Go JR. Mustangs!!!!

We just finished another season of basketball for the kids. It was fun because it was Zach's first year playing. He was the smallest but he did great. What is funny is he's COMPLETELY left handed when it comes to sports but writes with his right hand at school and home. So he may have inherited his Aunt Erin's weird handness.

Anyway as always they kids had a great time and played hard. I'm always having people comment on Michaela and how good she is. And she really is and she gives her all every game. She even dives for loose balls and sacrifices herself to get the ball. Jordynn is still very good and great at making baskets. Unlike last year where she would have rather sat out and talked to friends, she really liked playing. But we're all done for another year and that's o.k. with me.

Life is hectic as always and right now I'm in the middle of play practice. It going....well we'll see. Anyway that's the newest news from here!!!

Happy birthday baby!!!

Dani got a v-tech lap top. She has a friend who has one and she LOVES to play it every time she's over at her friends house. So we got her her own!!

Every little kid needs Candy Land - I've bought this game probably 5 times but this time we'll try to NOT loose all the pieces

Yesterday was Dani's 4th birthday. What a big girl. Ben started the day by telling her that 4 years ago she was hurting mommy. I corrected him and said no the doctors were hurting me. (I had a c-section) Anyway it was hard for her to wait ALLL day. But we made her cake and Ben frosted it and then after dinner we had a party!! It was fun and Dani was cute as ever. She's getting big and now that she's 4 she knows that when summer is all done she gets to go to school!! YEAH!!

Ben trying to figure out the kids lap top. Dani finally took it from him and showed him how it works!!

All in all I hope she had a good day.

Surprise......

This morning I went in to get the 3 smallest up for the day. As I started with Zach I told him to wake up I had a surprise for him!! He was instantly awake and out of bed wondering what it could be??? I then attacked Jordynn with the same enticement. If she got up there would be a surprise....and Jordynn in all her 7 year old wisdom said, "There's probable no surprise. You just want us to get up for school." Smart girl but there was a surprise. Ben had brought home some pigeons and they were in a cage in the kitchen. Don't worry they will NOT be staying they need to move out to the barn. Ben got them for bird dog training. I don't know why?? I just know he came home with them last night. Sigh.....

Holy cool bed Batman!!!!

Ben and I have needed a new bed for years. Our old pillow top has had it and we were sick of it. The problem is for the amount of money I was willing to spend (No more than $400) we would have to get another pillow top generic mattress. Until..........we found this beauty. It's called the NovaForm Infinite Comfort. Let me tell you the awesomeness of this bed. It's 12" of memory foam (yea I said 12") there's a bottom layer, then an area to put your air bladders to make it a adjustable comfort air like bed THEN more memory foam!!! Each side has it's own control for each air chamber. So I can adjust my side and Ben can adjust his. And the memory foam....HOLY COW!!! So very very comfortable and supportive. For years we've been rolling into each other in the center of the bed....but no more!!! It was a great nights sleep. They way it came packaged was sooooo cool. It came in this small box (well too small for a mattress) and then you open all the packages with the memory foam and they explode!!! They start to fill up with air instantly it was neat!!! Anyway it fits right on our frame and box spring and I. LOVE. IT!!!!!! Plus we got an AMAZING deal. Costco had them on sale (huge sale)and we got our queen for less than $400!!!! That's right awesome!!!!! It helped after our drama last night to come home to my NEW BED!! It made everything seem better. So if you need a new bed I would HIGHLY recommend this one. And you can't beat the price......

A Bone To Pick

Sometimes there are pit falls to living in a small town. Let's take for instance tonight when a friend of mine called to see if I had checked my mail. (In Manila we go to the post office to get our mail) I commented I hadn't and she suggested I do so QUICKLY. Thinking that was weird she then went on to tell me to check the community board outside the post office for a petition against my HUSBAND as the girls high school basketball coach. Well I went immediately and low and behold there it was!! An actual petition on the Internet for people to sign if they wanted Ben gone as coach. I knew at once who had done this and why. There was a man who has been after the coaching job since Ben was hired to be the assistant coach 3 years ago. He's always complaining to whoever will listen and bad mouthing Ben and his coaching skills. Last week he went to the school board to ask if Ben could be removed as head coach. The school board said no it wasn't up to them but the athletic director AKA the HS Principal. I was at that board meeting and heard the whole thing first hand. I was assured by the principal that Ben's job was secure and he hadn't heard complaints as the man had alleged at the school board meeting. Then tonight there was an awards ceremony for the winter sports, girls basketball included. This man's wife and daughter (on the team) spent most of the evening pulling parents of other players aside telling them about this petition and that they needed to sign it. I was LIVID, and still am by the way. If anything good has come out of this it's been the out pouring of support by the other parents. I've had many come up to me and tell me they will have nothing to do with the petition and they think Ben is doing a great job. The petition just went up this afternoon but so far the only people who have signed are the wife, husband and daughter. I hope that's as far as it goes but hey it's been interesting to see the lengths some people will go to to cause trouble.

