It has been a little over two weeks since the last update. Here’s what has happened in the last 16 days. Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to pick up a shift in Blanding, Utah. Blanding is a very small town in the Southeastern part of Utah approximately 5 1/2 drive from my house. I thought it might be fun to bring Aaron along on my ‘work trip’ down to Blanding and stay the night in Moab. It is down by the Four Corners Monument, but it unfortunately, was closed at the time we were there. Anyway, we made sure the kids were set up at home for a day and a half and we left them home and headed out. My shift was at 12:30 pm at a care center in Blanding so we had to leave our house by 6 am to account for pit stops and lunch. We made it to the care center right at 12:30. My clinic was supposed to end by 3:30 pm. Since Blanding is so tiny and nothing else is close by Aaron downloaded some movies and spent the clinic time hanging out in the car watching movies while I worked. Luckily, we finished a bit quicker than expected. After loading all the supplies back up in the clerk’s car, Aaron and I were free for the next 24 hours. Wahoo! We drove back up to Moab and that’s where we spent the night at a AirBnB. We checked in, unpacked then we went out for dinner. When we got back the sky was so dark. The moon wasn’t supposed to rise until 2 am so we went in the backyard of our AirBnB and did some star gazing from the hot tub on the patio. It was pretty cool how much you could see. The next morning our plan was going to be getting up early and hiking in Arches. The next morning we packed up and headed over to Arches. We live in such a beautiful state!! We repeated a hike we had done on our last family trip in December because it was a cool arch. We went and saw Landscape Arch. It was pretty cold, but we did okay. Here’s a few pictures from our first hike:
We then headed over to see the Delicate Arch viewpoints. It wasn’t as beautiful as the actual hike, but a lot easier to get to.
After spending a while in Arches we decided we better start heading home since a snowstorm was rolling in and we still had a 4+ hour drive to get home. Since this trip was 12+ hours of drive time we got through a bunch of the second Saints volume audiobook. I have about 5 hours left of listening time to finish this audiobook. Luckily, I have a clinic out in Gunnison later this week that will be five hours of driving so I will be able to finish listening to it. It has been interesting to listen to the history of the pioneers. It makes studying the Doctrine and Covenants this year more engaging since you can understand content more when you understand the context.
We did get to see the Monticello temple on our trip:
On the way home, the more north we got the worse the weather was. We unfortunately got to play this game and it wasn’t fun:
Luckily, we made it home safely. Although it was short, it was a fun ‘work trip’. I was glad Aaron and I got to get away together without kids. I didn’t realized that while Aaron I were gone Josh decided to park in Aaron’s parking spot in the garage. When he knew we were coming home, he moved his car. However, when Aaron went somewhere the next day and I saw a huge oil mark on the garage floor I started panicking. I thought Aaron’s car had started leaking oil. After I made him check the oil is when Josh let us know he had parked in Aaron’s spot and the oil leak was from his car. I wasn’t worried about that because we already knew about that one. Phew! I was glad to know Aaron’s car was still okay. Car repairs are the worst! Josh then showed me this picture he took while we were gone:
I am just glad he didn’t run into the van parking his car in that spot!!
Two Saturdays ago we had the Einzinger’s over for the Super Bowl. It was a lot of fun. The kids had fun playing with each other. The adults had fun watching the game and snacking on yummy food! It was a fun evening!
Last Saturday G&G T came by for a quick visit. We all masked up while they were here just to keep everyone safe. G&G T brought by their yearly Valentine treat bags that the kids LOVE!! It was a nice visit. Since Covid happened we haven’t seen them very much and we have missed them. This was a nice visit. The kids loved their Valentine treat bags, too!
G&G T also visited Matthew at his group home for a few minutes to drop off his Valentine treat as well. Matthew was so excited to see them!
