Is He a Hottie?

The other night Scotty and I were watching Indiana Jones. Historically, I've never thought Harrison Ford was all that attractive, but I'm 42 now, and I have to say that Harrison Ford was quite handsome in 1981, and I see it now through my wise, mature eyes. 

This made me wonder about Daisy. Would she think 1981 Harrison Ford was attractive? I decided to compile a series of photos to show Daisy and ask, "Is he a hottie?" I put the images on the TV and allowed her to express her opinion. Some of her answers surprised me. But what was even more entertaining was Scotty's commentary. It went a little bit like this:

Is Harrison Ford a hottie?

Daisy: Not in that picture. I need to see more to decide. 

Scotty: Oh yes, he is! He is a total hottie!

Is Jonathan Brandis a hottie?

(I used to love watching Ladybugs, and I thought he was GORGEOUS!)

Daisy: Um... maybe. I don't know. He looks kind of feminine.

(This comment is pretty funny if you know the plot of Ladybugs). 

Is Brendan Fraser a hottie?

Daisy: No.

Is Elvis a hottie?

Daisy: No.

Is Donny Osmond a hottie?

Daisy: No.

Is Andrew Keegan a hottie?

Daisy: A little bit.

Is Joey Lawrence a hottie?

Daisy: No.

Is Brad Pitt a hottie?

Daisy: Yes.

Scotty: That's the guy from Boy Meets World. 

Me: No, it's not.

Is Steve Martin a hottie?

Daisy: Ew, no. Why does his chest hair come up so high?

Scotty: That's the Star Wars guy. 

Me: No, it's not.

Is Christian Bale a hottie?

Daisy: Yes. 

Is Leonardo DiCaprio a hottie?

Daisy: He's okay.

Is Tom Cruise a hottie?

(I intentionally chose a photo from The Outsiders because he wasn't exactly Tom Cruising at that point in life)

Daisy: I love The Outsiders.

(So, she didn't exactly answer the question).

Is Chevy Chase a hottie?

Daisy: NOOOO!!!!

Scotty: What? You don't like the Fonz?

Me: That's Chevy Chase! 

Scotty: No, it's not!

Me: Yes, it is!

Scotty: Nooooooo! That's the Fonz.

Me: No, it's not!

Is Jonathan Taylor Thomas a hottie?

Daisy: Yes! Yes! Yes!

Me: I am such a proud mom right now!

Is Ryan Gosling a hottie?

Daisy: Yes. Wait, is that Leonardo DiCaprio?

Me: No, it's Ryan Gosling when he was in Breaker High!

Sunday Sentiments

I'm a bit spiritually defunct right now, but I'm trying to push through and continue studying the gospel regularly (I can't say "daily," but I can at least say most days). 

This week the Come Follow Me lesson prompts us to think about "gathering manna." What are the things we do every day to find spiritual nourishment?

Remember the Del Parson painting with Christ at the door?

There is no knob, so all Christ can do is knock, and it is up to the person on the other side of the door to open it.

For me, even when I feel spiritually "down" (as I am now), I know that if I keep doing the daily practices that leave the door open, eventually Christ will come in. Sometimes I feel like I’m faking it, and I don’t like that, but so far my success rate of making it through is 100%.

About ten years ago, there was a lot of buzz among members of my faith around the book, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light. The book is a collection of letters that Mother Teresa wrote in which she expressed her own feelings of spiritual darkness.

For Mother Teresa, as soon as she began doing the work that she felt Christ called her to do, she stopped feeling Him near. She longed, more than anything, to have a relationship with God, but for over fifty years, she struggled to feel Him near (read a little more about Mother Teresa's story here).

Isn't it interesting how these things happen during crucial points of our lives? 

The lesson this week links to a talk by President Uchtdorf called "Daily Restoration."  In President Uchtorf's talk, he reminds us of the importance of small and simple acts of realignment. He says it is an ongoing process. It is normal to veer off course from time to time and need to redirect ourselves. I personally feel like I’ve had the best learning experiences while trying to come out of my spiritual droughts. One result of such experiences is that I no longer beat myself up for them. I used to be so hard on myself if I wasn’t feeling regular doses of the Spirit, but now I’ve learned to give myself grace and a little bit of time. President Uchtdorf taught that striving for “daily restoration… is how we become true disciples of our Savior, Jesus Christ.” 

I’ve found that pushing through times of spiritual struggle has helped me understand people better and overcome some of my own unhealthy ways of thinking. Hopefully, as President Uchtdorf stated, it truly does help me become a better follower of Christ. 

Things the Kids Say: Episode 40

Eva: Can we go to Target?

Me: No, I've already been there today.

Eva: What for? To get your old lady meds?

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Cake: How do you afford your rock and roll lifestyle?

Eva: This guy sounds like he's not even trying to sing. 

Zoe: Ya, if I made this song, I would be pretty disappointed with my life.

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Zoe: I think I need to go to the eye dentist.

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Zoe: I wish napkins had a better flavor.

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Eva: Those people are easveswalking!

(They were jaywalking)

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Eva: I ate a receipt once. It tasted horrible.

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On our way to Target...

Zoe: My pants look weird, but it's okay because it's not like Robert Irwin is going to be there.

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Eva to Scotty: Mom's too normal to be with you. 

Eva 

Clues that I am Aging

Clue #1: I have sleep apnea.

Clue #2: Over the weekend my brother-in-law started a conversation with me by saying, “Ya know what I learned about pigeons recently?” and I was very interested. 

Clue #3: My friends and I review our perimenopausal symptoms with each other regularly. 

And our prescription meds.

And our skin care regimens.

And our hair care routines (because we are losing our hair).

Clue #4: I keep seeing social media posts that tell me a trend is back, and I never even knew it left.

