Happy Mothers Day to me

So I'm really learning how amazing grace is.  Because I'm far from a perfect parent.  And when your child sends you a card that makes you feel like the coolest person, I'm going to post it!  Haha!  I've been waiting 20 years for this.

Pretty sure this list says more about Elise than it does about me.  She has a knack for thinking everything is funny.  It really is the greatest skill.

Here are some of my favorite times with you:

- when you rolled down the sand dunes on your face 

- when you did a backhandspring while you were pregnant.

- car talks 

- when you come sit on my bed even if it's the middle of the night and ask how my day was 

- looking at house designs and interior design stuff 

- going to the gym with you even if you would wake me up way too early sometimes

- when you would wake me up early so we could go sledding 

- when you fight people when we are shopping because theres no seats in the dressing rooms (Disclaimer, I was pregnant, lightheaded, and when I moved a chair five feet into a completely empty dressing room was told it was a fire hazard.  Um no.)

- how much you love doritos 

- how you know more about everyone in my grade than I do because you get all the details from their moms or you stalk them on Instagram 

- how nobody can keep up with you because you walk too fast 

- when you hid dads "mountain dude" shirt 

- how all my friends tell you everything about their lives because you're the cool mom and you know who everyone is. 

- when you told Monet you would ground her if she didn't tell you who she kissed 

- when you and dad played just dance 

- when you spontaneously sing and dance in the kitchen 

- karaoke with your sisters, 9 to 5 

- getting mad at dad for saying someone throws "like a girl"

- the fact that you go rockclimbing with us 

- when Miles threw up your smoothie back into his cup

- when you killed Miles's fish and then acted surprised when he told you when we were in the car on the way back from the mall

- our whole family running to get coffee ice cream at midnight in Hawaii 

- when you went off that rope swing in lake Powell.

- when we got stranded at Jeremy's trading post on the way to our lacrosse tournament. 

- getting frozen lemonade from Chick fil a 

- going to pick out flowers and you know what every single one is called 

- going sledding 

- hiking in Provo canyon and ending up 10 miles away from our car and dad had to come pick us up. 

- snorkeling with whales and eating fruit on that little boat

- playing extreme hide and go seek

- going to Tsunami

- waverunners in Tahiti! 

- talking after dates in the middle of the night 

- Christmas traditions! 

- prom dress shopping 

- watching movies on Sunday

- sitting on the tub every Sunday while you do your makeup after dad already left us

- when you try to make sure our conversations stay normal at dinner or in the car but it never worked because Miles 

- paddleboarding in Bora Bora!! 

- when we went to Universal Studios and you wanted me to stay longer with you because you love amusement parks so much. 

- when Miles called us in the car after he had split a tennis pole and couldn't walk

- when we were in the car another time and someone called you to tell you to look at Miles's Instagram and he had just eaten 3 ghost peppers. 

- getting our nails done and getting Aubergine 

- when you drive to St George in like 2 hours. 

Bella Elise!

I sent her this little tripod for Christmas.  She laughed about it, but hey I think it was inspired!  Who knew she'd be doing Zoom calls all day!  Very handy.

Who knew a person could learn so much from staying in a little apartment for 13 weeks?  I’m pretty proud of Elise all the adaptations she’s had to make recently in Italy.  She has had a great attitude and is completely devoted to her purpose there.  They’ve worked hard in their teaching!  Providing English classes via zoom, tuning into cooking classes and devotionals set up by her mission president and his wife Sorella Browning.  I’m so grateful for the support she’s had.  They have had some incredible devotionals and firesides via zoom.  She gave me a list of all the things they have learned to cook and I’m kinda excited for her to come home and teach us how to cook Italian food!  One of my favorite scriptures is about how Christ makes weak thinks become strong.  Weak isn’t a word that is ever use to describe Elise, but I can see how her mission has strengthened her and helped her develop talents she never focused on before!  I had to laugh when I saw her acting in a skit for a Facebook ad, singing (even whistling lol) for sacrament meeting and cooking!  Those are all things she didn’t really do before.  If you knew Elise growing up, she was extremely shy for many years around adults and strangers.  On her mission she has had to meet and talk to so many people and she said it was her biggest concern before leaving. But she says it has not been hard at all.

