Miracle and Nightmare

So two days ago, end of post, I gave a few details regarding Wesley's medical center bill, which was due yesterday. I let Wes know about it so he could pray for a miracle for us. And I let the college kids know too, as they like to let us know how expensive college and "adulting" is, so I wanted to let them know I feel their pain. It was due Aug 29th, so I called yesterday to get us set up on a payment plan at the end of the day, but with the time difference, they were closed. So I got online to pay it, I paid the minimum due, $189, which was the amount a lady told me last week if we got on a 24 month plan. So I paid $189 on the due date, trusting that they'd be cool with that if I called them first thing the next day, aka today. BUT, as I was on their website last night, there was a number to call if you needed financial assistance. Yes please. So I wrote down that number and thought I'd give them a call first today. I did, and talked to a lady named Sheri, and I was praying in my heart for help, cause we really don't have $4500 to put towards this, and so I told her our situation as I understood it - that our son is there in Texas on a mission for our church, our insurance here in Utah doesn't cover out there, we were told it would be $700, then got this $4500 bill out of the blue, etc etc. She sounded sympathetic, and asked for our account number and a few other things, the total amount billed, how much we've paid so far, then said she'd call me back. She did call back like an hour later, asking for a few more things - the date of his surgery and how much we paid that day, I told her, she said "Ok, I'll call you back" and I didn't know what power this little lady might have, but I was praying for her to work a miracle and THEN GUESS WHAT?!?! Sheri, the miracle lady, called me back around 5:30 as I was trying to get ready to go out with Corey. The kids were around me but I knew it was her calling and I tried to be in a quiet spot, I knew it was at the end of the work day for her there in Texas, so this would prob be the last call for today, and she just said that what we were told when he went in for his surgery, that the $700 payment was all we needed to pay, was indeed correct, things just got entered wrong in the system, and that "the balance was taken care of." Like WHAT?!?!? The $4500 is taken care of?!?! Oh thank you thank you Sheri lady! I felt like Enos "Lord, how is it done??" Like, I wanted to ask her "Wait, what??? How?!?!?" Did she have access to a special charity fund that she used to cover it? Is she a member of the church and somehow got us help that way? Did she pay for it? It's really just "taken care of?" Thousands of dollars just forgiven? My mind was racing with questions of HOW, but my mouth just said "Thank you SO MUCH" and I truly am so grateful, this was a miracle today. Thank you Sheri! And I've also been thinking today of our redemption from death, sin and hell. Jesus paid a debt much larger than $4500 for my soul, for each of us. He's taken care of it. I am feeling very grateful for this small temporal redemption today. 

I also will share a nightmare I had last night/early this morning. I was in some cabin camping with Peter and Katharine, but I was in the cabin and Peter and Katharine were outside in a tent by themselves for some reason, and I woke up in the cabin and I heard a noise out there, wondering how it hadn't woken me up, and it was two grizzly bears and they had eaten Peter and Katharine. I was totally bawling, I screamed and ran towards them to get them to stop, but they growled at me like they'd kill me too, so then I turned and ran the other way sobbing, so sad that this was real and that I wasn't dreaming. Katharine's little legs were dangling with her shoes on from an umbrella stroller, with her body gone. It was horrible. And when I did wake up I was SO GLAD it was a dream, and I thought "that sucked" and there was no way I was going back to bed and risk dreaming any of that again, so I went down to read the Book of Mormon, and luckily I found something that immediately got my mind onto something else. SO, I've been doing a little thing the past few montsh, where when it says "14th year of the reign of the judges" I've been putting that as 2014. And I've been writing the modern "date" equivalent in the top corner of each page, so I can try to understand better the timing of the different events in Alma. SO - some of the things that go along with this little date game I'm playing - if the reign of the judges was the year 2000, that puts King Benjamin's reign ending in 1964, and that's when King Mosiah's begins. He reigns from 1964 - 2000! For 36 years! Wow. Captain Moroni (Alma 43:17) was 25 in the 18th year / 2018, so that means he was born in "1993" - 98 years BC. The title of Liberty was 2019, and that is also when Amalakiah (Alma 46:3) enters the story Jan 2019 (Alma 45:20), and does all his fraud and wicked crap killing Lehonti (Alma 47:18) and the King of the Lamanites (Alma 47:24) in that same 19th year (Alma 48:2)... Like that is amazing. How does one guy go from running away from his own nation and people, to being the king over a whole different people in the space of one year? Amalakiah must have been a very powerful and charismatic figure. Anyway, that's the kind of fun stuff I've been doing in Alma, and this morning, after my horrible nightmare, I was reading and jumped ahead to when the sign of the Lord's birth was given, and the 91st year had passed away (3 Nephi 1:1) so it was in the 92nd year, so 2092 for pretend, and it says that it was 600 years since Lehi left Jerusalem (3 Nephi 2:6), and so to continue my game of likening the timeline unto today, what is 2092 minus 600??? You get 1492, which was when Columbus sailed the ocean blue. It's that cool?!?! Captain Moroni's time to Lehi's time is like us today and Christopher Columbus. So that was so fun! I was excited, and shared that with all my kids. Again, I was grateful that it got my mind off of my bad dream, and it was really fun to study. I was grateful for that, I'm grateful Peter and Katharine are still alive and well, and I'm so grateful too for Sheri at the Financial Assistance hotline for the Hendrick Medical Center for being an instrument in God's hands working a miracle for us in getting that $4500 bill waived. God did a miracle for us today. 

