Top of Big Mountain!

Even though Corey and I took our "last" big ride on Thursday before Melodie left for college, we still have Hyrum around... so maybe we can sneak in another "last ride"? Yes, let's do it! Today we decided we'd tackle BIG MOUNTAIN, because that's not a very popular trail and would be good even on a Saturday. I am proud to report that on this, our 3rd (4th?) attempt, we made it ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP! First time ever. 

We left home at 7:15, car was parked and we were on our bikes and headed up the trail around 7:45 am. I was ok to do this if we started early, cause there is construction going on up there and a few "do not enter" signs (shhh) and I didn't want any workers to be upset with us (hoping that they don't work weekends?) The first part of the trail has been dug up, so the switchbacks across the mountain were gone and it was just a major HAB "hike a bike", ugh...

It was kinda the worst. My legs were dying. It killed all my energy for the rest of the climb, but slow and steady wins the race. Taking a break at the top of Gadzoom.

Pretending like I'm not dead tired.

Are we there yet? Nope.

Corey with a gorgeous view behind him. Getting higher and higher! This pic at 9:30 am.

Corey and I rode this last year, and then I did one ride with Joseph, but didn't make it to the top either time. The snowfield's stopped me. I don't know how close to the top I was last year, but prob another 20-30 min climb, had there not been snow? We tried earlier this year in July, but again, too much snow. We knew it would all be clear today. Up and up and up "Up up up" - Emperor Cuszo. Almost at the top... Photo at 10:20:

We made it! 10:34 am.

We soaked up the view for 10 min, then asked a nice fellow nature enthusiast to take our picture.

It took us 2 hours 15 min to climb, not counting our resting time, 40 min of fun on the descent. So with us starting at 7:45, that should have meant we were done at 10:40, but it was actually 11:30 before we were back at the car. So I guess we took a lot of breaks. 13.60 miles, moving time 2:45, I got all PRs on the descent!

Ok, now I'm curious. I think I keep better details on my exercise blog... I just did some research... looks like this was actually our 7th time riding this trail! The 1st, 2nd and 3rd times riding it were the week of July 10 - 15, 4th time on 9/1/23, 5th 8/25/23, and 6th 7/1/24 earlier this year. My 7th time, Corey's 6th. Go team.

I love seeing the world from this high. 

Soaking it all in.

This was down:

Looks like we're gonna bike off a cliff. The ride down was so much faster than the climb. Kinda crazy to see people after 20 min biking down, knowing that they will be biking for an hour to get up to where we just were 20 min ago. Is that a bit of the mathematics behind what it is like to travel at the speed of light? Hmm. 

Melodie went with Wayne to his high school reunion tonight. Cute. 

It was a good day. 

Miracle and Nightmare

So two days ago, end of post, I gave a few details regarding Wesley's medical center bill, which was due yesterday. I let Wes know about it so he could pray for a miracle for us. And I let the college kids know too, as they like to let us know how expensive college and "adulting" is, so I wanted to let them know I feel their pain. It was due Aug 29th, so I called yesterday to get us set up on a payment plan at the end of the day, but with the time difference, they were closed. So I got online to pay it, I paid the minimum due, $189, which was the amount a lady told me last week if we got on a 24 month plan. So I paid $189 on the due date, trusting that they'd be cool with that if I called them first thing the next day, aka today. BUT, as I was on their website last night, there was a number to call if you needed financial assistance. Yes please. So I wrote down that number and thought I'd give them a call first today. I did, and talked to a lady named Sheri, and I was praying in my heart for help, cause we really don't have $4500 to put towards this, and so I told her our situation as I understood it - that our son is there in Texas on a mission for our church, our insurance here in Utah doesn't cover out there, we were told it would be $700, then got this $4500 bill out of the blue, etc etc. She sounded sympathetic, and asked for our account number and a few other things, the total amount billed, how much we've paid so far, then said she'd call me back. She did call back like an hour later, asking for a few more things - the date of his surgery and how much we paid that day, I told her, she said "Ok, I'll call you back" and I didn't know what power this little lady might have, but I was praying for her to work a miracle and THEN GUESS WHAT?!?! Sheri, the miracle lady, called me back around 5:30 as I was trying to get ready to go out with Corey. The kids were around me but I knew it was her calling and I tried to be in a quiet spot, I knew it was at the end of the work day for her there in Texas, so this would prob be the last call for today, and she just said that what we were told when he went in for his surgery, that the $700 payment was all we needed to pay, was indeed correct, things just got entered wrong in the system, and that "the balance was taken care of." Like WHAT?!?!? The $4500 is taken care of?!?! Oh thank you thank you Sheri lady! I felt like Enos "Lord, how is it done??" Like, I wanted to ask her "Wait, what??? How?!?!?" Did she have access to a special charity fund that she used to cover it? Is she a member of the church and somehow got us help that way? Did she pay for it? It's really just "taken care of?" Thousands of dollars just forgiven? My mind was racing with questions of HOW, but my mouth just said "Thank you SO MUCH" and I truly am so grateful, this was a miracle today. Thank you Sheri! And I've also been thinking today of our redemption from death, sin and hell. Jesus paid a debt much lar ger than $4500 for my soul, for each of us. He's taken care of it. I am feeling very grateful for this small temporal redemption today. 

