71 Toes

Friday Q & A

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:49:00 +0000

School’s out and we couldn’t be happier about that little fact over here.

I’m going to try to stick in a Friday Q&A every so often to mingle in with the 110 toes thing. I stopped a while ago because it took so much time but so does the Eyre memory stuff so I’m going to try to just answer a few questions each time and not overwhelm any of us :)

Could you post about what you write on your calendar and how you organize yourself each day? I feel like I could use a little advice in that area. {from this post}

I use a program called calvetica on my phone which hooks up with my google calendar on my computer. I use it because my brother told me it’s the best and he knows his technology like no one else I know.

One thing I really try to do on it each day (some days are better than others) to write down three things I need to get done that day: one for myself (mostly spiritual, physical, etc.), one for my work (my household/blog) and one for my family. (A little habit my dad taught me from when I was little). My days seem to go so much better and feel so much more balanced when I have that kind of a plan.

I have the IWAN bad. My youngest is 4, and there will be no more. But I am so very nervous to move into the next phase of mothering, because the idea of being alone in the house during the day while the kids are all in school makes me want to cry. Not the being alone, but the not being needed by a baby or toddler. What do I do with myself...ALL DAY? I can only clean house for so long. Do you have ideas about mothering big kids? Is it fun? Does it get better than babies?!

This is a silly time to answer this now that the school year is quickly fading away here and I get to have my kids around every day, but I do get this question a lot. I know everyone is different but think you will be so surprised when your kids are gone during the day. Sure, there will be an adjustment period. The house will seem quiet. But I will tell you, my heart is racing all day while my kids are gone scrambling from one thing to the next. Maybe it’s the house building stuff we’re doing right now, maybe it is that my email box is constantly overflowing, maybe it’s because I have a bazillion projects swirling around in my mind at any one minute and I would LOVE to have time to sort them out but still don’t even with those hours by myself. I know everyone is different, but it’s such a good time to get organized so that I can really “be there” for my kids when they are home.

Quite honestly I think I would have mourned my kids all being in school more if my baby didn’t have learning issues that she does. Her syndrome helps me celebrate each moment she’s in school because it means she’s getting that much more of a boost and having that much more of the structure she craves. It’s a really big deal for her.

And I used to always worry so much about my kids growing up so fast (and always will) but man alive it’s fun to watch them become who they are. It just gets better I tell you.

(Even though I will always miss those babies.)

There’s a big post about kids growing up HERE.

And there’s an explanation of “IWAN” here and here and here in case you are wondering.

Are you still mailing out your “favorite book” (The Book of Mormon) and if so, can I please get a copy?

Each time I have posted about this little Mormon Mom Blogger group I’m in (here and here) and how I’d love to send out packets to those who are interested I feel ready. Each time I feel stocked up on Book of Mormons and I have the mailing supplies ready to go.

I feel empowered and ready.

But then when I get the requests coming in I seem to be paralyzed because I want so much to get them out and in a timely manner and my life isn’t conducive to a timely manner for anything these days.

I had the help of some amazing women at my church with the last mailing, which helped a ton. But at this point in my life with budding teenagers and house construction and summer starting and feeling like I’ve got a hundred suction cups pulling me every which direction I feel like I just may be losing my mind. So another one of the Mormon Mom Bloggers has offered to mail out packets for me for a little while. Her name is Markell and her blog is here. I will be forwarding requests to her for a little while and she seems like the kind of person who will get these packets out much more quickly than I have been! :) Her email address is corp8292 at gmail.com. Hopefully I can get my act together by Fall so I can do this again, but for now Markell is your woman. (Thanks Markell!!) There are also a whole bunch of other bloggers to look into if you want to see how different Mormons live their lives and how the Mormon religion has touched each of them. Their links are all in this post back here. More about the project here.

Happy Memorial Day weekend!!!

Love, Shawni

summer ideas

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:17:00 +0000

With summer coming right around the bend (tomorrow for us here in the desert!) I figured I’d link back to some posts about what we do in the summer that we are gearing up for.

Summer reunion ideas: HERE and HERE and the “Fear Factor” part we added to our reunion is HERE. (also some game ideas that would be great for summer reunions in this new years post HERE)

Summer goals: HERE

Summer book-reading list: for adults HERE and for young readers HERE and HERE.

Summer photo tips: HERE

(also sparkler/light photo tips in the middle of this q&a back HERE)

My favorite summer salad: HERE

We can't forget the church stuff: summer Girls' Camp HERE (and some straggling questions about camp in the middle of this Q&A HERE)

...and Trek HERE.

Hooray for summer.

the things Dave missed

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:16:00 +0000

We all enveloped Dave into our arms last night to welcome him back after 8 days in China. Boy howdy we missed that guy. And I think it’s safe to say he missed us a bundle too.

Here are a few of the other things he missed (besides us), for better or for worse:

--Elle’s toilet breaking

--Grace’s band performance

--The elementary school talent show:

Where apparently a couple girls got a little carried away with the lipstick I told them they could wear…

(They did their stuff from what they learned in this class back here.)

…and doing these hairdos in all their hair for the school performance and the parent performance.

--Elle’s choir performance:

--News that Claire’s finger was indeed broken after all three weeks ago because of that darn back handspring incident. (We don’t listen to phone messages around here so we didn’t realize Urgent care was calling and calling to tell us to get to a specialist.) The break is close to the growth plate and may have to be re-broken :(

--Elle’s scoliosis diagnosis

--another big Book of Mormon mailing (this time with help from all the ladies I go to church with…THANK YOU!!)

--Elementary school yearbook signing/ice cream party

--High school yearbooks

--The final volleyball banquet celebration(Much more on that later.)

--Graduation parties:(I wish I had a pic of the one with cousins…)

--Hanging with teenagers:

--I giant moment of weakness when I let five girls sleep over despite our “no-sleepover” policy.

--sister bonding:

--getting kids to and from all the last-week lessons.

--heat. It is so hot here. This was at 9:00 at night on one of the carpool pick-upsYes, that says 88 degrees.

--crafts (I KNOW he missed that part :)

--a sister sleepover on the floor dreaming that maybe the tooth fairy would come since they both lost teeth:

--The tooth fairy paid us a visit after two or three years of non-existence.

--Teacher-appreciation notes and gifts

--trying my darnedest to get Lu onto the summer swim team since we missed the deadline.

