Getting Out More and Reading Books

Sunday evening we went over to my in laws to visit them since we heard that they didn't do anything with anyone for the 4th of July (sad we didn't know sooner!). They introduced us to a new card game called Five Crowns. It was a little confusing at first but fun after I got the hang of it. Garrett and Jack played with us while Nikki did some drawing and the little girls played with toys. Then we went out back to look at my mother in law's fairy garden. She had some new figurines and she wanted Nikki to help her decide where she should put them and other ideas for future fairy garden decor. Nikki seemed happy to help and took some pictures. The little girls also discovered a new little red rocking chair that grandma bought for them to sit in when they come visit.

On Monday I was so tired from the weekend activities that I decided to do a lot of reading from my book, "The Choice". I ended up staying up late that night reading and woke up the next morning and finished reading my book. It was a good one! I even cried a little.

The past couple months we have been trying to do better at how we eat so that we can lose weight. We're not doing any certain type of diet and haven't changed things dramatically. The biggest things we've been doing is trying to eat an earlier dinner, not go back for seconds and not eat anything else after (that doesn't always happen though) but we've also been going on lots of walks, usually in the evening after we've eaten dinner. Tuesday night we walked out around the golf course by our house again.

I am happy to announce that Curtis finally broke the 200 lb mark! He had weighed up to as much as 220 and just yesterday he weighed in at 199.5! I'm so happy and so proud of him!  I have been trying to lose a little weight as well but I'm nearly there with only wanting to lose about 5 more lbs. It's been great working on our goals together!

There was one point on Wednesday that I had to send Alice to time out. Well, I kind of forgot about her and she fell asleep in time out. I left her there to take a nap, which was not the best idea since she did not want to go to sleep later at bed time, even though we stayed up late.

Wednesday evening Jack borrowed a Wii game from his friend called Wii Sports Resort and I typically don't play video games anymore but I decided to play this time. Charlotte and I did some sword fighting, wake boarding, and bowling on the game while the boys watched. It was fun to play and especially fun to watch Charlotte when she did sword fighting with Garrett. I took a video but was unable to upload it here since the file size is too big.

I really wanted to go on a walk or bike ride after dinner that night but Curtis wasn't feeling up to it. So I asked the kids if anyone wanted to do a bike ride. Charlotte's bike was still flat and so she asked if we could go on a scooter ride. She had her scooter and I borrowed Nikki's (since we're pretty much the same size) and I have to say it was a lot of fun! I would definitely do it again. One thing I want my kids to remember about me is that I would do things with them. After I got back from taking Charlotte on a scooter ride I took Alice on a bike ride. Nobody else wanted to come by then because Curtis had started watching a movie.

We stopped at the church on the corner to rest and then Charlotte started rolling down the hill. She had so much fun!

She even started doing somersault rolls down!

I didn't get a picture of Alice and I on the bike but we just did a quick ride around our neighborhood. After we got back both the girls played with their next door neighbor friend, Brooklyn. Brooklyn recently got a new pink power car/RV and I watched the girls all play together and take turns driving.

Yesterday Nikki had the day off of work and so after I finished making a grocery list, she wanted me to help her bake a pumpkin roll. We had previously bought the ingredients for it a couple weeks ago but got so busy that we didn't make it yet. After we got it made and into the fridge we both went shopping, first to Walmart, then to JoAnn's, and then to Winco. I had to get a couple of things at Walmart and she wanted to look at sewing patterns. Out of no where Nikki decided that she wanted to make her own dress for prom (which would not happen until next spring). I told her now was not the best time to try and sew something with the shortage of fabric, etc. from Covid-19 and I also said she would need to practice on something simpler than a dress first. So she picked out a dress and shirt pattern. I haven't sewn any clothing items in a long time and even then I didn't do very many things. We went to JoAnn's to try and find fabric for the shirt and neither of us knew which type of fabric we needed for this shirt pattern and there weren't any available employees to help. So I called my mother in law and we will hopefully go in together tomorrow (Saturday) to see if she can help us. If we have to use stretchy material for the shirt then I may have to get help from my big sister, Melissa, who has a lot more experience with sewing clothes and stretchy fabrics.

Anyway, after JoAnn's we went grocery shopping at WinCo and that back home. I made Nikki do all of the driving today so that she can get more practice. I even made her back the van into the garage to unload groceries. That was a little challenging but she did it! We ate homemade sub sandwiches, chips and fresh fruit for dinner and then our pumpkin roll for dessert. It was delicious! I really enjoyed spending so much time with Nikki yesterday and was glad that she wanted my help. After eating that pumpkin roll for dessert I knew we had to go on a walk but it was going to have to wait until both Curtis and I took a short nap because we were both really tired. After our naps we did our walk and this time we walked on a path that goes between Fall River subdivision over to Lake Lowell Ave. When we came up Lake Lowell Ave we wanted to go look down a certain street and we happened to see a man we knew outside mowing his lawn. After all, we used to be in the same ward before it split many years ago. We had a nice little visit with him and then continued on. On our walk on Tuesday I got two mosquito bites so from now on I have to spray myself with repellent if we're going to walk at dusk. No bites yesterday!

Nikki wants to make the dress like the blue and white one. She likes the longer sleeves.

The last couple of days I had been trying to decide what new book I should read. I had many to choose from in our office but ultimately last night I decided that I was going to read the Little House on the Prairie books. I have had a nearly new set of all of the books sitting on our bookshelf for the past 15 years and I still hadn't read them so I decided it was time!

It was nice to able to have something to read this afternoon since my neighbor needed a ride to the DMV and I waited in the car while she went in. I recently saw a dvd set of all the seasons of the Little House on the Prairie TV series and I really want it! I currently have all the seasons on dvd except for season 3 and 5 but this new set would have the entire series and it's a lot thinner so it would save room! I told Curtis that I really wanted it but I don't think he'll take the hint and buy it for me. I have a hard time buying stuff for myself, lol, especially if it's not a need, only a want. Well for now, I guess I'll just be content with reading the books.

4th of July Weekend 2020

Curtis and I started out our 4th of July weekend by waking up early Friday morning to drive to Walmart to grab some stuff to fix our bikes and some food items. My bike has been notorious for getting flat tires this past year but we were planning on going on a bike ride Saturday morning so we needed to get it fixed. Thursday night we had gotten my back tire fixed and then while we were looking at the brakes on Nikki's bike I heard a loud air noise. My front tire just blew out also, and that's why we had to go to Walmart the very next morning since they were already closed.

While Curtis worked on fixing my tire Friday morning I started to work on trimming the yard. Our boys have been mowing the lawn but I do the trimming every other week. Garrett ended up doing the mowing that day. We wanted to get it done early before it got hot. When Curtis finished fixing the bikes he took off to Meridian to help my cousin Charlie with getting things ready to have two washers and dryers. I finished up my yard work, watered the neighbors plants, took Nikki to work, showered and ate lunch. Then the other 4 kids and I drove out to visit Charlie, Chelsea and the kids. We had a good time visiting and I'm glad Curtis was able to help them. Toward the end of our visit our boys played video games with their little boy Michael. I guess Michael was pretty happy to have someone to play games with since his older sisters don't really like to play them.

Jack really loved riding on these tricycles. You can spin around on them.

Playing with water balloons in their backyard.

Water balloons and games.

We went home in the late afternoon and were just content to relax for a bit but later we did make it to Lowe's to pick up some chains to lengthen our swings and then went on a bike ride with Jack and the little girls. Nikki and Garrett opted not to come but I was fine with that because I was making them come the next morning. When it got dark Curtis lit a fire while the kids were watching a movie inside. We roasted some hot dogs over the fire and the kids came out for that.

This morning (4th of July) we woke up around 7:45 to get up and ready to go on a family bike ride to Kingfisher Trailhead. We had previously walked this one and thought that it would be easier on bikes. Well, we were wrong...at least on the way back. Actually, I think my dad and the three oldest kids did alright but Curtis, Laverne and I had a hard time since we are not used to bike riding, and on gravel roads. Curtis was pulling Charlotte in the trailer and I had Alice in the bike seat on my bike so we both were pulling extra weight. There were times where we had to get off and walk our bikes because it was easier to do than riding, especially when we went up a hill. Dad said we went about 8.8 miles round trip. I thought when we got home that we would all crash on a couch and watch a movie or something but Nikki was the only one that did that because when we got home our neighbor friends, the Wallace's, were out front lighting some fireworks. So the four younger kids got distracted by that. I went over and visited with them a bit while Curtis unloaded the bikes from the truck. Then I had to head back and make frog eye salad for our 4th of July BBQ at my grandma Norton's house. Curtis decided to take Jack to go buy some fireworks to light off tonight. I didn't think he was going to buy any this year but it will be fun because several of our neighbors that usually are loud and have tons of fireworks won't be here this year.  They went camping instead.

This was early in the bike ride where we paused to take a little break and get a picture. 

We rode out to Gotts Point at Lake Lowell and took a little break looking out at the scenery. I didn't take these two pictures so I had to get them from Laverne's blog. Glad we got them!

We headed over to my grandma's around 2:45 where we had a nice BBQ dinner with dad and Laverne, Joyce and Bob, Melissa and Nathan and their girls, and Scott and Jill and their two youngest kids.We ate hamburgers, homemade potato salad, frog eye salad, watermelon, chips, baked beans, cookies and ice cream. After eating I set up our ladder ball game in the backyard and played with the kids. Then dad got his corn hole game out where some kids and some adults played.

