Still Stupid Fridge

On Sunday our fridge started making the stupid noise again. Our fridge is a Samsung fridge and for some reason the ice builds up in the back of the fridge and it makes this noise as the fan hits the ice, until eventually the ice builds over the fan and stops it from moving cold air into the fridge, and then the fridge stops being cold. It's annoying. We got our fridge in 2015 on the day Abi was baptized, and it first started happening within the 90 day service guarantee something and the guy came out and fixed it but then it's still been happening since and I blogged about it in March 2017 and Aug 2018. So it's still a frequent occurrence, although sometimes it goes several months without an issue. But Monday morning I turned off the fridge from the breaker box and spent the day emptying all the contents and moving them into the garage fridges and freezer. I did this like a month ago too! I did try to tell myself today that maybe it's good to be forced to deep clean your fridge every 30 days or so. 

What else is breaking/broken in the house... I'll list some of my complaints... We got a new dishwasher in Dec 2018, and the top rack wheels have come off the track, so when you pull it out, the metal track things stretch out without the wheels holding them together, and then the rack falls off. So I got some zip ties and and holding the rack to the tracks, but that means it doesn't roll out all the way, it only comes about half way. So we just have to bend over and reach back to put all the dishes in. I can deal with that though, it's better than it coming off the track everytime. So we're dealing with that and are used to it and hardly notice it. 

The kitchen sink handle, which I super glued in place, has become loose again cause the kids push it so hard everytime they turn on or off the water. I remind them to be gentle, but yeah that's loose and is now hitting the window board/shelf thing behind it and scratching off the paint. I might try to pull it off so I can super glue it again. 

Also I thought I'd try to find help for our front porch again. It is falling apart. It was barely hanging on 2 years ago, 2nd to last pic, and now the posts are falling out and so it's missing like 5 in different areas. I have tried to find help on my own via google to get our fixed. I even talked to the guy who BUILT this house and he came over and looked at it, but he's not doing construction any more and/or doesn't have any contacts of people who do log posts, so it was a "yeah, I can't help" but they did want to come see the house cause it was their dream house 20 years ago. So, today I put a request out via facebook to see if anyone knows any contractor or person who might be able to help and I've contacted two people from that, hoping maybe we can get it fixed this summer? Fingers crossed. 

There are lots of dings in the walls from life - Once Wes was taking a small filing cabinet downstairs and I told him "be careful to not hit the walls" and then he hit the wall and got a good corner dent in it. Wes was also riding his skateboard in the house and accidentally slid it toward the wall and there's a big front end of a skateboard sized hole in the sheet rock in the side room. The kids slam the back door super hard and the glass is coming out of it's frame from that. There are lots of little things. Oh and outside too - the pine needles are constantly falling. I haven't been raking them up this pregnancy and yeah, they're covering the whole backyard. I think they're killing the grass, and I hate how the grass grows where the dirt is and doesn't grow where the grass should be! The little kids sometimes use the grass as their sand box and dig it up, and I'm like "noo!" But where I used to try to have a garden is all nice and grassy. 

One last thing - during the winter some time, a big rock, like 3 feet by 5 feet, which Corey calculated to estimate it as 2 tons, fell off the side of the front yard landscaping and is on the grass there now. 

It's on the far side of the house so we didn't see it as we'd come and go from the driveway, but we noticed it once when we were snowblowing. Now with the snow gone, it has become a bit of a problem ,since there are a lot of 5 and 6 year old boys in the neighborhood who like Minecraft and think they've found a great place to mine for diamonds. They've been digging behind it a bit, but we told them not to do that anymore. 

Corey's been on that task trying to find someone who can come with some kinda machine and put it back in place. I don't know... we just need to redo the whole house and yard. It's all got issues. I'm grateful for being able to rent here and live here, but maybe we need to move. Or just make a million dollars real quick and buy it and remodel and redo everything, landscaping and all. Oh and our driveway is chipping up, and the northeast corner of the house is falling apart...

The drain from the gutters there went under the cement and the cement is sinking and thus the sandstone rocks on the corner of the house there are all falling off and getting lose. The gray slab on top also fell down prob three years ago but I puzzled it back together. We also have to protect that area from the Minecraft enthusiasts in the neighborhood! Ok, that's all the complaining I'll do for now.

