Those Powell Boys

Little lesson

2012-01-18T20:38:00.000-08:00

I just had to share a quick little moment that happened. When we were waiting for stake conference to start, Nick asked where Elder Holland would eat since he couldn't go out for lunch. I said that usually the stake presidency was responsible so he's probably eating with the Lees or Barbers. Nick was genuinely disappointed and asked why he couldn't come to our house! On the other hand, I'm thinking, I would probably faint if a general authority came to eat at my house! So I guess this is another one of those Mary and Martha things where the kid recognizes what a great privilege and learning opportunity that would be and I'm just freaking about which dishes would be best to use. I'm glad my kids keep me focused on the spiritual things!

Happy birthday Nick!

2012-01-18T20:32:00.000-08:00

The big news of the week was Nick's b-day weekend. He really wanted a sleep over and I have no idea why I always said no to the big guys, but somehow, Nick always wins! So we had 4 guys over. Nick just wanted to go to Roundtable for pizza, Albertsons for any treats they wanted, and watch "Get Smart" together. It was a great success and they were having lots of fun, but that only got us until 8:30 pm, so then the party really got started as they ran around outside for an hour then ran around the basement for another hour and Nick was getting alarmed at how wild they were and the messes they were making. So we finally got them all corralled in Jeff's room on air mattresses at 11pm. Then the "truth or dare" started. Luckily I could hear through the door and it stayed above board, but they were still quite wound up and it took a couple of sleeping rearrangements and Nick defecting to his own bed before everyone settled down. Luckily I figured I 'd still have a descent night's sleep since I was sure they'd sleep until 8. Oh no. Dad got up at 6am to go to work so the TV and lights were on at 6:30am!!!! I wanted to cry! They were on the trampoline by 7:30am and getting worn out and cranky by 9. So about then we took them home. I think Nick had his fill of overnights and realized he wasn't up to hosting wild parties, but in the end he had a great time and all the kids were very thankful and happy that he'd had them over so it was a success. Then just me and him went to the mall and picked out new tennis shoes. And they were his fanciest ones ever!! take a look at those bad boys!

So he was a happy camper. Jason also had a great weekend. The scouts went on their winter campout. But check this out. They went to a cabin up on Schweitzer and "tried to dig a snowcave" But amazingly they didn't succeed so they all got in the hot tub and slept in the cabin!! Wouldn't you like to be in this scout troop? They even skiied the next day! So he had a blast and all my worrying about freezing all night was in vane. So it worked out perfectly that after Nick's fav of chicken and rice and a big birthday cookie, they were exhausted and settled in for a movie while me and dad went to see Elder Holland at our stake conference! And I mean in the flesh!! No one can figure out why a big shot like that would come to our little corner of the world. I think it's to scout for seventy but either way it was amazing!! Dad is probably better at giving the details of his talk. All I remember is he kind of turned baptist preacher on us and was yelling and pounding the pulpit quite a bit! His point was not to blame God for trials and that God was there to help us and the atonement would be big enough for all pain and anguish. So it was good, and powerful! Then in the Sunday morning session, they had all the youth/new members in the stake center chapel and everyone else was in the back or other buildings. We chose to stay at the Regal building for comfort. So as we're waiting for it to start, the camera is just sitting on the audience at the stake center and we spot Jason's head! So we text him to say we can see him and he turns to the camera and smiles. It was hilarious!! Elder Holland mainly spoke to the youth and said a cool thing. "If you live a hundred years, you should be expected to pay a 10% tithe of your years to the Lord so I want these 10 years from you" and he talked about the decade of decision and how all the important decisions are made before 22-24 that set your path for life. Then he went on the yelling thing again about young men serving a mission and said if he could take away your agency and chain you to a pick up and drive you to the MTC, he would! It was funny, but I think they got the message. Afterward, Pres lee announced that E. Holland would be shaking the hands of the youth only so Jason got to shake his hand!!!!! We were all amazed and he was glowing. Lots of moms posted on FB how excited the kids were to shake his hand. It was a great uplift for the week!!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-14T14:47:00.000-08:00

This year was especially fun because we had Jeff back and he was really excited to get back to First Night downtown. We went early to do some returns and then ran to dinner at Shenanigans. Everyone had delicious seafood and still forced down a dessert shot. We rolled out of there pretty full! Then off to the celebrations. We started with a magic show that was fun. Jeff even got called up as a volunteer and was on the floating table. Then the kids enjoyed playing video games in the game truck. Jeff really wanted to go ice skating, but it was packed! So we ended up watching them carve ice sculptures in the park. Jason especially liked the slide carved out of ice.

We walked around River Park square and saw some very talented teenage musicians that Jeff knew from Ferris and LC. Then it was back to shows and we ended with some jugglers that were quite comical and amazing. We were a little disappointed that we missed Blue Door improv because it was full, but now we'll know to get there early next year!! We went out by the opera house and waited for the fireworks. It was freeeezing, but worth the wait. And we were in the perfect spot to see both places going up. It was so cool to see the clock tower with the fireworks going off behind it. Another great time celebrating the new year coming in. We even saw a guy propose while we were walking by the river to the car. Wow, great timing! Next day was awesome mainly because we had 1:00 church! Woohoo!! It felt so good to sleep in. We enjoyed a last big meal with Jeff and had an early bedtime. A very nice celebration, but came to an end too soon when we had to say goodbye to Jeff next day. He made it ok on his flight, but the house was very quiet. We sure miss him when he's gone!

Christmas Miracle

2011-12-29T18:03:00.000-08:00

I just had to end the year with a great little story that happened last week. I had to wait to send Drew's Christmas packages until he got his visa so I knew that he would actually be in Brazil for Christmas. So they went out 5 weeks before Christmas which is possible, but cutting it really close. I didn't think it would be too big a deal, but apparently he is a bit homesick, because every letter home, he kept mentioning no Christmas boxes yet. I started to realize he was really counting on getting something to remind him of home for Christmas so I started praying extra hard. The Tuesday before Christmas, he had a zone conference and received one box so that was good, but then on Thursday just 3 days before Christmas, his mission president came to their appt and personally delivered his last box! He was so shocked and glad. I was definitely appreciative of him going out of his way even though he is so busy. It really was a miracle and made Drew so happy. Our Heavenly Father really does love us and answers our prayers!!

Merry Christmas!!

2011-12-28T19:50:00.000-08:00

It's been so fun to have Jeff home! He's kept the boys busy with lots of fun activities and since I have had low census at work, I've been able to spend time with each of the kids so it's been a fun break for all of us! We made the traditional gingerbread houses,

Jeff took the kids rock climbing and had fun testing his camera shots.

I took Jason to the muppet movie, and Nick shopping for his cub scout wood projects, and Jeff to the temple to do family sealings. I was even mistaken for Jeff's wife in the temple. Merry Christmas to me!! We were able to take Jeff skiing on a warm slushy day, but he still had a great time getting back on ski's and Nick actually passed me up for the first time! He's really getting into the ski thing now.

Then it was busy baking for all the neighbors and

friends. And we got several visits from friends bearing treats. It's always fun to have surprise visitors! Finally the big day came and everyone seemed to get just what they wanted! It was lacrosse gear for Nick, an ipod touch for Jason (who now has his own email too BIG TIME!) an SLR camera for Jeff, an ipad printer for dad, and new dress for mom. We actually had to shower and get dressed for church since it was on Sunday this year and it seemed kind of a pain, but it actually turned out so nice. It was a music filled service and afterwards all our friends stopped to chat and all the college kids were home and excited to talk to us and Jeff. It was a great way to celebrate Christmas! Then it was racing home to call Drew. He sounded VERY happy to talk to us. He had fun stories to tell each one of us and had a good discussion of missionary questions for Jeff. It came to an end way too quickly and he sounded so sad to say goodbye. I think the homesickness has hit him. We continue to pray he can work through it. He does seem to stay very busy and be very happy about teaching people. After the excitement of the day, we all kind of melted on the couch watching new DVD's and reading new books. It was a wonderful Christmas day with family and friends and we are so grateful for our Savior for his love for our family. We have truly had a blessed year and Christmas season!!

mini ski weekend

2011-12-28T19:19:00.000-08:00

So we took up the D'hulst invitation to their cabin in Sandpoint and enjoyed a night by the fire getting beat on by their 3 year old and a day skiing at Schweitzer. Dallin is actually a nice kid now and Nick actually had fun playing with him. They explored the icy lake in the morning and loved seeing a big flock of ducks hanging out there. The skiing was fun especially since it's been really foggy, but up on the mountain, we were above the fog. It was great skiing and a cool view of the valley blanketed in fog. The D'hulst girl, Addy, who's 6, was a fantastic skiier with absolutely no fear and just outskiied us all! We even took her on the backside runs off Stella and our kids were nervous and taking their time and she'd just zoom to the bottom. Pretty soon, Nick was turning faster and dropping the snowplow. He was not going down without a fight, but he was telling me at lunch he couldn't believe a little girl was better than him. So funny! We also saw the Hainsworths and Rowlands there so it was really fun eating lunch with everyone. Dad saved the day by helping the Hainsworths jump a dead car battery. We dropped by Couer d'alene resort and saw the lights too. It was just a great little weekend celebration!! The only bad part was when Jeff called Sat night and said his flight was cancelled because of the fog in Spokane! We were so disappointed, but he finally got a flight Sunday morning so he's home!! We are very happy to see him and Brandon too. We had the Mosses and Maxwells over for dinner tonight and it was great to have all the kids together and playing apples to apples with everyone. I even showed a 5 minute church video for a spiritual thought because we were supposed to do that instead of the big nativity festival. It was out of our comfort zone so I'm happy I did it. It was a fun weekend all in all.

December activities

2011-12-28T19:09:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah, walking in to work in 18 degrees. It's definitely winter!! No snow. Everyone was so freaked out by the November snow that it's kind of a letdown not to have any snow in the whole month of December! Just bone chilling cold and early darkness. But the cul de sac has never looked better! Everyone has lights now even Derek and Terry and the lady at the end. So it looks really festive when we come home at night. I do have to say, Derek's looks like Cooper put it up himself. It's just one strand free form all over their yard. Quite unique, but I guess they tried. It's funny. We've also been reading our Christmas books almost every night. Nick is really into it this year. Probably one of his last so I'm really loving it. Except when I read "A Christmas Dress for Ellen". Remember that's the one about the poor starving family in the middle of Alberta that gets a miraculous delivery of supplies on Christmas eve? I bawl by the 3rd page every time! This time Nick and Jason started laughing their heads off then fake crying then just wrestled me to the ground! You know how those guys are about feelings!!! But I'm done with that story for another year so that's probably good to get over with :) Jason had a very nice cello recital and has even started adding vibrato in.

He's sounding better all the time! And Jason has suddenly had a Dvorak awakening and now listens to it nonstop on his ipod. Freakish! But i figure Drew would be proud :) He had fun touring the elementary schools with Sac orchestra and band. Nick was way too cool to enjoy it, but Jason had fun and apparently the little kids loved it. Nick had a better week in basketball and actually shot the ball twice and made one!!

I even had my camera and missed the whole thing. But it was a fun game. He is getting very excited for Christmas and has a new thing to add to his list every day. He is also very into the brothers gifts and insisted they draw names. He is very excited to shop for his brother name and also checks the Christmas tree daily to see if anyone has given him a present! And while he's checking, he is very good about watering our tree. Speaking of our tree, we had the quickest tree selection ever! We walked onto the lot, asked the guy where the 6 foot trees were, walked over to the group, pulled the first one out, everyone thought it looked good and bam! We had our tree in 60 seconds flat!! It has been beautiful and stayed fresh the whole month! Getting us very excited for Christmas!!

Nick's baking again

2011-12-01T00:48:00.001-08:00

Quick kudos to Nick. He has been getting out of school early for conferences so he gets a little bored. One day I came home and found a fresh baked batch of sugar cookies. Now remember sugar cookies not only have to be mixed up, but also rolled out and cut. He did it all by himself!! I've got to harness this talent!!

First Snow

2011-12-01T00:37:00.001-08:00

Last weekend, we had our first big snow. Nick was so excited, he just ran out in the backyard and layed on the grass soaking it up as it fell. He had a snowman built within the hour! He is one snow-lovin kid!! It also worked out really well that our cousins came to visit that weekend so the kids all got to go sledding together. They actually built their own sledding hill at home while we were at work in the morning, but when Tim saw it was built off the back of the Honda so the kids were running up on the roof of the car to slide down the back, he stopped that fun really quick! I thought it was kind of creative, but we just took it to the real sledding hill and everyone had a great time and burned off lots of energy. That was great because the kids all fell asleep watching a movie while the parents got to go to the symphony together. It was a fun day together! We love our cousins!!

Thanksgiving

2011-12-01T00:14:00.001-08:00

For a long weekend, it went so fast!! We didn't have anyone to invite over so I ended up cooking the whole dinner by myself. The boys loved just lounging around all day, but I felt like I put in a full days work! So I treated myself to going to Linda's for dessert and cards. Trish was there also and with all the family, we had a big, knockout game of spoons. It was hilarious and the pie was delicious! Linda even found a banana pumpkin mousse recipe. Sounds crazy, but tasted wonderful. Next day we hit the movie Hugo. It was absolutely beautifully filmed and was a delightful little story with a nod to filmaking pioneers. I really liked it. The day after that we hit the mountain for the first ski of the season! It was so fun and felt like we hadn't lost any momentum from last year. But we did tire out pretty quickly. Sunday, I made up for Thanksgiving by having a few people over for dinner. They helped us clean up the leftovers and we had fun visiting. It turned out to be a very nice weekend, but went too fast and I felt like I needed another day to put up my Christmas decorations! Oh well, next weekend maybe :) I am thankful for our many many blessings especially our wonderful family including Drew sacrificing to serve a mission. We love all our kids and grandparents and siblings so much!!

Update on Drew

2011-11-30T23:54:00.001-08:00

Drew has been working very hard learning Portugese and fighting a cold in the provo MTC. He got a little surprise when Jeff went there to volunteer and Drew just happened to be on cleaning duty and ran right into him. He almost tackled Jeff he was so excited!! I was so thankful they ran into each other. I know Drew has been missing family and it's always so good to get one more hug before you leave. It was an answer to a mom's prayers! Drew finally got his visa and got to finish out at the Brazil CTM. He was pretty shocked how fast they speak down there and had to learn a lot to catch up, but now he says he can actually understand people on the street so he really seems to have the gift of languages! He is absolutely loving the culture and learning about the scriptures. He is very excited to get out to Manaus and dive into the missionary work! We'll definitely keep you updated.

Lessons from Relief society

2011-11-30T23:18:00.001-08:00

Well, out of the blue, I got released from my Relief Society calling. I've been a counselor for 4 years helping run the women's class on Sunday and visiting new move-ins among other things. It's been a bit of a challenge because that stuff doesn't come naturally to me, but I have learned a few things.
1. Sis. Beck is my idol! Whenever I have no idea what to teach or I need a spiritual lift, I just listen to one of her talks or podcasts and she has such great advice for the women of today. I have really learned on a deeper level what the Relief Society has to offer women from her.
2. Service at a higher level. I've always served, but I kind of tend to gripe about fitting it into my schedule or judge people for their bad choices, but watching Gloria, I have realized she just does things for people anytime and just because it makes them feel good no matter what choices they've made. I think this is how Jesus acted and how he expects us to act. I don't think I'm at that level, but I know I should be and that's what Christ's atonement does is enables people like me to try to be better.
3. Personal revelation. I don't claim to have all the answers on this one, but I do have to say it seems like when I needed to call a person to help in class or figure out what to teach, an answer that worked better than I could have imagined always happened. I still had to do lots of research and pondering, but as I studied, ideas just came. I know I can keep working on this to help me in more areas of my life.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to work with Gloria and grow in spirituality. I will miss working so closely with the ladies in our ward. We have some smart and fun ladies that I have had good times with and learned a lot from!!

Halloween

2011-11-30T14:12:00.001-08:00

The celebration started at the church party. We had a trunk or treat and carnival. We actually put on the carnival so Nick tested out all the games and helped set them up. The young men had a dark maze and Nick and Jason had a great time helping the little kids through that. It turned out very successful and all the kids had a great time. We just ended up with lots of leftovers including 5 dozen cupcakes!! Hope you like chocolate!

Then on Halloween, I had to take Jason to orchestra practice (sad for him!! :( So Nick got to trick or treat with his best buddies Daniel and Jake.

They got to go with the haunted golf cart!! That was pretty cool!

Jason wasn't really into Halloween this year. He didn't want to carve a pumpkin or dress up, but when he wanted to get trick or treat candy from Leisa, I forced him to put something on. So this is his official costume that lasted for one house!

These guys finally came home at 9pm on a school night! And they were out with a school teacher!! He's as big a kid as they are :) They scored big!!

And Nick made sure it was all sorted out into perfect piles.

So we had a good time and had candy to last months!!

Proud of kids

2011-11-30T14:01:00.001-08:00

I just had to give a shout out to Jason and Nick. They've both had good moments at church this month. Jason was asked to be the Deacon's quorum president. He'll have the responsibility to help the 12 year old boys feel welcome and do their duties. He is excited and a little nervous. Hopefully he will be a good leader and try his best to make their quorum successful! Nick had the primary program this month and he thought the part he was given was too short so he decided on his own to write his talk again and explain with a scripture about baptism. We were very proud of him for taking the initiative to say what baptism really meant to him. I'm so glad we have young leaders in our home! We will expect great things from them! :)

Greenbluff

2011-10-12T13:52:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was the one sunny day in the middle of lots of rain so I couldn't help zipping out to Greenbluff to pick apples and enjoy the harvest festival. It was so beautiful with the sun, the crispy fresh apples, the live music, the carmel apple that we couldn't bite because it was SO thick with just dipped carmel. I really couldn't get enough. Only Nick would come with me, and I'm afraid this might be the last year that any kids will go willingly with me! So I want to cherish this memory!!

Fun with Jeff

2011-10-12T13:45:00.000-07:00

Now we've also said good-bye to Jeff. He moved back to Provo to get a job and keep going to BYU in January. We did have some fun times with him last week, though. He was a very good big brother and went to the cross country meets, Ferris Thesperados night, and got everyone helping to roll out homemade gnocchi.

