2018- Week 37(Sept 10- Sept 16)

Ethan helped with the September 11th flag ceremony and day of remembrance at school again. This year he hung up the flag. He had a little trouble finding the right hooks and I was sweating bullets hoping he wouldn't drop the flag or hang it up upside down because they were filming this for TV but he came through perfectly with a little help from the vice principal and did our country proud.

Our faucet has had a leaking problem since March. We called the company and they sent us a new part to fix it which helped for a while but eventually it started leaking again. We have kept a towel under the sink to try to catch any major leaking and then we have just kept tightening the faucet when it would come loose. Well one day I came into the kitchen and the towel was totally soaked. We freaked out and called our neighbor who is a plumber. He helped us to get a new faucet ordered from the company because it was still under warranty but it is going to take two weeks to get here so in the mean time we have the water shut off and have been using the bathroom sink- which is not so easy and has no disposal for food waste so we have to scrap everything out. One day the kids were sick of it and begged to let them use the sink for a minute. Jeff agreed and turned it back on and put another towel under it. Then he turned it back off or so we thought. There are three knobs under the sink and he only turned off two. We came home to find our ceiling in the basement leaking from the light and speaker closest to the entertainment center. Luckily we caught it before it leaked anywhere else. What a huge pain in the butt.

This huge mess is getting old too.

Tom and Sharon went on a cruise and asked me to come water the plants on their patio. It was so nice and relaxing and I may have stayed a little while after I was done to just relax. It is my dream to have a nice outdoor space like this.

You know it is Fall when I get my shipment of these babies. AH love it and love that their huge $2.95 sale coincides with Fall.

My new ministers came for a visit and brought dinner- it was so perfect with the sink out of commission. They didn't know that it was and were surely inspired.

This was a crazy week for me with scouts. We had court of honor one night- Ethan got four merit badges including his last required one of cooking. Then it was pack meeting and finally round table the next night.

 I love when the boys hug their moms!

Here is Jordan whose mom was still out of town.

 For pack meeting they did Fear Factor. First they had to eat different types of baby food and whoever could eat the most kinds won a prize. We had a few boys puke ha ha. Just look at their faces.

 This is Jack- He ate every kind even if a few almost took him down. These were not the fruit kinds, but the kinds with meat- how do babies stand these.

After the baby food they had to go outside and run around the church holding a live cricket and then if they wanted the grand prize they had to eat the cricket. This is Hawk he puked after his first bite of baby food but had no problem eating the cricket ha ha. 

We got invited to our friend Danielle's wedding. It was up at Louland Falls in Parleys Canyon and was so beautiful. There was a big wind storm that blew in and they had to move the ceremony closer to the lodge but it was still so fun.

 This is Christina, Danielle's 9 year old daughter that I just love to bits.

Here she is with her dad and me accidentally photo bombing the shot.

We got invited to a 50th surprise birthday party for our friend Mike Nance. Love him so much! His wife is hilarious. She really had to be sneaky to get him home. She bought fake movie tickets and then had her son call and say the basement was flooding. Then she went and returned the fake tickets and just stood in the lobby of the theater for 10 minutes to waste time. Then she told him that she was going to poop her pants to get him to stop at a gas station. All just to stall for time and force him to come home so we could surprise him. His face says it all!

Julia came over for dinner. She is so cute and getting so forgetful. We hear the same three stories every time we are with her but that's OK because they are great stories. We made fresh apple crisp using apple pears that Jeff and Ethan brought home from our neighbor Helen's house after they helped her clean them all up in her yard. It was so so good.

I worked the handcarts with a new girl named Taylee who is training this week. 

I am really loving the new path and I got to see my friend Alissa who was there with her daughter Sadie for her field trip.

2018- Week 36(Sept 3- Sept 9)

Monday was Labor Day and we are trying to come up with new holiday traditions that don't break the bank so this year we went to breakfast at Kneaders and then to Mulligans to play mini golf. Ethan was not thrilled about the mini golf but I think we all had fun in the end.

Ashtyn ran over a sprinkler backing out of the driveway one day and caused a huge water fountain to erupt. Yet again Jeff was out of town this day so we just had to turn the sprinklers off in that zone until he could fix it.

A friend recommended a program called STEP it stands for Steps To Everyday Productivity- . It helps you get more organized and stop drowning in piles. I consider myself to be very organized but I live with four other people who aren't always so I wanted to get some tips for them. It turned out to have some great information for me. Tips to get those big projects you've been putting off done and tips to help you keep everything you have to do each day organized in one place so that if you have some extra time you don't waste it and can do extra errands you keep forgetting, etc. The whole system costs money but they have a free seminar that's worth your time. 

https://learndobecome.com/webinar-page/

My friend Claudia asked if I would go with her to her daughter Alena surgery. She was born without enamel on her two front teeth so they are susceptible to cavities and they don't look very good and she doesn't want her to get made fun of when she starts school. I love Alena- she is so cute and I've babysat her lots of times. We had to be there at 6:30. It was early for me. I don't always sleep great so it was hard to get up. We got there an all checked in and they took us back to the room to prep her for surgery. They came in and took her vitals and health history and we got her dressed in her little hospital gown. She looked so cute. Then the anesthesiologist came in and asked her mom when the last time she had eaten anything was. Claudia had given her milk at 3 AM so they wouldn't do the surgery. It's not safe if they have anything in their stomach because you can aspirate it into your lungs and since this surgery is elective they sent us home. I felt bad for Claudia but better safe then sorry. They tell you to stop giving them any food after midnight so they will have 

to reschedule and try again.

 That new family the Hall's wanted to make some new friends so they invited ten of the families with kids their kids ages to go to a party at the husband's work. His work has some awesome amenities for the employees like video game rooms, ping pong and pool tables, massage chairs, basketball court, toys, etc. It was so fun. Jeff was out of town so he missed it but me and Ethan went and it was fun to get to know them better. Their names are Tara and Bryan and they now serve in Primary with me.

