Happy Merry Chrimas

The new foretold disaster this week, which actually wasn't too bad. It was supposed to snow BAD and it ended up being warm enough for mostly rain after an initial flurry. It's supposed to keep snowing this next week and be even colder, so we are feeling blessed to have our new vehicle. And even moreso since I was on a terrible and muddy road in Williams to see a patient, knowing full-well I would not have even TRIED in the Prius. Good timing. (And planning).

A whole lotta pot for Christmas.

I went on a run earlier in the week (before the weather), and felt really good. I wasn't sore at all, my knees felt pretty good during, and only all my other joints hurt instead. It's a step up. And it felt good because I needed some cardio.  

Rog's gift of matching knives for our friends. 

I was off on Christmas Eve, which was the worst snow day. I watched Rog play bball with my old chums and chatted when they were subbed out. We made some Christmas deliveries and were disappointed the breakfast place we wanted to try was closed with no sign of opening soon. We went back to the house, I took a nap, made bread, and napped some more. 

Later, we went to Carol's for hot chocolate and homemade donuts, which is a tradition that I really like. I chatted with Karen and Josh, Uncle Sam, and Carol for a while before Roger showed up. And I took another nap and tried to scratch my leg off from some mysterious bug bites that appeared. 

It still fits (with no room to gain any weight).

We had a nice Christmas. Sleeping in. Homemade bread toast and hot chocolate. Some good scrips. Rog was so happy with his fishing vest and leather stuff and hiking books and waffle iron. And I was happy with my books (among other things). We went up to Page for second Christmas with Rog's family and we got a quarter of a HUGE wheel of cheese. And I was happy again. 

World Domination.

Rog got to play some games, including real board game Risk with his family. I got some delicioso mashed potatoes and played with a new remote control for my camera. I read a book and chatted with MGH - who was very excited about her new food and coloring books and less excited about another jug of PB pretzals (sorry dad).

Trev & Jamie

I spent the first part of the week prepping for a YW activity. Still working on the part where the YW are in charge, but that's mostly because they're being flaky right now. But they weren't the only flaky ones, which is how we ended up being in charge of this week's activity anyways. So we got some gifts together for some families as well as all of our incoming and less active YW. And we delivered most of them, which was nice to get the girls to do. 

My work had our cookie bake-off on the day that it snowed super bad and also Roger forgot to put gas in his truck and the gas cap froze shut and also I had to go to a bunch of sketchy places. So I was late. But I still got a plate of cookies and won third place - receiving some decorations, a candle, and a gift card. And it's always nice to hang out because I like these people. 

I had a sweet one-on-one boxing class with Felicia because all the Gore employees are out of town apparently. But it was the perfect mix of conditioning and punching, so I loved it. 

Rachel has been planning a favorite things party with a $5 limit (where you bring 3 of the same gift), so it was nice to hang out with a bunch of older ladies. I contributed reusable hand warmers and received a hair towel (that someone donated because they don't have hair...), Elantris (a Brandon Sanderson original), a card game, and a hair trimmer. And snacks. 

My surprise for Roger when he got home. 

Jake and Mama Fish picked me up for the airport, which was super nice of them. The security man tried to take my elk meat and Roger sent a bag of snacks through the scanner for me and waved through a window. My Phoenix flight was delayed for a few hours and then Mama Sama was too tired to pick me up so Trevor did. Which I felt a little bad about since he was the one getting married. But it was good because I had to educate him about the term 'clapping cheeks'. 

Lauren and I had a sleepover and I was almost warm enough. The chins picked me up for breakfast at Tru Religion in my own vehicle (after braving a locking seatbelt and a snow tornado to get it here). We were all glad Greg stood in the cold to save us a spot. Trevor and I locked knees in a phone booth to get coloring supplies and Violet fed me all her unwanted fruit. The Chin paid for premium OJ and we all had our fill and more. 

Instead of lounging, Greg, Chin, Mama Sama, and I went to Reid Moon's bookstore to get Dad his Christmas present to himself - a Bible page from an original Bible. Kelly got a free half page (you're welcome) and the manager told Lauren that she was mad because the James 1:5 page is supposed to be 2-3x the price we paid and they forgot (you're welcome again). #spiritualgifts

Them.

