May 6-13:
Mike spent the first four days of last week at a spring
seminar for new faculty. He appreciates the level of thoughtfulness and support
provided at the seminar, and we look forward to continued success from his
efforts.
We had a gymnastics parent meeting on Monday with Eliza’s
coaches. She’s continuing to grow in her skills, and she’ll work toward
advancing to Level 3 over the summer.
Fergus has decided that outdoor living suits him. We have
flea treated him, and we hope he keeps himself out of trouble. He seems to have
no trouble finding food out in the wild, and near-daily “gifts” of gutted
vermin provide endless morbid fascination for our and the neighbors’ kids. Mike
has taken to calling Fergus a stone cold killer and Hallie to calling him a
lion.
Mike paid Hallie a visit when she got her iron infusion. It's not so often we get a chance to just visit like that in the middle of the day. Too bad Hallie has yet to feel the energizing effects of that iron.
Grandpa O. got the kids a magic wand for use with the TV.
When Mike showed it off to the kids, they geeked out. They were so excited to
try it out for themselves that Mike didn’t get much of a chance to show them
how it works. Needless to say, the TV got turned off and on several times as
they figured out other commands.
Landon got his eyes checked on Thursday. He’s a bit
far-sighted, so he’ll be joining the rest of our bespeckled crew, at least for
viewing TV and the whiteboard at school. Later he got a haircut. The boy’s
going to look sharp!
Later in the week he got his haircut.
He also had the chance to visit with the grandparents and
Alie. Dwight and Marilyn will be moving up to Utah soon, and their recently
sold home is starting to look more bare even than when Carly and Shad and the
cousins moved.
After working in the morning on Saturday, Mike spent the
rest of the weekend visiting with his parents and Alie. On Mother’s Day Sunday
after church, Emily and her girls came to visit. This is the first time Mike
has seen cute little Jocelyn. All three of Emily’s girls are bright, and Laura
seems to be following right in Alie’s footsteps (quite literally – Alie took
her out to play embracing her with an arm around the shoulder. So adorable!).
Meanwhile, our kids at home gave Hallie a run for her money
on Mother’s Day. Covering each other head to toe with marker is not quite as
endearing as breakfast in bed. Hallie puts up with a lot with these two. Mike
wishes upon them children just as full of spirit as they are (and he means it
in the best sense possible. No, really!).
May 14-20:
Mike returned home, Hallie had her birthday, and Eliza had a
meet. Plus, the cat brought home larger prey. Gross.
Monday – The three amigos headed off to school and work
while Mike headed to the Burbank airport to head home.
Eliza and Hallie ditched school early to head to a doctor's
appointment. On their way, they stopped at a yummy food truck called Porky's
Poutine. Who doesn't need a little fries, gravy, and cheese for lunch? When the
girls arrived at the doctor, they realized that they were actually 30 minutes
late to their appointment. Oops!!! But being late sure was yummy!
The girls got home just in time to pick up Landon, get his
stuff together for gymnastics, and go babysit Lily. It sounded like a good idea
to go out to a park with Lily, but crazy winds came up and then rains came down.
No park for Hallie and Lily.
Eliza made Mike a fun welcome back card and drew him a picture of his arms. Maybe we have a budding heraldic artist in residence!
She also wanted Mike to show off what he wears to graduations. Mike's not sure if she's ever seen him decked out in his regalia before.
Tuesday – There is no adults to work the lunch room this
week, so Hallie has put on her "old hat" and has started working in
the lunch room again. Hallie will admit this is a lot easier than lunch duty in
California, except for on days where taco meat or blueberries are served.
Today Hallie did something she had never done before, and
that was to go to a high school in another city to present with a birth mom who
she had never met before to students about adoption. The kids were super
respectful, and the two ladies did awesome (or so said the lady who invited
Hallie).
Both kids had gymnastics in the evening.
Wednesday – This day started out as a regular day. Regular
meaning not full of activities that are over scheduled or are back to back.
During work, one of the teachers was showing the kids in her class how to write
an acrostic, and she used Hallie as an example, but Ms. McNab didn't want her
picture taken.
Hallie thought it would be great to spend the afternoon
getting Eliza ready for the upcoming gymnastics meet. Well, Hallie made the
mistake of walking Landon into gymnastics. Once she walked in, she did not walk
out for another four hours. Tonight she not only babysit Lily, but she also
babysat three other kids. You know, at $2.50/hr per child sometimes babysitting
is not on Hallie's list of things to do. But whatever. No one died, and we all
made it to 7:30, barely.
Thursday – Today was the day Hallie chose to celebrate her
birthday at work. There is an amazing lady at gymnastics who made cake pops for
Hallie to hand out at school. After work Hallie spent a bit of time for herself
with a pedicure. Then it was off to pick up Landon, so we could go and get his
new glasses. The week before Landon got a flat top haircut, and he looks super
sharp with the new glasses and the haircut. We headed home to get gymnastics
gear ready for both kids, pick up Eliza, and then headed to gymnastics.
This evening Lily and Hallie joined Mike and many other
faculty from the McKay School of Ed at a picnic at Kiwanis Park in Provo. It
had rained on Hallie's way over, but thank goodness the rain stayed away. Lily
was amazing, and the food was super yummy! We got back just in time to pick
Eliza up from gymnastics. Early to bed for everyone as the next day was Eliza's
state meet in Layton.
Friday – Eliza had a hair appointment for her meet and as usual looked cute as a button when she was finished. Okay, we just might be biased.
Eliza and Hallie picked up the boys and headed north to
Layton for her State meet. The girls on her team try so hard and are so
amazingly fearless as they do their best each time they go out. This meet was
no different, but for whatever reason we had a few more stumbles than usual and
a few more lower scores. But you know what? None of the girls care. They smiled
and pranced around and just had a ton of fun, and that is all that matters when
it comes down to it.
After the meet we ate at the Habit and did a bit of shopping
at Trader Joe's. The kids played until way past dark. We love our neighbors.
Saturday – Mike and Hallie watched the Royal Wedding in bed via
our tablet. Technology is amazing!!! We went back to sleep, and Hallie woke up
just in time to get to her hair appointment. Hallie was running late enough
that breakfast consisted of an amazing piece of birthday cake her friend Serena
made. Lemon raspberry. What is there not to love? Then with her birthday money,
she took her new shoes and new fitbit to the new recreation center and spent
time on the elliptical machine. While she was out, one of our great neighbors
invited the kids to go kayaking with their family, so Hallie got home just in
time to slap the sunscreen on the kids and send them out the door with some
snacks. The kids had a blast! When they came home, they played outside until
dark, again. School gets out in one week and we have a feeling we won't see
them very often with Utah’s long summer twilight.
Sunday – Play, church, choir, dinner, play/visit from a ward
member and friend and bedtime. It is late and it all starts again in less than
12 hours. The cat brought home a dead pigeon. The kids wrote him a note in
sidewalk chalk: “Fergus, No!!” Good night!!!!!
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