New Year's Ever (part 2)

I didn't bring my camera, but after dinner we went to the Olsen's house (we went home and got Bradley and Andrew, too) for games and cake (fancy bakery cake).  The couples from dinner were also there.  The kids mostly ran around, but they also tried to play some of the games with us.  After the games, 4 of the people brought out their guitars, there was a bongo drum, and some vocals, like a live band started playing...Scott got out his duck calls, but they didn't fit in too well.....haha.....we left not too long after the band began their jam.

New Year's Eve

 We didn't really have any plans for New Year's Eve.  William and I went to the 1/2 price sale at the thrift store and found some cool ugly sweaters, then went to Walgreens for their 75% off Christmas items sale and to use my free battery coupon which expired today, then we went to the Red Box at Savemart to use my free video code there, then on our way home (it was about 4:45), Scott called and told me that he and I were invited out to dinner with a group of friends.  He said we needed to meet them at 5:00.  We weren't too late. 

The dinner was at a place in down town Chico called the "Raw Bar".  It isn't a place that Scott not I would EVER think of going on our own, but I'm so glad that we were invited to go because it was FUN and the food was good, too.  The atmosphere was really cool.  It was a sushi place.  It was fancy, but casual, if that makes any sense.  Scott ordered steak and I had a chowder, but everyone else tried all the various octopus, spicy, squid, lobster, random sushis offered there.  I did try a veggy one, but not much else.  There was a duck appetiser thing that was tasty.  I don't know if we will ever go back there, but it will be a New Year's Eve I will never forget.

Melanee's team made Deseret News top Heroes list

http://www.deseretnews.com/top/70/513/Top.html

background info about the swords

I don't know all the exact details, but I wanted to tell you some extra information about our stake giving out those fabulous sword shadow box wall hangings.

The last Stake presidency started the whole award ceremony and sword gifts either 5 or 6 years ago.  William was just 12 at the time and was just new in young mens.  We went to that presentation because it was advertised on the ward bulletin as "all young men should attend" or something like that.  That year, the stake president got up and gave a talk about the meaning of the sword, the honor it is to have completed the Duty to God program, and how the young men could hang these nicely framed and personalized swords in their office someday as a reminder to stand for truth and righteousness. 

As the story goes, that stake presidency got a great deal on some nice swords, someone in the stake had a good talent of displaying them and building the boxes, and they ordered enough for a few years.  When they ran out, they couldn't find another reasonably priced sword supplier and were seriously thinking about not continuing the tradition they started.  The young men who earn their Eagle Award are given nice, engraved compasses in a fancy box.  The deacons who earn their Deacon level duty to God awards get a tie and the Teachers who earn theirs also get a different color tie.  Of all the awards, the sword is really the most breathtaking, awesome gift given.  Many young men probably do the program to get the sword.  In fact, Scott calls the Duty to God book the "sword book" and reminded William all the time to "do something in your sword book today". 

This year we have a new stake presidency and I even think there is a new young men's stake presidency.  Since this is the program or idea of the old stake presidency, they didn't have to keep doing it....and in their meetings they DID decide to do away with it.  The expense was high for the stake AND-------  they decided that giving out a sword might be an awful thing if one day one of these sword award winner goes off the deep end, breaks the glass, takes the sword out and uses it for a killing spree......or if it got out into the press that something like "Mormon church gives out swords as right of passage to young men"....it could be taken all out of context and wrong...I guess.  I don't know their EXACT decision, but they AXED the sword presentations.

But along comes Scott, good friend to the Stake President.  And the other young men William's age, who were the young kids who worked hard, planning to earn a sword in a glass case.  With Scott's pleading and debating abilities and after more discussion, this leadership group decided that these last 5 young men this year would be able to be awarded the sword.  THEN starting NEXT year, the award is going to be a SHIELD, instead of a sword.  That's neat, too.  And that's something to work hard for.  It's something that would look very nice up on an office wall someday.  Shields can represent a lot of gospel stuff, just like a sword, so it's not any LESS of a significant award!!! 

