We had a really rough January. All of us have been feeling really sad and needed to snap out of it. We decided that going adventuring was something that would help. We gathered our kiddos and invited them to come on a hike with us. Alissa is the only one that really didn't want to go, so she stayed home. It was a little funny how sad we all were at the start of the video. We didn't have a lot of energy and we were just going through the motions... I guess. It didn't take long for our moods to start to change and for us to start feeling happier. I'm so glad that going on this hike worked for us and helped to cheer us all up. It was so needed. I'm bummed that Alissa didn't come with us. It was weird to go on a family adventure without her.
We went hiking on "The Big Fill' trail, near Golden Spike. We've been on that trail a lot of times before this. It is a simple hike that doesn't feel like it is way too far away. So, it's a good place to go for a spur of the moment hike.
This afternoon, Alissa was feeling bored and she didn't want to sit at home all day. So, she invited anybody who wanted to go with her to go on an adventure. She wasn't sure what she was going to do. All she knew is that she wanted to drive somewhere. Somewhere busy (Ogden or Logan) and maybe walk around the mall or something like that. That didn't sound very fun to me and I needed to finish gathering some stuff for our taxes, so I didn't go. Roger was asleep still, because he has to work tonight. Parker was playing video games with his friend, Damien. So, that just left Brinley and Alissa. They went to Ogden to see if they could watch people doing the I-Fly thing or people surfing. They weren't sure where the I-Fly thing was and they were too cold standing outside watching the surfing thing. So, they called me and asked what other ideas I had for them to do. They decided that they would just drive over to the mall and walk around for a little while.
About 10 minutes after that conversation, Alissa called me ans said they had a better idea. They were going to drive to Salt Lake to hang out with their cousin, Hannah. It was around 3 Pm. I worried that they would be frustrated because they wouldn't have a lot of time. Alissa pointed out that they were already half way to Salt Lake. So, I agreed that they could go if they wanted to. They just needed to head home at a reasonable time. They were short on money, but Hannah had offered to pay for their gas if they came. They were so excited! When I talked to them after they got to Salt Lake, they told me that they were at my sister, Missy's house. Hannah and Mckayla met them there. They had so much fun hanging out, eating pizza, and playing the Nintendo Switch. Alissa was so happy they had been able to go and do that. I'm so glad that they had fun and they were safe. It was really hard for me to not say anything and just let them go out and about on their own like that. It is so crazy how grown up they are getting! It's exciting and scary and hard for me to except. I love my kiddos so much. I really hope that I have taught them well enough so that they will all have the best and happiest lives. It's hard to be at this stage where they are starting to be away from me more and they are out doing their own things. It's also nice for me to have more freedom to go and do want I want without having to worry about what I'll do with the kids. It's just different and change is hard. I have so many mixed and crazy emotions about it all. Life is just fun like that I guess. My kiddos are just growing up.
Alissa drove her and Parker to school this morning. She is so happy to have her freedom. The only thing bad about today being the first day she is driving herself is that it started snowing as soon as the kids left to school and it hasn't stopped. It's 10:50am right now. Alissa hasn't driven in the snow before, so this will be her first time. I hope she remembers all she's been taught and does well. I trust that she's got it under control. She is loving her new car and she loves that she finally feels free. She's so happy that she gets to drive herself to work, so when she gets off work, she doesn't have to wait for us to pick her up.
While Alissa was putting her new mats in and an air freshener into her car, Parker decided to sled a little bit before school.
It snowed all day. Around 1:00 pm I went outside to shovel the snow. The snow was really wet and coming down the whole time I was outside. By the time I finished, my jacket and the clothes underneath were soaking wet.
The kids made it home from school safely. Brinley really regretted the shoes she was wearing since she had to wait in the snow fro atleast 30 minutes before Alissa could pick her up. She had been excited about it since she planned on visiting her friends at the charter school while she waited. But she ended up getting cold too wet and cold. The roads were really slippery, so it took Alissa a little longer to get over to Brinley.
