Easter Sunday 2014

It was such a beautiful day on Easter! My kids are at that age where we no longer have to hide eggs, but they did want a basket full of candy....  When My kids were younger we would hide about 300 eggs for them to find. Each egg would have candy in it, so buying them a basket of candy was WAY less time-consuming and not near as much work!

This year my cousin Stephanie from Sacramento and her boyfriend Marcus were in town, so we had my uncle, aunt, my cousin Brittany and her husband Mike with their baby Brecken, and my cousin Shelby from Spokane, and my aunt Debbie from Portland here to share Easter with us this year!

We went over to my parent's house, where my dad heated the pool to 90 degrees. So yes, it was 67 outside and 90 in the pool... I had to swim, that was like taking a bath in a giant tub!

















Also, I had to take a picture of Brecken and his daddy, because they were dressed alike, and it was too cute not too.

Lexi mile run

My daughter Lexi has this amazing ability to run and run and run and run... The child could run forever I think. She can run the mile in six minimums. That is just crazy for me to understand, because I believe that if I am not run to anything or from anything, there is no reason to run!

So here are a few of her videos from her track meet. She runs the 1600m (1 mile) 800m (two laps) and the 4x4 relay (each girl runs one lap)

OH.... And my mother found the Easter Bunny at the track meet, so of course she had to take a picture with him.... And yes, he was riding his skate board! 

Kaiden's AAU Game # 3&4

My son Kaiden is playing AAU this year. The team he is on will all be going to the same high school and will be playing together at Skyview. They have played four games so far and have demolished all the other teams. This team is going to be a force to be reckon with in high school...

I watch this team play and think, "they could beat some JV teams." Yes, they are that good!

I only have one complaint. I grew-up in CA. So it was a very well-rounded group of all races. Well, where we live there are really only two races. Ninety-two percent of our population is white and six percent is Hispanic.  I really want my son to have more experience playing against other races than just white boys.... I am not saying that in a bad way, I am saying that look at the NBA, there are many colors, cultures and other countries that play in the NBA, so I want to broaden his horizon on what it is like to play with other people.  Even the way kids play on the West Coast vs east coast is SO different. SOOOOO, I say all this to come to this point. I want my son to go to basketball camp this year in North Carolina. PLUS, I love the Tar Heels, and I always wanted to go to basketball camp there when I was in school.

I might start a "Go Fund Me" page so people can donate to help us send our son back east for basketball camp this summer.

Any ways.... Here are a few pictures from the game on Saturday.

Let's get you up to date!

My apologies for not staying current with my blog. This year has seemed to fly by, and I have taken on many projects and have been very active in my children’s school and in my community.  I would like to take a moment to share with you what I have been up to the past eight months!

 

I will start with my most recent and work backwards!  The Mrs. Idaho International pageant was held on March 14th at the Nampa Civic Center. This was the first year for new director Kim Mulkey. I will say after I gave up the directorship of this pageant, I really had hoped it would go to someone who loves the system and wanted to be sure it grew and stayed here in Idaho. I had not been to an Idaho International pageant since giving up my directorship. Sometimes you have to step away and take a break. Well, I was really excited to have been asked to emcee the pageant this year. There were beautiful ladies competing for the three titles, and as a former Mrs. Idaho International (2006), I was really excited to welcome our new sister Queen Amanda Dastrap.

 

 Furthermore, in March my brother-in-law and his family came from AZ to visit the family here in Idaho! It’s not that often when we have the whole family together, so of course we took advantage of it and had family pictures taken. I love to look back over the years and see how much everyone changes! WOW!

 








Kaiden played basketball again this year (like he wouldn’t, the game runs in his blood.) He had a great season. I really enjoy going to the games and cheering on all the boys! I usually find myself either sitting alone or with the students. I think it is because I am so loud that no one wants to sit by me, or I just fit in with the students because they are loud too!

