April fools

Adi’s cute hair this morning. 

I found some April fools ideas for Matt, but most of what I found for the family I had already done. 🤷‍♀️ I need some creative people to give me more ideas. Google eyes are always fun, even though I’ve done them many times. 

I spent a few minutes in the basement for the seminary kids. 

Hopefully these will all come off easily. I need to do that tomorrow. It just felt like too much work for just a few hours. 

I also stuffed stray socks into one of everyone’s shoes. Then I got busy on a project and didn’t see any of the reactions. I do have to say, stuffing my hand into teenagers shoes shows a level of dedication that I am proud of. 

I also put eyes on everyone’s scriptures. Not glued, obvi. 

Matt also told the kids that seminary was cancelled on April 31st and the class hid when they heard the latecomers come in. 

I also texted random cat facts to Lexi and Christian all day. 🤣 it was fun. And I got several pictures of this beautiful boy for my troubles. 

This morning I took Frankie to the Dr. she wants to try adhd meds again and see if we can find something to help her focus. Here’s to hoping! Then tonight she started tumbling at Miranda’s gym. We tried Mecca for a month, but halfway through decided to try Miranda’s and after 1 lesson she really likes it. Here’s to hoping times 2. 

I made tzatziki pitas for dinner that were a swing and a miss. I really didn’t like the pitas, so maybe the filling will be good in a croissant. I also made another batch of broccoli apple salad that Matt and I have been obsessed with. 

Delaney felt sick and took a nap and Adi babysat the Coxes. 

Tom sent all the siblings picture frames so we can share pictures electronically. Tom and I are the only ones set up yet, but it will be really fun if all 6 of us participate. 🤞🏼 

Also, one super good life hack I just discovered that has been making cleaning out my phone notes easier is that you can schedule emails to be sent to yourself. So I had a birthday idea for Adi in my notes, and I scheduled an email to be sent to myself 2 days before her birthday. Genius!

Weekendy

When nothing exciting is going on I don’t take a lot of pictures. This is me trying to make sure I don’t go days without at least one. Delaney loves her popcorn. 

Friday was a 2 hour early release which was nice because Frankie came home stuffy and tired and Adi headed up to Baltimore for Skills. 

She did a good job texting me throughout the weekend. Snazzy red blazer for this hospitality gal. 

Frankie rallied enough on Friday to have a dad date. She and Matt got dinner and went to support Claire at High School Musical while D and I were at ballet. 

Saturday morning competition in Baltimore for this chic! After they waited around for several hours Adi won the silver medal. 🥈 Unfortunately/fortunately the silver doesn’t qualify her for nationals, so now she can go to girls camp. Skills was a good experience for her and I’m glad she had this opportunity. 

Matt worked in the yard on Saturday and it looks so springy and nice. 

I went to a baby shower for Lorraine and that was nice. Slow Saturday afternoon. 

Frankie rode up to the dance with the Tripps. She was pretty mad at us because we wouldn’t give her her phone for the trip. Some days  parenting is tough. 

We took advantage of having only Delaney home and went on a parent/delaney date to McDonald’s and then the wharf. We were very proud of her that she didn’t fall in because she loves inappropriately swimming in the bay. 🤣

Sunday was Pax ward conference so I went with McKenzie for ministering visits after church and it was nice to spend time with her and to be close to home. 

When I got home I found some of our tulips had bloomed! Fav!

We went for a family walk and these girls are so grown up. I know I’ve already launched two, but it’s still kind of mind blowing. 

And then sometimes they’re not so grown up, and that’s my fav. 

We came home and did come follow me and ate breakfast burritos for dinner. And that’s our weekendy. 

Follow up

I am terrible at following up. I’m an idea person but the problem is I have the idea and then too often life happens and then I let the big idea fizzle. So that’s pretty much the worst. I’m working on following up on all the clerical things - home, church, and personal. And there’s a lot, right?

Alecia and I walked and we had family night. I didn’t take any pictures but it was a nice day. 

47 more days of school

I decorated for Easter. I wish Easter wasn’t right after our spring break. It makes it tough to truly celebrate. I picked this bin up from the shed and it literally broke apart. It’s pretty old, but I’ve never seen anything like this. 

Adi, Clair, and Lily went to a Maryland Trivia for Maryland Day and Adi won. She received her prize today and one of the prizes was this rockin’ Maryland shirt. Get it girl!

The good and bad

It was a tough day for 3/5 of the Rays. Thankfully when one of us is down, most times the others are up. Adi worked on her tech center culminating project. It’s not due until April but she’s a go getter. 

