Still With the Boot

People have been stearing clear of me today.  I went to the doctor thinking I would be getting my stitches out and transitioning to a postop shoe.  No.  I'm still in the boot.  I still have stitches.  My mood is pretty nasty. The thoughs of going to Phoenix tomorrow in a boot are killing me.

Seniors had the day off school today since the juniors were taking the ACT.  Jake spent the day watching movies.  Allegedly these movies were for one of his classes.  Caroline took the practice ACT test with the rest of the sophs then did a little shopping.

Craig is busy at work and then on Tuesdays he goes to baseball practice with Isaac.  Sam also had baseball practice.  Today he told me he wished he had more baseball practices.  He's having a really fun year. 

The most exciting thing of the day was the release of MLB The Show.  A great moment for Sam and Isaac.

Slippery Floors

Today I am digging out.  I decided to be all better from my surgery today.  It doesn't quite work that way.  I'm marginally better though.  I didn't even take a nap, unless falling asleep sitting up for 10 minutes with the dogs counts.  Craig was nice enough to leave the kitchen spic and span for me today, so there wasn't much to do.  I washed my sheets and made my bed...hopefully to keep myself from taking a nap.

My cleaning lady came today.  She is a sweet Mexican woman named Grasiela.  The only problem is she leaves the wood floors really, really slippery and I'm not sure what to do about that.  The first time someone takes a nosedive though I'm going to be forced to get a new cleaning lady. 

The Boy in Fuji

We heard from the boy in Fuji today.  He's such a jolly missionary.  A tender mercy I didn't quite expect.  I expected a little bit of negativity, but we don't get much.  We get happy times, happy faces, happy stories. 

He's skinny.  Maybe I should go to Japan for a bit.  He's had a string of difficult companions.  Transfers are next week on his birthday.  I'm hoping he gets a happy American missionary who wants to work hard.  I sure do treasure my Sunday night e-mailing sessions. 

I heard Craig bore a great testimony at church today.  I got out of bed for a few hours.  Progress.  Caroline had a planning meeting with her dance group for the next girls' dance.  I have no idea what girls do at their endless dance planning meetings. 

Worst Day Yet

I can see that the deadening shots have finally worn off because I'm having pain with a vengence today.  Luckily, Craig came home midday so he and my mom have been able to help me.  The kids allegedly did their chores--although how am I going to know if they ever did.  I took the dogs potty this morning and didn't leave my room again the entire day.  Whenever I am sick, I always think about the scripture in the Book of Mormon that talks about opposition.  I'm grateful for the times of sickness or pain because they always help me appreciate the times when I am healthy and pain free.  Opposition is a great thing.  I'm grateful for all the help people gave me today and looking forward to moving forward from here. 

Stranded

I am definitely doing worse today than I expected.  I was able to get the kids off to school, only because the deadening shots haven't entirely worn off.  Then I was pretty much stuck in my bed the entire day.  My mom checked on me and fixed me lunch.  The kids all went to the semi-final basketball game (Bountiful lost to Orem) and then went about their various business.  Today was a struggle.  Sam didn't have a ride to his basketball game so I had to go without my pain pills for several hours in order to drive him.  By the time 11:00 rolled around, I was in a lot of pain and pretty frustrated.  I definitely underestimated the recovery time for this procedure.

Foot Surgery

I have been looking forward to this day for quite some time.  I have a tendon in my foot that has been causing me a lot of pain.  In fact, it hurts all the time.  Today is the day I it gets fixed.  After the kids headed off to school, Craig drove me to the doctor.  They were a little behind, and when my turn finally came, it took them awhile to get me sedated.  Apparently, after putting me to sleep, I kept trying to kick the doctor, making it difficult to do any kind of foot surgery.  Haha, they had to put me under a little deeper.  They cleaned out lots of scar tissue.  Here's hoping I've seen the last of my foot problems. 

Craig had to go to New York City today, leaving me to the mercies of my kids, my mom, and some nice neighbors who brought a good dinner. 

Superior Student Section

Today we attended the state quarterfinal basketball game between Bountiful and Herriman.  Bountiful's student section has a reputation for being very supportive of their team.  They cross lines here and there, even possibly making a few mothers cry (we were kind of hard on some of the WX kids).  They are generally very loud and they do research so they can tailor their cheers to specific players and their girlfriends.  Jake seems to be one of the leaders of the pack.

After the game we celebrated Jake's birthday with a few of his friends.  We served a crowd favorite:  Puka Dogs.  The weather took a major turn for the worse while we were eating, making it difficult to get to our basketball games tonight in the dumping snow.

Salmon Challenge

Today was the long-awaited salmon challenge.  Isaac doesn't really pine for nuts because he hasn't tasted them, but he pines for salmon and shrimp because they are foods he loved, but then developed an allergy to.  It's been hard on all of us because we all enjoy salmon about once a month for dinner.  Isaac's shrimp and salmon numbers have been getting better though so Dr. Broadbent decided we could try a salmon challenge.  I grilled a small piece of salmon and we went to Dr. Broadbent's office to eat it.  Isaac ate a very small bite, then we waited for 15 minutes.  He ate a slightly bigger bite and we waited 10 minutes.  This patterned continued for a few hours until Dr. Broadbent was satisfied that he PASSED.  We are all excited--mostly Isaac.

