Two days and counting.....

We can hardly stand it - only 2 more days and the boys will be home! Tuesday at 10:30 p.m. to be exact!! We are excited and getting ready. Clark has already emailed me his list of "requested foods" per my request. This will be the first time in 5 years that we have all been together for Thanksgiving!!

It was a busy week - I felt like I was running full speed all week. With the holiday on Monday, the week really started on Tuesday so we were already one day behind! Tuesday was Book Club - this month we read "Driving over Lemons" - an OK book about a man and his wife's adventures as they moved to rural Spain. That evening was genealogy class and then Wednesday I taught an appetizer class for Relief Society. It was a fun, food packed class. I showed lots of different ways to create different appetizers using tarts made from pie crust, phyllo dough and puff pastry. They ate everything so I guess they enjoyed it!



For Young Women's this week we had a joint activity with two other wards and had an "Amazing Race" activity. We divided up in cars and drove all over the area following clues. I drove a group of kids but had to make them promise not to tell their parents how crazy Sis. Wilkes drove!

What we didn't realize as we were on the race was that there were service opportunities at each stop - the trick was to see if we would notice them and do something about them. Our car didn't do too well - we were so focused on the race that we only noticed one of the service opportunities (a lady lying on the ground under her car) We did ask her if she needed help but we didn't see the others (someone with a spilled bag of groceries at the grocery store, a lady dropping her books outside the library, a lady with her hood of her car open) or I am sure we would have helped! It was a good lesson for us all -most of us would ask to help if we saw someone in need, the problem is many times we are all so focused on our own agenda that we just don't see them! Cali loved the activity because she got stuck in a car full of deacons!



Jim flew to Salt Lake on Wednesday and has business there and in Idaho Falls so he got to spend the night with his parents. He returned to Salt Lake on Friday and was able to have dinner with Logan and Shayla before his flight left for home - he got home late Friday night.

Thursday, Cali and Tessa went to a concert for a local alternative band - "Stars". I decided there was safety in numbers and they went with a large group of kids from school. It was a late night though - getting home at 12:30 so I let them sleep in the next morning and miss their first period class (I"m getting soft in my old age - I'm sure the boys would tell you I NEVER would have let them do that!!) I had a unit meeting that night with a computer webinar so I got to run the meeting in my pajamas!

Tessa's big news of the week is - she got her hair cut. She looks darling! We're including a picture so you can all check it out! It was a big dance week for Tessa - she had class/rehearsal on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and all day Saturday. They had a New York choreographer in town to work with the kids Her feet were very sore by the time she got home Saturday night!

Friday night Cali and I went to the play at Westview - they did the drama "Anatomy of Gray" They did a great job and it was a thoughtful play.

Saturday - was house cleaning day - it had been sorely neglected with the busyness of the week! Cali left for a weekend birthday party. They were going to stay at the Skamania Lodge - a beautiful resort in the Columbia Gorge for her friend's 18th birthday - what a life!

Jim and I went to the high school auction Saturday night. I was the food chair for the committee so figured I better show up to make sure the food was o.k. - it was delicious. A prime rib and salmon dinner. We had great restraint though and didn't end up with any purchases although Jim was tempted by the courtside Blazer tickets!!

At church today it was our Children's Primary Sacrament program - a little different than the one we saw last week at the branch at the beach. The kids did a great job but the program ran 35 minutes past the time Sacrament usually gets out!! We kept thinking they should have had an intermission! The kids did an amazing job though sitting still that long - I was having a hard time though!!

Cali had her Ecclesiastical interview today for her BYU application so she has the process rolling - her goal over the Thanksgiving break is to get her essay written!

Boy Update:
Logan and Clark had a double date this week - Saturday they both took dates (Logan and Shayla of course) to lunch at Los Hermanos. The boys then went and played a round of golf together. And of course they are both very excited to come home!!