Friendly Rivalry

Since yesterday was opening game day for both BYU and the UofU Wendy thought it would be fun to wear our respective t-shirts (mine had a big Y on it). She made these decorations for our computers which grabbed every one's attention as soon as they came in.

It was pretty funny to see the reactions as students, teachers and parents came into the office because there are some very strong feelings about this rivalry! Of course I'm a loyal BYU fan, but it's not like I'm a season ticket holder or even knew they were playing until Wendy told me. I did end up watching the game until halftime with Landon, but then had to go to bed. Things might get ugly when the two schools play each other on September 15th though...if BYU doesn't win I may have to take the next Monday off work!

First Car Lunch of the New Year

Michelle texted me last week and offered to bring me lunch but it was just too crazy during the first week of school so we opted for Tuesday of the second week of school instead. I was so looking forward to having a good lunch and time to catch-up with her.

She brought turkey, avacado, bacon sandwiches from Kneaders!

 And chocolate mousse domes (my new favorite) for dessert! She even brought one for Wendy (the other secretary), which was super nice.

We spent 45 minutes catching up on life but the time went way too fast. It was definitely a boost for my spirits and a nice break from the craziness of the front office.

New Do!

I've been very busy and then we've had computer problems since last Friday...hence no blogging, but hooray Randy figured it out!

I took Whitney to get her haircut the day before school started, and oh my what a difference!

BEFORE

AFTER

AFTER

The sad thing is that we can't style it this beautifully ourselves and Sharolyn (our stylist) won't come over every morning to do Whitney's hair! If only right?!

More Tidbits

Adam took me out for a belated birthday lunch at Goodwood a couple weeks ago. It's always enjoyable to spend time talking to him, and the food was good too.

He drew this on my to-go box.

Landon has shot up this summer and is now 4-5 inches taller than Whitney even though they've been holding steady at only 2 inches apart for years (he's delighted of course).

It ended up being so fantastic that I didn't have to work on Monday the 13th like I'd originally planned. Instead the kids and I got to do some school shopping (it's almost impossible to get Landon to shop so this was huge) and go to lunch and a movie ("Brave"). It felt like a definite bonus to my summer.

Landon is branching out from his nearly exclusive wardrobe of BYU t-shirts in gray, blue and white. We introduced some bold colors (there's a green shirt under there too) and nonBYU tees. He's also got some seriously neon green tennis shoes to match.

Miscellany

Randy's brother Larry flew in last Friday morning to visit his son Gifford and to spend the day with Randy. They took Gifford out to lunch, then went shooting (they're both gun geeks), then hung out talking for hours before going to dinner, then coming home to talk until 2:00am. 

My mom stopped by with Andrew so she could measure and pin Whitney's new school pants that need hemming. It was a bonus to have a few minutes with Andrew.

Whitney and I went to her back-to-school open house for 6th grade! I'm in a major time warp and can vividly remember going to the open house for kindergarten so this has my head spinning! Whitney had a hard time filling out this Personal Interests sheet her teacher requested. I had some goal suggestions for her, but she doesn't want to do them so she added the very generic "getting things done." We'll see how that goes.

After doing a major stock-up at Costco, Whitney and I got some Cafe Rio take-out for dinner. Landon only had a half hour left of football practice so we had a little picnic while we watched his practice since there really wasn't enough time to go home and back.

It was a beautiful evening and perfect weather, so it ended up being pretty good entertainment.

Whitney is looking so old to me!

Glutton for Punishment?

Remember how I used to coach Whitney's soccer teams but then decided to give it up because it felt like it brought too much conflict between us? After that I enjoyed several seasons of spectating and didn't feel many coaching pangs until last season when it seemed like her team wasn't making any progress. Still, I didn't want to add another thing to my plate so when I signed her up to play I checked the "coach if no one else will" box on the form.

Guess what? Now I'm in charge of eleven 5th/6th graders' soccer season. We've had two practices and two games and I've done a whole lot of yelling from the sidelines. (It is all I can do not to run out on the field to play myself.)

Whitney has become a really good goalie and is a great Forward when she chooses to run. She scored a perfect goal during last week's game!

It's kind of amusing to be a coach for a Rec Center team because we don't require a whole lot. It's not a super competitive league like the kind parents pay a ton of money for their kids to join, yet at this age level it seems like we should be seeing some good progress and skills happening.

