March 2021

March is a bit of a blur for me. When we got back from Florida the crazy of springtime was underway. Owen jumped right into the tennis season. (He actually missed the first 2 practices while we were in Florida.) He played on the JV team this year. He's getting better and pretty driven to improve. We hired a varsity player from our ward to work with him on Saturdays and I think the extra time he put in helped him quite a bit.

Leo was still being his lazy self.

And Emmie's soccer season was starting up while ski season was winding down. 

On my last trip up I had a crazy fall and jammed my thumb pretty badly. I googled it...skiers thumb is a thing. It was swollen for quite a wile and 6 months later it still feels stiff sometimes. Getting old stinks. I went to an orthopedic specialist for some knee trouble as well. I was getting sharp shooting pain in my knee and was a little nervous. But I was told just to take iburofin and not push myself too hard, but I didn't have to quit skiing...I just night not be able to make it for as long as I used to.

And most importantly we celebrated John's birthday. John't birthday wouldn't be complete without fun-fetti cupcakes. And speaking of John, spring was a good time for John because he was nearing the end of his time working on the the Sex Team at work. He had been working on really tough cases for 8 years, internet crimes against children, abuse, etc., and it was time for a break. He was moved to be the head of a normal trial team which would be a much needed break. 

Also, but the end of March we were getting closer to demo-day for the remodel. It pretty much consumed me. I was no fun to be around and it was all I could talk or think about. We closed on our new loan so the funds for the remodel were in the bank We were originally planning on starting the end of March, but in true remodel fashion, we were already behind schedule.

February 2021

The month of February brought us snow! Better late than never. Although it seems our snow always comes late in the season. The snow rarely lasts long here so we made good use of it while it lasted.

I took Ainsley on a trip to Boston when she was in middle school. Owen was in 9th grade and overdue for his trip. So, on a bit of a whim, Owen and I took off for Maimi to visit Syd and Cy and go to Disney World! My parents were already planning a trip to visit Syd, and we had some airline credit to use up because of our cancelled Cabo trip so Owen and I decided to tag along. Ironically Kort had called Sydney on the same day that I did with the same plan as me. Except she would be bringing her whole family. So Owen, me, Kort and her family, Syd and her family, and my parents were going to Disney World! Syd and Cy got us a killer deal on tickets between their Florida resident discount and Cy's military discount. 

As and added bonus Owen and I extended our trip due to a covid scare in our house. Ainsley was exposed to covid at school and was going to have to quarantine. The rest of the family hadn't been exposed yet because she didn't have any symptoms. We were worried about being exposed and not being able to fly, so Owen and I quarantined ourselves from Ainsley and we changed our flights. It was all a little crazy. This all happened on Friday morning. And by Saturday morning Owen and I were on a plane for Miami. We just got to have a few bonus days with Syd before everyone else got there.

Poor Ainsley though. She never got sick, but she did have to miss work and school for 10 days. I don't think she liked being home. But she handled it like a champ and it all ended up being ok.

While we were in Miami we went down town and got a glimpse of the teal blue water. The crazy wind kept us from enjoying the beach too much. We hung out at Syd's a lot. Cy took Owen driving. 

We tried Cuban food. Sadly, not my favorite. We also went on an airboat tour looking for alligators. The boat ride was fun but there were no alligator sightings. 

After a few days at Syd's we loaded up the car and drove to Orlando to meet up with the rest of the family. My dad paid for everyone's hotel. We stayed at the Dolphin resort in Disney World. I was blown away by how spread out Disney World was! We were right across the bay from Hollywood and Epcot. But Animal and Magic kingdom were quite far away. 

The weather there was awesome! It was warm and there were only a couple of afternoons that felt too hot. Masks were required at all times in the park which made it a little warmer but not too bad. The lines were longer than we thought they would be. The park was operating at 35% capacity. But there were no fast passes and no parades or any sort of entertainment, so the only thing to do was ride the rides. The bigger rides had wait times around an hour, but I'd say most rider had a 20-30 min wait time. It was nice having so many people to wait in line with. It made the time pass quickly and we had a great time! 

