Need to Eat Lighter

Hey there, it's 10:48 pm the last day of the month! Yikers, I gotta get this post up and done stat. 

Spring break was at the beginning of the month, and sadly we didn't get to do anything super cool. Addie and Aani have jobs that prevented us from making plans to go somewhere, so that was sad. On one of the days, I took Aani and Ava to Sam's Club (yeah baby), Ross, and the mall where we got Build a Bears for all the kids. The girls all got frogs, and I got Anders an axolotl, which I had never heard of until that day. Then we ate Chipotle for dinner. Everyone seemed happy about our awesome spring break adventures, so there's that. 

Sam's Club vs Costco: We do love our Costco trips (3x/week) and that will never stop, but Sam's Club is also kind of fun. I have a secret desire to start a vending machine business, and Sam's Club is the place for supplies FO SHO. The problem is there isn't one super close- there are 2 within 30 minutes of us, one in Provo and one in South Jordan. I told Anders that if he found a used vending machine and a place to put it, I would start a vending machine business with him. 

Have you heard of RasmuRents? It's all the rage in random rentals! We have party speakers, a drywall lift, drywall tools, a chocolate fountain, and now scaffolding! Yes, it's true- you can rent by the day or the week. Contact me for more info. We rent out our crap and make a li'l money. 👋

This looks safe.

We took Anders and Addie to the Muse concert a couple weeks ago. Doug and Sandi and their son Gabe went, along with Dave and his daughter Bailey. Evanescence opened the concert, and boy does she have some pipes. Super impressive. Muse was fun and crazy with lots of fire and confetti and familiar songs. We were in the nosebleeds on the side and didn't have the best view, but it was still pretty fun. 

I made sure to wear my special "mom going to a concert" jacket. 👌

Here's Aani sitting slumping in a chair, probably being funny but I don't remember. 

Last weekend we celebrated 23 years of wedded bliss. We went to Ruth's Chris in Park City, watched a movie (Dungeons and Dragons), went to brunch the next morning, shopped at the outlets, and then headed to SLC for Red Iguana for dinner before heading home. 'Twas a nice li'l 24 hours away and we had fun. 
After all that, I said "I need to eat lighter". I ordered everything on the menu that sounded good to me at Ruth's Chris. Had lobster tail for the first time. I probably won't get that again unless someone else pays for it. :)  

Around the beginning of the meal

In the middle

Done- not too shabby. We did starve ourselves pretty good all day in preparation, just so you don't think we're total hogs. But we were pretty hoggy and it was good times. 

We were able to tour the Saratoga Springs temple this week! It's really, really beautiful. Nils and I were asked to be "speaker ushers" for a day in July. I'd rather be a non-speaking usher, but I'll do what I'm asked. 

We've been walking to the temple and around its perimeter for a couple of years now, so it's awesome to have it completed and that we can attend soon. Nils has been a temple worker for about 6 months and really enjoys it. He's excited to move to the Saratoga temple. I'm not yet ready to commit to that, I'm happy to be a patron for now. 

Ava played in her last tennis tournament of the season yesterday. She and her partner took 3rd place and she was pretty happy about that. She's improved a lot and wants to take some workshops this summer as well. She likes playing tennis and that's great. Also- we've actually had a warm week for the first time since October! 

We spent a couple of days this week in Cedar City at a YouTube mastery class (we go where the mentor happens to be at the time, hence Cedar City- pretty random). 2 days of class, connecting with others, learning...and this dog. He was there and was cute, but right after this picture was taken he had a few pungent minutes and I didn't know if I was going to survive. 

Updates on the peeps:

Anders has been struggling a lot and it's been difficult for him and us and everyone. He was able to get a job at a start-up this week doing software development. That is fantastic and a great blessing- software jobs are a little rough right now. He's a smarty pants and will be an asset indeed. At this point he doesn't want to return to the mission, and we've let him know that his health and happiness are all that matter. 

Addie is still working a lot, and getting ready to graduate high school. She's been ready to graduate high school for about 2 years. She got her cap and gown the other day, and walked in the front door wearing it while playing pomp and circumstance. 

Aani's been working at McDonald's and will start at a new store this week. She also babysits. She also gets 4.0 because she wants to. She's watching "Modern Family" for the second time through. She might be our only kid that likes watching actual TV shows as opposed to YouTube. She still likes YouTube, though, don't you worry.  

Ava LOVES YouTube, playing tennis, not cleaning her room, hanging out with friends, gets herself up and off to middle school every day. She's always happy to accompany me or Nils wherever we go and is a good little shopping buddy. 

Nils and I are just happy to be here and are surviving all the things. Maybe eating our feelings a little? Who's to say?