Good news - Corey had a check up yesterday and his blood numbers are no longer pre-diabetic. Good job sweetie. He's been doing great at exercising almost daily, either biking up the canyon trail or swimming at the gym. And we're still eating mostly vegan. So yeah, we'll try to keep at that, cause we maybe be 45+ but we still have lots of little kids and one on the way and we don't want to have health problems or die early. We've want a lot of years ahead with these kids! A few pictures at violin yesterday of the kids eagerly reading books: Sophi, Peter and Daniel while Natalie had her lesson -

More reading by Natalie, Daniel, and Peter while Sophi had her turn. 

Those pictures reminded me of a talk by President Hinckely titled "Four Simple Things to Help Our Families and Our Nations". He listed four things: 

"Let parents and children 

1) teach and learn goodness together, 

2) work together, 

3) read good books together, and 

4) pray together."

We could do better at working together, but we're doing well at the other three things he suggests!

Good Habits

Our house has been pretty darn clean for 2 weeks today! There are all the main things that I have been keeping clean each day, like the main floor, the sink, laundry, bathrooms, my bedroom, and then I've been doing little side projects like organizing the desks or cleaning out drawers each day too. Corey stayed home today and I made him a healthy vegan lunch - a hummus bagel, dried apricots, and some juice. He likes juice.

We're doing well at reading scriptures. I think it is fully establish as a family habit. It took a few years to get in the grove of the new Come Follow Me program (we didn't do as well with the New Testament, did better with the Book of Mormon last year, and now we've got it down. I've been doing great at making dinner, and then right after dinner we go read for a little bit and say our family prayer. We have lots of good discussion as we share current events and cultural trends. We enjoy talking with and teaching our chidlren. 

It is rewarding and we're so thankful to have all these wonderful kids in our life.

Good Days

Well, it's mercifully been another amazing and wonderful day. Kids and parents are all feeling healthy and well. We had violin lessons in person this week (they were online all of Jan) so that was nice to be there in person. Peter came, he had missed the train and all the fun puzzles. He used puzzles to give me a little lesson on all the modes of travel.

Things are really going so good lately, it's making me a little nervous that something bad could be coming. The whole main floor and upstairs of our house are still clean. Tonight I was done loading the dinner dishes and was wiping down the sink before we had even finished clearing off the table from another sit down dinner (mostly vegan potato bar (did have some diced ham for the kids)). I think Corey and I have both been all vegan for the past 2 weeks except for date night. Today the cleanliness jumped up two more levels cause I totally cleared out and organized my reading and scriptures desks in our bedroom...

Before above and after below -

...and I cleaned Corey's shower. I call it "Corey's shower" cause I never use it, I always take baths. I think the last time it was cleaned was in 2019 when Iveth was here. For a few months, she came over 2 or 3 times a week and helped me clean, and we did a deep clean of our bedroom and bathroom, so yeah, it's been a while. It looks so amazing now, I'm excited for Corey to notice it tomorrow! We talked to Ethan on the phone today, and Melodie was able to jump on for a few minutes. Melodie just has four more weeks until she comes home!!! Corey said "We're nervous to have you guys come home, cause things are going so good, I think we're being blessed by having all of these missionaries out serving, and we don't want it to end!" We know we need His help, and I know that even when it isn't as noticeable as it is right now, God does bless us and help us every day. I'm still kinda bracing myself for something though, cause I believe in the law of undulation and "this too shall pass" applies to the good and easy times too. I try to always be prepared for worst case scenarios, like this baby being stillborn. I have a friend who had a stillborn baby and one look at her facebook cover photo is all it takes to make me weep. I just looked it up so I could link it here and I'm crying again. The joy of expectation, then the sorrow at unrealized hopes and dreams. But happiness comes again - here they are celebrating her third birthday in heaven this past September, and they are all smiling. Joy comes again. Christ gives us hope, and through him all tears will be wiped away. When I thing of pregnancy and birth, there are just like a million things that could go wrong, it's a miracle anyone is born! If this little one does die, or if Corey or any of my kids do, I know people would come and comfort us and mourn with us. I know that we are all in God's hands. Having a child is always a risk, always an act of faith. It's out of our control, but I know in whom I have trusted. Ok, well there I've come full circle with my thoughts today: life is great, it could go horribly wrong at any moment, but it's ok cause God is in control!! I was reading CS Lewis "The Problem of Pain" at violin today, and it's pretty deep and over my comprehension, but basically from chapter 1 I think he is trying to say that pain can only exists if you believe in a higher power, otherwise there is no morality standard. I'll try to read more and share it if I understand anything. I have a clean desk now, that is my reading "intellectual" desk (the above desk with the before and after) and this one is also in our bedroom by the closet and is my "spiritual" desk (speaking of the 4 areas of the youth initiative). 

