Scott is 40!

I had no idea what to get Scott for this milestone, decade birthday. After praying about it, something completely different came to mind. Rather than a gift, I gave him an experience. A surprise experience which was a little tricky to accomplish, but I did it! I had him open a gift with the intinerary for the weekend on Friday around 3pm, an hour before we would need to leave (I had asked him earlier on in the week if he could get off work a little early, maybe 430pm Friday so that we could get to Archibalds earlier for dinner...that was the dinner date location he'd picked since it was close to his birthday, and they get pretty packed.)

After dinner at Archibalds Scott and I spent the night at a hotel near the base of Cottonwood Canyon. 

We played games and watched a Hallmark Mystery movie. 

I brought some of his favorite treats plus some sparkling apple cider and fancy glasses to drink from :). 

In the morning we took a ski bus up to Brighton ski resort(we were lucky to get on a bus with the crowds that were there!) where we had a private ski lesson (mostly for me since I've only skied once before, and not in utah), adn then we hit the slopes for the day. Many thanks to friends and neighbors who let our kids stay overnight. 

I had no idea the madness around skiing here in Utah. I could not believe how many people were there, the cars, the traffic, the all day event, just everything. But we had such a great time, so I guess it's not that surprising because we for sure wnat to go again, and we're even thinking about bringing all the kids, though it'll cost an arm and a leg. 

 Happy Birthday Scott! Love you!

 During dinner and scripture study tonight we talked about failure. How we all will fail and have great challenges and trials in our life. Scott shared a quote with us from John Roberts, the Chief Justice of the US, speaking at his son's middle school graduation. He said, "From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice. I hope that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of loyalty. Sorry to say, but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that you don't take friends for granted. I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success if not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either. And when you lose, as you will from time to time, I hope every now and then, your opponent will gloat over your failure. It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship. I hope you'll be ignored so you know the importance of listening to others, and I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion. Whether I wish these things or not, they're going to happen. And whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes." 

Speaking of failure, I thought my backbend was pretty good until we took pictures and I compared mine to the girls! 

It's alright compared to Scott :). 

We used to make pizzas every week, but over the past year or two, we mostly buy our pizza from Little Caesar's. So I was pretty excited to put these on the menu and have them one day last month, and I was even more excited that I made a half veggie, no-cheese pizza for me with a spicy cashew cream sauce drizzled over top. It was delicious! 

Home Improvements: canned lights and awning and a high school dance proposal

We regularly come up with house improvement projects. In the 5 years we've been in this house we have: 

• finished the basement(Scott did framing, electrical, plumbing and I painted. We also did everything in the bathroom. we hired out hanging the drywall and mudding/taping and carpet. And he put in a projector with surround sound, and a high fan in the gym)
•  added a cement patio to the back yard
• tore out grass in a corner and built a firepit 
• had someone pour a cement foundation which Scott then built a shed atop
• we put shelving, a bench and hooks in the mudroom 
• a couple of years later we turned the mudroom into Penny's bedroom and Scott built lockers in the garage
• he built Penny a doghouse 
• we added shelving to our kitchen pantry
• we've painted 2 bathrooms and a couple other random walls (one was black when we moved in and the other was a green/orange/mustard color)
• We planted 11 trees
•  most recently Scott put canned lights in the front room and our bedroom 
• and we paid someone to put an awning over our back porch so that Penny has a covered area from the elements (snow, rain and extreme heat and sun). 

We decided to take Penny to Home Depot to see how she'd do. She did quite well!

And this year with no school dances, the kids have been putting together their own "dance" experiences. So we still do the all-day dates that are traditional around here, and then someone in our neighborhood has rented the clubhouse where the kids come to eat dinner and dance the night away. Elisabeth wanted to ask her date 'Mandalorian style' to the Sweethearts dance (girl ask guy) since he likes Mandalorian, so this is the poster we came up with, and she found this cute baby yoda (grogu) to give him as well. 

 

Charles is 15 and a Sweeper

Charles turned 15!! 

Charles requested Banana Cream Pie, so we made a couple. 

Charles is kind. He is good with children and animals. He loves to be outdoors camping and hiking. He's fun and funny and smart and we are grateful he's ours. 

He also started his first day at a new job the day before his birthday. He is doing janitorial work (just a sub for now because they have enough regular employees) at the school where I am working. He is grateful to be earning a wage. I am grateful he knows how to work. 

 

2021 Goals

 We rarely take the entire family out to dinner (paying for 7 is expensive...but don't be feel bad for them; they get Little Caesars pizza weekly when Scott and I go out to dinner). But we do take them out every New Years Eve. And during that special and rare dinner we spend time reflecting on the year: the good and the lessons learned from the not so good. Then we share goals for the new year. 

I am a very goal oriented person. So is Scott. We look far ahead to the future, to who we want to be and then we make goals to help keep us on track. We also do this for short term goals. As a marathon runner, I made very specific, daily goals for my exercises. I also had goals around the food I ate, how much sleep I needed, and how much water I'd drink before and during the runs. These small daily goals helped me to accomplish big dreams over long periods of time. I love this quote from above (and the entire talk) from former apostle Joseph B Wirthlin. He said, " Marathon runners set explict goals. You should look ahead now and decide what you want to do with your lives. Fix clearly in your mind what yo u want to be one year from now, five years, 10 years and beyond...Write your goals and review them regularly. Keep them before you constantly, record your progress and revise them as circumstances dictate. 

And we'll end with a picture from a recent date night. We took Penny for a hike up Yellow Fork Canyon (we wanted to try out our new spikes/yaktrax) and then grabbed some dinner.