November

Trips and Activities

It was a busy month for Primary. We did our Presentation and Temple and Priesthood Preparation meeting. Both went well, but I'm still glad they're over. I've been subbing music since the music leader had a baby.

Devin brought all the old pumpkins from his garden, and we shot them out in Coal Mine Basin.

Saw The Best Christmas Pageant Ever with the kids for FHE. Awesome movie.

We traveled to Rexburg for Thanksgiving.

Birthdays and Holidays

I went to brunch with my friend Ashley for her birthday. It was a lot of fun. I don't get to do stuff like that very often.

For our Thanksgiving, we enjoyed lots of family time (meals, games, shopping, etc.). I saw Wicked twice, once with Anna and once with the whole family. I LOVE IT! We did a Zoom call with the Lee grandparents to learn more about their lives, and it was really interesting. It was a really nice, relaxing break.

Weather

Cold, a little snowy, but nothing too crazy yet. They kids built their first snowman and had fun playing in it once, but it's almost gone now.

Sickness

Mild, 1 day of church missed for James

Working on figuring out some tummy troubles I've had, triggered by certain foods

Repairs and Projects

Girls' room: new dressers, which Kenny helped me put together. I also spent 3 1/2 hours deep cleaning the room.

Boys' room: new shelves, shoe organizer. They deep cleaned their room, and I helped with the closet.

Living room: I moved all the craft supplies into Samantha's old dresser into the living room. James also found the perfect craft table at D.I. It's so nice to find things, and the girls' room has stayed 80% cleaner since it isn't crammed with all this stuff. I built a coat rack by the front door so we'd actually have room for all our winter stuff. We sorted through all of that too.

In total, I think we donated 6 bags of stuff to D.I. and threw away 3 bags of trash.

October

Well, I'm using a new format now and only posting once a month. I think this will simplify my life a bit. I didn't miss blogging for the past month, but I still want to have a record of our day-to-day stuff, just more concise.

Trips and Activities

General Conference: We made our "Munchies" mix and enjoyed the talks. James took the younger 2 kids to see the salmon spawning.

Esports competition: James and Joseph were gone for a Friday, and their team did well. Joseph placed 2nd in his bracket.

Fall Break in Rexburg: We enjoyed a trip to Bear World, watched Big Joseph in a band thing, and saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. James helped Angie on her tiny house.

Grand Ball: This was for Samantha. We all dressed up and got to meet Cinderella at her school.

Holidays and Birthdays

Katie turned 11! She got her ears pierced and has been enjoying her knitting machine. I think she's made 15 hats already.

Halloween: The Trunk or Treat was a success, and the kids got tons of candy. We had the right amount of treats, pizza, and hot chocolate.

Katie finished up basketball, which she had been doing since September. I think she liked it okay, but not as well as tennis.

James took a random day off. He took wildlife pictures, and then we went out for lunch. It was a much-needed break from life.

Weather

Beautiful, no complaints here.

Sickness

Minor, 1 day missed for Katie and 1 for James

Repairs and Projects

a pipe under the house, which just needed some glue

canning, lots of it

another shelf for the boys' room

a small blanket for Katie for Christmas, made from scraps she got at a yard sale

FanX, Painting

James ended up staying home last Thursday due to illness, but he and Joseph felt fine and went to FanX on Friday and Saturday. While they were gone, I painted the master bathroom, including the cabinets. It was a busy, exhausting weekend thanks to that project, but I'm so glad it's done. Kenny helped me give the bathroom a good scrubbing on Saturday after we put all the cabinet doors back on. Now that it's been a week, I appreciate the new paint more. It's nice not to be covered in paint, climbing up and down the ladder, or dealing with all the clutter in my room from the bathroom cupboards. It was completely worth the effort.

This week, I did a ton of canning: 6 quarts of winter squash and 17 pints of salsa. I also fixed the toilet in my bathroom, which needed a new fill valve. It was ridiculously easy, and I wish I'd done it sooner. The toilet has been making noise every since we got back from Ecuador. I also went to a basketball game for Katie. She did well, and I should've paid more attention.

Homecoming, Projects

James had a lot of work to catch up on, so I took the kids to the carnival alone. We enjoyed the games and free meals from the food trucks. It was a pleasant day, and I'm glad I got to spend it with the kids.

On Friday, James took the younger kids to the Homecoming parade. Katie and Kenny both had parties to go to. I canned tomatoes that the Binghams brought over.

Saturday, we went to a shrimp boil with the Warburtons and several other families. It was so delicious and lots of fun, even though I ate too much and had a stomachache afterward. James took Katie and Samantha to Homecoming until 8:30, and the boys and I watched Thor.

I still felt crummy Sunday morning (stomach cramps), so I stayed home from church to rest. I started feeling better by the end of the day, thankfully.

I had a busy Monday prepping the master bathroom for painting. James fixed our water heater, which took all afternoon, and we're all grateful.

Tuesday morning, I had a presidency meeting. It went well, and I got a lot of stuff done for Primary.

Wednesday afternoon, I had a random idea to build another shelf in the laundry room. It turned out great (less than 1 inch of clearance for the washing machine lid) and perfectly fits some storage bins I got cheap a few weeks ago. I spent an hour on the shed cleaning and organizing. Today, I spent 4 hours organizing all the small tools and supplies into the bins. They are neatly labeled, and I even got rid of a bunch of stuff we didn't need anymore. There were lots of duplicates and trash. It should be a lot less frustrating to do projects now.

I want to change the way I do this blog. I feel like I don't WANT to do it as often, but I don't want to give it up entirely either. I'm going to switch to once a month and cover just the highlights. I need to figure out what those will be, but the goal is to simplify my life.

A Great Fall

We went to our ward's harvest dinner last Thursday, but I wasn't feeling amazing after eating, so we went home after only an hour. I won't feel bad about it either. Sometimes, parties are just too dang long.

We did playdates on both Friday and Saturday (Navy, Blakely) because it felt really important to see everyone. I'm really glad I did both. It was really good to see my friends and remember, once again, that I'm not the only one struggling through mom life.

We started our fall movie marathon on Saturday evening. We're doing Marvel this year, our 9 favorites, and then all the Spiderman movies after, a total of 19 movies. I don't care if it's silly, but it makes me excited for fall. I love that the older boys like the same fandoms that James and I do.

The kids had a lockdown at school (no one was hurt) on Tuesday so I didn't volunteer, and the temple is closed, so the past few days have been kind of quiet. I used that time to finish my digitizing project, including sharing links with relatives for pictures, videos, audio, etc. It feels really good to have that done, just in time to paint the master bathroom next week. It'll be a little more work than the small bathroom, but it won't be so claustrophobic either.

James and I did our date last night. We got some burgers and ran a few errands. This afternoon, we're going to a community carnival.

I've been reading a book called Introvert Power, and I'm really grateful James got it for me. It's been enlightening. I have noticed that since school started, I've been feeling a lot more peaceful at home since I have a lot of time to myself. I've been able to reflect on lots of things and make some small tweaks to my schedule to make it work better and get more done. I don't know what the future holds, but I'm happy to be here at home right now.

I'm not happy about it being cold enough to wear socks for most of the day. :(

Down, Busy

For the past week and a half, the internet has been down somewhat. Our download speed was okay, but our upload speed was horrible, like .01 mbps. That meant we could watch TV okay most of the time, but trying to do any online shopping or uploading photos was either horribly slow or impossible. It really bothered me because I wanted to finish uploading some pictures to FamilySearch, but I couldn't without it timing out. I just finished today when I noticed the internet was finally working again. I'm officially done with all the old pictures. All I have left from my parents' house are 9 cassette tapes, most of which won't have anything special on them. I have the software ready to go to convert them to digital. I did cry when I had to re-set up the printer. It took me 3 hours and felt like such a huge waste of time.

James and I went to see the movie Reagan last Thursday. I liked it, but I'm not sure how much of it was true. I wasn't there when he was president. ;)

Katie started doing basketball 1-2 times a week. It's been a little crazy to add that in to what we already have, but she seems to like it so far. Joseph is in the robotics and e-sports clubs at school.

Saturday, I wasn't feeling super motivated to do anything, so I set a timer to work on sewing for an hour. I ended up spending 3 hours cutting up scraps, doing repairs, and organizing all my supplies. I need some tan thread to finish up 2 more hems, and then I'm done for a while. Sewing will never be my first love, but I appreciate it a lot more than I did 15 years ago.

