Community Band

Our little community sometimes gets a bad rap from other communities nearby, but I just have to say I love this place so much!  I love the small town feel (even though when I was a kid in a "town" of 1300 or so, Albion would have seemed enormous), I love the diversity, the scenery, the people and I love the opportunities that abound for people to get involved.  

Once such opportunity has been the Community Band that performs a series of concerts every June and July.  Taylor has participated the last couple of years and this year Kendall decided to join in too. It has been a great chance for both boys to be challenged with harder musical pieces than they are used to and for them to meet other people of all ages.  And it has been a great experience for our family to spend some enjoyable Sunday evenings in one of the most beautiful parks in existence.

Shants--the Latest in Fashion (According to Kendall)

About a month and a half or so ago, Kendall decided to cut off a pair of jeans because the hole in the right knee (always his right knee!) had gotten enormous.  As a joke he cut off the right side but left the other long and he put them on and wore them.  Kalen told him that if he'd go to school like that, he would give him $5.  Never underestimate the power of a dare or the promise of money.  It took Kendall awhile to finally get up the nerve to do it but on the second to last day of school, he did it.  

He is such an embarassingly awesome kid!  

So if your children suddenly tell you they want some Shants as a part of their back to school wardrobe, you will know who to thank.

Quick Catch-Up

I've decided to re-recommit to my blog.  I really, really want to keep it up better.  But the thought of all those catch-up posts has been so overwhelming that I found myself ignoring it even more.  As much as I would love to have a record of everything that has been going on this past winter and spring, it's just not going to happen--at least not without me losing the summer too.  So I've just picked a few photos from the past few months that give a fair representation of what we've been up to and then hopefully I can do much better about keeping up with things from here on out!



We all had a good laugh one morning when Spencer came down to breakfast with some major bedhead!

Taylor was inducted into the National Honor Society and was asked to speak on Character.  He used a bunch of quotes from Gordon B. Hinckley and Ezra Taft Benson that impressed everyone.  We chuckled to think that they had no idea that they were enjoying quotes from prophets of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!

Kaya was thrilled to get a package from Grandma Oswald with this adorable handmade reversible skirt just for her.

Easter was lovely once again.  The snapshots of the kids on Easter Sunday were typical!

Taylor got his ACT scores back.  Way to go!

At the Jr. High/High School Spring Band Concert, Kendall was given an award for Outstanding 7th Grade Band Student.  The teacher spoke about each award winner and it was really awesome to hear the nice things she had to say about Kendall. 

Kendall had a ball on April Fools Day pulling all sorts of pranks and practical jokes.  Lynnsey and Kaya woke up to a t.p.'d bedroom.  Spencer had a cookie sheet of water right outside of his door.  The dining room chairs were tied together at breakfast so no one could sit down to eat.  He wrapped an elastic around the sprayer of the kitchen sink.  And that was all before 7 a.m.! 

We were joined by the Bramhall's for spring break and had a great time as usual visiting and cramming in fun activities like the Nature Center, playgrounds, the movies, and the Chelsea Treehouse. 

I came downstairs one morning to see Kendall's latest corny project.  He dressed up all the pins from our inflatable bowling set in clothes and costumes.  It was so funny to see everyone's faces as they came down and saw them!

Lynnsey did an ancestor report on her great-great Grandma Lang for Faith in God Activity Days.  She even used one of Grandma Lang's old aprons as a part of her presentation, and of course, it's not Grandma Lang without the braids pinned up over her head! 

After no fall soccer this year, we were all excited to have it come back again this spring.  Lynnsey has really developed some skills and is so much fun to watch!  Her team won their division for the season.

Spencer had so much fun this season.  He is still so tiny compared to some of the other U-8 players.  But he had a phenomenal coach and even though they never won a single game, they all felt like they had  because he focused so much on just having fun no matter what the score.  And it was great to see how much their little team had improved by the end too, Spencer included.

And Kendall, who thought his soccer playing days were over, was able to play again too!  He is just really good.  He does well in any position but played most on offense and as goalie.  His team also won their division for the season! 

Kaya still wasn't old enough to play but she loved to come to the games and watch.  I snapped this picture of her with her old friend (that I used to babysit) who she hadn't seen in a long time.  They spent the whole time playing together and I just couldn't resist this cute photo op of them holding hands.  Too cute!