We haven't done great as a family at making goals with the children and youth program yet. But it took us a good 2 years to get going with the Come Follow Me program... I didn't do great with personal or family study in 2019 with the New Testament or 2020 with the Book of Mormon, but we did awesome last year with the D&C in 2021 and are rocking it this year so far (I am loving all the podcasts!!), so I'm being patient with myself that we'll get a handle on the Children and Youth program eventually, too. 

When I saw this print up, it reminded me of the 12 hours of the Hebrew day and the four watches of their night, so I thought I'd try to split up the goals into certain times of the day like that. I'm still working on it. I do have that pic above taped to the wall by my scripture study desk on the wall to remind me that I need to work on these goals/habits - 

Ok, time for bed, goodnight.

Finishing December

I've still been doing awesome this past week at making vegan meals for Corey and lunches and dinners for the family. The house is also still clean!! Over 10 days!! Wow. I'm not sure who had my phone, but here's a photo from today of Daniel walking around with his pj's off his shoulders and feeling silly. 

Lily has been making origami swans and butterflies like she's creating animals for the Garden of Eden. Right now it's 5:30pm, and Corey's been over at his parents' house for 2 hours. I was going to blog, but instead I've been compiling all my years pregnancy weight notes into one spreadsheet for myself to reference. I'm trying to keep calm that I've already gained 25 lbs during this pregnancy and I'm barely over half way through (22 weeks and 160 lbs). I'm hoping I won't gain much more, but I probably will, and that is ok, I know I'll be able to get it all off. It's almost February, I have a goal to finish blogging December today, mark set go. I have three days to still do from between Dec 13-17 and two days for Dec 20-23... 

More WFPB

Last Monday, Jan 10, Corey and I were on our health care patient portal looking for Daniel's covid test results from his Friday nose swab, and we didn't find it (so I called the pediatric office and they were able to tell me) BUT Corey did see something else in his patient inbox - a note from his doctor from freaking JULY saying that he is pre-diabetic. They should have called, too, or something, cause he never saw the note. It also said for him to come back in 6 months to get it checked again, after following some diabetes diet and attending a class, which he didn't do. But now that we know, we're starting. I went to youtube to search for a few vegan videos to refresh my brain from when I was fully on board in 2017, and I got some of my plant based books off the shelf downstairs, and I'm recommitting to plant based eating. A few videos to watch - 

How to Reverse Diabetes in 3 Steps -Neal Barnard

A Nutritional Approach for Reversing Diabetes - Neal Barnard 

Preventing and Reversing Diabetes with Dr. Michael Gregor

I was going to announce my plan to Corey, but he'll eat whatever I make, so I just need to recommit myself to Whole food plant based dinners. We're going to finish using meat and stuff in the freezer, but I'm doing the shopping from now on and we're not bringing anymore animal products in. Last night for dinner we had a delicious dinner that Mel made for us once. She really liked this website "Pick Up Limes" and the time she made Loaded Chili Sweet Potato Fries is imprinted on my brain. It was very very good. So I made that last night. Yum!

I shared a picture with Mel to let her know I was thinking of her! We are so excited that she is coming home from her mission in like 6 weeks!!

I might start our Purple Carrot shipments again too. It's a good resolve, and I'm taking baby steps. I know that planning out meals is the big key to success. Abi is going to help me. So, other than a recommitment to healthy dinners for the rest of my life, it's been mostly the same ol' same ol. Last month I bought a computer for my long lost second uncle cousin (?) Dennis and mailed it to him today. We've been keeping touch after we discovered each other in the fall of 2020. His 2010 miniMac was getting slow or something and he asked if Corey, with his computer expertise, could help him find a trustworthy replacement. We were able to find a refurbished 2012, I picked it up in Lindon, but Dennis didn't want me to mail it yet for fear that some package thief would nab it, so now that the holiday shopping is well over, it was safe to mail. Things are good.

