Family Fun Evening???

Sorry there will be no pictures with this post.  I needed to write and share our family fun evening experience before I forget.  We had the our High Priest group leader and a member of the stake presidency visit our home last week.  They asked how family home evening was and our kids piped up and said we don't do it anymore.  WHATEVER!!!  I explained that we have family home evening on Sundays and on Mondays we do a family fun evening cuz our kids complained they never get to do anything fun,  just taught the gospel.  We have been slackers and haven't been very faithful with the family fun evenings lately.  So hearing President Phelps express that we should be doing it, we decided we would play a mean game of kickball for family fun evening.  We almost didn't do it on account it was freezing outside.  But because of the begging of a little red head we strapped on the winter attire and headed out.  Mike and Ellie against Brook, Jase, and myself.  As we played, Mike was being his usual self in trying to be stupid and not serious about the game.Acting like Mr. Bean)  This bothered Ellie quite a bit.  For some reason she has that competitive spirit in her. (gets it from her dad.) She was bugged that her dad wasn't giving everything that he had.  Finally the tears began even to the point of her doing the sobbing cry.  She even mumbled loud enough (several times) for all to hear that her dad sucks:)  The first time Mike and I heard it we busted up laughing.  Finally I consulted with Mike and we made a trade.  By this time, Ashley who was home visiting came out and joined us.  So now it was Ellie, Ashley and myself against, Mike, Brook, and Jase.  The tears dried up and we had a good game going with Mike still being a goof.  This made Jase feel more determined to win and Brook felt she was doing everything. ( those were her words.) To make matters worse, it didn't help that Ellie kicked towards Jase. She fell to the ground and Jase missed her when he threw the ball at her.  This ticked him off.  So he grabs the ball and begins chasing her with much determination on his face.  He misses her again.  Ashley and I were laughing so hard because of his determination and frustration.  This just set off the boy even more.  Soon after we called it quits.  The kids went in and got ready for bed.  Boy was there plenty of contention in our home.  I said to Mike, "this is why we don't do family fun evening."  As Mike and I layed in bed last night and reflected on the great game of kickball.  I let him know that he gave it his all and that's all we can ask for, even if he did suck.  We laughed and laughed about our mighty kickball game that was to bring such joy and love to our family.  This morning Ellie felt a little better about life and her dad joked around with her saying, "Ellie I gave it my best."  She didn't buy his garbage for a minute.  At least she can laugh about it now.:D  Maybe next week we can play by ourselves in our own rooms and call it family fun evening.  At least there will be no contention.

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:)

I am ALIVE! (barely)

Well, it has been 3 weeks and 4 days since my shoulder surgery. I'm finally feeling up to working on the computer and using both hands to type this. I'm not suppose to be out of my sling, but I figured that if I have started physical therapy, what better therapy could I have than computer work. I had shoulder surgery on October 21st. I ended going to the hospital later than I was suppose to, so I ended up spending the night at the hospital. When I finally came out of it, and got to my room, it was 8 at night. When Mike told me that they ended up doing my rota tor cuff, I almost bawled. Then when I found out that I had to share a room with someone else, I finally caved and started crying. Mike was sweet and asked what was hurting. I told him nothing, I just need to cry. I'm sure he left the hospital shaking his head. My instincts where correct about sharing a room with someone else. I had a long night, cuz the lady I shared it with, had problems with her IV. Also, during the night I moved and felt really sick. I grabbed the bucket just in time and threw up and threw up. That was the only time I was glad to have a roommate. She called the nurse who helped me feel better. It was a long night to say the least. I only got 2 hours of sleep. I called Mike early and told him to get to the hospital asap. He arrived around 10:30 and helped me get dress. Not an easy thing and still isn't, but getting easier. I started physical therapy last Friday and boy am I stiff. I figured I better try keeping out of the sling so it can loosen up. I have realized how grateful I am that I have 2 hands. You have no idea what you do everyday using both hands. I am also that I have a patient husband and children who for the most part have picked up the slack. Also, a wonderful friend who has picked up my house, washed and curled my hair, and has done my calling. She has made my life better. I plan on taking pictures of the suture areas, but Celeste has my camera. Those will come later. If this story is written crazy, blame it on the drugs!