Climbing & Reels

Corey and I went climbing with my sister Camilla and her husband Steve, who are in town for a few days. It was fun! 

We belayed each of them for a climb, then Corey and I both did one (black 5.10a, Corey did a yellow 10d), then to the south wall for them to go again, then me a red 5.10b, then the west wall. I actually can't remember if I did 3 or 4. But I think they did 3 and then Camilla and I did a little bit of bouldering, and the kid area. 

Steve passed on those cause he had hip surgery 5 years ago and didn't want to do the fall down. But he was ok with the ropes, He did one more, then my hands were done (still tender from yesterday so near the end they were wasted) but I tried a new pink one that said 5.11bcd, I say d, impossible, but Corey was able to do it (with rests) without cheating. It was a good start to the day. I'd like for us to always go at 6 am, but we'd need to get to bed earlier. I think I need more sleep. Right now it's 1:25 pm. I have the house to myself and I want to lay down and take a nap, but I'm fighting my natural man and shall take advantage of this moment to blog. Abi took the car to school today, she gets out early on B days, so she came home then went to work for my mom, but first dropped K off at Scarlets house for a playdate. Corey had a 1pm appt with an ear nose throat doctor. 

I feel pretty tired most days. I'm going to say it's cause I'm not sleeping great. Katharine wakes me up atleast once a night. Could also be anemia, but I'm taking my iron supplements pretty consistently, so maybe not. Could also be perimenopause? A major symptom I do feel like I have across the board is that I do not care. (I find her videos funny and relatable!) I also like this guy's posts:

I think God's next test for me should be "Can he handle a ridiculous amount of money" haha! And this one!

I googled my symptoms, turns out I just need money - Why do I feel tired? Why do I feel anxious? The answer is literally because rent is due. We're not mentally ill, we're just broke. So funny. It's like listening to someone read demotivator quotes and finally feel like I'm being heard, someone gets it. Yeah, maybe I just need money, haha. To quote Tevya, May the lord smite me with it AND MAY I NEVER RECOVER! Also, since I have been sending so many reels... it could also be that I spend to much time on instagram. I've been cutting back this week, trying to keep my phone away from me as much as possible. I don't want to escape my life, I want to embrace it and live it better. These little bits of laughter help though. I share them with the kids and my siblings, and they share reels with me. Here are a few of my favorites from the past week: 

• Beka shared this - Fossil Safari! I want to take Peter here next year! It's open May-Sept, I've put in on my calendar in May to schedule a time to go.
• Patrice - Holderness singing K pop - Our age going up up up at this moment!

And here are some I've sent ~

• God and Me when discussing my life plans "Are you in? Or are you out?" haha
• Me and Jesus: I need to change, how do I become you? 
• This guy Josh Sundquist was inspiring - loves Halloween, so creative, I want that kind of cheerfulness in my trials. 

Now an hour has passed and I've watched everything from a pantry diy conversion into a lovely space, and a ninja warrior reel (4'9" kid with glasses) and came across a pretty Brussel sprout sweet potato recipe for thanksgiving. And that is how my free time slips away from me. Yeah, I should prob do a social media fast, or atleast keep it to a strict time window. I went over to Kathy O's house at 10:15 today and we put together Christmas gifts for the sisters in the ward. Kathy's house is so beautiful. I took K to use the bathroom, and her bathroom inspires me too. Her whole house, her cheerful personality, and the way she "grandmas" too. She has her kids over every Sunday and she goes to their kid's sports games, I want to be a grandma like her. K, going to go get K soon. Corey and I are going to dinner tonight at India house with Mel and Christian. I'll post a pic of that later. 

2020 Photos Up

I did something productive today. I put up photos of the kids!!! ...from 2020!

So obviously, yes, this was a project a few years in the making (...or a few years in procrastinating?)~ I brought up the frames from the basement last month when I attempted a bit of organizing. Then they've been kicking around on the laundry room desk waiting for me to get at it. I bought these frames in 2020 or 2021 to put the family photos in from back then when we had 12 kids. I uploaded those photos to Walgreens on Saturday night, and picked them up Monday. 

