A Day in the Life...

My parent's addition is coming along- electrical next One night Copper lost her last baby tooth.  She wrote the tooth fairy a nice note and put it and the tooth under her pillow.  Then she copied the note exactly so they would both have one.  The tooth fairy remarkably remembered to put money under the pillow (immediately) but forgot the note and the tooth.  For two nights Copper wondered why our ding-bat fairy didn't write her back, so finally she left a note.  It sent Copper into tears.  She cried for like two hours because "it's hard to grow up."   Her tears made Micah cry too.  It was a long night.  During family prayer, I tried to pray she'd feel better, but all that came out was a snort followed by uncontrollable laughter by Tim and I.   Two days later Copper asked for a frame so she could keep the Tooth Fairy's note forever.  I told her she'd have to make her own frame out of sticks, and that was that. ...

The girls had their backpacks and clothes laid out the Saturday before school started.  Back to school night the day before got them MEGA excited. Copper has Mrs. Alston for fourth grade.  She is accredited to teach in the gifted/advanced learning program, and is really challenging, structured, and all about academics.  Sounds like Copper will fit right in, and a BUNCH of her friends are in class with her.  She's pretty stoked for the year. Micah and Dakota have Mr. Cicowski, which is WAY to hard for youngsters so he goes by Mr. C.  He has the reputation of being the every-day-is-a-party kind of teacher, so I'm sure these second graders are going to have a super FUN year.  Sounds like they will fit right in too!  They both have made new friends already and reconnected with first grade friends. The first day chatter: Copper:  We learned songs about Utah, because fourth-graders learn everything about Utah. Dakota: I ate lunch with a bunch of...

I took off the first three weeks of August to be home with the kids. It’s the best type of time off because it’s long enough to actually detach. A day here or there just doesn’t do the trick.  I’ve loved being home and relying on co-workers to cover (nearly) all my crap. Today I went to work, though 3/4 of the day was spent in Spanish Fork for our annual retreat. Most others actually participated in the Western theme and lassoed, bobbed for apples, corn-holed, and Dutch-ovened, but I preferred to just sit, chat, and snack for hours. Luckily most of my team also prefers just relaxing and not making a fool out of ourselves. It was an okay day at work, considering the smoke I could literally taste when I chewed (out of control wildfire = right up the canyon).  On the way there I was telling my co-worker friend Kati how much I was dreading coming back to work full-time, though it seemed silly because I like my job and I'm grateful for and recognize its blessings. "Sure," ...

We got family pictures almost a year ago and I never did anything with them... so here you go!

When my childhood friends Candis and Denise and I turned 30, we stayed a night in Park City to celebrate.  This year we all turn 40 and we stayed the night there again, this time with my girls too.  We showered each other with gifts, shopped, ate treats, laughed, and went swimming.  Candis and Denise talked about Jeff Nielsen, the cutest boy in 5th grade- the same way they've talked about him for about 30 years, and I reminded them about the day my older brother gave Jeff Nielsen a bloody nose on the playground AND that nobody thinks about Jeff Nielsen except the four times we get together twice a year. Before we got together I made them a gift basked titled "How to Survive Turning 40" and included all this: Candis' mom put together a basket for us and a bag of stuff for my girls, including new flip-flops.  Candis made us bracelets and Denise made a gift bag of things we loved over the last four decades (including a gift card in a *drum roll* cassette tape ho...

Cedar Hollow Stake Girl's Camp 2018: Success. I'd forgotten (over the last 25 years) that Girl's Camp has a special feeling and spirit that can't really be described.  This year was Stake Girl's Camp and we drove through Fairview Canyon to reach Mia Shalom.  Wow- so beautiful and amazing! Things I learned: Hiking at 9500 feet in altitude is not as easy as I thought it would be. Dutch oven cooking times are very different at a high altitude and a lot of everything I'd practiced had to be adjusted. Washing your hair in sub-freezing spigot water is close to death and heaven at the same time. Cooking meals for a lot of people is kind of my thing, apparently, but I couldn't have done it without help.  I did deep-freeze 60 eggs.  Throwing them from 18 inches off the ground did not even crack the shell and they had to thaw 24 hours before we could use them.   Sleeping is impossible at girl's camp.  My cabin had 12 people, 10 crammed on hard floors...