Two Hymns

I enjoyed church today. In Relief Society we discussed Elder Clement Matswagothata's (<-- amazing conversion story!) conference message "He Knows You by Name" and we were asked how we feel known by Jesus and what things have helped us know Him. I commented that when I memorized The Living Christ, that is something that helps me think of him on an almost daily basis, cause I recite it when I drive, when I swim, when I walk, when I bike, when I'm trying to fall asleep... it is in my brain and I can use it whenever I want. I especially think of Christ when I'm by the creek and remember the line "His voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters..." and ponder on what that means. So that's one thing from church, and then I also enjoyed the closing hymn we sang at the close of sacrament meeting, I went on a walk this afternoon and thought I should memorize that hymn cause of how it touched me. Songs are easy to memorize and call on, more than scripture verses I memorize, so I'm going to focus on memorizing hymns, and make them my personal psalms that I can draw upon when I need the Lord to come to me. So at church the closing hymn was Hymn #83 Guide Us O Thou Great Jehovah, it made me tear up, so I guess I'm feeling something... Some of the lines I liked "Thou art able" and the idea from verse two for Jesus to open Zion's fountains and let her blessings flow...

1. Guide us, O thou great Jehovah,
Guide us to the promised land.
We are weak, but thou art able;
Hold us with thy pow’rful hand.
Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit,
Feed us till the Savior comes,
Feed us till the Savior comes.

2. Open, Jesus, Zion’s fountains;
Let her richest blessings come.
Let the fiery, cloudy pillar
Guard us to this holy home.
Great Redeemer, Great Redeemer,
Bring, oh, bring the welcome day,
Bring, oh, bring the welcome day!

3. When the earth begins to tremble,
Bid our fearful thoughts be still;
When thy judgments spread destruction,
Keep us safe on Zion’s hill,
Singing praises, Singing praises,
Songs of glory unto thee,
Songs of glory unto thee.

So part of what I'm feeling is weariness at the messes and broken stuff of our home. One of my siblings this past week was talking with my parents about the house they are still in (since 1980) was their starter home. And the pity party part of my natural man felt sorry for myself cause we haven't had a starter home. Is there a "promised land" for us, a "holy home" (both from that hymn)? But I try to remember to recognize that God has been good to us in giving us a place to raise our family in and to feel like we've have wonderful roots established here. 

So around 4 I left for a mountain walk and was gone until after sunset. 

I took over a dozen photos. Two here.

I didn't see another person out there until the very end. I was able to enjoy the colors and sing to myself and pray. I also looked up and was singing His Eye is on the Sparrow cause that is one I remember liking a few months ago. After reading the lyrics I know this is one that would be good for me to memorize as well: 

Hymn # 1005 His Eye Is on the Sparrow

1. Why should I feel discouraged?
Why should the shadows come?
Why should my heart be lonely
And long for heav’n and home,
When Jesus is my portion?
My constant Friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.
I sing because I’m happy—
I sing because I’m free—
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.

2. “Let not your heart be troubled.”
His tender word I hear,
And resting on His goodness,
I lose my doubt and fear.
Though by the path He leadeth,
But one step I may see:
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.
I sing because I’m happy—
I sing because I’m free—
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.

3. Whenever I am tempted,
Whenever clouds arise,
When songs give place to sighing,
When hope within me dies,
I draw the closer to Him;
From care He sets me free: 
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.
I sing because I’m happy—
I sing because I’m free—
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.

Corey called when I got back to the car, 7pm Sunday evening for us = 10 am Monday morning for him and Sophi in Korea. They are hanging out with our friend Byungchul and are going to go see a volcano on Jeju-si, an island that is south of mainland South Korea, that is larger than Oahu of the Hawaiian Islands. A few pics of their Sunday, visiting a ward in Korea.

Mel said we need to teach Sophi how to smile for the camera. A pic by Paris Baguette for Abi -

After I got back home, Hyrum was packing up his stuff to go back to Wayne's so I told Corey I'd call him back. I told the kids to come say goodbye to H. 

