End of April means play time for my girls.  Rehearsals and then performances every day makes for lots of tired super happy kids.  Robyn got sick the week of performances which meant she spent the days laying on the couch and then performing at night.  A tender mercy is that while she laid there sleeping on the couch all day while I finished student teaching was that a robin chose to build her nest in the tree right in front of her window.  She was enthralled with the process when she wasn't sleeping.  And icing on the cake is that my parents arrived to do sick kid duty at the end of the week and to cheer them on with their play.


Allison said for this scene they were told to loose IQ points every time the performed.  She did a lot of tap dancing numbers and even sang a solo this year.  She loved every minute of it and developed a close knit group of friends.



Robyn had a 101 degree fever this night but the show must go on.



It was good timing as not only were my parents here for the girls play they also got to see Spencer's last guitar recital.  Everything with Spencer right now is "last this" and "last that" - its very depressing.


Jeremy's old mission president and his wife came out for BYU graduation and made Jeremy's day by stopping by to visit and catch up.  It was 24 years ago that he came home from his mission to Tampa, Florida.


With my parents here we went and toured the new family history museum where they happened to run into their mission president from Australia.  We toured the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point and celebrated my Mom's birthday with dinner out.


They watched Taylor for me one morning so that I could go with Jeremy for a ct scan.  Got the results two days later that the medication was working and that the tumor had noticably gotten smaller.  All good news.  Until this point we had no idea if the medication was working at all.  We so appreciate the fasting and praying that has been and is being done in our behalf.  It brings me to tears everytime.  Every fast Sunday I have a sharp elbow from Robyn prodding me to go up and bear testimony.  But I know that if I look at the neighborhood that has loved us through this that it will turn into an ugly crying session really fast.


With student teaching done I have been busy visiting my new school and meeting at the elementary schools with the incoming students.  You would not believe how gracious and kind everyone has been to welcome me and help me out.  The current teacher who is retiring is giving me all her materials that she has created over the years which is amazing.  She has been introducing me to everyone and taking notes on how everything works.  I could not ask for a nicer set up - unless its a bigger classroom, the classroom itself is really tiny.

I did get to get away for a day though to enjoy women's conference with a few of my favorite people.


And I was able to meet up with my old roommate and then had a small miracle when she walked by two of our other old roommates.  We just "happened" to all be in the same class sitting in the same row.


Jeremy left for a photo job...in Hawaii.  The kids kept referring to it as his vacation.  I am sure he worked hard but we had very little sympathy for him!  He got to take photos as they toured pearl harbor, went to a luau, and many other fun events.


Spencer had Senior Prom with this super cute girl named Emily. They did games at a park all day, dinner, dance and ice cream at night.  Had a wonderful time with a great group of friends.


Robyn had a mother daughter activity.


She also is in the middle of all the end of the year stuff, like Hope of America.  It is a cheesy awesome patriotic program they practice months for and then perform in the Marriott Center one night.  She is one of the white stars in the blue area.


Allison is missing seeing her play friends every day and has been busy reconnecting with her school friends and figuring out jobs for the summer.  I am grateful Jeremy came home yesterday and is willing to take her for driving session including the freeway today for the first time.


I realized that I don't have a single picture of the birthday boy!  Taylor turned 21 this week.  We sent him off with doughnuts and made chunky monkey pancakes for dinner.  Saturday with Jeremy home and the sun shining we had his party.  It ended up being freezing cold but we had fun visiting with brave souls bundled up and Taylor ate his cake and grinned at the attention.

Between Taylor's birthday and Mother's Day I always have mixed emotions during this week.  I am grateful for the example of a mom who showed me what mothering and being a strong woman looks like.  I try to emulate her every day.

My weekly posts have now become a monthly post!  We finished up March with Robyn's wax museum where she posed as Florence Nightingale thanks to a talented grandma who figured out an apron and hot ensemble and a gracious neighbor who had the perfect lantern when Mom's lantern was not authentic enough.


