2 Hour Painting

This morning Katharine asked Corey to take her to Uptown Jungle, and he said ok. Yay, I have some personal time to get something done! I thought I'd try to catch up on the blog... I'm done though this month, and it might be cool to finish April before April is over... but instead I thought I'd try out my new art area. I got an old canvas that the kids had drawn on previously (since I'm just going to be warming up my art muscles for a while) and then I whipped out this!

Done with acrylic paints at my little art desk.

I used this photo from last week (April 21) as my subject.

It would be super fun to go out on the trial and paint on the trail! I'm going to do that this summer. Yay for my first painting in a few years. I sent it to the kids, Corey said it must be AI cause he hasn't been gone long enough with Katharine for me to do that, haha. I was going fast though - for a quick "Impressionist" style piece. I am pleased, that was fun. This art area b-day gift will be a gift that keeps on giving. Now I'll blog. :) It's 2:10 right now. I haven't exercised yet. Oh wait yes I did, I went on a walk this morning. My left hip hurts from sitting though while I painted that (sat half of the time, stood for half) so maybe I'll go walk around for a bit to help it out. 

Hibberts are coming over tonight cause Camilla is in town with her family. They came to attend her son's graduation from the UofU today. I'll update with pics of that later. 

Surprise Party

Mel and Christian planned a surprise birthday party for me in Pleasant Grove tonight. 

I almost didn't make it down. Sophi and Natalie said they had a ballroom thing and I told Mel I had to take them to that and then stay to pick them up afterwards, but that Wes, Abi and the other kids would come down. Then Mel called Sophi and talked them out of it I guess, but I still had to go out to Skyline to pick up Lily who had to stay after for whatever. So WASNODPK headed to Pleasant Grove and Corey worked and I went and got Lily. It took forever cause there is stupid construction on Wasatch Blvd by the exit. I was on the off ramp for 15 minutes. Coming home was better. We got home, finished cooking sourdough for one of Lily's customers which took an hour, then Corey Lily and I headed down for the sibling gathering. Well, I thought it was just a sibling gathering that Mel arranged to do while Joseph and Eliza were in town. When Corey, Lily and I eventually got there (like over an hour late?) we saw that they had ice cream, a cake, a birthday banner and such as a birthday party for me. 

Christian brought his pizza oven and was serving up hot slices. Mel mad a 5 - 0, 5 out of olives, 0 out of cherry tomatoes.

The kids made a list of 50 things they love about me, awww

The wind was blowing like crazy, so we had to put that away quick. 

It was funny, the kids pointed out all the unfortunate events that had occurred: the cake got dropped, ice cream was melted, napkins and cups were being blown everywhere, we laughed and Bella said "This is kinda like life!" You make some plans, people have other commitments, people are late, there is wind, ice cream melts, cake is a mess, and that is ok cause that is life. But it is good to have the people you love around you. I got a pick with Alvie and Mary - 

I pushed Katharine on the zip line bar swing over and over again. She LOVED it.

Corey, Joseph and Ethan were all talking about their struggles as working men and providers for their wives and children. Eliza and Bella swung their bundles of joy on the swings.

And then I asked Corey Joseph and Ethan to go visit by Katharine so they could push her on the zip line, and then I went over and joined everyone else in an epic game of tag. We had a big group. It is a really fun playground! Eliza's mom Amanda came to pick them up so they could head back to the airbnb before the wedding tomorrow. She took a group pic of us, and then we told all the kids to come for a tag group pic. Here are most of the people from our game of tag. We had like 3 people as "it" - It was fun. 

Then it was getting dark, so we got kids in the car. Alvie was honking the horn in their car, haha.

Ethan said I haven't been representing Alvie much on the blog. They've shared a google album with me, but I don't see all the stuff in there - I'm playing the "old person" card on my ignorance there. But if they sent me pics over whatsapp, then it goes into my camera roll, so I told them to do that with their favorite pics, and I'll try to learn how to view shared albums. We love you Alvie!! 

