Blink and 18 months went away.

 I am writing this entry near the end of 2021 with complete shock by how the time has just passed. The way the past year and a half has been, is nothing short of the craziest ride I have ever experienced. I see that my last entry was in May 2020 right when I went back to work at the salon after the initial lockdown of covid. I had taken on a second job to make ends meet in that time and that job took off. In addition to still working full time at the salon, still living through a home renovations, boys sports and weird school schedule and a pandemic. 

I don't even know how to fill in what has happened. I totally see how I let this fall through the cracks because SO MUCH has happened in our family and in the entire world. I feel like the world is permanently in a state of unrest. Something "bad" is happening almost daily.   Especially as the closing of 2020 was wrapping up. The Election was terrible, there were riots all over the country, cities burning, covid and all it's lies were (and still are) rampant. The division among the world, our country, states, city to city, community to community, and in families has been extremely heartbreaking a to experience and watch. 

Another one of the reasons I have let my journaling fall through the cracks was when I went back to the salon after having stayed home for a whole month. I started hearing more things about Covid that were just not adding up. Clients were reporting to me family members who died were getting death certificates saying their loved one passed away from covid, when it actually was a car accident or something not related to it. Come to learn, the hospitals were getting paid more with each covid death. and the rest started to unravel, along with the rest of the country. I genuinely feel like we are living things from the book of Revelation and 1 Nephi's vision of our day. It has felt like a complete mess. I see the devil in the center of all of it. So many "experts" using their positions to take advantage of this entire situation. Certain things about it all remind me of Nazi Germany. And I'm not saying that just to be drama, it really has an unnerving feeling about all of it.

So many people feel passionate about wearing a mask and it is something that I just can't handle. My childhood trauma is triggered by it. I just choose not to wear it and that's created issues with people around me. Especially in my ward. That's been fun. So much of the pandemic has felt so manipulated by evil power hungry people and that is what I grew up with. So I have been extremely passionate about standing up for myself and not being bullied into just following the crowd. 

On a spiritual level though, I have grown significetly. The Book of Mormon Come Follow me study last year was amazing. And Also was very timely each week as things were lining up in the world with what I was reading. Kinda cool and scary at the same time. Gave me an even deeper understanding of why Mormon saw our day and compiled the record just for our benefit. I love that thought and the peace and hope the book of Mormon gives.

With my newer online business I have had the opportunity more to share about that online. I started to share my Book of Mormon study with people on line and it became something that others really enjoyed. I even was given the experience of bringing people closer to Christ in that. Been really cool with that. 

Well, I think there is no way that I could sit down and recap all of this in one little post with details. I have many pictures that just aren't going to make it in this time. But a quick recap each month. 

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

May2020 I went back to the salon and was one month into my new only online business. It was creating an out of the box experience and lots of growth for me. 

Jesse was working on the house and the boys were still doing the at home school stuff since they stayed closed through the rest of the school year. So lame. Poor Ryker's 6th grade graduation just wasn't a thing. 

June2020 

---We poured the steps to the porch/front door after not having a way into our home for over 2 years. 

 ---We rented an RV and drove to the Redwoods and the Oregon Coast and back. SUCH a fun trip. We want to do it again for sure. 

---I also qualified for the Auto Bonus in my new business while we were on that trip. It was surreal. 

July2020 

---We were still doing at home church. It became a thing for several months where we weren't meeting in person and Jesse would do the sacrament. I actually really liked it. Brought our family closer.

---We found ourselves hiking more with the family.

---We helped Andrew and Emily move from Logan and into their apartment in Cottonwood Heights.

Aug2020

---Put together a Go Fund me with a committee to help save Jeri's pool from the earthquake. And Ron Bird from the news came and interviewed her and Jesse. 

