Simple Pleasures and Blessings

Okay.  I wrote this at the end of November and yes, I know it is March.  Don't remind me how many months it has been.  However, it is some of our little family history and I am trying to get it documented.  So just go back in time and pretend that we are not already one quarter through the new year :)


It has been a while but here it is-I am going to try to cover two months of "noteworthy" happenings at the Lloyd home...

Nathanael has had a busy couple of months.  In October, he had a choir concert that was simply a pleasure to watch.  Even though he is too old to go trick-or-treating anymore, he dresses up for our ward Harvest festival.  He borrowed the Lindsay kilt and scarf from his Aunt Jamie and wore it proudly with a revolutionary period style shirt.  It was a pleasure to see how happy it made him when he wore it.  Then in November, he was in his first Academic Decathalon competition and took first overall in his division because he won the most medals.  He was very pleased.  Even though the competition was a good experience, November did not start out well.  He was driving Ethan and Lindsay home from a futsal game and got into a car accident with our van.  It left all the kids shaken and scared and of course, Travis was out of town on business.  The blessings were that no one was hurt and that our van was not totaled and could be fixed. 

 

Lindsay Kaye also had a concert in October.  Again, it was a pleasure to watch her perform.  She also is too old for trick-or-treating but she dressed up as one of her favorite characters from the Hunger Games books.  She dressed up as Katniss and I thought that she looked great!  I had to learn how to do a certain kind of braid and after practicing several times, I was satisfied that I finally could do it well.  It also brought me a little pleasure when she carved her pumpkin and had to clean it out so there were no strings-just like me! 

Ethan has had a busy couple of months.  He played flag football in October and he has some "wheels".  An old flag football coach named him "crazy legs" and it seems to suit him.  It brought Travis and I (mostly Travis) a lot of pleasure watching him play.  Also, just before the Thanksgiving break, Ethan performed in a Greek play with his classmates.  He was Odyseuss in "The Odyssey" and seemed to have a lot of fun performing.  He also won first place in his class for a story that he had written about a day that changed his life forever.  He wrote about the day that we found out about losing our baby, Michael.  It brought me pleasure and also touched me when I read it.  Ethan was Frodo from "The Lord of the Rings" books for Halloween.  He has had  a lot of pleasure reading those books.

Clarissa Anne had a lot of pleasure from being Hermione from the "Harry Potter" books.  She and I also went to a special mother-daughter breakfast for activity days.  It was a pleasure to be with her and listen to what is important to her.  She also loves writing and wrote a really cute story for her class.  She now is working on a "novel".  It will be interesting to see how her story will unfold.  She said that she wants to be an author when she grows up and I believe it!

Zachary loved Halloween!  He wore Ethan's old frog costume and loved "croaking" for all the neighbors.  He played the part well.  It was such a pleasure to take him trick-or-treating!  The weather was great -which is highly unusual when it is my turn and he talked about all the decorations and loved receiving candy!  He still talks about wearing his frog costume and trick-or-treating and getting candy.  I think that it was his favorite holiday so far this year.

I don't really have one "moment of joy" this time.  It was a pleasure to go to East Canyon with Travis' family.  It was a pleasure to spend Thanksgiving with mine and it was a pleasure to be able to take the kids out and have some one-on-one time with them for their day offs.  I also really enjoyed spending time with Travis doing some traditional "black Friday" shopping.  We kept it low key this year and found we could purchase more online and sleep in longer.  It was a pleasure to see his face light up when he found some Manchester United soccer gear at Ross for some awesome prices.  So far, the new clothes have been good luck as both teams won this week in futsol when he wore them for the first time.  One of the teams had been undefeated.  Now for some blessings, I had fallen really hard on my tailbone, back, and then smacked my head two days after the kids' car accident.  It was a blessing that my injuries were not worse even though they were very painful for a while.  I thought that maybe I had broken my tailbone but I am feeling so much better and I think I just bruised my tailbone and back but I have healed quickly.  I am very grateful for that.  It was such a blessing to know that my bones are doing so much better than they did even ten years ago.  Even though October and November have been very stressful and difficult,  there have been many moments of simple pleasures and we still have received many blessings.  After the kids were in that car accident, I did not have a vehicle and we have been without a van for a few weeks, but Larsens let us borrow their van for a few days and so many friends were offering their help.  My brother, Paul, came over on short notice to sit with the younger kids and let me borrow his car while I went down to deal with the accident.  Our bishop stopped by to find out personally how the kids were doing.  We are truly blessed to have family and friends that are there when we need them.

