Highlights Week 11

 Matthew left at 7am on Sunday morning for a ward conference down in Socorro. I took the kids to sacrament meeting, then left them there for second hour while I ran home to collect Matthew and take him to the airport. He had a physics conference in Chicago all week. I then made it back to church in time for choir practice. We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening at Bishop Brown's house celebrating Laura's birthday with all kinds of fried foods, cake, and a vast selection of ice cream.

Cassie wasn't feeling well on Monday, and asked if the kids could distract Lucas for just an hour after school. They were happy to oblige, and it was nice to spend a bit of time with the Barrios. Also on Monday afternoon was Hyrum's first track meet, but we never got the event schedule for the boys and the whole thing went faster than they anticipated, so by the time we got there we had missed it all. We have a better idea of what to expect next time and will be able to support him appropriately.

I spent the bulk of Wednesday chaperoning Hyrum's trip to the city choir competition. I wasn't needed as anything more than a warm body to fill the adult to kid ratio required for such outings, but it was fun to see Hyrum sing. His group scored an 84, and they needed at least 85 to move on to the state competition, so that was a bit disappointing.

We don't love when Dad is gone, but there are some silver linings, like slumber parties in mom's room (that's Mercy under the owl blanket on Matthew's side of the bed). Also, Abraham made German pancakes and he and Hyrum split the pan without having to share with Dad. That was pretty exciting. We also enjoyed some St. Patrick's day shenanigans, courtesy of Grandma Naomi. That had nothing to do with Matthew being gone, but did occupy part of an evening when I was feeling done with the day but the kids were still going strong.

In other news, this week gas cost $4.19 a gallon. Russia has invaded and Ukraine and while it's not WWIII (at least not yet) some of the repercussions are reaching us here. On a lighter note, we had parent teacher conferences this morning. Abraham went through a bit of a rough patch, but seems to have made a 180 degree turn around and his teacher had nothing but good things to say about him. During Hyrum's virtual conference with his advisory teacher, we got him registered for his 8th grade electives. She also had nothing but good things to say about him. Mercy's teacher ended up having a family emergency and her meeting was canceled, but the enrichment teacher sent me an email saying Mercy is doing wonderful in her class. I have no doubt things are going well in Mercy's regular classroom as well. The afternoon was spent cleaning, packing, and all around getting ready for our spring break trip to San Antonio.

This evening the boys had a young men's activity playing tennis soccer at a nearby park. Mercy's primary activity was canceled and she had no desire to stay home alone, so she came with me to a relief society dinner. The food and company were delightful, and Mercy even won one of the three prizes for get to know you bingo, which 100% made her day.