Our Fab Five ballplayers

Ok, so we're not the Mudville Nine (and never will be), but for the first -- and maybe only -- time, we have all five kids playing baseball/softball at the same time.

It keeps us running, with as many as a dozen games a week, but it's fun...it's what we do. The kids are all playing well and having fun...which is the point.


Melissa is the starting second baseman for her high school team (the Gov. Thomas Johnson High School Patriots, known near and far as "TJ"). Melissa is keeping her teammates loose while delivering at the plate and on the field. The other day, in a difficult situation in a road game, Melissa called time, walked to the pitcher's circle, and told the pitcher "I know where you live; get this girl out, or I'm comin' over." We didn't know what she said, but saw them both bust out laughing. Then the pitcher struck out the batter.


Colin is on Team Dairy Queen, part of the local Babe Ruth League. Colin has pitched well, posting lots of strikeouts and few hits; at the plate, he is swinging a big stick (literally and figuratively). His adjustment to the regulation-size field has been smooth, and you can see the fun he is having while he's playing.


Carson plays for the Optimists in Frederick's National League Majors division, spending most of his time at second base. He has become a drag-bunt specialist from the left side. Even though most of the boys on the team are bigger than him, when a teammate gets out of line, it's Carson who quietly but forcefully sets them straight.


Dylan is part of the Kent & Poole team in the Frederick National League's Minors division. He's a good hitter, but his coach calls him "the small boy with the big arm." He has rifled a few kids out from short and third with throws that made parents gasp. The best moment so far was the other night when he was called in to pitch in a pressure situation with the bases loaded and two outs. On his first pitch, the batter popped up to first. Game over.


After watching his sister and brothers play for all these years, Levi is finally old enough for t-ball, playing for the Clover Hill Rebels (Jason is the coach and got to pick the name; he and Levi thought Rebels was a good fit). He is having a blast learning the fundamentals while thinking he's just having fun with his new friends. It's been worth the wait.

If you need to find us any night (other than Sunday) between now and mid-June, check a local ballfield. One of the Bohne Five are likely playing.

Church Hoops

Now that spring has sprung, we're in full baseball mode at our house. During the winter months, as snow fell and the cold settled in, church basketball was a fun diversion for Melissa, Colin, and Carson.

Melissa missed most of the season out of disinterest (she's a SOFTBALL player), but was finally talked into it and had a lot of fun. She didn't score a lot, but she played solid defense and had a blast with the other girls.

The deacons team was very fun to watch, as Colin and Carson and the other five deacons played like the fast friends that they have become since we moved here. They played a fun style of team basketball with tough defense, a fast pace, and lots of passing. Carson enjoyed running the floor as a guard, and Colin got to mix it up on both ends as a small forward. We cheered them all the way to the Stake Championship game, where they lost a heartbreaker despite having only six players.

It's been nice that the kids have the options to play other sports (and something to do during all these rainy and snowy weekends)...now we're off to baseball.

An offer worth waiting for

For the last several months, Yvonne has worked part-time for a local company here in Frederick.

When she got the job, it looked great. In fact, it was exactly what she was looking for: three days a week, 20 hours total, during hours while the kids are in school, at the salary she requested.

Perfect, right?

Hardly.

Without going into details, it’s been awful, save for a co-worker or two. The paychecks were nice, but she dreaded every day of work. And on her off-days, she dreaded the next-days because she’d have to go to work. Jason kept telling her to quit, that we’d work it out, but she felt like she needed to get a better offer first, so she kept looking.

She’s had some good prospects, and she’s applied for a lot of positions. But the sour job market has turned her search into a form of lottery. In several cases she’s gone head-to-head with 65 candidates, or more. Doing the math, even if only a quarter of candidates were qualified, she was one of 16. And if only a quarter of those were highly qualified, she was one of four. Then, Jason told her, it comes down to hair color, first letter of your name, or some other intangible you can’t control.

Finally, however, after months of searching, several interviews, and dozens of applications, a great opportunity came up. Actually, Jason sent her the position by e-mail:

Job Posting: Executive Assistant
Hiring date: Immediate

Executive Assistant position with private local firm that consults and conducts work in various industries, including engineering, construction, agriculture, transportation, and cleanup.

