Youth Cultural Celebration

Saturday, November 17th,  was the day of the Youth Cultural Celebration. With the Boise temple re-opening and being re-dedicated, all of the youth in our church ages12-18 got to participate in a dance performance for the Prophet and President of our church, Thomas Monson. There was about 9,300 kids that participated! It was the largest gathering of youth that we know of in the history of the church. There were so many kids, that only a few adults got to be at the actual performance which took place at the Taco Bell Arena (BSU Pavillion). It was broadcast to the local church buildings so that anyone who wanted to watch it still could. Since Marc is working as the Young Men's President, he spent the last several months with the kids at the rehearsals and practices. On the 17th, he left at 6:30 in the morning and spent all day with the kids as they had their dress rehearsals in two different locations. They started out at Mountain View High School, and then were transported by bus to the Pavillion where they spent the rest of the day preparing for and practicing. Each stake, (large region made up of many wards) prepared a 2 minute dance routine complete with costumes, props and choreography. Marc came home a little after 11:00 at night. 

I tried to grab a few pics to show the magnitude of the event. I was not there, I took the kids over to the stake center to watch it. I grabbed these pictures off the photo sharing site: http://boiseculturalcelebration.smugmug.com
Here's our group rehearsing at Mountain View, can you spot Marc in his orange shirt?

 

Here's President Monson a few minutes after he entered the stadium. He rode in on a golf cart and the place just erupted! Everyone was standing, clapping, and yelling. People that were there said he was treated like a rock star! :)

This is our stake's actual performance. I was texting with Marc the whole time while he was there and he was giving me the play by play of what to look for and what was happening real time. It was fun to have someone on the "inside".

 I grabbed the rest of these to get an idea of how many kids were involved. It was amazing!

  What a night to remember! It was such a neat opportunity, even to watch from a nearby church building! Marc said that the emotion and feeling in the room was electric! It was a power he's never experienced before.

Parent/Teacher Conferences

It still floors me that I have kids in school full time and that I am now the one going to parent teacher conferences instead of my mother! Both boys' teachers sang praises about them. Tyler's teacher kept telling me how much she loved and enjoyed him. She loves his enthusiasm and his happiness. His efforts to be kind and friendly towards everyone does not go unnoticed, however, he is quite the little chatter box in class. She moved him to sit next to 2 of the quieter kids in class hoping that would help him, and instead the "quiet" boys started talking more! He struggles with staying focused, and not talking when she's talking. He's doing great with his reading, we're working on comprehension now.

Bryce's teacher is pleased with his behavior and how he is excelling in his school work. She too emphasized the comprehension skills, so that's definitely something we're working harder on. I had to chuckle when she mentioned that he has a hard time with organization and often loses things. At least I know my children aren't behaving any differently at school than they do at home!

I'm proud of my boys! I can't believe all the new skills they are learning and what great writers they are becoming :)

Rocky Start

We started November with a lot of uncertainty and in battle mode. I had to teach preschool on Friday, November 2nd. I got a phone call from Marc about 10 minutes before I was going to start, telling me he was no longer employed at the YMCA. Talk about facing a challenge to keep it together! The news was devastating. As soon as preschool was over, we set out a plan of action. We had worked so hard to get out of debt from the last time we were without a job, and did not want to slip back into it.

As I looked at the all the food storage I had recently worked so hard to build, I was especially grateful for a full pantry that would help us get by the next few months. We have learned to live on next to nothing, so we knew we could stretch what was in the bank account until January. If we could make it to January, we knew we'd be receiving a decent tax return that could help us long term. And with Christmas right around the corner, I was thankful I had already started shopping and our kids are little enough to not recognize fewer presents under the tree.

Marc spent hours every day scouring and applying for jobs. I was grateful for the few days in the weekend before I had to go back into the Y on Tuesday to teach lessons. I was very appreciative for the concern and support from the other staff members that I work with, and that people were respective for my need of "space".

Though we faced so much uncertainty, we felt lifted up in our trials and knew that things would work out. Marc had several interviews, both on the phone with employers in Utah, and in person here in the Treasure Valley. He interviewed with Broadview University on the phone late on Monday the 12th, in person on Tuesday on the 13th and a final interview on Wednesday the 14th. He received a job offer from them Thursday morning, November 15th as I was coming home from work. We discussed the job, discussed the other options, prayed together if this was the right opportunity for him and our family and felt confident in accepting the position. In the days to follow, he turned down 3 more opportunities to interview with other companies. Each time, we felt the "have I done the right thing in accepting with Broadview so quickly??" but felt reassured that this was the right career move at this time for us, AND it allowed us to STAY in the Boise area which we are grateful for. So, it was a rocky start, but really gave us cause to find gratitude :)

Halloween Festivities

 We had a lot of fun getting ready for Halloween this year. For Family Home Evening one night, we assembled this Haunted House.

