A Quickie Post

I made a quickie run to WalMart this morning before the blizzard hit.  The blizzard that I have received 4 (four!) emergency alerts (one at 3am) stating "Imminent severe alert"  and "Prepare. Avoid travel. Check media."

The snow finally started falling around 5:30 this morning.  Not quite blizzard proportions (just enough to cover up the fact that our backyard looks like it's been recently aerated, not because it has, but because the pups have been {doing their duty}, and the children haven't, if you know what I mean), but I suppose I shouldn't speak too early, as we have 12 more hours before the "imminent severe alert" expires.  You just never know around here.  Once they closed schools based on a severe weather forecast and nothing happened except a few flurries. 

Regardless, I have milk, butter, and eggs.

And I'm praying it won't hinder Britt and Austin's flight in tomorrow morning.

I thought I would quickly share a few things from the past week.

Shilo qualified for State in her 100Back on Saturday.  woot! woot!  I couldn't attend the meet, but Bill was there to cheer her on (interestingly enough, I think my children perform better when I am not present... which doesn't mean I'm going to stop showing up, just an observation).  Bill took some video on his phone - I will post it as soon as he gets it downloaded.  Which may be forever, so don't hold your breath.

She is a mere .6 of a second away from qualifying in the 50Free.  You can do it, Shi!

I made the locker tags for this week's meet (just hoping it doesn't get blizzarded out).

I was released from my Primary Chorister calling on Sunday.  After 21 months (which was preceded by 2 years in the Nursery), I feel ready.  I {love} being with the children in our ward, but I won't miss coming home beat.  Exhausted.  Spent.  My new calling(s) - (I was hoping for ONE, but got a couple others tacked on) - Ward bulletin person (the one I've always wanted - Taylor and Lex have had it and I've been secretly jealous), Ward Historian (I think I'll like it once I get this year's history collected, compiled, and submitted to the Stake by the Jan. 15th deadline), and Building Scheduler.  I have one more week of Choristering (and a week with a sub for that last Sunday of the month), so it probably won't hit me (gently, like a snowflake, or hard, like a snowball?) until the new Chorister officially takes over.
She will be awesome.


We hosted several Christmas-y gatherings (Sunday - dinner and caroling with the Yoshikawas; Monday - Bishopric dinner and FHE), and have Shilo's swim team Holiday Party (one of her coaches and a couple of the girls are Jewish) on Friday.  Mauri gives me daily updates on how many days until Christmas, and for whatever reason, I am still shocked every time she gives me the latest.  Taylor and Lynnea will come in on Saturday (barring blizzards) for a mere 24-hour stay before heading to her parents' home, so I have determined that we will snap a family pic on Sunday for cards.  Better late than never, I suppose.

Mar headed off to school today looking like this:

They have had "dress-up days" at school this week, and she is totally into participating.  Each team gets points for every student that dresses up, so it ends up being a little in-school competition (from what I understand, the 6th graders get into it the most.  Of course).  She really wanted an ugly Christmas sweater (such a hot commodity these days), but she did a great job coming up with an outfit using what she could find around the house.  She is such a cutie.

Gotta run.

The Drummer Boy

When Britta first told me she was dating a guy in a band... I wasn't quite sure what to think.  I figured it would probably be a short-lived-BYU-co-ed-fling type of thing.  Nope.

(Story note:  Britta met her best college girlfriend her first day on campus.  They both met boys from the band, and they are both now hitched to those boys.  What a perfect love story.)

The band is J.Wride.  Austin is the drummer (and in this case, master match lighter).
I thought I would share one of their lastest videos for your enjoyment.

Check them out on itunes and youtube.
Like them, follow them, and share them with your friends.

Too Many Cookies

I titled a post the same thing back here.  Obviously I still need to work on my cookie-overcrowding problem.

Here are a few of the treats from the past week or so:

High School swim is in full swing.  Last week Shi had a meet on Thursday, and an invite on Saturday. The above-pictured 400 Free Relay team handily qualified for State.
(This is their serious don't-mess-with-us picture.)

Shi has been trying to individually qualify in the 100 Back and the 50 Free. She is less than a second away from both.  She would like to qualify BEFORE Christmas break to relieve some of her anxiety about it, but has through the month of January to keep trying should it be necessary.

I volunteered to make the locker tags last week.  I'm posting one only for record-keeping sake, not for showing off.  (Although I think they turned out kind of cute.)

She has another meet today (v REGIS - Missy's team - the girls have already been told that Missy will NOT be swimming this meet.  Apparently she plans to only swim two dual meets this season.  There has been much ado about whether she should be competing on the high school level AT ALL, but I can say that, from my experience, Missy is a very nice girl.  All the girls on Shi's team would be excited to have her at the meet, and would enjoy the opportunity to say they swam against an Olympic gold medalist, even if it meant they had no chance in h-e-double-toothpicks of winning),
and a time-qualified Coaches Invite on Saturday.
Lots of opportunities for improvement (right in the middle of the busy holiday season).


We had several ward activities this week as well.  On Tuesday we had the YM/YW "Bishop's Bash" sans the Bishop.  All for very good reason (I'm discovering that very good reasons abound everywhere in the life of a Bishop, and that nothing is an absolute.  Like hosting your own party).  After spending the entire day preparing my home to welcome the 60-ish youth of our ward, I also had the honor of filling in as the white elephant game emcee AND the refreshment coordinator.  I seriously couldn't have done ANY of it without Lex.  She helped clean the house, taxied Mar to her activity, and distributed and arranged the boatload of goodies that the youth had brought with them.  Unfortunately, nary a picture was snapped, since the photographer was emceeing a game (cough).

I'm going to miss my Girl Friday when she heads to college in a couple of weeks.
(Lex, btw, spoke in her YSA ward on Sunday.  Her co-speakers:  the Stake President and an area seventy, Elder Hillier.  Shi, Mar and I slipped out of our ward early to go listen to her.  Despite the numerous challenges she encountered while preparing her talk AND the need to quickly edit the initial 15-minute version down to 5, she did an amazing job!)


Friday night was our ward Christmas party.

In the creation of a new ward, there are some fine lines to walk.  (Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position or views of other members of the household, and should not be assumed as such.)

People are often attached to long-standing traditions, especially those who have been around for a long time.  Others, including newer-to-the-area members, want to share traditions from their past wards or freshen things up with new ideas.  The ward council discusses, and then determines how to proceed.  That being said, the switch from the traditional Breakfast-with-Santa party for the children and separate = tranquil Adult Christmas Dinner & Program, to the one-big-family-event ward party was a fair success.  Not a smashing success, not a great success, but fair.  A lot of people put in a darn lot of effort, but it certainly didn't go as smooth as butter.

There were definitely some highlights, though.

(Can you spot Mar with her lovely fuzzy floating halo?)

This cute nativity was awesome.  Any of the children in the Primary who wanted to participate, could.

Santa was a treat, too (if you could live through the eternal chaotic wait in line to visit with him).  This special Santa was "wired"  - parents could sneakily slip into another room and tell him via walkie-talking (or something like that) what their child(ren) wanted for Christmas.  He didn't ASK the kids what they wanted... he already knew.  Even Mar and her friends were thoroughly impressed.

Shi, Mar and I have also been on a cookie-baking spree.  Since Bill is at church for an average of 12 hours every Sunday, we have taken it upon ourselves to make cookies each week (except for Fast Sunday, of course) for him and all who spend many, MANY hours at the church each Sunday, to satiate their hunger until they can return to their homes and families.  The goal is to come up with a different cookie each week for a year.  MY goal is to train Shi and Mar to perform this service for their Dad on their own.  And to have two of my daughters become cookie queens.  I know, it's a lofty goal for all of us, but we'll give it the ol' college try.


I'd love to share about some of the other cookies crowding my plate, but it will have to wait for another day.  My time is far spent.

I just found out yesterday that Britt has started a blog.  YAY!  You can check it out here.