BIRTHDAY/COLD/COOKIES/SCOUTS/VALENTINES/TAXES/ BASKETBALL/PIANO/MOVIES...
Sunday was Allison’s 11th birthday. With church starting at 11:00 it was a typical morning before church. I don’t know why I went because I woke up with a really bad cold and ended up asking Brendan to take me home halfway through Sunday School because I couldn’t open my eyes from them being so itchy and watery. I came home and rested for about an hour and then wrapped Allison’s presents. We got her a pink reading pillow (which she asked for at Christmas and I bought it then, but forgot to give it to her.) She also got a green spring shirt and matching flowery flip flops. Brendan grilled some awesome steaks for lunch. He always does them just right. Then we went to our monthly Howard family meeting which was great like always. It was really cute how ALL the grandkids sat quietly and listened to the lesson. I think it was the first time ever. Grandma Howard made yummy Valentine sugar cookies for Allison’s birthday that were gobbled up right away. I’m not sure what Allison was doing, but Sadie came up to us and said, “that birthday girl is crazy!” We had her friend's birthday party the Friday before. It was her very first slumber party! She invited Elizabeth, Savannah, Kimmy, and Jessi. We were going to go Ice Skating, but they close from 5:30 to 7:00 to clean the ice so we ended up going miniature golfing at Trafalga instead. It worked out better since it’s much closer and not as crazy. That was a lot of fun and then Allison picked Wendy’s to go to dinner. We then came back home and had homemade German Chocolate cake! It turned out perfect which was such a relief for me considering last week’s cake fiasco. The girls opened presents, played games, watched a movie, and talked and laughed well into the early hours of the morning! They woke up around 8 the next morning and we all had pancakes. Jordan and Jake left around 7:45 together for basketball. Elizabeth and Kimmy ended up staying and went with us to Jake’s game. They stayed until 5:00 that evening. They played “Killer” most of the time which is a game that if you are”it” you have to wink inconspicuously at the other players and if they get winked at they die right there on the spot. The point is to guess who the killer is before he/she winks at you. Jake had a friend over and there were kids all over the place.
I woke up REALLY sick on Monday, but life can’t stop because mom is sick. I had to have 7 girls over that afternoon for activity days. I ran to the store to get a few ingredients for cookies. I had to wear sunglasses because my eyes were a watery mess! I made sugar cookie dough in advance for the girls to just roll and cut out. Even though I had done some prep work, it was still a mess with flour everywhere, but they turned out really good and the girls had a great time decorating them with frosting and candies. We also made homemade Valentine cards for their parents or teachers. I got out all of my pink, white, and red scrapbook paper scraps, my punches, stickers, etc. and let them go at it. I should have made a nice example and had them copy it, but I was way too sick and so not up to it. They all got pretty creative on their own and it was probably better that they got to do whatever they wanted. I had quite a mess to clean up when they left just to have it all dirtied again because I had to make mint chocolate brownies for Allison. My mom was coming home later that afternoon after being in Guatemala for two weeks and so I invited Ed and Maria’s family for dessert to celebrate Allison’s birthday all together. Mint brownies are her favorite, but I was “sugared” out by then. I made the brownies, put dinner in the crock pot, cleaned up the kitchen, and went to bed. I felt bad to not be at the party, but I was dying by then. I laid in bed the rest of the evening and caught up on all my recorded shows. I think everyone had a good time even though I heard Ian say, “Where’s my Essie?” I love that little guy so much!
Jordan went to a board of review on Tuesday to get his first bronze palm. The scout chairman said that he is the first one in our ward to ever get one. He hasn’t really done much after earning his Eagle rank, but I guess he had everything done before and just had to wait out the waiting period. I’m glad he went and then he stayed and basketball with the other Young men.
Wednesday was Valentine’s day and what a fun day it was! I was finally feeling better so that was the best part for me. Brendan and I planned to meet at lunch since we knew dinner would be crazy and more expensive that night. I drove up and met him at an Italian restaurant near his work at Jordan’s Landing. It was so fun to see him in the middle of the day. After lunch he pulled out a little bag of surprises for me…a scrapbook magazine, the book “Sense and Sensibility,” a card, and a CD of romantic songs. He chose that CD because it has the song “Marry You Again” by Joshua Creek which has since become one of my all time favorites! I loved my surprise. We had agreed to just get each other new running shoes which we both needed, so I felt bad that I didn’t do anything extra. We went to Famous Footwear after lunch and got our new shoes. It was a total bummer to have to say goodbye, but we had a great time. That afternoon I took Allison to her musical theater class. My dad called and invited our whole family out to dinner for Valentine’s day. So after I picked up Allison he took us out to Tepanyaki. It was my first time at the new one here in Lehi. It was so fun. Our cook was hilarious. He threw 7 or 8 shrimp to Jordan to catch in his mouth. It was a great day!
