Welcome 2023

 I can't believe it's 2023! I probably start every new year post that way, haha. 

We had a wonderful Christmas season. This year we FINALLY walked around the lights and blow-up Christmas displays at the local park in Farmington. We drive by it every year and say we should stop, but never had. This year after Thanksgiving dinner at the Botts we drove over and walked around those lights. Only took us 5 years but it was worth it! I'll always remember the way we all laughed so hard at the giant blow-up teddy bear that had moving arms and I said, "Oh, it wants to give you a hug!" and Marcus said, "Yeah, of death!" It doesn't sound as funny now that I type it out, but we really did all have a good laugh.

We saw a lot of other Christmas lights this year, too. We spent New Year's Eve at Luminaria at Thanksgiving Point with my parents. It was awesome and something we'd all like to do again. The rest of New Year's Eve was spent playing Mario Kart with a little friendly family competition thrown in.

Christmas was great! I was sick leading up to it ... like flat in bed for 6 days sick. That part was no fun. But I felt pretty good by the time Christmas rolled around and was able to party the day away. I personally love having Christmas fall on a Sunday because then we go to church on Christmas day and it feels extra special. Layla sang in our ward choir this year and really enjoyed that. The kids got a 3D printer for Christmas and they have been so excited about it and are printing all sorts of trinkets. We all were spoiled like always and very much enjoyed two weeks off of school and work. The kids definitely had their moments of arguing and getting on each other's nerves, but mostly they laughed and played together a lot.

We went skiing several times over the break. The kids have become quite the skiers! Marcus still doesn't love it, but he goes and does well. We have had more snow this year than the last 10 years or so it seems. I love seeing snow flocked in the trees and on the mountains. It's beautiful! I continue to make it a point to get outside every day despite the cold because my mental health suffers when I don't. I love walking in the sunshine and seeing the glitter in the snow.

The biggest change is that I quit my job and will be working part-time as a student advocate at the same school. I did this to have more time to study while I return to school to earn my Clinical Mental Health Counselor certificate (CMHC). I start classes next week and will start my internship this summer. I'm not sure if I'll be a therapist at a school or private practice, but I am sure that I only want to work part-time for now. I am very happy with this arrangement and am oddly excited to take classes about suicide causation, addiction counseling, etc. It's all so fascinating! My end goal is to work with teens who are experiencing suicide ideation. 

Layla is at a dress rehearsal right now for her 7th-grade school musical. She is Junie B. Jones in the musical, Junie B. Jones. She is so excited and also understandably nervous. I can't wait to see her perform! 

Marcus decided to quit drum lessons. Mitch and I are sad but have also learned that we cannot force or push our kids to do things they aren't passionate about. Marcus has a passion for his Robotics team and so we will stick with that for now. Maybe someday he will pick up the drums again, you never know. He is loving Robotics though and his team is doing very well. 

Mitch's work is crazy, as always, but he is happy there. He loves skiing on his every other Friday off. I'm hoping to join him on Fridays now that I'll be part-time!

Let's just take a moment to look at Harvey sitting so comfortably on Layla's head. That cat!

Every time I buy toilet paper, I ask the kids to distribute it to all the bathrooms around the house. Before they can do that though, they have to build creations with it. Every.single.time. Here they are with the toilet paper Eiffel tower. 

Jordan got a German Shephard puppy. Her name is Koa. Layla and I were dying of cuteness overload. Mitch and Marcus were not impressed and did not listen to our pleas to get a puppy. Maybe someday. (But to be honest I don't really want to shovel dog poop anyways.) 

Well, here's to 2023. Looking forward to all that it brings us.

Fall 2022

We had quite the start to the school year! It was an adjustment for the me and the kids, but mostly for Layla. Starting 7th grade as an SBO is no joke. She is BUSY! And she does NOT enjoy attending the games, or really sports at all for that matter. Can you blame her when she grows up in a family that puts zero emphasis on sports? There were occasional tears from both kiddos for the first month or two of school: Layla due to overwhelm on her introverted self and Marcus due to a new school with a new teacher and his teacher is quite strict (Layla had her too, so we were already aware). But now we're 1/4 of the way through the school year and all is well. They both learned and grew from their experiences. Layla earned straight A's for first term including Honors English and Science and 8th Grade Honors Math. Quite the girl! 

We spent Fall Break in Park City. We went 4 wheeling for a day and swam in the Midway Crater. The fall leaves were stunning and we had a great weekend spending time together.

