Ward service

Wednesday we joined our Ward packing food for a third world country. Mason has done this before but it was new for the rest of us. All of us enjoyed it!

We packed these 13 oz rice bags. 

They made a mess measuring out the ingredients. I was a sealer and I dropped two bags before they were sealed. I felt so bad...

There were a lot of us. We packed 37,152 meals in about an hour. I could of packed longer. It was a great experience. We'll need to do this again.

Coast ~ Friday

I spent last weekend in Oregon with Brian. We had a wonderful time. Our home on Nautilus fell through so we had to look at homes. Our original plan was to hang out at the beach all weekend. We ended up going into Salem on Saturday to look at homes. I'm glad we still stayed on the beach though. It was wonderful. Vineyards on our way out to Newport. 

Look closely at the above picture.

There's a car in the tree! It's a whomping willow!

There were times I felt like we were in Colorado. There were pine trees everywhere. It was beautiful!

Then we found the ocean.

This was the view from our hotel room. It was a nice surprise we had an ocean view. 

After dinner we thought about walking on the beach. Then it rained...

Our view during dinner. Dinner was wonderful. I had the best clam chowder EVER! Then I had halibut tacos with a mango salsa. YUM!

It stopped raining so we went for a walk. No surprise we got rained on.

We had to take our shoes off and roll up our jeans to get to the beach. It was worth it.

We then warmed up our toes in the lobby. 

summer begins

Wednesday morning, our first summer day, I made donuts for breakfast. I figured if I make brown sugar, chocolate chip muffins for breakfast than I can make brown sugar donuts too. They were super easy. Karlee had an early meeting so I saved a little batter so I could make her a warm donut when she got home. With our busy schedules we didn't get together until 9 pm. She still got a warm donut though. 

We had another open house, for agents this time. I took the dogs for a walk near Red Gate bridge. It was a beautiful day. Six business cards were left. I sure hope we get a contract on our home soon.

Thursday this was the scene for lunch. They all have earbuds/headphones, hot Cheetos, and a drink. Such an easy life at our house.

At 6:15 this morning, Mason headed out for youth conference. They were volunteering at special olympics then staying with a host family tonight. This is his first youth conference. I hope he's having a great time. 

I headed to the airport early today to spend the weekend with Brian, pictures to come. Karlee is holding down the fort for me, taking care of pets, running boys around, keeping the house clean... CJ had his first 11 year old camp out with only his troop tonight. He was so excited to go. It's at Leroy Oaks for one night. 

last day

There are many lasts today but a few firsts. 

CJ's last day of 5th grade and elementary school. He had to be at school at 7:30 to practice for band and orchestra for their 5th grade breakfast/celebration. He was very excited about the day.

Mason's last day as a Freshman. He really enjoyed having short days for finals. Friday, Monday, and today he was out at 1:00. Today when I picked him up I took him out to lunch to his favorite place, Chick-fil-a! He was so happy school was out that he was silly, and laughing at everything. We had fun!

Ferson has a parent/family and student breakfast/celebration on the last day of school. It was a wonderful program.

Each class, boys vs girls, had to complete word search/word scramble games to earn enough cups to build a pyramid before they could go sit at their table.

The entire program was wonderful! Their principal, Dr. Sculles, talked a couple different times. They had a video slideshow of activities throughout the year then they had their baby picture and a current picture of each student. During the baby pictures I got a little teary. I know Carson is going to miss his friends. I realized I've gotten to know these kids through work and I'm going to miss them too. Then the students sang a few songs. If was fun not only to listen to them but watch all the fun they were having. The orchestra played one song, so did the band. CJ was happily involved in all of it. 

Their final speaker was the new principal for Thompson Middle School. Carson wasn't too thrilled with this part. He's very discouraged that he won't be attending middle school with his friends. 

Last recess EVER!!!

The 5th grade clap out! (Karlee and Mason came with me.) Yay!! Schools out!! 

For a surprise I took the kids to a movie then out for ice cream. Here's the new things today. We've never attended a movie on the last day of school plus this is a new ice cream shop in our town. Super yummy! I think Karlee is wishing for a caramel apple too. Maybe next time.

smartie smart smart

Last week a friend of CJ's walked past me quickly and told me my son was a nerd. I stopped him and asked him to explain. He said it was a joke between them. So I talked with CJ. He said it was because he was smart and that he always gets picked for things. I told him that was good. CJ said he likes being smart he just doesn't want to be "smartie smart smart". Well guess what CJ? You're smartie smart smart and I love it!

Today was the 5th grade talent show. When I went to check in at the office to get my pass the secretary said there probably won't be many moms there. She was right. It was just me! It often is in this District. I'm still not use to parents not showing up to EVERYTHING. Oh well. 

CJ did a Harry Potter monologue, which he rocked! He really did do a great job.

Then he played his viola with these three. They all played well.

A couple weeks ago his AT math class shared their Geo World to parents and classmates. It was so impressive! His teacher is amazing and really stretches them with their assignments. CJ has really enjoyed this class. He designed the planetarium, the object in foil, to scale, as much as he could. 

5K fun

These two ran a 5K with me this morning. CJ wasn't sure about doing it when we signed up. He finally agreed. Mason had no desire to run with us. He decided not to come this morning either. I wish he had. We had fun. 

Karlee ran the first mile with Carson. She was able to get a picture of him when they passed later in their run. 

She just ran across home plate!

Go CJ! 

He thought it was cool to hang out in the Cougars dugout. 

We were hanging out in the bleachers eating our free hotdog and Karlee asked if there was a reason we hadn't left. I told her I thought we'd wait for the awards. I found a list of results and both Karlee and I placed! Karlee placed 3rd in the 15-18 year olds with a 32:44.8 time. I placed 2nd in the 45-49 year olds with a 27:36.5 time. A personal record for me. Carson's time was 43:13.3. He said he walk most of it. I told him that was fine. I'm just glad he joined us. 

On our drive home CJ wanted to make a summer bucket list. We had things like Six Flags, go to a beach in Chicage, Pacific Ocean, waterfalls in Oregon... I suggested running 3 5K's over the summer. CJ asked if this one would count as one. I said of course! He agreed to run two more with me. Our next one will probably be mid July in Geneva. Maybe our August one could be in Salem? That would be so nice!

eventful day

This morning was crazy! Last night Karlee and I put this clock up and didn't notice that the time was wrong. So this morning we had to fix it. (Btw - I painted those sconces on Wednesday. They use to be brass. I love how they turned out!) Then Carson found another tick on Murray. We found one last night while I was cutting his hair. This makes 5 ticks in only a few weeks. I guess I'll be buying meds for him. THEN I was opening blinds and a bracket broke. Brian told me to stop touching things. :( 

Mason had three finals today and he feels great about them. Only two more days of school left. Wahoo! Bring on summer!

Today we met Guen C. at Otter Cove. These two are such great friends. She's leaving tomorrow for Texas for ballet and we're moving soon. There's a good chance this was their last chance to hang out. They had so much fun together. I enjoyed visiting with Tammy too.

This boy finally lost his first tooth! It's been loose for along time. McKinzie told me that his dad told him he didn't have to wiggle it. Can you see his adult tooth? Hopefully it will move where it needs to be. I think he has another loose tooth too. 

We have a Shuldberg reunion in a few weeks and I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone. I especially can't wait to see McKinzie's kids! OK, I'm excited to see McKinzie too.