Another Day

I made 4 loaves of sourdough yesterday, and 4 more today. Lily told me to not wear myself out! I'm saving some to bake in the morning and I'll deliver them to some sisters in the ward when Kathy O and I go visiting. So other than baking, what have I been doing... I went to visit my parents yesterday. Did the usual and cleaned out their fridge. I also went to Costco, yay, Corey got a check Sunday. He's still working toward that big break through, and we have thankfully survived another day. I haven't taken pictures, except for a sunset yesterday - 

The weather was warm yesterday, but felt a bit chilly-er today. I have been a bit sick with a stupid persistent cough at night time. It seems to be worse when I lay down, so I've moved to the loveseat in our room to try and be a bit elevated, plus it helps to have a drink of water close by in the window. Since I was a bit tired from not sleeping well, I didn't go to the temple early. Plus I didn't want to have a coughing fit there. I thought I'd wait until later this week, but then Corey said I could go, so I went around 10 am and he stayed home with Katharine. I did have a coughing fit fighting to happen, but I kept it in control and hope the ladies around me don't get sick. 

On my weekly drive to the temple, that's when I try to catch up on Marco Polo's that my family sends. My sister Patrice pointed out that this upcoming General Conference will fall on Easter Sunday, and it will also be solemn assembly because that is when we will sustain President Dallin H. Oaks at prophet, seer and revelator. She is also planning to fast, even though our fast and testimony meeting with our congregations will be on March 22 (March 29 is a special Easter Palm Sunday service). So yeah, I think I'll made General Conference a fast weekend too. Patrice did some study of what a solemn assembly is and found this quote by Joseph Smith:

"We must have all things prepared... and call our solemn assembly as the Lord has commanded us... [all] who are prepared, and are sufficiently pure to abide the presence of the Savior, will see Him in the solemn assembly." 

See this article about the Kirtland Temple dedication and also Doctrine and Covenants 88:69, 75. Fun fact - I had a long wait before intitatories, so I didn't go to the celestial room after, but as I was waiting for initiatories, I opened to D&C 88 and read that section! Came home, Corey left, I made a grape chicken salad tonight for dinner, so it was sourdough with the chicken grape salad, and it was a hit. My life seems to only be able to handle one mode: Reading, Cleaning, Baking, Blogging, or something else random (like caterpillars, violin, legos, puzzles, or memorizing something). Hopefully I can get a little better at being balanced and doing a little bit everyday, or atleast I hope to manage the kids and have them help do some stuff everyday. I'm consistent at Laundry and making the bed, and that's it for chores. I'm pretty consistent at exercising, though I haven't done intense cardio lately since the Gooseberry ride with friends. Temps have been to warm to do the trial, and I don't like the road, so I've just been going on walks. I'm hoping taking a rest break will help my left hip and left shoulder, which started having pain issues this past fall (frozen shoulder?). They feel ok when I climb and stuff, but my left shoulder hurts if I try to do push ups. I'm gonna be 50 years old this year, so I guess this is when pains of aging start to sneak into life. 

Brown Nosing

The girls begged to stay out late last night. I told them it was daylight saving and that they'd probably have a hard time getting up. They promised they wouldn't. We let Mel and Christian take Corey's car last night when they headed back to Lehi, cause Christian's car was having some issue and needed to be towed - so in addition to time feeling earlier cause of daylight savings, we would also need to walk to church (I'd rather do that than take two trips). Well, I told them to please be home at midnight, but then Corey and I went to bed and let them be the deciders of their own bedtime/fate. Abi got home at midnight. LSN were all at Jane's house watching a movie. Sophi and Natalie said they got back around 12:20, and Lily at 12:40 or something. They all woke up ok this morning when I went to tell them it was time to rise and shine, except Lily, who was already up on her own AND had made breakfast for everyone! 

THIS is how you brown-nose your parents. I walked to church with Lily, Peter, and Katharine, and got a text from Corey telling me "Thank you!" for the breakfast. I showed it to Lily and thanked her for making me look good (he prob knew it wasn't me). I told him later that it was Lily. Sophi and Natalie got a brief lecture from Corey for us not being able to trust them with their excuse "we lost track of time" and Lily was forgiven cause she really stepped it up. If they want more freedom, they need to do some more work around here, so maybe this will be a good thing if they help out more. I enjoyed walking to church. Took a photo of our chapel steeple with the mountains in the background.

Rumor has it that, since our stake has less people than in the past (hence the combing of wards last fall from 7 wards to 5 wards in our stake) and because our building is so old, they are getting rid of it and we will be moving to a new chapel this summer, prob the one of Mt. Jordan Road where we hosted Ethan and Bella's wedding dinner. It will be ok, but I am sad and will miss the granite. I'm need to take a few more photos of it. In church today, Bro Sonntag said he sees pictures in the Granite of the plan of salvation - the premortal life on the left, mortal life in the middle, and judgement day/exaltation in the north/right wall of Granite. I mean to take pics of it today so I could study it and see what I could see. It's kinda like an ink blot test!

I took a nap today, and when I woke up Mel and Christian and Ethan and Bella and Alvie were all here visiting with Corey in our room. M&C came to return Corey's car, and E&B were stopping by on their way back to Provo after spending the night downtown for their anniversary. Two years - crazy. 

