Family – Terry Family Shenanigans

July 4th 2026

This year was a special 4th of July, it was the 250th, fourth of July for the United States! There was a lot of cool celebrations. The FIFA World Cup was also hosted by the United States this year and that was fun to watch. None of us are really big soccer fans but since it was in the United States it was everywhere and lots of news and social media about it. I thought is was cool to see the other countries from all over the world coming and posting their impressions of the United States. They were amazed by the sheer size of Walmart, Costco, Sam’s Club, Buccee’s and the quantity of food and options available in them. Unlimited “free” refills on drinks. Air conditioning being available everywhere. Kansas City hosted several games. There are some pictures from the Norway game here that show the roads/sidewalks leading to the stadium being completely full of people in orange for the few hours before and after the game. Argentina played here so we got to have the world famous Messi play in Kansas City. Brazil played here too, so Matthew watched a game from Brazil of his home. He was allowed to watch any of the Brazil games with families watching the games there.

We usually host the fourth at our house and have a BBQ and light fireworks off. This year Allison was in Utah doing a therapy program, and Matthew was in Brazil so I wanted to change it up a little bit and not do our usual thing. Emilee went to a For Strength of Youth (FSY) with a friend the week of the fourth. It was in Columbia Missouri at Mizzou. So I dropped her off at that. A few days later Ryan and I went down to the Lake of the Ozarks and spent a few days with some friends/work colleagues. One of them has a nice boat so we got to ride around the lake one of the days. We stayed at a resort called Margaritaville. On the morning of the fourth we drove to Columbia to pick Emilee up at 7am and then came back to our resort. It was a fun place, they had pools, bowling, restaurants, arcades, shopping, mini golf, lots of fun things to do. And there was supposed to be a lot of cool fireworks that night. We had a late breakfast and then checked out the shops and got ice cream and ended up in the arcade for a while. It was really hot and sunny. After we had been in the arcade for a while the power went off. We made our way to the window and there was a random crazy rain storm that was blowing through. It was like a mini hurricane on the lake. It lasted about an hour but it ripped docks out of their anchor, roofs off building, and knocked down trees that left 40,000 people out of power, including our resort. We walked around a little and there wasn’t much that worked without power- except mini golf. We decided to wait a bit and go to dinner and see if the power would come back on. We found a pizza place far enough away that was still open. After dinner the news was saying it would probably be a few days before most people got power back. We decided instead of staying in a room with no air conditioning, lights, or warm water we would head home and catch the end of the firework shows in our own neighborhood and sleep in our beds that night.

Us in the arcade after the lights went out.

We made it home a little before 10pm and there were still lots of fireworks going off for us to have a good show. Our 4th didn’t turn out the way we thought it would but that seems to be the theme for 2026 so we made the most of it. Maybe next year more of us will be together. Matthew called and we realized that after the fourth he has one more of each holiday until he is home. So next 4th will be the last holiday he misses before he comes home!!

The sunset on our drive home was red white and blue. How appropriate!!

Caribbean Here We Come!

We booked it a little last minute but we decided to squeeze a cruise in for our family Summer vacation. It was a little weird to only have three of the five of us but we still had fun. We let Emilee invite her cousin Lizzie too so she wouldn’t get to bored having all of her parents attention all of the time. 😊😁😉😉

We got a LITTLE closer to Matthew then we are in Kansas.

We flew out on Father’s Day. There was a layover in Nashville and everything was delayed and they switched our seats for no reason, Ryan got a notification his tire on our car we parked at the Kansas City airport was flat, and it was a long exhausting day-but we made it to Florida! We stayed in a hotel that night and the next morning we took an Uber to the port. We flew into Ft Lauderdale because it was cheaper but our boat left from Miami. We ALMOST forgot that and went to the wrong port 🤦‍♀️ but we didn’t and we remembered before we missed our onboarding time. We talked with Allison and Matthew right before we got on the boat. We did the Wonder of the Seas with Royal Caribbean. It is the biggest boat we have ever been on. It was big but it was still pretty easy to get around and didn’t seem like it was to far to places. It was bigger in that it was wider for the most part.

There was a theme night each night and a dance party with the theme every night. I told everyone we didn’t have to go to the dance parties but we had to dress up. The first night was 70’s night. Since we just had Ryan’s bday it was a prefect time to use our costumes again. Ryan’s platform shoes didn’t fit in his luggage but he still fit in. The girls were good sports and wore matching hippie outfits. The other nights were fancy night, white night and Caribbean night. I did not take as many pictures as I meant too. I was going to buy a picture package and get some from the cruise line but I didn’t realize I had to get them before the last day or they were gone. So unfortunately I didn’t get a lot picture memories.

So our first day on the boat we explored, got settled in our rooms and had a fun dinner in our 70’s attire. The second day was at Coco Cay, Royal Caribbean’s private island. We started at the water park. They had a wave pool and a bunch of slides. Ryan went down the first one with us and got a little motion sick so we left him on a beach chair eating ice cream cones and the girls and I went on a few more slides. When we had our fill of that we walked over to the beach and did some snorkeling. That was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. We saw some cool fish, a shipwreck, a stingray that seemed to like Emilee, and some cool plants. The girls played on the beach for a while and we had a relaxing day on the beach until we were ready to go back to the boat.

Our third day on the cruise we were at Nassau. We had been there before so we decided to try something different from our last visit. We went to the Royal Caribbean private beach club. It was pretty nice. There were a couple beaches- the girls spent most of their time there, swimming and playing in the sand. They also had several different pools- party, relaxing, little kids, adult only different options like that. Ryan and I went to the relaxing pool for most of the time. They also had lots of food options that were included so there was always plenty of food to eat. We went back to the boat a little earlier this day to get out of the sun after a few hours. The other cruises we have done have been in winter months. The weather is still nice then but not quite so intense. The middle of summer is pretty darn toasty so we had to go find air conditioning after a few hours.

Our last day on the boat we were at sea floating around. We enjoyed the pools, shows, and activities they had on the boat. Ryan and I got a massage, the girls hung out with some friends they made. We all did a cupcake decorating class together. It was pretty fun. The frosting was so heavy it smashed our cupcakes. The frog turned out pretty cute though. We all passed and got our culinary award!

We got off the boat on Friday at 7am. Our flight was not until 7pm. We had reserved a rental car to drive through the Florida keys until it was time to go to the airport. The car rental place didn’t end up reserving a car for us…they told us we were fourth in line for the cars as they were returned but didn’t know when that would actually be. Dumb. So we went to the airport and got our tickets moved to an earlier flight. It was another exhausting travel day home. We had to run to our flight on the layover but we made it. Ryan’s dad picked us up since our car had a flat. We went back the next day and met the tow truck to get it fixed. By the time we got home we all went to bed and crashed until morning. We had a very fun trip. A cruise is a fun way to see several places and have lots of entertainment options. I’m sure we will do another one sometime.

Summer Kick Off

We kept pretty busy in June. Emilee went to her first Youth Conference. Our church took all the youth to Nauvoo Illinois for a few days. She had not been to Nauvoo since she was three I think so she got to go and this time she will remember it. She said it wasn’t the greatest most fun time, but she did have fun and enjoyed it overall. Our young women and the young women leaders in our ward are pretty awesome. They seem to all get along well and the girls really like the adults.

Bus ride to Nauvoo with Hali Gudjenov and Sister Wickham

Emilee had a little niche in her room that was kind of a waste of space so she asked her dad to build a book case in it. He built it and I painted it and now Emilee has a place for all her books and legos.

I mentioned in a previous post that we had a skunk problem. It started in April…and it was still a problem in June. The people we hired to get rid of them NEVER caught any skunks. They filled their home in and made it so they couldn’t get back in, but then they moved to our bushes and sprayed their stupid skunk smell everywhere. They sprayed somewhere and it smelled so strong it woke me up from a dead sleep at five in the morning one time. I thought it had gotten in the house somehow. It hadn’t but inside and outside of our house smelled like a skunk for a solid week. Instead of wasting more time on animal control not catching them, Emilee and I gave Ryan permission to take care of them on his own. Based on this picture I will let you figure out how he did that. Three weeks later the inside of our house doesn’t smell like skunk-the storage area under the porch did a few times when it rained but it has finally stopped. The outside smells like skunk in two areas that are getting better each time it rains, and there are NO MORE skunks living on our property.

All of us went to Arkansas for a weekend to visit the Torgerson family. Emilee stayed and her and Lizzie went to Sherrie’s for a few days. They seem to get along really well together. They like to do lots of crafts, go swimming, play mindcraft and hangout together. Mimi (Sherrie) took them to a painting place and they did that together one of the days.

Emilee goes in to shock if she doesn’t eat McDonalds at least once a week. This was one of our trips. The FIFA Soccer World cup is going on right now so the toy she got was one of the teams. It happened to be Brasil so she wanted to take a picture to show Matthew. She is also showing him the sad excuse for a ‘small’ fry she got in order to get the Brasil toy. And BTW, I am spelling Brasil the way they spell it in Brasil, not America, so that is not a spelling error. I am sure there are plenty of other spelling errors in my posts that are legit though.

And last but not least for this post. Coco loves that we are home more-I’m only working two days instead of three for the summer, and Emilee doesn’t have school. She has taken care of the house like a champ when we have left her a few times but when we are home she is always willing to cuddle.

Softball Wrap Up

A mom on Emilee’s team coordinated a photographer to come take pictures of the girls. Here are Emilee’s.

This is Emilee’s team before one of their games. One of the umpires has whatever team he is umping for listen to the national anthem before he starts the game. Em is the player with black cleats.

After there season was over most of her team went to a KC Diamond softball game together. It is the first year we have had a professional softball team in KC. The girls got to come early and meet the players and get autographs and hangout on the field for a while. Grandpa Terry came with us. It was a fun evening!

May Stuff

The end of the school year isn’t as chaotic as is was with elementary activities in the mix. We still had some things going on though.

For Mother’s Day I had some yellow and purple tulips on the counter and our beautiful cat ate the purple ones and it looked like used the yellow ones to sharpen her teeth on. Stinker. So Emilee was a sweetheart and made me some paper flowers that so far Coco has inspected, but left alone. I thought they were pretty cool.

Ryan went on a work trip to New York and one of the vendors asked if he wanted to go to a basketball game while they were at dinner one night. Ryan thought he was asking for a future visit and said he would love to. Going to a game at Madison Square Garden to watch the Knicks is a pretty sweet thing to get to do for a basketball fan. The vendor said he would see what he could do and less than an hour later they were heading to the game. Ryan said they got the full NY experience because they arrived a few minutes after the game started and had to crawl over some people to get to their seats (which were pretty good seats as you can see) and the people cussed them out for both offenses.

My big sports moment was at a dental conference I went to with some girls from school. As we were heading to the meet and greet after the first day the Chiefs KC Wolf was walking down the hall and indicated he wanted to take his picture with us.😂😜 Or maybe it was the other way around. Either way, we got a fun picture.

We had a new tenant arrive at our house a little bit ago. We are calling him Jerry. Based on the size of his house he is building under our porch he is pretty big. He is pretty shy so we haven’t seen him but very messy and not really welcome. We called a company to come relocate him to a more hospitable location. They thought Jerry was an award winning giant groundhog. They put a camera and cage up to catch him. Shortly after that we their camera got a picture of shy Jerry and he is not in fact a groundhog. That was two and a half weeks ago. Jerry makes an occasional camera shot but as far as checking out the transportation to his new digs, he isn’t interested in the slightest. It is getting pretty annoying. Hopefully they figure out how to catch him quickly. The Amazon delivery person has no idea how risky they are being when they deliver our early morning packages.

And last but not least, some cute cat pictures featuring Emilee and my lap, two of Coco’s favorite places to be. As I am typing this she is trying to scoot my lap top out of the way and take its place on my lap.

Cat Video

So having a cat is going ok. They are pretty clean and she is great at using her litter box. She sheds so much. That is the hardest part. She can jump where ever she wants too. Both of those things mean I now spend A LOT of time vacuuming and cleaning than I had to before. I am constantly lint rolling my self, the couches, and even the cat. She is sweet and loves to cuddle. Most of the time that is great but sometimes I want 100% me, no other living being in the same room with me time. So I get to go hide in my room instead of the living room. I am her person. If all of us sit on the couch she will come to my lap. She is trying to sit on my hands while I am typing right now and keeps looking at me like I am interrupting her trying to nap on my lap. We think she is losing her hearing a little but other than that she is pretty healthy. I never thought I would have a cat video to share but I have a cat now so that means I will post stupid cat videos.

Coco

A coworker of Ryan’s rescued a cat a few months ago. It was really skinny and had an infection. They shaved her and took her to the vet. It is a girl, she was owned by someone at some point because she has been spayed and declawed. But they either let her go or she got away and was lost. The vet thinks she is about 10 years old. So they named her Coco and brought her home. She has grown her hair back and put on a little weight but they had two other cats and she doesn’t like other cats or dogs. I would guess that since she has been declawed and on her own she can’t really defend herself so she has to bluff and fight with all her might when she was on her own so she goes on the offensive pretty quick. So she was their downstairs cat and the other cats they had lived upstairs. They mentioned that if anyone wanted or knew of someone that wanted a cat they were trying to find one for her. Her hair has grown back and she has put on a little weight but is still pretty skinny.

We weren’t really looking for a pet but the girls are always asking for a dog or cat. I wouldn’t want to declaw a cat, but since she already is, and she is older. I thought she would be a good one to try. We agreed to take her for a few weeks and do a trial run. Just in case one of us was allergic or we decided she wasn’t a good fit. It took about two days and I think all of us were pretty much attached to her. She is a sweetheart. She loves to snuggle and follow you around. They gave us special cat food for her because they said she was throwing up a lot when they got her. She still eats that but we give her chicken and turkey too. She seems to like it and has already put on a little more weight. We have had her for a week and plan on keeping her.

None of us really love the name Coco but we can’t decide on any other name that we all agree on so we call her Coco and a bunch of other ones right now until one sticks.

As you can see she is a great snuggler.

She was crawling over my lap and fell asleep half way off.

Kansas Sunrise

The days are starting to get longer and I get a pretty awesome view of the sunrise when I go to work.

Family Puzzle

My sister DeAnna gave everyone a puzzle for Christmas with our pictures from last Thanksgiving on it. We put it together a few weeks ago. I enjoy doing puzzles, I have never done one with pictures of people I know in it. It made it even more fun! It was a very cute idea!

Wild Life

One of the fun things about our new house is its location is out far enough away from the city that we see lots of wild life. We see lots of animals in the flesh around our house. We also see evidence of them, or hear them, or smell them. Some of the most common ones are deer, coyotes, racoons, opossums, snakes, mice, horses, cows, donkeys, chickens, skunks, and all kinds of birds. I think we have even had a bear wander through our front yard as it was passing through but I am shunned when I say that by certain family members.

I believe one of our regular animals we see has already made an appearance in Terry Family Shenanigans. Thomas the hawk. He likes to perch on the peak of our roof over the back deck and then dive off and catch food when small animals come out of the tall grass into our short grass. The past few weeks he has been around a lot and we have seen him in action. He is beautiful and big. It is hard to say but I bet his wing span in between 3-4 feet. We think he might be a Thomalina instead of a Thomas. There is a very young hawk that has started hanging around too. He looks like a minature version of Thomas and usually perches on the rim of our trampoline net or the rail of our deck. We haven’t gotten any pictures of the new friend yet but we have a few of Thomas. Someday I’ll get out my real camera and stalk him a bit to get some good pictures but we took these really quick when we saw him hunting.

I went to the chiropractor and when I got out of the car I was greeted by these two ducks that were hanging out on the sidewalk. I had never seen them before but I am guessing they are local residents because they had a food and water bowl our for them.

But, the big surprise of a new animal we saw the other day was on our way to Emilee’s softball practice. We were passing a field with a bunch of donkeys in it and Emilee noticed one of the donkeys looked a little different. We don’t know how this guy made it to Olathe Kansas but we hope he is enjoying life with his donkey friends.

2026

Here we go! A new year of experiences, growing, changing, learning, and memories to add to our lives.

Emilee went to Arkansas for the last part of 2025 and spent a few days with her cousin Lizzy. They had a great time and loved getting to be together. She was with them for New Year Eve and we picked her up New Year Day. We hadn’t opened presents yet so when she got home we opened some with her. Our family pajama pants this year were Dr. Pepper pants. Some of us are very big fans of Dr. Pepper. And speaking of things that people are big fans of, Emilee is also a big fan of Bluey…the cartoon for preschool kids…but there is apparently a big following of middle school kids that love it too. She got a pair of Bluey pajama pants for Christmas and she got her dad a pair for Christmas so we had to get that on camera.

A few days after the New Year it was warm enough to practice shooting her bow so we went outside and used the new target she got for Christmas.

Matthew is now in his Black Out Year. It is a term missionaries use for the year of their mission that they are gone from home for the whole 365 days of the year. The crappy part of that is the definition I just gave you. The silver lining is when it is done it will be just a few more months until he comes home. He is doing really well. His Portuguese gets better everyday and he is learning and growing a lot. We are proud of him and excited for the opportunities he is having. He is missed a lot. We went to dinner the other night at Costa Vida where he used to work. He called us while we were there and talked to some of the people he used to work with which he thought was awesome. On the way there we made this video for him so he could hear one of his favorite songs and see some of the Kansas sunset. Allison was in the car with us but didn’t want to be in the video.

Allison is working hard at wrestling. She is doing early morning practices and spends most of her weekends at meets. The most recent meet at Blue Valley North West she took 3rd place. Here is a video of her at a match in Topeka.

Emilee is still doing her weekly riding lesson. She moved to a new barn this year. She is getting pretty good and comfortable on a horse. It is fun to watch her.

Christmas

Our Christmas was a little different this year. Things had to be moved around and done in a different order or way than we had planned. It wasn’t very merry. But we all love and care for each other and we are all working on things that will hopefully help us have a more Merry Christmas next year.

Sunsets and Sunrises

We are lucky to have a pretty good view of the sunrise and sunsets from our house. They are beautiful the whole year but this time of year seems to be extra vibrant and colorful. I came upstairs the other day and the whole upstairs floor of our house was a pretty pink color. I went outside and watched a gorgeous sunset. The pictures have a little more orange look to them, it was actually more pink, but they are still pretty.

This is a sunrise picture I took when I left for work. It gave everything a purple tinge. My camera doesn’t do it justice.

Terry Bell Performance

I bought a set of bells many years ago with the hope that we would have a little family bell group. It didn’t really come to fruition the way I originally envisioned it but every few months or so someone pulls them out and they play a song for something. I love it. A few weeks ago it was Jovee, Emilee and Ethan that remembered them and gave us a performance.

Planes, Boats, and a Baby!

The first weekend after Matthew left I was pretty down in the dumps. Ryan tried to distract me a little bit. There was a Commemorative Airplane Show at an airport near by so we went with some friends to check it out. There were jeeps, helicopters, a museum and a handful of plans from WWII and Vietnam.

Allison went on her annual lake trip with a group of her friends for their friend Olivia’s birthday. This is the third year she has gone.

The Jones family picture that was taken on at Thanksgiving has now become outdated. John and Rachel had their fourth baby, second girl, Johanna. I believe they are going to call her Jojo. She was in the NICU for a few days because her breathing was struggling but she is doing great now.

Allison has been taking drivers education and practicing driving the past year. She recently got her learners permit for driving bumped up to her restricted driver license. That means she can now drive by herself, or with one sibling, to work, church, or school. For her first drive with Emilee to the church for youth night we took these pictures of her backing out. Its kind of hard to see but the first one is Allison crossing her fingers, and the second one is Emilee’s reaction when she saw her doing it. It was pretty funny. Allison did great and everyone got to and from where they were supposed to safely.

Elder Terry

Matthew was set apart Sunday, August 10th. The day before he started home MTC. He gave his farewell talk in sacrament that morning, and was set apart that afternoon. Our church still zoom’s the sacrament meeting for people that can’t be there in person but want to listen, so we were able to send the link to family that was far away to watch if they wanted too. I was planning on recording it, but new I would probably forget so I asked Emilee to record it for me. I did forget until about half way through so I was glad she did it for me. A few of his friends from high school that hadn’t left for college yet came and listened to his talk. I think he did a great job. I am proud of him and excited for him.

Monday, August 11th Matthew started the MTC (Missionary Training Center) at home through online zoom meetings. August 11th is the day our family has always remembered Aaron. I think it is pretty special and not a coincidence that Matthew started his mission on the same day Aaron returned to heaven and started his mission there.

Home MTC is a little rough, its is several 3 hour long online zoom meetings and studying with your companion for several more hours each day. Day one was fun to start meeting people and exciting that your mission is actually starting. His first companion is Elder Stewart (not sure if that is how he spells it though). He did a year of college at a military college in Colorado. They are a good pair. I am writing this a few weeks after they met but they seemed like a good fit from the beginning. By day two he was already getting a little stir crazy. It is hard to focus for three hours but on a zoom call it is even harder. We tried to take him out of the house for lunch. I tried to be around on his breaks to give him someone to interact with in person. We played games after family dinner. Campbell came over most evenings to hangout. It was a little awkward for them because Matthew is supposed to follow all the mission rules so he was trying to keep it friendly. Campbell knew but still wanted to sit close and snuggle. Matthew handled it with pats on the back and lots of pacing and walking around while he talked with her. A little awkward.

Overall, it is a good transition for starting a mission. He is still home so I get to ease into him leaving, and he gets to ease into following the rules and getting on the missionary schedule. After a week of it though, he was itching to get to the real MTC. I imagine the process will be the same for the MTC, excitement and adjusting at first, then going crazy and ready to get to your actual mission by the time the five weeks are up.

He flew out Tuesday, August 19th. He flew by himself to Atlanta Georgia. In Atlanta, he thought he would meat up with about 20 missionaries and fly to Sao Paulo. I found out later it was more like 60. That would be cool to see 60 missionaries getting on a plane together. There was no communication with us about his flight and meeting other people. As far as I knew he was flying the whole way by himself. He wasn’t supposed to take his phone with him, so that meant I had no way to see if he was where he was supposed to be or for him to communicate with anyone if there was a change or problem with flights, or if he even made it to his final destination. That bothered me a lot. I told him he had to take his phone and he could turn it off once he got there. Matthew is a rule follower so he didn’t want to take his phone. After several discussions and not coming to an agreement, Ryan told Matthew that even Jesus broke a rule when his mom asked him to do something so he had to take the phone. Matthew didn’t like it but being the sweet respectful son he is, he grudgingly agreed. However, when he found out there were at least a dozen other missionaries meeting him in Atlanta, I felt much better. Normally I wouldn’t be to comforted having to rely on a think tank of a dozen teenagers, but knowing if there was a problem, or missed flight, he wouldn’t be completely alone I felt a lot calmer about sending him off to a foreign country with no phone. I told him I was ok with him not taking his phone, but I was putting an air tag in his carryon luggage so I could at least see where he was.

Dropping him off at the airport is one of the hardest days of my life. A piece of my heart literally walked away, waved at me one last time through the security gate and will be gone for the next two years. Somehow I am supposed to carry on like everything is great. I don’t even want to write about how hard its been. Just. Hard.

Campbell said goodbye at the house before we left for the airport.

Ryan tried to get a video of some hugs for me to watch while he was gone, Allison ruined it. I am angry about it but I am still keeping the video.

The air tag in his luggage was a life line for me. I really appreciated being able to know he made it to Atlanta, and then Sao Paulo, and then the MTC. It helped me a lot. Once he made it to the MTC they gave him a phone and he texted to say he made it, the flight was horrible and ask if he packed any temple clothes. It was the best text ever. The MTC sent us a picture of everyone together to let us know they arrived too.

First picture from the mission, arriving at the MTC

I am going to tag all the missionary posts I write while he is gone and then when he gets home I can print them all into a book for him. This is the first post. Only 23 1/2 months to go.

Matthew’s Last Pre-Mission Days

When we got back from Gulf Shores, that meant it was just a few days, eleven to be exact until Matthew started his mission. Just like the Summer they flew by way to fast.

Matthew went through the temple on August 2nd. It was a special day. He had the Terry, Jones, and Torgerson grandparents, and his aunt and uncles-Dave, Jen, Ross and Lauren come with him along with us. Bishop Sirois also came. When I went through the temple for the first time it was a little overwhelming and I wasn’t very well prepared. Matthew said he thought it was exactly what he was expecting it to be. I was very impressed and grateful for the Covenant Prep class, and Bishop Sirois’ personal temple prep class he did along with us to help Matthew be prepared and understand more about what he was committing to do before he went.

We got there a little early and took some pictures outside. They make a plaque for each missionary with their picture, a favorite scripture of theirs and where they are serving their mission. Matthew wanted his picture for his plaque to be at the temple with the Brazil flag.

When we were done, we all took a group picture together outside and then went to lunch together at a Greek restaurant called Meddi’s.

The last week was pretty busy. The girls were getting ready for school. We did some last minute shopping to make sure everyone had everything they needed for school or the mission. Nadia and a few of her brothers-Jesse and Alex- came up to spend a few days. Matt had one last night with his high school friends before most of them left for college. We just tried to cram as many ‘one last time’ things in we wanted to do with Matthew. Most of them revolved around what he wanted to eat. Ryan grilled lots of steak-specifically picanha. Our family went to a Brazilian steak house called Fogo de Chao with Grandpa Terry and Campbell. One of the favorite meats we had there was picanha, so we got some to grill on our own a few nights afterwards. We had lots of Costa Vida and K-macho’s. Matthew really loves food. One of our last Sunday dinners with the Terry’s we did a root beer tasting contest. Matthew, dad and the girls went golfing together. There was also a lot of just following Matthew around, especially from me. Probably driving him crazy but he didn’t show it. He let me sit by him, hug him and talk with him as much as I could. We went to a couple missionary welcome homes too. His buddy Bret Sawaya came home from Brazil, and Tanner Lewis came home from Saratoga Utah.

We tried to make the most of it. I know I am going to miss Matthew A LOT, we all will. He is a big piece of our family and two years is a long time. This past year, I have tried to enjoy all the memories we have made and not focus on it being ‘the last’ or focusing on the sad part of that. I wanted to enjoy the moments and remember them as happy, not crying or sad about it meaning we were getting closer to him leaving everyday. I did pretty good and we made lots of great happy memories. When it got to about a month out, it started to get a little harder to do that. The last few days in August, I was pretty weepy. I still tried to push it off the sad part until later but it broke through more than I wanted. It is a surreal thing to have a child leave. It was like a real of his life going on in my head every time I look at him. I remember the first time I saw and held him, I could not believe we just left the hospital with a baby that was ours to keep forever. I remember him rolling around like a bowling pin learning to sit, then walk, then playing hide-n-seek, and watching Mickey Mouse Club house and laughing himself to tears about Goofy’s stinky shoes. I asked him on his 6th birthday if he would stop getting older and he said with all seriousness that he would do his best but he didn’t know how. Over the next few years I would remind him to stop growing up and he gave the same answer until he finally told me he wasn’t going to be able to but he will always give me hugs and love me. Countless trips to the zoo, learning all about animals. Hundreds of baseball games, basketball, football, racing his dad each year on his birthday. Thousands of memories. Its been 18 years, almost 19 now, but it really feels like no time at all. The hardest part of his mission I think for me will be not physically being with him and able to hug him for two years. Ugg, that is such a long time. It wasn’t perfect but I think we were able to be present in the moment and enjoy Matthew and the last few days with him as much as we could.

Terry Family Pictures

The whole Terry clan was here in July. It will be a few years at least before that will be possible again so we took the opportunity to update the family pictures.

I think I have the ages right on the individual pictures, the younger ones I might be off by a year. 😊

Summer Family Vacation and Allison’s 15th Birthday!

It was a little last minute but we decided to work in one more family vacation before Matthew left. He loves the heat and the ocean so we decided to go with Gulf Shores.

Our traditional family vacation picture ❤

We left on a Friday afternoon. The Torgerson’s were in Branson at Silver Dollar City so we drove to them and spent the evening with them and doing as many rides and roller coasters as we could. After we ended the night watching the drone/firework show (which was pretty cool) we stayed in a hotel near by and then left early the next morning to get to Gulf Shores.

We headed to the beach once we got to Gulf Shores, it was great weather and the waves were really nice, but unfortunately they were having one of their worst peak jellyfish seasons. It was a bit of a bummer. We played in the water a little bit, we all got a little sting here and there but Emilee got a pretty bad sting on her arm and neck. They were sea nettles which are not lethal but extremely painful. She was mad, frustrated, sad, and hurt all at once. After that we waded in the waves and stuck pretty close to the beach instead of the water. We played catch and enjoyed relaxing but we didn’t get to spend as much time on the beach as we hoped.

We spent the next few days relaxing and enjoying each others company. We went to the movies, a waterpark, played lots of games, Matthew, Ryan and Emilee went golfing, we swam in the pool, went shopping, did icee runs at the gas station and got ice cream at our usual spot. It used to be called Matt’s Ice Cream but they changed the name to Sweet Cone. We liked the first name better for obvious reasons.

Ryan took this picture to make fun of me for wearing a sweatshirt in July-but I was nice and warm in the movie theater so jokes on him.

We drove home on Allison’s birthday which isn’t very fun for her so we let her pick our activity the night before we left. She went with a 3D glow in the dark dinosaur miniature golf. It was pretty fun! I think Emilee lost but the score card showed that I lost.

We got home around 10pm on Allison’s birthday. Happy 15th birthday! Her presents were at Grandma Terry’s along with her guinea pigs so we stopped there first and brought them home with us so she could open them. Friday we did her birthday cake and she went swimming with a friend. Sunday we had more birthday cake with all the family in town-including Grandma and Grandpa Jones who were here to visit. And on Monday she went to brunch with some friends and then they hung out at our house for the day. So we spread it out over a few days but she still had some good birthday celebrating.

I asked her to smile and this is what she gave me.

Summer Pictures

This is last Summer but I wanted to make sure it is in one of my books. This is from our back porch. I love our view and seeing the beautiful sky.

We went to a karaoke bar for Ryan’s birthday. They had a band playing for part of the night and the friends we were with had them announce happy birthday to Ryan. He was thrilled and loved getting to sing-If I Had A Million Dollars.

I got these pretty flowers for my porch but they blooms only lasted like a day and I kept cutting the dead ones off every morning and was frustrated they didn’t last very long. Then somewhere in the cobwebs of my brain I remembered that some flowers close up at night and then open in the day. So I waited a little longer and then went out and checked them and sure enough they had opened and looked beautiful! I’m glad I remembered before I cut off perfectly good flowers all summer.

Allison went on a youth temple trip.

Found this sign above a drinking fountain in Emilee’s softball facility. It is now one of my favorite quotes to share with my children.

Emilee went to her first church girls camp and had a great time. The food was ‘tolerable’ the weather was 80’s-AMAZING, the cabins were air conditioned and there was a lot of fun activities!

Bucket List

We didn’t make an official summer bucket list like we used to when the kids were younger but we had a few things that Matthew wanted to do that we made sure got worked in.

One was an awesome 4th of July, which we did. Awesome overalls and all. Visiting grandparents in Florida. Watching all the new summer movies. Eating lots of Costa Vida food. Things like that.

Ryan’s family was here at the beginning of July. We went to Lake Olathe with cousins while they were here. There is a small beach area to swim and a blow up water obstacle course. We usually go once a summer and Matthew specifically mentioned wanting to do it. We were there for a little over an hour before we got rained out but Matthew said it counted.

We usually do at least one if not several family Royals games. We worked that in right after the fourth. The Royals won and they hit 4-5 home runs, that always makes it an exciting game.

All the cousins played games inside and out. Matthew and Ethan organized a game of whiffle ball. That was fun to watch. We had lots of family meals, eating is one of Matthew’s favorite activities so he loves a family meal. We did smores’ a few times in Grandpa Terry’s firepit and caught fireflies.

The older cousins found a place to hide from the younger ones for a bit and play a game against each other on their phones.

Matthew was set apart as an Elder in our church and got the Melchizedek priesthood. That was one of the things he needed to do to go on his mission. His Dad, Grandpa Terry, Bishop Sirois, and Uncle Kris and Uncle Ross were able to set him apart. Kris was wearing a tie but took it off before I took the picture and I wasn’t patient enough to let him put it back on. There have been several times this summer that I just look at Matthew and feel so proud of him and thankful to him for setting a good example and being a good person. He is very kind and inclusive to everyone around him.

Playing some baseball was of course on the bucket list. There wasn’t as much as we usually put into a summer but we attended several tournaments. The team did pretty good. Everyone had fun and enjoyed it. A lot of the team is going to keep playing in college but several are done so it was time for them to enjoy their team and have fun playing ball. Matthew has played with some of them since 5th grade. Their banter with each other on and off the field is fun to see. Their last tournament was in mid-July. Matthew was in a little bit of a hitting slump but he turned it around and had some great last games. He had a triple, a few doubles, a home run, and for the very last game to win the whole tournament- he scored the walk off run. 😜🤷‍♀️ Kind of a silly way to win a tournament, but we will take it. The video is a few videos of their final huddle and walk out to the field and then the last 10 minutes or so of the game, starting with Matthew’s last at bat.

And not on the summer bucket list but worthy of mentioning is saving this little guy-only about 2 inches big- we found him wandering on our sidewalk while we were doing yard work one day. Emi and I walked him over to the creek by our house and put him in it. Hopefully he is living a happy life there.

July 4th Celebrations!

Way back in January or February, Ryan found a fourth of July outfit that he ordered for me and him to wear on the 4th. He was pretty excited about it. It was overalls with the flag on it. He wanted to be festive and over the top. A few weeks before the 4th Matthew sent me a link on his phone and asked if I would help him order an outfit he wanted to wear for the 4th. It was the same overalls! Ryan was delighted, he thought it was hilarious and was very excited. When the day arrived Ryan shaved his beard and left a gross mustache and they both decided to go shirtless to make it as red-neck as they could. It was pretty funny. We went to the firework booth to get our fireworks and there was a teenage girl there wearing the same outfit. She looked pretty embarrassed that we were all wearing the same outfit she was. We had a BBQ lunch at our house and lots of Ryan’s family, some of Lauren’s, and a few friends of ours came. Fourth of July has always been one of our favorite holidays, we did it in Nebraska for years and then had to tone it down when Roger and Rhonda moved here until we had a place we could light fireworks off again. The kids love the cousin time and always look forward to it. I don’t know how much longer it will be like we are used to but it was a fun time this year!

We got three years of fireworks to make sure Matt got his fill to last the next few times he won’t be here for the 4th.

Arkansas Family

Right before the 4th before Matthew and Emilee got back from Florida, the rest of us went to Arkansas. All of Sherrie and Dave’s kids were there and we to celebrate the 4th and they wanted to take a family picture…so we kind of ruined it by not bring all of our kids, but we didn’t know about it until they were already going to be gone. So we did our best. We got some great pictures, and it was nice to see everyone. We haven’t gotten to know Austin and Giselle and their families as well because they live in Utah. We are getting to know everyone better and better though and it is nice to spend time with them.

Summer Kick Off

Memorial Day weekend usually feels like the kick off to Summer for us. This year is was cold and rainy, so it was a bit of a ‘waawaa’ kick off but it was still Summer! The first few weeks were unusually cool and lots of rain, it wasn’t really hot until almost the end of June, we still squeezed in fun stuff.

Allison started her Summer with Girl Scout Day camp. She was a youth leader again this year so they had a few sleep overs in addition to just the day camp that the younger girls do. The theme this year was the Lorax from Dr Suess and Allison kept her streak of winning the swap award for her creative swaps she makes. They recommend bring 10-20 swaps. Allison always makes about 100 and this year she came home and made more because people were seeking her out wanting her swaps and she ran out.

After GS camp, she had a wrestling camp that she did. then she was off to Florida for a few weeks to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa Jones. They love having her and she loves going.

When she got back from Florida, her and Leah had a Creative Camp for kids age 4-12 that they planned and did together. They did a really good job. They had 10 kids sign up and their crafts were pretty awesome. I was impressed with their organization and planning and carrying the whole thing out. They are both really great with kids.

Emilee has been reading, hanging out with friends and swimming as much as she can. She started the Summer by going to Arkansas and spending the week with her cousin Lizzy at her house and then a few days at Mimi’s house. They have a pool in their back yard so they love being able to swim whenever they feel like it. She has been playing softball. She did a rec team this year, and quickly decided that she would rather do a competitive team again so we signed her up for tryouts in July.

When she got back from Arkansas she had horse camp for a week. She still enjoys it but she is becoming a fair weather horse rider. If it is to hot or to cold she would rather pass. We will see how much longer she is interested in it.

Shortly after Allison got back from Florida, her and Matthew headed out and spent a week there. She loves going to Florida too. Grandma makes them all kinds of yummy foods, stays up late watching shows and movies, and takes them swimming and to fun places around Tampa. Kenny and Sherri visited for a few of the days while Matt and Emilee were in Florida so they got to see them and spend time with cousins too. Matt kicked Sherri’s butt in pickle ball a half dozen times and then she made him play her left handed and ended up beating him by a hair. She talks about beating him in pickle ball now…but doesn’t mention the first 6 games.😂😉

Matthew has been enjoying his Summer before he heads to Brazil on his mission. We have been getting all his clothes and supplies that he is supposed to bring gathered together. His friends Carter left on his mission at the end of June so they spent as much time hanging out, playing games, eating Costa Vida, and fishing as they could. He has done some odd jobs for people to earn a little money, been a huge help in getting the girls to and from their activities, and playing some baseball.

Allison acting like she hates Matthew driving her around while he sings at the top of his lungs, but secretly loves it and will miss it when he is gone.

His FBC team decided to do a handful of tournaments this Summer. We didn’t think they would but enough of them were around for the Summer that it ended up working out. His competitive team is way more fun than high school, it has been fun to see them playing together and having a good time. Coach Jimmy has been his coach since 5th grade. He has spent hundreds of hours coaching and practicing. He has been an amazing coach.

He also loves going to Tampa to spend time with the grandparents. He has a fishing pole he keeps at their house and they have a lake right by them so he can literally walk out the front door and fish anytime he wants. Grandma keeps a steady supply of ice cream and other treats for him too.

June has flown by. This summer is going way to fast, and I don’t think it is going to slow down. We are trying to make the most of it and enjoy every minute together before Matt leaves.

Thomas

There is a hawk that hangs out around our house a lot. We love it because he is cool to watch and because he eats the animals I don’t want around my house. The girls named him Thomas a while ago. Last week when we would come home he was often perched on the peak of our roof above our back deck. He looked like a giant weather vane. It was rainy so he even had his wings open because he was all wet.

One of the mornings I woke up and looked out my bedroom window and found Thomas looking back!

Celebrations!

Ryan and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary this year. Ryan had some hotel points built up so we decided to do a quick weekend get away to Nashville. We stopped there one night on our way home from Florida a few years ago and really liked it and have wanted to go back since.

He booked an awesome hotel with a roof top pool and we planned to set by the pool all weekend and relax and soak up the sun and then check out Broadway at night and listen to amazing live music.

We left Thursday evening after work. The girls stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Terry for the weekend and Matthew went on a senior retreat for his Covenant Prep class he has been taking Sunday afternoons. We drove about half way and then finished Friday morning. The hotel was amazing. The pool was gorgeous. But it rained. The. Entire. Weekend. Ugh. That was a little disappointing. But we found other things to do. We brought some games and actually went up to the pool and played for a while on the covered patio part. It was chilly and raining but we could see the pool.😜 We found lots of great live music and food. Our hotel had a different musician each night. Broadway had tons of options. There is live music everywhere in Nashville. We walked by a Taco Bell and they had a live band playing, in the Taco Bell. Despite the rain we still had fun. We both said we would come back and stay in the same place again, just later in the Summer so there was less chance of rain. We drove home Sunday and arrived in time to see the kids for a few hours before bed Sunday night. They missed us so much and were glad we were home.😉

The weekend after we got home from Nashville was Mother’s Day. I was feeling a little more emotional and sentimental this year because it is the last one before Matthew leaves. On my way to church I was reminiscing about how when the kids were in primary they would always sign a song at church on Mother’s Day. When church started they announced that for a special surprise the youth would be doing the sacrament program. Several of them did musical numbers, and several gave talks-including Matthew- that were all really good and very thoughtful. Then, all the youth sang a song together which meant all three of my kids were singing a song on Mother’s Day just like they did when they were younger. I was bawling like a baby. The primary kids came up and sang a duet with the youth so they even sang two songs. I loved it. It is the last time that will probably ever happen and I soaked it in.

After church Ryan smoked some pulled pork and Grandma and Grandpa came over and spent the afternoon with us. It was very relaxing and I really enjoyed it. I even had some time in the hammock while everyone played catch together in the yard. I am really glad that I have been blessed to be a mom to my kids. I am not the best but I love them and I hope they know that. They are pretty special. It really is scary how fast the years go by and they grow and change.

Ryan snuck a picture of them singing together for me while I was busy crying. 💖

Emilee had a celebration for the end of the school year. It was a family picnic day. Dad and I had work and didn’t have enough notice to take it off, but Matthew saved the day. He was done with school already so he took Emilee some Chipotle and ate lunch with her. I told him to send us a picture of their picnic…this is what we got.🤦‍♀️ Emilee thought it was awesome that he came and ate with her though. Probably thought it was cooler than if dad or I had come.

Easter Family Picture

Easter was really nice this year. After church we had dinner with Ross and Lauren’s family and Roger and Rhonda. We usually take a family picture at the church before we leave, we forgot this year so we did it when we got home. Someone didn’t want to but did it anyway.

Spring Break

March brought us a semi chilly Spring Break this year. We decided to go and see some family for part of our break. Ryan had some work and his annual man trip with his mission buddies to work around our break. Matthew had some baseball games and practices to work around.

So, Friday, the girls and Ryan left for Arkansas to see the Torgerson family. My girls really like spending time with there cousins down there so they were packed and ready to go the second they got home from school. There was a pretty bad storm passing through. Ryan joked that he was more scared of telling the girls we had to wait for the storm then driving through the storm. So he braved the weather and it ended up not being to bad and they made it Friday night. Matthew and I followed them and arrived in Arkansas early Saturday afternoon. We played games, visited, went to Top Golf, went shopping, played outside, went to church with them on Sunday, and enjoyed their company. They are a very easy family to spend time with. I enjoy getting to know them better each time we see them.

Monday morning, Ryan left for home for a few meetings he had for work before leaving for Vegas on Tuesday evening. The kids and I left Arkansas and headed to Dallas to see Sherri and her family. We played games, hit all the cookie spots, drink spots, and ice cream spots, watched movies and hung out. Tuesday morning we got up a early and went to a drive through safari. It was all enjoyable but the giraffes were a hit. They were hungry and had no problem using there giant lips and tongue to search out the food they new we had. One of them took the whole bag from Matthew and ate it with the food inside.

Matthew had baseball games Thursday morning so we left Dallas Wednesday morning and spent the day on the road. The games were pretty chilly, down right frigid, but the sun did come out so it seemed not as bad. Friday and Saturday were relax at home days and catch up on ‘all the things’ that pile up. Ryan got home Sunday and he and I both went back to work Monday, but for some reason the kids had one more day of Spring Break so they got to sleep in and be lazy an extra day. It was a nice Spring Break. Its nice to see family and have some new experiences with them.

Valentine’s Day

Emilee told me several weeks in advance that she was excited to see what she was getting for Valentine’s Day this year. She loved waking up and seeing what was on the counter for her. So, I took her hint and did the same thing this year. I just leave them a little note with a small gift for each of them. Emilee also mentioned she was specifically looking forward to the candy because the girl has the biggest sweet tooth I have ever seen. I don’t love just giving them a bunch of candy but I did include a treat for them too.

Ryan gave me the flowers. He took me on a date to a new Mediterranean restaurant I had never had before called Meddy’s. It was very yummy. We came home and watched the next episode in the show we are hooked on right now called Severance and then we were going to go country dancing but since we had come home and settled on the couch we decided we were good for the night and saved that for another day.

