Today my aunt Andrea came and spent time with the kids while Lily and I disappeared and worked on her resume. Lily is thinking of getting a job. Amazingly we found an old resume file (which helped so much!) and it was really fun to update it together.
When we were done, we saw the chalk drawings and hopscotch games that Andrea did with the kids. It was super fun visiting with her afterwards too. Thank you Andrea!
Work has been unusually stressful lately. I was already having what was looking to be one of the worst quarters of my career, and I got two new bits of bad news today. On top of that, a lot of our money is tied up in Qualtrics stock, and given the tech market has crashed, and I’m not making much commission, and I’m concerned about my career, we are feeling the stress.
This is not to be an alarmist. We are doing fine and certainly making ends meet. It is just extra challenging right now, and I’m working hard to stay positive and optimistic. I’ve been in sales long enough to know that things go up and down. Things will turn around. To help my stress, I took a walk on my break at work and enjoyed the rose gardens. Aren’t they lovely!
Back at home, the kids are having a perfect summer. Lydia made sock puppets for everyone, and they had a riot enjoying them.
Mary and Lily made delicious home-made applesauce.
Ammon and Clarissa instituted a calming closet (see video for details)
And I have to acknowledge that Lily worked insanely hard today. She folded a ton of laundry, reading practice with Ammon and Clarissa, ensured music practice happened, cleaned the house, including floors. I think she also exercised and did a lot more that I’m forgetting, but I just know she was constantly going. Thank you Lily for all you do to keep our home and family going!
Today was a super happy day for me. The day started with picking up Lydia and Mary from youth camp. I was delighted to learn that they had a great time and they want to go back in July for the reunion that whole families are invited to. I can’t wait!
When we got home, Lily and I worked on the house and then we hosted home-church.
I led a discussion about scripture, what it means to each person, how it manifests to each person, and what recent scripture people had been touched by. The discussion was so rich, including a folk-lore expert who explained that scripture often does not need to be written, because historically scripture/myth/folklore was communicated verbally, and once it is written, it’s frozen in time and future generations often can’t relate to it as well, not being connected to the time in which it was written. I thought that was fascinating. We explored the negative aspects to scripture (trying to control people), and the positive aspects to scripture (guiding during difficult times, comforting, inspiring) and what scripture means to each person. People shared that scripture could come from a therapist, a tv show, a friend, traditional scripture or even our own thoughts or words (reminding me of one of Lily’s poems). And I loved hearing about the recent things that inspired people lately. I had such a good time, and the group lingered almost an hour afterwards just chatting and bonding. I REALLY love my community of Christ people.
After church, we had Carla, who is our Pastor, and her husband Cuzma (spelling?), and their two kids over for dinner. It was so amazing to get to know them more. Carla has been a member of the Community of Christ her whole life and has been all over the world working for the church. Cuzma’s father was the first person in the Ukraine to join the community of Christ, and now there are 5 congregations there. Cuzma and Carla met in Missouri while going to the Community of Christ temple. Cuzma also had incredible perspectives on the war in Ukraine especially since he has parents who have been affected twice by the conflict (first in 2014 and now again in 2022).
After a delightful dinner, Lily and I crashed on the couch. I got up to get all my tomato cages and fertilizer set up and put the kids to bed, and Lily helped clean the kitchen and tuck kids in as well.
What a happy happy day!
Today was a super happy summer day. I woke up and did the budget and then I exercised with my 500 workout (more like a 276 lol). After that, Lily and I took Ammon and Clarissa to the Scera swimming pool It was a gorgeous 96 degree day that was perfect for swimming. While Lily swam laps, I took Ammon and Clarissa to the different water features, to the water slide, the lazy river and even the diving board (Ammon can do flips off of it!). I also played a fun game involving chasing a bad guy that Ammon made up. I felt good, and the whole thing was so fun, and it was delicious to get all of that sun.
At home, Lily and I showered ourselves and the kids and then tidied the house for a little bit. Then we took Ammon and Clarissa to Summerfest.
I got really woosey on the tornado (above) and was grateful the next ride (below) was a lot more mellow.
After enjoying the different rides, we got the kids corn dogs and snow cones. Within minutes, Clarissa and Ammon’s snow cones were dripping right through their cheap paper cups, making a mess and making them very hard to eat (by the end Ammon’s had a giant hole at the bottom, which I’m sure he helped create). I went back to the snow-cone stand and asked for two more cones because the liquid was leaking right through and the lady told me that she cannot give me another cone because they take inventory and they can’t give out any extras. I just walked away because I could feel myself getting unnecessarily angry. After cooling off, I brought a dripping cone with me as evidence and pleaded for more cones so my kids could actually eat them properly. Her supervisor was standing there and allowed her to give me two one cent cups. Lol. Wow. I work for Qualtrics, and we help companies provide good customer experiences. That certainly was not one, but it does make for a good chuckle when I think back on it. The lady was simply trying to do her job, so I definitely don’t fault her.
While the kids ate, we watch a super entertaining production by a group of youth singers and dancers. They even performed a song from “Newsies!”
