Week 19: May 10 – 16

Monday [5/10]:  I really needed today to be a productive day so I was up fairly early and ready to get some stuff done. I started a couple loads of laundry and cleaned up the kitchen and got started on Mike’s books by late morning. Jason took me a bit by surprise last night by telling me that he has three friends coming home with him from school so as I move about the house today I’m trying to pick up as I go. Hopefully he spends most of the time being active outside with them because today is a beautiful day. We’re supposed to have gorgeous weather this week.  This may be the best spring weather we’ve ever had in Washington.

 

My friend Lauren dropped by some amazing macarons this morning for Mother’s Day.  I tried one immediately and no surprise – it was amazing.  She made raspberry lime.  Seriously, she makes the BEST macarons I’ve ever tasted and I’ve tasted my fair share all around the world.  Right here in Snoqualmie, WA – the very best!  I’m going to try to ration the other two, but it’ll be hard.  

Once KD went off to school I was able to get in my scripture study and otherwise tried not to think about my matches this evening.  I decided to participate in the local tennis league I was invited to join and tonight I have my first two matches.  Both are doubles matches which makes me even more nervous because if I don’t play well I bring down my partner as well.  Sommer stopped by this afternoon to pick up her macarons – I was the convenient drop off house who had to look but not touch.  I’d Marco Poloed earlier in the morning about being nervous about my tennis matches and she was quite the cheerleader for me.  And “so proud of me for putting myself out there and stepping outside of my comfort zone.”  Ha!  This afternoon proved to stretch me even further when a friend shared my HungryHippoHacks (HHH) account on her Instagram stories.

I’m flattered.  She was one of the friends who’s suggested I share my ways with the world.  Flattered but also very uncomfortable.  I’m generally a pretty private person so it’s one thing to put myself out there anonymously, but it’s another for someone else to put myself out there to who-knows-who.  I’m sure it won’t led to much traction, but it still caused me some anxiety.

 

I was so nervous when I pulled up to the tennis courts tonight.  The first match was pretty close though we lost.  I also lost my second match but was playing against some stronger players – I’d say I was the weakest of the four of us. Everyone was super nice though and incredibly encouraging.  My serve was better than I thought it would be and I won most of the sets I served.  I’m playing another doubles match Wednesday with two players from my first match tonight.   Think I was stronger than both of them so I may stand a chance to win depending on my partner.  Anyhow, point being I survived, had fun, and met some really nice people.  I’m excited for the rest of the season.

 

Tuesday [5/11]:  I was up earlier than usual, dressed and in the office before Justin got home from his run.  I was going to tackle some items on my to-do list but somehow got distracted with the HHH account and ended up writing up a post about the current quarterly cashback bonus rewards.  KD hung out in our backyard with the neighbors today.  Partially on devices, partially playing or drawing.  Katie actually got a sunburn on the back of her legs from being out there so long. 

I grilled up some paninis for lunch today.  It was Drew’s meal last night which I skipped cause I didn’t want to eat too much before my tennis matches.  They tasted so yummy.  Abigail and I dropped KD off at school on our way to Deseret Book to pick up a selection of garments.  They were a little low on stock, but she’ll want to figure out what she likes best before we buy a bunch anyhow.  She also got her mission scriptures engraved with Hermana Fletcher.  She asked the lady if they could engrave them in Spanish and the lady had to go ask someone else if they could do engravings in Spanish.  Ha! 

 

I convinced Abigail to stop off at Krispy Kreme on the way home.  My first free donut of the week.  Krispy Kreme was right next to Starbucks so Abigail picked up a frappuccino with a half off coupon.  That’s my girl!

Are we tired yet of the free donut pictures?

As soon as we got home I left again to head to Carly’s first tennis match of the season.  They were playing Skyline which is the toughest team in our league.  Carly fought hard, but in the end none of our players won their matches.  It was a hot afternoon and even as a spectator I was uncomfortable wearing a mask the whole time.  The players all wore masks as well and no doubt that made it more difficult.  Next week we’ll have Carly wear a more breathable mask than the one she had on today.  So fun to see her back on the court!

 

While Abigail and I were out this afternoon we took a little detour to Chick-fil-A to pick up some nuggets and fries for Abigail’s meal tonight.  Her roommates introduced her to Chick-fil-A pizza and she was excited to cook it for us.  I told her she had to actually make the pizza dough though in order to count it as cooking. The pizzas were delicious and probably the most expensive home-cooked meal we’ve ever had.

I was messing around with my camera while Katie was eating a banana and like these shots of her.

Braydon came over tonight to hang with Abigail and she invited Morgan over to join as well.  The three of them ended up playing Settlers with me, Justin and Jason until nearly 11pm.  It was a torturous game for all except Jason and Justin.  Jason was in a great mood the entire game because he was killing us.

