Week 21

{May 23 - 29}

On Monday night, I gave the Family Home Evening about faith. We just started the last chapter titled "Attributes of Christ" in the Preach My Gospel book. We've been having FHE lessons out of this book for almost a year and a half now! I had a little activity to go along with it, where the kids pulled out little cut-out leafs from a bag. On each leaf was a sentence, and the kids had to decide if it was something that helps their faith grow or something that diminishes their faith, and put it on the growing tree or wilting tree. We played "Scum" for the game--Kanyon really REALLY wanted to play it again after we'd played it with the Roseburough's the day before, and then we had creamies for dessert.

On Tuesday after school, I was super duper impressed with Kanyon. I had a piano lesson right after school, and as I was teaching the lesson, Kanyon pre-heated the oven, put frozen pizzas on a pan, cooked the pizza (for our family dinner), got his homework done, and got his shinguards and long socks on in preparation for his soccer practice at 5:30. He did all of this in the 30 minutes that I was teaching piano, and he did all of it without me asking him to! I was totally overjoyed! Kanyon is 9 years old, and has to be constantly reminded to do expected-everyday things like brush his teeth, wash his hands, do his homework, and feed the animals. So when he did all of this completely on his own, I was totally blown away! It just made my night!

It's crazy on the evenings when soccer is at 5:30, because we don't even get home from school until about 4:25, and it's a whirlwind to get everything done. It's even worse when I have to teach piano! So, after we came home, and I taught the piano lesson, then we ate dinner at 5:00, I checked Kanyon's homework, and we left at 5:15 to head back to town. I found out after school that Jonah's Thursday soccer game had been switched to Tuesday night due to the music concert on Thursday. I forgot my camera, so I just snapped a pic on my cell phone of their team's bright orange shirts. I love the color choices of the team's shirts this year! They're SO bright! Even though nobody is up close in this photo (they play on such a huge field this year and as a result always seem so far away), you can tell who's on Jonah's team based on the orange spots you see! It was another close game, but this time Jonah's team won.

After the soccer game ended, we headed to the movie theater for free popcorn night. It is Ammon's turn for the monthly date, and he wanted to go see the "Captain America: Civil War" movie. Jonah and Micah did too, so they came as well but they had to pay for their own ticket. Kanyon wanted to see "Angry Birds", which was also playing at the theater this week, so he brought his own money and Josh watched that with him (since he's not big on watching superhero films) while the three other boys and I watched the Marvel film. It was even better the second time around! We all enjoyed our time at the theater on Tuesday night!

On Wednesday, Jonah and Micah had another 6th grade field trip to Idaho Falls. They had to be at the school by 7am, so I drove them in early to get to that. They went to the Tautphaus Park Zoo , had a picnic lunch, and went rollerskating. They said they had a super fun trip (better than the museum trip two weeks ago), and had a lot of fun at the zoo with their friends.

The High School Awards Ceremony was on Wednesday night. Ammon got several awards in the science department. He said during the assembly at school that day, he was awarded the "Student of the Month" representing the science department, too! He has had four science classes this year, but has loved having Ms. Wolfe as a teacher so it's been a good experience for him, and I'm glad she feels the same about him!

Ammon and his best friend unknowingly wore matching
clothes to the ceremony. Josh and I thought they'd
planned it! They both looked so handsome!

Thursday was a horrible day for me. A little background info first...I taught K-5 music for 4 years. I've been in charge of the Kindergarten Graduation for 5 years (I did it last year too, even though I was no longer the music teacher). This year, I'm not in charge of it. Which is totally fine--I'm not at the elementary school building all day like I have been the last 5 years (this year I'm half-day Kindergarten and half-day Preschool), and I don't have contact with all the kindergarten students like I did last year when I worked in kindergarten all day or when I was the music teacher and had them all as my students. Two years ago, our school implemented the "Leader in Me" program, and the principal asked me to come up with songs for each of the 7 habits to teach to the entire school. I happily did so, because I felt like it was a worthwhile endeavor. The first song I wrote was "Be Proactive" to the tune "SpongeBob SquarePants". I love that song; it was a great first habit song! It's very catchy, so the students learned it really fast and it stuck! However, there was a big catastrophe with one student and his mother that happened after I taught the whole school that song, and I lost my music-teaching job as a result. I don't want to go into details--I've already done that in a blog post back in 2014. So...now back to the present day. On Thursday morning, I was helping Mrs. Mark line up the kids for Graduation practice, and we had them stand on the stage so they'd be familiar with the expectations for them for the real program next week. Then they started to go through the songs for the program, and they sang "Be Proactive", but to a totally different, depressing tune. I couldn't figure out what was going on, because I'd taught the morning class the song, and they usually sang it so happy and loud. Then they informed me that the current music teacher told them to sing it this way instead. I was FURIOUS!!! The music teacher NEVER informed me that she was using my song in the program, nor did she ask for permission to change MY song, either. I was appalled that she'd taken my song and turned it into something that was not at all what it was intended to be. I went straight to her room to confront her, but of course she was gone on a field trip for the day. I just couldn't believe that she'd done that; it was so unprofessional, disrespectful, and insensitive of her. It's upset me how she's run the music department as a whole into the ground. I am constantly STILL being asked when I will return to be the music teacher because everyone's so disappointed with the current results of their child's music education. I was just shocked that she would undermine me in this way, too. I had a meltdown right then. I went into the office and bawled and I couldn't stop the tears from falling all morning. It was just so hurtful; this song ultimately caused my departure from being the music teacher, but I stand by this song and it's message. I would've been fine with her including it in the program, and teaching it to the kids, as long as she used the appropriate tune. The slow, depressing tune COMPLETELY changed the song, and was a slap in the face to me. I called and left a message on her phone telling her my feelings and asking her why she never asked me before changing my song, but she still hasn't responded. When the kids went out to recess, I cried ugly tears for the entire 15 minutes, and then I started to feel a little better. Mrs. Mark decided to just remove the song from the Graduation program, which was not my intentions, but I'm so grateful for her understanding and insight. She has been fabulous to work with the last two years and I appreciate her so much!

