March Madness

Updates:

J finished out his very first season of soccer last weekend. It was all kinds of awesome. He had a blast on his "Red Rockets" team being able to play with all his friends!  He's a great runner (sometimes he has to squeeze his eyes shut tight to go faster!) and probably an even better goalie. I loved it when we'd be getting him ready for a game and he'd reassure me, without prompting, "I'm going to do my best Mom!". He's Oh-So-Proud of his trophy too! The day after he got it he probably told me 15 times, "mom my trophy is so cool!"  Love that boy! He's a sweetheart, has lots of fun with neighborhood friends and at school. He comes home with like a half cup of sand every day in his shoes from the playground. I went with him on his Phoenix Zoo field trip last month. Absolute perfect weather. Gotta love Arizona in February! Spent the whole time following four wild animals around the zoo, looking at boys. I mean, following four wild boys looking at animals. We had parent-teacher conferences last week and he's doing great in everything except some of those pesky two-letter phonograms. And.oh yes, his behavior. I have a hard time being concerned about that, though. : )

M is such a treasure, sometimes I don't know how I deserve her. She gets straight As in school, her teacher loves her, for the most part she cleans up at home, loves to try new things and cook and eat healthy and be crafty. The other day I bought a shoe cabinet at Ikea and M instantly jumped in and helped me with all 38 assembly instructions... which took hours. She knows how to wield a hammer and a drill, and can tell you what a philips screwdriver or a cam bolt is! She's also a project "finisher" which I totally appreciate! She helped me paint her bathroom a week ago too... Something that's been needing to get finished for a LONG time. Anything to get out of practicing piano I guess... She tends to get frustrated easily with piano because she doesn't get songs perfect right away... Difficult to stay positive and not have major drama with each song. She's been on a "smiling" campaign since her stake activity day thing a couple of weeks ago. Sweet girl. She's still enjoying synchronized swimming.

I'm starting to realize what a spectacular writer A is. I mean, really. Her stories are elaborately detailed and she's great at adjectives. Right now she's writing a story about a German U-boat. The logistics are sketchy a lot of times, but I love her enthusiasm and great plot lines! I wonder if there's a creative writing class I can get her into somewhere?
 Coming up is her third battle for "battle of the books" at school. Her team is currently in third place, so it's a long shot for them to make it to district, but I'm hoping!
She's doing great in piano, though she tends to play the songs she likes 100 times to every 1 time she'll play the others. I have "Minuet in G" permanently etched in my brain I think. It makes me sad that she didn't want to get back into gymnastics. But I think she's getting plenty of exercise daily on the playground, playing basketball with all the boys.

N still lives here, I think. His project at work, plus plenty of basketball each week, take all of his time and energy. He does love his church basketball though. Thankfully he hasn't been working Saturdays lately, and this weekend he's actually taking off TWO DAYS so we can head up to winter in Idaho for my niece's wedding. Which is nutso, considering how beautiful it is in AZ right now. Super excited to see all of my family though. Have to take some games to play in the hotel!

Sparky is no more! Have to include him on my update because he's been part of the family for so long. Posted it in CraigsList at 4pm on Saturday and then sold him right away that night to a couple of guys. So-and-so was buying it for his bro-in-law, who lives in Mexico, etc etc. who knows. at least the guy we did business with was legal.  We met him at the MVD yesterday and after dealing with incompetent people for TWO hours, transaction finally got done and title transferred. I was glad to see Sparky one last time to be able to remove my sun devil stickers from the back window! Lol, I didn't want anyone else to have them!  So! That means I'm getting a new (used) car! It's getting transferred here from Texas and it is lovely! Can't wait! 20 days and counting...

Okay!  What have I been doing this month? Organizing a whole bunch of Relief Society activities, that's what!! We played Jeopardy at my house at the end of January. It was a riot. And my house hasn't been so clean since we moved in. It was all decked out decorated for Valentines Day too! Then just three weeks later we had our big annual service auction at the church. Turned out nice. Now tonight we've got the stake RS activity which I have to prepare a few things for too! Whew.
Finished my first six-week session of Crossfit and started my second round today. Oh my, it was a killer.
400 meter run
2minutes on Airdyne
10 burpees
10 squats
10 dips
40 box jumps
40 more burpees
20 tire flips
20 pull-ups
20 Sledgehammer Swings
40 parkour vaults
100 navy seals
100 Supermans
400 m rowing
400 m run
Took me forever to get it all done. So I'm laying on the couch now, wasted.

Also in February I was in charge of M's class party at school. I love having loud a rowdy games for the kids to enjoy since they have to be so straight-laced all the time!
We took off after school that night and spent a couple of days in Prescott with all of the Carters at the coolest.cabin.ever. Carl had rented the place for all of us to celebrate Brooke's birthday that weekend. Super cool.