Funny story about Simone's Cash

Back in June, Simone started working at a local chicken restaurant.  Just an over the counter type of place.  But we figured it would be a temporary situation until she found another job.  Cause she really didn't want to work in fast food.  We were blown away when she made her regular wage and then an extra $13/hr in tips!  She was averaging $28 an hour for several months.  I was like, how is she ever going to find another job that competes with that, full time that's like 50K a year!  We were just cracking up.  And I was thinking maybe I need to work at the chicken restaurant haha.

But then she comes home one day in October and is just laughing to herself.  And she told me the funny story.  Some of her coworkers had a conversation about their pay and said they were quitting cause they just weren't making enough.  Simone was really confused and was saying how she thought they made good money.  And they were discussing their paychecks and her manager was convinced that Simone's math was just so bad that she was actually laughing at her.  So then the manager pulls up her paycheck and finds that she's right, and it says right on the check how much she's averaging.  But also, whomever onboarded her when she started made a mistake and gave her way more money than they were supposed to.  

So all this time, she's been raking in the dough!  We were all just shocked that they were getting so many "tips" but it actually wasn't.  At least it was good while it lasted.  Now she won't have such a hard time leaving that job when she's ready.

Glad Simone could laugh about it!  Kinda funny story!  

Miles in Franca

Former Awesome Comps of Miles

Just a quick update on Miles!  He is living in Franca and loves his new comp, a super hardworking missionary from Cape Verde, Africa.  I think Miles called it Capo Verde, and they also speak Portuguese there.

Miles has had a lot of hardworking comps but this guy is next level.  He has a cool story.  The missionaries started teaching him when he was young, but because his parents weren't members, he wasn't allowed to be baptized until he was 18.  But he continued to attend church all that time, on his own.  He is very motivated to share the gospel with others because of the way it has impacted his own life.  

Franca has a population of 250,000, so it's a pretty big place and he has multiple companionships in the city, which makes p-day more fun.  He got a new Settlers of Catan expansion pack.  So he likes to have missionaries over for tacos or bbq and play Catan.  Franca is the shoe capital of Brazil, and they have a lot of really nice shoes there.  Also it's the basketball city.  That is fun since most everywhere else people are obsessed with soccer.

It's interesting to talk to Miles these days.  He is so engaged in the work and also being a zone leader.  We ask him a gospel question and he has great responses.  It's funny to think of how hard it always was to get a serious answer from him during home church and covid!

He was able to go on splits with a guy last week from Idaho.  This elder was struggling.  And Miles told him he could be the senior comp for the day and he'd go wherever he wanted.  So this new trainee wanted to go to a certain area that was an hour walk away.  Miles said sure, and they ended up teaching 17 good lessons.  This new missionary said it was the best day he's had on the mission yet.

Miles loves taco seasoning.  They have a lot of ground beef there and meat is very cheap.  But they don't use a lot of seasoning.  So we are sending him loads of taco seasoning and he's making tacos for everyone who misses that flavor from back home.

The other hot commodity is maple flavoring to make syrup.  He made German Pancakes a few weeks ago and really loved that.

It's fun to hear him speak Portuguese when we call.  It's so casual for him now and he doesn't miss a beat when he switches from English with us, and Portuguese with his comps.

He's learned so much from serving a mission.  Miles is a thoughtful kid.  He has seen so many things and made so many connections that he just wouldn't get back home.  One person they taught struggled with depression, another was a single mom with two children who both had autism.  He's taught multiple people with no family at all.  Another guy who had his semi truck stolen and lost everything because that was his livelihood that he worked decades to purchase.  Another guy who literally built his home with bricks he collected and carried home one at a time.  I think its has given him a better sense of how different life can be for all of us.  But especially those who are living in places where it can be hard to get ahead.  They don't have all the support we do in the US, and especially within the church.  

It's been very rainy in Franca and its a little cold there!  He's making good use of his rain jacket, although it looks like he'd need a full body suit to stay dry there.

Halloween 2024

The best part of Halloween was Soren making this cool Venom costume!  Some friends came and helped at various stages.  It was cute to see them all really excited to craft.  I was impressed that he figured it all out.  He just got some boxes and a glue gun, some newsprint type of paper and started creating this.  He had so much fun doing it.  Soren really loved seeing the Venom movie with Jared this week as well.

Soleil was Princess Peach!  We tried the wig on her just for fun and she liked it so much we made a costume out of it!  Elise modified a little princess dress and made the crown out of foam.

Soren seemed pretty happy with the ratio here, haha!  He got invited to go trick or treating with some other friends, and when I saw the group I thought, hmm, he's smart.  Lol.

Simone and her cute girlfriend Ava and their friend Alex, who is a fellow climber from CO.  Alex stayed with us for the week while she trained at the Training Center downtown.  It was so fun to have her here!