Peter's bracelet that says "Peter heart Wes". I'm grateful Peter is alive and well, and grateful that Wesley's medical center bill was taken care of. Thank you Lord!

Pinecone

This morning Corey and I went on a long ride. Yesterday I decided that I wanted to go do Pinecone cause Corey said that I would like it (he did it with Kyle our last day at Park City). I decided yesterday to do it today because today is a Thursday (not a Friday/weekend/holiday) and it is the last day that's not a weekend that we have Mel around (she starts at BYU on Monday.) I didn't want to do Pinecone on a weekend cause Kyle said it's too busy "but on a weekday morning you should be good!" so I've been eyeing the calendar for a few weeks but it didn't work with reunion prep and kids and school and then Peter being half day last week - but this week seemed like an ideal time. And I left it until the last chance, but that's usually how Corey and I fly - just taking care of the current fire that we need to put out! So I texted Corey yesterday that I was going to do it, and he said he wanted to come. We woke up the high school kids and then left everyone in Mel's capable hands. We left home at 6:30 for the drive up to Park City. There were only like two other cars in the parking lot when we got there, sweet. It was a good ride - we took Armstrong up, to Mid mountain, then took that south to Pinecone, and that was a long ride, but it was good! Nice and shaded, we saw 5 other bikers on the climb. We got to the top of  Crest - and it was a longer ride than getting dropped off at Guardsman, but yay we didn't have to do Puke hill! Ha, I think that's worth it. There was a big group of people from New Zealand up there and we asked one of the guys to take our pic - 

I had hoped to have more of the mountains behind us, but oh well. Before we started out descent, Corey left a message for Wes about the struggle of climbing and learning to keep working even when you're tired. Even if the climb isn't that fun, you're getting stronger. 

The ride down was really fun! Pinecone was really fast and flowy and there were no people on the really fun part in the pine trees. There were 4 bikers (two groups of 2) coming up on our descent on the other side of Pinecone Ridge, but it was good - we didn't have to pull over that much. It went by super quick though. Kinda crazy how long something can take to climb and how quickly it can be descended. We were back at Midmountain before we knew it, then took that south until we got to CMG. I got 19 achievements, and it was my biggest climb! - My strava said 3065 feet elevation, Corey's was 3206. We joke that he has the male version of Strava and it let's him get better numbers in elevation, times and  overall stats. 

So finished our ride at 11, got back home at 11:40. Ate a bowl of berries and protein powder, bath, read my scriptures until I got tired, then took a short nap to finish taking advantage of having Mel home. Lily had an audition for the Soundhouse, Mel took her down to that. Kids are home from school now, 6:30, Mel's making her specialty Brazilian rice and beans for dinner, yay, and I'm here at the kitchen table typing. I'm surprised that I'm able to focus here and the kids actually have been leaving me alone! Which reminds me a reel I saw today (wasting a little bit of time on Instagram after watching a link from Joseph) - there were some little ducklings following their mom, then she dives down under the water and disappears, they are looking around confused, then she pops up in another spot, and they all quickly swim over to her again. Once they reach her, she dives under again, that was repeated 3 times and it said "My kids when I tell them that I need a minute...." haha, they just want to love on us when we want to be left alone. K is like that with Corey!

Another funny think Lily shared with me was this, it really made me laugh - cause this is me, ha!

but reality is... and then it shows Ursula saying "No Talking, Singing... ZIP!" with that little pop of her lips at the end, haha

I often joking/not joking tell the kids (when they are laughing after 10:30 pm) "Hey! Stop it! NO HAPPINESS! Go to bed!" This week has mostly been a lazy week. I think I've been recovering from everything - a few months of weddings and receptions and summer and the reunion. I'm glad that I'm finally here blogging, cause I have a lot to catch up on. 

Can't Get It Goin'

I'm on my 3rd day of recovering. Other than a morning bike ride with Corey, I have been in a very passive state. Yesterday I didn't do anything... Katharine got my phone sometime during the day at my desk. She's upgraded from photos of feet and got her face in one! 

But still got her feet too. 

She is definitely a girl. She changes her clothes several times a day, she loves pink, flowers, and shoes. She's a cutie. Today I did go to the temple around 4 so that was good. On my drive there I was thinking of Nate Bargatze's pancake joke as he was wondering "What is up with me TODAY?!?! I can't get it goin'!" Might have been the leftover ice cream sandwiches from the walkabout Sunday that I helped myself to a few too many of... I kept listening on my drive there and home, he's really funny. My friend Alisha came by today. We saw each other for the first time in years last Friday night at the Utah Royals came, and of the many things we talked, she asked me about butterflies! She said she's seen some of the things I shared on facebook and has been wondering where I order my monarch eggs or caterpillars from and I told her I find them in my yard and told her to come by. I texted her today and she did come by to see how my milkweed looks - she has a place in her yard where she might try to grow them, but her yard was so pretty and she obviously takes good care of it, so she was wondering how they look fully grown, so she can plan. I gave her a few pods that are mature and 4 caterpillars - I had 3 on hand and one that we found as we were outside looking for eggs and talking about milkweed. Mel was a little sad cause she wanted one to take to BYU, so when I was out with Katharine (taking her over to the neighbors playset) I looked at the milkweed on the way and was glad to find one for her. I'm glad I found one, and am glad I don't have anymore for me. I might be going through a change cause I am wanting to pass them along rather than keep them here. Again, I might be in recovery mode and don't want any more responsibilities than necessary, not even caterpillars. I did lay on the grass for a bit and read a book. And I had my feet on the grass for an hour tonight at the Salad Social with neighborhood ladies. After sneaking to the temple for initiatories at 4:30, I went by the store for some cucumbers to make a Greek Salad for the salad Social. Sophi and Lily in the back with their friends - 

We had a great turn out, it was nice to visit with everyone, and I love the berries and poundcake and cream concoction that the Morgans make. I went back for a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th helping of that. 

