New Beginnings

Tonight was the Young Women's New Beginnings -- not only for Janika, but also for Janelle!  I can't believe she is going into Young Womens this year!  When they said that she was invited I thought, "But she isn't twelve until October!"  But "New Beginnings" is the official welcome for all of the girls who will be going in to Young Women's that year.  There are only two girls who will turn 12 this year -- Janelle and Baylee Cloward.  Those poor girls are in Sunday School with a whole class filled with boys.  It is the same way for Jenna -- she is the only girl in a class filled with boys. I guess they might like those odds when they are older!

Janika had been asked to sing a solo tonight ("Daughter of a King").  She was so worried because she still has this awful cough and has a difficult time speaking, let alone singing and she had to cancel her musical number last Sunday.  She said that every time she tried singing she would go into a coughing attack.  I really felt strongly that she should go ahead with it though and not cancel out at the last minute.  She asked her dad for a Priesthood blessing and we all prayed that she would be able to sing.  It took a great deal of faith for her to be able to stand up and sing knowing that she would have to rely on God's help to see her through.  But she did -- and she sounded beautiful.  We are truly grateful for this miracle!  (It has now a week later and she is STILL coughing all of the time).  Now we need to pray that this will clear up in time for her vocal audition at Snow College.  Several of the girls were chosen to share their experiences on each of the Young Women Values and Janika's was "Individual Worth."  She talked about Patriarchal Blessings and the wonderful guidance that hers has been to her and what a comfort it was to her when she had a friend pass away. 

Not only is Janika sick, but poor Janelle is sick too.  Her sickness is a little different than the rest of us and involves blowing her nose CONSTANTLY!!  It has been about three weeks for her and is really wearing her out.  I was asked to do a little Spotlight for Janelle tonight.  I talked about how compassionate and empathetic she is.  She is kind-hearted and cares about other people.  I talked about the sweet note that she wrote Rick and I for Christmas.  She often volunteers to say the prayer at meal-time or for family home evening (which makes her siblings a little antsy because she gives long and thorough prayers).  She also often volunteers to give the lesson in family home evening.  She is a great teacher.  She does very well in school and loves to read.  I often have to tell her to put her book down so that she can get her work done.  She has taken piano lessons for several years and loves to sing.  She in involved as a "Hands in Harmony Carolers" and is a natural little performer.  She took first place in District in the Storytelling Festival.  I expressed how much we love her and how glad we are that she is part of our family!! 

It was a wonderful program tonight and everything was decorated really cute.  They had a photographer (Hayley Bradshaw) take pictures of all the girls and used them to decorate the tables.  It is strange to think that I have a daughter who will soon be leaving Young Women's and another daughter who will soon be starting.  This certainly will be a "New Beginning" for both of them -- and I couldn't be more proud! 

January 20-26

Monday 20:  No school or work today due to Martin Luther King day.  Jared got back from his trip today.  We didn't really do anything fun today -- just cleaned the house and caught up on things but it was still nice to be able to have an extra day to be able to sleep in, relax a little, and be together as a family.   Jenna had the whole week off of pre-school since it was their week for assessments.

Tuesday 21:  I met Jase at the High School for his CCR (Career Readiness Meeting) with his counselor.  Jase is so "with it" when it comes to preparing himself for college.  He knows which classes he wants and needs and definitely has the big picture in mind.  He asked for a drafting calculator for Christmas and kept bugging me to sign him up for the ACT even though I told him he didn't really need to take it until he was a Junior.  So he will take it next month and then take it again when he is a Junior. 

Tonight was our ward's Pinewood Derby.  I had to let my ASL class out early in order to go because we had it clear in Gunlock which is a thirty minute drive from our house.  Rick is interpreting a class on Tuesday nights which makes it hard because I have to go to all of our Pack Meetings without him.  I was a little nervous about having to drive out to unfamiliar territory in the dark with my kids, but it turned out okay.


