Series of Unfortunate Events

Yesterday I was being lazy and trying to lay down and take a rest. Daniel knocked at the door and wanted me to get his bike so he could ride around the kitchen like he and Peter like to do. I didn't want to move from my horizontal position, so I call Corey who was downstairs to ask him to go get D's bike. Corey outsourced it to Abi. Abi obediently went to the garage, but she got Owen's bike instead. Corey told her it was the wrong kid's bike, and she went out and put Owen's bike back and got Daniel's bike. BUT, Owen's bike supposedly rolled backward a little bit from where she put it and it moved into the path of where the garage would close. It was also in such a position that the little sensor thing, that prevents it from closing on things in the way, went through the spokes of the bike. A few moments later, when the garage was closed, it closed on his bike. The bike was not damaged, but the garage came off the track on that west side of the garage. We didn't dare touch it to possibly cause more damage, so we  left it open all night with a prayer that no one would steal anything out of the garage. 

In the morning I texted the garage guy. He's a nice guy that a neighbor recommended when I sent out a fb request for help with the garage back in 2017.  He didn't seem like the most professional garage repair guy back then, he was more of a small business owner, and he did a decent job and the price was fair. He texted me back today that he was busy but could fit us in. He came by around 2. He looked at our situation and got it back on the track, but confessed that he didn't have the right size spring. Things have been on back order since covid slowed things down. He made due with a spring he had that wasn't the right size, hoping that it would get us by a week or two until he got the right size spring. "Just use it as little as possible." Ok. So I let Corey and Wes know that we shouldn't use it very much, since it was on the side of the garage where they park. They got the message. I didn't close it after the repair guy left and the plan was to just close it after both Wes and Corey were home for the night. When Wes came home from work, he told himself not to close it and he resisted pushing the garage closer in the car. BUT as he walked into the house, out of habit, he closed it from the button by the garage door. I was in the kitchen, Wes waw walking towards me and I heard a bad loud sound, turned around, and Wes was frozen "Oops!! Sorry I didn't close it in the car but I pushed the button without thinking!" We went out to see the damage. It was worse than before and both sides were totally off the track, each side barely hanging on by one roller. It also had been pulled from where it was screwed to the ceiling. Doh!

I googled "garage emergency" cause it was barely hanging on and I thought the whole thing was going to come down on top of us. 

Wes moved the car outside and I texted Corey to NOT push his button as he pulled close to the house. Google gave me a link to A+ garage doors. It said they were available 24/7 so I called and two hours later a nice guy from A+ garage doors came out to save the day. It was one of the worst he's seen as he was surprised that it hadn't fallen down. I told her how our previous helper didn't have the right size spring and admitted that, and that I heard springs were on back order, but he said he had the right size to fix it. Oh yay! More good news - he could fix it tonight. YAY! Bad news - this was going to be a big project. He gave us a $1200 estimate to fix it. Well, I don't think we have any other options so go ahead. It probably would not have been that much if I had just called them the first time earlier today when it was only the west side that was off. Next time I'll probably call A+ Garage doors right away. 2 hours later he was all done. $129 for the emergency after hours dispatch fee, $300 for the Torsion Reset, $700 for a double door overhaul with new springs, cables, nylon rollers, steel bearings and drums and a 5 year parts and labor guarantee, and grand total is $70 less than expected at a mere $1129. I was impressed he did it all by himself. I paid him, we closed the garage, and now we are going to bed. 

Abi took responsibility for the situation, as did Corey, and so did I. My moral of the story/take away: Next time, get your pregnant body off the couch and get the kids' bike yourself!

Peter & Top of the Stairs

Peter asleep in our bed again this morning. 

I know I post probably way too many pictures of Peter asleep, but can you blame me? I mean LOOK AT THIS ADORABLE LITTLE FACE! and how he tucks his little hands up into his neck.

Sooo stinking cute and beautiful. We love him so much.

Peter has been practicing drawing too. He drew two smiley faces!! 

