Dance/Soccer/Dance/Reception

It was a CRAZY Saturday where we had WAY too much going on.  Luckily, I have an amazing husband who helps me out so it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Courtney had a dance competition Saturday and a soccer game.  (The competition video is at the bottom of the post.)  When I received the schedule for the dance competition I realized that she could do it all.  So we made our game plan.  Ethan was at the Scout Expo so he was on a camp out (in a field near porta potties, but he slept in a tent so it was a camp out) so we didn't have to worry about him.

While I quickly got ready early Saturday morning, Bryan woke Courtney up at 6:30, made her waffles and then got her in the shower.  I helped get her in her dance costume, did her hair and put her make up on (the part I am not thrilled about but she LOVES).  Then we drove to Dixie State University and were there at 7:40 a.m.  Bryan had gotten the computer bag together for me so while I waited for Courtney's group to perform, I was able to get some Church stuff done and began our monthly menu (yes, I am a bit late with that one).  She performed her jazz routine from all the half-time shows at about 8:45 and then we went home.

I ate breakfast and had to mess with the computer because the latest update of Java wasn't working with the design program I needed to use.  When I got that fixed, I designed the invitations for our Welcome breakfast next month with the graduating Laurels and sent them off to be printed at Costco.

By this time, Bryan had spent a couple hours pulling weeds outside, mowing the lawn, and doing laundry (which the kids have requested he do more often, but I will tell you about that in a minute).  It was then time to get Courtney in her soccer uniform and then Bryan took her to the game while I finished up the monthly menu, shopping list (which I put into order by aisles, thank you very much), making phone calls for Church, and returning emails.  I realized that it was time for me to leave and meet Bryan and Courtney so she could get to her next dance competition.

Courtney was pretty tired but she still made 3 goals at her soccer game!!  What a great soccer player!

They went to Costco to pick up the invitations I had sent to be printed earlier, used a free coupon to Carl's Jr. to get lunch (although it was for a hamburger and Courtney wanted chicken nuggets so Bryan ended up spending money anyway), and then called me to let me know they were a bit behind.  I asked them to meet me at Dixie State.  I had brought Courtney's costume so when they showed up we went inside, got her changed, and met up with her group.  They were scheduled to dance at 1:45 p.m. and the competition was a few minutes behind schedule.  I went in to find a seat and then did some more planning and Church stuff.  Meanwhile, Bryan went grocery shopping (using my awesomely organized list), put all the groceries away, and was folding the laundry.

Here is her lyrical dance.  Courtney is the far right in the video.  You may have to turn your speakers really up because the music was soft.  It is a pretty dance though.

When she finished dancing we got her back in her soccer clothes (a little oversight on my part not bringing her anything else to change into) and Courtney and I went clothes shopping.  We are having family pictures next week and I wanted to get some coordinating shirts for everyone.  Well, there were A MILLION people in St. George, or so it seemed.  So every store was packed.  At the first store Courtney found "the best dress" that she wanted for Easter but we didn't find shirt.  I am glad her dress is found although it doesn't look Easter-y.  We went to Old Navy for shirts but there were so many people there and everything was picked over so I couldn't find what I wanted.  Courtney was tired and wanted everything she saw so we ended up leaving with a very sad little girl because she wanted to buy more clothes for herself.

We went back home and had a couple of hours before Ethan came home from the camp out.  He earned 3 merit badges: rock climbing, chess and robotics.  He still has things to do for the personal fitness merit badge.  He had a lot of fun and had some pretty funny stories to tell us.  He was really tired because they didn't get much sleep.

Bryan and I then had a wedding reception across town to attend.  We got dressed, left the tired kids to take care of themselves, and went to the reception.  It was nice to see the family and we got to visit with some people in our ward.  Then we headed back home.

By this time it was about 7:30 p.m. and time for the kids to put their laundry away and get ready for bed.  Bryan and I were in Courtney's room while Ethan was in his room putting laundry away.  Suddenly Ethan screamed and came running into Courtney's room flinging a pair of aqua blue panties at us. We then found him in the fetal position on his bed rocking back and forth.  What a ham!!

