Thanksgiving 2024

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Maren's house in Woodinville.  It was a full and fun day.  I got in on the Rummikub action, but did not win A SINGLE GAME.  Sarah was on fire, winning 1/2 the games.  Veronica Fehlberg took the other 3.  We had a great time eating and hanging out. 

I made a veggie tray to snack on while I was cooking.  Haha.  Not exactly like the example.  But it was yummy. 

My pies were really pretty.  And they all timed out perfectly in the baking.  But somehow the coconut cream reliquified.  Weird.  The flavor was delicious, but the texture was all wrong.  The chocolate mousse was the biggest hit.  I promised to send someone from Woodinville the recipe. But I haven't done it yet.  (One of the many dropped balls lately.) 

Libby played all the games with us this year too.  That was super fun. :)

 It was a hard day for Geneva without Brion.  But she made it through.  It's been interesting watching her go through this grief, knowing that it is a part of life and the plan.  I'm glad she decided to do Christmas in Arizona with the Great Grands to mix it up.  

I have a lot to be thankful for this year. I'm thankful to be living this full and rich life (even when at times it seems overwhelming): seminary, wrestling, teaching, parenting, serving in nursery, all the things.  

No Post Record Yikes!

 So wrestling has started.  Haha.  And I've been buried under a mountain of things to do.  But today is a catch up day.  Christmas is over.  Our first two big tournaments are over (2 day travel tournaments have taken up a lot of time and mental space!).  And now I have a few pockets of time to get things done this week before our next 2 day tournament on Fri/Sat.  Thank goodness it's close enough we can sleep at home this weekend.

So, how has it been going? I'm going to do a few different posts to catch up.  

The In-Between Week

 We had a week with no sports practices.  What!?  We had 2 wrestling coaches meetings, and a fundraising dine out night, but it was a pretty nice week. (|Also Ben started his work as a basketball manager--but that sort of doesn't count, does it?)

The girls went on a YW Retreat to a cabin.  They had a blast. 

We celebrated Clark's birthday! 

We "rended" the veil of unbelief at seminary. 

Ben had his birthday outing with Grammy, a few months late, but who's counting?  And realized he's TALLER! 

More work on his hair.  We really needed a Ray Ray assist on this one. 

Ben and I also went to the temple yesterday.  It was so great to be in the temple with him.  (Derek was at home waiting for the vanity countertop to be delivered--it never was.  And the girls didn't get home in time from their retreat.)

Tomorrow wrestling starts!  It's getting REAL! 

Libby's Senior Pics!

I can't believe this girl is a senior.  Crazy.  She's having a pretty good year overall.  She's still struggling with her breakup with Andrew.  It's hard that she sees him around and it triggers the loss all over again--especially since she's been seeing him with another girl.  I'm not sure how to help her through this--but she's turning to friends and mostly keeping busy.  When she's home she's working out, or eating popcorn and watching shows in her bed.  She does run errands with her siblings.  She's Ben's official hair color expert (this last dye job needs a redo).  She's taking 2 classes at SW and 2 running start classes.  She's tardy to her SW classes every day.  How?  No idea.  She's attending seminary and mostly participates and has fun, unless she's feeling sick.  Then she puts her head down and sleeps.  (Ugh.)  Btu she's forcing a boy in our ward to start coming because she's heard he's getting into trouble and seminary will help him stay out of trouble.  Love it.  

She's working on her future.  She's put in two college applications, Western Washington University and UW Tacoma (she and Izzy worked on these--I didn't help at all!).  She's going to meet with a Coast Guard recruiter soon?  She's practicing being independent by making all her own food (mostly) and rarely eating with the family.  She's got places to be! Anyway, I love being her mom.  She makes me proud.  

Huge thanks to Kim Barlow for the awesome photos! 

 

School Pics for 2024-25

 Haha.  Okay, this is a Halloween pic of Libby.  She missed the ASB card picture day the first time around.  Not sure if she remembered to get retakes (running start kinda messes with her ability to do the normal HS things).  But I'll do a separate post with her senior pics.  