We had Halloween. Marcus decided to be a light-up Stick Man again. Mitch made his costume by hot gluing LED lights on black sweatpants and hoodie. It looked ghetto fabulous during the day and freaking awesome at night! Layla and her friends wore onesie pajamas and went as animals (Layla was a cow). I appreciated this because I did 0 work and didn't buy a thing since she already had the cow onesie. Both kids were invited to trick or treat with friends, so Mitch and I are that old now, haha. However, Marcus's group of friends quickly grew to 10 boys, so I volunteered to walk around with one other mom to ensure that no boys were lost or hit by a car. :) It was a successful night and Mitch and I have been sneaking their candy ever since! We silently laugh at each other across the room when we see the other one nonchalantly come back upstairs from stealing candy. Sorry, kids! We love you ... and your candy! 

We went to Disneyland with my parents and brother's family. It was crowded and I'm Disneyed out for a long time, but we had a blast and enjoyed spending time with everyone. Brock and Natalie's kids are at such fun ages for Disney, so it was fun to go with them. I love that our kids love to ride the big rides now. 

We put up our Thankful tree for Thanksgiving. It's a 12" tall tree with fairy lights I display on our kitchen table. We write things we're thankful for on little paper tags and hang them on the tree. It's fun to see what everyone comes up with. So many things to be thankful for!

Trying to wrap my brain around getting ready for Christmas. I feel like the sales and materialism of it all sneaks up earlier every year. I'm trying to hold off without missing out on things that I want to gift others. Most of all, I want to keep the Spirit of Christmas and the wonder of the birth of our Savior alive. That can be difficult to do with kids who are excited for ear buds and Nerf guns. Not to mention, Mitch and I wanting to plan trips to various places in the near future. Need to stay centered on what matters most.

Speaking of materialism ... Mitch bought a new (to him) car! He bought a 2015 Audi RS7. It is the black panther paint (it looks sparkly dark purple in certain light) and it's loud and fast. So loud. Obnoxiously so to the non-car lover. It has launch mode and we love that. He is happy about it and says it's a good way to go out before he buys an electric car. He's ordered a BMW i4 that will be here next year sometime. He sure loves cars! And he deserves it. :)

Gonna try to add pics to this post before I have to prepare dinner. We have friends coming over for dinner that we haven't seen in ages and we're excited to visit with them. 

Summer 2022

Look at me--- up to 2 posts in one year! 

I wanted to update on the rest of summer because we had some epic trips this year. First, Mitch and I celebrated our 15 year anniversary by spending 8 days in Hawaii. It was great! We stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa Village, the same resort we stayed at 5 years ago, and it did not disappoint. Especially for only $200 a night! While there, we swam with manta rays at night, hiked around the volcano national park, went to the top of Mauna Kea, snorkeled in pristine water, and ate a lot of fresh pineapple. It was wonderful to spend so much one on one time together. It seems we're both so busy anymore that we don't spend time together often enough. We had a blast and while we missed the kids like crazy, we soaked up every minute of relaxation and sunshine. 

The other big trip this summer was a long time coming. Growing up, I went to Lake Powell each summer with my dad's side of the family. We all stayed on a houseboat and had the best time. We stopped going about the time my grandpa passed away. It had been 20 years since I had stayed on a houseboat at Powell! And Mitch and the kids had never had that glorious experience. So, last January, I emailed all of my cousins and asked who wanted to go. I figured I'd get a handful of responses, but we got enough people to fill 2 houseboats! We had a great time and Mitch and the kids are now sold on the houseboating experience. I am currently planning next year's trip and we're already excited! 

The rest of the summer was spent boating (Layla learned how to get up on the surfboard!), pulling weeds, playing with friends, and binging Saved By The Bell with Layla. 

Pretty soon school started and now here we are, two weeks in. Layla started 7th grade at the junior high, a big change for sure. She is also a student body officer and is taking all Honors classes as well as 8th grade Math Honors. For some reason we also decided to sign her up for 4 dance classes, AND she auditioned for the 7th grade school musical and is being considered for the lead role (Junie B. Jones)! To say she is busy is an understatement, but she is loving it. I won't lie, last week was full of ups and downs. She kept saying, "I did it. I went to 7th grade. I'm done." Hahaha! She was half joking, half serious, but mostly exhausted. She went to school at 6:50 am on the first day for SBO duties, then didn't get home until 5:30 pm because she had to stay for the volleyball games after school. What a long day! But she truly is thriving and is learning and growing so much. She is meeting new people and making new friends. I am so proud of her and the way she is handling so much responsibility and change. Of course, we have repeatedly told her that we can easily drop a dance class or whatever else she needs if she starts to feel overwhelmed. She was also called to be the Beehive Class President at church last month, so that is also more responsibility (though she has already had some powerful spiritual experiences through her calling). Better to be busy than bored, right?

