2022- Week 34(Aug 22- Aug 28)

 After many many years of saving up my Walmart plastic bags by some miracle I actually finally remembered to drop them off in the recycle bin at the store.

We did a back to school swimming party for our Activity Day boys at Shani's house. We only had one minor incident when Logan slipped and scraped his head. It was fun and Paul Maddock brought the boys donuts. James, James, Jake, Logan, Jackson, Brody and Parker came.

Thursday was also the annual Relief Society summer salad social. I love this party so much. It is so fun! I brought my quinoa salad. I sat with Katie Hutchison, Grace Song and Margaret Stoddart and her daughter and grand daughter. I only saw Ana from the 5th ward section that came. I was hoping more of them would come so we could get to know them better. There were probably about 30 people there. At the end Alisa gave me this bouquet to take home because I am "the mother of the ward". 

Jeff and I went out with his bishopric counselors and their wives on Saturday night. B Hall and B Barney as we call them. They are both named Bryan. Their wives Tara and Melissa are two of my good friends so that is nice. We went to Salsa Leedos. We all had to get a picture in the big chair. I love giant things like this. I was a little worried about eating low FODMAP so that I wouldn't get sick afterwards so I ordered the carnitas tacos- they come in a corn tortilla with pepper jack cheese and lettuce which is all low FODMAP- and I felt great. We hung out at the Barney's afterward playing trivia games and talking. We hope to do many more of these dinners in the future. 

Sunday was Ethan's farewell. He gave the most amazing talk on the atonement. He even started it in Japanese. I was so proud of him. He gets his speaking skills from Jeff for sure. Carly Twitchell my friend Crystal's daughter also spoke. She is going to Yakima on her mission. Melinda and I ended up wearing the same dress ha ha. I think we should match all the time. We got sub sandwiches from Walmart and served them with pasta salad and watermelon. We asked all our families and friends to bring desserts. We planned for way too much food so we have a lot left over. I think we probably had 60ish people come. It was a good day. Boy were we tired at the end but it was nice to celebrate Ethan.

It was so nice of Shirlee and Elaine to come.

Our former bishop Scott and his wife Tami. He served in Japan too and Ethan got to work closely with his as the first assistant in the priest's quorum.

2022- Week 33(Aug 15- Aug 21)

Finally found some time to take Ethan and get his mission photos done this week. We just went to the temple grounds. There was a man coming out that asked if I was Ethan's girl friend- HA. I think his vision was a little off. I think we got some great shots and now I can order his count down chart.

Miss Ruby fell on her trampoline and broke her arm. It happened the first day of school. We felt so sad for her. Both our girls have broken arms and it is not fun- plus hers was partially displaced so there is a chance she will have to have surgery:(. Scott and Malia took her up to Primary Children's to have a second reduction done and so I went and put Corban to bed. Corban is the best boy. He is so cute and we have the best chats. We are all praying her arm will just heal on it's own. It was kind of fun to show Whitney the xrays and have her tell us what they meant. There is nothing she loves more than orthopedics. The reduction Primary's did looked way better than the first one so I think the odds are in her favor. What a crappy way to start your first grade year!

We moved Ashtyn into her new apartment this weekend. She is living at the Brittany Apartments in Provo. She has three roommates. The one in her room is Brynn Castillow who she served her mission with in DC. She was excited to move out again but not excited to start school. We are going to miss her being her but I am sure she will come home often. 

Whitney and I along with her friend Kennedy and Kennedy's mom Monique threw her BFF Macy a bridal shower. Ashtyn came up and helped too. We held it at Moniques house. We let the girls be in charge of decorating. They chose a floral theme. Monique and I worked on games and food. I found an amazing game kit on Etsy that had 60 editable games. We decided to to scattergories, would she rather and then I interviewed the groom Garrett about the bride. We served chicken salad sandwiches, pasta salad, jello salad, watermelon, grapes and had a charcuterie board and scotcharoos/mini cupcakes/chocolate bundt cake for dessert. There were probably 40sih people there. It was a lot of work but I am glad we could do it. We love Macy. She and Whitney have been friends for years. 

2022- Week 32(Aug 8- Aug 14)

We had our annual party with the Tanners on Monday. Ethan went skydiving with JJ and Truman the same day so he couldn't come. It's always such a good time. Since we only see them once a year the kids grow up so much. I love that we have all been friends all these years.

We did a baby shower for Reagan at work. She is over costuming. She has waited a long time to become a mom and I am so happy for her. She and her husband love The Princess Bride- in fact their license plates even have messages relating to the movie. Hers says asyouwish and his says brutesquad so I of course had to find them a Princess Bride baby book. It was a little counting book that is so so cute. I stopped by Scarlett's house on the way home to see Stella. She is already nine months old! Scarlett painted the most amazing mural in her room that had hints of her Mexican and Lithuania heritage.

My friend and neighbor Marilyn Mann fell and cracked her pelvis this week. She is one of the sweet women in our ward who lost her husband back in June. This was not what she needed to have happen while she was grieving. Our ward members took turns going over and helping her and bringing her dinner. I went three times. She has such a positive attitude. She is healing slowly and in good spirits.

Our cute neighbor Aleah got baptized on Friday night. It was just her this month so she got to do a private baptism. I love her so much. She is so sweet. Did I ever talk about the time when she was over here playing croquet with me and Brooklyn and she cheated? I knew she did but I didn't say anything and then later that day after she had gone home she came back and told me the truth and apologized. That's her- always trying to do the right. It was a special program and I love that Jeff and I get to go to all the baptisms.

