Spooky

A haunted house, but it’s people trying to convince you to play corn hole.

A haunted house, but it’s your back door neighbor yelling for her dog every night at 9:00 pm. 

A haunted house, but it’s headlights reflecting in all of your mirrors. 

A haunted house, but it’s everyone talking about how cold it is while you’re sweating profusely.

A haunted house, but it’s a public restroom where the doors to the stalls close on their own so you don’t know which ones are vacant and which ones are occupied.

A haunted house, but it’s the same family blocking every aisle of the store over and over.

A haunted house, but it’s a bad mix of soda you discover after you’ve already driven away from the gas station. 

A haunted house, but it’s making awkward eye contact with the bearded fellow while he guides you into the car wash. 

A haunted house, but it’s running into Uncle Larry at Lowe’s and again at Smith’s within the same half hour.

If I die in my sleep

Sometimes I text my friends (or Scotty if he's away from home) to let them know what to report to the coroner if I die in my sleep. Maybe it's morbid, but I'm just being realistic. There might be a bit of information that can be useful in determining my cause of death, and I want to make it as easy as possible for everyone involved. Here are some of the texts I've sent out lately on this matter: 

If I die in my sleep, tell them I ate smoked meat and suffocated on my own burps.

If I die in my sleep, tell them I took two melatonin and two Gas X at the same time. 

If I die in my sleep, tell them I heard a strange sound but was too lazy to get out of bed to go see if there was a serial killer climbing through my kitchen window. 

If I die in my sleep, tell them I ate mayo at a potluck and then noticed it expired 8 months ago. 

If I die in my sleep, tell them I never checked my walls for mold.

So far I’ve survived it all, but if I die in my sleep, tell them there were peanut shell bits in the peanut butter I put on my toast before bed.

 

Nearing November - Writing Prompt

What comes to mind when you look at your November calendar?

“30 days hath September…”

“My favorite day of the year!” (November 1st)

“My turn to teach Relief Society”

“Oh, boy! It’s musical month! Things are about to get crazy.”

“Yay for cooler weather!”

“THANKSGIVING!”

And this…

What makes you smile in the room you’re in right now?

(My bedroom)

Our large TV. A few years ago when we finished our basement, we bought a new, bigger TV, and Scotty wanted to put the old one in our bedroom. I thought it was too big, and I discouraged it, but he did it anyway, and I LOVE IT. 

The most beautiful thing you can see outside your nearest window:

There is really nothing great outside my bedroom window. My mediocre front lawn? The really weird tree in our yard? (seriously, our front yard tree is weird). My neighbor’s Halloween inflatables? 

Things that make you feel warm and cozy right now:

My blankets.

The first positive thing that comes to mind after taking a big, deep breath:

“Oh, good. My lungs still work.”

A heart-warming story about an everyday item in a kitchen drawer:

(I didn’t pre-read these questions, and I should have know  things would get weird. They often do).

I have the most beautiful, giant whisk purchased from NPS for $1.99 ten years ago. It’s a beast. Sturdy. Reliable. Not rusty. I’ve used it to prepare food for the masses. Lemonade for the crowds. Jams for the jars. 

To own it is to be surely blessed.

Moments of quiet you experienced today between the noise and busy times:

It’s 4:00 a.m. and this is it. This is the quiet time. 

Intensely appreciate the craftsmanship of an item or appliance near you:

My bidet is in the next room… 

The story behind the closest family photo or moment to you:

Nicky’s Puerto Rican flag is folded up and tucked in a basket on my nightstand. He bought it right after he received him mission call. It hung on his wall for a few months. Now Eva is in that bedroom, and she wanted to keep the flag, but she also wanted to hang several other items on the wall, so I took the flag down (to her dismay). Now I’m keeping it safe until Nicky comes home.

A fond memory you have from a piece of clothing you are wearing:

I’m currently wearing my religious underclothing and a hot pink robe (it’s no longer 4:00 a.m. as I previously noted. Now it’s 10:30 p.m. and I just got out of the shower. I’m waiting for two of my kids to get home so I can shut down the house. Zoe is in my bed next to me watching Stuck in the Middle). 

I feel honored to wear the sacred temple garment. I love my garments. And my robe was a gift from one of my best friends for my birthday. 

Something you usually rush that you can try to give more attention to:

Where do I begin? Prayer and scripture study, of course. Spending time with my kids. All forms of exercise.

