Neighbors

We have had some good times with the neighbors during the winter months.  Winter drags on around here & a night or two of playing cards, watching movies, football, and eating way too much seem to make the time more enjoyable.  The other night Somsens & Bodilys came over to share Jordans birthday cake with us.  We have a great time & it is fun to have little kids in the house again.  Here are a few pix:

Becca & Porter getting the ice cream cake ready

Soleil liked my scarf - she is suck a cutie

Megan & Zippy

Megan with Porter & Zip on her back - the kids all love Megi

Cheese - what hams

Mara entertaining Soleil

We can't wait for Emma to start coming over too!

I never seem to get pictures of Bryce & Shawnae - I'll work on that.  Thanks for coming over to hang out  - it is nice to have good friends around.

Prom?

The boys are starting to ask for their big prom dates.  Seth doesn't usually get in too big of a hurry, but he was a little quicker this year.  I'm sure he didn't want to lose his chance for taking Breanne by waiting around too long.  So he announces to me last night that I am helping him ask right now.  Well, O.K. then - at least it will be done.  We planned on putting the balloons on her front steps, but the wind was strong and she wouldn't be home until after dark.  Seth spoke with her mother & we too the goods over to TMS where her dad was playing basketball.  It turned out cute - and now we wait for an answer.

candy poster

mile high ballons

Who could resist that face?

All-Conference Team

Fifth District 2A All-Conference team

   Player of the Year

   James Frankos (Soda)

   1st Team

   Seth Stoor (Soda) Dallas Turnbow (West Side) Tanner Smart (West Side) Jake Ponce (Aberdeen) Tyrell Hubbard (Malad)

   2nd Team

   Kaden Smith (Soda) James McMurray (Soda) Jordan Beutler (West Side) Kyler Austin (West Side) Mike Wynn (Aberdeen) Skyler Thorpe (Malad)

   Honorable Mention

   Tanner Young (Soda) JD Cook (West Side) Zeke Uribe (Aberdeen) John Anderson (Malad) Clint Tubbs (Malad)

Snow

SNOW - Enough already!  I started this post a few weeks ago.  These pictures are all off Mara's camera.  She spent her entire spring break feeding cows and shoveling snow.  I felt bad, but she kept reminding us that it was a break from homework.  Next year, maybe she will  go play with her friends.  She had Shelby take this video of the two of them shoveling off the roof  It was kind of funny when the big drift went.

The ice just keeps getting thicker

The front walk

I'm not sure if you can tell how deep that snow is from the pictures.  We have have 4 feet on the level according to Buster's measuring stick in the hayfield.  It was down a little until the big storm hit yesterday.  It was a whopper.  I got up early to take Megan to drivers ed.  We were doing great following the plow, until he decided to turn around on Chub Flats - what, really Dave?  It did get better about 8 miles later when the plow from town came along.  Megan was late, but I told her to tell her teacher that she learned more about driving that day than he could teach her.  Don't drive to town until the plow had done his job.  Someone said it is spring - I don't think so!

capital

Once again, I'm way behind on the bloggin' - These pictures are from our Friday morning in Boise.  We headed up to see the capital building & show Mom & the girls the renovations.  It was fun to take Jade & Jenna along.  Mara had to stay at the hotel room and get her book report done & turned in.

State Seal in the sidewalk

Jade, Shelby, Grandma Petersen & Jenna by the bell

we sat in the balcony and watched the senate for a few minutes

Jade & Shelby look like they are napping - Jenna, well, she spotted the camera - Cheese!

Looking up in the rotunda - it is a beautiful building

Ringing the bell:

It was a fun morning exploring the capital - we have gone 2 years in a row and still need to take Seth.  Not sure when that will be - if you get a chance, go check it out.

Shawnae

This is cool - this is my neighbor, Relief Society President, Zippy & Soliel's mom,  & one of my best friends - she's pretty awesome:

Area teacher vying for national award

Soda Springs teacher encourages students to pursue life-long fitness

BY KENDRA EVENSEN

   kevensen@journalnet.com  

   SODA SPRINGS — Snowshoeing, fly fishing, kayaking and geocaching may not be part of a typical high school physical education class, but Shawnae Somsen is the type of teacher who always thinks outside of the gym.

   That’s why the Soda Springs High School teacher — who goes out of her way to help kids gain an appreciation of life-long health and fitness by introducing them to a variety of activities — is in the running for the National High School Physical Education Teacher of the Year Award. She has already taken honors on the state and Northwest District levels, and is now competing with four other teachers from across the country for the national award. She’ll find out how she has fared during a national convention in California later this month.

   Although Somsen has received a lot of praise for her efforts, she says the awards simply push her to become a better teacher.

   “I am humbled,” she said, adding that the accolades have overwhelmed her more than anything. “You want to teach up to those standards at all times and it pushes you.”

   But Somsen appreciates the reminder to do her personal best, after all, that’s what she teaches her students to do.

   Somsen teaches a variety of health and physical education courses at the high school, but all of them gold or silver and I want to get that across to kids,” she said.

   One way she does that is by encouraging them to try new things, especially activities they can participate in throughout their lives. With the help of grant money, she’s started an outdoor recreation course to expose her students to unique activities like snowshoeing and disc golf.

