pictures out of the mtc

i got pictures today.  it's almost better than christmas.  it was great to see this face (even if it is this one, which i think says "japanese is sooooo hard"):

of course, the pictures reopened that "missing you" wound. 

sam and isaac golfed in their lakeside league today.  sam was pleased with his score, isaac was not.  i guess that's what happens when you play 72 holes in a week.  then isaac went to cherry hill with the stobbes and then he went to a birthday party.  can you say crash?  he did when he got home from all that.

caroline came home late, late from girl's camp.  she bugged out a day early.  she has been living out of a suitcase this month and wanted an extra night at home.

naughty doggie

this is what jeter did while sam, isaac and i went to super 8 this afternoon:

this used to be a lovely pot of yellow and red flowers.  i think jeter did it.  i guess it could have been romeo, but i'm pretty sure romeo sat in the corner of the deck watching jeter.  romeo was probably wringing his paws worrying about how mad i would be at jete.  romeo has the most nervous personality and he worries about everything.  so, it's not hard to finger jete for this one.

i asked the boys if they liked super 8 and they both said, "i'm not sure".

we golfed nine holes this morning (i drove, isaac hacked everything and sam golfed seriously).  now sam is back up playing nine more...

hopefully caroline, craig, jake and evan had good days today...

and we all fall down

sam's team lost tonight.  and isaac's team lost tonight.  they are both done with baseball for awhile now.  sam's team has one more tournament and july and isaac may have a few more games when we get back after july 10.

sam pitched three innings.  he only threw about 30 pitches and held a very good, older team to 1 run.  after he came out, we started to make errors and didn't hit very well and lost.

isaac's all-star team got plastered.  they just didn't have it tonight.  but papi did score.

sam golfed 18 holes today.  isaac went to a movie with two friends for a birthday.  i went to lunch with linda and then wandered around pottery barn. all. by. myself.  a favorite activity.

we really wish craig would come home. 

more baseball, but almost the end

more baseball tonight.  i'm not complaining about that.  especially because our season is almost over.  this is not my favorite time of year.  my favorite time of year is the beginning of baseball season.

sam's team played in layton.  they planed a team with some kids from bountiful who are older than sam and clearly expected to beat us easily.  it was not to be.  we were at the top of our game tonight and won 14-2.  i have to say they could have been better sports.  one of them posted on facebook that they lost to a crappy team (which makes no sense).  their coaches threw their hats at almost every call and went after the field umpire after the game.  and one coach accused our coach (not craig) of flipping them off after the game.  no.  didn't happen.  we just let the scoreboard do the talking.

isaac played his last pool play all-star game and we won again.  papi had another triple.  a boy from our monarchs team was on the team we played tonight so his parents told their coach not to steal if isaac was catching.  in warm-ups when isaac throws down to the 2nd baseman just before the games start, he likes to fake like he has a really bad throw to 2nd so the team will steal and he will throw them out.  tonight was no different.  isaac made a horrible throw to 2nd, but to his surprise, the other coach, who had never spoken to isaac, said, "isaac, we already know you are a good catcher".  Haha.  So the first kid that stole got gunned down at 2nd and they didn't steal on our catcher again!

kabobs

i made a good dinner today and i probably didn't have to.  it was underappreciated by the peeps who were home.  i should have taken a picture of the pretty kabobs, the giant baked potatoes and the barbecued corn soaked in lime butter with cilantro. 

i learned at church today that president eyring was speaking at the mtc today.  i went right home and prayed that evan would be able to shake his hand and say hi, since they are kind of old friends.  no news yet on whether my prayer was answered.  it's a good time to be at the mtc because all the new mission presidents are there getting trained so they are brining in the big guns to speak.

caroline is home...

...and she had a fabulous time at efy.  she made lots of great new friends from all over.  she's already talking about next year...maybe efy in nauvoo.  wouldn't that be cool?

i went to the temple today.  sometimes old people make me really impatient.  i should be nice though because i hope i'll be old someday too.

isaac had two all-star games today.  they were very exciting.  here are the notables:
1. Isaac (pitching) hit three batters in a row. I started to laugh and got in trouble from the opposing coach for laughing about it (I was laughing at Isaac, not his players--we cleared that up). Isaac was not allowed by the umpire to pitch after that.  we noticed various players examining their injuries on the way to their cars after the game.
‎2. Isaac hit a bomb over the right fielder's head and then lumbered around the bases. It would have been a stand-up triple, but he went home or was told to go home (different stories from coach and Isaac). Out at home. Waste of a great hit.
‎3. I got in a tiny bit of trouble with the umpire. All I said was "that was a make-up call" and I wasn't even talking to him. He warned me and I spent the rest of the game wishing he would eject me to the shade.
4. We won both games!

