I thought I would do a quick (ha!) post covering a random bunch of stuff that has happened in between all the other stuff I've already posted about. For memory's sake.
Hmmmm..... where to begin.
How about here, since this picture cracks me up. This is our cute neighbor, who loved that Conan was a bit smaller in stature (not much) than Jack and Ava. He enjoyed feeling more "comfortable" and "safe," and thus wanted to carry poor little Conan around with him for a while.
I smile every time I look at Conan's look of desperation. He's totally giving me the "get me outta here" eye.
I can't remember if I already posted about Lex coming home for a visit during her semester break...?
Before we knew it, she was heading back up to Idaho with her roommate Sydney (via Utah, thus with Conan in tow).
Ten-four, little buddy.
We've done some yard work.
There are life lessons in this power-raking incident. A lesson about communication. A lesson about the power of a power rake. A lesson about how many bags it takes to clean up the mess.
The communication lesson comes from the conversation Bill and I had that morning. It was the Saturday of General Conference, and we needed to do some work inside and outside the house to prepare for our semi-annual Conference Luncheon the following day. We talked about the need to rake and mow the yard. Bill mentioned that if we were to rent a power rake, it would most likely take a chunk of the day, especially with 4 hours of Conference breaks thrown in (and he would need to be done by 5 to attend the Priesthood session). I thought I had clearly expressed that the priority that day was inside the house, and we didn't really have that much time to put into the yard, so would he mind just mowing and trimming?
Next thing I know, he's borrowing the neighbor's truck to go pick up a power rake.
Then the power rake is at the house.
Then he's madly power raking, leaving huge piles of dead grass all over the ground, along with chunks of sod ripped out by the powerful power rake.
Then he's returning the power rake, and Mar and I are raking and filling bag after bag of grass.
Later, I asked him if he thought I had told him to power rake that day.
"Yes. Didn't you?"
{NO}
Clearly there are still things to be learned in a marriage relationship, even after 25 years.
The power of a power rake lesson comes in now that, over a month later, our lawn is still looking pretty distressed, with giant divots here and there. All that work with nothing to show. I keep telling myself that next year we will have the best lawn on the street (or not).
The final lesson: 13, if you really squish that grass in tight.
We've had a few long-course swim meets at pools far from home (not exciting far in another state or anything, just boring far, like an hours drive away).
Meet #1
This was Shilo's first ever long-course breaststroke swim. She did just fine.
Meet #2
And a few middle school track meets.
Just like her big sister Lex, Mar dealt with heel pain the whole season. I've decided that it's plantar fasciitis, plain and simple. In the longer high school season, Lex could usually work hers out after a few weeks, but the middle school season is only three weeks long (2 of the 5 meets were rained out), so Mar had to run through her pain every race.
This was Mar's medley relay team in the last race of the final meet (and the only meet against other 6th-grade middle schoolers, since only two middle schools in our district have them).
They won. We don't think the judges were DQing, but if they were, they would have been DQed at the first hand-off (Mar was not involved). It seriously slowed them WAY down, and they were still able to pull out a win (barring the DQ, of course). Nice!
Cheyenne had a birthday, so we made her a mint chocolate chip cake to help celebrate.
And we've had this guy (or gal) hanging around the past few days, checking out the fish in our pond:
This picture doesn't really give an accurate portrayal of the size of this crazy bird. I am fascinated that a bird that looks like he should live in some exotic place (or at least the un-exotic zoo) is flying freely around my neighborhood, with a fancy for my backyard. Every time I try to grab a pic, he flies to the top of the back-door-kitty-corner-2-houses-over neighbor's roof.
We think he's munched one of our large, plump goldfish, and he's looking to finish the other three off.
That's the mishmash for today.
