Eastern Market

Monday I got the news of who my replacement as young women's president will be. This lady is very emotional, opinionated, easily offended and just a lot of drama so I was pretty much in shock when Bishop told me. He had already called her (apparently against the advice of everyone in the Bishopric) so when he asked my thoughts...what could I say? I was just like, you already called her so yeah...I have a lot of worries about how my yw will mesh with her, how all my hard work to get the yw leading might be in vain (she likes to take over things) and I also worry about the large budget I have left (she's terrible with money). But this is all very judgemental of me and I am just hoping and praying she will be better than everyone expects. I really hope that for the sake of my young women.

Anyways after reeling from that surprising news, I had a beach day with my friends. That was nice. Whenever I am there, I just always feel like that is exactly how kids should be spending their summers. Afterwards I took Steven to his archery class we had signed him up for. He had it everyday but Friday this week and it went really well. The coach said he has a natural ability and he just needs to keep practicing. I wish Tyler wasn't so busy because I am clueless about where to take him to practice archery but I really do want Steven to stick with it.

Monday night the missionaries came over for dinner and we invited Jacob and his parents as well. Jacob's Step Dad didn't come but his mom did. It was a good evening spent with the missionaries and they taught a good lesson about faith. I think his mom would have enjoyed it more if Jacob hadn't made some jabbing comments at her about hiding snacks from him. Sometimes, that neighbor of ours.

Tuesday morning I met with my replacement and tried my best to tell her all the things and be positive about it. Unfortunately they won't call her until 8/8 and she says she will be going out of town for a week after that. I think she expects me to just keep hanging on but lady, I have another calling. I quite honestly feel like waiting until 8/8 to release me is far too long. 

Tuesday afternoon while Steven was at archery the rest of us hung out in Milford. My mom went to the bakery and the kids played in a little stream by central park. They had all expressed that they wanted to do this but Ben did not last long before he was bored and went and got a book out of the car to read (he has really become a reader over the last school year). Then the girls got bored and wanted to go to the playgroud, except they didn't want to wear shoes because of wet feet. Essentially there was a lot of whining and it was not the fun outing I thought it would be. After that day I just left them at home with Grams during Steven's archery class and enjoyed some alone time.

Wednesday we had a nice morning at Scarlett's park with some friends. David has been at camp and Alissa has been out of town so it's been just Etta and Steven hanging out as far as the teens go. They seem to mesh well though and she doesn't seem to get crazy around him (even though Etta has told me many times she has a huge crush on Steven). That night for our yw's activity though, Etta was super hyper. I had managed to get Aleahna to come to an activity and she was being "too cool" to hang out with everyone but that didn't bother Etta. She just kept following Aleahna and talking non-stop to her. I can't decide if Aleahna was happy about that or not. Teens are tricky. The activity itself was frisbee golf and I only did one goal but I did really good (for a beginner). I might have to try it again sometime.

Wednesday night Tyler proposed at Bishopric that we do Seminary at our house. Bishop said he was not comfortable making that decision over Zoom and wants to meet with us in person when he's back in town. I am so frustrated that he is dragging this out and that he won't just let us do it at our house. It just makes sense and we are just not as far as he thinks we are. If he would just google map it he would see...Tyler got on my case later saying that I needed to come to terms with the fact that Bishop might say no and I might not "get my way." With all my super anxious feelings that I was having at that time, I pretty much had a melt down. He apologized later but, woof. Sometimes having anxiety and having a husband that don't understand proper responses to anxiety can be difficult

Thursday I had my Dr's appt and I am going to start taking birth control. I haven't taken bc pills since I first got married but the Dr thinks they will help regulate my crazy hormones so I am hopeful. Unfortunately they apparently will make me crazy before they start regulating so that should be fun.

Thursday evening I went to Amy Day's house to learn all the things about seminary (she teaches the kids from the other school district). It was good and also a bit overwhelming. She's amazing. But we also had a good conversation about life and other things afterwards and that was really nice. 

