Super Supper Shooter Tuesday

The last four Tuesdays have looked something like this,

Born out of our original idea to cook a month's worth of meals to put in the freezer, we ended up with Super Tuesdays or maybe more accurately Supper Tuesdays.

Each week, Mom and I each pick two meals to make.  And then we get together on Tuesday, bring our ingredients, and cook and talk.  We double our recipes so that when all is said and done and it's divvied out, we each have four dinners worth of food all for the price of an afternoon spent together.

That means with pizza (either homemade or take out) on Monday, we have dinner for the week.  Leftovers pretty much take us through the weekend.

And while I cannot, for the life of me, keep the family in clean underwear and unwrinkled shirts, at least they're eating. And that's gotta count for something.


About a month ago I got a new calling at church and I am now back with the Young Women. It's nice to get a break now and then, and I will serve where I'm called, but this was a welcome change from the Ice Water Coordinator for the Additional Relief Society Meetings.  The unofficial title might be long, but the job description was short. I was getting a bit antsy for something to do.

It has been a little slow getting acquainted with the girls, but I know it will come along with time.  I am looking forward to it.  They are a fantastic group.

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to get to go along on their shooting activity.  The girls who are attending their 4th year of Girls Camp, get to participate in an adventure activity prior to camp.  Usually its rappelling, but this year it was shooting.

I've never shot anything in my life.

That is, until this weekend.

It was really fun!

Hi, my name is Sister Sharp Shooter. What's yours?


We went to this shooting range.  It is run by a world renowned shooter lady name Jeanie.  She wears a rhinestone belt and cowboy boots, shoots pink bullets, and drives a pink and and black zebra striped truck.   She is kind of awesome.  And keep your eyes peeled, I hear she might be getting her own TV show. For reals.

I was nervous when the instructor put the shotgun in my hands.  He told me, step by step, what to do.  Feet apart.  Gun against my shoulder.  Rest my cheek on the gun.  Lean forward a little.  And yell, "Pull!" when I was ready.

"Pull!"

The clay pigeon shot across the sky, I pulled the trigger, and I blew it right up! Fantastic!

Then I did it again, and again.  I was five for five.  It was probably beginners luck, but I think I'd like to make another visit to the range, just to see. I would never have considered myself a gun person but I liked it!

Also, this past week, Ava finally had her cavities filled.  The appointment was originally scheduled for (and subsequently cancelled) right after she got out of the hospital.  She is still so scared of all medical anything and probably always will be, so we decided to go ahead and take out a second mortgage and have her sedated.

And boy did she need it.  Even with the meds, she stayed pretty coherent.  They eventually took her the rest of the way to la-la land with some laughing gas.

And now we are ever-more dedicated brushers and flossers at the Colton house.


Dan took Luke on the Fathers and Sons Campout.  They had a good time, despite the threat of a storm.  Luke called me from the tent that night to tell me he was "cary" and he thought the tent was going to blow away with them in it.

Soccer is done.

I know I bagged on soccer somewhere down there, but Ava was actually kind of getting the hang of it by the last game.  Still, she says she'd rather take horse back riding lessons, which was a 7 year old proposition.  And by golly, that birthday is just around the corner.



Luke had his Spring Program and Art Show for preschool and he was so cute.

After much debate, I think we have finally settled on Pre-K for next year.  It was a very hard decision.  I went in to change his registration twice but I think we've finally come to terms with our choice. Let's see what happens in August.

It's like he doesn't fit in either class.  Academically, he will be bored with Pre-K, but Sitdownandlistenforalongtime-ally, he won't be quite ready for kinder.  So the decision is:  Let him grow up another year, gain some confidence, hopefully come out of his very shy shell in Pre-K, and teach him his logarithms at home.  Not really, but he is slightly obsessed with numbers right now.  He counts everything.

Over and over again I hear,

"Mom, can I please count those?"

Referring to anything from cars in the parking lot to eggs in the carton, to people in a picture to how many hugs or kisses he wants before bed (I'm so mean I draw the line at 20). So far his knowledge of what number comes next has not been exceeded by anything he's tried to count. He can busy himself for half an hour at church thumbing through the hymn book enthralled by the page numbers and what is bigger, smaller, and what comes next.

Max is still kind of a toad.

He is cute and huge and naughty.  He uses yogurt as finger paint

 and puts real paint in his hair.

He turns everything into a "shooter", unless it's a light saber.  I was never one of those parents dead set against their boys playing with weapons, but now I know that even if I was, that fight would have been completely futile.  I cannot keep him from shooting things.

Actually, after this weekend... maybe now I know where he gets it.