He didn't come to church today and we've hardly seen him. He's been in the basement not feeling well. A bit of a man cold, plus probably needs to recover from his Iceland trip. The kids have been down there playing since he left. I'm a little scared to see the damage they've done. I went down earlier and they had made a huge mess of the costumes from when they got ready for the Granite Community Halloween Festival yesterday. I probably should have done all this blogging earlier to process my feelings, but instead I ate a lot of the ice cream that I bought on my way back from the temple last night. I bought it not planning to share, and I haven't, but I also planned on it lasting me this whole week, but it won't at the pace I ate it today. I started blogging here at 8:30 and the kids were downstairs watching episodes of The House for over two hours, then they did scriptures without me cause they thought I went to bed. I should now, it's past midnight. Last thing I'll share though is this broken light - 

I think this light was the straw that emotionally broke me today (thus why I needed a 2 hour reprieve in the mountains). It fell over a few days ago cause kids were throwing a bouncy ball in the front room. I can't remember if Daniel or Peter is the guilty party. I always tell them no balls in the front room, but they're kids. So they hit the chandelier, knocked that precarious lamp over, which has been broken for a long time and I just try to balance it. I've balanced it a few times over the years, but it looks like it's been needing to be balanced since atleast January 2017. Ugh, that also makes me feel depressed. So many things in our life are just hanging on (mailbox is still upright but the mail gets wet when it rainy weather, which has been a lot lately) Around here we don't fix things until it's long past urgent and a must have or I'm going to lose my mind (aka the washer and dryer two months ago). Ugh should I make a list of all the things we are still trying to "make it do or do without"?

First thing I'd do with $: pay off our debts

Then if we had money to spend, here are some wishes:

I'd like a car so I have one to use (it's been nice having Corey's car the past few days and to know I'll have it this upcoming week...) 

Van needs brakes. Lily takes the van everyday, but I don't mind being stuck home cause I'd rather stay here most of the time than drive the van. I loathe the van and the midlife crisis it's been having for years. Lily doesn't mind, so I'm fine to have that be the new kid car.

I've been mentally going through every room in the house... 

• Would love to have the basement finished
• Fix the fireplace. It's never worked since we moved here 15+ years ago.
• Screens put in the windows, most have been broken and then I take them out rather than having a torn or falling apart screen hanging from the window. Some neighbors have expressed concern when they see our kids standing by the open windows in their bedrooms.
• New mattress for us, it's got a hole on Corey's side and has been off balance/off center weight wise since it was upright in storage while we went to Costa Rica and Chile in 2010-2011
• New couches for the side room so the cushions don't slide out everytime they're sat on
• Fix the dishwasher - it's tolerable but the door is still hanging down too low, try as I might to twist it up high enough.
• Kitchen faucet handle has been loose for years (installed in 2015) 11 years is probably longer than they should last?
• Totally forgot about under the kitchen sink - warped wood and water damage from before we moved in, made worse when the sink leaked in 20
• Still need a working vent put in above the new oven
• Whole front yard porch railing sucks and needs to be replaced, posts are always falling loose
• Corey's office needs some help with the air - it's either crazy hot in there in the summer or freezing cold in the winter, so are the vent blocked? Or we need to do some other kind of furnace and ac update to that. 
• So many holes and dents in the walls
• New carpet in basement (big blue glue spot in the middle of the room from 2018)
• New carpet on basement stairs while we're at it (paint stains)
• new door stoppers
• new baseboard trim everywhere
• new door frames and hinges in several doors - the doors fall off cause the hinges get loose from kids hanging on them, then I get longer screws to try and hold them on again, right now they're all tolerable but in June (I remember it was June cause Edmund was here) the boys closet door fell off it's hinges and I just let it stay off for a while.
• Patch and paint every room in the house
• Probably need a new roof sometime? We've had several solicitors come by and tell us we need it, so I'm praying and watching for leaks.
• Ceiling fan in the girls room doesn't work and needs to be repaired
• Same with the ceiling fan in Lily's room (the small room)
• Light fixture in toilet room of kid bathroom
• Light switch in the front room that Natalie broke when she tried to turn it off by firing a nerf pellet gun at it, broke the center switch half off
• Window blinds in boys room and Lily's room, probably should re-do in all the rooms
• Back door doesn't close all the way, needs to be sealed and secured somehow
• Side door from garage to outside is busted and needs a new handle, it's all rusted
• Garage door handle from garage to inside
• Half bathroom by garage needs a new tp holder, the tp always falls off.
• Master bedroom door frame, all cracked 
• Master bathroom door handles
• Master shower door
• Ceiling in the side room from leaking from the master shower door
• Master shower heads
• Banister by the stairs has loose posts
• Need to figure out what to hang on the front room wall - the kids broke one of the mirrors, the left one, I think in May (I remember Wes was here).
• Need carpet cleaned again (Did it in 2025, and I'd like once a year, but I'm scrubbing it as best I can as needed and calling it good for 2026, hopefully won't put it off for 4 years)
• Van cracked windshield - not illegal yet cause it is still a few inches shy of going across the whole windshield, warned about that in Jan '26.
• Pilot windshield - same, crack that's almost across the whole glass
• Pilot driver side rear view mirror - maybe I can order the mirror and fix it myself?? Or have Hyrum or Christian help me? Hmm.
• Oh my gosh I almost for the Pilot's Air conditioning! Been broken atleast since the Salmon River trip in 2022, Corey and kids were reminded of that hot drive to Idaho with no cold air when we drove to Joseph's wedding.
• Also the pilot right side back door, a little sensor that says the door is closed broke, so it thinks it's always open. Thankfully it only beeps sometimes, but a visual notification/warning is always on.

