Category: January

Allison’s Christmas Experience

Allison struggled with knowing what she wanted to ask for for Christmas this year. Ryan and I decided that she would like to have an experience and make some memories instead of a physical gift. We came up with an indoor sky diving experience. Luckily we were right, and she was thrilled.

Shortly after the new year we scheduled her sky diving experience. It was for her and one other person so she asked me to go with her.

It was a lot of fun, it was a lot harder then we thought it would be, we were exhausted when we were done and sore the next day. It was loud and cold. But it was worth it and we had a good time. We haven’t told the rest of the family yet but we got a good deal on a family skydiving package when we were done so we got that and will take everyone sometime soon. We are waiting for Matthew’s leg to heal.

Here are the pictures and videos of us.

  • Suits on
  • Hair socks on-still had so many tangles.
  • Ear plugs and helmets on
  • Waiting for her turn.

2021…and so it begins…

Well, 2021 is off to a good start in the Terry home. We took down all the Christmas decorations. When all the decorations are down everything always looks clean and decluttered so it triggers me to declutter and dejunk every drawer, cabinet, nook and cranny in our house. I have made it through the main floor and the upstairs. I have a little left to do in the kitchen and then the basement. Our trashcan has been overflowing the past two weeks, and the donation pile is piled high and ready to go to the salvation army. It is such a satisfying feeling to know there is no trash and no useless items in any drawers or cupboards.

Other aspects of our lives are continuing on as well, of course. Ryan is working and doing well at his job. I am working at Smiley Dental part time. We are still having church every week alternating between watching it at home or doing our own sacrament meeting, and going in person with half our ward at a time. We have to wear masks everywhere per the Governor’s state mandate but in all aspects that Ryan and I control, we try to have the kids life as normal as possible. Playing with friends, going outside, going to stores and other places. We had a family talk the other day and I think a trip as a family is in order. The kids need to get out and go somewhere. We did think of maybe a weekend ski trip to Colorado but with Matthew’s broken leg it won’t be soon. Plans are still in discussion. COVID is definitely here and moving through the community. Even as recently as August, I’d even say September, it was rare to actually know someone personally that had, had COVID. Now we have lots of friends, co-worker, neighbors and family that have had it. So far I have been blessed that most if not all the people I know personally that had it have had no symptoms to minor symptoms and recovered with no issue.

The information I have found says the survival rate for COVID is 99.4-99.6%. I’ll take those odds any day for a global pandemic. They have several vaccine options becoming available and are starting to distribute it. I had the option to get it through work but decided in my age, health, and family situation I would rather just take my chances with COVID. I am not anti-vaccine but they are using a new method that alters the mRNA in the cells and I think I want more than 10 years (I think that is being generous) of scientific experimentation and learning before I jump on board to volunteer to pioneer the first generation to try this type of vaccine. There are rumors that it will be required to travel, the next few months will be interesting to watch and see if people decide to hand over more of their freedoms and choice for the sake of ‘safety’ or they realize lets try our best to wash our hands and occasionally get sick and not hand over more unnecessary control to the government over our lives.

The past few months with COVID and politics have revealed some interesting dynamics in our neighborhood. There is a group of neighbors that have become pretty vocal about their support of Joe Biden. That in itself is not the problem, if you want to support Biden be my guest. The actions I see that can and are leading to some issues is their starting to condemn neighbors and people around them that don’t support Biden or follow the governments ‘recommendations’ to exactness, or more precisely their idea of exactness. Instead of inviting everyone to a party like they used to they just invite the ones that openly support Biden with a sign in their yard. (I do realize that having a party with a bunch of people isn’t following social distancing protocol, but if you are doing it to support Biden this group of people say its ok. I guess COVID knows the rules about which social gatherings are allowed.) They have gotten angry and sent mean texts to a parent for giving their kid a ride to basketball practice. Even though the kid is 14 and accepted the offer and has always carpooled with them in the past. They often ‘don’t see or hear’ when you walk by their house and say hi to them while they are sitting or working in the yard. They announce on the FB page that anyone who is a Republican can unfriend them and they want nothing to do with them because some people in Washington DC raided the capitol and somehow every Republican in America should be held responsible. They google everyone on the street and let people know what people they probably want to avoid because of certain events or beliefs in their past and/or present. Matthew was ON A WALK with some friends and a neighbor told them to go home or she would call the police. I find it more than slightly ironic that all of these things go on and more while one of these people have a “Love Your Neighbor” sign in their yard. It is pretty crazy, almost laughable if it weren’t all true.

