Week 2 - Temple, Scout Camp Out

January 6 was the reason all the Grandparents came to town. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints announced in December 2018 the following: "Young men will be eligible for ordination to the appropriate priesthood office in January of the year they turn 12, 14, and 16." Underfoot was excited for the announcement change. He invited his Grandparents to join him. We are grateful for the sacrifice and efforts they have made.

Monday morning bright and early Kirky and Jilli went to the airport. They were headed to Arizona to pick up a new truck for Kirky. They bless our lives for their positive attitude and goodness.

Boys went to school. Sweetheart headed to work. Grandpa and Grandma Locey stayed at our house taking care of business before we headed to the airport for a midday flight. They blessed our lives by making the sacrifice to come and to meet the desire of their grandchildren to have them come visit. They took time to listen and be with us. For that we are grateful.​

​Life returned to normal that evening with us getting to know a new family in our congregation.

Hurricane had Pack Meeting and was awarded two achievements. He has the goal to complete his Bear badge by the Blue and Gold Banquet. We have some work to do if he's going to complete it. The hard one will be Baloo the Builder.

On Tuesday, ​Underfoot had training for the passing and individual nature of the sacrament​ for his activity. On Thursday, Underfoot attended the temple and had a really wonderful experience.

I was grateful that Sweetheart and I could attend with him. I'm grateful to the Gates family watch Hurricane while we attended.

Book Club was held at our house. We discussed Still Alice by Lisa Genova. The book is about someone who has early onset Alzheimer and how she and her family deals with it.

The men attended Donuts with Dad Friday morning. They have enjoyed this chance to hopefully according to Hurricane "have donuts for lunch too."

The first camp out of 2019 was held in our backyard. Underfoot came home from school and started to build a snow structure from the snow we had got that day.

The structure was then moved to be around the base of the trampoline. The Scouts built up the sides to make a snow fort with the top of the trampoline being the roof. They burned almost every candle we had to melt and freeze the inside. (Jilli we may need some of your candles...) They build a fire and stayed up late. Five boys slept in the structure. Two boys got wet. Hurricane slept the least and got up at 4 am to try and start a fire. He came in and got Sweetheart at 5 am.

The boys will remember it. The boys reported varying degrees of comfort in the fort. Some were hot, and some were cold. One boy got so hot, he broke down one of the walls. After sledding and s'mores around the fire in the early morning hours, they came in and created their annual plan for their 2019 activities. They asked for different people to teach the things they have set in place.

Hurricane slept about 4 hours midday because he didn't sleep so much that night. Sweetheart and Underfoot played Dominion with friends that afternoon. 

Be Well. 

*****

 Mission Quilt

 Weight Loss

Snow Storm

Come Follow Points for the Week

Week 1 - New Year's and Grandparents

New Year. New Goals. Retrying again. Last year was a year of growth for me personally. I dropped the ball in lots of areas as I struggled with some personal demons. I am still working on those demons but feel more hope.

At the end of 2018, Sweetheart sent an article about growth mindset. We have talked extensively about this idea of growing, being curious, and learning to set boundaries. For our 2019, we as a family have decided to learn more about growth mindset and apply what we learn that works for our family. Our hope is that it will bring us more - more peace, more hope, more vision, and more love.

So part of our new is to record our past. I'm grateful for those that want to read and be part of our journey. Now I'll finish waxing eloquent and being all philosophical.

January 1 - Bowling Tradition. We went bowling. Underfoot won. He was thrilled to beat all of us.

We all use the bumpers so the score is in the 90s at a minimum. The bumpers' inventor has saved countless tears.

An award was claimed by going to see The Grinch for a reading challenge our family made and met. We came home for delicious homemade burgers. We prepared for Sweetheart to return to work and retired early.

January 2 - Sweetheart got up to go make bacon while the rest of us slept. I'm grateful for his sacrifice to work and provide for our family. He's a gem. Sweetheart has been asked to be the Scoutmaster for our troop for 2019. He held a meeting to coordinate Scout Camp this coming summer. We at home prepared for our Grandparents coming visit this weekend.

January 3 - We shopped, cleaned, and prepared for Grandparents even more. The boys have decided that they want to celebrate Christmas, New Year's, and 3 Kings while everyone is here. It is a short time to celebrate 3 holidays but they are up for it. That evening I went to a session at the Denver LDS Temple. My world is vastly better because of it. I felt such an incredible joy and love of God.

January 4 - We deep cleaned our house before we needed to go and get our Grandparents Locey. Underfoot made key lime pie, and later Hurricane made chocolate cheesecake via the sous vide. It's Sweetheart's new toy that makes all kinds of goodness. Because I had attended the temple the evening before, there was no anger in our home. It was an immediate blessing. We picked up the Loceys and made a wrong turn. We got to tour Denver from the most north point to our home.  After a lovely dinner, we headed to bed.

January 5 - Hurricane met his new Primary class. Underfoot and Hurricane got new shoes. Grandma Locey joined us while we did our errands all the way to the airport to pick up Kirky and Jilli. We had some good laughs on our way back to the house. While we were gone Sweetheart and Grandpa Locey fixed the gutters that a hole from an errant nail left in the gutter that rusted. After lunch, we celebrated Christmas then went swimming.

Sweetheart used his sous vide to start a turkey and make steak. The steak was delicious.

January 6 - Happy 3 Kings Day! The 3 Kings showed up for everyone. They were more generous than normal.

I got up early to make rosca de reyes (king's ring) for a gathering for the Spanish Sunday School class that night. Underfoot was sustained to be a deacon and was ordained after church.

We had our first Sunday with 2 hour church. I was in nursery. We toured Parker after church. We celebrated New Year's at supper with poppers and all. Again Sweetheart used his sous vide for the turkey. The Spanish class came for rosca and hot chocolate.

So much fun!

Be Well!

*****

 Bowling Tradition

 Bowling Tradition

Breakfast Fairy

 Growth Mindset

When change comes, don't look back and move forward.

3 Kings Loot

They were given sleds.

 Jilli and Hurricane are seeing who is taller.

  Jilli and Underfoot are seeing who is taller.

 Underfoot's Ordination

Family Picture

 Rosca de Reyes

New Dress - Thinner Wendy

Come Follow Me Lessons for This Week

Week 45 Pie Party

This week started out with Stake Conference. It was a regional conference from Canada to St Louis, Missouri and discussed ministering, Sabbath day holy, and following the prophet. The meeting was only an hour and a half. Our Stake President spoke at the beginning about how God hears and answers prayers He shared an example of how that happened for him when he was a young man.

Underfoot continues to meet his responsibility to attend Cub Committee meetings for his Den Chief responsibility. He made a commitment to help with Scouting for Food. He volunteered to bring a box to church to gather food for those neighborhoods who don't get sacks on their doors. He posted the note on the church Facebook page for our ward and is hoping that people will bring food on Sunday.

Since I have had my concussion in March and the root canal in October, I have been struggling with tinnitis. I went and saw the ENT to check and see if something else is going on. They tested my hearing and pressure in my ears. The result is that it will take a few months for the ringing to go away and learned I had near perfect hearing only a slight loss in my right ear. I also returned to the endodontist because of pain in my jaw. He placed me on a steroid and said that it will be time for the muscles to relax in my jaw.

Weekday practices have started at the school for Battle of the Books. Our first meeting was getting to know other teammates and learning the titles of the books. The children laughed and learned.

Hurricane had Pack Meeting this week. He was awarded three belt loops.

His den was in charge of a skit. During the middle of the Pack meeting their den left and planned the skit with the help of a Den Chief a.k.a. Underfoot. The skit turned out really cute about sucking the venom out at snake bite.

Our Pie Party preparations went into full swing on Thursday afternoon after getting the house organized and clean. We started making pies that evening. Sweetheart has a new toy called a sous vide. He made individual pots of New York cheesecake at night. I left for the book club to discuss "The Mountain Between Us" by Charles Martin while Sweetheart finished making a few pies.

On Friday the bulk of the pies were made.

We made some new ones this year. One is called Double Chocolate Pie - a chocolate truffle pie.

