A Week in Review (March 8-14)

A Week in Review (March 8-14)

Watched: The Jayhawks lose a 17 point second half lead in the final game of the Big 12 tourney. I can't really say that I am surprised though. Ellis is hurt and the other guys are just inconsistent. I hope they prove me wrong. 

Read: I finished up The Scorch Trials. It makes eager to read the third book in the series. Sadly I am like 40th in line at library, so it could be quite sometime before I get to. It really left you with more questions than answers. Ugh!  Next, I began The Bees.  It seems to be going okay so far.  I can't really seem to tell where it is going, but that isn't surprising for me with a sci-fi book. 

Listened: To a bunch of crazy kiddos on the bus on the way to the Field Trip. We visited the Clark Planetarium. A couple of the kids mentioned loving the downtown vibe which cracked me up. We got to enjoy the exhibits before heading to a dome movie that gave a fun description of the planets. It was a bit dizzying, but fun overall. After that we headed to a more interactive exhibit that was presented on a sphere. There is a picture below, so you can see what I'm talking about.  My group was starving and so I bought a large tub of popcorn and a 3 for a $1 piece of candy for them. You would have thought I'd given them the world. They were so thankful and let me know it. I was really impressed by their great manners. The bus ride back was much quieter. Guess they were all a bit more exhausted. 

Made: Plans for Jack to go with our neighbor to a Real Salt Lake game.  He had a blast. She even sent me a couple of cute photos. Since Nick and I aren't really soccer fans this was a great opportunity for him. I love that we have a fun neighbor.

Felt: Proud of my team. We finished the season 5-2, losing to the same team twice. I put together fun little tags to attach to their trophies so they weren't just getting a participation trophy. I don't think I have the skills to coach them at any higher age, but I felt it worked okay for this season.

Planned: That Jack's spring school photo would be just average. But I must say that I absolutely love it. He seems to have mastered his smile. I am so glad that I ordered the digital file too so that I can hopefully crop it so it runs in Portrait mode rather than Landscape.  It's funny when I look him that I don't really think looks like either of us.  Guess that just makes him his own perfect copy.

Loved: The stage movement at the Hale Center Theater. When we arrived, I couldn't imagine how they could transform such a small space into stage. But they did, and it was awesome to see. The play was so-so for me.  I was watching one of the extras and I was like I know her. And then I said "nah, must be  her cousin". But she grabbed me after the show as I was walking out, so I guess I was right after all.  Jack had a good Te too. He got to make a fire and roast hot dogs and Marshmallows. There was also charades and Minecraft playing. 

Here are the pics for the week:

Most of the 1st grade class enjoying their presentation at the Planetarium.  There were interactive clickers that the kids really enjoyed. 

Jack's spring photo 

A couple pictures of the Hale Center

It's hard to see in this picture, but the frame in the top picture has lowered to become a walking platform. 

Our date night selfie

Jack at the game

A Week in Review (March 1-7)

A Week in Review (March 1-7)

Watched: Jack devour a donut from Banbury Cross Donuts. It was their Strawberry Glazed one and he was a super fan. He even borrowed Mo Willems's words and called it a taste sensation.  I have decided that because donuts make me happy that I am going to try a donut tour of Salt Lake City.  Banbury Cross is the best donut according to the reviews on Yelp.  :) Jack clearly agrees. After we finished our donut we went to Liberty Park. It was an expansive green space. Jack was far more interested in passing and kicking his football than he was the playground equipment. It was awesome because even though it was 52 and sunny, there was still a small patch of snow to play in!  We all had a great time and will hope to repeat the adventure!  Although, when we were leaving I did see a sign that instructed pedestrians to carry an orange fly so they could be more visible (at a signal controlled intersection!), so I don't think I'll go walking in the area. ;) 

Read: The short story, My Own Miraculous. It was a great appetizer for the novel that followed it, Someone Else's Love Story.   As with the other Joshilyn Jackson novels, I enjoyed this easy read. Her stories are best described as Chic Lit. This one follows Shandi on her journey to accept her past and embrace her future.  Next, I began the The Scorch Trials.  It's a Sci-Fi book so those always take me a bit longer to get into. Knowing that, I am not sure why I selected The Bees for my On Deck book. 

