One Great Day

Today was great. The end.

lol Just kidding. Not the end. =) Today actually started last night with a tough choice for Amber. She had to choose between running in her last cross country meet with the entire Peoria School District, or participate in Peoria Pride - a service project program our stake encouraged us to take part in. After explaining we'd support her decision no matter what it was, and many tears on her end as she wanted to do both, she chose to serve instead of run. Amber has such a big heart! So this morning we got up early, put on some old clothes, and headed to the house our ward was assigned to clean-up. We were given neon green? yellow? mmm....bright t-shirts to wear at "headquarters" then walked down the street to the house. Turned out the house needed to be painted (the outside walls and trim along with the block fence) and landscaped. David started by digging a trench for the border bricks while the girls and I painted. Paisley and I mostly stuck with painting, but Amber and Jade wandered over to the gravel pile and helped shovel it into wheelbarrows. Amber helped David spread the gravel, and Paisley found a dog in the backyard to play with. lol Pretty soon all my girls and the Pratt kids were playing in the backyard with the dog while the grown-ups finished up. Took 4 hours to get everything done, but I didn't hear one complaint from any of my kids the entire time. Kinda a miracle. I was very impressed with how well they all helped out cheerfully despite the hard work.

After lunch, showers, and Paisley's nap, we ran a few errands then headed to Peter Piper Pizza. Amber and Jade both earned free pizza and token coupons for their good grades during the first quarter, plus Dave and I really wanted to reward them for their hard work and cooperation at the house. We then went to our favorite frozen yogurt place and watched "Monte Carlo" at home.

I'm so proud of the choice Amber made. It makes me feel good knowing she'd choose to serve others over herself. AND do it cheerfully. She didn't even mention her meet she missed the entire day. Not once. She DID mention how much fun she had making someone's house beautiful again though. Love you, Amber Smamberkins!