--gut-wrenching worry with one kid over grades

--celebrating text book returns:

--a high-performance volleyball tryout for Max for a national league

--sleepovers in my bed with the girls every night (they take turns when Dave is gone)

--trying to figure out a great summer job for Max (ANY IDEAS ANYONE??)

--trying not to be grumpy running on very little sleep

--A bazillion house-making decisions that almost caused a nervous break-down trying to do them solo

--five batches of cookies to help cope.

--The flowers I helped him buy me at the store since I knew he’d want me to have them:(I’m in love with peonies.)

Boy we are sure glad to have this guy back (along with the new glasses he brought home for the kids).

I sure wish I had a list of all the stuff we missed out with him in China.

I’m sure it would include lots of interesting food and planes, trains and automobiles.

And lots of meetings. Poor guy.

We have 1 more full-day of school here in the desert.

ONE.

And I’m holding on by my fingernails.

the best college girlfriends ever {a reunion}

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:52:00 +0000

I went to Boston University for my freshman year of college and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

I know I wrote somewhere on this blog all the drama of my heart wanting and yearning to go to BYU but my mind (with my Dad orchestrating it a little bit in the background) knowing I’d learn and grow the most by doing at least one year away. (More detail about that back in this post…part one of Dave and my “Love Story” that I started writing a while back and really need to get a move-on to continue at some point…)

Well, my Dad and I were both right about all the learning and growing jazz I’d do in Boston. I learned even more than I bargained for. And that city hollowed out a big spot for itself in the center of my heart (see more Boston posts here and here and here).

But that’s not what this post is about. It’s about how after that year away I went on study abroad to Jerusalem with BYU. And how I met my friend Nikki there:(Along with those other girls I adore…miss you Bec and Rochie!)

And how we came back and roomed together for our sophomore year at BYU, which led to meeting Nik’s Freshman (and high school) friends:

Who became my best friends.

Which eventually led to meeting this guy:

Which is another mushy story in and of itself.

And it’s about how much I adore these girls.

We had so much fun together at BYU, I tell you.

Here we are in front of the door to our apartment in Stonebridge:

…and here are the kids helping Dave and me reminisce a few years ago:More about that reminiscing trip back here.

We had parties galore. Did pranks to all the guys we hung out with. Took a trip together to Lake Powell. And one to California. We went on all kinds of crazy double-dates. And had parties in the library. One even with a lit-candle birthday cake.

One day one of our bedrooms flooded.

We had a giant slumber party and stayed up all night long.

They came to my missionary farewell:

…and even snuck into the MTC when I left to study to get ready for Romania (which I was a little horrified about since you’re not supposed to have visitors there, but I couldn’t help being so happy to see them!).

So someone decided it was time for a reunion. (We’ve had a couple, but this one had the most of us together that we’ve been able to maneuver so far.)

The first night a few of them slept over here.

We stayed up and reminisced all night with scrapbooks about the good old days.

Dave and Denny joined in for some serious updates on what’s going on with everyone. Some very interesting stories I’ll tell you that!(Don’t let Dave’s yawn fool you, he was mesmerized by this adoption story one friend was telling us.)

There’s nothing quite like having friends where you can pick right up where you left off and it’s like you never skipped a beat.

We headed out to meet everyone else the next day:…and to check into our hotel.

The thing is, they got the reservations mixed up and put us in rooms that weren’t adjoining which they had promised. And we needed to be together.

That’s when my stand-up-for-myself crazy gene kicks into gear. My friend Nik has that same gene so we marched in and talked to the best guy named Bryan at the front desk. Boy howdy did he ever pull through for us to make up for the mix-up.

He was able to put us in the “Presidential Suite” because it happened to be vacant that weekend. Little did we know how amazing it would be as a hotel guy loaded us up in his golf cart to take us there.

We had our own yard.

…and porch:

…and even our own private entrance:

Needless to say, good old Bryan is my hero.

We were soooooo spoiled.

It was the perfect place to just talk and talk and talk and talk.

The next day we headed out to hike this same hike I’ve done a few times…with Max back here, and Dave back here.

It was just as beautiful as ever.

We started taking pictures on this peak at the top and couldn’t stop.

And then we really couldn’t stop when the jumping pictures began…

We stopped at one of my favorite restaurants (La Grande Orange) on the way back to our “home away from home.”

…and went to dinner…

…and I read them my favorite motherhood chapter as of late (back here).

As we said goodbye the next afternoon after staying up all night (again) and our second round of salted chocolate chip cookies from La Grande Orange (mmmmmm), I looked around at those girlfriends of mine and said a special little prayer of thanks to Heaven for them.

I wondered where I would ever be without these amazing influences in my life. They molded me into who I am over all these years. We have all grown and married and mothered and have so many life experiences in common and some not so common that we learn so much from each other on.

How grateful I am that our paths crossed all those years ago. Being with them reminded me of one of my favorite quotes my friend sent to me a while back:

"In Friendship…we think we have chosen our peer. In reality a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another…the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting—any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances.
A secret Master of Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends “You have not chosen one another, but I have chosen you for one another.” The Friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of others."
--C.S. Lewis

I’m so grateful for that Master of Ceremonies who wisely put us all together all those years ago in that little corner of the world.

Love you girls with all my heart!

pretty pictures

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Sun, 19 May 2013 18:59:00 +0000

Check this out: http://browneyedelle.blogspot.com/2013/05/mckenna.html

I like those pics.

And I love that girl of mine who took them.

lucky Albion Fit winner

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:55:00 +0000

Man I’m so excited to name the winner of this give-away. The person who wins out nearly 1,000 entries sure is lucky!

Here she is (picked from random.org):

Sarah who said: “pinned the Icon Emerald Green suit. Stunning color and just might hide muffin top:)”

Sarah, send your contact info. to me at sepphotography dot com and I’ll get it right over to the folks at Albion so you can start picking what you want to put your winnings toward. I think you should send us all a picture of you wearing that emerald green suit :) It is a beauty.

For everyone else who is attached to those gorgeous things over on the Albion site, never fear. The owner (Liz) has graciously offered $15 off of anything you would like to buy through the next week.

Just enter the code “71toes15” at checkout. Thank you Liz for such a generous give-away (and for making such beautiful products)! And thanks, readers, for all the great response.