The coolest part (and you're welcome x3 for this) was that Reid showed up, I happened to know him, and he happened to think it was worth his time for a chat. Dad only threw out any possible connections they might have (Roney, Proctors, Lauren, Area 70 stuff, you get it). He got to touch lots of old church books and only cried a little. Then Mama Sama came in with the winning question - Reid's absolute favorite possession - Dimick Huntington's coffin cane. 

The short version is that temporary coffins were made to transport Joseph's body back to Nauvoo for a burial. Then the mob was coming, so they ended up not getting the nice coffins in time, so the ones at the ceremony were filled with rocks. Emma asked for a plank off of the original coffins before they finished sealing them up and replaced the plank. She then split this plank into 12-16 long pieces of wood and gave them to the people that had Joseph's back the most (not necessarily apostles or whatever). 

Dimick Huntington is the guy that rowed Joseph upriver on the Mississippi after he escaped from another jail, until his hands were cut to the bones. He made Joseph a pair of boots at no cost. He never asked Joseph for anything, but he did ask Emma for a lock of Joseph's hair when preparing the body. He got a strip of wood, which was made into a cane, and the hair was placed in a glass section at the top. 

The coolest part about this cane came later. Heber C. Kimball spoke about the coffin canes later and about how special they were. And then he said this: "The day will come when there will be multitudes who will be healed and blessed through the instrumentality of those canes, and the devil cannot overcome with those who have them, in consequence of their faith and confidence of the virtues connected with them." And then he showed us letter upon letter of stories testifying of the truth of those words. And then we touched them. 

And we were almost late to Trev and Jamie's wedding. I did have time to brush and pull some sticks out of my hair (not even an exaggeration unfortunately). And then we had a chill ceremony where Trevor's foot fetish was revealed, took some pics, and ate some grub. It was too cold to play games, so we went back to the Provo House. Two games were played in six hours and I avoided both. We had a nice chat and catch-up before Lauren and I headed back to her place. We chatted some more and she even fed me before I drove back to Flag.

The car is good, being home is better. And knowing that I have a little more clearance and snow capacity is really nice. And Roger made me some steak and shrimp and we had cider and that's his whole grocery trip for this week so pray for us. 

New Friends (plz no)

Workwise, not my favorite week. It's holiday season, so either people's vitals are through the roof or they will never see me. My new favorite is this old dude that wakes up every day at 3pm and refuses to see me before that. (And by favorite, I mean not). 

I went to the doctor's on Tuesday morning for a "10 minute appointment" that they were already running late on 30 minutes into their workday. So I was there for an hour (fasting) for an actual 3 minute appointment. Yeesh.

Me @ the Celtics for not playing team ball.

It was our last week playing city league volleyball for a bit since they're not doing tournaments anymore and I already have people begging me to open the church Monday nights again. We're going to hold off for a while because people are hurting and will be out of town for the holidays. 

We met up with Rog's work friend Jay for a late night at Buffalo Wild Wings with the Suns v Celtics. It was not our best games. But those wings thoooo. 

The Xmas Parade. 

Saturday I got a free ticket to my YW's dance performance of the Nutcracker. I probably do not need to go to another ballet, but it was nice to see them perform. I got out of there for a quick gym session before heading to a baptism to support a less active family and their bomb 8-year-old.

Rog and I picked up Grandma to introduce us to our favorite pizza joint - Alpine Pizza. Where I met their new waiter as of 1 week. His name is Viktov from Ukraine and he got a divorce with no kids, took a trip to the states, was drunk when getting an Uber one night and lost his money. Hence the new job. 

Dinner. 

We walked around downtown to restock our oil supply, check out a photography shop with some hot (free) cider, and meet Frank, the Scottish man who just opened a sewing shop with classes. We were surprised that there was also a parade planned downtown for the exact time we were there. So we watched a lot of that until Roger was too cold. 

We had a chill Sunday. It was the YW's first time teaching a lesson and she did awesome. The presidency volunteered to fill in if the teacher isn't there. And then we ate so much food, took a nap, talked to the fam's, made some chocolate peppermint cookies, and watched WOT. 

Sad Scalenes.

