Week 4

{January 25 - 31}

On Monday night for Family Home Evening, I taught the lesson about prayer, we played "What's Yours Like", and had some of Barb's leftover strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Tuesday evening was hectic. After school, I taught a piano lesson in town, got my hair cut, signed up the twins for junior basketball league, and Josh and I took Ammon out on a date to Junkyard Bistro.

I like how she flipped my hair out after giving
me a hair cut. Ammon was the first one to notice
my haircut, so kudos to him for noticing AND
complementing!!! His dad could take a lesson
from that I suppose {wink wink}.

Ammon had never been to the Bistro before, and although Josh doesn't like it very much, we thought it would be good to try it out together so Ammon would know if it was a good choice to take a future date to. I got the coconut curry chicken rice bowl (my favorite thing and SO delicious!), Ammon got the Muffaletta (he thought it sounded better than it tasted), and Josh got the Vietnamese pork sandwich (it was alright, but he won't get it again). Since we are on a family budget this year, I have a monthly allowance of $36 for the dates with the boys. I told the boys there's a $4 cushion, and if they make it under $36, they get to keep the $4, but if they go over they have to use that $4. Our bill total came to $36.01! He was barely over the limit! We used the extra as the tip (plus a little more that Josh contributed). It was a nice date, but Ammon decided he didn't want to take a date there in the near future.

After we got home from eating out, Josh helped Kanyon with his pinewood derby car. Josh had taken it to work with him on Monday, carved the shape Kanyon wanted, put metal in it, weighed it, and then Kanyon sanded it while we were out to dinner on Tuesday night. Josh laid out some newspaper on the table, and Kanyon spray painted a few layers of orange on it. 

On Wednesday night, I helped Kanyon paint the details on his derby car. He wanted a skull with flames coming out of it. I found an image online that he said was like what he was imagining in his head, and I painted the image on the car in 3 different layers--waiting about a half hour in between each layer. After the 3rd layer, I asked Kanyon if the picture was what he wanted, and he said it was perfect, except he wanted the nose of the skull painted over, which I did. Then I left it to dry a little more before I cleaned up the mess. And when I came back out a half hour later, Kanyon was busy adding more paint designs himself on the front and back end of the car. He said the front of the car now had a burning pyramid and the back of the car had a digital shooter. I was a little irritated, because he'd told me it was perfect before...but he liked the car as it was now, and it's his car, so I guess that's what matters most. 

Thursday was no school for the elementary school because of Parent Teacher conferences, so Kanyon got to stay home. The high school had a delayed start of 2 hours, due to Senior Projects, so Ammon got to sleep in. I drove Jonah and Micah in that morning for their last ski day, and went to the school for para meetings and I worked the rest of the day helping with conferences. Since Josh didn't have to drive bus that morning, he brought Kanyon in for his student-led Parent/Teacher conference, and met me at the school. Kanyon is doing very well academically, for which I am so grateful. His teacher has been very patient with his difficulties in creative writing, and I feel like he's behaviorally improving in the classroom as well, which is a blessing. Josh drove Ammon's basketball bus to North Fremont that afternoon, so Ammon only went to a couple hours of school (since it was an easy day, he was glad for no homework over the weekend).  I picked up the twins at 5 from the ski bus. They'd had an awesome day skiing because some of their friends (who didn't ride the ski bus) had gone skiing that day too since 6th grade didn't have school. I'm glad they had a good time--especially because Jonah originally didn't want to go with the school, and Micah was a little anxious about what to expect since they'd never gone with the school before.

Thursday night was Kanyon's first Pinewood Derby. He was SO excited!!

There were only 5 boys competing (our ward did it by themselves, and there's not very many cub scouts), so Sister Johnson joined in too so there would be an even number in the bracket. The boys all did a preliminary running of their cars before starting a double-elimination bracket.

Kanyon got 3rd place overall, which he was pleased with. I told him to try running his car backwards during the races, but he didn't do it until the derby had ended and he and his friends were just doing fun races. During the fun races, when he DID run the car backwards, his car was faster than everyone's! He had a lot of fun despite not winning, and the boys all had good sportsmanship. He loved building his car and racing it with his scout troop. It was a positive experience for him and a nice evening!

Our cub master made little medals from elk antlers, with engravings on both sides, and he gave them to all the boys who raced, which was very cool!

