Saturday, March 7, 2020

What February Looked Like

Fantasy Football Superbowl Trophy Presentation!
Woo hoo!

This year I got my trophy on the night of the NFL super bowl,
which was fun.
We always do a little family party.
I forgot to take any pics of our food spread.
But it was a such a fun game.
And the Chiefs won!
I like both the 49ers and the Chiefs.
but was excited for their head coach,
Andy Reid, who is a former BYU guy.

My third trophy in nine years!

Our daffodils bloomed!
I love this little sign that spring really is coming.

Whitney's school chorus had a really cool opportunity
to back up a professional performer.
Damian Sneed is on tour.
He stopped in High Point and asked PGSA
to be some of his background singers.
What a cool opportunity!
The tour was called "We Shall Overcome"
and included clips of Martin Luther King Jr's speeches.
It was a fabulous, uplifting, fun concert.

At one point, Damian picked Whitney and Joya
out of the chorus and had them come up to the
front of the stage to SKAT!
Whit has started listening to some big band music,
so was familiar with skatting, but had never done it
in public. That girl just exudes confidence and stage
presence and didn't hesitate one bit.

She did such a great job!
The audience was totally cheering her on.
And she got lots of compliments from 
strangers at the end of the concert. Fun, fun, fun.


Lunch with Maureen and Bea in Winston.

We got to visit Michelle's kitties
and get haircuts.

Date night at the Swarm Game.

Every Feb 11th, Penn Griffin does a big combined concert 
with band, orchestra, chorus, guitar, theater, and dance.
They choose that date to honor high school students from 
Penn Griffin who participated in the Woolworth sit-ins
for equal rights. It's always a neat concert.

Here's a little clip from one of their songs,
"Yonder Come Day."


My favorite twin toddlers gave me fun
tennis-themed gifts for Valentine's day!
So cute!

My cousin, David Lambert, was diagnosed with
Catastrophic Antiphospholipid Syndrome.
It is a very rare condition where your body
forms blood clots in multiple organs.
It is serious and can be fatal.
David fought for his life for two weeks,
but ended up passing away.
He was 52 years old.
I have some of Grandma Cuca's old photos,
including this one of David as a child.
We were so sad to hear of David's passing and
continue to pray for his family to find comfort and peace
that can come through the Savior.

I don't like fighting crowds to go out on Valentine's Day.
Instead, we usually stay in and have a nice dinner as a family.
This year, I went all out!
We had steak, crab legs, crispy crowns,
rolls, and fried rice. It was SO good.
Oh, and we had peppermint cheesecake for dessert.
Loved sharing this night with our girls.
We watched Swiss Family Robinson afterward.
That's a CRAZY movie.

We thought it was funny how this piece of 
crab looked like running legs.

Feb is a good month for puzzles,
since it's too cold to do much outside.
This ocean scene was a Christmas gift from Andrew.

C helped me pick out this sloth puzzle...
but then I had to put it together myself...

To celebrate Valentine's Day,
Andrew and I went out on President's Day.
He had the day off work, but the girls still had school.
First, we went up to Pilot Mountain.

We took some pics.

And hiked around the knob.

The hike goes by a lot faster when you don't have kids.

We grabbed a couple of geocaches along the way.
This one was hilarious. I had to go on the overpass.
It didn't feel super safe...

Spent some time coin pushing and gaming at Dave and Busters.

Went out for a YUMMY lunch at Village Tavern.

Then we stopped at Quarry Park in Winston.
It is a COOL park where we had never been.


We found a cute little geocache there.

They had these funky seats.


The main feature of the park is this pond,
filled in where an old quarry used to be.


The walls along the side look cool.

There's a cool viewing platform that goes out
over the lake. Andrew wasn't a fan.

Sister Deardon, our stake Public Affairs Director,
has been working with local newspapers to feature
the news about Andrew being called as Stake President.
The Kernersville News did a long,
positive story that included a lot of Andrew's
own words. So cool!



We had a little snow storm.
Just enough to cancel school.

Time for more puzzles.

And I found Avatar, the Last Airbender at
our local used bookstore, so it was a good
excuse to veg and watch.

Time to change out my van air filter.
ewwwww...

They've made some changes in the age requirements
to enter the temple. Caroline is now old enough
to get a limited use recommend.
We took a Saturday afternoon and headed up 
to Raleigh as a family.

It was a beautiful day.
So happy we could spend time together
in that sacred, holy place.

We ran into Whitney's friend, Meg,
while we were doing baptisms.
She's leaving on a mission next month!
So excited for her.

Date night at the Piedmont Swing Dance Society.


