Two weeks have come and gone again. Things have gotten back into a routine, but it still is a bit crazy. The other morning as the kids were getting ready to leave for school Noah all of a sudden remembers that he has a turkey project that is due THAT DAY. DOH!! In 10 minutes we threw this 'Bob Ross' turkey together with help from Sarah, Noah and me. They are supposed to come up with a turkey costume so the turkey won't get recognized and cooked for Thanksgiving dinner. Personally I don't think it turned out half bad with only about 10 minutes worth of work--wahoo!!
Josh had his end of season party for Black Island Farm's Haunted corn maze. They let all of the seasonal employees come and play on the courtyard slides and activities. They also handed out awards. Josh got the 'Energizer Batter Award' since he was really into his character no matter what.
He even got a gold skeleton trophy holding an energizer battery with a picture of the energizer bunny. He had a fun season.
Sophie is turning into a diva dog. We have never had a problem with her eating whatever type of dog food I have bought. However, she must have really liked this food I bought last time because I bought a different kind when that ran out and she refuses to eat the new kind of dog food. She even went two days without eating since she didn't like the new food I bought her. The new food I bought she has eaten that brand before, but refuses to eat it now. I finally had to buy the old food to get her to eat again. I thought I would outsmart her and try and mix the two foods together since I didn't want to waste the brand new Costco sized bag of food I bought. However, she outsmarted me because she picks through the mixed food and eats the kind she likes and leaves the kind of food she doesn't scattered all around the floor. Dang dog!! What a diva!! Good thing she is cute, otherwise I would be even more frustrated with her!
Matthew had really been enjoying learning how to use the public transit system at his new school. Occasionally they take Frontrunner down to the City Creek Mall for lunch. Matthew took some of his own money last week so he could try out a new place for lunch. He ended up eating a Philly cheese steak sandwich which he liked. That surprised me because we have tried those before and he was not a fan. I am glad he is trying and learning new things. His para sent this picture to me so I could see he was enjoying his sandwich.
Since Matthew is now 18 there are a few things we have been working on to get him set up for adult life. One of those things is setting up Social Security for him. It has been a big pain in the but and that is putting is mildly. There are multiple forms you have to fill out. If you have any questions it is at least an hour waiting on hold to speak to someone. Then when you speak to someone on the phone they tell you the wrong things and then it complicates things immensely. Ugh!! We made an appointment at the social security office three weeks ago. We checked in and waited in the waiting room for about 45 minutes before we were helped. We said we had an appointment, but since we had waited so long it got cancelled--DOH!! The guy at the window tried to help us, but what we needed was beyond what he could do in that amount of time so we had to make another appointment which was last Friday. Each time we have had to check Matthew out of school which is not ideal to come along with us. He does not do very well with long waits around lots of people, but luckily, this last visit wasn't too bad. We waited for about 20 minutes until we were called back. We then had a 60 minute meeting to gather information and to fill out even more forms. We now have to fax a form in to our representative, but after that we only have to wait another 3-5 MONTHS until we get an answer to Matthew's application. This has been a frustrating process, but hopefully, the worst of it is behind us!! Keeping my fingers crossed things will work out. Once we tackle social security we will turn our full attention to gaining guardianship which is turning out to be quite another process, too. I am truly earning all my gray hair!!
Last Sunday was our ward's primary program. I always love those sacrament meeting days. Sarah and Noah both got speaking parts which was awesome. Our primary is so big that not everyone got a speaking part so it was nice to hear from both of them. This was Sarah's last program since she will be aging out of primary. I am happy and sad about that. Sad that she is growing up, but happy that she will be coming in to young women with me. At least Noah will be in primary for a few more years, though! We were glad G&G T were able to come see them, too.
Grandpa Terry has been having a hard time lately. He fell a few weeks ago and broke his shoulder. Unfortunately it wasn't healing as well as it should have so he had to have partial shoulder joint replacement surgery this week. He is doing well post op other than it being quite painful. Hopefully, it will recover quickly and he will be back to himself soon--poor guy!
