Playing Catch Up

I don't want you to think that I've already started to slack on my renewed efforts to keep up the blog.  I've been getting on the computer each day for at least a half hour to get things going.  It's mostly been organizing pictures.  Now that I take pictures on my phone sometimes, it makes things a little harder.  My phone doesn't connect to the computer happily so I have to email the pics to myself.  Today I figured out I could upload them to google drive and then get them from there.  So that's good!

As for daily happenings, Mike was on a work trip to Idaho the last two nights.  So when he came home last night, we went out to dinner.  Left the kids to fend for themselves and they must have done fine. We washed the Bronco and had a lovely little date.

Nathan has a cold and missed school yesterday.  It's the kind of cold that makes you feel pretty crummy in the mornings but pretty good all day long.  So he just had a lovely day off of school.

Jake got a job at the Gristmill down the street.  He started on Tuesday and has worked every night this week.  He works tonight too.  It's good to give him something to do, but it seems weird to not see his face as often.  I love that he can do it without pain.  His back recovery really is a miracle.  

I took Allie to a Sky View soccer game last  night.  She is really wishing she had her license.  She's always wanting to be places and hates to have to ask me for rides.  I like the time in the car with her and I know I'm going to miss it when she gains more freedom.  So she's stuck with me for a few more months.

The littles got invited to go swimming at the pool yesterday.  It was closed, so they came back and hot tubbed at a neighbor's house for a little while.  They had a good time and came home, dropped their wet towels on the tile and took baths.  There, they left their sopping wet swimsuits on the floor along with half the tub water.  I reminded Jason to put his clothes in the hamper (forgetting that his clothes were sopping wet swim trunks) and he was obedient.  Now there are lots of soggy wet clothes in the hamper. :)

I get after them all the time, but things don't seem to sink in.  I wish they'd be a little less messy.  

Aw well...life is still good.  :)

Conversation about "Yo Momma"

 Allie told me about a conversation she had with Jason...

Allie: What is your best yo momma joke?

Jason: Yo momma so hairy that when she shaves, it just grows back.

Allie: (laughing her head off) :)

She wrote it down in her notes so she wouldn't forget, so I helped give it a permanent place on the blog.  

Fantastic Beasts

I got a call from my mom this week and she said she wanted to watch the new Fantastic Beasts movie.  She also hadn't seen or couldn't remember seeing the first two.  So she came up to the house and we binge watched the first two movies on Friday night with whoever wanted to come watch them with us.  Jason and Nate were there for the whole movies though.  It was a first time for them.

We had Charlie, popcorn, snuggly blankets, and Lego to sort.  It was really fun.

                                        

We stayed up really late on Friday night to watch and then had to get up early on Saturday morning to watch the rest of the second.  So we were ready for the third movie later on that morning.

Allie and Jake joined us for that.

The boys loved all the parts with the niffler (a magical creature that is drawn to gold and treasure and stuffs it in his little kangaroo type pouch).  I agree that nifflers are so cute and my niffler Lego piece is one of my favorites for sure.

The movie was good, and interesting to find out more about Dumbledore.  I still really don't love any of the Harry Potter movie stuff.  I prefer the books and don't love how dark and scary things can get in all the movies.  I guess I prefer reading it all than seeing it.

It was a really fun adventure though and I'm so glad my mom made the drive to come do that with us.

She also brought me a refill of bread flour, and that's nearly priceless these days.  Thanks mom!  :)

War

 The boys continue to love air soft guns.  On Saturday, I was bringing the boys home from a baptism and I picked up a call from Jake.  He was on speaker and was asking if the boys were home yet.  I said they were on the way and he said "Good.  We want to have an airsoft war with Max and his brothers."  The eruption of cheers from the back seat almost scared me off the road.  They were so excited.

They came home and got layers on, set out all the guns and ammo, and set off to play at the gravel pit.

They didn't come home until 10:00 that night.  They had so much fun.

Jake's gun is really powerful and I was nervous to send them out to face that kind of fire, but they had safety glasses on and they all knew how important it was so not hurt each other so they could do it again sometime.

They came home with dirt in every pocket (the only downside to the gravel pit) but they were all smiling and happy.  I guess Jason was the exception to that.  He had a welt on his neck and had taken a hard fall in the dark, but he was trying to be brave so he could be included on the next go round.

I love it when they play together and have fun as brothers.  It's fun that Max's family has three boys to play with.  Good times had by all.

Heidi

 I only have a few readers of this blog and one of them just died.

It sounds like such a harsh statement, but it is a harsh reality.  Heidi died in February and since then, I've been sadder than I can remember being.

She got sick.  She had cold like symptoms and then just got sicker and sicker.  She was hospitalized for pneumonia. But after a while, she was diagnosed with ARDS.  Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. It was caused from the chemo she was on for the last year.  Her lungs were just filled with crap and pretty soon, they couldn't fill with oxygen.  She had to be put on a ventilator.  

I could go into the details of it all, but the short story is that she was on a vent for 2 weeks.  In those two weeks, I grieved.  I thought of the last conversation I had with her and wondered if it was enough.  Enough for her to know that I loved her.  The spirit had prepared me to know that Heidi wasn't going to come back from this, but it was still such a devastating shock to get the word that she had passed away.

