I’m still here (and ten other random facts)

Fact #1: I don’t know how to blog anymore. I try every few days, and it doesn’t work!

Fact #2: This was Zoe’s great idea…

Her logic is, why put someone’s actual name on a bracelet when it might change?

Fact #3: Speaking of Zoe, she worked hard all morning on April Fools to prank the family. 

Fact #4: This wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be:

Fact #5:

Crock Pots.

And I love buying them from the thrift store. I will never turn away a good Crock Pot. 

Fact #6: Yesterday I took Daisy to the eye doctor, and there was a mini Jesus hidden in the room (it’s a TikTok trend).

Then today at the orthopedic specialists office, we found another Jesus.

I decided to leave Him a friend.

Fact #7: Why were we at the orthopedic specialists? Because Nicky injured his calf. We initially went to the ER, and then after a few days, it was starting to get more painful so we followed up with the specialist.

He will be in a boot for two weeks and has to miss the rest of tennis season.

He’s pretty devastated.

But I took him to Costco and bought him a cheesecake to help lift his spirits. 

Fact #8: We went and saw the Minecraft movie, and I realized Jack Black and I have the same hair.

Fact #9: Other devastating things… on Monday, Nicky was supposed to go skydiving. We had been at the skydiving place for about three hours. He was all harnessed up and set to take off in 20 minutes when they called the other plane down because of wind. We waited an hour and a half or so, and then they called it off entirely. It was so sad.

Fact #10: My kids are currently on spring break. Our big plans have mostly consisted of doctor appointments. 

Things My Kids are Into

Nicky - age 18

Cars

No, not the vehicles. Cars the movie. As in he has regressed to being a three year old again. He has Lightning McQueen Crocs, all sorts of action figures, and an assortment of clothing. 

Bluey

Again, my 18 year old son is actually a three year old. Bluey pajamas, BFF bracelets, and his Jeep is named Bandit (and he has a Bluey stuffy on his dashboard… next to a Lightning McQueen).

Musicals

He still loves everything Lin Manuel Miranda, but some of his other favorites right now are Bonnie and Clyde and Jersey Boys, and he is still in love with The Music Man and listens to it all the time. 

We had tickets to see Jersey Boys at the Ruth in March, and our show got canceled! He was devastated. We rescheduled for late April.

Flying kites

Nicky’s and his friend Jackson have been really into flying kites lately. They have bought at least 20 $2 kites from Walmart (mostly Bluey ones) and they fly them out of their car window in church parking lots. They also gift them to everyone. 

Puka shell necklaces

He wears one everyday, and he’s not convinced that all the boys I went to high school with wore the same kind!

True Crime

Nicky recently watched a few documentaries (JonBenet, Gabby Petito, Ruby Frankie, etc) and he’s hooked.

Also…

• Hawaiian BBQ Pizza from Papa John’s
• Winning stuff on the radio
• Dancing and performing 

Daisy - age 15

Boys

Ugh. It is The Worst. She texts me about boys all day long. The good, the bad, and the ugly. She loves Ryan Gosling, Glen Powell, and Chris Pratt. She loves cowboys. She loves Logan. She loves Jess. She has a weird thing for Draco Malfoy that I’ve never been able to distinguish as a joke or for real. 

Chick-Fil-A

Girl asks for Chick-fil-A everyday. “Can we go to Chick-fil-A?” “I want Chick-fil-A.” “We should get Chick-fil-A!”

Clothes

Daisy has so many clothes, and she always says she wants to go shopping for more. Last month I made her get rid of half her clothes. It was very traumatic. She doesn’t really follow current fashion trends - but she loves clothes and has her own style. She also gets lots of hand-me-downs, which is so wonderful, but it makes for a very full closet.

Body Spray

She’s a teenage girl. What can I say?

Theatre

She had her moment as Ariel in Footloose, and she really enjoyed it, but since starting high school she has been unsure whether she wants to continue doing theatre. We pushed her to do The Music Man because we wanted her to have the experience of being in a musical with Nicky, and that was her only chance. My instinct was that she would like theatre, but she was intimidated by the teacher and by being the youngest in the school. Now she’s much more comfortable and knows the theatre teacher really well, and she wants to continue in theatre. She is currently in a theatre class and will be in two theatre classes next year. 

Yellow

It’s her favorite color.

Also…

• Benson Boone
• Grandma’s Cookies (as in the brand)
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch

Zoe - age 12

Making knitted hats on a loom

She learned how to do this at a church activity, and now it’s her favorite hobby. 

Theatre

This is her most annoying obsession. She wants to be the star of everything, and she thinks she’s the best at everything. She talks about theatre camp and her school drama program non-stop. She writes plays and wants to hold auditions and make her own productions. She is always trying to cast her friends in her plays (they’re not interested). 

Dessert

After every meal, Zoe asks what’s for dessert. The answer is usually “nothing.” We’ve never routinely provided dessert after meals, so I don’t know why she has a daily expectation for it. She always says, “I could really go for some [insert choice of dessert here].” 

Braids

She likes to braid her hair in all different ways, and she’s not terrible at it. 

Also…

• Hannah Montana
• Croissants

Eva - age 9.9

Enya

But she can’t remember how to say her name, so it’s different everyday. She asks to listen to “Orinoco Flow” everyday on the way to school. 

