Wrasslin'

We are super proud of both our cousin Codys (Codies? Codyses?) this wrestling season. Though we didn't get to see either of these lads (born, just one day apart, in two separate states) wrestle in person, we did spend time in front of our television set cheering for them via short video clips and live television feeds. Both performed in the Varsity sphere, despite their underclassmen status.

Close cousin Cody finished as an alternate to State (we'll likely see him there next year if he chooses to continue), and our Colorado cousin Cody finished fifth in his state for his weight class (106--I'm guessing a little lighter than close cousin Cody :) for his school size. Buck said if they are wrestling different weekends next year, we're going to both tournaments (whoa!!)

Wow, so exciting knowing we have athletes in our family whom we can cheer for and be proud of--and who are both academically strong too! It's cool to see *our kids* growing up to be who God made them to be, pursuing their interests, and excelling with hard work and a few trips to the doctor's office ;)

Odds and Ends

Tis the time of year when things run short .  . . karate pants for one ;) We ended our winter break from karate this past week, and discovered that the karate uniforms we purchased for the boys one year ago (they were long then, for real they were!) highlighted the whiteness of their winter ankles--and perhaps a bit of shin. Well, humph. I didn't plan to buy a new uniform again (Graysen could just have Brennen's). I think they'll be just fine with their karate high-waters for now . . . makes it easier to kick, right? :)

For two: socks . . . I bought approximately one dozen new pairs of socks for each member of the family. If you're counting . . . that's 72 brand-spankin' new pairs of calcetines. And guess who's week it was for sock folding? Ha! It is super fun to throw freshly washed, never worn socks over my shoulder at my eldest child. She also thought this was an EXTRODINARILY fun game :)

For three: shoes . . . The athletic shoes Grandma J bought the kids a couple years ago have finally seen their day! Brennen's from then are still in service by his bro. Speaking of Mr. B . . . dude wore a men's 7.5 around his birthday, so we recommended size 8 for growing room when Grandma wanted to buy him requested cowboy boots for Christmas--this shopping trip he's a men's SIZE 9, and barely a thumb to the toe! Whoa, baby.


For four: Ha, for-four-fore! Just kidding, no golf opportunities here, just snow and ice . . . and deer. Can you see how hungry this little family of wild looks to be? They're eating birdseed out of our bird feeder! Ha, and we were worried about squirrels 🤣 We have since gotten a box of bruised apples from a neighbor (who participates in a fruit/veggie co-op), and we now decorate our one backyard tree with cobs of dry corn on strings. One of these days, we'll have to refill the bird feeder for our not-very-feathery friends :)

The Mighty MERCH MAN

It was Caelan's job to come up with a theme song, but she didn't ;) It ended up mostly like a Batman/Superman combo from the rest of us, "Nah nah nah nah nah nah, Merch Man!" Gabby designed the t-shirt. Brennen and Graysen did the decorations . . . What's all the hubbub in the city? Well, Buck rotated positions at work and now he's managing the merchandise aspect of the operation. From what we've been told, he needs four years' experience in two buildings in this department to qualify for being looked at to get his own building. The hours and days off have changed (mornings, and split), and it's not a *promotion,* BUT it is a step in the right direction that he's been waiting a long time to take. So we made him a party to celebrate!






(You get the edited version of the party, because I like some sort of anonymity in my online *journal,* which is meant for family and friends, but is open to the public--so who knows?)

Will You Be My Valentine?

In sharp contrast to our previous week, this week has been a-hoppin'! Monday we (minus Brennen, who was still Captain Sneeze-a-lot) attended our art and ASL lesson, and were absolutely entertained by darlin' Dassah. She speaks of *beautiful butterflies,* *sparkly shoosies,* and requests hugs while caring for her baby doll *CryCry.* I asked if I could just borrow her for awhile, ha! So entertaining and sweet.

On Tuesday, we were double booked--actually triple. Buck was supposed to be work-scheduled early enough to help me run the kids to their activities, but then his schedule changed. Shucks! He arranged with his boss to come in a little early (though later than his new early) and leave early too. I took the boys to baseball, he met me there, I headed home to pick up the girls, he started home with the boys, I dropped off the girls (then went Valentine shopping), Buck and I both were home for a little while, then he headed out to get the girls . . . whew!!



