Spring Snow

We had a really fun snow storm come into Charlottesville early Wednesday.  It was so beautiful and we ended up getting a good 6 inches of snow. It snowed around 4:00 and kept snowing until noon or so. Everyone in our family was thrilled that we finally got a real snow day.  Lydia and Jared were out playing in the snow by 8:00 am.  They came in for hot chocolate and coffee cake and then were back out in it.  Around 10:30 we headed over to Chris Greene Lake to go sledding. We originally planned to stay until 12:30 because we thought Mark might have to go to the airport for a training meeting but the meeting was canceled so we stayed at the lake until 1:30 or so.  Around 12:00 Jared's friend Marcus and his Mom showed up and Jared was over the moon. It's a bummer that we don't get to see Marcus more. Our schedules don't line up well as both his parents work long hours.  We are really happy when they do get to meet up though.

I originally got out our snowflake mugs but then Lydia requested a rainbow one as it was the 2nd day of Spring. She also got her haircut the day before.  I really like it short like this. 

For awhile we were the only ones there.  About 3 other families came and went while we played.  At first the sledding was really hard because the snow was so deep.  Jared was getting frustrated because he loves crashing into the cattails at the bottom of the hill and the snow s too this for him to make it all the way down but eventually it got packed down enough that he started crashing.  Marcus's Mom was a really good sport and had a fun snowball fight with Jared and Marcus which he loved.  Lydia and I went over to the less steep section of hills for a bit and enjoyed a more leisurely race down the hill.  I liked this section because I am a terrible sled driver and often end up backwards on the step hill where we normally are.  The ride felt longer and more controllable which was nice.  Lydia was feeling pretty brave in that section, even sliding on her tummy, knees and then attempting to stand which didn't go as well.  It was also less tiring having to walk back up the hill over there.  The reservoir side is so steep you are really out of breath by the time you get back to the top.  It was a great afternoon sledding.

Mark and I shoveled the driveway when we got back. While we did that Jared worked on his snow fort.  This snow was really wet and heavy, it was a good, hard arm work out.  Lydia kindly came and helped us shovel for a bit and then went back to spraying the snow with the water I had dyed for them.  They mostly concentrated on "painting" the snow fort.  Jared is not one for pitching in and helping with "chores." While I very much dislike the fuss he puts up when he is asked to contribute I am really over his playing while the rest of us work. So new lines will be drawn, he won't like them but its time.  I hate writing negative things about Jared or Lydia but the truth is he needs some attitude adjusting.  Once the weeds come back (which will be only too soon for me) he really won't like the new lines.  It will be painful for us all but that is life. I thought the school district would have a 2 hour delay the next day but they ended up getting the whole day off. Since we had driven on our road the day before (it was plowed really well) and cleared our driveway I planned on having preschool even if there was no school.

A friend gave us this "snow brick" maker and Jared was happy to ry it out. 

I can see the individual bricks but you have to look pretty close. 

Dance dance dance!

Lydia has been waiting to take a dance class for the last 9 months or so easily, maybe even longer. I looked into classes at dance schools in town and was sad to see how much money they were. The monthly fee itself seems like a lot and then most have a recital fee and costume fee.  Enter Charlottesville Parks and Rec. They have an 8 week session, one class a week.  Albemarle County sadly does not offer ballet classes which means we would have to drive forever and pay the non resident (crazy city/county differences) fee but for how happy it made her today it was worth it. I was talking to my brother Davin, (whose daughter Kaylee takes a class) when I was out in California and for 1 class a week for a month it is 20$.   In California!  I was shocked.  Lydia's 8 week session here was 78 dollars.  Oh well, it is what it is.  We were actually on the wait list but there was enough demand that they opened up another class. So we will make the 28+ minute drive (both ways) to downtown-ish Charlottesville on a Friday in traffic (her class is at like the worst time 5:00 - 5:45) for this sweet ballerina.

Back in February she and I went on a date to a Dance celebration performance at the same recreation center as her class.  It was really awesome and well done.  There were various dance styles presented, (Swing, Ballet, lyrical and tap that I remember) it was just about an hour long and it was free. I really love and look hard for community events like this.  We had a fun time and stopped for Duck Donuts after. Last week I found out that the BYU Ballroom Dance Company are coming out here May 05th and I could not be more excited.  My family hosting them and attending their performances when I was growing up is one of my favorite memories. I can't wait to go!  I have had a hard time finding performances like this here in Charlottesville and am so glad they are coming.

