29 January 2023

 It has felt like a long week.  On Monday Phil had paramedic refresher class and then went to work in the evening to do 1/2 an overtime shift.  He was home on Tuesday and he took Jude to music class in the morning.  All three of the big kids had mutual and Arlo took his suit with him so that he could get a temple recommend interview.  We'll have to schedule a day in the very near future to take him to the temple.  Phil was back at work again on Wednesday morning.

I was pleasantly surprised on Wednesday to see that the Green Valley Fire District's Facebook page had a lovely picture of my sweetheart.  While at work he was awarded his 20 year pin.  I really enjoyed reading all the well-wishes from members of the Green Valley community and Phil's co-workers and friends.

The kids had a half day on Wednesday and Arlo went out with Nana in the afternoon to celebrate his birthday.  She tries to take the kids out for their birthday and she hadn't gotten to Arlo yet.  They ate at Cane's, picked out some birthday gifts, visited with Grandma Lo, and went to an arcade.  He had such a great time.

I tackled our taxes on Wednesday which was stressful since last year we owed SO MUCH and we still weren't entirely sure we had the withholdings set correctly, but it came out in our favor this year, so I was happy about that. In the evening I met some friends for dinner to celebrate a couple of their birthdays.  We had a lovely time and pretty much stayed until closing.

Our Thursday was pretty low key, well for the most part.  Jude has developed a distain for wearing his diaper which means that he takes it off at will.  Two times this week I found that he pooped in places other than his diaper.  Heaven help me!

Phil went to work on Friday morning and he'll be working a combination of his regular shifts and overtime shifts until Monday evening.  I miss him when he's gone, but I also get a lot of time to make things after the kids go to bed.  This week I randomly decided to add a little flare to my kitchen aid and the lid of my cutting machine and finally did my nails (no more Christmas mani).

Both girls were asked to Winter Formal which happened on Saturday evening.  Felicity met her date at the end of the road and Helen's friends met them at the dance after they went to dinner.  Neither had been to a school dance before and they both said they had a great time.

Sunday I had a ward conference to attend, but lucky for me it was in my own ward.  Since Phil was still working it was just me and the kids and Jude did not disappointed, we didn't even get through the sacrament part of the meeting before he and I had to leave and wander the halls.  I just have to remind myself it won't be forever.  In Relief Society, we, as a Stake Relief Society presidency, taught the lesson with myself teaching second.  I think it went well.  

22 January 2023

 It felt like a really long week.  Phil had paramedic refresher classes this week, they fit in-between his regular shifts at the fire station so we didn't see him much.  I'm so grateful he's such a hard worker.  The kids were home on Monday and we really just enjoyed hanging around the house and watching movies and playing together.  

On Friday I had a hair appointment in Tucson and my Mom came and watched Jude for me.  I think he really enjoyed having Nana to play with.  Felicity auditioned for the school musical and is part of the ensemble.  She has practice pretty much every day after school and not only is she singing, but she's learning the dance routines too which include a tap number.  She is just loving the whole experience.  

Helen and Arlo went to visit their dad for the weekend and so Felicity helped us by babysitting Jude so that Phil and I could work out in the shop.  When Phil first moved to the ranch a lot of his outdoor stuff: garage items, hunting, camping, etc. was stored in totes in the barn.  We hadn't gone through and organized stuff yet, so that's what we did on Saturday.  We had purchased several shelving units and matching heavy-duty totes and we sorted all our stuff into the totes to store in the mezzanine of the shop.  We made a lot of head-way organizing the hunting and camping stuff.  The Christmas stuff got organized when we cleaned up Christmas this year.  We still have to organize our food storage stuff, my crafting stuff, and our tools and reloading stuff.  Its a LOT OF STUFF.  I'm grateful we have the shop to put everything.  It will be really nice when we are finally done.

