Other People's Messes

Our tenants moved out on the last day of February, so Craig and I spent March 1st (a gorgeous Saturday, luckily!) cleaning up our little townhouse.  It's so funny with that place, because I think I go through the same cycle every time we need a new renter: I step inside and say, "Oh, this isn't bad at all!"  And then as soon as I begin cleaning, I'm quickly so grossed out by how dirty the place is.  And then, after a full day of vacuuming, mopping, and just general scrubbing, I'm back to, "Oh, this place is great, I could totally live here!" 

Each time, I'm reminded that:

-Other people's messes are grosser than your own.  A hair in the sink, dust on the baseboards, mildew on the bathroom ceiling...  I can ignore that kind of thing in my own house for much longer than I'd care to admit.  (Sorry, Grandma Bentley, I know you're disappointed!)  But in someone else's house, it's absolutely revolting!

-You can't necessarily see the mess-- it's almost as if you can feel it.  You just know it's not very clean.  Even just running a vacuum along the baseboards and getting the cobwebs out of the corners makes SUCH a huge difference.  I definitely can't see all that stuff?  But you know it's there, just the same.

-Dog fur is really the grossest thing ever.  And our latest tenants' dog must have been particularly furry because there was just so much fur everywhere.  If I was even the slightest bit tempted to get a dog, this day of cleaning killed it.  I'm surprised the HVAC was even working, there were sheets of fur covering the intake...  Blurgh.

Anyway, we got it all cleaned up with one full day of hard work.  Props to Craig and I!  I showed it a bunch and it looks like we have new renters, although I'm a little bummed that they don't want to move in until mid-April.  But they seem like lovely people and I think this will work out well for both parties, so it's all good.

Life as a landlord-- it's an adventure!

February Goings On

I think I post this every year, but don't you just breathe a sigh of relief when February is over?  This last month felt so busy and I doubt that March will be any better, but at least we should be getting some spring weather soon!  Hallelujah!  I can hardly wait!

I already blogged about Great Wolf Lodge and birthdays, but there were a bunch of other little activities sprinkled throughout the month that deserve a mention (and maybe a picture or two)!

BYU had a devotional with Elder and Sister Uchtdorf, so we encouraged Bentley to get there plenty early-- and he ended up with a close enough seat that Craig spotted him in the audience on the livestream!  Averi is sitting next to him, but unfortunately she got covered up by the person sitting in front of her.  As Tracy quipped, "You can always spot a Milford man (woman)!" 

One of our youth activities involved playing human foosball-- the kids had a great time, although watching them repeatedly get smacked by (soft) balls was too much for me and I finally had to retreat to the lobby...

(There's Ryder in the blue shirt!)

(And Kendra is in the foreground here wearing an olive green shirt and sweatpants!)

Sarah and I met up for breakfast before she had to get to work, and I busted up laughing as soon as I saw her-- we did NOT plan this!!!!

But seriously, how cute and in sync are we???

We have had some seriously cold weather this winter!  One wet day the temp dropped suddenly and everything was covered in ice-- it looked so cool on Carter Mountain!

From a distance (ie, from our bus stop) it almost looked like the mountain was just fuzzy!

Averi and Bentley continue getting themselves to the temple-- how cute are they?

Speaking of temples, we took Kendra to do baptisms and met up with McKinley and her mom, Wendy (who is my new secretary and who I LOVE), so that was a lovely evening out!

I spent a TON of money at Target and now I have all these new clothes I love!  Including this cute dress that was perfect for Valentine's Day!  (Especially since I had to give a talk in church-- I had to look my best!)

Speaking of Valentine's Day, Camille and Peter had organized what was basically a date for them-- they wanted to go to Coldstone and the dollar store (where they each bought something for themself and something for each other), so Megan and I complied.  Colton & Gideon and Ryder & Truman also came along, although not as dates.  I guess?  And Megan and I also got ice cream, because obviously we weren't NOT going to get ice cream at Coldstone!  It was fun, even if I'm a little perplexed by my 10-year-old planning group sorta dates?!

The Young Men were playing Among Us, so Colton decided he needed a funny hat and this was the best he could find hanging around the church.  And I had a cold, so I was wearing a mask.  Remember those?

So we look pretty awesome, the two of us!

That same night for Young Womens we made sock puppets:

Here are our poor cold chickens all huddling together.  We nearly accidentally killed them-- C&C cleaned out their coop and forgot to put the water heater back into their water bucket and then it snowed again and got super cold.  Fortunately Kendra noticed that their water was frozen before they all died, but they were VERY thirsty!!!  It had probably been a few days!!!

My neighbor very kindly sent me this photo from six years ago-- look how little these kids were!!!

Clockwise from the top we have Camille, Colton, Beth, Scarlett, and Sydney

Bentley got a new haircut and had to send us pictures!  Apparently he's trying to look like Brad Pitt from Fight Club.  I guess Averi approves, so that's good?

Camille had a field trip to Wintergreen, where she got to go snowtubing with Mara and Mara's mom, Anna (ironically, this got canceled when we had a snow day, so I was glad they finally made it on the second attempt!)!

I totally should have signed up to chaperone this-- I blew it!

