Ice Cream at Macey's

Sometime in the previous decade (2010 - 2020) I would listen to the BYU Devotionals quite frequently. They were then, and still are, on BYU tv at 11 am. I recently set an alarm to begin listening to them again. Today was a forum with Catherine Ruth Pakaluk. So so good. She got a well deserved standing ovation. One of my favorite quotes from it: "I would always choose another child." Another one I wrote down was her saying that the women she interviewed said that children are "the purpose of their lives and the meaning of their marriages". I totally agree. I'm so grateful to be a mother, to have had 13 beautiful children born to me. I recognize that God has been super generous with us. I'd happily take a few dozen more if I could. I love spending time with them, making sacrifices for them, and sharing life with them. My kids give joy to my heart and purpose to my life. I took cute Katharine on a bike ride in the trailer this afternoon. We went down to Macey's to get an ice cream. Cute little girls in her helmet. We parked the bike then went inside.

When the guy started the ice cream, it was all soft and watery - probably from not having served any ice cream for a few hours or at all yet today? He apologized and asked if it was ok for him to put it in a cup. I'm assuming in case the cone got too soggy too quickly. He set the cone aside, then he got a large clear cut and took it to the ice cream machine where he filled it almost all the way to the top! Then he put the cone, which already had ice cream, on top of that. Wow. Katharine you hit the jackpot! I took the cone and let K have the big cup. 

That's a bit too much ice cream for a 3 year old... I'm sure she'll be disappointed next time we come here, cause her serving probably won't be that big ever again. I hope she'll be ok with that. 

So after getting that huge serving of ice cream, I assumed she'd be content for a while. Hence, I decided I could take my time going back home. I also wasn't too keen on the idea of going up the steep hill, so I went south and through the neighborhoods. I found a small dirt trail that ended with big cement blocks and a chain preventing my passing. A nice man saw me in my predicament and came and helped me lift K in the trailer up and over the chain. (Thank you kind sir!) After that I slowly worked my way up the ridge. I called back to Kathrine to check on her a few times, she was quiet. I stopped and lifted up the screen to see her head was bobbing forward, she was asleep, and her cup of ice cream was tipped over and she was using it as an arm rest. Yay. I was pretty sure she hadn't finished it, so... I was going to have a mess to clean up. I told myself it was ok cause maybe the blanket caught most of it? Easy cause I can just throw that in the washing machine. We were almost home when she woke up, and I heard her crying "Someone ate my ice cream! Waaah!" I pulled into the backyard, parked the bike, surveyed the mess. I had: one empty cup of ice cream...

One sad little girl...

And a mess of ice cream that was not contained in the blanket, but had spilled on the red blanket, and the pink blanket, and all over the seat of the trailer, and most of it was on K's pajamas. Her "Belle" nightgown was soaked. Why did she think someone ate her ice cream? Did she not notice something wet and cold on all over her hip and bottom? Cute sad little girl.

I carefully picked her up, feet forward and upside down, so the ice cream would run down her leg and not drip onto the carpet, and I carried her up to the tub. Natalie took over from there. 

The right half of K's underwear was soaked with chocolate ice cream, but cause of it's location we imagined it was #2. What a mess. A typical ending to an outing with kids. It was good "type 2 fun" which means it's fun and funny after the fact, lol. This was also tolerable in the moment, cause I'm used to moments like this! It's all good childhood memories.

Fall Break Read-a-thon

Today is the final day of Fall break for the boys. Daniel and Peter did some reading in the pantry, lol, and Owen did 2 hours of reading along as he listened to Audible.

The boys all did a lot of reading this past weekend, it's been like a fall break read a thon. Last Thursday, I told the boys that they could go play at the church, cause I needed to go update the board in the Relief Society room anyway. Well, I kept putting off. We didn't go on Thursday, didn't go Friday, then I got in over my head with the mess in the kitchen on Saturday. I eventually did go at 9:30 pm Saturday night. Daniel and Peter came with me, but that didn't give them enough time to play. I told them that we would go again Monday/today, which we did. Owen also brought his friend Afton, who knocked on the door right as we were heading to the car. The kids played at the church while I worked on the RS board some more. I didn't need to get back home, and I brought my computer, so I tried to blog after I was done with the church stuff. That didn't work well though, cause I kept getting interrupted. After two hours, they were hungry so we came back home. After the girls got home from school, I went on a ride to the ruins. I enjoy the mountains.

It was a bit cold though. Note to self: if it's 45 degrees or less, get toe warmers. Corey stayed at his dad's and worked late, and also told me to not spend $ tonight, so our original plan for this last FHE before Halloween, which was going to be buying then carving pumpkins, was scratched. Natalie started to cry. I'm not sure why she took it so hard.

I did have some chocolate chips and pumpkin puree on hand, so I gave those to her and she was able make pumpkin cookies. 