 ---Oh boy the hybrid school schedule with the kids was just the worst. And dealing with them having to wear masks to school was the net worst. Ryker started 7th grade and they were only having him go 3 hrs every day and then do online school. The poor kid really struggled with that. Online school is not his jam and he doesn't do well without socializing.  Cy was struggling wearing his mask on a regular basis and got in trouble about it a lot. They would take away his recess as punishment.  It didn't help the rest of the school year out for him. He was punished for his nose showing. I was not happy how he was treated. Fynn was doing great with Jeri an her preschool. Thank goodness. 

---Football and soccer season was actually allowed to happen. And we were excited to have that "normal" thing for my boys come back.

Sep2020

---Fynn's 5th birthday we took him out to dinner and he chose Chuck-a-rama. haha

--- Jesse had torn of all of the old siding on the house and was spending every waking moment putting the new siding up by himself. So amazing and so much work. The old siding was this thick concrete plaster with rocks in it. And it weighed so much. 

---We helped with a huge yard sale to raise money for Jeri's pool and I think we raised $10k on that event.

---Jesse and I snuck away for an 2nighter up at Park City. We did some hiking and chilling at the hot tub.

Oct2020 

---I took the boys to Wheeler Farm with Emily and her kiddos. 

---Family Photos Taken up at Temple Quarry and we did updated Firefighter Family ones that I just love how they turned out.

---I went with Heidi and Emily to Park City for an overnighter. Tayler couldn't make it. 

---Collin Kartchner died. I was really sad about that. He was so young and had done so many good things for the youth. 

---Jesse turned 40 and I threw him a big birthday party in his parents backyard with friends and family.

---Ryker's Football team won the Championship Game in their division. 

---The boys dressed up at the 3 Musketeers for Halloween. Which was odd, some people were afraid of gathering or handing candy out, and others were normal. So each house we went to was different. 

Nov2020

---Heidi took me, Emily and Tayler to Park City to go shopping for our annual girls overnighter. Little Sloane came too.

---We went shooting at the gun range for a date night a couple of times.

---Thanksgiving

Dec2020

---Lots of weekly hikes with my friend Hillary.

---I attended a 3 day workshop for Network Marketers to learn a better skill set to grow my online business.

---We got Drywall in the addition and we were so excited to see the addition (new kitchen space) come to shape. It felt more exciting that Christmas to us. 

---Our new flooring was delivered.

---The Smith Family did a sub for Santa as our service project.

--- Christmas was hard for me. I struggle with my family. And I just have a scroogy attitude around this time of year. I love being with the Smiths, but my family feels like i am suffocating and anxiety ridden around them.

. 

Salon Post Quarentine & my New Side Job!

What a weird feeling to be going back to work after being home for a whole month. The only other time that I've been off work that long was because I had a baby. And I was in postpartum survival. Coming out of quarantine though I feel really happy. Sure there were things that weren't ideal and were really hard...  like schooling my boys at home. I'm pretty sure I fought with them more than ever before. Our world was totally turned upside down and I tried really hard to normalize things as much as I could. I focused on keeping a routine for myself and the boys. And that really helped. 

Going back to work was nice and also stressful. I had alot of catching up to do. I see for the next month being really busy. But that's ok. 

Also....

*I DID NOT SEE THIS COMING*

Where to begin? Ok. Well, you probably know by now that I value health and fitness ALOT! It's so much of my very making that its pretty much at a religious level for me. You also probably know how much I love my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, His Gospel and His words from the Scriptures. These 2 aspects of my life drive me every day! Even my Patriarchal Blessing says "Keep yourself fit that you might be close to your Heavenly Father, particularly in spiritual ways." I had no idea when I was 17 years old how much that phrase would mean to me in my thirties!

You also might know that I am a hairstylist w/3 boys. The past few years I've been TORN between being home more for my boys and bringing enough income for our family. It's been heavy on my heart. I prayed to know how to manage that. 2 months ago, my answer came in an unexpected way!

But first, the answer started almost a year ago when my hair was falling out. How is this an answer to a prayer? Ya, I didn't see it that way at first. I was pretty embarrassed about my thinning hair. I was healthy, what was happening? This drove me to find an answer. And I found it. Or should I say, it found me?

