Lances Unite

 

I walked into an intimate scene Sunday night. Josie and Evelyn were busy plucking Justin's ear hairs. The next day Josie found the tweezers after dinner to resume the grooming ritual. She intentionally left two long ear hairs and said, "now you can fly away with your two long ear hairs!" I about died laughing. Amelia and I saw a gorgeous rainbow on our way to her SYC meeting. We got two spurts of snow, enough to scrape together the first snowmen of the season. All of a sudden the entire drawer of gloves was empty and kids complaining they couldn't find gloves. Wednesday morning the little girls and I admired the lovely frozen leaves on our walk to school. The leaves were so fascinating we were late for the second bell. 

I tried several times to vote but the lines were out of control, snaking several times outside and inside the voting area. Folks were waiting hours to vote! Unfortunately, I did not have hours set aside to wait in line that morning with therapy visits, piano, and dance to work around. 

Thursday was MCO attire check which meant starting 10 minutes earlier than usual. I love seeing the kiddos all dressed up and looking cute. I tried to iron Everett's vest but the iron was too hot and melted the fabric. I had to get him a new $40 vest due to my faux pas. Doh! Dr Mendenhall missed most of the Young Singers practice, he arrived 2 minutes before we were due to end. This semester felt a little off with so many conductors rolling through and less continuity. I was grateful Everett properly dressed himself with the buttons straight and his pants right side out. We have one little boy, David who is quite the little monkey. He is all over the place, I'm sticking him in between two quiet little girls...they looked at me in alarm when I made that switch. Sorrrry. Sister Flake had something come up so was late picking up her boys. Justin crammed 7 bodies into his hamster wagon! Impressive! Especially because Phillip forgot to reapply his deodorant. 

Friday was a red banner day for Evelyn. The 3rd grade presented an amazing Veteran's Day program with Mrs Benischek in charge. Mrs Benischek is a wonderful music teacher, all the kids adore her. Justin did not want to wait in line for a sticker saying he was a visitor, the little rebel walked by everyone and headed to the gym. I stayed in line like a sheep for my sticker (and one for Justin) because I was also teaching art right after. Evelyn was smiling like the sun when she walked onto the risers. The kids sang 5 Patriotic songs, read several poems, and paid a lovely tribute to all those Veterans in our community. I quite enjoyed seeing all the branches of the military represented including 3 Coast Guard veterans. The kids respectfully used the flags as a prop for one of their songs, the kids were very careful to not drop their flags. Evelyn practiced American Soldier, Grand Ole Flag, the Star-Spangled Banner, and This Land is Your Land for weeks. Right after the program I helped teach Josie's class for art this month, Mattisse's Goldfish painting. Josie wanted to stay for lunch since her class won a pizza party to enjoy in their classroom. 

Justin picked up the older three kids from school right after the program. We swiftly finished packing for a quick weekend trip to Utah. Amelia racked up 4.5 hours of driving time between Friday and Sunday! She tried to drive with a squishmallow, it would not stay in her lap so she had to give it up. We spent Friday and Saturday nights with Grandpa and Grandma Lance. Saturday we did not have much to do, just hang around and visit. Hannah and Rachel came over for a bit in the morning. The little girls played a fun royalty game, part of the game was bowing to the king, Grandpa Lane! I worked on Creepy Carrots shrinky-dinks for Hannah and Rachel...and my girls. Amelia helped trace the characters and I colored them with marker during the drive. They turned out a bit chonky but a fun craft. Grandpa Lane corralled the boys for yardwork and later to set up the gym. Justin rolled his ankle, earned quite the colorful bruise later. Amelia and I got distracted at Walmart with the larger selection of cute sweaters while on a journey to find an appetizer and dessert for the dinner. Grandma Jean wanted to host a dinner for as many of her children, grandchildren, and great (great) grands who could make it. She was the reigning Queen at 90 years old. Laura and Jan set up a Thanksgiving craft decorating turkeys with paste gems and spangles...complete with glue guns. Mom and Sally organized dinner of pulled pork, salads, and desserts. Uncle Scott was in charge of photographing the event. Laura had a fun get-to-know you game, three people up front trying to convince that one story was about themselves, one story was true for one of the participants. The audience got to guess who the story was really about. We mostly visited with each other amid hordes of cousins playing here and there. Grandma wanted us to sing some songs together, I was chosen to lead that endeavor. We sang Families Can Be Together and Over the River and Through the Woods, a capella style. That was interesting. We hung around until after 9 pm when Grandpa cleared out the stragglers. Grandma introduced us to a YouTube channel One for Israel, dedicated to testimonies of Jewish people who recently converted to Christianity. We watched a powerful testimony of a Jewish Doctor who saw Christ. 

We went to church with Jana and family since they had 9 am church. After church we found Grandpa Lane dressed like a somber patrolman guarding the church's parking lot. He listens to sacrament meeting via zoom while keeping watch outside! Phillip offered to pick up Rachel she gave him the best ornery side look ever, then switched to a smile when he swooped her up. We enjoyed lunch and some play with the Suapaia's after packing up our stuff at Grandma's house. We headed home around 2 pm, stopping for an hour to visit with Charity and family. Justin chose Cafe Rio for a birthday dinner treat on our way home. Amelia managed to get another hour plus of drive time. Yawn! That was a fun, packed weekend. We really missed seeing James and company because they were gone on vacation. John and Court came late to the party on Saturday, we saw them for a little while.