May 2019

Samuel had to make an Egyptian crown for one of his school projects

Austin at her Orchestra concert

I had to get this picture of him for the seminary graduation program

Malachi wanted his picture taken too

Malachi is so weird sometimes, I turned around and he is chewing on the corner of the table

Caleb wanted to go on the same hiking trail where the little boys and I found the Christmas tree. 

Caleb really liked this trail until when we got pretty far in, we stumbled across a wild pig, they can be pretty vicious.  Caleb grabbed my hand and took off running back down the trail as fast as his legs would carry him.  He wouldn't stop for almost a mile, and probably would have kept going if I could have kept up, but I told him I needed to stop and catch my breath.  

Malachi and Gideon at the park during the track meet

Betsy with her choir (she is the really white one)

Austin and I went on a hike together along the north shore, so she could get in some driving practice too.  The hike took a little longer then we expected, and we were starving at the end.  She drove us to Seven Brothers for our dinner, only to realized I had left my purse at home.  Luckily I had my phone with me and was able to set up applepay and pay for our dinner that way.  

In Hawaii they have a fun tradition of giving everyone Lei's when they graduate.  Some local kids have so many lei's put on them, they can't even see anymore.  This is at Joseph's seminary graduation

Austin made turtle bread, she had fun doing it!

Me with all my piano students, it was a fun recital!

Samuel at his 6th grade graduation, with his best friend Carson

Samuel with his teacher, Mr. Wong

May was incredibly busy between track, orchestra concerts, choir concerts, Seminary graduation, 6th grade graduation, piano recital, Austin tutoring, Betsy making bread, Austin and Betsy babysitting jobs,  Austin getting a job at Pizza Hut,  mental health appointments, dentist appointments, doctor appointments, GED tests, and other end of the school year activities.  A few things to talk about though.  Track was exhausting!  I was thoroughly traumatized by their first track meet.  Travis was at a training event so I was on my own.  I took Samuel, Caleb, Malachi, and Gideon all to the track meet.  We were warned it would be long, so I brought things to sit on, sunscreen, snacks, and things to do.  Now I realized that practice hadn't gone that well for Malachi, but I figured he would really enjoy the races, because he loves to compete with his brothers.  So we get there a few minutes late, due to traffic, (With Samuel stressing me out the whole way about being late).  I had a lot of gear to carry, but I dropped off Samuel, Caleb, and Malachi near the entrance so they wouldn't be late checking in.  Gideon and I parked the car and I tried carrying everything by myself, while trying to keep Gideon with me, (not easy).  We found a spot to watch from and set everything up.  After a few minutes Samuel came and told me we were in the wrong spot, and had to be in the small area right next to the track designated for our team.  So Samuel helped me move everything, and I was talking to the boys.  They needed wrist bands in order to compete, so I helped Samuel and Caleb get there wrist bands on, then turned to find Malachi to see if he needed help.  I was looking for him for a while, and trying to keep Gideon with me at the same time.  I finally saw his coach, and flagged her down.  She said she tried putting Malachi's wrist band on, but he refused, she said he threw it on the ground and ran off.  She told me she would notify the other coaches that he was missing.  I started to freak out a little, since there were a ton of kids there, and I had been looking everywhere for a while already.  We kept looking, and wandering around.  We finally found him after twenty minutes, he was hiding underneath the van.  He flat out refused to race and said I couldn't make him.  Just grateful that I had finally found him, I told him I wouldn't make him race, but he had to stay with me.  So now I had the challenge of keeping an eye on Malachi and Gideon, trying to watch the races and keeping them in the crowded little rectangle of grass allowed to our team.  Gideon and Malachi had to go to the bathroom a couple times, and everytime we went in the bathroom Gideon had to strip completely naked and squat on top of the toilet until he went to the bathroom and then, I'd have to chase him to get him dressed.  Malachi climbed up the bathroom stall and started hopping over the top of the stalls.  He scared one lady half to death.  I wanted to run out of the bathroom and pretend they weren't my kids.  But I apologized profusely, and got the boys out of their as quick as I could.  They ate all the snacks I brought, then started going crazy, it would seem like I would find one child, just to lose another .  I couldn't keep them together or in the place we were supposed to be in. I finally gave up and took them to a playground a little ways away.  It was getting pretty hot, and we had already been here for 3 hours.  I took pictures of them in the park climbing trees, and playing, but after another hour and half they were done playing, and too hot.  We were out of water and snacks at this point, and I was exhausted from chasing kids for the last hour.  We went back to the track meet, and I tried to find Samuel and Caleb to see if they had any races left.  While I was doing this, I lost Malachi again.  Luckily he was back at the van again, but this time he was completely naked.  He said he was too hot, so he took off his clothes, unfortunately he threw his clothes into a muddy puddle, and he refused to put his clothes back on.  Just completely done with this whole situation, I unlocked the van put a naked Malachi in the van with the a/c on and told him not to move, and I would be right back.  As quickly as I could a ran and got Caleb and Samuel and told them both we were leaving right now, no more races.  They could see how upset I was and quickly complied.  We grabbed all our stuff and went to the van.  I put a diaper on Malachi since that was all I had to cover him up with, and then had to go off and find Gideon, since I had lost him in the mess of getting everything back to the van. In total we had been there for over 6 hours and the track meet was still going!   I was so frustrated, I swore to the kids that I was never taking them to a track meet again!  I kept my word too, Travis took them to their track meets the rest of the season, or they didn't go.  Now one good thing, I did see one race of Caleb's.  It was the longest race he did, I don't think he had ever done one that long, but he did amazing, he didn't give up, even though it was hard, I was so happy for him.  

The next thing I want to mention is Joseph's GED and seminary graduation.  Let me tell you, getting Joseph his GED and seminary graduation has been one of the hardest things I have done in my life.  I have cried so many times in frustration and disappointment.  I have fasted, and prayed, gone to the temple, and done everything humanly possible to help him.  Toward the end of the month, I was fasting so often, I was feeling pretty sick, so I had to stop, but I still kept praying really hard.  Trying to get Joseph to do anything on the computer that he is supposed to is like pulling his teeth out.  The reason we didn't do online school is that he gets too distracted on computers, which is why he failed his last online school.  Unfortunately,  Most of the GED work was done on his own on the computer.  I have never worked so hard in my life to get Joseph to complete all of his work and get his GED and get all his make up work done for seminary.  But, he did it!!! He passed every single one of his 6 GED tests, and did all of his seminary make up work.