We cleaned the church on Monday, and then James had a meeting afterward. Tuesday and Wednesday were both busy with activities for kids, and then I messed up our Wednesday evening a little by thinking we had tithing declaration when it was scheduled for a week later. Oops. I felt really bad, but it's not like I did it on purpose.

James and I have both been kind of tired since school started. The kids have already brought home 2 viruses, and it seems like we catch them all, even if the symptoms end up being mild. I hope this winter is better than the last few. I just don't recover from stuff as quickly as I used to.

Samantha's 6th Birthday, Labor Day

Samantha and I went to a play date on Friday, so that was nice. It's so hard to keep up with friends. Someone is always sick or busy. Samantha's birthday was nice. We had breakfast for dinner, strawberry ice cream, and strawberry shortcake. She loved her giant squishmallow, which was the main present.

We've been thinking about putting in a back door that would lead right to the patio. I thought it would be pretty straightforward, but we need an unusual size of door. Lowe's couldn't help and neither could Amazon, so we got a quote from a local place. I asked them a few follow up questions about it, so I hope they get back to me soon. We're still not sure if we'll be doing it or not. The quote with labor and glass included is outside of the budget we set.

We had a good Labor Day. For me, the perfect Saturday or holiday involves a small project, a meal out with James, and some time to relax. We accomplished just that by getting breakfast at Denny's, buying a cozy rug for the cabin (and getting rid of the big freezer), and then relaxing. We also watched Newsies with the kids.

It's been a pretty normal week. I scanned all the slides for the Heads and found some amazing pictures from 1996 when James went to Mexico and Ecuador. I'd assumed that these were the same pictures as prints from that year, but I was wrong, so I'm glad I took the time to scan them all. I finished a bunch of old pictures from my parents' house, and now I'm working on photos old enough that they're going straight to Family Search.

It's September, so I feel like it's officially fall. We've had some cooler evenings and haven't had to use the AC too much. I made my first batch of pumpkin muffins (one of the only pumpkin things I actually like) and some bread. My schedule right now is full enough that I haven't had time to get bored, and Katie starts basketball today, so that's new.

Painting, Lonely Weekend

I ended up painting the small bathroom completely on Friday, which was awesome. I love how the color turned out too. I had just enough time in between to drop the boys off for their campout and take dinner to the missionaries. James left for his "boys weekend" with Kenneth, Sam, and Nick in Salt Lake. I stayed busy enough on Friday that I didn't feel too lonely and had no problems sleeping.

Saturday, I touched up the paint and scrubbed the bathroom in the afternoon. While the paint finished drying, I took the 3 younger kids to Dino Soar Days. We looked at the farmer's market, got cookies, and went to the dinosaur museum since it was free admission. It was a little crazy and busy, but I think the kids had fun. I picked up the boys, and we didn't do much for the rest of the day. Things went a little downhill at that point and just weren't fun.

Sunday went all right, even though I ended up teaching a class last minute. James got home safely from his fun weekend. I had a mini breakdown because I don't know how to deal with the Sunday scaries yet and the school year is still new.

Monday, we overscheduled ourselves a little too much by cleaning our closet. It was a bigger job than expected. The new shelf for the bathroom came, so Kenny put that together for me. All that Lego-building has paid off.

I volunteered for the first time in Mrs. Batty's class this year, and it went great. I'll be there Tuesday afternoons.

I'm also trying to get to the temple once a week (on Wednesdays). So far, so good.

Today, I made whole wheat bread and pressure canned chipotle beef. For our date, we're doing sealings at the temple and getting dinner afterward.

I like my schedule this year so far. I hope everyone can stay healthy so I can stick to it. I haven't had time to get bored yet, either. I scanned some old pictures from NC and hope to finish that next week. Many are going to go on FamilySearch as well.

1st Week of School

Back to school night went well, and all the kids are excited about their teachers. I'm also glad I went to the Relief Society activity afterward. It was relaxing to spend time with the ladies in my ward and eat s'mores.

Friday, we did a play date with Navy. Kenny had a party that night at a friend's house. I never did invite any friends over who'd invited us during the summer. I was too tired in between trips to want to be social.

Saturday, I slept a ton but woke up still tired and discovered that the fridge had broken. It was the last standing appliance from when we bought the house, and I believe it was 25 years old. James and I didn't agree at first on which one we should get, but we finally agreed on one and had it delivered on Monday. That was a ton of work, and it put a damper on the whole weekend. Thanks to fridge stuff, we didn't end up going to the fair since there just wasn't any time. Ugh. I'm glad the freezer outside was mostly empty (the emptiest in a year) so we could shift things around and use coolers. It was still a huge pain, but I'm glad it didn't happen while we were gone on a long trip. That was a tender mercy.

So Monday was long. Katie went to a party that night with friends. School started Tuesday, and no one wanted me at the bus stop, but I got some pictures before they left. After my usual stuff, I went to a funeral for a man in our ward. It's one of the best funerals I've been to, and there have been A LOT in the past year.

Wednesday, I went to the temple and then Lowe's to get stuff for painting the small bathroom. I was really tired during the afternoon, so we decided to take the kids out for pizza in the park. It was windy, there were wasps, and the kids were whiny, so it didn't last long. I hope they get used to the school schedule soon.

Today, I made chicken stew and pressure canned it, made bread, and started prepping the small bathroom for paint tomorrow and Saturday. I plan to have it done by Saturday night and put back together completely on Monday. At some point in the near future, I'll also do the master bathroom, at least the walls. If the cabinet turns out good for the small bathroom, I'll also do all the cabinets. I have my doubts since it's old, crappy, laminate, but I've done my research and gotten good quality supplies, so we'll see. If I feel confident enough on cabinets, I might even do the kitchen, but that's not happening this year.

Getting Ready for School

I got over my weird stomach bug by Wednesday night, so we attended our ward's block party. It was fun to share pictures of the trip with a couple of ladies I know.

We tried to be as boring as possible during the past week since we were still pretty tired from the trip. The kids went through all of their clothes so I'd know what to buy. We needed a couple pairs of shoes, socks, and underwear, most of which I bought on Amazon. I'm so grateful for hand-me-downs every time school starts and I don't have to buy much. I got the school supplies delivered with my groceries, so that was no trouble at all.

Joseph had orientation for the high school on Monday, and the rest of the kids have theirs today. I've also had a presidency meeting, helped with boys' activities, gone to the temple, and driven kids to play dates, activities, the orthodontist, and Young Men.

James started work yesterday. I hate getting up early. I'm really feeling it today. I hope I can get used to it before the kids start on Tuesday. I don't know what my year will be like, exactly, but I know I'm not supposed to seek out employment outside of my home yet. Last year ended up being super busy with canning, family history, and Primary.

I finished editing and uploading my family's home videos to YouTube. Most were from 1988 to 1990, so I don't have memories of them. It was pretty fun to see myself as a baby and toddler. I still have a lot to do with pictures, cassette tapes, and more slides (from the Heads). 

It will be a good school year. I know I will be able to find ways to fill my time and help others.

Ecuador

We just got back from an amazing trip to Ecuador with James's parents, Jacob, Anna, and Joseph. I can't believe it's over already, but we crammed in a lot of things.

Tuesday, 7/23: We went to Salt Lake for the day and visited the Church History Museum, had lunch at The Pie Underground, and browsed Deseret Book before meeting with James's family at the hotel. We parked our cars there since we'd be staying there on the way back. Our flight left for Orlando that night, and we finally got to our hotel at 2:30 A.M.

Wednesday, 7/24: After not enough sleep, we had breakfast and swam in the hotel pool. (I forgot how hot and gross Florida is at any time of day! The pool was so nice!) We flew to Quito and got to our hotel, a cute BnB called La Posada Tambuca around 8:30, then had some KFC for dinner. It turns out that KFC is super popular in Ecuador. Who knew?

Thursday, 7/25: After a yummy breakfast, we headed over to San Vicente de Paul, an orphanage nearby, and played with the kids and met the main nun there, Sor Catalina. She shared her life story and fed us lunch. We then visited a Star Wars museum underneath a bridge, then went back, got our stuff, and headed back to the airport to fly to Cuenca.

Friday, 7/26: After a short tour of the OSSO house and orphanage, we participated in a Fun Run with Hogar de Angeles. I helped push a wheelchair down to the park, where we heard a few speeches and watched some traditional dances. After lunch, we did shifts at Hogar de Angeles and the orphanage next door, Tadeo Torres. I helped with the cunas (babies) along with Katie and Big Joseph. It was an interesting experience, especially when we drove with the kids to hippotherapy without enough seatbelts. After dinner, we went into town to see the cathedral at night and got some ice cream at Tutto Fredo.