So glad she’s been able to have this experience!  In 3 months she’ll be home with us!  Which makes me feel super happy. 

Here is a list of the things she's been cooking:

Lasagna Bergamasca

Polpette (Meatballs)

Papa a la Huancaina

Wonton Soup

Cuore Di Mucca

Tuscan Gaudi (Spinach Gnocchi)

Cioccolata Calda

Albanian Bean Soup

Carbonara al a Presidente

Ragu Bolongese

Risotto Milanese

Cinnamon Rolls

Tiramisu

Gnocchi

Tortellini Tre Pi 

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

We loved the Tulip Festival and the Farm.  It was actually really great that they were requiring tickets and only a small amount of people per time slot.  So nice!  It was absolutely beautiful.  I love the Gardens and it feels therapeutic to be there!  We loved the farm too.  All my kids were dying over the baby goats.  I was dying over the poor pregnant mama goat who looked like she had at least quads.  Her belly was soooo huge.

Add caption

Zero G

Yesterday we went to a slot canyon called Zero G or Zero Gravity with Carla and Riley.  It was so much fun to get outside and explore a little.  We haven't really gone more than 20 minutes from our home (and that only a couple times) in the last couple of months with the quarantine.

But Utah is opening up a little.  So now that they opened state parks, and the weather is nice, we decided to go on a day trip.

It was so fun to be outside and explore somewhere new.  Carla is awesome and does all the research on all these canyons and this was was fun.  There were some places we had to swim across.  And a few places to climb that were a little tricky!  But that's what makes it fun.  We didn't need to rappel until the end.

The first thing I loved about this trip was hearing my kids banter and laugh together.  They are pretty darn funny.  Miles and Monet couldn't be more different but it was good to hear them laughing together and I can tell they are all going to be such good friends.  Riley and Miles are the same age and have been buddies for awhile now and it was fun to see her again too!  She does this kind of thing all the time with her family so she's like pro now and was so helpful to us newbies.

Miles was a little nervous about the narrow slot!  I wasn't expecting that because he is my kid that has never really been afraid of anything.  He is kinda crazy.  But he wasn't liking how narrow it was.
It was beautiful and fun because a lot of water and places where you swim through.  There is even a place to jump off the cliffs.

And then at the end there was a place where I got stuck.  Like for real wedged between two canyon walls.  I knew it was going to be tight but it is really hard to gauge if I will fit in a certain place.  I feel like I always had a good sense for that when I was younger.  But my size is fluid these days.  Lol.  Rapidly changing it seems.  And this little spot has had many search and rescue calls over the years.  I knew when Monet looked nervous about squeezing through that it was a little iffy for me.

Anyway, I got wedged in and I spent about a minute trying to get out before feeling a little bit of panic start.  Monet, Simone and Riley were already through and Carla was helping me and giving me instructions from below.  Miles was behind me.  I look back at him and he was looking pretty nervous too he was in a tight spot and if I was stuck he would also have a hard time getting out.  My torso was the stuck part and I tried rotating my legs, and couldn't really move up.  And was afraid to move down and get more trapped.  At this point Miles was asking if he could help me and I told him to say a prayer.  I could reach the rope but I couldn't pull myself up on it.  I started thinking that I might be spending the night in this little predicament.  I was the weirdest feeling!  I tend to stay calm in situations like these, but I was definitely getting nervous!

My belay device was digging into my tummy and it was hurting, so eventually I was able to move it and then I slid down even more.  Which surprisingly was what helped me get loose enough to wiggle through.  Phew!

I can't tell you how relieved I felt!  So now Miles had to come through and he was a little nervous after watching me, but he fit just fine.

Before heading home we stopped by Goblin Valley.  I've always wanted to see the hoo doos and it was pretty cool!

It was a great experience and so much fun!  I'm glad we had that adventure even if there was a tiny bit of panic.  I think I actually would have been fine if I'd slid down a little more from the beginning, I was just afraid of getting more stuck so I was trying to stay higher and it was probably just a little too high.  There was a big group of college age boys behind us and they got through just fine.  They probably could have helped too if really necessary.