Listened:  To the dealer tell me that it would be $875 to fix my car. As I was Googling it, I realized that this was tied to warranty work that the dealership had performed in the fall. I mentioned this to the kid who was ringing me up.  He said he thought it was something different. When I insisted that it wasn't, he spoke with the next higher customer service who did a moment of research and came out and told me that they would cover the repair!  So excited. :)

Made: Jack a headband of curly pipe cleaners for his crazy hair day. It was so much easier than the colored hairspray that we normally use.  He thought it was funny because it doubled as laser eyes too.

Felt: A gamete of emotions during the Jayhawk game vs West Virginia on Tuesday night. I am worried for this team in the post season though. You can't allow yourself to get into double digit holes on the road. They can play so sloppy. Nick contends they should be a number one seed because they won the hardest conference. I think they play to inconsistent. I hope they prove me wrong as they did on Tuesday night when I counted them out of the game.

Planned: On having to scoop my driveway because we had about 2.5" of snow fall in about 3 hours. But by the time I left to get Jack every bit of snow had melted off the concrete. :) The news even called it "the first big snow storm".  I hope they were just looking for news because that could only be described as a minor inconvenience and not a storm at all. There was barely enough snow to go sledding on. But we got a couple runs in and ended it with a snowball fight. It was perfect snow for that!

Loved: Getting Jack's report card. He improved in every area that he could and maintained the best marks if he had already gotten them.  I was able to use our scanner to be able to quickly send it to the grandma's too. You've got to love technology.

Here are the pics for the week:

Oh that's right!  This year is even sweeter as we won it outright, in an unbelievable game, when we were picked to come in 3rd by many. 

Just a wee bit messy from our English Muffin Pizzas

Yumm!  Nick (mostly) made me some red chili burritos on Thursday. They tasted even better than they looked!

Jack's crazy hair and laser eyes

The boys playing catch

The "beware of the drivers of SLC" sign

A Week in Review (February 22-28)

A Week in Review (February 22-28)

Watched: Adventures in Babysitting. I hadn't seen it in years and we were looking through our free Streampix movies and I saw it and just had to watch it. Jack even thought it was pretty entertaining. If you are thinking about watching it with younger children, please be advised that it does earn its PG-13 rating.

Read: I had to dedicate daytime hours to getting Emerald Green finished. By the time I went to bed at night, the story just couldn't hold my interest more than a few pages. Overall, there were a few plot developments that were pleasant surprises for me.  While I wouldn't recommend the series to anyone, I wouldn't shy them away from it either.  I got a few pages into the short story My Own Miraculous. It's a prequel to the next book on my list, Someone Else's Love Story. 

Listened: To the wind whip, all around us while we visited the Great Salt Lake Antelope Island. My Sister in Law, Jess, is a huge fan of animals so when read that we could see that Salt Lake and maybe some animals, we knew we had found the place!  It was about an hour drive, but it was worth it. We saw bison, antelope (of course!), a coyote (that's a best guess and not confirmed--it might have been a fox), and a heard of deer.  We saw that Jess has a talent for spying animals in a nature. She could really be a safari guide. There were also some pretty amazing views of the mountains.  There was also a day use spot that Nick, Kyle, Jess, and Jack walked around at. Mom and I thought it was too cold for that so we sat in the car reading the informational brochure and talking. We took advantage of feeling the super salty water with a much shorter walk!  Again, I didn't do much of the picture taking and will post them when I get them. 

Made: A trail run of Flubber with Jack on Friday.  As I mentioned in last week's post, I will be making it with small groups in his classroom after reading Bartholomew and the Oobleck. It went well but what amazes me was how much fun Jack had with it. He definitely is excited for me to do the lesson with his friends.

Felt: Like I really need to figure out teleportation. We had so much fun with my family. I really wish that I we didn't have to make a 10 hour drive to see each other. It would also make getting back to Kansas City, Wichita, Phoenix, Prescott, and vacation destinations so much easier!  Alas, I don't have the creativity to come up with that type of solution, but a girl can dream!