That was DELICIOUS, by the way!! He also reported to the high council on his mission and gave a very nice story about teaching a guy with an addiction to coca. He had such a great testimony and good spirit about him. It was very enjoyable. Then it was packing up 2 bins with winter clothes and off he drove in his new car with an audible book and bottle of Mt. Dew to keep him awake for the 13 hour drive!

He made it at 12:30am in a downpour, but he is now safe and on his way to starting a life for himself. I know if he is disciplined and stays focused on his goals, he will be a wonderful man!! Loved having you home with us one more time Jeff!! You give good hugs and are fun to talk to! xo

He's gone

2011-10-04T22:45:00.000-07:00

We finally got Drew off to Brazil. Well, to Provo to wait for his visa to Brazil!! He had a great last day. I was able to get off work early and we were able to sneak to the temple one last time. We had one last Taco run. Then it was switch into high gear for packing! But with no winter clothes, and me and Jeff (who's used to packing missionary stuff every 2 months) running the show, it was done in an hour!!! Then he and Jeff just chilled with the laptops and piano the rest of the day.

We went to the stake center and Drew was set apart. It was a lovely blessing to help him get through his mission. He was especially blessed to have compassion and love for people. I know he will have some great experiences there! We came home and had one of our top comfort foods, chicken and dumplings, for dinner. And Nick baked him a special giant cookie which was a delicious dessert!

Then since Drew seemed kind of nervous and uptight, we got a big family game of Apples to Apples going and that got everyone laughing until way too late for a school night!!

The little guys gave Drew one more group hug (their favorite way of invading his LARGE personal bubble) and we went to bed. At 4:30am, we were up and to the airport. Drew was either very excited or a little ready to get it over with because he just grabbed both suitcases and charged right in there! We had a quick hug and he was hustling off to security.

I have been feeling like he's been so ready to go, I've been wanting him to just go, but watching him walk off for 2 whole years is still pretty sad!! Even Jeff was surprised how much harder it was on this end of it. Luckily Grandma Reeder picked him up in Salt lake and we got to talk to him on the cell phone one more time. He sounded pumped and was excited to run around BYU one last time seeing all his buddies. Then he got dropped off at the MTC and it starts! We are so proud of his strong testimony and desire to share the gospel. We can't wait for the adventure! But we'll miss you lots too, Drew. xo

Riding the Hiawatha

2011-10-04T22:13:00.000-07:00

We had one last weekend together and we were blessed with one last Saturday of 90 degrees. So we headed to the Montana border and rode the Hiawatha Bike Trail. It was a beautiful drive and gorgeous on the trail. The big kids (including jason) were very excited to tackle the 1.5 mile long tunnel. They got their headlamps burning and they made it just fine. I was just fine driving down the road and skipping that claustrophobic place! And I drove up just as they rode out of the tunnel. So we all rode down the rest of the trail together. It was still exciting to have to turn on the headlamps for the smaller tunnels and the views off the bridges were spectacular. We finished in good time and with all the other riders on the trail, because we had to wait half hour for a shuttle to take us back up the mountain. But it was a good day in nature had by all. In fact Jeff kept saying, "can you smell that?" He had forgotten how firs smell. It was great to be together on that beautiful day!!

Homecoming/Farewell

2011-09-18T22:38:00.000-07:00

This was the big weekend. I've been planning this for months! And it surpassed expectations!! Since Jeff couldn't give his homecoming last week because of stake conference, we decided to just have a combined homecoming/farewell because Drew is leaving next week. We had all the family fly in on Friday night. It was fun to catch up and the kids had a big slumber party and stayed up way too late!

Then Friday morning, the adults went to the temple with Jeff & Drew. It was so wonderful to be there with all the family. There is no better feeling than to be all together in the Celestial room of the temple. It always reminds you how important and eternal family is and all the other stuff just melts away.

While we were at the temple the kids got to go to Sky High and get their energy out on the trampolines. After that, they were pretty mellow the rest of the day and just played lots of games together. In fact, they were having so much fun together, we scrapped all plans to go to the park and just let them play!

We ended the night with a big BBQ rib dinner and BYU football. The ribs were great...and that's all that was great :) The next morning was the church service. Drew started the meeting by jumping up to lead the opening song when the organist started playing, but no chorister was there! The congregation was all looking around panicked, but Drew was able to leap to action and still get the downbeat right as the organist played first verse. It was so funny. Then we had a men's quartet called the 2 Powells and the 2 Matts sing. It was Because I Have been Given Much. It was a beautiful arrangement and got the meeting started of so nicely. Then Jeff gave a wonderful talk all about the lessons he'd learned on his mission like loving the scriptures, being prepared, and having faith to get through trials. It was well organized and showed how much he's grown these last 2 years. I shook my head and couldn't believe this was the kid who could barely turn in a high school English paper! It was amazing!! Then Drew played his flute which is always divine. He played Each Life that touches ours for Good. Then he gave his talk. He started out saying he'd usually compliment the musical number, but that may be a bit presumptuous. That got everyone laughing. Then he gave a wonderful talk about why he's choosing to serve a mission. Mainly to assist the Savior in bringing the atonement to everyone. He also had cool quotes and was very convincing in his strong testimony of the gospel and it's importance in our lives. I was just so proud of them!! Matt Rawlins was on the stand and said me and Tim were beaming and I believe it! I was amazed and impressed that these were the same 2 rascals that ran me ragged as 3 year olds! They will be such strong, good guys! I know they have great potential. I love you guys and I think you teach me as much as I teach you! xo

Happy Birthday Jason!

2011-09-18T21:28:00.000-07:00

Jason celebrated his birthday Friday night after school with a family party and neighborhood BBQ. He got the movie Inception and a fun board game. And best of all he got to swim with the neighborhood kids one last time at the Websters pool. Then on Saturday we had the coolest party ever! Game truck pulled up in front of our house, the boys ran in, I didn't see the boys for 2 hours! So easy!!

This guy has a huge couch with 4 big screen tvs and the kids play all kinds of video games with each other. They had a ball, and I had a great time with 2 hours alone to catch up on housework. You can't ask for more than that! They had fun eating pizza and cake together that Jason decorated just how he wanted it.

I can't believe this kid is 13! (although with size 10 shoes I shouldn't be surprised!) He is growing into a helpful and nice young man. Love you Jason!

First day of school

2011-09-13T00:04:00.000-07:00

The kids had to start two days late because we were picking up Jeff. Jason was especially nervous because he was starting junior high. He got lucky. His homeroom teacher was not at the open house to give us his locker so we didn't know what he was going to do, but when I emailed her and asked if she could give the info to his friend, Ben, she emailed back that he could be Ben's locker partner! I know this was an answer to prayer. It worked out so perfectly to be able to ride the bus with Ben and have him show him right where his locker was. His schedule was a bit messed up so he had to miss one class while it got straightened out, but after that he seemed to get along just fine. He's most excited about orchestra and engineering. I think he'll make it a good year!
Nick is in 5th grade and got Mrs. Nickle. It wasn't his first choice, but he has his best friend blaine in the class so he is trying his best to have a good attitude. He is very responsible and has me sign everything right away and turn stuff in on time. He is a little bored at recess because the boys are still playing basketball, but I think he'll try to find something new to play. The only thing is that he won't ride his bike because he doesn't want to mess up his hair!! I never thought I'd hear one of my boys say that, but here we are walking to school now. His new love is rock climbing. He got to go to a belaying class with Drew and now he and Drew go climbing every night. He has a blast!

He's home!

2011-09-12T23:51:00.000-07:00

We were so excited to see Jeff that we flew to Dallas for Labor day so we could catch him on his layover! We spent a day at 6 Flags screaming our guts out on roller coasters! Tim and Drew even went on the super tall and scary ones. Me and the little kids enjoyed the bobsled ride and log rides. We even had mild weather and enjoyed the day quite a bit. We ended with some good Texas ribs. We slept good that night!! Next day was relaxing by the pool and grilling. Finally the day came to pick up Jeff. It was tough to sleep and we were thrilled to hear his voice calling at breakfast to tell us he had arrived in Miami. Finally we ran to the airport and we actually got to go to the gate because we had boarding passes. It took forever for Jeff to get off the plane! It seemed like 50 people came out before he did :) But finally he was here and in our arms. Well, in mine. The other kids were a little shy to come give him a hug, but finally everyone was hugging and were so grateful to see him.

We met Grandma Reeder and Brian and Terry at baggage claim. They were very happy to see him and we got a great big family picture. Then we got him to the house as fast as possible so he could shower and relax a little. Brian and Terry treated us to a wonderful steak dinner with lots of good homemade food. Jeff told us all about the customs in Argentina and we had fun seeing if he could talk English. He didn't seem to have any problems getting back to the US language or culture. We took off for home and he enjoyed sitting next to everyone on the planes home and chatting about crazy stories on the mission and what's been going on at home. He was very happy to see home and especially seemed ready to jump into his bed. Surprisingly he was up early the next morning and had a nice relaxing day at home with dad and Drew while the little kids went to their first day of school. He has been very easy going and just seemed to enjoy hanging around home and doing things with the family. It only took 1 day for him to completely trash his room, though!! Some habits don't die :) But we love you Jeff and are so glad to talk to you and feel your strong testimony and are so proud of all the service you've done for the last 2 years! Now it's time to start on the next mission....life!

Goodbye Tommy

2011-09-12T23:14:00.000-07:00

As our friend, Paul Hawkins who is Jeff's age and just got back from his mission, rounded the corner toward his house, he noticed his dad's car off the road and his brother Tommy slumped over the wheel. He phoned their dad and then the fire dept. arrived. They had to break the window to get to Tommy because he had passed out before he put it in park. They rushed him to the hospital with mom and dad following. But they were never able to revive Tommy. Word spread quickly and soon family, friends, and church members were in shocked sadness that such a vibrant young man could be gone in an instant. I was extremely sad because me and Ann had been swapping mission stories for 2 years now and we were both excited to send another pair of young men off together. And I also felt sick that in 3 days, I would be welcoming my son home as she was burying hers. It was a very mournful time for me thinking of the pain my dear friend must be in. But in true Hawkins spirit, the funeral was the most amazing funeral I've ever been to. They had a lovely memory room set up, and when you walked into the chapel, both the chapel and gym were packed with people that knew and loved Tommy. The entire Ferris cross country team was there in uniform and many teachers from the schools were there too. Each of the 8 family members spoke about funny memories, pain of missing their brother, and bore strong testimony that they knew for sure this was part of the plan, and that they knew Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ loved them and would take care of them and Tommy. It was incredibly spiritual and comforting. I felt afterward like since they seemed at peace, I really should be too and I stopped aching so bad. It was amazing. The other thing I loved from the funeral is how his dad recounted his last day with Tommy and they had enjoyed a bike ride and lunch together, he had told Tommy how proud he was of him and Tommy had said he loved him too. No regrets. It was exactly the way you'd want it even if you could do it again. I just hope I can do a better job of living like that so I can always say my kids know I loved them and we had fun together. We'll miss your sweet smile at the sacrament table and easy going personality babysitting. We know you're being a great missionary in the spirit world! Farewell Tommy Hawkins.

Kayaking

2011-09-12T22:46:00.000-07:00

We had the best invite this weekend! Our friends Chris and Valynn Holland just happened to have his mom's kayaks for the weekend and invited us to join them. We went to explore a new lake called Horseshoe Lake near Deer Park. It wasn't big, but just right for a quick paddle. It had a nice waterfall and beautiful passage to a deep cliff enclosed lake. While I swam and Valynn watched (she's not so much a lake swimmer :) Chris and Tim wanted to climb the cliff. We saw an eagle and some turtles and were having such a wonderful time! Then we heard the guys talking on the phone. We were giving them a hard time about phone calls when they're supposed to be enjoying nature, but when they got back down, they told us the phone call was to tell them our neighbor and church friend Tommy Hawkins was found in his car unresponsive and was being worked on in the ER! We paddled back to shore as fast as we could praying all the way. But just as we pulled the boats out, we got another call that Tommy was gone. Just like that. A brilliant, strong, young man ready to submit his mission papers the next day was taken from us. It was a very long ride home as we cried and Chris received all the calls a bishop does in an emergency. As soon as we unloaded the kayaks, we ran over to the Hawkins. They were sad, shocked, but feeling like maybe this was his mission call. We probably cried more than Ann did! It was quite a bonding afternoon for us. I think we'll always be closer because of this day, and I will always be so grateful we had such a great memory from relaxing in nature to get us through the next week of loss and sadness.

Scout Camp and picking up Drew

2011-08-21T23:41:00.000-07:00

Jason went to scout camp. His first one. I hope he's ok. I learned from Jeff. I only packed 2 pair of underwear and asked him to shoot for changing at least once!! :) I did have one panic moment. They called at 6:50am the morning of camp and his leader said, "Sis. Powell, I'm in the first aide tent.." and from there, I'm having visions of going to Kootenai medical center for Jason's missing fingers, but then he just said his medical forms were wrong. Whew! Never start a conversation with a mom saying you're at the first aide station!! Then I hit the road to go pick up Drew. I went alone and thank goodness for audiobooks. The time just flew with someone reading an interesting story the whole way! I stopped by my high school reunion and had a nice dinner at Maddox with some good old friends. It's interesting to see that the happiest people are the ones married and involved with famlies. It was so nice to catch up with people. Then I got to get Drew and all his stuff and do the marathon missionary shopping. We really shopped until we dropped, but that kid is totally outfitted including the BMW of all Camelbaks! He should have no excuse to be dehydrated! Even though we were bushed, we ran up to Aunt Miriam's and I'm so glad we did! We got to see my cousin Emilee and it's been so long since I've seen her. We had a nice relaxing visit with great food while the sun went down on a wonderful day. That was a great way to end our very short visit to UT. We jumped in the car and drove home the next day so I wouldn't miss work. We stopped at friends along the way who were so gracious to feed us and let us eat standing up because our bums were so tired!! It was a whirlwind trip, but very nice to visit lots of old friends anyway. And we all missed Drew so much! Everyone stayed up to see him and jumped on him when we drove in. Drew is spoiling us with all his baking creations this week. I'm definitely going to have to step up the exercise with him in the house! Jason had a great time at scout camp, but came home without finishing any of his merit badges! Curse those counselors!! So we are going to have some homework to do this week to keep him caught up. He really seemed to make friends with some kids from Lincoln heights so that was good. Dad said he was completely brown when he came in the door so he took quite a long shower to scrub all that off! That's usually a good sign of scout camp :) Nick and me got to go to our annual baseball fireworks night. He never wants to go to the game. Just wants to sit in the parking lot watching a movie in the car until the game is over and we get to sit right under the fireworks. They arent' bad either! We had a good time.

Moroni's Quest

2011-08-21T23:28:00.000-07:00

Wow, we did it. It's finally over! It was exhausting and nerve wracking up until the end, but like everything at church it all just seems to come together and work out. Our stake put on a huge youth conference called Moroni's Quest that brings the book of Mormon to life with skits of all the stories. We had to be at the Sitka building by 7am so it was an early start. All the kids had to be in Nephite costumes and it was fun to see all the different costumes people came up with. Lerin Hatch was a tribe leader (ma and pa). He had a helmet with huge horns -bigger than viking horns! It was so funny. Our first skit was there with the youth and we were all very nervous. It was where we were Lehi's family in the wilderness and they have to go get the plates and cut off Laban's head. I never thought about daughters being left in the wilderness to hunt and fend for themselves. It was an interesting perspective and maybe that was what led Sariah to murmer. Thought provoking. So Nephi actually has a real sword and just as he raises it, they cut the lights and you hear a chop. The youth got a pretty big kick out of that. We were going to roll a pumpkin into the crowd, but that got vetoed. ha, ha. Next we all headed to the wilderness up by Camp Cowles. We did all the Lehi/Nephi scenes throughout the day. It was hot and we had to hike around to different sites for each of the different skits. I must admit, I murmered. And I turned out wicked so that was kind of fun :) By dinner, we were so exhausted, but we still had to do the tree of life and we had to wait for it to be dark. We had never been able to rehearse it because it had to be dark and on site so we just got to run through it quick 1 time as the kids were coming up the trail head! A directors nightmare!! But it all came off great. Even the poor dead tree that they hauled up and duct taped together looked great all lit up with Christmas lights. I don't think our skits were the best, but they got the kids warmed up and ready for the really cool stuff happeneing the next day. Like burning Abinadi and Ammon chopping off arms. (Belinda Geren went crazy with that scene! :) A couple of comic moments during ours were Laman and Lemuel were seriously crazy in real life and were always scheming. They took handfuls of rice from our props and put them in their mouths so on the "storm at sea" they puked on the front row!! Then during the tree of life, while they waited at the great, spacious building, they found sticks just the size of cigaretts and figured out how to blow dirt so it looked just like they were smoking! I was giggling so hard!!!! It was hard to act serious on the rod when they were making me want to roll on the floor laughing!! But by 11pm, I needed some laughs to keep from crying I was so tired. Jason really seemed to like the whole thing and was having fun the whole day I was there. He really took to the nerve sword battles and even talked "Sam" into letting him hold his real sword. I had a panic attack, but Jason thought it was awesome! Everyone's favorite moment, was being woke up at 4am by "thunder" and going to the meadow and seeing "Jesus" descend from the trees. It was pres Lee and He'd memorized everyone's names and hugged them individually and told them he loved them. Apparently, it was very touching and there was a a great testimony meeting after that. I am so greatful Jason got to go and feel such a strong spirit. Great testimony builder for him. He liked Samuel the Lamanite skit and hoped "God helped Samuel since he fell getting dow off the wall". That was his testimony :)

Priest Lake

2011-08-21T23:23:00.000-07:00

Yes, between recovering from Girls camp and gettting ramped up for Moroni's Quest Youth conf, I took the weekend away with my work buddies, Linda and Trish, at our annual priest Lake weekend. We camped on the beach and enjoyed an absolutely lovely weekend together. It's always a huge process to pack for camp, and the drive seems to take forever, but when you get there with all the sun and waves, your stress just floats right away. We also got to try our new tent. I finally retired the old purple hexagon. Enough with a broken pole and zippers that may or maynot work. I got this cool big square thing that Kyle calls my 2 story condo! It's big enough to hold a queen air mattress and a twin air mattress. So we are all sleeping in luxury :) The first morning we hiked. Linda described it as "just 2 miles with a little steep part at the very end". I found out it was closer to 3 miles of straight up with an even steeper straight up at the end!!! I was seriously in respiratory distress and if I wasn't worried about being shamed at work, I would have quit, but I forced my self to keep trudging along. I was worried about the kids, but they seemed to just scramble up no problem! But the view from the top was seriously incredible!! It was where a fire lookout was built so you could see down on Priest Lake and a 360 degree view of all the mountains around it. It was absolutely breathtaking.