Saturday, 7/27: We started the day with a tour of both cathedrals and some local markets. The kids were so excited to spend money they'd earned over the summer. It was also fun to feed the pigeons and try chicken foot soup.

Sunday, 7/28: Most of us went to church. Kenny wasn't feeling amazing, so James stayed home with him. Sacrament meeting had a lot of gringos, so it was half in English. I went to Primary and translated for my kids. We met at KFC for a reunion with girls from Hogar Miguel Leon. Many of them came late, but it was fun to meet them. (HML is the first orphanage that OSSO worked with, and the girls are all grown up now and do reunions every so often.)

Monday, 7/29: After visiting the Rotary Market, we traveled to Hogar Miguel Leon and met some of the nuns (Sor Blanca, Sor Teresa, Sor Maria Agusta) for a little chat. The kids went off to play. We had some pork sandwiches for lunch with Rosario and headed up the mountain to Turi. The views were amazing, and we got to do a rope bridge, which was slightly scary. James and I went out to dinner at Fabbiano's (pizza) with Anna, and it was delicious.

Tuesday, 7/30: We started our day at Casa Nino Manuelito in the neighboring town of Azogues. We divided into 2 groups and helped the kids buy shoes for school at the market with a treat of ice cream afterward. After lunch at La Fornace, we visited the Museo Pumapungo, which had both Incan ruins and a cool history for each area of Ecuador. We were also able to go inside James's old house from when he lived in Cuenca for a year. James and I went out to dinner at a fancy restaurant called Tiesto's with his parents and the Roseros, the directors for Ecuador. It was absolutely divine. We got to try a whole bunch of different things. I took pictures of the menu in hopes that I can try some of these things at home.

Wednesday, 7/31: After an hour and 20 minute bus ride, we arrived at Ingapirca, the best Incan ruins in Ecuador. The ride there was absolutely breathtaking. I love the Andes. They are much taller than the Rockies, much greener, and pointier. After an amazing tour of the ruins, we had lunch and then headed back for an afternoon of relaxing, much needed at this point.

Thursday, 8/1: We did shifts at Hogar de Angeles and Tadeo Torres again. This time, I helped out at Hogar de Angeles, where the kids with special needs live. It was a great experience. We helped the kids eat and played some games. In the afternoon, we headed to the airport to fly back to Quito. It was really sad to leave the OSSO house behind. It was comfortable and had a good area for the kids to play. We also really enjoyed hanging out with the volunteer families that were there.

Friday, 8/2: We headed to Santa Lucia in the morning and played with the kids. They sang a couple of songs for us, and we sang back to them as well. After lunch, we toured a cool cemetery, the Basilica, and the artisans' market. We found a cool chocolate shop that gave us samples from different parts of Ecuador and then had dinner at Crepes and Waffles.

Saturday, 8/3: After a quick stop at a glassblowing shop, we went to Henry Davis, an orphanage that Anna lived at for most of the summer while she helped teen groups. The kids there were amazing and so cute. We played games and chatted with the teens. They fed us lunch, and then we headed to Mitad del Mundo, located right at (or at least very close to) the Equator. The kids had fun feeding the llamas and playing in the park. We also explored the shops and museums and got empanadas on the way back.

Sunday, 8/4: We attempted to go the church, but the building was closed down. We instead got permission for the sacrament and held our own testimony meeting at La Posada Tambuca. At this point, I started feeling kind of crummy with tummy troubles. I'm still not back to 100%, but hopefully by the weekend. We had another reunion at KFC with HML girls. It was a blessing that they all showed up pretty early. James and I along with Anna, Joseph, Kenny, and Samantha left to get to the airport. We flew to Bogota, Colombia.

Monday, 8/5: After a night in the hotel in Bogota, we met up with everyone else at the airport. The flight from Bogota to Miami was particularly beautiful, so I'm glad I had a window seat to see Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas. We had plenty of time in the airport before heading to Salt Lake, where we stayed for the night. We even saw the DeCamps, a lovely couple from Maeser 3rd who just returned from a mission!

Tuesday, 8/6: We drove home!

Since being at home, we've unpacked, gotten groceries delivered, cleaned, mowed the lawn, and tried to get rest in between. I've still got some kind of bug or infection, but it's starting to get better little by little. I know I need tons of rest and mild food. I'm not in a lot of pain, but it's annoying to be sick right now. School starts in 2 weeks, and we are not ready. I'm really glad we went to Ecuador. It changed our lives!

Chill Week

We took it easy during the past week. I've still been sick but without any respiratory symptoms, and Joseph and Katie are improving quite a bit. It's easy enough to manage fatigue during these days at home. Instead of trying to go to every community activity, I've stayed home and taken naps, read books, and watched TV while doing my regular daily stuff. We haven't done any big projects either, which is completely fine since we head to Ecuador next Tuesday. I'm both excited and terrified at the same time since it's all new to me.

I did leave the house last night to go to a movie with James. Fly Me to the Moon was pretty funny, and we got ice cream cones afterward.

Katie and Lewis have their last day of tennis today. They've really enjoyed it and are always so happy when we pick them up.

We have a dinner today for the Primary teachers and staff at Sis. Hall's house. Last year's was great, and I hope today's is too.

I shared an album each day of the slides I did for my dad. They turned out really good, definitely better quality than prints I've scanned in the past. I also worked on videos, cutting them into clips, editing them, and uploading them to YouTube. I'm not done with them yet, but I'll work on them again after Ecuador when I have time. We have a lot to do to get ready for school, and it starts on August 20th this year. The summer has really flown by.

Rexburg, 4th of July, FSY, Slides

June ended with Zak Redden, one of James's old mission companions, coming over for dinner. His kids played with our with Zak and his wife went to the temple. We then had dinner together. It was a pretty fun time, and it was the first day I felt completely better from that nasty cold.

Monday morning, we dropped Joseph off at the stake center for his bus ride to Provo for FSY. We then continued on to Rexburg with stops at Smith and Edwards and Chick-fil-a.

Tuesday, James, his dad, and the 3 middle kids hiked the wind caves while Melodie and I went to the temple. We had a good day at the house with Samantha and Juliana, then we got pizza from Righteous Slice for dinner. The hikers didn't get back till late.

Wednesday, we celebrated Summerween with the kids and shopped at D.I. in the afternoon. James and I left for our anniversary dinner, a Brazilian place in Idaho Falls called Tche's. It was absolutely delicious, and we had a great time walking around the mall afterward. We stayed in a cheap Moab-themed room in Shelley.

For the 4th, we got up and drove the 10 minutes to Grandpa Lee's concert and breakfast in Firth. It was delicious, as always. We got back to Rexburg just in time for James to take the kids to the parade in Rexburg. Samantha was in Victor for that parade since Grandpa Head was the grand marshal this year. I stayed at the house and organized all the pictures I'd brought back from digitizing at my house. We had dinner with Lars, Emily, and the Lees in Rigby. We then watched fireworks in Rexburg.

Friday was also really busy. We went to Bear World, the Renaissance Faire, and Macbeth in the park.

We drove home on Saturday with no problems and got unpacked. Joseph got home before us and had an uneventful day playing video games.

This week has been busy, but not in the same way. Katie and Lewis have tennis at the high school every day Monday - Thursday from 9:30-10:30. They have loved it so far. I had a presidency meeting, and we attended a ward party last night. I also took Kenny to the dentist for a filling today.

I got my slide scanner, so I scanned all the slides I got from NC. I've also finished cropping, rotating, and organizing them into albums, so I'm sharing them one at a time with my family. It's been so fun to see my dad's old mission pictures as well as some other trips he took in the 80's before I was born. Next up are videos, then photos, then cassette tapes and hopefully more slides when Rex finds his from his mission. I don't know how long all of this will take, but the process of scanning the slides was much easier than I expected. I've now seen over 1,000 pictures of South America, but I'm still nervous to go there in less than 2 weeks. Haha.

A Week of Calm

Things have been a little tough since we got home. I am sick with a cold I picked up in NC, and I thought I had escaped the worst of it, but it peaked on Sunday. I was able to do a lot on Thursday since I didn't feel truly crummy yet, but I barely left the couch on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. All of this week, I've spent a lot of time on the couch trying to rest. I've had chunks of a few hours where I've felt okay enough to go do things.

Monday, I went to dental appointments in the morning and a funeral in the afternoon. We went to Inside Out 2 for FHE and really enjoyed it.