How the sky makes you feel when you look up at it:

My favorite sky feature (in addition to a colorful sunset or sunrise) is when the rays of sunlight shine through the clouds and create lines - particularly over the east mountains. I feel like those are God’s beams.

What makes you feel hopeful right now:

There’s a quote that floated around several years ago, and it’s been attributed to all sorts of people from Rob Schneider to Barbara Walters. I don’t know who (if anyone) actually said it, but it’s along the lines of, “If you turn off the news and just talk to your neighbors, you’ll find that our great country is far more harmonious than you’re being told.” There is so much in our world right now that’s ugly, but if we dial back from all forms of media and look at what’s right in front of us, in person, things feel different. We need to “see” each other, and media doesn’t work that way.

Something ordinary you pass by everyday that you can take more notice of: 

I don’t know! I’m a pretty observant person, so I feel like I already keep a good watch on everything…the daily habits of the people selling burritos on the side of the road every morning… the price of gas… the rate at which the leaves are changing colors and falling… the squirrels running along the fence line… 

I guess I could start reading the Burger King marquee because I often ignore that. 

Things around you that cost little to nothing that you are grateful for:

Good, supportive relationships. 

People who are uplifting and positive. 

Rest. 

Knowledge. 

Kind words. 

Personal revelation.

Things that would bring you inner calm right now if you needed it:

Music. A listening ear. A nice, long nap. 

And if my inner turmoil were a result of being hangry… a sandwich. 

Things right now that you’re certain of:

Today’s date is October 26.

What you love about the person you are right now: 

I have an understanding of my talents and spiritual gifts and how to use them. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve overcome a lot. I’ve adjusted my priorities. I’m happy about how I’ve grown over the years, but I still have lots of work to do!

Recount the first memory you think of when you look at your dining room table:

When I bought my last kitchen table (approximately 2010), Nicky and Daisy got ahold of a piece of styrofoam and had a hay day. It made the biggest mess, but they were so happy! 

What you love about the people you’ve spent time with today:

I’ve been writing this across the span of three days, and this question landed on Sunday, which means I spent time with a lot of people! In addition to my immediate family, I’ve spent time with my ward (congregation), notably the children since I subbed in primary today. I also went to work and happened to have one coworker there. And I visited my in-laws. What I love generally about ALL of these people is that they all enrich my life in some way. We have such good people in our ward! There are primary kids that are always happy to see me. My coworkers are all great! And my in-laws love me through my worst.

Scents or aromas that have brought you joy today:

Funny this should come up because I recently discovered that one of my best friends and I are not “scent compatible.” A few weeks ago we sniffed candles together and discussed the smells we like, and they are not the same! Then last night we went to Bath & Body Works together and further proved our scent differences.

I’m all about the fall scents - pumpkin, apples, cinnamon, and the like for now. Then after Thanksgiving, gimme all the evergreens! One of my favorite candles from B&BW (which has been discontinued) was peppermint sugar cookie. 

One of my favorite smells of all is honeysuckle, and you can never go wrong with fresh baked bread.

Mi Mama’s Mission Notes

Nicky has been on his mission for just short of four months now. He’s been isolated on an island in the Caribbean living the missionary standards long enough that he hasn’t experienced 6-7, and he doesn’t know what Labubus are. 

(How would it be?)

Here are some tid bits and thoughts from the mission experience so far:

I’ve realized that Puerto Rico is the perfect mission. You get the convenience of the US Postal Service and Amazon, but you also get the essence of serving foreign and experiencing a different culture, and you get to learn Spanish. I can mail a package to PR in three days, and my son gets to play in the jungle and still shop at Walmart. There is nowhere else on earth with that combination of perks! Hooray for the US territories!

Nicky is so much like Scotty. I laugh at how often he sends us photos that make me say, “I have a picture of Dad doing the exact same thing!” 

Nicky loves the animals in Puerto Rico. He’s always chasing lizards and catching frogs. They have some rhesus monkeys in Puerto Rico. Most of the monkey population is on a tiny island, but there are occasional sightings on the main island. I have every confidence in Nicky that he can find one before he comes home. Nicky can find anything!

Nicky keeps acquiring new possessions in weird ways. He and his companion made the (somewhat poor) decision to wash their underwear together one time, and then after Nicky’s companion transferred to another area, Nicky discovered that he had more underwear than he brought to the mission with him! He has an old, stinky shirt that an elderly Puerto Rican man gave him. He says it’s his favorite shirt, and he won’t wash it because he wants it to keep the stinky smell it had when  the guy gave it to him. Somehow Nicky ended up with one of the AP’s pants. He also has a bottle of soap that his former companion left behind, and he just keeps putting water in it and shaking it up, believing the sudsing effect will last forever, and he won’t have to buy soap for his entire mission. 

