Baseball and Softball begin

so life has gotten way busier.  Aspen actually started games this past week.  She has moved up to an older age bracket and not quite sure what to think.  But she did pretty good considering she has only been to one practice.  Her last game, I reminded her not to swing at balls on the ground or ones that are above her head and she earned a walk.  Then she got out on a double play the next batter.  I learned that I need to try and teach her more about the game.

Colten had two practices this last week.  He also moved up an age bracket.  He is trying his best to adjust but hopefully with practice he will get more comfortable.  His games start next week.  Luckily, his friend Brody is also on the team so they can pal together.

This past week was the end of the quarter for me.  Three quarters down, just one to go...yay!!!  My spring break is this next week and I couldn't be more excited to have this break.  I hope to be able to get to the temple a couple of times this week, it has been closed for cleaning the past two weeks.  Then I have some errands to run...mainly shopping that I have been putting off.  Then I might do a little bit of spring cleaning if watching movies doesn't pull me in.  I will go to the school once or twice to have lunch with the kids as well.  It should be a fun week.

On Friday, I joined my mom and Paula's grandkid get together hike.  We went out towards Kayenta to go see the petroglyphs.  Karston also joined us.  It was a great hike.  The kids loved climbing around on the lava rock.  The petroglyphs were also awesome to see.  There were so many on the rocks.  You just had to look on the rocks carefully.  The kids (Jayden, Gabby, Nickolas, Aspen, Colten and Jeramiah) were such good hikers.  The only time they complained was at the beginning when I told them the hike was 6 miles both ways and up hill....lol.  I don't think they would have noticed if the hike was 6 miles, they were having so much fun.  After the hike, we headed over to Paula's for some homemade pizza.  I departed after the pizza and let the grandma's take over.  I believe they headed back over to my mom's to watch a movie and then they slept over at their respective grandma's house.  I am so glad that the cousins love getting together and get along.

On Saturday morning, Karston and I went on another hike.  I learned that Karston knows about a bunch of cool hikes.  So we are going to go on a few the upcoming months, before it gets too hot.  He took me to the Scouts Cave.  I am so excited to learn about the amazing hikes that Karston knows about.  This hike was a great one and located just outside of Snow Canyon park.  The last little bit of the hike is mainly going up hill but it is so worth it.  I loved chatting with Karston and catching up on life.  I am looking forward to more of these.

After the hike, I went home to finish cleaning the house for the week.  The kids were still playing at Grandma's.  Grandma actually took them to Sand Hollow to go swimming for a few hours.  When the kids got home, Aspen was ready to stay indoors.  She took a shower and then her and I watched the episodes we have missed of "Once Upon a Time".  Colten went outside to play for a little bit before getting invited over to Brody's house for a few hours.  I think the kids have had a good weekend full of fun.  Now we are going to have a good Sunday so we can make it through the upcoming week.

Kids' Spring Break

Unfortunately the kids spring break and my spring break do not overlap, I haven't decided if I love that fact or not.  I am sure in two weeks I will love it.  But anyway, I knew that I could not keep them home and have me work (teaching classes) so I asked their dad if he would want them for a few days.  Luckily, I had the 8th grade outing up in Salt Lake on Friday so I would have to go up anyway.  He said he would love to have them and so we headed up to Salt Lake on Monday afternoon after work.  I have kind of made it a rule for the kids to read for 30 minutes before getting to play games or watch movies after we stop.  Lucky for them, we usually only have one stop in Fillmore.  I love that they don't complain anymore about this and just get it done.  Since school has started, the kids have been working on Harry Potter.  Colten was able to finish book 6 on the way up to his dad's.  Aspen was working on book 7 and practically read the whole way home.  I think they have both learned to love reading.

Colleen met me in Salt Lake to grab the kids and headed further north while I headed to Keith and Leslie's house.  I am grateful that I have an awesome extended family that will let me crash at their house when I have these little trips for the kids to see their dad.  Because I was still working all week, I had a lot to bring up.  Plus I am still on the weight loss challenge so I brought up some food that I could eat. The weather wasn't all that great this past week...there was rain and snow.  Luckily, Keith and Leslie have a treadmill so that I could still get my exercise in.  Leslie commented that I was the easiest house guest she has had because I took care of my food and didn't require anything. 

