A Shorewood State Champ

What did the kids do during a full day of wrestling?  (We got there at 10 am and left at 7:00 pm).  Ate JUNK is the main thing.  They also watched movies and played games on iPads.  Libby also held court for about 1/2 hour where she stood in the middle of all the wrestlers and joked with them.  

Ben snuggled with me or Derek most of the day.  He is sick again (or still actually).  

This year's coaching staff:  Ned, Matt, Derek & Clark

Victory!  Both of the matches he wrestled on Saturday we was pretty dominant.  I am glad I missed the 4 OT match on Friday night.  I would have had a heart attack.

He looked right at me from the podium, so I held up a finger for no.1 and he did it for the pic.

I love matchy matchy!  Blue medal looks good with the blue hoodie.  

Proud Derek.

Last year I took this picture of Tim and Matthew.  They each took 2nd their Junior Year and 1st their Senior year.  I think Tim graduated in 2008.  So it has been a few years since Shorewood had a state champ.

Grandpa Kay

I loved my grandpa.  I didn't know him well when we were young.  He worked hard and when he would come to our house he did a lot of sleeping.  But I remember well watching him rollerskate, work in his yard, and even head out on his bank run when we were visiting him. I remember how much he loved everything Samoan!
When I went to Utah State I had the privilege of living with my grandparents for 2 quarters before my mission and one quarter after.  I love my grandma, I am SO much like her it is kind of scary.  But that is another blog post.  I developed a love for my grandpa when I lived there.
I have a few favorite memories.
1-I had some kind of cold so I was drinking a whole bunch of orange juice (I already bought my own because I drank more than one small OJ glass for breakfast) and my grandma was giving me the business about how I shouldn't drink so much juice because it wouldn't help.  My grandpa stood up for me in his quiet and awesome way.
2- He worked as a sealer in the Logan temple.  My friend Shari and I wanted to go do sealings so we showed up one night on his shift.  We announced that we were there to do sealings but we didn't "have any  men."  The whole crew thought it was hilarious and my grandpa especially got a huge chuckle of it.
3-One day my car was in the shop and so I had my dad's newish Lexus.  I invited my grandpa to go for a ride.  He was excited like a kid in a candy shop!
4-My grandpa knew that we were playing hockey at the roller rink after hours, but he didn't like it very much.  (For good reason, it was a little destructive.)  So we tried to keep it a secret.  One day at Macey's grocery store I ran into my grandparents and my friend Tyler (who worked there) at the same time!  We were all chatting and I accidentally started to invite Tyler to play hockey that night.  I back pedaled and looked at my grandpa.  He shook his head and clucked a little.  But I think he was glad we were enjoying the rink.
5-When his legs weren't working as well, he had a little scooter he would drive around.  Derek and I took the kids to Logan to visit grandma and grandpa, go the USU campus, and then go camping up Logan canyon.  We decided to walk from my grandparents' house to campus.  As we got going, all of a sudden there was grandpa, scooting along with us.  It was so fun to have him along.

He was so amazing!  So hard working, and such a good example.  I picture him praying in the morning, kneeling next to the black vinyl chairs in the kitchen.  I am so blessed to have  such an amazing heritage!

Almost everyone on a visit in 2012.

Grandpa at our wedding.  He performed our sealing (wedding ceremony).

I love this picture because at any event this is where you would find grandpa, sitting with his video camera.  He loved to capture everything (and he actually watched it later!)

  

Another Great Loss & a Really BIG WIN!

This seems to be a theme for our year.  We are having lots of downs--but also some amazing ups!
This week my 96 year old grandpa died.  His kidneys just gave out.  It happens.  And, this week Derek had his first state champ as a head wrestling coach.  The last time Shorewood had a state champ was the year Libby was a baby, so it has been awhile!
It might seem kind of strange to put these two together in one post, but my grandpa had been hanging on by a thread for a couple of weeks.  I think he waited to go so that Derek could be here with Matthew.  And so I could be here too.  Matthew came down off the podium and gave me a huge hug!  I guess those yoga sessions paid off!  Then he hugged his girlfriend :)
Grandpa's Obituary
Article on Matthew

And now because I am a bit OCD about things, I will give these amazing men each their own blog post.

Wrestling Update...

Having a husband that is a wrestling coach is kind of like having 30+ children during parts of the year.  We come to love so many of these athletes.  Derek gives his heart and soul to the boys as he works so hard and gives up so much sleep to coach them.  I teach them yoga once a week and put on the Zumbathon fundraiser.  We give way more time than we actually have to give.  
Last week at the District Championship we had 6 kids on the podium.

