This weekend

Ben and the big boys had a scout campout on Friday night, so it was just Mosey and I at home for about 24 hours.  It also happened to be his fall cello recital-- Ben was away at another campout for his last recital!!  Darn it.  But he played wonderfully, and afterward we got sandwiches at KFC and watched The Avengers on the couch.  Mosey snuggled next to me in my room for the night.  How I love that boy.
Here is a video of his recital:


On Saturday Mosey and I got up and did some housework, then he took the dog on a long walk.  She got into some stinky standing water somewhere along the way and Mosey had to give her a bath.

Saturday afternoon we had a Stop the Condos meeting at our house.  Such an interesting process.  Lots of work to do on it.  I only attended 40 minutes of the meeting before I had to go to a rehearsal in Pflugerville-- I'm in an ensemble that will play Autumn from Vivaldi's Four Seasons.  We sound surprisingly OK.  :-)  It's fun to play.

Then Saturday evening Ben and I went to the adult session of Stake Conference, after dropping Brigham and Joseph off at a friend's house to babysit.  Joseph stayed in the apartment for just a few minutes, then abandoned Brigham and went outside the rest of the evening.  I was a bit peeved at him for this, but Brigham held his own against the 3 little kids.  He even changed his very first diaper ever.  Fun times for 12 year old boys.  :-)  He and Mosey are getting to be good little babysitters.  They end up being the ones to babysit little kids that come here with their moms for meetings, etc.  Brigham did a good job, even cleaning up the house after the kids were in bed.

When we got home, we discovered that Mosey had rescued a little vole from the clutches of the kitties.  He put it in a bowl to keep for a day or so, and then this morning we found another one behind a book case.  We think maybe the cats got into a vole burrow, each cat bringing one in to play with, and then one escaped.  They are actually really cute little things-- fuzzier and rounder than mice for example.  Mosey's got them in a small cage for now while we decide what to do with them.

I missed 11/12/13

Why do these silly little things make me happy?  I don't know, but they do.
I didn't actually miss 11/12/13, I just missed marking it on my blog.  Only one more of these chronological dates and then it'll be another 86 years before another one.
This week has been pretty good.  Had a few rough moments at the beginning of the week, but the past couple of days have been great.
Ben was out of town for the past two nights at the Board of Directors retreat for his company.  I used it as an excuse not to make dinner for my kids.  Not that I need any excuse...  I'm currently getting about a C- or a D in the making-healthy-meals-for-my-family department.  Oh well.
Mosey made 2nd chair in his orchestra auditions!  Yay for him.  He really wanted to be first stand.  He was so nervous about it he wanted to skip out on rehearsal on the audition day.  I hope I haven't contributed to his anxiety about things like that.  I probably have.  I know some of it is normal sibling competition.  He is not in competition with Brigham, of course, but it did not go unnoticed by Mosey when Brigham was concert master last year and first chair 2nd violin this year.  I try not to put any pressure on my kids for things like that, but I also think they deserve credit and recognition when they accomplish something that required a lot of hard work.  It's a hard balance to strike-- acknowledging my kids' achievements while at the same time trying not to communicate that my pride and approval of them is at all contingent upon things like that.  I told Mosey I am so proud of him for practicing hard, and for going to rehearsal when he really didn't want to go and face auditions.  I was really excited for him when he got 2nd chair-- it meant a lot to him to experience that kind of recognition.
This evening I took Joseph to practice at the shooting range.  He's getting so tall and grown-up looking.  It was nice to spend some happy one-on-one time with him.  Archery has been great for him.  Joseph I think in particular needs to feel like he's really good at something.  I wish archery had the same fun social component that orchestra has for Brigham and Mosey.  He is in need of more fun in his life.
Speaking of fun, here are some pictures from a couple of fun things we've done recently:

Last Saturday the boys and I drove down to San Antonio so that Brigham and Joseph could go to the temple for the first time and do baptisms.  I still can't believe they are old enough to do that.  Mosey and I hung out at the distribution center and then did a Walmart run while they were inside.  I wanted to make it a really special family experience, but Ben had to work, and in the end I wonder if it might have been a better experience to be able to drive down with the other kids.  Ben thinks it might have.  But I thought that they'd have lots of chances to drive down to SA with friends, but only one chance to go into the Temple for the first time.  I really wish Ben could have been there.
But we still had a fun time, listening to Harry Potter on the way down and back and getting Wendy's frosties on the way home.

Here's a picture of my cute Mosey while we were waiting at the Temple.  He told me all about how he would build a better remote control helicopter.  I hope he always stays my little chatterbox. 

And here are Brigham and Joseph after coming out.  They were anxious to get going and not super thrilled to take a picture.  :-)

 And here's part of a gigantic mess that we made doing a science experiment last week.  We had pink foam EVERYWHERE.  Even on the ceiling.  :-)
I have really loved our chemistry curriculum so far this year.  I hope the boys have as well.