Super Bowl

Well the Chiefs made it to the Super Bowl AGAIN! It is a lot more fun to watch a Super Bowl when your team is in it. We had a family party again and all got together to watch it. Ross and Lauren brought a big balloon arch they used at their gym the day before. That made it festive and fun. Allison and Leah made lots of football themed treats and Ryan, Ross and Roger made lots of food to eat. In the past we have watched it upstairs but we decided to go downstairs this time and watch on the big TV. And I am now told that because we switched up our routine and didn’t do things exactly like we have done in the past we are a contributing factor to why they had one of the worst losses the Chiefs have ever had. It was awful. It put a bit of a damper on the party- that is a downside to having your team in the Super Bowl, if they don’t win, its like handing out a turd at the end of a fun party. Several of us just quit watching, Matthew disappeared into his room for a while. It is the last Chiefs game he will watch for a few years so he took it personally that they lost. Definitely not how we wanted it to go, someday, probably the next day, life will go on. Hopefully we do better next year!

Matt arrived home from a church meeting and was excited to go put on his Chiefs jersey.

2025 Begins!

January was a typical January this year. There were a lot of social media comments and jokes about how January is a 12 years long, never ends and the most miserable month of the year. I don’t think that. February seems longer to me, ironic since it is the shortest month of the year. I get why people struggle though. It is a long cold and dreary month. I am ready for the calm boringness after several months of go go go with the holidays. We had a few things that spiced the month up though.

RJ and Dani decided we should all go to a show together at the Kaufmann Center downtown. They had never been and it had been a long time for us. We all went to Chicago together. I had seen the movie, never the play. I think the play was a lot better. It was a nice adult date night down town. Allison watched their son and dogs overnight at their house and Matthew and Emilee watched each other so we stayed downtown and used hotel points after the show. It was nice to not have to drive all the way home afterwards.

The following weekend was Ryan’s works holiday party. They rented out a speak easy under the KC Hotel downtown with a roaring twenties theme. It was pretty fun, everyone dressed up and had a good time. We were going to stay in the hotel that night too but mid week Ryan got sick and we didn’t know if we were going to be able to go or not so we canceled it just in case. Luckily he was better and we got to go. It is a pretty fun hotel but I didn’t mind coming home since we had stayed downtown the weekend before. I was talking to the new marketing person Ryan just hired and her spouse. They seemed really familiar and eventually we figured out that they come to my office for dental work, so they reason they looked familiar is because I have cleaned their whole families teeth for the past few years. LOL. Small world. There were some group pictures taken but I didn’t get any copies so I just have the pictures of Ryan and I. I thought we looked pretty good, Emilee thought we looked silly but she clearly doesn’t know how people dressed in the 20’s. Our costumes came with fake cigarettes but we decided to not carry those around all night.

The next weekend we had Grandpa Terry’s 73rd birthday to celebrate! Every year he says he just wants a very simple meal for his birthday dinner with everyone. This year he said he wanted tacos, Ross said that was boring and made chicken fajitas instead. They were very good… I think Roger enjoyed them and ended up being ok with the switch. Rhonda made him a carrot cake-she makes a very good carrot cake-and he blew out all the candles successfully. The Terry family has decided we are going to continue with the decades old tradition of blowing out the candles on a birthday cake despite COVID trying to do away with it. It is kind of gross if you think about it, but we have all survived this long. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ I do not have a clue why Allison is holding a candle up in an orange for him to blow out too-I would guess either an inside joke or she didn’t want to eat cake for wrestling reasons and was including her orange in the celebration.

And last but not least for January-for part of the kids Christmas present Ryan got tickets to the Chiefs playoff game…if they made it. Of course they made it to the playoffs. We have gone to the super bowl 6 times in the last 7 years and will probably go again this year. He had four tickets. I was fine with not going because if I watch the game I prefer to do it in the warmth of my living room. IT WAS COLD! Allison had some wrestling stuff she didn’t want to miss so she passed her ticket onto Matthew’s friend Carter. So Emilee, Carter, Matthew and Ryan braved the weather and went to the game. We won and it was a fun game. No one lost any toes or fingers to the cold. The Chiefs hold the record for loudest stadium in the NFL and Emilee said she believes it. She had a fun time with her dad and brother. Next we have to try for a three win in a row at the Super Bowl!

That’s A Wrap- 2024

The week between Christmas and New Years day it very unique. I love it. Ryan and I usually take it off and of course the kids are out of school. There is no structure. You bounce back and forth between constructive activities, and wasting time. There is no time. You don’t know what day it is. It doesn’t matter because there is no schedule, no demands. If there is something scheduled it most likely will be forgotten. Sometimes you go to bed at 8pm. Sometimes it is 2am. Sometimes you shower and get dressed for the day, sometimes you don’t. I get to be my true introvert self and rarely leave the house. A lack of a plan is the plan. We love it.

We had lots of relaxing, family time activities. The Bourne’s were at Grandma’s all week so my girls spent most of their days playing with them. The weather wasn’t to bad so they even went to the park a few times and got to be outside. I took them to the church one afternoon to play in the gym and draw on the giant chalk boards.

Grandpa Terry, Emilee and Jovee all gave talks on Sunday. We had a family dinner with everyone at our house afterwards to celebrate getting to go to three sacraments. Lots of games were played and football was watched. I caught Ryan getting a little extra snuggle time in with Emilee while he explained something about football rules to her.

Becky invited me to go to a paint class with her so we filled one of our afternoons painting a winter sunset scene. I really like painting. I never know what to do with it when I’m done, it is not good enough to hang up anywhere. It is a fun thing to do and I like learning the techniques and creating things.

Ryan and I worked on some projects together. He made some awesome shelves for my holiday decoration boxes. I can now take one at a time out without having to restack or take other boxes out of the way. I LOVE IT. I went through all my decorations and storage stuff and organized it and cleaned it out. So satisfying. We got a new security system that Ryan installed too. We live far enough away from people that there aren’t that many people but not far enough that I don’t think a weirdo wouldn’t wander by. Ryan got a dart board for Christmas so we hung that up and put a frame around it to help protect the wall a little from wayward darts.

We celebrated New Years Eve at our house with all the Terry Family. We had lots of food and yummy treats. We watched movies, played games, ate and visited while we passed the time away until midnight. I made a balloon drop with confetti for the kids to pull down when we got to midnight.

https://youtu.be/v5mnrlAsQ8E?list=PLBwkO01uWtw9DJu2WA-l0-1CZ6EuoK5Kl

It was a fun night to celebrate the last day of the year and the starting of a new one. It is pretty crazy to look back over a year and see and the things that happened and how things changed. It is weird how things change and don’t change at the same time. I think 2024 was good to us. We had some good times and made new memories together. No broken bones. I waited until 2025 had started before I typed that. We are not perfect but we are blessed and grateful for our good health and the comfortable lives we all have. There is a lot of crazy stuff going on in the world right now and we are mostly untouched by it. 2025 will bring a new chapter into our families lives. The foremost in my mind is Matthew will graduate and is planning on going on a mission and the dynamics of our family will shift from how we have known them for the last 18 years. For the last picture of this edition of my blog I thought I would put this picture. I wish I had one of our whole family doing this but this one will work. Ciao 2024

Christmas

It was Ryan’s families year for Christmas. The Bourne’s came from Idaho and the Ross and Ryan families are already here. The Lee’s couldn’t make it.

Christmas Eve we spent most of the morning cooking a preparing the meal. We had ham and cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, jello salad, and Ryan smoked a brisket. It was all very delicious. We ate dinner around 4pm. After dinner and pie and cookies for dessert, the cousins continued to play and have fun together. Some of us watched a movie and played games or took a nap. When everyone was rested and not stuffed from dinner anymore we had a little family gathering. Emilee, Jovee and Tyler started us off by sharing a little thought they each wrote about what Christmas means to them and what some of their favorite parts about Christmas are. Then most of the grandkids shared some kind of talent. We had several piano numbers, a flute, a trumpet, dancing, and even a little acrobatics. Grandpa then gave us a Christmas message and we all had a family prayer together.

Later that night when we got back to our house we opened our Christmas Eve PJ’s and did any last minute wrapping and headed to bed.

Christmas morning we plan for 6:30am at the earliest to wake up for presents. The kids have the option to sleep in longer if they want but so far they have not taken us up on the offer. This year Allison woke us all up at 6:30 sharp with excited cheering that it was Christmas morning. The kids wait at the bottom of the stairs until we get into the living room and then they come up and we start opening presents.

Matthew got some golf clubs and a guitar. He pretty recently decided that he wants to learn the guitar. It isn’t the piano but I’ll take it. Allison wanted lots of clothes and some fancy head phones. Emilee wanted some lego sets to put together and she is currently collecting palm pals and had a list of those she wanted. I didn’t do a very good job of taking pictures this year. Here are the few I did remember to take. Last year we did a scavenger hunt for the kids for the family gifts. They seemed to like it so we did it again this year. The family gift was tickets for one of the Chiefs play off games in January. It will be a fun family event! I’ll post more about it after they go to the game.

After we opened presents and ate breakfast and chilled for a little bit, we went back over to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. We opened more presents there with them and then the Chiefs played at noon so everyone came over to our house to watch the game. We ate snacks and leftovers, played games and hung out together.

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

December was just lovely. It flew by really fast but it wasn’t chaotic and out of control with to much going on. It was perfect.

We made treats, did puzzles, listened to music, looked at lights, drank hot chocolate, did toys for tots and the giving tree, wrapped presents, watched Christmas movies, went to Christmas parties, celebrated with family and friends. It was an awesome month.

Allison had another wrestling match. It was an away meet so we didn’t go but someone recorded it for us. Spoiler alert-she wins! I finally figured out how to combine her videos so we can watch all her matches for a meet in one video.

https://youtu.be/IAO7dOd16K4?list=PLBwkO01uWtw9DJu2WA-l0-1CZ6EuoK5Kl

Ryan and I went on a brief overnight date to downtown Kansas City. He gets a free weekend night as a perk through his Hilton credit card so we usually use it in December. We went with our friends Dani and RJ. We booked a few reservations at some of the Christmas pop up places they have for appetizers, dinner, and dessert and had a nice relaxing night with lots of visiting.

Christmas was on a Wednesday this year. The kids finished school the Friday before and Ryan and I had our last day of work on Monday. Then we had the next week off to celebrate Christmas, New Years and enjoy being lazy, and getting things done around the house that we wanted to. Ryan built some shelves for all the decorations in our storage room. I haven’t taken down all the Christmas decorations yet so I will wait to take a picture when its all packed away and finished. He installed a new security system around our house. I was in my purging our house of things that we don’t need anymore and customizing/organizing a few areas. I did Ryan and my closet, the pantry, and the storage room- which like I said is now just waiting on the Christmas decorations. We played games with the kids and hung out. There is a touch of a sad note for me this year because it will be the last Christmas before our kids start leaving the house and we start tip toeing into a new era in our lives. That is another reason I really wanted to soak everything in as much as possible.

It’s Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime!!!

I have been so excited to decorate for Christmas this year! I wanted to put everything up early but since I was hosting Thanksgiving I thought I should keep my Thanksgiving stuff up at least until then. I did put my outside lights up and my tree without decorations on it early. It has been two years since we have had our decorations up. I forgot what some of them were! Two years ago we had just moved into our rental and only had room for a few things. Last year we moved in to our new house two days before Christmas so I put our tree up and that was about it. This year is was a little like Christmas opening up all the boxes to remember what I had. It was very fun to get it all up. The kids and Ryan were excited too. It feels nice and Christmassy around here now. We were in our last house for 7 years so I had a spot for everything. I have a few things that don’t work anymore or some areas that I don’t have the right decoration but I will tweak it a little each year and eventually it will all pull together. My goal this year was to get a bigger tree. We went from 7 1/2 feet to 12 feet. It is big! I love a beautiful tree but don’t love the setting up. I might get a little tired of setting it up every year, but I think it fills the space pretty good. I also got the garland for the stairs. Allison had a really cute idea to put ribbon on the kitchen cupboard doors with a bow so it looks like presents. I thought it turned out pretty cute! Ryan and I attempted to do the lights ourselves this year. He even crawled up on the roof for our tall front porch. The smaller eve next to it had a 30 foot drop off the one side so we decided it wasn’t worth the risk of our lives and ability to move all our limbs. I ordered a grinch and stuck him in the yard to make it look like he was stealing our lights, then we didn’t have to put them on that eve. Next year we need to get some bigger lights I think…and see about finding someone else to install them.

The Thanksgiving Family Reunion

It has been a few years since my entire family has been together. Last Christmas we decided that we would all get together for Thanksgiving. We were debating on having it at Sherri’s house or ours. After a little discussion, Sherri said that she would, “rather host a holiday that wasn’t about food because its not really her thing and it might not live up to everyone’s expectations.” It would have been just fine at Sherri’s but that tipped the scale to have it at our house. So the plan was set for 5 families, 6 couples, 11 adults (we will count Matthew as an adult now), 12 kids, and one baby, for a grand total of 24 people to gather together for a Thanksgiving Holiday Family Reunion. Matthew moved to the workout room, the girls moved to the basement living room and that left a room for each married couple. A few kids slept with their parents in their rooms but most of the kids slept in the basement living room and had a big sleep over together each night.

The Cazier’s arrived Sunday before Thanksgiving. My parents and the French’s arrived on Monday evening, and my brother and his family came Wednesday evening. Ryan and I had to work Monday and Tuesday so my family entertained themselves during the day. They played lots of games and ping pong. DeAnna organized a baptism temple trip for everyone that wanted to go on Tuesday. That was a good experience for the cousins that got to go together.

The rest of the week we spent hanging out and having fun together. We did our traditional white elephant party. The kids had one and then the adults had one. They were both lots of fun. DeAnna and Emilee ended up with matching white elephants. Allison was the amazing entertainer of all the cousins. She organized several group games and contests. She prepared the giant living room sleep over each night. One of her biggest hits was a dance party in our basement. She strung lights along the walls in our cave (that is our unfinished area under the garage. Someday it will be an epic entertaining room.) and then made each person an invitation and person ticket. Once the doors opened they had to get a secret password from Grandpa Jones and then they could give the password to get into the dance and dance their hearts out. It was a pretty cool party.

Thanksgiving morning several us were getting ready for our Thanksgiving feast. Sherri recruited Allison and Tyler to help her make an obstacle course for anyone that wanted to do it. They did it relay style so when one person finished an obstacle the next person would go until a team one. When they were all obstacled out anyone that wanted to run in the family Turkey Trot ran a mile route that Sherri had mapped out through out neighborhood. The Cazier boys finished in a pretty impressive time. Tyler, Nathan and Michael can have a nice track or cross country career in their future if they want to! It was a VERY cold day so I was impressed with any of them that went outside to participate in the outdoor activities.

Everyone had lots of Thanksgiving food. It was a delicious feast. After we ate a lot of us took our post meal nap and then woke up and ate pie for dessert. It was a fun day. The whole week was fun. We went to a few movies, put puzzles together, played lots of games, visited and enjoyed each others company. My mom helped me put up my Christmas tree too. We were up until about 1am on Friday morning. Everyone was leaving the next day so we were playing until we were exhausted. We all went to bed healthy but between then and morning almost half of us came down with a stomach bug. We were so close to a sick free get together. It was brief but violent and by the time it was done a little more than half of us had it. A little bit of a sour note to end on but I had a great week and I am glad we could all get together. I think everyone else thought so too.

We were lucky to get two of these gems in the White Elephant party.

Of course we updated our family picture since we were all together. It has been maybe 5 or 6 years since we have done that. We are blessed with a great family. I wish we were all closer and could see each other more often but I am grateful for the times we get to get together.

My dad does a good job at taking lots of pictures when we get together. He was the official photographer for Thanksgiving. Aubry and KJ participated in the kid white elephant but there pictures were accidentally videos so I couldn’t get them to upload. Aubry got a cheeseburger mug and KJ got a toothbrush ornament.

Halloween Spooks

This year our Halloween ended up looking a little different than it has for the last 10 years. The McDonalds kids and ours all made individual plans with their friends so we didn’t get together like we usually do. We still made pizza and home made root beer for people to eat as they came and went to get ready or stop in on the way to their party. Our houses in our new neighborhood are spread out pretty far so we didn’t have any trick or treaters.

Matthew dress up as Dr Duffensmirch from Phineas and Ferb. Campbell was Harry the platypus. They went to a party with a group of their friends from school. They actually went trick or treating for a little bit too.

Allison and her friends assembled matching outfits and were gangster minions together. They went trick or treating in Grandpa Terry’s neighborhood and then spent the night at our house.

Emilee was a witch this year. She went trick or treating with Reese and a few other girls. They picked a neighborhood that is known for handing out full size candy bars and they were not disappointed. They found a few haunted houses people were doing as they trick or treated too.

Ryan rediscovered his Joe Dirt costume from almost two decades ago and proudly wore it to work. He gave himself a goatee to go with the costume.

The night of Halloween Ryan and I shuttled the girls around were they needed to go and then enjoyed a quite night at home. We did go to a Halloween party with Dani and RJ Halloween weekend. RJ is a pilot so he provided Ryan with an outfit to borrow and Dani and I got First Officer costumes to go with them. I think we were a hit. Ryan LOVED being a pilot too.

Family Pictures 2024

Since we were doing Matthew’s senior pictures it was a good time to update our family pictures too. The ones I had hanging on my wall were a few years old. Kids getting older and going through puberty make it looks like even longer. So we got everyone’s pictures taken. I think they turned out pretty wonderfully. I love my sweet family.

Summer Float Trip

We didn’t do a big vacation this Summer because we are going on vacation in October together-more about that later- but we wanted to have a mini-cation together at some point this Summer. We have been wanting to do a float trip with the kids for a while so we decided it was time to do it. Ryan had a friend from work that lives by the Current river in Missouri. They have people come stay with them a lot and they have all the stuff you need to float the river. They have invited us several times and it hasn’t worked out so we decided it was a good time to do it.

The week of our trip Allison went to girls came Monday through Thursday. She was actually pretty close to were we were going to be so instead of having her drive home and then all the way back to the same place, we left on Thursday and picked her up at the camp she was at before they left to come home. She was actually at camp for her birthday. We had lots of little celebrations to celebrate her this year. Becky made her a cake and we celebrated with the rest of the KC Terry’s on Sunday before she left for camp. I sent a surprise gift bag for her to open on her actual birthday at camp. Her main gift this year was a new bed and mattress for her room. She wanted a queen bed instead of a twin. She also wanted to but some board and baton on one wall in her room and make an accent wall. We got that put up for her and painted it the blue color she wanted. Then we let her pick a place to eat out for her birthday dinner when we were on our float trip and Matthew and Emilee were back.

Matthew and Emilee came home from their Florida trip late Wednesday night and we left to get Allison Thursday morning and then go straight to the river. On Tuesday Ryan’s work buddy that was going to take us to the river and let us stay with him called and said that his wife was pretty sick with COVID and he would still let us use stuff and take us to the river but it might be best if we don’t stay at their house so we didn’t get sick. I would always rather stay at our own place than with someone so I thought it worked out great. Ryan decided to see if he could find a VRBO even though it was last minute. There were literally two options available. One was a definite no and the second was pretty new but had a handful of decent reviews. Once we gathered our kids from Florida and girls camp we headed to the Current river. We had some time to pass before we could check into our place so we stopped and watched the new movie Twisters on the way. It was pretty good. It still makes me feel old to watch ‘new movies’ that are remakes of movies that came out when I was young. After the movie stop we finished making our way to our little VRBO that the kids quickly nick named the “Crack Shack”. We were a little concerned when we pulled up. It looked a little rough from the outside. Luckily it was clean and not as bad on the inside, and had good door locks. It was literally 30 feet from a Dollar General store which is a little ghetto but very convenient. We settled in and went to dinner at an outdoor burger and ice cream stand. We watched the Olympics and played games the rest of the evening.

The next day we met Ryan’s friend and he hooked us up with all kinds of floating options. Ryan decided to get a kayak and the rest of us went with a tube. He drove us to a spot on the river to get in at and planned to meet us about 4-5 hours later at the pick up spot. Allison was a little tired from her week at girls camp and was a little less than excited about the whole trip. It took some convincing to get her to come out of her room and do anything with us the first night. With a little bit of help from us, mostly her brother Matthew, we loaded up and headed to the water. Once we got on the river it was much better. All of us loved it. The weather was great, the water was clean and a perfect temperature. It was so relaxing. We had the river to ourselves most of the time too because we went early instead of in the evening. We stopped to swim and play in the water a few times. We caught a baby turtle, saw some fun animals, got tan, and enjoyed each others company. I love float trips. It was the perfect length too. About the time we were getting tired and had run out of snacks we saw the pick up point.

After we dropped off the equipment we went home and showered and went to a pizza place that was recommended. It had potential…but they must have been short staffed and had a new cook, and something. It was comical how ridiculous it was. They only had half the items on the menu available…no pizza, which is what we went there for. Once we ordered the waitress (who had to go ask someone else about everything because she was brand new) said it would be about 45 minutes before the food was ready. We decided to try some of the games they had…the only one that worked was the dart board. That after asking almost everyone that worked there only had two working darts. They had axe throwing-another reason we went there… but it wasn’t available. When the food finally arrived it was ok. Nothing great. We decided to see if we could save the meal with shakes for dessert. After what seemed like forever waiting for the shakes we asked if they were coming and our waitress said they were almost ready. Then we watched her walk over to check on them and they must have told her to do it herself because she then went over and made them by herself one at a time. It took a while and we think it was her first time handling ice cream ever. By the time we got the shakes, the first three were liquid, two were the wrong flavor, mine was only half full and tasted like thick milk. It was so ridiculous from start to finish we just all laughed about it. We left and went back to our crack shack. The Dollar Store was still open so we got some junk food and played games the rest of the night. The next day we headed home.

It was a short but sweet vacation. Lots of little hiccups but I will still probably remember it as one of my favorite vacations with the kids. Our season of life is getting ready to change after this year. I have loved this season. I love the kids being older and a little more independent and watching their personalities develop. It is a time they are developing themselves and trying things but it is still a little bubble that their lives don’t have to much craziness or stress. They are all awesome people and I love spending time with them.

Family Visits

Last December, DeAnna called and said that her family was going to go on a trip and see some of the church history sites and asked if she could come and stay with us for a few days since we live by them. We said yes, of course.

When it got a little closer Sherri and Kenny decided they wanted to join in the fun so they asked to come visit too. So we had a party with the Terry, Cazier, and French families for a week in July. There were 11 kids and 6 adults. I am hosting Thanksgiving in November so it was a good practice run for when I have 14 kids and 10 adults here.

We had a good time. I was again a little nervous about the weather. July in Kansas does not usually encourage one to be outdoors due to the ridiculous heat and humidity so I was trying to think of good indoor things to do around here. The weather ended up being pretty awesome the whole time though. Seriously gorgeous 80 degree temps and low humidity. Everyone arrived on Thursday and Friday. Saturday we went to a park and played pickle ball for a few hours. There was a playground and baseball field that some of us played kick ball on too. Sunday we went to church and played games, jumped on the trampoline and hung out at the house. Ryan squeezed in as many games with John and sushi runs with Kenny as he could before he had to leave for a conference Sunday night. Monday we went to Liberty Missouri to see the Liberty Jail, where Joseph Smith and a few others were put in jail for false charges for several months. That night we went to a Royals game. It was a pretty exciting game. I think there were 4 maybe 5 home runs, a little drama with people getting hit by pitches that resulted in coaches getting kicked out. Between that and the stadium food it was a pretty fun night. Tuesday we went to the Spring Hill Aquatic center and spent a few hours at the pool. There was lots of games and activities at the house. I am glad we had the trampoline, it was a big hit. Hannah had a birthday while she was here too. We made her a cake and she picked what we had for dinner. It was a fun couple of days. I enjoy the chaos of big family gatherings. My kids do too. They love having cousins to play with from the time they wake up until they go to bed. The Cazier’s left Wednesday to go to Nauvoo Illinois and then home. The French’s left the next day.

Jake and Becky came that same week and were at Grandma Terry’s house. We saw them a little bit. The Bourne’s, grandparents, and Terry’s came to our house on Saturday and Sunday to hangout together. Ryan and I had Allison to ourselves for a week because Matthew and Emilee left the same day the Cazier’s did to spend a week with Grandma and Grandpa Jones. It will probably be the last time Matthew goes to spend a week with them since he will graduate and move on to other things this year. He loves going there. Grandma cooks him tons of good food, grandpa tells him funny stories, and he can walk out the door and fish in the ponds around them anytime he wants.

4th of July

The city of Olathe doesn’t allow fireworks. People still do, but it limits the fun a bit. That’s why we loved going to Nebraska and having a huge firework display and doing our own right from Grandpa’s drive way. Ever since Grandma and Grandpa Terry moved to Olathe we have been anticipating a July 4th celebration at our new house! Our house is not considered inside city limits so we can light off whatever we want. Last year we lit of fireworks on the road but we didn’t have a house yet. This year we had the house!

It is always such an awesome holiday. It really is one of my favorites. It is low key and minimal prep. The point is to just relax, eat and light off fireworks. For the past few years at some point during the summer we go with Terry cousins and spend the day at World’s and Ocean’s of Fun Amusement park. Last year we didn’t go because we had a family reunion at Branson and everyone went to Silver Dollar City together instead. This year my kids were really looking forward to it and the day that worked out was July 3rd. I was a little nervous in anticipation of the heat but it ended up being a great day. It was overcast so not blistering sun and humidity but still warm enough to swim. Everyone was tall enough to go on every single ride if they wanted too for the first time too! Jovee is one of the biggest roller coaster junkies in the group and up until this year there was always one or two off limits due to height for her. Emilee has had a little anxiety about a few roller coasters since going on one when she was really young that she probably shouldn’t have. Height wise she has always been as tall as kids several years older than her. She was trying to talk herself into doing the Patriot. We got in line the first time and then when it was our turn she couldn’t do it. We watched everyone else go and then she decided she would give it another shot and the second time it was our turn she did it. She loved it and was much more relaxed about going on the rest of the rides after that. Leah is not a big roller coaster fan but for Allison’s birthday she said she would go on any ride Allison wanted her to go on with her. It was a great day. We hit all the rides we wanted then ate lunch and went to the water park side. After they were all done there we headed home with a stop at chick-fil-a on the way.

The next day we had a BBQ at our place with all the KC family and my friend Dani came with her son Ethan. We played games, ate food, went and got fireworks, set of the day time ones and then repeated it all until it was dark enough to do the night time ones. We had one small incident. The kids were lighting off smoke bombs and bottle rockets and things like that. The three youngest kids like to light smoke bombs and run through the smoke. They lit what they thought was a smoke bomb and it was but it had some firework stuff in it too. So they were all standing around it and ready to start running in the smoke and it started shooting out whistlers at them. They ran pretty quick. Luckily no one was hurt. It was a good lesson to read the entire description and always stand back even if you think it is just a smoke bomb. Other than that is was just a fun time. We topped the day off with strawberry short cake and it was another successful Fourth of July!

Random…but Noteworthy

These are pictures I have that I like but didn’t really need a full post about them, or didn’t go with pictures taken at the same time that I put in other posts. So I thought I would just do a collection of them here.

This is our one and only picture from Easter 2024. As much as I love pictures and documenting events, I sometimes am horrible at taking the pictures. This was the end of the day and everyone was headed to take off their Easter clothes and I insisted on one family photo. Some of us were more willing participants than others.

Sherrie and Dave came to visit us for a weekend to watch some of Matthew’s games. We had some time to pass before a game and were right by Liberty Jail. So we went to the jail and still had time to pass. There happened to be a bazaar across the street from Liberty Jail so we walked around. They had this little selfie spot so I had them hope in for a picture.

Both of these pictures are in Utah when we were staying with DeAnna for my Grandpa’s funeral. I thought 6 people brushing their teeth in the bathroom was pretty cute. DeAnna made lots of good food while we were there too, Sherri wanted to document that ‘she can cook but chooses not to’. While we were in Utah, dad took Emilee and Matthew to their softball and baseball tournaments they had going on that weekend. They love it so much they decided to go watch a Royals game one of the nights we were gone.

I am not sure where we were coming back from…maybe the eclipse, but the girls were being a little grumpy to each other but when they fell asleep they snuggled right up to each other.

This is one of the many times we have had to rent a skid loader to do some lawn stuff. It won’t be the last either. Ryan and I take turns between freaking out about why we have so much land to take care of and someday it will be awesome.

We try and do an annual amusement park day with our cousins each year. Sometimes it ends up being in Branson and Silver Dollar City, sometimes Worlds/Oceans of Fun. It was a great time this year. Everyone is tall enough for all the rides. Jovee is the biggest adrenaline junky and finally hit the tallest minimum requirement for the rides she had been waiting to go on for years. We went on July 3rd which was begging for heat stroke, but the weather was cloudy and perfect so it was a great day.

We have had typical so hot and humid days you can barely go outside this Summer for sure but there have been a lot more than usual gorgeous beautiful weather days. This hammock is one of our favorite spots to hangout on those days.

Grandpa Jones Funeral

My sweet Grandpa Jones passed away at the end of April. He was a pretty awesome person. I wasn’t as close with him as my grandma but I loved him and know he loved me and his family. I remember lots of stories about him but you always learn and hear knew things about someone when they pass away. Everyone except two cousins were able to come to his funeral so there was a lot of memories and stories shared. He was a good example. He lead by example on how to work hard, try hard, love those around you, and do what is right. He had a witty sense of humor, loved sports and was an amazing Gardner. He hasn’t been able to keep his yard up the past few years like he used to and it was a little sad to see over grown bushes and no flowers and immaculate landscaping everywhere.

My grandma passed away two years before he did. They are my first set of grandparents to pass away. It was a bit of a different feeling at his funeral having neither of them there. It was sad when Grandma Jones died but he was still there and around. When he passed too it felt heavier because it is like the closing of their generation. More finality to it. I walked around their house and took a lot of pictures because I will probably never see it again and up to this point in my life they have always been there and been a consistent, happy, familiar, predictable piece in my life. It is like a chapter closing. I don’t know how often or if I will see a lot of the cousins and aunts and uncles again. Grandma and Grandpa were the connecting piece for us. They were both amazing people and I miss them.

This is the eulogy for my Grandpa, written by my uncle Jared and edited by all his siblings.

A few days before he passed he told his kids that he thought he was dying and wanted to say goodbye to them. They are in Utah so I didn’t get to see him but i was thinking about him a lot that week. The day he passed I was planting plants in one of our flower beds. I had been doing it long enough it was starting to be more exhausting then enjoyable and I stopped for a minute and he came to my mind and I thought about a time we went to visit and when I got out of the car he and my grandma were planting dozens of petunias together in one of their flower beds and I helped them finish. Then all of the sudden I had a distinct feeling that they were both there watching me for a minute. I felt love and concern for me from them and then it was gone. I thought it was a memory but a few hours later I got the message that he had passed earlier that day. Maybe not, but I think that after he passed grandma was waiting for him and before she took him to wherever they were going they stopped by to visit me and probably other family members that weren’t able to be there when he passed. It was definitely a unique and special feeling.

His funeral wasn’t until mid May because one of his daughters was in another country after he passed for a few weeks. I went out to his funeral and brought Allison with me. It was nice to see family and talk about grandpa. His funeral was very nice. It was a lot like grandma’s but his had a little more somber note to it like I mentioned because now they were both gone. I know we get to see them again someday and they are together now which makes me happy. Besides grandma he had four brother and both his parents waiting for him that he hadn’t see for a long time. His mom passed away pretty young so it had been over 60 years since he had seen her. I bet that was a very happy reunion. He was in the military and got a 21 gun salute at his graveside and an American flag to honor his service. That was a touching experience to witness as well. You will be missed by a lot of people Grandpa. Thank you for being a good example and good leader for your family for many generations.

This is a poem that my uncle Jared read at my Grandpa’s funeral that my grandpa wrote.

These are pictures I took of pictures that were displayed at his viewing. Several of my cousins put together 7-8 picture boards of different parts of his life. They did really good job.

The glare is a little hard but he posed for the wizard in this stain glass.

These are pictures from his funeral, the graveside service and his viewing. My aunt Kristin takes the pictures for everyone to have.

Before Allison and I left to come back to Kansas we went and spent some time at my Grandma and Grandpa’s house. I don’t think I will ever see it again so I wanted to walk around and sit and take pictures of things that I have always associated with their house to remember. The yard pictures don’t do it justice compared to how beautiful my grandpa kept it until he wasn’t able to anymore. Whenever we stayed at his house, he would come to the breakfast table dressed and ready to go out to the yard to work after eating a bowl of Wheaties, fresh home grown fruit and fruit juice and a slice or two of raisin bread with a healthy dab of butter spread across it.

We had many sleepouts in sleeping bags in the back yard. Grandpa often forgot to turn the sprinklers off so I remember many an early morning waking up and relocating to the living room floor soaking wet to finish the nights sleep.

This is the program that was handed out at his funeral. I put several paper copies in my kids memory folders too.

Ready for Spring

Once Spring started making its appearance we did a few projects on the outside of the house. We put in the flower beds, lined them and filled them with rocks. We got the front flower beds planted. We will keep working on them a each year. We have a plan but it is a few year plan before it will be all done. We got some patio furniture so we can enjoy our deck and the patio. One of my favorite things we did was hang patio lights from the ceiling and hung up a hammock. It is so relaxing. We love it! For our house warming gift Ryan’s parents gave us a blackstone grill. We have family gatherings and do cookouts with it a lot. The kids have been requesting a trampoline and we got that so there would be more to do outside. Fall and Spring will be really nice to use outside. Once it gets hot it gets a little buggy and is not so great but I love having some outdoor spaces to enjoy!

This is pictures of out patio lights and a rainbow we saw from our deck one night.

Mother’s Day this year was nice. Ryan and the kids made me dinner and spoiled me on Sunday. The day before we did a family service project for the local food pantry. It has been a while since we have done it and Ryan and I felt like we were due for some service. This time we went to one in Lawrence Kansas. The Harvester truck brought a bunch of food to a local church and unloaded it. The volunteers divided it up and got ready to disperse it, then a line of cars came through and we loaded it into each car. We all enjoyed it. We need to get back into it as a regular thing that we do. We went to lunch together after that and then the kids helped me plant another flower bed for part of their Mother’s Day to me. It is so nice having grown children to help with projects. It saves my back a lot!

Of course with Spring the kids started their Spring sports. Allison is finishing up her gymnastic season about the time school ends. She had sever meets and got a personal best on the bar 9.5. It was pretty awesome to see her! She added a few new flips to her floor routine that she learned as well. In the Fall she thought this might be her last season for gymnastics, but as it got closer to the end she decided she wasn’t quite ready to be done. She has at least one more year in her! After the last meet they did the end of the year banquet. They had Mexican food and cake for dessert. The girls all dressed up and seemed to have a fun time. She got the “Tootsie Roll” reward for being able to roll with whatever she is doing at the gym. She was also voted by her team to win the Spirit Award because she is always positive and helps keep everyone focused during practice and meets. She is pretty awesome. Allison excels and puts full effort into whatever she does. She is a great leader and her dad and I were proud of her for showing that this year in gymnastics. It made us happy that her team recognized it in her too.

Matthew played for his High School team this year during the Spring. He played for JV as the short stop, and the coaches also took him to varsity games to help and fill in where they needed him. The varsity team made it to state again this year. Matthew went with them. Last year they lost the first game but this year they made it to the final game and ended up taking second. Matt loves baseball and loves to play as much as he can. There is some school politics that make the high school season not as fun but he had a good time. He was really excited to get into the competitive season with his regular team. His arm was back to full mobility in February and he worked on the strength side of it through the last semester. He was hitting well but his strength really started coming back and he started hitting some bombs at the beginning of his competitive season. His strength isn’t 100% yet but it coming back quick. He is consistently hitting doubles and triples and even got a home run during one of his HS games. It is fun to watch your kids do something they love.

High school baseball pictures

Emilee played softball again this Spring. Her team last year split in half and some stayed rec and some tried competitive. Emilee decided to try competitive. She decided to pick the same number as Matthew and she loved doing batting practice and playing catch with him. If he was able to come to her games she always came up to say hi and was super excited he was there. She played mostly short stop, center field or 1st base. She improved a lot and had a good time. Her team ended up getting 4th in the division they played in.

Eclipse

In April of this year there was a total lunar eclipse crossing the united states. It was similar to the one that was about 7 years ago that we went up to Lincoln Nebraska to see. Sherrie and Dave Torgerson’s house in Dardenelle Arkansas was in the direct path and they were going to have totality for almost 5 full minutes. We decided to take a very quick mini-cation and drive down Sunday afternoon to see it with them on Monday and then come home Monday afternoon. There were lots of family there which meant lots of cousins to play with. The weather was great so the kids got out water balloons and played a lot of games outside.

Allison and one of her besties Allie Sluga went on a little trip together. Allie invited her to go to the Ozarks with her and her grandparents took them for a few days. They had lots of girl time and did lots of shopping together.

I thought this was a good spot to put this picture showing Allison’t makeup talents. She is the Lorax, keeper of the trees.

Allison got one of her best scores on the beam at her last gymnastic meet this year. She got a 9.5!!

Matthew had his Junior Prom this year. He went with Campbell. They both looked great! It was a little crazy helping him get measured for a tux and getting the flowers and plans ready. Time really does fly when your kids grow up. They went in a group with his friends Ramey and Nick. They took pictures at a winery before they went to dinner at an Italian restaurant. Then they stopped by our house for a few minutes before they went to the dance. When the dance was over they came home and changed then went to the after party. It was at Chicken and Pickle. It was a great place for the afterparty. Unlimited chicken fingers and pickleball to play. Matthew won a few rounds and got some of the prizes for pickle ball.

This is a side by side of their first dance together- Freshman year Homecoming dance, and Junior Prom.

Spring Break

Spring Break was a week earlier than it usually is for us. That might not seem like a big difference but in Kansas in the Spring that makes a big difference as far as temperature. For the first part of our Spring Break, Kenny and Sherri came to stay with us for a few days. It wasn’t quite warm enough to do a lot of yard things but Sherri helped me make a plan, and we picked out the rocks and plants to put in when it got warm enough a few weeks later. A house surrounded by three acres of mud gets messy really quick so we were anxious to get some landscaping in.

We did some shopping and visiting and went to dinner a few times while they were here too. Allison is great at babysitting and her and Emilee both enjoy spending time with cousins. KJ showed us real quick how un-baby proof our house is now.

Ryan had to go to a conference in Omaha for work for the last part of our Spring Break. On the last day of his conference, the kids and I drove up and we had a fun mini-cation in Omaha Nebraska. We stayed in a hotel for two nights. When we got there and checked in the first thing we did was an escape room. One of the family Christmas gifts we got was a “family escape room night” and we hadn’t done it yet. We picked a room with a batman theme that had a 17% success rate. I thought is was a lot of fun. Each of us picked a piece of the puzzle and worked on it. Allison solved hers then jumped to someone else and helped them finish. She could have easily finished it by herself. It is fun to see how her brain works through things. By the end the puzzle Matthew had was the last one and tricky because it seemed like we didn’t have all the info we needed but we had found all the clues. Someone finally came on the intercom and told us that we were missing half of his puzzle because one of the keys we found accidently opened two things instead of just one and we used it to open the one it shouldn’t have been able to open, so we thought we had found all the clues but had missed one. Once we figured that out and found the other half we solved it with time to spare. Technically they said since they had to help us we didn’t get a free t-shirt. I think since it was an error in their puzzles that required them to help us that shouldn’t have counted. Ryan and I didn’t debate with them though so our kids didn’t have to crawl under a table and die from embarrassment. We went and got dinner then tried out an ice cream place right by our hotel that turned out to be delightfully delicious. Later that night we went and saw Kung-Fu Panda in the movie theater together.

The next day we went to the Omaha Zoo. The last time we went to the zoo as a family we were still in the stroller, carrying snacks and hungry, hot, or need to use the bathroom every five minute stage. It was a fun time and we saw lots of animals but after a full day at the zoo, there was still a lot of zoo left to see and everyone was exhausted. Let me tell you, going to the zoo with three grown children is A-MAZ-ING! If anyone wanted to carry something they carried it themselves. We ate breakfast before we went and planned on getting lunch there. However, we were able to walk through the entire zoo and see everything we wanted to see in a few hours. By the time we were hungry we were done and went and found a restaurant outside the zoo. We picked a Mexican restaurant called Mexicity. It was a local restaurant and we could barely understand the owner because of his accent but he made delightful authentic Mexican food. It was so good. All of us practically licked our plates clean. A few months later we still talk about how good it was. A little hidden gem in Omaha Nebraska. Who would have guessed!?

After dinner we headed back to our hotel and stopped at the ice cream place on the way again. They had some different flavors than the day before so we each got something different to try and share. We played games at the hotel lobby that night, then headed home the next morning. We usually get two rooms when we stay in hotels now. The kids share a room and Ryan and I get our own. Everyone get a bed and everyone is happy. It was a pretty fun trip.

Valentine’s Day

This was our last year with a kiddo in elementary school. That means it was the last year we had to make a valentine box (at the very last minute because they changed their mind and do want to bring one) to take to school to collect all your valentines. Emilee made her own box out of a clothes box and other items she found in the wrapping paper drawer.

It was a low key day. Ryan was actually out of town for work so he took me on a Valentine’s date later that week. We got a few treats for breakfast for the kids valentine gift. I also told them they could all request as many hugs and kisses and they wanted all day long (lets be honest, they can do that everyday) but they didn’t take me up on it as much as I wanted.

Super Bowl!

The Chief’s were in the Super Bowl AGAIN this year! They have made it twice in a row before but never won it twice in a row. There were some very excited people in our family to watch the Super Bowl.

The day of the game Allison had a gymnastic meet. She was first thing in the morning but they had meets that went all day…into Super Bowl time. Ryan was just flabbergasted that anyone would schedule something on Super Bowl day that would conflict with the game. I told him they scheduled these meets months if not a year or more in advance. He maintained that everyone knows the day of the Super Bowl and they scheduled it to be stinkers. I suggested not everyone is into football as him and might not plan their life around it. I don’t think I convinced him that some people don’t know when the Super Bowl is let alone not watch it. He said, “Its basically a national holiday.”

Anyway, we cheered Allison on at her meet and she did great. Here is a video of her floor routine.

https://youtu.be/6vGswWr27gA?list=PLBwkO01uWtw9DJu2WA-l0-1CZ6EuoK5Kl

The day before Allison and Leah made lots of yummy treats for the Super Bowl. After her meet we went home and got the food and everything ready. Grandma and Grandpa and Ross and Lauren’s family came over to watch. We all made some food and had some good eating options. There was a list of who was bringing what and Matthew added a few of his own contributions to it. I thought is was funny so I took a picture.

It was a great game and spoiler alert- The CHIEFS WON! BACK TO BACK SUPER BOWL WINS! It was very exciting. I took a video of the last play right before they won in overtime. There was lots of cheering, lots of fireworks going off, and a city parade a few days later that they called off school so everyone could celebrate. They actually tried not to cancel school but they have done it in the past for other parades and the precedent had been set. They had so many teachers/staff calling in for subs they ended up just having to cancel school all together. We didn’t go to the parade but we enjoyed the day off!

https://youtu.be/aNixajtBMvM?list=PLBwkO01uWtw9DJu2WA-l0-1CZ6EuoK5Kl

The Mini-cation Idea

So, buying a house is pretty expensive. We new this. It is still a bit overwhelming sometimes though. Everything in our lives right now is expensive. So we have been trying to stick to a budget and watch our finances pretty close. Ryan and I both like to go on vacations. It is something we both look forward too and having a trip planned is a big motivational carrot for us. Vacations are expensive too. So we decided that for the next little bit while we are getting everything settled and taken care of with the new house and other life expenses since we need to put a pin in bigger trips that we want to go on someday we are going to do mini trips. Then we still have something to look forward to without breaking the bank.

The first one we took was in February. We took a long weekend and went to see my sister Sherri and Kenny in their new house in Dallas Texas. The bonus was my Grandma June was flying in to see her too, on the way to spend a month with my mom in Florida. Double bonus- my mom came to meet my grandma and stay with Sherri for a bit too. So the kids took Friday off of school and we left Thursday evening after all the kids activities were done. We drove about half way and then stayed the night at a hotel. After breakfast the next morning we finished the last few hours and were enjoying Casa De French by early afternoon.

My mom was already there so the 5 of us went to dinner that night and did an Escape Room together. It was pretty fun. Allison supervised the girls and kept a close eye on KJ for us while we were gone. Occasionally she let Matthew watch KJ. She is a pretty awesome babysitter.

The next day we went on a little drive to see Fort Worth. There were lots of long horned steer to see and shops and even a few shows to watch. Emilee and Sherri road a mechanical bull, and the kids and a few adults raced to see who could finish a maze first. It was a cool place to check out. It was early February and the weather was pretty nice.