 

Wednesday [5/12]:  We’ve moved KD piano lessons to Wednesdays since they only have one class in the morning.  I was fairly productive today wrapping up Mike’s 2020 books.  He had someone hack into his email account today so I spent well over an hour dealing with that this morning as well and then another 1.5+ this evening doing tech support with him for Facebook.  It was a stressful day for him.

 

Abigail went ski diving this afternoon with Morgan and Braydon.  Jumping from a plane 13,500 feet in the air!  No thank you.  She loved it though and continues to just live her very best life.

 

Tennis lessons were great.  We worked on serves and continued to work on getting our hips involved in all of our strokes.  I felt good about it though and was pretty confident going into my match at 5pm.  I was supposed to be playing against two so-so players I played with on Monday but they switched up the schedule and I played with the same partner from my first game on Monday and no surprise we lost again.  I could blame it on her, but I didn’t play very well either so it was disappointing for me.  

 

I had to beeline it home to get showered before my zoom call with the primary kids.  I was in charge and asked each kiddo to come to the activity prepared to share something – a hobby, a skill, a talent, whatever.  Drew was really difficult to nail something down for him to share.  The obvious choice would be piano.  He plays so well for a 7-year-old, but he hasn’t had any experience playing for others and he was dead against it.  I somewhat jokingly said he could show everyone how to cook something like ramen noodles and he grabbed onto that and stayed the course.  Katie shared her love of Harry Potter and showed her big Harry Potter Lego set as well as some of the HP books she enjoys.  The activity actually went incredibly well and the kids really had a great time.  I was ON the entire time.  Asking questions, giving positive feedback… I was exhausted when the hour was up.  Fingers crossed this was our last virtual activity EVER!

 

Justin and I haven’t sat down together to watch a show in well over a month.  We talked about doing it tonight, but then I got on the phone with his Dad and he ended up getting a call from an older brother in our previous ward who also needed tech support so the evening was hijacked, but I suppose we’ll get brownie points for our service.

 

Thursday [5/13]:  I keep thinking I’ll sit down and catch up on the blog, but I keep getting sidetracked with so many other things.  Abigail didn’t get home last night until after we were all in bed so I didn’t get a chance to talk to her about sky diving until today.  I had several things I needed to take care of online today and Mike also called with some questions on his books.  Katie’s been dying to get to the library so we did that before dropping them off at school and they had a little extra time to read in the car before heading off to school.  

Abigail had lunch with an Auburn friend this afternoon and brought home some Crumbl cookies at my request.  Unfortunately the blueberry cookie was so undercooked in the middle that I found it uneatable.  I submitted a review in the app, but I probably should’ve called the store directly and they would’ve given me a refund.

Carly had a match added to the schedule for today in Issaquah so I was off to watch that with Abigail and then I needed to pick up some groceries at Fred Meyer and Costco before heading home.  Things are getting busier around here.  The reality is that we’ve only had a few activities added back into our schedule but it’s a sharp contrast from life a year ago with is the polar opposite of our busy lives two years ago.  Makes me grateful that we’ve landed in the middle for now.

 

Friday [5/14]:  What gorgeous weather we’ve had this week!  Low 70’s and sunny is pretty much my sweet spot.  KD were excited to wrap up their morning call and head out back with neighbors to their umbrella tent hangout again.  Carly’s had the last two days off from nannying so it’s been different to have her around in the mornings.  She made some pasta salad for dinner this afternoon before heading off to tennis lessons and was only home long enough this evening to eat a bowl and head to the lake with friends. Abigail doesn’t stay put for long and was off on a hike this morning with Kalli who just flew in last night for the weekend, lunch with a friend from high school and then back with Kalli and others for the night.

 

I worked on the blog and then when Justin was done with work we went to the YMCA courts to play tennis with J.  Jason was only half invested – a means to tech I suppose – KD played at the nearby parks.  

 

Saturday [5/15]:  Right after I got out of bed Justin asked if I wanted to go play tennis and I can’t say no to that.  We played for about an hour and I felt like it was really good practice for me.  I figured out that on his serves, because they are so fast, I need to stand much further back then I had been.  Justin also threw a whole container of balls for me to work on my volleys.  Hopefully I’m ready for my matches on Monday.

 

Justin was outside for hours working on the yard and I tackled the inside with some resistant kids.  I didn’t want to do much cleaning just straightening up and getting through some laundry.  Justin was finally cleaned up and ready to head out on date night around 6pm.  We decided to drive up to Lynnwood to check out the mattresses at the Cariloha store.  A blogger I follow gave it rave reviews and it’s much cheaper than the Purple mattress we looked at a few weeks ago.  There was also a Purple store nearby so we were able to compare the two.  Mattress are so tough!  I wish I could just buy one and be done with it instead of needing to do so much research and price comparison.  We decided to eat dinner to think on it and just as our food was arriving we’d decided to get the Cariloha if we could get the blogger’s discounts as well as the stores offer for free sheets and delivery.  Unfortunately, the store closed at 8pm and we didn’t finish dinner in time to run back over.  I may try to call and do it over the phone or maybe we’ll wait and continue to stew over all the various options – ugh!  There was a WinCo nearby (within 3-4 miles) so I came prepared to tack that onto our night.  Justin was thrilled – ha!  Not a big grocery run, but enough to get us stocked up on a few things.  We were SO tired by the time we got home that we didn’t wait up for Abigail and headed to bed before midnight.