The week was rough. I spent a lot of it trying to figure out my neck situation. I have had problems with my scalenes freaking out on rare occasions, and this is the worst bout yet. It makes me want to rip my clavicle out and makes my neck feel really sensitive. I still played volleyball and went to my lifting class. But I did no other exercise, use the theragun, heat packs, and self soft tissue work. Val even helped try to calm it down one morning. 

My counselors came in clutch in YW this week and I felt a little bad. Especially since I've never been to YW with them, only briefly introduced the new teaching methods to the girls, and hadn't planned any activity for Wednesday. So they covered the lesson and helped the girls check out the Christmas lights with some hot chocolate. Bless. 

Work was busy and I was overwhelmed with a bunch of last minute changes, so I was glad Friday rolled around. In my spare time, I've been rereading conference talks and working on a new Etsy study guide for spinal cord specifics. So look forward to that if you're in the game. 

Saturday was the busiest day. I worked on my snatch form with Chris. It's getting better, but slowly. Not helped by my squirrel brain. Then I sped down to Phoenix to visit Cenita, who has been an absolute angel and picked up my new toy all the way from deep Mesa for me. She really is the best. She does me solids all the time and lets me stay with her whenever I have crazy stuff going on last minute and makes a mean keto green bean casserole. It's always good to catch up with her and we were pleasantly surprised at our coordinated outfits (the black shirt, ponytail, and crocs, lol). I owe her a lot. 

I sped back up to Flag pretty quick so that I could help set up for the ward Christmas party. Which meant I actually had to go. And Roger happened to rat me out when they were looking for someone to play the piano for a sing-along. Thanks, bud.

Sunday was also crazy. We had Paislee and Marshall with us in Sacrament and then had a good discussion with them during Sunday School. We had a short respite and then returned for Stu's birthday lunch with grandma and too many games. We also got a Christmas tree and I took the kids with me to see the lights while we picked it up since Grandma Sandall insisted. We will be taking no more Christmas decoration donations, thank you in advance. 

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. 

A Coupla Halloweenies

My insurance offers a discount for an annual wellness visit, so you already know I took advantage of that at my earliest convenience. My doctor said she was sorry I am too healthy and she can't help me more. I am not. My insurance also only covers a flu shot from my PCP, so I figured I would do it if offered. BUT LET ME TELL YOU - bad idea. I am STILL suffering from that and I was very careful not to exercise for 24 hours because that usually helps. Nada. 

Our pumpkin this year. 

With my sickness, I still played on my city league team and subbed for someone else's. And won. That pickup was really helpful for my swing and my sanity. But less helpful for my recovery. I did skip my gym workouts and boxing class this week. And I went to my YW's volleyball game and happened to come across free tickets and free food on my way over. 

Weenie Roast 2021.

It really put a damper on my Halloween plans. We ended up swinging by our ward party and grabbing some chili (also a MISTAKE) and carved a pumpkin and watched Young Frankenstein. And then Roger abandoned me early in the morning to help a friend track a deer. And we watched George's Island and had a Halloweenie Roast.

Roger's Birthday Week of Fun.

City League starts this week, so we had our last Monday night pickup for a while and our first set of games. (Where half our team wasn't there...) We have some new players from the PT program and appaa couple of flaky old players too, haha. We're 1/1. 

I worked on my videos - I now have 3 subscribers. And working on adding new neuro content, which I'm excited about. But it might take a minute to get it up. (That's what she said.)

I had an enlightening gym session this week where I practiced my cleans. And I even filmed myself, but don't tell Brian. I like the gym. Time isn't real there. 

My jousting activity was postponed again because Tim forgot he was busy. Lol. Men.

Pianist creepshot on the L.

It was Roger's birthday and he had a fun morning hunting and was ready to go on our surprise scavenger hunt by 5 sharp. JK. About the scavenger hunt. We saw a good movie with Tom Hardy and went to Black Bart's - which is a nice steakhouse with live musical entertainment (and a freaking bomb pianist). 

We spent Roger's actual bday watching Stake Conf online and having a chill day at Carol's with games and piano and part of a football game. It was nice. Happy 26th. Do you care about getting insurance? We're not sure.

Hunter or Hobo (part 6)

Well folks, I've done it. I survived the Cottonwood initiation and am now officially OUT. It was nice to be able to attend a staff meeting in person. Somehow, I've been tricked into driving out to Williams again (which makes me a little salty) but it's better than Cottonwood. 

