Last Swim Meet

Yep, that's right.  Today was the last swim/dive meet for my kids. There are three more meets, but we will miss them all.  Stockton did his first back one and a half in competition.  He did great.  Preston did his front dive with no problem this time, but got scared on his back dive.  He ended up falling backwards into the pool for an incorrect dive. He was a little upset, but I told him that I was not sad at all.  That perked him up and he went straight to playing.  We were at Cottonwood.  They had a fun water play area the kids were able to play in while they waited. By far was this their favorite swim meet!  Jorja was in the first relay, 50 free, 50 breast and 100 IM.  She was not is the final relay.  I was so relieved!  I meant to ask that she not be in that one, but never got a chance.  We have a lot of packing to do.  We are headed to Hawaii tomorrow!

Quick Trip

As you can tell from this title, I made a quick trip to Idaho this weekend.  My cousin Tanner had his mission farewell today.  Actually Tanner is my cousin Rozie's youngest child.  That's crazy he is going on a mission.  He was born right before my mom died.  I always look at Tanner and Conner as a measuring stick for how long she has been gone.  Anyway, I drove up this morning.  Mike had an early stake meeting he had to be at.  He had to say the opening prayer, so he had to be on time.  I made it to Idaho by listening to Inkdeath and eating cherry tomatoes and sugar snap peas.  I stopped by my grandma and grandpa's house and hung out with them for awhile.  Tanner did great. He spoke on happiness.  He is going to Mozambique, Africa. He will speak Portuguese.  I had no idea Portuguese was spoken in Africa! After a quick stop for treats at Rozie's house, I headed home.  Nothing too exciting there, except I was stuck in traffic for awhile.  I'd rather do that then be in the accident that caused the traffic!

Lots of Swimming

My dad and Max came to swim today.  Preston and Stockton played in the pool with them.  Jorja's friend Jazzie came over to swim too.  Olivia was going to come, but did not.  Later her mom texted me an apology and said, "We are moving today.  I thought we could do it, but we couldn't."  Wow!  I hate moving.  No way would I add one more thing to my to-do list.  Olivia is only moving two doors down.  Jorja was hoping she was moving closer to us and decided to go to Jorja's middle school. I think she's out of luck there.  Ange also brought her kids over to swim. She was planning on coming earlier, when my dad was here, but Millie was asleep.  I got in the pool and helped her watch Abbs and Millie. (Lincoln and Ella were in there too, but they don't require as much supervision.)

What was Mike doing while all this swimming was going on?  He was working on our fireplace.  It is looking really good.  He is a little worried about the giant rock in the middle.  Hopefully it doesn't fall down when he removes the support beams.

The drywall guy also came today.  He patched up a hole that was covered by the microwave.  Actually I think the plumbers made the hole when they put the gas line in.  The drywall guy had to take down a cabinet.  Hopefully the painters can get the paint around that thing.

Lost Mother's Day Pictures

I randomly found pictures I took on Mother's Day.  I think now is as good a time as any to post them.

Jorja

Preston

Maysen

The cabinet guys said they would be here at 7 in the morning.  Right on time one cabinet guy showed up.  Yesterday I actually thought he was the head cabinet guy.  It was him and a deaf guy.  Both were really nice. I guess the deaf guy didn't get along with the other guy.  Yesterday was the first time they worked together.  The guy I thought was in charge came to pick up his tools because he got fired.  Okay, that was weird.  I felt so bad for him.  His wife is having a baby in two weeks.  He said the deaf guy told the boss that he didn't like him and that the other guy wouldn't communicate with him.  Although I saw them talking a lot.  I personally think the first guy is a tease and the deaf guy didn't understand people like him.  I really should learn people's names.  I just have completely lost my memory.  Anyway, we had three cabinet guys work in our house today.  It is looking great!  They will be back Monday.  As they were leaving one of the guys said, "Say good-bye to him. (The deaf guy)  He is moving to North Dakota."  Okay, that is weird.  He got a guy fired because he didn't want to work with him one day?  I couldn't really tell how long he was staying in North Dakota, if it was just for a few months or permanent.  I was kind of shocked about how everything had played out.

It's starting to look like a kitchen again!

