Four Hits and a Dive

Holy cow today was crazy!  I started at 4:20 this morning.  I got to bed late last night, so I was so tired.  My quads were so sore from the hike yesterday as well.  I set my stuff up in the back row and only used three risers.  Still it was so hard!  I'm glad I did it though.  I won't be able to go Saturday, and there is no class Monday - that is why I really wanted to make it today.  After a quick shower, and knock on the door from Bryce showing us a leaking sprinkler and taking the kids to school, Mike and I headed down to the cabinet store.  No one was there.  We called Mark.  He was at our house.  Our cabinets are going to be great, but Mark is really forgetful.  No big deal though.  We talked through all the plans.  He had forgotten several things.  Like the hamper in the bathroom, the step stool for the bathroom sink, that our stove has the oven attached and we don't need cabinets beneath it.  Good thing he wanted to go over everything!  When I was at Heather's house Saturday, she showed me this cool door on one of her cabinets that opened to a white board.  I can't explain it well, but I loved it!  Plus I knew right where I would have put it.  When I got home from Idaho, Mike said Mark called and was asking if we had decided between a shelf or just the panels.  I explained Heather's cabinets and asked if we could do something like that.  Looks like it is going to happen and I am really excited about it!  I think it is the perfect solution to something we weren't 100% sure about.

Kitchen plans

Our hardwood floors have started to come in.  Yay!  It is nice not to worry about stepping on random staple things.  I only took one picture while they were working.  Our house looks weird without anything blocking the staircase!  I meant to take pictures of the work done today, but forgot.  We now have wood in the hallway and most of the piano room.  Rob also put sheetrock in our laundry room and over the hole in the ceiling from Mike's foot.  Mike said, "I'm glad I don't know how much that is costing us."  Haha.

Installing the hardwoods

Once Mark left, I spent about an hour packing up things until the Relief Society president came.  We have a new president and she is trying to visit everyone in the ward.  She married a widower.  She said that her family has accepted him, but his family has had a harder time.  She asked if I had any advice.  Oh man!  I want to get with Heather and write down a list of things to give her ~ basically a list of how we wish we would have been treated.  The one thing I told her is to let his kids have memories of their mom.  Death is different than divorce.  They don't have any opportunities to make new memories.  It is cruel to not let them keep the ones they have.

I only had about twenty minutes with them until I had to leave to carpool.  I dropped the boys off and went to Jorja's class.  They were in the middle of the SAGE math test.  Mrs. V let me walk around and look at the questions.  Some were questions that were what you would expect for 5th grade.  Some were ridiculous.  Like one question said something like, "Write an equation using the following criteria.  It needs to have three addends.  Every denominator needs to be different. It needs to equal ____"  I can't remember the fraction.  I thought that was the most ridiculous question.  Also, another thing that was hard was the test was on computers.  I was watching Jorja work on a question that said, "Write an equation  that is 60 less then ten times ten using exponents."  She had written down the correct answer, but trying how to figure out how to show ten squared was frustrating for her.

I left Jorja's class, went and picked up the boys then went to lunch with Mike.  I dropped Mike off (he worked from home today) and went to volunteer in Preston's class.  I finished when school was over.  I took the kids home with me in the jeep.  They loved that, especially since Mike had taken the top off.

Once we were home, we got the boys ready for diving.  Swim and dive team started last week, but we have been unable to make it to one practice.  Right now all the divers are together, so Preston and Stockton are in the same class.  They both loved that.  Stockton was awesome and Preston was adorable.

Preston doing his first hurdle jump ~ isn't the view spectacular?

 Mike teaching the kids that have never done a dive before

 Preston's first dive . . . well, his first attempt . . . 

 Preston trying to dive off the diving board

 Mike helping Preston

 Full on bellyflop

 Success!

 Stockton & Preston hanging out in dive class

 Mike & Preston ~ look at that!  He's getting better!

 Preston ~ by himself!  Head first and everything!

The second we finished dive team, we got Preston dressed in his baseball uniform and headed to the field.  Both Burke and Crew are on dive team and his baseball team.  Busy day for those boys!  My phone was out of batteries, but Preston got 4 HITS!  These weren't just the drop by your feet hit, most of the hits were down the third base line.  It was awesome!  He was up four times and hit it four times.  His swing looked so much better!  He was so proud of himself.  We ended the day at Wendy's and let him get a caramel frosty milkshake.  Preston loves caramel, but that milkshake was kind of like drinking caramel syrup. Neither he or Jorja could finish it.  We had gotten Stockton a chocolate frosty milkshake.  Again, super strong.  Stockton didn't mind.  The more chocolate the better for him.

Wow.  That was a long post.  I read scriptures with the kids and got them to bed while Mike went to his Elders Quorum meeting.  He had a busy day working and meeting with pool cover guys, wiring intercoms, and helping Stockton with his English project.  That project is awesome!  He made three multi-media fusion games about Bill Cosby. He spent so long on it.  I am going to be really irritated if his teacher gives him a bad grade.  Stockton says she hasn't been as mean to him lately, so hopefully she is over whatever bothered her about Stockton in the first place.