Cam

 

A lot has happened in the last few weeks.  Some of these things were heavy, sad and stressful for people we grew up with and love.

A family friend passed away suddenly.  Cam was my age.  The B family lived down the street from us and my mom babysat their two youngest boys while their mom worked at the school.  These two little boys spent so much time at our house they were almost like brothers and were particularly close to my younger sisters.  My mom considered his mom one of her closest friends too.  We are so sad for their loss.

Cam was in school when my mom started tending.  But he came to play with my brother and I a lot too.  He was old for his grade so he was just right in between Michael and I.  Michael was just a grade older than me.  That meant when his friends slept over, I was often included in the fun.

My memories of Cam were he was deaf in one ear like I am now.  That was so curious to me!  He used to say "Huh?" a lot and now I do that.

My favorite memory was when those three brothers were sleeping over.  And we were all hanging out in our playroom for what seemed like all night.  And we came up with the most masterful verse of the diarrhea song ever made.

I give credit to Cam because he was the brainchild of this verse.

If you're not familiar with the diarrhea song, it is very catchy.  

It has a tune that kind of sounds like Mamma Mia.  According to AI, its been around since the 1960's with all kinds of variations.  

When you're sliding into first, 

And you feel something burst, 

Diarrhea, diarrhea.

This was Cam's epic stanza:

When you're sitting on the john, 

And the toilet papers gone, 

Be a man, use your hand!

Diarrhea. diarrhea.

We laughed and laughed all night and felt it was the best collab ever made. 

I was expecting one of my kids to learn that verse at school recess someday and bring it home.  We heard all kinds of other playground songs!  It never quite took off, but it really should have.  Nothing has beat it yet in my book.  

It was a fun slaphappy memory.

Another funny memory is of my mom absolutely embarrassing me.  Cameron's family and our family went to California for Spring Break my senior year.  We dated for a few weeks when we got back.  He came to our house a lot more during that time.  And he was my mom's friends son.  He played baseball (I think or was it volleyball?) at the time and had some biceps.  And my mom starts talking about his amazing muscles and Cam probably loved that, but I was soooo embarrassed.  If you know my mom, she will say any good thing she thinks about someone.  She doesn't believe in keeping compliments to herself.  I love that about her now, but it was suuuper embarrassing at the time.

Years ago Cam posted a photo of his gorgeous baby girl, Lily.  I really don't know if a cuter baby could ever be.  She's adorable.  Cam's Instagram was mostly Lily.  I'm sad for Lily losing her dad so early in her life.

Prayers for this sweet family.  I know Cam will be so greatly missed.

Open Tabs

 Its one week til Miles and Josies wedding!  And I've got a lot on the brain!  Hoping to get some of these tabs closed here soon.  Here is what's on my mind:

1.  They are so cute and I'm very excited for them!  Their new apartment is awesome and such a great deal.  They've really been having fun getting it furnished.

2.  Planning their honeymoon to Paris and Rome and it's my favorite thing to plan trips and research cute hotels in Paris and other places.  Josie loves art, and I think she will love Paris!  Plans include dinner at Le Vent D'Armor, Musee D'Orsay, Eiffel Tower at sunset, Monet's garden in Giverny, and just lots of time to chill and explore.  Miles is excited about seeing the Vatican in Rome again.

3.  I am currently having a hard time seeing the beauty in my yard and that's kinda sad.  I see what needs to be done.  I see a to-do list. And I feel pressure because I need other people to also like my yard.  Unfortunately my opinion is not the only one that matters because this is a job that I want to do.  And a lot of people are coming over.

I see the vision and the long term plan.  I know that plants take awhile to get established.  I have things to move (July is not that time) and areas to re-imagine.  But it all just takes time and I'm doing the purchasing, loading, unloading, and install myself.  And normally that is just fine, but I'd love to increase my manpower right about now!

So this morning I just took it in for a minute.  Hopefully the things I'm a little worried about looking right will all be good!  It will never be done.  This will always be a work in progress I'm sure.  Wish I could just put up one of those construction type illustrated signs that shows what it will be like when its all done!