Who knows what this season will bring?

Sunday Thoughts

When will I ever learn? Seriously. First of all I was a minute late two Sundays in a row due to unjustified morning leisurelyness which caused me to have to do the walk of shame down to the 5th row bench (where we sit every week). There is no excuse for such tardiness, we don't have little kids, our church doesn't start until 11:30 and so on. Oh the humanity. My next infraction came when I looked at the program and groaned inwardly that there were high council speakers on the program. I don't know why I discriminate against them other than that I don't know them very well, but I should know that usually they do a good job.

Anyway, the first speaker was a young man who has been home just 4 months from his mission to Germany. He told an incredible story about the summer before his mission, how he thought it would be the last "fun" summer of his life and how he wanted to take advantage of it. Instead he slept in every day until noon and did basically nothing. Then one weekend his cousins invited him to climb Mt. Timpanogos (a serious climb) with them. They left at midnight so they could reach the summit in time to see the sunrise. He said that within 15 minutes of starting out he was tired and complaining. He was out of shape and thought it was too hard and he wanted to quit.

The cousins split up into 2 groups so that one cousin stayed with him and the others climbed faster and made it to the top. He only made it half way and kept telling himself he didn't care that he had quit and that this was good enough. But then his dad called to check on him and said, "So how is the top?" The son answered his dad's questions in a way that made him think he'd made it all the way to the top. As soon as the son hung up the phone he felt awful because he had lied to his dad. Upon returning home, he met up with his mom who asked him lots of questions too and learned that he hadn't actually made it to the top, she said, "You lied to dad." So the son went to take a nap and then later had a confession-type conversation with his dad who was incredibly upset with him and basically told him he didn't know who he was anymore and that things wouldn't be right between them until he made it to the top of the mountain. The son said it was the worst week of his life because his dad wasn't speaking to him and because he knew he'd let his parents down so much by lying. He spent the week exercising and then recruited his cousins to make the climb again the next weekend! He said they practically ran up the mountain and made it in 2.5 hours. He was able to call his dad from the top and make things right again.

It was such a moving story and really hit home as I thought about me as a daughter of God and how I try and fail so often and how even though I have good intentions I often don't try hard enough, am willing to accept defeat and talk myself out of pushing harder.

Dream Come True

It's all about the jersey! This is what he's been wanting and a big part of why he wanted to play football in the first place. It's pretty cool to think about this dream of his literally coming true today, how often does that happen for any of us?! (By the way, he requested the zero.)

Back to Work

Yesterday was my first day back to work and I got to ease in with a 9-3 schedule (as opposed to next week's 7:30-3:30 schedule). It was weird to be back after a couple months off. I'm perplexed as to how I can feel lost about some things and then like I never left about others. We've got 16 next teachers' names for me to learn, so that will be an adjustment, and next week we'll have 600 new 7th graders to learn and help. Crazy.

Today was a better day at work, especially because Jenn and her cute daughter Megan stopped by to wish me well.

They brought me a cute vase with my favorite flower and a Costco-sized bag of peanut M&Ms!! Goodness, I'm going to have to lock the drawer I keep these in or they'll be gone in no time! It was mighty thoughtful of them to visit me and bring these treats, I'm sure they will help get me through tomorrow which is our crazy district meeting in the morning and back-to-school night in the afternoon so I'm looking at a 10.5 hour day followed by 2 visiting teaching appointments!

The Great Landini Turns 14!!

Landon's 14th birthday was last Friday (the 10th). We had a family party scheduled for that night, but he got to spend the afternoon going to lunch and a movie with Lucas.

It was the first time I've ever actually dropped them off to do something like that, but suddenly they seem more than old enough.

My parents picked them up from the movie and brought them home for the family party, they amused themselves while we waited for Randy to get home from work so we could start the festivities.

I had spent the afternoon making cookies since so many family members aren't keen on the chocolate cake he requested. I must say these cookies are some of my best ever!

Landon had requested croissants (from Costco), my mom made some scrumptious roast beef (falling apart and juicy) for sandwiches, Robyn brought fruit, Lori brought good rolls, and Amy brought chips and guacamole. It's so nice how it all comes together when everyone contributes.

We fit better with the "new" table especially since it has 2 leaves.

The loot.

Whitney held court with the cousins.

