When did February get so busy?

I mean really? It's supposed to be May and December that drive me crazy but it's been nuts this month! Shortest month of the year and yet somehow a boatload of things got shoved into it and it's not even over! I know some of you have it ten times worse, and I don't mean to make it sound like I've got it hard or something but it has been busy.

First, I had to do the lesson in Relief Society as the YW and RS meet together once a month and on occasion the YW teach. So that kind of stressed me out a little but it turned out okay.

Then...as referenced before...Spelling Bee. She was waiting for her turn here and then went out.



Then we had YW New Beginning's, which went well but things like that get me a little nervous. Mind you this is days 1, 2 and 3. Curtis went out of town, I had to drive to and from the airport because his car was in the shop, and get the car picked up with out him, a pain. And things like that always go in spurts. Why can't we get the car repaired at one shop instead of going to 4?

(this is Brynna and two of her friends at the Honor's assembly, Joel got honors also but his picture turned out blurry)

Meantime, the Middle School had the honor's assembly so we got two new bumper stickers saying "My child is an honors student" or whatever those things say. I have four of them now, and I'm thinking I should put one on the spot where Curtis bonked into a tree on the bumper. Bumper sticker with more purpose than just bragging. ;) I definitely know my kids are smarter than any dog, despite those folks with the bumper stickers that say so. I wonder if they've asked their dog to play the violin, piano, do algebra and the dishes?

Brynna turned 14 on the 6th, and we had a small party. They went to a movie and came home for pizza etc.

She got the mother of all awesome birthday gifts from her dad...a laptop. The most popular comment about it is "OH it's so CUTE!" It's one of those little wee notebooks...yes, it is cute.

So then, let's see, I got a haircut, I had dental work done we had to go to a Registration information night because Brynna is going to be in HIGH SCHOOL next year! ACK! I'm a little freaked about that.

Then it was Josh's birthday. And a holiday. Who knew I'd have two kids in February and one on Valentine's Day? It makes for hyper kiddos what with Valentine's parties and birthday parties on top. Josh had a bowling party and those 9 year olds were crazy! Josh got a lot of legos...so now, as you may imagine, lots of legos and little instructions all around the house.

Josh on his b-day and me holding the most romantic of Valentine's gifts, an external hard drive and a 16 G thumb drive. Whoo hoo! :) Not kidding here, I was actually VERY happy to get these. I spend far too much time on the computer and have too many things I don't want to lose. :)

Then President's Day I went up with Curtis to the cabin to return the repaired generator and the trailer. We had about a foot of powdery snow, the burm they kick up when they plow was only about 2 feet of icy snowpack instead of the usual 4. We spent a while snow blowing and then did a lot of heavy pushing which I could feel the next day in muscles I didn't know existed! The generator weighs about 500 pounds but somehow we both managed to get it back where it was supposed to go and *joy* even got it to start! Hope we don't have to do that again any time soon.

It was a beautiful drive, I was mad I forgot my camera. But I did remember it when I chaperoned Brynna at the Gifted and Talented Legislative day yesterday at the Colorado State Capital building. I have lived in Colorado for 16 years and have never been there before. She got to shadow the local Senator, Linda Newell, who was very nice to them (despite being in a party that I don't usually agree with), and we had a good time.

This is looking up from the inside at the dome, very impressive. And Brynna and another boy with the aide to the Senator. (He was super nice, and ended up being the husband of one of the teachers at my kids' elementary school (Nancy Williamson). Small world!)

Now you may be wondering...where has Joel been all this month? Well I'll tell you! Somehow February is ALSO the month for crunch time for TSA (Technological Student's Association) yes...a geek club. ;) He has been spending many hours studying electricity, structural design, and even more hours making a HUGE mess in my kitchen (all while I'm trying to have birthday parties etc) while he and Curtis worked on a hovercraft and a mousetrap pull car.


The culmination for all this work is THIS weekend. He is at the Marriott DTC with this huge TSA convention, all these 'future engineers of America' competing in all these events for three days. We got to go to the Mousetrap Car Pull competition today and we find out tomorrow how he placed (we're thinking he could be 2nd) We know the stupid hovercraft didn't go well, it was driving us nuts! But we had to laugh that the 1st place hovercraft only went 9 inches (and Joel's went 'negative 6' in other words it went 6 in the wrong direction LOL!) I hope he did well in electrical, he showed us his circuit board he had to solder, and we find out tomorrow how much weight the bridge he made can take.
One more picture..

During the competition. His car could pull 13 weights (I think the winner did 21), I wasn't sure if other competitors still had to go or not.

Well, that's the short version of this past few weeks. And we're not even done yet (but I *think* next week is supposed to be a little less wild, yeah we'll see!)

Gold star for you if you made it through this whole post! :)