Friday I spent the morning cleaning and clearing things out. I went through the kids closets so I could hang up their school uniforms and I went through the bookshelf in my room because it had become so full. After the clearing out, I took a bunch of stuff to Salvation Army and then ran a few errands with my mom and the girls (Steven was at Max's and Ben was with Jacob). 

That evening I picked up Kassandra and we went and saw Abbie in "Zombie Prom." There was a super risque song and a few other sexual innuendo's that made me feel super uncomfortable since I was there with one of my yw but I guess overall it was fun...

Saturday morning I took my mom and the girls to the Eastern Market in Detroit. We got lucky finding parking because it was super busy but it was still a good time. I found a cute dress for $10 and I bought sunflowers, Kettle Corn, Strawberries and Cherries. Lots of good things.

Also on Saturday,  Lucy put together a whiteboard I bought at Ikea. She was pretty proud of herself. 

Girl's Camp, Saginaw, Broken Alternator

 On Monday I drove a few girls up to Girl's Camp and then stayed there until the evening. I was originally not asked to go but one of my yw was trying to flake out and I felt prompted that if I could take her and stay for the day, she would stay too. She did end up staying the whole time and even though she did try to get her mom to pick her up at one point, I still call it a success. For me, it was an exhausting day. The campsite was pretty far from the lot so I had to help girls haul a lot of things down. Then later that day there was long trek down to the lake to watch girls go kayaking. The kayaking didn't feel super worth between the tetris game of trying to fit a ton of kayaks on a trailer and the distance to the lake but I think the girls still enjoyed it. By the time evening came I was ready to go home. The long walk to my car through the darkened woods by myself was eerie and I accidentally killed a firefly which temporarily caused my hands to glow so that was all fun. But I am also glad I didn't have to spend the night in a tent so there's that.

On Tuesday I played catch up with life- laundry, groceries and other errand running. I also put together a care package for my friend's daughter who was getting surgery for her scoliosis. The girls and I got to drop that off and chat with them for a bit. Both mom and daughter were pretty anxious about the surgery but everything went well.

Tuesday night I had a puzzle night with friends at Grace's house. Overall good. They had a moment where they weren't so nice about someone and that wasn't my cup of tea but other than that conversation was good.

Wednesday I had to go back to girl's camp to teach a class and then help take girls home. I was running behind that morning and then my car wouldn't start so that was fun. I ended up taking my moms because Tyler and Steven were off at Deacon's camp. Unfortunately her car needed gas so that set me behind some more. Then I took a wrong turn and it took me a bit to realize and correct. While I had hoped to make it there super early, I ended up right on time. I guess at least I was on time. With all the events of the morning I was fairly flustered so I was a little nervous and shaky teaching the class and I didn't do a lot of teaching. Mostly the girls just doodled and colored but I think they enjoyed it.

After my class I sat with one of my yw (the one who hadn't wanted to come) and found out that she felt 80% of camp was fun. That's a win, right!? Then we had lunch and took down camp. I had the biggest struggle trying to help a girl put her sleeping bag in it's bag. That is not my strong suit. This time we got to load all our stuff up in someone's car and have it driven down to the parking lot so that made things easier.

Thursday I had my annual check up. That day I also found out that the Elementary had still not sent the kids records to our new school and so they still could not complete enrollment. So after my appt I went down to the District Office to complain and they were absolutely unhelpful. The whole thing gives me anxiety. Thankfully after a less than happy email to the new school, they said they would register my kids without the records...but they still want the records. So I guess the saga continues.

Thursday afternoon we hit up the Milford's Farmers Market and my mom was nice enough to buy all the kids cookies for later(except Steven who was still off at camp). And then she was even more nice and bought us Subway that night for dinner. It was nice to not have to stress about making dinner.

Friday I finally had no plans so I decided it was a good day for an adventure. We drove out to Saginaw and first toured the Castle Museum. It was definitely cool looking and the kids seemed to enjoy it. Especially cool was that this Museum used to be a Post Office and we got to go to a special room upstairs where the Boss could watch all his workers. We learned a lot about Saginaw and how it used to be a booming lumber town until there were no more trees to cut down.

