Special Olympics Basketball, Valentine's, Driving Frustrations, Snow, Faucet

 Things have not been quite as crazy in the past two weeks. Here's some of what has been happening. Matthew had his Special Olympics Local Basketball Tournament on Valentine's Day. He played two games a few hours apart. Matthew is in the green #9 jersey, Here's a few pictures:

Matthew's team won both their games and got gold medals which means they get to go to the State competition in a few months.

Matthew was super excited this day not only for his basketball games, but to be able to hand out the medals and awards to everyone in his role as Mr. Awesome.  We did have to have a talk beforehand to make sure Matthew didn't steal the spotlight from the athletes getting the award. Here's Matthew getting ready to hand out the awards with his Mr. Awesome Crown and sash:

Here's a few pictures with Matthew and the other people that helped hand out awards:

Mr. Awesome also did a spotlight on Matthew. Here's what they said:

They also interviewed Matthew and here's what he said about everything:

I came home from work a few days before Valentine's Day to find our front door had been 'heart attacked'.  I LOVED it!  It made my day seeing all the hearts and reading the messages from the Activity Day Girl's in our ward.

We didn't do anything to crazy for Valentine's Day. Sarah and Josh worked and Noah went with friends. Aaron and I picked up some steaks to make at home. It was great!  We could only get through part of the steaks so the kids got to finish them off when they got home. They tasted awesome!

After that we watched a Dateline. We know how to keep the romance alive--haha!

President's Day we all had the morning off of work so we went and did our usual activity-Top Golf and lunch at Costco. Here's everyone taking a turn:

We had a fun time!

Noah had his driving test coming up. He couldn't fit Driver's Ed into his school schedule so we did private Driver's Ed instead. He did all his course work and then did three different driving practices with an instructor. After that we have to get a driver's test done with a different private driving test instructor. He had already completed his 3 driving practices so we still needed to practice driving with him before his test. Aaron took him out to practice driving around the area. When they drove past the high school, Aaron saw that the driving range had left their orange cones out already set up to practice parallel parking in the high school parking lot. Wahoo!  Aaron took him over there to practice parallel parking. I guess Aaron was 'talking too much' to Noah while he was trying to parallel park. Noah asked Aaron to get out of the car so he could concentrate better and try parking by himself. Aaron was a bit annoyed, but then got photo proof that Noah still needed some more practice and instruction with parallel parking--haha! Even with this picture Noah still argued he didn't hit the cone because there is a space between the van and cone so therefore if it would have been a car parked there he would have been fine...***sigh***. 

Aaron asked me to take Noah out driving next time--haha! When it came time to practice parallel parking again, Noah also asked me to either stop talking or get out of the car so he could parallel park on his own. I stayed in the car, but watched almost the same thing happen again with the cones. Ugh! Let's just say I hope Noah doesn't have to parallel park in the near future--haha!

Noah had his actual driving pass off test last week. Unfortunately with the way our work schedules and Noah's school schedule is the only time he could do it was in the evening which meant driving in the dark. What made it worse was that it was supposed to storm--rain/snow the night of his test. We just hoped for the best as we drove Noah down to the meeting the testing guy.  It was raining, but not too bad when we got there. Before the test began Aaron, Noah and the testing guy talked for a few minutes. I stayed in the warm car and just watched.

Then Noah got in the test car driver's seat and the test began.  It was just Noah and the instructor.  Aaron came and got back in the car with me and we watched Noah drove past us on his way to the first stop sign and I grabbed this picture. We prayed he would do okay. 

When they got back Aaron went and spoke with Noah and the driving instructor while I stayed in the car. When they got back in the car they both told me that Noah failed. It wasn't until I looked up and saw their faces, they have terrible poker faces, that I saw they were teasing me. Noah passed, but not with flying colors. He needed less than 20 points/mistakes to pass and he got 15. Hey, we will take it--but we will be practicing some more before he turns 16 in April and actually gets his license.

We had a pretty big snowstorm the next day after Noah's driving test. I was so glad it happened after his test!! Anyway, we got a lot of snow in a short amount of time.  Josh sent me this picture of the car he drives as he was getting ready to come home after school:

It was then it occurred to me that I had no ice scraper in my car since we had just gotten it. DOH!! I had to scrape all the snow off with my arms making my sleeves all wet. What makes it worse is that in the office I work in, most people like the temperature very cold so I am already freezing before I even step outside. Needless to say I had my car heater on high the whole way home and as soon as I got home I put a window ice scraper in the car so this wouldn't happen again. 

Unfortunately, Josh didn't make it out of that storm unscathed. He went to a grocery store to run an errand. The parking lot was very icy and Josh ended up sliding into a truck. DOH!! Luckily, the driver of the truck got out and saw his truck had zero damage and drove away. Josh's car--my old white Camry--wasn't as lucky. The fender is now dented, scraped and loose. Boo!! I guess nothing some duct tape won't fix, right?!

Good thing I still love him is all I can say!!

