February

In December Jason began talking about getting a bigger TV.  This surprised me because he NEVER buys TVs and has prided himself on this fact....but we went to Costco to look.  In December we didn't want to buy it for Christmas--we had spent enough.  So we thought we'd look in January--as they sales might gear toward the Super Bowl. 

When we went in January it seemed the stock was low at our Costco and no great sales.

At the beginning of February I went to the bigger Costco on 21st South to get a supply of chicken and they had a better selection of TVs.  So on our anniversary Jason and I went to Costco and bought at TV.  Jacob had something that night so Jason and I took the TV over to his dad's house.  We weren't ready to set it up yet (no stand to put it on etc.) and we didn't want it sitting in the box, in the family room, driving Jacob nuts for a week because we weren't setting it up.

The following Friday, Jacob had scout Klondike and was gone for the weekend.  Jason and I went to La Hacienda for dinner and then went to pick up the TV.  On Saturday Jason put up the stand and we got the TV up.  Jacob came home and this was his reaction.  

This is our anniversary.  I wanted to try and make a cake that did not fall over and looked OK.  There is a woman who does beautiful cakes.  Her name is Courtney Rich and she has a website:  Cakes by Courtney.  I tried one of her recipes and it turned out pretty well.  

I also discovered that a cake made from scratch tastes different than the box mix.  It is a bit denser.  

First time Jacob helped prepare the sacrament

                    

Lucky me--I got a root canal

For Valentines Day I usually like to do a little something to spice things up with fondue.  Strawberries, apples, and bananas dipped in chocolate.  Yummy!

Jacob's version of cleaning up
one night.

                    

This was the set up for about a week until the cabinet we wanted arrived.

When we had the bookshelves built we moved the TV line from the big wall to a jack under each bookcase.  That way if you wanted to put a TV on either side you could.  

In order to put the TV back along the big wall, Jason had to find the line and reconnect it to the jack in the big wall.  He went down into the crawl space under the family room to find it.  

Along with this we did some TV shuffling.  We moved the oldest, big, TV from our room to the basement and TV from the family room back up to our room.   With these moves we needed the "feet" to the old TV again.  We had mounted it about 7 years ago and thought we'd not need the feet again.  Getting tired of storing things we thought we'd given the feet to DI.  Then we needed them again!!

When Jason went to the crawl space to pull the TV line back over we found the feet!  We had put it in a large garbage bag and stored them there!  We were happy because otherwise we had no way to stand up the TV in the basement.  

Then Jason and Jacob could begin putting the cabinet together.  Jacob was a great help and very careful with his work!

Just about finished

Grandma and Grandpa Wong wanted to spend some time with Jacob and took him out to McDonalds for dinner.  They said they had a great time visiting!

Evan Pettey, Jacob, Bishop Watson in 
red shirt

For out Ward Conf in February the Stake YM presidency came to one of the YM activities and played dodge ball.  I had a presidency meeting at the same time and when I was finished I went in to watch.  

Here are a couple of shots when Jacob was one of the last ones standing. 

Jacob, Bishop Watson, Jim ward, Ian Thomas

Another exciting Friday night cleaning 
out the food closet

Jacob hanging out with his 
friend Itai

                   

Jacob learning the valuable lesson of work! 

Jason and I attended a zoom 
presentation on ADHD.  They had this 
slide which pretty accurately reflects
a teenager's moods as they progress 
from 12-17.  

                             

January

 Happy New Year!  We hung out with Catheys for NYE.  Played games, watched a video and toasted in the new year.  Had a fun time!

In October we had a lot of snow, in November we had none, December a lot of snow, and January we've had none (hopefully February will bring a lot!).  

On a 9/80 Friday we got together with Catheys to try and do something.  Went to a hill by their house to sled.  

Jacob snow boarding

We purchased a new washing machine in February 2019.  The past year I have noticed that the wash tub has begun to discolor and flake into the laundry.  Have no idea why.  I use a biodegradable detergent, do approximately 5 loads a week and do a load of jeans every other week.  So it is not seeing a ton of wear and tear.

