Greg's Birthday Dinner - Chicken Pot Pie

Greg turns 20 years old in a few days. Sunday before he gets his favorite dinner. This year he picked Chicken Pot Pie... a child memory. Owen Celesa, Kristen, Barrett, Ana, Grandma and Gregory
Blackberry birthday pie
Steven leading a hearty rendition of Happy Birthday to You!
Amy, Barrett and Ana
Greg laughing at Steven
Gregory eating his own birthday treat to himself.
Happy Birthday my precious baby boy...how did 20 years happen?

Love you,

Mom

Elders Barrett & Brandon - Ordination Day

What is this?

Greg's personalized swap cooler. He created this a few months back but I was downloading pictures from my phone and realized I had this one. It was during a month that was very, very hot. He put his little mechanical mind to work one day and voila....a swamp cooler.

Harry Potter, Tuesday, July 14th at 12:01 a.m.

No, I don't have the date wrong, this is the time when Barrett, Brandon, Seth, Spencer, and Greg started waiting in line for the first showing of Harry Potter which is scheduled for Wednesday, July 15th at 12:01 a.m. Yes, this is Placerville, and No there was no one else in line for hours....I mean hours later, but they wanted to say that they stayed for 24 hours.

I endlessly tease them for being nerds, but they are lovable, good-looking, funny, nerds. Except Greg, who says he is just lovable, good-looking and funny :)
6:45 a.m. - I stopped by on my way to work to see how it was going....they were sound asleep.
They didn't hear me taking pictures....

or dropping off donuts. I got a text 45 minutes later asking if they were from me. I guess they needed to know before they consumed donuts from an unknown source.

I told Barrett to call me when the first person, they didn't know, showed up in line. My prediction was 2 p.m. Afterall, we live in Placerville. I was very close, he called me just before 2 p.m. to tell me that someone showed up at 1:45 p.m.

3:30 p.m. - stopped by on my way home from work. I came to town early to get my hair cut.

Only they, and the one other person they reported on at 2 p.m.,were in line.

After explaining to everyone at work what they were doing. I told them that they aren't the dress up in costume or go to the Star Trek convention type of nerds....I show up and they all had "wands" and Barrett had the scar on his forehead...maybe I was mistaken :)

6:45 p.m. - After my haircut, I brought dinner. 12 hours after my first pictures of the morning.

It felt like they were close but nope they still had over 5 hours to wait...crazy or crazy fun?

Gotta love them!

Night at the Movies - Outdoors for Friends of the Library

Owen was so excited to have us go with him to the once a month outdoor movie showing at the library lawn. The movie was The Point. It is an animated flick done about the same time as Yellow Submarine and it had the same look and feel. For a couple of the scenes and the music to go with, we all looked at each other and shook our heads.....yep 70's and drugs :)

It was freezing cold (Greg probably wouldn't agree with that assessment). Next month is a Laurel and Hardy fest....though it is fun to go to an outdoor movie, I told Owen not to ask me to go to that. Not a real fan.

Greg's outing

Greg had an outing with someone. He spent the week planning it. He decided on frisbee golf at the park. Once that started, Barrett and I went to In and Out Burger for the meal and placed it in the picnic basket. Once it was all set, we texted Greg to let him know and then took off. I think it turned out okay. I thought it was all quite cute.

Proud of Greg

I asked Greg if he would talk to a parent about Eagle Ranch Academy. I didn't know if he would be willing but he said that he would. I was so happy to hear some of the things he said. Like how before he left he didn't have a future, he would only think one or two days ahead, now he has a future and he can see it and is excited about it. He said that the month before he left he couldn't even remember it because he was so caught up in being defiant for defiance sake.

He shared his experiences, some of the interventions, some of the feelings and growth. There was not an ounce of resentment in his voice or in the stories he shared about his experience at Eagle Ranch.

As he spoke I thought of the love that the staff have for him and for us and I am so grateful that they are a part of our life. They all changed it forever. We all cried and laughed together and still will for years to come. I don't know what the future brings and I may not appreciate all of his choices, but I know now where the boundary is between me and Greg. We are two people with two lives. I pray for his and hope for his but I cannot live his. I can only love him unconditionally and if he chooses a path I would not choose for him, it is his life and his consequences will be his. However, for the moment I am thrilled with his choices and happy he is home.