Aaron got to go to a Weber State basketball game for a young men activity last week. Here's where their seats were:

Aaron said it was fun.

Daniel called us on his P-Day yesterday. Aaron joined from a business trip in Washington DC, Josh on his way home from YSA FHE activity at Crystal Hotsprings (he is there even though his screen is dark. Someone else was driving, too, so Josh was a passenger and it was safe to talk), the rest of us at home, and Daniel in Winter Quarters in Iowa. Daniel does not have great Wifi in his apartment, so he does better if he turns his screen off. Having the video on makes it break up while we talk so we can't hear him very well. Anyway, I love that we were able to join in even though we were all in different locations. 

Daniel is doing well. We are able to see his Google photos and happened to see this picture. Let's just say he seems to be a ruthless Uno card player that hoards wild cards--haha!

He got a big snowstorm that came through his area. The Mission President grounded all the missionaries since driving conditions were too unsafe. Daniel was on splits with another missionary at the time so to pass the time they build a sledding run at their apartment complex:

Looks like it was fun:

We finally got our fluff ball groomed. She was so scraggly. She hates being groomed, but looks and feels so much better afterward. I don't think she can go every 4 months. I think it can we can only do every 3 months max because she gets so scraggly.

Josh's bathroom faucet bit the dust last week. The handle broke off which is never a good thing. When Aaron went to change it out, he discovered the plumbers who plumbed the house went cheap. He had to change out some water lines before he could change the faucet. It ended up being a lot bigger project than he had planned for, but it turned out well.  Too bad Sarah's bathroom faucet is on its last legs, too. Boo! I hate spending money on things like that. We also had to get new tires for the van last week as well. Oh well, what can you do?! I am just glad we were able to take care of those things.

Car Accident, Spokesman, Preference, Dance Recital, Date, Temple, Lost

It has been three weeks since the last update. The last three weeks have been pretty crazy so that is why it took me a minute to update. Here's some highlights:

Sarah had her dance recital. It was fun to watch, but a bit sad knowing this is the second to last one we will watch since she will be graduating and is almost done. Here's her Pointe dance. She is in the royal blue dress:

Her contemporary dance:

Jazz dance:

Hip hop dance:

Sarah got to help the littles with their Cinderella dance. It was so cute to watch! Sarah and her friend, Gabby, danced alongside the littles to help them remember their dance:

She came to say hi to Grandma T after it was over:

Here's Sarah's dance team:

Noah got asked to go to the girl's choice Preference dance at the end of January. Before the kids go out on the their first official date, Aaron and I like to take them out on a 'parent date'. I took Noah to a sit down restaurant so we could practice manners, how to order, how to carry a conversation and how to tip--even though it is a girl's choice dance knowing these things are still important. It was a fun date:

The Preference Dance for Noah was last week. For the day date a big group of them went bowling.  That evening Noah got ready with some help from Sarah:

Here's Noah before his evening date:

I grabbed a quick picture of Noah and his date when she came to pick him up. She was cute:

Their group went and got pictures taken over in Jensen Nature Park:

Noah said he had a fun night. I still can't believe he is old enough to go to high school dances!!

Daniel had an amazing experience last week. The first week Daniel was out in Omaha after leaving the MTC in Provo he came across Eddie. The very first lesson Daniel challenged Eddie to be baptized and he accepted. Daniel was able to teach him more about the church over a period of time and it did progress to baptism. Here is the baptism picture from last year:

Eddie stayed active for over a year and progressed to wanting to go to the temple. He asked Daniel to be his escort. It was amazing to see Eddie's progression. Daniel was able to go to the temple with Eddie last week. Here's a picture of Daniel and Eddie outside the Winter Quarters Temple after Eddie went through:

Here's what Daniel said about it in his email:

It was awesome. Daniel sent this picture of his companion this week. His companion is getting transferred so we don't know who Daniel's next companion will be. We will find out tonight or tomorrow.

In other not so great news.....Josh was in a car accident. Boo! I HATE getting those kind of calls--'Hey Mom I've been in an accident'! Thankfully no one was hurt and it was not Josh's fault. A lady didn't yield in a roundabout and broadsided Josh's car. Josh had the right of way since he was already in the middle of the roundabout. The middle aged lady got out of her car and told Josh she had never been in a car accident before and didn't know what to do. Josh told her, "I got you!" since Josh is unfortunately experienced in these sort of things with having 4 wrecks under his belt. Anyway, Josh called the police and exchanged insurance info. Here's some photos of his car:

Thankfully it was a low speed impact so there were no injuries.

However, the side of the car got dented. You couldn't open the passenger door very far. Boo!