Ben, love this kid.  He's got a new history teacher this week--my former teacher partner at MP.  I'm going to miss her so much, but she'll love being back at Einstein.  Ben is a WEB leader, a friend to so many.  He's a member of the football team, will be a basketball manager again, a wrestler and a member of the track team.  He's a fortnite player, a weight lifter, deacon's quorum president, and a fun brother.  I'm lucky to be his mom.    

5th grade teacher and Wrestling coach.  Mom & Super Sport Spectator.  Member of the social committee this year at school (gave up the Building Leadership Team.)  Is enjoying planning Staff Spirit Days instead of arguing about class placement processes, etc.  She's helping a new teacher partner get rolling.  She's planning a new math curriculum this year that is taking a lot of time.  Ouch.  She's got a class of 31.  She's in her 8th year of teaching 5th grade--and feeling it.  A little tired of some of her favorite projects.  Some more overhauls needed next year once the math is settled.  (But is always tinkering with her projects...so will it ever be settled?)  She's running the Park Post with an awesome partner.  First issue comes out this week.  She's also got SW access and is getting  building key.  This coaching thing is getting real.  

Sarah spent a lot of time giving me a run down of all her classes this year.  She's loving school.  (She especially loves AP World History--which makes this mama heart sing!)  She's taking accounting and DECA.  She likes being able to drive, but doesn't like going to stores by herself.  So I still get to run errands with this girl (4 or 5 stores--and lunch--yesterday!)  I'm super proud of Miss Sarah. 

Wrapping Up Fall Sports

Oh boy, are we excited for Fall sports to be over.  It's freezing out there on the football bleachers.  It's hot and steamy at the pool.  But I am so proud of my athletes for going after it this fall.  Sarah got enough dives to compete in the JV champs meet.  Unfortunately she learned a hard lesson.  She lined up her harder dives first and when she didn't complete 2 in a row she was disqualified.  Libby qualified for districts, and was not last--until she didn't complete her last dive either (she got spooked after slapping during warmups).  But seriously, diving is hard and scary stuff. Thankful they had a fun coach that guided them through and helped them have the courage to go for it!  Ben had a good last game where he got 10 varsity plays!  He told me that's 3x more than in any other game, plus one!  So yeah, looking forward to wrestling.  

Mom was too cold and retreated to the car as soon as the 5th quarter was over. 

That's Libby, in the ranking before they started.  She was 3rd to last in the beginning and ended up in last after not completing her last dive.  Still super proud of her! 

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN--Early

 I know it's not Halloween yet, but we got in our dress up night at the church Trunk-or-Treat, and we likely won't do it again (all together at least.) 

Each year I feel like our costumes have a story.  This year I bought the lion costume for myself for my Galactic Travel Day at school (culmination of our fantasy genre reading project.) I am a lion because I am reading my class the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.  My partner teacher (who will be leaving after this week--so sad!) is going to be the White Witch.  I originally thought I could be the white witch and Derek could be Aslan.  Then Derek said if we went with the Narnia theme, he wanted to be the wardrobe.  What an annoying costume.  So Ben and I decided to be Despicable Me villians.  He started planning several months ago. I ordered a track suit so I could be the 80s dance villain Bart.  Ben ordered a Vector suit.  Or thought I ordered it.  Then I realized he hadn't ordered so I ordered.  Then it wasn't going to come in time.  Ugh.

So, change of plans.  I realized I could fit into the Wizard of Oz costume that Libby had when she was Wendy (I think 6th grade?--but it was pretty big on her then).  So with the Lion costume that would fit Ben, Dorothy for me, we got to work on Scarecrow for Derek (he's wearing his dad's overalls.) And then Geneva jumped on board as the witch!   It was fun.  

I loved Maren's Steve Erwin Crocodile Hunter costume.  Rory is inside the minion costume (would have been great with the Despicable Me first plan.)  Jed was a banana.  We also got these two other random girls from the ward because the younger one was so excited that I was also Dorothy.  

Anyway--There's No Place Like Home!