When The Students Are Away...

This has become a summer tradition for Dan and I:

 


After the guys head to bed at night and leave for summer school and work in the morning we sit down and play a few rounds of Dutch Blitz. So far I'm up 6 games to 2. (If I did hastags they would be: hekeepstrying; winnerwinnerchickendinner; dutchblitz; morningritual; whenthestudentsareawaythehouseparentsplay; practiceforthegameswiththegirlsinthefall; solongasIkeepwinning; janaewinsmostgamesweplay hesagoodsport)

Everything's a Competition

This summer we have a house of 8 active high school boys. We made that choice last August before we knew we would be placed with girls. It's been fun, especially for me! The guys will come ask me for various household supplies and I get to defer them to Dan since they are kept in a locked closet in the bathroom. It's been a much better division of labor.

It's also been fun to find creative ways to determine who does various chores in the house. Once night Dan challenged the boys to a game of knock-out (aka lightening) to decide who had to clean up the snack. Out they went to practice their shots. About 20 minutes later I joined them to watch for a bit. It was fun to hear them cheering each other on; "Come on, Mr. you can get him out!" "Hurry!" "Mr. are you out already?"

The beauty of this is that once they all start playing, they will continue to play for 45 minutes or so and they end up tired and ready for bed!

Another time the competition was Tenzi but this time it was for the house chores.

The chores were all ranked from easiest to hardest and the 1st person to the the designated number received that chore. The competition was fierce as most of them wanted an easy chore. Then they willingly headed off to accomplish their chores.

We haven't gotten to eating competitions yet, and hopefully we won't ever get to those.

Early Valentine's Get-Away

Due to our crazy schedule, we took our personal day and attached it to our regularly scheduled time off to give us a few more days to play. We really struggled deciding what to do. After much pondering we settled on staying a little closer to home. We found a great place to stay; The Inn at Leola Village. It is very quaint and unique. This is the entrance and part of the property:

This shows the entrance to our room:

The rooms are all above and below the retail stores. It reminded me of Gardner Village in Utah but with places to stay on the property.

Our hotel room was just a quaint as the outside suggested:

(Photo from here)

We decided that we will be frequenting this location for future get-aways.

We spent time enjoying a show at a Theatre in Lancaster; And Then There Were None. We had a good time together letting go of the stresses of home, even if we were only about 30 minutes away.

A Unapproved "Pet"

A number of weeks ago I pulled a pan out to make some dinner and found a little surprise in it. I showed it to Dan saying, "Please tell me that isn't a mouse dropping." We cleaned the pan out well and then kept our eyes open to try and discover if we did have a mouse or not.

Several weeks went by with no sightings so I thought we were in the clear. (Thought being the key word in the sentence...)

One of the houseparents we cover for gave us some Ghirardelli chocolates as a "Thank You" for helping with their students. Knowing Dan as I do, I hid the chocolates in a dresser drawer to ration and divide evenly between us.

Shortly after that I was getting into that drawer and noticed a little mess:

 

I was afraid of what the mess meant...sure enough when I moved the chocolate package I discovered the proof...

...we had an unwelcome guest in our home.

Some time earlier Dan had asked about his leftover Christmas chocolates that disappeared from under our Christmas tree. I figured he ate them but forgot that he did. He insisted he didn't eat them. Until the Ghirardelli chocolates disappeared I lived happily in a state of denial. Now the truth had come out, we did indeed have a mouse roaming our house and eating our chocolates. I suppose the calories would be been on it than us but this is Ghirardelli chocolates we're talking about here!

We called the exterminator and he put a couple traps down and some poison in our attic. He was confident we'd capture the critter. Well, it is pretty slick, one of the traps has been without bait and set for a couple months now since the mouse ate the bait and didn't set off the trap.

Not too long ago I moved a sticky spider trap from our laundry room and noticed a ball of fur in it. I was uncertain how we'd managed to get that much dryer lint in it so I looked closer and discovered claws and teeth. Not sure how long it had been there but our spider trap also successfully captured a mouse!

We've seen no evidence of rodents for some time now and the poison is gone from the attic so hopefully we're in the clear. I suppose only time will tell.

A Surprise Ending to 2014

If I had know purchasing blu-ray player as a gift for Dan for Christmas...

...would have led to us purchasing this about a week later...

Photo from this site.

...I probably would have bought the blu-ray sooner.

