Of Good Report

My mom was blessed with good friends throughout her life. One childhood friendship that continued throughout adulthood was with Kathleen Child Card, aka Kay. I have fond memories both of our families getting together for birthdays, holidays, weekend excursions, etc. I even babysat for Kay. Kay was a member of "Club," a group of high school classmates that would get together monthly to laugh ,eat, play games, and give and receive support from one another. This Club lasted for years. It eventually fizzled down to a couple of times a year including when Kay was in town. I currently have no idea if they still get together at all.  Kay and her husband Brian drove to Utah to attend my mom's funeral. We asked her to play the organ for the congregational hymns and to accompany the grandchildren as they sang "Together Forever." The only scheduled practice with Kay was to be right before the funeral. Kay and Brian were staying with their son, Kendall and his family, in ...

Per Alpine School District policy, I have ten days to email the school to excuse any absences or the student will receive no credit for that class. An "NC" shows up on their report card immediately. I kind of hate it. Once the ten days have passed the NC will need to be made up by either going into the school early, staying late, or showing up on a Saturday. There is a fee for both the after school and Saturday sessions, but the early morning is free.  There was this one time when Taylor missed a class due to an orthodontist appointment and the ten days allotted for excusing it closed its doors. I rarely went with him to his appointments this past year because he is a big boy and drives a car and so I didn't need to go. His appointment was on the calendar and he reminded me, probably a couple of times to make the excuse, but I never sent the email. He came to me feeling a bit testy, understandably, because now he would have to make an appearance at "attendance sch...

The calendar for the day was pretty full, but not unusually so. It required Destry and I to "divide and conquer" so to speak. First and foremost it was Estelle's 14th birthday! We had early celebrations in anticipation for her actual day of birth's schedule.  We had a family party a few weeks ago when we also celebrated for Sarah. On Friday she went shopping with a group of friends and had a lot of fun doing that.  She didn't get to choose her breakfast because Destry and I planned a breakfast that morning for the kids in our trek group. Only one showed up which was a little disappointing, but not surprising. There is a lot going on this month. Estelle wanted crepes and Destry wanted to make his signature breakfast sandwiches. The good news is she will still get crepes and a chance to make birthday celebrations last a little longer.  Estelle had her last studio dance competition in Roy and Destry spent the day with her at that. She did great, they went to lunc...

Over the course of the past few weeks we have had several small earthquakes. Some of them imperceptible, others were enough to wake us up. While there has been no damage or anything that is overly concerning to me--check out Facebook to find plenty of people who feel otherwise--I felt like it was time to revisit our 72 hour emergency kits. It was a good thing I did. The clothes that were in the backpacks for the kids would have fit no one. Even Spencer's would not have fit Sarah. We had clothes ranging in sizes from 3-8. Sarah is a 12. The food and medication had expired years ago. The glow sticks had lost their illumination and the coloring pages are no longer relevant.  I threw away the unusable items and compiled the rest for redistribution. I made a couple trips to the store to replace the discarded items and planned to have a FHE to assemble them and to talk about an action plan should we ever need one.  Last night we set up everything assembly line style and everyone...

Emma has struggled with friends for the past several years. Some of her childhood friends either moved away or moved on. Some friends did not have the same standards she did and  so they drifted apart. For about a year she has been almost friendless. She has friends at church and she would talk to kids at school, but she had no one she could hang out with on the weekends. I had been praying for her for quite some time, but a couple of months ago we decided to fast and pray together.  In December she started a job at "Chubby's" it is a local burger and shake joint. It has pretty good food and is close by. Spencer worked there for a few months when he was in high school. The owners are cool, they are closed on Sundays, and the kids are home by 10 on weeknights. Those are all pluses to this job.  When I dropped Emma off for her first shift. Ashlynn was also walking in the door. Ashlynn is a girl who became somewhat of a friend at the end of ninth grade, but they didn...

I have six throw pillows in our great room. Four on the couch and two on the love seat. They are different and they compliment each other; I like to have them arranged a certain way, but I'm not stressed if they're not. They are often thrown on the wrong couch or the floor or heaped up in a jumble. I now know why my mother refused to have them. They look cute for a few hours if I fluff them up before I go to bed, but by morning scripture time they are a mess. I just fix them from time to time throughout the day or leave them as they are.  Last night we discovered that Estelle, who has been struggling emotionally, has just kicked it up a notch. I have been feeling very helpless as to how to help her. She doesn't really want to talk to me and is often rude to me. We have been considering counseling and this event just confirmed the need for it.  I hate watching my kids struggle so much!  Destry and I were talking to some of the kids while Estelle was in the shower....

My usually compliant, loving, easy-going daughter just told me that I was annoying, weird, and that I was embarrassing her. We were the only ones in the room, I might add, so I'm not sure if she was embarrassed that the sofa or the sheetrock was listening in.  She didn't want to do her homework or fold her laundry; she wanted to go hang out with a friend. I was encouraging her to do both. Incidentally, she will be 12 in two and a half months and she has a pimple on her chin.  She eventually got the required laundry and homework done, but sadly her friend was unavailable. So she cleaned her room and practiced her viola. Bonus! A mere few weeks ago, after witnessing a large amount of teenage angst coming from a certain older sister, she promised me that she would always be nice to me. I told her I would hold her to it. She already forgot.  In the evening she snuggled with me on the couch and said she wanted to stay there forever. I will cherish those sweet moment...