My supervisor from last year and friend John House got married this week. He married Scarlett's mom Renae. She set them up a year ago and they are so cute together. I am so happy for him. He is the nicest person and will do anything for anyone. He is originally from England. They got married in the Pine Valley Chapel. Then they held a reception at a pavilion near the Mountain Dell golf course. They had it catered by Crisp Catering. They served the most amazing panini sandwiches. I love the brie and blueberry one. It was fun to hang out with everyone and since I know Renae's brother Kraig who is my neighbor there were lots of people I already knew to hang out with. 

After the ceremony I took Kraig and his family on a private tour of the park. Tresha from events saw my hair and loved it so much that she texted Kim and asked who the cute girl with the short hair was. She knows me but never sees me out of pioneer dress so she didn't recognize me. She asked me to teach her how I curl it so I sent her some YouTube videos to watch.

On Sunday we went to Melinda's to have cake for Brody's 13th birthday. How is he already 13?? Sunday was also our 24th anniversary. Jeff got me some beautiful roses and we gave each other cards. He was gone most of the day as usual being the bishop but he did get home in time for dinner. I made us a nice dinner and got out the candle sticks we were given for our wedding.

2022- Week 31(Aug 1- Aug 7)

Claudia invited me to lunch this week. I haven't seen her since they were in Thailand for her father in law's funeral. Ally was darling as usual and so excited to tell me all about getting to go to kindergarten this year. I love that she still remembers me. We had a nice visit and an amazing lunch. She made homemade pasta noodles and a yummy spicy sauce. She also made me a salad because she knows American's like to eat salad with pasta. I thought that was nice. I miss seeing her all the time. I had to leave right after lunch to pick up Tom and Sharon from the airport. Tom came home with Covid so he sat in the back and wore a mask. Hopefully since we just had it I am immune for a little bit.

I started walking again with Amee. We go early so it's not hot and I swear that Daisy knows the days I am going because the night before she will get up a million times ha ha. It has been good to get moving again. Plus I love talking with Amee.

Melissa and I went to get ice cream with Danielle. We have tried to take her out often while she has been going through her divorce. We invited Diane to come who use to live in our ward and went through a really ugly divorce but has come out ok on the other side. We thought that would be good for Danielle to talk to someone who knows what she is going through and it was really good. Danielle is selling her house now so I will be sad when she moves and isn't as close. 

 It was my turn to plan our anniversary this year. We celebrated early because we have a wedding and baptism next week. I booked us The Mysteries of Egypt room at The Anniversary Inn. That was a little fiasco in and of itself because I had booked it on the Christmas in July sale for a different weekend and then realized the activity I wanted to do ended the week before so I booked another room not knowing that they had a no cancellation policy. So now I have a gift certificate there that we will have to use another time. The room was to die for- so cute. They thought of every detail. The shower was a snakes head and in the bathroom there was a larger than life statue. We first went to dinner at Café Trio. I had really loved this restaurant when I went with the golf wives and wanted Jeff to try it. The atmosphere, location, service and food are all so perfect. This time I tried the Trio burger and it was beyond good. Jeff had the BBQ pizza which was also great. From there we went to his office to park and check out the remodel job they are doing. Then we walked over to The Cheesecake Factory to buy a few slices of cheesecake. Normally we get our caramel apple but Jeff's work gave him a $20 gift card there and we equally love cheesecake. I got fresh strawberry and he got pineapple upside down cake. On the walk back we were offered free tickets to the Broadway play that night but passed so we could go and enjoy our other plans. We stayed at the 5th South location that use to be the Salt Lake City Jail. It is hidden away at the end of the street. We reminisced about the first time we stayed there and how Jeff had blindfolded me so that it would be a surprise and then accidentally walked me right into the door ha ha. This was our third stay there and first time in this room. I brought the movie The Mummy for us to enjoy while we ate our cheesecake. That made the room come alive and even a little creepy. The next morning we slept in and then enjoyed the breakfast they provide. Delicious yogurt parfaits. I got the frittata and Jeff got the cinnamon roll. Then we had a little time to spare so we stopped at the Gilgal Garden. I had been there before but Jeff never had. It is so cool. After the garden we headed up to Park City. By the time we got there is was lunch time so we went to Subway. Then we went to the outlets and looked in a few stores. We ended up scoring Ethan a coat for his mission for $100. The same coat that I had bought him the week before for more than double the price. After shopping we went to the Utah Olympic Park. I had bought gold passes that allow you to go on nine different extreme activities. We did the Alpine Slide first. The family ahead of us had some difficulty so we all ended up in a pile up and I rear-ended Jeff. I was pulling my break so hard but there just wasn't any time to stop. I didn't even see them till I rounded the bend. He was fine and we were soon on our way. Then we tried the Extreme Tubing. Basically you ride a tube down the ski jumping slopes and they are so steep. I was scared to death but it only lasted 21 seconds and I can do anything for that amount of time. Jeff then went on to do the longer steeper one as well and I watched. We went and got in line for the zip line next but it started to rain and rain hard so they shut it down. We took shelter in the ski jumping building and there was Stephan Schumann, an Olympian ski jumper in the nordic combined giving a tour all about ski jumping so we stayed and listened. Then we hopped a ride on their bus back down to the welcome center. There is a really cool ski and Olympic museum. We hung out there a while to see if the rain would stop but it didn't so we headed home. It was a great weekend. I love spending time with Jeff. He makes me laugh, makes me feel beautiful, calms my anxiety, helps me feel confident and we just have the best time together. 24 years!

Sunday I made Thanksgiving dinner. I wanted to do this for Ethan before he left on his mission. He will be arriving in Japan just before Thanksgiving and I thought he might be a little sad. Turns out he kind of hates Thanksgiving dinner ha ha- so I guess he won't be missing it but boy do I love it and should definitely make it more than once a year!