Tuesday, March 6, 2018
Rock It!
At the end of January, Daniel and his jazz band took first place in the high school battle of the bands. Today they participated in the regional competition and took second place. From here they go on to the state competition next month and they were featured in a local newspaper article. It is kind of fun to see him in print!
Friday, March 2, 2018
I’m Not Lion, It Was a Great Day!
Matthew, Malia and I went on an off-track adventure this morning. We haven’t been to the zoo for awhile and two new polar bears have recently moved to the zoo so we went to see them. We arrived just as the zoo was opening and for the first hour, the only people we saw were zoo keepers. Honestly, it felt like we had the whole zoo to ourselves. It was also breakfast time for the animals so we got to see them noshing on their varied breakfast eats. Even the lions, who are normally just lounging out in the sun, were enthusiastically partaking. They had settled in right next to the glass so we got an up close and personal view of them. It was pretty cold when we arrived, but as we’ve discovered in the past, the animals seem to be more active when it is cooler and pretty much all of them were eating, playing or roaming their habitats. It was a great day to be at the zoo!
Thursday, March 1, 2018
Woot! Woot!
Today we received Notification that Matthew has qualified for the State Geography Bee! I’m so proud of him!
Sunday, February 18, 2018
Saturday, February 17, 2018
He’s in His Prime!
Matthew has turned eleven! Although sometimes I forget how old he is because he small for his age, he really is on the cusp of being a young man!
As usual, we had a threefold celebration. We celebrated with my family last Sunday. It was also the day we celebrated Chinese New Year so Matthew opted for Chinese almond cookies rather than cake. We did arrange them in a big eleven and we even stuck candles in them. Matthew, who is determined so show everyone that he really isn’t a little boy anymore, even lit his own candles…although he did accidentally blow a bunch out when he blew out the first match. 😉
Matthew’s real birthday was yesterday and we had a little celebration at home. We stacked up doughnuts, lit some more candles, and sang again. We also gave him his presents. He got a little Bluetooth speaker, BYU socks and BYU football jersey from Kevin and I, a new set of ukulele strings from Nathan and a ukulele stand from Malia.
Today he had a shindig with some of his besties. He wanted to go bowling so he invited a handful of cronies and we fed them lunch and cupcakes before Kevin took them to the bowling alley. Easy party for me, fun party for Matthew!
I remember that when Matthew was born, I thought I had boys all figured out. I already had two so adding another to the mix would be no big deal, right? I also recall that Matthew totally threw me for a loop. He was, and still is, his own person. His interests are different from both Daniel’s and Nathan’s and he has his own way of doing just about everything. But honestly, it is a good thing. He is stubborn and determined and doesn’t let much of anything get in his way. He is forging his own path and is the child that reminded me how to laugh. I love him for that. I had gotten far too serious by the time he came around and he made every day an adventure. He has been an amazing addition to our family and in spite of the struggles that have come along with all his allergies, I definitely wouldn’t trade him for someone else.
As usual, we had a threefold celebration. We celebrated with my family last Sunday. It was also the day we celebrated Chinese New Year so Matthew opted for Chinese almond cookies rather than cake. We did arrange them in a big eleven and we even stuck candles in them. Matthew, who is determined so show everyone that he really isn’t a little boy anymore, even lit his own candles…although he did accidentally blow a bunch out when he blew out the first match. 😉
Matthew’s real birthday was yesterday and we had a little celebration at home. We stacked up doughnuts, lit some more candles, and sang again. We also gave him his presents. He got a little Bluetooth speaker, BYU socks and BYU football jersey from Kevin and I, a new set of ukulele strings from Nathan and a ukulele stand from Malia.
Today he had a shindig with some of his besties. He wanted to go bowling so he invited a handful of cronies and we fed them lunch and cupcakes before Kevin took them to the bowling alley. Easy party for me, fun party for Matthew!
