2019- Week 20(May 13- May 19)

It rained so much at work this week. One day my dress was soaked clear through.

Ashtyn had her final A Capella and Madrigal Concert. They sang Bohemian Rhapsody and several songs from Les Miserables. It was so good. I'm so glad she got to do this. It has been amazing.

For Cub Scouts this week we made kites- it took us the whole hour just to make three so not every boy got to have one but I emailed out the directions so they can make one at home if they want.

Whitney started college this week. She has two biology lecture days and one lab day. It's going to be a lot of extra work, but she can do it. I'm excited to see her reach her goals.

Our van overheated this week on the way home from work. It needed an oil change so I had them check it out at the same time. They told us it needed a new water pump and belt, a new thermostat, a coolant flush and two tires that were nearly bald. It was going to be around $800. Then as a precaution they checked our head gaskets and they were completely dead. He said he could make the other repairs and they might work if they didn't replace the gaskets but that it might not work. To replace the gaskets was going to be $4000. Our car has over 165,000 miles on it and he said he wouldn't pay that much to repair this car. Well neither would we so we ended up just taking it home and will need to get a new car. We aren't sure when that will be able to happen because we don't have extra money right now since we are paying for college and finishing paying off the basement. I was really hoping it would last through teaching Ethan to drive(he has no desire to drive at all so we haven't even tried yet) Jeff has had to take Trax to work or get rides with our neighbors because I have needed to still go to work. It's been working out fine. One day when I picked him up in Daybreak we were driving home and a car came barreling down the road going the wrong way right in my lane. I totally froze, slammed on the brakes and started honking the horn. The car swerved and went down a side street. Both sides of Daybreak are only one way so people can get confused. It was the scariest moment of my life. People are so distracted, in a hurry and driving so fast these days it makes me nervous every time I leave the house and even more so when the girls drive.

Ashtyn got really sick this week but she had to go to school because she has all kinds of finals going on. She had been participating in Miner Quest- a fun event the seniors do where they have to complete tasks and whichever team does the most wins. 

Her whole group also got sick so they had to quit.

We had a baby shower for a girl at work and we held it in the Atkin Home- it's one of my favorite homes at the park. I would love to actually live in it. We rent it out for events. Holly has waited a long time to have a baby and I am so happy for her. She will have a little boy this summer. I gave her a gift card to get a geneaolgy chart for his room- since that's what we try to do at the park is teach people about the past.

Malia's brother Ian got ran over by a car this week. I have been so sick about it. The driver hit him and then ran him over and drove off. It was a miracle that he didn't have any broken bones or internal bleeding. He will recover thankfully but it will be a while. It was so scary to hear this news.

Ashtyn went to the Senior Dinner Dance at Thanksgiving Point. They gave out some awards and she won the 2019 Best Dressed award. That is so her. She has such an gorgeous style. Her team also won the medic award for having to drop out of the race ill.

Jeff and I finally were able to go to the temple together. We have been going with our temple groups but haven't had a chance to go on a date there. We saw his parents which was fun and we got to be the witness couple.

I subbed in Nursery for Claudia because it was her birthday. I love love love nursery. One little boy named Max and I played catch and he told me all about his sisters and how he loves balls and Spiderman. I wish I could be in there all the time- this is the best age!

On Sunday we invited Julia to dinner. We had the Cajun Chicken meal from my freezer meals and it was amazing. It's always fun to be with her.

2019- Week 19(May 6- May 12)

Monday was the DUP District Convention. We met with the Salt Lake Far South West Company. They had a wonderful program with two exceptional violinists and then Constance Huntsman from the ISDUP spoke to us. Afterwards we had a nice lunch.

Ethan took the Chinese AP Test this week. The last 8 years of his life have lead up to this test. If he passes it with a score of 3, 4 or 5 he will move onto the bridge course in high school and be able to graduate one credit shy of a minor in Chinese. If he doesn't pass he will have to take AP Chinese again in 10th grade and try to pass the test at the end of the year. Either way is going to be fine, but I really hope he passes. He has worked so hard.

