Did a hive check. The ladies look amazing! Two very strong hives and one small but hanging in there hive. Look at those festooning bees! That means we have a lot of teenage bees and it means they are building comb in anticipation of growth and honey storage! Gonna be a good year. I don’t know a ton and have so much to learn, but I love sharing my bee knowledge with Mary and living farm life vicariously. The Saumis are so generous to host Willy hives in their bee yard. Mary and I call it a team effort to be bee moms. It’s a joint custody.
We ate Texas BBQ, Famiky Style Babes Chicken, rock climbed and zip lined, performed at the Meyerson Center, shopped at Buc-ees, played football and lawn games and ate fancy donuts in a park downtown between 4 scheduled rehearsals.
Bolder adventure park highlights: zip lining, the big tube slides, and this arcade game that captivated 20 kids attention. It started with student and a game card. Corbin’s group of boys looked their play points together into one game where a machine spits quarters onto a plate. Knocking quarters off the plate grants more points. You also knock sponge bob character cards into a basket for big points. Collect ALL 9 character cards (which fall at random) and you earn the grand prize of 5000 tickets for the prize shop. The first few cards were collected easily,
And then they were too invested to quit. The crowd gathered around this machine grew bigger and bigger and the suspense to the point that none of us could tear ourselves away. Noah was the best at timing the quarter shoot so he was designated shooter. The rest of us were there for moral support. All but one card remained. Sandy the Squirrel, just out of reach.
Along came a group of girls, who asked “how long have you guys been here?”
Without even looking up from the game they all gave answers into the air, “too long”, “shhhhh don’t jinx this, we’re so close!” And “long enough that I missed my zip lining time slot and I’m not even sad about it. Come on Sandy!”
We watched the Sandy card get closer and closer to the prize drop. The girls gave up the remaining turns on their cards as well. Two of them almost missed their zip lining appointments as well, Bethany left by handing over her card and a charge to the boys to “win Sandy!”
The kids would whisper chant “Sandy. Sandy. Come on Sandy, you tease!”
The moment Sandy dropped into the bin was victorious. They divided their winnings up at gave 2,000 to Bethany for providing the winning token. They bought a football with the rest of their pooled prize points and played football the rest of the trip anytime they had a 5 minute wait and a lawn or parking lot.
Montgomery, Peyton “PTibby”, Corbin, James S
Our VIP chaperone tickets places us in the 3rd row at the Meyerson. Incredible. We were the closing performers. Standing ovation right away. Lots of parents and grandparents made the drive. Even Mr Puckett the vice principal at BHS was there. What a goat. We love his support for the arts, and the kids all wanted selfies with him.Soren and Titus ran around with the big boys and then with Flora. It was a dream day of no school for them!
I must have set my phone down at some point because I found 25 photos just like this one on my camera roll.
American Mahjong is having a surge in popularity. It appears to be a thing that during your 40s you are sorted into one or more of 4 houses: pickleball, sourdough and homesteading, a career, or mahjong. I don’t really know where I fit in my 40s. I have 3 little guys who have things like Spelling bee and Cooper Round Up dress up days, and I’m taking phone calls at 2 am a couple days a week from adult children who live in the college life time zone bubble. I do feel grateful for one of the greatest blessings Heavenly Father gave me to prepare and sustain me for my life, which is the gift that I do not require a ton of sleep.
This week’s new thing found me on Chris Mains’ birthday. I went for a short 1.5 mile run at the fitness center and then joined a weight lifting class with my friend Lisa Hill (mom of Corbin’s buddy Noah). We talked about our Chris, and came out of the class to find some of the ladies we had just worked out with setting up a table for Mahjong. Lisa gasped, “oooh look! Asians! Come on!” And like a moth to the flame, she beelined over to them. 😂 I followed, and minutes later, Jenny was teaching us the fazillion rules of Mahjong. Lisa said, “happy birthday, Chris!” She loved mahjong and would have been so proud.
Anyway there’s a weekly group that gathers, and I’m now a sub. Because why not? Well, actually, I can think of a lot of reasons why. Namely, the simple fact that I do not really understand how to play. But Jenny, our teacher, inspired me as she spoke about an upcoming test she has In her Spanish class at a learning center in Rogers. She has been taking classes for four years to learn Spanish. In addition to her native Cantonese, she also speaks English, Mandarin, and Iranian. What a boss. So I figure I can probably learn a few Chinese words and the rules to Mahjong.
I spent 4 days chaperoning the chamber and camerata orchestra trip to Dallas, Tex. It is so special to be on this trip with Corbin and also to support these young musicians whom I care so much for. In addition to Corbin, 4 of my 7 Sunday School students were on this trip, and there were 3 students from last year’s Sunday school class. I live abt chance to connect and teach and minister to these great people outside the classroom, and we had a grand time this weekend. I think it’s so important for teens to build a network of mentors and support, and I feel honored and grateful to be part of that network for so many in my stewardship through my ward family, peers of my children, and Sunday school calling.
We also made a last minute decision to let Soren join us in the Grovers car to tag along and hang out with Titus this weekend. The big boys are so great to include them in everything and they having the best time as the token little brother mascots of the trip. The first night at the hotel, we had down time/game night in the big conference room. Some kids went swimming, worked out in the hotel gym, some sang karaoke, some played cards, some swam. Hyrum cut open trash bags to make a tarp, and I set up a corner of the conference room and gave him a “mission cut” for his mission portal. This cut is always a big deal for them. Very exciting! Ammon just received his call, missions were all the talk among the students, teachers, and chaperones. Over the weekend, siblings got face time from Sister Willardson, Elders Grover, Bingham, Ratsachack, Johnson, and Austin. What a cool thing for all these kids to see where their friends are and the great work they’re doing.
I had a line of guys and just gave haircut after haircut until we called curfew at 12:30 and I went to do room checks. A lot of Camerata and Chamber boys were looking sharp with fresh fades! The next night, they lined up on the carpet and I waxed off 6 unibrows 😂.
This was…
well it was straight up hilarious. I have no photos, but many of them took videos and selfies of the process. Memorable times. And hey, they will look super fresh for prom this weekend.
