Ok, Here Goes. The Ketsup Marathon. (Also Spring Break)

Oh dear blog. How I so desperately want to keep up with you. How I wish I was still writing multiple times each week, writing thoughts and observations rather than just sporadically updating the basic events of our lives. But...I'm not giving up. It's now July the 10th and over the next two days I shall be making an attempt to catch up on the events of the Preslar Family for the past few months. As I scan back over the past years of our blog I find that keeping this record is still really important to me - no matter how rushed or poorly written anything has been, it's a treasure to have a record of the stepping stones of our family. So....here goes.


Spring Break 2018!!

One little issue I'm having with post-event blogging is that I can't remember very clearly exactly what happened. So that's another motivation for me to blog more regularly - I need the blog so I have some idea what has happened in my life because I clearly can't remember otherwise. Very encouraging sign. Sigh.

Okay, so it was Spring Break, end of March. The girls and I drove away from a chilly SLC to St. George to get some sun and cousin time. Troy decided to not take the days off of work, and Chase didn't join us because he went to San Fransisco. I'll tell you about that in a minute. I didn't have many days to spend in St. George because I needed to be home by the week's end so I could make it to The Becky's daughter's wedding (!!!!!). More on that in a second as well. So with these quick few days we just made a dash for St. George. We didn't see too much of Sheri because she is very busy - she's working three jobs at the moment and is being AMAZING. I did bring her a swig at the Emergency Department where she's working as her dad's scribe - he's an ER doc. And also I got to go with her to one of the classes she teaches - a water aerobics class that I really enjoyed even though I was about 30 years younger than most of the other attendees. No biggie, I would go all the time if I could, it was awesome. Peter was also pretty busy with some cello stuff so I got to hang out with all the kids together, once at a Five Guys burger shop where the 7 of us consumed a massive amount of french fries while being stared at by most of the other customers. If Emma and Cara were twins, which they practically are, they could all have been my kids. I even fielded a couple of, "are those ALL yours?" questions which was kind of funny.

We did enjoy some sun-shiny time at the park with Peter and loved being together. I'm going to give a quick shout-out to my Romney while trying to not divulge too much information. She was really not feeling very well on this trip - something to do with a monthly struggle girls have - and her monthly struggles have been horrific. Horrific to the point of going to see a doctor. Already TMI I know, but I'll leave it at that. I'll just say that Romney really rallied and did her best to have a great time and enjoy her cousin time. I was proud of her and I love her.

We returned quickly from the trip because The Becky's daughter got married. That was surreal. I can only imagine how much more so for Becky than for me. Sorry, didn't we just BARELY get married? Didn't we have babies and toddlers and new kindergarteners like last year? Oh...I guess not. Becky's daughter Rachel graduated two years ago from high school. She went up to BYU Idaho and promptly met this boy whom she was clearly destined for. I do think it's pretty funny that she met him pretty much the first week and they immediately started dating seriously and a year later got engaged. Wham Bam that's all it took. It was tough seeing Becky go through the stress and anxiety and finances of all this. Not easy. But she survived and it was a really really lovely wedding day. The temps had warmed a lot from the beginning of the week and everything went great. 

I was very honored to be a part of the day - I think I was there mostly so Becky had someone to look at with wide horrified eyes every once in a while as if to say, I can NOT believe I'm the mother of the bride! This is weird right? And I'd answer back with my own gaze of Yes this is definitely weird and you're doing great. Oh The Becky. She's so very beloved.

Okay so Chase. The thing about the first born child is that they require you to have answers to questions you didn't know were going to be asked. Such as, Can I go to San Fransisco with my friend and her mom and sister?  (Yes, that was a feminine pronoun.) Uh.....are we supposed to know the answer to the question, "Do we let our children travel for Spring Break?" or "Do we let our children travel with their girl-buddies?" I don't know!! We decided to give it a try. After all, this cute girl has been one of Chase's best buddies for a couple of years now, and they were going with her mom and sister and two other friends. Chase was indeed the only boy on the trip which I think is kind of funny - I'm pretty sure it was more awkward for him that way. 

From what we could tell, Chase had a great time. He and the gals spent a day in San Fransisco walking and seeing sights and enjoying street performers. They rented a beach house in Monterey where they spent a lot of time playing at the beach and also visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Knowing how much Chase loves the animal world I'm really excited for him that he was able to visit that amazing place. He didn't tell us a lot of details about his trip - he's not like his sisters who like to give us a play-by-play report of every experience they have, but from what I could squeeze out of him, ....it was fun. I think he's a lucky kid to have parents who let him go on a trip with friends. I'm not sure if he knows how lucky he is but maybe he'll figure it out at some point.