By the time we got down, everyone was seriously exhausted and we were regretting not bringing tennis shoes. We only had Keens and our feet were needing a little more support by then! But a dip in the lake and some time chillin on the beach relaxed everyone enough to go on a kayak trip before dinner. As we were eating dinner, I was shocked when Nick announced it was 7:30. I had not even thought about time the entire day! It was so amazing just to go with the flow and not worry about time at all. We slept great that night even though it gets quite chilly!

Next day was another kayak run almost to Upper Priest (Nick pooped out and had to be towed). Then last swim and packing up camp. But we didn't leave without picking a bag of huckleberries for pancakes tomorrow and grabbing a huckleberry ice cream cone! The kids were ready for bed quite early tonight and I think they will sleep very well :) (ME TOO!!) And now I've been home all of 4 hours and already picked raspberries, started dinner, started laundry, and had a RS presidency meeting. Back to real life. But I can keep imagining sun and surf and it gives me a little pick me up!

Other than that, it was Jason's drama camp and he had a great time learning about acting and meeting other kids in jr high and high school at the Civic theater. they put on small scenes from lots of different plays at the end of camp. He was so cute and took everything very seriously, but he still is kind of flat. Maybe sometime he'll bloom on stage, but for now he's just loving it. Why worry him with minor details :) Nick is Nick. Pretty sure he doesn't need me or anyone else tellling him what to do. Such a nice stage to go through. I'm happy this is the last one!! Drew had his birthday and I couldn't stand it. I caved and got him an iphone. The good news is that it's yours after Sept 28!! It is it's own command center there's so much you can do with it. He can barely study and work, he's so distracted with his new toy!! But I knew he'd love it, and have lots of uses for it even if it's just for 2 months.

Girls Camp week

2011-08-21T23:19:00.000-07:00

I survived another girls camp! I was the cook again and this time I had an assistant that I trained to do it next year. She was Sis. Graper from the 1st ward. She was really nice and a good worker. Thank heavens because there was a ton to do as always. Luckily she makes professional cakes and had a huge chocolate cake that the leaders dove into every night while the girls were sitting around the campfire. It was great. Also, there was usually an hour between lunch and dinner that we could take a little break so I got to kayak every day. I brought 2 of our kayaks up so I went out with Sis Graper and then Valynn Holland came up for the last day so I took her out too and we had a great paddle that was so relaxing and QUIET!! Then it was back home to the busy life. Luckily Grandma Reeder came to watch the kids all week so I had her to help unload and then 2 hours later, we were walking the golf course with Nick doing his golf tournament.

He was so cute and serious. Lined up his shots every time and then the wind carried the ball every which way no matter what he did. This other kid in the group got tired of golfing about the 3rd hole and just chased geese and marmots the whole time! I got lucky and had my old boss David springer as one of the parents in the group so I got to chat the whole time. It's what I love most about kids sports!! :) We also saw the last Harry Potter movie and women's world cup soccer final (USA was SO CLOSE to winning!!) this weekend so it was fun. I couldn't do anything more exerting because I have been so worn out!! It's taken me 2 days of tons of sleep to feel caught up after girls camp. And now me and Valynn are both jumping right in to youth conference prep. It's in 2 weeks. Thank goodness we're in it together so we can keep each other going. It's getting tiring to do such big activities in 2 short weeks.

Week after vacation

2011-08-21T23:16:00.001-07:00

Well, we made it back to our own beds and what did I do the very next night? sleep in the tent with Nick in the backyard! We finally got a new tent since our old one's zipper isn't working so great. It's huge and extremely orange! Nick was very excited to spend the night so we camped until 4am when the birds started up and it started getting light. By then I was exhausted trying to find a comfortable position on a half flat air mattress. But Nick had a great time and so did Pepper when I noticed him spraying the tent with pee! Arrrgh! But we found out it is very water proof and the pee didn't soak in at all, washed right off. Cool tent! Then it was work like crazy while Josh took a week off. Now this weekend is the big rush to get ready for girls camp which I'm cooking for again. I've been at Costco so much, Allison Steenblik is my new buddy since she's always working there. This year grandma Reeder took pity on me and flew up to help me pack up and watch the kids. They are very excited for a week with grandma. Hopefully they'll be nice and not drive her crazy!! We also took a little break from the crazinesss and did a bike ride on the centennial trail. We found a very nice put in at Plantes Ferry Park and rode to the valley. The best part of the trail, I think! We really enjoyed it and played in the river some too. I'ts quite high this year. Late spring and lots of rain have kept lots of snow melting into it.

East Coast vacation

2011-07-21T23:02:00.000-07:00

Day 1: Know the difference between AM & PM
We started off our big trip flying to Chicago, meeting Drew from Salt Lake and continuing to Atlanta, OR SO WE THOUGHT! His flight out of SLC was 2 hours late and he missed our Chicago flight. Luckily I had my new handy iphone so I immediately called United and made sure he was booked on the next flight. Get to Atlanta and decided to pick up the rental car while we were waiting OR SO WE THOUGHT. Turns out they cancelled our reservation because I had put 12pm instead of 12am so we were technically overdue. So running from counter to counter ensued and we finally at the last counter were able to get a little Nissan Altima. It was small, but by that time, we just wanted wheels! We finally got the the car headed back to the airport to get Drew, OR SO WE THOUGHT. We took a wrong turn and suddenly were circling the freeway system of Atlanta. Again, we consulted the iphone and finally got back to the airport just in time to catch Drew walking off the plane. So we started our 3 hour drive to Tim's dad's house at midnight OR SO WE THOUGHT. We had to get right off at a gas station to dump the puke bag Nick filled from no dinner and tons of stress. Luckily our bodies were still 3 hours behind so it wasn't too bad for the adults, but the poor kids were trying to sleep in the back, and just couldn't get comfortable so it was a miserable few hours for some of us.
Day 2: A family is love no matter how long its been
We didn't exactly make it out of bed for 9am church, but eventually we got up and the first thing Grandpa Powell does is show the kids how to drive the golf cart! That provided hours of entertainment, but didn't make his lawn look any better!!

We really enjoyed just hanging around the pool and the lake and of course, checking out all the random stuff in Grandpa's shop. That night all the cousins and relatives came over for a BBQ. There was the most amazing spread ever!! You could not help yourself from going back for 2nd's ok 4th's!!! It was all that good. And everyone was so fun and friendly, it's like we've never been away. The youngest was a little 5 year old named Elizabeth and everywhere she went in the pool, there was someone to catch her or play with her. I could just tell she was enveloped by love from all that family, and I felt the same way. We are so lucky to be surrounded by a very loving and good family!

Day 3: Fishing takes patience
The kids were very excited to try their luck at fishing in the small, stocked pond. They got up early (well vacation early) and loaded up their poles with cool gummy worms. Nothing. They got in the boat and trolled around the lake. Nothing. After a half hour, they were very bored and very hot and it was too much torture seeing the swimming pool just sitting there empty. So they went swimming while dad went out in the boat with grandpa. 2 hours later, in they came with 6 bass!! A Powell record for sure! so of course, that meant, fish fry!!! We had a delicious dinner of fried fish and hush puppies. Now that's soul food.

We also spent the day travelling around the area looking at the old homestead of Tim's grandmother. It's now restored to it's original character and is like a cool old museum. Also saw lots of family graves and Tim's uncle's cool John Deere collection. The kids all got to drive around the 1930 edition. Total boy fun.

Day 4: Christmas cards do pay off

It was so sad, but we eventually had to pack up and say good bye. We had such a lovely and relaxing time at Tim's dad. It really should be our vacation home every summer!! We drove up to Winston Salem, NC where we went to medical school. We still have kept in touch with a few friends there just through Christmas cards. It doesn't seem like much so we were pleasantly surprised when everyone we knew enthusiastically showed up at a little party! It was a blast catching up, and so amazing that the baby I used to babysit from when she was born until 2 years old, was now a beautiful 16 year old girl!! We all had so much fun visiting, it's like we never left there either. I loved the trees and green, I loved the food and people, heck even the humidity wasn't so bad. It carries the scent of flowers on it. I could so go back to living there!! It was really the highlight of our trip.

Day 5:Get ready to walk!

We spent the morning going around Winston Salem and looking at the old house and the hospital. Tim found out he just doesnt't have the clearance he used to. He couldn't get through any doors at the med school anymore, they're all ID locked. So we ate at the hospital cafeteria. Then we drove to Washington DC. Our hotel was right next to the capitol so we strolled out there to check it out.

The marine band was giving a free concert so we listened to the great music while watching the sun set behind the Washington monument. It was so beautiful. Then we walked to the monument and checked it out. By the time we got back to the hotel, we were bushed. We didn't know how tired we would be multiplying that walk by 3 the next day!!

Day 6: museum marathon

We had a big day planned. We would hit 3 museums and the white house. We already knew to split up because dad is a "read every word of every plaque" kind of a guy and mom is a "look at few key displays and you got the big picture" kind of a person. We got through the Natural history museum, air and space, and national archives in 2 hours each. And luckily they had an international festival in the mall so we got to grab ethiopian fare right there. We liked the natural history museum best probably because of the dinosaur bones, but there was also a really cool nature photography exhibit tucked way in a back corner that was pretty amazing. We've never been to the archives and it was really unbelievable that we saw the actual documents that George Washington himself signed. Although i'm not sure because they were basically blank since the ink is so faded now. But imagine that's pretty astounding! We had cool gourmet pizza at Matchbox and walked to the White House. It was cool to see, but we had about reached the end of our rope so we snapped a quick picture and called it good. The subway was a very welcome way home after all that walking.

Day 7: meltdown

We saw Arlington first. Very humbling, beautiful, and interesting.

Then it was off to the spy museum. That was quite different. We thought it would be fun for the kids and it was ok, but really interesting for adults. But now we are very paranoid that anyone around could be a spy!! Our last stop was the Lincoln Monument.

The only way down there was to walk, and boy, was it a walk!! The WWII, Korean, and Vietman memorials were cool to see especially WWII. Incredibly thoughtful architecture put into that one. Lincoln was very over run with tourists and hard to get any good pictures. And the reflecting pool was drained for the 4th of July fireworks so not as picturesque as usual. But the walk back to the hotel was BRUTAL!! It just seemed to go for miles uphill until I finally had it. I thought the kids would be tired, but I was the one that just hit the wall and couldn't go another step. So Tim and Drew were good men and walked the rest of the way to the hotel and got the car to come pick us up. Phew! Because we still had to drive to Philedelphia!

Day 8: Limping through Philedelphia

We really did want to see this new place that we'd never seen, but we were so tired! Thank heavens for the double decker tour bus!

We saw the whole city sitting down and the kids were just amazed that we were on a double decker bus, they didn't care what we were seeing! We did hop off to see the Liberty Bell, and we found out just how much freedom we have as we listened to a fanatic rant for a solid 15 minutes while we waited in line. An interesting lesson on freedom of speech. The liberty bell was really cool and it seems it sort of came out of nowhere to become this huge symbol of freedom.

They had a good little exhibit on its history that was quite interesting. We found out they were lighting off their fireworks for 4th of July that night so we stayed at the waterfront and hung around the park. We had a great seafood dinner served by a guy that was from Spokane of all the crazy coincidences! Jason had a whole lobster and the whole cracking of it was quite a production.

We were entertained and Jason was filled up. He has gained that hollow leg!! Then Tim and Drew thought they'd have enough time to zip to the hotel on the subway and get some blankets. Little did they know how convoluted the system was and that the train would be stopped by a huge brawl that broke out in the seats right next to them!! It was quite an unforgettable night for them.

And we got to watch the biggest and best fireworks show we've ever seen!! It was so amazing! So we felt like we'd really ended the vacation on a high note. The next day we had time to see a museum or something, but no one had any desire to see a single exhibit more. So we ended up in a park in Rittenhauer? It was beautiful and relaxing, and we grabbed Philly cheesesteaks on the way out. It was good to get back home, but quite sad to say goodbye to Drew this time. We didn't realize how much we've been missing him! We were glad to have this great vacation with him in the middle of his busy college schedule. Fun memories!!

School is out!!

2011-06-16T23:58:00.000-07:00

Today is the day! Everyone is home for summer and it was raining and 49 degrees :( But Jason had a wonderful graduation ceremony. He played his cello for the prelude music along with other musicians in his class. Then after some nice speeches, they all came up for their certificates. As they received their certificate, a recording played their final thoughts. Jason said thank you to his teachers and that he loved going to Chewelah Peak, launching rockets, and playing in mallet madness. He looked great and seemd really happy to be moving on! They ended with a fun candid slide show of all the kids and Jason made it with his snake show and tell day. The only sad part was saying goodbye to Mrs Craven. She is retiring and all the kids but Nick had her so we really loved her and will miss her for Nick's 6th grade!

The rest of the week has been lots of fun too with field day being more like a carnival this year with 28 stations and the kids all turned loose to go wherever they wanted. Jason's 6th grade party at sky high on the trampolines, and Nick getting a compliment sheet filled out from everyone in his class on what they liked about him. It was really a nice way to end his best year ever in elementary school! He had his favorite teacher ever with all his best friends in class. I'm proud of the kids for working hard and being responsible with their homework and making good friends. They are real assets to their school.

Great example

2011-06-16T23:09:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to pay a small tribute to my wonderful mother in law. She found out she had breast cancer just a few weeks ago and of course, this started the flurry of appointments and surgery and diagnosis. But through all of the ups and downs, she has remained so amazingly calm and composed! She has been the perfect example of faith as she's repeated over and over that she feels at peace and she feels all of our prayers. She said how thankful she was for her priesthood blessing and it also has given her great comfort. I am really humbled and thankful for her example of perfect faith and just letting go and letting "Jesus take the wheel". I hope I can have half the courage and patience she has when a trial comes my way!

Fun week!

2011-06-12T23:53:00.000-07:00

We had a fun week! It's the end of school so the kids are doing lots of fun things. Nick had his end of fourth grade blowout auction and he bought a hamster with his 20,000 fourth grade dollars! he was SO excited! We donated the bird to the auction so it ended up being a straight across trade. His name is snickers, he is little and gray and Nick gets him out and "loves" him quite a bit. Hopefully Snickers will survive all this "love". He and dad went and picked out a very fancy cage with all the tubes and fun stuff so he is really outfitted well for a little rodent.

Nick also earned his Webelos badge and lots of little Webelos pins. He is back to liking scouts now that Claytie Huber is in group. They changed Lincoln Heights boundary so Hatch road is now in and the Hubers go to our building now. It's so nice! Nick also got invited to a big sleepover on Friday night so me and jason took the opportunity to try kayak camping.

It was SO AMAZING!!! It's like backpacking, but you don't have to worry about the weight. We took our little backpacking tent, stove, and fleece and packed them inside the kayaks. Then put sleeping bags in dry bags and bungee corded them on top of the boats. We found this cool lake with an island in the middle so we paddled about an hour through a marsh and then the lake and camped on the island. it was so cool. We even survived a little rainstorm huddled under the rainfly vestibule eating our little can of beans. Jason was so afraid we'd catch the tent on fire, but when he saw how little the burner was and smelled the food, he changed his mind pretty quickly and was very glad for a warm dinner! And while we were sitting around the fire we heard coyotes howling! Very creepy, but very cool to tell people about. We also saw a beaver dam and lots of cool birds in the marsh. So that might be our new thing to check out. More spots to kayak camp at.

Jason was also in the stage crew for the Mullan Road talent show. He was very excited to do it, but fairly clueless. He said they had to hook up an amp and keyboard for one band and couldn't get it working for about 10 minutes. and Mrs. Craven was the faculty member helping them. Not exactly who I'd pick for tech advising! But he really liked it so I know he was excited to tell Jeff. Drew actually got a job at BYU and had his first week. It sounds like fairly brainless data entry, but it will be good for him to make some extra money. He seems to be ok with it. He's already needing to move again. Poor guy, he's getting used to mission life already with all his moves every 8 weeks! Hopefully he will still have good room mates. It's always such a gamble. Here's your funny quote for the week. We found a new summer nanny for the little kids. One of the married students in the ward named Hillary. We had her over to dinner tonight to meet everyone. She is quite tiny, maybe an inch smaller than me and of course, lots thinner. So after she left I asked Jason if he liked her. He said" she's smaller than I imagined. I could fit her in my pocket....a babysitter to go. Like I could pick one up at albertsons for $5! " Where does he come up with this stuff? I was laughing so hard. So it should be interesting to see how they respond to her. But so far so good since she survived meeting Slick and was still interested in the job! :)

Rocket launch

2011-06-04T22:44:00.000-07:00

Every year, the 6th grade builds model rockets and then launches everyone's in a big launch party. I've always had to work when the other kids launched theirs, but this year, my schedule changed and I actually went to Jason's launch. It was so cool! They count down from 5 for everyone's launch (85 times!) and the owner gets to push the launch button and it shoots a good 300 feet in the air. Then the trick is to have it blow back into the school yard so you can retrieve it. Jason got lucky and even though his parachute didn't open, the rocket came down inside the playground and he ran fast enough to catch it in mid air! Applause for that! It was quite exciting for him. And I got some fun pictures.

And this week has finally been warm enough for Nick to start playing in the sprinklers. He's still doing the squirt cold water then jump in the hot tub thing. But it's playing in water so he's happy!