The book I was reading yesterday was the one that first introduced me to grounding/earthing. It's called "Health Revelations from Heaven and Earth: 8 Divine Teachings from a Near Death Experience" And as I continued reading, I shared with Wes some of the things he said about being positive from and it had some insights that I thought were good and I sent Wes a few messages. He's been a little discouraged about things, totally normal for a missionary. I'm not sure if the things I said were helpful though. Corey always sends the kids good stuff. Wes asked about how he can know which thoughts are even his own?? I sent him a few photos of pages from the Light of Christ book, pages 36 - 43. In that book John Pontius says there are 3 voices in a normal healthy mind: 1st - You yourself (usually is asking questions and seeking), 2nd - the devils minions (nearly always stated as absolute  and lead us away from truth) and 3rd - the Holy Ghost (quiet commands and promptings to believe, serve, bless, pray and repent) 

Speaking of Wes, here is one final thought for today (and now that I think of it, maybe part of my being in a funk and struggling this past week is in regards to this...) So a few weeks ago we got a bill from the Hendrick Medical Center in Abilene Texas for Wesley's endoscopy (statement dated Aug 4) for $4500 freaking dollars. $4546.41 to be exact. I was like just so mad - like WHY can they just do something and send you a bill without giving you a heads up of "oh by the way, if we do this, it is basically going to cost as much as a car"?!?!? When Wesley first started having problems choking on his mission and his mission nurse and some mission area doctor, who is a retired gastroenterologist, recommended he get checked out cause they didn't want him to choke and die, and we don't want that either. They suggested he come home to get it done, but that would have been atleast a week hanging out at home to come for an appointment before hand and maybe a follow up after, and we didn't want his mission to be disrupted like that, and we have a $18000 deductible anyway that we are not going to meet, so we'd be paying out of pocket for this ANYWAY, so we said we'd prefer he get it done out there. I guessed it would be like $2000. In June the mission nurse HAD gotten a quote for us before hand and said it would be $400 for the endoscopy! That sounded too good to be true but I was like "sweet!" but I was still ok when they said it was actually also another $300 for an office visit before the procedure. That's still good and over $1000 less than what I expected. Procedure was Jul 5, and now in August come all the bad news from bills. And he had called on July 5th on the day of his procedure saying that we had to pay another $700 something and I was like "Allright, whatever, here's the credit card number..." so we paid $737.30 that day, and now $4546 more - total bill for the medical clinic is $5283.71. I felt some despair when I told Corey about it when it came, but he wasn't ready to try and put out that fire, he said to give him a few days. I called them last week to see what they could do, they said that we can get a 24 month plan for $189.43 a month, plus 20% off of the balance when/if we decide or are able to pay off the rest of the balance. So that seems like our best way forward. I reminded him about it tonight, and Corey will get back to me tomorrow about what we'll do about it. I felt and feel so helpless. Why can they do that? Is it cause hospitals assume insurance is paying for it?? So they just rack it up as high as they want? I was so discouraged, but have been trying to wait on the Lord. He is my God and I have a covenant relationship with him, and he has promised to fight my battles. Oh my gosh I almost forgot that that scripture is from Exodus 14:14!! (14 is my lucky number)

 The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

So I've been trying to hold my peace, striving to wait on the Lord to help us, to give us more credit, or maybe help Corey's project to take off and succeed, anything... Lord, does your hear us?? Are you aware of our burdens and trials as we try to raise this large family with all their needs and all the things we want to do to help them opportunities and experiences we are trying to give them? We have other bills for it too: We've paid $700 to the doctor (I thought that was it, cause I thought the procedure would be done in the doctors office/clinic? I obviously don't know what an endoscopy entails...) so I was a little surprised, but not surprised just bummed, when we ALSO got a $474 bill for pathology - ugh.... and then this week a $258 bill for the anesthesiologist, also knowing that the Hendrick Medical Center bill minimum of $1515 was/is due tomorrow. So with all that backstory, that was on my mind on our ride this morning, and I reached into my pocket to take a screen shot of Lily Anderson's captioning from her podcast 4.35 for Helaman 1-6:

"If I build on the rock of my Redeemer, I will not fall. We just have to hold tighter and tighter to Christ in times of craziness, in times of misery, in times of confusion, when our hearts are breaking, we hold tighter to Christ." 

That's what I'll do when I'm struggling, when I can't get it goin', when I'm in a funk - I will hold onto CHRIST and trust in HIM. We will go forward into the Red Sea or across the Jordan River. 

