Spring Break Getaway!

A little glimpse at our blog lately and you'll see that life has been a bit chaotic for the last few months.  We have been neck deep in house projects since February and we are getting ready to list our house on the market in the next couple of weeks.   It hasn't been ALL work though.  

During Spring Break, we were able to get away for a couple days to rustic cabin camping trip in West Virginia.   There were several other families we knew there, all of whom had kids Adam's age.

   None of whom had any Ellie's age (except for a boy or two), so Ellie made some furry friends... 

and spoiled Rocky a little too much! 😂

And as per usual, she made friends of all ages while she was there! 

Emma also had a great group of friends there...

All these seniors are off to grand adventures in the next few months...

One of her friends (Harlan) opened his mission call to Finland while we were there.   I loved being a part of mission call openings! 

It was great to get away from all the moving stuff for a couple days and just enjoy being outside....

and with friends...

I had fun with my friends too, however we didn't get any pictures of us together, so this one with Adam will have to do. 

Oh yeah, and the food was good too. Ellie and I mostly ate keto while we were there, but we did allow ourselves a couple small cheats.  We were in charge of breakfast, so we had a fruit and yogurt parfait bar.  I actually had some low-carb granola, but she was really excited for a taste of flavored yogurt, something she hasn't had any of in many months. 

With my birthday, Easter, and Ellie's birthday recently, we've cheated more in the last month than we have the entire time we've been on keto.  We are still 95% good, but definitely  need to get back to it in May.  

Really,  this getaway was just what we all needed.  The only thing that would have made it better is if Glen had been able to come too.  

A Little Life Update

Getting ready to move after being in one place for 20-years has been an all-consuming task for me.  So all-consuming that I teeter between never wanting to own a house again, so as to at least prevent all the house stress  and wanting to buy a house ASAP, so that I can guaranteed to be in one place for a while.   Our reality will probably end up somewhere in between those two scenarios.  In the meantime, we still need to figure out where the next place for us is.   Right now, we've got 4 reasonably good options and we need to wait for some things to happen at Glen's work before we can confidently start moving forward with any of those potential plans.  For now, all I can do is get the house ready to sell and our family ready to move...somewhere and hope and pray that the somewhere will be the right place for us.  

 Just so my kids don't forget that we have had some normal life in amongst all the household distractions these past few weeks, here's a peek of what else we've been doing.  

We had one of our favorite missionaries come back to visit...

 Elder Judkins served here 4ish years ago and it was great to see him again!   We took him to see "Amazing Grace" at the National Bible Museum.  It was a powerful performance and we were grateful for the opportunity to include him in this family outing.  

Adam used Rocky to up his seminary devotional game.   He had the balloons for an activity, made this picture into a poster....

and made this picture into a little hand-out for everyone.   But, alas, he still didn't win the devotional contest. 

Ellie and Emma had a temple trip to Philadelphia.  Adam was taking the ACT and had to miss it.  Glen and I stayed home and plugged away at house stuff.  It was probably one of the few temple trips our kids have been on when at least one of us wasn't there. 

Ellie had two of her cousins stay over one night during spring break. 

They enjoyed the time together and even Adam got in on the fun when he took Lauren on a run, since sleeping over meant that she missed her track practice. 

Easter was low-key, but good.  We didn't dye eggs, we didn't hide any candy, we didn't get any new clothes.  Emma did make these cute bunny pancakes though...

And we did have a family gathering with a delicious dinner at Pete and Mika's place...

And on the other side of the country, Cami's been taking off with her baking business...

And pretty soon....we will have all five kids (and their mom) together in one place.  It's only a quick trip and we're sad that Glen can't come too, but a little time away sounds just about perfect right now.  

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Finally Seeing the Bluebells

We've lived in this area for 20+ years and have seen bluebells in passing, but never gone to see them specifically.  Why?  I have no idea.   I consider that  hiking and being outside in nature is a huge part of our family culture, so this makes no sense.   

