Holy Cow! 

I hate to travel, the only thing that makes it worth it to me is getting to see family. So my people are all getting excited for this Puerto Rico trip and they’re going to have to peel me off the ceiling. I am just wound up with dread-even though it will probably fine…maybe even fun, anticipating it is sheer misery for me and pure delight for the rest of them. Ug.  Isaac, Mr Adventure, doesn’t get it at all (how could he) but I say “I’m cold” and he says “oh is just because your body is ready for Puerto Rico” Ug not funny. But speaking of cold  after complaining about it last week it has been in the 40’s the last two days! I’ll take it. 

Anyway let’s go back-all I can remember from last weekend was I took Cannon to look at couches-and I had put off making bell charts for primary but I shouldn’t have it took forever (lots of help though) look at this mess! 

Isaac and Cannon decided to go coyote hunting…They left and were gone. I don’t know 20 minutes, but I guess they’re actually just out in the front yard and I didn’t get anything… Darn, I mean, perfect! But then they left again and this time they were gone for hours (well, it felt like hours,  Maybe it was only a hour and a half or so) but which left me in the midst of all the primary mess to put the kids to bed and do come, follow me and stuff all by myself. (I hate that—help is always good! )  And I don’t know why, but it was two nights in a row. I don’t remember what he was doing Friday, but anyways when they did come home, they had got a ticket from the conservation officer who used to be Cannon‘s baseball coach in fourth grade… Great. It was stupid though-they’ll fight it. It said they were shooting from the roadway, but they really weren’t they were pulled off and they certainly weren’t shooting across it so it was just kind of dumb. Somebody thought they were trying to hunt deer -but they weren’t- so that person had called the conservation officer and then by time he had to come check things out on a Saturday night at eight or 9 o’clock or whatever it was then he was gonna write a ticket. Again, they didn’t get anything though, Cannon missed, (so that was a win!) 

On Sunday we started to watch Raising the bar-but then stopped and watched the Elder Kearon broadcast (which was good even if it turned into a push up contest and basketball game around here) 

but then we started our movie back up and it was so fun because all of the sudden we recognized one of the guys in it (Dallin Vorkink) from here in Kirksville. He is in Medical school at Mizzou now but was in HS when we moved here. At first we were a little unsure but then it was obvious and so fun. We just wished he’d been the good guy 😉. 

Monday was Cannons last basketball game. 

Addi found the missing boot-suspended and hung up with Tanners snow pants! Now if she could just find the missing sandal. (It hard to find those and have them be the right sizes in February.) We have a lot of “inventory” around here. 

So in an effort to cut down on “inventory” I decided to tackle the medicine cupboard…or all 3 of them…holy cow! Why do we have so much medicine? And then there’s these supplements I text Isaac and told him I’d probably bought them all, but at his request so he was responsible for all but one of them (then I found two more that were my -or maybe my mom’s-fault) but that’s a lot of crud for saying we try to eat a reasonably balanced diet.  

Isaac responded with “I have good intentions” and later said “I’m sure I read good things about all of them.” Sigh…yep

Wednesday was the 100th day of school so here’s my little 100 year old man! 

And Cann’s not exactly game for pics these days so this is all I got but he won first place for some FBLA supply chain management thing, now he gets to go to state. 👍🏻

He’s also been working on a talk for church—he’ll do great. 

That’s really about all I’ve got. 

I mean that’s not true-last time we went to Puerto Rico, we just went with backpacks, but this  time Isaac wants to take a checked bag and put a pellet gun in it so that he can hunt iguanas—“they’re invasive” he says. Have mercy! I do not get his and Cannon’s fascination with killing things. He’s blaming the checked bag on church clothes because he wants to go to the temple while we’re there. I think just he and the boys are going to the baptistery because… Who would stay with our other kids? Or maybe he thinks we’re going in shifts, I have no idea but it is pretty cool the temple was just under construction last time we were there. 

My stress level is off the charts…I think I’ll go find myself a hundredth treat! So if next time you see me (or if I let myself be seen in the PR pics—I didn’t last time because I was 30 weeks pregnant with Addi) anyway, if I look a little chubbier next time you see me, blame the family vacation!  And I’m nursing a bum foot, so really—exs is minimal to nonexistent these days. It not a great combo😏

Happy Birthday Rizzy Roo

We survived! 

That’s always a win! 

