2026 Predictions

 1. Audra will be on a mission to.....Kansas (Claire), Salt Lake Temple ASL (Christina), New York City ASL (Audra), Texas (Camille), Florida (Ben)

2. Broncos vs. Seahawks in the Superbowl- Seahawks win!

3. Claire will have gone to Africa with HXP

4. Ben, Christina, and Camille go to WDW

5. New van for Christina

6. Claire has applied to BYU, Georgia, CSU, and Utah State

7. Claire is at the Legacy Campus for EMS

8. Camille is LOVING TRHS while doing basketball, ASL, and orchestra there

9. A snowstorm of 3 or more feet at some point

10. Trump will no longer be president

2025 Prediction Results

  1. Audra will be at BYU and loving it! YES! She says her favorite part is the friends she has made!

2. Audra will make the BYU marching band and will be playing at a bowl game over Christmas break Yes, but then no

3. Claire will be swinging up to varsity basketball YES!

4. Camille will be playing RVMS basketball and will be back to her healthy, happy self YES

5. I will have a new car. Or a new kitchen. One of the two YES- new kitchen!!!

6. Claire will be signed up to go to Africa in summer of 2026 with HXP- No, but she is on the wait list. It took her FOREVER to finally decide she wanted to go, and by the time she finally decide the spots were full. Now it's in God's hands

7. Camille will be signed up for the 8th grade trip, wherever that is to YES- she's going to Japan in June!

8. Broncos make the play-offs YES!

9. We will ride Tiana's Bayou Adventure YES!- at least 5 times...maybe more

10. We will have a beautiful Celebration of Life to honor and remember Matt with friends and family YES

Random Notes

Isn't Camille the cutest? I just thought she looked especially cute and had to get a picture.

And, a Christmas concert for Claire. We thought last year's would be our last, but Claire decided to do orchestra again which is awesome.

And, Claire got to play in a varsity basketball game! Only for a few seconds, but she was in heaven. She loves being on varsity, even if she isn't playing a lot. She still gets her name called at the beginning of the game with the roster, gets to sit on the bench, practice with varsity- she is very happy with her current situation. 

Flowers

 

Benson Boone Cookies

 My girls are obsessed with Benson Boone, so when my sister Stephanie told me that Crumbl was doing a special "Benson Boone Mystical Magic Cookie" I knew I had to get it. It was a fun treat!

Wedding

Camille and Audra went with me to a wedding. It was a beautiful wedding for Sierrah and Josh, and my girls looked beautiful, too.

 

Random Happenings

 Super Bowl fare- we had our usual dinner of sliders, sweet potato fries, and guacamole. We were happy to watch the Eagles beat the Chiefs.

I had a funny text thread going with my family where I said Claire was starting to see someone and also that I needed to do my taxes over the weekend. Stephanie responded that she wanted a picture. Of course, she meant a picture of Claire beau, but I sent her this instead.

And, it was "Wear Red" day for cardiovascular health, so in honor of Matt I wore red to work.

MIckey Mouse Waffles!

We are in some serious Disney withdrawal over here, but these Mickey waffles are getting us through! They are officially Ben's favorite and he makes them every Saturday. The girls get the batter ready, and then he grills them up. They are so fun!

 

2025 Predictions

 1. Audra will be at BYU and loving it!

2. Audra will make the BYU marching band and will be playing at a bowl game over Christmas break

3. Claire will be swinging up to varsity basketball

4. Camille will be playing RVMS basketball and will be back to her healthy, happy self

5. I will have a new car. Or a new kitchen. One of the two

6. Claire will be signed up to go to Africa in summer of 2026 with HXP

7. Camille will be signed up for the 8th grade trip, wherever that is to

8. Broncos make the play-offs

9. We will ride Tiana's Bayou Adventure

10. We will have a beautiful Celebration of Life to honor and remember Matt with friends and family

Prediction Results

 Here's my predictions for 2024:

1. Neither Biden nor the traitor/tyrant will win the election. A dark horse will come in and win the day No- Sadly, though I wish Kamala Harris would win, the traitor/tyrant won. Unbelievable since he is literally a self professed sexual predator convicted of 34 felonies who tried to overthrow our government by staging a coup, but that's where we are. Here's hoping his terrible health, senile brain, and love of fast food will do him in sooner rather than later.

2. Both Audra and Claire will have their first boyfriends- though we don't call it that because For Strength of Youth explicitly says no dating exclusively, and that's pretty much the only specific dating guideline Not quite- Audra is on her second boyfriend (heaven help us!). Claire likes every boy who smiles at her, so settling down on one boy is out out of the question for her.

3. Audra will know she's in at BYU Idaho and 1-2 other colleges, still waiting to hear back from BYU Provo. Yes- she's in at CSU, BYU Idaho, and Utah State. She'll hear back from BYU on  Feb. 17th and then can finally make some decisions.

4. Claire and me will be booked to a humanitarian trip to Africa (pending Ben's approval...which I'm not sure I'll get) Claire is on the wait list for Africa, we will see if she gets in or not

5. Reunion with my family in Tennessee No- Why on earth did I think we would have a reunion in TN? That is very random! But we did, thankfully, have a reunion in Seattle over the summer. That will be the last time we will ever be all together again until Heaven.