So that was the highlight of the day - having fun with all the kids together except Hyrum. Ethan wasn't in the group pic cause he was fighting for his life in the bathroom for 20 minutes and we had to take the pic so Joseph and Eliza could head out. It was a good time.

The other good thing today was that Wesley and I cleaned a lot in the basement. Wesley has decided that he is going to make the basement a clean and organized space before he leaves next month. I think he's around until May 19th. Here's part of the before, after he picked up the legos off the floor.

13 bins of legos - that's taller than Wesley!

That's what 24 years of gifts of legos for Christmas and birthdays every year for 13 kids looks like. Today we vacuumed the lego area and moved shelves over there, and made a little play house area for Katahrine.

Wesley and I both worked hard and are proud of the progress we made! 

We're excited to get after it more tomorrow. We are going to paint the cement walls too! I'm going to go pick up paint tomorrow morning. This is Wesley's birthday gift to me. It will be really great to have this space reclaimed! It will be a gift that keeps on giving.

Michael Movie!

I just got back from the Michael movie with Corey and my parents and my Utah siblings. We went to the 9:15 show. 

We LOVED it!

Seriously it was so good. I didn't have any big expectations about it, we all went just for old times sake, to give a nod to our childhood and the 80s. But my mind was blown. Like HOW??? How do you re-create huge concerts or these iconic moments - hello his performance of Billie Jean at Motown 25?? Like they recreated it frame for frame and Jaafar Jackson performed flawlessly, like I don't know how they did it, but they did, and the theater was vibrating and it felt like we were in the stadium watching with the fans. SO COOL. So yeah, blew my mind. 

I don't know if it over stimulated my brain, but I couldn't go to bed after we got home, so here I am. Quick recap of today - Busy day. K had a bad dream that bad guys killed Abi. We reunited them this morning to let K know things are well and Abi is fine.

I made sourdough, delivered it for Lily's and Sophi's bread business, I went with K to pick up J&E, visited with them for a bit, Joseph looking at the old US President's book that he memorized in Brazil when we went in 2007, so funny. 

He was looking at and remembering what he was thinking about each of the presidential facts and what his pen illustrations that he added were, like elephants and donkeys for their political parties, or his own sketch of each president, haha.

Joseph and Eliza stayed up late last night and got up early to pack, so they took a rest, I took K with me to visit two neighbors, Collen N and Ruthann J, beautiful homes and AMAZING artwork on their walls, esp Ruthann's home, wow! I was inspired. Came home, read my scriptures, nap from 2-4 while Corey went on a ride with J&W. 

Joseph used my bike, and Wes used my silver bike, so I wasn't invited, but it's ok cause I had to take a nap or I would not survive Owen's trumpet lesson. CJW back home, I took S to churchill then O to trumpet, construction traffic on Wasatch made us 6 minutes late, back home, Abi made "loaded fries" for dinner, took J&E down to Utah county for a bridal shower and to drop them off for the weekend. We went to two wrong addresses, then to the right address on the 3rd try, then I hurried back home, scriptures with kids, Corey and I left to go watch Michael, the 9:15 show at Union Heights. 

Aaaaand since I've been doing the late night blogging, night as well make it 3 in a row. Only one post to finish March and I just FINISHED BLOGGING MARCH! I'm caught up to April!! WOW! I have to do all the dates from Apri 4 through the 11th BUT I'M IN APRIL!!! Now it's 2am, I'm going to go stir the dough and go to bed. 

Bye Guinea Pigs

We said goodbye to Jerry and Brownie today. 

Two weeks ago (while I was gone at the sisters retreat) Corey's allergies were really bad and he couldn't breathe or sleep. He felt it was possibly from the pigs being in the house (Abi had them in the basement at that time cause she thought it was too cold outside) OR it could also have been from kids holding the pigs getting the allergens all over their clothes and then all over the house and into our bedroom. Whatever was causing it, Corey said he needed to do everything he could to be able to breathe and sleep for his health, and thus the pigs have to go. 

