12 on the 12th--August 2019 Edition

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1. Walking with Hayley.
2. Getting the sprinklers going while I get ready for work.
3. Traffic.
4. I'm loving this new podcast from my friend April Price.
5. Quote of the day.
6. My current work decor.
7. Tara, Jen, Kramer and I on our way to lunch.
8. We often stop at the Dollar Store for work treats.
9. Another view of my work set up.
10. I have an unlimited membership to Quick Quack car wash so I wash my car whenever I feel like it.
11. I had a phone call with Lori.
12. Dallin and Whitney hanging out.

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1. I went walking with Hayley at 6:30am and as always we found a flosser (so gross) on the road.
2. I love summer mornings!
3. I'm loving this arrangement on our porch.
4. Some of us went for a walk around the buildings for a break at work so we took a selfie.
5. Roses at work.
6. It feels like I'm always getting gas even though it's really about once a week.
7. My feet at the gas station.
8. I can barely make it two months between hair appointments because the grays are taking over!
9. What I'm reading.
10. Randy through the kitchen window as I was walking to the front door.
11. He made us spaghetti for dinner.
12. Our current bedroom set up, I'm not loving this duvet cover but it will do for now.

12 on the 12th--July Edition

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1. I went on a super long walk with my friend Hayley.

2. Filled up the gas tank and enjoyed watching Jimmy Fallon at the pump.

3. I love having the flag hanging up on our house, and I love the new "Hello" sign Michelle gave me for my birthday.

4. I bought some sunglasses, washi tape, and decorative pencils with birthday money.

5. I picked up my free birthday Bundlet from Nothing Bundt Cakes.

6. Amie and I had our birthday lunch at Los Hermanos.

7. She gave me a Michael's gift card and I gave her a La Fountain gift certificate.

8. I had a lovely pedicure and got bright orange toes for summer.

9. My friend Melanie brought me some more birthday goodness.

10. I printed these labels for Denise W.

11. Phoebe loves sitting on my shoulder when I'm doing stuff.

12. I'm 3/4 way through this great book for book club.

Flashing Back to September

Back on September 6th, me, Lori, Landon and Whitney went to see Howard Jones & Tom Bailey in concert.

We got there about 40 minutes early and then ended up sitting through multiple opening acts so we really could have shown up 3 hours late and been right on time. Ugh.

Whitney found a notebook in the back pocket of my lawn chair, what a find! She drew for a long time and had a fan club (the people behind us) watching her. This notebook probably saved her life because she was having some serious attitude problems and I was close to freaking out.

We had to wait an hour for the show to start and then sit through three other acts (who were fine) before the headliners performed...Landon had a good time taking selfies with my phone.

Tom Bailey was fantastic! He sounded so great and was super high energy. I hadn't realized how many Thompson Twins songs I knew, but they were part of my high school years' soundtrack for sure.

The song from the end credits of Sixteen Candles pretty much does me in no matter how many times I hear it.

More selfies.

Howard Jones was good too.

And more selfies.

I enjoyed the concert more than Lori or the kids because those songs are linked to many memories for me, but we all had a good night.

Five for Friday

 1. I scored 15 books at D.I. this week!

2. Last Saturday Landon decorated the sidewalk with messages to welcome Whitney home from Girl's Camp, so sweet. (Notice the lush edge of our lawn...the sprinkler doesn't get it well without soaking the sidewalk so I spot water it, but it just looks like hud.)

3. Is it just me or is he officially a big ole teenager?

4. Brother Pew's symphony did a free concert at the amphitheater on Monday and played despite a light rain. He had members of the audience hold umbrellas over the stringed instruments...it made for a cool scene for sure.

  5. The cousins have been here for a sleepover since Wednesday afternoon. One of their forms of entertainment was performing High School Musical numbers for each other in the front yard.

6. I took the girls to the pool for 4.5 hours yesterday. It was beasty hot but I brought a squirt bottle as a personal cooling system and was able to stay behind my umbrella all day while I read; I used a cooler and a swim noodle for an ottoman. I started my book at the pool and ended up finishing it at 3:00am this morning...what in the world?!

That's A New One

I am in the habit of checking AccuWeather.com daily and have never seen tomorrow's "hot with scorching sunshine" forecast before. It may as well say, "Jill should stay inside no matter what" or something along those lines.

I also enjoy that though it's supposed to be 100 degrees, it's going to feel like 102 degrees, so we've got that going for us.

12 on the 12th--June Edition

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1. Another beautiful, summer morning.
2. Robyn's girls spent the morning here while she was at work.
3. I took Whitney to spend the day with Tess and Megan at the waterpark.
4. I stopped at TJ Maxx on the way home.
5. Sweet nectar.
6. Chalk art by Landon, Olivia and Ashley.
7. The new glasses I bought at TJ Maxx.
8. An email with attachments for Girls Camp--details, details.
9. I love having flowers on the table, these are from our RS garden party.
10. Reading in the cozy.
11. Landon having his Scoutmaster's Conference (before leaving on a hike) the last signature he needed before turning in his Eagle Project Workbook, woohoo!
12. Camp Night activity.

