A Visit From Santa

Mikayla arranged to have Santa come and visit the DeMartini family. We gathered at Christopher and Tysen's house for a visit from the man in red, to play games, and to have fun snacks and hot chocolate. I was in charge of games, or activities. I'd seen several fun games on Instagram and chose a couple for us to play. I got lots of treats and small gifts that I put under large red Solo cups, rested them upside down on a piece of paper to which I attached a long string. I put all of the strings in the middle of one big Solo cup and had every person choose a string and pull. They got whatever was underneath the cup. Everybody really liked it. We started with the youngest child, Thea, and worked our way up. We then made small ornaments out of plastic cups. In much the way that a Shrinky Dink works, we used sharpies to draw on the cups, then melted them in the oven under the broiler. Roundish shapes with wonky designs were the result. We attached ribbon to all of them and sent them home to put on the tree. I also brought snowman bingo. It was a fun evening being together.

DJing for Timpview Basketball

Brandt offered his DJing services to a person at the school and his wish to begin DJing was realized. He was asked to DJ for the basketball games, providing music pre- and post-game, during time-outs, halftime, and in between quarters. He has now worked for a whole week, and he loves it. Attendees at the games love him, too, especially the student section. He is looking forward to doing lots of games. 

I am backtracking a bit on this post, so I can say that over the season, Brandt was very popular. His music was upbeat, he took requests, he even hauled in all his own sound system when the school's was not working. He practiced in the basement and received many compliments, even from adults. Several people in our ward have told me what a great job he does. How fun!

I never went to a game to hear him "perform," but Brandt took lots of video and Chris Jensen sent me a picture.

The Moo

 

Our Moo Moo. She's living her best life. As Isabella says, she's a loaf. 

Thanksgiving

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. I started the day playing pickleball with Corene Jensen and several other women in the neighborhood. It felt good to play before consuming thousands of calories at dinner.

I volunteered to make orange rolls, but Mikayla was making them too. We were hosting the Barri this year, so Mikayla and I were not duplicating work. She always has a hard time with the rolling up of the rolls, so I went over to her house after pickleball to help her prep her rolls. Mikayla is always frustrated that crescent rolls unwind as they bake. I reminded her that she needed to put the tips down so that they wouldn't do that, and then was very careful to make sure the tips were tucked under. Even though I helped her, in the early afternoon, she sent me a picture of her orange rolls unrolling in the oven. I chuckled. Don't tell her I said that.  

Cora, Freya, and Thea wanted to come to my house after I was done at their house. I needed to make my rolls, so I told them they could come if they helped me. They readily agreed and then were very helpful. They are always good company. I went upstairs after a while and found Cora reading Elephant and Piggie books to Moo Moo. It was so sweet. Moo Moo was very attentive; it looked like she was looking at the pictures as Cora read. I LOVE that!

As I said, Kent and I hosted the Barri. Brent and Brenda, Michelle and Brandon and their children Mina and Winnie, Lee, Cami, and Aaron, all came along with Tom and Suzan Nelson. Isabella and Brenda set the table in advance. It looked beautiful! They used our china, Brenda's tablecloth, twinkle lights, candles, pinecones from the yard, and Rolos as decor. Everything was terrific. Food was also delicious. We had a great time chatting and laughing as we ate together. 

I find that sometimes in the midst of challenges, I am not very grateful. I know that having a thankful heart is key to finding good in life, even in the midst of hardship. I know that I need to be more thankful and acknowledge all the blessings in my life. In that vein, let's sing together hymn 241, "Count Your Blessings."

When upon life's billows you are tempest-tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings, name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?

Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?

Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,

And you will be singing as the days go by.

When you look at others with their lands and gold,

Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold.

Count your many blessings--money cannot buy

Your reward in heaven, nor your home on high.

So, amid the conflict whether great or small,

Do not be discouraged, God is over all.

Count your many blessings, angels will attend,

Help and comfort give you to your journey's end.

Count your blessings, name them one by one,

Count your blessings, see what God has done!

Let's Go Timpview! Take State!

Timpview's football team has made it to the state final and tonight was the big game. Brandt, Ruth, and Landon all went to the actual game, bundled up and with blankets to keep them themselves warm. David and Ashley Jensen had invited Kent and I to come to dinner, and we eagerly accepted. Dave is a terrific cook! Dinner was delicious! Dave has been experimenting with gumbo and I can testify, his experimentation has been well worth the effort. It was so so good. He had also made crunchy bread. It was all Yum! Yum! Yum! After dinner, we turned on the game and watched together at the Jensen's. It was fun to look for people we knew as the camera panned the crowd. Timpview played very well and won. It was the first time since 2014 when Britain Covey was the quarterback his senior year. It was a fun evening for everyone, including the actual game attendees who loudly cheered on their team. 