Expanding our bubble a little more to school and local happenings. The girls are back in school full time. Matthew is back to full time virtual school. There was some long convoluted explanation relating to number of cases going up but not in schools but they should stay home anyway, as the reason for going back to virtual but I don’t want to waste the time to type it here. The teachers are doing a pretty good job for the most part but this year can hardly be qualified as quality education, I am constantly assured by the schools that’s ok though. The girls school principle (the one who has her name and picture plastered all over the school and makes me want to scream and pull my hair out just by hearing her name) is loving having the excuse of COVID to make as many stupid illogical rules as she can to fulfill her need for total control. She has a little group of followers that ‘spy’ for her and turn in people that are ‘hiding’ their COVID symptoms. The kids are told they shouldn’t talk loudly because of COVID, zero visitors are allowed into the school, and when she sends all the teachers home to be quarantined, she has people with no teaching experience or even a license to substitute filling in and ‘teaching’. Uggg this might seem obvious but I loathe this woman. If you have ever seen Harry Potter she honestly is Professor Umbridge, to a tee, minus the magic wand of course but hair, dress, and smarminess are the same. We have three and a half more years left of dealing with her before Emilee is out of elementary. I can not say if I will or will not make it my mission to get her fired between now and then.

Nothing drastically improved overnight in the world at large when 2020 became 2021. In politics, Trump is throwing a temper tantrum-to be fair the democrat’s totally rigged the election and falsely elected Joe Biden, but in typical Trump fashion he is acting like a two year old. There is literally dozen’s of examples and proof from video tapes of people carrying in suitcases of votes and running them through 7 times, software corruption, eye witness accounts, counties having more votes then people living in them, ‘corrected ballets’, and so much more that the media and courts just flat out ignore and dismiss. Instead they are pushing the the story that a man who has been in politics for 40+ years with nothing to show for it, has sexual harrassment charges against him from people ages 5-80 dismissed as ‘he is friendly’, has a son that it connected to Russian Mafia and other drug Lords, and can’t follow a conversation because he has dementia, not only won the election that at its most generous predictions was never predicted in his favor by more than a slight margin, but won by a landslide, with bigger voting margins than have ever been recorded in United States history-including the beloved Obama. If you honestly think the results of this past election were accurate, you are living with your head in the sand and not willing to accept reality. The fact that people no matter what their political affiliation is are ok with this and letting it get swept under the rug is not a good sign. Our government and its validity and structure is circling the drain.

Over the past year it has been crazy to take a step back and see all the things that are in motion. No matter what perspective you look at it from-citizen, economic, political, anything-it is changing fast and furiously. From a religious perspective, when you read about the wars and government corruption in the Book of Mormon it is eerie how close situations are today. Human nature as a whole is fairly predictable and it is crazy how a little control and a little filtering of the media and propaganda can swing nations in different directions. It seems like it is sudden but it isn’t, I think a lot of people don’t realize or want to believe how subtle, organized and focused the devil is on slowly dragging people down. It is like some people view it as something of the past, just stories. If you look even in the last 100 years you can see the patterns and work of people that are pure evil working their way into position and power and building on their steps to get ultimate power. Hitler was less than 100 years ago and in my life time alone the general truth and facts of what happened and lead up to that have been taught in school and lessons learned accepted as facts, to a once small but now growing alarmingly larger and larger belief that we should head towards socialism again and even that a lot of the history and things that happened didn’t really happen. How insane is that! There is no other way to describe it as crazy but when people try and talk or change or expose the evil, they are looked on as radicals, crazy, selfish and uncaring. People are starting to be very divided and polarized.

Uuggg. I really wasn’t planning on this post being about any of this but I obviously went off on a tangent. With all of this stuff becoming more and more prevalent, obviously I am seeing it more in my personal life and that is worrisome. When I read in the scriptures that good people will be lead away by subtle means and I see it happening to my own friends and family I want to shake them and say, “This is you its talking about! Don’t fall for it!” I have heard leaders and people say that things are speeding up and moving quickly. It isn’t that I didn’t believe them but it is different when you start seeing it in your own personal life with people you know and have known.