Hair Donation

I wanted to get the girls' hair cut before we went to Hawaii.  It takes forever to get their hair combed, and they hate it!  (Not the hair, just the combing.)  A few days ago Maysen asked if she could donate her hair.  What a great idea.  I searched for a place that would donate and found a salon called I'm Beautiful.  If you donate your hair they will give you a free haircut.  Perfect!  Jorja asked if she could donate hers. She was a little more nervous.  She donated her hair when she was in Kindergarten.  They gave her a pixie haircut.  She hated it and sat in the chair and cried.  I told her we could ask how short it would be and she would not be forced to donate.  The hair salon was pretty fancy.  Much nicer than the Great Clips we usually frequent.  They kept asking if we wanted water.  Things like that.  There were two different people helping us.  One lady cut Maysen & my hair.  A different lady cut Jorja's.  Both girls were getting their hair cut at the same time.  Jorja was across the room.  I could only get bits and pieces as I tried to watch her.  I thought her hair was looking so cute.  As the lady finished styling Jorja she motioned for me to take a look.  I came over and Jorja was crying in the chair.  She didn't realize how short it would be.  The stylist had a look of horror on her face.  Jorja's hair is a lot longer than it was the first time, but I guess she was hoping it would be just below her shoulders.  When we explained what Jorja wanted the lady said, "You mean a long bob?"  I told her, "I guess, but I'm not sure what all those words mean."  I guess I should learn some hair cutting lingo. Jorja's hair looks adorable and I assured her over and over that she would love combing it tomorrow.

Maysen wanted her hair straight with no layers.  She was very clear on that.  I tried to convince her to get a few layers and that it would look the same, she did not want to.  I told the lady she could do whatever as long as it is easy to maintain.  I let Jorja talk me into taking them to Leatherby's for lunch.  It was delicious, but I'm sure I'm going to regret it later!

Maysen & Jorja ~ Before

 Stephanie ~ before

Here is our hair that will be donated.  I can't believe how puny my braid is.  Jorja's braid is in the middle.  We easily could have had her hair longer.  They only require 8 inches as this place.  They don't donate to Locks of Love.  They donate to a charity that makes wigs strictly for children.  I couldn't remember the name though.

 Maysen & Jorja ~ after

Icecream fixes everything.  Plus I think they look beautiful.  Maysen even got her hair curled.  For the first time in her entire life.  I am not joking.  It really was her first time getting any kind of curl in her hair. Well, curl that wasn't natural.  When she was little she had amazing curly hair.

 Stephanie ~ after

Our cabinets are finally here!  These pictures are blurry.  It was dark when I took them and we still don't have lights in our kitchen.  At least it is coming together!  Yay!

 Upstairs bathroom

 Kitchen

 Well, this handrail was put in earlier....

 Back to blurry kitchen photos

 Nice wallpaper behind the microwave

 Our new hood.  Love it!

What Preston Thinks About While Swimming

Preston has learned how to do a back dive!  He is adorable.  He even did one in his dive competition today.  This is practice when he first learned.

I didn't get to see his dive competition.  I was frustrated that I missed it.  This is the first dive competition that I have ever missed.  We are down to one car right now.  Mike's is in the shop.  I told Mike that one car was no big deal.  I didn't mind taking him to work.  That is usually the case, but this afternoon I needed to be in two places at one time. Maysen had an appointment with Holly.  Right before we left Holly texted me that she was running a few minutes behind and moved the appointment ten minutes later.  I still thought I could do it all.  I gathered all the kids up for the swim competition.  It was at the Jewish Community Center which is right next to the University of Utah hospital.  Anyway, we dropped Maysen off and went to Salt Lake.  My GPS let me down.  It had me drive through the hospital.  I was so confused.  My friend Camee had followed me.  She ended up flagging someone down and they told us how to get there.  I hurried to get the kids in and drop the boys off for their warm up.  As soon as I arrived I got a text from Maysen letting me know she was done.  I was hoping only to miss the warm up.  I called Mike, but he couldn't get her.  If Mike had his jeep she would only be five minutes away.  I hurried to pick up Maysen and got back right as the competition was over.  So sad. I hope they did okay.  I wish I could have seen it.  Preston did his back dive with no problem.  His front dive he had a hard time with again. Funny because he can do it in practice. He did the running commentary again.  "It's not working."  Mike didn't need to flip his legs over this time, so that was good.

