March 12, 2020

"Happy Birthday, welcome to the Apocolypse!" Those were the first words out of my brother's mouth to me today. Honestly, that's exactly how I felt. Before I went to bed last night, I read all about how the coronavirus is now in Michigan, as of two days ago, how the Church is cancelling all group activities, and I was bombarded with messages from schools, and local facilities claiming their actions in this situation.

It's no wonder I woke up this morning, not feeling quite as peppy as I usually do on my birthday. In fact, I was kinda grumpy. I had a rough February, with worries over some people close to me and being the 1st counselor in the Relief Society, I've had a lot of weight of my shoulders from my responsibilities and concerns over some of the sisters. Not to mention, I had a bad cough that even concerned Jason, the cough King. It's finally about gone.

 I was looking forward to a carefree day and making the final preparations for the trip to Chile that Jason has been planning for over a year now, for he and I to take.

As the day has gone on, the grumpiness has turned into counting my blessings and even laughing at this memorable birthday of mine. It will be a day I will never forget! And hey, gas prices have gone way down!

Despite the gloom and doom of Corona, we managed to celebrate. Jason got me a delicious locs and bagel sandwich for breakfast. I really enjoyed that, especially after my swim workout (maybe the last one I do for a while if they close the pool).

In my class, we had two mystery reader parents come in. I always love having the parents come in to read some stories to my students!

I talked on the phone and received birthday wishes there, on FB, and through text, as well as discussions about Corona. Karissa made my cake, I opened some presents from Victoria and Austin, and we went out to eat at The Burger Spot, with a gift card. We ate cake, danced some, and talked about Corona some more. What a day!

42 years!

Yum!

Austin gave me wireless headphones (ones he didn't want anymore, but so clever and cute!)

Victoria went on a shopping spree for me and even painted me a picture! So thoughtful!

Jason bought me flowers and has been buying me little travel items for our trip over the past couple of months. 

Erik drew me a picture. 

Dinner!

It was Leia's birthday 2 days ago. So this is of the birthday girls!

Karissa made my cake.

A spring cake with bunnies sticking out!

1st Dance Competition

For Victoria's first dance competition she danced in one number, the "razzle dazzle" tap number, as the judges awarded them with the title. She will dance in two numbers in a couple of weeks, when Jason and I are in Chile, so hopefully, I can see her other dance from someone's recording. I'm not sure why they didn't dance the lyrical number, but there was a lot that I didn't understand about the dance competition that I learned. I've only ever been to cheer competitions.

I learned that some studios perform a lot of numbers. I mean a lot! Our studio, between all the solos, trios, and group numbers, had a fair amount, but I wasn't there for the solos and trios, just the group numbers and there were some studios that definitely had a lot of group dance numbers!

I also learned that the dancers who compete come from families with lots of money! For every solo and trio you perform, and for a certain amount of group numbers, you pay extra!

I learned that there are multiple awards ceremonies, one after every few hours, and they last for about an hour. We were only there for one segment, and therefore one sat through one ceremony. It was very exciting, but one was enough for me!

The last thing I learned is that Dancin' Feet is the best! Not only was I proud of how well the girls did, but I was also proud of the fact that their coach didn't book them for too many dances so that they could perform quality performances and that they performed with appropriate attire and moves for girls their age.

Victoria loved every minute of it and would love to do a ton more next year, so we'll be taking donations for her entrance fee for a solo or trio (ha! J/K) She's ready for the next one at the end of the month and has really put her heart into dance. She said recently that it's the best thing that has ever happened to her.

The tap number was The Muppets. It won second place for their age group and the Razzle Dazzle award as a special one from the judges.

I couldn't tell who Victoria was for the first, like 16 counts, of the dance. We were farther back than this picture and my eyes were kind of watery that night. Jason kept trying to show me where she was, but I couldn't find her!

She earned two pins, one for the 2nd place and one for the special award!

And got a beautiful cookie from a special dance mom!

RIP Lizzy

Victoria got Lizzy in 4th grade. She wanted a turtle because it was to be the prize at Vacation Bible School for the lucky winner from a drawing. She didn't win, but she still wanted one. We read that turtles carry a lot of salmonellae. We didn't want to deal with that. Some friends told us they had a crusted gecko and that it was the easiest animal to take care of, not to mention super cute, for a lizard.

They were right! Victoria assumed she was a girl and named her Lizzy. All she needed was some banana powder every few weeks (bought at Petco), to be squirted every day with some water, and her cage cleaned out every once in a while.

Last year, Victoria decided to rearrange her room. The boys volunteered to keep Lizzy in their room when Victoria decided she didn't have a space for her anymore. Since we read scriptures in the boy's room every night, Lizzy started to pay attention to us being in there and would actually come to the glass on the side we were on. She would follow us around with her eyes or head. She would look at me when I started talking to her up close. I started to enjoy seeing her every night when we would hang out in there.

Last Sunday, Jason noticed she didn't look well. She was discolored and limp. Austin had just fed her a couple of days before. They cleaned out a couple of things in her cage and gave her an extra squirt of water.

The next day she was gone. She must have gotten sick and went so fast. I think Austin and I were the most upset. We buried her in our backyard near where we plan on planting an evergreen tree this summer.

RIP Lizzy!

She was posing for me.

The grave digger

Her headstone

Drama Kings

If I mentioned to my boys that they should be in a play, they would strongly oppose the idea. In fact, Erik doesn't even give talks at church because he so doesn't want to see everyone smiling up at him like that. Though, if you remember from some of the acts from Ward Talent shows, Erik does a great job on stage if he's not looking out at the audience.