Katharine saw me working on this and said "Where is me?" "You were up in heaven! Peter was the baby" as I showed her the pic of little Peter. She was satisfied with that answer. I wanted to put them side by side somewhere, but didn't find a good location on the walls. So I moved other photos around - put the 2012 pics in the music room, the 2014 pics where the 2012 were, and these 2020 pics where the 2014 were. Ugh, I'm missing other years too... should prob put up the 2016 pics, 2017, 2018 pics, doh...  Ok, my first NEXT priority is 2023. I want a big group photo on canvas and will maybe put on the wall where the medallion art thing is? We might need more walls. As for now, the sun bleached paint helped me stay dedicated to the frame locations. I would have preferred them side by side, not one on top of each other, but there wasn't a good space for that. But after changing it to on top of each other, it didn't look right... 

So I took the bottom frame and flipped them all upside down, then the frame upside down. Now the bottom one doesn't have the grippy thing to hold onto the nail, but that's ok. I'll secure it later. But I'm glad I did something today. That's a win.

It was an ok day. I was fighting hard to not lay down. My goal for today was to not take a nap. Just... keep...moving. I saw a meme that said "This month I'm doing a challenge called 'November'. It's where I try to make it through everyday of November." haha. This morning I did bouldering at Ft union for 45 minutes. Katharine had a friend over so that helped me keep moving. I wasn't able to scroll reels cause I had my phone playing princess songs on the Bose. I unloaded and loaded the dishes, wiped off the counter, started laundry for the boys, and then my cute SIL Stephanie called, so that was good. It made the princess music stop, but they were in play mode by then so it was ok. It was good to chat with her and I cleaned the laundry room a little bit while we talked. Nicole called too. Her divorce was finalized on Monday, that's hard. After the girls got home, I left for a ride. First I took a photo of Lily wearing her father's pants to school!!! 

Lily, those are for a 5'11 male. That is not you. Please don't wear your father's clothes, that's ridiculous. My ride to the ruins was slow, but slow still gets you there if you keep moving. I like the ruins. Someday I'll cross over the log and actually go touch the stones there.

Veteran's Day Program

I went over to the school this morning for Owen's Veteran's Day program. Owen has a red shirt on, right side, middle row. 

I don't remember going to a Veteran's Day program in the years past - this might be a new thing? They sang a lot of the same songs they do for the Patriotic Program, which since that is for 4th and 5th graders, I think I've gone to that for a decade, minus during covid. The favorite part, as always, was when they sing the songs for the different branches of the military. The Army has "The Army Goes Rolling Along," the Navy has "Anchors Aweigh," the Marine Corps has "The Marines' Hymn," the Air Force has "The U.S. Air Force," the Coast Guard has "Semper Paratus." I'm not totally sure if that link is the specific one the kids sang, but that's the gist of it. It's also really touching when the people who have served in the different branches stand when their anthem plays, like our neighbor dressed in uniform below. Really powerful. 

Good job Owen. Katharine and I enjoyed the performance! And Corey came for a minute too on his way back from the temple. 

Abi had the car, cause today she has her flute lesson, and since Corey was gone at the temple, Katharine and I took the bike and trailer over. 

After school, Owen and Daniel has activity days. They did some service raking leaves for a widowed neighbor. I left the girls in charge and I walked them down there with two rakes for them to use, then I kept walking and went to Bell Canyon to my rock. 

Just a 45 min walk outside, getting some sunlight and fresh air. Someday I’m gonna go up there with a pillow and blanket and take a nap. Gosh I'm talking a lot about sleeping and naps. Abi stayed after school for something then picked me up on her way home as she was passing the trailhead. Perfect timing. Corey and I went climbing later tonight just for a little bit. They were demo-ing some new shoes, Tenaya shoes. They were good, other than I told her 7.5 and she gave me a 7, so they were super tight, but maybe that's how climbing shoes should be? 

They had coupons for 20% off, so we'll see if we give those to ourselves for Christmas. We did 4 climbs (I did a 5.11a with only one rest!) but then Corey wanted to get back home to manage the kids. When we got home they were all cleaning and doing homework and practicing music. Good job kids! And that was without me telling them to do that before we left! Owen was practicing trumpet, he had just gotten back from a friend's birthday part at Top Golf. 

Good kids. Abi took this pic of me at scriptures tonight - K asleep on my lap, Peter laying down on top of her and me, asking me to scratch his back. This is something that happens most every night. 