I was the Cub-Master in this ward over five years ago, but things have really changed since then because our ward combines Scouts with two other wards.  One of them is the Gunlock ward -- which can make it difficult because it is so far.  There are pros and cons to combining.  It is nice sharing the responsibility and only having to be "in charge" when it is my turn, but it also makes it more difficult trying to coordinate schedules and activities with so many other leaders from the different wards.

But I was grateful that I wasn't in charge of the Derby and didn't really have to do anything for it.  I still have ward members come up and talk about awesome the Derby was that Grayson came and did for us six years ago when I was Cub-Master!

 

The first and second place winners were two of my Bears (1:  Tyden Morris and 2: Chase Cloward)  Great job, boys!!

Wed. 22:  Jase took an all-day ETS fieldtrip to the University of Las Vegas today.  His favorite part of those fieldtrips is the food.  

Thurs. 23:  I brought Jenna to playgroup but then had to pick her up an hour early to bring her to her assessment and parent teacher conference. I waited in the lobby for a half hour while she took her test and then her teacher called me in and I had an awful uncontrollable coughing attack.  Ugh!  So embarrassing!  This cough is hanging on SO long!

Sat. 25:  Rick and I went to an interpreter workshop together this morning.  It was excellent and lots of fun.  It was about taking careful of yourself – physically and emotionally,  and being able to “say no” without feeling guilty -- which is something all of us interpreters need!  :)  Well, Rick doesn't seem to have a problem with that, but the rest of us do! 

Rick’s interpreter certification expires in one year and he will lose it unless he is able to pass the “professional” level.  He was just going to let it go, but then changed his mind and decided to apply for the “ICAN” program – which is a really intensive program for Utah interpreters who are certified at the novice level and attempting to pass the next level in order to keep their certification.  He was accepted into the program and is excited about it.  It is a HUGE time commitment though and so we hope it is worth it!   It involves lots of traveling up to Salt Lake.  The whole program is paid for and they pay for the testing too.  They offer the testing every month and so the candidates can try taking it several times if needed.  We’ve heard that the program is excellent. 

 Rick wanted me to do it with him, but then they said that I can’t since I am already certified on the professional level.   I ended up being relieved because it would have been a lot of extra time and stress on me and we would have had to leave our kids alone overnight a lot.  The program goes for nine months.  They work with an interpreter mentor and deaf mentor here every week and also travel to SLC for a workshop once a month and then go to three FOUR day immersion retreats at a cabin up north with nothing but ASL the whole time.  He will have to get work off for these and also for some of the workshops and had to get special permission from our area director to do it.  So I hope the program helps him pass the test. 

The test is difficult to pass and we know of interpreters who have taken it over and over again with no success.  If he can pass this next State level (or the National level, which he will try too) then he won't have to re-test,  he will just need to maintain it with 20 hours of workshop hours a year like I do.  He doesn’t interpret much so it isn’t the end of the world if he doesn’t pass it, but it is nice to be able to have that option available for extra part-time work as needed and it is something we both enjoy doing together. 

St. George hosted an EFY Express today from 2:00 to 9:00.  Jase was excited to go but when I went to register him several days ago, both sessions were full and he was really disappointed.  But then the EFY people contacted Rick asking him if he would volunteer to be one of the people to interview youth counselors for the day and also for EFY this summer.  It would take four hours Friday afternoon.  When Rick asked me about it I said, “Tell them you will do it if they get Jase and his friend into the session Saturday.”  So they did and he and Ky were able to go and it all worked out! 

 

Janika got offered a full tuition scholarship to Dixie University – She is still pretty much decided on Snow though.  She is probably going up next month for the overnight Snow Blast and to try for a vocal scholarship on top of the academic one she already received.  The next pageant is coming up in April and so she needs to help with that. 

Sat. 26:  Janika was supposed to sing today in sacrament meeting. We had been worried about it since she now has the bad cough that has gone through the family and didn’t know if her voice would hold out.  So she ended up postponing to be safe.  I told her she had better postpone until next month rather than next week since these coughs are hanging on so long.  Mine has lasted three weeks so far, but I feel like it is finally starting to go away -- Whew!  

