O.P.A.M.???

One project a month??? Tara Whitney has started doing one project a month where she will take something in her house and make it over. So far, she has tranformed a coat closet into an arts and crafts closet and then she enlarged and framed several pictures of her family and hung them on her front room wall. Very cool. As I admired her work, I thought to myself, could I do one project a month? HA!!! How about one project a year or possibly one project a quarter? 

I was inspired, though, so I walked through our little house and I saw many, many things that could use an overhaul, but where to start? Sitting on the toilet shortly after, I stared at our ugly, 13 year old brass bathroom fixtures. It's one of those things you look at so long that you no longer notice them, but this day on the pot, I did notice them and decided to change them without buying new ones. I mentioned it at work and my friend Kass told me that on GTU they did a segment where they spray painted bathroom fixtures. Good thing I tivo GTU. I watched the segment and bought my hammered metal looking spray paint and got right down to business. 

Here is a picture of what they looked like...

And the magic spraypaint...
And waalaaah, the finished product...
It was definitely worth the $5 can of spray paint, the little blister on my finger, and the two days we went without toilet paper holders and towel racks. 

Skip this post if you are sick of hearing about TKD.

We drove to Cedar City last Saturday for the Summer Games. The kids both fought really well and Michaela got to fight the girl that beat her in CA last month. She told us before the fight that she was going to beat the crap out of her. Now, she's normally not allowed to talk like that and she normally isn't that mean, but in this case we let it slide because we wanted Michaela to come out strong and we knew she was fired up when she said that. Michaela beat her in overtime and came out with a big grin on her face. She will be in Michaela's division at the Jr. Olympics in two weeks and so she was so excited to beat her this time around.

This is all the kids from our school that competed that day.

This is Michaela, she has the blue helmet.

Dallon had two fights and beat both kids. After the first fight he really had to go to the bathroom, but he didn't dare leave because he had another fight. We were hoping his black belt wasn't going to become a yellow belt! Dal is in the blue helmet.

Michaela in her new Summer Games t-shirt.

It was a long day and we didn't get a hotel to try and save a few bucks so we headed out for home. We were just about to enter Tooele County and all of a sudden there were these flashing lights coming towards us...no, it wasn't a flying saucer, but we sure would have been happier to see an alien walking towards our car than that dang officer. So much for saving money that day! I couldn't tease Mike too much because I was the one telling him to quit driving so slow...dang.

Have you ever watched a four year old say a prayer?

Reagen is always the first to volunteer whenever I ask who wants to say the prayer. If she doesn't volunteer, Dal or Kayla gladly volunteer her so she says at least 80% of the family prayers in this house. This afternoon she blessed the spaghetti before we ate and I took a quick peek at her. There seemed to be some unseen force trying to pry her little eyes open. Her face was scrunched up trying to keep them shut, but it sure looked like a battle. As she blessed the Primary children to "make them listen to their teachers", she rocked her little body back and forth with her arms wrapped around herself like she was giving herself a hug. She kept her head bowed, but her little eyes were peeking around the table and she had a look of deep concentration on that scrunched up face trying to remember everything and everyone she wanted to bless. I will sure miss these four year old prayers when she gets older. 

A cookie made for a king...or maybe a dad.

Dallon made cookies for Mike on Father's Day. He wanted to make him a steak and mashed potatoes...do guys think alike, or what? But since we were out of boxed potatoes and the only steak we had was a little cheap one that had been out in the freezer for a year, I suggested cookies. He went right to work and wouldn't let anyone have one until Mike had the first. They turned out so good and when he got tired of rolling out the little balls of dough, he decided to make the mother (or father) of all cookies and present it to Mike.  I knew he was proud of it, but didn't realize how proud until I was looking through the pictures on my camera and saw this picture he had taken of it. He even put his hand next to the cookie to show how big it actually was. It made me chuckle and also proud of him for wanting to do this on his own. 

For almost 13 years...

You've been a dad.

You've mourned when the kids went back to school (not).

You've helped them be their best.

You're not a bad looking fellow.

You've helped them when they're sick.

You've taught them about family.

You've been by their side.

You'd travel to the top of the world for them.

You've taught them new skills.

You always make room on the couch for them.

No matter how many there are.

You've always been there on those important days.

Always able to get a smile.

From the very start. Happy Father's Day!

Check out this website...

http://boston.com/bigpicture/

Great pictures of stuff in the headlines. I'm not big into watching the news and keeping up on current events, but this sure makes it a little more interesting..

More Pictures

I'm going to be taking some family pictures for a friend at this location and I'm a little out of practice so I took the only willing participant in my family and we headed off to the farm...not the funny farm although lately I'd qualify for that.

Look who was watching us in the background, just past the fence post.

The cost to me for her cooperation was a picnic 

on the lawn with graham crackers and frosting. 

A small price to pay, I guess.  :)

UT State Qualifier

The Utah State Qualifier was held in our little town at the high school. The kids travel close to an hour for training three or four times a week and almost always have to leave the state for tournaments, so to have one in our little town was awesome. It's usually held in a college gym, but they were having a hard time finding one available and so Mike mentioned that we'd be able to get our school gym. I think around 75 kids competed. Michaela didn't have anyone in her division so she automatically qualified. An exhibition fight was arranged for her with a 14 year old girl just so she could get more experience. Michaela fought really well and beat her. Michaela is in the blue helmet and chest guard. 

