First part of November 2020, shop foundation

 There's a lot happening in this picture, I'm not sure what's going on-- but I like it. :)

Navy's AMAZING picture of a witch!

Jethro getting glasses before his mission (well, his mission already started as you can tell from the name tag, but before he LEFT).  I voted for these ones, but he chose different ones.

I tried some on, and I kind of wish I had bought these ones.

An old picture of my dad.

and oooh, closer to the big day where the concrete will actually be poured.  I think I mentioned already, but this foundation pouring was one of those projects that took years off Brett's life from the stress of it all.  And we got in a pretty gnarly fight, but I mean, that was almost bound to happen with the level of stress being sustained.  And then I went out and helped him even though I was SOOO angry, and we kind of just got over it faster than normal because there was just no time to sit and fume.  We literally had to get ready for the concrete.  (And actually I didn't do very much of the helping, but I did a bit. At first when Brett wanted me to drive the truck pulling the huge trailer on the back I kind of chickened out and my dad came with me and drove (sooo nice of my dad!!!) but by the next few times that Brett needed another few supplies or another machine rented, I drove it by myself.)  (Also p.s. after this was finished Brett said, "Next time I want to do something like this, don't let me." But of course, you can't say something like that to Brett, so....??)  Luckily he had Jethro helping,

and Orrin helping.

Picture of how cool it was when Wyatt randomly discovered how wild the Ajax dishsoap will glow in the dark when you put a headlamp against it.

This was the morning the concrete was coming, and we were still a few hours out from being ready, so we were out before the sun was up.  (I think the morning of the fight, but hey, the sky was really beautiful.)

I was up so early I saw the kids leaving for school (Hazel drives and drops off Ethne and Talmage at the middle school).

Bryan came again (****a gazillion stars for Bryan who was literally a hero with all his good help and calm and awesomeness and coming all the way from Vernal again).

And then once everyone else came to help --so many great neighbors and friends!!!-- and the concrete arrived!!!!! I kind of disappeared into the house and only peeked out once in a while to snap a picture because I couldn't bear the stress at anywhere near full-strength.  The foundation wall-thingees did start bowing out, so they had to hurry super fast to try to shore them up, and the other worries of it setting up before it was ready correctly... I don't even know... ALL the worries.

There were some mistakes with where these bolts ended up.

But, although not absolutely perfect, it got finished!

Then that night Ethne had her 14th birthday party at Grandma's house, because she says that Grandma's is the best for night games.

So the next day we were moving some of the plastic covering the foundation with straw to insulate or whatever, and some of the kids were out there, and our neighbors the Jensens had come by and were chatting for a minute, a huge wind came up and so everybody had to run to sit/hold down the plastic so it didn't just blow away

and the straw and dust was blowing into our eyes and it was a crazy wind storm!

It did die down finally.  But then, no pictures of it, but LATER that night, Brett was finishing cutting control joints in his floor and right as he was finishing up, the wind suddenly picked up again, and basically a hurricane blew in and he made Talmage run in and call an SOS for every person to come help cover it again with the straw and plastic and so we were all out there (me, and Hazel on down to Wyatt) in the beating down rain, freezing to death, trying to maneuver the huge pieces of plastic in the gale-force CAH-RAZY winds, running through the mud to get big pieces of wood or rocks to hold it down... All our hands were freezing off, we were probably out there running around in it for at least half an hour, and then we had to try to get the last few things into the garage or under the deck and we were sopping wet, and right before we all went in to peel our sopping wet, half-frozen, muddy clothes off and go shower, we watched the wind pick up our trampoline and since it is strapped down to the ground, it picked up half of it and it completely bent over on itself.  Farewell to that trampoline.  The kids all did amazingly well helping even though our hands were truly freezing off, and Brett and I came in and got to the shower and were laughing and thought how fun it was.  Maybe we were slightly delirious, haha.

Snow the next day!

There was so much fun music when Jethro was home!

And playing with me!! I loved it when we all played together!!  And they loved it too--can't you tell?! 

Navy and our neighbor with their coincidentally matching shirts.

It was around this time when some people were getting COVID (I think Jared got it, and Leo, and so some people were having to stay home and quarantine, and couldn't come to Thanksgiving, etc).  And the school had cancelled all extra-curriculars like all sports, clubs, and dances (Hazel was sad because she had asked a guy to go to Sadie Hawkins with her). And we were just always waiting to see whether our school would shut down entirely and go to e-learning.

Jethro and Navy soaked up all the time together they could.

This was a walk we took around Newton Dam, although I don't think we went super far that day.  But we found a swing!

Ethne wanted to sit on it, so Brett had to help her.

Navy's picture of a psychedelic cat.

And a horse and an angel!

And one day  I took Hazel and Ethne shopping and Hazel found some jeans she needed and then was very bored the rest of the time while she waited for Ethne to try on a bunch of stuff.  So on the way home, Ethne asked what our favorite thing to shop for is (hers is shoes), and Hazel said, "I like shopping for art supplies." And Ethne said, "no, I mean out of clothing" and Hazel said, "hair ties."  And I said, "You've never bought a fancy hair tie in your life!" and she said, "I know.  I just mean the plain black ones.  Very easy to shop for... You just buy them." 

Then we went to pick up some Papa Murphy pizzas because we had a gift card, and I was looking at them while we were waiting, and they are so BIG!!!!  How can they look so grown-up and cool?  And how weird is it that we all wear masks all the time?  And how is Ethne (nearly) as tall as Hazel?

Talmage was out running in the dark one night and tripped, and felt his knee have warm stuff running down it, so we took him in for some stitches, especially since it was on the bendy part of the knee.

He got very woozy and pale at one point, so he had to lay back. 

Good as new!  And the nurse looked familiar to me, and I said, "I think you were our nurse the time I came here a couple months ago with my other son." And she said, "What was it? A bruised belly button from a motorcycle accident? I was just thinking about that the other day." and I was like, "Yep, that was us!" So it was good times.

I made this video because Jethro and Navy have such a sweet relationship and I was glad for Jethro's sake that Navy was born when he was 13 and he always had a little baby to hug and love him. :)

Here's a video of the song Jethro and Ethne and I played at his "farewell" that I absolutely ADORE. I can't remember if I've posted it on the blog already.

And, while I'm at it, here's an awesome video Talmage made that was super cool except I sent him a million videos and he didn't put ONE in of me.  😠😠

Annnnnd, one more video because, again, I can't remember if I posted it here before. This was a lot of fun for Jethro, Hazel, and I.  And even though I don't have a wonderful voice, I can whistle!