Conference Weekend

It that time of year again…General Conference.  Here are some pictures:

The Saturday food spread

We had our friends the Griffins over again and we worked
on a puzzle that was pretty hard

We also had our friends the Bodily's over on Sunday 

We all contributed to Sunday dinner which included
ribs and Portillos chocolate cake

the kiddos watching conference

It was a good weekend.  I have to admit that on Sunday our attention can be a little spotty, but that's what DVR is for, right?!

Oh and usually, we are able to finish the puzzle but this year no such luck.  I think Dave finally finished it like a month after conference

Well that was fast

So let me sum up Ashley's soccer season:

1)Conditioning and tryouts which consists of a TON of running.  

2)Snow and bad weather results in all tryouts and practices being held indoors at varying, crazy times as every Spring sport at the high school now has to share gym time because all athletic fields are covered in snow.

3)Numerous games cancelled or rescheduled because of the weather and field conditions.  The only games being played at the beginning of the season are away games to schools with turf fields.

4)Before game 1, Ashley gets slide tackled at practice and hits her head hard on the gym floor.  She has to be evaluated for a concussion.  Fortunately, she is okay.

5)2nd game of the season she sprains her ankle.  It's minor but it swells and she limps around for a while.

6)While her ankle is healing, her other foot starts to hurt.  Over the course of the next week and half it gets worse.  Thanks to my diagnostic (Google) skills, I'm pretty confident she has a stress fracture in her foot.

7)After a game, her foot is swollen and very painful.  I take her to an orthopedist and viola she has a metatarsal stress fracture in her right foot.  She is in a surgical shoe and on crutches for 3 weeks and needs a total of 6 weeks to heal.  There is only about 5 weeks left of the soccer season.  She's done for this year.

Not exactly, a great experience for her.  The conditioning was tough and very focused on running because that's all they could do indoors for so long.  Stress fractures are overuse injuries and the intensity is probably what did her in.  Especially because she was bowling in the winter and didn't play soccer, it basically left her in a position of going from zero to ten when it came to running.   

Sadly, she was just starting to hit her stride with soccer.  Because she doesn't play on a traveling team, she had to prove herself.  The coaches were starting to like her a lot and she was starting and playing the whole game.  Although it was hard to not be able to play, it did help for her to see that the team did need her and felt her loss.  

The other side of the coin is that the disappointment was mitigated by the fact she could now focus on the school musical.  Instead of going to soccer every day and trying to figure out how to squeeze in musical rehearsals, she could now just go to rehearsals every day.  She was just as busy but was now on crutches.  Looking back, I'm not sure how she could have done both, as each was so demanding.

As for the crutches.  That was a huge challenge.  First, Ashley is so tall that she was just a big klutzy disaster of arms, legs and crutches.  The first day she went to school, I was worried the whole day that she was going to fall and break her leg because of the crutches.  Let's just say that using crutches did not come naturally to her.  

In addition, we had to start driving Ashley to school from Seminary.  She has a very short window from the time Seminary ends and when school starts.  Under normal circumstances, she is just barely getting to school on time and has to practically run to class.  This was not going to happen on crutches, so Dave and I picked her up early every day from Seminary to get her to school on time and then I would have to rush home to be back in time for the elementary school kids.  It definitely added another level of craziness to our routine.  Thank goodness it only lasted three weeks.

Chinese Dinner

Every year, the young women at church do a fundraiser to raise money to pay for summer camp.  In the past we have done a spaghetti dinner.  This year, I decided to do something different and serve Chinese food.  I also flew my dad into town to come and help as this is his area of expertise.  

I really wasn't sure how many dinner tickets the girls would sell but we encouraged them to do the best they could.  In the end, they really stepped up and sold over 200 tickets which was a lot more than we expected.

Folding 600 wontons

Loaded car with all the food

I feel really bad because I didn't get any pictures of that evening.  It's too bad because the girls decorated the dining room very nicely with hanging paper lanterns and everything.

My dad and I worked like crazy in the kitchen.  I'm happy to report that the food was good.  The evening wasn't without it's hiccups, however.  The hardest part was keeping up with the demand.  We got a little behind and so people had to wait for their food.  It was a little crazy and I wish it could have been perfect, but hey we aren't professionals!

In the end, we earned enough to pay for every girl to go to camp.  I'm so thankful for the support and patience of all those who helped the girls.

Grandpa!

We had a visitor over Spring Break this year, my dad!  It all came together when he agreed to come to Chicago to cook a Chinese dinner as a fundraiser for Young Women at our church.  The timing worked out great because he was able to be here for the fundraiser which also coincided with our Spring Break and with Ashley's soccer season.

Of course, the first part of his visit we were pretty much consumed by shopping and preparing for the dinner.  It was a lot of work and I'll post about that separately.  

We shopped all over town looking for the best prices and the ingredients we needed.  We even went to Chinatown in Chicago.  We shopped a couple of Chinese groceries, bought a roasted duck, stocked up at a Chinese bakery and stopped for some dim sum for lunch.  Dim sum is my dad's favorite.  Dave and I like it too, but we both drew the line at the chicken feet.  We let dad have that one all to himself!

