All is well again.

Not much time to blog, still teaching seminary but tomorrow is my last day!  My sleep will be much improved. :)  Things are good.  Buzzing along like fall and the beginning of the holidays tend to do. 

A few pics from the last few days. 

Even the clouds in North Dakota love BYU :) 

When the nearest Costco is 4.5 hours away their online ordering rocks!! 

Haylee and I found acid washed jeans at target tonight.  Hello 80s!! 

I felt pretty fancy. Lucky Joe recognizes my amazing qualities quickly.  😂

Cause other days it’s this.......

Long day

Seminary went well.  It’s still surprising to me that I can teach a 45 minute lesson every day.  I am so thankful for an awesome lesson manual.  

I headed to see a doc in town to discuss a hysterectomy.  Sadly my uterus has decided not to be a team player so it is time for it to go.  I have some  large fibroids that have doubled in size over the last year. A doc recommended a hysterectomy a year ago but I was working and Sierra was getting ready to have shoulder surgery.  At the time my exact words were “ain’t nobody got time for that.” After finding out the fibroids had doubled in size and would continue to grow I decided I didn’t want to chance being on one of those medical shows having a 30 pound tumor removed.  Lol.  It was my first time meeting the doc today and I loved her!  I am going to wait until January or February (depends on Joe’s schedule) so I can enjoy the holidays.  

After that I went to a briefing for new senior leadership. It was fine. I briefed on being a key spouse. 

I got a text from one of the kids. It contained a bit of drama. So I took a chance and called Joe to see if he was free for lunch. He could hear I needed him -huhe blessing of being married so long- and thankfully his schedule was clear. I felt better after lunch and ran a few errands. 

The rest of the day was ok. My worry was in the back of my mind but they came to the forefront when I talked to my brother. It’s  hard to be far away and worrying.  I am mostly positive but today was a hard day. Parenting never ends.  I am thankful for the enabling power of the atonement and that I know my Savior knows the stresses of my heart.  I know when we are obedient All things work together for our good.  I will repeat that phrase over and over. 

My token picture of the day.  Errand running. It was another beautiful October day.  

Oh Canada 🇨🇦

This will be a less wordy update than usual :) I need to be quick and cover a lot and it is my bedtime so here ya go....

Four day weekend:

Thursday- Haylee and I got North Dakota drivers licenses. The wait wasn’t bad, my guy was nice, Haylee’s lady was crabby. (I may have blogged about that already lol) 

Friday - we got up early and grabbed our passports so we could head to Canada.  We didn’t have any place specific in mind as far as Canada went Haylee was just dying to say she has been out of the country. We went to the international peace garden.  International -yes.  peaceful -sure, we were the only ones there. Garden-not so much.  Lol.  We knew we were late in the season but had no idea where else to go near the border.  It was fun to stand right on the line between the US and Canada.  We left Haylee in another country!  Lol. On the way home we stopped in a little town, that starts with a B Bonniteau I think?, to eat. We found a place that called itself a family bakery with a cafe.  We all had roast beef sandwiches -DELISH! We bought a dozen doughnuts for the road and wished we had bought 5 dozen!!  Best doughnuts we have ever had.  EVER. The bakery is 80 miles from our house and I would consider driving there just for the doughnuts!! 

Joe and I in Canada, Haylee in the US

Beautiful birch trees all throughout.

DAM! 

The US side really is sunnier 🤣



There is a big path between the trees all along the boarder.  So cool!

Haylee is in two countries at once. 

The Canadian side had a 9-11 memorial.  I had to pee like crazy so we didn’t have time to check it out any closer. 

That little stream is the divider in this part of the park 

We are in Canada! The border patrol guy for Canada asked us a bunch of questions, A BUNCH! - one of them was “where are you going in Canada?” Us “we have no idea” him: ummmm ok, how long are you going to be here? Us:  15 minutes?  We really just wanted to drive across the border for a bit and go back.  I am sure he thought we were weirdos. 

Joe thought he could drive 100mph, um no, try 100klm per hour :) 

The best doughnuts EVER!!

Haylee strapped them in so they would be safe. 

Saturday Joe washed the van and got it all sparkly. I drove Haylee to a stake dance 2 hours away in Williston. It was a barn dance.  It was 3.5 miles down a dirt road.  😂😂😂 no more sparkly van.  Also, in North Dakota when they say barn dance.  They mean BARN DANCE....

Haylee and fun except for the fact we forgot she is allergic to hay.  There was hay all over the place, did I mention it was an actual barn? Lol. She sneezed the night away.  When she got in the car and we started talking about it we were cracking up.  Such a good memory. 

Sierra, HD and Kass are at Disneyland today. Sierra sent me this pic.  She is the CUTEST!!  


Wish I was there with them!!!  

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!!