Frigid, Dance Recital, Appointments, Expensive, End of Braces, Errant

 Things have been busy with us.  In my weather app I keep track of Omaha since Daniel is there.  Poor Daniel has had a cold spell these past two weeks.  It has been registering in the negative numbers and even lower when you take into account the wind chill. I found some thermal base layers for him at Costco that I kept meaning to mail to him.  The poor guy--it took me two weeks to make it to the Post Office, but I was hoping to get it to the mission home by Monday so he could pick them up on his P-Day.  However, I forgot it was Martin Luther King Day which meant the Post Office would be closed and he would have to wait until the next Monday to be able to pick them up--DOH!!  By the time he picked them up the temperature in Omaha jumped up into the 40s and he didn’t need them.  Oh well at least he will have them for the next time it gets really cold.  That was a bit of a Mom fail, but what can you do?!

Matthew is still loving his job.  His job coach enjoys working alongside Matthew.  She took this picture the other day after a work shift.  

Matthew loves his job so much that I think he would still go to work even if he didn’t get paid--haha!  He excitedly called me this week to let me know that the lunch room staff would be getting Costa Vida as a fun reward to everyone on Wednesday.  Matthew was beyond excited.  He did have an exciting incident the other day at work...he found a cockroach in the middle of the floor.  He then proceeded to start screaming because it scared him.  I am sure it alarmed everyone around because he can be so LOUD when he does that.  After they all got it taken care of, Matthew then decided to email the principal at the school and everyone else he deemed needed to know about it so they could do something about it.  I love that kid, but he is a very high energy child--haha!

The other evening we were playing the card game Skull King as a family.  I am still trying to figure out the best strategy in that game, but that is beside the point. Anyway, you are supposed to get the highest amount of points to win.  However, if you get negative points by winning piles of cards you didn’t expect it can really drop your score.  Poor Noah lost this round in the most epic way which made him lose the entire game--poor guy.  He was not too happy with that outcome, but the loss in the round was so epic we had to take a picture of it--haha!

This picture shows that Sophie is a diva without me needing to even say anything about it--haha!

For Martin Luther King Day all of us were home that morning so we decided to go play a round of Top Golf.  However, we didn’t take in to account the temperature.

It was pretty cold.  Luckily we were assigned a bay on the bottom tier so after we took a turn we could go inside behind the sliding glass door to get warm.  That is when we saw this sign on the doors.  We thought it was pretty funny because some of our shots were...let’s just say errant--haha!

I lost horribly as always, but it was still fun to play.  Here is everyone playing.  I was there even though there is not picture proof to show.

Aaron:

Sarah:

Josh:

Noah:

Afterward we had lunch at the Costco food court--pizza and hot dogs.  We are boujie like that--haha!

Josh is enjoying the YSA (Young Single Adult) ward.  They had a scavenger hunt activity this past week at Walmart.  Here’s a few pictures from Josh and his group from that activity:

Sarah had her dance recital this past week.  It is always fun to see her perform.  She was in four dances--three with her team and one with her Pointe class.  Here’s a few pictures of her performance:

Pointe:

Sarah is a dance teacher this year for one of the younger classes.  At the end of the recital she was recognized with some flowers which was nice:

Sarah and her friend Gabby really enjoy teaching the younger class together:

As the class they teach performed you could see Sarah and Gabby just outside the stage curtains helping the class stay on count for their dance.  Here’s a quick shot of Sarah’s hand right behind the curtain--haha!

Sarah does enjoy dance:

They had a dance dress rehearsal the day before the recital.  Grandma T is recovering after some surgery so she was able to come to the dress rehearsal instead of the actual recital since it was easier to move around there and not so many people.  Sarah came to say hi in-between her numbers at the dress rehearsal.

