N is for New School Pictures

haha I made Andrew get retakes. I do love this picture, 

but I feel like we can do better.

I is for I

I'm going to write 19 things that come into my head. Last year I did 38, so now I'm gonna go by the year it is instead of my age. haha. 

1. When the photographer took this picture, I was dying. It's the steepest part of the mountain climb, near the end of the three mile ascend. I couldn't even look at him or smile. I honestly said to myself around this point: I don't want to do this. I can't do this. I might quit. 

2. I've been told the strange comment "Your ankles must be cold" two times while I have been climbing a mountain. One time during a trail race, and one time when hiking Skyline Divide in the snow. Both times it was from a random stranger passing by. I was just like..."???"

3. HOWEVER. After the hike in the snow, I went and bought wool socks from Costco that cover my ankles. I needed them especially for mountain biking because my mb shoes rub my ankles, but it turns out I love wool socks that cover my whole ankle. 

4. Right before that race picture was taken, I tripped and fell and did a safety roll. The people around me were like "are you ok etc etc" and I chose the embarrassed old lady comment: "That's not the first time that's happened...har har...it probably won't be the last." 

It was between that comment, and "the only thing hurt is my pride" comment. 

5. Every time I finish a puzzle, I write the date and a little snippet of whatever is going on in my life. 

You know how when you puzzle you think about stuff? It's like a meditation session? Well I wrote down what things I had been wondering in my brain. I love to read them with the hindsight perspective. 

I remember wondering hard core if we should have a baby back in 2014. I'm happy to know we made the right choice.

I remember thinking about our Harry Potter costumes in 2015. Glad to know they were awesome and we had so much fun.

I remember cringing as I thought about my conversation with Angelica regarding her new diagnosis of cancer in 2017. Happy to report the cancer is gone, and of course everyone appreciates some support when they are going through hard things. 

6. One time on a field trip to the park with Evan's class, we were playing kick ball. I was on the girls' team and I stepped up to the plate and kicked a legit home run. None of the kids were very into the game, but I was all like "yeah, in your face" as I ran around the bases and then high fived all the girls on my team. Evan was so proud. 

7. One time me, the primary president and the relief society president all needed to release and call new staff, so we had a meeting with the bishopric and basically had a draft. I got all the first picks because youth are priority. I have an awesome hand picked team now. I am LOVING all the changes going on. My brain is always busy processing it all.

8. Jim is the deacons advisor, so Wednesday we got to go to the activity together. We played ultimate football in the gym and it was so fun. 

9. When I'm playing sports, I like being on the losing team and trying hard to make a come back. I like to work really hard and get competitive about it. If I'm on the winning team, I feel bad trying too hard. 

10. Andrew today told us about his plan to get his crush, Chloe, to marry him. 

He's going to put lots of slippery stuff on the ground and when she and Conner (her current crush) slip on it, he's gonna come along and say "are you ok babe?" and then she'll marry him. 

OR

He's going to sneak into Conner's house and take his heart out. (When he said this, it didn't sound as violent and gory as it sounds in writing)

I said, "no no no. That is not what we do. Maybe you can get Chloe to like you by being fun and kind?"

So then he said a third plan (that I can't remember...) with the addition "and I'll always be kind to her."

11. The kids doodle on our puzzle board. A year ago Andrew was into Ninjago. I love that picture of Lloyd at the top. 

12. I want to do hard things. Things that take me out of my comfort and things that I'm not used to. This is why I do races and this is why I started mountain biking. It's making me feel so scared and vulnerable. 

13. HOWEVER. I do want to do things that are difficult for me, but I have my limits. Like I don't want to talk on the phone, and I don't want to throw a party and I don't want to fly a plane. So it's ok to want to do hard things, but not ALL the hard things. 

14. I went to the eye doctor today. I have dry eyes here in my old age. I have to put warm compresses on them and eye drops. 

You can tell I'm running out of ideas. Maybe I'll come back in the morning. I'm tired. 

15. I think it's so important to have something to look forward to, big or small. Today I was cracking the whip, making the kids clean the messy, messy house. They were so mad about it - grumbling and slouching around. Then I told them that we were going to go play with the Blacks at the church gym later and suddenly they were in such a good mood and eager to get the house clean. 

I am the same way. Exact same. Sometimes I look forward to the piece of chocolate in my purse. Sometimes I look forward to an upcoming vacation. It's such a motivator. 

16. I have found a new workout lady, Sydney Cummings on YouTube, to do in home workouts with. She is busting my chops. 

She's the most fun and most hard and most non-annoying workout person I've ever worked with. 

17. Three more. Three more. 

My friend Lisa has a photographic memory or some crazy thing like that. She knows everything and remembers everything. You mention it once, and she has total recall. 