I wanted to watch Nuremborg today and rented it on youtube, but then the teens all vetoed it, so we just went to bed early. We'll watch it next week.

Park City - Canyon Village

We made a plan this week to go skiing today at Park City. Mel and Christian were on in our plan, and they came up last night and spent the night. Today we pulled it off our master plan. We did something. We went, we skied. Go team. 

We packed gear last night. This morning we were up by 7 with the plan to leave at 8, but we didn't get out until 8:15. The traffic wasn't bad and we were pulling into the parking lot at 9. That was where we seemed to get delayed. Took forever for everyone to find their gloves and get their boots on and find their skis and poles etc etc...

Once a handful of the kids were ready, we told them to head over to the Cabriolet. Corey, Katharine, and I were the last ones to go on it. Katharine said it was fun. Everyone was waiting for us at the gondola. I took K potty first, then we took the Red Pine Gondola up. Fun. 

Cute little face.

I asked if she was going to ski with me. She said no. She is going to ski with her dad.

We were finally on the hill at 10. It was very crowded. We went up Saddleback Express. I told them that when Corey and I were here, the Sun Peak Express was fun and not busy, so we started down together that way, but then the kids all took off south on Mainline while Corey and I and PK went down Eclipse to Sun Peak. I skied with K for a moment and then she wanted Corey to carry her. I admit it was prob a little steep for a 3 year old.

We went up Sun Peak and then back toward Hidden Meadow where we stayed for most of the day. Con becauset that lift is busy, but pro cause it's an easy hill. It's also close to the bathrooms, so it was good. We told the kids to meet at Tombstone at 1 o'clock for lunch. Yesterday I got food at Walmart for lunch. Corey suggested sandwiches, but I didn't want to buy bread when we had wheat sourdough bread I made, even though the kids didn't love it.... I got Nutella and figured if I gave it a good coating, the kids would tolerate it. Corey packed that up in his backpack and carried it around all morning with two water bottles. Lunch time.

It worked out great. Corey "We just saved ourselves thousands of dollars!!" Haha, yeah, cause they charge $35 for a hamburger meal! So that was lunch, plus bananas and clementines, and then I also got Clif Bars and Beef sticks for everyone to take with them and I told them this was it for food - make it last, that's gotta get you through until 3. We took the group pic (at top of post) and then told them to have fun and meet us at 3pm at Red Pine. They all went up Tombstone and Corey and I went up Over and Out and then down Raptor Way so we could show Peter and Katharine the Orange Bubble Lift! They loved it.

Corey took K after that and I stayed with Peter. We did Hidden Meadow a lot of times. He liked the Hidden Bear green trail on the west of that lift, where you could sneak through the trees a little bit. We did that over and over. One time there were other kids on the trail and he and I got separated momentarily. I saw him, skied toward him, and then he sunk under the tree where he had been waiting for me. 

Luckily Corey came by right then and he was able to rescue Peter. Some kids were done at 3 and they met up with Corey and took K back to the car. Corey stayed at Red Pine to count kids as they left. Peter wanted to keep going "one more time" and since Corey was still waiting for so and so, we'd go again. Owen went again, then we went again to try and catch him. "Ok, last run" - we said that a few times. Finally we were like "Ooookkkkaaaayy" and we took off our skis. Everyone is headed down?" Corey said Mel Christian and Owen went one more time on Hidden Meadow, and Peter said "I want to go one more time!" So we went one more time. And that really was our last one at 3:49, cause the Red Pine Gondonla closed at 4 so we needed to get on it to get back to the car. Though once we were on it we realized we prob could have skied down, darn! I like that Peter and Owen were so die hard! We were able to pack up quickly and got home a little after 5. I asked Corey if he wanted to go out for a date, since we missed last night (I was at a bridal shower) and he said yes, but then we both fixed ourselves a bowl of fruit and yogurt with homemade granola, and realized we prob didn't want to go out to eat now. So he has been working, I went with Abi to visit a neighbor who gave her some dresses for her mission, and now I'm doing laundry and giving kids baths before church tomorrow. It was a great and perfect ski day. I never like all the getting ready, but once that is behind us it's fun to ski and grea. Now I'm just putting things back in order! I'll finish that on Monday. 

Wheat Bread

Lily and I both felt like something was a little off on Tuesday and then we realized that neither of us  had made any sourdough, haha, yeah that's it! I made up for that yesterday morning. We were almost out of flour, but I got a 25 lb bag of flour from my parents on Monday. The paper bag didn't have a label on it of expiration, so but I figured it was probably expired, as most things are in our parents' homes. The question is how expired - a year or two? or a decade or two? Hmm. I opened it up and saw that it had clumps and it smelled old. Yeah, we don't want to use this. 

I went into the basement where we have like 20 big canisters of wheat. I brought some up and got out the mill and I milled some whole wheat flour, yay. I decided to try out fresh whole wheat sourdough today! I milled over 1/2 of a bucket plus a #10 can. 

I've got two loaves proofing before lunch, and I was thinking this is gonna be great! This is as fresh as it gets! I was hoping I didn't need to change anything for whole wheat sourdough cause I didn't research rules before I started. I did Lily's recipe for a smaller loaf and Olivia Rose's recipe for a big loaf for dinner tonight (I did Olivia's recipe, but prepped it Lily's way). 

