Spanksgiving

City League VB was cancelled this week due to the holiday, so I played with the Monday night league instead. There's a reason that I play Wednesdays, and that is that it is competitive. This was stupid easy and I was barely trying. But it was fun nonetheless. 

My favorite day. 

With Thanksgiving coming up and absolutely no desire to cook a bunch in one day, I split it up. I made a pumpkin pie and oreo cheesecake one day and sweet potato casserole the next. Then, all I had to do was warm up rolls, the casserole, and green beans and my half was gucci. We were going to have some friends over, but they ended up getting called into work, so we were solo and I was actually really excited about it. Roger cooked elk steaks, the rest of his turkey, and a ham as well as some bomb mashed potatoes. We had leftovers. 

Roger "taking care of the kids"

We also slept in and watched a couple of movies starring the Rock - Jungle Cruise and Red List, which are both worth seeing in my opinion and Roger's. We called some family and we got ready for our weekend. 

We also both worked on Friday. I only did it since Rog had to work too, but I hated it. Everyone else was off and was not smart about planning ahead and so I was supposed to see a bunch of patients for other people. It ended up being an okay day, but I was stressed. 

Not quite worthy of Roger's upcoming thirst trap account. 

After Rog got home, we packed up and drove to 12B to help his cousins Amy/Becky shoot their deer. There was a lot of drama. Becky's deer had a killshot and still ran 1.5 miles away, hiding so it took a while to track. Lots of guides were trying to shut down roads and scare people off illegally. The Rangers frequented our camp, but that was because they liked us and liked to chat even more. Amy shot at last light on Saturday night and ended up being pleasantly surprised by her kill. Carol had an ER visit. And a Florida man lost his gun, so Brandt & co lent him one and helped him fill his tag. 

And that's just the hunting part. I was locked in the trailer when Ryan left at 4am (and broke out, no sweat). Rog's fam came down for the day and Linn walked 3 miles, running the last bit - but Roger and Becky were told to take a different trail than ours so ended up not walking with us at all. Meanwhile, the YW teaching the lesson was mysteriously sick at 7am on Sunday and none of my counselors have even been to YW yet. 

I don't know if I'm authorized to share yet,
so keep this photo on the DL.

We had a good time and Rog even agreed to get me home by 6, which is a 10/10 in my books. Before we left, we decided to do a little more hiking to look for Florida man's rifle. Several of Roger's family had been out to look already with no success. But a gator hunt was on the line and as soon as I told HF that I would use some of my time there to help bring this man the gospel, he laid the rifle at my feet. Metaphorically. Really, it was well hidden in a tree. 

The gun and the finder. 

Drag me to the Temple

There is a new level to my Moochdum. I wanted to attend Roger's first round of tournament play for his intramural 3v3 games, but I no longer have a valid student ID - which they thoroughly examine. The alternative is to pay $10 for a day pass to get into the gyms. After approximately two minutes of explanations on why I shouldn't have to pay the fee, the front desk man let me in for free. 

Our volleyball team had a rough start on Wednesday, when our other middle hitter was out. Which made a huge difference when the other team's middles were both taller than me. We're still doing much better than we have in the past and I know we've beat that team before. We won game two no problemo. 

The pics don't do it justice. 

Sunday, the YW discussed different activities we could do that would be awesome and that we could invite friends to - ice skating, rock climbing, boxing, jousting, etc. Then I asked the girl in charge to pick one and she voted to redecorate our ward bulletin board. So that's what we did and that is now OFF the list for at least a year. 

There were only two of us in my boxing class this week, so we had a fun tailored workout. Too much abs for my taste (especially when I had done a similar workout that morning), but boxing is always fun. 

The visitor's center got a revamp too. 
Our favorite? The coloring wall. 

I convinced Rog's cousin Karen to accompany me to a Drag Show. It's basically a cross-dressing lip sync routine with mediocre dance moves and an overarching theme of positivity. It had a great vibe and I had fun scheming how I would've done it better. 

After lots of work and a change in shoes, I have improved ankle mobility. That means that my lifting class went a lot better. I felt good, I lifted heavier, and my form is getting there. I still hit myself in the collarbone with every clean, so I leave with nice bruises. 

One of my patients has been begging for weeks for Rog to come help paint a stripe around the top of her 13' ceilings so she can put pictures back up. We finally did it and I'm glad that we could check that off.

Love these kids. 10/10. 