That meant we had to do the 'car shuffle' the next few days. Ugh! The ladies insurance said they would provide us with a rental car for 30 days. Two days after the collision we took Josh's car in for a repair estimate. That car was an old (2004) Buick so it would be more expensive to fix the car than it's worth so it ended up getting totaled. Her insurance offered a price for the totaled car and we accepted. We still thought we had a month of the rental car to find another car. We were wrong. The rental car needed to be returned two days later.  That was a problem because Sarah needed a car since she has a Speech and language pathology internship she had to drive to. Josh had work, school and volunteering he needed a car to drive to. That meant we had to do the car shuffle where Josh got the Camry I used to drive, Sarah kept driving her same car and Aaron and I had to share a car. That also meant I had to take Aaron to work early in the morning so I could have to car to get to work. Aaron had to bum a ride home from some coworkers until we could get a replacement car.  I am just glad Noah doesn't have his license and drive yet!! Anyway, Aaron and I went car shopping over the weekend which I absolutely HATE!!!! We tried out Carvana. You pick a car from what they have available and then go pick it up. It made me a bit nervous to buy a car I have not test driven before. However, we did have 7 days to try it out and return it if we ultimately didn't want it. We got to try out their car 'vending machine'. After signing all the paperwork they give you coin to insert into the machine that 'vends' your car. Aaron was nice enough to let me insert the coin:

We got another used Toyota Camry.

We weren't' wanting to buy a car right now, but what can you do?! Now everyone has a car to drive without needing to share for now--that is until Noah gets his license in April and Daniel gets home in July.  That is a problem for another day--but for now everyone has a car.

Since I didn't have to work the day after picking up the car, Aaron wanted to drive the car to work. Here's another call you don't want to get: 'Hey, I just got pulled over for going 56mph in a 45mph zone'. Yep, Aaron got pulled over that morning not more than 2 miles from our house. We hadn't even had the car for 24 hours!! Luckily, he didn't get a ticket for speeding, but it was close. Phew!!

Matthew was asked to participate as a Spokesman for Special Olympics Utah this year. He was one of seven representatives. We had an all day training down in Salt Lake this past Saturday. His group home manager was supposed to take him, but got put on indefinite suspension so I got to fill in. Matthew got training on how to write and deliver a speech, how to share his story, how to have a voice, etc. It was an interesting training. Here we are trying to write a speech for Matthew:

Here's a picture of all 7 of the 2026 spokesmen:

Special Olympics Utah even posted about it on their Facebook page. Here is what they said:

Here's the official picture that has been edited for their Facebook page. Matthew is second from the right giving the thumbs up:

They ask the spokesmen to appear at many functions throughout the year. It will be interesting to see what this exactly entails. Anyway, after the training they did a photoshoot with some Special Olympics athletes. Matthew got to be in some of the pictures. He is never one to turn down a photo op--haha!

After the training on Saturday we got back home. Noah requested a ride to the temple with a friend so they could go and do some baptisms. Noah has been quite a few times since the beginning of the year. It is crazy that he can baptize now that he is an ordained Priest. I want to go with him sometime soon. Here is Noah and his friend on their way into the temple:

I love my kids....last Wednesday night I was exhausted. I was getting ready to go to bed early as Noah chose that time to let me know he had lost his retainer. He also let me know that he has not worn it for the last month and a half since that is how long it has been lost. UGH!!  I was a bit frustrated that he didn't tell me sooner and that he chose a time when I was absolutely exhausted and on my way to bed to let me know. Anyway, I had to take him in yesterday to get his mouth scanned for a new retainer. Even if he had found his old retainer it won't fit anymore since it has been so long. 

I was trying not to look so mad during the whole appointment, but I don't know if I succeeded. My face gives me away every time--haha! 

Noah has some debt to work off now since we had to pay a small fortune to replace it. I do love my kids even when they frustrate me. This is right after he let us know that he lost his Learner's Driver's Permit as well. Ugh!!! That is one we had to replace ASAP since he has his driving instruction happening in a few days. He really needs to work on keeping track of things....

I have been picking up extra shifts at both jobs lately and I have been dragging. Things will hopefully slow down next week, but I find myself telling myself that exact same thing every week. Hopefully it really will slow down soon!!

Since Matthew's house manager is on indefinite suspension we have a feeling she will ultimately not be coming back. I don't know what happened, but it appears to be quite serious. That means that Matthew might have to move into a different group home. We are playing everything by ear for now, but it is not looking good. It would be nice to have him closer to us since we have to pick him up every Sunday. That means we end up driving 2 hours every Sunday which is a lot. We will see what happens. We are sad she might not come back though because she worked so well with Matthew. 

Sarah and Noah visited the dentist last week. Aaron was nice enough to take them. Thankfully, neither one has any cavities. Yay! This was Sarah's dentist check up for her mission papers that she is working on. Next month she will have her physical done and then they can be submitted in April. I am trying not to think about it because everything is happening so fast!!

We watched the Super Bowl Sunday. We weren't rooting for either team, but just watched it. Grandma T stayed for dinner and brought all the kids their Valentine's Day goodies she put together. They always love getting those every year!  She even sent one to Daniel.

Noah just had his physical done in order to participate in track. He is officially 5'9 and 3/4" tall. He is hoping to be taller than Daniel by the time Daniel gets home in July. We will see what happens!!

Until next time.....