Cooked these two loaves of wheat bread for dinner last night that were both amazing. The first one got cut into right away but then was left out and uneaten. I told my self it was cause the wheat makes you feel more full than the white sourdough, so yay they were satisfied. Saved the other one for after Corey got home. 

Corey said it was excellent. The children, however, have let me know that they don't like the wheat as much. Well, that's sad to hear, cause I when the kids were cleaning up the kitchen last night (which I appreciated), Abi emptied the whole thing of old flour into the flour bin. That last bit we had at the bottom in there is officially contaminated now, so unfortunately, we are OUT of white flour. Corey told me to wait on going to Costco. Sooo, what do we do? This morning I decided to just try out the white expired stuff, to see if the kids notice anything and if they like it more than the wheat. I made dough for 4 loaves this morning, let it sit, tried to mix it but it did not stretch well at all. Proofed kinda ok? But had a texture like the whole wheat in how it kinda wouldn't stick/gum together. I cooked it at 4pm, Natalie was anxiously waiting. But after it came out, she said "This smells weird..." followed with a cut into the loaf, another whiff, and then a final statement of judgement: "This smells like a bean bag." and she left. Loaf 2 was cooking while Natalie passed that judgement, so there are 2 done but I just going to toss them both and the 2 proofing loaves. Too bad that flour was bad! I need to go to the store cause we are out of our current staples (flour, potatoes, oranges, pink lady apples, bananas, tomatoes, granola) and about out of most other things. But times like this are good, cause it makes us use things we don't use when there are other options: tuna, quinoa, rice, prunes, walnuts, raisins, and wheat flour! I'll get some wheat dough going to night for breakfast tomorrow. Here is one of the recipes I currently use fo ra large 1000 gram loaf - the Olivia Rose recipe:

• 250g sourdough starter
• 725g water and then mix everything
• 25g salt and then mix everything
• 1000g flour and then mix well until shaggy dough forms

Cover bowl for 30 min and set on counter

#1 stretch/fold around 8 times. Cover wait 30 min

#2 stretch/fold around 4-6 times. Cover wait 30 min

#3 stretch/fold using coil folds around 4-6 times. Cover and place in warm area for 2hr until dough doubles in size

Remove dough from bowl and split into two equal parts for two loaves

Stretch dough out and using a tri-fold method fold the dough then roll up into ball

Use push-pulls to build dough surface tension and then let sit on counter for 20 minutes

Place dough into a floured banneton seam side up. Cover and place into fridge for 2hr to proof

Pre-heat oven to 500 with dutch oven inside oven pre-heating as well.

Pull bread out of fridge to do minor design scoring

Put bread on parchment paper and into dutch oven, optionally an ice cube can go in dutch oven but outside the paper

Bake for 7 minutes and then do major center score cut. You can remove dutch oven lid or replace it depending on your desired finish.  Aim for 200-210 internal temperature of the bread, exact cooking times vary per individual ovens so remember yours after you make the first loaves.

What else... I did some insurance stuff yesterday. We were above the max income for medicaid, but the kids were all approved for CHIP, so that's good that they have insurance. I got a ton of paper work in the mail from them, cause they sent me the stuff individually for each child, rather than one thing for our  whole family so yeah I got 3 packets for each of the 8 children so I had 24 packets of stuff to go through and respond to. CHIP gave us dental too, so I'm going to set up those appointments for everybody. It will be Peter's first time going to the dentist. The rest of them haven't been since July 2020. I still need to figure something out for me and Corey, but in the meantime we have decided to not get sick or have any health emergencies. 

Corey's working hard. Last night he worked until 9pm and I assume it will be the same tonight. He says he is "so so close on the technology" and that he is trying to get to this next very very big milestone, and then the next step after that is to demo it in a user interface. I asked him to explain what the milestone is in very dumbed down English: "Basically computing and validating accuracy for everything. The next step would be like actually showing it with a visualization like an actual format they can see, but the data looks like it’s solid and I've proved/am proving it with lots of help. I've got one more thing I might try to calculate... I might call it a night, but I’m gonna try and see if we can figure it out but we’re super close. Part of it is ChatGPT keeps asking me 'Would you like this new suggestion?' and as long as I understand it, it usually works out so I’m feeling very bullish on where we’re at. So one thing I didn’t know is that you could do triangulation with three views or four or five views and that’s more accurate, not just with two views so I decided to turn that on and that’s appears to be working which I'm thrilled about. God bless the men and women that figured all this math out." 

Also Kat did some Starfall and watched a bit of strawberry shortcake yesterday and today. Her friend Scarlett came over to play today at 12:30. Abi was here so Corey and I went climbing at 1. I've been trying to blog, stretch, and read. I took a cat nap at 1 yesterday and then went on a walk to Sunrise Point. 

Walking around the dimple dell, I was thinking it would be so cool to turn the historic Muir-Poulson home into a little Granite Museum and have all the stuff that they present at the 4th of July on permanent display there. I also wish I could renovate the old Historic Granite Chapel into a reception hall, that would be fun. Fun to dream. It's almost 6pm now and Abi took the little kids to the library. I'm going to go figure out something else for dinner since the musty bread was a bust. 

Sourdough Kick

Today Katharine and I went over to my parents house and did a little cleaning. K didn't play as much this time, but she was still good. After like 2 hours we left and went by Macey's on the way home. 

