It’s another graduation day

Thursday was the big day! We got to the museum early to get good parking and good seats. Graduation was at the museum again. Look, the museum is nice and airplanes and helicopters are fine, but there are only so many times a gal wants to go to aviation museum. So I walked outside and chatted with birthday boy Matt. 

Ruby kept reaching out to me so we held hands. 

I held Ruby while Jeanne pinned Christian and got the first congratulations hug. 

So proud of him and happy he’s finally done. Such a big accomplishment!

They had them stand and sing the airmen’s anthem and then the army song. So all the angry looking soldiers sang “then it’s hi! hi! hey! the army’s on its way!” It’s kind of funny. 

I adore this little girl!

Because she doesn’t smile a lot, it’s really something when she does. 

We went to Waffle House after all the festivities and I got more high school secrets. I had no idea Jeanne was Prom Queen. Royalty in our midst. 🤣 

Then Bubba and Brian loaded the U-Haul. I volunteered to help and also to watch Ruby, but I think they wanted to bro out on their own. So the gals stayed home and napped. I got such a good nap on that bed. I should have looked at the mattress for the future, seriously. 

That night the crew wanted to go out again so I volunteered to stay with Ruby again, and she woke up after 30 minutes again. 🤣 I love kissing her cheekies and her under cheekies. 

Before the dinner and after the nap, I went for a walk. Enterprise is all about the boll weevil, they are all around town dressed up and decked out, and they had one right by their Airbnb. This is a cute area, it’s been fun to visit and get to know it. 

Family day

Wednesday 

One thing - Christian and Jeanne’s Airbnb was ok - but the bed was amazing. It was high and firm. I’ve always thought of myself as more of a soft bed girlie, but that mattress was definitely on the more firm side and I loved it. Slept beautifully. 

And still woke up early. I was going to go for a run, but found Ruby and crew awake so I took her for a walk instead. After 15 minutes she decided she did not appreciate her stroller, so I held her and when I got back to the house, we found Jeanne had gone back to sleep, so I took her out for a longer walk. She weighs 18+ lbs and she was getting heavy! I’m so glad Jeanne was able to get some sleep though, since Ruby’s been waking up 4-5 times per night lately.

We were bed head twins.

Brian brought Christian a sweet gift. Some energy drinks they like and then a white golf belt. 

I never knew how fun it would be to not only watch my kids grow up, but also their friends and my friends kids. It’s so fun to sit around and hear about how they used to jump off bridges in the middle of the night and other totally safe antics. 

We got our strawberry girl all strawberried out. And that strap didn’t stand a chance against her chins, it didn’t even come close to fastening. 

We had 4 family day stops. First was to see the Chinook flying demonstrations. Ruby was #unimpressed. 

But she was #impressed when I took her in the truck to get away from the loud noise and also to cool off. I always encourage the parents to do the thing and let me keep the baby. 

Stretching her neck like me. Similar cheek/chin structure too. 🤣

There she is between the trees. Also, a book I was reading had characters talking about pet peeves and one was people who call ships “she’s” (probably helicopters fit that category) and another was people who say “silly shot!” after getting a regular group picture. And to that I say, guilty as charged! I also say sorry not sorry. I love a good silly shot, and sometimes things/places are obviously she’s.

We checked out the simulators but those areas were all full, so we hit up the food court ant the Exchange and then it was on to the Blackhawk. Yeah boi!

We were able to climb on, in, and around each bird. Bubba loved when we called her a bird. V c cool. 

I was like, I want Ruby in one of those seats!

And she was like - okay Mimi!

Love love love!

She is so funny and kissable and precious!

I’m basically a natural. 

It’s wild to think that Christian knows what all those buttons and switches and handles do. 

We were dying at Ruby’s face! She’s got the best RBF. 

My stomach was bothering me, so when the crew wanted to go to dinner, I volunteered to stay with Ruby so she could go to bed at her normal time. So she slept about 30 minutes and then was up and ready to hang out. She sat with me and drank her water and munched her yogurt bites and when the crew got home they were so surprised to see her up and happy. 

Alabammy

Henners and I hung out till Lu and Damian got home at 1 and I gave hugs and headed right out. We’ll see them again on Thursday, so I was quick. Henry didn’t end up napping but he did eat a good lunch. He’s so precious and crawls up and puts his head down on everyone’s lap or foot, he’s just such a cuddle bug. 

I drove forever. Period.

I don’t know that I’ll be in Alabama again anytime soon, so I wanted to go to the Birmingham temple and lucky me, they stay open late’ish on Tuesdays. It took 6 and a half hours. 

I had stopped at Walmart for some snackies and hit traffic a few times so I missed my 7:30 appointment. I used to really stress about temple appointments, but I don’t anymore. I love spending time in the celestial room, or really anywhere in the temple. An ordinance is wonderful, obviously, but if it doesn’t work then there’s still good to be found. And then I was able to stand which feels so good after a long drive and also leave by 8:00, and since I still had 3 hours to drive, that worked for me. 

I put on my big girl pants and drove the 3 hours down to Enterprise without stopping. I even ran out of water, but I’m brave and powered through. I can drive without breaks, I used to only drive like that, but in my old age I just don’t love it. 

I made it to their rental at 11 and visited with Christian, Jeanne, and Brian Davis and we got our Wednesday Family Day all planned out and now I’m enjoying laying on my stomach and not sitting on my booty. 

South Carolina

 It’s a season of travel for me. Christian is finishing up his flight training and I’m so happy I’m able to come down for it. Matt was bummed to not be able to come, but he was supposed to be on travel, and then that funding got mixed up so he has to do his work from the office.

It’s so nice that Lexi is halfway to bubbas! I got some things done - laundry, a run, some new calling study, and left at 12:30.

I stopped 5 times because I can. I used the restroom and stretched and it’s just nice to stop when you want. 🤷‍♀️

I enjoyed a beautiful sunset coming into Sumter. 

This morning I went with Lu to drop the boys off at school. They are in different schools on opposite sides of town for this year only, so it takes about an hour. Then we came home to play with this cutie. 

They have their anatomy scan for baby sister this morning so it was perfect for me to stay with Henners. 

We went for a walk and then I rocked him to sleep. 

He was a perfect walking buddy!

Wwwwweeeekend

We watched our first session of conference Saturday morning. Watching conference with my family makes me so happy and then weepy, it’s just so beautiful and good. And even though we’re a week late, we still participated in the solemn assembly and sustained our new first presidency. 

Cannot wait to mug on those cheeks this week!

So on Friday we saved money by an at home haircut and on Saturday we saved money by having Matt change the oil in the Space Car. 

Delaney and I got to meet up with our friendies for Emma’s escape room birthday. We totally rocked that escape room in one of my personal best ever showings. I think the room was kind of easy, but we also worked well together and our skills complemented each other. Girl power!

They started us off by handcuffing us and locking us in 6 different cells and it was a little creepy, tbh. 

We were riding high on our victory!

We went to Crumbl and everyone picked a cookie and everyone but Delaney shared and taste tested everything. 

We visited outside at Crumbl because it was a lovely day and then went back to Darrow’s for presents and visiting. 

We got Emma a cake decorating kit and the girls had fun playing with frosting and decorators tips. 

We stayed and visited longer than we should have probably, but it was just lovely to spend time together. 

When we got home I finished up my Disney dinner. I had made the cookies and stuffed shells earlier in the day, so I just made Triton’s breadstick tridents and Under the Sea Elixir and then we were gtg. 

I loved the look of the seaweed, so pretty and festive!

Sand dollar cookie yumminess. 

Tritons tridents. 

And the pasta seashells were so good! I also remembered to serve a salad because if there’s one thing my Disney inspo lady doesn’t like, it’s veg. 

Still working on my layering drinks, but these are pretty’ish. 

We watched The Little Mermaid and I wanted to sing every song because I remember when Little Mermaid came out and we saw it in the theater and I love to sing even though I have a terrible voice. 🙃

We met our Area 70, Elder Baxter at our building at 11 so I could be set apart in my new calling. 

So I was extended a calling and accepted in my ward right after I was released in February. Then Bishop Wiest said nevermind. 🙃 He said there were some things in the works and I thought they were changing around presidencies and callings are like dominoes. 

Then Elder Baxter reached out to me like 6 weeks ago and set up a meeting. Then a day before our meeting, he asked to reschedule and I was like 😩. I was super antsy for about a week and then one day I was vacuuming and the spirit said just enjoy a tiny break and a calling will come, and after that I was fine waiting. 

So back to my new calling. I don’t want to say I was disappointed, but I was hoping for something different. I was really hoping this was an area relief society advisor calling, which doesn’t exist in the US yet, but hopefully someday will. But that was not it. 

My new calling is to be a North America Northeast Area Communications Specialist. If I was asked to choose the area of the church I know the very least about, I think it would be area communications. 🤣 So lots of room for growth and that’s cool. 

I was blessed with confidence to go forward and to share my experiences with my family and that will help bring them to Christ. That resonates with me because I’ve been intentionally sharing experiences serving with my family for a long time. I love those promises. 

And then I hit the ground running with a 12 o’clock meeting. I went into the Family History Center during our sacrament meeting for that. I had arranged with Bishop Wiest for Matt to take the sacrament to a family and I would go with him and be able to take the sacrament too, but then that didn’t work out so I’ll just wait till next week. Heavenly Father knows my heart, I’ll be ok. 

We did a yum box (Poland!), played games, and i shoveled a half plate of the shepherds pie I prepped ahead of time into my gullet before my second meeting of the day at 4. And after 2 meetings, I’m more confused than I was this morning. I’m the media specialist and I guess I’ll figure out what that means soon. 

We watched another session of conference this evening and I’m gearing up for a week with the bigs and the grands! I’m excited to see them and not excited to be gone from home, but that is life when people you love are scattered all around.