The water aspect of it was really fun!  I didn't wear a wetsuit and was just fine and not cold at all.  But  Miles didn't and was pretty cold.  I'm glad we had them!

Choices

I have to admit, there are somedays when I really like this whole quarantine thing.  I got so much done this week!  Not having to go anywhere really helps with that.  Other days I'm pretty sad about it.  Once this week Deb and I had a car date in the parking lot at a restaurant.  It was so fun to get to actually talk to a friend not being in the same car was no big deal.

But also, I'm pretty devastated to hear what it is doing to some friends.  Simone told me today that Momentum might have to close.  They can't stay in business without income from their memberships.  Wow.  That really hurts because we love that climbing community.   So many people without a job.  Its really tough.

I read a friend post yesterday about how she has an autoimmune condition so she is happy everyone is quarantined together because it would stink if she was the only one.

The truth is that even if a vaccine comes and saves the day, that is like almost a year away.  So you want everyone to stay in quarantine until then?

If the people you love are losing their businesses and jobs and you are quarantined anyway, you would eventually want them to go back to work if they could.

Wasn't the goal to flatten the curve?  So we don't have a huge spike in hospitalizations? Obviously the situation in Utah is very different than in New York.  We are spread out, we have a young population, fewer smokers.  People are doing pretty well here for the most part.  The death rate in Utah is less than 1% of the people who test positive, and we know there are a ton of asymptomatic people as well.  Not as bad as was feared.

Let the ones who can save the sinking ship and it helps us all! If I'm healthy and my family is all healthy and we have looser restrictions and we get coronavirus.  Then we develop immunity and can visit our parents without worrying about infecting them.  We can also go to the grocery store and help with errands and shopping for friends with immune deficiencies.

If my kid gets sick, and the virus spreads around to the healthier population, then we have lots of people who have developed immunity and are very unlikely to be hospitalized.

So what if we quarantine the ones who are likely to be hospitalized from this and let everyone else practice some common sense, restrict travel, wash hands, slow the spread, but not kill the livelihood of millions of people.

So yeah I feel bad for all these people with immune deficiency but at the same time, I also feel bad for those losing their jobs, businesses, and homes.  Its a tough situation all around!

Winger Farm

Welcome to the Winger Farm!

The animal tally has increased significantly this quarantine.  1 cat, 2 dogs, 3 goats, 12 chickens is where we are at.  Miles is currently trying to convince me that since Simone has goats, he should be able to get some kind of exotic animal.  I'm at my max though, sorry kid.

The animal ecology is interesting.  First off, our cat Greta disappeared this winter.  So then rodents started appearing.  So I agreed to get another cat because when you have a cat, you have NO rodents.    We first got one goat, then realized goats are very social, so we needed a buddy.  Then someone asked to a dance with the third goat and needed to find a home for it and of course our kids wanted it.  I still don't think we need three.  But whatever.  They are really funny and weird and cute.

Chickens are a hot commodity right now.  So we put an ad on KSL saying if you have chickens to get rid of to call us.  We have a free range large run and two coops.  Pretty soon we had 12 laying hens.  We got them from two separate places.  The pecking order is an interesting thing to watch.  You bring these two groups together and they duke it out pecking each other and pulling out each others feathers to establish dominance.  Its like two rival gangs going at it.  The cute nice ones get totally worked over.  But my cute husband went out last night to find two nice hens that were being kicked out of the coop.  So he put them in after dark when the other hens are very docile so they would be safe in the coop but not getting pecked to death.

Bees are coming soon.  Miles is learning all about them and excited to help Jared.

All of these animals are a lot of feed, a lot of poop, and a lot of work.  The black goat is named Melvin and it jumps out out of the run, even with the 8 foot fence.  Then he usually is afraid of the dogs so he cries until we put him back in the run.  He's a fainting goat and afraid of the dogs.  My kids are big time animal lovers and it makes them happy and keeps them working.  But it is a lot of work.

Simone's animal loving climbing coach came over yesterday and it gave me a glimpse of what Simone is probably going to be like when she is older.  Always wanting another animal.  Its so funny.