I remember that when Matthew was born, I thought I had boys all figured out. I already had two so adding another to the mix would be no big deal, right? I also recall that Matthew totally threw me for a loop. He was, and still is, his own person. His interests are different from both Daniel’s and Nathan’s and he has his own way of doing just about everything. But honestly, it is a good thing. He is stubborn and determined and doesn’t let much of anything get in his way. He is forging his own path and is the child that reminded me how to laugh. I love him for that. I had gotten far too serious by the time he came around and he made every day an adventure. He has been an amazing addition to our family and in spite of the struggles that have come along with all his allergies, I definitely wouldn’t trade him for someone else.
Sunday, February 11, 2018
It Was a Love/Hate Thing
Over the past few years, Daniel and Nathan have gotten a lot braver about trying new foods and have discovered that they like many of the new things they try. Matthew is also a bit braver, but still errs on the side of caution. Malia is still firmly in her picky food stage as well as her allergen induced caution. As a result, I was enormously surprised when she actually agreed to try several new (to her) things this evening. The first was wontons, which got an enthusiastic thumbs up. The second was a piece of gau (which I love and which is totally weird to anyone who wasn’t raised on it). She was enthusiastic at the outset but quickly decided that it “isn’t right.” I was fine with that, proud of her for at least trying it. I thought she had finished it but was proven wrong when I discovered ten minutes later that she was still holding it in her mouth. I gave her a napkin to spit it out and then she moved on to Chinese Almond Cookies.
So gau was a no go, but she loves wontons!
So gau was a no go, but she loves wontons!
Friday, February 9, 2018
Thursday, January 25, 2018
The Highs and the Lows
The past week has been long, so long. Last Saturday we were in lockdown all day because of a nearby shooting and subsequent manhunt which was, unfortunately, unsuccessful. The police lifted the lockdown just in time for Daniel, Nathan and I to head out to the opera. We was “Moby-Dick.” It was composed in 2010 and was definitely a modern opera. I’m not a fan of modern music because it lacks the structure, the form of more classical music. It doesn’t go where my brain or my ears expect it to go and it leaves me feeling vaguely unsettled and as if, even though the curtain has dropped, there was something lacking. Give me a good old I-IV-V-V7-I chord progression any day! So it felt like one of the longest operas I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen Wagner so that’s saying something!
Monday was Nathan’s audition for this year’s school musical, “The Music Man.” He was anxious all weekend, half excited and half nervous. He felt like he did well at his audition and then the waiting game started. He had to wait for the remainder of the auditions to happen on Tuesday before the callback list would be posted. Needless to say, he wasn’t focusing well.
Tuesday and Wednesday were jam packed with Matthew’s geography bee (still so proud of him!), Dare graduation and Arrow of Light ceremony. At 2:29 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, one minute before school was supposed to end, I got a text from Nathan saying that the middle school had gone into lockdown. Kevin was waiting at middle school seminary building so he could take Nathan to the dentist and he saw the cops shoving kids back into the church as they headed out to go back to the school or home. Needless to say, Nathan was pretty tense. It is not every day that the school goes into lockdown when it is definitely not a drill. They were only in lockdown for about twenty minutes, but in that time we also received the automated call letting us know that the elementary school was in lockdown as well. We found out later that the lockdowns had been a precautionary measure as the police executed an operation that resulted in the arrest of three people though to be connected to Saturday’s shooter, although the shooter was still at large. Due to the lockdown, any after school activities at the middle school were cancelled so Tuesday’s musical auditions got pushed to Wednesday which meant the publishing of the callback list was postponed as well…which didn’t help Nathan’s state of mind. On Wednesday the shooter was finally caught and honestly, I think the whole neighborhood heaved a sigh of relief.
On Wednesday evening, Daniel participated in Battle of the Bands at the high school. It was not very well planned or publicized this year and as such there were only two bands participating, but his band won first place and while it was fairly anticlimactic due to the lack of many competitors, he gets a share in the prize money and was pleased about that.
