I'm An Abolitionist!

In February, I read a book called "Slave Stealers" by Timothy Ballard, the founder of Operation Underground Railroad.  It tells the story of modern day human trafficking, comparing the underground railroad in America's slave trade to his organization's efforts to free people from sex trafficking.   It made a huge impression on me!  I felt a desire to help.  I mean, really what I wanted to do was go on an undercover mission and beat up some scum bags, but since I didn't think they'd be looking for 40-something-year-old women, I decided to just volunteer.  I found a nearby event that was looking for volunteers, and I signed up.  I didn't want to make anyone else do it if they didn't want to, so I just went alone.  I'm like that.

The event was called "Ladies Spa Night." It was held at the Leonardo Museum in Salt Lake City.  Basically, several professionals in all sorts of self care fields volunteered their services. Women paid $50 to come to the event and get pampered.  There were different types of massages, facials, counseling, aromatherapy, makeup, etc. stationed all throughout the museum.  They also had a silent auction and raffle to raise more money.  It was pretty cool to see the number of women, both attending the event and volunteering, who want to help. 

This is a picture I took while everyone was getting set up.  I was stationed at the top of the escalator on the second floor.  I helped people stay in the right order as they waited in line for facials.  It was a pretty easy gig.

Plus, I was stationed in the Jackie Chan exhibit.  So that was was pretty cool.

The line for the facials was painfully long, but since it was a charity event, everyone was pretty cool.  I'm really glad that I took the opportunity to volunteer.  It at least made me feel like I was trying to do something.

Snippets

Here are a few things that were going on in our lives during late February and early March:

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Josh had a very big project in his fourth grade class. It took months of work to complete.  He had to choose a person he'd like to learn more about and read a biography about them. Then, he had to make a very detailed and specific cut-out of that person sharing all the information he had learned.  Finally he had to dress up like that person and give an oral report (in 1st person) to his class.  Can you guess who he chose?

Stan Lee. Pretty good, right? I was very impressed with the hard work he put into his project.  NDPA sure is an excellent school!

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Here is a picture of Nicole getting her braces put on.  She was the first of three. OUCH!!!  Bronson had a retainer originally, but switched to braces - that's another story.  Alison did I nvisalign - the clear plastic ones. Nicki had traditional brackets.  Her work was the most extensive because she had to correct an underbite.  I went to the orthodontist a lot between all three kids, but that's okay because he has massage chairs in the lobby.  

After her braces were put on, she begged me to take her to Jamba Juice for a celebration.  I said okay.  In the parkinglot, as I got out of my car, I just happened to drop my car keys. Right. In. A. Storm. Drain.  Bam. Like that.  In the pouring rain!  I had no choice but to go in to the store, call David, and wait until he came with a spare key.  Oh, well.  it gave Nicky and I a chance to chat while we drank our smoothies.

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Thank heaven for early blooming flowers like this crocus in my front yard! Just when I thought winter would never end!

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On January 21st, Josh's school sent a team of students to UVU in Orem to compete in a spanish competition.  Josh was in a play which his team wrote, directed and starred in.  I believe he was a wolf in it. It was a super experience!  And his school took first place overall!

Here is the whole group from NDPA. Josh is in the upper right corner.

And this is just his grade. He's in the back row on the left.

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Here is a cute picture or two of Quinton taking me on in an arm wrestle.  I sure do love that boy!

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Josh and his friends joined an indoor competitive soccer league.  It was his first experience with indoor soccer. It was fun - and one of the dads on the team procured sponsors so it was totally free for us. But they got demolished every single game. It was pretty clear that the league was created so that the club team could have teams to practice on.  That's okay though. We had a great time sitting in the stands with basically everyone in our neighborhood and cheering on our boys. And it helped Josh keep up on his skills.

This is a picture of Walker, Max, and Josh hanging out at a frozen yogurt place after one of their games.

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Did you know that on the Vernal Equinox, an egg will stand up on it's end? That's what David told us. So he decided to give it a try, and look what happened!!!

Oh. Wait a minute.  I get it now. He cheated.

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In March, we finally found a company that could meet David's exacting standards.  He always thought solar power was awesome, but it was just to expensive to justify. He wanted to trade the power bill straight across (of even less) for the solar bill. Finally, we got an offer from a solar company that met that standard. David loves his solar pannels.  For months after we got them, he'd stalk them on our computer's tracking software.  He'd be like, "Kelley! Look how much power we generated today!" It was all very cool. Of course, with the number of power-suckers in this house, we have enough panels to light a small country!!!

