Cheering for Family

One aspect of family life that I just love is cheering on the members of my family when they are performing and competing.  I want my children to cheer each other on in all of their activities.  We attend concerts, recitals, plays, track meets, soccer games, baseball games, Pack Meetings, Courts of Honor and cheer for the family member participating.

This past Tuesday, Sabrina performed with a vocal ensemble "Off Topic" in the Acapella Fusion High School Vocal Contest.  We took the whole family. It was at the Morrison Center on the BSU campus. The contest was decided by popular vote of the audience.  Everyone in our family voted for Off Topic - they sang well and even had some audience participation.  When the results were read and Off Topic did not place in the top 3, Beatrix was sobbing. Loudly.  "But, I wanted Sabrina to win!" It took several minutes to calm her down.

Maybe we're taking the whole cheering for family to an extreme, but I'm glad Beatrix loves listening to her sister perform!

Here is Off Topic performing their set.  Unfortunately, the video camera ran out of space and stopped recording right before Sabrina's scat solo at the end of the second song. Happily I also used my voice recorder, so we do have audio of that solo.  However it is not the same quality or volume.

First Day of School

8th Grade!

She is attending Treasure Valley Math & Science Center again for half the day (Biology, Geometry and Earth Science) and then Les Bois for the rest (Choir, World Studies, Orchestra and PE/Health).  She is on the tennis team, and prefers playing doubles.

3rd Grade!

He gets to pick up Hyrum from Kindergarten every day.  Said his teacher is the BEST because she gave MOM homework on the first day of school, not him.  He didn't really care for the homework on the second day of school, though.

 Kindergarten!

August 27, 2012 was Hyrum's best day ever!  He started school!  Interestingly, he has said that every school day since has been his best day ever.  I hope he continues his enthusiasm for school.  Wearing his backpack starting at 9am (when school starts at 12:30pm) can be dropped, though.

Look who's taller!

By about a half-inch, Sabrina is now taller than her mother! Ryan is holding the level on our heads and Roderic is taking the picture.

Last Day of Summer and First Day of School

On Tuesday, we celebrated "Building Day." Together, we (Roderic, Hyrum and I) worked on separating the Lego sets and then building them. (Sabrina was at her final exam for Pre-algebra at the start, and didn't participate when she returned.)

Roderic's patience ran out quicker than mine, so he went to play with the sets, break them a part and rebuild. Roderic really likes Legos. He currently says he wants to work for Lego when he grows up so he can continue to play with them.

Can you believe our builder is so cheap that he expects me to help? Well, he isn't. I just thought it would be a fun diversion from Lego building. And it was. Sabrina took the photo, trying to have John out of the shot to make it look like I was doing all the work. There were 2 other guys lifting it at the same time. I felt like I was a part of the barn raising scene in "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" but without the fighting, or the singing.

We have some exterior walls! The plan is to get this section covered with a roof before tearing of the rest of the existing roof for our addition.
John took this shot and emailed it to Ryan with the caption: Malauna demonstrating proper nailing technique on the addition

Those nail guns have quite a powerful kickback. I put in 2 nails.

School started on Wednesday this year. With Sabrina going to Junior High this year, we're going to have to change our routine for morning family prayers. ie. We'll have one family prayer at 6:15am with Sabrina and parents and have another one at 8:15am with the boys and parents.

Sabrina only had to go to Les Bois on the first day of school, since it was early release. Treasure Valley Math and Science Center (TVMSC) does not operate on days when the junior high school has early release. Since she had no class at Les Bois until 4th period, she got to sit in her "homeroom" class for the first 3 periods of the day, listening to the teacher give her "Welcome to my class rules and routines" lecture. Then she got to listen to that same teacher in 5th and 6th periods when she actually had her. She said it was quite boring. In the future, when she doesn't have TVMSC, she's going to stay home until 4th period starts.

Both Roderic and Sabrina woke up happy and excited for the first day of school. I got to ride bikes with both of them. I was the only parent out on a bike with Sabrina, but there were a lot with Roderic. I hope the bike-riding weather keeps up through the end of October!

May Madness!

The end of school craziness has begun.


On Thursday, Roderic performed with the First and Second grades in their annual Spring Concert. The theme this year was patriotic. Roderic got to learn "You're A Grand Old Flag", "America the Beautiful", "My Country Tis of Thee", "The Star-Spangled Banner", and "Yankee Doodle". The kids did a great job.

On Friday morning, Sabrina played cello in the orchestra and then sang in the choir during the Orchestra Band Choir concert. During lunch, she played violin and cello with a couple of ensembles for the volunteer luncheon.


On Friday night, Sabrina played violin with EHO in the Boise Music Week School Night Gala. (No pictures, but you'll have to take my word that the music was awesome!)