Memorial Day weekend

2011-06-02T08:47:00.000-07:00

We finally got everyone kayaking! The weather, as usual, was cold and rainy all weekend, but finally on Monday afternoon, there was some sun so we jumped at the chance and loaded up all our kayaks and rented one for Tim. We just headed to a safe, close place for our maiden voyage. Liberty Lake was perfect! And since the weather was so-so NO ONE was on the lake. It was so calm and beautiful! And everyone had a great time paddling around and watching the osprey glide overhead. It took Tim a few bobbles and he took on some water, but he finally got the hang of it and even he had fun paddling around. A big cloud eventually rolled in and hailed on us. That was a little weird but kind of funny too. You could look up and see it falling and hear a funny plap as they hit the water. The only thing that would have been nice is a picnic and swim, but we still had fun eating at Sr. Froggy. Sort of like an indoor picnic, right? We also had our good friends the Hollands over for a cookout on Sunday and even though we had to eat indoors because of rain, we sure had fun! We didn't stop playing and talking until late! Fun weekend for all of us!!

Good weekend

2011-05-25T23:03:00.000-07:00

We got to have Drew home this weekend! Seeing Drew again was so nice!! He came on the night of the Mullan road walkathon. the kids were having such a great time downing pizza and snow cones as they raced around the track to get more laps than each other. They really wanted Drew to come join the fun, but his flight got delayed (lucky for him!) So he came later that night, but ended up flying right over our house and saw it from the air! Cool, huh! Then we got busy while the kids were at school getting ALL the stuff together for his visa to Brazil. I thought Argentina was bad , but that was just a warm up! They go as members of the clergy so you have to have seminary transcripts and priesthood certificates and all this stuff all notarized so it was a big pain, but we got it all done just to receive a letter from the church saying they changed their rules so we have to get more stuff from the secretary of state. Yikes! Not sure if he's going to get his visa in time. He may end up in provo after all. Anyway, getting back, Friday night we took all the kids to dinner and to Wicked. It was FABULOUS!! It's my 3rd time seeing it, but when Tim asked me if I was bored, I just said no way and i'm looking forward to seeing it again because Jeff still hasn't seen it! Jason sadly had to choose between Wicked and a cool scout campout. I felt bad because that's a pretty tough choice, but after the show he said it was totally worth missing a campout for! Nick can't stop singing Defying Gravity so I'm pretty sure he loved it too. And Allison had tears in her eyes so I think it was a winner!! (you can't see Nick is wearing plaid shorts, refused to wear Sunday pants!)

On Sat. we took advantage of a gorgeous sunny day and worked in the yard and Drew spent time with his friends. We did get to enjoy steak off the grill out on the deck all together. On Sunday, it was very nice to have Drew in church and we really took advantage of him! He blessed the sacrament, said prayers in Sunday school, and led the singing in priesthood. Then he got to run and play with the youth symphony one last time at the farewell concert for Verne, the conductor of many years and a big mentor to Drew. It was fun seeing them play again. Then back at home, the kids gave lots of group hugs and we even got to play Book of Mormon charades for FHE and watch Tangled together. It was very sad to say good bye to him Monday. And I don't know how he fit all the food I bought for him in his luggage, but it weighed exactly 50lbs!

The other funny news is Nick has sprained his finger playing bump in basketball. So we have matching finger splints now since Jason broke his pinky last week playing flag football in PE! What are the odds? They cause conversation wherever we go. It's just been a great relaxing weekend at home with family. It's sure nice to enjoy those every once in awhile!

Bedtime

2011-05-17T21:21:00.000-07:00

Let me just start with the disclaimer--Nick will KILL me if he ever sees this so keep it to yourself!! I just never want to forget how sweet his bedtime routine is! He's always slept with his blanket named "night-night", but in the last few years, he has started adding stuffed animals until now he has 8 buddies that have to be accounted for each and every night. He does a roll call, then gathers them in a big hug, turns on his fan because he's always too hot, and snuggles everyone including night night all night long. Sometimes they even require a kiss from mom. I begged him to pose with all his gang, but no self respecting 10 year old would be caught dead in a picture with stuffed animals so you'll just have to imagine his sweet little face in the middle of all the guys!

He also loves to sing songs. Usually it's just our old nursery favorites like 3 little ducks and over in the meadow, but lately he's added songs from the radio which he knows alarmingly well and also improvised songs. Last nights cracked me up so hard I had to share that too. He said name anything in the room. So I said blinds. here is his song:
Blinds
Are for your privacy
Blinds
keep ghosts out at night

And that's as far as he got since I was convulsing with laughter! He is always an adventure to tuck in every night, but I wouldn't trade that time for anything. That's when all his layers peel away and I get to enjoy my real Nick!

Mother's day

2011-05-08T20:02:00.000-07:00

And what a day its been!! You know how we joke about laying around eating bon bons? I really got to do that today!!!!! We got a box of mints at church which I snacked on all day! The kids all sang to us in church too. Then when I got home, I was banned from the kitchen since my only request for mother's day was to have dinner magically appear before me without any planning, shopping, or cooking. Boy, did that ever turn out to be the best deal ever! And while they were all plotting in the kitchen, I got to enjoy the whole Sunday paper, finish my novel, and catch up on blogs. Then the momentous occasion came to call Jeff. We got through after 3 tries, and I was able to 3 way call Drew so the 2 of them had 15 minutes to chat. Drew was really excited to be able to be included on the call and I was so glad it worked out. Then we each took a turn and it was hard to give up the phone to the next person. It really kind of makes you miss them 10 times as much! But I wouldn't give it up. He sounds like he is in a good area, keeping very busy teaching new member discussions, and has a great companion. So that was good news. And while all that was going on, Tim took the time to mount kayak hangers in the garage so we can store the boats easier. Then the pinnacle of the evening was when dinner was paraded out all plated. It was FAAANCY! Salmon with tarragon cream sauce and brown rice pilaf. Nick made a cheese, bacon, potato bake. And Jason put together cucumbers with onion cream and smoked salmon. These guys have put all those Iron Chef episodes to work! It was fabulous and I just could not believe it came from the guys who struggle to make mac and cheese. They're so busted now!! And we all ended up telling funny mom stories for FHE so I really was treated well. I sure am lucky! I just love these guys. Even though they said they don't like being forced to brush their teeth, they are glad I'm around. What more could a mom ask for?

Strings week

2011-05-08T19:49:00.000-07:00

Yes, we did have another 5th/6th grade arena concert. I've got my parking strategy down pat now so we got there easily this time without any major tantrums from Jason. Even though it requires walking 4 blocks! The strings sounded ok except Jason said the songs were so easy, it wasn't surprising they stayed together. The bands were a bit off, but the parents didn't seem to care and clapped wildly for everything. I'm just amazed at how well organized they are to accomodate 2000 elementary kids and get everyone back to their parents safely. The kids really think it's cool to play in that big of a group so it's fun despite the craziness getting in and out.

And speaking of Jason getting into cool groups, he found out he made it into the Sacajewea chamber orchestra! he had to audition because it is mainly for 8th graders, but he got the letter saying he was one of 5 7th graders in. He was so excited, he called Drew and Brandon. they were both really happy for him and Leisa even said she'd go to Portland to watch him if they go to the Hood festival. It's exciting. Another busy music kid and no 3rd driver, yikes!

Easter

2011-05-08T19:24:00.000-07:00

It's been a very good easter weekend for us. We've had a very cold and snowy week. Almost May!!! Should be a crime! But Saturday and Sunday were both sunny and warm. It felt good to watch soccer and lacrosse without freezing and I actually got some clipping and cleaning of the flower beds started. We had a ward Easter egg hunt with breakfast on Sat morning. Nick was at lacrosse and jason got to hide the eggs because he's too old to hunt them. I actually enjoyed just chilling and chatting with Valynn instead of refereeing kids hunting eggs! I guess they had 1000 eggs!! So the kids really scored. Jason walked in with 2 eggs. I asked where he got them. he said he found them buried in the sand. I said, wow, how did you find those? He goes, "I buried them". So he got to enjoy his little stash :) and I think he actually loved hiding the eggs and helping cook pancakes. He's trying so hard to be grown up these days. Then Easter morning came bright and early with the kids getting up at 6:00am. They finally jumped on me at 7 and asked to start hunting eggs. Of course, dad hid them very hard so it took awhile. the maxwells were also outside playing at 7am so I think everyone was excited for the Easter bunny! We had early church and I finally caved and sang with the ward choir. It was scary singing a hard song with people I haven't sang with before, but we made it and dad said it sounded fine.

Then we had the neighborhood egg hunt after church. No one could believe how nice it was to actually have sunshine for our hunt and spirits were high as the kids ran around to all the yards. Dave and Leisa even still hid money eggs even though Brandon wasn't there. Jason actually found an egg from last year with corroded quarters in it! He was thrilled and googled how to dissolve corrosion with vinegar and salt and made himself a dollar!! Anyway, it was fun chatting with everyone and saying how big all the kids are getting. Then laughing when dad's egg that he hid in the tailpipe of Drew's car got pushed in instead of taken out so he had some surgery to do, but the egg was finally pulled out with duct tape and everyone had a good chuckle. (and a good facebook post :) Then we had the Mosses over for dinner. It was fun planning our next year of symphonys and trying to figure out what was getting built next in the neighborhood. Always fun eating with them. then we skyped Drew and grandma. They had a nice Easter together and also got Drew moved into his new apartment. There were no roomates there yet so I haven't heard how that's going to be. hopefully they are nice. I'm a little nervous about Drew jumping into independent life. We'll see. He seems nervously excited, but whatever happens he has LOTS of food after grandma took him grocery shopping! She had fun spoiling him. So we had a wonderful Easter weekend, and we always appreciate the opportunity to remember how blessed we are to know about our Savior's sacrifice for us.

Mission Call

2011-04-17T17:44:00.000-07:00

Drew FINALLY got his call!!! He was delayed a week because of general conference so when the second wednesday came and went without a call, he was very depressed. But prayers were heard and maybe the mail got sorted. On Thurs morning, he got a call from the Cannon center that his call had arrived! He flew out of bed and in the 40 degree temp he ran to the Cannon center in shorts and flip flops! He said they gave him an envelope from a stack of at least 15!! A regular missionary army! So he texted us and set the time at 5:00. It was a stretch for me and Tim to get home that early and the kids had to be rounded up from neighbors, but we made it at 5:07. he was on Skype and opened it to read........Manaus, Brazil!!! Lots of cheers from friends and us. Then we excitedly phoned all the family. It was a celebration night for sure!! And the best part is he doesn't leave until Sept. 28 so he'll see Jeff!! We were so worried they'd miss each other for 4 years. This is really a blessing and our whole family is very excited and so proud of Drew for putting his life on hold to serve. Love you Drew!!

Spring Break

2011-04-17T17:33:00.000-07:00

As with all spring breaks in Spokane, it was rainy and snowy most of the week. The poor kids had to stay home alone while me and Tim worked. They broke out old toys they haven't played with in months like the kinex roller coaster and blocks so they made up their own fun. One day I got home and Nick announced he'd ridden his bike to the store, bought Coke and mentos, and made an explosion on the deck. A little alarming, but everything seemed in one piece. Maybe they've watched a few too many Mythbusters! On Wed I took them to Wonderland to ride the gokarts. We did 2 turns and the first time I got in the dud car and puttered around the track while the kids sped around me. Nick actually came in first and boy, did that make his day!! He did not let us live that down. Next round he got the dud car and had to swallow it while mom zipped around the track like a maniac! There were some other teenage boys that were also schooled by the 40 year old crazy woman circling the track cackling gleefully :) And all while it was snowing! But fun times for all. Then we decided to go all out and took our new kayaks for their maiden voyage on Fish Lake. We went with Linda and paul and even though the gates were closed, we went around them, hiked the boats down to the lake and pushed off. What a gorgeous paddle! The sun was just starting to go down and the water was like glass.

I admit we had be bundled up in fleece and had tennis shoes on, but it was still very fun and really got us in the mood for summer paddling! Sun, hurry up and get here!! The last weekend, Nick had a lacrosse tournament in Richland. so we packed up and headed to the Tricities. Nick had a great 1st game of lacrosse, which is surprisingly exciting to watch! he scored 3 goals and was a great leader for their 3rd/4th grade team. They were ahead the whole game, then the other team scored a tying goal at the last second. So they lost in a shoot out, but we count them as winners for playing so great their very first time. Then we spent the rest of the weekend with the cousins. It was nice for the kids to have some sunshine and be able to play kickball and dodgeball outside. We even got to have dinner from the grill. It was a fun way to end the week and a nice break for me, I have to admit. I'm always relaxed after coming home from Kims! So now we bundle up and wade through the next month hoping the weather breaks and Drew gets his mission call soon!!!

March Madness

2011-04-03T22:58:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, we are actually following the basketball tournament this year. We filled out the bracket and everything. It's been so much fun especially following BYU. What a great year for them! And now "Jimmer" and "jimmerized" is a part of our everyday vocabulary :) Otherwise, there has been lots of other madness this month. There was the science fair.

This year's projects were about growing bacteria. Jason grew bacteria from chip dip that had been double dipped. Nick grew bacteria from Pepper and GG's mouths and my mouth too. Luckily my mouth ended up growing the least bacteria. I hate to think how close I came to wiping out my social status at the elementary school! And Jason's was inconclusive since the control had as much bacteria as the double dipped, but we still saw some cool colored bacteria. It was overall a fun and different project than we've ever done. Jason also got to go on a winter campout.

I was so glad the weather had warmed up enough not to be too cold, though. It was high 40's so that was good....until they woke up Saturday morning with snow!! But he said they still had lots of fun playing capture the flag and he got to cook pancakes and bacon for everyone so it was a success. Nick's big night was the Pinewood Derby!

We built the whole car ourselves this year. I must admit, after our 15 year losing streak, he was kind of defeated from the beginning and didn't put too much hope into the car, but he still came up with a sleek metallic green racer lubed to the nines with graphite. And he actually got second in a couple of heats and overall was 12 out of 20th. Respectable! (for a Powell) The best part was going out for ice cream afterward with our friends the Demilles. We had a great time eating, talking BYU basketball, and laughing together. Nick also had his 4th grade music program on St. Patrick's day.

They put on a celtic program and played the recorders and sang. It was so cute hearing them sing Loch Lomond, Danny Boy, and Working on the Railway. And with our beef and cabbage dinner, it made a great St. Patrick's day celebration! The funny story of the month was Nick once again made waffles for me for dinner when I came home from work, but this time he met me with a menu printed out, seated me, and gave me a check when I was finished!

I didn't get out of there before he had negotiated $3.00 out of me for the dinner!! The kid is sly!

Jason also got to make the Mullan Road special. A lovely ceramic pot. I am very excited to add it to my collection. And heart warming story was, after hearing of all the devastation after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, we decided to make lots of banana bread and sold it all week at school and work. I was so proud of the kids for daring to do something out of their comfort zone, and we raised $30. It felt good to do something even though it was small.

February fun

2011-02-22T22:27:00.000-08:00

Not much has happened this month, but here's a few highlights:

It started with the annual rubber chicken game.

It's the rivalry basketball game between the South hill high schools. We actually don't have kids in high school anymore, but it's become such a fun tradition, we can't stand to miss it! I was so proud of the kids, while I was at work, they came up with their own homemade spirit t-shirts. You can do anything with duct tape! We sat with friends and laughed at our babysitter, tommy who came out with the cheer leaders shirtless, tattooed (fake hopefully!), and with a yellow mohawk shaved into his head. Quite the excitement for us! The game was good too. Then Jason finally was awarded his Tenderfoot and 2nd class rank in scouts. He earned them last summer, but it's taken awhile for the leaders to get on top of this, but finally it happened and we were so proud! He's on his way.

And Nick had his cub scout Blue and Gold banquet. They decorated their cakes as usual, but this time it came the day after we got home from vacation so we were quite unprepared. What ended up happening was an editing job of a cake from our freezer. It was a cute idea with him drawing our family on the cake as his "hero". Just didn't quite get a color you could see that well. And you know it's pretty bad when you get "the most colorful" cake award. Code for trying to make you feel good about your obvious mess of a cake. Oh well, it was his last B&G and he made it memorable!!

Finally, we took our yearly trip skiing with the Mosses. We went big time this year and headed to Park City, UT. It was tough to pack all the winter stuff in small enough bags to fit on a plane, but so convenient to fly in and be on the slopes the same day! Loved the snow, the food, the relaxation, and most of all loved the company!

It was especially great to have the college kids, Drew and Brandon, with us. We all miss them so much!!

They had big adventures skiing on the cliffs that we loved to hear about. Now it's back to regular life. It kind of feels like a holding pattern while we wait for spring!

Happy b-day Nick!

