Summer Vacation Day 31 of 54 Moroni's Quest

Peirce is going on Moroni's Quest this weekend and needed a couple outfits. We found out Allen's cousins, Gillian Rasmussen just got back from Moroni's Quest and so we borrowed some of her costumes. Yea!! Mission complete!

Jill was off to Ottawa today.

And Taylor got engaged!

I did a bunch of baking tonight. Life is good!

Summer Vacation Day 30 of 54 Rising Above

I usually enjoy Sundays. Lately, I've gone to church alone and it's okay. I know that in time Allen will feel better and will be back at church with me. Sometimes I feel sad though. Today was one of those days. While I appreciate everyone's concern and I appreciate them wanting to know how Allen's doing, I don't really have any new news. That makes me sad.

While I was reading the wrong lesson for seminary today (funny I was led to the wrong one but found this comfort) I noticed that even Nephi felt a little tired and discouraged at times:



I think this is a good anthem to keep in mind:

Spent a little time hanging out here too.

Summer Vacation Day 29 of 54 Rugged Maniac Jill!

Jill did a race today with Yasmine and Erienne. It was crazy!

Tonight Allen and I went out for dinner. We ran into a parent of one of my students, Kevin Maynard. The food was amazing!

Summer Vacation day 27 of 54...half way!

Today I'm halfway through my summer break. We haven't had any travel plans this summer since it's really too much for Allen. I've quite enjoyed being home and taking care of many things around here that I've neglected. I probably need to up my game in that arena though. Only 27 more days to do it!

This day started out good!! I made a breakfast casserole with hasbrowns, sweet potatoe, yellow pepper, zucchini, tomato sauce and eggs. It was a hit! We had salsa with it and it was really great. It was good I cooked this in the morning because I sure didn't feel like cooking the rest of the day!

Today Jill is in Frankfurt!! She is really loving it. I heard from her on Facebook tonight and she is contemplating faking a sickness so that she has to stay longer. LOL

Summer Vacation Days 19 - 26

Oops. I fell off the wagon. I kept thinking I should catch up, but wanted to do a post for every day. I guess it's time to cut my losses and just move on.

We started a new thing where the kids have one day of the week where they make dinner. I'm loving it so much! They're doing a great job too. They're great cooks!

Summer Vacation Day 18/54 Kids Are Cooking!

We have a new thing going on in our house. Jill and Peirce are each in charge of dinner one day of the week. Today was Jill's turn. She made fish tacos and they were so good! I figured I'd give them $20 to buy what they need for dinner. She totally went over budget, but it was worth it. 

Peirce did a photoshoot with the sister of one of his friends. Lots of great photos!

And of course, he had to go to Village to start spending his money. Ice cream is always so tempting!

Jill is working at Village tonight as well. Maybe she'll bring something good home!

This morning she and Shaniah went out for breakfast together. Shaniah used to live around the corner from us but her family moved away a few years ago. Jill and Shaniah have continued their friendship and they really are two peas in a pod. They love to go for breakfast and today they found a place serving 99 cent grand slams!

I did a few mystery shops today: a gas station, a comic book store and a dry cleaners. Good day!

Tonight we bought Peirce some new fish. He is loving his fish tank. Interestingly, the boy who sold us the fish was a classmate of Jill's. She went from Kindergarten all the way through high school with him. We named one of the fish Jared in his honor.

Summer Vacation Day 17/54 Day 400!

This is how I'd like to be spending my days: like Chico does!! He is loving the sun and having the screen door open all the time. Life is good!

Today was my 400th day in a row exercising. I don't think I'll ever stop this streak. Starting over again would really suck, that is for sure!

It's time for me to get a new phone and I found a mystery shopping company doing mystery shops for the kind of phone I'm thinking of getting! Today I did a few of those shops. Interesting stuff!

Summer Vacation Day 16/54 Gratitude Talk

No pictures today. I stayed up way too late last night preparing for my talk today. My topic was: How does gratitude strengthen my relationship with God and Jesus Christ.

When it was my turn to speak, I turned to the clock and was a little surprised to see I had just over 30 minutes.

No problem! I can talk, that's for sure. :)

Reviews were good.

I enjoyed giving it too.

Tonight, when I should have been going to bed, we decided to go downtown and see the last night of fireworks. We parked in Ramsey and then walked up this incredibly steep hill. Oh my hamstrings! It totally winded me to go up that hill - but I recover quickly.

And the fireworks were great!

Summer Vacation Day 15/54 Airport Shuttle

We took Jill to the airport last night at 10:00 pm. She did a red eye to Toronto and then turned around and came home this morning. Good thing she loves her job!

Chico loves going to the airport. He knows when we're getting close and gets excited.

Most of all, he loves to see Jill again. We're always glad when she's home!

Summer Vacation Day 14/54 Peirce's Photography

Peirce is becoming an amazing photographer and people are noticing. It seems Said the Whale even liked one of his posts on instagram!

Summer Vacation Day 13/54 The Beat Goes On

I had a mystery shopping company call me and ask me to do some shops and I'm kind of getting back into the swing of it. Today I did a gas station audit. I was really nervous about it and so proud of the employee when I was able to award her the prize. Yea!!