A few happy things:  My dahlias are starting to bloom!  So many buds coming on!  Got my first lisianthus too.  August and September is going to be really beautiful.  The panicle hydrangeas are close.

4.  Baby Asa is soooo darling!  I've not posted in so long because I feel like there is so much to catch up on.  But he's here and we are in love with this sweet baby.  He came right on his due date.  Elise is a champ!  And also very tired because he sleeps all day and is awake all night.

5.  It was my birthday and my husband is so sweet and really wanted to make my day extra great.  He knows my brain is in wedding mode and birthday is not something I'm thinking about.  But he and Soren were so cute they forced me to take some time to order the rollerblades I've been eyeing!  And we went to dinner and a movie with all the kids and it was perfect.  

6.  Yesterday we cleaned the garage.  Normally, you don't need to clean the garage before an event, because "nobody will see it" but that isn't true.  Actually, I'm not sure why, but people LOVE to come into my house through my garage!  And it's a bit embarrassing, like do you want to see my dirty underwear too?  haha.  Really though, it wasn't too bad.  We are slowly but surely getting rid of all the things we accumulated with a large family, multiple businesses, and lots of sporting gear.  It feels great!  Soren is very pleased.  Jared got over the initial stress of his wife dejunking and got into the mood too.  So we are all on board.  And we have a LOT more that can be easily done in a couple days.

7.  Josie's shower is on Tuesday and I'm very excited about it!  I ordered a cute flower cart in March and it will hopefully be done!

8.  And something else I love is dresses!  So I bought Soleil a little dress for the wedding and it's adorable and I think she will love it.  I hope it fits.

Sunshine Girl

We got to watch Soleil for a few days.  How is it possible that I've forgotten so much of what my life was like when I had five little kids to take care of each day?  

Watching Soleil just brought it all back.  Our favorite part was how she would be so, so happy in the morning.  We were in bed and would hear her little footsteps running down the hall into our room where she would burst in the door and jump all over us.  That was standard morning ritual for years with our five.  She is reminding us of all those sweet little moments.

Every second of watching her was so fun.  And the day she went home, we missed her so much.

Here are a few things about her:

She is super girly and wants to wear a dress everyday.  It was chilly.  So I bought her some cozy sweats so we could roast hot dogs in the backyard.  But it took some convincing to get her to put them on!

She is a shrewd negotiator.  She loves her books and would watch my face when she would ask for a certain number and if I agreed too readily she'd up the ante.  I read her a lot of the books her mama and aunts and uncles loved.  The Rainbabies, No David!, Pinkalicious, The Pigeon books, Tikki Tikki Tembo, Rosie's Walk.  But she would always want more!  We bought some new ones that I hadn't read before too.

She says thank you and please all the time.  She's very strategically persuasive with her polite language and its pretty cute.  

She loves her naps 

She loves meat and cheese.  

We planned a few activities each day, some normal stuff and other more special outings.  The zoo, swimming in the hot tub, roasting hot dogs, flower arranging, making cupcakes, going to a movie at the theater, Playdoh, watching movies, playdates, etc.

She has a lot of energy!  I needed a nap almost everyday!

We adore her and let me tell you, being a grandma is absolutely as great as everyone says it is.

This Week

Soren Track

Soren had a track meet yesterday and did so great in the 400m!  It was a tight race and helped Soren get a PR of 57 seconds.  We will get the official time today.  He is a really fast runner!  Sadly because his three events were back to back, he puked after his race and didn't have enough recovery time for the other ones.  Alpine days is next and his events will be on different days so much better that way.

Another Semester Down

I'm finally finished with my semester!  Only two classes, but school four days a week plus homework and drive time was not ideal.  Thankfully I'm done and I really did learn so much.  I was shaky there at the end, but finished strong and probably have A's in both.  Now its time to really reinforce what I've learned by practicing and studying on my own.

