Mother's Day and Misc

getting ready to graduate!

My family (especially Ada) put together a wonderful Mother's Day for me.  I loved every minute.  I played the piano for the Primary's Mother's day song, took a nap, ate a yummy and well thought out dinner by Jer, found out that Seth is also allergic to snap peas, played games, went on a walk, watched a movie.  It was a great day.

They made a pathway for me to my seat at dinner.

Ada played the prelude at church on Mother's day too!  She did great.  She came down all embarrassed, but there was nothing to be embarrassed for.... she did amazingly well.  Seth passed the sacrament and Evelyn was an usher.  What marvelous kids!

Ada made a Walmart run and found new sugar free snacks to try.

I took Seth for a quick date on the way home from his soccer game.

Sam's Priests group had all the moms come and we had "ice cream" and talked about fun things.  It was so funny.  Sam brought me the order sheet for the ice cream with a laugh in his eyes... both he and I are allergic to ice cream.  So I ordered strawberries and he had oreos and gummy bears.  He's a cutie patootie.

Seth drew this cat at school!  He's a great artist!  He has a good handle on proportions and perspective.

sushi date with my MTECH graduate and two of her friends.

 

Mother's Day/birthday

For Mother's Day/my birthday I requested a family picture.  It was a wonderful day. The pictures were over exposed, but it was still fun. We played games, watched a movie and I got lots of flowers. My favorite part was all 4 of the kids sang in Sacrament meeting.  Seth and I with the Primary and the other three with the youth group.  They made me cry.

 

This week

Today a friend was buried.  When I was small, my parents hosted a family of 6 from Vietnam in our home.  Lan, the 16 year old, played on the tramp with us a lot.  I remember the happy talking women in the kitchen.  Dhoa loved me and I loved her back.  We were baptized on the same day.  We took them to Sundance to experience snow for the first time. They cooked duck for us to experience for the first time. Their Dad died at the age of 84.  I was really sad not to be able to take off work to go to the funeral and hug them all, but I'm so glad to go over memories of good times with good people. 

These two have figured out that they can actually climb into the piano.  Half of me cringes and half of me giggles.

Spring is here along with sidewalk chalk and bubbles.

Is she comfortable or not?  I'm not sure.

Ada and I released lady bugs into our garden.  It was a little underwhelming this time... A lot of the lady bugs were very lethargic.

I'm having a surgery and won't be able to eat very much for a few months... so we went to my favorite restaurant for one last hoorah.

Ada made me these for Mother's Day.  Aren't they beautiful.

Our bush is bursting with flowers this year.  One or two bald spots where the kids climb through the bush but oh my goodness.

 

Mother's Day

I spent the morning sleeping.  Joe T had spent the night and the "kids" all played games, jumped on the trampoline... Joe got many compliments from our ward members on his voice. The Primary did a great job singing More Than Enough. Then I spent the afternoon drawing with Ada while Dad made dinner and the kids did the dishes. Then we played Firefly.  Three of us were ready to win.... Sam ultimately did.

I loved how she kept putting her head into the bag.

Ada did a portrait of Joe.

I did a portrait of Ada. I haven't drawn people in 20 years.  It went pretty well but I am rusty.

 

The last two weeks

 The last two weeks have been full.  Not hard, just full.  Haircuts all around, Ada and Sam's work shifts, Evelyn ballet practice, end of school year homework/tests, orthodontist appointments and allergy shots for Sam.  Then soccer games, Stake Conference where our Stake was reorganized, a latino birthday party, Jer's physical therapy, daycare, a cousin birthday party and two new kittens.  We also had our water heater replaced and we've hired someone to fix the sprinkler lines that were broken installing the new fence. Mother's Day was yesterday too. I'm trying not to skate past it.  I get overwhelmed at this time of year and try to skip both it and my birthday to make it easier.  Jeremy didn't let me and made it a good day. We took a walk, he made dinner, we played with kittens and legos...

Mayra wanted to celebrate her birthday down in the valley. I reserved a cultural hall and Jer humored me and came with me to an all spanish dance party.  And yes, we did dance.  We even got applauded and everyone got a kick out of the gringos dancing the cumbia. It was fun and we left at 9... when the party was only getting started.

Ada had her last choir concert.  She has a sweet and mature voice. She was in chamber choir this year, but she's trying out percussion next year.  Hopefully she's going to like it as much as choir. She figures if she wants to go back to choir in 11th grade then she'll try out with the choir teacher to get back into choir.

This is what the Primary talked about on Mother's Day. I thought that was fun that Virginia shared this with us after.

They have a new medication to deal with EoE. I'm debating what to do.  His last medication was rough on him, but his primary doctor and allergist are both saying that this one is a spectacular opportunity for Sam. We'll research and pray about it.

Combined YW/YM

I took Evelyn in to get her hair cut and deep conditioned. She enjoyed it so much, relaxed and fell asleep.

Dancing Gringos

My friend, Mia.

Sam asked for a real flute for his birthday.  A silver flute with holes and an offset G key. I bought his first flute for $20 off the classifieds then spent another $40 to get it cleaned and serviced.  He's excelled and loved playing.  We did some research and found a professional flute with all the things that he had on his wish list for $800 off on ebay.  It was a demo model from a store liquidation. Sam said he's going to help pay for it and was so cute.  All his referee money goes directly to his savings account, but he gave me all the cash in his wallet to start with.  I love that he has the desire to learn more and have a better instrument to do that with. Well done Sam. The one that I saw on ebay that I thought was so neat was a $5000 Japanese flute that was everything he wanted except for the offset G.  It was being sold for $800. That was Sam's second choice if we didn't get the one that we did.

Snack time at the daycare.

Sam trying out his new flute.  He's going to need to keep practicing. The sound is much better, but there are technical things that he's going to have to develop to play with the professional flute.

Seth asked for Sam's old flute to learn how to play it.

Celebrating Ada's choir with a trip to Handels ice cream.

My little autistic and apraxia buddy is starting to talk. He sat on my couch telling me colors and shapes for almost a half hour. It was very sweet.

Mariah's 18th birthday party was yesterday.  Her boyfriend rented a theater to watch UP and invited her friends and family as a surprise. It was fun.  You can tell that she likes him a lot. I can't believe that she's 18!  It's very fun. She has a really good group of friends and that is amazing today. While we were up there, we adopted two of Amy's kittens.  The kids are thrilled.  They are pretty cute.  I hope they kill more mice than birds.

Mother's day, Evelyn let me braid her hair, Seth (my last Primary kid) sang to me.... he didn't really know the song, but it was fun to see his smiling face watching my reactions the whole time.

Jer made me a Mother's Day curry, then they all cleaned the kitchen and we watched Candleshoe while we built legos with Beth and her kids.