Sunday Meanderings

Yes, that's Ted Nugent!I am sure there are a few things I had to leave out of the "summary" of our Las Vegas trip. I can't believe I left this one out though. We were walking out, we were leaving the show to head out to the airport. We had given ourselves plenty of time . . . luckily. We walked by Ted Nugent and Jim Shockey talking up a storm!. They are famous in the outdoor/hunting/gun world. So, we waited there and listened. There actually wasn't too huge of a crowd, it was really small, so Neil asked if he could get his picture with Ted Nugent. At first, the guy (maybe his son) in charge didn't want to let him since then "everyone else" would want to also. Well, we waited long enough and Ted agreed to pose for the picture. I am sure our nephew, Jake, is so jealous! I took a couple of pictures with Neil's phone and one of them Neil is actually smiling. The son took this one and only picture with the camera. It's all good though. It's Ted Nugent! Crazy.

The boys fell asleep tonight before we could write in our "Livingston Family Stories" book. Paden hasn't really felt well for a week or more. He is a trooper though. He doesn't want to miss school. He wants to get the "All Day, Every Day" attendance certificate. It's got a buccaneer attached - a school reward. When you collect 5 of them, you get to pick a prize from the office. It's small stuff like erasers and what not. Nevertheless, he collects those buccaneers like crazy. He gets at least 5 in a week. The ones on the attendance certificate are pink though and they are worth 5 by themselves! So, he really is motivated to attend school for that. Whatever works, I guess.

We got Paden and Gunnar's report cards, that might have happened the Friday before, but I forgot. Anyway, I do have to brag about my kids. They are doing really well in school this year. Gunnar is in the top 10% of his class "in every way" according to the teacher. She's pleased with his maturity, responsibility and his schoolwork, so that is good. Paden is doing well, too. He's working above grade level in everything except handwriting. The kid can type anything you want, he's just always used his hands for other stuff than learning how to write. :) He does fine though. He is reading up to 2nd grade stuff; he brought home a chapter book and had it read before I got home from work. It was a short, small chapter book - we're not talking Harry Potter or anything. Gunnar got a little motivated by that because Paden can read books in Gunnar's grade. Gunnar can read up to early 4th grade, so he's still ahead of his brother (for now). It wouldn't surprise me if Paden passes Gunnar on reading one of these days.

The first week back after a vacation was not hard due to any amount of work, it was just hard to remember that we have to work. Ugh! Neil worked three days and went duck hunting one day. Duck season officially ended today. We'll be packing up all the duck hunting gear and taking to somewhere special to store for the off-season. :-)

Thursday morning, I stopped for breakfast at the store before I went to work. I hadn't dropped Fischer off yet, so he picked out Frosted Animal Crackers for his breakfast. It was a total impulse by from him due to the very strategically placed display. He usually is good at the store and helps put the items up on the belt, but not those cookies, he DID NOT WANT to let go of them even for the 2 seconds it takes to scan them and give them back. It was funny. He love his animal crackers, I guess.

Gunnar went to Cub Scouts on Wednesday where they took a trip to the recycling center. He said he had a good time, there was a new kid there and they received their pinewood derby cars. The pinewood derby is this coming Wednesday. He drew his design on his car tonight and Neil cut it for him. Gunnar will work on the sanding and painting tomorrow.

The boys went to town on Friday for some reason, I am sure, but I don't recall. They came home with the game "Bop It" and a deck of playing cards. Neil taught them how to play Go Fish, War, and Slap Jack. Paden totally loves playing cards. He definitely knows cheating from no cheating; sometimes he chooses cheating, sometimes not. He does really well though. I am not sure Gunnar was into the card games all that much. They both love Bop It, it's pretty fun.

Neil bought be Just Dance for the Wii last weekend. I haven't really played it except once with Paden. Paden wanted to try it out because he loves to try new video games. He played by himself for a little bit and was happy with the first place "ribbons" it was giving him. Then, I joined in. He didn't win against me, so he quit. He liked getting first place, not second. I didn't play after that either. So, finally last night, two friends came over and we danced it up! It was funny. Great workout. I can definitely see how the XBox Kinect is going to be very popular though over having the Wii remotes and cords to whack you in the face. We enjoyed ourselves anyway.

Gunnar gave a talk today at church (in primary). He did well. The video and text are posted on my FB profile. He didn't yell into the microphone like many of the kids, so you do need to have your volume all the way up to hear it. It was good though. I am not sure how he's gone this long w/out having to do a talk, but that was his first one that I know about. He's had to give a scripture before.

We had dinner out at some friends house - wonderfully delicious turkey tacos. So yummy, I had three and was full, but wanted to eat more because it tasted good.

So, that's about what I remember from this week.