Happy summer swimming and exercising for that swimming for everyone!!

life lately

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:27:00 +0000

Albion Fit {a give-away}

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:35:00 +0000

********** this give-away is now closed and winner has been selected**********

I get to do a new give-away each week for the next three weeks.

I feel so lucky to have generous readers offering to give away some pretty awesome stuff.

The give-away this week is $200 credit to pick from amazingly chic swim suits or fitness clothing at a company called Albion Fit (check it out here).

It features tennis wear and super well-made, comfortable swimwear.

Company philosophy from the founder: “All of our swims are modest and sophisticated and make women feel comfortable and beautiful. We use fun techniques like ruching to cover up areas that women might want to keep a bit under wraps, and all or fabrics have great compression features, removable bra cups, and the suits last forever. All our fitness items use the nicest fabrics on the market. They all have wicking features, anti-microbial so they won’t get smelly, and have great compression features.”

Their flagship store just opened at the beautiful City Creek Mall in Salt Lake City, which is kind of cool.

I got my own polka dot swim suit to test out if it lives up to the hype and man alive I really love it. Here I am wearing it:

I know, I look super young, right?

Ha.

I just figured you’d rather see that cute girl wearing it than me.

There are some really cool vintage-y swims on there along with some funky ones and classic ones…I love the styles.

But let’s get to the fitness wear because the lovely tennis-playing Elle gets to model that:
…and she’s a cutie.We LOVE that skirt. Is it not so darn cute? It’s called the “Match Point Pleat Skirt.”

And Elle is gonna be so mad at me for posting this one…but I couldn’t resist.
I love the ruching on the tank:(It’s called the “love racer” tank.)

Love this skirt too…love that it has pockets.(Let’s just be glad those shoes aren’t going to be given away…except to the garbage can…)

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There is SO much stuff on that site. Things you are going to be drooling to have. So here’s how you enter to win a wad of cash ($200) to spend on whatever your heart desires over there on albionfit.com.

There are three ways to enter and you can do all three if you’d like extra chances:

1. Like albionfitness on FB (here). Then come back and enter a comment.

2. Go to albionfit.com and pin your favorite item on Pinterest. Come back and leave a comment that that deed is done.

3. Leave a comment about that favorite thing that you pinned back here.

I’ll announce the winner Friday morning.

Love, Shawni

********** this give-away is now closed and winner has been selected**********

sometimes Max lets us have fun with his hair.

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Let summer begin.

(He’s still taller than his dad :)

Happy Mother’s Day…

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Sun, 12 May 2013 17:13:00 +0000

…to all the amazing mothers in my life.

How I learn from you!

A couple months ago on a beautiful spring day I sat with a group of inspiring women from the “American Mothers” organization.

As each woman gave a word of advice to the new mothers going to the national convention in New York, love of motherhood seeped into my heart filling it to the brim. This lady standing here below is the one who made it overflow:

You can’t see her very well because I was trying to be incognito with my picture-taking. But I was compelled to take that photo because I wanted to remember not really the words she was saying but how she made me feel as she was saying them. She has so many motherhood years under her belt. She exuded goodness and love of the opportunity we mothers have to help shape little minds.

To teach little souls to fly.

And I left that meeting that I really hadn’t had time to go to, got there late, left a little early, thanking my lucky stars that I was there and that I get to have examples like that in my life. That I get to be a mother. That I get to stand up for motherhood wherever I go. That when people ask me what I do for a living I get to proudly state “I raise children.” I raise the little souls entrusted in my care from a loving Heavenly Father.

I know there are many kinds of mothers out there. Ones who are struggling with trials I can’t even comprehend. Mothers who aren’t even mothers yet but who mother those around them with all the love that a biological mother would.

I am so grateful for a day to honor motherhood in all it’s varieties.

Because really, what C.S. Lewis said all those years ago still rings so true today:

“What do ships, railways, mines, cars, and government exist for except that people may be fed, warmed, and safe in their own homes?...[the Homemaker's] job is one for which all others exist."

(More on what I wrote about Motherhood with that quote on a guest post years ago over here.)

And I’m especially grateful for my Mom (more here). And my Mother-in-Law. And how they have shaped my own motherhood.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Lake Powell in the nippy spring–110 toes

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Fri, 10 May 2013 17:43:00 +0000

Somehow from someone at some point in raising us kids my parents got the idea Lake Powell would be a cool place to hang with your family.

So they did some research and decided to pack us up and head down to that gorgeous place.

I think part of their research involved the realization that renting a houseboat would be way cheaper on the off-season. So they thought, “why not go for Easter?”

So we did.

And we loved it so much it became a tradition.

Now, I will tell you from experience that Lake Powell is not a place you want to leisurely swim and ski in March or April. It is a giant pool of ice water.

I’ll also tell you from experience that it knocks your breath right out when you jump into it from the top of the houseboat.

And in the mind of a teenager/kid getting your breath knocked out by doing something daring like that kind of rocks.

We didn’t have a ski boat anyway. We were all about the ambiance. And the card games. And the being together.

I wish I had been into photography back then.

I wish I had gorgeous pictures of the sunsets against the red cliffs.

Or the day our houseboat got stuck on a rock one year and we had to wait and wait for a giant tug-boat to come pull us off.

Or when my 10-year-old brother almost hit a cliff while driving the boat.

I wish Elle could make up one of her little wing-dinger videos of us listening to our “Big River” sound track and climbing up big huge walls of red sand.

And I also wish I had a better memory to remember everything.

And the fact that I already wrote some of the highlights of this part of 110 toes back here.

baked tilapia on a Monday night

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Thu, 09 May 2013 11:19:00 +0000

We are not a fish family.

Maybe because the only fish I ever tried growing up were fresh-caught trout straight from Bear Lake that were filled with little bones. Well, and McDonalds fish sandwiches but I’m pretty sure those don’t count.

Needless to say, it didn’t do much to convince me of the goodness of fish.

But the years have mellowed my tastes. I still can’t do salmon (I did give it a valiant effort a few months ago with a cilantro ginger glaze…didn’t go over well). But I love sea bass and halibut. And I think tilapia is my favorite. Maybe because you can buy big bags of it at Costco. And you can make stuff like this fish taco recipe that I posted back here.

Now the goal is to get my family to like it too.

I got this baked tilapia recipe here (with 178 5-star reviews), and tweaked it a little bit from the suggestions from the comments.

It was good enough that my non-fish-liking family gobbled it all right up speedy quick.