2011-01-23T15:14:00.000-08:00

Lots of little things this week. Nick finally got off his crutches and out of the boot. The doctor told him to wean off the boot so I made him wear it to school after we were done at the doctor's since he hasn't walked without crutches for 4 weeks. After punching me and telling me he hated me, he made it through that day at school then chucked that boot never to go near it again!! I told him if he could do the wii fit without his ankle hurting, we could go skiing so he did it for 2 days straight. We went skiing the next day :) He chose to take Trevor and Ben skiing. They rented snowboards and swore they've been before so we were looking forward to a fun day on the slopes. Well, after Ben took 10 minutes to get down the easiest run at Silver-falling every 20 feet, it was looking like a very long and frustrating day. So I made the command decision to take Ben to the lodge and figure something out while dad took the other 3 boys on the green runs for awhile. When I got up there, lessons were just starting so before he knew what hit him, I had the teachers grab him and he spent the next 2 hours in lessons learning how to stay up on a snowboard! So we all felt kind of horrible ditching him when it was supposed to be a party, but once we got up top and found the good snow (it's been so warm the snow is already slushy!) we decided we were all better off this way. It was actually fun having Trevor up there and just reminded me Jeff, Drew, and friends all skiing together! Luckily we had time to do 2 quick runs with Ben after his lesson so he got a chance to ski with all the kids and he definitely was more comfortable and could stay up. So then we grabbed pizza at that pizza shop down by the gondola and the kids had a blast eating and playing pinball. Then since, we were'nt sure Nick would be able to ski, we had already arranged a sleep over with his other friend, Blaine, so he had that too! He really had a great b-day weekend and got another scooter (just in time to break another ankle ! :/

Quiet week

2011-01-23T15:11:00.000-08:00

We've had a pretty quiet week. Just struggling to dig out from the holidays. I finally just tackled getting all of Christmas down and packed away and all the stuff on the to-do list that went on hold with the holidays. So i'm just now finally feeling back on top of my game. They made another Narnia movie, the Voyage of the Dawn Treader. That was my favorite one of the series so we had a good time watching it this weekend. The other fun thing we did this week, was dad got Swing dance lessons LAST Christmas and he's just now cashing in on them so we started our swing dance lessons. The class is big, thank heavens, so we don't stand out. And it's fun because you rotate and dance with everyone, but it goes really slow so everyone can get it and surprisingly me and dad picked it up fast so we're hungry for more moves and we're stuck waiting for everyone else to figure out just how to hold their hands and do 1 turn. Hopefully it will pick up the pace in the next few weeks. Watch out, we may out dance you soon!! :) and I guess the teacher noticed that we were getting the moves and pointed out to everyone what good rhythm dad had. Who knew he'd be the teacher's pet! Also, Matt Birch showed up in the ward today. They looked happy and said they were moved in and excited. One funny thing he said during sunday school. It was talking about Mary and Joseph today (1st new testament lesson) and the teacher said, " how would you translate what Mary said (be it unto me according to thy word) in today's English"? Matt says, "bring it". I was cracking up so hard! Good one! Nick and Jason are on a new kick. They found Drew's airsoft gun and got it working so now they've started the battles in the backyard with Trevor. De ja vu! It 's funny. They have lots of trips to Shopko planned and all their Christmas money pooled and plans of what else they'll buy. It's fun. Until someone shoots their eye out! Nick is also looking forward to his 10th birthday this weekend. His big decision is whether to eat dinner at Kentucky Fried Chicken or breakfast at McDonalds. What a partier! He also wants to go skiing but is still in a boot and on crutches until the day before his b-day so I guess that will have to wait a couple of weeks. We'll see how the ankle works. Oh and Jason's big happening. Church basketball!!! He was so nervous and I asked him that night if he knew how to play basketball and what to do. He said not really. poor kid! So he just followed the other guys and passed the ball like a hot potato if it ever came to him. So funny and sad too. And we can't practice here since all the streets and hoops are under snow and ice! I hope he survives the season with a shred of dignity. Drew had some funny "going to the wrong class and totally forgetting a class" story from the first week of school. He's also braggin about shaking D. Todd Christofferson's hand and hearing an awesome talk. Lucky. Sounds like he's back to full swing at school. So that's about it. Dad is busy with High council stuff. Just back to regular stuff!

Happy New Year

2011-01-23T15:05:00.000-08:00

We did the usual First night celebration downtown. But this year we stayed at the Red Lion Hotel. It was about 2 degrees outside so I was really grateful to have a place to go and stay warm when we were done with all the shows, and waiting for the fireworks. We could see most of the fireworks from the hotel window so that was really convenient, but dad and the boys braved the bone chilling cold and just had to go out and stand right under the launching. It was really loud and really bright but they loved it. And we didn't have to brave traffic, just go right to bed. But at 2am when people were still running up and down the halls yelling and laughing, I wasn't sure the hotel was such a great idea. Anyway, we came home and packed up and still went skiing for half day. It was absolutely gorgeous and sunny. Warmed up to 4 degrees :) So even with hand/foot warmers, we were ready to pack it in after 2 hours, but it was sure a nice 2 hours! Then we grabbed Drew and Nick (out of skiing for awhile with his broken ankle) And went out for Drew's last supper. After the fried ice cream, we were loaded up for fast Sunday!! So we had a very nice New year's celebration. Then today we switched to early church. It was a killer especially with NO hot water by the time I got in the shower. We'll have to split into night showers for half the people I've decided! Then dad got to sit with us. It was totally weird having all these people sitting with me! I'm used to me and Nick so it was very nice to have the entire family. And Nick and Jason were amazingly quiet :) (no thumb wrestling or full body wrestling for that matter) I also taught RS. I used Pres. Monson's talk from the RS broadcast. A fabulous talk for anyone (and especially gossipy ladies) about not judging each other and having more charity for each other. It was a good discussion and a good resolution for the new year. Then home and playing lots of last games together and taking down the Christmas tree. Always sad, and the house feels so empty with that and Drew leaving. :(

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-26T22:25:00.000-08:00

The week started out putting together all the gifts for the needy families in the ward from the tree of sharing. I was totally amazed at how generous the ward was. there was enough stuff to fill Gloria's living room and provide gifts and food for 12 whole families. It was a really cool experience. Then we got a big surprise when grandpa Powell decided to drop by for a Christmas visit. Kim and family came up so he could enjoy all the grandkids. He was a bit put off by the snow and cold. When I suggested everyone go sledding, Kim politely said, Jeff can take them. I better take my dad to an indoor activity, he is freezing! Funny. So the kids got to enjoy sledding together and lots of wii and DS games. they even broke out the Monopoly game. And I think Grandpa and Kim enjoyed just sitting around and getting to chat with everyone. It was a nice visit for everyone and helped the kids pass the time off until Christmas. They left on christmas eve. So I frantically started baking cookies for the neighbors and I even got a fudge recipe that even I can make. It was one of those randomly sweet moments that morning when dad and Drew went to pick up the pinball machine, I was making stuff in the kitchen, the kids were busily putting together their gingerbread houses, the Christmas music was playing, and the sun was shining on the fresh snow. Absolutely perfect Christmas eve moment. After all the running and craziness, I really appreciated the quiet happiness of that day. We had our nice Christmas ham dinner and I even caved and made ribbon jello again. But it was a little sad when no one wanted to act out the nativity. They all just sat and had dad read it. No more bathrobes and ski poles! After the Nativity movie, everyone went to bed all excited. And they got up at 5am all excited too!! They had the restraint to wait until 7am to wake me up. We tore through the presents and everyone got wii games and ipods. Even dad got an ipod touch. He can't stop finding cool things to do on it! so the day was full of new games and setting up electronics. And calling lots of family including Jeff!! It was so great to hear his voice! He sounds like he's working hard, sweating in the heat, and cooked steak and potatoes for 12 missionaries Christmas dinner. It was a good talk. No one could stop talking about it! Even Brandon and Leisa came over and said hi. It was so funny to surprise Jeff with Brandon's voice and Brandon even posted it on his FB he enjoyed it so much. We had our missionaries over tonight for dinner and even they were really excited and said they'd talked for longer than an hour to lots of friends and family. It was a good day for all missionary families! So now we have to get back to cleaning up the mess and real life again. It was sure a fun weekend while it lasted!

More December madness

2010-12-26T21:07:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy one! The Creche came down Tuesday. The missionaries here were great to break down all 50 of my trees. Even this elder with a prosthetic leg was just bending and lifting and carrying things like a champ! Anyway, I finished by 7:00pm and just in time for our Rs dinner....I thought. I walked in about 7:20 and people were leaving and putting up chairs, turns out it started at 6:00 and it was over!! Everyone started laughing so hard and finally Rita Peacock gave me a hug and led me to the leftover food that I had to warm up in the microwave! Some councilor I turned out to be! But everyone knew I was exhausted and they had a good time talking to me while they cleaned up. Crazy!

Then the kids both had recitals. Nick had his 1st piano recital. He played the Indian song (with the left hand doing a 5th the whole time like war drums) He was so nervous, but he held it together and played great. I loved it!

Then Jason had the 6th grade program. He was the star. His music teacher liked his cello solo so much she had him play that. Then he sang in the choir. Then played in mallet madness. He did so great in mallet madness. He plays the lower parts and can really keep the time. It's fun to hear them again.

Then it was the office party for me. Just dinner and ping pong at Trish's. We did the ping pong where you run around the table and with lots of beer on board it made for some hilarious moments! :) Then it was the ward party. Dad, of course, didn't go again. Sigh. It gets old explaining to people that he really is just sitting home. But it was a nice dinner and the primary sang and a girl played the flute. Then I did drag dad to the Ferris Swing dance. It was absolutely rockin!! Ever since Drew and Alli taught us to swing dance, dad is doing great! We can actually do about 4 moves, and all in a row! You would be proud. I can't wait for the day we can all be there together. It cut Drew to the heart to miss it. But a fun party and we spent money like crazy at the auction so it was good for everyone. Now today was dad's first day on the high council. He spent it in Glenrose ward. It seems good so far. Now I"m finishing my shopping. I've actually been finished with the kids for some time so this time I was actually shopping for the church! We had a tree of sharing and the RS pres kept asking me if I'd do just one more then one more so I feel like I've been shopping for days! But we can do it so it's good. i hope everyone ends up liking it and having a good Christmas. And the kids also got their shopping for each other done. It was funny to see how they all got each other kind of the same thing! So now I'm feeling a little more relaxed this week. Just baking for the neighbors and keeping Nick occupied so he doesn't go crazy waiting a whole boring week for Santa to come!! He will be extra hard to entertain since he's on CRUTCHES!!!

He was jumping off the snow berm with his scooter and fell spraining (I hope!) his ankle. we got it xray on Saturday but they couldn't tell if it was broken for sure until the radiologist reads it today. I really don't want a cast for the entire ski season!! So I think we'll be going to lots of movies this vacation! We also went to our ward dinner group party. It was really fun chatting with everyone and we got the world's biggest underwear in the white elephant exchange!! It was so hilarious and the kids just LOVE them. We now have underwear to fit even the biggest bum :) Drew also had a "party" at church. the ward must have really missed him! He blessed the sacrament and surprised Tommy when Tommy walked in at 1:01 to jump up there. Then he played his flute. Then the primary grabbed him to substitute, then he led the music in priesthood! He was the man of the hour! It's been really nice to have him home. I thought he'd be out with friends a lot, but he has just stayed home the whole time! I think he actually might like just resting and hangin out here.

Busy start to December

2010-12-26T20:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, it is that wonderful time of year. Setting up and getting through the Creche (now the Nativities around the world) I got smart this year and called about 10 people to help me with setting up the 50+ Christmas trees. That really helped and even dad came by after work and got up on the ladder to hang lights on the bare branch trees. so it was an exhausting day, but we got all the trees and the lights on in 1 day. It took from 9am to 10:30pm straight, and I realized when I left to go home I hadn't used the bathroom or eaten more than a couple pieces of pizza and a donut all day! But it looked great.
Next big news: OUR NEW BISHOP!! It's not dad! :) It's Chris Holland. PHew! That was a close one, but dad is now on the high council, so we're anxious to see what that's like. Not sure if it's more or less busy, but it doesn't seem like it would be too bad. He's kind of excited for the change. but I think Chris is sad not to have him as a councilor. Anyway, Hollands were quite emotional today as they got the call and bore their testimonies. It's quite humbling for such a young family, but they are so strong, they'll be great. Luckily they just took a trip to Disneyworld so they had one last time together :) Dad wasn't at church today because he's in Texas for his annual work conference. So I thought I'd get out of bearing my testimony, but no! I still had to get up. I said, "I don't have a testimony of being in the bishopric. the only thing I ever did was threaten Tim with violence if we didn't get a cub scout leader". That got everyone laughing. But I also bore my testimony of how the Lord's atonement magnifies us to be able to handle any calling we have and even though it's hard, we can do so much more than we thought possible with his help.

It's also recital season. Jason had his first cello recital. He played Angels we have heard on high in a duet with his teacher. He did great and was so serious and did his bow at the end just right. And his elementary music teacher was there and must have been impressed because she asked him to play it in their school Christmas concert. so he really gets to shine this week! nick will have his first piano recital next week and already whined because he realized he'd have to wear Sunday clothes. Funny kid. I hope he can do ok, he sprained his wrist sledding yesterday. Going off a jump on the icy/crusty snow. sigh! He may surpass Jeff's broken bone record! And Drew made his famous debut. He is on the Friend website accompanying the kids singing the song for December. It's been a big hit with the grandmas and LDS friends. http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=21bc9fbee98db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=a67e5adbb5dac210VgnVCM100000176f620a____ If the link doesn't work, just go to LDS.org then menu then magazines then friend then top right corner is their Christmas message and that's it. He also had a concert this week so Grandma Reeder is going. After all the years of complaining about all his concerts, now I'm kind of sad I can't go! I'm glad grandma can be there for him. She has really enjoyed going.

A thankful heart

2010-11-28T23:04:00.000-08:00

We got to fly to Dallas this week for thanksgiving! The morning we left it was seriously 15 degrees and such a big blizzard! I was fearing for our lives driving down Hatch hill and to the airport, but we made it. And then we stepped out into 75 degree Texas weather! it was so awesome!! Brian & Terry have a pool so the kids just swam most of the day. then we ran to see the temple. We even grilled out hotdogs for the kids that night and they watched movies while we went out for some really texas BBQ. I had ribs that absolutely fell of the bone. It was amazing and fun to be with my brothers and Lisa. they crack me up. Then we went and picked up the kids and as we were leaving for the hotel, Jason hurled violently!! I got to scrub Brians bathroom and drag a limp Jason to the hotel. I figured he just ate too many hotdogs and would sleep it off. Wrong! He squirted out both ends every half hour until 3:30am. It was just horrible! So I hustled Nick over to Jim's hotel room as soon as everyone was awake so he wouldn't get anything then I went straight to Walmart and got disinfectant and air freshener! Poor Jason, we spent Thanksgiving morning quarantined in a hotel trying to hold down crackers and Gatorade and napping. I popped over to Brian's at 1 just in time to enjoy the bounteous turkey dinner prepared by Terry. It was traditional and very good except he also made cranberry/jalepeno salsa! Served over cream cheese with crackers it was delicious!! It sounds totally weird, but it was actually great. then we all headed out to the new Harry Potter film. I knew Jason would be upset to miss it so he dragged himself to the theater and actually started feeling better. We loved it even though it was a bit darker than the first few. We relaxed the rest of the night nibbling turkey sandwiches and seconds on pie and relaxing by the fire with a James Bond movie. jason even got to nibble some turkey and pumpkin pie so the day was saved! Then before we knew it, Friday came and it was time to fly home. We took one last walk to the park all together and enjoyed our last sunshine. It had gotten colder, but still jacket weather and sunny. I wasn't complaining! It was so wonderful to be surrounded by family and cousins. And to hear Drew play the flute again. We really miss him. Now we're back and I had to dig the car out of 6 more inches of snow. I was worried it would be dead after near 0 degree temps, but miraculously it started and we drove home in blizzard number 2! The kids have actually enjoyed playing in the snow and Tim is going crazy using his new snowblower. he even snowblowed up the entire backyard into a mound for the kids to sled on. A popular neighborhood spot now! And the Christmas lights I was so happy to have up before the snow are completely buried! I had to have Nick dig them all out so you could even see them :) So it has been an eventful and fun week. We ended today by cooking dad a turkey since he couldn't come to Dallas with us and now we are stuffed yet again and have lots of delicious leftovers. We truly count our many blessings like warm homes and good snow cars and a good harvest and a healthy and happy family!

Calm November

2010-11-19T09:55:00.000-08:00

Yes, we really have had a fairly quiet, calm month which Jeff still says every week it seems like we're still packing a lot into what we call "calm". First, we got to take the kids to Stomp. That's always really fun to watch them banging on any and everything and still making really cool music and rhythms. They even had a comic relief this year with a chunky guy in very short cargo cutoffs and a vest with white bird legs. But even he could dance and drum with the best of them! We also went out to dinner that night and celebrated Tim's birthday. He and Jason shared a dessert called "messy face" and it sure was! They loved diving into chocolate covered brownies. Then came Tim's actual birthday.

We had a nice dinner with his favorite sausage casserole and peach pie. He got a new lap top so he's been in heaven. He is spoiled with a touch screen now so any other computer he goes on he keeps jabbing the screen until he remembers they aren't all that nice! He enjoyed the quiet family party the best. Then it was Veterans day weekend so we took a little road trip and went to the Myers to play with cousins and for mom to take a day off and just catch up with all the family news.

The kids had such a great time playing together all day. We even went to see Secretariat and as soon as we came home the kids had to race all around the backyard playing horse race. Then they all relaxed in the hot tub and slept a good worn out sleep! It all went too fast and we were back home raking leaves and getting the yard winterized. While Tim and I went shopping, the kids took jumping in the leaves to the next level. With the ladder! I'm glad we pray to be protected every day is all I have to say!!

And now we are ending the month with parent teacher conferences and Nick getting his bear and religious knot in cub scouts. Way to go Nick (and your great scout leaders)! We have definitely enjoyed this calm before the storm of holidays!

