Yearbook Ad

This morning, after taking kids to school in carpool, I looked around the van to and took note of the mess. It's a mess that I apologize about to my jr. high passengers each Wednesday morning. Among the trash in the car, I noticed a paper on the floor of the van. It was one I had seen before. It was a paper giving us information about a yearbook ad if we wanted to buy one for our high school senior. The other time I looked at this paper was in January, and the February due date seemed afar off. Thus I didn't put it on my list of tasks. And this time I looked at it... and the due date had passed - Feb 2nd. Doh! I got home and went straight to the computer, trying my luck and logging in to the Josten's website, making an account and clicking away hoping I hadn't missed the window of opportunity. Luckily nothing seemed to stop me from starting to make an ad. Ok, maybe we're not too late, phew! I spent most of the day looking through old pictures on the computer and scanning a few photos from the family scrapbooks. First - to decide between one photo for a 1/8 page ad for $40 or - 1/4 page for $75.

I do like having the option of more photos... I think we'll do the 1/4 page...

There were also options for half page or whole page ads, but we kept ours at the $75 option. I asked Corey his opinion. He said those 4 photos I chose were all basically the same. Yes, but they are different - he's 1 year old in the sax photo, 2 in the book photo, 3 in the blue tie, 4 years old in the orange shirt. But yeah, I get it, they're mostly head shots of young Joseph. Sorry, it's just the mother in me. Ok. So what do you want? He asked me to try and find a picture of Joseph playing in one of his Soundhouse Groups, like in the photos that Ray Smith takes at the Peaks Festivals each year. I spent a while looking through those and found one of Joseph.

So that made the final cut. I kept texting Corey photos and asking his opinion on things. He liked this Rio picture option, but we already had one of him older in the sax photo

so perhaps something younger? To show the progression?

So little 7 year old Joseph in Rio made the final cut. Here are some of the rejects - no room for family in the yearbook, even though being the leader of the Wride pack is one of the titles he's held the longest. This one is from Brazil before he went to Chile for 3 weeks - 

I thought having a screen shot from one of his videos would be appropriate. Two that didn't make the cut - a still from his Calculus video

This one below is from his La La Land SBO video - I'll repost this again in May when he graduates - an appropriately notalgic pic, no? Walking away from the camera, walking past the Skyline flags, moving on to the next part of his life, he will remember his alma mater.

And this one from that video made the cut - :)

So I thought I got a copy of the final ad, but can't find it, so I guess I didn't. So here's a bad paint version of it

Still, you get the idea - it's gonna be the little boy in a blue tie picture, then the little Rio, black shirt sax, and sliding down the rail at Skyline, ready to slide into the next adventures of his life! I'm glad I found that paper this morning and we were able to do it even though it was past the deadline. I'll be more on top of it next year with Mel. We're excited for Joseph, he's ready to launch into adulthood.

Leaky Water Heater

Yesterday evening, Corey came home after a full day but still had to get work done, so he snuck around the basement door and set up downstairs where he could hide from kids and get in some more hours. Ethan and Corey had been having a talk about if we'd allow him to go on a date before he is 16 next month. Eth wanted to continue the discussion, so we went into the basement. It was there that Ethan, while working on the bouncy ball puzzle, noticed the carpet around the table was wet. (I had finished the puzzle but it then got busted up a week ago when we had friends over, so we're doing it again and I'm accepting assistance this time.) Joseph had joined us in the basement and helped me slide the table off the wet part so I could soak up the carpet and see what was going on, but after we slid it over, there was rust and mold under the base of the table. It has a big 2 foot wide flat pedestal base. Oh great! So we picked up the table and moved it over to the unfinished part. Needless to say we didn't finish the date discussion. I ran upstairs and got a stack of towels and my trusty US Advantage. I did a bit of scrubbing and got it all out, you can't even tell. I'm hoping the mold wasn't at a point where it will be dangerous to our health, I should probably google that and learn about mold. At first we thought it was coming from the wall - cause we've had a leak from the ceiling come through the walls and down into this spot of the basement before. But we've also had a leaky water tank before - just over 4 years ago to be precise. So second task, after cleaning up the carpet, was to see what caused this wet mess. I got out my weights to soak up the water while I went to start a load of towels.