This week at Regionals it was not so bright.  I actually cried when Erca lost his match knocking him out of State contention.  He took 8th in State last year, so it was tough to see him not even an alternate.  It has been a really, really, really, really, (x100) hard year for Shorewood.  Injuries knocked out 2 really amazing wrestlers and due to grades another top ranked wrestler became ineligible.  We will be going to Tacoma to support Matthew though, and are really excited to see him WIN!

Derek got to award the medals for Matthew's weight

 A proud young man--won tough matches against 2 former state finalists.

It was a physically and emotionally exhausting day.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I am kind of bummed that I didn't get to spread more love this Valentine's Day...Maybe this week I will get the pics taken of my kids that I wanted to take and make a Valentine for family and friends...and use them to update my facebook cover photo that is still Christmas themed.  The girls were very excited about Valentine's day.  Sarah gave out Airplanes Valentines to her class (with Jolly Rancher suckers) and Libby gave out Disney Princess and Ninjago (leftover from last year) with Airheads.  We did manage a few Valentine festivities at home amid the wrestling madness.

We made these wreaths for the front doors during Family Home Evening.  Derek was the champion paper curler.  Libby actually helped a fair amount and Sarah helped for a minute.  Ben enjoyed watching.  These aren't the ideal outdoor wreaths, as they are made of paper.  The humidity caused them to uncurl a bit so I had to take them down a time or two and repin the paper, but I love the way they turned out.  (Martha Stewart craft paper pinned to a styrofoam heart wreath.)

Valentine breakfast setting for the girls.

Getting ready to enjoy heart shaped pancakes.  (Something they actually both like--Sarah with butter and Libby with syrup.  Sarah drinks chocolate milk and Libby drinks regular.)  

For dinner it was heart shaped Italian meatloaf with garlic mashed potatoes.  It was really so good!  I even did a fancy table setting which I neglected to take pics of.  For dessert the plan was pink ice cream sundaes.  Then I took the girls to clean up their room before dessert and found that they had been playing with water in their room (strictly against the rules) and they had to go to bed without dessert.  Boy were they bummed.  Derek and I watched a Castle episode and some Olympics for our Valentine evening.    

While We Were AWAY...

My parents came to stay with the kids while we were gone to the memorial.  I took them straight from the airport to watch several hours of wrestling.  My mom was a quick study, learning about the scoring etc.  My dad did a lot of observing and taking Ben on "a little bit walk..."  and buying him popcorn.  (See pics of the wrestling fun below.  Districts should be getting its own post, but probably not this morning...)  The kids then had a blast while we were gone.  Church was cancelled due to snow.  They made cookies, played with playdough, did puzzles, and Libby even made a stand to sell "bars" to the family.  Apparently she said, "No one is coming to buy my bars?"  Grandma said, "Well everyone here has bought one!"  LOL.

Ben with a skiff (or more) of flour on his nose.

Libby's stand "opinde" means opened :)

They all got their Disneyland t-shirts on, even Ben!

Love this pic of Grandma and Sarah

Ben was very snuggly at the tournament, for a minute at least

Running away from Grandmas.  See in the background, Sarah playing on Maren's iPad.  Sarah goes with whoever has the best technology available.  

A Time to Mourn

When you lose someone you love (like these 4 boys lost the 5th in their crew) it is hard.  Really hard.  I am so glad that we made the trip to CA to be with them all to say goodbye to Phil.  To give his wife a hug.  To plan the next boys' weekend.  To be reminded that friendships are so important in life.  To know that we are better people because of the amazing people that teach us.

What I took away from Phil's memorial was that he was a guy who made everyone feel like they were his best friend.  He listened.  He loved.  I felt like I was one of his close friends, and I had only been around him 4 or 5 times in my life.  

I want to be like that.  That will be my tribute to his life.  I want to be a better listener and make everyone around me feel like I love and value them (because I really do!).  This will be a stretch, since I am usually so consumed with my self and my issues.  But it will be worth it to be someone who makes others feel loved like Phil did.

Kids This Week...

BIG NEWS!  Ben went potty in the toilet!  Several times!  You know how he is SUPER into clothes and what he is wearing?  Well, this translated into potty training progress. He found a sample pull-up that came in the last box of diapers I bought.  It was disney princess.  He really wanted to wear it.  I told him he had to go potty in the potty chair if he wanted to wear it.  He went right in, sat on the Cars potty seat I bought him, and went.  So I had to let him wear the pull-up.  Then at Costco, Pull-ups were on sale, and they have Toy Story, Monsters Inc. and some other characters on them.  He was sold.  He has gone potty several times now.  I think he is ready.  I am not.  Maybe in April, after wrestling?