Lately, Austin and Erik have been obsessed with Hamilton. They play the music repeatedly, much to Victoria's dismay. They listen to it, they watch it on YouTube with the animated versions, they sing while reading the words, they sing the words they already have memorized. We had two snow days this week and that was the first thing they did when they got out of bed, put on the soundtrack. They have started creating movement to the songs. I snapped some pictures of them doing it yesterday.

Last week, Austin's school held the 5th grade wax museum. He went as Orville Wright. He had planned that a couple of months ago, before his obsession with Hamilton. He wished, the last couple days before the wax museum, that he had chosen Alexander Hamilton instead, since he knew so much about him from the songs, but I assured him that he made a good choice, because now he knows about many characters from history!

Valentine's Day Excitement

 When we first moved into our home, we thought the butcher board countertop by the sink was the best. Cut veggies right on the board and slide the scraps right into the sink; it was the best idea! Well, we learned that butcher board by the sink is always wet. Combine that with the fact that it's always moist in Michigan, and we have lots of rotting wood and mold.

We knew we wanted to replace the countertops a while ago with granite or quartz, but we also knew it is very expensive. So we just kept on doing other jobs on our home that were more affordable and needed to be done as well.

My dad and Mary Lou encouraged us to replace the countertops now, with some support from them (thanks!) So, we researched and talked with a few companies and ended up with a great deal on our granite Black Pearl countertops!

I didn't want black at first, but after I saw what it looked like with oak cabinets, like ours, I was sold!

You can see the nice mold spot where the faucet was in the back of the sink- yuck!

Everything is the same color-washed out. It was Jason's idea to go with black.

Even the floors are the same color.

It's so shiny and chique!

It brings out the new appliances we've been collecting the past couple of years.

Erik and Luke approved! Actually, Austin and Erik say it's like we moved to a new house!

Starting to add my stuff. My Valentine flowers won't always be there, but they sure look good now!

Added all the office stuff. The kids' papers are on each of those trays. We go through them here and there, but they sure look like a lot!

Love my fruit basket!

 After the countertops were complete, Jason and I went to our friends' house for an adult Valentine party. We had dinner, played games, told stories, read poems we all wrote to our spouses, had lots of laughs (over the poems and stories), shed some tears (over some of the amazing poems!), and even danced. We'll have to make it a tradition!

Gimpy

We've started calling Karissa Gimpy lately. Why? Well, about a month ago, she jumped off the stage in the church gym and hurt her knee. I wasn't in there, but she said it popped and then it hurt when she walked. She walked around with a limp, but it wasn't consistent, there was no swelling, and she could still bend it back and to the side without pain, so I thought she would recover quickly. She's small, young, and flexible. How long would it take?

It didn't help that Victoria had rolled her ankle and was having to wrap her ankle for dance every day and Austin still had his cast on. To top it off, Erik has had this scratchy voice since a cold he had in the fall and it started to worry us a little, not to mention become somewhat annoying when he would read or sing with his voice going in and out. I had an upcoming appointment for him and I was pretty much tired of going to the doctor's office, which happened a lot more frequently in January and at the beginning of February. I didn't want another trip to the doctor when I was sure it would heal!!

Last week, after her tumbling class, her knee got worse. Her limp was awful and I decided to take her in. Just as I thought, the doctor didn't really know what was wrong, but he could rule out any tears in the tendons. He sent us to get an x-ray and gave us a prescription for crutches. The x-ray confirmed some swelling in the knee joint. We're supposed to hear from an orthopedic soon. In the meantime, in the week that she's been on crutches, her knee has been healing and she doesn't limp as badly when she doesn't use them. She's not going to go to tumbling again for a little while.

Victoria keeps wrapping her ankle, but it seems it's not as bad lately. She had gotten some planters warts removed from her foot that hurt when she did contemporary, which did the trick and the warts are finally going away.

Jason and I are preparing to go to Chile next month and went to get some check-ups/immunizations for that.

Erik had his appointment with the ENT. Turns out, he has calluses on the two nodules on his voice box because he's too loud, so no real worries there either. He's trying to drink more water and we're encouraging him to not yell every time he talks!

Austin's arm is all healed, but his break was on the growth plate, so we have to go back over summer to make sure he doesn't have any growth problems with his arm.

Maybe all my kids could be called Gimpy now!

 Here's Erik's voice box. Interesting, huh?

And Gimpy herself!

Orchestra

We have the most awesome orchestra teachers ever! I'm so glad my girls are a part of such a great program and that Austin wants to participate in it now as well. He will get to next year, when he starts middle school. As I've mentioned before, the middle schoolers go to the high school to meet with the same teachers that work with the high schoolers, minus the 6th grade orchestra teacher. She teaches the rest of the day at a middle school. The main teacher, Mrs. DePentu teaches the 7th and 8th graders at 7:00 am, then they go on the bus to their various middle schools and then she teaches the high school students, including an awesome symphony.

The winter concert was last night.

Victoria with her violin and Karissa with her viola. Austin wants to play cello. We just have to convince Erik to play bass!

Friends with similar interests!

Victoria is right in the middle. She's very proud of her spot as First Chair for the second violins. I am too!

Here's their songs. Enjoy just parts, or all. The creepy one of Karissa's is called Rosin Eating Zombies From Outer Space. The middle school orchestra plays it every year for all the 5th graders at a special concert for them to attend to decide if they want to join choir, orchestra, or band in middle school. It's one of Austin's favorite songs!