Candlelight Program

Connor A., Deirdre, Elisabeth F., Corey H., Seth J,. Eric L., Logan L., Shaylie P., Brynn S., Tessa S., and Kaitlin Y.

Thursday, December 10 was the Candlelight Program for Ephraim Middle School held at Snow College Eccles Performing Arts Concert Hall. It is a long program with all three bands, two orchestras, two choirs, music appreciation, and guitar all performing. I would say that approximately 300 students were included in the program. After all the groups performed the 8th grade students with 4.0 cumulative g.p.a.'s were honored and two members of the community. There were 11 8th grade students with perfect 4.0's this year. We had some issues with D being part of this select group, but it all worked out in the end.

I have no idea what was happening here (D can't remember), but clearly Connor, D, and Elisabeth found something amusing.

Most likely the honor students are listening to the poem being read before the presentation of the candle to one of the two recipients.

After each recipient had his biography read to the audience, he stood and said a few words. While the recipients spoke, D had the honor of holding the candle/flower arrangement (picture on left). Then she returned them to the recipients. The picture on the right is of her giving it back to Jay Snow of Ephraim. 

All of the honor students with the two recipients.
Back row: Connor, Eric, Corey, Seth, Logan; middle row: Tessa,  Deirdre, Brynn, Kaitlin, Elisabeth, and Shaylie; front row: Floyd Bishop of Manti and Jay Snow of Ephraim

The 8th graders posing for their parents' cameras. Notice how all the girls are squatting in front of the boys. As the mother, I have to say that I love my daughter's smile in this picture.

Someone told them to act silly. Not always a good idea when 13 and 14 years olds are involved. Some are certainly sillier than others.

 

D and Jeff. Many people commented on how nice Jeff looked that evening.

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Happy Birthday

If it's Christmas time, it must also be birthday time. Jeff has his birthday today! Every year on Dec 28, he wakes up and thinks "I'm not 'x' today." This is because he has spent the last six months thinking he is x and on his birthday he becomes x + 1—EXCEPT he hasn't hit x yet. Did that make sense? Here's your example. Since about July he has thought he was 30 (deducting for good behavior), so on Dec. 28 he thinks he's 31. Except that he hasn't been 30 since July, only 29. Make sense now? Oh well we all get it.

Hippy Happy Birthday Jeff!

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The facts of life

This is my follow up to MckMama's post here.

Marriage is a hard road whether it is the first year or the 21st year, raising one child or many. Anyone who tells you that marriage is a piece of cake is either lying or is not married or living together or ignores the other half of the partnership. That's exactly what marriage is——a partnership. Personally, I forget that sometimes. I go through life a day at a time without thought to others.

When Jeff and I got married we had to meet with Father Jim three times before hand (maybe it was only twice, I don't remember). We heard the "lobster story" three times at least. Father Jim talked a lot about communication between spouses. He said he would rather be with a poor family, who loved each other and communicated with each other, eating pork and beans than with a rich family, who didn't like each other and didn't talk, eating lobster. What he really hoped for was a family who communicated and had the lobster too. When we were first married we laughed about this story all the time.

Because I have stretched myself too thin this semester, I have just now taken a rest from Girl Scouts. It will have to be someone else's problem for awhile. The plates that I was juggling are starting to fall to the floor before I can catch them. Something has to give and my family has already done enough giving. The posts may become even fewer and the crafting even less, in an effort to focus on school, family, and my job.

I opened my classroom door to grab this picture. It is snowing quite fiercely here. You have to look carefully at the white blurs those are snowflakes falling fast and furious from the grey/white sky.



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A teaser :)

The soccer season ends next week. Deirdre's team has been unbeaten this season. I hope I didn't just jinx the rest of playoffs. I, of course, have not seen any of the games as they are all on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This week was an added game on … Monday—the other day I have class. BUT next week is fall break at the U, so no matter what day the game(s) is on, I can go. Hopefully it won't be on Wednesday though, I have Service Unit meeting and since I won't be there next month (Parent/Teacher Conferences), I need to be there next week. AND I am the SU Director and in charge of our next activity.

