Back to school 2014

This year we have:

• Two amazing college students halfway through Bachelor degrees (I'll have to ask them to send me an official "back to school" picture).

• One incredible senior in high school

This was Bailey on the 2nd day of school, when she was able to wear "normal" school clothes rather than her ASB shirt.

• One awesome freshman in high school (two in high school - oh my!)

• And one getting-way-too-big-too-fast 4th grader . . .

. . . who didn't want me to drive him to school on the first day but chose to ride the bus instead (first time in 22 years I haven't driven someone to school on the first day of school). The reason: "my friends are on the bus, so I am on the bus, Mom!"

Waiting for the bus to arrive and striking some classic Joseph poses:

 After school . . . I broke tradition of many years and didn't make rice krispy treat apples this year (this is last year's picture).

Last year I noticed that everyone thinks they are cute but no one really likes to eat them all that much and they are a pain to make.  To soften the blow for Joseph (who doesn't really like the treat but likes the IDEA of it so he was sad to see the tradition fade away), I made zucchini brownies AND his favorite molasses crinkles.  Yum. 

One by one the kids arrived home and filled me in on their days.  Thumbs up for the new school year all around!  

August thoughts

Here we are at the end of the first week of August. Most of the rest of the country is headed back to school soon but we have another month of summer. Our summer always feels a little shortchanged because all the stores aggressively promote school supplies and clothes at the end of July and the general feeling by the time August comes is that school is right around the corner.

It has been, by any account, a very busy summer. Our family has taken lots of airline flights.  To and from Utah, to and from Arizona, to and from Florida. But this last week we have been at home doing what we should do in the summer . . . . . not a heck of a lot.  I am, by nature, pretty much the opposite of lazy most of the time. But in the summer I cherish the lack of schedule, the time to sit around and talk and laugh, and the chance to not be busy. I think this is true of everyone in our family.

Mid to late summer is about just being.  Puttering around the house and finding neglected projects to tinker with. Making a pile of board games in the family room and vowing that they won't be put away until we play every one. Deciding at 10 p.m. to have a movie night, complete with popcorn and ice cream, because who cares about the time, it's summer.   Eating frozen fruit bars and calling that healthy. Enjoying fresh fruits and veggies all day long and often calling that breakfast, lunch, and dinner, along with some ice cream for protein. And, very happily, reading books.

So many books and finally time to read them

All year long I read books, but I read them with purpose.  Generally I am speed reading books for a book club, checking for suitability and discussion questions. Besides that, there isn't much time for reading during the school year. As it is, I have to carve my reading minutes out of a frenzied schedule. I would never think of sitting for hours and reading a book during the day - that would feel too wasteful. Summer is different. I allow myself to get lost in a book while kids run in and out barefoot. I don't feel at all guilty about the hours I spend in the world of my books in the summer. To the contrary, I consider it medicinal, storing up strength against the onslaught of another hectic year ahead. 

This summer, once the wedding festivities ended, I put over 40 books from my Goodreads "to read" list on hold at the library. Soon I amassed a pile of books to read at home and a large number of ebooks on my ipad and so far I've read about half of them.  Every time we flew on a plane this summer I was almost giddy when I was strapped in my airline seat and unable to do nothing else for hours but read. 

I've also abandoned several books this summer, even ones which were highly rated, award winners, and loved by friends. If a book doesn't grab me in the first 100 pages I usually move on.  Life is too short to waste on books I don't like.

Vegetable Garden Fail

In other summer news, my gardens are looking pretty sad. To be truthful, this is the case every year.  I always plant flowers and veggies with enthusiasm and profound hope in May. I revel in being outdoors in the spring and spend hours grooming the flower beds in the crisp clear air. My enthusiasm wanes dramatically by August. It's hot and I find lots of other things I would rather do. I do notice out of the corner of my eye that my flowers could use some TLC, an extra dose of water and slug bait to deter the nightly ravenous visitors and that the weeds are taking over the vegetables, but I don't always do anything about it. My veggies are always mostly a disappointment by this time of year. In April I'm always sure that this year I'll find the secret to growing great veggies in the Northwest the way I did in Utah. In August I'm content with eating the few tomatoes we are harvesting and buying the rest from the farmer's market.