I started taking the Le-Vel Hair Collegen and the results were blowing me away. I had clients in my chair mention their hair issues and I genuinely could say, 'Hey I have the solution for you!" I'd send them over to the girls who I ordered from and they'd take care of them. Eventually Brooke and Kinsey were telling me 'You're referring alot of people, you should be a promoter'.

I liked the idea, but I just didn't have the time for one more thing.

Then Covid-19 happened! I was forced to walk away from the salon for a whole month. And if I'm not behind the chair, I'm not making money. But, I am not the type of girl to lay victim to the situation. I took action and became a Le-vel Promoter!

I'm now have a side income, while I'm home, doing the very thing that I love! And its just starting! This is going to be big! I'm excited!

I never saw me working for a networking company, but God answers prayers in ways we DO NOT EXPECT!

Patio Prep and Pour

April 27: After spending a hole weekend prepping for the patio, we had our concrete guys come and take a look at it. They said we did a pretty good job, but we had prepped it too high and not enough slope. Also while they were looking at everything, they too were really concerned about the wall. WE were talking about what to do because we just cant leave it the way it is. While we were talkin about it our neighbor happened to be outside and popped his head up and over the fence asking us what we were working on. Jesse told him we were working on the patio and then mentioned that we were worried about the wall that he had put in. He of course said it's the best wall that he build it so good. We mentioned that is was tipping and he said that it was just a crooked wall. Totally discounting our concern about this dumb wall in our yard that really is just a bandaid to cover up his failing wall behind it. I finally chimed in and asked him to come down to our level so that he could see what we were seeing. Cuz from up above there is no way to see how bad it is tipping. He finally came down and saw how the level was proving it to be tipping. He blamed it on construction that we were doing at the time when he was building it. But I know its because he's got alot of weight pushing on a wall that was not meant to hold it. 

 

He agreed that we needed to fix it and that we would try to build a better foundation for him to build this wall better. We spent time pulling the blocks out so that we could get our patio poured the right way. So we now have a pile of block that is in our yard. He still wants to use those so that he doesn't have to tear down the whole wall, fence and move his shed. We feel his pain, but I just don't love the idea of him building on our property and avoiding to do the right thing. The worst part for me is that he is a retired lawyer so it feels like he knows how to say just the right thing to get our of doing it the right way. But I think that this isn't the end of this. I'm afraid this could get ugly. Which makes us nervous. We already have another neighbor upset at us about our chicken coop, we don't need another one not liking us.  Lots of prayers to  figure how to get through this properly and civilized. 

I was given the chore of digging to find where the cables for the dumb cable box that gives our neighbors internet. It is right in the way of where we needed to pour, so we needed to find out which direction they were coming from so that we could get it moved and eventually fixed my century link. 

Felt like I was digging to China. Haha

Apr 30: We were a little bummed to push back the pour  of the concrete because moving the wall. We even had to get a skidsteer back in there to regrade the gravel and dirt. It was very annoying undoing things we had just done. 

It was nice when we got to the point that we got the rebar all set. Helaman and Hector taught me how to tie rebar. I have enjoyed being home to work in the yard with Jesse and help him with these projects. 

Even little Fynn was taught hot to tie rebar from Hector. 

He loves to work and do this sort of thing. 

I put a secret message that will forever be under the concrete. It reads 2020 JARCFM. Our family Jesse, Ashley, Ryker, Cyrus ,Fynn, Murphy

All prepped and ready for the pour. Take note of the failing wall and our other neighbors fance that is fallen over. We are surrounded by a mess. 

May 4: Pour Day. 

 We had to hire a pump to get the mud up and over the house. 

The boys had their alarms set for 6:30am this morning so they could be awake for when the cement truck and pump to show up. Fynn donned every piece of "construction' clothing he owned and wanted to be right in the middle of it all. Jesse and I often talk about how cute it is that he wants to be right in the middle of the hard work. In his prayers that night he thanked Heavenly Father for the concrete. SO cute. 

It was also my first day back at the salon and the pump wasn't going to be leaving in time before I could get my car out of the driveway.

