Salt Lake City Temple, World War II

This experience happened years ago and I realized I hadn't ever written it down. A  huge family legacy of faith and perserverance has come from my great grandparents Adriana and Cornelius Zappey. Their parents immigrated from Holland and helped many Dutch saints acclimate to the United States specifically Utah. During World War II the dutch saints would hide in the basement during air raids and the women did needle point using the thread from their socks. The saints had a postcard of a painting of the Salt Lake City Temple. The postcard had crosses on each of the spires, an artistic embellishment that of course wasn't accurate but the painting was beautiful. They used that postcard as their pattern for the needle point. Then when my grandparents were called as mission presidents of the Netherlands mission after World War II they were presented the needle point. The art piece became a treasured family heirloom. My mother is the child who now displays the needle point in her home. Unfortunately the postcard that used to be attached to the back of the needle point had gone missing. My mother had expressed a desire to find a copy of that postcard. I thought in the age of the Internet surely this would be easy to find.  Um it was not. I tried multiple times without any luck.  I said a prayer asking Heavenly Father to help me locate one. Months went by and mom and I were driving down 22nd Street and we saw a consignment shop and on a whim pulled in. There was a booth that had rows and rows of postcards. They had sections for each state. I looked under Utah and low and behold there was the postcard!! What beautiful timing, to be at the right place and the right time. Heavenly Father knows all. I'm sure my grandparents were smiling at the timely gift.

This is the needle point. On the corner is a picture of the family who stitched it.

This is the lucky postcard!

First day of school 2018

 Holman is in 8th grade. He is kind, funny and disciplined! I challenged him to a fitness challenge everyday and gave up about two weeks (I should have known better push-ups do a number on my shoulder) but Holman keeps plugging along because he committed to himself to do it. He is akwaal impressing me.

 This little girl is driving! We have magnets that we put on when she she drives that say "please be patient, student driver". Not gonna lie, her driving is actually pretty bareable 😁. 

Senior year...how did  this happen...it's gone to dang fast... Luckily this year she finishes at 1pm, is home for lunch everyday and finishes senior year in early February. Lots of time left to kiss her neck.

 6th grade and killing it. So happy he is in drama, I love to watch my little thespian. Let me tell you his voice projects tgrothr the house like nothing else!

 Anna continues to be an independent thinker. She is the only one at the primary campus (although cousin Desmond is still there and we get to carpool. I love carpool club). She wears reading glasses to help her eyes "team together" which will help with her dyslexia. She looks entirely too cute in glasses. She is crazy smart and excellent at comprehension.

First day pictures for me too, it's my 9th year teaching preschool. in keeping with my New Year's goal to simplify I'm only teaching one class with 17 kids. My mother is still my most fantastic assistant and we have a ball every day.

Playing chicken with me?!

This week I took my kids to go to school to register them for the upcoming school year and on the drive over there's a part where we have to merge into one lane. I was clearly in front of another car on the right side of her but a good car in front of her and she refused to let me merge into the lane. I had to slam on my breaks so that we didn't hit and then she gave me a look like what are you thinking! I looked at her and that are you kidding me you have a nice car my cars' bumper is held up by bailing wire..  and you want to play chicken with me! If the kids were not in the car I would have played full on chickin with her cuz there is no thing to lose with my car!  But like a big girl I slowed down and let her come in... And then tailed her for the next 1/2 Mile.

July 22, 2018

We had the privilege of watching the Claridge boys for the weekend. They were entirely too fun! It reminds me of how great little kids are and the amount of energy required to keep up with little kiddos! Sweet little Stan never stayed still for a photo, he is a mover and shaker.

 I helped the Tucson Stake with their repelling activity. It was a lot of fun, Sherrie Whetten called her other friend Sherry to come and help with this. She travels with her dog and is cool enough that she even has a harness for her dog! My niece Madison was at the camp too!

This summer can be categorized with the phrase "camp" Bella, Olivia and I went to girls camp, Homan to scout camp and Parkin did an overnighter with Benjamin. So naturally, we needed more. We went camping with the Whetten crew. We went to the White mountains and camped near a creek, beautiful flowers inspired flower wreaths,

Arizona has it all!

Olivia moved to be zen in the forest.

The kiddos finished swim team season. I did not take a single swim photo since I worked the snack bar for the team. Sadly I did not witness too many races. I do know that all the kids finished in the top 8 and made it to championships in at least one stroke. Bella sadly got a concussion in early June which made her miss the majority of the season. She could not drive, practice or work for a bit. She did the bare minimum to qualify for championships, she managed to eek out  2 3rd place finishes and one 1st. Despite this concussion, she also managed to do fantastic on her ACT with a concussion! Sometimes life does not go as planned.

