Talk about a whirlwind of a month! Wow! Time just flew right by and here we are in November already. I suppose that's how it always works, but it still takes me by surprise every Fall. Lots of celebrating....lots of Halloween festivities and friends' birthdays and GRANT's birthday! Dance conventions and soccer games, the Primary Program and ding dong ditching with Grandma. It was a whole bunch of wonderful moments that came together to create the perfect October.
Let's talk about Grant's birthday. This kid is now fourteen years old with the maturity level of a 16-17 year old. Such a great guy and so fun to celebrate him this month. We took Grant and friends to Howl o Scream at Seaworld as part of the birthday festivities..... Blake even went with me and we had the best time ever!!! Our family minus Dane and Ev and plus Stacy skipped school/work and headed up to one of Grant's favorite places- Universal! Seriously fun day with no crowds and lots to do.... a yummy birthday dinner at Universal Citywalk afterwards. And then, wait for it... the party continued at home where we officially celebrated with an "Office" theme and Grant's favorite dinner: tri tip and Dane's home made Mac n cheese with a chocolate ice cream cake for dessert. Had such a special evening and loved everything that was said about the great kid Grant is: I told Grant I appreciated how mindful he was with his money and that I admired how he saved. I also told him I loved how protective he was of his family and how he likes to take care of each of us. Dane focused on how selfless Grant is. Anna thanked Grant for watching out for her in middle school and helping her with homework. Blake said he valued what a leader Grant was and how he had a strong moral compass. Grant is truly a one in a million kid.... love watching him play soccer and football, love seeing him take care of little kids at church and in the neighborhood, love having him with me at Dane's soccer games and asking him questions about the game; driving around with him as he shows me all his new music, love watching what a good friend he is and how he cares for others, and recently--- really love trying out all the baked goods he's been making! From chocolate mousse to macaroons, to donuts to specialty chocolate chip cookies. He does it all and it's so fun to watch him develop talents and work hard in all he does. Here's an excerpt from his birthday journal:
Cannot believe the cutest little guy on earth is now 14. Growing up right before my eyes. Grant- you have matured in so many ways this year. One of the most amazing things about you is your discipline and desire to be the best you can be in all that you do. You are more hard working and disciplined than any other kid I know. Rarely are you relaxing! Examples of this include the wonderful grades you produce in school and countless hours working on your school work- mostly IN school so that you don’t have to do it at home. You forgo messing around and wasting time with friends to be as efficient as possible. You train 3 days a week with your soccer team and then Wednesday mornings with Coach Conner and Friday afternoons with Coach Paul. You then have one to two soccer games per weekend. When you discovered you weren’t starting the games at the beginning of the season, instead of whining or feeling blue, you asked your coach for more private sessions so you could improve your skills. You have definitely improved your skills and you also improved your relationship with your coach. This is just one example of the mature young man you are becoming. On top of soccer, you are also playing flag football with a few of your friends at Friday night lights AND flag football at your middle school! On top of these extracurricular activities, you always try to support the Young Men activities and you also attend the Young men activities for the neighboring ward due to a cute gal you have a crush on! Haha. Your social calendar is full to the brim and mostly full with ideas that you’ve come up with. You love to invite the whole gang over to our house after high school football games and plan sports, movie or amusement park outings. You have many friends and though things aren’t perfect for you at school, you have a wonderful attitude and an awesome mindset about what it means to “be cool”. You purposely choose to surround yourself with friends that choose the right, you include everyone and are kind to kids who need a buddy…. and it is incredibly admirable!
Your favorite tv to watch is football and soccer games and highlights. You recently watched The Office beginning to almost end and you really enjoyed it. You also like to watch mr. Beast and Mark Roberg on Youtube. You hate to text and rarely play video games. You love to be active and outdoors. You have become an incredible baker and chef recently. You can make the perfect chocolate macaroons and delicious chocolate chip cookies— even chocolate cheesecake! You also enjoy cooking up your own steak and watch lots of videos on how to do so. I love when you send me a grocery list of ingredients to try new things. You and I usually tease each other over who is going to clean up the mess afterwards. Usually I’m happy to help because we all love to eat what you’ve baked!