I also dream of having cleaners come and a yard work service (I know I should teach my kids to work and help better). Ok, back to the chandelier. So yesterday I was talking to Hyrum and he noticed the light and I said it was the kids throwing a ball in the front room, and I had just gotten home from soccer, I had a few moments, so while I had the chance, I figured I'd go get the ladder. I balanced it again, then I thought, while I have the ladder out, I'll change the light bulbs. When I went to change the broken lamp light bulb, since it is loose, it couldn't hold itself still while I attempted to unscrew the light. That caused the wires to twist, then the light fizzled, there was a spark and a little poof of smoke and then the lights went out. I made sure that switch was off, went to the basement to try to turn it back on from the fuse box and I had Natalie watch from upstairs, but it won't come back on. So the the chandelier is out of commission until we call an electrician or whoever to get it fixed. AND the circuit that the chandelier is on includes all the front room ceiling flood lights, AND the upstairs landing lights. So that has now become the current priority and is the first thing that I'd like to get fixes asap, or we will just be super annoyed and living in a dark front room and upstairs hall/landing area for a while, which won't be good with dark winter nights approaching. Though I guess maybe it will make the kids feel like it's night time more and they might go to bed earlier? As I was making my bullet point list above and looking for some links, I went back to this April 2024 post and have been reminded of what I learned then and need to re-learn now. No one is coming to rescue me. If I want the house clean or something fixed, I need to do it. This pic I saw today made me feel seen, and I guess I'm ok to suck it up and keep raw dogging life. 

I'll remember that I can be part of the WDNC club - "from care he sets me free!" I also liked this clip from a Brandon Flowers interview. I can draw closer to Christ as I struggle in my trials. I am weak, but HE IS ABLE. He will help me and my life will be better, whether any of those circumstances change or not.

Last Soccer Games & Halloween Festival

Owen and Daniel had their last soccer games for the season today. The season schedule originally had the last games on the 10th to end before the fall break weekend, but they had one day of games cancelled cause of rain and lightening (Aug 29), so this was the make up for that. 

Owen's team played first (he's #14, oh yeah) and then Daniel. It was chilly but thankfully not rainy. 

Owen was boasting to himself about their team win on the way home, and he traced his finger along his jawline, which reminded me of the end of this BYU vs Notre Dame / Mormons vs. Catholics AI video that I saw yesterday, so I shared it with them, pretty funny. 

Hyrum got back from Iceland early yesterday morning. He spent the day recovering at Wayne's and then I was happy to see his car as we pulled in from soccer games. He was on the couch and gave his usual quiet smile. I gave him a hug and he said he has a man cold, so he didn't do or say much today, but still it was nice to have another adult in the house. We did some small talk, and he asked what happened to the chandelier light behind me. "Kids." That had been knocked over by a bouncy ball on Thursday? Then I thought "I've got 10 min right now, I'll go get the ladder and fix it." I got the ladder, took a few minutes to balance the glass bowl, but I did it. 

And then I thought I'd change the light bulb, and I now regret that, cause as I tried to remove the old lightbulb, it didn't spin out cause the whole light electrical base was loose, so as I turned it, the whole base turned, then a wire must have twisted cause there was a spark and poof of smoke, and now the lights don't work. Not the chandelier OR the ligths in the whole front room OR the lights at the top of the stairs. Yay... those are three very used lighting areas. I guess we'll be saving a little bit of $ on the power bill until we get this fixed. 