The waters are pretty murky and that isn’t going to improve anytime soon. It is overwhelming if you focus to much on it. If I didn’t have a living prophet to follow it would be hard to keep focused. God is real, his gospel was restored to the earth through Joseph Smith. I have heard a lot of criticisms and doubts about Joseph Smith from several acquaintances in the past year or so. I know he wasn’t perfect and I know that even studying and learning more about him I still won’t have all the details or the how’s and why’s of what he did and who he was but I know enough to know that he was called by God to translate the Book of Mormon and restore the gospel to the earth in its fullness. I know he did that, and God helped him accomplish the things he needed to. I know Joseph Smith had faith, and personal revelation and I believe he did his best. I don’t need to judge him and fill in the details with the limited knowledge I have through rose colored glasses almost 200 years later. I have prayed and asked if he was a prophet, I know he was a prophet of God. I know President Nelson is a prophet of God today. I know he his helping us prepare for what is to come. He has been urging us and helping us become more independent and trusting of our individual testimonies and personal revelation. He reminds us to strengthen them and helps us know what to focus on and how to prepare ourselves, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Family Flexibility

The range of flexibility in our family goes from Allison doing full splits and bending over backwards to Ryan and Matthew who can barely bend forward let alone touch their toes.

The past year Matthew has started having issues because he works out so much and then doesn’t stretch enough. On top of his lack of flexibility his muscles tighten up from working out and make him even less flexible and more tight. He has had to do several rounds of physical therapy. Of course Ryan and I have been nagging, harping, reminding, lecturing, begging, threatening, and anything else we can think of to get him to stretch 1-2 times a day. I’ve made him do Yoga with me. He is pretty ornery about it ,mainly because it hurts, he doesn’t like it, doesn’t get the importance of it, he is not good at it, and he is a belligerent teenager.

Our chiropractor gave us a video to use with some basic stretching. Ryan realized he needs to do it just as much as Matthew so the two of them have been doing it together at night. It is so ridiculous watching them. I switch between laughing so hard my eyes water to rolling my eyes as they moan and complain and roll around on the floor supposedly stretching but looking more like they are having a seizure or full body muscle spasm.

Kudos to them for trying though. They get an ‘A’ for effort. Well Ryan gets a ‘B’ and Matthew gets ‘C-‘

Philosophy and Toothpaste

I am not an idealist, I am a realist. Usually an optimistic realist but have my moments on the pessimistic side as well. So maybe you could say most of the time I am a realistic idealist, heavy on the realistic. 😂😂😂 I wonder if that is an original joke, or if my brain pulled it up from my memory that I heard somewhere before. Anyways. The reason I am rambling on about this is because it is a new year! One of, if not the highest time of year that people focus on making new goals for achievement and self improvement.

Ideally, many of us decide on something that we think will make our life better, or happier and make a plan to achieve it. Then follow the plan and achieve the goal. This process can then be repeated and goal by goal, step by step you are farther along the path of being a successful, fulfilled and happy person until your life is perfect and you are perfect.

Realistically, most of us start with great intentions and ambitions but then usually loose interest, desire, and/or motivation, and shortly afterwards and are back to our old habits. Old habits are hard to break and new habits are harder to make. Of course individual circumstances fortitude, self discipline and other traits have a big effect on success/failure too.

However, from an ideal realistic point of view. Sometimes we set goals for ourselves and are successful, sometimes we fail, sometimes we change our mind and change our goals. Sometimes we take a break then start again. There are almost numberless possibilities and reasons for why we do and don’t achieve goals. I think that the desire to make goals and put effort towards self improvement can be praised for heading in the right direction. Hopefully each day we can take another step in the direction we want to go. Sometimes the steps might be baby steps, giant leaps, maybe even a slip backwards, or complete stand still. Some goals are achieved in a day, some take years, some a lifetime, some are frivolous, inconsequential, life altering or even eternal but hopefully when all is said and done if you haven’t yet achieved the goal, you are closer than you were. And, along the way when needed you have the discipline to rededicate yourself and try harder, the courage to re-evaluate and change course, and the brains and humility to know which one of those to do-or come up with a third option.

Anywho. I am going to switch gears a little now and address the second part of the title of this blog. Toothpaste. The recent focus of a minor goal in my life.

Throughout our marriage we have lived in several different homes and sometimes Ryan and I have shared a bathroom sink, sometimes we have had our own. Depending on whether we shared a sink or not we would also share a tube of toothpaste or each have our own. Currently we have our own sinks and have our own toothpaste.