Feels like we’ve been lightly celebrating Frankie for a week, but she really wanted Okada for her birthday and also crappy days require celebrating sometimes. So we went to okada where unfortunately there was a wait. She decided on Tia’s Cantina instead and unfortunately 4/5 of the Rays were not thrilled with their orders. I like salt but that was some salty food. Anyways, we celebrated and had a lovely dinner even though we didn’t love our food. And don’t mind my hair, it’s humid. 

One good thing - we got our drywall repaired in the basement! This is the perfectly round hole from when Cade fell carrying a baby Carter, who is now 4 years old. 🤣 Better late than never, in all things. 

Happy 15th birthday, Franks!

I don’t remember when birthday donuts replaced letter pancakes, but somewhere along the road, they did. I got extra for seminary kids and we feasted. 

Monday’s are our busy days with piano then ballet and Frankie’s taking a 4 week tumbling class. She requested a fancy Panda Express dinner, so I picked it up and we feasted in the 30 minutes between activities. So much of my celebrating revolves around food and I’m not sure how to change that. 

Frankie is fun and outgoing and easy to talk to. She is right up there with my most social children and she always has been. She’s easy to please and has such a sweet and pure heart. She has lots of ideas for the future - her latest ideas were to be a teacher or some kind of medical something because she wants to care for people. ❤️

I don’t always ❤️ Facebook but I always ❤️ Facebook memories. I go back and forth about posting, but when I see sweet memories it always makes me want to post more. 

Adi and Laney went shopping Saturday and made the cutest basket for Frankie. All her favorite things and she loved it. 

On Sunday Frankie said “I wonder if sissy is going to make me a 15th birthday video like she did for Adi.” And I was all like 😳. And I texted Lexi and she was all like 😳. And then she got right to work and when she couldn’t figure out the music she got with Christian and he figured it out and Frankie loved it. 

We laughed and laughed.

And another reason grownup kids are so bomb. 

On Saturday Adi and Laney went shopping and they put together a gift basket for Frankie full of her favorite things. It was very sweet and she loved it. She had a good and lowkey birthday. 

Damian is such a good daddy. His dad passed away when he was a little boy, so he didn’t have a good example of an involved and loving father, but he sure is giving these precious boys one. 

And just look at this funny baby! This was a live picture and in the video his tongue out was so quick, but it’s such a funny still shot. 

This memory also came up yesterday of my mom loving on my Lexi-Lu. She didn’t like having her picture taken, so this is extra special. She was such a good nanny and I know she continues to watch over her grands. We miss her. 

And look at me go. That’s a lot of days. I am super far from perfect at Duolingo and often have to use my freeze protection, but just like in life I just keep trying. I mean solo sigo intentándolo. 

Another week down

Have I shared sweet Henry? You can’t have too much. His goofy faces kill me. ❤️

On Sunday I went to the Bowie ward conference. I somehow misjudged the time so arrived a few minutes late, that’s a first for me. Sharon and I went on ministering visits after church and it was really sweet. When I got home Adi was going through her Japan box from Sister Valle. She was such a good seminary teacher and we miss her! Our family more than most! 🥴

We had a family zoom call that night. We had a summer trip to Dollywood planned with my dad and before he passed he made sure we knew he still wanted to cover it and for us to enjoy ourselves. We talked activities and meals and rooms and got some things figured out. 

Monday was St. Patrick’s Day which I didn’t do anything special for. I spent the day laundering tablecloths. It was my turn and it was a chore. 6 loads and then folding and folding and folding. I got it all done though and started working on thank you cards. I put  on Traitors, a new to me reality show and wrote away. 

Matt works almost exclusively from home now. He doesn’t actually even have a desk to go back to, so if he is affected by this everyone back to work order, there will be some scrambling. That’s been happening, so I wouldn’t be surprised, but so far he’s still home. He’s been having connection troubles so has had to be in our family room to connect directly and it’s soooo annoying. I like having him around, but in the little front room office, not all up in my grill in the family room. Anyway, I caught him in a cat nap. 

Haha. 

I spent Tuesday morning baking treats for Frankie’s freshman fair luncheon. Her teacher that organized it is so amazing and I want to support her, so in a fit of philanthropy I signed up to bring a chocolate trifle, Texas sheet cake, and Oreo cupcakes. Also a cooler, napkins, and Matt went to help set up. Someone had mission bbq cater it, so I guess I didn’t do that much. 🤷‍♀️ 

We had a 2 hour debrief presidency meeting and I was able to put some uneasy thoughts to rest. My presidency is far from perfect and there are occasional waves, but when we council revelation flows and I am so grateful. We had missionaries for dinner and family night night and it was definitely one of those days I feel like I cook and clean the kitchen all day. And it still looks like this. 

