Chewie Sitting

 We are dog sitting this weekend. A cute little Havanese dog named Chewie.

The kids are loving it.

We are babysitting him until Sunday. His owners/family are up in Idaho for their son's wedding. He's made himself at home at seems to be fine, like not homesick for his owners or anything.

But they are a couple with one daughter at home, who is a little older than Sophi, and that's it... so he might be getting an overload of attention.

We took him to a park with us while we went to play soccer with some friends that are on Sophi and Lily's soccer teams. 

He didn't want to play catch with a ball and didn't want to run around either, which is a trait of Havanese dogs, but it left the kids a little confused. He's an indoor dog. 

He seemed glad when we got home and he could take a nap.

His owner Jill said that his temperament is a cross between a lazy teenager and an old man, ha! I thought that was funny. I didn't want him in our room though, so I was diligent about keeping our door closed, cause Corey might still be allergic. I was guarding my door and reading a book, when Peter came up and he fell asleep on me

Cute boy. I was able to sneak away. So the dog was asleep on the couch and the baby was on the floor.

What else... Peter woke up with a dry diaper today, which happens quite a bit, so I got brave and thought we'd try out the toilet. 

I put some underwear on him and totally forgot about it, and he came up and told me he had to use the potty! I was so impressed. He wasn't able to do it though - maybe a bit too much stress for a new situation. After not having success, he stood up and then started to pee on the floor in my bathroom, and then I hurried and sat him down and he finished in the potty, so it was still a good first attempt! Good job Peter! He really liked the book and I think he was a diligent potty training student today.

Full Thursday

I went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity today with a new neighbor Stephanie. (Their family is still "new" but they've been her for like almost 2 years I think.) So we had a grand time at Thanksgiving Point today with our kids, and we might try to come again next Thursday, and maybe we'll make this a weekly/monthly tradition or "Thanksgiving Thursdays" thing again like I tried 2 years ago, yeah won't that be fun!

We are going to go with their whole family to the Tulip Festival on Saturday too and have a picnic. And we've also invited Father David and Iveth and her kids to come too, so that should be fun. Today we were at the Museum of Curiosity. Peter and Evan had fun in the kid zone, especially rolling the little pit balls down a ball slide, it was cute. 

It is such a great place. I am so impressed with Thanksgiving Point and all of their venues. Peter and Owen sitting in the airplane of the rope course.

Climbing across the rope bridge! 

I've never been up in this part before. I sent Corey a few pictures for inspiration for his cargo net idea. They are thinking it would be fun to have a rope course in the back yard. We wouldn't be able to compete with the set up they have down here, so maybe we should just use their facility instead of trying to make our own.

Climbing around inside. Owen called it "Cuzco's House" cause it did kinda look like a part of the Emperor's New Groove set. 

Peter is cute. 

We had a good time. We were lucky to make it past the gift shop on our way out without the kids having a break down, and then when we got to the car, I didn't have my car key! I had fallen out of my pocket somewhere inside. Luckily we hadn't been all over the place, but I did climb though the rope course... I hoped it wasn't lost somewhere in there. I asked at the front desk first, and thankfully it had been turned in, phew! So we were able to leave and made it back home in time for Owen to go to the bus. Peter had left over birthday cake for lunch, after we sang Happy Birthday a few times.

A few other items and pics from today. We got a notice of a speeding ticket that H got last week on his way to the dentist. $120 gone like that. He paid it without asking for us to chip in. What a responsible young man he is. Natalie had ballet, and she is enjoying it. 

Owen made friends with a boy down the street, who has a car, so that's pretty exciting for O.

Abi had a pool party with school friends - 

Corey and I took Joseph's little motorbike to go play racquetball for an hour. Corey beat me 2 games to 0. We had to fill it with gas on the way home. I felt a little bit like we were going to die, but we didn't, so that was good.

After we got home, Corey and Lily did a little bit of jammin' in the front room

Lily really liked it - here's a little video of them.

I was upstairs doing violin - a little bit with the girls, but more alone than with them. They are still improving though. Little by little we keep getting better. I think it's really fun, I just wish I had more time to practice. I have been doing get at social things and out of the house activities for the kids, but it might be to escape the reality of our home. In a lot of ways, my house still looks like the mess it was 8 years ago in 2013. I have not been on top of it, nor do I get up into the mountains for morning walks. Maybe I'm old. 

Birthday Love

Today is my happy birthday. 🎂 The first thing I did for my birthday was have Wes babysit while I went to lift weights for an hour at the Cottonwood Heights Rec Center. There were beautiful flowers in bloom by the north entrance to the Rec Center. Those were one of the thousand of gifts that God gave me (along with breath, another day of life, etc)

Lovely! I'll limit my pics here to two, but to see one more of this and many other glorious flowers, go to my nature blog.

I enjoy this annual opportunity to impose upon my kids as I play the "birthday card". So it was nice to have a guilt free hour to myself to exercise (except that he wasn't getting homework done, so it was almost guilt free) and then I took Corey up on us going out to lunch too (Wes was my sitter for that one, too, thanks Wes!). We went to Blue Lemon and I got the Mediterranean salad and the something with pecan salad, they were both good. On my way back after lunch, this mama duck and her babies were crossing a busy 5 lane road close to Corey's work. I'm glad that they were safe! Although I did still feel sad remembering the mama duck and ducklings crossing the freeway years ago. A car in front of me slowed down and had their lights on and then we all stopped behind them as we waited for the ducks to cross. Then I turned around to go get a picture of them. So cute.