I'll post pictures if I can convince him to let me have some. 

Oh yeah and Easter! Easter was the week of spring break. Let's see....I know we colored eggs. Even my teens still love doing that. This year though Chase hid the eggs instead of looking for them with the girls. That's definitely a perk of bigger kids. Delegation! Help! I'll take it. I think he had fun doing that - he seems to really dig being behind the scenes, one of the grown-ups instead of one of the kids. I remember feeling that way. 

Okay, that's all I've got on Spring Break. Not too shabby, considering it was more than 3 months ago. Moving on to the next in my giant list of blog topics!!

Couple of Other Spring Things

Isn't it great when you make a friend and no matter how much time passes between visits it feels just the same and just as happy as it ever did? I love my friend Marsha. I guess in some ways we have a rather unlikely friendship - she's quite a bit younger than I and our paths only intersected for a short while. There are lots of people with whom I interact as I drop off kids or pick them up or go to appointments, and I don't become life long friends with many of them. But somehow with Marsha we just really hit it off when we started dropping off our daughters at the same preschool. We created a strong friendship that has held fast even though they have moved away and we barely ever talk. But when they come here or we visit St. George we sometimes try to sneak in a visit and it's always as fun as it ever was. Just a real true friendship. 

Marsha and her family came to SLC in April and we decided that we needed a girls night out. The younger girls begged to please please please go to the Cheesecake Factory and the older girls (aka the moms) let our arms get twisted. It wasn't too hard. My daughters loved how fancy everything seemed, which tells you about how often they get to go out to dinner. Emma was especially tickled with her order of "Firecracker Shrimp," and so was I because it was on the appetizer menu. Sakes that place is expensive. But whatever - once in a blue moon. We had a great time. Funny enough, Marsha and I have the same job. We are both the computer teacher at our kids' elementary school. That was really fun to talk about. And I love how her daughter Kathryn and my Romney still jump into conversation and enjoy chit chatting just as much as their mommies do. It's such a fun friendship.

Another event was our school's Library Week. I felt like a total triumph this year. This week is an event that happens every year here. It's packed with activities like a read-a-thon and dress like a story book character day and a storybook character building contest. Every year since Chase was a kindergartener this week has snuck up on me and we have either done nothing or put together a last minute costume or character that were really kind of sad. Some kids have really gone all out. I just couldn't get it together. But this year it kind of happened! I feel guilty because it's probably due to the fact that I now only have one child at the school so it's only one costume and one character model that needs to happen. And plus, Emma was the driving force. She had a character and costume in mind and really insisted that it just had to be done. She loves the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems, and she and a friend decided to be Elephant and Piggie. Luckily Emma was the elephant and so we could use the long underwear we got her for her raccoon costume at Halloween. And thank you to the world that there exists those cheap foam sheets that are so easy to make into stuff like headbands with elephant ears and trunks. Very easy.

Emma also created a little scene with Elephant and Piggie, made of toilet paper tubes, situated in a cardboard box made to look like the night sky. It was pretty cute, and she actually won one of her grade level awards for it. Yay! Success!! Sorry other children of mine.

And the really big news of the month was that some certain very tall teenager who lives at my house got his learner's permit to drive. This was an extremely challenging experience. I don't think this certain tall teen has a very strong desire to drive and so getting him to study and prepare for the test was kind of painful, for him and for us. And it took him a couple of tries to pass the test. But it finally happened and we have taken a few test drives in parking lots and once in the cemetery. I'm learning what fresh new fun stress it is to sit in the passenger seat while your kid is behind the steering wheel. I have every confidence that Chase is going to become a solid and confident driver but I am way too tense to enjoy the process of getting there. Hang in there kid, you'll survive being a child of mine...probably. 

Surprise Chickens and A Sad Goodbye

I think it was about five whole years ago that I was at my sister's house for the kids' cello lessons when her oldest daughter Kate needed a ride to "a friend's" house. Since I was headed toward the avenues I was happy to take her on our way home. Turns out it was this kid named Cameron. Not long after that we were having a family meal over at my parents' house and Kate brought him along. We were all sort of giggly that Kate had brought A BOY along with her. He was sweet and cute. Oh and he had blue hair. Like, Cookie Monster blue. Impressive. We tried to be cool, but we totally weren't. But he was cool - super cool! Cool as in he and Kate were totally happy to let the little cousins play dress up with them. They put Cam in a wedding dress and hat and thought he was the greatest. I think I might have a picture of that...

