Art or Graffiti? You Be the Judge

This week, we received many gifts that were clearly works of art and one surprise Eliza created in the backyard that straddled the line between art and graffiti. 

On Tuesday, Mike accompanied Hallie to her surgical consultation with Dr. Billy. She will go in for surgery on May 3. Hallie really enjoyed meeting Dr. Billy and is more excited than ever to have surgery.

After we got back, we picked up Eliza from John and Carrie’s. Carrie had painted Hallie something inspirational in honor of her journey of change. The quotation is from a talk Hallie gave in sacrament back in March.

Landon just loves to do his homework. It’s never a struggle to get him to focus. On another note, we live in Bizarro world.

Mike and Hallie celebrated his birthday with breakfast at the Waypoint Cafe. We hit upon the great idea of going to breakfast instead of dinner for a date when we realized both kids are in school and we didn’t have to pay for a babysitter. Breakfast was yummy, and it was great weather to sit outside and watch the helicopters and airplanes take off and land.

On Thursday morning, Las Posas School had a thank you breakfast for parent volunteers. The kids sang cute songs and presented the secretary with a vase as she is retiring. Oh, and Hallie is going to be PTA secretary next year. We have not been 100% fond of everything about our school, so we hope that by being more involved we can help make some needed changes.

Later, after she took Mike to work, Hallie visited with her mom and Sawyer. Later in the day, she and Eliza went for a visit to her friend Shirley and then on a walk with her other support group friends and the kids. The trail at Santa Rosa Regional Park has become a great walking path for Hallie and the kids. Hallie introduced it to her friends, and they enjoyed it just as much.

Eliza and Hallie are still walking Roxy the dog. This little job has been such a big component in Hallie’s weight loss. Knowing that, Hallie’s friend Shirley gave her a dog for her to walk in the hospital after surgery. Meet Trixi Coconut. We will thank Hallie’s friend Libby for the first name and Shirley for the second name. The kids always want to steal Trixi, so Hallie has to keep hiding her.

Not Trixi Coconut

This is Trixi Coconut

During the week, Mike has, with a little help from the kids, put together his TARDIS LEGO set (all those capital letters!). The kids have enjoyed playing with it. Eliza makes little social scenes with the characters, and Landon has them going, “Pew! Pew! Pew!”

Along with several members of our church, we participated in a day of service to the community at Casa Pacifica. We did some weeding and cleaning up of an area around some of the homes for residents. The kids always enjoy getting out and getting dirty, even when stinging nettles come along to put a sting on things.

We received word today that the boundaries of the wards in our stake will be realigned. Mike’s already drawing new borders in his head. We really enjoy our ward. We have also gone through this process before, so if we know nothing else, we know there will be some significant upheavals both geographic and emotional. Joy, joy. 

Eliza, our resident artist, made some more work in the backyard. This work included making her mark on the pergola and newly installed back fence. Good thing we have lots of elbow grease to clean up the mess.

Nice! 

Not so nice

Oh, and we have lots of lettuce. Somehow that stuff is growing quite nicely. There’s a pepper plant and a tomato plant in there somewhere too.