I also will share a nightmare I had last night/early this morning. I was in some cabin camping with Peter and Katharine, but I was in the cabin and Peter and Katharine were outside in a tent by themselves for some reason, and I woke up in the cabin and I heard a noise out there, wondering how it hadn't woken me up, and it was two grizzly bears and they had eaten Peter and Katharine. I was totally bawling, I screamed and ran towards them to get them to stop, but they growled at me like they'd kill me too, so then I turned and ran the other way sobbing, so sad that this was real and that I wasn't dreaming. Katharine's little legs were dangling with her shoes on from an umbrella stroller, with her body gone. It was horrible. And when I did wake up I was SO GLAD it was a dream, and I thought "that sucked" and there was no way I was going back to bed and risk dreaming any of that again, so I went down to read the Book of Mormon, and luckily I found something that immediately got my mind onto something else. SO, I've been doing a little thing the past few months, where when it says "14th year of the reign of the judges" I've been putting that as 2014. And I've been writing the modern "date" equivalent in the top corner of each page, so I can try to understand better the timing of the different events in Alma. SO - some of the things that go along with this little date game I'm playing - if the reign of the judges was the year 2000, that puts King Benjamin's reign ending in 1964, and that's when King Mosiah's begins. He reigns from 1964 - 2000! For 36 years! Wow. Captain Moroni (Alma 43:17) was 25 in the 18th year / 2018, so that means he was born in "1993" - 98 years BC. The title of Liberty was 2019, and that is also when Amalakiah (Alma 46:3) enters the story Jan 2019 (Alma 45:20), and does all his fraud and wicked crap killing Lehonti (Alma 47:18) and the King of the Lamanites (Alma 47:24) in that same 19th year (Alma 48:2)... Like that is amazing. How does one guy go from running away from his own nation and people, to being the king over a whole different people in the space of one year? Amalakiah must have been a very powerful and charismatic figure. Anyway, that's the kind of fun stuff I've been doing in Alma, and this morning, after my horrible nightmare, I was reading and jumped ahead to when the sign of the Lord's birth was given, and the 91st year had passed away (3 Nephi 1:1) so it was in the 92nd year, so 2092 for pretend, and it says that it was 600 years since Lehi left Jerusalem (3 Nephi 2:6), and so to continue my game of likening the timeline unto today, what is 2092 minus 600??? You get 1492, which was when Columbus sailed the ocean blue. It's that cool?!?! Captain Moroni's time to Lehi's time is like us today and Christopher Columbus. So that was so fun! I was excited, and shared that with all my kids. Again, I was grateful that it got my mind off of my bad dream, and it was really fun to study. I was grateful for that, I'm grateful Peter and Katharine are still alive and well, and I'm so grateful too for Sheri at the Financial Assistance hotline for the Hendrick Medical Center for being an instrument in God's hands working a miracle for us in getting that $4500 bill waived. God did a miracle for us today. 

Peter's bracelet that says "Peter heart Wes". I'm grateful Peter is alive and well, and grateful that Wesley's medical center bill was taken care of. Thank you Lord!

Ethan and Bella want the kids to go over there for a sleepover, so tonight I was trying to arrange that with them. I told E it prob won't work cause we have our chapel cleaning assignment tomorrow morning. But still I texted the cleaning coordinator about if maybe we could switch with some other family who has it next month? That wasn't an option, but he replied that we could go clean it tonight if we wanted. The sleepover didn't happen, but we decided we would go clean it tonight. Corey had the van, cause he took it in for registration today, and so Abi and Lily had his car - Lily had an evening with friends planned. They were gone picking up pizza but then they met us over at the church and we cleaned it up in no time. Yay, that means we have a free morning tomorrow! (Maybe Corey and I can sneak out for a ride!) After cleaning, she walked out to the cars and I saw that Corey's car had a flat tire. She drove it home and then told me it was flat. She did a good job putting on the spare with Hyrum's support. Look at these kids getting all grown up and learning about being an adult. Good job. 

