Grades, Curls, and Exercise

Garrett and Jack finished their 1st semester last week. We were worried about whether Garrett would pass all of his classes. He had not really had a desire to do work in any of his classes since after Thanksgiving break and his grades steadily declined, even in the class that he was excited about, mythology. He would get angry if we brought up grades with him. We finally got out of him that he had been feeling lonely again and like he didn't have any friends. The two friends that he usually hung out with (which wasn't very often) seemed to be really busy and could never hang out. A long story short, I was able to contact the mothers of these friends because they're in our ward and he ended up hanging out with both friends at different times twice each during the Christmas break. It helped, but he still didn't want to do schoolwork after being back from school in January for a week and we had to talk to him again. If he failed even one class, he would not graduate and he wouldn't be able to go on a mission, which he still does. 

We were slowly able to get him working on bringing his grades back up. In his American Literature class, they were doing a big project about utopias that they started before the break. He hadn't started anything until the 2nd week of January. He was to create his own Utopia with a map and the final would be writing an essay about it. Once he started getting information written down, he was getting into it and actually enjoying it. Curtis did most of the helping with this project. Garrett was pretty pleased with how his project map turned out. He had slowly brought his grade up from an F to a B- before the final. Unfortunately, the final essay he wasn't able to finish, along with several other students and he didn't do well on that, but in the end, he did pass with a C+. There are only 6 class periods during the day and because he had an open period (due to dropping his math class late) and release time seminary, he only had 4 classes with grades. He received three C's and one D. Yes, I would have liked to see higher grades, but with all of the struggles we were having, we were just happy to get him to pass his classes. This semester he has said he will try to do better and we're already seeing that the past two days. He's turned in a couple of assignments and even worked on a project last night with Curtis's help again. This time he actually asked for the help. Yay! We know he can do it; he just needed the motivation. Oh yeah, and part of his motivation was that if he would start working on getting his grades up, that I would contact the mom of a couple of girls in our ward who are sisters that he wants to hang out with, but he's too scared. I have done that and even though we haven't gotten them together yet because of their busy soccer schedule on the weekends, he knows that I have talked to their mom and trying, and I think that's helped also. He's too scared to talk to these girls, which is why I needed to step in. He'll get there eventually.

His map of his utopia, "Arcadia Village", located in the Greece mountains.

Jack finished off the semester strong, getting only one B and the rest A's. He's doing great and I'm glad I don't have to worry so much about him.

Charlotte has been asking for a curling iron recently so that she can curl her hair like her friend. Well, I decided to look at Goodwill before purchasing a brand new one. They actually had quite a few to choose from and different sizes. I ended up buying two sizes, one for $3 and the other for $5. The first night we did just Alice's hair because I had also bought an air popcorn popper and Charlotte wanted to test that out also. We were going to do Charlotte's hair that night as well, but we ran out of time because of different things going on. I did do both of their hair for school the next morning. It took about 1 hour to do both (about 30 min each). Then we did it again on Sunday for church. It's fun to see that the curls stay in the next day. They aren't as tight as when they're first done but they still looked beautiful. It is very time consuming, so definitely not something we can do all of the time but we're glad we have the curling irons now as an option for hair. I used to have a curling iron a long time ago but got rid of it because I never used it anymore. I hadn't used it since Nikki was little.

Alice the first night of trying it out.

The next morning, we did it a little differently. We did the small tighter curls on the ponytail and the bigger curls on the rest. Charlotte took her picture.

I remembered that you could pull the big curls gently apart to create more curls that look nicer.

Charlotte sporting her curls and pullover sweatshirt, ha ha. She still looks beautiful!

Sunday after church.

Our big project for last weekend was building our new exercise machine that I ordered on Amazon. It had a coupon for $100 off also (not too surprising since it's January and it's the time of year for resolutions of exercise. I first got the idea though when Charlotte and I saw a similar machine at Costco while shopping. That one only did arms, but it was also out of stock. Charlotte really wanted me to buy it because she wants to get stronger arms for pulling herself up on the gymnastics bar. Jack and I wanted to have a machine also that we could do lots of different exercises to help strengthen our bodies. Curtis thought it was a great idea. So, we bought it with everyone being excited to use it except maybe Garrett. Jack has a goal to be able to beat his uncle Ricky's bench press record, which we don't remember what that is at the moment. 