It was a really nice day so we ate our lunch outside after we finished in the museum and then we headed to another museum, Marshall M Fredericks Sculpture Museum. This was like a much smaller (and free) version of the Sculpture Gardens in Grand Rapids. The kids still seemed impressed by the sculptures (and didn't get too wierded out by the naked sculptures). They always make me nervous in fancy museums but at least I have cultured them ;)

Friday evening, after our adventures in Saginaw, I ordered pizza for dinner. I went to go pick up the pizza and decided to use my car (Tyler had left camp to come jump start it the night before). It struggled to start but then it did so I figured it would be fine. Well it was NOT fine. I was sandwiched in a left turn lane during high traffic when it literally just died. I watched as the battery level went to zero. I was on the phone with Tyler and he told me to stay in the car and he would come but he was at camp 30 mins away. I called a close by friend and she said she would send her husband. I was waiting there, being honked at and trying to motion to people to move around me as my emergency lights flashed, when I saw my neighbor Christy come out of a car in front me. Such a tender mercy. She sent her husband and Jacob out and they helped push the car to a safe location (along with a couple strangers who jumped out and helped). I had the fun of trying to steer with no power steering and feeling stupid because I didn't know what direction to turn the wheel. I am not good in high stress situations. My friend's husband came near the end and was nice enough to drive me to pick up the pizza. Then when I got home Tyler was there and together we went back and he towed the car back while once again I had the joy of steering. And stomping on the breaks. So stressful.

Saturday I went back up to girl's camp to teach my hand lettering class to the second session of camp. There were only a handful of people in my class this time and it was honestly pretty nice to have a small class. It was less stressful. I did not stick around after since my yw weren't there and it just wasn't the same.  

Fourth of July, Pixie Cut, Lake Huron

Sunday we celebrated the fourth of July by having the Mays, the Eakins and the Solomons over for a BBQ. Having lots of people over always stresses me out a bit but overall I think everyone was entertained and had a good time. The kids all played nicely together and had fun cooling off in the sprinklers and playing with water balloons. The big kids even went against the younger kids, using our fence as a dividing line.

We had bought sparklers for all our guests but they all ended up leaving fairly early so instead just my kids and the neighbor, Jacob, got to have fun with them. They especially loved putting them in the bucket water and hearing them sizzle when they were done with them.

On Monday Tyler decided it was time to tear down his shed. Building a new shed has been on his "to do" list forever so he has finally started that process. It was a super hot day for all that intense labor but they got it down. Unfortunately the groundhogs that live under it have a great burrowing system and are still living there, even with the shed gone. We've managed to trap 2 but still have 2 more to go. They seem to have gotten wise to the cage with delicious food inside. 

While they worked on the shed I took Grandma to Lansing so she could go to the stained glass shop there. She didn't quite appreciate how much prices have gone up on stained glass supplies but she was able to get some of the things she needed. On our way back we picked up a cake so we could properly celebrate Poppy's birthday- vanilla cake with vanilla ice cream.

Tyler still had more projects he wanted to do but I managed to get him to commit to going on one family day trip so on Tuesday we took a drive to Lakeport Beach. It was a very rocky beach which was fun for rock hunting but a bit painful for the feet. The water was also very chilly. Tyler did borrow my flip flops and walk out with a few of the kids. And we all had fun collecting, throwing and trying to skip rocks. Ben takes after his dad and has some skill with skipping rocks. Steven was the surly teenager who didn't really get in the water and was super bored. Eventually he went and got a book from the car to entertain himself with.

As we were leaving the beach I noticed the Suburban was making a funny noise and just as I looked up a man in the car next to us was mouthing "you have a flat tire". Boy did we have a flat tire. Thankfully there was a Lowes fairly near to us and Tyler was able to park in their lot. Having the Lowe's there was very providential because Tyler's jack wasn't in his car so he was able to purchase one and put on the spare. Also, thankfully, there was a Target right by us as well so I could entertain the kids while Poppy and Tyler changed the tire. We even were able to have the kids get birthday gifts for Tyler while we there. Hopefully this flat tire situation doesn't disuade Tyler from future family outings.

