"My butt crack itches"

That's what I have to say to get Colter to give a natural looking smile for a picture.

See: 

Viva Las Vegas...

 We snuck away for a night in Las Vegas.  We were supposed to go for out 20th anniversary in March...but COVID.  We were supposed to go for my 40th birthday earlier in September...but kids.  We finally made it for one night.  We dressed in fancy clothes.  Ate at restaurants INSIDE.  Enjoyed smokeless air.  Wore our masks.  Lounged by the pool.

It was perfect.

First day of school!

 Here I am.

On my first day of school.

The Life Coach School.

I am going back to school.

Wish me luck.

I am excited.

I am nervous.

It will be fun?

Happenings here and there...

Addie baddie got a hair cut!  She took the plunge and chopped six or seven inches off her head!  So cute, right?

 

I am loving having my own office space.  I get dressed up like a professional and enjoy a few quiet hours of "work" a few times a week.  

Will took Wyatt and Clare to Utah for their intended hiking trip (the one that had to be delayed because of Will's shoulder surgery).  They stayed for the weekend and hiked Mount. Timpanogas.  They crushed the hike, even though it was hard and cold.  I was so proud of all of them!  Poor Clare forgot her chapstick and was suffering by the end of the hike but she did it!  Wyatt and the boy cousins made it to the top first.  Wyatt was able to text me the good news from the mountain top.  I am so proud of them!

I AM 40 YEARS OLD?

 True story: I am younger than my peers and this makes me uncomfortable.  I stress about the moment of revelation in any new conversation "You're how old!?" I don't like it.  I feel down a peg when people cannot believe I am as young as I am with the number of kids I have.  I worry about the assumptions people make about me knowing I am a young mom.  

With all of that awesome baggage, I look forward to my birthday every year, just to be turning more year older!  

One more year of legitimacy.  

One more year closer to being "old".  

I love it.  

And this year I get to turn 40!  40 is old!  I've been looking forward to turning 40 since I turned 35.  Alas, COVID made it impossible to have a big bash but with my mental baggage about age I didn't think I'd be able to have a big bash because all my friends did that a few years ago...I am still younger than them...I cannot catch up.  So maybe I am glad to be turning 40 in the COVID times.  I'll save the big bash for my 50th birthday.

My sweet family and friends did all the right things to make me feel special and cared for.  I got a nap!  Friends from back east sent me nearly 100 roses and a cake!

I got to wear a pretty skirt and feel fancy all day.

Will and the kids took me over to his offices.  We sometimes slip over there for a change of scenery.  I thought it was just that but when I walked it there was a surprise!  They had set up one of the unused offices as my office!  A space for me to come for peace and quiet since they all have taken over every room of the house.  For my 40th year I enrolled in life coach school.  Yep, I'm becoming a life coach.  Who knows how that will turn out (hopefully, awesome) but I am doing it!  I cried happy tears when I saw the office.  My family is so good to me.  

Lorien made me the most delicious carrot cake ever!  I am going to dream about that cake for ages (and eat it for every meal until it is gone...tomorrow night).

The sky was still weird and smoky...it will never end.  But my birthday was fantastic.  I felt loved and cheered.  Happy 40th birthday to me.  I am old!

It's the end of the world as we know it...

I woke up early this morning to make breakfast for the kids.  The light outside was orange and gloomy.  I couldn't figure out why it was so dark but chalked it up to the early hour of the morning.  I got the kids settled at school and went back to bed for a nap.  Two hours later, the light was exactly the same: orange, gloomy, weird!  I went outside and the car I had taken through the wash just the night before looked like a kid had thrown sand all over it at the beach.  What was going on!? 

Upon closer inspection, I saw it was fine ash.  Looking at the sun and sky I understood this was a smoke problem.  The fires in California continue to rage and while we are still physically safe, our air is weird and scary to behold.  

I woke Lorien up to witness the weirdness.  I looked up news reports only to see photos of landscapes and cityscapes even weirder than we were seeing.  It was a very eerie day to be sure.  Turns out, we had a marine layer of fog roll in overnight.  Then the gulf stream stalled keeping the marine layer in place and trapping the smoke under the fog making the daylight SO WEIRD.  Just another drop in the 2020 bucket, right?