(And I guess I should have figured that the reason the swords were different sizes and designs was because they couldn't find 5 matching ones....) 

I also HOPE the shields will still be awarded when Bradley earns his Duty to God Award.  Shields are so cool, too! 

DEAD rats! EW!!!!!

I really don't know what is worse, the rats crawling around making all kids of racket in our ceiling or poisoning them and having to smell their decomposing bodies?!??!!!!  Well, it got to the point of wanting them dead and gone, but now we smell the worst, horrid, indescribable stink you can imagine.  I sent Scott up into the crawl space to find the dead bodies.  William helped him get up there!  LOL.  (He didn't find them....I think they are in the walls or somewhere utterly unreachable.  YUCK!!!

Andrew is 9

Today was Andrew's birthday.  He had a nice day mostly sitting on the couch playing games, watching tv, and chillaxing.  It was sunny outside, but Andrew, I don't think, ever left the front room.  I asked him if he wanted to go out to dinner or have steak for dinner, he said "Steak" but when it was dinnertime and dinner was just about ALL prepared Andrew said, "I thought we were going out to dinner?"  oh well, dinner was yummy and I am sure we saved TONS of money eating here!  When Scott got home from work he told Andrew he would take him to Chuck E. Cheese to use up all the tokens we have from last time we went (from Scott's birthday, I think!!!!), but Andrew chose to stay home AGAIN.  Odd kid, huh?  We had cake and watched the Sharks game, but they stunk and lost badly.  The LA Kings played like "Stars on Ice" (that's a compliment) and hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard!!!  And the Sacramento Kings lost AGAIN tonight....they "out lost" the Clippers.  Both teams were BAD.  UGH!

Stake Awards Recognition Night

 Here is William next to his (and Spud's) display table.  He brought items to show a little about him and to exemplify all the work he has done to earn his Duty to God award.  William's items included art work he made, a family picture, his seminary honor award, pictures from his baptism day, a duck carving, medals he won at scout camp, a Book of Mormon, a picture of the Laurel/Priest temple trip, a Sharks puck, a Christ statue type thing, and then there were a lot of pictures of Spud and Wil doing things together like them on a snow camping trip, them on a tandem bike, them during a scout skit, them on the trek holding their rice babies, and a few other funny pictures from their good times together in scouts and at church activities. 

 Here are Spud and Wil.  Fun guys.  One time I was talking to Spud's mom and one of my comments to her was that William was turning into Spud, which she laughed at because she said that her family thought that Spud was turning into William.  William's name marker and the name on his certificate were both spelled wrong.  That kind of bugged me, but I felt bad for Spud, because his real name is Christopher (or is it Christian?) either way, his real name is not Spud....and his mom calls him Taylor.....but on all of his awards---the compass he got for getting his eagle award, the name plate on his sword, his certificate, everything all said "SPUD"....for things like this, things he will want to display his whole life, his REAL given name should be on them!

 Here are the swords that the young men who earned their Duty to God awards received.  The little name plate calls them the Sword of Truth and Righteousness.  Sooooooooooo COOL!  But I am curious as to why they are different, why they are different sizes, why some are bigger, some are fancier, than others????  SHOULDN'T they ALL be the SAME!??!!!????!!!!  And how did they determine who got which one?????  (Yes, William and Spud both got the smaller ones, but when we got it home, when it wasn't next to the big ones, it is actually pretty darn big, and very nice, so seriously, if William is going to have this hanging on his wall in his office someday, it's better that it is not overly huge...his is a nice size for displaying!!!!)

 They made the parents come up and our bishop presented the sword to William. 

Look!  Even Scott and William are smiling!!!!!!!  We are SO proud of William. 

Award

William is getting an award tonight at a Stake Award Presentation, I will post pictures later because he has already left to set up his display table.  I'm using this picture for now (found it on Melanee's computer, I think that is HP Pavilion in the background). 

