Family Update

Ryan:  

• Has a "Man Cold," meaning he has the sniffles and a slight cough so is pretty sure he's dying.  
• He joined a weight-loss contest in February, and has already lost 13 pounds.  I'm so very proud, yet so very annoyed at how easily he loses weight.  Sometimes it would be really nice to be a man.
• The good news is that his business is booming.  He works as a Vice President for National Marketing Resources, but he also joined forces with Nate Hughes a couple years ago to create a separate entity called Platinum Payments Systems, which is in ISO (Independent Sales Organization) for VISA and MasterCard.  Did you follow that?  I'm still trying to figure out what my husband does for a living.  All I know is he loves his job and he helps businesses set up credit-card processing.  PPS has hit the yearly goals out of the ballpark, meaning that business is going very well, which makes for one happy CEO and one happy husband of mine.
• The bad news is that he has to travel a lot in the next couple months, which is not something either of us are fond of, but are used to.  I can't complain because many husbands have to travel far more than he does, but I just really like having him around.  In May he will be in Phoenix, New Orleans, Utah, Washington D.C. and San Diego, but they are all fairly short trips.
• He still teaches the 14-15 year-old Sunday School class, so he is Brevan's teacher, which he loves.
• He will be purchasing a new riding lawn mower tomorrow.  When you have acreage and you are suddenly without a mower (because we had borrowed a mower that we needed to return), you have to break down and spend a fortune. 
• His current TV viewing includes Duck Dynasty, which as far as I can tell is a reality show about wealthy, white-trash duck hunters.  Uh . . . . . . . .I just sit near him and read a book.

Me (Ali):

• Gosh, I hate having to explain my life.  There's nothing worse than someone asking me what my hobbies are or "what's new" in my life.  Let's see.  I still do laundry, dishes, cook, run errands, pay the bills, vacuum, make beds, dust, pull weeds, scrub bathrooms, micromanage my entire family's lives, and spend a good portion of my day driving little people around in my van.  So pretty much, it's the same old stuff.  But I love it because it's the best job in the world.  I do have those days, however, when I take the brunt of my children's negativity and I have to remind myself of the reasons I chose to devote my life to them. On those days I'm grateful for my Tiffany, my Kara, my Brenda and my Christine.  Sometimes the best therapy is to spend a few minutes venting to a best friend who completely understands!
• Tomorrow is "Take Your Child To Work" day, so I tried to get one of my kids to stay home and help with my "job" tomorrow.  They all sounded excited until I told them what the day would entail.  They decided a day at school didn't sound so bad after all.  
• My race is in 10 days.  Ahhhh!  I'm not ready yet, but I've seen major progress, and that makes me ridiculously happy.
• I'm having fun planning our vacation time in Utah this summer.  I felt like we would have a ton of extra time considering we will be there for over three weeks, but the time is filling up quickly. 
• I love my callings as the Activity Day leader and the Compassionate Service Leader.  I think I would be happy to stay in these calling forever!
• I guess I'm pretty boring.  Good thing I married a comedian who is helping me raise four hilarious little creatures or this would be a lame attempt at family history.

Brevan:

• He is getting contacts this week!  He doesn't want to wear them all the time, but he is starting to understand that the ladies like the contacts.
• He received a Merit Badge at the Court of Honor tonight.  He is such a handsome Scout all decked out in his uniform.
• He is in "love" with a girl named Jennifer, which means he stares at her a lot and sometimes even manages to say a couple words in her presence.  When I pick him up from school, he often tells me funny stories about his adventures in Teenage Crush Land.  I'm so glad he trusts me and doesn't take life too seriously.
• He is BEYOND determined (meaning he stresses himself out often) to maintain a perfect 4.0 grade point average all the way through High School, and then be accepted into BYU.  He is excited to tour BYU campus when we are in Utah this summer.
• He and Tanner Steele have become great friends.  I can't explain the happiness this gives me.  The boys sit by each other at lunch, hang out together after school and encourage each other to make good decisions.  Today when I picked up Brevan from Tanner's house, I asked what they had been doing together.  Brevan said they had googled "How to date Mormon girls." 
• He has matured SO much in the past year or so.  Ryan and I both have adults tell us ALL THE TIME what a good kid he is, and how impressed they are with him.  We sure lucked out being  his parents.