Ok, so that stinks. As I was doing and then regretting that, the kids were tearing through costumes in the basement cause they remembered there was a community Halloween festival today. So even though I'd already given my time to the kids this morning at soccer, I didn't get a break to go to the temple yet cause I had to take them over there cause I don't have any older kids to pawn this off on. H is not feeling well, Lily was at work and spare time went to her online class, Sophi in Korea, Natalie had friends over to sew/fix ballroom costumes. So it's on me. Ok let's go. 

I was proud that they made use of the costumes in the basement, though they did leave a huge mess for me. Why can they not put the costumes BACK in the bin? It takes 1 minute, sigh. So they went to the pavilion for the party. I told them I needed a minute/30 minutes alone. So I read in the car and they went. After 30 min I went to check on them. D&P, aka Ninja 1 and Ninja 2 eating donuts.

Peter got a balloon animal, a brachiosaurs. Then it was the costume contest. Each kid went up and said what they were dressed as. Toddlers first. Katharine was several things (Moana dress underneath the green Elsa dress) but she went with Elsa.

Two Ninjago brothers - Peter is Jay, Daniel is Kai.

Are you impressed I knew the characters? I didn't, had to google it. The funnest thing at the festival was seeing Brooke, one of toddler/little kid Abi's favorite people. And little Katharine about the age Abi was when Brooke was her primary teacher and their BFF-ness began. 

Brooke has a little boy that is 4 like Katharine. And the circle of life continues.

SO after the festival, I had a few pieces of candy there and back at home I wasn't able to leave yet for the temple or errands or anything so I tapped into my private stash of hardship ice cream as I continue to survive this week as a single parent (it's been nice knowing I always have a car) and then we turned on the tv to watch the last quarter of the BYU game against UCF - Univ of Central Florida. Just the last quarter, we thought...

It turned into DOUBLE OVER TIME and was as stressful as last week's game against Notre Dame, only without the win. I haven't felt that kind of anxiety in my stomach for a while. I don't think I'm built for any extra stress than my life already has. Then I finally went to the temple and did a session. Yes, that is what I should have been doing rather than watching the game. I decided I should not spend my time watching football, cause I didn't even like it. "Well someone has to do it! People are counting on this!" (Corey's quote from last week) While it was a little fun to trauma bond with Owen, I don't think I'll watch next week's game. I'll watch the BYU and Utah game ...maybe? Maybe the 4th quarter if it's close, (I'm not very hopeful for a BYU win so I'm guessing they'll be down and then I'll go to the temple instead, it's not busy on BYU game days) And after that I'm out. How does football make the world a better place? I guess people's livelihoods come from it. Is that reason enough? I trust God cares about our livelihood. Corey hasn't been working this week, he didn't get a power adaptor for his computer, so he's been present with Sophi for their whole trip so far! That is a rare treat she gets to experience! 

15 Minute Focus

Day 1 of being on my own is done. Not trying to brag but I cleaned my room today. My siblings were sending polos and talking about bedroom arrangements when we were younger, and how my mom put Camilla and Patrice together, cause they were both neat and tidy, and she put me and Jersh together, cause we were both messy. I looked thorough my childhood scrapbook and found photos to prove the truthfulness of our messy room. Then I looked around my current room and thought "Looks like things haven't changed..." so THEN I said "I'm going to clean my room, I'll be back in 30 min" and then I did. I remember doing that a few years ago when I was doing an online challenge with Holly. Something along the lines of everyone go and focus for fifteen minutes then come back and report. So I self imposed that on myself today and it was great! And I was thinking, if I could be focused and intentional for lots of 15-20 minute windows everyday, then I'd have a really incredibly productive day overall. Even just repeating that 15 min focus once every hour would lead to a LOT getting done. Especially because once I get started, I see what needs to be done and I'm in the groove and I keep going. Years ago I remember making a list of chores for the kids to do when they got home from school, and then I would look at the list and think "Well, I could do that real quick and then give them a harder chore" and before I knew it I had done half of the stuff on their original lists. Just telling myself to focus for 15 minutes and it snowballs from there. I thought today's quote on my desk calendar went along with that perfectly. 