Planned: On putting together a checklist of things that Jack needed to do to complete his Conquering Cubs goals.  Turns out that he had already done enough of them to qualify for it.  I like the idea of this program because it encourages to students to go above and beyond.  We might work on seeing if he can complete the whole list, but their wont be a ton of pressure to do so. 

Loved: Going tubing down Solider Hollow. My mom purchased us tickets for Christmas. We got the unexpected benefit of getting my mom and husband to go to. It was such a rush to fly down the hill without having to do any of the work going back up. My legs were sore the next day which surprised me. I guess using my legs for breaks used muscles I don't use regularly. We would definitely go back again.

Here are the pics for the week:

The foursome hiking down to the Great Salt Lake.

You can tell how windy it was by looking at my hair!

Some tubing photos

Jack with his new Minecraft poster from Tio and Aunt Jess.  He's constantly discovering things he hadn't seen in it before. 

Love this wide open space!  We use it for so many things.  This time it made for an excellent battle arena 

We borrowed the neighbors dog on Thursday. She loves Monkey in the Middle. Jack requested that I video them playing and put it on YouTube. You can see it HERE. 

Jack decided to see what the Flubber would do in the freezer. When I first tried to pull it out, I thought it was stuck and we were going to need to unplug the refrigerator to get it off. Luckily, it popped off with a spatula.  It really did retain the freezer temperature for quite some time. 

A Week in Review (February 15-21)

A Week in Review (February 15-21)

Watched: Tangled with Jack.  We have been reading about Rapunzel a lot lately, so I thought that might be a fun way to spend our early release afternoon.  We both enjoyed it.  I was so glad that they addressed how the Witch got Rapunzel into the tower. Jack has asked me several times how she got up and we finally have an answer!

Read:  I finished up Sapphire Blue early in the week. The story of the books is entertaining, but I still feel as if the book is incomplete. It was as if a need to be part of the YA trilogy movement took precedent when this book could have been delivered as one whole unit.  I started right away on Emerald Green, the final book in the series.  I thought it would hook me right away since it should be mostly climax, but for some reason, I'm not drawn too it. I am sure I will finish it up next week.  I started on a book written by one of my mom's high school friends.  It chronicles a family's life in her small hometown Trenton, Nebraska in what they believe is a haunted house. 

Listened: To 80's Pop on Pandora why I did my weekly house cleaning. I even took the time to wipe down the shelves in the fridge!  I am so thankful that I was introduced to the station. It's perfect for cleaning!  

Made: Some plans to help in Jack's classroom for Dr Seuss day.  I will read the whole class Bartholomew and the Oobleck and then we will make small batches of gak with the kids during their small group time.  I love that I have the free time to be able to help out in his classroom. 

Felt: Bad on Sunday. Jack refuses to learn to ride his bike. I have tried so many times and he refuses to really give it a go. Each time we try, it results in the same set of snotty tears. He really had the hang of it right before Nick tore his ACL and he wouldn't let me help him that summer. I feel like we missed our window and it will be a big battle from now on.  On Monday, he had the day off from school and I put the proper motivation to get him out riding. It was going well, until it wasn't. In the middle of his best lap, he just collapsed and claimed his legs weren't working anymore. It was funny and sad all at the same time. I made him walk his bike home and it was one of the hardest things I have ever done. Tuesday after school, he tried again and made it a lap and half without falling. It was amazing!  He felt pretty proud of himself too.  On Wednesday, he did a whole double loop. This is pretty impressive because there are a couple inclined he has to deal with. On Friday, he even got himself started twice. Could we almost be there???

Planned: On my brother, sister-in-law, and mom showing up Saturday afternoon. But the weather had different plans. They forecasted some decent snow on the ground in areas they were traveling through and so they were able to take off a half day on Friday and make it one day. I decided to keep it a surprise from Jack and it was so hard!  His face when they walked in was pretty priceless.