On Saturday afternoon both Roderic and Sabrina played in the Boise Bench Studio's violin recital. Roderic played Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star variation B and Boil 'Em Cabbage. Sabrina played the duet part for most of the students throughout the recital and played Gavotte in D major by J.S. Bach as a solo.



Here is Roderic playing his solo. Sabrina's solo didn't get recorded due to operator error.

Look who just took 2nd

in the Medley Relay at the Boise Elementary Regional Track meet:

SS (100m), TS (100m), Sabrina (400m), MM (200m)

They qualified for the District meet next Tuesday! I'm going to try to remember to bring my stopwatch to see how fast Sabrina runs the anchor leg.

Happy Birthday Sabrina!

My little girl continues to grow. Now she is 12! She planned and executed a birthday party at Manitou park yesterday, inviting 10 friends. They played Ninja Attack, Pass the Parcel, Whiffle ball toss, Hide-n-seek and Red Rover. A good time was had by all.

Since she likes to read so much, she asked for a book-shaped cake. I think it turned out pretty nice.

We took her (and Roderic) to see Sleeping Beauty. Beautiful music (Tchaikovsky's). Amazing dancing. This picture from the Idaho Statesman is during the pas de deux in second act.

School Days

Hyrum is attending Joy School this year, today was his first day! With 6 children in the class, I'll be teaching every 6 weeks. I'm excited for him to have his own school to attend. He is even more excited than me. Last night it was all he could talk about. He even made up a song called "I Love Joy School".

Hyrum's goal for this school year: Learn to play the drums (said as he's playing air drums)
My goal for Hyrum: Learn to write his name


Roderic is one happy kid, ready to start First Grade! He has become much happier over the summer. He still has some issues about respecting the personal space of others. During the last few weeks, he has decided that he CAN read with the family out of the Book of Mormon, although he only wants Mom's help on the big words.

Roderic's goal for this school year: Wants to be a really good listener
My goals for Roderic: Learn to tie his shoes [and swim trunks]; learn to ride a 2 wheeler


It is hard to come to terms with the fact that my baby is now in 6th Grade! And what a great girl she is. A month ago she decided that she should play her violin for 20 hours before the school year started, which was an hour a day, 5 days a week. She met her goal, so now we're in the planning stages for a party!

Sabrina's goal for this school year: Run a 9 minute mile
My goals for her: Keep a tidier room/desk; budget for school clothes

First day of School August 25, 2010

The View from Sunday

Sabrina and 2 of her friends played "Faith of Our Fathers" in Sacrament Meeting today - a violin piano trio. It sounded great, although a little soft. They were more used to the acoustics in my music room compared with the chapel.

Hyrum learned a very important lesson in church today:

He can be a friend to both his Dad AND Darth Vader!

After taking Toto on a long walk around our neighborhood, Roderic grabs an apple, climbs up into a stack of 4 chairs, puts his feet up on the table and says, "Ah, this is the life!"

Indeed, it is the life!

And in case you're wondering, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints now has 134 operating temples in the world. The newest is in Kyiv Ukraine!

Ryan Gibby and Gordon Roylance: at the Kyiv Temple to attend the Cornerstone Ceremony.

Notice anything different?

Yep. My girl has braces. Most likely for the next 2 years. Right now she only has 6 brackets on her top teeth, but at the end of the summer, she'll get the full set. The orthodontist has said that her case is a 9 on a 10 point scale. Apparently, she has inherited teeth issues from both of her parents. What a lucky girl!

Orchestra Concert

Sabrina played in the 5th Grade Orchestra concert on Friday. In her own words she told us that this concert was going to be much better than the Christmas concert. And indeed it was. The students must have practiced a lot during the year. They played "Bile 'em Cabbage Down", Mozart's "Serenade" and Offenbach's "Can-Can". I still feel like I should volunteer to play the piano so the orchestra teacher can actually conduct the orchestra. Maybe next year. Here is a (sideways) recording of "Serenade". Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Sabrina!

Lucky Sabrina got to have her birthday celebrations spread over several days this year. They started on Friday night with a surprise visit from Grandma and Grandpa Gibby! Continued on Saturday (her birthday) with dinner at Chapala's between performances of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Continued on Sunday with presents and cake. Skipped a few days and then had a birthday party with friends on Friday.

Grandma and Grandpa Gibby came to meet Leo, but brought birthday presents for everyone (except Ryan).

Sabrina was a "Black Forest Creature" or BFC, as they called themselves. I thought she looked like Elphaba when she took off her makeup.

For her birthday she got a book "The View from Saturday", a Zen Stone Plus (mp3 player), a DNA experiment kit, and a sewing kit. Roderic really liked watching her unwrap her sewing kit. He told me that for his birthday, he wants a box filled with small wrapped presents, just like Sabrina.


