08/14 weekly letter

These pictures have absolutely nothing to do with my weekly letter.  I just don't like posting too often without any pictures!  So here are a couple from our recent trip.

Dear everyone,
11:00 PM really is too late to be writing a letter, especially since piano lessons are tomorrow morning which means I need to get up early to get the boys up early to do their practicing before lessons.  So this has to be fast.
I'm still working on my pictures from our trip.  I'm about 85% done.  So give me another week and I'll have pictures to share!
This past week:
Monday:  Unpacking, laundry.  We got shaved ice after family home evening.  The fist time I've ever had shaved ice was in Durango on our trip, and it was SO GOOD.  I've been craving it ever since.  This shaved ice was pretty good, but not as good as Durango.  I'll keep searching.
Tuesday:  More laundry.  Resumption of practicing, just a little bit painful for the boys.  Tae Kwon Do.
Wednesday:  More Tae Kwon Do, more practicing.  Started a great big project organizing all the boys' school papers from this last year to put in their binders.  This next year THEY'RE going to be in charge of putting papers in their binders.  The boys found the soundtrack to the newest Harry Potter movie on Rhapsody and we've been listening to that as well as the other HP soundtracks pretty much non-stop ever since. 
Thursday:  Finished the paper organization project.  Practicing.  Took Mosey to Blackerby's to rent a cello.  He's really excited!  I'm hoping we can arrange to have his first lesson this next week.  We had several really painful practicing sessions with the violin, so having him be more willing to cooperate will be extremely nice.  I had a relief society activity in the evening, just a summer social at a sister's house with a pool in the backyard.  I didn't do a thing in terms of organizing this activity, I just showed up!  Everyone was supposed to bring an appetizer or dessert.  I have no good appetizer recipes, so I decided to make mini scones (indian fry bread, to be more accurate, I guess), then topped half of them with refried beans, mexican cheese, and avacado slices, and the others I rolled in powdered sugar.  They got eaten up, so I guess they were good.  If anyone needs an appetizer recipe, feel free to steal this idea.  Everyone stayed really late.  I felt like I should stay the whole time, but by 9:30 I really needed to get home, so I left.  Apparently some people stayed till 10:30!  That's the sign of a successful activity.  :-)
Friday:  The twins went to the KVUE television station for a cub scout tour.  I took Mosey to horse back riding.  Came home, got practicing done.  Took Mosey to his Tae Kwon Do yellow belt testing at Lifetime fitness in the evening.  This Lifetime Fitness was something else!  I've never seen a gym like it.  It is a huge two story building and inside has basketball courts, workout rooms, multiple swimming pools, even a restaurant!  Everything's bigger in Texas, I guess.  Mosey did well in his testing, although he won't find out until Tuesday if he passed.  I'm sure he did.  I love how enthusiastic Mosey is about Tae Kwon Do.  Joseph's decided to keep his blue belt from when he was in TKD before.  This means he can't test for anything higher until he has re-mastered all the blue belt stuff.  It also means I need to buy him new sparring gear and everything since he's outgrown his old stuff.  And it's really, really expensive.  So we've talked about the commitment he needs to show if we're going to make the investment in sparring gear for him.  I'm worried.  But maybe this will be a good opportunity for him.  After the testing we got pizza at Little Caesars and the boys ate pizza and watched movies for the evening.
Saturday:  Started getting all my lesson plans and papers ready for the new school year.  School starts a week from Tuesday for the public school kids, but I don't think I'm going to be quite ready for it.  In the afternoon we went to Target and then went to County Line Barbecue for dinner where we met Ben on his way home.  There is surprisingly little for an animal-protein-avoiding person to eat at the County Line.  :-)  The boys and Ben made up for it though, and spent a few minutes catching turtles out in the back before going back home.  We stopped by a different shaved ice place on the way home.  Pretty good, better than the first place I think, but still not as good as Durango.  The search continues.  Since I don't eat ice cream anymore, I really need something to fill that gigantic void in my life.  :-)
Today:  Church.  Made dinner (caribbean jerk chicken, rice, sauteed onions/mushrooms/zucchini which Joseph and Mosey devoured, surprisingly).  Edited pictures while waiting for Ben to come home from stake priesthood meeting.  Talked some politics.  Can't bring myself to get too emotionally involved this early in the game, but Ben follows it all pretty intently.  Now, 28 minutes after I started this boring letter, it's time to go to bed!

I love you all!
Gabrielle