All the years of going to soccer games and I wait until most likely her last year in soccer to try and get pictures. Not only that, but I have to recruit Jeff into taking said pictures. D has played goalie the majority of this season, which I think is a responsible position. She has always played defense and goalie a few times, but in the last six games at least she has been THE goalie.

About to drop kick the ball. I think that is our silver van in the background. :)

Watching the action at the other end of the field. The tournament has been at Wasatch Academy's fields and the coach and girls hate their fields.

This was just a teaser for everyone. I have tons to "report." I'll be back soon.

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Paint!

My whole house smells like paint. Jeff put two coats of primer on our new sitting room today. Next up is the grasscloth, assuming it's still any good and that I still like it. Or perhaps the floor. Really I have no idea what part is next. It might be window sashes and sills and moldings for the doors. There is still a long way to go. But slowly, like the tortoise, it is happening.

The east wall with its two coats. That is door to the "hall" bath. There is no longer a hall, instead each room upstairs has its own bathroom.

Alice checking out the furniture in the sitting room. Lots of sunlight in this room.

Jeff painting the inside of the closet. This will be "his" closet when everything is finished.

More of Jeff painting. I don't mind painting, but if someone else is willing to do it, that is just wonderful.

The south wall with its two coats, plus the draped couch and cabinet, which doesn't have a home anymore.

Well, I'm off to pick up D from the airport. This was the last time (I hope) that she flies unaccompanied. Next time she is on her own.

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Happy Anniversary—to us!

It's very early in the morning on August 27. Today is our anniversary. Twenty-one years! We have our ups and downs like everyone else, but we're doing okay. Since I won't be home until sometime after 9:00 tonight (my class goes from 5-8), I figured I'd better get this up now. Below is the card I made for Jeff. I used our wedding colors of forest green, soft yellow, and cream. For all the exact details on the card you'll have to visit the other blog.

The outside. I tried to keep it simple.

The inside, slightly blurring, again very simple.

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The new craft room

Along with all the changes that have been happening upstairs there have been a few downstairs as well. No one really expected that we could only do one project at a time did they? So, my new craft room is pretty much finished. Okay the border isn't hung and the walls probably have to be repainted, but the furniture is where it is going to stay and it is usable. The first picture is what you see when you walk into the room. I basically stood in the entrance to take the picture. Yes, that is my family from 12 plus years ago in that picture. We've been hiding it in the former guest room since we had it taken. No one knows why.


Like my punch bars? I borrowed the idea from Erin, who I guess borrowed it from someone profiled in Stampin' Success. I only know this because when I commented to someone about how much I loved her punch storage, that person was really nasty about letting me know exactly where Erin had "stolen" the idea from. Some of you may know who I am referring to, but I'm certainly not going to state names.


This picture looks back toward the entrance to the room. Jeff finally hung (okay, I hadn't really asked him until D knocked the whole thing onto the floor including 71 ink pads) my 72 ink pad and ribbon holder for me. It is full and I have my craft pads (those that aren't Whisper White and Very Vanilla) and a couple of duplicates and retired (from '05) ink pads stored. This is certainly not all of my ribbon either. The dresser has my Big Shot, Cuttlebug, cutter, and a holder for 8 1/2 x 11 paper (mainly construction and white) on top of it. In the dresser drawers are my smaller cuttlebug folders and Big Shot dies. Plus it holds crafting supplies: pipe cleaners, wooden spools, pony beads, etc. Yes, Rudolf Nureyev and Michelle Phillips are wearing almost no clothing in the picture in the background. It is a movie poster for Valentino from 1977. Nureyev was my favorite male dancer before he died of AIDS about 10 years ago. His death is not the reason he isn't my favorite anymore just that new dancers have come along since then.


The colorful drawer unit used to hold most of the items I needed for Scouts, but now that we don't hold meetings in my dining room (YEAH!), I rearranged the items. D and I cleaned it out and moved some of the things to the dresser, some to the trash, and rearranged what was left. I also have drawers used for stamping items like the designer paper sampler, the punch sampler (thanks Erin for picking that up for me at Convention), and the ribbon sampler. Next to it holds the small tote with the items I use while working all the things that don't fit in my Pampered Chef tool holder. It sits on my desk and is in constant use. I deliberately left the top shelf empty to hold things while I'm working and don't want to put away right that moment. I also have my cd player, two Stack & Store caddys right where I need them. My desk is small, but it pulls out to another five feet or so if needed.


