Monthly Spotlight: October

Here we are the week before Christmas. Do you know what that means? It's time to post about October!

First up, Caroline's 6th birthday!

Since she is such a candy lover we did an All Candy All the Time party for her. We played candy-themed music in the background, played candy games, and decorated cupcakes with the candy that we won. The highlight was when I dressed Rob up as a "Human Piñata" and let the kids loose to chase him around the yard. It was hilarious and well worth the hour it took to hot glue 200 pieces of candy on his shirt. Unfortunately I lost the video :(

We sent all the kids home on a serious sugar high! You're welcome, parents.

My sister asked me what gift she could get Cara and I said bath toys... which I guess meant bath paint and crayons. I was seriously startled when I turned around one evening to find this! Geez! I guess we will call it even for when I got her daughter a big container of beads. Haha!

This is one of our favorite playgrounds and it's even more fun when you're there with cousins. It's in Saratoga Springs if you're interested in climbing the super tall pyramid or swinging on the best swings ever.

I love this picture of Madeleine in her braids.

Next up, Halloween! 

Madeleine received bins and bins of sewing fabric and notions from her grandma and has been very busy with her creations. She designed and sewed her own genie costume for her school Halloween parade! I'm in awe of her creativity!

Cara and I were at the store one day and she had a lot of fun dressing up as different food items!

I don't have a picture of Nate in his costume. He decided to be a basketball player and just wear a jersey he already had from a couple of years ago. When I asked him why he decided on that he said, "Because I wanted a new basketball but I didn't want to earn money to buy one myself. I knew if it was part of my costume you'd just buy it for me." Sly kid...

When the girls were gifted some beautiful hand-me-down dresses from their aunt's growing up years, they fell in LOVE immediately! They just don't make dresses like this anymore, you know? So pretty and twirly! They started calling themselves "Old-Fashioned Girls" and two months later they are still wearing the dresses to church almost every Sunday.

Here they decided they wanted to look like "Creepy Dolls" slowly rocking in their chairs. Haha!

Rob bought a Sirius Black magic wand at Comic Con and really likes dressing up for occasions. As usual, he was too busy to put together a costume so Madeleine and I took it upon ourselves to help a wizard out.

I bought a long, black "Diva Wig" and cut it to the right length. Then Madeleine and I sewed some fabric together for prison garb. It was pretty easy since it was supposed to look all raggedy. Perfection not needed! Rob had time to spray paint the stripes. Looks pretty convincing, I'd say and he even won best costume at work (a spooky skull candlestick)!

Except someone did mistake him for Jesus...

The most hilarious moment of the evening was when our bro-in-law walked in dressed up as Rob himself!! He painted his hair and beard dark (he is normally blonde), put on glasses, found his best Rob Clothes, and brought some "Dirt Blueprints" to carry around. I'd say he really hit the mark!

Here's Cara's super creepy picture!

And finally?
Just waitin' at the doc's office... Your kid does this too, right?

That's it for October! It was a great month!

The Arduous Story of My Sight (and Rob's Miraculously Healing Eyes)

Warning: This is a very long and boring story. Proceed at your own risk.

-1989-

I failed an eye exam and got my first pair of glasses. Mind you, geeks weren't cool back then like they are now. Nope, I was just a lowly, uncool geek. Still am, though.

(Ummm. Can we just focus on the silkiness of my hair and not on my
ridiculous glasses, lone fang, and double-decker bangs? Please?)

-1993-

I switched to contact lenses since I was entering junior high and had to Cool Up, for my own sake. Although, I don't think it worked. Actually, I do know...it didn't.


-1999-

I started wearing small glasses because they suddenly became cool. Soon after this I went back to contacts almost exclusively because my eyes get tired when wearing glasses.

(Ummm. Could this picture be any more pink? This was during my gothic-leaning days. 

Please excuse the weird hair. Strike that...the very weird hair.)

-Spring of 2016-

I started seeing double or "ghosting" when watching tv or reading. My night vision was suddenly reduced and I couldn't read any road signs until they were right next to me. Even then, they were blurry.

(This is my thinking face while, or instead of, working.)

-June of 2016-

I went to the eye doctor with my complaints. He told me that what I was experiencing is normal as I age. Along with a slight prescription change in my right eye only, he diagnosed me with astigmatism in both eyes.

After fitting me with new contacts, I told him I still couldn't see that well. He told me to take a week or two for adjustment and then he'd change the brand or strength, if needed.