Thankfully we were able to sneak my car under the legs of the pump. So it saved the day of me having to ride my bike to work. haha.

I have very mixed emotions about wearing the mask to work. I'll leav it at that because I get rather grumpy about it. 

Jesse told some photos of the process while I was at work. This picture of Fynn simply puts a smile on my face. He is in his element right there. So cute.

The finish product. Unreal!

Yardwork and Birthday Hike

Rented a skid-steer today to get things prepped to pour our back patio.

Of course little Fynnie was beyond excited to ride in the "kid-deer".

Jesse had a load of gravel delivered and he spent the day getting it all in place. 

Always so fun to watch him work. Even thought he will tell you that he has driven enough heavy machinery to last him the rest of his life. So he doesn't get as excited about it as the rest of the boys do.

Let me rant about this wall for a moment. A year and a half ago our backyard neighbor came to us about a week before he was leaving on a mission with his wife. His retaining wall starting to fail and he wanted to build a wall in our yard to hold up his wall while he was on his mission. Since Jesse at that time was dealing with the foundation of the addition just finishing and starting to get dirt backfilled around it. Needless to say, Jesse was in a head space where he couldn't even think about dealing with our neighbor. So he at the time just told him that he cold build this wall on our property before he left on his mission. Well, he just went to Lowe's and bought blocks to build up 6 ft high and filled it with dirt. It was done in a hurry and it looked so funky sticking out into our yard all out of place. He left on his mission and the whole time he was gone I just didn't like that wall. But we had bigger things to worry about at that time.

Fast forward to a month ago when thousands of LDS missionaries were sent home from all around the world. Which means our neighbor was brought home too. 

,

While we were prepping for the backyard I was trying to figure out how to make this wall look better. The way that he finished it was just terrible. If you look at that picture above you can see how it stuck out of the yard and how he filled the gaps in with random rocks, pavers and wood chunks. Ugly right? 

Well while we were prepping we were noticing that the wall seemed to be tipping a little bit. So we put a level on the top of it, and sure enough it was tilting into our yard. Also when we pulled a few of the side blocks down to the "foundation" and sure enough the treated wood that he placed on top of the dirt was also tipping into our yard. It's only been a year and a half and this wall is already showing signs of failing. What to do? I stressing me out. 

Mike and Heidi came out for a little bit to help us. I have loved being home this month to get to work in the yard with my boys. I was happy to see Mike and Heidi come out, but also feeling bad that it's Heidi's birthday and didn't want her working in the yard on her birthday. But she insisted. She actually took Murphy and Fynn on a walk while the rest of us worked on leveling out all the gravel. 

Jesse prepping the corrugated steel for suspended slab part of the patio. Which is the back 3rd of the garage where his future shop will be. YAY!

Mike was moving the logs away from the area we were working and it turned into a game. Ryker, Cy and Fynn (even though he's not in this picture) were pulling the wheel barrow while grandpa was pushing it. We were all laughing about it as he was yelling "On Dasher, On Prancer..."

After a good stopping point we all went to Salt Lake to grab some Chik fil a and head over to Memory Grove to celebrate Heidi's birthday. Covid style. We were actually shocked how many people were at the park. It's quarantine time and everyone just wants to be outside. 

 Heidi is someone I just love SO MUCH! I burst into tears when I truly think about it. She has always been such a support to me. Such a giver of her love and time. I can't stand the thought of her not being in my life. Thanks to the best mom for being who she is and loving me so unconditionally. Happy Birthday!

These boys are so blessed with this lady as their grandmother.

Fynn would have picked every flower he saw just to give to me. I had to stop him so there would be some left for other people to enjoy.

I did end up with quite the bouquet arrangement though. What a sweet boy. 

Haha, oh this boy. When he has his mind set on something, it's impressive. He found this tire in the creek, and it was in quite good condition. I think Mike or Jesse mentioned selling it for $30 or something like that and Cy decided that he was going to bring that tire all the way home to sell it. So that's what he did. He carried it the whole rest of the way back to the truck.