On Tuesday, I was able to go to the Draper temple and do an endowment session there.  I appreciate even more that the St. George temple is 10 minutes from my house.  It took me 35 minutes to get to the Draper one.  The Oquirrh Mountain temple is actually closer to where I was but is closed for cleaning.  I am glad I was able to go to the Draper one.  I have thought about going when I come up for my work meetings but never do.  It is a beautiful temple on the hill.  The celestial room is absolutely breathtaking.  It was a great experience.

On Thursday night, I said goodbye to Keith and Leslie and headed over to my hotel.  I ended up having a room to myself as my roommate had something come up and would need to drive up in the morning.  It was nice to just be able to relax and watch what I wanted.  Friday morning, I met Doug to get the kids.  My 8th grade team of teachers would be meeting at the hotel to finalize everything for testing so my kids got to hang out in my hotel room and watch TV...like cable TV.  I think they enjoyed it.  After our meeting, we all headed to Chick fil A for lunch.  Again, my kids loved playing at their play place.  I had designated this day as my ghost day for the weight loss challenge.  There is something about not being able to control what I eat when I am not paying for it haha.  I had actually been eating at Chick fil A every night because of their grilled chicken nuggets.  I was tempted to try their wrap but I wanted to get cookies for everyone so I just stuck to the nuggets and fries :)

After lunch, we all headed up to the Natural History Museum for the outing with the students.  We had a nice group of parents and students show up.  Colten wasn't too excited to have to go and walk around but I think by the end of it, he was impressed.  Aspen enjoyed it as well.  It was a really big museum and I think we will head back maybe over the summer.  With the wristbands we got, we can get one free entry back in so that was pretty cool.

We headed home right after that.  Good thing we did as there was an accident on the southbound freeway after Nephi and we were stopped for about 15 minutes.  The traffic was nuts going down.  I couldn't really keep cruise control on as there were too many cars hitting their brakes.  So it took us about 5.5 hours to get home, we did stop in Cedar for dinner.  The kids stayed up to watch Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, since Colten had finished the book while we were away, and I went to bed haha (that happens a lot on the weekends).

Saturday, since the temple is closed for cleaning, I hit the gym early.  The kids slept in and we discovered that Holly had cleaned their bathroom this past week.  So the kids had very minimal chores to complete, just laundry and cleaning room.  They got that done by around lunch but we had a very relaxing Saturday.  There weren't any neighborhood kids out playing and it was kind of chilly so it was the perfect day for that.  Aspen was relaxing by reading and she was rewarded for her efforts by finishing book 7 :)  She said she is proud of herself for completing the series.  We figured out that it took her 7 months and 14 days to complete the whole series.  Not too bad for a 10 year old...she also read other books sometimes as well.  4,100 pages in the Harry Potter series...that is an accomplishment.  Colten is not too far behind her either.  Both he and I should be done before the end of the month.  I, however, started the series about 2 months after they did...just throwing that in there.

She conquered the series!!!

Now our lives will really pick up speed...softball games start this week with baseball starting the following week.  I hope I am able to keep up with it all.  I am glad the games are during the week because we are going to need the weekend to recoup.

Spring weather shows its face for a week

This past week has pretty mellow...I am looking at it as the calm before the storm.  The kids had their normal activities of gymnastics and karate and scouts.  This week in scouts was the blue and gold banquet.  It was our first ever and pretty cool.  They decorated olympic style and it was very well done.  Colt received about 5 new belt things (sorry I don't know the correct lingo).  He has loved going to scouts and is sad to be missing a few scouts nights due to baseball but I think once baseball starts he will forget his sadness.

Aspen had her first softball practice yesterday.  She is in the major leagues now although a few coaches thought she was supposed to be in the minor leagues.  She is probably the smallest girl on the team but she plays her heart out.

Colten also had his first sleepover at a friend's house.  He was super excited to go over to Brody's and do beyblades, watch beyblades and sleep a little.  While Colten was at his sleepover, Aspen and I went over to my mom's to play games with her and Terri.  Terri had bought a new game called Cover Your Assets.  It is was pretty fun, Aspen said "mom can we get this game?"  Haha eventually honey.

