Owen in Idaho

Owen is having fun in Idaho. Hyrum took him around the Rexburg campus today. 

Owen might be a future BYU Cougar.

They went to Yellowstone on Monday, and have been having fun since then doing other college things, like making a lego set. They had some big "event" tonight that we joined in over zoom. The event was to unveil their ship and to have a ceremony for the final piece placement on the Lego Venator Class Republic Attack Cruiser. 

They were handing out this invitations to everyone and anyone, like even the person at the copy place that printed the flyer for them. They said they had 40 people there. 

I joined by zoom (I was a little late), along with Abi and her friends, we couldn't hear well and didn't really get what was going on...

They said there was at time laps video but that's about when we left - we had to get kids to bed. But Hyrum filled us in on Wride Nation saying that Owen placed the final piece to a round of applause. Now it is proudly displayed in the front room of Apartment 109. They really like how cool it looks with the lights on the ship!

Natalie on her jr high instagram page - they had a petting zoo.

Bulk clean up was hauled away this morning. We got 5 more bags out before they came. Total was 33! Wow. Grant and Stephanie called today and shared an idea that I liked - Grant is coming out for Neil's son's wedding next week (June 6) and Edmund is coming with him, and Edmund is going to stay with us for a month until they come back out July 4th for some family reunions. That will be fun! The boys are excited to have cousin Edmund here. 

And last pics for today are when I went on a wander hike along the creek this afternoon. I brought a pen and paper and wrote down ideas for my summer chore system. And I dug up and brought back 3 baby trees and planted them in the back yard, hehe. I loved being in the mountains. I was on the south side of the creek.

Heaven. 

then to the gym for sauna and swim. Thanks to Abi for watching Katharine for me. 

Ready for Bulk Clean Up

The bulk clean up was supposed to come today, but it didn't, so we worked this evening bagging more needles and getting up as much as we could. 

Sadly I did not have Wes here to help. Corey, Sophi and Natalie came through for me. We got a lot put out there! Tonight we worked more. 

The little boys weren't much help - they kept getting distracted by the sports balls and/or the snails and rollie pollies

(Daniel's was BLUE!)

So I was chopping down Chinese elms this evening with my new axe that I got yesterday yay... 

Corey snapped that pic of me in my new happy place as he took the kids swimming. It's a lot of work! (They said the pool was very crowded.) I got a few cleared out from the playground area in the back yard and started to haul them into the front yard. I started grabbing other loose branches from here and there, and that is when I discovered my "would have been blooming so beautifully so soon" rose bushes that Wesley cut out on May 12th, exactly two weeks ago. 

All dried up, dead, their beautiful potential - gone. Such strong branches but there's no life in them. I was mourning them all over again as I drug them out one by one to the street. SOO SAD and pointless!!! Ahhh, I wish I could go back in time. 

When Katharine woke up this morning she straight away asked me if she could go to Bella's house, cause last night at Alvie's party she asked if she could, and I said something to the effect of "not today, but later you can" and this morning was "later" so she wanted to go to Bella's. I said I didn't have a car. She was sad and started to whine that she really wants to go to Bella's! I send her a text asking if we could do a facetime today and that appeased Katharine to do a call. Then I thought I'd text the same thing to Eliza. She and Joseph were on our mind because today Joseph took his big deal Step 1 test. I was at the temple in the celestial room praying for him when he was just beginning it (5:30 am Utah time, 7:30 Ohio). Yesterday we chatted with Joseph, he said his test started at 7 and was like a 7 hour test, woo! So today it was time for us to really try and consecrate our prayers. So I texted Eliza to see if Mary was available, and she had just woken up from a nap, yay so Katharine was able to talk to Mary. "Awww! Mary is so cute!" 

I haven't been very happy with my sourdough lately - it's been too flat. I "researched" on youtube for a bit. This one lady said to get like 2 Tbsp of starter and then do a 1:5:5 ratio of flour and water, wait for that to activate, and then make your bread from that. Lily and I usually feed our starter after we make bread, so this would be a new approach. Hmmm, I think I'll try it. I'm still figuring it out.

I did have a ok loaf that I gave to a lady that Kathy and I went to visit for Relief Society today. We stayed there for 2 hours yaking it up! It was fun. We talked about everything under the sun, including fasting. The lady we visited, Kim, gave me some LMNT Electrolytes and said she takes them when she fasts, and that a 7 day fast every year will guarantee you don't die from cancer (according to one guy she listens to). I hadn't eaten yet that day, and so with the electrolytes she gave me in hand, I decided I'd start now. So I did a water fast all day today and it's been a good day!

Owen is playing legos up in Idaho and having fun

They are building a big lego set and watching star wars and playing star wars battlefront.

Last sad news: Natalie's phone is broken again. She got it repaired on May 8th after months of not having it, and it lived for a little over 2 weeks. Somehow she needs to learn to be more careful with it. It had cracks all over the screen again. We paid half last time, I don't know if we're giving her that deal again. 