Chinese market

Roasted duck and BBQ pork - Chinese style, yum!!

No thanks to the chicken feet!

Dim Sum

As per usual when my dad visits, there is a lot of cooking and movie watching going on.  What a great house guest.  He also discovered the secret to getting Paige to eat chicken.  You have to filet chicken breasts in half and then pound them thin.  I think it helps her with texture and chewing.  Anyways, he did that for her and she ate it no problem.  Since he has left, I've done it a bunch of times and she keeps eating it.  The method is a bit time-consuming but the thinner cutlets cook up quicker so may it's all a wash when it comes to how long it takes.

Another great story is that while he was here, I volunteered to donate a fruit tray for a PTA lunch for the teachers at Paige's school.   When my dad heard that, he offered to cut up the fruit…THANK YOU.  I know the picture doesn't really do it justice, but let's just say two things about the fruit tray:

1)I got a message from the school that says, "Thank you for the most amazing fruit tray, we've ever seen." (I'm not exaggerating.)

2)the pineapple looks whole but it is actually sliced and can be taken apart to be eaten.  It's like a pineapple puzzle.  The top and outer rind comes off and chunks of pineapple are inside.  Crazy awesome.

While Grandpa was here we also got to see Ashley play two soccer games.  She hurt her ankle in the first game so thank goodness he was here to wrap her ankle.  He also taught me how to do it, so that I could take over after he went home.

After all the hard work he did while he was here, we took him for brunch to Shaw's Crab House.  It's a fancy all-you-can-eat seafood buffet.  It was good and we definitely got our money's worth eating lots of Alaskan King Crab.  I was too busy stuffing my face to take any pictures.

In total, he was here for one week, but it flew by.  It was so good to have him here and to have his help.  What a great dad!

Oh, the rabbit in the window well drama!

So a few weeks ago in the middle of a deep freeze and snow storm, Paige and her friend were playing in the basement.  Suddenly, we heard gasps, screams, and laughter.  We go running down stairs to find out that a full-size wild rabbit has fallen into our window well and obviously can't get out.  Our window well is about 4-5 feet deep and it's narrow too.

Of course, no one wants to watch this rabbit slowly starve to death in our window well so we start trying to figure out how to get it out.  First plan, is to lower an old window screen into the well for the rabbit to use as a ramp.  I go outside, in knee deep snow, and lower the screen into the well, which scares the daylights out the rabbit.  He goes ballistic running around and jumping off the walls, which pretty much scares the daylights out of me.  Fortunately, I was able to get the screen into place.  We leave it for a while but the rabbit just huddles in the corner.  Now, we aren't sure he will be able to figure out how to use the ramp.  So Dave uses a shovel to move the rabbit and try to encourage it to run up the ramp.  This fails.

Our neighbor then tells us that this happened to them and they had to open their window and grab the rabbit with their hands and put it into a bag and carry it outside.  Their rabbit was a baby which may have made it possible as they get scared and just freeze.  This is an adult rabbit, who is not just going to let us grab it.  But, hey we should try everything right?

So I put on some gloves and open the window.  I am very concerned about the rabbit bolting past my outstretched hand, jumping through the window and into our house.  A wild rabbit tearing through your house is much worse than a watching a wild rabbit slowly die in your window well.  I realize that there is no way I can just grab the rabbit.  Next plan is to throw a towel over the rabbit and trap it so that I can more easily grab and bag.  (I'm sure by now, you are thinking, "these guys are so stupid."   In fact, I'm thinking it as I type.)  Anyways, because our window is so narrow, I use a small stick to help me throw the towel onto the rabbit.  The rabbit absolutely freaks out and jumps towards the open window. In a miracle or a tender mercy, I am somehow able to withdraw my arm from the window and slam it shut as the fur of the rabbit fills the gap.  Grab the rabbit and put it in a bag, fails.

Now Dave tries to use a shovel to catapult the rabbit out, but that, no surprise, fails.  Then he decides that maybe he should just jump down in the window well and get the rabbit out.  He is literally standing at the edge of the well ready to jump down.  Thank goodness, I'm able to talk him out of this plan.  My main points against this are:
1)he will be up to his armpits once in jumps in the well and the circumference is going to be a tight fit.  He is a big guy, there is not going to be much room to bend over and pick up a rabbit.
2)the rabbit is going to go insane and jump, claw, and bite the crap out of him.
3)the result of this is likely to be a rabbit and a man stuck in our window well…not good.

Finally, we just decide to leave the rabbit and the ramp and wait until the next day.  It's too late to call animal control or anything.  Hopefully the rabbit won't freeze to death over night, but we did leave the towel out there for him (ha, ha!)  In the morning, we are pleasantly surprised to find an empty window well.  Maybe the rabbit figured the ramp out.  There also happens to be a little bit of blood in the snow, so maybe another creature went down there and got him or maybe he was injured as he fell, who knows, but at least it's no longer our problem.  Next time we will just put the ramp in there and leave it.  

