Wednesday, November 10, 2021

October Odds and Ends

This is my Emotional Resilience Class!
Back in September we started meeting every Tuesday and it has been such a blessing in my life!
These women are amazing!  The bonds we have formed in this class as we have laughed, cried and felt the spirit together are such a treasure to me.  They will be cherished forever.  And even though we only have one more class next week, our friendships will continue to grow and flourish.

Debi and I showed up as twinners one day :)

These pictures are terrible!  I wish I would have taken the time and effort to get better quality shots of this quilt but here they are anyway :)
I have been "working" on this quilt since we got our "new" couches about 2.5 years ago...yikes!
I found the perfect material to tie in the red and cotton theme I was going for on Ebay, pulled the rest of the fabrics together and basically let it sit.  I probably only put about 10 hours into this quilt total but those 10 hours spanned many months.
I am happy to say that it is finally finished though and has replaced the old quilt in our living room that was hardly big enough to cover one person.




Now, this one can cover three :)


 I probably shouldn't post these pictures because of the peer tutor sitting with Ben but I don't even know her name so I guess we're okay.
Ben's teacher sent these to me from their Disney day :)
I have seen the love Ben gets from his teachers and friends at school and let me just say that it brings me to tears.  They treat him so well and I can tell he loves them right back!

I wasn't going to do any Halloween cookies but last minute, I just had to jump in and do some.  I couldn't let a major holiday go by without experimenting :)
I didn't love how the pumpkins turned out :(...

The ghosts were super easy and fun...

And then I wanted to take the one shape of a candy corn and do as many things with it I could think of to fit the Halloween theme.  They turned out okay I guess.
I am finding that when I am not happy with a cookie set it is usually because I didn't take enough time to plan them out.
I did enjoy playing around with recipes though.  I found a great pumpkin spice cookie recipe that turned out super soft and I made the icing pumpkin spice as well.  It was probably too strong but fun nonetheless.


Matt was anxious to go in and try and get his driving permit.
The guy at the counter asked if he had studied for the test and when Matt said no he kind of gave him a hard time (in a friendly sort of way).  Matt explained that his older siblings hadn't really studied and they both passed so he was expecting to do the same.
He didn't end up passing the first try but he was successful the second time.
I have taken him out once so far and I must say he seems to have a natural feel for driving.  He knew more than I expected so I am hopeful that things continue to go smoothly for the next year as he gets his 40 hours in!

Speaking of Matt, it seems he saw fit to take a few selfies on my phone with a modified Le Croix box :)


Matt is 15!


Matt turned 15 this year.  I can't believe how old my kids are getting!



His birthday was on General Conference Saturday and he was such a good sport to watch 6 hours of speakers on his special day.


For his birthday he wanted a room makeover.
So, he kicked Josh out and into the guest room, we got rid of the bunk beds, bought a full bed and mattress, desk, and desk chair for him.
 


He seemed pretty happy with the results...




Another thing Matt wanted was some LED lights...


Matt said he didn't want a birthday treat so I chose one for him just so he would have something to put candles on...





Matt is a joy to have in our home and we love him so much!

The next day we gathered as extended family and celebrated...







We sure love our Matt!  He is a light and a joy!

Monday, November 8, 2021

Goodbye AR :(

In October of 2018 my group of workout lady friends started attending Athletic Republic.
It was so great!  We had two amazing trainers during the time we were there and we loved it!
Circumstances changed and they had to close after three years.
We were so sad.  We had had such awesome experiences there together!
These pictures were taken on the last day of our class...October 1st 2021.


I snapped a couple of pics as everyone else tried to arrange themselves for the real picture...


These ladies are some of my best friends ever!


Megan, our sweet trainer and the woman that introduced me to cookie decorating :)

Every day after workout we would have anywhere from 30 minutes to 90 minutes of therapy (talking :)


We struggled to find a gym that would work for our group but we finally decided to try a group class at Kubex taught by a woman we knew from an earlier gym.  The day we were going to start...Oct 4th, class was canceled because someone else in the class tested positive for COVID.  So, instead, our little group went on a lovely walk up Logan canyon.  It was seriously beautiful with all the fall leaves and good company.



Then, on October 6th, we started our journey at Kubex.
So far so good...and we hope to be there a while.
It is so sad that our gyms keep closing :(  I've been with most of these ladies now for over 4 years and this is the 3rd gym we've gone to.  Some of them have been together for longer than that and had 2 other gyms close on them...super frustrating but we just stick together and keep finding the next gym :)