Memorial Day

 Today was Memorial Day. As a military family we rethink it is especially important to take time to remember the reason for the day. Then we go and do something fun as a family to honor the kind of life their sacrifice made possible. We went to the Fort Bliss Cemetery and walked around. Before entering we had a talk with the kids about what Memorial Day symbolizes. 

We saw less coins than we usually do. However, we did see a gravestone with s challenge coin on it, which was pretty cool. 

We tried to go to a more remote part of the cemetery to visit those graves that may not be visited often. We found a husband unwise side by side. The husband was born in the 1870s and had served in the Spanish American War. We also saw a few Purple Heart award winners and several stones that showed these soldiers were in three or four separate wars. I do not find cemeteries creepy or scary. I find them more sacred places. 

At home we played games, went thrifting and had BBQ (Jason made ribs). We later had FHE and watched a Cutthroat Kitchen episode while eating ice cream. It was a good day. 

Last Day of Seminary and 8th Grade Celebration

Yesterday was the last day of seminary for the year. It was the last day of seminary for Brendan ever. It is weird to come up on all these "lasts". We have a few more to go before graduation. Eva's class had a waffle party and Brendan's had an auction. Eva brought fresh whipped cream to the waffle party. Next year Darby will be in seminary.

Today is a half day for the kids. For eighth graders it is the 8th grade celebration. Basically they have a big party outside the whole schoolday. There were activities, music, food and T-shirt signing. Darby said it was pretty fun. She still has another week and a half (a few finals and projects) but they are wrapping things up for these soon-to-be freshmen. 

Western Playland (Times Two)

Both of our middle schoolers went to Western Playland for a musical competition on different days this week. Darby went for choir on Wednesday and Paige went for band on Thursday. Here is what they had to say about it. 

Paige: Hello! I recently went on a field trip to an amusement park in New Mexico. It's called Western Playland, and it was really fun. I went on the ski lift things with my friend Julia, and she was terrified. But, when we passed by people, she yelled compliments at them. Now, to me, it will always be called the nice ride. I also went on a ride called the fireball. Julia didn't go since she was terrified. I went on it with Kate and one of her friends, and when we hung upside down she was screaming her lungs out.

Dad came for part of it, specifically for the concert part and the judging. The judges seemed very surprised that we were all sixth graders and performed so well. We got a superior rating. Dad said we sounded really good.

Darby: Once we arrived at Western Playland, the choir performed two songs: Hurricane and If I Only Had a Brain. We got a trophy from the judges. After that, my friends, Vanessa, Emma, and Mercy and I split up. Mercy and Vanessa went to go ride the Fireball, a rollercoaster that went in a loop around a circular track. The line was too long for me and Emma, and we went to go ride some of the closer, spinny rides. After riding a couple of those, we met up again with Vanessa and Mercy, who had not only gone on the Fireball, but also on another rollercoaster ride called the Himalaya.  

As a group, we went to ride the cable cars above the park several times, then went to the boardwalk for games and lunch. I won a mint green stuffed hippo at a name-guessing booth and bought a strawberry and cream dessert at a café. Half an hour after that, the choir gathered together for roll call, and we arrived back at Hornedo in time for eighth period. 

Lego Convention

This is Brendan S. McDaniel. Recently, Dad and I went to the Brickfest that was held in El Paso. It wasn’t that impressive, unlike last time.

In the past, Brickfest displayed large, impressive Lego creations that spanned the room. However, this time around, it was mostly activities for little kids, with only about three builds that were actually cool to look at. I surmise that the target audience has changed from adults and collectors to little kids. Don’t get me wrong, I imagine that it would have been a blast for the correct audience, but those who came expecting the North Carolina Brickfest would be hugely disappointed.

It took about 7 minutes to look at everything, after which Dad and I went directly home and played video games together. Since then, it has come to be known among our family as “Brickless" instead of "Brickfest".

Meet the Cougars Night

Hi, this is Eva, and I'm going to tell you about the Meet the Cougars event at Franklin. Meet the Cougars is a sort of club fair where all the clubs at Franklin set up booths to show the new people coming to high school what extracurricular activities are available. Since we need more members, High Q got a table.

It's usually in one of the gyms, but since those are being remodeled, this year it was outside on the field. It was pretty windy that day too, so we didn't set up the canopy. We set up right near the entrance, displayed our awards, and we wore our High Q t-shirts and asked some practice questions to people who stopped by our table. We had candy for prizes.

It lasted about an hour, and during that we had 2 people say they were going to come, a couple of others who looked interested, and a few who only came over because we had a big bowl of lollipops. Darby spent most her time at our table answering trivia questions. It was a good experience, and hopefully it pays off with more High Q members next year!

