10 Things to Mention, In No Particular Order

Seriously, this post is in no order whatsoever. Total stream of consciousness. Bear with me.

1. We sold our boat yesterday. It was up on Craigslist for one whole day, so chances are we underpriced it a bit. (So hard to know!) Still, we feel good about what we got for it. It was a great boat and we made lots of wonderful memories, but we haven't been using it as much as we could . . . and I want to finish our basement. The kids want us to finish our basement too. So goodbye boat! Hello the blessed sound of kids downstairs--the muffled shouting, the barely-audible thrum of video game playing, the deep reverberations of adolescent males who actually require a finished basement so they can hang out without enduring the gaze of somebody's mother. We're still in the middle of selling a bunch of our boat's accoutrements (I like saying that with a French accent -- although I wonder how many French people have two different tubes and three pairs of waterskis, not to mention a veritable plethora of shorty wetsuits? Maybe more than I think, I suppose. I know very little about the French.) I'm also doing this on Craigslist and it's weird to have "Dan" and "Susan" asking for my address. But when they give me $75 for an old pair of skis it's okay.

We took this photo for the Craigslist post. Forrest ducked down beneath the steering wheel.

Anyway: So long, boat of ours. It's been a nice nine years. Here are some farewell photos from our last ever family boat ride a little over a week ago.

Jonas taking out his contacts in the water. (They were due to be thrown away anyhow. Or so he tells me.)

Forrest and Ethan were attempting to catch the frisbee while wakeboarding. This was one of many failed attempts. :-)

Sniff. All these photos make me sad. But really--basement, guys! We want a basement, right?

2. Wonder how much shock I'll be in when the guy named Randy who came over to give me an estimate on framing and wiring the basement hands over the final number?

3. Wyatt has now lost his two lower front teeth. My baby! I do love pulling them out. Is that weird? Wyatt's a pretty brave kid, though. So far he's the only kid of mine who hasn't run away from me when I insist the tooth is ready for a good yank.

Me and Wyatt right after I yanked out tooth #2

Wyatt showing it off

4. I took both of those pictures with my new Kindle. This is Kindle #3. Lest you think I'm one of those tech obsessed people who has to have the latest of everything, my first Kindle was the old-school black and white type. Left that one on an airplane. Then we got Kindle #2, a Kindle Fire, for Christmas 2011. But guess what? It broke. The charger connecter went kablooie, and wouldn't you know it, the 1 year warranty was up. But Amazon gave us $100 towards a new Kindle, so a got a new one, and it's cool. And as you can see, it also takes (kind of grainy) photos, so if you happen to yank your child's tooth out and find the Kindle sitting beside you, you can snap a quick pic to commemorate the event.

5. I had a birthday! Shout hooray. I spent 23/24ths of the birthday in Utah and 1/24th in Minnesota (the flight got in at 11:00), but more about the Utah trip in a sec. Here's my favorite thing about my birthday: the note Wyatt wrote me.  In two parts:

I've been known to raise a little hell . . . but this is better. :-)

I also loved the beautiful birthday display my Mom made for me:

There were more peach rings on the lower plate, but Ethan ate them all.

Forrest also had a few surprises up his sleeve when I came home, so overall 41 was very good to me.

5. But to backtrack a little: I went to Utah with Ethan! It was so fabulous. Not only did we get to see family, but Ethan and I got to hang out together (always fun to be one-on-one with a kid) and toured both Utah State and BYU campuses. Since college campuses are some of my favorite places in the world, I didn't mind. Ethan liked both, but as of right now he's leaning the BYU direction. We shall see what time will tell. Here are some great pictures from our trip:

Ethan, the oldest cousin on both sides, with the youngest cousins on both sides. Both boys (with glorious curly hair), both two years old, both crazy cute.

Ethan and Calvin:

Ethan and Enzo:

Ethan isn't a big fan of getting his picture taken, so I appreciate him being a good sport and letting Grandma Sweat and me snap both of those. Perhaps he's suspicious of his mother taking his picture because I do things like this:

Ethan at the Utah State barber shop. There were two cute missionaries right beside us on their p-day getting hair cuts as well. I didn't think Ethan would notice when I nonchalantly lifted my iPhone and snapped away, but obviously he was on to me.  Also, the woman cutting his hair is named Angela. Just thought I'd mention that. See the name plate?