And what were the girls doing? Well, let me tell you! Our girls were at a Bright Lights party--held, interestingly, at the little church (though it was a big church activity when they were involved). This group doesn't meet regularly currently, but they do celebrate together special days like Christmas and Valentine's Day. Our girls were happy to see some of their friends from the big church and from choir. They did lots of girly things like crafts and snacks, and they got to spend an evening with their good friend E. (By the way--the skirt Caelan is wearing is the skirt she made from the cute Hobby Lobby fabric we found :)

Valentine's Day arrived--and I thought I'd better get up early to get ahead of the crowd. The table was decorated with cards, chocolates, and small gifts. To this, Buck added flowers for us ladies . . . but, two of my crew slept so late, that breakfast time passed by! The other two went downstairs to start their schoolwork, and I waited. Okay, I did sneak in to the kitchen for my chai . . . and guess what I found? A pitchfork!! It said, "Hay-py Valentine's Day" (oh, I just noticed the *tines* too!). You may think that romance fades as the years go by, but this gift is exactly what I asked for--in fact, the gift was put to nearly immediate use as I headed out to give the chicken coop a much-needed cleaning. I like my new pitchfork!





The kids enjoyed seeing their Heart Day treasures, and Gabby made a batch of chocolate chip strawberry pancakes for a late breakfast. School went fairly quickly; I have the girls checking some math lessons now, which helps a lot! We started watching a Hallmark DVD series about a book series from Jeanette Oke that the girls like (Mrs. K let us borrow the first season set). I don't normally watch the Hallmarks, but I am intrigued by this being a series, so we shall give it a try :)




For dinner, we enjoyed sandwiches via a gift card from Grandma J--the kids got to get the *fancy* subs, with chips, and a drink, and everything! Lol! Usually, they get a plain sandwich and some water; such a festive day this! ;)

Later, we headed to youth group at the little church--which turned out to be a Valentine game night. There were lots of funny moments and some really odd games--"Why did the chevaliers have to jump into someone's arms?" Umm . . . "It's like when a princess needs to be rescued from a tower, back in the castle days; she'd jump and the prince would catch her--like on The Princess Bride at the end, only youth group pairs were boys and boys and girls and girls, so it didn't work out quite the same . . ." 🤣

Our kids were also pretty clueless about the pop culture references ("Sit down if you've ever had a crush on Jennifer Laurence"--I had to ask Buck who that was :) He said, "The Hunger Games girl." Oooh, right . . . we don't do *crushes* in our house, especially celebrity ones--pointless, am I right?!). Indeed, the Crew's lack of text, music, and movie knowledge helped them last longer in some of the games--which increased their odds of gaining candy from the big bucket (seriously, everyone rewards kids with candy!?) 

In the above photo, Caelan recited a Christmas poem to be the grand winner, though Graysen's *Fuzzy Wuzzy Wuzza Bear* nod garnered a few votes :)

We made it home in time for The Amazing Race and might have even planned a fall vacation. Buck and I are hoping to get dinner sometime soon, since spending time with 40 middle school and high schoolers on Sweethearts' Day wasn't exactly romantic, lol (but pitchforks are, I know, I have a very flexible definition of *romantic* :)

Update: Yes, I'm updating before I even publish this post the first time, ha! Buck and I did go on a date, and as we ate dinner at a steak house, we dressed up like a cowboy and cowgirl. Buck started it by appearing in his cowboy boots, jeans, a plaid shirt, and his black Stetson (I don't know if it really is a Stetson :) I matched his enthusiasm with my brown (not cowboy) boots, jeans, a plaid shirt, with a white vest and scarf . . . I might have said, "Yee-haw" as we left the house ;)

Buddy Time

Since we've been going to the little church, the kids are missing their friends at the big church. When a birthday party invitation rolled in for B, he was willing to battle a blizzard to go to the party :) Thankfully the snow didn't start til we'd finished with choir, dropped him off, and made it home safely. However, picking him up at 9:30 PM (we didn't have him stay for the slumber segment, because he had baseball practice the next day) was a different matter. Buck said driving up our hills in the four inches of fallen snow was a bit of an adrenaline charge, which he had to settle before trying to get some pre-inventory sleep. But by all accounts, Brennen had a great time! (My friend S, sent these pics).




Cake, Nerf Wars, Star Wars video games, pizza, friends . . . and a selfie for mom to show that everything is going just fine :)

Calories

When you're sweating it out on the treadmill . . .