Alison's Hidden (or maybe not-so-hidden) Talent

When Alison was registering for Davis High School, she had a hard time figuring out what she wanted to do as an extra curricular activity.  She had dabbled in show choir and drama in Jr. high, but she wasn't really committed to either.  Sports were also of no interest to her. I suggested that she give debate a try.  I said, "Al - I know nothing at all about debate, but I'm pretty sure you've got a gift for it.  You've been debating with me since before you turned two years old."  So, we took a blind leap of faith and signed her up for a debate class.

I should mention real quick that Alison was not happy at Davis High School.  The move to high school split up her group of friends - with most of them going to Layton High School.  Of the three girls that went to Davis, one became really involved in drama and just naturally drifted away from the other two. If one was sick or needed to take a test at lunch, etc. the other one was all alone. Also, there is a very different feel at Davis HS.  It is comprised of mostly wealthy families. Many of Alison's Davis friends went out of the country for fall break, Christmas break, spring break, etc. Davis is also known for having high standards. I went to a scholarship interview with Alison once, and the counselor told her not to be too discouraged with her GPA because colleges also look at other things (her GPA was 3.95).  I was floored!  Ali said no one would talk to each other as they walked down the halls.  Even people who knew each other in Jr. high would not make eye contact with each other.  Her friends at Layton HS would see her on the weekends and tell her all about how fun school was and how they talked to so-and-so in the hall, met new friends, etc.  Anyway...I told Ali I would apply for a variance for the following year.

But I digress.  The reason I tell you this is because the Davis High debate team was Alison's saving grace.  She loved it from the first day of class. The kids in debate became like a second family to her.  And, as I suspected, she discovered that she definitely had a talent for it.  I was so nervous for her when she went to her first tournament (you can't really attend and watch.  It's not an audience sport, and having people in there could be distracting). I texted her multiple times for updates.  Debate tournaments go very late into the night. Finally she texted me back saying that the awards ceremony was over and she had taken 2nd place in her event.  What?!?!?

One of the many trophies she and her partner, Malani won.

For those of you that know anything about debate, Alison usually does Public Forum.  It is a two person team event.  Her partner was exceptional.  They won several times.  Davis's debate team was very good and I really liked the coach.  One thing I liked is that she made each speech person try a debate event at one tournament, and each debater try speech.  I think it was good for them to try something different.  I NEVER was allowed to see Alison in action, but I took the opportunity to volunteer as a judge at three or four tournaments so that I could learn what it was even about.  I had never seen anything debate-ish in my life.  But I do have a degree in communications and I know a thing or two about public speaking. So after a nightmare of a first tournament where I tried to judge Public Forum, I stuck to the speech side of things.

You see that since I couldn't get pictures of her debating, I had to steal these from her Instagram.

Debate is a pretty impressive extra curricular activity. It requires some serious skills and a brain to match.  I think it's a great way to prepare kids for college and beyond with critical thinking and communication skills. I kinda wish I'd have done it.

My Health Troubles

I'm not sure why the Lord has blessed me with so many health struggles. It kind of stinks. But, oh well - He has. And it's part of our family's story so prepare yourself for a long boring post about my health.

Yay for me.

You may or my not remember that in 2018, I had an emergency appendectomy. We didn't know it at the time, but I didn't even have appendicitis.  Chances are, I didn't have to remove my appendix at all. (Or maybe I did - who knows?). The lab results showed that my appendix had terrible endometriosis scarring, etc.  And when they went in to take my appendix, they found a TON of terrible puss throughout my abdomen (again - endometriosis). So I was told that I needed to do something about it.  If it was bad enough - and clearly it was - endometriosis could attack your other organs.

In January, I went to my regular OBGYN, the one who delivered Quinton.  He looked at my files and photos from the surgeries I'd had (I also had an ovary removed in 2017 - again, due to endometriosis) and said, "Yes - this has got to come out.  You need a complete hysterectomy.  That's the only viable solution at this point." The problem was, as he put it, he wouldn't touch me with a ten foot pole.  The likelihood of the scarring making me a mangled mess was too high.  It would probably be a difficult surgery, so he recommended a couple of specialists he thought would do a good job.

I few weeks later, I met with a specialist in Ogden.  She was not my favorite person.  In her defense, she was super pregnant at the time so maybe she was a little cranky.  She basically scolded me for not being on birth control pills (as if I was supposed to know that they help with endometriosis). She said she wanted me to get on the pill for a few months before she would do anything with me - the pill could help with the tissue damage.  She said that it should make me have little to no bleeding and that I would feel tons better.