Bryan is great at doing laundry but he does not guarantee that anyone will get the right clothes.  Many times Ethan and I have had to switch socks but I am not going to complain because he is helping me out!  But Ethan was traumatized that Bryan gave him Courtney's underwear.  It was hilarious.  So Courtney has requested that Bryan always do the laundry.

Then the kids went to bed and so did we.  What a long day!!  And somewhere in there Bryan played soccer with Courtney at the park.  We did miss my cousin's daughter's baptism in Bountiful.  That made me sad but we couldn't make the drive in time to get there after Courtney danced.  But we were thinking of them!

Clean Room

Look closely because this is something not seen often...the top of Courneys desk and dresser!! They are usually covered in junk. 

Bryan told her on Monday that she had to clean her room or she couldn't do any extracurricular activities. After much wailing, she decided to clean it. A lot of trips downstairs and a few garbage bags later, it was cleaned!! Yeah!!!

Ta-da!!!

She even had Bryan move her bed. She has a goal to keep it clean. I hope she sticks to it!

Black Shoes

Last Tuesday morning was crazy. I worked for the law firm from home in the morning and then I has to go to the elementary school in the afternoon. I hurried to get ready, grabbed shoes and was ready to head out the door. Just as I went to walk out my shoes felt odd. I thought my sock was bunched up or something. I looked down and saw this:

They were both black. Does that count? 

I hurried back to change so both were the same shoe and then headed out. I can honestly say that has NEVER happened to me before!!

Snow Canyon Baseball

I was really bummed the other day when I read the sports section. Snow Canyon's baseball team hadn't been doing very well and we hadn't been to any games this season. But last week our neighbor (the catcher) hit two home runs and another player hit a grand slam. The game was called early because of the pity rule. That would have been a great game to watch.

We decided to go to a game. Courtney had dance so we picked up a pizza on the way to get her. Then we drove to Dixie High for the game. We were a bit late but it wasn't bad. 

Bryan wore his Giants hat. An old guy with a Dodgers hat and blue shirt on was staring him down. It was pretty funny!

The temperature was great and it was a fun game to watch.

In the bottom of the 5th inning Dixie had runners on 1st and 3rd with 1 out. The batter struck out and the runner on 1st base stole second. After the play the Snow Canyon coach came out to complain to the ump that the batter got in the way of the catcher. After discussion between the umps, it was decided that the batter did get in the catchers way and the runner who stole 2nd was called out!! That left 2 Dixie runners on 2nd and 3rd. Dixie's coach was furious!!

A few Snow Canyon batters later some lights blew in the stadium and the game was stopped until they could figure out what to do. Crazy game!!

The lights took about 15 minutes to warm back up. We only stayed to watch Snow Canyon bat then we went home.

Pizazz Team Photos

It was a crazy Saturday.  We cleaned the house, weeded the yard, mowed the lawn, did the laundry, went to a soccer game, watched Conference, grocery shopped, and then, while Bryan went to Priesthood Session, I had to take Courtney to her dance team's photo shoot.

They took the photos in the top level of a parking garage downtown.  Odd, but I am reserving judgment until I get the final photos and see how they turn out.  Courtney wanted individual photos but I wasn't going to pay more money for them so we just ordered the all team photo and then the photo of her age group.

It took a while to get everyone situated and Courtney wasn't thrilled about being on her knees, but it all worked out.

All the Pizazz dancers (Courtney is on the second row, in pink, 2nd from the left):

 This is Courtney's age group dance team (minus 6 girls).  Courtney is on the left.

For being such a large group, it really didn't take too long. Courtney then wanted to play around and have me take photos with my phone of her jumping and dancing.  So we decided to play around a bit.  We even walked over to the Tabernacle to take some photos.  It was fun.  A homeless man even gave Courtney a bouncy ball which she thought was really cool!

Cute girl:

She wanted a picture of her doing a toe touch but I couldn't get it at the right point so she probably did 20 toe touches until she decided I didn't know what I was doing.  What did she expect from a cell phone?!?

