Darby is 15!

It's Darby's birthday today! Seeing as how it was a school day and Jason is out of town we didn't do the things we normally do for birthdays but we did celebrate. Look at this cute 15 year old!

She got a gift from her seminary teachers and one school teacher remembered her birthday as well.  Jason sent me a Happy Birthday text to show her when she got home since he would likely be either traveling or sleeping after the race. Near dinnertime she opened her presents and cards.

Grandma sent money and a funny card. 

The card that I gave her was a popup with a sound chip that sang a song about cats in space wishing her a happy birthday. It was just the kind of silly card I thought she would like. It surprised her and then she laughed so hard. She even danced to it. 

Jason and I gave her a sewing book and kit to go with her new sewing machine she received at Christmas. She has been interested in sewing since taking a fashion class in high school this year.

Eva gave her a sweater and made her a card as well. 

She also got to pick a special dinner for me to make (reuben sandwiches) and in YW her leaders brought cupcakes to have at the end of the activity. 

I hope she had a good birthday. We will celebrate more when Dad gets back.

Busy Week

What I week I have had! I feel like I am treading water just waiting for the next thing to come and for me to plunge headlong into it to get it done.  Beginning a new year is always busy.

First we had our yearly youth planning meeting. All the youth leadership and presidencies get together early on a Saturday morning and plan out the upcoming year. Bishop couldn't be there. I created the planning sheets and brought the school calendars. I also set up the whiteboard to make the planning easy. I was also asked to explain how the planning session would go.  Thankfully it all went smoothly and we finished in record time. The other leaders said it was because I was organized. Maybe.

I also was asked to give a talk this Sunday. Jason is still out of town so he did not get to see it but I think it went well. The topic was part of the Hear Him initiative to focus more on Christ's life. I was asked to speak on "His birth was just the beginning". 

As part of my third calling/assignment (yes I have three right now), I started making the registration and information website for Girls Camp. I have never made a website before but thought it might be fun to learn. I found a company that makes it pretty easy. It is kind of "plug and play" and a bit like the blog books I make every year. It took a while but it is now done and I am very pleased with how it turned out. 

To add to my worries, the dishwasher doesn't work and the car is showing signs of leaking some sort of fluid underneath. The dishwasher shows an error code and doesn't drain but only sometimes. The disposal is pretty old and crusty so maybe that has something to do with it. When another driver is home we will need to schedule some car maintenance. It is due for some soon anyway.

Because of the bad weather I had to cancel my eye appointment and reschedule the vet appointment for Stella's shots. The vet appointment was right during the time when I had to take the kids to school since it was s delayed start. I had to cancel my eye appointment as they called me and said that my insurance would only cover one a year and it was only 11.5 months since my latest one. So I need to set up a new one in a couple of weeks. Also, due to weather the High Q tournament for Eva was rescheduled so now we have to figure out transportation for that since it is now right during the stake conference meetings. 

As I mentioned before, Jason is out of town. he is staying with his friend Eric and testing out his winter gear for the upcoming Arrowhead 135 in Minnesota. We don't get enough snow nor anywhere near cold enough for him to do a test here. He was been running daily around Bountiful, Utah with Eric seeing what he may need to change for his first ever winter race in snow dragon a sled. He seems to be enjoying every second of it. He gets back tonight.

I don't think life will slow down for a while. I am up for it but sometimes just want to crawl back into bed. But the show must go on. And it is not all bad. There are definitely good times and funny moments. Like this one. Elder McDaniel wanted a picture of it. He said, "They baked too many Hot Wheels."

 

The Lisa Party

 Two of my friends, Lisa Esplin and Lisa Marshall, have birthdays rather close to each other in January. Another friend, Jenna, decided to throw a double birthday party at a local steakhouse. It was super fun. There were so many of us at the table that we were rather crowded. It was nice to get together with other ladies and have a girls night out. 

Here is one side of the long table and then the other. 

The funny part was when the waiter asked which birthday cake should come out first we laughed and said, "Lisa's." He looked confused as to why we were laughing until someone told him that was the first name of both of them.

Snow Days?

Mother Nature has been crazy these last few days of Winter Break. The weather report showed a drop in temperature and even the possibility of snow this week. 

Because school starts back up on a Wednesday the week was already feeling off. And then we got notice that school was cancelled due to weather. So the kids got an extra day of break. But it didn't snow, at least not on the west side. However, it did start to snow on Thursday but they continued to have school. After school Darby went out to make a snowball. This is the first one. The she practically gathered up all the snow in the backyard to make this second one. As you can see, there really wasn't much snow but it was still nice to see. Snow always makes inside feel so cozy. 

Then on Friday there was a delayed start due to icy roads. 

So the first few days back from school were very weird and it was hard to get back into the routine. Not to mention that Jason left on Thursday for Salt Lake City to test his gear for the upcoming winter ultramarathon. 

Zoo and a Movie

Usually during Winter Break we end up going to the zoo and watching a movie. This year we did them both in one day. After Elder McDaniel got back from serving at the library we left to go to the El Paso Zoo. We have a few animals that we always stop to see. This time the maned wolves weren't out and we didn't see any meerkats. The jaguar was out this time. Usually we go in the morning and the cougars are out. The jaguar was pacing the walkway and was really close to the people. He seemed very interested in a couple of kids and even roared once. She seemed less interested in the antelope than the cougars are. 

The lioness was out sunning on the rocks as usual and the orangutans were super playful. 

We also saw the young antelope playing chase. It was really funny and lasted a really long time as we watched the "teenagers" run after each other in a circle around the entire enclosure. Another favorite is the penguins and we got to see the keepers feeding them and training them.

This year there weren't any movies we wanted to see in the theatre but the new Wallace and Gromit movie was debuting on Netflix. This is the fourth feature length film and called "Vengeance Most Fowl". One of the "bad guys" from the original movie makes a reappearance. We had pizza and watched that on its first day out on American TV. Aardman movies are a favorite around here. It was so clever and funny. 

The kids don't go back to school for a few more days but Jason's work schedule starts up again normally on Monday so we are wrapping up vacation. 

Arcade

We decided that last time we went to the arcade it was so fun that we would go again on one of the half days of work that Jason has for Christmas Break. We got the all access pass and played all the games after having tacos at the food court, which were really good. 

I did surprisingly well at Deal or No Deal despite having very little idea what I was doing. I suppose I guess well. Paige, on the other hand, did not do well and only got 1 ticket whereas I got 200. 

Jason played Guitar Hero a lot and reminisced about how he used to love playing it. Fruit ninja is fun as is see ball and the game where you knock down the clowns. Eva and I are a pro team at that one. 

We traded in all our tickets for candy and went home. It was a fun thing to do for a few hours as a family. Jason goes back to work for full days next week but the kids don't start back up at school until Wednesday.

New Years Eve

During the day we did jigsaw puzzles and played games. We also had to go to a few other houses to check on dogs and birds as we are on pet sitting duty for three other families. 

This year for the movie marathon was a Pride and Prejudice year and this time everyone understood what was going on in the movie. This is what it's like to have a house full of teens/ adults. We ate snack foods, watched the show and generally lounged around. I love this kind of celebration. At midnight we had our sparkling cider and said goodbye to 2024. We were all pretty tired (there is no sleeping in when you have to let a few little dogs out at sunrise to go potty) so everyone went to bed directly after. 

Welcome to 2025!