Women's broadcast with the cousins plus a friend followed by visiting, cheese sandwiches and cupcakes.


Then we took Taylor to respite, Allison to a friend (for half the time) and Robyn to cousins and we were off for Spencer's senior trip.  After a long plane ride to Florida, we each chose how to best recover.  Spencer and Jeremy hit the gym and I lay by the pool and napped.  Then it was off to Medieval Times to live out Spencer's dream of seeing jousting and sword fighting and eating with our fingers.  We waved our pennants, wore our crowns and cheered for the yellow knight.



The next day we went to Port Canaveral to board our cruise ship. 


We played, ate and ate and relaxed a ton.  We haven't really had a lot of down time since everything hit after Christmas so it was good to just decompress and be for a bit.


Jeremy said he lost track of how many photos of me looked like this:

Or this:


I think I took a nap almost every day of our vacation plus slept a good 8 hours each night.   But my favorite nap of all was when Jeremy and I found a hammock one day on our last afternoon.  I could have laid there forever.


We spent one day at sea, one day at Little Cay (a private island owned by Carribean), Nauseau and Freeport all in the Bahamas.  We snorkeled, and swam a bunch and walked all over.  I couldn't get over how warm and blue the ocean was and how soft and clear the sand was.




We visted a zoo, kayaked through Mangroves and swam as much as we could.  Watched outdoor movies and went to shows.  And ate - I couldn't believe that Spencer could eat so much food.  It was a little unreal.  The taco stand and french fry places were much loved.


Then it was back home to girls who had been shuttled to play practice all week by their amazing aunt Kelly and Taylor who did great in respite.  It was an awesome vacation.  A few hiccups like Spencer being up for 2 hours one night throwing up - I blame it on all the food - and felt much too short.  And Spencer learned what it means when I suggest we walk around and look at the island a bit.  Next time he is packing hiking shoes.

Back to real life of school and work.  Morning after we get back, Spencer comes downstairs beaming, "I lost 2 pounds!", Jeremy "I gained 10!" which of course he has since worked off.  I need some of his will power.

All college papers and observations are done for me.  One more week of teaching and I am official.  I have started meeting with my new school and getting stuff rolling there.  Jeremy had to close down the studio so currently our garage is full of lots of stuff till we can find a way to store it or he finds a new place.  Spencer and Allison both got their classes all registered for next year.  Allison got a full scholarship to a writing camp at SUU over which she is very excited.  And all the other odds and ends.  Jeremy has had lots of city council meetings and photo stuff lately.  And girls are in the thick of play practices.  But of course we get all the fun stuff too like Easter with cousins.  Grateful that our kids still like doing all the kid stuff for a day.  And they let me snitch some of the mini-cadburry eggs!

We now have an 18 year old! Hard to believe he is so old With him going to friends houses to watch them open mission calls and planning out college classes and arranging prop - it all feels a little surreal. We had his birthday dinner a day early - steak, fruit salad and chocolate milk with ice cream cake - as Wednesday night was our mutual night. Luckily his very kind "mission presidents" stuck a candle in his cannoli for him. This weekend he had a combination Christmas/birthday present with going out for sushi with Jeremy and then going to a Panic at the Disco concert at night. He had a great time. He jammed his knee which we learned by loud screaming one morning when he couldn't stand up or walk. Luckily we have a knee expert in our house and a few hours later things shifted and he could bend his leg again. But it did mean a few days of no exercise for him which made us all really appreciate him going to cross fit on a regular basis.


Jeremy had his company's Big Outdoor Expo last weekend.  Lots of work leading up to it with design and advertising.  Allison worked both days for him taking tickets and Spencer worked all day Saturday before leaving to work at Chubby's (I figured out he worked 15 hours straight that day - it was awesome).  Robyn, Taylor and I just got to go enjoy all the booths.   In fact Robyn liked it so much she had me take her and her friend back again in the afternoon.