Lydia and I were happy to see these costumes. We both had our favorite colors represented.

1650 Green Valley Road

Awhile back I made plans with my Mom to fly out to California to help her go through her house for her move (across town) and to set up a garage sale.  My parents moved to this house in the summer of 1986 when I was 4 years old.  I vaguely remember the first house we lived in in Yuba City (on Bridge Street) but this house was my childhood home. It is a large house with two attics, more closets than I care to count and 30 years of memories and things. Most people who know me know that I love to organize spaces and and am pretty good at throwing things away.  As my Mom and I talked about me coming out my biggest request was that she have a dumpster ready.  The house she is buying is 1840 square feet.  The Green Valley Road house is over 3000.  I did my best to remember that these are important memories to my Mom and was impressed by what a good sport she was.  I have three siblings who live in or within an hour of Yuba City so I knew I would see them and my sister Susanna drove out from Idaho to help out too. It was really nice to have time with them at this house.  When we went out to YC for my Dad's funeral last summer I knew that the next time I came would be the last time it was to this house/neighborhood.  It will be really strange to go to Yuba City and not stay there.

I arrived in California late Thursday night and the next morning I got up and went on a walk around the "neighborhood."  I first walked down to Smith Road which is about a half mile away.  Davin, Susanna and I used to ride our bikes down there a lot in the summer and play in the ditch. We would catch tadpoles and straddle the tunnels to walk through them.  We were totally trespassing but didn't think anything of it.  Right now they have a lot more water in them but in the summer the water level went down and we loved being there.

Then I walked through the subdivision next to their house where I liked to go jogging in high school and stopped by Davin and Tara's house to say hi.  The weather was so cool and fresh and it was a lovely reflective time. That walk was one of my top three things of this trip. I had a really lovely childhood.  I clearly remember unhappy times but over all it was such a great place to grow up.  My parents loved me, I was always safe and all my needs were taken care of. When I finished my walk I sat down on the front porch and just looked out over the yard. So many memories.

After that my Mom and I cleaned out some closets. While we were cleaning out one closet out I came across some yellow and lavender silverware.  I looked at them and then looked at my Mom and said, "are these what I think they are?" They were, it was the cute silverware bundles she made for my wedding reception, almost 14 years ago!  It was so funny. We finished up and then headed into town. We first stopped at the Cookie Tree for treats for the week and then headed to In-N-Out Burger. This In-N-Out was actually built a few years after I left Yuba City so it was not a childhood memory but since they don't have them out East I'm really glad there is one there now.  What was there from my childhood were the chickens. For as long as I can remember there have been chickens wandering around the major highway and commercial zone in Yuba City.  We used to drive down 99 and see them on the West side of the Highway.  They didn't really cross over it but were always there by restaurants, grocery stores and business.  Its so random. I was happy to see them still pecking around.  After lunch we  went to Raleys for groceries. I loved going grocery shopping with my Mom growing up. Then I could make specific requests and was more likely to get them!  The same thing happened that day.

Once we got home my sister Katie and I started getting things organized for the garage sale.  After we worked for awhile I went to the spare room and brought out my wedding dress.  My Mom has been keeping it and 3 other wedding dresses at her house for the last 15+ years.  Hers, mine and both my sisters dresses have been in one of the closets in her house over the years.  I knew it was there and had decided that I would bring it back with me.  Since I found the silverware I decided a photo shoot was in order.  Mark and I had our reception in their backyard so it was prefect.  I sadly could not get my dress to zip up all the way but I'm good with it. It was such a pretty dress. I need to get it dry cleaned but don't think I want to get it in a special box, I want Lydia to play in it and maybe occasionally try it on myself!  My bouquet was lovely.