Tuesday, I went to the temple to do baptisms with the boys in the afternoon. We got some tacos afterward, as is tradition when they go with the ward.

Wednesday, James took Joseph to the orthodontist while I got things done at home.

Today, we had a training for OSSO, which was really informative.

James has been working hard on projects all week. When we came back from NC, the yard was really overgrown. He's spent hours tackling all the weeds, adding hooks to the laundry room, and taking care of me while I get over this annoying cold. I seem to be done coughing, but the fatigue is still very real. I'm glad for those moments of clarity and energy where I can still get things done. I sorted through all the old pictures from NC and made a to-do list for all the digitizing I still need to do. I plan to digitize the photos, slides, and cassettes myself. I sent off all the videos (3 different formats) and should have them back before we go to Ecuador. I hope the company is able to digitize them all because there is a really old film reel that might be video footage of my great-grandparents!

NC Trip

We had a wonderful, grueling trip to NC.

6/4: We drove all the way to Salina, KS, with a stop at the Denver mall for lunch.

6/5: After driving the remaining 3ish hours to Kansas City, we enjoyed a BBQ lunch at Arthur Bryant's (as recommended by a friend). It was absolutely delicious! We then visited the WWI museum and rode to the top of the tower for an excellent view of KC. We finished our day by staying near St. Louis in some Star Wars pods, which were a lot cooler than I expected.

6/6: We drove into St. Charles for the Lewis and Clark Boat House and Museum. It was small, but cool. For lunch, we got Imo's, St. Louis style pizza. The manager there treated us like royalty and even gave us extra food. It was delicious too! We drove to Philadelphia, TN, to a home with a cool video game theme.

6/7: We explored Smoky Mountain Knife Works and stopped in Black Mountain, NC (the setting of a book series I read).  After a dinner at Cook Out, we got to Myles and Skyla's home around 8:30 P.M.

6/8: I taught canning to Mara, Ceci, and Skyla. We did strawberry jam, pickles, and potatoes. Myles and Skyla bought us yummy BBQ from Smithfield's.

6/9: We attended church with Myles and Mara's families and watched Saturday's Warrior after dinner. I had never seen the new one, but it was pretty good.

6/10: We took the kids to the splash pad in Clayton for the morning.  After dinner with Christian and Rachel, we did gel blasters with everyone.

6/11: Dad drove and gave us a tour of Columbia and Lexington, SC, where we used to live until I was 7. We visited my grandparents' graves, our old houses, and 2 favorite restaurants, LaBrasca's and Zesto.

6/12: Carmel and Matthew moved into their own apartment, so we helped with that. I gathered up old pictures, slides, and a few other miscellaneous things that I intend to digitize soon. Christian and Rachel fed us a yummy dinner, and then Rachel took family pictures over at a sunflower patch.

6/13: Beach day! We toured Ft. Macon State Park and spent the afternoon at Atlantic Beach. It was an amazing day with the perfect weather. No one wanted to leave. No one got sunburned either, not even me! We had dinner at Waffle House on the way back and stayed with Mara and Ricky that night.

6/14: After a delicious breakfast with Mara and Ricky, we headed over to Christian and Rachel's to do tie dye. I took random shirts that were mostly white, and all but one of them turned out. (One was polyester so it didn't work.) After lunch, we got some ice cream with Christian and Rachel, then headed over to Brinson and Ceci's for a relaxing afternoon and dinner. We played some board games afterward.

6/15: In the morning, Ceci, the girls, and I went to Colbey's baby shower. I made pinwheels the day before and helped set up and clean up at the end. It was pretty fun. We played some games, ate snacks, and opened presents. For dinner, we went to Phil and Laurel's. I knew Laurel as a youth/in college and James had a class with her in college. Some of our kids are similar ages, so they had a fun time playing too. We played some more games with Brinson and Ceci.

6/16: After attending church with Mom and Dad, we hung out with them in Apex. We met the whole family for a dinner at the church and took some pictures by the temple afterward. It made it convenient to say goodbye to everyone. After getting back to Brinson and Ceci's, we packed the car.

6/17: By some miracle, James tetris-ed everything into our car. Our first stop was with Claude and Tracey. All of my local Phenix cousins came! I've now met all of their spouses and kids minus one. The 2nd cousins had a wonderful time playing together, and we had pizza and caught up. It's like seeing old friends.

6/18: We drove to Salina, KS, and stayed at the same hotel as on the way in. The day was pretty uneventful.

6/19: Home at last! One small hiccup happened. When we stopped for lunch, I noticed that one of our tires was coming apart, almost like a slash mark, but likely caused by road damage. We drove .3 miles down the road, bought a new tire, and less than an hour later were on the road. It did set us back, obviously, but we were home by 11 and got a good night of sleep.

Though we never stayed at my parents' house, they came to dinner almost every day. Mom had also given every household a different flavor of muffins or biscuits for us to snack on while we were there. We also had the entire day in the car with Dad for the SC day trip. We didn't have as long with Mara and Ricky either, but James was able to go play games with him 3 times during the week.

I didn't sleep much and came back with a cold, but I'm so glad we made the sacrifice to make this trip. It was incredibly fun, and I fully believe that God watched over us every day. We felt especially loved by each family since we had a few days at each house. Everything we planned worked out, and the food was delicious. The car worked perfectly (minus the tire, but that's different), and we had a lot of fun.

Today will be the usual after-trip chores like shopping, laundry, and tackling this overgrown mess of a yard. We probably won't finish everything until tomorrow, but that's okay. I can't wait to sort through the pictures and remember it all over again.

First Week of Summer, Joseph's 14th Birthday

It's been a crazy week, and things won't slow down next week since we leave for NC on Tuesday.

Saturday ended up busier than expected. We helped James's coworker Katie move, then the older boys and I went to vacuum out the van at the car wash. Katie had given us some furniture, so we rearranged the living room, got rid of a broken cabinet, and cleaned everything in the process. The girls also cleaned their room to make space for some new shelves. It took pretty much all day, which meant I didn't get to some of the other things I wanted to do.

Monday, Memorial Day, we went into Dinosaur National Monument to see some petroglyphs and a few cool overlooks. We had lunch at a campground before returning home. James and I played a board game and then relaxed somewhat for the rest of the day.

The rest of the week has been so busy that I've had to rewrite my planner by the hour. By Friday afternoon, I will been to/done 4 birthday parties (1 hosted here today for Joseph), 3 play dates (one of which was a long drive), 3 dental/ortho appointments (1 that got added last minute), 2 haircuts, and 1 presidency meeting. There's also a doctor's appointment on Monday. Oh, and there were also activities for Katie, YM for the boys, and a lunch date with Kenny to use a few certificates he got from school and a lunch date with James while he was working.

Naturally, James has been working since Tuesday and will do all of this week plus Monday. I've grown weary of driving places, even the fun ones. I know I won't write again until after I return from NC, so here's the rundown of the next few days:

Today: Joseph's 14th birthday. He invited a few friends to play board games and video games. I'm making several kinds of pizza, chocolate PB cheesecake, and PB fudge ice cream.

Tomorrow: Last playdate of the week, chores that I don't want to do on Saturday.

Saturday: chores, a baptism

Sunday: the usual

Monday: prep for the trip

Throw in a couple of small organizing projects on the side with a dash of "I'm bored; what should I do?" and that's my summer so far. I'm really looking forward to the trip next week while also dreading the really long drive.

Last Week of School

All the cars are back! The Yukon has a few things that could be fixed but don't have to be if we're not taking it on any long trips. The van was leaking transmission fluid, so we took it back in and got it fixed under warranty (bad gasket) since they'd just done work on the transmission. I'm crossing my fingers, but we should be good to go for our trip after I get the oil changed today and the kids clean it out this weekend.

It's been an okay week. It's seemed like a month long, not just a few days. I keep thinking that it's a day ahead of what it actually is, and that doesn't help. Tomorrow is the last day of school!

We did a short game night with Katie since she's moving this week. It's sad, but I get it.

I helped with Field Day for Kindergarten on Tuesday and today I'm going to see a skit done by the 4th graders. Katie says she's the narrator. I think she's started to come out of her shell this year and isn't just the quiet kid in the back.

This next week will be spent sleeping in and getting things ready for the long trip. I'm really hoping it goes well with NO car problems this time. Having a much newer car should help, and if it doesn't, I quit!

