May is always a great month...
I am always happy in May. I don't really know why because sure work slows down, life heats up and there is so much going on, we can barely keep up. Consequently, it flies by.
Allie and Kate got all dressed up and went to a wedding.
Allie's hair is still too dark, but she looks so pretty when she looks like a girl.
She even got eyelash extensions. I never thought I'd see the day....
Just a monthly report on the miracle tree that is now three feet higher than the wall.
The Harker's came over to visit and Mother Ilene said it is a Quaking Aspen and they grow to be quite tall. We think we will have to move it somewhere, but I am afraid that the transfer will kill it. I literally kill everything that I try and grow. I would be devastated if I were to harm this tree in any way. The only reason it has been so successful is because Heavenly Father put it there and provided a water source from our neighbors yard.
If I have the Harker's transplant it for me, it will survive. They'll say a prayer before they do it and bless it's life and future.
Mother's Day was such a good day.
I got so many lotions from Bath and Body Works and some of them were a new scent that makes me feel like I am in Hawaii when I turn over in my bed at night and the scent waufts up.
Quincey got me a new blow dryer from her fancy hairdressers store. It dries my hair in half the usual time. Now, I am no longer late for work on hair washing day.
We had everyone over for dessert and watched
Dances with Wolves.
Raleigh and I accidently matched, so we had to take a picture
Walt started baseball again. This year it is machine pitch.
It was the typical... St. George City Sports fiasco....
We don't have a coach, which one of you dads would like to be the coach...?
All the dads look at the ground. Or start naming the reasons why they can't do it.
You, you over there... you're wearing Nikes, would you like to be the coach?
NO............. all the dads say.
Until finally that one guy who is too nice to make up a lie about why he can't be the coach, steps up and extremely reluctantly volunteers and fights back tears for what he's just committed to.
The first ten minutes is the poor coach searching for a piece of paper and pen to write the boys names down.
Then he starts naming the positions and boys raise their hands to volunteer...
MY BOY....
raised his hand to be the catcher.
because he thought the catcher was the kid who stands out on the grass and catches the ball when it gets hit really well.
Imagine the horror on his face when the coach sent him in the complete opposite direction than he thought he was going and started suiting him up in plastic armor from head to toe.
He kept looking over at us hoping that one of us would bail him out, but we all heard the coach ask "who wants to be the catcher and WE ALL saw him raise his hand, so he did this to himself. The coach was too overwhelmed to notice that his catcher was a lefty and he also forgot to tell him how to be a catcher.
So, Ryker steps up to the plate and ever so slightly bends his knees. Being careful not to put in too much effort. His catching stance was just a gentle crouch resembling more of a bend or a bow at the waist with his glove extended in the hopes that when the ball was pitched, it would just land there in his glove by it's own free will.
And here came the pitches...
and none, NOT ONE of them was caught by the CATCHER.
Each ball just whizzed by as if no one was there.
Walt would watch it go by him.... "yup there is goes.... back there behind me...wonder why that kid didn't hit it."
He just held his pose, like he was a statue.
No adjustments were made to his posture to even come close to attempting to reach out and grasp the ball at all. There was no objective. The role of the catcher was not made known to him, he didn't understand his purpose. In his mind it was good enough to just be there. Like a knight guarding the back side of the plate.
Afterall, the coach was behind him, he'll catch the balls that were flying past him.
One time, by some miracle the ball actually went into his glove and he got all nervous and threw it back to the coach instead of to the pitcher.
We were DY-ING in the bleechers.... laughing so hard, tears were coming out.
And Raleigh was NOT laughing. He was as serious as he could be. His face looked worried. He kept saying
"just catch the ball, son"
"just catch it"
"literally, what is he doing?"
"why is he not moving?"
"what is wrong with him?"
On the flip side, he can hit the ball like a seventh grader and when they finally switched him to center field, he nailed that.... because THAT is what the catcher does. He catches the ball on the grass. DUH!!!
I'm baffled as to why he can catch the ball in center field but not at home plate.
HILARIOUS
Peyton's teacher put a sign in our yard, alerting every one in the neighborhood that we have a graduating 5th grader. She moves onto intermediate school next year and I would be nervous for her, but those other four big kids did it and survived and so did I. She'll be great.
Jaden works for me.
He has had a pretty rough life and had every reason to fail.
But, over and over, he has had good people come into his life.
He also has the drive to work hard.
He's only 19, but he and his girlfriend decided to get married.
He invited Raleigh and Nana and I to go through the temple with him
to receive his endowments.
His grandparents and his aunt were his only family there and his future in-laws were there too.
It was a really good experience.
He sat in the celestial room and cried and cried.
His aunt said, "I never thought I would be going through the temple with you, kid."
When I asked him how he felt, he said
"I just loved that. I cannot wait to go again, next time I will really be able to focus."
What a kid.
