Food Drive

Our stake is having the annual food drive for Must Ministries. Tonight Hannah, Isaac and I helped out at Kroger. It always amazes me how generous people are. We had a couple people come out with a cart full of food and drop it off. The kids had a great time working with friends. Kids manned one door and Sister Watson and I manned the other. 

Fort Time!

The kids are out for fall break this week. Hannah asked if she could make a fort in the front room. Of course! Anything that will keep you young for a little longer!

The kitchen

Hope's favorite place in the house is the kitchen. She can hear whenever someone enters it and waits to see if someone will either drop some crumbs or feed her. During dinner, she quietly sits or stands under the table waiting. She doesn't whine or anything. You wouldn't even know she was there. It cracks me up. Of course, her face is so cute it is hard to resist sharing!

Raiders meet at Forsyth High School

Holy Cow. I don't think I have ever seen any high-school sport so physically demanding as the JROTC meet today. Total respect for these kids. I think they had six events, each one so physically demanding. I was so nervous watching Isaac, especially at what was called the Marine Core Battalion course. So proud of him for working so hard to be on this team. He may be scrawny but he is quick, light and tough! He is on the male team which is made up of 12 boys. Ten boys participate in each event. Isaac subbed out during the strength events. Today those events were tire flipping and an obstacle course which required pushing a very heavy football sled and carrying ammo cans. I was just so impressed with not only his strength but his determination and ability to listen to instructions from his captain (Rylan) on how to do challenges he hadn't done before. Each meet will have slightly different courses based on what the school has. Today's course was a marine core JROTC course (Isaac's is an Army JROTC) and was apparently one of if not the most challenging one they will face this year. Isaac never wants us to come and watch him but I told him I was coming to 1-2 for sure and he would have to get over it. Wish we didn't make him so nervous. Justin and I were so glad we did! 

 

 The day started off with a 2-mile run where they had to do challenges along the way. They had to carry heavy equipment and have a person on a stretcher at one point. Isaac rotated holding a 25-pound ammo can behind his head.

The guy in the green shorts/t-shirt is a judge running with them keeping time and marking any penalties.

 

 Another event was called rope bridge. They have to make a bridge out of rope between two wood poles and then get the whole team across and take the bridge down.

 Getting inspected to make sure their harnesses are tied correctly.

 Once they get into the box, those who have already crossed can pull their teammate up and help get them off the line. Isaac is light so they pull him up pretty quick.

 All the pictures below are from the same event, the battalion course as I said above. I didn't get pictures of all of the things they had to do.

I couldn't believe how hard Rylan had to work here. He went up first and then hung on and pulled and flipped the boys over as they reached his grip. I'm sure he is glad Isaac is light!

 This one was crazy hard! They had to go over one bar and then under the next one and alternate all the way up and down the bars. Their feet could not touch the ground. Twice Isaac lost footing and his body fell but he was able to hold himself up with his arm strength without his feet touching and pull himself back up onto the bars from a straight body hang. I thought I might stop breathing when he had to do that on the very last bar. A couple kids had to start over but Isaac made it on the first attempt.

 He will definitely be sore and tired tomorrow!

Creekview Football Game

Part of being in JROTC means that Isaac has to get so many hours of community service each semester. To get some of those hours, they work the home football games helping with directing traffic for parking and they all sit together in the stands and cheer. Justin and I decided to go watch since Creekview was playing Sequoyah where most of the kids in the ward go to high school. Hannah went to the game with Lauren and Audry and met some of the Sequoyah kids there. It was my first high school game in 20 years. Justin had only gone to one other high school game his whole life! It was a beautiful night. Isaac looked great. Too bad the football team didn't. They got beat pretty bad. Justin and I left at halftime.