 

Sunday [5/16]:  Drew met with Bishop Hammer today after sacrament for his baptismal interview. He wanted to meet with bishop alone which had me a bit worried because Drew has been all over the place with getting baptized.  When we were getting ready for taking the sacrament I had him come sit by me and we talked about the sacrament prayer.  I pulled up the prayers on my phone so we could look at the promises we make at baptism and the blessings we are promised.  I reviewed the KAT acronym – K=Keep the commandments, A=Always remember Him, T=Take his name upon us.  Bishop had Justin and I come in at the end and told us Drew has been the only kiddo able to tell bishop what KAT meant.  Bishop even shared the experience tonight at the stake mission prep meeting.  I’m glad we reviewed just moments before!  Drew is ready for baptism and I am excited for him to receive the Holy Ghost and be confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  

 

Our ward made some new additional changes to covid restrictions.  No more health attestation form to turn in each week and today, for the first time in nearly 15 months we sang hymns in sacrament meeting – with masks, of course.  Our state governor announced this week that we would be reopening statewide on June 30 and that all counties would move to phase 3 on May 18th.   The June 30 reopening could happen earlier if 70% of Washingtonians over the age of 16 initiate vaccination – we are currently at 56%.

 

Another notable change is that the CDC issued a statement this week that fully vaccinated people – meaning people who are two weeks removed from their second shot will not need to wear a mask or physically distance except where required by laws or local business guidelines.  Our schools followed up by stating that masks will still be required at school – hopefully just for the remainder of this school year.

 

The girls both went to missionary prep tonight which was in-person for the first time!  Yay!  After they got home we had CFM and dinner which Katie and Justin prepared (pork and mashed potatoes).  The kids played a little spike ball in the backyard but mostly it was a pretty lacks afternoon/evening.  I spent several hours catching up on the blog which I would like to get wrapped up before all the events of this coming week – I’m so close!

Week 18: May 3 – 9

Monday [5/3]:  I went for a 4.5 mile walk this morning and then did some weights. It was nice enough this morning for KD to get outside and play a little bit before school. The afternoon always seems to fly by. Today I had a photography class running on my iPad most of the day so I could listen whenever I could. The course is free while it’s running live, but it runs for 24 hours straight so there’s no way I’ll be able to catch all of the information. The course inspired me to look at getting a zoom lens which I’ve wanted for a while. I was pleased to see that there was a relatively inexpensive lens currently offering an additional $200 off so I jumped on that and got it ordered. Anytime I order something though I like to make sure I’m getting the best price possible so I look at several stores and then also consider what credit card will give me the best cashback bonus including looking through their online portals. I ended up getting a great deal and using some credits that I had at a camera shop already so I feel really excited about it. 

 

We’ve had ice blocks in our fridge for the last couple days which is kept the fridge below 40° which is even better than normal. I wanted to make sure that the fridge was still not working properly on its own without the ice blocks so we took them out and have been watching it throughout the evening. I’ve ordered a new fridge but I can always cancel it before we get it delivered on Thursday. We don’t want to buy much food right now until we know for sure that the fridge is working so we ate leftovers today with what lettuce we had left over and made some taco salad. It actually ended up being quite tasty.

 

Tuesday [5/4]:  We took the ice blocks out of her fridge last night to see if the fridge had started working and lo and behold this morning the fridge was at normal temperatures so we’ve got to figure out if we’re still going to go through with our purchase of the new fridge being delivered on Thursday or keep our fingers crossed that our fridge cured itself and won’t have issues in the future.

 

I am not feeling particularly productive this past week or so. Last week was justified since we had company; however this week I am struggling to find balance and prioritizing what I should do. Yesterday I really wanted to listen to that photography class. I still got my scripture study in as I did today. But I would also like to study some of the conference talks, catch up on the blog, read the second coming book by Gerald Lund that I started a few weeks ago, as well as perhaps start reading the book Saints from the church. I also want to stay on top of things at the house and spend time with the kids.  I spent some time with Abigail today looking at some dresses for her mission, made some homemade bread to accompany dinner and helped Jason make some treats for tonight.   He wants to be baking all the time lately. I have a long to-do list. Nothing necessarily pressing or super important so I guess that’s why it’s been harder to prioritize what is most important right now. 

 

Drew came home from school today and said that instead of just a mask break today they got to go to the playground. This is the first time he’s been on the playground this year.  Apparently his class will get to use the playground on Tuesdays. Crazy that we now attribute as a privilege and that playing on the school playground is a mark of progress.