Not only did we tour campuses and see nephews, but we hung out with other family members as well. We  got to attend Brandon's ordination in Heber, Utah (where our people are from, you know) and it was fun to see all of Andrea's family there too.

We had an excellent KFC picnic in the rain with Andrew and Tony's families, and also enjoyed a brisk game of frisbee dodgeball. The frisbees are foam and it's super fun. All of us played: even Grandma. Here is Ethan with the rest of the cousins, looking tall and also like he doesn't want his picture taken:

Three more great pictures of people I love:

6. Don't Mindy and Peter have a beautiful backsplash? I want one.

7. Now to backtrack even more. (Does this blog post feel like a Christopher Nolan movie? Ah, yes. It's all on purpose. Artistic, you see.)  The 4th of July occurred. We had fun. Here are some pictures.

Forrest made a patriotic banana cake. Classic.

We had a bbq at the Harrises. Gotta love neighbors like the Harrises!

Elise and Somer

Ethan and Barkly (or Mr. Waffles, depending on which family member you ask), the Harrises' completely crazy adolescent dog.

Picnicking. Josh has the best hair.

Sparklers!

More sparklers!

Hooray for 'Merica!

8. Elise, my daughter who is growing up way too fast, recently went to her second Animinniapolis (an anime convention). This year she went as Rainbow Dash -- you know, the pony. It's a thing.  She looks very striking when dressed up like a rainbow-colored pony.

She also went to Girls Camp. Here she is before embarking with her good friend Cassie:

I joined the group for the last two days of camp since I'm now a member of the Stake YW presidency. It was actually really fun. I had absolutely no responsibilities (my favorite!) and got to wander around and talk to people. The only picture I took was of our ward playing Big Bootie after I taught it to them (a game passed down to us by the Amezcuas, who are moving, curse them!!)

The pair of feet off to the left is our bishop. I also taught the bishop Big Bootie, but he's the kind of bishop who's okay with a game with such a title. He's also really bad at Big Bootie, which was a little hilarious.

Elise had a great time at camp; she's a much better girls camper than I ever was.

9. Forrest and Ethan wrapped up their baseball season.  Ethan missed lots of games because he went to 1. England 2. Nebraska 3. Utah. But he came back in time for the final tournament and did well. The team did well too. Forrest had a lot of fun coaching the boys and I think he'll actually miss it. Here are a few action shots and a group shot of the team:

Ethan has a lot more to update about England, Nebraska, and his new job: eight hours a day of manual labor. He has a BUNCH of stories. I'm trying to talk him into doing a guest post, so we'll see if he has the energy after coming home covered in fertilizer dust.  Perhaps a good Sunday activity?

10. Finally, Jonas. He went to Scout Camp and had a blast. He discovered three ticks attached to his body and had a few dozen mosquito bites when he came home, but no complaints from him.  First week-long? Success!

His soccer team wrapped things up too. They lost their first tournament game, which was kinda sad because it meant they couldn't move on, but kinda a relief since the next game was supposed to be played on a Sunday and Jonas and James are key to the team's defense. Sabbath Day Holy + Sports = So Stressful Outside of Utah! Here's a better picture of his team:

And I can't help it. I need 11 things.

11. Nature

The archery range at Lake Elmo at dusk. Isn't Minnesota beautiful?

Soccer Boy

These team pictures aren't the best: taken with my iPhone at dusk with the sun behind the team. They are sporting the 2nd place medals they won at their latest tournament though. (Lost 1st place--barely!--to our arch rivals, Woodbury.) Keep reading, though, and the photos will get better, I promise!

Jonas has had a busy, fun spring and summer with his soccer team. He's on the traveling team this year, which means we've had a few games that necessitated a nice long drive across Wisconsin, but he's enjoyed it a lot. I enjoy it too--soccer has many plusses. For example:

1-A soccer game is timed, which means none of this extra-inning or overtime business. The game is over when it's over. Hallelujah!

2-Soccer is exciting. Once kids hit Jonas's level, there's always some kind of action on the field. Even (or especially?) when the score is 0-0, it's an action packed game.

