Krista and the junior prom

Aren't they cute? Her date is Nate, a friend she's known for years, he came up from Orem. He's a foot or so taller than when I last saw him. They had a great time.

Keeper of the Privy Purse

Jared just started a new job and it's sort of at Burger King.
Yup, I had that same reaction when he came home one day and said he needed his white shirt clean for the next day's interview at Burger King.
This is actually kind of a cool job.
Jared is working for a corporation that own hundreds of restaurants all over the US. Many of them are Burger Kings, a bunch of them are Chilis, Popeyes, and some other ones. He's one of their corporate accountants so he does audits, payroll, etc. for the company. The corporation has a head office here in Ogden.
Jared has been working for them for almost two weeks now and he's very happy with the job and the people there.
You may be asking 'what happened to the ski resorts?', well, one ski resort was unable to get the financing they had been planning on for their expansion so they gave up the plans and let the people involved go. Jared did a bit of bookkeeping for them but they no longer needed a CPA. He switched to another ski resort that was trying to straighten out some problems in their finances and spent a few months fixing them up at which point they thanked him very nicely and sent their nice tidy accounts to an accounting firm on the east coast somewhere.
Jared then got a job working tax support for Intuit (Turbotax) as a sort of dial-a-CPA that you get sent to if you've got issues with your taxes. It paid well and was interesting but they only keep people on for this job for a few months of the year.
I was just starting to look for a part-time job myself when the King came through for us.
This week Jared was able to go to the opening of a brand new Burger King in Heber City, UT and he got a kick out of it.
So, after moving up here to work at a ski resort, then staying to work at another ski resort, we are pretty much settled in for a job at Burger King and feeling pretty positive about it.

4th Grade Puppet Book Report - April

Went to Grandma for lessons on sewing and design. Look how cute they turned out!
 They look just like in the book.

Krista - Sweethearts Dance at WHS

I saw SLEEZE triangles and other 4th grade geometry

Thank You to April for this awesome piece of homework humor. I'm not sure how to spell isosceles triangle either.

The Turning Point - SNOW 2017

It's supposed to start warming up and we're getting some melting so here are some pictures to entertain us with memories of the snow this year.



The driveway pile was up to the top of the car, it's just starting to shrink. It will be nice to see what's coming as we back out.



The tall thing is the mailbox. The orange bucket is the approved substitute mailbox. To be approved it just has to be labeled "US MAIL" some of the things people are using are pretty entertaining. Delivering the mail at this point has got to be a struggle.



The mail carriers aren't the only ones struggling. This is what the fire department did so they can find the hydrants if they need to. Red paint on the 5 foot+ tall pile of snow. The hydrants here actually have little poles with flags sticking up from them so they are visible under a normal pile of snow but this is apparently Plan B.

Dear 2017 Deer

There's a small herd of maybe 8 - 12 dear showing up to hang out in my backyard most nights.

SNOW this year is getting serious

One of the neighbor's driveway piles. Height on the lawns is somewhere above my knees.

Sledding Weather

 

April lasted the longest

Eugene, OR ice storm picture

I shamelessly stole this picture from a friend (wow, Nikole) I've known since back in the day.  She lives in Oregon and posted a few pics on facebook.  I couldn't stop staring at them so I made a blog post as it lasts longer.

Christmas Parenting Humor

Andrew's Baptism - Family Picture

Updating some pictures...

Went on a cruise to Alaska in July of 2016 with this crazy bunch.
We used the excuse of my parents having a 40th anniversary but mostly we all just wanted to party :)

Here are the pictures from the formal night.  We payed enough for them, I'm going to get a little use out of them!
            
In no particular order there, that's the lot of us.  I'm also going to use these for the side bar of the blog for this year.

Dancing In The Library

Enjoyed this video so much I'm posting it here.

Uptown Funk - Library Books

Kudos Weber High students

This morning, after dropping off my 15 yo at the high school, I found a place to park and went in to pay her AP Physics test registration fee.  I was in line at the office when the bell rang.  I was just leaving the front doors when the announcements started.  I was half way down the stairs and a few feet from the flag pole when the announcer asked everyone to rise for the pledge.

What happened next made me so proud of these kids.

Kids were literally jogging towards the school from the parking lot because they were running a few minutes late, but when the pledge started, they froze in place, saluted the flag, finished the pledge, and then jogged on. The announcer rattled the pledge off so maybe 20 seconds of brilliant freeze-frame that made me super impressed and a bit misty as a Navy brat from a proud military heritage.

I stood there with my hand over my heart quietly saying the words to the pledge and thinking about higher standards (no pun intended).  Students and their parents get two thumbs up from me.

Scared of Lady Fitness

Across the street from the dance school my kids attend is a Lady Fitness.  When we first moved up here to the north of Ogden a few of the ladies in the ward (neighborhood) told me they went to LF to do classes together and encouraged me to join.  I looked into it online but decided with Jared's job situation being a little shaky and having just moved I didn't want to add a fitness membership to the budget.

Here I am, two years later, and I'm still coming up with excuses not to go join.  Sadly, the excuses have devolved to pathetic and pitiful things and the occasional "maybe after I finish this piece of cake".

Also, in the two years since we moved up here I've put on more than ten pounds.  Lots of factors to this, mostly eating my feelings type factors.  I am working on my eating habits and need to get more serious and scheduled about my exercise goals.

40 is only a couple of years away now and it's been 10 years since my hip/pelvis reconstruction.  I'm slowing down metabolically and physically and it's not making me feel good about myself.