Emilee’s mechanical bull riding experience:

https://youtu.be/gPvJWezc6Zc?list=PLBwkO01uWtw9DJu2WA-l0-1CZ6EuoK5Kl

My grandma flew in about mid afternoon so my mom, Sherri and I went to the airport to pick her up and everyone else went home. My grandma was a little nervous because she has never flown anywhere by herself. We had is set up like when a kids flies alone. Someone walked her to her gate and got her on the plane and then Sherri was going to meet her at the gate in Dallas when she got off the plane so she wouldn’t be by herself. She is starting to have a little bit of dementia as well so we didn’t want her to be alone navigating an airport for the first time in her life anymore than she did. We got to the airport and my mom and I went to wait in baggage claim. Sherri went to get a gate pass to wait at the gate for her. Things went downhill from there. Sherri got a gate pass but then security wouldn’t accept it. By the time she got back to the airline and called to have them bring Grandma to us in baggage claim, Grandma was no longer there and ‘someone’ had already taken her to baggage. My mom and I were in baggage claim though and Grandma was no where to be seen. The airport just lost her! We got to see a little bit of the Sherri fire that is always exciting to witness. It used to be free and often out of control when she was younger. Now as an adult she has harnessed the rage and controls it quite well. If she chooses to use it, it is something to witness. She let them know how she felt about them loosing her sweet 85 year old grandma with dementia in a GIANT airport. Meanwhile, we kept calling her cell phone and she finally answered and told us she was watching the traffic drive by. Someone had put her in a wheelchair, gotten her luggage (without going to baggage claim somehow?!?!?) and wheeled her outside to the curb and deposited her on a bench by the pickup lanes. It was a little stressful but we were very glad to find her, she was very glad we found her, and we all went back to Sherri’s. We spent the night visiting and made tacos for dinner and watched a movie together.

We had to leave the next morning to get back for work and school. My mom and grandma stayed with Sherri for another week then went back to Florida. It was a fast but fun get away.

I like traveling with our kids. For the most part we chat a little, read, nap, do our own thing but we like eating together. So it is fun to decide on a place to eat and then visit together while we eat and travel. It is wonderful to have a third driver now too. Matthew drove almost half the way there and it is awesome.

It was a successful mini-cation!

January 2024

If I looked back at my other posts from January I would bet that they say something to the effect that it is kind of a boring month but I love it because after the holidays I need a month of boring.

This year was not different. Relative to our usual schedule of kids activities and normal life events going on it was pretty slow. I loved it, and I needed it! There will still be some rearranging but I was able to go through each room and at least get the initial unpacking and organization done so everything is pretty functional. I did a little more decorating. Found some rugs, got a few things like and end table, bookcase and barstools. I hung up most of the pictures. I want to do another picture wall in the basement but I don’t have a solid plan in my head yet so I just keep thinking about it for now.

An usual change for me though was I got into plants. I like plants but as far as having live plants in my house I have never been interested because the few times I have been given a plant it doesn’t last to long. My sweet mom would give me starter plants after I got married and then they would die. She eventually gave up. I have just not had the desire or energy (I know it doesn’t take a ton but it requires some attention) to take care of them. Maybe now that my kids are older and a little more self sufficient I have enough band width to add some plants. So I did! I love them. They make me happy and don’t feel like a burden at all. The first one I got was a bit of an impulse buy from a store that doesn’t really have plants they just had a few randomly. I say that because so far it is the one that is struggling and I would normally think it was because I don’t really care to figure out why, but that is not the case. I think there was something in the soil or it wasn’t that healthy when I got it. I am still hopeful that it will turn around and make it but time will tell. After I got the first one I went and got a few more. Ryan took one to work and the rest I put around the house. I want to get more but I am making myself wait and not go crazy. The kids think I am a little silly but I like them. They don’t talk back or sass me either! Here are my plants I got. I repotted them and gave them all new soil and food and a nice sunny spot (or not sunny if they prefer) to grow. Three of the four are thriving and growing for sure. Crossing my fingers for the fourth but I am already way ahead of my past track record.

We had a few guests in January! Our first visitor was Sherrie. The girls stayed in Arkansas for a few days with her after New Years so she brought them back up and stayed the night with us.

A few weeks later Ryan’s best friend Mike Johnson came for a weekend. Those two are quite a pair. They love to get as much sports watching, eating, and talking in as they can whenever they get together.

It had been a bit to long since we had gotten out our Terry Family Growin’ Board and measured everyone. We got it out of storage when we moved so we measured the kids in January. Everyone had done some significant growing, Matthew hit a milestone he has been waiting on for a long time. He is the tallest in the family. He officially passed his dad in height. He is still growing so he is hoping to increase that lead by another inch or two.

Allison had two gymnastic meets in January. One at the beginning and one towards the end. The first one she had a few mess ups and wanted to just forget it. She still had some good moments but we can focus on the second one. Here are some pictures. I wish I had a parent photographer that takes amazing pictures for everyone on the team like I had for Matthew’s baseball but so far it is just my limited skills that are available. I tried to get some good action ones because we had pretty good seats at this meet.

Our Home

I decided to make a post with the progress on our house. I take a picture of the house the first day of each month and then we will have a finished house at the end. Hopefully it flies by and before we know it we have our finished forever house.

A few years ago, a neighborhood a little south of our house at the time caught our attention. It had a little bigger lots and space and it was quiet and peaceful. We talked about buying a house there and kept our eye out for any that went up for sale in that neighborhood. We went through one- it was a very nice house, but I didn’t love the layout. Ryan loved it, especially the backyard. It was a little out of our budget too. We put a pin in it for awhile. Then when COVID started we decided we wouldn’t mind having a little more space and looked again. Not many houses go up for sale in the neighborhood, there are only a dozen or so houses in the whole neighborhood. We heard that they might be developing more lots behind the houses already there. In December 2021 they put about a dozen more lots up for sale. We had never really planned on building a house but since there were now open lots in the area that we wanted to live we thought it was a good option. So in January 2022 we decided to do it. We then had to pick a lot, find the builder, arrange financing, and decide on the plans we wanted. In May of 2022 we signed the papers and it was time to start building.

The first order of business was to get permits and things in order with the city and county…it took a while. A long while. June. July. August long while. Finally in September the permits and everything were in order and we started digging.

October-Foundation walls poured, backfill on walls, temporary driveway placed.

November 2022-Basement plumbing put in, basement floor poured, walls water proofed, more backfill done.

December 2022-More back fill, garage floors poured, getting staged to frame.

January-February 2023- Framing finally started. Lots of snow, rain, and freezing weather made it go slower then we hoped.

March 2023- finished up framing. Small delay from a roof mishap. Roof started and ready for windows.

April- Roof put on, lower windows installed, framing finished, HVAC and cabinet drawings started.

Inside house pictures from April.

May- rest of windows installed, front porch poured, HVAC, plumbing, and electrical installed, temporary doors installed. Picked out tile and flooring.

June- inspections for plumbing electrical and gas were done so not much happened while we waited on that. They put the piers in for the back deck, and started on insulation once inspections were passed. I picked out some furniture for the living room and decided on tile and lighting.

July-August Inspections, and finishing plumbing and electrical seemed to take FOREVER. There were a few little things done while we waited on that. I think our builders were focused on other things to be honest. It was a very frustrating slow process. Towards the end of August things started picking up again. They put the stucco on the outside and got the house prepped for painting. Doors were hung. I picked out all the tile, stone, floors, paint, plumbing and anything else we needed to decide on while we ‘waited’ for whatever we were waiting for.

September-October Cabinets got installed, outside was painted, deck installed, drywall and mudding done, countertops installed, interior painting done, tile for kitchen and baths done, flooring started. Back patio and part of driveway and sidewalk poured. Found out the masonry was on strike and they can’t get any stone right now so still waiting for stone to be installed.

October-December 2023

Stucco, stone, and painting on the outside was done. Final grading, deck installed, fireplace stone done. There were a lot of things accomplished in November but the hoped for move in date of something in November was a little ambitious. Weather, holidays, and the universe testing my patience, slowed things down enough that we decided to shoot for December. Flooring, touchups, lighting installed, carpet, finish work like doors, hardware and lots of little things you don’t even think about were done. The house was pretty much done shortly after Thanksgiving. At the beginning of December we did an initial walk through and made a list of things that needed to be done, touched up or were missed. They got most of that done and then started the final clean ups. It was the middle of winter so we got temporary occupancy until we have some landscaping in. We told them we would not sod or plant grass in December. The city was cool with that, the loan company was kind of turds about it. It all got figured out and we started to move into our house on December 18, the movers brought the last of everything on December 23rd. Just a little over a week shy of when we decided to start this whole process and picked out lot out in January 2022. It has been a hectic two years. I don’t know if we would do it again😜 but we did it once! We love it and hope it will be a good home for us for a very long time!

Here are some pictures from the last month or so of everything starting to come together.

As I mentioned since it was the middle of winter we couldn’t do much yard work. They had to dig up the back yard about a month after we moved in to replace one of the septic tanks. We were really glad we didn’t have sprinklers and grass already installed. That would have been maddening. My sister Sherri put an awesome plan together for us though to show what we are going to start working on in the spring. It will take a few years but we are thinking something pretty close to this. We have a lot of work ahead of us!

This last picture is the first of many I will take of the sunrise from our deck at our house. That is one of my favorite things about our new house. The sunrise and sunsets are amazing!

NEW YEARS! 2024

We spent the week between Christmas and New Years continuing to get settled into our new house. Ryan had most of the week off so it was nice to hangout around the house and relax while we got stuff done. Sleeping in until you want to is a luxury I will never get tired of.

It was relaxing but I was anxious to get the house mostly unpacked and organized. I tend to have tunnel vision when I have something I need to get taken care of so that was my main focus. New Year’s Eve was on a Sunday so there wasn’t a lot going on. Ryan and girls decided to go to Arkansas and spend the weekend. The Torgerson’s are good about having family get togethers and celebrating together. They went to Jen and Dave’s house and had a good time. Matthew and I stayed home and had a low key holiday. We all loved it and had a great New Year.

We found a few bugs that had to be worked out in our house too the first few weeks we were in it. Almost every system in the house had a few kinks. The electricians had to come rewire and change a few things. Our furnace intake was ‘to open’ so it kept getting snow in it and then it wouldn’t turn on. This of course happened when it was a mere -10 degrees outside for a week. One of our tanks for the septic system was cracked when they backfilled so it was filling with water which made the pump run 24/7 which caused it to burn out so the alarm alerting us our system was full went off. I felt bad for the company that had to come fix it. The timing couldn’t have been worse. The weather was cold and rainy and it was a giant mud hole they had to dig in to get the broken one out and put a new one in. Not to mention it was the sewer system. Shortly after that we had a leak downstairs from the bathtub upstairs. Our builders took care of it all and there is still a list of small fix it items to do but overall everything is good. We are really glad we have at least a year warranty on all the work for the house too!

The beginning of 2023 we had recently moved into our rental and by the hair of our chins we moved in at the end of 2023 so we could get settled and start making new memories and adventures in our new house. Happy New Year!!

December…a little different this year.

Our December this year was busy as usual but a different than our usual December. Starting with our Christmas decorations. I come from a family where several of the women love to get their Christmas trees out and set up early. My Grandma June has been known to leave her tree up year round more often then not. Sometimes she changes the decorations for each holiday, sometimes she just leaves it Christmas all year. When we were younger my mom didn’t put our tree up as early but now she usually has a small one if not the full tree up by October at the latest. My sister Sherri usually has hers up by September. I have my tree up by the Friday after Thanksgiving at the latest. Usually a week or two into November I get the itch and put it up. This year, since we didn’t know for sure when we were moving we decided to not get any decorations out in out rental and just wait until we were in our new house. When we missed the November 1st move in dead line by the time Thanksgiving was approaching I pestered our builders pretty hard for a move in date. They finally said their goal was to be “done” with the house by Thanksgiving and then have a few weeks to go through and catch anything they needed to fix or change and the week of December 18th would be a good move in week. Thanksgiving came and went and the house was close but not quite what I would call “done”. The builders hadn’t said anything about moving the date up or back so I decided to tell them that I had scheduled movers for Dec 20th. They never really agreed but they said ok. We packed up the rental and got things ready to go with no Christmas decorations…it was a little bit gloomy I must admit. Decorations really add to the festivities and atmosphere. There were still Christmas parties and church school activities to help it feel like Christmas though!

Emilee’s class took a field trip to downtown to see some of the choirs singing at Union Station. She asked her dad if he would be a chaperon on her field trip and was pretty excited when he said he would love too! They watched the choirs and then broke into small groups and got to do a little Christmas shopping and eat lunch. Emilee had a great time and loved that her dad was there.

Allison has been doing some babysitting lately and finds it to be quite lucrative. She is incredible at it too. I was a boring babysitter, I didn’t really love doing it and I preferred the kids to entertain themselves while I supervised. Allison has awesome activities and games planned and makes a fun evening of it for the kids. She makes scavenger hunts, seems to have an endless supply of balloons, and gives them lots of attention. She watches a friend of ours son named Ethan with Emilee a lot and every time we come home they have new fun ideas that Allison has come up to do with them. This picture is one of the crafts she did with them sometime in December. These were little pictures them made. There was also giant almost life size gingerbread cookies hanging on the wall that they had made of themselves.

Emilee sang her very last time in Sacrament as a primary kid. She will be in Young Women’s after the New Year. I will have no more kids in primary!! That is so crazy! Allison snuck a picture of her singing for me. Her and Reese are inseparable.

Allison started her gymnastic season in December. She has decided that she wants to focus on weightlifting and wrestling so she is going to finish this Meet season for gymnastics then take a break. She has done a great job in gymnastics and always works hard at keeping her flexibility and learning her routines. We like watching her perform her events. Here are a few links to some of her best ones so far, in my opinion. Also some pictures from different meets she has done so far this season.

https://youtu.be/MB0es-oSbDQ (Allison Bar Routine)

https://youtu.be/kedxhCSiRQA (Allison Floor Routine)

As the day to move into our house arrived we weren’t sure it was going to happen until the actual day we moved. You never know with builders. In my limited experience they will never say when they will be done. They have to have a hard deadline and they will push it up to the second of that deadline. This time they made the dead line though! I told them we were moving in on December 20th but I actually didn’t schedule the movers until the 23rd. From the 20th-23rd we brought as much of our stuff over as we could that we didn’t want to box up. Lots of car loads. We got a lot of stuff taken over. There was pretty much just furniture for the movers when they came on the 23rd. The kids helped a lot and Matthew even recruited a few friends to help him load his car and take over a few loads. The first thing I took over was the Christmas tree and I set it up right away with a few decorations. I wasn’t going to have our first Christmas in our house with no decorations. It immediately felt like Christmas. That and the Christmas music made it a great time for moving.

Just to keep things extra exciting and as busy as possible on the 22nd of December Matthew had to have another procedure done on his arm to help get more of his mobility back. They had to put him to sleep but they were able to do what they needed without cutting him open again so he was able to recover a lot quicker then his initial surgery. We were worried he would have a pretty crappy Christmas break but other than a day or two afterwards he felt pretty good and was able to do the things he normally would have.

We used the same movers that moved us into the rental to move us out. They showed up at 9am Saturday and were supposed to be done around 1-2pm but for some reason they decided to bring a smaller truck this time then they did the first time…so when the truck they brought was about half full they realized it was not going to fit everything and they were going to have to do two trips. That made an already long day a little longer but they finished about 6pm and we had all of our stuff in our new home!! We got beds set up for everyone and spent the first night in our new house on December 23,2023. A week shy of two years from the day we bought the land and decided to build.

The next morning we all woke up refreshed and ready for Christmas Eve. We were actually pretty tired from working nonstop for three days to get everything done but we were very happy to be in our home. It was Sunday so we went to church and enjoyed the sacrament program. The Christmas program is one of my favorite weeks at church. There was beautiful music and great talks and thoughts shared. We came home and spend the rest of the day settling into our house, playing games and making Christmas treats. It was a Jones year for Christmas but my family usually doesn’t travel at Christmas because we are all spread out and no one wants to deal with the weather. Grandma and Grandpa Terry came over and joined us for a Christmas Eve dinner of pizza, salad, sparkling grape juice with Christmas Crunch and rolo pretzels for dessert. We same some Christmas songs, read the Christmas story from Luke in the Bible and watched a Christmas movie together. I usually like to have 95% of my shopping done by December 1st and then have it wrapped early in December but that didn’t happen this year because we didn’t have a lot of places to put things and I didn’t want things to get lost so for the first time in my life I had nothing wrapped on Christmas Eve. Ryan and I did it when everyone went to bed. It was fine we got it all done and weren’t up as late as I expected but I prefer my usual method. It is a lot more relaxing. I was pretty stressed that I would fall asleep and forget to do it before Christmas Day.

Christmas Day was a great day. The kids were debating on what time we should all get up. Some of them argued that we should sleep in but in the end the usual wake up time of 6:30 decided on. We opened gifts from Santa and each other and family and then the last gift I opened was the start of a scavenger hunt for the kids for some family gifts from Ryan and I. We were excited with how excited they got about the scavenger hunt. Even Matthew was into it. They figured the clues out pretty quickly and found a family game, a punching bag, and a ping pong table. After the scavenger hunt it was time for breakfast and then relaxing and spending the day assembling gifts and hanging out. Later in the day we went over to Grandma and Grandpa’s to see how their Christmas morning went. Yeah, it was a great day. I love Christmas and I love that we just get to relax and hang out together and not have to do work and other things.

https://youtube.com/shorts/0Ww2OcD-PJc (Christmas morning 2023)

Ryan worked a little bit through the next week until New Year’s but the kids and I were out of school and work. It was great to get to catch up on things I had gotten behind on and get settled into the house and not have all the normal stuff to do as well. We got a little dusting of snow a few of the days.

November…it was…then it wasn’t.

The title for this post is referring to our house. Once things got underway with building it, November 1st was the finish date we were hoping for. Well, it was six months before that but our ‘realistic’ finish date was November 1st. Or I would have settled for any day in November. Our year lease on our rental ended and it would have been a smooth transition to get into our house before the holidays and get settled. However, do due weather, deliveries, availability and everyone not making building my house their top priority 😜 November 1st came and went…along with every other day in November and we did not move into our new house. There was a lot more leg work for me to arrange staying in our rental month to month and getting renter insurance renewed and other never ending menial tasks but we didn’t really have a better option so I did it. Grumpily.

Emilee finished off the family birthdays for the 2023 year in November. She turned 11 years old. This will be her last year in elementary school, she starts Young Women in church in January, and she is still growing like a weed.

She wanted to have a family dinner at a place that throws rolls at you. It is called Lambert’s and it is 4 hours away at Table Rock Lake. We convinced her to go with Texas Road House because they have delicious rolls, and we tossed them to her when she wanted one. ALL the Olathe family was able to make it (except Grandma Terry but we ate cake with her later). Texas Road House doesn’t take reservations and we had a party of 11. They thought splitting our group in half and putting us at opposite sides of the restaurant was the best idea. Even when we pointed out the giant open table next to the one they sat us at that we would have all fit at. So we had an adult and kids table which I think everyone was pretty happy with. Sunday we had cake and ice cream at grandma and grandpa’s house. She wanted dolls and legos for her birthday. It was a successful birthday weekend!

The house wasn’t done in November but it was close enough that the girls could start seeing how they wanted to do their rooms. Emilee wanted to have a wall with triangles all over it with her favorite colors so we did that. I had to reach the tall areas but she did as much of it herself as she could. It turned out very cute! Allison was going to do a blue accent wall in her room but after trying a few samples she decided to go all white.

Emilee was one of the student of the months for November. The school changed it to something a little different this year. They call it “Showing Strength of Character” and they have a few different qualities they are focusing on for the year. It is basically student of the month though. We were very proud of her for being a good student and a good person. She also performed in her last Veteran’s Day Performance for her school as well. Emilee loves to sing and sings a lot at home or church but she does not like school performances-especially if they involve singing. We always give her a hard time because she looks like she wants to disappear when she is up there singing.

https://youtu.be/-fVVLxGqtdU (Veteran’s Day Performance)

Ryan was promoted this year to VP of Sales in his company. He has worked very hard and we are very proud of him. He is awesome. Shortly after his promotion, he moved to a new office. He asked me to come help him organize it so we went and did that one Saturday afternoon. Here are the before and after pictures. He still needs a plant and another picture or two but it looks good!

This year was a Terry Thanksgiving. We ate at Grandma and Grandpa Terry’s house and Becky and Jake and their family came from Idaho. My parents were going to be in Oklahoma with my brother for Christmas because he was having a new baby so they decided to join us for Thanksgiving. We were hoping to be in the new house by then but it didn’t happen so they squished in with us at our rental for the week. We played games and watched movies together. Grandma and Allison made lots of yummy treats. It was pretty cold so we didn’t do to much outside. We were able to fins a few of our holiday puzzles and put them together. We love doing puzzles in November and December. Right before we ate Thanksgiving dinner the cousins that were there decided to put on a Thanksgiving performance for us. Allison and Leah helped organize them and they all did a great job sharing their parts. Here is a link for the video.

https://youtu.be/p6NRBpi_0-E (Terry and Bourne Cousins Thanksgiving Program 2021)

September and October Activities

School got started and we all got back into the routines of our Fall schedules.

Matt took the girls to the bus stop at Grandpa Terry’s on his way to school and picked them up on his way home. During the school year I work three days a week instead of two so it is very helpful that he can take them because their schools are the opposite direction of my work. Fall is Ryan’s travel time for work and he was gone most week for 2-5 days at different trade shows or to help train new sales people.

We did celebrate Matthew’s 17th birthday this month…I apparently didn’t take any pictures! Matthew’s love language and favorite thing to do is eat good food. For his birthday he wanted to have a weekend of yummy meals. We went to a few restaurants- Chick-fil-a, K-machos, and Sake. We made pancakes and sausage and bacon for breakfast without eggs. Well, some of us had eggs but Matthew hates eggs so we didn’t make him eat any. His birthday was on a Sunday so after church we watched lots of football and Matthew didn’t have to do any chores and hung out with his friends as much as he wanted all weekend. It wasn’t his most exciting birthday but hopefully it was still a good birthday. I can’t believe he will be 18 next year!!

Matthew worked at Twisted Sugar as a cookie froster and cashier a few times a week. For the first time in 8 years he didn’t play Fall Ball because he was recovering from his elbow surgery. They thought it would take 4-6 months and it took every bit of that time and a little more. He did physical therapy at least three times a week. He took Campbell to the Homecoming dance.

Allison did wrestling and gymnastics. She was a teachers aid for her art teacher for one of her classes and really likes it. Spanish was not her favorite but she stuck it out. She continued with Girl Scouts as well and her troop went on a camping trip to Oklahoma and did glass blowing and other fun activities.

I have many more of Allison’s wrestling videos on my you tube channel but I will put a few here. She improved a lot this season. She was a lot more aggressive and won most of her matches. Grandma and Grandpa Jones came to visit and were able to see her in person.

We are squishing Allison between our fingers.

https://youtu.be/pB_ImzoA4s0 (Allison wrestling video)

Emilee continued with her horse riding lessons once a week and practicing her piano. She participated in a recital and did a great job.

https://youtu.be/t7fFaeNcF0w (Emilee’s Piano recital link)

We didn’t have baseball every weekend so we did a few family activities on the weekends. Sometimes it was raking leaves or cleaning the house- kids loved it. Sometimes it was lunch together. One of the weekends we finally made it to the WWI museum in downtown KC. It is the only one in the country and we have been meaning to go for years. We finally made it happen. It was pretty good. After we toured the museum and went up the tower to see the city, we went to lunch and stopped at Matthew’s teams baseball game to cheer them on. We highly recommend the museum.

Allison and Leah went to the Taylor Swift Movie of her Eras Tour. They got all dressed up and danced and sang along with the rest of the theater for a few hours. They had a good time. I loved seeing Allison in a cute dress she picked out too. They looked very cute together.

Ryan took the girls to a Royals game for a daddy daughter date. They got to use his company tickets so it was good seats and some yummy food.

To get ready for Halloween we ate chili and carved pumpkins with our cousins at their house. All of our kids can carve their own pumpkins now and they like to get a lot more detailed than I ever did so it is fun to see what they do with their creativity. It’s also awesome that they can clean up their mess now so I don’t have to touch any pumpkin guts.

Dad and I went to a masquerade party with some friends for Halloween. I’m not going to brag but it seemed kind of dead when we got there. People were shy about dancing and wearing their masks. We definitely kicked up the fun vibe and had a good time! Once we started dancing more people were willing to come out of their shells and have fun with us! RJ and I had masks too but they weren’t on for this picture obviously.

For Halloween day Grandpa Terry hosted us our cousins and the McDonalds. We brought the pizza and the witches brew. Then as a new level, Ethan and his girlfriend took the littler kids trick or treating and the rest grouped up and went on their own. The adults got to stay home and eat hot chocolate, hand out candy and play games. It was a little chillier than some years so everyone picked a warm costume or had to add some layers.

Another Fall tradition that we made sure happened was dad made us some of his cinnamon rolls from his grandma Groom’s recipe. They were delicious as always!

We were hoping our house would be done by the beginning of November but it wasn’t quite done yet so we bottled our excitement and tried to handle our impatience for a little longer.

The Race

For the past many years every year on Matthew’s birthday, he has raced his dad. Dead sprint, about 100 yards, winner gets bragging rights for the next year on being the fastest. Of course when this started Ryan smoked Matthew. In recent years Matthew is more and more convinced it will be the year he will win. Once or twice we have had a false start or some shenanigans that has resulted in a race being disqualified and having to run again. Ryan has been the clear winner each year though. This past year when Matthew turned 16 Ryan had a tweaked neck and wasn’t able to race. Then Matthew was sick, then it was winter, then something else and it was many many months after Matthew’s actual 16th birthday and they still hadn’t raced. Both trashed talked each other and said they other was scared to race because they new they would loose. Blah blah blah. They are both talkers. Finally one nice sunny day this Summer I told them both to get outside and race. I can’t remember when exactly they raced Matthew was closer to 17 than 16 (luckily it was before he broke his arm) but we are calling it the 16 year race. After being a late bloomer waiting semi-patiently for growth and puberty to catch up Matthew finally had some man muscle mixed in with his youth. Combined with his dad having old age mixed in with his man muscles and the perfect storm occurred and Matthew had his day. It was a proud moment for him.

Last Days of Summer

After celebrating Grandma and Grandpa’s 50th Anniversary we had a few days of Summer left before school started. We did school shopping and back to school nights. Aaron’s birthday this year was a pretty rainy day. We decided to go see him anyways. Our original plan was to go to the temple and do baptisms that day but Matthew had some doctor appointments and was still pretty limited to being up and about a lot so we bumped that and did it with Grandpa and a friend of Allison’s later. Ryan’s brother David and his wife Jen came up to KC one night and took us to dinner.

Our house was moving along but not ready to move into yet so we stayed at our rental and started another year of school. Matthew had surgery at the end of August on his elbow. They had to reattach some tendons and bone and he was pretty out of it for a few days. Now he is working on getting back into shape for baseball in the Spring.

My sister Sherri got a big promotion at work so DeAnna and I decided to send her a congratulation gift. We settled on a Potato Parcel. It is literally a potato that we had a picture and message printed on. Can’t get more unique than that. We think she liked it.

Then school started!!! Matthew is a Junior. Allison is in 8th grade. Emilee is in 5th grade. This is the last year with one in each school. Next year will be down to only two schools for a while. It was a bit of a rough start, the girls bus driver was new and it took a bit for her to get the girls picked up and to the right school then dropped off at the right spot after school. Matthew missed some school with surgery and Dr appointments. A few weeks in we started to get into our school grove.

Celebrating 50 Years!!

Roger and Rhonda were married for 50 years this past August! They decided they wanted to have a family reunion to celebrate. The plan was originally for a place in Colorado but as it got closer Roger wanted to make a few changes to make it a closer travel location for Rhonda. We moved our plans to Branson Missouri at Table Rock Lake. It is the same place we met last year for a Terry get together and everyone had a great time so we voted to do it again.

We all headed up to the cabin we rented on Sunday afternoon and got settled. It was a nice place. Plenty of bedrooms, a little shy on bathrooms, but we made it work. Everyone was able to come which meant we had 26 people. The first task Roger and Rhonda wanted was a family picture. Lauren did a great job at organizing us and we managed to get some pretty nice pictures. Lauren also makes a collage of pictures of each of the grandkids every few years so she took individual pictures of them to update that for Roger and Rhonda.

Lauren trying to ‘herd cats’. She did great as you will see in the following pictures.

Here are the individual pictures of grandkids. For some reason I don’t have Kiara, Alex or Dalion’s individuals. They are in the family ones though. I believe I have them in youngest to oldest order but there could be a few mistakes in the middle. We start with Kaden, Chloe, (Kiara missing), Sadie, Tristan, Jovee, Alex(missing), Tyler, Emilee, Jesse, Allison, Leah, Dalion(missing), Ethan, Matthew, and Nadia.

Once pictures were done we ate dinner and played games the rest of the evening. Monday we headed to the marina and rented a few boats. We did a speed boat for the older kids to get pulled and bounced around more in the tube and a pontoon for a calmer experience on the tube. It also has a slide so it is fun to anchor and just swim and play in the water around the pontoon. There was lots of fun and everyone had a great time. The weather was perfect.

After lunch things got a little crazy. Ross decided to try skiing. He popped right up and did great. When he was done he let go and his ski flipped up and hit him in the forehead. We pulled him in the boat and could tell he was going to need a few stitches. We drove back to the dock and Roger met him at the boat ramp with the car to take him to urgent care. It took him a few hours but a few shots, some antibiotics, a gnarly headache and 12 stitches later he was back at the cabin. While he was gone the rest of us took a break from the boats for a bit and swam around the docks. Then people were ready to go back out. I went with the little kids and Kris on the pontoon. Ryan and the older kids went on the speed boat with Jake and Becky. About 20 minutes later Matthew fell off the tube and dislocated/broke his elbow. Jake had to jump in and help him back into the boat. Then Rachelle met them at the boat dock with her car and took Matthew and Ryan to the emergency room. Jake came and found me on the boat with Kris and told me what happened. That took the rest of the wind out of the boating sails for the day. We dropped everyone off. Ross had just gotten back from urgent care so we got the boats ready and took them back. Several of our cars were at the marina so I went with them to return the boats and then got my car and went to the hospital. They were pretty backed up and it took about four hours by the time Ryan got there initially and they got us back to a room and medicated, x-rayed and decided they could reset it and he could have surgery later up in Kansas City. It was a rough couple hours. By the time we got home it was pretty late and Matthew was ready for bed.

Tuesday everyone was planning on going to Silver Dollar City. Most people still went to Silver Dollar City (it is a fun amusement park). We tweaked the plans a bit. Emilee doesn’t love roller coasters so Ryan found a horse ride he was planning on doing with her. Roger and Rhonda wanted to stay home. I talked with the Doctors in KC about Matthew’s arm and they said to let him rest a day or two and bring him in on Thursday. So he found a comfy spot on the couch and grandpa kept him supplied with pain meds when he needed and he slept the day away. Ross decided to go on the horse ride instead of the roller coasters to give his head less jerking around and I joined them since it was just an hour or two. It was a pretty good day all things considered.

After everyone’s various activities we all ate dinner together and then had a family gathering to chat and celebrate Roger and Rhonda. Ross and Lauren had made a slide show with lots of pictures from their 50 years of marriage. Roger shared some home videos and everyone shared experiences or asked questions about them, like their first date, places they lived, things like that. It was a fun evening. Becky made a cake and Ross made a plaque for them. I think they had a great evening and enjoyed the family time.

Wednesday we headed back to KC, except for the Lee’s they headed back to Texas. The Bourne’s stayed another day or two and then they went back to Idaho. There was lots of cousin time. Along with grandma and grandpa’s anniversary we celebrated Chole and Allison’s birthday too.

Gulf Shores-July 2023

A few days after getting back from New York we got ready for our family Summer vacation. Matthew had a baseball tournament in Gulf Shores Alabama over the fourth of July so we invited Ross and Lauren to come with us and we found a VRBO to stay at by the beach and added a few extra days to make it our Summer trip.

On our way to drop the Guinea Pigs off and start our vacation!

It was hot! We are used to humidity in Kansas but it took a step up in Alabama. Good thing we were by the beach!

We stopped at Bass Pro in Memphis on the way home for Matthew. He loves exploring a new Bass Pro Shop.

We had several beach days and did some mini golf. We found some Outlet Stores that the girls (and everyone) really liked and spent several hours shopping there. In the evenings we played lots of board games. Ryan and Ross brought at least 30 options of games to play like they usually do and we play 2 of them over and over. Matthew played 7 baseball games. The team has been playing pretty good lately but Matthew personally has been having an amazing season. They took 2nd overall in the tournament for their age group 16U.

On the actual fourth of July we had a cookout on the beach and played in the water a little bit with the whole team. Then watched fireworks from the beach. It was a cool experience. None of us had ever seen fireworks from the beach. It is just a great place to relax and hang out. I think everyone had a nice week.

Last time we were there a few years ago we took pictures at an ice cream shop that we went to. They are some of my favorite pictures. We went back to the same place and took the pictures again in the same poses we did a few years ago. We got some souvenirs at the store and made it out without any new crabs or other living animals.

By the time we drove home I had driven through 14 states within 2 1/2 weeks. It was a busy few weeks for everyone. We squeezed a lot of fun and new memories in this Summer and there are still more to come.

June 2023

Three kids and building a house can keep a person pretty busy in the Summer. As I mentioned in the last post, the girls started their Summer off with a Girl Scout Camp. Matthew started his off with High Adventure in Colorado with the other boys in our church ward his age. They went to the sand dunes and hiked those, and the mountains. They were camped right in the middle of the two. They went white water rafting one day as well. This is his third year of going. He has had a great time each year.

One of Allison’s favorite things to do is shop. She has been doing a little more babysitting lately. She is a really fun babysitter. Way better than I ever was. She always comes up with fun games and scavenger hunts and the kids she watch always have a great time. She watched Emilee and her friend Ethan a lot this Summer. This is a giant gumball machine she found on one of her shopping adventures spending her hard earned money.

Ryan and I had a few adventures in June too. We went to Las Vegas with our friends Dani and RJ. We had a pool day, exploring day and ate at some fun restaurants while we visited and enjoyed our quick weekend getaway together.

Emilee’s one wish for her Summer was to go to a horse camp. She did that at the end of June. She has been doing her regular riding lesson each week still but she wanted to have a full week of riding everyday. The last day they did a horse show for the parents to show what they learned. She had a great time. She still loves horses and hopes to get her own someday.

Another activity Emilee loves and looks forward to each and every Summer is sleeping in. She loves to sleep and would sleep until noon everyday if we let her. Dad had to wake her up one morning “early” which means before 9AM and he thought it was hilarious getting her to wake up. She wanted nothing to do with it.

Matthew kept busy with work and baseball and weight lifting after he got back from High Adventure. He went to FSY towards the end of June. It was in Warrensburg MO at the college there. He was able to room with his cousin Ethan and several of his other good friends were there. He said it was a fun time and one of his favorite parts was the testimony meeting the last night they were there. That makes me happy that he went and had a good experience.

Matthew and Carter making cooking to entertain themselves one afternoon.

Allison went to another girls camp at the end of June with two of her friends from school that are also in her troop. It was in Tulsa Oklahoma. I picked them up and they told me all about it on the way home. They had a mean counselor, it was ridiculously hot and the food was awful but they still had a great time together. Allison wore a swim suit that had the American flag on it and got the nick name Ms America for it. She came home with an American flag cowgirl had covered in sequence do go along with her nick name. She loved it.

Here are some random other pictures I have from this month that I’ll add to the end of this post.

Birthday party for Ethan Huntsman at Main Event

May 2023

If you have kids in school May is a crazy month. All the end of the year activities, awards, tests, field days, performances, and wrapping up Spring sports gets crammed into three weeks or less.

Mother’s Day was on a bit of a hectic weekend, we had baseball and softball games. This is the last year I will have one of my own kids singing to me in the Primary at church too. That is a little sad. I told Emilee to sing really loud and make my last Mother’s Day song a good one. She did. She likes to sing. Later that month when school ended and we were cleaning out back packs I found this that Emilee had made for me and forgot to give me. I am a great taxi driver. I get A LOT of practice.

Emilee tired her hand at softball again this Spring. With her glasses she did really well! Imagine that. It was a fun team of girls. They grew a lot through the season and ended up winning their tournament at the end and claiming their spot as The Blue Valley Rec 4th Grade Girls Softball Champions. After the season was over the girls challenged the parents to a game and beat us. Emilee got the, Most Improved Player award. She had a really important hit in the last season game that let them score and get into the playoffs. I think she has found a sport that she really likes and wants to continue with.

Matthew wrapped up school baseball and jumped right into Club Baseball. He has had a good season so far and is really enjoying himself. He has been hitting and fielding well. He earned his way back to leadoff hitter and is the starting short stop. He was thinking of doing football in the Fall but decided to keep focused on just baseball for now. He has grown a lot but isn’t quite big enough that he wants to go up against other people and get tackled by people who have 40+ pounds on him.

Allison made honor roll and I was able to go see her get her award. She is looking forward to 8th grade and being the leaders in the school. She is excited that she went to the same elementary school and then middle school from start to finish without switching schools. Her and her friends decided to add a Hawaiian theme to their last day of school and they all dressed up.

Her gymnastic team made it to regionals and they traveled down to Wichita to compete. Allison did really well and had a fun time. Her coach was leaving McCracken’s where Allison has been for the last 7 years. Allison decided she wanted to follow her so after Regionals we changed to Element Gymnastics. I think it will be a good fit for her. She will get a lot more one on one training.

School always gets out the Thursday before Memorial Day Weekend. For our first Summer activity we went to Arkansas and spent the weekend at Dave and Jen’s house. Matthew wasn’t able to come because he had work and baseball but the four of us had a good time. The kids love swimming with their cousins in their pool whenever they feel like it. We did an outdoor movie, games, roasted smores, did a little shopping and had a fun time visiting with everyone.

After we got back from Arkansas the girls got ready for their Girl Scout Day camp that they have gone to for the last several years. Allison is one of the youth leaders now. She likes having a little more freedom to pick what she does and spends a lot of her time with the little kids area of all the younger kids of the volunteers running the camp. She likes to do the sleepover the first night with the older girls too. She usually found Emilee once or twice throughout the day to say hello too. Dad went on Saturday and was a leader for Emilee’s group. She loved having him there. Allison didn’t go the last day of camp because she had something else going on. They handed out awards on the last day and Allison ended up winning “Best Swap” that year (it is a trinket each girl makes to trade with other girls and they pin them on their hats) Emilee went up and accepted the award for her since she was gone.

I thought I already mentioned this but its pretty big so I will again. After 3+ years, and countless false promises of “one more month” Allison finally got her braces off! She was and still is pretty excited. Now we have the constant battle of getting her to wear her retainers. 🤣🤣

Last But Of Course Not Least

April wouldn’t be April if it wasn’t Easter…unless Easter was in March that year. We had a nice Easter weekend and home in Olathe. We went to church and then had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Terry and Ross and Lauren and their family. We opened Easter baskets at our house but the kids wanted to do an Easter Egg Hunt together so the parents hid the eggs for them outside. It was a beautiful Sabbath day to celebrate the resurrection of out Savior.

Even the boys wanted in on the Easter Egg Hunt

Moving Right Along to April

We thought this year might creep by slowly while we wait for our house to be built. Sometimes it does seem like it is taking forever but overall it does seem to be flying by. Once Spring Break was over and it is the 8 week stretch until school is out for the Summer it really seems to fly.

It was a cold Spring but there were a few nights in April we were able to light up the fire pit and make some smore’s in the back yard. Mmmmm we all love a good smore.

Emilee was selected as the Student of the Month which they now call Leader of the Month. Luckily they awarded it on a Friday so I was able to watch her get it. They do a little intro about the person before they say who it is. They said a lot of nice things about her- she helps others, gets her work done, is kind, loves to read, is a good listener. As soon as they said this person loves horses and knows all kinds of facts about horses everyone knew the teacher was talking about Emilee.

I was a good girl and did my workout before her award ceremony even though that meant I had to show up stinky and gross. Good thing you can’t smell pictures.

Our church had a Prom Night. Matthew’s high school only lets upper classmen go to the prom. Or you can be invited to the prom by an upper classmen. Matthew didn’t go to the school prom. When the church said they were having a stake prom I asked him no less than 12 times if he and his friends were going to get a group together and go to the dance several months, and weeks in advance. You don’t have to dress formal but a lot of people do. He told me each of those 12 times that he was not planning on doing that. The day of the prom he texted me from school to tell me that he and a group of kids were going to go to prom and he was taking Campbell.🤦‍♀️ At least he had given her a few more days notice than he did me so she was able to find a dress and Matthew just wore his church clothes, no tux. They both had baseball/softball practice until 6:30 so they missed dinner and ended up just going to the dance. After the dance they had an after party were they are supposed to dress up as something together. They changed back into their baseball/softball uniforms and went together like that. I got no group pictures. They had a fun night. That is is the difference between a boy and girl. Boys are zero planning time, you have to drag details out of them and beg other moms for pictures. Girls want 12 outfit options, tell you all the tea and have pictures of every second of the night. Is it not adorable that they both were the number 14?!

Allison was busy doing track everyday after school in March and April. She decided to do the pole vault, discus and shot put. She did a lot of running and got in good shape. The coaches didn’t do much coaching for her events so it was more of a figure it out on your own thing. We were proud of her for trying something new and putting all the effort she put into her practices and meets. I tried to go running with her a few times. I am a tread mill runner IF I run- I like the AC on a fan in my face and stopping exactly where I started as soon as I am done. She kicked my but when we would run together. She loved the social part of it and overall had a good time. She ended the season not sure if she wanted to do it again. If she does she wants to drop shot put and discus and do the high jump instead. If she decides to do it again we will have to see about finding her a private coach to teach her the pole vault and high jump.

Emilee is trying her hand at softball again this Spring. So far it is going 100% better just for the fact that she has glasses now and can see the ball. She joined her bestie Reese’s team and it is a good fit for her. She has improved a lot in catching, throwing and hitting. We all try and help her practice batting and playing catch at home. Hopefully she sticks with it for a few more years.

Matthew made the JV baseball team. They had a really good season. A little more than half way through the season he was moved to practicing with the varsity team and going to all their games. He still played JV games but then he would go to all the varsity games and warm up with them and pinch run for them a few times. The Varsity team went to State he got to go with them and had a great experience. They lost their first game and were out but still had fun. He is hoping to get to go again his Junior and/or Senior year when he is a full time varsity player. He has grown a bit and has a little more strength behind his swing and throw so he is really enjoying himself when he plays now. It is fun to watch him.

These are the three JV players that moved up to varsity.

This was the Regional Game they won to go to State

Spring Break

We tried to squeeze some fun things in for Spring Break this year. We started with Ryan and I taking the girls to Pinot’s Palette. It is a painting place. They teach you to paint a picture and you get to take it home when your done. The night we went was glow in the dark night too. So we had all the lights off and painted with a black light only. The picture looked way different when they turned the regular lights back on. It was a lot of fun. When we were done we went to get a cookie from Matthew who was working at his job at Twisted Sugar and couldn’t come with us. We showed him our pictures but mixed them up and had him guess who painted which picture. He didn’t guess any of us correctly.

Ryan and Matthew were finally able to go on the trip they had planned for Spring Break in March 2020 that was cancelled due to COVID. They went to Spring Training for the Royals in Arizona. They got lots of manly activities and manly talk in over the few days they were there. They saw several baseball games. Matthew ran into one of his former baseball buddies at one of them. They did some golfing, ate lots of pizza and other manly junk food. They also went to an NBA game and had a blast.

They ran into Frank and Eli Goldstein from Matthew’s baseball team while they were there and watched a game with them.

About mid week Matthew flew home and Ryan drove to Vegas with a mission buddy of his for their annual man-trip were they spend as much time watching as many March Madness basketball games as they can between eating at delicious buffets and trips to Bass Pro.

Left to Right- Sam, Ryan, Cory and Mike.

The girls and I stayed at home and did some fun activities on our own. We did Urban Air trampoline park, movies, sleepovers with cousins, and some rock climbing. THe weather in Arizona was beautiful. The weather in Kansas was not-we even had snow a few times. We all had a good week doing things with each other and others. Then when is was all done and we were all home we went to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant- K Macho’s and told each other all about it. It was overall a pretty good spring break.

