Hyrum is 18!

Happy birthday to Hyrum! He didn't celebrate much today, it was just another work day. If he wants to take a day off, he has to request it 2 weeks in advance, and he was partying it up in Park City two weeks ago and forgot, so... he got to go be a Moxie assistant technician today. Sounds like with a birthday like this he really is officially an adult! I didn't send him a package or anything, but we did sing to him two weeks ago. so there ya go, Hyrum, you already had your birthday from us. No, actually I told him we'll celebrate when he comes home in a few weeks. Today I asked him if he wanted me to buy him any food and get it delivered or something like that, and he said he wanted Costa Vida or Cafe Rio, but he's aware that there aren't any of those out on the east coast, so we're going to take him out to each when he gets home. Poor Hyrum hasn't been able to go to the Roof yet either, which was a Senior year/graduation/18th birthday tradition that we were trying to establish, darn! They're still "temporarily closed" from Covid, they have been since March 2020. So, luckily I had a man on the ground and I was texting Joseph today and he said he'd arrange a little party! He asked for some pictures of little Hyrum, so I sent him like 20. Look at this little guy, awww - 

Hyrum was such a cute kid! Joseph and the other roommates get home from selling later than Hyrum, and usually he's in bed, but they got him up and surprised him with a little bday party. Talmage ordered pizza, Joseph got an ice cream cake, so that is super nice of them. I subsidized the refreshments.

(Sorry H, I recognize that is not the most flattering pic, but that's what I got from Joseph so it will have to do. Life must be documented.) The "party"!

So that's what's going on there. Maybe it was also a good chance for them to celebrate Joseph's last day of selling. He is flying to Guatemala tomorrow to join Corey and Wes in Central America. As for me here in Utah, Lily got her 7th grade vaccination today, so now she's all ready for school.

I was laughing as we waited because she was filling out a mental wellness thing like Ethan did last year, and I was remembering him and his "scary or traumatic" experience and I was laughing as I recalled the experience. It was great, so I shall repost it here for your enjoyment: 

___(funny memory begins)_________________

I've been on a waiting list to see the pediatrician. He's booked until May, but Ethan needed this visit for his mission papers. They had a cancellation and we got moved up to March 5th, but we were still hoping for earlier. Yesterday they called that they had an opening for today, and that worked out great since the high school kids are home, so poor Ethan had to get up early on a day off! He looked tired and like a disheveled teenager. Ethan was cracking me up. He had to fill out a mental health paper and he said "Ugh... this is not a good time to have Senior-itis.... If I had to fill this out during English yesterday - yikes!" It would have been all bad mental health news. He had to circle how many days the past two weeks he has had things like: little energy, trouble concentrating on things like school work, been sleeping too much, etc. haha! I helped him fill it in and he had two "3" answers, which means nearly every day. Hang in there Eth, you're almost through your last year of school (for now)! There was also a "Pediatric traumatic Stress Screening Tool" that said "Sometimes scary or upsetting things happen. This could be something that happened to you or something you saw." and they go on to describe real trauma, and then ask "Has something like this happened recently?" and "If 'Yes' what happened?". Ethan put Yes, and then he proceeded to talk about bowling! I laughed and told him "Eth, this is serious!" He replied with earnestness "SO AM I!!!" as he continued to fill in his answer:

"I watched my friend bowl a 60. Then I bowled a 58."
"Has something like this happened in the past?"
"No. I used to average 180. I don't know what happened. The lanes were really oily."

Yes, he feels deeply about bowling. I'm guessing it's a tad because of "the smaller the world, the bigger the drama"? Since Eth doesn't have a ton of life experience yet, his bowling experiences rank a little higher in importance than they should. He was brave for his blood test.

Dr. Schmidt said that Ethan's hemoglobin was really high at 17. "You could be an endurance athlete!" with all that hemoglobin getting oxygen to his muscles.  He also laughed at Ethan's bowling trauma. He jokes too and understood Ethan's seriousness/humor. It asked about bad dreams. "I have nice dreams. ...of me being Spiderman...."

Then a flu shot and tuberculosis test. I was able to get my laughs for the day at that appointment, he was being really funny. 

______________________(the end)_________

Ethan makes me laugh, he takes after his father, so that was a good memory. 

A few things from yesterday - I didn't go on a bike ride, and I learned later that that was ok, cause my bike had a flat anyway. Lily with on a ride with her cousin and they used my bike and there were like 10 goat head thorns in it. I was able to take it by a local shop as soon as I noticed it, they had an opening, and $25 bucks later, it was good as new. The little kids have been playing legos in the basement.

Upstairs I tried to get kids to go through the clothes in their closets. They have to do that before I will consent to taking them out to buy anything to add to their wardrobes. I went through a lot of my clothing too. I found clothes in a dresser that I totally forgot about, I tossed a lot into the donate pile and the rest I'm putting away in storage quarantine and we'll see if I miss it in the next 6 months. I've been inspired by the Minimal Mom and her Quarantine bin idea, so now I've got current clothes in my closet, preg clothes in storage (we'll see if I ever need those again, sniff) skinnier and skinniest clothes in storage - I am starting to believe more and more that I'm gonna get to my ideal body weight, but I will only get there with calmness, not with pressure. As I work towards getting there, the clothes that will fit me later are now not taking up space in the closet, so that's good and it looks better. I'm not done decluttering yet, but will work on it a little bit at a time. Life is good!