 

Abigail had her temple interview tonight with our bishop and I love that he took so much time to talk to her about the temple and what to expect.  He even went into the layout of the temple and talked through what she could expect.  She’s ready and I’m so excited for her.  He requested if there were any extra spots for her endowment session that she consider inviting him as her bishop.  She’s only allowed 16 guests so getting into the temple is a hot ticket.  She gave him one of her last spots.

 

Abigail mentioned that McDonald’s was giving away free caramel brownie Mcflurries today so she talked about heading into Issaquah to pick get a free treat as well as look at some dresses at Target. Her friend ended up not being about to go with her so she looked to me and I was happy to join. We first picked up our free Krispy Kreme doughnut and then the Mcflurries.  

Abigail also needed to get gas in the Subaru. This is the first time we’ve had her pay for a fill up since she’s been back. Buying gas is a bummer but she burned through quite a bit while her roommates were here and we covered that so I don’t feel bad. We went to Target and found a few dress options for Abigail to try on without realizing that the dressing rooms are still closed.  

Not much point in going shopping at an actual store if you won’t be able to try things on so we left empty-handed and in the end basically only drove into Issaquah for free food. When we got home she and Justin mentioned something about creating a free food account on Instagram to share their finds with others. I have been told many times over the years that that was something I should do in fact I showed them a comment from a friend just days ago on a post where I picked up my first Krispy Kreme donut after getting the vaccine.

 

“Your ability to find the deals is simply a super power.  You really should start an Instagram page or something about these sorts of things so you can gain 1 million followers and make some mullah. 🤣🍩💰”

 

Just for kicks I got on Instagram and tried to look for a handle for an account in case we actually wanted to open one someday. I really wanted to put hungry hippo somewhere in there but surprise surprise that is actually quite a popular name.  I won’t even admit how much time I spent trying to find alternatives to it. Inserting periods, hyphens, and small introductory words to make it unique. Abigail thought that the hungry hippo blip was ridiculous, which it probably is, but I was really wanted to stick with it. After much searching I finally found hungryhippohacks. I went into Abigail‘s room and showed her and she gave a little chuckle which affirmed that she didn’t hate it.   In fact if I was insistent on using hungry hippos it was actually quite perfect. Justin also loved it and we got to talking about various things that we could share about saving money. Around 12:30am I decided to put up my recent Krispy Kreme post just for fun. I can see this account being fun but figuring out what exactly it should and should not be will be a little tricky. In retrospect I probably should have figured all that out before I posted anything. I did send a screenshot to one of my groups of friends (Laura, Camden and Sommer) and they were incredibly supportive and excited for me. I’m not sure how far this will go or if it will go anywhere but we had fun thinking about it.  My mind was spinning for hours and I didn’t get to sleep till after 3:30am!

 

Wednesday [5/5]:  I’m a little embarrassed admit that I was distracted quite a bit today with the Instagram account that we created late last night. My friends were super excited and supportive about it that I had clued in. 

 

Abigail‘s plans got canceled today so she ended up coming with CJ and me to our tennis lesson. Dusko was excited to see her and we really had a fun time having her join us. She’s still better than any of the three of us but I am optimistic that we can catch up to her while she’s gone on her mission. Perhaps we’ll even have a chance to beat her after she gets back. Dusko told us we could have the court for half hour after the lesson to practice more which I eagerly took it advantage of and Abigail seemed happy enough to support me in it. 

I intended on stopping at Krispy Kreme and Café Rio for (Cinco de Mayo) but we didn’t end up with enough time since Carly has tennis practice at the school at 4pm. We were able to swing by Krispy Kreme though and pick up three donuts for AC and me. The Hot Now sign was on which made the donuts extra delicious! Well worth a stop and totally on our way home so it was an easy call to make.

 

As I was checking my messages on the way home I got a text from an less active ward member in our neighborhood who invited me to join a tennis league affiliated with a local church. As I’ve mentioned I am much more passionate about tennis than anyone else my family so the thought of having more opportunities to play sounded very tempting and it would be a fun way to get to know her and other people in the community better. It starts next week so I don’t have very long to decide.

 

I still haven’t wanted to buy much as far as groceries because our fridge status has been a little iffy. So for dinner tonight I cooked up some frozen enchiladas and made some mexican rice. Boy do I love an easy meal. I am looking forward to getting the kids back into cooking each week and having better quality food. CJ had youth tonight at the church and the rest of us just hung out and played a few rounds of Uno and talked a little Instagram business. Abigail needs to teach me the ropes before she leaves me high and dry with an account I don’t really know how to run. 

 

While texting my sister Brenda tonight she ended up suggesting that I start an account on deals. It was funny to immediately be able to reply and send her the link letting her know that I had. She responded “Haha.  That’s awesome.  Maybe we do have similar wavelengths/genes!”.

 

I wasn’t planning on telling anybody else about it until I had a better plan in place, but after the convo with Brenda and some other little things that happened today I decided to put it out there so I posted the following story on my personal account.

