Valentine's 2023
Josie was not feeling well at all over the weekend. She stayed home Monday with a lingering fever and runny nose. She was ecstatic to watch Netflix (thanks to Sara for letting us borrow her log-in for the day) which meant Izzy’s Koala World and Gabby’s Dollhouse for the win. We played some educational games after lunch and snuggled on the couch. She was determined to feel better so she could go to school for Valentine’s Day.
Evelyn made me the sweetest surprise for Valentine’s Day, a booklet to write in, a drawing of me as a Queen, a mask, and a tiny bucket with flowers, a pencil, and a green marker! She is so thoughtful! Justin sent me a paper flowers card! While the kids were at school I cleaned off the table and set out the Valentine buckets with chocolates, candy, and of course squishmallows. Justin requested hazelnut chocolate, I found a new bar made by ferro Roche, looked delish. It was mostly just a regular day with all the regular lessons and practicing. Justin came home a bit early around 6 to take the boys for their annual men’s duty shopping. Phillip is cursed! He lost a couple of balloons, not untied from the lead in the store. After Justin paid for balloons Phillip lost another balloon in the parking lot, it also escaped the lead string. I got another huge balloon that Phillip is not allowed to touch. The helium would make an epic karaoke battle. Amelia and Josie worked hard to make chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. So much candy!
Our TV finally bit the dust. The remote function quit working 3 years ago, even with a new remote. Finally on Tuesday the screen went black and would not reset. That TV lasted us a good 11-12 years! The little girls and I spent out Mommy and Me and Me time at Walmart choosing a new TV. We got one just a couple inches larger with an all-in-one remote. No more 2-3 remotes for us. Roku is built in, volume, and such is also included. I am not sure what we will do with a remote that works! The kids are happy we won’t need them to turn on the TV anymore. We got a snack at Sonic to celebrate our girl’s date then drove out past Nampa to do some star gazing. It was a crystal clear night! We admired the Pleiades, my boyfriend Orion, and Sirius the sparkly star. At home it took some finagling to get the new TV mounted properly, the mounts are quite a bit lower on the new TV so it hangs up much higher on the wall. Our new karaoke set up got a workout for the combined youth activity, it is a fun gig. In violin Josie is learning to play “Boil Down Cabbage” fiddle style. She loves the song so much that she practiced it all on her own over 20 times! She has the fun finger slides down and is even trying to play on two strings.
The 3rd graders are visiting the Boise Watershed center this year as a field trip. I chaperoned a group of 4 girls for that event with Ms. Gingerich’s class. I joined the kids on the floor in the “livingroom” to hear all the instructions. The kids thought that was great to have an adult join them on the floor. I love being popular! We called our group the flippin’ Llamas! Ms. Gingerich warned me I needed to behave to keep my green status, heaven forbid I get clipped down to yellow. Ha ha ha. She is really the best teacher. The kids utilize breathing strategies often to help them stay centered, she’s taught her class about 8 different strategies, the kids choose the strategy they want to use. We rode a bus with Mr. Tracht’s class for 40 minutes to Eagle, ID. We were only a mile away from Justin’s office. The Boise watershed is not a shed filled with water, most unfortunately. Our guide, Augie, taught us that our valley acts like a bowl of water, the mountains act as a barrier keeping the underground aquifers filled with water. There are different ways to clean the water, the water at the shed is cleaned differently from drinking water. It is just refined from local pollutants then returned to the rivers. We watched Angie use regular air pressure to crush cans. Then he showed us how cold and hot water react with each other. When cold is on the bottom and hot water on the top the water won’t mix together! The kids were amazed! We went outside to make weather observations, including deductions on high and low weather pressure. Everyone ate lunch inside then went to play outside before heading back to school. It was a very fun day. At MCO it was “get your lines in concert order” day. My volunteers worked to get kids mostly organized before we went in, then the last 10 minutes the kids were classed into color groups and numbered. We also streamlined pick up so kids can’t escape to park.