I thought that it was a leak from the wall and that the water had made it's way over to the drain so as to fortunately not flood the whole basement. I thought maybe it was from the ton of snow we had experienced that quickly melted... maybe it was too much for the rain gutters to handle and it soaked through some crack? I cleaned up the cement, kept soaking up water with the towels, and then went to start another load of towels and get some more towels for the carpet. It was then, at 11:30 at night, that I noticed the beginnings of a little trickle of water making it's way across the cement - water leaking from the tank! And not to the drain, but across the floor and on to the carpet! Ah HA! I found you! I found the culprit! You naughty water tank! Ok, what do I do to keep this water from getting on the carpet again? How can I build a wall? Tape? Paper? Plastic? Then inspiration hit - Hot glue! I skipped upstairs and then stayed up until 1:00 am trying to build little levees with my hot glue gun. I dried the cement, tried to glue walls to dam in the water, I made several barriers and paths, gluing as I watched the trickle coming again, making it's way across the cement. I was very pleased when it followed the glue path and then yay! down into the drain, I did it! The carpet will not get wet anymore tonight. Although I did dream about all this mess last night. I also checked the status again to be sure it wasn't getting the carpet when my sleep was interrupted at 3 am.

Poor old water tank. He looked spent and tired, I can't blame him. His spouse (aka the other water tank) passed away 4 years ago. This guy has fulfilled the measure of it's creation and is now ready to go the way of all the earth. I decided to call a plumber and text our neighbors/landlords in the morning, which I did. And we are grateful for the blessing for renting, cause our amazing landlords and friends took care of it all in a jiffy. The plumber was here at 11, tank was on it's way at noon, all installed and upgraded and looking amazing by 2. They updated the whole thing, and now our water filter on the fridge works! Shhh, I don't want the kids to know though, I'd rather they not discover they can get water from the fridge, since it's right by the study carpet (very poor floor plan design there...)

One last thought - so I had a major breakthrough about being in control over the weekend, and how the thought "I am not in control" is one of my limiting beliefs. Last night as I was scrubbing the carpet, the thought came, "See! You aren't in control! You can't stop problems like this!!" But I called it out "No, I am in control. True, I can't stop stuff like this from happening, but I can choose how I respond. I can me in control of me!" That thought helped me handle the unexpected mess better, and I'm sure I'll keep having little battles with the voices in my head as life keeps happening, cause life is messy. But it's okay, it's part of the learning and growth that we are here on this earth to experience.

Don't Give Up On You

I put a new picture up in my exercise area. It's a picture of myself when I was 5.

Look at that cute little kindergartener me! I also have a picture of my hero Shannon - giving me two thumbs up and other morning she's cheering me on when I do my treadmill sprints.

And there are a few sticker quotes by SpongeBob on the mirror "I'm just so excited!" and "I'm ready for my close up!" Trying to give myself some positive self talk as I workout!

The inspiration behind the kindergarten photo is this facebook video by Truth Bomb Mom - a quick video that is a nice reminder about checking in on the things we tell ourselves –
I thought about how I get in a rut with feeling discouraged sometimes, esp during "that time of the month", and I know it’s hormones, but I just feel like "who cares" and like giving up, so recently I listened to one of the Killer's songs - Rut - while I was on a treadmill walk. Brandon Flowers has said is about his wife when she was struggling with suicidal thoughts. We all have negative thoughts like that. The song is from her perspective and the chorus line says “Don’t give up on me, cause I’m just in a rut. I’m climbing but the walls keep stacking up…” When I first heard it, before I knew what it was about, it made me think of Corey and his business MM. “I’m doing my best to fill them but the cracks are starting to spread…. I’ve done my best defending but the punches are startin’ to land….” Corey's been trying so hard for so long to get MM going, but after each crack/punch/problem he fixes or overcomes, there is another usually even bigger wall in the way. It’s so hard, but as the song says “I’ll climb and I’ll climb, and I’ll climb and I’ll climb, I’ll climb and I’ll climb” repeat. Ugh, it just doesn’t end and if it's not MM it'll be something else... life's challenges won’t end until we’re dead, so keep climbing. But I love that song, Rut, for the message of determination and perseverance it gives.