The guy today gave us a huge cup of ice cream. K did a lot better sharing it than she did last month. We also enjoyed a sample of sushi.

Abi texted this photo to Wride Nation to let us all pay our respects to the last of the OG Skyline as the gym demolition began.

FHE tonight was simple. We started watching season 5 of the Chosen and got through the first episode. Everyone was asleep half way through the second, so we called it good. Didn't get a treat tonight, Corey decided to now spend the $ cause things are a bit too tight. I had wanted to watch The Chosen yesterday, but we were too busy with company and making dinner. Yesterday I did not take a nap, which is a first this year. We had two lovely couples come by after church. Lovely couple #1 was our own Mel and Christian. They stayed for a visit before going to dinner at the Bennett's at 5. They brought along Wesley and his girlfriend Lauren who were both in Provo this weekend. We all had fun visiting in the front room for two hours and then the little kids made Wes and Lauren go play outside until their ride back to Rexburg came to pick them up. 

Wesley came down this weekend for an FSY interview and Lauren came down to do some mission prep stuff. She is leaving for a mission in April, going to Guam! Wesley ended up staying in Provo the whole weekend, slept over at Ethan and Bella's house, so we didn't even see him until today. I came back early from the girls trip to see him. I knew we weren't going skiing, but thought I'd atleast get to see him, but I guess he had other priorities now! After they left, we got dinner ready. Wayne came over at 4 and we had dinner with Mel and Christian, er, I guess it was a pre-dinner snack for them. Mashed potatoes, pork, broccoli, and sourdough of course!

I made this one - should have taken a pic before it got cut up, but I'm liking how it looks with the scoring lately. Mel brought a maracuja pie that was very tasty. Corey made his gallon+ of tapioca for dessert. Lots of food and lots of clean up. We loaded the dishwasher, but didn't get any of the big pots and pans washed yesterday, so I feel like I've been doing dishes all day today to catch up. Thus tonight's dinner was simple: sourdough with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and an olive garden-ish salad. 

I made two loaves yesterday and three today. This dinner loaf above was started this morning and I was planning to cook the two others tomorrow morning, but Lily cooked them tonight. One was immediately scarfed down by everyone, and Lily hid the other so she could have some for breakfast. Abi said she likes the sourdough kick I'm on. Yeah, this one is a little more useful/helpful to everyone than when I was on a lego princess kick last fall. I've mostly been following Lily's recipe, but I started looking up sourdough stuff on youtube this past weekend and now I'm not sure we've been doing it right. Most people I saw feed their starter like 6 hours before they start baking but Lily always feeds it after she uses it. But we've been using it almost everyday, so maybe that's turns out close to the same? I don't know, I'm researching. And I'm learning there are 100 different possible ways to make it, so maybe it's whatever. This is the recipe Lily used for the sourdough for Mel's wedding that I have on my phone cause I've texted it to a few friends who requested the recipe: 

Get a food scale

MIX 520g of bread flour and 12g of salt in a big bowl

In a smaller bowl MIX 385g of water and 90g of the starter. POUR it into the flour mixture immediately after mixing and MIX the two until you think its well mixed

Cover with a wet towel for like 15 minutes then FOLD it again before putting it back in the bowl and covering with a lid

Let sit overnight / 6 hours 

Fold again and shape top into a smooth loaf, put on parchment paper in a bowl, cover, and let rise in fridge for 4-10 hours or on counter 2-4 hours. 

When you're ready to cook your sourdough, First place the empty dutch oven IN the oven, and preheat to 500°

After about 30-45 of the pan getting all the way hot, place a cookie sheet on the rack below the Dutch oven so the bottom of the bread doesn’t burn and take your sourdough out of the fridge and score it with the scoring tool. 

Immediately after scoring, set the sourdough inside the dutch oven with the lid on for 25 minutes. 

Then 10 minutes without the lid on. After that take the sourdough out and let it cool for a few minutes. Stick a knife through the bottom to ensure it's cooked all the way.

I did some math and got Lily's loaf up to a 750 grams of flour loaf, but the loafs yesterday I used this one, and I like it cause it makes a big loaf (1000 grams!). The recipe she uses is the first comment there. I don't love how much that one needs stretch and folds. Lil's is just two times. Also, compared to videos I saw, I don't know why my dough is aways so much stickier than theirs look, I can hardly roll it at all. I did like her scoring on this. I made mine look pretty like her today!

Ooh, just found this version by Ballerina Farm, I think I'll try hers next.