Grandpa Brent

My moms dad was not feeling well and went to the doctors to figure out what was going on towards the end of November last year. It wasn’t good news. He had a very aggressive form of leukemia. They said he probably had 4-6 months left. They had a few options for treatment but the doctors said that none of them would prolong his life more than a few months. To make the treatments even harder my grandpa was starting to have some dementia and would often forget he had cancer and not want to cooperate with tests and other things he needed to do.

They decided to choose the treatment option that was by were they lived so he could stay at home. They did the first treatment right around Christmas and he seemed to respond really well. The doctors said they would keep giving him the treatments every four weeks until they weren’t effective anymore. He had a good Christmas and New Years. All of his kids and other friends and family came to see him. When he went in for the second treatment they checked the cancer and it was exponentially worse. His symptoms had been getting worse quickly as well as his dementia. They doctors said there wasn’t any point in doing more treatments. So they went home and got hospice set up at the house and kept him as comfortable as they could.

Grandpa Brent (wearing a hat with his Brand on it) and Grandma June.

I talked with him on the phone a few times. He seemed to know me most of the time. He was more talkative if I talked about things 10-15 years ago that we did. So he would tell me about going out to check on the cows and tell me how the farm was doing. On January 31, 2023 he passed away.

I was able to go out for his funeral. Everyone was there except the rest of my family, and my brother John and his family. Most of them live there already or no more than three hours away. Sherri and her family and my parents and I had the farthest to travel. I stayed at my grandmas house with my parents and my aunt Peggy and her daughter Sam. My sweet grandma can probably count the number of nights she has been without my grandpa since they got married on one hand. She seemed pretty lost. She spent as much time as she could at the funeral home sitting with my grandpa’s body. My sister DeAnna and I were talking and we both said we remember grandma saying since we were tiny that if Grandpa died first she was just going to crawl in the casket with him and let them bury them both. Since he passed away she hasn’t been sleeping more than 1-3 hours a night. She told Sherri she doesn’t know how to think on her own without him. It will take a bit for her to get used to her new normal.

My Granparents house and a few other pictures from their house that remind me of them.

There is a lot of drama in my moms family. The Call’s are a strong willed, determined, opinionated, sometimes prideful bunch. The last 15 years or so has had a lot of family drama and divisions in it. There were a few people that were pretty worried about how things would go at the funeral. There was some stupid petty stuff that happened but for the most part it was ‘behind the scenes’ and other than unnecessary stress on my Grandma the preparations and funeral went pretty smoothly.

When the viewing started the night before the funeral my Grandma could barely keep herself composed and sometimes didn’t. Before it even officially started there was a line of people out the room down the hall and to the exit door of the church. It stayed like that until 30 minutes after it officially ended. I think it really helped my Grandma to realize how many people loved her and my Grandpa and came to share their grief with her. They lived in Grant Idaho for over 50 years. My grandpa was pretty active in the community and church so he was a part of a lot of peoples lives. I saw several people that I remembered or new from visiting there in the Summers when I was growing up. Other than one of my uncles showing up high as a kite on something with his obnoxious ‘friend’ it was uneventful. There were several people there with the potential to cause a scene so it was a relief to just have the one.

The next day at the funeral there was another long line waiting to talk with her that even with the funeral home people ending it so they could start the funeral on time went 20 minutes over. It was a nice funeral. My grandma kept her head down and couldn’t look at anyone but she said she liked what was said and thought it went well. I learned a lot of things that my grandpa did and participated in that I didn’t know. It was also fun to hear the things people shared that I remembered or new he loved or did. He tried to be a good example and leader for his family and community. He was a doer and a go getter. He had an amazing drive and work ethic.

At the gravesite after it was dedicated my Grandma requested that The Rose be played. It was one of my grandpa’s favorite songs. It was very sweet and touching. I think my Grandma would have sat there all day if they would let her. Eventually everyone left and my Grandma was taken back to the church for lunch. After the lunch everyone dispersed to their own homes. My sisters and I were at my Grandmas a bit before they left. She slept a lot in her chair which was good. She needed any sleep she could get. She doesn’t like to be alone but doesn’t want to move out of her home or have someone move in with her. She decided to go with my mom to Florida for awhile for a change of scenery and to think about what she wants to do going forward. I hope it is good for her and she can start to heal and rally a little while she is there.

After the viewing my cousin Jarom offered his office for all the cousins to get together and hangout for a while. I was back and forth on going but ended up going. I feel a little bit out of place in the family as to were I fit. I was the oldest grandchild by several years. When I had other cousins come along they were my siblings age so I didn’t really play with them. I babysat them sometimes but I didn’t have a cousin I hung out with. Since I was the only grandchild for a while I hung out with my aunts most of the time. The two youngest are 9 and 11 years older than me. So that is who I spent most of my time with but as everyone has gotten older I have been reminded by some of them that I am a grandchild not a sibling…in case I forgot I guess. So I ended up having that realization while I was at the cousin dinner and was able to verbalize to myself what I was feeling all weekend. It was still a good time and now that most of them are older and have families the gap is a little smaller and we have more in common now. My Great Grandpa had a pocket watch that he wanted passed down from Grandfather to the oldest Grandson that would be carrying on the Call name. My cousin Jarom had been holding the watch for his son Levi that will some day pass it onto his Grandson. They brought the watch and passed it around and let everyone see it. It still works, and has a elk etched on the back and the chain has the two (one has been lost) ivory elk teeth (I also learned that elk have two teeth that are ivory) from an elk my great grandpa shot.

I flew home the day after the funeral. I arrived just in time to see the fireworks go off from the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl. It was good to see my family and spend some time with my Grandma, I am glad to be home.

One of my cousins spouses put a book together for my Grandma with memories from the grandkids about Grandpa. Here is what I put in it;

Over the past few days I have seen some happy memories posted of Grandpa on Facebook. Several of them mentioned things that I have memories of too. Checking cows. Summer and Winter days at the cabin. Burnt cookies, and watching movies (The Man From Snowy River most of the time). I also remember the dairy barn, milking cows, checking baby calves, ‘short’ drives to the farm that turned into spending the whole day at the farm. Checking and changing water. Helping with potato harvest. Water skiing, family reunions, The Playmill, snowmobiling. Driving to the store and getting ‘lost’ in Yellowstone for hours on end.

I learned to never get in a vehicle with Grandpa without a few snacks because it was never ‘just a quick’ drive. From the time I was a teenager one of the things he would often tell me on our drives was to always keep a quarter with me so I could always call him if I needed to. About the time I was going to college he was telling me again and I told him I hadn’t seen a pay phone for years. He just looked at me and said, “Well, figure it out.” I laughed and told him I will always think of him when I see a quarter, and I do.

One of the earliest memories I have of Grandpa Brent is ‘hide the beanies.’ I am not going to explain more. If you know you know. (To further explain this. When I was little 3 maybe 4 I was often taking a bath before bed about the time that Grandpa would come home from working) If he heard us splashing around in the tub he would make a big deal about covering his eyes as he walked by to his bedroom so he didn’t have to see any naked beanies in the bathtub. He would say, “I’m walking by hide all the beanies. I don’t want to see any beanies!!” It always made my sisters and I giggle.)

I have pictures opening up Christmas presents at Grandpa’s house when I am way to young to remember. We lived close for a short time when I was young and then it was anywhere from 4-20 hour car rides to come visit depending on where we lived. When we would arrive Grandma would come running from the garden or wherever she was at to give us all hugs. If it wasn’t dark Grandpa would still be working out at the farm and we would see him when he got home. He loved to give me a hug in his dirty coveralls. Sometimes I would help him take his boots off. I still remember the smell of dirt and grease on him. I would always tell him he cleaned up pretty nice when we would go to church. I remember the smell of his cologne and leather boots and belt.

I remember a light blue car, maybe a Buick. The interior was covered in matching light blue velvet. There was an ABBA cassette in it and he and Grandma would play Chiquitita over and over for me when we were driving. It is still one of my favorite songs.

Sometimes Grandpa would try to convince you to do something by betting you that you couldn’t. Sometimes I took the bait, other times we would just agree to disagree. One of my visits he brought home a Big Judd’s burger and challenged me that I couldn’t eat the whole thing. I did and topped it off with an ice cream sandwich. For the next 10 years he introduced me as the grandchild that could eat a whole Big Judd Cheeseburger.

It was nice to go to college at Ricks/BYUI for a few years and get to see both Grandma and Grandpa more often. I would come do my laundry and spend the day at Grandma’s and usually stay long enough to eat dinner if I didn’t get there early enough to see him before he left. One year he took me to get new tires on my car for winter. He teased me about how often I had to eat (apparently 3-4 times a day is high maintenance) but I was always welcome to join them for dinner whenever I wanted.

I remember dancing with Grandpa at my wedding reception. Shortly after I was married and living in Kansas I came home from work for a lunch break and heard a knock at the door. Grandma and Grandpa were standing at our front door, driving around the country to who knows where and decided to stop by for a minute. It was a pretty awesome surprise.

I have four generation pictures with each of my kids and Grandma and Grandpa. I will always treasure them. I love you Grandpa Brent. I’m glad I got to talk with you one last time a few weeks ago. Thank you for all the memories and talks. I didn’t always do what you said but I liked to listen and spend time with you. I will miss you and miss giving you a hug and kissing your scruffy cheek.

Until we meet again.

Love always, Janae

Busy Weekends

January was a typical January. Kind of slow. Just the way I like it so we can recover and relax from the busy months before. By the end of January baseball, horse lessons, piano, gymnastics were all up and going. We had lots of things going on each weekend so Ryan and I would divide and concur the best that we could.

Like he does each year, Grandpa Terry started off one of the weekends in January celebrating his birthday. He turned 71. We told him we would make or get any food he wanted for his dinner and strongly hinted at BBQ. He said he wanted to go with easy to get, eat, and clean up so he picked pizza. After asking him 5 times to make sure he really didn’t want BBQ we picked up some pizza (we made sure one had every topping they offer on it just for Grandpa) and we celebrated with dinner followed by cake. His boys and his two oldest grandsons took him on an axe throwing adventure. They all felt very manly and proud of themselves when they got back. Ethan was concerned about not being able to throw the axe far enough and ended up being the best of them at it. Rhonda made a chocolate cake and a cherry cheesecake for him. In true pre-covid fashion we put candles on the cake and he blew them all out. I am all for blowing out candles but I think taking a piece for the birthday person and putting the candles on just their piece to spit on when they blow out is more my style. However, I am often overruled though and called a germ-a-phob or fun hater. All in all I think Grandpa had a fun birthday.

The next day was another big day. Ryan’s biological mom Sherrie, her husband Dave, daughter Genevieve and her son Eric came up to finally meet Rhonda and Roger in person. It has been a highly anticipated meeting since we found Sherrie two years ago. Ryan was a nervous wreck all week. He was really worried Rhonda would change her mind or hurl back handed ‘compliments’ or barely veiled insults when she met Sherrie. The day before they came, Rhonda decided she wanted to call Sherrie and talk with her over the phone first. They said they ended up talking for three hours and it was a great conversation. That put Ryan at ease a little bit and when they arrived in person it went pretty well. We all sat around and talked for a bit then Rhonda and Sherrie kind of split off and talked and looked at photos. Gen and Dave talked with the rest of us and Eric jumped right in to play with Emilee and Jovee. Rhonda and Sherrie just kept talking. Everyone else went to Top Golf and played games. Rhonda told me afterwards that she was really glad she finally met her and she really liked Sherrie. She said she felt like she was talking with a long lost friend. Ryan and I were very happy that they got along and made a friend in each other.

Instead of going golfing with everyone, Allison and I headed to Salina Kansas for a gymnastic tournament. She did a pretty good job. She placed 9th overall, and had one of her best bar routines yet. She is still loving gymnastics. We are proud of her for how hard she works and how much effort she puts into it. Right when we arrived it started snowing so by the time we left a few hours later there was a pretty good snow storm. We had to go a little slower but we were still able to make it home.

Vermin

About a week into the New Year, it was a regular evening. The kids were all at youth night at the church. I sat down to work on a puzzle we had out from Christmas. Ryan said he was going down to the basement to work on the computer. We were set up for a nice relaxing evening after work and the events of the day. A few minutes later Ryan called me to come look at something. After a sigh, one more sip of my hot chocolate and begrudgingly unwrapping from my cocoon of my favorite blanket I went downstairs.

He had found little black things scattered around the top of the desk and couldn’t figure out what they were. We thought they were insects…dirt…crumbs…they weren’t much bigger than a flake of pepper. We weren’t sure, we wiped them up and decided to see if they came back. I went back upstairs, wrapped back up in my cocoon. A few seconds later I snapped a satisfying piece into my puzzle and the words ‘mouse poop’ popped in my head. I have never seen mouse poop so I wasn’t sure. I decided to google it- sure enough that’s what it was. Ryan had the same thought and we both hollered to each other that we thought is was mouse poop at the same time. We looked around and found a few more spots that had evidence of the disgusting rodents. Immediately everything in our clean cozy little house turned to contaminated, dirty, soiled nastiness in my mind. So instead of relaxing and enjoying our evening we cleaned up everything we found, bundled up and went out in the nasty cold weather to Menards to get some mouse traps. I was still hoping it wasn’t mice, Ryan was pretty certain. We decided to buy one of each kind of trap and see which ones worked and get more of those. We told the kids to pick up any messes and no food was allowed anywhere outside the kitchen and dishes had to be done ASAP after eating.

We crawled into bed. Wondering if there were just mice running around the house like they owned the place every night. Then I heard Allison crying in her room. I went to see what was wrong and she was distraught that we were going to torture the mice and kill them. I tried to explain we weren’t torturing them but we were going to kill them. We came to the agreement that we would use traps that killed them immediately or caught them alive and then dad would take them to the field by his work and release them AND provide video evidence of their release. Crisis averted we went to bed.

The next morning we had THREE dead mice!! THREE!! To make matters a little worse the only traps that worked were the sticky pads…not Allison approved. They completely avoided the rest of the traps. That day was spent cleaning, disinfecting, throwing things away, and putting anything the mice might take as food into a plastic storage bin with a lid. We bought a lot more sticky pads. I researched mice and learned way more then I ever wanted to know about them. Allison made it clear that her trust in us was gone and we were murderers. We had a lengthy conversation about why mice are gross and shouldn’t cohabitate with humans. I apologized that we were going to be using the sticky traps. I had not lied to her but now that I had more information then the night before I had to update our plans. She couldn’t get the image out of her head that they would bite there own legs off to get away from the sticky traps. I told her I thought the sticky traps had poison on them or something because the mice were all dead in the morning.

We ended up catching multiple mice several days in a row, for a grand revolting total of seven. I kept thinking I couldn’t believe we had seven mice running around and no idea. More mice than people!!! I don’t think they were here very long though. The week of Christmas it got really cold. Several days of -5 or more. We think that is when they moved in under the sink for warmth. I deep cleaned the entire house before we moved in and never saw any evidence. I had cleaned several times since we moved in and not seen any either. Since we caught number seven we have seen no more evidence and the traps are checked and moved around regularly. Hopefully we are done with the gross disease carrying vermin.

That was the end of the mice drama until about a week after the last mouse was caught. Allison stepped on a sticky trap. She had a shoe on but was concerned she was going to spread poison all over the house.🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️

December

As most Decembers are, ours was pretty busy. I did a poor job of documenting it with photos. I can still write about it.

We did a lot of our usual traditions. We drove around and looked at lights while listening to Christmas music and drinking hot chocolate.

We did some service-this year most of us were able to help with the local Christmas Bureau. They set up a giant store basically for people that need a little extra help and then they can come shop at the store- but it doesn’t cost money. We helped man the store while people were shopping and take it down and store everything left when it was over. Allison enjoyed helping people pick out a coat if they needed one.

Ryan and I went to a White Elephant party. All of us went to the ward Christmas party. It was a lot of fun. Yummy food, good music, lots of visiting. There was a photo area and we had full intentions of taking a family photo but we couldn’t locate all of us at the same time to take it and missed our chance. Matthew got one with his buddies though.

I didn’t think about leaving out some puzzles from storage for Christmas. We usually have a puzzle out to work on most of December. We were able to borrow a few from Grandma and we got a new one to work on too. Lots of Christmas music, hot chocolate, Christmas movies, wrapping, buying, gifting. We decorated a ginger bread house. We made and decorated sugar cookies. Our elf Bubbit sent his cousin and reindeer so we found them each morning too. It was a nice month, I think we all enjoyed the family time and celebrating Christmas together.

Christmas Eve was supposed to be at Grandma and Grandpa Terry’s house with a big dinner and then reading the story together, singing, and hanging out while we played games. Becky and her family came from Idaho and brought Covid and RSV with them so we stayed away for a few days. So we ended up doing all the things I said but we did them with just our family at Ross and Lauren’s house. We did go over later on Christmas day and we had a family dinner the day after Christmas with everyone.

Christmas Day we were up and ready to open presents by seven. We opened everything and had breakfast and checked out our new gifts. Emilee got her roller skates, Allison got lots and lots of squishmallows, and Matthew got his air soft gun. Then we went to church. It was just sacrament meeting and it was a really nice service. There was lots of music which I love. Then we had a the rest of the day to eat junk food and play with the new toys and games.

Between Christmas and New Years we had an artic wind blow in. It was -5 degrees for about a week. Gross. We played with cousins a lot. Emilee really wanted to see the new movie called Puss and Boots so we all went to that together. We went to Urban Air one day and let the kids all get their energy out on the trampolines. My sister Sherri and her family came to visit about mid week. We found some space to squeeze them in while they were here. Matthew moved to the basement. He had snacks, a fridge and a TV down there so we didn’t see him to often. One day was warm enough we went to the park down the street to play. We caught up on the movies we hadn’t had a chance to see. Sherri and I got our nails done and went shopping together. It was a fun visit.

We also turned Allison’s grumpy picture into a meme.

For New Years Eve Sherri and I got some things to play some games with the kids. Ryan made some BBQ and we had lots of snacks to munch on. We played the games we did and then the kids played while we watched a movie. When it was almost midnight we busted out the glow sticks and celebrated the new year. Matthew is now old enough to go out with his own friends and do his own thing so we didn’t get to enjoy his company New Years Eve. He went to a Stake Dance with his friends, then to Twisted Sugar to eat to much sugar, then to Campbell’s house to finish the evening.

2022 was a pretty good year- hopefully we keep that trend going in 2023.

It is always a little crazy to look back over the past year and realize how much happened in a year. Some of it we expected some of it we didn’t. The highlights for me are usually the trips and family events we do. Ryan and I had our 20th anniversary trip to Europe. We decided to buy a lot and build a house. We went to Branson a few times, one of them a Terry family reunion with boating and Silver Dollar City. A sister trip to Texas. Countless activities with the kids- gymnastic meets, wrestling matches, horse riding lessons, baseball games, concerts. The kids all spent some time in Florida with Grandma and Grandpa Jones. I went to Utah for my Grandma’s funeral. Then we decided to sell the house and move into a rental while they build our new one. It was quite a year. I am grateful we were able to do all those things and more. We are very blessed.

News From The North Pole

Our Elf Bubbit usually shows up around the 10th of December. This week Emilee found a letter from him hiding in one of the stockings. It looks like we will have some antics from his cousin this year and a visit from his Hershey Kiss Pooping Reindeer.

Thanksgiving

This year was a quieter Thanksgiving. It was a great Thanksgiving. We switch off families each year, it was my families turn. Sometimes we have a get together sometimes we don’t. Everyone ended up doing their own thing this year. We stayed here in Olathe. Roger and Rhonda were here too so we ate with them. Roger did the turkey, Rhonda did the rolls and pies, I did the rest of the sides. It was a delicious meal followed by good visiting, naps, games, and leftovers. The rest of the weekend was low key too. It isn’t very often that we have nothing going on and can just relax and enjoy hanging out together. We played games, did a little Christmas shopping, put up Christmas decorations, and made some holiday treats.

Allison and I were making hot chocolate mixing spoons to hand out to people. She found a mold for teeth while we were doing it and made some pretty realistic looking chocolate dentures.

As usual once Thanksgiving is here the holiday season takes off and there are parties, events, service opportunities, and holiday traditions to do almost every night. It is a wonderful time of year.

We Made A Big Decision

I have mentioned before that we found some land and decided to build a house earlier this year. We were planning on living in our house until the new house was built and then sell. The market for selling houses has been crazy high and houses sell fast the past few months. We have been watching it and it hasn’t started to go down but it has definitely plateaued. That started making us nervous that by the time we were ready to sell our house next Spring our Fall the market would have dropped and we wouldn’t make as much equity as we wanted to. We talked about it with our realtor and thought about it for a few weeks. We decided we would regret it if we didn’t at least try and sell it this Fall and get what we want. If we didn’t get our asking price we wouldn’t sell and could try again in the Spring. If prices drop we at least tried. If we got what we were asking then we make a nice profit and finances are a little easier for the next year.

So September 6th we officially decided to put our house on the market ASAP. Pictures were scheduled to be taken on the 14th and it would list on the 16th. I immediately started ‘staging’ the house. We got a storage unit and packed all the clutter and things we won’t need for awhile away. About the second day into my week to prepare I got sick. It ended up being COVID. The first time I have had COVID to my knowledge. I would say my symptoms-flu like- were moderate. I didn’t really have time to be sick so I would clean, pack, and organize until I had to rest for bit then lay down for 20-30 minutes until I could work some more. It was pretty miserable. My family helped a little but Ryan was traveling a lot, the kids were at school and had after school activities so most of it was left to me. I got it done and pictures were taken and turned out great. We went live with our listing on a Friday. We had three showings schedule for that day. The night before Emilee said she wasn’t feeling well so she stayed home. She was much better Friday but I kept her home just in case. Friday when I was going through and making sure the house was ready to show to the people coming in less than an hour, I went into Matthew’s room and found him still in bed. He said he was sick. He had caught COVID from me like Emilee did. I told him he had to get up and we could go sleep at Grandpa’s for the day. He said he couldn’t move and he would just lay their quietly while people walk through. He was disappointed that was not an option. The two sicko’s and I made it to Grandma’s house. They were put in bed and confined to the basement. We got two good offers Friday. When one of the offers heard we had gotten another offer, they countered their own offer and raised it to an even better offer. We decided to accept it and took the house of the market and cancelled the rest of our showings that weekend. Keeping a house ‘show ready’ with three kids and a big picture not detail oriented husband is not easy. It was a huge blessing to sell it so quickly. I can’t imagine having to do it for weeks or months.

It was mid September when we sold it. We had until November 1st to move out. I had looked at a few apartments and houses to rent in anticipation of selling our house. Ryan and I went and looked at a few of them that same weekend. We wanted to stay fairly close to were we were at and pay less than our current mortgage. We were a little concerned when we saw the first few in the price range we wanted to stay. We ended up finding one that was three miles from our old house and had just had a lot of updates and you could tell the owners take good care of it. We applied to rent and by the middle of the following week we were approved and could move in October 1st.

I have cropped these photos many times and they still keep the black around them. I can’t figure out how to get rid of it. I wanted to put some of the pictures from our house in here to help us remember.

We decided to stay in our home as long as possible. When I wasn’t working or doing the usual kids activities or maintaining our own house, laundry and meals I spent the rest of my time cleaning the rental and taking car loads of things over. It was helpful to have more time to go through everything and really get rid of things that we didn’t need or box things up in storage that we can live without for a year. We had some friends help us load the smaller items and boxes in a U-haul a week before the movers came and brought the bigger furniture and heavy items. Ryan was traveling a lot for work so most of it I did on my own. It was very stressful and I was exhausted non-stop. I wanted to enjoy the last few weeks in our house too. I did my best to remind myself to not be grumpy when I was tired and help the kids enjoy their last month too. It was a good house for us. Despite the builder ripping out the staircase the day before we moved in and taking a year to fix things that were screwed up on or never finished in the first place, it was a great home for us. We lived there 7 1/2 years. Lots of memories and growing up with our kids happened there. We put a lot of work into it. We didn’t think we would ever move so we made it our forever home.

All of our belongings were moved in on Friday October 28th and we started sleeping at the rental then. I also had the Primary Sacrament Program to practice and do that weekend so we didn’t get much unpacking done. Ryan had the idea to eat one last family dinner together at the house on Saturday night. It was a really nice evening. Allison and I got Subway and everyone else got sushi. We met at the house and had a nice meal together. Ryan had told everyone to think of some of their favorite memories to share with each other. Once we started sharing we started remembering more and more things. We talked about Christmas mornings, nerf gun games we played, Easter egg hunts, things that got broken (some that Ryan and I knew about, some we didn’t), funny moments-Allison ‘accidentally’ calling 911. Allison evacuating the family including the guinea pigs when the fire alarm went off. Dad responding to a question of Emilee’s over the Alexa and farting, Alexa catching it and announcing his answer and his fart to the whole house. Matthew hiding under his bathroom sink in the cabinet for over an hour and the rest of us not being able to find him. We had a really nice night reminiscing and remembering the good times and memories we made together.

We still owned the house until November first so we decided to do one more of the traditions we had started in our home. Each year for Halloween since we moved in the McDonald family has come over on Halloween to celebrate with us. We have pizza and witch’s brew (home made root beer with dry ice) for dinner. Then the kids get in their costumes, we leave a bowl of candy on the porch and we go trick or treating. The past couple years Ross and Lauren have joined us as well. Over the years we have had 2-3 groups that form based on how fast they move between houses. This year the older girls went on their own. The dads followed the faster group of middle aged kids, and the moms went with Linnea the youngest. She makes it around the little block of streets and then is done. We can then go home and hand out any candy that is left and warm up and relax at the house until the other groups make it back. As they trickle in there is a giant candy swap in the living room. Sometimes we play a game, or sometimes we just visit until its time to go home.

There was no furniture (or kitchen supplies) in the house this year so we ate pizza but bought root beer instead of making it. The empty living room was loved by all of the kids because they could really spread out for the candy swap. It was a fun night and a good way to have our last night in that house. When we loaded the last few things into the car to leave for the last time Ryan and I walked through the house one more time and turned off the lights for the last time. It was a little sad but we are excited to start the next adventure in our lives.

Somehow on google maps our house pulls up as Matthew Terry’s house. I am sure it will get changed at some point but I took a picture for nostalgia purposes.

We have 11 months left on the lease at our rental. They are pouring the foundation for our new house any day now. Hopefully between now and then we have a finished house to move into. We hope it will be our last move- EVER and we want to make it so that it will fit our lives from now, until we are empty nesters, until are kids come visit with their own families and until we are old and want to just stay at home, until we don’t need a home anymore.

Last Week of Summer

After the reunion we had a week left before school started. We got all the school supplies, clothes, shoes, did back to school nights, and enjoyed the last few days of Summer Vacation. Since we had just done an amusement park in Branson for our annual cousins trip to World’s of Fun we went to a creek and played for the day instead. Matthew brought his fishing stuff, he caught one fish and four sticks, and lost three lures-including a frog. He does that a lot. They made up a few games- one of them ended up in losing Jovee’s water shoe. It is a fun little spot they like to play.

Ryan is having to try a little harder to make sure he still beats Matthew when they play basketball.

The next two pictures are demonstrating the difference between Matthew and Allison preparing to go to school. This is Allison’s locker that she organized three times and still had a back pack full of stuff to bring the next day. Matthew grabbed a handful of pencils from Allison’s stack and ripped the pages out of a notebook that he used last year.

We went to Arkansas for the weekend. Ryan’s biological family invited us to come visit. His brother David and his wife moved from Utah to Arkansas in April. Now two of the four siblings live there and his mom lives about two hours from them.

We stayed at David’s house. They have a swimming pool and the kids loved being able to swim basically anytime they wanted. We got there about 8:30 Friday night. They were in the pool within five minutes. Saturday we played games and swam. That night the adults went to dinner then they set up an outdoor movie for everyone to watch. Jen had all kinds of movie treats, my kids were very impressed. Emilee thought it was so cool to swim, eat cotton candy and watch a movie outside, all at the same time. Ryan taught everyone a new game and his brother David a few new games. Matthew learned the card game hand and foot and really liked it. It was a fun weekend. It was nice to see them and get to know them better. We went to church with them on Sunday and then came home.

A friend of mine sent me this picture of our boys getting ready to do the sacrament on a Sunday. These three are quite a group. They are all good kids and I am glad he has a good friend group to hang out with.

August Kick Off- Terry Reunion

The first thing that happened in August was we got Allison back from Grandma. We were heading to a family reunion in Branson Missouri the next day so there was a lot of family here to welcome her home. It was great to have her back. She and Grandma Jana made some hats for babies at the hospital while she was there. She made one for her newest cousin Kaden. He loved it and it fit perfectly. She got home later in the evening on Tuesday, so Wednesday morning we woke her up with donuts and candles and sang her happy birthday in person.

Leah made a cute welcome sign for Allison.

Then we were off to Branson for a Terry Family Reunion. People came and stayed a few days before and after but Branson was the official reunion part. Ryan arranged a place for everyone to stay and organized a day of boating for everyone. Ross organized and planned the food and did most of the cooking. Wednesday everyone left Kansas on their own schedule and then we all met at Lamberts for dinner.

Becky, Rachelle and Roger and Rhonda went to an aquarium on the way down. Our family and Ross’ and Nadia went on a tour of the Fantastic Caverns. Then we meandered around a giant Bass Pro store until it was time for dinner.

Lambert’s is a fun restaurant for a family dinner. They have really good rolls that they bring out fresh from the oven. If you want one you raise your hand and they toss it across the room to you. It was a good kick off to the reunion.

Matthew, Leah, Chloe. Kiara, Allison, Chole, Dalion, Alex, Ethan (Nadia is taking the pictures)

The next day was our boating day. Ross, Lauren, Ryan and I made a pancake breakfast. It was a little rainy in the morning but it cleared up pretty quick. We all headed to Table Rock Lake and spent the day riding in the boats, swimming in the water, and tubing. Everyone got lots of sun and had tons of fun. Grandpa, Ryan and Ross were the drivers for the day. We played all day, the cousins had a blast with each other.

After a day on the lake Ross and Ryan made dinner for everyone and then we hung out and visited, played games, and watched old home videos that Roger brought. It was also Chole’s birthday that day so we sang happy birthday to her and had cake and ice cream.

The next day was Silver Dollar City. Despite everyone arriving over a period of an hour and fifteen minutes we took a group picture and then the older kids went off on their own and the rest of us divided into groups based on our sense of adventure. The lines were not bad at all, we were able to go on any of the rides we wanted, even multiple times. The Lee’s left and headed home around lunch time. Grandma and Grandpa went home after pictures, and the rest of us spent the day and left that evening. The weather was pretty good and there were lots of water rides to keep us cool.

Here are pictures from before and after the trip to Branson of people having fun together.

The Next Big Adventure

Ryan and I have had our eye on some houses with a little more land around them just south of us for the last few years. It is a small neighborhood and the houses don’t go up for sale very often. We put on offer on one about a year ago but that was when bidding wars were ridiculous and houses were selling for way more then they were worth. We ended up passing on it after our bid for 20% more than asking price got out bid. This past winter they developer opened up a dozen or so more lots. After much debating and praying and thinking and more debating we decided to buy a lot and build a house.

It took several months to get the financing process, find a builder and make a plan for the house but we now have it all done. We are finally ready to move to the next step. My plan is to take a picture each month and hopefully show a significant amount of progress. If things stay on schedule (they won’t) and supply chains don’t change to drastically (they will) our builder is planning on being done in 12-14 months from July 2022.

It is exciting and stressful.

Here is the first picture. We have a three acre corner lot. If you look closely you can see the flags marking the outline of the house. Once the permits and septic system is designed they can start digging.

Smile and Laugh

This picture showed up on my camera from somewhere. It must be a memory stored somewhere on my phone. It made me smile. I love these sweet girls.

These next two pictures got me to laugh pretty good when I saw them. Sherri sent me the popcorn one while we were in San Antonio Texas. We all could relate. It was hot! The other one I saw on the wall at my kids doctor office when we were there for their annual checkups.

Summer Kick Off

We started our Summer off with a Friday night Royals game. The Royals didn’t win but the night was still fun. We had cotton candy and peanuts. Allison was determined to get on the jumbotron and danced crazy enough that she caught their attention and her wish came true. When she saw herself she was a little panicked and froze but she was on it. She said she is more prepared for next time and won’t freeze up. They had a cool fireworks show after the game and the kids fell asleep on the way home in the car. A night of fun and a sugar crash made it to hard to keep their eyelids open.

On our way to the game we were jamming out to some careoke. Sweet Baby James came on and it reminded me of the time I filmed Allison and Matthew singing it in the car when they were younger (Emilee was to young to sing with them). I decided to recreate it so I had the kids sing it again, Emilee joined in this time.

Original video 2018:

2022 version:

The first weekend of Summer (Memorial Day weekend) we went to Lake of the Ozarks. A friend of dad’s from work had been inviting us to come stay at their cabin for quite awhile. We made the most of it but it was a little bit of an awkward weekend. They are really nice but what was discussed as far as activities and expectations was not what happened. They told us not to bring anything, I brought some food anyways because I felt bad for adding 5 mouths to feed for two days. It was good that I did though because they didn’t have any food. His wife disappeared most of the time and I was left to make the food. Ryan offered to rent a tube or two to pull the kids behind the boat, he said he had one he could borrow so not to worry about it. There never was a tube or anything else. We just drove around the lake for hours at a time looking at houses. We were all bored to death but the kids did a good job at staying positive. All the beds were well used and no sheets were washed between people sleeping on them. Not the greatest weekend. Matthew did do a little fishing and had some success. They swam in the lake a bit, and there was a pool they played in a bit but not to much because the water was only 60 degrees. We have a family trip to Table Rock lake planned in August, there will be lots of tubing, snacks, swimming and fun to be had.

When we got back from the lake the girls had Girl Scout camp and Matthew had Youth Conference in Nauvoo Illinois. Great experiences for them all. After that Emilee had horse camp and two volleyball camps. Allison had a kayak trip with her Girl Scout Troop and her first Young Women camp with church. Matthew had High Adventure in South Dakota with church and a Regional Flag football tournament in Wisconsin at the Green Bay Packers practice stadium. Add swimming at the pool, play dates, sleepovers, baseball games, gymnastics, riding lessons, and a fun day at Lake Olathe swim beach with the cousins and we have had some busy first weeks of Summer. July will be a little slower.

Father’s Day was on Ryan’s birthday this year. We had a yummy dinner at Grandpa and Grandma’s house with Ross and Lauren’s family. Usually Lauren and I let them play a game on their own but since it was a special day we played too. Emilee and Jovee made a scavenger hunt/game/competition up for their dad’s and grandpa. They had to throw a ball as far as they could with their left hand, fold a bird with origami, draw a picture, do the most pushups (they all tied with one on that one) and race around the house. It was pretty cute.

Father’s Day 2022 (Notice the bow ties for dad’s and crown for Grandpa)

A little side story. Matthew has been playing on a team with some boys for flag football. The coach for this team is Chad. He and his family are friend of ours. His son Tyson is also on the team. The event they went to in Wisconsin was a regional event, if they won they would go to the National event (last year they actually went to Nationals and won). So Matthew has been playing with them for a few months and they qualified for Regionals. Ryan said Matthew was to old for his team so he wouldn’t be able to play. A few weeks later, he tells me that Chad got it figured out and Matthew could now play. Plans were made and Ryan, Matthew, Chad, and Tyson head up to Wisconsin together. When they get there and it is time to check in, Ryan and Chad tell Matthew that he is going to go by Trey Something and his birthday is August 9, 2008. Apparently when they said they had worked it out, Chad and Ryan meant they had signed Matthew up as a kid from their team that couldn’t come and is almost two years younger.😒 Liar One and Liar Two justified this to themselves because even though Matthew is older than the cut of date, he is by far the smallest on the field. 🤦‍♀️ By the time they get to the front and the lady asks Matthew his name and bday. He says his name but can not remember the birthday so he says August then starts stammering trying to remember. Ryan had gone to the car to get something and was no where to be found. Chad sees Matthew struggling so he goes up to the lady and pulls Matthew aside and proceeds to whisper to her that Matthew is ‘a little slow’ and looks up his info on his list. He calls him over and tells him his bday, the lady smiles at Matthew and says, “Can you repeat that to me honey?” Matthew (who unlike Ryan and Chad is not a liar and if he tries to lie you can spot it a mile away) awkwardly repeats the date. The lady who takes his lying awkwardness as ‘slowness’ says, “Thank you sweetheart, you are all checked in.” while patting him on the shoulder. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Meanwhile…

Back at home while Ryan and I were on our trip, the kids were getting ready to wrap up the school year. When we got home there was a week and a half left of school.

When we travel somewhere in the car my rule is the oldest kid gets the front seat. Ryan tried to say first come first serve but they can argue over who said it first, who got there first, who wanted to get there first-ridiculous. So the rule is oldest rides in front. While we were gone Emilee decided to see what she could get away with and asked Grandpa if she could sit in the front on the way to church. He said yes and Allison was not happy about it. She was even less happy about it when grandpa risked making an enemy of Allison for life and tole her my rule wasn’t his rule so Emilee got the front because she asked. To make matters worse Allison was mortified to see that Emilee was wearing socks with her church shoes. Sounds like it was a fun Sunday morning in Kansas.

We were in Europe for Mother’s Day. Our realtor put a clever sign in our yard to tell me Happy Mother’s Day and get a little free advertising. Roger and Rhonda and the kids thought I had one an actual voting contest and were so impressed (especially the kids because they didn’t even vote). I got a good chuckle out of their misunderstanding, I didn’t correct them either.

Allison had her 6th grade field trip. Pre-Covid it was a ski trip, now it is a trip to Main Event for some bowling, zip lines, and video gaming.

Matthew had to cook a well balanced meal for his family for his FACTS class. He made everyone spaghetti, broccoli and a green salad. I heard it was delicious.

The day we got back Allison had her final orchestra concert. She went back and forth but has decided to play the cello again for 7th grade. She is pretty good at it when she applies herself on a regular basis. Imagine that.

Emilee and her friend Reese made swaps to trade with people at Girl Scout camp that was right after school got out. I also caught her sleeping next to dad when she was supposed to go to bed. Ryan loves it. Matthew was done with school when she had her award ceremony for 3rd grade so he went with Ryan to see her. She loved having them both there but specifically asked to have a picture with just Matthew. She got the ‘Zookeeper’ award because she loves animals.

Matthew also came with me to Allison’s award ceremony. She got a lot of math and honor roll awards for her grades! She finished 6th grade with high marks and flying colors! Good job Allison. I have a picture but it won’t upload. 🙁

Allison sent this picture of her tithing slip to me to make sure she filled it out correctly. It made me smile when I saw what she wrote under currency. 🙂

This last picture is a box that Allison made for the family to use. When she finished it she placed it on a counter in the kitchen. I thought it best to act like I didn’t see it. If you have known Allison for longer than two minutes you know one thing she doesn’t like is suggestions. Especially from me or her dad…or Matthew and Emilee. So I ignored it. A few days later the family was making dinner together in the kitchen. I was getting annoyed at asking one of them (not Allison) to do something for the third time. Allison said she had something just for this situation. She grabs her suggestion box and says I should put a suggestion in the box about better ways for people to listen. I said maybe later. I didn’t point out there were 10 piles and tasks within eye sight that I had asked her to do. She kept pointing it out, so I took the bait when I asked her to do something AGAIN and said, “Allison, I SUGGEST you do the job I just asked you to do.” As expected I got an evil glare. Ryan said something along the same lines a few minutes later. Then it was my turn again shortly after that. She then grabbed her suggestion box, threw it on the ground, stomped it into oblivion and stormed out of the room while angrily telling us, “You have lost the suggestion box privilege, you don’t know how to even use a suggestion box right. I can’t do anything nice for you people.” This all happened within 5 minutes of her suggesting we use the suggestion box. Which is 5 minutes less than I thought it would take to go over like a box of rocks in a swimming pool.

Easter

We had a nice Easter this year. Easter is always nice. It is a peaceful quiet weekend. The weather was pretty cold this year, even though Easter was in mid April. We had our traditional ham and cheesy potato meal. Roger and Rhonda came over and Steve and his kids to eat with us and spend the afternoon visiting.

Annie Joy

My sweet Grandma-Annie Joy Pinegar Jones passed away last night in her sleep. She was one of the kindest, sweetest people. She celebrated her 90th birthday just two days before she passed away. She has been in a lot of pain and not wanted to eat the past year but she still loved to have company and did her best to visit.

The last time I saw her was last April. She struggled with her memory sometimes but she knew who I was most of the time and we had a good visit. I have many special memories of her throughout my life. She was an amazing musician. She was my first piano teacher. I was practicing on her piano one day and I missed a note and was struggling to figure it out. From the kitchen she said, “Move your 4th finger on your left hand down two white keys.” She did that more than once. She had a beautiful singing voice too. She played the piano and her trumpet all over the world. I could listen to her play for hours. She usually played one or both when we had a family gathering, reunion, or a family home evening. One of the songs that will always remind me of her is “Danny Boy”. She wrote many songs too, we have a little blue book of sweet songs she wrote for her kids and grandkids to use for Family Home Evenings. “Families Are Fun To Belong To” is now in its fourth generation of being sung in Jones families across the country.

My dad went to see her two weeks ago. She didn’t want to take a picture because she is to old but she smiled and was a good sport.

When I was really young we lived pretty close to them and saw them often. She had sleepovers with the grandchildren. She didn’t really enjoy cooking but she always made sure you had something to eat when you came over. The first thing she said after giving you a hug was, “Are you hungry?” It didn’t really matter what your answer was, she would make you eat something. Their home grown grape juice and canned peaches with a piece of toast was always a favorite of mine. Cold cereal is a staple at their house and I have carried that tradition on in mine.

One time, I wanted to go swimming with my aunt and her friends and was disappointed I didn’t get to go. Grandma found a swimsuit for me and pinned it to fit me and had grandpa put a sprinkler on a tarp on their back yard hill so I could slide down it. Then I sunned on a blanket with Grandpa. Her and my grandpa had more family gatherings then I could ever count at their house. My cousins and I spent many hours doing our makeup in her bathroom and then showing everyone how we did. I remember making cookies with her and deciding to try my hand at juggling the eggs. Of course it being my first attempt ever at juggling it was a complete disaster. She had a very surprised look on her face when I explained what I had been attempting to do, but she was patient and told me to practice with grandpas tennis balls outside instead of eggs.

When I was older we lived farther away and didn’t see them as much but they came to visit us and we spent many fun Summer vacations at their house. They often put together family reunions for everyone to come to and see each other. She always sent a card for my birthday and Christmas.

She served missions for our church in Jerusalem, and Washington DC with my grandpa. She walked with her best friend every morning for decades. She was always happy and concerned with taking care of everyone and making sure you were comfortable. She had a sweet laugh. Her Christmas tree was usually flocked and always seemed huge in my memory. I don’t remember her ever being angry but I remember her talking about something one of her grandkids had done and calling them, “a little shit”. I still laugh at that memory. Sundays she always had curlers in her hair, and played beautiful music. She thought she was being a bad grandma if you helped with dishes or did any cleaning. She wanted us to play and enjoy ourselves at her house. She was self conscious about her hair and how thin it got but I thought she always looked beautiful. She had classic, timeless beauty.

I am her name sake. I have always felt special and proud to be named after her. The first words that pop into my head when I think of her are; joy, family, kind, patient, consistent, constant, loving, music, family history, caring, sweet, and strong testimony of the Savior. I will miss her. I know she is in Heaven, having sweet reunions with her past family and friends. She is probably playing a trumpet too. I love you Grandma Jones.

Spring Break

We stayed home this year for Spring Break. We are toying with the idea of building a house and have some things going to see what we could get approved for on a loan so we didn’t want to do anything to extravagant. To help add a little bit of fun to the week, I agreed to watch our friends dog Po. He is a Berna-doodle, at least 100lbs, a fluff ball, and very playful. They had a lot of fun with him.

Matthew took him to the dog park a few times and he slept with him at night. Emilee fed him and took him on a few walks. Allison catered to his every need and whim. She barely left his side. They all played with him and had a good time. He is a pretty smart dog. He knew how to play hide-n-seek so they played that for hours.

