March Madness....

March 6.....

Kaylee is so busy with track.  Now that it is high school...they practise all the time...like 2 hours a day.  They are pretty intense.  She is trying hurdles this year as not too many people wanted to do them.  They said she is actually pretty good at them.  She cleared one the other day---then apparently tripped on the track and fell.  Her coach was impressed...and repeated the story to a group of people...that he was impressed that she got right back up and tried again....she didn't cry and make a big scene.  (even though she had track rash....you know..it's like road rash with a track.  LOL).   Anyway---I always hate how intense track season is...so it's a good thing it's short.   She's getting into great shape.  She is a workout machine.  She still hasn't had her first date...boys are dumb not to ask her out!!!  

Jaycee just got done with the science fair and is now onto country reports.  She was lucky enough to get Chile...she was so happy!  I can't believe we are registering her for Jr High next week for next year! She still is our best Koda watcher and I love hearing her laugh as she plays with him. (she pretends not to like it)   It was finally warm enough on Sat that I opened the windows and took Koda out in the back yard and let him run free for at least an hour.  He loved it.   It's back cold today...but can't wait for it to be warm for good!  .

March 13....

I got a fun facebook message today that our friends Ann Marie and Darren Jones SAW Devin at Stake Conference today.  How fun is THAT!  She said she knew who he was immediately! They live up in his mission area and knew he was on a mission there, but hadn't seen him in probably 22 years since we were in our BYU ward together.  Ann Marie said she knew it was him because he looked like us---especially Garrin.  She says he looked great....happy and healthy...so that was a fun surprise!  

I've officially lost 25 pounds since Jan 1st!


March 23.....

Jaycee for St Patrick's Day

So...Monday the girls didn't have school.  We didn't really do anything that I can think of....we were all tired because of daylight's savings...we lost an hour on sunday.  That night, Jaycee sang at the Utah Flash game.   Garrin and I rushed to get her there in time....as she had to be there at 6:30 and Garrin was still working.  It was a fun night though as we haven't been to a live basketball game in awhile.  Garrin was sick all week...I think it started last Saturday.  So that was a bummer.  I kept telling him to get to the dr...but he didn't until Thursday.  He ended up with a sinus infection.  Now that he's been on antibiotics for a few days...he is feeling much better.  Tuesday he didn't go to scouts because of the sickness...but Jaycee and I had to go to the Jr High to sign her up for JR HIGH!!  Can you believe it??  No more elementary school for us...weird!  

Wed  Kaylee had a track meet in Provo...her first one.  She didn't want me to come to it...but Jaycee and I snuck down to Provo anyway.  We barely made it there from my work on time as I got off at 3 and it started at 3:30 and I had to pick up Jaycee. Shawnee took her to the shop when she went to work so I could just jump off the freeway, grab her and keep going.  We tried to hide in the stands...but she spotted us (there weren't many people).  She was REALLY nervous.  It took an hour and a half before she was up...she ran the 300 meter Hurdles.  I was impressed she could jump them like that.  She took 4th...not too bad for her first time!  That was all she ran.  

Saturday we all went to the shop (except Shawnee who was helping with ballroom tryouts for next year).  Kaylee of course cleaned, Jaycee and I had to re-do all the files as there was no room for them anymore.  I tried to help Jaycee get caught up--but she still isn't.   We spent about 4 hours there.  Dad spent all day trying to get a motor job done.  So...needless to say last night we were all tired and after cleaning house too and doing laundry...we all just sat around watching tv.

 Here are some fun pictures we got from Elder Ellis.  The first one is of him and Elder Brady---who is serving from our home ward also.

 Elder Ellis and his companion Elder Van den Akker

  Beautiful Seattle Temple

 This one I find hilarious.  Elder Van den Akker, Elder Ellis and Elder Brady--re-enacting the sculpture

March 27....

So....this week was a pretty busy one. Garrin has been so busy with Ryan (our only employee) gone.  He quit to become a tool distributor.  Garrin didn't get home until 9:30 one night...and is so busy.  We have hired a new employee--Cameron who should be starting soon!