Last weekend it was so dang cold. (So normal around here 🙄…I read once how disrespectful and damaging to relationships eye rolling is…but I feel fine about disrespecting this weather!) AND…we had in to get out of the house so finally we bundled up and headed out in it! I can’t remember for sure but I think it was a 2° or 3° with a real feel of -6° or something-just cold. We didn’t last super long, but that fresh air was the best thing for us!  

We knew just how to warm up—Hot Chololate and roast some marshmallows! 

Sunday it was home church, Seth picked Addi’s outfit 

And that evening, we were jumping rope in the living room…or at least trying! 

It turned out to be a bit of a crazy day, we got new missionaries and they wanted to come say Hi and Isaac had to help shovel  sidewalks down at the church (he took most of the kids) and he took the sacrament up to a single gal he ministers to, then he had to go back up there with a battery charger so her car would start-it was no church but we stayed busy! I feel like there was more, it was go go go. Oh one thing we did was look up each of the brothers 5th birthday on the blog to give us some idea for Wed. It was pretty fun-made me see how fast these kids are growing up! We snagged a couple ideas too. 

Monday the kids had a late start—we love those! But the day, the 26th is just like Ug! It just sucks.  I did take Tan with me to Hobby Lobby after I dropped Cann off at basketball we were looking for some decorations for the cemetery. We have different tastes 🤣 but I won out but we have an agreement that on his birthday -which is Easter this year- he can decorate over there and it should be much warmer! 

Tuesday we got the little balloons over there! 

Tuesday was just a better day schedule wise than Wednesday so we went to LaFuente! Cannon was the one that wanted to go so bad and he didn’t have basketball so we decided to go for it but then he fell asleep and didn’t want to get up and come with us after all so we just brought him home takeout. 🙃

Wednesday-Riz would be 5! Crazy! But to steal a Steven Lund line, “we’re one hug away from everything being ok!” 

We did waffle cone Wednesday and had cake after school. Cann had an orthodontist appt so he has the my teeth hurt smile.

That night Cann had practice then all the bigs had YMs/valiant activities and I helped with the girls so Isaac got the job of getting kids to bed. I had the easier job. 

Thursday was Cannon’s last home basketball game so I made everyone go. Our friends the Page’s brought their whole family and came to watch him too-I thought that was so nice. Cann hasn’t been starting but he did (I found out it was because his buddies got in trouble in one of their classes) but I didn’t get a pic because I’d set my jacket down (phone in its pocket) and Seth and I were delivering the treats we’d made Mrs Feeney. Oh well. 

I did snag this pic and send it to Grampa Chip. 3 fouls in the 1st quarter!! We then watched him ride the pine for a good long while! But he did eventually get back in and ended up hitting two 3’s so I think he was pretty happy. And no more fouls. 👍🏻

I made everyone go but I did not make everyone watch. Addi took this picture of Seth playing in the cafeteria. I deleted about 30 similar pics, one or two of Page kids but mostly random kids I didn’t know. 

Because of the late start Monday seminary got canceled so to get their 4 days in they had to go today. So I tried thawing the cinnamon rolls idea froze last week. Google told me I’d need 8-16 hours to thaw them in the fridge. I didn’t have that long (maybe 7 at best) so I just set them out on the counter. When I got up to check the fire at 2:00 I decided I better check’m ugh. Whoops. Should’ve left them in the fridge—they needed to be cooked! So I preheated the oven and cooked cinnamon rolls for seminary at 2:00am! Crazy! But it worked. 

Then me’n Add had our one on one day👍🏻 here’s a few pics of her from the week. 

We’ve been playing lots of hide and go seek around here. The in the house version whenever it gets dark they turn off all the light and we hide over and over again in the same few spots (main level only) the kids love it… I hope we get credit for it when they grow up, I hope they look back and remember it fondly because it’s really not my favorite thing, I definitely do it for them! 😊

The other thing I can remember from the week was my computer wouldn’t turn on. It was just a completely black screen. I wasn’t sure if it got left on so I charge the battery all up and then it would start like the initial pop up

Image but then nothing! Another completely black screen! While I was complaining about how it wasn’t very old and it was just broken and I didn’t know what to do about it when Seth or Tanner I can’t remember which one chimed in and said oh I know! And then proceeded to show me how to turn the brightness back on because they had turned it down to completely dark. 

Hmm

But I am really thankful I still have a computer that works!

Oh, and this is the end but right when was going to start blogging at the beginning today I had to answer a call from the school. It was a positive office referral for Colt from the “teacher he actively despises” ha! He always have known how to play his cards . She’s singing his praises and he plays his cards right but hates every minute. 