-July-

I still couldn't see very well so I went back to the dr. and tried different contacts and waited for adjustment.

-August-

I still couldn't see well so I went back to the dr. and had him check my eyes again. He confirmed my astigmatism but gave me a slightly different prescription and I waited for adjustment.

-September-

I still couldn't see well so I went back to the dr. and again, tried different contacts, and waited for adjustment.

-October-

I STILL couldn't see!

I finally took the time (and expense) to get a second opinion from a different doctor. He and his optometrist both checked my eyes and not only gave me a different prescription than what I'd been given, but (here's the kicker) told me that I do NOT have an astigmatism in either eye. At all!

I was given new contacts and I CAN SEE!!

This was after I had ordered a bunch of contacts from the old doctor (at the time, thinking my prescription was correct). When I tried to return them, the doc never took the time to see me or apologize for giving me bad vision for almost 5 months! I also didn't get a refund for my appointment cost but he DID give me a year's worth of lenses in the corrected prescription for free...most assuredly as a bribe to keep me from blasting a bad review all over online.

I'm still annoyed.

....................................................................................

Now, this isn't the end of this dull story, oh no. This next part took place at the same time that I was having my contact lens issues, making for even MORE frustration:


-August of 2016-

Since my prescription changed slightly in June, I finally decided it was time to upgrade my glasses.

Buying lenses for me is really expensive due to the high prescription (-7.0 and -7.25). I hate buying glasses because I have a hard time finding frames that:

a) work with very thick high-index prescription lenses

b) fit my tween-sized face without boasting tween-themed colors such as hot pink and adornments such as kitty cats and peace signs

c) are stylish but not too stylish since I don't want to go through the whole rigamarole all over again as soon as a trend passes on by

So, even though I like wearing glasses, it took a long time to find any that actually fit the criteria.

I finally found a pair in Murray. I paid the almost $400 it cost to get mediocre frames with expensive lenses. Then I waited two weeks for them to come in.

When I went to pick them up, I made the mistake of not taking out my contacts when trying them on. I just trusted that they would be great. Wrong move.

That night, I tried them on properly and noticed immediately that there was something wrong with the lenses. I could only see through a dime-sized hole! If I moved my head or eyes up or down or even just looked off center, I became very dizzy.

Back to the store they went to be fixed. On top of them being made wrong, they decided it was probably best for my prescription if we went to the second thinnest lens rather than the most high-index one.


-September-

I picked up my fixed glasses and tried them on in the store without my contacts in. The lenses were fine. I did a quick glance in the mirror and left the store.

When I got in the car I did a selfie to send to Rob but when I looked at the picture of myself I thought the glasses looked horrible! I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong but I knew I didn't like them (after spending the $400 and waiting over a month for them).

When I got home I continued to study myself in the mirror, trying to figure out why I hated them so much after I loved them in the store. Finally, I noticed two things:

1- The frames weren't the same color I tried on. The variation in the tortoise pattern was so different that they ended up being much darker than the sample pair.

2- Due to the thick lenses (even though they were the thinnest I could get) in the bigger frame, they really morphed the sides of my face. So when looking through my lenses at my eyes, the sides of my face looked way narrower, making the frames look way too big for my face.

This is where my breakdown happened. After looking, waiting, and forking up hundreds of dollars, I still hated them! Time to start ALL over again. Sigh.


-October-

I didn't want to go back to Murray for the 3rd time to return my glasses so I found a closer location, told them my issues, and hunted for a new, smaller, and narrower frame that wouldn't cause such extreme face morphing.  I didn't really find any that worked so they ordered in a couple of pairs from a different store for me to try on. This meant more waiting.

When the frames came in I went and tried them on but one of them was too big and the other one was ugly. After more looking, I finally found a pair of child-sized glasses that actually fit, would work pretty well with my thick lenses, and weren't too ugly. I ordered them and waited.

FINALLY it was time to pick them up. I took out my contacts, put on the glasses, and left the store. It wasn't until I started driving in the daylight that I noticed a very large streak running top to bottom on the right lens. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

BACK to the store. It was determined that the coating wasn't applied correctly at the lab, requiring me to send back the lenses to be redone. AGAIN.

{REMEMBER, all this was happening at the same time that my contact prescription was corrected so my glasses were ordered with the slightly wrong prescription. I couldn't stomach calling and getting them corrected AGAIN so I just went with it. Luckily, they work just fine. Phew.}


-November 2016-

My new glasses arrive. They fit. The frames aren't exactly what I wanted but they're as good as I can get. The lenses are quite thick and cause some morphing. But again, it is as good as I can get.

