An Incomplete List of Reasons I am Happy

1. One of my bathrooms is clean (or at least it was 12 hours ago. I don’t know what’s gone on in there since).

2. Next week is Nicky’s one year mark for his mission. 

3. My girls are going camping with their grandma in a few days, and this means A) activities and a change of scenery for them and B) a bit of a break for me.

4. I have tickets to see Derek Hough this week.

5. I’m watching 30 Rock for the (who knows)th time!

6. I’ve done lots of things with my friends recently, and I love them so much.

7. My favorite shorts are clean(ish).

8. I have $110 in Sam’s Cash and a $66 credit to Costco.

9. We have permanent holiday lights on our house, and they are rocking the red, white, and blue.

10. I found a missing purse, two missing gift cards, and a missing flip flop yesterday.

What We've Been Up To Lately

It's May, and we all know May can be a bit insane, but I have to say, it's not as bad when you don't have a graduate. I keep thinking, "Why does it feel easier this year?" and then I remember that having a senior made everything at least twice as chaotic. And when that senior is leaving on a mission a few weeks after graduation, and he thinks he needs to go on three trips in that time whilst recovering from an injury, it's a lot. I look back to last year at this time and wonder how we made it. I'm going to embrace the ease of May 2026. Here's what we've been up to during this easier but still crazy month:

Daisy's final theatre performance was three nights as Lady Laughs A Lot in The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood. The play was a lot of fun - we had some good laughs with Daisy.

I did the locker decorations for the play. 

I did not know (prior to this) that painting posters is a whole thing right now. After Robin Hood, I made a poster for our friend, Mark's, 50th birthday (yep - my friends are starting to push into the next decade. It's inevitable!)

Daisy went to senior ball (and we chaperoned). She opted to go with a group of girls and no dates. It was the easiest school dance ever! 

(See how easy? I don't even have a photo! It's like it never even happened! That's how easy it was!)

My girls had five dance concerts in a row last week - one for high school, two for junior high, and two for our community studio. 

We've kept the grandparents hopping!

Daisy had Drama Awards - of course she was awarded "Best Laugh."

She also got a Bronze Letter in Theatre. 

We have eaten out way too much! After adding up our expenditures, my jaw hit the floor. We will be reigning it in now. 

I do not regret a single onion tower I've consumed this week, though! (Two. Don't judge. One was technically Christie's, so it doesn't count against me). 

Scotty was sick about a week and a half ago, and then Eva got sick this week (she missed three days of school - way to go out strong!)

I cracked a crown and had to have a new one put on. My temporary crown fell off after two days, so I had to go have it put back on until my permanent one was ready. I love my dental staff, but I don't want to see them again until October. And honestly, not even then. 

We got our garden planted. We started with our cold weather crops in March and finished the rest over Mother's Day weekend. 

We planted carrots, radishes, peas, potatoes, onions, corn, summer squash, spaghetti squash, tomatoes, pumpkins, watermelons, crenshaws, strawberries, basil, chives, sage, parsley, green beans, and a few different flowers. May the odds be ever in our favor! Every year, we have about a 50% success rate. We just never know where our success will lie! I got a little ambitious with pumpkins this year. We'll see what happens.

I put out my 4th of July decorations. It’s early, but I did it while I had the time and the desire. 

I started teaching Zoe how to use the grill. 

I keep thinking of all the life skills my kids don't have and how quickly I'll be sending them out into the world. I'm hoping to tackle a few skills this summer. I’m a big dreamer.

We still talk to Nicky on Monday nights. He remains on the island of Antigua picking up stray cats and stray toilets. Perhaps he'll need a de-worming pill on account of both. 

Eight more days of May! Four more days of school. 

This Week

I had a gig dressing as the Easter Bunny for my mom’s work party.

Things got a little confusing when I ran into the real Easter Bunny later in the week.

Eva’s birthday was on Tuesday.

Scotty took her to see the Minecraft movie, and then we had a dinner of her choice: chicken legs and plain bow tie noodles. Turns out, she doesn’t even like chicken legs (it was a weird choice), but then I found out she was trying to mimic lava chicken from Minecraft. 

