Back to school.....and I'm lovn it:)

 
Tomorrow it will be officially one week since the kids went back to school.  It was a rough start, but since today was the first day that my kids have been at school all day. I can say..... I'm lovn it.  I know I should be sad that all my children are in school all day, but I'm not.  I don't think the problem is having all my kids home, its the thousands (or so it seems) of friends that are over every day.  Last week brook had early out every day because of first grade testing.  I then became the go to house for all of the first graders and preschool kids to come and play.  Needless to say I didn't see the greatness of school til today.  Jase also struggled making the change to Jr. High.  I think he was more tired the whole week.  He would come home griping about the bus, this and that class.  Today... no gripes:)  I can't believe what a person can accomplish when there are no kids around to distract from what one wants to accomplish.  I walked for an hour and a half (too long)  worked on my lesson.  Cleaned all the bathrooms, and cleaned the house.  Worked on my lesson again, did some volleyball club stuff, weeded outside, showered and now I am writing about back to school.  I still have a half an hour before they are home.  Yea me!!!  The Sunday before school started, I had the kids fill out a questionnaire about them.  Then they decorated signs that told what grade they were going in.

 Then next night was Monday and Mike gave them a fathers blessing.  Then they were off to bed...late of course.  This is Tuesday morning before they left to go to school.

Mandy couldn't dress up.  She had to wear her volleyball warm up and her student government shirt because she was representing her class as 10th grade VP and they had a volleyball game in Payson. 

Jase was looking like he finally cared how he looked.  I think he loved his new shoes the most!

Ellie was nervous and excited to have Mr. Larsen.  She has never had a male teacher.

 

Brook started first grade.  All day finally.  She of course loved her new zebra outfit.... me too!!

 

 

On pinterest I read about a mom who made her kids giant cookies the first day of school.  I thought this would be a fun thing to do.  So here is my attempt at a giant cookie.
 

MY LITTLE GIRL ISN'T LITTLE ANY MORE

We are on the count down of school getting out and it only seems a tid crazy at our home.  Ashley will be graduating from high school in a week and a half.  Not only are we trying to get school finished up but trying to help her decide what she really wants to do with her life.  She is planning on heading to St. George soon after she graduates.  She is looking for a dental assisting job and going to live with Grandma and Grandpa Turek for the summer. She attended a Dixie college enrollment seminar (whatever you want to call it.)  Mike went with her and found out the professor that represented Dixie wasn't too impressive.  We have questioned if it is a good idea for Ash to attend this fall.  We sat down and chatted with Ashley about what her purpose of going to school is.  Well, we found out that she would like us to fork out 2 grand so she can socialize.  Hmmm not to sure that's a good reason.  So for now we know she is heading south and we will play it by ear of whether or not she begins school in the fall.  Thought I would add her graduation announcement.  She wasn't so sure about her mom being the photographer and designer of her graduation announcements, but I think they turned out pretty good!!!  Good Luck Ash.... LOVE YA

The BIG 20th Anniversary

I finally got Mike to take me some where to celebrate our marriage. Not just dinner or a movie but really going somewhere. I knew he would never go for Hawaii or some romantic beach. I figured if we were going to go somewhere it would have to be something he loved. He suggested that we could go to a professional tennis tournament in California. I was game for that. He then tried to back out and suggested we go to some place local. Unless your a snow skier , Northern Utah is not the place to go to do something fun. I finally convinced him this tennis tournament could be something fun to do. He hates to travel so the thought of airplanes, crowds, finding our way through California, hotels, etc didn't seem quite worth the hastle. He finally agreed and we purchased the tennis tickets and airline tickets. It was then up to me to find the rental, hotel, etc. Never being in this town it was hard to decide how far a hotel would be from the tournament. I finally found the closest one that was worth the money to spend. For the next few weeks the excitement grew. I was a little nervous leaving Ashley in charge of the other 4 kids but we figured she needs to learn how to be responsible. Well, I can honestly say we loved it!! The airline was on time and wonderful. I would recommend Jet Blue any day over American airline. (that's the airline we used to go to Disneyland a few months ago.) We flew into Long Beach....Talk about a small airport with little hastle. So much better than LAX. We walked across the street to get our car that we had rented. So off to Indian Wells we went. Of course we stopped for lunch before continuing our 2 hour drive. It always amazes me of the amount of traffic in California. It took a little longer to drive but we arrived in Palm Springs safe and sound. (this is where our hotel was.) We checked in and relaxed for a while and then headed to Indian Wells. What a beautiful place.