This is all you need:

6-8 tilapia fillets

2 limes (juiced and “zested”)

Salt and freshly cracked pepper for seasoning

butter

Here’s how I did it:

Wash and pat dry the fillets and line them up in a baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.

Squeeze out the lime juice and grate off a little bit of the peel for the zest.

TIP: Elle and I learned how to get the maximum amount of juice from a lime in our Thai cooking class at the end of this post back here.

Here’s Elle demonstrating:

Soften it up by applying a lot of pressure while rolling it under your palm:

Hold the lime upright and slice off three equal pieces (leaving a triangle in the middle):

…but usually a little bigger than this triangle so you can squeeze that too.

Squeeze the juice from those softened suckers:

Then grate a little of the washed peel:

Pour that juice over the fillets. Then add salt and pepper, or if you have a wing-dinger thing like this that I splurged on at Dean and Deluca a while back, by all means, use that!(That stuff is divine if you put it in olive oil and balsamic vinegar for French bread dipping too…my mouth is watering….)

Put a little pat of butter on each seasoned fillet:

Bake at 425 for five minutes.

Take out of the oven, turn over fillets and then cook them for 15 minutes more.

While you wait look out your window and let your heart melt for a minute while you watch your scraggly-swim-suited-girls help each other do some cool moves:

Take it out (even though it doesn’t get very browned, but make sure it’s not translucent anymore).

Eat it up with your family for the first family dinner you’ve had for a while since life has sped out of control lately.

Let your children wear their swim suits to the dinner table.

Let your daughter indulge in her insistence that she must wear a green oven mit to fully enjoy her food.

Adhere to your daughter’s request for a picture together since you happened to totally match that day.

Let your swim-suited girls join in for a picture because they are dying to.

Be a task master at getting the kitchen cleaned up, play one game of Rummikub for Family Home Evening (and win, yes!), help with homework, finish folding three loads of laundry, and fall in bed.

Fall asleep with a smile on your face that you took your kids one step closer to becoming fish-lovers.

one more little celebration {flips gymnastics}

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:28:00 +0000

I couldn’t get these videos to upload fast enough yesterday for my “little celebrations” post so I left gymnastics off my list of things I’ve checked off (along with a whole slew of other things that just may bore us all to tears if I wrote them all down).

But this was a good one.

Grace and Claire started a new “flips” gymnastics class this year and have learned SO much. (I wrote a little bit about it back when I wrote about Claire last week…or was that two weeks ago??)

Their recital was last Saturday.

Some of those numbers were so good they made me tear up a little bit.

Dave has started to look at me like I might have a little problem with all the “tearing up” I’ve done lately. But honestly, if you think about these two things you may tear up when you watch it too:

1) All the hard work these girls have put in to get to this point. And the sheer courage it takes to stand there and fling your body into a backflip or back tuck.

2) How amazing is the human body that it can do things like this? Things that are hard and take so much concentration.

See if you catch my drift when you watch this portion I videoed:

Did you tear up?

I kid, but they are pretty awesome, right?

Here’s part of Grace and Claire’s number…the part before all the flipping and twirling because I was tearing up too much to catch that part. (I kid, I was really ok but Lucy was trying to ask me a bazillion questions there at my side so I had to stop.)

Two of their cousins do gym at the same place so it was so fun to watch them in action as well.

Claire jammed her fingers so badly two days before that I thought there was no way she could do it, but she taped those babies up and pulled through despite a little pain.

With a lot of encouragement from her big sis.

Love those girls of mine.

little celebrations

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:37:00 +0000

Right now I feel like I am in a dead-run to the finish line.

And that finish line is when that last school bell rings.

Oh man, I just can’t wait.

Until then, I just keep having these little celebrations inside my mind:

Last soccer practice with following team party and awards:

Check.

Last choir singing practice and amazing concert (more about that at the end of the posts about Grace and Claire back here and here…and some people asked what the choral organization is called…more info. about that here):

Check.

Awards ceremony for “golden scholars” at the high school:

Awards ceremony at the elementary school for honors students:

Check.

Last swim team practice (that I had to miss because of a volleyball game) where Lu took first and second in some mock swim meet dealios:

Check.

Last Art Masterpieces taught and two bulletin boards prepared for the “Art Walk” for Family Fun Night:(I thanked my lucky stars my friend did the one for the sixth graders…I am not a fan of whipping up cute bulletin boards. At all.)

Check.

Family Fun Night (which we loved BTW, because Dave and I got to hang with our little girls and watched Lu attempt and have victory over this huge climb-up thing).

Check.

Last half-day dress up (I think):

Check.

Last time staying up past midnight to help with a super important English project:(But I’ll be honest, the memory of hanging out late with that boy burning the edges of cardboard out on the back porch for special effects will stick with me for a while…loved it.)

Yes that was a mustache you passed just a second ago…can’t get him to shave it off he’s so proud…

Check.

Last time to get to two high school sports tournaments and piano lessons, tennis practice for Claire and swim team all at the same time on a what-seems-like-continually empty tank of gas.

Check.

Oh there are so many more celebrations in the next couple weeks until we get to that finish line, but I’m pleased as punch some of them are under our belts for now.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m so grateful for all these good things. But I’m so tired. And I’m sure my friends are tired of having to kick in to help so much to get everyone everywhere they need to be because I can’t do it. Man, I am SO grateful for good friends and carpools and most especially for Dave because he is so very helpful with it all when he’s around. But I’m determined we’re not going to cram in quite so much next year.

Summer, can’t wait to greet you.

"Teach These Souls to Fly" give-away winner

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Sun, 05 May 2013 06:07:00 +0000

I should really know by now not to promise to announce give-away winners on a Saturday morning.

Because really, blogging is the last thing on my mind when I'm trying to cajole kids to do their Saturday chores (happily...is that a myth that that happens?), and run girls to a whiz-bang gymnastics recital getting medical supplies first for one of them (Claire) who jammed her finger so horribly two days ago that she had tears streaming down her face even thinking of doing back handsprings across the stage (but she did it with flying colors), and trying to help one of my teenagers with a huge assignment due Monday amidst trying not to back over the neighbors bikes sprawled across our driveway and watch the first match of our high school team's state volleyball championships (they won).