then i raced off to super 8 with my friend, cindy.  cool movie.

craig went to vail for lunch today to break up his work.  he ran into an arts festival.

another day, another championship

at leadership camp this week, jake and the other boy bountiful officers did a dance for the variety show.  david and jake have now watched it dozens of times.  i watched it once.  i'm not surprised that they got a standing ovation or that they are getting lots of likes on facebook.  it was a funny, entertaining little number.  lots of booty shaking.  it looks like the bountiful boys were very popular at utah state this week.

isaac had an all-star game tonight.  we won.  the other coach told isaac to stop being a jerk after isaac laid down a hard tag on a runner.  boo for adults calling 10-year-olds jerks. 

sam's rec team--the yankees--won the mueller park championship tonight.  they had a stacked team and sam enjoyed being with all the kids. 

isaac was my photographer.  interesting angle, isn't it?

back to hillcrest

we are back at hillcrest today for more baseball.  if we won the first game, we had to play a second, then a third if we won that one too.  we had the razerbacks again. 

we went up a quick 3-0.  mainly because we had four batters in a row get hit by a pitch.  isaac had his helmet grazed.  after that we didn't do much.  isaac was 2-for-2 with the hbp.  the razerbacks came back and we lost 6-4.  it would have been really fun to win, but the boys were so tired.  it was kinda sad to see the team give a cheer for the last time this year:

we raced home, put shorts and sweats on, and watched the first 12 picks of the nba draft.  the jazz had two picks in the top 12.  we got a turkish center with our first pick and just before our second pick, jimmer got drafted by the milwaukee bucks then was promptly traded to the kings.  the jazz drafted a guard next, so that was a major downer because they probably would have taken jimmer with their pick.

jake came home today so happy.  not happy that his leadership week was over, but happy that he had such a blast there.  the really had so much fun.  we're happy to have him home.

now i'm home alone.  sam and isaac are sleeping over at monte's in a tent, craig is in colorado, caroline is at efy, evan is obviously at the mtc and jake went out with friends.  home alone.  me and the dogs.

the marshalls

sam is getting his braces off in three weeks!  we found that out this morning and the ladies are going to love his beautiful new smile.  we were lucky to have another weekday with craig around!  sam and isaac went golfing again, so craig and i went to lunch at my favorite place: salt city burger co.  i always  have a burger, medium, with avacados, carmelized onions and bleu cheese.  nothing better.  oh, and craig ran into the gateway for me and got my iPad replaced for free.

isaac had his third game tonight.  we played the marshalls.  we hate the marshalls.  their coaches act like they are above the law.  maybe they think they are the law because of their name: "marshalls".  we knew it would be a tough game.  i loved it when isaac got up to bat.  people were cheering loudly for him and calling him every one of his nicknames, so while i was watching in the bleachers, i heard shouts of:

"go icky"
"let's go, isaac"
"c'mon ick"
"go, big papi"
"let's go pop!"

loved it.

we were ahead the entire game until the bottom of the last inning when we suddently couldn't throw strikes.  i thought we were going to be okay when we were still ahead by one with two outs and two strikes on the batter, but he hit the ball off his foot, the umpire refused to call a dead ball (remember, the marshalls are above the law), the batter went to first, a run scored, we were tied and then we lost when we walked the next batter with the bases loaded. 

our fans were pretty ticked and it was a bit of a mob scene.  one marshalls parents even though it called their players something really nasty, which i did not, but there was chaos and i was just glad to get out of there. 

really hard game to lose.

sam won.  again.  pitched like a mad man.

more baseball

it's so quiet around here.  just me, ick, and sam for the week.  isaac had his second tournament game and today we beat the razerbacks, the #1 seed in our tournament.  it was an exciting 11-13 victory.  great pitching ick!  sam had a game in layton (loss) then got shuttled to his game in bountiful (win)!  a weird thing happened at sam's 9:00 game.  craig is in colorado, but when i was sitting at sam's game, i noticed that suddenly craig wasn't in colorado--he was at sam's game.  apparently, he had a day with no meetings before his trial started, so he buzzed home for a day.  we were happy to see him.

oh ya, and this is what happens to your iPad if you drop it from the bleachers:

giant bummer.

craig stayed home today! woo-hoo!