A while back while we were brushing our teeth one night, I made the comment that when I was helping the girls brush their teeth their toothpaste had so much dried toothpaste gunked up around the top that you couldn’t squeeze anymore toothpaste out even though it was at least still half full of toothpaste. Ryan chuckled and said it must be hereditary. To which I rolled my eyes and changed the subject because I knew where the conversation was headed. Ryan being Ryan wouldn’t let it go and asked to see my tube of toothpaste. I told him to not concern himself with my toothpaste…yaddy yaddy yaw…Ryan makes fun of me…I call him a turd…as the conversation is wrapping up he says something to the effect of it boggles his mind that he is a less detailed oriented person and messier than me but his toothpaste is clean as a whistle. I am a clean, organized, person but there are a few things in my life that are just a mess like my sock drawer and my tube of toothpaste. I laughed at the sock drawer comment because I know why I do that. It is the perfect amount of ‘controlled chaos’ for me and I like it. The toothpaste though…I don’t try and make it gunky but it usually is that way and I have to clean it up pretty often. So my curiosity was piqued as to why it was messy too.

So I decided to make it a goal of mine (definitely in the frivolous goal category) to keep the toothpaste tube nice and clean. Each time I brushed my teeth I made a conscious effort to leave the toothpaste nice and clean. A week later…it was getting gunky again.

I casually inspected Ryan’s toothpaste and noticed that he doesn’t just flip the lid down, he snaps it on tight, so I tried that. A week later I couldn’t snap the lid tight because it was getting gunky again.

Now it went from curiosity to a mission. So I checked the toothpaste after I put it on and and sure enough it was nice and clean but when I set it down a little toothpaste would come out the top and start building up. A little more trial and error and I discovered the proper way to apply toothpaste if you want to have a gunk free toothpaste tube.

  1. Squeeze the toothpaste to get the toothpaste you want. Then while simultaneously releasing the squeeze on the tube so it will suck the toothpaste down into the tube apply a moderate amount of pressure with the toothbrush while applying the toothpaste so that the bristles scoop out more of the toothpaste and leave a little dip going into the tube instead of a the toothpaste being flush with the opening. Then close the lid tightly. This method has successfully kept my toothpaste gunk free for several weeks. Also, a note is to squeeze from the bottom not the middle of the tube which is different then what I used to do.
  2. Basically, Ryan applies his toothpaste more aggressively so it stays clean. I have a more delicate approach due to the fact I inadvertently try not to touch the bristles when I apply toothpaste to anything except the toothpaste. If you have your own toothpaste either way is fine, but if you share a tube my way is a little more hygienic…until the tube gets gunky.
  3. I successfully achieved my goal (which turned out to be more of a science experiment) and now tend to switch back and forth between my old way and Ryan’s way.

I know it seems like I spent a lot of time and effort on this, but I would like to say I really didn’t. All the thinking and pondering of what to do next occurred during the time I spent applying the toothpaste. I have however spent a lot of time writing this blog about toothpaste.😁

My Blog!

I order the first two volumes of my blog earlier this month and they have arrived! I have a few kinks to work out when I have them printed but for the most part it is pretty awesome. I have about 400 pages of posts and pictures from last year!

The kids read my blog sometimes but they like looking through the book and reading that a little more I think. It’s fun to remember things. Even from a year ago I forget lots of the details. I read what I said about January last year and then this year. It made me laugh that it is almost opposite. What a difference a year can make.

I also need to proof read a little more use the word ‘too’ less. 😁 I’m ready to blog another year though!

Pretty Snow

I am not a big winter person but I enjoy snow while it is falling and the day or so after it is on the ground when it is still pretty and white. I am always impressed with how quiet it is when it snows too, it makes everything seem so peaceful.

Kansas City usually gets 1-2 snow falls a winter of about 1-3 inches. This year has been well above our average. We have had 5 snows so far, 2 of those 6+ inches. The first big one we drove home from South Dakota in at Thanksgiving. It was blowing and not a very ‘pretty’ storm. This past weekend it started snowing giant beautiful snowflakes on Friday evening and they kept floating softly to the ground until late Saturday afternoon. It was a very pretty storm. We ended up getting about 11 inches! It is a nice wet snow so the kids have been making snowmen and snow angels, building forts, having snowball fights, sledding, and having a great time in it. I also really love how the snow sits on top if trees and bushes and looks so pretty too.

Matthew’s First Time at the Temple

In our church we believe that everyone has to be baptized to live with Heavenly Father after we die. Not everyone has that opportunity while they are on the earth so one of the things we do in the temple is act as a proxy for our ancestors that weren’t baptized before they died. Once you are twelve you can do this so we got a babysitter for the girls and Ryan, Matthew and I went to the temple last week. Matthew is a good kid. He has a kind, good heart. It was a nice night with just the three of us. We stopped at Freddy’s afterwards for some ice cream.

  • When we drove up Matthew noticed that the shadows above the windows look like little temples. I thought that was pretty awesome.

