Wednesday

Ziva went to the spa and now she smells good.

I made cookies for an after school treat for the kids ...and Rob.

I have spent the last 3 days waiting for a drywall guy to come. It has been super frustrating. Last week I set up an appt for Monday morning. Sunday night I texted to confirm a time. No answer. Monday morning I texted “are we still on for today”. No answer. Monday after noon I texted “I’ve been waiting are you on your way?” Finally he answered. He said yes. 2 hours later “sorry I was hung up I’ll come tomorrow. 

Tuesday morning I wait. Tuesday afternoon “I have to run to Clermont I’ll call you when I’m on my way”. Tuesday night “my mom had car trouble and I had to help her, I’ll come first thing in the morning.”

Wednesday he comes. Works for 1/2 and hour and says I’ll be back tomorrow to finish. 🤯

Sadly we have searched for someone else and there is no one available. This is an issue covered by our home warranty and they looked for someone and couldn’t find anyone so told us to find our own guy and send in the receipt. I am not sure why this is such a rare skill but we are stuck waiting on him day after day. 

For YW tonight we planned our year. We’ve got some fun stuff in the works. 

For cubs Rob and John had the boys build rocket launchers. They loved that.

The YM played games at one of their homes. 

Ethan played soccer after school.

Grace had an orthodontist appointment and had to go to school early for solo and ensemble practice.

And that’s a Wednesday.

This. That and the other.

I haven’t done a catching up with everyone post in awhile. 

Cat: continues to try and fit in bags and boxes. Runs around like a crazy guy. Attacks Ziva with “purr”- poseful glee. Keeps Grace company.

Ziva: seems to be doing better with her bladder stones. We are anxious to see her progress when we go to the vet at the end of the month.

Grace: busy! She’s in the school musical so stays after for rehearsals until 6 most nights. She’s also preparing for solo and ensemble competition for band. She likes her new private clarinet teacher, would like to find a place to take riding lessons, hates her science teacher because she loves science and doesn’t feel like she’s learning a lot. She has lots of friends. Struggles with EDS. She’s a lot of fun to be around and has a very kind heart. She’s growing up to be a lovely young lady.

Ethan: doing well. He’s practicing driving and we are all anxious for him to be liscensed. He loves to play video games with his CA friends. He has made some good friends here and they do crazy stuff like put on speedos and jump into the alligator lake at 10pm off the end of the dock in January! Doing well in school. Likes his seminary teacher. Tries to play sports as often as possible. Goes running regularly. Is funny and kind. Never puts his dirty clothes where they belong and joins me in the can’t sing a note contingent of the family. He loves to play and to watch all sports.

Hannah and Sawyer are busy at school. Their new apartment is so cute and they are happy to be living there. They’ve had friends over for game nights. Hannah is enjoying being back to classes and getting her ceramics grove back.  They are looking for part time jobs and not loving the cold.  22 degrees is no fun!

The Johnsons are doing well. Ruby and Cora can pull themselves up into stuff. They eat everything but just as a hobby. Mostly they nurse. They are sleeping better but are still fussy pants! Jenna is planning a big birthday party for them and they are the cutest bambinos ever! Luckily J & C have a big circle of friends to help them weather the trauma of a twins first year, and yet another frigid Akron winter!

Sierra moved into her own apartment. She has 2 roommates that she likes. She’s driving Lyft and Uber. I wish she’d move here and work for Disney! But she’s happy and figuring out what to do so that’s good.

Dani is starting a new business, “Dash of Sun”. It’s a spray tan business. They are converting their laundry room into a spray tan room and she already has a couple appointments set up! The girls are busy going to school and Marshall and Bentley do “preschool” with Dani. I actually haven’t heard any Greg updates lately. I think he’s not serving in YM right now. I’ll have to ask. I also wish they would move to Florida but you know what they say about wishes? !

I am trying to be better. I am enjoying my wide margin Book of Mormon and am trying to read it faithfully. I did awesome during the challenge and want to keep that up. I also am trying to add some more good thing to my life. Like yoga ...so far I have only thought about doing it. And developing my talents. 

I had planned to apply at Disney right after Christmas and now Grace is in the musical and is having a very unpredictable schedule and Ethan’s ride home from school when I can’t pick him up, Hailey, moved to Utah over the Christmas break. So I’ve hit a bump. Seriously how do working moms do it? How do they take care of home and hearth and get their kids where they need to be and go to work??

Rob is having a growth year at work. There have been many changes and challenges for him, that he chose for himself, but that hasn’t made them any easier. And he’s been having health struggles. And he had a challenging calling (cubscouts). So he’s good but it’s not easy:) He loves to fish, is getting back into biking and also loves his video games (is that still what you call them if you play them on the phone?) He also loves to watch college football. We have a couple shows we watch together on tv too. And we’ve been doing well at going to the temple each Tuesday night. 