3-There is very little of the excruciating "everyone is watching while I strike out and/or walk batter after batter" that makes baseball difficult for me to watch sometimes. Although it's always great if a baseball player does something good when everyone is watching, I really dislike the slow, painful descent into frustration and/or humiliation when some poor kid (not just my kid, but any kid, but it's worse when it's my kid of course) is struggling at the plate or stranded at the pitcher's mound. This probably means I am emotionally weak in some fundamental way, but there you have it. Your kid might miss a goal in soccer, but everything is happening so dang fast nobody has time to linger on it. This, to me, is very refreshing.*

4-Jonas's friend from our ward, James, is on the same team, so I get to spend lots of good chatting time with his mom, Brooke. She's an excellent chatter. Not to mention the fact that we've been able to help each other out with car pooling, which has been a lifesaver many times over this season. (I realize this is not an observation about soccer in general but a specific aspect of soccer this season and could apply to any organized sport, really, but I'm still including it.)

*This is not to say I haven't had fun at some of Ethan's baseball games this season too. I have. (And I'll even do a post about it when their season is finished.) But they stress me out more; can't help it.

So here, without further ado, are some nice action shots I snapped of Jonas in action, using my much more effective camera.

Ready to play

This is my favorite action shot because it shows what Jonas does best. Getting it outta there! He's a defender and does an excellent job keeping that ball from getting into the net.

Dribble master!

And for good measure, here are a few other pictures I took, just because I like them. Jonas isn't in them, but they're still good.

Jonas's friend James, kicking it out of there as goalie. (His good friend and our neighbor Trynton is right behind him. He plays defender with Jonas and they're a great defensive team.)

A goal scored by our side. Hooray!

Jonas's teammate Femi celebrating after a goal.

A bunch of kids grappling for the ball. Intense!

Jonas has a few more games to qualify for the State tournament before soccer is over for this season. It's been a fun run!

Things I'm Looking Forward To This Summer

A photo of the month of June:

Summer is a busy time, and June is particularly so. Baseball and soccer are still going full force (and I don't even have practices on this calendar, just games). Elise has EFY, Ethan has England AND Nebraska with his theater group, and Jonas has his first week-long Scout camp, so I won't have all four kids in the house at the same time more than a few days at a time until July, which will be kind of strange.  Ethan is also starting his first ever summer job, hauling bags of fertilizer and animal feed at Forrest's work for a respectable hourly wage. (His first day is tomorrow. Interested in seeing how it goes!) So even though we're busy, and even though, if I'm honest, a part of me despairs at the electronics-policing and the messy house and the Mom-I'm-bored-what-should-we-do element of summer, overall there's a lot to look forward to. Here are a few things I love about June-August.

1. Sleeping in. Wyatt still wakes up early (in fact, he woke up at 5:57 on the official first day of summer), he's more than happy to watch a few cartoons while I get a little more rest. It is SO nice not to have to drag myself, and a few other members of the household, out of bed at 6:15 a.m. and I love, love, love waking up when my body tells me to instead of my alarm. 

2. Exercising outside. I can leave all the kids home and head out on my bike (or on my aforementioned walk/runs), breathe in the summer air, listen to the birds, enjoy a nice audiobook. As a matter of fact, I should just say outside in general. Outside! It's green and vibrant and beautiful here in the summer. I love it.

3. Doing fun stuff with the kiddos. Now that the kids are getting older I don't have the same sway over them as I did a few years back. Ethan and Elise probably aren't all that interested in going to the Como Zoo (although who knows . . . they might be. I should ask. There's a new gorilla exhibit.)  But we'll have a few fun weekends together as a family, and my Mom and Dad are coming in August and we'll head to Cragun's as well as the State Fair. I also like just having a little time to hang out with my kids instead of rush, rush, rushing all the time. Friday afternoon I sat with Wyatt in his room while he read one book after another, and I didn't have anything else to do or anywhere else to go and it was lovely.

4.  Writing. I'm going to take off for a few hours a few days a week, leave the kids at home, and go to the library. It will feel good to do more than teach people about writing or grade people's writing but instead create something myself. It's been a few months.

