Insurance & Memorization

The girls don't have school again today, so I didn't do my Tuesday morning routine that I need to get done before the girls leave. Instead I slept in until I had to wake up the boys at 8. I got them off to school, then I read the Heather Cox Richardson email from yesterday, I am so disappointed in Trump and that America elected him, not that there were many other good options, but wow, things are bad right now and we're just barely a year into this second term of his presidency. Dear Lord please help our country. 

Natalie woke up at 9:30 and was sick with a fever, and then I panicked and the stress over us not having insurance hit me, ahhh!  Then K woke up and I passed her onto Abi Lily and Sophi for them to keep her happy while I spent some time looking for other insurance options that are available to us. I found out Saturday that our medicaid application was denied - we were slightly over the allowed gross income. So I called them to see what else we could do. I spent some 2 hours of time on the phone, half of that I was on hold. I called 211 and was told about the Utah Health Policy Project, I'm hoping we can get something through there. Filled out that application. I'm still mad at Select Health for cancelling insurance for our whole family without making sure they had gotten in touch with us. That's kinda horrible of them.

Around 1pm I got off the phone with IHC billing to see what we could do about Abi's $1300 well visit that should have/would have been free if we had our insurance, which I thought we did have at the time in December. After a 34 min call, some guy named "Charim" (sp?) who was a bit hard to understand, but he said he removed the insurance and applied a non-insurance discount, then he transferred me to billing to make payment or ask questions, and then the lady who answered there asked for the account number, I told her, then she told me that Abi's account balance was $0. I asked about her well visit of Dec 23 was included in that, and she said yes, that was itemized there and the balance is $0. So I don't know what just happened there but hopefully it was a miracle to waive that $1300 charge. I'll prob call back in a day or two to triple check that it's for real, so if that whole thing was just written off for some reason, thank you Lord and I am very very grateful. 

I started a little project today of making a "Living Christ" binder. This is something that Eliza did and she showed me her binder when I was out visiting them in May of last year. Eliza had printed up all the words of "The Living Christ" and then cut them up and put the statements and phrases on each page with a illustration or painting that went along with is. So I've been looking through old Ensigns and church magazines for pictures of Christ and his life to use in my binder, to hopefully provide another memory hook as I try to memorize it before Easter. 

Corey's dad gave Sophi an old walkman today and some blank tapes, so she could record her story ideas for herself (instead of using up storage on Corey's phone). Sophi is excited about listening to music 

The kids always say the wish they lived in the 80s, so here's your chance Sophi! 

Another Win from today - I made a meal and presented it in a sit down dinner.

Roast beef with potatoes and carrots and a Greek salad. The roast beef dish is a quick and easy meal if you use canned roast beef.

Yay I made dinner. Go me.

Day Off

Corey and I slept in this morning, then went and did some top rope climbing this morning at Millcreek at 8:50am. In case you are interested in how hard of climbs we can do with a year under our belt, it's not that impressive...

• 1- SE pink 5.10a
• 2- SE Black 5.10d 2 cheats
• 3- SE yellow 5.11a 1 cheat at very beginning
• 4- SE yellow 5.10c
• 5- crack wall orange 5.10ab
• 6- crack wall blue 5.10d11a 1rest
• 7- crack wall yellow 5.11b ugh lots of rests and cheats
• 8- NE black 5.10c

I kinda feel like we've only barely improved from where we were when we started in December 2024 (end of this post). We've been climbing weekly for a solid 14 months, and that's what we can do. Maybe we need a coach. But then again, I'm not really interested in getting jacked forearms or tough fingers, which is what's happened so far. I'd rather not be Popeye. I like climbing, and it's fun, but we probably need to do something that's a big more "whole body"? We'll probably be taking a break from climbing next month. We missed the 15th of the month deadline to cancel for February, so probably March we will. 