Hyrum helped me make her birthday cake. It's part "Happy Birthday, Sabrina" and part "Go Jazz!"

For her party, the girls went on a scavenger hunt around our neighborhood on their bicycles. They did a little orienteering and had a lot of fun.

Happy 11th birthday, Sabrina! You are an awesome girl! And such a big help with your little brothers.

Girls Only Weekend

I got to spend an enjoyable 3 day weekend with this girl in the Bay Area.

We arrived early Friday morning, checked into our hotel and then went to Jack London Square for lunch and a tour of the USS Potomac (FDR's Floating White House). It was basically a private tour because we were the only tourists around.

FDR gave 3 of his "Fireside Chats" from the radio room of this boat. I took a picture of the gear because I thought my Father-in-law would appreciate the equipment.


Two of Ryan's sisters, one sister-in-law, and their three girls arrived later in the afternoon and we went off to the Oakland LDS Temple. What a beautiful place! Thanks again to Melissa for hanging out with Hailee and Sabrina at the Visitor's Center while we were in the Temple.



Afterwards we went to In N Out Burger for dinner. YUM!!!


On Saturday, we drove into San Francisco, following a misguided GPS affectionately named "Ophelia" (we have no idea why she wanted us to drive south from Oakland to get to San Francisco). We drove down Lombard Street, went around the block, found a place to park and then walked down Lombard Street. While everyone else walked up Lombard Street, I waited with Sabrina for them to drive down again and got in near the bottom.

Then we went to the Presidio and walked along a path leading us to the Golden Gate Bridge. There were a lot of runners on the bridge. I don't think I'd choose to run on it for two reasons: the noise, and the engine exhaust.

The reason this trip was planned by Ryan's sisters was for us to go see "Wicked". We wasted too much time looking for parking so we got to eat fast food for lunch instead of a sit-down meal. "Wicked" was enjoyable, but I found myself getting bored in the first act--thinking intermission must surely be coming soon. There were technical difficulties and so there were no moments of defying gravity during the song "Defy Gravity". I don't think it helped that a man with a big head was sitting right in front of me and I could hear the ushers talking to each other behind me. Sabrina really liked how this musical explained things from "The Wizard of Oz".

After church on Sunday, we had a few hours before our flights, so we drove back into San Francisco (ignoring Ophelia's pleas to turn around) and found Alamo Square and the famous Painted Ladies Victorian houses, that you see in the opening credits of TV's "Full House" We sang the theme song as we circled the block. There was one for sale, and Michelle called the number and asked the price...it was only $1.5 million.

Flight Benefits

My mom is a huge fan of travelling. HUGE! In fact, she suggested I apply for a job with Delta Air Lines when they opened up a call center on the campus of Weber State University in January 1996 (where I was attending school). Of course, it was good for me to have a job on campus, so my commute time would be minimal, but what she was really looking forward to was the flight benefits that she would receive. For their first trip, my parents went to Europe -to Romania (with a stop in Vienna) in April to pick up my sister, Shanda, who was serving a mission there. My mom graduated from Weber State that June and in August, moved to Alabama (Bama-bama as 3 year old Carson called it) to attend Auburn University to work on her Master's Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. She (and my dad) used those flight benefits to be able to fly back and forth to see each other. Those flight benefits came in rather handy when we moved to Boise in May 1999 Ryan and my dad (and brother Colle) drove the Penske truck from BYU to our house in Boise, unloaded it, then returned the truck to the Thrifty Rental Car/Penske Truck Rental location at the Boise airport and hopped on a flight back to Salt Lake. And my mom flew up a week later to help us unpack and pick out new furniture and pamper me. Needless to say, she was sad to see me quit in June 1999 when my 6 weeks of maternity leave was up.

Fast forward almost a decade and my sister, Shanda, was encouraged by my mom to use her phone number to apply (for the 2nd time) for a job with JetBlue Airlines. Once again with flight benefits on the brain. And then about a year later, my sister, Keturah, got a job with Skywest Airlines in Denver. My parents are now able to fly free on JetBlue, Skywest and United flights.

So, yesterday morning I got a call from my mom, who was in San Diego for a MFT conference, saying that all the flights into Salt Lake were full, so she was going to fly into Boise and have my dad drive up and pick her up and take her home. A half an hour later, my dad called to let me know that Mom was flying into Boise and he would be driving up - both arriving about 10:30 pm and they most likely wouldn't stay the night. I was excited for the chance to see them both, but saddened that my kids would miss out on the visit. Then, about 1 pm, I got a phone call from Carson, asking if he could hang out at my house and eat dinner with me - he got to be the lucky one to come pick up Mom. My kids were so excited when the doorbell rang at 6:00 pm and Uncle Carson was there to play with them! He even taught Sabrina how to play "Heart and Soul" on the piano.