Alvie is One!!

Little Alvie is one year old! 

Bella threw the cutest party this evening for Alvin! I'm sure Ethan helped with some stuff for it, but we think it was mostly Bella, and it was adorable. She sent out invitations saying "Our Fungi is turning 1!" and had a little gnome mushroom theme. So cute. It was at Rock Canyon Park - 

She made adorable little mushroom cupcakes with strawberries for the top and marshmallows for the stem.

Natalie: "How come I've never had a cute party like this?!?!" You have my blessing to make it happen for yourself! And I am willing to make a small contribution financially towards your event. There was a little wind at the beginning of the evening - 

but it soon passed and the weather and temp were perfect. They had pizza, I brought some sourdough, there were cookies, pasta salad, the cupcakes and other treats. Katharine is excited to have some goodies.

After dinner, Alvie had his celebratory birthday cake! He carefully ate the raspberries on top...

He cautiously let himself get more sticky and messy. Yum, creamy frosting.

There was a good turnout - Alvie has a lot of friends!

People were playing spike ball and frisbee down on the grass. Alvie opened gifts. 

The spiderman car that Peter gave him seemed to be his favorite! Good job Peter, you win the best gift!

We took some pics with the birthday boy and Wayne - 

His little aunt and uncles played with him.

Wayne drove to our house and then got a ride down with us. It was great to be there. We love you Alvin! And know you are so blessed to have the wonderful mother and father that you have. 

At home before the party, we did a bit of chopping with a new axe that I got. 

We're gonna start clearing out these rogue plants and create some order in the yard. Owen had fun with the college boys today. They went to Yellowstone. Seth, Wes, Hyrum and Owen. 

And some friends that came with them. 

The shadows on Owen's face did something weird in this picture haha

Hyrum practicing posing for an outdoor magazine.

It was really sweet of Hyrum and Wes to invite Owen up and treat him to a good time. Owen is missing the last few days of 5th grade and of elementary school, but this might be more memorable for him. Owen wasn't sure he wanted to go when Wes told him about it, but Hyrum called and was able to talk him into it. So far it sounds like Owen is glad with the decision he made. 

Three Painted Faces

Today Sophi and I played our violins at church for a musical number "Be Thou My Vision" - an arrangement by Cindy Blevins. Marlo on the viola, Marylyn on cello, Diane on piano. We practiced last Sunday and then this morning at 9:30 before the meeting. As I mentioned in posts this week, I practiced a lot, more than I have the past 4 years since Katharine was born, and it was really fun. I'm not great, I can't do vibrato, and I didn't always his the high A, but I was willing and I tried my best. Sophi did great and she wasn't nervous. I was a little earlier this week but didn't get too many performance jitters today. I just feel a little silly cause my tone isn't great, but it's fine. I'm only a few years into it, so I did good if you think I'm like at a 2nd or 3rd grader level. 

Natalie painted kids faces after church. Katharine is some kind of fairy -

In this pic below is Nicole's daughter Lily stayed here last night (I picked her up last night at 11pm) before she starts FSY this week in Provo!

And Peter... I don't know what you are, but you look a bit scary/concerning, which is what I think you're going for with your face tilted down like that in both pictures. I'll have to ask him what he is - maybe the hulk? A frog or troll?

So after getting creative painting her siblings faces, Natalie continued her creativity tonight AFTER we told them to go to bed and be quiet. I just heard a big scream and laugh, which is not uncommon after we've told the kids to go to bed. But I guess Abi had a legit reason to scream... I just got an 11:30 text from Abi "Natalie just walked into my dark room looking like this:"

"She was trying to do that reel where you're completely black and then scare someone while they're trying to sleep. ...and she succeeded" Natalie, I think you just made the next Wride What Do You Meme with that photo! That didn't really look like Natalie to me, but then I recognized the shirt and her hair, and yes that is inside our house... I guess that is my child.

Wayne came over for dinner tonight - we has some loaves and fishes magic going on and were able to get a meal for him, despite me not having gone grocery shopping yesterday. And we watched the 2019 movie "Harriett" about Harriett Tubman with him. We've seen it once before about two years ago, but Wayne hadn't seen it. Good movie. I think I see/feel some parallels in their story and that of our country today. I trust that God is working with us despite our wickedness and weakness, and that he is helping our country, despite the follies of so many of it's citizens (Gideon) and leaders (Fugitive Slave Act). I hope to be a Harriett. "I'm not going to stop saving slaves just cause it's far." Keep doing what's right, keep serving, and keep helping your family and others. I pray to have faith and maybe such a powerful spiritual gift like Harriett had. Here's a cool documentary of a lady who tried to retrace Harriett's journey from Maryland to Canada - cool, I want to watch it., 

Summer Calendar

I had plans to go to Walmart today to get a big desk calendar, so I could cut it up and put it on the wall as our summer calendar. I did that for the first time in summer 2023, and kept it up until December 2025, when I decided to just do a monthly paper calendar on the wall instead of making that poster every other month. But I liked having the whole summer in one glance, so it would be worth it to get the desk calendar just for that. But then I decided to save the $, save the gas, save the time of the trip and instead spend time being creative. I got out the permanent markers and went to work.  