On Tuesday, Shawnee was on her way to East Shore and got rear ended...thus ending the streak of "I'm the only one in the family that hasn't been in a car accident".   Darn.  I think we'll see Doc Barrus tomorrow as her back is a bit sore.  He'll have her fixed up in no time.  So..the lady that hit her thought the light turned green so she went!   Then she didn't want Shawnee to call the cops...but Shawnee called them AND Garrin (this happened in front of Lehi Roller Mills).  Now..she does not want us calling the insurance company at ALL...she says she'll pay it out of her pocket.  So...the damage was really minimal...but still $1350.  So...Dad called her and said...want to go through insurance?  She still says no....crazy lady!  I wonder if she'll change her mind after a few chiro treatments.????   We found out that she didn't have insurance after all that---so she agreed to pay the $1350 in cash to fix the car---and we went through our insurance for medical benefits.  They will end up going after her for reimbursement i am sure.

Saturday, Tanya got married in the Salt Lake temple.

 Ginger and I

Shawnee, the Black Haired Girl

So.....I realized that my blogging time has now been taken up by "writing to Devin" time each Sunday. In an effort to keep up with what has happened in our lives since he left 5 months ago--I'm going to start posting again...AND I'm going to go back and re-construct the last 5 months...so bad! All I have to do is re-read his letters since I tell him our high points. :D

This week has been busy! Shawnee had Nationals with her ballroom team this week at BYU. She had to have her hair dyed black, a french manicure, and tan. So..she's been working on the tan for about a month at a tanning salon, and we dyed her hair with a semi-permanent color on Wed. nite. It sure was messy!!! And...it didn't take as well as we had expected...but it was good enough for her competition.

Shawnee danced the standard medley with her team and they received 5th place. I was SHOCKED. We had them pegged for 1st or 2nd place. They were completely in sync...every line straight...every turn in sync..no stumbles. It was beautiful. Even their coach was very excited! Other teams stumbled, were out of sync--etc. I found out today that they took 5-7 seconds too long to exit the stage--and that's why they placed 5th (last). How disappointing to put in all that hard work. But Shawnee sure looked beautiful and had a great time!

Koda's Obedience Graduation

Today was Koda's graduation from obedience school.  Wish that meant that he was totally obedient.  HA.  He isn't...but is so much better.  We moved his cage and exercise pen to Jaycee's old room yesterday .  At 7:30 this morning Garrin finally went and checked on him.  I don't know if we couldn't hear him bark at all during the night...or if he stayed down all night.   It might be a good thing to have him a little farther away.  Hehe.

Koda won a bone for being the best at "come".  He raced all 5 of the other dogs and won every time.  She would put him at one end of an aisle and Jaycee would call him to "come".  He would race down the aisle to her...it was too funny!  He sometimes will "come" at home..but when you call him and he has something he shouldn't have (usually a sock or a dish rag) then he runs and hides behind the chair..or makes you chase him around the table.  We also had him "stay" and it was down to the last 2 dogs...him and another dog.  They stayed for about 5 min...with us reminding him to stay...he had never done so well.  Then the dang teacher walked by him (and he loves her...well...he loves all people) and it broke his concentration and he ran and jumped up on her.  He lost.  LOL.  Oh well...he is doing good.  Yesterday Jaycee had him out in the backyard and she was throwing the ball to him and also practicing stay and come.  He would race across the whole yard as fast as he could to get to her.  It sure helped her avoid cleaning her room.  HA.

Koda, the "graduate"

Our obedience class and their dogs---at Petsmart

Idaho Ballroom Competition

We decided to go to Idaho for Shawnee's GEM state Ballroom competition in Rexburg!  She rode up on the bus---and we came up later.  On Friday--we left at about 9:30am ----had a few errands to do.  We woke up to 10 inches of snow.  Garrin hurried and shoveled so it didn't look like we were gone all weekend.  I heard that it was melted by the end of the day---but it was light and fluffy. We ran by the shop to make sure it was ok...and the cars were covered.  They didn't have as much as we did at the house--but still a lot!

 So...Friday...We got to Rexburg just in time to check into the hotel and get to the competition really.  We were there until 10:30 that night...so it was a long day of driving and just sitting.   Shawnee competed in 4 out of 7 of the team dances....and they won 3 thirds, 2 seconds and tied for a 1st in the national championships.  It was very fun to watch.  The next day (Sat) we didn't get there until 2:00. We woke up the next day ready to spend some time swimming at the hotel---only to find out that the pool was closed.  We ended up moving hotels as that was one of the things the kids wanted to do that day. 

