22 years and we still got the heat!

22 years of married life under our belts. I think we have officially reached that time where it doesn't feel like just yesterday we got married. No, it feels like a lot of blood, sweat and tears and...a lot of laughs. We kept up our recent tradition of going away to a small town in Arizona, this year it was Prescott which is not so little anymore. The first night we stumbled upon a concert at town square. It was awesome. We also had the best pizza we have ever had at a small mom and pop shop. The next day we hit a farmers market, a museum and two trails. After hiking we went to a soda shop and ordered 4 different drinks, cause we are still young at heart.  That night we had yummy BBQ and later DQ, to honor our roots.

On Sunday we zoomed into our ward sacrament meeting and walked around a lake before heading home. What a crazy journey life is. So many ups and downs. So many. Grateful this man came into my life and that he had no idea how good looking he was. Grateful his love language is time and service. He justs wants to spend time with me and plan outings, simple date nights and future adventures. Grateful that when I go grocery shopping he cleans out the fridge. Grateful that he does all of our laundry. Grateful that he loves the gospel and loves people. Grateful he is a good tipper. Grateful he can fix almost anything. Grateful he chose me.

 

Benjamin and Anna go to Bama!..I.n July

Benjamin and Anna had a trip of a life time back in July. They drove to Alabama with Sarah's family. It was a two day journey with 5 kids. The trip looked amazing and the rest of my family needs to make this journey! We love getting to See Sarah and Reece's family several time  year when they visit their Arizona family, we need to do the same! Benjamin was also happy to visit with his brother Jeremy and their mazing crew. It was Annas first time meeting those cousins. Its just so green!!

The Beautiful Potter family!

The Amazing Howe family!

 

Olivia's favorite childhood toy

This is an essay Liv wrote for a college application. The prompt was "tell us about your favorite childhood toy."

Growing up, Christmas at my house was always a little different than what I imagine is typical. That isn’t to say we didn’t celebrate, because we did. Hardcore. I’m talking whole house, inside and out, decked out in wreaths and knicknacks. On top of the extreme interior decorating, my family is religious so this season was always extra special. But what made my Christmases different than most was that none of my siblings or I really ever believed in Santa. I tell people this and they’re always shocked that my parents spilled the beans when we were so young, but what were they supposed to do when their 3 and 5 year old daughters came to them and asked “ why are we wrapping presents for people? Does Santa not love the poor? Why don’t they just get presents from him”? After my parents had explained systemic poverty and the consumerist christmas machine to us, all of my wish lists were addressed straight to mom and dad. Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of the mythical fat man who brings toys and we continued to celebrate the spirit of santa, but I knew he was a phony and went straight to the source of my toys. Unfortunately for my parents, their candor created a problem. We knew that they did all the buying and would go on and on about specific things so they knew exactly what we wanted. 

Christmas 2007 was a particularly memorable christmas for my mom for this very reason. Unfortunately, I don’t actually remember much from this time (my whole childhood is basically a blur), but my mom does- like it was yesterday, so i'm going off her version of events. I was almost 5, had a killer bob and self-cut bangs, and I was absolutely obsessed with dogs. So when it came time to write my list, I knew exactly what I wanted- a remote control dog. I waxed poetic about this remote control dog for weeks and weeks, and so my mom made finding one a priority. My birthday is the day after christmas so she has always tried hard to make the two days distinct and special. WIth the weight of one of  two most important days of my year on her shoulders, She looked far and wide for this remote control dog because it was nowhere to be found. After searching through an insane number of stores, she finally found one and was so excited to give it to me. 

Christmas day rolled around, and my family gathered by the tree in matching pjs and opened presents. It came time for me to open my dog and my mom waited with baited breath while I undid the wrapping. I opened the present to find a really cute, very fluffy  animatronic dog that walked and barked when I pressed a button on a remote. Seeing the excitement of my face, my mom said something like “look sweetheart, a remote control dog! is it exactly what you wanted?”. Unfortunately for her, my poor, long suffering mother realized that she missed the mark when i said “ no momma, I actually just wanted a cover for our tv remote, you know, like a cover that looks like a dog”. She was halfway heartbroken but mostly just amused that a remote cover was the object of my obsession. All i really wanted for christmas that year  was a cool way to change the volume of my favorite pbs shows. 