it is always good news when craig stays home for practically no reason on a monday.  however, he didn't really stay home for no reason.  he stayed home because he's leaving tonight for two weeks.  boo.  but still, the lawn got trimmed.  i got a massage, which i had to confess because craig stayed home for no reason on a monday and he asked where i was going at 11:00 by myself.  he didn't really care though.  sam and isaac were the lucky recipients of two hours of craig's time.  they went golfing and craig drove the cart for them.  and i'm looking at this pictures from the golf course wondering if there's a prettier place to golf?  probably hawaii.  caroline headed off around the point of the mountain to efy.  jake left for utah state for leadership boot camp. 

isaac had his first tournament game where we beat the bombers 4-8.  sam's rec team also won their first tournament game.  i'm one tired mama.

father's day

today is father's day.  this is an awesome keeper of a picture of craig and his dad.  they are horrible picture posers, but this turned out decent.  we had a fun dinner tonight and enjoyed the food and the company.

in general, father's day is not a favorite of mine, but today i took a nap and craig gave me presents: a book about mickey mantle and some red beats headphones.  made the day bearable.  plus the fact that craig is such an awesome dad. 

jake gave an amazing talk in sacrament meeting, his second in four months.  when he finished, the man behind me said, "that's why jake parry has to speak every four months".  it really was awesome. 

the most boring day in the history of the world & poly camp ends

today was the most boring day in the history of the world.  NO BASEBALL GAMES for the parrys.  so that meant we had to do chores and such.  sam finished moving into evan's room and it looks great and the yankees played at wrigley field (hasn't happened for 40 years) and jake had poly camp.  other than that, it was a pretty stinky day.  i vote for more baseball games.

poly camp ended today with a scrimmage and the haka.  jake had a successful camp.

3-peat

tonight was isaac's championship game at mueller park.  his team, the angels, didn't lose the whole season and only had to win tonight to give them an undefeated season and isaac a 3-peat as the minor league champion.  we gave up a run to the rangers in the first, but we didn't look back from there, winning 9-2.  isaac was 2-for-2 with a double, a single off the fence and a base on balls. 

all poly

today was all poly camp at bountiful.  jake is attending, even though he is white.  he and david got a kick out of the "academic" portion of the camp where learning was emphasized.  the leaders indicated how important it is to get an 18 on the act.  jake asked if having a criminal record would hurt his chances.  haha. 

caroline logged some driving hours today in the suburban.  we went to the landfill.  i have to say that so far, this is the worst thing of done this summer.  i wore nice shoes (mistake) and the smell was apocolyptic.  we dumped our mattress and boxsprings and hightailed it out of there.  we used hand sanitizer, which is funny because our hands didn't touch anything dirty, then caroline suggested a car wash.  we decided we don't ever need to go back to the landfill--it's a one-time adventure for us.

sam and isaac golfed in their league at the sponge and had a fun time.

craig is in denver for the first of many visits this summer.  it's gonna be a tough stretch since his trial starts in ten days and isn't supposed to end until the end of september.

isaac had his semi-final game tonight.  the angels had a tough start, but won 10-4.  isaac was great at catcher, catching two runners stealing before the other team stopped running on him.  he tried to fake them out at the beginning of the inning by making bad throws to second, but when they stole, he gunned them down.  finals tomorrow!

home run

productive day!  i dragged the four children i have left living at home and we went to costco.  this is good for me for many reasons.  first off, after shopping with me, no one can complain about what is bought or tell me that there isn't any food.  and second, i have lots of help loading and unloading!  so, bring on an earthquake or some other form of natural disaster, cause i'm ready now.  $820 later:

oh, and we had a lil' baseball game tonight and this happened:

isaac hit a bomb that landed by the bowery.

called up

jake and caroline are loving some down time today.  caroline is between her trip to d.c. and efy next week.  jake is gearing up for all poly football camp that starts tomorrow. 

sam had a game in layton tonight, their first loss in the layton league of the whole season. 

isaac had the biggest day because the mueller park major leagues called him up to play tonight.  he's in the minor leagues at mueller park this year, but one of the major teams was short kids for the tournament so isaac and peyton hale were asked to play.  only the hitch came when the opposing coach found out that peyton and isaac were the fill-ins.  he's aware of their reputations so he wouldn't let them play at the same time.  isaac played two innings and batted once and peyton played two innings and batted once.  they both fouled off a few pitches and then struck out, but it's always exciting to get the "call up".

