Tough June/Fun June

Fiora came home from clear creek exhausted, and didn't feel well, but I thought that was normal considering she spent most of her time outdoors and didn't eat that well (I know y'all are sick of hearing me talk about how white flour and sugar are slow killers, but I'm convinced Fiora struggled with headaches and exhaustion at camp in part due to the high carb and sugar diet they had her on there, I saw the clear creek menu!).  She caught a cough at camp that got worse. Sunday she had a fever and was getting winded just walking up stairs. I was worried because she had a rather costly Authors Writing Camp at BYU to attend the next day, and every day for a week. She was exhausted and very coughy, but she went.  I kept thinking she would get better but she kept coughing and being exhausted the whole week. Well, since she was so miserable anyway why not get braces too!  I had scheduled a consultation with an orthodontist weeks ago, and after he checked her out he offered us a price reduction if we took the next available appointment that we couldn't refuse. So Thursday June 19 Fiora got braces. So Friday she had a sore mouth, low energy, and still the cough, and off to the last day of writers camp.  Not sure she will have fond memories of the Authors camp or not what with all the physical discomfort she was in all week. The forces seemed to be against me keeping my kids productive and busy that week.

Fiora's BEFORE picture, hopefully next year (they said it would only take 12 months) we will have the AFTER picture.

Weston also is having a tough June due to the fact that he has 4 hour gym classes instead of 3, and that is mostly conditioning. He gets teary eyed every time its time to go to gym, and states that all the other boys get to enjoy their summers. We try to remind him that all the other boys aren't as strong as he is, and that it's the only tough thing he has in his life, but still I prayed for his coach to do some fun things with the team to lift Westons spirits.  Yesterday Weston came home and reported that gym wasn't so bad, because his coach did the conditioning with them and it was tough for him! He thought that was funny and felt validated, and I felt my prayer was answered.

Savanna came home from girls camp last week exhausted, but one afternoon of sleeping it off seemed to cure her.  She dumped all her stuff in the living room and slept! (It's in her room now but still not all cleaned up a week later.) Savanna's week of camp fell on the same week that a bunch of hippies doing questionable things were going to be up in the same area, and the church authorities called off camp to protect all the girls.So instead of going to Heber lakes she went to Oak City and stayed in the city center of Delta. The poor leaders were scrambling to take down camp and put something together at the last minute, and Jared was one of the priesthood brothers setting up and taking down, we all felt bad for them.  But Savanna's reports were mostly positive so camp went well nonetheless, the Lord was with them and it turned out fine in the end.

Camp Jeremiah Johnson and Daughters of Valor

Wes wasn't able to go to Camp Jeremiah Johnson last year so we are glad he made it this year just before he graduated to Webelos. Looks like he had a lot of fun! I asked him what he did when he got home and he said, "Uh, we made these swords and had a sword fight."  That was it!  And from the pictures it looks like they went canoeing, shot rifles, made boats, sang cheers, and did some weird bow staff fight too.  I coaxed him into telling me more about it, he enjoyed it. Fun stuff.

The 11 year old girls in this Stake get to go to the mountains for a whole day with their moms and learn about the gospel in preparation for Young Womens. Fiora and I had a nice time making clay oil lamps, learning about the parable of the 10 Virgins, and having lunch and canoeing and rope swinging. It was a cold day but beautiful scenery!

Summer fun

Besides the birthday fun, the first two weeks of summer have already been packed full of other activities. We went to a free Lindon pool event hosted by UCAR, and cousin Lucy came and spent the night. Then we went the next day to the clark planetarium in Salt Lake, had lunch at Jason's Deli, and watched a Super Volcano movie in the Hansen Dome.  Jared has been fishing 3 times, Savanna has been to the Lindon pool 3 times, and Fiora went to Clear Creek. Sav was a little bored while Fiora was gone so I tried to find her some babysitting jobs, and Shawna let her come help with her kids all day.

Savanna continues with her nail art. She changes it every day, some designs are so cute I wish she would leave them on for a while longer.

Jared and I made a few changes to our kitchen dining area.  We have been using the table and chairs I inherited from my Grandma Barrett for 15 years, so we bought ourselves a new dining room table and 6 matching chairs. I love it! It has a butterfly leaf in the middle to expand for guests and the chairs are so nice. The inherited chairs had been deteriorating for a while and we kept gluing and nailing them back together, but the other day one just plain broke down, so we thought it was time for an upgrade despite the fact that the table is still in good shape. I think it will last for a good while longer, it is an heirloom so we will keep it in the family.  We also bought a new dishwasher, that was the only appliance we didn't replace when we moved in three years ago, and with all my cooking and cleaning we were running the old dishwasher twice a day and it was falling apart and very noisy. So Jared kindly bought me a new one, and now have all matching appliances in the kitchen. I have a very functional kitchen to help me with my lifetime of cooking and cleaning three times a day.We are so blessed.