With a spare I still think it will be ok for us to take tomorrow if we take the bikes on a ride? Hope so. 

Pinecone

This morning Corey and I went on a long ride. Yesterday I decided that I wanted to go do Pinecone cause Corey said that I would like it (he did it with Kyle our last day at Park City). I decided yesterday to do it today because today is a Thursday (not a Friday/weekend/holiday) and it is the last day that's not a weekend that we have Mel around (she starts at BYU on Monday.) I didn't want to do Pinecone on a weekend cause Kyle said it's too busy "but on a weekday morning you should be good!" so I've been eyeing the calendar for a few weeks but it didn't work with reunion prep and kids and school and then Peter being half day last week - but this week seemed like an ideal time. And I left it until the last chance, but that's usually how Corey and I fly - just taking care of the current fire that we need to put out! So I texted Corey yesterday that I was going to do it, and he said he wanted to come. We woke up the high school kids and then left everyone in Mel's capable hands. We left home at 6:30 for the drive up to Park City. There were only like two other cars in the parking lot when we got there, sweet. It was a good ride - we took Armstrong up, to Mid mountain, then took that south to Pinecone, and that was a long ride, but it was good! Nice and shaded, we saw 5 other bikers on the climb. We got to the top of  Crest - and it was a longer ride than getting dropped off at Guardsman, but yay we didn't have to do Puke hill! Ha, I think that's worth it. There was a big group of people from New Zealand up there and we asked one of the guys to take our pic - 

I had hoped to have more of the mountains behind us, but oh well. Before we started out descent, Corey left a message for Wes about the struggle of climbing and learning to keep working even when you're tired. Even if the climb isn't that fun, you're getting stronger. 

The ride down was really fun! Pinecone was really fast and flowy and there were no people on the really fun part in the pine trees. There were 4 bikers (two groups of 2) coming up on our descent on the other side of Pinecone Ridge, but it was good - we didn't have to pull over that much. It went by super quick though. Kinda crazy how long something can take to climb and how quickly it can be descended. We were back at Midmountain before we knew it, then took that south until we got to CMG. I got 19 achievements, and it was my biggest climb! - My strava said 3065 feet elevation, Corey's was 3206. We joke that he has the male version of Strava and it let's him get better numbers in elevation, times and  overall stats. 

So finished our ride at 11, got back home at 11:40. Ate a bowl of berries and protein powder, bath, read my scriptures until I got tired, then took a short nap to finish taking advantage of having Mel home. Lily had an audition for the Soundhouse, Mel took her down to that. Kids are home from school now, 6:30, Mel's making her specialty Brazilian rice and beans for dinner, yay, and I'm here at the kitchen table typing. I'm surprised that I'm able to focus here and the kids actually have been leaving me alone! Which reminds me a reel I saw today (wasting a little bit of time on Instagram after watching a link from Joseph) - there were some little ducklings following their mom, then she dives down under the water and disappears, they are looking around confused, then she pops up in another spot, and they all quickly swim over to her again. Once they reach her, she dives under again, that was repeated 3 times and it said "My kids when I tell them that I need a minute...." haha, they just want to love on us when we want to be left alone. K is like that with Corey!

Another funny think Lily shared with me was this, it really made me laugh - cause this is me, ha!

but reality is... and then it shows Ursula saying "No Talking, Singing... ZIP!" with that little pop of her lips at the end, haha

I often joking/not joking tell the kids (when they are laughing after 10:30 pm) "Hey! Stop it! NO HAPPINESS! Go to bed!" This week has mostly been a lazy week. I think I've been recovering from everything - a few months of weddings and receptions and summer and the reunion. I'm glad that I'm finally here blogging, cause I have a lot to catch up on. 

Can't Get It Goin'

I'm on my 3rd day of recovering. Other than a morning bike ride with Corey, I have been in a very passive state. Yesterday I didn't do anything... Katharine got my phone sometime during the day at my desk. She's upgraded from photos of feet and got her face in one! 

But still got her feet too. 