   “We live in a recreational paradise,” she said, adding that kids need to learn to use those resources to their full capacity.

   While teaching them about unique sports, she also helps them to learn survivals skills and the importance of preserving the land they enjoy. Her students have helped the Idaho Department of Fish and Game plant new vegetation for deer habitat restoration, they built a disk golf course at Kelly Park and recently started a recycling program.

   “I educate them on how to preserve the land,” she said, adding that she also teaches them how to enjoy it.

   Although Somsen also teaches more ordinary PE classes, she still focuses her lessons on activities to help her students set and attain their personal goals in an effort to promote life-long fitness.

   Somsen said she’s always on the lookout to find new ways to motivate students, which is one of the major reasons she enjoys participating in the award conferences she attends. Mingling with other teachers in her profession helps her learn about new activities to use in the classroom, she said.

   “It’s about finding a little spice to add to my curriculum,” she said. “The award is just extra fluff.”

SUBMITTED PHOTO

   Shawnae Somsen, a teacher at Soda Springs High School, is competing with four other teachers for the National High School Physical Education Teacher of the Year Award.

Soda 62 McCall 55

First game over & we won.  It was quite a show for my boy - it was crazy!!  Four Cardinal players in double figures & Seth pulled away as the leading scorer.  He absolutely shot the lights out of that gym.  6 out of nine at the 3 point line, add in 1 foul shot , and 1 layup = 21 points. Go Seth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I tried to take mostly video of this game & got a couple of good ones:

Foul Line

watch the corner

Seth feeds it in to Sean

My boy is awesome:

Final Score

Seth did a fantastic job - boy are they going to be after him today - let's get this one Cards!
Soda Springs vs. Melba tonight @ 6:15 at Capital High School - Come Cheer our boys to victory!!!

Tomorrow it Starts!!

Tomorrow is the big start of the state tournament - Wahoo!  I can't wait to be up in Boise and watch my boy play ball, but I'm about to tear up knowing that he only has 3 games left (that's positive thinking - we will win tomorrow so we get to play 3).  I can't believe that this is here already.  The boys left on the big yellow school bus this morning:

Students cheering them off.

TMS sent them off with a cheer & then they headed to Thirkill School.

Their Mommas were at the edge of town - we love our boys!

 Don't forget - if you can't make it to Boise - they are showing the games on the internet - www.idahosports.com - click on gamestreams & cheer our Cardinals from home!!
Go Cardinals - Work hard & make us proud!!!

You're A Good Man Charlie Brown

Megan signed up for musical this tri-mester and WOW - she is awesome!  I know I'm her mom and I'm totally biased, but trust me, I'm right on this one.  She got one of the lead roles as a freshman - cool, right!  She is cast as Patty - this was before Peppermint Patty came along.  Patty is one of the older kids from the cartoon.  I can't believe they double scheduled the play at the same time as state basketball.  I have gotten to watch dress rehearsals & the matinée for the schools is today.  So here goes with the pictures - you know me!  Except, the lighting stinks for getting very good shots.

Patty & Charlie Brown(a.k.a. Parker Daniel)

Snoopy (Breanne Kline) & Patty

She learned that pout a long time ago - I'm glad it came in handy now :)

this play is really fun!

Baseball scene (with Bailey McCulloch)

Team!

Cute in her little pigtails - they said to dress her like a little girl - I think we succeeded!

Patty, Linus & Lucy were awesome in this scene 

 Happiness Is....one of those songs I want to sing along to.

The Cast & Crew - You are all Awesome!

We don't get to watch her performance on Thursday evening :( - I'm a little bitter since we even went and asked if the play would be this weekend before she signed up.  So, please help me out - if you are in Soda - go cheer on my little thespian at 7:00pm Thursday night.  The other cast performs Wednesday & Friday evenings.  The kids have worked so hard & it shows - They are Awesome!!

What a sight!

It must have been quite a sight - poor Seth is the only one with a view.  O.K., last night when we got home Shelby told us that Seth & I were supposed to take the truck down to the ranch.  For obvious reasons they need to borrow our truck - no problem because it just stays in the driveway most of the time anyway.  So at 10:30 p.m. Seth threw on his boots and we headed out the door.  I just put a jacket on and ran out the door - big mistake.  It is calving season Jill, be a little more prepared - DUH!  We got out on the road and saw the lights out on the feedyard.  Grandpa obviously had something going on - Grandma was out there with the 4-wheeler too - a cow had calved - of course not on the nice warm straw pile - that would make sense!  Seth ran right out to give a hand & I followed a few minutes later, remember Seth put on his muck boots & I was still wearing these:

Note the lack of traction!

Yup as we were trying to help get a cow to the barn to try and convince her she should take care of her recently born offspring, I came across one of these:

By the way - have you ever googled "cow poop"?  Not pretty - anyway, when the fresh cow poop is on the snow it is pretty slippery.  Enough said.  You can just imagine how quickly I was flat on my back  right on top of the freshly deposited pile.  My loving son just shook his head & I'm pretty sure some of the cows were laughing!  Believe it or not, I really do like helping with the cows.  Although after nights like last night - I'm not sure I'm any help at all!

It's just not as glamorous as they make it in the movies!

watch out world

I just got back from the D.M.V. with Megan - she is officially a permit holder.  She is floating on air -Watch out World!