Crazy Days

Lately, there have been many days in the Weber household that can definitely be labeled as CRAZY!! Today happened to be one of them. And it made me want to take the time to write down the craziness of the day because I know that in a blink of an eye, these four kids will be off to college, and my days will be much less crazy, and will probably miss it terribly.

The day started off great (mostly)! There was a little bit of craziness at CTA drop-off because we were having a difficult conversation in the car, so I wasn't thinking clearly and I turned into the wrong parking lot at school, which made Allie a few minutes late to Safety Patrol, and also caused Tommy to forget the gift card he was going to give to his teacher for teacher-appreciation week. So after they were dropped off, I had to do a u-turn and park in the parking lot, and walk around to the side of the school to find Allie on safety patrol to give her the gift card to give to Tommy to give to his teacher.

Then I had about 6 hours of time when my day was not crazy at all, but I should have spent my time prepping for what was to come. A nap would have been the best thing for me, but that didn't happen. At about 1:45pm, I pack a cooler bag with some ice packs so that the few groceries that I pick up at the store won't spoil while I drive to pick up Macy, Jack, and our two carpool buddies from school. I locate three of the four kids after school, but we're standing there waiting for Macy to come out. Finally, Kayla mentions that Macy had Painting Club, so she's staying. Oh yeah, I knew that, just didn't really remember it at this opportune time. So we head out. Drop off Kayla and Brennan to their house at 3:00, then drop Jack off at home at 3:10, quickly run into the house and put a few groceries in the fridge, then head right back out to drive to CTA to get Allie and Tommy. Got 'em. Get back home at 3:30. Get a phone message from my next door neighbor saying she's looking for her 5th grade daughter who might have walked home from school, but she is not at home, and school let out about 40 minutes ago and she doesn't know where Liz is. My neighbor's car was in the shop, so I call her back and offer to drive to help her find Liz. We drive to another neighbor's house, the park, the school, the neighbor's house again. All while making phone calls to see if we can find her at someone's house. Finally, we hear from the gal that she had asked to pick her up, and Liz is with her, she was finally leaving a meeting at the school, and she would be dropping off Liz pretty soon. Yay! The missing neighbor kid is found!! Get back into my house at about 3:50. Allie frantically needs my help with three different, but equally URGENT things: need a star wars costume for tomorrow (it's May the Fourth - lol!), need to make a mini Harry Potter from a soda bottle and styrofoam ball, and need to bake something to give to a couple specials teachers tomorrow for teacher appreciation week. I call my mom to see if she can pick up Macy from swim team tonight - yes she can. I explain to Allie that I cannot help her with these things right now because I need to go pick up Macy from Painting Club. I head to school, again, in the crazier afternoon traffic. Get there at 4:15, text Macy that I've arrived, and enjoy sitting in the silent car for about 1 minute before Tommy calls me to help him with a math problem. Then I enjoy the peace and quiet again for about 30 seconds before Allie calls me to ask what she can bake for her specials teachers. I explain that we don't run the oven between 3-6pm to save on our electricity bill. So she decides that she would like to make Rice Krispie Treats - great idea! I have her check how much Rice Krispies there are in the box. She says not much and asks me if I would please stop at the store to buy some - that sounds fun, afterall, it had only been 2 hours since I had been there. Macy comes out from Painting Club. Her painting of a dream catcher and a bright orange sun is fantastic! We stop by the book drop at the downtown library to return the overdue audiobook that Allie was using to "read" a huge Harry Potter book. As we ride in the car, Macy begins to not feel well at all. She says she just wants to take a shower. We stop at the grocery store. Since I'm there getting Rice Krispies, I might as well pick up another thing for teacher-appreciation week, and a sweet treat for the family to enjoy after Jack's band concert later tonight. So I get all my stuff and ring myself up. Get home at 5:00. Need to make dinner. Tommy tells me he doesn't want to go to football practice because he is still doing homework, and we have Jack's band concert tonight. I tell him that he will be playing for either 3rd or 4th place this Saturday, so practicing with the team very important, and he will be going. Get a phone call from Steve, he says he'll take Tommy, and he'll be home in 7 minutes - perfect! I'm trying to make ghoulash as fast as possible, so that I can send it with Tommy and Steve, but there's just no way that it will be done on time. I put Tommy's cleats on him and fill up his waterbottle. He's ready, just waiting for Steve to get here. Jack, Allie and I eat our dinner together. Macy doesn't want to eat because she is headed to swim team practice and it gives her a tummy ache to eat right before practice. She still doesn't feel great, but given the option of swim practice or Jack's band concert, she picks swim practice. I finish my dinner and quickly start packing Tommy and Steve's dinners to go. I get Macy and the to-go dinners all in the car. Text my mom to confirm that she will pick up Macy at 7:30, text Steve to confirm that we will meet in a parking lot of a church at 6pm so that I can give him dinner for he and Tommy. Drive Macy to swim practice. Stop by a church parking lot, meet up with Steve, give him some dinner, share a few ideas with each other (this is when I realized that I needed to blog about this day because I don't want to forget what these days are like), and head home. Arrive home to see that Jack and Allie did not at all get ready to go, so everyone gets in high gear to head out in just a few minutes. I put on jeans and brush my hair to improve this Mom-look I'm sporting. Head straight to ACP because Jack has to be there at 6:30. Chat with a couple friends on the way in. Find seats for four of us. Allie and I sit down and save two seats for Steve and Tommy, who will be there at 6:45. The orchestra is performing. They sound pretty good. I enjoy just sitting, listening, and breathing. While there are many parents and kids all around me, frantically looking for seats and the best angle to take photos from, I'm just enjoying sitting there. After orchestra comes 6th grade beginning band, then comes Jack's band. I decide to stand on the side for the best camera angle, and try to take a good video. His band plays two songs - they were really good! He is required to stay for the next two band performances too, so we just stay in our seats. Then, Steve realizes that we have two cars here, so I might as well head home with Allie and Tommy. Steve and Jack stay for another half hour. Allie, Tommy and I get home at about 7:45, and Tommy and I get to work on his backdrop for his Famous Arizonan report (it's kinda fun to make an old-looking, wrinkled, burned, coffee-stained map of the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails). Both Macy and Allie take showers. Jack gets home at 8:15 and says he wants to have Root Beer floats as his special treat. We make them, enjoy them, and then tuck these four kids into their beds. It was a good ending to a great day!