Abi was able to arrange to sell them to a neighbor friend Jules, so they are close by and the kids can go see them anytime, so that's good. 

Jules and her family were on a trip, but they got back last night, so today was the day she and Abi arranged for the transfer of ownership. Everyone getting one last picture. 

Brownie wasn't even here for a week, but Abi mostly got him out of the kindness of her heart so that Jerry would have a companion. 

It took like a day for them to be ok with each other, but now they're good. Abi knows that guinea pigs are social creatures, so they need a friend to live with. Corey felt like "Poor Jerry, getting stuck with a little kid..." I defended the relationship "No, it's good! It's like you living with Peter!" Corey said "More like _____..." and he said the name of a sweet but kinda weird and awkward neighbor kid, and yes I agree that's a more appropriate comparison, cause Jerry and Brownie are not relatives, haha so that was funny. Well, Brownie's here now, so this is how it is, I hope they both suck it up. 

Corey took Wes on a ride this morning. Wes borrowed my bike and I was impressed he made it to the ruins! 

It was his first go on a bike in a while, and I think first time ever climbing the trail. When the kids did it before, Corey'd always drop them off at the top and just them them ride down. He wanted them to think it was fun and get addicted to it, and then we'd let them know the bad news of the uphill ride. Wes said that the descent was harder/more technical than he remembered.

One of the many blessings from today: my sister Patrice sent me a recipe over email of a white chili that her family loves, AND then she also gifted me all the food for it - delivered to my doorstep from Sam’s Club. I got one from Jersh before, I think that would be very convenient to have food delivered, I need  to bite the bullet and learn how to do it.

The kids had fun playing with neighbor today and I got some blogging done. They all went over to play at the Nobles and then the mom went over the top and took Peter to soccer practice with her boy (on the same team) and took K with them to park to play with Becca. I was feeling like a freeloader so I went over at 6 to contribute a little. We have wonderful neighbors.

Corey is trying to get Abi to learn Spanish. We watched some Bluey in Spanish last night, and today K and I continued that for a bit. She thought it was funny for a while, then asked me to change it to English. Lily needed my computer and my bedroom to take a test tonight, so that was when I snuck off to the gym. Lily's got like 3 weeks to finish 3 online classes that I fear she has left until too late, but she keeps saying she's confident she has time to finish. So since I couldn't keep blogging, that was when I snuck off to the gym. Everyone was watching Shrek2 in Spanish when I got home. That one is pretty good in Spanish, it has lots of good phrases. I like it. 

Good news: I did continue in the blogging zone that I got in yesterday and I finished February yaaay. I blogged every chance I got today. My plan of attack after last night: I only needed to finish the week of Feb 15 - 21. I did one post for Feb 20, and I had a check mark on the 21st already so that means I covered that one. So I had the 15-19 (5 days), and 4 posts to finish. Got one done at 9:3-, Anniversary at 4:45, one at 5:35, and then I just finished two this past hour. It is now almost half past midnight, I finished blogging February at 12:25 am! Next, to catch up for March, I have.... oh yay, I only have March 6 and March 30, yay!! Easy peasy, I'll try to do that tomorrow! So I've stayed up past midnight two nights in a row. I'm telling myself that I'm staying up late in prep for tomorrow night when my siblings and I go see Michael at 10pm. I won't be able to sleep in much, Joseph and Eliza and Mary are coming tomorrow, plane arrives at 9. They're coming for the wedding of one of Eliza's cousins.  I just added March 6 stuff to March 7, so that’s done, only one more for March! 1am, going to bed.

Our Canyon

I didn't set an alarm to go to the temple today, cause I'm trying to let my body wake up when it is ready to wake up, and hoping that means it got enough rest. Well, last night Lily started laundry and put in too many hoodies, which makes it too heavy and the drum becomes unbalanced or something - it does a "Ur" code and beeps until you come fix it. The beeping must have been going on all night but I heard it around 4:15 and woke up. Since I was awake, and cause I knew I prob wouldn't have a chance to go later, I decided to go to the temple. I did initiatories. Coming out of the temple and looking out toward our canyon as the day is starting.