A small, family-owned business, the two-decade-old firm is newly franchised in Maryland. Conducts work locally and in various locations across the U.S. Successful applicant will find a warm, sometimes challenging, but always rewarding family atmosphere.

Position reports directly to senior partner and provides planning, scheduling, bookkeeping, delivery, and administrative activities for entire staff.

Flexible hours. Work from home encouraged.

Generous compensation and benefits package, including paid vacations and health, dental, vision, and life insurance benefits. Retirement plan includes 401(k) and other savings paid by employer. Housing, automobile, and clothing allowances included.

Successful applicant will be equal with senior partner in the operation, participating in near-term decisions and long-term strategies. Hiring decision will be based on candidate’s skills, experience, overall potential happiness, and commitment to the long-term.

Firm is an equal opportunity employer, but for this position will discriminate based on appearance and affection. Harassment is possible and likely.

No resume necessary. Contact the senior partner with questions or to indicate your acceptance.

It was the better offer she’d been waiting for. She jumped at it, walking out of the job that caused so much angst to become a stay-at-home mom. (Why is Jason the “senior partner”? Simple: he’s older.)

She no longer dreads work. Let’s just say it’s the perfect job for her.

Simplot weekend

Each year has a few dates that are untouchable: Christmas, wedding anniversaries, graduation dates, etc.

In our house, the weekend of the third Saturday in February – Simplot Games weekend – is etched in granite every year. The Games are the nation’s premier national high school indoor track and field event, and its been at Idaho State University’s Holt Arena since 1979.

Jason has volunteered on the Games’ media team for the last 13 years – and he’s been the media team director for the last 10. He enjoys being around the high school athletes, working in sports, and doing what he calls “pure” public relations: lots of good news stories with interesting angles; short review cycles (meaning his stuff gets printed); and opportunities to try new things (like blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter, and so on). Plus, he gets to reunite with a wonderful group of people every year.

For the last several years, it has been a family affair for us. We drove to Pocatello together, and all the kids old enough to volunteer went and helped at the Games. Last year Melissa worked with Jason’s team, Colin helped athletes with their gear, and Carson was a results runner.

This year, alas, it’s simply too far to drive, so we created the new “Jason plus one” rule. He’ll go every year, and take one of the kids with him.

This year, for her last year of high school (criminy!), it was Melissa’s turn. She and Jason flew on Wednesday – and with all the snow we’ve had, they were happy they were able to leave without delay. They got there early enough (thanks to Yvonne driving them to the airport at 4:45 a.m.!) to spend the afternoon and evening with Yvonne’s parents and brothers.

Thursday morning Melissa and Jason toured Idaho State as her official campus visit – and Friday Melissa toured the BYU-Idaho campus with her grandma and aunt. She enjoyed the visits to the two schools she wants to attend – she’s been accepted at both, so now all she has to do is choose. (They told her she needs to decide by June, so we’re guessing we’ll have a decision in…June).

The Games were great, as usual. Jason had a great team again this year, including his friends Amanda (her ninth year on the team) and Kyle (his fifth) and three college interns. And Melissa, who was there for her fifth Games. That experience came in handy when she coordinated athlete interviews during finals on Saturday. (To the amazement of the camera team there doing a live webcast, Melissa delivered each of the dozens of athletes – mostly event winners – that the crew wanted to interview. Jason told them this wasn’t her first rodeo.)

The flight home Sunday was long (another 6 a.m. flight), but we enjoyed getting back together as a family that night, with everyone meeting at the airport and grabbing some Potbelly subs for the ride home.

So next year, same weekend, we’ll be there: Jason, Melissa (she’ll be within a short drive from whichever school she chooses), and, uh, well, we’ll figure that one out next year…

Two Levi-isms

Levi has always had an entertaining view of the world. His age (five years old), his personality, his expressions, and his enthusiasm for saying what he’s feeling add up to some interesting insights. We call those Levi-isms. Here are two recent ones:

Levi-ism #1
Levi was looking pretty glum the other day, so Yvonne asked him what was wrong. He said, “I never got to play tee-ball.”