Ironically, we planned to have salmon for dinner to celebrate, but Dr. Broadbent said Isaac couldn't have anymore today--she didn't want to overload his system.  The rest of us enjoyed it though.  It came out of the oven hot and golden.  Yummy.

This boy asleep on the couch at 6:00 p.m. is Jake.  He is completely wiped out from church responsibilities, school, officer duties, and the weekend incident.  He looks all little and dependent when he curls up on the couch and falls asleep in the middle of the day.  I wish he were still little and dependent. 

Mondays

Mondays are pretty low-key around here.  No one really has lessons or practice.  It's a good way to start the week.  Hopefully because there aren't a lot of scheduled things, people are getting a jump on the school week.  But probably not.

I have been really trying to make Mondays more productive.  The week goes so much better if I do all the grocery shopping and meal planning today.  This week was a good week for that.  Hopefully I won't have to make another trip to the store this week.  I've been really working on emergency preparedness and food storage the past few months, so as I peruse the ads each week, I try to use Monday to pick up sale items that will work well on our food storage. 

I mailed Evan's birthday package today too.  I think we did a good job of sending some great stuff.  We sent some food he enjoys, some new exercise bands, a Sacramento Kings t-shirt that says, "Got Jimmer?--We do!".  He'll like that.  We also sent candy.  We usually send things in a flat-rate box so no matter how much the box weighs we pay the same price.  It's worth it to stuff it to the top.

The first game of the high school state tournament was tonight.  My foot hurt, so I stayed home, but Craig took the kids and went to watch.  We won pretty easily.  Jake is pretty much the leader of the student section, so it's fun to watch him lead the cheers. 

Jake also spent a good part of his day giving more statements to administrators and school police about the weekend's activities.   Since this is a public blog, I don't want to go into a lot of detail, but Jake did absolutely nothing wrong.  He was a victim in an incident that involved mainly threats.  We would like to see the boy who made the threats punished, but all we can really do is give statements and wait for an outcome.

Confiscated

Unfortunately, sacrament meeting today was completely lost on me.  I was so distracted by the weekend's happenings and my kids were super irreverent.  In fact, I had to confiscate four iPhones.  I would have confiscated Craig's phone too, but Isaac said I didn't because "Dad has all the money".

After taking all the phones away, my lap shook with text messages the rest of the meeting.  I probably should have just called it a day at that point, but I had to teach primary.

We watched the Oscars tonight.  Lame.  Lame.  Lame.  Okay, Billy Crystal was pretty funny, but c'mon, a mainly silent movie wins everything?  I think there should be a new rule.  If a movie about baseball is nominated for anything, it should win.  Period.  The End.

We heard from Evan tonight.  He's as happy as ever and loves Fuji!

Weird Day

Today was kind of a wierd day.

I never left the house.

Craig ran around running errands, buying baseball bats for the boys, did my grocery shopping, got a movie for us to watch later.

Caroline spent her afternoon and evening with friends.

Sam went to the BYU basketball game, last home game of the season.

Isaac went to basketball practice at 10:00 a.m. and came home at 10:30 p.m.

Jake went to the WX girl's choice dance.  Weirdest thing of all.  He went with his friend, Cassidy, but left alone because an old boyfriend thing turned into a great big thing.  Wish I could be more specific.  Let's just say, things are still getting sorted out.

It's probably good that I wasn't awake when Jake got home.  I got the filtered version from Craig the next day.

Worldwide Deacon's Championship

Tonight was the famous world Championship Deacon's Tournament.  It just happens that it is always held at the Mueller Park Stake Center.  The tournament takes place on a Friday night in February.  Games start around 5:30 and go to around 10:00.  There are eight teams, it's double elimination.  Blink and you'll miss something because things move pretty fast.  We had a good team this year.  In fact, we were so good, our coach said, "the second best team in this tournament is our bench".  We only had to play three games to be crowned World Champion Deacons.  We never even lost a game.  We thought about losing a game on purpose so we could play more games, but decided an umblemished record in the tournament would be great.  Here are some of the boys killing time between games.  

We came to our house afterward to celebrate with banana splits only to find a house full of unauthorized teenagers (Caroline) that were put out on the street in about 60 seconds. 

Visitors for Scriptures

With Craig back in town, we found a minute to read scriptures all together tonight.  It's hard to catch everyone home.  In fact, Sam came home from baseball just as Jake was about to go study math at his friend's house.  So we grabbed Jake and read a chapter in Alma.  Part way through scriptures, I noticed Caroline had invited some visitors to read with us.