Concert, car, cat

Grace and I got up quite early and did some emergency pants hemming. We stopped by Walmart for a quick breakfast and then she was at the venue.

I walked around the river walk one last time. It was very pretty early in the morning but not quite and peaceful. There were lots of walkers and runners and dogs with their humans, lots of rowers on the water and people meeting for breakfast at riverside cafes. I walked 3 miles round trip and went back to stand in line.

Ethan and Rob drove up for the concert. They didn’t come Friday because Ethan had two soccer games that night. I was sad to miss them but they won both and he said it was fun. 

The performance was wonderful!! I can’t even say what an awesome, amazing job they did. Rob had tears in his eyes the whole time. It was fantastic. I guess we’ll have to buy the DVD and feel grateful that Ethan plays xbox because that is the only dvd playing plaform in our house!

We stopped for lunch on the way home and then Rob’s car had car trouble. So that was an $$$ and time intensive detour to our day. Everyone felt grouchy but in the end it was fixed and I am grateful we could get it taken care of quickly and safely.

The cat missed Grace and she missed him. We came home and needed to do some grocery shopping and some house cleaning. 

Besides the car problems the whole experience was wonderful. And exhausting. We were up early, out late and walked miles and miles every day. The kids sang for hours and hours. It was well worth it.

Tonight Ethan went to the Roddy’s to watch a football game and Grace and I got her birthday invites ready. I meant to go to bed early... but it’s too late for that:)

More music

During the kids morning rehearsal the parents walked the riverwalk. We checked out the concert venue, watched some rowing teams and enjoyed the pleasant weather and sun rippling on the water. 

We had lunch with the kids then went to watch their afternoon rehearsal. They are really good! I’m excited for the concert.

Poor Grace has been having a lot of pain and dizziness so that’s been a bummer. She’s been a real trooper though and has just kept plugging away.



Candida, me and Lorelle.

After the rehearsal we rode the trolley to the end of the line and went to a Spanish restaurant called “Columbia” Its the oldest Spanish restaurant in the US, it’s been called one of Florida’s top 25 restaurants and it is huge and so pretty. The food was good. We had a lot of fun. They have flamenco dancers there and I had the best flan of my life. Seriously so delicious.



Then we rode the trolley back and went “home”. Mrs Lynch (the kids school choir director) went to dinner with us too.

It’s been an interesting couple of days for me. First of all I have never seen the behind the scenes of how a choir worked and that has been so fun to watch. I can’t sing and had no idea the kind of work that goes into making a beautiful choir.

Secondly I just met the other parents yesterday and we spent basically all of the last two days together. Everyone has gotten along really well and we’ve had a good time but I don’t think I’ve ever been in a social situation quite like that. I like getting to know new people so that’s good:) 

Candy is from Mumbai. She has two kids and is a stay at home mom. She’s a little bit tiger mom-ish (in the best way) and very kind. Lorelle and Jason are from Puerto Rico. Ayanna is their only child. They met when he was a musician and she a tango/flamenco dancer on the island. Now she’s a physical therapist and he is in production. They are very loving towards each other and very nice to everyone. It’s been really fun to wander the town with them and to watch the kids learn and have fun!

I over use that word : fun. I use it all the time to mean pleasant, pleasing, entertaining (sometimes), positive and joyful.

Dinner break

Grace is having a really great time and learning so so much:)

Ayanna, Grace and Aryan

All State

It’s been a busy week. I’m not sure why though . The kids went back to school and I did some cleaning up. 

Wednesday I worked. In the evening we had New Beginnings. It went well. Each of the girls spoke. We welcomed 3 new beehives and our theme was love & donuts!

This morning Grace and I headed to Tampa for all state choir. I’ve been looking forward to the trip although I have no idea what to expect. I just got Grace settled at the convention center and us checked in to the hotel. Now we will see how it goes:)

Walk

This afternoon Rob and I took a walk with Zivers. We saw two beautiful hawks. One of the really fun things we enjoy here in Florida is seeing lots of birds and other animals. 

We started church on our new schedule today. 8am. Ward council started at 6:30. It was strange to have only two hours and to be home so early.  We did our family study of Matthew 1 and Luke 1 and had a good discussion. Ethan and Rob are both still feeling sick, they’ve been carrying around the respiratory virus that the whole family seems to have had for 2 months! Since they are sick we decided to nap instead of play a game or something. Rob did take E driving which I am glad about. I am excited for him to be a driver.

We watched a movie later in the day.

Today is also fast Sunday. Each month we fast from dinner to dinner on the first Sunday and use that time to reflect more on the Lord’s blessings in our lives, to pray for things we need. We also give a fast offering each month to help the needy. Dinner always tastes extra good on fast Sunday. 

Yesterday I went to the temple. Rob was sick so he didn’t come. We did end up going out to dinner and spent time in the afternoon cleaning the yard. He felt better after resting in the morning. I hope he’ll be well soon. 

Tomorrow is back to school for the kids. Vacation is over:(