Week 12: March 22 – 28

Monday [3/22]:  Jason’s school schedule shifted a little this morning as he prepares to start attending in person next week. Classes for him now start an hour earlier so he had to set an alarm to be up in time. I ended up walking down with KD to school around one and then getting in a little walk. We had some crazy weather today one minute it was sunny and nice and the next minute it was hailing. 

Katie made dinner tonight after piano lessons. She prepared tomato soup and grilled cheese which was delicious. I watched the last movie I’d selected with my Amazon credits this evening. I’m enjoying the freedom of not having to close my exercise circles every day. 

 

Tuesday [3/23]:  I cooked up a bunch of chicken this morning with my sous vide - this is only my second time using it and I’m still not sold on it. 

 

I got an email from our elementary school asking for a picture of Katie and Drew to use for the yearbook so I snapped a picture in front of our garage this morning.  I didn’t take them down to their school on picture day because I never by the individual picture packages and didn’t think of the fact that the school uses those pictures for the yearbook.  

5th Grade

2nd Grade

 

I drove KD to school this afternoon and headed straight to the nail salon to get my feet in decent shape for the Arizona sunshine this weekend. It’s so nice to be pampered every once in a while. 

 

Jason made a quadruple batch of taquitos for dinner tonight. Half for now and half to put in the freezer for another day. We had guacamole and Mexican rice and everything tasted delicious.  I met up with some girlfriends this evening just to catch up. It seems like it’s been a while since we’ve all been able to get together.

 

Wednesday [3/24]:  Jason had an ortho appointment late this morning and finally got his expander out after over four months. On the way home he declared that he’s probably already over halfway done based on how much his teeth have moved.  I explained to him he’s got a long road ahead still, but yes he’s teeth look SO much better. He’s been such a trooper about the whole thing. 

 

We also had our tennis lesson this afternoon which was so fun! Dusko was super impressed with how well we played today which we is likely due to the extra practice we got after our lesson last week. He really was very positive and complementary.  It felt great to play well and not struggle so much to have our bodies move the way that he has asked us to. Carly had a BOGO at Chipotle that she wanted to take advantage of. Tonight was her night to cook so I think an added incentive was that if we stopped at Chipotle she wouldn’t have to cook dinner. She helped pay to feed the three of us and we ran a couple quick errands before heading home. 

 

Tonight I lead my first zoom call which was a general conference bingo activity for the activity day kids in primary. I thought it went well. We kept the meeting just to the 40 minutes allowed on a basic zoom account which was plenty of time to create the boards and play one round. I also had a meeting afterward with some of the other leaders that have recently been called and the primary president to figure out when we can start meeting in person. It’s so tricky with social distancing and needing to share the building with youth, etc.. We’re hopeful that we can get the kids in person at the end of April.

 

I received a text this afternoon from our piano teacher who has been struggling with custody battles for several years. She asked me to write a character reference recommendation for her and as I was working on that the sister missionaries showed up at her house.  One of the sisters offered a prayer for Kori in her home and brought the spirit into that room and into Kori’s life. She texted me afterward and shared how the experience served as a reminder that she has a loving healthy father who cares about her. She has struggled with other issues over the years and hasn’t been active in church so reading how this experience with the missionaries touched her was pretty special and touched my heart. I have a feeling that I am going to have a new fondness for missionaries, especially sister missionaries, now that we have a daughter going out to serve. I can’t wait for Abigail to have experiences like this.

 

Thursday [3/25]:  I was in Arizona again this weekend.  Justin was home with the kids and made plans to meet up with his parents tonight at Ivar’s to take advantage of a BOGO coupon that was good through the end of the month.  Grandpa also treated everyone to Krispy Kreme.

Friday [3/26]:  Apparently Justin ordered Katie the wrong kind of fish last night so he and Katie went back today for lunch.

Sunday [3/28]:  Ten years ago today we moved to Snoqualmie. We’ve added one more kiddo to our crew since and sent our first off the college. A decade in Auburn and a decade here. Time just keeps flying by.

It took a few years for Jeanne Hansen Park to be built.  
We love having this great park in our neighborhood.

The kids loved the little park across the street from our house.  
Since we were the only house on our street for over a year it felt like our own little playground.

First Day of School 

We had so few kids in our neighborhood that the girls got picked up in a little bus

I convinced the family to indulge me with a quick trip to the falls this afternoon to commemorate our 10 year anniversary.

I’m so grateful for the growth, experiences and friendships we’ve made in Snoqualmie and the PNW in general.  I know without a doubt that moving up to Snoqualmie was the right decision for us and especially for Abigail and Carly.  Neither of them had many friends their age in Auburn that were members of the church.  Personally, I can confidently say that I’m a much more confident woman, wife and mother now than I was 10 or 15 years ago.  I’m sure some of that growth and maturity would’ve still taken place had we not moved but I know that the friendships I’ve made here have changed and influenced me for the better.  An added bonus is that I’ve also been able to maintain the friendships I’d made in Auburn as well.

 

This anniversary led me to think about how my younger kids are doing as well.  I can’t say that Jason, Katie or Drew have a tight group of friends here.  Perhaps covid is partially to blame for that.  Jason has a couple buddies but none of them are members of our ward and none of them live close by so that makes it tough.  Katie’s current best buddy is the neighbor girl who is in kindergarten (Katie is in 5th grade).  Katie’s buddy is the younger sister of Drew’s best (and only?) friend who lives next door.  It’s a small, small circle for all three of them.  I’m hopeful that as Jason enters high school in the fall and starts seminary with kids from the three wards in the valley he’ll develop some close friendships.  I know that Abigail and Carly’s social lives picked up dramatically once they entered high school.  Our trip to Arizona last month really did show us how different our lives would be in a heavily saturated LDS community.  Some perks for sure with having lots of members.  On the flip side I also love that my kids are learning to stand strong in being different and that they have more opportunities to be an example of a faithful member of the church.  Pros and cons.

 

Anyhow, I truly do LOVE where we live and the people we are blessed to call friends.  It’s been a wonderful ten years in Snoqualmie and TWENTY years in Washington (how is that even possible???).

 

Here’s a throwback to our five year Snoqualmie anniversary – guess we’ll have to follow up with a 15 year photo at the falls… with only two kiddos left at home {gasp!}

This evening before turning off Drew’s lights we spent a little time looking at his Pokémon cards.  I love to hear him talk excitedly about certain characters and explain which ones can evolve and what they look like as an evolved creature.  I really don’t know anything about them, but Justin, Jason, Katie and Drew have gotten quite into it over the past few months.