That's THE END end of my sight story. Super long. Frustrating. Maddening. Annoying. Expensive.

Worth it in the end? Eh. Not really. Whatever. I'm just glad it's over. I'm hoping to wait a good long while before having to go through all this again.

And in case you're wondering, yes I've thought about getting corrective eye surgery but no, it's probably not for me.

MEANWHILE...

Rob required glasses before his mission and through the first 10 years of our marriage. Then, suddenly, his extraordinary eyes magically healed themselves to perfect 20/20 vision.

Yet, he isn't satisfied with being perfect so he takes it a step further and wears glasses to get him up to 20/15 vision. To get said glasses, he just makes a request to an online store, they send him five pairs to try on, he chooses one, and he is out the door for a hundred bucks and no hassle (and, really, not even a need).

This doesn't bother me at all...

Nate now needs glasses to see the board at school. 

Caroline has needed a slight prescription since she was three but still doesn't wear them often. Madeleine, so far, has vision perfection just like her dad and will probably never need glasses. 

A Romantic Trip to Mexico 2016

I just finished putting together a video of our adventures in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico earlier this year. I made this video for Julie and me to enjoy over the years and so it is quite long (20 minutes). If you want to watch you’ll see wonderful places we visited and listen to the great songs we chose for the trip.

The songs we used in the video are as follows:

• Stay Alive by José Gonzales (Link)
• Where You Go by Young Romans (Link)
• Saint by Mission South (Link)
• So Much Sky by The Temper Trap (Link)
• Only Love by Ben Howard (Link)

Julie posted a quick outline of the trip back in February in case you are interested (read about it here).

Random Photo Roundup

Here is a fun roundup of random photos and videos from the past couple of months.

Panning for gold on the 4th of July at This Is the Place Heritage Park.

This man's hoop dance was AWE-Mazing.

Cute girls, cute selfie!

Rob's insane bed head has a life of its own.

He had a simple task of moving two wall speakers a mere 6 inches. I came home to this. It's not even the wall where the speakers were mounted.

Madeleine made this sweet craft for me. "Love. Kind. Willing. Nice. Chef. Boss. Thoughful."

My dad took this picture of my handsome husband while waiting for my niece and new husband to exit the temple.

We spent a Saturday trying very hard to catch a fish. No luck. 

So we climbed trains and played with a lost snake instead.

These next 3 videos are from Father's Day 2015 but I just found them and think they are cute.

Here's a drawing Cara drew of me. I'm sleeping in bed and those are hearts at the bottom. Yep. I love my sleep. See?

Caroline called me into her room to take a picture of her with Scouts.

Sissys

One Sunday afternoon we drove up to the South Mountain Flight Park to explore and take in the view. The kids got a huge kick out of Rob driving through a mud puddle. We are pretty adventurous!

This video of Cara is a good ending for this post. She always makes me laugh!

Keystone with the Kiddos

Rob had an exclusive Tailings and Mine Waste Conference (Whoa. Snoozer!) to attend in Keystone, CO. We have always loved driving through the area on our way to Denver so we all had to tag along. Rob was in meetings, presentations, and work dinners most of the time but the kids and I got a lot of enjoyment out of our few days of down time. 

We picked up dinner in Vail and picnicked at our most favorite park, the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens. It's hard to see in the pictures but there are multiple, multi-level wooden play structures among the trees and each has a breathtaking view. Throw in the gorgeous alpine botanical gardens and it's a place you never want to leave!

I didn't include a ton of pictures now but here is our post from last time we were here.

This park where Caroline enjoyed her very first swing and her almost first time walking. 

This is a picture from our last time here. Madeleine wanted me to take a picture of her reenacting it. Isn't this the cutest?! She got the pose and facial expression just right!

We stayed at The Swan Mountain Resort condos which were a perfectly preserved blast-from-the-past. The kids were ecstatic about the trash compactor in the kitchen, the spiral staircase, and the sliding accordion door.

The property had an indoor pool and hot tub that we swam in every day. We played air hockey and learned how to play foosball. Nate and I had some pretty good competitions!

One of the nights Rob was out late so I took the kids swimming in the clubhouse. I left my phone on the charger in the room. To get the foosball and air hockey puck we needed to leave our condo key with the front desk. I didn't realize they closed early that night and they all left with our key still inside. That made me keyless and phoneless. Great! 