Mother's Day

It was Mother's Day weekend and on Saturday we were able to go to a baby shower for a dear friend of ours. This is Cassidys' sister-in-law Ada and she is going to have another baby girl. I enjoyed the food and conversation with the fun women that attended. 

The next day, I was able to sleep in on Mother's Day as everyone else in the house did too. Well, minus the dog. But she still didn't bug us until around 7:30. Jason gave me my present in the morning, a necklace with a pendant made from a piece of the Oakland Temple. Eva gave me a handmade card and a plant she had purchased for me. 

At church the primary sang a song (which was cute) and the priests quorum of YM sang as well. The latter brought tears to my eyes.  We also had a recently returned missionary speak to us and her topic was joy. It was an awesome talk. For second hour the men took over YW and Primary and all the women got to meet together for a luncheon and a short lesson. It was fun to sit and visit since I don't often get to with all these fun ladies. 

At home Jason, Brendan and I (well, mostly Brendan) put together a Lego bonsai tree that we had purchased this weekend. It's pretty awesome! 

The kids made a special diner for me. Eva made stuffed French toast with strawberry sauce. Then we watched Relative Race and played a new game we had purchased. I was not very good at it but it sure was fun. 

My two wishes for Mother's Day are always that I don't have to cook and that no one fights. I got both today and I am very happy about that!

Seminar

 Jason here. 

I have a bucket list to train with the master Jiu Jitsu teacher John Danaher. I have many of his instructional videos that I have watched many times to get better. While I have a gym that I train at regularly and a coach there that I really respect and admire, I have learned the most from Danaher. 

During Covid, New York City closed his gym and Danaher ended up relocating to Texas. Last week he announced a seminar with his best student Gordon Ryan in Dallas for one night. 

It was too good to miss so I signed up, flew out for the night, and checked something else off my bucket list. 

Senior Dog?

 Today is Stella's 8th birthday. I can't believe it! Here is a picture of her the day we brought her home. 

And today she is eight!

She got some special treats as a present and lots of pets and cuddles. We went on a long walk too.  

It's crazy that she is now considered a senior dog. She is still pretty peppy though but slowing down a tiny bit. I hope she is with us for many more years. It's hard to remember what life was like without a dog.

Solo and Ensemble Competition and Spring Choir Concert

There have been another few choir concerts and competitions lately. This past weekend Darby was part for quartet that competed at the Solo and Ensemble Competition. This was hosted at Franklin High so it was easier for us to attend. She and three other friends from honor choir sang a song in Latin and then got feedback from the judges. The judge encouraged them to work on their crescendos, decrescendos and dynamics but overall they got food remarks. The found out late that they scored a superior rating and they were all excited for that.

Then today there was the final choir concert of the year for all grades. There is one more competition later this month but the spring concert was the last one for everyone. It was nice to see how they have all improved from the previous concert. They sang some group songs and there were also a few solos. Honor Choir is always the best though. They sounded really good. This time we got to meet in the cafeteria so seating was better and there was plenty of room for the choir students. 

The 8th graders also got a special recognition and a flower from Ms Villarreal. Darby loves choir but has been dissatisfied with the middle school choir lately as so many students don't take it seriously. She is excited to be moving on to the high school choir next year.

Pre-FSY Activity

 We had the Pre-FSY activity tonight. There was a dinner and an information session follower day activities and a dance. It was for the three El Paso stakes that will attend our session of FSY in June. The theme was Star Wars as it was on May the 4th. My kids were not excited to go dancing but there were plenty of other things to do. It was across town so we had to leave half an hour beforehand. They said it would start promptly at 5:30. It didn't. So we were among the first to arrive. 

The food was sandwiches and chips, along with fruit and veggies. Then there was a funny skit by the priests of the Upper Valley Ward. Eva knew some of them and that made her laugh harder. They did a few silly dances to a variety of songs, some were from musicals, some were disco and some were even romantic songs. It was hilarious and got the crowd in a good mood for when the leaders needed to give them information. 

The dance was outside along with volleyball, a bouncy house and more. There was also a quiet room inside the building for those who are sound sensitive. I knew Brendan would want to be in there so I offered to be the adult supervision for the room. It was my three kids and another boy from Upper Valley. We played board games and card games. Eva and Darby went out to see what was going on outside. Brendan was even curious but I had to stay as the chaperone so he stayed until the other boy left. By the time he left it was almost the end and the girls asked if we could just go home. Outside looked like a lot of fun and I wished we had gone out sooner/would've stayed longer but the kids were pooped after their other Saturday activities (like Darby's choir competition). But they all admitted that they actually had a good time so I am happy with that. 