Owen wanted to go play at the church, so he did his chores and his brother's benefitted from it (he cleaned the room again) He says that it always gets messy and it's never him, and he's right. But thanks for cleaning it anyway Owen. Owen dutifully folding socks ~

So after chores and music practice, Abi took kids to church twice so they could play in the gym. I blogged Feb and caught up a bit from last week. I'm also trying to make prayer and scriptures a priority. We listened to a BYU devotional by Elder Shumway as we climbed, and I liked his thoughts about "first fruits" of our time, our day, our devotion. Give the Lord the first and the best we have to offer. 

For FHE we listened to old tapes. The vote is unanimous vote is that I sound like Mel. Another comment from the kids, I can't remember who but it was funny "Why does your voice sound so soft? It's so scary now..." And Sophi made this comment "That's the voice of a middle schooler in love..." No, I was in college. Twenty two years old, thank you!

I got some Kinder Buenos at Costco recently, so we gave those our for the FHE treat and then we finished writing out valentines from Saturday. 

And then we passed them out and kids and we all read what everyone wrote to us. 

I think everyone writing what they liked about each other was a good thing to do for the anniversary, but I don't know that we'll do it again, it fell a little flat and was more of a chore than something kids were excited to do. Anyway, good day off, heading to bed, back to reality tomorrow. 

Wesley Homecoming

Wesley gave his "homecoming" message in church today. 

Corey took a video of it, which he put unlisted on youtube. Feel free to listen if you are so inclined. Wes and Hyrum were coming down this weekend from school at BYU Idaho in Rexburg to come to the anniversary dinner. I had thought they'd come Friday, but they were working on an epic production that had to be released on Valentine's day (see yesterday's post), so they were working on that until late on Friday night and so they drove home Saturday morning. The big production was a "single men" tribute video, pretty funny!

So they since they were coming down for the family dinner, we knew this weekend would work for his homecoming talk. Family came to support him and listen to him share some of his mission experiences. I'll try to get a copy of his talk and will add it later. After church, family and friends gathered at our house. Hyrum saying hello to little Alvie. 

My brother, "Uncle Neil" got to work right away getting kids playing games. We learned a new game called Octopus Eight and Big Booty, haha it was fun. I like Big Booty. "Big Booty, Aww Yeah! Big booty Big booty Big booty. Big booty number 3, number 3 number 5, number 5 big booty..." etc. (I thought I'd type that out if that helps anyone who is reading this remember how to play the game.) 

Another table with games going on - Apples to Apples.

My dad visiting with Katharine.

We served up some chili and sourdough and also had out some greens and tomatoes and other toppings for people who might want a taco salad. I started the beans soaking yesterday and then put them in the crock pot last night. I woke up early, turned beans on hot to make sure they were nice and soft by lunchtime after church. Then I spent time moving putting some furniture away from yesterday, or into a better position for the lunch hosting today. I tried to be quiet since Ethan and Bella and Alvie were sleeping in the basement. I loaded up the folding chairs we borrowed from the church for yesterday and Owen helped me go put those back. So that was my morning and lunch. After lunch, Ethan asked me after "Did I get any meat in this meal?" "No, but you got plenty of protein" was my reply. I'm glad I've got Christian around who is a grown man who is ok with beans and non meat meals. Mel and Christian catching a quick nap. 

Corey washed a lot of dishes. No one really stayed too long, it was just right. After company left, Corey got out some old cassettes from when Corey and I sent each other "tapes" during our missions. Corey got our more tapes for Sophi to listen to, to try to find any good or interesting parts. Teaching her the ways of cassettes, like how to fast forward and rewind. 

He digitized some of them yesterday in preparation for the family dinner, and we listened to a few things yesterday as part of our family celebration, like a bit of my homecoming talk. Yeah, I was 22 in that recording. It was a bit crazy cause I sounded so young. Some kids also said I sounded like Mel, which would make sense, cause we're related and cause that's about what age I was. We thought that was good to let them hear what we sounded like when we were just starting off on this whole adventure.

