January? What January?

Chilling at the Marriot

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Seriously, did we even have a January this year? It sure doesn't feel like it. That month flew on by, and honestly I am glad. The new year started with LOTS of studying for Aubrie, which meant no homework "yeah!", but lots of stress. She had her Pre-Comps which are equivalent to semester finals. It was a great opportunity for her to learn how to study for finals, but also drove such fear in so many (since the exams were half of their quarter grade) that it sent them running in flocks. The first week back to school Aubrie would come home saying, or texting me from school, that someone else was leaving her school. Aubrie started to get nervous, but I had to keep giving her encouragement, that she would do well. While I liked not having the Math homework every night, it was nice when she was finally done with testing. I also enjoyed the actual testing days because she had early release, so she actually got to come home and relax a bit. I'm impressed with Aubrie's diligence in studying. She did much better than she thought she would. Her only struggle was Math, and now we are working on that to help her. Beyond that, she pulled all A's and B's. It's a lot of work, but what she is getting out of it is invaluable. Boston is actually acting a little excited to attend Basis. I know he will miss his friends, and they will miss him terribly. But this will be a good experience for him, also. We just registered him in January! Andso it's official... two kids in Basis next year!

The weekend after Aubrie's pre-comps was her gym meet in San Diego. The gym said she could go, but that we should not have high expectations because it would be very competitive and Aubrie had only one gym meet under her belt. I decided we could go for fun, and fit a visit to the Frandsen's and Danny. I hadn't been to San Diego since I was a kid, so I was looking forward to it. Well, I guess I should say once it got close and I finalized hotel, and visits, I was looking forward to it! I ended up pulling Boston and taking him and Sophia with us, too. Ben stayed back with Ethan so he could work, and also so they wouldn't miss Ethan's soccer game. It was good for Ethan to have that one on one time with his Dad. It was also great for me to have one on one time with the other three. We had a great time. The drive wasn't bad. We took Ben's car, and so not having movies was a bit of a problem. It was hard sharing one Ipad and one set of earphones:) Sophia's legs were also hurting her later into the trip, and she was crying a lot. I felt bad for her. Besides that, the trip went well. We stayed at a Marriott across the street from her meet. Of course, Sophia and Aubrie wanted to go to the hot tub as soon as we checked in. Boston hung back in the room and watched some sports, while I took the girls to the pool. When we got back we watched some x-games type biking competition, and then we went to bed.

The next morning we got up and ready, and headed to a breakfast place nearby that came recommenced by the front desk. The food was GREAT! Pancakes to DIE for! The portions were out of control. The service was AWFUL though. I could hardly track anyone down to pay, and we were running late for the morning work out, which Aubrie needed to get familiar with their equipment. We finally paid and rushed over to the the meet. Aubrie was able to get about 30 minutes of a work out in. The meet was about and hour after they closed the open work out. We sat around in line for that hour. Sophia found a friend (name Sophia who was also 4) to play with, and Boston played on his ipod.

The meet went much better than we expected. Aubrie's first event was the vault and she got a 9.075. She was beaming and doing her little "boodie" dance, she was so excited. He next event was bars. She got something like and 8.5. She was happy about that score, also. The third event was beam. She has been so nervous about beam, because at her last meet she fell. I was so nervous for her, too. Everyone keeps telling her she has great form, and all she needs is the confidence, and she will kill the beam. Well, she ended up KILLING the beam! She got a 9.175! She was ELATED when they flashed up her score! With the Beam out of the way, I was relaxed, knowing that the floor is her strength! I shouldn't have relaxed. She was so pumped up from her other events she wasn't concentrating and missed an element on the floor. She had such an adrenaline rush going, she didn't even realize what she had done, until we had played it back to her on the video. It caused her to get below a 9. If she would have not missed that event, she would have placed all around. She still got 3rd on the beam and 6th on vault, which was more than she ever expected to get! We were super proud of her.

After the meet, we rushed out to try and beat the traffic, that was doomed to kill us on the way to the Frandsens. I really wanted to see the San Diego Temple, but knew there was no time. I headed out, with the directions Trina gave to me. There were two ways to go, and I randomly chose one. I was so THRILLED as we passed the San Diego temple, without even knowing it would be on the freeway I chose. It was as BEAUTIFUL as it is in all the pictures. The kids were in awe. Soon after the temple, we hit bad traffic. It ended up taking about an hour to get to the Frandsens. We met at a burger joint close to their house. The kids had fun reuniting! It had been over two years since they had seen each other, but you would have never known it! Friendships like that are the best. The kids had fun cracking peanuts on their heads, that were provided by the burger joint. (The indention's were still on Boston's head the following day). When we got back to the Frandsen's, the kids watched a movie and Trina and I caught up. There was a lot of catching up to do! After the movie, we took the kids to the neighborhood pool for a while. Sophia was freezing, and wanted to go. I was able to hold her out until the pool closed. When we got back, we headed to bed. I realized that I had to get up at 6:00 in order to get to Danny's in time. We headed out the next morning at 7:30. It was raining, and so it delayed us a bit. Fog was so bad that at one point I could only see 3 lines in the road ahead of me. The kids were a bit freaked out. We got to Danny around 11:30. He was so happy to see us, and it was great to see him. We stayed till 4:00. It was so hard to leave. Time flew visiting him. I'm looking forward to another visit with him. He loves my kids so much, and they just adore him. I'm lucky to have such a great brother, and they are lucky to have him for an uncle.

After our visit we headed home. The trip home was nice. It's not a bad trip in Ben's little zippy car. When we got home, Ben was at the Adult Session of Stake Conference. I told the kids we should try and have everything done before he got back. Boston was on FIRE! He emptied most of the car himself, and had unpacked his things, and helped me with so much, including emptying the trash, cleaning out the car, etc. He is always great at working fast and efficiently! When he has fire under him, there is no stopping him. I'm glad we took the trip! It was so fun!

The following morning was Stake Conference, and the whole stake already knew that we would have a stake change. Wagner had received a call as mission president, so there had to be some changes. The new President (Hinton) had just been called as a stake counselor about six months ago. Ben knows him a bit, and really likes him. They also called Bishop Pace in as a counselor. It didn't surprise me, but it was still hard to keep back the tears, because I LOVE having him as Bishop. He is one of the most caring Bishop's I have ever had! We are still waiting around for a replacement. All the men are like chickens waiting to be plucked!

The rest of the month kept me busy, with a lot of friends having needs. I felt like I have been cooking up a storm, just to keep up with the meals. It has been good to serve, and keep my mind off my own problems. I also took time to have lunch with a few friends, where we have been saying "We need to do lunch". It was good to have some time for myself. (Even though Sophia was with me for all of them:). I can't believe February is already here. Before I know it, Spring Break will be here! YIPPIE!!! We have planned a surprise vacation for the kids, and I can't wait to see their reaction. Here is to a good FEBRUARY! I actually want this month to go by just as fast as the last!