Veteran's Day Program

I went over to the school this morning for Owen's Veteran's Day program. Owen has a red shirt on, right side, middle row. 

I don't remember going to a Veteran's Day program in the years past - this might be a new thing? They sang a lot of the same songs they do for the Patriotic Program, which since that is for 4th and 5th graders, I think I've gone to that for a decade, minus during covid. The favorite part, as always, was when they sing the songs for the different branches of the military. The Army has "The Army Goes Rolling Along," the Navy has "Anchors Aweigh," the Marine Corps has "The Marines' Hymn," the Air Force has "The U.S. Air Force," the Coast Guard has "Semper Paratus." I'm not totally sure if that link is the specific one the kids sang, but that's the gist of it. It's also really touching when the people who have served in the different branches stand when their anthem plays, like our neighbor dressed in uniform below. Really powerful. 

Good job Owen. Katharine and I enjoyed the performance! And Corey came for a minute too on his way back from the temple. 

Abi had the car, cause today she has her flute lesson, and since Corey was gone at the temple, Katharine and I took the bike and trailer over. 

After school, Owen and Daniel has activity days. They did some service raking leaves for a widowed neighbor. I left the girls in charge and I walked them down there with two rakes for them to use, then I kept walking and went to Bell Canyon to my rock. 

Just a 45 min walk outside, getting some sunlight and fresh air. Someday I’m gonna go up there with a pillow and blanket and take a nap. Gosh I'm talking a lot about sleeping and naps. Abi stayed after school for something then picked me up on her way home as she was passing the trailhead. Perfect timing. Corey and I went climbing later tonight just for a little bit. They were demo-ing some new shoes, Tenaya shoes. They were good, other than I told her 7.5 and she gave me a 7, so they were super tight, but maybe that's how climbing shoes should be? 

They had coupons for 20% off, so we'll see if we give those to ourselves for Christmas. We did 4 climbs (I did a 5.11a with only one rest!) but then Corey wanted to get back home to manage the kids. When we got home they were all cleaning and doing homework and practicing music. Good job kids! And that was without me telling them to do that before we left! Owen was practicing trumpet, he had just gotten back from a friend's birthday part at Top Golf. 

Good kids. Abi took this pic of me at scriptures tonight - K asleep on my lap, Peter laying down on top of her and me, asking me to scratch his back. This is something that happens most every night. 

Sometime I just don't have it in me to rub their backs. I'll feel like I've given everything I had and I just don't have more. When that happens, it's nice when the kids step up and Abi will offer to rub Daniel's back, or Lily/Sophi will rub Peter and Natalie will take care of Katharine. Those small gestures help so much. Today I was glad to have Owen's Program to get me out the door, cause I've been struggling a bit recently to be productive. I had very little wind in my sails. My mojo got killed early today with my 4:30 am encounter with Katharine. I slept with Katharine last night on her bed, she was cute singing a little song last night. I started recording after she had already been singing for 2 minutes. Super cute. So I slept with her on her bed, and my alarm to go to the temple (I had a 5 am appt) went off at 4:10. I got off the bed, not too carefully but didn't do crazy movement, got ready, and five minutes later, she was knocking on my door. She whimpered "Mommy I thought you were going to sleep with me!" She woke up Corey, he tried to take her but she refused him. She wanted mommy (aww). She said she wanted to go to the temple with me and didn’t want me to leave, so after a few minutes failed negotiations, we went back to bed, in our bed this time, and thus I didn’t go to the temple at 5, didn’t go bouldering at 6, but I did do two blog posts this afternoon after I basically lay on the couch all day with her watching movies (The Swan Princess is the current fav) or playing in the room. Corey told the kids tonight at scriptures about how it kills him to see them waste time. He wished he had more time, so to see them just waste it hurts. Lily brought up the Three Amigos canteen scene, haha. We watched it and laughed and thought it made a good analogy. Corey is Steve Martin, just getting a few drops.

Me/Martin Short, getting it worse haha thanks to kids who suck whatever time/moisture I did have out of my body)

And the kids are Chevy Chase, prone to be careless with time, oblivious to what a treasured commodity it is that they are wasting, and curious as to why we look shocked and exhausted.