She's discovered a new talent

On Wednesday night at Young Women's (church group for girls 12-18) a woman in our ward that does cake decorating brought her "tools" and taught the girls basic cake decorating. They all loved it. Lauren would like to keep practicing. She really enjoyed it and as you can see, she did a great job on her cake! She wants to make her own birthday cake this year. Each girl got to take home 2 frosting bags and 4 decorating tips. I see more cakes in the Davidson family's future!

I am thankful for: 400 count white sheets, dentists (we've been getting our teeth taken care of), good friends.

Back to School

Well, it's that time of year again. Schedules, new teachers, early to bed, early to rise, brown bag lunches, new clothes. School starts for us on Sept 3rd (next Wednesday). I have to go to work today and tomorrow for a couple of hours each day. Just need to start getting the library ready. I will have a couple of weeks of school without students so I can finish up anything I need to. I should have several boxes of new books waiting to be catalogued when I get there today! Yeah! It's so nice to be able to spend thousands of dollars on new books and not have my bank account go down!

We registered Dallin and Lauren last week. Dallin is excited for high school. He's running cross country and they started practice this past Monday. 7-9 am. Today they ran on the beach. I had to take him there so I stayed and read and took some pictures of the ocean (above). He likes his schedule. The entire school has to read The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd by the beginning of the year because they will be tested on it. I'm also reading it. I like it, but am failing to see why, of all of the books that could've been chosen, this was it. To me, it seems like a book that most young men are not going to connect with. The girls, yeah, but since studies show that boys reading drops off more than girls after fourth grade, let's try to choose something a little more "relatable". It was a summer reading assignment after all. Anyway, he'll be getting up at 5:30 for seminary which starts at 6 am. I feel for him as I went to released-time seminary (it was part of my high school schedule of classes). For anyone who doesn't know, seminary is basically a Sunday School class that high school aged kids take, generally Monday-Friday while school is in session. During each of the four years, they study a different book of scripture: New Testament, Old Testament, Book of Mormon and Doctrine & Covenants. It's a great way for them to start off their day, before heading into the craziness of high school living. Dallin is looking forward to it, but not the early time!

Lauren likes her schedule. She's on the yearbook staff this year and is very excited about that! She's also taking a cooking class that will be fun. She's scoped out her locker and it's at the perfect height. Last year her locker was on the top row, so it was a little hard to reach, but this year it's one row down and it's perfect! She has PE 4th and is a little worried that it's going to be too hot. Last year she had it 2nd period and it was just right. She'll live, though! She will be taking two dance classes/week and takes tennis lessons (through a family friend...for FREE!) once or twice a week.

Sara will be meeting her teacher on Tuesday at an ice-cream social. I ordered her supplies to be delivered to her desk. It's so nice. We go to a specific website and tell them what grade, what school and pay and the supplies are waiting for the student on the first day. No hassle school supply shopping...I love it! It was a little more (maybe $10) but it's a fundraiser for the school and I didn't have to drive around or fight crowds! Last year she was in the Earth Club after school. This year she wants to take the pottery class. It's one day per week. She is also taking tennis lessons and she wants to go to the Olympics in 2016. Keep practicing Sara and you can do it!

I'm thankful for seminary, Katherine (our friend and tennis teacher) and dishwashers (mine is running right now!).

Junior Track Nationals

This week is Jr. Track Nationals. Dallin has been looking forward to it for a couple of months. We are lucky enough to have it in Carson this year. Last year it was in Colorado and the year before it was in Pennsylvania. My pictures are not very clear. The first is Dallin on the track warming up and the second is a shot of the infield where all of the cyclists are set-up in little waist high "cubbies" made of fencing. Dallin and two girls are the only members of their team (Sho-Air) that are competing. They are sharing a "cubbie" which is nice because we don't have to bring everything. We share a trainer (for the kids to warm-up or cool-down on), chairs, bike pump, etc. He's already competed in one race. It was a 200 meter sprint qualifier. There are 31 kids (for all over the country) in Dallin's age group. He got 23rd and took .3 seconds off of his previous best time. That doesn't sound like much, but it's quite a bit in that short of a distance. He was very pleased with that. Dallin is 14 and because he turns 15 during 2008 (Dec. 16), he has to compete with boys that are 15 and 16. That's the drawback of a December birthday...sorry Dallin! He's got three races left: 500 M Time Trial (alone on the track...just against the clock), 8K Scratch Race (mass start...1st, 2nd, 3rd place), 15K Points Race (every ten laps the 1st-5th place crossing the line get points and at the end of the race the rider with the most points wins). The last one is pretty fun because the winner of the race may not have crossed the line first during the race at all!

Good luck Dallin :)

Pictures

Here are some photos from the last month! Hollywood, best friends, beach trips, birthdays, cousins and lots of fun!

