misc

 

Never too old to wrestle

Picking up Sam from band camp. He had a blast and got to record in disney studios and play at Disneyland for the first time.

Yep, he needs glasses.  

Homework time.

Ada did homework outside with me and the daycare kids. 

We played games with Joe for his birthday.  This was the obligatory birthday photo taken by Seth.

Evelyn had two teeth pulled because they just weren't coming out but they needed to put her braces on before she was done growing.  We've been waiting for almost two years.  She was more nervous for the extractions than for the braces.  She has an expander in now.  Sam also had a filling replaced.  They'd done it and it fell out a couple weeks later... so they just took care of it for no cost.

Family Spring Break breakfast to Kneaders.

Symphony with Ada.  We did one with Sam too, but we didn't get a picture.

Evelyn was on a puzzle kick.

Cute picture of loved ones.

Vivien asked for a unicorn for her birthday.  We ran out of town, but we got it done before her surgery.  Maybe it can keep her company.

Family baptism date.

Seth makes a tent every morning.... whether the air is warm or cold, it doesn't matter... he still parks himself over the vent.

My boat and egg paintings were hung in the Scera Shell Gallery 101 for April.

Lindon temple is coming along.

St Patrick's Weekend

A couple of Saturday's ago, the Brasher's were in town.  I always get a picture of the Samuels.  This time they did a selfie.... Hello Samuels.

Sam heard about Josie getting adopted and immediately started work on this crocheted blanket. He finished it at the baby blessing.  Proud of your work Sam and even more proud of your sweet and serving heart.

My parents dropped off St Patrick's Day donuts while we were out and about.  The kids loved them and I loved that they still think about me even as a middle aged momma.

This is my burn.... We were late for Evelyn's ballroom performance and I'm supposed to eat before 7pm.  I tried to open the pressure cooker before it was done venting.  It's only a first degree and I have an aloe plant for just such occassions.  It hurt horribly the first night but it's been fine since then. Now it's about a third of the size and is a brown color instead of red.

Sam's new soccer season.  Their team won and Sam played hard.  Enzo joined his team and I'm pretty excited.  Enzo is Sam's friend, Ian's, cousin that's here for a year or two to learn English.  They've been getting to know each other at church and school.... now they're on the same team.  That will be fun.

Seth also had his first game.  He was stoked that their team also won. He likes to play defense and accidentally blocked the ball with his face this time.  He exclaimed, "I blocked the ball with my face!  Like Scott Sterling!"

We cleaned out our game/puzzle closet.  In one day, Evelyn did three 500 piece puzzles and Seth did a 100 piece one that he'd forgotten that he had.  They got stuck on a more challenging one that's still sitting on the kitchen table a couple days later.  Maybe I'll help out on that one.

 

Sam

About a year ago, Evelyn decided to make a baby blanket with the same pattern as her own baby blanket. We got it started and between she and I, we managed to do about 7 inches of it.  Then it got rolled up and forgotten.  When Sam broke his foot, he finished it.  He needed very little help from me and his sweet smile when he finished it is something I need to always remember. He wants to give it to Hazel... one of our 3 baby girls in our daycare.  

 

Sam's first attempt

 

This is Sam's first attempt at crocheting. I think it's cute, but he was fairly frustrated with it so we redid it. 

crochet

 

I finished this one for my cousin, Eowyn's baby girl.

Cousin's babies

 

My cousin Amber is having her first baby.  I'm excited for her.  These were her wedding colors, she's an art deco kind of artist and she's having a boy so I think it will work.

I fell in love with this yarn and made up this blanket for whoever needs it next.  My Mom and sister say it looks more feminine, so the next girl. $10 baby gifts, yay.

This week's pictures

Seth was more motivated to work as long as we had a zoo live stream running.  He'd complete a page and check up on the panda/elephant/mole cat/etc....

The school kept asking if we were sure we didn't need to check out any electronics.  Yeah, Jer had us covered.  He's been collecting and fixing up old machines for years.  And now we have 5 of the 6 of us that needs a computer for 5-8 hours a day.  "All of his training has been for a moment such as this." (If you couldn't guess.  I'm the one that doesn't need a computer.)

The neighborhood had a chalk the block.  Decorate your sidewalks, then take a walk and enjoy everyone else's.  

