Aug-N braces off, USU, back to work/school. God is good.

We love our Missionary Mondays! When Annabelle went to HXP in Ghana in the beginning of July, she brought out 2 small packages for Charles and his companion and they received them in mid August! So glad they made it! 

Mid August, the girls were back to school and I was back to work. Jane is a Junior, and Nora is a Freshman! Annabelle started school at USU the following week! I can't believe we're down to 2 kids at home....for the time being that is. Charles should be back the beginning of November!

I snapped this picture of the Jordan River Temple as I was heading home after my Tuesday evening shift. I love how it lights up the area. It's definitely a refuge from the storm and a place of peace and strength. 

Jane was asked by Brock to homecoming. He's good friends with Halle's boyfriend. Jane's happy to be going with such a nice guy and with her group of girlfriends. I personally think we have way too many dances in a year...6 is far too many, but if they like it, and if they're paying for most of them, then I suppose it shouldn't matter to me too much. And it gives them the opportunity to date, since that's not something most of the high schoolers are really doing these days. 

So cute! Jane and Penny are napping together on the couch. 

We had some pretty awesome rain shower and thunder storms in August. We got some hail with some of them too. 

We've been busy packing up and cleaning up Annabelle's room. 

Monday August 24th we dropped Annabelle off at USU. She had received a priesthood blessing from her dad the night before and afterwards she was a little teary eyed and I asked her how she was feeling. She was feeling nervous about moving away, about not knowing any of her roommates, and about starting college classes. We'd been praying for her. Within a half hour of us arriving, her cousin Reese (from Oregon) got back from a run and came and hung out! Having Reese where she was, living a floor below Annabelle, was for sure, a divine orchestration. I'm pretty sure my mom and dad had something to do with it, pulling strings up there. Reese, who is the same age as Annabelle, had been planning to go to BYU. But then in June, she decided to take up the offer/scholarship she got from USU to run on their cross country team. She had to find last minute housing. Her team was in the San Juan Hall, which is Annabelle's hall. Reese got in! But then a few weeks later, they moved her team to the building next door. But because Reese hadn't signed up at the same time as the team, she couldn't move buildings with them, but stayed in San Juan Hall. And is just one floor down from Annabelle. It was so nice, so comforting for Annabelle to have Reese there, who is familiar family. They hang out a lot. They have a class together. I'm not so worried about Annabelle anymore. God is good. 

Oh and by the way, her roommate, Sophie is great! As are her other roommates. Sophie has a car and is from Alpine which is only 25 minutes from our house, so when Sophie comes home, Annabelle is always welcome to catch a ride (which she has a couple of times already and I'm writing this in September). I meet them off of 1-15 and it works great! Blessings and tender mercies. And answered prayers. 

Nora got her braces off!!! for the second time. And just in time for picture day! Literally, she got them off the morning of picture day! Lucky girl! 

Stef's dog had puppies! (Stef is one of the assistant coaches on Nora and Scott's team). The labs are SO adorable! And they fit in the palm of your hand! It kinda made me want one, but at the same time I remember how much work penny was and still is, and then I change my mind and feel quite content with having just Penny. 

Scott and I love trying new food places. We ate dinner at Tuk Tuks, a new Thai food place in mountain village and it was delicious! The stir fry in the pineapple was so yummy, as was my curry and the mango sticky rice. We will definitely be going there again. 

For about 6 weeks I'd been trying to recreate these muffins that I bought from Little Miss Muffin in Utah, and it has been a struggle! I think I've made about 6 different batches, adjusting the recipe. Why is it so hard? Because they're macro friendly. They've got so much protein, and fiber and little calories and sugar. Coming up with the right quantities has been hard. Some were really bad. And looked really bad. 

Then they got better. It's still not quite the same as hers, but I do feel like they're getting much closer. They're all bran based, and I've been trying out an almond poppyseed muffin and a lemon white chocolate muffin. The lemon white chocolate I like a little more. 

This is our intervention team at work! I love all these ladies! And we're missing Angie from this picture, she helps kids with math. Most of them do walk to read, and then Charilyn and I work with the multilingual kids. I love what I do. It's seriously such a great job, so rewarding to see them progress so quickly (many of them) and learn the English language. And you can't beat the hours. M-Th 9-2pm, and I get off all holidays and school breaks (Fall break, winter break, spring break, Summer). 

