Will's 6th Grade Graduation

My baby is all grown up!

Will and Ellen

This month my youngest finally finished with elementary school! The high school had finished a day before, so Ellen got to come and see her brother's program. It went on way too long, as they always do, but it was good to see all the kids and to be there for him. Grandma and Grandpa Moon got to come too.

Here is Will at his big moment:

They were moving the kids through pretty quickly, so I was lucky to get even one picture of the actual program. After this part, the parents went home and the kids headed to the park for a party! Next year I will have 2 kids at the junior high and one in high school, but right now they are all enjoying summer break.

Random Picture Post - The King and I

Since I am out of inspiration today but still wanted to post, I found this picture of me from our school musical, The King and I. Spotted me yet? I am right in the middle. Notice my amazingly convincing wig, made entirely from fake fur. And it's a good thing that I knew the play, because I couldn't see much without my glasses. Wow, 20 years ago!

Book Review: Dearly Depotted

Abby's neurotic cousin, Jillian, is finally getting married and Abby has agreed to do the flowers and be a bridesmaid. She wasn't counting on dead bodies. But when the groom's grandmother discovers one under a table, Abby jumps in to investigate. The police already have a suspect - her friend's new boyfriend. But Abby thinks they are too quick to draw conclusions. Oh, and what's going on with her hottie escort?

This is the third in a fun series. I enjoyed this one and the others, but I just don't enjoy books like this as much as I used to. The idea of a amateur detective gets a little hard to believe after a while. And why can't she figure out what's going on with Marco? This is the third book and there's been an attraction between them the whole time. Then she FALLS ASLEEP when she finally gets to spend an evening alone with him? What's up with that? I'm all for taking things slow, but she hasn't even decided if they are dating or not. How long is that going to take?

If you like cozy mysteries, this is a fun series. There is a little bit of language, but it's otherwise clean. I like the characters, although Jillian is a bit much, and there's not this shove-it-down-your-throat thing that a lot of the 'theme cozies' seem to have. Yes, she's a florist, but it's not a DIY book for aspiring green thumbs. For myself, I would probably read another in the series if I got the chance, but I'm not going to go out and look for one.

My not-so-green thumb

My mom is totally into her yard. It's pretty funny, really, because she loves gardening so much and my dad hates it so much! It does look nice. She has flowers going everywhere and is more than happy to tell you all about each plant.

Me, I'm happy not to kill stuff.

So I'm very pleased that I have a houseplant that has survived an entire month. I think it helps that it's a HUGE houseplant, so it's pretty obvious when it's not doing well. So far, my intensive gardening skills have consisted of pouring a glass of water into the pot whenever it droops. I know, complicated stuff! My kids help water the plant occasionally too.

I'm working on a vegetable garden too. I planted some tomatoes in pots in the front yard. I'm happy about that too, because they already have flowers on each plant! I'm keeping my fingers crossed. But it doesn't stop there! Oh, no. I also planted onions in my front flower bed. And I found a great way to get the weeding done. Pay someone else. Will is earning money for Aaronic Priesthood Encampment, so I'm paying him $7 an hour to do yardwork. (Not including mowing the lawn, which he is supposed to do anyway.) I'm impressed at how hard he works when he has a goal. I told him where I wanted him to work and came back to find that not only had he pulled the weeds, but he had raked the ground and gotten rid of the rocks. Very nice! Sarah got in on the action too and worked in the yard for an hour and a half too.

But don't expect miracles. The yard is still looking pretty rough, as both my guys are recovering from stomach flu. I am watering stuff and pulling weeds, but we have a long way to go. This is just not my favorite thing. But it does count for exercise on Wii Fit, so that's reason to do it right there!

My Hero

This post is another rave about my husband! I was driving to Salt Lake today because my iPod was broken, and customer support told me that they could get me a new one at the Gateway store. I was on I-15 when I saw this busted tire in the lane - you know, after someone has had a blowout. I couldn't really swerve too much to avoid it without causing an accident, so I tried to miss most of it. Instead, I immediately hear this horrible scraping noise coming from my van! So I eased over to the shoulder and took a look underneath. Something was hanging from the bottom of my car! I thought the muffler had just come off and was dragging against the pavement.

I got back in my car, feeling like an idiot, and called Randy. He told me to get off at the next exit, which was fortunately just a few hundred yards away, and meet him at the gas station. So I drove on down the road, car screeching the entire way, thinking that this was not going to be cheap.

After a short wait, he showed up and took a look under the car. Good news, for once. It turned out that the tire had knocked the cover off the exhaust system (don't ask me to be more specific, because I can't!) and he got the thing loose and pulled it off the car. Screeching sound was now gone, and I have a nice hunk of partly rusted metal in my car, with the edge that hit the pavement worn nice and shiny and sharp.

So thanks, honey, for saving me! I was all set to call for a tow truck and say goodbye to my trip to the Gateway. Oh, and yes, I did make it downtown, and got a replacement iPod for free. And that's my happy ending.

End of Soccer

Thanks to everyone who reached out after my last post. I appreciate the support.

But this post is all about:
WILL!

As you can see from the photo, he's been crazy busy with soccer. The first part of the season in August/September, his team was undefeated, with one tie and 11 wins. This time around, they did have at least one loss (and one truly shocking example of bad sportsmanship by the coach on the winning team), plus Will missed a couple of games. But he worked hard when he was there, and really improved on his skills.

This last game was the best yet! We weren't sure if it would be canceled because of rain, but we went anyway. After waiting (and thinking for a while that we were playing Coach Grumpy again!), we realized the other team wasn't coming. So Coach Lacerda ordered the parents onto the field!

Randy was nominated as team captain. Mr. Palmer filled in as goalie for the first half, and I could see where his son Zach gets his talent! I was a defender and Randy was a forward. Would you believe by the half we were winning?! It's true! At the second half, Randy played goalie for a while with Mr. Lacerda being our best forward and Jake's little brother being a great midfielder. The boys' team had all the boys on the field for the entire game, but we parents got LOTS of substitutions, with parents and siblings all rallying to the cause. And the parents won! We named our team the Old Goats and won by 2 goals. Nothing short of a miracle, if you ask me. I wound up playing about half the game, with Randy in a little more than me. But no blood was shed, and we all walked off the field, so I think that in itself was a triumph.

We celebrated with a trip to Arctic Circle, where Will showed us his new medal and enjoyed an Oreo Mint shake. I'm worn out, but Randy went to take the girls bowling!