April 2026

April year after year has the same vibe.

It's the fourth month which means we are well into the year by the time it rolls around.

We are significantly past the slow, sluggish and uneventful months in the early part of the year.

But not yet to the fast moving, fun months.

In our office we get MLK day off and President's Day too, but then don't get a day off until 

Memorial Day.  That is a big span especially in this emotionally charged industry.

What ends up happening year after year, is people start feeling the effects of heavy work loads with

no real recovery time in sight.  

It is amazing what a three day weekend can do for people's mental health. 

But one is not happening anytime soon.

So come the middle of April, everyone starts losing it.

Emotions run high and people start taking frustrations out on each other.  

I don't know why employers don't realize this...  but they don't.

Disclaimer: Emotionally I was not my best this month.

Too many crazy work things affected my mood entirely.

A couple of personal stresses added to it.

Needless to say, I have been in a month long bad mood.

I deserve to be.

I make no apologies

It will be apparent.

If you have come here for uplifting goodness, you have come to the wrong place.

Maybe May will be better.

Hopefully it will.

But April just plain sucked overall.

Stupid April.

Glad you have come and gone.  

Our April started with Kaleigh's cooking class Parent's Day.

You get to invite a parent and cook a meal with them.

She invited Raleigh to come and cook.

Her very best friend in the entire world, Avery is in her cooking class.

Avery's parents couldn't come, so Raleigh was enough parent for two and

they had a really good time

Kami and Brent live in Houston Texas, which is an exciting town to live in.

They invited Papa and Nana to come down and spend a couple of days with them.

Nana successfully navigated the internet and booked a nice little flight. 

I drove them to the St George Shuttle.

They went to Magnolia and ate some really good BBQ

and had a nice time visiting them.

But, at the same time they were down there, Kami was making plans to take a new job

in Santaquin, Utah.

The best news ever.

Kami moved to Utah and started a new job in April.

Brent had to stay back and sell their home.

But aren't these two the cutest?

We had our RS activity in April.

We celebrated the birthday of the Relief Society with a dinner and we had

the author of Dear Divine Daughter come and talk to us.

It was a fun night, glad it's over. 

I am not a good at planning activities.  I don't like them.

Sorry but I just don't.

I wish while we were making all of these protocol changes, we could cut out activities altogether.

They are SO hard to plan and execute.

They use up a lot of money that at the end of the day, is really just wasted.

And no one REALLY appreciates them

The fruit water was by far the best part

It was gorgeous and was SO delicious

April brings Conference Weekend

Ryker asked if we could have crepes on Sunday Morning

I was happy to oblige.

Conference was really good and the weekend was fabulous.

We listened to every word and rested and ate good food

April was Raleigh's month to conduct the baptisms.

We had three boys baptisms this month.

It was really fun

We matched... not on purpose

Little Miss KK finally got brave enough to make an appointment to 

go to the DMV and take the test to get her Learners Permit.

She studied really hard and we worked with her the night before.

If I had to take that test, I would NOT PASS.

The questions are not only riduculous, they are not necessary.

Who would ever get out a ruler and measure if they are stopping 500 feet 

behind a stop sign?  NO ONE.  

The test was 50 questions and we were there for 1 1/2 hours.

You do the math.

But in the end, she only missed one question.

She is so little. 

We hope she will be able to see over the steering wheel and reach the pedals

Walter Lund is having the time of his life playing 7 on 7.

Last year, he had a terrible coach, who ripped him apart and 

belittled every kid on the team.  He also got very little playing time

and he felt horrible about himself. 

This year..... 

He is about to be a 9th grader, so the High School coaches are coaching him. 

What a night and day difference.

First of all, they are all just good men.  

They all served missions, they focus on actually coaching the boys with the intent 

of helping them improve and get better while also encourgaing them to be good humans.

There is no tearing them down. 

There is only coaching

And the outcome has been outstanding. 

He grew 6 inches last year, so had to switch from defense to offence.

They have him in as wide receiver and slot receiver.

That is a whole new ballgame. 

He has had to learn everything new.

But, he finally found his groove and the last week of April caught

9 passes and scored 3 touchdowns. 

It was so exciting to watch. 

I love 7 on 7. 

It is much safer and the games are fast and furious 

 

Raleigh has started going to the temple in the mornings

He is very dedicated and it is a good start to his day

I just know he is the cutest man in the session/dare I say the whole temple

One Monday, he sent me a text telling me that I had a flat tire. 

Well this was news to me as I was just driving along on the FREEWAY.

But sure enough when I finally pulled over into a safe place and had a look,

it was definitely flat. 

He told me to stay put and he would come to me. 

My knight in shining armor pulled a monster screw out of my back right tire. 

Then he did something fancy with some rubber gadget and then filled it up with "Fix a Flat"

and I was on my way.

Teslas don't have spares

So it's not an easy deal when you get a flat

He's so smart

I think we have like 100 of these picutres

Only ONE of us was listening and feeling the spirit

I had a couple of really HORRIBLE days at work.

Like where I cried for a long time and had several people come in 

to my office to hug me repeatedly and check on my overall wellbeing.

I literally cannot believe people.

People are so NOT nice.

I had to be on a call with a man who I have never met before in person 

and have only spoken to one other time in my life.

He trapped me on a 7 minute call where I was only allowed to say 8 words 

and he called me a liar, immature, petty and vindictive. 

He doesn't know me.  We have spoken on the phone a combined total of 15 minutes.

I wasn't allowed to defend myself or set him straight on the real and true facts.

I just had to sit there and let him vent his first world frustrations out on me.

 I am really sorry that you feel you need to fabricate misinformation and 

try to pass it off as truth to make your story and your victimhood more believable. 

I am sorry that you choose to deal with your problems by being a school yard bully

Good thing our calls are recorded or no one would have believed me when I told them

what was said to me. 

My boss took over, set him straight and made me guacamole

and I ate almost a whole bag of chips while I cried out all the tears I had in my body.

I just needed to let it all out. 

This was just one of many really big situations that I don't get paid enough to deal with.

There's nothing like a really good cry and some guac.

I also opted to take a day off.

I just HAD to get away from this place and reset

So we did a day trip up to the Saratoga Springs Temple and

attended the Sealing of Raleigh's best friend's daughter

Brian told him he is like her Godfather

and he was so happy to see him.

And we finished the month with a lunch with Allie

It was SO MUCH FUN and my soul was healed after this little adventure. 

It was the perfect medicine for a rather rough month and I am so 

glad we made the trip. 

I loved the car ride up and back with the stimulating conversation

I loved being in that cute little temple in that darling neighborhood

I loved talking with some of our favorite people and getting all caught up 

on each other's lives. 

It was exactly what I needed. 

We have some fun things planned in May. 

One really big thing. 

With the exception of the weather getting hotter, I am looking 

forward to a slower paced, less dramatic month.

I feel so blessed to have the family that I have.

I am happy that Brent and Kami will be 3 hours away from us now. 

I am happy that school is ending and the kids will be home all day in our safe house.

(By the way.... to add to April's drama, there was a bomb threat at the high school.)

I got some genetic testing done and I seem to be okay in that area.  

I am not totally for sure what the test results are saying.  There are 11 pages of incomprehensible words.  But there is a section at the very beginning that has a text box and the word "NEGATIVE" is in the box in very big letters.  I am making the assumption that that is a good thing.  And until I hear otherwise, I am just going to think that the word negative is really good news. 

At least for now, I have my health 

Signing out.  

Going to try again and start over.

Come on May....  you can do better right?