Dang. I can't find it. Oh well.

Since then Cam and Kate have stuck together and have been totally wonderful. They show up to all family events, they are kind and pleasant and are game for whatever. They get excited to share their favorite movies with us and are even willing to watch the favorite movies of the kids'. We have loved including Cameron in the family.

All this time Cameron has been in school at the U, studying nuclear engineering or something very nuclear like that. He's quite the bright kid. He graduated in the spring and over the summer and fall has been looking for a job. We are so excited that over the winter he found a great job. We are so not excited that this job is in Connecticut. I mean, we're excited for him for sure. It's very cool - he lives very close to the ocean in this awesome little town with little town things like very old graveyards and neat old buildings and all of that. It's awesome. But it does mean that he's super far away. We were so sad to say goodbye to him, and worried about how Kate would do having to be apart from him for a while!

We had this lovely dinner together. Cam requested Korean food and I happily complied. We watched this series of 10 minute mini-movies called Over the Garden Wall which was just strange enough to be delightful if a little bewildering. We said our goodbyes and gave big hugs. It was sad. I know Kate wants to follow him to Connecticut as soon as she can. That's strange to think about - when her mom, my sister, moved away I really tried extra hard to connect with Kate and her little sis Mary Grace who also still lives here. I mean, we just don't have that much family here! And I love how much we love each other, even though we are pretty different in a lot of ways. It's been wonderful. I mean, remember how they showed up last June to put on Emma's birthday party because my mom was dying and I just couldn't handle doing a birthday? Like that. So great.

So yes we had a big good bye. And then Kate called like two days later with an offer that has kind of rocked our world a little bit. See, she and Cameron have a lot of projects and interests going at all times. This has meant bunnies, gardens, caring for an Air B&B, and....chickens. They have been raising these cute little Silkie Bantam chickens for a year or two and have just loved them. They are so cute! (The chickens, yes, but I really mean Kate and Cam. SO cute.) Well, with Cameron leaving and Kate trying to kick into high gear in school so she can finish and move to the east coast, they just felt like they couldn't do the chickens any more. So they found a home for them. Only, the home ended up falling through. And Kate was going to be gone for 2 or 3 weeks getting Cameron to Connecticut. So they needed a new home right away. They thought of us.

It didn't take Troy and me very long to decide that we wanted the chickens. We had talked about getting chickens some day. And I guess that some day was going to be way sooner than we wanted. Honestly, it was a little chaotic. We would have preferred to prepare a place for the chickens before they arrived. Troy had a vision of the kind of coop and run he wanted for chickens, but these guys needed a home and needed it immediately. So one cold night Kate and Cam showed up with a small coop that looks just like a little yellow farm house. They had tons of supplies for us which just landed in heaps on the back porch. They gave us about 10 minutes of instructions and then just like that we were chicken owners. And the next morning it started snowing. We just had to let the chickens wander in our yard for a few days while we cleared a temporary run for them. We learned that although it is adorable to look out your back door and see cute little chickens pecking around, and to see them running towards you in manic desire every time you go outside, it's not that fun to have surprise plops of really gross chicken doo doo hiding wherever. So we penned them in and are currently in the throws of planning and creating and almost building our dream coop, which we have yet to name. Chickenland? The Poultry Palace? Nah. But we'll think of something good.

I hate to say that something as little as chickens threw us for a loop but really it did. We felt chaotic and scattered and totally out of control and unprepared. It feels better now though. The girls named our four biddies Daisy, Peach, Mrs. Potts and Lady Cluck, although I really couldn't tell you which one is which. They are so funny. And soooooooo studpid. Oh my gosh chickens are dumb. But endearingly so. What was really funny was that as crazy as we felt when they arrived, Troy totally surprised me a few days later. It was Saturday, just four days after the arrival of the hens. I had gone down to the Apple Store to get my phone worked on and was walking home. Troy had taken the girls to IFA to see if they had any chicken supplies we thought we'd need. I requested rubber boots which Troy generously got for me. I called them as I was walking because I thought they might be along to pick me up. As I was chatting with Romney about their outing, I heard a strange sound in the back ground. A sound like, "Peep. Peep peep peep!" OH. MY. GOSH. Yes, Troy figured that as long as we were getting chickens we might as well aim for the sky. He brought home four little chicks and then spent the afternoon putting together a nursery for them in the garage as fast as he could. Chase named them this time - Blue, Charlie, Echo and Delta, after the velociraptors in Jurassic World.