Public apology

2010-11-19T09:17:00.000-08:00

Wow, after 10 years of working with cub scouts and putting 4 boys through, I am still learning things! When I went to meet with Nick's new Bear leader and tell her what achievements he's passed off out of the 24 in the book, when we got to number 12, she said great, he's earned his bear! I was like, what? He's only done half the requirements. She directed me to the directions in the front where it says you only have to do 12 out of the 24. All this time I've made my kids do all 24!! OUCH! So I would like to apologize to all my boys for beating them over cub scouts requirements which obviously I had no idea about, but hey, you've learned important skills like how to build bird houses and hand signal on a bike and where our recycling goes. You'll thank me one day! :)

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-01T00:35:00.000-07:00

First since I haven't blogged in so long, I'll just give a quick shout out to Nick for finishing cross country at all city with not his best time, but a good learning experience. it was hard to run on a strange course that he'd never been on after waiting 2 hours for his turn so we were happy that he did his best and made it to all city in the first place. Jason finished the soccer season strong. He was a little disappointed that he never kicked a goal, but he had some great strong shots and the best corner kick in the whole last game so proud of him for improving even though it's a struggle to get off the couch! The kids are also doing well in music lessons and both have recitals scheduled for December even though Nick initially told his piano teacher, "no I don't play in recitals". Until his mother found out and immediately told the teacher that he would be HAPPY to play. He's now accepted the fact and is busy practicing the Indian song. I swear I played that exact song when I was a kid!
Anyway, on to the main event. Halloween! Which fell on a Sunday this year so we decided we had to salvage the holiday somehow so we threw a party on Saturday. It seriously took the whole week to clean, set up an entire carnival in the basement and family room and cook dinner for 45 people. But it was well worth it. Lots of people from the ward showed up and Josh from work came. Me and Josh dressed up like john Lennon and yoko Ono. He actually grew out his hair and beard and looked just like him. It was SO awesome!! I, of course, couldn't really pull off Asian, but I made a great outfit, so I made it on hippie fashion alone! :) It was fun to see people's reaction. But back to the party, dad stole the show with his dead guy. He put a head and shoes at the ends of a sheet and said he had a dead guy under there. He'd have the kids stick their hands under the sheet and feel his heart, brain, tongue etc. They were really grossed out but loved it and when they ran upstairs and told their parents, all the adults had to come check it out too! It was a huge hit. He had a great time planning it, but I had to draw the line at raw meat. He wanted them to feel raw hamburger-seriously gross!! (and I could just see a salmonella outbreak the next day :() But it worked out good. The other funny thing was one of the games was black jack and the next thing I knew, Blake Demille had all the older kids dealing in and betting with their Mike and Ikes! It was hilarious as they all said "hit me" and lost their jelly beans. But it kept them occupied for the longest time. I should have paid him!! Then at the end, I had some dads drop glow sticks out in the back yard and the kids all came out to find them. They all started running around with them and throwing them through the air. it was really magical. If it was a movie, I'd have my music montage there!! I've never seen anything like it-little glowing colors dancing all over the dark. Until they started smacking each other with the tether ball and that pretty much ended that activity! But everyone left with lots of candy, donut glaze all over them from the donuts on a string, bits of toilet paper hanging off them from being wrapped like a mummy, and the taste of "putrid punch" still on their tongue! I think it was a hit. The funniest part was Nick mocked me for having a craft table, "that is so dumb, no one will want to do crafts". Of course the girls seemed to like it, but then the next morning, what was the first thing Nick and jason asked? Can we do the crafts now? And suddenly they were really cool! Boy peer pressure. What do you do! The kids also got to go to trunk or treat on Sat. night after the party so for not being able to celebrate Halloween on Sunday, they had the best Halloween we've ever had!! On sunday, we still handed out candy and they couldn't stand it, they had to run out in the yard and scare kids as they ran by so they still got a little action. Then they finally collapsed on the couch for movie night. I guess the sugar high finally turned into the sugar crash :) But it's been a great weekend with friends and fun.

Kids keeping busy

2010-10-08T19:53:00.000-07:00

It's been hard to find time to blog lately, but yesterday something so amazing happened, I just had to make time. After a long day at work, I got home to dinner already made!!! What a great surprise! Nick had gotten bored and made waffles for all of us. It really made my night. That's a mom's best treat ever.

Other stuff that's happened the last couple of weeks are that Nick ran in his cross country meet and already qualified for all-city. He got 7:14 for the mile. He is so excited! He and about 5 boys in his class (who all played soccer and basketball together) are all top. It's so fun to see this group of boys do so well together. Seems like we see these parents everywhere since the kids are always on the same teams. Then Jason went to the temple for the first time on Friday to do baptisms for the dead. What a great experience for him. He did great although, he had lots of names, and he was gettting really figety toward the end. We also had our own family names so it was really special to hear our ancestors finally getting baptized. We also went to Dairy Queen and had lots of fries and ice cream. That may have been almost his favorite part :) Drew went to grandmas for the General Conference weekend and she called just gushing about how nice it was for her. Guess he got spoiled! He even went to the Gibbs and saw cousins Carley and jeff. He seemed to enjoy it, and come back relaxed.

Also, Jason did get to go to Chewelah Peak overnight with the 6th grade on retreat. He was so excited all week for it, and They had a blast! I guess they played lots of team building games, sang by the campfire, and had great catered food. Then they sang on the bus too. He was completely worn out, but really had a good time. Nick just enjoyed playing wii all night without any competition. I ended up having to go VT that night, so I wasn't much fun. Other than that, we've just been busy with the same old soccer, cross country, and relief society meetings worked in there.

Birthday week

2010-09-13T17:29:00.000-07:00

Wow, do I ever miss having a 3rd driver this week!! Both boys have 2 soccer practices each plus music lessons and scouts. I am really frantic on Wed nights! We've learned to pack the car and live out of it for hours. But I'm happy to say, Nick has broken down and really loves piano. He's anxious to sound good for his cute little Japanese teacher. He says he can't understand her very well, but she plays duets with him so he likes that. Jason had his big birthday week. He took birthday "cupcakes" to school. I didn't tell him they had zuccini in them! Had to get rid of it somehow and if it's hidden by chocolate so what :) Then he opened his family presents and finally got a Wii. They were SO thrilled!

I don't think I'll ever have to hire a babysitter again! They just play that thing for hours. Nick made sure to call Drew right away and rub it in his face :) It's been fun. Then on Saturday, he had the big 12 year old party at Laser Quest. The funnest part of it was Grandma Reeder playing with us! She wore a big white shirt and ran really slow so she was basically the target for everyone! We had a great time all playing together. Then gorging on pizza. It seems like just yesterday I was doing that exact same thing with Jeff and Drew! So funny.

Funny thing about the cake. He had it all designed so it would be a big cut-out laser gun. But somehow the pan didn't cooperate and the cake fell to pieces trying to pull it out. So we had to go to plan B and keep the cake in the pan and just frost a picture on top so Jason insisted my attempts were done and he frosted the top himself! He wanted those guns to look just right and they are pretty darn good!

Then today was his ordination. Bishop Peacock gave the same speech about not pushing too hard on his head. And also kissing his mom. Some things never change :) Tommy Hawkins actually got to help so that was nice. It was really nice to have grandma here and she took pictures and we had a nice last dinner out on the deck. It's getting chilly and dark again so there aren't too many of those left. Just seems to come around way too fast. It was a great weekend for Jason and I'm really proud of him. He is making good choices and he also got his Faith in God award so that's really good too.

First week of school

2010-09-08T08:04:00.000-07:00

We all made it through the first week of school! Drew started at BYU last Monday. He packed ALL of his textbooks around to all his classes the first day so he was pretty worn out when I called him. But now he knows books are for reading at home. Just taking a notebook is sufficient. He also had auditions for ensembles. He made it into the wind symphony which is a band not a symphony. Still he made first chair so it will be a great experience where he'll learn a lot and make some connections. Maybe we'll even see him on KBYU, who knows? He also went to his first football game and really loved it! He couldn't believe how easy it was to flash the ID and get right in. A whole new world is opening up! He seems to be getting along very well.
Jason got into Mr. Soderquist for 6th grade and is so excited to have a man teacher and also one of our good family friends. He loves the jokes Mr. S tells and seems to like his class pretty well. Nick got Mrs. Berg and was really wanting her the most so he is quite happy. He is loving the 4th grade money system and is so excited to already have $200. They are so funny, I barely got them to stop their bikes long enough to take a picture before they zoomed off without me on the first day! They also have a new principle this year. Can you believe Mr. Stone finally retired? I guess they already like the new guy. He lets them pick their own lunch table and eat with whoever they want no matter what class they're in. A whole new level of freedom for them!! They also have started soccer practice and music lessons. Jason is taking cello and Nick is taking piano. And I don't have a 3rd driver anymore!! Back to running around like crazy! I will be using up all my pizza coupons this month :) Jason also FINALLY learned the articles of Faith. He really has a hard time memorizing so this has been a big challenge for the summer, but with flash cards and a few yelling matches he finally did it. Phew! I hope Nick listened and has them memorized too because I don't want to go through that again! Jason also had a funny moment in church. They both had tithing so were working hard to fill in the paper just right. Then they took it up to dad. Then half way through church, Jason turns to me and shows me his quarters. He forgot to put the money in! Dad busted up laughing so hard when Jason took the money up afterward to add to the envelope. It was funny. And last but not least, we celebrated a nice relaxing labor Day weekend at Pig out in the park. The kids dragged us on all their favorite rides, and even on the lame carnival rides like the kiddie coaster and ferris wheel, me and Tim were getting a bit queasy. Definitely getting way too old! Then we hit the food booths with a vengeance and after the main course of Indian food and Bratwurst, we did 2 rounds of dessert!! It was the best day-before-fastsunday ever!! Then we topped it off watching a great live band cover lots of nice country/bluegrass stuff. What made it even better was sitting behind the guys from a group home that were air-guitaring and hair-flipping to Dolly parton songs! We were cracking up! Then on Monday is always our neighborhood barbecue.

It seemed a little slimmer this year with 3 kids off to college. You were missed Jeff, Drew, and Ellen! The little kids made some new entertainment by inventing our own miniature golf course. It was fun to make it work out of ordinary household stuff. And the adults just stuffed ourselves with everyone's wonderful cooking and caught up before going into winter hibernation! We actually had to cut it short this year because it was so cold. But not before we saw the new Colin (15 year old neighbor with a slick new haircut!!) It is fun to see all the kids grow up. Now it's back to the old schedule of running around. But it was sure nice to have an easy weekend at home with friends and community!

On the road to BYU

2010-08-30T08:44:00.000-07:00

Last week was the big week. Getting Drew off to college. I feel a little bad. I didn't help Drew pack at all, but it was because I knew we had everything from Jeff's dorm so I just gave him the list and let him have at it! He was panicking about how much stuff he had, but we fit 2 big bins, 1 suitcase, 1 box, 1 guitar, and 1 ukele, and 5 people with their backpacks and Drew's bedding all in our Traverse! That was one incredible packing job dad!! It seriously was jammed full with little holes cut out for each person to sit in. A little uncomfortable after 12 hours of driving! Anyway, we stopped at the Gamettes on the way. They are great and their kids are growing and cute as ever. Matt asked about Jeff and entertained us with his funny mission stories and Nicole had a fabulous dinner for us from her garden veges. They sent us along our way with a big zuccini and it seems everyone we visited had zuccini and stuff from their garden to give us. The fruit stands were also full of fresh produce so we got home with lots of peaches, tomatoes, and zuccini. It's been so nice! Anyway, we dropped Drew off at his leadership conference and as he was standing in line to check in, we noticed this couple that looked familiar and can you believe it was our old BYU friends Drew and Mel dropping their daughter off at the same conference! We went out to breakfast and caught up. He went to medical school the same time as dad and me and Mel had our kids at the same time too, so it was great to see them again. Then it was off to ST. George (another 4 hr drive that about killed us!) We stayed with Chris and saw grandma Powell too. She lives in her motor home and is really happy. The kids actually stayed overnight with her because she has a cool loft bed with a TV so they loved it. She even treated them to breakfast at Mcdonalds so they had a great grama camp.

We really enjoyed staying up way too late talking to Tim's brother Chris and Kim. They are so fun, I wish we got to see them more often!! They even read our minds and treated us to Cafe Rio (a must when I"m in UT!!) Then in the morning it was off to Zion's National Park for some hiking. It turns out it's just one road down one canyon, but it's very tall and impressive. At the end of the canyon, it gets so narrow you can only walk right along the river and then it gets even narrower and you can only hike in the river itself. We had really wanted to do this hike so we were ready and it was spectacular!!! Wish Jeff and Drew were with us, they would have liked it.

We walked for about an hour upstream with huge canyon walls jutting up above us. We were so glad we borrowed the Peacocks special hiking sticks they made! It really helped against the current. After we recovered with some lunch and a rest, we were at it again and hiked up and over a cliff to another slot canyon called Hidden Canyon. It was pretty cool, but the best part of the hike was the view on the way up.

Really gorgeous red cliffs all around and finally me being the only one not having a panic attack while hiking on the edge of the cliff was priceless! (I got my dues on the zipline later :) The kids were real troopers that day and we really enjoyed our stay there. Wish it didn't have to end so soon! But we had to get back to Provo and get Drew all settled in. His roomate was there. Drew said later that he hates all music! So Drew tried some Earth Wind and Fire to break him in.:) Not what I would have chosen, but he will definitely be Drew's project this semester!! anyway, as we were unpacking the last of the groceries, and he was about to organize his desk, his nose started pouring blood! Finally after we sat and stared at him awhile, he just wanted us out so I took the little kids down and played foosball in the lounge. Dad waited out the bloody nose and gave him a blessing. Thank goodness for dads that calm a situation down! Then it was a quick goodbye and off we went.

Not as sad as Jeff's, but he will be missed. He's been pretty upbeat when I've talked to him on the phone. He seems to be meeting people, and getting to know the campus. Drew seems to be a little more timid about getting out and doing lots of things. He still hasn't met all the guys on his hall yet. hopefully he'll come out of his shell more. So that's the latest from the Y. For our next adventure on the trip, we decided to head to Park city and ride the Alpine Slide. We got to the Olympic Park and there was also a zipline, and you could ride the real olympic bobsled! it took all my nerve to ride the zipline and I screamed the whole way down. People walking from the other side of the park even commented when they saw me, "are you the one we heard screaming?" Just great. The kids have told everyone. I'll never live that one down!!

So dad was the only one to try the bobsled and he loved it. It was 3 people driven by a professional driver down the real racing track. He said it was a little scary banking up the turns, but really cool. I'll believe him, I don't think I'll be finding out for myself! We also really enjoyed just watching the freestyle skiers practice. I could have sat there all day and watched them ski down the dry jumps and spin all around and land in the pool. It was so cool to be that close! I think it was the Australian team. Really cool. We also spent some time at the new Cowabunga Bay water park in Draper. Small, but really fun for a couple of hours of cool down. And no scary slides so I loved it! Next day was visiting all the relatives. We saw Grandpa Reeder and his little boy Jonathan.

That kid never stopped running around the house the entire hour we were there! He is really excited to have other kids to play with. Then we saw Mindy and kids. They treated us to a nice lunch out where we had fun catching up with Mindy. Then she had to run back to work so we stayed with the kids a little while. They are living in a nice house in a good neighborhood. Morgan is a senior this year and Walker is a sophomore. It was fun thinking about Box Elder High again! :) The kids were all cute and Nick and jason had fun playing around their cool backyard on the mountain! Then we went to Jim and LIsa's and BBQ with Grandma Reeder. The kids had so much fun playing with the cousins, we hardly saw them! They got to sleep in Jims new camping trailer. I'm jealous! No more tents for them. It was so great to see and visit with everyone. Hard to say goodbye. Then it was the long drive home. The kids have sworn they will not get in the car for another week! I really don't want to either. But they were so so good. They watched movies and read the whole time without complaining so I have to give them a big hand. We sure miss having Drew around. The house is a bit quieter and no one sings with me in church. And we're sure grateful to all our family and friends we got to see. It feels good to be surrounded by such a great support system. Fun way to end our summer!

Lazy summer

2010-08-14T15:38:00.000-07:00

The best thing about the last 2 weeks is we haven't done anything!! It's been such a relief to actually be able to sit on the front porch after dinner and watch the neighborhood kids play and chat with the neighbor ladies. Pulling a few weeds and watering the flowers just to make yourself look a little busy. It's been a real treat. Nick finally got bored enough and with Brandon, the chef, as his babysitter, he made a cake all by himself! he frosted it so cute, but then absolutely would not let us eat it for our BBQ with friends! He was not goingt to share that thing! It was funny. Luckily, I had a back-up dessert.

Jason got to go on a camp out with the 11 year olds and after they couldn't find a camp site, they came back and camped at the Hainsworths 3 blocks away! I worried about him for nothing :) They still had a pool to swim in and hiked around the palouse so it was just as good as camping anyway. He had fun.

And me and Tim celebrated our 23rd anniversary by going to the festival at Sandpoint and listening to the youth symphony. We went with Dave and Leisa and took a wonderful grown-up picnic. Then we got a nice surprise when Drew played a solo flute concerto. It was Vivaldi so it was perfect in the park with the mountains and lake near. We just thoroughly enjoyed ourselves with our best friends and best musicians!! I'll really hate to see summer end. Now that i'm finally enjoying myself!

Lacrosse week

2010-08-02T13:09:00.000-07:00

Nick got all his lacrosse equipment this week including a $150 helmet! He better stay with this game for that! The Gonzaga players have pick-up games every wednesday so the coach lets little kids come the hour before to practice. There were only 4 kids and the others were 12 and 13. But Nick just gets right in there and tries to hustle. He loves doing it, but it's going to be hard while they try to grow the program. It's just not that popular out here. But he still has me in the backyard playing catch every night. and suits up for any visitors that come so he can show off his equipment. It's fun. Jason spent all week playing his new Spiro game. They're up to number 7! He finally beat it so he's a happy, but flat-butted boy :) Me, I got scraped up believe it or not at the skate park! While we were in Liberty Lake getting lacrosse equipment, we took a bike ride and happened upon their city park which happens to have a skate park. The kids were having a ball riding their bikes up and down the ramps and jumps. Finally they begged me to try it, and some crazy spirit possessed me and I did! I was only going over a small bump then up just the bottom of the half pipe when I hit the brakes because I was getting to fast. Well, brakes are a really bad idea on a very slippery skate board surface and the bike immediately skidded out from under me and I face planted like a 42 year old rock!! The kids were laughing and wishing they could put me on AFV or youtube. I was grateful I could even ride out of there since the car was 3 miles away! And I would highly recommend helmets! It made the getting up and getting on with it so much easier. We ended up stopping at Taco Time so I could clean up and grabbed some lunch. If I didn't know better, I'd think they planned it that way so they could get a free lunch at Taco time! But it was a fun day and fun bike ride otherwise.

every lacrosse player needs a piano break!

We're getting peas in the garden now and the weather is surprisingly not too hot. We even had a big thunder storm the other day.

Jason used his free time indoors to do a jigsaw puzzle

More camps

2010-07-26T10:23:00.000-07:00

So even though I was totally burned out from camp, life still went on here at a frantic pace. The little kids had their camps this week. Nick went to a Lacrosse camp and absolutely loved it. Now he's convinced he needs all the equipment to play yet another sport. And apparently there's alot of equipment/pads because they whack each other and sometimes the ball with a stick! I asked on facebook if anyone knew about Lacrosse. One girl said lots of broken teeth and concussions. It makes rugby look wimpy. What am I getting into??? But he's very excited. Jason did drama camp at the civic theater. He put on a little play at the end of the week -basically The Lion the Witch and the wardrobe in 20 minutes. He was so thrilled he got to play Peter, the oldest boy. He had all his lines memorized and worked very hard on spray painting armor. Then he decided he didn't need armor after the dress rehearsal. Anyway, the play was very simple, but cute and we had fun showing dad and Drew the whole video. He really liked acting and wants to do it every week! Funny. Especially that he can't seem to memorize the articles of faith at all! Hmmmm maybe if we made a play about them....

