'Sag

 Bad news on the car. I got a call partway through the day, saying that they had done my oil change and tire rotation (which I was due for and had requested), but AFTERWARDS had checked the engine status and basically said I lost compression on my 2nd cylinder and the only way to fix that is to take apart the engine or put a brand new one in. Which is unfortunate, because the car is still pretty young in miles and has never had any major fixes and also why do I want an oil change for a car I can't drive. 

We took in into another place for a second opinion. Frankly, I'm not sure they did much other than read the codes as far as diagnostics. Hopefully we'll get some better news, but Rog is settled on me getting a Tacoma instead. Which is not something I was hoping to commit to, but we'll see.

The crew. 

This was my week off of weightlifting and as another low energy week, that was fine with me. I had 3 full days of work, volleyball, YW that I wasn't in charge of, but I knew the actual person wouldn't run, so I was basically in charge anyways. (Also someone told the missionaries they could have their sports night in the gym at the same time, but it was our ward's turn to use the gym for combined activities and it's just reserved automatically every 3rd Wednesday for it, so not sure what happened there, but they joined us.)

Then I had Th/Fri off to do nothing. And I did little to nothing. Slept in, took naps, I did go to a birthday dinner for my friend Rachel, which is always good company. I filmed some vids for my YouTube, so I can edit those over Christmas. I went to Cafe Rio, I got some mechanic work done on Roger's car that I'm still driving. And we drove up to Page for egg rolls. 

Happy 30th!

Saturday, we went on a hike that was supposed to be 60minutes away and about 400m total to a large panel of petroglyphs. However, those were Stu's estimates, so it was actually 100min away and closer to 2 miles of sketchy uphill bouldering, but it was fun. 

We came home in time for Ryan dogs and salsa (or ceviche depending on your preference). I read a book and we showed the crew The Librarian saga - which apparently has been unfindable for everyone (but also the first result in Amazon). 

The real highlight of the weekend for me was Sunday lasagna (my request). I ate too much and that's honestly all I want to eat. 

the last hutchins wedding (boy ed.)

Another week of low energy, but I forced myself to work out at least. Rog joined someone's city league team (by request) half way through their season and found out why they kept losing players. Their captain is a jerk. So after 3 games, he also quit. I think he bribed Stu to finish out the season with a bunch of swag and $100 gift cards after he quit as well. 

We didn't have YW this week because there was the party the President planned on Sunday. Unfortunately, this was the week that they were supposed to plan a bunch of future activities, so not sure what the plan is there, but also not sure anyone listens when I tell them it's a bad idea because it's been happening too often. 

our child, mgh

Tuesday, I was seeing my second patient in Williams (about 1h away) and my check engine light came on. I finished the day out and decided to drive Rog's car the rest of the week until they could get me in at our shop (next Monday). 

fruit dinner

This changed our plans for our trip to Utah this week. I only had 2 patients on Friday and was done by noon, but Rog wasn't even packed yet when he got off at 6, so that made our drive real late. I am still not sleeping at night (and still haven't gotten my liver meds in the mail), so I am basically exhausted all the time anyways, but we didn't arrive in Alpine until 2am on Saturday morning. 

We then woke up about 6:30 to catch a ride to Xander and Maddy's sealing with the parentals. We were about 40 minutes early and missed the extra snooze, but the temple was good, lunch was good, and MGH enjoyed the cider - even when it was too scalding to taste. 

welcome to the fam, maddy

We had a nice morning of catching up with some fam before heading home and taking a nap. Then we had fruit dinner, Lauren came over, Rog went to a BYU game (his first college sporting event ever), and I was too cranky to do much of anything except chat and go to bed. Then we woke up bright and early and drove the eight hours home. 

Lauren's favorite color scheme

More Sauce

Dang rough week with low energy again. We got a pile of packages one day and Rog was excited because it's Christmas season - but alas, it was mostly my drugs. Rog was a victim of my 3am wakeups, luckily on Friday night (and now he understands just how wide awake I am for a few hours before I can get back to sleep). He is not happy. 