Sensibleness aside...I'll blame finally seeing the light on social media.   After ogling over friends' pictures, we  finally got around to seeing them for ourselves.

We took advantage of a beautiful day in Spring Break and went to the Merrimac Farm Wildlife Management Area in Nokesville, VA and finally saw what all the fuss was about.

And we were enamored.

The trail and surroundings were lovely enough on their own...

but when we got the fields of bluebells...

it was hard not to be in awe at the beauty in the details...

 God's work is mighty and beautiful...

And I am thankful to have finally seen them in all their glory...

Oh, and I'm rather fond of the people in this post too...

Happy Spring! 

Long and Short!

For my whole life, I almost always have kept my hair long.   The reasons for this are simple--I'm lazy and don't like the upkeep that short hair requires.    I don't like going to the salon for frequent trims to keep a haircut looking fresh.  I don't like washing my hair every day.  I don't like spending time blowdrying and doing other such tedious tasks that short hair requires.   So I usually wear it long and straight.   I get it cut once, maybe twice a year at most.   I almost always let it air dry and I rarely do anything other than wear it straight down.  I don't even love ponytails, because they give me a headache.  

The only hiccup to this low maintenance hair plan of mine is that I've inherited the "early graying gene" from my mom's side of the family.   I've been fully white headed since I was about 40, and my hair grows super fast.   I'm not quite ready to embrace being white-haired quite yet, so I'm forced to at least try to keep up with the color.   

So I buy boxes of color from the drugstore and do my best to keep up with it.     My hair grows so fast though,  I usually end up with some pretty serious roots by the time I get around to coloring again.  This picture shows my hair with  just a 3-4 week growth since my last color. 

Every once in a while, though, I get the urge for something different.   I'm not sure what triggers it in me, but lately I've been itching for a real haircut and some depth to my color.  

So I did it....

I went to the salon and got color, highlights, and a new cut.  

Do I like it?  

Absolutely.

Will it inspire me to keep going to the salon more regularly? 

Doubtful.  

If my history means anything, I'm sure you can come back and check out my hair in a year, and it'll almost certainly be about as long as it was before my cut! 

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The Random Little Things

Here are a few of the random, little things that have been going on in our life lately (besides house projects):  

Emma got out of bed a few weeks ago, stepped directly on a mouse, and it bit her.   She literally lived my nightmare and I now check the floor every time I get up in the night to use the bathroom!

We watched a cute little raccoon scamper across our roof and dive INTO a hole it had clearly used before.   Inspectors found another raccoon hole on the other side of the house too. Luckily there is no damage in the attic to clean up, so we think he was just an occasional visitor.  We hired a wildlife trapper to take care of it, but there was no evidence that he came even once in the week they had the trap up, so the holes are now covered and we are just replacing the roof ASAP. 

I got a new calling.  I am now the Assistant Director of Public Affairs for our stake.  It's a fun calling that I think I will really enjoy.  I'm not sure how long I'll be able to do it though, if we end up moving this summer. 

Adam is playing rugby.  Every single game or practice there is a new tale of some horrific injury that a teammate or opponent has sustained.   So far he's only sustained bruises and scrapes.

I sent a nice, but firm letter to the bishopric kindly requesting them to send me the information for the programs earlier than Saturday.   And this past week I may have a been a little passive aggressive in my methodologies when they didn't send it before we left town (even after specifically requesting it)....

My sciatic nerve has been a little messed up since our road trip last fall.  It's been especially bad this past week or two and I am taking it easy on the exercise right now. 

I've been having fun helping to teach the middle school earth science class at our homeschool co-op.  I loved earth science as a kid and enjoyed taking a couple geology classes at BYU, so this is right up my alley. I even told people I was going to be a meteorologist most of the way through high school. It's been a little stressful now that we are in home improvement 3000, but overall I have enjoyed the challenge and distraction it is to me.   

Emma is signed up for her housing at BYU!   She'll be living with two girls from our stake and some girls she doesn't know, but who all love to cook and don't like staying up late.   She is getting very excited!