BYU game. Malia, Kellie and I had bought our husbands a ticket to the BYU game for Father's Day and it was the opening day game. We found out that Tom and Sharon and Kristy and Miles wouldn't be using their tickets this time so us wives decided to go too. Well at least Malia and I. Kellie is not a BYU fan and didn't want to go. We drove down to Provo in the afternoon and stopped at the book store first. Then we went to Costa Vida for dinner and then to Blikenstaffs Toy Store to check it out. They have all kinds of old fashioned games and candy. Afterwards we met up with the boys to go to the game. Our seats were pretty high but we had a perfect view of the field. What I like best is watching the crowd and seeing people's emotions. There was a woman behind us that talked a lot about all kinds of crazy things and was funny to listen to. At half time we went to get a cougar tail donut and had to wander all over to find one. By the time we got it and ate it and got back to our seats the third quarter was over. They ended up losing by a few points but the game was fun to watch. Malia is the best date! I think the boys had a blast hanging out together too. 

The game didn't start until 8:15 so we didn't get home until around 1 in the morning. That made for a very very long day at church. I had to do sharing time and I also had ward council in the morning. It was about service and I shared the video about the old shoemaker who was waiting for Jesus to come and in the meantime served all these people but was sad when Jesus never appeared then he realized that when he was serving others he was serving Christ and he'd been there all along. I love this video.

Sunday night was our annual party with the Tanner family. We went to their house for dinner and to let the kids swim. Their kids have grown up a lot since last year. The girls and Mason played cards and hung out and Jordan and Ethan swam. Jordan is my friend Sue's son who slept over Saturday night and came with us too. It was fun to catch up with them.

2018- Week 35(Aug 27- Sep 2)

I finally got to go back up to the park this week. I trained a few new employees on how to do the school presentation. Then I got trained on the new handcart routes. It was so great to see my boss and to be back up in the beautiful park.

I worked all week on some mailers for DUP. I am the secretary this year and it's been fun to get to know the ladies better.

There is a new family called the Hall's in our ward and their son Petyon has been coming over to hang out with Ethan. He is a great kid. His parents were recently called into Primary and it has been fun to get to know their family. They also have a 6 year old named Aidia and twin 3 year old boys that I fear I will never ever be able to tell apart. They came over this week to invite us to a party and Daisy rushed out the door barking and started jumping on their boys. She has never done that before. Yes she barks like crazy but usually she'll stay in the house. She has been so frustrating to me lately. She gets into the garbage, climbs on the table and steals food and has pooped a few times in the basement. I think it may be because she has been stressed out by us being gone, trying to dog sit the new dog and not getting enough walks. I hope now that school is in session I can be more consistent with walking her. She is a sweet dog with some very bad habits. She knows better too because after she does one of these things she will shrink down close to the ground with a sheepish look on her face because she knows she is about to get into trouble and boy does she. Ugh- I honestly do not like having a dog one bit. But I have said it before and I will say it again that every kid needs a dog. She is so good for the kids and so loving. She has a calming effect on everyone- but me. It's also a good thing she is cute so that I can't get too mad at her. I know we need to do better at helping her get her energy out so she will behave better.

We've had a leaky sprinkler and Jeff has been out of town so my neighbor came over to help me look at it. I like to learn how to do things like fix a sprinkler.

It was spirit week at school for Ethan and one day was MEME day so he dressed up like a default skin in Fortnight- whatever the heck that means- ha ha. I guess it's how you know if someone is a newbie player because their image is basic.

Tuesday I helped at the Board of Reviews for scouts. I get frustrated with how lax people treat scouts in the church. None of the boys were in uniform because the scout master didn't let them know about the boards until last minute so that wasn't their fault but then I was the only leader in uniform. I don't really think people see the value of the scouting program like we should because we are forced to do it instead of it being our choice. When I say forced I don't me we have to do it, just that it is the program the church has chosen to follow, so we do it. I admit sometimes I get frustrated with the seemingly endless red tape in scouts but I also know that it can be a life changing experience if it's taken seriously. You will learn things in scouts that you will never learn any where else. It can teach discipline like no other if the rules and regulations are followed. Just like the scout law says it can teach a boy to be

Trustworthy,

Loyal,

Helpful,

Friendly,

Courteous,

Kind,

Obedient,

Cheerful,

Thrifty,

Brave,

Clean,

and Reverent.

It was an inspired program. I am glad Ethan is close to getting his Eagle and has been able to get the full benefit of this program.

It was the Mother/Daughter night for Activity Days. What a sweet group of girls.

Julia and I went to lunch on Friday to the Black Bear Diner. I haven't seen her in a while so it was nice to catch up.

Saturday was the Stake Baptism. We had one boy in our ward get baptized. I love to participate in these special days. Jeff was out of town all week and he came home on Saturday afternoon.

Sunday was family dinner at the Shaw's. Paul and Kellie were out of town and we missed them. I love getting together with Jeff's family. We sat around and talked about all the crazy things their kids did that they didn't know about. Things like Kristy driving her Geo Metro into Harmons and honking for her friends to come out. Things like Paul blowing up someones mail box. I'm sure we will one day hear stories like this from our kids ha ha. We were on dessert so I tried two new cookie recipes. Regular chocolate chip with an all butter recipe and chocolate chocolate chip with an all butter and white sugar recipe. They tasted amazing on Saturday when I made them, they tasted good on Sunday when we ate them but were starting to get crumbly, especially the chocolate ones and then today as I write this they are dry and falling apart. I have been on the hunt for a cookie that tastes as good on day one as it does on day 3 or 5 but I haven't found one yet.