Wednesday was our Pre-Trek Activity. We rotated around to three stations- square dancing, pioneer games and butter making. Jeff and I were in charge of the butter. We brought 30 jars filled with a cup of heavy cream and then had the kids roll dice( 7 or doubles) to see who got to shake it. Some of the groups achieved butter and it was really cool to see how excited they got. Others only got as far as whipped cream. We gave them saltine crackers to try their butter on. It was so so loud. We did it in the pavilion at the stake center and by the end I was frazzled. I am not a crowd kind of girl and all the noise and chaos- even though it was organized stressed me out. 

Not sure how I will survive trek  ha ha.

Ethan delivered the art boxes he made for his eagle to the  Kauri Sue Hamilton School. Our neighbor Sheldon is the vice principal so he met us and then gave us a tour. It is a really cool school. They have a bath tub, pool, all ability play ground, special time out rooms(these reminded me of the chokey in the book Matilda)all kids of wheel chairs and sensory rooms with calming activities. It was amazing and so special the work they do for these children and adults with disabilities. There was a wall with the pictures of all the kids who died from their disabilities and it was humbling. There was also a wall with pictures of all the kids who have graduated. I think it would be so humbling to work there with these kids.

Claudia became a US Citizen this week and finished her Spring Semester at SLCC so I babysit Ally so she and Paul could go out and celebrate. They saw Avengers. I took Ally on a walk and she didn't have a jacket so I put her in Ethan's old Indiana Jones shirt that has a jacket sewn to it.

Jeff and I started cleaning out the garage on Saturday. It took us 2 hours just to do one wall- so it will have to be a project for several Saturday. It feels amazing to have it a little clean. I think we have only cleaned it out 1 or 2 other times in the 10 years we have lived here.

We got invited to go to the Hidden Valley Country Club for golf(the boys) and  dinner for our friend Phil Margetts birthday. I do not belong at a country club but it was nice and the food was great. Jeff had steak and I had pot pie and the nicest part was Phil paid for it so he could meet his food quota the club has. The Guys and McGuires also joined us.

Afterwards the boys decided to play another 9 holes so the girls all went to Alaina's house to chat. I stopped by our neighbors the Stutz home for their sons reception. It was a really fun night.

Sunday was Mother's Day. Jeff and the kids made me feel so good. Jeff made me breakfast in bed. He gave me flowers and another one of my blog books. The kids all wrote me the sweetest cards and gave me a mother's necklace with their initials.(I picked it out) Church was nice and we all got to meet in Relief Society- it was Ashytn's first official Sunday as an adult woman but she is still going to attend Young Women until the end of the school year.

2019-Week 18(Apr 29- May 5)

Ashtyn turned 18- WHAT??? How do I have an adult child? She is such an amazing woman. It made me cry just thinking of how she is entering a whole new phase of life and my role will completely change. Per tradition we filled her room with balloons while she slept and left her notes hanging on the wall. Ethan actually wrote a whole prologue all about her and says he is going to continue the story. We gave her flowers and number 18 balloons and tickets to see the Lion King at the Eccles Theater and dinner with Jeff and I at The Roof. I asked all the adults in our family to send her a letter with advice about entering the adult world and our families came through and I got so many wonderful letters. It meant so much to me and Ashtyn just loved them. I hope that they will help her on her journey and that she will know she has a whole tribe behind her cheering her on. 