Since we currently have an older model tv I was shopping for the converter and cords we would need to hook up our new blu-ray. I finally figured it all out and explained everything to Dan. He paused briefly then asked if it would just be easier to buy a new tv. I said it would help, however, if we were going to wait several months before we bought it, we might as well get the cords. He then suggested we get it in January. I started shopping then found a good deal on one and he gave me the go-ahead.

The new television is on order and scheduled for pick up at the store on Friday, June 9, 2015. If this sudden expense is any evidence, the next year will be full of surprises.

PS-New updates are being added so scroll down a post or two...

Mailbox vs Sentra

When backing up to check the mail at the student home...

...because you drove past it on the way into the driveway, use caution otherwise it can be extremely hazardous TO YOUR CAR!!! 

Ok, not so bad; I can live with that.

Yeah, not so much with that!

Yes, the all metal mailbox is just fine. It was leaning a little but a slight push and pressing down on the dirt around it was all the repair needed. Our car on the other hand...it'll be going to the hospital in the near future.

So if you see Dan walking everywhere, just know he still isn't allowed to drive the car. I suppose it's a good thing I love him more than my car.

(Yes,I know that I'm behind. Planning to come at the updates from both sides and meeting in the middle so it's not so maybe posts will happen sooner.)

Non-Wedding Summer Fun

Between all the wedding festivities, we managed to fit in some other vacation-type things; meeting Liz, visiting our families, Yellowstone, and Bryce Canyon.

Dinner with the kids. Jake's a Party Pooper sometimes.

Chipper LOVES Dan. Too bad the feeling isn't mutual.

When visiting from out of town, it's always a good idea to check the Temple schedule before showing up.

When we headed to Cedar, we helped Deb with her children which included a stop in Scipio to visit a petting zoo:

Bryce was beautiful. It was fun to reacquaint Dan with the canyon I heard so much about growing up.

While in Cedar we enjoyed an evening with The Bard at the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

The Green Show

Before the Performance of "The Comedy of Errors"

We joined Mom and Dad at the Cedar City Cemetery. I got to see my grandmother's new headstone that had been completed earlier in the year.

We took some of my nieces for an outing at Classic Skating. I roller-skated too, what was I thinking?!

Our time in Yellowstone was quick but great to be back in an area that played such a big part of our courtship. We saw a couple shows at the Playmill (Les Miserables and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat), we went on a hike, drove through the North entrance of Yellowstone, and visited Old Faithful at night. 

With all we did, planned and unplanned, it was tough to return to our "normal lives."

Another Full Summer While Working in PA

This year we decided to work the first half of summer break. As it turned out, it was a good decision since Sid notified us in April that he would be getting married in August. We had three boys most of our time there (a couple came and went with sports camps) and we had a great time with them. Our dinner conversations were lively as one of the guys was working with goats in the Ag Program so his stories were very funny; the goat that refuses to move unless he's carried.

We had a limited amount of money to use with the guys for activities but we gave them the option to select what we did. They wanted to do go-carts and laser tag. We found a discount for a location that had both plus some other activities. Dan and I talked with the guys to decide how to make our money stretch. They opted to do the 1 more expensive activity rather than lots of little activities. We were proud of their decision and had a great time together!

Go-Carts, Laser Tag, Mini Golf, Arcade games...a little for everyone and we all had a great time!

One of the evenings we invited other student homes over for a "make your own calzone" night. It was fun to watch the students interacting together and trying something new. They had a good time laughing and teasing each other as they tried to create a delicious master piece.

One evening Dan and I were playing cards with a couple of the guys. I look over and all three of them are more into their electronics than the game we were playing:

Next time they'll have to put away their electronics so we can really have a game. And by away, I don't mean on the chair next to them.

Of course we caught the fireworks on July 4th. Before they started, we roasted marshmallows, hot dogs, and such around a campfire with a couple other student homes. We do our best to keep our summers full and enjoy every moment.

Winding up the School Year

After Spring Break ended it was back to work for us. We picked up our assignments and kept rotating around campus. We did our best to make the most of the warmer temperatures and longer amounts of sunshine.

May and June finished up with some random things. We made another trek into Harrisburg for the National Step Competition. Some of the Houses we joined last year were here again. We took a home who hadn't been before. It was another adventure. If we go again, we need to bring sack meals. It's a long night and the performances just get better as the night goes on. We left early since the girls we were with didn't believe us when we said it would be long & they needed to eat a big meal before we left at 3:00.