18 days notice

it's sure not warm around here, but it is summer.  i'm dragging people out of bed sometimes at 10:00 and cracking the whip on the bedroom cleaning.  today i sent jake to his dungeon to clean.  he said it would take 15 minutes.  one hour later i went down...room not clean..jake on the couch watching tv with a friend...when i asked him what was up he said he underestimated how tired he would be.  sam was elusive.  craig dropped him off for his golf league and he returned seven hours later having played 18 holes and had at least two meals at the clubhouse.  caroline was productive.  she cleaned out her closet and volunteered at the hospital.  jake and sam redeemed themselves later by working three games between them.

craig asked isaac this evening to prepare something for family night.  he was in a bit of a bad mood after baseball practice.  he said he needed more notice, like six days notice.  so craig said fine, prepare a lesson for next week.  at this point, isaac said he would only prepare a lesson if he had 18 days notice.  maybe we'll have a lesson tonight on cooperation or honoring your father or cleaning your room.

mavs

church.

naps.  lots of naps today.  usually it's just mom, but several others fell asleep downstairs.

fun dinner.  we invited spencer and julie nelson over for steaks.  we had an entertaining time and good conversation.  caroline made great brownies.

the mavericks beat the heat.  jake owes me ten chores now and i get to feel satisfied for a whole year that the "big 3" got beat. 

ryan and stacey stopped by for a visit.  ryan was entertaining as usual and useful as usual.  he hooked up our other air conditioner.

eight hours of baseball

we had eight glorious hours of baseball today.  no overlapping games.  the sun was out.  it was awesome.  sam played his two games in the morning. he was an awesome 5-for-6, spraying line drives all over the field.  his only out was a shoestring catch by the centerfielder.  he was error free.

isaac played two games in the afternoon.  he also reached base every time.  two singles, hbp (yes, again), and two walks.  but his catching was what caught people's eye.  i had the grandpa of a kid on another team approach me and tell me that isaac was an amazing catcher.  he went on at great length about what he thought of isaac's catching abilities.  it was a super nice compliment. 

during the course of isaac's first game, he had his jewelry, shoes and bat all taken away.  no jewely allowed in the cal ripken games.  no metal cleats allowed in cal ripken games.  and his bat was a big barrell--not allowed.  craig had to give up his shoes so that isaac had some to wear.  it was funny to see him walking around the complext barefoot.

jake had a pizza delivered to his truck tonight up on bountiful boulevard.  something tells me that won't be the last time he and his friends do that.  craig happened to drive by at the right time and they gave him a piece.

caroline came home happy from her fun trip to washington, d.c.

hbp

what a lazy day today.  i think some days in the summer should be like that.  caroline is still gone, taking d.c. by storm.  today she even got to go to d.c. cupcakes, which made me jealous.  jake spent the day studying for the act--he said this is positively, absolutely the last time he is going to take it.  he's been scoring a 33 on the practice tests, so if he gets a 33, i will absolutely, positively support his decision not to take the test again.

i saw a rattlesnake today on bountiful boulevard.  it was slithering across the street and someone was trying to put a box over it.  that is the last thing i would do.  i was just glad i was in the car. 

i enjoyed a wonderful hour at the bountiful temple today.  it was the little escape i needed after some stress.

isaac had a make-up baseball game this afternoon--their last game before the tournament.  we were able to win again today, making our record perfect going into the season-ending tournament.  isaac got hit by a pitch (hbp), one of my least favorite outcomes of an at-bat. 

we got a letter from evan and he is fabulous.  i asked craig if he thought evan had been abducted by aliens because he is so positive and entirely happy doing what he's doing.  a blessing to me.

tonight ended with the best burger in town--salt city burger co.  i ordered my regular:  burger medium with avocados, carmelized onions and bleu cheese. 

golf

i can see that this is going to be the summer of golf.  and i'm okay with that.  golf is something that sam and isaac want to do almost every day.  they have lots of friends who want to golf with them and it's so easy to get to bountiful ridge from our house.  it's a great way for them to spend a morning or an afternoon.  today they did their lakeside league that is every thursday.  it was cold enough when i dropped them off to need a jacket (56 degrees), but they still had fun.

the best news about tonight is the mavericks beating the heat to take a 3-2 lead in the nba finals. 

hunger strike

isaac is tired tonight and had a bit of a meltown after his baseball game (he was the winning pitcher, had a great hit and walked two other times).  he was so mad at me on the way home he said he was going on a hunger strike.  ten minutes after we got home he was eating dinner.  he also threatened to quit baseball, skip his basketball camp tomorrow morning and said he said he wasn't going to be so mean to his kids when he got older. 

despite my best efforts to keep sam off the golf course today, he played nine and holes and worships his uncle matt who helped him restore his swing.  all is right in his golf world. 

busy bee

we got a quick letter from evan today (our third).  it was just a few sentences asking us to pray for a friend in the mtc who was struggling.  despite its brevity and subject matter or maybe because of the subject matter, i was proud of him.  he's already learning to put others first.  it was a happy moment for me.