We drove by several places that Garrin and I wanted to see since we both had lived in Rexburg ourselves.  This is my Great Grandma Rigby's house.  I have many great memories of visiting here there while growing up.  I also visited almost weekly while going to college at Rick's.  She had this little house in back that you can see that was rented out to college students.

This is Dorm 6 at Ricks---where I spent my first year.

 This is Heritage Manor where I lived my 2nd year.

This is the Bunkhouse where Garrin lived a few years 

The girls got bored on the drive and took some cool pictures of each other

When I lived in Rexburg---they didn't have a temple.  It was really cool to drive by and see this there now.  

Ashurity and Wes came by our new hotel and brought the kids for a swim..that was fun!  This is Kendall

Wes, Pyper, and Jaycee

Jaycee and Pyper

 Saturday was individual dances all day---Shawnee competed with Michael Boyd (below) and JD Steeneck (below) and one other kid I didn't know in 7 different dances as a couple.  She and Michael took a 4th place in Tango and a 3rd place Mambo with JD (out of probably 50 couples).  So...she did pretty good.

Jenny, Heather, Shawnee and Emily dance their standard medly

Sarah and Shawnee

Go LEHI!

At the very very end...they have a team match...they all dress in their purplest outfits and choose a couple from the team to represent them in 5 different dances.  The rest of the team tries to "bribe" the judges for high scores by bowing down to them, giving them treats, kissing them on the cheek, doing little routines like backflips, splits...that kind of stuff in between songs...so it's funny..  One of the kids wanted us to wear their shirts as we didn't know about this and didn't bring any purple...but obviously we didn't fit into a teenager's shirt LOL.  So...this is what they did to us instead  Anyway---just crazy LOUD fun!! We loved being with the team and watching them all...so much energy.  :D

We got home about 5:30 Sunday....so it was a long long weekend!  We're all tired!  Ashurity and Wes came over to the competition with their 2 kids and Lark came over too from BYU-I.  It was fun to see them for a little bit.  We went by Ashurity's house today near Idaho Falls on our way home to see it.  

Feb Wrap-up & Random Thoughts

2/13  --Random thoughts

*So...the weather here was beautiful!  I hear it almost got up to 60 today.  I helped with Jaycee's Valentine party today too.   
*Teresa says that Kennedy "worries" about Devin and so therefore--she colors him a lot of pictures and writes him a lot of notes.
*Garrin and I got tickets for each other for Hale Center Theater for the plays and went to our first one this week--the Foreigner.  
*Business is good---picking up for sure.  We had our all time record last month. 
* I've lost 18 lbs since the beginning of the year!

2/21
Jaycee had her 1st babysitting job---for the Boyds.  Everyone was gone except me so Koda and I had to go to obedience classes  by ourselves.  He is actually learning quite a bit of stuff...so that is good.  We decided that Kaylee and Shawnee need to get up with him sometimes in the night...so Friday night was Kaylee's first shot.  Well...let's just say she slept right through it and I had to get up with him.  Sat night was Shawnee's first time and we put his cage downstairs and he slept all the way until 7am....no fair!  For Garrin and I he only sleeps until 5;30am.  We need to train him to sleep at least until 6:30.  Garrin is getting tired from getting up so much with him.  He started doing it every night because I can't get back to sleep after getting up with him, and Garrin could.  Now...Garrincan't much either...so guess I'll have to start taking my turn.  

So on Wed night I think it was...we had a Power outage.  It started with thunder and lightening...can you believe it?  in Feb?  The wind kicked up BIG time and then...the snow..  By 8:30 we were completely dark.  We were all so exhausted and were going to go to bed early anyway....so at 8:45 we all got in bed.  Funny, huh!  I think that is a first for me!  The power didn't come back on until 1:00 in the morning.  Wow.  I think that's the longest it's ever been out.  It was really weird.  Jaycee ended up sleeping in our bedroom in a sleeping bag because she was too scared.  The storm was horrible.  Lehi has had 3 earthquakes in the last few weeks too.  We didn't feel a one...they were only 2.5 or something small.  It was snowing tonight too..so we are having some weather issues still :D  I was hoping it was going to warm up and be SPRING.  So tired of the winter weather.  We did have a few days of 50 and almost 60 so that feels like heaven

Jaycee is going ice fishing with Gpa tomorrow...her first time. Hope she likes it.  I'm going to go to the mall with the girls.  I drove down to take Jaycee to Springville at 9:00 tonight and visited a bit with Aunt Teresa and Gma and Gpa...didn't get home until about 12:00.  