Drew had his big birthday week. I think I finally scared him enough about the surprise party so on Monday he came up and said he planned his own party! He had invited his friends over on Friday night for dinner and games. He did a good job of helping to clean the basement, grocery shopped for his dinner, and had everything planned for the evening. They all seemed to have a great time and didn't mind that the chicken was a little burned since Nick didn't quite know how to grill kabobs.

He even dared to open Grandma R's gift in front of his friends. Luckily it wasn't socks or underwear. She found a "Cougar cookbook". It has all these simple recipes with catchy names from the college. I like the "Ute creampuffs" the best. I had to tease Grandma about that one :) And of course everyone had to listen to her obnoxious Hoops and Yoyo card sing. It was fun.

Then on Sat. he had breakfast with allison and went out to dinner with us. We went to Anthonys seafood restaurant. We haven't been there before. it is right on the river and has a gorgeous view of the falls. REally good seafood too so we all loved it. Then home to open Drew's present which was......drumroll.................

An Apple Macbook! Can you believe he went to the dark side? Sorry to say, Jeff's old computer is sounding like a beat up Volkswagon so he needed something reliable for college. He did the research and decided he really wanted to try the Mac (and Brandon has one too). He is LOVING it, and I must say, from what I've seen, it's pretty amazing. I know Jeff is going to love poking around on it to see all the stuff it does. He is happy and was very surprised because he was planning to save up and buy it himself so it was fun to see his face when he opened it.

The other funny thing that happened this week was there was a big stake court of honor to give all the merit badges from scout camp. We went because Jason earned his tenderfoot, and when we got there, Blake Demille was surprised and asked why we were there. I said Jason, and he said, oh yeah, I didn't think Drew was getting anything. I said, 'yeah, the only thing Drew would be getting is the stay at home merit badge". His 12 year old son Jacob turned and said, "they have that"? We all started laughing so hard! He was ready to sign up for that one!!

camping at Priest Lake

2010-07-26T10:12:00.000-07:00

So it's become a yearly tradition that me and Linda go camping together at Priest Lake every summer. This year she just had to go clear up to Lionhead. And wow, was it ever a good idea!! We camped right on the beach. We were right next to the thoroughfare so we could just paddle up to Upper Priest easily. And we were'nt too far from Indian Creek so we could go get Huckleberry ice cream if we got too hot! I have to admit, leaving for a camping trip 3 hours after getting home from Girls camp wasn't very easy and I pretty much forgot half the stuff we needed. I had packed all our food, but totally forgot to bring pots or utensils. And when I asked the kids to pack sleeping bags, they just packed their own so I didn't have a bag. Luckily I knew it was going to be cold so I packed extra blankets. I just used all the blankets and our towel (yes, I forgot our swim towels too!) and slept in all my clothes. I managed to get pretty good sleep and Linda generously offered her cookware so we made due just fine. The first morning Trish and Kyle came up to join us so we all paddled off together to Upper Priest. It was just the most gorgeous mountain scenery ever!! And the river is totally smooth as glass. The kids did so well. Nick was with me on a tandem kayak and Jason was in his own kayak. They only needed 1 rest break going up. We got out at Upper Priest and had a snack and a quick swim--quick because it was SOOO cold!! But clear as anything. Really beautiful. Then we headed back down and Jason finally pooped out just passed half way. Paul hooked him up with the bungee cord and towed him and we made it back feeling good. After a swim and lunch, everyone was revived. They all went hiking to the sliding rocks, but we were ready to take it easy and tested out that Huckleberry ice cream. The kids really like roasting our hotdogs and loved the bonfire and smores when it got dark. Kyle kept us laughing with his made up jokes especially about the pirate with the red shirt! The next day the kids still didn't want to do much except swim so me and linda got to paddle by ourselves up the thoroughfare and hiked in the cedar forest a bit. Again, so beautiful. It really revived my spirit after a long week at Girls camp. After we got back, Nick finally dared to kayak on his own and we paddled over to the ship wreck. He did really well, even when the waves started kicking up. I'm going to have to buy lots of kayaks if everyone starts liking it!! Then it was time to pack up and go. It was such a nice leisurely camp and in such a beautiful spot. It will be one of my best summer memories! We've already set our date for next summer so Linda can reserve it right on October 1st!

funny moment

2010-07-25T23:07:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post this. I caught Nick on our front porch one day. He had caught lots of roly polys and was putting them all in to our welcome mat. When I asked what he was doing, he said he was letting them play in a maze! I'm sure they thought it was a great amusement park :)

New office

2010-07-25T22:59:00.000-07:00

Tim's had his own insanity going on. He finally moved into his new office! With the move over to Sacred Heart, they constructed him a brand new office. He's had to start up a new (well the employees aren't new, but the place and computers are new) practice in a temporary office while overseeing construction, then move into the new constructed office. But it's finally finished! And it is really beautiful. He met with the architects and designer and really planned most of it himself. So it is spacious and totally wheelchair accessible. He loves the colors and prints he picked out too. And it's a good thing since he spends LOTS of time there!! Here's photos:

Cub scout camp

2010-07-25T10:56:00.000-07:00

It seems that July has completely passed without a single post!! Maybe mom is helping at Girls camp this year and went completely insane!! That would explain it! So I'll just get that part over with. I was asked to be the cook at girl's camp. Me and only me. So I had the reponsibility to buy probably close to 2000 lbs of food and round up cookware and utensils for a week of camp then go to the week of camp and cook for about 100 people every day. It was a daunting task that took my full attention for at least 3 weeks, but it went successfully and I couldn't have done it without my best church buddy, Valynn. We worked our tails off all day, but had lots of fun laughing and talking around the fire and in the tent until way too late at night! So I'm probably roped in to doing my time at girls camp for the next year or two, but hopefully that will be it. I did meet lots of really fun ladies in the stake and had some good laughs and 1 big meltdown at midnight that caused lots of laughs the next morning! (ice cream for 70 girls at 1:00am was NOT in the job description!)

So in the middle of all this, Nick had cub scout day camp. I got to go for one day, and they seemed to have lots of fun and got to do lots of activities. He loved the BB gun shooting the best and got his shooting patch with a score of 35 points! He was really excited by that. They also did leather stamping, field sports, archery, fishing, and games. I laughed hardest at the fishing. They had about 20 feet of bank for 25 kids to cast! If you do the math that is 1 foot for a kid that needs at least 50 feet of open space. So there were fish hooks flying every which way. I finally had to turn away. Too scary for a mom to watch!! But we all came away with our eyes intact so that was good. No fish were caught , and finally one boy clued in and said, "shouldn't we be using bait?" Yeah, that could be a reason there's no fish! I guess the Scouts are cutting costs any way they can :)

Also, Jason went to his 11 year old scout camp. He stayed overnight, cooked his dinner, went to lots of classes, and even made it across the rope bridge without falling into the river! He had a great time and earned his tenderfoot! Great start to scouting!!

Vacation to oahu

2010-06-22T19:33:00.000-07:00

We wanted to take my mom on a cool graduation trip since she's been working so hard these last few years. We decided to go to Hawaii for both relaxation and to see the volcano on the Big island. She is a geologist and wanted to see cool lava. It was a great trip with the whole family. We saw lots and enjoyed the sun which we have not seen here all spring! Click on the picture and you will see our whole album of photos.

Oahu trip

Graduation weekend!

2010-06-07T18:17:00.000-07:00

Well, it actually arrived. Drew's last week of school and graduation. Again, it is so hard to believe this little 6th grader is actually a high school alumni now!! Time has just slipped by so fast. We can hardly grasp it. Here's how the week played out:

WEDNESDAY Drew is officially done with school and really enjoying sleeping in and eating pancakes with us! He found out his class rank is 11th. And the top 10 are valedictorians! Fairly disappointing, but he took it well, and just said whatever. It's still pretty amazing to only get 1 B your entire high school career! I am really proud of him.

FRIDAY (Thurs was Drew's last flute lesson from Bruce) Grandma flew in a little flustered after a 3 hour delay because we had so much fog. Our weather has been really rainy the last 2 weeks and looks to continue. Sad for the garden. It's too cold to grow much. Anyway, we all went to the cub scout fundraising dinner together and met lots of people from the ward. Also Grandma was good enough to do a big grocery trip for the next day.

SATURDAY We all got up and went downtown to the annual bridgewalk.

You walk 4 miles over all the bridges in Riverfront Park. It was amazingly sunny so we had a great time. Even Grandma made it without complaining! I told her it was to get her in shape for Hawaii! Then we raced to the temple for the kids to have a primary activity.

They had a picnic at the park next to it, and dad gave a nice talk about the temple and things that happen inside. Then each class got to go have their picture taken by the temple. They seemed to have lots of fun. Then it was off to the big neighborhood graduation party. Again, I just couldn't believe how well the weather cooperated! For a rainy week, we had absolutely clear skies and sun. So Leisa grilled burgers for everyone, and the kids played croquet. That darn Drew, refused to leave work early so he was an hour late and missed Elizabeth so I didn't get a good neighborhood shot.

Oh, well, he finally came and they opened their memory books. Everyone just loved them, and Brandon had fun showing the kids that came how they looked in the jr. high pictures.

It was nice for us to visit with everyone's family and you'll never believe who showed up. Katy, our old nanny!! She has a 1 year old little boy, and he was so cute. We had a really good time talking to her. She's teaching kindergarten out in the Valley, and already planning for when her little boy will be able to ski at Mt. Spokane! It was as great party visiting with friends and enjoying the kids one last time together. So that night, we rewarded ourselves with a nice sit in the hot tub and early bedtime.

SUNDAY Ahhh, graduation morning. And where is Drew? At stake conference with allison! We all enjoyed breakfast without him, and had a nice morning getting all the food ready, and the house ready for the celebration. Kim and Grandma Powell showed up around noon and we went to the arena.

Luckily, Allison went early with Drew and had saved us seats down on the 2nd row!! It was so awesome until Drew marched in on the total opposite side of the arena! So we didn't get too many pictures of him, but he was lucky enough to be on the front row with the valedictorians because he was a Spokane Scholar. The choir sang the BEST song ever! It was a jazzed up/gospel version of the Hallelujah chorus and at the end 2 kids soloed and just knocked it out of the park! I felt like jumping up and clapping, it was so cool! Then they only had 2 student speeches-hoorah! And a valedictorian speech when the valedictorians went up to be presented. The kid actuallly rapped his whole speech with background music and everything! It was the most amazing song/speech, and the graduates gave him a standing ovation!

They loved it! Then they gave those kids their diplomas and accidentally announced Drew as a valedictorian so he felt like he got his due anyway! It was funny.

We all got some nice pictures and again, the rain let up just as we got outside! Then we had a good salmon BBQ with the whole fam. Drew got lots of nice cards, and showed everyone his yearbook. Then we had a good game of Ticket to Ride. Fun night together. Now everyone is gone. Drew is at the all-nighter. And we are just left to be so grateful for all our friends and family who support us in these wonderful occasions and who made Drew's childhood so full and happy. It really does take a village and I'm so thankful for this one!

Memorial Day

2010-06-07T15:31:00.000-07:00

Well, there's not much to say. It was a wash because it poured rain all weekend! I planned a big family bike ride on the Trail of the Coeur dAlenes on Monday because it's the ONLY day of the whole summer that both Drew and Tim had off work. We woke up to pouring rain so Tim decided to celebrate by getting bacon, sausage, and cinnamon rolls for a big old breakfast. I never cook with bacon anymore so the kids went crazy and loved it much more than bike riding, but I pouted all day. I was very disappointed! But we did get lots of house cleaning done for our company so that was good.

Too cold for May!

2010-06-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

BEFORE

As always, I anxiously awaited Mother's Day. Of course it's a nice holiday and all, but what it really means is I can finally plant my garden! Sort of the Golden Rule of gardening here is you're out of frost danger after mother's day. So I energetically planted tons of veges, and a week later, what did we get? Frost!!

AFTER

I hope we're not too hungry for cucumbers and tomatoes this summer!

Seminary graduation

2010-05-30T23:49:00.000-07:00

We're so proud of Drew! He made it through 4 years of getting up at 5:30am to go to seminary! They thanked the parents at the graduation, but I must admit, I never once got up to make Drew or Jeff, for that matter, go to the church. I'm pretty sure I'm incapable of getting up that early!! They always just got up and did it themselves. That is an amazing accomplishment, and I know they will be prepared for the storms of life with that strong knowledge base in the scriptures. And I wish I videoed Drew's quartet that sang. It was gorgeous! I will miss these 4 talented kids that are going off to school!

Concert week

2010-05-30T23:36:00.000-07:00

I had such a "circle of life" moment this week. Tues night was the 5th grade band/orchestra concert. It was Jason's first school concert and he was so sweet all dressed up in his suit and sitting first chair in the cello section. Ok, there were only about 4 of them, but still. He played great and we were so proud. Of course, I'm using the term "great" loosely! You know how beginning orchestras sound! Then on Wed. night it was Drew's last school concert. He played piccolo so we could hear him great. It all sounded so amazing and I just couldn't believe it all started in a 5th grade band concert that sounded horrible! They come so far and it seems so fast. I don't know where the time went. I must admit, I'm looking forward to cutting down on the frequency of concerts, but I will truly miss hearing Drew's lovely music, and feeling amazed to think that he's a part of such wonderful music that all his orchestras and bands play. And now we can look forward as Jason begins the musical journey and be excited at the possibility of him amazing us in just a few short years.

Also, Drew won "most dedicated band member" award after the concert and he really deserved it. He was the drum major with Victoria and they were Mr. B's helpers all year long. Way to stick with band, Drew, even though I know sometimes it may have tried your patience! I know you were a good example to people and it gave you some time to just relax and enjoy the kids and Mr. B.

More cello and flute

2010-05-17T09:07:00.000-07:00

This week has been another busy one, as all are in May! Drew had musicfest on Monday. He did the Young artist competition. He aced his solo and the judge was the lady that taught him at Marrowstone last summer, so she knew Drew and thought he sounded great. Then he did sight reading and didn't feel he did that well, but he still got the highest score. Then came the memorized piece. He never does well with that, but I'm sure it couldn't have been that bad. Anyway, the judge ended up not giving the award to anyone!!! I know Drew was pretty disappointed. i thought she should have given to him, but oh well. We know he did good. He still got asked to play on the radio so that was fun. Then the next day was the big band/strings concert for 5th/6th grade in the arena. There were 3000 kids this year, and I think all their parents were pulling into the arena at once! Traffic was crazy!! Jason was ready to hop out of the car and run. I had to sternly argue that he was much too young to be running around downtown alone looking for the arena. We made it and they actually sounded ok. He looked so cute in his suit and playing his very best. I have to hand it to the music teachers. They really worked miracles corralling and keeping 3000 kids playing together! Too bad dad missed it. He got called by the bishop as he was leaving that one of our missionaries was in the ER hit by a car. When dad went, it turns out the kid braked to miss a car and flew over the handlebars and landed on his head. He cracked his helmet and didn't remember a thing. So he didn't actually hit the car. But he did break his wrist and elbow! Poor guy. He must have a strong mother! I'd probably freak out. Anyway, he's fine now and dad had to watch the video of jason's concert. But it was still a good night and ended with ice cream :) . Then it was supposed to be father/son campout, but dad just couldn't do it so he reverted to the minigolf day and took Nick to his Wendell soccer tournament games. The kids had lots of fun with him. I had planned my own camping trip with Linda and Trish from work so I got to go on my own and LOVED LOVED it!! No cooking, no tent. Just ate sandwiches and slept in the car. So easy. We also mountain biked for about 5 miles and kayaked for an hour. I might be converted to mountain biking now. It was surprisingly fun! We ended the day with a nice hike and I just enjoyed every minute of nature without whining kids. Wonderful weekend with great weather. You can't ask for more than that. BTW, we were at Farragut on Lake Pend Oreille. It is a fabulous campground! Then it was home in time to get Drew to the Lilac Parade. It was his last year as drum major for the Ferris Band. He said it went great. I must admit, for the first time in 6 years, I couldn't make myself go. I was needing a shower way too bad and was exhausted. Hopefully another mom got pictures. so that was pretty much our week.

May I just add that I'm only showing the 5th grade strings section. There's still a 6th grade strings and 2 other band sections too!

Big weekend

2010-05-11T00:32:00.000-07:00

I know, it's May and they're all big weekends! But this is REALLY big! we flew out to SLC to my mom's University of UT graduation! Yeah, at 62, after 10 years of going to night classes while she works full time, she finally finished her bachelors degree in geology. I know. A little obscure, but she works in petroleum so she can use it for petroleum exploration. Anyway, such a nice day.

She graduated from the college of mining so there were only about 30 of them graduating. They each got to stop on the stage and have a little bio card read about them. It was really nice and personal. Then the college actually puts on a whole lunch for them and their families!

It was really nice! And it was in their brand new geology building so the kids loved taking a tour of all the fossils on the walls and seeing the seizmograph machines. It was cool. That night, all my brothers and our families took mom out to eat. The kids decorated her with goofy graduation hats, glasses, and beads.

She had a ball. Then Drew and Tim flew back to Spokane and started Drew's big day. He had his senior recital with his friend Victoria.

I was so sad to miss it, but I got to order a nice cake and dipped strawberries in chocolate for the teachers' gifts. Tim said it went well, and he did video it for us. He said lots of people showed up and everyone seemed to love it. I'm really proud of these two. They've been playing together since the 8th grade and have really grown up musically together and work so well as a team. I know they'll look back on these years with very fond memories. Then it was off to get ready for the prom!