It rains there everyday. It’s pretty normal for a thunder storm to pass through while we are on our weekly phone calls. 

Nicky’s Spanish has really clicked in the last two weeks. Missionaries often describe the transition when something just “clicks.” We could tell when it happened! He’s started forgetting English words, and when he talks to us, he goes in and out of Spanish. He’s started dreaming in Spanish. And his current companion doesn’t speak English, so that has forced him to really buckle down on the language. This week when we were talking, our neighbor was walking down the street so I hollered at him (because Nicky loves this guy) and had him come over and say hi to Nicky. Our neighbor speaks Spanish, so he and Nicky had their entire conversation in Spanish, and I was just in awe at the fact that my son speaks Spanish! 

Later in our conversation, Nicky started speaking in Spanish to a missionary in the background (another Elder who doesn’t speak English), and he said “mi mama,” and I was so happy because that’s me! I’m “mi mama!” And there was something so tender about hearing my son call me “mi mama!” But then I was like, “Wait a minute! What are you saying about me?”

(Turns out, the Elder had just learned how to say “shut up” in English, and Nicky thinks it’s hilarious, so Nicky was telling him to come say “shut up” for “mi mama,” and he refused!)

Nicky says that serving a mission is really hard, and there are days he wants to just give up, and he thinks, “Why am I doing this?” But he always finds one thing every day to be grateful for, and he said at the end of the day when he looks out his window and sees the jungle, it makes him so happy. 

He loves Puerto Rico!

Some Trips

In our family, we love road trips. Give us two to three days to go somewhere, and we’ll make the best of it. This school year, we’re trying to take advantage of some of the days off school and go places. In the past few years, our road trips have slowed… because life… but we’re trying to go a little more, if/when we can. Of course, we want to do this responsibly and not bring ourselves into financial ruin or neglect our commitments. The past couple of months have given us some opportunities to get out a bit, so we have! We went to Yellowstone in September. I followed Daisy to Cedar City/Saint George for the Shakespeare competition a couple of weekends ago. Then last week we headed to Saint George as a family for fall break. It was a quick trip. We left Wednesday afternoon and came home Friday (due to some of those aforementioned “commitments”), but even though it was short and sweet, it was plenty of time to get out of town and have a good time. 

Some trips are long and some are short. Some are close and some are far. Some are very scheduled and some are unplanned.

This one was unplanned (save for booking a hotel a few weeks ahead of time). We went with no agenda or set objectives. We just showed up and decided what to do as we went, and it was great!

We also didn’t take any of our own food. On some trips, I have a meal plan and a trunk full of groceries (or a Walmart + order scheduled for delivery wherever we are staying). On others, we eat out a little more. 

When Daisy found out I wasn’t packing a cooler full of food for Saint George, she said, “Really? Are we that rich? We’re not even taking our own food?”

That made me laugh. And my response was, “Yes, Daisy! We are that rich!” 

In truth, the reason I didn’t pack food was because it was such a short trip, and there’s such good eating in Saint George. Yes, I often pack a lot of our own food when we go on trips, but we still eat out. For one meal we’ll eat ham out of a bag, and the next we’ll hit up a burger spot. We have balance! But for this trip, we just ate out. And in the wildest of ways. Like, a breakfast crawl with cini minis from Burger King, drinks from McDonald’s, and breakfast burritos from Alfredo’s. 

That time I cooked a ham to take to Yellowstone

We did more than just eat, though, I promise!

On a whim, we…

Walked from our hotel to the temple (Daisy had to stop and take a peek at the football players).

Popped into the Family Search Center and played around.

Went to Thunder Junction and played around.

Went to Three Falls and played around.

Swam at the hotel despite it only being 63 degrees outside.

Checked out the local DI. Bought a stuffed pickle.

Went back to the temple to hit the visitor’s center.

Daisy found more boys, and as a side note, look at the door - it was taped/papered and repainted that day

Went back to Thunder Junction after dark to see the Halloween lights. 

Hiked around Pioneer Park.

Walked through the Red Hills Desert Garden, which happened to be having a scarecrow festival. 

It feels really weird to do stuff like this without Nicky, but that’s part of letting your kids grow up. 

Some trips have all your kids, and some trips don’t.