Sunday was so busy.  Phil spoke in Sacrament meeting in our ward and I heard it was good, I wasn't there because I was in the Colossal Cave ward for their ward conference.  At ward conference, stake leaders instruct, support, and minister to ward leaders and members. Ward members sustain general and local leaders.  I, along with another member or our Presidency, taught the Relief Society lesson.  I felt like it went really well.  I spoke on "The Why of the Gospel", remembering why we do any of the things we do, that being love for our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ.  I shared the following quote:

“In our diligent efforts to fulfill all of the duties and obligations we take on as members of the Church, we sometimes see the gospel as a long list of tasks that we must add to our already impossibly long to-do list, as a block of time that we must somehow fit into our busy schedules. We focus on what the Lord wants us to do and how we might do it, but we sometimes forget why,....   My dear sisters, the gospel of Jesus Christ is not an obligation; it is a pathway, marked by our loving Father in Heaven, leading to happiness and peace in this life and glory and inexpressible fulfillment in the life to come. The gospel is a light that penetrates mortality and illuminates the way before us.  When we understand why our Heavenly Father has given us this pattern for living, when we remember why we committed to making it a foundational part of our lives, the gospel ceases to become a burden and, instead, becomes a joy and a delight. It becomes precious and sweet." Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf

After Relief Society we had a presidency meeting and then I came home for an hour.  At 3PM I needed to be in the Tucson Single Adult ward for their ward conference.  Phil came with me which was nice.  We picked up the kids on the way home and enjoyed our evening together before a new week starts.

15 January 2023

This week was the first "normal" for us as I was back at work and everyone is back in school.  It was also a little bit of a lonely week too, Phil worked a couple of overtime shifts and also had paramedic refresher class on his days off...I miss him when he's gone!

The kids (the three older ones) had Standards night on Tuesday and Phil went with them while I stayed home with Jude.  I heard it was so riveting that Arlo fell asleep.

I set a goal this year (like I did last year) to complete one Christmas project a month so that my December isn't so busy.  This month I updated my Christmas clock.  As silly as it sounds, I have this stupid clock that plays a different Christmas carol on the hour and its like one of my favorite decorations.  I love it.  I smile every hour.  However, it had this lame picture of a snowman on it and I wasn't crazy about that.  So my first project was to update my clock.  I found a pretty picture of the Salt Lake Temple at Christmas time and used my cutting machine to cut the print to the appropriate size and with openings for the clock mechanism and the sensor that sets off the music.  I used vinyl for the numbers and it was really hard to get them on there right, in fact even now as I am looking at it the 8 looks a little wonky.  Nevertheless, now I really love my Christmas carol clock.

I picked up my quilt from Tricia this week and it is perfect!  I love it.  She picked a pattern for the quilting that looks like prickly pear, I'm in love.  I may have to use this pattern again and make another.  I came down with a cold and was pretty miserable most days this week.  Luckily working from home makes it so I can continue to work even though I didn't feel great.  I will survive, I think I got it from Jude and I hope I don't give it to anyone else.

We enjoyed church on Sunday.  One of the other wards in the stake was having their ward conference so I attended there as part of my calling.  I popped into our sacrament meeting to catch the last ten minutes and to struggle with Jude who was climbing all over.  After church Phil was able to confer the priesthood on Arlo and ordain him to the office of a deacon.  Arlo received a very nice blessing after the ordination as well, although I was paying more attention to Jude who was wandering the Bishop's office (with his arms reverently folded) touching things and flicking the lights on and off.  I'm grateful for the power of the priesthood and the blessing of having worthy priesthood holders in my home.  In the evening Felicity attended an emotional resilience class through the young women's organization.  It was kind of a long week, but a good one.  

08 January 2023

What a wonderful week.  It was Jude and I most of the week, but I didn't have to go to work and that was fabulous!  Phil and I had a date night on Wednesday evening.  We had tickets to see Annie at Centennial Hall.  I'm embarrassed to say that I had the time wrong so we had dinner at Chipotle because I didn't think we had as much time and then showed up at the theater forty-five minutes early.  We were confused why there weren't very many people, well we figured it out pretty quickly when I tried to go in to the auditorium.  Oh, well!  At least I was in good company.

Thursday was Phil's twenty year anniversary in the fire service.  This is a huge milestone because it means that he is now vested in the retirement system and has a pension waiting for him whenever he's ready to retire.  We're not quite ready yet, but its nice to know that its available.  Congratulations Captain Comaduran!

Arlo had his priesthood interview on Thursday evening and Phil will be able to ordain him next Sunday.  I'm proud of Arlo.

Friday was baby Jude's 2nd birthday.  In the late morning I dropped off my latest quilt at Tricia's.  