5.  Kids outside! (This is different than the me outside discussed in #2.) Wyatt has good friends on either side of us and our backyards are like their own little kingdom. It's wonderful. He and the three girls on one side and the two boys on the other play basketball, have sword fights and water fights, and generally exhaust themselves whenever the weather permits. And by some stroke of luck and good fortune, all three families have this tacit "outside only" playing policy, so none of these kids ask to come inside anyone else's house and eat food and play Wii and mess up the living room. Nope--all outside, all the time. It is a true tender mercy. I am not kidding. I thought I wouldn't like the fenceless backyards of Minnesota when I moved here long ago, but I've learned to appreciate how much they foster outside play for kids. I also like taking the kids to the pool, and watching them play sports, and seeing Elise take her iPhone and go for a nice long walk on the paths around the neighborhood. Everybody feels better when the kids get outside. And speaking of sports, here's a cute picture of Jonas and his good friend James (a kid in the ward who I'm SO GLAD joined the soccer team because his mom is awesome and we share car pooling duties, which is another tender mercy). I include the picture just because everyone likes pictures and it's the only one I have right now:

6. Not working, but looking forward to working again. Having summers off is a wonderful thing. Everyone should do it. It's so nice to have the freedom and flexibility that not working provides, but I also really like looking forward to teaching again in the fall. I can throw myself into housewifery more fully when I know that, come fall, I'll be busy with other things. When I think that the only thing I have on my to-do list into the foreseeable future is cleaning and other captain-of-the-household style duties, then it's really easy to put it off.  But when I know I have this window of time, and then when I go back to work I can start ignoring certain things again? That's when I get motivated. 

So far this summer I've already cleaned out my closet; sorted, reorganized and donated all the old clothes that have been piling up in the basement; FINALLY taken the patches from Utah off of Jonas's Scout shirt (he was wearing Ethan's hand-me-down) and applied the appropriate badges and whatnot as well as located all of Ethan's merit badges to make sure we have them all for his sash (and wonder of wonders, I haven't lost a SINGLE PATCH even though I haven't sewn any on for at least three years); taken all four kids to the dentist, Ethan to the eye doctor, Jonas to have his physical (it came to my attention that the child had not had a physical since we moved to Minnesota, but it appears all his body parts are in working order, so whew!), and scheduled an appointment for Forrest to see a dermatologist because he has the type of skin that needs a dermatological once over. I also went to the dentist, even though I hate it. Congratulations to me! I'm also weirdly excited about revamping my syllabus for next semester since now I know what worked and what didn't. I really like retooling syllabi. I don't quilt, but I imagine there's that same sense of satisfaction that comes when you put different parts together to create a satisfying, useful, kind of beautiful whole. Difference is when you give someone a quilt they say, "Oh wow! This is wonderful! Thank you so much!" But when you give a kid a syllabus he skims it, groans a little, then stuffs it unceremoniously in his binder.

7. Housework that I don't have to do. Yes, it's true that the house doesn't stay clean during the daytime hours like it does when the kids are in school. But I can delegate a whole lot more to them as well. Also, I rarely have to WASH, SORT, MATCH or LOCATE socks. I apologize for the all caps, but I feel strongly about this. During the wintertime, the sock situation is almost as distressing as the lack of sunlight and frigid temperatures. But during the summer? Flip-flops, baby. Love it.

8. Summer movies. Even if some of them are a little cheesy, I like going to the movies with the family and this is the season to do it.

9.  No homework! No checking Infinite Campus (the online gradebook our district uses)! No last minute projects! No "what-did-you-get-on-that-test?" stress! No "Mom-will-you-help-me-write-all-the-rules-about-MLA-format-you-can-fit-on-a-single-notecard-for-my-final-tomorrow-morning!" No backpacks to rifle through, daily planners to sign, school lunches to pay for, grade-related emotional breakdowns to navigate, lost library books to locate, parent teacher conferences to attend, or emails from the district, the school, or the teachers to skim and then delete.  

10. So You Think You Can Dance. Even after all these years, I'm still a SYTYCD fan. I hope they don't cancel it anytime soon because it's the only show I watch in the summer and a girl's got to have SOMETHING to fold her laundry to. Even if there are relatively few socks to contend with. 

