Thursday, October 16, 2025

April- Daily Life Stuff





I really only need 1 word to summarize our month... BASEBALL.

Boy did it eat us alive!
We really do love this time of the year.
I love watching the boys play.
 
 Having one on the JV team, and the other on Varsity nearly
did us in!

Casey and I never saw each other it seemed.
 One of us was at the away
game, while the other was at home.

Thankfully this situation will never happen to us again.

My stomach had a pit as each game made it one less for Lane, as
this chapter in his life was coming to a close.

But towards the end I was starting to count down as I was 
exhausted by the scheduling of it all along with the girls calendar! 


The senior pictures posted proudly.







 


Rusty in the dugout.
He has a serious love for this game.






He was catcher most of the season.





The cheering section!








I stubbed my toe and it was an ouchy!
Good thing it was flip flop season.





On top of baseball, it was also dance competition season!














I did very subtle Easter decorations this year.
I wish I could grow flowers like my neighbor.
Loved that she shared her blossoms with me!







I have many friends with children getting married.
Which means lots of helping at receptions!

I love how we all chip in, so
when it's your turn you get to reap the benefits!

Mallory Blau has always been such a sweet ward girl,
hard to believe she is married now!


They had a darling trailer to order drinks from.
I think it was such a hit because they had the cutest boy working the counter:)




I love that they showed up matching, unplanned.
These boys poured, mixed and served sodas for 2.5 hours straight!
I kept watching the line and it never let up!




I see a soda shop in their future!




I got to manage the charcuterie boards all night with my friends.

 



Sometimes I don't ask questions...







It was 10pm when Lane came walking in with Sawyer and Mia, poster board and
markers in hand.


He was asking Sadie to prom.

I read "chick" and assumed he was using a stuffed chick from the Easter
selections at Walmart.

Nope!
He said, did you know Pets Mart doesn't sell baby chicks?
Yep, sort of did.


Plan B, go borrow a full grown chicken from Sawyers cousin.
And his cousin begged Lane to be good to it as it was his favorite one!

The boys laughed and said it was a SPED chicken, so he would never
know if it got dropped (oh boy). 







We were hit with a literal stomach plague.
Never have we ever had so much barfing in our home at once!

It started with Della.
I was up ALLLL night with her on the toilet while holding
the barf bowl.

She was in SO much pain!
I kept thinking she would eventually get it all out and go lay down.
Just as she would stand up to head to the couch, more would come out.

I thought she was going to start pooping organs, she had nothing left to give!!


I contemplated the ER as I had never experienced a sickness like this.
In fact, I had gone to grab her shoes to load her up in the car to take her
in, when for some reason I decided to text Marcie.

We had a play date lined out that morning and I was telling her we
needed to cancel.

She said I was about to text you the same thing!
Landon was up all night throwing up.
We had Sunday dinner the night before together.

A few texts later, more confirmed barfing by others.
We all had caught a nasty bug!

The next day Rusty and Lindi were down.
Usually we are fine a couple of days later.
This lasted ALL week!!

I even started throwing up.
Which NEVER happens to me!
It truly sucked the life out of me.
It was HORRIBLE!!!






To add to the chaos, we remodeled our master bathroom!
It is crazy how fast time flies.
Casey said we just remodeled it, how is it so bad already?

We calculated 10 years since our original remodel.

That is the most used space in our whole house.

All of the kids shower in there.
It was worn and growing things in the shower we could not get rid of.

It is a smaller space, so just redoing the shower snowballed into 
ripping out the whole thing!

Before:









After:











I LOVE how it turned out!!
It is so bright, fresh, and clean!

I feel like I am in a fancy resort every time I take a shower!










Wednesday, October 1, 2025

Lanes Mission Call!





While Casey and I were in CA for his birthday, Lane text saying
that his call had come!

I honestly thought it wouldn't get here until the following week,
so I was surprised!!

It was tricky as it was Spring Break.
He wanted to open it with as many family and friends as possible.

So he waited a whole week to open it!!
I would not have had that much strength to not peek!

He was adamant about waiting, and not opening it up with just our 
family first.
He wanted to be surprised along with everyone else.

This is his thing.
His sacrifice, his decision to serve.
I respected whatever he wanted to do!


It was tricky trying to coordinate a time,
as many of his friends were opening theirs as well.
We didn't want to take away from them.
One of them being his best friend, Sawyer!

We were able to split the night with Sawyer.
He would open his first at his home, then an hour
later Lane would.

Talk about the best kind of time tetris!


We got everything set up so it was ready to go!



 





We headed over to the Perkins where Sawyer
opened his call to Xalapa, Mexcico!

He had already opened his with his family.
So he already knew where he was going.






Then the crowds starting shifting over to our house!














The map filling up with all of the guesses.






Then it was time!!
My heart was pounding at this point!





I was pretty zoned out while he was reading the opening part of his call,
there were so many people and I was trying to video.




Then he paused and read where he will be serving!

He didn't really know how to pronounce it...
all I heard was Calappa, Mexico.

To be honest I was trying to process Mexico.
That was one place I was hesitant to send one of my children!

I was also thinking what are the chances of both of them going to Mexico?!

Then he read he would report July 28th.




I could hear chattering, and then some yelling...
WAIT, THAT'S THE SAME MISSION AS SAWYER!!!

I think Lane wasn't registering it as well.


Sawyer came up to look at it.
He pronounced it wrong because, hello, Spanish names are hard to say correctly.





IT WAS!! 
Xalapa, Mexico!!
He butchered the "X", lol. 

The exact mission, reporting on the exact same day!!
Everyone erupted with screams and excitement!!


I love these progression pictures of the whole moment.














 This picture of me, my face says it all.
I was in complete SHOCK!!!






What are the chances of this happening?!

I have no doubt Heavenly Father is in the details on this.
How can we deny this is exactly where he needs to serve!
My worries about sending him to Mexico quickly diminished.


It was such a happy evening with so many hugs going around !!












Elder Goodman has a nice ring to it!





Of course Lane is blurry in the one family picture
I tried to snap once the last person left.





Lane said he was extra grateful he hadn't read his call beforehand.
Because when he went to Sawyers opening he would have had
to try to hold in that they got the same call!

It really did make Lanes opening that more special and exciting. 
He was inspired!


All I know is that Mexico is getting 2 of the very best!
Hoorah for Israel!!