She is definitely a girl. She changes her clothes several times a day, she loves pink, flowers, and shoes. She's a cutie. Today I did go to the temple around 4 so that was good. On my drive there I was thinking of Nate Bargatze's pancake joke as he was wondering "What is up with me TODAY?!?! I can't get it goin'!" Might have been the leftover ice cream sandwiches from the walkabout Sunday that I helped myself to a few too many of... I kept listening on my drive there and home, he's really funny. My friend Alisha came by today. We saw each other for the first time in years last Friday night at the Utah Royals came, and of the many things we talked, she asked me about butterflies! She said she's seen some of the things I shared on facebook and has been wondering where I order my monarch eggs or caterpillars from and I told her I find them in my yard and told her to come by. I texted her today and she did come by to see how my milkweed looks - she has a place in her yard where she might try to grow them, but her yard was so pretty and she obviously takes good care of it, so she was wondering how they look fully grown, so she can plan. I gave her a few pods that are mature and 4 caterpillars - I had 3 on hand and one that we found as we were outside looking for eggs and talking about milkweed. Mel was a little sad cause she wanted one to take to BYU, so when I was out with Katharine (taking her over to the neighbors playset) I looked at the milkweed on the way and was glad to find one for her. I'm glad I found one, and am glad I don't have anymore for me. I might be going through a change cause I am wanting to pass them along rather than keep them here. Again, I might be in recovery mode and don't want any more responsibilities than necessary, not even caterpillars. I did lay on the grass for a bit and read a book. And I had my feet on the grass for an hour tonight at the Salad Social with neighborhood ladies. After sneaking to the temple for initiatories at 4:30, I went by the store for some cucumbers to make a Greek Salad for the salad Social. Sophi and Lily in the back with their friends - 

We had a great turn out, it was nice to visit with everyone, and I love the berries and poundcake and cream concoction that the Morgans make. I went back for a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th helping of that. 

The book I was reading yesterday was the one that first introduced me to grounding/earthing. It's called "Health Revelations from Heaven and Earth: 8 Divine Teachings from a Near Death Experience" And as I continued reading, I shared with Wes some of the things he said about being positive from and it had some insights that I thought were good and I sent Wes a few messages. He's been a little discouraged about things, totally normal for a missionary. I'm not sure if the things I said were helpful though. Corey always sends the kids good stuff. Wes asked about how he can know which thoughts are even his own?? I sent him a few photos of pages from the Light of Christ book, pages 36 - 43. In that book John Pontius says there are 3 voices in a normal healthy mind: 1st - You yourself (usually is asking questions and seeking), 2nd - the devils minions (nearly always stated as absolute  and lead us away from truth) and 3rd - the Holy Ghost (quiet commands and promptings to believe, serve, bless, pray and repent) 

Speaking of Wes, here is one final thought for today (and now that I think of it, maybe part of my being in a funk and struggling this past week is in regards to this...) So a few weeks ago we got a bill from the Hendrick Medical Center in Abilene Texas for Wesley's endoscopy (statement dated Aug 4) for $4500 freaking dollars. $4546.41 to be exact. I was like just so mad - like WHY can they just do something and send you a bill without giving you a heads up of "oh by the way, if we do this, it is basically going to cost as much as a car"?!?!? When Wesley first started having problems choking on his mission and his mission nurse and some mission area doctor, who is a retired gastroenterologist, recommended he get checked out cause they didn't want him to choke and die, and we don't want that either. They suggested he come home to get it done, but that would have been atleast a week hanging out at home to come for an appointment before hand and maybe a follow up after, and we didn't want his mission to be disrupted like that, and we have a $18000 deductible anyway that we are not going to meet, so we'd be paying out of pocket for this ANYWAY, so we said we'd prefer he get it done out there. I guessed it would be like $2000. In June the mission nurse HAD gotten a quote for us before hand and said it would be $400 for the endoscopy! That sounded too good to be true but I was like "sweet!" but I was still ok when they said it was actually also another $300 for an office visit before the procedure. That's still good and over $1000 less than what I expected. Procedure was Jul 5, and now in August come all the bad news from bills. And he had called on July 5th on the day of his procedure saying that we had to pay another $700 something and I was like "Allright, whatever, here's the credit card number..." so we paid $737.30 that day, and now $4546 more - total bill for the medical clinic is $5283.71. I felt some despair when I told Corey about it when it came, but he wasn't ready to try and put out that fire, he said to give him a few days. I called them last week to see what they could do, they said that we can get a 24 month plan for $189.43 a month, plus 20% off of the balance when/if we decide or are able to pay off the rest of the balance. So that seems like our best way forward. I reminded him about it tonight, and Corey will get back to me tomorrow about what we'll do about it. I felt and feel so helpless. Why can they do that? Is it cause hospitals assume insurance is paying for it?? So they just rack it up as high as they want? I was so discouraged, but have been trying to wait on the Lord. He is my God and I have a covenant relationship with him, and he has promised to fight my battles. Oh my gosh I almost forgot that that scripture is from Exodus 14:14!! (14 is my lucky number)

 The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

So I've been trying to hold my peace, striving to wait on the Lord to help us, to give us more credit, or maybe help Corey's project to take off and succeed, anything... Lord, does your hear us?? Are you aware of our burdens and trials as we try to raise this large family with all their needs and all the things we want to do to help them opportunities and experiences we are trying to give them? We have other bills for it too: We've paid $700 to the doctor (I thought that was it, cause I thought the procedure would be done in the doctors office/clinic? I obviously don't know what an endoscopy entails...) so I was a little surprised, but not surprised just bummed, when we ALSO got a $474 bill for pathology - ugh.... and then this week a $258 bill for the anesthesiologist, also knowing that the Hendrick Medical Center bill minimum of $1515 was/is due tomorrow. So with all that backstory, that was on my mind on our ride this morning, and I reached into my pocket to take a screen shot of Lily Anderson's captioning from her podcast 4.35 for Helaman 1-6:

"If I build on the rock of my Redeemer, I will not fall. We just have to hold tighter and tighter to Christ in times of craziness, in times of misery, in times of confusion, when our hearts are breaking, we hold tighter to Christ." 

That's what I'll do when I'm struggling, when I can't get it goin', when I'm in a funk - I will hold onto CHRIST and trust in HIM. We will go forward into the Red Sea or across the Jordan River. 

Reunion Recovery

Hello! I'm at violin, the girls' first lesson this academic year. I would like to start violin again. I have been mia since Katharine was born. She's 2 now and mostly plays nicely by herself, so seems like I should be able to let her watch a leap frog video for a bit and get in some practice... Maybe I'll make a schedule for myself. I think I should be able to practice atleast 30 minutes. Or 15 min 2x. Natalie is now where I was when I stopped two years ago (end of book 2). Sophi's vibrato is sounding amazing and I'd like to not be left in the dust by these two, but perhaps my time to practice should have been when I was 12 and it's too late for me. 

Sophi was not feeling well this morning - I think cause she ate too much junk last night at the walkabout. She gets sick when she eats too much sugar, wish I had that problem. I told her NO MORE JUNK FOOD for her, or if she does it some, she can just have one! No more over doing it in the carefree moments and then skipping school the next day. She and Natalie both missed their first 3 class periods. Sophi cause of a stomach ache, Natalie because she slept with Katharine, and K was kicking her all night. Here is how they were sleeping when I woke them up this morning - K had pestered Natalie so much that N gave up and moved to the floor.

Katharine will take turns sleeping with whichever sister she fancies in the moment. Usually it's Abi. Sometimes it's me. If it's not me, then one of the first things I do in the morning is go find where K ended up to make sure she's ok. Here she is sleeping with Abi yesterday morning.

K sleeps well if she's got pressure on top of her head, haha. On Thurs last week she was on the floor of her room with her face down, looking super exhausted.

Lily said she's learned to be careful cause once she jumped off of her bed (on the top/third bunk) and almost landed on Katharine. I slept with K on her bed once recently and after a few minutes of trying to settle in, she said "I sleep floor..." so we moved onto the floor. It's easier for me to sneak away on the floor than laying on a mattress. So, violin was good. Natalie finished this puzzle.

She usually works on puzzles. Ms Amy has a board to put them on, and they just slide it under her sofa until the next week. Today is Peter's first day of all day kindergarten. Last week was a half day warm up, so I hope to make time to blog. I plan on catching up on the happenings of the past several months. 

Our 30th High School Reunion was this past weekend. A lot of things were similar to our 20th in 2014, like running out of food. It wasn't as bad as 2014, but I think we shouldn't tip our caterer - the servers were not that good at keeping things stocked and we had people waiting quite a bit for food and plates. I'm also crunching numbers for how many people actually came out, and trying to finish up finances and reimburse everyone. I think we are going to break even, so yay that is good. Yesterday I took a long nap in the backyard on a blanket on the grass. We had a walkabout yesterday evening. K enjoying a snowcone at a neighbor's house. 

KATHARINE YOU'RE SO CUTE!!!!

I took an hour ride this morning, then another nap this afternoon - I think I'm recovering from the reunion and maybe the weddings too? Maybe I'm just taking advantage of these last few days of having Mel home. Katharine got the better of us today - got into Abi's makeup and gave herself some nice eyeshadow all over face. Please pretend you don't notice that she's wearing the same shirt that she probably got all sticky and dirty yesterday.

We'll go give her a bath right now! She also got into a bunch of embroidery floss and beads in Sophi and Natalie's room. Hopefully they'll all learn to keep stuff locked up or put away up high if it is important to them. 

It will just be me and K after Mel and Hyrum leave for school. I hope that I've recovered and am able to hold my own, or I hope that this little girl goes easy on me!

30th SHS Reunion

Another "big day" is here. Today we had our 30th high school reunion. 

Corey and I started the day with a reunion-ish bike ride - with some high school friends and old street hockey buddies, Dave and Nathan. Some other Skyline alum came along, Kyle, who is our '94 class president Erica's older brother, and Kyle brought along Erica's husband Michael and another friend, so we had a good group of 5 alumni. Melodie drove us up to Guardsman. Group pic - 

Another pic at the top of the mountain - 

It was like the good ol' days of me playing street hockey with Corey and the guys. I aspire to be able to hold my own, and I did ok "for a girl" but I was definitely one of the slower riders on the climb. But I didn't have an ebike like two of them did, so atleast I wasn't cheating, haha. At "the spine"...

At Elbow Fork, we took a pic before splitting ways - they all took the road and Corey and I wanted to go along Pipeline for a little bit. 

Nathan (white shirt) was legit cause he had a hardtail bike, wow. Should I try my silver bike? Hmmm. So it was a good ride along Crest and then we came down Pipeline a little bit, then got on the road near Porter Fork treailhead and took the Millcreek canyon road down the rest of the way. Corey and I ended with a selfie at Skyline. 

Then rode up to Macey's and we got home around 11:30. Melodie had to hurry home after dropping us off at Guardsman so she could help Hyrum get all the kids to the church to take care of our family's cleaning assignment at 8am. She was actually late with the car, cause she had to go back by the Olympus parking lot to leave us Corey's car so we could drive home and she took the van home (we drove them both out). But Hyrum and the kids ended up riding their bikes to the church. Abi and Lily took Mel's car to GMS - they were surprised when they came out to get the van and it was gone. She called me to ask what they were supposed to do, and called as I was trying to climb "puke hill" on my bike. I had to get off to try and talk. Hence no PR for me on that climb today. I think I might like to try it on my silver bike. We got home, thanked the stand in parents Mel and Hyrum, kids were all doing well. Daniel and Katharine playing with clay out in the backyard at the "mud kitchen table". So cute.

So we took the morning off from parenting responsibilities, but we were on duty from noon to 5, while Mel Hyrum and the teens went to the temple, Corey took the boys to the Lego store to window shop, and I tried to finish organizing the reunion guest list, which was all organized last week, but then we had a lot of last minute "can I come" requests last night, smh, they just don't want to make it easy for us, despite 3 month of asking for rsvp's and "please buy your tickets". It wasn't too crazy, just a little bit, cause my list got all disorganized as I went through to alphabetize it all again and the number of tickets the different guests bought was mixed up so I had to go verify it all against our previous tickets and purchases list. ANYWAY, a little crazy, I went to go help set up at 4 (I was late) and I got the memorabilia table set up with Abi helping me. Then we left around 5:15 to hurry home and get dressed and get Corey and be back at the venue asap. Check in and social hour was from 6-7. Corey and I got back there around 6:15. I helped check people in and gave them custom name tags, which I was impressed with whoever did that. Lots of people visiting, then the buffet dinner opened at 7.

People going to sit in the dining hall. We had a beautiful view of Millcreek out of the floor to ceiling windows. Looking over the Skyline area and familiar mountains from the Millcreek Common venue. It was nice. 

I think this was basically what a nice wedding dinner should be like, so it was good to get a taste of it without US having to fit the entire bill. We got a big discount on the venue, cause one of our committee members and classmates is on the Millcreek City council and we reserved it under her name. And we had to use a caterer that was approved by Millcreek to come in that space, and so that was the most expensive part... want to know how much that was?? I didn't take a photo of the food, but would you like to see the menu statement from the caterer? This is what we ordered: 

140 Servings of Grilled Chicken with a Cilantro Crema $8.00 each = $1,120.00

Chicken Breast grilled & paired with a fresh Cilantro Cream Sauce (Gluten Friendly)

140 Serving Petite Grilled Salmon $7.00 each = $980.00

Served with Pineapple Papaya Salsa & Fresh Dill Sauce, 

Serving Grilled Chipotle & Lime Cauliflower Steaks

with a Chili Pepper Relish 5 @$6.25 ea = $31.25

174 Serving Hasselback Potatoes @$4.00 each = $696.00

Yukon Gold Potatoes Dressed in Garlic, Lemon & Rosemary

Vegetarian & Gluten Friendly

90 Servings of Grilled Vegetable Salad $6.00 each = $540.00

Grilled Zucchini, Yellow Squash, Corn, Cherry Tomatoes, Asparagus & Basil

tossed in a Garlic & Herb Vinaigrette (Vegan & Gluten Friendly)

90 Serving Arugula & Spinach Salad $6.00 each = $540.00

With Strawberries, Blueberries, Crumbled Goat Cheese & a Balsamic Vinaigrette

Vegetarian & Gluten Friendly

174 Serving Artisan Rolls $3.00 each $522.00

A Variety of Made Fresh Artisan Rolls in Asiago, Wheat & White With Herbed

Butter

170 Servings of Petite Sweets $2.00 each = $340.00

*Mini Cheesecake Bites, Chocolate Covered Strawberries (Gluten Friendly)

*Assorted Decorated Chocolate Truffles (Gluten Friendly)

170 Serving Array of Sweets $3.25 each = $552.50

*Chocolate Mousse with a Fresh Raspberry, Mini Fruit Tarts

1 Serving Gluten Free Dinner $75.00 $75.00

Ordered from a GF kitchen and served in the container it is delivered in

(Thankfully the venue provided 60" Round Tables and 6' Rectangle Tables)

18 linens for the tables - 132" Round Linen $16.50 each = $297.00

Dark Navy

12 Linen 90"x132" T,S $16.50 each = $198.00

Dark Navy 6 Table Runner $10.00 each = $60.00

Yellow Gold Bengaline

170 Ceramic White Plate Round 10" $0.95 each = $161.50

170 Olympic Dinner Fork  $0.75 each = $127.50

Preset at Guests Seating Tables

170 Olympic Dinner Knife $0.75 each = $127.50

Preset at Guests Seating Tables

170 Linen Napkins T,S $1.50 each = $255.00

Solid Soft Gold Nova

1 Custom Menu Signage $15.00 each = $15.00

Skyline Highschool Watermark on Menu Signs

1 Back of House Coordinator (3 Hour Event) $400.00 each = $400.00

1 Event Manager (3 Hour Event) $450.00 each = $450.00

1 Event Staff (3 Hour Event) $400.00 each = $400.00

1 Event Staff (3 Hour Event) $400.00 each = $400.00

1 Event Staff (3 Hour Event) $400.00 each = $400.00

So it was crazy expensive I think - total charges (everything above): $8,688. Then add a "Production Charge" of 25 22% = $1,855.32 = Subtotal: $10,543.57 (Summer sale -$208.25) Discounted Subtotal: $10,335.32 

7.45% Sales Tax: $785.50 

Post-Tax Subtotal: $11,120.82

And THAT is why we had to charge $80 a ticket. Erica (middle) has been working and stressing about this for months, so I'm glad for her that it was such a success and I think it all went well enough. 

A little bit of stress for Erica when the food staff was not bringing out the food and plates fast enough. So maybe we won't pay gratuity (seems like we paid them enough?!?!). Some hiccups are to be expected. I think overall it was a great reunion, a great success. Good job to us class of '94 officers!

And I am grateful this is done and I'm looking forward to a nice nap tomorrow!

Jet Fuel Engine Dreams

I had a moment tonight. We are back in the swing of school and things, and today Abi took Corey's car to Lyceum. He needed a ride home so I went to go pick him up from his dad's house at 8pm. As I turned west off of Wasatch onto 45th south, I was driving down the hill and the sun was setting and it was beautiful and I was praying for Corey and for his success with work. I was listening to the Killers and the lyrics of Boy were hitting the spot for my feelings (Lyric video):

Just give yourself some time
Head down
Wrong fit
Big deal
That's just growin' up
Untouched
Sixteen
Don't overthink it, boy
White arrows will break
The black night
But don't overthink it, boy

And when you're out on a ledge
Please come down, boy
There is a place that exists
Just give it some time
Drawn arrows unseen will fly