Two Sundays ago it was my turn to teach the 12 year old class the Sunday YW lesson. Wouldn’t you know it, I ran out of printer ink the Saturday evening beforehand. Aaron was nice enough to do a Walmart run for me at 10:45 pm to pick up printer ink so I could be prepared for the next day. However, about 10 minutes after he had left the house I heard massive pounding on my front door. All the rest of the kids had gone to bed so it was just me around and it scared me quite a bit. I like to watch way too many true crime murder shows so that is where my mind was when I heard the banging on the door. I used my ninja skills (I am sure I looked ridiculous!) and quietly made my way to the front door where I cautiously looked out the peep hole. I didn’t anyone there so I opened the door just a crack. That is when I saw this poster on my front porch:
Josh had just been asked to Preference by a girl. Phew! That was a lot better outcome than being murdered--haha! I guess I need to cut back on watching true crime murder mysteries--haha! Anyway, I called Josh upstairs to see the surprise.
He was pretty excited. The high schools have all cancelled dances this year due to Covid, but the kids have still put together their own dances outside of the school and they have all been pretty fun. I am glad Josh has been able to participate in a few ‘normal’ senior year of high school activities. This year has been hard for all of them.
I guess I am a product from how I was raised. I like to save old plastic bowls from leftover cool whip, sour cream, cottage cheese, etc. That way I immediately know which lid goes with which bottom and if they get broken it is not a big loss. They are also awesome if you take a meal in to someone so they don’t have to return the dishes. However, Aaron HATES it when I save the containers. He hates it when he goes to get something out of the fridge and it takes a few tries to finally find the right container that has the actual cottage cheese inside. So when I came across this meme I sent it to Aaron. He was not amused--haha!
I found this meme, too. All of us HATE wearing masks. We still wear them because we need to, but it doesn’t make them anymore fun to wear. I have found out that I read lips more than I thought I did. So when people wear a mask it is a lot harder to understand what they are saying. Just like in this meme--haha!
Another funny meme:
Things have been pretty crazy at my work. Things keep getting changed, new clinics added, etc. The schedulers have been great to roll with the punches, but it has been crazy with all the changes that have been made these last 90 days. However, I have felt appreciated. I got an awesome thank you card in the mail this past week with an Amazon gift card. Wahoo!
Last Saturday Josh answered his Preference date. I helped him with the poster and he delivered it after he got off work. I wonder if he scared them as much as they scared me when they originally delivered it--haha!
I had to work on Saturday, February 13th. That meant no exciting Valentine’s plans for me. It was a busy clinic so I was not able to answer the phone when Matthew called me. However, I was able to read the transcription from his call later. He wanted to call and wish me a Happy Valentine’s Day and let me know he was glad I was his mom. What a sweet kid!! That totally made my day!
Aaron took Matthew out for lunch to celebrate Valentine’s Day while I was gone at work. It was a nice father-son bonding time. They picked up a Fiiz drink and picked up some lunch from The Bird restaurant. After lunch Aaron dropped Matthew off and his old high school teacher came by to drop off a cute Valentine for Matthew and visit for a minute. She has been so good to visit and keep in touch with Matthew. Matthew loves it when she stops by to see him!
While I was at work Aaron did surprise me and Sarah. He went grocery shopping and picked up a rose for Sarah and some roses for me. That was a nice surprise to come home to after work!
He also picked up some Vegas steaks to cook for dinner just for us. A Vegas steak is a beef tenderloin steak wrapped in thick cut bacon. They were very tasty and quite huge. The kids were excited because they were so big, there was no way we could finish them so the kids got what we couldn’t eat. They loved the Vegas steaks, too!
Aaron also surprised me and picked up ingredients to make street tacos for Sunday dinner as well as a cheesecake which is my favorite! He does not like street tacos, but I love them. He made that dinner just for me. That was really nice to do. That dinner was yummy!
Saturday night Sarah went to a friend Valentine party. Since her friend group is now in 7th grade they don’t get to have the fun Valentine’s party at school anymore. They decided to have their own Valentine party Saturday night. They all prepared the cute Valentine treats to bring and exchange at the party. They also made their own Valentine holders as well. Sarah had a fun time at the party.
Last weekend Matthew got his second Covid shot Friday morning. G&G T got their second Covid shot Saturday afternoon. Matthew called them a few times to compare notes on their shots and to see how they were doing. Glad they both were able to get their covid shots done. Matthew got to get his done since his group home living arrangement is considered a long term care center. I am grateful he was able to complete his covid vaccination series!
