Ramblings of our Busy Life

Busy, busy, busy.  When teachers get tired of school and start counting down the days, they don't realize that we, as parents, are doing the same thing.  Oh, I remember dreading Summertime.  The kids seemed to always be so bored.  But now, Summer is a huge reprieve.  Right now we are doing science fair projects, sign ups for next year, track, track and track, ACT's, AP testing, projects and more projects,

Marshmallow catapult

finals, merit badges, seminary- (oh seminary why do you have to be so early!) and more.  All while dealing with PCS season in full swing.  If you are not military you probably have no idea what that means.  As a member of the RS presidency that means that things are getting busier and busier for me.  I am starting to check things off the list, though- science fair project done (today!),

 AP testing done, down to one last track meet- yeah!  That darn ACT is just hanging out there, though, taunting me.  That won't be done until after school ends.
We have a holiday weekend coming up, but when you live in Europe, you don't relax on a holiday weekend.  Nope, we are planning on quite the whirlwind trip and here is a hint of where we are going.  We are watching "The Longest Day" with John Wayne to get the kids prepped.  It seemed appropriate for Memorial Day Weekend.
Our latest track meet at Schweinfurt took all day.

A very fuzzy picture of me and one of the other coaches timing two relay teams (with splits) simultaneously- because we are awesome like that. 
 We left at 5:30 am and didn't get home until 8:30 pm.  Sam and I both flopped on the couch and didn't move until Dad said, "time for bed!"  Sam had an extra hard meet.

This is actually at the K-town track meet .  I think this is actually a 400, too, but you get the point. 

 He decided to pass the only guy he was competing against in the 800m on the back straight away.  I was there mumbling, "too early, too early" and timing him.  I could tell by the kid's speed that he wasn't going to fall back and I knew Sam was in for it.  Sure enough, the kid just windbreaks off of Sam until the straight away and then it is a full out 100 meter dead sprint.  Sam won by a half of his foot and brought his personal best down to 2:28, but he was hacking up a lung for some time afterwards.  Luckily there was absolutely no one to compete against in the 4x400 and our kids just kind of jogged it and picked up their 1st place ribbon.  Sam said, he couldn't possibly have run it normally, anyway.  He was going as fast as he could - 20 seconds slower than he normally runs it.

Emma is all signed up for the Red Cross and is now President of the official Red Cross club at her school- and yes, there are more than just her as members!  She is also signed up to be an ambassador at the school, but they have to have interviews to "get in!"  She also got her Prom ticket, finally.  Her friends harassed her until she did it.  She had been asked by her stalker (and this stalker is starting to freak me out a little!) and she had told him she was already going with someone, so she didn't want to go at all, but her friends convinced her.  It's going to be 6 or 7 girls and 3 guys.  That should be interesting.  I told her the most fun I ever had at a Prom was the time I went stag, so hopefully it won't be a repeat of Homecoming when she called me to pick her up 4 less than an hour after I dropped her off.
Max had a great track meet this last Friday.  Dad stayed and was a timer for the meet, while I took Emma to a dance at the church.  I did get to watch one race- the 200.

This was from his 1st meet and not the 2nd one, but same thing- someone was in front of him almost the whole way and then he put all his effort in to zooming at the last minute and beat them.

That is Max's best one and he won his heat with a lot of extra effort.  That poor kid was hacking up a lung afterwards, too!  He has allergies so badly, he is never not congested.  I am taking him in again to see if we can't change his medicine.
Joseph was Joseph Smith for his living museum and he gives his friends Book of Mormon's all the time.  He really amazes me, because usually he is the quiet, not really into competing, middle child whom I have to make a concerted effort to give hugs and loves every day so he doesn't feel left out.  He just does his own thing, most of the time.  Unfortunately, he is also the absent-minded professor, so it's been nice to have a teacher that constantly sends out emails about things that are coming up that are due.  It's the only way we would have gotten all those book reports, living museum and science fair projects in!  And he has had a ton of them!  Book reports due every 3 weeks this year- oy vey!
Ya- so that whole summer thing- totally an illusion, but at least there is no getting up early.   We have a cruise this summer, we have girl's camp and scout camps and by August we will have try-outs and conditioning.  Sam is already signed up for conditioning and weight training and Lacrosse camp starting in June.  Joe is going to be signed up for golf and Max swimming.  But at least there is no 5:20 wake up call to go to seminary!!!  And Dad's favorite part- no bedtime and lots of sun and tons of kids running around on the different parks all around our house.  Love it!