More on First Day

McKayla is starting her 2nd year at UVU. She is not technically a sophomore because she earned a lot of college credits while still in high school. On the other hand, she can't even apply for the nursing program until January so she still has at least 3 years of school to go. Maybe that does make her a sophomore. She is still running track/cross-country for UVU and happy to let them pay for her schooling. She has been injured but is slowly working her way back. McKayla loves chicken cordon bleu and chicken poppyseed pasta salad. Her favorite dessert is anything mint. Her favorite candy is Twix tand Tootsie Rolls. Favorite subject is health. Her favorite hobby is sleeping and she would rather run than swim or bike. She'd rather go camping than stay in a hotel. Of Menchie's, Cold Stone, or Jamba Juice, she would pick Cold Stone and she'd pick Cafe Rio over Panda Express though her favorite place to eat is Village Inn and Ivie's Juice Bar. She'd rather watch soccer than football or basketball. Her favorite TV show is White Collar (and she and I love to watch it on Netflix every time we have a spare hour together) . She preferred the movie "Divergent" over "home" or "Meet the Mormons". Her plan is to become a nurse and she thinks she'd like to be in a hospital nursery. Shanley is a senior Her favorite food is macaroni and cheese and her favorite candy is Skittles. Language Arts is her favorite subject. Dance is her favorite hobby and her favorite place to eat is Chik-Fil-A. She would pick Menchie's over Cold Stone or Jamba Juice and Panda Express over Cafe Rio. She'd rather swim than bike or tun and she prefers staying in a hotel over camping. She'd rather watch football than basketball or soccer. Her favorite show is One Tree Hill and she liked the movie "The Longest Ride". She wants to be a nurse. Alec is still serving a church service mission. His favorite food is pepperoni deep dish pizza from Little Caesar's. His favorite dessert is brownies and his favorite candy is Reese's (and has been for at least 17 years). His favorite thing to do is listen to music (his current favorite is the soundtrack from Les Miserables). Alec would rather go to Jamba Juice than Cold Stone or Menchie's and he'd pick Panda Express over Cafe Rio. He prefers watching soccer over football or basketball. He loves to camp but he also loves to stay in a hotel. He prefers swimming over biking or running but he'd prefer bowling over all of those. He gives the best hugs!

First Day of School

I  really need to finish my Maui posts but I am interrupting them (already delayed for Trek, family reunion, and BYU Education Week) to post first day of school photos.

McKayla and Shanley started yesterday.  McKayla is 19 and in her 2nd year at UVU (Utah Valley University).  I didn't get to take her picture until after school since she begins her day with cross-country team practice at 6:30 am (after catching the train at 5:30 am).

Shanley is 17 (for 9 more days) and is a senior at Riverton High. She is only attending school for half days and then has work release and is working more than full-time. She has math, English, seminary, and a PE. She is working full-time as a CNA at Carrington Court and still working a few hours a week for the Howards doing shipping. I didn't get to take her picture until this morning (2nd day) because she overslept the first day and was in way too much of a hurry to allow pictures and then she went straight to the shipping job then straight to her CNA job. She didn't get home until 10:30 and by then she was in scrubs (plus I was asleep) so pics today.

Chandler is a freshman (or actually a 9th grader at Oquirrh Hills Middle School) and is 14. His first day was today. I am excited that he gets to start seminary.

Chandler is 5'4" and weighs 100 pounds. His favorite food is noodles and vegetables with Mr. Yoshida's sauce. His favorite dessert is s'mores dip and favorite candy is Mike and Ike's. He loves math, running, the TV show "Burn Notice". Given the choice of Menchie's, Cold Stone, or Jamba Juice, he picks Cold Stone. He likes Panda Express over Cafe Rio. He'd rather run than swim or bike. Camping is better than a hotel and soccer is better than basketball or football. Out of the movies "Divergent", "Home" or "Meet the Mormons", he'd rather watch "Meet the Mormons". He has no clue what he wants to be when he grows up.

Maui - day one

As usual, since we fly standby, the trip to Maui was not simple. Kevin and the kids were able to take a Delta flight to San Francisco and then a United flight from there to Maui. I have given up my United flight benefits so my parents could have them so I couldn't fly United. Their flights were both delayed. I ended up buying a ZED fare on US Airways so I flew Delta from SLC to Phoenix and then US Airways to Maui. I ended up arriving 2 hours prior to the rest of the family so I had time to get the rental car and go food shopping at Costco. We got to the condo and liked it. It had everything we needed - plenty of towels, boogie boards, snorkel equipment, beach chairs, beach umbrella, cooler, etc. It was almost sundown so we rushed to the beach to watch the sunset. It was beautiful!!!

We spent an hour or so walking the beach and playing in the water. Loved it!