They were hoping it would change my mind about wanting a dog but I told them from the start that wasn’t going to happen and this was just for a week. I thought he was a very good dog but he made everything smell like a dog, scratched my floors and required a lot of work that I don’t have energy for.

He brought a lot of fun to our Spring Break, and now when we see him at our friends he is very excited to see us. We fit some other fun stuff in for our Spring Break too. Emilee did horse camp, we saw several movies together, had lots of play dates, went to lunch together, the zoo, and stayed up to late and slept in to long. It was great.

The last part of the break Ryan went on his 15th annual March madness trip with his BFF Mike and Sam.

Irony

According to my children, I am an obsessive compulsive cleaner. According to me my children are messy lazy slobs. Of course we both disagree with each others perspectives of the other, but as I love to tell them I am the mom, the adult, the owner of the house, and maker of the rules so for now they have to do it my way. This opinion of each other leads to a constant debate in our home, as I am sure it happens in many homes, when a chore is given between “I did do (fill in job requested)!” and “You did not do (fill in job requested) well.” A simple task that if done immediately and correctly would take 5-10 minutes can be dragged out for hours. It is truly exhausting.

The other day when they were doing some of their jobs, several of them needed to use the vacuum. I was doing some things of my own and also needed to use the vacuum. As all of us used it and passed it around I noticed this;

According to our usual MO’s the loosely wrapped cord would be my kids doing, and the neatly wrapped cord would be mine. However, many years ago I decided it was annoying to wrap and unwrap the cord every time I used the vacuum that I keep in the closet and never look at. I started wrapping it as shown in exhibit A. A little bit messy but that is the way I prefer it. Such a slacker, I know. You would think my children-that cut every corner they can when doing their chores-would be all for wrapping the cord this way. Honestly, I’m surprised that it gets wrapped up in any way at all but all three of my children- every single one of them- neatly rolls the cord up as soon as they are done using the vacuum. They don’t put it away of course but they wrap the cord and tuck it in all nice and neat. AND IT DRIVES ME CRAZY. I will say nothing though. I am not willing to find out what happens if I suggest my kids do something less… thorough. All my ‘harping and nagging’ over the years has taken root in their heads to wrap the vacuum cord. I can only hope that one day it will spread to throwing their trash away, or putting their dirty dishes in the dishwasher with out being told. Maybe it will spontaneously pop into their heads one day to put their dirty socks in the laundry bin instead of leaving it wherever they take them off. That hope keeps me from telling them, they don’t have to wrap the vacuum cord. That is irony at its finest for you.

Fire Alarms and Cocoa

All the Christmas stuff is put away. We have had a few snow flurries, the new year is underway and the long month of January is about half over.

Last week after the kids had started back at school about the time that both Ryan and I were headed home from work last week the girls called him. He answered the phone and Allison said, “Dad, the fire alarms are going off in our house. There is a weird smell. I took Peanut and Emilee and we are walking to Grandma’s house. I made Matthew come with us but he is a jerk and wouldn’t bring the crabs.”

Ryan asked if he could talk to Matthew. He didn’t see or smell any smoke so he didn’t think there was a fire but he was going with the girls to grandma’s because the alarms were going off and obviously really loud. He also confirmed that the crabs were on their own if the house was on fire.

Ryan decided to not have them call 911 because he was only a few minutes away from the house and hoped/assumed at 15 years old Matthew was somewhat capable of knowing if there was a fire in the house. He told them to go to Grandpa’s house until I came and got them just in case it was a carbon monoxide leak or a fire.

Roger and Ryan went over to check the house. The alarms would go off for a minute or two and then stop for a bit then start again. As far as they could figure there had been a short or something that set the furnace room alarm off. No smoke, no gas, and the battery was still good. Weird. I will take weird over a fire any day. As far as the weird smell Allison smelled, we think it was the smell of something that burned in the dishwasher on the heat cycle. It washed them while we were all at work and school and when Emilee opened it after school to empty it, the kitchen had a little bit of that weird burning smell.

Ryan called me and told me what happened so I went to get the kids. I was glad to see all three fire trucks at the station by our house when I drove by and no pillar of smoke coming from the direction of my house. When I got to Grandma’s house Matthew was playing a game, she had already gotten a snack and a craft out for the girls to work on, and Peanut was in his temporary home (a box from Grandma’s garage) with several towels to snuggle in. Allison was still annoyed at Matthew for abandoning the crabs and not feeling bad about it at all. When dad and Grandpa gave us the all clear we went back home and had some hot cocoa.

The take aways from our exciting evening were:

We are really glad we have Grandma and Grandpa close by. When in doubt, go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.
In an emergency Allison will take charge and make sure everyone is safe including the pets.
Matthew will assist Allison in saving human beings but is out when it comes to pets-especially crabs (unless we get a dog). Matthew is also happy to let Allison run the show.

As I am typing the last few sentences, it reminds me of the time the kids came home from school and there was some ‘strange men people’ according to Allison that were climbing around on our roof. I have probably blogged this story before but I will review it again.

At this point in time Grandma and Grandpa didn’t live in Kansas yet. When Allison got off the bus and saw the unexpected people on our roof she later told us she couldn’t recall any conversations about people coming over to fix something and was unaware of any roof issues that our house had so she was immediately suspicious and told Matthew they should all stand by the mail box until dad or I got home. Matthew looked around for a second then said, “No thanks, it is cold.” He then crossed the road and entered the house through the garage like any other day. 🤦‍♀️Emilee followed him because, “It was cold.” 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ They left Allison at the mailbox. As they were closing the garage Allison ran across the street and ran into the garage. Matthew and Emilee went inside dropped their stuff all over the floor and got a snack and went on with their usual after school routine. Allison grabbed the phone and a BAT from the garage and walked out the front door and stood in the middle of the front yard to stare down the strange men while she called Ryan to tell him what the situation was.

Ryan was actually surprised and didn’t know why people would be on our roof either he told Allison to get herself back in the house and lock the door and he talked with her while he came home immediately. A few minutes later she said they were putting their ladders away and leaving. She sat by the front door looking out the window with her bat in case they decided to come back until Ryan got home.

Turns out, it was a Christmas light company that puts lights on your house for you. They had gotten the wrong address and put lights on our house by mistake. They figured it out eventually when whoever’s house they were supposed to put the lights on never got them. A few days later when we got home they were gone.

I think Allison was 8 or 9 when this happened. We recommended that in the future instead of going home they go to a neighbors house if someone is at our house unexpectedly. We know that Allison will take charge and let us know if something isn’t right.

Final 2021 Post…#tbt

This photo popped up in Ryan’s phone the other day. This is from 3 years ago. Emilee would be 6 and Matthew would be 12. Probably a school fundraiser night at Culver’s.

This one is also from three years ago. Good thing we got our family Christmas cruise in before 2020!

That’s it for 2021! Bring on 2022!

New Years Eve!

After a relaxing at home after Christmas, it was time for another party! Our friends the Beashore’s invited us over to celebrate the New Year with them. We ate lots of pizza and snacks for dinner. The rest of the evening was spent playing games and visiting.

They taught us a fun game they play every New Years Eve called Saran Wrap. I actually don’t know what they call it but that is what I am calling it. The kids all get in a line around the table oldest to youngest. The youngest gets to start with the ball. The ball is a bunch of little candies, gum, giftcards, coins, cash, anything you want rolled up in the saran wrap every few feet. When you start the person with the ball unwraps as fast as they can while the next person is rolling a dice. If they roll a three or a six they ball is passed to them. Anything you unwrap you get to keep. As soon as the ball is passed the next person starts rolling the dice and the new person unwraps. It keeps going until it is completely unwrapped. Then you can trade or bargain or keep whatever you got when you are done. It was a fun idea. I am sure our kids will want to carry it on next year and make it a tradition of ours too.

The other games we played were Taboo, ping pong, pop a shot, darts, occulus games, and dancing and boxing games on the play station. At midnight we cheered and lit off a few fireworks and confetti canons. It was a fun evening.

On our way home we saw that Grandpa and Grandma’s lights were still on so we stopped for a few minutes to say hi and tell them happy new years. Then we went home and went to bed!!

Allison scored pretty well unwrapping the ball.

Awkward…

One of the gifts that our family got was a game called, Awkward Family Photos. We have played it a few times and it has some pretty funny pictures.

The Sunday after Christmas, Dad wanted to take a family photo of everyone before we changed out of our church clothes. It quickly evolved into taking our own awkward family photos. The first picture is the only one we didn’t intend to be awkward.

Christmas Day 2021!

Countless times throughout the year anyone of our children is known to sleep through their alarm, purposefully not set an alarm, or have to be dragged from their bed kicking and screaming that they are tired and don’t want to wake up for one reason or another.

However, for the last ten years without fail or deviation of even one minute on Christmas morning, without an alarm, they all pop up like daisies at the predetermined earliest allowed to wake up time of 6:30am. Let that be an example of what the human brain can do with the right motivation.

This year was no different, they all woke up and then came in to get Ryan and I. Grandma and Grandpa Terry also came over to open presents with us at 6:30. Once the adults are in the living room and ready with their cameras the kids can come down and see the presents and stockings from Santa. Stockings are fair game and anything found in them can be immediately opened or eaten. Once everyone has had a few minutes to look through their stocking we take turn opening Santa presents one at a time. Once those are opened everyone starts opening presents at the same time. The wrapping paper goes in a general large pile and occasionally someone will take a break from unwrapping and stuff it in a trash bag. If Grandpa is there and you need a knife or scissors he loves to whip the one out of his pocket he carries with him at all times. If Grandpa isn’t present Ryan will whip out his pocket knife that he carries one day a year for a few hours on Christmas morning.

It was a very happy, blessed, fun Christmas morning for everyone this year. Once everything was opened we started breakfast. This years options were a breakfast casserole or all the favorite high sugar cold cereals. Grandma and Grandpa stayed a few more hours while we checked out our new stuff, did puzzles, watched a movie, listened to Christmas music, took a nap, or enjoyed relaxing.

Christmas Eve 2021

We were on our own for Christmas this year. My family did our Christmas get together in October in Florida. Ryan’s family was spending it with the other half of their families.

Roger and Rhonda were planning on going to Texas but then changed their minds and stayed here. We invited them and the McDonald family over. We have done Christmas with them before and it has been a few years.

We decided to go and see the new spider man movie in the theatre. Emilee didn’t want to go so she hung out with Grandma. Matthew and Allison invited Campbell and Caylin. It was 40 minutes late starting because there were projector issues but once that got figured out we all enjoyed the movie.

We had a yummy ham dinner together. Ryan smoked the ham, Rhonda and Roger made the rolls, I did potatoes, corn and green bean casserole, and Lori brought coconut cream pie. It was a delicious festive dinner.

We sang some Christmas songs together, read and acted out the Christmas story, Emilee read a book, and there were several piano, cello, and clarinet musical numbers played. It was a great evening with friends and family. After we were all done hanging out and visiting everyone went home we opened our matching pajamas and took our Christmas eve family picture. Then we hurried off to bed so Santa could come!

It was a very wonderful day. I love Christmas time. The Christmas Spirit permeates everything and everyone is happier and friendlier and you take the time to appreciate family and friends. I am grateful for the birth of the Savior and His life. It isn’t just a nice story. He is real. I know because of Him and what he did for each of us we can have eternal families and be together forever. I am grateful for the atonement to repent and improve ourselves. I am grateful for my family, and the very blessed life we have and all the amazing friends and family we have in our lives.

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!!

December was a fun, busy, wonderful month! We usually put our decorations up the day after Thanksgiving but I did it right after Halloween this year- and I don’t regret it! 😁 We paused the Christmas festivities and were thankful and grateful at Thanksgiving then we were right back to the Christmas spirit!

We tried to focus on service this month so we did something each weekend to do service. We brought Grandpa along with us as much as we could.

The first week we did The Giving Machine at Crown Center. Each Christmas season our church does a #LightTheWorld. They have a few vending machines called Giving Machines that they have in a few places around the country. You can go and punch the number in for the item you want and just like a vending machine it drops the card to the bottom but instead of taking something you leave it there and they distribute whatever people donate to the different charities. There was local charities for food, clothes, and blankets or a safe place to stay. There were also world wide charities you could donate a chicken or water or things like that. This year we got to have a giving machine in Kansas City. They placed it in Crown Center, it is an area downtown that lots of people visit and do festive things for the holidays. We were all really excited to go and see it and pick a few things to donate. We did a few of the festivities while we were there too. We walked through the train and light exhibit, ate lunch at Spin City Pizza together, and some of us window shopped while the rest of us went ice skating. We of course visited the giving machine and donated some chickens, an acre of sweet potatoes, some food, blankets, and a goat. The kids loved it!

The other weekends we volunteered at the Johnson County Christmas Bureau. We were supposed to be there for 4 hours but we were only there for about 30 minutes and they told us they were done for the night. We told the kids it still counts for service and we will volunteer again next year and hopefully have better luck. We made a lot treats and then delivered them to friends and neighbors the following weekend. We also tried to volunteer at Harvesters food bank but they changed their age requirement to a minimum 16 years.

Allison had two gymnastic meets within the past month. One was here in Olathe, the other was in Columbia Missouri. We drove there and back in one day. She didn’t say this but I think she loved having a travel meet that took the entire day like her brother has travel for baseball sometimes. She did great at both meets. Her best event was the beam at our home meet and the bars at the Columbia meet-she nailed her kip. She also added a few back hand springs to her floor routine and did great at those too.

We did a lot of puzzles this month too. Something about Christmas makes me want to put puzzles together. If it is a Christmas puzzle even better! Matthew was my most frequent helper but everyone joined me at some point for a bit. We would watch a Christmas show, or listen to Christmas music and drink some hot chocolate while we puzzled away.

This was the first one we did. Brand new and missing 3 pieces! Kenny googled it and said that apparently that particular puzzle is usually missing a piece or two. Grrrr!

Allison had a Christmas concert for orchestra. She did great. I had a hard time getting a picture of her because she was behind another kid but it was a well done concert and they sounded great. Her favorite part was going to dinner with Caylin afterwards.

Grandma Jones’ Thanksgiving

My Grandma had Thanksgiving with her family that visited her and came to her for Thanksgiving in Utah. She has some good days and bad days and can’t do very much anymore. She was having a good day on Thanksgiving and she told her son Jared she wanted to go outside on a walk and have some fun. He obliged her. Even when she hurts a lot and is 89 years old she still has a great sense of humor and loves being around her family as much as possible.

Thanksgiving 2021

It has been a few years since we had the entire family together for Ryan’s side of the family. It happened at Thanksgiving! The Bourne’s made it from Idaho, the Lee’s arrived from Texas, and the Ross and Ryan Terry’s made the trek across town and down the street.

Rhonda had a few weeks to recover from chemo before everyone arrived. She was feeling a little bit better. It was a happy vibe that we were all together and she was healthy and done with cancer.

We were able to get the traditional mani/pedi trip in for the moms that wanted to go. Some of our daughters are now old enough to want to join us. It is getting hard to find a salon that can take us all at the same time!

There were many games played, feasts made and devoured, visiting and movie watching in abundance. The grandkids all loved seeing each other again and picked up right where they left off. That is the wonderful thing about cousins. A group of us went to see the new Disney movie Encanto together and another group of us went to iFly indoor skydiving. Lauren and I took turns playing the piano a lot. The picture of her playing and everyone on their device listening soon became everyone napping.

Grandma and Grandpa wanted a family picture of everyone so we made it happen. Lauren was our photographer. The other nine adults were her helper and advice givers. She tolerated us pretty well. I think we got some good pictures too.

Kris, Jake and Ross were all directing from the sidelines too but they saw me right before I took the picture and played it cool.

It was a fun, happy, successful Terry Family Thanksgiving!

Matthew thought ‘nice casual’ meant wearing sweat pants instead of shorts with his hoodie.

It is ALREADY November!!

We started November off by going to a Chief’s football game. They had a Monday night home game so we got tickets and went and had fun. It was my first professional football game. The environment is a little rough at football games so we didn’t take the girls. We met Ross and Ethan and Steve and a few other people there and did some tail gating with Q39 BBQ. The weather was pretty cold but the rain and wind stopped so it wasn’t to bad. They started the game with a team of paratroopers landing on the field. It was pretty awesome.

A friend at church sent me this picture of Matthew and his buddies at church. They are a good group of kids and have a lot of fun together.

This is a picture of Ryan and Sherrie from Austin’s wedding that he went to in August.

Emilee had her 3rd grade musical at school. They sang pirate songs. Emilee requested to not have a speaking part. She was also insistent that she was not going to dress up. We tried a few different times to convince her to wear even just an eye patch but she wouldn’t budge. She was excited to sing the songs just not feeling the dressing up part I guess.

Allison had her first 6th grade orchestra concert. She was thrilled that the whole family and Grandma and Grandpa Terry came to watch her. She started playing the cello this year. She is picking it up pretty well and has a lot of fun in orchestra. She likes being and “Orch Dork” as they all call themselves.

Matthew cut his chin open while he was wrestling with some friends. The mom called and told me she thought he would need stitches. We called a friend who is an oral surgeon and asked him if he could stitch him up for us instead of going to an ER at 10pm at night. He is an awesome friend and had us meet him at his office. He numbed Matthew up and 9 stitches later we were done and back at home in less time then it would have taken to fill out the paperwork at the ER.

Several years after we were married, Ryan asked me why I thought it was so funny to mismatch his socks all the time. I had no idea what he was talking about. Apparently, I am not good at matching white socks together and more often then not, I put wrong socks together. Over the years I have tried to work on this issue but haven’t had a huge improvement according to Ryan. It is funny. I always think I matched them all correctly but every now and then he shows me the pair he pulls out and they are clearly not a match. I fold socks last so maybe I am just done with laundry by the time I get to them. The other day Ryan was out of town for work and sent me a picture of the socks he put on that morning at the hotel. HAHA! I guess general color was my only criteria when I was folding socks last week! My sock matching disability has spread beyond just white socks.

All of us took turns passing a cold around that took a few days to recover from. Emilee is always cuddly but even more so when she is sick and dad loves it when he gets extra Emilee snuggling time. He was reading a book to her to help her rest and she fell asleep.

Allison didn’t make it because she was at gymnastics but for the last activity of the year, the primary activity girls went to Main Event and went bowling together. Emilee was the bowler to beat!

Halloween 2021

We had another successful Halloween at our house this year. As our usual plans we had the McDonald’s over. Our cousins joined us this year too. Ryan made the witch’s brew, I picked up pizzas the day before from Papa Murphy’s. I went rogue and got a hamburger pizza instead of our usual cheese. It didn’t go over well. Hamburgers are good, hamburger pizza is not. It was a good thing we had trick or treating to distract us.

We had a slow, medium, and fast group again. Our fast group is old enough to go ahead on their own. The dads keep track of the medium speed group and the moms stay with the slowest group. It was a fun evening with family and friends.

Primary Program

The best Sunday program of the year is coming up in our ward next week! The Primary Program. Ryan and I are helping. It is Allison’s last program before she goes to young women. Emilee still has a few years to go. Matthew will be watching us from the audience. The girls and I took a picture while we were practicing.

Wax or Candy?

When we were in Florida, I believe it was the Cazier family that bought some candy corn. When they were trying to open the bag up my mom made the comment that she didn’t know people bought candy corn on purpose. She thought it was just crap candy people handed out at Halloween and in turn everyone threw it away once they got home.

This of course started a debate among us all as to if we liked or didn’t like candy corns. I fall on the side of it is crap candy, but if I remember right it was about a little more than half of us that eat them on purpose and sometimes even spend their own money on them. To each there own!

Today in ward council the bishop had a bag of candy corn he had bought for his daughter at her request. She tried one and said he could have them back. In her defense these particular candy corns were worse than normal ones. See for yourself below. Disgusting.

Flavors include mashed potato, turkey, green bean, cranberry sauce, stuffing, apple pie, and coffee.

Jones Family Astronauts

My parents got a picture package for everyone at the Space Center. We weren’t always together but here are the ones that we got. Having fun just floating around we have the French, Cazier, Jones and Terry Families.

Those of us that got serious with our training and became official astronauts are featured below.

October-Jones Family Reunion 2021

It was time for our bi-annual Jones reunion. When it is my families year to do Christmas together we plan a Summer trip together instead. The travel is easier, schedules are a little easier, weather is better, and then we can enjoy Christmas in our own homes. This year we were a little late and ended up doing our trip in October over my kids Fall Break. Matthew and even Allison have reached the point that missing school is a little bigger deal and harder to get caught up and keep grades up.

We did a repeat trip to Orlando Florida. We stayed at our usual spot- a house in the Champions Gate sub division. It is a perfect location to get to pretty much any of the big Orlando attractions. There is a big club house with a pool and activities, and we can get a house with 2-9 bedrooms depending on the number of people we have and the house has its own pool too. That is the best part. The kids can swim as much as they want. John and Rachel’s family couldn’t join us this year so it was my parents and the three girls and their families. We got a 9 bedroom house. I think some kids slept in a different room every night. I thought it was cool that a lot of the rooms had a Disney theme too. Ours was the Mickey room. There was a Star Wars and Frozen room too. Most of the kids stayed in a room full of bunk beds. That was pretty fun for them. Emilee packed all the essentials she needed for her trip herself as you can see.

Monday was day one. Arrival day. The French’s and my mom drove and my dad came late the next day. A week prior to our departure, Kenny sent everyone the info to get checked into the house. Including a passphrase “The Russian Bear Hunts at Midnight” to tell the security guard to let you enter. Sherri drove with my mom and when they got to the gate my mom pulled out a paper with the address and rental house info- including the passphrase Kenny had sent. Sherri started laughing and told my mom it was a joke. I told her I will forever hold a grudge at her for not letting mom say it and seeing what the guard did. DeAnna and her family flew and got there in the evening. We also flew. Our flight was delayed a little bit (Southwest tried to cover up a strike by their pilots- saying it was weather that canceled thousands of their flights- it was actually them protesting being forced to get the COVID vaccine against their will per the government mandate) we thought we might have to drive (and I would have done it without to much complaining because I agree with the pilots that they-or anyone- should not be forced into getting a vaccine they don’t want) but our flight ended up going through ok and we made it just a few hours later. We got our rental car, bought some groceries, and headed to the house to start a fun week.

Day two was bright and warm and sunny. After sleeping in and having a late breakfast of a ridiculous amount of Reese’s Puffs we all headed to the beach. That is the one down side to Orlando-it lacks beautiful Florida beaches. We traveled to Honeymoon Beach and spent the day there. Most of us were satisfied with the number of shells to collect, the warm water to play in, the nice sand castle building area, and the beach to lay on and take a nap. Matthew was a little disappointed in the lack of waves big enough to body surf in but he still got to go to the beach in Florida. We had a fun day but I didn’t take any pictures. I was one of the people snoozing on the beach working on my tan. The drive to and from the beach helped us get a lot of our license plate states found. I downloaded an app to help us keep track of the states we found. By the end of our week in Florida we had found 33/50 states. After the beach we all headed home, showered and ate dinner together then spent the evening playing games, working on a puzzle, or swimming in the pool on the patio.

Day three started slightly earlier then the previous day. Last time we were in Florida for a reunion we all went to Magic Kingdom together. DeAnna’s family had never been to Hollywood Studios, so we went to that park this time. Next to Magic Kingdom, it is my favorite. I like the option of lots of shows to watch, not all rides. We all arrived and went our own ways and met throughout the day. Toy Story Mania is still our families favorite ride. We did it a few times. The new attraction was the Star wars rides and areas. They had canceled the virtual que the week before we went and there were no fast passes for it. That meant if we wanted to do it, we had to wait in line for 2-3 hours. We decided to do it. It was a long brutal process. We bought 5 dollar Star Wars Cokes for everyone about half way through to boost moral. In the end everyone said it was totally worth it (even Emilee who declared no less than a dozen times that is wasn’t worth it and this was the most ridiculous this she had done in her whole entire life) and it was their favorite ride/experience of the day. I was worried we would run out of time to do the other things but we still got to do and see everything we planned on. Emilee preferred the shows, she is not a fan of rides (might have something to do with riding the Mamba at age 5 at World’s of Fun) but she liked Toy Story and Star Wars. Matthew and I did the single rider line for few things and got on rides in 5 minutes instead of an hour. He said he has graduated to Universal Studios level rides but had a fun time with us. Allison was game for pretty much anything. She got a Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwich and everything else was icing on the cake after that. It might be the last time we all go to Disney as a family before Matthew is moving out so it was a fun day. It was pretty late when we got home. People went to bed or played a game and did a puzzle while we visited about our day.

We were standing in the ‘street’ and Chip and Dale’s helpers asked us to move so Mickey and Minnie could drive through.

Day 4. We used this as a recuperating day. Everyone slept in and had a lazy morning. The kids swam in the pool and played the many games that the garage was equipped with (ping pong, air hockey, checkers, and basketball). Matthew convinced his dad to get him a fishing pole. He had tried to bring his own but it wouldn’t fit. We thought there would be rentals but there wasn’t. So with his 19.99 Walmart fishing pole in hand uncle Kenny drove him over to the neighborhood gold course where he had seen a body of water he wanted to fish in. About thirty minutes later he had walked back to the house. There was an alligator in the water that didn’t like him fishing for his food. Every time Matthew cast, the alligator would start moving towards Matthew. He moved several times but when it kept happening he decided to call it a day. After lunch we moved to the club house pool. They had a few big swimming areas, a splash pad, a slide, and a lazy river that we all ended up floating around together in at some point. One of my favorite pictures is the one of John and Joseph getting on the tube and then one lap later they are both passed out asleep along the side. We got several hours of good swimming in. My pictures aren’t the greatest but considering my camera was wet and I took them floating in a tube I decided to include them anyways. The only person I missed was Ryan.

John and Joseph boarding their tube. Joseph is already rubbing his eyes.

When we finished at the club house we went back to clean up. All the adults plus KJ went to dinner at Longhorn Steak House. The kids all stayed at the house and watched Transylvania II together while eating pizza, popcorn, candy and whatever else they to eat. Matthew told me later that Emilee and Allison got in a fight and caused quite a scene. There younger cousins gave them some advice on how to behave better. It included apologizing but still having consequences from Nathan and Aubrey told them to take their noise level down to ZERO while demonstrating with her fingers pinched together. They are a fun group of nieces and nephews. I talked with all of them and had a good conversation. Even though Joseph told me repeatedly he didn’t want to be my friend and I could not give him a fist bump he was willing to have a pillow fight with me when he realized I would help him ward off Peter. KJ is the happiest baby ever. He loves to snuggle and will let anyone hold him. We were all constantly passing him around trying to have our turn holding him.

Day five most of us headed off to the Kennedy Space Center. It was Matthew’s birthday and he had been begging to go fishing in the ocean for his present so Ryan and Matthew went on a half day fishing trip and then met the rest of us at the Space Center. The fish were biting. They caught 30-40 fish between the two of them, including a hammer head shark, a puffer fish, a tarpin, and several others I can’t remember now. None of them were huge but they had a blast together.

Back at the Space Station we were having a great time too. Allison was not to excited about going-she thought it would be boring-she quickly changed her mind once we got there though. Everyone loved seeing the big space ships and rockets and touching the moon rock and asteroids, watching videos about them. We took a bus(the sweetest bus I have ever been on) out to the Atlantis Space shuttle and saw the building they assemble the space ships in on the way. The size of the building is hard to even comprehend. They said the Roman Colosseum would fit on the roof with plenty of room to spare around it. The flag on the side took 600 gallons of paint. Everything we saw was just massive. We did a simulation of a take off in a rocket. They had a mock up of the space station up in space they could crawl through. There was tons to see and do. It was a pretty cool day.

When the Space Center closed we headed home for the evening. It was our last night so we ate whatever food was left and played games. When the kids were in bed minus Matthew we had our traditional white elephant party. Some of the top mentions were fart spray, rubber chickens to shoot at people like rubber bands, a tortilla blanket, and a mask with a face on it that had snot running down it. It was a fun last night. The week went by to fast. The next morning we headed to the airport. They forgot to send our luggage on the plane so we had to wait for it to arrive later that evening but other wise we arrived home without much excitement. We had the rest of the weekend to rest. It is always a fun week when we get together. I am already looking forward to the next time.

Life at the Terry’s

Ryan and Allison planted a full salad/salsa garden this year. The salad stuff didn’t do to great, we got a little lettuce but it was kind of bitter. About mid summer the salsa stuff started growing. The first time they made it I called it our $100 salsa. It has continued to produce and they have made lots of salsa, even canned some to save for later. Our tomatoes are still going strong, they are debating canning some spaghetti sauce as well. We have definitely made at least our moneys worth that it took to plant the garden if not more from all the stuff. It is a nice change for us.

One of our many harvests from our garden.

A few months ago I took Emilee and her friend to my co-workers hobby farm. She had a great time and has been begging to go back ever since. Allison wasn’t able to go and she wanted to go too. Sandi had added a few more types of animals and was excited to have the girls come see them. We made it out to see the farm again a few Saturday’s ago.

Ryan went to his half brother Austin’s wedding out in Utah in August. The kids had already started school and it was in the middle of the week so he was the only one who ended up going. He had a fun time getting to know everyone more. After the wedding festivities he did a mini man trip in the mountains with his buddies Sam and Mike. They did lots of manly things together like ATV’s and shooting. He did not get any pictures of the reception for me though.

Sam came to the wedding and Ryan introduced him to Sherrie.

Ryan and I found ourselves at Home Depot a little while ago. We had gone for one thing but decided to get a few fence pickets while we were there because we have a few broken ones. We weren’t positive on the size and shape so we texted Matthew and told him to send us a picture of THE FENCE. He sent us this picture.

Kids his age use an app on their phones called Snap Chat. They send pictures of what they are doing to each other and they usually look pretty much like this. Half of their face is in the picture and the back ground of where they are. I rolled my eyes and told him I didn’t need a social media head shot, I needed to know how tall the fence was. He wrote back that was the reason he put himself in the picture…for perspective. 😂😂🤦‍♀️

Matthew and Emilee came down with COVID the first week of September. They both recovered pretty quick but were down in bed for a few days. They still had to stay home and mostly in there rooms for a few days after they were feeling better. I helped Emilee brush her hair one day-which she hates. I told her we could do some silly pictures while we did it so it would be more fun. She didn’t seem to love it that much.

Farewell to Summer Break

As the end of Summer approached we did our usual back to school shopping and registering and getting ready to start back into the routine of school. Ryan has been toying with the idea of getting some kind of property by a lake. His brother and him have been talking about it for the past year or two and they are trying to convince their dad to join them. Matthew was still on his high from boating for the first time this Summer at High Adventure. When August arrived he doubled his efforts and focused his ideas and requests to do it again on Ryan. Between that and a client of Ryan’s offering to let us use a time share of his we decided to squish in one more fun Summer trip before school started. We invited our cousins and Grandpa Terry even came down for a day and played with us.

We went to Branson Missouri and Table Rock Lake. Branson is very similar to Gatlinburg Tennessee. There is a touristy main street area with lots of fun shops and museums and things to do. Gatlinburg is more Dolly Parton themed, Branson seemed more Elvis Presley. A lot of the places are in both locations, one of them being the Titanic Museum. We didn’t have the chance to go to it when we were in Gatlinburg so I made it a must for Branson. My children rushed me through it a little faster then I would have gone on my own but it was a very interesting museum.

The place we stayed was basically a two bedroom apartment. The adults each took a room and we had air mattresses all over the place for the kids to sleep on. Roger just came up for one day and didn’t stay the night because Rhonda wasn’t up for traveling and he didn’t want to leave her alone. We played games and ate dinner and checked out the pool the day we arrived. The next morning was our boating day. I went boating a lot when I was growing up. My grandparents had a cabin and boat and we spent many weekends playing at the lake. We rented a pontoon boat that all 11 of us could ride on at the same time and did the tube, knee board, and wake board. I’ll tell you what. It was pretty awesome to show up and have a boat already in the water, fully fueled and ready to go with any toys we needed on board. I did the math roughly in my head and for how often our family would likely go boating if we made it a thing in the Summer it is well worth it to rent verses buy our own boat. I’ve tried to get Ryan to go boating several times in the past and he said he wasn’t interested and wasn’t a boat person. About 30 minutes into our day he came over and told me he loved it and we need to do it more often.

It was a great day. We packed a few coolers of food and drinks and we were on the boat from 10-6pm and didn’t get tired or bored once. Everyone had a great time. Everyone took a turn on the tube, some of us tried a few other things. We found a little cove around lunch time and thru the anchor and the lilly pad out and ate lunch and swam for an hour or two. Grandpa even got on the paddle board and did a flip off the boat with the kids. The lake is really nice, the water is pretty clean for a lake (I think because it is mostly rock on the bottom not mud) and the water is perfect temperature. Ross, Grandpa and Ryan were all pretty comfortable driving the boat by the end of the day. We all want to do it again and more often. The only bummer is that it is a three hour drive to get there from our house.

After we got back to our place that night everyone took a quick shower and then headed to Lambert’s for dinner. They have home style country food and they throw the rolls at you whenever you want one. The kids really liked it. Sherrie and Dave and Genevieve and Robert and their son Eric were close to Branson so they met us there for dinner. Roger and I stopped by to say hi. He met Sherrie for the first time. (It went well 😊) We didn’t stay long, he wanted to get home to Rhonda and I had to work the next day so we went home while everyone else ate.

The next day everyone that stayed went to Silver Dollar City, which is an amusement park. It was another fun and successful day. There were rides and food to please all the people. There were different level of thrill seekers that could pair up and have fun together. After a full day at the park, they played games and played one more night at the time share. The next morning they headed home.

It was a pretty fun, basically spontaneous, farewell to Summer trip. We have already talked about making it our Summer kick off next year too. Ross and Lauren’s kids started school the day after they got back. Our kids still had a week- the final count down to back to school begins!

August Festivities

We packed in a lot of fun activities the last few weeks of Summer.

First up was all my children returning home from their visits to se Grandma and Grandpa Jones. They were all happy to see each other and be home together again. It took them about 5 seconds to remember how to push each others buttons though. 🤦‍♀️ I put a few of the pictures grandma and grandpa sent from their adventure in an earlier post but here are a few more they sent after I wrote that.

Ryan and I went to the Garth Brooks concert with some friends and a couple people from his work. It was the second time we have seen him. It was his first concert since COVID and I think Garth was pretty pooped. He usually sings a lot longer than he did. It was still a great concert but between the ridiculous heat and not being used to it, it felt a little brief. Martina McBride made a surprise appearance. That was cool. It broke back memories of listening to her while we painted our house one Summer in Wyoming.

Our favorite neighbors through a party-Jeff and Margarita-so we attended that. We usually try and get out of neighborhood shin digs but we made an exception this time.

All the kids find school supplies that they really need for school when we go school shopping-that have nothing to do with school. Emilee tried to sell me on this, but settled for a picture instead.

We squeezed in our 3rd (maybe 4th) annual cousins trip to World’s of Fun and Ocean’s of Fun. We are now only one kid away from having no height restrictions on any of the rides. Jovee is 2 inches away from 100% ride qualification. We have it down pretty good now on what rides we have to hit for each person and then head over and spend the rest of the time at Ocean’s. We did come back for the evening to World’s this time. The kids liked the lights and music they turn on at night for the rides. The night ended with fireworks at closing time, that was fun too.

Emilee was really excited to get back to horse lessons when she got home from Grandma and Grandpa Jones’. I caught a picture of her taking a little break and stretching for a second during her lesson. Her and Reese are becoming quite the horse lovers. These two have been besties since birth and they were born two weeks apart. After their lesson one day Reese told Liz and I that they would skip their birthday presents and just get a horse for Christmas since it was ‘kind of a big present’. Emilee looked at Reese and said, “Well, maybe less birthday presents but not NO birthday presents!”

Summer Adventures

Allison went home with Grandma Jana for a few weeks after she came to watch the kids while Ryan and I were in Mexico. She loves going to visit Grandma and Grandpa and had a great time. They went swimming a lot, watched lots of movies, did art projects, she played with Aubry and she met her cousin KJ for the first time and held him for a bit while they lit of fire works for the 4th of July. She loves the one on one attention and enjoys getting to be an only child for a bit.

Matthew had a lot more baseball. They won several tournaments and came close to winning in several as well. He and Campbell like to go and watch each others games when they don’t have their own to play in. Towards the end of the season he finally started getting some of his speed back that he lost when he broke his leg.

This is some more random Summer pictures.

We helped watch Margarita’s dogs one weekend. They are more of the lounge and relax type then the play and move type. Emilee was trying to convince them to do something with her. She was not successful.

The last two pictures are to help Allison remember that we love her and this is why she isn’t always in the pictures with us.

Allison was being a little grumpy and we were giving her a hard time about refusing to be in pictures or not showing her face or smiling. We told her when she gets older she is going to wonder why she isn’t in any of the pictures with everyone else.

Summer Kick-Off

Despite the month of May having an average temperature of about 65 and 3 of the 4 weeks rainy and gloomy, we are all ready for Summer to start!

One of our first activities was celebrating Grandma Terry’s birthday! She turned 69, and is doing pretty great! She has finished 4 of 6 chemo treatments and the cancer is responding like it should and going away. She has been handling it all like a champ and taking it day by day. We are all proud and happy for her and continue to pray that she will make a full recovery. We were happy with her choice of birthday cake too-strawberry jello cake-Yum!!

The girls went to Girl Scout camp to kick of their summer. They have both been a few times and don’t look forward to it per se, but seem to have a great time once they are there. Emilee went two days this year and then got sick with a stomach bug so missed the last half. Allison was old enough to stay over night one of the nights and saw way to many large bugs and spiders in her perma-tent. I don’t know if they will go again next year but it was good for both of them to enjoy a little outdoor time.

The girls and I were planning on joining Matthew and Ryan at a baseball tournament in Arkansas immediately following their camp, but since Emilee got sick and Allison wanted to go the last day instead of skip it we stayed home for the weekend and the boys went with out us. There first two games were kind of a bust. Matthew said they were probably the worst two games they had played since the famous ‘grand-slam bunt’ disaster 5 years ago. Things improved after that though. Matthew had some person best improvements and good contributions to the team and overall the team did better and won a few games. They all had a fun weekend and made good memories together too. Including adding a sign next to the hotels “pool closed” sign that caused a little confusion. If you can’t read the sign it says “The pool is open!” It may or may not have been added by one of the parents on our team.

Next week Matthew is going on his first High Adventure trip with the Young Men in our ward too. He needs some good outdoor time just like the girls.

Now What…

At their first meeting, Sherrie said one of the things that she was worried about was that he would just want to meet her once and then never see her again. Her family told her that was a possibility but she would at least get to meet him this time and have that memory if he decided he didn’t want to see her again. I was touched by her honesty and vulnerability. Ryan told her he didn’t know how the future looked or where to go from there but he did want to see her again and wanted to get to know her and her family better.

It has now been a few months since all the pieces of finding and talking to Sherrie for the first time fell into place. Sherrie and Ryan talk or text fairly often on the phone. Ryan has video chatted and or texted with all of his half siblings. I went to Utah to see my Grandma Jones and spent an afternoon meeting David, his wife Jen, and Giselle. Sherrie and Genevieve, her son Eric, Grandpa Perry and Sherrie’s husband David have stopped by our house at different times when they were coming by Kansas City.

About a week ago all of the siblings came out to have a vacation together in Branson Missouri. David and Austin stopped by our house on their way. We went to dinner, they came to one of Matthew’s games, and we had them and David and his wife and kids at our house for dinner. Ryan and I went to Branson for a day and met them all together. It was a little overwhelming for Ryan but he was glad to finally meet all of them in person and spend a few hours with them.

The following weekend we took the kids and went to Sherrie’s house and spent the weekend with them. David’s family was still there, our kids seemed to get a long with his kids pretty well. The kids loved having cousins to play with and lots of fun activities to do. We were able to meet Vanitta, Sherrie’s mom. The person that Kenny found and was able to finally find the link to Sherrie. We played games, grilled food, Ryan went golfing, we drove around Dardanelle, went to church with them, and took pictures on the top of Mt Nebo. It was a fun weekend. I felt like I was just meeting my in-laws for the first time even though I have been married for 19 years. Not quite sure how I fit in yet. Sherrie and her whole family are so kind and welcoming though. I am excited to have them added to our family. Ryan is too. I love the changes in him the past few months. I have always loved him and he has always been a good man. He has grown spiritually and emotionally the past few months and I love him even more.

It feels like all the ice has been broken now. Everyone has met and the initial relationships have started to form. One of our concerns when Ryan was debating on looking for his biological mom was how it would affect our family. We didn’t know all the possible scenarios but we had many that we came up with-good and bad. We decided to trust that Heavenly Father would guide us and things would happen the way that would be best for Ryan, our kids, Rhonda and Roger, and the people we discovered along the way. We had no idea how it would turn out but so far it has been pretty amazing.

Grandma Jones

My sweet Grandma Jones is 89 years old and has had some health complications the past little while. I decided to take a weekend to go and visit her in case she isn’t with us to much longer. She is not very comfortable and in pain most of the time but she still did her best to talk and visit with me. Sometimes her memory is bad but it was pretty clear when I was there this time. She told DeAnna and I stories about growing up and through out her life. I have been blessed with sweet grandparents and I am grateful for them. I was named after my grandma, Annie Joy Pinegar Jones. I have a lot of fond and happy memories from and with my Grandma. I am so glad I got to go see her and my grandpa for a few days.

I stayed with DeAnna and one of the days I was there we drove up to Idaho to visit my Grandma and Grandpa Call as well.

Sharing The News

Telling his parents weighed the most on him. The night after he talked to Sherrie for the first time he went over to talk to his parents. Rhonda was having a rough day health wise so he decided to wait. He went over for the next several days in a row to tell them but Rhonda seemed to be getting worse. She ended up being checked into the hospital and we found out she had lymphoma. Ryan wanted to share the news but didn’t want to stress his mom out more. He knew she would be emotional about it and was worried about the stress it would cause her. She ended up being in the hospital for over a week. One of the evenings he spent in the hospital with her they had a talk that ended up leading towards Ryan finding his birth mom at some point. Ryan didn’t tell her then because he didn’t want to tell her while she was in the hospital but he was able to talk with her and let he know that some day he wanted to meet her. He felt it was a blessing to prep her a little before he told her when she felt good enough. A few days after Rhonda got home from the hospital Ryan and I walked over to see his parents and Ross was there. Rhonda was having a good night and Ryan decided to tell them. Ryan said he thought it went as well as he expected it would. I think it went a lot better than I expected it too. Ryan did an amazing job of sharing his story with them about why he finally decided to find his birth mom and how he found her. Roger was very receptive and seemed happy for Ryan. Rhonda was sad and made a few comments about Ryan leaving her. Ryan assured her she was his mom forever and that would never change and he never wanted it to change. Over the past several weeks since he talked to his parents he has talked with them several more times about his experiences. At some point Ryan hopes that his mom and dad will be able to meet Sherrie. Rhonda wants to wait until she is better and everyone understands that. He is looking forward to their meeting and thinks they will be great friends. Sherrie has told Ryan many times that Rhonda is her hero. She has thought of her as that from the day Ryan was born and she is so happy that she is such an amazing mom to Ryan. Thinking of her taking care of Ryan over the years and loving him brought her a lot of peace.

Ryan has spent a lot of time thinking and processing his thoughts and how others might feel or react. I have been touched by his concern for others while he has been navigating all the emotions he didn’t expect at the same time. He has been open and honest with everyone and has wanted to help his family understand he loves them and finding his biological family doesn’t and won’t change any of that. He has no doubt that Heavenly Father was guiding and helping him get to the family he was supposed to be with and everything worked out the way it was supposed to. There have been many things that have happened through this whole process that have shown him that God is still watching out for him and his family and guiding him to find people and tell them at the right times. I have seen a lot of spiritual and emotional growth in him the past few months.

Shortly after Ryan and Sherrie spoke on the phone for the first time, her husband Dave sent Ryan an email. The first week after finding Sherrie Ryan was extremely emotional and had a lot of mixed feelings about things. He found Dave’s email very comforting and was appreciative of him sending it to him. It helped him know a little more about who Sherrie and he were.

Dear Ryan:

I just wanted to say thank you for your courage and boldness in reaching out to Sherrie. This was the secret desire of her heart to know that she could know that you were safe and happy, and getting to hear from you and meet you is wonderful.

I thought I’d just share a few things with you concerning Sherrie.

She is a fiercely devoted mother and Grandmother. Her children and grandchildren are constantly calling her. The grandchildren are always asking “Meme are you going to be at my…(birthday party, school lunch, sacrament meeting, tomorrow…)?” It is really delightful the way they seek her out.