 *sigh* What a week! 

Saturday seems like 3 Saturdays ago! Probably because there was no school Monday and then it got canceled again today because it’s so dang cold. While our high was 14° or something today I think the “feels like” high was more like -5° 👎🏻 and at school drop off time the “feels like”  temperature was -21° so I think they canceled for the sake of the teachers who have to stand out there and unload every car. Anyway back to the long ago Saturday —Colt and I got out on some one on one time—he discovered that the chair Tanner liked (the orange one pictured last week) was actually a massage chair!

 I can’t  remember why we stopped by Menards (but I was glad we did because he was in a horrible mood before that-how fun for one on one time 😏—but those massage chairs must have massaged it right out of him!👍🏻) but really one on one time with me usually just means hey come grocery shopping with me and I’ll let you pick a treat. 

I’d say Sunday was anti-climatic but I got sick of the TV being on all day at Cannon’s every whim so I locked it upstairs. It was climatic alright but not in a good way. They did end up getting it out in the evening but it was on so much less I was fine with that. 

Monday was MLK day so nobody had school —these guys are so good at getting up early, but only on the days they could sleep in! 

Isaac got in one of those “let’s help mom” moods that I LOVE and the kids HATE! The house looked so much better when we were done! 

But the older they get the trickier they get. Cannon plopped down with the youth magazine, Isaac asked for his help then looked and saw that’s what he was reading and changed his mind and had Colt help him. Colt —sure that he’d been taken made sure to sit down with the Friend magazine…but he slipped his kindle inside. Cannon quickly threw his magazine when I wanted picture evidence. 

It was a busy day of playing and finding ways to stay busy. 

Well, and trying to stay warm! (The picture doesn’t do justice at all to how big that piece was relative to our stove—I would have had 0% chance of getting it in there) 

Tuesday after school Colt got in the car and said “my good news today was we’re going to make turtles” …oh yeah…I’d put him off all (long) weekend. So we did it and we nailed them! They were dang good! 

Not many pics on my phone—maybe they wore me out 😉 but Seth was working on his goals: 👍🏻

Wednesday the kids had valiant activities and young men’s and my sole goal is to get Addi and Seth to sleep before they get home. That extra sleep mid week is critical!!! 

I went to the RS activity and they talked about habits, meal planning, and decluttering—there’s a reason I hate New Year’s resolutions 🤣 there was a good quote about perfection being the enemy of progress…so I’ve tried…a little. 

We’re learning (the hard way) some of the wood -like  the stuff we robbed from the burn pile doesn’t heat the house as well. So Isaac went down to the saw mill and got some of the good oak stuff! We knew this weekend was coming! 

Today Isaac went to work but we were hunkered down here. Cold days are way worse than snow days! 

If school hadn’t been canceled Cannon would have had seminary (they have to do 4 days a week so they usually have Fridays off but when they have a Monday off they have to go Friday) anyway I’d told him I’d make cinnamon rolls since they had to go Friday, I didn’t get off the hook because the boys were so excited about them…but I didn’t have to start last night-or get up at 4:00 so it was still a win. We had cinnamon rolls for lunch! 😋 Sometimes the kids played so good together-sometimes it was fight city. That’s probably all the details ya need. By time Isaac got home I was ready to leave—but it was too cold to go anywhere—but I was thankful to have him help!!

I think that’s it! 

Saturday I was locked in on getting some one on one time with each kid. I picked Cann up from basketball and we went grocery shopping. Lame-but shopping is Cann’s favorite thing and I have to buy food anyway🙃 Then Tan and I had a project. We need to make something (noises) to keep the deer away from Rizzy’s tulips. 

We shopped and shopped and went in and out of 4 stores before we ever bought anything. He told me “there’s a difference between being a shopper and a buyer mom!” Ok true. We got a little distracted at Menards. 

But when it was all said and done he told me shipping for new couches was his favorite part. We ended up finding a jingle bell garland we tried to set up over at the cemetery but by time we got there the wind was blowing like crazy and it was super cold so…we still have some work to do. 😉

Colt got one on one time with Isaac they had a few errands to run, Seth and I went back to town to look for hand sanitizer…😏 and I decided Addi gets plenty of one on one time I was just more deliberate about calling it that.-like today 😊

On Sunday Isaac went to early meeting and I…survived.  It’s actually pretty nice having the later church for things like that. But by time we got there I felt like I’d run a marathon. And…I’m still not used to Primary first—we’ll get it figured out! 