The award he has earned is called the "Duty to God Award" and it has taken him 6 years to achieve it.  Not all the boys at church receive it, they have to actually do all the requirements and it's not exactly easy.  We were so disappointed about William not earning the Boy Scout Eagle Award, but this one is an award we can be JUST AS PROUD of.  Starting when he was 12 years old he has had to do things like service, studying, teaching, and participating.  William is a great young man.  We are so proud of all that he does to help others, serve the Lord, and obey all the commandments.  He loves his family, loves the gospel, and lives his life righteously each and every day.  Everywhere I go people compliment me on what a wonderful son I have and what a great job Scott and I have done in raising him.  I don't know that we have done anything that spectacular, I think that William is just a very special spirit.  When Scott gave him his name and blessing when he was a baby, Scott had the distinct feeling that William was an "old spirit".  A spirit or soul that was saved for these latter days.  I completely agree that William is a choice son of our Heavenly Father.  And I will also say that he is one of my favorite sons!  I love him so much.  He makes me smile (and laugh).  I am so proud of William not just for earning this awesome award, but also for all that he does on a daily basis to live the gospel and be an example to me and everyone he meets.

Happy Birthday Andrew

Did I do a birthday post for Bradley?  Did I do one for Melanee?  Scott?  I don't remember, but I want to do one for my youngest, for my BABY----Sweet Andrew.  I am on Melanee's computer and she does NOT have many pictures of Andrew to choose from, but I did find this....so this is what I will use, but in actuality, it's a pretty good picture of Andrew, I mean, it represents him fairly accurately.  I mean, he looks like this quite often....like when he thinks I said something weird, or I ask him to take out the trash, or if he wants to do something ON HIS OWN, which is ALL OF THE TIME!  He does NOT like to be told what to do.  He doesn't need much help.  He has his own ideas of how to do things and is very independent.
Andrew is funny.  He says funny things, does funny things, and even looks funny half the time.  He dresses himself, never matches, and does NOT care what he looks like.  He tries to act cool like his older brothers and sister.  He isn't afraid to say what he feels.  He's not shy.  He is REALLY good at getting his way!  He is definitely going to be a successful person in life, he has a lot of talent and good traits on his side.  I am proud of him.  I am happy to have him for a son.  He is so active and quick witted that it keeps me feeling young.  With William a senior this year, Melanee already in college, I am so glad to have my "little kids".  WOW, life would be DIFFERENT without them.  Everyone should have an Andrew in their life!

Hey,
This is Melanee... My family is crazy. haha I got them all SVU shirts for Christmas.  My mom wanted to get a picture with everyone in their new SVU t-shirts.  So I was the "photographer"... They are not very photogenic. (I don't know how to spell that.)

Christmas Morning

We woke up a little before 8 on Christmas morning.  Only problem was that Melanee wanted to take part in Cameron's Christmas phone call with his family at 8 so we either had to hurry and open our gifts or wait until she was done....it all worked out fine, though, because we didn't have a ton of stuff to open and the phone call came way later.  We went oldest first, so Scott opened his presents from Bradley and Andrew...he got a fishing pole and a fishing net. 

 To decide which order for the kids to open their gifts I put numbers in a bowl.  To be funny, I put all #1's in the bowl the first time, to trick the kids so that they all thought they'd get to go first.  They didn't think that was very funny.  We did a re-draw and William got the real number 1.  I said to Scott, "Give William his SHIRT"...OOPS!!!!...meant to say "PRESENT".  I probably GAVE THE SURPRISE AWAY...oops!!!!  He ripped the package opened to find-

 A Marc-Eduord Vlasic authentic San Jose Sharks jersey.  He did a happy dance all around the room.  (Should have had my camcorder!!!)

 Andrew drew #2.  He was very excited to see inside his wrapping paper a Game Stop bag, which he tore into to find--- a Wii.  The red one!!!  With 3 games and 3 extra controllers. 

 Melanee went next.  She opened her package to find-  a t shirt.  She flipped it over to find it was #10....one of her NOT favorite players, and it WAS NOT personalized, it said "USA" where the player's name should go.  She smiled and was happy, but WE COULD ALL TELL that she was dissapointed and almost looked like she would cry.....but she's good at showing appreciation and she did a great job of pretending that she was thrilled (but she wasn't). 

