July 2021

Baseball in July is the worst idea any one ever had.

If a person wants to know what it will be like in HELL..  all they have to do is come to St George in July and watch a little league baseball game.  That will scare anyone into obedience and repentance.  

This boy however...

He was the MVP for sure.

He really improved and made us proud.

The very last play of the very last game, he had an unassisted triple play.

The parents in both stands were cheering for him.

It was pretty great

The 4th of July was on a Sunday this year.

Which I thought was perfect.

We dressed up festively and had a lovely day at church.

Then Mom and Dad came over for dinner and it was devine.

We paid a lot of money for delicious steaks and mom brought bow tie salad.

We made homemade icecream.

I wore a striped skirt and 6 inch red heels with stars on them

My mom bought this skirt for me right after I had Brayden.

I was wearing it the day I found out I was pregnant with Quincey.

It's 26 years old.

Other than a slight flaw, it's still darling

and the best part is... it still kind of fits.

NOT the way it used to before my hips spread to Kingdom Come

but almost enough to make me feel pretty dang good.

 

On July 7th, Mom and Dad and Rals and I left early in the morning and drove up to Payson for Garrett's sealing.  We arrived 45 minutes before the ceremony and we changed from our traveling clothes into our nice temple clothes right here in this bush, located in the back right corner of the Payson Temple.  Some of us had no shame.

The landscaping was gorgeous.  The pictures don't do the colors justice.

If it hadn't been 200 degrees, I would have loved to have strolled around for an hour just looking at the flowers.  I have never seen more breathtaking purple flowers in all my days

I am so glad that we did this....  even though it was hard.

Harder for some than others.

But, I am grateful for the example of my parents, for their love for their children and grandchildren and for the many sacrifices they have made for all of us.

But more importantly for the example they set for all of us, if we will only observe and appreciate it, is the greatest of all gifts

We took a few family photos and then we headed back into the bushes, changed back into our travel clothes, stopped at Costa Vida for a bite and drove home.

We left the little kids Home Alone, like Kevin McAllister for 8 hours while we took our jaunt up north, so we felt like we had to rush home.  

Quincey came over when she got off work at 2:00 and took them to Chick fil A.

They didn't miss us one bit

Allie came and visited us this month and she is doing so well.  I am pleased with our relationship.  We had a great talk just she and I and then we had another great talk with Raleigh joining in.  It was good for all of us and I felt really good about the results.  She is darling.

Work Story:

We had the wife of someone famous stay at Arcadia.

Well, there was a time that she, herself was famous too, according to her.

I won't mention the name of the famed family, but I will tell the story.

Wife is accostomed to sleeping on top of the line mattresses in all of the hotels and vacation resorts that she has stayed at both domestically and internationally over the past 13 years of her professional career as a model/actress/spouse of a large famous man (in certain circles).  The mattress that she sleeps on cannot have any hint of usage before she lays her precious body on it.  She sleeps on an $8,000 mattress at home, so naturally cannot be subjected to pathetic, low budget mattreses.  She is way too precious for that.

So, she sleeps the first night on the mattress in the home that SHE selected to stay in.  

And the following morning, HER EXCELLENCY, graced us all with her presence.

Imagine if you will, the most dramatic, flamboyant, arms flailing, face touching, head tossing, voice quivering display while the wild story of the events of the preceeding night unfolded in our clubhouse.

She has never in her entire career of traveling with her famous husband in hundreds, dare I say thousands of hotels, ever been made to feel so cheap and dimished as she was made to feel at our resort with that sub-standard mattress.  How dare we, put that trash in our homes and expect people to get a moments rest on it.  Who do we think we are calling ourselves a resort?  We ought to be ashamed of ourselves.  If we are to even slightly redeem ourselves and spare ourselves the wrath of her gigantic husband as well as the Washington County Health Department and The Better Business Bureau....  there had better be a brand new mattress of decent quality brought to her villa within business hours.  

With my mouth literally hanging open and pure astonishment written all over my face at the display I was witnessing.... I had the audacity to say the words....  "I am sorry ma'am, but I just simply don't have brand new King size mattresses laying around to replace "inadequacies".   And when I said those words in the way I said them..... I, yes, me, Kaci Lund of St. George, Utah...  handed down the "worst customer service treatment she has ever received in her whole entire lifetime".  