Phew, it was a nutty day (like most motherhood days are), but here I am unwinding as it draws to a close fresh from a quick date with Dave and greeting my teenagers straggling in from their latest adventures, needing to remember that in the midst of all this chaos all I'm really trying to do it teach these souls entrusted in my care to "fly."

Which reminds me I have a give-away winner to announce.

Picked from random.org:

Sam and Carmin said...
I could use a book of inspiring mothers who offer insight into principled parenting!

Congratulations! Please send me your contact info. (to sepphotography at gmail dot com) and I will forward your name to the woman who will be sending you your own book (hopefully just in time for Mother's Day).

I know so many people were inspired by that chapter I posted for the give-away (back here) as was I. Remember you can get your own copy here: Choosing Motherhood: Stories of Successful Women Who Put Family First and thankfully for how speedy-quick Amazon is, you'll still get it in time for Mother's Day.

And quite a few people asked where they could get a copy of the beautiful painting that puts it all in perspective so well:

After my mother read us that chapter we all scanned the internet to see where we could buy our own prints. We couldn't find one to purchase anywhere. My sister finally had the grand idea to just print it off from the Internet. I think she used this link.

It's just a small print.

But oh what a powerful reminder as I pass by it hanging on my wall each day how grateful I am that even through the heart-break and worry and sleepless nights involved in this business of motherhood, there is also jubilation and joy.

That painting reminds me that each day I get to do something sacred: I get to do my best to teach human souls to fly.

110 Toes—England

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Fri, 03 May 2013 18:27:00 +0000

My first boyfriend was British.

His name was Stuart and he was seven-years-old.

So was I.

You see, when I was four, my mom (28) and dad (31) were called in to meet with one of the general authorities of our church. They asked them if they would be willing to leave their business and political ambitions (my dad had stars in his eyes to run for the senate) to go serve for three years as mission presidents in the England, London South mission, taking care of 200+ young missionaries.

They agreed.

We packed up and left, and from there, the love story with Stuart began.

Ok I kid about that, I don’t remember a whole lot about Stuart except that from the looks of that picture I sure must have liked him a bunch. And that he had a twin sister named Alison who I hung out with partly because she was nice, but mostly because it meant I got to hang with Stuart too.

I cannot comprehend in my wildest dreams how scary that mission call must have been for my parents. They had four young children and had never before traveled outside of the United States. But they are adventure seekers at heart, so I’m sure that all that trepidation must have been mixed somehow with sheer adrenaline-rushing excitement. If they wanted adventure, this was it.

On steroids.

This is how our family looked on the back porch of the mission home when we arrived. (That’s me with the awesome ruffled shirt on in the front.)

I wish I had a picture to show how different we were when we came home, wide-eyed at how sprawling the American streets and cars were, and in awe that America didn’t have a Queen to put on their “pound notes.”

And also with two more children clinging to my parents’ legs.

But although a post mission picture would be interesting to compare growth in height and numbers, it could never do justice to show how everyone grew on the inside. Because an adventure like that is sure to have helped those parents of mine grow by leaps and bounds in how they viewed the world.

One of my two brothers born over in England arrived quite miraculously two months early. He had to stay in the hospital for two months. Here’s my Dad with him the day we got to bring him home from the hospital:

And here’s the arrival home of the second brother:I think I look like I was about to cry up there on the right since my sister Saren got to snag the coveted role of holding him for the picture and not me. Oh boy did I ever love those babies.

There we go:A little happier there.

I have no idea how my parents managed all that as they helped all those 18-25 year olds maneuver through their own struggles and triumphs away from their own parents for two years. Hosted missionary dinners to welcome the new ones and say goodbye to old ones each month. Helped us adjust to new schools and a new culture. Traveled to all the outlying parts of the mission to take care of everyone.

No, I don’t know how they did it.

But they did.

With flying colors.

They even endured a pretty public missionary kidnapping while they were there (that ended well, thank heavens).

At some point maybe I will have a chance to post their point of view (my sister’s view is also more detailed here), but for now I am just posting my memories, mostly pasted together by random pictures that have surfaced through the years.

We lived at “12 The Ridings” and went to a little Church of England school every day sporting our navy blue school uniforms.

Here we are, me and my black front tooth caused by something I can’t even remember, in a school picture.

Is that an awesome haircut or what?

I started my schooling career there as a four-year-old. I was in the “first class” (they didn’t call them grades). My teacher was Mrs. Ball and she smoked like a chimney.

I was scared to death of her.

I loved being with the missionaries though. I still remember sitting with one of them at church. He taught me to draw a cartoon bunny rabbit. I think I had a crush on him from that day on. (Until I met Stuart…)

I remember loving that we “got” to sing to the missionaries when they came over some Sunday nights for meetings. I think our main song was “So Long, Farewell” from The Sound of Music and we were pretty proud of the actions we put together for that little number.

I know we did go into London but I don’t remember that part very well. I love this picture back in the days where you could park a car right next to Buckingham Palace:

I remember a lot of birthday parties.

…and a little passageway we could crawl through the trees in the back of our “back garden” to Mr. Godwin’s house.

It had the biggest tree we had ever seen so my Dad got permission to rig up a swing hanging from what seemed like miles and miles of rope.

We were in love with that thing.

My Dad also made my brother and me some styling cucumber glasses.

Yeah, those were the good days.

When our three years were up we said some sad goodbyes, moved back to the states and slipped back into life here. But we were forever changed by that trip.

________________________________________________________________

The crazy thing is that when I was a freshman in high school my parents got word that the mission home filled with so many of our memories would be relocating to a different house.

My parents put their minds to work to figure out how we could get over and rent that thing for six months before it sold.

And surprise, surprise: they did it.

Much to my shy teenager heart’s chagrin.

The day we left I thought I just may as well lay right down and die.

I wrote more about that trip back here and here. But I wrote the most about how horrified I was but what an ultra-amazing learning experience it became in this post back here.

I pulled out my journal from that trip the other day. It is a fat, filled with mementos from all over Europe.

I was clearly enamored with Laura Ashley (these kinds of pictures flank a huge majority of the pages).

I was mesmerized by tennis when we got to go to Wimbledon:

I think I was a little more excited about finding a “Mrs. Fields” there than I was with that map of the Tate Gallery.

As I looked through that thing, the homesick scribbles along with the postcards from all the places we visited (even a packet of salt from the restaurant we went to on the middle level of the Eiffel Tower), I was overcome once again with gratitude for the place that London and England now have in my heart.