She's becoming quite the baker and getting lots of experience with different recipe's under her belt. I told the kids that we'll go to the trunk or treat in my parent's neighborhood, that we heard about yesterday when we were at their ward, so that is Thursday and will be a FHE extension. Then they watched the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie on the ipad, cause the remote to connect to the tv wasn't working or something.

Do you like Lily's make up there? She was being creative this evening and made herself become a skeleton.

I was impressed with the neck and stuff! It was all very bone-like Lily! Good job. 

Reading "Room"

I was looking forward to the weekend with our first Saturday without soccer games. We have so much time to do whatever we want! I slept in with K, watched the sunrise from our bedroom, the clouds were SO pink - it would have been amazing to be outside, but I enjoyed snuggling with K and being lazy. Corey and I didn't go climbing, cause we went last night. Kids started to wake up. Daniel had breakfast then came to me and said "What should we deep clean today?" Music to a mother's ears. I had my eye on the kitchen pantry. I thought we'd clean it out and get it organized. We started at the top. Daniel got up and gave me everything, and he started to wipe it down while I started to clear out the second shelf. I kept working, he cleaned and dried, and then he thought it would be a nice quiet place to read a book. He'd already done enough work to count for his chore, so I gave him his book so I could get his reading done. I continued to clear out everything and wipe it down. Daniel was still reading.

Pantry is clean! Kitchen counters and table were NOT.

Peter joined Daniel - more blankets and pillows, they were having fun in the background. I created a mess for myself...

I hadn't planned on working on the kitchen for 6 hours, but that's what ended up happening. Corey took NODPK to the community fall festival, they had donuts and balloon animals. Waiting for balloons.

K eating the frosting off of her donut.

Photo with the scarecrow.

Playing at the playground.

I stayed home and worked on the kitchen. It still looked like a mess when they got back at 3:45.

I paused my cleaning efforts at 4:45, even though I wasn't done, and went to the temple for initiatories at 5:30. I took Corey's car and brough along my bike and did a quick ride up Clarks. I started my ride at 6:23 pm, only 10 min before sunset, which was too late. I had wanted to do Anns but I knew there wouldn't be enough daylight for that. I got my 3rd best time for the climb up Clarks. It was hard to see and I didn't take rush the end. I also forgot my biking pants, so I was just in my padded shorts, I was cautious not to fall, I would have hated to get road rash on my legs. Oh, I also forgot to take my keys with me on my ride! Luckily they were in the car and I didn't manually lock it, AND no one stole the car. So, I got home and Mel and Christian were there and are staying the night (basement is also a wreck...) They helped me a little bit with figuring out where to put stuff and getting things back in order a little. The two of them also went through my spices and threw out expired stuff. The food that used to be in there is mostly in the garage cupboards. 

We made a place for Christian to sleep in the basement. Tonight we discovered that the kids broke the air mattress, probably from jumping on it. It has a hole. So he's on a twin. Abi doesn't like the new arrangement. But I'm not saying it will stay like this forever. Prob for atleast a month though. ...or earlier if the kids lose interest in the pantry reading room. Right now they think it's pretty dope.

Oh, Owen read a ton today too. He didn't read in the pantry. He read on couches and on the trampoline. 

He read FIVE HOURS today and finished Lions and Liars! He started City Spies and is going to work on that Monday when they have another day off from school. He's become a machine, we'll hope he keeps it up! One other thing I thought was funny was when the three little kids (DPK) were in the former food pantry, and they wanted the door closed, and I just hear this muffled talking and I thought "This is great! They are quiet, they are contained, and I can get stuff done!" Lately K doesn't want me to go up or downstairs without her cause she says "I'll get lost!" so this could work if she has an area that's quiet and I might be able to sit and get computer work done, knock on wood. I got back from the temple and my ride and we read scriptures, and I said I hadn't seen Katharine... "Oh, she's asleep in the pantry..." 

I took her out and put her on the floor in our room. She moves around too much, she'd fall off of there. I am letting Daniel and Peter sleep in there though. Peter on the 3rd shelf up, Daniel on the 2nd. 

Funny kids (and strange parents probably if we're allowing this...) Corey share a good though at scriptures tonight about D&C 123:16 & 17 - There is a connection between those two verses. Cheerfulness and optimism is key.

Optimism is the helm that benefits the entire ship. We have to stay optimistic and cheerful. There are reasons to fear, but we will cheerfully do all that we can, and then stand still and watch the Lord work his miracles for us.

Update - 12:30 am - Mel and I have been up here talking as I folded laundry, and then we heard a big crash then a cry. Peter fell off the freaking 3rd shelf onto the floor!!! I feel so sorry for him! And I feel stupid I let him sleep up there. I gave him a bath to wake him up cause he was just crying and confused. He asked "Where was I sleeping???" You were in the pantry! Corey just gave him a blessing and he's laying on the couch in our room now, poor kid. 