. . . and your daughter traverses down two flights of stairs, opens the weather-proof door, walks into the freezey garage, past the parked mini van, and reaches over the heavy punching bag to hand you--a spoon full of chocolate frosting to taste test 🤣 I must have mad taste-testing skills for all that effort, never mind MY effort, lol!! (BTW, the frosting was delicious :)

Olympic Feat

Can anyone help Buck find the Olympics? He's looking all over for them :)





Our VR has come from the dusty recesses of the upstairs closet just in time for the Olympics. Supposedly, you can pop your phone into these attractive eye goggles and watch live footage from the winter events as if you are there. Buck tried really hard to get the thing to work. He was spinning in couch circles, looking up, down, around, behind, trying to figure out the ap . . . but it didn't work the way it was supposed to despite his gold medal efforts.



It just struck me as funny that he was looking directly at me, but had no idea that he was :) I thought it would make his sister giggle, so I shared a pic with her, too. Doesn't it sound like they say P.F. Chang's every time they say the Olympic games' location? It's making me hungry ;)

Teacher's Pet and Mirror Reading

School seems to be an ever lengthening endeavor this week--it feels like we're studying from sunrise to sunset to get our daily tasks accomplished. This is very unusual, but given next week's crazy schedule and how everything was cancelled this week(art/ASL/baseball/guitar/piano/
we didn't make it to youth group . . .) I guess we needed some buckle down and learn time.

In the past two days, the kids had nearly 25 tests amongst them!! That is a lot of tests in a lot of subjects! After getting everything graded, I spent today finishing up semester grades for the girls, and things are looking good :)




In other news, I've been encouraging the kids to play more with the hedgehog--he just doesn't get much attention, since he's mostly busy at night and sleeping during the day. Hence, it has become a *requirement* to play with the hedgehog for at least five minutes before they get permission to play a video game. And so, as you can see from the pictures, the least therapeutic pet on the planet came to class (as Grandma J joked) to be our "therapy pet." Lol!

This morning I thought it was funny how both boys were reading in the same position in two different rooms--gotta love a kid that reads! And two, even more.💖 (I just discovered I can emoji!)

Balmy Weather

I tend to remember in order of the pictures I take on my phone--if I miss a pic, I miss a memory, but how could I forget Caelan's foray into the world of homemade cosmetics?!


Each month our girls look forward to the arrival of their Brio magazine, which is for teen girls from Focus on the Family. Each edition has a little beauty corner with instructions and ideas for making natural face masks, lotions, and this month--lip balm! On our shopping trips last week, Caelan patiently gathered all the goodies necessary to make mini balms for herself, her sister, their friend Elaine, the neighbor girls, and the young ladies at Wednesday night youth group (to be distributed next week on Valentine's Day). We were surprised at how expensive beeswax is, thus glad for Hobby Lobby's everlasting 40% off coupon. How adorable that her very first debit card purchase, signature and all, was at the Hobby Lobby!

Caelan had so much fun making make-up! Her little balms turned out great too--nice for the chappy weather. They look pretty in pink with the balm shimmer she added. To decorate each tiny container, she added a heart sticker and some ribbon. Maybe next time she'll add some essential oils to make them extra fancy--my vote is for Thieves, because it will disinfect any finger germs that might be rubbed on one's lips . . . if one is able to endure the intense burning sensation that accompanies this particular oil, that is :)

Super Bowl

Our party consisted of me and the kids :) They chose early on to root for the Eagles, and the stories of the players' character truly became something to cheer about as we watched! They stayed up until the very end, which Buck arrived home in time to watch with us. 

Newlyweds

Sunday morning at church, the little church, we had no idea that we would be saying "I do" all over again. There are two pastors who take turns teaching on Sunday mornings. To our surprise, the one who didn't do the teaching, who had been wearing his usual blue jeans and flannel shirt at the beginning of the service, suddenly appeared in a full suit and tie.


He invited a couple forward. This couple decided when they were very young, that every five years they would renew their wedding vows. Their anniversary fell on Groundhog's Day, so this Sunday morning happened to be the closest to their wedding date. On this, their 55th wedding anniversary, they invited every couple in the church to join them as they renewed their vows! Wow.

All through the church, you saw husbands and wives turning towards each other, holding hands, promising all over again with the pastor and this unique couple.

"In sickness and in health . . ."

To the traditional vows, the pastor added this promise, "To only you, I commit my eyes and my body 'til one of us dies or Christ Jesus returns." 

Wow!

There were sweet tears throughout the church; imagine the possible reconciliations that took place, the children watching their parents promise forever, but this time in their presence. I just loved every second of it! 