Movie Night with Mom and Mik

 

Mom, Mikayla, and I went to see Next Goal Wins this evening. We had seen the trailer and it looked very funny. It was. It was set in America Samoa and many of the cultural things were hilarious. We all laughed a lot. What we didn't know and what is not at all evident from the trailer, is that the movie was about a trans athlete on the America Samoa National Soccer Team. I'm fairly confident we would not have put our money towards the support of the film if we had known. It was a good reminder that we should read a review before seeing anything these days. But we did laugh a lot.

Hunchback of Notre Dame

Over the past couple months, Isabella has been involved in backstage work for The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the next school play. She is the ASM, assistant stage manager. When it comes to her assignments, she is very serious and hardworking. She likes being in charge, too, and telling people what to do. She comes home most days and regales us with funny stories about the day's shenanigans backstage.

Brant has been involved the past couple of weeks, as the show is nearing opening night. He was not lead sound, so he has been acting in a supporting role which is much less stressful. He has been trying to teach younger techies how to do the things they need to do as he is graduating and wants people coming up to be trained. 

Tonight, Kent and I attended the performance. Grandma Dawn, Robert, McKenna, and Grayson came too. The set was exciting, the music was good, the story is sad. It's a real tragedy, a story of cruelty and prejudice, and misguided choices and decisions. Although a sad story, it was a well done performance. In the middle of the production, Isabella texted me and said, "If you look really closely, I'm going to be out on the stage when the bright light goes off. Look for me by the stairs." I looked, hoping to see her, but the bright light was like an explosion, it blinded the audience, and I couldn't see her at all. Oh well. 

I say again as I have said before, it's a delight to know the children are having a good time with tech crew. 

This picture seems to indicate that Brandt was lead sound.

Technically he was, but he wasn't doing much.

How 'bout that stank face?

Landon and Brandt,

last show,

all dressed up with nowhere to go.

Oh wow!

That's some weirdness right there.

Brandt DJ'd for the cast party.

He had everybody rocking out on the stage

including Seth, Spuney, and Avery

Cooties!

We hadn't been home from church very long when I got a call from Mikayla. She said three of her kids, Brick, Kal, and Thea, had lice. 

Ewwwww! COOTIES!

She woke up to Guy saying Kal had bugs in his hair and the day went progressively downhill from there. It was only just after 11:00 and she had already been to the store for de-licing shampoo and combs, had showered and shampooed all the children, and needed help with laundry. Mom brought over several large garbage bags full of bedding, and I launched into washing. The ox was in the mire. 

Mom filled the back of her car with bags of bedding and was headed to the laundromat so more could be washed at the same time, and I went off with her. We filled seven washers in the first go, waited about 30 minutes, then refilled five of them. In between loads, I ran to Mikayla's house to check her hair which was happily bug free. 

Throughout the day, there was much vacuuming as well as laundry, but by the end of the day, all things seemed in better shape. Mikayla called Kim, the Rock Canyon school secretary, who told her the kids could all go to school. Brick and Kal's wrestling coach said the same. Apparently, lice have a short life cycle and if you can get most of the eggs and the crawlies before they get big enough to lay more eggs, you can be deloused in a day or two. So hopefully the whole episode will be short lived.

Sunday afternoon laundry

When the creepy crawly ox is in the mire, 

you do what you have to do.

**Post edit: No one else got lice. Thea had a few tiny nymphs on Monday, but Mikayla combed them out and then used the hair straightener to heat and kill any eggs that might not have been combed out. On Tuesday when Thea got in Janie's car to go to pre-school, she loudly announced, "I've got lice!" 

Because of Jesus Christ

Our neighbor and Brandt's best friend, Jarom Oyler, is currently serving a mission in Seattle, Washington. In a recent email he said, 

So I have been trying to think of the best ways to share the Gospel of Facebook and one of the ways I thought I could do Share the Gospel Was by Making a Certain Video. But to do this video, I need people to help. I need a bunch of Mini Testimonies. How this is going to work is I need people to write this on a page: Because of Christ (Your Answer) and take a picture of you holding that up and sending it to me. If you have friends or family who are willing to do it, please ask them and send it to me.

I love this idea and wanted to make sure we participated, but I kept forgetting. As I was leaving the chapel today, I saw a paper in a garbage can that said, "Because of Jesus Christ I can do hard things." I took it out of the trash and carried it home so that I would remember. I printed off three "Because of Jesus Christ" papers and handed them to Kent and Brandt and then we all went outside to take a picture. 

Here are our brief testimonies of Jesus Christ which I sent off to Jarom this evening.