Daniel is doing well.  He just found out he is getting transferred to a different area.  He has been in this area the whole time he has been in Omaha so he is excited to go somewhere else.  I am nervous for him because I don’t like change, but I am sure he will be fine.  As we were talking with him on P-day he was packing up all his things in preparation of moving.  He didn’t know which area he was going to be sent to next, but regardless he needed to pack it all up anyway.

Here we all are chatting with Daniel Monday evening:

Noah got his braces off yesterday!!  He has been so ready to be done with braces.  

In the chair getting ready to get them off:

Looking good! He got a permanent retainer on the bottom teeth.  He will get his regular retainer this afternoon.

Looks great!  Our orthodontist era has come to a close which I am not too sad about.  We have had someone even multiple people at the same time in braces straight for the last 12 years.  It has been crazy!

To try and prolong the torture, I made dentist appointments for Sarah and Noah later that afternoon.  Noah has one cavity which is not too surprising after so many years in braces.

I also found out Sarah’s Wisdom teeth are coming in very fast and very crooked/sideways.  They are currently pushing directly on her back molars DOH!  I guess she will be getting those out sooner than later.  Ugh!!  Can I just say kids are money pits?!

Sarah’s Young Women class had an overnight retreat this past weekend.  Here’s a few pictures they shared from it.  Sarah said she had a lot of fun.

They got some dinner at Cafe Rio beforehand:

Face mask time:

It looked like it was fun!

Noah has set a goal of running a 5k soon.  Josh signed up for a jogging class this semester.  Since they both have running as a common goal they have sometimes been running together when they get a chance.  Yesterday Josh and Noah went out for a run despite the cold.  They did fine except Josh is allergic to the cold so wherever the really cold air hits his bare skin he will break out in hives.  He was miserable for a few hours until the allergy meds kicked in.  By that time he was too tired to care since the most common side effect of allergy meds is drowsiness.  Bleh!  Poor guy. Noah didn’t have any issues, though.

Speaking of being cold, our furnace went on the fritz Friday and decided to stop working.  Too bad the temperature was in single digits over the weekend.  Brrr!  Aaron tried a few different fixes.  Each one worked for a few hours before the furnace died again.  Ultimately he had to call in a repairman Monday.  Unfortunately, the repairman had to condemn our furnace because it was not working properly. UGH!! That meant we needed to replace the 13 year old furnace and air conditioner which was rather painful money wise.  In the past 6 months our savings account has taken a severe beating--between Daniel’s unexpected oral surgery in July, getting Daniel ready for his mission, replacing the kitchen fridge that died, replacing the furnace and air conditioner our savings account is yelling UNCLE!!  Anyway, everything got replaced yesterday.  However, when the repairmen left yesterday afternoon the furnace was running straight and never turned off.  We realized it when we were so hot and checked the thermostat to see it was 85 degrees in the family room.  Aaron had to manually turn the furnace back off and call the repairman to come back and fix it this morning.  It is not currently 85 degrees yet, and I am hoping it doesn’t get up to 85 degrees again.  I just want to have a fully functioning house without any issues.  Hopefully everything will now be fixed, but I am a bit worried.  Anyway, it keeps things exciting that’s for sure!  This is where it currently is at so I think that is a good sign!!

Sarah has discovered a cute and trendy clothing thrift shop by us.  Here’s the latest find she brought home the other day.  Cute!

Texas Trip, New Years, Family Pictures, Memory Lane, Sourdough, Dance Performance, Top Golf, Why I Believe

Right after Christmas we had the opportunity to fly out to Dallas very last minute spur of the moment to visit Aaron’s side of the family. We flew out of the Provo airport on the airline Breeze.  It was a good experience.  It was very different from flying out of Salt Lake since there are only 5 gates total at Provo versus a million at the Salt Lake airport.  Our flight was an early morning one. Getting to the airport really early is one of Aaron’s non-negotiable rules so we woke up at 3am and left our house at 3:30 am to drive to the Provo airport. Our flight was at 7 am and we got there at 5 am--we got there in plenty of time. We met up with Aaron’s sister Susan and her family at the airport, too.  Here we all are in our seats awaiting takeoff:

Josh had to work a bunch of days over Christmas break so he joined us in Dallas two days later.

