Sweethearts Dance for Ellie

When Ellie came home one day and announced that she wanted to go to the girls' choice Sweetheart Dance at her school, I was excited to take her dress shopping!   Not only was I excited that she's starting to find her people after 3 years of being the new girl, but she's my first girl to need a dress in Utah, which meant that we actually had options for finding modest ones off the shelf!  

Here's the beautiful dress she picked out--classy and full of gorgeous details.   

I love that she opted to wear her very comfy (and very cute) Converse, rather than uncomfortable dress shoes that would have made her feet ache.   She's definitely a girl after her Mom's heart in that regard!  

Neither her  or her date drive (thanks to her seizure disorder and her date being a foreign exchange student), so we brought her to the festivities.   I loved that she brought along Denali along to see her off!   :) 

 We weren't there (obviously) for the festivities, but we were happy to see these pictures afterward.  Here she is with her good friends from school.  

They did a painting activity together...

And had dinner, which they all brought something for...

Then they took photos together...

Here she is with her date, Daniel--a very kind foreign exchange student from Cambodia (who speaks English without an accent)...

A good time was had by all... 

And her first girls' choice dance was definitely  a success!   

Dam Life Update

As has become tradition when we have a missionary out serving, here is a {quick and silly} life update taken from a letter we wrote to him on  2/5/23.
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Hello my dear missionary!  
How is life in the Town of Beavers?   Speaking of which...do you know how Beaverton got its name?   I'm going to look it up right now.  It seems like it's got to have something to do with beavers and dams, which means that it's time for some good Mom dam humor.

                                        <PAUSE while I look it up.>

Straight from Wikipedia:

"According to Oregon Geographic Names, Beaverton's name is derived from the settlement's proximity to a large body of water resulting from beaver dams.

The area of Tualatin Valley that became Beaverton was originally the home of a Native American tribe known as the Atfalati, which settlers mispronounced as Tualatin. The Atfalati population dwindled in the latter part of the 18th century, and the prosperous tribe was no longer dominant in the area by the 19th century when settlers arrived. The tribe named their village Chakeipi, which translates to "place of the beaver," which early settlers referred to as "Beaverdam.""

WHAT?

Not only is your Mom right, but it was originally called BeaverDAM!!!! THAT'S DAM EPIC!!!!  I think I am going to start telling people that you're serving in Beaverdam from now on!

I think you should make this your new profile picture.  I'm sure your mission president will approve.  

Also, I have no idea what I'm writing to you next.   

I guess I should probably tell you about life at home, but that seems so boring.  So I think I'll show you the awesome postcard I got today.  It's my favorite type and it made me smile.  

Also, you have some silly sisters....

And a Dad who likes to go fishing...

even when it's cold and snowy! 

So, I guess maybe I am telling you about home now.   Here's a more detailed synopses of what's happening: 

1. I had a RS activity last week that we advertised to be Mindfulness, Movement, Munching, and Mingling.  

 

 

We had a spiritual thought based on these two articles (#1 & #2), then split off into two 15ish minute classes.  One class was glow stick dancing (MOVEMENT) with a teacher speaking a little about the importance of continuing to move our bodies.  The other class was a 15-minute meditation (MINDFULNESS) session. Everyone had a chance to do both classes if they wished.  At the end, we all gathered back together for MUNCHING on healthy snacks and MINGLING with the other sisters.    About 30 people came and I am considering it a success! 

2. Dad is getting a lot of action on his resume and has had several interviews already. 

3. Ellie is Ellie. 

4. Lucie is convinced that all animals say, "Baaaaa".  I think I already told you / showed you that, but it's so stinking cute I had to mention it again. 

5. Also, I think Lucie identifies me as the "Dancing Grandma" now.   Whenever I get on facetime with her and she sees my face, she starts dancing.   It makes me smile and I look forward to dancing with her in person in a couple weeks!   

6.  Kiwi and Denali are getting along better now.  It was a rough few days after Denali's haircut with Kiwi acting aggressively toward her.  We had to keep them separated, because Kiwi seemed totally convinced that she was a strange dog that looked and smelled funny.  

7.  Did I mention that my digestive issues have been much improved since my surgery?   It's been weird and I don't understand the reasons why, but suddenly my stomach is much less sensitive than it previously was.  I've even tried gluten a couple times with success.  Granted it's a specially processed flour that it is much different than what you can buy at a grocery store, but I now have 50 lbs of it and I've eaten bread made with it twice now without consequence!   Woohoo!

Here is a pizza crust I made with the special flour.   I ended up leaving it, along with directions, for Ellie and Spencer one night, while Dad and I went on a date....but I COULD have eaten it and that's awesome!  

8.   I feel like I need something random to throw in here again, before you fall asleep with the boringness of this letter, so here's your sister having some kind of moment with Denali while laying on the fireplace hearth.   

9.  The cold and snowy conditions continue here in Utah and the other morning I had the experience of standing ON TOP OF THE SNOW without sinking in.  It was about 15ish degrees at the time and the experience brought  back all sorts of memories about my Minnesota days.  For the record, I may look happy in this picture, but I am not happy with how incessant this winter has been.   I literally don't think it's been out of the 40's since October and I'm tired of bundling up in my cold weather gear every single stinking day! 

Here is another random picture from that same walk.  It's just a bunch of female longhorn cattle standing on top of a large mound of dirt/snow while the males waited patiently at the bottom for them to come down. 

