Tabernacle Concert

Tonight I went down to see Abi in a Lyceum concert. From the Lyceum website, this concert was titled: Youth Inspiring Youth ~ "This fun and inspiring concert offers an exclusive preview of music from our upcoming Lyceum album. Hear lush new arrangements from the new hymnbook, epic expansions of beloved favorites, and masterworks by Beethoven, The Beatles, and more! The combined Lyceum Philharmonic and Symphony join forces with the Institute Choirs of SLCC, UVU, and Utah, creating an orchestra and chorus of over 500 youth in a moving expression of musical testimony, talent, and tribute to our nation."

It was at the Tabernacle, and was free, which means we just saved atleast $70 bucks with the 7 of us in attendance. I went down with Owen Daniel Peter and Katharine. As I was getting ready to leave, Mel texted asking if she and Christian could come by, and I said the littles and I were going downtown, so they joined us and met us down there. They got there first, so when I arrived I called Mel and she came out to get the kids, then I went to park the car. I refused to pay $13 for parking, so I went a bit far away and was thus a little late joining them but it was all good cause the kids were in capable hands. (Savings for the evening now $83!) 

A few times I was impressed with myself and my ability to focus and be touched by the music despite the kids being a bit noisy and restless. (Katharine wanted to climb the column next to me. I hope they weren't too distracting or irritating to the people behind us!) The first song that made me tear up was My Country 'Tis of Thee ~ I loved how the organ was lit up to go with the song they were performing!

With all the chaos that seems to be happening in our country (from what I've read in the news, nothing I've personally seen yet) I felt a lot of hope being in the tabernacle with a huge crowd to know that there is a group of people in the USA that is looking for a king, and that king is JESUS CHRIST and him alone. He died so that we could have agency to act freely and learn from our mistakes as we exercise our freedom. Let freedom ring! Thank God for our freedom and for Christ saving us from all the mistakes and sins we commit as we exercise our agency. He's prepared a way for us to learn and be forgiven, I'm so grateful! And then they sang a beautiful rendition of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" with images of stars and galaxies on the tabernacle ceiling - it was powerful! I wrote down some of the lyrics that stood out to me as the choir sang ~ "Now let us rejoice, Comfort this sweet sentence gives, HE LIVES, He lives to silence all my fears, to calm my troubled heart" (again thinking of the risky financial situation we are still in personally, which feels a little scarier with the mess our country is in with the current president who has no guiding moral principles (I'm not liberal, but I'm definitely a "Never Trump"-er)

So I loved that one and it strengthened my knowledge once again that Christ is in control. Nathan Pacheco performed "Don't Cry" and then did "Forever" which is one of my faVoRiTes!!! (When "Forever" started, Peter said "This is a Cars song" which Katharine heard and corrected him "This is a Sleeping Beauty song..." haha cute kids). Nathan Pacheco said "We've all got things that we're up against, but Christ has overcome all of those things" Similar to another concert of his that we attended, at this one the audience sang with him "We sing hallelujah, we sing hallelujah, we sing hallelujah, the Lamb has overcome!" over and over again. The Lamb has overcome! He has ALREADY overcome all things! Every sin and problem to ever happen on this earth, he has overcome it! At the end, with images of clouds behind the organ, he sang "I Believe in Christ" 

Actually it might not have been the clouds during that song, but it set the stage for it, and it felt heavenly. I remember last time I heard Nathan Pacheco sing "I Believe in Christ" at the tabernacle, and just like that time, I loved hearing it as a solo! It is really a song that is bearing a strong personal testimony! 

So, that was wonderful, and I plan to go to the next free Lyceum concert. Good job Abi!

I was also thinking of all the work that goes into productions like that - years of practicing for each of those musicians, not to mention the time they put in just today.... Abi got up at 8, left home at 9 for downtown where they were doing a recording, then a brief lunch, then a few more hours of recording, then a rehearsal for the concert tonight, then the concert. It was an all day event for each of those musicians. We had one stressful moment at 1pm - she got locked out of the car somehow, but the car was still on (not running, but the power was left on...) she had the key in her hand, but the fob wasn't working to unlock it, and the manual key that she got out from inside the fob it wasn't working either. She had to be inside for the recording, so Corey and I drove down so we could try to open it and stay to wait for a locksmith, if needed. (I thought Corey and I were both going to go out to eat since we missed date night last night.) As soon as we got there, Corey got the manual key from the van key that we brought, and it opened the car right away. "Just what I thought would happen..." Corey said with a sigh. 