The schedule allows me to still cook and clean (if I want :)) and to run errands, and to write, and work at the temple and go to my scripture study/brunch on Fridays and just do the things I love to do. I'm grateful for my work. 

 

August-Pfeifferhorn, temple training, Bear Lake

The first half of August was spent doing more things around home before school started up again. 

I think I may have mentioned before that Jane didn't try out for cheer because of her concussion, but she's one of the cheer team managers which means she helps the coach more with various things, but she can also cheer on the sidelines...just no stunting for her. She is happy to still be a part of her team. 

Of the 25 books I've read so far this year, these 5 have been my favorites. I tend to like historical fiction, and I also love regency romance novels and I love learning, so that pretty much covers all of these books. It was fun to read The Exiles before we traveled to Australia, since it's set in Australia. We were able to learn some things about their history which made the trip even more interesting. 

Charles loves the children in Africa, and they love him. You just gotta keep your backpack with your money etc on you or it may end up missing and never get returned :). 

Leia was able to come over again with a friend from the other side academy. We ate dinner and hung out; played a little pickleball but it was too hot to play for long. It's nice to just visit.

Elisa L invited me to hike Pfeifferhorn with her, Annika, Noah and their cousin Austin. I was unsure because they'd be starting at 530am since it's a long one, which was a bit early for me, but I was soon on board (I don't like to miss out on a hike with friends). It was 10.5 miles and took us 6 hours and 15 minutes. We ran some of the down. 

As you're nearing the summit, maybe a half or a quarter mile out, you get to this point where there's this line of boulders, with drop off's on either side, that you need to scramble across and then you take a really steep, but short climb to the top(maybe .2 of a mile). Looking at it from where we stood, it looked sketchy.  In fact, in kinda looked impossible. But then you see someone on the summit and you know it's not impossible. You just can't see the way. All you can really see is the next step, and the next handhold, foot hold. And it's not until you move forward and take that next step and grab that next hand hold, that you see where the next is, and then the next, and the next and so on and so forth until, all of a sudden, you've made it across these boulders and it wasn't so bad after all. We were careful and went slow, so it took us a good amount of time, but we did it. And then you've got this steep climb in front of you. But as you get closer you can see a couple of possible ways to get up. One of those ways had less gravel and more dirt mixed with bigger rocks, so I took that route....it seemed more secure. The teens took the other route, which looked a little more direct but it was much more slippery with all the loose rock, so it was harder and didn't take them any faster. 

Lessons/spiritual applications: Having faith isn't seeing the whole path laid out for you before moving ahead, but it's taking a step into the light, with what you can see, and then trusting that more light will follow, and continuing to act on that light. 

Don't take shortcuts that seem shady. Easier doesn't mean better. Most important is to have that sure foundation. Do it right. 

I love that our ward continues to plan monthly youth temple trips. The girls can't always make it with their schedules, but sometimes they can; on this particular trip, they needed another driver, so I went with them to the Syracuse temple. This temple is cool because it has two baptistries. I had taken the girls here last year just after it'd opened but it was fun to go again. 

Scott and I recently sent in applications to work at the Salt Lake City temple open house for 1-2 of their 3 3 waves when they open up. Apparently they had a lot of applicants so we may not get to do it, but I think it'd be a cool experience. We'll see. This is the picture I submitted with my application. You also had to send in a 1 minute video of yourself answering an interview question. 

Also, I became a temple worker at the Jordan River Temple in August. With three children graduated, and 2 teenagers who are usually busy with work and soccer on Tuesday nights (Scott's busy with soccer then too because he's the coach), I decided this was the perfect time to become a temple worker which requires you to be there for about 5 hours and you're without your phone during that time, so the only way the family can contact me is to call the temple and have them find me, so it's only for emergencies. I've been working there for 6 weeks now (I'm actually writing this post on September 23) and I am loving it. I love the learning, I love the people, I love the peace, I love it all. 

We have some quotes written on our mirrors in our gym that I really like:

No growth in a comfort zone. 

Attitude is everything. 

If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you. 

Action is the antidote to anxiety; turn struggle into strength. 

