Dancing with Daffodils

 December is always crazy and I always think, maybe we should cut back, but then I realize everything is related to service or is a kid activity they love so I guess it will just always be a busy month. For family night on Monday, Dec 8 we went down to Jason's house to help him out. He is Josh's co-worker and his wife is pregnant and just found out she has colon cancer. It is a very challenging situation so we wanted to help and he said the best way that night was to put up their Christmas lights. It was literally the coldest night of the year so we bundled up and told the kids they had better not complain and got to work. It took longer than we expected so we got home late but I think it was worth it and hopefully helped their five kids feel like things were more normal.   My mom and dad came on Dec 9 and we had a nice week with them. I had invited them to come for Nutcracker and everyone was happy they were willing to come. I cleaned all day Monday and then drove up to ...

Sunday morning we got up early, packed the car and headed to our special stake conference with Elder Rasband. He is Brandon's favorite apostle so it was neat to hear from him and be so close; we were about four rows back and Josh was only a few seats away on the stand from him; pretty cool. Josh was able to meet him and shake his hand and introduce himself a bit before the meeting. We had gotten there an hour and a half early because Josh had an assignment so it was nice time to just and prepare to listen. The meeting was wonderful and I loved what Elder Rasband shared, as well as the visiting member of the Seventy, Elder Daynes.  As soon as it was over we were invited to have lunch with the Rasbands and Elder Daynes so we made our way back to the stake offices and waited a bit before they came in. We said a prayer and got in line to get our food and I was behind Sister Rasband so I chatted with her a bit. Elder Rasband strikes me as a quieter guy so he wasn't very outgoing and...

 Time has gotten away from me. Today is the first day in two weeks that I have a long to-do list but no outside of the house commitments. So on Tuesday, Nov 18 I took Curtis to get his permit since he was exactly 15 and nine months that day. He did well on the test and everything went super quickly so we were in and out in about 40 minutes and since he passed, I took him out for a little treat at Social. He got a chocolate croissant and hot chocolate and we chatted and I sure love my boy man. He is so tall and grown up in many ways but he still gives me sweet hugs and tells me he loves me and he has a tender heart that I love. It was nice to spend the morning together.  That night was book club and I was in charge so it was a lot of work and prep and I was pretty stressed about it, but it went well. I picked a book called Eight Flavors about common spices/flavors we use in our cooking and where they came from. I had wanted to have a food for all eight flavors but it got to be ...

I don't even know what I've been up to. Oh wait, the last week of October is when I started substitute teaching. I was very nervous at my first job. It was an elementary school I had never been to before and my first time subbing since before Lily was born but it went pretty well. I actually saw a few people that I know that apparently work at the school and everyone was very nice to me. I was in a 5th grade class for two hours and it was exhausting but everything went pretty smoothly. Then I did four hours at our elementary school one morning in 1st grade and that was super fun and went by so fast. Then I was supposed to do three hours for the music teacher at a middle school but it ended up being a field day so I helped out with a station for an hour and then left.  Last week I subbed for the afternoon for our special Ed teacher and that was a bit more chaotic just with kids coming and going and I was in a kindergarten class as a para last week too. That was fun because it wa...

 It has been a dozy of a week or two. Back to early October, Brandon and I went to Curtis's home cross country meet and that was fun to cheer him on. It is a hard sport to watch but he ran fast and did a good job and it was a beautiful day to be outside. I got finger printed for subbing and helped Michelle with some power washing and decorating outside. I played pickle ball and watched Brandon's baseball game and Lily went to the homecoming football game. That Saturday was so busy! Lily was supposed to have her senior pictures on Columbus day but it was going to be rainy so right after her Nutcracker rehearsal we met up with Bethany at Greenwell and did her pictures. It went well and was fun and the weather held, which was great. Then we rushed home, she got ready for homecoming and then we met up with Adi and Claire to take some pictures around our neighborhood before they left to go out to dinner and go to the dance, which was fun but Lily said they didn't play music she ...