April 28th

LEXIS made it to the next round of Class Elections today!!! This means that now only she and one other boy is running for Junior Class President! Very proud of her! They are doing a skit tomorrow morning for the whole school. They can then continue to campaign until the winner's are announced at the dance on Friday. Many of her friends from volleyball are helping her campaign as well as her regular circle of girls. She has really put herself out there in talking to everyone she can and is excited about the possibilities this position could bring. We have been working over-time to come up with clever slogans, hand-outs and the like but in fact Almost called Uncle Bret to ask for his ingenious input.

NOAH is Loving his new lacrosse sticks! He has been carting them to and from school so that he and friends can play at recess then once home he wants someone to play with him out front. Gratefully, he will start on a team next month. :) He did a fantastic header at his soccer game on Monday and played defense like a champ. When I mentioned the header, he told me "that was nothin'!"

GRACE read Twilight again, made up her own "Chore Chart" and is walking with me every day! We set a goal for ourselves that we might be able to successfully run the 'Fun Run' in May. (I am not a fan of running!) While walking today she let me know that for "every 60 steps you take you can eat 60 calories." Coincidentally, the blue raspberry AirHead in her jacket pocket was 60 calories... we counted our steps.

MICHAEL is headed back to school after another hard week off and his ears seem to have healed to a certain degree from last week's incident. His aide from school ,Miss Rachel, will be driving to our house in the morning to ride with Michael on the school bus to and from class. This should be very helpful and protects everyone but specifically Michael from the possible reoccurence of last week's events. (His poor little ears are finally back to somewhat normal size after being terribly swollen. The ER doc said his right ear, if not also the left, will surely have "cauliflower ear." See Mike Tyson.)

I worked almost all day in the yard today and Loved it! After Michael slept well last night we were up early and ready for the day. I mowed the lawn, weeded, set up an extra sprinkler to catch some flowers... Had a nice lunch break with Lexis to help her stick More "Vote4Lexis" labels on More candy to pass out and I even had time to put in a few chunky highlights in the front of my hair! (Lexis says I look "EMO" but I told her I don't need a name for this kind of cool.) Then at 2:30 I got a call from Lexis' cell where without a word I was put on speaker phone so that I could hear them announce who the final candidates for Jr President were! (So thoughtful= her idea!) I yelled WooHoo when I heard her name called and the phone went immediately dead... oops! A Proud Mama can not be blamed!
P.S. AND I lost another 3 lbs! YAY!

Lexis is running for the JUNIOR Class President!

Lexis decided to run for class President for the Junior class Student Body next year. Preliminary elections start tomorrow and we've been busy with preparations. Her dad actually came up with the chosen slogan and we're running with it.
"LEXIS Great Car. Better President!"
From posters to flyers to candy and badges... It should be a good race and we are ready for the fight. I am very proud of her for putting herself out there like this. Regardless of the outcome, she has shown a great deal of self confidence just in choosing to run, along with such an outstanding sense of self. Wish us luck on the campaign trail!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Mom!

WE Love YOU!

Important update

1 lost Easter egg FOUND!
and it snowed today-Yuck!

The Easter bunny brought stale PEEPS and IV Fluid in both arms...

Michael was up all night with a sick stomach. He was throwing up over and over again and so when the very excited Noah and Grace decided to come into my room at 7am even though we had decided 8:30 would be our egg hunt time, I was exhausted! I gave in to trying to go back to sleep but then Lexis was the one who needed further convincing...
The kids ran out to their Easter baskets in true Thurston Christmas morning fashion with the exception that Noah insisted on being first, since he is never first-- made sense to me. Grace snuggled with her new stuffed animal. No matter how many small furry creatures she has, she always loves the next one just as much and the Easter bunny seemed to know this. Lexis couldn't hold back the yawns and noted that the yellow PEEPS in each child's basket had had the plastic covers taken off of them and so they were now hard as rocks! Oops. Noah bit the head off his chocolate bunny and than jumped immediately up to find the hidden eggs. Unfortunately, two are still missing somewhere in the front room. Not kidding! (Although I suppose there is that slight chance that the ole' bunny counted wrong and all were in fact found.)
Michael woke up after the festivities and still could not stop vomiting. The poor little one had nothing left in him and was clearly lethargic and so off Mama and Michael went to the ER while the older kids got showered and ready for their dad to come get them for afternoon church. Michael ended up being very dehydrated with some sort of stomach bug they never specified directly. The nurse took blood in his left arm and then attempted to hook him up to the iv fluids only to kink the line, "infiltrating" Michael's little arm which was REALLY horrible! Michael started screaming in pain as I watched a large bubble form in the crook of his elbow. I was not happy and the nurseS went into obvious panic mode as they moved the IV to his right arm. They were throwing bandages and such around the room which of course than made me panic. It took three of us to hold him down. I couldn't help but think how fortunate we were that he actually was feeling so ill since the fight he had in him was quite less than I knew it to be normally. Finally, Michael settled down and as the fluid moved steadily into his body and the medicine took affect he fell asleep. After a mere three hours in the ER we were on our way home again to both enjoy a nice, long nap.
Happy Easter to each of you!

Easter egg Coloring

Noah and Grace and I had fun coloring eggs tonight. They got quite creative and made some really beautiful eggs. Michael was fast asleep and Lexis chose to go shopping with friends instead (yes, the stage of choosing friends over family is in full force!) Sweet Noah decided to color one of his eggs in "Grace's favorite color" and then the next egg he did he said would be "Grandma Thurston's favorite color!" ("Lime green") He is such a thoughtful boy!

You know it's spring WHEN...

~3:00pm seems to be signaled by a loud gun shot and the race begins. Soccer practice for Noah two times a week. Soccer practice for Grace two times a week. Both 1 1/2 hours long. Each starting one half hour after the other and ending as such and both on opposite sides of Orem. Soccer game for Noah once a week. Soccer game for Grace once a week. Volleyball practice for Lexis twice a week. Physical therapy for Lexis twice a week. Weekend long Volleyball tournaments in strange and far away places every other weekend. Private swimming lessons for Grace once a week. Swimming lessons for Noah once a week. Fortunately on the same day. Scouts for Noah on Fridays. Achievement days for Grace on Thursday. Young Woman's for Lexis on Wednesday... Surely, I forgot something. I usually do.

~We consider taking the snow tires off. And then are grateful for having them on still when yet Another blizzard strikes in APRIL! (They're off now, Mom!)

~ I have dirt under my finger nails. YAY! for yard work! It's crazy how much I love it! We got one whole side of the yard's flower beds weeded, pruned, etc. and it felt great! It is a testament to how well Michael is actually doing since I can't remember the last time he would allow me to work outside all afternoon. Of course, we woke up the next morning to nearly 6 inches of snow on the ground but the dirt was still under my nails...

~We are able to take walks outside, swing at the park, enjoy the sunshine!

Too cool for school...he wishes

"I really look cool in these, huh Mom? I really look cool in these."
Obviously NOAH! He sat next to me in the car as we ran all over the place which is now our afternoon ritual, wearing these glasses and making this face--see picture above! Once we finally returned home from soccer practices, the grocery store, the library, I insisted he wear them inside so that I might capture in print just exactly how cool her really is. He had no problem obliging!
THIS kid is not only cool- He's a Dream!

Laundry Day!

and I had a little helper!