Welcome home Sister Jack!

Dustin and I spent a whirlwind weekend in July with our families.  We originally planned for just me to fly in for Ginelle's homecoming, but then decided a few weeks before that Dustin should come too.  And I'm so glad that he did! I'm also super glad that we booked our tickets on Southwest so we could sit together! Southwest for the win.
Dustin and I flew in to Salt Lake City on Friday July 11th just 20 minutes before Sister Ginelle Jack's flight was scheduled to land.

We got off our flight, checked an board for arrivals and saw that her plan had landed!  We rushed over to the Delta section of SLC and called my mom to make sure it was ok that we see Ginelle first, right as she got off her flight. My mom said she would be jealous but that she knew Ginelle would love to see us there.
We waited patiently as everyone got off the flight and there was no Ginelle yet. I was getting worried that I had looked at the wrong flight so I asked a passenger who had just gotten off and she said it was correct. Finally, Sister Jack walked out of the jetway and I ran up to her and gave her a hug. She was so surprised and so happy to see us! It was awesome to be able to spend a few minutes with her before everyone else.

We planned how she would make her entrance- Dustin and I would be standing in front hiding her, we'd count to three and then lean to the side so she could pop out the middle! Our family saw Dustin and I coming down the escalators and looked so disappointed. Then she popped out and they all cheered (scaring poor baby Audrey). But because it was a surprise, no one really caught it on camera.  Haha.

 

 We left the airport and gathered at The Cheesecake Factory for Ginelle's welcome home meal.  We loved having Elliott sit next to us.  Look at the adorable bread and banana plate they give kids!

 

 

Unfortunately, Elliott was not entertained for long.

 

 It was so fun being there with so much family and sharing meals, sharing cheesecakes, and being loud and crazy together.  I miss being with family so so much!

Friday night Ginelle was released as a missionary and we spent the evening catching her up on all the YouTube videos she missed while she was away.
Saturday morning I worked on finishing the Dino quilt for Dallin and Becky's baby.  I hadn't done binding in a while and I am not used to my mom's machine so it was harder than it should have been.  But I finished it and I think it turned out adorable!

 We missed the Blendfresh launch party at Thanksgiving Point that morning (and our chance to win a Blendtec), but it was good to be able to finish the quilt and help prep for the couples baby shower that afternoon. We had fun games and prizes and enjoyed getting ready for baby Rex (not his real name, just what I called him).

I like how my dino themed presents for baby turned out and I think they really liked them!

 

 Saturday night we spent with the Creers enjoying Texas Roadhouse and hanging out together. It's always a good time at the Creers!
Sunday was Ginelle's mission homecoming talk and we enjoyed visiting Salem 4th ward.  That afternoon I started to feel sick so I took a long long nap.  Like 3 hours I think.  When I woke up it was time for Frozen with the family followed by old family movies.  Nathan, Dustin, and I stayed up way to late trying to find an old home movie we made but we found it!  It was fun to see the endless dance parties we had growing up and how Evan was completely adored as a baby.

 

 Monday morning I woke up still feeling sick, but worse because I was nauseous.  We had an early morning temple trip scheduled for Spencer to receive his endowment because he has his mission call and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it.  I got ready and asked Nathan and Dustin for a blessing.  We were a little late to the temple but made it in time for the session and I am so glad I was there! I love being in the Celestial Room with my family.  And Spencer was so happy.

 

 

 I was feeling a little better so we all went to IHOP for breakfast, but then I started feeling sick again so we rushed home.
Monday afternoon Dustin had an appointment to shadow a chiropractor up in West Jordan who is hiring.  We packed up our stuff and headed up with my mom, Ginelle, Becky, and Reimi. Dustin was dropped off at the office and then the girls had a lovely afternoon of shopping and Cold Stone.  We picked up Dustin a few hours later and headed to the airport for our flight home. I was afraid that I'd have another barfing on the plane experience like when we came home for Dallin's wedding, but I was feeling much better and there was no barfing.  :)
Right after we checked our bags in for our flight, we got the text that our flight was delayed by an hour.  It would have been nice if they could have sent that 20 mins earlier! We hung out at the airport and talked about how Dustin's shadowing went.  The doctor is definitely hiring (which is a definite plus!) but his philosophy of practice is a lot different than Dustin's, which means he wouldn't be a good fit for us and we won't be a good fit for him.  So we're still looking.
One thing we learned from this trip is that Utah is DEFINITELY where we want to be and feel like we should be.  We are still unclear on the details, but we are excited to be going back home.
It was a fast and furious weekend but I'm so glad we went! Even if it meant coming back to mounds of work.

Back on the Grid

The cause of overtime... so many invoices to enter and pay.

