Misha's Shots

Misha had three shots—flu, a covid booster, and HPV. She came home to spend the weekend afterward thinking she'd be feeling awful.

She was fine. Maybe a sore arm but she didn't get sick at all with the covid booster.

A Visit From Sister Craven

Sister Craven from the Young Women General Presidency, visited our area and spent time teaching the youth in a fireside on Saturday evening.

She wanted to experience a Bishop Youth Council that functioned well and came to our ward on Sunday morning. Since Kristen is the YW president, she got to conduct that day. She was awesome. Sister Craven said Kristen was "a natural. She's the CEO of Young Women."

Sister Craven attended our ward and spoke for a few minutes after the Primary program in Sacrament Meeting and then attended the Young Women class with the girls. It was an awesome experience for all of the youth.

Apparently, "Sister Craven is small like you mom."

Thankful Day 12 - Internet

The internet is pretty amazing for connecting us to the world. I love being able to research, shop and connect with people around the world.

Dinner with Friends

We had dinner with our "cruise" friends, as we like to call them. We all went on a cruise together three or four years ago and like to get together every couple of months.

It is true what they say, Santa Claus is always watching. "He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake."

Thankful Day 11 - Arms and Feet that Work

I am grateful for the ability to walk and work and easily do things such as get in and out of a car, get out of bed by myself, and hike.

Two years ago

I have a woman in my Pathways Institute class whose husband is a double amputee and I can't imagine what that must be like. I have a small inkling of not being able to get around easily from my foot surgery a couple of years ago, but nothing like losing the ability to use my limbs.

I am grateful.

Amy's Apartment at Christmas

Amy had a particularly rough week at work and was feeling quite down. 

Usually she is not one to want Christmas decorations up before Thanksgiving, but she felt oddly comforted by the decorations and tree that her roommates put up so early in November.

Thankful Day 10 - Girls Who Adult

Amy and Misha have done great jobs at adulting in recent years as they have lived on their own and gone to school. 

Is it always easy? No.

Is it hard to build up an emergency fund to pay for potential car repairs? Yes.

Is living with crazy roommates easy? No.

Would it be easy to let Mom and Dad do everything? Yes.

Have we paid to make their teeth look awesome? Yes, yes we have!

Kristen is preparing to leave for college in the Fall of 2023. Already she is beginning to feel those stirrings of wanting to be on her own and be done with high school. And yes, to move away from home. And that is as it should be. 

Chris and I want all of our girls to be successful adults and to spread their wings and fly. We've spent 22+ teaching them.  

Thankful Day 9 - The Couch in my Office

There are some days when my brain is on creative overload, and I just have to take a break from writing and working and focus elsewhere. I love that I have a comfy couch in my office to take that break.

Thankful Day 8 - Hiking in the Mountains

Chris and I have really enjoyed our time hiking together over the past couple of years.

Chris was telling Misha one day that he doesn't LOVE hiking so much as he loves hiking with me and being able to spend time together. We enjoy our conversations as we hike, we love seeing more of this beautiful world, and we are grateful for that feeling that comes when we're hiking 2,000 feet of elevation and not being so out of shape.

Misha's Hand Turkey

When everyone adds their hand turkey as decorations for Thanksgiving and there is an artist in the group...

Thankful Day 7 - Weekends

Ahhh, Monday rolls around and I begin looking forward to Friday and the weekend all over again. I am just thankful for Saturday and Sunday for a change of pace, more time with Chris and our girls, and a bit of rest.

Misha's Self Portrait

This is Misha's self portrait that she titled "Looking Up".

In Progress

Completed

I love that all of my girls are so creative.

Kristen's Art

I believe Kristen said this was a reflective self-portrait.

I love the creativity and the reflection in the mirror. That had to be a challenge to get just right. Her teacher hung it on the wall at school so that everyone could see it.

The Finished Rock Wall

We had a rock wall installed on the west side of our house. It always seemed as though it was the one unfinished spot in our yard.

Before

During

The dad and his two sons who worked on it started on a Thursday when the weather was nice. It snowed on Friday so they had to take a break but came back and finished up later the next week when the weather turned nice again.

