First Day of School 2022!

We had a FANTASTIC summer but now it's back to school for Max Tatum, & Me!!!  

Quick backstory recap:  Call it a mid-life crisis but I NEEDED a change in my life.  My kids are growing up and I'm about to loose my 3rd kid and I HATE IT!!!  I also wanted to start using other parts of my piano brain and get back to performing.  So I saw that Heritage was hiring a part-time accompanist so I applied--had to make up a resume and everything as I haven't worked outside my home in 22 years:). I had to go through an interview AND an audition--there were three people applying for this job.  I was offered the job of the Heritage Academy Choir Accompanist and I accepted.   I cut back to teaching piano to only 3 days a week (instead of 4) and now I get to go to my kiddos school for a couple hours every day.  Neither one of them are even in choir but that's okay.  I get to "insert" myself into their lives,  I get to be a part of their school (which I LOVE), and I get to see them in action and watch Max crush his Senior year.  So I'm happy.  Look at my beautiful #3 and #4 babies:  Tatum in 10th Grade and Max in 12th Grade.

    We tried re-creating a few of Max's 1st day of Preschool pics:

Senior Year (2022)

1st Day of Packer Preschool (2008)

    Max & his best friend, Ricky, with their matching "Mine Craft" backpacks on the first day of school💗

Miller & Clark Come to Visit!

    It's hard to rank my most favorite thing about serving in the Branch but our Missionaries were definitely way up there.  I swear, they sent THE BEST out to our Branch and we had many opportunities to work closely along side them and feed them most weeks (some weeks more than once).  We LOVED having the missionaries in our home.  It was always my goal that the missionaries could come in our home and just be comfortable--just be a normal teenage boy at home for a Sunday dinner.  I think we accomplished this most weeks.  Dinner conversations were wild at times but gosh we had the best laughs with our Branch missionaries.  

    Two of our favs--Elder Miller & Clark (both from UT)--came back to AZ this past weekend for a visit and they stayed with us in our home.  It was AMAZING having them back in our home as normal guys this time.  We of course fed these giants (Miller is 6'9" and Clark is 6'4") and many more laughs were had.  Max & Ashton E. (both young men in the Branch) spent the most time with these guys.  They played a lot of basketball--both on a court and in our pool--and even went to Golfland Sunsplash for a night out.  We laugh that Max at 6'3" was the "baby" of the group (because Ashton is 6'7")😂

Laser Tag Names???

Frog on the Golf Course...

Bumper Boats--Ultra competitive apparently:)

Late night swimming & milkshakes

Poor Miller was the first to fall asleep😂

    

    Having the missionaries in our home was THE BEST THING for our boys.  Neither one of our boys ever grew up saying they wanted to serve missions.  It's been a struggle especially as our boys have gotten older.  But these missionaries have shown our boys that you can still be YOU on your mission.  You do not have to go out and be a cookie-cutter/robot missionary.  Being YOU is always perfect.  Miller & Clark have had a PROFOUND influence on my Max.  Something definitely "clicked" with him this past weekend hanging out with these guys.  They REALLY want to see Max go on a mission and they did something that was SOOO unexpected and that I'll NEVER be able to pay them back for.  These are two college-age boys and they went and each took $100 of their own money ($200 total) and left it in an envelope on Max's bed before they left.  To say Max was surprised when he found it later is a HUGE understatement.  We were ALL in tears at this gesture.

"If returned w/out proper use: 
2% interest monthly and needs to be
returned in person in cash💗"

    I LOVE that they did this soo much and I have a feeling that Max will NOT want to return this money in person.  He will NOT let his guys down.  How I wish I could give these boys each their $100 back as I know it was a HUGE sacrifice, I have to allow this.  If Max does go on a mission here in the next year or so, it will largely be due to these two.  LOVE THESE BOYS LIKE MY OWN.💗💗💗