Spring Break is so late this year and everyone is dragging. I know a one week break isn’t gonna make everything better but it will reenergize to get us through. I call this one “Waiting on spring break.” They each laid down in companionable silence. 

Matt and I went to Frankie’s fair on Wednesday but we didn’t stay too long. Then we had ballet and youth activities. 

On Thursday I went to lunch with some friends to Salsas where we neglected a picture. 😩 I made dinner for a friend and then it was a nice quiet night. 

On Friday I drove to Ruther Glen to see a culminating dance presentation for one of chantell’s Dancing Classrooms. It was held a Mattaponi Barn and it was so beautiful!

The presentation was so cute and I’m so emotional lately and there’s so much yuck going on in the world that these sweet 5th graders dancing their little hearts out even though they were embarrassed made me tear up. I just want to hug each of them and tell them how they are beautiful children of God and so so good inside. 

Anyways, I really enjoyed the dance. 

Chantell and I went to lunch after and then walked all around Bowling Green and caught up on life and politics and church callings. We also forgot a picture. 😣 We talked for hours and decided we really really need to do that more often. I didn’t get home till almost 5 and kissed Matt and D on their way out to dance. 

Saturday was the first day I got to sleep in in a long time. It was lovely. We didn’t really enjoy a Yum Box from Columbia, but we did experience it. One of the ring chips just kind of tasted bland and then Delaney said it tasted like one of Sandy’s little chihuahua dogs smells and then I wanted to throw up. 🤣

We had a little get together for Frankie’s birthday with some of her friends. 

They played games and went for a walk around the neighborhood. 

Taco Bell and a few gifts and then it was over. Easy peasy.  

Sunday was stake council, a President Boyd meeting, Capital Ward for their special all women RS devotional and cupcakes after, and then home. I didn’t stay for the branch because I hadn’t slept well. I’ve been getting hot flashes as a woman of a certain age and it’s been messing with my sleep. I wake up hot and throw the blankets off and then wake up cold and pull them back up. It’s the strangest thing how it will hit and suddenly just waves of heat radiating through me. Weird weird. 

I don’t always have trouble sleeping, I just complain about it when I don’t. Friday night was excellent, 12-8 with no wakeups. Maybe I should start accentuating the good sleep nights. 

Adi had a camp meeting at our house and we watched a cute movie and put a bow on our week. 

Women’s Conference 2025

We took a women’s conference break Friday night when we went to support some of our favorite kiddos in their elementary school production of The Little Mermaid. Bryn was Scuttle and she was so funny and so confident!

Brandon was King Triton and he rocked his fatherly role. He was on stage a ton and stayed completely in character. Such a fun evening!

I got up early Saturday and went over my conducting notes again, and the family headed to the stake center at 7. The only thing we forgot were keys for Adi and Frankie to drive home from Alecia’s (she drove them home from the stake center). That’s pretty good to just forget one thing, and Sarah came to the rescue and popped over to grab our keys. Delaney stayed home. I gave all the girls the choice and Delaney wasn’t old enough for the conference, so she just would have been a helper. Anyway, she had no clue Sarah had even come in, so that’s very safe. 

Anyways, every year I take notes and one big note was to get a picture before conference starts. We grabbed Susannah, Sarah, and I while Heather was chatting. 

Then we grabbed her. After this we found a quiet room and had a prayer. It settles us and unifies us and I got teary as I shared my testimony and gratitude with them. I truly love these ladies and am so grateful to serve with them. 

I thought the day was really beautiful. Someone asked me if I’d gotten any sleep the night before, and I really did. We delegated and had so many amazing helpers and it also helps that this is my 5th women’s conference, which is truly crazy. 

So after the opening session we split into classes and my presidency mostly floats to make sure everything is running smoothly. These wonderful kitchen helpers!

Erin did all the food and was so great and easy to work with. I loved that her whole family came to serve with her. ❤️

Cafe Rio style lunch! Members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints love Cafe Rio. It’s like the 14th article of faith. 

The decorations were really lovely. Simple and elegant, and everyone got a kick out of the fact that I inadvertently matched the pretty napkins. Our whole presidency matched the decor with Sarah and Susanne in blue and Heather in yellow. 🤷‍♀️

❤️

Desserts are often my favorite part of lunch. 

It was such a good day and then just like that, it was over. 

I just kept looking around and soaking it in, all the strength and love and wisdom from the wonderful sisters in our stake. What a blessing. 

We had tons of after conference helpers too. Missionaries and capital ward members and all of our kitchen helpers. Mark and Amy and Matt and I finished the mopping and locking doors and by 4:00 we were on our way home. 

My heart is so full of gratitude for opportunities to serve and a family that taught me to love it.