Sweet Little Bird

Today is trash day. I went out the front door to take some garbage out to our bins that were in the street, and as I walked back inside. I noticed a little baby bird on our driveway.

You cute little thing! What are you doing here? He didn't look injured, he just looked like a baby bird who doesn't have long enough feathers to fly yet. I was really glad that Corey hadn't driven over him when he left for work! I first went to hide him in the bushes right in front of our house, but then I thought about where he come from... hmm, it was really windy last night and this morning, he must have been blown from the trees between us and our neighbor, so then I took him over there. ISN'T HE SO CUTE!?

I think he looks a lot like the little red finch babies from 4 years ago. Look at the third picture here - same kind of bird, right? The neighbors behind us and right next to us, where I set this one, both have cats. I think right next door he might be an indoor cat cause I don't see them prowling around in the trees here, so I hope he'll be safe, unlike one of our babies from 2017. I took this cute little guy inside for a second and called to the kids to come see my little friend. No one answered. I hollered and called out names one by one, but nothing. I didn't want to take him inside cause I didn't want the mom to worry or lose track of him, if she was watching. But I want to show the kids. Most of them were still in bed, but Natalie and Owen were playing legos in the basement. I took him upstairs to quickly tell Lily and Sophi. "You guys! Get up and come see this little bird I found!" I showed them the bird in my hands. They came outside with me and wanted to hold him. Sophi holding him here:

Lily holding him. He peed on Lily. It's ok Lil, that just means he loves you the most! 

We put him in the talk grass close to the trees. Last time we had a little lost finch, it's mother was watching and knew his whereabouts, she just was waiting for us to get out of the way. So we all went inside trusting that she'd come take care of him. 

Natalie had a ballet rehearsal today and pictures, so we got her ready with makeup and her hair up in a bun (no easy task with her short hair).We checked on the bird again before she left. Lily and Sophi were already outside watching him and let me know the bird was still there. They picked him up. He peed on Lily again. We petted him and said how cute he was. Daniel wanted a turn.

Daniel, you are being so careful! Good job!

The bird was very calm and super sweet when we passed him around.

I was holding Peter as he slowly reached out his adorable little hand to softly pet the bird's feathers...

We put the bird back and then I took Natalie to her rehearsal. She had to be there at noon. I went to pick her up at 1. We stopped by Walgreens to get some photos for Sophi that she needed for a Father's Day gift that she was making at Activity Days at 2. Natalie asked if we could stop somewhere to buy a treat. This is her I'm-trying-not-to-beg-but-I'm-begging-inside face. She's a pretty girl.

For Natalie, driving in the car seems to mean that Wendy's and a frosty is just a moment away. I told her no treats this time. But then I did let her pick out something at Walgreens. When we arrived back home, we check on the bird and he was gone. I think, hope, and will believe and tell myself that his mom found him and he kinda jumped and flapped his way back under the trees to safety in the shade. I heard lots of birds in there, so yeah, that's what I'm going to tell myself. I'm not going to go crawling around under there looking for him, and I told the kids not to either, cause he's so camouflaged that we'd risk stepping on him. So, that was super fun though to hold the cute little bird. I hope he has a happy life in the bushes and that we see him fluttering through the tree branches someday. And here's a lovely rose from today - I love these roses.

Here's a few more pics of the other roses from today. 

What else from today - Owen and a neighbor made a mess in the backyard, but I'll talk about that in another post. I did laundry today for 90 minutes as I listened to my older sister's divorce court proceedings. I think most of my siblings and my parents watched as we were all texting afterwards. We're all glad that she has good legal counsel and we're praying for her, her ex, and her kids to all be able to move forward with hope and to find happiness. Abi is still having fun at EFY and eating a lot of food, as most of the pictures she send are of her and her friends eating. 

