Nate got to participate in singing time in Primary this week. Natalie was filling in for Shalane and had a few dads come and help. Nate was so cute, opening his mouth and eyes really wide every time he was hit on the head with the pool noodle. It ended up being super cute! It was a lot of fun for the kids. Reminded me how well Nate fits in Primary :). He's so happy there. 6-16-19
BOYS' BACKPACKING TRIP
The day finally arrived!! The boys, especially Jack and Nate, have looked SO FORWARD to this week! Nate started shopping and packing their things like two weeks ago! (so I was actually really looking forward to having all the packs and such out of the kitchen as well :) ) It was a lot of fun to watch them all get ready. Trying on their packs, watching Jack almost tip over :). Lots of fun. I can't say I wasn't nervous to have them leave, but I know Nate is capable and that he always manages to have a good time even when things don't go right, so I knew the boys were in good hands. I think they know that as well. They all got up at 5:00 am!! Finished the last minute filling up of the camel backs, and headed out! I couldn't believe they made it out the door before 5:30! I was awake to say goodbye as well as Erika, but we both went back to bed to sleep in :). Poor Nate was pretty stressed about his phone, it wasn't working the night before, but after a few prayers and a long night tending it- he did get it to work a little. So we have been able to have some contact with them while they've been gone! Which has been really nice. This is what I know as of right now:
"Camping. Just getting tents up in the rain :) at the first lake. We decided the younger ones had enough."
"We are doing great. 10 miles hike yesterday. Got caught in several rain and hail storms. Lots of fun. Lots of fish."
The lots of fish part means, this trip was all worth it :). I can't wait for them to come home! I miss them all so much!
Well, they were six hours late coming home. It was a good thing I was able to text Brad at 3:00, because I kept hearing Nate's, "If we're not back by noon, send out search and rescue." rolling around in my head and really almost did til I heard that they were still alive and coming home.
6-17-19--6-20-19
GIRL TIME
While the boys were away- the girls got to play!! We have had a busy four days of fun and new jobs and movies and treats and eating out! and shopping! It's been a blast! I can't believe how much we've done, but how much we also didn't do that we had planned on doing. Which is okay, just kinda nuts. Monday was Kelly's first day at her new job and Charity was out hanging out with friends, so I got the fridge cleaned out so I could put our groceries in, did some laundry, while Erika and Molly played with friends and colored. Pretty busy morning and the constant contractions had me concerned most of the day. Of course the first day the boys are gone, when I am not sure that the phone will ever work, I had to worry about possibly going into labor. Eye roll. Which really, why do I worry about that ever?! After picking up Kelly from work, we headed down to Lehi. We checked in at our hotel that thankfully was only going to charge us for the night we didn't show up for rather than the one we were staying for.
Weird, but I was glad. We tested out the comfy beds for a minute and then headed out for some dinner. I'm still wishing we'd just done delivery! But Olive Garden was a fun treat! I love that place. The girls seemed to like the breadsticks and salad- as was expected, although, Charity wouldn't give it the "best" rating for some dumb reason. We all ate too much food, came back to the hotel, lounged around for bit, letting our food digest a little, and then got suited up for the pool! The pool was tiny, which was okay when we were there ourselves, but the hot tub was out of order too, which was a total bummer. Next time, we decided we need a hotel with a water slide :). It was still fun, just not as much time could be spent there as we had originally planned. We ate our zepolis, treats, and watched a lot of tv, mostly house hunting, and slept a little before getting up at 8:30 the next morning. We loved the free breakfast, it was delicious. Then we got all packed up and ready to check out before going over to the Butterfly Biosphere.
It was fun that we were right there- walking distance. The Butterfly Biosphere was really cool! I was pleasantly surprised with the whole thing. They had a fun gift shop, bugs in little display cases- the elephant beetles were the creepiest, the cool greenhouse where the butterflies just flew around us and the fun playground/treehouse/slide. I thought it was really well done. I loved the big blue butterflies- they were so pretty! Molly decided she was scared of the owl ones. They are a little weird with the fake eye painted on their wings. It was pretty hot in there, so it was only like 15 minutes before we wimped out and needed to leave. But it was really cool. I was glad we ended up doing that. After the Butterflies and playing for quite a while, we headed up to the Outlets of Traverse Mountain and grabbed some Panda Express before browsing the shops! This ended up being a lot of fun! I wasn't sure. I mean, minus Molly. She's not big on shopping yet unfortunately. We found some killer deals at the Gap on cute yellow jackets for Molly and Erika and a sweatshirt for Kelz and Children's Place too. Charity chose to spend her money at Pro Image :). It was a lot of fun!
