What I'm Doing At Church

 Before I get to the meat of this post, I want to preface it by telling you about  a problem I have.   

It's something I've struggled with my whole life and I thought I'd outgrow it someday, but, alas, I have not.   

I have a deep-seated desire to not be normal....but not so abnormal that I'm too weird.  I just want to be  original and a little unexpected.  You know, totally an easy balance.     

That  may or may not make you laugh based on how well you know me, but it perhaps does explain a little of my quirkiness.  

So, if you were to peek at my LDS Tools right now, you'd see I have three callings....

One of those callings was extended to me by a member of the bishopric, the other two I volunteered for. If you've been following along here for very long, you know that making church programs  is something that makes me super happy.  It's not work to me; it's something I just weirdly enjoy doing and consider a creative outlet for myself.   And it's good that I don't usually have to lobby too hard to get this job, since it's not one that's in high demand! 😁  

I try really hard to make the programs beautiful, informative, and unique--though the church copier often leaves them looking less beautiful than I'd prefer.  Here is a glimpse at the inside of this week's, though I admit, it was an off week for me because I'm working on a different (much smaller screened) computer than usual.  

I am very proud of my back page, which spotlights all the missionaries serving from our ward!  

So every week I create these paper programs, update an online ward bulletin, where I include many more details about the items mentioned, and create a kids' activity sheet to go with the Come, Follow Me lesson for that week that gets handed out in sacrament meeting.  All in all, I probably spend 3-5 hours on all this in a week  and mostly love every minute of it....though it's not my favorite thing when I'm traveling.  

My other calling is *still* Relief Society Activity Coordinator (going on almost 2 years now).   It's  a calling I struggle with, but I'm doing the best I can with it.  We had a few month lull without an activity, because of some stake and other Relief Society things that I had nothing to do with, and I think that lull got me out of my routine and made this last activity  a little extra hard to plan.  I had the hardest time lighting a fire to get buy-in from the sisters on it and I literally had 5 baby pictures collected for it two days before.  So when sending out my last minute email (something I do at least once a week for the online ward bulletin), I wanted to make it more than just a boring old email.   Here's what I ended up sending....

Somehow my goofy email worked and I got 24 more baby pictures in the two days before the activity started.  The turn-out was great...

The food (prepared by a member of my committee) was  delicious and beautiful! 

And people loved the baby picture game!  I had them hanging up like this, making them a gathering place in the room. 

I made worksheets  and had copies for everyone, so they could guess.   It was such a fun conversation starter and I loved watching all the sisters discuss among themselves who was who.   Totally a hit! 

Apparently I made my picture too easy and people guessed me right away...

So that's me right now.  Just plugging away, doing my thing, and {mostly} loving every minute.    

Snow in May and Other Such Happenings

I mentioned that my birthday marked the beginning of a short quiet stretch of time with fewer things on my schedule.   Alas, it was a pretty short-lived stretch, but it was rejuvenating nonetheless 

Here is a little glimpse at that gloriously quiet stretch...

 First off, the weather got really springy and lovely after several days of rain the previous week and it made me really, really happy.    I went on lots of walks OUTSIDE, though I'm still keeping my mileage a little on the low side for the sake of my sore foot, though I think it's getting better.   Hallelujah!  

I spent a day with my friend Sarah G.,  who came to town from Santa Fe, NM for BYU Women's Conference.   Mount Timpanogas Temple is closed currently, so we went to the one in Saratoga Springs.   It was my first time doing a session there, since it only opened a few months ago. 

After eating pretty poorly for a few weeks (while the boys were here, while we traveled, and while we celebrated two birthdays), I'm FINALLY back to eating in a way that makes me feel better.   Lots of nutritionally dense whole foods with minimal added sugar is what my body seems to crave and now I just need to keep it up!

I FINALLY got a long weekend with Glen at home.   Between his trip to Colorado, his work retreat, and his normal weeks in Saint George, I was really really missing him.  I can't wait for him to be home full-time again soon!   

We went to the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point on that Friday.  The weather that day and Saturday was exceedingly lovely and we enjoyed spending some time together outside.  

Then on May 6th we woke up to this....

Yes, it snowed in May...and not just once, but a few days in a row.    Don't ask me how I felt about it, because I might start swearing.   Or crying.  Beautiful blossoms, like the ones on our tree in front of our house, are not supposed to be covered in snow.  Ever.   It's wrong.   Winter needs to go back to where it came from...like the North Pole. Or Outer Darkness.   Or wherever besides here. 

The good news is is that that same day it was not actually snowing in Provo, so we decided to take a walk while Glen's truck was getting its oil changed.    It was still quite cold, but the Provo River Trail up by the Provo Airport is exceedingly lovely and we enjoyed the change of scenery from our normal walking locales.  