Someone Else Auditioned for Oliver!

A while ago, Ashley told us that the director of the musical said he wanted to get some younger kids to be orphans and perform in the opening number, "Food, Glorious Food."  Paige said she wanted to do it, so we just tucked that into the back of our minds.

A few weeks ago, the high school contacted the junior high schools and put out the word they would be holding auditions for orphan extras.  As Paige is still in elementary school, we were not sure she fit the criteria they were looking for, but we submitted her name and her friend Riley's name anyway.  Fortunately, they were looking for 10-12 year olds, so she could audition.  I got an email notifying us about the day of the auditions.  It also included the music they needed to learn and a request that we respond to let them know when we were available to audition.

Of course, the audition was when my dad was in town, and the day before our big fundraiser dinner.  Basically, this was a super busy time for me and honestly, I just kind of forgot about it.  When we got the initial information, Paige and Riley were very excited and practiced singing, but after that it just faded off our priority list.

Fast forward, to the day of the audition.  I saw a friend who reminded me about it.  The audition was at 3:30.  Paige and Riley get out of school at 3:30.  I had also failed to email the director confirming our audition.  At first, I decided to just forget about it.  Then I felt bad because I knew Paige would be disappointed.

So I decided what the heck!  What do they have to lose?  I emailed the director and he emailed right back and said they could still audition.  Then I called Riley's mom and she and I decided to check the girls out of school 30 minutes early so they could get over to the audition.  Here is the kicker:  the girls had no idea about the audition.

When Paige was called down to the office from her classroom and she saw me, she asked why she was leaving early.  I told her that if she wanted to audition for Oliver, she had to do it right now!  This probably would have terrified a lot of kids, but not Paige, she was a little nervous, but she still really wanted to do it.

I drove Paige and Riley over to the high school and we sat in the van for 30 minutes so they could "practice"/sing along with the iPad.  Then when it was time, I said, "okay let's do it."

When we get to the audition, they are clearly the only elementary kids.  Everyone else is 12 or even 13 and they are prepared.  Thank goodness, you didn't have to have the words to the song memorized and  I printed a copy of the words for the girls before picking them up.  At first, they were going to have everyone audition solo, then decided to have them go in groups of 2 instead.  This was a big relief to Paige and Riley because they could to it together.  I was worried that maybe they would chicken out at the last minute, but they didn't.

I didn't get to sit in on the audition, but I could see them through the window and honestly, it was the the cutest thing I have ever seen.  First they sang together, then he had each of them sing separately, then sing while expressing anger and frustration.  They left the audition feeling happy, so I was glad that my last minute antics, didn't seem to traumatize them much.

I felt like their chances of being cast depended on what age group of kids they were looking for.  If they wanted "little" kids to contrast with the high school kids, they obviously had a good chance.  If they just wanted anyone who could sing, then I really didn't know.  The cast list was posted the next day and for whatever reason, both Paige and Riley made it!  They are pretty excited about it.  It should be fun, although it will be another event that I have to get them to every week.  The play is the last week of April so they will have about a month of rehearsals.  It's even more exciting because Ashley is also in the play and they will all be together.    

End and the Beginning

The End of one sport and the Beginning of the next.

Ashley ended her bowling season with a team banquet at which she won the Most Improved Player award for the JV.  We are very proud of her and I really like the girls on the bowling team.  They are friendly girls and very supportive of each other.  It was a good season.

She also had tryouts for the girls' soccer team.  The school usually has a Varsity, JV and Freshman team.  There was lots of confusion throughout the tryout about whether they would have 2 or 3 teams and whether they were going to have an exclusively Freshman team.  This is a new coaching staff and they were still trying to figure out what to do.  It seemed like every day they would cut 5 girls and then have a new plan for the teams.  Literally during the week long tryouts, one day we thought Ashley made the team and then the next day they cut more girls, so we were a little confused about if tryouts were over or not.

When all was said and done, Ashley did make the team.  They decided to have 1 varsity team and 2 JV teams.  So Ashley is on the JV which is where we expected her to be.  I personally am happy about having 3 teams.  I would much rather have Ashley play in games than sit on the bench and never get in.

She has definitely had to adjust to the level of intensity and conditioning required at the high school level.  She has had to get in shape fast.  She actually has a very demanding schedule right now.  On top of her schoolwork, she goes to rehearsals for the musical, has soccer practice every day including Saturdays, still has early morning seminary and to top it off is swimming everyday in PE.  Her days are long and physically exhausting right now.  I've had to take her dinner at school a few times already because she is there so late.  So far she has been able to stay on top of it all and she is enjoying herself so we will see how it goes.

Right before the first game, Ashley got tackled during practice and fell and hit her head on the gym floor.  She hit it so hard, the coaches pulled her out and evaluated her for a concussion.  Not the way we hoped to start the season, but fortunately she was okay and went on to play well in her first game.

So far, most practices have been indoors because of all the snow and poor field conditions. The two games they have played have been at schools with turf fields.  Looks like they will probably keep playing away games on turf fields for a while.