June really WAS a month of celebrations! Birthdays, last day of school, Father's Day, first jobs, vaccinations, steps forward, decisions made, family visits, friends, parties, wedding receptions, and the lifting of the mask mandate!
June was also a hot one! The weather was incredibly hot and humid. I am not a fan and it is not our norm. June is usually pretty cool and you can't even count on good weather for the 4th of July. But not this year. It has been a scorcher and it continues to be a scorcher on into July.
This month Ailey was on the job hunt. Finally fully vaccinated she was ready to earn some cash. She got hired for her first job! She decided to follow in the footsteps of her big brother and sister and is continuing the tradition of working at the same assisted living facility that both Reilly and Kameron worked at for their first jobs. She walked in, told them who she was, and was hired on the spot. She is the cutest little waitress! She is enjoying it too!
Ailey also finished up performing with the dance team for our crazy basketball season. Her dance team season ended and they had their awards party. They start back up for summer practice soon so she doesn't get too much of a break but it is nice for her to have a *little* bit of a break!
Junior Year Drill Team Pictures:
Ailey had her first in person choir concert this month. The last one was their Christmas Choir Concert in 2019. I have to say it was a little emotional...in a good way...to be back and watching the kids perform again.
Ailey was thrilled to say good-bye to her junior year and move on up to be a SENIOR. She also turned 17 this month!!
Alas her birthday was a little crazy and frazzled but she was definitely a good sport and we had a trip waiting for her as part of her birthday fun! More on that later.
Brynnie had a big month! She ended her track season and had their awards party. She got to have field day at school which she was very excited about even though it was a bit different from years past.
She had her piano recital and did a fantastic job! She got an award for "Best Attitude." This is also the first "In-Person" piano recital that she has had since her Christmas Recital in 2019.
Her Strings Club ended for the summer. Next year she will be in *real* orchestra and she is super excited! As mentioned in a previous post... Bryn got to go to the temple for the first time and she loved it! Bryn also is fully vaccinated!! Yay! So happy about that!
Bryn's biggest news was that she officially graduated from elementary school. No more Johnsons in elementary after a 20 year run! It puts a little lump in my throat but I am excited for her to move on to middle school and for all of the new experiences that entails.
Last day of elementary school! Still in a mask.
The last day of school was bittersweet for her (and me) as she said goodbye to so many of her (and my) favorite teachers. We have absolutely LOVED our elementary school!
Bryn's teachers this year...6th grade goes back and forth between teachers for different subjects.
Kameron is doing great and has kept us laughing! The slump is over! I am so glad to see him in good spirits once more. He is also fully vaccinated now! Woohoo! That feels good! He felt pretty crappy for about 24 hours after his second dose. Bryn didn't have any major issues...just a sore arm and a bit of a headache.
Kam had been really hoping that he would get transferred this time around and to his great joy he did! He was so ready to leave "the shack"! His new transfer has been pretty exciting! He is now in Prior Lake, MN which is a suburb about 20 minutes outside of Minneapolis. He was thrilled to leave small town living behind and return to the land of Chik-fil-a, Chipotle, and Target. LOL. He also went from the crappiest apartment in the mission to the nicest. Two levels and two bathrooms! Luxury! He and his new companion are now the social media specialists for the whole mission. They spend three days a week in the mission office doing their social media thing. He is super stoked about this assignment which he will do for the next 6 months. He really likes his new companion, who is from Hawaii, and they live with another set of missionaries who he says are also a lot of fun. The only downside is that his terrible mission companion (from several transfers ago) is now his district leader but Kam said that guy should be transferred at the next transfer and that as long as he doesn't have to live with him... he can deal with him. LOL. Kameron also got to see fireflies for the very first time!! He was super excited. It's pretty magical!