That night Steven had his temple recommend interview with the Bishop and the Bishop invited us all over to see his dog's new puppies. I suppose they are cute but I really have no desire to own one. All I hear from my friends that own dogs is how much work they are and they just don't seem worth it to me. But who knows, maybe someday I will eat my words.

Wednesday was Tyler's birthday so I spent the morning baking him a banana cream pie. It wasn't too challenging this time around and I think it turned out really good. That afternoon I dropped Penny off at the Eakins house and ended up taking Etta back home with me. I was going to have her use Tyler's new power washer (she got excited about it when I told her Steven was using it) but instead we ended up being a little spontaneous and we went to get Lucy's haircut. I had promised Lucy that she could get a pixie cut if she didn't chew on her hair for a week and it had been a week of no chewing so it was time to pay out. One of my yw (Megan) had gotten a pixie cut from her sister (Sarah) and Sarah happened to be working at Great Clips at that time so we went. I was glad Etta came with because Lucy loves Etta's pixie cut so we could use her as a reference. A fun coincidence was that Megan and her mom were there to get haircuts from Sarah too. We had fun chatting with them and then Sarah did an amazing job on Lucy's hair. Lucy was all smiles during and after the cut and is loving her low maintenance hair. Etta was super supportive and made Lucy feel real good about it all.

That night Tyler and I got to attend the Bishop's son's Endowment Session. We hadn't been to the temple in over a year so it was so good to finally be back there. I love the peace that comes when I am there and how it washed my anxiety away. I felt more clarity with all my big life decisions too. I think I need to first take care of my health (which means going on birth control because that can help with a lot of my issues) and then I need to stop trying to control everything and just let life be (that means once everything is good, maybe get off birth control). I need to trust more and be flexible which are both things I find hard so wish me luck.

After the session we were going to do a birthday dinner but had the hardest time finding an open restaurant. There had been a big storm so between the power outages and the lateness of the night (9pm) our options were limited. We finally ended up at Applebee's with a super long wait but it is always nice when we get time together.

Thurday Lucy and Ben got to attend the Water Sports Camp. Ben was still a bit traumatized from hurting his back at the last session so he apparently didn't get super brave with learning how to knee board. Lucy on the other hand absolutely loved learning to knee board and is begging to go back. I wish it wasn't so expensive because I would love to give her another opportunity.

While they were off doing watersports Steven, Tyler, me and Grams and Poppy went shooting. I was not excited about it but was being pressured into it. Steven was also wary about it but Steven ended up loving it and is asking to go back. Me, not so much. Shooting my parents gun wasn't terrible (very little kickback and not loud) but shooting Tyler's handgun was terrible. So much kickback and so loud. I only shot his once and I was done. I do not do well with the loud noises and even struggled to shoot my parent's gun when he was shooting his in the lane next to me. 

Since we had been at the temple the night of Tyler's birthday, we did a belated celebration Thursday night with his banana pie. (He did open his presents the morning of his birthday but I'll just put that pic here- Ben got him a Lego set, the girls got him Minecraft Minifigures, my parents got him pizza cotton candy(so gross!)and a Home Depot giftcard, I got him a funny shirt and a power washer and bacon cotton candy (also gross!) and birthday cake cotton candy).)

Friday I took the parents and the 3 youngest kids to Cherry Republic in Ann Arbor. They had a bunch of free samples out which was awesome for the kids and my parents wanted to buy all the cherry things. They have so many yummy things. While we were busy shopping Tyler took Steven to baptisms for the dead at the temple. I am glad he was able to go back at long last.

Friday night I went out to ice cream with my friends to celebrate Grace and Ashlee's birthday. It was actually a really nice outing with them, with good conversations. Then Saturday we had to say goodbye to Poppy. He is headed back to Arizona now but luckily Grams will still be with us.