craig hasn't been super busy at work lately, which is awesome because we love to see lots of him.  this is a normal cycle for litigation lawyers.  he had some cases settle and businesses change hands.  coincidentally (or not coincidentally) he had three big cases fall in his lap this week and this all happened the very week we sent out our second missionary.  blessings?  yep, i think so.  we're going to be sad though when craig spends most of the summer in eagle, colorado. 

mr. mayor

jake is at boy's state this week.  i'm looking forward to a run-down of what goes on at boy's state when i see jake on friday.  text messages are too brief to get much of an update.  at no surprise to me, i did learn late last night that the entire boy's state is divided into seven towns and jake is one of the seven mayors.  right up his alley.  i have gotten an update that jake is hungry, also not a surprise to me. 

the first day of summer and i had to get up at 6:30!  boooooo.  sam had to take a test at the golf course at 7:00 a.m. so that he can play in their summer league.  isaac is doing the bountiful high basketball camp so he had to be there at 8:00 a.m.  one of these days i'm gonna sleep in. 

after spending the entire day washing and folding every stitch of wash in both washrooms, i have decided that no one can get any clothes dirty for the rest of the summer.  they will have to wear the same thing every day for 2 1/2 months.  it is very satisfying to conquer the wash. 

no games tonight. 

cindy and i went to the late show of pirates.  we loved it!  captain jack sparrow is the ultimate cool.  and we even had popcorn.

lots of prayers for missionaries

have you noticed that everyone prays for the missionaries?  i didn't notice that until now.  i sure am grateful.  we've wondered all day what evan's doing today in the mtc.  craig looked back at his mission journal and we think he might have culture class, which would be something different for the missionaries.  craig did say that by now on his mission he had learned 400 japanese vocabulary words.  yikes! 

lazy sunday for us.  catching up on a little sleep for me.  jake is studying for the act.  the boys are catching fly balls with craig.  caroline is packing for her trip to d.c.  it's hot because one of our air conditioners doesn't work.  and the mavericks are trying to hold off the heat in game 3 of the finals. 

aw, mail

went to isaac's all-star game this morning.  he hit a ball 210 feet over the fence...foul...then the other coaches took his bat away.  they said it was illegal.  maximum width is 2 1/4.  his is 2 5/8.  if he hadn't hit it so far, i bet they wouldn't have noticed.

sam's team turned a TRIPLE play today to win their first game.  it was the bottom of the last inning and we were up by one, the tying run was at third and there was a runner on first.  the batter hit a ground ball to second, ss stepped on the bag for the first, threw to first for the second out, then the first baseman noticed that the runner on third was headed home, so he threw to sam who was catching and he tagged the runner out.  whew!  i've never seen a triple play before.

oh, and we got mail!  our cute mailman drove all the way up and delivered the letter from evan before he did his route.  our mail doesn't usually come until 4:30 and that's when he delivered the rest of our mail.  what an awesome act of service.  and it sounds like evan is doing great.  see elderevanparry.blogspot.com. 

the depths

i have reached the depths of despair. not really, a few other things in my life have been pretty hard, but when there was no letter today, i pretty much called it a day and then cried a lot. the mailman could tell that i was really, really disappointed. our mailman has been so nice to us these past few months. he brought thomas's call right to the door and then arranged on his day off to have evan's delivered early and we often talk at the mailbox. his son just left the mtc for his mission in charlotte, north carolina. so he gets it. i felt bad that he felt bad.

lucky for me, isaac had a rec game tonight so that got me out of the house on a pretty night. unlucky for the stobbes--they sat next to me and ya, i was still crying. they did a stellar job cheering me up and i even laughed a bit. isaac's team won. again. we haven't lost yet and one of the teams we need to reschedule a rain-out game with won't even play us because we win all the time. they're scared i guess.

i even drove through in-n-out by myself for dinner thinking that would cheer me up. didn't even taste good.

bruno said it well

speaking only for myself (mom) and borrowing words from bruno mars, this pretty much sums up the day after the mtc:

today i don't feel like doing anything,

i just want to lay in my bed

don't feel like picking up the phone,

so leave a message at the phone

'cause today i swear i'm not doing anything.



the dreaded mtc

before we left, evan headed a ceremony where jake was bequeathed with "voltron" (the truck):

at least i have been dreading it.  we ate at brick oven:

then we took a few pitures here:

then we were so happy to see troy:

the host missionaries kept trying to take jake.  i said, "hands off, i'm only leaving one here today."

worst of all was this:

sayonara.