Isn't that a good lookin group of kids! Drew picked out his outfit totatlly on his own, and didn't even have to pay for it because he signed up to pass out flyers and wear and tux to school one day as an advertiser for the tux store! I was very impressed. He's the best lookin one of course! :) They had a good time eating dinner at one of the girl's houses and then went to the Couer d'Alene resort for dessert. They did step into the actual prom for about 15 minutes to say hi and dance 1 dance. Hmmmm sounds like a true Powell! I guess they think the music is offensive and the people's behavior is too so I guess I'm glad they celebrated other ways. They went back to someon'es home and played board games and ate breakfast. Sounds like they had a great time and were extremely glad for 1:00 church! (all of them ended up at our ward for that) I bet they're the only prom group that ended the night by going to church together :)

Meanwhile, we stayed in Salt Lake with my family to spend time with my brothers and give mom a happy mother's day with all of us. We did some fun stuff like hike Ensign Peak above the state capitol.

It was a perfect hike for kids and had a nice view of the valley. Then we did something really cool that I've never done. WE found the city cemetary and lots of prophet are buried there. We ran around the cemetary finding prophets graves. It was an interesting experience and the kids were so happy to find Pres. Hinkley, they all hugged his headstone.

It was really sweet. Then we headed to Granpa Gibbs farm and had a cookout with all my mom's sisters and all the cousins. it was really fun to see everyone and catch up. They were all especially nice to my mom so that made it really special. Next morning was Mothers day so wouldn't you know, Nick woke up puking! He lounged on the couch all day and finally felt better after lunch (but suspiciously couldn't eat the stir fry!) We said a sad goodbye to everyone. It had been such a fun weekend with my brothers and their families. I love how well we get along and have fun with everyone. It was great. So we get to the airport, and suddenly Jason is white as a sheet, and announces he doesn't feel so good as we approach security. Isn't that great timing? So I'm stuffing Tums down him while he's panting in a cold sweat and promising just about anything if he'll hold it in just until we get passed the guards! Bless him, he made it, but then we get on the plane and I realize his seat is 2 rows behind ours. So I"m thinking I"ll just trade. oh no, his seat is next to the biggest guy on the plane that's taking up half of his seat too. So there goes any bargaining power for a trade! I settle him in with a water bottle and a barfy bag and tell him I'll keep chedking on him. He seemed to be doing ok sipping gingerale and even went to the bathroom and came back ok. So when we met him in the jetway after we landed, I asked if he survived ok. He just casually said, "I puked". I was freaking out, and what little detail I could get was he just felt it coming and grabbed the bag. Not sure how much the chubby guy got on him or who cleaned the whole mess up! I felt so incredibly horrible for leaving him alone! So I kind of had bad mother guilt the rest of the night, but someone reminded me I should consider that my mother's day gift. No puke on me! Tim had a steak dinner waiting for us and treated me good the rest of the night. I got lots of nice cards from the kids including this gem from Nick:

Notice it's an acrostic poem with my name. Describes me perfectly don't you think?

It was a very nice weekend for all of us, but by Sunday night, we all slept REALLY well!!

Jason's report

2010-05-05T07:57:00.000-07:00

Jason had a big project on the constitution so he chose to present it in a "newscast". I had to work so much this weekend, I didn't have time to work with him or film him so he came up with the script and the pictures completely on his own. Then I helped him set up the video camera and taught him how to use the remote. He actually filmed this all on his own!! I was so amazed how well it turned out. I still have mother guilt for not being there, but he pulled through so we'll celebrate that!!

Roadshows!

2010-05-05T00:27:00.000-07:00

We had stake roadshows this weekend. They were all supposed to use Pixar movies. They all turned out really fun. We especially loved the boy scout from UP. It was really funny. And Drew had his breakout solo performance. It won him best male vocalist!

Champion

2010-04-26T09:27:00.000-07:00

So Drew won 1st place in state music competition!! He played a duet with his friend on french horn and they won 1st place for brass small ensemble. Then on Saturday, he played his solo, and Tim said he blew it out of the water! And he indeed won 1st place! It was very exciting and I have to say technology is so awesome! I took the little kids out to a movie that night and Tim texted the results to me and then I posted it on facebook from my phone and then both Grandmas in UT knew within the hour! woohoo! He also got the honor of being nominated for Spokane Scholars. It's a local foundation that recognizes the top kids at each high school in the area. They do give cash awards to the top 4, but when they read these kids' resumes it was out of control! They had perfect SAT scores and took 12 AP classes and built hospitals in Kenya. So no money for Drew, but at least he had a life and friends in high school! And we're very proud of him for just being nominated. Now it's time to buckle down for AP tests, his recital, and musicfest competition. Oh, and the roadshow!!

The little kids are still just playing soccer, running for Bloomsday training (but relax we don't run bloomsday) and keeping up on all the latest cartoons. And also Nick can't let a day go by without beating me in tetherball! It's our newest acquisition and he LOVES it!

Oh, and I found this. It got a little chilly one night last week, so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to have one last fire and starburst roasting!

Big decision

2010-04-18T18:43:00.000-07:00

So Drew has had quite a big last couple of months. He has been auditioning for music schools all around the country. Here's how it ended up: we liked Texas quite a bit, and he got on the wait list. He got in at BYU and Montclair, NJ. He decided he didn't want to pursue MI so dropped out of that. And we hadn't heard from Northwestern so we figured that was only a long shot anyway. So he decided BYU was the best choice out of those so he signed up for his dorm and his classes and was really excited and then found out he got into Northwestern!!! You could just tell he was so torn up inside trying to figure out what to do, poor kid. So we went to Chicago and took lessons from the professors and toured the campus. The campus was fairly old, but otherwise it was a good, impressive program. Which didn't make his decision any easier! So it was time to fast and pray and write out all the pros and cons, and finally he did end up choosing BYU. He does have a full tuition scholarship to BYU so that makes cost a big factor. We are so proud of him for doing so well in all his auditions and making such a big important choice the right way. You're going to be great Drew!!

Easter

2010-04-18T18:31:00.000-07:00

Wow, I am getting behind again!! We did have a wonderful Easter. It finally was sunny and beautiful. A rare occurence here. We just did the regular stuff like follow the jelly bean trail to the baskets, find all the real eggs in the house. The best hiding places this year were buried in the house plant dirt and inside the nesting dolls! It took awhile and some hot/cold hints, but they were all found. We enjoyed a nice coffee cake breakfast and then general conference was on this year. It was really uplifting as usual and had LOTS of talks on teaching kids the gospel. We have got to keep trying harder to have those good teaching moments after hearing that! Then it was time for the neighborhood egg hunt. It covered 4 front yards and included 9 kids and 2 dogs. Big Brandon found the golden egg with $10 this year. He was so proud he didn't lose to a 4 year old again :) After everyone found their eggs (and it took awhile, there were LOTS of eggs) there was a huge frisbee game until all the frisbees wound up on the roof. By then everyone was ready to get in to the big ham dinner. After days like this, I am just so thankful for a wonderful family, good neighbors, warm spring, and the most wonderful gift of our Savior to give us a way to return to God.

something from everyone

2010-03-28T23:29:00.000-07:00

Another Pinwood Derby!! I calculated this was our 9th! And we're slowly getting better. Nick painted his car a very fancy silver and named it Silver striker. His secret weapon was having Uncle Jeff put on the wheels. It went very fast and got 2nd in 2 heats, and 1st in 1 heat. So he got about 7th place. That's pretty respectable for a Powell car so we were fairly happy. The one funny thing was when he got his award at the end for "most creative" he just turned to the cubmaster and said, "I got the same award last year". Weird coincidence, but at least he's consistent!

Jason started cello lessons this week. It all happened so fast, I'm still shaking my head. He asked if he could so I was thinking sure maybe next fall. We asked his school teacher for a recommendation then we called this lady to just talk to her about her schedule and she said oh, no. Bring the cello we are getting started this Saturday! So we did!! He had a good time and already sounds better. But I don't think he realizes that he actually has to practice. We'll see how that works. It was fun to hear him playing Twinkle Star with his teacher accompanying him with a fancy harmony. Such a sweet moment! I wish I had my video camera.

And for Drew. He was all excited to sign up for BYU housing this week. He chose Merrill Hall. I had no idea what to suggest so he just chose for location to the Cannon Center! Then he signed up for his core envelope classes. So it was all BYU excitement until Friday when he found out he got accepted to Northwestern in Chicago!! That is a HUGE school, they call the Harvard of the west. So now he's really torn about what to do. We're setting up a tour in a couple of weeks to see if he'd even like it. So that's the way life is. just when you think you've got it figured out, the rug pulls out from under you! He also got the lead in the road show and is starting this week. It's Monster's Inc. so it should be pretty funny.

New York with Drew

2010-03-08T17:13:00.000-08:00

Drew had one more audition at a music school in Montclair, NJ. So we took a weekend and ran around Manhatten. We invited my mom so her and Drew had their first look at New york. It was mostly fun. We had to take a bus out to the audition in New Jersey. Turns out we took the wrong bus and had to walk quite a ways to get to the college. We asked a lady on the way if we were going the right direction. She offered us a ride and I jumped right in. I figured not too many criminals drove a Mercedes and had botox! It was a funny moment. Then after the audition, we walked for an hour and a half and never could find the bus stop. Finally a Japanese student took us to a completely different stop and we finally made it back to the city.

Drew is at the end of his rope!!

Drew and My mom had totally had it, but I convinced them to at least walk through Central Park. It was gloriously sunny so everyone in the city was there, but it was still a nice place to welcome spring in!

Strawberry fields, a memorial to John Lennon

At the famous fountain

After a nap that revived us all, we dressed up fancy and went out for European cuisine, and the show "Wicked". It was totally amazing even the second time for me! That is a really emotionally intense show! We were all on a high and enjoyed walking through Time Square and seeing the crazy lights and crazy people! Our favorite moment was a giant screen that was flashing people's pictures for their "15 seconds of fame". These girls right next to us started yelling and we looked up and it was them up there!! So fun for them! Great memory of Time square for them too.

Enjoying chocolate fondue for dessert!

Amazed at all the lights!

We slept REALLY good that night! And woke up to catch the double decker tour through downtown. We saw all the sights and then got off at the statue of liberty. It was another gorgeous sunny day so we really enjoyed the boat ride out and seeing Lady Liberty up close!

Us on Liberty Island with the skyline behind

We had to rush back to the hotel and grab a cab to get to the airport on time, but we made it and flew home by 11:00 Sunday night. It was such a whirlwind trip! But fun and Drew said he really liked the city. And now he can say he's braved the subway and even been entertained by a spontaneous mariachi band on it!

Funny stuff

2010-03-08T16:44:00.000-08:00

Here's a few funny moments I just wanted to remember.

Tim thought 42 candles was just too many to fool with on my birthday cake so he banded them altogether to be able to light them all at once. Turns out they really grow exponentially when you do that!!! So I had to blow out the torch! it took a couple of tries for my old lady lungs, but I got it! It was pretty funny and we laughed about it for days.

Nick finally earned his Wolf badge and decorated a nice Pinewood Derby cake for the 100th anniversary of cub scouts dinner. They were giving out fun door prizes to all the kids and when Nick's name was finally drawn, he ran up there all excited and got......a recyclable grocery bag!! He was VERY disappointed. I guess it must have been the absolute bottom of the prize barrel, but he didn't throw a fit at all. I was very proud of him. He did break the pinate, though so I guess he got his revenge! :)

Jason did his first big school project. He did a written report, model, and Power Point presentation of the Wright Brothers. He did a great job and stayed right on task and met all deadlines. I was very impressed with his good work and especially mastering power point in the 5th grade!! It took me half of grad school to figure that out!

And Tim took his 10 year board recertification. He was very nervous and took a whole week off to study, but turns out it wasn't as hard as the original so he did great and feels very relieved to be over that for another 10 years!!

Drew's funny moment came on "free pancake night" at the IHOP. The little kids convince me to take them there for dinner so Drew reluctantly tagged along. And who should be greeting people at the door? The Lilac Princess from Ferris!! She smiles a big smile and loudly says "hi Drew"! He blushed and said hi then ducked to get to our table as quickly as possible. Oh that was the funniest moment to me since I remember vividly being dragged to the dumbest movies with my whole family and invariably seeing some "cool" kids from my school at the theater and just wanting to shrivel into the earth. Ahh sweet parent revenge. :)

Big White ski weekend

2010-02-17T22:14:00.000-08:00

We got to go to Big White again this year!! It was such a treat to go to the snow this year. We haven't had a drop all winter! Very weird after last year. The trip started with a little drama. We got to Chewelah (1and 1/2 hours away) and I realized I forgot both my kids' suitcases in their rooms!! Luckily, Brandon stayed to go to Rubber Chicken so I panic texted him at the basketball game to swing by our house and search for the kids stuff. After a quick trip to Walmart for PJ's and toothbrushes, we were fine. The weather was foggy a lot of the time, but we found places to ski that weren't too bad and we got some sun breaks in there too. The kids were so brave and went all over the place with us.

Even in the trees a little bit and really started liking the little bumps you can catch air on!

At night, we loved watching the olympics especially since it was right there in Canada. There were lots of interviews with Canadians and they were ecstatic when the first Canadian finally got gold for the first time ever on Canadian soil! Lots of fun commercials. Leisa also brought a 1500 piece jigsaw puzzle. I must admit after about 5 pieces, I'd had my fill.

But Tim, Dave, and Leisa got puzzle mania and finished that bad boy in 3 days! Jason, on the other hand, finished 11 hours of book on tape in 3 days! It was book 5 of Percy Jackson and he really loved that series. Nick and Jason also tried something new. Snowboarding!

They took a class and were so excited about it. After we picked them up, the excitement had waned and they were ready to get back on skis. Nick said his butt hurt from landing on it so much! We did rest for one day and went tubing instead.

Nick had a good time racing Brandon and keeping him on his toes! And we all got pelted by snowballs by each other on the ride up the tow rope!

And of course we had Valentines cupcakes!

We ended the trip with a brilliantly sunny day and skiing every run we could think of. The kids were tired by 2:30 so we went and ice skated. We got hockey sticks and a puck and batted that around. Those pucks are actually pretty hard and chasing it on ice is alot trickier than you think! It was a learning experience for us all. We all limped to the cars by 4:00 and made the 5 hour drive home interupted only by the greasy Chinese buffet in Grand Forks. It's not that good, but for some reason you can't help wolfing tons of it down!! It was a fabulous vacation especially without any electronics!! (except TV but does that count?)

Solo Ensemble

2010-02-17T20:42:00.000-08:00

Once again, Drew competed in Solo/Ensemble festival. And he won!! This year he and his friend Victoria decided to go crazy and do a flute french horn duet. Yeah. That's what I said. Who in the world would write that and how would that ever sound good? But it came off so great, they had the judge just chuckling to himself. He said it was the most amazing performance he's ever seen from high schoolers. So they'll be going to state. He also did really well on his solo. I was even amazed. I guess I hadn't heard him practice that one and it was really impressive!

Our traveling week

2010-01-31T17:27:00.000-08:00

So, it's been a busy week. Drew scheduled 3 auditions for music schools this week. We started out with University of Texas in Austin. Our flight was delayed so we rolled into our hotel at 1:30am! We were right back up at 7:30 to get to the audition by 9:00. He did just fine and got a call back. Then we took a campus tour. We were so tired, we just drove, and thank goodness! That campus is humongous!! 50,000 students and miles of buildings. But lots of fun museums, nice dorms, and a great student athletic facility. It was impressive. Then we met my brother Brian and his sig other, Terry. They drove down from Dallas and we took in a movie and great TX barbecue together.

I even forced everyone to taste fried green tomatoes! This was the only bite Brian could stomach! Me and Terry ended up eating them. Yum! We loved walking down 6th Street and listening to all the live bands in every pub along the street. It was so warm, they all had their doors and windows open and we soaked up the night life! We also enjoyed hiking in the sun the next day. 70 degrees in January was a fabulous pick-me-up!

Next, we ran to Seattle for a day to tape an audition for Northwestern. Again, so much sunshine! I was loving that. We also got tulips, and fresh salmon and cheese at Pikes' street market. Such a treat! But 10 hours of driving in one day was a tough price to pay!

The day after that I took all the kids and flew to Salt Lake. We enjoyed a weekend with grandma and the cousins while Drew did an audition at BYU. We also took in a day of skiing at Brighton. Wow, it was the best resort for kids and such a great sunny day!

Then we spent the rest of the weekend eating way too much and playing with Grandmas new Wii.

We came home very happy and glad we have such a great family to share time with. Drew was satisfied with all the auditions and now we just wait to hear who liked him enough to admit him!

Happy Birthday Nick!

2010-01-19T22:10:00.000-08:00

We've had quite the birthday week! Nick started it off dramatically by getting a stomach bug the day before his b-day and keeping me up half the night with his puking. I'm really turning into a big wimp!! I used to function with interupted sleep just fine, but now I am a complete wreck the day after getting 5 hours of interupted sleep, sleeping on the floor. I'm too spoiled. Luckily the bug passed quickly, and by afternoon, he was in the kitchen making his own cupcakes before I could even come help him! On his birthday, he got to take treats to his class and they gave him a big card signed by everyone. He said he got so many b-day wishes he couldn't hardly get his work done. Oh what a problem to have! :) Then I rushed home from work bringing McDonalds (a big birthday treat) and we were off to book bingo at the school. He sat by all his friends and our table got lucky and won 2 books!

Then we came home and opened presents with dad. All Nick wanted this year was green converse so he was thrilled to get his green shoes and wear them all night. He went to bed a very happy boy. And the fun continued!

Over the weekend, he had 14 boys come to the Jump and Party place for a big party. They ran wild for 15 minutes then came up huffing and puffing wondering when it was time for cake. Another hour was the answer! So I had to stay on top of them and suggest games every 15 minutes to keep them interested and running. Then we got into the party room for pizza and cake. I knew they'd run through that at lightning speed so I had a fun little game with chips and dice and they immediately announced we were playing poker! So I'm wondering how many moms think we had a poker party for our 9 year old! :) But not to worry, soon they were bored with that and turned to playing flies up INSIDE the party room. Boys. Luckily the parents started coming then so we survived another crazy boy party. Nick had tons of fun playing with all his new toys over the school holiday, and they slept really well that night! Happy birthday Nick. We all love you so much!!