Reunion Recovery

Hello! I'm at violin, the girls' first lesson this academic year. I would like to start violin again. I have been mia since Katharine was born. She's 2 now and mostly plays nicely by herself or I can let her watch a leap frog video for a bit... Maybe I'll make a schedule for myself, cause I think I should be able to practice atleast 30 minutes. Natalie is now where I was when I stopped two years ago (end of book 2). Sophi's vibrato is sounding amazing and I'd like to not be left in the dust by these two, but perhaps my time to practice should have been when I was 12 and it's too late for me. 

Sophi was not feeling well this morning - I think cause she ate too much junk last night at the walkabout. She gets sick when she eats too much sugar, wish I had that problem. I told her NO MORE JUNK FOOD for her, or if she does it some, she can just have one! No more over doing it in the carefree moments and then skipping school the next day. She and Natalie both missed their first 3 class periods. Sophi cause of a stomach ache, Natalie because she slept with Katharine, and K was kicking her all night. Here is how they were sleeping when I woke them up this morning - K had pestered Natalie so much that N gave up and moved to the floor.

Katharine will take turns sleeping with whichever sister she fancies in the moment. Usually it's Abi. Sometimes it's me. If it's not me, then one of the first things I do in the morning is go find where K ended up to make sure she's ok. Here she is sleeping with Abi yesterday morning.

And on the floor of her room on the 22nd. K with her face down - haha, looking super exhausted.

Lily said she's learned to be careful cause once she jumped off of her bed (on the top/third bunk) and almost landed on Katharine. I slept with K on her bed once recently and after a few minutes of trying to settle in, she said "I sleep floor..." so we moved onto the floor. It's easier for me to sneak away on the floor than laying on a mattress. So, violin was good. Natalie finished this puzzle.

She usually works on puzzles. Ms Amy has a board to put them on, and they just slide it under her sofa until the next week. Today is Peter's first day of all day kindergarten. Last week was a half day warm up, so I hope to make time to blog. I plan on catching up on the happenings of the past several months. 

Our 30th High School Reunion was this past weekend. A lot of things were similar to our 20th in 2014, like running out of food. It wasn't as bad as 2014, but I think we shouldn't tip our caterer - the servers were not that good at keeping things stocked and we had people waiting quite a bit for food and plates. I'm also crunching numbers for how many people actually came out, and trying to finish up finances and reimburse everyone. I think we are going to break even, so yay that is good. Yesterday I took a long nap in the backyard on a blanket on the grass. I  took an hour ride this morning, then another nap this afternoon - I think I'm recovering from the reunion and maybe the weddings too? Maybe I'm just taking advantage of these last few days of having Mel home. Katharine got the better of us today - got into Abi's makeup and gave herself some nice eyeshadow all over face.

And she also got into a bunch of embroidery floss and beads in Sophi and Natalie's room. Hopefully they'll all learn to keep stuff locked up or put away up high if it is important to them. 

It will just be me and K after Mel and Hyrum leave for school. I hope that I've recovered and am able to hold my own, or I hope that this little girl goes easy on me!

30th SHS Reunion

Another "big day" is here. Today we had our 30th high school reunion. 

Corey and I started the day with a reunion-ish bike ride - with some high school friends and old street hockey buddies, Dave and Nathan. Some other Skyline alum came along, Kyle, who is our '94 class president Erica's older brother, and Kyle brought along Erica's husband Michael and another friend, so we had a good group of 5 alumni. Melodie drove us up to Guardsman. Group pic - 

Another pic at the top of the mountain - 

It was like the good ol' days of me playing street hockey with Corey and the guys. I aspire to be able to hold my own, and I did ok "for a girl" but I was definitely one of the slower riders on the climb. But I didn't have an ebike like two of them did, so atleast I wasn't cheating, haha. At "the spine"...

At Elbow Fork, we took a pic before splitting ways - they all took the road and Corey and I wanted to go along Pipeline for a little bit. 

Nathan (white shirt) was legit cause he had a hardtail bike, wow. Should I try my silver bike? Hmmm. So it was a good ride along Crest and then we came down Pipeline a little bit, then got on the road near Porter Fork treailhead and took the Millcreek canyon road down the rest of the way. Corey and I ended with a selfie at Skyline. 

Then rode up to Macey's and we got home around 11:30. Melodie had to hurry home after dropping us off at Guardsman so she could help Hyrum get all the kids to the church to take care of our family's cleaning assignment at 8am. She was actually late with the car, cause she had to go back by the Olympus parking lot to leave us Corey's car so we could drive home and she took the van home (we drove them both out). But Hyrum and the kids ended up riding their bikes to the church. Abi and Lily took Mel's car to GMS - they were surprised when they came out to get the van and it was gone. She called me to ask what they were supposed to do, and called as I was trying to climb "puke hill" on my bike. I had to get off to try and talk. Hence no PR for me on that climb today. I think I might like to try it on my silver bike. We got home, thanked the stand in parents Mel and Hyrum, kids were all doing well. Daniel and Katharine playing with clay out in the backyard at the "mud kitchen table". So cute.