We visited all of the parks and saw all of the things. It was awesome! And exhausting. But I think every Disney park vacation is exhausting. It's just part of the package. And the best part was I got to spend my 42nd birthday in Disney World's Magic Kingdom. Best birthday ever! 

January 2021

 January started with a quiet New Years at home. We were invited to our annual party at the McCarney's but it was a little awkward with covid and with some of the kids Ainsley's age so we just decided to stay home this year, well, most of us. We ordered pizza and played games. Owen left us part way through the night to go to a party with Logan at Big Al's. The rest of us stayed home and watched the new Little Women that Ainsley and I went and saw at the theater the last new years eve. I think I could get on board with that tradition! I love the Little Women movies, sadly I'm lame and have never made it through the whole book which makes me feel like a bit of a fraud. 

Back to New Years, we watched the Potato and the Ball drop on TV and both were super weird and messed up. Which would in time turn out to be appropriate foreshadowing for the upcoming year. 

I started a new job in January. One day while on instagram, one of the accounts I follow for reading suggestions mentioned that Savvy Reading was hiring. So I looked into it. They were a brand new online reading company based in Provo. They were hiring certified teachers to be coaches for their platform to teach their self made curriculum to k-2 readers. I decided to apply. And then I interviewed. And I got the job! I was nervous to start, and also worried the company would go out of business after Covid, but decided to jump in anyways.  I got paid $18 an hour instead of the $11 I was getting paid at the library. So I took on one class every afternoon after I was done at the library. And I actually liked it. When I started there were 50 coaches and 200 students. Now (August 2021) there are 150 coaches, and I'm not sure how many students. So I'm all in and now I really hope they grow because I want to keep working for them! 

In January we started going back to church. With masks. and only half of us went at a time. I miss home church. And that's all I have to say about that.

During January we also started really getting things going on our remodel. Our financing was well underway, we were just waiting for the bank to finish up their end. And I was spending a lot of my time driving around picking up samples and trying to figure out who were were going to hire to do all of our work. By this point we had hired Drew Oakes to do our tile. Forest Creek Cabinetry to to our cabinets (after going to one of his houses and seeing his work). I just needed to start picking out supplies so that when we had our financing we would be ready to go.  I was spending way to much time online looking at designer blogs. Ultimately I decided to do white on white on white. It seemed to be the only thing that would be timeless. I could decorate and change all of my other colors if I stayed in whites. Sadly there are a million shades of whites, and whites are hard. And most employees of tile/quartz stores thought I was crazy for being so boring. But I started following a Canadian designer (Maria Killam) who kept reassuring me through every blog post, that hard fixtures should be in white so that textiles and every thing else that you swap out can be any color. 

I also started picking out paint colors. Owen helped me put some paint samples up in the laundry room. Sadly my laundry room still says poop.

John and I got our first doses of the covid vaccine in January. I did my research and decided I was going to get it. There is so much controversy around the vaccine. I think it's crazy. Most crazy right wing people view anyone who gets the vaccine as "sheep" who are just blindly following the government. But during my research I learned that the research behind the MRNA vaccine has been going on for years. It got clearance as a safe and viable type of vaccine in December 2019. I don't think that was a coincidence. I think that was a miracle. There is the story of the man on top of his house during a flood who prays to God to save him. Three boats came by and he refused the help saying that his god would save him. Later, after he died, he asked God why he hadn't saved him when he prayed and God told him that he sent 3 boats. To me that is the vaccine. People are so skeptical that they are refusing to see the miracle.

Ainsley also turned 17! I can't even believe it. Her birthday was on Martin Luther King day so she had the day off of school. 

January also kicked off the ski season. Ski passes were limited and in high demand this year. I was lucky and volunteered to help the Lowell Scott Ski advisor. Which meant I got a free season pass! I got extra lucky because they ended up cancelling the season so I didn't have to help with any races but they let us all keep our passes. 

I went up several times with Owen and Emmie (they both have season passes) and Emmie's soccer team went up a few times as well. 

Just a fun memory: Emmie's friend Elsie had written something on Emmie's hand that had the word poop in it. Emmie slept on that hand. And woke up the next morning with the word poop inverted across her face. It was a good look for church.