and we went to the park to play a baseball game. I used to do well at baseball, but the years have not been kind to me. I struck out more times than I want to admit, but we had fun playing and practicing some baseball that evening. Daniel did well, though and that’s why we were there so all was not lost--haha! We played until it go too dark to see.
Daniel started his baseball season this week. His very first game he got to pitch for the first time during a game. He was a bit nervous, but did great.
Josh had his last track meet a few weeks ago. He was sad to be done, but what can you do?!
Here’s our family group:
It is crazy to think that Josh is an Elder now.
Here was our whole group--both sides of Kade’s extended family:
Aaron and me:
After the temple we all got together for lunch to celebrate and visit with everyone.
That weekend Josh was able to be ordained to the office of an Elder. We did it in our home. A member of the Stake High Council, and our bishop came to our house. We also had G&G T and Jennifer here as well. It was a really nice thing to experience.
Mother’s Day was a few weeks ago. Aaron was so sweet. Beforehand he had all the kids write me a sweet note. I loved that!! They then surprised me with breakfast in bed. The amazing thing is I actually slept through the breakfast making portion. That is surprising because there are usually a lot of ‘loud discussions’ that take place during that time as well as a lot of pan and plate clanking. It helped that I wasn’t able to fall asleep until 3 am that morning so I was utterly exhausted. I don’t recommend that method, though. Insomnia stinks!! Anyway, I had a wonderful morning.
Sophie is a velcro dog. She likes to be touching anyone at anytime for snuggles. Her favorite is when the kids are doing homework as you can see--haha! The kids enjoy it so it is a win-win situation!
Last week we were lucky enough to score another temple appointment for baptisms for the dead. Since this was our second time we were a lot more prepared. We each brought 8 family names for baptism proxy work. We loved going. Our family group was the ONLY group for one hour and we had the whole baptistry to ourselves outside of the temple workers. It was another peaceful and amazing experience.
I got the opportunity to try out my blood drawing skills these past few weeks. The University of Utah Health is doing a study about Covid antibodies in health care workers. They asked Community Nursing Services to provide some nurses to draw blood for them during their clinics. I used to be really good at drawing blood and IV starts back when I worked in the hospital so I thought I would try it. I volunteered to help with those blood draws. However, I started questioning my choice when the first clinic rolled around. I had not drawn blood or started an IV for over 15 years so I was very nervous when I showed up to that first clinic. I got even more nervous when the first patient sat down and informed me that she was a really hard stick. Oh JEEZ!!!! I truly felt like this meme--haha!!
Last week I took Sarah and Daniel in to get their Covid vaccinations. I ended up taking them to go through the health department because I didn’t know when I would be able to do a Pfizer clinic so I could take care of their shots myself. Anyway, they did great. Sarah didn’t even flinch:
Daniel has some shot phobia and refused to look at me at all until a few minutes after he got his shot, but he did great.
They have their second shot appointments in a few weeks. Hopefully, I will be able to get Daniel to go back to complete the series. He seriously HATES shots!!!
Afterward we got to hang out for 30 minutes for observation since Daniel has had an anaphylactic reaction in the past. Luckily, he had no problems after the shot.
We were scheduled to have the missionaries over for dinner on Sunday. However, they texted me Sunday morning to say they just found out they still weren’t allowed to eat inside member’s homes yet due to Covid restrictions. Aaron had already gotten a yummy dinner started on the smoker and we didn’t want to waste that food on just our family. I asked the missionaries to see if we could at least send them home with dinner and they said we could do that. I packed up their dinner which included baked potatoes, smoked brisket (parts of the flat and point), and bacon wrapped asparagus. They even got some sour cream lemon strawberry cake for dessert.
We were sad we weren’t able to eat with them, but they did share a message with us before they moved on to their other appointments. However, before they were able to share their message we bombarded them with missionary apparel questions. We have been slowly checking off Josh’s missionary list and wanted to know any advice the missionaries could give us on mission gear. I think we talked more about that than the message they came to share with us--haha! Oh well it was a good visit.
Before the missionaries came for their visit, we did attend Josh’s seminary graduation. Aaron and I were able to attend in person which was nice. Everyone else got to watch via Zoom.
We are proud of our seminary graduate!!
Last week Aaron, Josh and I took an afternoon off from work/school to go mission clothes shopping. We went to three different places and had a very difficult time trying to find a suit that would fit super long leg boy. Finally at one place we were able to find a suit on the clearance rack that was long enough to fit his legs. At the store Mr. Mac we were able to find a second suit to fit him, but if he grows at all during his mission those pants will become high waters and there is no extra fabric at all to lengthen them. I kiddingly told Josh we would just need to amputate his feet if he grows at all. He didn’t seem to like that idea--haha!
The high school had their scholarship assembly yesterday. Here was Josh’s slide showing the different scholarships he has gotten that was part of that program:
Josh got to go on his second prom a few weeks ago. Here he is before the dance:
Their group:
After dancing for awhile:
Josh and his cute date:
It was a fun last dance for them.
We had our family pictures taken and updated. The night before we had these pictures taken Aaron had been up with violent food poisoning and felt absolutely horrid. I still made him go and take the pictures anyway since they were hard to get scheduled. Don’t mind the dark eye circles from him--haha!