So we took the morning off from parenting responsibilities, but we were on duty from noon to 5, while Mel Hyrum and the teens went to the temple, Corey took the boys to the Lego store to window shop, and I tried to finish organizing the reunion guest list, which was all organized last week, but then we had a lot of last minute "can I come" requests last night, smh, they just don't want to make it easy for us, despite 3 month of asking for rsvp's and "please buy your tickets". It wasn't too crazy, just a little bit, cause my list got all disorganized as I went through to alphabetize it all again and the number of tickets the different guests bought was mixed up so I had to go verify it all against our previous tickets and purchases list. ANYWAY, a little crazy, I went to go help set up at 4 (I was late) and I got the memorabilia table set up with Abi helping me. Then we left around 5:15 to hurry home and get dressed and get Corey and be back at the venue asap. Check in and social hour was from 6-7. Corey and I got back there around 6:15. I helped check people in and gave them custom name tags, which I was impressed with whoever did that. Lots of people visiting, then the buffet dinner opened at 7.

People going to sit in the dining hall. We had a beautiful view of Millcreek out of the floor to ceiling windows. Looking over the Skyline area and familiar mountains from the Millcreek Common venue. It was nice. 

I think this was basically what a nice wedding dinner should be like, so it was good to get a taste of it without US having to fit the entire bill. We got a big discount on the venue, cause one of our committee members and classmates is on the Millcreek City council and we reserved it under her name. And we had to use a caterer that was approved by Millcreek to come in that space, and so that was the most expensive part... want to know how much that was?? I didn't take a photo of the food, but would you like to see the menu statement from the caterer? This is what we ordered: 

140 Servings of Grilled Chicken with a Cilantro Crema $8.00 each = $1,120.00

Chicken Breast grilled & paired with a fresh Cilantro Cream Sauce (Gluten Friendly)

140 Serving Petite Grilled Salmon $7.00 each = $980.00

Served with Pineapple Papaya Salsa & Fresh Dill Sauce, 

Serving Grilled Chipotle & Lime Cauliflower Steaks

with a Chili Pepper Relish 5 @$6.25 ea = $31.25

174 Serving Hasselback Potatoes @$4.00 each = $696.00

Yukon Gold Potatoes Dressed in Garlic, Lemon & Rosemary

Vegetarian & Gluten Friendly

90 Servings of Grilled Vegetable Salad $6.00 each = $540.00

Grilled Zucchini, Yellow Squash, Corn, Cherry Tomatoes, Asparagus & Basil

tossed in a Garlic & Herb Vinaigrette (Vegan & Gluten Friendly)

90 Serving Arugula & Spinach Salad $6.00 each = $540.00

With Strawberries, Blueberries, Crumbled Goat Cheese & a Balsamic Vinaigrette

Vegetarian & Gluten Friendly

174 Serving Artisan Rolls $3.00 each $522.00

A Variety of Made Fresh Artisan Rolls in Asiago, Wheat & White With Herbed

Butter

170 Servings of Petite Sweets $2.00 each = $340.00

*Mini Cheesecake Bites, Chocolate Covered Strawberries (Gluten Friendly)

*Assorted Decorated Chocolate Truffles (Gluten Friendly)

170 Serving Array of Sweets $3.25 each = $552.50

*Chocolate Mousse with a Fresh Raspberry, Mini Fruit Tarts

1 Serving Gluten Free Dinner $75.00 $75.00

Ordered from a GF kitchen and served in the container it is delivered in

(Thankfully the venue provided 60" Round Tables and 6' Rectangle Tables)

18 linens for the tables - 132" Round Linen $16.50 each = $297.00

Dark Navy

12 Linen 90"x132" T,S $16.50 each = $198.00

Dark Navy 6 Table Runner $10.00 each = $60.00

Yellow Gold Bengaline

170 Ceramic White Plate Round 10" $0.95 each = $161.50

170 Olympic Dinner Fork  $0.75 each = $127.50

Preset at Guests Seating Tables

170 Olympic Dinner Knife $0.75 each = $127.50

Preset at Guests Seating Tables

170 Linen Napkins T,S $1.50 each = $255.00

Solid Soft Gold Nova

1 Custom Menu Signage $15.00 each = $15.00

Skyline Highschool Watermark on Menu Signs

1 Back of House Coordinator (3 Hour Event) $400.00 each = $400.00

1 Event Manager (3 Hour Event) $450.00 each = $450.00

1 Event Staff (3 Hour Event) $400.00 each = $400.00

1 Event Staff (3 Hour Event) $400.00 each = $400.00

1 Event Staff (3 Hour Event) $400.00 each = $400.00

So it was crazy expensive I think - total charges (everything above): $8,688. Then add a "Production Charge" of 25 22% = $1,855.32 = Subtotal: $10,543.57 (Summer sale -$208.25) Discounted Subtotal: $10,335.32 

7.45% Sales Tax: $785.50 

Post-Tax Subtotal: $11,120.82

And THAT is why we had to charge $80 a ticket. Erica (middle) has been working and stressing about this for months, so I'm glad for her that it was such a success and I think it all went well enough. 

A little bit of stress for Erica when the food staff was not bringing out the food and plates fast enough. So maybe we won't pay gratuity (seems like we paid them enough?!?!). Some hiccups are to be expected. I think overall it was a great reunion, a great success. Good job to us class of '94 officers!

And I am grateful this is done and I'm looking forward to a nice nap tomorrow!

First Day of Kindergarten!

The big day is finally here! Today was Peter's FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!!!

Class of 2037?!?! Wow. As Melodie stated "I don't even know if that is a thing..." ha. Cute little kids standing in line. 

Ms. Fenton's class behind, Ms. Simmons in the front. The parents were ready to take a photograph of the kids, and Peter was lucky that he had a spot in the shade. Most of the kids were going blind from the rising sun.