I will thank that trip forever for starting the gradual break from my locked-down shy shell. And for opening my eyes to parts of the world I never imagined I could love so much.

And to think that that love all started with a cute seven-year-old named Stuart…

Ha!

grilled pesto chicken

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:16:00 +0000

My sister made this chicken at our little MFME a while back and it was so good I figured I’d put it to use back here on the home front.

This recipe is seriously the easiest thing on the planet, but makes gourmet-tasting tender chicken that my whole family scarfs down.

All you need is basil pesto (mmmm…my favorite) and seasoned rice vinegar and chicken breasts (and a grill, of course).

Mix:

1 c. pesto

1/4 c. seasoned rice vinegar

Pour into a ziploc with chicken breasts. Let marinate as long as you can in the fridge (if I don’t have a whole lot of time, I marinate just on the kitchen counter for a little bit…gets that marinade in there better).

I always like to pound my chicken before I grill it. See that silver beauty down there in the picture below? I flatten the chicken out as much as possible (while it’s still in the bag with the marinade) with the flat edge of that handy thing.

Then I grill it.

Did I mention this is an easy recipe?

Enjoy.

Teach These Souls to Fly {a give-away}

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Wed, 01 May 2013 13:35:00 +0000

My Mom and sisters and I had a little breakfast together a while back.

We sat around a table bathed in light form a huge window, relishing in the opportunity to have each other close.

How grateful I am for those women.

As we finished eating and came to the close of our customary detailed discussion reviewing our food choices (we’re nerdy about good food), my Mom pulled out a “chapter” of a book someone had asked her to edit/review. She told us she wanted to read it to us, and, with her velvety reading voice that always brings me back to my childhood, she began to unfold some rich motherhood beauty.

I want to share what she read because it is strong.

Because my dear Mother could scarcely finish the ending through her tears.

And because as she read, each of us blinked at each other with our own wet cheeks, more in awe than ever that we get to be Mothers (my little sister Charity not yet, but I’ll be honest, she mothers our children right along with us). In awe of the sacredness that comes with loving and caring for those children entrusted into our care. In awe of the sheer beauty of the chaos mixed in with the holiness of it all.

Because of that chapter read that day, this painting has become one of my favorites.
It speaks to me.

And it hangs next to my closet, reminding me of the beauty motherhood brings every day (thanks to my sister Saydi, who sent it to each of us for Christmas).

Here is the chapter (sorry in advance that it is cut and pasted in a little gappy):

“What other career could claim as its end-product the elevation of a human soul? Not just the enlightening of a mind or the development of a body, but the improvement of every aspect of a vibrant child of God?”

Oh I especially love that last part.

I love the imagery of that strong mother in the painting concentrating with all her heart on that baby who is so oblivious to the magnitude of her love.

And I love that I get to be one of those mothers, concentration high, love unending, teaching my own little human souls to fly.
_____________________________________________________________
So this is a single chapter in a book that was recently published.

It's called Choosing Motherhood: Stories of Successful Women Who Put Family First and you can read more about it here .

I get to give one copy away.

Just in time for Mother’s Day.

My disclaimer is that I have not read the rest of the book yet, so I can’t promise the rest of the chapters will shine as brightly as this one. But it is so intriguing because each of the sixteen chapters are written by young mothers who studied or supported husbands who studied at Yale University. Can’t wait to snuggle down and read it all.

So enter a comment for a chance to win your own copy.

I’ll announce the winner on Saturday morning.

Love, Shawni

Julie’s visit

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:53:00 +0000

Last month Dave’s sister Julie came to town.

And when Julie comes to town it is always a party.

Although I only got a couple in the picture, everyone showed up to watch Max play volleyball:

And Claire was so delighted that she had some great cheerleaders at her soccer game too.

We had a girl’s day out and celebrated one sister’s birthday (in the middle…love you Laurel!)

During the month of March we have birthdays galore (all the red marks at the top of the days below are birthdays…seriously, is that a lot in one month or am I kidding myself??)

We got together for cake and ice cream to celebrate a few of them:

I love when we get these girls together:

…and the truth is, it happens more when Julie’s around (thanks Julie!)

We stole them from school and went to lunch with them for one of their birthdays too…

Thanks for the party you bring, dear Julie! Let’s bring it on again in June!

David

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:49:00 +0000

After a week of highlighting each child of ours, I figure Dave needs a little shout-out too.

Because he loves these things I tell you! :)

Look how handsome he is:

…and I get to have that guy as my date for things.

Man I am lucky.

(That was with our friends who came in town from Ohio and other friends who live close but who we don’t get to see nearly as often as we would like.)

Last month Dave asked me out on a hot date.

He filled our bedroom up with balloons and I had to pop them all to find out where we were going.

Ha ha. Although I’m very kidding about that little balloon deal, Dave does take me out on dates every weekend which gives me my sanity. And he DID ask me out for a special date to see a baseball game last month…

…with all these kids as our double-date companions:

It was a Laurel/Priest (kids in our church who are 16-18 years old) “date night” and all the leaders took their wives along (Dave works with the 16-18 year old boys at church). It was pretty fun, I must say.

Here are the leaders:

Here’s the handsome guy I got to ride the metro with:Even carrying my jacket for me. I tell you…

He grew a beard over Spring Break.

Then one day he cut it into a mustache, and this blurry iPhone pic. is all I have to document that little fact:Dang!

I tried to talk him into keeping it for a couple days but it was gone within hours.

Here’s a little snippet into what a good Dad he is:

I love this guy. He’s my better half.

And I always get cheesy when I talk about him.

I always get in trouble too.

But he’s my #1 and I need to recognize that here for all my children and grandkids and great grandkids to know and be happy about some day.

Lucy

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:57:00 +0000

This post is going to be pretty picture-heavy because Lu does so darn much art and I love it so much I can’t not take pictures of it.

I will forever be fascinated by the shapes and colors she chooses. Is this an abstract cat?

My Dad had a little chat with Lu a while back that since she is an “artist” she could take liberties to do whatever she wanted in her art, including letting animals have as many legs as she wants them to have. I think she would love it if there were some sort of “octopus cat" like this one:

I love the way she writes her fancy letters.

This was one where she was doing something for each holiday. The hearts in the middle are Valentine’s Day, there’s a black (?) Christmas tree, I think the little girl with the cake is Lu’s birthday.