Some things I love about Ashtyn are: 

1. She is so thoughtful and always doing nice things for us and for her friends.

2. She has the coolest style ever.

3. She tells me everything and I love hearing about her life.

4. She is good about reading her scriptures and saying her prayers.

5. She wrote herself a reminder note that hangs on her wall so she wouldn't forget to say her prayers.

6. She tries really hard in school- sometimes to her detriment when she wants assignments to be perfect.

7. She gets amazing grades and does homework with out me nagging her.

8. She plays the piano beautifully. 

9. She makes us laugh.

10. She is passionate- some say dramatic, but I love that she lives to the fullest.

11. She knows what she wants to do in life.

12. She still loves to spend time with her parents.

13. She is crazy gorgeous- like model status.

14. She is such a loyal friend.

15. She wants so much to have a good relationship with Whitney and Ethan.

16. She has an amazing voice and is a born performer.

17. She is a good leader and great to talk to people and make them feel welcome.

18. She has a mind of her own- Sometimes this is a problem, but I also love that she doesn't just follow the crowd and that she is confident in who she is. We adore her and it will be so hard when she heads off to college and we don't see her as often.

Unfortunately Ashtyn's birthday was the only day that would work to get all the scouts together to complete Ethan's Eagle Project. We did it at thy gym. He set up tables with the supplies for each different art project and the boys put the bags and boxes together. With all the help it only took about 2 hours. I am so glad we got that done. Next week we will deliver them to the school.

Ethan took a  practice Chinese test to get ready for the AP test next week. All his year's of Chinese have lead up to this point so I am praying hard he will pass.

There was a goose on the roof of the tithing office at work. I would love to be a bird and be able to have that kind of view any time I wanted.

Saturday night will definitely be one of my very favorite of all time. It was so fun to get all dressed up and to go to a fancy dinner just the three of us. The Roof was wonderful and the view was amazing. The food choices were amazing and so so good. They even had a sign at our table that said Happy Birthday and they brought her a scoop of ice cream with a candle and the pianist played Happy Birthday. I know she felt so special. Then it was off to see the Lion King at the Eccles Theater. Our seats were the second to last row on the top level but we still had a great view of the whole stage. This is an amazing play. It was funny and sweet and made you cry all at the same time. The actors, especially the Genie, Aladin and Jasmine- were top notch! The musical numbers far exceeded my expectations and it was worth every penny. It was fun to walk arm in arm back to the car. We don't get to do as many one on one dates as I wish we could and so I am so glad we got to be with our girl and have a wonderful night.

2019- Week 17(Apr 22- Apr 28)

We got Ashtyn's senior pictures taken this week and our family pictures at the same time. They turned out so well. I was really happy. There is something to be said about hiring a professional to do your pictures. Yes you will pay more but the quality is so much better. I have been noticing all the senior pictures being posted and so many of them have strange lighting that dapples the picture, shadows covering faces or even funky background choices where the background is the same color as the person's clothing and they blend right in. So I am glad I left ours to the professionals this time. It was worth every penny.

I worked the first three days of the week. She is scheduling me every day lately. Phoebe and Kristy came up with her school and I got to see them. They weren't one of the groups I taught but I had time to go with them to their blacksmith presentation which I had never seen. Two boys in her class told me that they needed to be disrespectful to me because that's how women were treated back then- um OK Heck NO! I was off Thursday and Friday so I could watch Melinda's kids while she had her third baby. That was the highlight of this week.

Baby Bronson Kevin Stewart was born on April 25th at 4:48 PM. He was 9 1/2 lbs. If you recall from the movie Miss Congeniality- April 25th is the "perfect date". Melinda wanted her kids to be the first ones to meet him so we waited at the hospital. She made them cute little bags that said "Happy Big Brother/Sister Day" that were filled with all kinds of fun activities. They checked her into the hospital around 7 AM and I brought the kids at 9 AM. We all thought it would be pretty quick because Brooklyn was born in 4 hours. Ten hours later.....Bronson was born. The kids were troopers and were pretty patient considering. We did leave three times to give them a break. We went and got lunch, went to the park and played on the lawn out front. Brody didn't get to hold Bronson the first day because he had to have kangaroo care for the first little while and then when I brought them back after dinner Brody didn't want to come so he got to hold him the next day.
Bronson is so dang cute and looks a lot like Brody.
It will be so nice to have a new baby around again.

