My Distinguished Young Woman!

The last three months have been pretty busy as Kami has prepared for the Distinguished Young Women program.  Thursday night I attended a luncheon with Kami and all the other participants and their mothers. Talk about a group of classy, talented and outstanding young women (twenty in all)!

Below - participants plus some leaders:

I grabbed a few pictures of her with some of her besties! l-r: Kamille, Haylee Hammond, Remi, Annie Stoddard, Hannah Griffith, Elisa Walker:

Shayla Babcock and Kami:

Yesterday was the long-awaited day, and boy was it busy!  (Made even busier by the fact that Kami had to do a skit for a school assembly so that she could run for student council this year).  By the time her interview with the panel of judges came up, I don't think her mind was really in it and she didn't feel like it went very well.  BUT, I got to watch the rest and I thought she was outstanding and stunningly beautiful in everything that she did:)

Self expression:

Talent - She played the Revolutionary Etude by Frederic Chopin.  Her grandma wrote up a really great introduction :  "The famous composer, Frederic Chopin, much preferred playing for small Paris gatherings, called Salons, to large audiences. He soon became the favorite performer for these wealthy and cultured patrons.  Tonight, Kamille Gee, dressed reminiscent of those adoring aristocratic ladies of Paris, will perform Chopin's fiery Revolutionary Etude, composed when his beloved Poland fell to Russia.  Please welcome Kamille Gee playing Chopin a la high society." Marilyn thought up the feather in her hair and everything else and before Kami began she gave a snooty flip of her head and patted her hair, smiled at the judges and began.  This was afterwards:

Fitness:

Doing her solo in fitness (She's going into a kick):

She ended up winning the talent and scholastic parts of the program and came in as the 4th runner up over all!  Way to go Kami - you are amazing! We were so excited!!!!

So was her grandma!

I can't believe how hard she and Kami worked at that piano piece! Marilyn asked her interview questions every time she came over, and found MANY opportunities to have Kami play her piece in public beforehand.  I realized that this was one of the highlights of the whole program for Kami one day, when she said, "It's just so fun to be getting to spend all of this time with grandma!"

Our neighbor, Julie Coray, was also so helpful to Kami, giving her so many useful tips from stage make-up to poise; and taking the time to meet with her and see how she was coming along from time to time. She is so wonderful!:

Several of her friends from Sugar City came to watch, and I feel badly because I didn't catch a picture of one of her best friends from Sugar; Amree:(

One of the best parts was that her best friends were runners-up with her!
Classy girls, Hailee, Kamille and Annie:

This was really a remarkable experience and I am so glad that Kami participated! It was also so wonderful to have so many people there to support her!  Shawn's sisters, parents, Aunt Linda, my sister Katie and three of her kids, and my good friend Tara Reilley and many other friends and relatives and neighbors scattered throughout the audience!

I am now looking forward to sleeping better at night and having time to devote to things other than working on routines with her so many evenings and costume sewing and creating! It's been fun and exciting spending the time with her, but I am completely worn out!

Weather brings out the best!

Ever since the weather has warmed up, Pace has wanted to be outside full-time! He brings me his jacket and shoes multiple times a day, and if I don't get him outside fast enough, he brings me my coat and shoes as well:)

In an attempt to have more control over when we go outside, I put his shoes up on top of the shelves where he can't reach them. I guess I will have to do that with everyone's shoes...

He is wearing shoes from Shawn on down with great (cute) skill;)

Dear mom, How did you know?

Happy birthday to my mother today!  I'm not even sure how old she is today, but when she was born, on St. Patrick's day, her mother gave her an Irish name: Marjorie Shannon.  Years later, she married a man with an Irish last name of Kerns. So there you go.  I get my green eyes from her, and we both choose green as our favorite color!

I wish I could email or even talk to her today, but she and my dad just went through cyclone Pam in the South Pacific and will have no way of communicating for who knows how long.  (They did find a place with satellite internet and were able to reassure us that they are okay.) I have been thinking about her all day.

Particularly as I sat happily sewing as Pace took his afternoon nap.  I was thinking, "who would have ever dreamed that I would ever have come to enjoy sewing?!?!?  Not me!!"

Growing up, if we mentioned that we wanted a new dress for church, or an up-coming stake dance, mom would say, "let's go pick out a pattern and some fabric and make one!" I don't think I ever owned a store-bought dress.  I don't think my sisters did, either.

Picking out the style and fabric of the dress was the fun part - exciting as we envisioned a unique creation; exciting to be alone with mom.  I remember finding certain fabrics and mom saying, "I can just SEE this with that pattern!"

Starting to actually sew and the whole sewing project was my dread.  I had a bad attitude about it, and would often act like I couldn't do something, like thread a bobbin, just so that mom would do it for me.  I would read the pattern, but always ask mom what the next step was. I was trying to make it very clear that I did. not. want. to sew! I know I was just hoping that she would see me as a lost cause and make it herself. My own kids are so much better at just figuring things out and doing them.  My mom didn't deserve me. Sometimes I would make mistakes and be so frustrated that mom would pick them out for me.