I emailed Speed Queen, with pictures, to find out what the problem may be.  They asked for all of my information....where I bought it, when I bought it, who installed it.  Luckily I had all of that information and was able to send it.  They said they didn't know why that was occurring, but would send to their team.  About 2 weeks later we got a big box delivered and there was a new wash tub!  The only problem was it did not come with installation instructions.  

I called the place where we purchased the machine and explained what I had done and asked if they would install the tub and how much would that cost.  He looked up my information--it is under the 3 year warranty so they will come out and install the new tub without charge.  I am so glad I emailed in the first place.  Our warranty runs out on February 15th!  

  

Another weekend Cathey's came over for a potato bar and then we visited.  Jason and Tom worked on exercise form while the kids stared at screens.   

                  

Mid January Jacob had the opportunity to speak in Sacrament meeting.  He spoke about how we can can take care of our bodies and the importance of doing so.  He put in his experience of playing too much on a video game and hurting his wrist.  He did a great job and was very composed.  



                                                       Donna Call, Donae Virtel, Sharon Beukers 1987

On January 6th one of my childhood friends, Donna Call Holtum, passed away.  She and her husband had not been vaccinated (didn't believe in the vaccine or masks) and they went to see their son, daughter-in-law, and grandson at Christmas. They all had Covid so they visited out in the garage with masks.  They live in Arizona so celebrating in the garage, while not ideal, worked weather wise.

After the visit Donna developed double pneumonia with Covid on top of it.  They were able to medicate the pneumonia, but after a few days she was admitted to the hospital because of the Covid.  A few days later they had to intubate her, and 4 days later she passed away.  Her sister, Jennifer, and brother, Kevin, both had power of attorney in case anything happened.  Donna's husband Michael had Covid also and was in no position to make decisions.  It is so sad! Donna was so much fun and would do anything for anyone. 

Her funeral was here in Utah a few weeks later.  It was good to see her brother Brent and sister Jennifer.  Kevin couldn't come because he had Covid.  Donna is buried at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park in Mill Creek.  I still can't believe she is gone.  Her family was a big part of my life growing up in California.  

Linde, Donna, Joy, Kevin, Chris, Kristina
Thanksgiving 1974?

                                     

Shopping!  I don't really like to shop for clothes.  The last Saturday of the month I was headed to Costco and heard that Old Navy had a one day sale on selected jeans.  I thought if I got around to it I would go.  Later that day I went in and looked for jeans for Jacob, for next year.  I found the size and couldn't tell from these tables if they would be on sale or not.  For all I knew someone could have just dumped jeans, from another part of the store, on these tables.  I found a very nice sales clerk and asked her to scan the tags for me.  One pair was $10!  The other 2 were $27.  They looked identical to me, but their sku numbers were different.  I went back to the tables, put the $27 jeans back and started to look for the size I needed with the same sku number as the $10 pair.  It took me 45 minutes of kneeling down and digging underneath, but I found 2 more. Yea!  So, unless Jacob grows 6 inches, he should have jeans for next school year.  

 

Jason's sister Jenny had her baby on January 26th.  We had a chance to go down to Provo to see them and new baby Juliet on Saturday.  She was 6 lbs 11 oz and 18 inches long.  Pretty much the same size as Jacob was.  She was so fun to hold and cuddle.  

On to February!!

December

Left Side:Leesa Scott, Delana East, Laurie English,

Melanie Messam, Carolyn Apsley,

Rose Klokow

Right Side: Muthu Alletto, Colleen Norris, 

Sherrie Anderson, Alisha Petty

The beginning of December we had our Relief Society Christmas dinner.  We had Taste of Aloha cater it and afterward we made some small gifts to be taken to an orphanage in Haiti.  