I’ve received many suggestions over the years to share this kind of stuff especially from my friend Sommer who has mentioned it countless times.  Honestly most of my friends can’t be bothered taking time to save money and I realize I’m pretty extreme.  I’m not sure why I suddenly decided to go with it, but I did and we’ll see what comes of it.  I received several DM’s from friends saying they were excited about it so that’s nice. 

 

Thursday [5/6]:  Did I mention that our old fridge started running again? I would feel so much better replacing it if it was obvious that it was dying on us. We decided to go ahead with the delivery of the new fridge because we figured our old fridge would likely be kaput soon and we got a decent price. They only gave me a 10 minute warning that they were delivering this morning so I had to quickly get everything out of our fridge into coolers. I was not too impressed with the delivery situation as he intended on just pulling out our old fridge across the wood floor. They did end up getting some furniture straps and carrying it but they left a several inch scratch across the wood floor. I wish I didn’t care about those kind of things but I do. There’s also a small dent in the new fridge door so I have got to decide how much of a stickler I’m going to be about that. It’s hard to except something that isn’t 100% when you pay so much for it. Hopefully they can just replace the door and not the whole fridge. The dealing with a fridge took most of the morning and then I spent some time doing my scripture study and other household stuff in the afternoon.

 

Abigail had her friend Braydon over for dinner tonight to watch the BYU volleyball game. Afterward Abigail introduced Jason and me to a fun dice game – Liars Dice. Justin ended up working quite late tonight since he would be taking some time off tomorrow to attend the funeral of the man who passed away last week in the SnoFalls ward.

 

Friday [5/7]:  The funeral service was a wonderful way to honor his life and the thoughts and testimony that were shared were very uplifting and no doubt comforting to his family. We weren’t necessarily close with the Carter family but we had several interactions with them throughout our time in Snoqualmie. Their youngest daughter is the same age as Carly and the girls played soccer together a few years so we’ve enjoyed many games sitting on the sidelines with their family. Our friend Steve Olson flew up from Utah to speak and did an incredible job. It was nice to be able to see him again after moving to Utah a few years ago.

 

Justin and I swung by Chick-fil-A afterward to pick up some lunch including a couple free sandwiches.

Again not an incredibly productive day. I have definitely been distracted the last couple days with starting my hungryhippohacks (HHH) Instagram account. I’m not stressed about it by any means but it just gets the wheels spinning in my head and when I get thinking about something it’s hard to shut it down. I really needed to go grocery shopping but didn’t feel up to heading back in to Issaquah and was still waiting on the kids to let me know what they wanted to cook for their meals this week. No food in the fridge also meant that we were again desperate for dinner ideas so we took the easy way out and ordered some pizza from Domino’s. 

After KD went to bed FAJ and I played Liars Dice a few times with Jason winning both rounds. Abigail doesn’t have many friends around right now so she was kicking it at home with us. I have a feeling this will be the sort of evenings we have when she’s a missionary. Although she’ll be going to bed much earlier and waking up much earlier. 

 

It took me an incredibly long time to fall asleep again tonight. I haven’t had this much difficulty falling asleep in several years so and it’s so frustrating to lay there for hours and not be able to shut my mind down. Tonight I didn’t get to sleep till after 4am!

 

Saturday [5/8]:  We made plans to have lunch with Justin’s parents today and I intended on getting a few things accomplished this morning before hand: my skunk stripe is quite predominant right now so I wanted to touch up my roots, since I needed to wash my hair I thought it would be good to get in a good walk this morning and then a little weights while my hair processed. When I was still awake at 4am last night I texted Justin and told him that I would need to pass on the walk so that I could get a little extra sleep. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to sleep in and still woke up around 8:30am so I decided to walk anyhow. It was nice to get outside and move around a little bit that I know I’m going to be pretty exhausted later today.

 

Lunch was very enjoyable. I absolutely love Maggiano’s! Especially their mushroom ravioli! Justin’s parents were over a half hour late, and almost backed out when they arrived, so we had plenty of time to enjoy bread before ordering. We took advantage of their five dollar take-home meals and brought home some pasta to enjoy the next couple days. 

We dropped off a car in Issaquah on our way to Bellevue so Katie and I could stay in Issaquah and finally get some groceries while everyone else went home and Carly headed off to tennis practice. Justin and Jason went out this afternoon to do some Mother’s Day deliveries for church while the rest of us hung back at home not doing anything out of the norm. Carly went out again with friends tonight and we allowed her a midnight curfew. I removed myself from all responsibility of waiting up for her and ended up going to bed shortly after 10:30pm and with the help of a sleeping pill had no problem falling asleep and was able to sleep until I needed to get up for virtual Sunday school at 9am.  

