June 2024

 June was a crazy month of significant change.  We knew it would be and we were simi prepared for it all.  But it really was an insane amount of change and most of it was really good.  

1.  We went to Moab to celebrate my birthday on Memorial Day.  When we got home, my Explorer was gone and this little diddy was in it's place.

 Okay, first.  I loved my Explorer.  I loved the "bigness" of it.  I sat up high.  I could put all of my treasures in it and I have a lot of treasures.  I could drive my Young Women around to all of our activities.  I was really good at driving it, backing it up and it was the first really nice car I have had for YEARS.  Loved the Explorer.  

Well....  it was gone.  My Dad came and took it so that he could detail it, so that we could sell it back to Carvana.  It was gone and this Computer Car was in it's place.  

The sad reality is I cannot even navigate my TV.  I struggle every time my phone gets an update.  I do all of my banking the old fashioned way.  I write everything down on paper.  Technology IS NOT a friend of mine.  I am resistent to it.  I have a mental block around it.  It frustrates me.  It mostly hurts me more than it helps me.  I am a dinosaur.  And I am quite proud of that.  And my husband is HELL BENT on bringing me into the technological age and keeping me up with the latest gadgets and gizmos in spite of my kicking and screaming!!  Every other year, I have to have a new phone.  I had to throw my Paper Checks away and stop paying people with them.  I have had to learn how to turn my bedside lamp on with my phone rather than the little turny thing I have been used to my whole life.  AND NOW..... I have to drive a computer car....  How am I going to drive a computer?  I can just barely send an email.  

There I was.  Sitting in the passenger seat.  Watching him NOT turning over an engine.  NOT shifting into reverse.  NOT manually adjusting the seat location.  NOT putting gas in the tank.  NOT manually turning on the windshild wipers.  

NO

Instead he put the address of the High School into the computer screen on the dashboard.... and that "car" drove us to the school.  He didn't touch the pedal.  He didn't touch the wheel.  The freaking "car" drove us to the school....  steering wheel turning all by itself.  Blinker, blinkering all by itself.  It parked itself.  It went the correct speed limit all by itself....  Like some horror movie....  AND I.... bawled, sobbed and hyperventilated the entire trip.  

I was a MESS to say the very least.  

The worst part was, and the part that freaked me out the most (in addition to there being NO sounds coming from anywhere and the thought that you plug it in to charge an invisible battery to make it go)...  is when YOU actually drive it and don't have it drive you.... You don't use the brake.  You use the gas pedal (if you can even call it that anymore) and to stop it, you just ease off of the gas pedal.  You don't use the brake except in extreme emergency cases.  Your right foot never moves.  It just stays there on the gas applying pressure or not.  But it doesn't move.  

NOPE....  NOT FOR ME.

WHERE IS MY EXPLORER?

Nothing about this was like a real car.  The shifting is done on an iPad.  I don't have to scan the stations in town for the cheapest gas prices.  It is completly silent, so much so, I think my ears are plugged up when I am in it and I yawn every 10 seconds trying to unplug them, but they are not plugged.  It was all wrong.  And scary.  And foreign.  And so not for me.  

Well...  my explorer was gone.  This was my car now.  (If you can even call it a car).  And I really didn't have a choice.  I had to learn to drive it or walk everywhere.  Those were my two choices.  Cuz the Explorer was going back on a truck in a few days.  

I literally went through the stages of grief.....  I cried for two days.  I bargained.  I was mad for two more.  Then I accepted it.  Accepted my fate, tried to find some confidence.  Tried to change my attitude.  Tried to practice gratitude and asked my lover to teach me how to work it.  

He spent the next week patiently working with me even though I would spontaneously burst into tears.  But something happened.  Well I can tell you what really happened.  KK said a prayer that Mama would learn how to drive her new car.  That is what happened.  But, her prayer worked.  I got it.  And not only did I learn how to drive it.  I very quickly learned how to LOVE it.  

I LOVE IT.... I mean I REALLY love it.  

