2022- Week 21(May 23- May 29)

My snowballs are beautiful and white now so I brought in a few clippings for my table. They only lasted a few days until they dropped their petals but I love the way they make the house look.

Scarlett and I met for lunch at the International Peace Gardens. Stella is so darn cute now. She is mobile. Scarlett said she sat up, tried to crawl and pull herself up all on the same day. She is very wiry so I have no doubt she will walk very soon. I miss Scarlett. It was so good to see her.

Kristy Kreme was giving out a dozen doughnuts to graduating seniors so Ethan grabbed a box.

Harmons was selling Baskin Robbins bubblegum ice cream. This is the flavor of my childhood so of course I had to get some. No one I know likes this flavor but I love it so much and it makes

 me so happy.

Three months ago I ordered a sourdough starter kit from Ballerina Farm. I have been wanting to try this for a long time and when I saw her kit she made it look easy to do. But then I kept putting it off because we had a vacation then I started back up at work and life got busy and sourdough takes daily maintenance and I didn't want to have one more thing I had to remember to do each day- even though it is super quick to maintain it was more just the brain power involved for me to not forget. SO finally I decided that my little "Willa" that is the name of the starter would be born on June 1st. Then on May 27th I was suppose to go hiking with Malia but the trail is blocked off right now for restoration so I took that as a sign that I would start Willa that day instead. Malia does sourdough so I decided why wait and I would start Willa this day. I decided to do two jars so in case I mess one up I have a second chance. There was enough Willa to probably do four or five jars. Since Willa is the mother starter of my two starters then I decided to name her two daughters Paris and Marseille. Day one was very easy- I used warm bottled water and white unbleached flour. I also heated the jars with warm water to make the optimal environment. Day two there were a few bubbles on each one so I knew I must be doing it right and fed them both again. 

They dissolved the 5th ward in our stake and each ward is getting a portion of it's members. That ward had a 90% turnover in just two years and was on it's fourth bishop in five years so it needed to be done. They held a big meeting after church about on the 22nd of May and today was the first day we got our new members. I was very excited that some of the people we met when we first moved in and were part of the 4th ward would now be in our ward again. We had a root beer float party after church to get to know the new people.

2022- Week 20(May 16- May 22)

 Ethan got invited to the school awards assembly. I couldn't imagine what kind of award he might be getting because despite doing really well in school he hates school ha ha. He hates being involved at all. He ended up getting the Seal of Biliteracy in Chinese, the Class Rank Top 10% award and the Presidential Educational Award of Achievement for maintaining a GPA over 3.5 and scoring higher than 30 on the ACT- this award came with a pin he will get to wear at graduation and a certificate signed by President Biden. Only 50 kids in the class got this so it was a big honor. Jeff and I were so so proud.

Right before we were going to leave to go to the awards assembly I got a text from Lindsey Dewey. She told me that she has stage four colon cancer. I burst into tears. She is one of my very best friends. She is my age and not even old enough to start getting colonoscopies yet and stage four is really really bad with a very low survival rate. She has six kids. One son on a mission and one leaving the beginning of June. She is the most fit and active person I know she is also the most positive. She never complains about anything. She does not deserve cancer- no one does but especially her. It was so upsetting. It put a dark cloud over the whole day for me so Ethan getting the awards was a boost.

Kim has this quote hanging on her wall and I now I love it even more- we just never know what life will throw at us.

Porter got his mission call to the Chile Vina Del Mar mission!!! Whitney and Paul had both guessed Chile for him.

We went to Ashley Rich's wedding reception at Thanksgiving Point. They had a live band and a full dinner- I was in heaven. This is how all wedding's should be.

My little grass plant Melinda gave me is growing. It is guaranteed to sprout but I thought with my black thumb I would be the exception to that. 

They gave the kids a yard sign again this year.

I found this picture of Ethan in first grade with his Chinese class- now they are all grown up and graduating. He has known these kids the longest of any friends. 

I saw this on Instagram. They were talking about the effects of cell phones on kids and I would add adults too! It does wreck your attention span, rob you of your creativity and destroy your chance to be an individual without worrying about what others are thinking/doing all the time!!! 

New chalkboard quote

Hughes family dinner was my turn to host. We did taco's because they are easy to make for all the food needs we have. I did cauliflower and hamburger meat, corn hard shells and flour soft shells, Vegan refried beans, salsa, guac, sour cream, black beans, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and I made a really amazing vegan chocolate cake and Melinda brought peach cobbler. We missed Liz and Jeremy because they had Zekes seminary graduation and Spencer forgot ha ha and Danielle couldn't make it.