Your favorite food is steak and potatoes, carne asada tacos, and burgers from in n out. At home, you choose to eat healthy most of the time and eat a lot of bananas, core protein power drinks, peanut butter toast, and bowls of fruit. You get up early a few times a week to work out in the garage. You keep your room nice and clean and go to bed at 8:30 every night. You are a really funny person and easy to be around. You always know just what to say and you love to watch out for everyone in our family and everyone you know.
This year Anna started middle school with you and you are about the best big brother a gal could ask for . Last year the two of you didn’t get along at all, but this year you have worked hard to help her enjoy middle school. You’ve helped her with homework, navigating the halls, friends and teachers. You even took her to the counselor all on your own one day to see about changing her schedule. You spent hours helping her create her first digital media video when I hadn’t a clue how to help. Seriously, not sure how we’d be able to get along without you Grant!
Lots of travel this year to Brianhead for skiing, Tahiti for a mid-winter vacation to scuba dive and surf, Mexico TWO times- Cancun with just our family and and then Puerto Vallarta with Grandma Grandpa and Aunt Stacy for our big summer vacation! You attended BYU soccer camp and made lots of new friends. You enjoyed high adventure at Zion’s National Park. You went beach camping at Carlsbad, attended quite a few tournaments in LA, Vegas and Phoenix a few times! You visited cousins and grandparents in Seattle and begged Papa to take you to a Mariners Game while there! You loved that. You went to your first concert in Vegas- Charlie Puth which you only half-way enjoyed after finding out you would be standing the entire time! Ha! You always attend church dances and help Dad and I with all sorts of ministering visits. You care deeply for other people.
Sometimes you are WAY TOO hard on yourself and you can even allow that energy to be directed towards others when they make a mistake. We’ve talked about this and you are working hard on easing up on yourself. Again, so grateful that you are always open and willing to discuss hard things and share your life with Dad and I. We sure think you are incredible in so many ways. We are SO lucky to have you in our lives and grateful for the laughs and example you set for our family. We love you Grant B. Marston! Happy Birthday!
Anna is just absolutely busier than a little bee these days. And she's definitely continuing to feel stress with the academics, homework, navigation of middle school, and her dance commitments. In fact, she's become sick every other week in response to everything weighing on her shoulders. Poor thing! I am SO proud of how hard she works to persevere with a positive attitude and do her best in all of these things that challenge her. I do miss the good old days of last year, where she was happy go lucky and carefree. It makes me sad to think about... in fact, I often think of switching her to classical academy or homeschool.... but she loves the social part of school too much for that! And she does love dance, though it is a lot. This month Anna went to her first convention downtown where she learned 4 different dances and had an awesome weekend with her buddies. She celebrated three of her besties birthdays: Scarlett, Kate and Afton.... on a scavenger hunt at the mall and at an escape room! For Kate she picked out the perfect birthday gift- a potato night light that she just knew Kate would love. I questioned the whole thing, but she nailed it and the two girls have been making up songs and videos about this little potato ever since. Anna has a wonderful friendship group at school and she is so funny with her friends - she definitely keeps the girls laughing. Then on the weekends, she usually spends time with Kate (a grade younger)! It works out so nicely. On Sunday we always have not only Kate, but Sophie over as well. It's fun for our entire family to play and read and color with her. On top of hanging with friends in her free time, Anna and Kate think of business ideas. They first put together a business of organizing cupboards and closets- clutter busters! Then they created a pet sitting business.... and this is all in one month! They love being creative and coming up with fun ideas. In other news, Anna is OBSESSED with dogs and she wants one so badly. We met Sameen's new puppy- Leo- that made the whole thing even more pressing. I think she aught to stick with dog sitting for a little while longer! I don't know that I'm ready for another addition to the family.