If I can keep making the most of each "present moment" I'll find myself very happy and content and at peach with all I have done. So I'm going to do that again tomorrow. And I'll try to keep my room locked so the progress I made today doesn't get undone! I locked my door tonight when I left for "date night". I went on a hike. I collected a lot of leaves and made this collage. I like how some of the leaes seemed to not be able to decide which color they wanted to be - a red yellow and green one at the top, or a tiny half read half yellow/brown one in the middle. Pretty little leaves.

"Autumn is a second spring, when every leaf is a flower" -Albert Camus

I walked up to the ruins for my hike. The creek is still high after we continued to get more rain this week. It was coming over the top of the log I usually cross. 

And spilling over the north side of my sitting rock too!

I layed down and looked at the sky. 

3rd bridge - beautiful. 

I want to get the basement clean while Corey is gone and maybe I'll be able to start painting again this winter. That would be a good use of the present moment. I was thinking, making art really is a great use of time, cause of the three paintings I've done so far (one, two and three) I not only had joy as I created them, but they continue to give me joy every time I see them! So art is a gift that keeps giving. I will make it a priority.

Corey and Sophi have arrived safely in Korea. I'll need them to give the detail after they get back of where they went and what happened where, but from what I can tell from these photos, Corey's friend from MBA school and his wife came and picked them up from the airport. I think they arrived at like 2am?

No wait, Korea is 15 hours ahead, so when they left Thursday at 10am, at that time in Korea it was Friday at 1am, then add a 12-13 hour flight to that, so they must have arrived at like 10pm our time, which is 2 or 3pm in Korea, so that is daytime, but then why is it dark outside? Hmm, I don't know. 

Does it get dark early there too? Do they have a winter sunset at 5:30 pm like us? Maybe they did arrive at 3, then they took a long time eating or driving? I guess Corey and Sophi will need to send me details. Walking down a street and taking pics. 

Then going out to eat dinner, or breakfast? That doesn't look like a breakfast. Well actually, I have no idea what Korean breakfast foods are, so I shall wait for Corey and Sophi to give details. Maybe I'll have Sophi sit down next to me and we'll go back and edit this post after they come home next week. 

I'm sure they'll have fun. 

Off to Korea

I took Corey and Sophi to the airport this morning. We left home at 7:30, with DPK all in the car with us. Say goodbye!

They're off to Korea! ...in two more hours. Their flight was at 10:50, but they wanted plenty of time to get through customs and stuff. It's a direct flight, but it's also 13 hours (!!!) so have fun, I'm not jealous of them. I hate being tired and wishing I could sleep while being stuck sitting on a plane. So, we dropped them off, then hurried back to Granite to try and get Daniel and Peter to school on time. They made it to their class lines before the kids went into the school building. Then K and I went home for some quick breakfast before we went on a walk with two neighbors. Stephani, Kim and I had been texting about going on a walk for over two weeks, but then there was rain and other conflicts, but we made it out today. I pulled Kat along in a wagon, and she two blankets to keep her warm and brought along Belle Bear in her carseat. It was cute. After the walk, we went inside Stephani's house to see their new kitten!

I texted Corey just to give him a heads up: "My closed heart was cracked open a little bit to the possibility of maybe having a pet someday, after visiting with Stephani and hearing her talk about how great it has been, so Oct 22 was the day my heart was a little softened". I had a lot I wanted to go today, on my first day to see how much I can accomplish before Corey gets back, but chilled and visited with friends instead. 

I shared this BYU speech with the college kids today, it was given last week on 13 Oct - Presence in the Refiner’s Fire by Rebekka Matheson. I like how she talked about how our bodies help us be anchored by time and space. I need to go back and take notes, I'll come back and put them here. But yeah - PRESENCE, being anchored to time and space, and how she says or bodies were made to interact physically with things, like people and nature, not technology (yes, use technology, but don't let it push out real life physical interactions. I was thinking of her message when I listened to this video about the difference in experience between digital and physical books “embodied reading and anchoring”

Tonight Cindy Lou Who joined us at scriptures. 

Creative Natalie at it again! And I must say I think this one is one of the best ones she's ever done, my  current favorite! Natalie, I expect to see you at all the Christmas gatherings dressed like this. 

Baby Shower for Melodie!

We went down to Pleasant Grove tonight for a baby shower for Mel. 

