Wishing it could always be summer!

I finished my last 2 brutal days of school and now I am free!  I need the break to focus on me and my health: mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual!

The pool is amazing and relaxing and comforting! Alayna and I have been working hard to find balance between working on projects, and relaxing. For me its hard to find balance.

We have been doing a family Summer Fit Challenge and its been great.  I already feel better! Its wonderful to sleep and work when my body tells me to. Its been so great!

We finished deep cleaning the shed.  We took 1/2 a van full of crap to goodwill- realizing we need to stop buying “things”. We took an entire van full of cardboard to the dump and an entire van full of trash to the dump. Its crazy! and cathartic!

We’ve been cleaning all the carpets, redecorating the guest room (who wants to come visit??), deep cleaning and rearranging the cages, working on the yard outside, etc. However, today while mowing, I ran over one of our baby robins and murdered it!!! I held it in my hand and stroked it as it died.  I dont think I can take nature anymore. It hurts too much!  Especially watching the mom all afternoon flying everywhere calling for her!

I’ve been working on some puzzles and we saw some interesting movies this weekend.

“Meru”- Super interesting documentary about the 1st climbing team to ever reach the top of Shark’s fin on Mount Meru.

“Into the wild”- Based on the true story researched by John Krakauer. Good book.  Really makes you think about life, priorities, etc.

“Pele”- If you havent seen this yet on Netflix its a MUST SEE!

Updates:

Marisa is packing for the trip to Europe. Cant wait to see all the pictures and hear about the trip.

Kayla Brandon and Ellie have been crazy busy!  Kayla should update her blog hint hint

Tyler is doing great in his classes and new job. Hes hoping to find an apatment closer to campus and move in July

Bob and Alayna will be flying out for the Hart reunion in park city. I will be presenting at the state conference.

Alayna got a new calling as a Family History Consultant- which is exciting because she loves that AND we are working on family history projects this summer!

Not the best pic but I chopped my hair, got highlights and covered the grey!

Bring on the rest of summer!

How is it June already?!

In many ways this month flew, but I was also extremely busy.  Alayna is done with school but I have 2 more days.  As always I am more than ready for summer!!!

Kris-

It’s been nutty in the library, as usual.  I got swept up (unplanned) in the Excelsior comes clean project and you can see how huge of a project that was on FB.  It was overly exhausting.

Plus we had so many projects, inventory, etc.  This sums up how we felt on Friday…

Bob-

Bob was in a car accident coming home from work Friday. He was hit from behind and 4 cars were involved. Grateful only our car was hurt and not him!  I always panic whenever I hear anything has happened to any member of my family. I guess thats what being a family is all about. Thank goodness he wasn't hurt and didn't hurt the next day.

Tyler-

Tyler started his summer session of classes at Kirkwood and so far has been doing well.  He is taking Anatomy/Physiology, Chemistry, and Microbiology.  These are prerequisites to start the Respiratory Therapy program in the fall. He is excited about it and really wants to work in the pediatric unit.  He also got a new job this week at Frog Hollow doing the same thing he was doing at the last day care.  This one is closer to Iowa City and much fancier.

Alayna-

Alayna finished off the year with all A’s again! She is now officially an upperclassman!  She has a lot of fun things planned this summer like tennis camp, EFY, girls camp, possible reunion, etc.  She is also excited about our new summer addition…She is anxiously awaiting Ellie to come play in it with her.

Marisa-

Marisa is getting ready for her trip to Europe at the end of the month and it looks like she will be taking the job in Lehi and staying there for a bit, right Marisa?

Kayla Brandon, Ellie-

They moved into their new apartment.  Brandon seems to be enjoying his internship!  Kayla said “Ellie can crawl and pull herself to a stand. She loves to hold our hands and walk. At her last check up she was only 12 lbs 13 oz and 25 in long! She is very tiny but has the biggest attitude! We love you Ellie! Happy 7 months!!”  It was fun to interact with her and see her crawling this week on skype.

We are hoping Marisa, Kayla, Brandon, and Ellie can all come visit us in August!

