The Porter People

I planned to write this post a week or so ago and it was going to be much more whiny and dramatic, as the obstacles we needed to cross to make it to the end of school while simultaneously planning a wedding seemed like just too darn much.

But we did it. I still can't believe that I don't need to get up at 5 a.m tomorrow to help 4 people get breakfast and lunches packed and out the door.

Now onto the big event, the final push to the WEDDING DAY! Next Tuesday these two amazing people fly to Vancouver.

Within days of their arrival we will welcome more family: Angela's parents, my parents, Dan's parents, Kara, Scott and family, Angela's brother and wife. On July 1 they will be married in the Portland LDS Temple. Somehow we will pull off the big events, with the help of so many great friends and family.

But, before we dive headlong into the wedding here is a rundown of some of the recent family events:

Bailey

Bailey turned 17 and celebrated with all the requisite family and friend festivities. Separate blog post to follow.

She also finished her toughest academic year and did more than fantastic. Her teachers were merciless and she had huge projects, essays, and finals up until the very last day of school. She paced herself and worked on projects every day and made it to the end. She also studied for and took the ACT last Saturday for the second time. Now she is free to sit in the sun and read her birthday books, which is exactly what she did all afternoon today!

Bailey was just appointed to be part of the ASB at school again and was just made Seminary Council President for next year! She is going to have a fantastic senior year. And I can't even think about the fact that she will be leaving to go to college oh-so-soon!

To mediate some of the studying stress one night the girls and I escaped for some Target therapy . . . where they pushed each other up and down the aisles

and Aubrey tried to convince me that she needs even more colored pens than she already owns.

Aubrey

Aubrey was busy with events at school at least once a week for the last month.

A few weeks ago we attended a performance of The Little Princess for her theater class at school. I wasn't supposed to take pictures, but I sneakily took a few shots. She did a great job as Ermengarde.

She also spent an evening at the school explaining the "core" project her group had worked on the entire year. Parents were invited to view all the group's projects, set up throughout the classrooms and hallways of the school. (oops - I seem to have temporarily lost the pictures I took that night - I'll add them later).

This is a good place to wax eloquent about VSAA, the school that both Bailey and Aubrey have attended for Middle School. The school not only has the highest academic test scores in the district, but it is also a happy, creative, and nurturing environment. I am amazed at the types of projects the kids produce. These core presentation relate to a yearly VSAA theme. For this year's theme the kids formed small groups and then had to choose a well known or little-known story fable. Then they had to do all the work to create a theatrical production from that story: write the plot, design the costumes and lighting, describe the scenes, create the publicity materials, music, and posters, and more. Each group participant not only had a part in the creation of the core project but also had to explain it to strangers for two hours. It was impressive.

Moving on . . .

Aubrey also had an amazing choir concert. She had to dress and do her hair "80s" for the concert, something with which I am very proficient, so I coached her on how to pouf and rat her hair.

Pretty good, but she needs more height in her bangs!

This is her Acappella dress. She really enjoyed her Acappella group and is looking forward to being in the highest group, Vocal Focus, next year.

Aubrey also drew this picture of Charles Lindbergh for a school project.

Finally, Aubrey graduated from middle school with stellar grades and is on to high school!

Joseph

Joseph also had at least one event at school every week. Such as an awards assembly for Reading Olympics (pictures are also missing)

A class talent show in which he showed one of his drawings and demonstrated some basketball moves with two friends,

And a class field day and picnic. I will be so sad when the day comes when I don't get to help at elementary school field days. It's so much fun!

Intensely focused on a water relay

Catching a water balloon in the balloon toss game

Joseph's 3rd grade class and AMAZING teacher Ms. Patton. We will miss her!

This is the look I got from Joseph when I told him to smile - what a goof!

Joseph also had a busy sports schedule for most of June, with soccer and flag football practices and games every week. Happily, both sports concluded with awards and parties last week. He had great seasons in both sports and especially loved learning about football and playing with his good buddies Matt and Alex.

Run fast, Joseph . . . that kid is aiming to pull your flag!

Can you pick out Joseph (in the neon green cleats). It was so fun to see the kids run the plays they had practiced.

Joseph's coach had some great things to say about him at the awards assembly pizza party. I don't have time to try to figure out how to link the video to this blog post so I will transcribe the coach's words:

"I coached Joseph a few years ago in soccer and when I got my roster this year I was so excited to see that he was on my team in football. He is a great player in both sports and I really relied on Joseph. One thing I would consistently say to Joseph after I dismissed the huddle was, 'Joseph, if you make that block then we are going to get a touchdown' and many times we did. Joseph is a great at defensive player and he played with a great understanding of how he affected the team. He understood that football is a team sport and if you don't do your job then it will affect where the play is going. I really appreciated Joseph's knowledge of the game and I can't wait to coach him again."