Susanna arrived early Saturday morning. It was awesome that she was willing to rearrange her schedule and come see us and help out.  My Dad hated the idea of a garage sale and they never had one at their house in all the years they lived there.  Susanna said she did not want to miss the one sale there and wanted to go shopping at it too. As soon as it was over we started filling up the dumpster with things that didn't sell and we didn't plan to donate.  Once the garage sale was cleaned up Susanna, Derek, Davin and I went up into the attic in the garage and started cleaning it out.  None of us had been in there for years and didn't know what would find.  The best find was my Dad's sombrero from his mission in Mexico circa 1971. I wish I could have brought it home with me.  My sister Susanna is super creative and one thing she wanted to take home was the piano.  She is very musical and spent countless hours teaching herself how to play the piano with it.  So she looked up videos online on how to take apart pianos and then did it!  This was after I left Sunday but she did it and loaded it up in her truck and drove it to Idaho!  She is going to reassemble it and make it a planter!

I never learned how to play the piano growing up and was jealous of how much time my sister spent with it and how much satisfaction it brought her.  I was really happy when I went home last summer and could finally play this piano.  I made sure to play it some before she took it apart.  The silly thing is if I expressed any interest to play my Mom would have made it happen but I was too afraid I would be bad at it.  I'm so glad I am learning now.

My brother Derek went home to Sacramento after we finished the garage attic and Susanna, Davin and I cleaned out the inside attic. I loved playing in this attic growing up. I would take books, coloring sheets, stuffed animals and toys up there and play in it frequently. My favorite was when it was raining outside. I loved hearing the rain on the roof and feeling so close to it. My Dad didn't love this for various reasons so I mostly did it when he was gone for the day.  I was surprised when I climbed up there and saw how much stuff was up there.  It was well over 50 boxes!  I thought I only had 3 boxes up there that I put up after my first years of college but apparently my Dad went through our rooms when we were gone for good and boxed and bagged everything and put it up there.  So I had some fun surprises to go through. Like my whole (awful) high school wardrobe was in a bag up there!  There were books and a few toys that I was really happy to find and had wondered what had happened to them. Most stuff ended up in the dumpster or in the donation pile but I did bring back a suitcase full and my Mom is mailing box to me.

These pictures aren't even all the boxes! I definitely got my love of holidays and decorating for them from my Mom.  She had over 15 boxes of just Christmas decorations! 

I found my old Sunshine Generation costume and Susanna donated lots of her old dance costumes to Lydia.  Her girls are in dance and already have closets full of costumes.  I brought home a few kitchen things of my Mom's and my Grammie's (Maternal Grandma) and a series of Star War books I loved growing up.  I am sure Jared will love them and am excited for him to read them. I'm not sure if Lydia will like them but she is already pretty happy with what she got!

After Davin went home Susanna and I made a second run to GoodWill. I had gone after the garage sale and then we went together. I was so happy to get to spend time with them all.  That night Susanna and I brought box after box to my Mom to have her go though.  She was such a good sport!

The next day was Sunday.  My mom and I had planned to go to church but instead went on a picnic with Tara and her sweet girls.  Susanna and I wanted to get a run in together while we were in Yuba City and Sunday ended up being the day.  We ran to the park, 4.8 miles away from my Mom's house and it was a great run.  I had never run through Yuba City like that and loved doing it with Susanna. We stopped by my favorite yogurt place on the way back.  My friends and I used to go here for lunch in high school.  Super healthy right? When we got to California Yogurt I noticed it had a for sale sign on the window.  I sent a picture to Mark seeing if he was interested in buying it but no dice.

After yogurt we went home and packed up as much of the kitchen as we could.  We went through some more bookshelves and regular shelves in her home, packing up as much as we could.  Both Susanna and I will not be there to help our other siblings pack up and move my Mom so we really wanted to get as much done as we could. I do love organizing and cleaning out things and am really grateful I could go out.  We actually all went with my Mom to check out her new house (It was really nice of the agents to let us) and I know she will really love being there.

The last thing I wanted to do on this trip was see my Dad's headstone.  I hadn't seen it yet and drove out to the cemetery by myself.  Its a beautiful drive especially at this time of year. My Mom talked about coming with me but I really wanted to go by myself.  I miss him.  It makes me sad and a little mad that we didn't get more time, that Jared and Lydia didn't get to spend much time with him at all. I'm so grateful they at least got some time with him and am so thankful for the love and support he always gave me.  One other item I found in the attic was the Book Of Mormon my parents gave me when I got baptized.  In it he had written a note to me and I loved seeing his handwriting and feeing his love for me.