 

Sunday [5/9]:  Mother’s Day today. Justin was asked to speak in sacrament meeting. He didn’t prepare it until last night and worked for several hours while I went to bed early. When he told me he was asked to speak I jokingly said that he should consider calling the bishopric member and telling them that they should find somebody else. He ended up doing a nice job though and shared some experiences from our life as well as touching a bit on what he appreciates from his mom as well as my mom.

 

On the way home from church Justin asked what I wanted to do today and if I would be interested in a family walk. My response was yes, I would, as long as there wasn’t any complaining and it was pleasant. Abigail‘s immediate response was that it won’t be pleasant. So no family walk for us.  I did get my annual Mother’s Day photo and posted it along with photos from each of the years since I was pregnant with Drew. 

20 years ago, on May 12th, I found out that after nearly two years of hoping and praying I was finally going to be a Mom. I’m grateful today, and every day, for these five amazing kiddos I’ve been blessed with on earth and for my angel baby awaiting us in heaven. 

 

I realize that this might be my last Mother’s Day photo with all five kids at home. 😢 Figures that 2020 was the only year (since Drew was just days away from being born) that we didn’t take a picture. 

 

Happy Mother’s / Women’s Day to all the women in my life especially my wonderful Mom - we can’t wait to see you next week!

There wasn’t much of a plan in place for today and that included meals. Justin was perfectly willing to cook but didn’t have a plan in place so he just went with what we had. Jason made both Texas sheet cake and chocolate chip cookies. Katie helped a bit with the chocolate chip cookies but Jason did most of the baking. Abigail and I looked at some clothing options online for her mission and ended up placing an Amazon order (first of many I’m sure). 

 

Katie left a few art pieces by my bed today.  It made my heart happy to see that I still had a kiddo that would make me a Mother’s Day card. 

Over the next few days I also discovered four packages of Laffy Taffy Bites hidden in my desk, bathroom cupboard, purse and in my sock drawer from Carly.  So sweet!

Today was face mask washing day.  I would’ve never thought I’d have masks hang drying from nearly every cabinet knob in my kitchen.

We didn’t get around to CFM until after 7:30pm. Jason led a good discussion on spiritual gifts. We enjoyed some cake before KD went to bed and then FAJ and I played some Liars Dice.

Week 17: April 26 – May 2

Monday [4/26]:  Katie loves to go shopping and really wanted to join me this morning to pick up some groceries for the week. We hit both Costco and Fred Meyer. She also likes to an excuse to play Pokémon on the drive. I didn’t accomplish much this afternoon. With a house full of people I feel like I am kind of on call for whatever needs done.  I’m trying to keep the house in order so that it’s comfortable and we have what we need when we need it. Abigail and her roommates spent the day in Seattle seeing all there is to see. I gave her some cash so she could bring me home some flowers from Pikes Place. She picked a beautiful bouquet though sadly they didn’t last more than a day or two. 

They evidently had such a fun filled day that they were all in bed by 11pm so I headed to bed earlier than usual as well. I wish I could say it was a restful night. I had a dream about a cougar being in our yard which also involved my children but somehow my siblings and extended family were there as well. I don’t remember all the details but it was not restful. I woke up with quite the headache.

 

Tuesday [4/27]:  I had intentions on fitting in a morning walk today so I was glad that my friend Andrea reached out asking if anyone wanted to join her. We enjoyed a nice walk along the Snoqualmie Valley Trail l and it was great to catch up. A brother in her ward just passed away this morning whose youngest is Carly‘s age. It was a bit of a shocker as they just found cancer a few weeks ago and it advanced so quickly. Andrea’s husband is the new bishop so he’s going into some challenging stuff right away.

 

Abigail and her roommates slept in a bit today and then headed to Rattlesnake to hike up to the ledge. They came back to the house for a late lunch and then a few of them took a nap. At 4pm Abigail’s room-roommate Hailey opened up her mission call with Mount Si as the backdrop. She invited us to join which was fun to be a part of. To all of our surprise she received the same Mexico call as their sixth roommate who was unable to be here this week because she is starting home MTC for that exact mission. It’s so crazy that both Abigail and Hailey have gotten the same mission call as a friend of theirs.

Pretty amazing that all six roommates are going on missions.  Pictured left to right (and where they are from):

 

Indigo - England Leeds (Utah)

Abigail - Las Vegas Spanish speaking

Hailey - Oaxaca Mexico (Dallas)

Audrey - Korea Busan (Houston)

Sadie - Riverside California Spanish speaking (Utah)