When we returned from the competition the power was out all over town. Our badges didn't let us into the student home; thank goodness for security having master keys that let us in. We gathered flashlights and made the best of the time playing games, visiting, and laughing together until Dan and I finally sent the girls to bed.

Dan's Birthday was approaching so we opted to celebrate a little early on our time off. We were going to head to Texas Roadhouse when Dan decided he would rather somewhere else for his birthday dinner:

Not my favorite but Dan was happy.

He opened his gifts a couple days apart, before we went back to work (on his birthday) and a few days after when the final gifts arrived from an on-line order.

This year we had several girls performing in the Spring Dance Recital so we made sure to go support them. They had been working all year for this concert and they did well! We recognized several faces on the stage and in the crowd; always a bonus to our time at a campus activity.

A couple days after that it was "National Doughnut Day." Dan took some of the boys to the outlet mall and then to Dunkin' Doughnuts for a true celebration. I made sure not to miss out on the fun when I was out and about myself.

Spring Break 2014-Part 2

...our next stop was...

We talked about going to Jamestown and Yorktown but decided to spend our time exploring Colonial Williamsburg since the general consensus was that there was little to do at the other two locations.

We attended our church meetings at the Williamsburg Ward. Before attending, we found out that our niece, Liz had a friend from home serving her mission in the Williamsburg Ward. We made it a point to introduce ourselves to the sister missionaries. She said we looked familiar and we'd taken her home from Liz's house once, plus visited her home ward multiple times. 

I asked her companion where she was from and she said Bunkerville, NV. Well, I knew 1 person with her last name from Bunkerville...Bob. Turns out he is her DAD! He and I were in the same ward at BYU many, many, many moons ago. When she told me who her dad married, I recognized her mom's name too, also from the BYU 160th Ward. Fun to discover that I "knew" both sister missionaries. There might have been connections with the elders too, but we didn't visit with them to ask.

Of course, after the meeting ended, we took a couple snapshots with them to send to family and I emailed the one so she could share it with her parents too.

The sister from Idaho.

The one from Nevada. I'll have to go back to my old pictures so I can better seen the family resemblance.

While touring Colonial Williamsburg, listened to Patrick Henry & George Washington speak, participated in some group portrayals, learned some dances of the day, learned about the impact of slavery at the time, heard and judged some court cases, and enjoyed the warmer temperatures and sunshine. Both of us were even sent to the stocks.

Toured the barrel maker, weavers, woodworker, apothecary, church (that still holds weekly services), several homes, and the shoemaker.

We also visited the dressmaker/tailor's shop. He was so snooty that we didn't bother with any pictures of him, we were afraid that he might be offended and ruin the dress I ordered. ;)

Just outside the colonial part of Williamsburg were other shops that we strolled in and out of. There was a Scottish store with several tartan plaids. Whenever I see a store like that I go search for our family plaid. Someday I'll have a skirt made in our tartan but I have to do some saving before that becomes a reality.

The final portion of our Spring Break was spent closer to our home. My parents came to visit us at our place and we gave them the grand tour!

We headed over to Chocolate World to do some shopping for treats and take the ride that tells about the Milton S. Hershey story and how the Hershey company makes it's famous chocolate. Of course, we really took the tour for the end result, some free chocolate!

The four of us took a trolley tour that goes around town and talks about how Milton Hershey set up the town, where the factories were/are, and tells the story of the Milton Hershey School he started in 1909. Again, the information was great, but the chocolate they handed out along the way was the highlight.

One of our fellow houseparents let us take Mom and Dad into their empty student home so we could give them a better feel for how each house houses 12 students and the houseparents.

Mom and Dad stayed with us and enjoyed the view and our little farm house. Dad later told me that he thought it was a confusing layout; guess that means he needs to come back and spend more time so it feels more comfortable to him.

The last big thing we did was head over to Valley Forge and tour the historic site where the American soldiers camped for winter during the Revolutionary War. None of us had any idea what to expect and we only had a short amount of time to see everything before the park closed. We left pleasantly surprised and want to go back again.

One other thing on our agenda was go get Mom & Dad's paperwork all completed so that they can visit us again and stay with us next time. It's a requirement of the school for background checks to be done if people will be coming more than once a year. It took some doing for Dad to get his finger printing completed so the last background check could be completed. After a few attempts, we discovered that he no longer has fingerprints. Of course, we had a good time teasing him that he was really trying to hide his past from us.

It was an enjoyable few days with them and we look forward to their next visit. Hope it's sooner rather than later.