And that's it for now. I could go on, but 10 is the number you shoot for when making a list on a blog. Oh, but there's one more thing!

11. Honeycrisp apples. Real ones, not those impostors they try to foist on you during the winter.  This is a late summer thing, but they're worth looking forward to.

Oh, and unrelated but cool: Elder Holland is coming to our Stake Conference on Sunday! We heard that a GA was coming and I was keeping my fingers crossed for Holland or Uchtdorf (of course), but figured either of the two would be a very long shot. But hey! Elder Holland! It's going to be very cool to listen to him in person. Although the scuttlebut is that other stakes around the area have heard he's coming and are planning to drive for hours to converge on our stake conference and take our seats. Doors open at 8, seat saving not allowed. Friends of ours are thinking of going two hours early to get in line, like it's Black Friday or something. We'll see how the Hallstroms decide to handle it. I'll report back next week.

The Last Six Weeks Part II

It's Memorial Day weekend, I'm done teaching for the summer, seminary ends on Wednesday, and I have a week and a half with the house all to myself before the kids are loosed upon me. You know the sound a can of Diet Coke makes when you open it and all the pressure escapes? That sound is how I feel. Ahhhh . . .

Anyway, there have been a few more things going on that I didn't have time to get to in my last post. I also needed to have the time (and wherewithal) to upload some videos, which now that the top on my personal pop can has popped, I can do. Without further ado, here are some random goings-on of note:

The Wilds of Minnesota

As I have mentioned in previous posts, the weather this winter has been tough. It took a looooong time for spring to come. But when spring does come in Minnesota? It's like a drug.

Here's a pic of our back yard on April 23rd.

Beautiful, yes. But still as wintry as January 23. Then we waited, and waited, and finally in May things started to thaw. The leaves started to emerge, the bulbs pushed up out of the hard frozen ground, the birds came back and started singing. The gloriousness! I was so thrilled I even took a video one morning on my walk. The leaves aren't fully glorious yet, but listen to those birds. (And I apologize if it makes you a little dizzy. I shouldn't spin around so much.)

But just as we started getting used to spring, it snowed again. And hailed. One morning the sky opened up and deposited what appeared to be Dippin Dots (you know, from the mall?) all over our back porch.

And then lately it's just been raining, raining, raining. Except for Friday. Friday was a breathtaking day, and lucky for me, and for Wyatt, it was his Kindergarten field trip to a local farm. It was so beautiful I pulled over the car and took the following picture of the side of the road with my phone:

I also got a few pics of Wyatt at the farm. Here he is "holding" a baby chick. You'll need to look closely. Poor baby chick--he was so stressed that when I was transporting him from one grubby Kindergarten hand to the next he pooped on me. I thought it was pretty gross but the 75-year-old farmer who was helping us out didn't think it was that big of a deal. Luckily a number of moms were on hand with wet wipes and Purell.

They also got to hold kitties and puppies and pet a wide variety of other animals (after receiving a stern talking to about how a horse can bite your finger off, so stay away from their mouths).

Wyatt and a kitty and his cute Kindergarten teacher

Wyatt and his friends at lunch

And speaking of animals (what a good segue!) we've had a few four-legged friends in our yard this year. The squirrels are ubiquitous, and we've had a few rabbits who've decided to take up residence in our back yard as well. Technically they're varmints, but we have fun watching them in the mornings hopping around, eating the dandelions. Eat all the dandelions you want, rabbit friends! Just don't go near the potted flower arrangements on the back porch, please. A few days ago we sat and watched as one rabbit boldly hopped up onto our porch, fully aware that we were paying attention--but then Forrest gave Wyatt the go ahead to chase him off before he made a meal of my flowers. Forrest had the wherewithal to video it, too. (Just a short one.)



But rabbits are nothin' compared to another vistor that came trotting by our window a couple of weeks ago. I looked outside and, at first, I thought I was seeing a dog. But the I looked closer and realized a coyote was taking a stroll through the neighborhood. Forrest grabbed the camera and followed him.

