Sizzling summer

July has hit with force and we are in the middle of a really hot heat wave. We've had 100+ temperatures the last couple of days. The only way we are surviving is by staying inside during the day, and only going outside in the early mornings.

This week has a lot of fun things that we did. Most of them didn't get a picture to accompany them. The cucumbers in the garden are starting to sprout up. That makes this momma super happy. I give them a good soaking of water each morning. My neighbor also inadvertently gives them more water at night when he turns a hand sprinkler on full blast. The tomato plant by the garbage can has also settled in nicely and actually looks fabulous despite the hot weather. One thing that I'm confused about is my hummingbirds. They don't seem to be going through their sugar water quite so fast now that the heat has arrived. I'm not sure if they are just to hot to eat much, or if they are getting most of their food from flowers now. 

Last Sunday I was feeling a little bit of 'blah' and I took this picture as I was leaving my room to go to church. I feel old when I look at it. Serving in nursery always makes me reenergized, so I didn't feel gross for very long. 

On Tuesday I went to visit Larry first thing in the morning before it got too hot. I didn't take any pictures. Crying was involved. Two years in and I still have so many questions. I am also still mad. Not so much at God anymore, but definitely Larry. I don't think I will let go of this kind of anger until I am able to yell at him in person. I think he'll probably understand and feel bad about it. I wanted to get him some mini roses for his headstone, but could find any. I got a $7 pot of mediocre flowers. If he would have chosen he would have picked this kind of flower.  He loved the ones that were growing by his bedroom window. 

I made the boys a nice dinner that evening. Partly to honor Larry, and partly to keep myself really busy doing something so I didn't just cry the whole day. 

Wednesday was blood donating day. It's been a while since I've donated. It's so fun when the phlebotomist puts this little smiley face on your hand. It's to help them remember what arm they are using. I very much have a routine to donating. After they have everything going I ask if they will bring me a fruit punch juice box. Then, on my way out I get Lorna Doone cookies. This  time they were giving out these patriotic shirts. I would much rather receive a $15 amazon gift card, but the shirt makes a nice pj shirt so I took one. 

One of the days this week Peter and Luke were just sitting in my room chatting for around an hour. It was a rare event so I snuck a picture. 

At the end of the week I took Luke to the BYU museum of art. There were a few pieces of art that he liked. Neither he or Peter have ever been excited about going to an art museum, so we didn't stay for very long (20 minutes max). Luke was kind enough to take a picture of me with my favorite piece, and I did the same for him. 

When out exercising this week I snapped a couple of pictures. I want to submit some type of photograph to the fair, so I'm trying to compose a few that would be worthy. 

Lastly, here are a few more pictures Luke and I found interesting at the art museum.

 

Some of Luke's adventures

I started the garden really late this year, but I convinced Luke to help me so it will be ok. We have 6 spots of cucumbers and one tomato plant. It's about all I can managed this year. I water each spots once a day, so I'm hoping to see tiny green things coming up soon. 

On my Monday morning walk I noticed these cute Lego minifigs on a nearby mailbox. It made me so happy. I would love to go and see Toy Story #5 as the boys really loved those movies/characters when they were little. Anytime I see Toy Story stuff I immediately zoom back to many happy memories. It was a great way to start the beginning of a new week. 

Luke and I are trying to get out and do more things together. On July 4th he asked me to take him over to UVU and show him around. He said he wanted to know more about how college works because he doesn't know anything. It was fun to walk around and share with him many happy memories of when Bran and I were here. They have a done a lot of construction, but I still recognize most of campus. Luke thought the west side ponds were pretty cool. We saw a family of ducks which was pretty fun. 

When we got home from UVU Luke said he would be willing to learn how to make hamburgers. I was super excited. He didn't even get grossed out and need to wear gloves. He also is trying out new food. This week he tried onions, mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, apricots, mandarin oranges, plums, and kidney beans. He thought most of the things were boring and didn't taste amazing, but he said he would be willing to eat them again. Happy, happy, happy!

Chat GPT

I was frustrated this week with the outside of my house. It's a little blah - especially after the nearby neighbors completely redid their yard. They even put adorable shutters up. I decided to try and see what suggestions the internet had for making my front porch cute. I like the green door a lot better than the black, but I love all the plants so much. It would be so amazing to be able to have a front yard that looked like this. Maybe overtime it would become outdated, so I shouldn't feel bad I have no money to do such things. 

This was a long, hard week because I was disappointed from not being able to go to my parents. I tried to keep myself busy with good things, but I spent a lot of time being sad. 

Lisa Harrison asked me if I wanted her to come over and help me put in my fairy garden. I have been so unmotivated to do anything in the yard. But, I got excited that she suggested such a thing. We ended up having a very lovely chit chat while I weeded the garden, and then put the fairies in it. I also decided to go to IFA and see if they had any flowers. Thankfully, they had tiny red/white geraniums for just .99 so I bought an entire flat. Now, my front garden bed looks a little more happy. 

I felt like I was at Walmart a million times this week to pick up one or two little things each time. One of the times I went I saw these shoes. They look like shoes Larry would wear and I just had to take a minute in the store aisle to grieve him not being here. We are coming up on 2 years of him being gone, and I can feel it deep in my bones. It's awful. 

I'm working on a project to submit for the fair. It's a little corn husk doll that will be holding an American flag. I spent a lot of time fighting with the flag to make it work. It's been annoying. Hopefully, I can get it finished today. It really helped when I found some star shaped fabric at Hobby Lobby. That way I didn't need to embroider stars on what I was trying to work with. 

I also spent a couple of hours volunteering at the DUP museum on Saturday. The other lady that was with me just lost her husband - not even a month ago - and we sat and cried a bunch together. She married young and has never been without him. Obviously, it's been very hard. We did find some silly things to laugh about too. Like, when we couldn't find an electrical outlet to plug in the vacuum. 

While I was there I worked on making a tiny apron for my doll. It ended up so cute! Once I have all of it done I will include a picture. My neighbor, Lisa (from above), let me have some brown wool yarn so I'm using that for her hair. It's going to be super adorable when she is done. I think she fits right in at the DUP museum. 

I took this last picture at the library. For the 250th celebration they have a place to write down what you want for American in the next 250 years. This one was so cute and funny. I too have fond memories of Toys "R" Us with Peter and Luke. 

Oh, one more picture..... Yesterday, I saw this shopping cart in the soccer field at the nearby park. I think it's so weird to randomly have there. It feels appropriate to mention that my neighbor also has a Walmart shopping cart in their yard. Maybe it's a thing right now to steal shopping carts and put them random places. 

Father's Day

Today, I was supposed to be sitting with my parents at their house in Missouri. Instead, I attended church with my sister Amy in Pleasant Grove. I'm glad for my sissy and that we were able to call my Dad. It sounds like he and Mom had a very lovely day at church.

This week was busy as I prepared for my trip to Missouri, and then it was a massive discouraging not to be able to go due to airline problems. My parents were so good about managing their disappointment. Someday/somehow we will see each other again. It just doesn't seem like it will be anytime soon.

Luke told me this week he was getting so tired of all the things in his bedroom closet and he wanted to send everything to DI. I was dragging my feet, because I was emotionally invested in some of the things he had in his closet. He finally ran out of patience with me, and dragged all the totes into my room so I could go though things with him. He didn't want to keep anything. I however, kept a few stuffed animal, and Peter kept all the lightsabers. I also had to take a picture of these cute things that Peter created years ago. He used to love making things with duct tape. I hope one day he will use those creative skills to make things for his kids. This is a shield, mask, and Winter Solider arm. 

On Thursday I held our last Jr Fair board meeting. It was so much fun! I have a dynamic group of teenagers this year, and I feel so lucky to work with them. They are so ready to work, and they are excited to work together even though most of them are strangers. 

I was also able to go and pickup our volunteer shirts on Wednesday. I've been bugging the fair director to get them early. They looks fantastic, and I can't wait to get these on the kids. 

When things didn't work out with my flight on Friday, I came home feeling very sad and discouraged. I didn't want to stay home with such sad feelings. So, I drove down to Payson and did an endowment session at the temple. It was such a beautiful night, inside and outside of the temple. It was especially enjoyable to have a love and appreciation for the temple workers. It seems like each temple does things just slightly different. If you weren't a temple worker, you would probably never notice. 

On Saturday morning I decided to stop being a procrastinator and fix my leaking potty. It was such an easy fix. I wish I would have repaired it a lot sooner. It really needed to be fixed long ago. 