On Saturday Hurricane participated in Scouting for Food by placing the bags on doors. We finished with the last three pies. A few last minute details needed to be taken care of for the Pie Party of purchasing fresh berries and fresh vegetables. We had everything ready early and decided to take a nap before a party this year. It is a first time. This year I took time and got completely ready.

The Pie Party brought lots of fun people.

They are always amazed about the different pies out. Sweetheart's favorite dish brought was chicken strips.

We are great great book for the kitchen help that came to help us set up and clean up.

*****

 Harvest Cobb Salad

 Pumpkins from Our Garden

 Chocolate and Cherry Pie - Black Forest Pie

Cookie Pie

 Cookie Pie - Caramel and Chocolate Decorated

 No Bake Oreo Pie

 Key Lime Slab

 Pavlova Trifle

 Group Shot

 Sous Vide Items - 

New York Cheesecake (top left)

Chocolate de Creme Pots (bottom right)

Week 44 - Halloween

On Monday I went to celebrate Lisa Miller's birthday in Colorado Springs. We had a wonderful birthday lunch and were able to reconnect. I learned that one of Lisa's college roommates lived in my neighborhood. I took her with me to Lisa's lunch as a surprise.
Our chiropractic office changed insurances and no longer carries our insurance. I found a new chiropractor and went to visit him for the first time this week. It was good to be readjusted.

Hurricane took the cookies in from last week's fiasco. He brought cookies for his class each an individual bags. He was so happy that he could share his cookies.

On Tuesday the root canal is finished that happened almost a month ago. There was still infection in the lining of my mouth. It was cleaned out completely and patched with a filling. Now hopefully recovery will happen, and I can move forward with life.

Sweetheart wants to make our home as efficient as possible. Our electrical company will come do an energy audit on our home to tell us where we need to improve to have the best efficiency. The auditor who came said that the one thing he could do is to add some caulk around the window panels that are loose and to add insulation in our basement on the ceiling. Beyond that he has done most everything that he could.

Sweetheart helped the boys make Viking helmets. They decided they wanted to be the Awkward Avoidance Vikings for Halloween. They had a lot of fun creating their helmets.

I volunteered to be Hurricane's room parent. A Halloween party was planned for the entire grade. We had a treat room with veggies, apples, and homemade caramel, the game room with bingo using candy corn's as the placeholders on the bingo cards, and to wrap the mummy room.

I made the carmel the night before putting it into Dixie cups because I couldn't find the condiment cups with lids. The party turned out to be fun.

Since Underfoot is in middle school now, there is no class party. In place of the party, I bought donuts for his class. There is a donut shop here in that does gluten-free and dairy free donuts. That was a lifesaver since there are students who need gluten-free and dairy free.

For Halloween, I wasn't feeling well to take the boys around trick-or-treating since it was 20° outside and my mouth was still hurting from the root canal the previous day.

Sweetheart took the boys around and I made for him a birthday pie. He had found a recipe for pots de creme to be cooked in a sous vide. When they arrived home, the pie was almost done. It was quite the birthday surprise.

We didn't eat the cake/pie until the next morning for breakfast

Sweetheart for his birthday wanted a sous vide cooking bin. The bin arrived on his birthday and he was so excited to make something in it.

I have a small obsession with Trader Joe's advent calendars. I have called three times that week to see if their advent calendars were out. After visiting the temple, I went to Trader Joe's and bought lunch. I also bought peppermint Jojo's which are a favorite around here.

Saturday was the beginning of our Pie Party preparations. Sweetheart organized and clean the garage. We even bleach the floor to get the spilled grape juice off the concrete that had stain the floor. We cleaned in the house and created our plan for the next week.

Earlier that morning the men went to move chairs for the stake conference the next day. After the stake conference they helped one family moved to a new house and then help to move the dining room table to another house. They provided a lot of service that day that morning.

*****

 Candy Haul

Dia de Los Muertos Suspenders from Aunt Jill

 Dia de Los Muertos Marshmallow

 Hurricane had a reaction at the allergist.

Snowy Morning

 

 Awkward Avoidance Viking

 Awkward Avoidance Viking