Some dumb little examples: One day we were at the beach and Emily was telling us about a botox party her neighbors were doing and it was one of the Allegiant pilot's husband who was doing the botox injections. So I was trying to think of the two women pilots but I just could not remember their names. 

So I said to Lisa: "you probably know their names" 

and she's all: "oh! Pasha Bingham". 

I was like, "what the heck? I was joking, but indeed you know her name and you are crazy. I think we mentioned Pasha Bingham to you one time." 

Tonight the four of us (me Jim Joe Lisa) were sitting in a circle at Starbuck talking and I mentioned a Lady Antebellum song I like and I was looking it up to send to her, and she's all "is it called Ocean?"

and yes that's the exact song I was talking about. We never talk about Lady A, but of course Lisa knows about everything in the whole world. You can never introduce her to anything because she already knows it. haha.

I love our friends. 

18. Tonight before Starbucks we took all the kids to the church gym to run around and play ball games. It's cold and dark out, so this is such a great solution. All the kids got bright red in the face from all the running around. Andrew went into the nursery and got some fishys to snack on. He's such a weirdo. 

Just now as I was doing a final read through/edit, I realized I already told you about us going to the church to play with the Blacks. I am Lisa's opposite. I have no memory. 

19. I am in such a reading rut. I haven't read a good book in so long. I read about a quarter of a book and then abandon it. 

And that's it. That's all I got for now. I have lots of things running through my head all the time, so I know later I will wish I included some other thought here in this list. But I'm just gonna push publish now. 

V is for Vegas

This past weekend we had Friday off of school, so we took a little trip down to Vegas with our favorite buddies and dropped the kids off at Grandmas. 

The top 5 best things of the trip:

1. Our hotel room was a suite at the Aria and it was huge and nice. The views out the giant window were fun, specifically it was fun to watch the sunset behind the red rock mountains. 

2. There was a bidet in our bathroom. I don't know how we are all walking around without a bidet in our homes. I need a bidet. You need a bidet. Plus the seat is heated. 

3. We went to a buffet and it was strangely so fun. The creme brûlée was so good I had three of them and it made me sick. But I don't regret eating three of them. 

4. We went and flew in the Allegiant simulator. I had to take a turn flying which is the worst and I don't ever want to fly and I didn't want to fly at the time, but it was fun to be in the simulator and watch Jim push the buttons and coach us all on how to fly. But I don't want to fly an airplane. I feel like people think I'm just saying that, but I am quite serious. I don't want to ever fly an airplane. 

5. The VIP treatment you get when you are staying in a suite: specifically the lounge by our secret elevator. It had a constant rotation of snacks and drinks. One night there was a giant black woman melted into the couch there in the public lounge, fast asleep. Lisa said "Oh she's my spirit animal." 

haha

6. (Bonus) I love Jim so much. He's so fun to be with and I just like him a real lot. 

This simulator is in a machine on hydraulic legs that makes you feel like you are really flying. Add in the graphics, and it felt so real.

Joe flew us around the Hoover Dam, Lisa flew us around the Eiffel Tower, and I took off from NAS Fallon and landed/crashed near a little landing strip by Tahoe. 

I love Jim. Lately he has been coming up with little "sayings" - made up or one's that already exist - for my horrible landing, he told me: "there's an old saying: A good landing starts with a good approach, and a good approach starts with a good arrival." I had neither of those. Don't make me ever fly again.  

Then as we were flying home (for real flying - in the real air in a real airplane), me and Evan were watching Big Hero 6. 

Right around the time in the movie that BayMax and Hiro are flying around the Golden Gate, we started our decent into BLI. So, combine the visuals of Hiro flying, with the physical decent of the airplane, and it felt like we were really on BayMax's back flying around San Fransokyo. 

haha It was so cool. Me and Evan looked at each other in surprise. 

7. (bonus bonus) ooh these pistachio milkshakes...

I is for Imagination

It's that time of year again...when I sneak up on my children while they are playing and take pictures of them, showcasing what things they are into and how they are using their imagination. 

We were at Hunter's birthday party when Andrew kept kissing the broom. He said it was his girlfriend. 

Sunday mornings are the best time to capture their imaginations because they aren't allowed to play on devices, so they branch out. 

One morning they were playing "color hide and seek." This is where they pick a piece of paper from this cup:

and then they go hide under/behind/with something that is that color. 

For example: Evan had picked the color blue. 

It is getting harder and harder to keep them off of screens. Especially when it's rainy and daylight savings and they are forced to spend more time inside. 

I was puzzling. I looked over and Andrew was "playing the drums" while Evan and Avery were playing some game that has to do with Avery's feet...

Evan is so good at helping me make pancakes. 

