Dear Diary
March 12, 2022
St. George
January 18, 2022The weather forecast was great…four hours south of me. I had a holiday weekend coming up and thought to myself that–although I was just there two weeks ago–it was time to head back to St. George for the weekend where it would be 60º outside instead of 40º. Plus, I had some work to do on my car and my brother Kurt offered up his garage to me.
And I’m very glad he did. My project of replacing the upper and lower control arms in my Lexus GX470 went from a 2-4 hour job to a 2+ day job. The most difficult and pain in the butt car repair I’ve ever undertaken. I will never do that again.
The YouTube videos made it all look so easy. Just undo some nuts, pop out some bolts, and with just a little shimmy effort the old ones will fall out and the new ones will slide in. Well, none of those videos had cars from rusty land like I did. There was no popping out bolts for me. They had rusted so much that they had fuzed to the car, and the only way to remove was with a saw. To add insult to injury, there are also 4 castle nut & cotter pin combos to undo, and those were equally as stubborn to work with. My whole Saturday was gone. My whole Sunday was gone. My weekend in warm weather was spent in a garage getting covered in grime, wearing out my back and getting all sweaty.
I did get it done, though. Just in time for an alignment Monday morning, a quick trip to the St. George train park, followed by a late lunch, packing, and a drive home.
My weekend did not go as planned, but, it went as it needed to. I could not have done this at home by myself. Lucky coincidence? No. A little heavenly push from Mom inspired me to make the 4 hour drive because she knew what it would take, and there were some tools and help down there that I would need. Thank you, Mom. I hated every minute of it, but I chose to do this repair on my own and you made sure I could pull it off.
Halloween ’21
October 30, 2021A Ghost. A Witch. A Pilot. Elle has been so excited to be a ghost for several weeks now. We were watching TV one night when she said “I’ll be right back!” and then about 10 minutes later came in and spooked us. She’s so adorable.
Life is busy – too busy. Always rushing to get to the next place, or taking a break from all the rushing and not being in the moment. I want to be in the moment more. Recently I’ve been trying to remind myself more and more than these little people are full-on personalities with wants and wishes and dreams and fears and insecurities. They’re not just stubborn robots here to do what I say so I can get through the day and the tasks. They’re unique individuals here to contribute to my life, this family, and the world. They get excited and sad, annoyed and frustrated… the whole gamut of emotions can be felt in those small growing souls. It’s such a treat to raise them – frustrations and all!
Utah Goes All Out
September 25, 2021Fall 2020 was absolutely spectacular here in Utah. The colors were just out of control.
Revisit: A Train Ride
September 13, 2021This is from early in 2020, as COVID was starting to become a scare around the world. I took Emmett and Elle on a train and bus adventure to the Provo Towne Center Mall (Which, isn’t located in the center of town…)
Anyway, I really just love so much about this. The colors, the light, the kids poses. Just a favorite.
Cascade Springs
July 29, 2021American Fork and Provo Canyons are rather beautiful, and the road connecting both of them is a fun drive to make. The road is narrow but the views are amazing. At the top of the road is a turnoff that 15 minutes later will drop you at Cascade Springs, a fun, developed park that has bridges and walkways around some naturally occurring springs.
I found myself getting restless at home with the kids and decided it was time for a drive, so I loaded them up with a friend and went on a little adventure. We got there in the early evening with plenty of light and basically had the whole place to ourselves.