This was mostly put on by Christian's family. His mom and sisters and SILs made delicious soups and treats for everyone, and I was blessed with good starter and brought four gorgeously pretty loaves of sourdough (2 white, 2 wheat) with some spreads (honey butter, jelly, and spinach artichoke parmesean spread). It was hosted at Christian's grandma's house. Lily Sophi and Natalie had all been there before, but I hadn't cause I was sick when they had that party for the family before Mel and Christian's wedding. Gorgeous house, like Kathy O's in our neighborhood (where Bella and Mel both had their bridal showers hosted). I was able to do an at home workout today cause Katharine was playing so perfect and sweetly by herself all day today, it was way cute. 

She was making little mermaid grotto "collections" all over my room, under pillows, in drawers, etc, while I exercised in our bedroom while also having a dozen alarms set on my phone as I was on bread duty - timing out the preheating the oven, baking 4 loaves, lids off, "bread done?" etc to make sure we were ready to leave on time. Daniel and Peter haven't been coming home after school lately, cause they'll go straight to friend's houses. Thankfully the mom of the kid's house they go to will usually call so they can check in. Today they were at Evan's and played until 5, which worked perfectly for them to be home in time to come with us  to my dad's before the shower. Watching an after school show and having popcorn, yum.

After the girls were home and the last loaves were in, and all that was left to do was take off the lid and take the bread out, I left to go get Mel some gifts: a few outfits from Kid to Kid (my favorite jumpsuits that I had for Katharine, the cute Carter Brand warm hooded outfits with one zipper that does not go down one leg), Oxiclean, Parent's Choice Diapers and Wipes (my fav brand), and then I packed that all up with a star outfit that I had ordered for Mel in July, thanks to Corey's suggestion. Our shower plan was to leave at 5:15 to go get Sophi from work at the elementary, then pick up my mom. I had told Corey my plan and when I needed to leave, but he has his own crazy life going on right now trying to finish follow up demo stuff before he leaves for Korea tomorrow, so he wasn't home and said I could leave Owen in charge of Daniel and Peter, but (since I was watching his location on Life360 and knew had he wasn't going to be home on time) I had already arranged for the boys to stay with my dad until Corey was done. So ODP came with us, they went to hang out with my dad, we got my mom, and headed out. I thought we had given ourselves plenty of time for travel, but traffic on I-15 was really bad, so we were late. It was ok though. Enjoying a lovely fall dinner. Bella was there, and Chalane, Nancy, and Jordyn came too, which was so nice.

Katharine loved playing with Alvie, and Christian was there too and he and Katharine made an amazing castle from wood blocks, WOW!

Pic of my mom and Mel. 

We left around 8:45, dropped off my mom at 9:30, and we were grateful there was no bad traffic on the drive home. We are all SO excited to meet this little guy soon!!! You're doing great Mel! Keep on hangin' in there!

Creative Natalie

We are back from a two day trip to Moab. Yesterday I thought maybe I could do a quick morning hike and then we'd leave, I could just go Grandstaff again. But then I remembered I didn't bring shoes, and that would be too cold to do in flip flops. Sophi wanted to get back so she could work and earn a little bit more money before she leaves for Korea. I told them I'd be ok to leave as soon as the sun was up. I didn't really expect them to take me literally. I didn't set my alarm last night, I was actually looking forward to sleeping in, but Sophi knocked on my door at 7:15 am! She said they (SNOD) were up and packed. Ok, I guess I'll get up. I packed Peter and Kat's backpacks last night. So we got in the car, made sure the apples and bananas were within reach, and we headed out. We made it to Spanish Fork before needing to fill up with gas. We got gas at Costco, but first we went in and I treated everyone to churros. Back home at 12:50. Unloaded the car and unpacked stuff. Corey and Lily both worked hard while we were gone. Lily worked on her class, good job, and Corey got good stuff done before they leave for Korea Thursday morning. Natalie started to work on a "Sally" outfit for Katharine to wear on Halloween, so she can match Peter (Natalie made his costume last month). 

I don't think Kat has ever seen the Nightmare Before Christmas or knows who Sally is, but whatever. Natalie worked at completing the look tonight by painting Katharine's face blue with acrylic paint, ugh...