This visit from the whole family was kept a surprise for Grandma and Grandpa Mancil. They had no idea we were all coming for a visit/family reunion.  Here is Aaron and Susan surprising Philip:

We were there for three days so it was a quick trip, but the whole entire family was able to get together.  Grandpa Mancil isn’t in the best health so it was nice to go for a visit and have everyone together.  Everyone found a place to sleep between Jill’s house and G&G Mancil’s house.  They live really close together so we could walk in-between the houses.  It was a good visit. Aaron and his Dad:

Susan’s kids our (niece and nephew) Jason and Emily both are married and brought their spouses and both of their cute babies. I don’t know why I am pulling a weird face, but Lexi crawled up into my lap and fell asleep.  I loved it!!  

We made sure we got one lunch in at El Fenix with the whole entire family.  El Fenix is a family favorite:

Matthew approved of El Fenix:

I am bit a embarrassed to say we hit up Buc-ees a few times while we were out there.  Their cinnamon smoked cashews are so good! I had the kids stand by the mascot for a picture:

Then the Buc-ees employee took my phone and told me to get in the picture with all my kids....I didn’t tell her two of them weren’t mine, but whatever we are all family, right?!--haha!

It was a good visit.  Grandma M. and Sarah:

Shockingly enough Sarah and Noah had never held a baby before.  They had so much fun playing with Lexi:

and Kennedi:

Josh worked until Friday night so he was able to get a one way 5am flight out to Dallas Saturday morning.  I didn’t want him to have to park at the Salt Lake airport so Aaron and I had him take an Uber to the airport. He had to get to the airport by 3 am to make his flight.  I wasn’t sure if there would be an Uber around right away at 2 am so I told Josh to try and get an Uber at 1:30am to make sure he would be able to find one right away. The poor guy was so tired.  He got an Uber at 1:30am and got to the airport by 2:30. He checked in and waited for his flight.  Unfortunately, the airplane he was supposed to take was having to mechanical issues so it got delayed. First the 5 am flight was delayed until 6am.  Then it got delayed until 7 am.  After that they told all the people on that flight that they might want to think about rebooking.  Ugh.  Josh was so mad.  Everyone went over and got in a HUGE line including Josh.  This was Josh’s place in the line after an hour.  

He sent me this picture--poor guy.  He had gone to bed at 9:30pm and woke up at 1am. So at this point he had been up since 1:00 am, was tired and was losing some patience....

I made this meme and then sent it out to everyone asking, “Who pulled the most annoyed face the best?”.  Josh didn’t think I was very funny, but I sure did--haha!

He got through the line and was finally able to talk to someone at the counter, but by the time he got to the front of the line all the other morning flights had already left--DOH!!  The only flight left would leave that afternoon at 4 pm--ugh.  He called me to see what he should do after getting out of the line.  It was frustrating because there was an appointment to get family pictures done that afternoon that he would now miss.  We were scrambling trying to figure out a solution when amazingly enough while he was on the phone with me they were able to fix the mechanical issue on the original plane so it started boarding.  It took off about 30 minutes later a whopping 3 hours late, but I still call that a win.  Poor Josh was super exhausted, though. We got to go and pick up Josh from the DFW airport, but on the way out to the airport Aaron wanted to stop by and grab a Muchaco from Taco Bueno.  Taco Bueno is a fast food chain just in Texas, but Aaron loves it.  It is what he ate for lunch every day throughout high school so it holds a warm place in his heart--haha!  We all ordered a Muchaco for lunch.  A Muchaco is a taco, but instead of a hard shell it is wrapped in a soft, fried thick flour tortilla resembling a very thin scone if that makes sense. Aaron also ordered two additional bean burritos, too.  That was his high school order--a Muchaco and two bean burritos and he was super skinny way back then. Let me just say teenage metabolism is a thing Aaron and I both miss--haha!  Anyway, I do have to admit that it was pretty greasy, but good. Matthew gives it a thumbs up, too:

Josh finally made it to Dallas in enough time to say hello to G&G Mancil then go and get ready for pictures.