 Bradley had to wait the longest, but he was just as happy as William and Andrew when he found his #29 Ryane Clowe Sharks jersey!!!! 

 He also ran around the room yelling and dancing in sheer happiness. 

 That's when we got out another package for Melanee.  Each child only got one gift, so everyone had thought that Christmas morning was OVER...but, to Melanee's surprise, there was a little box still unopened for her.  She opened it quickly to find...what she REALLY wanted....A Stuart Holden USA jersey!

 She even jumped all around the room in pure joy.  I still feel bad for tricking her into thinking that the boys got wonderful, real, awesome gifts while all she got was a t shirt.  But it was a good joke, one we will never forget! 

 Merry Christmas!!!

Risk

Scott makes friends with people all the time.  Today one of his new friends (someone he gave a chicken to a few weeks ago) brought over a "gift" for the boys.  They were so excited to get it and to play.  It's the board game Risk.  Andrew begs Scott to play.  Scott gives in and says he will play, but with the warning that "I have never lost to any of my kids before."  They set it all up only to find that it is missing a few of the country cards and also a few dice.  So Andrew sets out to find some dice out of other games we have.  He comes back with enough and they start to play.  Andrew was winning a lot of battles, before Scott looks closer at his die (isn't that singular for dice) to see that it has 6 sides but two of the sides are 1's, two are 2's, and two are 3's!!! No wonder he kept losing!!!  So if you look closely at this picture, Scott is the red...Andrew is black AND grey, too, because he needed more men!  World DOMINATION!

Mel & Wil Snowboarding

 They were near Lake Tahoe at Squaw Valley.

 You can see the lake in the background (upper right) of this picture.

 Our friend Tim.

 And one of William's friends was there, too!

 Melanee said this is what William looked like most of the day!

They had fun.  William is sore and tired.  Melanee, not so much!!!

Snowboarders

When I asked Melanee what she wanted for Christmas she couldn't think of anything...then a few days later she called and told me what she wanted---to go snowboarding.  In the back of my mind I thought, there is NO way she's going to get that gift.  But I told Scott what she wanted.  Scott knows lots of people, and it just so happened that friends of his were going to Squaw Valley for their Christmas vacation.  They have a big van, but the way the van is set up there is no place to hide Christmas gifts so that the passengers (their kids) can't see all the gifts.  The family wanted to find someone to bring up their gifts sometime during the week.  Scott volunteered Melanee and William and the friends are "paying" them for bringing up the gifts by giving them a snowboarding trip and a one night stay there at their cabin with them.  I'm sure Melanee and William are going to have a BLAST.  Here is a picture of them before they left. 

Ward Christmas Party

Oh boy, I do NOT like our ward Christmas parties.  I should not complain because I know the activity committee worked hard on it and I don't want to be put on that committee.....but I wish they didn't always serve NASTY macaroni and cheese, dry ham, and green beans with more onions in them than beans.  I wish the parents would supervise their kids.  I wish people would wear at least CLEAN, not tattered clothes.  I wish they didn't have the primary nativity scene EVERY year.  I wish the pianist wouldn't be playing ALL through dinner.  I wish the kids wouldn't be fed sugar (made "ginger bread" houses before dinner).  I wish they didn't last 3 hours long.  They should check the Sharks schedule before securing a date for the dinner.  And WHO really needs Santa at a Church Christmas party????? 

 Andrew was a wise man.

Andrew checking through his goodie bag from Santa.

Melanee is HOME for Christmas Break

William, Andrew, and I drove to the Sacramento Airport last night to pick up Melanee.  Her flight arrived at 11:08.  At 11:08, the computer monitor which tracks flights and gates and all that had a message that went from "on time" to "arrived" so we all thought the passengers would be walking down the hall soon.  Us and a ton of other people stared at the empty elevators for about a half hour.  More and more people gathered.  Melanee wouldn't answer my texts or phone calls.  We all started to worry a bit, but finally I got at text from her stating that they had just landed.  The message on the board was NOT accurate.  People started coming down the escallator, Andrew had the great idea to hide, then jump out and surprise her, but she saw us before we could say, "Boo!"Andrew wanted to carry her luggage, but he only got a few feet before saying that it was "too Heavy".  I convinced William to carry it, but before he did, he whined a lot about his arms being tired and sore.