Lately I feel like I've been off the grid.  Things got crazy at work in February, but were supposed to be better in March... except then they got crazier... and stayed crazy in April.  But hopefully May will be looking up!  Our Accounts Payable left the beginning of March and when we finally got her replacement, she was basically awful.  She didn't last long.  And she made us more behind than when we were down one person.  At that point I decided that I should take over Accounts Payable and we have a new Accounts Receivable/Purchasing starting this next week.  Fingers crossed that she works out and there will be no more overtime weeks ahead!!!

My boss brought me daffodils from her house.  She appreciated my hard work and overtime hours 

March was also sharing time for me and holy cow, it is hard to plan a lesson to entertain and teach a whole primary!  But I feel like my lessons went really well. My favorite one was probably my Time Machine with visitors that were Witnesses of Christ's resurrection. 

The awesome time machine I made.

It was pretty epic and the kids absolutely loved it.  And I got to let my visitors do all the talking so win win win. 

Some of my Witnesses.  They even dressed in costumes I brought.  Such good sports!   Thank you missionaries and Mataus!

In March we of course we had our 4 year anniversary, which deserves it's own post as well as everything else that went on.  We had a pretty good St. Patty's day, Easter, Dustin took boards, we had a Lincoln City weekend beach trip, and more dates of the month. 

Good thing I'm back on the grid so I can catch up on blogging and catch up on stalking everyone else's blog. 

Slowly but surely I'll get there.  We're still alive.  We're still having fun.  We're still busy as ever.

Stay tuned.

Taking a Night Off

Lately things have been SO crazy busy for us!  I thought life didn't get crazy busy until you were running five kids to five different sports/music/school activities.  I was wrong.  Between school, work, and church, we are busy busy bees!

Things at work have been a little crazy too... people taking vacations and I fill in for them; people getting married and I fill in for them;  people giving 2 weeks notice and I have to contemplate if I want that job.  Which I decided not to take.  But until we find a replacement, I'll still be doing that job.  Work is just madness! I hope and pray the day soon comes when my work will be in the home with adorable little babies that are pooping and screaming and throwing objects.  That sounds like a dream.

Dustin started the Masters of Exercise Science program along with his doctorate of chiropractics this quarter (have I already mentioned this?)   He was able to apply and get into the program a quarter earlier than they normally do which is FANTASTIC because that means we could be graduated the end of September 2014 instead of December 2014.  It's only 3 months difference but think about how much better it would be to move in September vs. December.  Yeah.  It's a big deal.  It also means his work load is a lot heavier with an extra class and extra weekend labs.

Church callings keep us busy busy too.  I'm the 2nd counselor in Primary (I feel like this post may be redundant and I don't know if it's cuz I've blogged this all before or just in my head.  Sorry if it's redundant!)  and over the cub scouts... which I know nothing about.  Sure, my mom was the Webelos leader when I was around that age, but I never paid much attention, those boys were gross.  For some lucky reason all my months of teaching sharing time this year have 5 WEEKS instead of the normal four.  And does the primary manual have lessons for those extra 5 weeks ever? Nope. Which means I get to make up lessons!  Blarg.  I will be teaching in March and while February has been a super exciting month of the creation and bodies, my lessons get to be the heavy Atonement, Death, Resurrection type lessons.  Yikes.  Our primary is SO young so I am struggling to find ways to teach little babies these deep topics.  It will be an adventure.

Look how adorable this Primary is.  This was when we were trying to take a picture for a Thank You card for the previous presidency.

Dustin is the ward mission leader and those missionaries sure love us!  They keep him busy with weekly meetings and frequently ask him to go out with them to lessons.  The Relief Society and Music Director have also asked my help in enrichment activities, sacrament meeting numbers, and so on.

We are super grateful for my job and that Dustin is progressing well in school.  We also like our callings and want to help the ward.  But MAN are we stressed out. a lot. and often. 

That is why we decided to come up with the "taking a night off" rule.  One night a week we get a break from everything: no cooking, cleaning, school, work, church, budgeting, nothing.  We can do what we want to relax and de-stress from every day life.  One night of quilting, reading, blogging, Nintendo time, working out, just whatever we want to do!  It has been a life saver! Because we know that we can't really have a night off, we switch off weeks so one of us can still keep the house running smoothly.

Tonight is my night off! Which is why I get to present to you a blog post!  I also got to watch some Survivor, work on my latest quilt, and I'll probably read more of Bossypants  when I'm done with this post.  Hopefully these nights off will mean that you, my dear friends, will get to hear more on this blog.  Maybe I'll resurrect my long lost recipe blog.  Maybe I'll make a cookbook from all my pinterest recipes I'd like to try.  Maybe I'll organize the millions of pictures on my computer that are lost!  The possibilities are endless!

And this keeps us sane.  Best idea ever.

Maybe you should give it a try too? Take a night off.