She didn't like it when I came up to the wall that she was by, so then she left across the grass to get away and keep her babies safe from me. Cute little ducklings. 

Something super fun that I'll count as a birthday present, is that Joseph and Hyrum were able to see both Ethan and Melodie today on their drive across the country. It was a several hour detour for them, but they went to Litchfield, Illinois and had a late breakfast with Ethan...

My little boys all grown up!

Then up to Michigan to see Melodie!

So fun!!! That was a treat for me to observe from a distance - my kids all growing up and being friends and enjoying each other's company (which civility obviously wasn't always the case). Ethan continued his missionary p-day, Joseph and Hyrum continued their drive, and we talked over video messenger.  

(Peter is cute). My mom brought by a cake and some cookies and we sang happy birthday to me - 

Making a wish - 

Kids enjoying cake - 

I didn't get any ice cream, cause I don't want ice cream in the house. 

They did clean the house a little bit today. It was not as much as I got last year, when I had everyone here at my mercy in covid quarantine lockdown, but that's ok.

My siblings had a nice birthday treat for me that I think we are going to turn into a tradition... (Can you tell which one is me?)

We are so cute: Camilla, Tiff, & Neil. On Marco Polo they all shared some of their favorite Tiff memories and it was really fun. Then I looked through old scrapbooks and shared some stuff with them too. Neil, Jersh with the curly hair, and baby Patrice.

Melodie sent me a letter for my birthday, with lovely floral artwork on the outside, and a nice letter, a fall leaf, and a cute little painting inside of Corey and I on our wedding day. I put the painting on my window shelf of love and marriage memorabilia - 

And her Indiana leaf if the big one there in front of Jesus. 

Mel and I both love all things red and in nature! So it was a nice day and a good birthday. 

Ice Skating, Ticks, Blogging

We went to the rec center tonight. I played racquetball with Peter while Corey went ice skating with the kids. After Peter was bored of throwing balls, he and I went in an joined them at the ice rink. Corey carried him around, then we noticed the sign that forbade such activity, oops. 

So then I went and took Daniel's ice skates off of him. Lily had bought him candy as a reward for going onto the ice rink. He just did it to get the prize, and therefor promptly got off the ice as soon as the candy was handed over. He was sitting at a table eating his Skittles and hardly noticed when I came over or when I removed his skates. They fit Peter well enough that Peter was able to pretend he was skating as Corey and Wes dragged him across the ice.

Wes still kinda carried Peter... 

"Wes! No carrying children!"

Peter had fun. Corey and kids were only there for like an hour, Peter and I joined in for 30 minutes, but it was great. 

They liked having the ice to themselves. 

Corey said that such an ice night would have been a dream for the high school version of himself. 

Wes is ready to take up hockey.

So that was the fun tonight. Let me tell you something super gross from today. First... so Joseph came home this past weekend. He went rock climbing up Big Cottonwood Canyon with a old boyfriend of Mel's. That was on Saturday. On SUNDAY MORNING, as he was getting ready to take a shower, he noticed a FREAKING TICK climbing on his clothes!!! We checked over him and we were all itchy and grossed out after that. WE DON'T LIKE TICKS! I'm sure no one does, but since we have had a family experience of having our personal space violated by a tick via Natalie's head, we really don't like them. So Joseph's tick was Sunday morning. TODAY, Daniel was in his room, I was in there with him folding clothes, Peter was reading a book, Daniel opened this game up...

and then Daniel started to cry cause there was a spider on it. But it wasn't a spider... it was a FREAKING TICK!!!! AGAIN!!!! Like what the heck!?!?!? AHHH!!! We're being invaded!! Are there ticks everywhere? I washed blankets and clothes and I called Moxie to have them some spray inside the house and the kids all want to wear bug spray to bed now, just like the good ol' days in Brazil. We put bug spray on the kids all the time back then, cause the mosquitos were hiding in our curtains and at the top of the bedrooms, so we'd cover our arms and legs every night. Anyway, so I'm freaking out that we had TWO TICKS in our house.

We didn't kill them. We just immobilized them with tape just in case we find more or any of us get bitten and we want to send them all to a Lyme disease lab again. Blech ugh, I hate ticks. 

Last photos... Daniel got a hold of my phone this morning as I blogged. He took like 40 pictures of Peter...

Daniel, I don't need your help taking photos of baby Peter. I'm already very apt at taking an overload of pictures of our favorite two year old.

But in Daniel's photo shoot, he did capture a rare moment on camera. A rare photo of me! This might be the VERY FIRST documented photo of me blogging! This is probably a very important picture, because my blogging has been a VERY important part of this blog! (for obvious reasons) So here it is, captured for the first time... messy desk and all. Thank you Daniel.

Although I gotta be honest, I don't love most pictures of me, including that one. My tummy, my chin... I'm trying to love myself, but I am not happy with my weight yet. I'm trying to work on my mind and feel beautiful. I do like some things about me. Hm... maybe I'm struggling cause I'm 45. I have lost some of my drive. Like in October last year, I just stopped wanting to get up and exercise in the morning. Like I am not going on walks, I'm not getting up into the mountains... and I wonder if there is something wrong with me? Midlife crisis perhaps. I also don't care about exercising as much cause I'd rather practice violin. There are several factors at play, I'm sure. But I'm still working on my mindset and trying to work on my relationship with food and with myself. I still recommend Laura Dixon's podcast. It is helping me, but maybe I do need to join her life coach program to really overcome my diet brain. She did start a new thing that is "just" $1000 bucks rather than the $6000 price when I had a consult call with her in Jan. Or maybe I just need Peter to sleep through the night.