February started off with the Superbowl and more furniture building.
It was cold.
But, we set up space heaters and powered on.
We have one final area in our house that needed to be decorated.
Our upstairs family room
Our beautiful sectional was on order
and the tables that we created were ready for paint.
I thought they were cute before, but they came to life right in the front yard
When they dried, we put them upstairs with our theater chairs
And continued to wait patiently for the couch...
which was delayed due to the fact that the fabric we chose was back ordered
for who knows how long.
It is so hard for me to wait...
In the meantime, we had Valentines Day and my most
un-favorite tradition...
Valentines Boxes
Back when I was a kid, we decorated brown paper bags with construction paper hearts that we cut ourselves. And we pasted them on with Elmer's glue. And we did this fun project in school with our teacher helping us and our parents were not involved and didn't even know there was such a project going on until we walked in the door with them full of Valentines.
What happened to THAT TRADITION?
Why have the stay at home mom's of Utah caused the nation-wide phenomenon of
"The Valentine Box Challenge"
Which is essentially parents trying to one up each other by creating the cutest or most creative valentine collection boxes proving that they are in fact the best parent ever and their child is the most popular.
And those of us who are not that into school and who don't have very much time for extracurricular activities feel tons of pressure because what if OUR shortcomings result in our child being ridiculed or judged by the other kids? And what if that causes insecurities or resentment in later life........
UGHHHHHH.....
So, Raleigh and I find ourselves running all over the town on the 13th, all frustrated and frazzled and it's not fun and/or productive.
This year by the end of our less-than efforts
(this was BY FAR not our best year)
we were yelling at every one
two kids were crying
and every one went to bed mad.
This is a LOVE holiday.
But, Valentine Boxes evoke every emotion but love.
I had to hug and apologize to each of the kids in the morning and try and invite the love back.
KK.... always happy.
Always feeling the love
Luckily Valentines Day was a complete success.
Everyone was so happy
We celebrated after school at Bishops Diner. St. George's biggest hole in the wall.
We gorged on breakfast for dinner and fed the entire family for $20.88
It was the first day of the Parade of Homes... Bishop's was the only restaurant in town that wasn't packed with people
We actually had a really fun night.
On Sunday, the Zullos came over for dinner.
It's a yearly tradition.
We had fun catching up with them and of course didn't take pictures
(I am not sure why, but we forget every year)
It would be so fun to see how our kids have grown over the years
Our final room is finally coming together
Anybody who has ever made a hard decision will know what I am talking about. I am talking about a decision that you had to ponder and pray about for a long time. And there's no wrong or right answer, but nevertheless, a choice needs to me made.
Several years ago, Raleigh and I had to make one of those. And it wasn't easy. We had prayed and talked about it until there wasn't any more to say about it and finally came to an agreement that we both felt good about. Even though the decision, when you said it out loud, sounded awful... on the inside it felt right. And was compounded by the fact that we didn't know all of the reasons why it felt so right at the time.
Off and on over the following years, we wondered if we had made the most correct choice. As time has rolled on, evidence of that choice being correct, has come to us. Little by little. And with the passing of each year, we have felt better and more confident in it being the very best thing we could have done for our family. Having boundaries is never comfortable.
Since that time all those years ago, he and I have grown so much in such healthy and positive ways. And we have come to know each other so well. Back then, we thought we knew each other. Now we know, we know each other. And so if we had to make the decision today, it would be so much easier. I am just so happy that we trusted our hearts and trusted each other enough to be strong and stand up for our family and our marriage and each other.
Well, this month here in February of 2020 absolute positive confirmation came. Sealed the deal. Nail in the coffin. Cleared all doubts. And we will NEVER again question our ability to arrive at conclusions that are best for our family. I KNEW we were right back then. Raleigh was pretty sure we were right. But, NOW.... we are both crystal clear. And that is such a glorious feeling. We never have to look back and wonder. And we both feel so validated.
It's sad that horrible and ugly words uttered by someone is just the thing that we needed to know that we are doing everything right. Unkind opinions expressed by someone who has no clue who we are as people, have only strengthened our resolve to stay our course. Thoughtless sentiments voiced toward us have only made us that more determined to succeed. The best part of all of this, is the judgments declared, we suspect, are nothing more than a way to cover up that fact that deep down this person is scorchingly terrified that the very thing they are forecasting will one day be their very own fate.
After all, isn't that the essence of Karma? I have digressed in my disgust. But, line upon line events need to be documented.
KK went to Makayla's birthday party.
It was an art appreciation party and her mom who is an art teacher came and helped them create pictures and paint with water colors.
KK is very talented artistically. She draws really well and she loves to draw and paint and color quietly by herself. Every once in a while I will find one of her creations and it's like an adult did it.
She decided to draw a picture for Nana at the party.
This was it.
Of course Nana loved it, but it wasn't enough to just frame it and put it in her kitchen...
She loves KK so much and wants her to develop her talents, so she signed her up for art classes with Kris.
Kris is a lady I have known since I was 13 and was very influential in the development of my testimony. Kris sees the rose colored world just like KK does. Those people are very rare in this day and age. So it seems only natural to get the two of them together.
She is going to teach her about art, but the real underlying plan is for the two of them to sit and talk about how beautiful the world is and how important it is for unique people like them to stay just like they are and NOT change. I want Kris to re-enforce the qualities that are already so strong in KK's personality making her special and different.
Art classes with Kris will be very interesting.
