Who Done It?

Abe and I got all gussied up last week and went to a murder mystery party.  Now, I don't want to brag or anything (read: I'm totally going to brag), but this dress I am wearing is the very dress I wore to the homecoming dance my SENIOR year of freaking high school!!!!! And it fit!!!  So that's basically a miracle!  Nine babies, people!  Nine babies and I am wearing the dress I wore in high school.  I mean, I was never super thin in high school, but still. 

For anyone who may be interested, which I realize is pretty much no one but me, I have lost roughly forty pounds since the beginning of June.  Basically, I have cut out flour and sugar from my diet and I just eat at meal times (no snacking).  It was horrible for the first three weeks and now it's pretty great.  I'm used to it and it's a much easier weight loss than when I lost a similar amount about 8 or 9 years ago.  I read a book my dear friend Camille recommended called Bright Lines Eating.  I don't follow the entire "program" very strictly, except for the no flour, no sugar, eating at mealtimes.  Okay, enough of that.  I sort of get annoyed when people talk about their weird food things.  

Our group was great fun.  Everyone in great character and enjoying being together.  

What a treat to be with such friends.

What a treat to have such a partner.

It Makes My Heart Happy

 

This is pretty fun to watch Faith's hair go curly:)  She's experimenting with different products and figuring out how to manage it.  The process is made markedly trickier when chlorine and two swim workouts a day are added into the mix!

It makes my heart so happy to hear Bethany and Cannon jamming together.  Click here for a listen

I am getting a little spoiled having Bethany home this semester, in that it is such a treat to get to listen to her playing the guitar and singing so often.  I missed that when she was gone away to school last year.  

Elinor as been treating the family to her homemade cake pops.  She's on a baking kick lately and nobody (except the one cleaning up the kitchen) is complaining.  She's also been working on her college applications--- YIKES!!! How can we be here already?

Several weeks ago Elinor found and began her pharmacy externship at the local Walgreens Pharmacy.  She really, really enjoys it, and not surprisingly, she has quickly picked up on how things work and is making herself quite useful.  So useful, in fact, that what was supposed to be an unpaid externship (180 hours) is now a PAID externship at $14.00 an hour.  GO ELINOR!!! She is thrilled and we are so proud of her hard work.  

Our funny homeschool moment last week was when we were reading about the city of New York (originally New Amsterdam founded by the Dutch).  George suddenly burst out, "Wait?  Is it Amsterdam?  This whole time I thought it was Hamsterdam!"  

Traditional Halloween ghost-making.

Sibling slime-making.

Cannon doing his first speech and debate tournament.  Online is not so fantastic (not even close) to in-person, but it's something and if 2020 has taught us nothing else, it's that something is better than nothing.

No silly mask is going to keep Faith from eating her sucker.

Cannon has been enjoying making memes lately.  We thought this one was pretty good.  And accurate.

Abe at his "last supper" with his brothers.  Last week Abe started his very busiest time of the year at work and so the boys went for ribs since Abe will be mostly out of commission for social outings until about the middle of December. 

Faith has entertained us all with her bizarre photoshopping skills.  This is my favorite.  It's my screen saver:)

Here is a picture I came across of George and his ballet class at Central Utah Ballet.  The boys are really enjoying the new studio.  Is George the only boy in his class?  Yep.  Is Cannon the only boy in his class?  Yep.  Do they mind?  I don't think that they do.  They never say they mind.  They love it and they are great at it.  They get cast in great parts and they are pretty much rock stars in their classes. Cannon is regularly invited to hang out with a group in his class and he loves it.  So we're all feeling pretty good about the change from Ballet West to Central Utah Ballet.

General Conference was amazing.  We had a rather emotionally charged and exhausting weekend at our house for other reasons.  Even so, Conference was spiritually filling and healing.  

Both Elinor and Faith had their Federation Duet and Concerto judging last week.  Or maybe it was a couple weeks ago.  I don't know.  I lose track of time.  Faith and Sariah were partners and they did great.  They go both superior ratings. Here is "True Colors" and here is Sailing the West Wind

The three of them-- Katelyn, Elinor, and Luke-- all performed together.  Elinor played one part and Luke and Katelyn both played the other part.  For Federation Elinor was partners for both of them.  Fun thing about these three is they are all seniors and they are all swimmers for Riverton and they've all been duet partners for several years.  Have a listen Petite Suite Minuet and Scott Joplin Waltz

A dinner outings with my darlings before the Women's Session of General Conference.  

For historical accuracy, this is what we actually looked like most of the time.  Stupid masks.

Our awesome friend Dave came over recently to help George tune up and supe-up his drum set.  It sounds so much better now and George has been playing it even more.  

Last night George and Cannon had performances with Nate Anderson Productions and they were pretty freaking awesome!

Here is George playing We Are the Champions and here is Cannon jamming with Nate on Bags Groove

Greta has been making great progress on her gymnastics.  It helps that Faith is a teacher at the studio and regularly works with her at home:) Here she is when she first did her kickover

In this post I shared lots of good things.  Lots of enjoyable moments of life in the last couple weeks.  Friends, you know that's not all there is to life.  There is the other stuff too.  Opposition in all things, right?  May I take this moment to say I am grateful for it all.  I'm grateful for what we're learning.  I'm grateful for everyday to try and do better.  I'm grateful for listening friends who help me process all the experiences-- the enjoyable and not so enjoyable.