I also made a deal with a friend to meet her at the Riverwoods shopping area on Saturday afternoon. We ended up going to a new pizza place that is very, very popular. I'm so glad that we went at 3pm. The pizza was so extremely delicious! The company was pretty great too. 

The last project of the week was making this wreath. I'm planning to submit it to the fair. 

A busy library week

This week was busy with library events. I went on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. In addition to helping hand out summer lunches, I also helped with the book sale. It's always so thrilling to see so many wonderful books go to great families. 

My favorite thing is seeing little kids/tweens so excited about the books they find that they want to carry them back to the car instead of having us putting them in a bag. Our committee is hoping to earn $8,000. Hopefully we'll be really close to that amount. We don't have the final numbers yet. 

Last week I was talking to the director of the library about Thanksgiving Point memberships and how he would like the library to be able to offer them to patrons on a rotating basis. The only problem is they would cost the library $4,000/annually. I told him maybe the "Friends of the Library" organization could sponsor the tickets. Hopefully if we earned enough money at this sale, we can make it happen. 

On Thursday, I also went and volunteered at the DUP museum with a really good friend - Dixie Lewis. She always makes me feel better about myself when we are together. This is Dixie and her friend Heidi. They worked together on making this cute pioneer activity book. They sell it at the Springville DUP museum, plus the International DUP people in Salt Lake City have ordered 100 for their museum up there. Dixie is amazing like that - she is never afraid to tackle a massive project. 

I took my bobbin lace, and worked on it while we were sitting there chatting. I intended to make a really long piece of lace, but I discovered I don't have any more pink thread. I'm not surprised. I started this pink project 20 years ago. So, I'm pivoting to a different pattern/thread color. 

Luke and I went on a few adventures together this week. He is becoming more and more willing to step outside and do things with me. On Wednesday, we went to the local antique shop and went window shopping. After we looked at everything in the building Luke told me he saw something that he wanted to buy. A small silver bell. I was glad he knew the general area where it was located because the antique store is actually an antique mall and it's huge. He actually found the bell quite quickly, and got it home and polished. It's been so much fun to hear Luke randomly ringing it. 

Luke was also willing to go grocery shopping with me on Friday night. It was so nice to have someone to push the cart around for me. I hate that part of shopping (Walmart pickup - I love you). I gave him the freedom to pick some things that he wanted, and I think it helped him to feel empowered. I asked him if it was ok going shopping with me. He said it was an 8/10. That was happy news for me. Once we got home, I had to make a dash to the bathroom and Luke brought all the groceries in from the car. It was such a small thing that made me so grateful and happy. 

A few months ago I decided I'm going to make a patriotic corn husk doll to enter into the fair. So, yesterday, I started by making a mob cap first. It is teeny tiny  I love how cute it turned out. I'll add a little bow to the front once the doll is completely done. 

Tomorrow it will be one entire month of summer vacation. I feel like I've juggles it pretty good with rest, relaxation, projects, reading, volunteering, and working the 2nd job (data work) when it comes along. I am looking forward to make fun things this next week. Fingers crossed it's as amazing as I want it to be.  

June is here

I'm pinching myself repeatedly because I can't believe June is here. Where has the first part of the year gone? 

This week I have needed to find myself some extra things to do. So, I took myself over to the local antique store and found some fascinating treasures. I didn't buy much - just a puzzle for nursery, and a crocheted doily. I did have a lot of fun looking at all the things they had. The sad part, is some of those things were items I had when I was a child. Shocking! Surely, I'm not that old. Bwahahaha. 

My neighbors have worked really hard this week getting their house ready to sell. I keep going over there to see how I can help. Mostly, I've taken garbage from their can and transferred it to mine. They had to clean all their tile (over 300 tiles) plus their windows and this is what they used to get the job done. They said it worked pretty good. The thought of selling my house fills me with deep dread, but I'm adding these here in case I actually have to do it. 

I've done a lot of early morning walking, and then walking in the later evening with my friend Wendy. She is a hoot and a holler. Never in my life would I image we would be friends, but here were are. We found this lovely cloud while we were on this walk and we stopped to have a chat about what it most looks like. I love clouds!

 

One more funny thing that happened this week - I looked outside my front room window and saw that my neighbors have added a Walmart shopping cart to their landscaping. It's the neighbors with no parental supervision, so I'm not necessarily surprised. It is taking all my self control not to make a remark about it.