It was so fun to see these professional tennis players play. You see them on TV all the time but here they are right in front of your face.

(Fish and Rodick)

Andy Murray was practicing on the practice courts and a few times he walked right up to where I was standing. Mike had walked off to watch some other players warm up so I was by myself when Murray came close to me. He looked up but I just smiled at him. Mike asked why I didn't say hi or say hey Andy say hi Trudi. I told him I didn't want to bother him and I was afraid I would get kicked out. He just laughed. This picture proves how close he was to me. I didn't take the really close ones cuz it just seemed weird so at least I can say I smiled at him.:) We spent Thursday- Saturday there. We didn't go watch any tennis on Saturday. We packed up and headed back to the airport on Saturday. I kept saying to Mike, "I wish we could stay a couple more days. I'm not ready to go home". Home is where we went though. The only tragedy was Mildred our cat got hit and was dead on the side of the road. The kids called Thursday to say they thought it was her on the side of the road. They did a check and sure enough it was her. Ashley and Jase scooped her up in a garbage bag and put her by the fence for Mike to bury when we got home. They were a little grossed out by her eye ball that was popped out. Sorry for the graphic details. It was hard to be back home but, you gotta get back to reality some time. I hope next year we can go again and stay a little longer. Just have to say I love being with my husband. To hold hands, laugh and talk together. I can honestly say he always makes me laugh. I hope there are many more years of laughter with him.

Valentines Day:)

So Valentines day is to be about love. There are lots of things that I love. Some of those things are my FAMILY and my young women. To show my love... I started the day off with the famous heart shaped pancakes with sausage. (looks gross .)

Mandy reminded me of a year when I came to the kids school and brought them a little gift. She told me how awesome that was. I figured shoot this is Ashley's last year, I can do it again. I bought them things that they love to eat and a little balloon to embarras them. Ashley was at seminary. Her seminary principal took care of embarrasing her. Mandy was called up to the attendance office. Suzanne insisted that we take a picture so here is the only picture with my kids and their gifts. (Mandy of course got Oreos. Ash chocolate covered pretzels and swedish fish. Jase oreos, Ellie hershey bars, Brook got skittles) They loved it. I gave the kids' teachers, my ladies I visit teach and my counselors shovels with candy. It said, "I Dig YOU".
My young women got M & M's and a container with sweet hearts and some popcorn.

I spent the night with my young women decorating cookies and cutting out tons of hearts to heart attack the bishop and the girls who weren't there. They had so much fun decorating and then knocking and running to the get away car.
Of course I didn't forget about my man:) He got a bunch of goodies and a yummy cafe rio homemade dinner. Lame I know but that's our life around here. Hope everyone had a "LOVEly" valentines day!

Miracles Do Exist

I know it has been well over a year since my last words have been written. I had pretty much decided that I wouldn't ever be writing in this blog again. So why the change of mind..... Great question!!! I read Misti's blog which I try to do every week and then some others. I thought what the heck I'll read my last blog. There are so many things I had forgotten about my shoulder surgery. This made me think.... Wow if I hadn't written this down, I would have forgotten many things that occured at that time. So if anything, I should blog to keep a record of life since I do a poor job in my journal. So here is my attempt to blog again:) So forgive me those who truly blog well. I will be doing this more as a journal. Sorry I know it's lame. Since Christmas and a couple of trips to St. George, life is calming back down into a routine. Ellie and Jase are playing Jr. Jazz basketball. Mandy is starting club volleyball and preparing for softball tryouts. (sorry no pictures yet) I am still the young women's president so this keeps me going too:)In the next few weeks, I'll be redoing my bathroom and my office. I'm looking forward to some building. (mostly for my office.)

So I didn't get this posted but I am almost done with my bathroom. I'll add the before pictures now and when it's decorated I'll do the finishing touches. So here goes the bright bathroom. So I want to share some things that happened with redoing the bathroom. You will see that I went with a boring tan. It makes so I don't paint for a while. The mirror needed to be moved to be able to do the trim and change the lights. As Celeste and I were pulling, the mirror broke. Not good. So in order to have it done we ran to Tooele to find a mirror. Thank goodness Home Depot had a mirror that was 3X5. We finished putting the mirror up in time. Mike still doesn't know about the breakage. The next day we built the shelves. The one closest to my sink I wanted left open for easy access but I might be changing my mind. Now I need to touch some things up and decorate. But this is close. Not easy though:)