Month: February 2022

Today I woke up around 7:30 to Ammon yelling that he peed his bed and he needed help taking care of the wet sheets. Once I was up, I decided to work on our taxes. Then I had a call with my beloved AXB group. After that, I showered and got ready for the day and listened to some church. The scripture for the day was the transfiguration of Christ, and my favorite part of the lesson was contemplating transformation in our own lives using the example of caterpillars transforming to Monarch butterflies. I learned that in a cocoon, caterpillars literally digest themselves so that all that is left inside the cacoon is a soupy goop made up of cells with the exception of some imaginal discs which are starter components for the butterfly that survive digestion, and organize the soupy goop of cells to build off of the imaginal discs into parts of a butterfly until it is a complete creature. So fascinating. Nature blows me away.

After church, I helped Lily clean the basement before fishing. Lily has been doing so much of the cleaning and laundry (I’ve barely pitched in lately in that area), so I was really grateful to actually do something to help with the house. Then Ammon showed me the lego creations that he and Clarissa had been busy building:

Then I went fishing with Mary. It was so fun. Mary has decided to be a vegetarian and she has lasted over a week. After buying our wax worms, I took her to get an Impossible Whopper at Burger King and we both loved our burgers so much. Mary almost finisher hers and that is a huge sandwich!

At the lake, the ice was so thin that we didn’t even need an auger. We just used it to butt through the ice that was about as thick as cardboard. We had our fishfinder and could tell hardly and fish were in our area, but we didn’t have tons of time or options for fishing spots due to the thin ice, so we stayed put. I just love the way time slows down when I fish, and I loved being with Mary, and we also called and chatted with my dad which I loved.

After a delightful time fishing, I took Mary to home-church at Whitney’s house. As always I found it to be deeply nourishing.

At home, the Giles came over to listen to our kids play their instruments. They are so fun, engaging, and affirming that our kids could not get enough of them. People were literally fighting for their attention. They were so sweet and indulgent to listen to everyone clamoring to talk to them. Clarissa especially was talkative and had them look at her crab walk 2 or 3 times. We all had so much fund being with them and Lily and I sent them (and then received) gushy texts afterwards because of how grateful we were for how they lit up our evening.

Then Lily had book club while I worked more on homework with Ammon and I put the kids down.

Then Lily and I just hung out for an hour and talked about the Ukraine and Russia war that is going on. We are so inspired by how the Ukrainian president and people are showing so much bravery right now by not backing down. They are standing up to Russia in ways that will likely get them killed, but watching a leader especially take that kind of risk for his people is incredibly inspiring. Lily and I tried to donate to the Ukrainian cause, but the payment wouldn’t go through on the website.

My work pace last week was unusually intense, and I finished the work week completely out of gas. Lily has also been super exhausted, and we both slept and rested very late. I did not get out of bed until 10:30 and It’s hard to describe how nourishing that felt.

After I got up, Lily and I watched a Clarissa fashion show (Lydia and Mary loved dressing her up), combined with dance routines from various kids. We caught some videos.

After I showered and got ready for the day, I took the kids to Cook’s to pick out a bunch of trees for our yard. This quarter, it is my number one home project I’m hoping to get done. The kids were very energetic, but Cook’s was almost empty and picking out trees was an outdoor activity, so it was fine having the kids be active. They all got lollipops at the end.

We then all went to Aubergine to eat. Clarissa smelled bad because she had poo in her underwear so I had to creatively figure out how to handle that in the bathroom, and then we had a really nice dinner together (with only one tipped cup). I love Aubergine!

I feel I’ve rediscovered frozen yogurt, and I’ve been daydreaming about it again. There was a Yogurtland right next to Aubergine and I took the kids there after dinner. Then we all got groceries at Sprouts and went home.

While we were gone, Lily watched some Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, and then frantically worked on the house and laundry. The house looked really good when we got home.

I did a little homework with Ammon before we got the kids to bed, and then Lily took a long bath while I played a lot of guitar. Guitar was so nourishing for me.

Today was Ammon’s 100 day at school, so he got to wear the shirt he and I made yesterday with 100 legos on it. He was so excited, and he later told me everyone at school (except Phoenix who is not nice to him) circled around him to admire his shirt (If I understood Ammon correctly).

I had one of the most intense work days I’ve had in a long time. By the end of the day, I was almost in an exertion shock, but it was fun feeling so engaged and moving the needle on my territory. Lily was also super busy on her end. She did the whole morning routine since my day started with a 7:30 meeting, and then she dropped off Ammon at school, then dropped off Mary at school, then dropped off Clarissa at Ballet, then took Lydia to the dentist to have a cavity filled, then picked up her mom, picked up Clarissa from Ballet, dropped off Lydia at school, then brought Georgia home to hang out, then later drove Georgia home and picked up all the kids from school. I was very plugged into work, but it was a delight to see Georgia briefly when I came upstairs quickly for some food.