The primary program was such a sweet experience this year. It was Anna's last program and probably my last one too!! I have been the music leader for primary for 6 years and it has been my absolute greatest joy and the best calling I've ever had. I seriously do not even KNOW how I'm going to be able to move on to something else! The kids are just the sweetest and cutest on earth and I love them so much. I love the primary songs and the joy of serving and singing together. I suppose now that Anna's moving on up, it's time for me to do that as well.... but it's not going to be easy.
Had so much fun celebrating Halloween this year. The kids had a half day of school so they invited all their friends over for a day of sports, swimming, super nachos and caramel apples! It was a great time. Then they all headed off to their various activities. Of course, I never did see Dane.... he just went out with friends directly from school!!!!! But Grant enjoyed serving dinner in a group home with his buddies and then trick or treating around the neighborhood and finishing up at Kenna's house for a big halloween party! Anna trick or treated with her "Taylor Swift" outfitted friends and then had an epic sleepover at Silver's house. I love how each of them picked an album cover to recreate. So cute!!!
So fun to be help put together the trunk or treat for our ward; it was a SUPER windy night, but thankfully it all turned out ok, despite a few of the decorations blowing away. Blake went as Ken and I went as "weird Barbie" from the movie. Love our ward so much! We also had the best time with Grandma carrying out our annual ding dong ditch tradition. Grandma put together the most incredible halloween gifts!!!!! So cute and almost all of our friends know by now that we are the ones responsible so it makes it extra fun to try not to get caught in the act. One of our favorite Sundays of the year! Hope we are still doing this even if all the kids move out and it's just Grandma and I at home! Haha!
Evelyn has kept SO busy with work at Hobby Lobby. I barely get to talk with her anymore and there's a lot fewer pictures- boo! It's a very physically demanding job but she is really enjoying it. I'm having a hard time processing the fact that she may not be able to come home for Thanksgiving. I know that's how it goes when you're working but it's been a while and I really miss her! She is drawing up a storm in her free time!
As for me, I've had a lot on my plate lately- all things I love. We started a middle school group for the girls at Twin Peaks who are interested in learning about mindfulness and reshaping negative thinking. It's our breakfast club, and we hold it every Wednesday morning because that is late start. Such a fun part of my week teaching these girls. I subbed for a full 7 days in a row and that was a fun but trying experience! Overall, loved it but definitely made me realize that working full time is exhausting! I loved subbing for my friend Melanie who is teaching full time this year. Loved meeting her students and seeing what her life is like as a resource teacher. I've been helping with a few behavioral consultations for friends and ward members. Again, something I truly enjoy researching and figuring out, though it takes up a good portion of time! Celebrated my birthday a little late at the beginning of the month with Tier 1 at Rachel's home. We combined Helen, Rach and I since we're all super busy lately! Fun night. Also met Grandma and Grandpa at Ruby's for lunch to celebrate as well and that was fun.... especially visiting Rocky Mountain afterwards! A halloween tradition! Tried something very new to me in helping refugees at the San Diego Transit center--- processing papers and getting plane tickets for immigrants seeking asylum. I used google translate to help me communicate and it was an incredible day learning about the process with my friends.
And speaking of friends: LOTS of special birthdays! Loved celebrating Nikki and Elizabeth! Loved telling funny stories like the time Elizabeth Judd donated 1.50$ to Rhett's basketball team.... and it was written up in the program... ha! She thought it was 1.50 per basket!!!!
My friends are amazing and I love our community of women.
The ladies in the ward have decided it's just too hard to call Blake, "Bishop Marston". So he is now Bishop Blake. Everyone feels good about that! He's doing an absolutely incredible job as Bishop. He works so hard and is so giving of his time. He's the best husband, best dad, best boss and best Bishop ever! So grateful for him and for this awesome but busy phase of our life!