Sadly, we lost Charlie. She only lasted a few days and just seemed to be a failure to thrive case. Poor thing. She may have also been affected by something we did not know was a thing. Pasty Butt. Yep, that's a common cause of trouble for chicks. We spent some time keeping chick butts clean those first couple of weeks. But Charlie left us any way. And a few days later Troy went back to IFA and returned with two chicks, quickly named Marigold and Pillow. (How cute are those names?!)

I'm really enjoying the chickens. I love the soft berp berp sounds they make. I LOVE the way they run. They really make me happy. And now as our chicken coop is really starting to come together I'm even more excited. Our chicks have grown into scraggly and hilarious teenagers. We think Delta might be a rooster but we're crossing our fingers that she's just really tall and aggressive and not necessarily a male.

What an adventure. I guess it's always good to have a project. And cute little tiny eggs that barely count for any calories because they're so small. Cameron has already come to visit the chickens once - he made it three weeks before he needed a trip home, the cute kid.

March Begins with a Lion (King)

I was very grateful that I was able to go on that St. George trip with friends, but it did come at a cost. Troy's Birthday was on Saturday and I did not want to miss that. I started driving pretty early on Saturday and arrived home in the late morning. It was a really weird day since I had been gone and didn't do a fun breakfast or anything, and Romney was in a play that had started the night before and she was pretty tired and emotional, so she got a lot of our attention that day. I don't feel like I was able to really celebrate Troy's birthday well, which I felt bad about. Troy is such a sweet and wonderful man, husband, father, brother, son and friend. He deserves the world. We did go out to dinner and get Indian Food which we both enjoyed a lot. He couldn't decide what present he wanted so that was put on hold. It was definitely a low-key birthday. We did have family over for lunch after church on Sunday and got to have meatballs followed by cake and ice cream which is always fun. Sadly, I forgot that we had no birthday candles in the house except for a one and a five. So 15 he was. I thought that would be better than being prematurely 51. 

Later on Sunday I made my way over to The Becky's house because it was The Oscars. How we love making delicious food and eating it together while judging the oscars. They've almost become irrelevant now because we never watch the movies that are up for the awards. Most of them are just not our speed. But you know we can still appreciate the movie clip montages and the crazy clothes and the fun stuff like that. It was a fun night. Here are two terrible pictures of us.

And now to the big event of March. Romney goes to a middle school that puts on a play every year. When I say, "puts on a play," that really does nothing to describe the magnitude of what is really happening. The kids who participate in this absolutely colossal event basically disappear from their home lives starting around Christmas and they are put through an exhausting rehearsal schedule. The demands are HIGH and EXACT and there are dozens of parents who throw themselves into the production as well. Romney came home crying from rehearsals more than once, and I wasn't sure she was going to be glad she had taken part. Especially after the first show, which was a Friday. On Saturday she was a bit of a wreck. And by that I mean a TOTAL wreck. I was impressed and proud of her that she regrouped and went back on stage the next night. Happily, after that first disaster she seemed to love every moment.

I helped out by doing makeup on several of the nights and that was fun to get a backstage look at this show. It's total chaos. I mean there are more than 300 middle school kids in the show so obviously it gets a little nuts. And yet somehow it all comes together and everyone knows where they are supposed to be and when.

They put on The Lion King and I can't really put into to words how impressive it was. The costumes, the sets, the singing and dancing...just jaw dropping.

Here are two dear friends, Lydia and Daffodil. Lydia played Rafiki and Daffodil was in this lovely chorus of 8th graders who sang through much of the show.

As Romney's play was in the middle of its 10 day run, her dear friend who goes to another middle school was playing the part of Iago in their production of Aladdin. Romney was heartbroken to miss it; since she had performances every night she couldn't go see Abby. Then we found out that our elementary school would be paying a daytime visit to see the show and I totally let Romney skip school to come see it. Naughty naughty but it sure lifted her spirits. I know Emma wishes that she could take her big sister on every field trip.

Here is a tiny little clip from Romney's show:

I can say after it was over that Romney was glad to have done it and at this point is saying she can't wait to be in it next year. Since 8th graders always have much bigger rolls than 7th graders I'm sure the number of days she collapses in a heap of teary exhaustion will pretty much double. But I'm also sure that she will show the gumption she did this year and get through it and end up loving it. I hope.