Handcart Days

One week ago McKayla and I ran the Handcart Days races in Bountiful. She ran the half marathon and I ran the 5K. They were really great races for both of us! I had what I like to call my "old lady PR" meaning it was the fastest 5K I've run in years. (I have never been fast but I keep slowing down with age.) McKayla was slower than she would have liked (she ran a 1:44) but was happy with her time considering (a) she has not run hardly at all due to her injury, (b) it was still faster than the only other half marathon she's run 5 years ago, (c) she actually ran pain-free (a first since April) and (d) she was still fast enough to be the 8th overall woman and 1st in her age group. She is awesome like that! The most exciting thing was the pain-free part. I had rubbed her out hard enough to bruise her the night before. I don't know if it was the massage or just that she has finally healed, but it worked! She had tried to run just 6 miles on 2 previous days during the week and was unable to because of pain. Now she seems to have turned a corner. She has run pain-free since the half-marathon. Now she is just working on building back up her mileage and getting back in shape. She did win a belt buckle for her 1st place age division win. Here is the two of us after our races:

Maui bound

We are off today for Maui for a few days of family fun! We've rented a condo in Kihei and plan to mostly play in the water. We have boogie boards and snorkel equipment. The highlight for the kids is that I have them scheduled for surfing lessons.

Discovery Center

This past week I went to the Family Search Discovery Center with McKayla, Michael, Chandler, my parents, Henry and Laurie, Jake, Erica, and Rachel. It was really cool! I learned that there are 670 Marvelles in the United States and 38,524 people with the last name of Lawton. I also got to take pictures of what I would look like if I were Chinese or English or Armenian. McKayla took one as a Samoan and it turned out great! I also learned that 56% of my ancestors come from the U.S., 32% from the United Kingdom, 8% Norway, 4% Ireland, and 1% France. There was info on my birth year and so on. They give you an iPad when you enter and you log in using your LDS account number and then when you logout, the info is emailed to you.

technology

Some days I am pretty sure technology is shortened to tech because it deserves to be a 4-letter word! I have such a love/hate relationship with technology. Can't live with it, can't live without it and all that. I have been working on my Gospel Doctrine lesson for today. It is on the Atonement and I wanted a silent lesson. Unfortunately, my computer does not have PowerPoint. My old laptop does so I decided to use that. After a couple days, it became obvious that my old laptop has way too many issues to be reliable for a lesson. So, I decided to use Kevin's tablet. I got that all set up only to discover there is no way to connect it to a TV at the church. So, I downloaded PowerPoint to my computer only to find that my old PowerPoint code no longer works. Next I found a free trial of Power Point which I downloaded onto my computer. Good to go. Except when I got to the church and tried it out on the TV, I found that I have no graphics card so my screen will not project onto the TV. Seriously? Such a good thing I tried it out. So, I downloaded a trial version onto Chandler's computer. Finally, I think I am good to go. Hope so anyway.

Riverton Country Mile

Chandler and I ran the Riverton Town Days races on the 4th. We've both run them several times before but this is the first time Chandler has run the 10K. He ran it in 47 minutes and finished 19th overall and 3rd in his age group. I ran the 5K. McKayla was planning to run the 10K but was too injured. It is a really fun race - I love seeing so many people I know.

I'm not Eve

I took Alec and Chandler and joined Jill (and Abby and Hannah) and Karen (and Katie and Ellie) at Yuba Lake. We had fun riding 4-wheelers and the waverunners. I ran every morning and saw a deer, lots of jackrabbits and many lizards. We also saw a snake. I know Hannah and Ellie love animals so I caught the snake so they could pet it. I sent a picture to Kevin and my older kids and they all freaked out. Brakston kindly reminded me what happened to Eve when she came in contact with a snake. lol

King's Peak

Chandler hiked King's Peak with the Teachers and Priests from our ward earlier this month. They backpacked in 8 miles on Thursday. Friday they took daypacks and hiked the final 5 miles and then back before picking back up their backpacks and hiking the additional 8 miles out. He had a great time but came home pretty tired.

Sew fun!

One of my goals for summer was to sew a couple skirts. This is one I sewed for McKayla.

I am really proud of how it turned out. It is the very first time I have ever put in a zipper. I read a tutorial and went for it! Also, I didn't have a pattern for the skirt - just a few instructions. I had to figure out a lot of it myself. I like how it turned out!

epic fail

Okay, so I made a goal/resolution to blog more faithfully and I haven't written since February 27th.....

I ran my first obstacle race this morning.  Shanley, and Jolyn's girls (Natalie, Erica, Emily, and Rachel) all ran it with me.  It was really tough but super fun!  We climbed the rail fence surrounding rodeo grounds too many times to count, ran soft dirt hills, slid down a slide into a pool of water, ran up and down bleachers, hurdled desks, shimmied on our bellies through tubes, hurdled cement barriers, carried sandbags up and over obstacles, hurdled about 20 rails in a row, did a slip-n-slide type pool, went through a maze of ropes that you had to go over and under, ran through sprinklers in slippery mud, ran through tires, did another slip-n-slide, and ran over fields and on roads.  It was 34 minutes of effort for me but I finished!

teaching English

Today I finished a long-term substitute gig teaching Language Arts at Riverton High.  I enjoyed it but am actually glad to be done.