Happy Birthday Weston! and Fiora goes to camp

Weston is 10!!

He reminded me a couple weeks ago that last year his birthday was during the Rappleye family reunion so he didn't get to have a "friend party", so he wanted to have a friend party this year, (even though he hardly ever plays with friends around here).  He spends most of his time with his gymnastics team, 4 hours 3 days a week, so I suggested he invite his gym team, but he wanted to invite Gavin, James, and Ethan, boys in this neighborhood. I put on my brave mommy face, and agreed to help him have a friend party, some mom's love the idea of throwing a party but all I can think about is that it will be a lot of work on my part.  But I will do what it takes to make a child's birthday wish happen.
His three friends came over and his Carpenter cousins and we ate the whole foods I'd cooked all afternoon (no throwing sugar and refined carbs at children on birthdays in this house). They all even seemed to like the oat banana carrot cake with no added sweetener, at least they all ate a piece! The boys played water balloon baseball and slip and slide and basketball while I visited with my mother, grandmother, and sister Heidi,it was so nice of them to come and they all appreciated my hamburger sliders with sweet potato buns and green beans. Weston got some nice gifts!  I was glad I put forth the effort to put together a party for him.  We love you Weston.   

Weston opening his gift from his parents, a lego set of course!

Fiora went to Clear Creek camp for a week.  I picked her up yesterday and she was worn out!  Lots of time in the sun and lots of cafeteria food, she had a headache and went to bed early.  But she reported that it was mostly a good time!  She got lots of outdoor education, toured a working mine, made new friends, learned lots of camp songs, and didn't catch one potgut with her critter trapper.  She was very brave to head off to camp without knowing a single soul, it was her first time away from home for an extended period of time. She said she was sad to miss Studio C, AGT, and the new dishwasher, but was not sad to miss her daily chores.  Thankfully she and her expensive contacts made it home safely.

Birthday Season

 We started birthday season off with Savanna on the 17th, and since then her cousin Mekhi, and me, and Grandma Rappleye, and uncle Bill and cousin Knightly have all had birthdays! My birthday was a nice warm day that was also memorial day, so Jared was off work (hooray) and we had my parents over for brunch, rode bikes to the cemetery, and later at crab at red lobster. It was so nice to remember my daughter Lillian on my birthday, and Jared's mom, my paternal grandparents, my aunt Kris, a dear friend Sarah Seaver, and Jared's paternal grandparents who are all buried at the Orem cemetery.  We put big pinwheels on Lillian's grave.  We miss her.
The week of my birthday I had severe abdominal pain and bloating, and after 5 days of it not going away I went to the doctor. I had elevated levels of pancreatic enzymes in my blood, meaning I had pancreatitis, and I was ordered to be on a liquid diet for three days. I bought a juicer and drank juice and water for three days, and it helped the bloating go down but brought back some sugar cravings and hypoglycemic problems. Grrr. Thankfully my birthday came on a day I could eat regular food again, and Jared was very kind to take the whole family to Red Lobster so I could get my favorite meat in the whole world, crab, it was SOOOO good.
We had a nice Sunday dinner and celebrated my and my sister Kynsie's birthday coming up this week as she is in Idaho going to school.  She received her mission call to Rapid City South Dakota!  We are so happy for her, she leaves August 20th.  Congratulations Kynsie!

Birthday brunch with the family

 

Summer was upon us before we knew it. The kids always have a lot of fun the last week of school at various activities. Savanna did indeed survive 7th grade, and we're hopeful she will make it through 8th grade as well.  I feel like the first week of summer has already been more productive than the last week of school, the kids have 5 goals to accomplish each morning before they can have free time/privileges: Exercise, talent, academic, reading, and chores.  Its only been three days but they have been doing their 30 minutes in each category without complaint, good job kids!  The summer is full of activities: clear creek for Fiora, girls camp for Savanna, Jeremiah Johnson camp for Weston, gymnastics class 4 hours three times a week for Weston, and a new piano teacher for Weston, an Authors Club Camp at BYU for Fiora, Daughters of Valor for Fiora, a volley ball camp for Savanna, all on top of the summer activities and the rest of the birthdays we have to celebrate. We also look forward to our Barrett Familiy Reunion coming up in August!  Yay for summer.