Peter is just everyone's favorite. I guess every baby is, and they each have had their turn being the star of the family blog. We'll let Peter enjoy a few more months in the spotlight before this baby girl comes and kicks him out of the limelight. 

Here is a moment from tonight - Corey's still reading the book "My Name Used To Be Muhammad" to the kids. They started it earlier this month and read it mostly on the weekends and Sunday evenings. They all gather to the top of the stairs to listen (last pic).

Some of them using him as a couch. 

I think I'd have to sit in a chair if I were to read to the kids, but they all seem happy and comfortable, so more power to them. This story of Tito Momen is pretty incredible. Corey read it to the older kids years ago when he first got it in 2013, and now the second half of the kids get a turn to gather at the top of the stairs to listen. 

Typical Saturday

Another Saturday morning. Another picture of sweet sleeping Peter.

Here is a bit of what today looked like - Sophi had her last basketball game. Lily came to support her, which was really nice. Abi had a rehearsal for her UFA sonata competition, we had Kodiak pancakes for lunch, Natalie had a birthday party with her friend Lani May, I went to the Jordan River Temple for an endowment session, and went by Walmart for groceries on the way home. By the time I was back the kids had the two extra Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner from last night. That's a quick snap shot of a semi typical Saturday.

Duly Noted

Corey and I went down to BYU for our date tonight. We went to see Joseph sing in his debut performance at a concert with his acapella group Duly Noted. Full videos thanks to the BYU Acapella Club youtube channel. Joseph's group did two songs - Courage & Believer, He was most excited for Believer cause he had a solo part in it!

It was fun to see him. He said that it was nice for us to finally come see him perform in something, teasingly hinting that we never came to any of his performances in jr. high or high school. Corey and I took issue with that. We've supported him plenty, although I do admit that it might be true that this was the first time we both came and were able to focus and be fully present, without any distracting siblings and without Corey working on his laptop. Joseph said he was leaving at intermission for a date, so we went to take a photo during the intermission to document this once in a lifetime event of us supporting him. And since he was leaving, we said we were leaving too.

We went to Aubergine for dinner. It was really good - Corey got some chicken pesto tortilla thing that was really tasty, and I ordered a curry and rice dish that was excellent. We shared our meals with each other and then I finished off his sandwhich and he enjoyed my curry. I ordered some nice cream and we paid for it and but then they came and said their machine was broken and so they gave us a large cashew shake. Corey was like "I can tell this isn't real ice cream." I could too, but it was ok. 

One pic from yesterday that shows a typical teaser to scriptures... These days we'll often draw all the kids in with a fun Daily Dose of Internet or Mark Rober video, but Corey also keeps a list of videos he wants to show the kids, like 90 Day Fiancé clips. Tonight he shared this one of a man who is a grown up baby. We talked about how it's important to grow up. Growing up is better than staying the same. We want to progress. The kids were thoroughly un-impressed and agreed with us that they all want to grow up and leave our house someday and make their own life. :) So that was a good and important lesson for their futures, and ours.

Tackling the Basement

Corey has done some work on our basement situation over the past few months. I have not been much help up until this week. I have wanted a clean basement and have tried and cared many times over the years (2015, 2018, 2019, 2020). My efforts have not been met with much long term success, although it was briefly cleaned up in 2016, 2018 and 2019. It kinda feels similar to a weight loss struggle - I lose the weight/clean it up, but the weigh/mess comes back. The ability to make it stay clean has eluded me. Thus, as of several months ago, I had decided to give up, thinking it's a hopeless situation. Corey for some reason did not feel it was pointless. He also wanted to have all the ski stuff organized. So during Nov and December, he has bought some shelves and storage bins and he's been down there organizing for 15 minutes at a time. He was even separating the legos by color! And I was like "been there, done that... it's pointless!" and he has given up on that for the time being. But since I'm feeling on top of being a homemaker (the house has been clean for 5 weeks, a big miraculous improvement from where it was two years ago!), I felt I could maybe give it a go. I was motivated by two other factors as well. 1) Melodie is coming home in one week (😁😃!!!), and I thought it might be good if I knew where her boxes of possessions from her former life were. And 2) I also wanted to find some marbles. Peter's been playing with his marble works toy with only one marble, and I know I bought some last year and that we have more than that, so I also wanted to find those. I worked cleaning up yesterday and a good chunk of time today, and I'm pleased to report that Peter now has 9 marbles. 

