sweethearts ball

Grace's Sweethearts Dance

Grace had been thinking about this "Girls' Choice" dance for months.  She decided to invite Lasse, who is our friend and neighbor.  Lasse will be here for four more months as an exchange student with Layne and Julie as his host family.  We all love this boy!!!  He's very intelligent, speaks great English with a hint of an accent, has a very witty sense of humor and such manners! He has been raised well.  I would love to tell his parents that one day.  Lasse and Grace have both been very excited about the dance and it was fun to watch them planning throughout the recent weeks.  Grace double-dated with Kazlee, her friend in our ward who welcomed her with open arms the very first time we even visited the ward before we'd made an offer on this home.  They had such a great night, all four of them!

Lasse had a little help on selecting his colors for Grace's wrist corsage. I texted her a photo of part of the dress.  It was perfection!

It's always fun to watch this part of the date... both are so nervous about the flowers, no matter who the date is.

 

Usually, it's me who pins the flower on the boy, but the pictures wouldn't look quite the same if I was in them!

 

Lasse was such a gentleman!  He said over and over how beautiful Grace looked.  The fact that they are such good friends made this a guaranteed good time for them both!  I love this shot!

They both look so sharp!

They also both look very comfortable together.  I didn't sense the nervousness in either of them.

I think that my favorite thing was that Doug pulled his phone out and was taking pictures before and after Lasse came.  He tears up when he sees the girls growing so quickly.  And Doug using his cellphone camera... will miracles never cease!?

 

Of course, we have to have the "silly" pictures... They both thought "Ninja" instantly!

 

The flowers were a perfect match!  Thanks to McKenna, our friend/neighbor from Smithfield, who manages the Lee's florist.  I think that she may have had a little something to do with that.  Also, we loved the touch of a Hershey's kiss in the flower box!

 So cute together!

 

Walking out the door, Grace said that she'd bring her coat but I don't think that she ever put it on.

Doug's taking more pix of his girl!

 

 She is quite the confident girl.  I'm glad for that!  Truly a beautiful daughter of God.  She radiates her light!

My favorite shot of Grace... just because it's "her".  Just before Lasse arrived, she said to me, "I can't believe that I'm at this wonderful part of my life!  I love it!"  and she does!

 

That dress!  That long, tall body!  She's beautiful inside and out!

 

This dance was not at Grace's school.  It was at Lasse's.  The kids in the ward all attend it.  Zeej attends it.  Grace does not, but she felt totally comfortable, as she's getting to know kids at both schools from all of the things that they do together.

 

 okay, one more.  This one's for Carol!  She knows why...;)

My favorite shot of the night!  They are such good friends.  I love it!  Seriously, we all get teary-eyed when we think of June coming and Lasse going back to Germany.  What a delightful boy he is.  This morning, Grace's first words were, "Lasse is such a gentleman!  I loved last night."  It's not a crush at all... just two good friends sharing a special experience together.  I'm glad that Grace chose to take Lasse to this girl's choice dance!

 

They left and went over to Daniel's for photos at his home.  This staircase is so beautiful for this type of picture!  Love it!  The all look so sharp!

I'd never met Daniel, but when he came in for the latenight dessert after the dance, he immediately shook my hand and introduced himself to me.  What a nice young man.

 

Cute, cute!  Grace told me that while they were having dinner, Daniel asked them when they had their first kiss and she and Lasse both started laughing very hard.  "Oh, no!  It's not like that at all!"  To me, that said that Daniel could feel how comfortable Grace and Lasse are.  (He did hug her goodnight though.)

 

Just before the actual dinner and dance.  Dinner was at Cafe Sabor before the dance.  I'm so thankful that Melanie, Kaizlee's mother and my friend, sent me some of the group shots!

 

How thankful I also am for teens who are patient with mom's who love pictures!  They arrived at our home at about 11:15 for brownie and strawberry trifles.  This shot, I used the flash, but the candlelit room and the cute and simple table got lots of "wows" from them.  They were all four very gracious!

 

As a mom, it's such a wonderful feeling to have your children making good choices of friends and great wholesome activities!  These kids really are amazing!  I'm so happy for good choices!

Life is good!  So is being a mother... and so are good choices!!

work, a meeting, a brunch, a women's conference, a day date, a dance, a late night dessert and super bowl prep! all in a day! yikes!

