Coronation 2010

Tonight the youngest son went to Coronation. He enjoyed himself a lot and score - he got another new purple tie. (I'm glad that boys can wear their dance attire even after the dance is over).

Here is the cute couple,

and the handsome boys,

and the whole happy group.

Today I am grateful for

a friend who made a corsage for my son's date, as well as her son's, and took pictures of my son and his date, as well as her son and his date, so I would look like a good mother.
good kids for my son to spend time with.
siblings that support each other in their activities - even at 8:00 on a Saturday morning.

Our Halloween

Most of my family did their own thing for Halloween this year.

The oldest son and the fiancee spent the morning tye dying a t-shirt with Kool-Aid for him to wear trick or treating with her "nieces and nephew" (children of close family friends). I didn't know that you could use Kool-Aid to tye dye. It was kind of cool. I thought the son would record this event for me, but he forgot to take his camera.

The youngest daughter was far away in Idaho and all we heard about her Halloween was that a really scary guy with a chain saw tried to accoust her and her roommates in their apartment, but they laughed and he ran away. Apparently there are no photos of this event either.

The youngest son had a date tonight to the school homecoming dance. It appears to be a lot less stressful to be the boy going to the dance than the girl. He spent most of the day on the couch watching football and movies while I'm sure his date was getting her hair done and worrying about looking beautiful. Sometimes life is just not fair! He did go to the church for awhile to set up for the trunk or treat and helped his friend wash the truck they were taking on their date, so he didn't get to just relax all day.

We did get the son and his date to swing by the trunk or treat at the church so we could see if they both ended up looking nice.


I'd say they looked a little silly, but nice. The son was thrilled that he got to wear a purple shirt and tie. He really was. He loves purple shirts. He also did a good job of choosing a date for the event. Not only is she cute and nice and fun to be around, she also got free tickets to the dance and free pictures (because she is on student council and helped set up). That's a smart boy I've got.

The oldest daughter, the son-in-law, the grandson, the hubby and I spent the evening at the church at the Halloween Trunk or Treat activity. The two wards that meet in our chapel have been doing this activity for about 10 years now. It is fun and a safe way for parents to take their kids trick or treating, but I kind of miss the neighbor activities. Our trunk or treat seems to be discovered by more and more neighborhood families each year and we pass out a lot of candy. Here is the grandson checking out the candy before we packed him and it up to take to the church.



I'm not sure that he was too impressed. I guess I wouldn't be thrilled about just laying in chocolate either. It's much more fun to get to eat it! His other grandma gave him this cute froggie costume. It was a great choice, don't you think?

Here are the hubby (dressed as farmer) and the oldest daughter (dressed as a mother) in our trunk or treat pumpkin patch.


I had a lot more pumpkins to hang up, but who would have guessed that our van has no hanging hooks attached? I had a difficult time finding something to hang our crop from before the hoards of trick or treaters decended upon us. I'll have to start decorating sooner next year now that I've figured out how I could make it work. I thought the frog was a nice pumpkin patch addition. Every pumpkin patch should have a frog. We did have several parents thank us for not having any scary decorations. The van two cars down from us was pretty scary apparently. There was a lot of screaming going on anyway.

The son-in-law is missing from the above photo because he was off making a bottle for the baby. The baby has been having some tummy trouble and seemed a little plugged up so his mom and dad decided to try a different formula. We're happy to say that the formula fixed the problem, but they went through a lot of diapers and ran out of wipes during the evening. Here the grandson is admiring himself after he is once again clean and fresh smelling.


Happy Halloween!
Today I am grateful for

a good friend who helped me (ie. did all the work) make a corsage for the youngest son's date.


chocolate!
my ward family.

One year ago today - Scary Halloween!

Coronation

The youngest son and his date didn't get pictures taken at the dance so this is the only documentation we have that he actually went. I thought they both looked nice.

It's often hard to get information out of a 16 year old boy, but as far as I can tell he had a good time.

Coronation Invite

Today the youngest son got invited to an upcoming dance. I think he was excited, but he has an image that he has to keep up so it was kind of hard to tell.

Today I am thankful for

a clean refrigerator.
a "B" in math.
helpful siblings who assist with coronation acceptance activities.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder - Sometimes

Tonight the oldest son decided to abandon his melancholy mood long enough to attend the Youth Concert with our family. There were a lot of us who decided to participate by being the audience including all of my children, the son-in-law and the roommates. The daughter, with the roommates, sat in a different part of the building since a couple of ex-boyfriends were located in our area, one being my son.

Following the concert the son went out to the hall to get a drink of water while I talked to some family and friends. All the sudden here comes the son back, holding hands with the roommate, big smiles on both of their faces. I'm still unsure what brought about the change and so is the son, but he says he's not going to ask any questions. He is just too happy! She seems to be pretty happy too. Go figure.

I guess in this case absence did make the heart grow fonder. Unfortunately, the other ex-boyfriend is already married to someone else and he seemed pretty fond of his wife. Sorry other roommate.

Speaking of old girlfriends, tonight there were quite a few non member youth who came to watch their friends perform. One of the girls, who was sitting the row in front of us, looked very familiar to me. I finally figured out that she was someone that the youngest son had gone to elementary school with. This young lady had quite a crush on him, especially when they were in the 4th and 5th grade. He liked her too, but he was a little more smitten with someone else. Their 5th grade teacher was engaged to be married the year they had her and so there seemed to be an extra dose of romance floating around in their classroom. For Valentine's Day the teacher decided to have a Valentine Tea and she encouraged all the boys to ask one of the girls as a date. Now, I am a prude and I was not really in favor of this idea. I thought perhaps the moms and dads should have been invited instead (perhaps I just wanted to be able to enjoy all the fancy treats that I was being asked to provide). Anyway, I remember my son stressing about if he should ask someone and who he should ask but I honestly don't recall how it all ended up. What I do remember is hearing about my son's part on the program. He and this girl sang a duet together.