He is a cute kid. 

We sure love him.

Aaaand one more picture of our little prince...

I have also located 3 bins for Melodie and one box that she shipped from Indiana. She might have more, I'm still organizing. I've found a few boxes of Ethan and Hyrum's things and one of Joseph's... I'm going to get those all gathered and organized too. I have a few more large bins of junk to sort, but I'm really proud of the progress I've made. I dare say there is a possibility that it will be organized within a week - 

This picture below was the item I found this week that made me shake my head the most. 

"A pile of dirt. You're welcome. PS There is a spider in it :)" Like, what?!? Were I not in such a stable mental state, finding something like this might make me throw my hands in the air and give up thinking "what kind of hope for order is there, when my kids are bringing in bags of dirt for no reason?!?!" Thankfully, I just found it funny, took a pic, then threw it in the garbage. I texted the kids to ask if anyone had an explanation. I thought it was something Ethan left behind, but Wesley confessed it was a birthday gift to him from friends as a joke. Ah, great, mystery solved. Goodbye bag of dirt. 

The kids have been playing with long lost toys down there as I've worked and they haven't trashed it yet. We've also been singing our hearts out to The Greatest Showman and Enchanted. I think music plays a magical role in helping us all be civil and productive. 

I also have a little bit of hope that maybe the kids are learning to appreciate order and cleanliness too! So, after I finish separating things all out, I plan to take a trip to drop off donations. I'm waiting for warmer weather, as we are in the thick of Second winter right now. The snow should melt next week  -the forecast shows that "Spring of Deception" (3rd pic) should be here next Tues through Thurs with highs in the 50s! After clearing out donations, I'm going to organize my desk down there and give it a purpose. So, yeah, things are good! I'm still reading my scriptures and I am enjoying having cleaning routines/habits. Laundry and dishes haven't backed up. I haven't blogged or practiced violin as much lately, but something has to give. I had done a decent job exercising up until this week - I just have no umph to even stretch in my closet the past few days. I'm blaming morning carpool (I took Wednesdays this month, 3 days in a roll is brutal, esp since we already drive Lily everyday too. But now I'm done and only have to take Wednesdays 4 more times (in April) before the baby is born! Sure, I have to take it every Monday and Tuesday until then, but yay, only 4 more Wednesdays!! I can count that on one hand! Taking Lily to jazz band every freaking morning makes me want to transfer her to a closer school... That has probably contributed to my taking too many naps this week. I only feel a little guilty about it. I'm giving telling myself it's my body gearing up for the last trimester. I think I look full term already, but I'll be 26 weeks on Sunday. Gonna keep on keeping on.

VIP Poster

Owen was the star student last week week. He left for school before I was able to take a picture of his poster, but he brought it home today. Here is all you need to know about Owen!

My favorite was the picture on the left of him skiing at our friends' cabin. Natalie helped Owen draw the self portait.

Peter can draw a self portrait too! 

It looks just like you Peter! 

He drew one of me too, which looks pretty similar, only I had eyes further apart and a wider smile. The family resemblance was apparent. 

Anniversary Feast

We had our 7th annual Family Feast tonight, celebrating 23 years since our family began. (Past years' celebrations: Family feast 2021, 2020, missed a few years, 2016, 2015, 2014, and the first year of this tradition in 2013) I ran an errand for all the goodies yesterday evening after we got home from skiing. We went to church this morning, and after church Corey took most of the kids over to his parents house while Abi, Lily and I set up the party. Joseph's eta from Provo was 5:30, so I texted Corey that they could come leave around 5:30, and to come through the front door (where we planned to block the view of the kitchen) and everyone upstairs to dress up fancy. Everyone dressed and ready? 