Life is so busy and so good!  I remember when the babes were younger and it was really hard to squeeze in time to blog, but I managed to do it every single day.  Then I cut back to weekdays and Sundays.  Then weekdays and sometimes Sunday.  Today, life is so busy that I'm doing good to do five days a week.  I never dreamed that I could be any busier than with three young kids at home and three bigs on their own.  But, today, with three teens, it's insane!  And I love it!

So far, it's been a wonderful weekend!  Friday, I spent the morning running errands, picking up some of my Super Bowl food before the crowds for the basics, then Kara and I had a spontaneous lunch date.  I love it when that happens!  We were both free in five minutes and met at El Toro for a fabulous 90 minute visit before she went back to work and I headed to a Relief Society planning meeting.  How I love my time with Kara... every time!  I'm serving on the committee for our home ward, although I don't get to attend very often.  What a blessing to have a little bit of a connection with some of the ward sisters still!  We finished in time for me to run to Taipan and pick up a pitcher for my cotton, which I have been looking for since fall.  I was thrilled to find this one!  It's perfect for the living room!


Doug came home from work and we have been trying to find some time alone for a little date.  Between kids and church and and and... it's been three weeks since we've had a real date.  And when we were deciding what to do, we both acknowledged that ZJ has been home every night this week while Quayd and Grace have been on the run all week.  So, we invited her to join us for our date.  We ended up going to see "The Finest Hour", a true story from 1951.  Very impressive show and incredible story!  After the movie, we all voted and ended up having dinner at the Crepery, then went to Sam's Club for a few things before heading to Smithfield to get Quayd and Grace.  A fun night!

We came home and were all in bed before ten oclock!  Literally!  Grace is still coughing and she's worn out by nighttime. We're all running in so many directions that no one minds going to bed early!

Our Saturday was the busiest day of the week so far!  Doug went to work at 6:45.  I took Grace to her Employee Meeting at 8:45 and Doug picked her up at 10:25, on his way home from work.  He only worked part of the day because we were supposed to help with the meal for 280 YSA girls at the Stake Women's Conference. Doug and Grace pulled into the driveway just as her friends were arriving for the day date of the Girl's Choice Dance.  They were literally in the driveway before Grace was out of the van.  She raced downstairs, put her face on and was dressed and out the door in ten minutes for their brunch date and then ice skating. I never noticed how tall Lasse is!

Following Brunch at Kazlee's house, they played table games then went off to ice skate.

The minute that Doug changed and I'd taken a few pictures of Lasse and Grace, we were out the door and at the Stake Center to get busy helping.  The tables were set by the YSA girls and the cultural hall was lovely!  LOVELY!  Doug and the men helpers raced off to pick up the food that was catered.  We mixed the salad, put the food out to be served, filled glasses with ice water, cut the tops off the bread bowls for the soup, busy work.  We were able to listen over the speaker to Curtis Jacobs talk and then the keynote speaker.  The messages were wonderful!  The meal was so tasty!  Doug and I left the stake center shortly after the meal was served because there was a YSA ward in charge of clean-up and they were being fed before they cleaned!   Sweet!

Doug and I were home and taking a nap for about twenty minutes when Grace came in from ice-skating to begin getting ready for the dance.

I realized at about 4:00 that I had not yet hemmed her dress!  So, I took thirty minutes to do that while she did her hair and make-up.  Lasse came over (he is Layne and Julie's German exchange student) for pictures.  He was so cute!  Grace came into the room all dressed and beautiful and his reaction was, "Wow! You look so beautiful!"  He must have told her five times.  It was really sweet. 

We took a ton of pictures and they had a blast while we were taking them.  Gabby, Layne and Julie's daughter came over to take pix for them because they were not home yet from an all day affair.  Gabby's fun personality always makes everything even better!  I took a ton of pix and will share more tomorrow, but this post is getting too long and they'll be back in a bit for latenight dessert, so I need to be done!  We've been cooking all evening for Super Bowl Supper and making their dessert.  What a busy and long day!  I'm ready to hit the hot tub and hit the hay!

But, I HAVE to share a few pictures of Grace and Lasse!

Here's Grace before Lasse arrived.  She's kind of cute! 

I love that she chooses to wear a modest dress!

 Cute couple!  I love this boy!  We don't want him to go back to Germany in June!