Also, note that maybe I should be the Joker someday for Halloween.  Everyone used to tell me "your smile looks just like the Joker"  gee, thanks!  haha.  The Joker was Jack Nicholson back in the day and he has a crescent moon smile like mine I guess.  

Jared and I were originally going to be Elvis and Dolly cause of our recent Nashville trip but Jared is very hard to size and he got a wedgie from the costume, which actually was so funny.  Next time we will plan a little better!  We just pulled out some random biker stuff from the costume box.  But fortunately I got this cool leather biker jacket from Uncle Rons memorial. 

Moving Day

Elise and Ethan moved out, and they took our baby with them.  Haha.  No really though, we are going to miss all of them, but especially Soleil.

They got a cute apartment just 15 minutes away, or less.  So we have plans to pick her up and take her to the park.  And since they just moved, there is a lot to do so Elise brought her over and dropped her off so we could watch her while she went to their storage unit to load some things.

Soleil is especially enamored with her Papa.  She says "papa" all the day long.  And when Elise would bring her upstairs she would run down the hall to his office and knock on his door.  She loves to sit on Jared's lap and watch dog videos.  

Before she would walk, when Elise brought her up, she would "call" to us.  She knew that as soon as she entered the main room and called out by making lots of noise, we would all come from our separate areas and shower her with lots of attention.

She has a cute personality.  I wonder if living with a lot of older people throws off the birth order characteristics a bit!  She acts like a youngest child.  So funny and playful.  She LOVES the dogs.  And they love her too.  They especially love that she feeds them.

Pretty sure she thinks Soren is her big brother.  Soren is 11 years older than Soleil, and Elise is 12 years older than Soren.  So it really isn't much of a stretch.  He babysat her a few weeks ago when we took Monet and Carson and Elise and Ethan out for a birthday dinner.  He put her to sleep and everything.

Anyway, somehow we will survive without her being so close.  It was fun to have them here and worked out well to make it easier to watch her while they were both in school.  But now Elise is graduated and they are excited to have their own place, and a little nursery to decorate.   

Church was way more fun with Soleil around as well.  We all loved to have her to distract us!  She is so fun.

Green Arrow Flower Co

I started a business this week!  Its official!  I placed my first order for wholesale plants and I'm very excited about it.  The past few years, a theme that has been on my mind a lot is what I'm going to do with my time now that my kids are growing up.

I've thought about various jobs and options.  But nothing really grabbed my attention.  And then Elise invited me to attend her floral design class with her teachers permission.  I had always wanted to take that class when I was a student at BYU and it was always full.  So I was very excited to be able to do it!  We were walking out of class one day when I saw the landscape architecture lab.  And that just hit me like nothing ever has.  Yes!  This direction!  I already have my BS so I can't go back to BYU and they don't have a masters program for what I'm looking for.  So I've requested information on other options and universities.  

Since then, I've felt a pull and a confidence that I've never felt before!  I've always felt confident in my ability to do whatever I set my mind to.  The problem is that I could never really make up my mind what it was that I wanted to do.  So having this experience was so helpful!  It was pretty cute too because Elise was with me and so when I was so excited about that lab, she immediately started looking up programs that I could apply to.  I love how my kids are so supportive of me!

My grandparents owned a nursery in Van Nuys, California called Green Arrow Nursery.   My grandpa was a German immigrant who studied horticulture in college and immigrated to Utah after graduating.  He had an interesting life!  My grandma learned a lot from running the nursery with him.  She passed on her love of flowers to me.  He died before I was born and she moved into our home and was such an important person in my life.  She would give me money to buy bulbs, and I would walk to Mitchells nursery on 33rd south and buy tulips and other things and plant them in our yard.  I loved those flowers and she loved them just as much!  We were both so happy to watch them come up.  

I always thought Green Arrow Nursery was a cute name.  And so I decided to put a little sign on my garden fence that says "Green Arrow Flower Co."   I like the idea of using a vintage historic name, and it is a throwback to my grandparents, and I love that.  This will be a way for me to share and trade tubers, rhizomes, corms, seeds, etc. and to sell my flowers and eventually do landscape design.

After taking the class with Elise, I decided that when the time was right (meaning after watching Soleil while she was in school and when all the major kid stuff was done) I would get a job at Sun River.  Because Sun River is my favorite place to browse and even after a scorching summer of watering, weeding, and raking gravel, I still love it!  The best part is seeing all the different combinations and being able to really study plants and landscapes.  I've learned so much!  It also gave me a lot of confidence to know how much I've already learned from maintaining my acre+ property for 12 years.  In addition to hundreds of trees,  I have 38 or so just hydrangea bushes of all different varieties.  So when someone has a question, I feel confident knowing I have years of experience in growing them.

Installing my cutting garden was another fun project!  I was afraid to use our chainsaw before.  And I was also intimidated by the tiller.  But now I understand how they work and it was so great to use this area that would have just been an ugly patch of weeds.  Starting this small garden was inspired by the floral design teacher who has a small flower farm in addition to being a florist and a teacher.  

In January I'm going to take a Master Gardener course so I can learn more about soil science, pruning, etc.  I learned a ton about pruning this year and pruned and/or removed a ton of bushes in my yard.  The goal is not to have a high maintenance yard that requires a crew to shape everything, but to have the right things planted in the right locations so that the natural size of a bush isn't a problem.  

A couple weeks ago we rented a stump grinder!  I have a cousin in Logan Utah.  She has this amazing huge vegetable garden.  She and her husband do all the work on their cute house themselves.  Laying floors, trim work, etc.  I was so impressed when she also told me that they removed their huge spruce trees themselves.  It made me realize that I want to know how to do those kinds of things.  I don't always want to do all the work myself, but I want to know how best to do things.  I learn the value of a project by doing it.

In addition to the master gardener class, I'm going to learn the software programs that landscape designers use so that I can put my yard into a program and map out exactly which plants will go where.  I'm very excited about this! Green Arrow Landscapes coming soon!

When I was in high school, my dad painted me into a favorite Mary Engelbreit picture and quote:  "Who Loves a Garden, Still her Eden Keeps."  Despite being known for my love of flowers for YEARS I would think, "huh, there's just nothing I'm really passionate about."  I am really good at seeing my kids and husbands talents and helping them to cultivate them.   But apparently I am blind when it comes to my own.  Thank goodness for Elise who helped me to remember and encouraged me to pursue what I love.  And also to Jared and my other kids for always cheering me on!  I love the quote in the painting.  It really is true.  I love that my dad personalized this by painting my face right into the girl in the garden it.  I love this thoughtful gift.  I love that my dad and I both love colorful flowers.  I think he's rooting for me and happy that I am pursuing this now.  

Bloom Where You are Planted

I'm obsessed with plants and landscapes.

I go for a run and I'm naming off all the plants that I pass.  I was at the hospital today visiting my mother in law and it was "Gro Low Sumac, Russian Sage, Karl Forester Feather Reed Grass, Miscanthus, What is that tree?  file that leaf shape away in the brain to do research when I get home."  

Other times I'm lamenting.  "oh they bought those dang hydrangeas from Costco and planted them in full sun, should I knock on their door?"  decided against it and drove past the next week to a pile of dead hydrangeas.  Should have maybe knocked.

I'm experimenting and making mistakes too and that's okay.  I definitely pruned our grapes wrong.  But that's okay and I still have more than we can eat.  I tried to divide a gaura and realized it has a taproot.  I pruned my tomatoes for the first time ever and probably cut too many leaves off.  Oh well!  They are still thriving.  And my cutting garden should have planted the flowers in blocks like at Snuck Farm so the tall sunflowers wouldn't hog the sunlight.  I'm learning that most of the time, plants are super resilient.  

I wake up every morning and the first thing I think about is getting out in the yard.  What projects can I do today?  What needs to be done?  What do I want to do?  And I'm SO excited to do it.  In fact I can't wait to wake up to go out and see what is happening.  

I drive around neighborhoods and study their landscaping.  Taking note of sizes, bloomtimes, etc.  I stop by nurseries to see how their stock compares to ours.  

I had a customer come in yesterday and she had to pick plants for her yard installation on Saturday and it was SO fun!  I went home and sent her inspiration photos of different options and it just makes me really excited and happy.  I'm going to research tree options for her too.

The next thing I need to do is take some Landscape design classes and learn Autocad and sketch up.  

I feel like I'm more "me" than I've ever been.  I am proud of what I've learned and I love to share this passion.  I'm excited for what's coming next.  I feel healthier emotionally because I've got time to think of things I love all day instead of having too much time on my hands and ruminating on kid things and other things I can't/shouldn't control.  Its a good feeling and I think it is helping me to be a better spouse and parent.  Its fun to use my brain.  In the past few years I've asked myself on occasion, "Am I dumb now?"  lol but really did feel like sometimes I'm not learning new things.  Now I am.  And there is no making myself do something.  There is an energy for this that I've never had for anything else in my life.  There is no mental effort because I love it so much.  

So fortunately I have this cute recent BYU Business School Experience Design Grad in my basement for a few more weeks!  Elise has great taste and I'm going to have her help me with a logo.  And we are going to do somethings on Etsy.  And planning some fun events for winter!  I'm excited. 

Summer Photo Dump

Tomorrow Soren has Sevie day!  He's so excited!  Friends are coming over for swimming and games after.

Not sure when I will catch up with documenting our summer, so here are the highlights in photos!