I went to a writing workshop all last week and boy howdy was it fun!  It was in Orem from 9 to 3 so I was still able to come home and help the kids get to the places they needed to in the afternoons and do most of the things I do to help around the house.  While I was there, though, I learned the tricks to making a living as an author which in the mind of David Farland, our presenter, is the same as making it big.  According to Dave, you make millions or you make nothing.  But, he firmly believes that it is completely doable for anyone willing to put in the work required and do it right.  I learned a lot and really enjoyed sitting around believing I could make it for a whole week!  I suppose we will see how valuable his lessons are as time goes by.  For the here and now, I met some really fun people and am super glad that I did it!

Benjamin, of course, had the most different of a week because I went to the writing course.  Lucky for me and for him, he got to spend most of the week with his Grandma Gazdik!  He spent Wednesday with his friend, Brandt, and on Friday, Kevin stayed home from work and all of the kids had no school so they were all fine.  On Thursday, though, when I picked him up from Grandma Gazdik I got to see how Grandma had taught him how to catch a ball and how they worked on their letters and their numbers!  It sounded like they both had a great week.

Bethany still had ballet and jazz and we didn’t get as much homework and reading done as usual, so she had a bit more time with friends.  Her friend, Macie, came over on Saturday and I think that was the most fun she had all week!

Cali and Cheyenne had a good week although they had to wait for laundry on Thursday and were inconvenienced by that!  They had a steady stream of friends to fill their day on Friday, but on Saturday, a sudden dearth!  They were so bored!  I did remind them how lucky they were to be twins and that they did have each other, but it didn’t seem to do much good.  They are still enjoying the day they have Up With Kids and get to practice their parts in the musical.

Mariah went to the dentist this week (I know!  Why this week?) and had no cavities.  Yay!  She also continued track practice everyday afterschool this week and had a Choir concert on Wednesday night.  I couldn’t go as it was the only day that our workshop had an evening component, but Grandma Gazdik said she enjoyed the concert very much! 

Megan put in her application at Reams Saturday!  Hopefully that will turn into a good thing!  She also was able to resume running at track practices this week and had many fun times, cooling off in the creek after one practice and running to the white spot on the mountain at another.  On Thursday she went with a guy friend of hers (and his youth group) to the temple to do baptisms.  Friday she went with a group of friends to watch a movie at someone’s house.

Sarah was my “on-call” driver this week and helped me out.  I couldn’t have done it without her.  She still got to work three times this week and even played in a tennis tournament this weekend made up of the kids in her tennis group.  On Saturday night she took the van and filled it with boys and girlfriends and they went bowling in Orem.  It sounded like they had a great time!

Savannah’s roommate sustained a serious injury to her knee during Rugby practice and now has to move to the first floor.  Savannah’s made friends with all the girls on her hall so she is suffering a dilemma trying to decide if she should move to the first floor with Johana or stay on her third-floor hall!  They sure do all have a good time together.

Kevin was the keynote speaker in a conference on Saturday and went to be a guest-teacher at a priesthood meeting in a BYU ward today.  On Wednesday evening he started two new group classes that will run for several weeks.  The poor guy is being run ragged at work and when he gets home he gets asked by Cali and Chey to practice their softball and by Megan and Beth to have help with their Chinese.  Then he’s off to practice with Mariah’s basketball team.  He’s played a few games with our church men’s basketball team, but unfortunately (fortunately?) they lost by one point on Saturday and are done for the year.  Prayers for him that he will continue to operate as our household Superman are definitely in order!

This is the only picture I took this week and it is a picture of our live game of Hungry Hippos that we played Tuesday night for Young Men/Young Women!