Sunday, February 25, 2018

Flake Fun

Hey!  First off, I am feeling much better.  Thanks for everyone's prayers and thoughts.  I started to get sick on Monday and after 3 days, I was ready to be done.  I was able to get some rest and I finally have a voice!  Again, thanks for the faith and prayers.

Scott was at a conference in Prescott most of the week and I was sick most of the week...

Yesterday we attended a funeral for Scott's Aunt Jean.  She has had Multiple Sclerosis for nearly 40 years and has been bed ridden for 13+ of those years.  She held on until her last granddaughter returned from her mission and peacefully passed away a week later.  Great lady who had a great influence on those around her.

We wish that we could be there this weekend with everyone.  Emma, enjoy the temple and just drink it in!  If I come up with any amazing mission advice, I'll let you know!!


...And Loving It!

Hola familia. 

Yep.  I'm killing the espanol.  The most important phrases (and actually the only ones I know) are como ce dice (don't think I spelled it right) and no entiendo.  Life savers. 

I'm actually in love with my mission and can't wait to go.  I get to go through the temple next Saturday at 5 and I'm really hoping all of you who can be there will be.  I'm excited to have all of us in the temple finally! Sorry for holding up for so long ;) Anyway, I'm really excited to go and hope y'all can make it. 

Literally nothing super exciting happens in my life so that's why I don't post.  I went and got some mission pictures taken (cliche, I know) by Nick Fullmer's sister and they're great! It was like 2 degrees outside, but it was still fun.  My friend Cambria went with me.  She went through the temple yesterday and is going to be serving in Racife (pronounced Haseefee) Brazil and she leaves June 5.  She's awesome and super photogenic so that's fine.  We had a really good time minus the part where we almost froze to death. 

As always, I welcome mission advice at any time from anyone (even if they didn't serve a mission or haven't served a mission yet ;) I hope y'all have a great week :)





Nilsson News

Winter has returned.  Sad day.  We had spring-like weather in January and most of February but then I guess the weather realized that it forgot to be winter so it blew back.  Wind, snow flurries, and high temps of 15 degrees.  Not so fun.  But what is fun is planning what I'm going to get started in the greenhouse!  I went to the Hart's house and Elise and I went through all the seeds she inherited from Home Depot.  If my garden and flower pots look anything like what I'm imagining in my head, it's going to look quite stunning!  If anyone has requests on veggies or flowers that they would like me to start for them, please let me know!  A packet of seeds usually contains over 100 seeds and clearly I'm not going to plant that many plants.  Elise and I found some fun heirloom varieties that we want to try so if you'd like some let me know and we can start extras.
Yesterday, we did a combine birthday celebration for Henry and Millie.  It was small and simple thing but I think they had fun.  I'm in the dilemma with birthdays because I'm really trying to minimize stuff.  A lot of people say to replace the things with experiences and I get that, but for these really young people I don't think they would understand an experience instead of getting to open gifts.  So, Millie received one baby doll and some clothes.  Henry got about three gifts and has been playing with them non stop.  We probably could have got him one item too and he would have been fine with it but we are just taking baby step right now.  It was a fun afternoon.
The fireplace is slowly taking shape.  Why is it that every project ends up being much more challenging than expected?  We've discovered that this really cheap shale that covers our fireplace  has a super duper tough side to it.  We can't penetrate it with the drill.  That kind of presents some problems.  Creativity is one of my strong points so that is what I have reverted to.  Forget the precise measurements! 
We are excited for this coming weekend and seeing most everyone at the the temple with Emma (sniffle, tear.  She's all grown up now.) and to see who in the world the amazing USU mascot is.  The anticipation is killing me!  Love ya fam!

Sunday, February 18, 2018

Hyde Park Highlights

I love reading the blog posts! It is so fun to hear, well - read, what everyone is up to! If the state of Utah didn't own the rainwater, I would love to know how best to collect it in Hyde Park, Jenn. Really, it is illegal to collect it here. Silly. You'd think that sort of thing would be encouraged, especially in drought years when there is limited, rationed use of the irrigation water. Anyway, I'm very excited to get up and see the paint job at the Harts and hope to get Dad to go with me to see the Showman movie. Seems like we are always the last ones to see the great shows.  The grandkids are still in disbelief that I haven't seen Frozen, Muana, and a host of other "have to see" shows...

