This week was full.
I watched the election with a couple friends and Michael. It was so grim. Tears just rolled down my face while I watched the reelection of a man who shouldn't have even been allowed to run.
January 6th, 2021 is one of the darkest days in my mind. It hardened a part of me. How is he back in office? Now we have four years of a rapist, racist, atrocious felon leading our country and this time he'll surround himself with yes-men, loyalty rewarded over ideas.
I'm proud I will always be able to tell my boys I never voted for him.
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I was in a daze all of Wednesday. So disappointed. So sad. Fort Collins didn't see the sun for days and it all felt tied up together, the weather and my feelings and the outlook of the next four years. My friend brought me flowers and a note that just said, "I thought you could use something pretty to look at today." That meant so much to me. When I texted her a thank you, I told her that the first woman's face I saw post-election results happened to be my OB at an appointment I'd scheduled months ago. At the end of the appointment I asked her how she was doing after yesterday. She was in as much disbelief as me, with a deep craving for a return to civility and example, and she said, "But I'm a positive person. I'm grateful I get to come here and take care of women. And that's what I'll keep doing. I wake up and I come take care of women. And you know, almost every patient has cried to me today. We're here for each other."
That was so comforting to me. And when I texted my friend that, she told me that the first woman she'd seen was also her OB and they'd had the same conversation. She also told me that she'd never visited a sadder Trader Joe's than her trip there that morning. When Trader Joe's is down, you know it's bad.
Wednesday night I went to a movie with friends. It was a total tear-jerker and we all just needed it. But, it was about cancer and loss, two things two of my closest friends are dealing with every day right now, so it was a hard watch. But the cry was therapeutic. I cried when I saw my friends in the lobby. I cried through the whole movie. I cried on my drive home. Fort Collins is going to see the sun again, and I'm going to find ways to channel my energy into what I can control. But this week I am sad.
Thursday night I took the boys to STEM night at their school, which was a good distraction. They loved it. There are centers all throughout the school run by community groups and volunteers. We made slime, learned about fire, saw what smoking does to lungs, played Minecraft, went in an indoor planetarium and learned about constellation stories, extracted DNA from strawberries, learned about CPR, saw some rescued hawks... we love our school.
Friday should have been a straight up celebration but I have to admit it added a layer to my sadness..... Asher is three! My baby is three. I'm amazed when I think about that! We really did have fun celebrating him and I hid my sadness from him :) His birthday will probably always be a bittersweet day for me. Man we love that little guy. He wanted sprinkle bagels for breakfast (that means a donut), Chick-Fil-A for lunch, and pizza for dinner. Solid day of eating. We gave him SO MANY CARS for his birthday because my friend was getting rid of all her big cars and passed them all on to us. I later had to explain the concept of hand-me-downs and free to Camden because you could tell he was thinking, "Wow this kid's birthday is straight up dreamy." Haha we should've just saved half for Christmas but for some reason that never crossed my mind since they all came as a group. Easy come, easy eventually go. Grateful for the toys that live that life instead of buying them and feeling guilty when I want them sent off to Goodwill a little later.
Saturday lifted my spirits. Michael did his tennis morning, I did High fitness, we had a low key day, then we had so many people over that night. First I had a crepes and game night for all the young women (we had canceled young women's for election day and moved it to the weekend) and then we also invited all the BYU people who wanted to come watch the BYU-Utah game in our basement. The two groups overlapped for a little while and it was so fun to have so many people we love under our roof! I always had dreams of having lots of friends over when we were painting and painting and painting our house. Our friends would have been happy to come over to the previously yellow house too, I know it doesn't have to be related. But it's fun to put your house together and put people you love in your house.
Wow, this week.
Some pictures (and rare memes) of it all.
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| Asher is THREE! |
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| He sure did love his ring pops from his Halloween haul |
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| These guys loved shoveling (?) leaves every time I raked them. They're such fun buddies to have around. |
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| There's a swing somewhere buried in that pile. I love our huge tree but wow those leaves! |
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| This puzzle was killer. The Miners helped me while they were here for Bennett's baptism, and I just couldn't take this puzzle apart. So it's glued and framed to be a Halloween decoration in the future! |
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| This was a beautiful speech to watch. Not only because it's been 8 years since we had an appropriate speech like this, where the candidate concedes (because both the 2020 and 2024 elections were both free and fair), and graceful bridges are offered for a smooth transition. It made me cry tears of frustration and disappointment. I would sincerely urge anyone to watch this speech, no matter who you voted for or how you feel about the election. |
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| Extracting strawberry DNA at STEM night |
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| Learning about fire safety and principles from a firefighter as STEM night |
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| Slime! |
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| Smoker lung vs. Healthy lung |
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| 20 min. of Minecraft, this was their first time playing. That game is a whole lot of spatial reasoning... |
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| These birds were beautiful to see |
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| Whoa three-year-old birthday! His birthday was all free cars that my friend was getting rid of. It never crossed my mind to put half away for Christmas because it was just one big free load of fun cars, but after he woke up and came down and opened them all, I was like... what have we done. |
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| Birthday ready! |
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| Very excited about the Paw Patrol. |
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| Birthday breakfast! He blew out the candles in the middle of the Happy Birthday song and we were all cracking up. |
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| I took a load to Goodwill on Asher's birthday and it included this book, and that was poor planing. Ouch... It served me well and I feel like I had four pretty happy babies. I think that's mostly luck though :) |
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| A Chick-Fil-A lunch for the birthday boy! I don't remember the last time we played inside. I used to take Westin to play inside endlessly in hot Fresno summers. Fourth child life is so different than first child life. |
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| Cutest lunch dates. These moments make me so happy because I know we lose our Camden to Kindergarten so so soon! |
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| Michael got the best shirt from his mom for his birthday :) We had a whole crew here watching the BYU-Utah game and holy moly that ending! It was so fun. I'll forever remember Matthew Behunin jumping into my bishop's arms. |
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