We live in a somewhat economically depressed area of Arkansas in Yell County. The county covers 927 square miles. In 1992 we were formed as a Branch and started with a regular attendance of about 18 people. There have been times when our attendance was only 11. That said, we are still a very small Branch, and as you can imagine, the few active members have always had multiple callings and assignments. Throughout the years, Sherrie has held every possible calling and has been enthusiastic in serving in whatever calling she had. In our Branch we have seen a lot of people join the Church, embrace the Gospel, improve financially, then move on to better opportunity. We have birds that regularly build nests on our windows. They build, raise their babies, then fly off. We often feel that’s the way our Branch operates.

in July 1998, Eric, our middle son, was diagnosed with cancer. On April 7, 2000, just 3 days before Sherrie’s Birthday, Eric (10 years old) passed away in Cardinal Glennon Hospital in St. Louis. We buried him on April 11, 2000, the day after Sherrie’s birthday. That was a very difficult event for our entire family, but especially for Sherrie. However, we know that families are eternal, and we will be with Eric again.

Sherrie and I met in August 1979, and were married January 18, 1990. She was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I was not. Shortly after we met, she told me that she had a child and had delivered the child for adoption. I know that it hurt her tremendously, but we couldn’t discuss it. I know that it was always her desire to be assured that you were safe, that you would have grown up strong with Faith in Christ. However, she knew that she couldn’t seek you out and threaten the family and your mother by just popping up. So she silently hoped the best for you in her heart.

Imagine the joy that you have brought her by reaching out. Imagine her joy in knowing you have a strong family, and you have a wife and children of your own. By your reaching out to Sherrie has freed her to be able to openly and honestly discuss this with her children, parents, brothers and sisters.

I want you to know that this is a great blessing you have given us by reaching out to Sherrie.

Thank you.

May Heavenly Father Bless your Mother and Father, your sisters and brothers, your wife and your children. May your children’s children remember your gift and blessing.

Respectfully, and Sincerely

David E. Torgerson

The day Sherrie found out about Ryan, she immediately wanted to tell her kids. She told Giselle and Austin together at Giselle’s house. After she told them Sherrie called David and said she had something she needed to talk to all of them about and they were all coming over to his house that evening. When David hung up the phone, he told his wife he had something to tell her. He said he had an older brother that his mom gave up for adoption before he was born. He said his mom was coming over and he knew it was about his brother. She either found him, or found out that he wasn’t alive. While David was waiting for his mom he then got to explain to his wife of 17+ years of marriage why this was the first time she was hearing anything about an older brother that had been given up for adoption.

Sherrie and Dave’s oldest son is named David too. He first learned about Ryan on his mission when he wrote her a letter and said he wanted to know, not if, but who his older brother was because he knew he had one. Sherrie told him about Ryan through letters. She didn’t know anything other than he was a boy so other than her experience she didn’t have much to share. When David was talking with his mission president at his exit interview from his mission he told his president about Ryan and that he was planning on going to find him and meet him. His mission president told him that while he understood his desire, he didn’t think it was best for him to find Ryan. He told him Ryan had his own life and they didn’t know anything about it and it wasn’t fair to disrupt it. Ryan might not even know he was adopted. David decided to not try and find his brother at that time. When Sherrie called David the day she found out about Ryan and said she wanted to come over and talk with him and his family, David said he immediately knew it was something about Ryan. He knew Sherrie had found him and he was reaching out to her or she found out he had passed away. Once Sherrie confirmed that Ryan had reached out to her and wanted to connect with her and her family, David immediately texted Ryan and said he had been hoping to meet him for years and was looking forward to getting to know him.

Giselle and Austin had no idea about Ryan. The first they heard was the day Ryan contacted Sherrie. It was a shock to them but they seemed to take it in stride.

Austin said hi over text but there wasn’t much more communication until they met in person a few months later. Being 25 and not married his perspective of the situation was a little different then everyone else. It might be a while before he realizes and processes all the baggage that goes with this. They have a similar sense of humor and many interests that are the same. I think they will have a comfortable relationship in the future.

Giselle went through shock and acceptance of having a ‘lost brother’ pretty quick and reached out to Ryan and zoomed with him pretty quickly. Shortly after they talked she had a lot of emotions set it and has been a little overwhelmed sorting through them. She is excited to meet and get to know Ryan but feels a sense of loss at the same time. She told him she missed him after they talked and was sad that she had missed out on his life even though she didn’t know about him. She had the most trepidation in meeting Ryan. Sherrie and David have a son named Eric that passed away when he was ten years old from cancer. Eric was a few years older than Giselle and Austin. I think a lot of the feelings of losing her brother Eric have resurfaced since finding Ryan. Everyone agrees that Ryan looks the most like Eric and it would be strange to have a brother that entered your life years later that looked so much like a brother you had lost. It is a lot to process. I think they will be able to have a good relationship at some point but it will take a little time.

Genevieve, like David, somehow new that she had an older brother besides David when she was younger. When she was 13 she cornered her mom and said she wanted to know about him. She never knew if she would meet him but she hoped someday it might happen. When Sherrie told her about Ryan she asked where he was and immediately wanted to meet him. Several weeks later it worked out that she came to visit our house with Sherrie and was able to meet Ryan. She is a sweet person and seemed to immediately be ready to have Ryan in her life.

Ryan had been talking with Ross and keeping him updated on the search and finally finding Sherrie. He was excited for Ryan but also had a little worry for a minute when he found out because of the possibility of change. He was at Rhonda’s house when Ryan told his parents and helped her understand that finding his birth mom didn’t mean she was losing or even changing the relationship Ryan had with his family. I was glad he was there, Ryan told me later that he was glad he was there too.

We waited to tell our kids until after Ryan had talked to his parents. We didn’t want any chance of one of them letting it slip before Ryan could talk to them first. We were unsure how they would react and nervous about telling them. Our concern was unfounded though. They new Ryan was adopted and seemed to take it completely in stride when we told them that he had found his birth mom. Emilee in particular was tickled pink that she would have even more cousins to play with. Allison told us that she wasn’t going to call Sherrie grandma because she had two grandma’s already but didn’t seem opposed to someday possibly meeting her. Matthew was a typical 14 year old teenager and said. “Ok, can I go back to playing basketball.” It was a relief to know (other than Allison stating her loyalty, which we told her was just fine and her grandma’s would appreciate her devotion) they didn’t seem to be rocked or concerned when we told them. Kids are pretty great at accepting and embracing changes.

When Ryan found out about Sherrie and contacted her it was a crazy overwhelming experience. He was able share it with a lot of his family and close friends over the next several weeks. I am writing this to help him remember the experience and feelings he had. He recorded some on his own as well. Some people have said what amazing coincidences have happened over the years but we know it isn’t coincidences. This whole experience has been and continues to have amazing little miracles happen that confirm to us that Heavenly Father is so aware of each of us. It has left Ryan without a doubt that his mom and dad were meant to be his parents and the way he got to them wasn’t the conventional way but Heavenly Father guided everyone to help not just Ryan but Sherrie, Roger, Rhonda, and their families. It is a pretty amazing story.

I am so grateful for the family and friends that have shared the excitement, concern, and dozens of other emotions that have taken turns at the front of the line the past few months. Kenny spent hours and hours finding the right person that linked Ryan to Sherrie. Ryan followed the prompting to reach out to Perry who facilitated and prepared Sherrie to find Ryan. My family, Ryan’s family, Sherrie’s family, and our amazing friends the Dunn’s, Johnson, Sam, the McDonald’s and a lot more have been nothing but supportive of Ryan as he has started navigating through all of this. It is pretty incredible how everything has turned out.

Bixby, Oklahoma

Matthew had a baseball tournament in Oklahoma a few weeks ago. It was actually for the sister team he plays with but they needed a few extra players so Matthew went. Long story short they ended up changing the rules for the tournament in the middle of one of our games-totally ridiculous I know- and our coaches decided that we were going to withdraw instead of let them just change things to make a point. So the tournament was a bust, but we had fun going to other games and were able to get back home earlier for Mother’s Day. Matthew’s main team has several siblings that Emilee plays with, there weren’t any that came on this team so she did a good job being a trooper even though she was bored most of the time. Allison stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa Terry instead of coming for the weekend. We are really glad that they live here. We all needed a break from each other and she loves spending time at their house.

Emilee’s I’m not having fun but fake it till you make it smile.

Fascinating Little Buggers

This is the crabs in their new home. I think it is not to shabby. Jeffrey, Crab Cakes, and Georgia are pretty lucky crabs. We have the humidity and temperature where they like it and they seem to be pretty happy and active. They explore, swim, climb, sleep, eat, and dig in the sand. We think one of them is in the molting process because she has tunneled deep into the sand and we haven’t seen her for a few days. We watched another one switch shells. Crabs outside of their shell or pretty creepy looking. It is like alien creepy. We often find ourselves just watching the crabs crawl around. I would never have expected them to be so interesting. I would even say they are a little cute…when they have a shell on their back.

Gulf Shores Alabama 2021

The kids had spring break in March like usual this year but we decided to postpone a bit and went to Gulf Shores in Alabama in April instead. We originally invited Grandma and Grandpa Terry to go with us and Ross and Lauren and their family. Grandma and Grandpa decided they didn’t want to go in case Grandma wasn’t feeling good. She had her second chemo treatment the day before we left. So it was the Terry cousins and us. We left a Friday after school and drove the first 4 1/2 hours then stayed the night at a hotel. Driving wasn’t bad at all. The kids and adults swapped around between the two cars so we seemed to have more peaceful traveling. When we headed out the next morning we had about 10 hours left to drive. We stopped at Mammoth Springs and walked around the lake and saw the waterfall. Uncle Ross stood on one side of the bridge and dropped a leaf and then hurried to the other side to watch it fall down the waterfall. The kids thought is was great fun and spent the next 15 minutes tossing sticks and leaves and watching them go over the falls. They would all yell in excitement every time. It was hilarious. They would have done it a lot longer but we dragged them away to get back on the road. We saw a muskrat or beaver (there was a debate we settled by letting everyone call it what they wanted since there was no clear view of its tail). We also saw lots of pretty birds, including two that were right on the trail and were not interested in moving out of the way at all.

After that, we stopped to eat and pee until we arrived at Gulf Shores. We grabbed some groceries. Shopping with six kids is always a treat. We had enough sugary cold cereals to last the week plus the next month. When we got to our condo it was about 8 pm so it was already dark, we moved in and got settled and enjoyed the view of the ocean from the patio. It was a nice little spot for us. Each couple had a room, the boys shared a room and the girls shared a room. The weather looked like it would be a little dicey but Sunday-Wednesday afternoon was pretty gorgeous weather. Our condo opened right to the beach. If the weather was sunny that’s where the kids wanted to be. Gulf Shores has a little bigger waves then Florida beaches we have gone too. We brought boogie boards and that was one of the favorite pass times at the beach. We spent all the sunny days building sand castles, playing catch, body surfing, shell and crab hunting, swimming, sunbathing, flying kites, reading, napping, playing bocce ball, all the fun beach things you can think of. If the sun got to be to much the kids would walk into the pool at the hotel and swim in fresh water for a bit then come back to the beach. Lauren and Leah and I decided to walk to the pier that was ‘just down the beach’ one of the days. It was a much longer walk then we thought. Uncle Ross ran it the next day with his watch to tell how far it was and it was a 2 1/4 miles to the pier. We did a 4 1/2 mile walk in the sand that we thought was maybe a mile. We were all a little sore and chaffed the next day.

I think it was Tuesday we took a break from the sun and went to explore one of the Forts nearby. Ross and Ryan went golfing after that and Lauren and I took the kids on a Ferry to Dauphin Island. We ate lunch and went to the aquarium on the Island then road the Ferry back home.

In the evenings we played games and watched movies. Sometimes the kids went down to the beach after dark to see if they could find crabs. Wednesday was back to the beach but the nice weather only lasted until about noon. Then it started to rain. We ended up going mini golfing and stopping by an ice cream shop. Thursday was a rainy day. We went to the souvenir shop and hung out at the condo. My kids ended up pooling their money and getting hermit crabs for their souvenirs. Matthew agreed to supply most of the funding on the condition he got to keep them in his room but the girls could take care of them. We added Jeffrey, Georgia, and Crab Cakes to our family. Once we got home we did a little research on how to take care of them. We turned our old aquarium into a new house for them with sand and a pool and a little forest and hut for them. They seem to love it. At least more then the plastic cage with a few rocks in it they were living in when we got them. We also discovered in our research that crabs can live up to thirty years in the wild. We told the kids that they could plan on taking them with them when they got married.

Friday was time to head back home. We swapped around a lot on the way home. The weather was rainy most of the time and we drove it in one stretch. It was a little before one in the morning when we got home. Ryan and I decided we are to old to drive at night anymore. Neither one of us can see very well and we like to sleep instead of stay awake. We were chugging soda, eating snacks and pinching each other to stay awake. The last hour and a half was pretty painful. We really debated stopping and getting a hotel an hour away from home. We made it though. It was nice to have the rest of the weekend before jumping back into school and work.

It was an awesome vacation. The kids were all feeling a little cabin fever and liked getting out of the house and going somewhere. I am glad we got to make some memories and have a good week together.

Reaching Out

When Kenny found the link to the Turnbull’s he woke up his wife and showed her the obituary and contacted Ryan. As the three of them were talking Sherri noticed another name in the same obituary that she recognized, Bill Bertelson. She remembered knowing someone by that name from a family that she knew when she lived in South Dakota with my parents. She remembers thinking it wasn’t a very common name but it was probably a coincidence.

Once they had Vanitta’s name they started trying to find more information about her. They assumed she was likely Ryan’s mom but they didn’t know for sure. One of the ways they looked her up was on Facebook. Since they weren’t friends with her, only her public pictures were available to see. They looked through several available pictures and tried to glean any information they could. As they were looking through the pictures, Sherri saw a picture of Vanitta with her brother Bill Bertelson. She pointed it out to Ryan and they were both shocked. Ryan and her both recognized the Bill in the picture with Vanitta. It was the same Bill they had met together nineteen years earlier.

Christmas 2002. Ryan and Janae were married in May 2002. At the time her parents and other three siblings lived in Rock Springs, Wyoming. Later that year her dad was transferred with his job and the family planned to move to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. With the timing of the move they arrived in South Dakota the week of Christmas. They couldn’t move into the house until shortly after the New Year so they planned to stay in a hotel until then. Ryan and Janae decided to come up and join them and they had a hotel Christmas in Sioux Falls South Dakota their first Christmas together with Janae’s family. A day or so before Christmas was Sunday and the family attended the new church they would be going to and met some new friends. One of the families that introduced themselves to Janae’s parents was the Bertelson family. Bill and his wife Barbara. When they heard they were staying in a hotel over Christmas they invited us to join their family for a Christmas breakfast. They were a very kind and thoughtful family. My parents got to know them well and became good friends. Whenever Ryan and Janae went up to visit her family they would always come and say hi at church and ask how they were doing.

Along with discovering Vanitta and her brother Bill, the three of them were able to figure out that Vanitta was about 85 years old which would have made her in her mid forties when Ryan was born. They also pieced together that she had several children that would be older than Ryan and one that would be younger. At this point their best guess was Ryan was most likely conceived from an affair or maybe rape then given up for adoption. After talking and speculating and living on a wave of excitment from finding a strong lead, the three of them decided to call it a night and pick up the search in the morning. A few short hours later Janae woke up at 7am on Friday morning not knowing any of the exciting news from the night before. When Ryan filled her in on everything they had discovered she told him he would never live down not waking her up when he found out. Then they called Kenny and Sherri and picked up were they left off the night before and started making a plan to figure out who to contact. Through Facebook stalking they were able to figure out a few more of Vanitta’s family members. Kenny, Sherri and Janae were pushing for Ryan to call or email Bill. They thought that would be the easiest link. He probably wouldn’t remember Ryan but he would know Janae’s parents. Ryan didn’t want to contact Vanitta directly, but instead of Bill he kept coming back to a guy named Perry Turnbull that we thought was Vanitta’s son. Ryan said he felt like that was the right person to contact, he looked like a good guy and maybe even a Bishop in our church. Within 5 minutes Kenny has Perry’s email and phone number and found out he actually was a Branch President of a Young Single Adult Ward. Ryan decided that is who he would contact. At 9am he sent a Facebook Message and an email to Perry with the following message:

Perry, I don’t believe we’ve ever met, my name is Ryan Terry. This is probably going to sound strange so I’ll jump right into it. I was born in 1979 and was adopted via LDS family services, but I think we might be related! A few months ago I got a 23andme DNA test, mostly to check for health concerns as I have no family history, but also out of curiosity of my biological lineage. Literally the only piece of information I have about my biological parents is on adoptive court papers that had my surname of Turnbull before legally changing my name to Ryan Terry when I was a few months old. In 23andme I have only a few 2nd and 3rd cousins, and did not see any Turnbull surnames. Until last night. I was looking at the Keele family line, which DNA says I have relations to, and found through Ancestry.com and Family Search where the Turnbull name actually popped up – with Vanitta. Through some light Facebook investigation, it looks like that is your mother or you are related to her in some way.

Anyway, maybe this is super weird, but I think we may be closely related and I thought you could maybe help me connect some dots. I considered reaching out directly to Vanitta, but figured she may not be super Facebook savvy and not even know I sent a message. Or maybe it would be a shock to her if I directly contacted her. So since you seem to be active on Facebook and connected to her I wondered if you could help me. I sent you a message in Facebook Messenger too but I often forget to check those messages, so thought I’d send you an email.

Putting myself in your shoes, I can see this might be really weird and out of the blue. But now my curiosity is peeked! I would love to connect some dots and perhaps express gratitude to my biological mother for following what I believe to be a divine plan. I have always felt like I was meant to be with my adoptive parents and am happy for eternal families.

Sorry for the long, random, rambling message! Would love to chat with you if you get the message and would like to talk.

Ryan

Ryan had sent several emails to other possible relatives at this point but had never heard back from any of them. This time felt different but no one knew what to expect. At some point that morning while they were all looking at pictures and trying to piece connections together someone said that maybe Vanitta was not his mom but his grandma. That seemed to fit time lines a little better. They were able to find a picture of one of her daughters that they thought was a possibility but they just didn’t know and wouldn’t know unless Perry contacted Ryan back. All four of them tried to go about their day and impatiently waited to hear something back.

Ryan had several scheduled meetings that day at noon, two and four. He left shortly after sending the email and went to his first meeting at noon. At 12:15 his phone rang and caller ID said Perry Turnbull across the top of his phone. He new it probably wouldn’t be a short conversation and was already in his meeting with a client so he sent it to voicemail then tried but utterly failed to focus on the next 45 minutes of his meeting.

Perry left a message. At 1pm Ryan walked out to his car to listen to the voicemail.

Transcription of Perry’s Message:

Hi Ryan, my name is Perry Turnbull and you sent me an email and a Facebook message today regarding your heritage and thanks so much for that message that was very thoughtfully written and sincere and um I believe Ryan, there is a very high likely hood that there is a direct connection between you and my sister and I would just love to talk to you about that and to fill you in with as much as I know and connect the dots as much as I am able. SO feel free to give me a call back at … and I will also respond to your email as well with some personal contact information and look for ward to chatting with you. Hope you have a great day and thanks for reaching out, take care. Bye.

Ryan was obviously emotional when he heard Perry’s message. He had just found out who is biological mother was! He had one hour until his next meeting but he new he couldn’t wait until the end of the day to call him back so he decided to call on his drive to his next meeting. He hit send and called Perry Turnbull back.

The Results

Once the sample had been sent in there wasn’t much to do but wait. Other then the surname of Turnbull and being born in Monett Missouri we didn’t really know any other information.

Kenny tried to hold true to his finding Ryan’s birth mom in 30 minutes. He had one or two people he thought were good possibilities but without the DNA he wasn’t willing to say anything with much commitment. Several weeks later after much anticipation, Ryan finally got the results. His health information came back pretty good. The things they were able to test and look for came back with no big red flags. It was nice for Ryan to have some peace of mind about some general health information. Learning more about his biology made Ryan realize his curiosity was definitely piqued and he wanted to know more about the ancestry side of his DNA. However, when he looked at those results there wasn’t much to see.

Kenny’s words.

Sitting on the couch at Ryan’s house while the girls were out shopping we somehow got on the topic of DNA/his biological mother. Ryan mentioned that he had looked on classmates.com at yearbooks torying to find a picture of her in Monett. Considering myself an amateur sleuth of sorts I offered my help and said I could probably find her in 30 minutes. Little did I know the task ahead of me. After researching for 2 weeks I thought I had found her (based on what we thought we knew). We decided to wait for 23&me DNA results to confirm, deny or shed any light on the subject. I remember it like it was yesterday. We were out to dinner with friends at Longhorn steakhouse when Ryan texted me with a picture of his closest DNA relatives. I looked at the list in disbelief! His CLOSEST match was 2%! I will never never forget Ryan’s next text to me. He simply wrote ‘work your magic’.

The lack of information available almost made the task of finding his birth mom more intriguing . Kenny and Ryan spent a lot of their free time looking and trying to find links to possible relatives. Ryan sent a few emails to relatives 23&Me said he was related to but never heard anything back. They both continued to talk and look into things together but Kenny made it a personal mission to figure this mystery out.

Too be completely honest I felt like I’d need some real magic to get anywhere. My next move was distinct, I looked at the list of relatives and prayed. I prayed that I would be able to know how to connect the dots. After the prayer I turned to google. I decided that if I could find one of these individuals family history pedigree charts I would have a better chance of finding either of Ryan’s biological parents. The first name was just initials so I moved to the second one immediately. The name was Reba Keele and it said she was from Utah. Turns our she is a professor of sorts and an author. One of the first pages I found on her actually listed her family info including parents names. With this info in hand I turned to family search. Knowing that only deceased ancestors appear on family search I put her parents names in. I got an immediate hit! Turns our the Keele family are LDS pioneers and have kept great records!! 23&Me had said that Ryan was a second cousin to the first 2 matches. I had an immediate sense of relief thinking I would close this case in a day!!!!!!! My excitement soon faded as I saw the number of relatives in this line. It seemed like every marriage had 10 kids! I hunted through this info everyday! Some nights I found myself unable to sleep or waking up with a new idea on where to look at 3am. I had searched all the second cousins!!!! No matches that fit.

Kenny spent weeks and hours of his time doing research for Ryan. The four of us would often talk together and there were several theory’s starting to form in our minds as we continued to run into dead ends. The biggest frustration was that we could not find the link in any of his known relatives to the Turnbull line. Kenny had looked through hundreds maybe even thousands of names and the Turnbull name never appeared. Was it a misdirection or a flat out lie? Maybe it was a single child of a single child and the line died out? Maybe Monett was not the right place…where would we even start to look if it wasn’t though? We were almost out of possibilities. Kenny suggested that Ryan get his DNA tested through ancestry.com because they had a bigger database to search. Ryan requested the kit and Kenny kept looking.

This continued for weeks. I decided to once again pray for direction as it seemed like I had lost traction. Shortly after the prayer I stumbled on an article discussing family DNA and how the DNA match percentages add up. It mentioned that at 2% someone might be a much more distant relative to these people then 23&Me indicated. I returned to family search with a renewed determination and decided to read all of the obituaries of the most recently deceased ancestors of Ryan to see if I could find any matching info (we had a last name and an approximate location). I started reading obituaries about 7:30pm. At 1:30am I was exhausted, I had read so many obituaries they were all blending together. I was reaching the end and had no new info. Just as I was about to call it a night I read one last obituary for Winifred Olsen. In the text it listed all of her children. The name hit me like a ton of bricks. Vanitta Turnbull of Arkansas! The location was close enough and the last name was a match!!! I couldn’t believe what I was reading! Had I really just found them??! My eyes began to swell with tears as I knew in my heart I had found Ryan’s biological family! The fact that is was 1:30 am was so irrelevant given the exciting news I decided I had to call Ryan. I texted him first and to my shock he responded back immediately letting me know he was still winding down from a basketball game he played earlier or he would have been asleep. I texted him the following in all caps “I FOUND YOUR MOM!” He immediately called me in disbelief but the more we talked it became more and more real. This was her! I hadn’t been able to sleep for 2 months! I found my head constantly running through new scenarios of where to look but now it was done! As I slept that night I found myself in a very emotional state. I could only imagine what Ryan was going through but even being involved on just the search side had given me a little glimpse of it. The next day brought MANY phone calls between Ryan and my myself. Who do you call to reach out too? Which family member? The events that have transpired from all of this are nothing short of wonderful!

Ryan and Janae have talked several times since then about how without Kenny’s help and sleuthing skills and the dozens and dozens of hours he spent researching we may never have found the link we needed to lead us to his biological family. As they have shared this story with others many have commented on what an amazing true friend and brother Kenny is to dedicate so much of his time and energy to helping Ryan. He is the hero in this story. Ryan and Janae couldn’t agree more.

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter and General Conference weekend. We tried to keep the weekend clear from any extra curricular activities, and it worked! It seems like October General Conference is always harder to do that, but sometimes we don’t get our wish in April either. I am glad it was successful this year.

Conference was really good. The kids didn’t listen with rapture or anything but they stayed within hearing range without any complaining. With any luck hopefully a few things soaked into their heads.

Our cousins and Grandpa came over after the first session on Sunday. Grandma was going to try but she was having a rough day so she didn’t come. Ryan couldn’t decide what to smoke- ham with traditional cheesy potatoes, rolls, and salad. Or pulled pork tacos with fresh slaw and strawberries. So he did both. We had a lot of yummy food, and my favorite, we have a lot of yummy leftovers so I don’t have to cook the next day or two.

We watched the last conference session after we ate then Ross and Ryan went over to see their mom and played a game at her house while the rest of us hung out at our house. The weather was a beautiful 75 degrees. The kids wanted to get out the slip-n-slide. I was a mean mom and nixed their idea though.

The Easter Bunny was slacking this year and fell asleep early before getting the job done. Luckily Emilee came in to our room and woke us up first so I could go get the Easter Bunny on the job without her noticing.

It was a great Easter weekend. I enjoyed remembering and celebrating Easter. I am grateful for my Savior, His sacrifice, and His resurrection.

March Madness

This post has nothing to do with basketball. The title is just referring to our regular lives and happenings.

Allison has wanted to have colored hair for a while so we finally got around to it. She loves it and the attention she gets with it.

We caught Grandpa surfing his phone…I mean taking a nap while he thought he was surfing his phone.

Ryan and I booked our 20th anniversary cruise for next May 2022. We are pretty excited! We decided on our 10th anniversary this is what we wanted to do. It is going to be awesome!

I was out of town and Ryan had the pleasure of taking the kids to church on his own. Whenever this happens he makes a point of getting the kids there 20 minutes early and rubbing it in my face because we usually screech in right on time. He did it again this time, but stepped up his game by having the Bishop send me the picture of my smiling family arriving to church 20 minutes early, instead of him. I think he is implying that I am the reason everyone is late but that is a bunch of garbage. He also sent me a picture of Emilee and her decision of what to wear to church that day. The girl rocks her own style.

I met Ryan at a parking lot the other day and noticed a new addition to his car. This is his required license plate cover for the next month or so. He forgot to mention it to me, but like I said, I noticed, and have made sure it is now documented. What a good sport he is! I will also note that it had recently snowed and there was still snow on the roads so that is the reason for the atrociously egregious filthy condition of his beloved car. Under usual conditions it is spotless.

Another first for our family. Matthew went into have some tests done to check out his growth hormone levels. He had to get an IV that he was trying to play cool for but he was pretty nervous. When he was six and had to have some blood drawn it took me (7 months pregnant with Allison) and two male nurses to hold him still enough for the third nurse to draw the blood. His self control and braveness have improved a lot in the past 8 years as you might expect. He handled it like a champ.

I saw this little meme somewhere on my phone the other day and screen shot it because it is true and a good reminder.

Allison and dad got their garden started. They planted a salad/salsa garden. There will be lots of peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and pea plant just for me.

Rhonda

The Straw

About a week and a half ago Ryan went over and to see his parents. Rhonda was not making a lot of sense and said she didn’t feel well. Everyone came over for dinner to our house on the next day and she was still acting a little weird. Both Roger and Rhonda kind of blew it off and said she would be ok. The next day we texted them and they said she was better. Tuesday night after we had dinner Ryan said he wanted to go and check on her in person so we went over to say hello. She was not doing better. Roger was flustered because he had just found out she had taken her morning pills for morning and night for the past several days and had not taken any of her night pills. He kept asking her why and what she did and she was caught in the same loop of a thirty second story that ended with her staring at the pills in her hand and trying to count them. Roger thought if she took the pills everything would be fine. Rhonda thought she had taken the pills. Ryan was trying to explain that the pills had nothing to do with it, she had been loopy long before the pill mix up and she needed to go to the hospital because he thought she was having a stroke. It got a little awkward especially when Ryan said either we take her to the hospital or call an ambulance to come get her. They kind of threw up their hands and said fine they would go.

Week One.

She ended up spending a week in the hospital. She was not having a stroke. That was a relief to know. She would have likely gone into kidney failure and died if she had waited to much longer to go to the hospital. The initial tests showed her calcium levels were way to high and her kidneys weren’t working as great as they should be. She was also severely dehydrated. The first few days were spent trying to balance here mineral levels and rehydrating her with a constant IV. The calcium levels being so high is what was making her not be able to think clearly. They figured out what the problem pretty quickly was but weren’t sure what was causing the problem in the first place.

Several Months Previously

Rhonda noticed that she had a lymph node in her neck that was swollen. She had recently had an ear infection so she thought it was residual from that but after several different antibiotics and several weeks it hadn’t changed much. She went in and had an ultrasound done and they were planning on removing it. When she went into have it removed the ENT said he didn’t think they needed to remove it, they would just continue to monitor it and in the mean time, she should try some coconut herbal toothpaste to see if it helped. (This doctor is now referred to as The Lazy Moron).

Back to the hospital.

After a few days in the hospital Roger and Rhonda mentioned the incident with the swollen lymph node to the doctors. They did an exam and found that she had enlarged lymph nodes in her neck, under her arms, and in her groin. They scheduled a surgery to remove a piece of her lymph node for biopsy. The doctor who did her surgery asked to say a prayer with her before they went in. Roger mentioned that this brought him comfort and he appreciated the doctors genuine concern. Then the waiting for results started. The doctor who did the surgery told them that from his experience and what he saw he thought it was most likely lymphoma but results would need to be verified. Because he thought this, he removed a larger portion so they could do follow up tests they would want to do if it did turn out to be lymphoma. By doing this the doctor moved the treatment process forward at least two weeks. I personally appreciated the doctors efforts and concern but was a little upset that he would throw out the ‘C’ word without an official diagnosis. We all prayed that he was wrong.

Waiting

The results took several days to come back. In the mean time, Rhonda stayed in the hospital and they continued to monitor her mineral levels-specifically calcium and vitamin D, and her kidneys. Another possible diagnosis of sarcoidosis was mentioned. We hoped that this would be the case, her symptoms checked the boxes for sarcoidosis more than lymphoma symptoms and treatment and management seemed more manageable. Results were said to come in on Monday or Tuesday. We had about four more days to wait. Roger stayed at the hospital with Rhonda during the day and then came home to sleep at night. Ryan, Ross and I went to the hospital as often as we could to offer company or give Roger a chance to take a break for a few hours. Roger and Rhonda were both scheduled to get their COVID vaccine on Friday but Rhonda had to cancel her appointment which caused both of them more stress. Roger was able to get his first one though. On Monday I went to spend the afternoon with them. Rhonda was doing pretty good, her mind was clear and she was annoyed at all the poking and prodding and constant interruption from nurses, doctors, physical therapy, cleaners, lab technicians, and having to use the restroom every hour because of all the fluids they were putting in her. She had been there long enough that there was a sense of routine. Roger likes to have a plan and be helpful. He has cared for and helped Rhonda for decades since they have been married. That care has gotten more intense for him the past twenty years as different parts of her health have declined and her body struggles in different ways. It was sweet to watch him brush her hair and rub her head. He knows how to help her move and reposition herself so she is as comfortable as possible.

Results

Roger had an appointment at the same hospital Rhonda was staying and was going to be gone for an hour or so. Rhonda was feeling tired so he helped her use the restroom and got her all tucked in for a nap before he left. I got comfy and started reading a book. About two minutes after she fell asleep they came in a woke her up to take her vitals. She fell back asleep then someone came in to clean her room. Just as she dozed off again the nurse came in and woke her up because she had a phone call and handed the phone to Rhonda. I asked the nurse who it was and she said it was her doctor. Since Rhonda was having some memory issues I went over and listened so I could hear in case she couldn’t remember everything he said. I heard him say, “I’m sorry it isn’t better news. The Oncologist will be there to talk with you in the next few hours.” Then he hung up. Rhonda just looked at me. I asked her what he said. She said, “I have malignant lymphoma.” Just like that the world went silent and crashed in around us. Our lives were changing forever and Rhonda was in a fight for her life. I told her I was so sorry and gave her a hug. She told me she didn’t want to die. I curled up next to her in her bed, held her and we cried together. After a few minutes I sent Roger a text telling him to come back as soon as he could and I texted Ryan. He left work and came to see her. We spent the next 45 minutes crying and talking. She was shocked and overwhelmed. We both were, I didn’t know what to do for her. It was hard being the one to get the news with her but I was so glad she wasn’t alone. I was angry the doctor told her the way he did. What if she had been alone or foggy and didn’t remember. I mostly just held her and we cried together. She wanted to know if she was going to make it another Christmas, how long she had, what to do next. She wanted her purse to give me some money to pass on to Ethan because it was his birthday that day. She wanted me to promise her things I would do for her. Ryan got there not to long after I called him. He came in and joined us on the bed. It wasn’t easy to fit three adults and all her cords and equipment on a single bed so I gave him my spot and moved to a chair and held her hand. Right after that the oncologist came in. Roger wasn’t back yet so we asked her to come back, she said she would in 45 minutes. Roger came back about 5 minutes after she left. He hadn’t seen my text so we told him the news. There wasn’t a lot to talk about. We all just sat there together and waited for the 40 minutes to pass until the oncologist came back. It felt like a week.

The Oncologist

I think we were all silently willing her to come back. Doctors say they will come back in a ‘few minutes’ all the time and its hours or even days. The whole process is enough to drive you insane. She did come back when she said she would to our relief. She said it was Large B Cell Lymphoma. She was ordering some additional tests to be done so they could narrow in on the specific treatment that would be best for her. This type of cancer is considered aggressive but the positive side to that is aggressive cancers respond well to chemotherapy. The negative side is that they have to treat it aggressively. Reading between the lines the biggest obstacle for Rhonda will be handling and surviving the treatment. It will take a lot out of her and her body is already dealing with a lot with all her other health conditions aside from the cancer. Lymphomas are considered curable though and her chances are good. I asked about what stage it is in. Lymphoma is different from other cancers in relation to what the stages mean. In localized cancers the stages refer to the level of cancer. The higher the number the worse the chances of recovery. With Lymphoma, the stage refers to the number of areas the cancer has spread in the body. They know there are two areas for sure (neck and under arms) the tests/scans will show them if its in her abdomen(stage 3) and legs(stage 4). However, chances for success are the same for stage 1 as they are for stage 4 with lymphoma. We didn’t felt like we knew a ton more after we talked with the oncologist but the plans were set in motion to define and start the treatment Rhonda will need.

Now What.

At drastic events in my life I often have a weird feeling of time freezing. The shock forms a little bubble around me and it seems like everything else just stops. Eventually it pops and you are startled that the world still exists and is moving on. When Rhonda got the news and told me I felt like we were in one of those bubbles. When the oncologist finished talking to us and left the room the bubble popped. Everyone is left with a ‘what do we do now’ feeling. It is all a little surreal, emerging from the bubble puts a slightly different hue and feeling to life and what was familiar just hours before is now a little different. Ryan and I wanted to give Roger and Rhonda time to digest and talk about everything. Ethan had a birthday dinner, Roger and Rhonda were not going to come obviously but the rest of us wanted to attend and prolong life the way they new it, before finding out, a little bit longer. Ryan and I were in separate cars so I left to get the kids. He left a few minutes later and met us at the restaurant. I don’t remember the drive or the rest of that night very much. My mind was trying to reconcile the my old and new reality. I also kept thinking I couldn’t fathom how Rhonda was feeling.

Home.

They let Rhonda go home the next day. She was stable but still weak and now had the added emotional and mental burden of knowing her condition. She did want to get home and was happy to sleep in her own bed. She has been given several blessings. Her and Roger spent the next week adjusting and getting the tests done to see what treatment will work best. They had the appointment to find out what the plan was and start it scheduled on a Friday. Right before they left for the appointment they found out it had been rescheduled to Monday. They had been in good spirits and had a positive outlook when I had seen them up to this point. I think rescheduling the appointment was a discouraging blow for them. If it were me, everyday of waiting would feel like one more day of letting the enemy cancer cells in my body entrench themselves even more. Ross and Ryan have been stopping by to visit and help almost everyday.

The New Normal

Roger called Ryan last night and he helped take her to the hospital again. She was really weak and tired and Roger was worried about her. They didn’t admit her but gave her more fluids and checked her mineral levels. Sleep would be best for her, she doesn’t sleep more than an hour or so without getting up to use the restroom. Roger has to help her so this means he doesn’t either. Roger had high blood pressure before all this happened. He admitted that he has some tightness in his chest now too. We are worried about him too. He does a great job caring for Rhonda but that is the only thing he is doing. He needs to find something to give him a break and let out his own stress and frustrations. So far he hasn’t been interested in any of our suggestions but we will try again once they have her treatment started. Ryan and I are glad they are close and can call anytime. This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint and it will take lots of support and help from lots of people to get through it.

Our Kids.

The kid knew Grandma had been in the hospital. They all made her cards and sent her pictures but because of COVID they couldn’t go to the hospital to visit her. Rhonda wants them to be around and still see them, she thinks it will help her stamina and emotionally to see and interact with them. Ryan and Ross and I agree. Roger is concerned about COVID and stressed that having grandkids around might cause more stress than good. We are working on a happy solution for everyone. We had a little family meeting this week and told our kids about Grandma and what the doctors found out. Emilee is young enough that she doesn’t quite grasp the gravity of it and seems to be doing ok. Matthew asked some questions and is worried and willing to help anyway he can, he seems to be doing ok also. Allison is a little more concerning to me. She knows what cancer is and that you can die from it. She is really close to Rhonda. She didn’t say much when we told them and hasn’t gone over to see her since. I have tried to talk with her a little but I think the best thing for Allison is to give her some time to digest the news then she will be ready to support her Grandma.

We have a long road ahead of us, I hope that we can all help and do what we need to do.

Valentine’s Week

The week of Valentine’s is upon us. It was a pretty normal week. The weather was not normal. About a week ago we were apparently transported to the South Pole and have been in sub zero temperatures or single digit at the most all week and have another week of it coming. Luckily we haven’t had any frozen pipes yet…several of our neighbors and friends have. Grandma and Grandpa Terry have as well.

Ryan and I debate on if you can ‘see’ cold. When I look out my window and see this I must insist it appears to look pretty cold to me. But to his point, you can’t see how cold it is. The answer is 1. One. Degree. Cold. Gross.

Emilee had a really fun basketball game this week. Both teams were made up of kids from her school so they all new each other and wanted to have bragging rights on Monday. Emilee’s team ended up winning in double over time 16 to 14. She has fun and does well when she plays but it is still a fight to get her to go. There is always whining and crying and wailing pre-game to see if she can get out of going. I hope some of the excitement from this game will carry over long enough to keep her excited to play again next week.

As far as Valentine Festivities, this year my efforts were in the mid to lower range. I did find some tiny little notes decorated for valentines that fold up into an envelope that I left with little chocolate candy hearts in several places for my family. It made me laugh that each individual came to me separately and asked where my stash of chocolate candy hearts were.

Emilee made me a few glitter soaked heart valentine’s that were adorable. Allison and Leah hung decorated hearts all over in our room. They are very whimsical and I like seeing them float above me when I am in bed. They also made a giant cute card for Lauren and I that said ‘To the Bomb Momz’ it made us chuckle. Matthew let me hug him more than usual this week. So all the kids put some effort into showing a little extra love which made me happy.

Ryan took me out to dinner and let me pick the sappy romance movie we watched. I picked The Age of Adeline. It is one of my favorites. He stayed awake the whole time and said it was not to bad for a romance. We each got each other a small gift and it was pretty funny because we got each other the same thing. We both picked some fancy chocolates that look like they are hand painted. They are called Christopher Elbow chocolates. Neither one of us ever talked to each other about it or had tried them but we both got them for each other.

We went to dinner with Ross and Lauren one night this week too. Afterwards we tried a new cookie place that opened up called Crumbl Cookies. It was delicious. I am glad it isn’t to convenient of a location to my house so I won’t visit all the time.

The kids had parent teachers conference this week, which just means they didn’t have school for 4 days so the teachers can do a 5 minute zoom conference with half the parents. I was working one of the days they were off and Allison decided to entertain herself with various crafts. She has made almost everyone she know a book mark. She has a list of weekly goals and plans to achieve them. While she was entertaining herself she came across some googly eyes in the craft drawer. When I came home there were eyeballs all over the place.

Here are a few of the eyeballs I found watching me this week.

Super Bowl

The Chiefs made it to the Super Bowl for the second year in a row. Last year they won, this year they did not. It seems like whenever I get excited about a game and sit down and actually watch it, it ends up being a pretty boring game.

We had a plethora of snacks and food to eat while we watched. Matthew’s baseball team sold Chief shirts for a fundraiser so we all had those on. We stuffed ourselves and got comfy to sit and watch and awesome game and were all thoroughly disappointed. It was probably the worst game they have had all season and post season. Bummer. There has been an overlying grumpy sadness to Kansas City today. I was over it yesterday about 5 minutes after the game but Ryan is going to need a day or two. Hopefully next year. They were talking on the radio today about how it will be kicking the team while they are down leaving Tampa Florida and its 75 degree weather and coming home to Kansas City blizzard with a high of 7 degrees all week. A few of those days are supposed to be below zero for the high.

We get sent a lot of treats at our dental office from other offices that we refer to, someone sent us this Patrick Mahomes cake. It is his hair and head band that he always wears. It was pretty cute.

Grandpa Terry’s 69th Birthday

Grandpa Terry has his birthday in January. It is his last year of his 60’s. Usually for your birthday you have someone else make your meal, at least I do, but for his birthday he invited us and Ross’ family all to dinner at his house and made us a ‘farm meal’ which was mashed potatoes, gravy, roast and green beans. Then for dessert we had a raspberry cheese cake. It was nice to get to see him on his birthday. This might be the first time we have spent it with him because it is in January and we don’t usually travel a lot in January.

For his gift we got him some Chief socks and a sweatshirt so he has some gear to wear for games.

I think this is as good as place as any to add a funny grandpa story. Now that we live by Grandpa we have learned that he has a particular way he does things. Everybody does of course, sometimes those things are more…neurotic then others.

Grandpa likes his house to be in perfect working order like it is brand new. He works very hard at keeping things cleaned and well taken care of. When he moved into the new house he went around and made sure EVERY single nail hole was filled in and sanded and repainted so there weren’t any unused nail holes on the walls. He also likes to use or reuse things until they can’t be used anymore. No matter how long it takes to clean or maintain or craft something to fix it, if it can be fixed he will fix it. He likes to save money and he does not like to throw perfectly good items away. This means he washes plastic silverware or cups in the dishwasher. He also uses plastic sacks from the grocery store (about two gallon size sacks) in his 13 gallon garbage can so he doesn’t waste the sacks. When there are 12 people over for dinner you can imagine how quickly those fill up. But we all have little things that have the potential to drive other people a little crazy, and we love Grandpa so we just smile, sometimes roll our eyes and empty the trash 12 times when we go over and wash the disposable silverware.

One of the times we were over we noticed a new frugal fix that he had come up with and it made me giggle. Exhibit A

What is this you might be wondering. It looks like a measuring cup from the top of a bottle of medicine screwed to the wall. You would be correct. It is a piece of trash screwed to the wall. What possible reason is there for this? When you see what it is for you might think it is actually pretty resourceful, and is it, but since he is not a 19 year old boy living in a college dorm room it is a little silly. Exhibit B.