I spent Thursday making bows pretty much all day. Brian and Lauren came over after dinner to have Brendan do their taxes. I love seeing them. We always seem to have a great time together. After the taxes were done, we watched Lost together. Then it was reading time and bed time for us all.
As I was getting ready to leave to drop off my bow order on Friday morning, Allison called me saying that she was sick and needed to come home. She had a headache and a stomache. I just have to wonder if she was really sick or just wanted to get out of doing her endurance test in PE because she was pretty much ok once she got home. I left her for about an hour while I went to South Jordan. I left her on the couch armed with the phone, a drink, the TV remote, and a throw up bowl. She was fine.
I got an email from Jordan’s Biology student teacher that afternoon telling me that Jordan had gotten out of hand during their lab and gotten in a water fight with a group of boys during class. The worst part was that he was asked to stay after class to discuss the problem and he had gotten angry and left! What do I do with this boy! He can be so great and do so much good, but every once in a while he messes up big. He can be so disrespectful and the worst part is that he doesn’t feel bad. I don’t know how to teach him empathy toward others. It’s always just about him. I know that teenagers are like that, but he needs to have remorse sometimes. I don’t want him to think that it’s ok to act like this especially with adults. Other people’s feelings matter too. It scares me to think of him acting like this with his future boss or with his wife! I hope that he learns his lesson this time and that I can help him see how wrong his actions really were. I can’t say that I can complain much though. So far, raising a teenager hasn’t been too bad and we have a lot of fun together for the most part. I know that I overreact to situations because he’s my oldest and I haven’t learned to “chill” yet. I’m really going to miss him terribly when he is gone from home in a few years.
Jake had such a great basketball game on Saturday morning. The team he played had 3 or 4 tall kids on it and Jake’s team is full of (as the coach has said) a bunch of midgets. They were down by 10, then it was tied, then they were up by 8, and then it was tied again. They ended up pulling away the last 2 minutes of the game and won by 7! Jake scored a 3 on their second basket of the game. He also scored one other time at the beginning of the second half. They all played their guts out. Allison had her Piano Festival that afternoon. The Boyd’s were there too for Michael and Rebecca. When it was all over John said, “Whew, I’m so glad that was over. That was a lot of stress in our family.” I just laughed and said, “It’s just a piano festival. We’ve been doing these forever with Jordan, then Jake, and now Allison. As long as they feel good about how they did it’s all that matters.” I had to remind myself that Michael and Rebecca are their oldest kids. Everything is such a bigger deal with your first. I need to remember that so that I don’t let Jordan’s “science lab antics” make my world come to a stop! Brendan worked on his Sunday School lesson that afternoon and then went grocery shopping for me and got a video. After dinner we all watched “The Illusionist.” We all liked it but it was a bit predictable and no where as good as “The Prestige.” All in all, I have to say we had a good week
I woke up REALLY sick on Monday, but life can’t stop because mom is sick. I had to have 7 girls over that afternoon for activity days. I ran to the store to get a few ingredients for cookies. I had to wear sunglasses because my eyes were a watery mess! I made sugar cookie dough in advance for the girls to just roll and cut out. Even though I had done some prep work, it was still a mess with flour everywhere, but they turned out really good and the girls had a great time decorating them with frosting and candies. We also made homemade Valentine cards for their parents or teachers. I got out all of my pink, white, and red scrapbook paper scraps, my punches, stickers, etc. and let them go at it. I should have made a nice example and had them copy it, but I was way too sick and so not up to it. They all got pretty creative on their own and it was probably better that they got to do whatever they wanted. I had quite a mess to clean up when they left just to have it all dirtied again because I had to make mint chocolate brownies for Allison. My mom was coming home later that afternoon after being in Guatemala for two weeks and so I invited Ed and Maria’s family for dessert to celebrate Allison’s birthday all together. Mint brownies are her favorite, but I was “sugared” out by then. I made the brownies, put dinner in the crock pot, cleaned up the kitchen, and went to bed. I felt bad to not be at the party, but I was dying by then. I laid in bed the rest of the evening and caught up on all my recorded shows. I think everyone had a good time even though I heard Ian say, “Where’s my Essie?” I love that little guy so much!