I'm driving at least one of my kids down to the dance studio and back every single day and sometimes sitting in the car or the lobby for up to 45 minutes with a book while waiting for classes to finish.  I drive past that Lady Fitness over and over and have even been in the parking lot a few times (the train stop is next door).  Finances are okay, schedule is okay, I need to exercise, my husband thinks it's a good idea....

Now to quit sitting in the car staring at the gym across the street and actually get up the willpower to walk in.

Grand jete - ballerina picture

One of my friends had a t-shirt with a similar saying for her gymnast daughter and I tried to find the author of the quote/poem but couldn't.  I used an image from Google that was on someone else's blog.  Yup, just all kinds of internet borrow and use without citing a source.  But it came out kinda cool in photoshop and I'm not claiming any rights to any of it.  :)

Boxing Day Bowling

Minny = April

Crusher = Jessica

Christa = Krista

Kylie

Pikachu = Andrew

Jared

Krista

April and the watermelon ball

Andrew with the watermelon ball

Jessica/Crusher she's giving you her 

"fierce look" in case it wasn't obvious.

labeling the drink cups

Me

Jared, Andrew, Jessica

Jared

Yes, those scores are pretty bad but they're

 about normal for

this crowd.  Also, proof that a great bowling

 name can only take you so far.

2015 Christmas Letter

           It’s our second Christmas here in North Ogden.  We’ve settled in pretty well and are still working on getting to know our neighbors and getting involved in the community.

        Jared is not currently working for the ski resort that brought us to this area.  In fact, he’s working down in Utah County most of the time, but so far all the jobs have been for temporary contracts.  We’re not sure what the next year or so will bring, but we’re doing our best to bloom where we’re planted.  Jared has plenty of work and enjoys what he does.  Get your requests in soon if you are planning to use him for tax help this year!  Also of note, Jared is serving as the ward membership clerk, a job Jessica enjoys immensely as she often gets to sit on the stand with him while he counts attendance.

        Jared has been able to travel for work several times this year, and he took Krista and Kylie with him to New York for one of the trips.  He just returned from a week in Korea where he “ate everything”.  He’s been back and forth to California and has gone to Vegas and Idaho as well.

        Amy volunteers at the school a couple of afternoons a week. She enjoys helping kids in the reading programs and spending time in the school library.  She is also a gospel doctrine teacher in Sunday school and serves on the Family History Committee.

        Krista is a Sophomore at Weber High this year.  She is doing well in school.  Krista is learning to drive and has really improved since her birthday in August.  She has very creative parking skills and is working up to freeway driving.  Krista broke her elbow this summer while dancing and had to have a pin put in her arm.  She’s recovered nicely but as the pin sticks out from the joint a bit she’s hoping to have the hardware removed. Krista has been told she will be getting her braces off in six weeks; the orthodontist has been saying that since August, but hope springs eternal and her smile will be lovely and well-aligned.

        Kylie is a sixth grader at Bates Elementary.  Kylie has a teacher who is taller than her for the first time in a couple of years.  Ms. Wallace is over six feet tall and Kylie is approaching six feet very quickly.  Ms. Wallace has encouraged Kylie to really push herself in school and gives the advanced students challenges to work on beyond their classroom work.  Kylie is also taking piano (under duress) this year.

Krista and Kylie were both in the Nutcracker at the Peery Theater in Ogden in December.

        April is in the third grade and is doing well.  She still loves to draw and be creative.  She’s come out of her shell a lot this year and participated in a few of the school and church performances without as much anxiety as she felt in past years.  Her reading skills are improving and she’s learning how to cook a few things including brownies and hot chocolate.  April is taking piano and enjoys it.  She was one of the few kids in her class to get her piece memorized for the recital and play it through without errors.

        Andrew is in the first grade Chinese – Mandarin Immersion program at Bates Elementary.  He loves the program but does get frustrated some days when Mrs. Liang (who he has figured out does speak English) still just speaks to them in Chinese.  Amy volunteers with the first graders (several hours a month are requested from the parents to facilitate the program) and is so impressed with the teachers and how much the kids are learning.  Andrew is also taking dance this year.  Andrew managed to grow out of his entire school wardrobe in less than three months, including shoes, and is an adorable beanpole who loves video games.

        Jessica is a KINDERGARTNER!  Yup, all the Stone kids are in school!  Jessica does PM Kindergarten, so noon to 3pm.  Her teacher, Mrs Koer, had a baby last week so she’s got a sub, Mrs Buck, for a couple of months.  So far Jessica is still working on her not-talking-in-class skills, but she’s a chatterbox all the time so it’s an uphill battle.  She loves her class and has learned a lot of new things.  Jessica also takes dance.  The weekend of Thanksgiving Jessica accidentally swallowed a quarter and ended up at Primary Childrens when it lodged in her esophagus.  All turned out well, but it was more excitement than Amy needed.

        Amy’s grandmother passed away in March and Amy and Jessica went to North Dakota for the funeral.  They had a lovely time with the family and were grateful to go despite the sad occasion.

        We took a family trip to California in August and had a great time at the Disney parks as well as going to the beach and spending time with friends and family from California.

        Jared’s mother retired and moved out here to Utah from New Jersey in September.  Jared flew out to New Jersey and drove back cross country with the moving van.  Our family has enjoyed getting to see Jared’s mom more often.

We’ve been very blessed this year.  Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.

The Nutcracker Ballet

Pre performance ozone layer depletion.  But that hair was fancy and firmly in place.

















Pictures from the performance.  Taken with my little camera in a dark room with no flash so I did pretty well.

Krista as the Arabian princess

Kylie as one of the snowflakes

Kylie in snowflake costume

Krista (center) with the Arabian dancers

Krista (center) in the waltz of the flowers)