It was a beautiful California Spring day.  Some of the trees had already changed from flowers to leaves but I was grateful to see some orchards full of flowering trees. I felt a lot of emotions seeing his headstone and seeing my Mom's name on it too! I'm grateful for my parents and their love and support.  I'm glad that my Mom is staying in Yuba City even though I would love to have her come live in Virginia. It was really great to be able to go out and help and spend some one last weekend at Green Valley Road.

March: running, Pi Day, Richmond and Saint Patricks

Its been almost a month since I last posted on here which is a lot longer than I normally go without posting which means this is going to turn into a marathon post.  March has been busy and its not slowing down anytime soon so I need to get some information on here.

At the beginning of the month I ran the Sugar Hollow 10K.  This fits in nicely with my training for the Charlottesville 10 miler and I really enjoyed the 10K last year.  I drove over with the same two ladies as last year and enjoyed visiting with them.  The race happened to be hours after "Winter Storm Riley" with its 50 mph winds made its presence known in Central Virginia which was not helpful.  The first half of the race had us running directly into the wind.  At times I had to smile day eyes with my hands because I was afraid of getting stuff stuck in them. When I originally looked at the weather it said 13 mph winds but it was much more than that.  Traditionally there is a pancake breakfast after which I have not attended but this year it could not be held because the building did not have power.  We have friends who were without power for over 3 days it was some crazy wind! I felt good during the run and was especially happy to reach the turnaround point and therefore have the wind behind me.  I finished in just over 1 hour.  1 hour and 23 seconds by the official race clock.  That is a 9:43 average pace per mile which I was happy with.  My goal is 10 minutes per mile or less so 9:43 was great. Its a great race and I look forward to doing it next year.

I started training for the 10 miler back in January, the week of the 07th.  Training has gone really well. It was really exciting to get to weeks  7 - 10. Before this year I had never run farther than 6 miles so to successfully complete 7, 8, 9 mile and then a 10 mile run this past Friday was really cool!  Songs from "The Greatest Showman" have been my best running songs.  Specifically "From Now On",  and "The Greatest Show on Earth."  "Come with Me" by Karmin has been great too.  Its interesting to me how the songs that really pushed me last year are often ones I skip over this time. I have also loved listening to the podcast "StoryCorps" It's great.  The race is this Saturday the 24th.  It starts at 7:15 which is great for me, I prefer running as early as possible.  Right now there is rain forecasted but maybe it will hold off. I am nervous about the hills on the course. Charlottesville is not a flat city and I do not like running hills.  To try to mentally prepare I did my 10 mile run on this newer road near our house that is really hilly.  When they completed the road, (Berkmar) I remember being really excited because it has a really nice wide walking path but once I drove it and saw how hilly it was I figured I would never attempt to run on it or even ride bikes on it but I ran from my house to the road all the way down to the last roundabout and back to my house and ran it all.  It was hard and really satisfactory. I left my house at 6:20 (it was so dark because of daylight savings, like not safe dark, but I had to do it to get it in before work at 10:00! Luckily our road has like no traffic at that time of day) and finished in 1 hour 43 minutes. Because it was so dark when I left and we live on a gravel road that had been re-grated earlier in the week I was concerned about getting an injury and how upset I would have been but it all worked out great. I am ready for Saturday and feel excited/nervous: Nervousited.  There have been moments when I was tempted to register for the Charlottesville Half Marathon which is a few weeks after the 10 miler, whats 3 more miles?  But I looked up the date and its April 07th, the day we are supposed to get back in town so it wouldn't work out.  I think I'm glad its that date so I can just put it out of my mind, its decided for me.  Maybe next year, if I feel good after the 10 miler I'll attempt it. Today I saw this article and was amazed by this woman.   Talk about tough and dedicated.

The year was one of the first years I actually remembered Pi Day. Since I don't care for math the idea of celebrating a math thing is not always on my radar. I grabbed some individual frozen pie slices when I did my grocery shopping for the week and that was about it.  At dinner we did talk about Pi and had Jared and Lydia tell us the first numbers.  We did not spend any time memorizing as many numbers as we could.  3.14 is plenty and really I'm not sure when and what you use Pi for when doing math but our pie slices were delicious.  Key Lime and Chocolate Creme.