Phil and Jude came with me and when we were done we stopped and McDonald's for the birthday boy's lunch.  He enjoyed some chicken nuggets and an ice cream.

In the evening before Arlo and Helen had to leave for their dad's we celebrated Jude's birthday with cake and gifts.  He got a new recycling truck and I made him an Oozma Kappa tee shirt since Monster's University is his current favorite movie.  

He's one lucky boy.  Ugh, he is also such a little turkey.  He is into everything all time, he throws the most epic temper tantrums, and he does what he wants.  But we love him and know that he completes our family.

On Saturday evening Jude and I went to the fire station and had dinner with Dad.  We brought an ice cream cake to celebrate his 20 year anniversary.

01 January 2023

The week after Christmas was marvelous.  There was no where to be and nothing to do and we enjoyed projects around the house and I started a new quilt.  It was just so peaceful.  Here's Jude watching a "drive-in" movie.  

On Wednesday we had the Comadurans over to celebrate Christmas together.  We had such a great time.  We hung out from just before lunch to well after dinner.  We ate a lot of food, played games and put together a puzzle and visited and just generally had a great time.  

The rest of our week was pretty mundane.  Phil had to work New Years Eve so we didn't do anything special.  We enjoyed church on Sunday and then picked up Helen and Arlo from their dad.  I'm glad to have everyone home, but not so happy to go back to school.  Lucky for me I still have another week off from work.  

25 December 2022

Merry Christmas to all!  Our start to winter break was glorious, glorious in that we didn't have to get up early and didn't have any where we had to be or anything we had to do.  On Monday we enjoyed time together and in the evening Phil and I met my mom, uncle, and cousin for dinner as they were visiting from out of town.  We had a very nice meal and great conversation.  

On Tuesday I took Helen to the hair salon where I get my hair done. She asked for a haircut for Christmas, so that's what we did.  She cut quite a bit off, but it turned out really cute.

One of our favorite holiday traditions is to go up to the Mesa area to eat at Organ Stop Pizza and then over to the Mesa temple to enjoy the Christmas lights.  The temple underwent an extensive renovation over the past couple of years so they haven't had the lights.  

Sometimes we go to the Phoenix zoo too, but we didn't this time and I'm grateful, I don't think Jude would have handled it very well.  We enjoyed dinner and the organ and then went over to the temple.  Jude was less than cooperative so we didn't get to spend nearly as much time as I would have liked, but I know it'll get easier as he gets older.

I got my quilt back that is for our nephew and his wife from the gal who does my quilting, so I added the border to it and wrapped it up.  I'm glad that now both of our married nephews will have quilts.  

Friday was Grandma Lo's 96th birthday.  Felicity went with Nana to visit her.  

Friday was also a very special day as we were invited to attend the temple with another of Phil's nephews who was going through the temple for the first time.  It was wonderful to be in the temple with family and share in the special day.  

Friday evening we took gifts and tamales over to Mom and Dad's and celebrated Christmas with my family.  Usually we do that on Christmas Eve, but since Phil was working on the 24th we decided to do it early.  We had a great meal and a wonderful time.  I'm grateful that my mom goes out of her way to make the holiday memorable for the kiddos.  Jude caught on quickly and excitedly unwrapped his presents. 

Phil had to work on Saturday so the kids and I spent the day together relaxing.  I also had a scarf and hat I was crocheting for my niece that I hadn't finished, so I finished that up.  It turned out really cute I think.  

I wrapped gifts in the afternoon and in the evening we went to the fire station to have dinner with Dad.  They made a really nice dinner and we hung out for a little while until Jude got out of hand.  Once he realized he could push open the door from the station into the truck bay it was all but impossible to keep him out of there and I was ready to go home.  

Santa came overnight and the kids were very patient as we waited for Phil to get home from work.  He came in about 8:30 and was such a good sport, he changed out of his clothes into PJs for pictures.  We opened gifts and I think the kids were pretty happy.  

Phil got a new backpacking tent that he promptly took into the living room and set it up.  Arlo got a new video game, Felicity a pair of air Pods, Helen a digital camera.  They got a few smaller things too, I tried to keep it small this year since things were so expensive and our budget was a little tight.

