Expectation Management

I have been blessed with three very wise older siblings. My brother Tyler has a certain philosophy on life that I really should learn more from. He says that life is all about expectation management; managing your own expectations and other people’s expectations of you. Genius right? Because everyone knows it’s our expectations that screw us up! When we have high expectations and something or someone doesn’t meet them then we are left very frustrated and disappointed. But if we had more accurate expectations to begin with things would have turned out very differently. I’m telling you it’s our expectations that get us y’all! 

I’m pretty good at expectation management at some things in my life like my job and my ex husband. My brother would be so proud! But not so good at managing my expectations on other things, especially when it comes to my children where hope always leads me to have higher expectations then I probably should. 

Last week I spent hours and hours planning and creating a Holy Week and Easter lesson for our Come Follow Me or home church lesson last Sunday after our traditional church service. I had way too high of expectations for this with visions of the girls and I having this incredible experience learning more about the last week of our Saviors life. I was just short of thinking angels would ascend on our living room and man was I disappointed with reality! After my hours of preparation the girls weren’t feeling it AT ALL and just wanted to play the game I had, lay on the ground and barely listen to the messages or best of all fight! Y’all it was not pretty once my frustration and failed expectations bubbled over. We forcefully got thru the lesson but it wasn’t even remotely what I had envisioned and I’m not sure anyone’s testimony of Jesus Christ increased like I had planned. What was I thinking having such high expectations?! 

See the day before my expectations were low for the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt that we went to with Heather and Callie Reeves. But we had so much fun that I was so pleasantly surprised! We met up with the Flores fam, Grama Linda and the Blacks plus played some games, pet some animals and got tons of eggs in the hunt! We topped it off with lunch at our favorite El Chaparro with the Reeves and had Callie over for a play date to round out a great Saturday! 

PS the girls have new Easter Baskets because Keagan bought the giant Mickey Mouse head basket for Riley and she is obsessed with it! It was really so sweet that Keagan bought her that after Riley and I took Keagan to a birthday party at Main Event for her friend Madi. Riley and I spent hours trying to stay entertained while checking on the Keags and making sure she was safe. Big bonus was I got to hang out with Chantel for a little bit!

I did pretty good managing my expectations for the girls watching conference and it turned out beautifully! General Cenference, where all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints get to hear from our prophet and apostles twice a year, for us is a Sunday where we stay home in our jammies and watch 2 different two hour sessions of inspiring and faith building messages. It’s actually Saturday and Sunday but I don’t ask the girls to watch Saturday. I was supper prepared for Sunday and the girls had many quiet activities to chose from for each different speaker and it went so well! That was such a beautiful weekend for us! 

Unfortunately baseball was rained out this past week but we’ve had several weeks of amazing games! Including two Saturdays ago which was Opening Day that included a players parade and a giant Superstars game all together where we just barely missed the rain! And last week where some of my sweet Laurels and friend Jessica came to be buddies which we just loved! Riley especially loved having Juliette and Keagan as her buddies the last two weeks!








































Things are also going great at school of course. Keagan had the stupid writing STAAR last week which she was VERY nervous for unfortunately. She had worked incredibly hard and was very prepared. We made Mickey Mouse pancakes and prayed together that morning and while she was taking the test I went to the temple. She feels confident she did pretty well and I’m SO proud of her! She unfortunately has two more to take in May but she will rock them! Riley pushed thru her STAAR alternative test a couple of weeks ago and Mrs Acosta said she was so focused and did absolutely amazing! I’m SO proud of her as well! Im pretty sure it was all because of our amazing Mahaffey teachers and specialists and the awesome Lion King themed STAAR pep rally put on by all our incredible teachers!

Also at school, Riley got to love on a three legged therapy dog and had the cutest Easter party with her class. Keagan planned Special Olympics with her student council friends and sponsors and both girls dressed up for Autism Awarness week including one day wearing the cute puzzle shirts Mrs Marisol made them. Orbit the Astros mascot came to encourage everyone to read over the summer, Riley kept up watering the plants and Keagan has worked hard to learn how to play the recorder including practicing at home some days. Pretty impressive that she has learned to play with her nose too! 


























And the fun just never stops! The DPAC productions are coming along great. We have been to Ever Bellies twice in the last few weeks. Once we brought Lisa and Todd and last night we brought Taryn and Hudson and Keags brought Lauren. We also had a great dinner celebrating Todd’s birthday at Woodson’s. Keags and I had so much fun spreading some love around with the young women last week on a service scavenger hunt, we are telling everyone about the best new children’s book that my friend wrote about her daughter who has special needs and the French’s had us over for a super fun fajita night where  Keagan and Reagan made amazing lemon cupcakes! 

And we topped off the fun from the last few weeks with a great April Fools trick! I bought the girls cheap arm slings to wear to school on April 1st. I mean what are the chances both girls would break their arm?! 

Now if you will excuse me, I really need to go work on my expectations for this Easter weekend! We’ve already had an amazing Good Friday that I will blog about later but we still have egg dying, Easter worship, the Easter Bunny and a big family dinner to go! So lots of expectations to be managed here people. I guess I will give it my best shot! Wish me luck!