Factory Reset

We didn't go skiing today. Instead had a pretty chill morning, slept in a bit, Corey said we'd climb later. Started my fast before fast Sunday tomorrow. Kids played with friends, Corey working in the front room. I've been up in my bedroom most of the day reseting my phone, yay. Mel had texted me yesterday that Christian helped her factory reset her phone and afterwards she had 26.63 GB of storage, wow! My phone was at 63.93 of 64 GB in use as of this morning, with 421.9 MB available (not good). Corey said he could help me with it tomorrow, but I decided not to wait and see if I could figure it out. I didn't know what I was doing, but with google AI and youtube videos helping me, I was able to do it. Mel said she used this app - Apple Devices for Windows. I backed my phone up there, then I backed up to icloud as well, then to the Settings app to the bottom of General, to Transfer or Reset iphone where I clicked "Erase All Content and Settings". That was a little scary. Thankfully it came back on, opened up to the new factory settings, so got that going after each prompt: Language English, set up face ID, etc etc. Then back to the computer to restore my backup info. My phone said "Restore in Progress" for almost 40 min, which I was quite a bit longer than it had taken to back everything up, hmm. I couldn't push anything or do anything about it, so just waited, only a little bit concerned. Soon it opened up and was loading all my apps and info, and look at this - ok looks like all the stuff is there again, good! And I go to check my iphone storage and look at this ~

41.56 GB!!! Yes, that's much better! Man, what in the world was all that iOS space filled up with this past year? It has been taking up 55% of my storage! I don't know what that was about, but I'm glad it's gone, yayyyyy. It loaded all my apps, photos, text messages, etc everything like it was this morning. And more good news: I was able to reinstall things I've been deleting the past month. I have Gospel Library back, yay, and Apple podcasts, and now I should be able to take photos this year, yay! So I'm much relieved about all that. Today I've done laundry, swept and mopped the kitchen, practiced the Living Christ more, and scrolled a bit on Instagram. Oh yeah, I was able to get that app again too (thought I had deleted it before the lack of storage issue, so hopefully things don't get out of hand with the girls wanting to use it or me scrolling myself.) A reason why I wanted to fix my phone today was a friend who did the girls trip with us has gotten very slender these past few months, and she shared the link in the girls trip group chat of the health coach guy's instagram account who helped her, it's her brother's friend I think she said? His handle is fitnessdane, he talks about inflammation and I've seen the result with her, so I'm interested. Going to focus on not stressing my body and resting more. She cut out cardio when she started in July last year cause he told her to and to keep walking to under 10K steps. UNDER! She has started to work back in weight training now that she's not inflamed anymore, and is doing that 3x a week. For exercise I've been doing all the same things I've done for years, but weights been creeping back on, and even though I know I'm stronger from climbing, all the weight is not muscle. I feel bloated, so yeah, hoping to learn more about this and see what happens. She said he required her to work with him for 6 month, and it was $400 a month, plus the supplements and stuff he told her to get. That's not in our budget right now, and even if it was I don't know that I'd do it. I'm going to listen his content thought and see what I can figure out. With it being fast Sunday tomorrow AND the first day of the month, maybe March would be a good experiment for me to do less and rest more and read and we'll see what I can learn, Kinda like a personal reset month as a lent-ish thing before Easter. I like that idea. Ok, going to go climb and/or sit in the sauna. 

Girls' Trip to Gooseberry

I'm back home, got home around 11:30 pm. It was a great day. I'm going to document it real quick. Biking Gooseberry was fun and amazing. 

Jess took that pic of me. At the beginning of the trail - ready for fun! Jen took a pic from the back of Paula's truck. 

A few guys who were starting up the trail asked us if we were sponsored! Haha, no we're just a bunch of moms. Hyrum said last night that this can't be called a "girls" trip, it's a old women's trip. One of the husbands who was missing seeing all the active ladies in the neighborhood said he missed the Granite babes, so that's what stuck with us after. The mountains behind us (north east of us) are the south end of  the Zion National Park Wilderness. The mountains look sooooo amazing.  

We met the hikers and first time bikers at the top. 

We all got there within 15 min of each other, yay. It's an amazing view of the Zion mountains and Virgin/La Verkin valley from the top. Here's ME just being normal.

I think the thing the other ladies were most surprised about me was how much I yell and grunt to get up over the technical features of the trail. I think it's my brains way of helping me prep for a fall, or to hopefully not fall. I The party is still goin on, but I came home cause I'm not used to that much fun haha. It was good and I got my fill. Originally I was coming back tonight cause we were going to go skiing tomorrow, though I knew that part of the plan had been cancelled due to high temps and lack of snow. I thought I'd still see Wes, but he hasn't been here. He went straight to Provo with Lauren's family (her parents picked them up from Rexburg) and Wes is going to stay the night at Ethan and Bella's. So, no climbing with Wes I guess, sniff. It was good while it lasted. 

Kids were still awake when I got home but they were getting ready for bed. Abi took them all up to Layton to watch their cousin Mikey in his highschool's musical of "Catch Me If You Can". He was the lead Frank Abagnale Jr role! 

Abi had said she was going to hang out with friends, so I was surprised she took them up. Neil treated them to tickets and a treat after. The judges were coming tonight, so Neil texted earlier this week asking if we could come, and since I was gone I didn't do anything to make it happen, so good job Abi for supporting your cousin! I was pleased that they went. I gave them all a hug and Corey and I visited about the trip while we cleaned up the kitchen. Oh, and Mel shared with me something - she has had the same issues as I do with her iphone not having storage. She said Christian fixed it tonight with a Microsoft "Apple Devices" app that she got on her computer to back up everything, and then she did the factory reset, and when she reinstalled everything it put back all her apps and messages and everything! She feels like she's been given a new life, lol, so I'm going to try that asap tomorrow! It was a nice weekend. 