Well, it was a busy week, but I am sitting alone at the birth center in Ogden. Jamie's baby is due to come any day and I didn't want to be rushing here in a snow storm in case he decided to come this weekend. It happens that there were two births today, one at home and one here. We had to divide and conquer, so it was good that I was here after all, even though Jamie wasn't the mom giving birth. Don't know how long I'll have to hang out before her little guy decides to come.

We got word today that Dad's Uncle Nile died. That is Grandma Belliston's brother. I'm not sure any of you would remember him. You don't even remember Grandma very well, since she died in 1991. She had three brothers, one older and two younger. Her older brother was disabled and died a long time ago. Nile and Wain were her younger brothers. We see Wain now and then when he is driving through Utah, but we haven't seen Nile in a very long time. He was living in the Philippines, I believe.

Have a delightful President's Day! Be grateful for great leaders like Washington and Lincoln and for our beloved country.

Hart Happenings

 This week we have been feeling rather left out.  Ian is busy taking care of our neighbor's plants (the neighbors are in Boston), feeding the animals and tending the little sprouting plants at another friend's house (she is in California), and mucking out the stalls at the Nilsson's while they were in Arizona!  Everyone is having fun adventures!  We want a turn!
Our life is one big adventure actually.  We don't need to go far for that!
We are meeting more people in our new ward which is fun.  Ian has made some friends and they spend the weekends running back and forth between each other's houses.  Jack has been recruited by his friend's dad to be on a soccer team in the spring, and Peter enjoyed a friend's Mario birthday party this week with a bunch of the neighborhood kids.
 Alex got to do his favorite winter camping with the scouts this weekend.  The boys slept in a snow trench and Alex slept with the scoutmaster in the garage of his parent's cabin.  They had fun sledding, ice fishing, and eating.
  As for me, I painted the dining room.  It is lovely!  Come see it! And we also brought in some more furniture for the playroom.
  Our big news of the week is that we sold our little 12th street house.  It was good closure for us and an opportunity to look back on the blessings we received living in that area.  Some of the best people we know, we met there and still maintain contact with.  Sad/happy.
  Ian is excited for Thomas to know that in his choir this season they are going to be performing "Trashing the Camp" from Tarzan.  It'll be fun!
  Hope everyone had a Happy Valentine's Day!  Thanks for the fun package, Mom.  That was so thoughtful and the boys loved it.  Alex surprised me by getting the carpets cleaned that day!  They look so lovely!  So the boys and I spent the day sequestered in the kitchen, playing Valentine's games and making crafts.  It was a fun day.
  I hosted book club on Saturday.  We were discussing the book My Grandmother Asked me to Tell you She's Sorry. It provided a lot of fodder for discussion! I really liked the book.
 I'm rambling so I think I'll sign off now.......Hope your week is wonderful!
 

Nilsson News

We have returned form the land of sunshine and warmth!  On the 8th we packed up and headed for Phoenix, AZ.  We made it as far as St. George the first day and drove the rest of the way the following day.  It was fun for the kids to track the different cities we traveled through to see how close we were getting and it was fun for Garrett and I to watch the temperature gauge in our car steadily climb higher the further south we went.  As soon as we could see the saguaro cactus we knew we were close.  80 degrees the first day we were there!
Okay, so Phoenix is terrifyingly huge and there is tons of traffic.  We missed our exits twice which made Garrett extremely anxious because the exits there lead you to who knows what land rather than off then back on again like here in Idaho or Utah.  We did make it eventually and the drive wasn't too horrendous.  Millie had to sit on my lap up front most the way but thankfully the majority of the drive was through uninhabited desert.
Garrett and Emerson ran the Spartan the first day we were there and they really enjoyed that.  Garrett has two more to run this year to earn his trifecta medal.  Anyone who wants to join him is more than welcome!  During down time we watched some of the olympics and that was fun.  People can do amazing things!  I could do the olympics of there were categories like hay bale toss, wall knock down, and weed pull.
We enjoyed lots of time at the parks in the sunshine!  We also went to the butterfly conservatory, lego adventure land, the aquarium, and the Mesa Temple.  The day we decided to head to to Snowflake, it rained and snowed.  It was great visiting the Flakes and we are grateful they were willing to put up with our chaos!  While there, Garrett took Addy and Emerson to see The Greatest Showman.  It was a 40 minute drive to the nearest theater but totally worth it!  That movie is the talk of the town and we listened to its amazing soundtrack at least a dozen times on our drive.  It is always awesome when a good, uplifting show makes the spotlight!
On the way home we stopped in St. George again to celebrate Garrett's grandma's 90th birthday.  His other grandma is turning 100 this year.  He has some strong longevity genes!  Both his grandmas are very healthy and independent and only have a little short term memory loss.  We decided to leave from the party and head home.  It was a couple of days early but we needed to be home.
We had a wonderful time and it was good escape from the long winter.  We are excited to see a lot of you on the 3rd for Emma and Thomas' big events!

Flake Fun

We had so much fun with the Nilsson's.  Although it was overcast and cold, we fed the horses and went on a couple of walks.  We can't believe how much the kids have grown.

Other than that visit, life was pretty boring this week!  I taught my relief society lesson today on Sister Oscarson's "The Needs Before Us" talk.  It is such a great talk!

I did attend a class at the local community college on rainwater collection.  It was fascinating!  Definitely inspired me to look into some storage options.

We are looking forward to the long weekend. Hope everyone has a good holiday weekend!


Sunday, February 11, 2018

Hyde Park Highlights

What an interesting week! I thought I didn't have much to report - just the same old, same old. But after reflecting, I realized there were a few new things on the calendar...

Dad and I went to a county-wide spelling bee to support our neighbor who was in charge of it. It was fun to watch, but really made me nervous for those children. When a hard word came along, my hands would start sweating and my heart started beating fast for those little people. Maybe we should try a spelling bee for one of our Family Olympic challenges.... :)

Speaking of spelling... It is a hoot to study Spanish with Dad! It is a riot! He is so funny! It makes me laugh just to think of it. But we are making progress and he is gifted at remembering some things. The pronunciation is the funny part, but it's coming along well.  Banjo on the other hand... :/

Dad had a tooth fixed when part of it broke off. The dentist didn't have to deadened because it was on a tooth he'd had a root canal on. The tooth was dead already, so there was no nerve to worry about.

Emma has been practicing for a while with her dance group that came together after several of the fellows returned from missions. They were just in time to put together a show for a Valentine's event in Lehi. They performed Friday night and Emma had a delightful time dancing again. The flapper dresses needed some help so I spent a morning altering them. They worked out okay.

Mostly I have been feverishly working on finishing the quilt I began more than a year ago for Elise's boys. The pace has been ridiculously slow, but I'm hoping to get it off the frames this coming week. Did I write that last week? And the week before?? The boys won't even want it when I get it done because they've had to wait so long.

We thoroughly enjoyed having Emma and her friends for dinner tonight. They are great people and we had a lovely time visiting and eating. I hope they will come back again! It was great having laughter and stories and conversation!

The best news is we scheduled a time for Emma to go to the temple! She will be attending the 5:00 session on March 3rd. Those planning to attend with her should be at the temple by 4:30. They didn't give us many options and 5:00 was the only option that works for Thomas and Victoria. Please let me know what your plans are as far as who will be attending and how many children will need to be cared for. I will plan to get a couple of babysitters to help watch the little ones, if needed.

Have a pleasant, productive, practically perfect week, all!