Sophi didn't find the task very stimulation, and started telling us about a story that she's writing. Corey got her excited about recording her story on a cassette, so we'll see if she's able to do that, like if we find any blank cassettes? Do they even sell those anymore? I guess we'll find out soon.

Hyrum and Wes got ready to leave around 4. I helped Hyrum find some pants that had gone missing - we looked in the basement and several piles of clothing with no luck, then I found them in Lily's closet. Lily feigned ignorance. Hyrum was much incensed. Then Sophi said "What about Hyrum's hoodie" and at that, Lily raised her eyes and tried to discreetly shake her head "no!" and Hyrum said "WHAT HOODIE" and it was a hoodie that said San Diego Mission, which Lily would have definitely known was Hyrum's. "What!??!" Lily: "I would have given it to you if you asked for it!" Hyrum: "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW YOU HAVE IT??? I can't just go ask every person in our family if they have each of my personal items that is missing..." Such disrespect! 

Hyrum took it with annoyed good humor. We all feel each other's pain in the stealing-each-other's-clothing department. We all do it, and I'm sure will until we all move out on our own, including not storing anything in our home (it's not safe!!). So Hyrum and Wes headed back to Idaho around 4:30, hoping to make it back for ward prayer at 8pm

They don't want to stay and hang around here even though it's a holiday off from school tomorrow. They've got a life in college that is more important and more interesting than anything going on here. I guess that is good and how it should be. 

For the rest of our evening, we watched a new Angel Studios movie called "Bonhoeffer" and I'll just say wow and dang. Boy, what all those people went through in World War 2. A quote I liked from his mother Paula von Hase in the movie - "Life is loss. ...and building again" - and one from his father Karl Bonhoeffer to him after he publicly gave a sermon condemning what the Nazi's were doing: "Courage needed. Courage shown." It was good and thought provoking. I've got a biography on him on hold at the library. And E&B stuck around a bit more tonight and I enjoyed hearing them talking to Abi about missions. Corey said to Abi: "Soon you'll be crying yourself to sleep everynight..." and Ethan interjected "I never cried myself to sleep. I always cried when I woke up. Going to sleep was the best part of the day!" Haha, that made me laugh!

Ethan also testified "Most of your depression or non-depression will come because your companion." Truth. Comps you get along with will be your friends forever cause of your trauma bond. Now it's too late and we're heading to bed and they're headed back for a late drive back to Provo, but they're used to staying up this late. Good thing there's no school morning routine tomorrow. I'm going to sleep in. 

Valentine's Day Family Feast

Today we had our annual Family Anniversary dinner. This year I put the kids at the far side of the table. Here are all the kids minus Bella, she was taking care of Alvie. 

I meant to take another photo after she got back but didn't, though I did get her and Alive in this short video. I also forgot to take a pic of generations 2&1 at the table (Corey and I and our parents). I had them in the original video, but it was like 70 seconds long, and if it's over 60 seconds youtube won't let me add music, and I wanted the music, so I had to trim it down to under 60 seconds. Hence, just the kids. But Corey and I and Wayne, Kim and Linda were all here today enjoying a meal together.

So this morning we got up early to get started. Table and chairs were already set up from yesterday. Today we started making mashed potatoes and sourdough while we set up the tablecloth, setting out the china, figuring out what we wanted to do for the centerpieces. Girls worked hard, then took a break.

Sophi was working on a Valentine activity where we each got to write out things we love about each person. We cooked the salmon around 12:30, then prepped the salad and shrimp. We were ready at 2. My parents came around 1:45 with strawberries and blueberries. Corey left early with the kids to go climbing, and then they went to Wayne's house until feast time. My dad taking a photo of our banquet table.

Food all set out as guest start to arrive. Ethan! Don't eat yet!

Kids finding their seats.

Mel and Christian, Ethan and Bella & Alvie, and Hyrum & Wes and all the kids.