The girls had their piano recital.  Both were disappointed on how they did but I thought they did wonderfully.  Allison had a piano festival she competed in as well.  Allison is starting to do some really tough pieces which makes for lots of practicing.  Allison also had her big choir concert and she and Robyn have started the busy season for their play.  So they are staying busy and music is filling our house.



Robyn had battle of the books at school this week where she competed with teams to decide who knew the most trivia for the books their grade has read this year.  We have gone in the span of 2 weeks from Robyn reading books by the fireplace with hot chocolate and dunkers:


to her having a group of friends over for a spring is here party of painting pots, planting flowers and making muddy buddies.


Odds and ends of the weeks are Taylor breaking his Daffos and the visits needed to fix them, Jeremy's studio being sold so looking for a place to move to and Jeremy having some photo gigs.

Biggest news was that I got a job for next year.  I have interviewed at a couple of schools and all of them I could see working at.  But the one school I really, really wanted offered me a job at a local Jr High and I accepted.  I knew since it was mentioned as a possibility in January that that school just felt and sounded right.  So that is what I have been praying and hoping for.  Lots of really nice people and some little miracles and it all came together for me.  Big stress of my shoulders.  I have two more weeks to finish up all my school work and get it sent in for review, one more graded observation and then I just get to enjoy teaching for a few more weeks.  So close.

I notice that my posts are getting fewer and fewer.  Mostly because the days seem to just blur together.  I was talking to a neighbor and she was saying that life for her is work, kids, church and sleep but if that's all her daily life consists of for the rest of her life she would be content.  It was a good reminder for me to remember how blessed I am and to enjoy this new routine of our life.  It doesn't make for very exciting blog entries but it makes for a happy life.

School is going well.  The teaching part is just a lot of fun.  I even enjoy the prep part, I just never have enough time it seems like.  Most of my week nights and weekends are spent preparing lessons and doing assignments.  I got to go up to Logan last weekend with a fellow cohort member who lives in Payson.  We drove up Sunday night and stayed in the hotel on campus because we had a class at 9 am and were worried about snow.  So we were all dressed and headed to breakfast at 8 am when we got the call that because the canyon was closed to all but 4 wheel drives with chains they had cancelled the day.  So we spent the morning meeting with our professor, waiting for the canyon to clear and then came home.  I beat kids home from school which made us all happy.  Right now I am in the middle of applying to schools to teach and I am really appreciating the efforts of many friends to help me get a good position at a near by school.

We have had a few fun things these last weeks.  I took Spencer, Allison and Robyn one night to see Peter and the Starcatchers at Hale Theater.  Allison loved those books as a child but I had never read them so didn't know what to expect.  It was an awesome play and very different than those we had seen before.

One Saturday Robyn, her friend Jill and I took Jasper up to the Humane Society to get his shots and worm medication as well as pet all the animals there.  I wish it were closer because our kids would live there on weekends if possible, especially Robyn.  Robyn has been enjoying doing Student Council at school as they help organize the Battle of the Books.  They finished reading a book about a book scavenger hunt so she quickly printed out scavenger hunt instruction and had to run to a park to hide it.  She has been enjoying her drawing class every week especially learning how to use pastels.

Saturday night with Spencer at work the rest of us got to go enjoy a Vocal Point concert while Jeremy took photos.  Their version of Nearer My God to Thee just brings me to tears every time.  Throw in some milk shakes and fries on the way home and Dad's night out was a huge success with the girls. 


Allison has been busy practicing for her piano recital and festival this coming weekend, doing choir, practicing for the play and doing tons of homework.  She and Jeremy both caught a cold which left Jeremy sniffling and coughing for two weeks but made Allison pretty wimpy and miserable for a few days.  Luckily she has a friend who is willing to spend a weekend watching a princess movie marathon with her.  I did get to go with her and the YW to watch a BYU volleyball game along with Spencer and Jeremy.  Robyn, our anti-volleyball member of the family babysat Taylor for us instead.



On President's Day the kids and I headed up to SLC to see the new Family History museum.  Unfortunately it was closed so Allison and Kaori hit up the mall and the rest of us did a tour of the conference center.  Spencer is still a little bitter about it.