Allie and Tommy's Cooking Show

Allie and Tommy performed a Cooking Show skit in their school talent show. They were fantastic!!!



Here's a video of their skit. This was in front of about 700 kids!!! Listen to all the laughing! Even the mom (me) who was holding the camera couldn't hold still when she started laughing so hard. I'm so proud of their bravery to get up there and do this. Way to go, Allie and Tommy!

Tennis Tournament

These three girls have been playing tennis together now for more than a year. Love them!!!

Allie played in a tournament in February.

I love to see her interact with her opponent that she just met before the match. They keep score and trade sides between games.

She's off the ground!

Go Allie!

I'm sooo proud of her! She won 4 games against girls who had more experience than her! Great job, Allie-bear!

Family ski trip

We took the whole family up to ski at Sunrise! It was the kids' first time, so they did one day of ski school, and then, the second day, they all skied with us and Grandma and Grandpa Weber. This photo was on our way up the 4-person chair lift for the first time.

Tommy LOVED skiing, always smiling and giving us a thumbs up!

Allie loved it too!

Macy and Grandma on the way up the lift.

Jack looks like a regular ski pro!

Jack is headed down the mountain.

Here comes Macy!

It was soooo nice of Grandma and Grandpa to invite us up to their cabin, and come skiing with us. Thank you!!!

A little tired out after two full days of skiing. A really wonderful "tired out".

It is football central when the Super Bowl comes to town

The Pro Bowl was one week before the Super Bowl. Steve got a pair of tickets from work, so he and Jack went.

They had a great time watching a good game of "two-hand touch" football, Jack told me. That's his way of saying none of the players wanted to get hurt, and it was all just for fun, so they all went easy on each other.

A few days before the Super Bowl, Steve and the boys headed downtown to check out the NFL Experience. It had tons of exhibits where participants got to try out exactly what the pro football players do.

They sure look tough! I think they had fun wearing pads.

Jack got drafted onto the AZ Cardinals!!!

