Our week in Review

It has been another busy week here at our house. We got to go to Boise last weekend for Mother's Day and enjoyed our visit there. Monday I went in to work, Evelyn had dance and for Family Home Evening we went over to the Bones to can some pickled carrots. I know what you're thinking, but if you like dill pickles, you'd probably like these. We canned 25 lbs. of carrots and ended up with about 20 pints and 7 quarts of carrots all together. As soon as we got home, Lydia threw up and spent the rest of the night throwing up about every hour or so. We're not sure if she picked up the bug from family in Boise or at school. I eventually got tired of going up and down the stairs and just slept on the couch downstairs.

Tuesday morning we got the 2 healthy girls off to school and then went back to bed until about 11. Shawn wasn't feeling too well either, but had to go into work for a little while. He did come home early though. We did borrow a carpet cleaner to get the "chili" out of the carpet and ran a load of laundry.

Wednesday Lydia was feeling better and was able to go back to school. We went in to school and watched Felicity and the fifth graders square dance. Boy, that looks exhausting, but was fun to watch. After I helped in Lydia's class, I came home and Shawn came home soon thereafter, not feeling well still. After school, Lydia had piano lessons and I had a presidency meeting. Lissy made us an oven-baked pancake from the recipe book she had checked out for dinner which was perfect for unsettled tummies.

Thursday was Evelyn's class party - a multi-cultural celebration. They have been studying different countries and having guest speakers come in the last couple months, so this was a culmination of all of that. Each child gave a report on their country (Evelyn did Russia), then we did some activities from Mexico, Russia and Holland and got to stamp our passports. We watched a video of the class' activities throughout the year and then had refreshments of food from different countries - chips and salsa, sausages, fortune cookies, some cucumber seaweed rolls and some Inca Cola and lemonade to drink. After school the girls went to activity days and got to paint some ceramic statues of Jesus. They were very excited and love to show everyone their statues and display them proudly. Lydia's is on her dresser and Felicity put hers in the living room. Evelyn and I went to help and got to paint 2 statues for girls that weren't able to go. Evelyn was disappointed that she couldn't take home a statue, so I told her I had a statue at home she could have. I picked up a little figurine of a girl praying at a Seagull book a few years ago and put it in my "gift box" thinking I would give it to one of the girls some day. But, I only had one and that didn't seem fair, so it's just been sitting there. This was the perfect opportunity - now everyone has a special statue of their own. Thursday night Felicity and Lydia had dance, and I made my library run.

Friday I volunteered in Lissy's class, sold snacks during lunch for the PTO at school and then came home to get ready for company. Shawn came home to help with the grocery shopping and cleaning too. Having company is great for 2 reasons: 1) We get to spend time with people we love and 2) My house gets cleaner than it has been for weeks!

My brother and sister-in-law came and stayed Friday night on their way to our cousin's wedding. It was great to visit with them and we got a fun little game of golf in. It's so nice to have some pretty weather so we can go out and enjoy things like that. Felicity also had her first paid babysitting job (other than her sisters) and babysat her 2 cousins - age 2 1/2 and almost 1 while we golfed. She even had to change 2 messy diapers - how's that for an initiation? After golf, we came home and had tacos for dinner and then Gina and I ran to the grocery store. I also downloaded some of my old primary chorister files for Gina to go through to help with her new calling. After that, we played a little Lego RockBand. Thanks for coming and playing guys!

Saturday after breakfast, we all left about the same time. Bryan and Gina left for Logan. Shawn went to Karate. And I took the girls to the dance studio for their first rehearsal for their program. They are putting on a show called "Wonderland" this year which should be a lot of fun - it is basically Alice in Wonderland. Sometime this week Shawn also helped me make 20 giant poster-sized playing cards for the dance production. We had to make the ace-10 cards in spades and clubs. That's a lot of vinyl stickers! Evelyn is a jazzy little cat and Lissy and Lydia are mushrooms doing disco. After lunch, we got to work in the yard. Lissy and Shawn mowed the lawn while the 2 other girls and I started weeding the garden. I decided it just needs some round-up, a weed-whacker and tilling since the weeds are so out of control. It was a pretty warm day, so we were all pretty worn out by the time that was over. That evening Shawn and I went to our stake conference meeting and Felicity had her second paid babysitting job. She watched her Mr. Bone's little boy at our house(2 years old) while they went to their stake conference. We had a broadcast from Salt Lake this time, so all the stakes in the area had Conference this weekend. It was great to be spiritually fed by our stake and general leaders, including President Monson. Afterwards, we all had some applesauce cookies and pickled carrots (which we bottled Monday night) while we visited.

Right now, I am enjoying some quiet time while Shawn and Mr. Bone have the kids on a Sunday Drive. I have had 2 weeks off (for Mother's Day and Stake Conference), so I'm feeling a little "out of it". I printed up some invitations/reminders for our Primary Temple Night this week and a Teacher Improvement meeting next Sunday. Since we didn't have our normal block of meetings today, we didn't get to announce them. It took me 1 1/2 hours to deliver my portion and a couple stacks to each of my counselors to pass out. Thankfully, the weather is beautiful again and I enjoyed visiting with the people who were home. Now that that's done, I think I'll go read a book.