This final picture is of the stamp sets that have been labeled. In May's (I think that month) Stampin' Success a woman was profiled who labeled all her stamp sets. So I've started. Most of the retired sets do have red dots on them and all the holiday stamps are labeled. I also read online about people who photograph what each stamp set looks like and put the photographs in binders. This way they don't have to pick up each stamp set to figure out which one they want. A clever idea that will eventually happen.


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2nd place

Softball has finished for the year. We took second place in the Lion's Tournament on June 27. The game should have started at 8:00 p.m., instead we didn't get started until 8:50. The officials called time at 10:18. We lost to an accelerated dominated Manti team 16-7. We had beaten them before in Manti, but this time we just weren't getting hits.

Preparing to hit at the Manti game on June 23. This was the game that we should have won, but due in part to the idiotic ump (see no face mask) we didn't.

D playing 1st base. This was her usual position this season.At the Lion's Tournament in the first game against Gunnison. It was a close game that we won 8-7.Waiting at third to steal home. We stole a ton of bases. The other teams didn't like that too much. We stole the field twice at Manti in the game we lost on base on balls. Twice!!

Deirdre getting her 2nd place trophy from Lion's President Rasmussen.

The whole team that participated in the Lion's tournament. Back row: Jeff, Amy S. (ass't coach), D., middle row: Hannah S. (all the way from California), Olivia M. (holding up her cousin H.S.), Nikysha R., Bailee N., Savannah P., Sarah J., Taylor N., front row: Hannah O., Megan J., and Shonacee S. Missing are Jessica R., and Riley M. Neither were at the tournament.

June has ended and the summer is now half over. On to working on the house and getting ready for a new school year. Finishing out this post is a picture of "Miss Queen of the House" Greymalkin.

Oven cleaning

I have banished everyone to the basement. Yesterday when Jeff cooked the roast beef for his birthday he commented that the oven could do with cleaning. So, I turned on the oven to clean this afternoon. The whole upstairs is pretty much full of smoke. Luckily not enough to set off the smoke detectors. We have windows open (it's 20º outside), fans going, and some unhappy cats. Greymalkin came downstairs crying, but when I followed her back upstairs to bring her back down, she hid. Hope we never have a fire where I have to find her!

Jeff has put in the studs for the new door to what is now the hall bathroom. After we are finished with everything, this bathroom will open into our new room. I decided not to go to school today. So, I am organizing "my" room. This used to be our guest room, but we don't have guests and I need a place to scrapbook, stamp, and do homework. I need to bring down a desk that is upstairs. First I have to convince Jeff to help me bring it down. It's pretty heavy. It was built in the late 40's or 50's when a lot of furniture did double duty. This desk has three small side drawers and knee space, but it also has a pull out table with ugly rattan on it. So it's a desk/table combination. D has a desk/dresser that was my grandmère's. It is a secretary type desk with three drawers below. When the top is up it takes up almost no room, when the top is down it is the desk's writing surface. It is from the same era. I believe these were built to accommodate the many people who were living in small homes and apartments after WWII.

Yet another birthday!

Today, Jeff is 46! Happy birthday dear.

When we were pregnant with D, the only request Jeff had besides a healthy baby was for a different delivery day than his birthday. Bad enough that it is so close to Christmas, he just didn't want to share it. You know I don't blame him. Until family members started to die of old age, we had quite the holiday birthdays going. Here's the list:

• Dec. 15: Carl Gassen (my brother-in-law's father, died March 2006, in his 90's)
• Dec. 17: Lillian Coryell (my father's mother, died Aug. 2003, 91 1/2)
• Dec. 18: Deirdre
• Dec. 24: Grandma Dottie (my mother-in-law's mother, she's been gone for awhile. Awful of me, but I don't remember when she passed away. After D was born, I do know that. Pretty sure she was in her 90's too)
• Dec. 25: Brian Harris (our nephew on Jeff's side, Phyllis' son)
• Dec. 28: Jeff
• Dec. 29: Charlie Carney (my stepmother-in-law, I think that's her birthday, awful again of me, 20 years and I'm still not sure)
• Dec. 29: Linda Spencer (my cousin Jim's wife, again I'm not positive, but pretty sure)
• Dec. 31: Fred Spencer (my cousin)

Quite the collection of birthdays there in a two week time. Plus in January are four more: 5th: Nicole Spencer (daughter of Linda), 18th: Jim Spencer (husband of Linda), 28th: Barbara Spencer (mother of Jim and my aunt obviously), and 30th (I'm pretty sure on the date and don't feel like going upstairs to check my planner): John Carney (brother to Jeff).