He always reminds me to use the "handy dandy Tinker Bell plate" to put the stack of cooked pancakes on. 

Currently there are Pokemon cards everywhere. 

On the piano, on the floor....

They were taking cards and have a literal battle with arms swinging and jumping around. 

Then Andrew proceeded to make "badges" to award him and Evan after the battle was over. 

I asked him what those scraps of paper were? and he said "badges, duh."

Car formations are still a part of play. 

Avery spends a lot of free time working on math homework. 

Andrew got so embarrassed that I would take his picture while he was playing with the Toy Story guys. 

Brushing teeth with his Ninja costume on. 

Lots and lots of Pokemon. 

We love playing with neighbor kids. 

The Chambers and the Dicksons are our favorite in the world. 

G is for Good Day

Wednesday November 13, 2019

6:45

Time to get up. We still read scriptures on Avery's bed first thing. We read Hebrews 11. 

The bible is not always my favorite, but this chapter is a good one. 

Andrew still has some ninja costume on from last night. 

7:00

Time to get dressed. Avery always lingers in her warm bed the longest, and is the slowest at getting ready.

Evan is still the first one ready, first one done at everything.

Evan is at his best when he is busy with a task, so I tell him to start on his homework that's due Thursday. 

The story problem has me in it!

Jim makes french toast. 

He is the breakfast guy while I make lunches and do all the backpack, shoes, signing things duties. 

Shoes are easy these days especially because we got ourselves a shoe horn. It's a life changer, except when it's gone missing. 

Andrew kisses the shoe horn because that's how much we love it. 

No actually he kisses it because he is pretending it's his girlfriend.

So according to these pictures, you would think we had a nice peaceful morning right? 

It actually wasn't the smoothest.

Avery dropped an ice cube on the floor. Evan kicked it instead of picking it up. Then Avery kicked it under the fridge on purpose, so Jim exclaimed, "Avery Jean!" in frustration because now he has to pull the fridge out and get it so that it won't melt and warp the floor. There are a few warped floor spots near the fridge where water has damaged it in the past. 

But Avery isn't used to getting scolded, especially not from Jim, so she gets upset. 

I know she feels bad. When she gets "in trouble" she self flagellates. She is feeling lots of things, so she eats her breakfast with her hand on her forehead.

We are rapping up breakfast, getting ready to head out to the bus. She tells me she hit her nose on the desk yesterday and her nose hurts. I thought it was funny, so I said "well don't hit your nose on the desk." 

This makes her feel super bad and I think it's because she's still processing her feelings from "getting in trouble", and she needed someone to blame for feeling so bad, so she cries and says that she's mad at me because I was rude to her. (In hind sight I realize what she was saying was "I feel awful, I need a hug". I wish I would thought of that at the time.)

We say prayers and I go out the door with the boys. Avery stays back (mostly because she's always the last out the door...she's sooo slooooowwww) but also to compose herself and get sympathy from Jim. 

Down at the bus stop she rides up on her bike, drops it at my feet and says to me in the most middle school way: "DADDY showed me sympathy", then walks onto the bus. 

So yeah. I will be the bad guy she needs to blame this morning.

But I hate when the kids go to school upset. It doesn't feel right. 

There's nothing I can do about it, so I tell Lindsay all about our morning as we walk back to our houses. 

Lindsay is my favorite. When it comes to mom stuff, she is the best, most wise, most aligned with my feelings and sentiments. I wonder how much harder raising kids would be if I didn't have her as a neighbor. I'm serious. She is my mentor. 

We stand outside and talk for about a half hour as the sun comes up and we debrief on how to be a mom, what we are doing today, and neighborhood gossip (someone has been stealing mail out of mailboxes). 

8:00

I clean the kitchen.

I love the hum of a running dishwasher. I love a kitchen that will stay clean for 6 more hours until the kids return. 

I go up and puzzle for a while. 

I have decided that this is as a Thanksgiving themed puzzle. 

10:30

Me and Jim get ready to go mountain biking. 

He gets his work stuff ready to take with us in case he gets called in. 

I love having a personal bike prepper. He tunes and cleans and oils and airs my bike for me. 

In exchange, I put all his work stuff in the car. 

It is such a beautiful day! 

So, as you know I am such a newb at mountain biking, but I am trying out different trails and trying to get more confident. 

A week ago I tried out this trail "mullet" for the first time.

A week ago, the youth were in charge of cooking a community meal and serving it to the community. I was in charge of it all, and doing that kind of thing - feeding 150 people - is the most daunting thing to me. I can do a lot of hard things, but I can't put on an event. I hate throwing parties. It makes me so anxious and I get clogged milk ducts (metaphoric now, literal when I was breast feeding). 