Anyway, it took Curtis and I about 4 hours to build it. The girls helped a bit, but Jack was at his Choral Fusion practice (singing group) for most of that time. He's excited to use it and has even gotten up extra early most days this week to exercise before going to school. And his first class is at 6:45am. I'm proud of him for making that effort and glad he's using the machine.

Lots of parts!

We bought a floor mat to go underneath the machine to protect the flooring.

Testing it out.

It's great because we can watch shows or listen to Spotify on our TV through our Roku while exercising.

Charlotte trying it out.

And even Alice. I later told her that she needs to have shoes on when she does the machine.

And it came with a poster for different ways to use it and which muscle groups they use, so we hung it on the wall.

It's great to have our own little gym right in our basement now. It makes it easier and more convenient to do exercise. I also bought another fold up mat for the girls to use for their gymnastics bar but decided to bring both mats out to use for other exercises as well. I have not used their mat a couple of times doing stuff on the floor. We also brought Curtis's exercise ball out of our bedroom and downstairs. I wonder what we'll add next!

My Birthday Weekend

 My birthday was on Friday, and it was pretty uneventful. Alice stayed home from school because her tummy was hurting. It was hurting her at school the day before as well. She's also had the sniffles and a minor cough since Tuesday. We decided it was going to be a relax and movie day. We started with "Frozen" which we had to watch on DVD since we cancelled Disney+. And then again with "The Incredibles 2". While watching that one, we got out one of her crafts from her birthday she got from a friend. It's foil art. Even I enjoyed doing that with her. It came with these foam pictures that you tear a little section of paper off at a time to reveal a sticky black foam and then you take a piece of colorful foil and stick on. The foil peels right off the sheet onto the sticky foam. Then there are 6 backgrounds that you can stick the foam pieces to when finished decorating them. We worked on one together until she got the hang of it and then started doing it on her own. I helped here and there when needed. Sometimes when peeling off the white paper off the sticky foam we would accidentally peel off some of the sticky foam. I ended up grabbing a glue stick and gluing on small pieces where the foam wasn't sticky anymore. It was a fun craft to do. She also watched two Barbie movies, "Twelve Dancing Princesses" and "The Princess and the Pauper". 

This is the first one she did.

Curtis had thought about taking half a day off of work but decided not to since he was so busy that week, which was fine because Alice stayed home anyway. We wouldn't have been able to go anywhere during the day. We did however go out for an early dinner just the two of us to Applebee's. The main reason I wanted to go there again after having just been there for Alice's baptism, is because I really wanted to have the Sizzling Butter Pecan Blondie for dessert. I ate very little that day to make sure I would have room. I ended up ordering the Blackened Cajun Salmon with mashed potatoes and garlic green beans. It was all really good, especially the salmon. I have now had that salmon 3 times and it's been really good each time, unlike their grilled chicken that I had the last time we were there. I asked our server if they did anything for birthdays. They said they usually do the brownie bite that comes with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for birthdays, but I said I really wanted the pecan blondie. We said we would just pay for it, but she went to ask the manager, and the manager said they would give it to me, no charge! Yay!

I don't know why I was scrunching my nose. It's not the best picture but wanted to show my dessert. It comes out on a sizzling hot pan

This picture was better, but you can't see the dessert.

We thought about going to the movie theater afterwards but there wasn't anything playing that we were super excited to pay that much to see. We opted to go back home and watch a movie at home, which was the newest version of "Little Women". Curtis gave me that movie a couple years ago I think and I still hadn't watched it. It has Emma Watson (from Harry Potter), Florence Pugh (from Black Widow), Laura Dern (from Jurassic Park), and Timothee Chalamet (from Wonka). Those are the faces I recognized. It was a good movie, but it could get a little confusing because it flashes from past to present throughout the movie. I still want to get the 1994 version also. Curtis was also disappointed that the flowers he had ordered and were to be delivered, did not show up. It turned out that he accidentally put the delivery date as February 17th instead of January. Oops! He was able to get it fixed to have it delivered on Saturday. It came with one balloon when he had ordered three. So, they messed up on that and had to refund him a little money. But I got them and they're beautiful lilies and roses. They were all closed up when I got them but now they are opening up.