Corey and I went over our calendars and wrote down everything we had in there for everyone to see. We've got a week in Park City, ALSN have a few days in Lake Powell with the youth in our neighborhood, Abi has a senior trip, L&S have FSY, a vacation to Newport, another trip to Park City, and birthdays birthdays birthdays! These kids are not deprived. And school will start on August 12!! That's sounds so early. It's for the high school and jr high crew. Peter and Daniel will start on Aug 17. Our week at Park City is a week later than it has been in the past, so school will start on that Wednesday after Park City is done. 

So Corey and I were there on the top landing so we could talk with the kids, who were in their rooms, about their calendars. Lily esp had been nagging us to go over the summer calendar, so we did it and she was a mild participant. Katharine was being real cute and chatting away about everything. She said to Corey "Let me tell you what an opinion is. You can only have ONE."

Katharine to Wes "Wes... do you want to cuddle on my bunk bed? Cuddle means snuggle." 

We went through every day and I wrote it all down. Now to tape it up. We are going with the outside of the pantry door this time, in hopes that that will encourage the children to keep the pantry closed. 

Seeing it on the wall here, you can see that I measured it by mostly eyeballing the lines, hence there is a slightly too far to the left vertical line between Monday and Tuesday. That one is the most noticeable to me but it's fine. I'm glad it's up and all before our eyes. Children, this is your summer, and now Corey and I have part 1 of our summer plan of attack: THE mostly overall CALENAR OF EVENTS

Part 2 is for me to get a good "system" in place. Wes is borrowing my "Atomic Habits" book and during the few weeks that he was with us, he talked to us about systems, and it became apparent that we have a lot of poor systems, like drop your backpack on the floor wherever you want and take off your shoes as soon as you come inside and leave them there. I've been working on some good "systems" in my head and am slightly basing it on what I saw when we cleaned the Draper Temple on the night of May 7. I noticed that they clean some things by area (like the bathrooms) but a lot of things they organize by task! Like dusting or vacuuming - you dust/vacuum everything everywhere until it's all done. So for us here at home that would be good, cause then kids vacuum or sweep all the rooms, not just the one area they were "assigned" so yeah, I'm working on a new approach. It's gonna be good! I'm also going to order some lanyards like they had - all organized by color for what chores need to be done on that day of the week. 

I had planned/hoped for today to be a big clean up day, cause bulk clean up is coming on Tuesday. We did a little bit but not as much as needs to be done. I'm glad we have one more day on Monday to do some more. It helped to have Wes here this weekend. He finished his FSY training and is off next week, so he and Hyrum have something fun planned up in Rexburg with their cousin Seth (and possibly Owen!), and then Wes will be back next week before he starts his first week as a counselor. It's great having him at home, he's a great helper and is good at getting his siblings to help too. Natalie was his best worker in the backyard this evening.

Yesterday Katharine went to play at Scarlett's house right away after she woke up. I told myself this was computer time and I got a lot of stuff done. I didn't exercise Thurs or Fri, but I caught up on other stuff. I applied for financial aid for Abi's well visit (3rd to last paragraph). Aaaand I finally scheduled an eye dr appt for Sophi! I was in the zone blogging and I'm pleased to report that at 6:30pm last night I finished April! Go me. Corey biked to his dad's yesterday. I was waiting for him for date night and after I finished April, I looked at Life 360 and he still wasn't on his way. I asked him what time he was going to come home, then he said he didn't have a car, ha ha oh yeah - so then I got ready, picked up S&N from a friends house first, took them to Wayne's (they got sun burnt on their backs trying to get a tan. ) 

 

They had stayed after school for a ballroom party. Natalie being goofy. 

Corey and I went to Gary's Asian Bistro and Handels ice cream, we need to get just chocolate next time. Plain chocolate was better than Midnight madness.

Last thing to record for today - Corey and I both woke up really early today for some reason (4:30!)? We talked for a moment, each of us wondering why the other was up, and then we went on an early ride in corner canyon. We did the corner Canyon Loop, and we did it correctly in the neighborhood (so it counted this time) and guess what - I got a cup! 

Hooray for an emoji trophy! I feel so validated, thank you thank you! I got 3rd place overall when compared to all women who have ever done that route (and recorded it on Strava). Not bad!

In case you didn't know, the Corner Canyon loop is a pretty big loop. 

It's not as bad/intense as doing Pinecone from Park City, but it's pretty long. We even started from the cycle park today (not by the temple at coyote hollow). So yeah that made me even more impressed with us. It was good, I'm glad we woke up early and started our day off doing that! That was a big win!