Two Saturdays ago Josh and a group of Cross Country runners decided to do a fun run in Farmington. It is the bald eagle migration going on right now so you can see the bald eagles around that area. They decided to do a 10 mile ‘fun’ run. Not my idea of fun, but they all had a good time. Right after that run Josh then went and played a Jr. Jazz basketball game. He came home after that and took a quick nap before he went to work that night. Speaking of Josh he almost has his mission papers completed. One of the last steps was getting a picture uploaded to his papers. I took his picture Sunday afternoon since he was already in Sunday dress for church. What happened to my little boy?!
I still see him as this:
There’s a few more things left to do before he submits his mission papers. He may have his call as soon as mid March. That is crazy!!
Aaron tried his hand at making bacon. He picked up an uncut/uncured pork belly. He then mixed up the solution to cure it and put it in a food saver sealed bag. He kept it in the fridge for about 10 days rotating it every day. When it was done curing he took it out and smoked it then he sliced it. Next he fried it up. It was pretty good! However, it was a lot of work for that return. He did the calculations and only ended up saving about $1 a pound by doing the curing himself. We will see if he will try it again...
A few of our kids like eggs. Aaron showed them how to cut out the center of a piece of bread, put an egg inside the hole and cook it. That has been a fast lunch favorite. Here’s Daniel the chef cooking his own egg toast for lunch one day:
Speaking of Daniel I got an email from the Jr. High this past week. I was a bit hesitant to open it, but I am glad I did. Wahoo Daniel:
For Sunday Valentine’s dinner Aaron made street tacos. When we picked up Matthew to join us for church and the rest of Sunday he had made us all cupcakes to celebrate Valentine’s. He even had decorated them himself. He was so excited to show us what he had done. Here’s Aaron enjoying a Matthew cupcake:
Matthew had also made chocolate chip cookies to deliver to some of his friends that live around us. He took Sophie on a walk in her stroller to deliver all the goodies. I am glad Matthew is really enjoying living in his group home! He gets a lot of opportunities to learn life skills and for that I am grateful!
Speaking of Matthew I had to take him to the doctor last Friday. He has the chance to get a disability pass for UTA to ride the bus, Trax and Frontrunner. He also gets the chance to get a disability fishing permit. However, in applying for these disability passes he needs to have a doctor sign off on them stating Matthew is disabled. I made the appointment Friday morning after he got his second Covid shot. It didn’t take too long with the doctor to see that Matthew did, in fact, qualify for the disability passes. It seemed kind of a waste of time to have to go through with an actual doctor’s visit, but it got the job done. Matthew is excited to be able to get these passes to use.
Last Friday we had a family day at the dentist. Luckily, no one had any cavities--wahoo!! Now we are good for another 6 months.
For the President’s Day holiday we were going to go tubing, but the weather was supposed to be really bad. So instead we decided to go bowling. I didn’t realize it was going to be cosmic black light bowling until we got there, but why not?! We are all equally bad at bowling, but at least we all had fun!
We saw way too many of these displays after our bowling turn, though--haha!
After we were done bowling we decided to do a taste test challenge. We went around to 4 different sugar cookie establishments and ordered two sugar cookies at each one. We then came home and cut up the cookies for everyone to sample and decide on their favorites. We got cookies from Fiiz, Swig, Twisted Sugar, and Crumbl. The Crumbl cookies won the taste test hands down. However, Fiiz came in second, followed by Twisted Sugar and last place was given to Swig. It was a fun activity, however, all of us are about 'sweeted out’ by the end of it!
Josh got his monthly allergy shots yesterday. He HATES these shots, but they have helped his allergies somewhat.
After getting the shots he has to wait around for 20 minutes to make sure he won’t have a reaction. During that 20 minutes we competed in an online mini golf game. I am sad to say that Josh schooled me in virtual mini golf--haha!
The Syracuse temple drawings were released yesterday. We are so excited! This temple is 2.7 miles from our house. It will be a 6 minute drive to get there when it is completed. Josh drives by it on his way to work so he likes to see the progress being made on it.
Sophie is a snuggler. As soon as someone sits down she is right next to them staring them down until she gets pets. I must say it is quite effective. How could you say no to those eyes?!
