February 22, 2010

Sarah with her new softball glove and backpack.

Blowin' out the candles....

"Sweet Sarah Spotlight"---Since it is a celebration of Sarah today, here a few thoughts from MOM.

Sarah is determined. She doesn't quit early. If she has a project or homework assignment, she sees it through to the end.

Sarah is a kind sibling. She is good to go with the flow whether it is playing with the youngsters or chatting with her older sisters.

Sarah is creative. She likes to create gifts for her friends and family. She makes homemade cards for her friends. On one occasion, she knitted each family member a hat for Christmas with her "knifty knitter".

Sarah is helpful. She is a good detector of stress and steps into help when she suspects it is needed.

Sarah is talented. She takes time to develop her talents in many areas. Specifically, she takes viola and ballet lessons and enjoys singing in her high school women's choir.

Sarah is able to work around her health challenges and make the most of life.

Sarah is loved. We are thankful that she is a part of our family.

Sarah received some unusual gifts for her 16th year. One present was a softball mitt. I have to say the girls in our family are seriously lacking in the sports department. Since they have brothers that enjoy throwing a ball, I thought it important to better their abilities in this area. Other gifts: a new backpack, jeans and tinted, waxed eyebrows. Her eyebrows were so blond and bushy that they needed some professional help, so we took her to a friend and she received a lesson to help her figure out the eyebrow thing.

Catherine has developed a desire to decorate cakes, so she skipped ballet to prepare the chocolate birthday cake with pink frosting accenting the chocolate.

Last Party Photos

The "funny" pose....

The "serious" pose...

More Party Photos

Catherine and Meg Stoddard at Sarah's party.

Kirsten and Julie enjoying the party food!

Sarah - Sweet 16 party!

Blowing out the candles.

Sarah and Camille (waiting for Dave to take a very over-exposed photo).

Sarah and friends at the "skating rink". Actually the "ice" was so choppy and bumpy that they really couldn't skate.

This is the choir room at the new high school. Still without risers, doors, etc., but Dave is excited to see

the finished product (hopefully in June).

Inside the auditorium at the new high school. It's an ice skating rink right now (probably better than the one Sarah went to for her party!).

The stage area at the new high school. It is HUGE!

Looking at the proscenium (stage opening) from the house of the new auditorium.

Sweet Sixteen

Sarah is about to turn 16. Tomorrow is the day! To begin the celebration, last Friday we had a party with friends from school. The party started out at the city ice skating rink. In years past, our family has skated on this rink and it was pretty fun. Not perfect ice but it worked. However at Sarah's party, the ice was chipped, cracked, bumpy and soft. Very different from what one would imagine at an ice rink. The party goers were good sports and made the best of a failed ice skating attempt. When that portion of the party ended, the girls came to our home for hot chocolate, sweet rolls, mexi-dip and fruit dip. They also played fun games. Sarah was happy with the end result and said it ranked as one of her favorite birthday parties.

Other activities during the week:

Dave and I helped with mock Jr. Miss interviews. These interviews give the girls experience in answering questions about themselves, current events, opinions, goals etc. in a practice setting. It was fun learning about the girls that will be competing, and finding out how teenage girls respond to an assortment of questions.

Saturday, I accompanied students applying for music scholarships at BYU-I. It ended up being an easy job. I just accompanied 3 students with pieces that were fairly easy. Doing this sort of accompanying is a bit stressful because I only get about 15 minutes to rehearse. So I generally hope for easy music or something I have already played. If that is not the case, then I just pray that I don't mess them up in a significant way.

On Saturday night, Dave brought a group of youth from the stake to fulfill an assignment given by the temple These youth serve on committees that assist in planning activities such as youth conference. So along with bringing these youth, the leaders also brought along their own children which for Dave included Sarah and Catherine. Dave was assigned to do confirmations. As things were wrapping up, Sarah was the last proxy to be confirmed. Dave said the very last confirmation of the night performed through Sarah was performed for a girl named Sarah. This Sarah had no last name and was spelled just like Sarah's name. Dave thought that moment was very special. Catherine mentioned that she was confirmed for a "Julie Anne" and a "Sara Jane." Pretty unique.

