A New Calling

A couple of weeks ago, the bishop called me in to talk.  I came prepared and brought in a list of people who I wanted him to consider for Relief Society callings.  I was totally unprepared, however, for his question.  Would I be okay accepting a different calling that they felt good about for me.  Wow!  I laughed, I cried, I worried...was I not doing a good enough job?  But this was actually a huge answer to my prayers.  I have been so confused about why I felt good about looking for jobs when I needed time for Relief Society.  Answer:  It's time to be released so you can give more time to your family, and to teaching.
I wasn't sure how long it would be, but it ended up happening today.  I feel so thankful for the time I got to serve.  I feel so thankful to pass the job to the next capable woman.  Wow.  I'm going to teach youth Sunday School again.  Sounds amazing.
I can't wait.

Talent WEEK!

This week was packed full of opportunities to share talents!
The Arts Festival was on Thursday Night.

This is a painting Libby did with her feet!  They had a guest artist with Cerebral Palsy come and teach them how to paint with their feet.  Pretty cool!

This is the Picasso she made when I came and taught the Art Docent Lesson for the 3rd quarter of the year.  It is hanging on her locker.  

Just thought I'd check to see what her locker looked like on the inside.  Yep.  Disastrous.  At least she is consistent.  Locker, desk, bedroom.  Same.  

Ben had art on display too.  

His "Spring Chicken"

Sarah with the"Gorilla" as she recited her poem during the poetry reading.

I've been so busy I forgot to invite Grammy and Grandpa to the Arts Festival (where the girls also sang with their classes...I didn't get a pic of this because the pictures would have been terrible, trust me.)  So Grammy suggested that Sarah repeat the performance for the Ward Talent Night.  Grammy even volunteered to be the Gorilla.  

The girls also danced a Tahitian dance with the Activity Days girls.  They had a fun time dressing up and learning the steps.  

They also led the Junior primary in a little scarf waving.  They were using my phone for music, so I didn't get any pictures of this either.  I also thought I was standing in the wings for this one, but it turned out I was exposed to the audience with nowhere to go. Oops.  Ben refused to join the primary for the scarf waving.  That kid and his stage fright!  Who knew?

Before and After Patio Project

I just titled this post "project" but it doesn't really count as a project in my book because there was no wallpaper to peel, or painting done.  But, I did totally transform a space that will be super fun to use all summer.
And, I can't take all the credit.  Libby was the co-designer for the lighting.  We had so much fun working together.  She also helped me put together the table.
Sarah and Libby get tons of credit for helping me move the benches, chairs and finally the table around from the garage to the back of the house.  It required lots of "REST!" stops on the move, but I was proud of them.  We did some seriously heavy lifting.
I tried to have them take the table around one side of the house where there is only a narrow gate.  Complete bust.  We couldn't make it and we might have scratched the table just a little
Both girls were like, duh mom.  Let's go the other way around.  I had to move the garbage cans so that we could make it, but in the end, THEY WERE SO RIGHT.
Then Libby made us a celebratory toast.  Of actual toast.  And a drink that she "created," water with a touch of lime juice in fancy glasses.  She also laid out meats and cheese for us to eat on the toast.  And some popcorn.  She is so much like me that it is kind of scary.
Project details:  I have been looking for a larger patio table for about 3 years.  I looked at all the places I went, Home Depot, Fred Meyer, Target, even Costco.com.  I didn't see anything I liked that could really seat a lot of people.  Finally I ventured into World Market.  Awesome selection!  Also, this year I realized that we have a 11x13' space that is covered by the second story of our house where we have just been storing our BBQs that is actually a perfect dining spot.
I gave one of the grills that we didn't use to a friend.  Then I moved in our old patio set (Craigslist purchase from years ago) into the space.  LOVED it.
I took Derek to World Market and he approved of the set.
Then I bought it when I found a 25% off coupon.  I brought the whole thing home in my mini-van in just 2 trips.
I found the rug and lights at Target.
See right by the BBQ in the picture below, there is an outlet.  So I figured I could use an extension cord to get the lights where I wanted them to go.
Then, when I was cleaning off a few spider webs, I noticed that there is a light fixture in the top right.  It had one bulb in it.  In the other bulb space, there was AN OUTLET!  I could hang the lights directly where I wanted them, and the will come on with the switch for the outdoor lights.  AWESOME find.
Libby helped me hang the lights.  She did a great job advising me on how to make them look good.
Now, instead of wasted space and an outdoor table that didn't fit our whole family, we are set for outdoor meals for 12 or so!