Church Rocks & Bearclaw Poppy

This morning, Corey went climbing early with me, which was nice cause I was a little bugged last night cause we were going to go yesterday, but he never got back to me and left me hanging. I was grateful he got up early with me. It had to be early cause I was leaving at 8:30 for a my first ever Girls' Trip with neighbors. I'm also grateful that he's been holding down the fort today and will again tomorrow (with Abi's help) while I here. I'm in St. George for Stacey's birthday. She arranged this whole thing an it's been great so far. I drove down with Kirstin and Becca, and we met up in Cedar City with Jill who was driving solo, and then I joined her for the rest of the drive to St. George so she wasn't alone. She's also one of my favorite people. We all met at Paula's house (member of the ward who has another house in St. George) and geared up then went for a ride at 2:45 pm on the Prospector trail and Church Rocks.

Clockwise starting from me at the top - Me, Jess, Katie, Paula, Jill, Stacey, Charmane, and Kirstin in the bottom left. You might notice that I'm in long sleeves and long pants. That's cause I don't want to get a road rash if I crash (4th pic from the end). It's just not worth it, so I always wear long sleeves and long pants whenever I bike, and it has saved me enough times that I know it's the right decision. (Plus I didn't get sunburned today!) There were more girls who hiked the Red Reef Trailhead (Ashley, Becca, Aubrey,  Michelle, & Maryanne) while we were biking. I loved loved loved the landscape. 

Admiring the hills and mountains on our way out - 

and sharper shadows when we were on our way back to the cars - 

Me shredding the trail, haha. Katie took that pic. Jill behind me.

So that was fun and wasn't too hard, which is good cause we're doing Gooseberry tomorrow. At 5:45 pm we hurried out before the sunset to do a beginner trail with the ladies who had gone hiking earlier, so they could try biking. We did Bearlaw Poppy with the first time bikers - 5.50 miles, 47 minutes. I did not get any pics of that cause my stupid phone is out of storage. Jill took a few pics bit before sunset - 

I gotta figure this phone thing soon, it's stupid and driving me nuts. I'm glad my phone did ok recording my stats on strava. After Bearclaw Poppy, we went to the Airbnb to get our swimsuits, then back to Paula's house for yummy pizzas and a salad for dinner and pickleball and swimming. I played Pickleball with Jen (below, we won!) vs Michelle and Katie. 

Katie took that pic. We did two games, Katie and I vs. Jen and Michelle for the 2nd game and we won that too, NOT that I'm competitive. I did some swimming laps in the pool to stretch out after pickleball, and that felt nice. Boy, I did a lot of recreation today! Climb, bike, bike, pickleball, and swim! At Paula's before dinner, I called everyone via messenger to show them what we were doing (cause I couldn't take a pic to send) and where I was. I felt like I was back in the Martin's house in Brazil. It was gorgeous with palm trees, a slide, pool, hot tub and pickle ball court. I didn't show them inside, but that was even more amazing. How fun to have a home like that someday! It was fun to say hi to Katharine!  She's doing good. Corey's working hard. Abi's been doing good playing mom for me. It's been a great day, and were back at the Airbnb (some apartments north of the St George Worldmar) and I took a shower and now we're heading to bed. Most of the ladies are upstairs in a kid bunk bed area, Jill and I are sharing a king. I warned her that I snore, and she said she moves around a lot, so we'll see how we do haha! 

Art Director

Lily is running for SBO - Art Director. Her posters were due this morning, and I must say, they were/are awesome.

I especially liked whatever this creature is. 

It was a rip off from Napoleon Dynamite, but I think Lily did it better. For the other one, she wasn't sure if she is allowed to have her face on her poster, so she had that copy of her face on tape that she can take off if needed, and then her poster will just look like this.

I'm so impressed Lil! I'm 95% sure that there is not a better artist at Skyline than her, so if that's the main criteria for Art Director, she's got this in the bag. She had those turned in at 7:30 am today. It was good I didn't go climbing (didn't set my alarm) cause I was home to help her - she had a few things she needed printed in Corey's office. 

After she was at school, she asked me to send her the pic I took of her posters, and I couldn't cause there was "not enough space" to download it to send. I'm so frustrated with my phone lately. So I deleted my Costco App, Walgreens App, Ancestry App, and Lastpass App, and then it still wouldn't let me send it. I restarted my phone, deleted 4 photos from the attachments in my messages, and then I was able to send her that one photo at the top. My phone is being so dumb. I predict that I am not going to be able to take any photos this weekend on the girl trip to St. George. I think I'll need a new phone soon, or I need to take it in and have someone smart figure out why the IOS takes up like 55 percent of my Gigabites, and the IOS another 22%, apps 22%, photos and messages 2% and I'm always fighting for that last 1% so my phone doesn't shut down and tell me "not enough space". So yeah, I'm leaving tomorrow morning at 8:30 until Friday night to go to St. George with a lot of neighborhood ladies, for a bday trip for our friend Stacey that she planned for her 40th bday. A biking and hiking trip, so fun. It goes through Sunday, some are coming back Saturday night, and I'm in the group coming back Friday night. We were going to go skiing Saturday with Wes, but with the high temp in Park City on Saturday being 50 degrees it might not happen. Maybe we'll just go and see how it is to ski in slush? We have one more day pass and this could be one of the last chances. For the girls trip, we are going to bike Gooseberry on Friday which will be fun. I haven't been on the bike for over two weeks, so it will be nice to get out and ride.

