J + J: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

See you 2024! Each year I pick a word that described my year. My word for 2024 is TRUST. I don't need to rehash our challenges. But I will say this: one of Andrew's goals for 2025 is to be working for the same company next year! When he hits his year mark at BambooHR, we WILL be celebrating. Some context: my word for 2023 was ROLLERCOASTER. Let's put the startups and bad job stuff behind us.

This post includes a sprinkle of everything, but mostly joyful things!

The good: My mom being in the USA, our anniversary date, a jazz game, and a Ditto dinner

The bad: illness and traveling mixed

The ugly that turned out not to be so ugly after all: window replacement

Trip

Our first time traveling this year was to: Caldwell, Idaho. Our niece, Olivia married David in the Meridian temple on Thursday, January 2. Isabelle was asked to be a flower girl and obviously could not pass up this unique opportunity. Lucky Izzy! She even got to learn a special cowgirl dance that she performed at the reception. It was to the song, "Man, I Feel Like a Woman." Izzy and her cousin Saydee wore darling matching cowgirl outfits for the dance. Andrew and his brothers also sang at the reception and they rocked it. The reception was delightful.

The trip had many ups and downs. The wedding festivities made it worth it though. On our drive to Idaho, Isabelle threw up in the car. What a revolting stench. In the heat of the moment, I threw the bag full of throw-up out the car window (while we were going 70mph on the freeway) to prevent others from losing their lunch too. I vow to pick up lots of litter to make up for that. Disgusting.

Izzy was feverish and not 100 percent during the trip. Thankfully, she was doing mostly better the next day for the wedding. Andrew started to get sick on the trip as well and had a fever which then turned into digestive issues. Fun times. In fact, that week, Isabelle developed a cold, pink eye, and the stomach flu. Fast forward 2 weeks and Izzy randomly threw up again! We have had 4 bouts of the stomach flu since November. Thankfully only 1 of them got to all the kids but that bug was intense. I'm sure we'll remember these times for since they left their mark on our carpet. Winter is my favorite.

Sharing 1 hotel room as a family won't be happening again in the foreseeable future. We weren't able to join others at the airbnb. During nap time, we tried to sit in dark silence so Penny could get some shut eye. That worked for 30 mins. Penny didn't nap well or sleep as long at night since we were out late both nights (for the bridal shower and then the reception). Let me just say that Penelope was not her best self. I wish the Dittos could see Penny when she's her happy, chatty girl, not while we're traveling. She perked up for the reception after finally getting a nap and chipperly let others hold her. Others actually got to see her cute side.

Nana

My mom traveled to Utah. She aligned her cancer checkup with the arrival of her newest grandbaby, Dorothy. My mom is still cancer free. Hooray! Having her here was remarkable. We had a splendid time chowing down on scrumptious food and just being together. She tried high fitness with me! We got haricuts together from our long-time family friend. We went to the temple. Jessica and I introduced her to fabulous Slackwater pizza. She worked with James on his basketball shot. 2025 is here which means my parent's will return home in June. Their replacements have been called! Cue the Hallelujah Chorus. Penelope seemed to remember Nana and can even say "Nana" now and has been asking for her ever since she left.

Delayed Anniversary Celebration

Our anniversary sometimes gets put on the backburner with Christmas. We waited to celebrate 12 years of marriage until my mom was in town to babysit. She got sick, but we got replacement sitter and went on our long-awaited date. We ate at Cheesecake Factory in Orem. Absolutely make a reservation if you go there (luckily we did). After dinner, we went to the BYU men's volleyball game. When my cousin Jake played on the volleyball team, we went to games regularly. It brought back such fond memories and made us plan a time to return to another game with our kids and other family. I wore my Grandpa Reed's vintage BYU sweatshirt. He used to join us at the games. After the game, we couldn't pass up the chance to go to Rockwell Ice Cream. I am still mourning the fact that the South Jordan location went out of business days after we moved here.

Friday, January 10

Jazz Game

Andrew took the older kids to a jazz game. Thanks junior jazz for the free tickets. The tickets included a hot dog and drink. They were stingy this year. The hot dog was made for someone dieting and James guzzled the mini water bottle in line. Izzy saw a friend from school there. The jazz should have pulled out the win, but sticking with habit, they lost it in the end. Andrew deserves a high five for getting this great shot! He's learned over the years that lighting matters and that I don't want pictures with everyone's coats on. But don't be fooled. Winter temps are here and my countdown for spring is on.

Wednesday, January 15

Window

The kids ran out of Isabelle's room to tell us that her window had a big crack in it. We were surprised and I shouldn't admit that our initial reaction was, "did you break it?" They didn't. Our first estimate for the window replacement was $2300. What on earth? This put me in a bad mood. Luckily I had the thought to reach out to a family connection. We only have to pay $200 to get the glass replaced on one side of the window. We don't need an entire new window. Phew.

Ditto Dinner

Grandma Ditto (Andrew's Dad's mom) turns 92 this week. We had her over for dinner along with some other Dittos who go to BYU. (11 visitors in all) Andrew made his famous bacon wrapped turkey. We always shop at Winco in November and get a free turkey when they have that deal going. Penny adored Grandma and wanted to be held by her lots. The Ditto family is rapidly changing and I love hearing all the updates. Someone got kissed for the first time! Someone else just went through a breakup. Another relative has a job interview this week out of state! Aunt Laura drove grandma and I spent every second I could catching up with her. I love that woman! The game "smurf" kept everyone giggling. Baby Nora came to our house for the first time. I met her in December. (She was born the week before Dorothy.) Next time maybe I'll remember to serve the deviled eggs with dinner... Oops.