We heard tons of birds, though we couldn't see very many of them, because of the tree cover.   I love the Merlin app that "listens" and tells you what birds are currently singing!   We tried really hard to capture glimpses of some of those yellow birds...next time we need to bring binoculars! 

I love walking along the Provo River

And though the trail is closed in one spot and we got a little muddy trying to figure out how to get around the closed section...

We very much loved having the water right there and all the trees.   It totally had the vibes of not being in Utah (besides how cold it was) and I rather liked it.  

And this cute pig family we came across was quite adorable.  Glen may or may not have even petted a pig before continuing onward...

Then we went back home to more snow falling.  Of course, it didn't stick, but I was still grumpy about it.   May is a good time for spring to stick around for a while. 

So that was our exciting week that wasn't actually all that exciting, but kicked off some bigger things coming soon...

Stay tuned!  

Two Birthdays!

 Birthdays in our family mostly come in pairs.   Emma and Adam were both born in October.   Cami and Glen have birthdays a couple weeks apart from each other in mid-summer and mine and Spencer's birthdays are the closest of all--just 5 days apart at the end of April.  Ellie is the only one with a birthday all by her lonesome in March!   

  This year my birthday came right after all the craziness I've mentioned in the last couple posts, including houseguests x2, a quick trip to Texas, an injured dog, and a whole lot of other random things on the calendar.    My birthday arrived just after Cami and crew (and Emma) had returned to Alabama, Ellie was back at school, and  Glen was at a work retreat in Saint George. That meant with Spence at work, that  I was mostly by myself for the day.   We'd celebrated with everyone before they left town, so it's not like I was forgotten in any sense, but it was a bit of a let-down to spend the day on my own.   All in all, though, I can't complain....I frankly needed a minute to breathe after the craziness of the previous weeks...

Here's a glimpse at my birthday...

I got flowers from Glen and Cam...

And Pete Doordashed me some Via313 gluten free cinnamon sticks...

Then, at the end of the work day, Heather, Grandma, Spence, and I went for fish tacos at Taqueria27.  Then Heather made cake.     I definitely ate way too much food! 

I spent my quiet day/week doing things like cleaning out the laundry room/back pantry, which had become a dumping ground of sorts...

I also kept eagerly checking my phone for pictures from Alabama to pop up in our camera roll from Emma...

Cami just started back to work after her maternity leave, so I think she was grateful to have Emma there.   

Random pictures from Ellie have also been entertaining...

This picture popped up in my memories today and cracked me up...It's from 2009 and it was when Glen was participating in a triathlon!   Look how little my peeps were!   😆

A few days after my birthday, we started celebrating Spencer's birthday in shifts.  I made him Philly Cheesesteak for dinner, as well as homemade PB bars on his actual birthday, then we went out and did a few more things once Emma and Glen got home.  

Oh, and did I mention that Spence just turned 29?    That means I've been doing this Mom gig for almost 30 years now and I won't lie....between my birthday, my inability to get a good night's rest lately, and Spence's birthday, I've been feeling a little extra old lately.   

Thank goodness for Facetimes with Lucie to keep me young!   I now know more about Facetime filters and stickers than I ever thought possible and I have to admit that I get very excited every time she calls and asks me to read a book to her.   If I can't be with them in person, I'm grateful to live in a day and a time that Facetime keeps us connected.  

Poor Denali

A couple weeks ago, we took Denali back to the new groomer we recently discovered and really like. She came back smelling fresh and looking snazzy...

Apparently the shampoo scent was too fresh and foreign smelling for Kiwi though and she didn't recognize Denali as her daily playmate.   There had been some growling and barking from Kiwi after previous grooming visits, so it was our intention to only let them have a very brief supervised sniff of each other before separating them for a few days, while Denali got back to smelling more like herself.   That very brief interaction with two of us supervising was too much though.   Kiwi ended up attacking Denali instantly and thank goodness Ellie and I were both right there to stop things quickly, but even still we ended up having to take Denali to the veterinary ER.    All this while Glen and Spencer were out of town. 

The left picture is what it looked like before we took her in.   After examining her more thoroughly, the vet ended up having to shave the wound and give her three stitches.  Additionally, they found two more punctures where other teeth had entered.  Thankfully those did not need stitching.  

She cried in pain quite a bit the first couple days (even with pain meds) and also wore a cone and/or a onesie for the next two weeks, to keep her from bothering the stitches.  She has since gotten her stitches removed and has recovered quite well.

This all came in the middle of a crazy few weeks at our house and was just "one more thing" to keep our stress levels high.  Kiwi is 98% sweet as can be, but that 2% is terrifying and we are trying to figure out a new way going forward.  

For now we are just keeping them completely separated in different parts of the house while we figure things out.  

Here's to happier dog days ahead...