loco-motion

I am a broken record, always commenting on how busy we are, blah, blah, blah. Boring! It just seems like my head is in a jumble much of the time, and there are just too many details, schedules, deadlines, and responsibilities to process and sort through on a daily basis. We do get a lot done; I just hope most of it is good stuff and not just stuff that takes time! But for all that we get done, the list of things to do just seems to grow, or at least not shrink. Sigh. I know many of you can relate!! I think loco-motion captures the essence of what I'm talking about -- most days with the emphasis on LOCO. hee hee

Some items of note since last time --------

Brennan finished up his basketball season with a nice surprise:

Even though he had a great season, he didn't expect to be recognized as an all-league player so that made him feel pretty good. And not surprisingly, it was a little sad to say goodbye to this part of his life. He's been playing sports of one kind or another since he was six years old. So it represents a bittersweet change for him and for us! It's been a good ride.


Next up, the youth in our ward had a talent show. I took terrible, dark pictures of the event, so I have none to post, but just for memory's sake I will record that Keith (being a youth leader) played a harmonica medley of hymns which surprised us all. He was voted "most likely to show up at your next campfire"; Austin did an amazing juggling routine complete with coordinated music in the background. First he juggled tennis balls to some carnival music, both in the air and then against a wall which I really thought was cool, and then his music changed to the rap "Basketball" by Curtis Blow (remember the good old days, Deb??) and out came the big guns. He juggled three full-sized basketballs, with some bouncing in between! I had seen him practice a little bit, but was really impressed. He was voted "most likely to join the circus". He's a stud, as you can clearly see!
















Kristi and her crazy friend Haydn did a strange tumbling routine, which caused much injury in our backyard during practice, but somehow on the hard stage floor everything came together and they looked quite . . . a bit more like they knew what they were doing! They did a two-person cartwheel routine, among other things, that they learned from watching some youtube videos. They were voted "most dangerously cute". Here they are doing their final warmups in our backyard before the big event. I like the suspended basketball in the background - magic!
















Brennan had to say goodbye to two of the missionaries he has grown very close to, Elder Ferguson and Elder Ray. As I may have mentioned before, our family - and especially our oldest son - has been very blessed over the past several months to become very close to the missionaries in our ward. Of course the companionships have changed several times but each one has been someone Brennan has learned from and become great friends with. He's also served with them and has loved every minute.

Austin just finished playing on a traveling basketball team, made up of the best players of the two eighth grade teams in Carson. They played several tournaments in the Sacramento area, did pretty well, and had a lot of fun.

Dallin's big accomplishment lately, other than earning his Webelos badge, was taking second in his last Pinewood Derby. He would tell you that he really took FIRST, but that the missionaries who were judging gave the photo finish in the championship heat to the other boy, figuring that since they know Dallin so well, they didn't want it to look like favoritism. haha

Other funny noteworthy events -- Dallin and Austin were hired to take care of the neighbor's two dogs while they were out of town. We were given their garage door opener as the way in. Inadvertantly, on Day 1 of our responsibilities, the garage door got opened (from inside our house), and the dogs got out. It was hours later that we discovered this sickening fact. It was Day 3 before they showed up at the pound. Oh thank heavens for whoever found them and called Animal Control. Can you imagine that conversation with the neighbors when they returned? Still makes me shudder at what might have been.

Okay, this has turned out to be a novel, and fortunately for any readers, I am off to a girls' camp meeting before work, so I have gotta go for now. I will return soon to devote a post to Kristi, who recently celebrated her birthday. That deserves its own spotlight.