"Time for dinner!" - a new favorite phrase from the Don't Talk About Bruno song :)

The dessert table -

Family photo - 

My plate. May the world take note that THIS is a decent beet salad, not that ridiculous dish I was served at La Caille last night!

We had salmon, potatoes, two salads, and a plethora of desserts and juices. Everyone got more than their full. We ended the evening by watching our wedding video and then The House. 

We've watched The House for the past 3 Sundays for some reason. 

Ethan did a good job on that. When he comes home in June, he'll have to start filming episode 2. (...only this time he'll be playing the Returned missionary role!) I cleaned up most of the after party, and after the family movies, the kids went to brush teeth and then Corey read to them upstairs a book called "My Name Used to Be Muhammad". 

The kids are really into it. Wes and Abi listened as they rubbed Owen and Peter's backs, soon O and P were asleep, Lily and Sophi made friendship bracelets. Tomorrow I have a doctor appointment, i'm 25 weeks along today, and then I might try to catch up with Joseph up skiing. Wes was going to go with him but he has work. I don't think any of the other kids will make it out the door without me pushing, so we'll see how it goes after I get home. I am very grateful for our life. They are still reading, but I think I'm going to lay down and listen (I think I overate too, only I don't have much room in my tummy to overeat!) Corey is an amazing husband and father. I know that we have a really fun courtship story, but we try to make sure the kids know that their story doesn't have to be like ours to be awesome. We do highly recommend that they obey the laws of God, especially the law of chastity, and that they stay close to the Church of Jesus Christ and God's leaders. Corey and I know that our commitment to Christ and His church, our efforts to follow the teachings of God's prophets in the scriptures and today, has been the biggest driving factor in the life God has blessed us with. We love it and hope our kids will gain their own testimonies of the wonderful fruits of striving to follow Christ by obeying the teachings and ordinances of His restored church. Good night!

23 Years

Today is our happy anniversary. A few stats - 

• 30 years since our first date
• 23 years of marriage
• 22 years of diapers
• 12.5 kids
• 10 moves
• 8 cars
• 4 countries

And one more year of wedded bliss in the books. For the beginning of this next chapter, Corey and I left all the children at home and went up to Brighton for a day of skiing sans any of the little ones and it was very nice. We didn't talk much, just skied and enjoyed the peace and quiet while we were on the lifts. I was a little nervous to ski on a Saturday again, fearing it would be super crowded, but it wasn't that busy and it was a beautiful day.

Above at the top of Snake Creek with the Heber Valley behind us - 

Corey's ankle wasn't feeling great, so I don't think he minded going slow with me as I practiced turning on greens and blue hills. He joked we should get some kind of caution sign for me, so people would be careful - like a "baby on board" yellow sign or something. Corey bought a parking pass so we had a reserved spot that put us right at the bottom of the Explorer lift which was super great and convenient. We did all the lifts, even Great Western which has a "caution experts only" notice on it, but it was ok - there was a blue I was able to take down. Snake Creek was our favorite and we did that the most. I liked Deer Park and Thor. I do wish there were some well groomed trails between the trees, instead of there being a trails and paths around all the trees - I didn't know what I could trust, so we mostly just stayed on the main trails. We didn't stop for lunch, we just ate my "squirrel food" as Corey calls it (dried apricots and walnuts and raisins). We left around 3:30 and on the way home Joseph gave us a call to let us know that he was going to be able to come tomorrow. I was planning to do our family feast on Monday cause that was the only time Joseph could join us, cause he was going to be speaking at his ward on Sunday. But he let us know his plan - come up tonight, take the car down tomorrow and then  drive back up for the feast, and sleep over and go skiing on Monday. Ok, that works. We got home and were happy that the kids were all alive and happy, their rooms were clean, and practiced their instruments and then had fun playing the Wii all day -