Wes and Hyrum went to Wayne's first where Corey and ODPK were hanging out. They went climbing this morning with Zeb and then went to Savers and turned in Corey's Where's Waldo rainbow shirt for some other sweet outfits for ODPK. After Wes arrived, people started asking about his new girlfriend, who is his girl as of last night. Wooo!

Sitting to eat. 

Nice fire on the tv.

One thing Corey worked on today was putting some of our old mission cassettes that we made for each other into digital format, so we played a few clips of those while people ate (like my mission homecoming talk at church). We both sounded so young! The kids didn't think we sounded old enough to get married. We also watched our wedding video while we ate and a Cupid cover video that Hyrum and Wes made and released today, it was really fun! 

We enjoyed watching that and played it a few times. Me and my pretty little princess Katharine!

We took a few selfies. She's cute.

After eating the main meal, we opened up the dessert table, which was brownies that Bella made, some strawberry covered pretzels, and passion fruit cake that Mel made. Hyrum and Wes were supposed to bring a dessert but they failed, boo. It's ok, but note to self for next year - don't outsource all the desserts. I was probably missing some of the magic cause I didn't have an abundance of desserts. After dinner everyone was invited (though most didn't hear? Or I wasn't clear) to come to the table to write down some love notes to each member of the family. 

We wrote notes to Joseph Eliza and Mary too that I'm going to mail to them. They had their own Valentine feast in Ohio and sent us a photo. Yay! We're miles apart but together in this tradition.

Or they were just doing a valentine's day thing, but I'll say they were having an anniversary feast. We didn't dance after or anything, cause people cleaned up and my mom hinted that they had to get back to get work done. We also didn't do a dance, cause Lily Sophi and Natalie all had "Galentine" dinners planned for tonight, booo. I didn't love that they had places to go. Next year I'll try harder to make this tradition happen on a day where I can keep everyone captive. Wes and Hyrum both disappeared to take naps cause they had stayed up late working on their video. We had a fun time visiting with M&C and E&B for a bit. After the girls left, Wes and Hyrum came up from their naps and then Wesley took ODPK to the mall to the Lego store, cause he promised them he'd do that before his mission. They came back and built their legos sets.

It was nice of Mel and Christian and Ethan and Bella to hang out.

Ethan and Bella are sleeping over, cause they are coming to our ward tomorrow to hear Wesley speak for his mission homecoming. Mel and Christian are coming back up for that too, but they are sleeping at home in Lehi. They just moved into their new apartment yesterday. We have been visiting more with Ethan and Bella in our room. It was a nice day. Didn't totally hit the spot for what I was going for, I think mostly because people had other places to go, which might be cause we had it on actual Valentine's day instead of our own day. So notes I made for myself for next year: 

• have a dance party
• send out itinerary so people know what to expect
• Plan a family history moment (find parts of mission tapes, journal entries from around our engagement or wedding, or something about us that the kids don't know about us)
• More desserts - me be in charge more? This year the kids did all the desserts, need it to be more wow
• Do it in the evening so there can be more ambiance with candles or string lights.
• Don't have it on a Saturday when people have other things going on
• Don't have it on Valentine's day (unless Valentine's day is on Sunday)
• Make a photo booth? That could be fun

Abi is BYU Bound

Some exciting new today!... Abi got accepted to BYU!! 

Yay Abi!! Good job! She put all her eggs in one basket so we're grateful that it worked out for her! She's all grown up and ready to launch - 18 years old, graduating in May, a mission call, now college plans are in place (she'll probably defer to Spring term 2028). Exciting things happening. 

The kids had a day off from school for President's Day Weekend. Corey and I stayed up late last night reading, but he still got up around 7:30 this morning for top rope. We went to Ft Union. The red 5.10d that I finally sent on Tuesday was gone, so yay I sent it just in time! I was avoiding that area until the end cause I didn't want to try it again, and then saw that the whole wall is new, so we'll go check those out next time. 