She made her own “chocolate chip cookies:”

This is the lunch sack she made for her field trip to the zoo. Seriously, heart melter.

Not only is she diligent in art, she is diligent as can be with her writing and reading.

She will go through her flashcards and read and write them with deep concentration.

Her handsome Dad will work with her on the amidst Elle’s tennis matches.

Her vision teacher has started adding Braille to her flashcards.

At first Lu was totally skeptical of all this Braille stuff but we all think it’s about the coolest thing since sliced bread so she’s started to get pretty excited and proud of it.

I had an IEP meeting recently with her teacher, the school psychologist and her vision teacher. It was around the same table as this one was last year, and once again I shed tears of the deepest gratitude for these women who look out for Lucy and adore her despite her feistiness.

She is doing so well is school. Academically she is right on. She was among the first of the kids in her class to pass off all her 100 sight-words and get her own spanking-new library card and boy oh boy is she proud of that thing. Socially I worry so much about her, but honestly for some reason reading the book Wonder (at the end of that post) helped me a lot on that front. I hear about some emotional outbursts that happen at school sometimes, mostly around food, which breaks my heart, but I know they’re getting better. She’s growing and learning so much and usually has a big gappy (from so many teeth lost) smile on her face.

And how I love it.

Here’s field day I got to help at a little bit:

Lucy LOVES to make books along with her reading and writing, and I could fill up my whole computer with pictures of them. Here’s one of my favs. lately:

She is still head-over-heels in love with “The Monster at the End of This Book” that I talked about back here. Here’s one page from her latest edition:

And here she is reading with her enthusiasm:

Lu likes routine. Which means she likes to have the same things to eat ALL THE TIME. This is always her breakfast of choice: Kix, milk (her only glass of the day), and applesauce (that we mix her eye vitamins in). Every single day. And they all need to be served in blue dishes most of the time.

I have loved teaching Art Masterpiece in her class this year…

…and my heart melted when I got a fat manila envelope from the kids thanking me for coming in throughout the year. Here are a couple of the cuties:

My favorite, of course, was Lu’s":

Lucy’s “sport of choice” is swimming. I wrote about how much I ADORE her swim class at Aqua-Tots back here, but for the month of April she has also done a mini swim team every day after school. It has been awesome.

The coaches melt my heart looking out for her.

Love her.

claire

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:36:00 +0000

Oh boy, I can’t keep up this week and I’ll have to come back later to add more like I did with Grace yesterday, but for now here are a couple things:

Serious goofiness from this girl I tell you: Her soccer season just ended this week. She only got one goal the whole time, but man alive, her exuberance for the team and when other kids made goals made up for it:

Check out how excited she is for this girl:

Love it.

She was a pretty intense helper out there.

She doesn’t like these girls at all. Can you tell?

Not at all :)

It made us both a little sad to have her end-of-the-year party this week cause I think she’s going to take a break from soccer for a while. She thinks she’s going to do dance, but I think we’re going to slow down a little bit.

Too much going on I tell you.

The party was pretty fun to wrap things up though. I’ll have to post pics. later.

Claire is becoming a good little gymnast too:

She got in a little trouble on that last one since those legs were so darn bent. I LOVE this place she and Grace go to called “Flips.” They are strict as can be (which I love) and teach them so much.

Speaking of strict, that’s one of the things I like very most about this choral organization Grace and Claire are in (the one I talked about yesterday). Boy oh boy that teacher means business.

I love watching Claire’s mouth move while she’s singing.

I know it sounds funny, but she would come home from practices with a big gleam in her eye and tell me how big the sound was. I know she felt the spirit of it all so much in that tender little soul of hers. Here is a video clip of one of the songs. Claire is on the second row kind of in the middle. Once you find her you will wonder how you didn’t see her at first cause to me it’s like she is a 10,000 gigawatt sparkler. I know it’s just cause I’m her mom, but watch how much she moves her mouth. You can just tell she is feeling that whole thing all the way to her bones.

(Please forgive my sub-par video skills…)

Did I mention her goofiness?

It looks like her friend is aware of that below:

Love it. Love that girl!

Grace

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:29:00 +0000

Disclaimer: Please know that these kids are more than I write about them on this blog (the bad and the good). Although I am a pretty open book here, I, of course, intentionally don’t write things that would incriminate these kids on here. What would be the use of that? But that makes it tricky because then people get the wrong idea that they are the only ones with kids with issues. I adore these children of mine with all my heart and it is true they are really good kids (I got so darn lucky), but just because I highlight the good on here doesn’t mean there isn’t a rocky road with them here and there. That’s why I’m praying my guts out for them and have parenting books piled on the side of my bed and call my mentor mothers to help me figure out how to deal with things all the time. This parenting thing is certainly no cakewalk and these kids are certainly not perfect. And neither am I. So thank Heavens for second chances and forgiving children :)

Having said that, here’s my sweet-but-not-without-her-own-set-of-things-I-worry-about vibrant Grace.
Lots of personality in this one I tell you.

Oh boy I love her.

She has some good friends I’m so grateful for.
This is her third year in a row in student council and she’s kind of good at that thing.(That was field day…she helped man the stations.)

That’s why she chose to run for Vice President of the Jr. High next year. It was a grueling process because she filled out the forms all on her own, then decided maybe she didn’t want to do it because none of her friends were. We had a kind of tender little talk about it and said a little prayer together to help her decide. When I asked how she felt later in the afternoon she said she felt awesome and was all set to do it. So we turned in the forms: But then the world came crashing in on us because she had a choir concert at the same time as the speeches at the same time as all my college girlfriends came to town so she had to bow out by default. Sad day. But she feels good about it and all is well. I’m proud of her for always being up for trying hard things.

Speaking of hard things, she and her friends have decided to put together a little dance and gymnastics class in our back yard. I did nothing to help. Not even an idea (things have been nutty around here lately), but that girl pulled that thing off for the first day yesterday. I was so proud of them and how they maneuvered those little girls to learn all sorts of new things.(I love that it was all little girls and no one batted an eye at Lu’s post-swimming get-up…)

I was kind of sad when I taught art masterpiece this last month. I mean, I have taught many of these sixth grade kids art masterpiece since they were in kindergarten (I adore that program) and now they are going off to Jr. High. How do my babies keep growing up so fast? It was fun to have one last time to be “in charge” of Grace’s sixth grade classroom and watch her sparkly smile amidst her friends.
I recruited Grace and her friend to come help me teach the third graders this month too.
We blew watered down black paint with a straw to make cherry blossom branches modeling after the Japanese painter we were studying.There were fifty students in that class that day because one of the third grade teachers had an emergency so boy was I ever happy to have Grace and her friend for my helpers!