It was such a cold spring this year that everything bloomed much later than usual.  But when it did, it was absolutely beautiful!  Or maybe we were just so thankful that spring was finally here that it just seemed more beautiful than usual.  Regardless, it was lovely.  And our pond lilies are so perfect that they almost seem unreal! 

And wrapping up spring, was Kaya's preschool graduation!  My BABY is moving on to Kindertgarten next year!  She loved her preschool experience.  Her teacher wrote on her final evaluation:  "Kaya has the most beautiful smile that lights up her whole person.  She is a strong and determined young lady who is such a pleasure to have in class.  She will be very successful academically and have a great year in Kindergarten."  I just can't believe it has gone so fast!

Argghh!!! --Blackbeard the Pirate

Once again our local youth theatre

 brought the Missoula Children's Theatre back to town for another great performance.  This year they did Blackbeard the Pirate and it was so much fun!  Kendall, Lynnsey, and Spencer all participated once again and we felt so relieved that they all got parts this year since there was such a huge turnout for auditions that many kids didn't get parts this time around.

Spencer was cast as a parrot, Lynnsey was a seaweed creature, and Kendall was perfectly cast as Peachfuzz the Pirate.  They all had a ball and are already excited for next year.

Parrots--"Brawk!"

We loved the Seaweed Creatures crazy costumes!

Peachfuzz!

The Pirate Crew--Bluebeard, Redbeard, Blackbeard, Greybeard, Yellowbeard, and Peachfuzz.

The kids really loved their directors this year--Jennifer was one...

And Jeremy was the other. 

This has just been such a valuable experience for our kids.  We hope they continue to bring them back every year.  And if you ever have the opportunity to participate in a Missoula Children's Theatre Play--do it!  You will love it!

Happy Birthday Lynnsey

Our little Lynnsey hit the big one-oh in January!  Crazy to think a whole decade has passed since she joined our family.  She is growing into a beautiful young lady who becomes more confident and talented every day.

This year was an even-numbered birthday which means Lynnsey could have a friend party.  So we celebrated twice.  Once on her actual birthday with just our family.

There was definitely and American Girl theme to just about all of her gifts. 
And her double chocolate cake was pretty tasty!

Then a week or so later we had her friend party.  When she had her 8th birthday party, we had promised Lynnsey that she could choose a place to go for the party if she wanted to rather than just have it at home.  She chose to do her party at a pottery shop called The Firehouse and was so excited.  And then we learned that they'd had some very severe pipe leaks that had caused a lot of water damage and so they were closed indefinitely.  So we had to change plans and since time was short, Lynnsey just opted for a party at home.  Well, this year we decided to let her have the pottery studio party since they are back up and runnning.  She invited a few friends and had a marvelous time painting piggy banks for an afternoon.

Kalen enjoyed helping too!  (And has been dying to go back ever since!)

Time for presents! 

                                     

It was such a fun experience.  And I love actually going somewhere else for the party because there is no pressure to provide entertaintment, I don't have to clean my house from top to bottom, and they handle all the clean-up there.  We definitely hope to come here again.

Further Adventures of a Temporarily Single Parent

Yikes!  So much for my goal to do at least two posts per month.  Looks like I have some catching up to do!  I need to go back and post things that have happened since, oh, possibly January, but before we get to our regularly scheduled postings, I just wanted to share my latest single parenting adventure.

It never fails.  Whenever Kalen goes away whether it's for a few days or a few weeks, EVERYTHING happens.  And usually none of it good.

A couple of weeks ago our white minivan was involved in a run-in with a curb.  The sixteen year old who is "learning" to drive and who shall remain nameless didn't quite get his turn right and rammed into it hard enough to bend the tire rim.  This caused the tire to continually lose air.  We took it in to the shop where they were able to successfully fix the rim but where we also learned that the tire took a beating too and has enough damage to continue leaking air.  We are looking at replacing that tire plus, they tell us the other ones aren't doing so well either.  Since this was not an expense that we had budgeted for this month or ever, we decided to wait to buy the new tires. 