We needed to hurry home to get Kelly to work, so we did have to cut it a little short. That evening we kind of bummed around. Charity went out with friends and Erika and Molly had their friends over for water balloons. I worked on my blog book. We let it get pretty late before thinking about dinner- Charity was kind enough to get some stuff for quesadillas when she was getting medical tape for her hurt finger. I had to go to the dumb DGL meeting that night and it ended up going way longer than I had expected. Who knew everyone could be so talkative! We picked up Kelly at 11:00 and came home and still had our movie night- Return to Me. We did not go to bed until like 1:35!! Kinda nuts. Wednesday was fun, we slept in, went to playgroup with the Maughans, then off to Costa Vida before doing some shopping for pants for both Charity and Kelly (work and EFY), this is when I found the CUTEST little, pink, hoodie for baby Sparkle, she's going to love it. Then we took Charity to work and went to see the new Aladdin!
What a fun movie! I really liked it! I think we all did. Molly had been begging to get treats through the whole thing, so she threw a huge fit at the end when we didn't. But other than that, she did really well. We took Kelly to her friends' birthday party when we got done, and Erika and I and a sleeping Molly went to Dairy Queen for some dinner, before picking up Charity and getting treats at Winco. We were a half hour late for the walkabout, but we were still able to enjoy some chatting with friends. That went pretty late, Charity was out with Iferg, and then picking up Kelly later, we didn't get the movie started for the second time until about 10:00. We watched Troop Beverly Hills. Love that movie. I think the girls even liked it a little. It was another late night and I was relieved to go to bed when it was time. With the boys coming home and the girls working Thursday was a bit of a bust. Erika and I racked our brains for something to do, but all we can come up with is getting her hair trimmed and possibly heading over to the pool later. We'll see if those things happen :). It's been such a fun week though! I loved being with my girls and having this time together! I hope we get to do this every year- with Nate's plans the way they are, I think we will- and that they can be fond memories for us to look back on! I wish I'd taken more pics!! 6-17-19--6-20-19
DOCTOR APPOINTMENT- 35 WEEKS
While Erika and I were racking our brains for something to do, my 2:00 alarm for my 2:45 doctor appointment went off! I was a little shocked that I had forgotten about it, and since Nate and the boys were still not home, it was time to scramble a little and try to figure out what to do with everyone while I was went. Charity and Kelly were at work and needed to be picked up at 3:00 and there wasn't much else to do with Molly and Erika. I called my mom to see if she could taxi Charity and Kelly home and then informed Erika and Molly that they were coming with me! This was not Erika's favorite idea, but she didn't have any better ideas. On the way there I talked to Erika about what they would need to do- HOPING against all odds that they would not need to do the Group B test. But of course when I got back to the room, with Erika and Molly playing on my phone, the nurse informed me that it was the day for my Group B Strep test. UGH. Not cool. So I explained to Erika that I was going to have to get undressed, and she was NOT happy with that idea. We tried to put her and Molly out in the waiting room, but Molly wouldn't have it, so Erika opted to sit out there all by herself. I was bummed she wouldn't be in there to hear the baby's heartbeat, but she apparently did not mind sacrificing that little thing for not having to see me half naked. I guess I don't blame her. It was fun for her to see Erica the nurse again, and have those two in the same hallway together for a minute :), but other than that, this was not an ideal situation for poor Erika. Molly was right at home as she has been to most of my appointments, and basically played on my phone for the entire appointment, which was nice. Dr. Thackeray had gotten called off on a delivery right before our turn, so we just had Erica do everything, and that was fine. She did the unthinkable, asked about when we had scheduled our appointment for, and then told me that my chart said, "July 11th 5pm"!!! I seriously could not have been happier about that idea, and it totally made my day for about an hour!! But then I got to thinking about the whole picture and tried to be realistic. I had asked Dr. Thackeray if we could do the 11th, he had said no. There wasn't a good enough reason to do it at 38 weeks. So I could picture us going to the hospital on the 11th, all excited to have a baby, and them being like, "Wait a minute? You can't deliver today! You need to come back in a week!" Oh that would seriously kill me!! So I have been unsuccessfully trying not to get my hopes to high for this idea. It would seriously be too good to be true. I have another appointment on Friday, I will ask for clarification then, and hopefully we can get it figured out. If they've already scheduled it... I'd be all for it! But I don't want it to be something that ends in me having to leave the hospital and come back a week later. So anyway. This appointment wasn't anyone's favorite by the end of the day. But it was over and we moved on to bigger and better things- like getting our hairs cut and such! While we killed time for the boys to come home. 6-20-19