On Saturday night, Kirsten and I attended a high school play. It was "Noises Off." It was edited for our high school audience. It was extremely funny and I would recommend it to be seen but I think the editing that occurred was fairly extensive and most play directors would probably not edit it to the extent that Madison High School did. Apparently lots of swearing and innuendos in the unedited version.

While we were all out on doing our activities on Saturday night, Spencer babysat for the first official long time. He and Matthew watched Bob the Builder and White Fang to keep themselves entertained. Spencer did a fine job of keeping order in the house.

Tonight Camille is speaking at a stake Relief Society meeting at BYU-I. The girls and I are planning on attending to support her in this moment.

Looking forward to this upcoming week. It is a birthday week. Sarah turns 16 and Dave 45. Can't believe it.

BYU says Yes to Kirsten

Kirsten was very happy to receive an e-mail tonight informing her of acceptance to BYU. She was a bit nervous about the whole situation because a week earlier BYU had sent out e-mails informing applicants that the field was bigger than ever and it was possible that she might not make the list. But apparently her good grades and excellent ACT score payed off. Congrats Kirsten. Now you just have to decide where to go.

72 hour-kit Update

For FHE tonight, we decided to redo our personal 72 hour packs. When unpacking what had been assembled a few years ago, we discovered diapers, tiny shoes, small jeans and tight shirts. I imagine that our family would have been quite the sight if we had needed to evacuate for an emergency. I'm not sure Matthew would have been too thrilled about the diapers.

I found some good sales today to assist our preparation. Hoodies, pants, and a few shirts were on clearance at KMart and Walmart for $3.00 each. I purchased 8 sweatshirt jackets, three shirts, 3 p.j. bottoms, 9 decorative valentine socks, 1 pair of pants, and 1 set of basketball shorts all for $70.00. I was quite proud of my shopping excursion.

Everyone was out of school today because of President's holiday. Mostly homework was done. Catherine wrote an ode, a shape poem, a metaphor, a family flag poem, and an emotion poem. As is apparent her literature class is studying poems. Kirsten read almost an entire book entitled "The Return of the Native." Sarah did tomorrow's Algebra assignment so she could focus on a test this Wednesday. Camille worked at "Circle of Love". Matthew and Spencer played with friends and Spencer worked on a Webelos requirement. Dave finished helping a ward put together music for a road show. Busy day!

I Love You!

I am blessed to have a wonderful husband. Let me name some of his stellar qualities: Patient, hard-working, ambitious, caring, handsome, helpful, attentive, smart, respectful, innovative, strong, loving, committed, and wonderful. He supports me in my accomplishments and loves me through my goofs. Truly I can't imagine a life without him. Thanks for being my valentine for the 21rst year in a row. I love you Dave!

More pictures from our photo shoot. And a fun valentine kiss from Dave to me. Also, Kevin White joins Camille in a picture.

Valentines Day 2010

Dave, Spencer, Matthew, and I walked up to the temple in our warm clothing. The girls met us there later to shoot a few Valentines Day pictures. It was quite beautiful with the glistening, white snow while dusk was settling in.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!! This morning mom made us pink pancakes for breakfast. She also decorated the wall with a huge heart saying I love you and little hearts surrounding it. Mom also made the most delicious sugar cookies. Today one of Kirsten's old friends who moved came to visit us. I t was lots of fun to see her again after 5 years. Hope everyone has a fun and happy Valentines Day!! Love Catherine

Catherine has a party. . . .

Just unwinding from hosting a small Valentine's party for Catherine. She invited a few friends over. Friends from her classes at school. They put toppings on pizza, decorated small notebooks, played a whipping cream game, ate cookies, and tried hokie six. I believe she enjoyed herself along with her friends.

Sarah wants me to post that we had our last basketball of the seasoning. She enjoyed herself by watching and then sitting next to Chris. Matthew and Spencer went to the game also with their dad. Kirsten is on a date with an IF friend whom she met at the barbershop festival. Looking forward to Saturday!

Teaching at BYU-I

On Wednesday, I teach piano lessons to 6 BYU-I students. This year I was asked to temporarily teach piano until they are able to hire a new university piano teacher. The school has been on a hiring freeze because of the economy. At first, I was hesitant to teach but it has turned out to be enjoyable. It is fun to teach on a little more advanced level. I also continue to accompany. This school year I have accompanied for 2 senior recitals and 3 concerto auditions. My favorite piece has been a violin sonata by Beethoven and accompanying the Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto.

