Wicked

Through her drama class at school, Maddie had the opportunity to go to the Gammage Auditorium at ASU, and not only see the Broadway play Wicked, but go on a backstage tour, and take a clinic put on by ASU's drama department.  (Side note, while Maddie is wanting to major or at least minor in theatre, she definitely ruled out ASU as a school of choice.  She decided she prefers a bit more traditional approach, and they pride themselves on being different.  It's good to figure this stuff out.)

She came home and talked of nothing else the rest of the day.    It was one of the "best days of my life!"

Sadly, they couldn't take any pictures back stage, but she went on and on about "And then you turn a corner, and there's a flying monkey!! A freaking flying monkey putting on it's make-up!  And then, Bam!  You're face to face with that giant Wizard head!  It totally gave me a heart attack!  And we saw Glinda's Bubble!!  You know, the one she floats around in!  It was so freaking awesome!!!"

She did get a picture of herself on the Gammage stage, facing the audience,

And she snuck a picture of the curtain before it went up.  (She's a rebel, that one.)

Random mission related stuff

Christopher changed his "mission call" .

You might recall that when Nick got his letter, Christopher decided that he wasn't going to leave things to chance, so he wrote himself a letter, calling himself to the Alaska Mission.  After a few weeks of Nick being gone, I think he decided that Alaska was too far away.  So after a brief stint in the Provo MTC, (vs. the one in England that he was shooting for)  he has decided that he will go to Gilbert, Arizona on his mission!  (Of course about a month later, he changed his mind again, and currently he's headed to Butte, Montana - in about 9 years.)

Having a kid out makes you extra sensitive to other missionaries.  First off, they decreased in age by about a decade.  Those boys riding their bikes?  Once upon a time they were mature young adults.  Now? They're children.  Barely out of junior high to be sure.   Part of my extra sensitivity includes trying to have the missionaries over to our house more often AND texting their mommas a picture of them.  (Paying it forward. Plus these girls are adorable and I'm happy to.)

Of course we made sure to go to Nick's best friend's mission farewell.

And while we were at the open house, we were talking about Nick, and Liam said "Hey did you ever see that picture where I made Nick dress up like a lumberjack?"  (Cause he had that awesome beard going for him during the summer.)

High School Football

I'll be honest, I'm not much of a football fan.  I only watch games on the rare occasion that it's the social thing to do.  High school wasn't much different.  I only went to our high school games because all my friends went and it was the thing to do on Friday nights.

So I am proud to say that after over four years of having at least one kid attend high school, I went to the local high school game.  I think we lost.  I can't remember.  I wasn't really paying attention.

(Side note -Winning and losing doesn't really matter to me, although I'm sure the players would disagree.  I actually have a more skewed opinion of the matter.  My high school team really sucked. Like REALLY.  We were the worst in the district.  If you were a boy and had any real talent at all, you got a boundary exception and went to a different high school.  Any other High School, just not mine.  However, without inflated egos, the team we did manage to pull together seemed to be just about the coolest guys.  They were genuinely likeable.   The baseball team, not so much.  We always took State.  Our team was literally #1.  Every year.  All those guys were jerks.  I really, really disliked them.  It could be that baseball breeds jerks, and football breeds awesome guys, but I'm choosing to believe ego & humility have a little bit to do with it as well.  Not that I'm saying that kids shouldn't do their best, and participation trophies are stupid, because they are, I'm just saying that from the experience of a rather not-so-popular girl's opinion.  )

Anyway....

I went to my first High School football game!  

It was fun.

But once again I was all about the social.

That and Zach got to play with the High School Marching Band.  Which is of course the real reason I was there.

And he loved it.  So I foresee quite a few more football games in the future.  And then I'll be all about the social AND the halftime show.  And maybe I'll try to pay attention to the game occasionally.

How I deal.

Call me Cleopatra.  Queen of Denial.

Nick's mission is an ipad mission.  (which means he has one)  And apparently he can get and read emails whenever he's in wifi.  He can just only write on pdays.

So, I deal with his absence by pretending he's not really gone.

He was so busy before with school and work and friends and school musicals and, and, and...

I never saw him much anyway.

Except at night.   I was the one who always waited up for him, and some nights we had some of the best talks at midnight.

I do really miss that.

