4 June 2023
VOLUME 11 – NUMBER 506
Memorial Day family get together
Monday was our family get together, which featured tacos, playing basketball, and belly flop contests. Dad ended up winning as he jumped fully clothed into the pool, and Monte won the loudest slap category! It is always fun to be with family, and I am so happy that it is summertime!
Last week we moved a piano into London's apartment as a surprise for her roommate, Hannah, who loves playing the piano. Before the party on Monday, London and I went to pick her roommates up from the airport and brought them back for her to see the surprise. She loved it, and it made all the heavy lifting we had to do to get it there worth it!
London’s birthday surprise piano
On Tuesday, London, Endia, Cougar, and I went to go see the new Little Mermaid movie, which was really good! I did have an issue with the main guys song, because it came too early in the movie and was too dramatic for the moment, but the rest was really good.
Wednesday was a stressful day! I had my final interview for the full-time position at the MTC that morning. Later that night I went on a date with a girl named Sophie.
I've been interested in asking Sophie on a date for a while now, but on Sunday after receiving a lot of pressure from London, Endia, and Cougar, I decided to just call her up and ask her out.
Yarima and Joanna at family get together
So it was definitely an interesting day because before the interview all I could think about was the date, so I didn't feel nervous for the interview, until it came time for the interview.
The relief of being done with the interview lasted about an hour, and then the nerves for the date came back. It was a pretty eventful day, but was a lot of fun.
Memorial Day family get together
Sophie and I went up the canyon to build a fire and finish cooking some tinfoil dinners that London had partly pre-cooked for us. We also worked on a knock off version of kintsugi pottery, which is a Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by gluing the broken parts together with a gold-colored glue.
Then on Friday, I went to see the new Spider-man movie with Monte and Isaac, and it was so good! It was Monte's Christmas present to me, and it did not disappoint. I didn't know it was two parts so the cliffhanger definitely came by surprise!
Mom and Charlie at family get together
For this week we had a lot of things going on. We went to aunt Amy's house for our Memorial Day family get-together. Most of the family was there! We went swimming, and had a dinner that everyone helped to make.
We also had Mom's work 5k run this week. It was called the Crumbl 5K Run for Foster Care. I had a fun time doing that. I was with Veidi, Quinn, And Joanna while the others ran the loop. They had really good Crumbl cookies and lots of snacks.
Children at foster care 5K run
We went with Mom to help set up and then do the 5k for her work. Monte took Misha on the run with him and she made it about one and a half miles with him. I was walking it with Gloria, Quinn, and Joanna.
It was a lot more fun than I expected it to be. We had Crumbl cookies afterwards and they were delicious. Quinn and Joanna got their face painted before we left.
Quinn getting his face painted
This week we had our first appointment and we’re able to see the little gummy bear shaped baby in an ultrasound!
It was incredibly surreal to see the baby. It was a good reminder to me what all the difficult pregnancy symptoms are for—I have been non-stop nauseous for weeks. The ultrasound gave me a much needed boost!
Ultrasound of Endia and Cougar’s baby
So today we are going to go to a 5K and Crumbl Cookie is sponsoring it. I stayed with Isaac and Kai, and on the first lap we lost Isaac and it was just me and Kai.
It was really tiring, and when Monte finished. He was able to talk to the main host, and then Kai just started running as fast as he could, so I had to keep up with him.
It took me a little while to catch up with him, and then we finally finished! After that, we ate, and then all of us talked to the host.
Memorial Day family get together
I decided to start training for another half marathon, which I will be running at the end of August. Because I don't want to run in the heat of the day, the ideal time for me is to get up and run early in the morning. I have always struggled waking up early when I don't "need" to, so I was nervous to see if I'd be able to stick with it.
Well, I not only get up early on the days when I have runs, but my body naturally wakes up early every day now. It has been so good for me to start my day off right, and it has made it a lot easier for me to have a full, sit down scripture study, which is usually really hard for me. I don't know how long this will last, but I am really loving it!
Memorial Day family get together
Hannah and I have talked about how nice it is to be able to host people at our house now that we have the space, and I was feeling like it was time for me to do something again.
I invited a few people from my ward over to play pickle-ball and then have smoothie bowls afterwards. Hosting and making food for people just makes me happy, andI really love being able to do it at my own house.
Joanna’s painted face
The movie I’ve been waiting for, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse came out, and boy was it amazing (pun intended)! I went to the movie theaters with Isaac and Ashton to see it for Ashton’s promised Christmas Present.
The whole time I was just watching with intent to see all the different Spider-Men that I could. As a total fan, I was in Spider-Man heaven, seeing all the different easter eggs, and cameo's.
Joanna’s painted face
The score for the movie was also just awesome. It's definitely tied for my favorite movie, and that's another Spider-Man movie. Let's just say I love Spider-Man with a passion.
And the best part is, I get to go see it again next week for my "date". I'm super excited for that. Isaac also wants to plan for the family to go see it together, because it was just that good.
Dad at the family get together
We have been working on a few rearrangement projects around the house. We recently got rid of our old brown sectional couches, and have started converting the Bunkhouse into a project room and a studio for shooting dog training videos.
We’ve also reorganized the back yard and cleaned up the side yard to make it into a nicer dog run area. We used our portable fencing to fence it off, and it is looking much nicer.
We even purchased what is called a “Porch Potty", which is a raised patch of artifical grass where the dogs can go potty. It even has little sprinklers that pop up and rinse off the grass!
Funnel cloud
On Saturday morning, as Dad and I were returning from our monthly family temple trip at the Provo City Center Temple, I noticed a strange, dark cloud forming.
I commented to Arkin, but he didn’t seem to realize how scary it looked to me. Then, as we were strating to drive under it, he looked up and said it looked like a huge, hollow alien spaceship. I almost looked like a tornado was forming.
And then it started to hail. And not just little hail! These were so big that we thought they were going to dent the car or even shatter the windows. We tried to hide under a tree, and all along the road, cars were “huddled” under the trees, or any cover they could find.
We finally made it home, and we were grateful the car was not damaged!
Funnel cloud
Recently we've been going shopping for summer clothes. Mom just bought some for me, and I really like them! Ive been running to prepare for a 5K. It's for Mom's work, and I'm pretty excited to do it! I've been behind on my job, (keeping track, and making sure that everyone gets their newsletters in.) So I should probably get cracking so you can read these articles!
Children with “The Office” Lego set
I had the chance to go out to breakfast with a couple old MTC friends, Dallas and Brandon. Dallas was my old boss and Brandon was my co-worker/last roommate before I got married. We played basketball in the morning and then went to Beto’s for breakfast burritos. It was great to catch up with some good friends.
Something that Brooke and I have been enjoying is being able to hire so many available sibling babysitters. We’ve worked out a schedule where Isaac, Veidi, and Kai take turns spending the night at our place throughout the week so they can watch the girls the next morning while Brooke and I go to the gym.
This week one of the nights Kai was over and we watched Edge of Tomorrow. It was funny because as we were trying to figure out what to watch, I suggested it and it was the exact movie Kai was thinking of but couldn’t remember.
Kai and Braden watching a movie