Tonight I visited Jeanna and Roy Huff's home to welcome back Leif Sorensen from Iraq. He has been serving with the Idaho National Guard as a counselor. He returned after almost serving 1 year. Doreen is thrilled!

Tomorrow the kids celebrate Valentines Day at school. They prepared Valentine cards with treats attached.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Today I helped out in the LDS cannery in Idaho Falls. Five ward members along with others from the Rexburg North Stake converged at this location to put together chicken noodle soup. My job was to randomly weigh the vegetables before the broth and noodles were placed in the can so that the weight would stay close to their target. We spent about two hours doing our jobs and then the work was abruptly shut down. I believe because they ran out of noodles. I enjoyed myself. I think it is interesting to see the methods that put together foods assembled in cans. I also did a bit of shopping. Recently I have decided to buy our toilet paper in Idaho Falls. Walmart in Reburg doesn't carry the brand that we prefer so I travel to the Walmart in Idaho Falls. A thirty minute drive all for TP.

Camille says that she dyed her hair quite dark. We are all anxious to see.

I attended my Relief Society Presidency meeting tonight. I serve as the counselor over Relief Society meetings. My duties have changed a bit since Sis. Beck made some adjustments to the "Relief Society Meetings". Still trying to figure out what my jobs are. Our Relief Society President and the Bishop meet together to discuss the needs of the sisters and then come up with the meeting themes. Then I am supposed to jump in and take the reins, I think.

Our next meeting is a cruise with Noah, which will focus on Relief Society visiting teaching companionships.

Scripture Lesson

Tonight for FHE, Mindy and Gabe (her son)Davis visited our home to present a power point that she did in a recent stake young women fireside. Mindy is a dear friend who I became acquainted with when Camille won Jr. Miss. Mindy's daughter, Molly had won the year before. She took me under her wing and guided me through that next year. We have kept the connection going since that time. Her presentation taught us methods of marking our scriptures. It is inspiring to listen and learn from her. Mindy teaches a Book of Mormon class on campus at BYU-Idaho. We had a nice visit and learned a lot. We made cupcakes for our FHE treat.

Also, today I spent time at the college accompanying Sarah Clements and Heather Harrist, playing "the Lark Ascending" and Concerto in e minor by Mendellsohn. I assisted Bro. Ashton and Bro. Hansen. I do enjoy the challenge of accompanying. I taught 5 piano lessons and helped my own boys with their practicing.

Catherine had a nice honor at school. She was selected as student of the month in orchestra. I am happy that she is working hard.

Today, my mom called to inform me that my Uncle Boyd passed away in the night. Uncle Boyd is my dad's older brother. For many years, he hasn't been active in the church. Maybe not even a member, I'm not sure. He had lung cancer and was in his early eighties.

Well a bit more information for this blog. These posts will slowly update you of the happenings in the Hinck household.

First Post

I am entering the blogging world. Camille put together this blog for our family as part of a class requirement in her family history class. So I decided to begin taking advantage of her efforts.

It is Sunday in Rexburg. Quite a beautiful day I might add. As we walked home today from church, we enjoyed the whiteness of the new snow reflecting the bright sun on a clear, cloudless day. I do enjoy clean, untouched snow.

Today we invited Ariel and Kyle Loveland to our home for dinner. I met Ariel several years ago when she was referred by Bro. Ashton to use me as an accompanist. Since that time we have had a wonderful friendship. She is a lovely person who truly shows care and concern for those around her and lifts others through her warmth. She is also Catherine's violin teacher and has inspired Catherine to want to do her best as she learns the in's and out's of the violin.

Everyone helped with dinner prep. We had a tasty Sunday dinner. Dave and Catherine made chicken-cordon bleu. Kirsten and Spencer made trifle. Sarah chopped up a green salad. Dave and Matthew put together a rice dish and I made the rolls. We set out the china and the new place mats. It looked quite beautiful.

At church today, we attended choir at 8:00. Dave bore his testimony in Sacrament Meeting. I was thankful to hear him state his beliefs and convictions.

Because of our company, we are entering this week without much planning. Hopefully, it will work out okay.