Last Monday Aaron had the day off from work since it was Veteran's Day. We spent the morning registering Josh for his senior year classes--eek!! I keep asking myself how he can be that old!! Anyway, he is going to have a bit of a tough year his senior year class wise, but I think he will be okay. After that Aaron and I ran a few errands and grabbed lunch together. Then we got to see Sarah in her class play that afternoon. The play was about Sleepy Hollow and the Headless Horseman. The funny thing is, is this is the exact play Aaron was in when he was in elementary school way back when. He even remembered his lines--he only had two, but he still remembered them--haha! Sarah did great. Here she is in one of her scenes:
Bowing at the end of the play:
Here's the class:
They all did great.
Sarah visited the orthodontist this past week. Her bottom retainer wasn't fitting anymore so she went in to get it checked out. Come to find out she has outgrown it and won't need to wear it again. She did lose another baby tooth this week. She only has one more baby tooth left. Once that falls out she can start the second phase of her orthodontia. She isn't looking forward to another round of braces, but the end result is truly worth it!!
I worked my last two flu clinics this past week. I have started up my CNA instructing, though so between doing regular staff immunization clinics and CNA instructing things are still busy for me. I am not complaining since I do like getting the pay checks--haha!
Last Saturday Aaron had a chance to attend a smoking/BBQ class taught by Susie Bulloch (and her husband) who has been on a few of the Food Network TV shows. She also has a website called 'Hey Grill, Hey' which Aaron follows for smoking recipes. Anyway, as soon as a chance came up to attend a class taught by her up in Layton he jumped at it. He and a friend attended a 3 hour class that taught about different Thanksgiving recipes. Aaron really enjoyed it. He even did a trial turkey run for our Sunday dinner yesterday and it was tasty. Here is Aaron and his non-romantic lady crush--haha!
The Thanksgiving food they got to sample at the class:
Aaron really enjoyed the class and hopes there will be more.
I saw this the other day and figured there was no paternity test needed here--haha:
At one of my clinics this past week they were handing out free rodeo tickets. I was able to pick some up for my family. We went to the Friday night rodeo at the Golden Spike Arena in Ogden. It was fun. Josh couldn't go with us since he had to work, but the rest of us had a good time.
We got some pretty good seats, too. Not to shabby for free!!
We got home from the rodeo about the same time Josh got off work. While at work he got some Oreo eggs and brought some home for us to try.
They were pretty good. Matthew did like them even though his face doesn't show it in the picture--haha!
This past week Daniel had a young men activity where they learned how to tie fishing lures. Daniel got to tie one to keep, too. He was pretty good at it since he has practiced with Grandpa T a few times before this.
We attended that last home BYU football game Saturday. We got there early and did some tailgating. We then went inside and watched the players come out of the locker room and on to the field. Matthew got pretty excited when they started coming out:
Britton Hogan, a player who is the back up long snapper, came out and saw Matthew's excitement. He gave Matthew his gloves as he passed by him. Matthew was pretty excited.
Kalani Sitake came by and was giving high fives.
As he passed Matthew he gave him a big bear hug.
That was pretty awesome!
Here's the view from our seats:
It was the perfect weather for a game! Josh had to work and Daniel had a friend birthday party he went to instead so there were only 5 of us at the game. Here we are:
Here's the gloves Matthew got:
It was a great game and we were glad we went.
Josh got his Sadie Hawkins dance pictures back and they look pretty cool. There's all kinds of pictures between group shots, and couple shots. Josh really did have fun at the The Great Gatsby themed girls' choice dance.
Last Saturday we finally got around to getting our family pictures done. It has been almost two years since we have gotten them done so it was time. As much as I HATE getting family pictures done it is nice to see them.
The kids:
Me and the boys:
Me and Sarah:
Noah:
Sarah:
Daniel:
Josh:
Matthew:
Family:
Aaron and me:
Aaron and the boys:
Aaron and Sarah:
Back in the spring Sarah went with a friend and her mom (who was our family photographer) out to do some dance pictures on the Salt Flats. They turned out pretty amazing:
