While Britta and Austin were here, we went to see Elvis and Priscilla's new puppies.
Twice.
Prissy only had three puppies in this litter, but they are all so cute! Britt and Austin took pictures of the two little boys when we first went to see them (Sunday, March 17th):
The puppies were born on Valentines Day, but they are still really, really young. When we first saw them, they didn't seem to be able to see very well yet, and could barely walk on the grass.
When we went back the following Friday, the puppies had changed quite a bit. Sheila (the owner) said that they had just started playing with each other a day or two earlier.
Austin and Britt were trying to decide which puppy to get between these two boys.
The little girl pup had a very distinct cowlick on her back (same as Priscilla's, but more defined), and will most likely have longer hair like her mother's, so they had already ruled her out.
Mauri and Shilo wanted to keep her, though.
She was so calm and cuddly, she took a nap on Shi's lap for a good 20 minutes. Sheila said she would dominate the boys in another week.
The final decision:
We will bring him out with us when we come to UT for Britt's graduation at the end of April. I am excited that we get to keep him for a couple of days and that Jack and Ava can check out their little brother. It's crazy to think that in a few short months, this little guy will look a lot like this:
Jack and Ava when we first brought them home:
Elvis and Priscilla are a good match - they make beautiful pups!
(Yes, I inadvertently put an extra place-setting on the table. I've had a hard time adjusting over the past few years to the ever-changing number-of-place-settings-needed. Obviously.)
We celebrated Britta's birthday - a bit delayed.
(Snapped this in the process of lighting those 22 candles.)
It was great to have her and Austin here so close to her birthday.
And we celebrated the 1-year mark (to the day) of Bill serving as the Bishop of our ward.
I'm not sure if it's necessarily appropriate to celebrate. Bill has managed and handled the change in his life (in addition to building a business from scratch) most gracefully. I, on the other hand, am still in the counting-down-the daysmonths year(s) mode. It has been more challenging than I had imagined.
I listened to an interview of Elder and Sister Bednar on the Mormon Channel the other day (per suggestion from my good friend Rebecca, who's been-there-done-that). Sister Bednar mentioned a time when her husband had been serving as a Stake President, and she had been keeping track of the hours he was away, feeling that he wasn't spending enough time at home. Missing him. Wanting him there. She then said that gradually (I emphasize gradually because I am still working on it) she learned to support him with a happy and grateful attitude. I've been in the hour-counting mode. I've felt frustrated when Bill is called away in the middle of time I thought was mine/ours/the family's. I am celebrating each year of service, not necessarily because it was a great year, but because it's one year closer to his release.
I hope that changes. I hope I can continue to work on myself. When Bill was called, our Stake President told us this was a chance for us to practice. Being more celestial. Living the law of consecration. I had no idea how hard that would be.
Last week Mar participated in her school's Spirit Days. I only got pictures a few of the days, but I love how Mar loves to participate. She is such a fun girl!
Since the week prior to Spring Break was only 4 days long, Spirit Days started the Friday before (because everyone knows you need 5 good solid days to dress up).
That was the day of the Final Four, so in addition to the pre-determined Hawaii Day, they decided to throw Legend Day on top of it. I think Mar pulled it off.
(We learned that the clear gel glue does not work nearly as well as good ol' white Elmer's Glue-All for glittering faces.)
Monday was College Day. I didn't get a picture, but Mar was decked out in her BYU sweatpants/sweatshirt/hat with a glitter Y on her face. She wanted to carry her BYU cougar and her BYU pom, but decided it might be too much in addition to her 30+ lb. backpack. (I have serious issues with how heavy her backpack is - they don't put lockers in middle schools in our district and I think it's ridiculous that her teachers make her carry around 4 composition books - do you know how heavy those are? - in addition to her cram-packed folders for each class, a reading book - hers are always big ginormous ones, and whatever else she needs for the day. Hardly a few inches for her lunch, which I'm positive is always a smashed mess by the time she eats it. And when she asks you to help her put it on because it's so heavy, and has bend over to balance, there's good reason to have issues with it.) Tuesday was Bling Day.
Wednesday was Super Hero Day. Mar would have liked to be totally dressed up as Super Girl, Wonder Woman, or any other numerous "heroes," but because we have limited resources and time (and no Super Hero get-ups in our Halloween box), she decided to go as her dad. Again, no picture, but she wore one of his shirts, his tie, and her glasses. She wasn't the only one dressed up as her dad, which I think is totally awesome! On the way to school, she told me she had practiced saying some of our favorite Billisms. Things like, "I'd like to be a bird (instead of fly) on the wall in that room!" "We are nip-and-tuck with them" (meaning neck-and-neck), and "You'll have to beg my forgiveness..." (instead of "I'll have to beg your forgiveness"). They are a bit of a family inside joke, lovingly laughed about amongst ourselves, because we think Bill is so great. And he makes us smile. Love that guy.
Thursday was Crazy Hair Day.
This turned out a little differently than we anticipated, but decided that it was, indeed, crazy enough.
I think she's pretty much one of the most spirited girls at her school. I love that.
This wasn't the Hawaiian vacation I had dreamed about for the past 25 years (we'll have to reschedule that for the big 50th - a literal Hawaii 5-0), but it was away. From work, from church responsibilities (sort of), and from everyday pressing matters (still waiting to be taken care of).
And it was very, VERY needed.
Here are a few pics from our two-nights/two-days away:
The Great and Powerful Oz. We liked it. Bill thought it was going to be a remake rather than a prequel, so he was a bit confused for a few hours minutes. I learned that self-shot pictures from these angles make me look in serious need of a lifestyle lift. (Since most of the pictures turned out similarly, I am left to conclude that it's probably not just the angle.) We also learned that the 10am showing is great because you practically have the entire theater to yourself.
We had lunch at a Japanese place... just down the street from Bill's old office. I still can't believe that he spent 2-1/2 years commuting that far.
Wasabi bomb!
After lunch we went back to the hotel and took a nap. We had intended to go hiking, but the weather did not cooperate - it was freezing. Not to mention that in our haste to pack, we did not bring the best shoes for hiking. Or heavy outerwear in anticipation of colder temps. The nap was just what we needed.
That evening we grabbed some dinner at Smashburger (it was pretty much a sleep-alot-and-eat-yourself-silly kind of a getaway),
before heading over to the HS championship basketball game. It was either that, another movie, or bowling. We were both interested to see who would win, but enjoyed the fact that we weren't so caught up in the intensity that comes along with a personal vested interest in one team or the other.
Sunday morning we attended church at a local ward, which we discovered through friendly conversation was the Yoshikawa's old ward.
Afterwards we took a scenic drive before making the hour-long trip back home to the fam.
(Another argument for a lifestyle lift.)
Not pictured: the boatload of ice cream/sorbet we devoured over the two-day timeframe. Our favorites were Lemon Sorbet and Salted Caramel Butter Pecan. Yum.
We arrived at home in time to say hello to Shi and Mar, and Britta and Austin, who had arrived late Friday night to spend the week with us, before heading over to the Yoshikawas for a St. Patty's Day green-themed dinner. The girls had made two varieties of dessert to take with us: "Better than BYU" mint brownies and chocolate-dipped peanut butter balls with a green drizzle/sprinkles. They are much, much more talented and creative than I.
My meager contribution to the holiday? Before we headed off for our Anniversary Trip, I left these at home for the girls (idea from here, of course):
And before going to dinner Sunday evening, I helped Mar, the ultimate celebrator of all things festive (more on that next post), sparkle up her cheek:
After our 1-1/2 hour drive in crazy-bad traffic, we finally arrived in Boulder, only to miss exits, make multiple u-turns, and become disenchanted with the whole town (actually, only the semi-hormonal did-I-remember-to-change-my-patch anxious shotgun passenger was. Disenchanted, that is). We finally oriented ourselves a bit, cursed our not-so-trusty phone GPS, and found a nearby Tokyo Joe's to grab a bite before heading to the game down the street.
We had purchased our reserved seat tickets online per a suggestion from a presumed reliable source. We would get better seats that way, he said. I forgot to think it through (the story of my life), and neglected to realize that, when purchasing the price-inflated-with-a-service-charge online tickets, we were never asked what team we would be there for. Upon arrival to our average seats on the opposite side of the arena from the LHS student section, we decided to switch sides, eventually maneuvering ourselves to a prime spot. Duh. Those reserved tickets were good for the entire tournament that day (4 games), and it would be natural to suppose that not every person who had purchased a ticket would be staying the entire time. As teams finished play, prime seats naturally opened up for the next game. I'm sharing only so I will remember next time. If there is one. General admission tickets = prime seating if you're willing to shuffle around SHOULD someone actually have the reserved seats you have acquired by stratagem and stealth.
On to the game.
Legend had the best student section. EVER. Here's a little clip:
That sea of blue? All students. Students that made their way in crazy-bad traffic to a college town over an hour away to support their team.
This was the opposing team's student section:
Fittingly, LHS was positioned under this:
Mauri and Lauren dug up some old cheer stuff to wear to the game.
Here's the scoreboard story:
Legend was in the game the first half, fizzled a bit the second. But it was a great run.
Denver East, seeded #1, did not win the State Championship the following day. One of their starters was injured in our game (knocked a tooth out and injured his shooting hand, due to a trip-and-fall face-plant), and since their starters pretty much played the entire game (we think they subbed 2 other guys for short stints vs Legend), it probably had a big impact on the final game. Eaglecrest pulled it out and handily won the Championship despite the fact that Denver East had won them by 20 points earlier in the season.
Just a quick post to say happy birthday to my sweet daughter Britt.
22 years ago today, dad wore that crazy big It's a Girl! button that put a nice hole in his shirt.
We spent the evening of our 3rd anniversary at LDS Hospital patiently waiting for you to make your appearance. At 5:27am the following morning.
We love you and hope you have an awesome day!
And while I'm speaking of anniversaries,
yesterday was Bill's and my 25th.
(Not so sure about the grammar, there. I did a quick online grammar check and discovered that I could say, "Bill and my," "mine and Bill's," or "Bill's and my." Couldn't quite decide which to use. This is why blogging takes me more time than it should.)
Kind of a big deal.
I spent the entire day making his gift, a dvd, which he viewed around 7:00pm in between work and church appointments. He liked it. I decided that it was the perfect way to spend the day (although initially I did not intend for it to take so long), since I got to reminisce and reflect on the past 25 years while scanning pictures, thumbing through scrapbooks, and listening to love songs.
This weekend we are taking a mini getaway trip to Boulder to celebrate.
Why Boulder? LHS's Final Four game will be played there.
On Friday, it turns out. I'm going.
Should Legend win, the championship game is Saturday.
We wanted to be close to the action, just in case.
Other plans:
Temple
The Great and Powerful Oz
Burger King
Rummy
Sleeping in
(We sound a little boring, but I am so looking forward to it.)
Back on February 22nd, Bill and I drove the 5 minutes to the high school to watch the boys basketball game. It was Senior night, Legend was playing a super-intense cross-town rival team (Chap), and three of the starters/Seniors on our team are LDS: two from our ward, and the other from our ward before the split.
I've talked about my love for high school athletics (here, here and here - I'm sure there's more, but you get the idea), and even though I have attended my share of swim meets this year, it was good to be back in the Titan Coliseum with a good old-fashioned electric crowd.
Despite the fact that we had some darn awesome senior players that had graduated the year before, LHS still has a strong team this year. I don't think, however, that anyone (other than LHS) expected them to beat Chaparral.
They did. Here are a couple of snippets:
The crowd was great. I was bummed that I missed recording the Harlem Shake - it was awesome. They held a "black out" (why most of them are wearing black), and did fun, encouraging cheers, a relief from the negative chants that are so typical at these intense games. As a spectator, it was one of my favorite games, not only because of the win (which was a key factor, I suppose), but because of the crowd. Fun, energetic, and mostly respectful. Can you see Shi in the crowd? It took me a while to locate her from across the court AT the game, so probably not. She is at the bottom of the top third of the bottom center section, smack dab in the middle of the row.
That helps, right? (Just call me The Locator.)
After the intense down-to-the-final-seconds, won-by-free-throws-by-the-only-player-making-them-all-night win, the crowd cleared the bleachers in record time.
Thank goodness no one was trampled.
Fast forward to last night. Bill had committed the Bishopric to do a "church tour" with our full-time missionaries at 7, Shilo was working at the Rec Center until 7, and Mar had a late-night scheduled. Legend had made it to the Elite Eight in the State play-offs, and Shi had lamented how she wouldn't be able to attend the game, while also mentioning that LHS would be one of the final teams playing that evening, and the game wouldn't even start until 8:30pm. At around 6, Bill asked me if I wanted to head downtown to the Denver Coliseum to see the game after our tour. I texted Shi at work to see if she wanted to make the trip to catch the game. If Shi would have said no, we wouldn't have gone.
She texted back, Sure!
When we arrived at the Coliseum, the previous play-off game was still going. It eventually went into a double overtime, delaying the Legend v Fairview game for over an hour. I think the game got underway around 9:40pm. Although Legend scored the first points (3), they were quickly down by 8. The team gradually made up the difference, and by the final quarter, it was anybody's game as the lead volleyed from one team to the other.
(I think this was during half-time, thus the lack-luster expressions. Or maybe it was during the first-quarter 10-minute delay when the scorekeepers had to rearrange the entire scoreboard - after play had already begun - because they had posted the team names on the wrong sides of the board and were delegating points incorrectly because of this {oversight}... I wish I would have walked to the other side of the coliseum to snap a few pictures, since the crowds for both teams in this game were seated on the same side. It would have given a much more accurate portrayal of the packed and enthusiastic student sections from both teams.)
At 11:04pm I texted Rebecca, 1.6 seconds legend lead by 1.
{INTENSE}
A Fairview player did one of those more-than-half-court shots at the buzzer, and the ball bounced off the rim. Scary. But Legend won the game. Despite the fact that their lead scorer didn't score a single point. Despite the fact that one of their starters (from our ward) had injured his ankle in practice two days prior and didn't even dress down for the game.
During the game, Bill said repeatedly (very loudly, may I add), "Legend's going to win this game because they have heart!"
It was an awesome game, and I am so glad we decided to go.
Final Four. Next Thursday. At CU.
Legend will be playing the #1 seeded team, Denver East.
I hope Bill can arrange to skip out of his Stake meetings.
I'm sorry to miss our RS Birthday dinner.
I'm going.
I texted Lex on our way home. She has a lot of friends still at LHS and had already heard the news.
Then she sent me this:
with a text that said,
That's so exciting! :) oh and look at what I was still able to do!
And here's one more! In jeans too! Haha
Nice!
And on a little side-note... we are aware of the amazing success of the Lone Peak boys BB team in UT. We wish we could have seen them play. If we would have stayed in our Cedar Hills home, that would be our school right now - can't help feeling a little long-distance euphoria for them, too!
I haven't had much time lately to post (half the time I forget to take pictures anyway), but I thought I would post a quick update - for myself more than anyone else. For whatever reason I have found that when I look back on things, they are so much better than they seemed at the time. I nearly always forget about "the {stressful}, the bad, and the ugly," and have a chance to reflect on (and see) what was good about it all.
I never posted about Valentines Day. That's because we hardly noticed it around here (I know... so unfortunate). We didn't have to make a valentines box (or two... or three...) for the first time in an eternity. I didn't have to plan a school party. I didn't have cash on hand to lavish my family with {heartfelt} purchases. I DID tell them all that I love them, though. And I had made valentines sugar cookies to send to Lexee earlier in the week, and there were still a few hanging around. Shilo worked and Mar had swim practice. Mar and I made these giants cookies for her friends, though,
and ran them around that afternoon. Good enough.
Mar was able to do baptisms at the temple for the first time on Feb. 23rd. The whole family (down to 4 of us... still seems weird) got to go along. It was an awesome experience. I felt like I hadn't quite prepared Mar as I was looking on - she is a contact-lens-wearer, which makes it hard (at least in my experience) to open your eyes in-between names. I should have told her to keep her eyes closed, I thought. Afterwards, while chatting to her about the experience, I mentioned that I should have told her. Her response was, "I was just surprised that I was getting baptized for more than one person!" You would think I would know after five kids how to adequately prepare them, but I guess I'm still learning. And you would think I would have thunk to take a picture to remember the occasion by. Nope.
On our way home, we stopped by to see some baby lambs at the barn of a ward member. Initially we planned to go home and change first, but decided were prompted to head straight over - I had a commitment later that day and we didn't want to be rushed for time. Just as we arrived at the barn, in the first stall we came to, a ewe had just given birth to a lamb, and was beginning to birth it's twin. I have to say that it was pretty darn cool to see. I admire the mother: nursing one, birthing the other. Talk about multi-tasking. I think it was a great learning opportunity for Shi and Mar, too.
Had we gone home first, we would have missed it. And I happened to think about taking a picture.
Mar had the opportunity to make a return trip to the temple the following week, this time a bit more prepared ;-)
I am just coming off of my birthday week. Here is the quick version:
Lunch with some friends on Thursday at PF Changs (thank you, ladies!)
Chocolates on my porch on Friday
Gifts, cards, and birthday wishes (calls, messages, texts) on Saturday, along with
a swim meet,
dinner at Red Robin,
an angel food cake,
and 45 candles.
Mar had left a few notes around the house to create a party atmosphere:
A huge thank you to everyone! I realize there are no pictures of me. Let's just say that I was in my pj's for half of them (I'm getting old, you know), and the other half were just short of flattering (I'm looking old, too).
Also last week I completed and submitted our 2012 Ward History. I think it took me about 20 hours to compile all the info we (my two assistants and I) had collected. I changed out the ward bulletin board at the church, updated/printed/copied the Sunday bulletin, and prepared for my third week subbing as Primary chorister. Can I just say, "Phew. Glad it's over."
There you have it: a mix of this and that in an attempt to ketchup.
Heinz 57 style.