And then the 11-time groom took the microphone and began to sing to his bride of over half a century:

With this ring I Thee wed an angel here beside me,
A moment more and heaven will be mine.
With this ring I Thee wed as ev'ry dream inside me.
Comes true each time I hear the church bells chime.
This little band of gold I hold will soon be on your finger,
A vow and now that moment so divine.
With this ring I Thee wed, and make you mine forever
To have and to hold until the end of time.

With our hearts tied as one we leave the church together,
Together as we know we'll always be.
In a life just begun this day will live forever 
Like blossoms in a treasured memory.
Your big bouquet may fade away but as the years go by, dear
I'll take your hand each day and say anew:
With this ring I Thee wed, I vow I love you truly 
And every day you'll hear me say "I do."

Then the tears were really flowing! Just a guitar (played by the worship leader who looks like Kylo Ren :) and a man who loves his wife. Wow.

After pronouncing us all husbands and wives again, the pastor announced, "Husbands--you may kiss your bride!" There was a whole lotta smooching in Sunday church last week, let me tell you!

And just like that, after all these years, we are newlyweds again :)

Four Days Off

I've just been too busy to post, and boy do I feel behind! With Buck's busy work schedule of the past weeks, he took a four-day weekend to catch up on his regular time off. We needed a little fun, so we did some fun things.

First--school! Okay, this was normal *fun*--we can't just take a spring break every time we have a few days off, but we did have very motivated students who finished their work in seemingly record time :) I can't say our first excursion was all that exciting either--though it did accomplish a lot of intentions for the upcoming days. Yes, we went to Wally World. Caelan has been asked by a high school classmate of mine to sew eight memory bears in honor of her brother who passed away. We don't have the fabric yet, but she's working on a couple of other projects for me and needed more fluff--boy, did we find her some fluff!! I didn't even know you could buy it in a box! And as you saw in the previous post, Gabby accomplished a wish she had--for hair color. Check! The boys started a new hobby too--collecting football cards (inspired by their New Year's break sorting with their dad).



Later that day, we took the kids to youth group; Buck made a quick jump across the highway to gather more sacks of chicken food, and that was our Wednesday. I will say, the kids in this youth group are not the Christian bubble kids our family is used to at the big church. It is more challenging to our kids' emotions to see their behaviors and to hear about their lives. Buck says he's not surprised because this church is alive and shaking up the community, where the other church is old, established, and though it has a new vibe and a young staff, it is not currently as vibrant and challenging. Raw vs. crock pot. Raw is more of a risk.

On Thursday, it was back to the books :) And back to the stores. We had a rebate from a hardware store and a smattering of items that needed to be purchased. Buck was working on filling the wall holes that the towel hooks made in the kids' bathroom, and he took on the task of restaining/sealing the back of the kids' bathroom door (which has absorbed a lot of water over the past few  years :) I found a super cute, giant picture frame for half price, we found cheap guinea pig food (who knew?) guarded by two birds who'd wisely selected the birdseed aisle as their home base. Buck got some tarps, because everyone needs tarps (especially $5 tarps)! Tweezers, nail clippers, another pretty random shopping trip for the Crew :)

After the hardware store, Buck dropped the girls and me off at Hobby Lobby--Caelan had a Christmas gift card burning a hole in her wallet ;), while he and the boys went to buy grass at the pet store (you would be amazed at how excited we get to find a "buy one, get one half off" on grass at the pet store). One of our tasks was to restock Caelan's bear eyes, we did, but later realized they are too small--so back we shall go! We wandered over to fabric, of course! They had a super sale bin with some really pretty pieces. So . . . we went over to the pattern books (Buck texted like, "We're back--are you lost?" :) Caelan picked out a skirt pattern she liked, selected a zipper, and found herself with a brand new project to work on at home. I seriously love this fabric--if there had been more than a yard and a half I would have wallpapered our living room with it!

Back at home, Buck and I decided this would be the best night for us to go out to dinner. We knew we wanted fish--that was an easy one! I had a superfoods salad with grilled salmon, kale, sweet potato chunks, avocado, feta, and I don't know what all, but it was delicious! Buck tried a cobia fish, which they said was similar to mahi (remember all the mahi are hiding in a trench somewhere in the deep). He liked it; said it was similar to swordfish in his opinion. 

Well, we didn't want to drive that far and only get dinner, so we decided to check out a free museum that we'd heard about, and wanted to take the kids to, but it was kind of in a part of town we weren't sure about (so let's go at night! Lol :) and we weren't sure the spiritual vibe we'd get from the place . . . well, it turned out to be super cool! Featured is a display of light in different forms. Including this crazy, full immersion room where the video of moving light patterns was reflected off of both floor and ceiling mirrors making it look like it was endless above and below. "Graysen will not like this," decided Buck (who wasn't sure if his motion sickness tendencies liked it either :)

On the way home, we stopped to buy donuts for the kids for breakfast, and realized Buck's credit card was back at the restaurant. No biggie, we have the lock thing and the manager stashed it in his personal safe, but it did change our plan a bit for the next day.