Nicky had a Unified track meet that he has been looking forward to all year. Of course, his leg prevented him from fully participating, and his buddy, Jesus, hijacked his scooter. 

Turns out, Nicky’s boot makes Jesus nervous. He doesn’t like going near it. 

Nicky had his State theatre showcase and competition. 

I made some “break a leg” gifts for the performers (which feels sketchy with Nicky on crutches) and saw them off on the bus in the early morning. 

Zoe had her final choir concert of elementary school. 

We had my mom’s Easter party. 

Then we had Scotty’s mom’s annual egg roll. This year she had the kids roll eggs down an inflatable slip and slide.

Then we had Scotty’s dad’s Easter party.

Eva tried to stay up late to catch the Easter Bunny Saturday night, but she finally surrendered just before midnight. The Easter Bunny brought everyone new bath towels. I’m sure that deep, down in their souls, that’s exactly what they all wanted!

On Easter, we went to church. Then we came home and made resurrection rolls and lit our Immanuel wreath. Zoe started feeling yucky after church and fell asleep. 

The weather was nice on Easter so we hung out in the yard. We’ve had chickens for 10+ years, and I’ve never had one jump up on my lap before, but one did on Sunday and scared me to death!

At 4:00, we went to Scotty’s mom’s for dinner. I came back home to be with Zoe and brought her some food. 

After such a crazy week, we’re behind on all of our responsibilities, and our house looks like a tornado of plastic eggs and laundry came through. 

Goings On

Here are some things that have been going on lately...

Daisy has been watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Gilmore Girls. We have regular discussions about all the red flags in Rory's love life. Daisy's friend just started Gilmore Girls the other day, and they are now texting regular arguments about Rory's boyfriends. 

Nicky had a pottery piece selected for display in the Utah High School All-State Art Show. That means his work is in a legit museum! We drove down there (Springville) on Tuesday to see it.

Daisy got her learners permit.

Nicky got a significant amount of hair cut off last week and said, "I look like a bully from a Disney Channel movie." (He actually looks like Sid from Toy Story). 

Nicky and I went to a district-wide prom for students with special needs. It was the cutest and funnest thing ever! Nicky wasn't thrilled that I was there, but sorry kid! Your mom is part of your life, and you're just gonna have to deal with it!

The other day I was behind Lightning McQueen in the McDonald's drive thru, and I don't think anything more exciting than that will ever happen to me. 

In addition to the 2,000 piece puzzle I bought from the thrift store, I found a 750 piece thrifted puzzle with all pieces accounted for (I'd still rather have $10,000).

Right now, all I want to do is build puzzles and do word games. 

My kids had a five-day weekend last week. Five days. In the middle of February. 

Nicky's mission papers are almost complete. We are just waiting for his passport to arrive (passports are not required, but Scotty wanted him to have one). 

Update: mission papers are in! 

The other day I snuck 14 pieces of pizza (with paper plates and ranch dressing) into the movie theater. If I have to watch Dog Man, there needs to be sustenance. 

Nicky wins stuff on the radio all the time. The DJ knows him by name. This week he won a $200 gift card to Living Spaces. 

We've had hardly any snow this winter (about which I am not complaining), but Scotty wanted the kids to have a chance to go sledding, so he took them to the mountains on Presidents Day. 

We have a cardboard cutout of Nicky's theatre teacher at our house, and she scares the crap out of us pretty much every day. One of Daisy’s friends left her in our shower the other night.

Fall Break 2024

The kids went back to school today after fall break. I always dread fall break because I’m never quite recovered from summer. I’ve reached a point in my parenting journey where I’m just kind of done. I’m done trying to provide my kids with fun and activities. We’ve done it all. There’s nothing left. 

Even though I’m utterly exhausted from 17 years of entertaining children, I tried really hard to give them a good fall break. I didn’t want to do any of it, but I toughed it out. 

On Thursday we got Ghostbuster donuts from Krispy Kreme. 

Then we went for a short hike to Lisa Falls. 

It’s been in the mid 80’s here for the last few weeks, so I wanted to take advantage and spend a little time in the mountains. 

We also walked around the temple quarry.

