Spring 2018

Ian tried out baseball here in Kentucky. The only problem is that back in Hawaii he was still hitting off a tee and they didn't really play positions. Here, however, they are hitting off of a machine and are very serious about positions.  He played right field and had a hard time batting at first, but then got the hang of it and was hitting every time he was up to bat.  His coaches were some of the best we have had, they were so patient and kind to him and made him feel like rightfield was a very important position.  They also worked extra hard with him with batting.

Here are some videos of him hitting and running the bases. Both videos have Scott cheering loudly for him which is just as entertaining. 

 Madelyn wanted to get back into soccer.  She joined a city league with her friend Sariah and she was stretched physically and emotionally. Her coach was a yeller! But she didn't seem to mind she knew he was just trying to help them be their best. She tried very hard, and she is a great defensive player.  Not very many balls got past her, she even tried playing goalie once or twice.

Scott and I put up the basketball hoop the kids got for Christmas, it took us 4 hours to put that together! 

 Ian learned how to tie his shoes

 We got some new bikes since ours got ruined from the Hawaii humidity. Scott didn't want to buy Madelyn a small bike that she was going to outgrow soon so he took her in and had her try out a fairly big size and even though she never really learned how to ride before she picked it up right at the store parking lot.  She loves to ride in our culdesac with our neighbor Arianna.

 Our Stake had a mini MTC youth activity.  I dropped him off at 6:30 pm on a Friday, they got paired up in companions and met with their mission, he was called to the Ogden South Mission then he listened to a sister who had served in that mission, then they went to a class on how to teach from the Preach my Gospel manual. Next they went to a members home, he went to the 1st counselor in the Stake Presidency’s house, he is an orthopedic surgeon and Rylan commented to me that his house was so huge that they had an intercom system.  They had group scripture study then individual scripture study then went to bed at about 10:30.  They were awoken the next morning by “Called to Serve”  blasting on the intercom system. They had breakfast then went back to the church for more classes and then he and his companion and a real missionary went to an inactive members house to teach a lesson.  Rylan didn’t say much about this except that they talked about the apostasy and that they took turns speaking and that he wasn’t as nervous as he thought he would be.  Then they came back to the church, had lunch then a testimony meeting (which Rylan said he bore his testimony, he has never been brave enough to do that before). I picked him up at 2 pm and he was all smiles and he wanted to watch “The Best Two Years” as soon as he got home. 

Madelyn and I worked on a quilt together, she has been wanting one for her bed

 Rylan played JV tennis for the Elizabethtown High School

The Primary Presidency was in charge of our Easter activity. We decided to center it more on Christ's atonement rather than the superficial bunny and eggs. We had an Easter walk that started with Palm Sunday, we made a road out of butcher paper and taped it to the floor, then everyone wrote something that they were thankful for, or had learned from Jesus on palm leaves we then laid them on the “road.” Next was the last supper, there was bread to sample from the Passover meal and a table setting with a basin and pitcher with pictures of Jesus washing his Apostles feet.  The next room was Gethsemane where we had a 3-minute video on a loop playing of Christ in Gethsemane with the children’s song Gethsemane playing in the background.  We turned off the lights and had wrapped some white lights around a fake tree we had in the church.  Then they walked into the crucifixion room were we had a picture of Jesus on the cross, a red robe, and a crown of thrones. The next room was the one I was in charge of, the resurrection room.  I had a table with pictures of the tomb and the wrapping of Jesus’ body in linen with explanations typed up and placed next to the pictures. Also the picture of Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene. I had bought fresh Lilly flowers and their smell filled the room.  I had some angelic “Alleluia” (from a Kenneth cope album) music playing, and a large cardboard tomb with a stone rolled to the side. I had thought to have the kids roll it away with me but after I did it with the first couple kids it got irreverent and they wanted to climb inside the tomb so I stopped doing that with them. The last station was a video with the missionaries they showed the “Prince of Peace” video the church put out a couple years ago.  I saw some misty eyes and the parents talking and explaining the resurrection to their kids, everyone was very reverent and I was thankful for that.  The stake president and his 1st counselor are in our ward and one of them gave me a high five and the other said, “you did a great thing sister Hoogland, this is way better than an egg hunt in my opinion.” I agree! The funny thing is that some people were angry with us for not doing an egg hunt this year, oh well.  