Luckily there was an old wall phone outside the office. I didn't dial outside numbers , including Rob's. He was soon going to be waiting for me to pick him up, having no other way to make it back to the condo. We were wet, and it was dark and cold. All I could use the phone for was to PAGE a staff member. Page?! I haven't paged anyone since I was probably 15 years old and I couldn't remember how to do it. The phone was so old and the buttons barely even worked. After a few tries I thought I finally got it to work. Sure enough, a few agonizing minutes later, the phone rang back. Someone had to drive back to the office and get my condo key out. What a fun time! Not really.

The weather toward the end of our stay was very windy and cold so we stayed inside playing board games and marathon-watching Fixer Upper. I did take the kids to a few parks to play while I bunkered down in the warmth of the car. We explored Frisco a bit and had maybe my favorite pizza ever at Peppino's Pizza and Subs. One night we all drove to Breckinridge for a bison burger and a walk around town.  

On the one semi-warm day the kids and I went to Keystone Village to play. It was barely open as it was between the summer season and the winter season so we had the place pretty much all to ourselves. We didn't mind one bit!

This is the pedestrian tunnel going from the parking lot to the resort. We played giant outdoor Checkers and giant outdoor Connect 4. Inside we played Jenga and the Wii (we don't have one so it was super cool for them).

The colors were stunning so I don't understand why it's not a more popular time of year. Renting a paddle boat and buying a bag of fish food was the kids' very most favorite thing about the trip. We were swarmed on all sides by hungry fish and they kept jumping out of the water and head butting our boat in order to get their kibbles.

We played at the playground and the river before taking a nature walk through the trees.

This is Lake Dillon. It was cold so we didn't stay long but so pretty with the clouds, mountains, and trees.

On the drive home we stopped in Glenwood Springs and walked across the pedestrian bridge.  In this picture I cropped out one of the MANY green cross marijuana supplier signs we passed during our stay in CO. It became legal just before our last time in Denver and they were just beginning to pop up then. Now only a few years later, in just in our couple of wanderings around the few little towns we visited we passed maybe 20 shops? Quite the demand for the stuff, I suppose!

We had our picture taken on this bench our first time here when Madeleine was just 3 months old. When we told her about it she insisted we do another reenactment. How funny! We got Nate on the wrong side but Madeleine is spot on. Ha! Man, she looks so big now!

It was a quick trip but worth it. Thanks for letting us schmooze off of your business trip, Rob!

My Rebuttals to the Top 4 Arguments Against McMullin

I usually shy away from all political talk because I have no interest in the depressing, all-hope-is-lost, everything-has-gone-wrong-with-our-country attitude that tends to follow most political rants. Here, I will end on a positive note. So don't worry.

I've been thinking for many weeks that I should write about why I'm pro Evan McMullin. I wasn't excited to take the time and effort required to write down all my thoughts but I can't shake the pressing need. I want to get them out of my head.

During the presidential nomination process I had ZERO interest in ANY of the candidates. All buffoons. All dreary. All phony. None of these people made me feel good.

I knew very early on that I wasn't going to vote for any of those people in November. I knew that somehow, a different candidate would enter the race and it would be the person I'd select in the booth. Sure enough, weeks later, my impression came true (as they often do).

Finally! Here is a candidate who isn't extreme in his political and social views (unless you count moderate as extreme, which it seems you can these days) and who reflects my own political and social philosophies. Here is a candidate I can support while holding my head up high. Here is a candidate for whom I don't have to make sorry excuses.

Evan McMullin gives me hope in our system and hope in our country. That is probably the thing I like most about him and his running mate Mindy Finn. They are NOT trying to win power with fear. They are NOT trying to win power with deception. They ARE running a campaign based on America's inalienable rights and moral principles.

Thanks to the phenomenal success of Evan's campaign, conservative (which carries a "moderate" or "middle-of-the-road" definition in the dictionary) Americans now have a voice that can't be ignored, but heard.

Here are my rebuttals to the top 4 arguments against voting for McMullin.

4- He entered too late in the game.

So? So what? The point is that the other candidates aren't living up to Americans' expectations and many of us would feel dirty voting for either one of them. No one else wanted to take a stand, instead cowering.

Evan entered the race as soon as he realized no one else would do it. He followed a perfectly legal and viable course onto the ballet. He acted in order to give us the option to vote our conscience. Thank you, Evan. I will!

3- He doesn't have any leadership experience.

This is such a week argument. Leadership experience has no correlation with leadership skill. Zero. Leaders inspire, guide, are courageous, and set a good example to those they are leading.