Allen is teaching Peirce car stuff. It was so cute to watch them. They put in a new battery and changed the filter.

And Jill and Peirce, of course, are still loving the Stampede. Peirce sure is enjoying the pass that we bought him!

Summer Vacation Day 12/54 I Love Wednesdays!

Gaylene sent me this picture. Her father-in-law is 70! Happy birthday Jerry!!

Jill was in Vancouver today. She found a Village Ice Cream shop replica. Felt right at home, I'm sure!

I am having a great time this summer with the time I have to read and study. I started a seminary teacher study group and we meet on Wednesdays. I spent most of today getting ready for it - and thoroughly enjoying myself. I love it!

Summer Vacation Day 11/54 Busy Tuesday

Today was kind of messed up. After picking up Jill so late last night, I also got to get up and drive her to the airport at 5:15 am. Ugh!! I came home and went back to bed. However, having half an hour or so of wake up time seemed to mess up my morning. I still did my 5 km at the gym, but man, was it hard!! I definitely need sleep to be able to do it well (or at least as well as I can do it).

This afternoon Peirce had lots of fun lined up. I drove him to his friend, Ella's house. She has moved to a beautiful house in the SW! Peirce loves hanging out with Ella because she is fabulous at baking and always seems to have something baked when he comes over. They went to the Stampede. He was supposed to take the bus home for roundezvous #2 - but at 5:00 (when he was supposed to be home) I got a text asking if I'd pick him up at the Stampede Grounds. I couldn't so instead he took the bus to McMahon and I picked up his friend, Danae, so they could go watch the marching bands. Who would have ever thought my quiet boy would be such a socialite!! Sheesh.

Jill got home tonight at about 5:00. Look what she found at the airport! Seniore's pizza is a pizza place that is right by our house. We love it! Lots of people love it. Apparently, they love it so much they pick it up and eat it before heading off to the airport. Too funny.

Today Allen had a follow up visit with Dr Eric Smith at the stroke clinic. They don't really have any answers for him and are pretty happy with how he is recovering. His stroke was in his frontal lobe on the left side - which is why it affects his facial muscles on the right side. They put him in yet another study to monitor his heart. Dr Smith said they had really exhausted all the tests they could do to try to figure out why he had the stroke. It makes no sense that he had one - but luckily, he is recovering and is likely to totally recover. Let's just hope it doesn't happen again!

Tomorrow is Wednesday: Seminary Teacher Study Group day. I better get to work on that!!

Summer Vacation Day 10/54 Mystery Shopping!

I'm trying to get back into the habit of doing a little bit of mystery shopping. Today I did one at an apartment building. It was great.

Tonight I had to pick Jill up from work at the ice cream shop at 11:30 pm. I gotta go to bed!! This staying up late isn't for me...even in summer.

Need to do more reading!

Summer Vacation Day 9/54 Sunday

I went to church alone today. Peirce got home really late and didn't get up on time and Allen was up in the night when he realized our kids weren't home, so he wasn't up to going. Thanks to them getting home so late they got a whole new curfew. Midnight it is!!

I got to teach Relief Society today. The lesson was on living the gospel. It was called Obedience: Simply Live the Gospel. I was torn whether that meant 'do it darn it!' or to live it simply without complicating things. I tend to think it was the latter. I enjoyed the discussions. I always enjoy it when I get to teach.

I made a great dinner! Hamburger and potatoes (a staple and favorite around here), coldslaw and mint and feta watermelon salad. It was really good!

Dessert was even better though. It was called Strawberry Lasagna. I loved it so much!

It has been hot hot hot lately. I'm totally unmotivated to do anything when it's so hot. It's supposed to rain some this next week. Let's hope it does!

Summer Vacation Day 8/54 Saturday!

Only 46 days left of summer vacation. I'm thoroughly enjoying my summer.

This year I moved classrooms. I'm going to be out in the portable. Since it's the furthest point from the staff room, I decided I needed a few amenities. I'm borrowing a fridge and water cooler and today  I got a microwave! Yahoo!! Now if only there was a bathroom in the portable.

There was shopping going on today! Allen got himself a new lunch bag....big enough to fit Chico! Peirce got some new clothes for school. 

I went to the gym in the morning and did some work on my Relief Society lesson tomorrow. Tonight Jill finally got home. On Tuesday she went to the airport to be on ready reserve (that means, be dressed and packed and sit there and wait to see if they need you). I think her plan was that she'd just be at the airport for four hours. She was wrong. Instead she was gone for five days!! She got sent to Toronto on a red-eye on Tuesday. On Wednesday she was sitting on the plan ready to dead-head home when she got a phone call asking if she would go to LHR! She got off the plane and was off. She got back on this continent on Saturday and then did some flights from Toronto to Vancouver to Calgary. She finally got home tonight. What week!

Tonight Peirce went to a pool party with his friend, Keira and her dad (it was a party for a friend of her dad). Jill went to the stampede with her friends. Busy kids!