I learned a few things about my kids tonight. Firstly, they are very kind and understanding kids. The other boy that was with us was obviously not neurotypical and was very loud and opinionated. Yet my kids were nice and inclusive and even played what he wanted to play (a type of imaginary battle with Jenga blocks as catapults which morphed into the blocks becoming people and having verbal disagreements about taxes - it was interesting to watch). Even when others came by and peeked in the door at the racket they were causing they still enjoyed themselves with the silly games he wanted to play. He also played a few games that they wanted to play. I am sure that the boy was excited to be included and not mocked, as some teenagers do to those who are different. Even Brendan was patient with him. He was like Brendan used to be back in middle school. And that brings me to my second thing I learned - Brendan has come such a long way in his sociality. We talked about it in the car on the ride home. His sisters said that it was the friends he had made here in El Paso that have helped him grow socially. He agreed. I think it is also a function of time and maturity. Darby admitted that she enjoys spending time with people who are "a little different". She thinks she would like to work in special education some day, especially as a speech therapist. I think she would be good at that. 

Recycling War

I usually walk the dog in the morning. Most often the trash is picked up in the early hours of the morning and the recycling truck comes a bit later. Today I took the trash can up wi the side of house because it was empty but let the full recycling bin down by the curb. Later I had just walked onto our street headed home and saw the recycling truck. I went to go throw away a poop bag in the trash and turned my back just as the truck came to our house. I expected to hear it stop and pick up our bin but heard it just pass by. He had skipped our bin. I ran down the driveway and got a picture of the truck two houses away with our full bin showing. 

This isn't the first time they have not picked up our bin but the first time I had been there to see it. Last time they complained that our recycling was too close to our trash bin and that they had to be "at least three feet away from each other". I measured and marked off a three feet span and have been putting the bins that way ever since. So I knew this time it was not my fault they hadn't picked it up. 

I texted Jason the picture. It really got his dander up so he decided to call the recycling place. I mean, we pay for this service and this is the third time in a few months it hasn't been done. He had to leave a message. They called back and said that they didn't pick it up because it was not out on the curb. What?! He even sent the picture but they said they had no way of knowing if I had put it out after the drove by.  What's funny is that if you look at the time stamp of his phot and mine you could see that only 43 seconds had passed. They also said, "We have a picture of your wife outside showing your bin was not out". Now I was mad because it was less about being missed and more about claiming I was either lying or irresponsible. I told Jason that I would like to see the picture they had. He sent it to me. 

It clearly shows ONE bin (the gray TRASH bin) up by the house and conveniently cuts off right where the recycling bin would be by the curb (which is to the left of the tree). It all felt very suspicious and like he just made a mistake and didn't want to fess up to it. Jason asked to speak to this driver's supervisor. They refused to give a name so he asked to speak to the person on the phone's supervisor. When they were no help he asked to speak to that person's supervisor. He did this three times until one supervisor said he would investigate. Unbeknownst to me this final supervisor actually came out and checked our bin. He must've then called the truck to come back (I bet the driver LOVED that) because around noon the same truck number pulled up and took our bin. I got a picture of that too. I feel like I need to document everything with this recycling guy because he doesn't tell the truth. 

 

Young Women, Yardwork and a Long Walk

The weather is getting nice and so more outside activities are coming up. Paige was invited to Kate's house last weekend to play in the pool for a bit. This group of girls had such fun!

For the YW activity this past week Paige's class had a hike and a picnic. She had a great time and the class bonded a bit more. They have been struggling as the personalities are very different and it's an age where maturity levels vary greatly. 

Darby's YW class had a board game night had a board game night last week and heart attacked the bishop's office this week since the oldest class (Eva's class) and the priests were outside playing kickball. 

 

 

The lawn is starting to grow so I fertilized it and am currently trying to overseed it and fill in some bald patches with topsoil and seed. I hope it works. I love sitting out on the back patio.

The same day I did the yard work, Jason had arranged for the Mazda5 to go in for a checkup again. The check engine light is still on and although we are mostly using it to train the new drivers in our house, it won't pass inspection like that. The weather was nice and the shop was only two miles away so I took Stella, dropped it off and then she and I walked home. it was uphill a lot of the way which was hard but it wasn't too bad. She loved it! When we got home we both had a drink of water and then she collapsed on the cool floor to rest. 

Between all the projects I did that day I walked almost 13,000 steps and had 160 minutes of exercise. I know it is not a 100 mile race but I was pretty proud of myself.