Thanks for your updates!!
It was a crazy busy week and so I am just getting my letter out now.
Here is the run down...
Monday 6: I interpreted this morning -- it was little difficult because it required voicing for several different people. The kids had an early-out day today. Josh had a scout activity going to the Science Museum at Dixie State University. It sounds like an interesting museum, I will have to check it out some time! I brought Jaiden to the Orthodontist. She will be back in braces soon. First we need to get four top baby teeth extracted. She also needs four on the bottom extracted, but we are going to wait a few months on those ones.
I spent the entire evening helping Jenna with her Science Fair project and board. Jaiden and Janelle helped also. They made bubble recipes and the kids had fun making huge bubbles outside. The temperature had suddenly dropped though and so we were all pretty cold! The house next door finished (finally) and so Jace and Lauren Wittwer moved in with their four young children. Their little boys were standing with their faces pressed against their glass door watching our kids make the bubbles and they would clap their hands every time a big bubble emerged. It was really cute!
It took a while to finish the science fair board and so everyone got to bed late. Their big motivation for doing the Science Fair is the Arrowhead Medallion that they earn at the end of the year. There are a list of requirements to complete in order to earn the Medallion and the Science and Literacy Fair are on the list as possible options. Our family has done almost twenty science fair projects through the years. We truly have this down to a "science!"
Wednesday 8: I ended up with two last minute medical jobs today. Josh had his Maturation program this afternoon at 2:00. I was planning on attending, but Rick thought Josh might be more comfortable if he went instead, and so he made arrangements with his principal for another teacher to cover his last class so that he could go. We were glad that it worked out!
I told Rick to check Josh out of school right after the Maturation program since Josh had an Orthodontist appointment after school. Our orthodontist was joking about how our big family is keeping them in business! I laughed and told him that by the time all of our kids are finished with braces, our grand-kids will probably be coming in! This was just a "re-call" appointment for Josh -- he won't actually be ready for braces for a year or two.
Janelle had a choir concert tonight. I said, "Another one? You just had one last week!" I left the other kids home with Rick (he watched Clarissa and Audrey too) while I went to watch the concert. My friend, Allison Williams, is totally a coupon/bargain shopper, and so sometimes when she come across a great deal then she picks something up for Jenna too -- like darling matching socks!
Thursday 9: Jenna sang "How Far I'll Go" from Moana for her second grade class talent show today. I didn't think I would be able to go since I work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I was able to get a sub at the last minute so that I could buzz from DSU over to the elementary school to watch her (and videotape) before buzzing back over to DSU. Her voice has really progressed nicely and she did very well on her song!
Friday 3: I went to Josh's talent show today. He told me that it was coming up and I asked if he was planning to juggle again like last year. He said, "No, I think I want to sing." I was very surprised! He has never shown much interest in singing or piano or anything like that until this year (except for his elementary school choir which he has done for three years). But this year he tried out for a choir solo -- twice, and also for a solo during their Chinese program (short one line solos) and now he wanted to sing for his talent show. Yay!
He decided on the Lion King since he had sung it for our family CD and was already familiar with it. Janelle is the one that helped him with it and taught him the little actions. He did great!! He still needs to work on being more expressive, but that will come the more he performs. He has lots of friends and they were quick to cheer him on. I even noticed a few cute girls from his class coming up to him afterwards to tell him how well he did. Click HERE to listen to his song.
Josh is also showing more of an interest on the piano and even wrote his first song! We are thrilled that one of our boys is showing an interest in music and hope he keeps it up! He definitely wants to be a caroler next year and I think he will also audition for the play at his new school next year. Speaking of piano -- Rick is teaching the kids piano again -- which often involved tears (from the kids -- not from Rick). Janelle is teaching the kids too and the kids like her better because she is more patient. Rick has Josh and Jenna taking music quizzes on the ipad and e-mailing the results to him. They have to get a certain percentage correct on each one in order to pass.
Jenna had a friend over after school and started pulling out a pudding mix, cool-whip, and blue-berries, along with some fancy cups. I said, "What you are doing?" She replied, "Don't worry Mom, I got this from a real cookbook!" Then she proceeded to make pudding and layer it with the pudding, cool-whip, berries -- repeat. It looked pretty fancy!
Saturday 4: Jared had his first track meet of the season and did really well! When did he get to be so fast? He ran Friday in the fast heat and got his personal record and qualified for finals the next day. Saturday he ran in the finals and got his PR again (53.68) and got 4th place overall. His 400X400 team did awesome -- winning first place! Jared was the first runner and came in first place and each member of his team was able to hold the first place position until the end. He is the only Junior on their relay team -- the other three are all Seniors.