We survived the swim meet.  It was LONG!  Jorja did an IM again and was great!  Preston makes me laugh.  He was doing his 25 meter freestyle.  He swims like he doesn't have a care in the world.  I was waiting for him when he got out.  The first thing he said was, "Mom, if someone really strong lifted up the swimming pool with people swimming inside it, would they feel the weight of the people?"  I asked him if this is what he was thinking about while he was swimming.  He said, "Only some of the time."  Haha!  He's the best!

Just a Stone Mason

I was supposed to pick out lights today.  So many decisions!  I never got around to making a decision, but I did find out that our cabinets will be installed on Thursday!  Yay!  Yay!  Yay!

We took the YW and YM to the church history museum today.  It was crazy to see some of the things that where brought across the plains. The beautiful piano was my favorite.  We watched a video at the end called, "Just a Stone Mason".  It was about a man that was asked to work on the temple.  He lived by Alpine, Utah.  He would walk 8 hours to Salt Lake.  Work on the temple all week and come home on Saturday.  He did that for over 20 years.  Incredible!  He got kicked by one of his animals and needed to have his leg amputated.  After he healed he continued with this same pattern until he died.  He died four years before the Salt Lake Temple was finished.  That is some amazing faith and service.

Preston's Favorite Toy ~ Spencer

This morning they had the kids practicing their breast stroke kicks on the chairs.  So cute!

I took Maysen to the doctor today.  We haven't had to do a sick visit in years!  Her ear has been hurting her and her eye has been red.  Turns out she has swimmer's ear.  No swimming for her for awhile.  Too bad because today Mike's brother and sister and their families came over for a quick swim party.  It was so much fun!  These guys couldn't come over last week when Taylor was here.  Spencer leaves in a few days to go back to Harvard.  I'm glad we were able to have him over for a bit before he left.  Preston is especially glad.  He spent most of the night having Spencer throw him around.  Matt (Hardy) came also.  He threw Preston around as well.  I don't have any pictures of him though because I was in the water while it was going on.  Lots of fun today! Most of my pictures ended up being of Spencer and Preston.  I took more pictures, but they were blurry.  I'm not a great photographer.

Preston & Spencer

 Mike & Steve

 Weston & Spencer

 Preston & Spencer

 Preston's in heaven!

 Thanks Spencer for being so good to Preston

 Jorja & Preston ~ Non-blurry picture

Blake came over to our house for several hours.  I told him he could play here until Preston's cousins came.  Turns out it was just too much fun here.  Blake didn't leave.  That's okay.  He's cute and fun and no problem at all.  This was actually the first time he has swam in our pool.  Preston became friends with him last year but our pool was out of commission for a LONG time!  I think Blake just jumped in in his clothes.  He cracks me up!

Blake

 Jorja

 Bellyflop Porge!

 Spencer & Preston ~ I'm not so sure about this!

 Jorja

 Preston worn out from a hard day of being thrown around

 Sherry

Shannon brought s'mores.  We had fun until around 10:00 at night.  I love living in Utah!  I love being with family.  I'm so grateful we were able to find this house that is such a great gathering place. So blessed.

Succession

I taught my dad's Succession lesson today.  He has this great power point on how the prophets get to where they are.  It is pictures of the first presidency and the 12 apostles.  When one of them dies, my dad sends them to the spirit world.  Then he moves the others over and see who takes their place.  This has always been such a good lesson.  It is really interesting.  I think everyone in the church needs to see it (or something like it) once.

We had our first lemonade social of the season.  It was at Bryce & Becky's house.  Becky sent out invitations and they had a really good turnout.  I finally got to meet Yolanda.  They built a beautiful house at the end of our street.  We have stopped by a couple of times.  I have met her mom and her kids.  Yolanda was great!  I told her how much I liked her mom.  She told me her mom was in a Japanese concentration camp for three years.  What?  They were living in Budapest (I think) during the war.  They owned a hotel.  It got taken over and she got sent to a concentration camp.  Her dad made counterfeit food passes during the war - I think I got that right.  Anyway, she was really interesting to talk to.  So glad to finally meet her!

Sinks

I spent forever today picking out sinks.  Who knew there would be so many decisions.  I hope Mike likes what I picked.  He had to stay home and work on the sprinklers.  He also got the cabinets we rescued from his house in.  They have been in our garage for a year and they fit perfectly!  I'm so excited.  Mike kept telling me it would work, but until it is done you never know.  It is hard to get a picture of this hallway, but it is where my laundry use to be.  The two pantries and wood block cabinet from Mike's old house fit exactly.  We love it!