Today I worked on my Living Christ book while I listened to the songs from The Living Christ Album to help me memorize it. Here's the songs that are helping me. I am doing section 1 from a different album, there are two: The Living Christ Album by various artists, and The Living Christ Project which are mostly sung by Kristen Bodine Scott. I recognize her voice from some primary songs, like Risen. But for this memorization project, her singing all the songs to different melodies was just getting my brain confused, so I am using her for the first section, but I couldn't get the second section down with her, so I searched for something else and found the other playlist. So that's how I'm doing this - 

• Section 1 - As We Commemorate - Kristen Bodine Scott
• Part 2 - He Was The Great Jehovah - Felicity Roberts
• Part 3 - He Instituted the Sacrament - Voices of Zion
• Part 4 - He Rose - Jessica Slater
• Part 5 - Of the Living Christ - Richard Peters
• Part 6 - Of Him the Prophet Also Declared - Silvia Soledad
• Part 7 - We Declare Donovan Delta
• Part 8 - We Bear Testimony - Bree Hoover

I've got them all in a playlist now, here and in my itunes. I'll listen to them over and over again until I get it down! I've got 1 and 2 and started 3 and 4 this morning as I made sourdough, and have started 5-7 this evening. I better go pack for tomorrow. Hopefully Corey and I will go climb tonight, or I'll go boulder in the morning.

PTCs and Book Fair

It was my "usual" Tuesday morning today: Wake at 4:20, 5am initiatories at the Jordan River Temple,  then for climbing I went bouldering at the Sandy Momentum instead of driving out to Millcreek - I didn't have time to do that because Abi needed the car for school at 7. Went home, got the teens out the door, cleaned myself up, woke up the boys and K and then took ODPK to Books and Bagels. They love it. Donuts and chocolate milk for breakfast yayyy? 

The kids looked at the scholastic books for the Book Fair, and I went in the area but then said to Daniel that I am not going to do it right now. There was a line of people waiting to buy stuff, and I'm not waiting. I resented the pressure of it as usual. I wouldn't resent it if we had $ to burn, but it's not in the budget, and we don't need more books anyway, so I just wish the book fair didn't exist. BUT, I had denied my children books at the conferences last fall, so Peter started campaigning last night for permission to buy a book today. I told him (and thus also his brothers cause I gotta be fair) that they could each get one book, but we'd do it later after Parent Teacher Conferences. I was sure I'd have to get one for Katharine as well, and I was right. So after Book and Bagels, I came home, took a nap to recover from my early morning while K played some Starfall. After that, K and I went over to church so I could work on the RS board for March. K drew with markers on the dry erase board. I called my mission comp Charity who had a birthday last week and we caught up, it's been two years I think since we talked last. It was a good visit. It's funny that Nicole's birthday is the day before our anniversary, and Charity's bday is the day after our annivesary, so I always remember their birthdays. 

After finishing the board, I took K to Macey's for a free ice cream cone (thanks Daniel) and then home where I finished my visit with Charity and also worked on memorizing section 2 of the Living Christ. I had this song on repeat. I did section 1 yesterday, but I found a song with a singer for the next section,  cause having the same lady sing all of them sounded a little harder and boring. So I'm going to use the various artists of the Living Christ Album and I'll try to do one section each day this week. I'm not sure if it would be easier to learn 8 different short songs, or if it would be better to learn all of it in one song/oratorio? Although a ten minute song sounds more challenging to me. K yeah I think I'll just go with the Living Christ Album's versions of the songs. 

Time for parent teacher conferences. Owen was first at 6:30, then Peter at 6:45, and Daniel at 7. While we were Peter's teacher, I thought he looked so cute so I took a pic. Then I thought I'd get one with his teacher, cause Peter loves her and I think she's an amazing teacher too. 

I don't think I've ever taken photos with the kids and their teachers, except at school plays. Or if the teacher takes it and sends it. I am going to try to remember to do this from now on though. Their teachers are amazing. Daniel's teacher is Ms. Hekking, and Melodie had her in 3rd grade too. 

We talked about how crazy it is that enough years have passed that Melodie is married now! How is that possible? As I trying to open my phone to take that pic, it froze and my camera wouldn't open. I barely was able to take that pic though, my phone... ugh. This iPhone storage is stressing me out, combined with pressure from my kids via the book fair to buy stuff was bugging me. I was in a foul disposition. After finishing with Daniel's teacher, we went to the book fair. Katharine wanted a puppy book - $8. ugh. 

This morning it was very crowded. This time we were almost the only ones there, and it was quiet. I tried to bribe them and said I'd get them TWO books at the thrift store, or they could have just 1 here. They chose 1. Um, how about we all leave and go get ice cream at Macey's instead of books? No, they wanted books. Well, except Owen. Ugh, I don't want to make a trip to Macey's unless it gets me out of this for everyone... I thought I saw the lady at checkout give me a little glance as I tried to talk my kids into NOT getting books. Daniel got a book that was only $5, yay, that works. Peter finally found an acceptable special price $5 book as well. It didn't have a lot of pictures but it was about Spiderman, so he approved. That's good. Katharine was the hardest to bargain with. She ended up getting some small $4 rip off white paper notebook with a glitter cover. Dumb, but if it means we can leave, I'll give in. I ended up getting Owen a football helmet poster so that I didn't have to make a stop at the store for ice cream. 20 min of negotiation and I got left only paying $19 for 3 books and one poster. I let that all get me too worked up. Owen posing by the Book Blitz team posters. He's read all the books. Good job O. 