Kids were vying to sit next to him at dinner, he got to pick our Family Home Evening activity (hand-eye coordination games), no one wanted to go to bed, everyone wanted Carson to tell them a bedtime story, and eventually they did sleep.


Flights were delayed due to weather and airplane issues, so my mom finally arrived at 12:30 am. She got to fly through Denver, so she was able to visit with Keturah for a couple of hours (who was working at the gate for the flight to Boise).

I'll take these unexpected visits any day! Roderic has a request, though. Carson, the next time you come to Boise will you please stay for 3 days and bring a Wii remote control with you so you and Roderic can play?

Days of Thanksgiving 11

1. I am thankful that my daughter said when she arrived home today, seconds after walking in the door, taking off her jacket and backpack, "I'm going to go outside and rake leaves."

2. I'm thankful that after she had created a large pile of leaves and jumped in them a couple of times that she raked them again and then invited her brothers and neighbors to join her in jumping in the pile of leaves. Then they started burying eachother in the leaves and then they cleaned them all up.

3. I am thankful that this flower is still hanging on to remind me of warmer days...

I hope this clemantis sticks around until Christmas.

Jedi Training Academy

All Star Wars fans will appreciate the coolness of this attraction at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Several times a day they hold a Jedi Training Academy right outside of StarTours. (I thought it was so cool, I sat through it 2 times!) My nephew, Tegan got picked to be a part of the academy and Roderic watched the end of that and thought it was so cool, he wanted to be in the next one. We lined up for the next 'show' and Sabrina got picked. Not Roderic. He was happy for his sister, but disappointed, so we coached him during lunch and he got picked at the next one!

After a 10 or so minute training session with real practice light sabers, where they learned how to activate the weapon, deactivate the weapon and perform a cool series of moves with the weapon, they had to face the dark side!

Darth Vader came out. While he was strutting around the stage, Hyrum waved at him smiling and Darth Vader looked at him and shook his head.

Sabrina's shining moment.


Roderic's shining moment.

Happily, neither of them succumbed to the dark side and we're going to continue to remind Roderic that to follow the force and resist the dark side in real life, he has to control his aggression.

Traumatized

On Saturday, we decided to make a practice bike ride to school. We went with our neighbors because I'll be riding in the mornings with the kids (Roderic goes to Kindergarten!). On our way to the school, the neighbor girl fell down and scraped up her leg. We kept pressing forward - after a break to rest and reassure the 6 year old - and thought it would be a good idea to put a first aid kit on my bicycle. We played for a while on the toys at the elementary school and then got ready to return home. On the ride home, Sabrina fell down, after making a sharp turn. She scraped up her knee - even put a hole in the capris that I made. We rested again for a while. She complained that both of her arms felt weak and they were shaking. She didn't think that she could make it home, but she did. After we were home and ate a ice cream popsicle, she still complained of her right arm. I wondered if it was broken -
she broke this arm when she was 4 while getting off of a friend's trampoline - but nothing was obvious. No swelling, no bruising, no bones sticking out. I wrapped it in an ace bandage and she said that it felt a bit better. I convinced Ryan that there was no need for us to take her to the ER because she wasn't in dire pain. We kept her arm wrapped Sunday and Monday. After school, she said that it had hurt to write and color. Tuesday afternoon I got an appointment for her to see the Dr. When I picked her up from school to go to the Dr., I asked her how her arm was and she said it wasn't so bad. I wondered why I was taking her to the Dr.

We waited for the Dr. for quite a while. Let's just say that waiting in the exam room for a half an hour at 3 pm with 2 young boys was not a joy. The Dr. looked at her arm asked her where it hurt and poked and prodded her arm. Then he ordered an x-ray. The x-ray came back and he stared at it for several minutes, then he came over to Sabrina and poked and prodded her arm and asked if what he was doing hurt. He repeated this 3 times. Then the diagnosis:


A "Green Tree" fracture. Meaning that the exterior of her bone is intact but the interior is broken. She gets to wear a splint for the next 2 weeks, after which time she should be healed. Ouch. I asked about soccer, violin and bike riding. The Dr. says that she can do anything that doesn't hurt. So she'll play soccer, but not goalie. It hurts her to hold the violin bow, so she's taking a break from lessons this month. The splint impedes her holding onto the bike handle, so she'll be riding her scooter to school for the next week and a half. We'll see what else she has troubles with.

While we were at the Dr., I asked about Roderic getting the remainder of his shots for kindergarten. The wait was agonizing for him! He received 3 in his thighs. The nurse and the doctor gave him Laffy Taffy for the pain. Then we stopped for ice cream cones on the way home. He is still complaining that his thighs hurt.