Marcus had a good first day. His teacher is not his favorite. At all. He has Mrs. Manning this year, the same teacher Layla had for 4th grade. She is a wonderful teacher with superb classroom management skills, but she is more blunt and a get-it-done kind of person who doesn't mess around. Marcus will be okay, but it is a learning experience for him to have a teacher who is more stern and less forthcoming with her praise. He loves his friends in class though and says it is nice to not be bored or be learning French.

I started back at work, too. I truly admire the principal I work for and can see how he is inspired in his job. He makes it a fun place to be. I am working with 9th grade students this year. They are hilarious and fun, but I also feel anxious about getting them to pass classes and earn credits towards high school graduation. Only time will tell, but I definitely have a dozen students or so who are going to give me a run for my money!

Slacker!

I can't believe it's been so long since I've written on my blog. I'm not even going to spend time typing out all the reasons why I haven't updated in over a year. Suffice it to say that now it's summer and I have several weeks off before returning to work so here I am. :)

I recently printed off all my previous blog posts into books. It made me realize that while I wrote about Marcus being baptized in the future tense, I didn't post any pictures of him. I'll add a few here.

It was a lovely baptism surrounded by supportive family and friends. We are grateful for the gospel in our lives! 

Marcus's life-long friend, Mason Mudrow, was baptized on the same day. These boys met each other when they were 9 months old. We don't live in the same neighborhood anymore, but when we do get together they are immediately stuck like glue again, despite how much time has gone by. I love to see their special friendship! Kellee and I tried every which way to work it out so that they could be baptized at the same church, but it didn't work out. We did manage to make it so that they could each attend the other one's baptism and that was special. Silly boys!

Update on The Botts in 2021:

Mitch got a promotion in 2021 and is now a Director I. To be honest, I can't remember all of the things he is over at work or the amount of people, I just know it stresses me out just to hear about his day and how deep the meetings go on his schedule, haha! He is almost always scheduled to be in 2-3 places at a time, which is obviously not possible, so he is constantly deciding which is most important and always feels behind. But he must be doing a good job because he was promoted to this level at a younger age than most Director I's and after only being at the previous level for less than two years, which is quite unheard of. Regardless of the stress, he is happy at work. And my favorite part is that after 12+ years of Mitch traveling constantly for work ... he doesn't have to travel at all any more! It was rough having him gone while the kids were young (we paid California state taxes for several years in a row because Mitch worked 250+ days a year there), but I'm so happy he'll be home more for their teenage years!

Mitch has enjoyed hiking with coworkers on their Fridays off and recently hiked to the top of Francis Peak by the radar domes.

I graduated with my Master's degree in School Counseling from Utah State University in December! Wahoo! We attended my graduation ceremony at the Logan campus in May with my parents. It was neat to have them all there and I was grateful for their love and support. I worked full-time at Legacy Jr. High for the 2021-22 school year and will be there again this school year. The other counselors and principal and vice-principals are superb and I truly enjoy working with them all each day. We make a good team and have fun together, too. 

We had our basement finished last year and the kids moved their bedrooms down there. We love having the extra space even though it is admittedly not necessary. We put in a theater room, gym with a sauna and drinking fountain, a game room, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Mitch did all the electrical work and built the sauna. It has been life changing to have Marcus and his posse of little boys play downstairs where I don't have to hear them or see the mess all the time, haha. 

Layla is 12 now! And oscillates regularly between little girl and teenager, haha! It's fascinating, frustrating, and fun all at the same time. She decided to run for Student Body Officer for 7th grade. Mitch and I were surprised because she's not the type to normally put herself out there like that, but she did and she rocked it! She hung up a poster that she decorated, introduced herself to kids she didn't know during recess, wrote her speech all by herself, stood up in front of the entire 6th grade to give her speech while wearing a cow costume (part of her theme) and she was elected! She is beyond excited and Mitch and I are so proud of her. She will be a great SBO because she is friendly and such a rule-follower! She has already done a few things with the SBO's to prep for the upcoming school year and is anxiously awaiting the arrival of her sweater. 