 A crazy version of her toe touch.  I love her face!  We got a good laugh out of this one.

 Cute girl on the Tabernacle steps.

Here is her impromptu dance on the roof of the parking structure:

I love that she doesn't care who is watching.  She just dances like no one is watching!

Rubber Snake

I have to give you some background before you will understand the significance of this photo.

Not long after Bryan and I were married, I was doing laundry.  I have a habit of forgetting that I am doing laundry (I get busy) so things sometimes sit in the drier for a while before I remember to fold them.  This happened one time and, unbeknownst to me, Bryan got a rubber snake (which he brought to the marriage but has no idea where it came from) and put it in the drier in such a way that when the door was opened, the snake would "jump out" at me.  I think he must have done it when I was doing the laundry but then I forgot about doing the laundry so it sat there.

The next day I opened the drier and out jumped a snake!  I am absolutely certain that I screamed bloody murder.  I am also absolutely certain that I DID NOT find it funny for a few months.  And I am also absolutely certain that Bryan thought it was hilarious!  I threatened to chop that rubber snake into little bitty pieces and then I hid it!  (I didn't have the heart to throw it out because it wasn't mine.)

Fast forward about 15 years, 6 moves and 2 kids, and the snake is still in our house!  It pops up once in a while, usually because someone has found it in the basement where I keep hiding it, and thinks it would be fun to scare me.  Yesterday Courtney and her friend were playing the basement and found the snake.  They put it by the chest in the living room with the hopes that it would scare me.

Ha!  I saw it and knew it was fake.  It didn't even scare me at all!  So I told Bryan it was there and he hilariously screamed like the snake has scared him.  The girls thought they had gotten him and giggle and giggled.  It was pretty funny.  I obviously need to think of a better hiding place for the stupid thing!

Soccer Game

We have been frustrated with the soccer leagues in St. George.  Courtney's birthday is August 12th but the cut off date for making the teams is July 1st.  That means that she is usually the oldest player on the team and, most of the time, she is playing with teammates 2 grades younger than she is.  We have asked them to move her up a team (because she has played since she was 4) but they are really strict.  I finally did convince Ivins Soccer to move her up a level but they play at the exact same time as her dance class so she can't play in that league anymore.

We tried to sign her up for KICKS soccer this Spring but they didn't have any teams on "our side of the black hills" so we would have to drive her to Washington City for a team and we didn't want to do that two times per week.  So I signed her up for AYSO.  We haven't played in AYSO before so we thought we would try it.

I called the director to ask if he would play her up and he told me that they have to put her on a team for her age group but that she could be moved up if they noticed that her ability was higher than her team mates.  I was encouraged and got her signed up.

They had their first game at the end of March but we were at the Fun Run so Courtney didn't go.  They aren't having practices but the coach sent me a text with the schedule and asking if we would do treats for the next game.  So we were off on Saturday morning for a park across town for her first game with the "Cherry Bomb" soccer team.

We had a hard time finding the field, we didn't have her uniform and the man in charge really didn't seem to know what was going on, and we didn't know who anyone on her team was so we didn't know where to go.  The man in charge was finally able to figure out what was going on and gave me a reversible uniform for Courtney but he couldn't tell me what color to have her wear.  Then we went to try and find the team.  I was really frustrated.

We found her coach, who turned out to be really nice and Courtney liked her a lot.  Their game started late and there are only 4 girls on her team so they don't have much down time in a 3 on 3 game.  But Courtney played really well.  She made 5 goals....actually she made 6 but one was illegal.  haha!  She did a kick off from center field and it went in their goal.  However, no one touched it after Courtney did so it didn't count.  At least one other player has to touch the ball before it can be called a goal.

She played a great game though and was really doing well at stopping the ball and changing directions.  She has really been improving and I was very impressed.

After the game the coach asked Courtney if she was in 1st grade too.  My heart dropped.  Yes, Courtney is in 3rd grade and playing soccer with 1st graders.  Ugh!  So we have to figure out something to do.  I wish they would let her play soccer with girls in her grade so she can get used to their skill level.  She isn't going to learn if she isn't challenged!