I said "It's ok! This is good! This is the best case scenario! We don't need to get a locksmith! We just saved $100 bucks!!" (Daily total $183!) We tried again with the key Abi had been trying with, and it did NOT work. Hmm, that was when we discovered why: she had the manual key for Corey's car! Yep, it worked on Corey's car, and the manual key that was in Corey's fob worked on the van. Somehow and sometime someone switched them, so hooray - mystery solved, we switched them back, and we saved $100 bucks for not having to get a locksmith, woo!

After resolving the locked out of the car situation, we took both cars home. I didn't know we were doing that. Corey "Why did you think we both came?" "Cause we were going out to eat?" Tomorrow is fast Sunday, and since we missed date night last night, I had said earlier that we should go out to eat for lunch and then start our fast. But instead we drove home. I called him as we drove, thinking we could swing by Beaumont Cafe or Aubergine, but he didn't answer. He called me back 10 min later, but we were past the exits we would have needed to take. We went home, then went down to Vessel Kitchen for a quick lunch. Then home, didn't do much cleaning or anything productive today, despite my thinking it would be a good work day. Corey and I went climbing (toprope) at 9am. The kids fed themselves breakfasts of Halloween candy. I'm not doing great at breakfast lately, esp today with Halloween sugar overload lingering. It will probably be gone by tonight. 

Daniel slept in his clothes... that he wore to school and trick or treating. Egh, I'm not doing great at giving the boys baths or having them wear pjs to bed, or washing their sheets, it's all just dirty, gross. What else - So Abi was gone all day, Lily cleaned her room all day, Sophi had a sleepover last night (after weeks of negotiation) and she got home at 1 and then slept until 5 - so yay, two days wasted on that sleepover (not likely to happen again!). Natalie is sick with a fever and headache and has been sleeping all day. Owen was his usual amazing diligent self, getting his stuff done then going to play. Boys jumped on the trampoline, and then watched a fair share of DVDs as well. Katharine has learned how to turn them on in our room. I might move that tv somewhere else. 

I went to Costco with a strict budget of $300, and we knew going in that almost half of it would be going toward renewing our membership. I did an awesome job, gave myself a "PR". Corey and I are going to go over finances together tomorrow, for the first time probably ever? I did the budgeting for most things through Sept 2020, then stopped in Oct 2020 and Corey's been doing almost all of it since then. I still do utilities and trumpet and violin lessons. Maybe us working together on a budget and financial planning has been what the Lord has been waiting on for all these years. Fingers crossed and hands praying that as we do work on it together that things will go better. I made a short grocery list before going to Costco, and added up each thing as I put it in the cart, but I got a little sloppy at the end with my adding items, thus had to leave 3 things at the check out cause they put me over (sorry mayo, bread and protein powder! Maybe next week). I'm excited about my new favorite meal: sweet potatoes, avocado, kimchi lately, with the almond dip, (which we call B sauce, or itchy sauce) - it's good! Looking forward to eating that tomorrow when I end my fast. I spent $298.69, a personal best, yay. Maybe if we are good stewards over every dime, God will entrust us with a couple million dollars and we'll put it to good use, counting and budgeting to the penny! Ok, well busy day. Looking forward to a day of rest tomorrow, and yay for the end of daylight saving time. 

Chill Halloween

Happy Halloween from the Wrides. This has been a pretty chill Halloween, so it was just right. I'm glad we survived it and it wasn't too painful. We didn't get too much candy - I didn't get the Costco bag, just one at Smiths, and we ran out at the end and I had to steal some from the kids to refill, but it was ok and I'm glad we didn't overbuy. We also didn't go shop for any more costumes, which is good cause we have 4 huge bins of costumes. I feel like October passed quickly, which I am grateful for. We kept ourselves busy with fall bike rides, and it didn't seem like the whole haunted scary part wasn't overbearing. Corey and I went on a ride around 2:30 so that worked out perfect. 