Layla also started young women's and attended girl's camp for the first time. They went river rafting in Moab, which is 1,000 times cooler than any girl's camp I ever went to! Lucky girl! She loved it, of course, as she loves all things water-related. I had a mix of emotions around her going: happy, excited for her, nervous that something would go wrong, sad and missing her, etc. It's hard to let your kids grow up!

Speaking of growing up, Layla registered for 7th grade and picker her classes. We had several discussions about her options, specifically about Math. Layla completed 6th and 7th grade Math while in 6th grade and then tutored other students in her class. Her wonderful 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Bean, strongly recommended that Layla take 8th grade Honors Math in 7th grade. It's a long story, but basically not enough 7th graders tested high enough to take 8th grade math, so now Layla will most likely end up attending Davis High for her Math class when she's in 9th grade. She will be one year ahead in Math each year, and then take AP Calculus her junior year and AP Statistics her senior year. We talked to her a lot about the rigor of this Math track and how it will be hard and consume much of her time, but she is capable of it. We left it 100% up to her, and she decided she wants to do it. I'm writing that here so I can refer back to it when she's a junior or senior and is mad at US for "making her" take the hardest Math classes. 

You chose this, Layla Babe, and you can totally do it! And it will be so worth it!

She also chose to take Honors English, History, and Science. Between Honors classes, 3 dance classes, and SBO, she will be a busy girl! She is also the neighborhood babysitter and babysits 1-2 times per week. Right now she is running a Kids Camp for two weeks that she planned and organized with very little input from me. She is great with kids and they all adore her. So do we!

Marcus. Markie Mark, or Markie as we mostly call him these days. Markie had a big change in his little world last year: he changed schools and entered the gifted program that Layla has been in. We got to October of 3rd grade, parent teacher conferences, and heard from his French teacher what we already suspected: Marcus does NOT enjoy learning French. We could tell he wasn't happy at school and was just kind of miserable there. We had him take the required test for the gifted program called the CogAT (students who score in the 98th percentile or higher are considered gifted) and he scored in the 99th percentile, which is what Layla tested at as well. They immediately offered him a post in Mrs. Ewell's 3rd grade PAL class. Mrs. Ewell was Layla's 3rd grade teacher and while I think all of the teachers in the gifted program are top-notch, Mrs. Ewell is my favorite. 

Marcus thought about it for a day and then decided to make the change. He started the next Monday, so it was a quick change! Of course Marcus adored Mrs. Ewell and fit right in with the other kids. Mrs. Ewell told me several times throughout the rest of the school year how pleased she was with Marcus joining the class and fitting right in. Marcus made new friends at school but still continued to play with neighborhood friends after school, so it all worked out for the best. He was also offered a spot in the SPECTRUM program (the same thing Layla did) for grades 4-6 and is excited to continue on, hopefully with the same teachers Layla had. Fingers crossed that none of them retire, they're all so great!

Marcus also started drum lessons this summer and is rocking it, pun intended. He seems to really enjoy it! He has learned We Will Rock You, Seven Nation Army, and Eye of the Tiger so far, and I finally learned how to read drum music, haha! I've wanted to learn that for years. We bought drum mutes for the drums, so it's not too loud when he practices. He uses the drums I bought about 14 years ago when I wanted to learn to play, but never did.

This picture sums up this goofy kid:

I should note an update on Harvey. He's still here with us ... he's 15 now. Last year we thought he had died! He went outside one day and didn't come back ... for 3 weeks and 4 days! Mitch and I were so certain he was dead, despite the kids telling us that we just needed to have faith and pray and he would come back. Long story short, we finally told the kids we were sure he had passed away, Layla bawled and bawled, we had a little ceremony in our backyard and put an engraved rock in the flowerbed that said "In Loving Memory of Harvey, 2007-2021" on it and everything! Then the animal shelter called and said that a lady had just dropped Harvey off and they found his chip and used it to call us. 3 weeks and 4 days. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry! I was excited and happy about no longer scooping a litterbox or asking someone to take care of him when we went on longer trips. Of course the kids were ecstatic and told us they had more faith than us, haha. So yeah, we still have Harvey even after we thought he was gone forever. He is getting older though and doesn't really try to get outside anymore. But he's still in good shape and will be around a while longer.