More Cleaning

Daniel was still a cleaning machine today. He practiced and read, then asked me what we should deep clean. I thought the fridge or pantry. He said the lights. So we did the lights - the chandelier over the kitchen table. 

There were a fair share of deceased elm seed bugs in the lights. Our home isn't totally infested, like it was in 2020 when they we often found them hanging out in groups on the ceiling, but I still find a couple every day or two, stupid bugs. So now it the kitchen, like the kids' bathroom, looks clean and bright! So Daniel got me going cleaning. We took off the glass lights, changed a few light bulbs, wiped the glass down, and dusted and wiped the fixture. Then Daniel was done, but I kept going. He went to see if friends could play, but then was back home and commanded me to not clean without him. I said he had inspired me again and I couldn't stop! He helped me a bit more, and we cleaned under and above the microwave now. That looks really nice now!

Oh, and yes Daniel is wearing the same clothes from yesterday. He slept in them. That's another area of improvement that we need to work on. I'll take advantage of his desire to clean while he's got it over this "fall break". Daniel's cleaning and Owen's reading a lot. He is in a group at school called "Book Blitz" and there are like 10 titles that he has to read before the end of the year. The first two need to be done by Nov 1st, so I encouraged him to get as much done as he can this weekend while he has the time. He read quite a bit of Lions and Liars. Did some reading outside...

and some inside on the couch with a little bit of help from x1.35 speed on Audible. He did great, read for 2 hours, then went to Cornbelly's with his friend Liam around 4. 

That was very nice of them to treat him to some festive fall fun. 

Corey and I went to Aubergine tonight for out date, then went to the Sandy Momentum. We usually don't go to that one, so we thought we'd try it. When we got there, we found that they were having a Halloween party. People were in costumes, there were glowsticks, flashing lights, headlamps, and a dj (music was a bit loud... I could have done without that). 

It was a new experience to climb with headlamps. A little trickier, but we got the hang of it. It was fun.

Lily Sophi and Natalie are watching a movie at Jane's house, Abi is with friends, they have Monster Mash tomorrow. 

Deep Cleaning

It is fall break for the elementary boys, so they've been doing a good job and getting their chores and practicing done right away so they can go play with friends. Daniel, in particular, has done an over the top job. Yesterday I asked him to clean the bathroom. We cleared off the counter, wiped the sinks, then we noticed the beyond dusty lights. They were covered in dust. The bathroom was "clean" but we were going to do some "deep cleaning" now, which is cleaning things that don't need to be done daily, and that you sometimes don't notice, but over time they get dirty. We took them apart and washed them off. They were going to need new lightbulbs too, but I only had soft white, and we wanted daylight bulbs in here, so we'd run to get those at the store after we were done. 

Daniel really enjoyed seeing the difference. "I LOVE deep cleaning!" He said he wants to do deep cleaning for his household job everyday. That sounds great to me. This kid felt so much joy and satisfaction in this chore, that he even declared that he wants to be a maid when he grows up. That made me laugh, and I told him to probably have a different career, but that his wife, I'm sure, would love him to deep clean around the house. He said he would be my deep cleaning helper from now. Daniel has a pass to get one free ice cream cone at Maceys every week for a year (something he won at an ice cream eating contest during the macey's mascot's birthday party a few weeks ago) so we went for ice cream after we finished chores. Owen was off with friends, so it was me and DPK. 

Ice cream at Macey's - check. But they didn't have light bulbs. So we went to Home Depot next door.

The lightbulbs there seemed crazy expensive... yikes. $18 bucks? For a couple of lightbulbs? Is this thanks to Trump's tariffs? or just cause Home Depot is overpriced? I decided we'd go to Walmart. I did find some there - the walmart generic brand were 9 bulbs for $13. That was better. Back at home, Owen came back to babysit at 2 (we put on a movie for them) while Corey and I went on a ride to the ruins. The girls were on their way home, but we had to go earlier to be back in time before I had to take Owen to trumpet at 4:30. We pushed hard, and I had a goal to make it to the ruins before an hour, and we crushed it! We were at the top in 56:29. That's a killer new record! Previous time was 1:00:30, and the time before that I think was an hour and 2 min. Go team.   

At Owen's lesson, he looked a little pale and said yes, he was feeling weird. I could tell he was light headed so we had him to sit down and get his strength back. He started feeling queasy, I learned on the drive home, a couple of hours earlier after we showed him the video about John O'Leary, after Owen told us he and his friend Liam had been playing with fire at Liam's house - burning leaves in his garage. That made me think of O'Leary, who we learned about two years ago. He was burned when he was a young fun curious boy like Owen. Seeing the photograph at the :45 second mark stuck with Owen, so that's why he felt like fainting. Good to know that blood or gory stuff might make him faint. Fainting at blood runs on the Hibbert side, so yeah, it's good to find out who it affects. This is our first time knowing Owen has a tendency to faint. 