I worked until just before 6 which is about when Lily left to have dinner with her friends Charity and Mikayla. She loves them! I picked up Lydia from ballroom dance, and then took all the kids out to eat. We were trying to decide where to go when Clarissa announced she had to pee and started making squealing noises like she was about to burst that stressed the heck out of me. I’ve had her make those noises and then wet her pants, and I’ve also had her make those noises and then either declare she doesn’t have to go, or forget she has to go once she gets home, or try to go and nothing comes out. It’s a highly unreliable signal, but it sure gets my cortisol up.

If nothing else, Clarissa’s squealing did help us make a dinner decision. Ihop was super close so we went there to eat and let Clarissa use a bathroom. She did not seem in a hurry to go once we walked in the restaurant.

The kids were totally crazy at Ihop, and I didn’t like what I ordered much, but I still had a good time. The kids were not bad, or rude, they just had immense amounts of happy energy that was hard for them to contain, and I kept shushing them especially since everyone else in the restaurant seemed to be whispering as though we were in a library. The food took a very long time to come, and so we made up ways to pass the time. When Lydia went to the bathroom, I said if the food wasn’t on the table when she got back, I would stand on my head. When Mary went in the bathroom, I said if the food wasn’t there when she got back, I would tell Lily I changed my name to pineapple. The girls got a serious kick out of this, and since the food wasn’t on the table in either case, I delivered on both promises when I got home, much to the girls delight. The outing culminated with Lydia and Ammon being energetic and knocking over Lydia’s gravy which got all over the floor. I cleaned most of it, and apologized to the waitress. At that moment, I announced that the donuts we were all looking forward to were no longer happening because they were too wild in the restaurant.

At home, the kids all got in their pj and brushed their teeth and we danced. Lydia also had a great time petting Basil’s belly. Do you think he’s enjoying it?

Then Erika came over. She’s a BYU student harpist who we just hired to help train Clarissa and Lydia. I played legos with the other kids during Clarissa’s lesson, and then put Clarissa to bed, chatted with Lily and finished up tasks at my desk. Here is a video of what Clarissa worked on during her practice:

Also, there is currently a lot of sadness and concern all around about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Right now we are very busy, but it is with a lot of fun things so there are no complaints.

I had a busy day at work, and while working Lily was busy at home and also went to lunch with our friend Sarah who has moved back to the states. After work, I picked up all the kids from school, took Mary’s love notes to Georgia, dropped off Lydia and Mary (for Lily to do music practice with them), and then took Ammon and Clarissa to their make-up school photos for the Arches year book (we were traveling during picture day). They were super cute, and the photographer Scott was really funny and played with and threw his Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal to get Clarissa to laugh (she had just woken up and was grumpy and it was very hard to get a good smile out of her, but he did!).

After the photoshoot, I picked up the dinner order Lily placed at Spicey Thai and then went home and quickly made Ammon’s 100 shirt with him. Tomorrow is the 100th day of school, and kids are invited to wear a shirt with 100 things on them. I only had 20 minutes or so, so Ammon quickly picked out 100 legos, and I superglued them onto a shirt. My hands were covered in glue by the end. It was very fun!

Then Lily took care of the kids and put them down (Thank you Lily!) while I went to a super fun dinner with my most strategic partner right now, CommonFont. They are based in Montana and love biking and skiing etc and we got along super well. After that I went straight to Nick’s to pick him up and make it just in time for our float appointment. Lily had suggested the idea because of how stressed Nick was. Both Nick and I had wonderful floats and Nick said he felt relaxed and wants to go back! After that we grabbed some food, and ran by the bank for Nick and I dropped him off. I got home at 10:30 and read competitive strategy by Michael Porter while Lily read her book and then went to bed. What a good and busy day!

Lydia helped Clarissa get dressed up all fancy and with make-up and then did a photo-shoot of her.

She also got some cute pictures of Basil.

Lily and the kids also had a super fun playdate with Amy and her kids. We love them!

I worked extra hard today, but I feel I am now in a position to take life at a more reasonable clip which I am very very happy about. While I was working, I skipped lunch and on my empty stomach I smelled bread that Lily baked through my vent. It was intoxicating, it smelled so delicious!

Lily and I both worked very hard today to try to get on top of things. Lily made huge progress on the children’s music with them, and also got the house looking really nice. I plowed into my work. With all of our pushing and dealing with a large blow-up with Mary during her music practice (but Mary rallied and finished a great practice with Lily!), Lily and I were both exhausted by 6:00. We started watching “Being the Ricardos” together, and then I rallied and fed the kids and played Sleeping Queens with the younger kids while Lily watched “Cheer” with Lydia.