Left Side: Patricia Bond, Melanie Ferguson, Venuue
Shanthakumar, Cory Isileli, Rachel Ward
Right side: Karlena Gonzales, Kristin Masters, 
Rachel Richards

When Bishop Martin moved a year ago he gave

his counselors in the Bishopric, the executive

secretary and ward clerk (Jason) a card thanking them for the time they worked together and said he was "Thankful for the 5 Guys he served with".  He then enclosed a 5 Guys gift card.

So we used the card one night for dinner.  It was quite good.  

 

We tried to recreate the picture from 2010 at 5 Guys.  
                    

The first Saturday in December we had a baby shower for Jenny.  I made cupcakes and this is the only picture I have from the shower.  It was at MarySue's house, we played some games, opened gifts and had snacks to eat.  

              

Benji Anderson, Will Higley, 
Jacob and Henry Cutler

                                    

It snowed back in October, but had nothing in November.  Finally in December we began to get a few more storms.  

We put up the lights outside before the snow and they were beautiful.  I love the first real snow.

Grandma and Grandpa Wong had our names this year for Christmas.  They did the 12 Days of Christmas for us and it was so fun!

MarySue did an AMAZING job on the gifts.  12 days of fun gifts!!  This was the first day.  We got a popcorn movie night.

                    

3D Puzzle gift

We had a snow day where the kids couldn't get to school...9 heavy inches of snow.  Took Jason and me about 3 hours to clear it and that was with the snowblower!

Unfortunately Covid has turned snow days into Remote Learning Days....they still had school, but at home.  So we met up with Catheys in the afternoon to go sledding.   

A puzzle gift

For the 12 days gifts we got a box of small games. 

This was one....put these in your mouth and 

then try to say something  Others have to guess

what you're saying.  We look lovely!

As part of our Christmas break we went to Cubbys to try it out.  

Coloring books gift

Exercise continues.  With the cold weather we decided to try the mall for walking.  It is so much warmer and much easier than walking outside on the snow and ice! Here is Sherrie Anderson and me walking while Marcia was out one of the days. 

Ginger Bread house gift  

    

Hot chocolate and mugs gift

Sugar Cookie kit gift

                     

Eating out gift.

The first Monday of Christmas break Jacob had Elias over to play video games.  On Wednesday his mom called to tell me he had tested positive for Covid.  UGH!

We were tested on Friday, Christmas Eve, and came back negative.  We told my family and they felt ok with us coming anyway for Christmas Eve with the negative tests.  

Jacob had fun playing video games with Ryan.  Matthew was sick with a bad cold/flu and didn't come.  He was sick for over a week.  

Dinner was great!  Had fun visiting with everyone.  

Afterward we read/acted out the Nativity with the kids.  Then we played Christmas songs on bells Joy brought.  
                                                                                                   

A cake for Joy's birthday

Christmas morning.  Waiting to see if Santa brought anything.

Stockings

From Gr and Gr Wong

From Gr Safsten

  

Surprise Dad!

                                      

Jump rope from Jacob

Finally!  Some new pajama pants!!
Very needed!!

Jason wanted a Frost Guard for the 4 Runner.

Jacob got a new jacket.  You can see it was the HIT of the morning. Look at the excitement in his eyes!
Actually THIS was the hit of the morning.  A new computer!!!                                    

He loved it!!  

                   

Due to Covid we were unable to go to his Dad's house so we spent the day at home.  In the afternoon Karen and Daniel came by with some food and visited for a few hours.  This was good for my mental health state.  Continual time at home is not always good for me.

                                                                                                       

A good game of Jenga

                                                                                            

Worked on the 3D coloring kit

We put the puzzle together

We met up with Cathey's at the library one afternoon and Jaxon came over to hang out and have dinner.  

Playing Exploding Kittens

New Year's Eve.  We went over to Cathey's for dinner, games and a movie.  We played Exploding Kittens, Rumi Cute and watched Encanta.  

Almost midnight!  Getting ready to toast.
Happy New Year and on to 2022!