Julianne, report card in hand, went with her friends to Krispy Kreme a few days ago. Apparently they give out a free donut per A grade. Her 4.0 GPA equalled 7 donuts.
I wasn't trying to sneak a donut! I was just curious as to what kind she had in there, I swear!!
Brandon had a meet in Boise...well, Meridian, actually...this past weekend. It was his first out of state meet and was definitely bigger and a bit more prestigious than the home grown meets we've been doing. Teams from Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Montana, Utah and Idaho were all there. We drove up Thursday afternoon with my cousin Camilla and her son Davis in tow. The whole team was staying at the same hotel so for Brandon it was like some big sleepover with all his teammates. They all went swimming Thursday night and ate breakfast together Friday morning. Lots of laughing. This team is like a family and all get along remarkably well. They help each other and cheer each other on. When someone finishes a routine, they all jump up to give him a hug, knuckles or a pat on the back. The older level boys will come early to a meet just to hang out with the younger boys who are competing, to give them moral support....which means the world to Brandon because he looks up to them so much. These boys have some serious team unity going on and it's awesome to watch.
Watching TV and hanging out with Davis in the morning before breakfast.
Running in when their team was announced at the beginning of the meet.
1st place for the level 5 team!!! (Brandon is the one holding the plaque.)
Brandon and Davis with their coaches Gabe and Adam. Brandon absolutely adores these guys. They push him, they can be stern with him when they need to be. But they also very obviously, in word and action, love him. And Brandon lives to make them proud.
I know I've mentioned it briefly already but just for posterity's sake and all....this is what COULD happen to you if/when you try snowboarding for the first time. Just a warning. Your leading foot could kind of spin around unexpectedly. And then you just might have to throw your hands out to catch yourself as you fall to the snow below you. And then maybe you might feel a sharp pain rip through your wrist causing you to yell something. Most likely "OUCH" if you are Julianne. Possibly something worse if you are me. A trip to the Insta Care for x-rays will then follow the next day when you realize that your arm is swollen and you can't do much with it without experiencing A LOT of pain. And though you will be thankful that x-rays show no actual fracture, (the official diagnosis will be "a bad sprain") you'll still have to ice it daily, take lots of ibuprofen and wear a splint....not exactly the most trendy of accessories. Upside...you'll get lots of attention.
Remember this room? The one that used to be Lilian's before the bedroom shuffle back in November? Remember those plans I had to turn the room into a TV/sitting room? Guess what? I did it!
A first glance from the door. (And yes, that is a Christmas wreath STILL hanging on the window. Sigh. I've got 8 wreaths still hanging on various windows and coach lamps outside. Can I pretend that they are Valentine decorations? They do have red ribbons!)
A piano in my TV/sitting room? Yeah. This is where Bryan and I decided to compromise. He's not a big TV watcher which meant that he was less than thrilled about my ideas for this room. This piano used to sit in our living room...and when the Christmas tree went up in December we moved the piano to the empty room to make space. He decided that having the piano in this room was actually kind of nice. I remembered that he'd said before how he wished he had some kind of screen up on the wall above the piano for his lessons and tutorials. Ding, ding, ding!!! I suggested that we mount a TV on the wall above the piano! It could be a TV room for me and a piano room for him. He agreed and the rest is history. :)
This is a love sac couch. We have another matching one downstairs. I originally pictured an entirely different kind of couch in this room but in the interest of saving $$$ we decided to use this one for now. We may swap it out in the future but in the meantime, I pretty much wrapped my entire decorating/color scheme around a black couch and a black piano.
Skinny little mission style bookshelf from Home Decorators Collection. I built it myself! Well, I didn't actually go out and cut the tree down or anything....but I did put the thing together when it arrived in numerous pieces. How cool am I?
The matching mission style table and cute little lamp from Target.
The past year or so I've been enamored of this whole "Keep Calm and Carry On" theme. Always liked the message of it all...especially in times when I am dealing with anxiety. Then I learned the history behind it. The British Ministry of Information produced these posters at the beginning of WWII in an attempt to raise public morale in the face of impending invasion. Which got me even more excited about it, being the history buff that I am. I decided that my TV/sitting room was the perfect place to hang one of these posters.
And, of course, the craft closet....
This is what I officially spent my Christmas money on. (Thank you, Lynn and Carol!!!!) Although Bryan claims that with all my other TV/sitting room purchases, I've spent his Christmas money as well. Hmmm.....
Julianne reading: "Flipped" by Wendelin Van Draanen
Brandon reading: "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days" by Jeff Kinney
Rebekah reading: "The Lost Hero" by Rick Riordan (and hiding her face because she was irritated I was trying to take her picture.)
