May Madness

Hello my dear! I’ve been thinking about you all week and wishing there was a way for me to wave a magic wand to solve all of the contacting problems for you! I know you are making the best of a difficult situation and I’m proud of you. I hope you are able to find creative ways to accomplish your goals and to keep your spirits high. You are good at motivating others, so if you can keep a positive attitude, that will spread to others around you. I received a kind text from someone who was traveling in Singapore and met you at church. She said you were talking to all the people around you and being a source of light—which is one of your gifts for sure. I hope you had a great week, and I look forward to talking to you soon!

This is a double-up email, because I didn’t finish writing last week. We’ve been busy!

1. Ethan turned 15 last Monday! Watch out world—he’ll be getting his driver’s permit next week! We got him a season pass to Snow Basin for next year, and I hope he’s excited about it!
2. Tuesday morning we went to a short ceremony at the high school where they presented Blake with his scholarship. 
3. Thursday night we were invited to the Centennial Night of Excellence. He received an award for getting a 4.0 all three years of jr high! He received a second award from his science teacher. We have a bunch of smarties in our house!
4. Tate finally had his turn at the birthday table at school. We had Wendy’s for lunch, and it was all that he had dreamed of!
5. We had a Saturday full of soccer, basketball and track and we watched Black Widow with Michael for the first time. Jett earned ribbons for the shotput and javelin, and Tate earned one for the long jump.
6. Tate had an unfortunate accident at the track meet. Right at the very end of the meet Jett was lining up for the 400 meter dash. Tate wanted to run along side and asked if he could run outside the fence line. I told him to run along the inside of the track, but he wanted to run outside the fence, so whatever. . . Except that he ran straight into a gate and split open his forehead right by his eyebrow. He was bleeding a lot and was SO upset—and he was totally freaked out by his reflection. Poor kid. The whole way to the Instacare he was saying things like, “Ive had so much pain in this life!” And “When I woke up I thought this was going to be a great day. But I was wrong. This is the worst day of my life!” He was a bit traumatized. But luckily the cut wasn’t too deep and they were able to superglue it instead of stitches. I can’t even imagine the freak out if they had to do stitches! He’s looking much better now.
7. Blake had a bit of a freak-out/unfortunate event as well. We had our new generator installed the night before Blake’s AP Stats class. The electrician turned off all the electricity and it reset the kids’ alarm clocks. Blake made a mistake setting his alarm and woke up way late for his test. Luckily they let him in an hour late and let him compete his exam. I thin that’s totally against the rules, so I’m really hoping they don’t end up invalidating his test later on. Lesson learned—have a back up alarm on important mornings!
8. I can’t remember if I told you this already, but we had Stake Standards Night at the church and the topic was missionary work. One of the return missionaries who spoke was a sister missionary sho served in the Philippines and had a very traumatic experience living there. She shared about the poor and dangerous living conditions and how she is still waking up with night terrors. And she shared about hoeeew those experiences caused her to more fully rely on the Lord. When we were leaving the meeting I saw Gavin Jacks and congratulated him on his mission call, and he told me he was called to serve in the same mission as that sister! He said he was really glad his mom wasn’t at the meeting to hear her talk! A For Sale sign went up at the Jack’s house this week. It sounds like Marty will be working on a new temple in New Zealand, so they are going to move out there while their kids are on missions!
9. Michael has been working hard in school and at work going back and forth between Kaysville and Provo. Sounds like he is making some new friends. He got a Garmin that tracks his exercise and sleep, and he has started to trail run. He is pushing his heart rate very high and I keep telling him he should probably moderate it a bit! He seems to be shooting for a perfect sleep score every night, and he is beating me for sure! He spends less time in bed, but gets about 20 times as much deep sleep as I get. Sigh. I’m always so tired!
10. My sleep doctor said I might be grinding my teeth at night and causing a morning headache, so I’m trying out a mouthguard. He also ordered an oxygen test, so I got to wear and monitor on my hand all night. We will see if the test shows anything. Probably not. I’ll probably just continue to be a walking zombie the rest of my days. I may need to get a job, just so I have to force myself out of bed each morning!
11. Blake was sick with something like the plague this week. His sort of lost his voice and he spent several days in bed. And then he would get out of bed and go to the gym.  Not school.  Just the gym. He was too sick to be at school, but HAD to get out of the house and move his body. SMH. It’s the craziest thing—at any given moment there is some kid in our house dropping and doing push ups or sit ups. We are a bit obsessed with exercise? I use the term “we” very loosely.
12. Dad has been doing a great job of getting on the treadmill several times a week.  I’ve been very impressed with his new-ish habit. 
13. Ethan had a basketball camp at the high school Monday thru Thursday from 3-7. So he got to get checked out early from school every day. Apparently school is optional these days. 
14. Jett got to compete at the STEM Olympiad with his partner Mace and they took 1st and 2nd place in KenKen and Krypto! He also got to give a book report on Albert Einstein and he dressed up using his Dr. Drip costume. He said his book report was well-received in the classroom!
15. We went to tour the new Syracuse temple with the young men and women this week. It’s the first temple with two baptismal fonts!
16. The kids had their last piano lessons of the year! No more Sunday night panic-practicing for a while!
17. Blake had his Senior Sunset activities and the Cotillion this weekend. It’s so fun to see all off the things they do to celebrate graduation. What a big achievement!
18. Natalie arrived in her mission in Fairview Tennessee on Wednesday!
19. Jett had his last soccer game with coach Fabian yesterday. He got to play goalie, and they had a fun pool party afterwards. Fun way to wrap up a great team experience for him.
20. May is the busiest time of year. Besides all of the sporting and school events, I went to a baby shower for Autumn (Jenkins) Jensen, and a bridal shower for Addy James. We went to the wedding reception for Alex Judd and a 40th birthday party for my friend Michelle. I fixed the doorbell, repaired my broken camp chairs, and assembled my new garden box. And now I think I need a nap!

Love you,

Mom