WELL, given the community of which you are the self procraimed QUEEN of lady, I seriously doubt that.  I can't even conjure up harsh words in my mind, much less speak them,  but I know for a fact the the world of which you reside and according to you.... dominiate....(which by the way, may or may not be the World Wrestling Federation) just might have a few women in it that may talk to people a little bit more harshly than I just did ... I must admit that I may have said something to the effect of: "The likelyhood of granting your request is extremely low and not only do I lack the ability to help you in the way you want to be helped, nor do I have the desire to entertain this conversation any further."

Only in a much more passive aggressive / less direct manner.  Customer Service is not a skill that I possess.  Especially when I can, in two seconds, put ANYTHING in perspective by saying:  you stupid, stupid woman, hundreds of people just lost their lives when a building in Florida COLAPSED on them and you are complaining about a mattress that you only have to sleep on for three nights?

Let's get very clear on a few points:

First of all: when you have to tell someone to google you....  you might not be that famous.

Secondly: you will NEVER convince me that in all of the international hotels you have supposedly stayed in, this mattress was the worst.  (apparently the mattresses in Turks and Caicos are the best) GIVE. ME. A. BREAK.  You piece of garbage.  

And thirdly: I hope I never hear your name again, and thankfully, the chance of that is slim to none because I NEVER HAVE BEFORE and I also need to be the one to tell you that you are the "Queen" of the trashiest part of our culture.  Which good for you, at least you are the queen of something.  But, fame is subjective, honeybee!!  And the thing of which has brought you yours is LOST ON ME!!!

I could be sitting next to the Prince of Morocco, and unless I know who he is....  he is just a man.

Unworthy of any divine treatment.

Let me assure you, my dear are the most unworthy of the unworthy.

And I can only hope that Karma visits you in the biggest way and SOON!!!

Took me two days to calm down over that one

May still not be over it

This lover of mine....  always making a quick buck in quirky little ways.

Buying really expensive shoes and re-selling them for way more than purchase price to someone not very smart.  And then taking us to dinner at Chuck a Rama to celebrate Pioneer Day.

There is so much love in my my heart, it could burst.

So, it turns out, all of the prayers our St. George people have been praying for rain.... worked.

There is literally NOTHING better than a St. George monsoon summer.

I have thorougly and completely enjoyed this summer (once we got past that wretched 2 week period back in June, of course) that is a faded memory.

This flash flood Monday, was all the feels of delight, chaos, maintenance woes, car filled with soaking wet laundry, wonder, amazement, gratitude and squeeging water out of a flooded laundry room in just a tiny little 30 minute period.  I loved every second of it.  SO. MUCH. FUN.  I witnessed two lightning strikes hit the ground and the sound that accompanied them was indescribable.  

Teaching Sunday School is the coolest calling ever. 

I am not only learning SO much but

My testimory is growing by leaps and bounds.

Everything is becoming more clear to me.

I love teaching

It is the one thing that I can say, I am preetty good at.

I don't have a lot of talents, but I can teach.

And this stuff is the bomb to learn about and pass on.

What a complete blessing this calling is to me

This little girly is off to Girl's Camp.

She was very excited.

It is only a two day event, which helped her to be able to enjoy it so much more.

I spent the entire first day with a prayer in my heart that she would be touched by all the right things

They did some service projects and went to the Lake and rode paddle boards

They watched a movie that made them all cry and went straight from that to testimony meeting where they all cried more and she came home and tried to tell us about it without crying, but she couldn't so she got embarassed and just went to her room.

The next morning, she let me do a slightly girly hairdo which made me so happy

Then they went to the temple and she loved it.

She had a really good experience and I am so happy about that.

I just want my children to have wonderful spiritual experiences while having fun

When I think back to the events at the beginning of this month, it seems like TWO months ago.  We had a wonderful July and it didn't seem like it was dragging on in the moment, but looking back it feels SO long ago that we ended June.  Maybe that is because we had so many growth opportunities and we were all learning new things.  I can see changes in all of us.

I thought that it would be hard to go back to full time church after having so much time off, but the exact opposite has happened.  It is so good to be back and it is so good for my kids to be back.  We are really being enlightened and blessed.  I can feel it and it makes me so happy to see them grasping onto things.

I am not looking forward to school starting again.  I just like having them home.  But, then again, I know that it is good for them to go and socialize and learn valuable life lessons and behaviors.

Life is so good.  I love my husband with my whole soul.  He is such a good husband and he is so good to me.  To think I almost tried to suffer through this life without him is just an unfathomable thought.

My life is so much better with him in it.