Jordan went to a board of review on Tuesday to get his first bronze palm. The scout chairman said that he is the first one in our ward to ever get one. He hasn’t really done much after earning his Eagle rank, but I guess he had everything done before and just had to wait out the waiting period. I’m glad he went and then he stayed and basketball with the other Young men.
Wednesday was Valentine’s day and what a fun day it was! I was finally feeling better so that was the best part for me. Brendan and I planned to meet at lunch since we knew dinner would be crazy and more expensive that night. I drove up and met him at an Italian restaurant near his work at Jordan’s Landing. It was so fun to see him in the middle of the day. After lunch he pulled out a little bag of surprises for me…a scrapbook magazine, the book “Sense and Sensibility,” a card, and a CD of romantic songs. He chose that CD because it has the song “Marry You Again” by Joshua Creek which has since become one of my all time favorites! I loved my surprise. We had agreed to just get each other new running shoes which we both needed, so I felt bad that I didn’t do anything extra. We went to Famous Footwear after lunch and got our new shoes. It was a total bummer to have to say goodbye, but we had a great time. That afternoon I took Allison to her musical theater class. My dad called and invited our whole family out to dinner for Valentine’s day. So after I picked up Allison he took us out to Tepanyaki. It was my first time at the new one here in Lehi. It was so fun. Our cook was hilarious. He threw 7 or 8 shrimp to Jordan to catch in his mouth. It was a great day!
I spent Thursday making bows pretty much all day. Brian and Lauren came over after dinner to have Brendan do their taxes. I love seeing them. We always seem to have a great time together. After the taxes were done, we watched Lost together. Then it was reading time and bed time for us all.
As I was getting ready to leave to drop off my bow order on Friday morning, Allison called me saying that she was sick and needed to come home. She had a headache and a stomache. I just have to wonder if she was really sick or just wanted to get out of doing her endurance test in PE because she was pretty much ok once she got home. I left her for about an hour while I went to South Jordan. I left her on the couch armed with the phone, a drink, the TV remote, and a throw up bowl. She was fine.
I got an email from Jordan’s Biology student teacher that afternoon telling me that Jordan had gotten out of hand during their lab and gotten in a water fight with a group of boys during class. The worst part was that he was asked to stay after class to discuss the problem and he had gotten angry and left! What do I do with this boy! He can be so great and do so much good, but every once in a while he messes up big. He can be so disrespectful and the worst part is that he doesn’t feel bad. I don’t know how to teach him empathy toward others. It’s always just about him. I know that teenagers are like that, but he needs to have remorse sometimes. I don’t want him to think that it’s ok to act like this especially with adults. Other people’s feelings matter too. It scares me to think of him acting like this with his future boss or with his wife! I hope that he learns his lesson this time and that I can help him see how wrong his actions really were. I can’t say that I can complain much though. So far, raising a teenager hasn’t been too bad and we have a lot of fun together for the most part. I know that I overreact to situations because he’s my oldest and I haven’t learned to “chill” yet. I’m really going to miss him terribly when he is gone from home in a few years.
Jake had such a great basketball game on Saturday morning. The team he played had 3 or 4 tall kids on it and Jake’s team is full of (as the coach has said) a bunch of midgets. They were down by 10, then it was tied, then they were up by 8, and then it was tied again. They ended up pulling away the last 2 minutes of the game and won by 7! Jake scored a 3 on their second basket of the game. He also scored one other time at the beginning of the second half. They all played their guts out. Allison had her Piano Festival that afternoon. The Boyd’s were there too for Michael and Rebecca. When it was all over John said, “Whew, I’m so glad that was over. That was a lot of stress in our family.” I just laughed and said, “It’s just a piano festival. We’ve been doing these forever with Jordan, then Jake, and now Allison. As long as they feel good about how they did it’s all that matters.” I had to remind myself that Michael and Rebecca are their oldest kids. Everything is such a bigger deal with your first. I need to remember that so that I don’t let Jordan’s “science lab antics” make my world come to a stop! Brendan worked on his Sunday School lesson that afternoon and then went grocery shopping for me and got a video. After dinner we all watched “The Illusionist.” We all liked it but it was a bit predictable and no where as good as “The Prestige.” All in all, I have to say we had a good week
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