My neighbors all got together at Rachel's AirBnb in Afton Mountain for a weekend, so that was fun!  There were seven women total, just hanging out enjoying the fact that no one was whining at us and we only had to clean up our own messes!  (I was supposed to do this last year, too, but had to cancel when I got Covid, so I was especially glad my cold had cleared up in time for this!)  I didn't really think to take any pictures except this silly one of me alone in the hot tub, absolutely enjoying the peace and quiet:

We mostly lounged around in our pajamas eating chips and dip.  We also watched a lot of documentaries about women faking that they have cancer for various reasons (Scamanda on Hulu, and on Netflix, The Search for Instagram's Worst Con Artist episode about Belle Gibson!) and stand-up comedians (I got them to watch Ryan Hamilton and they LOVED him-- although by that point they'd had so much wine and gummies that I don't think it was hard to make them laugh; but Ryan Hamilton IS really funny, soo).  It was a really fun weekend, and I was so happy to get back to my family on Sunday!  The best of all worlds!

The Young Men played gaga ball for their activity

(A couple action shots of my boys, but honestly, based on all the other pictures Craig took, it looks like the leaders were even more into it than the boys!  And the boys were pretty into it!!!)

Meanwhile the YW were having making impromptu puppet shows with the sock puppets they'd made the week before:

And Craig and I had another temple trip, this time just the two of us!  Date night!

I love those enormous lamps!

Have I mentioned how great it is having the temple only an hour away?  I love it!

February Birthdays!

My two daughters both had birthdays!!!

For Camille (who turned 10), she wanted to eat out at Citizen Burger Bar for her special day.  She decided to open presents before we went to dinner, that way-- she reasoned-- she could enjoy her dinner without wanting to rush through it to get to her presents.  I thought that was a pretty mature way to look at it!  It was a cold rainy night, so we ate inside, all crammed into their huge booths.  It was noisy and very fun!  And delicious, obviously!  Afterwards we headed directly across the street to Chaps for ice cream, so it was a pretty great evening!

She got lots of lego sets and fidgets and fun things!

Her actual birthday was on the Sunday that we left for Great Wolf Lodge, so she opened her present from us before church, and then-- as previously noted-- we had Papa John's brownies and cookies for her that night.  We were going to do a party later, but then she announced she didn't really care about having a party, so we're skipping that this year.  Which is fine by me-- I was having a really hard time figuring out when to even squeeze one in.  February is a short month for so many things going on!  I never got around to actually making her a birthday treat, so I'm working on mint brownies right now (they're cooling before I can frost them).

(This was another Lego set-- a hippogriff, I think?)

Kendra (who turned 17!) wanted to have dinner at Marco and Luca, a dumpling place on the downtown mall that she and Bentley frequently go to with their friends.  I'd never been before, and I love dumplings so that was really fun for me!  We also all shared a chicken curry which was also very yummy.

After dinner we picked up Crumbl Cookies, and then it was time for presents:

An Eeyore lego set

And the cookies were delicious, as always...

How cute is she?

Kendra realized that the day before her birthday was President's Day, so she invited a few friends over to hang out with her before indoor drumline practice.  They spent the whole time in the basement, so I barely saw them, but she assured me they had fun.  They ate pizza and homemade Reese's peanut butter bars and watched Dr. Horrible-- what could be better than that?  

On her actual birthday, she opened her present from us before school, and she got to choose what we ate for dinner (this amazing pesto alfredo pasta).  We had YWs that night, and McKinley gave her the cutest stuffed animal possum which made me laugh-- real possums are so ugly!!!

(It was a Peter Rabbit wallet)

So I think they both had good birthdays.  Seriously, though, February is such a whirlwind!!!  But if it means the month flies by (which it definitely has), then I'll take it!

Happy birthday to my two beautiful daughters!!!

P.S. The brownies are done now, and Camille wanted to decorate them so here she is:

It's hard to see the green gel writing agains the chocolate background, but what she wrote is, "HAPPY B-DAY Hint Hint" with a picture of a hamster.  Three guesses as to who's angling for a pet these days? 

Great Wolf Lodge (and Snow!)

A couple weeks ago, we took the kids to Great Wolf Lodge, as promised on Christmas!  It was funny going again so many years later, because the first time we went, Bentley and Kendra had a BLAST, while Colton and Camille were really kind of young to enjoy it (and, quite honestly, were a big pain because we had to make sure they didn't drown the whole time).  This time around, Bentley wasn't even here for it {sniff, sniff} and as we walked into the water park, Kendra commented, "I'm kinda old for this place, huh?" and we agreed that she definitely was.  But she still had a great time (as did C&C so many years ago!), so I guess it all balances out, doesn't it?  The real winner here is Ryder who just loved every minute of it BOTH times!

Anyway, we had to do a lot of recreating old pictures, so bear with me as I share oodles of pictures from both trips!

When we arrived, we could go right to our room, so that was nice!  Also, the rooms now have wood (pergo) floors, which is a HUGE upgrade from that nasty carpet!  That made me happy!

Howling, because we're wolves now!