Speaking of life not going as planned our truck died trying to go up the mountain with scouts, this has made the ending of summer quite ridiculous. The driving schedule has been madness, getting two teenage daughters to work at three different pools, getting Anna to eye therapy and not to mention my own schedule too. Where is the car fairy when you need him? Yes that fairy is a boy. We all have roles to play.

15 and a 1/2, the 1/2 counts!!

This little girl turned 15 and a 1/2. Therefore she is legally allowed to hit the streets with an adult licensed driver, my how time flys!! To be fair she has already spent some time behind the wheel retrieving mail at the mailbox and just driving in loops around the property.  She drove us home from church today and it happened without incident. It's ironic that as we gained a new driver our truck up and died on us. Benjamin was taking Parkin and a fellow scouter up Mnt. Lemon when the truck gave its last breath. I'm glad I wasn't driving it when it stopped working and I am extra grateful that Bella wasn't behind the wheel either. Not excited about the towing fee or the mechanic visit tomorrow morning, but hey what ya gonna do about it, that's life.

Rain, girls camp and awesome brothers

Tucson had gone 108 days without any rain. The entire state was praying for rain. We especially needed it to rain so we could go to girls camp on the mountain. Thankfully the Saturday before camp it poured giving this dry desert juat what it needed. Whenever it rains this is where we go to see how much it rained. It of course only runs after monsoon storms.

Girls camp 2018 came and went. Bella was a head Youth Camp Leader, she was awesome!! It was great to see her rise to the responsibility. It was so cute to see these younger girls look up to her ( in multiple ways). A younger girl tha didn't even know her would ask her to sit next to her. Bella would happily agree and the joy on the younger camper was palpable.

Olivia did her 4th year adventure in Flagstaff. She went to a ropes course. It was a course that took 4 hours to complete. At times participants were suspended 80 feet in the air. Olivia finished the course and got a black stretchy wrist band for completion!

What did I do at camp? I helped the 1st year campers and tented with two great leaders. I helped with the 4 mile hike. The camp runs like clockwork with the youth leaders running the show, so as an adult you are there for hero support. Each day at camp feels like a week so I was there for a month 😁 Our ward made T-shirts for camp, we are the Bear Canyon ward so the picture on the back is of a canyon in a bear, on the front is a bear paw. So cute! I love these young ladies and leaders♥️

We got home safe and sound to find the three youngest spoiled by Nana. Holman left for scout camp the same day we returned. Parkin was asleep when Holman left and he was so sad that he didn't say goodbye. Benjamin told Parkin that Holman had his phone so he sent him this message, "H it's me Parkin, I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye I love you" Holman texted back "Bye I love you." These two are such good buddies they remind us of Phineous and Ferb, who always aak "Hey Ferb what we gonna do today?"

Speaking of good friends check out cousin Jared and Holman. Silly boys

Summer 2018 in full swing.

Goat babies!!

Last Saturday on the 9th our smallest goat in the middle of the night had one does. We went to go check on the goats and saw our two other pregnant goats, we couldn't see her.  Benjamin and I were joking "where is she?" "She's with her baby goat". Benjamin rounded the corner and I said where is she, uh with her baby. What an easy delivery for us! She had her all cleaned up by the morning. She has been an excellent mamma. Her own mother had rejected her, so to see her step up and be so protective and attentive is quite fun to witness. The second goat who has been a mother before delivered her 3 babies an hour after church got out, last Sunday the 10th. The kids got home checked on the goats then went inside. Meanwhile I got home from a meeting an hour later and as I am driving up I see two more babies in the stall. I go and get the kids and we were oohing and aahing over their cuteness when low and behold a third baby comes! It was a quiet and relatively quick experience. Seeing her birth made us all think that goats births must be easy.... Not so. Our poor last pregnant goat looked so ready to pop. She had the biggest belly, we for sure thought she had at least 3 babies. Her delivery happened yesterday, the 16th, in the afternoon. She was hollering! She was not happy and it was taking forever. We had a  torrential downpour earlier in the day and the kids took off to go check on the wash to see if it was flowing. They wanted out of the birthing experience! I texted my goat friends and one came on over in case there was a problem. While my friend was driving, the goat finally delivered. This buck was huge!! He was already bigger than his cousins who are a week older. No wonder she was struggling!! Sometime passed and my friend was worried she had another one inside that might be struggling. So she told Benjamin and I that one of us had to go in and check... I reluctantly volunteered because my hands are smaller. I put gloves on and lubed up...I didn't hesitate and got right in. No more babies just the one. I felt like such a ranching badass. I reached veterinarian status in one disgusting act.  So now we have 3 adult does, 3 baby bucks and 2 baby does.. Benjamin was asking me yesterday "how long are we going to do this goat thing?" Good question, for now the babies sure are fun 😁

First doe the easiest birth!

The first two births of our second goat

The one we watched that wasn't traumatic

 Because this birth happened on a Sunday there were a lot of well-dressed goat attendants, they look Amish :)