We bought a boat in 2021! It is a Moomba wakeboarding boat, but also throws an awesome wake for wakesurfing. It has taken us about a year to figure out the best set up for the wakesurf and man, is that ever fun!!! Mitch and I have thoroughly enjoyed learning to wakesurf! We bought a board for the kids too, but they have not quite mastered it yet.

We took the boat to Lake Powell with the Bells last Labor Day. We stayed in a house in Page and had a great time. We also went to Lake Pend Oreille in Northern Idaho with the Craguns and stayed in a lake house. It was amazing and had its own personal boat lift! 

This year we've gone to Pineview Reservoir almost every weekend. I love boating on that beautiful lake, surrounded by that green valley, and looking up at Snowbasin where we ski in the winter. I don't think there are many places in the world where you can ski and look down on the lake that you boat on in the summer and vis a versa. We also went to Starvation Reservoir with my family last weekend and had a blast. I was glad Brock was there ... he's so naturally good at things like wakeboarding and wakesurfing and he taught me how to improve at both. (Sometimes his natural physical ability makes me jealous, but he is good to coach me when I ask). 

We enjoyed skiing last winter. We finished the Learn and Earn program, which meant that we each got a private ski lesson. That helped me more than anything, haha! Mitch met his goal to ski black diamonds and has done almost every run at Snowbasin, including the women's Olympic downhill run (the men's still freaks him out, understandably so!). The kids and I have done all the green and blue runs, but I don't anticipate us doing any black runs any time soon. Someday though. 

We went to Disneyland last year over fall break with my mom and that was fun. Originally she just wanted to take the kids, but I wanted to go too! Can't miss out on Disney! Then Mitch wanted to go, so we all went, haha. Mitch and I also went to Hawaii and stayed in Kona at the same resort we stayed at 5 years ago. We went to celebrate our 15 year anniversary. The original plan was to go to Italy and Switzerland. We renewed our passports and everything. But with covid travel restrictions at the time, we decided to stay stateside. We had a fabulous time in Hawaii and truly love that island!

Anyways, that's good for now. The kids have loved reading the blog books I have printed, so hopefully that will entice and remind me to update this blog more often.

2021 was good to us, covid craziness and all. I realize this blog post makes it sound like we did so many fun things and everything is great all the time. We did do a lot of fun things and things were mostly great. However, we had our share of illnesses, arguments, and disappointments. I lost my sweet grandma Miles and that was hard. But each night we kneel together for family prayer and scripture study and our buckets are once again filled with peace and love. We are certainly blessed and are grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.

Growing Up

 Despite me telling them--nay, begging them--to stop growing, the kids just keep getting older. Layla turned 11 this month and she's delighted to be a tweenager. Marcus will turn 8 next month and has chosen to be baptized. We bought him a suit and everything (oh my goodness, that boy in a suit makes my mama heart so happy!). 

I wish I had more free time to update this blog regularly. But the occasional update is nice too because I feel freer to just type what is currently on my mind and in my heart. Lately, that's the sunny, warm weather we're having amidst the windstorms and rain. We bought a boat (not sure if that's already been mentioned or not) and we're itching to get it out on the lake! Mitch reminds me of a pregnant woman who's nesting as he gathers stuff and organizes it all in the various storage places around the boat. It's pretty funny and also I'm grateful he's doing it because I don't have time. Just another month or so for the weather to warm up and we'll be boating!

My hip pain was so bad a couple of months ago, I actually scheduled a full hip replacement. I had two different orthopedic surgeons from two different hospitals tell me it was the only option to get rid of my pain. I saw a third surgeon at a third hospital who told me otherwise. Actually, I met with his PA who happened to be an elder I served with in the MTC and haven't seen since. I don't know if it was us serving together as missionaries or if he tells all his patients this, but he told me about a new type of therapy called Positional Release Therapy. It has saved me from surgery! Long story short, after just two treatments I felt so much better that I cancelled my surgery. I learned that my right leg is 1/2" shorter than my left and had custom orthotics made. Wow, what a difference! I might have to wear ugly shoes that definitely throw off my cute outfits, but I'll take no pain over fashion any day. I still haven't been able to exercise much. I need to wear the orthotics for awhile and build my strength back up slowly before I start really exercising again. I am counting down the days!

Mitch is as busy as ever at work. Now that he's done with school, he has time after work to focus on other things. He skied several black diamond runs this year, which was a goal he had. I already mentioned the boat, and he's also focusing on finishing the basement. Our builder is doing most of the work, but Mitch has been busy planning it, doing the electrical, and planning out the theater room. I'm glad he finally has free time to do things that interest him.

Layla is thriving lately. She has found a great friend group (Maggie, Megan, Brooklyn, Emma) and it's fun to drop her off at school and watch her friends run up to her, so excited to see each other after a night apart. They're at a fun age. Layla had a birthday party and we rented out a movie theater. There were a lot of girls there, giggling and carrying on. Oh to be 11 again.

Layla also started dance this year and has loved it. She definitely loves it more  than I thought she would. She dances around the house and is quite graceful. The owner of the studio and all the teachers all hold dance degrees from BYU, so it makes me happy that she's learning from talented teachers. Layla wants to continue in dance next year. I'm excited and interested to see where this new passion takes her!

Marcus is a purple belt now in karate. He is the youngest student in his karate class (by far) and is doing really well, though Marcus never really thinks he is doing well. But I hope and pray every day that he will start to see that in himself. He also started baseball this month. It is for 2nd and 3rd graders, so again, he's the youngest, by far. It's also machine pitch. I'm not sure he loves it, yet, but I'm hopeful he'll give it more time and that we'll keep practicing. 

I was offered a full-time position as a school counselor next year at my same school. I feel blessed to have that position, especially as there is a hiring freeze for school counselors in our district right now. I adore the other counselors and the administration. Being a school counselor is one of the hardest and most rewarding thing I've ever done (motherhood being at the top of the list and a mission being on the list as well). But I truly love it and can't imagine doing anything else. 

What else? I only have one semester left of classes, hallelujah! I am so ready to have my Tuesday nights back! 

Our basement should be done by the time school starts in the fall. That's exciting! 

We will soon have neighbors to the south of us. They dug a hole for their home, so it's only a matter of time. They are a nice family and they have young kids, so it will be fun to have more kids here.

I am still the primary secretary and Mitch is the ward mission leader. I would normally be ready to get released soon, but since we haven't had primary with COVID, I think I'll have this calling for a while, haha. It's been an interesting year. 

As I said, Marcus has chosen to be baptized. We are still planning the actual baptism, but I am happy for him. He asks the deepest, spiritual questions and his wheels are always turning. His insights during family scriptures astounds me sometimes. He'll be quite the missionary someday. 

Welp, gotta go pick Layla up from dance. 

Goodbye, Good Riddance and Hello

Goodbye 2020, goodbye Donald Trump, and Hello 2021! 

I am ecstatic for a new year. While there are so many things I learned during 2020, and while I felt I have personally grown as a person because of 2020, I am happy to say sayonara to the Trump administration, COVID-19 (that will still take some time), homeschooling, and general uneasiness and anxiety. Goooooodbye foreva! 

I don't even know where to start this update. It has been months since I last posted and so much has happened. We survived coronavirus, isolation, and quarantine. We are definitely "corona privileged" as they say, so I can't complain, but I will say it was still a challenge for our family. Natalie ended up getting coronavirus shortly before Christmas so we had a different holiday celebrating without them this year. We did get to see them once they were done with quarantine and had a fun, slightly delayed Christmas with their family. 

Christmas. It was great. Everything I could have hoped for (besides not being with Brock's family). The kids were so happy, we had the spirit in our home, and we were able to focus on Christ with our kids and in our home during the holiday season. We were all spoiled rotten this year (lack of vacations and Mitch's bonus is part to blame) and we are all delighted with our gifts. The best was when we donated an extra large sum of money to the Cambodian children's orphanage that Mitch communicates with (he baptized the woman who runs the orphanage while he was on his mission and knows the good people who help run the charity we donated to) and seeing the look on our kids' faces when they saw how much we were donating. Not trying to toot our own horn here, just trying to remember the impact that (hopefully) had on our kids and their excitement to "help so many Cambodian kids" as we sat down as a family and decided together how much we should donate. 

Back to Halloween--we had just gotten out of quarantine so the timing worked out well for that! To avoid trick or treating to our elderly neighbors, we had a trunk or treat in our culd de sac. I was really worried that we wouldn't have a good turn out, but we had a GREAT turn out and most everyone came! It was awesome and I'm grateful for our good neighbors. 

We'll just skip Thanksgiving since everyone else seems to disregard it anyways, haha. No, I'm kidding, kind of. Thanksigiving was wonderful as always. We had a dinner with the Botts and one with my family. Grandpa Kermit came from St. George and Jordan from Idaho and it was nice to see them both.

On December 3, 2020 my Grandma Miles passed away. 

I had a hard time with this. 

I cried for days.

Even though I knew it was coming.

Even though for years she has not remembered me due to dementia.

Even though she was 92 and lived a beautiful life.

Still, I cried and cried.

I miss her more than I can say. I'm tearing up now just typing this. 

But.... I am happy for her. For grandpa. For her brothers and parents that she adored.

I know I will see her again someday. 

In the mean time, I get to live with the peace and blessings of the gospel in my life, which is something I may not have had she not taught me the gospel. She took the time to teach me the doctrine, read me the scriptures, and bear her strong, faith-filled testimony to me. I sat with her and grandpa in church every week for years. Her example will always be with me. I owe her so much and will be forever grateful that she took the time to teach me and show me her love for God, our Savior, the scriptures, the temple, missionary work, and family. 

I felt this again when Mitch, the kids and I visited the site of the Layton temple. It is still under construction, but you can do a "tour" and learn about the temple. I think even the kids felt the spirit while we were there and they both said they want to be married in that temple someday. It will be completed in 1.5 years and we are so excited to have a temple less than 10 minutes away from us!

The other biggest news is that I got a job as a school counselor! I felt inspired to follow the suggestion of the school counselor I worked with at my last job, which was to call the head of school counseling for our district and ask about applying now before I've officially graduated. In my conversation with him, he mentioned a part-time position coming available that same day at a junior high school.  I debated for two days and finally felt inspired to apply. Long story short, it all worked out and they chose to hire me, despite the fact that I don't have a license yet and am not done with school. But I feel blessed to be there and grateful that I got the job. Someday I'll get the nerve to ask why they chose me out of all the people they interviewed, but for now I'm just delighted. I have worked two weeks so far and I absolutely love it. I feel more like a missionary than I have since my mission in my role as a school counselor ... as each student walks into my office, I pray in my heart to know what to say and how to help them. Truth is, when they walk in, I have no idea what they're going to tell me. It could range from "I need to change a class" to "I'm suicidal" and everything in between. I have my schooling, my training, and my textbooks, but most of all I need the spirit! I have felt truly inspired while there and have felt very strongly that this is exactly where I need to be right now. It makes it easier to wake up early, spend time away from my kids, and have less time to myself when I know that it's the right thing to do and that I am hopefully making a positive difference in kids' lives. 

Mitch still loves his job. He's turning 40 this year! I still feel bad we were never able to have a graduation party for him when he finished his doctorate (stupid covid!) so we had talked about having a big party when he turned 40, but we can't even do that yet. Vaccines are out and are starting to be given (I get mine tomorrow as an employee of our school district), but it still won't be safe or kosher to have a big party in March. I'll have to find another way to celebrate Mitch.

We bought a boat last weekend! We are so excited! It's a new-to-us ski boat and I can't wait to try to surf behind it! I've never tried that before and have always wanted to. I think we will make so many fun memories in that boat. 

I know there's so much that I'm forgetting. I didn't want to write about January 6, 2020, the day Trump's right-wing supporters stormed the capitol building while Congress was counting votes. But I will. 

What a disgrace to our country. I will just say this: Trump is the closest thing to a dictator our country has ever had. He scares me. I have never voted for him and I never will. He was impeached for the second time yesterday. I listened to the entire two hours of debate before the official vote. Ten Republicans voted to impeach him. This will go down in the history books and I want to note that I never, ever felt good about Trump. Despite what his supporters may say about the good he did, when I think about my 5th grade daughter learning about politics in school this year, so excited and interested in it all, I cringe to think that part of that includes Donald Trump, a man that I don't want my daugher to see as an example of a good president. I don't want her to think that bullying and calling people "losers" is acceptable behavior from anyone, let alone the man that is supposed to lead our country. I find it ironic that in our schools we are teaching students how to disagree respectfully, find common ground, and work together to come up with a solution. And yet Trump and most of the adults in Congress can't even do that.  What a terrible example to our children, the future of our country. I hope that 2021 and the Biden administration can fix at least some of the divide and hurt that our country is experiencing right now. I don't love the Democratic party (I'm an Independent), but I am hopeful for our future.