If you look closely, you can see that the concrete is NOT level, but that is a real project.  For another year.

Summer Comes in with a Splash

After our attempt at being hot tub owners (our first house had one when we moved in) where people got hot tub folliculitis, and it was just a general, expensive nightmare, I refused to consider owning a pool.   But, when I found out about a neighborhood pool we could join for the summer, I was all in!  Yesterday was the opening work party.  I worked and the kids swam.  Win-WIN!!  I captured their first dip into the water yesterday, which kind of also captures their personalities.  

Sarah cautiously stepped in down the stairs.  

Libby jumped into the deep end.

Ben jumped into the 4 foot area.  

After a long winter of rain rain rain, it has been so amazing to see the sun!

Happy Mother's Day!

I love being a mom.  I just spent 30 minutes watching youtube videos with Libby and Sarah of their younger years.  I also love being a teacher, and I'm so glad when I have taught my kids something, even if they don't realize they learned it from me.
Sarah was telling me on Friday about some friend drama at school.  One of her friends was giving her the silent treatment.  Sarah didn't know why.
Sarah:  "I told her: If I don't know what's wrong, I can't fix it."
Me:  "You did?  You said that to her?"
Sarah:  "Yes!  Twice!  And she still wouldn't tell me what was wrong."
Me:  "Did that sound familiar to you when you said it?"
Sarah:  "No."
Me:  laughing.  "I have said that to you a time or two."
Sarah:  "You have?"
(And it didn't work when I said it to you either, for the record.  But it is a good attempt at conflict resolution, right?)

My favorite Mother's Day gift presentation was from Ben.
He couldn't wait until Sunday, so I opened it (with lots of help from him) on Friday.  Inside the card there is a heart made from little ripped pieces of paper.  It says, "I love you mom."  Then he added verbally "to pieces...it is supposed to say 'I love you to pieces' but I ran out of time."  Classic.
Then he showed me both gifts in detail.
The planter came home without a plant in it.  He was surprised by this.  But other than that, he was so excited about the gifts that he decided one would me for me and one for him.  The second gift has a song that goes with it.

Spring Break 2017

Spring Break 2017 almost turned out to be a full Randall sibling reunion!  My brother Nick and his finance Drea decided to have my dad bless their baby Ruger, so Rachel decided to fly out with Devin and be with all of us.  Only Dave had prior plans and couldn't come.

I got to have flashbacks of many trips to Utah with my littles though, when Devin got a double ear infection.  That seriously used to happen to us.  Every. Single. Time. we went to Utah.  I felt like I knew the 24 hour pediatrician clinic there almost as well as my regular clinic.  Devin rallied after 24 hrs. on the antibiotic and we had a great weekend.

Too many of my Utah traditions revolve around food.  Pace's Dairy Ann Rainbows are a must.  It is a slushee with vanilla ice cream in it.  Might sound gross.  But it is amazing!

Nick taught the girls to play guitar hero.  I think they got a little better as the week progressed.  

Ben loved playing with Devin.  He would have been a great big brother.  

Devin learned to drive the 4 wheeler, or should I say he learned how to make it go forward with us trying to steer for him.  

Ruger is seriously adorable!  Such a good baby.  Nick and Drea really are killing it as parents. 

We went to a sing-a-long of Beauty and the Beast.  It was a mid week matinee and we were the only ones in the theater.  So, it was a sing and dance along!  I liked this live action version although I think they tied up some loose ends and created new ones.  