Loved: That my family was able to make it here without too many problems from the snow that was threatening to impact their travel.  We spent the first night staying up, just talking and messing around until a little after 1am.  The kids took Jack to a children's museum on Saturday afternoon and we went down to Temple Square on Saturday evening.  I didn't take a whole lot of pictures from their visit as my SIL was using her camera and usually catches some good shots.  If I remember, I will post them here when she emails them to me.

Here are the pics for the week:

Jack riding his bike. It's almost impossible to tell but it was actually flurrying at this moment.  Those are the white specs you see in the air.  There were a lot more of them than you can see. 

Apparently he has skills I didn't know about.  He even got up to three hoops at one point.

The kids goofing around at Buffalo Wild Wings before heading off to the Museum of Natural Curiosity.

A Week in Review (February 8-14)

A Week in Review (February 8-14)

Watched: The first two episodes of the new series Better Call Saul. This is a spin off from the series Breaking Bad. Both Nick and I are enjoying it. There are have already been some moments that I had to turn my head from the screen as the violence was just too much for my weak stomach.  It feels like it should have a good run ahead of it.

Read:  This week I finished up The Rosie Effect. It was a follow up to The Rosie Project. While I thought that the characters stayed true, the book just didn't grab me in the same way. It was a three star book for me. I have also made decent progress on Sapphire Blue, which is the follow up to a Ruby Red.

Listened: To my doorbell ring unexpectedly on Saturday morning. Nick had some beautiful roses delivered to me as a special Valentine's treat.

Made: The craft for Jack's Valentine's Party. I didn't think that it would take me as long as it did so I am very glad I did it far in advance. The kids made just a simple heart suncatcher. I thought that they turned out neat. While the kids were crafting, I read them Falling for Rapunzel. They got a good laugh out of it too.

Felt: Glad to finally be making some progress on Jack's baby books. I wasn't the mother who wrote everything down exactly when he did it. Even though I bought his baby book almost right after he was born, I didn't have a single page filled out in it.  I have enlisted the help of Facebook (it's kinda weird how detailed of a log you can find on activities from 6.5 years ago!), YouTube, Flickr, and this blog to help me piece things together in an official format.  My goal is to have his baby book and his birthday book finished by March. 

Planned: To make some progress getting the photos of our lives organized. I had to figure out what do with all the extra prints from Jack's photo shoots, what to do with the random prints we have, and finally to have some more order for our digital files. I am so glad that I finally turned our pictures drive into a screen saver. We spent 15 minutes as a family just smiling at it the first night. I love it!  While I still have a lot more work to do, I am glad to be getting it done. 

Loved: My Valentine's Day. It didn't quite go as I thought it would. I thought Nick had some pretty big plans. Turns out, they are for the 13th of March when we go see Ghost the Musical. This really is a gift of love because Nick doesn't like romances, or musicals, and there is a chance that KU could be playing a game in the Big 12 tourney. We cooked a two course fondue meal at home. We also were able to get our internet up and running a day early.  I gave each of my boys homemade scratcher tickets. Jack scratched off a new Xbox one game. After some research, we ended up getting him a year to EA access, which allows him access to several of their older games for a year for one fee. We downloaded Peggle 2 and it's pretty fun. A combination between a puzzle, pinball, and Plinko. Jack had one game that rocked everyone's socks and he was beyond proud of it. We just had to take a picture to show everyone. 

Here are the pics for the week:

A Week in Review (February 1-7)

A Week in Review (February 1-7)

Watched: The Super Bowl. I wasn't sure what to think of it all. I guess I am glad that the AFC won.  The halftime show was not up our alley here.  Even though I enjoyed the songs, the performances just made me laugh. I was disturbed by the Nationwide commercial. People who have lost children due to accidents didn't need that. There would have been a lot more tactful ways to bring awareness. My favorite commercial was the Fiat one.  Not sure how we will fill our Sunday's again. I guess college basketball takes over.