I had a blast with Brody and Brooklyn running around on the grass while we waited. I taught them Mother May I and Red Light Green Light. We ran and ran and made birds nest out of grass and played tag and it was so fun. I love little kids.

 This little lady was a trooper. Here she is sewing a unicorn pillow, which she finished by the time the baby was born.

 Brody was bored after about 15 minutes ha ha

One of the things we did the next day was to go to the library. I use to love to take my kids to the library. I love the peaceful feeling there. Well apparently libraries have changed or maybe it was because we were there right before story time. It was loud- so loud, kids were screaming. There were tons of kids throwing toys, running around. We got some books and tried to sit down to read them and you couldn't even hear the kids read- we were trying to use our whisper voices. Then when story time started all the kids left to go listen and left the place a total disaster. There were toys strewn all about. No one even cleaned up. There was also a table full of IPads the kids could play- WHAT?? I come to the library to get away from those horrible things. Of course both kids wanted a turn and it looked like they had educational apps on them so we sat down for a minute. Brooklyn's had a word search and I thought that would be good until I was helping her and every single word had to do with alcohol- on a kids devise. I was not going to explain champagne to her. So I made them get off and we left with our books. Melinda actually doesn't even let her kids play IPads anymore and I think that is smart because there is a whole wide world to interact with and kids these days are missing out- plus from my own experience they make my kids grumpy, impatient and distracted and once we start it's super hard to get them to get back off the darn things. They should never be in a library!

I went to such a fun baby shower this week. It was for one of my old young women and also the sister of Whitney's best friend Macy. It was Asian themed including the food and they went all out- WOW!

BUYER BEWARE! I ordered two dresses on ModFancy.com recently for my family pictures. It was an ad that popped up on Facebook and they looked so cute. Well they never came- picture day came and went and nothing. I emailed the company three times and they did not reply. Then I got on Facebook and started reading their reviews and found out they are a scam company. They sell items that are knockoffs of other websites. They steal the photos of the items off another site and use it on their site. Then they recreate the garment. I sent them a message on Facebook and they replied right away and said my items were on their way. Then a few days later I got an email from them saying the same thing so I decided to wait and see what came. The dresses finally arrived more than a month later. They were pretty cute but nothing like the pictures and so so so thin. The one dress had no underlay and it was full of holes from the lace so you could see right through it. It was also incredibly tight around the chest. Pretty sure they are using Asian measurements. I tried to buy a full length white slip to wear under them but even with the slip you could still see everything so they won't work. I'm not even going to try to send them back because you have to email the company and pay the international shipping. It was a hard learned lesson to do my research before I ever order online again. Here are some things to watch out for:

 This is what the dress was supposed to look like.

Here is what mine looked like

Another girl had the same problem

 This is the second dress and the one I got is below.

Saturday I took Brooklyn to a birthday party and stayed with her because Melinda had never met the parents. It was really fun. They made cupcakes, painted with chalk, made crafts and ran around outside. The mom whose name I can't remember was super nice.

Saturday was the Sadie Hawkins Dance for Ashtyn. She and her friends went stag. It was a 50's theme so they went to DI and came up with some pretty cute outfits.

On Sunday I got a little tender mercy.  I've been having such a hard time going back to adult classes and just sitting. I realized that I have lived in this house for 10 years and 9 1/2 of those were spent in a presidency with a lot of responsibilities on Sundays, so to just be an observer is so hard for me. I was in Relief Society and got a text that they needed my help in Primary. When I walked in they were right in the middle of singing To Be His Child by Shawna Edwards- it's the song I chose for the kids to sing in the program last year. I had the best feeling and it felt like I had come home. I belong in Primary- it is one of my callings in life to be with children- I just connect with them.
It was wonderful.