and that's about it. Oh, wait, one more thing, I cancelled my membership in the program with the nutrition coach that I joined (end of this post). I had already locked my card like a week ago thinking that I didn't want to keep paying for this. I joined this without telling Corey, same as when I joined the Sculpted Vegan, and that one was a bigger mistake cause they sent me to collections, but this one it didn't say anything like that, just that if payment wasn't made within two weeks I'd be kicked out, which is what I wanted, but I just thought I'd save us both a little bit of time by being upfront about it. So I sent her an email but never got a reply, and I just thought it would be best manners to be upfront, rather than have them send me a message in two weeks saying "hey, your payment didn't go through" and I'd be like "Yeah, I don't want to be part of your program anymore. That's also why, you might have noticed, why I haven't been doing the work or submitting things..." so I sent her a message and said I'm walking away from here, and she wanted us to process it, and she reminded me that one of the reasons why I joined was to help me stop dabbling in different diets and programs, but in my defense, the idea of being a dabbler was one that she dished out. "There are three kind of people: stressers, dabblers, and achievers. Which one do you think you are?" Well obviously the one you want to be is an achiever, but I wouldn't be here if that is who I was, so I'm one of the two lousy choices, so I said I was a dabbler. But I'd never called myself a dabbler before, so this was her introducing that to me, and I don't agree that you have to keep doing something if after you try it a bit, if you can tell it's not what you're looking for. And I tried doing things she suggested for three weeks but yeah, this isn't want I'm after. She asked why I didn't reach out for help or why I didn't modify it and make it my own, and so we had a bit of back and forth like that, so I feel a little bad, but it's ok. And I told Corey that I do want to join Laura Dixon's program, which has been changed so now it's not crazy expensive ($6000) price tag to have her as a personal coach, but "only" $1000 to join her program and have access to it for life, and it's a money back guarantee: "you either lose the weight or you get your money back." So Corey wants to learn more about that before he signs off on my joining, but I'm giving myself a month, and I'm going to re-listen to her podcast and try and coach myself before I do any emotional eating, but if my weight doesn't budge this next month, I'm signing up. 

First Day of Spring

Today is the first day of Spring! To celebrate, Corey and I went up the canyon to enjoy skiing. This really was probably our last time, cause we've used up all our passes with the Mountain Collective. 

....but maybe we'll go use some of our half price offers. I was thinking we needed to use it this weekend because we are going to Moab next weekend, but then realized Moab is in two weeks, not one. But we maybe Corey would have a busy week again, so we gotta take the chance while we have it. We weren't planning on spending the whole day, but we pretty much did. We left home at 8:45 and were able to park without a problem. No traffic going up the canyon either. We had a good time. The snow was coming down all day. I got better at going down some short steep parts, but still hesitate on the long steep hills. I did better on the blues though, and I only fell down twice. We had lunch at Collin's Grill. I got a salad, Corey got chili. I'm going to get chili next time, cause the salad was super small, and it was gorgonzola cheese which is just nasty. ugh. Vegan chili next time, I'll remember. We had a nice view of the mountain though!

The snowy day wasn't bad at all with goggles on, but it was all so white that I struggled a little bit with my depth perception. The little tree area at the bottom of the Rock N Roll Hill was really really fun. I liked that the best. We did it like 5 times. On our last run at 3:15, it really was like a winter wonderland. 

So at 3:30 Corey said we probably should be responsible parents and go home to take care of our children. Ok fine. So we headed to the car. We started to leave. But then traffic stopped. And we all just sat there. For a 10 minutes, 15 minutes... 30 minutes... an hour... 

And then for 2 hours... We checked the udot traffic for the Cottonwood Canyons and texted the kids every little bit to let them know of the lack of progress in our situation, and they were all good, and we sat. "I wish we had kept on skiing!" I said, and Corey teased that he's created a monster. We calmly and patiently waited as the winter storm raged outside. "I feel bad for the pioneers at Martin's Cove. That must have been horrible. We are totally fine and warm" I said as we sat in our thoughts. Corey added "...and entertained!" (He was laughing at our friend Kevin's facebook memes, very funny.) 

We got in the car around 3:40 and arrived home at 6:44. It was long, but it is ok. We're sorry for anyone who skidded off the road, but if it was because you did not have 4 wheel drive, tsk tsk! No driving up the canyon without 4 wheel drive or chains, like the signs say at the mouth of the canyon. But now that we've waited for hours in bad traffic going up the canyon and now coming down, I guess we are true skiers.