The home remodel is moving along. Jeff has been stringing speaker wire the last few days. The new sound system will be on the south side of the new room. Wire needs to go to the speakers in the living room and the kitchen, plus the speakers in the new room. We have the most amazing speakers in our kitchen! I love being able to put on music and have it play in there, but not be blaring through-out the house so that I can hear it in the kitchen. Right now they aren't attached to anything, as we are listening to everything off of the TV sound system. Sounds complicated right?! You see Jeff builds speakers too. So, we have amazing speakers in our living room and we had speakers in our old sitting room for the TV. Now that the TV is in the living room :( all are connected to the receiver for the TV. But the kitchen ones are still (or were until today) connected to the receiver for the stereo system. Sorry, I just don't seem to be able to explain it properly.

Back to wiring: almost all of the electrical is finished. Jeff thinks we can hang drywall on Tuesday. Yippee! So, I'll be off to school tomorrow. The semester ends the Friday after we return (idiotic, I know) and I am nowhere near being ready with assignments to grade. I also need to prepare some for next semester.

D spent Friday and part of yesterday at Sarah's. They had a sleep-over and played Nintendo DS a lot. Sarah invited another girl over, Savannah, and the three had a blast. She has been pretty much reading and playing new DS games since Christmas. Last night we played Harry Potter Clue. It's a little different from the traditional game. For instance, you have to make your final accusation in Dumbledore's office. So if several people think they know the answer, it's a race to see who can get to the office faster. We played two games and if I remember correctly, D won both of them. We had a lot of fun; it's been awhile since we played a family game.

And the remodel continues

The latest update. I don't have better pictures right now. I haven't taken any (you know gone over the weekend) lately. The new wall is up (just studs right now). The old hall wall from the back of our bedroom closet is partial gone. We walk through the old closet to get to our bedroom. It's sort of a maze right now. The electrical has been a problem for Jeff as he tries to figure out what wires go where and power what. As stated before, our electrician wasn't the best. It's pretty exciting to see the way the area is shaping up.

And here is Jeff relaxing on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. He worked all weekend on the house, but had to read The Color Purple for class on Monday. After only four and a half years Rocky and Greymalkin have declared a slight truce. We gave Rocky a reprieve right before Thanksgiving. He actually has perked up.

On to me:
I was accepted into The University of Utah. My classes start on Jan. 14. I will be taking two classes Spring semester: one on Wednesday and the other on Thursday. On days that D and I have gymnastic meets than I will travel up to SLC three days in a row. I haven't figured out how I will make it through the next couple of years, but somehow we will manage. When I leave school on Tuesdays, I will have to be prepared for classes on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I need to move Scouts to Tuesdays. I will miss Service Unit meetings unless they are moved, and worse I'll miss Stamp Club for Feb., Mar., and April., maybe even May depending on my finals schedule. I can do this—at least this is what I keep telling myself. Wish our family luck for the next two years.

Twilight—the series! and more

Deirdre has now read the series at least three times. It might be four. She insisted that I too read the series. I capitulated and read. I didn't like Twilight, but continued to read to find out if Bella actually became a vampire and low and behold eventually she did. I liked New Moon the most, followed by Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, and finally Twilight. I thought if they said "I love you" one more time in that book, I was seriously going to smack someone.

Deirdre went to the movie for the third time today—again with Sarah. Now, I am not a movie person to begin with, but the pictures just do not make me want to see this movie.

Remodeling is going slowly, but steadily. We have garage lights and living room lights back, and two new walls! I will post pics soon. Jeff is recovering from the flu. Both he and D have a cough. Once they get them, I hear coughing for weeks.

