May is almost over...seriously?!

Well I might be caught up before May is over lol.  Let's see what I have to catch up on.  Last Friday Colten had a sleep over at Darcee's.  Darcee said he played outside most of the time with her boys and some kids from the neighborhood.  He did not want to leave, tried calling to extend but I made him come home to do this chores.  He is still learning that instant gratification isn't always a better choice.

While Colten was away, Zac, Aspen and I headed out to the airport to see the car and plane show.  We were able to watch an old Russian mig plane take off.  They had to use a generator to start it and man was that thing loud.

This past week was the last week of school.  Aspen couldn't have been more excited about school ending.  She has had a countdown for about a month.  Her dad got her a yearbook and it arrived a day before the school handed out yearbooks so that was cool for her.  Colten learned who his teacher will be for 5th grade and he got Mrs. Tui (the one he wanted and Aspen's teacher).  This will be the first time he has had the same teacher as Aspen.  He is excited for the possibilities of next year.

Thursday was a big day....Kayleeya graduated from high school.  Due to some unfortunate circumstances throughout her high school years, she had to do a lot of recovery work.  She was working pretty much up until Wednesday night on her classes.  But she did it and graduated.  Grandma Chris mentioned that it had been a long time since she had been to the Burns Arena for a graduation.  I told her 18 years...mine was the last one she attended there.  (Hollee's graduation had been at Tuacahn).  That thought brought the realization that I had graduated 18 years ago....crazy.  And now I have a pretty successful career in my online teaching and I am getting ready to start a master's program, completely paid for by k12.  That is crazy.  Pine View did a good job of keeping the graduation short, they were done in less than 90 minutes (not by much though).  Afterwards we headed to Darcee's for a luncheon.

The kids enjoyed not having school on Friday.  We are watching a friends dog so they aren't able to sleep in yet lol.  But when they have gone back to sleep pretty much every day when they get up early.  I am still in school for another week and work for another 2 weeks.  Aspen joined my class on Friday for our show and tell.  The students loved seeing her.  I loved seeing my students fun things.  We saw a lot of art work (I have a lot of talented students), a bunny, a dog, a rodeo queen riding her horse and instagram edits.  That afternoon my kids joined the downstairs neighbors at the city pool.  I was able to finish up work and running errands before going to get them.  We were heading to Tuacahn to see the production of "The Little Mermaid" that night.  So before we headed out, I cleaned our AC filters.  In my apartment that is a big task.  Colten helped when I need someone to hold up the cover.  But I mainly got it done myself...big win.

Tuacahn was awesome.  Not a big fan of the way Prince Eric was performed but hopefully I will learn to like it as I volunteer and see it multiple times.  The kids enjoyed going to the dollar store for trees ahead of time.  Colten was like "This lemonade is $4 at Tuacahn and only $1 here".  Love it.

Saturday was busy pretty much all day long.  Colten slept until 10, Aspen woke up to do the dog and then went back to sleep.  Aspen had a birthday party up in Veyo at the skating rink, then moved to Bloomington for swimming.  The party ended up being 7 hours.  She was exhausted but said she had lots of fun.  She learned how to ride a rip stick at the rink and said that she won the limbo contest, the pool was so much fun with a slide and diving board.  Guess you can't top that when trying to end the school year with a bang.  Colten and I stuck around the house trying to get some furniture from my grandpa Chris.  I got rid of my old entertainment center and got the glass one from grandpa.  Turns out my TV was too big, well the stands for it sat right on the edge.  Luckily my dad did some handiwork and made it so it worked.  Colten was a big help when I needed something.  We rewarded ourselves with Hungry Howies pizza for dinner.  All in all it was a great tiring day.

The kids leave this next week when I go to Salt Lake for my work meetings so I don't know how much I will be posting but who knows what the month will bring.  But I am officially caught up :)

Oaklee Recital, Mother's Day and testing

Oh the months are flying by...and that is a good thing, it's May which means that school is almost out.  Aspen has been counting down the days.  The kids have completed all the RISE testing and now it is just teachers find something to entertain the kids until the end of school time.

On Friday, Zac wanted to ride to Pine Valley to see the snow.  Aspen and I tagged along.  Colten stayed home.  There wasn't any snow down where the houses are and we didn't feel like driving up the mountain.  We did stop by the look out for Snow Canyon park and take a few pictures.  But since switching to a new computer, I apparently deleted them off my phone before they transferred to the computer :( We did make it to Hu Hot to eat that night...so delish.

On Saturday we attended Oaklee's recital.  She was so cute...typical 2 year old dancer.  The best part was watching Hollee, who is 8 months pregnant, dance along side her.  Again, I deleted the photos  from my phone before they got transferred to the computer :(  Luckily, I did get a couple uploaded to FaceBook so I have a couple of them.

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Sunday was Mother's Day.  The kids and Zac made Strawberry Cheesecake "pancakes".  It was delicious.  At church, Colten went up to lip "watermelon" with the Primary kids because he had no idea what the song was.  In his defense, he had been gone from the ward the past two weeks.  The ward gave the moms a chocolate truffle from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.  After church, Aspen helped me make BBQ chicken calzones...well it turned into mini pizzas because I couldn't get the biscuits to fold over with the chicken.   Sadly after lunch, I took my kids to my parents because I had to head north for work.

I loved being up with my students and finally meeting them face to face.  I really need to figure out iPhoto again because I know that I have seen some of these pictures in there but once again, the photos are no where to be seen :'(

Anyway, the Salt Lake testing went well.  I drove up to Ogden for the testing there, only took 75 minutes to make that short drive :( Grateful I don't live up there for sure.  So in Ogden we had half of our 8th graders that were supposed to be there.  So Angie let me go since I could cancel the hotel room.  Below is the FaceBook post I posted about the ride home.