Raleigh finished up Spencer's work, so he is good to go.
It was a really good day
Kaleigh played Blue Danube Waltz for her very first piano recital.
She was so poised and she did very well
And she looked darling too
At work, we decided to have an employee party to kick off the summer busy season.
Families were invited to come have pizza and swim
My kids were so happy to go in the lazy river and down the slide.
I am okay with extracurricular work activities if I can bring my family.
They had a great time
We truly are blessed that we have this amazing place to go to whenever we want to.
People have to pay a lot of money to come and swim at Arcadia and we don't go out there near as much as we should. This is something that my kids will always remember doing.
I have very fond memories of when my mom took a little side job at a pool so we could swim all summer
Kaleigh wrote an essay for a contest put on by the Sons of Utah Pioneers.
She wanted to participate because she wanted to learn about her ancestors and also because the flyer said that everyone that wrote an essay would get a certificate.
She wrote about Eliza Brace Lund, her 5th great grandmother on the Lund side, who worked along side Wilford Woodruff as an ordinance worker in the three temples that her husband helped build.
Imagine KK's surprise with along with a certificate, she also got a bag of money.
20 gold dollar coins.
Now she will have money to spend in California while we are there next month
Raleigh continues to make slow and steady changes to the back yard.
He rented a tiller to churn up the dirt in preparation for the sod
We were SO excited when a crew showed up at our neighbor's house unexpectedly and started digging trenches to put up a wall. Raleigh ran right over and wrote them a check for half. Which is so much better than writing a check for the full amount. That was a conversation we were dreading and so we kept putting that part of the house on the back burner. That really helped us to ramp up our efforts because now we will be completely fenced in and the job will really be complete. In June we will have grass, walls, pergola, rocks, plants, trees, lights, outdoor speakers, a fire pit, outdoor heat lamps, outdoor furniture, a covered picnic table, brick decks, pavers, misters, ourdoor rugs, party lights, a pickleball court, a basket ball half court and endless summer night entertainment.
I. Cannot. Wait.
It truly will be a fabulous little place for us to be every night. We will have a place to go when it rains, When it is cold, When it is blazing hot, When friends come over, When we make ice cream, When we want to lay out, Dance, Relax, De-stress, Talk, Laugh. I am so excited for it to all come together.
So the rocks on the hill.....
What a pain in the A...
We knew that we were going to put rocks on the hill.
But, I think we both kind of thought that the rock fairies would deliver them in the middle of the night or something because we kept saying "yep there is the hill, that still needs a lot of rocks and we knew that they needed to be up there before the grass was delivered, so we wouldn't have to push the wheel barrow over the brand new grass.
The sod would be delivered on the 28th...
so technically the rocks needed to in place before the 28th...
but, the last thing in the entire world either of us wanted to do was this appalling job.
Finally one night as we were eating, we pep-talked ourselves into a "slow and steady wins the race" plan of attack. We used loving, gentle words with each other. We are good people. We are hard workers. Let's just get it done even if it means we throw one rock up at a time.
Raleigh would fill a wheel barrow up with recycled rocks from our side yard and bring it over to me and I would gather like maybe 30 rocks into my shovel and fling them up on the hill. I tried to not look at the hill, I just focused on the rocks and blindly hurled my little rocks up. Eventually my barrow would be empty and I'd look at my progress.
So... SAD
Then Raleigh would show up with HIS wheel barrow and in 2 minutes the section would be complete.
I was a strong contributer, it's just that he was like 100 times faster and more effective and looked a whole lot sexier doing it.
I could not believe we were actually getting it done.
I can not believe I didn't throw my back out or seriously injure my spectacularly old lady body, becuase I sure could have. I have knocked myself out of commision, doing considerably less vigorous activities.
Like one time a threw a kleenex in the trash and I must have turned skeewampus or something but POP and I was down for the count for like 5 days.
I sent this picture to Allie and she sent the emoji of the face laughing so hard tears are coming out and she said... "excellent form, you're not throwing your back today, no sir."
The most disappointing part of all of this work was nothing changed on my body.
I didn't lose any weight.
There is no evidence of incredible muscle growth...
in fact, quite the opposite occured to me.
Granted there were other forces at work on me that completely overpowered all of my physical work
For instance...
I had several night sweats and hot flashes in May. My first (I'm sure of many). I think I am very late heading into menapause because I jacked up my reproductive system, when I decided to start having babies again in my late 30's and my body had to go in the opposite direction it wanted to go.
Anyway, I had some hot flashes and they scared me a little bit. I also had TWO periods in May which isn't fair at all and wreaked havoc on my mood and physique.
Nevertheless, I was willing to put my body on the line and contribute to the beautiment of my habitat, if I was going to get something out of it.
Let me tell the honest truth, it's not enough to look up at the hill and say... that looks so cute and I helped make that happen.