Resin animals and 3-D printed animals

She brings home tiny duckies and other animals from school that she has found or traded with her friends everyday. They are all over my house. I have to admit, I like them better than squishies because at least they do t have hair stuck to them.

Scamanda 

Eva watched some of the Scamanda documentary with me a while ago, and now she talks about it all the time and asks me what happened to Scamanda. 

Dogs

I think 90% of parenting right now is managing “Can I get a cell phone?” and “Can we get a [insert pet of the day]?” I think I get asked these questions at least 10 times a day. Right now Eva really wants a dog, and she is always telling me about the different breeds of dogs she likes (Eva, too. Daisy, however, asks for cats and chinchillas). 

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The photos in this post are from our April Fools dinner earlier this week. I realized I haven’t been taking very many photos lately, so whenever I write a blog post, I’m finding my albums lacking. 

Five Things

Lately…

Five Things I’ve Puzzled

All of these puzzles came from the thrift store, and most of them had all the pieces. 

Five Things I’ve Eaten

“Onion Donuts”

Onion stuffed with chorizo and wrapped in bacon

(They were amazing!)

Candy Charcuterie

(All animal shapes)

Pesto pasta and chicken garlic bites

Discounted street tacos! Yesss!!!

Sweet peppers + Laughing Cow cheese in air fryer

Five Things I’ve Watched 

Five Things I’ve Spent Money On

1. Tennis fees

2. A new dryer (ours died after 21 years)

3. Steak (we’ve had steak two weekends in a row, which is more steak than we have in a year!)

4. Medication (it was time to stock up on cold meds and prescription refills)

5. Tickets to all my kids’ events

Five Things I’ve Attended

1. The high school Art Show

Nicky took first place in wheel throwing and third place in hand building 

2. High school dance concert

Nicky and Daisy both performed

3. Region theatre competition

4. 6th grade Opera

6. Zoe’s piano recital (not pictured)

Five Things I’ve Accomplished

1. Washing my makeup brushes

2. Taking Daisy to the eye doctor 

3. Putting out the Easter decorations

4. Preparing my Relief Society lesson

5. Vacuuming the van

Senioritis

Nicky graduates this year, and he’s been living life to the fullest. He’s never home. Right now he’s in the thick of theatre competition and tennis season (he’s a captain). 

Nicky as Mr. Berry in Radium Girls

He was heavily involved in Spirit Week. We joke that he’s honorary Student Gov because he does all the work with Student Gov without actually holding an office. 

He goes to all the school dances - most recently Sweethearts and Junior Prom.

Next up is Senior Ball with Jasmine. 

Nicky is in AP Ceramics. He recently had a pottery piece displayed at the Springville Museum of Art.

He competed in the Art Olympics for our district. He had to hand build a pottery piece on the spot. He took Third Place. 

This week he’s going to UVU to do some pottery clinics… or something… I don’t really keep track anymore. 

He’s also involved with Special Olympics (via Unified Sports) and attends a lot of athletic events with the Unified students (it’s currently basketball season and soon to be track and field). 

Nicky is taking an emotional resilience course and temple prep, so he’s pretty busy on Sundays. He also works at a rec center teaching rock climbing classes and donates plasma twice a week to earn some money. 

Two weeks ago he received his mission call. After he graduates he is going to serve a two year mission for our Church. I haven’t decided how I will factor his mission into my blog, so for now I’ll just say that he knows where he’s going. He leaves really quick after graduation, and he will be learning Spanish. He starts one-on-one language tutoring this week! 

His heart is already on his mission, so he’s having a hard time staying focused and finishing out the school year. I wondered if that would be the case with getting the mission call while still in high school. 

In the next little while he will be going skydiving, going to Disneyland with Performing Arts, going to Disney World with his friends, and going on a Utah temple tour. 

Time is flying! And you can probably guess that any time I spend with Nicky ends up looking like this:

Things I Didn’t Buy From the Thrift Store

Presidential plate current to Bill Clinton

Jar of rocks

Mom’s personal history

Custom gift bag

Action figure art

My soul sister

Um…

NSYNC bobble heads 

Amy has only been awesome since 2014

Fart game with sound effects CD

Girl calling 911 (not eating a Dunford donut as I initially believed)

Enthusiastic bearded friend

Owl mirror art with a history…

From the back of the owl

Bunny art

Exercycle (get tetanus shot before using)

Mustachioed Dorito pillow

Old goat 

Odd-necked chicken 

What I did buy:

I found a gallon ziplock bag with some random Christmas cards and gift tags for $1. I thought it would be a good purchase of items to throw in my gift bin. When I got home, I picked through it to decide what to keep and what to toss. First I found someone’s stack of Christmas letters and photo cards with a bunch of return address labels from 2023. Then I found two sealed envelopes that felt like they had gift cards in them. I opened them up, and they were $10 Amazon gift cards. 

Last week I was hoping for a “win,” and I got a 1,000 piece puzzle with no missing pieces. This week, my “win” came in the form of $20 to spend on Amazon. If this pattern continues, I will be a very happy gal. 

(Manifesting bigger and better “wins” from henceforth).