If a picture is worth a thousand words then this one kind of tells the story of Brandon's meet this morning. He says he had fun....hanging out with the team, the whole excitement and atmosphere of a meet. But he is NOT recovered from his injury of a week and a half ago. The look on his face as he gritted his teeth and powered through his rings and parallel bar routines made me cringe. It was extremely obvious he was in a lot of pain. This picture was taken after his rings routine. I told him it would be completely okay if he sat out and didn't do parallel bars. His coaches told him the same. But they also gave him some tips and encouragement and Brandon decided to do it...mostly so he could have the chance to place in all around when the awards were being given out. And place he did. He took 7th place all around in his age division. Pretty good for being injured!
The boy that Brandon has his arm around is his cousin, Davis. Well, second cousins really. His mother, Camilla, and I are cousins. How awesome it has been for the two of them to be teammates! They are two years apart in age but both competing in level 5. In a few weeks we have a meet in Boise and the four of us (Brandon, Davis, Camilla and myself) are doing the drive up together and sharing a room. Brandon is hugely looking forward to having all that time with Davis. Frankly, I'm rather looking forward to it myself!
Iron Cross on the rings
Pommel horse
High bar
Hand stand on the rings
Vault
Brandon's coach emailed this picture over. An extra from the photo shoot they did a few weeks ago. Makes me smile. :) 
My 20 year high school reunion is coming up this summer. I knew it, of course, but just recently I've started to receive info about it. Time, place, date. The planning has begun. So I'm freaking out just a little bit. 20 years....really?? It makes me feel so old!
My cousin Tom found this picture recently as he was going through some old things. It's a picture from 1972. Those are my parents in the middle! Depending on what part of 1972...they are either engaged or newly married. My Dad's siblings, Mike and Shannon, are also in the picture.
Is this a handsome boy or what? Not only does he have some serious gymnastics moves, you should see his six-pack! He is one buff kid! He's competing at level 5 this year. He has 2 hour workouts 4 times a week...and he absolutely loves it. His first meet for the season is in a week and a half. Unfortunately, he injured himself at his workout yesterday afternoon. A strained chest muscle? An out of place rib? We're not quite sure yet what is wrong but he is in a lot of pain and we're watching him closely. Whatever it is, I'm sure some rest and time off is in order. He has worked so hard and has been so excited about these upcoming meets! I hope this injury doesn't sideline him for long.
Brandon loved this action shot at first. But since bringing it home, he's continually bugged by the fact that his knee is bent. :)
I was grumpy yesterday. Really grumpy. Nothing seemed to be going my way. Brandon throwing up at school and needing to be checked out early? Yeah...didn't see that coming. He seemed fine when he woke up. Someone turning off my oven while I was baking a casserole for the neighbors...so that after 40 minutes after supposed "cooking" the meal was still raw? That about reduced me to a frantic puddle of frustrated tears. Or maybe my problem is that I'm hormonal. Yeah. In hindsight that's probably it. But. When I was at the store yesterday (not at all happy to be there since I had done my big shop the day before...) I saw these huge, fat, gorgeous roses. And in my hormone befuddled mind I decided that they would make me happy. So I bought them. And put them in a vase next to my bed. And you know what? They have made me smile every time I have walked into my bedroom. Maybe today things will go a little better.
I took down all the Christmas decorations this past week. It's taken me a few days, actually. Little by little. Yesterday the tree that has been sitting dark and undecorated in the corner of my living room since Wednesday, finally got hauled downstairs. But I decided there was one decoration that I wanted to keep up a little while longer. I'm thinking that the mistletoe hanging from the ceiling fan in my bedroom could be a good addition to my bedroom decor year round...
It was 11 degrees outside today. I was shivering non-stop all morning...despite the various layers of clothing I had put on to combat said shivers. It was on this ridiculously cold day that we decided to go ice skating. Contradictory, you may ask? And I haven't even yet mentioned the ice cream run we made later in the evening! But ice skating had been on The List. The "activities-we-will-do-during-Christmas-break" list. And here we were on the last day before school starts again (well, if you don't count Sunday) still having not gone skating despite trying to get it planned and done almost daily since school let out.
It took us a little while to get the hang of it. It'd been over 5 years since the last time we went ice skating as a family. Lilian, of course, needed constant hand holding. She was terribly proud of herself just for keeping her balance at a dead stop on the ice. The kids all fell a few times. Mostly in the pursuit of speed and tricks. They laughed and popped right back up...still skating circles around me. By the end I was feeling a lot more comfortable and was taking a Lilian-free spin around the rink when somehow I lost my balance. I'm not even sure how it happened. All I know is that one moment I was upright and exhilarated...the next I was on my back on the ice. I laughed if off and shakily climbed back up to my feet. And then carefully and gingerly made my way back to where Bryan and the kids were. It's too bad none of them saw my fall. It was rather spectacular! And I have some good bumps and bruises to show for it.
