75 degrees!

In October is worth writing about in North Dakota!  

Haylee is off school for a couple of days due to a teacher education conference so she and I headed to the DMV this morning to switch our Missouri licenses to North Dakota ones.  I also wanted to make sure and register to vote.  We only waited about 20 minutes and it was an easy switch on the licenses. And it turns out you don’t need to register to vote in North Dakota.  The only state is the union without voter registration.  So weird!!  You just show up on Election Day with an ID card that has a North Dakota address and you are in.  Probably not a very secure way to vote but there ya go. 

After that we headed to the zoo.  Such a gorgeous day to soak up some sun.  My foot is a little worse than yesterday so Haylee pushed me in a wheelchair lol.  She is a good caretaker.  We love the zoo here!!  It is small but has beautiful grounds and lots of “good” animals. 

We love to watch the big cats.  The Tiger was pacing and pacing. 

He is gorgeous.  We named a lot of the animals today this is Tiberius. 

The daddy giraffe, Melvin, and baby giraffe Macario (that is the baby’s actual name not our made up one)

The momma, Gloria and daddy. 

The wolves were out. I can’t remember what Haylee called them. One started with an F

The sun peeking through the trees.

Haylee with the lioness, Sirabi

After the zoo we grabbed a late lunch at Qudoba. Not as good as chipotle but it will do. Haylee drove home and we stopped at the grocery store really quick. 

Tonight I had a Spouses social to go to. Our theme was Fear Factor!  It was fun. And gross.  I stick my hand in a bucket with worms, mealworms and other gross stuff to sift through dirt and find some pennies.  It was yucky. I dressed up as a witch doctor.  

So yuck.

Steph and me.  She is hilarious.

I made me a doctor nametag. Fancy!! 

This was a delish trifle that Jessica made.  So dang good!!!


Then we headed to Josh and Kristy’s with some other Chief neighbors for a fire pit since the guys are off tomorrow and it is so warm out!  Love our neighbors!!  A great day!!

Third Wednesday

I had a post all typed out and then the app froze.  So now you get the shortened version: 

*Temple with Keva.  Awesome

*Lunch at Mackenzie River- awesome

*Chatting for four hours non-stop, longer if you include lunch- awesome 

(I honestly don’t know when we would run out of things to talk about- 10 hours? 20? 50? So fun!) 

*getting new tires on the van and it costing 150 bucks less than quoted?- awesome! 

* Sierra’s new pain doc telling her he doesn’t prescribe pain meds (seriously?!?) -NOT awesome

*driving home and noticing a strange orange light on my dash indicating that I was almost out of gas-not awesome

*Honda designing their mini vans not to turn on the gas light until you only have 20 miles left in your tank-not awesome

*Praying your way to the gas station and it works- awesome 

I have a 20 gallon tank!!!  Pretty sure I coasted into town on fumes.  Lol name that movie.

 *Seeing Haylee trying out her new ice skates-awesome

*dinner with Joe at sonic after dropping Haylee off at Mutual -semi-awesome (too late for junk dinner) 

*foot feeling better-awesome! 

*going to bed late because it’s a four day weekend- EXTRA AWESOME! 

Great day.  More awesome than not so I’ll take it! 

Sweet treats, more rest

Still resting my dang foot.  The good news is that it is better today!  I’d say about 30% better.  Another day of rest and using crutches tomorrow.  I didn’t use them much today.  It’s hard when I am home by myself.  I can’t carry anything!  Ha ha.

Seminary was boring today. I felt bad for the kids.  It was definitely a Monday kind of day.  Tomorrow I am definitely spicing things up!!  :) 

Keva came over to borrow one of Haylees books for her kiddo.  Per the usual her quick drop by turned into 30 minutes of chatting.  We could have chatted for days.  I am really looking forward to our temple trip on Wednesday.  The benefit of it being two hours one way is the four hours of chatting in the car!  :) 

Tonight I am in bed early, as in way before 9.  Just as I climbed into bed Keva texted me and said she left a treat on my porch!  Joe went out to get it. Some fancy candy bars, a yankee candle and some colored pencils and a dot to dot book!  She is the best!!!  Such a blessing in my  North Dakota life.  

Those are the tendons that are swollen.  Praying lots that they continue to heal FAST! 

Sunday -from the couch

Today brought little relief for my poor aggravated tendons.  Who knew tendons could be so dang grumpy?  After getting up for church my foot just ached.  I decided not to go -with the full support of  Joe lol-. I texted the bishopric to ask them to get someone to cover my lesson. I felt bad asking at the last minute.  I felt prompted yesterday to ask someone but it’s hard for me to accept the fact that I need help.  I was really banking on being magically healed this morning. That did not work out.  I stayed totally off it today except to go to the bathroom.  Tonight it is feeling better! Not 100% but better!  I am so happy.  I have a temple trip planned Wednesday 

 and I need to be good to go.  I spent the day reading my scriptures and watching football.  Not the holiest way to spend the sabbath but it is what we did. 

I FaceTimed with HD and Kass who were over at Krissie and Ammon’s for dinner.  I sang with Dean-o the bambino and he clapped when I would finish each song.  ❤️ That little cutie can say “HD” plain as day but will not say “Tia” to save his life lol. So rude.  Kass is feeling super sick today but was a little better this evening.  

Sierra texted me from a church fireside that was not going well.  A well-meaning speaker, who is a nutritionist, stood up and talked about how all medicine is bad and if you have any degenerative disorders or disease in your body it is because your mom fed you sugar and you have a poor diet. He also said anxiety and depression were your fault.  Sierra said the first thing he said was that in the Family A Proclimation to the World the “only” thing it says about women is that they are supposed to nurture children and that women in the church do a terrible job

of that.  He said that there is sugar galore in nurseries across the church.  I wonder how many nurseries he has served in.  I know he meant his message to be one of good nutrition is important and makes our bodies function better but he went way over the line on his topic.  Poor Sierra was a mess.  She walked out in the middle of the meeting and went to the bathroom and cried.  Thank goodness she has a strong testimony and personality.  She went to her bishop afterward and let him know how the speaker made her feel and asked him to think of others who may have anxiety and other health issues and how it would make them feel.  Her bishop was understanding and loving.  I am glad she felt like she could go to him. 

Haylee thought it was hilarious that after she killed a fly I was determined to clean its guts off the ceiling even if I couldn’t stand up. 

HD and Kass are on the far right of the picture dancing with the BYU folk dancing team in the homecoming parade.  So fun!! 

Urgent care, ice skates, seminary

I have been substituting seminary this week. The real seminary teacher is deployed, the substitute had to go out of town. That makes me the sub sub.  Ha.  I do not do mornings lol.  It hasn’t been as bad as I thought.  I only have four kids in my class.  One of them is Haylee.  Today it was just she and I for our lesson. 
I made a matching game for doctrinal mastery.  :) 

Last week we finally ordered Haylee some ice skates.  She has been taking lessons and LOVING it.  Rental skates are not ideal.  Skates are expensive. But since she is the last kid at home and not growing any more we decided they would be an early birthday gift. And maybe Christmas. And I also made her promise to obey everything I said until she is 30. I think it’s a win.  Lol.  Here she is hugging her skates. 

She was soooo happy.  She went skating with the Spanish club tonight and got to try them out.  She LOVES them!  

On Monday Joe was off work for Columbus Day, we ran some errands and did some Christmas tree shopping.  We have two nine foot Christmas trees.  We do not have 9 foot ceilings.  One of them we can leave the top off and it should be ok. The other one not so much.  Joe asked if we could just have one tree at this house.  I really wanted two and since he is the best husband ever he agreed. Our shopping trip was a success and we will go back in a couple of weeks to buy it. 

The last couple of weeks my right foot has been bothering me. The last couple of days it got so bad I can’t put very much weight on it.  Last night I was in tears.  I suspected tendinitis but figured I would see the doc just to be sure. I called first thing this morning but she couldn’t see me today so they suggested urgent care.  I really didn’t want to go but after my third agonizing trip to the bathroom I relented.  It was exactly what I thought. Thank goodness urgent care was awesome and speedy.  Nothing to do for my foot but try to stay off of it.  I did that about half the day yesterday and most of today.  It feels a TINY bit better tonight.  I hope it heals quickly.  A day on the couch always sounds good until you have to do it.  Blah.  

Elevating it. 

My friend Lisa drove me to the doc today and we went to lunch afterwards.  Shoes aren’t comfy so I had slippers on.  I’m not too cool to go to lunch in my slippers.  Ha ha ha. 

Last night Joe had an event to attend.  There was a bunch of stuff going on at work.  I took this pic because it epitomizes what it is to be a Chief. Well, for Joe.  Personal cell phone in one hand, work cell in the other, dressed and ready to go support his Airman as they graduate from ALS.  

I had to add this pic if of Sierra.  She posted it on Facebook last week and I love it!!!  

Speaking of Facebook. The prophet challenged us to take a 10 day break from social media. I went cold turkey last Sunday night. It has been good.  It is an addiction for me for sure.  It hasn’t been super hard.  When I use it again I will set some serious limits.  

Nothing exciting

This last week was just a regular week lol.  Nothing too exciting to report. Except maybe that it has snowed 3 times this week!  Unusual, even by North Dakota standards.  

This picture is the morning of October 1st 

This is a pic of me, Joe and my mom on my 43rd birthday.  I take a pic of myself every year on my birthday :) this year it was of the three of us instead of just me. 

The fall colors in front of the commissary were so pretty.  So many shades all in one spot. 

This is the tree closest to the building. 

Everyone complains/warns you about winter here.  That it is SO HARD, SO COLD, SO YUCK.  Obviously this will be the coldest place we have lived.  I think part of the reason it’s hard for people is there is so much darkness.  We have started taking vitamin D and a b complex to combat the winter blues.  

Snow outside the back garage door.

We went to first Friday tonight at the club and had a great time.  The food was awesome and they had a great DJ.  Me and my friend Stephanie were the only ones dancing.  Whatever.  We are a party to go. Every time I see a little red headed cutie I think about our grandkids.  We don’t have any yet but I sure hope they take after their momma with red hair.  This little one was especially adorable. She is my friend Jessica’s daughter. Her name is Eleanor. She was dancing and I went to take a video of her.  When I stopped she put her arms up to me. I held her for a few minutes and when her mom tried to take her back she wouldn’t go.  It was so cute!!!  Can’t wait to have our own little grands!! 

This weekend is General Conference.  I cannot tell you how much I look forward to these semi-annual conferences.  What a blessing it is to be spiritually uplifted in such a great manner. I also don’t have any complaints about the 11:00 start time!  😜 There were several announcements last conference that made people gasp. In a good way.  Inspired changes.  I am certain this conference will be the same.  My mom is convinced we are going to 2 hour church.  She is leading the crusade I think ha ha ha.  I am not a fan of that idea at all.  But I know our prophet is the mouthpiece of God.  As he and his counselors speak in unison it is as if God himself said the words.  So no matter what the changes I will go forth with faith and serve to the best of my ability in this little corner of North Dakota.  ❤️❄️💙

Until tomorrow....this has been circulating on social media. It is pretty funny!! 

Fun, fun, fun

My mom came into town late Wednesday night and we have been partying it up ever since!  ;) Thursday we went to the Scandanavian heratige Park, shopped for Christmas stuff and had lunch at the Strangled Rooster.  Delish pizza and creme brûlée.  Friday we went to the biggest scandanavian festival in all of North America! Minot hosts Norsk Hostfest every year.  It was a huge festival!  So many neat things to see from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Finland.  And so much food.  We had to park kinda far away and the northern wind was blowing!  We froze walking in but we survived- we also realized, after our long walk, that there were busses from the parking lot.  Lol.  We for some cute stuff. My favorite thing was a driftwood Santa.  I LOVE IT!  And a new ornament with a Christmas tree and a Viking ship.  Anyway, we came home around 4, picked up Haylee and Joe and headed back to the festival for dinner and to see The Beach Boys concert.  We had fun walking around some more and The Beach Boys were great.  Haylee and I had seen them several years ago at a USO  at Christmas event at the Kennedy Center in DC.  It was fun to dance and sing along.  Today we ate lunch at a less than fantastic restaurant.  Did some more shopping -really returning a shirt that was too big for me- and Joe buying me a few things for my birthday.  Haylee wanted to take grandma to the skating rink so she could show her what she has been learning.  We stayed for an hour then did some needed shopping at Walmart.  Came home and watched BYU get beat badly by Washington.  Tomorrow I am teaching Sunday school of course and all the adults at church third hour.  I’m a little nervous but I am sure all will be well.

The Scandanavian Heritage Park

Lox and cream cheese on a Nordic waffle.  So yum! 

Salmon burger. 

Cutest little pointed elf hats!!

Rommengot - a bland semi sweet custard consistency type thing.  It needed lots of cinnamon and sugar. 

We did not try fish balls!  Gross. 



Before the concert. 

So fun!!