Pokemon - I need to do another blog post about this sometime to show how Joseph is doing a repeat of Brandon at the same age, but for now suffice it say that Pokemon has exploded again in the elementary school world. Just like when Brandon was in 3rd grade, Dan spends hours helping Joseph research and collect cards. They even both have their collections that they "trade." (Somehow Joseph always makes out with the best cards). Pokemon cards have proven to be a great incentive for Joseph - for chores and especially for food challenges.

Piano Recital

Last Saturday Joseph and Aubrey played beautifully in their piano recital. They each played a solo piece and played one duet together. Once again, I wish I had time to link the videos from the night. When I hear my kids produce some beautiful music I feel like all the years I have "encouraged" kids to practice and have driven kids back and forth to lessons are WORTH IT!

Seminary

We made it through another year of early morning Seminary! Dan loved teaching his class of seniors. Only about half the kids are pictured here. On this day they were posing as superheroes for a picture in support of Ryan on the day of his chemo treatment.

Dan will be teaching seminary again next year - this time Aubrey's freshman class! But for now we are enjoying a later start to the day.

Update on me

What have I been doing? Well, mostly I have been orchestrating all the things everybody else has been doing. In addition I have done a lot of wedding planning and home projects. I have a really big project for the family room and kitchen I wanted to tackle, but I totally ran out of time.

We also had planned to rip out our too-small and beginning-to-rot back yard deck and replace it with pavers or a stamped concrete patio. I got three different bids, but in the end we couldn't decide which direction to go, so we decided to just fix up the existing deck for the wedding and then make the decision later. A few weeks ago I bought some stain and re-stained the deck in a few hours. I was so mad when the can of stain ran out with only this much deck left to cover!

In other fun news, I dropped a hammer on my toe the other day while I was trying to hang a picture (with a nail gripped between my lips and the hammer balanced between my knees - it was an accident just waiting to happen!) I'll have to add a picture of my pretty bruise.

I also have reached a personal victory milestone. After biting my nails for the majority of my almost 44 years, I somehow managed to stop about 6 months ago. My nails are long and strong and so much prettier!

I treated myself to a shellac manicure to celebrate. Afterward, these were my thoughts:

Well, that was expensive
My nails look lovely
Wow, that was a long and boring process. Do women actually "touch up" their manicure every two weeks as the nail tech recommended? I would die of boredom. It was painful for me to just sit there in the chair for an hour while I thought of all the other things I could be doing. Now, if they could think of a way I could read a book while getting my nails done . . . . But the price needs to drop significantly and there's no way I would go back every two weeks!

I had a personal crisis moment yesterday when I accidentally deleted my precious to-do list from the notes area of my phone. I live by this to-do list, especially right now with everything going on. I constantly re-work and move around items, assigning them to days and in order of importance. After having a mini panic attack I started reconstructing the list. I still don't know if I remembered everything . . . hopefully I at least remembered the important stuff?

I am finally getting around to printing out copies of the family pictures we had taken the end of December, so I thought I would upload them to the blog as well.

I have this yearning for great family pictures taken outdoors - I have always loved the look of outdoor pictures! But, we have a history of choosing bad weather days for family pictures.

Before we get talk more about this year's outdoor family photos, let's review a few attempts from the past:

There's the really great family pics circa 2003. (I'm still looking for the well-buried evidence in my picture files). I had set up family pictures in the evening and eye appointments for both Dan and me during the day. The opthamologist dilated our eyes, and Dan and I were basically blind, squinting, with huge pupils in the pictures.

There was November 2009 on the beach in Hawaii, when the wind was blowing 40 mph and there were dangerous jellyfish all over the beach (we were walking barefoot). We all looked windblown, but my hair especially stood straight up in the wind gusts.

Cute, right?

The photographer sent us some photoshopped versions where she digitally plastered my hair down. The photoshopped versions were so hideous that I just embraced the windy look and counted this as another failed attempt at family pictures.

Then, in May 2011 we tried a family photoshoot again right before Brandon left on his mission. It was cold and pouring rain so all our pictures were taken under a porch on Officer's Row. Joseph was so bothered by the cold, wind, and rain that he sobbed and wouldn't lift his head or smile for the pictures.

This time, in December of 2013, Mother Nature was once again not our friend. It was unusually bitter cold on the day we had scheduled for pictures, which was the only day we had available during Brandon's Christmas break. We shivered and shed our coats for most of the pictures, but I think the photographer had to touch up our red noses and frostbit fingers. Brrrrrr. Despite that, we got some decent shots.

We took these pictures in the Officer's Row area of historic Fort Vancouver.