2024, February 19-25

The last few days have felt like April. We made sure to get outside. 

On Presidents' Day Monday, Mike and Eliza went to visit the horses down the road.   

Hallie and our friend Amanda went up to a couple of stores in Utah County and Salt Lake County. The first store is called Heirloom Art Company.  

This second store is called Moon's Rare Books. 

This restaurant called Kumo Cafe served these delicious Japanese desserts. 

Finally they went to the R & F (Restaurant and Family) Mart and found all sorts of goodies to bring home.  

Later in the evening, she brought the rest of us home burgers from a new restaurant in Springville called Burger Spot. They were super tasty! Unfortunately, and unrelated to the food itself, Mike started feeling under the weather and ended up vomiting in the night (likely the result of getting whatever Landon had last week). This meant missing doing plasma donation and work not only on Tuesday but on Wednesday as well. Fortunately, as happened with Landon, after two miserable days, he was back to work feeling relatively better by Thursday. 

On Tuesday, Eliza and Hallie went to Hobby Lobby and noticed lots of Sanrio and Disney merchandise.  

Kai came back on Tuesday too. We do so love our pup pup. We have him for most of the rest of the month. 

Check out this adorable pastry Hallie brought home from Kumo Cafe! Hallie did not share this particular treat with the rest of us. We got seaweed, yogurt soda, and chicken-flavored Cheetos, among other yummies. 

Eliza got to have a riding lesson on Wednesday at BUH. She rode Rome, who not a lot of other girls get to ride because he requires someone (like E) with a special set of skills. Rome is not part of the Bridle Up Hope program.

Hallie saw some local deer, again. 

Hello, bleppy boi!

Eliza wanted to make sure we got a picture of the bois actually tolerating each other. We are so fortunate that both our fur babies are generally mellow and tolerant of each other. 

The weather warmed over the week, so much so by Friday that Eliza wanted to go to school as if it was a summer day at the beach. Dad said no. With a fair bit of arguing and persuading, E finally relented, but we ended up forgetting to get her pills taken. She was feeling quite tired in the evening as well as a little depressed. Poor thing! 

Mike has been studying the classrooms in which he has been teaching for ideas about classroom management and organization. As you may know, he stopped teaching elementary school full time over two decades ago, and while he has kept on top of a lot of things both as a professional and a parent/informal teacher of our own brood, it's not the same as being in a self-contained classroom of 12 to 30 anklebiters. He found this portable calm corner to be a unique idea. 

Hallie found Fergus looking at himself in the TV on sleep mode to be amusing. 

With the warmth and sun of Saturday morning, we took on the task of cleaning out the left side of the garage. Having all the bins and extras up off the floor makes Hallie so happy!  After cleaning, Hallie and Eliza went to visit the grandparents. Eliza got a Winnie-the-Pooh-themed crochet kit earlier in the week, and we were hoping to get grandma's help. No such luck. There is a young girl near Eliza's age that lives across the street, and the two girls spent some time together.

Aww, Kai! Why so glum, chum? Hallie thought he looked cute so she had to take his pictures. We noticed Fergus has over 1,300 pictures over his nearly 11 years with us. Kai has some catching up to do at only 9 months or so.

Hello, there! Eliza thought he needed an extreme closeup.  

There is a wasp nest in the (non-functioning?) wall vent for the dryer. Mike started taking on the task of dealing with it, only to find out that it was a metaphorical wasp's nest, what with a blocked vent, cheap ducts, and wrong-sized replacement parts. This along with waterproofing the upstairs bathroom are DIY tasks Mike doesn't relish just because he doesn't want to make the problems worse!  

We took advantage of the sun to play badminton together in the front yard with the set we received from our Secret Santa. It worked really well! None of us can play very well, so it meant lots of whiffs, laughs, and the occasional hit. One even to the forehead of Hallie. She was a good sport and laughed it off.