That's all fine and good, but Kalen had a trip to a conference in Kentucky where he would be taking our good van and leaving me with the pile of junk.  He felt that if I kept our activities limited to just in town, I could keep the tire pumped up with our air compressor and it should hold long enough for us to get to soccer practices and games, etc.  The shop had warned us that it is extremely likely that if we were to drive the car anywhere on the highway or freeway, we will blow the tire, so I definitely didn't want to try that.  Anyway, the plan seemed to work at first.  Thursday I was able to get Kendall to soccer practice and attend a school meeting without any trouble.  Friday I made it to the bank and the grocery store and then later to Kendall's soccer game.  Each time I did have to pump the tire up since it would go completely flat overnight.  Friday night we came home from Kendall's game (which was played in 30 degree weather in a sleet storm and where he was an amazing defender and kept the score to a tie of 3-3) to find a message from one of the players on Lynnsey's team (the one Kalen coaches) letting us know that he was sick and would miss the game the next morning and oh yeah, he was supposed to bring the team drinks and snacks.  It was too late for me to call anyone else so I just planned to do it (even though we already had our turn, but whatever I guess).  I figured if that's the worst that had happened so far, we were doing pretty good. 

And then Saturday happened.  We all woke up a bit late since we had stayed up playing a game the night before, but we were still doing okay.  Lynnsey and Spencer were tracking down all their soccer gear and getting ready and I went out to pump up the car tire.  Sure enough it was completely flat.  I started the compressor and began putting in the air when I realized that it didn't seem to be filling as well as it had on the other days.  Just when I was about to go and check it, it turned off.  So I went to see what was going on and found the machine making an odd noise a bit like a kettle getting up to full steam.  I found that there was a bunch of pressurized air leaking from the connection of the air tube and the machine.  I tried to tighten it back up when the whole thing just shot right off.  I tried to reconnect it but with no luck.  By then, I was beginning to panic.  The tire was way too flat to drive it to the gas station to fill it up and I didn't even know where we may have kept a spare.  Plus, it was already time for the kids to be at the field for warm-ups and since I don't change tires everyday or pretty much ever, I knew it would not be a quick process even if I could find the spare. 

So I ran back inside and may or may not have had a tiny little screaming fit as I tried to figure out what to do.  I tried calling another parent who I knew would have kids there but got no answer.  Of course not, because they were already at the field!  I thought of another parent I could call  who I knew had their game the night before but could not find their phone number anywhere.  As I was looking for their number though, I came across the number of one of the families I babysit for.  They live just around the corner and I was desperate enough to bother them on a Saturday.  I called and got the dad and explained our dilemma.  I asked if it would be possible to have them take us up to the soccer field where I figured we could then deal with finding a ride home.  But, awesomely kind soul that he is, he instead offered to let us borrow their car!  I was so overcome with gratitude at this suggestion that I may or may not have shed a tear or two!  So we gathered everyone up and ran the block to his house to get the car.  We all piled in but had to move a yard sign out of the front seat so that Kendall could get up front.  Somehow when we pushed the sign to the back, one part of the metal prongs caught my finger and sliced it right open the whole length of my finger.  It of course began immediately to bleed all over the steering wheel of the borrowed car.  We couldn't find any tissues or anything to clean it up so I wound up using one of my gloves to clean it off and the other I put on my hand to keep the blood from getting anywhere else.  And finally we were on our way.

We arrived about five minutes into the game but thankfully things went okay from there.  It was another very cold day but Lynnsey and Spencer both had a great time and I was so thankful that Kalen had found another parent to coach for him in his absence because can you imagine that scenario if this had happened and I was supposed to be coaching... ??? Lynnsey's team won 6-1 and Lynnsey had three assists!  She and another player worked out a system that was just beautiful.  Poor Spencer's team was outsized and wound up losing 11-2!  But they had a great time anyway and just laughed it off.  Spencer was just ecstatic to escape the game without any injuries this time!

After the game, I dropped off the kids at home, cleaned off the steering wheel better, and returned the car and then walked back home where we spent a few hours before my mom came to pick up a few of us for the baptism of a boy who I taught in Primary for about 3 1/2 years.  It was a lovely baptism and so nice to switch gears a bit after such a disastrous morning.  I wish we could have taken everyone to it but my mom's car is only a 5 passenger so we left Kendall and Kaya behind. 