Pumpkin Popcorn Balls

We had a fun FHE activity tonight. I know FHE is supposed to be more than a game and treat, and we'll get there to having more spiritual stuff, but for today, I went to the store to figure out what the sugar fix would be. I was walking around Smiths trying to think what would be good. Root beer? That would be simple... I like sushi, but no, cause then I'd be sad to not eat any, and I had already brushed my teeth and was done eating for the day. I hadn't planned ahead enough to do candy corn jello. Do we do a repeat of one of the previous years and decorate donuts or make oreo spiders? We'll be carving pumpkins next  week, and I googled on my pone and saw - popcorn balls! I remember making carmel popcorn as a kid, so I can create that moment for my kids. This would be fun! I have a popcorn popper so we're half way there. I got popcorn kernels, and looked up a recipe. I thought these looked cute, but I couldn't bring myself to buy corn syrup. I also didn't want to buy tootsie rolls, but I didn't want licorice. This recipe looked easier with marshmallows, fewer ingredients, ok yeah that works. So I got marshmallows and candy corn, I couldn't find peanuts, so I bought pretzels to add to the mix. Then I saw big pretzels, yay, we did that instead of the tootsie rolls. Got home, got out the big bowls, lets do this! We popped the corn, and that was fun and magical to watch. We did 2 cups of kernels, which made like 6 cups of popcorn. We threw in candy corn, pretzel bits, and then melted some butter, marshmallows, and food coloring. 

They put some oil on their hands and started to form their pumpkin balls. 

We went to the table and played a few rounds of Yahtzee while kids ate their popcorn balls. Peter made a good pumpkin. Daniel loaded his up with extra marshmallows.

They are both saving their balls to take to school tomorrow for their snacks. Natalie and Owen with their balls. Natalie was generous with the green frosting vines.

Lily Katharine and Sophi, and my pumpkin there too! (An orange bell pepper).

I'll eat mine tomorrow. Abi ate hers tonight. 

Other things from today - the kids set up the trampoline that Wayne gave us. Now there are two, and it's a hit with boys and their friends. 

The girls are home for their last day of fall break, so Corey and I were able to go do toprope during the day. 10:44 am at Ft Union, then I also took a hike up the canyon at 1:30. I explored a new spot with a lot of rocks, and that was fun. I'd like to take the boys up there, I bet they'd love climbing all over it. 

There are still some bright fall colors. 

It was a good day.

BYU vs Utah

It is 7pm on Saturday night. Corey took all the kids with him over to his dad's house to watch the BYU vs. Utah football game tonight, which is starting about now. Oh wait, it must have started at 6, cause it's the 2nd quarter right now (BYU winning 7-0). Go cougs, I hope they win. The kids all got dressed up for it. 

Katharine did not want to put on her Elsa dress, so she'll be reppin' the U of U tonight, just so we can save face if BYU loses.

I'm here going to try to blog for the next 3 hours and see how far I can get caught up. 

Well, now it's 11pm. We're back at home, and... BYU won! 24 to 21! I saw the last bit of the game cause I ended up going over there to help drive people home. Wayne wanted to give us his trampoline, so Natalie loaded that up in the van, so there wasn't enough room for the kids now. So I got 4 posts done, yay, and I'm glad I was glad to go and see the end of the game, especially cause BYU won! We were also glad the U got another touchdown there at the end. Abi was confused at what was happening when BYU wasn't throwing the ball and was just taking a knee to run down the clock. But when it was over and we won, she was ok with that. 

Ethan enjoying the game down in Provo from their apartment. 

We love you ALVIE!!!! 

Let's see, real quick... what else did we do today - Owen and Peter had their last soccer games. They were both at 10:15. Corey and I went climbing at 8. We feel a little silly that we climb so much but are still getting rental shoes instead of having our own. Corey said "We should probably get our own shoes..." I asked "Should we get harnesses too? and ropes? belay devices?" Then he said "We should get our own mountain..." ha, I thought that was funny. We were done in time to take the boys to their games. We got home in Corey's car and I turned right around and took Owen to his game, and Corey took Peter in the van (nice of him to let me use his car). Sophi went to watch Peter's game. Abi went to do work for my mom. Natalie and Lily watched kids at home. Mel and Christian came to watch Owen's game, which was very nice of them. Mel and Christian came and hung out with us at home. Christian played Little People princesses with Katharine. He's a great guy. This one time he was here, and I had my hands full, and I asked him to put Katharine's shoes on her. She was sitting on the bottom step and had him putting her shoes on her like prince charming, and she had such a pleased smile, it was cute. I didn't see her face as they played tonight, but I'm sure it was the same. He makes all of Mel's younger siblings feel special (and he brings them candy!)