Oh, now Peter's got the sun in his eyes!

I walked down to the school to support Peter, while he waited at the bus stop. He beat me there. Before he left, I was helping Katharine inside, and Mel took the boys out on the stairs for some first day of school photos which started in 2011. Then the years started flying by... it was all girls in 2019 - now it's all boys!

Peter in Kindergarten (his 1st year tho... we'll let it slide) Daniel in 2nd, Owen in 4th... wait, they are all holding up the wrong fingers! Mel!!! This is not proper documentation.

Did she do that cause Peter doesn't know how to make a K in sign language? Maybe they are all holding up fingers for what year of school this is for them, not the grade. Well, it was cute seeing them run off down the street. Owen and Daniel rode their bikes a lot last year, but said they want to ride the bus with Peter. We'll see how long it lasts. Back inside, Corey was trying to leave for work but K was holding him hostage. But I have suckers in my purse... "Katharine, do you want some candy?" So I discreetly grabbed one as we walked out the door to go look for candy. We walked down the street, Corey was able to drive away, we waved goodbye, then we jumped on a neighbor's trampoline and then I pointed out to Katharine that there was a sucker in the dirt by the flowers! We found candy! Mission accomplished. 

Peter was half day today and is half day for this entire week. On Friday they go "full day" but Friday is a short day so that's fine. Today he got home on the bus at 11:45, I was late getting there, and his friend's mom texted that the bus was there and the boys all wanted to go to Evan's house. So Peter was back from school at 11:45, but wasn't home until 3. After the kids all got home, it was back to reality with the checklist! The side room TV checklist works very well when there was someone around to enforce it. And lucky for all the kids, and for me, right now we have Hyrum here to be the enforcer. It's a task he is enjoying.

He's like the bouncer at a bar, but instead of throwing people out to the street, he will throw them back to their task if it is not completed to his liking. And for FHE, we did a silly drawing activity - we each had a paper folded in thirds. Everyone draw a head... pass it to the middle, everyone take a paper, now draw a middle and arms...

Lastly draw the legs and feet... Don't let anyone see your picture. 

They all got a real laugh out of their creations. A few were quite disturbing. You'll have to zoom in on the drawing Lily is holding. That one wasn't so bad.

The one Hyrum did gave everyone "Spirited Away" nightmare vibes. (I thought that review was funny, and that was the experience we all had. I can't remember where/why we first watched it...) So it was a good first day of school and we're looking forward to getting back in a routine around here. Once our high school reunion is over this weekend I'll really be able to finally relax. It's been kind of a crazy busy summer, but it's "all good things... all good things."

Nursemaid's Elbow & Pictionary

I learned a new term this evening. You can probably guess by the title of this post. New term: Nursemaid's elbow. Other names this condition is known by: Pulled elbow, radial head subluxation, annular ligament displacement, babysitter's elbow.

So Katharine and I were in the backyard after church. I was reading my scriptures on the grass, she was wearing gardening gloves and playing in the dirt in her dress. 10-15 minutes into our outdoor time, she starts to cry and I can tell it's a real cry, a hurt cry. She comes to me, we take off her gloves, she says her arm hurts, she's not dirty so she didn't fall, but she's really crying. I take her into Corey and I'm wondering what happened... Did a wasp sting her? Was there a spider in her glove that bit her? Did she break her arm?!? Like she's really sad and it's definitely her arm that hurts. I can't see a bump from a sting, and it's not swollen like I assume it would be if it was a break or a sprain. The only other thing I can think of from things I saw in the dirt was a small shovel, about 3 feet tall, that maybe she picked up and it was too heavy so it twisted her arm to sprain it? We did not know what was wrong. She asked for a bandaid, and we put a big one on it. She bravely said "It's all better!" and she forced a relieved happy laugh, but then moved her arm and cried cause it actually still hurt. Corey held her and he let her watch Bluey to calm her down. She fell asleep still holding her arm, wincing a few times in her sleep. 

It was sad to see. She was hurting and we didn't know why. So... what do we do? I broke my arm as a kid and I made due for a few days until my parent's figured it out. If it's broken, we'll figure it out, so maybe we just wait until morning and see how she's doing? I woke her up from her nap when it was time for dinner, and she started to cry right away. Corey took her back upstairs and held her as we fed her some garlic chicken and rice. She didn't want any chocolate cake. I look up the Instacare hours - they are open until 9. Debating to take her in or not. Then at 4:59 I sheepishly text our wonderful pediatrician and friend, Jon who we've imposed upon many times (although he's come over here of his own free will too!): "Hi... question, we think Katharine either broke her arm or got a sting by a wasp cause she's crying about her arm but there's no swelling and we can't see anything visibly wrong. If you're around I was wondering if I can bring her by? We're thinking we'll wait it out and if she's still crying about it in the morning we'll taker her to the InstaCare." He texted back at 5:03 "I'm happy to see her, bring her by if you'd like" and with that I carried her to the car, I held her in the back as Mel drove us over, and in their great love for Katharine, Natalie and Daniel both wanted to come too. Jon answers the door, looks at her arm, does a little feeling and gentle movements. He asks if I've heard of nursemaid elbow as he moves it a bit more. K winces briefly but doesn't cry. I'd never heard of it. He sends Molly runs to get a starburst candy. She brings it back, Jon holds it out for K and asks her if she wants it. She reaches for it WITH HER HURT ARM and she's fine after that. It was like some strange magic, the pain was gone and she was all better! Thank you Dr. Jon!! He's a miracle worker. Thank you Molly!