We are leaving on Friday to go to Rexburg for shawnee's ballroom competition.  We will hopefully see Lark and Ashurity and Wes.  We'll be back on Sunday night.  It should be nice...at least to get away if nothing else.  We've never seen the Rexburg Temple...and I want to show the girls Rick's campus...and Gma Rigby's house.  It's been a hard week as I worked so many hours...so I'm glad to only work 2 days this week!!!  

Visiting Utah State

So...what a busy busy week!  It started out---still in Logan---to check out Utah State.  I think Shawnee will love it there.  We met with housing people, had a campus tour, and met with her counselor (who we figured out knows Kim and Tammy and was Tammy's assistant camp cook).  Too funny!  Anyway---it was fun to check out campus and see where she might live.  She is thinking she'll live at the "old Farm" townhouses on the edge of campus.  A girl on her ballroom team wants to live there and Shawnee would rather be with someone she knows.  They wouldn't be in  the same room..but  in the same apartment.  I guess that apt building has 3 wards in it and is 90-95% LDS...so that is good.  We felt a lot better about it once we visited the campus.  Just before we left, as we are in the admissions office, we ask if they have her application and scholarship application as they are both due the next day...we wanted to  make sure.  They said...yes...but did you apply for these OTHER 3???  hmmm......what other 3?  So....they were all due the next day (postmarked) and 2 were online...one was an 8 pg portfolio.  We worked from the time we got home at 6pm until about 2:30 AM the next day.  We got them all 3 done and turned in.  And now we wait.......ugh...so hard.     Anyway----that next day I had to be to work at 7:30 and we needed a few more pics from Costco (4 pages of the 8 she did as scrapbook pages telling about herself) so she skipped seminary and I left work an hour early and I got it to the post office 30 mintues before the Feb 1st deadline ended.  WHEW!  

As Garrin is watching the SuperBowl this week, he pauses the TV to go do something.  Koda jumps up on the love sac and starts barking at the 2 frozen football players standing on the field.  He would not stop...it was funny

 Koda and Kaylee

Also---there is a new rap song that sings "Bottoms Up" over and over.  Jaycee was in the car and it was on and she said..."That is SICK".  I said..."How is it sick?"   She says...you know...putting your bum up.  HA.  Garrin had to explain that it was, unfortunately, about drinking...and putting the bottom of the bottle UP.  HA.  

Celebrating Kiera's birthday

Playing games as a family

Devin news from Seattle:   earlier this week Elder Van den Akker wasnt feeling too well one morning so we got out kinda late... but while he was getting ready there was a knock at our door.... which never happens since its a windy  long driveway to where the members live that we live with... so we look out the window from our bedroom and see a black car out front... thought thats pretty weird... so i put on my nametag before i go answer the door and open the door and there are two women on the porch both with smiles on their faces until they saw my name tag then it just got really awkward for them lol they were jehovahs witnesses going around and sharing bible verses... so we sat at the door for a couple minutes and i let them do their spheel then they went on their way... but its really funny cause im sure that doesnt happen too often where they knock on the missionaries doors and the missionaries are actually home... lol kinda weird  

Wrapping up January

Here are a few more things from our month.  Elder Ellis gets transferred to Mount Si area in Snoqualmie.  His new companion is Elder Van den Akker from UT.

From Elder Ellis "well us and the elders from clark lake went and got 30 mcnuggets each... needless to say i could only manage about 17 of them... elder perkins had like 37 elder smith had like 37 and elder barker had 30... so i lost but i was ok with that... later on in the week when we had exchanges i was with elder barker and elder perkins and elder smith were together elder perkins and smith went back and ate 60 a piece... yeah needless to say elder perkins had a stomach ache on sunday morning lol it was pretty funny but thats so disgusting... it really reminded me why i dont ever eat mcdonalds... NASTY!!!"