Played VB and forced myself through some workouts this week. Rog got a last minute invite to join someone's city league team and so is gonna be out of commission for the next few T/Th nights doing that. 

But before he agreed to that, he was working every night on butchering an elk. So I thought I would be nice and make this cajun chicken alfredo recipe he sent me so that he could eat and get straight to it. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect. He was so happy to come home to food that he did nothing the rest of the night. 

Our younger YW decided they wanted to decorate cookies and watch Elf, so I agreed to make frosting and get the movie and we had a couple girls who ended up baking 4 dozen cookies, but one had to drop them and head to VB practice. So it was 2 leaders and 2 girls and we had a great time. 

Someone gifted me a box of apples, so I made some more sauce this week. And it was better than round 1 in the saucer. The missionaries came over right as I was finishing and Rog was wrapping up elk steaks and potatoes. Yum. Then they taught him how to access their records, which will be useful. 

Our lovely friends Lindsey and TJ spent their anniversary here in Flag and gifted us with an evening of their company. We chatted for a while and then went for tacos at El Tapatío, which was delicious (in the moment and in the leftovers). And it's always fun to see and hang out with them. Next time, in CO.

Classic Chicken Fried Steak. 

Saturday I woke up late (after spending half the night wide awake) and Rog woke up cranky. We went out for breakfast and ran some errands and butchered the rest of the elk before delivering the packages to friends and family.

"What are you gonna use those kayaks for?" "Ummm, kayaking?"

Back at it in the gym and going for runs. (Shorter than usual, but that's what I can convince myself to do right now in the frigid cold). We had a goodly number (but less goodly skill) at VB this week. I had a visit with my naturopath who is going to hook me up with a better probiotic and something for my liver (which apparently is the cause of me now waking up at 3am unable to go back to sleep every day). And she told me to keep up the kambucha, so there's that. 

Rog got home late Monday night from helping his BFF Collin kill a big one (but not the biggest one they saw, unfortunately). And he was able to make the BEST deer steaks, gravy, potatoes, and broccoli to share with our friends Susan & Mike (an elderly couple who loves hunting and fits in well with the crew). It was fun to hang out with them.

We cancelled our activity this week since there was nothing planned despite having held a planning meeting to make sure the rest of the year was planned. So that happened. 

Thursday was almost the highlight of the week. After Rog got home, we were talking about kayaks we wanted (which we decided was our Christmas this year) and decided to go take a look at local deals. Our last stop was Walmart, where Rog had seen some he liked earlier this year, but wasn't able to commit at the time. We convinced them to open the cage for us - since it was snowing and they were put away. And the first kayak we looked at didn't have a seat, so the guy agreed to sell it for $50 with the other kayak we were checking out. We agreed. 

So now we have our kayaks - but still need 1 seat and 2 paddles. Unfortunately, I also found out that Rog didn't think this actually counted as a Christmas replacement, so we had negotiations for budgeting and came to a reasonable agreement. 

The actual highlight of the week was when we took Rog's grandma out for dinner and gave her 3 options. She picked Asia Station - a place downtown we had never heard of before I did some research. Turns out, it was a great decision. It was loud and crowded, so not a great place for conversation, but that didn't matter once the food came. Quality, quantity, and all for a reasonable price. So reasonable that we also got sides of cream cheese wontons and dumplings in addition to our heaping plates. Rog has a new favorite Asian place. 

My Spotify wrapped says I'm an Alchemist, meaning I make more playlists than most people. Probably because I like to stay organized. And also says I doubled Rog's listening - which is because I work out more often and he snipes Kelly's Audible credits for work. 

We had a special stake conference this week with the Dunns, who were fun to listen to. It was a much better experience than our last stake conference in October, which was really nice. 

And finally, Rog convinced me to start a casual YT series called iSipCider, where I rate various ciders I try on a scale from 1 to Clyde's. Uploaded the first video today on one that we did not love.