He was amazed that I'm 13 kids in and no one's ever had a pulled elbow. K ate her starburst, still snuggling me. I was trying to put the pieces together in my head - I'm guessing it was the shovel? That maybe she picked it and that made the ligament slips out of place? At home she sat on the stairs, we told Corey what happened. Everyone was happy she was not hurt and crying anymore! "Katharine! Did the doctor fix your arm??" She sweetly said "yeah!" and wiped away the last of the tears on her cheek. And then we gave her chocolate cake. Mel said "I want to be a doctor!" and "Can you imagine just knowing all the possible things that could be wrong with any part of a human body??! Like I can't even remember half of the vocabulary words from my anatomy class..." Yes, it is very impressive, and I'm grateful for him blessing us with his expertise. 

So yay, that was a memorable event from today. Wayne was here as all of that was happening. He came over for dinner, and after she was all better and dinner was over, we played what turned into a pretty intense game of Pictionary (cause board games are always intense around here). Wayne, Mel and Natalie were a team - the Three little pigs (with a pig lego as their game piece). They snorted a few times as their team chant. Hyrum, Daniel, Lily and I were the penguins of madagasar "High one!" was our cheer, along with an occasional slap on the shorts "Hey now!" Abi, Sophi, Owen and Peter were "Ducky" from Toy Story 4. I had to draw blind date, and I was stumped. I was impressed with Natalie's drawing that got the win for them.

Just the bare essentials, quick and to the point! Good job. Whenever it was Peter's turn to draw, Corey had to whisper the word to him to see if he approved. 

He passed on a few that we thought should have been good, like "cow" and "dad". 

He drew fossil though! And did a really good job. Some of the words: magnet, dragon, old, submarine, spaceship, house, pig, nose, neighborhood, shark, frog, Bigfoot, snail, double chin. Goosebumps was a hard one... Daniel was the most upset of all the kids during the game. He took it personally when he couldn't guess a word, like when I drew "numb" - no one was able to guess it, but he was mad at the world. He went from weepy to ripping paper, kicking the table underneath and throwing his head down in despair. We didn't give his rage too much attention. He was also pretty sad if he rolled anything between 1-3. We all had our fair share of 1s, which was hard to take for all of us, cause it really is pretty sad to win a round and then only get to go forward one space. We had two dice, and if I rolled a 1 for example, I'd take it back cause "It was Daniel's turn to roll!" and then he'd roll and it would end up being a low number too. We were accused of cheating, Mel and Natalie tried not to cheat like us and they rolled 1s and 2s, we all got our share of low numbers. Not a lot of 6s. It was neck and neck up to the finish!! Words: Swiss cheese, heart, nun... Pigs landed on the last square!... ahh, stop them!

Ducky and Penguin catching up - soon we were all on the last square and trying to win the final word. We got Stripes but then there was debate as to who said it first, so we did a draw-off. The tie breaker word: Diaper rash. The three little pigs won it. I had no idea what Lily was drawing... it looked like totally inappropriate things.)

And now I'm here blogging, K is in the tub, Wayne and Corey and most of the kids are downstairs watching Apollo 13. SCHOOL STARTS TOMORROW for the little boys. Peter is starting kindergarten. it will just be half day for him this week, then full day starts next week. If it feels like too much for him, I'm going to ask about him going 1/2 day, but we'll see how it goes. If he really likes it, I'm ok for him to stay all day. I plan on catching up on the blog during September, unless K and I decide to just spend our days playing in the dirt or going on rides with her riding shotgun. The world is our oyster. I'm glad she only had nursemaid's elbow and end up needing a cast today!

Backyard Track

I spent a ton of time outside yesterday, and for an hour+ of it I was barefoot digging in the dirt with Katharine. I'm experimenting with "grounding", so figured I'd do silly stuff like this before I buy a grounding mat, pad, or sheets. I also left my phone inside, so I wasn't listening to podcasts and I wasn't getting any notifications or calls - it was just me, my thoughts, and the kids. It was good for my soul. If you've seen Ethan's video "The House" (7:45), you know that if I get inspiration, it can turn into a project. Well, we went to the wedding reception for a friend on Friday night (the Moons) and Mary has put so much work and love into her back yard, it was beautiful. I was definitely inspired as we walked around and tried to take it all in. And it was simple things too, like a bench made out of rock slabs. I loved that so much of it was NATURAL. I came home and started pondering what we could do to make our back yard more inviting for ourselves and for the kids. I brainstormed and made a list of things I'd be interested in: Sandbox, Tree house, Cargo nets, Logs, Bridge, Boulders, Stones, log table, stump stools, Climbing wall, Ninja warrior stuff, Zip lines. Yesterday I went to pinterest and searched "yard natural children" and found a few more ideas that I liked thanks to this link, I added a few: Mud kitchen, Music center - tin can drums, Toy truck quarry, Erosion River (boat races), Endor Forest , Miniature play treehouse, Log step pillars, Natural play space, Wilderness imagination (ropes, climbing) Green tent.