 

  

Soccer Tournament

Our niece, Jamie Venable Lacefield, invited Jared to join their family to go with them to Las Vegas for the long weekend for Gabe's Soccer Tournament.  Jared was super excited to go and spend time with his cousins, Gabe, Justin, and Brigham.  Jamie's parents, Jodi (Rick's sister) and Troy went too.  They all left Ogden around 4:00 a.m. and then drove to St. George and picked up Jared around 10:00 a.m.

Jamie posted a cute video on Facebook of Jared and Gabe and Justin singing to the radio on the way there.  They went to the M&M Factory and also the Coke Factory which had different kinds of Coke from all over the world.  Then went to see Gabe's game and cheer them on.  They said it was really cold that night!  They lost that game. 

Saturday they went to Circus and Circus and went to the Adventure Dome.  Jared said that he wanted to try the scary roller-coasters because the last time we went to an amusement park was a few years ago and he was "too young and afraid."  So he went on all of them.  He was pretty proud of himself. He said that there was one called Inverter that goes upside down and stays there before coming down.  He liked that one the best but said that it hurt your legs.  He also went on called Chaos that spins around and goes upside down and one called Disk' O and Canyon Blaster.  He said that the Adventure Dome was awesome!  They all went swimming at the condo.  The pool was closed but the Lazy River was open and it was really long and so they had a lot of fun in that. 

Saturday night they went to Gabe's two games and it wasn't as cold.  They lost the first game and won the second game.  That night they all went to Freemont Street.  Jared said, "There was a giant TV that was right above us that went across the whole street.  It was so cool!  People would do different things to get tips.  One guy would do amazing art with spray paint.  It was so cool.  I mean they were literally just amazing, like professional art.  There were two guys who had like an apprentice and he did good work too.  They could finish it in like five minutes."

The place they stayed at was the Tahiti Village and they said it was really nice and had activities for the boys to do.  They had a fitness center and air hockey and Foosball.  Sunday they just hung out at the condo and watched Football.  Jared had started coming down with a cold when he left (along with half of our family) and Sunday he wasn't feeling at all and slept a lot. 

Monday morning they headed back and dropped Jared back home around lunch time.  He had a blast!  Thank you so much, Venables, for taking him! 

 M&M World

 Chris with Justin and Brigham on the Lazy River

     Gabe's Soccer Team

Temple Night

I have been really helping the kids finish their annual histories for last year.  It takes quite a bit of prodding for some of the kids!  Here is a funny quote from Josh's history:  "All of the boys in my class are my friends and one girl in my class is my friend.  At first I didn’t know she was my friend, but she just said she was one day to her friend and I heard!”

Several of us have been sick with colds.  The cold and cough Jase had at Christmas lasted three weeks.  I have had this cold for two weeks and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better.  Rick and I went to the temple last night.  Miquel Vasques (from our Deaf Branch) was receiving his endowments along with Maddie Pemberton who is leaving on a mission soon and so we wanted to support them.

 I had one of those awful coughing attacks in the middle of the session – and you know how it is in the temple – if you cough you suddenly have half a dozen strangers offering you throat lozenges.  I accepted all of them even though I my mouth was already full of them.  Ugh!  They had a get-together at Dairy Queen afterwards which we was fun. .

Janelle has been sick for a while too. She babysat for us since Janika had to work and Jase and Jared were both at parties.  It was the first time she has babysat for so long!  It was Snow Canyon's Junior Prom tonight but Jase didn't ask anyone.  He said it was too expensive and that a lot of his friends were not sixteen yet.  So he and his friends planned a "Bachelor Party" instead. 

Reflections

Janelle and Jaiden both entered the Reflections contest this year.  The theme was "Believe, Dream, Inspire."  Janelle drew a picture and wrote a story and Jaiden drew and colored a picture and made up Choreography to the song "Journey to the Past" from Anastasia.  She did a fantastic job putting the choreography together.  It was beautiful!  Janelle won third place in her age group for her story and Jaiden won fourth place.  They both got ribbons.  Great job, girls!! 

Josh's New Suit!

What a handsome kid!