Yvonne assured him that he was going to get to play tee-ball. In fact, we’ve already signed him up and we’re just waiting for spring weather to melt the snow. Levi was relieved.

“You’ll be playing baseball in a month,” Yvonne said.

Levi’s face suddenly got serious as he realized how soon tee-ball will start.

“Oh crud,” he said. “I’ve got to get training!”


Levi-ism #2
At church yesterday, Levi was sitting on Jason’s lap quietly playing a game of dots.

Levi’s concentration on the dots game was broken by the opening chords of a piano solo. Upon hearing the notes, Levi bolted upright, smiled broadly, and said, “Sweet! This is from Wayne ’s World!”

That’s right. After hearing a few chords, he thought the musical number was going to be a rendition of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. That would have been a sacrament meeting to remember.

Dylan gets a new view of the world

We often joke about Dylan being different. Not different, you know, in a weird way, but different from our other kids in many ways. Dylan even takes pride in it. How is he different?

- he was born in November; all our other boys were born in September

- he was born in Idaho Falls ; everyone else in the family was born in Las Vegas (three of us) or Pocatello (the other three)

- he is blonde (like some of Yvonne’s siblings); the rest of the kids have brown or dark brown hair

- his nose is…noble, like a Roman emperor.

Now he’s added something new to the list: he wears glasses. That’s not necessarily a difference he was looking for (no pun intended), but it is what it is. Frankly, we’ve been surprised it’s taken this long for one of our children to need specs. Yvonne started wearing glasses in sixth grade; Jason since shortly after returning from his mission. The odds are stacked against all the kids.

One day a few weeks ago Dylan nonchalantly handed Yvonne a note from the school nurse that said he should get his eyes checked. When asked about it, Dylan said he could see fine. For days, we tested him (Hey Dylan, how many fingers am I holding up?”; “Can you read that sign?”; “Have you looked in the mirror lately?”).

The eye doctor confirmed it, he needed glasses, at least for school. If you know Dylan, you know he doesn’t show his emotions very often – and he didn’t here. But we could tell he was nervous.

Jason and Yvonne worked with him to find a pair of glasses he would like (not easy in small town Frederick). We finally found a pair online – Ray Bans, with a gray frame and orange stripe down the arms – and ordered them from a local shop.

Colin, whose opinion Dylan greatly values, went with us for the pivotal try-on. Upon putting them on, Colin looked closely from several angles and coolly said, “Dylan, those are you, man.”

Dylan looked in the mirror and broke into a big – and no doubt relieved – smile. They looked good on him. Really good.

On the way home, Dylan had one last nervous moment – what would his siblings say?

Upon walking in the front door, Levi saw Dylan and, in typical Levi fashion, Levi loudly expressed exactly what he was thinking:

“Oh my gosh!” he exclaimed. “You….look...”

We all tensed.

“AWESOME!”

Melissa and Carson agreed. It’s true, he does look awesome. And he can see awesome.

So, here he is:


And here he is again, after Jason told him to show that glasses made him look smart...

Snowmaggedon!

So back on December 19, we laughed as the region freaked out about a little ol' snowstorm. Yvonne and Jason went Christmas shopping, the kids played outside, ha ha ha. "We've lived in Idaho," we said. "It's going to take more snow than that to impress us."

After three storms this week, including a 23-inch, two-day, wind-powered snow storm that ended yesterday...well, consider us impressed.

When Jason heard it was coming mid-week, he jokingly called it Snowmaggedon.

After it was over and blanketed the region in a thick, wet blanket of snow, President Obama called in Snowmaggedon. With the prez stealing his stuff, Jason is prepared to write some talking points for the Administration on health care, the federal budget, and Harry Reid. We'll let you know if they call.



So it was lots of hot chocolate, watching videos, and more than nine hours of shoveling for Carson, Colin, and Jason (the "Three Horsemen of the Snowpocalypse") -- plus five hours for Melissa and four for Dylan. We're ready to get a snowblower.





Now, we didn't buy a snowblower when we got here, despite 150 feet of driveway, because people here told us it doesn't snow much and we wouldn't need it. Those same people are now saying the storms are our fault, because the winters were mild before we got here.

Not funny.