And I am very good at driving it.  And it is keeping me cool all summer long with it's computer settings that keep the cabin at 70 degrees at all times even though it is 200 degrees outside.   I am so grateful for it and for my husband who only wants to make me so happy every single day.  Even though I am sometimes mean to him about it.  

2.  The next big change that happened was Raleigh was called to be the 1st Counselor in the Bishopric.  

Okay, first.  What? 

And then....  Oh my humility and gratitude and blessedness.  Over the course of the last month and a half both he and I have been OVERWHELMED to say the least with all the feelings of love and support and genuine goodness.  

On May 22nd we were asked to meet with the Stake Presidency.  We thought for sure it was going to be Elder's Quorum President.  I had been sick all day and even stayed home from work.  I was still not feeling great at 7:00 when it was time to go over, but I got up and got dressed.  We met with President West (who we LOVE) so that was fun and he asked us all kinds of questions, get to know us better questions and then he said to me Sister Lund, what do you think of your husband? 

I said...  he is my greatest treasure.  He is such a good person.  He is kind and spiritual and fun and funny.  But beyond that, he has the most quiet spiritual confidence and that comes out in the way he speaks, prays, teaches and leads.  I adore him.  I love everything about him.  I am proud of him.  He works so hard for our family and he provides every want and need we could possibly ever have.  

He said... Well that makes me so happy to hear because we have a whopper of a calling to extend to him and we have to know that you will support him in it.  

OF COURSE I WILL!!  He will look SO good on the stand and he will be so amazing at this calling.  He is calm, gentle, non-judgmental, self aware and he can keep a secret better than anyone I know.  He doesn't mind hard work.  He loves to serve other people and he is very well liked.  I could not be more proud of him.  He has worked really hard to make substancial changes in our lives.  He leads our family so well.  I am so excited for all of the growth and development he will get to experience over the course of the next 18 months (which is when our current bishop's term is up).  

He asked my dad to ordain him a High Priest.  My dad's blessing was one of the best I have ever heard.  He said so many amazing and fabulous words.  And President Crane set him apart as the 1st counselor.   And his blessing was also about as perfect as a blessing could be.  

I had been crying for 2 solid hours.  

This was one of my most favorite days of my life.

3.  Three hours after Raleigh was set apart, we jumped in the car and drove up north so that he could have surgery on his mouth.  It was a significant surgery and required 2 days in bed following the procedure.  And at least a week of recovery.   Something I didn't know about him....  he is hysterical when he comes out of anesthesia.  His dominant traits came out with a vengence.   GOOFY and SWEET.  The nurses told me he was singing and wiggling (dancing) around to the music while they were trying to wake him up.  They would ask him how he was doing and he would point at them and say "good job, you did a good job here, I am fine".  When we were going into the elevator, he gave us a play by play on what the numbers were doing.  "oh look at that... there's a 4 and then it just changed to a 3....  AND NOW IT'S A 2, that is so amazing.  WAIT WHAT?????  NOW IT'S A ONE?????   How is that possible?  He kept laughing randomly and talking to himself.  It was really funny.  

I of course, was a wreck.  I don't do well with infirmed people in general... but HE is the one who is always in charge of us.  He is always in charge of him and ME.  I can't be the one in charge.  He was like a FOUR YEAR OLD for two hours and it was very upsetting to me.  

He had to be on a liquid only diet for 2 weeks and I volunteered to join him so I could lose 5 pounds.

I was fully planning to strictly stick to it too.

Protein shakes and soup would be our diet for the next 14 days. 

But it became very quickly necessary for me to sneak some bread (and a steak) into my diet somehow when no one was looking or I might have hurt someone.

He however did amazingly well and lost so much weight.

Since we were up north, Allie and Brayden were able to join us for lunch.  It was the most fun to get caught up with them and all that they are doing

I also was able to go and pick up Allie's High School Diploma from her 2020 NO GRADUATION CEREMONY.  Apparently, when you don't have a ceremony, they don't have to see to it that your diploma makes it to your home and it just sits in the High School office in a random drawer for four years until you care enough to go pick it up.  Stupid Covid.  So I went over to the school and picked it up and then delivered it to her.   Now she can get a job..... HAHA.