One last highlight from our day was a doorbell ringing at about 9PM.  I wondered if the kids were home from the dance early, but we were doorbell ditched and a plate of goodies was left on our doorstep from some anonymous wonderful friends from the YSA with this note on it.  Honestly, I've never met a better group of kids.  We are so so soooooooo blessed to be able to work with them and serve them in any way that we can!  We are hoping for a few visitors tomorrow during the game.  There will definitely be enough food for any surprise guests!

Life is good! So much to celebrate every day!

spontaniety is good

This week has been flying by.  Every week flies by!  Time's moving too quickly.  Well... so much for my doing nothing yesterday.  I literally hit post on my blog, stating that I was doing nothing all day, when my phone rang.  Carol was driving up to Pocatello ID to visit Madi and said, "I wish you were coming with me!"  I said, "I do too"!  She said, "I'm turning around right now!"  And in the next ten minutes, I got ready, she picked me up and we were off to Idaho for a fun day, not getting back until 7:30 last night.  The kids were all going in different directions and Doug didn't get home until almost 9 from his meeting, so we all reconvened just in time for scriptures and family prayer.  All safe at home, together, that was all that mattered to me.

Carol and I visited on our drive about this and that and I had a question about some historical happening.  I asked her if she knew anything about it and she knew very little too, so I googled and we read it as we drove the 100 miles.  Very informative.  We met Madi, saw her cute new apartment, went to lunch at Butter Burrs and then they went to see Madi's daughter in school for 90 minutes.  I stayed at Madi's, made a few phone calls, leevated my foot for a while and fell asleep, not waking up until they opened the door.  We hit Costco and a few other stops, then had dinner at Chili's and headed home.

I took only one picture yesterday.  While at Liza's, she gave me a few of these nummy rice cakes that they get at St. George Costco.  She's teased me about them a few times since I've been home.  So, we found them yesterday at the Poky Costco and I had to take this picture and send it to her.  She wrote back immediately, "You're not REALLY buying all of those, are you!?!?"  I only bought two.  But, I don't have a Costco, so maybe I should have! It was a fun and unexpected day!

Today turned into one of those days too, so far.  I took the kids in to their ortho appointments this morning at 7:45, then breakfast at Kneaders and as I was dropping Zeej off at school, Carol called to ask if I wanted to make a Sonic run with her and Ann, which ended up being an all morning and early afternoon visit to their mom's home for cards and games.  It was a pleasant way to spend the day and again, a nice, unplanned and welcome surprise!  Tonight is Bunco night and Doug and I want to do something together in between if he gets home soon enough, which I'm not holding my breath for.  So much happening.  He has a YWA Activity tonight that I'll be missing tonight.  Sadness!  I love the activities and even more, the association with the kids!  But, I can't be in two places at once, so it is what it is tonight.

I'm going to try to squeeze in some hot tub time before I head to Bunco. If I don't soak, I don't sleep! This is one of those, "I'll sleep when I'm dead" weeks!  And I love it!  Life is good!

Monday, Monday

Carol and I were out of the door at 7:45 to buy the groceries and get everything I needed for the YSA dinner and home by 10 with me setting tables and cooking.  I made a tasty dinner and set the tables for 28.  We had EIGHT come!  This was the smallest group of all four and we knew it would be a smaller crowd, but I won't be caught off gaurd. I'd rather have tables set for nothing and take them down than not have enough... same with food!  Meaning, we had plenty of leftovers!  But, I actually liked the intimacy of a smaller group.  That was very sweet.

Doug gave a sweet message to the group before dinner.  He always does.  I love that man!  The kids do too.  They always tell me how awesome Brother Corbridge is and I just kind of beam with pride that I get to live with him.  He really is a good man and the kids love that he's such a good listener.  He asks them about themselves all the time and really listens to their answers. That makes for a good leader.  Following his message, we came into the den and enjoyed the dinner and lots of talk.  The girls were home and always get asked lots of questions about their lives.  It was a fun evening.

 Following dinner, we played the Stand Up game.  A few kids left, leaving five and we all started talking about games.  One of the boys asked if I played Farkle.  I told him that we love Farkle and had discovered a new game called Tenzi.  Next thing we knew, we were all gathered around the table playing until 10PM.  They loved it!

