September

Something that must be documented. Brynlee's messes. Used bandaids, drinks, wrappers, cups, stuff all over the floor, water bottles galore, drawers open, trash on the floor, full trash can, and food in her room and toy room.

The waterbottle issue is ongoing for sure. She consistently has about 3-4 of them in her room and more down in the toy room and then proceeds to use mine and Tyler's because she doesn't have any in the fridge. And the used bandaid? Gross! Kids are gross and messy.  

    

    

    

   

Fairview camping. Ty's famous peach cobbler, checking out the cabin, playing with snapchat filters, "Do you want some candy?" Brynlee is so silly. She got to stay an extra night and come home with Mimi and Papa. 

  

   

Labor Day High Fitness. Fun crowd and so much fun.

 

Sister who High together. It was a family affair and I loved it! Kelsie, Melissa, Chelsie, Makinzie, Meagan and Me. So much fun. I certified to teach High Low too. It wasn't that hard but teaching it is actually not as easy as one would think. It requires more moves than High does and even though there are no cardio push songs, it is still so hard. Kneaders breakfast with my Monday crew. I like this tradition and think we will keep doing it!

  

It's been windy. Really windy. And I canned some peaches and tomatoes. No need to put the year on it. Then descriptions give it away. 'The year of Covid-19. The year dreams died. The year we became kinda poor. The year of no hour church. The work from home year.' I thought it was funny. Ty didn't. Let's chat about these cute black sandals. One day, while at Mom's house, I see these sandals sitting by the kitchen table and comment about how cute they are. Mom proceeds to tell me they were supposed to be mine but Brittnee liked them so she took them. Seriously? So Britt gave them to me and I think they just fit my feet so well. I love them. 

My set up for the day with a potential new client. Yoda spent the day with me. Kinda cool. 

   

 

So happy Brynlee is on this team. It's more her level of play and it's been so fun to see her improving and making friends with her teammates. 

  

     

These two have my heart. How adorable in their matching sweatshirts, eating chips and salsa together. 

Brynlee came home from school one day and after asking her how her day was, she said, "It was awesome! I got voted to be Class president." Say what? Didn't even know that was on her radar. But she wrote a speech and everything. She had it folded up in her pants pocket and pulled it out to read it to me. I thought that was kind of funny. It says, " I think that I would make a good class president. First, I love to help people so I would love to be Class president so I could help more people. I will try to be like Maga doing things that we need. I won't be like Rudy. I really like our class so I want to do things that will make it an even better class if you make me Class President. I hope that you will vote for me." She told me she wrote that she wanted to do some fun projects if her teacher would let her but then she decided to erase that. Class President entails helping the teacher and getting to do things other kids don't get to do because she has to help the teacher. She feels pretty special and I think it's great! I told Ty that she's definitely my daughter. He would have never done anything like that. He agreed. Crazy hair day. I suggested we put straws in her hair. I was thinking they would stick out straight, Brynlee had a different idea that they would lay flat. Well, communication is key and we didn't communicate effectively so that morning was a little stressful. Plus I didn't think it quite through on how we would get her hair through the straw but I figured it out with a bit of dental floss and voila, it worked. Don't let the picture fool you but she was basically in tears saying her hair looked stupid. Isn't that the point? Anyway, when she came home she told me her friends thought her hair was awesome and no one else had straws in their hair. 

 

  

September 17th. Terrible, stupid , awful day. After getting a cryptic text from Mom about how Dad was going to the hospital in an ambulance and something was wrong with his heart, I headed to Jordan Valley to see what was going on. Turns out Dad had a small pulmonary embolism and also needs his gall bladder removed. Pretty scary to have a clot in your lungs. He tried to make a joke about how he wanted to keep his boots on because if he was going to die he was going to have his boots on. I didn't think it was funny, at all and I let him know so. I didn't get to go see him at the hospital so I just hung out in the lobby but it was the least I could do. He eventually came home and Brynlee made him some cookies. 2020 can just go to hell in my opinion. I'm done with it. I don't want to deal with anymore heartache and unemployment and stupidity. Somehow I don't think I'll get my wish. So blood thinners for Dad and then eventually a gall bladder removal when he isn't on the blood thinners anymore. 

  

Fun black light party with the local High Instructors. Had a great turnout!

 

Maga and Papa are trying to update their house a little so they can put it up for sale. Yup, you heard that right. They're going to sell their house. Grandma and Grandpa Brown are selling as well so there's no reason for Lauri to want to stay. She always said that once her parents didn't live in Taylorsville anymore that she would move. It's happening. So Ty is helping them put in some bead board and trim downstairs in the basement family room. It looks so good! 

 

Crystal Stebbins is in town for a bit. The home they were buying basically was destroyed in a hurricane or two. Like insane amounts of hurricanes and tropical storms this year and I feel so bad. She and the kids are living with her parents here in South Jordan while Ryan is staying in LA to try and work and assess damage. It's gonna be a long road for them but I'm happy I've been able to spend some time with her. We went to lunch at a park and let her kids play. Brynlee was at school. It was fun catching up. She amazes me with her faith and obedience. When the Lord tells her to do something she does it, no questions asked. It's pretty cool to watch it from the outside. She's been coming to High on Saturdays too which is soooo fun! 

In person church is starting back up every week. Through the summer they were doing every other week but we always seemed to be out of town on church week. I have loved home church though and am having some conflicting feelings about going back. We get to have some awesome discussions about the Gospel and just life in general with Brynlee. 

It's nice to have the kid back in school and back to a routine. School, piano, soccer, bed times. Ah. It's time to settle back in. Wearing masks at school has definitely been an adjustment and nobody likes it but it is what it is. We bought Brynlee's teacher a book for her classroom. It's the Hidden Figures book and I encouraged Brynlee to read it, however, after I asked Brynlee if she had been able to read it yet, she said, "Mom we can't touch anything in the classroom." It made me sad. Brynlee loves getting her work done and then picking up a book and reading while the other kids finish. She can't do that unless she brings her own book now. They can't even touch the hand sanitizer. Her teacher has to do it for them. We donated some money for a fundraiser to get her class seat sacks since they have to all be spread out and there's not a lot of room for storage. They were able to get them so that's good. This year is definitely different than anything we have experienced in our lives so far. I have to keep reminding myself and my little family that we've never done this before and we need to be patient and know we can do hard things. It'll be ok. Going in to the colder months soon I am a bit worried this isn't going to get better for awhile so we just need to stick it out.