So I had also originally been planning to do my feast food run to Costco after my dr, appointment on Monday, but instead I hurried out tonight. I was done and ready to head home at 5:23, which would give me about 20 minutes to do my hair before our date night out to La Caille, but then as I was driving, Wes called, said that he was leaving to go pick up Joseph, but that Corey stopped him and saw  via his phone that I was out by the Frontrunner, so did I want to just get him? I knew that the Frontrunnner comes by each hour on the :38, which meant I'm going to be waiting here for 15 minutes... in 15 minutes I would already be home and able to get ready for our date, which Corey seemed anxious about leaving on time, but I guessed he wanted me to get Joseph since he suggested it? ...so I said ok, and Wes stayed home and I went and waited for Joseph. Joseph called and said if I drove to the Draper station he would be there in 8 minutes, and that was an 8 minute drive for me, which I didn't think would be saving us any time since then I'd just add 8 minutes onto my drive home, but whatever, so I drove to Draper. I got home at 5:58 and speed changed my clothes and went on my date with Corey to a very expensive restaurant without showering and with my ski helmet hair. 

So this was our first time every going to La Caille. We drive by there almost every day and probably several times a day most days. So it was good to check it off. BUT we will never be going there again. And not just cause it is freaking expensive. Corey bought gift cards at Costco, where you get $100 at La Caille for $75, so that helped offset the expense, and he planned for us to be able to get two horderves, both get salad and entrees, and maybe two desserts. Hmm, what shall we order? 

I got the mushrooms, cause I was thinking back to a date night at Provisions. That was expensive and small portions too, but I remember I ordered some stuffed mushrooms that were very good. Corey ordered escargots. Now with escargot we knew what we were getting (aka snails (more tolerable than chicken hearts in my opinion, but I only had one snail, I won't each chicken hearts)), so that wasn't a surprise, but the mushrooms dish was super tiny and did not taste good at all. It did not meet my expectations. Thankfully there was a sample of sunchoke soup "compliments of the chef..." that was super delicious and I quite enjoyed that. So far it's been pricey but fair for a new experience. 

Corey was distracted the first hour of our date by the people on the table next to us. It was either a father and son, or perhaps a rich uncle with his nephew. Corey whispered to me "I just find him such an interesting character!" The room was very quiet, with very faint music, so we could totally hear their conversation and they could probably have heard ours, but we whispered like we were at a library. The man had glasses very low on his nose, just on the tip of his nose, and each lens was the size of a dime. He looked over his glasses at the young man in a blazer as they talked about his future... Corey heard the man say "I want you to focus on your schooling and your fencing..." and yeah, Corey had a hard time talking to me cause of this character at the table next to us.  

20 minutes later we got our salads. Corey had just stepped outside to see what was out there (peacocks) and the salads were delivered. When I saw my "salad" I let out a disappointed sign, shook my head and moaned "... aw crap..." It was a stupid Charleston salad all over again! Corey knew what I was thinking and was laughing. He wanted a picture...

Too bad for me that I didn't know what burrata was... I guess I was thinking bruschetta. So it would be a salad with sides of bruschetta. Yes, this is a French restaurant and sure, bruschetta is Italian, but so is burrata!!! For some reason I was fully expecting an actual beet salad, cause I must have forgotten that this is "fancy" and instead I got a hunk of cheese with probably a 1/4 of a beet cut in tiny tiny pieces. I also saw "butternut squash" on the ingredients of my salad, and that was a few dots of squash puree to decorate my plate. Ugh, so disappointing, it was a repeat of that bad memory (I had been really hungry on that date). I could not eat it. I didn't get the chance to explore returning it for something else, cause Corey immediately swapped plates with me. He had wanted to order the Lobster Bisque (which was amazing according to a review he read in his research for tonight) and instead he ordered the citrus salad cause I thought that looked good too. So I got his citrus salad (an actual salad with greens) and he got a hunk of cheese. He took my licking for me. That is true love. 

