BUILDING BL(ayl)OCKS: February 2022

It's hard to believe I haven't written in over a year. 2021 was a year of many miracles and answered prayers, and I also know if I try backtrack and record everything that happened before I start 2022, I will never catch up. That said, I am going to start with where I am, and maybe eventually get back to some highlights from 2021.

2022 is starting with a bang, and I am loving it! We spent our New Years' celebration in Arizona, and came back at the end of the first week of January. We flew from sunny 60 degrees, to a complete whiteout here in Denver. With prayers, white knuckles, and M's careful driving we made it home safely where Jack and his kids had made us dinner.

We're beyond excited to have the Bryce's here in Colorado! They kept our house safe and warm for us over the Holiday break and they closed on their new home in Barefoot Lakes at the end of January. I was able to help Lindsay one day with unpacking and cardboard box deconstruction one afternoon, which is one of the awesome benefits of retirement - time to serve and help people in the middle of the week! Miraculously, over Christmas break, Klaire and Curtis were able to take my dresser and nightstands back to the Bryce's house in Buckeye which then got moved by their moving company up here to Colorado. We love having my dresser and nightstands, I honestly thought it might be another decade before it made it up here. It's beautiful and really makes me feel like an official adult with a wooden nightstand instead of a plastic one.

January I worked three weeks, then retired on January 27, 2022, almost exactly 6.5 years after I started with LM. Over the past year, I haven't loved my job and it's been harder and harder to put time and energy into it. The team dynamics were hard, my part-time schedule wasn't being respected, and I felt like I wasn't adding value. All those aspects together were draining me, and towards the end of 2021, M and I realized we needed to make a change and we needed to do it soon. We were on LM benefits for the year, so as soon as 2022 hit we could transfer to KPMG and it felt like the right thing to do. I loved my time at LM, my work there has been miraculous in many ways and I feel so blessed to have been able to work for them as long as I did. By the time January 27th came, I was very ready to be done. We had some ice storms in January making it unsafe to drive so I had Jay home with me, trying to balance him and the work day was overwhelming and stressful. I didn't quite realize the toll and stress I was carrying by having to take Jay to daycare every day (snow or shine), until I didn't have to take him. We spent our first week of retirement sick, taking extra naps and lying around the house. But, we're now getting into routines and finding so much joy in just being and doing whatever we want.

2015 v. 2022 - I wore the same shirt and tried to do the same hair, just for fun

M and I made this countdown, every day tearing a chain!

Mostly, I love being able to do things that have been hanging over my head for months: organizing the basement, sorting my clothes so I could put them into my new dresser and nightstand, painting Jay's little dresser, meal planning and grocery shopping in the middle of the week (unheard of!), doing laundry on a non-weekend day, meal prep during a nap, exercise and scripture study every morning without rushing through breakfast to get to work, putting Jay's clothes in boxes, etc. I am amazed with how much Heavenly Father multiplied my time on the weekends to do it all, and I am grateful to not have to do that anymore. I have been choosing projects every week to focus on, and I love it. I have organized the basement and painted a dresser, and a few more tings. I have also had many evenings available as M has started into busy season with work. I have started to play the piano again, practicing each night. I finished all my professional coaching assignments, so now I am ready to take the final exam which is a recording of me coaching someone. And, I have started reading a parenting book, 1-2-3 Magic to help me figure out how to help Jay, M's already read it. It's also been fun to just go hang out with sisters whenever I want and do fun projects!

Basement before & after, shelves make a huge difference! Plus getting rid of stuff.

WIP on the dresser

Enjoying our first snow day when we could just play

Homemade sledding hill!

I got to watch another 2 year old so we played outside and tried to build a snowman.

Little puppets I made at KT's.

Just a fun day at the park.

It has also been such a treat to see how Jay has grown over the past few months. We started Occupational Therapy in January and continue to do Speech therapy each week. Jay's progress has been slow, and it's been hard for all of us. However, just the past few weeks, we've seen big progress. He's starting to make new sounds, he says Mama and Dadda (usually Gaga) when he's talking to me and M. He is building towers with blocks when given the right incentive, and today he actually sat with the OT and her sensory box for 15 minutes! WOW! I couldn't believe my eyes, he was so good. I hope we can start to create more moments of focus for him. He's also happy to go to Nursery now. Jack took him a few times while he was living with us, and since then, Jay's been a Nursery champ. Jay still loves to be outside, and loves all the slides and swings at the parks. I took him to the Rec Center up in Longmont with the Merrill's and Bryce's and he loved the water. He may have my love for the water and waterslides with how much he went up and down the slide that day. He's a bundle of fun, is giving such loving hugs, and loves the Itsie Bitsie Spider song.