Then Rog and I met my friends, Abbie and John Robert at the Mesa Temple for the open house. It was awesome to see them and to be in a temple. I kept telling them the celestial room was my favorite. Then we got to the baptistry and I changed my mind. That thing is immaculate and intricate and beautiful. It's even cooler to get to see the older temples with a lot more detail, character, and color. I know that temples are true. 

Dune & Goons

After a long time still (slowly) recovering from the flu shot, it was time for my every 6 weeks rest period. Meaning I only work out 1x a day and none of them are weight lifting. My body always feels really great and misses the gym by the end of the week. I also celebrated Day Lights Savings by working out at night so I could sleep in. AZ doesn't actually celebrate it, so I will be back on the grind and one hour closer. 

For Veteran's Day, my work had a chili cookoff. We actually managed to get a lot of people to come out. Actually, I'm pretty sure MOST of them were hospice workers from the office upstairs. But the chili was great. I contributed corn bread, which tied for first so I won some gift cards. And we had a sweet raffle, where I was allowed to put in as many tickets as I wanted, so obviously I won the free massage. There were other things too, but I was less interested.  

Two Goons. 

We had a combined youth activity on Saturday which involved rock climbing. Real rocks. Which was a good idea until we realized the rope we were standing near was NOT ours and bishop had accidentally chosen a MUCH harder spot. Still fun and nobody died. 

Rog came home early from his duck hunt to go on a date with me - a Chinese buffet (with the best rangoons in town) and watching Dune on HBOmax since it's free (thanks, Kel). The goons were delicious. The move - very overhyped and disappointing frankly. 

Uncle Rog. 

We had Karen & Josh over for duck dinner on Sunday. It was fun, Ellie's doing well, and Rog even asked to hold her! He stood up once with her and was scared stiff. He got his baby fix for the week and is one step closer to appreciating the young ones. Good for him. 

The Glow

The rate things are going, I'm not sure we're ever going to do our jousting tournament. At this point, Tim has cancelled on me 4x last minute. I'm debating about getting him a planned as a joke for Christmas, but I know he won't use it. BUT we will have rock climbing this weekend in Sedona and Bishop's in charge so it should actually happen. 

Roger's early morning view hunting
(and missing) ducks on Lake Powell. 

At city league this week, we had 3 of us show up on time and were only down by 6 by the time our teammates arrived and down by 9 by the time they hopped on the court. We came back for a swift victory. It makes a difference to have enough people to cover the court. And we won both our games. Although the second set was a narrow win. 

Boxing class is great. I really enjoy it. I hit things hard and get to practice the wallop and spinning backhand in addition to some other fun moves. It's a good time. 

My fave balloon with ducks and fishies. 
Forgot my good camera. Désolé.

I went to basketball this week with the old ladies. It's fun because they know what they're doing, but really aren't competitive and also I can be a force without putting in too much effort. Which is good, because even at 60% effort, my knee still swells up for the next 3-4 weeks. I'm ready for that to stop. 

Work is going. I head out to Williams twice a week and spend the other 3 days in Flag. My gas costs are down by 1/3 at least. One fun part of my job is just educating people on their conditions. It astounds me how little the doctors tell people - one lady complained about her hip hurting and I was like, well you broke it, so that makes sense. She had NO idea. 

The creepiest little girl balloon. 

We drove up to Page late Friday night. Eve and I watched the Balloon Regatta setup - they had some cool and some creepy looking balloons. And I didn't know about it early enough to get into a basket, but now I know for next year and I'll plan ahead. 

The reason we were in Page was to help clean out all the antlers in Stu's old room and move them to the shed until Rog sells them. They have quite the collection. Then we cleaned out the rest of Stu's room - leaving 7 generous totes and 5 very full trash bags. It looks livable now and is a much more feasible cleaning project. 

This one's for MGH.

At night, we headed to the Glow. Which is where all the balloons line the street and light up. And there's food vendors and a live band and a cool atmosphere. We got some really good raspberry cream soda and rootbeer. And I bought a new dagger for a pretty decent price. 

We drove back that night because I've got 20 tickets to the Mesa Temple Open House burning a hole in my pocket and I have some people that I wanted to invite. The family I was searching out was MIA, but I did meet another delightful couple with 2 recently baptized kids who said they were very interested and so we exchanged numbers to figure it out. 

Grandma Sandall planned an elaborate feast for us to repay us for the Cafe Rio we bought her last week. We were pleasantly surprised to hang out with Becky's family and Carol too. Roger got his kid fix for the week and we got leftovers for at least a day. So we're happy.