Cathy

Firsts

There are a lot of "noteworthy" events this last month in the Lloyd home.  We had a lot of "first" experiences lately that have helped each of us to learn and grow....

Nathanael sang in the school's Solo and Ensemble Festival for the first time.  He sang "The Roadside Fire" and was accompanied by his aunt Tammy.  It is a difficult piece but I thought that both he and Tammy performed well.  However, we were a little unprepared in that we didn't realize that he had to have another copy for the adjudicator and all the measures numbered.  It had been 20 years since I had done this and I did not remember and Nathanael did not seem to remember hearing those instructions.  Thankfully, he was towards the beginning and so the judge just reminded everyone else to have these things done.  It was a learning experience and it was good to see him do well even though he was very nervous.  Nat also had the opportunity to go to New York for the first time on tour with the choir.  It was very exciting!  Travis was able to go as a chaperone and it was his first time to New York City as well.  Hopefully, they will share with us the highlights of the trip in next month's blog.

Lindsay participated in her first Feis (pronounced "fesh") for Irish dance.  A Feis is an Irish dance competition.  She competed with the Reel and Jig.  It was so fun to watch her because she is so graceful and does such a good job.  However, she did not place as high as she would have liked and truly we wondered what she missed points on.  She was disappointed but felt that she performed her best and was satisfied with that knowledge.  It was a good experience to learn that even though you may not get the results that you want, you don't give up and continue to work hard and do your best.  She also was asked to speak in the Young Women's New Beginnings for the first time.  She was chosen because she was one of five that had earned their Young Womanhood Recognition Award last year.   She wrote her talk herself and I did not even have the chance to look over it quickly before she spoke.  However, she spoke with such depth and maturity that my heart swelled within me.  She did not need my help at all and I was amazed at what an incredible young woman she is.

Ethan  received the Aaronic priesthood at the beginning of the month.  He was able to attend Young Men's for the first time.  He also had the opportunity to pass the sacrament for the first time.  It was kind of neat to watch him pass the sacrament and be able to hand his trays to his older brother, Nat.  Ethan is turning into quite a young man.  He also had a "late night" instead of a themed party to celebrate his birthday with his friends for the first time.   He seemed to have a good time.  Ethan finished up his Jr. Jazz season and is continuing to play futsal and is rehearsing for the school play next month.  He has been a very busy kid lately!!

Clarissa also participated in her first Feis for Irish dance.  She was so nervous about it that she literally made herself ill.  She was so sick that she couldn't even attend class the day before to have some extra class practice.  Thankfully, Lindsay had worked with her for a couple of weeks and so Clarissa knew the dances and could do them well.  The day of the competition, she was extremely nervous and not feeling quite up to par.  It was a blessing that the younger girls went first so that she could "get it over with".  She was amazing!  You could not tell at all that she had been so sick just hours before.  She also was able to place in her division which made her so happy!  It was so good for her to learn that even if you are scared and fearful that you can overcome those feelings and do well.  She learned that she can rise up and do hard things!

Zachary has really gotten into "Star Wars" for the first time this last month - which unfortunately led him to his first (and it better be only) theft.  I was visiting teaching at a new sister's home.  She has a little one that also likes "Star Wars".  On the way home, Zac was showing me a "Galactic hero Star Wars" figure on the way home.  It looked like others that we have.  Later, Ethan asked me if we got a new one for Zac.  I was shocked!  Ethan explained that the one Zachary was playing with was not ours.  Great....I called this sister and apologized and we returned the figure.  I did have a talk with Zachary about not taking other people's toys, however, he seemed to be "distracted".  Hopefully, we won't have to have these little talks in the future...