6. Broncos have another losing season No- they have a winning season, but can not seem to clinch the play-offs as they keep losing. They just need one more win, a win they have needed for three weeks, and can't get

7. Home renovations: We'll be starting on the kitchen OR moved to another house No. Oh man, I wish. We put an offer in on a house I loved, but we didn't get it. And no renovations on the horizon.

8. Claire will make the TRHS soccer team Yes, she did. She made third level. It did not go very well. In fact, it really turned her off of soccer, which is sad. But, it made her love basketball, and now that is her life.

9. Camille will be playing RVMS basketball. Sadly, no. She's had some medical problems that have kept her from playing basketball. We are hoping she can start in with sports again soon.

10. Audra will make all-state band. She still doesn't know, but because she hasn't heard back, she doesn't think so.

Ernie

Beth and DJ got a cat and my girls are in love! Now they want one, too!

Casa Bonita

 After a year on the wait list, we finally got the coveted reservation! We had to play hooky and pull the littlest out of school, but it was worth it. We found the food good (not great, but good), and the entire atmosphere more elevated post renovation. It didn't feel nearly as chaotic as before, we think maybe because people aren't wandering around with trays of food. And maybe because it was during school hours so not a lot of kids running around.

Definitely worth a trip- two thumbs up from us!

Eclipse!

 It wasn't nearly as exciting as the one in 2017 where we drove up to Wyoming and watched the complete solar eclipse in totality,  but it was still cool to see the partial eclipse. And, in 2045 the path of totality will be right in our front yard! How awesome is that?!?! So now I have already have plans for 2045- crazy to think we might have teenage grandkids then!

2024 Predictions

 Here's my predictions for 2024:

1. Neither Biden nor the traitor/tyrant will win the election. A dark horse will come in and win the day

2. Both Audra and Claire will have their first boyfriends- though we don't call it that because For Strength of Youth explicitly says no dating exclusively, and that's pretty much the only specific dating guideline

3. Audra will know she's in at BYU Idaho and 1-2 other colleges, still waiting to hear back from BYU Provo

4. Claire and me will be booked to a humanitarian trip to Africa (pending Ben's approval...which I'm not sure I'll get)

5. Reunion with my family in Tennessee

6. Broncos have another losing season

7. Home renovations: We'll be starting on the kitchen OR moved to another house

8. Claire will make the TRHS soccer team

9. Camille will be playing RVMS basketball

10. Audra will make all-state band

2023 Prediction Results

 Here's the results of my 2023 Predictions:

 1. When I review this post in 364 days, Audra will be driving herself and Claire to the New Year's Eve Dance! No. The dance isn't until January 6th, and Audra has a "friend" coming who lives in Castle Rock, so I think I will end up picking him up and then taking them all to the dance in Lone Tree. Sigh.

2. I will be released as Gospel Doctrine teacher and will be in Young Women's. Ben will still be in Sunday School. Partially true. I was released, but I'm the RS President (I promise the church is still true). Ben is still in Sunday School.

3. Audra will be in a top tier regional band of some sort. Yes. She made Continental League- woo-hoo!

4. Claire will complain about high school and seminary every day. She LOVES high school, but she complains about getting up for seminary frequently. But to her credit, she goes every day.

5. Remodel projects: Paint main level and new windows. Partially correct. New windows, no new paint

6. Broncos have another losing season. Correct!

7. Three trips to Disney. Correct!

8. Ben finally gets his Mustang Correct!

9. Camille switches instruments to no longer play saxophone Correct- she's playing clarinet

10. I am preparing to take the GT Praxis Exam to finish my Metro Certificate. Not quite- probably another year to go on that

Some Random Pictures

 Every year I say "never again will I canvass" and every year I'm out fighting for public education. The onslaught to undermine and dismantle education never ends, and it is maddening.

And here's cute Camille- apparently she eats pancakes by stacking them on her fork.

Roxborough and Taylor Swift

 

Ben and I went on a hike to Roxborough. It was really pretty! It's awesome to think we live just a few minutes from this gem!

Then, I took the girls to see the Taylor Swift Eras Tour Movie. It was a ton of fun! Not as great as her concert would have been, but dang- that woman is amazing!

Everyone was dancing, singing, and holding their phones up. It was an experience, not just a movie.

#Benough

 I have been working 12 hour days up at our rental properties (two turnovers in 3 days: Zero stars. Do not recommend.) and our portable AC unit broke. I almost went and spent $400 on a new one, but instead I decided to channel my #innerBarbie and I tore it apart and was able to fix it! Turns out she was right, I really can do anything!

I told Ben that he should take me out to dinner to celebrate, but he told me, "No. You have me, and I'm Benough." And how could I argue with that?

(Ben actually didn't say that, but it would have been funny if he had. I need to get him a t-shirt.)

Tornado

 We had a tornado come through Highlands Ranch! It was pretty insane, but luckily we had no damage, just some rearranged deck furniture and some downed tree branches. Others weren't so lucky- there's lots of downed trees everywhere. It followed a path about 2 blocks north of us, and then touched down about two miles east of us. Northridge Elementary School had a lot of it's roof blown off. We are lucky.

It was awesome to see the Elder's Quorum immediately jump into action- I quickly started receiving texts with men offering to come help clear trees. One even went and bought a chain saw so he could help. It was awesome to see the Church in action.

Heavenly Ice-Cream

 Ben and I had fun trying out Heavenly ice-cream. We got a Sundae in a coconut and it was a lot of fun, and absolutely delicious!