To those out there that support us and have offered encouraging words and love I thank you. It's nice to know that Ben is appreciated and most people think he's doing a good job.

PS - Sorry for the rant but I'm really P*#*ed OFF!!!!!

A couple updates

First I've started work on the school play. And...well....we"ll see. I'm still having some of the same old problems which is getting kids to come to rehearsal. Other things are always too important!!!!

Second 0n the same line as the play we put up the stage this afternoon. Since I was missing 4 of my 9 we decided to be useful and get the stage up. I know most people find this odd but in Manila we put our stage up in the gym and duct tape it together!! YEAH I KNOW!!! But that's all I've got so I'm happy to at least have that.

Third - I got this from my friend Jen, it's called pay it forward. The first three people to post a comment to this blog will receive a gift from me within this year. You don't know when it will come or what it will be. But the catch is, you have to do a blog like this one and offer the same thing on your blog to the first three comments to our blog. Sounds like fun so let's try it!!!!



So that's the update from here, I got to Solo and Ensemble with 2 students tomorrow. That's 100% more than last year when I only had one. So hopefully all will go well......

Zach

Zach is becoming his own person. And I have to say it's been a blast getting to see what happens. Here's a picture of his "spikey hairs" he wants so bad for his hair to be spiked (I don't have a clue why) So here's the attempt and it worked pretty well until he took his sweatshirt off and it all fell.

Here he is in a cubby in the cafeteria at the high school. It should be noted I was trying to teach a piano lesson at the time.

Today was parent teacher conference. Zach and Jordynn's teacher had to go to a funeral so she called us to tell us what she thought. She told me she loved the kids and they were doing great and she had no concerns. Then we hung up. About 2 minutes later she called back and had a story she wanted to share about Zach. I should tell you that she has called Zach, Zacharia since school started. I thought it was a nick name since she calls Jordynn Jordy Wordy. Anyway she told me that one day in class she was explaining syllables and used Zacharia as an example of lots of syllables in his name. And my poor little five year old couldn't take it anymore and with no uncertain terms his name was NOT Zacharia. His name was Zach!!! Miss Carol said she knew he liked Zach but his FULL name was Zacharia!! And poor Zach kept insisting that wasn't his name. Miss Carol was so convinced it was his name she went and checked with the secretary to make sure that WAS his name. She was quite surprised to find out it was in fact NOT his name, but his full name was Zachary!! She was very apologetic. I quickly told her I didn't correct her because I thought she knew and was just calling him by a nick name. We had a good laugh over it. But I keep thinking how much I would have loved seeing Zach correct his teacher. Funny boy!!!

A "play" day

Today I went on a field trip with the elementary school and got to take my HS music class. We went into Rock Springs WY to Western Wyoming Community College for their spring musical. This spring is was "Aida". And I have to say WOW!!! It was great!!! And not just because one of the leads was a former drama and voice student. Honestly is was amazing. This is a tiny 2 year community college that has made a HUGE name for its self in the world of musical theatre. I watched and coveted their ability to do such great shows. All aspects were amazing. Granted they have a real stage and I have a portable one we have to duct tape together but I REALLY think I could have platforms that lower and rise......right????

A Weekend Full of Ben

This weekend has been exhausting but so very fun!!! On Saturday night our ward had a date night. The adults came to dinner and had a dance after. The young women and men served dinner and did a great job. It was a delicious meal with good friends. Then after we had a fun time dancing. The young women also offered babysitting at the church so we didn't have to worry about the kids. What was the best thing about all this was time with Ben. He works so much and we are so busy that time alone on a "date" is rare and far between. Then on Sunday we skipped church (oh the horror :0) and went to see family. Again time with Ben. It's been so long since we've gone to SLC together is was nice to have a 3 hour drive with him. The best part was for the first time is FOREVER I didn't have to drive!!! Very nice. We got to spend a little while with my parents and then Ben's parents and then we headed home. Again a nice drive especially since the kids slept for half of it. But now we're back to the same old routine, school and work. Well except for the part where I have Zach and Jordynn home today. Jordynn had a fever on the drive home and Zach is coughing so bad he throws up. So they are taking it easy today to see if they can get over whatever it is that's going around.
The weather is supposed to be great today and tomorrow so we're also cleaning the carpets and opening all windows to get the sickness out!!! I hope that works. I'm tired of paying for meds!!!