My dad and I at the dance as chaperones

I have been VERY active in my kid’s school this year! So in February I decided the kids needed a Valentines dance. So being the person I am, I took lead and organized the whole dance for the 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th graders. It was the largest turnout the school had ever had for a school dance!!! It was a lot of work, but it was worth it! I LOVE seeing kids having fun and being kids!

From January to March, I was on a committee to pass a school levy. Our school district has had a few “issues” in the past and not everyone in our city has all their faith and trusts back with our district yet. The NSD is at the bottom of the list when it comes from tax monies received from our community. The average amount that a district around us spends per child is about $6.00. In the NSD, it’s about $2.00. Even with the levy we are still the lowest! Something to be proud of? Not really.

So it was clear that our district needs money to support and sustain itself. Money that comes from the state usually is earmarked, and we needed money for other things, like teachers to reduce class sizes, put an end to the teacher furlough days (Nampa has the least amount of school days than any other district around.) Technology, yes the computers in my kids schools are about 10 years old or so, definitely time for an update! So again, being the person I am I decided I would just in feet first with this challenge and make sure our kids would be receiving the BEST possible education that they so deserve. Needless to say all the time and effort that were put into the levy from the amazing committee paid off and the school levy passed!

AH, Christmas! We wait all year long and then when it gets here we are so thankful that it is over! Family, food, family, food it’s a cycle that keeps repeating itself. By the time the holidays are over, I always seem to have gained an easy 10lbs. Then I spend the next 10 months working it off just to gain it again.

November was a busy month. My mom ran again for city council, so that meant campaign work!!! Which really I don’t mind! I really love politics, so whenever I can be involved, I enjoy it. This year was different. It seemed as if all the mean and nasty people came out of their caves and decided to be a vicious as possible. When a campaign ran in a way that is full of hatred and deceit, it makes me wonder why people would even vote for those types of leaders. Well, this year brought a change to our city. We have a new mayor and four new city council members. Yes, my mom kept her spot. However, it will be interesting to see the changes that will take place with a larger city council and a new mayor in office. People are often afraid of change, but sometimes change can be a good thing. Only time will tell, I won’t go into my political spat here…. That’s for my other web site!

We also traveled to AZ in November. Usually it never rains there. Well, I guess we brought the rain with us! It rained so hard that their festival that was planned got canceled and the street and parks could not keep up with all the rain so it seemed as if the whole city was under water. So what do you do??? Well, you take advantage of the situation…. The kids pulled out the body boards and went skin boarding in the parks! HELLO…. Why not! It was still warm…… Even with the rain it was a fun trip, and we love to visit AZ, it had been about five years since we were there! I need to go more often; they have amazing malls there!!!

In October, my cousin Hilary passed away. This was an unexpected death. She was 34 years old. She was born with spina bifida, and the doctors told my aunt that most likely she would only live to be 18. Well, she showed them! At the age of 34, she returned home to heaven where she can walk, run, jump and sit and talk to Jesus. No more wheelchairs and no more pain. She is in the peace of our father.

We traveled to UT for a BSU football game and while we were there, Lexi and I decided to visit Marc Reynolds and get our pictures taken. Marc has an amazing talent with the camera. And I will say it was a lot of fun to do a photo shoot!!!

 






















Hip-hip hooray… hip-hip hooray!!! Summer has come to an end! It is the 1st day of school! Kaiden is an 8th grader, and Lexi is a 6th grader!!! I am sure we will see major changes in both this year!

I was able to help at the fair this year in the Department of transportation booth. We were showing examples of the impact of not wearing your seat belt. We would use eggs for this example. We had a Barbie car, and we would “seat belt” one egg into the car and leave the other egg unbuckled. We would then “crash” the car. To see the looks on people’s faces when they saw what happen to the unbelted egg was priceless. Some people never really understand the importance of wearing your seat belt. I will say the kids LOVED it, and they would walk away saying, “I am always going to wear my seat belt.” If all I can do is plant the seed, then maybe that seed will save a life one day.