I was in bed and asleep before anyone last night!  It was a busy day following a sleepless night!

Tuesday, Carol and I went to Sonic for an early morning Coke and I came back home to make lunch for Alan and Jill and their boys.  We had plenty of soup leftover and that's something that I've sort of made a habit of... feeding them leftovers for lunch.  ha!  It's a great chance to visit with them!  We enjoyed an hour visit before they went back to work and it was only minutes later that the kids came in from school.

I got outside in the afternoon and took a few pix of our home, which is buried under two feet of snow!  It's now frozen solid because it was minus three degrees yesterday morning!  That means that the snow is frozen and it will continue to be beautiful until it warms up a bit.

Alan, always being creative, decided to redecorate with our icicles.  He broke them off ever so gently, then planted them into the snow, so we have a little icicle city at our front door.  One of ZJ's friends came over and said that it was "creepy".  I think it's pretty cool.  Only Alan! 

Denise and I have been trying to get together for two weeks, so Doug and I rearranged our plans so that she and I could go out for dinner together.  We spent an hour catching up on each other's lives and I came home to an empty house.  Doug was doing his YSA thing, Zeej was at the church and Quayd and Grace were at school for an activity.  Tuesdays are always our busy nights.

My plans for today are to go no place and do nothing...  Absolutely nothing outside of them home.  I've got paperwork to catch up on, and want to do some organizing.  Things are still pretty organized from the move but there are a few places that things were just put away without taking time to organize because we were too busy painting and such.  So, I'd like to do a little of that! 

This morning, ZJ came upstairs and she was on one, being as silly as she could.  This girl...her personality!  No inhibitions!  She is hysterical.  She can do impersonsonations of anyone...and she does!  All the time!  This morning, she had me rolling!  I love this girl!  She is so fun-loving.  I honestly don't know how she gets her confidence.  My camera was sitting next to me, so I picked it up and followed her around for a few minutes.  She's a hoot and a beaut! 

So shy!

 It's hard to believe she's almost fifteen!

Kendall, Lasse and ZJ... with them, she's just one of the guys.

 

I'm alone.  The kids are off.  The house is empty.  Time to get busy!  Life is good!  And so are days that you don't have to go anyplace at all!

sunday

Snow, snow and more snow!  We are so thankful for it!  It's fabulous and beautiful!

Sunday was just plain awesome!  I had been asked to speak at a YSA Relief Society brunch.  The ward is kicking off the Read the Book of Mormon in 100 Days Challenge and the Relief Society held a little brunch to motivate everyone.  I was asked to take a few moments to share my testimony of the Book of Mormon, which is one of my most favorite things to talk about!  I was thrilled to be asked!  I expected that the wives of the Bishopric would be there and was surprised to walk in and find that I was the only one of them there.  The only other "adult" women there were the Stake Relief Society Presidency.  I expected that they would be speaking too.  Again, I was suprised when they welcomed everyone and said "Sister Corbridge will be speaking to us and then we will have our brunch."  Okey-dokey then.  I was honored and happy to share my testimony of this important part of my life and of the gospel.  Again, these girls are amazing. The brunch that they had prepared was impressive. Everything about these girls is impressive!  Super Impressive!  And to fit that many girls into a tiny college apartment was also impressive!  It was a lovely time.

I raced home from the brunch to review my own talk for Sacrament Meeting in our home ward, as well as to hear Quayd's talk one last time before we went to church. On my way home, just around our corner, I saw this little baby deer running along the middle of the street.  (As I'm typing this, the scanner is on and dispatch just reported that someone is calling for assistance because there is a deer on their front porch and it won't leave.  Funny call.  Funny what people call the police for.  I would make a bed for a deer on my front porch!  We love them!  At night, the dogs go crazy when they hear them/smell them outside!)

Doug had left for meetings, but returned to our chapel just in time to hear Quayd and I speak.  Quayd did a great job speaking about "How a testimony will help on a mission."  He shared the story of his great grandfather Lawrence and his missionary experience and the miracle of him overcoming a severe stuttering problem.  He has never been nervous speaking in church before but this was his first time in this ward and he did show the jitters.  We sat next to each other on the stand and his knees were just bouncing!  He did great!