2022- Week 19(May 9- May 15)

 Bud Holgate passed away and Jeff conducted his funeral. This was his first funeral as bishop and he was pretty nervous but luckily the owner of the mortuary is a stake president so he walked Jeff though everything he would need to know. They also gave him a nice leather folder with all kinds of information on how to do a funeral. He did an amazing job. I was so proud of him for helping it to be a beautiful and special meeting. Bud was such a neat man. He was so loving and kind. His wife Carol was my minister for a time. After the internment Bud had requested that everyone sign his casket. I had never seen this done before and at first I wasn't sure what to think but I loved the idea.

We did another pickle ball night with the Shaw's. Jeff's ankle is still bad so he stayed home.

Since we replanted Jeff's plant is has gone crazy and grown so much.

2022- Week 18(May 2- May 8)

 We celebrated Archer's 2nd birthday at a party at his house in Layton. What a cute kid. He loves monster trucks and he loves his Pa- Greg. 

Jeff's foot is not looking good. His toes are turning black and it's still so swollen- but it's only been a few days so hopefully it will heal quickly.

Jeff and I went to the foundation dinner for my work. They held it in the Pioneer Center. We sat with Traci and her son Jonah, Stephanie and Mike and Marta and Lynden. It was a fun night. The food was wonderful and we got to hear from the sculptures of the Pioneer Children's Memorial, Stefanie and Roger Hunt. They talked about all the miracles it took to create the 26 life size pieces in less than a year. I had no idea how labor intensive it is to make a bronze sculpture. Then we played LRC to try and win a potted plant on our table. Stephanie won. I am glad to be part of this amazing park.

Ethan got this note sent home. We are so proud of him.

Elissa and I had lunch the other day and she introduced me to Olipop. It is a prebiotic soda. As you can see it is way better to drink than regular soda with all the sugar. She was babysitting Blayke a sweet little two year old girl that is a total parrot. She was repeating everything Elissa said. At one point Elissa was telling me how mad her husband was about something and she said "And he was so mad" then Blayke would not stop saying it in the exact same tone Elissa used. It was so funny. Anyways I am trying all the flavors of Olipop and so far I love root beer best.

We went to Alisa Jones house to learn about plants for Activity Days. She has hundreds of plants and the boys were so captivated. At the end she helped them plant a primrose to give to their mom for Mother's Day.

I ordered cake jars again this year and Whitney got one for me. I am such a fan of these jars! The strawberry shortcake jar was amazing.

I could tell Ethan was down one day so we made a Swig run. 

My snowball bush is in bloom.

Mother's day was wonderful. My family is always so kind to me. They bought me a new dress and Jeff got me some new blog books. They made me breakfast. He didn't have any meetings and I went to visit Julia to take her a cake jar. My mom came over for dinner again this year and we had pizza like last year. Kim gave me a darling little plant in a teacup.

2022- Week 17(Apr 25- May 1)

 I tried my hand at making pulled pork egg rolls with homemade egg roll wrappers. They were really easy to make so I will probably make my own from now on. I am loving this Uncle Ben Jasmine Ready Rice. I love that I can have rice ready in 90 seconds.

My bulbs are coming up!

For Activity Days we did a Gentleman's Club. We invited Paul Maddock to come teach the boys about manners and how to be a gentleman. At the end we served strawberry shortcake on China. He talked about how in sports the rules help everyone to have fun and be safe. In church we have commandments that do the same thing and in society we have manners that help there to be civility so we all can get along and coexist. 

Jeff went on his annual golf trip to St. George. He was so excited. He came home with a sprained ankle. The wives all got together and went to dinner at Cafe Trio downtown. It was such a great place and the food was wonderful. I love these ladies! 

Left to right: Brienne, Norma, Me, Alaina, Sue and Haylee Missing was Heidi

It is mission call season. We have gone to two call openings this week for Ethan's friends. David Griffiths got called to Tawain and Jamin Thompson got called to California- Mandarin speaking. 

We have a ton of new babies at the park! One of the goats was born on Kim's birthday and she was there so they named it Kim.

Miss Ashtyn turned 21 this week! We made a whole day out of her birthday. She and Whitney and I went to breakfast at Rio Acai Bowls- so good. Then we went to Fashion Place Mall and shopped. She got some cute clothes, jewelry and body care items. After we went home and got ready for dinner. She wanted to go to Costa Vida. She invited Baylee and Nana to join us. Then we came home and played games. Baylee had made her a cake so we sang happy birthday and took some pictures. It was an amazing day. Ashtyn is such a fun person. She is the kindest and she is so accepting and loving of people. People feel safe with her. Her testimony is solid and you feel the spirit when she speaks of God. She is a great speaker in fact. She has a way of sharing her thoughts so beautifully. She is brave. I could never live in another country without my family. She loves to do things with friends and be around people. She is always up for an adventure or party or late night Target run. She loves to have her nails done. She is very much like Sharon. We gave her a diamond necklace for this birthday. I hope she knows that we adore her and think she is amazing.

This was a soda she drank in Portugal a lot so she was excited to see it here.