My kids found a praying mantis, named it Trevor, and carried it around everywhere. They were upset when I didn’t let them bring it home.

Trevor was very uninterested in goldfish crackers, for the record.

Eva went out to dinner and on a shopping spree (sponsored by the dad) with a friend for the friend’s birthday that night. While Eva was gone, I took Zoe to Target to look around for a while (per her request). Zoe found a toy penguin she really wanted and decided to save her money for. Then, by sheer coincidence, Eva came home from her friend’s shopping spree with the same penguin. Zoe went ballistic, and we ended up having to manage hours of jealous rage. 

On Friday I left my kids with a big list of chores and went to work for a few hours. Then I went to the dentist to have a tooth chip repaired. 

When I got home, I was a bit of a bum for the rest of the day. But I made Halloween nachos with orange and black tortilla chips, so I feel like that should grant me some awesome mom points (even though my kids didn’t eat them because there was too much “stuff” on them).

Our neighbors came over and played for several hours with Zoe and Eva, so that was nice to have them occupied for a while. Daisy and I watched 13 Going on 30, which she got a kick out of. 

On Saturday I catered a wedding luncheon, so I was up at 5:00 a.m. working on that. I don’t think I even sat down (other than driving in the car) until after 5:00 that evening, and the only reason I sat down was because I finally squeezed in a shower, and I dried my hair seated at a vanity.

My family and a couple of friends helped me get everything served. We did a pasta bar with penne and spaghetti and three different sauces. Also broccoli, green salad, and garlic bread. Then we did sundaes for dessert. Everything went well for the most part. There’s always something, but we got through it. 

Sadly, I didn’t get a single photo of the food other than this one of my chickens eating some leftover salad. 

They were so happy!

That night, Scotty and Nicky worked at the Imagine Dragons concert while the girls and I represented at the wedding reception. I got to see lots of old friends there! 

On Sunday I took Scotty to the airport to go to North Carolina for work. 

I’m not gonna lie… it was really hard to come back home and go to church, but I did it! After church, I got everyone fed and then I said, “I’m going on an outing. Any of you who would like to join me are welcome, but if you’re going to have a bad attitude, stay home.”

Everyone came. Including one who ended up with a bad attitude despite my earlier warning.

She didn’t know there would be walking involved. Apparently it was very traumatic to have to walk. Poor baby. 

We walked around Memory Grove. Some of us chose to enjoy it. 

I wanted to go to a few other places, but Grumpy Pants wouldn’t let us, and Nicky needed to go to a fireside anyway (with Elder Rasband), so we cut our outing short. 

That night I was really, really tired. I ended up going to bed at 8:30, and I didn’t get up until 8:00 the next morning. It was wild! 

On Monday I took Zoe and Eva to the skate park. They rode their bikes and skateboards for about an hour. Zoe accomplished new milestones while Eva crashed twice, so I had one happy kid and one sad kid.

We went to see White Bird at the movie theater (I might actually write a post about this experience because it was a bit of a milestone for my family).

 

I snuck in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We were the only people in the theater, and that was nice because my kids asked a lot of questions, and I didn’t have to shush them.

When we got home, we cleaned the house, which was a huge job. Everything was in disarray from the crazy weekend, and there was a lot of stuff that needed to be put away from the wedding. I also spent about an hour and a half on a chat with Gabb trying to sort out some problems with Zoe’s watch (a few hour later they informed me they will send us a new device, which is exactly what needed to happen, but it took them a really long time to come to that conclusion). 

Zoe went to play with a friend, which was a huge blessing because she and Eva really needed a break from each other. 

Nicky appeared a few times over fall break, but for the most part, he was gone. We don’t see a whole lot of him these days. On Sunday he met with the bishop to start the process of getting his mission papers ready. I can’t believe it’s already time! 

I ended fall break by letting my kids spend way too much time playing video games Monday night, and I sorted the Rubbermaids. It’s been on my to-do list for several weeks, so I actually feel like quite a champion over it. For this brief moment, I have corresponding numbers of containers and lids. That’s the highlight of fall break for me personally. But my kids didn’t need to be home for five days straight for that to happen. I’m just sayin.