I love my city

 

I've been thinking a lot lately about how much I love where I live...

 I have been a lifelong resident of Taylorsville, except for two years I lived away at college and the first few beginning years of my marriage when we lived in Sugarhouse. Other than that(about 30 years!), I have always called Taylorsville home. I LOVE my city! It is such a great place to live. I love how close it is to everything, the freeways, shopping, entertainment, etc. I also love how the people who live here love their city as well. We have a very well run city government with people who only want the best for our city. The longer I live here, the more I know I don't ever want to live anywhere else. Another asset to living here is the great schools my children get to attend. There is a lot of pride in our education, schools, and teachers.

 Here is Taylorsville High School, my old stomping grounds. I was a sophomore senator, a JV cheerleader, and a Varsity cheerleader during my years here. I made some wonderful friends who helped keep me on the right path. I had amazing teachers who challenged me to learn, grow, and become my best.

Last week, I saw advertised in our awesome Taylorsville paper, that the drama department was putting on the play "Metamorphosis," a play all based on Greek mythology. Mitchel, my 11 year old,  LOVES Greek mythology so I thought it would be fun for him and I to go on a date to the theater. It was so fun to pull up to my old high school and see that wonderful things are still happening there. The play was well performed and interesting and we both loved it.

When the play was over, we wandered through the halls as I showed Mitchel my old locker, where I used to eat lunch, and the picture of the SBO's from my year. It was such a fun trip down memory lane with my son! There were new things in the school such as a huge Warrior statue that was really awesome, but mostly it was just how I remembered it, and all those memories were good. I look forward to the day when my children can call Taylorsville High School home.

 Max, my 9 year old, has been privileged to be playing for the Taylorsville little league team for a few years now. He is starting to get quite a collection of Taylorsville baseball caps! This is his newest one  he will be wearing this Spring on the 9 year old super-league team. They will be playing two games each Saturday competing against other 9 year old teams from all over the valley. He will also be competing in two tournaments, one in St. George over spring break, and one in West Jordan. I love that Max is loving baseball, and he's pretty dang good too! Taylorsville is known for their amazing baseball program and now I know why. The men who coach are so passionate about it and really want to teach the kids to love baseball. It's amazing to me how much of their time they devote to Taylorsville baseball. I feel so lucky that my son is benefiting from their dedication.

So I am a lover of Taylorville through and through! I had my sister-in-law make me these so that I could be the ultimate fan at all of Max's baseball games this season. I feel so blessed to be able to live here, work here, and raise my family here. Taylorsville is a really great city! (and we have awesome colors!)

Jan/Feb

I realize I haven't blogged in a long time. To be honest, I've lost interest. The last few months have pretty much been life as usual. That doesn't mean it hasn't been great and fun for my family and myself, there just isn't much that I thought other people would want to hear about. I post most of my cute pictures on Facebook, so they are pretty much the same ones that are on this post. But regardless, I thought I would document at little bit of what has happened in our family over the last two months.

The three oldest participated in Jr. Jazz basketball and loved it. Mike coached Mason's team and was the assistant to Max. Most of our week nights were spent getting each boy to their various practices and Saturdays consisted of a tag team effort between Mike and I to get them to their games.

 The big bonus of Jr. Jazz is the actual Jazz game. We were excited because the team we got to see play the Jazz was good and it was supposed to be a competitive game. Unfortunately, it turned out to be one of the worst played games of Jazz history and they got totally blown out. So the game was BORING but the kids loved their free hot dog and drink and just being at the ESA.

 I was proud of how hard they played and practiced. I'm also grateful to have a husband who values sports and supports his boys in their efforts. Soon Miles will join the ranks of a Jr. Jazz player too and then life will really get interesting during basketball season.

 Mitchel has been learning about ancient cultures in Social Studies at school. One of his homework assignments was to "mummify" a family member using the mummifying method he has learned at school. Mason was a willing participant and Mitchel demonstrated the procedures to us, even pulling out the brain with a hook!

 I had my 36th birthday. We celebrated with a lunch out to Chuck-A-Rama with my family, my parents, my in-laws, and my sister. I ate myself silly and felt sick afterward, but I enjoyed every minute of it.

 I don't mind getting older. In fact I have quite enjoyed my 30's. I do feel a little weird that I am now closer to 40 than 30. I certainly don't feel it except for the fact that I have begun to hate loud music, loud commercials, loud talkers, and anything that is too loud. When I was in Jr. High, the back of our cheerleading sweatshirts said, "If it's too loud, you're too old!" Well, I guess that is proof that I am getting old!

 My mom threw a Valentines party for the family and so all the aunts, uncles, and cousins were there sharing in the love. On the actual Valentines day, my kids got some love from me with some new Skylanders for their video game and a trail of hearts with all the things I love about them.

After waiting for months for pair of batman pajamas to come that I had ordered online, Mason finally could dress up like the Dark Knight and be a partner in crime prevention with his little brother.( FYI: NEVER order anything from Totsy.com! It seriously took 8 weeks for these $13 pajamas to come when I probably could have gotten them cheaper and much faster from my local Walmart.) They have both loved their costumes though and spend as much time as I will allow them running around like superheros together. It's pretty dang cute.

 

 

I also decided that it was time to get rid of our "baby" room since I no longer have a baby. Mason wanted a "Rock Star Room" so we spent President's weekend painting his room a light gray and moving all the furniture around. They got new bedding and new decorations for their walls. We are not quite done with the transformation, but I no longer have a "nursery" at my house.

Other more mundane things that have been happening is school and work and such. I absolutely LOVE my job teaching reading to the 5th and 6th graders in my classes. I look forward everyday to going to "work." All of my boys are excelling in school with straight A's, high test scores, and amazing math and reading abilities. Mitchel's favorite subjects are math and science, Max loves writing, Mason loves both reading and math, and Miles now knows how to write his name and a few other words, all his shapes and can do connect the dots. I feel so blessed to have these smart children who love to learn. I can't keep enough books in the house and we visit the library at least once a week to stock up. Mike has been playing on three different basketball leagues this winter, so with the boys' basketball and his own, his evenings have stayed pretty busy. We have been incredibly healthy this winter, with no one missing a day of school or work with sickness. I don't know how that happened seeing with all the junk that was going around, but I count my many blessings that we are all healthy. So, all in all, life remains good at the Harker house. Things are going to start picking up with Spring almost here. Max will be playing on his Giants baseball team along with a Taylorsville super league team. That means four games a week for him. He will also be involved in some tournaments that will take us to St. George for spring break. Mason is also going to start coach pitch baseball so he is excited about that. Hopefully the mornings will warm up and I can get outside to start running again. So I'm looking forward to brighter, warmer, spring days so I can say adios to this LONG winter!