Friday--back to the restaurant to retrieve the card! Then, because it was still pretty early, we took the kids to breakfast/lunch--I can't call it brunch because it was not in a fancy establishment. Buck and I discovered this place, which is a chain, but feels a lot like the small town diners I ate at with my parents and grandparents. Our waitress was super nice, and the kids were super excited about the menu offerings. We had everything from California omelets to queso burritos to biscuits and gravy--I think Brennen's order came on two or three separate plates! (He ate it all :)

After our yummy meal, we headed for the light museum wondering if it would be different when it was light outside. The lady at the desk remembered us from the night before, and thanked us for bringing more people :) The exhibit is free, so we had no problem coming back twice. 

The kids liked the big *x* room the best--those huge lighted sticks and frames "go to sleep" when there aren't people in the room (soft, quiet colors) and when people start moving around the sculptures "wake up," becoming vibrant colors that shift more rapidly. How neat to interact with art! There were also some deep tonal sounds on the speakers that would change when you moved closer to certain objects--Caelan thought it felt like being inside the Wrinkle in Time book. Totally! Also, Buck was correct--Graysen wanted out of the immersion room almost as soon as he got into it :)



The light igloo was pretty neat! I took lots of pictures of it in its various color changes, but I figure you get the idea from these :) Pretty neat *Dr. Seuss* garden too, right?!

After seeing the lights, we had to scoot home for choir . . . and you know us, if nothing else we're well rounded. We had a hockey game to attend! A little art here, a little sport there :) Buck was needing some fun and something different finishing an inventory for someone else, and heading into his own (this weekend). I saw that a minor league hockey team had a home game--we went to see the Ducks at the Staples Center in L.A. when we were first starting to get to know each other, so I thought it would be fun to take the kids and see another game.

As it turned out, our seats were one row back from the glass--we could see the cut marks on the faces of those (very) young men, where hockey sticks and pucks had bounced off their exposed skin. And loud--oh my carrots! It seemed the volume switch became stuck on high for all music and announcements . . . and then there were the children with their horns.

Picture a sort of telescoping trumpet funnel made of plastic, about three feet long. Now picture insane parents buying these for every child in their care--good gravy, Marie! They hooted and tooted those things to distraction! But, they seemed to be having a good time. As were our kids (minus the loud hooty things). They learned some beer cheers, thought the Chicken mascot (who was remarkably dexterous on skates in that feathery costume--even lobbing footballs to and fro with the crowd, and yes, I know it was hockey, but I guess pucks are dangerous and harder to catch :) was entertaining (he also scooped up ice with a hockey stick and dumped it on kids' heads over the glass--and kids LINED UP for this treatment, lol!)

The girls were thrilled to make the dance cam on the big screen and the boys were delighted to snag the attention of the cotton candy man (they were told ahead of time to bring cash if they wanted treats :) I didn't know a hockey score could go so high, but we got to see and be part of lots of goaaaaaaallll celebrations. (Maybe that's soccer?) Everyone had a good, chilly time, and we left just a bit early to beat the crowds. As we sat, with ears still ringing, in our van and headed home--talk turned to what we should do on day four of dad's little vacation.

Saturday--the zoo of course! The temps have been mighty chilly around here, but they perked up just a smidge on Saturday. Unfortunately, none of the animals noticed :) We walked through a pretty empty zoo and did not see a lot of creatures, but it was nice to walk in relative comfort. Oh, we did see the rhino--he looks very tough, not the kind of guy you'd want to invite over for dinner.

I can't think of what we did when we arrived at home, except I know it was Live PD night, so that of course happened. What will I do when Buck switches to mornings next week and heads to bed before PD concludes? It will be an interesting alteration to our schedule for sure, in more ways that this.

Oh, I guess I forgot to mention, the reason we went zooing in the afternoon (in addition to the higher temps at that time of day--notice only a couple of coats being worn in the rhino pic) was because the animals all needed a good cleaning. Including the dog. And Graysen couldn't find a t-shirt like we normally put him in after a bath--so--hippie dog he became! :) At least until Caelan noticed the tie-dye was coming off and we decided we really didn't want a permanently pink and purple dog, ha!