So a week ago, I was climbing this same mountain getting to this trail, and I was sobbing the whole way up because I was just so overwhelmed by the thought of doing the community meal that night. You have two hours to cook a meal start to finish in their kitchen for 150 people. 

I started down Mullet and I was still crying and in a bad place. 

At one point I got off my bike to walk down this dumb "difficult" spot, and along came Jim riding up behind me (which is pretty big coincidence to run into each other on this big mountain.)

He found me there crying and he said "is this trail too hard?"

and I sobbed "no this trail is fine, I just can't throw parties. I don't want to do it."

etc etc etc.

Poor Jim. haha. 

What do you do with a sobbing Kelli in the middle of a great trail, in the middle of a beautiful day on  the top of a mountain?

He did his best to talk me down. 

Eventually the community meal was completed, it was fine, whatever. 

I had lots of helpers. It never is as bad as I think it's going to be. 

Me and Jim were on dishes duty in the back of the kitchen (it's actually the best of the jobs!) and he asked me "Well, was it worth crying about on Galbraith?" 

I said, "Yes. I feel really good about crying on Galbraith today." 

haha

ANYWAY. Cut to THIS beautiful day one week after that. 

 I went down Mullet again, just to see how it is when I am not mentally blocked by stupid party throwing, and it was SO FUN. I had such a good day mountain bike day yesterday. 

Such redemption and such a blast. 

Waiting at the parking lot for Jim...

These people turned their property into a "dollar lot" for bikers riding Galbraith. I love all the quirky things hung everywhere - hand written notes all about. 

Their dogs running at me, barking...

2:00

The bikes were muddy and the car was muddy, so Jim stops at a wand wash to clean things up. 

I am starving. 

We stop and get a burrito from Taco Time. 

I run in to Fred Meyer for a few groceries. We are out of fruits and veggies. 

I get us a Fastbreak to share.

Let me tell you about Fastbreaks:

They are me and Jim's candy bar. 

You know how people have "our song"? 

Well we have "our candy bar". 

Here is why: when we were dating and thinking about getting married, it was the end of the school year at SUU. We were selling our books back to the bookstore, and they were handing out free Fastbreaks in the exchange. I think they were a new candy bar then, so it was a promotional thing.

We ate a ton of them together, and anytime I eat one, I think of those days. I also feel like we are the only people who know about Fastbreaks. They are the BEST candy bar that no one talks about. haha.

(ps I think I still have a bite of this I saved in the freezer from yesterday...)

3:20

Kids get home.

Avery is no longer mad at me. She doesn't even mention it. We just greet each other as normal. By that I mean I force all my kids to hug me when they get home. They don't hug me very willingly. Does my breath stink?

We are still putting bike stuff away. Jim takes off his shorts and sprays off the mud. 

My kids run down to Jessica's every day after they dump all their school stuff all over the living room floor. 

Eventually they come back with Calvin. 

This is kind of a regular after school thing. 

They have some down time before we head out for a busy Wednesday. 

They are watching old Disney shows from Disney Plus. I am so stoked on all the old shows available! I can't wait to watch Polyanna with Avery. 

So, Wednesdays. 

Wednesdays are always crazy. 

This week Jim goes welding at Franks with the Deacons (he's the new Deacon's advisor),

I pick up Hunter and Cooper for the end of soccer celebration that me and the kids are going to, 

Lisa goes to Young Womens without me. 

5:00

Andrew's team has a pizza party first. 

Quarter machines are the worst. 

Look at all the quarters these kids are wasting. 

It's loud and crazy like any pizza party I've ever been to. 

This is dinner. 

Andrew pretends his popped ball from the claw machine is a hat. 

6:30

Soccer closing ceremonies. 

It's fun being with my team again.

Me and Avery's team

Evan's team

Andrew's team

There is a raffle at the ceremonies. Some years one of my children will win, and the other two are bummed. Sometimes none of my children win and they are bummed. 

This year all of my kids won! 

We had five raffle tickets and all five of them were pulled! Phew. Happy, spoiled rotten kids. 

7:30

We go home and play with our prizes. 

I bring Cooper and Hunter home to our house while Lisa, Joe, and Jim finish up with youth activities. 

It's loud and it's late. Wednesdays are always a late night. 

Lisa comes to fetch her boys and of course we stand there and talk in the door way for a good 45 minutes. Jim comes home and joins us. 

It's way past bed time, but time slips away so quickly when you are standing at the doorway catching up for the night. 

Soon they go home and I leave the house a huge mess and put all the kids to bed.

9:30

I lay beside Andrew in his bed, like I do every night. 

Jim is the teeth brusher, I'm the bed layer. 

This has been a good day. The highs, the lows, the fun, the fights, the chaos.