Today with the kids home, I cleaned in the side room a lot as we rearranged things to make room for the banquet  tables: sweeping, mopping, vacuuming the rug and under the couch cushions. I have it set up some for dinner. Owen was a good helper. He went to the church with me to get some folding chairs. I went to the DI for some goblets to make flower arrangement like these, then Costco for food.

I didn't end up making the flower arrangements this evening. I don't think I'll have time to do it in the morning, so we'll save that for next year. Mel is making maracuja/passion fruit cake, Bella is bringing brownies, and Hyrum and Wes are bringing a dessert. I requested Tres Leches, but that's when I thought they'd be here today. They are still up in Idaho and are going to come down in the morning, so we'll see. They might just run by the store for a box of chocolates or something. Corey and I went to the Draper Aubergine for date night then back home for him to work more. I have beans soaking to cook tomorrow night before Wesely's homecoming on Sunday. We're inviting people over, but I didn't get any desserts at Costco for it. It wasn't in the budget. We're going to have a taco bar with chili, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, olives, cheese, salsa... I forgot tortilla chips, I'm not cooking beef or chicken. Lily will serve up a few loaves of sourdough. That will be good. Maybe I'll ask Abi to make cookies, or we just serve clementines next to a jar of raisins and walnuts. 

Headstands & Late Night Reading

Tonight the little boys and I practiced headstands in my room. Daniel's got down the slow controlled raise to headstand.

Peter gets impatient and swings his legs to try and get it with momentum. 

It's fun. I want to learn a press handstand and the splits as soon as possible. I need a coach. Maybe the boys and I can join a tumbling class. 

Today I went to Walmart for a few things for Family dinner on Saturday. For the past month I've been trying to decide when to have it - I'd prefer Sunday, but that won't work cause we'll have people over after Wesley's homecoming. I thought maybe Monday/President's Day, but Hyrum and Wesley will have left already, or we might go skiing. So, Valentine's Day it is. I texted out an invite to the kids on Saturday Feb 7. It will be this Saturday at 2. 

Pretty K today - I ordered her some sparkly clip on earrings, fun!

Hmm, do K's eyes look a little crossed? I shall be watching.

Ok, now it is past midnight (12:45am). Corey's in bed, and I just thought I'd write for a moment, cause no one has school tomorrow so I can sleep in. Corey's got a heavy load on his shoulders and it's hard and stressful and frustrating and scary. Around 10:30, after I got the kids ready for bed (teeth brushed), he said he wanted to work a little bit more and asked me to read something to him as he worked that could distract his mind from his worries. He's been reading Shackleton on Sundays, and I asked if he wanted me to continue where he was at in that? He didn't say yay or nay, I looked over a few other books - Pres Oak's biography? And then I saw it - 1776. "That's the one." (- Napoleon Dynamite) I had just read a few pages of 1776 to the kids a few weeks ago on a night when Corey was working late. I was sure that the story about the Battle of Brooklyn and Kips Bay were gonna hit the spot. I read to him for 90 minutes, from page 182 (starting at the III) to 219. There's too much there to recap, so go read it. All of these phrases from page 182 started us off and really resonated with Corey - "the situation faced by Washington and the army was critical." "They were now hemmed in at Brooklyn" "Brooklyn was a trap ready to spring" "...he did not comprehend how perilous his position was." Page 184 - Washington's men were much "distressed" haha that's putting it mildly! "Yet for all the miseries it wrought, the storm was greatly to Washington's advantage." Sometimes our problems are helping us (like the freezing temperatures before the victory at the Delaware helped freeze the ground and thus aided them in transporting the cannon they needed for victory.) Corey also liked hearing how they made stupid mistakes, like not securing the Jamaican Pass (bottom on page 193). Page 193 "For Washington, almost nothing went as planned." We know how the Revolutionary War ends, so we see Washington as victorious and a hero, but when he was living through that, he did not know the ending! It had to have been so nerve wracking and stressful!!! Oh, this at the top of page 185 "With the situation as grim as it could be, no one was more conspicuous in his calm presence of mind that Washington, making is rounds on horseback in the rain. They must be 'cool but determined,' he had told the men before the battle, when spirits were high. Now, in the face of catastrophe, he was demonstrating what he meant by his own example. Whatever anger or torment or despair he felt, he kept to himself." 