Brynlie:

• Plain and simple, she's had a rough school year and I'm just very proud of the way she's handled herself most of the time.  Thank heaven the year is almost over and she can advance into Middle School in the fall.  That sounds funny because Middle School definitely has it's own challenges, but at least she can move past some of the situations she's had to endure this year. I've been eating lunch with her in the school cafeteria at least once a week, just to give her a break from some of the drama.  She's so happy when I'm there, and always gives me giant hugs when I leave.  Those are the moments I try to remember when she's screaming and blaming all her problems on me.
• She is a perfectionist, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  The problem is that she gets frustrated when life doesn't go exactly how she plans.  She's also the sweetest girl in the world, and she cares so much about her family.  I wish I could record the awesome prayers she gives, because it's obvious that she puts a lot of thought into the struggles of each family member and wants them to feel Heavenly Father's love.
• She is quite the Daddy's girl right now.  She has such a special relationship with him, and has even gone to him to discuss some serious concerns.  Yay for Daddy's who listen and give their daughters' encouragement.
• She refused to join the Swim Team again this summer, which made me sad because she was really getting good.  She will be plenty busy this summer, however, because she landed a main role in the local theater production, plus she is taking gymnastics classes, dance classes and a musical theater class.  
• She got contacts last week, but has only worn them a couple days because it takes her so long to get them in.  After getting the contacts, she told me of her concern that people would notice her "unibrow" more (since her glasses weren't hiding it anymore), so I convinced her to get them waxed.  She was pretty scared of the whole waxing experience, but her eyebrows look so nice now! 
• She loves to spend time on Instagram, taking useless pictures of herself posing in mirrors, doing the "duck face" and talking about celebrities she knows nothing about.  Oh to be a pre-teen again.  The whole social networking thing worries me, because I'm afraid she internalizes all the comments and "likes" she receives, but she has a good time connecting with other kids in the virtual world. 
• She's started babysitting more often now, so she has started making a little bit more money.  She loves kids and looks for all opportunities to babysit.

Lindsey:

• Her biggest news is she won a writing contest!  She was the FIRST PLACE WINNER out of 1700 students who entered the 2013 Kansas City Royals Father of the Year Essay Contest!  When I get a copy of her essay, I will include it on the blog.  She really put some thought into describing "fathering" in the writing assignment.  She will get to read her essay at a huge tailgate party under a massive tent outside Kauffman Stadium right before the Royal's baseball game on June 11th!  Since she was the 2nd grade winner of the contest, Ryan is nominated as the Kansas City Royals Father of the Year, also!  He had to complete a questionnaire to explain his parenting experiences and theories.  The Father of the Year will be announced on the same evening of the party, and then our whole family gets to attend the Royals game for free.  I'm so proud of my girl!  What an awesome achievement!
• She is the epitome of the phrase "Social Butterfly."  Lindsey is always fun.  Always energetic.  Always busy.  And always has a friend at her side.  
• Lindsey will keep busy this summer with gymnastics and a smaller role in the local theater production.  She is looking forward to school being done.
• Her head is healing very well, and we are hoping she doesn't scar too badly.  When I took her to a specialist, he was very impressed with how well the sutures sealed the wound and how the scar is looking so far.

Logan:

• His best friend is Thomas Meador.  The two of them together is just about the cutest, funniest thing you will ever see.  His Mom and I are sure that we could make millions of dollars if we just start recording the conversations between them!  
• Logan has played in two soccer games so far, and has scored a goal in both of them!  In the second game, he was the only player on his team to score at all.  His team is named "The Flash" (the kids got to pick) and he has a great coach.  Our family sits on the sidelines and laughs hysterically at his "game face" while he plays.  He gets so serious and sticks out his tongue the whole time he runs up and down the field. 
• Today when I dropped him off at school, I carried him in my arms.  There just aren't many days left when a) he won't be embarrassed about being carried by his mom and b) I won't injure myself trying to carry him.  I'm so sad that the Kindergartners next year will teach him that he needs to be tough and act grown up.  He has a heart of gold.  His personality is very similar to Brynlie in a lot of ways.  
• He's learning to ride his bike without the training wheels!  We need some warm days so I can get out there and help him learn!
• He spends hours (literally HOURS) every day playing "games" that he requires us to watch.  They all revolve around assorted superheroes he pretends to be.  He runs around acting out scenes from books or movies he's seen.  It's freakin' hilarious.  Even when I'm very tired of spending my day watching him bounce off the couch as he fights the bad guys, it makes me sad to think he will outgrow this stage someday.  

As a family, we have done some great service, such as helping a family move.  Ryan suggested we take the kids to help with the moving, since this family has only a few possessions and lives in a very run-down apartment.  We could see the shock in our kid's eyes as they witnessed the happiness of this family despite their humble circumstances.  A girl from Lindsey's school class saw us and ran up excitedly to ask if we were moving into the apartments also.  We didn't exactly like the way Lindsey responded to the question, so we gave her a hushed lecture before requiring her to correct her wrong.  We think she learned a hard lesson about NEVER thinking she is more important than anyone else.

For scripture study this past month we've been watching "The Bible," a History Channel show.  We've enjoyed most of the show, and have had some great family discussions.

I better go take care of my sick husband, who has wrapped himself up in a blanket on the couch.  That poor, sick, needy guy.