Thanksgiving Weekend

I have another reason for loving the holidays--the time off from school! I remember when I first started teaching and some of the "older" teachers counting down until the next break, and I thought, "I can't believe it, how can they say that." But now, I know what they were saying, teachers love the breaks just as much or more than the students! It is always nice to just be able to sleep in and not really have to go anywhere!

Here are some pictures of things that we did during the break:

On Wednesday, the Payson High boys basketball team was playing in a Utah County tournament being held at UVU. The drill team was invited to perform at halftime of the Payson game. The game was with American Fork and it was at 12 noon that day. Here is a picture of the girls that performed. It was a great opportunity for our team because we were able to perform on the same floor where the state drill team competition will be held. They did awesome and were able to wear their new dance costumes. My team is smaller this year because of the new high school that opened in Salem. I lost five girls to Salem. Payson has 14 girls on the team this year. Ten of them perform in our dance routine.


Thanksgiving dinner was at my parent's house in Levan. All of my extended family on my mom's side were there. I think there was about 63 people there! It was fun. There was a lot of good food and it is always fun to see everyone.

Scott helping my mom dish up the potatoes.

Scott and Amanda



Amanda, Jason, & Kaycee--
Relaxing after the big meal.




Hollie--texting and checking out her facebook.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We also worked on the piano benches. On Wednesday night, we painted them. Then on Saturday afternoon we put new pads on the legs and taped them up. We also put some silver trim on one of the benches to see how it would look. We will probably finish that up this week. The drill team has their first competition on Saturday, December 6th, so that is why we were working on them so they would be ready. The drill team uses the benches in our prop routine this year. We also have some flag/kite-like props that we pull out of the bench.

Measuring and putting the silver tape on.

The finished product!

Scott and I also went out and shopped on "Black Friday". We even did the early bird thing. It was crazy at Target. People lined up around the building on both sides! We didn't get what we went for, but we did get a rain check. We did get a few things and we met up with Scott's sisters Heidi and Debbie and went to breakfast.

Saturday we went to a movie and then on Sunday after church, we put up the tree!

What a weekend! Only three weeks until Christmas Break--I can't wait!

Bowling

Last Saturday, (November 22) we went bowling with our friend Cheri and her date, Rick. We also met up with Jason and Rebecca Grow and some of their friends. It was a lot of fun. It was the same day as the big rivalry game between Utah and BYU. We started watching the game there at the bowling alley, then we all drove to the Harley Davidson restaurant out in Lindon to get something to eat. We finished watching the game there. Needless to say, any cougar fans that were there were pretty disappointed!

Here's Scott getting his shoes on. His high score of the day was 194. He even bowled a "turkey", which is three strikes in a row. (I learned something new--three strikes in a row is a turkey).

Cheri & Rick

The "turkey" couple! We both bowled a turkey!

My first time ever--I'm lucky if I get one strike.

You would think the ball was heavy, or something?

Such concentration.

Gearing up for competition season!

This week has been a busy one as far as drill team goes with extra practices and performances. Our first competition is on December 6th.

Friday night, the team performed in the annual "Mr. Payson" pageant. They performed their dance competition routine. It went okay--our space was limited because of the stage. The orchestra pit is open for the school musical that opens next week and there is a large castle on the back half of the stage (the one from Beauty and the Beast--Payson Community Theater let the high school use it for their production of Once Upon a Mattress.) Anyway, it was good practice for the team to perform.

This picture is of the girls just before they performed. Our new costumes were not quite ready so we pulled out an old outfit.

Saturday morning after practicing, the girls stayed after to help "prime" the piano benches that we are using for our prop routine. Scott put the benches together at his dad's house on Wednesday night. Scott's dad, Clark, was a wood shop teacher and he has several tools and saws in his garage that they used to put the benches together. I just hung out and watched a bit and then went inside and talked with Eunice.

It was good to talk to her and learn a little bit about her family. I also heard the story of how she met Clark. She then showed me some old books that they might be getting rid of. They also had found Clark's missionary journal--so we asked him if I could look at it. It was interesting and there were pictures. He even had an actual program from his missionary farewell. I think all of Scott's sisters and Greg would be interested in seeing it. It is definitely something that should be copied and preserved.

Here are some pictures of the drill team helping prime the benches. We will be painting them black sometime this week.

Don't they look like they are having fun?

This Week In Review by Scott

On Wednesday Molly received the Coach of the Year award for 4A Schools by the Utah High School Activities Association. This is the top honor given to a coach for all their hard work. We attended a luncheon at the Willow Creek Country Club where the award was presented.

This is Molly with Mr. Penrod, the UHSAA Region 7 Rep. giving her the award. This picture does not show the shock Molly felt as well as the gratitude.

We are all very proud of her work and that she received this top honor.