The kids gave themselves extra time today to get their costumes on. Abi was a crunchy teen and said she wore less makeup than usual. Lily = Minion, Sophi = Ninja Turtle, Natalie = Adam Sandler, Owen = Spider Man, Daniel = Zombie. Daniel made his own costume but woke up early to finish it - cutting up his pants a little more and and painting the shirt with some blood. 

Ready to go to school at 8:30 - Peter's awake now - he's a cowboy with a sachel.

When I woke up at 6:30, Owen was downstair reading and had been for thirty minutes. I tell ya, he's a different kind of kid! I'm impressed by him everyday for his work schedule.

Before the ride, I was trying on a few things - I had a Mario Suit (so I could ride my bike and be Mario Kart!) or a Zoot suit, Wesley's India outfit on the bed and tried it on. It's pretty cool, I would have worn it if I was a guy and/or taller. I was a bit too short. It fit Abi pretty well. 

Abi left when we were almost back from our ride, and she took took Sophi and Natalie out to friends' houses. Abi worked on her BYU essays tonight then was planning to go to a party after that. So it was just us and the little kids. We did pizza at the Felix's (Corey took kids over) and I passed out candy and set up the Bose outside and turned on Michael Jackson music. I ended up being a Smooth Criminal tonight. 

Lily wins the make-up award. She made herself into a skeleton again - the third time this week.

Katharine didn't dress up at all, but that's ok, cause she didn't hardly trick or treat either.

She put on her shiny shoes, walked downstairs on one side of the street, then came back on the other side, and that was it, and that was ok with me. Daniel and Peter finished pretty early too (Corey kept track of them via his bike). After Daniel was done, I let him use my jacket and hat to pretend to be a mannequin scaring people.  

He said he scared a lot of people.

We let Owen just run loose - he was out with his friend and was gone the longest, and came back with the most candy. 

Ethan and Bella sent us a pic of their costumes - so cute! Alvin and the Chipmunks!

And Mel and Christian's costumes make me laugh the hardest - soo funny!

I just got back from picking up Natalie, time for bed. It was a good Halloween. I'm glad it was on a Friday, that works out really well. I had fun dancing to Thriller and Smooth Criminal, I might need to have my kids see those MJ videos so they know some music history. 

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. 

Hibbert Gathering

This morning we attended my old church congregation in the Butler 11th ward to hear my parents speak in sacrament meeting. They were reporting on their service mission that they just finished in August. They have been servin g in a downtown ward in SL for the past 5 years. It felt like home in the chapel. Peter sat left of me and put his head on my arm to rest, which I remember doing when I was a kid sitting next to my dad. My Utah siblings came too. I saw some familiar faces from my childhood - some of the parents of my friends are still living there. It was nice to see them but I didn't catch anyone to visit after. There were not a lot of kids there, aside from us Hibberts. They recently combined wards in the stake, like we did in our neighborhood. So yeah, there were lots of old timers and not too many young families. I guess young families live in new development areas? Or it's cause the city is more expensive for not as much house. Anyway, it was good to be there. We came to our house afterwards to visit. Neil and Amy provided most of the lunch feast. I did a veggie tray with hummus and some fruit (plums). Beka brought cookies. 

Sitting around the table to visit!

Corey made tapioca, one of his signature dishes. 

Corey cooking tapioca isn't something I've ever documented, so I was grateful my sister Beka sent me that photo. We also got a photo of my dad holding Alvie - 

(I love how my dad loves to hold the babies.) 

We tried to recreate a photo from my old scrapbooks of my dad holding Ethan in 2002, aww! I remember that cute baby!

We tried to get Alvie to hold his tie, but he wouldn't look at him, cause he wanted to eat it. I guess he needed a binky. So we called it close enough with this one.

My kids were excited to show off their new reading / play area in the kitchen, haha. 

Auntie Mel and Auntie Abi loving on Alvie.

We visited for like 2 hours, then people headed home. Mel stayed over last night, and we put her friend Christian up in the basement. They stayed and hung out for the rest of the evening. We started a game of Pictionary, but we all kept rolling 1s and 2s on our turns, so then we decided to just use 1/3 of the board. It had ripped years ago, so that was convenient.

Little Peter there - he's got a bump on his head from his fall last night but is doing ok considering. He just can't run or jump cause that makes it hurt. I'm glad they have another day of fall break tomorrow to give it a chance to heal more, so he'll be ready for recess at school. 

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.