Sun. 3rd--Our General Conference Sunday tradition with the Hough Family has been to have a chili pot luck in between sessions at 1pm. We certainly enjoy gathering together and feel blessed that we can do so. Sometimes we don't see each other much, even living so close.
Sun. 10th--We had Branch Conference at church. I had been teaching the Primary ASL for "Love One Another" so we did that in Sacrament meeting as a special musical number for the Stake. It was a sweet little offering. I was sustained as Branch President during Sacrament Meeting and after church, I met with President Matt Hart. He asked if I would accept the assignment to be the Young Women's Camp Cook that summer in Cloudcroft, NM the end of July. My Patriarchal blessing counsels me to always accept priesthood callings and assignments in the affirmative. I have never cooked for more than 12 people in my entire life, let alone plan, coordinate, and cook three meals a day for 100+ people for 3 1/2 days. But I was at peace and had no reason to say no, so I accepted. My sister-in-law, Christina, is camp director, so it would be easy and convenient to work with her. Besides, Karcyn has food allergies and I'd have to try and get food coordinated for her anyway. I might as well be camp cook...then I'm in control of the menus and the food provided for her. :)
Wed. 13th--JJ teaching Grandma how to play Beyblades.
*Mom and Dad's rescue pooch, Kuky. Look at those bat ears. :)
*Grandpa teaching Calvin and Karcyn about family history.
Thurs. 14th--JJ joined 4H in the fall so that he could do some of the shooting sports...archery to be precise. He picked it up pretty quickly.
Fri. 15th--Good Friday--no school for the kids...and we got to work in the backyard together as a family, cotinuing what my parents started the day before.
The yard was actually looking super nice. Who knew what a "little" raking could do. But wow! What a transformation.
My parents, alone, filled 20+ trash bags of yard debris, weeded the flower beds, trimmed all the bushes that have been neglected for a decade or two in our backyard, and even cleaned up a corner of our neighbor, Janie's, side yard. Thank goodness the city was picking up yard debris that weekend. We just had to call to get our names on the list and leave the debris in the alley.
Sat. 16th--The boys had bowling leagues in the morning and Karcyn had a YW camp kick-off from 11-1 in Lubbock at the stake center. Then we all met up at the temple for branch youth baptisms. I hung out with JJ and Korbin and Amaya as we walked around the temple grounds and then waited in the car.
Sun. 17th--Easter Sunday...Jared enjoying his day of rest.
Grandpa talking with JJ about the Passover.
*Playing Acey Duecy.
*We enjoyed a delicious meal of smoked chickens on the Treager...broiler chickens that Karcyn raised and helped process. She didn't wring their necks, but she did break their wings and bones in their legs in order to skin them. And she didn't balk once--not in disgust and not in horror. SUPER proud of my girl.
Mon. 18th--It was a day off from school, as part of Easter weekend. This was a wonderful blessing since my parents were visiting. Grandma trimmed JJ's bangs at my request.
*It was a blessing to not have to work that day because I had my follow-up appointment with Dr. Cervera in Lubbock about the results from wearing a heart monitor for three more weeks. I was grateful to have my parents come along with me. My appointment was at 12:45pm. We didn't get out of there until 3:30pm. They liked Dr. Cervera. Basically he said that the heart monitor was inconclusive as well. So there were two options. One would be a procedure that may or may not give us the information he's looking for. The second is to put a loop recorder in and they would monitor it from his office. I'm not feeling like I'm going to pass out, which is what he keeps asking me, but he's worried that because I only have one working electrical wire (as opposed to three) and because it runs right through the mess of where my heart surgery and valve repair was, that the electrical signals are getting jumbled and lost. I hesitated because I do feel fine. And it sounds really expensive to me. We have kids with some really big medical issues we need to pay for. We don't have money for this. The doctor tried to persuade me that there's something going on and he really needs to find it. My parents weren't very happy I was being so dismissive. Since we have a high deductible/out-of-pocket maximum ($5400) that we owe every year, I asked if we could just jump right to the loop recorder. He said that was fine. I wanted to wait until school was out, though. We'd have to wait til the middle of June, because the doctor would be out of town for a couple weeks at the end of May. But at least it was on the calendar.
*Rolo is so cute...watching family members as we come and go.
*Grandma sucked into the backscratching hole. Not that I blame my kids. My sister and I did the exact same thing to her mom, Grandma Cooper, when we were younger. Grandma's back scratches are the best.
*I could not believe my eyes...$4.61 for 18 eggs?! It used to be $2.22.
The new sewer pipe...thick and sturdy. Should last another 30 years...
