Change

 

We only have one week left of 3rd quarter for school and then Spring Break.

After Spring Break, Anchorage school district is going back to in person learning.

Which is great and also not great for me.

I will be driving to Anchorage 4 days a week to teach seminary now.

That means no more wearing sweat pants while teaching Zoom classes and no more watching Andi on Thursdays. 

It does mean in person learning, which I love.

Another bonus is that although I won't get to watch Andi on Thursdays anymore, I will still get to watch her on Wednesday's because there is no in person learning that day.

I do love this girl.

She's pretty dang cute. 

First Lost Tooth

 

When Matt was watching the boys, while we did our girls night, Afton lost his first tooth.

That is pretty fun if you ask me.

I have filled the pages of my blogs with all the fun things our kids have done over all these years and now they are being filled with the things that our grandkids are doing. 

Their firsts!

I love that.

I love this life that we have built, Matt and I.

There is a lot of pain and sadness in the world.

A lot of evil.

But there is also so much good.

So much happiness and peace.

I'm grateful that I can see that.

 

Girls Night

 

Matt had this great idea for us to do a Hale Girls night and it couldn't have been more needed I think. 

We first went rock climbing and then to dinner. 

We did walk around Target for a minute but I think everyone was done at that point.

We exerted a lot of energy rock climbing, but I totally made it to the top.

Not once, but TWICE!

Oh ya!

 I'm pretty impressed with myself considering that I am quite over weight right now.

Menopause is not being kind to my body, that is for sure.

But I can still do amazing things with it!

When we were at Target we reminisced about how Makenna used to hold hands with mannequins and felt that it was important to recreate those moments again.

Brittan also took a turn.

 I love that I have a relationship with these girls. 

They are definitely my people.

I hope we get the chance to hang out again together again soon.

Good idea Matt!

Happy Valentines Day

 

First and most important. 

We got a Valentine today from Brittan and Dustin that said, "Roses are red, love is sweet, we're growing our family by two tiny feet. Baby Staley coming October 2021" 

I am so excited!

This is grand baby #5 

How crazy is that? 

FIVE!!!

It was the best part of my day. 

We had such a good day.

Primary was really good.

Then everyone came over and we had stuffed french toast, chocolate custard and brownie sundaes.

Basically TOO much sugar and I am suffering from it at this moment.

We exchanged Valentines and played a funny card game.

I love this life with these people.

 

Family

 

Once every two weeks we go over to Travis' house so Matt can give Cedar and Mom a guitar lesson.

Tonight was just fun.

We had pizza and just enjoyed each other's company.

I walked dad home once he got tired. 

The night was crisp but not terribly cold.

We walked slowly back to his house in the fading light.

I told him to take it slow because I didn't want to be forced to play a game with everyone else.

If you didn't know, I really don't like games.

Anyway, I love my dad.

He's getting old.

He was out of breath by the time that we got to the house, which is not that far away, and I remembered how out of breath I got when I was trying to recover from heart surgery.

I think part of him wishes he would've been done with his earthly journey, but I am grateful he is with us for a little longer.

After I got back, I ended up playing a little bit of the dice game.

There was a moment when I looked around and just took in what was happening.

The boys (Travis, Dustin and Clinton) were all harassing each other.

Matt was laughing and smiling.

It was a moment of heaven really.

A moment that mattered to me.

I'm grateful to be here right now.

Life has it's unexpecteds for sure but I so much enjoy the little moments.

This week I heard the phrase, "Things don't matter, people matter" and I am glad to know that is true. 

A Smattering

 

The sun is coming up earlier and it makes my soul rejoice for reals!

I was just telling Matt the other day that our lives give me whiplash.

We decide one thing and then something else pops up to make us change our minds.

We might have a buyer for the farm.

We might be moving in a few months.

We might be starting again with a new drea,.

Or we might not.

Haha!

We shall see.

As for now, I bought new pens to mark my scriptures and tried my hand at pretzel rolls. 

I'm probably going to try the rolls again this afternoon because I didn't really like how they turned out. 

But that is the update of life for this week.

 

Sunday Pizza

 

I've said it before and I will probably say it a million times more. 

I LOVE Sundays with my family.

Today we did personal pizzas and a pumpkin dessert. 

Even Afton rolled out his own dough, filled it with just cheese and then we baked it.

We had a great CFM discussion.

And I just got to bask in these people that God has entrusted me with.

It's a pretty great life!

 

Climbing

 

We needed to get out and do something.

Corban hadn't moved from his computer chair for a long time.

Brittan goes climbing every week and we decided to join her.

I was surprised how much this body could actually do. 

It was a fun activity with the kids!