From Elder Ellis: " well monday night it snowed and we had the hardest time getting back up to our apartment in the snow in the car lol... we had to avoid the biggest hill in the mission becuase of the snow and we never would have made it up if we wouldnt have taken side streets lol... here is a picture of me and my snow angel

Mount Si

Elder Ellis' cottage in a member's backyard.  They are out in the middle of the country 

.Kaylee went to St George with her friends Sadie and Morgan for Morgan's birthday

Kaylee's blue fades and she gets a pink streak

 Shawnee has a ballroom competition in Provo.  Here with friends Jeni and Maddi

RANDOM JANUARY HAPPENINGS

*We laughed at Koda as he was into EVERYTHING one day. He kept getting Kaylee's shoe no matter where she put it. Then he got the OTHER shoe and started. He's funny to watch. He went after my pepsi, the comics, my camera, the doggie poop bags, everything! He had his little surgery ...so that's been a little challenging to watch so he doesn't lick in the wrong spot. We also feed him pain meds in a little syringe tube that he LOVES. And I love because I give them to him at 7am and then he falls back asleep with me for a couple of hours.

*We got 4 inches on Wed morning. On my way up to SLC--it rained all day...but about 5:00 Wed night...wowee....we're were in a blizzard (a real one...as opposed to that fake one they predicted last month). We probably have at least another couple of inches..but the wind is whipping it around fiercely. We hunkered down once everyone got home and didn't go anywhere on Thursday. Except Garrin of course. He was going down that hill by Bishop Dixon's house and was going very slow...I think he said like 5-10mph and when he went to turn right....he slid and almost went into the ravine. He got stuck in the snow and a truck was right behind him and pulled him out. When I woke up Thurs....I was SOOO glad that I didn't have to be to work that day!!

 *So.....don't know if it was because of the fog---or talking to so many kids over the loudness of the music---but started losing my voice Wed night after Kaylee's birthday party at Classic Skating. By Thursday it was GONE and I was really tired all day and didn't feel good. So...I kind of slept in, and sat around the house until the girls got home---just resting and reading mostly. Had to do a bunch of errands after that. I wasn't sure how I would work with no voice on Friday---but got to work and had a tiny voice. I asked someone to trade me jobs as I was suppose to be on phones...and I knew my voice wouldn't last the day on there!

 *Koda keeps coming over and laying on me while I'm trying to type. He puts his head on my hand while I'm typing and I can't type. I throw his chew stick (to get him off of me) and he runs and gets it and jumps back up and settles on my chest where I can't see to type. We move him over to Garrin, he comes back over on me...it's funny. Guess he wants me today.

*So a funny GREAT thing we did Garrin and I were exhausted and when I was at Petsmart earlier this week---I saw something called "Bark Off". It's suppose to send a high pitched noise that the dog doesn't like when you turn it on and they bark. We were so tired of him barking after we put him in his kennel at night after taking him out to go to the bathroom. He was waking up a minimum of 3 times (including the last one about 5:30 am when I was getting up). We had decided that we were no longer sitting up with him after taking him out to the bathroom---so we just put him back in his cage and he would bark for about 45 min before settling back down, then a few hours later---he'd be up barking again. We had been doing this "bark it out" for a week. We were so tired!!! He just wasn't settling in...so I decided to buy it---sent Shawnee there on her way home from work. You would not BELIEVE how that thing works!!!! He barked a couple of times..then kind of whined...then tiny yelps...then....silence!!! Wow. A few hours later...ONE bark...then nothing. Garrin got him up after 6 hours and took him out---put him in---and NOTHING. SILENCE!!!! it's been that way ever since. We put him down 9 on week night and 11 on weekends and he goes right to sleep. He wakes up ONCE 6 hours later---we quickly take him out and put him back---and silence...and for us...SLEEP!! It's awesome!

*We went last night and did baptisms. It was an Elder's Quorum activity. Jaycee has a couple of more months before she can go----so she had to stay home alone. She wasn't too happy about that. She doesn't like to be home alone at night. She ended up having a few friends over so that she wasn't scared. I did 4 names that were family names..and the girls did other names. It was really nice. Jaycee and Kaylee went and worked at the shop yesterday and then Dad and I did a bunch of errands. So a pretty typical Saturday.