I could hardly get over how stupid this was "That is ridiculous. We are never coming here again..." I'm  glad we're here, cause we should do this atleast once, but yeah, this is it. We are not coming back here. It was $17 bucks for that!?!?! Who eats here? How does this place stay in business? People like this fencing teenager and his uncle/dad? I'd never take our kids here. Corey said "Can you imagine bringing 12 children here? Kids are good, they keep you grounded in reality." Our neighboring table guests left and I tried to casually look behind me as they were leaving, and I thought he looked a bit like Rick Moranis. My salmon entree thankfully had some greens on it. 

Corey ordered the duck - 

Which came with (as he told the kids later) a side of VeggieTale characters. 

We ordered one dessert - a passion fruit chocolate mousse cake, which was very good. Not worth 11 bucks, but good. Slightly saved this experience from being a total fail.

Grand total before tip - $208

Wait, let me get the fireplace and roses in there

We took a picture of the mounted walrus head (actually from France!) on our way our, as we waited for our valet parking. 

So, it was a good experience, it was fun to share it with the kids and tell them what a rip off it was, and I loved Corey telling the kids about my "salad", our neighboring table guy's glasses "the size of dimes..." and when Corey pretended he was fencing. 

The kids got a kick out of it too. Tomorrow is our Fancy Anniversary Dinner Feast and Corey let them know "The ironic thing is that tomorrow you guys will all have a better meal and it will be for less $ to feed ALL of us than we had tonight. ...but we're glad we did it! You guys should all go there once before you die, but we're not taking you."

Overall, it was a great and memorable anniversary. I sure love Corey. And he's nice to still tolerate toddlers coming into our bed - 

Peter in our bed in the morning. Such a cutie

He did his usual mid-night raging at me, but then was sweet when he was fully conscious. He's a cute kid, he gets it from his father. I'm so lucky.

Kids Making Messes

The kids are testing my resolve at keeping a clean house. I mentioned the fort from last Friday. On Monday night Sophi was making a salon in the bathroom. We're now 4 weeks of a spankin' clean house, so I'm not used to having a messy kids' bathroom anymore. Abi and I cleaned it up Monday night. She's my best cleaning helper, and yeah, we saw this all over the counter and were like "Nuh-uh!" It's cute though, and Sophi, I want you to know that I admire your creativity and am trying to be calm about the mess. Sophi cleaned it up on Tuesday night (under threat of all her dolls being confiscated.) Good job Soph.

And then one more mess I found recently - the kids wanted to paint downstairs and I said to do it on the unfinished side, but I soon discovered that they were painting at my desk down there, which was already cluttered with lots of old school papers that I need to clean up, but they shoved it all around making it even a bigger mess. But they were paining on the finished side of the basement! It started with Sophi painting something maybe for a school art contest and I gave her permission for her, but it ended with them taking two of my new canvases without permission, and there being a mess of brown all over one of them and paint dripping down the side and dried and sticking the canvas onto the wood desk. It's been several days of cleaning it up. Monday I soaked the dried paint on the desk several times and used a straight edge razor to scrap it all off. I have now locked all the paints in the hall closet again. I guess it's pretty impressive that I've kept the house so clean lately when the kids haven't been slowing down with their mess making! Good job to me.

And we'll send with few pictures from today - Peter and Wes taking a nap together. I took a picture of them sleeping facing the same direction...

And came back later and they had both switched sides - 

I shared these pictures with the older kids and Joseph commented "Synchronized sleeping" - ha! They are cute. Peter with a new toy dinosaur I bought him. It is a storage compartment for other small dinosaurs that fit in it's mouth. 

Corey and I on a date night tonight. This is how we cope with 12 kids - by consistently going out together on Friday nights. Tonight we went to the Jordan River Temple and then out to Blue Lemon after for a late dinner.

Life is good.