Derek posted this to facebook this week.  It was so hilarious!
Tricia Randall Norton and I were helping our 5 and 6 year old daughters pick up their room tonight prior to going to bed when the following took place:

Trish- "Sarah there are about ten pairs of your underpants on the floor and I can't tell which ones are clean and which ones need to go in the laundry"

Sarah- "It's easy mom just look inside them to see if there's a skid mark. Or you can touch them to see if they're wet." 

HAHAHAHA!

This week a couple of times I used the "go play for 15 minutes and then you can watch a movie" tactic.  Usually they get involved in playing and forget about the movie.  One of the times  Libby also organized "book club" with the other kids.  This involves snacks, looking at books, jumping on the bed.  You also have to move the lamp from their room into Ben's room.  Messy, but good fun.Libby and Sarah are now reading to me every night before bed.  I am so proud of their reading skills!  This week Sarah brought in the Sandra Boynton song book and sang the entire "Snuggle Puppy" song to me and one of my clients.  It was amazing!I cut Ben's hair on Saturday and I am quite proud of how it turned out.  I only had to do a little fixing on Sunday morning (during which I nearly cut  his finger off because he wasn't distracted by a movie like he had been on Saturday night...yikes!)

Before the haircut and with 2 binkies (he has such amazing hair that kind of waves in so you don't really notice how long it is).

After the haircut.  I feel like ears are for hearing and for humbling moms who want to try to cut their little boys' hair.  

SEAHAWKS VICTORY!

It was hard to pull out of our funk after Phil's death and get excited about the Superbowl.  But we knew he would have been.  After all, his last facebook post was about Sherman's comments after the NFC championship game.  So we rallied and had a small gathering.  I was proud of my theme idea of "sea" food in honor of the Seahawks.  Derek didn't really care.  He just wanted wings so he went and bought a few bags.  (Bleh, I do not like wings).  Jen B. brought shrimp cocktail and an "under the sea" decorated moon cake.  Jen N. brought guacamole and golf balls.  It was a delicious night!

Pirates Booty, a Pineapple (for Sponge Bob who lives in a pineapple under the sea), and sea creature cookies.

The game was super anticlimactic after the drama of the NFC game.  So there was lots of fun chatting and eating.  The girls came through several times with loud "Go Seahawks" cheers.  After the game they ran outside cheering into the streets.  (Our neighbors didn't come pouring out, we do live in a quiet culd-i-sac).    

Jen B and Jen N were in attendance along with Emily B.  Small party and no dudes for Derek to talk football with, but he didn't mind.  What a great husband.  

Bacon wrapped shrimp

Regular shrimp

The Skittles bouquet

2 Finished Projects

Now that I am done taking down huge walls of wallpaper, I can start doing the fun little things that make a house feel homey.  I am pretty proud of the two that I finished this week.  I have to thank my friend Jen B. for introducing me to the blog Little Green Notebook which gave me the inspiration for the bulletin boards.  I am trying to remember who made the suggestion that I do something with the wallpaper to remember it.  Maybe it was actually my idea based on Paige B.'s obsession with my wallpaper (I sent some framed pieces of it to college with her).  But the finished product is based on my friend Molly T's Christmas paper wreaths that I loved.  Anyway, here they are...

So there are about 6 or 7 different wallpapers in here, all of which came from the very walls of the kitchen/breakfast nook/family room area.  I added the red to tie it into the decor, but I am proud of this.  What is super cute is that Derek LOVES this and thinks it is the coolest thing I have ever made.  You  never know, right?  I think he likes it especially because I invited him on a date to the sunroom to watch a movie with me while I cut and rolled the paper.  We haven't watched a movie together in ages.  So whenever I look at it, I will think of James Bond _Skyfall_.  

The Little Green Notebook boards had fabric covering them and a little strip of ribbon on the edges.  I got these boards at IKEA (had a great time there on Monday with 2 amazing friends).  But when I went looking for fabric, I couldn't find any that I liked.  But I found a stencil and ribbon that I liked that kind of go with my theme.  So I got the paint, brought it all home and stewed over it for a bit.  These are the end result and I LOVE them.  The paint is Martha Steward Pearl paint, so it is kind of shimmery.  I like them so much I don't really want to even stick stuff up on them.  But I will soon.  Libby's spelling test is going up on the red one tonight!

The metal squares on this one are actual upholstery tacks holding on this amazing ribbon.  The other two have stickers that look just like them.  

Stenciling this in two colors was a royal pain.  It doesn't look as good because I didn't have a small enough stencil painter so I had to use a brush.  But don't look too close and it looks awesome ;)