Sometime I just don't have it in me to rub their backs. I'll feel like I've given everything I had and I just don't have more. When that happens, it's nice when the kids step up and Abi will offer to rub Daniel's back, or Lily/Sophi will rub Peter and Natalie will take care of Katharine. Those small gestures help so much. Today I was glad to have Owen's Program to get me out the door, cause I've been struggling a bit recently to be productive. I had very little wind in my sails. My mojo got killed early today with my 4:30 am encounter with Katharine. I slept with Katharine last night on her bed, she was cute singing a little song last night. I started recording after she had already been singing for 2 minutes. Super cute. So I slept with her on her bed, and my alarm to go to the temple (I had a 5 am appt) went off at 4:10. I got off the bed, not too carefully but didn't do crazy movement, got ready, and five minutes later, she was knocking on my door. She whimpered "Mommy I thought you were going to sleep with me!" She woke up Corey, he tried to take her but she refused him. She wanted mommy (aww). She said she wanted to go to the temple with me and didn’t want me to leave, so after a few minutes failed negotiations, we went back to bed, in our bed this time, and thus I didn’t go to the temple at 5, didn’t go bouldering at 6, but I did do two blog posts this afternoon after I basically lay on the couch all day with her watching movies (The Swan Princess is the current fav) or playing in the room. Corey told the kids tonight at scriptures about how it kills him to see them waste time. He wished he had more time, so to see them just waste it hurts. Lily brought up the Three Amigos canteen scene, haha. We watched it and laughed and thought it made a good analogy. Corey is Steve Martin, just getting a few drops.

Me/Martin Short, getting it worse haha thanks to kids who suck whatever time/moisture I did have out of my body)

And the kids are Chevy Chase, prone to be careless with time, oblivious to what a treasured commodity it is that they are wasting, and curious as to why we look shocked and exhausted.

FHE Turkeys

We had a simple FHE tonight. Abi went to the store and got the goods for candy turkeys, and then they made them.

I was actually upstairs laying down when it happened. 

These are little turkeys that JeNeal often made with the kids up at Park City for Thanksgiving. We will be going up there this year for Thanksgiving and now that we're warmed up on the candy craft, maybe we'll take the stuff up and do it again there. 

So it was pretty simple and had no prayer, hymn or activity, just chocolatey treat, and they were ok with that. 

Corey was still working, but he got home shortly after treats were eaten, and then we read scriptures early, so we'll add that as part of FHE tradition.

What else happened today. I was pretty lazy again. I can't get it going. And Katharine holds me hostage. She won't let me leave the room and do anything, which eventually saps my energy. We did work on her school book a little bit. She holds her writing instruments perfectly. Practicing her letters, she thought it was pretty fun and would studiously concentrate as she traced, and then fall back giggling when she was done.

She did her Fs perfectly. When the girls were almost home, I was getting ready to go for a ride, and K could tell and was weepy, telling me not to leave. "I'll be lost!!" "I'm not leaving until Lily gets back! Lily will be with you! You won't be lost." She wasn't buying it, so I distracted her with ice cream (bad mother). I said let's go get ice cream, and then Lily will be back and I'll go for a ride. I had the car today, so we hurried down and got ice cream at Macey's again with Daniel's free ice cream punch card. 

They made it waaaaay too big. It's generous of them, but you should not do that for a 3 year old. She shared a little bit willingly, and I took some sneakily when it was melting too fast and was gonna drip on her (we stopped by Walgreens to pick up photos after getting the ice cream, which I had been wanting to do all day but K didn't want to). Then I escaped for a ride. I got another local legend! For the techy section! Cool! A tree fell over the path last week. Today I brought up clippers in my backpack and I cut some branches of small trees to make a path around it. I dug my heel in the dirt to show the way for other bikers, and now I can get around it without having to do the black diamond log drop that someone else made. 

All the fall leaves are gone, but I want to take advantage of the doable temperature before winter comes. I'm glad we did scriptures earlier, that gave me this chance to blog a bit before bed. I'm still behind, and didn't record at all last week. Must do better. I did load dishes and wash pots and pans tonight, yay.

See Beyond

It is 7pm. I have had a super lazy day. This little girl is kinda sucking the life out of me. I don't sleep well at night. She comes in our bed everynight. It's cute. 

