Friday, February 20, 2015
I’m writing a Friday night edition of my letter
since Chad and Spencer are on a scout hike/campout and so I don’t have a
date. I’m playing catch up again since I
haven’t written since Feb. 1st.
Monday the 2nd was Groundhog’s day. I didn’t even make biscuits and gravy for
some reason or another, but we did have it later in the week. Tuesday the 3rd Spencer had his
last 7th grade basketball game.
That evening the laurels went to our stake family history center in
preparation for our special ward temple nights.
The youth were challenged to find at least one of their own family names
for baptisms. Spencer was able to get
some names from Grandpa Angle. Thanks
Grandpa!! Several of my laurels found
some family names. That evening Chad and
I played volleyball with some friends at our church building from
9:00-10:30. I really wanted to start
playing again so I reserved our building and invited several friends who play
relatively competitively. We had 12
players show up so it was perfect. We’ve
played each Tuesday since the 3rd and it’s been so fun, totally worth
all the aches and pains! I hurt most of
the time anyway so I might as well do something fun.
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| Every time Tilly watches the Incredibles she leaves the movie to come sit on my lap before the monster robot comes. She listens to the movie on my lap and then jumps down to resume watching the movie after he's gone. |
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| Bryant diligently practicing the piano |
Thursday the 5th Bryant was chosen as
student of the month for his class so we attended flag ceremony at his school
to watch him get his award. The girls
and I went to the park with some friends later that morning. That evening we hosted an end of the season
party for Spencer’s basketball team. We ordered
pizza, Chad made some peach lemonade and the other families brought desserts. The boys had fun playing basketball in the backyard
while the adults visited. It was a fun
night. Friday the 6th Chad
and I went out to Moreno’s Mexican food.
We bumped into some of our friends and ended up joining their
group. It was a fun night.
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| Tilly all worn out after running several errands. She is a good little shopper. |
Saturday the 7th I attended our stake RS
meeting. It was the same musical presentation
of The Ten Virgins that our ward put on a few years ago that I was in. Our former ward relief society president is
now the stake RS president and since the production was so successful for our
ward she decided to do it at a stake level.
It was wonderful. Bryant had 2
basketball games that afternoon. He has
started driving to the basket and is a good little player now that he has more
confidence. Confidence is sure great. Spencer got invited to go play 007 at the
soccer park with several friends that evening.
Sunday the 8th Spencer had his board of
review and is now a Life scout!! He
needs to choose and complete an eagle project now and finish up six merit
badges.
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| Marlee's homemade purse. I think it is so cute. |
Monday the 9th was Amy’s birthday. It was also my niece Sydney’s birthday. Celeste, Jen Lee, and I met Amy for lunch at
Liberty Market. It was fun to visit. Spencer started co-ed soccer tryouts for the
school 7th and 8th grade team that afternoon. That evening we missed FHE because I had to
take Karalee to Twilight pediatrics. She
had been sick for a while and came home from school with a fever. There was a LONG wait. We found out she had a sinus infection and so
they prescribed antibiotics. She still
took a long time to get better and just recently got her appetite back. Poor girl. She lost quite a bit of weight. I’m so glad she’s feeling better now.
Tuesday the 10th was our special ward
youth temple night. Our ward set a
record for the Gilbert temple for the amount of youth who brought their own
family members for baptisms!! Thursday
was our special adult ward temple day.
The adults did some temple work for the family members that the youth
baptized on Tuesday night. It was a
special day. Chad went to the 7:00am
session, then he came home and I went and helped one of my laurels, who took
the day off school, finish up baptisms for some of our ward names. Then I did initiatory for some of those same
people. After I got back home, Chad went
back to the temple during his lunch break and did initiatory work for the
family members that Spencer baptized on Tuesday night. It was a pretty cool experience. In ward council we talked about doing this
activity again. I hope it happens.
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| We are loving the weather these days! |
Wednesday the 11th Marlee had her first
field trip. She was so excited. She went to a dairy farm.
Thursday the 12th we found out that
Grandma Perkins, Chad’s Mom’s mom, had a stroke and was probably not going to
make it. They took her off life support
and she passed away on the 13th.
We were sad, but I looked up the letter she sent out and Christmas time
and it brought me peace. She mentioned
that she was sick and was really feeling her old age, so I’m glad she was able
to pass quickly. She accomplished a lot and is an amazing woman as can be seen in her obituary.
Thursday afternoon Spencer found out he made the
co-ed 7th/8th grade soccer team. Only three 7th grade boys made it. He was so excited. After the first day of tryouts he came home
and said, soccer was his favorite sport.
It had been awhile since he’s played on a team. We are proud of him. Friday the 13th the kids had their
Valentines parties and they had a half day of school. Spencer, Bryant and Karalee had dentist
appointments at 1:00 that afternoon then we met several friends from school at the
park when they were done. That evening
we got movies from Redbox and had a family movie night. We watched “Alexander and the Terrible,
Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”, which was cute and “When the Game Stands Tall”,
which was inspirational.