Read:  I finished up Ruby Red.  I found this book on a recommendation of a fellow book lover. It is a good story, but it just don't have much of a climax. I feel like this book should have been longer. I will definitely start the next one soon.  Next book I completed was The Retribution of Mara Dyer.  This was by far my favorite book in the series because it was pretty much all the climax of the story. I could have done without about 15 of the last 20 pages though. Overall, not a trilogy that I would recommend to others.  I also, surprisingly, was able to finished up another book.  First Frost,  I had to decide between two books and I went this route. Apparently, it was the right decision for me as I blew through the book forsaking sleep just so I could catch up with Waverly family. Although I don't think you have to read Garden Spells to enjoy this story, I do think it would add many more layers that make you smile. A must read for Sarah Addison Allen fans. 

Listened: To the kids read some of the cutest papers during their 100 days celebration.  It was a fill in the blanks like, I could carry a 100 ________, but I could not carry a 100 _________.  The things that they think to put in there just made me laugh. Jack was a speech so he didn't get do his. I am hoping he will come home with the paper so we can do it later. 

Made: The drive to get my necklace cleaned because it had gotten a piece of fuzz wrapped tightly around it.  There was a Goodwill around the corner and so I stopped in. I was so excited to find adult plates that were divided. It's the dream for those of us who don't love our food to mix. Jack thinks that they are fun too. The work well for sryups with pancakes too.

Felt: A bit more stress. I could really see how hard the job has been for Nick lately. He spent a large part of Saturday (after a Jayhawk loss) trying to get things through. It was a very line in the sand moment. It made me backslide on my nail chewing a bit. It worked out for now, but I think that there will be several more stressful moments before this project is over.

Planned: My normal meal plan, but we just haven't been good about following through it.  We are in a weird spot with our schedule. I just haven't stayed with it. I am sure we will get better again. It's much better on the budget.

Loved: That Jack was able to have a friend over on Friday. They started playing some Minecraft at the house, went to the park with pizza, and then went to Classic Skate Center. They were together for 6 hours and it wasn't enough for either of them. It's so fun to watch him enjoy his friends.

Here are the pics for the week:

A Week in Review (January 25-31)

A Week in Review (January 25-31)

Watched: Redbox put out a dollar off code, so I watched The Fault in Our Stars. I liked it more than the book. I felt that they did a pretty good staying true to the story line of the book. If you enjoyed the book, I am sure you would like the movie. If you haven't read the book, you might want some tissues ready. We also decided to rent Guardians of the Galaxy as a family on Friday night. It wasn't for me. Too many explosions. Jack was super upset at the loss of one of the characters. 

Read: I finished up Love, Rosie. It's definitely a Happily Ever After book, but I liked it all the same. I am looking forward to watching the movie. Next, I started on The Retribution of Mara Dyer. I am not feeling it either. I just can't quit on a series though. I will try to push through it quickly as The Rosie Effect came off my holds list and I am excited for it. It is a follow up to The Rosie Project. 

Listened: I had another YA trilogy recommended to me and so I started it on audiobook. I am enjoying Ruby Red so far. It's a book about time travel as far as I can tell right now.

Made: Our landlord come out to do a bit of repair work. It sure is nice to not have that responsibility, especially with how busy Nick is at work. We have a gopher invading the backyard.  We will have to see how it turns out. If you zoom in on the picture below, you may be able to see him poking his head out on the right. 

Felt: Excited to do a little retail therapy. My co-workers gave me a gift card to Bed Bath and Beyond when we moved here and I just wasn't sure what to spend it on. I decided that I wanted to upgrade my mixing bowls and so I went in hunt of something fun.  I found several nice stainless steel bowls with lids. I also found some great clearance deals as well.

Planned: On taking more pictures of Jack's final basketball game but I didn't as I sat on the bench with the players. They had a ton of fun at their post game party at Uswirl, a frozen yogurt place. They had TVs on showing wipeouts of skiers and snowmobilers. The boys thought it was hilarious. 

Loved: Eating at the Melting Pot with my boys. We gave Jack a gift certificate for Christmas and we will all enjoyed dining on the melting out that someone else prepared.  Jack said he got himself "plumped"

Here are the pics for the week:

The gopher hole

Jack's "It's been a long day at the office" look.