My lacking any get go might be a combination of tending to K and Natalie, who stayed home from school again today. This is sick day 3. She's feeling better, but low on energy from not eating much the past few days. Plus her lips are all sore with cold sores, so she is not going out in public until they heal. She's been sleeping in our room on the "sick couch" so I can be her attentive nurse. She's all set up for with a shelf for water, vaseline, q-tips and toilet paper.

I let her and Katharine watch movies while I took a nap this morning. I've been struggling to get going all day. After waking up from my too long nap, I went for a ride. It was super windy, but the temperature was good (65 degrees). It was sludge going against the wind though. There was a tree that fell down on Techy, making a new feature. But the rocks that some diligent soul piled up to make it passable, did not make it possible for me. There is a little drop right there, and so now to go slightly up on the log and then drop down is beyond my techy abilities, so I'll have to go up there sometime and clip away branches to make myself a new path around it, cause this feature is not happening. 

Enjoying the fall mountains, even though things have rusted and fallen and left "the mountainside cold and bare..." - Sleepwalker The Killers. In a few spots the rusted leaves are still holding on. 

Oh, and I became the "local legend" for church to wasatch, haha, that's fun. I rode through the neighborhood after I was home, there were a few pretty bushes bright with red. I need some of these in our yard someday. 

I did read a totally appropriate entry in Simple Abundance today. It hit the spot. It was almost the actual entry for today too! But just a day later, the Nov 6 entry. It talked about coping, and coping well. It's like in the scriptures: there is submitting (Mosiah 3:19), and there's submitting with patience, and submitting cheerfully and with patience! (Mosiah 24:15). I'm working on the cheerful part. So the Nov 6 entry is good - she gave some tips for coping through the little things. "Coping well enables you to see beyond the circumference of circumstance, so that the Real in the center of your daily round is not hidden by happenstance" and "Every time we cope well with whatever real life throws our way, it's another deposit of confidence, creativity and courage in our self esteem account. So congratulate yourself each night for handling the unexpected with finesses. Well done." Blogging helps me cope. Going to go give myself a pat on the back. 

Tabernacle Concert

Tonight I went down to see Abi in a Lyceum concert. From the Lyceum website, this concert was titled: Youth Inspiring Youth ~ "This fun and inspiring concert offers an exclusive preview of music from our upcoming Lyceum album. Hear lush new arrangements from the new hymnbook, epic expansions of beloved favorites, and masterworks by Beethoven, The Beatles, and more! The combined Lyceum Philharmonic and Symphony join forces with the Institute Choirs of SLCC, UVU, and Utah, creating an orchestra and chorus of over 500 youth in a moving expression of musical testimony, talent, and tribute to our nation."

It was at the Tabernacle, and was free, which means we just saved atleast $70 bucks with the 7 of us in attendance. I went down with Owen Daniel Peter and Katharine. As I was getting ready to leave, Mel texted asking if she and Christian could come by, and I said the littles and I were going downtown, so they joined us and met us down there. They got there first, so when I arrived I called Mel and she came out to get the kids, then I went to park the car. I refused to pay $13 for parking, so I went a bit far away and was thus a little late joining them but it was all good cause the kids were in capable hands. (Savings for the evening now $83!) 

A few times I was impressed with myself and my ability to focus and be touched by the music despite the kids being a bit noisy and restless. (Katharine wanted to climb the column next to me. I hope they weren't too distracting or irritating to the people behind us!) The first song that made me tear up was My Country 'Tis of Thee ~ I loved how the organ was lit up to go with the song they were performing!

With all the chaos that seems to be happening in our country (from what I've read in the news, nothing I've personally seen yet) I felt a lot of hope being in the tabernacle with a huge crowd to know that there is a group of people in the USA that is looking for a king, and that king is JESUS CHRIST and him alone. He died so that we could have agency to act freely and learn from our mistakes as we exercise our freedom. Let freedom ring! Thank God for our freedom and for Christ saving us from all the mistakes and sins we commit as we exercise our agency. He's prepared a way for us to learn and be forgiven, I'm so grateful! And then they sang a beautiful rendition of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" with images of stars and galaxies on the tabernacle ceiling - it was powerful! I wrote down some of the lyrics that stood out to me as the choir sang ~ "Now let us rejoice, Comfort this sweet sentence gives, HE LIVES, He lives to silence all my fears, to calm my troubled heart" (again thinking of the risky financial situation we are still in personally, which feels a little scarier with the mess our country is in with the current president who has no guiding moral principles (I'm not liberal, but I'm definitely a "Never Trump"-er)

