Inspired by Miss Prine

When I go long stretches without writing in my journal, I always feel the need to quasi-apologize in my writing about why it's been so long and then feel like I have to catch up on everything that's happened since the last entry.  Sometimes that seems too overwhelming to try and catch up, so I just keep putting if off until it seems impossible.

I guess that's how I feel about my blog, too.  I have no idea what's changed in my world this past year that makes it so hard for me to make time to blog.  I still enjoy it.  I still have fantastic kids involved in everything.  I still have a great husband and we've enjoyed all kinds of great memories together this year.  I still think about writing all the time and dream of finding a solo hour to just sit.  I'm still working, still serving in the church, still running, still hiking, still living the life.

At any rate, I just finished reading a fantastic fiction book, "These Is My Words, the Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine," by Nancy Turner and I absolutely loved it.  I cried at least 10 times and had the hardest time putting it down.  I catch myself thinking about the fiery Sarah and her trials and her spunk and her love for Captain Jack, all the time.  What a life she endured living in the rugged Arizona Territories in the late 1800's.  I think we would have been great friends.  I noted that in the midst of her child raising years, she went a whole year without writing, so I guess I'm in good company in that regard.  And that inspired me to write.

With school back in session, I feel like we've shifted back into gear again and are hopefully starting to remember the routine.  Summer brought many late nights for the kids and equally late wakings.  They stayed so busy with all their sports camps and the vacations and hanging with friends, but the structure of our world was no where to be found.

As of this week, all the peeps are fully booked with school and all the extras.  Miss Rowan is officially a gymnast now, taking a couple hours a week at Desert Devils.  She says she loves it and can hardly wait for her newly ordered leotards to arrive.  We've seen a number of back walkovers already and clapped at some pretty good headstand attempts.  Who invented the head stand, anyway.  It should be outlawed.  Nothing good can possibly come from standing on your head.  Anyway, she's also 3 weeks into piano lessons now, so we've been blessed to hear the likes of Old Joe Brown and Mary Had a Little Lamb over and over.  She's excited about her new activities, though, which is all that matters.  And she's a new 3rd Grade student council representative and loving her activity days.  She also has a new friend in the neighborhood, Emma Alston, who we already love to pieces.

Buddy Boy, first grader, is most excited about a couple new friends and his upcoming 7th birthday in a few weeks.  He's been loving playing with our new neighbor, John Alston, and his school buddy, Spencer Arnett.  Unfortunately, he and the treadmill had a misunderstanding last week at Spencer's house and he came walking out to the car a little bloodied up on the chin and nose, but still claiming to have had a blast on his play date.  Easton learned the hard way that the treadmill doesn't just stop when you decide to stop.  Mr. Easton is also so dang excited about soccer, which started this week.  I have to say he looks way cool all decked out in his gear and dry fit shirt.  His ear to ear grin was absolutely contagious when he showed me his new soccer ball he got at practice and proudly walked around the house with both of his new balls.  We are entering the unknown with this whole soccer thing...we've been pure softball/baseball parents forever, but somehow I finally caved and said OK to the soccer sign up.  I'm still not sure what happened in that weak moment.  Does this mean I'm a soccer mom??

Afty Cakes is also playing soccer for the first time at 11, and hopefully won't be too much at a disadvantage for never having played before.  I kind of doubt it.  She's so athletic and coordinated.  She came home from her first practice so excited about it all and loving it already, so I guess so far, so good.  Afty will be our craziest fall child this year with fall ball softball, soccer, piano, and taking an extra math class at Stapley every day.  She tested into 7th/8th grade accelerated math, so after going a full day at Hale, we take her up to the junior high for 6th hour math, and then she rides the bus home with Barrett.  Afton also ran in her 6th grade class election for President and won, so she's the fearless leader with all the smiles and sense of humor to boot.  Way to go, Afty.  She made up a song to "Don't Worry, Be Happy" and sang it to the Karaoke version of the music.  All the kids ate it up.  She's got guts for sure.  And she thinks maybe the brownies and cookies helped a little too :)  Afty's best friend in the world, Sydney Bauer, is gone to Snowflake, which we are still sad about.  Thankfully, they both have their iPod Touches and FaceTime each other a couple times a week to keep in touch. The two of them have been stuck like glue for a year and a half, so it's still a little weird not having Syd at our house all the time. 

Barrett is growing up crazy fast.  Just about every week I look at her and wonder how I got a full on teenager so fast.  She's beautiful and smart and so involved in school and more social than ever, so apparently 8th grade life is good.  At almost 14 years old (in less than 2 months), she's really busy with her 8th Grade Class President duties and all the extra time that involves, and is gearing up for fall ball to start next week.  We've also been training together for our upcoming Grand Canyon Rim2Rim hike, which is only 5 weeks away.  We are all getting excited about that. 

Ryan and I just celebrated 16 years of marriage last Friday.  We went for massages during the day, then out to dinner and a movie that night.  Then on Saturday, we went up to Flagstaff with some friends and did a 21 mile hike in the San Francisco Peaks (the Weatherford Trail). It was so incredibly beautiful!  I will post about that separately with pics.  We are both busy in our scout callings and just finished up the summer court of honor last night.  I made a DVD featuring pics and video from all their 2012 outings to date, so that was fun for all the parents and boys to watch.

Well, my allotted half hour is up, so I'm logging off and hope to be back to visit my blog soon.