To make my birthday more fun I had wanted to invite our friends, the McShane's over to eat dinner and play games. They were busy on Friday and so we were planning on Saturday evening. It now depended on how Alice was feeling also. Alice never threw up and her stomach was feeling better on Saturday. She still had the sniffles though but was overall feeling good enough. 

I started the day with waking up early to take Jack to the temple for baptisms. The youth group had scheduled to go that morning at 10am but he and some others couldn't make it because they are all part of a singing group called Choral Fusion, which Jack just joined this month. They had practice at 9am so they went to the temple at 8am. I hung out in the parking lot to wait for them to be finished. Immediately after, I drove Jack over to a church for his practice and dropped him off. Their practice went until 12:00. After picking him up he went straight to another friend's house to do some filming for a school project for their band final. 

The girls and I tried to go over to Pasco to attend a free Planetarium event at the college, but we got there a few minutes late and it was full. They will have another one in February that we'll try to attend. Since we couldn't do that the girls asked if I would take them to Costco for a hotdog. So, we braved the crowds on a Saturday so they could get a hotdog and we bought a few items as well. We drove around for a little bit before finding a place to park. It was busy!

Curtis went to the store to get food for our dinner with the McShane's. He got the chicken thighs all prepped and marinating when I talked to ShaRae and they asked if we could move it to Sunday. So, we did! It just gave the meat more time to soak up the delicious flavors before cooking them the next day. The kids just did their own things that evening while Curtis and I played Bananagrams and watched "Runaway Bride".  

Sunday after church the girls were so excited for me to open gifts and I wanted to do gift opening with just the family anyway. They made a treasure hunt for me to do to find their gift, which ended in Milo's crate downstairs. The gift bag had a necklace that Charlotte made for me and a bracelet that Alice made for me. Alice also gave me the foil picture that she and I worked on together (she let me choose from 3 different ones). I chose that one because we did it together. Besides the flower bouquet, Curtis got me a new purse that's a little bigger than the one I have. I needed a bigger one but I didn't want it too big. He also got me a 1000 piece puzzle of the tree of life. That one is going to be difficult with all of those colors but it will be fun. He also gave me some dark chocolate and a game called YamSlam. It's just like Yahtzee but easier. There's nothing to write down and you can actually earn points multiple times for the same thing. Like you can get a full house more than once. To keep points, you get a chip that has the number on it. At the end you add up all of the chip numbers to see who wins. And there's multiple ways to get bonus points also. We got the girls to play with us the first round and then Jack the second round. It's meant for 1 to 4 players. It was fun! I asked Garrett if he would make up some brownies for my birthday dessert, so he did while we were playing. After the 2nd game, I went to choir practice. Then came home and got ready for the McShane's to come join us. 

We ate smoked (and marinated) boneless chicken thighs, baked diced potatoes, croissant rolls and salad. The potatoes got a little over cooked so some of them were a little too black to eat but some were good. We last minute baked what we had left of tater tots and potato wedges from the freezer as back up. It was a good dinner still even with the potatoes being a bit over cooked. After we ate, we pulled out some games. The girls left to play with their friends downstairs while the rest of us play a couple of rounds of Disney Apples to Apples and then Chameleon. This was the first time for me to play Chameleon. It was fun and Garrett really enjoyed it also. He's the one that picked out Apple to Apples as well. We took a little break during games to eat some brownies and ice cream for dessert. Curtis bought a bunch of toppings too for those who wanted a banana split. He might have been the only one that did that much. I only got a picture of him because his ice cream looked so pretty and colorful.