We missed having him there and spent a lot of time commenting on what he would be doing if he were with us. At the scarecrow festival they had a Shaun the Sheep scarecrow, of all things, and I immediately had to get a photo and send it to Nicky because he used to bawl his eyes out about the Shaun the Sheep movie when he was a kid. I don’t even know why, because I never watched it! His grandma took him to see it. And there was a country song on the radio at the time that he wouldn’t let us listen to because it made him cry (it was not from the Shaun the Sheep movie, but it sounded like the song from the Shaun the Sheep movie, and therefore, Nicky banned it from our listening). 

I admit, I thought the scarecrow was supposed to be Beaker from the Muppets, and Daisy was the one who said, “No, mom! It’s the farmer from Shaun the Sheep!” I thought she was crazy, and then I saw Shaun! She was right!

Things the Kids Say: Episode 37

Eva: Mom, how much money do you make an hour?

Me: I’ll tell you more about that when you’re older and when you know more about money.

Eva: I already know all about money. I bought something from the Book Fair, and it went perfectly!

—————

“If I ever get pantsed, I’m prepared. Let’s just say… second pants!”

-Zoe

—————

“Mom, this morning I woke, up and it was 7:12, but I thought it was 7:48, and I was like what the heck?”

-Eva

—————

Eva: What time will be get to Big Jugs?

Me: We will get to Big Jud’s around 11:00.

—————

Why can’t a girl just have a bagel session without being asked questions?

-Zoe

—————

“I didn’t know mayors were real.”

-Daisy

—————

“When I get to school, I’m going to tell everyone that I saw a bunch of firefighters walking down the street, but I’m going to lie and say that they were wearing bright colors and eating ice cream.”

-Eva

—————

“I hate soup. Why would I want liquid food? I’m not even thirsty!”

-Daisy

—————

“You know what word I like? Yield. It’s just a really nice word. Yield. Yield. Yield.”

-Eva

—————

“Tengo una rana.”

-Nicky

Catching Up

Life got a little crazy there for a minute, and my September Writing Challenge fizzled a bit. I don’t consider it any sort of failure because I don’t have a rule that I have to post everyday or even finish, but now we're nearly half-way through October, and I don't know where the time has gone. Let's rewind to September 24 (my last blog post other than my "Currently (October 2025 Edition)" post, which is kind of a cheater post). Here are some things that have happened since then:

The prophet of our Church passed away on the 27th. I feel like I should note this since it's significant to our Church's history. President Russell M. Nelson is the fifth prophet to pass away during my lifetime. As of today, the new First Presidency has still not been sustained. 

General Conference was the following week. 

The first weekend of October was the Shakespeare competition at Southern Utah University in Cedar City. My friend, Laurel, and I drove down there (and to Saint George) to watch our kids perform. 

We saw Newsies at the Tuachan and did some sightseeing. 

The lighthouse in Cedar City is going to be torn down, and they are doing tours to the top. 

We went in a little hike to a (currently dried up) waterfall.

Stopped at the Red Barn in Santaquin. I bought fall pasta and Laurel bought apple cider donuts. 

My grandparents' house is being demolished soon, so my family went and walked through it one last time. It is such an iconic and historical home. It's sad to see it go, but it is in such disrepair that this is the best thing to happen to it.

(Read more about my grandparents’ house here. I’m so grateful I took those photos and wrote that post when I did!)

We’ve continued our weekly phone calls with Nicky. He’s doing well. He has hard days, but he really loves Puerto Rico. I can’t believe I have a child living on an island in the Caribbean!

We had our annual Dip Night with our friends Chad and Carlie. We had spinach queso, cream cheese sausage dip, guacamole, veggie pizza dip, coconut cream pie dip, and brownie batter dip. I had to get this photo of Chad's plate because it looked like he'd built a little village. 

Chad’s plate 

My plate 

Daisy and I went to the Benson Boone concert. It was a bit of a last minute decision. My friend had some tickets she was trying to sell, so I bought them from her. She thought they were for Wednesday's show, so Daisy and I went to the arena for the concert (I surprised Daisy), and when they scanned our tickets, we discovered they were actually for Saturday! Luckily we were able to come back Saturday. 

There was a huge rainstorm, so we were soaked when we got to the venue, even with umbrellas and hoods! We bought dry sweatshirts and the most expensive pizza I've had in my life. 

It was such a good show! It makes me sick that I'm old enough to be his mother, though. Daisy loved it so much. She screamed and sang at the top of her lungs and cried. I was so glad I took her!

She won’t like me posting this photo, but it’s so genuine, I can’t help it!