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| For the first time ever thanks to a YouTube tutorial Marlee gets a heart ponytail. |
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| Karalee and Tilly crashed after playing at the park. |
On Valentine’s Day Chad and I had two dates! At 11:00 we went with our friends Troy and Emily
Lines and Aaron and Kristen Wilcox on a Segway tour at Temple Town Lake. It was SO fun. I’d always wanted to ride a Segway so when I
saw a living social deal for a chance to ride segways I bought it. That afternoon Bryant had a basketball
game. The game was pretty close and Bryant
scored six points at the end of the game and his team ended up winning! That evening Chad and I went out with our “Gilbert
Chowhounds” group that usually meets for dinner on the 2nd Tuesday
each month, for a Valentines dinner at Baci Italian grill in Queen Creek. It was yummy and fun company.
Sunday we had BYC and we decided to have the youth
of our ward start memorizing The
Living Christ. We’ll work on one
paragraph a month during mutual opening exercises. That evening we went to Brenda’s for the February
family birthday dinner but I had to leave for a camp meeting for part of it.
Monday Chad took the day off work since the kids
were out of school for President’s day.
We relaxed a lot, had a picnic at the park and went to batting cages
that evening. Bryant planned most of
it. He does a good job of planning fun family
activities.
Tuesday this week was a busy day. I felt like my “To Do” list was a mile long,
but I got through it. We had an
appointment to get our RO water filter’s changed that afternoon but ended up
having to buy a whole new unit. I like
good water though so to me it’s worth it.
That evening was Bryant’s Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet. He earned his Webelos award. It was a nice dinner and I was so happy I
didn’t have to cook! For mutual we had a
movie night at the church. I brought my
big bean bag. We set up a TV from the library
in one of the classrooms and we had popcorn and ice cream sundaes.
Wednesday I tried to go to the temple during
Grammy days but found out it was closed for two weeks when I drove into the
parking lot so I got some shopping done at Walmart instead.
Yesterday morning I took Chad to the Gateway
airport at 5:00am so he could fly to Utah for Grandma Perkins' funeral. I really wished I could have gone too, but I
had a commitment with the kids here at home and flights were pretty expensive. Grandma’s funeral wasn’t until today, but
Thursday’s flight was much cheaper so he took his computer and worked from Utah
all day Thursday. He stayed at Jay and
Karen Osmond’s home with Brenda. Jay is
a brother to Donny and Marie. Brenda’s
friend Karen recently married Jay and they opened up their home to the family while
they were in town for the funeral. Chad
worked in Jay’s office which has several of their gold music awards hanging on
the wall. I asked him if he felt famous
now. He said yep.
Yesterday I also helped chaperone Bryant’s 5th
grade field trip to Schnepf Farms (the
commitment). It is only the second time
I’ve had the opportunity and available child care to chaperone one of my kids’
field trips. The first time was Bryant’s
kindergarten field trip. I guess he’s been
extra lucky to get me twice when no one else has had a turn. Last night I had a YW presidency meeting so
we could review our final plans and assignments for new beginnings this coming
Tuesday. I’m getting excited for
it.
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| The goat smiled at Bryant |
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| Selfie with a giant bull |
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| The donkey smiled at Bryant too! |
Chad flew home from Utah this afternoon and I
picked him up at the Sky Harbor Airport.
He reported that the funeral went well.
I kissed him hello and then goodbye again because as soon as he got home
he left to go catch up with Spencer’s scout troop on their hike/campout. I’ve missed him, but I’m glad he was able to
make it to the funeral and to Spencer’s campout. Absence sure makes the heart grow fonder.
Chase
has recently changed Chad’s commission plan.
They change it a little every year, but this year it was a big change
and it is not very favorable. I don’t
think the bank will be able to stay that way for too long before they start
losing lots of their lending managers, but maybe that’s their way of
downsizing? Chad will probably just ride
it out and we will be fine. We’ll just
have to monitor our budget more closely and make a few cuts, which we know how
to do. We’ve been spoiled and it was
nice while it lasted. I’m sure grateful
we’ve been able to build a good savings and that we’ve been able to pay down
our mortgage to a more reasonable amount though.
For the last year or so I’ve had a hard time with
some relationships. Some dear people
have pretty much dropped out of my life.
I have felt like I must have done something offensive, that I’m not good
enough and not worth their time. I’ve
tried to work these feelings out because I know they are going through very
difficult struggles of their own. I’ve
tried to reach out and keep the relationship alive, but sometimes I don’t want
be the only one trying to keep the relationship alive. Sometimes I want them to reach out to me. I know this is not the right attitude. A few weeks ago Spencer spoke in church about
the importance of friends and he shared a quote from Sister Dalton that has
stuck with me. “Sometimes our
preoccupation is on having friends. Perhaps we should focus on being a friend.”
I know that in most cases I’ll have to reach out and invite friends ten
times before I’ll get one invitation. That’s
just the way it is for most people.
Love,
Mindy
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