We love Grandpa Terry and his fix it skills. 😁🤣😘

Everyone Likes A Human Pyramid

Last Sunday the kids were making their own pyramids and then I believe it was Aunt Lauren that helped them realize with the all the adults they had enough people to make one more layer.

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.

New Years Eve

The French family was still with us for Christmas Eve. The Ross Terry family joined us and we had a New Year’s Eve party at our house. Matthew went and did his own thing with friends but returned just a few minutes after midnight and ended the night with us.

Ryan smoked some pizza’s for us, and we had way to many snacks and and treats to munch on. Allison put together some minute to win it games. We rotated through them all then the winner of each team challenged each other to win the final championship. Jovee put together a scavenger hunt that was boys versus girls. Leah put together a Jeopardy game for us to play. It was pretty fun and she did a great job at the questions. It was challenging for the adults and the kids. Before the adults played their own game and the kids did their own things we had a glow in the dark dance party. It was fun! I like dancing in the dark, you can dance however you want and enjoy yourself without worrying about looking like a goof ball. Most of the dads watched and cheered us on but everyone else got our glow in the dark dance moves on.

We all had sparkling cider and watched the ball drop in New York at midnight. A lot of crappy things happened in 2020 (pandemic, riots, earthquakes, fires, killer hornets so name a few) but it wasn’t all bad. There were a lot of good happy moments too and despite a global pandemic we were able to see most of our family between Thanksgiving and New Years. Nothing magically changed when it became 2021 at midnight but it is nice to have a new year to start fresh with and make the most of. Here’s to a great year in 2021!!

CHRISTMAS!!!

Christmas Eve was a big family dinner at the Terry Homestead (AKA Grandpa and Grandma Terry’s). The highlights of the meal for me were ham and rolls and corn and pies. We read the Christmas story and watched a new church video about the Nativity. We sang a few songs and the kids opened their new Christmas pajamas to sleep in.

We slept and woke up in our own home then returned to Grandma’s to open a few more presents with them. Ross made some coffee cake for breakfast (its actually cinnamon flavor not coffee, but it is meant to eat with coffee so it is called coffee cake). The rest of the day was spent playing with the new toys, eating left overs, and enjoying each others company.

In the past we had told the kids they couldn’t wake us up before 6:30. Every year without fail and the help of NO alarm clock they have woken up on the dot at 6:30 ready to open presents. We hadn’t reviewed this protocol with the kids the night before, everyone was pretty tired and we thought we would wake up when they did and let them sleep in a bit if they did. I woke up on my own at 6:25 and all was quiet. I laid in bed enjoying the morning coziness. (Have you ever noticed in the morning when it is time to get out of bed, all of the sudden your bed gets more warm and cozy?! It is like it is begging you to stay in it.) At 6:29 I was thinking maybe I could read a book or something for a bit but just like past years at 6:30 one of the kids popped up out of bed and all three of them were in our room dragging us out before the clock hit 6:31.

Allison got a new book case for her room that she wanted and a beam to practice her gymnastics on at home from Santa. She got some cute new clothes, and good smelling girly pampering things. Ryan and I were stumped on what to give her then decided to do an indoor skydiving experience for her. She was very thrilled.

Matthew got an xbox that can handle all his games and updates from Santa. He got a wallet and a few new sweatshirts. He debated for a while to ask Ryan and I for new air pods. In January of 2020 he bought his own with his own money and by March they were lost. He and I both searched the house and couldn’t find them and they haven’t turned up since. He said if he asked for them he knew his old ones would turn up but he decided to ask for new ones. That is what we gave him and when he opened them and the case with a clip so he didn’t lose them he was very happy and said “Watch, my lost ones will turn up within a week.” Fast forward about three days, we had everyone over at our house for dinner and games. Uncle Jake was in the study and when he stood up he felt something on the back of the couch. He found a pair of air pods. He showed Allison and she said they were Matthew’s. The next morning I found them on the counter and called Matthew to come take care of them and ask why they weren’t in his case with the clip. When he walks into the kitchen he is wearing his air pods in his ears, so the ones I was holding were the long lost air pods. So after looking for a year, three days after buying new ones, Jake found the original air pods and Matthew’s prediction of finding the old ones within a week came true. Aaaahhh! Allison and I are now sharing the old ones and Matthew has the new ones he got for Christmas.

Emilee got a new bike and a toy horse trailer from Santa. She was thrilled and rode it around the block many times despite the freezing cold temperatures. Ryan and I gave her several ‘little toys’ because she loves playing with little tiny objects. She was also hoping the family would get some virtual reality goggles to play games with and we did so she was very excited to try play with them too.

Ryan got some accessories for his smoker (and his smoker). I got a 9mm hand gun and a bunch of passes to the range. I take my conceal carry course in February.

The kids and I went to the store and they all did some shopping for each other and any friends or family they wanted to. Matthew got his girlfriend, Emilee, and me a present. Emilee got grandma a present. Allison got everyone that would be there Christmas morning a gift. She is a sweet girl and gift giving is one of her love languages. She lit up watching people open their gifts from her and they were all thoughtful gifts.

It was a fun magical day as Christmas is supposed to be.

December Activities

The month of December went by very fast as usual. I used to have a list of things we did but then I started feeling like everything was a more stressful and we were just trying to cram everything in. I like for December to be open for whatever comes up and whatever we decide to do to enjoy the holiday season.

One of the things we decided on doing was the 12 days of Christmas for the sister missionaries in our ward. We found a nativity with twelve pieces and left them a piece every night with a scripture and then a small gift to go with it. It was fun and we often went to look at Christmas lights before or after we dropped of their gift. Some of the little gifts we gave them we saw them wearing at church like a head band, a Christmas mask, and a scarf. The girls thought that was great to have a secret. The missionaries were usually not home when we dropped off the items each night so that did take a little fun out of it. We didn’t have to worry about being caught. I also wonder if one or two of the gift was taken before they came home… it was still fun though. Another Sister in our ward put together a 12 days of Christmas for a family that recently lost their mom. We were able to get one of the days for that. When we dropped off our two turtle doves gift, they were home walking all around the house and even had the front door open with just the storm door closed, and a dog to help alert them to people coming up to the house. The kids loved staking the house out, making an approach plan and successfully leaving the gifts without being caught. Allison was decided on being the runner since Matthew was recently in his cast and couldn’t get anywhere fast. They lived close to a corner so we parked around the corner, Allison put the package on the porch, ding dong ditched them and ran faster than we have ever seen her run in her life. It was great fun.

We had several nights of making hot chocolate and taking it to drink in the car while we drove around and looked at Christmas lights and listened to Christmas music. I think we managed it without any arguing or melt downs this year, which is a FIRST. I think in general there were a lot more lights and decorations up this year, and earlier than usual as well. My opinion is that after all the crap of 2020 people wanted a little extra Christmas cheer. There were a lot more people driving around looking at lights as well. One neighborhood had a two hour wait to get into to see their lights.

We made neighbor and friend treats. Usually we do chocolate dipped pretzels but this year we made a box of whoppers look like a reindeer and put a poem on it that said it was reindeer droppings. I also sent out Christmas cards that the kids helped me address and mail.

Our house was decked out for Christmas, I loved reading a book with my hot chocolate by the fire place with all the Christmas lights on, we listened to Christmas music ALL the time and Allison and I played as much Christmas music on the piano as we could. We focused on having secret people within our family each week to do nice things for. My mom started that tradition in our family growing up. With each kind deed we put a straw in a manger to make soft for baby Jesus on Christmas.

Ryan decided that he wanted an electric smoker for Christmas. He also decided that he was going to have Santa deliver it early so he could practice smoking a few things before Christmas, then by Christmas he would be good enough to cook for the family when they all came.

We did our Christmas puzzle while watching Christmas movies. Christmas is a good time to do puzzles, also while drinking hot chocolate with the fireplace going.

Since we have been married we switch between the Terry family and the Jones family for Christmas and Thanksgiving. My family has switched to having a Christmas in July when it is easier and more fun to travel and having our get togethers then. This year was a Terry Christmas. Obviously Ross and Ryan already live here. Becky and her family came the week before, and Rachelle’s family decided to stay in Texas this year.

It was a very fun week before Christmas. We had lots of family dinners. Ryan tried his smoker many times and each time got better and better. The cousins had fun playing with each other all day everyday. Grandma handed out way to much candy. Ross baked and cooked all kinds of yummy food. Many board games were played, crafts were made, gatherings were had and movies were watched. I didn’t get nearly enough pictures.

A few days after Christmas my sister Sherri and her family joined the festivities. They love KC BBQ so we made sure we went to one of their favorites- Q39 for dinner one night. We also tried out the pizza oven in the smoker and had several good rounds of pizza. The week between Christmas and New Years had a good snow storm. We got about 4-5 inches of perfect packing snow. Aubry being a Florida native, was a little hesitant at first but once she got out in it spent as much time as she could in the snow. We had a couple snowmen, a wall for protection during snow ball fights, and Allison had a pretty legit igloo going before the snow started to melt. Ryan resurrected our Nintendo 64 and Sherri and I relived our glory days of playing Tetris Attack from decades ago. I can’t believe I am old enough to say ‘decades ago’. I won on occasion but Sherri pretty much kicked everyone’s butt. Matthew and Allison were very glad that video games have come a long ways since Nintendo 64 but still had fun playing the game.

We spent one of the afternoons at Dave and Buster’s with the French family. We all found a game or two that we were hooked on and spent our token allotment on. Ryan dropped balls into a hoop and won the jackpot, I liked a musical ping pong game, Allison loved the Deal or No Deal, Matthew liked the ship spinning wheel and hit a jack pot on it, and Emilee loved the motorcycle racing games. The French family was well rounded and helped all of us find our favorite games. When we were all done and turned our tickets in for prizes we had balls, stuffed animals, silly straws and a ridiculous amount of stupid candy. We followed it up with lunch at another favorite, a Mexican restaurant called K-machos.

Sherri and I were able to spend part of a day getting our nails done and doing some shopping. Neither one of us was interested in clothes shopping so we went to a makeup store, grabbed lunch and then stopped at Nothing Bundt Cakes for dessert.

I have some serious junk food habits to break and a lot of exercising to do after Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.

There were a lot of other things that happened that I am not recalling at the moment, but the main thing I want to remember is it was a wonderful holiday season. With the exception of the Lee family we were able to have all of our grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in our home at some point or another. There were a lot great memories and fun times had, meals shared and relationships grown. At some point or another when we were putting decorations away and taking down lights all the kids and Ryan and I talked about how much fun we had over the last few weeks and how awesome it was to see so much of our family. Not a bad ending for the year of social distancing.

Question.

How many Terry’s does it take to hang a TV on the wall?

Answer. Five. Two workers, one supervisor/vacuumer, and two wives with uncanny eye leveling skills.

Emilee’s Baptism

Emilee and one of her besties Reese both turned 8 this year and they have wanted to get baptized together. They have known each other since birth and they are two peas in a pod. Their due dates were just a few days apart but Emilee decided to come a few weeks early. Technically we were not supposed to combine baptisms still because of stupid COVID but I am currently the Primary President for our church so I bent the rules a bit. We did keep it to grandparents and immediate family only for attendance so it was still pretty small.

They were baptized the day after Thanksgiving while everyone was here. My parents and Roger came in person, everyone else watched from home over zoom. Emilee was a little nervous in the morning about it but as soon as she saw Reese she was giddy and excited about it.

Reese was baptized first, then Emilee, then they switched for their confirmations. Emilee’s Grandpa Jones and Reese’s Grandma May gave the talks and they each picked a song and someone to say a prayer. It was a really sweet baptism. It was a little bitter sweet having our youngest kiddo get baptized. We don’t really have little kids anymore.

Thanksgiving 2020

We were originally supposed to be going on a cruise the beginning of December so we were focused on that and we didn’t have any clear cut plans for Thanksgiving this year. Then not much to our surprise our cruise was canceled because of COVID. We decided to focus on our Thanksgiving plans instead, we talked about just staying here, going to Utah, Florida, or joining someone else. In the end Kenny and Sherri suggested they come see us. They were supposed to go on the cruise with us and wanted to get out of Florida and have a little winter weather. So they decided to come. When my parents heard they decided to join us as well, so I figured I should invite everyone from my family so no one felt left out. In the end everyone ended up coming except Kenny and Sherri and Aubry. Sherri is pregnant and still gets pretty sick so traveling is awful for her, and Kenny came down with most likely COVID and felt crappy too. So it was a bummer that the people that started the party ended up not coming but the rest of us had a fun time for them.

We had 19 chairs, 11 kids, 8 adults, 5 bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths, 2 tables, 1 dog and a guinea pig ‘in a pear tree’. It was a house full, I don’t think it felt like it though. The weather was nice so the kids could jump on the trampoline and play outside. They had the basement to play in as well and had some pretty good games of foosball going most of the time. I don’t remember any fights or tears, I think siblings and cousins got a long great and if there was a minor skirmish there was a dozen other kids to go play with instead. John and Ryan usually had some three hour game going. The rest of us hung out, played our own games, watched a movie, visited, and there was always some food to cook or dishes to do.

We went with the traditional Thanksgiving plans for dinner. We invited Ryan’s parents to join us but they decided to stay home because Rhonda wasn’t feeling well, but Roger cooked our turkey for us with his trash can convection oven sounds gross but is delicious method. I made rolls, and lemon, chocolate, and banana pie ahead of time. Then on Thursday we made the sides, veggies, and potatoes and gravy and had a very delicious meal for Thanksgiving. I made or bought a few meals that were frozen and just ready to cook for the rest of the weekend so we didn’t spend all our time in the kitchen.

I had a stroke of genius and put my dad in charge of taking the pictures for the weekend. He loves to take pictures and I love to have pictures but always forget so I gave my camera to him and now have 200+ pictures of our weekend. They are a little heavy on the dog side but everyone else got some good shots. We got a good group shot of everyone too.

Some of the favorite pass times were Among Us, On the Dot, foosball, Catch Phrase, Celebrity, and a few episodes of the Masked Singer. Friday night we told the kids if they stayed in the basement and played they could stay up late and the adults had our traditional white elephant party. Ryan picked his own present and ended up with a new Gerber knife. I ended up with a motion sensor toilet light for middle of the night pee-ers. Someone left a tacky bowl with candy so old my kids wouldn’t even eat it as a bonus gift but over all, most people were satisfied with their gifts to the degree that if they couldn’t find a use for them, someone they new could have it. Roger and Rhonda now have a motion activated glowing toilet that they think is the handiest thing ever.

The Cazier’s and Jones families left Saturday morning. We relaxed with Grandma and Grandpa the rest of the day. Allison and Grandpa enjoyed a few Pink Panther movies together, then my mom and Allison and I went to Hobby Lobby and got new decorations for my Christmas tree and put them up.

My parents flew out early Sunday morning. I did take a nap Sunday afternoon, but I wasn’t exhausted or worn out from the weekend. It was fun to see my family and be social and enjoy everyone’s company. I even enjoyed having a dog to sneak food to and pet for a few days. If the French family had made it, that would have been icing on the cake. Next time hopefully.

My dad took a face shot of everyone. Here is the line up of 2020 Thanksgiving Attendees.

Life in November

First up is a flash back from 2012. Ryan had this picture pop up on his Facebook feed and he sent it to me. This is our little family the day after Emilee was born. This is the first time Allison and Matthew saw her. Pictures are so awesome. Literally a frozen piece of time that you can look back at and remember forever. They remind you of all kinds of other moments at the same time also. This was a fun day. Those days were physically exhausting but sweet and gone to fast. The picture next to the hospital one is fast forward eight years to Emilee mucking up horse stalls. Ryan was waiting in his car for her to come out because he was cold and it was almost thirty minutes past time for her lesson to be over. He went into get her and she was just helping get the barn shut down for the evening. The girl will go to any lengths at home-including going to bed at 5:30 in the evening to avoid chores but will happily freeze her bum off to shovel poop and dirt because it belongs to a horse.

The girls and I were comparing our genetics the other day. Being able to roll or wave your tongue (I have since learned it is called a clover leaf tongue) is a genetic trait. All of us can roll our tongues, the girls can make the clover (Matthew can do both as well), I can’t. A lot of people in my family can also roll their tongue but no one else can do the clover. The girls don’t share any DNA with Ryan’s side of the family because he is adopted but I don’t think any of them can do it either. Ryan can not do either one. So most likely it comes through my side of the family, I just got the rolling but not the clover gene, or my tongue has not reached its full genetic potential. Fascinating stuff here!!

In addition to a report on our tongue rolling skills, I have some more exciting news!! Allison found my bells in the closet and got them out the other day. She has been playing them a lot. She really likes Christmas music so there have been a few very good performances with the bells the past few weeks. Emilee and Matthew will join in sometimes but Leah and Allison have been the main players. When they get together they practice a few songs and then perform them for everyone. My hopes of a Terry Family Bell Choir have been renewed! I was a little ambitious in getting it started years. Now everyone is old enough to play and most of the time I would say half of us are willing to participate without coaxing. The other half can be bribed to play for 5-10minutes. Woohoo!

Matthew is wearing shorts, not just socks😁.

The past several years when I have asked the kids if they want to go see Santa at the Bass Pro shop, Matthew has rolled his eyes, Allison said “meh” , Emilee tears up and asks if she has to talk out loud or touch Santa, and Ryan says, “I don’t think the kids really care.” This year events unfolded a little differently so my girls were happy to go and I got a cute picture of them with Santa. First, their cousins invited them which makes everything more fun. Second, their brothers stayed home so there wasn’t a constant stream of snarky comments from them. Third, “thanks to COVID” instead of talking to Santa and sitting on his lap, there is a giant clear plastic screen between you and Santa and you get to ‘touch fingers’ through the screen then sit in front of the screen and take a picture. The screen makes it pretty hard to hear so most people just leave a letter or mime what they want to Santa, or just skip the talking part all together. It sounds ridiculous but my girls loved it, and honestly I think Santa loves it too. He seemed more authentically jolly then in past years.

I was thinking of waiting to put decorations up for Christmas after Thanksgiving but I didn’t make it. After all the stupid COVID crap this year I think I needed Christmas to come a little earlier than usual. If I remember right I have put my decorations up mid November for three years in a row so maybe it is just my new normal. This year I don’t think I am alone though, Christmas lights and decorations started appearing several weeks earlier around town and our neighborhood then they usually do. I have spent many a night reading a book snuggled up by my fireplace with just the Christmas lights on. My mom helped me redo my tree decorations when she was here for Thanksgiving. I’m feeling the red this year so I went to a red and white and I LOVE IT!

Allison had one of her big 5th grade projects this past month. They have to pick a Native American tribe to research and write a report on and then build an example of their homes. She picked the Anasazi Tribe. Allison is very detailed and willing to focus as much time on a project as she needs when she gets focused. She had a vision in mind and didn’t care how long it took to make it happen. She did this ALL on her own and did a great job. Her report was VERY THOUROUGH and researched too. It took a few conversations and showing her emails from her teacher for verification to convince her she didn’t need three separate sources to verify ANY fact she put in her report. There are some time management skills that need some polishing with that girl-she will not be rushed- but her creativity, attention to detail, and building skills are pretty great!

Halloween Week Festivities

Halloween was on a Saturday this year, which was really nice. There were several activities throughout the week that kept us busy before the final culmination of gathering pillowcases of candy to shorten the life of our pancreases and challenge the strength of our teeth.

Matthew had his last baseball tournament bringing to close a back to back Spring and Fall season that was very fun but very long. The weather was COLD. The high for any of our four games was 39 degrees. Grandpa and the girls watched for bit then decided to return to Grandpa’s house for pizza and hot chocolate. Ryan was having a Man Trip with his mission buddies so he was warm and cozy in the hotel lounge he was watching football with his friends at in Vegas. Matthew and I survived the cold. He layered up and used hand warmers and running around helped. I made myself a cocoon of about 5 blankets, several layers, winter coat and boots, and about a dozen hand warmers strategically placed around my body. They were all good games and the boys ended up winning the entire tournament.

Next up on our Halloween week was actual snow. The original estimate was about 8 inches but luckily it was not that intense and with the ground still being pretty warm we had a nice slushy two inches when it was done. The girls had a fun time playing in the snow but luckily there wasn’t enough to stop school or anything else really.

Matthew had his written drivers test the same day as the snow. I finally convinced him he might want to study a little before he take it instead of just winging it. He did some practice tests that he failed with flying colors and decided to put a little more serious effort into his preparation. I encouraged him to not fail as he walked back to take the test. About ten minutes later he returned and said that the 25 question driving test was the most stressful test he has ever taken in his life but he passed with 88%. Now he gets to take Drivers Ed and get about 50 hours of practice in the next year then he can get a restricted license to drive himself to school or work when he is 15. He is a little hesitant to practice but is getting better. It will be pretty nice to have a third driver before to long.

Allison searched high and low for a costume for Peanut this year so he wouldn’t be left out of the festivities. She was very happy when she finally found one that was small enough to fit him. Peanut seemed less thrilled about it, but tolerated it well enough.

The girls had Halloween parties at school. They were a little different this year because some people are trying to hang onto COVID for as long as they possibly can. They got to dress up and play some ‘socially distanced’ games though. Our church had a Trunk-or-Treat too. It is the first ward activity since COVID. Everyone that wanted to come met in the parking lot and we had pizza and visited for a bit and then the kids made the rounds through all the cars to get as much candy as they could. It was a fun time.

Emilee had a Halloween Costume Parade at the barn where she takes riding lessons. Everyone was assigned a horse and then they were supposed to come up with a coordinating costume for them and the horse. Emilee was partnered with Reese and her new friend Peyton. They decided to be ballerinas. They thought is was extra funny because the horse they were assigned was a male and a big one at that. Peyton was not able to make it to the actual parade part so Emi and Reese did that, but when she did get there we took pictures with her. It was a fun time. The girls love any excuse to ride or be around the horses. Emilee stayed an extra hour after her last lesson to help clean up the stalls and get the horses ready for bed. Ryan took her to her lesson and when she came home she ran to me and said, “Guess what!? I got to scoop up horse poop and feed them hay!” That is funny in and of itself but Emilee is very adverse to any type of manual labor especially if it resembles ‘work’ in any way so it was very impressive that she not only did it but was thrilled about it as well.

The girls had to carve their giant pumpkins. We did that the day before Halloween. Allison did hers pretty much all by herself, she is a creative little girl. She has been watching a show called “Halloween Wars” that makes giant Halloween themed creations out of cake, modeling chocolate, pulled sugar, and carved pumpkins. She was itching to try some ideas she had from that.

This next picture is a little set up of Emilee’s I found one day this week. She has been playing something with the legos and included some of the Halloween decorations in her imagination playing. I took the picture because it won’t be long before she is to old for this and I will miss her little zoos, parades, fights, shows, or whatever else she comes up to imagine with her toys.

After all this fun festiveness it was finally time for the actual day of Halloween. We did our usual tradition of having the McDonald’s over for pizza and home made witches brew (root beer) then we all went trick or treating together and come home and have a giant swapping/trading market. I was very happy there were a lot of people trick or treating this year. Some people were trying to cancel it-with COVID as the excuse, but there were a lot of people out that did it. Most people just put their candy on the corner in a bowl but that was fine. The kids had a great time. Matthew went and did his own thing with some friends. He is having a hard time coming out of his shy bubble since COVID so Ryan and I helped him get invited to a things with some of his friends. He had a fun time and then texted Ryan to come get him when they started watching a scary movie. He had a good time. The older girls went back out for round two of trick or treating after we came back with the littles from the first. The adults played a game. Ross and Lauren are under quarantine for five more days because Ross got COVID from someone that stayed at their house. They stopped by in their van and we gave them some candy. I delivered it to them in my Betty the Dinosaur costume. They weren’t scared. Grandma also made personalized trick or treat bags for all the grandkids which they thought was great when they stopped at their house to trick or treat.

Emilee was a scary clown, Allison was a police officer, and Matthew was a baseball player. Allison went to the store and picked out her costume but being 2020/COVID they wouldn’t let her try it on and it was in a bag. It still had a picture of it though. However, when she got home and opened it up she was less than pleased with it and proceeded to let all of us know how disappointed she was for the next hour and went on ranting and raving about how stupid it was and she wouldn’t wear it. Her and Cambrie were planning on both being police officers and she wasn’t going to look stupid. I asked Lori to send a picture of Cambrie’s costume. It was the exact same one! I showed Allison and within 10 seconds she decided that it was fine and she would wear it. 🤦‍♀️😒 Oh well, problem solved.

It was a fun night, everyone enjoyed themselves and had way to much sugar. As usual by the time Halloween night is over I am happy to see it done. It was a fun night. Oh! Allison had a fun experiment she wanted to try with the dry ice this year. She made soap bubbles from evaporating dry ice. It worked well and she was quite happy with herself. She decided to speed the process along with a straw.

…September…It Came…It Went…

Well, September was a bit of an odd month. Mostly because of school. The girls continued to go every day. Matthew continued to be ‘educated’ (I use that term VERY loosely) virtually from his computer 6 hours a day. It is ridiculous. The majority of parents are ticked off at how schooling is going this year. The whole situation of how COVID 19 is handled is one big joke. The information is mixed, the reporting is inaccurate, it is safe to play sports but not go to school. Basically all adult needs and wants are up and running to some degree, kids are supposed to be the least effected by COVID and schools are acting like it is a death sentence to have school. There was finally a School Board Meeting and they voted to start in person school for the middle school and high school kids. If all goes according to plan then Matthew will go back to ‘in person school’ on October 19th. The three biggest school districts are holding strong to their no in person schooling though. It is awful. I could go on and on but I’ve written enough emails and letters about it to various boards and useless leaders that I don’t want to spend more time on it here.

There was some more notable things that happened in September. Grandma and Grandpa Terry moved into a house just down the street from us so we spent lots of time helping them get settled. There is still a lot of things to do to help them get settled but it is nice to have them close. The girls like to go over once or twice a week after school and hang out with them. Matthew has suddenly started going on ‘bike rides’ that end at Grandma’s house, specifically her pantry where she keeps the soda and jelly beans.

I turned 39. My last year of 30’s. Not sure how I feel about that. Ryan planned a night away for the two of us at Excelsior Springs. We stayed in the Elm’s Hotel and had a nice dinner and went to their in house spa. I loved their quiet room. I sat in a comfy chair and read a book until I fell asleep. I also got a facial. The girl was really good at balancing the comments of how youthful my skin looks with recommendations for products and treatments I need to get so I don’t look old. For my family birthday cake I requested a chocolate layered dessert. Ryan made it for me. It has a crust with chocolate pudding and a cream cheese filling and whip cream on top. Yummy! When I took the first bite I was sorely disappointed to find out that Ryan had forgotten to bake the crust first so it was raw. He claimed he couldn’t even tell and finished eating his piece. I disagreed and requested a cooked birthday cake. His second try was much better.

Emilee found her new favorite hobby! After enduring being dragged to sport after sport and tolerating the games and practices to appease her parents, Emilee found her passion. She started taking horse riding lessons. She counts down the days then the hours then the minutes every week until it is time to go to her lesson. She was learning to post and trot within 30 minutes of getting on the horse her first lesson. We got her some riding gloves, helmet, pants and boots. We are glad she is really enjoying herself. Nervous that someday she thinks she needs a horse.

Matthew passed on playing football this year. He focused more on baseball, and he is doing some basketball training to help get ready for the season in December. After a few lessons at the club, they asked him to be on their 8th grade team. I love watching him play baseball but basketball is a very close second. I just enjoy watching all my kids do the things they enjoy.

Allison moved up another level in gymnastics. She is now on team 5. She has her first meet coming up in November.

Butterflies

We made it to Powell Gardens again this year with the McDonald family to see the butterflies and walk around the gardens. It is always beautiful. With the COVID restrictions we had to wait in line a bit to go into the conservatory but it wasn’t to bad.

The kids played in the fountains for a little while. There was a new kid area for them to dig in the dirt and plant stuff. There was a second monarch butterfly house as well. The weather was not ridiculously hot so it was a nice day.

It was nice to get out and have something to do. We usually go to the Cultural Festival with the McDonald’s in August as well but that has been canceled this year.

It is STILL Summer

Since school ‘ended’ after Spring Break in March, it has been a LONG break. I started working a few days a week in May and the kids are technically old enough to watch each other but to be blunt, they aren’t very good at it. Maybe because they aren’t old enough after all, or because like me their patience with each other is low after being together 24/7 for months. Whatever the reason, it was causing me some stress to come home to arguing kids that had eaten junk food all day, a destroyed house. Ryan’s boss has a daughter who is in college that was not supposed to be home but like everyone else, her plans were canceled when COVID started. We asked her if she would come over on the days that I work and help keep the peace and sanity of the kids. It has worked out great. The kids get up and get ready and do their jobs and then she comes over from 11-5 and takes them to the pool, or does things around the house with them. Matthew is more on his own and can do things with them or go hang out with friends. The girls love her though. They ask if Claire can come over everyday. I am glad it is working out for all of us.

After two years I am signing off as the Girl Scout Leader for Emilee’s troop. She is old enough for Primary Activity Girls now and enjoys going to that. I don’t have as much free time once all the kids activities get going too. We had one last activity together this past week to celebrate the year and their hard work selling cookies. I rented a big blow up water slide, set up the slip-n-slide and they played on those for a few hours. We had pizza for dinner and played some more. Then when it got dark we watched Aladdin on an outdoor screen in the back yard. It lasted about 7 hours. It was exhausting, but the girls had a blast. They were a really good group of girls. I had fun being the leader but I am ready to pass the torch.

Girl Scouts watching a movie in the back yard.

It seemed like things were slowly getting back to normal and school was scheduled to start August 12th. Then the Kansas Governor decided to make an announcement saying that she was issuing an executive order to post phone school starting until after Labor Day. I am not going to lie. It was a big mental blow for A LOT of people, and while she had her ‘reasons’ they seemed unfounded to me. The Kansas school board voted against her executive order, which meant each school district could decide when to start for themselves. The two biggest districts around us decided to just do what the Governor said so they could be better prepared. I am not sure what that means…did they not know they were going to start school on August 12th when they made the calendar and gave it to everyone?! Everyone seems to be sitting around waiting for someone to tell them what to do instead of making a decision and moving forward. Anyway, our school district is having a meeting soon so decide when we will start. It will be Aug 12th as planned, Aug 26th to allow ‘a little more preparing time’ or September 8th. I think if they delay it once they will just continue to delay it and dig the COVID recovery hole deeper and deeper. We need to start and get society and life back on track. A regular school schedule will help with that A LOT. Unless you think I am insensitive to the pandemic, I am not, I check the numbers, I know the risks, I am just in the opinion that we mitigate the risks (reasonably) and keep life moving.

Fourth of July

We thought last year would be our final year in Lincoln Nebraska for July 4th. However, Roger and Rhonda dragged their feet and delayed long enough to get another one in. This one will be the last though because right before the weekend they bought a house in Olathe, right down the street from us actually. Then shortly after the weekend they listed their current house and it sold in less that 24 hours. They are set to move mid August and will be Kansans again.

The Fourth in Lincoln is always a great time though. I will miss our gatherings there. Neighbors all around us do amazing fireworks for hours and we get some good ones of our own. It is just a nice relaxing holiday. This year I asked Ryan to blast some patriotic music while we lit them off, that was inspiring.

It will be better to have a Grandma and Grandpa closer all year round though.

Family RV-cation to the Ozarks

We are in the process of dissolving our RV business. As that process has continued to play out we have ended up with one of out RV’s here in KS. Li’l Sebastian is enjoying the heartland. Ryan decided that if we are going to have it here and are paying for it we might as well use it and enjoy it. He planned a quick family vacation to the Lake of the Ozarks. We loaded up Sebastian and drove down Friday night to the KOA. Ryan has been there many times for work, none of the rest of us have ever been.

It is a nice little town. There are all kinds of things to do. The KOA was pretty new and updated. The first thing we did upon arrival is light a fire and roast some smores. We explored the campsite a little. Then it was pretty late so we started a movie together in the RV then went to bed.

The rest of the weekend was pretty packed with cool activities. We went to a water park, toured Bridal Caves, hiked a few trails including one that had castle ruins to see, we also went to the lake and swam for a few hours. We cooked over the fire for dinner each night and had smores. There was park and a pool at our camp site that we swam in too.

This is a peak at one of the huge underground lakes in the cave.

There was a lot fewer people than usual because of COVID still but that made it not as crowded when we went to all those places. Ryan and I have decided we are ready to pretty much go back to our normal lives. We understand the risks of being in public and getting Corona and we are fine accepting those risks. Just like we do with the flu, and colds, and every other disease we might catch by living our lives. The purpose was to slow the spread to not overwhelm the hospitals and we did that- a while ago- somewhere along the road the goal for some became to have no one else get COVID ever and that is ridiculous. Then the riots and protests and looting has started with ANTIFA and BLM groups. Thousands have been gathering in groups to do that…it is hard for the media and liberals to convince people we have to continue to stay home for everything except protesting and rioting. Anyway, I digress. Back to our vacation.

For some reason the girls were intent on seeing a turtle. They picked their wish well. We saw our first turtle cruising across the highway right as we got to town. He was luckily on his way off the highway. On our hike there was one imitating a rock right on the trail we were hiking. The last one we found was next to our campsite buried in the leaves. He was the luckiest because the girls gave him a snack of lettuce and blueberries before he moved on.

This is the turtle we almost missed sitting on the path we were walking on.

It was a very nice relaxing weekend. I am glad that we did it and enjoyed our time together. The RV survived and is still running. We did dismantle the table because we couldn’t figure out the correct way to turn it into a bed. It is a fairly easy fix though. I followed in the van so we would have a vehicle to drive around once we got there. The first two minutes were exciting to watch as we left. The door flew open, and a couple of the side panels fell open. We had to stop once on the way there because Emilee was trying to move around when she wasn’t supposed to and crashed her face into a window and started gushing blood. Luckily it wasn’t broken and we got it under control pretty quick. After that the rest of our trip was accident and injury free.

Summer Begins!

The kids finished their online Covid 19 schooling and are now enjoying their summer. Things are gradually starting to open again but by no means would I say things are back to normal. The city pools are not going to be opening, but they did open our neighborhood pools. The rule is that we can’t bring any friends with us for now though, which is a big bummer. We have been finding fun things to do still and will make the most of our summer.

Matthew had to imitate a picture for his last 7th grade art project. He picked the picture of a bear in his room from our trip to the Smokey Mountains.

We had a donut truck visit the neighborhood. Allison spotted it and we got way to many donuts.

I am ‘allowed’ to work again. I used to wear a mask and glasses, and of course gloves. Now the new PPE requirements are head cover, face shield, glasses, TWO masks, glove and a jacket. It is hot, hard to breath and sometimes hard to see.

I talked Matthew into letting my use my extra hair color on him. He hated it at first and wouldn’t go anywhere without a hat but has now relaxed and is waiting patiently for it to grow out. Pretty crazy how a color can make you look different.

My presidency and I put together a little drive through ice cream stand for our ward. It was a chance to celebrate summer starting and an excuse to see people face to face. We had a good turn out and it was a lot of fun.

Emilee tried softball this year. She did great for practice, but once games started she wanted nothing to do with it. It took 30 minutes to get her in the dug out for her first game. Then she was fine and did a great job hitting and catching and throwing. The second game she went with protest and still did a great job. I don’t know if we are going to get her to anymore though. She is a little home body.

We found a fun place to have a picnic and then play in the creek or stream with our cousins. The kids were skeptical on our way. None of us had been there before and we didn’t know if the stream was a puddle or deep enough to play in. It turned out great though. It has a shallow still areas, and deeper areas and a little ‘rapids’ area that they thought was great fun. There were fish, shells, crayfish and frogs to chase around. Everyone tried their hand at rock skipping. It was a fun day!

This young man is thrilled to be playing baseball again. It is ridiculously hot, but they don’t care. They had a weekend of scrimmages, then a tournament and a few more tournaments to come plus the regular league games. He still can’t get enough of it.

Mother’s Day 2020

We weren’t under a mandatory stay at home order for Mother’s Day but it is still requested that you stay home as much as possible. Anyway, I requested the children each give a talk on mothers for church and sing me a musical number for part of our church at home sacrament meeting. They all did a good job. They sang ‘Gethsemane’ for me. I was hoping for a new song or a song related to Mother’s Day but I will take it.

May…or was it April Happenings

It is about the middle of May. The Kansas state wide stay at home order ended May 4th. Our county extended for another week. Bringing our areas stay at home order to last a whopping 52 days. Now we are in Phase II of the Covid 19 recovery plan. I believe phase IV is when things are supposed to be back to ‘normal’. The media and politicians are a mess, it is ridiculous to listen to everyone basically bicker and fight and make things up to get their own agendas across. The original idea of slowing the progression of the disease so health care could get prepared has now been changed to-no one should leave their house again until their is a vaccine or cure discovered, and if you think differently then this you are a selfish, hateful, evil person. We will not be done with Covid 19 until NO ONE ever is at risk of dying from it again. Interestingly enough the people I see against moving forward all have a guaranteed paycheck and other than socially their lives haven’t been disrupted that much. People on both sides of the argument have started protesting. The research and numbers from across the United States and other countries-excluding China who had obviously lied from the start, is coming back that while this disease is very contagious, it is not as deadly as first thought. The number of people that have or had Covid is way higher, I’ve seen reports that say 22-44% higher than the numbers show. So deaths are said to be between 4-10% are actually less than 1%. That is using the current death number which is suspected of including anyone that has died since March 13 whether it was from Covid or not. It is really hard to figure out what is fact or fiction on the news end of things. That is what the media is shoving in our faces. The impression I get and see and feel in my little world is that people are wanting to continue to be cautious but are ready to get back to their lives. There are risks all around us everyday. It is impossible and ridiculous to think you can eliminate and control them all. It is also quite evident that there are emotional and economical issues along with other consequences that I think are going to start causing a lot more problems than Covid, the longer things are put on hold.

We have done our best over that last few weeks to make the most of our situation and keep life happy and normal as possible. We have been blessed that Ryan has still been able to work from home. We have not had to worry about food or water or toilet paper or meeting financial obligations. We have been blessed with peace and calm in our situation. All of us have had struggles on occasion emotionally and socially. People are social and emotional beings and we have learned how important our needs in those areas are and require more attention then one might think. Luckily we have all been healthy for the most part as well. Ryan’s arm has started bothering him again, but he was able to get into Physical Therapy and is hopefully on the road to recovery. My finger was the only other trip to a doctor we have needed.

We decided to put in a basketball goal. This turned out to be a bigger project than planned. We ordered the first one and had Matthew dig the hole. Then we set the post and filled it with concrete. A few days later when we went to finish it we discovered there were missing and broken parts. So we tried to get a new one but the people we ordered it from were unable to tell us when that would be possible, if possible at all. So we returned as much of the old one as we could then ordered a new one from someone else. We got that one and it was the wrong one. Instead of a nice sturdy goal it was a cheap crappy one. So we returned it again and got the right one. This one was a square post instead of round so we had to dig a new hole and set the new post. Then dig out the original one enough to put dirt and grass in the area again. Finally we were able to get a basketball hoop in and we have all enjoyed it. Matthew taught me how to do a lay up too.

Matthew learned many new skills with this project. Including how to use a jack hammer.

I finished a project that I have had on my mind for a while. I did a picture wall in my basement. I have tons of frames I have collected over the years and plenty of pictures that I like to look at. I love the idea of a picture wall but I was worried about it not being my usually clean minimalist style and getting on my nerves after awhile. I settled on doing it in the basement because I knew it was going to be busy, but I wouldn’t have it in my face all the time so it wouldn’t bug my clutter avoidance side. I liked the way it turned out and I put a lot of my favorite snap shots over the years up. Just FYI the top far right picture has since been fixed so it is not crooked and taller then the rest. I promise.

We have gone on many walks over the last 52 days. Most around our neighborhood and on the near by walking path but we also explored several new areas too. I don’t know exactly I have just been told that Olathe has over 100 miles of walking paths to explore. We saw lots of animals on our walks including many different kinds of birds, frogs, snails, fish, cranes, squirrels, dogs, cats, spiders, rabbits, turtles and more. Matthew snorted a large bug up his nose on one of our walks. It took several minutes and lots of sneezing to finally get it out. I did not take a picture of it. My brother and his family came to see us for a few days on their way from Connecticut to their new home in Oklahoma. We went on a walk with them and saw a village of fairy houses that had been set along the path.

Ryan and I also celebrated our 18th anniversary. I got a little excited and told everyone that it was our 19th anniversary, but Ryan showed me the math. LOL. We will plan on celebrating together later in the summer. On the actual day I went back to work for the first time in a few months, and Ryan traveled to Wichita for the week to help catch up on some stuff. Also his first time ‘going’ to work in over a month.

This is our favorite new recipe we discovered over the quarantine. Everyone liked it. Matthew said it is like eating at Chipotle.

The elementary teachers all drove by in a car parade to say hi to the students. This was so exciting and a high light of our day.

A few weeks into the quarantine I got around to going through the kids back packs and putting them away for next year. I realized waiting this long was risky and when I opened Allison’s first and saw her lunch sack I was very nervous. Luckily she had emptied it at lunch her last day so when I opened it I was not accosted by rotten moldy food. The rest of hers and Emilee’s back packs was uneventful. I was about done with Matthew’s when I felt a lump in one of the side pockets. I dug it out and pulled out a potato complete with a face and hair. When all the kids saw it they were very excited to see “Beth” again. Apparently it had been several months since the last time they saw “Beth”. She was much more wrinkly and had grown some extra arms and hair. Thank goodness Beth didn’t turn into a pile of mush while tucked away in the dark pocket of Matthew’s bag. Apparently Matthew had made her for some project at school and when he brought it home everyone had met Beth on the bus then he forgot about it and left it in his bag. He even had a picture of Beth with one of his friends that had made a Rapunzel potato. Weird.

Beth as a young potato with her Rapunzel friend.

Most nights we tried to have a family activity before the kids went to bed. We would play a game, or watch a movie, or hang out and visit. One of our favorite games we ended up playing most nights is called ‘Cover Your Assests’. It’s perfect because even Emilee can play. She is actually pretty shrewd and does a good job. Matthew on the other hand is known for having the worst poker face ever and most often looses the game in spectacular fashion because he doesn’t use much strategy either. It was always fun though.

Emilee wanted a picture of her extra big win for one of her hands.

Hair salons have been closed long enough for people who rarely get haircuts to miss one. For Matthew and Ryan who prefer to have their haircut every month they have missed a few. The girls have taken full advantage of their longer locks and enjoyed trying different styles for them. Both have been good sports about letting the girls have fun with their hair. Ryan has also grown his beard and let it grown until this past weekend. Then he decided to have some fun and shave a Hulk Hogan style mustache to gross us all out with. We went on a walk and much to Matthew dismay and my embarrassment drew far to much attention from passerbys. He has also gone to the store and a few other public places sporting his new look. Most people don’t know it is a joke and just think he is a gross weirdo, but his friends have all chimed in with their two cents. He is keeping it to get a reaction from his co-workers tomorrow on his video calls. Then I’m sure he will shave it and come up with some other creepy style. Matthew just looks at him and shakes his head and says, “How do you expect me or anyone to take you seriously when you look like that?!”

I went back to work last week. I am filling in at an office that opened the first day the stay at home order was lifted. It was a little stressful at first. One of their hygienists called and quit the day before because she couldn’t deal with the work and stress of coming back to work. The assistant had a panic attack about 15 minutes after being there. I had a pretty good mental battle of my own between rational and fear based anxiety. I think it will be a real problem for the majority of people when they start going back to work. After the first patient or two there we were able to get the flow down with the new safety precautions and procedures that we will have to do for an unforeseeable amount of time. It was nice to get out though and interact with people. I am going to be working there Monday and Wednesday until they find a new hygienist.

It is interesting to see the price and availability or lack of availability on certain items with all this going on. My kids always enjoy a fun slip-n-slide in the summer. I used to find them for 5-20 dollars. Granted they never last the summer but they can use them enough that I feel they get my money’s worth from playing on it. Pools opening up are still in question for summer so they have been begging me to get a slip-n-slide. When I started looking if you could find them you had to plan on paying anywhere from 100-250 dollars! They were heavy duty ones but they are still made of plastic. Good grief! I was able to find a ‘deal’ on one and told me kids they better take good care of it because this is the last slip-n-slide I will ever be buying. They have used it many times so far and love it. They best part is they can set it up and clean it up themselves.