Mike was pretty depressed at the end of the day.  The sprinklers are not cooperating.  Hopefully that will get worked out.  The kids and I watched What About Bob today.  Good times.

Wet Walls

Maysen has been at writing camp all week long.  She has loved it.  I usually pick her up for lunch.  Today the kids and I went to the Bear diner.  I have no idea what it is actually called, but Bear is in the name and there are bears everywhere.  They each ordered a kids meal, which after 11 comes with free ice cream.  Nice!  Right before I dropped Maysen off she told me that her wallpaper was peeling.  What?  She doesn't have wallpaper.  I forgot about it when I got home.  Of course I only remembered after Rob left.  Mike and I went to check it out and this is what we found.  NOOOOOOO!!!!!  I am so sad!  Not this room!

We had a giant rainstorm on Tuesday and found a leak in our sprinklers.  The sprinkler box is right above this wall.  Not a good combination.  Mike went to turn the sprinklers off and then that broke. Holy cow!  What is happening?  He had to turn off the water to the entire house for awhile.  Of course the plumbers came today.  They hooked up the gas line to the new pool heater and set the toilets in the upstairs and pool bathroom.  I told the kids the plumber was here for the pool heater.  No response.  When I said they were also going to get the upstairs toilet working, they all cheered.  It worked for a few hours before we had to turn the water off.  Luckily Brother Covington came over and helped us.  The sprinkler turn off thing ended up being an easy fix, but we will eventually need to replace the valve.  We have water again.  Yay!

Yesterday my dad spent all day here.  Bubs needed us to watch his kids. I am still living in crazy town, so my dad came up.  He ended up doing all the watching.  I was busy driving people to and from where they needed to be.  Thank goodness for his help!  Today, we repaid the favor by watching Max so my dad could go to dinner club.  All day long Preston kept asking when Max was coming.  Max is really easy to watch and they had a great time.  Mike worked from home today so he could be here with the plumbers.  That was nice.

Back Dive

Preston has been scared to do a back dive.  Mike tried to help him while he was standing up, but he was still pretty scared.  Mike had him crouch and then bend backwards.  It seemed to work better that way. The funny thing is Preston was in this position for a long time!  The top two pictures he probably held that pose for 15 seconds each.  That's a long time!  After he finally dove he said, "That hurts!"  It was his stomach that hurt.  It was hurting me just watching him!

Mike & Preston

 Seriously!  How can he stay like that?

 He did it!

Second try ~ piece of cake

Cold Diving

It was pretty cold at swimming lessons today.  Not as cold as yesterday, I didn't even send the kids then.  Well, Stockton went, but that was all. Preston was not excited about going to diving.  Mike's daughter was teaching today.  I couldn't even tell if they were having practice. Preston ended up being the only one.  She told him to do each of his dives three times and then he could go home.  He did them so fast! Even the falling front dive that he had problems with last meet.  Who knew it could be so easy?

Delayed

I have been looking forward to this day for quite awhile.  This is the day our cabinets were supposed to be installed.  Today they called and told our builder that they were running a week behind.  That did not make Rob very happy.  Then they called Mike later and said they were running 10 days to 2 weeks behind.  Mike said he thought it was one week.  The cabinet guy said he was just guessing, but now he has checked.  So frustrating!  Especially since we found the cabinet people. Through this entire process we have went with whoever Rob suggested. The cabinet people were the only ones Rob did not suggest. He did not have anything against them, he just had never worked with them before.  I definitely don't think he will be anxious to work with them again.  Hopefully when this is finished we will be able to say, "The cabinet people were annoying to work with, but they did good work."  I just hope everything is finished by the time Brett & Rachel get here. Rachel, if you are reading this, please stay with us!  We have figured out what to do if chaos still reigns here.

It's Not Working!