So I loved that one and it strengthened my knowledge once again that Christ is in control. Nathan Pacheco performed "Don't Cry" and then did "Forever" which is one of my faVoRiTes!!! (When "Forever" started, Peter said "This is a Cars song" which Katharine heard and corrected him "This is a Sleeping Beauty song..." haha cute kids). Nathan Pacheco said "We've all got things that we're up against, but Christ has overcome all of those things" Similar to another concert of his that we attended, at this one the audience sang with him "We sing hallelujah, we sing hallelujah, we sing hallelujah, the Lamb has overcome!" over and over again. The Lamb has overcome! He has ALREADY overcome all things! Every sin and problem to ever happen on this earth, he has overcome it! At the end, with images of clouds behind the organ, he sang "I Believe in Christ" 

Actually it might not have been the clouds during that song, but it set the stage for it, and it felt heavenly. I remember last time I heard Nathan Pacheco sing "I Believe in Christ" at the tabernacle, and just like that time, I loved hearing it as a solo! It is really a song that is bearing a strong personal testimony! 

So, that was wonderful, and I plan to go to the next free Lyceum concert. Good job Abi!

I was also thinking of all the work that goes into productions like that - years of practicing for each of those musicians, not to mention the time they put in just today.... Abi got up at 8, left home at 9 for downtown where they were doing a recording, then a brief lunch, then a few more hours of recording, then a rehearsal for the concert tonight, then the concert. It was an all day event for each of those musicians. We had one stressful moment at 1pm - she got locked out of the car somehow, but the car was still on (not running, but the power was left on...) she had the key in her hand, but the fob wasn't working to unlock it, and the manual key that she got out from inside the fob it wasn't working either. She had to be inside for the recording, so Corey and I drove down so we could try to open it and stay to wait for a locksmith, if needed. (I thought Corey and I were both going to go out to eat since we missed date night last night.) As soon as we got there, Corey got the manual key from the van key that we brought, and it opened the car right away. "Just what I thought would happen..." Corey said with a sigh. 

I said "It's ok! This is good! This is the best case scenario! We don't need to get a locksmith! We just saved $100 bucks!!" (Daily total $183!) We tried again with the key Abi had been trying with, and it did NOT work. Hmm, that was when we discovered why: she had the manual key for Corey's car! Yep, it worked on Corey's car, and the manual key that was in Corey's fob worked on the van. Somehow and sometime someone switched them, so hooray - mystery solved, we switched them back, and we saved $100 bucks for not having to get a locksmith, woo!

After resolving the locked out of the car situation, we took both cars home. I didn't know we were doing that. Corey "Why did you think we both came?" "Cause we were going out to eat?" Tomorrow is fast Sunday, and since we missed date night last night, I had said earlier that we should go out to eat for lunch and then start our fast. But instead we drove home. I called him as we drove, thinking we could swing by Beaumont Cafe or Aubergine, but he didn't answer. He called me back 10 min later, but we were past the exits we would have needed to take. We went home, then went down to Vessel Kitchen for a quick lunch. Then home, didn't do much cleaning or anything productive today, despite my thinking it would be a good work day. Corey and I went climbing (toprope) at 9am. The kids fed themselves breakfasts of Halloween candy. I'm not doing great at breakfast lately, esp today with Halloween sugar overload lingering. It will probably be gone by tonight. 

Daniel slept in his clothes... that he wore to school and trick or treating. Egh, I'm not doing great at giving the boys baths or having them wear pjs to bed, or washing their sheets, it's all just dirty, gross. What else - So Abi was gone all day, Lily cleaned her room all day, Sophi had a sleepover last night (after weeks of negotiation) and she got home at 1 and then slept until 5 - so yay, two days wasted on that sleepover (not likely to happen again!). Natalie is sick with a fever and headache and has been sleeping all day. Owen was his usual amazing diligent self, getting his stuff done then going to play. Boys jumped on the trampoline, and then watched a fair share of DVDs as well. Katharine has learned how to turn them on in our room. I might move that tv somewhere else. 