Being a single mom can be hard sometimes. For instance, I had a 4 day trip up north for testing. While I loved seeing my incredible 8th graders, that meant leaving my own kids. I am truly grateful for my parents who consistently show their loving hearts to take on my kids and their activities. They are truly awesome parents/grandparents. Ileen Stewart Chris Mike Chris

Fast forward to day 3 of testing in Ogden...we have less students than originally planned. So thanks to an incredible principal who released me to make the trek back home early...awesome! I decided not to inform my mom and just surprise her and the kids when I got home.

I passed time on the road (both ways) by listening to “Insights to a prophets life Russell M Nelson” (highly recommend). Only stopped for food and to release the water I had been drinking.

The road seemed to be filled with more semi trucks than usual and the wind was blowing pretty fierce. Less than 100 miles from home, I heard a weird noise while passing a truck. I had the impression that I should turn off the book, so I did. I was trying to figure out if the noise was from the semi or not. Decided that it wasn’t. Then I got the impression “I’m getting a flat tire”. So I quickly pulled in the right lane while slowing down and sure enough, I felt my tire go and pulled off the road. Grateful for listening to the Holy Ghost in helping me get my car off the road safely.

And finally grateful for Zac Wallin and Hollee Richmond for coming to my rescue. Hollee supplied the car so Zac could come change the tire. He said that if I would have been going the speed limit when the tire blew, it would have ripped off the entire back bumper. What should have been a 5 hour drive home turned into 8. But grateful I made it home safely.

May begins :)

I forgot one other thing at the very end of April that made Aspen super happy....we were asked to watch Oaklee while Hollee and Jonah went to see Avenger's.  And watch her Aspen did.  I had to remind her a few times that she was in charge of her and not watching the movie but overall she did a great job.

The first weekend of May, Greg came down to grab the kids so they could attend their dad's college graduation.  Then they spent some time with grandpa and Sheila.  So that meant a weekend to myself.  I had a friend, Eddy, graduating from Dixie State that weekend too so I went to a BBQ that he did on Friday.  Then I went up to Tuacahn to volunteer for Jeff Foxworthy.  I haven't seen or heard much of his stuff (other than his redneck jokes) but I laughed so much and would definitely see him again.

Saturday, I definitely kept myself busy.  I volunteered at the Ironman for a little bit, went to see a friend, John Kovacs, receive his endowments, and hung out with some friends at Wing Nuts to watch Lance's band play.  Overall it was a nice weekend alone but was definitely glad to get the kids back.  What am I going to do this summer? lol

Spring is a busy time of year

and possibly I haven't stayed focused on Sundays to get the blog updated.  So let's see if I can get at least a short synopsis of what we have been up to since Easter.

The biggest day (aside from the previous week) was Colten's 10th birthday :) It also happens to be Zac's birthday as well.  But because of my extra PTO this year and the fact that Aspen will be at her dad's for her birthday, I took the day off and the kids also go the day off.  Aspen and I made Oreo cheesecake cupcakes for the boys.  Colten graduated from cub scouts the night before his birthday.  We went to Bishop's for breakfast and were joined by Grandma, Grandpa, Terri and Tom.  The kids split, shared but took most of it home the birthday cinnamon roll.  The crew came and sang Happy Birthday to him but I told Aspen it was for her as well.  I took the kids to Fiesta Fun for a couple of hours.  I believe they got to play laser tag, mini golf and a bowling game...as well as play in some of the arcades.  Then we rushed over to the movie theater since we got tickets to see Avenger's End Game.  Zac joined us for the birthday movie and dinner afterwards.  Movie was awesome...a little long and I won't go back to the theater to watch it.  After the movie, we went to Pizza Pie Cafe and everyone stuffed themselves full.  All in all, I think the kids had fun, Zac enjoyed hanging out with us on his birthday and we all slept well that night.

On Saturday, bright and early, we went to Colten's last soccer game of the season.  This was their toughest competitor this season and they ended up losing but Colten had a blast.  We are going to have him try out for a competitive team and try that next spring.  

That night was my Grandpa's viewing.  His ward did a dinner for the family before hand.  The ward did such a good job.  They had table decorations set up of things that Grandpa loved.  Fishing, chocolate, cashews, Oreos and plans. The dinner was also delish.  It was nice to not have to worry about a meal.  Then we headed over to the mortuary for the viewing.  It has always been hard for me to see a dead body of someone I know.  This one was especially hard because it did not look like Grandpa at all.  Apparently his face was so bruised from his fall, they had to use darker shades of the make up.  It did sit well with me.  But we said our goodbyes and they closed the casket.

Sunday, we headed to a ward for sacrament meeting and then meet the family at Bishop's for breakfast before we all headed up north for the graveside ceremony.  Again, it was nice chatting with the family.  Breakfast was delish as always.  

The graveside ceremony was up in Bountiful on Monday.  The kids and I arrived a little early so we decided to make the trek the rest of the way up the mountain and visit the Bountiful temple.  The grounds were closed but we still managed to get a few pictures.

Since Grandpa was in the Air Force, Hill Air Force came and gave a military salute/send off thing.  They did the 21 gun salute, folded up the flag draped over his casket and presented it to my dad.  Then all of the kids spoke and told memories of Grandpa.  It was a very nice ceremony and I think Grandpa would have been pleased.  The family went to Chuck a Rama afterwards (also a favorite of Grandpas) and we were able to chat some more before we all went our separate ways.  Sad to say but that is probably the last time I will see most of that family.  So I am glad most of them were able to make it and we were able to document it with some pictures.  

So while April is my favorite month of the year, this year was a little saddened with Grandpa's passing but overall still a good month.