Logan, Almost There

We had a wonderful trip to Logan. We left on Friday around 1:45. James actually came home from school a bit early and realized he had a fever, so I had a mini breakdown because I was worried about him. He took some meds and a little nap before we hit the road, and the fever never returned. I was a little tired during the weekend, but I finally feel like I'm 100% better. A few of the kids are coughing a tiny bit still. Our drive to Logan was uneventful. Dad had meetings in Salt Lake last week, so we met him for dinner at KFC in Bountiful with Nash. It was a really nice stop, and the rest of the drive to Logan during sunset was absolutely gorgeous. I don't know what I was expecting the city to look like, but I was blown away by how much bigger and greener it was than what I expected. We went swimming in the hotel pool, and the kids went to bed way too late.

Saturday, we went to the Pepperidge Farm outlet, Big Deal, Gossner's (a cheese factory), and Costco. We got enough snacks for our NC trip for very good prices. Then we went to the temple to wait for Elizabeth (James's cousin) and Spencer to come out. (They ran out of room in the sealing room, but that's all right.) After pictures, we went to a park on the USU campus to eat Costa Vida. The reception followed afterward at the art museum. We took the kids swimming again and gratefully retired for a better night of sleep than the one before. (The girls' coughing kept me up a lot.)

Sunday morning, we quickly got ready and attended a 9:00 Sacrament meeting in town, finished packing up, and drove home, which was uneventful. James got me a bunch of random snacks for Mother's Day. We got home around 3:30 and got everything unpacked and cleaned up (mostly).

I'm glad for the time I've had to recover this week. It was also really good to take the van on a "test trip" before we drive it cross country. There were no problems, but I noticed that it's leaking a tiny bit of something (oil, maybe?) on the driveway, but we have plenty of time to get it fixed before we leave. The Yukon is currently at the shop for a few weird noises it's making, but after talking to Dad, they are probably nothing to worry about, just a sign of its age. Either way, it needs a new seatbelt in the front since it constantly locks up, which is really annoying. Yes, it's been quite a saga with the cars, but we should have them all fixed up within the next week and then not have to worry about them again for a while, I hope.

School is almost done for the year! One week and one day to go! I can't even express how excited I am for this. Of course I'm excited about our trips, but I also look forward to sleeping in and really enjoying the nice weather. I enjoy the time in between trips as much as the trips themselves because we get to do small outdoor adventures in our area, work on projects, and keep a more relaxed schedule. Bring on summer!

Cars, Plans

Things have improved a bit since last week, even though they got worse first. I felt extremely tired on Friday so I cancelled my playdate. By Sunday, things started to turn around and I had more energy. A couple of the kids are coughing now, so I'm sure it's just been a (mostly) asymptomatic cold.

The G6 started having problems, and Walmart told us it was both the alternator and the battery. The old battery was covered under the warranty, so we got the new one for free. When I picked up the van from the shop on Monday, I swapped cars. The G6 didn't end up needing an alternator, so that was nice since the van ending up costing a lot more than we originally thought. It's had all the maintenance it needs before heading to NC in less than a month!

We've been working on planning our NC trip. Having it all typed up in a chart makes it seem real. We're pretty certain about where we're going to stop and what things we want to do on the way; we just don't have concrete reservations for anything yet. The first trip we took in 2021 went much better than expected and we spent a little more money and time to make it more fun. Our trip in 2022 had some bad luck with car trouble, bad weather, and less time for travel overall, which made it a lot less fun than the year before. We've learned from both of those trips and are going to make this one a combination of the 2021/2022 trips. I really hope those "bad luck" things stay to a minimum because no amount of planning can do anything about them!

I'm excited to go to Logan this week for the wedding. The weather is supposed to be nice (finally!) and it's always fun to see family.

Meh, Wins

It's been one of those weeks that feels like it's dragging on forever. We took the Yukon in last week the get the regular tires on, and a few days later, I noticed it had a flat. James took it in, and it needed a new tire. I wish they could've figured that out before we had to spend another few hours worrying about it. We took the van to the shop yesterday for maintenance and will pick it up today. That makes 5 car-related trips into town in the past week. Ugh.

I've been reviewing Spanish by doing 20 pages a day in James's old college textbook. So far, so good. I've mostly forgotten some vocabulary, but I remember all the grammar stuff so far. I'm trying to do the reading parts out loud so I won't get too tongue-tied when we're in Ecuador later this summer.

I have a presidency meeting today, and I'm worried that I'll end up with a giant to-do list of stuff I've been neglecting. I'm excited to go to a baptism on Saturday, though. They are always special.

The weather hasn't been great either. It's windy, cold, and cloudy with only a few moments of sunshine. I hope the nice weather comes back soon.

There have been some wins, though. 4 of 5 kids needed new shoes (some more than 1 pair). We started at D.I. and got 6 pairs of shoes, 2 of them Nikes, for less than 20 bucks. We found the remaining ones at Walmart for not too much. My total cost per pair of shoes was about 5 bucks. A few days later, Lewis said he needed church shoes, so we pulled out the hand-me-downs from the trailer and found the next size up for him, no trip to the store needed. I'll give it about 2 months before someone needs shoes again, but at least for now, everyone is good.

Things are not terrible, really, just boring right now. The trip to D.C. was so fast-paced and exciting that it made regular life look like a drag in comparison. That's okay, though. We're going on a little trip to see James's cousin get married in the Logan temple next weekend. Though I've lived in Utah for 12 years, I've never had a reason to go to Logan until now. I'm excited to see a new city that I've heard so much about. It will also be great to see everyone since the whole Lee side will be gathered and we won't see the Heads again till July.

Yard Work, Photos

We spent quite a  bit of time in the yard on Saturday thatching, raking, cleaning up trash, cleaning out the shed, and sweeping off the walkways and patio. James took stuff to D.I. and I took a load of stuff to the dump, then went to IFA to get the year's fertilizer. I put the humate and round 1 of fertilizer down yesterday and we turned the sprinklers on to get in a good watering. We should have a green yard within the week! I always dread setting everything up, but it's usually not a big deal.

I got everything done with the photos that I intended to. It was a great source of frustration to do the Google Photos accounts for my parents. I had to keep verifying with a code every time I wanted to do something, and that was annoying. It also took a while to get everything uploaded, and I still don't have all of Mom's stuff since she's not tech savvy and I'm far away. I did share all of the old Phenix photos with both of them and created self-updating albums on my dad's account for each married sibling. There weren't as many photos of us as I'd hoped, but oh well. I've done my research on doing slides, and I think I'm going to go for it. I learned that the slide to digital converter also does negatives, but I don't know if I want to go there.

Pros:

1. Negatives make better quality pictures.

2. There may be pictures that I didn't have loose copies of or aren't in scrapbooks. (Unlikely, though. Most negatives were with stacks of pictures from the same time period.)

Cons:

1. Negatives tend to degrade over time, so I might go to a lot of work for nothing.

2. The color might be off, and I'd have to learn how to fix it.

3. They'd need to be cleaned off first.

4. They're fairly disorganized because I didn't think I'd use them for anything. (But they are all in one bag, more or less.)

5. I'd have to scan all of them that are on one strip and then delete the bad ones, which in my experience, is 80% of them. Having done all the digital photos, I don't think it would be worth the effort.

When I'm in NC in June, I'll get my dad's slides from his mission and convert them. Then, in July, I will get Rex's and do those. I'm pretty excited to see all the mission pictures from Argentina and Italy.

If the slides turn out well, maybe I will charge to do them for people in my ward. I dunno.

Busy, Photos

Honestly, I wasn't excited for this week at all. James had parent/teacher conferences, Kenny a doctor's appointment and eye appointment, Joseph an orthodontist appointment, and all of us stake conference. I know I shouldn't grumble about extra church meetings, but I was this weekend. I made a point to go to all 3 meetings, though, and I was both humbled and inspired by the messages given. I'm grateful that I've been able to do many good things with my time at home, and I know that my next step is to study Spanish in preparation for our trip to Ecuador.

But first, pictures. Here's a boring recap of what I've done thus far since I've now spent 155 hours on it for the Heads:

*Sorted loose photos and envelopes by month/year and scanned from 1954 - 2008 (2 huge boxes!)

*Scanned photos from older scrapbooks that weren't in the loose ones

*Uploaded all the scanned photos to Google Photos (mine, Melodie's)

*Consolidated 200 GB of stuff on a hard drive, sorted by month and year and uploaded those photos, mostly from 2008 - 2016, and backed up to her other hard drive

*Cleaned up Google Photos for Melodie from 2017 - present day

*Named faces on Google Photos

*Created self-updating albums for my family, Sam's family, and Anna (Melodie's account)

*Made a comprehensive Shutterfly book of James's childhood since such a scrapbook has never been in existence

*Made albums for future FHE's which include all 4 of our parents' childhoods and early marriage

*Made an album for James of historical sites and museums

*Made an album of the extended Head family and shared it to the FB group

What's next?