On Thursday I had a niece head into surgery to get a recently discovered, very large cyst removed. Everything went well, but it did add to the general stress of the week. Nathan had callbacks for which he was again, excited and nervous. And once he came home, the waiting began again. The drama teacher at the middle school posts the cast list online the evening of callbacks and he came home and started playing what they call “the refresh game,” the constant refreshing of the webpage to see if the list is up yet. Those three hours were very long for him, but he has no idea what it was like in the olden days when we had to wait for a week and then showed up at school to see the cast list posted on the drama room door. Finding out at home means everyone can cry out their disappointments without the audience of all the other students. Anyway, he was anxiously awaiting the posting of the list which finally happened around 9 p.m. And heading up the list was Nathan, playing Professor Harold Hill! He is super excited! I’m super excited! We’re all super excited! His phone was going crazy as people reached out to offer congrats!
So it has been a busy week around here. We’ve had some stresses and anxious moments. But we’ve also had an amazing week full of triumphs for all three boys. I’m glad that the week is nearly over though. I need to catch up on my sleep…and my house cleaning.
Monday was Nathan’s audition for this year’s school musical, “The Music Man.” He was anxious all weekend, half excited and half nervous. He felt like he did well at his audition and then the waiting game started. He had to wait for the remainder of the auditions to happen on Tuesday before the callback list would be posted. Needless to say, he wasn’t focusing well.
Tuesday and Wednesday were jam packed with Matthew’s geography bee (still so proud of him!), Dare graduation and Arrow of Light ceremony. At 2:29 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, one minute before school was supposed to end, I got a text from Nathan saying that the middle school had gone into lockdown. Kevin was waiting at middle school seminary building so he could take Nathan to the dentist and he saw the cops shoving kids back into the church as they headed out to go back to the school or home. Needless to say, Nathan was pretty tense. It is not every day that the school goes into lockdown when it is definitely not a drill. They were only in lockdown for about twenty minutes, but in that time we also received the automated call letting us know that the elementary school was in lockdown as well. We found out later that the lockdowns had been a precautionary measure as the police executed an operation that resulted in the arrest of three people though to be connected to Saturday’s shooter, although the shooter was still at large. Due to the lockdown, any after school activities at the middle school were cancelled so Tuesday’s musical auditions got pushed to Wednesday which meant the publishing of the callback list was postponed as well…which didn’t help Nathan’s state of mind. On Wednesday the shooter was finally caught and honestly, I think the whole neighborhood heaved a sigh of relief.
On Wednesday evening, Daniel participated in Battle of the Bands at the high school. It was not very well planned or publicized this year and as such there were only two bands participating, but his band won first place and while it was fairly anticlimactic due to the lack of many competitors, he gets a share in the prize money and was pleased about that.
On Thursday I had a niece head into surgery to get a recently discovered, very large cyst removed. Everything went well, but it did add to the general stress of the week. Nathan had callbacks for which he was again, excited and nervous. And once he came home, the waiting began again. The drama teacher at the middle school posts the cast list online the evening of callbacks and he came home and started playing what they call “the refresh game,” the constant refreshing of the webpage to see if the list is up yet. Those three hours were very long for him, but he has no idea what it was like in the olden days when we had to wait for a week and then showed up at school to see the cast list posted on the drama room door. Finding out at home means everyone can cry out their disappointments without the audience of all the other students. Anyway, he was anxiously awaiting the posting of the list which finally happened around 9 p.m. And heading up the list was Nathan, playing Professor Harold Hill! He is super excited! I’m super excited! We’re all super excited! His phone was going crazy as people reached out to offer congrats!
So it has been a busy week around here. We’ve had some stresses and anxious moments. But we’ve also had an amazing week full of triumphs for all three boys. I’m glad that the week is nearly over though. I need to catch up on my sleep…and my house cleaning.
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