Claire - Oaxaca Mexico (Vegas) – not pictured

The girls headed to the park to hammock while I prepared dinner. Thankfully both Carly and Jason were around and able to help as the recipe was a little bit more labor-intensive than I initially anticipated.. Abigail‘s one request was french bread so I made that as well as a double batch of sweet-and-sour chicken which all tasted amazing. We had to eat pretty quickly as we were pressed for time to make it to the temple for our 8pm baptistery appointment. The temple limits the number of people that you can bring to 10 and the number baptisms that each person can do (5 each, but we pushed it to 6).  Each group has the baptistery completely to themselves which was a neat experience. When we arrived the patron asked Jason if he would be performing baptisms as well as Justin and it was funny to be able to answer that Jason was only 13 years old. His height sure does make him look so much older than that. I decided to also do baptisms since my mom had so many individuals prepared. I hadn’t done baptisms in a very long time so that was pretty neat. Jason and I were one of the last to go. He and I were serving as witnesses while Justin was baptizing Abigail and it was a neat experience to be able to look into the mirrors and see of our reflections in that beautiful, sacred room. Makes me so excited to return next month when Abigail receives her endowment. The traditional after temple treat is to go to Dairy Queen near the temple however they are still not allowing indoor dining and it was cold enough that I wasn’t interested in standing outside and eating ice cream so we headed back to the house and I made a batch of box brownies and we enjoyed that with ice cream before calling it a night. A delicious late night treat.

I’m so grateful that the Seattle Temple was one of the first temples to open the baptistery since the pandemic. Loved being back in this sacred place tonight. 

Wednesday [4/28]:  Abigail and her roommates were up early headed north to the Tulip Festival, Deception Pass and Fort Casey today. I can’t remember what I spent the morning doing but CJ and I headed to tennis this afternoon. It certainly wasn’t our best lesson. Carly and Jason had a free slurpee in their McDonald’s app so we picked up those on the way home as well as some gas. Katie made tikka masala tonight for dinner - yum. I figured Abigail wouldn’t be home for dinner so we made just enough for our family. She got home just as we were all heading out to youth activities so they were on their own for dinner and ended up hanging out at the house and watching a movie this evening and seemed to be quite exhausted from all the fun they are having. 

 

Thursday [4/29]:  Today was a crazy, busy day. Abigail wanted to get donuts this morning with her roommates, though she wanted us to fund said deliciousness which we did. They we’re debating about whether or not to bike up to Rattlesnake Lake. Some of her roommates were nervous about the uphill, even though it’s quite slight and there was talk about my just dropping them off at the lake and letting them ride down into the valley. In the end they decided to suck it up and ride up and back down. We borrowed two bikes from the Hammers and got everything loaded up on the van for them to have an adventure. Unfortunately shortly after they started one of the Hammers bike tires went flat/exploded so they gave me a call and I brought down my cruiser and exchanged bikes with them. About a half hour or so after I got home I got another call that they had another flat on one of our bikes. They decided to call it a day and a few of them rode back to the van to pick up the rest of them. I spent quite a bit of time today preparing taquitos for dinner tonight. Feeding so many people requires a lot of chicken and doubling all of the sides we traditionally serve with it. Jason went straight to the Christensen’s house after school today and got to hang out with them for a couple hours which was great outlet for him. Abigail and her roommates went hammocking for about an hour before dinner and then hung out at the house most of the evening. In addition to helping with the biking adventure, preparing food and cleaning the house, I also spent some time today looking at refrigerators. Ours is not staying as cold as it should and I’m afraid we’re going to start losing some food here soon. I have a call out to a repair man to see if it’s worth repairing or if it’s time to just buy a new one. I can’t believe how expensive fridges are!

 

Friday [4/30]:  Katie and Drew have been enjoying extra tech time with Abigail‘s roommates on and off today on the Nintendo. I left around noon today to head to the Bellevue area to get my oil changed in my car as well as get my first dose of the vaccination. The vaccination location was very well organized and went super smoothly. The oil change appointment ended up being more than I bargained for as we haven’t had our 30k check up so instead of paying for an oil change now and getting the 30k maintenance later I decided to get 30k now which included the oil change. So much money! They offered me a loaner so I wouldn’t have to wait around. Justin wanted me to get something that we haven’t driven before so they gave me a brand new sedan which had all the bells and whistle‘s including air-conditioned seats, a heated steering well, and my speed and speed limit were displayed IN my windshield as I drove. I was also surprised to find that the title of the song I was listening to was also displayed in the windshield. That’s super fancy! It was a fun car to drive but I get nervous driving a car I haven’t driven before and a car that is not my own.  With my new vaccination card I popped into Krispy Kreme to collect my first FREE donut.  I have a feeling we’re going to be eating a lot of donuts this year with their promotion offering a free donut every day for anyone that’s been vaccinated.

I also intended to look at fridges while I was out so I stopped by Best Buy and Home Depot to check out a couple options. While I was there I got a phone call from Rite Aid in Sammamish near our tennis lessons. We had popped in there after lessons on Wednesday and asked about getting vaccinated. She put us on a call list and today she let me know that we could come in if we wanted to. Having just received my first vaccination I didn’t need one, but we decided to have Justin, Abigail, and Carly go this afternoon. It ended up being a little bit more of an excursion than anticipated being prime traffic time and also having them go a little out of their way to pick up some Papa John’s for dinner. I wasn’t in the mood to cook another big meal this week. Right after dinner Carly surprised me by saying she was willing to go play tennis so she and I headed out and were later joined by Justin and Jason and were able to get in a pretty good practice. Justin and I also went on a short walk after we drop the kids back off at the house. 