Katharine fell asleep before scripture with that on her face, and she got her face sweaty against the leather chair, and the paint rubbed off on the chair. I woke Katharine up by starting to wash it off so she doesn't get a paint mess on her pillow or blankets tonight. Kinda hard to take off... I'm going to ask Natalie to go a little lighter on the make up, or let's actually use make up and not paint. While I think it's also too bad that they can't just use costumes we already have, cause we have two huge bins, I'm proud of her for being creative and working on developing a skill. She identifies as a seamstress and she's learning on her own, so good job. She doesn't need any encouragement on being creative. It's in her blood. She is always doing something - makeup on her face, dressing up, I need to do a master list of all her creations. When she started Young Women in Jan 2025, her YW leader asked for a photo of Natalie to use for something in the YW room, and I had to use the family photos from 2023 cause, for the life of me, as I searched through two years of photographs, I could not find ONE normal picture of Natalie. They were all of her being over the top dressed up or making crazy expressions or being a big weirdo. Oh yay, here is a classic one that showed up when I searched in 2025, this was what I was working with when her leader asked for a photograph of their newest little Young Woman... 

I was searching with words like "tape" "nose" but that took forever to find that. We'll call it Ugly Fancy Nancy. So we'll put that at the top of a master list of Natalie being creative, and maybe I'll come back and add to this over the years. A few to add to it from this past month are from this past Sunday, when she did another skeleton face paint job:

Can you figure out this one? I'm not sure what I think of it...

And on October 4, she made braces for herself from earring backs, internet helped her learn how to do that. 

Frizzy hair and glasses to complete the "nerd" look. You are very creative Natalie! I'm sure she'll surprise us with another creation very soon. 

"Natalie is creative" - MASTER LIST

Ugly Fancy Nancy

Emo Girl, Skeleton, zombie & more

Fashion Show

Royal Ball also in that same post

Hunchback (last pic)

Obese Unicorn

Jane Austen character

Rock Star

Little witch

Unicorns

3 Year Old Princess Fairy

Tinkerbell

Tea Party

Another Tea Party and Spies

Kingdom

Explorers

Elsa

And besides dressing up, she's also very good at making big creative messes for me by making things like massive forts. Well, so yeah, we're back from Moab, kids have been being kids, and Corey and I try to have a daily escape to exercise so we can keep our sanity. We went on a ride this afternoon. It was GORGEOUS...

I stopped in my wheel tracks when I looked over and saw those red leaves against that blue afternoon sky. SO SO pretty. I'm still loving fall - 

Favorite trail, favorite friend, and favorite season.

Fall Break in Moab

I am in Moab with SNODPK. Corey and Lily are home. Corey had a demo today that he stayed for, and Lily stayed so she could be under Corey's thumb on Sunday evening with her college essays and to be under his watchful eye today to help her finish an online class to fix a bad grade (AP World History). They were going to come down today after the demo, but instead, after it was done, Corey had a lot more he needed to do asap before he and Sophi leave for Korea on Thursday, so I told him it made sense to me for him to just stay. Not worth the 7 hours of driving, especially cause the kids don't want to bike tomorrow, they just want to head home. 

But the kids have had fun today and we did do something, so even though things didn't totally go to plan, I say it was a success. First thing I did today was a presentation at 9am to get $100 bucks so yay, they said it would only be 30 minutes and they kept pretty good to their word. Then after that was done it was time for our group hike. It was the one hike I know about down here, cause I did it with the kids the other time that I was here in Moab (also without Corey!) - the Grandstaff Trail. Owen Daniel and Peter walking ahead of us. 

We did this almost exactly 9 years ago, cool. We read the blog post together before we headed out. I've endured a lot over these years and I'm proud that I've documented so much of it. I was impressed with all the detail I kept in that entry and wonder how I remembered it all, cause I'm sure I wasn't writing notes about Natalie's #2 accident while I was taking care of it at 3am. Anyway, all I could remember about this hike before reading this post, was that I did it with children and toddlers, so I felt confident that I could do it with kids again. One thing I was sad about was that I forgot to grab my exercise shoes before we left last night. All I had was two pairs of flip flops. But that turned out to be a good thing because it helped me still drag Sophi and Natalie out, who also only had flip flops. 

So that first pic is of the boys, and then a few of the girls, Sophi, Natalie, and Katharine. Unfortunately I didn't get one of all of them together. One of Katharine's quotes today after seeing a rock on the ground: "Ooh! ... I want to bury this..." 

She was super cute, humming and singing and talking to herself in her imaginary world. She did super great. 