I also liked how, after the retreat from Brooklyn, some papers were calling the people to repent. From the Massachusetts Spy - the defeat on Long Island and consequent distress were "loud speaking testimonies of the displeasure and anger of Almighty God against a sinful people." ~

We have thought God was for us, and had given many and signal instances of his power and mercy in our favor, and had greatly frowned upon and disappointed our enemies; and verily it has been so. But have we repented and given him the glory? Verily no. His hand seems to be turned and stretched out against us - and strong is his hand. 

Give God the glory, give him thanks, turn to him and trust Him. I also liked reading that the Hessian's were singing hymns before the attack at Kips Bay, page 211 "the Hessians, unaccustomed to this water business and fearful of being fired on when packed so closely, began singing hymns, while the redcoats responded in their own fashion 'by damning themselves and the enemy indiscriminately with wonderful fervency.'" (tsk tsk!) 

The statement of the night was the quote by Henry Knox at the beginning of chapter six, page 201: 

"We want great men who, when fortune frowns, will not be discouraged." - Henry Knox

Like Shackleton taught through his example, we have to be optimistic, despite the challenging circumstances we may find ourselves in from time to time (or almost constantly, as in the case of Washington and Shakleton!) We will pray for the strength to endure more and overcome through Christ, our Lord. 

Anthony's Fine Arts & Antiques

I've been thinking about art all day. This morning, I went downtown to Anthony's Fine Arts & Antiques, as part of a surprise b-day gathering for one of our good friends Amy. It is one of her favorite places. She thought she and her husband were just going down there for fun, but then she saw that all of her kids were the and a big group of friends. So it was fun to surprise her and I was amazed at that gallery! It was incredible. As we were waiting for Amy, the curator there, Micah Christensen, told us about a Normal Rockwell painting that was behind us. I think he said it's worth 2.5 million, but this says it auctioned for $50k in 1990, so maybe it's not that much. After Amy arrived, we asked Micah to tell her about it too, which he did, then he offered to show us a few more of fun items they have and he ended up giving us a little tour. (You can view the collection here.) He showed us a 16th Century Spanish Vargueño Cabinet with Limoges Enamel Drawer Fronts, price $160,000, wow! 

Next we went to some Utah LDS items. He showed us a stitching of the Nauvoo Temple made by Ann Eckford. She was only 11 when she did that, but he said the quality of stitching such straight lines was especially extraordinary. That inspired me too - it doesn't matter how young or old we are, we can create works of beauty that will be enjoyed and treasured by others! Next he showed us a painting by Albert Bierstadt called Little Cottonwood Canyon! "That's the area that we are all from!" I told him. 

Yeah, I want to paint nature - flowers and landscapes. Our neighbors first visited this gallery like 5 years ago when their friend, Brad Teare, had an exhibit. This is one of his paintings - Grand Monument. 

Next we went upstairs. There was a painting titled "Light" by Gabriel Cornelius von Max was purchased from Alex Trebek's art collection. Micah said Trebek was religious and this painting was in his bedroom. 

The last thing he showed us was walnut paneling from a French Master Bedroom, all put in place to make a very ornate living space. The walnut alone was $700K, and the carving in the wood made it even more unique and rare. He said Brandon Sanderson considered it briefly for an underground room (secret lair!) he's making, but decided it was too dark.

After the gallery, we went to Gourmandise for lunch. I'm grateful for so many wonderful ladies and friends who influence me and have blessed my family in so many ways!