 Took us awhile to figure out the vague, (non-existent) instructions, and that we needed to use hot glue. After that, we were able to get it completed relatively quickly. 

 Here's the finished result!

 I taught preschool on Halloween day. We had a little party, where all the kids came wearing their costumes. We changed out of them early so they didn't ruin them. It was fun seeing all of them dressed up. We played games, sang silly songs, made some crafts, ate yummy Halloween treats. We had a good time, and then I rushed off to work to teach Splash for 2 hours straight! It was exhausting!!!

We cut it to the wire carving pumpkins on Halloween night, but I complain! They got finished!

 The boys were Transformers this year (Tyler is Bumblebee and Bryce is Optimus Prime). Lexi was a cat-a-rina something or another. They had a blast trick-or-treating! Marc took them around while I handed out candy. When they got back, they sorted out what they wanted to keep in a ziploc bag and put out the rest for the Halloween Witch. The witch left them 3 brand new books and took the candy. We never once heard complaints about giving the candy to the witch, they talk about it all month and were really excited to see the books when they woke up in the morning. I think its one of my favorite Halloween traditions now :)

Dress up time

 Wish I'd gotten more pictures of some of her other outfits, but these should do it justice :)

Our little princess

 This was an old leotard and tutu that I had for a dance recital when I was little. She loves to dance and twirl around it:

 This is Ellie the elephant who is a ballerina too:

 She loves to wear skirts. I insist she wear leggings or tights underneath and sometimes we get some funky combinations.

 Love this little girl! She is so funny and has such a fun sparkly personality. I love being surprised by what she's going to come down in next!

October Craziness

Every day in October had something going on that was on the calendar! It's kind of crazy to flip back and look at it all. I was teaching adaptive lessons, normal swim lessons Tues/Thur mornings and Splash (3rd Graders) on Wed/Thur afternoons. I'm trying to volunteer at the school every week, get Lexi to and from Preschool, and then the responsibilities that come with church and being a Mom.

Lexi got to participate in a little Reading Class put on by the Nampa Library with her friends from Preschool. Each week we got to go and have story time/music time and the parents would learn different reading skills to introduce to the kids (phonological and print awareness, vocabulary, etc). At the end of class, each child got to take home a free book that helped correspond to what they learned that day. Some of the books we got were "Goodnight Gorilla," "Chicka Chicka Boom," "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,"and "What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?" I was really impressed and would definitely recommend the class! (especially because it was free!)

Our kids competed in the Canyon County Classic race this year. They were so excited for this race! They trained a little bit for it. By training, I mean they would go up and run laps around the track at the YMCA. Lexi would run and walk about a mile, Tyler ran up to 2 miles and Bryce shocked us all when he kept wanting to go further and ran 3 miles one day! The race day was perfect weather. The kids did amazing! We made a video of it, you can check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp8pPPT7oPU

 There was a church group that had an entire field of pumpkins that they opened to the public to come and pick however many you wanted for free! You can't beat a free pumpkin, especially if you get to pick it yourself :)

 Gina and I went to battle against a whole army of tomatoes. We made salsa and then canned whole tomatoes when we ran out of salsa ingredients.

 I don't think this picture is from October, but we canned pears as well! Marc came over and helped towards the end and we really burned through them.

 These little girls were both on the computer playing on Starfall.com. Lexi is already more competent on an ipad than I am.

 We helped babysit my cousin's kids, Dallin (3.5) and Hannah (9 months) for an afternoon. I had forgotten how much work babies are! My kids were in heaven having a baby around the house. They smothered her with attention and love.

 Had to capture this sweet moment of Tyler reading to Lexi. I can't believe what great little readers the boys are becoming. It's an exciting time to watch their minds just take off!

 Getting all ready for Halloween!

Marc went out of town to teach a seminar in Cheyenne, WY for the YMCA. His flight out of Boise on Friday was delayed all day and he ended up missing the last flight into Cheyenne, so he flew into Denver and drove a rental car to Cheyenne at 1:00 in the morning (in the snow!). He taught all day Saturday and Sunday and got home late Sunday night and back to work Monday morning. The trip was aggravating and stressful and to make matters worse, he didn't get compensated for it. Oh wait,, they gave him a piddily gift card.

The Boise Temple has been closed for the past year and a half for renovations. It was opened to the public from October 13 through November 3rd, and we had the privilege of taking our kids through the Open House. We picked them up from school and were there at a slower time, so we actually got the guided tour and were able to stop and talk about the rooms. One of the best parts for me was being in the sealing room with them and explaining that this was where Mommy & Daddy got married. They each had a turn to look into the reflecting mirrors. When the tour was over, Tyler exclaimed, "when can I go back!?" Sweet kid. The temple is gorgeous! I absolutely loved the glass work and intricate details.  