Facing west to the house of the Lord. I wish photos captured the stained glass colors of the windows better.  

I didn't go exercise. I had pushed myself hard yesterday and was still waiting to see if I was sore. If not, I'd go on a bike ride later (after a nap). Corey and Wes took a ride yesterday morning ~

...and they went to the temple together today. I did some blogging today, K and I watched Bluey and she played with friends, talked with my sister Patrice, I got in a nap at 3 and went for a ride around 6. 

Taking pictures to paint at some future day or our beautiful canyon creek.

The ruins -

The ruins are the remains of the Columbus Consolidated Power Plant. This paper is attached to a tree by the ruins -

I took that pic so I could look it up. From google: "The Columbus Consolidated Power Plant was a historic 1904 hydroelectric station in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah, built to power the mining town of Alta. Located along Little Cottonwood Creek, its ruins—consisting of granite walls and foundations—remain today and can be visited via a roughly 0.8-mile hike from the Lisa Falls parking lot, or 3.5 miles from the canyon entrance."

Abi had gone to work for my mom after school, and when she was on her way home, I was on a ride, I asked her to take the kids swimming. I wasn't able to cause she had the car. She did so willingly (she's nice) and she took some pics for me too. 

She took Natalie, Daniel, Peter and Katharine. 

They had fun and we should get the kids over there more often. 

I've been in the blogging zone yesterday and today and tonight I finally got December done! It's past midnight now, but I did it, yay. I went to bed at 11 but then thought I should do some bread for the morning, so I thought I'll just go mix up some sourdough then see if I can finish blogging December while I waited 15+ min before stretching and folding it. Earlier today I did 3 posts, I only had two more to do, so I tried to zone in. I've been hung up on December for a while. There were 13 days that needed to be documented, but to get to my "5 post a week" goal, I could combine some of those cause I only needed to do 7. These posts take a while to do, cause I have to do research to remember what happened. I search up whatsapp messages, Wride Nation messages, and photos to figure out what happened. I did two on Monday, so I had 5 more to do today. I did three his afternoon and finished the last 2 while I waited for the bread. Now it's 12:20 am on Wednesday morning and I AM DONE with December 2025 and thus also done with the whole YEAR OF 2025, yay yay yay, and phew! I did it. January is done, so next task is February. I only have one week to finish there, which I bet I could finish that tomorrow if I stay in the zone. 

Sock Snatching

Wes said he had an activity tonight for FHE. It was the sock snatching game. It got pretty intense pretty quickly because it wasn't a one on one tournament but a whole free for all!

Well, it felt like a free for all, but this pic above was actually girls vs boys. Sophi and Natalie protested after that it was not fair for the two of them to be against 4 boys. So we tried again and I joined the girls but we still lost. Peter got me. It was funny seeing Abi and Wes in a one on one. Fun times. Yes, kids got kicked in the faces and cried. Yes, Daniel got a bloody nose. Yes, kids were mad when they lost. Yes, in the intensity of the situation, we had children cry out "I'm gonna pee!" but thankfully there were no accidents to clean up. The kids that participated got to have ice cream sandwiches. 

Funny pic today of Katharine begging Abi to let her color on her phone. 

Eliza called me this morning. The three of them are coming out this weekend! Eliza's cousin is getting married in Payson on Saturday. They arrive Thursday at 9am and will be busy with wedding prep on Friday and the wedding on Saturday, but we are hoping to all get together on Thursday. Little Mary's birthday is on Sunday, so we'll have an early b-day party for her! Speaking of sweet little Mary, Eliza also shared this pic with me of Mary standing up! She was standing for a lot time at a mom and baby play group this past week. 