These boys had such a great time! Thanks to Daddy for taking them!

Our Virgin Islands Adventure

Cane Garden Bay Beach on the island of Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands. Such a happenin' beach! This is where we stayed for our first 3 nights.

The Baths on the island of Virgin Gorda. These giant boulders were amazing!

The sand was perfect, the water pretty warm, and God's creation, awesome!

The uninhabited island of Sandy Spit. It is only about the size of a football field, a full circle of sandy beach.

Another uninhabited island, called Sandy Cay. At least 2 times bigger than Sandy Spit, with more vegetation. Absolutely beautiful!

The Captain of our boat - love him!!!

White Bay Beach on the island of Jost Van Dyke. Home of the popular Soggy Dollar Bar. Great place to relax in a hammock.

Smuggler's Cove on Tortola. Need a jeep to get here, so it is not very crowded. So pretty!

We took a ferry to the island of St. John in the US Virgin Islands, where we stayed for 6 nights. This is Trunk Bay Beach. It has an underwater snorkeling trail (with signs to guide you). We loved getting here pretty early in the morning to enjoy the place to ourselves for a little while.

Solomon Beach. You have to hike to get to this beach, but it is worth it!

We spent several hours per day snorkeling. The corral and the fish were amazing!

This is a huge "brain" corral, with other small corral growing on it.

We saw about 5 sting rays during all of our snorkeling. Sometimes they had a fish buddy that just hung out right on top of them.

Same with this big sea turtle! He and the fish must be friends. We must have seen 6 or 7 different turtles on our trip. They don't seem to mind all of us snorkelers.

I love to see all the hundreds of fish in this photo, along with some corral. It was so fun to live in their world all week.

We spent a day kayaking out to another snorkel spot, and taking along our picnic lunch.

The whole trip was one great adventure. The kids had a great time with their grandparents, friends, and cousins. Thank you to everyone who so willingly helped out! We are truly blessed by each of you.

Boy Scout Crossover

Jack received his Arrow of Light for completing Webelos. This is at the Crossover Ceremony, where the boys cross over from cub scouts to boy scouts.

The new Screamin' Eagles Patrol follow the lead of their awesome helper, Daniel.

Jack's parents are super proud of him!

Arizona Wildcats in the Fiesta Bowl!

Our Wildcats played in the Fiesta Bowl against Boise State. It just happened that the game would be played on the coldest day in 2014, December 31st.

Great tailgating weather! We made some awesome quesadillas out there in the freezing cold.

Completely by chance, we ended up parked right next to some of our awesomest college friends - how cool!

We packed up our tailgate, and are ready to head into the stadium. First, we met up with some more great friends, the Sorensons, who took this photo of us. Thanks guys!

It was much warmer in the stadium, but still chilly. We are ready for the big game!

My three big boys who LOVE football. And I love them!

The Pride of Arizona represented our alma mater well. The game didn't turn out so well. We lost 38-30, but the second half was really going our way. We just ran out of time to get back in the lead. It was a great game, nonetheless! Way to go Wildcats!

We're a two-dog family now...

We've had Zoe for 5 and a half years. She is a great dog, but she is rather large, and does not like to cuddle. The kids have been asking for a small, cuddly dog. They were quite surprised when they unwrapped a kennel with little Roxy in it, on Christmas.

She met three important criteria: she's small, she's cuddly, and she is not yappy. When she does bark, she has a very deep voice, like she's trying to sound tough.

Macy accidentally found out about the secret on the evening of Christmas Eve when she saw a text that came in on my phone. So she went with Steve to go pick up Roxy from the family who was selling her to us. She was sad that the surprised was ruined, but she still felt special by getting to go pick her up.

On the 5th day of her living at our house, one of her ears started standing up all silly. We started taping her ears down to train them, and they're looking great!

Zoe didn't really seem to care about this new little dog for the first week. She must have thought we were dog-sitting.

Then they started to play. Lots of nibbling and rough-housing. Everyday, all day. Zoe LOVES her new sister!

They're always laying around together. Wherever Zoe goes, Roxy will follow.

They both love to lay in the warmth of the sun.

The kids are still madly in love with Roxy. And now they pay so much more attention to Zoe too.

Welcome to the family, Roxy!!