Today I woke up and was fortunate to find availability for Swathi and I to get a 3-hour private ski lesson at Sundance today. She was hoping to ski on this trip, and I’ve been dying for a lesson, so it was perfect for us. We booked it at 7:45 and we were out of the house by 8:20.

The ski lesson was awesome. I took a whole page of notes after the lesson to try to remember what I learned. Both Swathi and I grew leaps and bounds. It was the first formal lesson I’ve ever had skiing, and it gave me such great fundamentals to work from going forward. I also went off the ski jump twice and fell both times, but I was grateful to get over my fear of it, and I’m excited to work on that going forward as well. Also, Swathi was awesome company and we both had a good time. She’s still processing the huge news of her job offer which she will likely take as it is a pretty big change for her and her family. It’s a positive change, but still a lot to think through.

While Swathi and I were skiing, Clark was hiking Y mountain with Basil which was a total gift because Basil really needed exercise.

Swathi and I picked up Georgia on our way home and it was so fun all hanging out together. It was great chatting with Georgia, and we all took it really easy, which was really nice because we have been quite active. The kids literally played together all day and it was adorable to watch them. They played games together such as “the ground is lava” so they would need to get around balancing on pillows, baseboards, couches etc. I think they also played a game of dinosaurs and dinosaur catcher or something like that until someone got hurt and they stopped. But they had a tremendous amount of fun, and they were super low maintenance to take care of as they entertained themselves with each other for so much of the day (basically whenever they weren’t eating).

Also, Clark taught us a lot about Cryptocurrency, and he even gave Lydia an incredible lecture not only on Cryptocurrency, but also on the fictional nature of money. Lily was enthralled and videoed part of it.

Also, our sweet Clarissa was very delicate today. Lily put her down early because she was basically falling apart emotionally, but before she went down, she gave us a great gem of a video. When Clarissa was crying upstairs, Lily went to help her and then called for me to come with my phone. I arrived just in time to video Clarissa explaining that she physically could not apologize to Soren because the words, “I’m sorry” were too painful for her throat. We couldn’t help but laugh. Clarissa’s antics were very convincing.

I called her out for making things up, and then Lily was nice enough to put her to bed, but I have to admit, I was also charmed by her bad behavior.

In the morning we all got the kids ready and pulled out before 9am so we could drive three and a half hours to Bryce Canyon National Park. Clarissa didn’t want pig tails or a pony tail, but asked for a unicorn hairdo (a unicorn tail?), so this is what I gave her.

Abe had been visualizing this day trip all week to get him through work stress. We all loved the hike from Sunrise Point to Sunset Point and Queen’s Garden in the middle. Afterward Abe took Basil on a quick 1 mile walk on the rim trail.

We listened to Just Mercy in our car. Lydia requested a lot of Sia in the car with Swathi, Clark and Meera. It was a fun drive!

After all the drama with ballroom, the kids went and won their competitions on Friday. I was floored. Mary, Ammon and Clarissa (who constitute half of their class) took first in their division. Lydia got first place for one of her songs and second for the other. I apologized to the kids for almost withdrawing them against their will and committed to at least finishing out the year. They all love ballroom, so they were happy.

The actual competition day was not as bad as I thought it would be. Getting the girls’ hair done was the hard part, and Abe helped tremendously by running around to four different stores to find hair nets, more scrunchies, and more gel.

Then Soren joined us and we all drove to Farmington. The event was held in a big arena and was surprisingly easy to navigate. The kids were really well-behaved and it was actually kind of fun sitting in the stands watching all of the dances.

Then I took the kids to Noodles and Company before dropping Lydia off at voice lessons and coming back home. Then we left the kids with the babysitter while the adults all went to Pizzeria 712 for dinner. We had the greatest time chatting and then went to Rockwell Ice Cream after for dessert.

When we got home we watched the documentary Cheer, because Clark said the culture might be similar to ballroom. We loved it!

On Thursday we got up very early to get ready for family pictures. I had not planned outfits ahead so needed a LOT of time to figure that out and get myself ready. Clark brought my mom over so she could be in the pictures.

Sarah arrived at 8am and took pictures of all of us together. It is always fun to take family pictures, and I realized as we were taking them that we need to make sure to do this annually. Sarah is my favorite photographer and I am genuinely confused why we have not only taken pictures with her in the past. I think maybe some years she has been unavailable. Going forward we are only going to use her!

After pictures we raced the kids to school and came home to pick up the remaining kids (Soren, Meera, and Clarissa) for an afternoon at Color Me Mine.

After that we picked up lunch at Kneaders and then headed home to rest a little bit before picking up the rest of the kids from school. They came home and played all together before we headed out for sushi at the Happy Sumo.

Afterward we split up. The older girls and I joined Amy and her girls for the BYU production of As You Like It. Abe went home to get all of the costumes to turn in because we decided to withdraw from ballroom. And everyone else went to the Mighty Baker to decorate cupcakes.

At night, Mary recapped the play: