Wed. 1st--It's definitely a lot cooler and wetter in Arizona than we had anticipated. That weather isn't typical because a couple major baseball leagues do their spring training there.
*We met my parents at the beautiful Phoenix Temple. We tried getting into the Mesa Temple but it was booked solid. I had forgotten about this temple though. It did not disappoint. It had been a long time since we had been in a temple THAT big. Since our days in Oregon (2004-2014). The presentation of the endowment had just been updated a few weeks before we attended, so we felt pretty special to get to see it so soon. The new presentation is longer...over 90 minutes now, instead of an hour. But the improvements are awesome. They explain things really well.
*I was able to do the proxy temple work for Christina Morletti who was born in 1695 in Benevento, Italy. That was pretty special.
A bird perched up on Moroni's trumpet. ;)
*So grateful to be with these amazing people again.
*For my dad's 81st birthday this year, my siblings and I got him a 23 and Me DNA kit. He's so passionate about family history that he probably doesn't even need a DNA test, but we thought it might be fun to verify and see if there's anything he didn't know.
Back at the condo after lunch at IHOP, my dad showed me his results of the DNA kit. Then he showed me this. We thought it was pretty hilarious that he has Neanderthal DNA in him. Haha!!
Thurs. 2nd--We indulged in an 80 minute couples massage. A before picture!
My massage was pretty good. Jared's was mediocre. I felt bad about that. Should have just done an hour. But hopefully the "meh massage" was made better with lunch. We ate one of the best burgers I think I've ever had. We got it from a food truck on the property--complete with chorizo, pepper jack cheese, and guacamole. So dang good!
*One of the activities at the property.
Vicki, Cindy, Suzanne, Jenn, Heather, Shell, Allan.
Fri. 3rd--TWELVE HOURS AT THE PHOENIX AIRPORT....
*Calvin sometimes... ;)
Sun. 5th--Branch Conference! Jared, Calvin, and JJ went ahead of us so they could get the Sacrament prepared and ready. As I was loading things up in the car, Karcyn took Rolo out to potty before crating him. He was just playing around, so I went out to tell her to just come back in. Except Rolo ran into the house, and right out the door leading to the garage that was still open capitalizing on the opportunity for freedom. He ran off our property and just kept going! So Karcyn and I had to jump in the car and go hunt him down in our dresses. And consequently, arrived late at church and made an unmistakable entrance into a very small room, filled with lots of people visiting from the Stake. Go figure.
Primary during our second hour block was nuts. I had told Janelle to attend the adult meeting because the Stake Primary leaders were teaching for us in Primary with the children and I wanted her to have the day off. One of our autistic girls was running around and screaming. I spent all my focus on her before it became too much and I walked her to go see her mom. Then my counselor's little boy was crying, repeatedly, when he didn't get his way not to mention the other normal redirections with a group of children under the age of 7. Haha! This is us.
*Karcyn made fettuccini alfredo with a GF (all purpose) mix my mom got me for Christmas. It was really good.
Tues. 7th--Snyder Tennis was hosting a tournament before districts and I was fortunate enough to catch some of it right after school. The courts are behind the Intermediate school so it was very convenient.
This match win secured him and his partner, Jacob, a spot in the finals.
Their finals match got pretty intense and at one point, he called for line judges (a member from each team). One might suggest this tactic is more psychological warfare, because it seemed to throw off their opponents a bit. It was actually neck and neck the whole time, but our Tigers came out on top!
First Place JV Boys Doubles winners!!
A Texas shaped puddle. Haha!
Fri. 10th--Even though I wasn't feeling 100% the night before, I was definitely not feeling well on Friday morning. But this Friday was the last day before Spring Break and only a half day. I could muster up the strength to get through it. I was sneezing and blowing my nose a lot. I also had car duty. But I made it!
*Jared and I learned from Aunt Stacy that we OWE TAXES for the first time ever in 26 years of marriage. $1200. What the heck? That makes no sense. We haven't had covid relief money given to us and we made $30,000 LESS in 2022 than in 2021 when Jared transitioned from one job to the other and had PTO paid out from St. Joseph and a signing bonus from Cogdell. We couldn't believe it.
Wed. 8th--This was the second day of Benchmark testing and it was awful. It was Hermosillo's class. We should've started at 8:15, but because they kept interrupting and asking ridiculous questions (ridiculous only because if they just waited and let me give the directions, the questions would have been answered) we didn't get started til 8:50. Another delay came because an administrator popped in to check on us since I'm new to this. I responded, "Oh, I'm fine, but they won't be quiet so we aren't able to start." That administrator left and then came back with another one and they both laid into Hermosillo's class. Ugh. I was so glad when that day was over.
Thurs. 9th--I put every student on a zero noise level all day. I also kept the desks apart. Maybe that will help with behavior issues, which have clearly escalated since I went on my previously planned trip prior to accepting this job. The teacher part of me almost wishes I hadn't gone. The vice principal came to me later that day and referring to the benchmark testing, which is highly controlled to prepare for the state STAAR test, told me that it was actually okay for me to let the students draw or put their heads down after testing--which I explicitly didn't allow because the principal told us not to. If you let the kids do fun things after the test, some will rush to get it done because they'd rather do that. (I think some of the students must have complained that I wouldn't let them do anything, but sit at their desk if they didn't bring a library book to read). I told him I was doing what the principal told us to do in the video she sent out prepping us for this specific benchmark. He made a condescending face that suggested, "That's not right" and said it was fine to allow those things. And suddenly I was beginning to feel unsupported. I was also starting to feel a bit rundown...like I was getting a cold. Probably just trying to recover from the stress of being back.
HAPPY HAPPY 17th BIRTHDAY to Karcyn!! How fun that she gets a half day of school! Jared took Calvin to Fort Worth for the Pepsi bowling tournament and JJ was spending the night with Korbin, so for her gift, I took Karcyn to get birthday pedicures that afternoon.
No we did not plan to wear the same Snyder Debate shirts. :)
She picked out my lavender color and I love it.
Haha!!
Our all-time favorite picture of 7-year-old Karcyn.
Sat. 11th--Calvin participated in the Pepsi Tournament in Dallas. You have to qualify for this particular tournament. He did well, but not quite well enough to get scholarship money. Yet he's a really great bowler and has excelled in so many ways. Maybe I've said it before, but he only gets to practice once a week in Lubbock. The majority of other kids competing, if not all of them, have access to bowling alleys at any time and can swing by to practice whenever they want. So with that perspective, Calvin is performance is truly remarkable.
There were some great bowlers on his lane pair.
And Coke.
Some fun body sprays and lotions from cousin Patricia.
Cheese Puffs from Grandma.
GF cookies!
And a delicious GF lemon poppyseed cake (from a mix) with icing.
Tues. 14th--The cousins went out of town for spring break and asked if Calvin could watch Kobe. James asked Karcyn if she'd take care of Dodge at their house. That was going to be a lot of driving several times a day to take care of these animals. So I suggested we just keep Kobe at our house to just have one house to visit. Kobe did well. Rolo might have been a little jealous at first but came around pretty quickly.
*Karcyn's friend, Skyler, came over so they could hang out and play on the Switch. I love that Skyler is so good to include JJ in their activities and games.
Wed. 15th-Our car insurance carrier sent us a statement for what our new monthly premium would be when our policy renewed in April. We were already paying $460 a month for 4 cars and 3 drivers. Which, in my opinion, seemed way too exorbitant to begin with. But I about vomited in my mouth when I saw that they wanted to increase rates another $156 a month! What the?!? That is a hard no. That new price is the cost of HALF of our home mortgage. I just couldn't believe they thought it was even legal to charge someone that much for middle of the road insurance coverage. Clearly it was time to shop around and make an immediate change. Not how I wanted to spend my precious days of spring break. But you do what you have to do.
Fri. 17th--Karcyn's first day of her first job. She worked from 6-9pm.
She said she had a great time working the pizza assembly line and manning the pick-up window.
Sat. 18th--A great bowling game for Cooper "the Wolf."
Fri. 31st--Calvin played in his very first JV tennis district tournament. Love these boys right here. Back left to right: John Gregory, Calvin, Jacob Holmes and Griffin Cypert in front.
*When we got home from getting pedicures, I was so run down and feeling puny that I went to bed to rest. I told Karcyn to wake me up around 5 or 6pm--whenever she was hungry and we'd go get her GF pizza at Domino's for her birthday dinner.
As it turns out, Cooper, who was currently working at Domino's, told me that his manager wanted to interview Karcyn for a job. Karcyn had been feeling like she needed to find a job sooner rather than later, but I was thinking for summer. Not now.
When we went to pick up her dinner, the manager wanted to meet with her. She ended up being interviewed for a job and being hired on the spot. And then we got her birthday pizza and went home. Talk about a birthday for the books!
This was a good game!
*My sister-in-law, Christina, used her Cricut machine and made mugs for us for Christmas. My initial is M for Mom. What I love about this mug is that I can wrap all four fingers around the handle, not just one or two. I was drinking some chamomile while working on Primary singing time plans. I felt so much better after getting some rest the night before.
Sun. 12th--I woke up feeling refreshed and got ready for church, but as I was doing something out of the ordinary, it suddenly dawned on me that I should have smelled something, but couldn't. I sniffed a few other things (perfume, lotion, oils) and nothing. Ugh. No ability to smell. Shoot. I told Jared and he tested me for Covid. It was positive. So I stayed home from church. Technically, Sunday was my 4th day of symptoms, so I'd only need to be in isolation for one more day. Thankfully.
We celebrated Karcyn's birthday without family because I was sick. But the cousins dropped off her gifts anyway.
She loves her stuffed animals.
Mon. 13th--Since getting word from Jared's Aunt Stacy, who is our accountant, that we owe $1200 in taxes, we ran our financials through Turbo Tax just as a second witness, and to our great disappointment it said the same thing. It just didn't make sense to us. Jared made $30,000 MORE in 2021 than we did in 2022. But we do know we can't afford for more than $800 a month in federal income tax withholdings alone, because there's still all the other taxes and deductions that we have, too. Man, we sure hope that was a one time bombshell.
Sun. 26th--Thanks to the RootsTech conference, I learned I'm related to these fine and famous people! :)