April General Conference 2020

President Nelson: Welcome to conference. After Sunday morning session we will have a Hosanna shout together.

Elder Ballard: Reviewed history of early life of Joseph Smith and Hyrum and Joseph Smiths sacrifice of their lives for the Savior.Think of an offering you can give to the Lord in the next little bit. Then do it.

Elder James R. Rasband: Story of Alma. He repented and mourned for himself, but also those that he lead away. He was not able to right the wrongs and heal and restore for all those individuals. That is what the atonement is for. To heal and repair the wrongs and mistakes we can not do ourselves.

Sister Joy D. Jones: During a time of uncertainty a woman’s influence on others can be increased ten fold. “The Lord loves effort, because effort brings rewards that can’t come without it.” (President Nelson) Effort. Hard work. Study. Learning is integral to progression.”I plead with you to improve your ability to receive individual revelation.” (President Nelson) Use the spirit to know which of our many hats we should wear and focus on. We can’t wear them all at the same time. Seek personal revelation

Elder Neil Anderson: During times of difficulty in our lives, the Savior will bring moments of confirmation of love and spiritual assurance of past experiences of the Holy Ghost witnessing truth to us. Listen for and be aware of those spiritual defining moments in our lives. Seek and remember moments of personal revelation. Embrace, record, and share (when appropriate) our spiritual memories.

Elder Douglas Holmes: The purpose of the Children and Youth program is to help get the gospel and its principals deep into our hearts. Relationships are important to help and support each other along the way. Develop by gathering, listening, spending time, speaking and sharing with others in our lives. Spiritual experiences are essential to our progression. This will fuel our desire to become more like the Savior through repentance and change. Heavenly Father doesn’t want us to just do what is right, he wants us to CHOOSE to do what is right. Engage in the gospel-ACT.

Elder Henry B. Eyring: The work of the gospel will require all the energy and skill of the saints. We don’t know everything but we do know- we will share the gospel with the world, we will gather together. We do this by growing in spiritual power through repentance, live the commandments, praying in faith to seek personal revelation. Ask ourselves- What would He (Savior) have me do? Prayers of faith like- Joseph Smith and Enos will provide us guidance in our lives. Find joy in the work we are asked by Him to perform.

Elder Ulisses Soares: Retold story of Joseph Smilth seeing Moroni, getting the plates and translating them. We should each gain our own testimony of the Book of Mormon by reading and pondering the words and then praying to Heavenly Father and ask with a sincere heart and pure intent in faith if the words you are reading and studying are true.

Elder John A McCune: Our ability to help others come unto the gospel will be reflected upon by the example we set ourselves in living the gospel. When Lehi invited his family to come to the tree of life, he didn’t leave the tree to get them. He stayed and beckoned them to come to him.

Elder Dale G. Renlund: Story of man that needed a heart transplant. His grandson was in an accident and his heart became available to his grandpa. After the surgery he lived 13 more years. Don’t seek to change God’s will. Seek you have your will aligned more with God’s will. Act on the commandment to “Hear Him”.

Elder Benjamin Tai: Just like a regular physical checkup with our doctor, we should do regular checkups on ourselves to evaluate our spiritual heath. Study the Book of Mormon according to our circumstances (story of man that studied the children’s Book of Mormon and using dictionary to understand as best he could because it was not available).

Elder Gary E. Stevensen: History of the building of the Salt Lake Temple. Steps that are being taken to strengthen the temple foundation from earthquakes. We should evaluate our personal foundations and evaluate ways we can strengthen and renew our personal and family foundations. Family prayer, scripture study, temple attendance and gospel study with Come Follow Me.

Questions to help make sure you have a sure foundation in the gospel.

Do you have faith in and a testimony of God the eternal father, his son Jesus Christ and the holy ghost?
Do you have a testimony of the atonement of Jesus Christ and of his roll as your savior and redeemer?
Do you have a testimony of the restoration and gospel of Jesus Christ?
Do you sustain the president of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints as the prophet, seer and revelator and as the only person on the earth authorized to exercise use in priesthood keys?

Elder Gerrit W. Gong: Hosanna and Hallelujah. Easter represents a physical and spiritual restoration.

Sister Jean Bingham: Adam and Eve had same goals and desires even if their approach was different. Families are essential unites of eternity. Satan tries to pit men and women against each other to drive a wedge between them and assist in the downfall of the family. Desire the happiness of your spouse more than your own. Help pick up the slack when one of you is struggles. Work to change and improve areas of personal shortcomings.

Elder Henry B. Eyring: Doctrine and Covenants Section 110. VS 4- I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father. (The Savior has many names and descriptions. Advocate is one of my favorites. I tell my kids that I am their advocate. I remember a talk discussing the significance of the word advocate verses a friend or something else.) Whenever we perceive to solve one problem and receive revelation, we open the door to receive more revelation. The Lord has seen everything coming that is happening and has prepared things for us.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks: The power of the priesthood is used in the church and in the family. In the temple women do not hold an office in the priesthood but are given authority to help with ordinances. Parents should encourage more priesthood blessings in the family. Mortals bodies can be full of light or darkness. What we do and allow into our minds is what determines if we are full of darkness or light. By your fruits ye shall know them.

President Nelson: Began by reminding us why it is important to call the church by the correct name. The Church of Jesus Christ. Introduced the new symbol of the church. It will be used as the official identifier of official church information. Fasting. Asked everyone to join again in a fast on April 10th for the relief from the pandemic, the economy and healing throughout the world.

Elder Ronald A. Rasband: Reviewed and shared many prophecies from ancient prophets and Joseph Smith that have or are being fulfilled. The essence of pure religion is what draws people to the gospel. We must be prepared in heart and mind to receive the Savior whenever the Second Coming happens. NO unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. The truth of God will go for boldly faithfully and independently.

Sister Bonnie H. Cordon: Intentionally shine your light so others can see it and know where to find the truth.

Elder Jeffrey R Holland: He asked himself the question- If I lived 200 years ago, what would I feel is missing? In response to the prophets challenge to prepare for this conference. He would have been looking for God to be speaking and providing guidance and love like he did in ancient times-Prophet of God. He would have hoped for evidence that Jesus is the Christ-The Book of Mormon. Hope for someone with true priesthood authority to fulfill needed ordinances and covenants. Ordinances available for those that lived and died without the knowledge of Jesus Christ could be done for them.

Elder David A Bednar: Our hearts denote what our inner desires are. The gospel santifies our hearts and “turning the hearts to the fathers and the children to the fathers” changes our hearts and brings us closer to our father in Heaven. The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. In 1924 when President Nelson was born there were 6 operating temples. There are now 168 operating temples, 48 additional temples announced or under construction. The work is accelerating and growing. Prophets of all ages have looked forward to our day with anticipation and delight and the work that will be done for the salvation of the human family. This latter day work will destroy the darkness of evil and bring about the salvation of the human family.

President Nelson: Every time they showed a shot of President Nelson during this conference he has been smiling and almost bursting with excitement and joy. He is a true prophet of God and his countenance alone brings hope and comfort when I see him. What does the restoration of the gospel to the earth mean for us? It means families can be sealed together for eternity, it means we can be baptized by one with authority and have the constant companion of Holy Ghost, it means we are never left comfortless or without access to the power of God to help you, it means the priesthood power can bless you as you make and keep sacred covenants. The Lord communicates simply quietly and with stunning plainness. When we have fear and uncertainty Heavenly Father knows that is when we need to hear the Savior’s voice. Hear Him. As disciples of Jesus Christ our efforts to hear him need to be more intentional and purposeful. Hear Him in the scriptures daily. Hear Him in the temple. Increase your time in family history work to hear Him. KNOW HOW THE SPIRIT SPEAKS TO YOU. Do whatever it takes to increase your ability to receive personal revelation. Hear Him by heading the words of prophets, seers and revelators. You will be blessed with power to handle stress and evils that come our way. Today I will be reading and releasing a new proclamation to the world titled, The restoration of the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ a bicentennial proclamation to the world April 2020. Then he led all of us in the Hosanna shout. “The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ would take the slums out of the people, and then they would take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.” ~Ezra Taft Benson

Elder Dallin H. Oaks: In ways that have not been revealed, our actions in the spirit world effected our time here in mortality.

Elder Ricardo Gimenez: All of us will have storms or moments of stress in our lives at one point or another. No matter what kind of storm or the duration. The only refuge for a storm is the Lord Jesus Christ and his atonement. To one with faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.

Elder Deiter F. Uchtdorf: Our part is to love God, as we do that he will provide us with things that we need.

Elder L. Whitney Clayton: Fine homes are established by 1. Quality of spirital attributes in the inhabitants. The reflection of Christ in their countenance is seen by others. 2. Make time to study the words or scriptures and prophets every day. Remodel your home if needed to have family and personal studies. 3. Follow the blue print created by the Lord for the temples. Compare this to keeping the commandments, steady discipleship. Use our temple recommends as often as possible. 4. Refuges from the storms of life. Those who keep the commandments of God will be prosperous and be able to weather storms in life on their own. Faithful living will provide strength, fortitude and peace through their trials.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson: Love, example, and use of the Book of Mormon are how we should share the gospel with others. “Do not burn my book. Go to your room and read my book.”

President Nelson: Reminded us of the new Proclamation, the church wide fast, and all other guidance we were given through the talks of this conference. Even with the temples closed you can still draw upon the power of your priesthood covenants made in the temple. Apostolic blessing: Bless you with peace and increasing faith in the Lord, bless you to repent and draw closer to the Savior each day, bless you to know that Joseph Smith is the prophet that brought the restored gospel, bless you with healing. There were 8 new temples announced including one in Shanghai China.

The themes that stood out to me for this conference is the blessings of the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The importance of seeking, recognizing, listening and following personal revelation from the Holy Ghost. Learn how to hear Him.

April Fool’s Day

This is a day that I usually prefer to pass by unnoticed and then pretend to be disappointed when someone remembers we missed it. Most of my family seems to be on the same page with my opinion, with the exception of Allison. She anticipates it for months and has almost the same giddy excitement she has for Christmas or her birthday when it gets close. With the entire Nation on stay-at-home orders I think in general most people paid more attention to it this year, simply because of lack of other things happening. Allison had a long list of tricks ready to go.

She placed a piece of card board in all the toilets. Thank goodness she hasn’t discovered other ‘options’ for this classic trick, that I will not even mention here because she does eventually read this.

She put tape across several doorways. This happened to be the day I did laundry and often was carrying things in front of me so I couldn’t see as well. So I personally ‘fell’ for this one at least 5 times and so did others. She was very pleased with herself.

I also found tape covering the faucet when I turned it on in my bathroom.

The one she did that made me chuckle the most was drawing on Emilee’s arm while she was sleeping. Emilee came in and said, “Mom, I don’t remember drawing any of this on my arm.” She still draws on herself enough that it was a total possibility she did it, but was confused she couldn’t recall it.

Allison’s pride and joy prank for the day was getting a hold of Matthew’s cell phone and changing her contact to “Campbell” who is Matthew’s crush. She then texted him like she was Campbell. Matthew figured out pretty quickly that it wasn’t Campbell but he thought it was her sister. He even told Allison about it and she was giggling while she sat right next to him and continued to text. He figured it out shortly after that. Then I helped him change it back and change the password on his phone so she couldn’t get into it anymore.

The winning prank of the day was by me though. Thanks to my neighbors. They pranked me first with the following pictures.

This is the Governor of Kansas. I was shocked when I saw the schools would go through July.

Once they new they got me they said they were looking it and would send me more info when they found it. A minute or so later she said here is what we found. and send me this.

I was still a little confused and thought it was not very appropriate of the Governor of Kansas to do something like this. Then I saw the subtitle-the Hogan’s are the neighbors that sent it to me. They got me good. Then I decided to pass it forward to my kids.

Allison was mad for a good 30 minutes before she calmed down. 🤦‍♀️

We don’t quite get it.

There has been some videos on the news of people that live by hospitals coming out to their balconies at shift change time (which is usually 7am or 7pm) and clapping and cheering for the doctors and nurses and other health care staff that are working so hard right now helping all the patients with COVID 19. It is very touching and it is great that the people living by the hospitals show support for them.

Our neighbor across the street has apparently also seen these videos and is trying to get a neighborhood nightly ritual going. They have been posting on FB and texts to the neighborhood asking to have people come out at 7pm every night and clap for one minute for the health care workers. Might I point out that there are no actual health care workers.

The first time they did it, we were not aware of what they were doing. Ryan and Matthew were playing catch in the street by the front yard. All of the sudden their whole Stutzman family came out and without saying a word start clapping and cheering. Ryan and Matthew didn’t know what they were doing and thought they were clapping at them for some reason. They stopped and looked at them and then after the minute ended without a word they all turned around and went back in their house.

The next night we got a text from a different neighbor explaining what was going on and said that it was going to be something that happened every night at 7pm. We forgot and missed it that night.

Tonight we set an alarm because we got more text invites and didn’t want to be the stick in the mudds. So at 6:59 I dragged the kids to the front porch and told them we were going to clap for 1 minute for all the healthcare workers. At 7 o’clock sharp the Stutzman family came out and started clapping…our family and one other family were the only other families I could see. We all clapped for a minute then at 7:01 the Stutzman family stopped and walked back into their house. The entire time we were clapping my kids repeatedly asked me questions like, “Why are we doing this?” “When are the doctors coming?” “Why are we clapping if no one is here?” “Can the doctors and nurses see us and we just don’t know?”

It was a little weird. Again, if they were actual people to clap for I would be all for it…but since there isn’t…I think it is strange for people to come out on the porch and clap for a minute with out any converstation and then go back inside. At least say hi and wave or something.

We might be busy at 7pm most nights.

Who broke a mirror or walked under the ladder?

The last 24 hours have been a busy one for our little neighborhood area. They say things happen in threes but we might be going for three sets of threes.

To start it off, yesterday I was doing some lawn work and trimming up some bushes for Spring. I was using our electric trimmer and the automatic shut off switch that is supposed to release when you take your hand of the power button got stuck and I wasn’t being careful enough so I cut my middle left finger through the side into my nail. I had a glove on and was hoping when I pulled it off that it wouldn’t be bad enough to need stitches but could tell immediately that was not the case. So I went in to wash it off and was debating with myself to just super glue it instead of going into the doctors with all this virus crap. Ryan saw it and said I had to go get stitches. I told him to call my regular doctor instead of going to the ER. He tried calling Steve to see if he could stitch me up but he didn’t answer. My doctor wasn’t in but another doctor said he could do it. Ryan drove me there but he couldn’t come in. Everyone was wearing masks, and by that I mean the skeleton crew that was working. I didn’t see any other patient. I had to fill out a bunch of paper work to screen me for any possible sign of Covid 19. Then there were only some chairs labeled that I was ‘allowed’ to sit in. Talk about feeling like you are in some apocalyptic movie but it is your actual life. The doctor said it needed one or two stitches. While his two nurses where getting the room ready for ‘the finger lady’ they had a very loud conversation with each other about how it is ridiculous that people can’t follow directions and stay home and not do unnecessary things. Then they specifically mentioned that yard work and house work are not necessary. They were sure to leave the door open too in case I couldn’t hear them through that. I was pretty ticked. The doctor numbed me up and gave me my stitches. When he left the nurse told me to come back in a week to have the stitches taken out. I told her I could take my own stitches out so I didn’t have to come back and put up with her poor bedside manner again. Then I walked out. That was a lot nicer than the other things going on in my head. Give me a break. I know lots of nurses and health care workers that are caring and compassionate. It is kind of part of the job. Why go into healthcare to help people in stressful hard situations if you are that unpleasant of a person.

Later that night we had a really gnarly thunderstorm and shortly after a loud crack of thunder a bunch of sirens came over by us. Someone’s house had been struck by lightning and caught fire. I don’t know how extensive the damage was before they were able to put it out.

Matthew’s friend a street over had the fire department show up at his house today. His older brother ordered a new battery for his phone. When he put it in, it started getting really hot, he dropped it on the floor so it wouldn’t burn him and it caught the carpet on fire! They got it out pretty quick so it is just a small area of carpet they will have to replace.

Tonight Ryan and I went on a walk after dinner. We started hearing all kinds of sirens around us. When we got around the park we saw a bunch of lights in the school playground. The neighbors that were out watching said it was some kind of a medical emergency. We kept going and headed back in the direction of our house.

When we turned the corner there were a bunch more police cars blocking off the roads. We had to walk that way to get back to our house. We asked the neighbors in that area what was happening and they said that there had been shots fired at “Crazy John’s house” which is on the next corner up from where we were. We walked back home and there were police cars across the street from us in our neighbors back yard blocking off the house from that direction. Then we could hear the police announcing over their speaker, “This is the Olathe Police Department, John come out with your hands up.” They said it about five times. Then he must have come out because shortly after that they all left. I haven’t heard if anyone was hurt of not.

The black circles were the fires. Yellow circle is the medical emergency. Blue dot is our house and location of the hedge trimmer incident. Blue circle it the shots fired area where “crazy John” lives.

Lots of craziness. Hopefully it is done. You can tell that some people are starting to get a little crazy with all the changes because of the virus. I don’t know if any of these were related or not, just reports and posts I see on the internet are starting to have some crazies coming out. We were worried our kids were going to be panicked when we got home with all the police cars around. A while back our neighbors had a fire truck come to their house while we were gone because of a medical emergency and the kids were freaking out about it. Luckily when we got home tonight they were all in there evening electronic comas and where none the wiser to the whole situation.

Quarantine…Day 12

This is going to get weird. It already is weird but when I stop and focus on it, it feels even more weird. It is like I am in one of those movies where someone is stranded or lost at sea and they start counting the days. It has been 12 days since they asked people to so a 14 day self quarantine. They announced yesterday that starting this Tuesday at noon there will be an even more strict 30 quarantine going into effect. Basically all businesses that are not essential are to be closed and other than emergencies, no one should leave their house unless it is to go to the bank, grocery store, hardware store, or doctor office. I have also heard that they will start fining people that are not following the quarantine and multiple offenders can even get up to 6 months of jail time. I have not verified that so I don’t know if it is true or not. This is when things could start getting ugly.

Matthew and Allison seem to be doing ok so far. I can tell Emilee is stressed, the past day or so I can tell she is getting some pent up energy and she keeps asking a lot of the same questions over and over. Maybe I will start a rating system for how we are all doing mentally.

We had church today. This is the first time in my life that I have ever had to have the sacrament done in my own home. I thought is was a really good meeting. I could feel the Spirit. It is a huge blessing and comfort that we have the Lords gospel and it is organized and clear how to do things. Even when new situations that haven’t ever really happened before come up there is a clear process and way to do things. We kept it pretty simple and did an opening song,prayer,business, sacrament song, Ryan blessed the sacrament and Matthew passed it, then we read scriptures and had a closing song and prayer. Our Primary pianist and chorister made a video for the kids to watch for singing time so we did that afterwards. We assigned out some parts for next weeks church.

We had a planning meeting today also for this upcoming week. We talked about making sure all our bodies needs are met-physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually. We discussed things that each of us need to do each day like;

Switch off between exercising and stretching for 45 minutes each day
Personal prayer and scriptures
Family prayer and scriptures
Read for fun for a minimum of 30 minutes a day
Go outside everyday
Daily chores
Laundry helper (kids will rotate each week)
Cooking helper
Practice piano minimum of 20 minutes each day
Teaching life skills with mom ~2 times a week
Hygiene habits with mom ~2 times a week

There is other things that vary a little bit but those are the things that will be standard each week. School stuff will get added in there too when the school stuff is out online from the district more. Life skills and hygiene habits are short little sessions with mom that review some aspect of hygiene (like using a q-tip) or life skills (how to sweep a floor) that they already know or should know but need a review. For example today we covered how to shower. They thought it was hilarious and were mortified that I had a stick figure drawing to help illustrate but all of them discovered 2-3 things that they were forgetting or not doing right.

Allison is going to get a little garden started this week with her dad. She is hoping to be able to do a salad garden with lettuce, peppers, and carrots. She wants to take over the whole back yard but I told her she has to start small and if it goes well she can expand.

Ryan is going to build the shelves in the basement bedroom closet. Emilee and I are going to finish condensing the toy room and her room while I finish getting the basement bedroom converted from a toy room to a bedroom. Matthew is planning on focusing a lot on his hitting and throwing for baseball.

It is all just odd. The world we lived and worked and socialized in less than two weeks ago has completely changed. Basically it has been canceled. There is nothing to prepare or get ready for, nothing to go to. It is a weird feeling. No reason to go to bed, no reason to get up in the morning. No plans. At. All. I can see how isolation can get to people. I wouldn’t say it is getting to me yet. I am pretty good at being alone but I have always had the option to change that when I decide I am not good with it anymore. I have my family too, so technically I am not alone. People that are single or live alone are in for a long couple months. Ryan is lucky to still have a job to work at home from too. So many people have been let go or had to close their business and that starts a whole other train of people that become affected as well. The economy was strong-growing and thriving in fact but this is a huge set back to recover from. I wish they would just implement a ‘pause’ in all of the financial stuff until this is over so people don’t have to declare bankruptcy or lose their job. It is going to be a job to get everthing ‘back to normal’.

I am sick of social media. The memes are funny but the rest of it just drives me crazy. Lots of rumors, misinformed or uniformed people ‘explaining’ things, people criticizing others. There is lots of good stuff going on as well. Many businesses and people are donating supplies or food or services during this time. I have taken a break from pretty much all of the news for the next little while. Ryan will let me know if I need to know something.

The icing on the cake today it that we found another gift from our crappy builder this morning. It has been raining a lot and one of our living room windows has water dripping inside from somewhere. We are thinking it is probably flashing or something but…getting it fixed is going to be a pickle. It might just be a ‘caulk the crap out of it’ until all this is over fix.

Finishing Pre-Spring Break

Saturday was busy with Girl Scout Cookie Booths, baseball practice, basketball games, and a friends baptism. As we were finishing up the last activity we had scheduled for the day Grandma and Grandpa Terry arrived to stay for a few days.

The rest of Saturday through Monday we made our house the gathering spot and the kids played and had fun together. Grandma had brought her usual stash of candy and crafts or other activities for the kids to do. They had a lot of fun art projects to decorate their rooms with (or sell was Allison’s plan). Grandpa was recruited to read or make up his own stories too.

Emilee went to work with her dad one of the afternoons. She has been begging to go with him for awhile so Ryan took her. She actually loved it. She brought her lunch and they ate in the kitchen together and she sat next to him at his desk and helped or watched a movie on Netflix.

To feed everyone I went with my favorite winter meal planning for dinners-soups! Chicken noodle, broccoli cheddar, potato, and chili were all part of the menu.

Tuesday the kids went back to school. Roger and Rhonda visited with me for the morning and then went to look at houses for a bit before everyone met at Matthew’s basketball game. He had a good game and enjoyed showing off his skills he has been working on the past few months. After his game we decided to do a ‘traditional’ dinner out together for our last meal with all of us before Grandma and Grandpa Terry headed back home.

The past few years when Grandma and Grandpa come to visit we have been going to a place called Steak-N-Shake for dinner one of the nights they are here. It has a variety of options for adults and kids so everyone is happy. It is a fifties style diner so it is casual and a fun environment. It isn’t usually to busy so all 12 of us can get a table together pretty quick, and the food is decent and pretty cheap as well. The best part is they last part of their name…the Shakes are delicious and there are many choices. We have gone there probably a dozen times at least in the past few years.

However, each time we go we are always a little surprised to see that Steak-N-Shake is still actually in business. The service is ridiculously awful. Not intentionally, which is why instead of never coming back we usually joke about it instead. They are very polite and try their best it is just…silly. This time we discussed it might really be time for us to find a new dinner place when Grandma and Grandpa come to visit. Here is how our last dinner there went.

Once we all got situated at the table our waiter arrived about 10 minutes later, which is much faster than usual. We estimated he was maybe 15 years old, maybe I am old so everyone seems young to me but I don’t think anyone working there including the cooks looked like they were older than 18. He took our drink order (11 waters and 1 coke) and disappeared to fill it. He made several trips back and forth between our table and the kitchen but eventually successfully got everyone something to drink. He then left. A few minutes later we flagged him down and asked if we could place our food order. He apologized for the delay and says yes but then realized he didn’t have his pad or pen he needed to take our order and runs to get it. When he returned with his pen he made the announcement that he was a little flustered because he was new. Brand new. We were his first order. We were not surprised at all because EVERY time we eat there the waiter at some point or another tells us they have been working there for less than a week. We don’t know if this is true or a tactic they are trained to say to get more leeway with their horrible service. In this young mans case I think he really was taking his first order. Whoever the person in charge was, thought giving the new guy a table of 12 people for his first go as a waiter was a good idea.

He went around the table and took each of our orders. He was very thorough and asked a lot of questions. When he was all done he asked if he could repeat it back to us for accuracy. When he did this we thought he didn’t know how to read his own handwriting but found out that the restaurant uses its own short hand or abbreviations when taking orders to make it ‘easier’ for everyone to understand. However, our waiter (I’m just going to call him Ben from now on) didn’t quite have the abbreviations down so when he tried to repeat it back to us he wasn’t sure what he had wrote and he basically had to take our orders again.🤦‍♀️ Eventually he got it down and once again headed back to the kitchen to give our order to the cooks.

When Ben gave us the receipt to pay for our food, he also handed us the papers he wrote our orders on. I was almost sassy and asked him if he wanted to keep them in memory of his first day on the job. Instead, I kept my mouth shut and decided to take a picture for my own memory of our fun time-probably the last time- eating at Steak-N-Shake. We tried to figure out whose order was whose but we couldn’t.

This is about the time we get nice and settled in because we know we aren’t going to get our food for a while. I often look around at this point and do a little people watching in the restaurant. There is usually one or two other tables. One of them has often placed their order sometime before we even arrived but hasn’t got their food yet. Sometimes the mom might be reminding everyone to be patient, “It can’t possibly take to much longer.” The dad sometimes will be muttering about his irritation at the wait. Often at some point people start comparing with other tables about how long they have been waiting.

Since the kids are older now, it isn’t to big of a deal for us to wait. Especially since they each have a cousin to interact with while we wait. About 15-20 minutes go by and Ben comes over to check with us. We tell him we are doing fine. He tells us that the cook ‘flipped out’ when he saw our order but it shouldn’t be much longer. We kind of laughed and said something about we hope that means he doesn’t spit in our food, to which he replies, “Oh no, I don’t think he would do that.” 🤦‍♀️ In the mean time the shakes we ordered are ready so he will bring them out. Seven of the 12 of us ordered a shake with our meal. They only brought 6 shakes and of those, only three were made correctly. After figuring out what was ordered and if anyone wanted to switch their order for what was actually brought they had to remake two of the shakes.

While the new shakes were being made they brought out the first few trays of food. I was watching Ben the hole time and saw it happen but still couldn’t figure out how. About half way to our table the top half of one of the burgers just rolled right off the tray to the floor. Ben tried to catch it but just hit it and flipped it around a little more before it hit the floor. I don’t think he realized how close he came to dumping the other four plates of food still on the tray while trying to save the burger. Luckily it just teetered a little and smacked the lady at another table still waiting for her own food to arrive in the back of the head. Ben decided to leave the burger on the floor and come set down the tray he still had (very smart decision Ben). He told us that HALF of one of the burgers had not made the trip from the kitchen to our table so he was getting that fixed. Then he gave everyone else a plate of food. When he left to get the new ‘top half of a burger’ we all switched plates and gave it to the correct person who ordered it. I was the lucky winner of the half cheeseburger plate. I watched Ben like a hawk to make sure I actually got a new burger and not the same one that had been brushed off. Instead of a whole new burger he quickly brought back a new cheeseburger on a top bun with lettuce ketchup and mustard and slapped it down on top of the bottom bun and tomato that had survived the first trip with all the grace you would expect from a 15 year old on his first day on the the job.🤦‍♀️

After a few more trips to the kitchen and back we all ended up with our orders. Jovee was in the mood to be a problem solver instead of waiting for Ben so she went to the kitchen three times herself to request items we were missing once we had our food. Once for silverware, once for napkins, and once for spoons because the silverware didn’t come with spoons.

It was about a 1 1/2 hour ‘fast food’ meal by the time we were ready to leave. We all got a good laugh about our experience and enjoyed our meal together. That is not the end of the story though. You still have to pay for the food. It doesn’t seem the restaurant has a clear plan for how to check someone out when they are ready to leave. You have to stand in front of the register and announce you are ready to pay about three times before someone comes over. Then they always seem to find the one person that appears to have never seen a cash register before, let alone used it. It takes FOREVER. We have all found things to entertain us while we wait. Roger is sweet to pay for everyone. Ross assists Roger because he usually has some combinations of coupons he insists we use that complicates the process for the already frazzled cashier. Ryan and Rhonda recalculate and sneak in an extra tip at the table without Roger noticing. The girls beg for quarters for the candy or toy machines they have. Matthew and Ethan pretend they are too cool for the candy machines by explaining they are designed to take your money without giving you a toy but if the girls have money they will help them get the toys, and Lauren and I try to figure out what this sign directly above the checkout counter means.

We did our best to guess but couldn’t figure it out. We weren’t sure what the second letter was. We thought it was maybe another language so we cheated and googled it. Google said it is TAKHOMASAK. A ‘famous’ saying created by Steak-N-Shake encouraging customers to take a sack of burgers home with them when they leave. We were still confused until we said it out loud. Get it… Takhomasak=take home a sack.

Fun times at Steak-N-Shake! Hurry in and have your fun time before the health department visits and shuts them down, it burns down because they have five new untrained teenagers running it every week, or they go bankrupt because no one knows how to run the cash register.

Patterns

This is the third year that I have been writing my blog. I just had the 4th six month volume printed and delivered last month. The kids like to look at them and I feel like one of my goals for having a blog has come to fruition. I have started a family journal that is documenting our family and helping us remember the fun, mundane, silly, happy, great and not so great memories of our lives while we have these years all living together that might seem like the permanent normal but before we know it will be history.

This being the third Winter I have blogged I have also started to notice some patterns that seem to happen in our family each year. We all seem to get some illness to varying degrees at the end of January beginning of February. It started last this past week for us. Allison got it first, then Matthew, Ryan and I have a very mild version that is hardly noticeable, and Emilee is now taking her turn. It was Matthew’s turn to get it the worst. Since he has asthma it is often his turn. Allison took the longest to recover, but all in all it wasn’t a bad year for sickness. I know a lot of other people that have had it pretty bad. I am jinxing myself and knock on wood we don’t have a round two but I am counting it as a blessing and hoping to keep my streak going of, “No cleaning up puke in 2020!”

Another annual event in February is the pre-Spring Break in preparation for the actual Spring Break next month. I don’t actually count because I really don’t want to know, but between the already short month, teacher conferences, snow days, and holidays if the number of school days isn’t less than the number of days off, it certainly feels like it. I didn’t even count sick days in that either. They had a half day Wednesday and now don’t go back to school until Tuesday.

So far we have been keeping busy. We ate lunch with dad yesterday. Then they all invited a friend or two over.

Emilee had Jovee over so that was business as usual. They played great together and watched Frozen II and went to bed without any issues.

Allison invited a friend over and they played, made slime, and entertained Peanut but I told her she could have a sleepover a different night. She asked Leah to spend the night tonight.

Matthew had two friends over. One had spent the night before but the other hadn’t. Two boys is a lot different than three and boys are a lot different than girls. Me being a girl, I always feel a little more…out of my wheel house with boys. I usually have Ryan check on them most of the time. I always monitor them and screen any movies they watch and collect all electronics/phones at bed time and tell them when it is time to go to bed. I feel like I am pretty good at thwarting possible problems. When the new friends mom dropped him off she talked with me a lot about electronics and sugar. She wanted to know my policies on both. Like I said I watch them but I felt like she wanted a written contract spelled out. After the conversation she had me a little stressed out. Then as she was headed out the door she “warned” me that she had found one of them awake at 4 in the morning when she had the two (not Matthew her son and the other boy) stay at her house one night. I thought, “How often was she checking on them to know they were awake at 4am) I felt like she wanted me to be sitting with them at all times during waking hours and at least hourly during sleep hours. Then I started worrying if it was because she was worried about her son doing something, my son doing something, or just general worry. So I was paranoid and got a crappy night sleep on the couch upstairs because I thought there was going to be some catastrophic event at any moment. They were fine and other than making the basement look like pigs had lived in it for the last year (which I made them clean up), they went to bed when I told them slept until I woke them up at 9:30 for breakfast while rubbing the kink in my neck. Uggg.

Sleepovers are not my favorite but with cousins around they love to have them and it is nice that they can. I felt like a bit of a hypocrite saying they could only have sleep overs with their cousins and no one else so while I don’t suggest them myself, I let them have them on occasion.

I am going to go down a little bit of a rabbit hole here, then get back on track with my original thought process. After worrying and having a crappy nights sleep last night I started evaluating myself a bit. I’m not mad or annoyed at the mom for asking about how I do things with electronics. I am glad that other mom’s are concerned and watch out for things like with kids. And good for her for straight out asking. Most of the time I am not that brave. The more eyes the better. I am mostly annoyed that it made me question myself. I do that a lot. I can get stressed and confused trying to guess what other peoples expectations are and live up to them instead of being confident in my own decisions and expectations. It is something that I am consciously trying to work on. It seems to me like some people are really good at thinking through what they think and feel about things and forming an opinion ahead of time before a situation arrives. I remember in church they told us that a lot when I was growing up. Decide what you are going to do in a situation ahead of time so when the time comes you aren’t put on the spot and you have already made the decision. I think that is good advice and I tried to do that with bigger obvious decisions that might come up in my life. I don’t know if I am just not as creative as some people but this is not a natural thing for me to do. A lot of people I talk with seem to be very good at this. Some people do this with EVERYTHING and that actually annoys me and I think it is exhausting and if it isn’t true it at least appears that they are impossible to please if others don’t know or agree with their opinion. I guess I should say with inconsequential things this annoys me like ‘how to empty the dishwasher’, ‘how to correctly replace a toilet paper roll’. That stuff is inconsequential and it seems trivial to me to think about how I like every single thing to be in my life. Yes, we can have preferences, that’s different. The bigger, more important things I tend to find myself having a general thought about something but until I actually do it myself or am confronted with something myself I generally don’t form a solid response or opinion. Another way to look at it is I guess I am not the best on the spot thinker. I do better at either being able to take a step back and take time to think, or if that isn’t possible afterwards evaluating how it went and then if that situation happens again I have a much better handle on what I want to do. But sometimes in life- a lot of times in life we have to react on the spot. When this happens to me instead of trusting myself, I often find myself trying to guess what the other person is wanting me to say or do and then my people pleaser self tries to please them. It is easy to see how this can get stressful pretty fast, as I can not read minds. My point to this tangent is that I am trying to make a more conscious decision to remind myself when those new situations come up-like a mom asking what my electronic/sugar policy is-that I can and should trust myself to just say what I do then taking her feedback, instead of trying to guess exactly what she wants me to say and then hovering over the boys like a weirdo all night. I am biased but I have a pretty good head on my shoulders. The longer you live the more experiences you have and there is a lot to be said for life experience. Which brings me to another point. Pay attention and read this next part closely my children. This isn’t anything you haven’t heard before. Your dad and I tell you and try to help each one of you on a daily basis with our own life experiences. You will be very familiar with what I am going to say…something in the language of- “The reason we are having this conversation is because we are trying to share what we have learned with you because”… we have ALREADY done it or something similar to it most of the time. And if we haven’t, all the other experiences we HAVE had will help you more than all the experiences you HAVEN’T had yet. The older I get the more I appreciate life experience, mine and others. One of my favorite quotes right now is, from Socrates. He is getting the credit if it wasn’t him. It sums up a lot of what I have been rambling on about.

Smart people learn from everything and everyone. Average people from their experiences. Stupid people already have the answers. ~Socrates

I have been all three of these. Most of the time I’d like to think I am an ‘average smart person’ but I hope I’m at least leaning more and more towards a ‘smart person’ every day.

That rabbit hole was longer than I thought. Where was I…After our sleepovers everyone went home then I picked up the rest of the cousins (we already had Jovee) and went to the community center and swam until they were all exhausted. Then they paired up and split out among each others houses to spend the rest of the afternoon playing. So we have had a successful two days of pre-Spring Break so far, and a fun low key Valentine’s Day. Three more days to go!

Tomorrow Grandma and Grandpa Terry are coming to stay for a few days. I will wait to blog about that until it happens. 😁

Day 5. Time to head home.

We woke up after our last night on the boat back in Port Canaveral Florida. One of the perks of having a suite is being able to get the process of getting off the boat expedited. We had a very helpful concierge that kept popping up all over the place helping us get off the boat. He made me laugh, it really felt like he came out of no where.

On our way to Kenny and Sherri’s we stopped to eat some breakfast. When we walked in and sat down Emilee asked me what was free. I chuckled and told her that nothing was free anymore now that we were off the boat.

Our plane didn’t fly out until late that night so we hung out with Kenny and Sherri and my parents. We ate dinner together and Sherri my mom and I went and got a mani/pedi.

The flight home seemed to go pretty quickly. I like flying at night. It is pretty seeing all the lights of a city when you land and take off. Ross picked us up again so we were headed home about 15 minutes after the plane landed.

There were a few presents from the kids to each other and Grandmas and Grandpas that we didn’t open before we left. Even though it was late the kids wanted to open them when we got home. Ryan and I decided to earn ‘cool parent points’ and we stayed up to open them.

It is pretty crazy how in a 24 hour period we were on a private island in the Bahamas, playing with cousins on the trampoline in Tampa Florida, then slept in our own beds in Kansas that night.

It was a fun packed, exciting vacation full of new experiences and places. We wanted to have a Christmas that our family could remember and I think we were successful.

Perfect Day at Coco Cay, Day 4.

After a good night sleep we woke up at Coco Cay. It is Royal Carribean’s private island. There is a water park, splash area, fresh water pool, several different beaches, shops, and places to eat. There is also a giant air balloon but it was to windy the day we were there for it to be open.

It was a beautiful little island. We were the only ship there so it was not crowded at all. The weather in the morning was a little cloudy and even had a few sprinkles of rain. This kept even more people on the boat instead of getting off so you almost felt like you had the place to yourself. Once the little rain shower passed through, the sun came out the temperature was perfect.

The wind was a little strong so they asked us not to put umbrellas up. On one of the beaches we relaxed at for a bit this caused a little problem with seagulls. There were a lot of them and they weren’t deterred by people. Like I mentioned there wasn’t a ton of people anyway. Emilee was walking back from the lunch area to our beach chairs with her little plate of food. I guess the birds picked her as an easy target because she was little and walking by herself. One seagull flew in and flipped her plate out of her hand and then the rest swarmed the plate on the ground. She was not happy to be bested by birds. When she came to tell me about it, due to the wind not allowing us to use umbrellas, we both got pooped on in our unprotected chairs. Probably by the same stupid birds that stole her food. Luckily after that they moved on to poop on the next people.

One of the little beach areas had a good little spot for snorkeling. Ryan took each of the kids out with him for a little swim to see what they could find. They saw a sting ray and some cool fish. We tried to make a sand castle but didn’t really bring anything to build with so decided to turn each other into sand castles instead. Allison was a mermaid and we told Matthew he was something cool but then made him wearing a dress instead.

Matthew thought we were making him a shark or something, we went our own direction and put him in a dress.

The girls stayed at the splash pad during the little rain storm. I read my book under a chair and Ryan and Matthew went back to the boat for a bit. When the sun came back out we played in the fresh water pool for a bit. Ryan and I dozed off and when we woke up the kids were all dozing on the warm cement in front of us. Not to bad for the 26th of December.

There was wild chickens roaming around the island. We saw a little lizard (about two feet long) walking in front of us at one point. We followed him and he lead us around the corner to his big brother who was at least twice his size. Later the kids spotted an even bigger one in a tree while we were walking by.

We explored the shops a little on our way back to the boat. Emilee found the big conch shell she wanted as her souvenir and Allison and Matthew got a t-shirt or sweatshirt. It was a great day.

The kids were familiar enough with the ship that they decided to ditch Ryan and I for dinner and find their own. Poor Ryan and I had to eat dinner all by ourselves, it was wonderful. We found the kids sitting at a little pizzeria together when we done. It was pretty cute to see them sitting at a table together chatting it up while they enjoyed their dinner. Hopefully that will happen when they are older too. The girls wanted to go to the kid area again. Matthew went and played basketball for a bit then came back and hung out with Ryan and I. We were looking at pictures and walking around the promenade. Ryan disappeared for a while and came back with a grin on his face because he had booked another cruise for him and I next December. We all met back in the room and hung out there the rest of the night while we packed and got ready to head home the next day.

Christmas Day! Day 3.

When we woke up Christmas morning, Santa had left a few favorite treats-skittles and peanut butter Christmas trees. We also found our tickets to see the dolphins. Sometime during the night we had docked at Nassau. We went out on the balcony to see the view of the Island. There were three other cruise ships parked by us.

Christmas Morning. The sun was very bright, it took about ten tries to get all of our eyes open.

After breakfast we put our suits on and lathered on the sunscreen. Then we got of the boat and explored the market area for a bit before it was time to go to the dolphins. A lady talked Emilee into letting her braid her hair. I can’t tell Emilee I am going to brush her hair without her squealing that it hurts. This lady was not being gentle. I could tell Emilee was uncomfortable but she never said a word. She really liked the braids when she was done though. It is almost a month later and she still has them in.

When the hair braiding was done we found the place to go on our dolphin excursion. We had to take a tender (small transport boat) around to the other side of the island. We had some beautiful sights to see on the way. Atlantis of course. The kids thought it was cool to see a place they had seen on TV before. There were some big yachts by us and famous peoples homes that we passed. I only remember Oprah’s and my kids don’t know who she is so they weren’t overly excited about that. The water and views are just gorgeous so just watching the view around the island was relaxing. They dropped us off in a little cove area where we could play on the beach and swim until it was time to see the dolphins. There was some blow up water toys that the kids played on for several hours. Ryan and I played for a little bit with the kids in the sand and water, then we found some comfy beach chairs to take a nap and relax in. After we ate lunch I also found a souvenir shop that had a delicious pint of cookies and cream Ben and Jerry’s ice cream that I enjoyed while basking in the sun on the beach. The water was clear and pretty. A little chilly but not bad. When we got there the place was way overcrowded and I was a little grumpy that they basically marooned us in the cove with a million other people for four hours until it was time to go to the dolphins. After about an hour though several of the ships were leaving so most of the people left and it was almost like having the beach to ourselves. We were the last group to see the dolphins so we were pretty much the only people in the cove when we walked back to the tender. It was easy to forget it was Christmas Day being on the beach. The weather was gorgeous-it was the best weather of our trip. There was always Christmas music playing but we all mentioned that it wasn’t the typical Christmas atmosphere and feeling.

The dolphin excursion we went on was AMAZING. I think it was everyone’s favorite part of the entire vacation. You get to sit in the dock area and have fun watching the dolphins up close while you wait. Then when it is actually your turn you get into the water and the dolphin is swimming right there with you. Our dolphins name was Salvador, and he went by Sal. He let us rub his back and belly, and even feel his teeth. He did a little dance with us and he gave each of us a hug and kiss and took pictures with us at the end. When he gave Allison a kiss he came back for three more and then whistled really loud and did a little spin. She told everyone how the dolphin had a crush on her. It was a lot of fun. They took lots of pictures for us and even a video.

Our tender boat was cutting across the back of the cruise ships on our way back to dock. One of the ships was leaving and even though we were cruising pretty fast and could have easily made it, they laid on the horn and the police boat came out and was not happy. The boat leaving was a Carnival boat, the week before a different Carnival boat had crashed into another one of its own boats. I can only imagine how the steering crew were freaking out when they saw a boat in front of them after their company had already had a crash less than a week ago. I was never concerned about getting hit. It took us a lot longer to stop and back up then it would have to finish going across and we still had plenty of time. It was a little funny since it was obvious no one was going to get hurt.

Once we got back to the ship we showered and cleaned up then went to have Christmas dinner. They had a kids menu in addition the regular menu, Emilee was ecstatic she didn’t have to eat boring yucky food. The girls went to kid place for a few hours after dinner. Matthew went to the arcade for a bit again and then he went to play basketball so Ryan and I went to the variety show and watched a juggler and some singers and dancers put on a pretty decent show. We grabbed some hot chocolate from the suite lounge again and all met back in our room. We were all ready to turn in a little earlier than usual. We had a great time making memories with each other.