*Make note of which photos in the later albums (1988 and on) I didn't have loose pictures for. In July, I'll get the albums out and take pictures of them on my phone. I have books for 4/7 of these albums, so that helps a lot. I don't think there will be very many, but I don't want to miss anything important.

*Put Grandpa Head's book in order in a binder.

*Get my parents to download Google Photos and upload all their pictures to the accounts. Add those to my Phenix family album.

Maybe?

*Look into getting a device to convert slides to digital and do my dad's and Rex's photos (mostly from the mission, I believe).

Spring Break: Rexburg and D.C. Trip

We had an uneventful drive to Rexburg on Friday (the 29th). Saturday, we dyed eggs and did a hunt for plastic eggs filled with candy.  Jesse and I went to the Thai place for lunch with Melodie for our birthdays. We also enjoyed a "Jerusalem dinner" of gyro meat, bulgur pilaf, flatbread, olives, and grapes. I've been in NC some years for Easter, so I've missed that tradition. It's both delicious and fun.

Easter Sunday, we attended church and had a delicious dinner afterward, the usual. I contributed by making the funeral potatoes the night before and deviling the eggs Sunday morning. I was still feeling a bit sick, but I took a quick nap and felt better afterward. I still wasn't too sure about how I'd feel on the D.C. trip.

James and I left on Monday for our D.C. trip. We spent the day in Salt Lake getting lunch at a German deli, browsing IKEA and a few other stores, and trying Raising Cane's for dinner. Our flight didn't leave till 10:50 P.M., and we arrived in D.C. Tuesday morning around 9 with a layover in Boston. We'd been hoping for a little sleep, but I think we each got an hour. Luckily, there were movies to enjoy during the long (and short) flights.

Tuesday morning, we headed straight into D.C. on the metro. We carried only backpacks since we knew we'd be walking around all day with all of our belongings. We started with the Museum of Natural History, got sandwiches at Potbelly's, and did a part of the American History museum as well. By the time things closed, we were pretty exhausted and got on the metro to head to our hotel in Alexandria. We got pizza for dinner at &Pizza, then relaxed for a little bit and crashed for the night. I went to bed at 8 P.M. Eastern, which would be 6 P.M. Mountain, then slept for about 11 hours. Haha. I guess I was tired.

Wednesday, we got an early start but unfortunately got soaked in the rain. We started at the Museum of African American History and Culture and finished the American History museum before lunch at a Peruvian-Chinese-Japanese place downtown. I absolutely loved the fusion food. We went to both buildings of the art museum after lunch and then dragged our tired bodies to Chinatown for a delicious dinner. It was well worth the extra steps. At the hotel, we strategized for the next day since we found out we needed tickets for a couple of places.

Thursday, I watched like a hawk and snagged tickets for both Air & Space and the Library of Congress. We spent the morning at Air & Space, got lunch in Eastern Market, and then headed to the Capitol for a tour. It was absolutely gorgeous, as was the Library of Congress. We got a little lost in there! On the way to find dinner, we bumped into the outside part of the botanic gardens. It was Potbelly's again, but a couple of disinterested teens didn't give us the best service. Oh well.

Friday, we rented scooters and saw the monuments and memorials. After a delicious lunch at the Hamilton, we reluctantly headed to the airport to make the long journey home. I found some delicious Korean food in the Boston airport as my final "fun" meal of the journey. We got back to Salt Lake fairly late and finally got checked in to our hotel at midnight. Kenny turned 12 without us!

Saturday, we drove to Rexburg while listening to Conference, watched Conference with Lars and Emily, and watched even more Conference with eating breaks during and in between.

Sunday, we listened to all of Conference in the car as we headed home. It was a bummer to be in the car again, but we had a good trip and got things unpacked that night. AM radio didn't let us down, so we didn't miss anything either!

It's been an okay week so far. The trip was so amazingly fun that it's been hard to get back to "real life". Everyone is still slightly sick, but that awful illness is almost gone. I had all the stamina I needed to do a lot of stuff in D.C. We walked 80,000 steps from Monday - Friday!

I'm now working on the 3rd and final round of Head photos. They are from the second box and range from 2000 back to the 60's when my in-laws were kids. My plan is the scan all the photos back to 1988, then make James's photo book, then tackle all the photos (plus about 10 scrapbooks) from before then. I don't know how long this round will take, but I'd guess another 50 hours. There are more pictures than I thought, but that has been true the past few times too. James's family took a lot more pictures than my family ever did.

I know it's only Tuesday, but I'm going to publish this so I can work on the other blog on Thursday.

Still Sick, My 36th Birthday

Well, I did not get better by my birthday. Though I tried to spend the weekend resting, the cold ramped up in intensity by Monday. I've felt absolutely horrible with one symptom or another since then. It seems like they keep trading off; one thing gets better but another gets worse. Since Monday, I've had a horrible cough, extreme fatigue, headache, and overall malaise. I had a few good nights of sleep, but last night I coughed a lot and kept waking up. I'm glad to be at home where I can rest. I've tried to do the bare minimum, but that's easier said than done. We're leaving for Rexburg tomorrow, and James and I will be in D.C. for a good chunk of that, so I really need to get better!

My birthday was all right. I'm glad we celebrated Sunday since I didn't feel horrible yet. I made devil's food cake, and Joseph made cookie dough ice cream. I got books and chocolate, both of which I've worked on this week. One big indicator that I'm not feeling well is the lack of appetite. That only happens with the worst of illnesses.

I've been this level of tired before, when I was pregnant with Samantha. Obviously I wasn't coughing a lot, but dang, I don't know how I survived that. I know I'll be doing a lot better in a few days. I already am, or at least I feel like I'm over the worst of it. This cold is like the one I had last year after NC, but I haven't lost my voice to that degree.

Time for a nap. I'm glad the kids can pack their own stuff now.

Rexburg, Sick, Pressure

James and Katie had a good trip to Rexburg, but it wasn't restful for anyone. This week has been a bit of a drag since everyone has a little bit of a cold. Naturally, that means headaches and fatigue for me, plus a sore (though mostly just scratchy) throat. It's a good week to be sick since we're not traveling, and I don't have any projects I'm working on yet. (I'm still excited about Phase 3 of the Head photos because it means I can finally make James's epic photo book.)

Over the weekend, we watched several movies: the Eras Tour, Wonka, PotC, and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I had a RS brunch and broadcast Saturday and Sunday and kept busy during the days so only the evenings got lonely. I think this is the worst cold I've had all winter, and it's the first one that has progressed beyond headache/fatigue. I'm getting impatient because I want to be all better by Monday (my birthday). Though I haven't had a big project to work on, I've still been busy with my regular stuff. I'm also making a Holy Week book so we can study and sing about Easter all week long. I've been meaning to do it for a few years, ever since I made a Christmas Advent book, but I've never gotten around to it until now.

I keep getting the questions about when I'll start working. Here's the thing: I still have no idea. I know because of the photos project that I only have a part-time number of hours to spare in a week, maybe 15-20. It takes a lot of time and energy to take care of a house, husband, 5 children, and myself. I've been volunteering in Samantha's class once a week for 2 hours, and I don't feel particularly excited to go start teaching. I'm an introvert. Having hours at home alone has been amazing for my level of patience when the kids get home. They deserve a happy mom who isn't stressed out from being around other people's kids all day. Because of various projects this year, all the spare time I've had has been spent on canning, family history, and taking care of sick children in between. I've had very few instances of getting bored, even though I've had 4-7 hours alone every day.

Our neighbor mowed his grass already, and that's another kind of peer pressure I don't enjoy. We don't need to water till it gets to 70 degrees, and we're not there yet. It still makes me feel a little bad this his yard is so perfect. Yeah, we have grass, and we spend a fair amount of time maintaining it, but we don't go all out like he does. And yeah, that's a silly thing to feel pressure over, but it happens every year.

I resent feeling rushed in any way. I have my own timelines for things. I can be decisive about things when I need to be, but thinking too far ahead has only led to more anxiety, which I don't need. Today, I'm staying home with my children and not mowing or watering my lawn, and I will not feel bad about it.

Chill

I've had a fairly relaxing few days, or at least I've tried to. Since Saturday, I've read 4 books and done 0 projects. The time change on Sunday was a bit rough, and I didn't feel my best, but it turned out to be a minor cold and PMS on top of regular old fatigue.