Flake Fun

Well, it has been a brutal week for me.  We have had a lot of sickness and grief in our department recently and this week it just kept piling on with a mother's death, 2 hospitalizations, 1 child hospitalization and lots of flu.  By the end of the week I felt like I had been beaten up but it was a good weekend so I'm ready to go back into the fray...I think.  Hopefully things will calm down. If not, I'll need some extra prayers!

We had our pinewood derby this weekend which was really fun.  It is always fun to be around the cub scouts.  They are so excited about everything!

We also went and looked at another house (we're ready for another big project) and this one was WAY too big of a project.  The wall in the living room was visibly bowed and about 10 of the 12 sky lights displayed water damage.  There was a bit of a climb required to reach the kitchen and we passed it by this go round.

We are excited to see the Nilsson's this week and hope that they will enjoy our sunshine.

I was stung by a bee today.  Scott was able to get the stinger out and I survived.   I hope that you all have a great week.  

Hart Happenings

Hello all!
  It's been a couple of week full of fun and family!  We had the Springville Bellistons up here last weekend for a Super Bowl party.  It was a blast and the kids had so much fun together.  The adults enjoyed watching the kids and hanging out.  We have such a great family!  I am so grateful that everyone is so willing to travel and spend the time it takes to get together.  We want to follow Ruth a Garrett to Snowflake now.
  We're in the middle of soccer season which is fun.  Jack and his team are doing awesome!
  We have been celebrating Alex's birthday today.  Our friends came and filled his office with 35 balloons yesterday which was really fun!  Looking at all those balloons made him feel older than he would have otherwise, I think.  It was quite the visual of how many years he has been alive!  We went to dinner with friends, he played ultimate frisbee with a bunch of his guy friends, and ate a lot of treats.
  Our challenges are going strong right now and it has been really fun reading the Old Testament, brushing up on our Spanish skills, practicing the piano, tracking our expenses, and counting our calories (that actually hasn't been that fun).  Thanks everyone for your ideas and being willing to participate in these challenges.  It has been really helpful to Alex and Joe as they try to flesh out their concept.
  I hear that it has been nice and warm recently in Utah (so jealous).  It's warmer than normal up here for February, but still only in the mid-30s.  We don't have daffodils and tulips coming up like my brother-in-law tells me they do in Brigham City.
  We're so excited for Emma and her mission call.  She will be great!
  And we're looking forward to seeing Thomas and Victoria in March.  That and going to the temple with everyone will be highlights of next month.
 
We'll be seeing you!!!!

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Hyde Park Highlights

I agree with Jenn - January flew by! Emma might disagree... Her mission call just couldn't come fast enough! I think that after waiting for SO long (it was really only 3 weeks after Dad pushed the button), the Hyde Park postmaster is her hero! She was so excited to go to the post office and pick it up herself, on the last day of January.




She is absolutely delighted with the whole idea and thrilled with the place, the language, the Mexico MTC, the timing, etc. She couldn't be happier about it. Thank you to everyone for making time to join us as she opened her call. What a highlight of the month!

I have to say that I was impressed with Emma after she picked up her call. She knew that she'd be waiting a few hours before opening it and told me she just couldn't open her call in her "gubby clothes." She went home, cleaned up and put some nice clothes on in honor of the occasion. It really was a special time and I'm grateful that she felt the significance of it.

Besides all that excitement, I've just been doing regular stuff and trying to follow Ruth's example and de-own as much as I can in our house. It's going slowly, room by room. If we ever decide to move, it will be a breeze because I will have gotten rid of all the excess and unnecessary stuff! What a lovely thought.

Here we go, February....  Everyone have a tremendously lovely week!  Oh, Jenn, what did the ground hog say, after all?! I was so distracted that I forgot to listen and find out how much winter we have left!

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Flake Fun

Well, it's February.  Who would have thought 2018 would start flying by so fast? 

Things in Snowflake have been pretty warm (in the 60's during the day) but still chilly at night.  

We attended the annual ground hog day breakfast on Saturday which is always fun.  Then we went over to help on the house again.  It was a very productive day.

I have started transcribing another Grandma Flake journal which is really fun.

That's it for this week!