The kids went to visit their dad for the rest of the week and the rest of us relaxed and enjoyed one another's company.  It was a great Christmas and I'm so grateful for my family and my Savior and the hope that Christmas brings.

18 December 2022

 Tuesday evening we went to the Fine Arts Showcase at Cienega.  The marching band performed as well as all the other bands, orchestra, and choirs.  The theater kids did a couple of skits too.  I was impressed with how quickly it went!  I worked on Christmas baking over the past couple of weeks and finished up on Wednesday.  I made 12 different types of cookies and sweet bread and was able to make 30 gift plates.  

I had to take an unexpected day off of work on Tuesday because the internet at the house was down.  After a couple of hours I called BlueSpan to see if there was an outage, to which they said there wasn't.  A technician came out on Wednesday only to find that the stupid dog had chewed the wire coming into the house.  Ugh!  That stinkin' dog has been such a pain, I can't wait until we're fully out of the puppy stage.  The tech ran a new wire and got us working again.  I have always been very happy with their customer service and technicians.

After getting all my cookies plated, much of my Wednesday was spent cooking and prepping for a missionary zone conference.  Our presidency was tasked with feeding the 60+ missionaries on Thursday and it went really well I think.  Since we had done it in August we knew the process and it went very smoothly.  

In the evening the girls attended Nana's work party since they had both worked a few Saturdays with her at the estate sales.  They had a nice time and enjoyed hanging out with Nana.

Friday was our big annual Gingerbread FHE.  It was so much fun.  We had friend and family over for a Family Home Evening lesson, decorating gingerbread houses, hot chocolate, and caroling.  Jude got out his jingle bells from music class and entertained us with dancing and jingle bells.  I love this tradition and am so grateful for everyone that came and made it special.  

My weekend was spent cleaning up from the festivities, zone conference cooking, and Christmas baking.  We also delivered Christmas goodies.   On Sunday afternoon when Jude went down for his nap Phil and I went to Benson to deliver cookies to family and friends there.  It was a great end to a very busy week.

11 December 2022

Jude helped me with some service on Monday, we took our elderly neighbor to a doctor's appointment in Green Valley.  While we waited for her to finish her appointment Jude helped me by emptying the contents of my purse on the floor and then put it all back in again...multiple times.  I didn't mind too much as it meant that he was quiet and cooperative.

Jude also had his last music class for the year on Monday.  He really enjoyed dressing up like a cowboy.  I volunteered to help with a primary project this week and designed a couple of images and spent quite a bit of time cutting vinyl for some dollar store night lights.  I cut all the images and I even weeded a few of them.  I think they'll be really cute, what a great idea the primary presidency had!

I got my kitty quilt back this week and so I added the binding and custom tag and now its ready to wrap up.  I'm really happy with how cute it turned out.

Phil hung our outside Christmas light on Wednesday when he got home.  I dug out the other Christmas totes and started decorating.  

We were all home on Wednesday night and so we took the time to decorate the Christmas tree.  This is a favorite, but also stressful event.  We now have enough ornaments for two trees!

On Thursday evening Phil and I were excited to attend Felicity's National Honor Society induction.  I was annoyed that she was so blasé about it, she didn't understand what an honor it was (I also had to nag her to fill out the application and write the essay to be considered for membership).  There were only 18 students inducted out of 1,951.  Anyway, it was a very nice event and we are very proud of Felicity and her academic, leadership, and service accomplishments.  

Friday was Arlo's 11th birthday.  Eleven!  Its hard to believe.  

He got to pick dinner and then after dinner we had cake and he opened his presents.  He got a few nice things, although I think his favorite was a new big kid bike (thank you to uncle Kirby for handing it down to us).  His least favorite gift was a new suit, he thought it was a gag gift.  We explained to him that at the beginning of next year he'd be receiving the priesthood and would be able to pass the sacrament on Sundays and would need a nice suit.  He was still unimpressed.

On Sunday after church Felicity went with Nana to visit Grandma Lo.  Helen and Arlo were visiting their dad for the weekend.  

In the evening I picked them up and then I took Arlo to the church for a temple and priesthood preview meeting, but I had the time wrong and we arrived in time for refreshments.  I was kind of irritated with myself.  Oh, well!  The kids and I have our last week of school and work next week and are really looking forward to the winter break.