We returned back home and monitored the progress of the patient who was very swollen and then turned black and blue

Haha....  sometimes when we watch a movie or a TV show that I am not very interested in at 7:30, I will prop my pillow up in a way so that my face is hidden, that way I can take a little snooze undetected.  Unfortunately for me, I cannot lay on the bed without making a circle with my right foot.  I lay there and my right foot rotates in a circular motion constantly.  It's a nervous tick or something.  I can't help it.  But when I fall asleep, my foot stops rotating.  And that is the first sign that I am out.  The second sign is my breathing will change.  So even though my pillow is hiding me, and I think I am so sneaky, my body movements give me away instantly.  And Raleigh will take random photos of me.  He has like 50 of them.  At least my glasses aren't half on half off my face in this one. 

Every once in a while I get the unbelievable opportunity to stage homes for photo shoots. 

It is one of my most very favorite things to do and I am fairly good at it. 

This home in particular.

I have a LONG history with this home and the fact that I was in it again after 5 years of drama and growth and developement was a full circle moment for me.  Being in this home was therapeutic for me and it was a bit of an act of revenge and a total healing closure for events that took place 5 years ago.

I got a bonus for helping to bring this home over to our company.  I worked hard to earn that both 5 years ago (mostly) and in the past 18 months.  Hard work that didn't go unnoticed.  That means a lot.

It's SO nice to work for a company that isn't above noticing that they have people on their staff who work hard and then aren't above recognizing that.

I was blessed to get to do this shoot. 

At a few different times in Allie's life, she has decided that she wants to try a new skill.

Then she will try it and in like 2 weeks, she perfects it.  

Things just come naturally to her because she believes she can do them and so she just can. 

A couple of months ago, she met Matt.

It is safe to say that Matt is her best friend. 

And he plays the guitar.

She thought it would be fun to play the drums, while he played the guitar.

So she self taught herself to play them.

And she is really good and is getting better every day.

And they are in a little band and they get "gigs"

and mostly they just love to be together and play tunes.

And he is good to her.  That makes me so happy.

She had a birthday this month.  Her 22nd.  

I can't believe that.

KK went to FSY on the 24th.

She went with Eva in our ward.

We think she had a good time.

She just doesn't talk too much and is not an over sharer, so we will have to pull information out of her slowly and when she is ready, but she came home sick and laid in bed for two days and so we will have to wait.

When she gets in stressful situations, she holds everything in.  She doesn't express that she is stressed or feeling emotions.   But then she will get sick and that is her way of ridding herself of the stress.

She got sick after Girls Camp and now FSY.

It's what she does.

We celebrated Raleigh's birthday at Sakura.

It was delicious as usual and we had a great time. 

His birthday was just meh and I felt terrible.

I bought him a Travis Matthew shirt and dropped 

designer cupcakes off at Bishopric Meeting to share with his Bishopric friends.

Finally, Rals and I were asked to be the Camp Cooks this year. 

Camp is July 8th, but we are gathering items in June because that is a big job and we don't want to get overwhelmed.

This is what our living room looks like right now and this isn't even a fifth of what we have to buy.

So exciting.

June was BIG!

We had big fun events.  

We made a few changes to our lifestyle, all for the better.

We are invigorated with new attitudes and desire to be of service and a gratitude beyond measure.

We are unsure why we continue to be so blessed.  

I have an update to my sister's health battle.

Yes, her cancer has returned, but the best news is it was confined to the tumor and the area just right around it.  The tumor is LONG GONE.... BYE.

But the area around it was too delicate to mess with, so she will fight that off with radiation and chemo therapy that she is determined to destroy!!

She is working SO hard with her daily physical therapy to gain mobility in her legs again. 

She is in GREAT spirits.  Her texts from her skilled nursing facility are hiliarious and she brightens my day whenever I talk to her.  I have NO DOUBT she will conquer this demon once again. 

It's in her story.

Our Life Story

June flew by SO fast and I can honestly say I loved every day of it. 

I love the second half of the year, I am SO glad it is finally here.