A Year of Changes

I am very cognizant that this is a summer of firsts and lasts.  This is Brandon and Angela's first summer together, their first home, and our first married child.  This is Bailey's last summer at home before she (hopefully) starts college at BYU summer term next June. I hope that all her educational wishes come true, but I'm realizing more and more how much I am going to miss her. I know all too well that when kids go to college they are really gone. When they come home after leaving to college they are visiting. Dan and I like having our kids hanging around - they are amazing, intelligent, and thoroughly enjoyable people.  I am so glad that we have one more full year with Bailey and that Aubrey and Joseph will be around here for awhile yet. 

Speaking of which, this summer we got a glimpse of what life will be like all too soon, as we only had one child (Joseph) home for most of the summer. As soon as school was out the girls were mostly gone for 6 weeks. Bailey helped every day at Activity Day camp and Aubrey was busy every day with friends. Then the next week the girls were gone all day to Youth Conference. Then it was the wedding and after the wedding we all went to the Oregon Coast for a few days. Then the girls left to Girls Camp followed a few days later by flying to Utah to visit cousins and then go to EFY.  Finally we all met up in AZ for a family reunion and then Aubrey flew back to Utah for a fun week with grandparents and her cousin Sydney. So, Dan and I have spent a lot of time interacting with just our youngest child. We have had a good time getting to know him better and giving him extra attention. The summer has been full of many wonderful events, but I miss having everyone at home.

And now, I've rambled enough. Time to go dish up some more watermelon and ice cream.

And now, the wonderful event we worked for 6 months to pull off, Brandon and Angela's WEDDING WEEK!

Warning - this is a very long post.  There's a lot that happened in the night before the wedding and wedding day and I just don't know how to condense it further. Plus, my memory is getting worse the older I get, and I want to remember these details for a long time!

Wow - I can't believe all the wedding fun and festivities are over. I am glad that our lives aren't quite so consumed with wedding planning, but I did enjoy the process.

I am wishing now that I took more pictures of the process of preparing Brandon and Angela's wedding. I didn't think of it at the time.  Suffice it to say that our home was taken over by a wedding virus for about 6 months. The dining room was turned over entirely to purchased wedding supplies.

The couple was engaged just before Christmas, so we had just over 6 months to plan the wedding. In January I started talking to friends who had recently done weddings to get some much needed advice.

I put together a binder to keep track of all the details and the receipts from the wedding: venue, food for the reception, meals for the week before the wedding, photographer, wedding luncheon, friends who volunteered to help, flowers, invitations, clothing, honeymoon reservations, and travel plans to and from  Florida.

By February we booked the venue,  Lucy's Gardens in Ridgefield.  We knew it would be absolutely beautiful and abloom in July (it was) and it provided shelter in case of rain. There is both a large barn-like structure and a big canopy area outside.  We decided to have tables in both areas and a big crepe bar outside under the canopy.  We crossed our fingers that it wouldn't be raining on that day, because we generally have rain until July 4th.  Ha ha ha ha . . . . funny joke on us!  We had what they called a "heat wavelet" on July 1, 2014 and it was almost 100 degrees!  So ridiculously hot. But there's more to tell about that story in a minute.

A friend had advised us to not skimp on the photographer. We loved our photographer and she bonded with each of our kids. She asked if it would be ok if she takes Bailey's senior pictures later this summer.  Absolutely yes!  

One of the smartest things I did was to hire a friend from a nearby ward to make all the decorations. She is planning to work as a "wedding planner." She did a fabulous job on the decorations and I was so happy to not have to plan or prepare all the cutesy stuff.  I did buy all the silk flowers, ribbon, table linens and all the food (including crepes we ordered from a distributor in Canada). We thought that our wedding planner friend was doing all the set-up and take- down also, but it turned out that we needed to help quite a bit on both. Thank goodness we have amazing friends who pitched in to help!

Okay, I'm going to take a break and show some pictures. Here are few shots of my friends helping us set up the reception the night before the wedding.

 We had family in town for the wedding for most of the week before the event. We provided meals at our home each night for the guests. This process was complicated when the door to the garage freezer was left open, destroying most of the food I had pre-bought and pre-prepared for the week, including 4 ice cream pies for the dinner the night before the wedding.  I threw out a lot of food, took a deep breath, and restocked the freezer the best I could.  