I needed a pic of Owen with his teacher. We went back to his classroom but she was gone. Then luckily we saw her down the hall heading to the exit. I deleted a few photos so I could take some more photos, and we caught Ms. Z in the office.

Ms. Z had Melodie and Wesley too. When I was texting her last month about Owen being behind on his science fair and my excuses of "we had a missionary come home and my daughter is getting married" etc etc, I didn't take note that they were the two kids of mine that she had taught. She pointed that out to me tonight when we were visiting. I don't think any of Joseph's teachers are still here, but the rest of the kids have teachers that are still here, and we have one more kid that will be coming through still. I have Katharine at home with me for one more year, then she'll be starting school in Fall of 2027. She'll be the class of 2040!! That's wild.

Scrabble

Yay, I had a moment to blog earlier today cause Abi took kids to the church. She's so nice to do that for them. Owen especially likes going over to play in the gym, and then all his 5th grade buddies come too. Mel and Christian are here - they were in the area to watch his sister's basketball game and then came over for a visit and brought some rice and grilled veggies to add to our dinner. Having roast (from cans) with carrots (that got frozen in the back of the fridge) and potatoes. We had to wait for Abi for a while - she said to start without them but Corey wouldn't. Abi finally came 30 min after she said she was coming, said it wasn't her fault, cause she had to go drop kids off. After dinner we all cleaned up, yay, and then we played Deluxe Scrabble for Family Home Evening. It was a very nice board game that Corey borrowed from his dad. Here is a pic of all the words we came up withn and Mel and Peter won (they were super lucky to get the X and the Z and get both of them on triple word points! I was on a team with Daniel. 

We did like three rounds and then we called it good and had ice cream. 

Ok what else happened today and this past weekend... I have a few days to catch up on, so maybe I'll just give bullet points on stuff (this is how I usually enter my notes of things to log)

Today/Monday

• Woke up at 4am to finish making a loaf of sourdough. 
• 4:15 made final loaf and set oven to delay start at 5, set an alarm for 5:30 to put it in. Lay down on couch
• 5:30 got up to put it in
• 5:55 get up to take off lid
• 6:15 to take it out
• I was tired later today from getting up to cook and I was glad that cute Katharine took a nap this afternoon with me. I snuck away and she kept snoozing. Pretty little thing.

• Did a walk on the basement treadmill at like 10 am. Do I want to bring it up to our bedroom?
• This morning I got a roast with carrots and potatoes started in crock pot, plus another loaf of sourdough for dinner. Then Mel and Christian came and added rice and veggies, perfect.
• After the treadmill I wanted to go to my mom and dad's house, but when I was ready to be on my way, I texted Abi and yes, she had the key to Mel's car. So I'm stuck. Abi took the van but Mel's car was here which I could have used, IF Abi hadn't taken the key. 
• Mel took her car back tonight - that was another reason they swung by.
• My mom went to neurologist today, High blood pressure, unchecked and untreated hypertension has prob caused damage to her brain. Jersh was there with her for 6 hours, at the neurologist then  they went straight to the ER cause Mom's blood pressure was too high.
• went over finances trying to figure out our monthly income for the Medicaid/CHIP insurance application, but a lot of deposits are from loans Corey's taken out? We're in a real mess, Lord help us

Sunday - 

• Date and Pecan sourdough for breakfast. It was good but I ate too much.

• Peter made the Noah's ark Oragami boat activity in the Friend Magazine. That is a good Sunday activity Peter! Good job. 

• cooked potatoes so they would be ready to make potato salad after church
• Went to Church
• nap while kids watched David movie and The Homestead
• Watched home videos on youtube
• sit down dinner - potato salad and shrimp
• ordered season 4 & 5 of the chosen so we can watch it before Easter. My fam hasn't seen season 5, just me.
• Lily dressed Katharine up like a ballerina







• Kids playing Mancala, I don't know where we got these two pine boards and dozens of tiny clear marbles. 
• at scriptures the kids started using a pool noodle with the marbles and shooting them at the board, a lot went flying down the stairs, I guess I get to go try and find those tomorrow.

Saturday - 

• Morning toprope with Corey at Fort Union
• some handstand stuff
• Ran errands: Walmart (rice milk, soy milk, pink lady apples, onions, hairspray) then to Costco for a lot, then Macey's on the way home cause I forgot celery (for potato salad tomorrow), and to get myself an ice cream cone.
• Listened to this Alex Honnold interview while I ran errands, I really liked it!
• used all the $302 rebate at Costco cause I went over budget, sad... I wanted to keep that for my  mental health - secret cash stash. Oh well, sniff
• Since I ate ice cream, I went on a walk and delivered the rest of Mel's thank you notes. Took 54 min. cold, but pretty sunset! Gave Kathy G a note and she invited me in to see some clothes that she wants to offer to Abi for her mission. On the way out, she noticed my Chosen hoodie, said she's been meaning to watch it but hasn't, so I put my dvds of seasons 1-3 in my church bag so I'd remember to give them to her to borrow on Sunday
• Coreys' been working all day
• 8:40pm - I'm going to go sit in the sauna, was in there for 50 min.