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Celebrate

 

I realize 14 might be a little too old to celebrate your half birthday, but with icy roads and sidewalks all after school activities were canceled (and there ended up being a two hour delay the next morning) so we just had to bake a cake. Michelle, Natalie and I loved baking and decorating a chocolate teddy bear for our favorite oldest girl. From what I overheard Michelle telling a friend, she actually got a hand cramp from creating all that fur. The picture doesn’t do it justice but I love the look on our teenager’s face. It’s exactly what I expected but she ate some anyway. Happy half birthday, Kate the Great!


Danny’s rec center team had their first basketball game and blew the competition away. They had 30 points before the other team got their first basket. During the fourth quarter they were told to let up but they couldn’t help making a few more shots before it was all over.  Danny is thrilled to have friends from school and his baseball team playing basketball together. We are looking forward to a fun season!
Something else we are looking forward to is our house being put back together with some extra organizing on the side. We weren’t allowed to put area rugs down for two weeks so this weekend, other than basketball and volleyball, our main priority was putting our house in order.  We didn’t want to simply put everything back the way it was. We wanted to make sure everything was cleaned up and cleaned out as well. It was hard work but totally worth it. And thanks to Natalie we even got some side projects like taming the unruly hair accessory drawer taken care of. (I really wish I had taken a before picture because this drawer used to have a lot more stuff in it and was pure chaos.) 

Michelle was off camping in a yurt, orienteering in winter, and learning how to play a card game called “Garbage,” which she taught Natalie and I how to play after coming home from Church the next day.
After two Sundays being out of town and one home sick, I finally got to teach my new Primary class and was so excited. Once upon a time I was this special lady’s Sunbeam teacher and I am thrilled I get to bookend her Primary experience before she heads off to Young Women’s next January.  Sacrament meeting was amazing too. I was so grateful to partake of the Sacrament and listen to three absolutely wonderful talks before Primary as well. Michelle came home with her first ever temple recommend and is so excited to go with the youth this weekend!
Sounds like Kate’s first in state tournament was incredible. Hubby got to drive her about an hour and watch her play in four matches. Before I tell you how it all turned out, you have to know that when Kate left at 6:15am they were down both coaches and three players due to illness and quarantine.  Then one of the players was late and arrived during the first match.  So for that first match of the morning these girls played the entire game with no subs and won 25-17 & 25-10.  They helped ref/score next and then the 7 of them played and won their 2nd match 25-11 & 25-9.  Then they helped ref/score again and had a break.  Sometime during the day one of the girls hurt her ankle and Kate hurt her wrist but they kept playing.  Kate was so excited she called me to tell me that they won the 3rd match as well, 25-18 & 25-11.  They got to play in the championship game and Hubby kept texting me the score and it looked liked this: 12-12, 12-13, 12-14, 13-14, 14-14, 15-14, 15-15… with finally the “lost 24-26.”  Sounds like once again, even without their coaches and some of their teammates, they were battling for every point and never gave up.  I heard a rumor tears were shed at the end of the championship game but the parents were so darn proud of these girls earning 2nd place!
I’m saving the best for last, here!  We are so lucky we got to celebrate another year of Hubby being on this earth.  He is my favorite human and I am very grateful I get to share my life with him.  To celebrate he went to Sprouts to pick out really good steak, potatoes, and salad makings and grilled those steaks to perfection.  How spoiled are we that he shared with us for his birthday?  We also played SkyJo (one of his presents) and it was his turn to learn how to play Garbage from Michelle.  It was a fun evening. I hope he feels very loved because he sure is!






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