April 2025

 Well..  I never could have imagined April going the way April did.   But it did nevertheless and we are better for it.  It started off with a couple of work events that were fun.  The girls in the office went to lunch.  It is nice every once in a while to get out and go somewhere together.  We lament about our particular jobs and learn about each others personal lives a little bit.  I am not a super social person, but conversations flow easily with this group and I am always glad that I get to go with them.

Ryker played 7 on 7 in April.  It could have been a good experience except he somehow had the misfortune of being selected to be on the team coached by the guy who thinks he's COACH PRIME. 

 Biggest dumbass in St. George right here in case you were wondering who that could possibly be.  We found him.  Coaching 7 on 7 in Southern Utah.  All 5 foot 9.... 140 pounds of him.  Thinks he is the greatest thing ever to happen to St. George Football in the history of the city.  Doubt he played in high school.  Probably was a huge nerd,  probably got shoved in lockers by the big boys.  Probably didn't live up to his dreams, so now he is living in some coaching fantasy world, where he is the coolest, most respected dude in the league and everyone is eager to take part in his greatness.  Only he unfortunately got all these "subpar, no good, disappointments" for players and they are going to make him look so bad and it will NOT be good for his fantasy reputation but it will ne-ver be his fault that they lose almost every game....  It won't for sure be becaause of his coaching abilities, because those are top notch...  It will naturally be that none of these kids have any talent and now he has no choice but to take his pains and frustrations out on our sons.  

He was on full display during every game.  Putting on a show for us.  His fans in the stands.  If the play went well...  he took all the credit....  "Just like I showed you".  If the play went poorly, he'd verbally castrate the kid and publicly humiliate him.  He made them do push ups in the middle of the field.  He would tell them they suck really loudly.  He'd tell them their deaf, dumb, blind...  you name it.  And he talked really loudly so that everyone on both sides of the field could hear how freaking cool he was.  No one was exempt from his cruelty (oh that is except for his son, who incidentally was not only the quarterback, but also the safety, in on every play.  He wasn't that good, but he never got in trouble.  Even when he threw interceptions....10 times or when someone scored on him.... 8 times.  He was always safe from the egotistical tirades).  But the other boys.... NO!  Not safe at all.  I got to where I didn't even want to go to the games.  I couldn't stand hearing him, watching him.   

My all time favorite Prime Time story of the season was when he thought the game was over, but there were really three minutes left.  So he's over at the opposite end of the field loading up, cracking jokes with the ref acting like a clown.  He puts his cross body bag over his shoulder and turns around and sees that his team is on the field.  And he is at the opposite end, wearing his bag looking confused and clueless.  He's not where he as the couch should be, standing behind his team coaching them and calling plays.... so suddenly he feels embarrassed that he we are all watching him looking stupid, so he starts playing it off like this was his plan all along.  He announces to all of us that this is one of his brilliant coaching techniques, "I like to see what the boys come up with on their own".  

But his quarterback son, kinda doesn't know what to do without dad, so instead of doing his best to move the ball down the field, which should always be the thing the quarterback does.... instead with NO direction, he chose to take a knee three times.  Three downs, three knees.  We don't know why.  No one knew why.  I don't think he knew why other than maybe he thought they were ahead and didn't need to score again, (which they weren't and...they did).  And he would have known that if his coach was where he was supposed to be, instead of down at the other end of the field showing off.  So now it's fourth down and they have the entire field to go.....  Prime starts loosing his trash from where he is....  50 yards away.  He starts having a come apart, but he can't run down there and stop the disaster, because he's too far away and he's got a huge bag full of equipment weighing him down.  So he stands there....  jumping up and down and screaming like a banshee at boys who can't hear him.  And we lost by 2 points.  

HUMILIATED, he met the boys on the middle of the field and OBLITERATED them for 5 minutes, making sure WE ALL heard how this was their fault and definitely not his.  HOW DARE THEY disrespect him by not listening to him scream plays at them from half a world away.  HOW DARE THEY humiliate him as a coach.  They are going to pay at practice on Monday.  "I'm going to run you all until you puke".   A couple of boys were so frustrated, one threw his helmet super aggressively, one cried.  Walt was just mad.  And SO WERE WE.  What an idiot.  

I really strongly dislike youth sports and the whole mentality that our boys need to go through experiences like this in order to be good men.  I don't agree.  

He ruined this experience for us.  I hear he is moving over to Pine View.  GOOD.  Go there.  Be with the thugs.  Go be a little man with the thugs at Pine View, you BOZO.  

But, here are some of Walt's highlights

Raleigh's great grandpa had a brother.  

His special gift in life was making chronic bad decisions.  One after another, each one worse than the one before.

Ultimately, his poor decision making skills landed him in prison and at the end of his life, he was the oldest person ever to be on death row in the state of Utah.  Not the greatest claim to fame.  