Summer

It's so nice to have a summer break. We've already done a lot of "going". Lauren's best friend, Anna, came and stayed with us for two weeks. She lives in Oregon. While she was here we went to the beach, a swap meet, the mall (a couple of times), Knotts Berry Farm, Beverly Hills, Hollywood (Mann's Chinese Theater and Walk of Fame), swimming (a lot!), out to eat (too many times) and got haircuts. We also went on bike rides and shopped at the Marketplace. While we were at Knotts', I spied Snoopy and made all four of the kids get in a photo with him. I think they did it only because I had taken them to Knotts and it was the least they could do, not because they wanted their picture with Snoopy.

The girls and have the dining table completely covered with scrapbooking supplies. We scrapped on Sunday night and a little bit today. We've left it out because we are planning on doing some more tomorrow. I'm trying to work through a lot of my supplies. I've gotten rid of a lot, but when I sit down to scrap, I realize that I still have too much!

This is a short post, but I'm getting tired, so off to bed for me. I'm thankful for: Air conditioning, sunscreen and Costco potstickers.

Here's the bookshelf I want. I got paid a couple of days ago, so I think I'm going to buy it tomorrow. I really like the red. I don't think it's something that my sisters would pick for me :) I've always been more into neutral colors. But I think it will look great!

I've got the painting done. I absolutely love my kitchen color! It's called Paradise Valley. It's a green color. The new carpet is in. Most of the furniture is back in the house (including the new stuff). I still need to put stuff up on the walls. I think I'm going to buy a couple of canvases and do some of my own. Still not sure what, but I'm looking for ideas.

I'm itching to do some scrapbooking. All of my stuff is still in the garage, but I'll move it in this weekend.

Tonight was a baptism at church. I don't think I've ever been to a Wednesday night baptism, but it was great. A nine-year old boy who's family doesn't come much decided he wanted to be baptized. There were a lot of people there. I was in charge of the refreshments. We had brownies, cookies, ice water and raspberry lemonade. Healthy, huh??? Speaking of healthy, I'm so excited to be able to go to the farmers' market this summer! I love fresh food. I only have 4 more days of work. Wow! This year seemed to go by fast!

Dallin is looking forward to high school. He isn't looking forward to 5:55 am seminary. Seminary is basically a weekday "Sunday" school for high school students. It's not required, so the kids that make an effort to get up early and go deserve a pat on the back. Each of the four years of high school is spent studying a different book of scripture. One year it's the Old Testament, then New Testament, Book of Mormon and Doctrine & Covenants. I loved seminary. I really learned a lot and my testimony of Jesus Christ grew so much then. I was luck enough to be able to attend release-time seminary, which is when you take it as a high school class. I think it was 3rd period. We had a seminary building (converted house) right across the street from the high school. Don Davis was my seminary teacher. He was really good. I wonder what he's doing now. Ann-Marie, do you know?

I'm getting tired, so I'm going to go to my room and read some Mary Higgins Clark and then hit the hay! Goodnight!

I'm thankful for: the Gospel, southern California weather and watermelon.

I must be insane and new furniture

I painted our kitchen, dining area and living room (basically all one room) and our hallway in Novemeber. I painted it a beige-khaki-tan color. Well, I've decided I want a little more color in our living space. Color makes me happy! So, I'm repainting. Yes, I'm crazy! Six months and I'm doing it again. I'm going back to a light colored wall...saffron ivory. It's basically a white with a bit of yellow in it. We don't get a lot of sun so I thought going really light would be good. We are getting new carpet on Monday. We just bought a new sectional sofa (delivery is next Wednesday!) It's a brown color. I know, I know! I said I like color. But, I want my big stuff to be neutral because I like changing my mind and my rooms almost as much as I like color. So, here's the plan: Saffron ivory walls in the living/dining area, fun green walls in the kitchen, brown sofa, colorful pillows, curtains and artwork. I hope it turns out as fun as it is in my head. I'm trying to get all of the painting done before the new carpet comes. Oh, and we are getting a new mattress delivered tomorrow...can't wait for that! We also bought a new dining table and chairs. I've never had a brand new dining table. The one we are using now was a Goodwill find several years ago. I paid $80 for it. Repainted it and recovered the chairs (a couple of times). The new table is counter height. It's perfect for us, because Cooper (our dog) likes to put his front paws on the edge of the table and lick up anything left on the table - yep, disgusting! For those of you that have eaten from that table, you can stop dry heaving because I do disinfect! Anyway, it will be nice that he can't even reach to put his paws up on the table. And perfect for standing and scrapbooking!!!
I'm counting down the days until summer vacation! Still loving my job, but I'm ready for some relaxation :) I wish David could take some time off this summer. He's sick today. He went to work because he has this big presentation tomorrow that he had to prepare for. I'm not sure what tomorrow will be like for him, though. As soon as he got home today he took Nyquil (is that spelled correctly???) and went to bed. Poor guy! He says he has to go to work tomorrow.
I'm getting tired, so off to read a little and then hit the hay - last night with this mattress. Today I'm thankful for: sunny days, paint rollers, Sprouts (farmer's market grocery store)