Just super proud of my boy putting himself out there and asking girls to High School dances. But being the mom of the boy, I'm not really allowed to follow along and take my own pics. So these are all I get! But I know I would have done a WAY better job than "the friend who is kinda in photography" who took their actual pictures😏. But it's all good. They had a great time and I sure enjoyed getting all the details the next morning. Max and Ricky are just a party.
Tatum was invited to one of her softball teammate's Quince. It was seriously the MOST FANCY party I have ever attended! HOLY MOLY!!! Everything was so beautiful and her dress was incredible--she was knocking over chairs all night as she was trying to greet her guests. But it was such a fun night and I'm so glad we went. We hung out with our awesome head Coach Vega and his wife as they explained everything that was happening that night--everything was in Spanish so we were a little lost.😂. Amazing food and live music. We stayed until about 8:30 pm but the party/dancing was scheduled to go until 2 am!!! Us poor white folk can't dance that late:)
Well it seemed that everyone had grand plans for fall break--even Max got to take off on his school trip to NYC. No such plans for Tatum & I. We decided to head over to my dad's house for a couple days to help him do some deep-cleaning/de-cluttering. NOT a job for the faint at heart.
First room on the list--the laundry room. This is 40 years of lint and dust and also some crazy sponge paint job that I did way back in the 90s when that was a cool thing to do.
Before pics:
After pics:
Next up was the kitchen. Tatum, the brave soul, tackled the freezer and fridge all by herself. Quite the adventure. First of all, the freezer looked like a murder scene--it was just vegetable/beet juice that my mom used to drink all over the bottom of the freezer:
We also threw away a TON of food--pictured is "breakfast patties" that had expired in 2006--before Tatum was even born😝😂
The kitchen about did us in. We removed at LEAST 1,000 pounds of garbage, old food, tupperware containers with no lids, other questionable things. We also took quite the load of pressure cookers and LOTS of canning jars over to the local Goodwill. We wanted to tackle the pantry as well, but it's got to be baby steps with my dad. (And I totally forgot to take after pics of the kitchen).
While we were there, we did get over to Mexico to get some prescription meds and eat at "The Pink Store." We also got to help get the donkeys back in after escaping the front yard--it took my dad and I plus 3 sheriffs deputies to get them back in...😅. ALWAYS an adventure to be had in Deming. We'll head back at Christmas to tackle my mom's obsessive/compulsive food storage pantry/apartment.
Naughty Donkeys!!!
And I usually love ALL puppies, but this new one of my dads....well, she's a bit too much for me--good thing my dad likes her😂
How is my baby 14 and in High School??? This girl just continues to make us proud every single day. She works harder than any of my other kids on her grades at school and it shows in her grades--pretty much straight A+s and she is also currently tied for the #1 spot in her Freshman class. And she's a star on the softball field both in her school and her Chandler Rec team. Cannot wait to see what this girl does in life but for now, I LOVE having her home with me.
This year, Tatum wanted Olive Garden for her birthday dinner. Then we had a quiet birthday dinner/cake at home on Sunday with our Missionaries. (We will hopefully be taking a Disneyland trip in January celebrating both Tatum & Max's birthdays--as long as Chris still has a job at this end of this year:)
So I guess this girl gets up on a Tuesday morning--2nd day of college classes at BYU (Tuesday, August 31st)--and decides to go and test out of "Functional Piano,"--which she did with flying colors and flair:) Then has her BIG audition for chair placement for the entire year and she lands 1st CHAIR/PRINCIPAL Oboist of the BYU Philharmonic AND the BYU Chamber Orchestra!!! Which also means she will be touring Europe next summer (2022) with these groups. WHAT?! WHO DOES THAT??? Oh yeah, she also had to work her shift at Chick-fil-A and didn't get done until 10:00 pm--it was her fellow oboists who were texting her to congratulate her is how she found out. She's pretty much Superhuman. I remember once after a high school concert, one of her fellow classmates came up to her--after she had played incredible oboe and accompanied multiple people on piano--and told her, "GIRL! You were touched by the finger of God!" And at first I thought this was a strange compliment, but now I absolutely agree with her.
Incredible, beautiful Carlie Mae. Congrats baby girl. Way to come back from your 18 month mission and get right back up on top. Love you to the moon and back.
YAY for Heritage Academy starting school ON TIME AND MASKLESS this year!!! We love our school! First day of school: Monday, August 2, 2021. Max in 11th grade and Tatum in 9th.
This is the Meeker family residing in beautiful, sunny Chandler, AZ. Chris and I have 4 beautiful kids: Carlie (23), Ethan (21), Maxwell (18), and Tatum (16). Thanks for stopping by:)