Besides running a good amount, I went down to Richmond to attend a women's devotional with Elder and Sister Renlund and Elder and Sister Dudley.  The Renlunds are really funny.  I had no idea.  Mark told me that it had been 11 years since a member of the Quorum of the 12 came to this area specifically, Charlottesville which was why they were given the assignment. They are holding a stake conference in our church building tomorrow, hopefully we get seats. I dropped Jared and Lydia off at Mark's school where they had a great time playing in the gym while he played basketball with some teacher friends. We don't go to his school nearly as much as we did in Colorado because its much farther away and the office staff just don't seem as welcoming so they were happy to play there. I had plans to drive down early with some friends to celebrate Julie's birthday so it worked out great.  We went out to eat and then over to the meeting.  Elder Renlund started his message by simply saying, "Thank you." Unbeknown to me there were 2 talks we were encouraged to read before the fireside.  Both were by President Nelson, "A Plea to my sisters" and "Joy and Spiritual Survival".  I will make sure to read them this week.  One part of Sister Renlund's talk discussed the three words used to describe Relief Society.  They are: Faith, Family, and Relief.  She talked about how it seems that sometimes we skip the first one and focus so much on the other 2 but that strengthening our own faith deserves so much time. The talks were enjoyable and I was grateful to attend and have the hour + drive with some great ladies.  We didn't stay to shake their hands but headed out.  We  stopped at Sonic on the way out for a birthday treat.  I meant to take a picture of Elder Renlund on the screen but forgot. I did snap some really quick at the end.  Funny thing is a friend of mine had just given the closing prayer so she's there. I'm not sure if that is highly frowned upon but I did it.  I emailed these to her which she probably thinks is weird but she is very kind and will probably still talk to me.  It was a nice evening.

When I got home last night I worked on some Saint Patricks Day festivities.  All year (since Saint Patrick's day 2017) Jared made demo Leprechaun traps and planned how he was going to catch a leprechaun. Last night he surprised me by making a rest stop instead.  We had talked about he and Lydia sleeping in the basement since that was where the set the traps previous years and they were sound asleep when I went to check on them.  I was surprised they stayed there all night.  Their rest stop was really cute.  There was a Barbie cup of water and a Barbie cookie tray with mini chocolate chips on it and a felt blanket.  They even left a penny for him in case he needed it.  Jared wrote a funny note to the Leprechaun letting him know it was not a trap.  It was sweet.

"This is not a trap. I Pinky Promise. True"

The green is the reply.  Since they did something nice they leprechaun payed it forward by cleaning up their rooms and the basement for them and heart attacking them with green hearts. There were gold coin trails to follow to gold candy and a rainbow treat. I stopped in a grocery store for St Patricks donuts but they didn't have any specifically for that but had rainbow sprinkles which was close enough.  Mark had to be in Richmond for most of the day for training with the Renlund's and others (he shook his hand as I knew he would).  He left just before 11:00 and got home after 6:00.  After he left we watched the Chicago river being dyed green (now we all want to fly out there next year), a few Irish dance performances, bagpipes in parades and celebrations throughout the world of famous icons being lit up in green. 

We did at least have green smoothies today so some healthy foods were consumed amidst all the delicious treats. 

We had our traditional Saint Patricks day drink (sprite and lime sherbet) and I made a layered brownie desert with mint ice cream, chocolate ganache, crushed Oreos, and cool whip flavored with peppermint and dyed green.  It was fun. I was out of town last Sunday and some friends kindly invited them over for corned beef and cabbage so they had a pretty great time celebrating Saint Patricks this year. 

Jared and Lydia also passed the time today by building a mansion fort and setting up "shops."  It was pretty cold and gray most the the day and these were both great activities for a day like today. I loved that they came up with and did them all by themselves.  

Mansion Fort

Jared's Ball Shop: 

Other offerings:  signed autographs by him, ball rentals and basketball exhibitions. He always likes basketball and sports in general but I think March Madness had a play in this.

Lydia's Jewelry Shop.  She also offered dance performances. 

Lastly: Why does Jared look so old in these pictures? My goodness. And Lydia lost another tooth this week.  I think it was Monday.  She has quite the hol-ey smile but the two teeth on top are coming in.  Almost caught up!