But during the day if I had something I wanted to ask/tell him, I'd just text him.

Or if I found something funny I thought he'd appreciate.... Text!

I didn't usually expect an immediate response.

Like if he was at work or school or on a date.

And when he left, I just really missed talking to him.

Both in person, and via texting.

So email because my new crutch.

Need to tell/ask/share something quickly?  email!

Found something funny/interesting/inspirational? email!

Just bored and want to send him a selfie of me and whomever I'm sitting next to? email!

It works perfectly.  I just pretend he's off at school or work, and not in another state. And he'll get back to me when he can.  (which happens to be on Mondays...)

And mostly that works.

Except when it doesn't.

But then I read his emails and see how much he's grown in the past 3 months, and I remind myself that I really wouldn't have him anywhere else.

More cubscout fun

With three boys, you know we do a lot of cub scout stuff.   It just comes with the territory.

I might not be great at sewing on their patches, but when it comes to my mother's pins, I take a little more pride in that.

I have a "necklace" made of ribbons, that I keep all my pins on.  It might not look that cool, but trust me, it's pretty awesome. The blue and yellow side is for cubscouts, the red and green side is for boy scouts.   I intend to get ALL the pins.  Zach and Nick earned all the cubscout ones through Arrow of Light, and Nick has his Eagle.  Zach is working towards his Eagle, and Christopher just received his bear pin.  Of course after Nick got his Eagle, I could have been heard to say that it was too much work and stress and I didn't care if my other boys were stuck at "Eternal Life" forever.  I suspect that attitude is a bit like pregnancy though.  After a couple years you forget how awful it was, and say "Hey!  Let's do that again!"

So Christopher earned his Wolf.  As part of the initiation rights, he had to "Wolf it down".  Basically without using his hands, he had to find the worms in the dirt. (Cause Wolves don't have hands.)  The "No Hands" concept was pretty difficult.  Doing something ON PURPOSE to make your task more difficult?  Why would someone do that?

But he was cute and excited and super happy to finally get his wolf.  I'm fairly certain Christopher said or did something funny and that's why we're all laughing.

After the awards ceremony, we had our inaugural Cub-anapolis.  Kinda like a cross between the Indy-500, and the Pinewood Derby.  They made their own cars out of boxes, and they were the engines. (Is anyone shocked that Christopher's car is a TARDIS?)

They had pit stops, with the "Pit Crew" being the parents, and we had to do silly things like change their tires (socks and shoes) and refuel (make them drink something out of a straw).

And let's just say that Christopher didn't follow all the rules to the letter (see him cheating there at the starting line?)  However, since he pretty much lost anyway, he mostly got away with it. (Mostly- we tried...)

I got a job.

I'm a receptionist.

I'll be honest, I don't LOVE it,   My heart is still at home, but it's a good job, and I'm grateful to have it.

The people are nice, I like everyone I work with,  (I knew a small handful of people who work here already.)  And the work is not especially taxing.  (I've even found time to blog!) and I get to listen to my own music because I'm the only one in the reception area.

Mostly my duties include answering the phone and connecting the callers with the person or department that can help them best.  Mostly that's easy, but every once and awhile I have those days where the phone is ringing off the hook and the ALL of the callers are annoyed because the person I transferred them to didn't pick up (and they refuse to leave a message- they just want to talk to a person NOW!) as if it's my fault that the person who can best help them is on the line with someone else, on vacation, at lunch, or using the facilities.

Other jobs include forwarding faxes and emails on the computer,

Filling the mint bowl (the lifesavers are more popular than the butter mints)

And changing the little block calendar.  I forgot to do that today.  I just now looked up and realized someone else had done it for me.

And a few other odds and ends that keep me somewhat busy in between calls. (Some days the phone keeps me plenty busy.)

I get an hour for lunch every day.  Mostly I just bring a sandwich or leftovers.

Maddie has made me lunch a couple of times.  She's awesome.

And right after I started working, they had a family night at the ballpark.  Free Diamondbacks tickets, and free food too!  It was pretty fun.

So that's pretty much my life.  It's a full time 8-5 job, so it doesn't leave much time for anything else, and I admit that's hard with kids still at home.   But other than missing my kids and the fact that I can't wear pajamas all day anymore, I have no complaints.