Saturday on the River

Barrett, Greg, Brandon, Seth, and Hannah went with Bishop Anderson on the river. Here is a picture of the monkeyrig Greg created to keep Barrett's glasses safe and on his head. It made me laugh - both because it was a piece of string AND because Barrett loves this pair of glasses even though he has two pair of newer glasses that we have purchased for him. One is exactly like this pair that we had to special order because they were discontinuing the style and the next year we got a style that was as close as we could find to this pair. I don't think Barrett doesn't like change as much as he thinks it is unnecessary. He cracks me up. I thought it was nice for Greg to accomodate him.

They had a good time on the river - always more work than they initially think it will be, but it was definitely a beautiful day and I am starting to trust more so I didn't worry the whole time. I took a nice drive out to Cool. It was a beautiful day.

Greg on Anesthesia

Okay...this is not him on anesthesia. He actually made me promise not to take any pictures of him under the influence. This picture is him completing his first official act as an 18 year old adult. On Monday when we did the consult, he was 17 but because the procedure was done today, he was 18 so they waited and had him complete the consent form today.

When we loaded him in the car, she said that he was very funny or entertaining or something similar and she laughed at him. He was very loud when I took him home and wasn't to willing interested in following any of my instructions. I called Owen and asked that he meet me at the car to get him down to the house, but when we arrived Owen was still in the house and Greg wasn't willing to wait. He got out of the car, staggered to the side of the other car parked next to us and then started for the house, across the lawn. Somewhere in the middle he either fell or just decided to lay down on the lawn and laughed up at the sky. By this time, I was out of the car and headed toward him. Before I could get to him, he got up. I asked him to wait and I would help him down the stairs, again he didn't listen to me. He got down on all fours and climbed down the three stairs in front of my house, righted himself and staggered into the house.

He swayed through the house but managed to stay upright. We talked for a while...very funny. He definitely liked the anesthesia and told me that he should have had each tooth done individually so he could experience it four times....no worries there :) I asked him if I could take pictures and he agreed so I did video him so he could see how obnoxious he was. The best way to describe him was a happy yet belligerent drunk. He really was funny but I was glad I got to go to work. However, he was in bed before I left and woke up normal.

Today was Greg's birthday. He is 18 years old, an adult. He really liked that part. He wanted to know if he could buy dry ice....just cuz. Can I tell you that I have crazy boys! He wanted steaks for his birthday dinner. He cooked the steaks to perfection! Of course we had more than the steaks but this was his focus :) Barrett, Brandon and Seth joined us. It was fun to have them all home during the week.

We had brownies and Chocolate Malted Krunch, a Thrify's brand flavor, Greg's favorite.

I guess he gets his wish. I hope it was a good one.

El Dorado Stake's Got Talent

So I am on the Stake Activities Committee and we put on the El Dorado Stake's Got Talent Show. Michelle hand picked the talent rather than having it open because we have so much real talent in the Stake and we didn't want three hours of 12 year old lip syncers. I took the opportunity, knowing it would be the last chance Barrett would have to play publicly before his mission, to ask him to play.

It was really a good night of quite a variety of talent. Our family's personal favorite, Chris Martinez and Gerry Jonutz, true jazz talents. Chris was very complimentary to Barrett publicly to the audience before he started his own performance. Chris called Barrett his hero and stated that he had never heard Chopin played so well on a piano from the Primary room. Later Owen explained to me that Chris had told him how difficult it is to get that kind of response from the keys of such a piano and that it took a lot of effort from Barrett to make that happen.

We have two videos of most of his performance. The first one is the beginning, please take note of the tail flip as he sits down. Barrett was very proud of it. Then Owen moved position and finished videoing the performance. Barrett looked up on YouTube how people playing this piece bowed afterward. He, with a very serious face, took three short bowed and exited. He is such a goof ball. Gotta love him!

My mom, Stephanie and her mom came with Owen to watch. Greg was a lifesaver by helping me back stage. He was in charge of getting the mics to the right people at the right time. He also moved most of the props on and off unless he had to be in front doing the mics. He was great. Jeni commented on his helpfulness. She was very impressed.

Greg finishes!