POTATO SALAD FOR 100
I know I've done this post before, but this time, I am going to be more specific and it will be a useful source for me to look back on when I need to do this much again. I spent about five hours working on the salad. From start to finish. It took 30 lbs of potatoes (not using a number of potatoes this time, since we had no idea if that meant big or small), course I did drop half a bowl out of the freezer while trying to chill them. I started boiling the potatoes and the 24 eggs. Then moved on to dicing up two jars of pickles, put them in a big bowl. Once the eggs were cooked, I shelled and diced them, putting them in a big bowl as well. I had a small window of Bananagrams before the potatoes were finally cooked (and actually, they were slightly overcooked this time, which was a bummer, so maybe I shouldn't have taken the liberty of playing a round). I peeled and diced them, alternating with two bowls so that I could put them in the freezer in between- they were so hot! Once I got one HUGE pot of 15 lbs of potatoes done it was time to mix up the dressing. I did need more cans of olives, luckily we had some in the pantry, so for future reference, probably more like 15 small cans of sliced olives. I mixed up all of these in several batches because we don't have a bowl big enough for all of it- and counted out ice cream scoopfuls into the disposable bowls as I went along. I only used half of the eggs, half of the pickles, but most of the olives for this first round, luckily too, because I needed to do another HUGE pot of potatoes- this was the other 15 lbs. So I boiled those- and there wasn't much to do while they boiled, so maybe not five solid hours cooking. Everything went really smoothly with the rest of it- I was much happier with the doneness of these potatoes, not overcooked. So I tried to mix the two a little. We had enough for the order for 100 servings and then some for me and Kelly to snack on all afternoon :). It was delicious! I hope they liked it! I was pretty tired the rest of the day. 6-21-19
DEACON OVERNIGHTER
Nate and Luke dragged their camping gear back out to the car for yet another camping trip. Less enthusiastically than on Monday of course. Even though, this wasn't a rough camp like before and they were going to spend the evening swimming in the Crystal hot springs :). It was a bummer to say goodbye to them again and know they weren't going to be sleeping in their comfy beds again. But they ended up having some fun. They were of course, happy to get back on Saturday. 6-21-19--6-22-19
NEW JOBS
So I don't know if I've posted about the girls' new jobs, and maybe it's time for an update anyway. Kelly has been training up at the Layton Costa Vida, learning all the different parts of the serving line and drive thru. She seems to really like it. The first few times she was really happy about who her co-workers were. She seems to be getting the hang of it and feels fairly comfortable there now. When she gets back from girls camp she will be working at the new Kaysville Costa Vida, so that will be even better. Then I don't have to find her sitting in "sketch town" Layton Hills Mall area, at 11:00 at night all by herself. I'm seriously still beating myself up about that one. She looks so cute in her little visor and name tag! I'm so proud of her for trying this out. She totally stuck her neck out there, asking to not work Sundays and being brave enough to ask for other days off and such, and I think they've been slightly desperate, so that's worked in her favor, but I'm just really proud of her initiative and that she has tried this out! I think she had hoped to hear back from another place by now, but I think she's actually okay with this job too for now. I'm happy because it means I get to eat Raspberry Burritos more often :).
Charity's job at the Layton, Gentile street Red Hanger has been going well as well! She couldn't have sounded happier in her text the first day when she told me how simple it was and how they get to spend a lot of time just hanging out talking and how that will work great when she is back in school, she can work on homework and such. So she seemed pretty content with her job too! We love her red shirt and everyone loves pointing out all the Red Hangers we see everywhere, although, I don't think Charity loves that as much. She isn't super proud of the place, but I think she realizes that it's money, regardless of how glamorous it is :). We're proud of her! I've been so happy for them to have found jobs and proud of the hard work it took to get them. They are awesome girls. 6-22-19
BAD MOOD SATURDAY
I was definitely down in the dumps on Saturday. And unfortunately, my mood rubbed off on EVERYONE! Plus, I think EVERYONE was a little tired from our different week and it just was not a good combo for the day. I regret it. I repented and asked for help to get rid of the mood for Sunday and found some of the coolest things during my study time on Sunday morning. Things that really helped me to be stronger and not let how I'm feeling affect my mood/day. This is not going to last forever. I will eventually feel good again and for now, this is for a good cause, so I can tough it out! I needed to show more faith and be more patient with my situation. So hopefully I can fall back on this stuff again, I know it's not going to be easy. But I can do it with the Lord's help 6-22-19
No comments:
Post a Comment