So I was looking at myself in the mirror as I walked and I was talking to myself, and I was surprised that I got a little teary and I told myself “Don’t give up on me, cause I’m just in a rut”. Thoughts that our life is a mess and we'll never get out from under it.... or thoughts that our house is trashed and the kids are too busy or clueless to help... all these negative thoughts in my head, sometimes the punches start to land and I feel pretty beat up and over my head. BUT - I wouldn’t tell my 5 year old self to give up or that it's hopeless. I can do this! And I’d call out anyone who WAS speaking negative things to that little kindergartener me and warn them to stop. And guess what Tiff, that little girl that absorbs the negative thoughts in your head is YOU, she IS that little girl, she is ME! So I'm going to try and call ’em out and stop those mean and negative things in my head. Which came full circle in my thoughts, leading me back to the EJC and the Courage Challenge I did, which I've started up again (and I'm loving it! If anyone wants to join me at the EJC?) In October Holly helped me learn about acceptance and that we need to accept ourselves and talk to ourselves and we would talk to a child – with support, love, and encouragement. So, now with that photo of my younger self there by my treadmill mirror, I'm going to work each day to remind my current sometimes overwhelmed self to say good things to my little 5 year old cute self and encourage her on her goals and dreams. Don’t give up on me!

All State Jazz Weekend Recap

Corey has been down in St. George this weekend with Ethan for the All State Jazz Festival. Abi, Lily, Sophi, and Natalie also went with them, cause we don't consider it that bad for them to miss a day of school - they don't get a ton of homework that they need to make up. Ah, the bliss of elementary school. So, they took 4 little girls with them. They left on Thursday shortly after noon and got home late last night. Thus providing me with this good chance to do "Family History" on this sabbath day as I blog about their adventure. So, Thursday they got there in time for Ethan to make his first rehearsal (Corey had let Eth's concern about getting there in time influence his driving, thus the $120 speeding ticket he got in Beaver county...)

They had rehearsal on Thurs and Friday and then their performance on Saturday.

They also got there in time for the girls to enjoy some night swimming.

Corey worked while they played - notice his feet kicked up in the right bottom corner of the photo. Corey had Natalie say "My name is Natalie. I love my Dad. I'm a mermaid."

Enjoying dinner while watching TV - gotta love vacations!

Friday morning 2 February - more watching TV... then bringing their stuff in from the car -

Thursday night they came, swam, and crashed. Now it's a new say, time to settle in.

Lily brought Bunky Bunky. Luckily, with just 5 kids, there was room for him in the car. I have always refused to let her bring him on trips. I probably wouldn't have let her on this one either, had I gone down instead of Corey. But lucky for her, Lily's dad didn't find it irritating.

Abi and Lily eating chips while they are most likely asking him if they can go swimming... and that's another feet-kicked-up-on-a-chair-with-a-computer-on-his-lap photo.

Natalie participating in a vacation activity that isn't watching tv, good job Natalie!

Looks like they talked him into taking them to the pool -

But not without them having to do the work of carrying his computer bag -

Work those muscles Lil!

Swimming, swimming, and more swimming

Natalie striking a pose while her partners in crime swim behind.

She's got the goggles on - ready to show off her serious swimming skills!

On Friday, after Ethan was done with rehearsals, they went to the theater to watch the Greatest Showman. Can you tell that anyone is having a squabble over who gets to hold the popcorn?

Hint: left side of the photo. I think their faces are pretty funny.

Yes, that's right, its Abi and Lily. Ethan gets to be in charge of a bowls and the 4 girls have to fend for themselves. It's tough being the food scavengers in the downline. I'm guessing they got it figured out.

They all enjoyed the show. Ethan said Corey was crying. Corey and I saw it on a date night a few weeks ago. It was so fun, but now that I know the lyrics to the songs, I love it even more. Corey felt like the Tightrope song was about me and my trust and love for him and my patience as he pursues his dreams. When they told me that tonight it made me cry. So we pretty much love the Greatest Showman, like everyone else in the world. Ok, back to their trip... Saturday morning breakfast - doughnuts and orange juice!

Watching TV again

Corey takes a lot of pictures, and also takes like 5 shots of each picture. So this has taken me quite a while to filter through all these... I've seriously transferred 422 photos and videos from his phone!! It took over an hours, gosh!