It's nice to have nothing to report. A few of us have a minor cold and I have a presidency meeting soon, but that's about it for this week. James and Katie will be leaving for Rexburg tomorrow, but there should be enough going on during the weekend to keep me busy.

Photos

The photos project is almost finished! What I have left today is to sort through a few videos, add the new photos to my PC from 2009 and later, and double check to make everything is on the right drive. Not counting 2ish hours today, I spent a total of 100 hours on the project and ended up with an album of 6, 253 items. There is another album with 128 that don't have dates yet because they're very old. All the photos for the Phenix family and Head family are sorted by year, month (when possible), correctly dated, uploaded to Google Photos, and saved to the correct locations, depending on the family.

Well, it's a day later, and that didn't work out like I expected. I asked Melodie about putting everything on her Google Photos account, and she gave me her password, so I found myself with more work than I anticipated. I cleaned up random older stuff, added all the stuff I'd scanned, and then sorted through the years 2016-2023 since I hadn't seen most of them before. I also downloaded those photos to the external hard drives. Rather than sort them into months, I left them in zip folders. On Google Photos, I created a self-updating album for my household so when any photos of us are taken, we'll get them automatically. I added all those photos to my own account, computer, and external hard drive. We ended up with at least 1,000 new photos.

I stressed myself out a little too much yesterday, but I've found the end of the project for now, or at least for the next week until James goes to Rexburg. Melodie has some scrapbooks she wants me to scan and another box to sort through when I visit next, but I think there won't be a lot of new stuff to add. I kept up on my house and family for the most part, but yesterday did not have a good balance. I hate it when I get close to finishing something but it ends up taking longer than expected.

Next week, my plan is to sort through the videos of my kids from Melodie, edit where needed, and get them up on YouTube. I also have a pile of books I haven't looked at, so I'll work on those in my spare time instead of anything relating to pictures. This has been a great project, but at least for now, I'm tired!

Anna's Visit

Anna arrived Friday afternoon, and we had a wonderful time with her here. We did a little shopping at thrift stores, had delicious food, watched Abbott Elementary, played board games, and went to see Emma: the Musical. All were fun, but I especially loved Emma in musical form. 

Not all of my Saturday was great. It started off with a long wait at Walmart to get a new battery for the van, which cost almost twice as much as a few years ago when we last bought one for the Yukon. Both Katie and Samantha had birthday parties that overlapped, which I didn't realize at first, so it was stressful to arrange drop off and pickup. I stayed with Samantha at hers but regretted it because I didn't know anyone. I didn't feel comfortable leaving her with a bunch of strangers since she's too little for a phone. It was cold and dark at the black light place too. I was so glad to get home.

Anna left on Sunday after lunch. The girls cried. We love our Auntie Anna.

The kids didn't have school Monday, so I met James for lunch at the Thai place. It was delicious even though it took a while to get our food. 

Tuesday was Samantha's first full day of school. She loves it so far. I volunteer on Tuesdays, so my first whole day alone was yesterday. It was kind of weird, but I don't hate it so far. It helps that for my first day, I had a new stash of truffles and some leftover pad Thai.

I got right in to the second round of Head photos starting on Sunday. So far, I consolidated all the digital photos from memory cards, flash drives, CD's, and external hard drives onto the biggest and best external hard drive. Next, I took everything out of folders, some 6 layers deep, and put them into folders by year. I also sorted the physical photos by year and put them in bags. There are only digital photos from 2019 back to 2009, but there are both from 2008-2000 and the just physical photos before that, some going back to the 60's. For each year, I create folders for the months. Then, I delete the duplicates and bad photos, fix dates as needed, and back them up to Google Photos and the other hard drive. Once I get to 2008, I'll also scan the photos that aren't already in digital format. All of those need date adjustments, of course. Everything from 2008 and before will also go on my computer's hard drive. I haven't decided yet if I'll include any from later years. I've already made scrapbooks for 2009 and on, so there isn't a big reason to include photos from later, but there are a few cute ones in there I might download just so they'll pop up on my screensaver. Everything goes into the Head family album too. There are currently over 3,000 pictures in there! I love this project, even though it can be tedious and takes a lot of time. I'm going to make James a really nice Shutterfly book of his life before we got married. I can't wait.

Long Weekend

We didn't have school on Friday or Monday due to the end of the tri and President's Day. James had wanted to go to Salt Lake for a day, but Kenny was still kind of sick on Friday. We instead stayed home and got the rest we needed after getting through that nasty illness. It got a little boring at times, but it was worth it to stay at home. James and I went on several dates: to a movie, to lunch in Roosevelt at a fun diner, and to dinner when I was feeling sad and grumpy. We figured it was still a lot cheaper than taking a trip to Salt Lake with the whole family.

This week has been a lot less busy, and everyone went to school except for today. Katie never ended up getting sick, and I'd promised her a mental health day. I think she's been a little bored, but that's okay. I don't want to encourage her to stay home because it's fun. I've tried to put her to work too.

We've had some snow, rain, and hail over the past few days, but the cows are back, so spring is coming! I can't wait! I'm also excited for Anna's visit, another Monday off (for the kids, though not James), and then full-day school for Samantha starting on Tuesday. I won't miss walking to the bus stop. I'm also getting a ton of photos, both physical and digital, from Anna that I'll be working on for an undetermined amount of time in the coming weeks. I still can't believe how fast this year has gone. I thought I was going to be bored, and that's hilarious to think about now.

More Stomach Bug, Valentine's Day

There's not a whole lot to report about this week except that more of us got sick. To recap, it all started with Katie (maybe?) who complained about her stomach hurting for about 4 days 2 weeks ago. Maybe it's 3 weeks now. I thought it was because she had a mean sub at school. Then, Samantha got sick for a few days, followed by Lewis. We had a Saturday where no one seemed sick, but then Sunday Lewis threw up again and then Joseph came down with it later in the day. Joseph missed Monday this week, then on Tuesday, it was my turn to get sick. Thankfully, it was short-lived, but it was not very fun while it lasted. Kenny started getting sick on Tuesday as well, so he's been home for the past few days. He had attempted going to school but threw up soon after getting there, so I went and picked him up after finding out the van wouldn't start, so I had to take the Yukon. Ugh.

We don't have school tomorrow or Monday, so that's a huge blessing. The bug, though short-lived for me, really wiped me out. I'm feeling normal now except for some lingering fatigue.  I've cleaned up more bodily fluids in the past 2 weeks than I have in years. I could definitely never be a nurse. Only James and Katie escaped without any real symptoms. I really hope they don't come down with it too. I don't think I can handle doing any more laundry.

Despite the sickness, we had a fun Valentine's Day. James got us all goodies, and I made some sugar cookies with pink frosting. The stake primary pres and Sis. Hall both stopped by with goodies when I was lying on the couch feeling terrible. It made my day.

I managed to get a few small things done, like cleaning my keyboard and learning a song I bought a few months ago. I also finished a couple of books and almost finished my pile from Christmas. I'm not going to run out any time soon because I have a whole bunch of recommendations from the book party I went to in January. I also caught up on my blog (mostly). After Anna comes next week, I won't have as much down time because I'll be getting a bunch of pictures to sort through. I'm so excited!

Lewis's 7th Birthday, Stomach Bug

Lewis's birthday was great. He loved his presents, and the cake and ice cream recipes I somewhat invented both came out great. We watched Jurassic World together after dinner. Unfortunately, the fun ended when Samantha threw up in her bed and I found it the next morning. I'd been hoping for some peaceful reading time before everyone woke up. I got it all cleaned up. She felt completely fine all day, so we did Sunday as normal with no one staying home.

Things were fine on Monday too, and we did a playdate, but Samantha threw up that night in her bed again. I'd told Katie I would deep clean the room, and I did, but the number of biohazards was more than I expected. Yuck. I hate being a nurse.

Samantha stayed home Tuesday and Wednesday and finally went to school today. I've not slept well because our blanket is too warm and I've been stressed. This morning, the boys informed me that Lewis threw up several times during the night and their lightbulb burned out. James graciously got the laundry into the wash while I made breakfast. Lewis is starting to perk up a bit. I hope the saltines and Gatorade stay down. I canceled everything I had for this week, and I'm going to have James take Lewis to his well check (ha). The number of times a kid has gotten sick right before a well check is crazy.

I'm glad I'm not working on anything big this week. It's been rough. I had some time to read and blog, but the extra laundry, sanitizing, etc. is stressing me out. Even though this winter has been warm and dry (relatively), I'm still ready for it to be over so we can be completely healthy. We have been pretty lucky this year, but I'm still not enjoying this week.