Painting and Imagining

My little artists are hard at work. Sophi got his paint by number for Christmas from Corey's parents and showed me her completed work yesterday. 

i

Today I got out a paint by number that I got for Christmas 2019 for the kids that I never gave anyone. Daniel and I got to work on it. It was a painting of a little puppy.

Some of those kits don't work very well. Daniel paints very carefully and precisely, just like he draws (fourth picture). Only it's a little harder to control paint... and paintbrushes with paint on them... and the black kept going slightly outside of the designated number 10 area...

Eventually his frustration got to him and we put away the kit and he did some freestyle painting.

He is a good little boy. Painting and creating art is one of the things I want to make as part of my regular life. One thing that Laura Dixon shares in almost every podcast how she likes to imagine a world where women don't worry about their weight anymore, where we are happy with our bodies and how they look, where we are naturally thin and healthy and our brains are not preoccupied with dieting and exercising! Imagine if we all actually spent our time each day doing all the amazing things that we dream of doing. One of those things for me would be creating art. I studied and majored in art when I went to Snow College way back in the day, you know. I want to draw and paint again. I love thinking of that too - not worrying about weight or exercise, and I do the things I want to do! My goal is to figure it out this year and have this year be the last year that I'm working on getting to my ideal weight. (Physical Hunger vs. Emotional Hunger) And so every year after this, a naturally thin person is just who I am, it's just part of me. Wouldn't that be nice? The first step is believing it's possible, and I do have that hope now. Slowly but surely I can gain evidence that it really IS true, and give it some time and I will be there. 

Here are a few cute pictures from yesterday of Peter and Wesley playing a shooting game with guns they made from the marble run toy. 

The shoot each other wit a "pyew-pyew!", then they die, then they come back to life with a kiss. 

Peter is a cutie pie. We love his little face. 

Here's his cute little face after having nutella and bread for breakfast. 

I do think it's a bit absurd for Nutella to be able to pass itself off as a breakfast food. That is one contributor to the obesity problem we've got on our hands. Corey likes to get the 5lb tubs at Costco. Thankfully we don't over eat it, so it has lasted us a long time, but we are all carrying extra weight around here and I think it would be good to end our relationship with Nutella. We're on the 2nd 5lb tub right now. I'm glad that I'm not tempted by it. There are other foods I need to work on getting over, but Nutella isn't one of them for me. It will be for the kids. Maybe I can talk Corey into not buying it again, although he does like to have it around for when he makes crepes. Nutella did help me cope back in Costa Rica, before I knew that I really needed to process my emotions - but if you read that post, like I'm talking about what I eat and then talking about trying to exercise it off. (Here's what Laura teaches about exercise in episode #49) It's like the obesity and medication cycle we have going on too. One of the Vegan doctors talked about how on television, you see all these ads for processed foods, and then right after them are ads for different medications to help with all our problems. Let food be thy medicine. I'm not so strict about being vegan (I usually have shrimp or salmon on date night) but I'm really glad that I rarely eat meat and that our meat consumption as a family is much reduced as well. I also totally agree with this Dr. Fuhrman's quote from pg. 61 of his book Eat to Live (emphasis mine):

"The diseases of poverty are mostly infections diseases and are found in areas of the world with compromised nutrition. Heart attacks and the most common cancers (breast, colon, prostate) are found in rich societies where nutritional extravagance is the rule. Nowhere in the world today can we find a society that combines economic wealth with a high intake and variety of unrefined plant foods. CAN YOU IMAGINE the HEALTH POTENTIAL of a society that would be able to enjoy excellent sanitation, emergency medical care, refrigeration, clean water, flush toilets, and availability of fresh produce year round and yet avoid nutritional ignorance and nutritional extravagance? WE HAVE THIS OPPORTUNITY TODAY! An unprecedented opportunity in human history the opportunity to live a long and healthy life without fear of disease. This opportunity can be yours!"

That's another fun thing to imagine! It's time to just put an end to the insanity. Go listen to Laura Dixon. Here's a good one that was a good shoulder shake - #15 The Pandemic Excuse. Ok, there's my rant/tangent. That's all for tonight.