This Sunday Hollie received her Young Womanhood Recognition Award at her wards Night of Excellence. Hollie worked hard to achieve this honor before she turned sixteen and the other things entered into her life to take up all her time.

Here is Amanda next to her display at the excellence night.

As for me well I spent Tuesday night worshiping the porcelain throne. I am not sure if it was a virus or just something I ate for it only lasted one night and I was able to eat again at Molly's award luncheon.

Halloween Costumes 2008

This year for Halloween I decided to make some good use of my old 80s clothes that I have saved. The idea actually came to me when my sister Paula called me to borrow some 80s clothes for a 80s party she and Casey were going to. So, as I was getting out the old dresses that I had, I decided to try one on and see if it fit. It did, so I came up with the idea to be an 80s couple going to prom. I told my idea to Scott and he decided to do it. We also borrowed a mullet wig from Casey and then went in search of a tux for Scott. We wanted to get a powder blue one, but we couldn't find one in his size, so we opted for the grey one.

My dress isn't really a prom dress--it was a bride's maid dress that I had wore at one of my friend's wedding in the 80s.

My drill team sweater.

Scott is thinking he should grow his hair out like this--what do you think?

Big hair and lots of blue eyeshadow!

The lace gloves are the ones I wore to my Junior Prom.

The rhinestone jewelry I wore to my Senior Ball.

At our ward Halloween Party.

We got a lot of comments on our costumes!

Here we are at the drill team Halloween Party.

Pumpkin Party 2008

This year's Pumpkin Party was on October 25th. Three years ago, my dad started having a "Pumpkin Party". The whole family goes down to my parent's house in Levan and we carve/decorate pumpkins from my dad's pumpkin patch, play fun Halloween games, and eat. There is also an appearance from the "Hobo", who is a scary dude that scares all of the kids to death! I "stole" this collage from my sister Amy's blog. (thanks Amy, hope you don't mind! I love all of the pictures of the kids--they look terrified!

We actually arrived at the party late and just missed seeing the Hobo. We had been at the BYU football game working concessions with my drill team--that's why we were late. I also posted a few pictures that we took--we didn't take very many. We'll be better next year!

Me holding my nephew Ryan in his festive clothes.

Mandie and Madeline checking out the "witch's brew" that Paula made.

A few pictures of the party.

I LOVE HALLOWEEN!

I have always loved holidays! I like to decorate and do "festive" things for each of the holidays. I don't know why, I just have always liked being festive. Yesterday in our faculty meeting, one of the special needs teachers had on a jack-o-lantern pin, and it made me remember having some holiday pins when I was a kid. I think my mom bought them at Hallmark or somewhere like that. I had a jack-o-lantern one, a Santa, a turkey, a rabbit, and maybe a Valentine one. Anyway, I liked to wear them to school when I was in elementary school. Now, I like to wear "festive" shirts to school for each of the seasons or holidays. I also like to do "festive" activities with my classes at school--yes, even with "too cool" high school students!

I also like to dress up for Halloween! Luckily, I have an excuse to still dress up at my age. My drill team has a Halloween party each year where they can bring a date or a friend. So, I dress up for it. When I was single, there was always a big Singles Halloween dance that was one of the biggest dances of the year. My friends and I always dressed up for it! We had a lot of fun! In college, I also remember SUU having a Halloween dance that was also a big dance. Of course, my roommates and I dressed up for that as well. I even won the costume contest at work--my roommate and I dressed up as "Tweedle Dee and Twiddle Dum". (Thank goodness for old drill team costumes).

Here are some pictures of Scott and I from past Halloween parties. Scott didn't know that by marrying me, he would get the opportunity to dress up every Halloween--or maybe he did, since
the first two parties were before we were married. Scott's work also has a costume contest, so he gets to wear his costume to work also!

2003 - Gangster & Flapper Girl

2004 - Jailbird & Highway Patrolman


2005 - Zorro & Maria


2006 - Clark Kent & my version of Lois Lane

2007 - Frankenstein & Bride of Frankenstein

This year we are going as a couple from the 80s going to Prom. We just had the drill team Halloween party last night, so I will post those pictures soon. It was fun!

A New Look

Welcome to the Brenchley's new and improved blog!

Scott started this blog about two years ago and I decided to take it over and try and post a little more often. I don't promise much, but I will try to keep things up to date.

I think it is fun to look at everyone else's blogs, so I decided that I needed to join in on all of the fun.

Here are a few pictures of us at Payson Lakes. My family had a picnic there at the end of September.

Summer Happenings

Jason & Kaycee's Wedding - June 2008

Salt Lake Bee's game - July 2008

3rd Anniversary Trip to San Francisco

August 2008

What has been happening at the Brenchleys????

Halloween '07

The Girls in their Halloween shirts.

The second anual Pumpkin Party.

A rare site, - Molly getting messy.

Hallowen is not the same without dressing up.

or bobbing for apples.

More to come...........................