Gratefully Twitterpated: April 2014

Make-Up Day

Halle and I got to start our February with a "Make -Over." Jeraldine had paid for a make-over last fall during the youth's service auction. So on the first Saturday in February we met with Laurie Farnsworth and got to be made up all pretty.

Lara - before (my everyday look)


Lara - after (a little more sophisticated)

Jeraldine - before (being brave to let me take a "before" picture of her)

Jeraldine - after (always a pretty lady)

Halle - before (already beautiful!)

Halle - after (looking like a young lady)

We got to show ourselves off later that evening at the Birch wedding. It felt nice to be a little more made up than usual. Thank you Laurie - you did a wonderful job and we had a great time together.

Chase Basketball

Basketball continued. Chad loved every minute of it! Practice, games, cheering on his team. He loves, loves, loves basketball. (He also loves watching BYU play).

An interesting thing that happened to Chad was hand cramps. During one of the games - he was very wound up and excited - and his hands started going numb and then cramped up. The game was almost done and Chad was sitting on the bench. All of a sudden the coach calls for the Sports Director to come over. I cracked a joke about what was going on, and who could hurt themselves while on the bench. Then as I was able to tell what was going on - it was Chad who was getting all the attention. So then I really wanted to know what was going on - but couldn't get up to see him until the game was over. It was the craziest thing! So we plugged water into him and rubbed his arms and hands until he felt better. We expected his problem was due to a number of things, like dehydration, not enough food (the game started late), and hyperventilating because of his excitement.

We had hoped that this was an isolated case - but his hand numbness and cramps happened a couple more times. We still don't know exactly why this happened.

Winter finally rolled in with a big snow storm, with enough snow to cancel Chad's last basketball game. He was so disappointed. They said they would make it up the next day but then they couldn't because they couldn't get any referees. The very final game was made up of the best JV players, unfortunately Chad did not make the elite JV team. Again - very disappointed. Not the way you want to end your season. But Chad always has such a positive attitude and recovered quickly. He is now already practicing for next year.

Staying open.

Hustling down the court.

My awesome #45.

Not scared of the big guys.

Going for a steal.

Scouts

Chad had another merit badge college to attend. He was only able to work on two badges (as he could only go half a day last month because of the bass recital). He was supposed to work on some badges for his eagle requirement but his leader didn't register them ahead of time and he was stuck with what ever classes were still open. He ended up working on and completing his Indian Lore and Engineering merit badges. I'm proud of all the extra work Chad puts into keeping up with scouts.

Gymnastics

Halle had her second meet of the season. The judge is always a little harsher on the second meet so we expected lower scores - but Halle arose to the occasion. She scored a 9.7 on vault (and placed 1st in vault in a three way tie) which was higher than last meet! She placed a 9.0 on bars (same as last time - but still unfair as the other group of girls scored really high on bars with their simplified routine). She scored a 9.25 on floor (an improvement of 0.05 points - but still not high enough for this mom - Halle was fabulous - and still better than the other girls!!!) Finally she scored a 9.4 on beam (her only lower score from last time). She placed 3rd overall was very grateful to be on the podium.

The "Springers" getting ready for their entrance.

Okay, bad mother moment. I didn't get any other pictures of Halle's meet (but I did get video). Halle had a "Nastia Lukin" hair-do and purple finger nails (because those details are very important in the world of competitive gymnastics - ha, ha!) And perhaps, just one day I will figure out my video camera and actually post some videos of my children.

Ready for another bad mother moment?! I think that the following picture was taken in February - but it is not on my calendar - nor can my brain remember! But as it includes the word "love" I'm placing it in this month's blog.

Sean started taking gymnastics when he finished up football in the fall. He worked really hard and went from a level 1 to a level 2. Here is a picture of him with his grandparents for grandparents day at gymnastics. I think that they all enjoyed the session.

Orchestra

Chad had his big South Hill Orchestra Concert on Tuesday, February 25th. I again accompanied the orchestra. I also helped out with rehearsal by bringing four basses and at least ten cellos and wires and speakers all loaded in to my van from Chase to Ferris. (Yes, I fit them all in!!!!)

As I was with the orchestra - I left the camera and video camera with Chris. Did he take any pictures or video? NO!!!!!!! (So I may have lots of bad mother moments - but Chris had a bad father moment too!)

I think everything went fairly well. The big finale was crazy! They had the Ferris orchestra, the Chase orchestra and all the south hill elementary kids in orchestra trying to fit on the new, but much smaller, stage at Ferris. It was insane!!!! The song didn't go so well either - I got off (but so was every elementary kid!) and didn't end when the conductor did. Oh, well. I was so glad when it was all over. I hope Chad enjoyed it - especially playing by the high school bass players.

Cub Scouts

Then end of the month brought pack meeting and an Invention Convention. Sean earned his Bear!!!! The best part was most of his bear pack did too. They all got to drink bear juice to celebrate.

Sean' s invention was a head-held watering can. The best was his sales pitch! He is quite the performer.