Skiing and Thanksgiving

We're back from our trip, and there was a little bit of snow that came while we were gone. It was enough that Alta is open, so Corey took almost all the kids skiing today. He is more prepared this year than ever before, Corey has been prepping for for months! Car with 4 wheel, rack, cargo box, etc.... He went through all the winter clothes in September and we had kids choose their snowpants, gloves, coats, hats, helmets, and then we took note of who still needed what. Corey got face coverings for everyone, plus thermal undergarments at Costco which he was super excited about. They still had some hick ups along the way. Corey said he will bring a backpack next time with some supplies. He hit a low point when O and D had to use the bathroom. Probably can't do anything about that...

Cute Daniel and Owen all ready, buying tickets. 

Corey got Mountain Collective ski tickets for all of us back in Aug when it was a really good deal, but not for O and D cause he thought they would be free at most resorts. Alta isn't one of them. So Corey spent his time on the rope tow with O and D, Hyrum came over there to help him sometimes. 

So it didn't go over totally smoothly and perfectly, but it was good. We'll work out the kinks and it will get better each time. Joseph took little kids up the lift.

After seeing Corey work so hard with the little kids and not be able to ski at all himself, Joseph asked him "How do you do it?" (like how has he taken kids skiing for many years (earliest documented here is 2012) and how do you have the fortitude to do this today - to take 8 kids skiing!?!" 

Corey's reply: "Resentfully." 

(That was a little joke, but he was also being serious.)

Corey's hands were full, so he didn't take any photos, but Joseph got those few. Everyone went except me, Abi, and Peter. Abi stayed home and helped me cook food and she set the table and decorated. Good job Abi, you'll be a wonderful homemaker! Peter helped too, and was most helpful after he went down for a nap. We worked hard for several hours and listened to Christmas Music and I was on standby with Corey to come up to Alta to pick up Owen and Daniel if needed, but Corey never phoned me so we just kept plugging along with the meal and we were happy to have a lovely warm festive meal ready for them after they got back from a full day of skiing! They got home around 4:30. Everyone had changed their clothes and we sat down.

Everyone say "Give Thanks!"

Melodie and Ethan were both able to call today so it was fun to talk to them. They ate with us "virtually". We all shared something we're thankful for:

And then we ate.

My favorite part of the meal was the vegan stuffing and this Brussel sprouts side dish with with cranberries and pecans (I substituted sweet potatoes for the squash). I'm going to have leftovers of that for several days, since no one else particularly cared for it.   

After everyone (except me!) ate too much, we watched Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and enjoyed two small cookie platters. I love that movie. I saw on the plane ride from Honolulu. It is so good, Mr. Rogers has totally inspired me and I feel like some things are coming together from that at from the depiction of Jesus on The Chosen of how to become more Christlike - they make it seem possible and demonstrate ways to be kind. Mr. Rogers, from his wife in the movie, made it clear he is not a Saint, but he works at it intentionally. We all need to work at it, and I can more clearly see some of the next steps forward for me. Mr. Rogers was my #GiveThanks yesterday on facebook - 

I am thankful today for Fred Rogers. I loved the movie "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" and just watched it on Monday on our flight home. I've been thinking of it since. It was healing and left me wanting to be a better person, to look at my children in the eyes more and be present with them, to acknowledge their feelings. "Feelings are mentionable and manageable" - Pray for people everyday by name. What a great man and example he was to all of us!

Life is wonderful, God is good, It is a Beautiful Day in our neighborhood! My heart is filled with Thanks, Everything is amazing. 

Rodizio

We have been planning for a while to take Melodie out to eat at a Brazilian Rodizio before she leaves on her mission. Well, it's down to crunch time now, cause she just has two weekends left! Corey was a little worried that if we waited until next week, then some emergency would probably pop up and the opportunity would slip out of our reach. So, to prevent any last minute tragedies, we took Mel out tonight! We let her join us on date night. We usually don't let them join us for date night, cause we decided we don't like it. We need time without them. But we made an exception tonight for Mel. We had the kids come with us on date night for their birthdays one year, which I believe was 2017 from these two posts for Abi's and Sophi's birthdays, and that was when we realized we didn't like it, but we had to finish all the kids birthdays. Ethan received a food payout. It was a long process, finished up Wesley's birthday date night a month late in July 2018. So that tradition got nixed one go around. But we do make exceptions from time to time, like the "soon to be graduating" meal at the Roof with our 18 year olds. (Joseph, Mel, and Ethan got his early when he "felt" like he was an adult, haha) 

So, back to tonight. We went to Braza Grill on State Street. It was a "30" minute wait (really ended up being 50, blah) but we thought that's ok, cause that will give us time to work up our appetite. So we walked over to a Halloween store that was close by, cause Corey promised Sophi he'd get her some vampire teeth. I don't love the scary parts of Halloween, or the candy part. I do like kids dressing up, but that happens every day around here. Mel was tempted to purchase the horse head. She settled for a photo.