We initiated Drea officially into the family by taking her to Chuck A Rama.  (How she has dated Nick this long without ending up there is beyond me.) She is a vegetarian, so I sold it with, "They have an amazing salad bar....well, I mean, it's pretty good."  She did enjoy it.  Sarah made her get 7 desserts.  I think she ate a bite or two of each.  

This is one of my favorite parts of visiting my family.  This skeleton was a part of their neighbor's halloween decor a few  years ago.  He left it out a little too long and someone made a comment about it or something.  So he started decorating the skeleton for each holiday.  I loved its Easter outfit.    

I took James and Aria with us to the park.  James loved it.

I gave Aria the Cindy Lou Who hair.  It is so perfect on her, right?

It is so fun having my dad's sister Aunt Arvae up the street from my parents now.  Rachel and Devin stayed there.  Then we doubled the aunt pleasure when my mom's sister Aunt "Sissy" came from Reno.  I have a little of Aunt Sissy's sass.  

We went to a cool interactive aquarium.  The theme is "if you can reach it, you can touch it."  You can feed sharks and birds and iguanas and more!  Ben and the girls "loved" feeding the birds.  But actually when he came out he said, "THAT WAS AWESOME!"

Devin in his sick day PJs.  Of course he got sick on the day we were supposed to take pictures.  So we had to do retakes the next day.  We might have gotten some good ones. 

Rachel's contribution to the dinner after the blessing was going to be deviled eggs.  Since she was taking care of sick Devin, Emily and I helped her out.  We wanted to make sure everyone knew which eggs were boiled, so Emily decorated one for each of us.  We are pretty cute in egg version.  Ironically, Brian wanted to show me the best way to peel eggs using a jar and some water.  You put the eggs in and shake vigorously.  He didn't realize that he needed to grab ones with writing on them, so his first attempt to show me was a bust.  Literally.  

Seriously.  So cute! 

At the blessing, my mom and her surviving siblings were all together.  Ron and Sandra Upton, Ron and Jan Curtis, and Debbi and Kelly Randall.   

Derek flew down on Saturday to join us for the blessing and drive home.  His plane got 1/2 way to SLC and had to turn back because it was depressurizing.  So it took him almost all day to get to us.  But we enjoyed having him there and driving back together.  He loved every second as you can tell from the picture.

We are so happy to have Drea and Ruger (and of course Nick) in our family. 

Happy EASTER 2017!

We had a fun Easter this year.  The weekend leading up to Easter was full of fun house guests that were in town for a wedding.  The Judd family (Ben has such a crush on Adele!) and Jen Nuckols Bromley.  The weekend also included a chance to see Emma and Alayne in Everett High's The Little Mermaid.  Which was fabulous (and I mean really really good!)

We had Egg Palooza where there were eggs to dye, color and create (with Perlers, which no one ended up doing--save that one for next year).

Somehow I didn't get a picture of Adele, who dyed two eggs and promptly ate both.  Adorable.  

This was actually at the Circus Arts night.  Jen got to come and see Libby perform!

Jen brought all the kids Minnesota themed shirts!  Sarah was super excited to wear hers on Friday this week for Twin day!  

The traditional pre-egg hunt photo.  These kids are all getting so big! 

And the Egg Master Maren.  Each kid got to find 22 eggs this year!  

The table is ready!  

This year the bunny brought eggs full of Legos again.  We had to help him put together his bunny friend! Also, Ben was so excited about the Pokemon pajamas.  He wanted to wear them for 36 straight hours.  I'm such a mean mom that I said no! 

When Sarah saw her basket she said, "Mom, the Easter bunny brought me too much!"  And it was true.  The bunny was going to bring just a movie to each with a little candy.  Then it became a movie and a t-shirt....and pajamas...and a swim shirt....and an action figure.  Yeah, it got a little excessive.  But gotta get that spring wardrobe going since it will be spring here eventually, right?