Nope.  In fact, the opposite happened. (At this point, you may want to skip ahead a paragraph - I'm going to get a little gory).  A couple of weeks after I started taking the pill, I started bleeding.  I mean, really bleeding.  I literally couldn't leave my house for more than an hour or so.  I bled through my clothes almost daily - something I hadn't done since I was a young teenager. I ruined so many outfits, as well as chairs, etc.  I passed clots the size of my fist - not exaggerating.  It was awful!

I called my doctor, and after days and days of waiting, she finally got back with me and said she'd prescribe a different pill.  It only made things worse. After a month, I was literally getting weak from blood loss.  I called again, and she eventually called back and sent a third prescription.  This one stopped the bleeding.  Good thing, too.  I was bleeding to death.  I got the bleeding to stop in April, and when I went into surgery in May, they were considering giving me a blood transfusion before hand because my blood count was still so low!  It's a really strange feeling to have to rest all the time, just from doing simple things.

I had the hardest time getting any kind of help from the doctor, so I decided to find a different one.  More about that later. That's all you need to know for now.

Quinton Turns FIVE!!

Oh how we love our little Quinton! He is such a charmer!  He makes everyone in this family laugh every single day.  What would our lives be without him?

Since his birthday was on a Sunday, I took him to get his first birthday present on Saturday.  We went to Build-A-Bear Workshop. Quin had a wonderful time there.

On Sunday morning, he opened his brithday presents.  Look how excited he is!

Five is such a great age because every present is amazing to a five year old!  Quinton loved all his gifts!  Then he went to church, where they sang to him and he recieved a special gift from the bishop.  Cool!

For his special birthday dinner, Quinton chose pancakes and strawberries.  Doesn't get much better than that to this boy!

Unless you get a GIANT birthday pancake!  

Grandma and Grandpa Smith and Uncle Dave came over in the evening for cake and ice cream.  That meant even MORE presents!!!

A HUGE mosasaurus! Or as Grandpa Smith calls it, "fishasaurus."

Since we couldn't really go anywhere or throw a huge party on a Sunday, we decided to have a pinata.  

Quinton needed some help from his older siblings to break it.

But they cracked it eventually.

Then we sang happy birthday to our cute boy and had cake and "play dough" ice cream.

I love celebrating birthdays and showing our kids how special they are to us!  Look at that face!  It's important to feel that happy once in a while!

Happy birthday, Q-Ball!  Quintonium! Quinny Boy!  My little Quinton!

Why not?

As if I didn't have anything else to do with my time, I made ANOTHER life-altering decision in February.  I joined a Crossfit gym.  Crazy, right?

Anyone who knows me knows that I've been a HUGE fan of the Crossfit Games for years!  I first started watching the Games in 2015 and I know everything about all the athletes stats and backstories, the programs, the history of Crossfit and its executives, etc.  It's my sport!  I've tried to do Crossfit workouts from home, but it's not the easiest.  I've always been unable to join a gym, though because of the tremendous cost (over $100 per month) and because I've had little ones at home.

My brother-in-law, Scot Wahlquist has been doing Crossfit for years.  He's been telling since clear back when we lived in Idaho that he knew I'd LOVE it if I'd just give it a try.  Well, in February the box (Crossfit lingo for gym) that he goes to was having an open house for its brand new building.  Scot told me to come check it out, and maybe I'd win a free month member ship or something.  So David and I went.  It looked pretty amazing - and super intimidating!  But while I was there, Scot introduced me to the owner and his manager.  They were really cool people. After chatting for a while, they offered me a deal: if I would work in their playcare for two hours a week and for two hours one weekend per month, they would trade me for a free membership.  It was like an answer to prayer!  Truly a miracle to me!

I think I'll copy a post I wrote a couple of weeks after joining the gym so you can see how I felt at the time.  It is probably more accurate than I would be if I tried to remember how I felt those first few weeks.

I TOTALLY SUCK! AND I'VE NEVER BEEN MORE PROUD!

Two weeks ago I joined a gym. Not just any gym mind you; I joined a CrossFit gym! What can I say? I’ve always been a “go-big-or-go-home” kind of person. Honestly, I’m not sure what I was thinking when I joined. I’m not exactly CrossFit material. I’m a 40-something year-old, lazy, overweight big mama! The first time I walked in, I said to my husband, “Those people are cyborgs!” I had no idea that those kinds of fit bodies even existed in real life. I thought they were only in the movies! So literally, just walking in the door for my first workout took a Herculean effort for me. I was so uncomfortable and embarrassed and lost and a little terrified. But the one thing I had going for me on that first day was naivete. I had no idea how bad I was about to hurt.