On Sunday we got to talk to a lot of family.  It was so fun.  Jer set up a Zoom meeting and invited all his Robertson family to join.  Over the course of 2 hours we got to see and talk with 7 of the 9 siblings and his parents.  We also got to see Lizzie. She and Dusty had a suspected case of COVID, but they seem to be recovering okay.  She's working hard on her nursing courses and is as pleasant as always.  Grandma got another drain put in before they could officially begin the radiation... hopefully she heals soon so that she can finish off treatments and begin full recovery.  Jay had COVID.  He's a doctor in California.  All his elective procedures have been put on hold and he's just been doing what's necessary.  They ran out of masks and scrubs and have been having to improvise.  Amy has been sewing masks ever since and has actually put some good tutorials on youtube on how to make them and how to fit them to your face.  Robert was making bread while we chatted.  It was fun to see him all grown up.  He's supposed to be graduating this May.  I'm assuming that they'll let him even if he misses the last 3 months of school.

After we hung up with the Robertsons, we sat down to have dinner and my brother McKay and his wife called from Washington DC.  That was fun.  We got to chat and see that they're doing okay.  Sophie lost her job at Amazon and McKay can work from home, so they haven't been leaving their house a lot.  Aubrey loves homeschooling.  I loved seeing them smiling so much!  

I finished my "big" project.  I've never done anything with thread and nothing this big before.  I like how it turned out, but I wish it was about 4-5 inches bigger.  I'm not willing to buy more yarn for it though.  

Ada's been drawing all over the place.

The kids have all been running a mile a day, jumping on the tramp and doing Karve with Ada and I.  It's different.  My kids like to goof off on the treadmill and I don't want to end up in the ER with any skin burns so I have been supervising that particular venture.

So the month has been a different one

This month alone, we've had 2 snowstorms, the COVID-19 outbreak spread to Utah, a toilet paper shortage throughout the world, social isolation started including: all church meetings cancelled, General Conference all digitally, travel bans internationally, a 5.7 earthquake in Salt Lake Valley... a total of 107 in a 2 day period, the airport shut down, the Kennecott mine had a huge chemical spill because of the earthquake, school being done from home, all extracurriculars cancelled, dentist and doctors offices closed, the local nursing home closed tight (we can't even deliver a package), etc.... A lot of people being affected, worse internationally.  As a side note, our cousin Cyrus was baptized recently.  So excited for him.  I wish we could have been there.

Last Saturday, we threw a baby shower for Emma and her new baby Peter.  She wanted a dragon theme.  Ada and cousin Kate provided the artwork, Jer made flatbread to eat with our medieval meats, cheeses and fruits, and I put up construction paper to make our house look like it had brick doorways and fire in sconces on the walls.   It was 10 people instead of the 40 that were invited, but I was glad to tell her that we love her in person before everything gets bad.  She has about 3 weeks left because she's due on Easter, so we hope that there will be some normalcy before her life becomes so extremely different with her baby in tow.

For our home personally, all these changes has given us more time to deal with everything in general.  Jer is still handling the Bishop's schedule and setting up online meetings.  He's working from home (took over my sewing room. I don't mind because I'm more busy homeschooling and don't have time to sew.)  I have had last week and this week off from daycare, but there is a call for daycare providers to be open for medical and emergency response workers.  I'm debating whether I will or not.  Ideally we need to stay COVID free at least for the sake of Judy, who is starting her last step in her cancer treatments, radiation for 28 days, on Tuesday.  The doctors say that she's doing spectacularly.  Of course, she doesn't feel spectacular, but if she hadn't been as active before she wouldn't be doing so well now.  At least she has all of her drains removed finally and is much more comfortable.

I'm also a moderate risk person.  I've had pneumonia 3 times, allergic to mold, and high blood pressure.  I'm going to have to see how the spread is looking over the next week.  Financially, we're okay.  Jer and I would still both have incomes (mine would be about half as big as normal, but we're not living off mine... just using it to catch up on debt).  I'm not sure the money is worth me staying open.  We've so far been able to get everything that we've needed at the store.  Long lines and waits, but we've been okay.  We had toilet paper in our storage because of the daycare, and Macey's is wonderful about not letting people hoard things so that there is always enough on the shelf.  It does make it harder on larger families to get everything that they need though.  Many of my friends have to try several stores to find basic needs, but so far has found what they needed.  My neighbors are very good about trying to make sure that people that need certain things can find it.  