Sitting in a blind in the cold. 

We had a good turnout for volleyball. It's fun to play more consistently and with decent setters, because my hits are more consistently kills. And I have a little more directional control. Our city league starts this upcoming Wednesday, so this Monday will be our last week for a little bit. 

Marshall said Frank was a good name. 

My side hustles are going well. I now have 3 subscribers on my YT channel, more and more on IG, and I make $10-30 a week on Etsy without having done anything for the last month. So that's nice. I just finished working on a PT Reference Book that I'll be posting soon, so I'm hoping that goes over well. (And I might dig into physical copies of some of this stuff if it does.)

She looks small from here, but Rog estimates 600+lbs after the gutting.

I'm still doing bimonthly boxing classes - and my new favorite moves are the "wallop" aka the overhand punch and the spinning backhand. Classics. I like learning new tricks like that. I'm also working on getting a class set up for the YW in our ward. 

She only broke a few ropes before we triple tied her.

I have a patient who INSISTS on feeding me for lunch and Rog and I for dinner on all days that she sees me (twice a week). And the food is delicious. BUT she also insisted on providing food for our hunting trip, which is how we ended up with 5 breakfast burritos, 4 sandwiches, and bread with chicken salad to make so ourselves so it doesn't get soggy. Needless to say, we were well provided for on our trip. 

Cleaning it up. 

Friday, Rog glasses on top of a hill in the FREEZING cold and saw nada. We hiked around at a different location and saw 80+ deer. And a lot of them within 20 yards of us at points. They know it's not their turn yet. We then drove up a sketchy road and sat a blind (aka took a nap in the cold), bought a car, and shot an elk at 70 yards with a kill shot. She was dead within 30 seconds and only ran about 100 yards, so she was easy to track. Rog showed me how to gut her and we had to call in the cavalries to lift her and get her into a bigger truck so our axles wouldn't bust. We hung her and skinned her and went to bed. 

Profiting.

Saturday, we carved her up and prepped all the meat and had some bacon-wrapped T-loins for dinner. Sunday, we did Zoom church and packaged her up and helped Collin with his wife's elk. (She was mysteriously absent for the majority). We're only doing burger, ground jerky, and steaks because that's what we use the most. And we have plenty of it. Any friends who are getting married soon (cough cough Trev/Jaimie or Lindsey/TJ) may have an idea of what they're getting for their weddings...

smungry

We sadly decided that we will be pausing pickup vball because Gaye wants to start a team in the Monday night league. We haven't been getting tons lately anyways since city league is starting up, and I didn't want to have to commit to anything, so I told them that I would be on their reserves list.  

LANCES are not LIGHTSABERS. 
(But if they were, I would still win)

The other problem is that my volleyball league is Wednesdays, which is when most of the YW can do activities. We did our practice jousting this week, thanks to Tim and his horses. We worked out some kinks, got the girls on a horse for the first time and had some fun. 

Flagstaff, present day.

I found out that I'm no longer traveling down to Cottonwood (at least for the next 12 weeks or so.) The news came just a day too early, as I was planning on an early drive through Sedona to check out the fall colors and to drop off the rest of my paperwork. Alas.

Me and my favorite adventure buddy.

Instead, I spent Friday evening relaxing with my new pumpkin apple candle, nature sounds, and working on my new Etsy project - a quick reference PT book that I will unfortunately have to print/ship. But they're pretty popular in other realms, so hopefully this works out. 

The Fall Color*

Rog and I had a pizza, wings, ice cream, and Black Widow night since it's on Disney + now. It was okay. The fighting gets a little over the top at points, but loved seeing Rachel Weisz in something different. 

I'm thinking about starting a finsta called BogerMandall
with all the model shots I take of him. Thoughts?

I went for a run on Saturday and decided that before I do a half marathon, I should be running a little more. Not that I have any concrete or immediate goals to do so, but in the next 2 years maybe. It was a 5.5 miler and I am sore, so that's embarrassing. 

Getting excited. 

Then Rog and I went on a 4-mile hike in the aspens to collect his cameras and check out the trees. They are pretty, but they are no New England. Goals to get back there in the fall with a nice camera and editing software to really do it justice. Oh and we heard a coyote and almost shot it. 