I had 2 Language Arts 12 classes.  Those are kind of bottom of the barrel because seniors who are really serious about school generally pick concurrent enrollment, AP, or college prep classes.  We were working on a argumentative research paper.  I liked most of my students but was completely surprised that about half of the class did basically nothing.   No effort at all.  That is out of my frame of reference.

I had 3 Language Arts 10 classes.  Two of them were great and one gave me grief.  Those classes were working on writing a nonfiction children's book.

My favorite class was a Creative Writing class.  They made me laugh every time!  We were doing a poetry unit.  I didn't know a lot about the type of poems I was supposed to so I had to do a lot of research/homework.  My favorite things were their daily journal entries.  I gave a journal prompt and they wrote a page.  They had to share what they wrote at least once a week.  Some of them were so funny and incredibly creative.

The hardest thing for me was deciding how many points assignments should be worth and then grading them.  Writing is so subjective.  Maybe that's why I liked the creative writing class.  I just gave them points for completing the assignments.

I'm now ready for a few days off.

bits and pieces

I was going to do so much better at blogging this year and I am not off to a good start.  I think about it a lot.  Something will happen and I will think "I need to post this", but I get really crazy busy and never seem to find the time.

Chandler has turned 14.  My baby is FOURTEEN!  He was ordained a Teacher today.  He had a soccer tournament in January in Mesquite, Nevada.  His team did okay but not great.  We sure enjoyed the warm weather though.

I went to Colorado Springs this weekend to watch McKayla run.  She did not have great races but once again, I really enjoyed the beautiful weather!  Colorado Springs is a really pretty place.  I loved hiking in The Garden of the Gods.  I also explored Manitou Cliff Dwellings, home of the Anastazi Indians, and found them fascinating!

McKayla and I went snowshoeing one Saturday morning.  It was so much fun.  The untouched snow looked like thousands of shards of glass which was incredible!

Shanley asked Phillip Broadbent to the Sweetheart's Danc.  She is actually letting me cook dinner for their group.  I am excited about that.  I love to do stuff like that but Shan is not the child who usually lets me (Brakston is that child).

Mason had his first birthday.  My grandchild is one and is the cutest kid ever!  He is happy and active.  I missed his birthday party since I was in Colorado Springs which made me sad.  When will I learn to replicate myself?

I start a long-term English sub job tomorrow.  I will be teaching Language Arts 10, Language Arts 12, and Creative Writing.  LA 10 will be writing a nonfiction children's book.  LA 12 is working on a research/argumentative paper.  I'm not sure yet what Creative Writing will be doing.  I am excited but also a bit nervous.

Alec - mission news

Alec began his mission on Monday, January 5th at 11:30 am.  He is assigned to the Kauri Sue Hamilton School Seminary and Institute program.  Mostly he helps the students get from school to/from the seminary (most of them are in wheelchairs and need assistance).  He is very proud to be a missionary and is anxiously awaiting the arrival of his name badge.  He serves 5 days a week.  On Mondays and Wednesdays he serves from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays he serves from 11 am to 2:30 pm (the extra half hour is so he can attend a Missionary Prep class).  On Fridays he serves from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm (Friday is the school's early out day).  There are several other missionaries there and they all get to eat lunch together so it is a nice social opportunity for him.

This past Sunday Alec had his missionary "farewell".  He spoke in Sacrament meeting for about 5 minutes.  Alec bears his testimony every single Fast Sunday and has for years.  He talks and talks.  So, imagine our surprise (and laughter) when Alec got up on Sunday, stood at the pulpit for a minute and then asked Kevin to come help him.  Kevin had to whisper a few things in his ear before Alec finally took off and spoke on his own.  I have never seen Alec speechless before when he stood at the pulpit.

He had some good support - Todd and Melissa and their children, Darin and Jolyn and their 4 youngest, Vicki, McKayla and 5 of her roommates/friends (Darian Sharp, McKenzie Snyder, Anna Ward, Kami Hartley, and Taylor Gomez), Brakston and Whitney and Mason, and of course, our family.  We had breakfast at our home before Sacrament Meeting and flew all the missionary flags in the front yard.  Alec did love all the fuss and attention!

New Year's Resolutions

New Year's Resolutions:

 1) Take better care of my health (i.e. haven't had a mammogram in 7 years though my mom had breast cancer - not smart, I know)  I haven't had a pap smear in 13 years.  It is time to take care of myself.  This will include losing weight.  I ended the year down 8 pounds from the previous year which is at least down but it's kind of a hollow victory since I was down another 8 pounds at one point during the year.

 2) Take time out of my "busy" life to relax and have fun - host a party or two.  I do love to socialize.

3) Do something I really enjoy out in nature at least once a month (i.e. hiking, snowshoeing) - I don't get out enough - again, I always feel too busy.

 4) Look for more opportunities to serve others and to be kind.  Relationships are  the most important thing.

 5) get back to blogging since it's my way of journaling our family events/life.

In addition, my birthday present to Jesus is to attend the temple 24 times in 2015, find a family name to take to the temple, and read every Sunday School and RS lesson in advance.