There are still so many things I want to learn.  The classes that sound so fun: Hardscapes, Irrigation methods, Soil Science, Trees, Grasses, Lighting, plant propagation and another sketching class.  Honestly I know I could learn some of these things on my own or in a job/internship.  I'd love to not have to pay tuition!  And its a bit of a bummer to be a post-baccalaureate student.  I don't really know that I want to do that anymore.  Grades go on my transcript.  But its not the same as working toward an actual degree.  

Yard Edits

Make way for more flowers! We removed the big blue spruce.  Thanks to Peter from my class.  I met so many knowledgeable, intelligent and eager people that love landscaping and are looking for work.  And in my area people are really looking for this!  Its been fun to connect them.  Peter had the spruce down in 40 minutes.  I was shocked.  And then the hard work of loading it all in the dump trailer in the hurricane that commenced.  It was a rough day for trees!

Everything was so warm in March that the leaves on my hydrangea, oaks, Japanese maple and sycamore trees were out a month early.  And then we hit 25 degrees.  This froze the leaves and they will likely take a month or more to releaf.  My fruit trees are covered in little tiny fruits, not looking good for their survival.

I am excited that Jared got the stumps all ground out yesterday!  We also used the stump grinder to remove the roots that have been heaving up in the lawn.  We got a new zero turn Ego lawnmower for a great price on FB.  We are all excited for an upgrade and don't want to have roots wreck the blades.  

Now all the things that are the big things are done and I can make the decisions on how to do my gardens.  

I need to get foundation plantings like shrubs in.  Then I am going to use spray paint like for athletic fields and mark off the sections.  String to keep everything straight and to create nice circular lines.

This year we are going to have to water a lot less.  No watering the lawn for awhile.  Which will be dry but lawn recovers easily.  And honestly if its between the lawn and my plants, the plants come first.  Thankfully most of what I plant is tolerant of low water.  With some hydrangeas mixed in there too, mostly panicles which don't need that much.

I bought thornless raspberries which are great in bouquets and now need to find a place to plant them.  

Wedding Season

We have three nieces leaving on missions soon and three more weddings for nephews and nieces in the next month!  Lots of fun!  We are hosting a shower for cute Kate on Saturday.

Ethan's Graduation

So happy for Elise and Ethan!  He's graduating from BYU Friday in Entrepreneurship.  He's been working full-time and in school full time.  Its a lot of work!  I'm sure he's excited to have more down time.

Elise's Pregnancy

She's looking so cute!  I'm so happy for her and excited to meet this little baby boy.  She has been pregnant for a year.  Its so long to have a miscarriage and then start over.  She's really feeling that right now.

Miles and Simone

These two are back in Virginia for another sales trip.  These trips take a lot of mental strength and they learn to dig deep. They are doing amazing things.  Pretty soon Simone will be in New Zealand.  Miles and Jared started this business together and I'm so impressed with all he thinks to do and how his mind works.  They are both working a lot.  Jared loves having people to collaborate with and its awesome when its your son.  Miles has a lot to figure out and is as resourceful as he's always been.  

Wedding Flowers

I'm very excited about Miles and Josie's July Wedding!  She has some beautiful flowers that she's been saving.  And I am hoping to grow some!  Look at her gorgeous inspiration photos:

I have these colors in my lisianthus, dahlias, feverfew, and Orlaya

This one also has the white cosmos and zinnias

So because flowers generally take a certain amount of days in the ground to bloom, we are going to need to start them earlier than usual.  

I generally plant my dahlias around Mother's Day, and the first blooms come at the end of July and they are plentiful in September.  I'm hoping for dahlias that are about a month early.  I start Cosmos and Zinnias from seed.  They are so easy to start from seed outdoors just doing direct sowing.  However, again I need them to be blooming a bit earlier. 

So I'm starting the Afternoon White cosmos, Precious Metals zinnias, and lots of peachy dahlias indoors and hoping they will have a head start.  

I plan to early plant my dahlias in mid April instead of May.  And I'm pre-sprouting them.  I have frost cloth and a low tunnel to help get the ground warmed up and in case of a frost.

This past weekend I started them inside on an old rack I had in my utility closet.

