After doing laundry this week Lily's basketball jersey came out of the dryer with letters peeling off. I thought it might be because it was dried in the dryer, but after consulting the tag and talking to some other moms, it wasn't the dryer's fault. Sometimes the letters will stick together if the jersey is dried too hot, but peeling off is unusual.
I should have gotten a better before picture because all the letters were sticking up, but I didn't think of it until I was almost done.
I tried using a low heat setting on the iron and covering the letters with a thin dishcloth. But it didn't do anything. Then Dan suggested I use some parchment paper.
I turned up the heat (one below cotton) and laid down the parchment paper, applied heat for 10-20 seconds, and Voila! Everything was melted on again.
I told Dan, "Good call on the parchment paper! It totally worked!"
He asked, "Didn't your mom used to do iron-ons for you? You know, the ones that came in the cereal box?"
Nope. I remember my brother having iron-on Star Wars t-shirts, but that's it. Guess I wasn't much of a child of the 70's...
It's been almost 4 weeks since Lily got her palate expander. She's only had it in for 3 weeks because it fell out after week one and we couldn't get in to have it fixed until the following week.
I am amazed at the human body and how quickly it can change and modify itself. Each day that gap gets a little wider and the grin gets a little goofier.
Lily is into month two of Junior High Basketball. After her success in volleyball, we were hopeful that she would have an equally positive attitude about basketball. She doesn't complain much when she goes to practice, but at games she sits on the sidelines looking like she'd rather poke her eyes with a fork.
The team has 6th, 7th, and 8th grade girls. The 8A and 8B teams are made up of 8th and some 7th graders. The 7A and 7B team are made up of the other 7th graders and 6th graders. Lily gets a limited amount of game time in the 7A games. In division 1A sports in Wyoming, there sometimes is no 7B team from the other schools because they simply don't have enough girls. But when there are enough girls, Lily plays most of the 7B games.
Lily didn't get to play in her first game because she missed two practices, out with a chest cold. So she got to "keep book" or write down all the fouls, shots scored, free throws, etc.
She liked that job pretty well. :)
During the games Amelia keeps herself entertained making bracelets on her Rainbow Loom.
She's very popular with the girly set.
"Ahhhh, Mama! No pictures!"
Mack usually runs wild in the commons area with a pack of little boys.
I've been impressed with Lily's efforts to move up the court and use her size to really get in front of the ball.
You'll notice that Lily's wearing regular sneakers instead of basketball shoes. Her feet are still growing and I wasn't willing to pony up the cash for good basketball shoes for just one season. Hopefully by next year her feet will be done growing and we can buy her some good shoes.
Last weekend Lily had two away games in Pinedale and Big Piney (close to Dan's rig). As luck would have it, he'd gotten home the day before so he had the pleasure of making the drive yet again! It was fun, though. The Sirius XM radio was working even though we don't subscribe, so we got to listen to a lot of fun old music. Did you know that classic rock is starting to be considered oldies? Horrifying.
The 7A team was playing first and we didn't know if there would be a 7B game because Big Piney only had seven 7th grade girls total (I'm not sure if any of the other schools have 6th grade girls on their teams). It drove Dan and I crazy to watch Lily sitting on the sidelines, separated from her team and looking like being there was the biggest waste of her time. She got told to sit with her team and stop being disrespectful more than once by her father.
She had a couple of minutes in the 4th quarter but her play was timid and she had no hustle in her step. But things changed once the 7B game started (those poor Big Piney girls had to play two full games!)
Playing with the girls in her class and being a starter on the 7B team seemed to do a lot for her confidence. She played much more aggressively. At some point one of the opposing players threw some elbows and that got Lily all fired up. It was good for her to play a little mad because she put her heart into it.
She was ready on the rebound and took several shots.
She scored 10 points in the game and she gave it her full effort. We were so proud of her! She's got a natural talent for the game and if she can get her desire up to the level of her talent, she will be an awesome basketball player. (And it wouldn't hurt for her to get fully invested in the team and join hands for the hurrahs at the end of the game!) Coach Barnes is so good with those girls!
I made this video in iMovie on my MacBook Pro. It's such a cool program and super easy to use.
(Note Amelia whining at the end, "I wanna go out there and play!")