I cannot wait to hear all about the conversations that they have.
8 months ago, I bought a red couch for my buffalo plaid living room from Wayfair.
It was a good deal, that should have been my first clue.
When it arrived, I could sort of instantly tell that something wasn't right but I wanted to believe.
We put it together and I hoped that with each added piece, it would improve. But is wasn't looking good. We put it where it was supposed to go and I burst out laughing.
It was a midget couch.
A couch that was made for tiny woodland creatures.
I told Raleigh to go sit on it.
HE LOOKED GIGANTIC.
So hilarious
I researched how to return it
My free shipping turned into $100 shipping plus trying to get it back in the box and taking it to a facility. I was discouraged and decided to just keep it and try to sell it myself.
8 months of trying. I distorted the photos just like Wayfair did to me to try and trick people into thinking that it was larger than it really was and cute.
But, no one fell for it.
And month after month it sat all disproportionate in my living room looking wrong.
Finally we got the text.
"Is your red couch still available?"
You bet your pocket sized resting place it is.
Harriet was the texter.
She didn't have a truck, so she asked if we would deliver.
Raleigh couldn't load it up on our trailer fast enough.
We met her in the Walmart parking lot so she could see it in person and try it out.
We knew the instant she got out of the car, she was going to take it.
She was at most 4'8.
Diminutive and Precious.
We drove behind her to Hurricane.
And Raleigh and I carried it in to her living room.
She was SO happy. She said, "its the perfect size for my room and me.
Look! My feet can rest comfortably on the floor when I sit on it"
And she pointed out all of the red items in the room... her placemats on her table, her teakettle, the stones in the bottom of her fish bowl.
A red couch was so complimentary.
Little Midgy was made just for her.
She sent us a text the next day thanking us for it.
How sweet is she?
We drove straight from Harriet's house to the furniture store and bought a normal people sized couch
In a less ominous color
Lesson learned. You get what you pay for nearly every time.
Speaking of online purchases...
How cute is this?
I have really thick hair, so I don't really need a voluminous bun.
But it is SO cute.
And I can wear it on those days where I need to get ready in 5 minutes.
I cannot wait to hear all about the conversations that they have.
8 months ago, I bought a red couch for my buffalo plaid living room from Wayfair.
It was a good deal, that should have been my first clue.
When it arrived, I could sort of instantly tell that something wasn't right but I wanted to believe.
We put it together and I hoped that with each added piece, it would improve. But is wasn't looking good. We put it where it was supposed to go and I burst out laughing.
It was a midget couch.
A couch that was made for tiny woodland creatures.
I told Raleigh to go sit on it.
HE LOOKED GIGANTIC.
So hilarious
My free shipping turned into $100 shipping plus trying to get it back in the box and taking it to a facility. I was discouraged and decided to just keep it and try to sell it myself.
But, no one fell for it.
And month after month it sat all disproportionate in my living room looking wrong.
Finally we got the text.
"Is your red couch still available?"
You bet your pocket sized resting place it is.
Harriet was the texter.
She didn't have a truck, so she asked if we would deliver.
Raleigh couldn't load it up on our trailer fast enough.
We met her in the Walmart parking lot so she could see it in person and try it out.
We knew the instant she got out of the car, she was going to take it.
She was at most 4'8.
Diminutive and Precious.
We drove behind her to Hurricane.
And Raleigh and I carried it in to her living room.
She was SO happy. She said, "its the perfect size for my room and me.
Look! My feet can rest comfortably on the floor when I sit on it"
And she pointed out all of the red items in the room... her placemats on her table, her teakettle, the stones in the bottom of her fish bowl.
A red couch was so complimentary.
Little Midgy was made just for her.
She sent us a text the next day thanking us for it.
How sweet is she?
In a less ominous color
Lesson learned. You get what you pay for nearly every time.
How cute is this?
I have really thick hair, so I don't really need a voluminous bun.
But it is SO cute.
And I can wear it on those days where I need to get ready in 5 minutes.
That's it for February.
Not a lot happened this month.
We are so happy that it is getting warmer.
We have a few things coming up that we are getting ready for.
Allie applied for UVU on Monday and got accepted on Tuesday.
I guess that is what happens when you have a 4.0
She said it was harder to make her instagram account than applying for college.
She is moving up to Provo in May.
Peyton is loving all of her friends.
She gets invited to all kinds of activities all the time.
She is fun and popular. And it's great to see her venturing out and trying new things.
Ryker is three weeks into "speech"
and we already thee improvemenths.
He is SO funny.
I told him "when you have a lisp, you say thope instead of soap and thad instead of sad"
And it was like the light went on in his brain.
"Oh. My. Gosh." He said "Who would ever say thope when it's soap?"
And he corrected his speech
He is so analytical. He totally got it.
Now, when he talks, we can see him thinking about it. He only starts lisping when he is telling us something super exciting.
Raleigh has been busy with the deacons.
He took them to the Cedar temple and has helped them to master Sacrament Passing Routes.
Deacons are hard, it takes a special person.
He isn't sure that person is him, but he keeps trying.
I got to connect with two old friends this month, that was fun.
Raleigh bought me a treadmill so I can work out at home instead of having to go to the gym.
That makes me so much happier.
I am so grateful for SO many tender mercies that are extended to us.
We are so blessed. We are excited for future events that will make us better and stronger.
I am so lucky that I get to go through life with these people.
My parents, my sisters and their husbands, my husband, my kids.
It's a wonderful life indeed
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