Then we had milenesa again with ice cream and a move - this time Robin Hood (2018) with Jamie Fox. If you want a medieval ages film with Avengers-style fighting, bad acting, and serious potential with a flat script - this is the film for you. It could have been so much better. 

Picnic. 

After church today, we went on a drive for a picnic in the wilderness (where the bees ALMOST got me). I practiced shooting for my upcoming hunt. All around, I've got a decent pattern, even at over 200 yards. BUT I have a deadeye shot if I am thinking about killing something instead of just hitting the target. Still, I hope I can get closer than 100 yards (just in case). 

Girls Night

Fall is here and there is no quality apple cider to be found. If any of you have homemade recieps TDF, please let me know. 

Work. There's a new PT in Cottonwood who will hopefully be trained soon. He's driving up from Phoenix, so his commute isn't any shorter than mine. But he has experience in home health and the support of the PHX offices, so hopefully he'll be set. 

MVP Taylor Bush. 

Sports. City league VB will be happening. Unfortunately it is on Wednesday nights, which is also when my YW leader wants to do all our activities even though our day is on Thursdays. So I'll figure that out. In the meantime, Monday night VB is still happening, every other Thursday boxing, and Friday basketball (for when the swelling in my knee gets back to a reasonable amount). I love physical activity. 

Health. I've been trying to get everything taken care of that I haven't been able to while in school with crappy insurance. My teeth are cleaned. I have my contacts (finally). And now I have a new retainer that is in the works since I grinded through my old one in the last 10 years. 

Thanks for agreeing to this party.

Best part of the week was a long-anticipated Girls Night at the Museum Club. Becky and I bought some tickets for the group and had some last minute cancellations, for which our friends Marissa and Taylor filled in - and were WELCOME. What a party. We need to do stuff like this more. It's nice to have friends outside of sports. 

AND we turned around real quick for this year's edition of General Conference. Which has, so far, been a 10/10 and emphasized a lot of thoughts I've been having lately. More to come, but just know it was more enjoyable for the cajun boil, milanesa, muffins, and surprise visit by Grandma Sandall. P-A-R-T-Y. 

Spooky Szn Approaches

So work is supposed to be clearing up soon. Cottonwood hired another PT supposedly, which theoretically means that in a few weeks, my services won't be needed down south. And the head boss, the Flagstaff office, and the Cottonwood offices are supposedly meeting DAILY to check and finalize our schedules. Do I have evidence of this happening? No I do not. But it's supposed to be. 

Roger's week with his pop. 

The sports front was good this week. I started my new program per my Oly coach and I am doing so many squats. Logan brought some friends to volleyball, which was good because that's all we had. And I had approximately 6 blocks in our weekly bball game, so that was nice. And boxing happened. 

Spooky Szn

Tim was sick, so our jousting practice was postponed. But we got our fill of youth activities because Roger felt obligated to help out with the stake activity on Saturday. I did not, so we compromised and helped for part of it. (Which was good because it was a 16-hour marathon). I was still angry by the end because it was a scavenger hunt (hate) and our team had 2 vehicles and the lady driving the other one was cray. 

Yum yum. 

We made up for it by splitting a bone-in ribeye at Texas Roadhouse with a salad and loaded potatoes. Yum. Then we took a nap. 

Marshall is learning to take photos. 

We spend Sunday at Carol's for Benson's birthday. Roger held newborn Ellie and was scared. And I took another nap. It was a good weekend. 

A Week for the Books

Let's start with the disasters. Work - enough said. Staples - always costs more than I expect and never get exactly what I planned - until round 5. Contacts - repeat of the Staples commentary but add 5 months. 

Still working on the YW activities and we didn't have to teach Sunday School this week - although we did attend - but I did get to add in some commentary on sex, so that's always fun. (Send me your kids). We've got target practice coming up for our jousting tournament, and although it was a bit messy, we finally got a date nailed down for that. 

PHX.

Volleyball on Mondays may happen forever. It sounds like the city league is cancelled and I haven't heard about the Flagstaff Athletic Club league I'm a part of. Val lent me one of her balls (praise) and now we've got one to play with after mine disappeared and the missionaries took back their ball. 