Oh My

Well, I had a good run of productivity and reading outside last week, which is a good thing because this week is going to be hit-somebody-hot and I'll be seeking shelter in the artificial-coolness of my air conditioned home.

Five for Friday

1. I remembered I had a gift card for Pier 49 Pizza so the kids and I went there for lunch last week. But in my frenzy to also utilize a coupon for $5 off $15 I forgot to use the giftcard! Classic. It was a mighty good lunch and now I still have a giftcard, ha.

2. I've been in a bit of an end-of-summer funk this week since I'll be going back to work next week and really wasn't in good form for bookclub (so I skipped it...gasp!) or Creative Friday. I didn't want to miss getting together with Michelle though so we opted to take Eva and a friend to the pool so we could talk and read (Whitney was at the cousins). It ended up being a nice day in the shade. The crazy thing is that Michelle forgot to bring her book, but I had brought 2! Fortunately she ended up getting sucked into my other book or else it might have been a very disappointing day for her. Also, I must confess that I succumbed to the craving and got a big Coke after going 10 days without any. It was glorious, but not so good that I am going to fall back into my one a day pattern. Surely I can have moderation in some thing right?!

3. I met up with Amy to retrieve Whitney and the girls and actually didn't mind when they said they wanted to go to the pool. I've hardly gone there at all this summer and since I have a good book I'm reading I was all for it.

 I think this photo is hilarious.

 We were there for about 4.5 hours. 

 Snow cones all around...the grape flavoring in mine was a little weak.

4. I have no photo of it but I coached my first soccer game of the season last night. We were missing 5 of 11 girls (@#$!) due to vacations, so we lost 1-4. They did better than I expected, especially since I don't know them yet, but it was still frustrating. It was my first "yelling" of the season so I was hoarse and exhausted afterward.

5. We caught the tail end of Landon's football practice after the soccer game. It was so hot outside, I really can't imagine running and doing push-ups and all of that with all that padding and helmet on!

Not Quite Easy Casual--The End

After our chilly afternoon at the pool, Betsy went back to the hotel to get their stuff packed up for their early morning departure (so sad!) so the boys hung out at the house with us and we gave them some BYU shirts.

Later we loaded up in the car to hit our town carnival.

We stopped on the steps of the Alpine Tabernacle for a photo op.

The boys just adore Landon!

We had prebought our tickets which makes the carnival a far more affordable experience.

Cute boys on the kiddie roller coaster.

Betsy and I took a self-portrait but Randy snuck in.

 Betsy is a crazy girl and went on several of the insane rides with Landon and Whitney.

I'm not sure if Emmit was upset that she wasn't with him or that she was spinning upside down like a crazy person.

For real!?

These two were all about the wild rides this year and kept taking off together while we took the little boys around.

Good times on the carousel.

Betsy took this photo while we stood in line for the Ferris Wheel. Randy and I kept our place in line while everyone else ran off to do other rides...I'm officially the line holder, nonride-going fuddy duddy...dang.

Betsy and Emmit, then Landon and Owen, then Randy and Whitney. I leaned against a tree and watched them ride. I saw a ton of kids from school and thought it was interesting how a couple of them stopped to talk to me, others waved, and some others acted like they didn't see me. Maybe they were equally traumatized by the reminder of school starting so soon.

We ran out of tickets so Betsy went and bought some so this ride ended up costing $9.50!! (It would have only been $3 with the prepaid tickets.)

It was finally time for funnel cakes (the only reason I tolerate the carnival) so we sat on the steps of the Tabernacle (as is our tradition) to consume these lovelies.

We were all pretty wasted by the end of the night and didn't drop them off at their hotel until 10:30.

I picked them up for the airport at 5:00am so it was a dark and groggy goodbye. The trip was such a whirlwind, it almost feels like it was a dream.

Not Quite Easy Casual--Day 3A

Water activities seemed like the best bet for our crowd, so Whitney and I got online to search out another fun pool for the day. We settled on the Scera Pool in Orem (which we had never been to before) because it had 2 diving boards, slides and lots of fun stuff.

We got there right when it opened at 12:30 and took this quick self-portrait that Owen and Whitney somehow missed out on.

It was overcast, but the it was supposed to be sunny and 91 degrees that day so we weren't concerned.

The new floatie was a hot commodity, especially since I'd accidentally popped the blue one while closing the back hatch of the car.

Lathering up!

I enjoyed all the colorful Adirondack chairs.

Owen entertained himself by going off the diving board over and over again.

The rest of us hung out in the pool next to the diving board and took turns on the floatie.

Betsy, Landon and Whitney went down the slides a few times, but it got kind of cold so there was only warmth to be had in the water.

My kids are huge.

We lasted almost 3 hours but were so freezing by the end that I was having visions of hot chocolate and a bread bowl of soup! It was ridiculous to feel so cold on a summer day and it made the outing feel like a bust.