Then Lily dropped of me, Ammon and Clarissa to walk in the Summerfest Parade to represent Arches. Because we were number 70 in the procession, we waited an hour in the heat (almost 100 degrees) waiting for our turn to get going. While waiting Ammon and Clarissa were mesmorized by some people in costumes that were representing a haunted house. The talked and talked and talked about them even the next day.
Finally when things got moving Ammon and Clarissa had so much fun walking and passing out candy to people. I face timed Lily in and she was so amused watching these adorable little kids engage with the crowds of people.
After the parade, Clarissa started to cry and said it was so fun that she didn’t want it to end. And later when I asked her if going to the parade was more fun than staying home and watching TV she said, “a little.” Lol, I guess TV is a close second to a parade and also worth crying over (which we have also witnessed).
At any rate, we ended the day at Zuppas with Lily (who picked us up), and overall we just felt super super satisfied at a day full of family, fun, and outdoors, and very few, if any, screens. What a great summer day!
Today, Lily dropped of Lydia and Mary at youth camp for the Community of Christ. It is at Red Cliffe campsite in Hunstville. Lily said the camp area was darling. I hope they have a great time!
This summer has been a lot of fun already. Today there was gardening, crafting and lego play. Hooray for summers!
OK, so this is way too much information, but I had a lot of extremely smelly gas last night at bed time. Long story short, when I woke up, Lily was in the guest room, LOL.
This has been a very hard week emotionally for both Lily and myself. But a major bright spot that has helped both of us to be happy is the gardening we have been doing. We found some gardening bins at Lowe’s that we absolutely love and we have been getting them set up and also planting in pots that we bought.
Lydia has been having a ball with her crafts. She’s in a panda phase. Aren’t they adorable!
Today I had a busy day at work and Lily worked like crazy on music with the kids, and visited her mom. After our day’s activities, we hosted Sarah and Zach and their two kids Lennon and Madeline. They are such pleasant people. We had rich conversation about faith journeys, travel, food and more. We were very impressed with their integrity, sincerity and warmth as people. We look forward to seeing them again.
Lydia had disappeared for most of the time because she was happily felting. Look at these things she made!
Also, Ammon and Clarissa got to sleep in Lydia and Mary’s room again in nests. They were so excited!
Yesterday was so busy, and Lily and I have been feeling a bit underwater, so I took today off just to be at home with the family and also get some rejuvenation. I started the day with an 80 minute bike-ride which I loved. While biking, I decided a potential dream job for me is to be one of those people who goes on rides for ifit, or Peloton and streams it to an audience. I just am so in love with biking. I’d also love to get into fixing up bikes and giving them to people like I did with the bike church in Philadelphia during college. Oh daydreams for retirement 🙂
Ammon and Clarissa played with legos a lot today which we loved to see.
Lily and I worked a lot on the house after my bike ride. Lydia and Mary helped clean the upstairs. Then we had lunch and scratched off images on the national park chart that Lily bought for the family. We only made it half way through, but while scratching them off, we all reviewed blog posts on the TV to remind us of our trips together. I loved doing that so much!
Then Lily and I went to Michaels to restock the craft-room. After that we went to Lowe’s to look for some plants. While there, we found some steel tubs that are perfect for garden boxes. We made the splurge, and sprang for it as we both love gardening so much and Lily has been hoping to get more into gardening. It was a bit funny because I had to make 4 more trips to Lowes just to get all the bins, dirt, gravel (to level the area), and other items home (times like this I think a truck would be nice). While I was making all the trips to Lowe’s Lily spent time with Amy while the kids all played together. I wasn’t done until after 8, so Lily also put down all the kids.
Lily and I are soooo excited about our garden bins!!!
Also, Ammon lost a tooth today!
The girls made a nest for Mary to sleep in.
Today we all got out the door on time and made it to Sunday school as well as sacrament meeting at the Community of Christ. Afterwards my dad called with some huge news. He and Suzanne were under contract for a new home! He invited us to come walk through it with them especially because they were still in their process of making their final decision and they were interested in our thoughts on it. First we ate lunch at Ikea and then we went to see the house. It was beautiful!!! And it’s about twice the size of their current home.
I chatted a bunch with my dad and Lily chatted a bunch with Suzanne. They are both under a lot of stress with Suzanne’s new promotion to library director for the law school at the U of U, and all of the craziness my dad has had to navigate getting under contract for the home (it’s a ridiculous market right now. Bidding wars are common, and average time for a home to be on the market is about 6 days). It was so nice to see them and be a part of this major decision they are going through. We love them!
After that stop, we visited Georgia. Ammon was asleep in the car, but everyone else got to see her. She is still in a sling and will see a doctor on Thursday. She’s in a lot of pain, but her spirit is beautiful and bright and it was very nice to see her.
Back at home Lydia worked on her animal picture. All of the kids have been crafting a lot lately and loving our crafting station so much.
For dinner we had MichaelAnne and her new boyfriend Matt over for dinner. We were completely charmed by Matt and we think he is wonderful for MichaelAnne. He is interesting (currently on a potato only diet), well traveled (he’s been bouncing around places for fun, loves to ski and was about to leave for San Francisco, but meeting MichaelAnne kept him in Utah, and he is kind (he was so polite and full of positive energy). We felt grateful that MichaelAnne wanted us to meet him. It was a super fun night. The conversation flowed freely and we all had a great time.