February 2021

 It is the 15th of February.  It's President's Day and I was supposed to have the day off.  But, it was crazy- insanely busy at work, so I worked for four hours.  I am salaried.  So, I will be taking 4 hours off another day this week.... you bet your boop.   I did enjoy an early morning breakfast with my Valentine though before I headed out there to do back breaking manual labor that literally no one will notice/care got done.  I'm only a little bitter about it.

I realized that it is half way through the month and we have not taken ONE picture. We have been very busy these past two weeks, but I never gave snapping photos of any the events a single thought.  We didn't take Valentines Day photos even though we had church that day and we gave great thought to our holiday outfits and made sure that we matched and we looked really cute. We didn't take any pictures of our dinner with our friends, the Zullos who come to town every year on Presidents Day Weekend and always come over to visit us.  We always forget to take pictures when they come to town.  I don't know why.  What an incredibly boring post February will be.  I didn't take a picture of the people who came to visit us, but I took a photo of the dessert we were serving.   We put delicious ice cream in those mugs and topped it with carmel and chocolate and pirouette cookie straws.

We also served this same dessert when the missionaries came to visit us and give us a message.  That night was so much fun.  I was so proud of my kids who knew all of the answers to all of their questions and totally participated in their activity.  I know that they were impressed with them.....  (the missionaries with our kids and our kids with the missionaries).  I was overwhelmed with joy and gratitude for their darling personalities and strong spirits.

 So glad that the third graders have to make a project every single week.  (uh-hem).  Making projects is not fun for our family.  We loathe them to be honest.  I cannot wait until these little kids are in 6, 7 and 8th grades and elementary days will be far from us.  I say this because these are my honest feelings.  I know I am not mother of the year.  I know that socially I am not supposed to admit things like this publicly.  But, dogflambit elementary school is the butt worst for me.  Maybe it's because I don't have confidence in my "project" skills.  That's probably it.  But, this is my second time around with elementary school kids and my big kids....  all four of them.... have admitted to me that they do not have a single memory before they were 10.  That is discouraging news.  I thought I had created so many wonderful memories for them when they were young, turns out, not so.  I have a super crusty attitude.  

Fortunately, my little kids have a dad.

Who isn't jaded.  Or sour.   He has a "yeah, this sucks, but I personally am equal to the task" attitude.  "These projects don't scare me.  I am not afraid to open the teacher's email and see what she has up her sleeve for us to do this week".  So, he took one for the team again and somehow managed to take a common household 2-liter bottle of Dr. K Soda and turn it into

Ah brah heem Lincoln

And if this isn't the cutest thing I have ever seen in a very long time, I don't know what is.  Ryker had to write a report about Honest Abe and he did it all by himself in class and he put it in a power point presentation.  It was darling.  And my heart softened.

The Parade of Homes is always the weekend of President's Day in St George.  Which provides an additional reason for everyone who doesn't live in St George to come on down that weekend and saturate our town.  This year, our company had a home in the parade.  One of our vacation homes.  It's not overly impressive like the vast majority of the parade homes, but it's definitely nice.  Our home was decorated by a "professional."  A term I use lightly.  The furniture and decor was "just so-so" at best.  AND for some unknown reason, it became apparent after it was too late, that the beds were not part of the decor plan.  So when all was said and done and they packed it all up and left and we walked it.....  and the beds looked like this...

WE WERE DY-ING.  

Could you have maybe made an attempt to get at least ONE of the wrinkles out?

TWO decorative pillows?

ZERO color.  Nothing tying the bed to the rest of the room?

Are you kidding me?  We had just paid them an insane amount of money and this is what they thought looked good on the main focal point of 5 of the 7 rooms of the home?  Not only does this make our company look bad, but ME personally or should I say it makes my professional self look bad.  Because I don't want anyone to think that if they owned one of our homes to rent out to guests, this is what they could expect their beds to look like....  I begged our real estate agent to give me a little tiny budget to spruce up the beds a bit and display more accurately what we strive for in our company.  And he said "yes, please do".   He gave me $200.  Well, $330 later, I did this.  I wanted to do so much more and could have easily spent $1000.  

And good thing we took the time and 

'slightly' cared because our bunk room was featured in the the paper. 

Not YOUR bunk room, lousy decorator....  OUR bunk room. 

Thank goodness!!!

If we hadn't made the slightest bit of effort THIS is what would have been posted in the St George News...  Literally what?  TWO pillows? 

I don't know how people take money for a half done job and feel good about themselves.

Meanwhile, back at home.

We are working on our backyard.

FINALLY

There was a HUGE deterrant and until it was removed, we couldn't do anything.

The "IT" was a 6 foot high, 20 foot long mound of dirt with gigantic boulders mixed in.  There was no way we could get rid of it without the help of someone with really big tractors.  So we hired him and he hauled 8 enormous loads of dirt and rocks and debris from our house.  Each load had a price attached to it.  A price that was kept a secret from me.  I was happy about that.  

But when it was gone, we had twice the square footage and I can almost see the beautiful retaining wall with landscaping lights and gorgeous plants and strategically placed decorative rocks.  I can see the fire pit and the pergola that we will sit under when it gets really hot this summer.  I can see the lucious green grass and pavers to walk on in a checkerboard pattern.  I can see the privacy and the special place for us to go in the evenings.  I am so excited, I can hardly wait.

Once the insurmountable pile of dirt was removed, we were free to start digging trenches to put a 90 foot retaining wall into.  Raleigh decided to dig the trenches himself.  He would dig about 10 feet a day.  He could do more if he didn't encounter weighty boulders.  But, that was almost never the case.  We are pretty sure we have legit fossils in our backyard.  

He is working so hard.  It is literally back breaking work.

He is saving us so much money

I had some very amazing tests/experiences this month.  Mostly on a professional level.  I recognized the Lord's hand in all of them.  Each of them was meant to teach me an extremely valueable lesson.  If ONLY I can remember to learn from them and adapt them into my daily life, I will be so much the better person.  

I feel very blessed that someone cares enough about me to refine me and make me better.

I received some HUGE blessings this month.

I am so happy for the wake up calls and also the calls to action and change.

I will do them all, even though it will take a ton of humility and will be super hard.

I am questioning why SO many life lessons came at me in a one month period.

It's like "hurry up, and get that girl straightened out"

What used to serve me as protective messures, no longer does...  I don't need them anymore. So, why I hung onto them for some many years is beyond me.  It will be so good for me to shed them, but it's like throwing away my blankie. 

I will be completely vulnerable while I figure things out.

That's okay.  I like trying to improve myself.

I know this month only has 28 days, so that helps, but February flew by.  I blinked and it was over.  We enjoyed binge watching several shows that didn't make us at all smarter or better people, but sure were good and we loved having Papa and Nana over for desserts which is truly the highlight of our kids week.

We also got word that our ward will split on March 21st.  So exciting.  We can't wait to see what our new bishopric will do with all of us.