On many an afternoon in April, I would find Michael asleep either here or in his room. He has early morning weights, lots of football practice, and a busy social calendar. It's a lot of work to be 16.
Brian read the book
Project Hail Mary, so we went to go see the movie (on Good Friday) with our friends Annika and Royce. It was a great movie and surprisingly clean, a very rare combination these days.
Proof that Michael is home sometimes (he's gone so much!)
After donating our old table to DI, we found this on the receipt, written by Gabe. "Yay, Tyson, Yay!"
Wow, April was a really good month for spotting Michael at home. Here he is again!
We rate the wind we get by how far the wreath travels, whether or not the rug was disturbed, and if our chairs got blown off the porch. This was apparently a light wind, but we still documented it with a photo.
Heatless curls--a new method taught to me by Rachel.
Brian and I went to the temple to do sealings, and we took some names that Gabe actually found several months ago. The bonus of the night? Brian's mission president was our sealer. It was an amazing night.
Brian finally got the drawers installed for our next biggest pain-point cupboard. It's so nice to find our baking dishes faster and without standing on our heads!
We also did some organizing of the kids craft room. We got bins and this shelf for our filament
And a new desk for the printers.
We learned about how Moses had to hold his rod up above his head for Israel to triumph in battle and how hard that must have been and why he needed support.
I pulled out a project I started a year ago and tried out my new walking foot on my new machine.
I finally finished this quilt. I made Brian take a picture of my because I liked my hair/hat combo.
Then I wondered why I was posing with my iron when I don't really like ironing.
Michael had prom on April 25, and I made his corsage again. This time, I kept it to a normal size.
It fit in the box.
Michael's flag football team got to play in Rice Eccles Stadium for some unknown reason. It cost $30/40ish dollars for Brian to go watch him. I couldn't go because I had a big regional council meeting for my calling at church. Apparently, they got stomped, but hopefully they enjoyed playing in the stadium.
After the game, Michael came home and got ready for prom. I missed sending him off, due to my meeting, but Brian got a picture. It's a bummer being the boy's mom because you're at the mercy of your son or your son's date's mom for photos. I watched all my friends posting photos of their girls Instagram and lamented that I didn't get to see him or his date.
Michael did show me the next day at church (the first time I saw him post prom), and excitedly told me all the things from the night before. He had a great time. This is Maude, and apparently her mom's name is also Devri, or Devry. I'm a little sad I didn't get to meet her.
Brian got him to change his shoes for the dance in between this photo and the one he took at the house. Thanks, Brian!
Every now and then, we provide a welcoming committee for when Brian comes home. Or maybe we were just waiting for him to pick us up?
Rachel took private acting lessons this semester, and she had a recital at the end of April. Brian was in San Jose, so he missed it, but I sent him a recording. Technology is so handy sometimes. Here's Rachel with her teacher, Caroline.
We got a little more snow in April and a hard frost, which killed most of the blossoms on the fruit trees. At least it was pretty.
Brian went to San Jose for a conference, and he did a great job presenting. He's starting to get a lot of attention throughout the organization. We're trying to figure out if that is good or bad. Afterwards, some of the leaders from the conference reached out and said that his presentation was the most talked about out of any of them. One person even told people that if they can only listen to one talk, they should listen to Brian's ("the guy with the red beard"--what?! Brian doesn't have a red beard! It reminds me of when people used to ask my mom where she got her red hair and she'd tell them from her daddy's red whiskers, only I don't think Brian's whiskers are red, but whatever.)
My neighbor Katie and I take turns carpooling our kids to Flag Football. She is also the primary chorister in one of the wards in our stake, so we've gotten to be friends. She invited me on a walk and introduced me to a beautiful trail near our house.
I felt like I reached the end of April by the skin of my teeth. Maycember always starts in the last few weeks of April, and we officially were in survival mode, once again.