My "moment of joy" came when I was having a follow-up meeting with a sister in our stake about her ward conference. Zac was the only child there-her kids were all at school.  She told him that he could play with the toys in the corner-which he did.  After a while, we started to wrap up and Zachary came running up to me and exclaimed, "Look mommy!  I cleaned up!"  I looked at where he was playing and sure enough, he had cleaned up the toys and put them in the corner just as they were when we got there.  Awesome!  The best part is that I did not even ask him to do it-he did it on his own.

Happy New Year

I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted!  I really would like to try to do better because for me, this is actually a family history and so one of my goals this year is to have a history of the things that have happened at least once a month throughout the coming year.  Therefore, here is an update of some "noteworthy" events from the Lloyd home...

Nathanael has been very busy with the Academic Decathlon at Lone Peak.  He has spent hours studying the material for the upcoming competition.  He also had a math competition and his team placed third in their division.  Nat is playing basketball with the Young Men and he is doing very well.  He has played better than we have ever seen him play.  He also received a "chanter" for Christmas which is an instrument that you learn to play before the bagpipes.  He seems to really enjoy practicing and is learning to play the tunes quite quickly.

We had a special evening with Lindsay when she was inducted into the National Junior Honors Society.  It is a club that requires that you have good grades and they focus on coming up with service activities and projects for the students to participate in at school.  She asked the mayor of the city to speak at the program and he gave an excellent speech on what it means to be a leader.  The National Junior Honors Society seems to be a good fit for Lindsay.  She works really hard to get good grades and she is very service-oriented.

Ethan had a big month!  He has been participating in a Lego League competition in which he was part of a team that had to build a robot out of Legos that had to accomplish certain tasks. As if that wasn't enough, they had to do research on a particular subject and then report their findings in a creative way.  Ethan got to be a "news anchor" to explain their research to the judges.  It was quite a learning experience for him.  Next, he did his first science project.  His project was all about how different colors can effect the way we feel.  It was interesting-but I am so glad that it is over for this year!  Finally, Ethan turned 12 at the end of January.  His birthday was a busy day because it was right in the middle of the week.  We started a new tradition in our family in which on someone's birthday, we have crepes for breakfast.  Ethan loved it so much that he took a crepe to school to have for dessert with his lunch.  On his birthday, he got some "Lord of the Rings" Legos- which he was so excited about.  We were also able to take him to dinner and enjoy the evening.  I just can't believe that he is 12!

Clarissa was busy this month getting ready for her first feis (Irish dance competition).  Lindsay was able to help her a lot because they do it together.  She also read "Anne of Green Gables" this last month.  We had explained to her that her middle name, Anne, was from the main character of the book.  Her name is "Anne with an "E". She loved it!  She told me that she thought that she was a bit like Anne in that she too is dramatic and very creative.  I would have to agree!

Zachary turned 3 years old in January.  We decided to have a "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" themed birthday.  It was fun because this was the first year that he really understood what a birthday is and got really excited about cake, ice cream, and presents.  We were all looking forward to his birthday when I wasn't feeling well the day before.  By the time the morning of his birthday came, my throat hurt so bad that I could hardly swallow.  I went into the doctor and found out that I had strep throat.  My lymph nodes were huge and not only causing my throat to hurt but also my ears.  I felt so bad that I had to postpone the party to the next day when I had been on medication for over 24 hours so that I would not be contagious.  It was all I could do to get the house ready for company but Zac seemed very happy and we were able to celebrate his turning three.  Some of my children laughed that Mickey's face on the cake was a little too orange.  I just told them that we were lucky that it even got frosted-I don't think that I have had strep throat that bad for years and years.  Thankfully, Zachary is young enough that it didn't really matter and he was just as happy as can be.