On Friday morning, Jonah and Micah left for an overnight scout camp-out. They were headed to Jimmy Smith Lake near Challis, and would be doing the fishing derby on Saturday morning. It was their first winter campout, and they didn't know what to expect, so they were a little nervous. They started packing on Thursday night, and finished getting ready on Friday morning before meeting at the church. It snowed all day on Friday, and I thought about them, and wondered how they were faring in the cold and snow! It was pretty quiet at our house with them gone--Josh went to work and Ammon volunteered at a store in town, so Kanyon and I were home alone. We worked on going through the grow box--we got rid of all the small clothes in his drawers, and went through all the clothes that were the next size up, either keeping them and putting them away, or adding them to the donation pile. When we were done, we had a huge garbage bag full of clothes to donate, so we went into town, dropped them off at Rags & Wags and ate lunch at Burger King. Then we picked up his friend Aiden to come over and play for the afternoon. The boys had a good time playing together--they played outside, walked down to the gravel pit and dug for rocks, came back to drink hot cocoa and warm up, and then played with cars on a racetrack inside until it was time to go. After I took Aiden home, Josh and I went out to Bertram's with John and Amanda for dinner. Josh ordered the Prime Rib, because he'd been craving it for months, and I ordered curried clams because I wasn't too hungry (we'd had cheesy chicken rice when Aiden was still at our house). I'd never eaten clams before, but they were pretty tasty. I love curry flavoring!

On Saturday, Josh and I headed into a baptism for some children in the ward, then we came home and relaxed for a bit. I like when I get to spend unscheduled time with him!! He hasn't been feeling good this week due to a cracked (or broken? we're not sure) rib. Last weekend, he was trimming trees at the golf course, and one of the giant branches swung back and hit him smack dab in the chest and knocked him down. Then a few days later, he chopped up some wood at our house, and the pain in his chest was intense after that. He had a hard time moving, coughing, and even laughing. His body has been sore and he hasn't been sleeping well all week as a result. We needed some more wood split to bring in for the coming week's supply for the wood stove, and he was dreading it because of what happened last time he split wood; he was still sore and didn't want to over-exert himself again. So, he borrowed his dad's wood splitter, which was awesome! Jonah and Micah have been the designated weekend wood-haulers, carrying wheelbarrows of wood from the pile and stacking them on our deck, but since they were still gone to the scout camp-out, Kanyon and I filled their positions and helped instead. Ammon has helped with the splitting this winter, but yesterday he helped with the hauling, while Kanyon and I helped with stacking as Josh was splitting. It was a good little team effort, and we got a lot of wood split, stacked, and hauled in a decent amount of time. 

Since we got done faster than anticipated, when we came inside from finishing the wood chore, Josh worked on finishing and submitting our taxes. We are grateful to have a refund again this year, and it's very similar to what we received last year, so we're glad it hasn't dropped significantly from what we were hoping and expecting. 

Jonah and Micah got home about 5:00 Saturday night. They were cold, tired, and were glad to be home! Right after they got home, Josh and I headed into Ammon's home basketball game against West Jefferson. It was a very close game, which is exciting. They were tied in the first and most of the second quarters, and by the 4th quarter, they were within just 10 points of West Jefferson. Ultimately, West J won, but I was proud of our boys for giving a good fight. Ammon had a hard game, though. He played well defensively, but had difficulties making good passes to teammates due to their moving around and not being prepared to receive the ball. And once he made a few of the same resulting passes in a row, it started getting to him. He has a hard time recovering once he's made mistakes; it's an obstacle that he struggles with while playing on team sports. 

He excels at making 3-point shots!

When I got home from the game to make a late dinner for the boys, I discovered that while Josh and i were at the game, Jonah and Micah had both done a load of laundry to wash and dry their wet clothes from the camp-out, and they'd gutted and cleaned both of the fish they'd caught at the derby. They'd even used the hydrant outside (in the freezing cold) to clean their fish so they didn't have to use the sink inside, since it would stink and Josh hates the smell of fish in our house. I couldn't believe it! I was so proud of them both! They are such good boys!

This morning, Josh and I drove to Challis for church. It was their ward conference, and since Josh is in the Stake YM, that was his assignment today, and he asked me to join him on the drive. Eric Tarkalson drove down with us, too. We had such a nice experience, and enjoyed the services in Challis. Ammon took the other boys to our church, and we all got home about the same time. We went down to Ed & Kathy's for dinner, and she'd made split hot dogs with mashed potatoes and cheese, because she knows how much the boys love it! This afternoon we've been relaxing and hanging out together. I just love unscheduled Sunday afternoons!  It's the best way for me to calm my mind before starting a new hectic week all over again!