Alissa dropped Parker and Brinley off, then she headed to work. She had to work tomorrow and the next day also, so she will be dropping them off and heading straight to work on those days too. I barely got to see Alissa at all today. That was a bummer.
Around 5 ish, Parker wanted to go outside and sled and I needed to shovel the snow. We got ready and headed outside. Roger decided to come and join us this time. Brinley didn't come out because she said she wasn't feeling well. We had fun outside. Parker was so happy to have his dad out hanging out with him. I miss playing outside together. We used to do it a lot more. It doesn't happen nearly as often since the kids became teenagers and life has been more stressful for Roger and I.
I took all the video clips of them sledding and played them in reverse. I call this video, Sledding in Reverse.
When I was going to bed tonight, I spent some time scrolling through Facebook. Somebody had posted this picture and video of a bus that was sliding on the icy road after school. This was in front of Parker's school (Bear River Middle School).
Alissa is so excited to have her car! I ended up driving it to take her and the kids to school today, for 2 reasons. I made Alissa feel nervous about driving, so she was up most of the night worrying about it, and Alissa had invited Tonya to come home with us (Alissa isn't allowed to drive with a friend in the car until May).
After school, Alissa and Tonya played a game on the Xbox, Parker and his friend took care of the chickens and played out on the trampoline, Brinley felt sick so she went to her room to take a nap, and I did some scrapbooking.
At 4:00ish, we got ready and went to Walmart. Alissa drove us there, but she didn't like it (With Roger and I in the car, it makes her nervous).
We went inside Walmart and Alissa bought some things for her car. After that, we went to Costa Vida for some dinner. Alissa didn't want to sit with us, so her and her friend sat at another table.
I told Roger that one of us should drive us home, since I could tell Alissa was so nervous with us. Roger said he would tell her that he is driving home. When we were ready to go, Alissa hadn't finished eating her food. She said that we couldn't leave until she was finished, unless one of us wants to drive and she will eat her food in the car on the way home. Lol! I think it's funny, because I know she didn't want to drive home. It's funny that we both had plans in place so she wouldn't have to drive us home.
Alissa went driving by herself tonight. She went to the library and to drive her friend Tonya home. When she got back, she told me how much she loved it. It was her first time driving without a parent. She said that it was so much better without us. She felt like she drives better without us in the car making her feel nervous. She also pointed out the many miscommunications we had that caused her to do things she wouldn't normally have done while driving. Like, the other day, a car was backing out of the driveway and didn't see us. I said, "Oh no. I think that car is going to keep going." Alissa saw it backing out and realized it didn't see us. She was going to stop, but she heard me say, "Keep going." She didn't hear the first part of what I said. So, she kept going, against her better judgement, and it was terrifying. We came very close to getting hit.
We forgot to get the shampoo and conditioner that I bought out of the car. So, we went to get it. The driveway was slippery with ice. I didn't shovel the driveway the last time it snowed, because I figured it would warm up and the snow would melt really quickly. I was wrong. It's stayed cold and now the driveway is covered in ice. Alissa slipped on the ice on the way out to the car. I love our security system because we get to have video of all our funny falls.
We went to salt lake to get Alissa her new car. She is so excited. We left right after we got the kids home from school and we got back home around 8:20pm. Alissa plans to drive to school tomorrow, so I went out with her so she could practice her driving. She hasn't driven since she got her license. She was afraid she forgot how. Lol. She didn't, of course. She drove around thru the surrounding neighborhoods, then she drove to the high school, to remember the route she will drive tomorrow. I'm nervous and excited for her. I hope it goes well and she doesn't have any problems.
Last week I did really well with what I ate, because I was trying intermitten fasting. I really liked it. I took the weekend off, since I had company. I planned to start again today, but this morning came and I decided that I will try again tomorrow. Lol. I wish I had more will power. I didn't do anything I planned to do today, except going to get the car, ordering Alissa's contact lenses, picking kids up from school, and washing the dishes.
Parker took a couple pictures to show his friend. I don't know why my brain didn't think to take any pictures. Thank goodness Parker thought about it.