Very grateful for our little corner of heaven here in Granite. Melodie came here to watch Katharine for me while I was gone. Katharine peed on the floor. Mel was a champ to clean it all up. 

Mel painted a waterbottle for a friend and K sat close by and painted with her.

It was good to go out with friends today cause I've been in a bit of a slump, feeling a lack of desire and yeah, just in a funk. Abi trying to apply for passport cause she lost her old one, but I haven't been helpful to her as she's trying to figure it out. Sorry Abi, in a funk. Corey's been working a lot lately, trying to make up for so much time off over Christmas and skiing and the wedding. 

Yesterday there seemed to be a good window to go on a ride, and I felt like I should go cause, per the weather forecast, and cause I might not be able to go again until Friday (sleet tomorrow and Thurs) but I didn't feel like going. I took O&D to the church for activity days yesterday (they went to the firestation) and after dropping them off, I drove up the canyon for a short hike from the Lisa parking lot, up to the ruins and down techy. It was icy, which made me feel ok about not having gone on a ride. One good thing about sticking around home was that yesterday I finished blogging November, yay go go me. Katharine's friend Scarlett came over to play yesterday at 1:30 too, they are cute little friends. Last night the kids were being cute and silly tonight - I think they grew shorter??

Little people with little legs.

Corey and I did a late session top rope last night. Good news - I did this red 5.10d and I finally got it!

I was very proud of myself for that (details here). I was surprised I got it! It was good to get a win at the end of the day. 

Valentine Boxes and Cards

For FHE tonight we did a 2 for 1 again by having the kids make their Valentine cards as our activity. We already do so much for the kids, I sometimes resent trying to do even more on Monday nights, but I'm impressed with how committed Corey is to FHE. It's a good thing. So today they made their valentines and got to eat some of the leftover candy, thus activity and dessert both checked off, yay. Peter showing his heart valentines. 

Natalie taking over the gluing of candy onto the hearts~ 

...and Abi wearing an angel halo headband. Owen was talking about his box and trying to get ideas of what to do to so it would be a winning box. I could hear the competetiveness in his voice, ugh. I was very very grateful when Natalie saved the day once again and took over helping the boys. She cranked them all out yesterday, and did very high quality too! A milkjug frog prince for Owen - 

Mario World for Daniel, wow!

...and Perry the Platypus for Peter. 

We'll read scriptures in a bit after Corey gets home. He's working a bit late tonight but ok with that since I had FHE taken care of. Owen finished his cards, so he's practicing trumpet now. 

Abi just took K to the store to buy a few more treats. I bought a pack of 84 treats on Saturday at Costco, and I apparently snuck too many of them over the past 3 days so we needed a few more to be able have candy for all of the kids in Owen Daniel and Peter's classes. Abi is so helpful to go get that. She also took the kids to the park and made dinner tonight after they got back. Sigh, I'm going to miss all of her help when she leaves on her mission. She's a life saver.

I was a bit numb this morning, as I'm fighting feelings of regret over how we missed our health insurance payment in October AND all the notices they supposedly sent us in the mail after that. So dumb. I haven't been consumed with worry, but it's there in the back of my head trying to fight it's way forward, and I'm trying to stand in front of it and not let it get by. Things will work out. I went over to my parents house and did the dishes and swept as I felt numb. So I wasn't super helpful, but I was able to share with my dad what happened. That helped me feel better. Then as I was leaving, I thought I'd go to the Select Health Offices in Murray and see if talking to a person in person would help. I said I wanted to speak with someone about getting our insurance re-instated. Then I waited with K for 30 minutes. We played catch with a nail buffer I had in my purse while we waited. 

K was a perfect little angel.

