All right, time to bid farewell to November of 2018 via a random, long-winded recap. Will and Carma invite you to grab a rake...
and dive on in!
We got to host George and Kevin when they came up for the Boise State-BYU game. Love these two rival cousins:
George and his commitment to the Blue proved superior, and Boise State won!
We fit in a bit of Nerf while they were here:
Carma's poses haha.
Election Day caption via instagram: Early voted a couple weeks ago because I’m workin’ the poll book again today- so come see me if you vote in this precinct! Otherwise, go see your election workers! I’d come up with some witty, poignant wisdom about voting but I gotta get in there soooo just vote y’all!! 🙏🏻😘✌🏼
Jack and Carma are both snugglers. Chuck and I are not. I love when these two snuggle together and leave me the heck out of it haha.
The aforementioned BYU-Boise State game was a late one and this wee Cougar fan did his best to stay up and watch... probably better he wasn't awake to see the outcome ;).
Instagram caption: Never let it be said that Chuck and I don’t support our kids on whatever path life takes them... even being BYU fans 😑✖️4️⃣. Full disclosure: I mostly just love reasons to go to DI more often, aka where all of this paraphernalia was purchased 🛒🛍♻️💳🤩😂
Speaking of DI purchases, here is what Chuck is buying while I'm grabbing books and clothes.... NERF:
Current collection, cultivated over the last... two years? I think?
Remember the whole thing from a couple years ago about getting guys to take pictures of their wives with the kids more often and all that? Apparently the trick is to read scriptures with your daughter after she's gone full glam/clown on make-up, because Chuck snapped this picture completely unprompted.
As someone who has watched Chuck strap down a million truckloads of items, this about killed me ahahahahaha.
Random selfie,... I think at the end of Election Day? It was intense this go-round but still really awesome!
This. This is how Jack stays alive. He can try our patience LIKE NO OTHER and the next second be as sweet and darling as can be - like completely on his own taking a moment to pray over his Costco cheese pizza before eating it. I don't know how we ended up with this boy but I'm so glad we did!
Game night... Clue... super photogenic family...
Super long caption via instagram: At the beginning of this month I hit three years of doing plasma 💉 and to mark the occasion I got a sweet hematoma so I’m currently deferred 😅. It’s all good, 99% sure I would have failed my SPE test so this is just extra time to protein load 🥜🥩😋. Doing plasma kind of has a weird stigma and since I take my role as a social media oversharer prettttty seriously, here’s my spiel:
😩 Yes, it hurts
😃 .... but not that much
💵 Base payments at BioLife are $20 for your first donation of the week, $50 for the second
💰 There are usually bonuses every month, sometimes a couple
🗓 The week runs Mon-Sun. You can only donate two times within a seven day period and there must be one day in between... so pick your days and stick with them. We’re Monday/Friday folks.
🤒 You have to pass a medical history and physical before you donate for the first time and then each time you donate, your vitals are taken to make sure you and your plasma are healthy that day
💊 There are quite a few medications and conditions that prevent you from being able to donate plasma. You can read through all that info on the BioLife website
👩🏽⚕️ Staff at the Nampa center are, in general, the coolest. Really awesome phlebotomists - this was only my second ever hematoma, and I’ve only had two seconds (aka needed a second stick in my other arm). Chuck and I make way cool friends there 😘
💦 I make sure and go super hydrated and protein loaded to minimize the chances of having a reaction. I have no interest in passing out there 👀😴
🕘 Usually you’re in and out of there in about an hour, but busier times of the day mean longer waits. Some people take out their impatience on the phlebotomists. Don’t be one of those people.
👧🏻 Most BioLife centers have a playroom where your kids can be supervised while you donate. We’ve had overall excellent experiences there.
😑 Yes, there are some sketchy looking donors there (ie me and chuck 😂) but for the most part, it’s regular, nice, clean people who are looking for a chill way to boost their income. We’ve run into tons of people we know there 👋🏼
💪🏼 The end ... unless you have questions 🙋🏻♀️
Our stake president is the best at teaching and modeling the importance of gratitude; he often shares his experiences of sending thank you cards and encourages us all to do the same. This sweet, simple thank you card meant so much to us after Chuck put in so much time on that activity.
Chuck found this shirt for me at a DI on our trip and I had to text a picture to my brothers to make them jealous.
I love Jack:
Had to document a Sunday afternoon where Jack and Clyde were actually getting along!!
Hahaha my grandma Carma used to carry her purse around her neck sometimes so she could carry other things... looks like this Carma is as resourceful!!
Chuck tagged along for Pokemon club at the Boise Library one afternoon - wish it was closer to us; the kids love it!
Jack loved playing basketball against Mr. Johnson's son in one game!
Clyde had friends over during Thanksgiving break for another Nerf battle/board game afternoon.
Ahhh I love these kids.
Happy birthday to Chuck! Movie all together to celebrate the birthday boy who eschews attention on his special day haha.
Andy and Carma are such cute reading buddies:
Carma is also darling when she throws a fit haha.
Plasma with Carma - she and Jack love to put the stickers over one eye to become pirates haha.
Ahhhhh total fangirl moment. One of my FAVORITE authors ever, Sarah Eden, announced a book signing in Boise over Thanksgiving weekend and I was so so excited to go. This is the ... third? time I've met her and had her sign books and I get so embarrassingly flustered every time.
Totally worth the wait and I died laughing when Sarah's sister flipped the camera around and got this awesome selfie on my phone haha.
One of our big takeaways from our Utah trip was a decision about the kids' bedrooms. Jack and Will have been struggling sharing with each other, and Carma and Clyde have each had their own rooms. Chuck and I made it a focus of our trip as we talked about different possibilities and prayed about it as we went to the temples in Utah. Chuck received a prompting to think about putting all three boys in one room, Carma still alone, and turn the third room into a common space for our books and piano. Initially I thought he was crazy, but as we discussed it more I really grew to like the idea. A lot of the conflict occurs when they want their own space, but this allows more areas of the house to be used more throughout the day. We decided to give it a try and were SO surprised when the kids all agreed to it immediately. We thought Clyde would really struggle not having his own room any more, but he was really on board with it. We got home and started the moving around process and LOVE it. So far it's been such a perfect change in our house and I'm so thankful that Heavenly Father cares about what we care about and that He's so much smarter and more creative than we are without his ideas and guidance.
On a related note, I've always loved clouds that are backlit by the sun. I've shared it with my kids - that every time I see a view like this I remember how real Heavenly Father is and I look at it as a tender mercy that he's reaching out. It's been really neat to hear my kids point them out and then we take a minute to ponder and appreciate how close heaven really is.