 William did NOT want to be in this picture, I wish I would have insisted to NOT be in it, too!!!!!!

Boy Scout Pinewood Derby

Last week was the cub scout PineWood Derby, this week was the boy scout PineWood Derby.  There was only ONE rule for this PineWood Derby-  the one rule was- there are no rules.  So, William made a car out of lead.  His car weighed over 3 pounds.  They placed his car in the special category and ran all the other cars first.  Bradley was so dissapointed in his car last week that he ran his car from last year in the race....he took 2nd place overall in the regular race (regulation cars).  Then the fun began....all the cars built by the scouts who followed the ONE rule.  There was one car that was a POTATOE, no wood on it anywhere.  There were other cars who tried to be heavy by taping and gluing things to their tops, but none were over 3 POUNDS!!!!!  William's car beat every car it went up against...until the wheels collapsed under all the weight.  In fact, the gate couldn't even hold it in at the start.  No wonder they have rules for real PineWood Derbies!!!

youth temple trip

William finally found a picture from the temple trip!!!!  He's the one in the lower left front row corner! 

ward goodie plate

The photo quality of these is not great, but I just HAD to blog about this because the last few evenings have been so funny.  About a week ago someone put a plate of goodies on our porch.  It was sitting there when we got home, so we didn't get a chance to chase anyone.  Yeah, you read that right....if anyone ever tries to doorbell ditch us any goodies Scott chases them down the street and tackles them...either that or if he cant catch them he yells "You COWARDS!" as they hop in their cars and drive down the street.  Our front room is right inside our front door, we are usually IN the front room, and we have a big window, so we can even sometimes SEE people walking up to our porch....so Scott usually is able to catch people.  He will bring them inside and make them eat goodies with us if he catches them (and hopefully DOESN'T hurt them).

On that plate of goodies we got a week ago was a laminated note saying to refill the plate and deliver it to someone else.  On Sunday night we got another plate of treats, Scott didn't tackle anyone, but he ran to the car and talked to the Chelsons.  On Monday night, Andrew made some cookies and we delivered them to the Chelsons.  Tonight that plate and note came back to us, from the Chelsons.  We didn't have any cookies or goodies, and we ate the ones they gave us in 5 seconds flat, so Andrew filled the plate with crackers, plain, salted, white, square, crackers.  He spread them out all nicely like you would do with a decorative plate of cookies, put foil on them, attached the same note and the boys went and door bell ditched them to the Chelsons.  That was late, like after 9:00.  BUT the story doesn't end there, later back at our house Scott goes running out the door after receiving a text (they knew they couldn't out run him if they knocked)....on our porch THE PLATE and THE NOTE...this time with 2 pieces of bread and a banana. 

They are getting it back tomorrow with either a can of tuna or a potato!!!

the presents

Oh, I forgot to tell you what Bradley got for his birthday....he got a brand new (first time he's ever not had a hand me down) bike helmet from Kolby and Michelle....this was a real needed gift, have to protect the brain, you know!  The next gift he got was a comforter, sheet set, bed ruffle, pillow case, and pillow sham that were all tiger/cheetah pattern.  The blanket is WARM, he really likes them (and needed them).  The next gift in that big box was a PILLOW PET.  I'm sure you have seen the commercials.  We have been teasing him that he was going to get something from one of those lousy commercials that come on during kids shows.  And we thought he'd flip out if he thought that was his last gift, but when he got it out of the box he actually hugged it and liked it....then when he opened it up, inside the fold was what he had been asking for ... a new cell phone!  Well, it was actually a phone given to us by a guy at Scott's work who needed to get out of a contract, but Bradley didn't know that until he looked at the pictures on the phone and said, who is "that?" to which William chimed in with, "That looks like Pete's wife!?  Bradley was so happy with all his gifts this year, unlike last year....did I write about the "flat screen" tv?