I'm sure not each of these moments in time in necessary to document, but I'm just trying to give an appropriate recap of their weekend, not that I know much of the details. Corey went to a "Owner's presentation" for some more points/credits. We had just done that two months ago at Wolfcreek, but they're always pretty insistent. When Corey was checking in, he was thinking "...and I know what you're going to ask me next, and the answer is no, I don't want to go to an Owner's presentation meeting..." but they don't even listen, and Corey's excuses didn't work "I don't have anyone to watch my little kids!" "They can come! We'll give them lunch!" Well lucky you, girls.

Waiting for their lunch. (Natalie is inside that pink hooded coat there)

It was short and only a little painful, then they checked out and went out to the mall? Maybe? while they waited for Ethan's performance to start. They went into a photo booth, but instead of paying for the booth to take a picture, they did a group selfie.

Corey trying to give the girls a small taste of what we did before smart phones. Fun memories!

Over to take pictures in the unicorn cut out -

Like I said, a lot of pictures, sorry.

Probably not necessary to show each one, but don't want anyone to feel left out.

Finally, the moment that they'd been waiting for came - the All State Jazz Performance.

Ethan did a great job. Corey has a lot of videos, each one is long and I'm not sure if he has a preference on which one he wants to share so I'm just gonna let that wait until Corey gives me some direction. But thanks for your amazing skills, Ethan! And for giving Corey and the girls a good excuse for a fun trip down south with you!

Life 360

Corey is in St. George this weekend with Ethan, Abi, Lily, Sophi, and Natalie. Ethan is performing in the All State Jazz band. I will try to share some pictures soon, if they send me some. If they don't, I shall try to transfer them when I get my hands on Corey's phone after their return. They left yesterday around 1. Corey got a speeding ticket on the way there, near Manderfield just north of Beaver, according to the Life 360 app. So that was unfortunate. Corey admitted he was speeding and got clocked at 95. I said "Hmm, well, according to Life 360 you were going 98..." I like how this app keeps me in the know! Also, I knew that Ethan needed to be picked up from school around noon, and I could also tell, thanks to Life 360, that Corey hadn't left the ROB yet (Riverton Office Building) and thus wouldn't be able to get him in time, so I called Corey... He picks it up: "Hey, can you go get Ethan for me? I'm still in a meeting..." Yep, I know, that's why I was calling." I was able to see when Ethan was coming out to the car, and tonight I can see the address of where they are staying in St. George. Pretty cool technology.

Joseph had this app on his phone and was able to tell when his friends were, how long their trips were, how fast they were doing. Meh, I thought, I don't need to know all that stuff. But I finally and somewhat reluctantly downloaded it last week, right before Corey and the older kids spent a night skiing at Brighton . I first realized how handy it was when, instead of calling Corey to see if they had left yet and were on their way home, I was able to open the app! And look at that, there are their little computer circled faces still up Big Cottonwood Canyon. Ok! So I guess I can go to bed since, if I were to wait, I'd be an hour away from bedtime, and that is too late for me. Very helpful indeed! Here is what it looks like most school mornings: Joseph and Ethan in the jazz band room, Mel and Hyrum in the library.

I can also see their phone battery percentages, a fun fyi letting me know which of my kids inherited my battery obsessive compulsive disorder. This app has been most handy. Thank you, Joseph my son, for the recommendation. There are a lot of perks of living in this tech generation, I'll try not to drag my feet about next time.

I Am In Control Of Me

So, Corey is in St. George with half of the kids (EALSN), I'm at home with the other half (JMHWOD). We've both had a great weekend so far - Corey was able to get lots of work done without any needy toddlers around (no offense to Owen and Daniel!). He said it was super easy watching the little girls swim while Ethan was in his jazz band rehearsals. And life here seems pretty quiet and calm without my teenager that tends to tease and without the little girls that make the messes! ...Not that I'm focusing on the bad things. So, around here, it doesn't matter if Corey and I are home together or not... Friday night is date night and the kids kick me out of the house. So I went on a date tonight by myself. The Draper and Salt Lake temples are both closed for cleaning, so I went to the American Fork Temple, but first I went to Aubergine in Lehi for my date night dinner: a yummy salad and "nice cream" - made of cashews and cocoa, mmm.

I haven't been to the American Fork temple forever, it was nice.