While I was helping grandma set up for dinner outside the boys came in and played some Rummikub.

I think Nikki played a round with the boys but then she crashed on the couch and took a nap.

Smiling with a mouthful of food.

Dad brought another game for younger kids and played a little with Alice and Charlotte.

Playing ladder ball.

Time for corn hole! Garrett was getting pretty good by the end of our playing. He and I tied for getting the highest score of the day, which was 6 points (for one turn).

Jack had the bean bags stacked on his head but made them fall when he saw I was taking a picture.

The corn hole game looked nice and patriotic so we used them for a backdrop when we took some family pictures.

Charlotte wanted to be in our picture with us. 

The original plan was to go water skiing tonight with Melissa and Nathan on their boat out at Lake Lowell but our family was pretty tired from our bike ride this morning so we changed our minds and came home to relax. Curtis and Jack finished watching their movie "Around the World in 80 Days" while I worked on this blog post. Charlotte played Lego Harry Potter video games after their movie was done. After awhile all of us ended up outside. Nikki's friend Angie came over to join us. Curtis had gone to the store earlier to buy some hot dogs and bratwurst, chips, and soda to have while we did fireworks. He set up a table in the front yard and used our portable gas grill. We invited some of our neighbors to come have some food with us, including Jim and Ashlie Wallace, who we are pretty good friends with.

I finally got her to put on her USA shirt. I am surprised at how well she did with the fireworks. I thought she would have been scared but nope, she wasn't.

This year we let the boys light all of our fireworks. We weren't even planning on buying any until after our bike ride yesterday.

I can't believe how much Garrett has grown and changed. He used to be so scared of fireworks that he would hide in the house. Now he's out there lighting them up!

Nikki and her friend Angie.

Our neighbor friend Jim and his son Luke came over to get some food.

I noticed we had a full moon tonight and then saw fireworks shooting up right by the moon. It looked pretty cool I thought.I had to go over to our neighbors to get a better picture.

It was a great day even though the bike ride was tough. We didn't get to bed until 1:00 am. I was not looking forward to getting up for 9:00 am church. We decided to have Jack stay home with the two little girls since they were really tired and because Curtis said the Covid cases in our county have spiked. As much as I would love to have our whole family at church, I have to say it was nice to be able to go and listen without distraction. I was even asked to give the opening prayer. It would have been so tempting to say yeah I'll say the prayer if I don't have to speak any time soon but of course I didn't, lol. Today was the first time we sang hymns since returning to church and with it being Fast Sunday, they asked 3 people ahead of time to share their testimonies. One was Brother Tuha from our bishopric. Then our relief society president, Donna Fitzen. And then an older sister, Cathie Dixon.

Slowing Down

After the very busy weekend we had I was happy to slow things down this week. Curtis went and picked up our glass projects on Tuesday but he left his at the office because he was going to use it in the office anyway. I told him he had to bring it home so we could get pictures with them.  He brought his back the next day. I must say though that we didn't make these by ourselves. The instructor did half the work. He led the way and had us do things to help. It was still fun. We both wouldn't mind doing it again. I love that we are trying new things together!

Curtis made one that matched the colors of his work emblem, black and green.

This was the BSU color mix. They had lots of different colors to choose from.

Tonight I finally told Curtis it was time to go to Costco. He has been there once or twice in the past couple months with my dad but I however have not been to Costco since February I think. I decided I just wanted to avoid the crowds and craziness during this pandemic. It was pretty normal when we went tonight except they require everyone to wear masks and there are no food samples and no tables out for eating if you buy something from the food court.

As I said, I decided to slow things down this week so I finally started reading the book I earned last summer from the library reading program. I have read about 1/3 of it and am enjoying it so far. I'm just hoping it doesn't have a sad ending because I have heard that Nicholas Sparks is known for sad endings in his books.

Curtis on the other hand started listening to the book Dracula on audio book using Spotify, which he just added to his phone recently. He's really enjoying it. I have listened sometimes but he listens to it in his truck when he's traveling to and from work so I have missed a lot. I probably wouldn't mind reading it later. He's listening to it right now as I type this.

Yesterday I offered to watch the kids of a friend of ours, Chrystal Hayes. Her kids are the same ages as Charlotte and Alice and so they are friends. They haven't been over here in a long time and so this was their first time seeing the finished play set. I was a little frustrated though because Charlotte kept wanting to play inside while her friend, Elie, wanted to play outside in the playhouse. Normally, it's the other way around. They did do both though. It was nice though because when they were playing inside it gave Chrystal and me a chance to relax in the hammocks and chat. We have to remind the kids that parents want to talk with their friends too.