January 2021

Raleigh and I have an understanding... 

We arrived at the understanding clear back when we spent our first Christmas together trying to come up with enough money to provide a decent Christmas for a lot of kids. 

The understanding...  we don't buy each other gifts and if there is any money left over in January, we will go shopping and buy something for ourselves.  

This eliminates the stress of trying to come up with something to buy for each other that the person probably doesn't need or want as well.

It's a lovely understanding.

I did the understanding this year... as I have done every year.

HE DID NOT!!!

This little gift arrived on the 2nd of January.

He purchased it on Carvana, the car vending machine company.

Sight unseen for the most part.

A girl, who maybe weighed 120 pounds drove my new car on this truck up to the front of our house and unhitched it and drove it off the truck while we all stood in the driveway and watched.

Then Rals and I took it for a test drive and to make sure it didn't smell bad or make any weird sounds and once we agreed it was a good purchase, Raleigh signed the paperwork in our driveway and off she drove.

It was so exciting!!

It is the most beautiful car.  I love it so much.

So much for understandings.....

I love him.

Raleigh had Shingles in January.

But here's the thing...  Rals Lund lives a charmed life.  Bad things don't happen to him.  Well, let me re-phrase... bad things happen to him but they aren't bad.  He lives in Rose Colored World.  So it is hard for me say if it's that bad things don't happen and it's not bad OR if bad things happen and he doesn't allow them to be bad.  Whatever the case...  he had shingles and didn't have a single side effect other than this horrible looking rash that didn't itch, burn, stab him with pain, cause sensitivity when touched by his clothing, there was no fever, no irritability.... nothing.

If I had shingles, I'd be in bed for a week, miserable, taking baths in oatmeal, rubbing calamine lotion on myself every 2 minutes, under soft sheets wearing no clothes and crying. 

Kaleigh decided that she needed to look much cuter during reading time in school and she could do that if she had reading glasses. Unfortunately for her, she has 20/20 vision.

So she researched on line and found out that Clair's sells clear lens glasses for $9.99.

She put together a chore chart where she could do 10 fairly big chores for a dollar each and earn the money to buy the glasses.  She worked diligently.  When she had earned the appropriate amount of money, she asked us to take her to the mall and she bought them

Now, she can read in style

I posted a couple of months ago about Raleigh's credenza that I insisted he needed in his office so that there was a cute background for him during his zoom meetings.  And he was rather rolling his eyes about the whole thing because he doesn't give 2 bits that he has a cute background, in fact, if he had to tell me his honest thoughts, he'd probably say something like "stay in your lane, I like it just the way it is with just MY stuff.  Stop putting plants and girl stuff in my office.  Can I just have ONE room?"  He gave me pushback on the build several times.  He took FOREVER to build it and even longer to sand it and paint it.

FINALLY, after some gentle nudging and then some not so subtle ... demands from me...  he finished it.

And I even sort of helped.

What am I talking about....?

My contribution was immeasurably valuable.

I think it's darling.

He thinks I just feminized his man cave.

I probably did...  sorry.

It looks BU-SY in this picture.

However, it looks really good on the zoom screen though.

Ryker was given the Crown of Kindness Award in January.

This is my favorite award because to me, kind kids are the very best kids.

I love when I hear that my kids are kind...  and Ryker is.

He is so kind to every one.

Quincey had a job interview...  I was so flattered when she came over and rummaged through my closet for an outfit.  I was even more pleased that my clothes fit her with those skinny legs

On Saturday mornings, Raleigh sometimes makes pancakes...  only they aren't round.  They are in person specific shapes.  This day, I got a heart and KK got a flower.

 

Ryker's teacher threw out a challenge to any kids who wanted an extra assignment.  It wasn't a required assignment and they wouldn't be graded on it.  He told us about it and naturally, we were like "no buddy, don't do things that aren't required.  We are tired enough with the stuff that is required.  Just move on and forget about it".

But, he couldn't.  So he said, "it's fine if you don't want to help me, I'll do it myself."  

The challenge....  make a carnival game using cardboard.  He went dumpster diving and found a good cardboard box and created a skee ball game.  It was genius.  He created a ramp, cut holes and put red solo cups in the holes and put a dollar amount on the holes.  He even engineered a ball return somehow.  I was so impressed.  First of all that he was able to create this in the first place, but also that he did it without any parental help.   He gathered 68 tickets from kids who wanted to try his game.  Such a cute boy.

Every end of January when I reflect back on the month, I am just so happy that we got through it.  January is a very hard month.  I remember one January not too many years back that I cried every single day.  95% due to my job at the time.  I am SO glad those days are long gone.  However, this particular January was a breeze for me.  I didn't feel one day of sadness or sorrow.  I was pissed off several of the days, but pissed off is a much easier emotion to deal with than sadness.  I think the reason is because I am content right now.  And that is a dang good place to be.   I wish to be content every January from now on.  

Work is going to always suck.  It's the nature of the industry I chose to be in, like an idiot.  It makes me not like people in general.  I remember when I used to not be cynical all the time, but now it is a major facet of my personality and probably won't change.  And sadly, I am totally content with it.  It protects me.  

Not pictured this month was me celebrating that The Chiefs are in the Superbowl again and that Tom Brady is their opponet.  Which means, I will have to make a "I strongly dislike Tom Brady" T-shirt again this year.  That will be fun.  I'm looking forward to Bow-tie pasta salad and Wings.

Also, a 6 hour dinner with Uncles, Jamie and Craig and Aunts, Amy and Tiffanie.  Jamie made us an authentic Italian dinner.  I know that it was delicious food... I ate a lot of bread.  But, we talked the entire night about the gospel.  It is so great to have them in our lives.  They help us stay grounded and encourage us to stay on the Covenant Path.  They are also supportive of us and tell us we are doing a good job.  

Also, Sunday nights with Mom and Dad.  They come over every Sunday night and we have dessert and talk about our week.  Dad detailed my little Maxima so we can sell it.  That was a tough job, I tell you.  They were able to be vaccinated, which is a huge relief to me.  We also almost had them talked into getting a dog, but they chickened out.  :(

And...  we finally had some rain.  3 glorious days of it.  It is the greatest to be inside on a cold rainy day.  I loved them all.  I am so glad that we are in a new year and hopefully things will improve each month going forward.  So excited that we keep inching more toward normal life. 

Our ward will most likely split next month.  This will be our second split with a brand new bishopric and ALL NEW callings for everyone in 18 months.  It's so exciting that our area is growing so fast and with so many good, strong members...  but I think what this could mean for us....  the new ward....  is there is a chance that we will be the ward that will meet at 4:00.  I was in a ward back in 1993 at BYU that ended at 5:30 and it was SO depressing.  It was dark when I would walk home by myself in the snow.

I could literally cry.

I probably will.

The only thing that will save me is if I can somehow get out of primary

I am quite giddy with the thought of getting out of primary and never returning.

We'll see :)