They have a lesson at the beginning
and then a live band plays.
We didn't stay long, but sure enjoyed ourselves.

It was REALLY time to change the
air filter in Andrew's Element....

Whit signed up to take her first ACT in June.
We had to take this headshot for her application.

Caroline made All-County Chorus!
Only four sixth graders from her school who made it.
So proud of her.

She's in the middle row, the third in from the left.
The girl next to her looked SO MUCH like her.
It was kinda weird.

The sixth graders sounded amazing!
They performed five songs,
all of which they had memorized.
The director was fantastic and really
brought out the best in those kids.

Look at C and her doppleganger walking together!

The 7th and 8th graders had their own chorus.
At the end of the concert, they brought the 6th graders
back out and did one number with all of the students.
It was great.
So happy my girls get to have opportunities like these.

Care Bear and KK are learning so much
and really progressing in YW bball!
I'm so proud of them!




They had TWO games on Leap Day.
They only had FOUR players available to play
in both of them.
It was EXHAUSTING!
They lost the first one pretty bad,
but ended up WINNING the second
in a super close game.
Caroline was the HIGH SCORER,
with TEN POINTS!
We didn't get any of her baskets on film,
but here are a couple clips of her playing good defense
and pulling down rebounds.

Sorry the quality is so bad.
Pretend you're in the 1980's...



Super proud of these girls!!!

One last puzzle completed in Feb.
This one was HARD and I didn't like it...

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Spotlight 2020: Andrea

Andrea
2019

Highlights from 2019:

2019 was SUCH a wonderful, memorable year. We took our favorite cruise ever, visiting new countries that were beautiful and taking amazing excursions together.



We had both sets of grandparents, Grandma Cuca, Mark and Taylor and their kids, and Destiny all come out for Brandon's graduation. I loved having all that support.



We went to the Outer Banks with my parents, Cuca, and Mark's family. The road trip was phenomenal. Carson and Sydney joined us for part of it. We visited several national parks: Arches,
Sequoia, King's Canyon, and Yosemite. LOVE getting to explore this beautiful world with my kids.



We moved Brandon in to his apartment in St George and he started school at Dixie. He is working HARD and I'm happy to see that his transition to college has gone smoothly. I miss his quick wit, but get little tastes of it when we skype with him most Sunday nights.


Andrew got called to be the Stake President.

We've had some neat experiences with general authorities along with his new calling: Elders Whitney L. Clayton and Peter M. Johnson extended his call. We got to have two dinners with them and some special spirit-filled interviews with them. Soon after, we got to have lunch with Pres Eyring and Elder Gary E. Stevenson. I really do find joy in consecrating our time and energy to helping build the Lord's kingdom. But this calling is HARD for Andrew. There are some weeks that are fine and others that are emotionally and spiritually EXHAUSTING. We're both hoping it gets easier as time goes on.

*Something you're good at: Planning vacations.

*Something you're proud of: The hard workers that my kids are growing up to be

*Something you earned, won, or accomplished:

My 6.5 USTA combo team made it to states in Wilmington AGAIN. Woo hoo! We didn't do so well there, finishing second-to-last. :( But it's always fun having a weekend getaway with my tennis friends. My USTA record was not great this year, either. I went 6-4 in my 3.5 doubles. I went 1-4 in my 4.0 doubles. And I went 3-6 in singles play. 

My Gate City league went great, though. Adams Farm ended up winning the whole thing! We finished in first place out of 15 teams in our divisions. So cool! I was 13-3 throughout the year.

AND I won my fantasy football Super Bowl!!!

*Any other notable changes/events for 2019:
I had my second seminary graduate of my three-year tenure: Brandon made it! Yippee!
Caroline graduated from elementary school. It's weird to not have any kids at Pilot...
Whitney had to change dance studios since Miss Shelley moved. She's at Dance Center of Greensboro now.
I started volunteering with the New Arrivals Institute. It's an English school for immigrants and refugees. I volunteer once a week for 3 hours at a time. I LOVE it. The students are so fun to talk with and my worldview is expanding. I have friends from Yemen, Iraq, Mexico, Sudan... The world feels like it's getting smaller.

Hopes for 2020:
*That Andrew's calling will get easier as he adjusts to his new church responsibilities.
*That Brandon will keep his GPA above a 3.5 to keep his scholarship at Dixie.
*That we'll have a fun spring break trip to Universal Studios in Orlando. Especially looking forward to visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Yay yay yay!
*That we'll have a fun summer. Not sure yet if we're going to road trip or not. Both girls want to go to church girls camp, which might mess up my plans...