Heat wave
Slow lane
Small town
Only diesels dance
These streets
Weren't meant to house
Jet fuel engine dreams
White arrows will blast
The black night

And when you're out on a ledge
Please come down, boy
There is a place that exists
Just give it some time
Home drawn arrows, unseen, will fly

And break the black night
But don't overthink it, boy
Boy

Corey's mission scripture was 3 Nephi 13:19-20. And it kind of goes along with this song and with our life. Corey is trying to provide for his family, and I do still pray for his financial success, but maybe it's not going to happen. There is a place that exists where his and our dreams will come true, but it might not be here or now. But we will give it some time. If it never does happen in this life, that is ok, cause we are not trying to lay up treasure for ourselves on this earth anyway. We are laying up treasure in heaven. 

I think we're doing a pretty good job doing that. We have been blessed with 13 wonderful children and I'm so grateful for the experiences we have shared with them. Corey's got big dreams and we'd love more $ to work with, but this world and theses streets aren't meant to house our big "jet fuel engine" dreams anyway. We will still work for them, knowing that the experiences of work and effort is good for us. If the dreams are actually realized here or not, we know that Christ is preparing a mansion for us in heaven. John 14:2. 

Abi has also been talking about dreams, and I kinda laugh. You go for it. She is excited to leave home someday and travel the world. I told her to keep those dreams, but everytime I hear her talk that that, I think of this meme, ha!

Keep those dreams, Abi, but also remember that these streets weren't meant to house jet fuel engine dreams.

First Day of Kindergarten!

The big day is finally here! Today was Peter's FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!!!

Class of 2037?!?! Wow. As Melodie stated "I don't even know if that is a thing..." ha. Cute little kids standing in line. 

Ms. Fenton's class behind, Ms. Simmons in the front. The parents were ready to take a photograph of the kids, and Peter was lucky that he had a spot in the shade. Most of the kids were going blind from the rising sun.

Oh, now Peter's got the sun in his eyes!

I walked down to the school to support Peter, while he waited at the bus stop. He beat me there. Before he left, I was helping Katharine inside, and Mel took the boys out on the stairs for some first day of school photos which started in 2011. Then the years started flying by... it was all girls in 2019 - now it's all boys!

Peter in Kindergarten (his 1st year tho... we'll let it slide) Daniel in 2nd, Owen in 4th... wait, they are all holding up the wrong fingers! Mel!!! This is not proper documentation.

Did she do that cause Peter doesn't know how to make a K in sign language? Maybe they are all holding up fingers for what year of school this is for them, not the grade. Well, it was cute seeing them run off down the street. Owen and Daniel rode their bikes a lot last year, but said they want to ride the bus with Peter. We'll see how long it lasts. Back inside, Corey was trying to leave for work but K was holding him hostage. But I have suckers in my purse... "Katharine, do you want some candy?" So I discreetly grabbed one as we walked out the door to go look for candy. We walked down the street, Corey was able to drive away, we waved goodbye, then we jumped on a neighbor's trampoline and then I pointed out to Katharine that there was a sucker in the dirt by the flowers! We found candy! Mission accomplished. 

Peter was half day today and is half day for this entire week. On Friday they go "full day" but Friday is a short day so that's fine. Today he got home on the bus at 11:45, I was late getting there, and his friend's mom texted that the bus was there and the boys all wanted to go to Evan's house. So Peter was back from school at 11:45, but wasn't home until 3. After the kids all got home, it was back to reality with the checklist! The side room TV checklist works very well when there was someone around to enforce it. And lucky for all the kids, and for me, right now we have Hyrum here to be the enforcer. It's a task he is enjoying.

He's like the bouncer at a bar, but instead of throwing people out to the street, he will throw them back to their task if it is not completed to his liking. And for FHE, we did a silly drawing activity - we each had a paper folded in thirds. Everyone draw a head... pass it to the middle, everyone take a paper, now draw a middle and arms...

Lastly draw the legs and feet... Don't let anyone see your picture. 

They all got a real laugh out of their creations. A few were quite disturbing. You'll have to zoom in on the drawing Lily is holding. That one wasn't so bad.

The one Hyrum did gave everyone "Spirited Away" nightmare vibes. (I thought that review was funny, and that was the experience we all had. I can't remember where/why we first watched it...) So it was a good first day of school and we're looking forward to getting back in a routine around here. Once our high school reunion is over this weekend I'll really be able to finally relax. It's been kind of a crazy busy summer, but it's "all good things... all good things."