I must say that I love New Years and all that it stands for.  I enjoy the thought of a new year with all of its possibilities.  I love the thought of starting over and trying to do better than I did the year before. I also look forward to all the exciting things that will happen in the coming year.  Therefore, my "moment of joy" came on New Year's Day.  Our family has had the tradition of going sledding on the first day of the year but there has been a lack of snow the last couple of years.  This year we were finally able to go because there was finally some good snow on the ground.  This was Zachary's first time sledding.  He went with Nat and Ethan first but got sprayed a bit while going down the hill and so he was not too keen on doing it again.  However, Lindsay finally convinced him to go down with her and he loved it!  He wanted to go again and again!  My favorite "moment of joy" was actually several moments watching my children sled down the hill-laughing and squealing and having fun as a family.  After all, that is all life is really about-family.

Cathy 

Cool

I guess that about once a month is all I can do with this blog.  It is what it is and so here are some "notes" from the Lloyd home...


Nathanael has been very busy lately.  He finished up his soccer season strong.  Through his hard work, he was able to really become a pretty good goal keeper.  He also sang in a concert on September 11th.  The pieces that were performed were beautiful and well done.  I was grateful to be reminded of the blessings of living in this country.  It was very cool.  He also took his road test and now is a licensed driver.  I did not know what to expect when I watched him drive away for the first time.  I felt relief!  It was so cool that he could drive himself to practice and other errands.  Nathanael also finally got his braces off this last month.  It is very cool.

Lindsay turned 15 years old this last month!  Very cool.  She keeps asking when I can take her for her Learner's Permit.  I am not too eager to start those 40 hours of driving again!  We had her friends over for a  late night to celebrate her birthday.  They all seemed to have a good time and I am grateful that she has chosen such good friends.  It is very cool.

Ethan also finished up his soccer season strong.  He also started playing flag football.  He is really fast!  In his last game, he ran the ball for a touchdown and had to make a couple of cuts.  No one even got close to pulling his flag.  In school, he used different colors of play dough to make a model of a cell.  He then used the extra play dough to make a Perry the Platypus from Disney's "Phineas and Ferb".  It was very cool. 

Clarissa has just started attending Activity Days now that she is eight years old.  She has had a lot of fun so far.  Recently, she did a pretend hair salon and she not only had combs, brushes, and clips etc. for doing hair, she actually had drawn a book with different hair styles that you could choose from.  You simply pointed to the picture and name of the style that you wanted-just like in a real salon.  It was very cool.

Zachary knows that he is just cool.  We had gone to a little family "luau" dinner and Zac decided to wear as many Leis as possible.  He just thought he was so cool.  Also, he has decided that he needs to have boots.  I got him a pair of cheap moon boots and he wears them all the time.  He wears them with pants AND shorts.   He can also put them on by himself.  That is very cool.

Something that I thought was kind of cool that I did this last month was decorate a cake for the elementary school's "Monster Mash".  I was asked to decorate a cake for their cake walk.  I was inspired by the picture book, "Go Away, Big Green Monster!".  It was fun to read it with Zachary and then try to make a monster cake.  Zac and I had a great time together.

My "moment of joy" came yesterday when Lindsay had made Clarissa and Zac some lunch.  After Zachary had finished eating, he told Lindsay, "Thank you."  without being prompted.   Yes!  Very cool Zachary!

Amendment

I realized that I need to make an addition to my "Cat Tales" blog.  I had mentioned that Travis was so worried about my cell phone when it started to pour when we were at Animal Kingdom.  Obviously, I was a little annoyed.  However, I need to repent because I forgot to mention that when I fell on my birthday, my phone went sliding across the bridge and I cried out, "My phone!" and Travis said, "Forget about the phone-are you okay?"  Notice that I was the one worried about the phone and that Travis was more worried about me.  I should have put that in there in the first place and I am not exactly sure why I did not. (I think I was a little traumatized just remembering about that experience).  Although it is a running joke at our house that Travis loves his "precious" which is his cell phone, there is never any question that he always puts me and the kids first.  Everything he does is for me and our children.  He worked so hard that we could have a nice vacation and I hope he knows that it was very appreciated and that we are so grateful for all that he does for us.  He is a great husband and father and we are lucky to have him in our lives.

