I missed it...

Jessica brought it up to me the other day. I didn't take her picture on the first day of school. I had actually remembered about it a couple days before and felt soooo bad that I didn't want to say anything to her about it. What kind of mother misses taking a picture of her kids as they go off to that first day of a new school year? Not this one. I had never, ever missed the chance to document that special day with a picture in the history of the lives of all six of my kids. I have many pictures of smiles of excitement and/or nervousness, frowns, just plain sleepiness,
and that "how dare you take my picture" look--all of it.
But somehow I missed it this year.

I blame it on Seminary. Who is thinking about taking pictures before it's even 6:00 in the morning? It's too early and it's pitch dark and you're rushing out the door.

So this morning I noticed that she was wearing the same shirt she wore on that first day, two weeks ago now. So I ran to get the camera and coaxed a sleepy smile out of her.
I told her that we'll just pretend that it's her first day of 10th grade.

What's Happening?

So what's happening?
Lots of things going on in our house and in our lives.
Yes, I'm teaching Seminary.
No, it's not really as scary as I thought it would be.
Yes, the hardest part about it is getting up at 5:20 a.m. I'm trying to get to bed earlier at night, but I really don't know if it makes a big difference if it's 10:00 or 11:00. I'm still tired, tired during the day and try to enjoy a little power snooze in the afternoon. That's legal, right?

Jonathan has moved out of the house and into an apartment at the Living Center in East Lansing. They call it "The L.C." I think he's really enjoying it.
Since he has no money he's only taking one class at this time and is in the process of finding a job. Believe it or not, so far he has one part-time job and has had something like 3 or 4 more interviews at other places. Hallelujah there are actually JOBS out there to be had!!

And Jordan's mission papers are in and sitting out in Salt Lake City
RIGHT NOW!!
Let's sing another Hallelujah!!
Some say we should be getting the big white envelope in the mail within two weeks and then we'll know where he'll be spending the next two years.
Right now Jordan is in Indiana helping Jake and Marie out with the kids and helping Jake remodel their kitchen. Marie broke her foot a few weeks ago and has needed someone there with her to chase after the girls. Gina and I have been trading weeks, but since I'm teaching Seminary now and Jessica is back in school I'm not able to go again right now. They're paying Jordan to help out, which will be great to have when it's time to go missionary shopping.

And Jessica has started 10th grade.
Wow.
She's been so busy with volleyball practice and games and homework that I hardly see her. Why does time have to go by so quickly?

Musings

I love reading when other people post new news on their blogs but hate doing it myself. Ah well, nobody reads mine anyway so no reason to beat myself up about it, right? I've finally figured out that I have two gmail accounts and in order to function on this blog I have to use the one I never go to. Apparently there's no way possible to fix this, so I'll have to get in the habit of going to that other one whenever I so much as want to comment on somebody's blog. What a pain.

So I guesstimate I've been in Young Women for about a year now, and what happens? I get a call from a stake high councilman with a calling from the stake to teach early morning Seminary. Are you sure you've got the right Viraldo? The correct gender? I am SO not a morning person! Strange as it may seem, getting up in the mornings is the thing I'm most worried about.
What about my bed head?

I've been working on memorizing 'The Living Christ' for my YW Faith Value Project in Personal Progress. What a powerful testimony! I pretty much have it memorized (with much help from above) and 'passed it off' to Jessica the other night. She seemed proud of her old mom. I plan to try to go over it often so as not to lose it after all that work.

Now I'm beginning to work on memorizing the Scripture Mastery from Joseph Smith History, something like verses 6 through 11. Bishop W has issued a challenge to all Seminary students to memorize it by the end of August. By passing it off to him by then, they can earn a bowling party with ice cream. It's the longest Scripture Mastery in the whole Seminary program, and I've decided to take the challenge also. I'm actually enjoying all of this memorizing and look forward to working on it every night before bed.

Aren't there statistics out there about how memorizing does amazing things for your brain and can save one from suffering the effects of Alzheimers or something like that?
I am totally counting on it.

So, we've recently found another perk to living in this lovely little vacation house we're in. It's less than half a mile from here to the entrance to Pioneer Park! On four days last week we simply walked down the road a little ways and soon found ourselves deep in the woods of the county park and campground, right on the edge of beautiful Lake Michigan.

It's always an interesting walk, whether we're lucky enough to see deer like we've done twice now or just the campers and all the get-up they take camping with them. I love to hear the crackling of campfires and to smell the smoke as it drifts through the air. I love to see the rays of sunshine as they filter through the trees.

Sometimes we walked around the campground and other times straight through the park and down the 28 steps to the beach.

It reminds me of when we used to camp when the older boys were younger. It almost makes me want to camp again. However, we no longer have our motor home and the semi comfort it provided. If we were to go camping now, it would be tents and sleeping bags on the ground. I don't think I would do well.

Maybe I just need to think of our little house as a cabin in the woods--which it is, almost. Plus, the kids just dug me a fire pit out in front. So maybe we're camping already and I should be happy with that?

And we can still just take a walk down to the beach...

Senior Excitement

Basically this blog post will be pictures of all the Senior Excitement we've had in the past month. Jordan graduated from North Muskegon High School on Friday, May 28, 2010. These pictures are from his Baccalaureate, graduation, and the open house we had for him on June 5th.

Baccalaureate
Jordan and Betsy

Senior band members

Graduation
Jordan and Betsy

Last performance

Jordan Thomas Viraldo!

North Muskegon Graduates

Open house displays
by Jordan

Some of our guests

Jordan and Jen

The Three Big Sisters

We had some fun with the three big sisters before and after the new babies came. They're going to be three big helpers for Mommy, that's for sure!

We made funny faces...

and played pig pile on Aunt Jessie...

and took some silly pictures.

Nicolette with a tortilla hat!

Isabelle and Aunt Jessie

And little Emmeline "sharing" Aunt Jessica's Sonic slush!

And later on, we went swimming at Grandpa and Uncle Jordan's hotel!

Our New Twins

I guess it's time to play proud grandma and blog about my brand new twin granddaughters!

We found out at Thanksgiving that Jake and Marie were expecting again and would be due in April. I remember thinking at the time that boy, she sure was popping out quickly this time. I believe it was January when we found out it was twins. Girl twins!

Alixandra Rose and Genevieve Marie were born on Wednesday, April 14, 2010.

Alixandra was 6lb 10oz and 18.5 inches...


and Genevieve was 7lb even and 18.75 inches.

So tiny, yet hard to believe
they both occupied the same tiny space inside poor Mommy Marie!

Genevieve and Alixandra

Jessica's Turn

I've noticed that Jordan has been the subject of my last few posts. And with his high school graduation coming up soon he'll be in the headlines again! But I've had some fun today looking at a few pictures of my beautiful daughter from the past couple of years, and look how much she has grown up!

She wouldn't be very happy to see these pictures published on my blog, I'm sure. "My hair looks horrible!" is her usual reasoning. Well, I think she's a beautiful young woman and I'm so very proud of her. I hope that some day soon she will see herself that way and be happy with who she is...





A beautiful daughter of God.

A New Eagle

So here is Jordan, our newest Eagle Scout. After years of work and many hours of service, he finally made it to his goal. There was a time when even he didn't think he would finish. But as he said later, he felt that if he didn't reach his goal of obtaining Eagle, all those years of work and all of those service hours would be to no avail--almost a waste.

And here are my three Eagle Scouts!

So this is the end of the line for our Boy Scouts, our fifth and last son. They may choose to continue in the program as adults, but as Boy Scout parents, this is it for us.
We're proud of you, boys.