 

They had to sing to me before opening gifts so we made a tiny donut hole stack that were left over from Curtis class at church and stuck some candles in it. That was good enough for me.

His pretty ice cream sundae with brownie.

I wish we would have gotten a group picture of all of us, but I was too busy in the moment of playing to get one. It was a great evening, and we had lots of laughs. I love their family and I'm so glad they came over to help me celebrate my birthday!

Skating, Birthday and Braces!

Time is flying by again and it's time to catch up. A couple of weeks ago the girls' school had a skate night, so I drove them over there and decided I wanted to join them skating this time. None of us use the regular skates. We prefer the in-line skates (rollerblades). It was fun and nice to have the girls at ages where I don't have to hold their hands to keep them from falling. Alice said it was a lot easier than ice skating. I don't think she fell at all. They were able to skate with a couple of friends from school also.

Charlotte and her friend Rylie, who had another friend there. She's also wearing her new glasses that we picked up the same day.

Enjoying a slushy.

Alice's friend Sofia.

The girls enjoyed it so much that we went again on Saturday with some new friends in the ward who moved here in October. This time I sat and visited with the mom, Mary Ann Crandall. She is going through a divorce, so she and her 3 girls are living with her parents. They moved from Missouri and apparently love to ice skate and roller skate. The middle daughter had her birthday on the 10th and got new ice skates for a gift. We were originally going to try ice skating with them, but because it's hockey season there aren't hardly any public skate times and none on Saturdays. We'll have to wait a couple of months for that.

The 11th was Nikki's 21st birthday. I can't believe I have a child that age! We were able to order a few things on Amazon and have them shipped right to her so we wouldn't have to pay shipping this time. And I think it was kind of nice because the gifts all came on different days, so it spread it out. We gave her a $100 Visa gift card because she's a college student and needs it. We also gave her a book called "The Way of Kings", that Jack had suggested which was written by an author that she had been listening to podcasts of recently, Brandon Sanderson. Jack also read the book already and liked it. She is excited to read that one. And Curtis said to give her some Tim Tams for the snack. My brother Colby also helped Curtis pick out a new (used) computer for her. She has a little problem with the screen but other than that it works much faster and better than her previous computer and she's happy with it. Colby is supposed to help her figure out the screen issue. It was a computer that was previously used by the church and because he works for the church, he was able to help us purchase one.

On Friday the 10th I went to lunch with Glenna and Toni to celebrate Glenna's and my birthdays. Hers was the 9th and mine the 17th. She let me choose the location and I decided I was in the mood for Costa Vida. We had a nice lunch and spent a long time visiting and then planning our activity for that next Monday. Toni and her sister-in-law Catalina who is also in our ward gave us each a candle and Thick Mints, which are like the York peppermint patties but bigger.

I had sent Nikki a couple of pictures and then she ended up making it into an art project and sending it back as a gift. I thought they turned out so cute!

Sage, Curtis, Me

The original photo.

Alice, Milo, Charlotte

I sent multiple pictures of the girls with Milo and this is what she came up with. She had asked what their favorite colors were and made their shirts those colors.

As for our first activity of the year, we decided to just play some games because we never had time to play during the last few activities. We started snacks as usual and then played Christmas Bingo. Then I gave each girl a paper and had them write something about themselves on it. They crunched it into a ball and placed it in a big bowl. We moved from the Young Women's room where we started into the gym where the girls had a snowball fight with those papers for a few minutes. When I told them to stop, they each picked up a random snowball and unfolded it to read out loud. The girls would take a few guesses to guess who the paper was about. If they couldn't guess, then we would have the person reveal themselves. After we finished that, they played some hockey using foam noodles and cotton filled snowballs that Glenna brought. All the girls had such a good time, especially the new ones.

The boys have been dealing with dandruff for years, but Jack's was worse than Garrett. I finally got him over to a dermatologist on the 14th. They prescribed some special shampoo and a lotion (which is actually a clear liquid) for itching. They'll check him again in two months to see how it's doing. I just felt bad for him because he is always covered in white flakes and he has areas on his head that are built up a lot and he tries to scratch it off and it bleeds. It just looked painful and it was. We certainly hope that this will help.