Last year in August we went to Bear Lake with Tayson's family. We decided to do it again this year. Although this year we didn't stay the night (last year we camped close by; this year the weather wasn't looking great for that weekend, and we tried to find a spot too late), but we went up Saturday morning, played at the beach all day, and drove back that evening after dinner. There was about a 20 minute downpour part way through our beach day. The guys mostly stayed in the water and the girls hung out under our 2 shades we had set up. 

And then we got dinner and shakes from Zipz of course. 

 

July summer soccer tournament, car totaled, 23 year anniversary

July we had a soccer tournament in West Jordan. Our team played great and took 2nd place! 

The Grand Opening for the new Smith's in Saratoga Springs happened which means my sister was able to transfer locations so she can work closer to home! Annabelle, Jane and I stopped by the grand opening to say hi, before heading to Scott and Nora's final soccer game for the tournament. 

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but every week Scott and I do a temple & dinner date night. We used to do our temple trips together monthly, but almost 3 years ago we decided we wanted to go more often as we love the way we feel before (preparing), during and after so we go weekly now, rotating which ordinances we do: initiatory, endowment and sealing. And lately we've been trying to arrange to do baptisms with the girls during that rotation too. Pretty soon though Annie will head off to USU, and it'll just be the 4 of us for a bit until Charles returns from his mission in Ghana. 

This pic was from Cubby's. They have some yummy salads and sweet potato fries. 

One early evening Jane was out driving with friends and sent a message saying she had accidentally backed into a light pole. There was obvious damage to the tail light, and bumper. Once I took it into the shop and they took it apart, they found there was damage to the rear frame and the metal bar underneath. The total cost of repairs was nearly $10k. We went through our insurance and after they had their insurance adjuster take a look they decided it was a total loss as the cost of repairs exceeded the value of the car(my car had a rebuilt title so it wasn't worth much). 

So we ended up car shopping that weekend and got a hyundai palisade. I don't recommend finding a car last second when you haven't given any thought to what would work well for your lifestyle. I really needed much more time. I'm fine with my decision as it's basically the same size as my last car, but sometimes I wish I would've got something different. Either bigger so we fit better for vacations, or smaller for better gas mileage. Maybe in a few years we'll do something different again. 

Scott and I celebrated 23 years old marriage on July 25th! We take turns planning our anniversary (and Valentine's Day), and it was my year for anniversary. I booked us a night at The Grand America Hotel for Friday the 24th, and the Saturday the 25th we did horseback riding at This is the Place, and then we did sealings at the temple that evening, which has been a tradition for about our entire marriage, and one we both love. It's nice to remember those covenants we made with each other and God on this particular day.  

We'd never stayed at this hotel before because it's more expensive than some, although I've been wanting to, and our anniversary seemed like the perfect occasion. We booked a King suite and it was so big for two people. It had a front room with a desk and couch, tv and fridge, and then the bedroom had another tv and dressers, the bathroom had two vanity/sink areas, and a large shower and a large separate tub and everything in there was made with this beautiful marble. It definitely made us want to just hang out at the hotel. 

We went down to the pool for about an hour. You can order food down there and they'll bring it out to you, and every two chairs had an umbrella and employees would walk around and open and close them for people. It felt like we were staying at a resort, but in Utah. We didn't order any food there because we planned to eat dinner at Sol Agave, a Mexican restaurant that was a short walk from our hotel. 

We loved our dinner and we got a butter cake for dessert that was delicious. We'll definitely have to go again. 

Saturday morning we went to the gym and I stayed a little longer to attend half of a yoga class before it was time for us to pack up and head out for our trail ride. James is the owner and has family members and some friends that help with the rides. I found out that James also has a trail ride company in Huntsville that can do a little more than just your slow ride, if you have riding experience, so I'm making note of that and hopefully we can go up there sometime. It was a hot and sweaty ride at 11am, but it was worth it! I was glad I brought a hat and sunglasses. 

Later that day/early evening, Scott and I went to the Oquirrh Mountain temple and did sealings. It was a lovely weekend together. I'm already looking forward to our next overnighter! (We do quarterly overnights: anniversary, around our birthdays & then either a Fall overnighter or sometimes a valentine's depending on the year). 

The girls and I went and saw the new Spiderman movie, which was so good. Afterward we stopped by Devil and Angel Dessert for a treat. They tried the strawberries and Dubai and I had a Boba fruit smoothie. Our summer is winding down and we're getting ready for school to start in just a couple of short weeks (around August 17/18).