Bring on January

When school starts in August there is a steady buildup of energy and activities that comes to a big crescendo with Christmas and New Years (mostly just Christmas). Then January comes and I used to think it was kind of boring. I actually still do think it is boring but it is a nice, peaceful, relaxing boring. If I think about it, January is the only month that there isn’t some big event (New Years is more like the end of December) that requires a bunch of planning and preparation and whatever else. It is a nice refrain before the year starts to ramp up again and takes off with one busy thing to the next. Once Valentine’s Day comes there is a steady stream of holidays, school events, birthdays, vacations, activities, sports, and more until the next January.

So I have been trying to slow down and relax and enjoy the nice things about January, so far it has been working splendidly.

  1. Last little bit of break. The first week of January is usually still Christmas break for the kids. This year we enjoyed it playing games, and doing things around the house. We got all the Christmas things put away. I went through each of the kids rooms with them too and purged them of paper, trash, and whatever else is crammed in there. They don’t really like doing that but I feel amazing once it is done, they all like the end result too. When we were done there were five full trash bags for the garbage man, and two for donating.
  2. Purge my house. I also go through every closet and other room in my house and organize, clean out, get rid of old stuff, broken stuff, do lots of the little things that have been sitting on desks or in drawers waiting to get filed, sewn, fixed, or whatever else. Basically all the things that I haven’t wanted to do but for some reason in January I don’t mind doing. I hate having clutter and stuff laying around, even if it is crammed in a drawer. When you have kids, it is amazing the things you find crammed in drawers. A couple months ago I did some rearranging and Ryan built me some storage shelves in our storage room and I turned it into a little work out room. This month I finished up the floor and getting it set up. Matthew and Alli have both been using it for lifting weights, running, and stretching. I have a few more things I want to add eventually like a punching bag, pull up bar and a few more weight things but it is a handy little room.
  3. Soup weather. I like soups-because they’re good, easy, and easy to have leftovers with. January is a perfect month for cooking soups. We usually just have a few different soups each week. So many choices! This week I made a broccoli cheese soup. With a little hesitation everyone actually ate it without to much fuss and most even dared say they liked it, which always shocks me. However, the next day no one was very willing to have leftovers. I get it though, I think broccoli cheese soup is a bit of a conundrum. It doesn’t look very good and it doesn’t even smell very good, in fact I think it stinks, but it tastes delicious. I even find myself deterred from eating it but once I take a bite it is always so delicious.
  4. Reset. I usually try to re-motivate and re-focus on my goals and our family goals. Our big family one is keeping on track and doing regular family study of the new church curriculum Come Follow Me. We are sticking with our before school reading/study time we have been using since school started. It works really well…when there is school. We need a better plan of attack when there isn’t school. Matthew’s bus route was rearranged for a few days when school started last week and we had to start reading at 6:20. It was a little painful. It has since been switched again and we are back to our 6:45 and we are all much happier.
  5. Try something new. I decided to stop paying for piano for my kids and fighting with them to practice everyday and instead take piano lessons myself. I will appreciate it much more then my kids did. I took lessons in elementary school and have just played fun music since then. I want to work on better technique and timing. I had my first lesson this week and I am already well on my way to being a counting fiend! Ha! I will try and get Allison to play again in a year or two. Matthew will most likely fall into the category of people that regret not sticking with it longer when he is older. I told him I have never met someone that regretted taking piano lessons, but I have met many that regret stopping their lessons. In 20 years when he regrets it, here is my proof. You should have stuck with it.

Here we go!

About six months ago I started mulling over the idea that I wanted to start a blog for our family. I don’t really know much about blogs. I can get by with my computer skills but I’m not the most tech savvy person.  I have friends that I know use it as their family journal/scrapbook and print it out each year, and that is what appeals to me.  When I was about 10ish one of my aunt’s gave me a few scrapbook supplies. I started doing it and really like it. When I got married I kept doing it and created many volumes of books.  Right after I had Matthew I remember thinking, “I might as well pack  all this stuff away for the next 20 years because I will never have time to do this again.” After I adjusted to being a new mom and juggling everything I was able to get back to it.  Three or four years ago I switched over to doing everything online through Shutterfly instead of by hand. It was much easier and faster, and less messy. I love having the books to look through and remember. My kids like them too. I hope someday their kids and so on will enjoy them too. I think a family blog will let me add a little more substance to my books instead of just a brief caption with the pictures, but still have pictures too.  So… here goes the launch of the Terry Family Blog!