I spoke about bringing the spirit of light and truth into our homes.  The main point of my talk was that we can't bring it into our homes unless we are have it ourselves first.  I shared a story of a miracle that was experienced by the same grandfather Lawrence Corbridge, who gathered his family to pray that a storm would pass over their crops just before harvest time.  The storm did pass by their farm and all of the encircling farms crops were destroyed.  After the meeting, I was approached by an older sister in our ward who touched my arm and said, "Sister Corbridge, I've heard that story before told by Christie Bastian, and I've never forgotten it.  It gave me chills again today."  Aunt Christie, one of Doug's aunts, was such a remarkable woman!  I've heard his aunts speak of this story and share their testimonies of the power of prayer and will never forget it!  My other point was that our testimonies can be felt generations later, so how important it is that we live and defend truth and share it with our children and grands!  Enough said!

After church, Quayd and I attended the YSA ward then came home and sent Quayd to bed because he was coming down with Grace's bug!  Grace is finally better, but still coughing, and now the rest of us are starting to feel symptoms.

After Doug left, the doorbell rang and there was a cake left on our doorstep.  Grace asked Kendell's German exchange student/brother to go to Girl's Choice at Logan with a friend here in our ward.  Lasse is here until June.  Grace had planned on asking Kendell for months, but she realized that Lasse is only here for a few months and he needs to have the "whole" American high school experience.  So, she's asked Lasse and they are such good friends, they'll surely have a great time!  She asked him with cookies that spelled out "Will you go to the dance?" and he returned her answer with this red velvet cake and "ja" (pronounces "Ya") in chocolate chips.  I laugh at the little german words that the girls are now using every day and "ja" is one of them.  You can tell she's been sick in this picture, but this cake sure cheered her up!

I made a "traditional Sunday dinner" of pot roast and mashed potatoes for dinner, hoping that Doug would have time to enjoy the meal between his evening meetings.  He literally had time to eat and then race off to a devotional with Elder Neal Anderson at the USU Spectrum.  I stayed home with the kids, who were needing some attention.  They all went to bed by 9:30 and Doug and I raced over to Jim and Kristy's to pick up their extra banquet table so that I could be prepared Monday morning for our Group Home Evening.  We stayed way too late gabbing, which is what we always do when we are together!  We love Jim and Kristy time!  It's always uplifting and fun!

It was a good weekend, a great Sabbath day!  A perfect Sunday!  I love it!  Life is good!

super saturday... super busy, super snowy, super fun

We are living in a winter wonderland!  With about two feet of snow, it's absolutely gorgeous!  I'd love to get out and take some pictures this morning when it gets light outside, but I won't be home to do so because I have to head to town for everything I'll need tonight.

our front yard view

our driveway

our backyard is a dream

Doug texted last night from a meeting:  "Group Home Evening tommorow night?  Group D."  Umm.  Really?  I had asked on Friday evening when it was, wondering if it was the first Monday or the second this month.  There's not been a consistency from the beginning because of holidays and such.  I wrote back, "TOMORROW?!?!?  SURE!!!"

It's already been a crazy morning, leaving at 7:45 with Carol to get what I needed at Sam's Club for food and the Hobby Lobby for papergoods.  We did squeeze in Angies for breakfast before and of course, a Sonic stop to keep us going. ;)  I'm feeding probably 25-30 kids tonight. The tables for 28 and will have extras in case I need them.

It's still winter... very winter, in fact... so I'm making my sister-in-law's Chicken Tortilla Soup and homemade bread because my bread is always a hit.  Doug brought in the tables for me last night.  The tables are set and I can get busy and get to cooking as soon as I get this blog written.  My foot was screaming "STOP!" already, so it was a perfect time to do a little catching up.  The meal is pretty simple and I'll have my girls bake oatmeal cookies for dessert so that we can just put a plate of them on each table and call it good... no extra dishes for dessert and nothing fancy to cook.  I'm excited!  It will be a fun night!  And I'm hoping to put my foot up in the air for half an hour and catch a nap somewhere in between!

Our weekend was a happy one.  Friday night, Carol and I went to dinner and played games until very late because everyone else was going in their own direction.

Saturday morning, when we woke up, we had almost a foot of new snow and it just kept coming!  It was a spectacular storm and then it turned very cold, so everything still looks like it just stopped snowing.  We have literally over two feet of snow now!  The trees are magnificent!