But Luckily for my mom, that dog toy ended up being one of my favorites for years, even if it wasn’t what I wanted. I guess I should have been a little more specific. This story of a mother's love for her daughter has an important message- People don’t really change. My mom still loves me, and I am still just as obsessed with television as I was then.

Bella back at college

Bella is back in the dorm. Major upgrades this year 1) more room 2) better lighting 3) better views 4) a sink in the room 5) more indoor bike lock space 6) Morgan Clark and Hailey are in the same dorm 7)  Madison Holman is her roommate!!

We were about to leave for campus so I had to run upstairs and put on a black shirt and black baseball hat to match her 🤣 Bella was a good sport.

First day of school during the pandemic

 Online education is no fun unless that is your first choice. These four kiddos are doing their best during these unconventional times. All are checking in online to some bit of virtual classroom. There was a lot of love for seniors last spring that had to graduate virtually and missed all their spring activities because of the pandemic. Well just as much love needs to go our for those seniors who are starting school with the pandemic. So many unknowns. I pray we can all go back to normal or at least a new normal that involves school attendance!

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Olivia my beautiful Senior. Tonight she is doing a talk for a back to school night for our Stake via Zoom. Her talk is really awesome maybe I can make a post of it so I don't forget it. She is sewing and knitting and "stress baking" the most delectable desserts!

Holman is a Sophmore, he plans to graduate next year so do I call him a Junior? He's driving and gardening and making us all laugh.

Parkin is an 8th grader. He is an excellent artist who now draws with an online program. He loves things Japanese and is great for a hug.

Anna is in 5th grade. She loves creating. This week she made a Ken doll clothes complete with a face mask so that he could go to school and shop...a face mask!

Bella moves back to the dorms On Saturday. I willtak her picture then. She works at ColdStone, works hard but plays hard too. She is always there for a cheerful pick me up!

Green grass, green pool, do-over

Our generous friends laid sod in their new home and they had left overs and we were the lucky recipients!  We got the call on Friday and prepped and bought fertilizer on Friday and quickly laid it on Saturday. It looks beautiful!! We love it. However, our pool did not. Our pool quickly matched our grass a lovely shade of lime green. Apparently we got too much fertilizer and mulch in the pool and we never could get the levels back to normal. So we had to drain the pool and power wash the sides. Power-washing is so satisfying. Now the pool looks great ... if we cold just keep the frogs at bay!

Who doesn't want to wade in green slimy water?!

Bella taking her turn.

Anna braving the blaster.

Parkin slipped into the water lucky for him boxers are the 

 

Operation Underground Railroad

This week Bella and Olivia and I went to an Operation Underground Railroad rally with the Whetten ladies. It's an anti trafficking organization that sets to bring to light this modern day slavery that effects children world wide and ultimately sets to liberate them. The United States is the number one consumer of child pornography and sex trafficking. It's absolutely heart breaking. It truly makes me fear for the US because this wickedness has a reckoning overdue.

The rally was on Thursday night. Luckily I got off work an hour early. We headed downtown for the rally. It was so hot that day there was a heat advisory even though it was early in the evening. When we arrived I thought, these are my people. People who show up to say we have got to care that this is happening in our community. Later I noticed that much of the crowd was made up of Latter Day Saints..truly my people. Sisters activily engaged in a good cause. 

The Founder of this organization is a member of the church.He worked for Homeland Security and now goes undercover to recover the children caught in this slavery. He gave an interview where he said when he first would go undercover he struggled seeing his own children in their faces and was taught how to remove those images from his mind so that he could accomplish the tasks that he needed to do. But later when he was experiencing the same sensation of seeing his own children in the faces of the enslaved children he heard a voice tell him no imagine that they are your children. He said once he realized that when he imagined those kids as his own children he began to fight that much harder to recover them. His message is to always think of the children as if they are your own. That's what we need to do. I would run on broken glass to rescue my kids. My Sabbath day fast is for those children. Pleading for their freedom. All I can do is rally, speak up, donate and pray.