After the baptism, we raced back to Albion because my mom had planned on taking Taylor to a movie.  I had looked up the times earlier in the week but apparenly we got our signals crossed and I looked up theaters in Battle Creek while Mom was thinking she was going to Jackson.  So while she changed clothes, I looked up the Jackson times and realized they were going to have to really fly to get there in time.  So she took us home and Taylor wound up going to the movie in his suit. 

The rest of us spent the evening watching a movie at home and relaxing after such a crazy day.  Kalen finally arrived home that evening  and our joy at his arrival was short-lived since he soon was having a full-blown attack of gallstones.  (More on that later...)  Still it is nice to have our family back together and be back to just our normal crazy schedule, a sore index finger, and still, that pile of junk to decide what to do with.  But everything seems more manageable with both of us somehow.

Christmas Vacation

This year I made a New Year's resolution that I would write at least two blog posts a month.  How do you think I'm doing?  And actually it's only kind of my fault.  For several weeks the browse button on the picture loader was down so I wasn't able to load any of my pictures.  However that problem has been fixed for the past couple of weeks and I'm only just now getting around to doing my posts now that the month is over half-way through.  So now I will be playing catch-up for the next few posts and hopfelly then I can keep up.

Our Christmas break was really nice.  We stayed close to home and mostly just enjoyed the slower pace and spending lots of time together.  My cold finally abated somewhat and so we decided to take the kids to a kid's museum in Ann Arbor that we had never been to.  Last spring we purchased a reciprocal membership from our local kids museum thinking that we would be going to New Jersey where we always visit their museum there.  But plans changed so we are hoping to visit some of the various museums in Michigan before the membership expires.  Especially because we learned that they are changing the benefits next time.  Not only is it going up in price but now instead of free admission to the various museums it's only half-price admission.  So this may be the first and last time we visit some of these places.

This one was really nice and had three floors to explore. 

My favorite was this cute little general store that was full of old fashioned items and old cash registers for the kids to play with.

Spencer remembered all too well his experience on a stretcher in an ambulence in New Jersey...

Kendall and Spencer enjoyed a game of checkers by the old time-y "window" in the store.

Kaya was ecstatic to find that her best friend from preschool was there with her family that day too!

A trip in the ambulence.

After several hours in the museum, we took advantage of the location to do some shopping at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods to help kick off our resolution to eat healthier.  This was our first trip to Trader Joe's and we loved it.  We found lots of great items that were allergy-free for Spencer and lots cheaper than Whole Foods or the health food store in Battle Creek.

For New Year's Eve we spent another evening at home which is what I love best.  We enjoyed playing some of our new games that we got for Christmas and some of our old ones too.  The night passed so quickly and before we knew it we were ringing in anothe new year! 

The kids love their new game called Fibber.

We had a fun Fast Track tournament.

After the New Year, Kalen had to get back to work but the kids and I were fortunate to have an extra week before school and babysitting resumed.  I had been told about a fun indoor playground in Chelsea awhile back and I decided it would be the perfect activity for the kids to get out of the house but stay out of the cold.  I decided to surprise them.  It was so funny because it is located in a shopping center and the lot was pretty full so I had to park in front of an Ace Hardware store.  Spencer took a look around and said: "What?  You brought us to a hardware store???"  They were pretty excited when they walked in and found themselves in a big playland.  We ended up spending quite a few hours there and the kids probably would have been content to stay even longer.  I actually wouldn't have minded either since the place has a ton of overstuffed leather sofas and chairs for adults who get tired of playing before their kids do.  It was really fun and we'll definitely go back.  We did miss Taylor though.  Apparently he is getting too old for things like this.  (Even though I do think he would have had fun there--even I played on the equipment and the slides were super fun!).

One thing that Taylor did do over the break was to go on his first date!!!  He doubled with another kid in our branch and they took a couple of the girls (also in the branch).  He had to be talked (coerced) into it but ended up having a ton of fun so we're hoping that he'll do more of it. 

The day after our trip to the Chelsea Treehouse, I came down with a lovely stomach virus and spent the last few days of the break feeling miserable and kind of mad.  Between my awful cold at Christmas and the stomach virus, I was sick for most of the break.  By the time I was better, it was back to babysitting and the crazy days of kids back in school.  I guess I would rather that than trying to babysit while sick, but still.  I am grateful for the break and I am looking forward to summer already.