This is part of the old pipe. Look at thin and brittle it is.
That trench is very deep and the backhoe's wheel is really wedged in there good.
Joe tried to dig out the first machine with another machine. JJ watched on.
*My parents wanted to take me out to dinner for my birthday, but Jared got tickets from Ella at the hospital (via Kevin) for a dinner and show with a hypnotist. Since it was free BBQ and a show, we opted for that instead.
Sat. 23rd--Now we have not one, but TWO machines in our rinky dink backyard.
It wouldn't have been so bad, but they were totally tearing up what little grass and flower beds we had and essentially made it a yard full of dirt. *sigh*
Rolo checking out the trench.
*This was the day my parents were originally planning to head home. But...it was also the day of the JBT (junior bowlers tour) tournament at Whitewood Lanes where the kids bowl. Calvin and Cooper were registered to compete and we really hoped Grandma and Grandpa would stay and watch. And they did! :) This is one of our favorites, Bill Wood--coach and mentor--giving the boys some last minute advice for competing. Every competition is a spare game...picking up your spares.
*As bowlers themselves, my parents certainly appreciate the sport as more than just spectators. (I can't believe out of the twelve days that they visited, THIS was the only picture I had of them.)
*Calvin getting ready.
*Cooper doing his thing. He didn't do as well as he hoped. But bowling scratch is a lot harder. You don't have your handicap to boost your score. He was off to a great start and then had a couple rough games. Unfortunately he came in 15 out of 20. He didn't make the cut for round two.
After bowling five games, Calvin learned he actually made the cut. He came in 15 out of 56.
Calvin ended up in 10 out of 12 in the second round after 8 games. He earned scholarship money. And when we finally went home, it was dinner time. We didn't get back to Snyder until 8pm.
Tues. 26th--Still two machines in my backyard...hopefully not for long.
Fri. 29th--Celebrated my 45th serving others in the Lubbock Temple. Can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing.
*A few of my kids feel this deeeeply.
Tues. 19th--JJ continuing with his archery lessons. He's got good form.
*We had hired a plumber out of Abilene to replace our sewer pipe. He came in with the lowest bid ($3600) and was recommended by Kevin and Chris. It took him a few days, but he was just minutes from finishing up underground and putting all the dirt back, when the backhoe fell into the trench! It was tipped on its side just enough that it wouldn't start because of an emergency setting. Joe tried everything he could think of to get the hoe out, but nothing worked. He was working until after 10pm that night, too, until he had to go and left the machine in our yard.
Fri. 22nd--My dad took these pictures of our new "lawn ornament" for me while I was at school.
*This is Jeff...he recognizes our boys because they've done a few of these JBT tournaments in Albuquerque, Lubbock, and Phoenix. It was $50 for Calvin to bowl handicap and $60 for Cooper to bowl scratch. I was covering Cooper's fee and he was going to move money over later. When Jeff got our total up on the device it was $100. It made me pause for a second. I thought perhaps we got some kind of discount. Before I gave my card, I asked him "$100? Are you sure?" I told him Cooper was bowling scratch. He slapped himself on the forehead and said that I was definitely racking up brownie points for being honest. He said he would have been short in his totals and wouldn't have known where the mistake was. He really appreciated my honesty.
Sun. 24th--My parents left to drive back home. I can't believe how fast the two weeks went by. And I'm horrified that I didn't get any group pictures with them. I'm a terrible daughter!!
*My mom bought this pillow for Rolo. I thought it was funny that he knew exactly where to lie on the couch.
Thurs. 28th--JJ practicing archery with 4H. He's getting better. His arrows are in the bottom right corner.
Such a beautiful spring evening.
Sat. 30th--Karcyn and Calvin had a stake Trek activity and dance at the stake center that evening. So we drove them up for it. While they were there from 5-8pm, Jared and I took JJ to go see the movie "The Bad Guys" which was showing during that time. We grabbed a quick bite to eat then headed to the theater. It was fun being there with just JJ. The movie was cute and the timing worked perfectly. When it was over, we drove back to the church building to pick up Karcyn and Calvin. That's when we learned that some young women asked Calvin to dance three or four different times--and he turned them all down. WHAT?! I was horrified!! My heart went out to those girls. I totally failed Calvin and those girls! Hopefully he hasn't created a negative reputation for himself. Apparently, Calvin isn't as confident as we thought. He was too scared that he would mess up or make a mistake around the girls. I told him that the girls feel the same way. But it takes great courage to ask someone to dance and we should be mindful of their feelings and try to always say yes when asked. Hopefully he'll be ready next time...hopefully he'll want to go next time...