We decided to go to Chicago for spring break.  We stayed with our old friends the Gaytans, but our first night we stayed downtown at the Marriott.  We did all our old favorites, Michigan Ave, the lego store, Millennium Park, American Girl Doll Store, Navy Pier,  Shedd Aquarium and the Museum of Science and Industry. It was pretty cold outside, we had forgotten how piercing that Chicago wind was.  

When M'Lynn heard we were going to Chicago for spring break she asked if she could join us, and we, of course, said YES!  She stayed with a friend for the first couple days then we arranged to meet her and surprise the kids, they had no idea she was coming.  We were shopping at Bass Pro Shops looking at the fish, then all of the sudden M'Lynn walked in and the kids were shocked! Their faces 

were so cute!

                                          

 

 We took M'Lynn out to the outlet mall for her birthday, and had lunch at Longhorn SteakHouse.   A trip to Chicago would not be complete without deep dish Giordanos pizza, a Portillos hot dog, Garrett popcorn or a Andy's frozen custard.

 We also visited with the Ricks and Korella families.  We wish we would have had time to see more friends, but we only had a couple of days.  We love Chicago! M'Lynn drove home with us and stayed for a couple days.  We took her to the Louisville Zoo, danced to "The Greatest Showman"  and had some late night talks about life choice, anxiety and the gospel.

Scott was in charge of the young men scout camp fundraiser. We decided on making pizzas, this was an idea that a friend in our old ward had done and she gave us all her notes, recipes and tips.   We made about 8 batches of sauce and 170 pizza crusts.  Scott, Rylan and I made about half of those, then the rest of the YM made the other half.  They also sold the pizza, and assembled the pizzas on a Saturday morning.  Then that afternoon members and friends that purchased them came to the church to pick them up. They made over $2400, which helped a lot of boys go to camp.

Ian was in his 1st Grade play!  This was such a great learning experience for him.  He was terrified and didn't want to do it.  We spent hours comforting and consoling him saying that he could do hard things.  He memorized his part right away and we practiced it every day. Then since he was one of the only ones who had their parts memorized his teacher gave him an additional part.  The day of the performance he did for the school,  didn’t want to get up, he didn’t want to get dressed, he didn’t want to get in the car, then he didn’t want to leave the car when I dropped him off. 

We talked it over I tried to make him feel better saying that he has practiced so much he had nothing to fear, I told him to pretend everyone is in their underwear, making a mistake is not a big deal, his friends and teachers are there to help him, we said two prayers etc. Madelyn changed her shirt to a bright pink one just so Ian could find her in the audience for the school performance and Rylan shared his experience of when he was in 2nd grade and had to memorize a poem and say it in front of the school.  He still had tears in his eyes when I dropped him off and my heart just sank.  

Was I doing the right thing as a parent making him do this?  It was either going to teach him a great life lesson or it will traumatize him for life.  At about 10:30, I couldn’t stand it anymore I texted the aid in his class who is in our ward to see if he was ok and how the play went that morning. She called me back a few minutes later and said that she didn’t notice him being upset and that he did fine and everyone was nervous.  She did say that he did struggle a tad when he said “metamorphosis,” but he corrected it and moved on.   With the knowledge that my baby was ok I was able to go about my day more easily. 

At the evening performance, he did great!  You could tell he was nervous by the stone cold look on his face while he sang and said his part, but he remembered his two lines and sang all the songs and did all the dance moves. His confidence grew and he learned he could do hard things. 

Another monumental moment in Hoogland history is that Rylan learned how to mow the lawn!  We didn't have a lawn in Hawaii and now that our sod has had the fall and winter to settle in it is growing like crazy and Scott felt that it was time to pass on the chore.