The night before the wedding our meal was prepared for us by our good friends the McDonnells. This was SUCH a great service to offer and I am going to do the same for others in the future!  They offered to pick up and cook all of the food for a big barbecue for all the family members, come to our house to set it up, and then clean it up for us.  This enabled us to focus on our visitors and all the millions of last minute things we had to do that day.  What fantastic friends! Their daughter Laura captured some pictures during the dinner.

 Brother McDonnell manned the grill all night, freeing up Dan to talk and relax.

 It was so fun to have Scott and Ann's entire family here!

 It was such a beautiful night to sit outside and talk.

 After the dinner I had to run back to the reception venue to take food and much-needed ice water to my friends who were slaving away at the setup.  Quite a few family members came with us to see how it was coming along. After a bit we headed back home where Brandon and Angela were singing for the group. We also showed the wedding video to the family this night.

I am just going to pause here to say that . . . . I felt quite scattered at this point. I needed to be at the reception helping to set up. I needed to be at home with other family members and guests. I needed to run to the church to pick up tablecloths I had forgotten to get earlier. I needed to get Bailey's dress zipper fixed for the next day. Plus, there are a lot of interesting dynamics that arise when you get family members from three different families together.  And there were lots of last minute things to do, despite my efforts to be really organized and prepared. The week before the wedding necessitated lots of chocolate, ibuprofen, and laughter with Dan at the end of the day. But somehow it all came together with the tremendous help of family and friends.

And then, after some very special father's blessings for the wedding couple, everyone was off to their hotel rooms. Kara was staying with us, and she was enormously helpful in every way, including as resident hairdresser.

The next day we got ready and nervously watched the thermometer climbing outside.  We Washingtonians are a little freaked out by straight sunshine. I have to admit, though, it was much better than a rainstorm!

I took a picture of Brandon as he was ready to drive out to door to get married. MARRIED.  Notice that he is gripping the wedding rings and wedding license in his hand.

I still can't believe my baby is married. 

click below to keep reading. Remember that I warned you - it's long!

Catching up from the end of school to the WEDDING

It has been a busy month!  Lots of fun and wild and crazy things going on here at Porterville. First I need to do some catching up.  Here are the kid's first and last day of school pics for the 2013-2014 school year:

Joseph's first day of 3rd grade

 Joseph's last day of 3rd grade:

Aubrey's first day of 8th grade, alone and with best friend Laura:

Aubrey's last day of 8th grade, again with Laura!

Bailey's first day of 11th grade:

Bailey's last day of 11th grade:

And now, a rundown of random pics from the end of school time to the wedding. . . .

Aubrey's last day of school party with friends . . . .  

here Aubrey, Laura, and Emma show off their middle school graduation lanyards and the friendship paintings they did together to commemorate their friendship and the end of school.

Father's Day 2014 - spoiling Daddy with gifts and good food:

Joseph waiting patiently for the school bus on the last day of school. I loved waiting with him each morning.  He never wanted to be late so we got there in plenty of time each day to talk about life and check out the ants on the sidewalk.

Bailey trying out some of the wedding flowers that Grandma Porter made (and sent to us):

Joseph sitting on a really cool motorcycle cop's vehicle at the Cub Scout Bike Rally:

And demonstrating his mad bike skills as he completed the "newspaper boy throws the newspaper onto the front stoop" relay.  As if any young boys actually deliver newspapers on their bikes anymore!

Joseph's football team won a party at Ice Cream Renaissance. Yum!  Joseph was enjoying his ice cream until one of the other boys accidentally/on purpose spit a little into his ice cream. Then he was done. I don't blame him. 

Meanwhile, at another table the four of us shared a 3 scooper ice cream plate. It was delicious and we were devastated when it was all gone.

These are some of the things I put in a "honeymoon basket and gifts bags" for Brandon and Angela. I included some fun snacks and food from Trader Joes, their favorite cereals, some sparkling cider with fancy glasses, two beach towels, a puzzle, sand toys, sunscreen, etc.

  I can't believe I never got a picture of this, but our entire living room was wedding central, with stacks of supplies and boxes and baskets for the wedding.  Next post, the wedding!!