She'll be walking in no time. So cute!

I went to exercise after Abi and Lily were home. They took the car today cause the kid they get a ride from on Monday's is on a trip. So, I was able to get stuff done around here. I did two blog posts for December!! Yay, I'll be carless again tomorrow so I'll try to zone in and finish a few more and see if I can get December done. I'm also trying chore charts again and put them on each of the kids doors. 

Everyone acts like they have no responsiblities, or they pretend like they know they should be doing something, they just don't know what. So we're gonna put that ignorance to rest. They know. I put these on their doors last Wednesday and Daniel and Owen were the only ones who did stuff. Hoping to see an improvement this week. Today Natalie was the only one who practiced. She played her violin for 30 minutes for the first time in a long while. Good job Natalie. 

Farewell

We woke up early today to head to Provo for Lauren's farewell. She gave a great message about when she was horseback riding and her horse got spooked when the other horse got out of sight and it wouldn't let her guide it anymore, she got bucked off and it was kinda a mess. She said it's the same with our life and letting Heavenly Father take the reins to guide us. He knows the trail, he knows the safe way back, he can see things that we can't, and we can trust him. Let him guide our lives. She and Wes will be doing this for real now with her leaving for a year and a half to Guam for a mission. They get to write their own story, and we don't need to panic when we can't see the trail ahead. Let God take the reins and guide our life and it will be wonderful.

We went by their house afterwards to visit. It was nice to meet her family. We had a few connections - like that Lauren's mom went to Skyline like us. Corey played in jazz band with her little brother. And her mom even went to prom with Corey's brother Mark! Haha, such a small world in LDS circles. 

Oh, her mom also knows our friend Susan and the two of them go on a walk every week. 

After visiting there, we went to Ethan and Bella's house to chill for a few and give Wes a bit more time to visit. At Ethan's place we watched some old home videos and it was really funny. Little Joseph, Mel, Ethan and Hyrum when we were living at Wyview. 

Taking a selfie with Katharine on the couch. 

Then I went to pick up Wes and he and Lauren got one last photo together. 

She gets set apart on Tuesday! Exciting for her. 

We got home around 1:30, Lily cooked bread, Corey went to take a nap. He stayed up last night until 1 working and also checking in on Abi who was at Prom. I was trying to take a nap too and found a decent hiding spot (top bunk in Abi and Lily's room) until Katharine was about to go knock on our door and wake up Corey cause she pooped her pants. So that was the end of my nap. 3+ hours later she did it again and I went in our room and that's when Corey got up. They are all watching the Family Man right now and talking about the different paths of life, while Wes thinks about what the next year and a half will look like for him. He's going to work at FSY this summer and then continue school and dating and he and Lauren will write and keep in touch and will let the Lord take the reins. 

Ok, well that's good for today I guess. I don't know how I get so far behind so fast. Another week has gone by and I'm behind more here. I'll see if I can crank out a few more, maybe atleast get December done. Also need to finish February and March. Sad news is that I'm behind here and not caught up anywhere else. I'm just behind on all levels. Corey said with his work that it's coming along, but it's always a day late and a dollar short. I guess we're both in the thick of the same stuff. House is a mess and cluttered. Good news: I think I've almost hit rock bottom with it all and am almost fed up enough that I think I'll do something about it soon, hopefully this week. But as of yesterday, I've just been walking around resenting it all and feeling overwhelmed. Today I've ignored it and have been looking at art books and trying to think of where/how I could set up an area to draw and paint. 

Just finished reading the Book of Mormon and I found a formula for joy: 

How to always rejoice - Mosiah 4:11&12

1) remember and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God and your own nothingness, his goodness and long suffering
2) call on the name of God daily
3) stand steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come ("that which is to come" is prob not just the 2nd coming or millenium, but after the judgement when we can have eternal life with God)

"If you do this, you shall always rejoice and be filled with the love of God" Those are three good things that I can work on (along with the house and clutter and stuff...) :)