I like how it turned out.

Thankful Day 6 - Savings

One of the responsibilities that I have in our marriage is to take care of the day-to-day finances: making sure bills get paid, paying tithing, balancing the monthly budget, etc. 

Chris on the other hand takes care of our long term finances: 401k, retirement, emergency savings, etc. I couldn't do my "job" without his support and he couldn't do his without mine.

I am grateful that we are both organized enough to stay on task and plan for the day to day as well as for our future.

New Glasses for Mom

I ordered new glasses after my recent check up. My old glasses were maybe five years old. I thought the world was looking a little fuzzy, so I was glad when our eye doctor said, "This is how things look through your glasses that you have now. This is how they would be corrected." 

Big difference. I was able to pick up my glasses before leaving for Montreal.

Thankful Day 5 - Stunning Fall Color

I have talked to a number of people who have commented on the amazing Fall color this year. It seems to have lasted longer and to be more brilliant than past years.

Others around this country have commented the same (so I can only imagine how wonderful the eastern states have been this Fall).

I look out my window and think, "This might be the last day that the color will be so awesome." I am grateful for the awesome view and for mother nature's grand display this Fall.

iPod Cases

I'm not sure why we were keeping all of these old iPod and iPhone cases, but we did have a lot of them.

Chris was going through stuff looking for old electronics to recycle. 

Amy's Expressive Face

Amy and I both have pretty expressive faces. If we are angry or upset, you know it just by looking at our faces. 

I encouraged her to put on a happy face at work when she was having a bad day.

She replied, "Yeah, I know. My face is very loud."

Thankful Day 4 - Adventures with Chris

I love that Chris and I love going on adventures together.

Out of all the people in this world, Chris is the one I want to travel the world with. And we both love the blessing of Pinterest that allows us the ability to research and find some amazing sites to see and things to do around this world.

Thankful Day 3 - Being Brave Enough to Paraglide

“You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage.

Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. 

And I promise you, something great will come of it.”

Benjamin Mee "We Bought a Zoo"

I love this quote. I love that it applies to my life as I travel around the world from riding elephants to jumping off a cliff into a pool of water (I sooooo don't like heights and water) to paragliding off Mt. Pilatus in Switzerland.

Just before taking off

I'm flying!

Landing

Sometimes I have to NOT think about the scary things and just do them. So I'm pretty proud of myself for paragliding. In the words of my massage therapist, "That just doesn't sound like something you would do."

 

It doesn't. But I did it!

Check out my post about here: Paragliding Switzerland's Mt. Pilatus: An Epic Adventure

A Tiny Acorn

Misha planted an acorn a month or so ago. 

Cool huh?

New Rock Wall

I have wanted to add a rock wall to the west side of our house to create a finished look, to keep the bunnies from digging big holes in the berms, and to protect the trees with mulch that will stay in place.

Our neighbor has his landscaping guys—a dad and his two sons—working on the project for us. The sons are fresh from Guatemala. That might explain why they came on Thursday but not on Friday when it snowed.

I am hoping to plant some flowers and bushes along the pathway. Tulips hopefully that will bloom next Spring.

They should be finished with the wall this next week. I am excited to have it done.

Thankful Day 2 - Creative Writing

There was a short time in college when I changed my major to English. I worked as an English tutor at Ricks College at the time. I ended up changing to Health Sciences, but the desire to write and be creative has been a passion all of my life.

This family blog has been a great outlet for sharing my talent for writing and has spring boarded to my travel website simplyjolayne.com. Not only does that site give me more chances to write and be creative, but I also have years of travel experiences from Only With the Heart to reference.

Thankful Day 1 - Facetime

I am grateful for the technology of Facetime that allows me to keep in touch with my girls at college, chat with family when we travel, and see my parent's faces.

Beyond the fact that phone calls are basically free with a cell phone plan (compared to when I was younger and we had to pay by the minute), I love being able to call, text, or Facetime with the people in my life who are far away. Anytime. 

Facetime is pretty miraculous.