An old shot:

and a recreation:

We threw all our stuff into the room, got into our swimsuits and headed straight to the water park!  Kendra was very nice about the fact that our swimsuits match...

Another recreation:

Last time Ryder HATED the hot tub

😂

He was actually a big fan this time-- partially because he wasn't feeling great.  But honestly, hot tubs are just the best!

And, like Bentley last time, the kids are now very good at the obstacle course:

And, again like last time, Craig got pictures of the huge bucket dumping water on everyone:

(We might not be good parents...) (But really, they're having a blast!)

Okay, I think those were all the shots that lined up with our previous trip-- time for a little more narrating...

I have to admit-- when we first arrived, I wasn't terribly excited to do any of the water park stuff.  It just seemed like a pain.  But fortunately I realized (pretty quickly) that I was just being a lame-o stick in the mud, and I wasn't going to have any fun at all unless I decided to actually TRY to have fun.  So I dutifully followed everyone around as we did the lazy river and the slides and it turns out I was just forgetting how much I love all that stuff!  Before I knew it, I was having a blast right alongside my family.  Which was the whole point.  Whew.

Anyway, that first day, we arrived, hit the water park, had a great time, and then retired to our room with Papa Johns Pizza and watched the Super Bowl.  Since it was also Camille's birthday, Craig ordered some desserts along with our pizza (brownies and a pazookie), which we stuck candles in and urged her to blow out before we could set off the smoke alarm.  

I mostly read my book and then glanced up at the TV if there were interesting commercials.  I didn't particularly care who won, but it did seem like it would have been more interesting if the Chiefs had actually tried to play the game.  Just my two cents!

The next morning we let the kids head off to the water park as soon as it opened, and I followed behind them a few minutes later.  We did all the same stuff, and when it looked like there was a chance of getting bored, Craig suggested we head into Colonial Williamsburg for a change of scenery.  We also promised them ice cream, which was all we needed to get everyone excited!  We grabbed lunch at Taco Bell and Craig hurried the kids to the musket demonstration while I found us some free parking.

Camille, Craig, Kendra, and Colton all sat up being judges at the courthouse

The weather was chilly, but not terrible.  But it always felt nice once you could duck into a building and away from the breeze.  Ryder had said he wasn't feeling well, so we gave him a ton of ibuprofen and told him he was fine.  Between that and the promise of ice cream, he was managed all right.

Here they are looking sorry for their sins

Camille looks WAY too happy to be here!

The apothecary was a big hit!

Finally it was late enough that all the colonial stuff was closing.  Time to find that ice cream!  Of course, that's when we discovered that most of the shops and restaurants were closed because it was Monday!  Before Ryder could despair, I assured him that SOMEWHERE there was ice cream and we would FOR SURE find it.  And we did-- there was a Kilwin's open just a block or two away, and it was perfect: when we walked in, we were offered free samples of fudge.  And then as we finished our ice cream, the same guy who gave us fudge was making caramel corn, so he let us watch while he explained everything he was doing and gave us samples of that, too!  He was so friendly, the kids just loved him.  

So everyone was happy!  We got dinner at the Cheese Steak shop (mostly Craig and I got dinner and the kids ate fries) and then headed back to our hotel to spend a few more hours at the water park!  It was pretty empty by then, so everyone enjoyed getting to do everything without having to wait in line!  So Ryder finally got to do the Flo-Rider, which he is pretty good at!

We went to bed that night and I...  tossed and turned and felt terrible.  It was really weird, because I didn't have any of the usual symptoms-- no coughing, no runny nose, no sore throat.  I just felt awful.  Everything hurt.

Once everyone else finally got up, I sent them to the water park for their final morning and I stayed in bed hurting.  Eventually I took some medicine and that got me feeling good enough to at least pack up my stuff and help load the car once they came back.  They'd had a great time again, even if I wasn't there!

This video is in slow motion, so it's way longer than it needs to be.  But if you skip ahead to the 45 second mark, you can see Ryder twist around in a circle and then recover and give the camera THE biggest smile-- what a pro!

Pretending to be Iron Man

Our original plan had been to stay most of the day, but Mother Nature had other ideas and there was a huge snow storm heading towards Charlottesville.  We didn't want to get stuck in that, so we headed out when we had to check out of our room, right as the snow was beginning to fall at Great Wolf Lodge.  As we got closer to home, there was more and more snow sticking to the trees all around.  It was very pretty, if a wee bit stressful.  We got home just as it started sticking to the roads and right as my meds wore off.  I started one load of laundry and stayed in bed the rest of the day.  I honestly felt so bad knowing that I'd made Ryder wander all around Williamsburg feeling as awful as I felt!!!  But everyone else had a great time playing in the snow!

I think Kendra made these cute snow hearts?

This is Ichi-snow!

And playing with Sydney and Beth (and Lexi)

I woke up the next morning drenched in sweat, but feeling WAY better.  I rolled over and saw that Craig had gotten himself two extra blankets and correctly deduced that he was now sick.  Except he also managed to get a cold at the same time (which he then passed on to me), so he was even more miserable.  It was a good thing we were all staying home anyway!

Anyway, that was our little mini-February-break!  It sure was nice to get away for a couple days!