When all was said and done, I wanted to look like Raquel Welch in her doe skin bikini. Was that too much to ask?
Instead I just look like Rosanne Barr in her hayday.
Super squishy and hormonal.
I can't lie... we pretty much hated ourselves for two solid days.
Several choice words were said.
But, we are stronger and more in love now, right Lover?
One night, I sat on the wall and watched Raleigh place 15- 24X24 pavers that weigh 100 pounds a piece, in the most perfect geometric pattern I have ever seen in preparation for top soil to come and then SOD.
I had the best 50th birthday a girl could ask for...
I had super low expectations because I didn't want to feel depressed or sorry for myself.
My husband had my gift waiting for me right when I woke up...
He was SO excited
CUSTOM NIKES BY RALEIGH
He is such a thoughful gift giver. He always outdoes me and I feel so badly about it.
I don't deserve him
They could not be more perfect.
They fit perfectly, however I am scared to wear them because I'm afraid that I will get them dirty and stretch them out. But they are the greatest shoes, so eventually I will have to take them out of the box and wear them somewhere.
When I got to work, Taylor and Sam had filled my desk up with all kinds of yummy treats
Diet Coke, licorice, gummies, Fabulous Freddies Soda cards, balloons
Then the Harker Girls came over.
They had called me earlier in the week to ask me what I wanted for my birthday.
They wanted to buy me an ozone machine, which is a water purifying machine used for cleaning.
If you use an ozone machine, you don't need cleaning products.
But, they are $80.
I told them I would rather have them give me a card with their beautiful signitures that I could keep in my journal. They wrote a poem for me and signed a card (even little Lovie signed my card) with her beautiful cursive that she has been practicing and they brought me cookies and flowers from their garden and a homemade breathable mask for me to wear during my trip to California
I just love them
Maria Sue, Marticia, Me, Mother Ilene, Mellanie
Walt had a game at night and he hit a homerun and chased down a kid between 3rd and homeplate for a dramatic OUT... He set a goal to do both of those things.
Then we went home and changed into our grubbies and shoveled 50 wheel barrows full of top soil until 10:30 at night. I have never been more exhausted or sore
The next morning the sod showed up bright and early
And we finished out our month laying sod down and vigorously watering sod and watching it grow on the camera all day and night
I taught my first Sunday School lesson in May and it was a complete success. I think I will really love this calling. I plan to learn a lot and grow in the gospel. I feel like I got a fabulous response, which was so rewarding for me. I don't have a ton of talents, but I am a really good teacher. I just know that I am. There is nothing wrong with naming things that you are good at. I love teaching. I hope that my life will one day take me in a direction of teaching. NOT school. That would be horrible. Just some sort of teaching of topics that I am knowledgeable about. Maybe that is what is holding me up.... I am waiting to be knowledgeable about stuff.
I am trying to gear up for June by balancing the fact that work will probably kill me a little bit every single day and I will want to cry all the way home, but then I will get home and I will be able to rest and relax in our beautiful backyard.
One of the greatest things that happened to me this month was getting a call from my beautiful friend, Leona
Leona and her daughters and nieces used to clean for me before they moved away to Wyoming 2 years ago and I have missed their cleans and their friendships ever since. Anyway, she called me in the middle of May and asked if she could come and clean for me in June. This was the best news I could have received and it will solve so many of my June stresses. I cannot wait for them to get here and fix so many of my problems.
Quincey and Vince (or Quinchenzo, we call them) decided that they needed more iron in their diets. They didn't do any research, they just started taking it. And instead of feeling better and stronger, they started getting really sick. Their organs started aching and they couldn't get out of bed. Finally, Vince researched and discovered that they had Iron Poisoning. They called Poison Control and then went to Instacare and sure enough, they had taken a fatal dose. We are SO lucky that they are still with us. Vince looked so sick when they came over. He already has Vampire skin, but he was even more pale than usual and almost yellow and his eyes looked dazed. I felt so sorry for him.
Hopefully, they are on the mend and have learned a valuable life lesson.
Brayden started a new job. He is in the same line of work, but instead of working at a mental hospital for troubled youth 7 pm to 7 am and instead of being scared out of his wits all night that one of the boys was going to go beserk and kill him, he now works in a much safer environment with far better hours. I got to talk to him a couple of times this month and both times he sounded so happy. He loves what he does, he just doesn't want to be afraid while he is doing it.
In May, I had 92 hours of unused vacation. When I hit my year mark at the end of June, I have to use 52 of them or I will lose them. Raleigh planned and booked a trip for us and said "we are going on a trip in June and we would love it if you would find the courage and the will to join us". So, yes we are going on a little get-a-way, which will naturally throw me into a week long anxiety attack, but I truly do hope that I will be able to enjoy myself while I am there and when we get home, I will be able to rest and recover from our vacation in my outdoor oasis.
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