On the 15th Jack got his braces off! It's almost exactly a month after Garrett. His orthodontist is doing his retainers differently. He got a permanent retainer on the top four teeth to help keep the gap from coming back. Garrett got one put on the bottom teeth like I did. They both have clear plastic retainers for top and bottom that they have to wear 24/7 for the first little while (except for eating and drinking things other than water). Garrett was told to do it for one month and then wear at night only. Jack was told to wear them for 10 weeks. Then they will check him and see if he's ready for nighttime only. I sure hope Garrett's gap stays closed with how long he wore his braces.

Such a good-looking kid!

Alice Gets Baptized!

The weekend for Alice's baptism finally arrived! When talking with her over a month ago about maybe waiting a couple months to have her baptism so the weather would be good for grandparents to come, she really didn't want to wait. She was too excited to get baptized! We decided to go ahead with the January 4th date and prayed for good travel conditions so that grandparents could make it. Our prayers were answered! Friday morning both sets of grandparents left from Nampa to drive up here. The roads were wet and there was snow on the sides of the road from earlier in the week, but they only had some rain and fog for their drive. My parents got here around 1pm and my in-laws about an hour later. My brother Stillman and his family, along with his mother-in-law Donna, drove from Nampa as well to be there. They had been down there so Michelle's sister could watch her kids while she and Stillman flew down to Arizona to watch BSU in the Fiesta Bowl game. They arrived around 3:30 or 4:00.

Laverne, Gaya and Steve helped me cook up dinner for the evening. Mom made Taco Soup, and my in-laws made Zuppa Toscana (they make it at home, so they were familiar with it) while I baked some homemade rolls. We were able to eat dinner around 5:30. Then we visited for a bit and I brought up some games. We ended up playing Golf and Secret Hitler. I really didn't want to play Secret Hitler, but I did and it was fun anyway. I don't like games where you have to lie sometimes. It's Jack's game and he's the one that brought that one up. I really like that Jack played both games with us though. All of the other kids were playing video games or looking at their phone (Jayden). Jayden did join us for the Hitler game though. After we finished two rounds of Secret Hitler, Stillman's family and mom and dad went back to their hotels. My in-laws stayed with us in Garrett's room. The nice thing about having someone stay in his room is that it gets him OUT of his room for a change. We even heard him playing the piano downstairs at one point. I wish he would do that more often. Anyway, it was a fun evening, but we didn't want to stay up too late because the baptism was the next morning.

I was worried about Dad's allergies when Sage wanted on his lap, but he said it was fine, and she looked so cute.

Playing Golf

The next morning, we arrived at the Ridgeline Stake Center a little before 10:00am and got Alice and Curtis ready in their jumpsuits. We took a few pictures before the baptism program started. Alice received two new white towels. One came from my parents to use when she got out of the water after being baptized. The other one was from the ward primary presidency, but her name was embroidered on it. She's happy to have them both! She also received a small bag of goodies from my parents and the primary presidency gave her a white drawstring bag to carry her towel and wet clothes. My in-laws gave her a Disney necklace that says "Ohana" and ohana means family. 

We had a little issue with getting programs printed. I thought the primary presidency or stake was going to do it and they thought we were going to do it (if we wanted them). Curtis had typed it up on his computer with most of the information on it since our family was in charge of our own program line up. Then we emailed it to the primary telling them we wanted help with the pianist and conductor. They said they would help but I never realized we needed to print it. So, Curtis pulled it up on his phone, took a screen shot and sent it to Bishop Chan, who was conducting. Other than that, it went smoothly. We sang "Baptism" from the Children's songbook and Charlotte gave the opening prayer. Then Jack gave a talk on baptism. He did a great job at looking out at the audience. 