She is doing a back kick here.

This is Dallon. He only had one fight and won. He is in the red with the scary face.

Injured...

These are the knees of the fearless one with blond tangled hair and blue eyes. The one that's sporting a chocolate milk mustache right now and a scratch down her cheek from the cat. She runs like the wind, chasing butterflies and dodging the Robin that's protecting it's nest and dive bombing her. She usually has my grace and dexterity (NOT), but she took a spill in the driveway on Sunday night and banged these knobby little knees up pretty good. On Monday, she was having a hard time walking and I thought she was being a little dramatic so I made her try and stand up straight. Her little knees started shaking and then I felt bad for doubting her pain. I'm sure she didn't break anything, but the kneee on the right was a little swollen so I spent the night sitting by her while she watched Charlotte's Web and then we played in Photo Booth and these pictures made her laugh and laugh. Anything for my girl. hee hee

One more thing...

Michaela and Reagen have been sharing a double bed for the last couple of years, but lately they seem to be staying up later whispering and giggling so we decided to put the bunk beds back up. It should help them get more sleep having their own space and it should also help avoid this from happening.

Long Catch Up Post

Bear with me as I catch up on the last few weeks and all the "good stuff" going on in life.

I can't believe that the last day of school is this week. It seems like we were just buying school clothes and getting ready for a new school year. Reagen just graduated from preschool this week. She will miss Miss Janet. She is one of those teachers that was put on this Earth to teach little kids. She has so much patience and loves each one of the children. If you grew up in Grantsville, you know Miss Janet and she probably taught you in preschool.

It's kind of sad that we will never have another preschooler. Mike and I are both feeling a little sentimental about it, but not quite enough to make us want to have another baby. You just realize with your youngest that it's that last time you'll experience all of this fun stuff. We know with the blink of an eye, they'll all be grown up and doing their own thing so we are trying to enjoy everything that they are involved in now.

Spring has been busy with softball and soccer for Michaela. Soccer just ended and her team is going to play in a comp league in the fall. We are really excited about that (not sure how we'll fit it all in, but it always seems to work out). They are nine and ten year olds and they played in the twelve year old division and still went undefeated this season. They are so fun to watch because they know each other so well. They usually make sure everyone on the team gets to score. They are all really good kids and good friends.

Softball is coming to an end this week.  It's been a great learning experience for Michalea. I'm sure she'll play softball again in the future, but I'm not so sure she'll ever do the cheers and chants that the girls on the team do. It was funny watching her watch the other girls. She looked at them like they were crazy when they were screaming their little guts out.

Part of what makes softball so fun is the ballpark treats!

Dallon has been training really hard in TKD. We just got home yesterday from the Young In Cheon Tournament in City of Industry, CA. It is a really fun tournament that is outside under a big horse arena pavilion. It's up on a hill surrounded by trees. We stayed at a hotel on the same hill and got a really good deal through the tournament. Both Dal and Kayla fought two fights. Kayla pointed out (if you get ahead by 7 points they end the fight) the first girl and then had a better match with the second girl. She ended up losing by two points. It was hard for her to lose but also good because it got her fired up to train hard for the Jr. Olympics in July. 

Dallon fought great. He got rocked by a hook kick to the head by the first kid, but we saw him give Will a grin and we knew he was ok. He ended up  beating the kid. The second kid was 138 lbs. compared to Dallon's skelator 90 lbs. and Dallon pointed him out in 43 seconds. Their teammates did really well, too. I think everyone medaled.  A lot of us went out to eat after, it's kind of a tradition after big tournaments. It's like a big TKD family! 

We were there from 9:30 in the morning until 9:00 at night. Reagen is such a trooper and keeps herself busy during these tournaments. She enjoyed some roasted corn on the cob and caramel corn. I guess we sit a long time and eat a lot...not a great combo. We've been dragging Reagen around to all of these tournaments ever since she was born and she is always so good. It won't be long before we are watching her compete. We drove to CA, which took around 10 hours and she was so good in the car, too. I think she does better than me. 

On the way home, we stopped in St. George and Chad and Ash were kind enough to let us take over their basement. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins and hunting lizards. Steve and Deb were staying with Scott and Pam so they came over along with Ryan and Angie and we had fun visiting with everyone and laughing over stupid stuff.

This pic is somewhere between Mesquite and St. George. I think this is the prettiest part of the drive. On the way down, Dal threw up right before this point. Fortunately, he made it into a WalMart bag because we coudn't pull over in time. When we did pull over and he got out the wind was blowing and it blew his slober across his face and gave us all a good laugh. He's such a good sport that he was even laughing. Poor boy.

Mike also discovered Red Bull on this trip. He was like a giddy school boy! He drank one each day that we were driving and couldn't beleive how good it made him feel, but since he hasn't had caffeine in almost a year, it played a mean trick on his stomach and he spent most of last night in the bathroom. Good thing it didn't hit sooner in the van or I'd have a really good poop story to tell everyone and you know how I love a good poop story!