After the temple, since it was still date night and my one night to have dessert, I thought I'd stop by Red Mango for some ice cream. And during my EJC workshop this week, we started by reflecting on the past year, things we've achieved, and then using that to help us establish our goals for this next year. But first we've been digging into our beliefs. Here is the breakthrough I had today, cause I've been going back and forth with things I know and things I feel - oh, I'll just paste my post:

I’m hoping I made some breakthroughs here. SO! My outcome that I want to achieve is to get to 120 lbs/my ideal body/a six pack. I wrote out my answers to all the questions in step 1 for awareness. My negative thought is that I don’t deserve it because I’m not in control of my life – a six pack/defined abs or my ideal body would represent perfection and a person who has their act together. And I don’t have my act together, so I don’t deserve it. So for step 2 – I think my boiled down limiting belief is: I AM NOT IN CONTROL. Here’s what I wrote in response to the questions

Q1 – Is this true? Yes, I am not in control of much of my life, but false that I can’t be in control of diet/exercise.

Q2 – Yes? Can you absolutely know without a doubt that this is true? NO! and immediately I thought of Viktor Frankl’s book Mans Search for Meaning! I AM in control of ME!!! and how I RESPOND to my life and my circumstances!

Q3 – How do I react, what happens when I believe this thought (that I am not in control)? I just don’t even try to be in control! I’ll pig out on a dessert if it’s available. Does it bring me peace or stress? Definitely stress, I feel like a victim. What images do I see? Me, hunched over in a chair, or slouched on a couch with a tummy bulging, sad expression. What sensations does it cause? Craving junk. Any obsessions appear? chocolate and cookies.

Q4 – Who would I be without this thought? So think “I AM IN CONTROL” instead... what do I visualize then? I see me standing tall, confident, looking up, facing the coming storm, ready to stand firm.

So tonight I got half way through this video and did the little bit of extra credit homework you gave me. It was date night like it is every Friday, and even though my husband was gone, I went out for date night. The first Friday of every month we go to the temple. I went out to Aubergine and got a healthy salad and some vegan “nice cream” and then went to the temple. After it was over, I was driving home, and told myself that since it was date night, I could let myself have another dessert. I started thinking about it in the temple, of going to Red Mango and getting one more treat, (Rationalizing: cause it’s date night! my cheat meal! (but if I was being honest I’d have recognized I’d already had more than a few cheats during the past week)) (I’m always starting over) Anyway, on the drive home I would be passing Red Mango, but I decided to not do it and what do you know, the ACTION of resisting and saying NO made me “FEEL!” better! I felt thinner, I felt healthier! NOTHING HAD CHANGED except for my thought, but I felt better and healthier. So I realized that so much of what I’m feeling or not feeling about myself comes from what I think about doing and then what I actually DO!!! I also read today a church article about a girl who overcame her addictions after she stopped making excuses – it said “I continually fooled myself into believing that my daily choices didn’t define me or my future” – hello, light bulb about beliefs! My daily choices (like whether or not to stop for ice cream) DO and ARE defining me now! And if I keep making those same choices and don’t take CONTROL of my decisions, They will continue to define me and thus will be defining the me in my future. So I was super proud I resisted the ice cream and I came home and made a swiss chard salad with beets and lots of good stuff instead. I do have control over my daily choices and they will define me and my future. My “cheats” lead to more poor choices and disappointment, which leads to me feeling out of control, then feeling like a victim, and giving in to the cravings and addiction which results in me visualizing myself as a sad slouched over pudgy frazzled mom.

So anyway, not sure if that made sense, but I didn't get the ice cream and came home and made another big green salad for myself - red chard, beets, white beans, mushrooms, onions, with some vegan poppy seed dressing, good stuff!

So I'm excited about the EJC community I'm in and I think I'm even gonna keep paying to be a part of it, it's helping me learn about myself and become a better person. The workshop/challenge we're doing is called "Design Your Best Year Yet". And I'm seeing messages everywhere reinforcing things I'm learning! Like in these two magnets from my parent's refrigerator:

One of the biggest things I want to focus on this year is gratitude. I want to have a good attitude.

So that's that, I'm going to tell myself and believe that I am in control. And if you want a delicious breakfast, bananas, frozen blueberries, 2 Tablespoons of ground flax seed and almond milk.

I'm going to work to get my best yet healthiest body and mindset this year. I'm loving the EJC if anyone wants to join me! I'm hoping to get some more of my homework there done this weekend before Corey and my mess makers get back (just kidding EALSN!)