Buddy Update

Buddy has been struggling a bit with several life disruptions...and when I say struggling, I mean he gets a little mischievous and chews things up!  Life disruptions: neutering, mom's surgery (so no real walks), having Mimi here, Spring break, etc. 

Hopefully we can use our dog training skills to get him back on track, or it's going to be costly!  

Stuff he's destroyed: Sarah's brand new pair of shoes, two more brand new pairs of shoes almost destroyed, a Switch controller, the Xfinity remote (damaged but ok), my Symlinpen (injectable drug for hypoglycemia (damaged but ok).  Seriously--what's the deal Buddy!  All the reasons I didn't want a dog are so so valid.  But--I still kind of love it! 

But he's healed up from his surgery.  I'm almost off crutches (okay still several days), and it's Spring Break so the kids can walk him.  So we'll make it. 

Ironically, we finished our 10th session of dog training yesterday with A at Petco.  We really learned a lot.  And Buddy did too.  Now it's time for us to try to be consistent in our behavior with Buddy...hardest part. 

Buddy's first outing to the Edmonds Off Leash Dog Park.  He loved it! 

The off leash companions

It was Golden Hour--so of course, selfie time.

A dog walk with Libby...

The days of the Cone of Shame

 

The Real Easter...

 I had my hip surgery on April 15th.  That makes this the second Easter in a row that I was on crutches (last year it was a PRP).  Thankfully my mom was here this year!  She helped me with the baskets and filling and hiding the eggs.  I was still a pretty big mess on Easter.  (They didn't let me take anti-inflammatories for the first week, so it was oxy because the Tylenol wasn't cutting it! I think by Easter day I was okay without big meds--but I feel like they took awhile to wear off.) Anyway--my mom helped host Easter dinner by making the main food while I dozed.  And the Nortons brought awesome potluck contributions.  

Here are the two Easter pics I took.  Haha.  

My mom made these adorable deviled eggs. 

I forgot to take a pic of their "baskets" but I was very happy about them.  They each got a plastic popcorn tub as the "basket."  This way they'll stop stealing my mixing bowls for their (especially Libby's) nightly microwave popcorn.  The girls got new hydroflasks for their wrestling stickers (which now I can't find the stickers--they were on the counter until a few days before Easter).  Ben got a new Fortnite wallet, since the one he got for Christmas has already gone missing.  They got a requested candy and had a fun time finding eggs.  The bunny filled a bunch of the eggs with Easter legos again.  Ben had a good time putting the creation together.  It was a cute one with two bunnies this year.  We did a big extra hunt to find one missing egg with some of the legos--(and we did find several they had missed) but we couldn't find the ones Ben was looking for.  Finally, Libby was looking in her basket and realized she'd opened an Easter egg with legos into her basket. 

Love these kiddos.  Hate that I'm still crutching around and can't fully clean up Easter.  But eventually I'll be able to.  Sigh. 

Early Easter Egg Hunt

 We did an early Easter Egg hunt with the Eliasen's at Maren's.  Clark helped her hide the eggs...only 42 per person.  My kids are so spoiled! 

It was lovely weather for the egg hunt, but later it hailed and rained.  Super strange weather we are having this early April! 

Buddy in the Cone of Shame

Buddy wasn't very happy with his cone...neutered and some dental work in the same day.  But once he figured out he could still eat and play (even using the cone to hold toys), he resigned.  He wore the cone for 6 days and still couldn't quite figure out how to stop running into things with his wider head.  But it looks like everything is healed up nicely.  He continues to be our sweet spaz of a puppy.  He barked like crazy at me when I was coming in on crutches yesterday after my surgery.  But he didn't seem bothered by it today.

 

Selfies of the Month...

 Just a small sampling...There are SO many. 

Booster Auction, a New Bed, and Book of Mormon Women

The first Saturday in April was the SW Booster Auction.  It was the first time I have been that I actually have a student at SW!  It was fun to have her on the welcoming committee.  

Ben also got a new bed!  His slide bed was falling apart.  Literally.  This one came up for free from a friend at church.  He loves it--but will need to learn not to bonk his head in the mornings.  Haha.  

We had a women in the Book of Mormon night at church.  Sarah and Libby presented.  I was super proud of them!  Sarah talked about Sariah and Libby about King Lamoni's wife.  They are really enjoying YW right now in many ways. They told me I am doing such a good job as YW president.  That is so nice to hear as I am raising some serious critics.  Socially it's a little tricky--but I think that's life. 

 

Drill STATE!

 Drill state was the same weekend as Sarah's writer's workshop.  (I didn't realize it was a given that the team would make it to state--so I forgot to put it in my calendar and double booked :()Derek and Ben went to Yakima to support Libby.  It was Derek's first time watching Drill like this.  His main take-away?  Why do they make all those weird faces?  haha.

Anyway, Libby had a good time.  The team left on Friday morning and did some shopping and bonding on the way to the Sun Dome in Yakima.  They got to rehearse at a school somewhere in Yakima.  Libby did a good job of getting herself up and taking her meds.  

The team danced well, but they didn't place.  They didn't make it home until 12:30 am on Saturday night.  What an adventure.  She is determined that she's all in for drill again next year (and wrestling).  How will we juggle it all?

Middle School Final Girls Tournament

 Sarah had such a great wrestling season.  She missed the final match due to a cold (which I now have...ugh.). But anyway, she was ready to go for the tournament.  Finally a chance to wrestle with just other girls.  Sadly there were only 3 girls in her weight class, and one was her teammate Abby.  But Sarah wrestled strong against her first opponent, quickly pinning her.  Then she wrestled strong against Abby, fighting off her back in the first round, then almost getting a takedown in the second round. Abby is a strong 8th grader, nearly two years older than Sarah.  So I was super proud of her!  This year's wrestling showed me my girls are powerful ladies! It is stressful to watch your kids wrestling.  But the confidence they gain as they do something hard is so worth it. 

I finally got a picture of Sarah with an arm raised in victory.  It's a terrible one--but I got it! 

Lots of these girls are 8th grade--so SW is going to be amazing next year! 

 Now Sarah is doing track.  She wants to throw.  She was horrified that she was going to have to do lots of running for warm ups and even try all the running events.  But she did it!  And on Friday when I picked her up she said she, "felt really good!"