Follow-up from last year's hopes:
*That Brandon adjusts well to living on his own and has good experiences at college.
Yes!

Love getting random pics like this one,
where he decided spur-of-the-moment
to run a 5k with a friend.

Or finding a pic of him on Dixie's Instagram page. :)


*The Andrew is able to finally get his shoulder pain resolved.
Nope... It has gotten better, but he still endures a low level of pain.

*Another Spring Break cruise--our last with B at home.
Yes! My favorite cruise ever!

*Road trip. Yes! It was amazing! Brandon chose to have us visit LA. We spent some time in Orange County with the Peo's. One day in downtown LA where he wanted to visit some fashion stores that he had never been to. And several days in the national parks there. It was new for us and oh so fun.

Hobbies: Tennis. Piano. Reading. Talking on the phone. Organizing lunches with girlfriends. Fantasy football. Walking.

Something you like about being a homemaker: Flexible schedule, especially to be able to serve.

Something you don't like about being a homemaker: Dishes.

A job you might want when you're older: Teaching English as a second language.


FAVORITES:

Restaurant: QDoba, US Sushi, Southern Roots

Sport:  Football to watch, tennis to play



Recent reads: A Spool of Blue Thread, Becoming Mrs. Lewis, The Printed Letter Bookshop

Candy or other treat: Gummies from Ikea's bulk candy selection

Color: Red, black, purple, turquoise

Animal: Baby monkeys or baby gorillas

Snack: Popcorn, Crackers with pepper jack and/or gouda, honeycrisp apples

TV show:  Survivor, Jeopardy, we recently started watching Lego Masters which we like

Place:  The beach and the temple


Season:  Spring

Meal:  Chicken and rice and beans with homemade tortillas

Song: Whitney singing "I Need Thee Every Hour" or "Silent Night"

Game:  Pandemic, Space Invaders, Coin Pushing

App: Words with Friends, Walmart Grocery App

RANDOM FACT: Andrew and I have a side hustle of being "advantage players" at arcades. We go on half-price Wednesdays, earn tons of tickets (mostly from playing Space Invaders), and buy Fire TV Sticks or video games that we sell on eBay. We've made over $500 so far! Cha ching!

Sunday, March 1, 2020

Spotlight 2020: Andrew

Andrew
2019

Highlights from 2019:

*Going on our cruise

*Ordaining Brandon an Elder

*Many fun getaways with Andrea

*Having Brandon start college

*I dunked

*Getting called as stake president

Rough spots from 2019:

*Getting called as stake president
*Having my job change where I was taking on new responsibilities faster than I could offload my other responsibilities.
*Having to fly to work meetings in Bangkok instead of helping Brandon move in at Dixie State.

Something you're good at: Fantasy basketball

Something you're proud of: Our happy family life and watching Andrea and the kids succeed

Anything you earned, won, or accomplished: I won my fantasy basketball league. Earned a small promotion with my new responsibilities: Director of Human Resources--PSD, Global commercial, Innovations.

Any other notable changes/events for 2019: At work, I no longer lead total rewards, which I enjoyed. But I won't miss my evening calls with my teams in Hong Kong and India.
I began writing for At The Hive, SB Nation's Charlotte Hornets website.
My friend, Michael Aagard, moved, leaving me with no social life outside of my family.
I never fully recovered from my two shoulder surgery in 2018 and still deal with pain.

Hopes for 2020:
*Good health
*Panthers make the playoffs
*Lakers win the title

Follow-up from 2018's hopes:
That my shoulder surgery is successful.
*Nope.
That I win my fantasy basketball league.
*Yep.
That the Panthers make at least the divisional round of the playoffs.
*Nope.
That BYU football isn't so awful that it makes me want to burn all my hats and shirts.
*Nope.
That my job at work of leading compensation and benefits is something I enjoy.
*Yes.


Something you like about your job: The flexibility of working from home.

Something you don't like about your job: Working with global teams means the work never stops.

A job you might want when you're older: Writing about the NFL, NBA, and fantasy basketball.

FAVORITES:

Restaurant:  The Deck House

Sport:  Football

Recent reads: Saints: Volume 1. Truman. I rarely rest books anymore.

Candy or other treat:  Peanut Butter and Chocolate Ice Cream, especially from Baskin-Robbins

Color:  Blue

Movie:  A Christmas Story

Animal:  Cat

Snack:  Spicy Nacho Doritos

TV show:  Survivor

Place:  The Caribbean



Season:  Fall

Meal:  Hawaiian haystacks

Game:  Pandemic with Andrea

RANDOM FACT: I put my milk in the freezer for about ten minutes before I drink it.