In sixth grade they do a ton of projects that take a LOT of work.
I so love to see kids work so hard on things and learn so much in the process.
Grace’s “sport” of choice right now is gymnastics and dance, neither of which I have many pictures of until the recitals come up in a few weeks, but Grace and Claire did have their choir concert last weekend and boy howdy I wish I could have recorded the whole thing. It’s this humongous choir (different portions practice at different times) and they all come together in concert which makes for quite a fantastical sound.

This is how the stage looked with everyone on it:
Wow, right? They are packed on there like sardines.

So much so that it was hard to find my girls at first but here’s Grace:
And here she is on the other side of the stage:I will try to put some video clips with Claire’s run-down tomorrow.

Love you Gracie!

Elle

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:39:00 +0000

The other place we have spent the majority of our time lately (aside from the volleyball courts with Max) is at every high school tennis court in the valley.

This girl has played a LOT of tennis this season.

Elle played on the Varsity team most of the season and had some wing-dinger matches. I think every one of them went into a third set (they play two out of three) and I swear that girl ran a hundred miles chasing after that little yellow ball.

My favorite match was the one below where she and her opponent split sets and went to the tie breaker. Elle was down 2-8 and came back to win. Everyone else was done with their matches so people started to gather round to watch that third set.

That picture doesn’t do it justice cause there were a lot of people gathered cheering which could have made Elle nervous as could be but she kept her head in it and came back to win.

Man it was exciting. Her Senior teammates were sure proud of her.

Not only has Elle played a lot, she has learned even more.

She got jousted out of her Varsity position for the last few weeks because she was too nervous to challenge anyone ahead of her in fear of hurting their feelings (and nerves). I could write a whole blog post about that because of all the lessons learned but I’ll just say she grew a lot from that.

Here cheering section:

Loved having these guys all there for her last tournament.

I was sad to say goodbye and wanted to take some tennis pictures with some of the other girls to close out the season and help cement what a great one it’s been in our memories.

Luckily Elle and her friends took care of that:I think those are the coolest shots. Good job girls!

In other photography news, here’s Elle’s latest client:Is she adorable or what?

On Easter she set up my backdrop and took some cute ones too.

I made the teenagers get in.Love them.

Click here to see her Easter video.

She’s getting pretty darn good at all that technology stuff.

Here she is trying to teach her sisters a thing or two.

One of our family’s best family friends came to town a while back. They have a cute daughter Elle’s age…

…and they used to live here so it became a big, BIG party.

I wish I had a picture of all the mountains of bikes in the front yard and a big “sorry” for our neighbors since those crazy boys figured out how to let of some sort of firecracker late at night.

They sure had a fun weekend which included a photoshoot with a really awesome photographer girl. I wish I had those pictures to post…if I find them I’ll post them later. For now, here’s one I caught…

Oh man we are sure grateful for this girl around here.

…and all the fun and creativity that comes along with her.

Max

noreply@blogger.com (shawni) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:45:00 +0000

I am so far behind on posting "little things" that have been going on around here that it would be a mile long if I tried to post it all together, so this week I'm breaking it up into increments...one post on each of my five children.

Here goes Max.

Be prepared because this is going to feel like a volleyball post.

Because that's pretty much what he has been doing 24-7 around here.

That and eating us out of house and home. Teenage boys eat a lot. Especially 6'5" ones. Have I mentioned that?

Have I also mentioned how much I love watching Max and Elle play high school sports? It has been a crazy season since boys' volleyball and girls' tennis are at the exact same time. I feel like I am sprinting every day after school to get everyone where they need to be and catch snippets of the tournaments here and there.

This is how they look heading out to school each morning with their sports paraphernalia:

On game days Max has to dress up in crazy outfits. This was a "tie" day, but you can imagine how "swim suit day" and "Hawaiian shirt days" look...

Max is a "swing" player on the volleyball team this year so he plays JV and also gets to practice with the Varsity team. Which means that boy howdy, he practices a LOT and he has learned more than I can say.

Being part of the Varsity team also means he also gets to have the experience to go to tournaments with them, which hasn't been a shabby experience. I mean, when your team goes to Hawaii for a tournament, no one is going to complain about that little perk.

I wish I had the pictures they took on the beach with palm trees swaying behind them...and pictures of Max in awe of those very nice great example Seniors he's spent so much of the season with, but I only have these pictures I took when my heart was worrying itself knowing I would miss him when he was getting ready to leave with a gigantic smile stretched across his face:

(Too bad you can't see the smile...or my mushy heart...)

Apparently he was pretty fine without us since we didn't hear a WORD for the first day and a half. (That's why he's in trouble at the beginning of this text...) But I love what he wrote.

That's it. All we got. Luckily my friend and her husband were there so they kept us up to date on what was going on.

He obviously enjoys himself out there. I love to watch his smile on the court:

And "kills" like this:

Wait, let's look at that one a little closer:

I know it looks like his hand hit the net but he's pretty good at maneuvering around that thing.

Love that smile:

My Dad was so worried about missing all the sports hoopla he flew in for a day just to jump from one sport to another to be their biggest fan. Love him.

Our high school was invited along with eight of the best high school volleyball teams in the area to an extra weekend tournament.

Dave and I sat there in awe on the sidelines...it is so fun to watch. Max didn't play (we are stacked pretty senior-heavy this year) but he lost his voice cheering on the sidelines and was pretty excited for that team...especially since they won the whole thing.

Dave is starting to look shrimpy with his "mini-me."

Lest I make this sound like it's all sweetness and light around here, all this volleyball is sure teaching this kid about the importance of finding a balance. All these tournaments have caused more missed school than we would like and and he is working his tail off (fueled by his parents) to keep those grades up. It's a lot of pressure for a fifteen-year-old. Volleyball is awesome, but grades and education have to come first. He's learning that slowly but surely.

In other news, when he is home Max is adored by his sisters:

He drives a lot:

And did I mention he eats a lot??

Here's a text Dave forwarded to me he and Max wrote back and forth. I thought it was funny:

Love that boy more than I can ever express.