Hurricane Irma

A big hurricane came through Houston, Texas a couple weeks ago flooding and causing a lot of destruction. This week, another hurricane was coming and it was predicted to be huge. We are too far inland to have a lot of the eye of the storm but we were supposed to have quite a bit of rain and wind. School was closed Monday and Tuesday for precaution. The storm hit the Caribbean islands hard devastating Puerto Rica and St. Martins and some others. We did get a little wind and rain but not much more than a normal tropical storm in Georgia. We ended up losing power for about nine hours. I cannot even imagine living in the places that were hit the hardest. Everything is just gone. So sad.

 We had a couple trees come down in the neighborhood and lots of branches and leaves. So thankful that was it.

 The kids were thankful for a couple days off of school to lay around and be lazy. Hannah was nice and comfy.

 For some reason, our neighborhood is always the last area to get power restored. It is so weird. All the schools in the district lost power so they were waiting to see if power was back on to reopen the school on Wednesday. Creekview was the last one to get it back. I love my kids but I was very glad to send them to school.

Sunset

One thing I still miss about Arizona is the sunsets. Tonight on my walk with Hope I got a glimpse of one here in Georgia. I love seeing the beauty of a sunrise or sunset. It makes me think of my Savior and all He has done for me.

Youth Conference

With my new calling, I got to help plan and carry out the stake Youth Conference. Every four years, they do a big one. Thankfully, this year was just a small Friday night and Saturday event. Friday the kids were split between two buildings with the Laurel/Priests (16-17) together and the MiaMaid/Teachers (14-15) together. Friday night was group games and get-to-know-you games with ice cream sundaes for dessert. The kids at our building had a fun time but Isaac said his building was boring. Saturday was all day with classes, speakers, and a dance. I felt like I was getting food ready and cleaning all day. We set up snacks, took down snacks, set up lunch, took down lunch, set up snacks, took down snacks, set up dinner, took down dinner and then set up snacks for the dance. The kids were not lacking in the food department. Isaac had a Raiders meet and didn't get to come. Hannah stayed all day and went to the dance. Nathan came during the day but went home before the dance started. He hasn't been wanting to go to the dances this year and now that he is 18, he is really done. I think it was a success. I hurried and took a picture of both kids with their friends without them seeing me.

Daniel's shoe must be really interesting.

Seminary

I love it when people send me pictures of my kids, especially when they are random like these and not at some event. I get a glimpse of their day. Apparently, this morning was floor day in seminary. Hannah and Nathan are in the same class this year. Isaac is in the younger class.

Nathan is 18!

I have no idea how that happened. The years sure do go by fast. I have a hard time comprehending that Nathan is 18 years old today. The thought of him heading out on a mission next year terrifies me. I'm not ready for him to go. He brings such a calmness to our house. He is a great big brother and a good friend. He is smart, witty, and helpful. He will do what is asked without argument but sometimes it does take a few reminders for him to get it done. I love this kid so much. He had the day off school so after seminary, I took him out for breakfast at The Original Pancake House. He requested hamburgers for dinner and cheesecake for his birthday cake. 

 He got a tie, a pen and some nice headphones.

Vickery Creek Trail hike

The kids had school off for Labor Day. Nathan was heading to lunch with Emma who was home from UGA (his friend...maybe a girlfriend...he will never tell). The rest of us went into Roswell and hiked on the Vickery Trail. It was a nice trail and Hope had a great time. Isaac had to hold her back so we could all keep up.

Jacob

I kept Jacob overnight for Tammy while she and her husband went to Nashville to a horse show for their anniversary. He did a great job and was a lot of fun. He loved playing with the kids' old toys. On Saturday I had to take Hannah to meet friends to hang out at the outlet mall for a couple hours. The mall is about 40 minutes away so I didn't want to drive there and home twice so Jacob and I stayed and walked around and spent all the time he wanted in the toy store. We then had cinnamon bites and sat on a bench in the sun while we waited for Hannah. I am definitely out of practice having a little one on my hand shopping.

Hope loved it went Jacob was eating. She was always right there waiting for him to drop something. He ended up getting close to half of a bag of Cheetos for lunch.

I didn't have coins for the toys so he just had to sit on them and pretend.