I got some lights at Costco awhile back.  And some heat mats.  I plan to get a new bigger rack that will accommodate more seed trays.  But for now my little laundry room grow operation is working out great!

So to start seeds inside, all you really need is some light seed starting soil and these trays from Amazon.  They have domes and are helpful.  But since I'm going to be planting quite a few and plan to do this for years to come, I invested in these trays from Neversink tools.  

Very excited about these "Precious Metals" zinnias from Floret.  Pretty colors!  
And I will save the seeds in the future.

Today--lots of tiny baby plants

Fingers Crossed!  We are taking out the big spruce and expanding everything this next week hopefully.  Lots of work to do!

Spring Plantings

I have done a fabulous job visiting garden centers and restraining myself from purchasing.

But today, I am looking ahead!  My Snuck Farm plugs will be ready to be picked up on Friday.  I'm excited.  

We will have A LOT of lisianthus.  Like at least 600.  Hoping to have them blooming earlier for the wedding!  I'm going to plant them all in full sun this year.  The ones with more shade did not do nearly as well.  They like it hot.

The tulips are looking good! They are all super early which is a little troubling.  Also still no sign of the 200(!) Cheerfulness Daffodils!  I will be very disappointed and confused if none of them come up.  Daffodils are considered very easy to grow.

Impatiently waiting for the other shadier side of my walkway to bloom so they will be symmetrical
But YAY for Deer Out and Liquid Fence!  Applied twice when the deer started munching the leaves on the emerging tulips.  But they haven't touched them since they were sprayed. 

Jared installed my retractable hose.  Gamechanger!  Now I need one for the front yard.

I have a shady north fence.  And I am very excited to have these anenome bare roots coming.  I wanted a BIG variety.  I like the pink color and think it will stand out against the white fence.  It will get 4 feet tall and bloom in August through the fall.  Last year my Honorine Jobert bloomed into December in my front yard!  This Queen Charlotte is a RHS award of Merit winner.

I'm hoping that my delphinium will also look really beautiful with that light blue.  And since the Delphinium like cooler temps, hopefully I'll have a rebloom with my anenome.  

Last week I listened to 3 audiobooks while cleaning up the yard and then when I finished I sat on my porch swing and was so happy that I planted this Daphne years ago.  This Daphne x Transatlantics "Eternal Fragrance" smells a lot like Jasmine and is so nice!  I love that it is evergreen and is super happy where it's planted, above my retaining rock wall where it has super good drainage.  Mine has hardly needed water and the soil is very rich but dry.  I put it here because I wanted a small shade tolerant shrub and I think the person at Cooks recommended it.  I'm so grateful they did!  

Daphnes are less common and most people are not familiar with them.  Another variegated variety is the Carol Mackie.  Sun River has that one in full sun and she gets pruned hard.  People always want to buy it but they are hard to get your hands on!

I didn't know what it was called for a few years.  It's one of my very favorite shrubs.  I think they are best placed near seating where you can enjoy the amazing scent!  They are usually 2-3 feet and can be short lived.  I'm a little afraid to prune mine!  But I love it.  According to RHS, they don't like pruning or being moved and sometimes die easily.  So I've just really left mine alone.

From Left top:  Eustacia Vye, Alnwick, Sceptered Isle, Teasing Georgia, Queen of Sweden

Bottom from Left: Gabriel Oak, Princess Alexandra of Kent, Evelyn, Princess Charlene de Monaco, Strawberry Hill.

When I first started planting my roses I didn't pay attention to their names.  I've finally figured out what varieties I have.  Some just had their tags buried!  One of them always gets tall and leggy during the season.  And finally it occurred to me that I planted a climber (duh).  So I need to support my Teasing Georgia (the creamy yellow one) with an obelisk this year.  

I bought an Olivia Austin and Generous Gardener climber that I'm going to grow on the side of my house that I will attach to the rock.  I got two bare root roses yesterday finally delivered from David Austin.

These roses are varieties I haven't had much luck finding in the stores.  So I just ordered them and hopefully they will successfully root.

Olivia Austin

Generous Gardener Climber

I also planted 5 iceberg roses last year.  3 are doing great!  2 not so much.  Hopefully they all survive.  