I was so sad for her family.  I was so sad for the world.  I was so sad for me.  I'm still so sad for me.

I miss her every day.  Aside from Mike and the kids, I didn't interact with anyone on a daily basis more than I interacted with her.  She called me when she went on her runs and we'd chat mindlessly as I cleaned and she ran.  We talked about stupid stuff.  So much pointless chatter and I miss it.  

I cried as I cleaned the kids shower for the first time without her talking to me in my earbud.  I've cried as I walked the aisles of Sam's club.  I cried when I put my feet in the sand in Mexico and watched the water cover my feet and then recede.  It gave me vertigo and made me think of her stumbling on the beach in Hawaii with me last year.

I've cried so many tears.  My heart aches and I feel so sad.  

I think of her in good ways too though.  Like when Cheryl told me she liked the size of bread the smaller pot makes, I thought of the laughter we shared over the red headed step child.  We have so many memories and I really am glad for all of it.

I don't know how to end the post.  I am just now trying to catch up on the blog and as my only reader outside the family, Heidi was the elephant in the room.  So I had to say something even though this post only scratches the surface.  I'm so glad she was and is in my life.  I am forever changed by her.  Life is so good, but it can be so hard too.  

Conversation in the Kitchen

 

The setting:  The boys had just gotten home from school and they were unloading their backpacks and lunch boxes...

Jason: Today, I accidentally farted SO LOUD in class.  (giggling nervous and embarrassed giggles)

Me:  Oh man, that is embarrassing.  Did you say 'excuse me"?

Jason: Yes, but I was so embarrassed.

Nate: If I absolutely have to fart in class, I make it silent and then blow it away. (insert loud huffing and puffing and blowing noises)

Me: (laughing) That's not obvious!

Nate: (attempting to quiet his blows as he still looks like the big bad wolf trying to blow a house down)

The rest of us continued to laugh. 

I know the stink of elementary class rooms is real.  Those teachers are saints.

No Excuse

 I hate that I have let the blog go by the wayside of my life.  I can't even say that I'm too busy because I really do have periods of time where I just waste time.  I need to do better.

My kids read the blog every Sunday.  We refer back to things all the time and I just don't want to let it go.  So here I go again.  I'm going to do better.

I'm so far behind and I know I want to catch up on it all, but I find that if I try to work from the past forward, I never feel caught up. So I'm starting with today.

Today, I'm sitting in my messy room with all sorts of chores to do.  I really shouldn't be blogging but I also know that this isn't a waste of time either.  I was texting Heidi's mom this morning.  She texted to tell me she liked the new shape of bread.  I got a double oven in the  garage for the bakery this week but I only had 3 dutch ovens that were the bigger size and then I had the red headed step child  that Heidi gave me a few years ago.  It makes a different size of bread but I really like it.  I wanted to refer her to the blog post so she could read the story.  As I was looking for it, I found all kinds of posts that I had forgotten all about.  I'm so grateful I have written in this family journal of sorts.  

We've done so many things that I don't want to leave undocumented.  So, here I go again.  No excuses...

The Annual Easter Egg Hunt

We had the cousins over for our annual Easter egg hunt.  I love that the kids still do it for us.  They are cute little cousins.

They each got to find 20 eggs.  It's always funny to see how they do their own thing.  Some of them eat the candy out right away.  Some of them leave it in the eggs, some of them trade for better things...it's all just cute.

 Happy Easter!

Here We Go Again!

Allie made the drill team again!  It was a busy week with try outs and a little bit of stress trying to juggle the clinics and learning the dances.  But she did it!  It was a night and day difference from the anxiety riddled girl of last year, but the excitement was just as sweet.  Here we go again!  Sky View Vistauns 2022-2023.

                                                                        Sophomore class!

 

It was a bit of a gut punch to be in the parent meeting and hear about all the things they have planned.  It's a reminder that from here on out, she's going to be super busy.  They take a lot of time to "bond" together as a team.  I get that, but it's really hard to let go of summer days and months with my whole family together.  

She was a bit bummed to find out she'll be spending the majority of her 16th birthday with the team.  It's just an adjustment of time and mind.  

It's all so exciting though.  Life is so good!

Sweethearts!

Jake went to Sweethearts on Saturday!  He got asked by a cute girl named Brooke.  She is awesome!

He had so much fun.  I was worried about how he'd do.  His back isn't even sealed up from his surgery yet.  

I didn't need to worry though.  He did so great.  Came home in less pain than Homecoming last fall.  He's only 2 months out of surgery and he's already way better than he was pre-surgery.  Such a blessing.

They met up for their day date and made a Bob Ross painting.

Then she came by to pick him up and they did pictures and went to Olive Garden for dinner.

Mike, Allie, and I went to Olive Garden too.  We thought we were way after them, but we ended up seeing them as they were finishing up.  Felt weird to spy on them, but they looked like they were having a great time.

They got really good pictures too.  So fun.
 

They came to our house after the dance for drinks.  They were happy and had huge smiles on their faces.  They had funny stories of a fish that they had brought to the dance.  I guess there was an incident at the end of the dance and now the fish is no more... :(

I love that he got to go and have a fun time.  High school can be so fun!  Live it up Jake!