Then we realized there were lots of ugly masks in the background. Oh, and some signs that say "Pleas Do Not Try On Masks"... Sorry, we honestly didn't notice them! I did think after she put it on that she probably shouldn't in this corona world. But she says she doesn't have covid! Still, sorry to whoever buys that mask if she does! So, we bought a few things for kids costumes, and then went back to wait at the restaurant. We were finally seated, and went to the food bar, and Mel was having flashbacks to when we ate out in Brazil - like here when we let Mel and Hyrum join us for a meal out. 

Mel took a photo of her plate. Mmmm - rice and black beans, Molho a Campanha (Brazilian salsa), polenta, farofa, fried bananas, yummy. I really like farofa. 

But the main reason and purpose for this dining out experience was to prep Melodie for her mission by making her eat something she doesn't want to eat. Cause every missionary has an experience where they are eating with the locals and are presented with a somewhat repulsive food item. Mine happened with menudo. Corey had chicken feet and other things on his mission. If Mel makes it to Brazil, there is a good chance she will be presented with the opportunity to eat chicken hearts. So time to practice and learn how to eat something gross with a smile, so that you don't offend your host. They had to be special ordered at the restaurant. They brought us over a little bowl with probably 15 chicken hearts in it. Corey showed Mel how it was done and munched them down like popcorn. Two of them got wasted on her plate cause she couldn't do it and had the plate taken away. Corey saved a few in the bowl for her. Finally there were just two little ones left. The owner of the restaurant came over and asked how our meal was, Corey and him talked a bit in Portuguese, and he was from Sao Paulo but he actually served a mission in Joao Pessoa where Mel's been assigned! So that was cool. He said he doesn't care for chicken hearts himself. They taste, like... chicken hearts. But he told Mel he'd get her a free dessert if she ate the two last chicken hearts. The kids have all tried them before, except Melodie admitted that she never did eat one in Brazil, despite being presented with numerous opportunities. Mel, it's time. Dad wants you to do this... 

And you'll get a free dessert! Having a personal invitation extended to her by a stranger was the motivation she needed. and she hurried and chewed them up... She wanted to just swallow them asap, but her body was like "no" and wouldn't let them go down, so she kept chewing even though she wanted to get them out of her mouth, funny. Finally down they went - 

She did it! How was it Mel? 

I actually had a little bit of chicken and red meat too tonight, the first in a long time. It was good, but I'm ok with out it and won't be having any again. Corey gets meat now and then for the kids - pork sandwiches, he made sure to have steak when Ethan was doing MTC and joined us for Sunday dinners. I'm glad that I'm ok without it. Sorry cows. (That's the real way to fight global warming, by the way. ...if you think it is a real thing, (I could be persuaded) then you better be vegan or atleast start cutting back, we eat way too much meat in our western society) Ok, that's a topic for another day though, or probably not on the day that I went out to eat at a Brazilian BBQ. 

Corey was making us laugh on the way home. He skipped lunch and was hungry, and he overate. I didn't, even eating a few bites of meat and starting our meal after 8:30 pm (way later than I like to have dinner), I felt satisfied and fine. But when we were getting into the car, Corey started to groan... "Ugh..." followed by a deep breath and sigh. "I don't feel like I treated my body like a temple." Some of the meat he ate was very undercooked, I said he treated his body like a slaughter house. Then after another few deep breaths. "I feel like lying on the couch and drinking beer. ...Not that I've ever tried beer, but that's the character that fits me right now." We were laughing pretty hard at him, so he kept exploring his feelings, the last one I remember was "I feel like wearing a gold chain necklace and letting it dangle in my chest hair" Funny. It's always enjoyable to go out with Corey, and it was fun to be with Mel too, she's almost outta here. She's going to do great on her mission, Indianapolis, here she comes soon!