He sat through this whole book - amazing!

Learning to take care of things...

He stole his friend's hat and was very happy about it

Scooping and dumping dirt by himself for the first time!

Matchy-matchy

Look at that tower!

I came down one morning after showering to find my two boys reading <3

Sunday is our fancy day

We got a super cool airplane toy from the Bryc'es

Jay will focus on 1 thing really well - candy!

Jay and Roxy

Allen reading to the boys

This new year has also brought some fun celebrations! First up was Tia's Baptism. She asked me to give the talk on Baptism, which was a very special treat. I have loved watching Tia grow up, I first celebrated her birthday with her when she turned two and she's always been such a sweet and fun girl. Oma and Papa came to visit and they got to stay with us from Friday through Monday, which was a total blast. I love seeing Jay build a relationship with them. Sunday afternoon we had the Bryce's over for dinner and enjoyed playing Guesstures and other games with the kiddos. Continuing on the Merrill line, we also got to celebrate Kylee's 10th birthday with her. We had delicious tacos and went ice skating on Friday. It was especially fun for Jay who went ice skating for the first time and M got off work early to go with us! It was high 60's that day, so we didn't even get that cold at the outdoor rink!

Oma and Jay playing with cars

Papa, Jay, and Oma

Tickling feet!

Jay enjoying tackling Papa

My retirement party was also awesome! M invited everyone down and we met at a park in Brighton that had a huge field with fresh snow, where we played Fox and Geese. We shot off a stomp rocket M gave me for retirement, and came home to enjoy pizza and games. I put on a movie for the kids and the adults got to hang out (minus M who was working). It's been over a month, and it still feels unreal that I am not working at LM anymore. It feels like maternity leave part 2.

Jay and Mama with the stomp rocket

Jason and M lifting Tia onto the roof to get the rocket!

Fox and Geese!

The pizza party!

This year I have a goal to go to the temple every month. We now live farther from a temple than we ever have as a married couple, and the farthest I have since high school. It takes about an hour to get to the Denver temple or an hour to get to Fort Collins. I had an appointment scheduled in Denver for the end of February, and I quickly realized there was going to be snow and freezing temperatures the day I had booked. I woke up Saturday morning, a day with beautiful weather, and thought I should look to see when I could reschedule. I saw there was a 10 AM spot available, so I called up Grandma and Grandpa and asked if they had plans. They quickly agreed to drop their plans to watch Jay and then took us to lunch afterwards. I felt so incredibly blessed that day. The Lord was aware of my goal and Grandma and Grandpa were an answer to my prayer, plus they spoiled me with my favorite lunch place with gluten free Asian food. I sure love living close to family!

I am also working on goals related to being Primary president and a ministering sister. I am trying to be more prepared as a president, planning for meetings and actually making goals for our presidency for the year. I have really enjoyed my presidency and feel so grateful for their service. They helped us pull off the Ward Christmas party, and continue to show up whenever I need them. It's been fun to get to know the Primary children. They are so sweet, and I am grateful for their testimonies. As for ministering, I've struggled with this for a long time and with COVID it's gotten harder. And, I also have many stories I tell myself about why I can't visit, etc. even when I haven't even connected with people. I finally connected with a sister who lives up the street from us, she watches her 18 month old granddaughter a few days a week so we went up and played with her. I enjoyed it, and Jay was so friendly and nice too it made it easy. This wonderful sister doesn't have many connections in the ward and I am hoping I can help be one that she does have. Since moving into the ward there have been a couple new families move into our neighborhood with kiddos close to Jay's age. I've reached out to those mom's and we've gone to the park which has been so nice! I struggled to make time for ministering in the simplest ways while I was working, and I know I still have a long ways to go but I am going to try this year to be better!

One family adventure we had before busy season began was MLK Day at Barr Lake. Barr Lake is only about 10 minutes from our house, and it's been something I've always wanted to see. We packed our lunches and enjoyed walking around the lake, crossing bridges, picking up rocks, and eating lunch in a teepee. It was getting pretty cold by the end, so we were grateful for the cover of the teepee.

Jay and Mama, enjoying rocking chairs

Finally, we celebrated Jay's second birthday! I know, a month late, but on his birthday I was sick, working, and had to tell my boss earlier than I planned that I was leaving LM. It was a crazyyyyyy day and week and it just didn't happen. Luckily, Jay's a very forgiving kiddo and let us have a "re-do" on January 14th. We had mac n' cheese for dinner and confetti cupcakes for dessert. Jay got to open some of his presents that he didn't get to open at Christmas time and a few fun ones just for his birthday. We love our little Jay, he's resilient, strong, happy, and brave.