Thursday, June 27, 2013

Alpine Days!

Emma qualified for Alpine Days. (Each school in the district sends the top three performers from each event) She was asked to compete in the shot-put of all things! At the beginning of the season I never would have guessed that my baby girl would be able to chuck a heavy metal ball. She was so excited to go and compete. Look! We found cousin Matthew there! Of course their events were at the same exact time. Luckily we could watch both from the top of the hill.




Alpine Days is crazy. There were so many competitors. Poor Emma didn't stand a chance of placing. There were some big burly girls there. One in particular beat our boys shot put record by over five feet LOL. You can't see it but at the end of the pit there is a patch of weeds. They can grow there because no one ever throws it that far. Well guess what, this chick was throwing it into the weeds. It was crazy and humbling. I know it looks sunny and all but it was sooo windy and actually very cold. She didn't perform her best. She actually did much better at the meet before (she threw over three feet further at that meet) but she did well enough. We were just happy she got to go.








Meanwhile this was happening on the track.



Run Matthew!




She threw her last throw and we were out of there.

2013 Track Season

Track this year was not grand. Emma was very sick the week they did the trials to determine what races/events kids would do. She did not perform well and got put in the events that no one wants. We were proud of her though for not quitting. Her first meet was back in March. She had the one mile, two mile, 800 meter and shot put. It was not fun to watch and it wasn't fun for her to compete. 

She came in DEAD LAST on the two mile race (she had to run a total of four miles that day, had only been practicing for a couple of weeks and was still not 100% well) but she finished it. A lot of the girls only went a few laps and then quit, others waited until they had been lapped and then stepped out early making it appear as though they completed the whole race, but they didn't. I have photographic proof LOL! Anyway she finished the meet. She finished the season. She's not sure if she's going to run again next year. I hope she does but we'll have to wait and see.

Meet 1




The one even that she did enjoy surprisingly was the shot put. And she was pretty dang good at it! 


Meet 2



After the coaches saw her almost die in the 2 mile race they never made her do that again. Thank goodness. She still ran the 800 and the mile. 


Meet 3

Something fabulous happened. One of the relay teams was down a girl so Emma got to SPRINT! They did so well! The first runner got a great lead, Emma extended it, they kicked booty. Their team placed second but it was a TIGHT race. So much fun to watch. She had so much fun running it. This girl is made for sprinting. They were awesome!




Meet 4 

This was the last meet of the season unless she was invited to Alpine Days. She didn't want to run because she knew she wasn't going to qualify for any of those events in Alpine Days. With pressure from her coach, mom, friends and a boy we got her to run her last race of the year. It wasn't pretty but she did it.







See how excited she is to be running?!?




Time to celebrate the end of a hard season with DP Cheesesteaks.

Good Golly I Love Him

On April 30th Paul and I celebrated 17 years of marriage. I can't believe it has been that long. It doesn't seem like it at all. Only a few more years and we've been together longer than we were apart. I can't wait for that.

My mom came and watched the kids while we went out to Carrabba's for dinner. 

I'm so lucky and so in love with this man. I can't believe I was blessed with him and that we get to spend eternity together. Thank you for the last 17 and here's to many many many more! 



Braces!

On April 29th Andrew got his braces. Once again, there was drama.

Andrew was going to get them put on on April 15th. I didn't send him to school that morning. He hung out while I got ready. Right when we were headed out the door I got a call saying I was suppose to be at the ortho over an hour ago. Now I know that there is absolutely no way that this was the case (it would have been impossible for us to be there when they said we should have been) but something got mixed up, I didn't want to fight, so we couldn't do braces that day. He went back to school worried that kids would think he was a liar since he didn't have his braces on.

Finally the day came. It seemed like it took FOREVER to get them on. The appointment went through lunch. It was a bit crazy. That night he was pretty sad. His cheeks were sliced. His teeth tender. He was a mess for a good week if not more. He wanted to stay home from school for DAYS. We had to take him back to get some pokey wires clipped. He got more wax and finally things got a bit better. We're already noticing a difference in his teeth. It's pretty exciting stuff. I'm so grateful that we have been able to get both kids' mouths taken care of. It's such a blessing.





Andrew Turned 12

Andrew turned 12 years old back in April. Of course there was drama. He begged and pleaded for Paul to take him to the skate park after their special birthday lunch together. He wanted to skateboard before heading back to school. He ended up taking a pretty bad fall. He landed flat on his back right on the concrete. He couldn't go back to school because he was in so much pain. I'm not sure how bad it really was but he seems pretty uncomfortable all afternoon.

That night he wanted to go up to Salt Lake for dinner at the Blue Iguana. We thought it was a great idea. I'm always up for a chili verde burrito and my parents wouldn't have to drive as far to see him and give him his gifts.

It was in the middle of the week so we didn't think we would need reservations. Boy were we wrong. There was some HUGE convention at the Salt Palace. Thousands of MLM people were ALL OVER Salt Lake City. We had to wait over an hour for our table. He was starving and very emotional. After we ate he finally felt a wee bit better. We went over to Leatherby's for ice cream and then headed home for cake and gift opening here at the house.



Trying to facetime with grandma and grandpa in Mongolia while we wait for a table.







Registering for High School

I'm not sure how registering works in other areas but here it is sort of intense and CRAZY! 

Sophomores have the lowest priority and are the last class to register. Makes sense. They are given a list of class options weeks in advance. They have to select the class they want, the teacher they want and the time slot they want it in. They are responsible for making sure that they have met all of the credit requirements. No counselor approves their selections. They then have to go online after the other classes have registered to check and see if the classes/teachers/times are available or if the upperclassmen have taken what they need and adjust accordingly. Once you have a plan A you then work on plan B, plan C, plan D etc. Clear as mud? 


Class registration opened on April 11th at exactly 3:00pm. All of the hundred and hundreds of kids go online at the same exact time and try to secure the class schedule that they have so carefully planned for weeks.

Emma had two amazingly awesome older friends come to help her. They advised her on teachers and helped with the process since it was all new. Emma was a total stress case. It was so funny to watch. I have a really great video of her when she realized that she got every class she wanted and the she didn't need any of her backup plans. Too bad I can't get video to work on Blogger. Trust me, it's adorable. She was so relieved and so excited. Her class load next year shouldn't be too bad. I'm hoping that she has a wonderful high school experience.