All of Ada, Evelyn and my exercise classes have been suspended.  We haven't stopped paying them, because we still have an income and we want them to still be open by the end of this.  Soccer got cancelled, so Ada and Sam have been left wanting on that one.  Piano lessons have been suspended too.  I don't mind that I don't have to run all over the place, but the kids are getting bored and both Ada and Evelyn have to be very on top of exercise for their adult feet to be able to carry them well and without pain.  Ada's and my exercise class sent out a couple of small videos to do from home so that all three of us can keep up with it.  I'm very grateful for technology.  Sam and Ada have been running on the treadmill and using the backyard to keep active.  Seth is constantly bouncing, so I'm not worried about him getting enough.  Jer is running during his lunch hour, so I think that's great.  I'm a little worried about Evelyn getting enough.  Her favorite thing to do at home is curl up in her bed and read.  Which is great, but now that she's home all day....  If this turns into a long term thing, I'm going to start teaching the kids piano lessons again.  Maybe I can get Seth interested and started as well.  He is reading now, so it would be much easier.

It's been interesting to work with different people on this.  Some people are fine not seeing people and going out.  Other friends are really struggling.  One of them, 3 of her 4 kids have special needs and she just had her 2nd foot surgery.  Her husband was given permission to work from home with one of his two jobs, but he has a second job just to make ends meet.  They live in a little townhome, so there's not a lot of room to run around and play especially for her autistic 10 year old.  I've been checking in on her, and physically she's okay.  Emotionally she's having a hard time homeschooling.

Homeschooling for us has been different.  I've always said that I wouldn't do well homeschooling.  I used to teach all the kids fencing and piano.  After those plus the normal moral and emotional lessons that moms teach, they were tired of hearing from me and would withdraw from me more.  I'm now sending them to a piano teacher and the fencing center closed down so I'm not their coach anymore and it's been great... but now I'm homeschooling.  Evelyn and Sam's teachers sent very clear instructions on what they expect from the students each day.  Ada received a pile of work and an expected due date for the pile.  Seth got a pile of papers and I get weekly emails from his teacher on what they would have learned in class that week.  This week was Ireland and St Patrick.    Ada's doing well, but has a heavy math load.  Sam is doing well, but he doesn't like being self-sufficient... he manages to do it anyways.  Evelyn says that she does it all, but I don't think she really is.  I'm not sure how to make her more accountable without me hovering every step of the way. She is doing some of it for sure, but I'm not sure about all of her work.  Seth is tired of sitting at the table about an hour in and gets frustrated with me for having to sit with him.  He tells me he doesn't want a run around break in between, but he sure acts like he needs one.  Yesterday he sat with his last two papers of the day in front of him.... He wrote SSSSSSS all the way across the Name line.  Then he complained forever that there wasn't room for his name and wouldn't move on from that point because it was awful.  Yeah, he went to bed after Mom tried being diplomatic without success.  He definitely came back a lot happier and was able to finish.

I have a harder time enforcing kid chores after enforcing kid schooling.  Luckily PE is still part of their curriculum and they generally like doing that one on their own.   So far, it's doable, but I honestly feel like they are not receiving everything from me that they could from their very capable teachers at school.  I can keep them from falling behind, but I don't feel like I'm enriching the curriculum at all.  Maybe if this turns into a 3 month thing I will have the hang of it, but I'm not enjoying it at all and I'm definitely a grumpier mom after school hours.  I've seen some things saying that this will be more of an 18 month thing.  If that's true, then Ada will be sad to lose out on her first year of Jr High and her international trip with Aunt Janelle.  We'd just registered for her classes last week and she is very much looking forward to it.  If that's true, we'll be fine, but probably we won't flourish.

Home church has been half and half.  Regular scripture study has been the same, and our "Primary" meeting went well.  But the sacrament meeting was full of grumpy kids.  Two of them were way more wiggly than they are regularly.  Sam was all doomsday and cloud over his head.  Ada shut her brain down and you could see her just trying to stay out of the way.  I talked to Sam after and I really think that it's just his reaction to having so many changes all at once.  It led to a very good conversation about inviting the Spirit into our own lives no matter what's going on around us.  We'll see if tomorrow goes any better.  Our Stake President authorized us to help our ministering families bless and pass the sacrament at least monthly.  Our ministering brother came and helped Jer bless and pass the sacrament.  It was special to me to see Jer taking his duties so seriously.  I've had stay at home church before.  Often growing up we would get special permission to hold sacrament meeting at Bear Lake during our reunions (Often we had 3 or 4 Bishops present with Uncles, Grandpa, my Dad or my great Uncles).  It's not a new concept for me, but for the kids it is.