Jill’s husband Jeff is a doctor and has a beautiful new office.  That was the location where we did all the pictures. Poor Josh just crashed in-between picture takes--poor guy!

Here’s a sweet sibling picture with Aaron, his sisters Jill and Susan and his parents Philip and Elizabeth:

Here’s all the grandkids minus Daniel since he is currently serving a mission on Omaha, Nebraska.  We did print out a picture to be held up of him so he could vicariously be in the pictures, too:

Here’s the whole entire Mancil family (even Daniel if you count the picture of him inside the family picture):

We were able to grab a few individual family pictures, too which was nice.  Here’s my kids:

Our family:

The kids:

An 11x14 picture of missionary Daniel taped to a clipboard--haha!

Josh:

Matthew:

Noah:

Sarah:

While we were in the Dallas area Aaron did take us around to show the kids the house he grew up in in Plano.  It was super rainy while we were driving around, but here’s a few pictures.  Here’s a view of the garage taken from the alley at the back of the house:

Here’s the front of the house he grew up in:

We also drove by his elementary school, his middle school, his Granny’s house and some other places he loved to hang out while growing up.  He had fun telling us about each place.

Sunday morning Aaron and I were able to watch Daniel’s mission trainer's homecoming talk via a Zoom link while we were in Texas.  His trainer lives in Southern Idaho so I think it was pretty cool we were able to hear him speak. He talked a bit about the person he and Daniel were able to baptize before he came home which was pretty cool.

Monday morning it was time for us to head back to Utah.  Here we are saying our goodbyes to G&G Mancil:

Saying goodbye to everyone else even the babies:

When we got back home I think Matthew was about Familied out and wanted to go back to his group home.  We took him back that evening.  He was able to spend New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day with his roommate Mason.  Their staff took them out and they had a fun time doing a lot of activities.  Here’s some pictures his house manager sent to us:

We spent the next evening, New Year’s Eve with Blaine, Erin and Drew Einzinger.  We played some games and ate a bunch of yummy food.  Sarah and her friend Beth Einzinger were here for a few hours before they went to a different friends house.  Josh was supposed to go with a bunch of friend’s out to the Salt Flats for the evening.  However, he realized the drive out to the Salt Flats is about 2 hours which means the drive back would be 2 hours.  If he celebrated midnight out there the soonest he would be back home would be 2 am and he had to leave for work at 6 am the next morning.  He ultimately decided to hang with us instead so he could sleep a few more hours before work the next morning.  Noah hung with us, too.  It is fun because they are old enough to play games so we can have a bigger group of people to play with.  At midnight Drew and Noah went outside to bang some pots and pans to celebrate.  We then had some sparkling cider.  Bring on 2025!! 

The following week we had a big Clearfield Walk In clinic group lunch. Our boss wanted to take us all out to lunch to tell us thank you for all we did before the clinic opened and while the clinic was open before it permanently closed at the end of December. We went to a authentic Mexican restaurant in Layton called Spanglish.  It was really good.  We all got some guacamole and chips and salsa for an appetizer.  I got a meat burrito for the main course.  Our boss even let us order some dessert.  I chose a fruit cup hoping it would be like the fruit cup we got from the Spanish family that took care of the missionaries (Josh) in Chicago when we went back to visit after Josh’s mission.  I was not disappointed, however, it was huge!  The picture doesn’t even give it justice.  This thing was MASSIVE!!  I had to try and bag it up to bring it home since there was no way I was going to be able to eat that all myself!  It was really good, though.  It was cut up cucumbers, pineapples, mangos, cantaloupes, honeydew, covered with tajin and chamoy.  They were a bit spicy, but yummy!  I am sad that the Walk In Clinic is permanently closed, but I am glad I got to work with some amazing ladies while it was open!  I will still get a chance to occasionally work with them doing mobile clinics, but not nearly as often.