Then a guys with a "SALES" name badge showed up to talk to me, and I thought "drat". It went about as I expected after seeing "sales". I'm not here for sales. Can I talk to a manager or the CEO? Is there seriously nothing anyone can do? Nope, nope, "it's past the grace period", can't be re-instated. He said even the marketplace can't do anything "that far back". Ugh, so dumb. I feel so frustrated about the lack of communication from Select Health BEFORE they terminated the health insurance for a family of 12 (it was Corey and I and HWALSNODPK), and I'm so mad by their seeming "tied hands" now that it's terminated and we're past the "grace period". So so so stupid. They have their proof that they told us - a digital list of notification letters they sent through the mail. We did not get any of them. It also showed that our new insurance cards were sent in December, and we did get those. That only made me feel/think that everything was on track though. We had no knowledge of our October payment not going though, nor any of notifications supposedly sent Oct 14, Nov 14, and Dec 14 that our coverage was in jeopardy. The first I was aware of it was this past Thursday. None of that mattered. He can't do anything. He did give me a quote for a short term plan that we can use through December that doesn't cover anything for $750 bucks a month. Boo. Came home, K played Starfall while I called the DWS line and was on hold for a while, to update address and do SNAP interview. Then I gave Nicole a call. She took a trip to Ohio last week, and on her way back, 8 hours from home, her van broke down. So she's spend 3 nights in a hotel, the place it was towed to was closed until today. She's rented a uhaul with her stuff and is going to drive that back home and come back for her van next week if they aren't able to get it fixed by tomorrow morning. Everyone is struggling with something. Life is a game of choose your crisis. I also had a meeting yesterday with ladies in our ward discussing some challenges ladies are having. One sister is on her way back after attending a grandson's funeral in Idaho - her 18 yo grandson died by suicide. Another sister's grandbaby was recently stillborn with Gastroschisis, a congenital defect where a baby is born with intestines outside the body through a hole in the abdominal wall. I have also been thinking of the story of the WW2 widow who buried her 4 children - a story I read with the kids a year ago that's been on my mind again recently. Katharine climbed into bed with me this morning, and I thought of that lady. Here I was with my little girl, safe and warm and alive in my arms. "Every ordinary day seems magical". My life is very very good and blessed. Things will work out. 

Brief sum up of the weekend - Yesterday I was going to blog, but instead I took a long nap, and then Corey put on a movie, so we just finished watching "David" by Angel Studios. Girls said "cringe" quite a few times, and I admit it was a bit much, with the singing and the typical variety of characters - buff big brother, fat brother, annoying tired ugly brother, etc etc. I ate cookies that we had leftover from Abi's mission call opening. The kids ate some leftover taco bar dishes with all the fixin's for dinner that the Hansen's gifted us. Small blessings, I'm thankful for to God for providing for us. 

On Saturday Corey went climbing with our neighbor Zeb, who is a young man that is Joseph's age, and while they were doing that, I got in an early ride to the ruins. I left at 8:45 am when it was 41 degrees! It was 47 when I got back. That's kinda crazy. It has been so warm. In the nice spring like weather on Saturday, Abi took kids to the park. She's so nice to do that. Daniel waiting for them to be done?

Corey and I were going to do top rope Saturday night after a re-do date night (since we didn't go out last night with the ward youth fundraiser activity). We drove up to Park City to go eat at Sammy's Bistro (only took 10 months to finally go there with Corey! I got the teriyaki salmon sandwich again and sweet potato fries, yum). Before Sammy's we first went to pick up his Medicline Pillow that we left at the Summit Watch after our ski trip last month. They said they'd hold it for 30 days, which means today. (See, Select Health! We don't miss deadlines when we freaking know about them!) The wait for Sammy's bistro was longer than expected (said 10min but it ended up being 30) but it was worth it. So we didn't make it to Momentum in time to do toprope, so we just bouldered until our hands were spent. Aaaand, I did 4 V3s! Two I'd never gotten before on the South Slab, a white V3 (below) and then a black V3. 

Also the OG Purple V3, I was able to do it about half way though the bouldering session, then one more time at the end, yay.