Also going to buy some thornless Joan J, Polka, and Canby raspberries!  I love my raspberries.  But the area they are in would be perfect for a gate to the front yard.  So we are going to try to get a new patch established and then eventually do something different there.

Miles and Josie are Engaged!

I was sitting at my computer typing my last post when Miles and Josie walked in the morning and Josie had this beautiful ring on her finger!

Awwwww I'm so happy that these two are engaged!  We hoped so much that everything would work out and they would end up together.  It's hard to know what will happen with missions and time.  But they are so sweet together.

Josie doesn't love to be the center of attention.  So he planned a proposal that kept that in mind and included her favorite thing: Art!

Josie loves art and in fact is majoring in art at BYU!  She painted beautiful watercolor paintings for Miles when they were dating.  The two of them are very creative!

So for his proposal, they went to Tibble Fork to watch the sunrise and paint Timp.  And in that quiet setting with just the two of them, that's when he proposed!

I love how Josie and Miles complement each other.  We all first got to witness this in 2023 when she came with us to Newport.  We knew we loved her.  But we got to know her better and she is not only smart, beautiful, kind, easy-going, but also has the best quiet humor!  I love her family too and am so happy that Miles gets to be a part of their family!  What a blessing that he saw her at Hobby Lobby all those years ago and looked her up on instagram and she agreed to go on a date with him.  

Charmer

 

Simone the Sales Bro

She finally made it to Bishop!  Famous boulders she's been dreaming about for years.

This photo popped up on my photos widget the other day and I loved her cute little smile
and her long bendy "arm-legs" as Elise used to call them!  This just captures her fun personality I think.

Okay, she's a saleswoman actually but sales bro just has that funny connotation.  I love seeing my kids try new things and discover what they are talented at!

Simone is a very social and outgoing person, and she's got a lot of confidence too.  Even when she was a toddler, this was very evident. She likes connecting with people and has a very compassionate and sweet way about her.

In January she went with Miles and Jared on their first sales blitz for their new company selling fiber internet.  Miles had been on a sales blitz for another company and pitched an idea to Jared about setting up this same kind of business so they could retain more flexibility.  They love the product since everyone needs internet and it's a superior product to what is available, and also less expensive than other options.  

Simone loves being independent and is a very hard worker.  She's been running her rock business, coaching climbing, and also working at restaurants.  And it gives her lots of free time and pays the bills but isn't quite giving her enough flexibility to travel, save, plan for the future.

On their first blitz she had never done any door-to-door sales.  She made enough that it was worth her while.  But not quite what these returned missionaries with door to door experience made.  But she knew that she would improve, and wasn't about to let being new to something discourage her.  I love her patience and growth mindset!

Her second trip, she tried hard to implement some of the different techniques.  She also focused on just connecting with people.  She loved seeing the history of the Shenandoah Valley.  Her climbing friend Siena came too.  They both killed it.  And they are both back this week, Siena's boyfriend too.

She has the best stories!  She was in Virginia, and it has been really interesting to her to be around people from other parts of the country.  The area she was in is very religious.  And people were very sweet. 

One old man had her watch a sermon on TV (his son was the pastor giving the sermon) and she did--for a whole hour.  Which I think is cute.  This man and his old wife who is a nurse really connected with her and texted her a few days ago to let her know they love their new fiber internet and have now printed off little handouts to give to the people at her work and their other neighbors.

She's jumped on peoples trampolines, petted their dogs, talked hunting.  Attended a BBQ at a Baptist church.  Was given a handmade cross necklace by someone she was talking to.  

At home Jared is tracking her location.  She was at one house for two hours and he was starting to worry.  But then found out that one of the families she was talking to invited their son next door to come over and also buy from her.  I think it's sweet that he's keeping tabs on her.

One married guy hit on her in a text after she'd left and Miles and his buddy showed up at his door a bit later and chastised him.  Which is so Miles and not wise at all, but didn't we all want a big brother who would be protective?  