I spent the morning watching family vlogs. I feel like our daily lives are too boring to be an entertaining vlog. I wondered what other family vlogs were like. It turns out, they are boring. For some reason people still watch them. So, I just need to convince myself to keep going with our vlogging. I started recording this morning. I rambled on and on, then I took a break and decided to finish recording when the kids got home from school. I had forgotten that we'd be leaving to Salt Lake, so that never happened.
The conclusion I've come to, is that I don't like recording videos for the purpose of being on YouTube all the time. Sometimes I just want to record videos the way I used to, when I recorded them for our home videos. Not the kind of video where I have the camera pointed at me and I'm telling you whats going on as I'm recording whats going on. Sometimes, I'll feel like recording that way and sometimes I wont. Sometimes, I want to YouTube like other YouTubers and sometimes I don't. I'm just going to have fun with my YouTube channel and post videos when I feel like it and post videos that I'm in the mood to create. I don't love the regular vlogging. I'm done doing that.
Missy and Hannah came on Friday and didn't the night. We had so much fun on Friday and Saturday. Today had felt like a bummer. It's hard to go back to normal life after having so much fun.
Alissa was faking sick, so we didn't take pictures and videos. She had been sick, but started feeling better. She really didn't want to go in to work since they were only going to be here for one night. I have known they were coming to spend the night, for over a month now, but I forgot to tell Alissa, so she could get work off. I felt so bad for doing that. She didn't go in to work though and we had a lot of fun. We ate cupcakes, cheeseball, chips with cottage cheese, and sandwiches. It was all yummy. Missy kept saying that she had eaten way more than normal since she was at my house. We talked, painted ceramics, did a seance, played a card game called Chaos, and played the Nintendo switch. It was so fun. We laughed a lot this weekend. We didn't have a serious seance. We aren't brave enough for that.
Here are 2 funny videos from this weekend:
Butters got scared and stuck under the stool. He jumped up and it was really funny.
Khloe slipped on the ice in the driveway when she came over for a sleepover with Brinley.
And one long video from our seance on Friday night. We had so much fun when Missy and Hannah were here.
All the big snow storms keep missing us. There have been 2 major storms to hit Utah. A bunch of schools were closed all along the Wasatch front. I was so excited to hear that storms were coming, but both times, the storms missed us. I checked the vortex weather map and the clouds literally would part and go on either side of Tremonton. The storm hit everywhere around us, but not on us. I want to pray for snow, but I have a feeling that somebody in Tremonton really needs us to not have a lot of snow this year. I think somebody prayed for it to miss us and Heavenly Father had answered their prayers. It's amazing how the clouds part right over Tremonton.
Tonight is a little different, though. Because we actually got some snow this afternoon and into the night. The Kids and I were excited at the possibility of a ton of snow so they could have a snow day and no school tomorrow, but when I checked the vortex weather map thing, it shows the storm moving past us by midnight. We were bummed about that. I'm happy for the snow we did get though. I love the snow!
Roger didn't get a lot of sleep on Saturday morning before he had to work at the gas station, so he had a hard time staying awake for his shift. It was a really slow day at the gas station. There were a lot less customers than normal, which made it even harder to not be tired. Anyway, because of the lack of sleep on Friday night and Saturday morning, Roger slept a lot today. He slept until 4pm ish. After he woke up, we fixed some dinner and ate our food while finishing watching the Ted Bundy documentary on Netflix. After that, we watched Fail videos on YouTube. Then painful fails. That was horrible too watch. I couldn't watch it all. Watching people's bones break on their arms or legs or whatever and bend in unnatural ways was horrifying.
I started vlogging this afternoon, but after I made french toast, I quit. The french toast was yummy! So yummy, I forgot to vlog again. Lol.
I crocheted some hats to take to the store in town. I don't really like selling my hats at the store in town. I don't make as much money on the hats as I could if I sold them online. I need to go talk to the owner and let her know I don't plan on continuing to sell my hats there.