The coyote, two houses down from ours

A better shot, taken across the street

The only thing that mars the beauty of our Minnesota spring is our dumb dumb dumb backyard neighbors (whom I don't know personally and should probably feel more charitable toward, but sorry, not there yet) who, without informing the rest of us, felled the giant deciduous tree that used to grace their backyard (and our neighbors' back yard, and the view from our back yard). They replaced it with three pine trees, all of which promptly died over the winter, so now when we go out in our back yard we see this:

Urrrgh.

Kid Choir Videos!

But on a more positive note, here are two videos of my two cute kids' choir concerts. Jonas finally relented and let me upload the video of his 6th grade boys' choir singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." The video quality is pretty poor (iPhone video far away) and you can't see Jonas at all, but you can get a bit of the jist*. Cute 6th grade boys.



Elise also had her final choir concert of the year. Her choir director, Dr. Russell, is leaving and the kids are pretty sad about it. He was a great guy and Elise will miss him. Hopefully the incoming choir director will be great as well! (And hopefully she'll be impressed by Elise's quick audition for the upper level choirs--always hard when you build up good will with a director or coach and then they leave on you. Her audition is this Friday so we'll keep our fingers crossed.) Here she is with the 9th grade choir. You can see her on the back row, right, in a black dress.



Forrest and Me

And last but not least, Forrest and me. We've both been very busy. Surprised? Forrest's spring has been particularly jam-packed. Not only did he wind up coaching baseball again, but being Young Men's President in the spring takes a lot of time and energy in our ward. In April, he was in charge of a day-long Book of Mormon activity that was really great, but a ton of work: food, presenters, scripts, decorations, even costumes. He was a little worn out once it came to the "what are we going to do about costumes" question so I volunteered to help out with that one. My bright idea? Buy curtain panels at Goodwill for $5, cut neck holes in the top, tie with one of my scarves, and voila. Here he is, modeling a few of my fabulous designs:

He's also in charge of a big ol' Scouting flag fundraiser--the Scouts in our ward purchased flags to put in people's yards during the patriotic holidays and it all kicks off tomorrow. Too hard to explain all the intricacies of pulling this puppy off (including disgruntled parents, spreadsheets, and filling out dozens and dozens of tithing slips for non-Mormon neighbors) but needless to say, it's a lot of work. He also wound up being in charge of organizing the Fathers and Sons outing last weekend somehow. They did get lucky with that one, though: it rained until 4 p.m., the outing started at 5, then it didn't rain again until 9 a.m. the next morning, so they had time to pack up all the tents. Here's Jonas, Wyatt, and a couple of friends, looking wet and happy:

But he does get a lot out of his calling, even if it take a lot of time, and he's enjoying baseball and spending time with Ethan and his friends. Add all this to his job--which is going well, even though it also requires a lot of time and mental energy--and it's a miracle he has time to do anything else. But he does. Like fly kites:

And make me doctored Mother's Day cards that are absolutely spot-on great:

And teach Wyatt how to ride his bike! This is Wyatt's very first try. Hop on, and there he goes!



I'm a lucky woman to have such a great guy in my life, I know.

And me? What's up with me. Well, I just finished Spring semester at UWRF and really enjoyed it. Do you want to see a picture of me in my cubicle? I sent this to Forrest one day when we were trying to Facetime each other and it wouldn't work. (Our Facetime still doesn't work, but this is much too boring to get into.)

My foiled Facetime picture:

Forrest's foiled Facetime picture:

Add caption

The big news for me on the job front is that I've decided to stay at UWRF. Long story short: Inver offered me a Fall schedule and my original plan was to stay at Inver, mainly because it pays a good deal more. (Minnesota!) UWRF offered me a schedule as well, but I told them I was going back to Inver and they understood; the pay thing bites them in the behind all the time. But then Spring semester schedule came out at Inver and, once again, there were only two courses available for adjuncts. Considering the fact that most adjuncts want at least three (if not more) courses per semester, and there are four adjuncts at Inver they really like, I knew my chances of getting anything at Inver for Spring were virtually nil. So I thought about it and decided that I would go back to my Dept. chair at UWRF and humbly ask if I could stay. (Technically I could have taught at Inver in the Fall and kept my fingers crossed that UWRF would offer me something for Spring, but they would have to hire someone to replace me for Fall and my name would fall out of rotation.) Luckily he was very happy to have me back and gave me a one year contract for both Fall and Spring with a MWF class schedule that fits perfectly with when the kids are in school. UWRF also gives me my own office, and the students are better prepared, and their adjunct positions are very stable. So, money isn't everything, I decided.