I worked on it a little Monday, raking pine needles (our never ending pine needles...) and walked around a thought. Didn't get too much done before it started to rain, It rained a lot Monday and again yesterday. This morning I started a bike ride up the canyon at 8am after making sure the kids were up and at it for their first day of school. I drove to Lisa falls and did Techy twice, then a climbs up to the ruins, techy again, ruins and techy... for a total of 2 Ruins and Techy 5x. After the rain yesterday it smelled sooo SOOO lovely. Wow, I wish I could capture the smell in a bottle. I wanted to get back up in the mountains again. My bike got a little muddy, so I went in the backyard to hose off my tires, and then I had to finish loading the garbage that I had left there Tues night with pine needles and took that out to the street for garbage day, and then I filled up another bag of needles and hauled that out, and we found a cute little mouse in the process... it was so tiny!

Mel and Daniel wanted to keep it. 

We let it go, hoping that I hadn't disturbed it's habitation too much and that it won't relocate into our home! And one thing led to another and I ended up doing one more thing and "Katharine's poopy" and I change her then take her diaper out to the street and get pulled into the backyard again. Peter was hungry "Ok, just a minute..." and I stayed out there until 1:20! Like I was thirsty after my ride and still hadn't paused to take a drink. I started moving a table to make a quiet secluded corner, and I thought the pinterest idea of a mud kitchen would be fun, so Mel helped me get Lily's broken gate down from a tree - it was a door she had put up there (used to be the gate between us and Felix's, and it was hard to get down, I have no idea how she got it up! But with Mel's help I got that down and then moved some cinder blocks that we still have from Corey's ice rink, and those are the legs of the table. So I was out there digging and hoeing and clipping trees and branches for a few hours, and as I was making a path I somehow got the idea of making a biking track! I was like "well duh! Of course!" and was a little surprised that I was searching for ideas and scratching my head about what to do - this will be perfect! I've wanted to clean up the basement so we could have a track down there like we did 4 years ago, but in the back yard... it can be way bigger back there! And then I kept thinking about it and was like "oh this is gonna be good...) and started hoeing like crazy trying to get the track connected and cleared off enough so I could go call Owen and Daniel to come try it out. My back was hurting and I was tired and thirsty but I kept wanting to just do a little bit more. I got it cleared off enough, hurried in to get O and D, showed them what I had been working on and what the idea was, and then I passed the baton to them cause they took a few laps and saw where it needed work, and Owen went to it! "Trial is closed for work! I'm the worker!"

Daniel waiting for the worker to finish. Ha, Daniel helped too - 

Earlier he was helping a lot when it was just path, they liked the idea I had for a bike trail. 

We were thinking earlier of havign pine needles as our walls and barriers, but hopefully we'll be able to clear those out in garbage bags or at bulk clean up, which I think should be happening next month. Daniel helped me set up the table for "mud kitchen" by the shed, but then I decided I wanted that to be part of the track, so I moved it - 

I like it! Katharine does too.

Her face was so messy from a chocolate chip cookie that she bought from a neighbor for 2cents. Zach came knocking on the door selling cookies for 50 cents, Katharine seriously went and I think found Daniel's pennies and gave him 2 cents and he took it and gave her a cookie. Peter was sad he didn't get such a deal. So K had chocolate on her nose, pb and jelly on her fingers (she likes to slowly finger and lick off all the toppings on her pb&j and leave the bread for the trash) and she was walking around barefoot, so I did too (my feet got totally dirty in flip flops anyway). Owen had dug a "mine" for minecraft but it was where the track was going to be. He said "I worked so hard on that..." and he did, but he was willing to let it go for the track. I have a vision of it being a dip before a jump/climb over a rock, but we'll have to wait for things to smooth out and get packed down. Today Owen's mining hole was a slide for Katharine. She called it "my slide!" and "my hole!" 

We both had a good time. We were out there again from 2-6, until I had to come in and make dinner. I washed my feet and started dinner prep, K sat at the counter eating, then she started to fall asleep, but she was so dirty... I didn't have the heart to wake her to give her a bath, so I laid her down on my floor with her dirty pants and feet...

And she threw dirt in her hair too, of course. She was not happy when we woke her and put her in the but. The boys weren't outside with us, I was hoping they were not watching a movie in my room. I came in and my room was locked, yay, so where are they? The house was so quiet... I found Owen and Peter both asleep in their beds! 

I guess working outside wears kids out! I woke them for dinner too, Mel was the bad guy and woke K for a bath, dinner was rice salmon teriyaki bowls tonight. We're out of bread again, I think I'm going to do more rice... After Corey got home and ate his dinner, the kids called for him to come outside and showed him the track. Mel got everyone to working on it some more and we tried to clear out weeds around the playground. Owen wants us to get woodchips for the ground there. That is a good idea buddy. There are 100+ things we can and should do to improve the yard. We'll put that on the list and will see what we can do. Corey watched them do loops and thought Peter's challenge with "the hill" was pretty funny. He'd come up to it, like it's an elevation of maybe 12 inches and he'd grunt "uhhh!!!" Cute boy. I thought the boys did great taking the corners around the trees. I bet I could do it with a smaller bike, but as it is, mine is too big. It's like biking through a door frame. Possible, but a little too tight to do quickly, so I kinda walk it between the trees and around the corners. It's fun though, I think it's going to be a good thing. I'm just kicking myself that we didn't do this until the last week of summer break! They could have been busy with it all summer. But it got us going and maybe we'll be thinking up improvements over the winter and then will get excited to get out in the spring and summer next year.