  I had to take Bryce and Lexi to the Dr. to have some warts removed from their feet. Bryce had a big one on his toe and Lexi had this enormous plantar wart on the sole of her foot towards the heel that just multiplied in size in what felt like overnight! It was getting really painful for her so I'm glad we were able to get them in.

Lexi Fish

I decided to have Lexi be in my class while I taught swimming lessons during October. She was really excited and did a great job for me.

We overcame some huge obstacles this session. For weeks now, Lexi has wanted to go off the diving board, but she would get all the way up there and be absolutely terrified so she'd turn around and go back down. Seeing the two other kids in the class go off gave her some courage, so she finally jumped! Going off once was all it took for her to completely change her mind about being too scared and now its her favorite thing to do when we go swimming.

Since she did so well with going off the diving board, I introduced knee dives, and oh my word, this girl is a diver! She has no fear going into the water head first and even her toes are pointed when she enters the water. Incredible!

She went from being able to tread water for about 5 seconds to 50 seconds. 

On the last day of class, I asked Lexi to jump in and see how far she could swim. She swam half the distance of a 25 all by herself! I was floored! I suggested she try to go for a yellow ribbon, so we practiced in the lap pool a little bit (she has to jump in the deep end of the lap pool and swim half the distance). When we were confident that she could do it, we grabbed a life guard and asked them to do a yellow ribbon test. This little squirt jumped in and just swam!! It was so exciting! She's 3! All of the staff has been mind boggled by her. I can't wait to see what this little fish does in the future :)

Flag Football

We decided to sign Tyler & Bryce up for Flag Football this year. This is the first organized team sport they have participated in. You could tell they were the youngest on the team and lacked a lot of experience/coordination that the older kids had (some kids had 2 years in age on them!) We had practice 2 nights a week and games every Saturday for 5 weeks during September/October.

The boys spent most of the time playing Offensive of Defensive Linemen. Every blue moon, Bryce got to run the ball. In one of the first games, the coach gave him a chance to run the ball for an extra point and, and poor Bryce was so confused he ran the opposite direction and didn't understand why everyone was yelling at him.

We decided that we need to volunteer to be the coach the next time we sign the kids up for something. The coach this year was extremely disappointing. He didn't even try to make it fun for the kids, they would literally spend 40 minutes of practice running the same drill, and then he'd get mad and make them run lines if when they started goofing off and not paying attention very well! I think they could have learned a lot more from a different coach, but oh well. It is what it is, and they seemed to still enjoy it.

Since the kids had played linemen all season, we left the camera in the car for the last game. The weather was freezing, we were getting antsy to be done with the game and the clock was in its final seconds. To our huge surprise, Tyler was one of the 3 that were actually a part of the play and were huddled up with the coach. Then, to our even bigger shock, Tyler started walking towards the Center and it finally dawned on us he was going to be the Quarterback that play! He didn't even know where to stand or what to do, it was quite hilarious to watch the Center reach back from under his legs, grab Tyler and pull him closer in order to grab the ball. Tyler got the ball and looked so confused, 6 boys were immediately on top of him, and the play was dead. They went back and huddled, and Tyler was still the quarterback. This time, as soon as he got the ball, he started running up the field, it was a quarter back sneak! You have to know, Tyler is the slowest sprinter on the team, he is the most unlikely kid on the field to break away, however, his flags fell off without anyone grabbing them, the rest of the kids thought the play was over, but Tyler ran 40 yards down the field into the end zone! All of us parents kept looking at each other and asking "did anyone touch him?" Nobody had, and Tyler had just scored the game winning touch down!! What a thrill! We could hardly believe it. He was so excited, it didn't matter what the whole season had been like, he had gotten to score a touch down :D

Lexi made a friend that turned into a "big sister" of types. Alexa was really sweet and kept Lexi entertained. Here she is sharing her game with Lex.

 

Lessons with Melody

I was asked if I wanted to teach "adaptive" swim lessons for a girl named Melody for 8 weeks during September and October. Adaptive lessons are private lessons with those with special needs (without the cost of private lessons). I was a little unsure, I am nervous about working with individuals with special needs, its just not in my comfort zone. I decided to take a chance, and agreed to teach the lessons.

Melody is probably in her 20's and has down syndrome. She loved being in the water, and it is her goal to be a part of Special Olympics. She's a sweet woman, whose eyes just light up as she sheepishly grins when you compliment her. I was really impressed with what a great swimmer she was. She constantly surprised me with that she was able to do and she never doubted that she couldn't do something. She loved to swim really far just holding her breath, so we really focused on breathing while swimming. We enjoyed "noodle" pony races, diving for rings, and swimming through the hula hoop as part of lessons. Lexi would come and be my big helper and she loved cheering Melody on and throwing rings for her to go get.

It was a great experience for me. I really looked forward to our sessions together, unfortunately, Special Olympics swimming doesn't start until March of next year, but I'm looking forward to hopefully attending and cheering Melody on, she will be awesome!

Blessings

2 weeks. We were out of a job for 2 weeks. This last Tuesday Marc had an interview with Broadvue University in Meridian, Wednesday he second interviewed and Thursday morning he was offered a job! We have NEVER seen a turn-around so fast! He will be working in Admissions. He will be paid $10,000 more per year (maybe we'll actually be above the poverty line now!), full medical/dental/vision/retirement benefits and the best part is that they will pay for him to get his Master's Degree!!

As we knelt down in prayer together to ask for confirmation if this is the right job for him, we felt overwhelmed with love and that we have been watched over and guided carefully to be led to this position. Since briefly returning to school in 2009 Marc has wanted to get his Master's Degree, and work in a University setting. We feel confident that this job can help create the experience and Education necessary to ultimately land at a bigger University.

So, he starts the Monday after Thanksgiving, Nov 26th. We're in the market for a car, so if anyone knows of a good deal on a used commuter car, let me know! Thank you for your concern and prayers for our family. We appreciate them so much and your friendship means so much to us. We have many reasons to be grateful this Thanksgiving :)

Not This Again

I hate that I've been so absent from my blog. It's important for me to keep a record of what we've done and it relieves stress when I write. I've got a whole month of stuff from October to write about, but I wanted to put this out there to get it off my chest.

Marc lost his job last Friday. We're still reeling from what happened. I have continued to go into work, despite the awkwardness, to teach swim lessons. I was stopped on my way out today by an employee that told me how courageous he thought I was, and he teared up as he talked about how much he would miss our family. There have been many phone calls from those that worked with him at the Y to express their love for Marc and their concern for our family.  I have a wonderful boss who continues to tell me every day I'm there how glad she is that I'm there, and how much she cares about us. I'm grateful to our families who have expressed their love and are praying for us. We are heartbroken, but trying to be optimistic at the same time.

We are extremely grateful that Marc had almost a month of PTO that was paid out to him. It feels like such a blessing to only have to worry about the mortgage payment, and not the car and the huge credit card payments that hung over our heads 3 years ago when we went through this the last time. Unfortunately, and fortunately, we have been in this position before. I honestly thought we'd never be here again, but as I'm reminded...never say never.

Marc is hitting the pavement (ok, so maybe its the internet :) in getting his resume out and applying for new jobs every day. It feels like the majority of the "appealing" ones are out of State. Which, I'm trying to be ok with, but its really, REALLY hard to think about moving right now. He has a couple of interviews lined up. I refuse to get my hopes up or get emotionally invested with any job until its an offer on the table. The only thing we have to rely on is our Faith and we trust that the Lord will open doors that we might have otherwise thought closed. We are at peace. I'm grateful for the prayers of comfort that have been answered because they are helping to heal my soul. We'll be ok. I know we will. But for now, its a matter of trying to keep our heads above water while we're treading.

Indian Creek 5K

Saturday, September 15, Marc ran in the Indian Creek 5K. He got a Personal Record time of 20:13!! He was a little disappointed he didn't break 20 minutes, but I thought he did fantastic. He came in second, in a tough group of runners! Very impressive!

 There were several members of our relay team and their families that ran in the race, so it was fun to cheer them all on

 The kids were not to be left out of things. They each got to run with Daddy after the race was over:

Teaching Preschool

 September 12 was the first official day of preschool for Lexi and I got to teach the first two classes. I started with the letter "A".

 Lexi snapped a few pictures of Marc and I getting the table and chairs all set up.

 We made alligators out of the letter A

 Ate "alligator skin" (cornflakes, marshmallows, butter and green food coloring)

 We read some fun alligator books ("There's an Alligator Under My Bed"& "Alligator Wedding") practiced writing the letter A and had free time outside.

The following preschool day, we talked about Apples. We read some apple books ("Apple Pie Tree", "10 Apples Up on Top" & "Apple Farmer Annie"). We spent some time talking about how apples grow, then stamped with apple halves. The kids did not enjoy getting messy, It was really surprising. Most got very upset and stressed that there was paint on their hands.

 For our treat, Lexi helped me make mini apple pies. We took some pre-made biscuit dough, flattened them out, added some apple pie filling then folded them up and sealed the edges. We also had apple slices.

 The kids all followed each other around, if one person was swinging, they'd all go and try to swing, same with the trampoline, etc. It was fun to watch. They're starting to really enjoy each other.

Teaching preschool again has brought up the idea of maybe I should start doing this as a job. There's still so many uncertainties and doubts. Nothing I'm even seriously considering, but I really enjoyed teaching. It's always in the back of my mind. Maybe some day, I'll do something about it :) Until then, I'll take my turn every 7 weeks to teach and feel good about it!