Boxing is still happening and I learned a little more about roundhouse kicks with my L, which always hurts my shin on the heavy bags. My friend Taylor, the Grand Canyon tour guide, came back and I'm thinking of trying to be actual friends with her. Wish me luck.

My Etsy/YT/IG accounts are still going. I got my first poor review because one buyer couldn't read the study guides in the picture I posted - which is kind of the point, so you don't just screenshot the picture. But otherwise, it's going strong. Anyone who wants to do the friendly influencer part of this business is welcome to fill in. I'm just a content creator.

The ladies. (After tacos, obviously).

Saturday was a fun adventure with my friends Becca and Cenita. We had a great time at the temple in PHX doing sealings without any of our friends (or spouses) to accompany us - so we had the pleasure of seeing Doug Nelson. Yet another one of my old, bald friends. It was great to see him and catch up. But better to do so in the house of the Lord with my friends (and tacos to follow :). These are some wonderful ladies.

Sunday, Roger was able to smoke his turkey (the one that he shot) - after waking up to put it on the grill at 4am. We hauled it out to his parent's campsite and had a nice dinner and hangout there. I left my phone (which I found out when I tried to look up the Old Ladies in the Lavat'ry lyrics) and Amy was nice enough to bring it out to me. And then I went to sleep. 

I Need a Nap (Adventures)

 It was a long week. First of all, my L knee decided to freak out after a workout I've done 3x already at the same load (over the last 3 weeks). Not sure what was different, but lots of pain, swelling, and instability. 

Living my dream. 

My first YW activity occurred this week, spray painting shields and breast plates to use in our upcoming jousting tournament. It's gonna be lit. We had a good time and nobody is good enough to go paint on the walls, so that's a plus. 

First Friday Crepes. 

It was First Friday this week  - meaning that the downtown area had lots of different artists with live music on each street and in each gallery and local artists had special setups all over in galleries and booths around the area. I told the Zubster we'd have to look into that more. 

Hunter man. 

Rog, Stu (Neked), and I went hunting on the Weatherford Trail. And I was allowed to wear normal pants, so I was very happy. Except that it was 3am. We hiked around and Roger even almost shot at a few, but he didn't have a great shot (which is kind of what you need with a bow) so he didn't loose any arrows. 

Wildlife sightings. 

At about the "time to go" point, Rog was deciding if he wanted one last trek up the side of a sheer cliff that started at the 9.5K elevation point. I told them I'd start down the trail since my knees weren't making the climb back down. I was approximately 90 seconds down the trail, and saw this little guy. Obviously, my first thought was to snap a picture. My second thought was to leave in case an angry mom appeared next. 

Hunter or hobo?

I told the boys, who refused to let me have a gun and left me to fend for myself with the small rock I was holding. The rest of the trail was uneventful back to the car with fruit snacks and native peaches to make me happy again. 

Peep the man in the hat with the tuba. 

Rog and I headed out to the Fair, where we got to see my 2nd cousin 1x removed play "Noble Vision" - a commissioned piece from the Flag Community Band to represent Flagstaff. This was the 3rd time it's EVER been played (besides practices). After much debating, we ate a plate of chicken, rice, salad, and ribs - which was TDF. We saw the exhibits and the animals. Roger loved the model trains and war museums. 

We left to go straight to Art in the Park. Where a bunch of artists put booths up and sell a HUGE variety of art at booths in a park - paintings, glass, metal, wood, jewelry, welding - anything you can MAKE is sold here. It was cool. (And another potential spot to check out, Zubs.)

One of the best pics Marshall took all night. 

Toasted as we were (despite some gelato refresh), we then took 3 hour naps on accident. Roger woke up to a call from his dad, on his way to pick him up for round 2 of hunting. And I got up a few minutes later when Becky reminded me of a friend's wedding reception. I danced a little, ate a little, and tried not to let Marshall fall down that much (unsuccessfully).  And Rog met us at the end to say hi to our friends and a game night at Carol's. 

Sunday, we were tricked into 'teaching' the youth's class on temples. (Thanks, Rog.) And we found out NONE of them had ever done family history before. Then we had a delicious meal of fajitas and fun little hangout at Karen's (who is ready to pop out a baby).