But through it all, I learned to sew.  I am so lucky to know this skill!  It has saved me so much money through the years, and has become such a fun hobby.  Things that I can envision, but are nowhere to be found, I can make! How did mom know that she was bestowing such a gift?

As I sewed and thought about all of these things and how much I appreciate my mom for passing on a useful skill, I thought, "I need to do better about having my own girls sew things!"  Immediately the thought followed, "It's so much easier for me to do it myself!!"

And then a greater well of appreciation for my mom swelled up inside of me.  It wasn't easy for her to have us sew our own things.  Thank you, mom, for your patience, unselfishness, and vision!

crazy hair

The kids and I were pleased with how their hair turned out for "crazy hair day" at the grade school!

Nolan was pretty set on a mohawk, and I put bouncy balls in Belle's hair:

Fun.

"I was sorry that it ended"

Nolan finished his first reading of the Book of Mormon yesterday!!!!!!!!!

He's been reading a chapter or two every morning before he goes to school, and has been really close to the end.

Yesterday he came home from school, snuggled into a blanket and started reading. I was folding laundry when he came and asked me if I could have Isabelle turn off her music because he couldn't concentrate with it on.  I told him that maybe he should go into another room, thinking that he was reading one of his regular books. (He reads ALL the time - and with music going -and it never distracts him.)  But then somehow it came out that he was trying to finish up the Book of Mormon.  I sided with him mighty quick!

I am so proud of him and how he stuck to it and met his goal of reading it "all by himself" before he gets baptized!

Sloop John B

Shawn had a class that he wanted to take in North Carolina that was only offered twice a year and one was this week.  He signed up a month in advance.  There was a flight that went through Minnesota, that he decided NOT to take because of all the snow conditions.  Instead he chose a flight that went through Texas.  Guess where it snowed?  The Texas airport closed down.

Shawn left Saturday morning at 8:00  and was suppose to arrive at his destination later that afternoon, but FINALLY arrived in NC at 8:00 Sunday morning. His luggage didn't follow him, so all he had to wear was what he had on. He got to experience what it was like to attend church in jeans and a t-shirt:) The ward was great and super friendly!

We tried to talk on the phone but there was horrible reception in his hotel, and we lost the connection.  I texted and asked if he could call me from somewhere else.  He texted me a picture of himself wrapped up in a blanket and said, "I would love to, but I'm doing laundry." Yesterday I got to talk to him while he stood outside in the rain...

Yesterday he texted me, "Pulled over by police.  Sloop John B".

You know, the Beach Boy's song:
Let me go home, let me go home
I wanna go home, let me go home
This is the worst trip I've ever been on....

Apparently the rental car he was given didn't have plates.  Shawn made small talk with the policeman while he tried to get through to the rental office which had put him on hold. When the policeman finally got hold of the rental place, they had no record of Shawn OR the car, so they wondered if it was a stolen car? They asked if the policeman could escort Shawn to their office?

By now, the policeman had decided he liked Shawn, and told the woman at the rental place that she was 20 miles outside of his jurisdiction.  He told Shawn that he could keep driving the car for all he cared; that he wouldn't pull him over again!

Shawn took a two hour or more loop out of his day and went and exchanged cars.

Hopefully his trip will start looking up because he finally got his luggage this morning after three days without!:)

I know.

I've been terrible about blogging lately.  It's been pretty busy around here; mostly because my time is taken up with helping Kami get ready for the Distinguished Young Woman program that she is participating in, that will take place at the end of March.

This morning Pace woke up with a fever and just fell asleep on the couch. #never happens.  He never snuggles with me, either.  It may sound heartless to say, but I LOVE it when my toddlers get sick (and feel miserable....) because they let me snuggle with them to my hearts content! I guess it's a good thing that my plans to go to the gym this morning are foiled, because now I have time to blog?

Pace got to the bread yesterday and squished it down and turned it into swiss cheese:

A few days ago, he found out that he loves boysenberries:

I am wondering if everyone is having a vole problem or if they're only over-running our side of town?  Maybe it was the mild winter.  Anyway, Maddie, Isabelle, Nolan and Abram have been having a great time being "mouse hunters" with traps and the bb gun.  Luckily, our cat is also being a great mouse hunter, and for a change I am thrilled when she leaves her offerings on our front porch because it's a visual for me that she is trimming down the supply!

I googled "How to get rid of voles" and was surprised to find that it's against the law to kill them in some states.  COME. ON.  Dumbest law I have ever heard? Possibly.... Evidently you are supposed to catch and release them somewhere.  I think this law was put into place in some states to breed contention amongst neighbors?  Also, cats are not recommended because "then you don't have the catch and release option."

Pretty sure that Idaho has no such law, but I didn't bother to check, either;) Abe found this tiny bent-up saw "sea-saw" outside this morning and said, "Mom, now whenever I want to cut a mouse in half...!!!"

Don't worry that won't be happening.

I gave my three little boys hair cuts the other day and thought this was cute.  Top pile was from Nolan, Middle was Pace and then Abram:)

Now I am off to add bling to this shirt that Kami is wearing for her "opening number":

And making something akin to this for another part of her performance:

Fun times.