Landon got an itunes giftcard, some cash, a bike (from Lori!), and some shoes from my parents and from Randy and I.

I love the face Landon made when posing with this Justin Bieber card...he's NOT a fan.

These are the new basketball shoes I picked out but that my parents gave him. Randy and I gave him some running shoes that he wasn't as keen on, so we went and exchanged them for some he's thrilled with (neon green).

It's so nice of him to request the big chocolate cake from Costco...I don't really make cakes.

14 Candles!

On Saturday we had his friend party. This involved 6 friends, 1 cousin and himself (3 of his friends couldn't make it).

We dropped them off at the cheap theater to see Men in Black 3. 

After we picked them up they had cake and ice cream (the Costco cake kept going) and he opened presents, this is the cute one Michelle wrapped for Lucas.

It's hard for me to believe Landon is 14, but then again how could he not be? Time just keeps tick, tick, ticking.

Here are 14 things about Landon

1. He's a really good person.
2. He's got a great sense of humor.
3. He's a thoughtful son and brother.
4. He is a good example and friend to the other boys at church.
5. He's an A student.
6. He likes music.
7. He loves basketball and football and knows all kinds of info about them.
8. He just needs to choose an Eagle Project and make it happen then he'll be an Eagle Scout!
9. He wakes up early on his own most of the time.
10. He's Randy's home teaching partner.
11. He's got a huge scar on his right elbow from his surgery last November AND from burning it in science class back in May...we call it "the portal to another world" because it's a gaping hole.
12. He's ready to move on from his almost-all BYU t-shirt wardrobe.
13. His teeth are naturally straight so we don't have to pay for braces!!
14. He's an awesome boy and I love his guts!

12 on the 12th--August Edition

{click to enlarge}

1. Randy brought me biscuits in bed!
2. Whitney has been watching My Little Pony movies and drawing the ponies.
3. Landon showing Whitney some love.
4. We started hand washing our dishes this summer because our dishwasher is so lame...I hate the mess on the counter!
5. Church for 3 hours, plus Landon was ordained a Teacher, we can't believe he's 14 already!
6. My parents came for Landon's ordination so we invited them to stay for dinner.
7. Landon's birthday cake has gone the distance.
8. We had an impromptu Family Home Evening and talked about Landon's new responsibilities.
9. I took a bunch of photos of Landon as a new 14 year old man child.
10. We watched Rat Race together, ridiculous but so funny.
11. Later Randy and I had some very tasty nachos while we watched Inspector Lewis.
12. My night ops headlight setting as I read myself to sleep.

Five for Friday

1. I remembered I had a gift card for Pier 49 Pizza so the kids and I went there for lunch last week. But in my frenzy to also utilize a coupon for $5 off $15 I forgot to use the giftcard! Classic. It was a mighty good lunch and now I still have a giftcard, ha.

2. I've been in a bit of an end-of-summer funk this week since I'll be going back to work next week and really wasn't in good form for bookclub (so I skipped it...gasp!) or Creative Friday. I didn't want to miss getting together with Michelle though so we opted to take Eva and a friend to the pool so we could talk and read (Whitney was at the cousins). It ended up being a nice day in the shade. The crazy thing is that Michelle forgot to bring her book, but I had brought 2! Fortunately she ended up getting sucked into my other book or else it might have been a very disappointing day for her. Also, I must confess that I succumbed to the craving and got a big Coke after going 10 days without any. It was glorious, but not so good that I am going to fall back into my one a day pattern. Surely I can have moderation in some thing right?!

3. I met up with Amy to retrieve Whitney and the girls and actually didn't mind when they said they wanted to go to the pool. I've hardly gone there at all this summer and since I have a good book I'm reading I was all for it.

 I think this photo is hilarious.

 We were there for about 4.5 hours. 

 Snow cones all around...the grape flavoring in mine was a little weak.

4. I have no photo of it but I coached my first soccer game of the season last night. We were missing 5 of 11 girls (@#$!) due to vacations, so we lost 1-4. They did better than I expected, especially since I don't know them yet, but it was still frustrating. It was my first "yelling" of the season so I was hoarse and exhausted afterward.

5. We caught the tail end of Landon's football practice after the soccer game. It was so hot outside, I really can't imagine running and doing push-ups and all of that with all that padding and helmet on!