Yesterday Lily and I were talking about her game and I was complimenting her on how well she did. She said, "You know, if you asked me which I liked better, volleyball or basketball, I'm not sure which I would choose. Volleyball is fun, but there's something about basketball..."
That's a good sign!
Amelia continued to enthrall the girls with her Rainbow Loom, only this time it was the older 7th grade girls who wanted a piece of the action!
Amelia is in her first year of Jr. Jazz basketball. ScrambleBall, I like to call it. The program lasts for 6 weeks with 3 practices and 3 games. It's very low-key and basically just gives the kids some exposure to basketball. When she first got her jersey, Amelia was sad because she thought zero meant you were the worst player. But we told her about Dan's grandfather, Pepa, who was a truck driver. His handle on the CB radio was "Double Ot". 00. Amelia was OK with her number after that.
Amelia totally loves it! She was so nervous for her first game last week, but once she got out there she had a great time. She was aggressive and really tried her best.
Dan was on the rig for Amelia's first game. He was so proud when he saw the pictures and noticed that she had her eyes up while she was dribbling and passing.
Of course, there were other times when dribbling was optional:
Amelia was especially good at defense.
"I'm watchin' you!"
She was all smiles at the end of the game.
It's sure good to have an outlet for their energy during these long cold months. If only we could get Mack into an intensive Mixed Martial Arts program. Ultimate Fighting, Baby!
Today was a very fascinating lesson in Sunday School. We are studying the Old Testament this year and we've started with Moses in the Pearl of Great Price. Moses parallels the first books of Genesis in the Bible, but it provides clarification on information that was lost over the centuries and it gives greater detail about man's beginnings.
Something that I have always struggled to understand about Adam and Eve is why they couldn't multiply and replenish the earth when they were in the Garden of Eden.
{Adam and Eve in the Garden by Lowell Bruce Bennett}
I know that once Eve partook of the fruit she knew that she would be kicked out of the Garden of Eden for breaking God's commandment not to partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17 or Moses 3:16-17). If Adam didn't also partake of the fruit and accompany Eve out of the Garden, he would not be able to keep God's other commandment to multiply and replenish the earth (Genesis 1:28 or Moses 2:28). But what was it about taking the fruit and having their eyes opened to the difference between good and evil that changed things in regards to procreating? Did God not want them to procreate when they were immortal? If so, then why did He give them that commandment knowing that they could not do it (no pun intended)? Were Adam and Eve unable to feel physical attraction? Were they ignorant about how to procreate? Did it not ever cross their mind?
Today we watched excerpts from this talk by Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The lightbulb went on and I finally understood why procreation had to happen after Adam and Eve became mortal. When they were created, they had flesh and bones like Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ (Doctrine & Covenants 130:22, Genesis 1:26-27, and Moses 2:26-27, also this great article Is the LDS view of God Consistent with the Bible?). But they were immortal and could not grow old or die (Alma 12:21-23). Whatever the biochemical makeup of their bodies were, they could not procreate (2 Nephi 2:22-23) because they were not mortal. Something had to physically change before they could multiply and replenish the earth. From Elder Nelson:
The Fall of Adam (and Eve) constituted the mortal creation and brought about the required changes in their bodies, including the circulation of blood and other modifications as well. They were now able to have children. They and their posterity also became subject to injury, disease, and death.
I get it now. Mortality was a prerequisite for having children.
{Adam and Eve Teaching Their Children by Del Parson}
Another very interesting idea we discussed was the role of agency and God's plan in the Fall of Adam and Eve. Heavenly Father gave two seemingly contradictory commandments: do not partake of the fruit (and stay immortal and unable to have children) and multiply and replenish the earth. What kind of impossible trick was God trying to play on them?
Before we came to earth there was a great council in Heaven where God presented a plan for all of His spirit children to become like Him.