We had a pretty traumatic weekend over Memorial Day weekend.  I was out mowing and went over a dry patch of grass.  I noticed it moved after I went over it and I went into major panic mode. I ran over and uncovered a bunny nest with 6 brand new baby bunnies.  Thank heavens I didn't hurt any of them. I told Bob and Alayna about them, said we need to be super careful and check on them often.  Then I went inside.  Came out later to find Bob running the mower to gather all the grass and he went OVER THE HOLE!!!  He killed one of the babies and I was devastated!!!  I sobbed- trust me I don't know where this sudden love for animals came from) but I was so mad at Bob! He had forgotten they were out there.  Tyler and Alayna buried her in the back by Daisy.  The next day I went to check on the 5 left. They were doing great but it was almost 100 degrees with the heat index. I texted my friend who is a wildlife rehabilitator and she said I could put up an umbrella to help give them some shelter since they were in the direct sun.  The next morning I went out to check on them and it looked like a crime scene. Dead bloody bodies everywhere, and I just sobbed again.  We found out some domestic cats came and killed them for fun.  Didn't eat them.  Alayna went to get the umbrella and found a baby survivor tucked way deep in the nest.  We didnt know what to do, my wildlife friend didnt respond and everything said leave it in the nest for mom.  The next morning I saw 2 huge cats by the nest and the baby was dead.  Once again I sobbed.  My heart literally cant take the pain of death]th. It made for a tough weekend and my heart hurts!

Here is our Robins nest and then 2 of the eggs hatched.  Grateful the cats didn't get to it. I officially despise cats.

Heres to an amazing, relaxing but productive summer.  It is needed!!!!

Blog part 2

Marisa even got to see one of Alayna’s tennis matches.

I finished more puzzles

My birthday, on Monday, was great.  I did go to work, but came home to a clean house, dinner made, and I was so happy!  Marisa should stay! The funny thing is I thought all day (and year) that I was turning 48. It wasnt until I calculated before bed that I realized I had turned 47! Good grief!

To celebrate my birthday (and Marisa’s) I took Wednesday off.  We had a super fun Girls Day Out but we REALLY missed Kayla and Ellie!!!

We did tons of shopping…

Lunch at Olive Garden with Bob so I could have Fettucine Alfredo

We went to cold stone for ice cream and then came home. The girls did their nails while I started my new puzzle!

She flew out on Friday and we miss her!  Cant wait for everyone to come in August!

We were able to skype again on Sunday and so glad Ellie likes her “computer” we got her at goodwill!

We got a tour of their new apartment and got to see Ellie trying to walk

And of course she likes books!

Had a great mothers day and loved Kaylas bookmarks she sent me!

Surprise!!!

I was so sad we couldn't attend Marisa’s graduation, but imagine my surprise when I looked up from puzzle and she was standing in my living room!!!

I will never be able to express in words how much that meant!

We finally got to go see Infinity War in the new recliner seated theater (which was awesome) BUT we are all reeling from the emotional trauma of that movie!  Good grief! (Alayna wasnt happy with her face so she photo edited the picture for me

We finally got to take Marisa to Newbo market so she could try all the yummy food there!

She and Alayna also helped me put in my deck garden!

My lilac tree came back to life and it smells amazing!

Our gala tree which we were sure died years ago bloomed!

On sunday we got to skype with Kayla, Brandon, and Ellie- she is growing up so fast and was so interactive with us!

We made it to spring!

Well life here is as busy as ever!  Here are our Hart Top 10 for April!

1. Marisa graduated from BYU with honors.  We are so grateful the Hart grandparents and Kayla and Brandon could be there to support her!  I will let her give updates on her future and please see my earlier posts for pictures!

2. Kayla only has one semester left!  And Ellie is now 6 months old!

3. Weather is gorgeous so the garden is finally in! Corn, strawberries, lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, onions, basil all planted! Shrubs trimmed. Cushions and deck chairs out.  We are loving this weather!

4. Alayna is doing awesome in tennis! She is on the JV team and loves playing!

5. We celebrated our 25th anniversary!  Look at this beautiful card!

6. Yes it snowed this month

7. Tyler got accepted into Kirkwood Community college!  We are excited for this next step. He plans to go into respiratory therapy and move out soon.

8. My fortune cookies was spot on this month.  I have been obsessed with puzzles!  It has been cathartic for me in my new special lair in the living room. But I only like the Ravensburger and white mountain 1000 piece puzzles. I know its weird.

9. Ive also started some of my family history projects.  We got all our VHS tapes on to disks and now I am working on organizing pictures and getting them scanned. Im excited to have time to work on it this summer!

10.  I think my month was summed up when a student handed me this and said, “Mrs. Hart I think you have a screw loose!” He has no idea how right he is!

ALso I LOVE bitojis and made them part of my fall presentation.