I'm also finishing up teaching home study seminary this week. They're making some changes with seminary and doing away with the home study class in our ward, so chances are good that I won't be teaching again next year. This makes me sad, actually: I loved teaching home study this year. But I can't do early morning again so, sigh . . . we'll see what the future will bring!

And that's where we are. Things are good. The kids are happy and healthy and summer is upon us.  Our June calendar is packed with camps and sports and all sorts of kid-related activities, so I'm sure there will be plenty of photos and other fun stuff to report over the next few weeks. And I might have a little extra time, now, to report it, so stay tuned.

*see comments

The Last Six Weeks Part 1

So I have a lot to blog about, don't I? And the truth is I still don't have time to do it. The truth is I'm 2/3 of the way through all the final papers (and revisions of previous papers) that landed in my inbox on Monday, but I told my students I'd have their grades done by the weekend and I darn well better get it done. Problem is a girl gets a little burned out after a while, so I'm taking a break and blogging. There's so much to catch up on that I'm going to have to break it into two posts. Today's post will focus on the kids, since that's what the Grandmas really want to know about, and the Grandmas are my most enthusiastic audience. So here goes!

Ethan

Even though Ethan decided not to try out for the Spring play, he's been quite busy, due mostly to the grueling test schedule that he's had to endure over the last month or so. Not only has he taken three AP tests (AP Chem, AP English Comp, and AP American History, otherwise known as "APUSH" by all the kids in the know), but he also had to take the SAT. Why the SAT you ask? Turns out that if you do well on the PSAT, which Ethan did, and want to qualify for National Merit Scholar, then you have to take the actual SAT as well. (It's a good thing there are counselors who tell clueless parents like me such things, because I have no idea how a lot of this stuff works. First kid = Guinea pig.) We're still waiting on his SAT score. He also took the ACT, which is the one that really matters, and we were thrilled when he got a 32 on his very first dry run try, with very little studying. He's going to take it again the first weekend of June, but there won't be much pressure because 32 is already a very good score. He's thinking of both BYU and Utah State, and I think scholarship considerations (which are probably much more likely at Utah State) will probably tip the balance, but we'll see. He's also working hard at school to make sure that this final trimester of his Junior year allows him to apply with a strong GPA.

He's been working on getting his Eagle project approved too. Finally. It was a giant pain in the keister trying to find a project that would pass muster, but he finally decided on building "field desks" (wooden lap desks that open to hold notebooks, pencils, etc.) for elementary schools that have a "forest school" program allowing kids to learn things while traipsing about in the wilds of Minnesota. Or at least in a field. Or at least outside.  He just met with all the Scouting honchos at Round Table (one word? two? And no, there aren't any knights involved) and is set to do the project this summer.

But it's not all studying and Scouting for Ethan. He still manages to spend plenty of (ahem) quality time on Reddit, his website of choice. But even better than Reddit? (Hard to imagine there's anything better than Reddit! Said sarcastically, and with a tiny bit of apprehension because I think Ethan will now read this and feel defensive, but whatchagonna do, I'm a mom.) Anyway, better than Reddit is baseball, which Ethan is playing with a group of friends from his speech/theater group, as well as a bunch of other boys who don't really know them and are probably thinking, "Hey, why are all these theater kids on my baseball team?" Ethan hasn't played since he was 11, and somehow Forrest got roped into being the coach (he's enjoying it, though, even if he has so very little time right now that he would totally sign up to do that Multiplicity thing that Michael Keaton did in that 90s movie). Ethan's having fun too and improving every game. It's a pretty relaxed bunch--a couple of Ethan's friends haven't played for a long time either--but the competitive juices still get flowing, even with in-house rec ball.