I went to Costco with a strict budget of $300, and we knew going in that almost half of it would be going toward renewing our membership. I did an awesome job, gave myself a "PR". Corey and I are going to go over finances together tomorrow, for the first time probably ever? I did the budgeting for most things through Sept 2020, then stopped in Oct 2020 and Corey's been doing almost all of it since then. I still do utilities and trumpet and violin lessons. Maybe us working together on a budget and financial planning has been what the Lord has been waiting on for all these years. Fingers crossed and hands praying that as we do work on it together that things will go better. I made a short grocery list before going to Costco, and added up each thing as I put it in the cart, but I got a little sloppy at the end with my adding items, thus had to leave 3 things at the check out cause they put me over (sorry mayo, bread and protein powder! Maybe next week). I'm excited about my new favorite meal: sweet potatoes, avocado, kimchi lately, with the almond dip, (which we call B sauce, or itchy sauce) - it's good! Looking forward to eating that tomorrow when I end my fast. I spent $298.69, a personal best, yay. Maybe if we are good stewards over every dime, God will entrust us with a couple million dollars and we'll put it to good use, counting and budgeting to the penny! Ok, well busy day. Looking forward to a day of rest tomorrow, and yay for the end of daylight saving time. 

Chill Halloween

Happy Halloween from the Wrides. This has been a pretty chill Halloween, so it was just right. I'm glad we survived it and it wasn't too painful. We didn't get too much candy - I didn't get the Costco bag, just one at Smiths, and we ran out at the end and I had to steal some from the kids to refill, but it was ok and I'm glad we didn't overbuy. We also didn't go shop for any more costumes, which is good cause we have 4 huge bins of costumes. I feel like October passed quickly, which I am grateful for. We kept ourselves busy with fall bike rides, and it didn't seem like the whole haunted scary part wasn't overbearing. Corey and I went on a ride around 2:30 so that worked out perfect. 

The kids gave themselves extra time today to get their costumes on. Abi was a crunchy teen and said she wore less makeup than usual. Lily = Minion, Sophi = Ninja Turtle, Natalie = Adam Sandler, Owen = Spider Man, Daniel = Zombie. Daniel made his own costume but woke up early to finish it - cutting up his pants a little more and and painting the shirt with some blood. 

Ready to go to school at 8:30 - Peter's awake now - he's a cowboy with a sachel.

When I woke up at 6:30, Owen was downstair reading and had been for thirty minutes. I tell ya, he's a different kind of kid! I'm impressed by him everyday for his work schedule.

Before the ride, I was trying on a few things - I had a Mario Suit (so I could ride my bike and be Mario Kart!) or a Zoot suit, Wesley's India outfit on the bed and tried it on. It's pretty cool, I would have worn it if I was a guy and/or taller. I was a bit too short. It fit Abi pretty well. 

Abi left when we were almost back from our ride, and she took took Sophi and Natalie out to friends' houses. Abi worked on her BYU essays tonight then was planning to go to a party after that. So it was just us and the little kids. We did pizza at the Felix's (Corey took kids over) and I passed out candy and set up the Bose outside and turned on Michael Jackson music. I ended up being a Smooth Criminal tonight. 

Lily wins the make-up award. She made herself into a skeleton again - the third time this week.

Katharine didn't dress up at all, but that's ok, cause she didn't hardly trick or treat either.

She put on her shiny shoes, walked downstairs on one side of the street, then came back on the other side, and that was it, and that was ok with me. Daniel and Peter finished pretty early too (Corey kept track of them via his bike). After Daniel was done, I let him use my jacket and hat to pretend to be a mannequin scaring people.  

He said he scared a lot of people.

We let Owen just run loose - he was out with his friend and was gone the longest, and came back with the most candy. 

Ethan and Bella sent us a pic of their costumes - so cute! Alvin and the Chipmunks!

And Mel and Christian's costumes make me laugh the hardest - soo funny!

I just got back from picking up Natalie, time for bed. It was a good Halloween. I'm glad it was on a Friday, that works out really well. I had fun dancing to Thriller and Smooth Criminal, I might need to have my kids see those MJ videos so they know some music history.