Thursday night was busy. I made tacos (quick and easy!) after school, then I drove the twins and Kanyon into town with me for Kanyon's soccer game at 5:30. We watched most of it until the twins had to go inside for the music concert. Josh drove home after driving bus, changed, and drove back into town to watch one quarter of Kanyon's game before the concert started.

The group of boys heading inside for the concert: Jonah, Nathan (his parents
coach Kanyon's team), Micah, and Erik (his brother Aidan is on Kanyon's team)

I can't tell you how much I loved seeing Josh walking
up to me during the soccer game. I'd had such a horrible
day, and just seeing my husband made me feel instantly
better. He still gives me butterflies in my stomach!
He looked so handsome, and I just love him and am SO
grateful to have him in my life--he's my rock! 

Ammon worked after school at the golf course, then also went home and changed, and came back in for the concert as well. The students in the guitar class were the first performers of the evening--which included Ammon. There were only 12 students in the beginning guitar class, and they've only had this class one semester. They sounded fabulous! Ammon has really enjoyed this class; much more than he did band last year. They played two songs, and I loved listening to them. Ammon also received the award "Most Improved Player" from his teacher Mr. Anderson!

The 6th grade beginning band class performed next. They had 3 songs, and they've improved so much even since Christmas at their last concert! Micah plays the trombone, which was highlighted in one song (it was a big hit with the audience), and Jonah plays the trumpet. I was so proud of them!

the group during warm-ups

Jonah and Micah left on Friday morning for our ward's youth overnight trip to the Twin Falls temple. They did baptisms and a service project at the temple, and ate dinner at Bishop's parents' house.

Josh and Ammon were working and mowing clients' lawns all day, so the house was pretty quiet with just Kanyon and I. When Kanyon mowed the lawn that morning, I started pruning the dead branches out of our hedge and cleaning up the dead leaves/weeds under it, and I accidentally got stabbed by a branch when I was about halfway done with the big section. The branch broke off and got stuck in my arm. I pulled the branch bit out, but part of it got remained inside my arm. It made me feel queasy (I hate the sight of blood), so I quit after that! I went into town that afternoon to go take our garage paperwork into the County Building Dept. to get a building permit, but since it's Memorial Day weekend, there was only one person working and she said they wouldn't have a chance to look at it all until next week. Then I went to my hair appointment with Kerry. She cut and colored my hair, and I felt SO much better! It's been over two months since I last got it done--which is way too long to go in between haircuts for my short style. I've been feeling shaggy for a while, and this was just the pick-me-up I needed! Josh had a horrible day mowing lawns (it kept raining off and on and the mower wasn't working right). Ammon even texted me mid-way through the afternoon to tell me that Josh was really upset, and we laughed about how intense dad can be when he gets so angry. When he came home, he needed a break, so he surprisingly took me out to dinner at the 28 Club! It was a lovely treat and we both enjoyed dinner immensely! It's our favorite restaurant in town, and that's the fourth time we've already eaten there this year--which is a lot for us (we usually only go on special occasions). We rented the movie "Everest", and watched it in bed after we got home. It's a true story, and I hate the way it ends.

On Saturday morning, I worked a little bit on my next college class, helped Kanyon do laundry, and went to town to the redi-care to see if a Doctor could get the twig remnant out of my arm. Unfortunately, the office was closed due to it being Memorial Day weekend. Boo! I picked up the twins from the church around 12:30. They had a fabulously fun time! For lunch, we had leftovers and fried eggs! The Williams' have been so nice to bring us two dozen eggs in the last two weeks, and they've been screaming "eat me! eat me!", so we did! When I was cooking them, they even smiled at me!

 On Saturday afternoon, I finished trimming, weeding, and cleaning out the second half of the large section of hedge. It looked so much better to me! However, I asked Josh if he thought it looked good, and he was acting like a dweeb and wouldn't respond in a positive way. Ugh. I hate when he gets like that. I told him later that day how much I dislike how he's incapable of complementing me. He doesn't like when I confront him with my feelings, so he took off on a 4-wheeler ride and went shooting his gun for a while. When he was gone, Krissy surprised me with a short visit. I loved talking and laughing and catching up with her. When Josh got home, he took me on a motorcycle ride (I've been craving one all week) about 8:00 to the grocery store to get a few groceries for the weekend.

After church today, we ate outside for the first time this season at Grandma and Grandpa's house. The weather was beautiful! Afterwards, I did a few more trimming projects in the yard, and noticed that my peony is about to bloom! I'm so excited! I want my yard to get to the point that there's always something different blooming!

Tonight, we went over to Jackson's house for a little get-together. Phil had mowed a few golf course holes into the grass, so Josh and Ammon played that with the men played for several hours. Micah and I played SkipBo with the ladies during that entire time. There was a big group of kids hanging out for Warren's birthday, so Kanyon alternated between hanging out with them and wandering around doing his own thing. Jonah opted not to come because he was really into reading his Harry Potter book! When it got too dark for golf, the guys came inside and we played the card game "golf" together until we came home around 11pm. I had SOOOO much fun! I laughed so hard; it was a rejuvenating evening spent with good friends!