Walk-a-thon

 

I am thrilled to have the garage back to normal! I finished photographing the last two kids yesterday, making the grand total of 88 participants this year. Pretty cool. I quite loved that half of the families came back this year. I've finished editing and delivering 60% of the photos, the photos I took last week. This week I am focusing on finishing the rest and completing a family session from Monday evening. Esther and Dave Palmer asked me to capture their family photos this year. We met Monday evening at Wilson Ponds since their family loves fishing and water. As soon as the session was over Hyrum raced off to get his tackle box and rip off his nice clothes. I got the start time wrong so was running late due to the girls taking a Walmart trip with me to spend allowance money. Evelyn finally got a Rainbow High doll with her money and some makeup the store had out for Halloween. We've discovered the best time to buy makeup is at Halloween and Christmas.  Evelyn's doll dress and shoes broke soon after she started playing with her doll. That was quite discouraging for her. Amelia, Phillip, and Everett banded together to make dinner. Amelia made pico de gallo while the boys made jalapeño poppers, Everett's favorite food. 

Josie brought home a really cute rooster and writing sample from school. When I asked her what it was she responded, "duh! It's a chicken, see the "ch" sound?" Hummm, "ch" spells rooster. Love it so much. She and Evelyn are taking turns having hard mornings. I guess it's a tag team situation. Monday both Evelyn and Everett woke up with some tummy/digestive issues. I took Josie to school then came home and put on an exercise video after sending both kids up to bed. Before my workout was over both kids were happily bouncing along with me. The workout ended with the proclamation: get your shoes on! It's time for school. Evelyn melted, Everett decided he was better...they went to school. I escorted Evelyn to her class since she was bawling. Mrs Kemp and I emailed back and forth the rest of the day about how to help Evelyn enjoy school more often. Mrs. Kemp is going to let Evelyn "clip up" on her chart if she has a good attitude as well as focusing on her work. Evelyn earned a treasure box reward by Friday! She is quite happy to see progress so quickly. Phillip allowed me to help him practice drumline beats for his upcoming test. We set up his practice pad and then used Justin's Columbian drum as a counter sound. It took him about 5 times through to really get the complicated 8th notes down. I've noticed his is more careful with rhythm now during piano lessons. 

I am quite worried about the rising generation's ability to lead when my sample size includes 12 year old boys. Phillip walked out of his room Wednesday night with a large, deeply red chin hickey from the stupid bug bite extractor. He was trying to see how long he could take the "pain." All he really won was a mark on his face the size of a small cyst or very large pimple. I've mentally started calling these marks "cyst wars." He was strangely not worried about showing his face at school with his new adornment, only one teacher asked him about it...Phillip told the true story. We are all still shaking our heads...what a goldfish.

I finally found a couple moments to drop off a load of donations at Desert Industry. I was on the search for a bag to use solely for singing time. I found the bag quickly and ran out of the store...it is too hard to resist more stuff we don't need. Instead I spent a chunk of time at the library looking for interesting book series for the kids. I had no idea that Riordian branched out to other authors expanding the myth series he created. He personally wrote series about Greece, Rome, Egypt, and Norse. Other authors added American Indian, India, and China stories. So much fun. I am finishing my read of "The Indifferent Stars Above" about the Donner party. Wow, it's hard not to feel the shudders and depression felt by those poor pioneers. What a tragedy. 

Wednesday we held a family counsel to discuss recent mandate changes. More drama on the ward page caused further divides in our ward. One gal wrote her opinion about masking and immunizations as it affects her son's ability to attend church. The initial post was very opinionated and caused more shame than change. I think the approach was off, but well-meaning. It left me near tears all of Monday and Tuesday. Justin, Sara, Melissa, Bishop Roundy, and several others listened to my concerns and helped me think through the drama. Once again, cut the drama and the message was essentially be considerate and think of those who you are missing in church. What could YOU do to welcome those people back? Justin and I led a conversation with the kids about what we want to do as a family to be obedient to the prophet's most recent letter. In the end we decided to wear masks in church when we cannot fully social distance. I loved a podcast Elder Turley (the church historian) gave shortly after the First Presidency message. Essentially, his message was one of love based on history and historical context, if you can prevent by a simple act of donning a mask and immunizing, why not? I enjoyed the process of including the kids in this discussion, they also have important opinions adults need to hear. 

Friday evening we attended Ronald Reagan Elementary's Walk-a-Thon fundraiser event. Someone misplaced the cash I set aside for the evening so we were unable to do some of the fun things. The kids could earn jelly bracelets each time they walked/ran a lap around the track. Those bracelets went into pig containers representing each teacher. The winning class will get a party. The main attraction for Everett was the large inflatable balls, he spent $10 on a wristband for unlimited turns. Josie did NOT enjoy her turn in the balls because she got knocked over each time she tried to move. Both girls got a run through the bouncy house. We went home to eat dinner then went back to enjoy all their friends at school. Evelyn really wanted a shaved ice, but decided to save her money and make one at home. Good choice! 

Justin and I attended the temple Saturday morning. That is a blessing we are enjoying as often as possible. We stopped by Deseret Book after our sessions for some garments. Justin noticed a quad in Spanish, he is spending 15 minutes each day improving his Spanish so was excited to finally find a quad version. He also got the boys real ties in fun colors. Everett loved his Army of Helaman tie. We tried a new place for Ramen as a lunch date. After my last photo session I dismantled my photo area and cleaned up my mess. Phillip and Everett worked to prep our bikes for a long(er) bike ride. We biked about 5 miles up and down the closest bike path. Evelyn did not listen to me, she biked closer to the rocks and scored a tire full of goat heads after just 5 minutes into our ride. She was happy to squish in with Josie for the rest of our trip. Amelia got to spend the afternoon and evening with Clare and Tessa at the mall and later the Stake Dance. I picked up the girls at 11:10 pm, they were silly happy with all the day's events. At home the Ostlers invited us over to make S'mores around their fire pit. Justin noticed the AC was not cooling properly upstairs. Nick came over Sunday afternoon to look at it. The coolant was low which means there could be a leak somewhere. He first adjusted the screw in the attic system that might cause a leak, a problem in the same system he solved earlier in the week on someone else's identical system. 

We are very happy Grandpa Lane is home after a long 2+ years away. Mom said he sold most of his stuff and crammed the rest into two large suitcases and a 300 lb shipment Vinnell is allowing him to mail. Sounds like he was on a mission for two years...again. Welcome home Dad.