Slacker!

Seriously, I try to blog, but I am really not good at writing constantly. I am a numbers girl, not a writing "papers" girl. All of us in the household are like that, so when it comes to doing reports, we ALL groan! It's not that we can't throw down a conversation or thoughts, because we have plenty of that, it's just laziness.

Anyway...well, we had a surprise visit from Heidi and her kids the day after Easter. I kept my kids out of school that Monday so they could play...all but Alec. See...he has been "struggling" with getting good grades. It's not that he can't do it...it's just that laziness again. So, because he had a D, he had to go to school. Calvin made it by the skin of his teeth...he had a C on the Friday before and Monday it was a B-. He was happy. But, we saved the fun stuff until Alec got home. It was Brad's birthday (my nephew, turned 15!), and that was fun to have everyone there to celebrate with him.

Other things that have been going on...
Derrek and Alec received their Life Scouting awards. That means that they are working on their Eagle Award next. Derrek is actually a couple badges and a project away from getting it. We have been blessed with really good Scout leaders and our neighbor who cares ALOT about the boys. Calvin is close to getting his Life award, also...maybe next Court of Honor. Do you realize I have four in Scouts now. Dallen is my only Cub Scout. That is really weird to me to see four boys in the brown shirt and only one in the blue. For so long it has been all blue. Anyway, I just had to point that out. I love a boy in uniform :).

Derrek has also applied for his first job. He is still 15 and so jobs for him are pretty much non-existant, but he has applied to work at Thunderidge Scout Camp this summer for 7 weeks. In the interview the man said that he would acutally offer Derrek more money because he has Timberline training, which he did last summer. We are praying that he gets it because we think it would be an amazing experience for him. It sounded like Derrek will probably get it, but it is never for sure until it's for sure. I am sure there are a lot of other boys in Derrek's same position. It's not tons of money, but it is more than he has and the training and being away from us to experience life away from us is priceless. Alec has signed up to do the Counselor in Training program for three weeks, but it isn't a paid position, but he doesn't care. Calvin is enrolled for Timberline this year.

We had a visit from the police the other day. Our first time since we have had our half-pipe. We have an older couple that lives behind our neighbors and his wife just had kidney surgery to remove a grapefruit size tumor from her kidney. She's not feeling good and she can't sleep at night and so she trys to get sleep during the day and um...that's when my kids play. We do have the whole neighborhood over and it does get loud. We have kids over that we don't even know. So, after the police man came and looked at it, he said that it isn't a problem, and we decided we needed to go talk to our neighbors and come to a compromise. They were nice about it and we decided that we wouldn't let just anyone in our backyard to help keep down the noise and then Scott and I are going to try an experiment and put insulation (waterproof, of course) under the half-pipe to see if that would help with the noise. It's worth a shot because our kids aren't going to stop using it, but we do need to be curtious to our neighbors...especially one who is so sick. I would want my neighbors to do that for me. Anyway, we'll let you know how it works out.

Ashton had his science fair project last week. He actually started it on time and so we weren't procratinating, like normal. It was actually an enjoyable experience, except that Ashton was sick! The day before it was due, he came home late from school and I asked "where have you been?". His reply..."puking in the gutter". I felt so bad because it literally had been like an hour after school got out and we live just down the street from the school. But, he had to get his project done because it was a huge chunk of his grade. So, we printed off the pictures that Derrek so kindly took for us and Ashton was literally putting on a picture, puking, putting on a picture, puking...you get the picture. It was pitiful, but I wasn't going to do it...I couldn't because I was gone and Scott stepped in and helped. Anyway, he got it done and I give him homework points when he does his homework and then when he fills up his "chart" we will go do something fun, and he got double for that night! We were proud of him. It didn't get any awards, but I think just finishing it was enough for him.

Well, that's all the excitement for this week. I get to go to Women's Conference at BYU this next week. I am really excited. I also am in charge of Teacher Appreciation week next week and am a little stressed. I have to put on a banquet and get a caterer and all that. I read in other papers from past people that I needed to get donations and so I was stressing because that is SO out of my comfort zone, so Scott had pity and has been doing some calls for me. Then I find out that there is enough money that I wouldn't need donations, but I figure what's the harm...especially if Scott is doing it for me!!! Well...have a great week!

Has it really been a month?

I realized this morning that I haven't blogged for quite some time...whoops! Our Sundays tend to be very busy, lately, and so I just haven't done anything because Sunday used to be the day I actually had time! This is what has gone on...

Derrek got a new camera. He seems to be able to get deals and frankly, it isn't fair! But, there is a photographer in our ward who bought a new camera and told Derrek he would sell him his old one. So Derrek got this amazing camera for $150. I have decided to stop taking pictures and just bring him along to everything and he can be my personal photographer!

Some picture Derrek took that he really likes. He is getting better every day. My dad is giving him tips and pointers and pretty soon, we'll have another pro!

Heidi and family came to visit during Spring Break (which was right after we went to the Draper Temple). We had fun. It never feels like there are eleven kids here when they visit. It is amazing. During their visit, I got a text at work that said "you have two new pets" and it was two snakes that Dallen had caught down at the river. One was really big and the other was small. They would catch frogs and feed them to the snakes. That's always fun to watch. Dallen just let them go this week because he is tired of taking care of them and the geckos. Plus, I think the whole fun of having them is actually the catching part. So, I am sure he will catch them again.

Some pictures Derrek took while Heidi's family was here. We went to a park where everything seems to spin. The kids had fun.

Picture of Dallen's bigger snake.

Calvin is my little thrifty child. He has wanted a mountain bike, but no money for a brand new one, so he went shopping at Deseret Industries and found a bike for $10. He then had enough money to buy tires and replace the tires completely and did all the work himself! Needless to say, he has a great bike for $60. There is still some tweeking that needs to be done, like the brakes, but it works good until then.

We had an Easter "weekend" with my family. We did family sealings at the temple with the adults in the family, then yesterday we had extended family join us for an Easter Egg hunt. We did it inside and outside my mom's house. That was fun. Today we are going to have a Dinner and we haven't done that for a long time.

Scott with Gabby and Conner, checking out the Easter hunt loot.


Dallen helped cook the hot dogs for lunch, after the hunting was done.

Well, things are continuing to go and Sunwest is still alive and we seriously have to owe that to the Lord because on paper, there is no way that we should be able to pay expenses, but we do and we know it is truly blessings from on High.

We are trying to finish the last SIX WEEKS of this school year. Then Derrek will officially be in High School and Ashton will be going to "middle school" and I will only have one left in Elementary! That is really weird to me.