Saturday, February 21, 2009

The Primary Presidency in our Ward asked each family with primary children to provide a family photo for a bulletin board in the church. We'd hate for anyone to operate under the mistaken assumption that we are normal....much better to make it clear from the beginning.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Reading back through this blog, it makes it sound like E1 is the only member of the family....

Sounds like it is time to brag up the rest of the Sheffer Clan.

E2 is our resident baby genius. She is getting straight A's with what appears to be little effort. However at her Parent Teacher Conference this week she did get an unsatisfactory citizenship score. The problem??? Reading books in class. Gee I wish I had a dollar for every time I have heard a teacher say THAT about her! Actually I wish I had a dollar for every time I've been told that MYSELF!!!!

See Darren. See Darren take E3 to the eye doc. See the eye doc tell us E3 can't see. See Sonja. See Sonja get ready to take E3 in to select her new eyeglass frames. See Darren tell Sonja that HE already picked them out. See Sonja looking worried......

N is busy busy learning to read and living life to the fullest. He is such a joy.
He does say weird stuff though... the other night he told my sister (who is trained to treat traumatic brain injuries) that he quote, "Used to know a whole whole whole lots but then I bumped my head and I can't remember ANYTHING". I really have no idea what he is talking about.

Burke and Pegs

I love my Uncle Burke and Aunt Peggy. They have supported me throughout my entire life and have helped me understand the value of family. It has been gratifying to see how they have spread their love to my children as well. I don't deserve them.

My gruff Uncle Burke sent E1 a card after State Swim (along with a rather large monetary congratulatory gift....). He told her that he was proud of her. He also said, "Sure glad we didn't unplug you....".

E1 didn't know what he meant.

I did.


It is one of the greatest blessings of my life that my tiny baby girl that had such a rough start in life is so amazingly healthy and happy 14 and a half years later. So grateful....


It was a fun surprise to see E1's pic on the Salt Lake Tribune photo gallery. We are so proud of her and all her hard work.

I know this sounds awful but, we are so relieved that State swim is over. It was kind of stressful. Both Grandpa and Sonja were not sleeping or eating. We are all proud of Pepper and wanted this to be a good experience for her either way. While she was disappointed she didn't win, she still feels pretty good about her success. She is the first girl in Richfield High School Swimming History to ever medal at state. She has said that she knows some day some "punk kid" will come along and erase her school records off the books (she now holds 4 of them), but this is one piece of history that will always be hers.

Way to go Pepper! We are proud of you!

This is the link to the photo above:
http://extras.sltrib.com/tribphoto/gallery.asp?ID=116867&GID=3AGSW_02072009&Pubdate=&sort=Gallery

Saturday, February 7, 2009

State Swim

We are at the hotel getting ready to head over for the second day of the State Swim meet. It is being held at the BYU pool. It started yesterday with about a 1/3 of the events held last night and the rest this morning.

Each athlete can only qualify for two individual events and two relay events. Only the top 24 can swim in each event individual event, and the top 16 relay teams.

Emily was able to qualify for the 200 Individual Medley event which was held yesterday. In this event each swimmer swims 50 yards each of the 4 strokes (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle). She was in the 23rd seed out of 24 and I think she took 23rd but I could be wrong on that. It was pretty exciting to hear them call her name at the block. There were only 4 Freshman that qualified so we were pretty proud of her.

She also swam in the 200 yard medley relay. She swam the breast stroke leg of the event. Their team took 10th in this event.

Today she is swimming another relay but I'm not sure if it is the 200 freestyle relay or the 400 freestyle relay. Her other individual event is the 100 breast stroke. This is the one that she will swim as the region 8 champion and with the top qualifying time in 3A for this event.

We are all so nervous for her. While she won region easily, her time was about a second slower than her best. The other qualifiers in her heat for the 100 breast are only fractions of a second behind her. She is the only freshman in the top 16. No one on the Richfield High Girls Swim team has EVER medaled at state. You have to be in the top six to medal.

Anyway we honestly don't care if she wins, we just want her to feel like she did her best. We have all been sick with the flu. What a time to get sick.