After his talk, we proceeded across the hallway (we were in the primary room) to the Relief Society room where the font was. On the way, I asked Laverne and Gaya if they would be the witnesses so that they could also participate since the men will be doing the confirmation after. Their job as the witnesses is to make sure that Alice (or whoever is getting baptized) goes all the way under water when she's baptized. Right after she was baptized, I went back to help her dry off and change while everyone else went back to the primary room (except Curtis who also needed to change). Alice and I got back before Curtis did and even had to wait for him a couple of minutes. It was funny considering men are usually faster and the fact that he was only half wet, while Alice was fully wet, and I had to comb her hair as well. Garrett gave the next talk on the Holy Ghost. He also did a good job, and we know it helped boost his confidence because he later started talking about a mission again. Then Alice was confirmed a member and given the gift of the Holy Ghost. Curtis said the prayer and my dad, my father-in-law, Stillman and Bishop stood in the circle. We concluded the meeting with Bishop Chan giving some remarks and bearing his testimony (he was in tears). Then we sang "I am a Child of God". Alice chose both of the songs we sang. And then I gave the closing prayer.

The previous Sunday Jack had been sustained in Sacrament meeting to be advanced from a teacher to a priest. Since we had family in town, we decided to do his ordination right after the baptism finished. Everyone who came (even from our ward) stayed for the ordination also. The same people who did Alice's confirmation also did the ordination, as well as Jason McShane, who was his youth leader. It was super neat!

We didn't get a picture of everyone who came to the baptism, but we at least got a picture of all the family members who came. And we had to get some pictures after she was dressed in her white dress, the same white dress that Nikki and Charlotte wore when they got baptized. I wish I would have gotten a picture of Alice and the McShane girls. They were the only kids that came besides her cousins. Laila McShane is her best friend. Their parents and both daughters came. Sister McShane conducted the music, and Marcia Lennon played the piano. They are both counselors in the primary presidency. The primary president is Kim Prescott and she was also there with her husband and older daughter. And her primary teachers from the previous year, Wade and Christa Meek. We had several other ward members come as well. Luckily, I was able to have them sign her book we bought her for her baptism memories so we know who came.

After the baptism, my parents changed their clothes at the church and started back home to Nampa. They wanted to make sure they had plenty of daylight while traveling. We went back to our house and changed our clothes before going over to Applebee's with my in-laws and Stillman's family. It was a tight fit, but they got 14 of us seated together. From there, Stillman's family left to head home to Lewiston. The rest of us went back to our house to relax for a while and Curtis helped his mom with something on the computer for church calling. I also got the kitchen cleaned up. We ended the night with watching "Star Wars: The Force Awakens".

The next morning was our first Sunday having a 10:30am meeting time. It was nice to sleep in a little but still begin in the morning. Yesterday was also Fast and Testimony meeting. I don't get up to bear my testimony often, but I decided I needed to. I was the first one to get up after the bishop bore his testimony because I knew it would be harder to get myself up if I waited too long. Then later Jack, Charlotte and Curtis all bore their testimonies. It was a Butterfield day I guess, and we all mentioned something about Alice's baptism. Charlotte got up by herself for the first time, so I was proud of her. I never did when I was a kid. Jack challenged himself last year to bear his testimony every month and he accomplished it. I was surprised to see him get up yet again yesterday. I guess it had something to do with his friend's younger brother getting up. He had said he would get up if Connor did. Anyway, I'm pretty sure Jack bore his testimony more times in one year than I have in my whole life. I just always get too nervous to get up. But I'm glad I did it yesterday. The more you do things like this, the easier it gets. We said goodbye to my in-laws right after Sacrament meeting so they could head back home.

Sunday was pretty relaxed after church. Curtis smoked some chicken thighs and roasted some rosemary potatoes in the oven, and we had iceberg salad as well. It was such a good dinner that I requested it for my birthday dinner! The chicken was way better than the dry chicken breast I ate at Applebee's. After dinner Jack requested that I make a Nutella Star because I had talked about making one last month but never did it. Well, I finally did it Sunday evening, but it took a little longer than I expected. We didn't get to eat it until 10pm, but it was good! Next time, I'll have to start much earlier. 

Before going in the oven.

And after it came out of the oven

It was a GREAT weekend!!