None of my ministering families felt comfortable letting people into their homes, even briefly, so I just let them know that Jer is willing if they want him to come in and help. (Two of the three families are converts and often their priesthood holders have told me that they aren't comfortable using their priesthood on their own.)  Jer's ministering families said that they would do it on their own.  One thing that I feel like is great about having that extra minister in, it brings a sense of normalcy, a bit of peace and a chance to serve.

Here are my kid's impressions so far:
Ada - says that everything is kind of exciting.  She likes the changes and loves all the new things going on.  She looks at everything like a scientist I think.
Sam - says that it's all annoying and doesn't like it all.  Definitely not a big fan of big changes.
Evelyn - says that she likes the homeschooling, doesn't like staying home from church, thinks the earthquake was funny and the Corona virus.... not a fan.
Seth - likes all of it.  He likes everyone being at home with him all the time.

Emma's blanket that I made for Peter.

Ada on St Patrick's Day with her green pancake and whipped cream.

this week

This week Seth made his first homemade sushi. He had a great time. We also made wontons without Uncle Son for the first time...

I finished this for my niece's baby shower on Saturday. She said greens and blues, I hope it's okay. I'm excited to meet baby Peter in less than a month.

Kids for the week

The Primary Program was this last weekend.  My parents came and giggled at the cute kids with us.  Sam tends to drown out the entire primary, so the chorister tried asking him to sing nicely but not as loudly.... and she found out that she has a 3 year old girl that sings just as loud as Sam.... I had a nice vengeful giggle at that one.  Sam wrote out his part, turned it in, then decided that it didn't flow well with the program and re-wrote it.  Seth sat very still and didn't really sing, but was very reverent.  Evelyn sweetly gave her part and waved at Dad.  (I got a quick wave from Seth.)  One little girl grabbed the mic and tried her hardest to make the program into a solo act.  Our family sang "Come Follow Me" at the beginning of the program.  Doing things like that makes me happy.  I feel that as our kids are starting to become teens, they are deciding that they're shy all of a sudden.... which they never have been in their lives.  I like doing things like this that help them break out of that and remember that they won't die if they do something in front of people.

Ada was vacuumed into a bag today. The Planetarium came and did an assembly at their school and the presenter chose Ada to help with the demonstration, which I thought was perfect.  They had Ada get in a giant plastic bag up to her neck and with her head sticking out.  They asked if she could move and she showed that she could.  Then they took a vacuum and sucked all the air out of the bag and asked if she could still move.... all she could do was rock around the floor.  It was awesome.

Seth has a speech impediment.  He is starting to not be afraid of talking, but he's still struggling with certain words.... Cornbelly's is one of them.  Evelyn kept asking him to talk about his field trip because he would say, "Cornfelly's".

Ada and I went on her school field trip to Biztown last week.  It's a cute little town.  They have businesses that have donated money to fund it, and because of their donation, they build a little mini store in the town.  The kids go it, apply for jobs, get hired on, take out a loan, buy products to sell, sell the products, pay off their loan, get paid for their jobs and use their money to go buy other people's products.  They also learn about paying bills, saving money, donating to charities, etc...   Ada was adorable.  She wrote up a resume, dressed all professional and got a job as a sales manager at Maverik.  I was the volunteer helping at the RC Willey's.  I stopped by during my break and Ada was cute, wiping off tables, getting people drinks, helping ring up customers with their debit cards and check books.  The whole point is to learn something.  Some kids said that they learned that they have to talk to people to make money.  Some said that it was hard to make money if you weren't in the main street.  One girl in my store said, "So that's how debit cards work!" Many people said that they want to use checks because it's easier to know how much money you have.  My friend's store didn't have very much money coming in and the kids all said that they learned that they couldn't pay their bills if they didn't make money.  All very good lessons.  They had jobs like mayor, air force pilot, delta airline ticket taker, smith's grocery store stocker, United Way worker, banker, factory worker (where they made the products to sell), TV news anchor (that would broadcast every half hour), tech people, pharmacy, and government that would come out and give you your business licenses and make sure that you're following guidelines.  It was all very cute.

Jer apparently hurt Evelyn's feelings too on accident.  All the kids were in bed and Jer went in the girls room to get some of their dirty cloths so that we could wash laundry before their veteran's day program at school.  Jer had a half an arm open, gave Ada a good night hug and started to walk out of the room.  Evelyn said, "And you won't even give me a hug!"  He left to put the laundry in the hamper and came back to hug her, but she was pretty offended.