Rick ended up interpreting for a Softball Tournament all day. It is the same one we did last year over Spring Break. They really liked Rick and were happy to see him again. I had been asked to interpret the tournament all day Friday, but I had some conflicts and didn't want to miss Josh's talent show.
They called me to interpret for the final game tonight and I showed up, but apparently there was a miscommunication and there wasn't another game. I was okay with that -- I still got paid and needed to finish my sharing time lesson. Rick brought the kids over to a single lady in our ward's house to have them help her plant a garden.
Sunday 12: Sundays are definitely NOT a day of rest -- and today we also lost an hour due to daylight savings. It seems like the girls are singing in church every other week! Our music leader, Christin Olson, asked if Jaiden and Janelle would sing with her two girls today. It was an arrangement of "As Sisters in Zion" with two part harmony plus a descant. They only had a couple of days to work on it, but thankfully our girls are quick learners! I would have liked to go to their practice and videotape them but I just had too much going on.
This morning I was hurrying to do the girls' hair done and get ready myself. Janika was always such a big help doing her sisters' hair growing up -- but my other girls haven't bothered to learn that skill. Janelle is good about doing her own hair -- but says that she can't do other people's hair and Jaiden hasn't even tried doing her own hair. Hmmm -- sounds like a good personal progress goal for the two of them!
I went to ward council where I was assigned to give the thought. The Young Men's leader finally decided to go ahead with a better alternative for the sacrament for those of us who are gluten free. Now they have a little plastic cup on every sacrament tray with a broken gluten free cracker. This way the deacons don't have to worry about getting one specific tray to the right people (there are several gluten free people in our ward) and it also works for people who might happen to be visiting. They started this about a month ago and it seems to be working really well!
Our congregation was much smaller today due to Spring Break. We really live in a lucrative ward and many people travel. Jenna was talking with a girl in the ward and the girl was asking Jenna what she was going to do for Spring Break. Jenna said things like, "We are going to the Children's Museum and the park." "What are you doing?" "We are going to Hawaii." Typical Fifth Ward response!
The Youth in our area are invited to this big family history event called KiNnect You. (http://www.kinnectyou.com/) It will be a big event with popular speakers and entertainers. It sounds really neat. I told Jared and Janelle that they needed to hurry and register before the deadline so that they didn't lose their ticket. Jared said "I don't want to go spend all day doing family history -- besides, I think I have a track meet." Janelle piped in, "Jared -- James the Mormon will be there!!" Jared came back with "Well Jared the Mormon won't be!" (If you aren't familiar with James the Mormon -- he is a popular entertainer (rapper). (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pv0D3ibYtA.)
We invited recently two returned missionaries from our ward -- Lauren Smith and Mitch Seely (who Janika dated before her mission) -- over for dinner and a lesson (taught by them). We had Asian food (American style Asian food anyway) since Lauren went to Japan and Mitch went to Taiwan. Rick was going to get chopsticks but forgot. Rick shopped, prepared, and cooked the food and it was delicious! Lauren brought over a Japanese dish -- some kind of cabbage pancake with cabbage, eggs, flour, and bacon. It wasn't gluten free and so I couldn't try it but the others said it was really good. She even brought an authentic sauce back with her from Japan and it was really good!
Then we had them teach us about their missions and asked them tons of questions. It was very interesting and inspiring. Mitch stayed after Lauren left and played "spoons" with the kids. It was very comfortable -- just like old times. But I had to wait for Mitch to leave so that I could Skype Janika! Janika went to Kiara's wedding in the Payson Temple on Saturday and then to her reception that night and then headed to Ogden to stay with Grandma Jensen. She is job shadowing Gerilyn for a couple of days and Gerilyn is hiring her to help her with her house renovation.
Rick left for Vegas this morning. Apparently his all-day job cancelled but he still gets paid and they didn't have another job for him to do, but he came prepared with lots to do -- bringing a hard-drive filled with our family home videos to edit. I brought Jaiden to the dentist at 8:30 this morning to get four teeth pulled and then brought the girls to the hair school to get their hair cut. It was really cheap, but I was a little disappointed in the results. We wanted their hair trimmed and layers added but you can hardly tell that they added layers. It looks just the same. When I said I couldn't see the layers they said that it was because their hair was wet and I would be able to see them after I dried their hair at home. Oh well, it is fine I guess, I was just hoping for more of a change. Jaiden isn't really happy with hers and so I told her to research exactly what she wanted and I could take her in to get it done somewhere else since I have a good coupon.
I picked up a Redbox movie for the kids for tonight. Hope you all have a great week!
Wendy
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