And then, once school is out the first week of June, Ethan's off to England with the theater kids again. It's an incredible opportunity for him to go, and it's been a bit of a sacrifice, but what a thing to be able to do! Bum around Great Britain with all your friends, see some plays, tour some castles. I'm jealous. Then, right after he gets back from England, the cast of his one act play is going to Nebraska for the National Thespian Festival after winning best one act at our state thespian festival. (I always want to say National Lesbian Festival, as well as National Lesbian Society. I can't help it. But what in the world would Ethan do at a National Lesbian Festival? He wouldn't fit in on a number of levels.)  So he's a busy dude. As soon as he gets home from Nebraska he is GETTING A JOB!!!

Wow. Ethan took up a lot of room.

Elise

Although I'm sure Elise will be just as busy when she's a Junior, it's been kind of nice to have her home more with a more relaxed schedule now that speech and choir have wound down somewhat. She's been busy as the new Mia Maid president in Young Women and really enjoys that, and has a good babysitting job lined up for the summer. She's also super excited about going to EFY the beginning of June and Girl's Camp in July.

Tomorrow she's heading to a "con" (anime convention) with her friend Sammy and is dressing up like Rainbow Dash, one of the My Little Pony characters. (If I haven't told you on the blog before, My Little Pony is a thing now among the teenagers.) Here she is, trying on her outfit and her excellent rainbow colored wig:

She also took a cute pic of the two of us on Mother's Day. Fifteen years old and still the best hugger, snuggler, and I-love-you sayer I know:

Jonas

Jonas is officially morphing into almost-teenager-but-not-quite-yet-hood. He has friends who are girls again. (Not girlfriends, but friends who are girls. Four-year-old Jonas had friends who were girls. Ten-year-old Jonas would never have had friends who were girls.) He's still the same dependable, obedient Joe, but I sense a flash of defiance and/or irritation occasionally sparking up in the air that has the all too familiar "Just you wait mom, my childhood is fleeing and there's nothing you can do about it!" feel.  He still hugs me though. Occasionally. Thank heaven.

He's enjoying being in Young Men instead of Primary and was so thrilled that he didn't have to traipse up to the stage on Mother's Day and sing. He's doing a great job passing the sacrament, although he keeps getting the confusing spot where you have to go out in the hall--but he's handling it with aplomb. He's also playing soccer. Because our weather has been so crazy they've pushed the season back a couple of weeks, but they're finally practicing out on the fields. On beautiful sunny afternoons, a soccer field is glorious:

 He's going to Scout camp this summer for a full week and has a bunch of friends who'll be joining him, so that will be fun. I remember being so nervous the first time Ethan went on a week-long Scout camp, but with Jonas I'm totally chill. Probably a combination of my much-more-chill mothering outlook and Jonas's general overall chillness as well.

I also took a video of his 6th grade choir singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and doing hilarious choreography, but he absolutely refuses to let me upload it to the blog so I must respect his wishes. Sigh.

Wyatt

Wyatt has been SO THRILLED to finally see the weather turn. Nothing makes him happier than looking out the back door and seeing our neighbors Yuvraj and Aniraj out playing basketball on our other neighbors' (Anessa, Aliyah, and Amaya's) basketball court. Many gun battles with the boys and the girls have already commenced as well.

Not a good picture, but just for the sake of it: the neighbors' awesome basketball court which they let all the kids use whenever, and the partially obscured Yuvraj and Ani.

Wyatt's class also had a darling school play where they dressed up like barnyard animals. Wyatt was a dog. He's had a great Kindergarten year: a cute class, a nice teacher, and lots of opportunities to learn.  What more could you ask for? His reading has really taken off, too, which is always so fun to watch.

And most exciting of all, Wyatt learned to ride his bike! He's a little on the old side, but last year he was a bit nervous and Forrest and I decided not to push it. (Man--and this is becoming a theme tonight for some reason--how I pushed things back when Ethan was little. "It looks like most kids learn to ride their bikes before Kindergarten! You have to learn to ride your bike before Kindergarten even if you're scared!" Hey past self: chillax! Hey Ethan: sorry, hon :-/) But as soon as it warmed up Wyatt announced, "I want to ride my bike now," so Forrest took him outside and off he went. He's still figuring out the starting and stopping, but for the most part he's got it down. I have a great video of him taking off for the first time, but I don't have time to upload it. Maybe next post.

And that's enough break time from grading, and enough reading time for all of you, I'm sure! I promise I'll post part two sooner rather than later. After this weekend, I'm off for the summer!