Clue #5: I am becoming less tolerant of noise every day. 

Clue #6: People on old TV shows that used to look old to me look young to me now.

Clue #7: I don’t want to learn any new technology. 

Clue #8: I feel like I don't belong in this world - like I am no longer relevant here. I've outgrown it. 

Clue #9: I look at old photos of myself, and I don't feel like that's me. But I also look in the mirror and don't feel like that's me, either. 

Clue #10: When I have to give my date of birth, I feel like I'm confessing a sin.

It wasn't supposed to happen to me!

The tulips in my yard have already lived and died (and ten other random facts)

Fact #1: Eva has started saying she wants to marry Jack Black. Imagine Jack Black as my son-in-law. How fun (and weird) would that be?

She writes him letters

Fact #2: I have the vacation bug. I’m itching to go somewhere. I want to book a whole summer’s worth of adventures. 

Fact #3: Zoe and Eva pulled quite the April Fool’s prank on us. I don’t know where they come up with their big ideas. 

Fact #4: For years I’ve heard about Coachella and never paid attention to what it was. Today I finally googled it. Apparently it’s a music festival? Okay then. 

Fact #5: We have the beginnings of our garden in place. The peas, onions, radishes, carrots, and potatoes are successfully growing. We usually plant our cool weather crops around Saint Patrick’s Day and the rest around Mother’s Day.

Eva keeping a map of what we planted

Fact #6: I really want to start a commune. And possibly my own cult. There will be strategy board games. Corn hole will be outlawed. We will have lots of potlucks. 

Fact #7: Costco has Snoop Dogg chips. I had them in my cart, and then I ended up putting them back. We don’t need Snoop Dogg chips. I mean… we kind of do. But we don’t.

Or do we?

Fact #8: I actually don’t like kettle chips very much, so that made the Snoop Box a little easier to walk away from.

Fact #9: I just finished the season finale of Shrinking. This week will be the season finale of The Pitt. Will I be able to go on without my shows? 

Fact #10: It took me over a week to finish this post. 

The Spring Break Rundown

Today my kids went back to school after spring break. We didn't have any big plans for the week (except for Daisy who got to go on a school trip ). We stuck around close to home and had a lot of appointments. We made up for our lack of adventure by eating out way too much, Here are some of the events of spring break 2026:

-Went to Disneyland (Daisy)

-Celebrated Easter and listened to General Conference

-Went birthday shopping (Eva)

-Slept over and Grandma and Grandpa's house (Eva)

-Went to a trampoline park (all the girls)

-Went to another trampoline park (Eva)

-Went to see the new Mario movie

-Had dentist appointments (the girls and me)

-Worked (Daisy and me)

-Went to Phantom of the Opera (Scotty and me)

-Had a hair appointment (Daisy)

-Went to the zoo

-Went to Daisy's best friend's mission call opening

Cutest tears

-Went to a baptism

-Had Game Night

-Slept in a tent for a week (Eva)

-Had a family birthday party for Eva

Honorary birthday party attendee

Our kids tend to have breakdowns right before going back to school, and they were right on schedule for Sunday night at 7:00. All of a sudden everyone needed to shower and do homework, and all hell broke lose as each girl entered crisis mode simultaneously.

Every time. 

EVERY

DANG

TIME!

Easter 2026

It’s been a week since Easter, so it’s probably time to document the holiday before I forget how it all went down. 

Our festivities began on the 29th - Palm Sunday. Since our Church’s General Conference fell on Easter Sunday, we had our Easter program on Palm Sunday. Daisy and I went to hear our friend Whitney sing at her church. Then we went to our church. Have I mentioned that Scotty was recently put in the bishopric? (No, I have not). Palm Sunday was the first meeting we had with the new bishopric.

Some years we get Easter dresses. Some years we don’t. This year we did, and we wore them on Palm Sunday. I didn't take a photo.

That afternoon we had my mom’s Easter party where I didn’t take a single photo. 

At some point we dyed eggs. I have no memory of what day that happened, but I want credit for it because we don’t always dye eggs. Once again, I didn’t take a single photo.

Daisy left for a school trip on Wednesday, so she was gone for a lot of our Easter celebrations.

The day before Easter I spent a lot of time prepping food. I made fruit trays for some friends for General Conference and delivered them. We listened to Conference and worked in the yard. Then we had Scotty’s dad’s Easter party… and I didn’t take a single photo.

The Easter bunny stopped by our house and left a toy hippo for Eva, Michael Vey books for Zoe, and lashes and self-tanner for Daisy for Easter morning. And I didn’t take any pictures.

But…

We made resurrection rolls for breakfast, and I DID take some pictures!

We also lit the Immanuel wreath, which we do as we read The Living Christ.

And we shared the story of Easter as we put out an Easter crèche. 

I did lots and lots of food prep that morning. We listened to Conference, and the girls hung out in hammocks in the backyard. 

In between sessions of Conference, we went to Scotty’s mom’s house for lunch and stayed for the second session of Conference. 

My sister-in-law and I told our mother-in-law she wasn’t allowed to fix any food for Easter. Her only assignment was to provide paper products. It took us weeks of lecturing to get her to abide these instructions (and she tried several times to infiltrate the food prep). I decided to make her a crown and sash that said, "Miss Obedient 2026," which I would present her only if she followed through with her promise to not prepare any food (if she snuck in any extra food, I was going to cross it out and write "Dis Obedient 2026"). I wasn't sure she'd pull it off, but she did! She earned her sash and crown with no alterations (and it nearly killed her)!

It was really weird having half our kids gone for Easter! Daisy got home from her school trip late Sunday night. We've arrived at the phase of life where there's always potential that someone will be missing from holidays and vacations. It's something we're going to have to get used to.