Seth was “helping” her give a talk then say the prayer it was too cute he just kept “calling her on her” to come help him because she was the only one there. But it was too cute not to take a picture. 

Then Tanner—he decided he was going to read his bible—we were in church but again—too cute not to have a memory of it! 

This is after the real event of church. Whole wheat sour dough (Sour Sour Sour) dough bread for the sacrament. 🤢 This emoji was everyone on our bench but really Isaac and I were beet red laughing so hard but trying to be quiet because the real question was if Tanners emoji was going to change to 🤮. Thankfully Seth missed it-he talked Isaac into letting him go to the bathroom. Addi was saying “ew ew ew” and not quietly! Even after she spit hers out in my hand. Then when my big boys got back to our bench they were telling stories of watching people take it-searching for crumb size pieces and the one lady taking a nibble then shoving it in her purse. 

I volunteer to bring bread-every week! Seriously! That was awful and a horrible distraction to a sacred ordinance! 

I’ve said too much but…

I’m hoping someone says something more  because I know I’m not the only one…maybe the missioaries I know they had investigators there, I don’t know if they partook of the sacrament but Think of that first impression. Yikes. Cannon called it “abomination” in his mouth and  he “went to the bathroom” after and snuck out to the car and got us all gum! Thank heaven!! 

Driving home from church Tanner asked me “Mom, what did you think of the 1950’s? You were alive right?” 

Ummm No! Tanner Tanner Tanner…

That night we had the med students who are young men’s advisors over for dinner. They are awesome and we are so thankful for them. Cann said it was too much baby talk but one of them has a 4 month old and another  was huge pregnant and had her twins Wednesday! So it was kindof naturally a prevalent topic. Anyway our boys love their leaders and it was fun for us to get to know them a little better. 

Monday-it was cowgirl boots to school. We’ve lost her school shoes and her other shoes were covered mud…ok boots! 

Cann with all the Monday vibes! 

Addi and I made lots (&l Lots) of cookies for Cannon’s team night and after Christmas Addi thinks we roll out all cookies!

Cann had a home game Thursday 

P

And then survive! 

Another couple good things from this week is I got to chat with Ang & Linds (my 2 best friends from high school) on Marco Polo. I love them both! It totally brightened my week. 

And the other great thing was I got my temple recommend renewed. It was great to visit with both Bro Gannon and Pres Doman! I know it is always a sacred privilege to answer those questions! And a kindof cool thing was I read Elder Bernard’s talk “they are their own judges” right after-its true, thats exactly how the temple recommend process works! I love the conf talks. Today I read Elder Matthew Hollands, then I listened to some things and ended up listening to his 1983 talk when he spoke as a 16 year old with President Holland. It was awesome. 

Well and it’s about to get cold again so Tan and I are down hanging out by the fire while I blog and Add helped me chop some wood…and we did get that hair out of her face —eventually! 

I think that’s about it…at least for now! 

Oh boy I did’t know whether to title it “he built me a table !” Or “temple trip disaster”…so I left it blank

Last Sat Isaac locked in on upgrading our kitchen table! 

He just kept puttering for several days! We ate on it with the missionaries Tuesday but then he still sanded and stained it a couple more times. 

Sunday…we slept in! But that does mean we’re on garbage detail after church. We also stopped in with the kids and said Hi to Brother Speaks—he looked good and was in good spirits so that was awesome, we love him! Isaac and I went back later and had a good visit and Isaac did the sacrament for them. 

Monday was the last day of Christmas break. I asked Tanner what would make it the perfect day, he had a few suggestions but wasn’t sure a perfect day is even possible…me either buddy,  but I made waffles and later cookies because they were on his list. I might have even coughed up some “free” tablet time. Isaac worked on the table some more. I don’t know I think it turned to be a “decent” day. That’s about as good of an adjective as Tanners gives. 

That evening Cannon played so we went down to his game. And so did Pres Vorkink (stake young men’s and he just enjoys that type of thing) but so did all of this young men’s advisors and their wives! I was so impressed, that was so nice of them! But when your mom is a former basketball coach-get the ball off your head! 

Cann had been starting but they had his friend that usually starts jv start, so Cann didn’t play as much but that’s ok. He had a sweet block right before the half that gave his little cheering section something to cheer about. Then they were up by 1 with 2:20 or so to go…but they really just gave it away, no good basketball sense given the time and score. Their coach is young though…I’m not even sure the other guy out coached him on purpose, we just didn’t take good shots, or know when to foul or appear to do anything on purpose once we got down…when really they should’ve never gotten down…back to that problem of  when your mom used to coach basketball…

Anyway Tuesday—back to school! I confess to humming “and mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again” a few times the past weeks. I’m so ready for them to go back-then I just miss’m. 