D and I will be heading to Trefoil Ranch this weekend for a mother/daughter Christmas bonding with Girl Scouts. We will spend Saturday night in Salt Lake, because we have tickets for the Nutcracker on Sunday. We have been going to see Ballet West's production of The Nutcracker since D was four. We usually have pretty close seats. Last year, they were the front row. Jeff has been a couple of times, but the ballet is usually a mother/daughter activity. We do season tickets and have a good time.

Happy Thanksgiving & Construction messes

The picture on top is what the living room/hall/foyer looked like on Tuesday. The bottom picture is what it looked like yesterday when I got home at 6ish. We have no electricity in part of the living room, dining room, or kitchen. Luckily all three of those rooms do have some power in the plugs. Also the appliances are on different breakers. Our electrician was an idiot, I believe. He had to come back twice after we moved in and it would have been more times, if Jeff hadn't just figured it out on his own. But we are talking electricity—the one that kills if not used properly.

Today, Jeff has been dealing with attic insulation. The drywall on part of the ceiling had to be taken down, as well as, some 2 x 4's. This means a ton of insulation has fallen to the floor. So far, he is at 10 bags of insulation to be put in the dumpster. At some point either today or tomorrow we are hanging new drywall on the ceiling. Luckily it is only a few pieces that need to go up. Although, I think I prefer hanging the ceiling rather than walls. I don't remember, I have deleted the Thanksgiving of 1995 and summer of 1996 from my brain. When we decided to try for a baby, we also decided to finish the basement. So, the summer before Deirdre was born, we drywalled. Hard to believe that was 12 years ago.

This is the first remodel that we have done that doesn't have us thinking "resale" value. We might have really changed how much our house is worth by deleting an upstairs bedroom, but at the same time we are making the remaining two rooms larger. But we aren't selling until D leaves for college, if then. Who knows what the market will be like. No matter what we sell the house for, it will most likely be more than we built it for even with the additional costs of the remodeled kitchen, both upstairs bathrooms, the finished basement, and now this one.

I have a pumpkin pie baking in the oven as I type this. I love pumpkin pie! I like pecan pie even more, but D doesn't so it's pumpkin for us. We are having Cornish Hens, stuffing, mashed yams (mashed potatoes using a yam), peas, maybe spinach souffle (I had to buy it when I saw Albertson's had it), rolls, gravy, and pie with real whipped cream. Jeff doesn't really like turkey and D hates it, so Cornish Hens it is. Cornish Hens are easier to cook than a turkey anyway. I am also about to make the honey butter for the scones for tomorrow's bake sale in Manti. I have the dough thawing for the scones. I also have Rice-Crispy treats, brownies, and maybe sugar cookies to make. This is one of our fundraisers for Girl Scouts. Besides a small profit from cookie sales, as a Service Unit, we do two big fundraisers: the Manti bake sale, and during pageant time we clean the tables at the "food court" and hand out the Sanpete Messenger's pageant insert to the people entering the temple grounds. The majority of girls in our Service Unit live in Manti. As a matter of fact, our Junior troop there lost more than half its girls to aging out (They should have come to mine, but didn't reregister.), the troop was down to about 7 girls. She is back up to 17!! I can barely get 5 to come to our meetings.

Well have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I'm off to clean and cook.

Violin

All of the sixth graders have to take either orchestra, band, or chorus; Deirdre chose orchestra. When she moved into seventh grade, she stayed in orchestra. She chose to play the violin. I have no idea how difficult it is in comparison to other instruments having never played anything except the recorder (badly) and "banging" on the piano. I do know that many children (students) play the flute. Three of my Girl Scout troop girls are playing the flute.

With my tin-ear, or whatever it is, I can sort of tell when D can't hit a note correctly, but other than that I have no clue. I have almost no rhythm sense. When I had bad days during my dancing years, my teacher would have to clap the beat for me. When we did solo work across the floor I had to count from the start to the end of the entire group demonstrating. This meant counting to eight for five minutes or so. Anyone reading this who was a student when I did the Junior Prom will now understand why every song had to have a strong beat. If it didn't, I couldn't pick it out and teach the dance.