About 30 minutes in, a light rain started. It continued for probably 20 minutes. After 10 min of getting very slightly wet, SND wanted to quit and head back. I told them lets keep going, they did for a minute, but then SN stopped and took shelter and wouldn't come any further. Daniel wanted to go back to join them and to go back to the car. I gave him the key to the van and said whatever, go back, but we might keep going and if we do we'll be another hour, so yeah. We also found an overhanging rock to hide from the rain. Owen offered a prayer for the rain to stop and for SND to be safe and for us to be safe. It was 11:40. I said let's wait for 5 min, and if it stays the same or stops, we'll keep going, if it gets worse we'll head back. O&P were game for that plan but they really wanted to keep going. Katharine didn't vote, she just stayed with me. Peter waiting.

Well, it stayed the same, so we decided to just go a little bit more. 

...and as we walked, it stopped! We crossed a creek like 8 times total, did 3 times with SND before they left. It was fun, and OPK did so great. Peter carried a backpack the whole time that had 2 and then 3 water bottles cause he wanted to carry mine after I gave him a drink. He wanted to carry it to get strong and would not accept my suggestion that Owen take it on the way back or anything. 

Peter wanted to keep going, and we passed the point that I remember us getting to last time, but after an hour and 2 miles, we decided to head back. Peter reluctant to stop...

Then resigned. "Oookaaaay...

Walking back. This stretch of trail going east and west was where I think we stopped in 2017.

So Owen and Peter did super great and I look forward to hiking with them again. Peter's only complaint was that his pants were too long, and so they got wet in the stream crossings, then got weighed down with sand sticking to the water. They were hanging down over his toes and under his heels. He tripped one time near the end and after that he was done hiking and done with sand and never wanted to come here again. He was also ready to throw the pants in the trash, but I was able to wash them tonight and they are good now. That was another good thing about me only having flip flops. I had forgotten about the stream crossings. My shoes would have gotten wet, sandy, and more worn out and ruined, so I was glad I was in flip flops. The hike was easy and the flip flops handled it great. I did most of the hike back barefoot. 

Owen and Peter were playing a game they called "Galaxy Divided", it has zombies in it that they were trying to find and kill. So the hike was a success. We bought $20+ dollars worth of ice cream afterwards and, after they had some sourdough as their real food, they each has two very generous helpings of ice cream. I let Owen, Peter, and Katharine choose the ice cream cause they won the good attitude and stamina award. Owen chose Red Button cashew caramel, Peter Cravin' mint chocolate chip, and Katharine Red Button pink Animal Cookie ice cream. I also got Moose Tracks and I fear I ate most of that container. 

A little more details of this outing - we drove down last night, left home around 5, so we got an hour and a half of light, it got pretty dark when we were in Helper and Price. I don't like driving in the dark but we made it. One section of Highway 6/181 had construction and we were at a dead stop for 20 min. It was probably a mile long that we had to wait and take turn on, ugh. But the Texas Roadtrip Wrides did great. Just like ol' times. That first trip was me and SNODPK and since I had the same group and we were driving the same roads, I was thinking of that Eclipse in Texas in '24 trip again. The kids did good. We sang to Veggie Tales and they had The Chosen dvd playing in the back. We have had two rooms,  are in the Double O building, rooms 2109 for SNOD and TPK are in 2111. Peter and Katharine this morning. 

I laughed when I saw how Belle Bear slept. She is a toy after my own heart.

The internet is lousy here at the Worldmark so I'm using my hotspot. I also forgot my computer's power cord, so I only have a bit more left on my battery. I'm impressed it lasted this long! I sent Abi an email last night before going to bed. I joined in on the video call with her today while the kids swam.

Katharine made friends with two girls named Gabby and Lily, and she told them she was going to just call them Abi and Lily, cause that's easier. They were really sweet to Kat and other people in the hot tub were smiling and laughing as they heard Katharine talking to them and basically ordering the around to follow her and come paint with water and stuff like that. She's cute. 

After K was done swimming, I walked with her back to the room and saw some crazy people being weird in the gym, thinking some guy shouldn't let his kids in there, then I realized it was my kids. I tapped on the window and shook my head, then they left (NDP). Out for more respectable kid activities - like video games. 

Daniel and I played two games of Jenga. He won the first game, I won the second. They we were done, Daniel said it was too stressful. 

Natalie helped DPK play CandyLand.

Then we colored and named bats. 

Cute Katharine.

These were my bats. 

The kids watched a little tv and then we said a prayer with Abi and Corey over the phone. I'm going to bed early, yay. I told the kids I can leave as early as the 20 min before sunrise, which is 7:44 am, so we'll see when we leave tomorrow.