Anyway, she came back from a 6 day trip with enough sales to pay for a whole year of tuition (she hasn't quite decided if or when she will start college but is thinking  of doing marketing at the U of U).

Since then, her install rate is nearly 100%, and has had multiple people call her back and want to buy.

She is so excited about this.  It's allowing her to go to New Zealand for several weeks to climb, and is in planning mode for a Mallorca trip.  She is just in awe that this is a real thing and can't imagine why everyone doesn't want to do this.  She says it's fun and she's super excited about it.  She always talked about taking a "gap year" to climb.  But the issue is how to fund all these good times as it wasn't going to be us.  She has always been such a hard worker and it's fun to see this avenue open up for her and impressed with her work hard, play hard attitude! 

She's  dreaming about getting a Toyota truck with a shell on the back that she can camp in with Annie.  Annie is the a great crag dog and Simone is determined to make her a healthy weight (she got fat right immediately following her hysterectomy).  Hopefully hikes to the crag and more exercise will do the trick.  Annie keeps a close eye on Simone and is always very protective of her.

Last week she drove her little Honda across the loneliest road in the US in Nevada.  She was meeting up with a couple of climbing friends during this women's climbing festival in the area.  Her car has been very reliable.  But as a mom, if I knew she was driving alone across the desert with hundreds of miles in between services and no cell coverage, I would have probably had her drive our truck.  But she didn't tell me until the night before.  Luckily her car made it.  But had low oil (despite recent oil change) and that kinda stresses me out.  So newer car for this adventurous kid sounds good.  She camped with Annie, and climbed with friends during the day.  It was her first time visiting the famous climbing area in Bishop, California and she was so happy to be there and get to climb with some of her heroes.

I love my outgoing and adventurous Simone!  

Vegas Getaway

The back of this was supposed to say, "She Said No"

I've never been a big fan of Vegas.  But it's warm.  And there are some beautiful pools.  And I was DYING to get some sun.

I feel like maybe my body is powered partially by sunlight.  I just feel sooooo much better when it's warm and sunny and I can be outside.

I joked with Jared all December that I might have gone dormant with my plants.  I just wanted to lay around.

But getting some sun and having a little break from school was perfection.  It was NCLC and so my classes were cancelled this week.  So nice for me to have a break.

We stayed in the Spa Tower at the Bellagio.  My only requirement was nice pool.  And this was so pretty!  All the citrus trees were blooming and it smelled amazing.  Bellagio has a big atrium garden/art exhibit that was super beautiful.  

And we hardly had to step foot in the casino.  We didn't rent a car and just got ubers everywhere (which was not much).

Jared got to watch March Madness, and I got pool time.  It was heaven.

We asked Miles to stay with Soren.  I loved how excited he was to do it.  Miles genuinely looks forward to hanging out with Soren.  Soren slept at Miles's house and went to the gym and church with him.  Miles taught him how to make a good steak.  And they played lots of games and stayed up all night.  Then when we asked if Soren could sleep at home on the first school night, Miles was like, "Dad, what I'm going to be teaching him is so much better than what he'll learn at school."  So instead of school, they programmed Soren a bot to help Soren make 3D models for his 3D printer.  I don't know if I have that totally right but that's how I understood it.

I came home all charged up and ready to spend the warm weekend at home getting my spring cleanup on my yard done.

So I got all 36 or so hydrangeas pruned

cut back raspberry canes and blackberries

pruned grapes

pruned more roses

cut back all the grasses

cleaned up cutting garden area and disposed of old plants

cleaned up and amended garden boxes

moved all outdoor furniture back

mowed the lawn a bit to pick up the rest of the leaves

more poop of course!  help from Jared and Soren

power washed the pool cover and cleaned inside of the pool

sprayed all the crazy thick weeds and pulled the rest

pruned the fruit trees a bit

picked up pine needles

started to wake up the dahlia tubers

3 loads to dump.  Next year I'm ditching all the refuse by our back fenceline probably.  It didn't really need to be hauled away, except for the thorny stuff.  Anyway, now its done and I can sit outside and enjoy the morning and not be mentally making a checklist a mile long.