A is for Aquarium & Apples

It's a new month. Must be feeling that pull to get some journaling recorded.

My girls came back from Grandma's. Boy, was that different having them home. I think it was really good for them to be gone during that crazy time, because it sure hasn't been easy trying to squeeze 4 of us into this mess. Chloe was only home for 6 days and then she was off on another adventure to California. Lark moved to Huntington Beach, so Chloe got to tag along to help with the move. It would have been fun for Sophie to go to, but she was already missing me pretty bad after two weeks away and she definitely needed a break from her sister for a bit.

Sophie invited her friends to come down and go to the aquarium with us. We had to fit one more activity in before school started up. We scheduled it for the same day that Chloe left for California, so she was able to come with us for a little bit and then my parents just picked her up at the aquarium. After spending all the time we could with the sharks and otters and penguins, we went and got some lunch and brought it to our house to eat. They got to see our mess and what our little world on the south end of the valley is like. We are really grateful for good friends and the fun time we were able to have together.

Sophie was scared to death to walk across this "tight rope" bridge they had. It was good to watch her face her fears, and see a little positive peer pressure in action!

And see how happy she is that she made it?

I'm just throwing this in to show what we do with most of our time. Sometimes I find it hard to blog about the everyday stuff because it just seems so rote. But here is Sophie thrilled (as always) to be doing her math. After having such a messed up schedule the last couple months, we finally got back in our groove...

For about a week. And then we had to work hard on the house. I had decided to do all the painting myself, so it was time to work on that. We had several days of pure exhaustion. Painting isn't too rough, but we were under a bit of a time crunch since our contractor was waiting on us.

Brandon started his new job this month. He now works for FamilySearch in Orem. I'm pretty stoked about what he gets to work on, and I have lots of advice for him, but he's back to commuting and I'm back to no car.

A few weeks ago I was feeling desperate for an activity that our family could all do together. We just don't get out and have fun together on our weekends like we used to. Sure, there's still plenty of recreation going on, but it's just different -- and a lot of times it's not just the 4 of us. I miss that. So... I had gotten an email about an apple harvest at Wasatch Mountain State Park. I picked a Saturday that Brandon wouldn't have to spend working on his gospel doctrine lesson and booked us a reservation. Then I realized it was the same day that Swiss Days was going on in Midway -- just down the street from the state park. What perfect timing! Only Brandon didn't exactly have time to do both, so he ended up staying home and working on the house and yard. We still had a good time picking apples. Then we went and stood in line for nearly an hour to get on the shuttle bus to Swiss Days. It wasn't too bad -- we thought we were going to get poured on, but it just drizzled a bit. Sure beat the heat I had to deal with the last time I went. I actually bought something this year -- some wrapping paper to justify our time we spent, but it was really just about spending time with my girls.

On the way home I had a scary experience. I needed to do my grocery shopping for the week while I had a car, and driving through Orem I saw a Winco. My friend had just told me they had a good bulk foods section, so I decided to stop and try them out. We spent an hour doing all our shopping, went to check out, but after the girls had put some of the food up on the conveyor belt I noticed a sign that said they don't accept credit cards. I shop pretty exclusively with my card, but I didn't think it would be a big deal. Then I remembered my debit card had just expired (I had called the bank just two days before to get a new one, but I had to go in to a branch (and that's a little hard to do right now) so I still don't have one. I thought, "I'll just write a check," but when I went to get my checkbook it wasn't in my purse. It is always in my purse. So I went and talked to the checker. She said she could just bag the food up and hold it for me until I could come pick it up, but I don't live near Orem and Brandon wouldn't be going until Tuesday. It wasn't a big deal, but I was extremely embarrassed to have to put all that food back (or just leave it for someone else to do), and overwhelmed at the thought of having to spend another hour to go and do my shopping at a different store. I finally realize I did have a little cash with me, so we ended up just prioritizing what I needed and had the checker watch the total carefully. We just cut it off where we had to. I've always been blessed to have the money to buy the things we need, so this was a bit of a reality check for me to see what it felt like for people who can't. Then when we went to the parking lot, the people parked right next to me had dropped a bag that had some dried beans in it. They were sitting there picking up every last one of those beans off the ground.

For our 5th Sunday yesterday we watched the video about John Rowe Moyle in our combined meeting. The youth were shown the same movie in their class. This man would walk 22 miles to get to his job to work on the Salt Lake temple. Then after an accident that claimed one of his legs, he made a wooden peg and went right back to walking 22 miles (one way) to complete his assignment. It's a great story, but to follow up with the lesson, for their activity on Wednesday the youth are all going to be walking to the temple. Yes, I know only in Utah (right?), and our temple is only 4.2 miles away, but I think the message is the same. I'm really excited for the kids to get to have this experience.