And hurt I did! I could barely get myself off the ground when that first workout was over. For me, day two was even worse than day one because not only did every muscle in my body hurt (literally every muscle! The muscles in my fingers even hurt!), but I knew what was about to happen when I walked in those doors the second time. I knew I was going to hurt. And I was not sure if I could do it again! That was the day that I decided would determine what kind of person I am. So I made myself go. And I made myself complete the workout, just to prove to myself that I wasn’t a quitter.

I’ve been going to the gym for two weeks now and during yesterday’s workout I had an epiphany: I suck. I really, really suck at CrossFit! I am working out next to cyborgs who are doing things I didn’t even know were possible a couple weeks ago. I am doing a fraction of what they are doing, it’s taking me twice as long as them, and I am significantly closer to death than they are. The workout we were doing yesterday consisted of six different moves which we repeated three times. Midway through the first round my mind started telling me things like, “You can’t do this! There’s no way you are going to make it to the end of this workout.” But I pushed those thoughts out of my mind and kept going. By the time I finished my second round, some of the cyborgs around me had completed their third. It’s a little disheartening to know that other people are finished for the day when you have so much more work ahead of you. But I kept going. By the time I got to my third move in the third round, my mind was screaming at me to give up. The move was a burpee box jump. Now, burpees really ought to be renamed Satan’s push-up or at the very least puke-ees. And box jumps are out of the question for me right now. All I was doing was flopping on the ground, dragging my carcass up, and stepping on and off of a 20-inch box. But I couldn’t do it anymore. I hit the wall. At this point I thought to myself, “Who’s watching? Who would even notice if I shaved off a couple reps?”

I answered my own question. “I would notice. And that stupid box would. And that box will not beat me.” So I did it. I did every single rep. I did it as slow as molasses and I thought my heart might burst and I was dripping sweat and I was the last one on the floor. I totally sucked. And I have never been more proud! Because that second workout wasn’t the only one that proves what kind of person I am: every workout proves it. And that’s something that carries over to my life outside of the gym as well. I’m trying to be a decent wife and mother, I’m trying to serve the Lord, I’m trying to start a business, and run a house, and do a million other daily things. Sometimes it’s just dang hard! It would be so easy to skip a few reps here and there. C.S. Lewis once said, “Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching.” And if I can do every rep of that workout, even when no one else was watching, I know I can count on myself to do all the other hard stuff life throws my way.

Valentine's Day 2019

Alright. Confession time.  I am almost a year behind in writing this family history.  When you get behind like that, it's difficult to remember details about things.  So, I can't really tell you much about Valentine's day except for the things I took pictures of. It is highly likely that David and I gave our kids little gifts and balloons when they woke up in the morning, but I can't be sure since I didn't take any pictures.  Let's just assume that we did.  I believe Alison got a gift or two from a boy or two, but she really downplayed it - "They're just being nice.  They do that for lots of girls, etc." And I'm sure the boys handed out valentines in their classes.  That's always super fun!  That's all I remember.  Wait!  I remember that David bought me a beautiful heart-shaped box of Mrs. Cavanaugh's chocolates.  He really knows the way to my heart!

After school, Bronson and I spent some time in court.  Ha ha!  That sounds shady!  But really, he was doing a report on a possible career choice of his - an attorney.  And our neighbor, Clint Heiner is a prosecuting attorney for the DA in Salt Lake City, so he offered to give Bronson a tour.  It was actually super fascinating!  Alison tagged along because she also finds the whole court process fascinating. Clint took us all around.  We got to see some behind-the-scenes stuff that we'd never get to see without him.  

Clint got a bailiff to open up an empty courtroom for us.  Bron was able to see what it feels like to be on the witness stand.

And in the jury box.

Here he is outside the courtrooms overlooking a pretty rotunda.

And here he is behind Clint's desk.  Clint really took some time explaining what he does and how the process of prosecuting works.  It was so cool of him to do it!  We learned a lot and have a greater appreciation for all of the many people out there working to keep the rest of us safe.

In the evening, David and I got the kids a heart-shaped pizza and we went out on a Valentine's Day date.  We went to a crazy burger joint in South Weber called Burly Burger.  We ate astounding amounts of calories, but it sure was tasty!

I loved their wall - filled with sage words such as, "Be honest. Is this too much lettuce?" and "Get your fat pants ready." 

We shared a milkshake while we waited for our order (it was Valentine's Day - you can totally eat dessert first on Valentine's Day!)  The shake was roughly the size of a barge! Then these dainty little meals came out.  We did our best, but I don't think we were able to finish them.

Look at that happy man! That red jacket was a Valentine's Day gift from me, by the way.  I think hamburgers are David's love language.  They might actually be mine too.  So we both got exactly what we wanted to Valentine's day!