The kids enjoyed a 4-day weekend. We got ourselves moving early Friday morning to meet Craig Branham in Marsing to do some digging at their family’s blue opal claim. We had ourselves and two other folks plus Craig at the claim. Craig was very helpful showing the kids which rocks were thunder eggs, blue opals, or a “leaveright” their rock. Evelyn found a large chunk of obsidian and a large chunk of agate she promptly named Bob. Everett was quite dedicated, he found a fun cache of opal. I scored some gorgeous fire opal and some fine blue opal pieces. Josie mostly foraged on the desert grounds, picking up rocks Kurt had scattered from his shop, some even had price tags still attached. She was amazed that rocks in the wild cost money. We paid for our bucket of rocks this time because it was a claim dig. I did feel some buyers regret because we don’t need that many rocks, but each kid was attached to their special finds…me included. I found a lovely chunk of rock with crystal, quartz, mica, agate, and lots of other cool rocks imbedded together. I can’t wait to clean that sucker off. On the way home we wanted to stop at the rock shop and cut some of our rocks in half. Mia begged for a month to try on Princess dresses for her birthday. She has stuck in her head a princess dress for her sweet 16 birthday. On the way home we stopped at a shop specializing in Quincenera dresses. Our goal was to find a style of dress that looked cute. The only “modest” dress was 4 sizes too small, but looked stunning. Amelia really wanted to buy one of the dresses for $350 but I wanted to wait because I would need to add cap sleeves somehow. Justin put the final kobash to the idea, killed it dead, no budget. That was the point I regretted the rock hounding purchase, I’m too soft. Evelyn was absolutely thrilled to be in that fancy dress shop. I actually found a gorgeous white dress for only $20, hopefully it will fit Josie in a year for her baptism dress. It is a size 8 that has corset cinches to accommodates many body types. The boys were almost dead after our hour of fun. We revived them, and us, with lunch at McDonalds. Yesssss. Right when we got home Josie jumped into the bath with instructions to Amelia to help her get washed and her hair dried before I got home. Evelyn and I headed to her ukulele lesson.
As soon as I got back I was thrilled to find Sara curling Josie’s hair! Bless her heart. I grabbed several outfits hoping Josie would agree to wear more than just her blue Princess dress. Amelia came along for the ride to help pose Josie and elicit some real smiles. I rented the red truck for 30 minutes right before sunset! Josie is the cutest! A friendly cat helped bring out her sweet side in spite of the cold temperatures. She was very excited to wear her dress and cape. Josie tried several times to ask for photos with her hood different, I was not on the same wavelength. On the drive home she finally explained she wanted some poses with the hood down but the cape on, duh?! Of course, that would be so very adorable. It was too cold to and dark after the 30 minutes for anything else, Josie dug her heels in deep. No more. We all admired the gorgeous sunset over Lake Lowell. It was a sight to behold.
Justin is running ragged. He slept a good portion of the day, in between some computer work and Clone War episodes. The day was overcast which means a lovely flat light for photos. I convinced Josie to take a few more photos with me at Wilson Pond. She and I had a fun time skipping around the pond twirling and prancing about. I convinced her to wear the pink Spanish dress first. This time she had on a long-sleeved leotard to keep her skinny arms warm. Josie had all the good ideas for her cape and cute dress. I love her adoring eyes looking up at me as she tells me all about her point of view. That sweet hand in mine pulling me over to admire a flock of geese running on the water to gain speed, asking what the willow plant is called, or to bend over inspecting a cool seed pod. It was all fun and games until I spied a vivid red berry bush 15 feet off the walking path. I picked her up to walk over there, she was terrified of the tall weeds and possibility of a rogue duck sitting in a bush. As she kicked and wiggled I slipped on the seemingly dry grass, it was hiding a slick slope of mud. I smacked down hard on my bum, earning a backside of duck poop mud, reeds, stickers, and of course I peed my pants. It was lovely. Josie escaped unscathed, she scolded me up one side and down the other for another hair-brained idea. I still made her pose in front of the dang bush. We went home to get me some dry clothes then went back out for her treat date. I needed to pick up a prescription at Walmart so that is where she got to go. Josie was very sad the Build-a-Bear at the mall did not have any pink brushes. She spied the tiny store housed in our Walmart, pulled me other with a look like "lady, you owe me for trekking off the beaten path!" She walked out with a brush, bunny shoes, and a duckie for her bunny named Jellybeans. Well-played kiddo.
I cannot wait to get to the Temple. My dad sent out an email last week and a message on What'sApp about the endowment modifications. Next week...a temple session is on my calendar for next week.
Go soon as you can
Love Dad
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