Teenager Blues

We are working on preparing the night before for school and since we didn't need to be at church last night, we had plenty of time to prepare, right? Forrest gets up this morning and has a pair of cargo shorts on. "I have no pants" he tells me. What? I have bought him two pairs of Levis this month! He had a clean pair of light blue jeans, but he insisted he couldn't wear them because "I already wore them this week". He said one pair of pants "flooded" when he sat down. I made the comment that the pants I have on this morning floods. His reply? "But you're a girl!" When did he all of a sudden become the host of "What Not to Wear"? This is my son who wears blue jeans and a t-shirt. He hates to shop. Where did all this fasion talk come from? It never mattered before. I guess with the acknowledgement that girls are not all that evil, he is becoming more self-concious about what he wears. When he left this morning, guess what I found in his closet. A clean pair of Levis!

Fast Forward

Life for the Walker family has been in "fast forward" mode. This past week, Forrest started his soccer season with three games last week on top of school, work, soccer practice, homework, church activities, preparing for a sacrament talk & Relief Society Enrichment mtg., and several "blows" from the opposition, there wasn't time to update. I do not want to repeat last week for nothing. Three days of no sleep mixed with major stress, no thank you! The battle of good -vs- evil is on and I plan on winning. So, BRING IT! Needless to say, Saturday and Sunday we were slothful. We recooperated and it felt great! I was the only one not off today. I had to go to school and work on SACS, an accredidation for our school. Every five years this major report is due. Every certified teacher is involved in the process. I was very impressed with myself for knowing alot more than I thought about what goes on in the classroom. The State Department will do a walk through at the end of April and randomly ask teachers questions. They have never come to the gym, but with many students answering a SACS survey of wanting more PE and less classroom time, I better make sure I know my stuff! Maybe I should have them do some jumping jacks before asking me any questions! George and the kids cruised around in the Firebird today. It's been a month or so since we have driven it. I was able to take it for a spin too. It's definately a keeper. I told George not to "price it" because every time he does, someone comes back with cash. Well, hopefully tomorrow will be the start of a normal week. I'll leave you with my VT message I gave to my sisters last Thursday:

Even when winds of adversity blow,
Our Father keeps us anchored to our hope...
He will consecrate our afflictions for our gain.

"When our trials seem overwhelming,
We can draw strength
From the sure promise of the Lord:

Be not afraid nor dismayed
And for the battle is not ours,

But God's"

Joseph B. Wirthlin

Season of Changes

 

 

 

Look at the difference in a year makes on a growing boy! The first picture was from his 7th grade middle school soccer team and the others were taken this afternoon at his first game of the season of 8th grade. He has grown a foot and his shoe size is 13 this year oppossed to 10 1/2 last year. He doesn't even look like the same person! He was one of the tallest boys on the field. He played great, but unfortunately, the team didn't play as well as the other team, as we lost. It's just the first game of the season, we have plenty of time to improve. I was so proud of Forrest for talking up his team and being a great team captain. Go Forrest Go! or is that Run Forrest Run!

Walmart Run

 

I had planned on going shopping right after school Friday, but my plans fell through. So at 9:30pm, with George and Forrest in bed for the night, I asked Sadie if she wanted to ride with me to Walmart to go shopping. She was up to the challenge. We get there and starting looking around, getting all of the non-food items first. After 45 minutes, we were starting to wear out fast. Sadie had asked if we could just go home and do this tomorrow. It was very tempting and we almost aborted this mission, but we continued and endured to the end. As we were checking out, we put all the refridgerated/frozen items first because those were the only foods we were going to put up tonight. We pushed two full carts around the store and after checkout, and $350 later, we left the store with three carts. You should have seen us try to push threes buggies out to the car. We loaded the groceries in the back and front and anywhere they would fit. It would have helped greatly if the car was cleaned out to begin with! On our way home, Sadie said she was happy and proud of us for finishing and not quiting. It was a great experience for Sadie and I to have this time together. We talked about the seven years of fat and seven years of lean and how the Prohets have asked us to put away for a raining day. It was a teaching moment for Sadie that she will remember for a long time. We arrived home at 11:45pm, unloaded the gorceries, took a picture of our adventure and went to bed. It was so nice to get up in the morning and have food for breakfast! So was it worth it? YES!( right before we arrive home, we flipped through the stations on the radio and "Paradise City" by Guns n'Roses came on. It is one of Sadie's favorite songs, so we both rocked out together! What a great mother and daughter adventure we had tonight!)

Homesick for Mom

I just found out yesterday that Forrest gets homesick when he leaves the house over night. How did I find this out? Yesterday, I had asked Forrest if he could choose any place to serve his mission, where would it be. He sorda hesitated and said, "I don't know mom, but I just know that I am going to miss you really bad. I'll be homesick". My heart broke in two! He then told me that back in July when the Boy Scouts went to Camp Daniel Boone in North Carolina for a week, he got really homesick and sick to his stomach because he missed me so much. What a huge compliment! I had no idea because boys normally do not express their feelings like us girls! I ensured him that I would write to him everyday on his mission and to not let homesick get in the way of doing the Lord's work. ANd besides, he still has five years before he turns 19 and by then, he'll want to leave the house! He then said, "What if I was called to be a missionary in Fayetteville?" I told him it would never happen!

Captain Forrest

Forrest came home after his first middle school soccer practice of the season and said he had made captain of his soccer team! WOW! We are so excited for him! I can already sense a change in him since then, an increase of team spirit and responsibility. When we congratulated him, we told him he comes from a family of leaders and to just expect to be in leadership positions and learn from the position and to help others. So, soccer season begins as well as the hours of after school practice and several ballgames a week along with buying the gallons of gatorade and snackbars. We love to watch Forrest play! We will sit on the side ines and cheer "Run Forrest Run!"

A Day of Deep Cleaning

A day of deep cleaning is exactly what we did today. It took some sweat and some complaints, but we we were able to get done with the most part of chunking junk out of our house. How and when did we accumulate all of this junk? In between shortness of breath, I chunked my bedroom where you could actually see the floor. We have a stack of junk we (can't throw away yet) to go into the attic latter on. That's George's job. The house looks way better after we cleaned than before. It's funny the good feeling we all feel once the house is cleaned. I"ll have that feeing better when I can get to chunking when no one is loooking! That's how I like to chunk. No strings attached! I love to chunk. I feel I am reviving my square footage back from the house! I told George a while ago we needed to rent one on of those big dumpsters for construction sites. I bet I could fill it up with no problem!