Saturday, we spent most of the day cleaning.  Since I have signed a new contract I want to start getting some of the deeper cleaning done.  I only got a few baseboards wiped down but I hope to get more done in the next few weeks.

We are taking off to Salt Lake tomorrow so the kids can spend a few days with their dad for their Spring Break.  I will be staying at Keith and Leslie's and working there.  Not excited to go up to the cold but I will just have to deal with it.

The calm before the storm

This week has been pretty mild compared to what is about to come...baseball and softball season.  The kids did have early out all week due to parent teacher conferences for the end of the trimester.  I went to visit with the teachers on Wednesday and both kids are doing great.  Aspen has brought up her grade in Science (yay!) and is holding down her grades in math, language arts and history.  Colten is just a smart kid.  He has some room from improvement on his writing by including more details but that is pretty much it.  Mrs. Beraz couldn't say enough good things about him.  I love that the kids enjoy doing well in school...makes my life a little easier.

With it being early out that made life a little difficult for me as I was teaching my small group right when the kids got home.  They were good on Tuesday to just turn around and head back outside to play.  But on Wednesday and Thursday, they stayed in the house for a little bit, tried to talk to me, fought with each other.  I love my kids but I am so glad they are not home during 99% of my work time throughout the year.

On Tuesday afternoon, since it was early out, I took Colten on a mommy and me date and we went to see "Black Panther" since it was $5 Tuesday.  We never get to go usually because of karate so I decided to take advantage of this opportunity.  I really enjoyed the movie and I think Colten did too.  Aspen went to activity days while we went so she was in heaven to not go.  Also on Tuesday, I received the instant pot that I won from work.  I have already tried it out a couple of times...going to have to keep working on it with a few things. 

Tuesday nights is when I do my shot for my MS medication.  I have still been struggling with the side effects.  Last week I had the worst migraine that I have ever had all night.  This week, I slept for 2 hours, tossed and turned for 3 hours before finally just waking up and working.  Surprisingly I did pretty good all day.  I was able to get about a 40 minute nap after teaching.  I did get a little cranky in the evening.  But this coming week I am going to try one more thing and if I still have trouble sleeping, I will change to taking my shots during the day and just dealing with the side effects during the day so that I can get some sleep. 

Aspen graduated to the major league in soft ball which means that she had to go to try outs and coaches will select who they want on their team.  Aspen, I think, had fun at try outs.  She was super excited when she got the phone call from her coach letting her know that she will be on the Navy team.  I love that she has a love of life and is pretty much excited about anything that doesn't involve chores or cleaning.  She absolutely loves her best friend Audra and had another sleep over with just Aspen and Audra this weekend as well.  Wendie spoils the girls...Aspen got ribs for lunch on Friday.  Then she came home with loads of candy.  But she did remember to bring me some red vine licorice :). 

While Aspen was off at her sleep over, I made some last minute arrangements for Colten to have his own play date on Friday.  I had to call the school to tell him to walk home with his friend (which he said he was surprised to hear but was excited).  After a few hours, I picked the boys up and took them to Battle Evolution (a nerf gun arena) for 2.5 hours.  The boys wanted to keep on playing but I said it was time to go home.  Colten seems to have found a good friend in Brody.

Saturday was a pretty normal day.  I was able to get up and go to the temple.  Colten was waiting for me when I got home.  He was claiming that he didn't feel well but he perked up throughout the day.  It was Home Depot craft day.  At first Colten just wanted to pick up the craft and do it later but when we got there, he went ahead and made it.  After craft day, we headed back home and got some cleaning done.  Colten and I were able to go for a quick bike ride, the first in a couple of weeks because it has been cold.  Aspen came back from her sleepover and worked on cleaning her room.  Colten and I made some apple chips and then a chocolate bar for a girl in our Primary class.  Then before bed we played a game of Skull Kings.  The kids were trying to eat more food because it's Fast Sunday today.  Colten filled himself full...hopefully it lasts.