Deirdre is one of four new violinists in seventh grade, so they are "taught" by an eighth grader. Clarissa must have the patience of a saint to help these seventh graders. She is awesome fierce on the soccer field too! We love Clarissa!! And she lives around the corner!!! (I'm liking exclamation points tonight!!)

Deirdre is following in her great-grandmother's footsteps by picking up the violin. My grandmother played until she got married. My great-aunt, her sister, played the piano and could have been a concert pianist, but in 1924 women didn't do that. They got married instead. In hindsight, she should have been the concert pianist; she would have been much happier. My cousin, Jim, also played the violin. I always wanted to play and instrument, but there wasn't money for my ballet lessons ($1200 a year+), and instrument lessons. Plus, it wasn't like here in Ephraim where someone knows someone who teaches piano or another instrument. The suburbs of Chicago are a lot harder, surprisingly, to find teachers of instruments.

Right now, Jeff is helping D with her timing on "Ode to Joy". She has the notes down, but her timing is lacking. Some of her lack of timing is that she is not 100% sure of the notes yet, but as she improves, so will her timing.

We Did It!

Today is our 20th anniversary. We did absolutely nothing!!!! School has started and as usual it's the end of the month.

I remember when we lived in Chicago and raided the laundry jars for money to buy food at the end of August. With Jeff not getting paid from June until the end of September, money was extremely tight. At least now we have credit cards to help us when money is tight. Of course that's probably why money is tight today (as in the present).

We spent our anniversary making decisions about D's future (see above). At least it was family oriented.

I do have sad thoughts about Jane and Rich. This would have been 30 years for them last June. I always thought families were supposed to increase in size, not decrease.

Rich's birthday would be in a week or so—Sept. 5 and Jane's on Sept. 23. I really hate the month of September. Birthdays and death anniversaries abound. On the bright side, my parents will be celebrating 44 years of marriage on Sept. 19. My mother-in-law's birthday and brother-in-law's birthdays are also in September, the 26 and 30 respectively. Hard to believe that Jordan will be 19!

Well here's to hoping for twenty more years.

Can you believe?

It is hard to believe that June is almost over. The Ephraim Lions Tournament is happening right now for the softball team. Jeff's team finished the regular season at 4-4. If the Mt. Pleasant Lions Tournament is added then the season becomes 5-6. Still more wins than the girls have seen in the last few years.
June has been a month of sickness. Kate had Bronchitis from the end of May through the beginning of June. Then the stomach flu or Rotovirus hit everyone the middle of June. Deirdre ended up not doing the second session of swimming lessons because of it. Although, she did pass all but the butterfly in her first session of level 5. She hasn't taken swimming lessons for at least two years, so a repeat of level 5 was necessary.
The girls in Kate's Girl Scout troop have picked their Bronze Award project: the Ephraim Softball complex. The Bronze Award is the highest award a junior girl scout can earn. The girls have to have the project completed before the end of September when they bridge up to the next level—Cadettes.
We need to add some pictures to this blog to make it more interesting. Well that is all for now. The next game in the Lions Tournament is Friday at 5:45.

Wow we have a blog

4/29
News flash!
Kate no longer is the yearbook adviser starting in August 2008! Hallaluh!!! This has been an interesting Spring here in Central Utah. One day we have 70 degree weather followed by snow.

Jeff is coaching the city-league softball team this summer. The first practice is tomorrow. There are 17 girls on the team with 4 sixth graders and the rest are 5th grade.

Kate just spent Friday and Saturday with her Junior Girl Scout troop at Trefoil Ranch in Provo Canyon. After a night of not sleeping very well, and standing almost all day teaching classes or serving meals, it was no wonder that her back froze up on Sunday. Between the back (which has been a problem for years) and her knee (which probably need surgery this summer), it's amazing that she actually gets out of bed each day.

Deirdre is busy with testing at school and learning the May Pole dance at school. Ephraim Elementary is one of the few in the area that still has a may pole dance for the fifth graders. She gets her braces on May 5 and ironically enough is looking forward to it. She is quite tired of the retainer that she has been wearing for the last year and looks forward to not having to deal with one for 18 months.

Less than four weeks and D and Kate are out of school! Yipee!! Jeff is on finals week right now and graduation is Saturday. Lucky duck!