{Grand Council by Robert T. Barrett}
Part of His plan included us getting a mortal body. That could not happen without Adam and Eve beginning the physical creation process. Another essential part of God's plan of happiness was agency, the opportunity for each of us to make our own choices. Thus, God presented two commandments that allowed Adam and Eve to make a choice, to use their intelligence to figure out which path would allow them to fulfill God's plan. He knew that Adam and Eve would have to transgress one of his laws to get the ball rolling. That is why His plan included choosing a Savior to redeem us from our mistakes. But He wasn't a fatalistic God trying to set Adam and Eve up for failure. He was providing a means to an end that involved Adam and Eve exercising their first act of agency. Presenting two paths from which to choose gave Adam and Eve the opportunity to own their choice rather than just having things easily dropped in their lap. Partaking of the fruit in order to begin procreating opened up the opportunity for emotional and spiritual growth.
No one knows how long Adam and Eve were in the garden before they partook of the fruit. They communicated openly with God and He taught them. I imagine Eve deeply contemplated how she and Adam could obey both commandments. She must have wrestled with it greatly. Somehow she understood that they could not procreate without partaking of the fruit and undergoing a physical change that would subject them to death. Perhaps Adam did not fully comprehend this. When Satan came to tempt Eve, I think she had already come to the conclusion on her own that she must partake of the fruit. Her choice to partake was an act of faith and a desire to fulfill God's plan, not a succumbing to Satan's power. Once she partook of the fruit, she had to go explain to Adam why it was the only way to put God's plan for His spirit children in motion. She knew that if they remained in their immortal state, nothing would ever change, nothing would ever grow, there would be no window opened to invite God's spirit children to earth. She was a very spiritually intuitive woman; a very selfless woman to sacrifice her own perfection to serve God's purposes.
We do not always understand God's ways. We don't always understand why He asks us to do things. Adam was commanded to offer up sacrifices (Moses 5:5-7) but he didn't know why. He just knew that God told him to.
{Adam and Eve Kneeling at an Altar by Del Parson}
In our modern world where we are inundated with information and almost any question we have can be answered with a few clicks on our keyboards, we have gotten into the habit of thinking we have to have a concrete understanding of everything in order to take action. But Adam taught us the first principle of the gospel, we must have faith. Someone in Sunday School shared an idea that had been told to them by an older, wiser woman many years ago. She said, "What I understand, I love. What I don't, I must trust." As parents we ask our children to do things they don't understand. We are asking them to trust that we have their best interest in mind, that we are asking them to do specific things because our experience has taught us that those things will make them happy. Is it any different with our Father in Heaven? He asks us to trust Him and follow His commandments in faith even when we don't understand all things.
I love it when I gain new knowledge and understanding. It's one of the reasons it's so important to go to church. The discussions and teaching from those who have studied the subject extensively lead me to greater understanding that I likely would not gain sitting at home. With that new knowledge comes the beauty of feeling the Spirit. And it is that Spirit that sustains us through our other mostly ordinary days.
Mack is the funniest kid. He is serious about getting his body temperature just right.
We were playing Sorry on Sunday and he got hot, so he popped one arm out of his sweatshirt.
{Here comes the ADPD (Attention Deficit Photo Disorder) part}
Mack played really well with the rest of us for quite a bit of the game, moving his own game pieces to the appropriate spaces instead of just messing around with his guys. But then he got hungry and decided that he was done. The girls and I kept playing and it came down to this close of a game (try to ignore the fact that we've improvised for missing game pieces):
Amelia was the first to make it Home and she was pretty freakin' excited about it!
Now, back to thermoregulation.
Mack started doing the funny one-arm-out thing almost two years ago when we first moved into the big Hammond house. He wasn't hot enough to take his shirt off, he only needed a little adjustment to make things just right.
{photos from March 2012}
He doesn't do it a lot now, just occasionally. But what he does do a lot is this:
One sock on and one sock off. I am constantly finding single discarded socks all over the house.
P.S. Raise your hand if your kids use your smartphone more than you do.
Mack started this funny habit about a year ago (or at least that's the first time I took a picture of it).
I couldn't resist sharing these photos of Super Wedgie Man:
{May 2013}
If you look very closely you'll notice that he has a wooden sword tucked into his pants. All superheroes need a special weapon.
"Dude, there's something stuck to my foot."
Yeah, that's what happens when you walk around without a sock on.
The one sock behavior isn't limited to the indoors.
{June 2013}
Mack sees absolutely nothing wrong with going outside in his socks. Even if it's just one sock.
It reminds me of a certain someone who is also a little quirky about thermoregulation. She who shall not be named.