Jeremy and I were able to go one night to the Police recognition dinner.  It amazes me how much the police in our community do in return for so little.  He has enjoyed being a part of the Honorary Colonels and getting involved in the community.

I finally let Allison drive me a few times.  She is always eager to hop behind the wheel.  Jeremy takes it much more in stride letting her drive everywhere.  This week Allison finished up her online Financial Literacy class and did a very relieved happy dance.  She has not enjoyed that class at all.  I on the other hand thought it was full of actual useful information!  She and I got to go see LaLa Land together and I thought how grateful I was to have a daughter who is willing and wanting to share such things with me.  She loved all the tap numbers and is busy practicing away for her play in the garage tapping away, wishing we had heat out there.  We had New Beginnings this week and she helped do one of the rotations.  I was just beaming with happiness in her ability to stand up and bear her testimony.  She did say on the first rotation our bishop was in the room, on the second it was a member of the Stake Presidency and she said in the third with her luck the prophet was going to walk in.


For my birthday we all drove up to Cheesecake Factory and everyone (but Jeremy) picked out their own slice.  In case you think I am mean, Taylor and I split one, he really did eat half of it!  Birthday was awesome as I had so many family and friends think of me.


Spencer and Jeremy did a late night when Jeremy was given tickets to see BYU basketball vs Gonzaga.  They had a great time marveling at how tall and how big a beard one player could wear.  Spencer had his first date Saturday night taking an awesome girl, Kaley to Sweethearts Dance with a group of friends.  They rented an archery range for the day date followed by Sodalicious.  Then at night they did photos with Jeremy, dinner at Macaroni Grill, dance with lots of mosh pitting (Spencer swears his date wanted to), and JCW's for shakes.  He had a great time and has been sleeping all afternoon to make up for it.



Spencer started attending the archery team at school and has discovered more of a social life.  He learned he could leave school with friends to go get pizza for lunch.  I asked him what happened to the lunch he brought and he replied that it was long gone by lunch time.  He lives by Hobbit rules - first lunch and second lunch whenever possible.  Met Spencer's doctor this week and he is told just to keep up meds and he is doing great. 

We had the Hall's over for Superbowl Sunday.  Ate way too many wings thanks to Jason and had a great time hanging out.  Watching football is incidental for me but talking, visiting and eating yummy stuff is wonderful.

This Sunday we had Stake Conference.  As part of it our Stake President and Elder Worthen (BYU Pres) came to visit us.  They were very kind and loving and just wanted to make sure we felt of their love for us.  I always feel like deer in the headlights a bit at visits like those.  Never quite know what to say.  Besides which its either true, or it isn't.  And if the gospel is true than we just trust the path we are on because we know the destination, put our heads down and get on with it - with as much joy as possible.

Student teaching is going well.  11 weeks left, 5 down.  I had my first observation this week which went pretty well although I have a long list of things to improve on!  I also had parent teacher conferences which made for a very, very long day.  No one does well with 12 hour work days, no one.  I think school should start late the next day and all teachers should be given brownie sundaes.  On Friday I got to take my class to Olive Garden for a 3 hour field trip.  We have been learning and practicing restaurant skills for a month now and it was fun to put them to use.  One boy ate I swear 10 breadsticks and a pizza.



With parent teacher conferences I only got to go to Robyn's and Tayor's.  Both are doing well.  Spencer and Allison I just have to trust their grades posted online are telling the true story and emailing the teachers.

Jeremy met with the oncologist this week.  Blood test numbers are low but normal for being on his medication.  Won't look at a CT scan till summer.  For now just suck it up, stick it out and wait.  Can't do anything for the pain as its all pressure related so he is trying hard to eat small meals, mostly plants to keep his digestive system as empty as possible so there is less pressure on the tumor.  Some days are great, some days not so much.  They did prescribe some sleep medication which he can use a few times a week and I am hoping getting some sleep in will help the pain.  I know I feel much better when he sleeps better at night.