April 2021

We started the month off with Easter Sunday, which was also conference Sunday.  I had to work.  In fact, I was on day 23 in a row.  I woke up feeling SO sorry for myself.  All I wanted to do was stay home in my PJs and listen to conference with my family and eat good food and relax.  I cried all the way to work and for about an hour after I got there.  I was SO sad.  I think the stress of it all had finally gotten to me and I had a little melt down.  I put my earphones in and tried to listen to the conference talks and even though I kept getting side tracked, I think some of it was sinking in and I was starting to feel a little better.  After I put in a long, sweaty days work, I went home to a lovely instant pot ham cooked to perfection by my husband.  Mom and Dad came over with crock pot beans and my favorite side dish, bow tie pasta salad.  It made literally everything better.  

We watched the second session of conference that Raleigh recorded for us.  It turned out to be a very nice Easter Sunday

My parents, bless their hearts, came over the night before and hid eggs in our yard and left baskets on the porch.  I am so happy these little kids have them.  They are such a blessing to us.

This little kid found money in his eggs

After another melt down on another day....  I filled up my car with stinky, dirty laundry in a fit of rage and drove home going at least 25 miles over every speed limit, talking really loudly to myself about how over worked and completely under appreciated I am and how I am going to wash up all this laundry at my house and then I'm going to talk (for at least the next two weeks) about what a pain in the A my job is and how stupid every one is and how we have really stupid policies in every other department except for mine and how every one else is jacking me up and I have finally had it.

And I washed and washed and folded my pent up anger into neat little sheet set bundles very aggressively 

while I talked to myself.

Boy, I showed everyone.

I showed them absolutely NOTHING.

No one cares that I work hard 

Who cares about that?

You either do a good job or you don't, but the bottom line is no one cares

Literally NO ONE

NO. ONE. CARES.

Ever heard of a psycholotical coming apart?

That happened to me.

Here's the come to conclusion....

I just need to work in a flower shop.

Instead of the bloody hell on earth profession I chose.

Why do I NOT work in a flower shop?

No one works hard in a flower shop.

People who work in Flower shops just slowly arrange arrangements surrounded by pleasant arromas of nature.  Maybe at worst, they get pricked by a thorn.

At least their souls don't get pricked every day.

It's so sad

This little homebody, bookworm read FORTY books this year.

Forty chapter books

She chose emotionally provoking books about dogs and orphans.

She would sit and cry and then tell us all about the plot.

She would also google the author and learn about them and if she was reading a non-fiction book, she would reserarch that too.  She is OBSESSED with Diana, Princess of Wales and she wanted to read her book.  She asked for it for Christmas, but we had to say no.  She could not for the life of her understand why....  "I can handle reading about bulimia, I am very mature"

Anyway, she was honored and her teacher gave her a trophy with her name on it.

This little girl had an experience a couple months ago.

She got really worked up over something and it made her so upset she got really sick.  So much so, that she missed 3 days of school.  She cried a lot, but she wouldn't talk to us about it.

So we started questioning her...

have you been watching inappropriate things on the internet?

have you been saying bad words?

did you steal something?

have you been drinking?

have you been bullying kids?

are you being bullied?

NO NO NO was the answer to each question.

Finally, she broke down and cried and told us she is SO bad at math and she is the only kid in her entire class that doesn't get it.   She looks around, every one else gets it and she doesn't have the first clue what her teacher is even saying and everyone is just passing her by and leaving her in their dust.  

"They are all moving on further and further away from me every day"

And she cried and cried.

I pulled out my BYU psychology skills and she and I did some mental work.

The next day and the next and the one after that, she stayed after school to be tutored by her teacher.

Math started to click and she started to get it.

Her teacher chose her as April's Armor of Achievement Winner for putting forth the effort needed to pass her math tests.  I think she was so proud of herself.

I was sure proud of her.

On the same day in a different award ceremony, KK was awarded the Crown of Kindness Award. 

She was given this award because she is the peacemaker of her class.  Her teacher said that she sees the good in everyone and listens to understand whenever there is conflict.

One day as she was picking up her bike from the bike rack to come home, a girl with the exact same bike started yelling at her because she was thought KK was stealing her bike.

Rather than yell back at the girl and tell her she was nuts...

KK touched her arm and said "oh I'm sorry you think I am taking your bike, but your bike is exactly like mine and it's over there see????  and yours is so much prettier than mine....  mine is all scratched up... see all of these scratches??  My bike is a mess.

Your bike is in much better condition.

I really love this little girl

Allie came home to visit us for the first time since she moved away.  It was so much fun.  We had some really good, much needed conversations that were so helpful to our relationship.

We went to dinner and yogurt with the family.  Kami and Brent were there too.

I told Raleigh that I went into this particular weekend one person and came out of it another.

All we did all weekend was talk.  My parents, Kami, Brent, Allie, Kate, Quincey....  

I was educated, enlightened and changed.  

Mostly for the better.

I am so glad she came to visit

Her hair is too dark.

She is a waaaaayyyyy better blonde.

Raleigh has worked SO hard this entire month on our retaining wall.

It has been so hard for him physically.

But, it looks SO good and I know he is proud of it.

P.S.  LOOK AT MY TREE.

MY MIRACLE TREE.

It. Is. Gigantic.

It is a Tender Mercy and a daily reminder of my Heavenly Father's love for us.

It's full of life and strong and resiliant and gorgeous.

I love it so much.

A really cool thing happened at Arcadia in April.

We were able to host Penei Sewell and his family during the NFL draft.

The cameras came to film his family when they announced his name.

We got the homes ready for their arrival.

SO MANY family members came and kept coming.

The boys were so huge.  They got fresh haircuts in the garage.

They cooked a pig in a barbequer as big as a bedroom.

They played loud music and danced and laughed.

It was so much fun to watch

We were so excited for him when they announced his name

Ryker had to have some dental work done and I told him I'd buy him a treat afterward and he said he would rather go to my work and work hard with me.  So I took him and worked him hard.  We had a great day.  We ordered some food from The Grill and drove in the golf cart

The second half of April calmed down and so did I.

Overall, it was a complete success.  We were all successful.

I am so proud of this little group of people I call my family.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

I am stronger and better.  I hope I will get a bit of a break in May before June wrecks me.

We continued the tradition of Sunday Dessert Nights with Papa and Nana.

We loved seeing so many family members this month.

We binged watched some really good TV.

We are so excited to see masks going away and watching the pandamic start to not be a thing.

School is almost over.... we did it.  A whole year in in person school.  How lucky were we?

We are back to normal church next week.  

I am a Sunday School teacher....  one of my all time favorite callings.

I got a fairly decent bonus this month and I tucked that extra money away for a rainy day.

Nothing makes me feel more secure than tucked away money.

When I have a little cash in my wallet, I think I am the coolest person in the world.

So many good things happening for us.

So many good blessings to be grateful for.