Cathy

School days, school days...

Wow!  I can't believe how fast the summer has gone.  School has begun and I cannot be in denial about it anymore!  August has brought a lot of fun things and kept us busy.

Nathanael finished Driver's Education class and finally completed his 40 hours of driving.  The next step is for him to take the road test and get his license.  I really have a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea that he is old enough to do that-or that I am old enough to have a son who is old enough to drive.  He just started his Junior year at Lone Peak high school where he is taking 4 AP classes.  So far, he has enjoyed his classes and seems to be doing well.  He is also playing club soccer with Dynamo as one of their goal keepers.  Needless to say, he has been very busy lately.  Nathanael is refereeing soccer to try to earn money to go on tour next spring with the choir.  Even though he is busy, it is good for him to learn to juggle work, jobs, etc. because that is life.

Lindsay just started ninth grade at Mountain Ridge Junior High.  She has a pretty full schedule so this year will be a little challenging but I am confident that she is up to the task.  One of her favorite classes is ASL.  She is learning American sign language and loving it. This is also the first year that she gets to take seminary.  She signed up in seminary to be a peer tutor for high functioning special needs kids.  The sister teaching the class had several people sign up to help but Lindsay's name was the first to "jump out" at her as she was praying about who to ask to help.  Lindsay has the perfect personality to show love and patience but she also has a strong testimony already and I think that this experience will add to her life in a positive way.  She also just earned and received her Young Womanhood Recognition Award.  We celebrate the boys earning their Eagles as we should.  I wanted to celebrate this accomplishment as well and so at the beginning of August we had an ice cream social at our house.  It was an enjoyable experience and I am so grateful for all those who came to support her and share their love.  Lindsay just started Irish dance and is picking up on the steps quickly.  She gets many compliments from her teacher and I am excited to see how this new adventure goes.  She also started voice lessons this summer and has already improved a lot.  As you can tell, she is also pretty busy but I am grateful that she is able to develop her talents.

Ethan started sixth grade at Deerfield Elementary.  He also started his soccer season.  He is the center defender and seems to be doing really well.  It is fun to watch him develop his talents as well.  Ethan is continuing to take piano lessons from me and is progressing right along.  He seems to have a "good ear" and "light touch".  I can't believe that this is his last year in elementary school.

Clarissa had a very special month.  She began third grade at Deerfield Elementary.  Her birthday was also the day before school started.  This was a very special birthday because she turned 8 years old.  I took her to the mall and she got her ears pierced.  She wanted to hold my hand and Lindsay's hand to help her be brave.  She said that all her nervousness about it was worth it!  After we got her ears pierced, we did some shopping and just had fun with just us girls.  We held her friend party at night and it was a theater theme.  We played charades a couple of times because they had to "act" like that character or animal.  Then we played "Poor Kitty" to see if they could keep a straight face.  Next we put on a little play and each girl had a part.  I wrote a "mad lib" story where the girls filled in the adjectives and then we acted the story out.  It was pretty funny and I think the girls had a good time.  I know Clarissa had a blast.  Then, Clarissa was able to be baptized.  It was a very special day for her.  She had a lot of family come and support her and we are so grateful for that.  One neat thing was that Nathanael, as a priest, was able to be one of the witnesses.  She told me that she felt so happy and so good inside.  After her baptism, the family came over for lunch and cake and ice cream.  Her little best friend also came to her baptism and then stayed at our house to play for a long time.  Clarissa had a wonderful time.  She also started Irish dance and seems to be doing well.  She says that it is fun and when I try to do what the girls have learned, Clarissa laughs at me and tells me that I look funny because I am a mom.  Thanks a lot!