How can you call either of the other two candidates leaders? They are divisive, mean-hearted, and most of the population can't even stand listening to them talk. How can you expect them to lead an entire nation successfully?

The traits of true leadership can be innate but more often they are learned and fostered through:

A) Serving alongside and for their fellow man.
B) Having the decency to empathize with and listen to others' concerns and opinions.
C) Being brave enough to stand up for what's right, even in the face of adversity.

2- He's a Mormon.

Sure, but at least he isn't a criminal, a fraud, a liar, or a power-hungry dictator. BOTH of the other two candidates are ALL of those things.

As for the "Utah is only voting for him because he is Mormon" argument? Come on. Give us more credit than that. I promise we would vote for an atheist who conducted himself or herself with dignity, trustworthiness, and compassion over a so-called Christian who does not. We are fully aware that people not of our own religion have high morals and principles. It just happens that the other two candidates running for President DO NOT.

1- He will take away votes from Trump, essentially giving the election to Clinton.

To the most often-used argument against voting for McMullin, I just roll my eyes. (I've rolled my eyes so much this election season that I'm surprised I'm not blind!)

Since when did fear trump faith? Since when did cowardice become the right thing? Since when did voting for a decent and qualified person become wrong?

Yes, I know. You hate Hilary. Blah, blah, blah. Well, I hate clams. Does that mean I should eat oysters instead? No. Both deplorable. I can't stomach either one. In fact, they both make me ill. Since when did one disgusting thing become better than another disgusting thing? Wait. It hasn't.

"But, wait!" you say. "At least Trump promises to elect Republican justices into the Supreme Court."

Great...more far right, extremely polarizing judges that are unwilling to take into consideration the other half of the country. That's not my aspiration for us.

Besides, Trump was a democrat until just a couple of years ago when he decided to exploit your own fears for his benefit. And it's working! What makes you think he will make good decisions for you? He has always and will always continue to look out for his #1. There is absolutely no track record of him doing otherwise.

"But, wait!" you say. "Giving power to Clinton will do much more harm for our country than if power was given to Trump." How do you know this? Has he given you any REAL reason to trust him other than him telling you that you should? No, not even one. You have no idea what that man is capable of doing other than lying and groping and making himself rich and the butt of every joke.


The Result
None of these arguments stand up against thought and scrutiny. The only thing left to stand on is an unrelenting (not unfounded, mind you) hatred for Hilary. But why should your hatred for her nullify an affirmative vote for a presidential candidate with principles and values? The SAME principles values that YOU live by every day. Shouldn't that person be rewarded with your support and not your cold shoulder? It only makes complete sense.

If you truly feel like either Donald Trump or Hilary Clinton is the best person to be the President of the United States, then you should vote for that person. Really. But if you are just voting for someone because of one of these weak arguments, then take some time to think about what you really want for our country. Do you want a short-sighted strategical "fix" or a long-lasting movement toward a more unified democracy?

My goal in voting for Evan is to add my voice, along with millions of others across the country, saying that I am ready for a third party. I am not interested in the views of the extreme left OR the extreme right. I am not interested in letting only big money talk. I am not interested in deciding between two corrupt sides.

What I AM interested in doing is supporting a grassroots campaign that is TRULY needed in this country. One which represents a huge variety of middle-ground views. One that takes the BEST ideas from each party and puts them together in one big, delicious potluck dinner party (oxymoron?). After all, isn't our country a beautiful crockpot of individuals and families? One giant casserole of thoughts and experiences and hopes? Why, yes. YES we are!

It's high time we stood up, proud to be different than our negative stereotypes. We all have so much good in us and we deserve a President who reflects that goodness.

I promise, no matter which major party candidate wins the election (if one does), I won't feel like I've lost. I feel so much satisfaction with the momentum we are gaining. It's a movement I am proud to say I've been excited about from day one. I will continue to be proud in the ensuing years when the long-term positive repercussions of Evan McMullin's stand will be seen and felt.

I'm hopeful we will all remember "that one year" when the two-party system broke down and a third party finally broke barriers. One day soon I will be proud to call that party my own!

Endnote: I've purposefully left religion and God out of this discussion because although I do believe it has a place, I want others to know: (1) That it is not a factor in why I or anyone else should vote for McMullin; (2) I do believe in a separation of Church and State; and (3) I know everyone has different theological beliefs (or non-beliefs) and it doesn't change McMullin's core message of inalienable rights and leading a nation founded on principles.