Raleigh researched him extensively,  learning all about his crimes and his climb up and down the social and criminal justice ladders.   And at the end of his enquiry, instead of saying "what a loser and an embarrassment to the family, he said... "I'm going to do his temple work for him."

A couple of days after submission, he got permission to do his work.

It was our ward temple night.  We had a great night being with several members of our ward in the temple while Rals helped LaVoy on the other side of the veil make up for all of his earthly struggles.  

We really hope that he is making better choices now.

During Holy Week, we tried to come up with fun ways to celebrate each of the days.  

Monday, Jesus cleansed the temple so we cleansed our lives by doing a social media fast and then we 

went to FroYo for dessert.

Yeah....  we got through Sunday and Monday and then we fizzled out.

Well....  Rals and I didn't fizzle

I am so glad that the kiddies still search for the Easter baskets and put them by the fire place. 

This year Peter Cottontail was on it and made sure we had plenty of bags of Cadbury Eggs

And every one got a little outfit

We ended April in the most bitter/sweet way

Grant and Kailee postponed their Temple Sealing so Kori could be in the temple with them.  

They were married in June 2024 and have been waiting for Kori to feel up to th 16 hour journey

from Eugene Oregon to St. George. 

They planned on April 26th.

But a week earlier, Kori received some more bad news. 

Her most recent MRI showed 8 new areas of growth and while her 

doctors are willing to do aggressive forms of chemo and radiation, they

will not operate again.  Russ is feeling like this is too much for her body to take. 

We were surprised when he said they were still going to make the trip. 

Mom called Kami and Brent and asked them to come for the Family Reunion.

And Mom, Dad and Rals and I decided that we would put together a little catered

reception for them at the church so that we could all eat together.

We met at the building at 11:00 that morning and decorated the heck out of the cultural hall. 

Then we ran home and changed our clothes and headed over to the St. George Temple for the sealing. 

There were SO many people there.  

As we were crossing the street, we could see at least 5 different groups of bridesmaids in bright colorful dresses walking all over the temple grounds.  Hundreds of people were gathering in various wedding party groups to take photos.

The inside of the temple was just a crazy.  There were people everywhere, going this way and that.  And the darling temple workers in their white clothing were coralling the chaos with poise and excellence.  Everyone had a role and they executed it well in their perspective places.  

This is what I imagine heaven looks like right now in preparation of the Second Coming.

Everyone going in hundreds of different directions, but everyone knows what their role is and what they are supposed to be doing.  It's total controlled chaos.  And everyone is SO excited and happy and helpful.

Then those people who have just recently died and are new on the scene, just show up and are witnesses to the massive preparations and all of the many things that are happening to make sure everything is being taken care of for that big day.  

They walk through the doors, to the hustle and bustle and just stand there hoping someone in white will come tell them where to go and how they can help.

We were greeted by the cutest lady.  She put us in the waiting room where everyone else was gathering.  It was fun to sit and chat with everyone.  We had a couple of good laughs with Russ about some funny things that had happened earlier in the day.  

One of Kori's wonderful St. George doctors was the sealer. 

When he came into the sealing room, he walked straight over to Kori and hugged her

Then when he started talking the first thing he said was I am so honored to be here today, there are a couple of people in this room who mean a great deal to me.  

I burst into tears.

He was quick with his words and the ceremony was so good.

Afterward, he went back over to Kori and knelt down by her wheelchair to talk to her. 

She said "this is a great day, I have all three of my children in the temple with me."

Kori is on a lot of medication.

Steroids being one of them.  They have caused her to be very swollen and

uncomfortable.  She is very unrecognizable.  My heart is breaking for her.

But, as always, she is in good spirits and has a positive and upbeat attitude. 

The whole week leading up to Russ and Kori's arrival was very hard for me for so many conflicting reasons.  There was so much going on.  So many conflicting emotions were happening.  Happy, excited, sad, really sad, frustrated, mad, brave, proud, blessed, sad again......  I kind of wanted to run and hide. 

I was so glad when Kami and Brent showed up.

They came over a couple of the nights leading up to the weekend. 

I felt much more brave with them around. 

We laughed about the things that were going on. 

We made a game plan for weekend survival.

We just had a really good time together and it made me so happy. 

There were things going on that made an already hard situation even more difficult and I cried several times.   I am very frustrated with some of the people in my life who make things sad and harder than they should be.  I know that I should just stay away and do the very best I can to live my life.  It's just hard.

I know that we have some tough times ahead.  I feel like I am ready for them and feel peace around my readiness, but then I am also SO not ready and I don't want to have to go through them.  I am so blessed to have the knowledge that I have.  I am so blessed to have a strong relationship with my Savior, who I know will bouy me up and help me with all of these hard things that have and will come up.  I know I have a couple of family members that will help me rather than hurt me.  I have the best husband a girl could ask for who is always the softest place to fall.  I have parents who do anything that is needed for our entire family and I am so glad they are helping us all through this life. 

April was hard but also SO good.

We were so lucky to have had a chance to all be together.

I will never forget it.