Quayd had to be at work at 7, so Doug took him on his way to work.  I had to go into town to get a few things for Quayd's dance and pick him up in Smithfield.  When I say that I LOVE winter, I mean it, but I don't love driving in it, especially before the plows are finished clearing the streets.  It was pretty intense driving Saturday morning.  Doug came home from work and spent two hours snowblowing and shoveling along with most of the neighbors.  They were all out most of the afternoon!

Quayd left for the dance before our night could even begin.  As I mentioned, he didn't really know the girl that he was going with. This gal is one of Grace's friends in Bella and Grace says that everyone just loves her because she's so much fun!  Quayd agreed. He felt awkward, at first, not knowing her, but it all worked out. We've always taught our kids that we don't say no to someone who had the courage to ask for a date, for any reason...unless they don't have standards that we are comfortable with.  He had a nice time with the whole group.  He did know one of the other guys, so I think that made him more comfortable.  (On one date that was just Quayd and the girl, he didn't know the girl all that well and  he said that they didn't say five words all night long. It was one of "the worst dates ever".  He was glad for the group date concept that night too!)  They only stayed at the dance for an hour or so, after dinner at the Bluebird.  He loved the dinner, as he had salmon, which is his favorite.  I had to laugh when they exchanged their flowers, it was her cousin that worked at the florist and they were made to match exactly.  Sweet.

Even though this was a Girls Choice dance, where the girls ask the boys, he still ended up spending a lot of money.  Quayd is saving for his mission.  We talked about prom afterward and I think that Quayd's going to pass on that.  If he had a serious girlfriend or something that he had dated a lot, that would be one thing, but he just doesn't want to go to pick a random girl to go to prom.  As much as he's enjoyed going to the girls choice dances, he has never really been excited about asking a girl to go to one.  He's a lot like his dad that way. We'll see how that goes.

Zeej decided that she wanted to have a little party herself, this weekend, so she spent Saturday texting everyone back and forth to make a plan.  A half dozen kids from the ward came over at about 6:30 and they stayed until almost 11.  They played on the Wii, laughed and gabbed a lot, made pina coladas (compliments of one of the boys who even brought his own ice and blender) and then hot tubbed for about two hours.  We were in our bedroom watching "The Intern".   It was after 9:00 when they got into the hottub.  I kept hearing screaming and thought, "What in the heck are they doing out there?!?!"  I went to the back door and watched them getting out of the hottub, running into the back yard, rolling around in the snow and then jumping back into the hot tub.  The Corbridge Polar Club.  Help me!  They had a ball and ZJ wants to do it again this weekend.  Um, not something we'll do every weekend, but I'm sure it will happen again.  They loved it.  Why didn't I take pictures?!!?  I was too much in shock that they were doing it all!

When we bought our home eleven months ago, Doug said that he did not want a tv in our bedroom.  He HATES TV in bedrooms.  But, we had an extra TV from my old gallery and I didn't want to get rid of it.  So, I put it inside the armoire in our room and we've never even plugged it in.  Saturday night was a perfect time to have one in our room because we had a place to retreat for silence (or semi-silence) (well, it was not quite as noisy), so it was nice to have it.  I had to hook up the DVD player that goes with it, and dust it off because I honestly don't think that that cupboard has been opened since we've been here, other than for me to hide something in it once. ;)  As the kids were getting into the hottub, we decided that we were hungry, so Doug went to Arby's and grabbed us a couple of Rueben sandwiches.  So, we had a little bit of a datenight, hiding in our room.  Grace is finally getting better, so she joined the party, but she didn't go outside to hottub.  Next time!

Great Saturday!  Quayd came in from the dance at midnight sharp.  I was in bed and Doug was locking up the house when he arrived.  He told us a bit about the dance and went straight to bed because he now has what Grace has had.  And so did his date, for the past few days.  So, they had a pretty mellow night, I'm sure.

I love having a house full of teenagers and was thrilled to have their friends in and out of our home.  With the bigs, we were the "Koolaid House".  With the babes, they've never really invited a lot of kids over, but ZJ is our social one, so I feel that it's about to start happening again and I'm happy about it!  I'd much rather have a dozen kids here hanging out so that I know what's happening and who it's happening with!  And these friends are all kids from the ward.  There's not a one that I could complain about!  That's a gift!

GREAT WEEKEND!  Life is good!