Science Fair and Bowl, KitchenAid, Sewing

The science fair went well for Joseph and Kenny on Thursday. We'd had an awful morning on Wednesday, but Thursday was completely different and went very smoothly. I went to the awards ceremony in the afternoon, and Joseph won a community prize!

Friday, Joseph left in the afternoon for the science bowl in SLC. They did all right, but it's a pretty new competition, so they didn't really know what they were up against. We had a game night, but I didn't love it. One guy brought his child, so that meant my children stayed up till 10 to play. Everyone was super grouchy the next morning too.

Kenny and I took the KitchenAid apart on Saturday morning. We couldn't find what was wrong with it, which is what I figured, but it was nice to see that the insides were truly shot. Actually, the gears were fine, but everything was covered in thick, black grease and dust. The grease starts off white, from what I understand. Either way, I went online and ordered a new (refurbished) one that happened to be on sale. It should arrive soon.

I finished 2 T-shirt quilts this week, one for Katie and one for Kenny. All I have left are a few scraps and repairs, which shouldn't take too long. I'll have more photos (both physical and digital) at the end of February when Anna comes to visit. My laminator came, so I can also work on updating my recipe cards and blog. It's been way too long since I even posted a recipe.

I'm currently making Almond Joy ice cream for Lewis's birthday tomorrow. I can't believe that kid is going to be 7.

Samantha and I finally got to do some play dates this week! School is going to change things, but she really wants to go full day. That will give me a chance to work on those photos all day if I want, uninterrupted. I won't deny that it's going to be lonely, though.

Photos, Sewing, Busy, Gloomy

I finished the photos! That giant box shrank down to half the size once I got rid of the bad pictures and organized everything really well. Everything is dated except for about 20 pictures, and I shared the album with the family on Google Photos.

My next project has been working on sewing a few quilts out of scraps from Grandma Lee. I spent Friday cutting squares, then Saturday making a few small blankets. I'll be able to make 2 patchwork quilts, twin size, and 1 more small blanket for a total of 6 blankets/quilts. I had just enough squares to plan out the 2 patchwork quilts with only 2 left over.

Saturday, I attended a murder mystery party that was Italian-themed. It was delicious and fun. I still have a pile of books to read from Christmas, but I'm working on them.

It's been a pretty busy week with the orthodontist, a parent-teacher conference, activities for Katie and YM for the boys, and now the science fair. I took everyone with me and dropped the boys off at the Conference Center this morning, then took the littles to school. I'll go back this afternoon with Samantha to see the projects and the awards ceremony.

Once I'm done with the sewing, I'm going to organize my recipes and catch up on the blog. It's been a while. I also ordered a little laminator so I can have nicer recipe cards. The card protectors have proven to be flimsy over the years. On the subject of cooking, my KitchenAid mixer currently isn't working. I replaced the motor brushes, but that wasn't it. There's a short in it somewhere, so I'm going to take it apart on Saturday and see if I can fix it. I give myself a 50/50 chance.

I had a couple of gloomy days this week. It's been cloudy for a week now, and the past 3 playdates have been cancelled due to illness (though not ours, so I'm grateful for that). I also had a bad morning yesterday and send a kid to school crying (though that really wasn't my fault.) The sun came out and she returned home happy, so everything is good again. I also finished Stormlight 4. I can't wait for the 5th one to come out this year!

Samantha wants to go to school full day during the 3rd trimester, and that was always my plan, but it's sneaking up pretty fast. I've got my work cut out for me, though. There are more photos to come, miscellaneous ones from another box, and then digital ones from SD cards. I have no idea how much time those will take up, but I won't get them till March when James makes a short trip to Rexburg for a comedy show with his sister. I am really glad I took on the project. I had never before seen any pictures of James for a good chunk of his life. I feel like I know his family better, too.

Photos, Party, Winter

It was another busy week with lots of picture organizing and scanning. I'm currently done with everything from 1980 and on. There aren't a lot of pictures left, just some random ones from my in-laws' childhoods and then a small pile that I couldn't sort before, but now I can make educated guesses on where they belong. I also spent some time on my family's photos doing a little cleaning up on the dates and putting them together into one big album. Phew. It's been an awesome project, but I'll also be glad when I'm done and can share it with everyone.

Samantha went to Navy's birthday party on Saturday, and I stayed with her since she was a bit nervous. She had a great time, and I got to hold the babies. It was also great to visit with Makenzie since it had been a while, like 2 months, thanks to sickness and holidays. We haven't had a lot of play dates recently, which is a bummer, but I've also been able to work really hard on these photos.

The past week has been wintering hardcore. We've had a few inches of snow, lots of clouds, subzero temps, and even some wind. It's been so much better than last winter, but I'll still be ready when it's over.

James and I played a couple rounds of the new game he got for Christmas, Robinson Crusoe. It's pretty fun so far, even though setup is intense and it takes a while. I love cooperative games because they feel more like real life to me. Maybe that's silly, but I don't care.

Pictures

Not too much stands out from this week except for working on the Heads' pictures. I started on them last Friday, I think, and spent about 7 hours organizing them into years. We set up a table in the living room for me to work and have the scanner next to the computer. Usually it's in my room to keep it from the kids. For each year, I look at the backs of the photos and see if I can sort them into months. It helps that many of them are in envelopes. For the loose ones with no ID, I've used context clues or had James help me figure them out. I've had to make a few adjustments along the way, but so far I've scanned from 2004 back to 1995. I should be able to scan them all by the end of next week, I'm thinking. They are all going into an album on Google Photos, which I'll then share with the family. I love that Google Photos makes it so easy to change the dates and identify faces. I hope it never goes away!

We finally got some snow, just a couple inches. Too bad it's not good snowman snow. It's only our second real storm this season, but I'm not going to complain after last year. :)

Christmas Break, New Year

We had a smooth drive to Rexburg in the Yukon with a short stop to see Samantha Foote and give her some elk meat. That evening, Samantha (Head) had a little bit of a fever, but she was fine when she woke up on Christmas Eve.

We had the longest Christmas Eve ever. We went to church, which had a really nice program. At 2ish, a bunch of relatives came over (47 total!) to do the Nativity in the barn. It felt very authentic to sit on bales of straw and have a few loose goats running around. It was great to see the family as well, even though it was cold. We had a couple of hours with not as many people, then some came back for Christmas Eve dinner, clam chowder, plus snowballs for dessert. Once the kids finally went to bed, I set out all the presents, feeling grateful that I didn't have any more wrapping to do.

Christmas morning wasn't too bad. I think the kids really liked their presents. I'm glad I had them make Amazon wish lists. The younger 3 kids went ice skating in the afternoon while James and I (mostly I) cooked dinner: prime rib roast, mashed potatoes, and green beans. All turned out excellent.

I can't remember specific days on the rest of the week. We went to Green Canyon, celebrated Jacob's birthday with pizza and cheesecake, went to the temple and lunch with the family, and played lots of board games. I aimed for 1 a day. I'm not competitive like some of the others in the family. I much prefer fun, party games or cooperative games, so I have my limits. I did a lot of reading in Stormlight 3, and if I hadn't been so busy since we got back, I would've finished by now. A couple of kids threw up, Joseph got a swollen finger from a hangnail infection, and he broke a couple of brackets on his braces. All are better and fixed now, though, except for a lingering cough in the younger kids.

We had an uneventful drive home on Saturday, the 30th. Panda Express was a huge hit, only 4 bucks more than McDonald's, tastier, and everyone loved it. That put me in a good mood. I regretted not doing any laundry while we were gone, but I've caught up on that.

We had a relaxing NYE just reading and hanging out till 11:30, when I got really tired and went to bed. Only Joseph and Kenny stayed up. Everyone was a bit cranky on Monday, but we got Christmas taken down and put away. During school, I finished the rest of the decluttering and caught up on some family history stuff that I'd been putting off. I even made a photo book for our entire 2023, which took me 3 hours and I won't buy until Shutterfly does unlimited pages. I love the quality of their products, but the regular prices are outrageous.

I have a presidency meeting today. I think I'm all caught up on new things for the new year. The next Sunday will be a bit chaotic with getting everyone to their new classes, but it'll be good. I feel a lot better about it than I did a year ago, but it's not nothing. This calling has been incredibly stressful, even when it's not.

I have the scanner in the living room. Next project up: Head family photos! I honestly have no idea how long it's going to take me to sort and scan them, but I'm excited.