No One Died

Craig has been in Tampa this week with his partner, Terry.  Craig was traveling with Terry when my dad died.  Craig was also traveling with Terry when my brother died.  You can see why I might not want Craig to travel with Terry, or at the very least why I  might want to keep my kids home from school and locked up in the house for the duration of their trip.

They were supposed to land in SLC tonight around 8:30, but had a weather delay that put them into Salt Lake City at 12:30 a.m.  I texted Craig and said, "at least no one died", to which he responded, "that's what Terry and I were thinking".  Sort of funny to joke about, but sort of not.  So glad to have him home!

Isaac had two basketball games tonight and the older kids had a fireside given by an astronaut.  Jake had to conduct again.  He's worried that people are going to think he trolls for firesides to conduct.  Haha.  If he didn't do such a good job, people would stop asking him to do it.

Next Dance

We've been so worried that Jake wouldn't get asked to the next dance--it's girl's choice.  Jake is always one of the last people asked.  Not.  I'm actually surprised he didn't get asked the day after the Valentine's Dance.  Anyway, he got asked by Natalie Giles, a cute girl that tells Caroline she's going to marry Jake.

Caroline also asked someone to the dance today.  He's going to be three days shy of his 16th birthday, so we're waiting for word...

Craig is still in Tampa.  He enjoyed a great steak tonight at one of our favorite places.  Wish I'd been there.

And this.  This is the way I feel each and every day when I think about fixing dinner:

Precedents Day

Today is actually President's Day, but I saw someone on Facebook call it "Precedents Day" then I started thinking, wouldn't it be great if this really were a day of precedents?  Kind of like a new year's resolution do-over, because I know a lot of my resolutions have gone out the window.  So, I'm going to set a precedent to be better, appreciate my husband more, be a way better mother, yell less, be more positive, you get the drift.  I have so many things I can legitimately choose from.

Craig had to go to Florida today.  Too bad Spring Training games don't start for a few weeks because he's a few blocks from the Yankees training facility.  He's working hard on a case with his partner, Terry.  Unfortunately, he was out of town with Terry with my dad died and then again when Scott died.  Terry is bad karma.

Today was a great day off school, housework, baseball, church, work.  We went out to lunch, spent time with friends, ran errands, went to a Jazz game, slept, went to a movie, watched a movie...we didn't all do all of these things, but all of us did at least one!

Sunday Games

Sam has played mostly on baseball teams that are mainly Mormons.  This year he is on a team that is mainly Catholic.  He's enjoying this team as much as any he has been on, but the change in primary religion, brought a change in tournment schedule.  Before I figured out what was going on, we were signed up to play on Sunday in the President's Day tournament.  We felt that since baseball is a team sport and Sam was so valuable to his team on defense, we were obliged to play.  We did have rain, but no one got struck by lightning.

We won the first game and lost the second game on one pitch that turned into a 3-run home run.  We found out later that the two teams we lost to made it all the way to the finals.  We could have beat either team, so that's hard to swallow.

When we figured out we wouldn't be playing on Monday, we decided to drive home.  Craig has to go to Florida and that was best for his schedule.  Also, I've been taking pain pills for my foot and I obviously can't drive on pain pills. 

We heard from Evan on the way home.  He had another great week, but cut his own hair.

Jake's Birthday

Today is Jake's birthday, but he's celebrating without us.  Caroline got him a pretty cool cake.

We had a free day in St. George, so Craig and I ran some errands in the morning.  Then we visited with our friends, the Stobbes, who were also in St. George for the weekend, then Sam had practice in Mesquite.  After trying several spots for dinner, but meeting up with really big crowds, we got Jimmy John's take out.  We ended up filling up our day.

Caroline went skiing with her friends today.  They seemed to have a great time.

First Game of the Season

Today was the first baseball game of the season for the Parrys.  I'm so, so excited.  Sam's first at-bat ended in a double.  Unfortunately, because of base running mistakes, the third out was made at home on the hit, so it didn't help us very much, but it should have.

So we lost the first game and won the second game.  Sam never sat out, which was something I worried about because he was joining a new team.  We played our games right in front of some pretty cool red rock formations.

We enjoyed take-out from the Pizza Factory after the games and the boys did a little hot tubbing.

Since there was no school at home today, Jake and his friends went skiing.  They got to meet a former Ravens player who was wearing his Super Bowl 2002 ring.

Shenanigans

Tonight we played WX in basketball for the last time this year.  The fans had a "white out" and Jake and his friends were up to their usual shenanigans, leading all kinds of cheers to vex the other team and their fans. Some of the cheers were probably not very nice. I had someone in the crowd tell me that Jake is the ringleader.  Hmmmm.

Caroline and her friends were also in there somewhere, blindly following Jake's lead.  It's a good thing he mostly uses his powers for good.

The rest of us waited around for Sam's deacon's game, which the other team didn't really show up for.  So, Isaac got to play for the other team.  I thought Sam could have passed to Isaac a few times, even though they were playing for different teams. 

Then we headed for St. George, getting on the road around 8:00.