They sang LOVE.

L is for the way you look at me,
O is for the only one I see,
V is very, very extraordinary
E is even more than anyone that you adore.
Love is all
That I can give to you
Love is more
Than just a game for two
Two in love can make it
Take my heart
And please don't break it
Love was made
For me and you.

I still have a hard time figuring out what possessed him to do that and I am still amazed that none of his friends laughed him out of the school. Oh, and remember this is the boy that "doesn't sing". Anyway, tonight it just so happened that she was there to watch the same person perform that this son was there to watch. She is a good friend (perhaps not as good as he would like however. A mother is never really sure). Well, the two girls got talking and it came out that they both knew the son, but this girl was sure (actually hoped) that he didn't remember her. He was called over and a jaunt down memory lane ensued. Yes, he remembered her. Yes, he remembered singing that song with her. They had a good laugh together. However in this case I don't think absence had made the heart grow fonder. I think absence just proved how silly elementary school crushes look from the perspective of time.

Today I am thankful for

the smile on my oldest son's face. I hope it stays there.
youth who are willing to perform uplifting music so I can feel the spirit and receive inspiration.
my Savior, Jesus Christ.

First Dates and Last Dates

We have been experiencing the dating spectrum in our home this week, along with all the subsequent emotions that accompany such associations with the opposite sex.

My youngest son announced to me the other day that he had asked a girl out on a date. His first date. This was planned in conjunction with some of his siblings, but it was definitely news to me. I remember a discussion I had with a friend exactly a year ago. She has a son who is about 8 months older than my son and I was questioning her about him driving and also dating. I told her I could picture my son driving a car much easier than I could imagine him being mature enough to actually go on a date. I still feel the same way today. I have accepted the fact that this son can drive, although I am still not convinced that he is actually ready for his real driver's license. However, this whole going out with a girl is a lot harder for me to comprehend. As this child's mother, I have seen him at his silliest, and I question what girl would consider him dating material. (Actually, he has some very mature, quite adorable moments, and I'm sure this is the side he reveals to the young ladies.) It's just hard for me to realize that my small one is growing up and moving on. Tonight was the date which included a visit to an elementary school carnival and feeding the ducks and playing on the playground at the local park (appropriately chauffeured and chaperoned by his sister) and apparently it was a good one, at least in my son's opinion.

On the same day that I received the first date announcement, I also began to realize that all was not well in my oldest son's dating life. While son #2 was experiencing the positive, hopeful side of dating, the other son was experiencing the extreme opposite. The girlfriend/roommate had decided that things weren't going where she believed they were meant to be going and had announced that she no longer wanted to be in a relationship with him. This has been a very challenging experience for him and one that he has to work through for himself. It is hard for me to watch him go through all that this entails.

I sometimes think that it is truly amazing that so many of us are able to find our future life partner through this challenging, frightening, exciting experience that we call dating. It often seems like the person that we can imagine spending eternity with is busy imagining spending it with someone else. Dating is hard work. It isn't easy. Dating is sometimes full of the highest highs and sometimes it brings with it the lowest lows. It is scary to open ourselves up to the possibility of being hurt or rejected. It definitely requires stepping outside of our comfort zone, and sometimes it doesn't turn out the way that we hope that it will (and then sometimes it does). However, I do know that dating is part of Heavenly Father's plan for us and that regardless of what happens he knows what that plan is. The important thing is to make sure that we have faith in Him and trust in His love for us, knowing that he will support us and uplift us through whatever experiences come our way.

I love you, my boys, and look forward to seeing both of you married in the temple to a special girl when the time is right in Heavenly Father's plan for you. Stay close to Him so you will be ready when that time comes.

Today I am grateful for

the comfort of knowing that Heavenly Father has a plan for each of His children.
Children that support each other.
things I accomplish, even if they're tiny.

He Doesn't Bring Me Flowers...

When my husband and I were dating I lived in a house with 8 other girls. One of my roommates was being courted by a young man that had kind of a bad reputation and she didn't really know if she wanted to have anything to do with him or not. In an effort to sway her opinion he started sending her roses every day - every single day. We had vases of roses, in varying states of freshness, all over our house. One day I told my then boyfriend that these flowers were such a waste of money and also that I felt that this young man was trying to buy this young lady's affection. Little did I know that my boyfriend would take this comment to heart and it would have a noticeable impact on my future life. To this day he insists that I do not like flowers and that I think they are a waste of money. Now I will admit that I do think fresh flowers are not the best use of hard earned money, but every once in a while they are a nice gesture. This topic has come up in our home enough however that every once in a while now one of my children will suprise me with a boquet of flowers just because. These are courtesy of my eldest son.

Even though my hubby may not buy me flowers, I do know he loves me and he shows his love in many other ways. By the way, where my roommate was concerned apparently the flowers were a positive thing. She and the rose giver have been happily married for 25 years now and he turned out to not be such a bad guy after all.

Lunch in a truck

Well, the date went well. The truck looked fabulous, thanks to a helpful sister.

Bahama bucks was served for dessert and I GOT TO EAT THE CAKE! I did share with my family.