Evelyn loves her ballet teacher and her class.  She's always showing me the things she's learning and happily talks to her teacher all the way out the door.  I love what he teacher sent home today.  It's a little goal booklet.... They're supposed to write in their book 3 things that they want to get better at.  In the front of the book is a statement about "yet".  I'm not good at dancing "yet". I can't jump high "yet".  I love that so much!  I want to use that in my Young Women's lesson in two weeks.  They are practicing for Swan Lake next May.  Evelyn keeps saying, "I hope I get to be Odette."  Which would be sweet, but I think the older girls get the main parts and the little ones get the background dancer roles.  She's has fewer and fewer days with sore feet.  I think that between the ballet and her shoe inserts we might be able to manage the pain pretty well.  She's still slightly sore and trips often, but it's sooooo much better than a year ago.  No more tears over it and she very rarely has to get out the ice packs.  I kind of wonder if her bone growth is in her hands too.... her hands look longer than other girls her age.  They don't cause a problem, so I think it's fine, and it works well for her playing the piano.  She's doing really well.  She even told me that she's the first of the students to have her Christmas songs memorized, so her teacher is having her learn a duet to play with her at the recital.

Sam is trying to be super patient with his autistic friend.  It's getting harder and harder to.  His friend wants to play only certain games and tells Sam the words he should say in the game.  He's starting trying to get Sam to skip his lunch so that they have more time to play at recess.  I told him that I had been talking to his mom, and his mom had said that the doctor said that he needed more calories because he was loosing weight instead of gaining while he grew.  When he eats at our house, he takes a whole plateful, eats 5 bites and leaves to play.  If he does that 3 meals a day, I can't imagine that he's getting enough to be healthy.  I told him that in order to play well, he needs to eat healthy too and let Sam eat during lunch too.  He said, "Okay." But, we'll see what happens this week.

While waiting in the carpool line to pick up kids after school, Seth's Kindergarten teacher saw that I was right out of her window.  She pulled up the blinds and let Seth wave at me.  I waved back happily, but when I picked him up he asked, "Mom!  Did you see me in the window?" Yep buddy, I sure did.

Evelyn is preparing for her Turkey's on Strike play for Thanksgiving.  She's going to be a squash and has been proudly preparing her part.  She asked me today, "Mom, you remember what I look like right?"  Yes. "Then you'll know what to look for up there.  I'm between "so and so and so and so"."  I think she's a little anxious.

Judy is on week 6 of 12 of the second set of chemo.  Half way!  And I've heard from several people that radiation is a walk in the park compared to chemo, so just a month and a half after this and life will be a little more pleasant.  This second set isn't as easy as the first set, but her numbers are doing well and the chemo is working.

These were pictures off my phone.... Ada the dragon girl.

Grandpa smashing leaves in the green can blew Seth mind.  He was amazed that you could even do that.

My Mom, sister and I went up to learn how to close the Bear Lake cabin for the winter.  There wasn't a ton different, but a lot of hoses that need to be disconnected.  And the power to the water heater disconnected.  It gets so cold up there that all the pipes tend to burst and if people go up and turn on the electricity during the winter after the water heater has been emptied, it burns out and has to be replaced.... so we're supposed to disconnect it from the power completely.

Janelle and my "Gus-Gus" niece, Thea.

Link (Seth)

Marx (Evelyn)

Ada and Frankie.  Ada said that she got soooo many people coming up to her and waving, pulling on her wings and she said she loved the little kids getting so excited and saying, "It's a dragon!"

Waddle-Dee (Sam)

Janelle, Sam and Evelyn at Goblin Valley.

Kids opening their Halloween cards from Grandma Robertson.  They are always excited for her cards.

Ada and her crew at Maverik.

Last week, my YW's class did a Bob Ross painting night.  They followed his tutorial and we talked about Individual Worth.  They all came out with something different and very fun, they all followed the same instructions, and all of their paintings were worth it.

The baby blanket I made for Devani's baby shower next week.

I thought this was awesome.  I pull up to my house and here are my parents sitting behind this sign.

Ada and Frankie twinners.  Honestly, they get mistaken for each other at school.... I can see why.

Vivien and Brad.  I love it.  So cute.

Evelyn got 3rd grade artist of the week.  I think it's cute.  She drew a little town with monsters walking down the street.

Baby Mia's blessing day.  The kids had the different experience of going to sacrament meeting in Spanish.  I'm so proud of my family.  Jer is making an effort to really learn Spanish and I think he's making good headway.  I challenged Sam to listen to each testimony and see if he could identify one thing that they were talking about.... and he did.  Evelyn poured over the Spanish hymn book. Seth fought for all the hymn books.  Ada patiently waited at her Dad's side and cooed at the cute little baby.