Zachary is not going to school yet but he just started a special music class where we go once a week and sing songs, etc.  He was very shy that first time but I think he will warm up quickly and participate more as time goes on.  I really enjoyed spending that time with him and doing something just for him and not one of the other kids.  He was so sad when everyone went back to school.  After we dropped Ethan and Clarissa off, he told me to sit down on the grass and we could wait for them there.  He was disappointed when I took him back home and it was just the two of us.  Zac has a new favorite word.  He tells me sometimes that I am a "chicky" when he is teasing me or not happy that I am making him do something.  I have no idea where he got it!  His other big thing lately is his crush.  Yes, he has a crush on one of Lindsay's friends.  His face lights up when he sees her and he pretends to talk to her on the phone all the time.  It makes me laugh!  One other thing that made me laugh about him today was when he had Lindsay help him bless the food for dinner.  She told him to say , "Thank Thee that we could fast".  Instead he said, "Thank Thee that we get fat".  Of course we all started laughing!  He is quite a character.

Again, I have had a hard time picking one "moment of joy" so I will list a few.  The first one was when I saw a list of ideas that Nat had for young men's activities.  The first one on the list was serving at Deseret Industries.  Next, Ethan decided to sit next to a boy in his class that just moved into our ward so that he would know someone at school.  Finally, I had just given Zachary some lunch and then left to switch laundry when I heard him yelling.  I ran to see if he was all right and he said that we needed to pray.  Somehow, the lessons are sinking in a bit.  I am grateful for my children and the good examples that they each are to me.

Cathy

Milestones

I think I am starting to get into a little groove -even though we are already half-way through summer..  Here are some "noteworthy" happenings at the Lloyd home.....

Nathanael told me that he could not get his room clean because he didn't have enough room for all of his clothes.  I didn't really believe him and went to see for myself.  Sure enough, his drawers would not close, his closet had no room, and there were various piles of clothes all over the floor.  We decided to go through his clothes together and figure out which ones to keep or give away.  Nat made all of the decisions and I agreed with every one of them-amazing.  I think it is a small milestone that he was able to make good decisions on what to keep and what to give away without me telling him what to give and what looks good and fits still.

Lindsay went to girls camp with the young women in our ward and had a great time.  She told me that when they went on the hike, everyone was teasing her because she brought her little rain poncho and it was sunny.  On the way back to camp, it started to rain and Lindsay was the only one that kept dry because she thought to bring her poncho.  Lindsay reached a big milestone in my opinion.  She completed her Young Womanhood Recognition requirements and received a beautiful medallion.  She has worked very hard and I am so pleased with the young woman that she is turning out to be.

Ethan got to go on his first 5 mile hike as a scout.  He had a good time except he said that he was tired of being wet.  It rained and rained.  Ethan's milestone was passing off his level 4 in swimming lessons.  He had to be very proficient in not just the front crawl but the sidestroke, breast stroke, and butterfly.  If he wants to take swimming lessons next year, he will be in level 5 which you must complete to be a lifeguard.

Clarissa also took swimming lessons and she continues to improve every year.  For her, swimming lessons takes a lot of courage.  Clarissa's milestone is learning to ride a bike without training wheels.  We usually teach our kids to ride their bikes when they are about 6 years old.  However, Clarissa has not really had a bicycle that she could learn on because they are too big.  The one that Lindsay learned on does not work anymore.  We tried to have Clarissa learn on a bike that was a little bigger but it was too heavy.  After some frustration, our wonderful neighbors let us borrow a very small bike that they were not using.  It took maybe 10 minutes for her to learn to ride-turning included.  Thanks to our kind neighbors, Clarissa learned to ride a bicycle.

Zachary's little milestone was going down a  little water slide at Seven Peaks water park.  He was very afraid to go but after I went with him, he enjoyed it and wanted to do it again and again and again...

My "moment of joy" is simple.  Our family sings in the ward choir and so we are to church early the last few weeks and Nathanael had been there each time and was able to bless the sacrament because we were early.  He had been able to participate in blessing the sacrament the last couple of weeks and last week sat up there to bless the sacrament but decided to give his spot to a friend so that his friend could have more opportunities to participate in that ordinance.  He did it all on his own and I was so pleased.