Isaac worked more on the table and let Addi sign it…

Then the sander some more! 

Wednesday we all were invited (had to go—however you want to look at that) to the youth activities. So it made for a late night. Cannon had the day off of basketball (they do that so often but I think it’s just because they’re understaffed-who knows-well, I know you don’t get better when you don’t practice…) anyway he didn’t have practice so it looked like this at home: 

The only other thing was I got my Elder Holland quote hoodie made. “You can’t have a million dollar experience with 50 cents worth of effort!” I love the quote—probably should’ve been a little more careful making my hoodie -it’s not perfect but it’s fine. 

Oh and Isaac got a much needed load of gravel! Thank heaven! 

The only thing significant I can remember from yesterday is I found out I’m on the jury duty list from Feb-Aug. 👎🏻 dang

Then we get to today: well let’s go to last night—I don’t know probably. 10:15 or so we’ve got things shut down, we’re laying in bed and Isaac says “I think I’ll rotate the tires tomorrow” I said “in the morning? Before we go to the temple?” To which he said “yeah, well maybe, we’ll see if I get up” I’ll tell you what 16 years of marriage has taught me—just close my eyes, don’t  lose any sleep over it. Calling “BS” won’t go over well, but the chances of us getting out of town on time if he did that—not good. The chances of him actually getting up to do it—not good either. Whatever, it all worked out—nothing crazy. But ???? He loves a project! 

I just went about my morning, got Colt to weights (new this week) and Cann to seminary, then after we got Seth and Tanner off at normal time we hit the road, except we had to go back and get his temple bag, then we were about 10 minutes into the drive when Addi started whining wanting to go home (oh she wasn’t pleasant to wake up either) but her cough was sounding more like an attempt to puke…so I handed her a puke bag. She just kept looking more and more pale and wanting to go home so 20 min in to the drive I crawled into the back with her thinking I’d be more proficient with the puke bag. But also just let her rub my arm (it’s weird but she loves that) shortly after we got to the end off the “up down” road, so that helped. But then she had to pee, I said she could wait until a gas station or use the side of the road…she opted to wait, but while we were driving I grabbed the blanket to snuggle it around her a little better and the bottom corner was SOAKED…as was Isaac’s temple bag we went back to get. The water bottle was still full though??? So when we went into the bathroom (she peed like 3 drops) Isaac investigated the water—no bottle to be found but LOTS of water…so we got back on the road and he asked AI. It said there’s probably a clog in a drain, like from the sun roof or something like that (it did rain a TON yesterday) anyway a mess! Ug. And…it’s kinda smelly. 

But we made it-he went in the temple first and Addi and I hung out, then we switched. I was 10 minutes late -or 40 minutes from when I was supposed to be there- late for my appointment but…temple workers are awesome, I aspire to be one someday, they’re just so cute and nice. Anyway they only had initiatories staffed until 11:00 and I walked in at 10:40 but I still got to do 3 names, it was probably the most meaningful 15 minutes of my day. A lot of driving for 15 minutes in the temple but that’s ok. When I got out Isaac’s phone was just going to voicemail and the texts weren’t going through (maybe not service where he went to look at the horses?) who knows but I sat in the arrival center for 20 minutes calling and texting over and over hoping he’d check his phone—or call. When he did we hit the road and ordered a Casey’s pizza (Addi’s only request when we mentioned going to the temple) to pick up in Keokuk. Well she wasn’t happy we didn’t get to eat it in Nauvoo, sorry sis—too bad. Then we got there and we hadn’t ordered at the Casey’s we always drive by we’d ordered it at the one clear across town. I feel like it was non stop with dumb little things like that, but its ok-it all worked out. 

Tonight we went down to the church and played “chair soccer” with several other couples. It was more fun than I thought it would be, we had a good time…until Seth called me crying from Cannons phone, Addi was crying in the background but I couldn’t understand them, then, click. 

I told Isaac we’d beater leave and we got home (he thought they’d have worked it out by time we got there-we should’ve bet!😉 I don’t know what if anything was solved but I listened a lot. Truthfully it’s a major accomplishment if I can listen to, deal with, referee,  a fight light that without getting wound up myself. So I’ll call me staying calm a win-and then I’ll acknowledge I’m failing at teaching them to “love and serve” one another. 😩

I think that’s it…