Maysen has a writer's camp this week.  I hope she likes it.  It is held at a school near our house, but people are coming from all over to attend. It is an adult writing class.  The youngest you can be is sixteen.  She seemed to like it today.  Mike picked her up and then took Maysen and Stockton to his family reunion.  We just found out about it a few days ago.  I guess we are not on the information list, or they have Mike's old e-mail.  That one hasn't worked since we moved to Utah.  Anyway, I'm glad we found out about it so Mike could go.  I had signed up to time at the swim meet, so I was out.  Jorja and Preston were swimming, so they were out.  It was so cold today!  I brought a blanket and seven towels.  Still so cold.  When Mike picked up Stockton he brought more blankets for the kids.  They were so happy!  Jorja was in charge of getting herself to her events, and also getting Preston there.  Preston was in a different lane during his freestyle.  I saw him as he was getting out.  I said, "Preston, where are your goggles?"  He laughed and said, "Oh, I forgot."  Jorja did an IM today.  She was swimming with the faster kids, she finished just under two minutes but about a quarter of a lap after everyone.  Turns out that she was the only one who wasn't disqualified.  That made her beam when she found out.  Swimming has a lot of rules.  For example, you have to touch with two hands after the butterfly and breast stroke.  Turning has to be done certain ways, legs have to kick certain ways.  Kind of hard for all the kids to remember. Great job Jorja!

There was a diving meet before the swim meet.  Stockton did great and took first place in his division.  He also took last place in his division. Yep, he was the only one.  There was a boy in the older group.  He gets one more dive, even so Stockton was only four points behind him. Wow.

Preston was the funniest.  I wish, wish, wish I had recorded him!  He was supposed to do a falling dive.  He was so cold when it was time.  He got right to the end, bent over and then stayed there shivering.  His coach yelled, "Just lean forward!"  He yelled back, "I'm trying!"  Wait, wait, wait.  Preston turns his head and yells, "It's not working!"  Oh my gosh it was so funny!  I was at the scorer table with my friends.  We were laughing so hard.  He was absolutely adorable.  He kept saying things like that over and over.  It was so cute because he was explaining exactly what he was thinking.  I love that boy!  Finally Mike (his coach) hopped up on the diving board and flipped his legs out for him. Preston is awesome.

Argentina & Philippines

Taylor had his mission farewell today.  When he walked up to the microphone he was shaking his entire body and papers in his hands.  It was so funny, he is such a goofball.  He did a really great job. I'm excited for him.  While we were hanging out at his house afterwards I over heard Tage say, "Taylor is a lot more excited about going to Argentina than Connor is to go to the Philippines."  I sat there for a second wondering what she meant.  Sherry has been teasing Connor that he will go to the Philippines on his mission and die.  I asked Connor.  Yep.  He has his mission call to the Philippines.  It took awhile for him to convince me that he was telling the truth.  He is leaving on September 17th. His parents 20th anniversary.  His family has been putting sticky notes on all his stuff to claim it after he dies.  Oh boy.  I had no idea Connor had even put his papers in.  Sherry said she tried to let people know to watch him open his call, but she could only hold him off for thirty minutes once he had the call.  That will be interesting.  I hope he loves it!

Salt Lake Temple and Painted Walls

We left Lagoon early this morning.  The kids were still sleeping.  We had them sleep in spots that we wouldn't have to move them from.  I guess they are allowed to sleep while we are driving except above the driver.  Once we arrived home, Mike and I had about two seconds to get what we needed (and look at our new painted walls) before we were off again.  We headed to the Salt Lake Temple.  My nephew Taylor was getting his endowments.  Mike and I had hurried so fast to get there that we ended up being super early.  Better than being super late!  I was so tired, especially after two late nights in a row.  I really am not a night person!  The temple was wonderful.  I'm so glad we were invited and that we were able to come.

Mike and I picked up a pizza on the way home for the kids.  We ran and dropped it off real quick.  The painters were there working away.  We headed down to the Egg & I for lunch with the Hodsons. 

Our house looks so different painted.  I'm so glad that part of the remodel is done!  That was really hard to work around.  Everything looks great though, so that's good.  I can't wait for the cabinets to go in!

Upstairs bathroom

 Laundry room ~ Yay! Yay! Yay!  I can do wash again!

 Kitchen

At the last second I switched the paint colors in the pool and laundry room.  I really think I would have liked this bright blue in the laundry room.  It does work really well for the pool bathroom and it is probably better to have the softer blue in the laundry room.  Mike likes it better anyway.  I love both blues, so this way we are both happy.  I also had the green one shade darker than I was originally planning and changed the bathroom colors into grey.  The painter talked me into changing things up.  I really like how everything turned out, but I am most worried about the green.  I bet it will be great once the cabinets are installed.

 Pool bathroom

 Downstairs bathroom