 

We always have a bunch of shoes by the front door – even more this week!

Saturday [5/1]:  I didn’t have the most restful night as my arm was bugging me where the shot was received. I got up just in time to say goodbye to Abigail‘s roommates as they were heading out. Justin made them a big breakfast.  Abigail had actually been up since 5:30am because she had to take one of them to the airport who is flying back to Utah instead of driving. We had a lot that we needed to accomplish today including getting Abigail moved in. We decided to have her move into Katie‘s room now and have Katie switch over to room with Carly so we don’t have to make the switch in a few weeks. 

 

After helping the kids for a few hours Justin and I headed out to pick up my car as well as look at fridges and mattresses. Not necessarily a fun outing but necessary. Unfortunately no solid decisions were made. Seems like both fridges and mattresses are a total crap shoot with no real solid winners that are made to last. While we were out we picked up our free donut and Krispy Kreme. Second day, second donut!

 A friend suggested I try to beat my recent 371 day streak of closing my activity circles with a new streak of redeeming free Krispy Kreme donuts. Sounds goal-worthy, right? 🍩🤰🏻No worries, I’m not going to do it. I could never justify the gas money it would require. But believe you me, anytime I’m within a mile or two I’ll be popping into KK to collect. 😋

 

I had a splitting headache all day. Not sure if it’s a side effect of the shot but I was also extremely tired. Later in the evening I was looking up side effects and mentioned to Abigail my jaw was kind of achy and she said hers was as well. Guess that could be a side effect as well. 🤷🏻‍

 

Carly had some friends over tonight and made some cookies. Justin and I enjoyed chatting with Abigail after JKD had gone to bed. I’m excited to have more time with her in the weeks to come. 

 

Sunday [5/2]:  No morning meetings before attending sacrament this morning since it’s Fast Sunday. Abigail was a little taken back by the attestation paper we have to bring each week and that we weren’t able to sing any hymns. Having the sacramental bread served in individual cups and the cups spaced out in the trays was quite foreign to her.  Also have sacrament last after the closing prayer. She declared it the “weirdest sacrament meeting” she’s ever attended.  It was nice to have her with us at church, first time since March of 2020. She had several people ask her about her mission. I can hardly believe we are just weeks away from having a missionary in our home. 

 

I signed us up for a Nauvoo tour for 2:30pm this afternoon. Abigail had a scheduled “friend” call and Carly passed. It was fun to log in and see Sister Bliss as one of the missionary guides. Her mom was my RS president during my first year at BYU and lived in our ward in Auburn for a few years. It’s still strange that missionaries are now my kids peers. 

 

We had CFM this evening and then FHAJK ended up playing Settlers of Catan with Jason winning.  

Picking up Abigail from BYU {April 22 – 25}

According to Justin:

 

Justin left for Provo Thursday evening around 5pm.  He pulled into a neighborhood near Boise around 1:30am MT where he slept in the back of the MDX.  He was on the road by 6am and made it to Provo much earlier than expected, before 11:30am.  The next few hours were spent packing and cleaning and preparing for the cleaning check, with lots of goodbyes for Abigail.  It was a pretty tight fit getting all the stuff into the MDX.  Justin picked up lunch at Rancherito's. 

After the cleaning check, we checked out the bookstore and then Abigail redeemed 2 free cones at the BYU Creamery. 

Frannie Munro (a former Snoqualmie neighbor and mom of one of Abigail’s high school friends) called and wanted to meet up for a quick visit with Abigail.  

We picked up a couple drinks at Swig then went to dinner at a local crepe place after which we met up with Tami (in town to pick up Hallie) and Hailey (Abigail's roommate) for the BYU Men's Volleyball MPSF conference semifinal.  

We were treated to a 3-0 victory.  Our team was clearly better but the experience of being in the SFH was not quite the same as 20 years ago with the social distancing (maybe 25% capacity) and a less than raucous crowd.  BYU would go on to win the conference championship the next day but lose in the national championship to Hawaii a couple weeks later. 

 

Being on campus brought back lots of good memories of roommates and friends, sporting events, devotionals and just a feeling of gratitude that Abigail was able to experience it in her own way as she ended up with great roommates, made many friends and had fun, and oh yeah, hopefully learned something along the way.

 

We stayed Friday and Saturday night with Joyce and Val.  Saturday the four of us went to brunch and then hung out until dinner time.  Justin had had his eye on Goodwood Barbeque Company for some time so we decided to finally give it a try.  Good food but probably not worth a return visit as the brisket was just average. 

 

We thought it would be fun to go to a Jazz game and ended up going with Ray and Cammy. We had a good time together despite the Jazz not pulling out the victory.  

On Sunday morning, we were on the road around 7:30am for an uneventful drive home.