Wednesday, July 29, 2026

 

This week has been fun and busy.  I got bitten by what looked like a brown recluse about a week ago when we did an outdoor movie with my friend, Michelle.  I didn't see the spider, but the bite looks like a mild reaction to a brown recluse and Sam has been bitten by one at our house before so it would make sense to be the same thing.  It's doing better, but it's sore to touch and was very painful for a couple of days.

My friend, Beth, invited me to the makerspace at the library.  We were making faux stained glass.  


We had a good rainstorm along with several 100+ degree days.  Some of the wild flowers that I planted stopped looking like weeds and actually bloomed.  That's been nice.

Sam has been helping me with daycare.... Ada took over for a couple of days so that Sam could recover from getting his wisdome teeth out, but he's back. (And Ada now has a 5th wisdom tooth that they found at the dentists this week.  Only 1-2% of the population have more than 4.  Lucky duck.)

Syl has starting sleeping on top of my bookshelf. 

My daycare kids wanted to take a picture and they were all standing in a circle so I took one of their feet.  That's one that I can post legally.

We played two games of Forbidden desert/island.  Seth, Evelyn and I won within a few minutes so I think forbidden desert might be the easier game of the two.

Ada is officially an EMT!  Now that she's certified, she's on the job hunt.

Our neighbor, Blake, was in Hadestown, so Jer watched the daycare for the last hour and I took the three oldest to see it.  The story stinks and the music, dancing and acting were great. 



The finished library

Saturday, we helped my parents cut down two of their fruit trees that had gotten a fungus.  It went pretty fast and the kids did great.




The Avatar Aang movie came out. We watched it with Avatar themed dinner.  Chicken skewers (Sokka and meat skewers), russian tea for Uncle Iroh, and cookie dough for the day that the avatar was not boiled in oil.  And veggies because we need veggies.


Evelyn played prelude for church last Sunday.  She was nervous, but you could see as she played that her hands became more steady and the nerves left her.  She did a great job and I'm very proud of her.

Our AC unit in the church has been out the last two weeks.  They ordered parts but they aren't in yet.  The were able to find some big fans and our neighbor had about 200 leftover folding fans from a summer wedding that they weren't sure what to do with.


Our anti person cat sure doesn't mind cuddling with Seth for cat naps.

Seth is doing a Robotics camp for a couple of weeks.  His friend, Gabe, happened to walk in on the first day and they've been having a blast.

I dropped Evelyn off with Ada as a driving buddy.... for a week at FSY.  She's at Snow college this year and having a blast. I've gotten texts from her nightly.  Sam is at UVU and I haven't heard a peep from him.  I hope he's having a great time too.  Dad took him a copy of Bang and I bet they'll take advantage of that.


We saw the new Ephraim temple while we were dropping her off.  It's so pretty.

Syl likes Jer's trains too.


I made lentils for dinner while Sam was gone.  They're so yummy!  I like having Sam around more than I like lentils though.... he's a sweetie pie.

Elise, Alexx and Ada played a cooking game where they made breakfast while one couldn't see, hear or speak.  It was funny.




Monday, July 20, 2026

Temple weekend

We've had a couple of really neat experiences this weekend. The first was that Jer and Sam were invited to go on splits with the missionaries.  The slow cooker took a couple extra hours with our dinner so they weren't able to eat before they left and I randomly decided to cook 5 cups of rice instead of our usual 3.  It turned out that the Elders hadn't had dinner yet and they were able to eat with us.  They are cute young men and one of them had all the same interests as Sam and Jer.  The spirit leads even when we don't know it is.

The next thing was that we had organized a temple weekend with McKay and Sophie's family.  We drove up for a friday night temple baptism appointment at the Syracuse temple, then we played games and spent the night.  In the morning, we had pancakes and drove to Logan for baptisms in that temple. A papusa lunch and the adults went to do an Endownment session while the kids drove back to McKay's.  Then we watched a soccer World cup game (England and France) and played pickleball.  (I took a nap).  Altogether, we did 110 baptisms, 114 confirmations, 4 endownments..... and it was neat to be together.  The officiator in our session was very obviously special needs, but he did his calling well and the prayer he gave was down to earth and beautiful.  We were going to try to stop in at Sharon's, but I didn't want to storm her house with all of us right after her foot surgery. One of the things that comes to the forefront when you do the same ordinances in a new temple verses an old one is the fact that it is the same ordinances. Syracuse was quieter and Logan was more intimate. Both were good. 












 

Bragging

 My Ada passed the National EMT test!  She's officially certified to work as an EMT!  I'm so happy that she's finding joy in learning and wants to be able to help others.  Good luck to her as she puts her certifications to use! 

Fun things

My friend, Beth, and I did a makerspace activity at the library.  It was fun to do somethings hands on.


We got to go swimming and Nellie's pool with my parents, Viv and Thea and Nellie.  That was fun, even if it was a little chilly in the middle of a heat wave.  Then we had a picnic at Nellie's house while the kids took turns telling Alexa to play different music.

Seth had a few free meals that he earned at school that expire in a month, so I took him on a lunch date.  This cute mug is always a good date.

Ada, Mom and I finished painting their library and got to go on a bike ride this week.  That was fun.  I didn't thing to take a picture of the finished painting, but I'll try to remember to do that.



 

Andrus family

I was invited to take pictures of this marvelous family for their family reunion.  It was my pleasure and I wish them the best!




















 

  This week has been fun and busy.  I got bitten by what looked like a brown recluse about a week ago when we did an outdoor movie with my f...