Alright, it's getting to be my bedtime and my brainwaves are degrading into fuzzballs quickly.   I'll close off with a quick spiritual thought.  It's a quote I found that went along with the CFM reading this past week:  

"It is this living water, freely offered by Jesus Christ, that we all seek to quench our own spiritual thirst and that is critically needed to end the gospel drought that continues to plague mankind. As His disciples, we are the primary distribution system for delivering the living water from its everlasting source to His cherished children in need. We largely determine who will receive the water as we, by our ­service, control the irrigation system headgates. We preserve the purity of the water as we reflect to the world the value of the ­living water in our own lives. If we irrigate when the living water is required, rather than when it is convenient for us, we determine its vitality. It is only the living water of Jesus Christ that can and will bring a happy, successful, and everlasting life to the children of men."  {The Living Water of Jesus Christ, H. David Burton, BYU Speeches, January 2000}

That's what you're doing....bringing the living water of Christ to the people of Beaverdam!  You're awesome.   I love you!!! Have an amazing P-day! I look forward to talking to you tomorrow. 

LOVE, 
Mom 💕

Hairy Adventures of 2023

In the spirit of capturing moments, I thought it would be fun to show you a glimpse at our hair right now.   Yes, I'm aware that sounds a little odd for a blog post, but the idea formed after our puppy had a pretty traumatic day at the groomer and looks like a completely different dog now.  I figure we'll enjoy looking back at this post and remembering our 2023 hair in all its glory.  

This is Denali --our sweet little mini-goldendoodle.  She is about 16 months old and has only been to the professional groomers once before.  There was also the time last summer when we tried to groom her ourselves, but that was a bit of a debacle and we've been procrastinating going back ever since.    This was taken shortly before her appointment last week, when she was in all of her shaggy and matted glory.

 

This is her now.   She looks like a completely different dog and it's hard not to laugh when we see her coming.  😆Sadly, Spencer's dog, Kiwi, didn't recognize her at first and we had to keep them separated for a few days.   Thankfully the familiar scent of home settled on her eventually and they are now best buddies again. 

Here's my before-and-after--hopefully not quite as humorous as Denali's.  It was my first haircut in 1-1/2 years and I'm loving how light and healthy my hair feels.  My hair hasn't been its natural color in many years, thanks to the early graying gene that runs fiercely on my Mom's side of the family, but I've been trying to be better at keeping up with my roots these days.  I definitely prefer to keep my hair on the long side.

Here's a glimpse of Ellie's cute everyday hair when she went to mutual the other night.  You also get a glimpse of our fridge.  😑

Cami just started her career as a NICU nurse last week, so her hair is extra legit now...

And here's a picture of Emma's that I found in our camera roll.  It looks like she was on her way to church....

Here is Glen's.  He has very few flecks of gray hairs (a fact which makes me very jealous) and he gets it cut once a month or so.   His mother turns 80 this year and her hair is still almost exactly the same shade as Glen's, so he has good hair genes! 

Spencer is the only one of the kids to inherit my dark hair and it appears, at age 27, that he may well have inherited the early graying gene as well.  Sorry, Spence!   He keeps it short most of the time and often sports facial hair too! 

Adam is getting his hair cut once a transfer now, which means his hair is always looking sharp these days! 

And what blog post would be complete without a glimpse at the cutest member of the family?   Lucie has less hair than any of our kids at the same age, but it's starting to come in and it always looks adorable...even when it's sticking straight up! 

How's that for the hairy adventures of 2023?   Hope you're having a great year!  :)

Off the Rolls and onto the Blog

Most everyone I know has migrated to capturing their life's milestones on social media and I admit that it is a convenient way to share information. Unfortunately I find that staying active on social media is challenging for my mental health and turns into a time-suck that is difficult for me to manage.  I still have social media accounts, which I do use, but mostly I keep it at arm's length and rarely share or interact on it.  Having said that,  I really, really like having stories and pictures combined into one place, so that we can look back and remember how things were in that moment in time.    This is ultimately the reason why I am trying to keep up on the blog again.     For nearly 16 years...holy cow that's a long time...this blog has been there for my family to look at anytime, as well as any of my friends who cares to see what's going on in our lives.  I can share my pictures and stories in  a way that maintains my creative control over the formatting and it is solely mine.  I know it takes more effort for people to find their way here and I frankly like that aspect too.  My life isn't being thrown into anyone's feed of a 100 items for people to press the obligatory "Like" button to show they "care", but it's there if anyone cares to look for it.   😁

So...in the vein of capturing moments...here are some pictures I didn't want to get lost in the camera roll.   Some more pictures from when Cami and Lucie were in town...

I left the house more in the week they were here than I had in several weeks before that and I loved all the girly time we got to spend together, including more visits with Emma (down at BYU), Cami's sisters-in-law, and my Mom and sister, Heather!

It's honestly felt way too quiet around here since they left, but I take heart in the fact that we will be seeing them again in a few weeks!  I am already eagerly looking forward to it. 

In the meantime, our weekly Facetime calls with Adam will have to suffice for family time!

I love our family! 💗💗💗

How Cold Is It?

How cold has this winter been?  

It's cold enough that this snowy scene has been the view of our city (from our favorite trailhead) for the last couple of months.   The snow will start to melt, only to have it snow all over again.   I think we've had measurable snow fall at least a few times a week for most weeks since November.  Thankfully, we have a snowblower now, which makes clearing out a little easier at least. There was about a month when we barely saw the sun, because the clouds just seemed to settle in the valley and stayed.  

 

 

 

Both of these pictures were taken on a morning walk within the last week.   One day we came back covered in snow.    

 

 

This morning we came back covered in frost from where our breath had condensed in our hair/fur (temperature 10* F).

 The good news is....is that Utah is not as cold as Rexburg, Idaho, which saw temps well into the -20's this past week.  Also,  it looks like we might see temps in the 40's later this week.  That's about as warm as we've seen since November and I may just break out my mid-weight winter jacket for the occasion!