Last week a group of us from the Walk In clinic got together to have another one of us, Talea, teach us all the things about sour dough.  She even gave us all our own starter.  

I have been experimenting.  Here’s the first sourdough loaf of bread I made.  It was yummy!!

It made the best avocado toast!!

My family all loved it and that first loaf didn’t even last a day before it was gone.  A few days later I ended up making two more loaves.

It paired well with our lasagna dinner.  YUM!!

Last Tuesday I had to work a morning clinic and an afternoon clinic so I ended up working an 11.5 hour day.  Ugh!! It was long, but I will definitely appreciate the paycheck when it comes.  However, I was not around for Sarah’s care center dance performance.  Her dance teams go and perform at a few care centers before their big dance recital.  This was the first care center performance.  Aaron went with her instead.  He said she did a great job!  Here’s a picture of her performance team:

Sarah has had the opportunity to be a dance teacher this year for the youngest performance team.  She loves it!!  She was on the sideline while the younger team was doing their dance helping them remember what came next: 

Last Thursday Aaron unexpectedly got the day off since Jimmy Carter died.  All Federal employees get the day off of the funeral of a past president.  I had to work that morning down in Draper.  It was just a quick TB read clinic for a new class of Department of Corrections officers and was going to be a short clinic.  Since was going to be short Aaron just came along with me and was just going to wait in the car while I did the clinic. Unfortunately, there was a mix up on times for the class and they weren’t going to come in until an hour after the clinic was scheduled. DOH!  I had to wait inside the building until the cadets got there so poor Aaron had to wait out in the car for about 90 minutes.  Good thing he was a patient guy--haha!  After that I had to go back to the office to turn in all the paperwork.  After that I was free for the rest of the day.  We decided to go and do some Top Golf.  However, it was FREEZING!!  The wind is usually blocked by the building, but this time it was coming from the other direction and just so cold!  We decided to only play for 90 minutes. I was terrible. However, I did end up winning one game.  I lost all the others, though.  It was fun.  Here’s Aaron playing:

The game I won!!

I am really bad at this, but it is still fun to play.

Sarah’s friend has a neighbor that will go raid the dumpster outside the Frito Lay plant.  He gave Sarah a huge boxful of different packaged chips that he picked up there.  I am a bit turned off by the fact he got them from the dumpster, but Sarah assures me everything he picks up is clean and packaged.  I guess they only though the misfits in the dumpster.  The kids have been taking them down the past few days.  Here’s all we have left:

Noah got a personal blender for Christmas.  He has been loving it.  He has tried all kinds of concoctions and loves it.  I don’t know what was in this one, but it was good.  It had strawberries, Kale, pineapple, etc.

In other happenings Aaron started as a temple worker last Friday.  He got set apart last week and had his first temple shift last Friday.  He said it was awesome.  He got trained in a few areas and looks forward to being trained in the other areas.  He even ran into one of Daniel’s friends, Dawson, who started as a temple worker the same shift.  That was pretty neat.  He will work the Friday afternoon shift.

Sunday Sarah got put in as the Oldest Young Women Class president.  She also got asked to help plan Girl’s Camp this year.  She is a bit overwhelmed, but I am sure she will be great.

In Daniel’s mission every month they have a special ‘Why I Believe’ missionwide fireside.  During this meeting they invite new members to come up and tell everyone their conversion story and why they believe.  Daniel invited his friend, Eddie, to share his conversion story and he accepted.  We got to watch from a link at home which was awesome.  Daniel got to say the opening prayer:

Here is Eddie telling his story.  It was awesome to listen to!!