Kam also sent us the most hilarious care package! This was exactly how it arrived with a Walmart bag scrunched on top of everything. LOL. Will wonders never cease! Our very first letters from him! He is the cutest and his letters were so thoughtful! We loved it! He sent Tyler and I each our favorite candies. He sent me a 1st edition Ray Bradbury book that he found. I was THRILLED. He sent three Lake Superior Agates that he found himself. (His previous companion from Rexburg is quite the rockhound.) He also sent us a large chunk of petrified wood that he bought at a rock show that his old companion begged to go to. LOL. Petrified wood reminds me of my Grandpa McKinnon and I have been wanting some for a long time. Kam's the sweetest!
We've gotten to hang out a lot with Reilly this month which has been really fun! My birthday, Father's Day, lake days, and her just stopping by after work for a few hours. I love it! She likes to give me a new Alex and Ani bracelet every year. She got me such a good one for my birthday! The one this year is engraved with the words: Protect Your Peace. She is so thoughtful!
We went on a fun double date with Reilly and Hunter. We were belatedly celebrating Hunter's birthday. We had a blast!! It's times like these that I really enjoy grown up kids! We hung out in Kendall Yards, ate at Versailia Pizza, rode scooters (seriously so fun!), and got FROYO. We didn't get home until late!
It was a great night!!
A downer this month for Reilly was that one morning when she went out to her car to go to work she saw that one of her car windows had been smashed in. Her new apartment complex doesn't have a surveillance system and so that sucked. They don't love their new neighborhood. Luckily she was able to get it repaired quickly but that kind of thing really stinks. She called Tyler in tears.
Reilly also ended up running into one of my sisters at Cafe Rio one day and had an awkward exchange. The things that my sister said to her were disappointing, untruthful, and put Reilly in an uncomfortable position. The upside was that it was brief and Reilly got to see my niece and give her a hug. My sister told Reilly that Jordin and Ramon are moving back to Kansas City. I actually think that will be such a good thing for their family.
Tyler is still working from home. He is still enjoying his "two minute pajama commute" as he calls it. He found out that there may be an option to go back to the office on July 6th. I guess we will see what happens with that. Otherwise he isn't scheduled to go back until September.
It's been another busy month for him. He gets to go to mutual on Wednesday nights. I love that! I got to go with Reilly and Kameron when they were teenagers and it was fun! He's had a lot going on with his calling. No surprise there. June was his month to conduct and he was super nervous. He had no reason to be. He did such a great job! He also had the three day youth conference that he was in charge of at the end of the month. The timing turned out to be absolutely terrible due to things happening quickly with the lake house but he was able to be there and do what needed to be done and be at the lake when needed too. But he did have his first ever stress dream. LOL. Welcome to every night of my life!
Tyler also had his cardiology appointment. He is doing well and doesn't need to go back until next year. He was hoping to get off of his blood thinners but his doctor wants him to stay on them for another year. They sometimes make him feel light headed in the heat which annoys him.
My month has been full of a lot of really great highs and some lows. But more highs than lows so that is definitely something to CELEBRATE! And...we have made a lot of progress in dealing with my mom's estate that, while stressful and unpleasant, has still been PROGRESS!
The best parts of the month for me have definitely been all of the celebrations. In addition to birthdays and Father's Day we attended four graduation parties for kids that we absolutely love and adore and one fun wedding reception! We have had so much friend time and it has been wonderful!! I just soaked it all up! All of us have been able to have A LOT of friend time this month and we have loved every minute of it! We also made plans to get together with some of our dearest friends when we are in Utah over the 4th of July and I am so excited about that! I also spent a little bit a time with some of my cousins out at the lake one evening.
Now for some of the lows... Kirk and I had mediation with our sisters on the 16th. Kirk and I had a meeting with our attorney prior to prepare for it which helped. I was not hopeful about it working. But mediation has an 85% success rate and it worked in our case. No one was more surprised than me. But it definitely wasn't fun. It was 7 grueling hours. Tyler and I were in one room...luckily with a GORGEOUS and soothing view of water and a gorgeous patio to sit out on. Kirk participated via conference call.
Our view
Stacey, Kelley, and Jordin were in another room that overlooked the parking lot. I really liked our mediation attorney and thought that she did a great job. She definitely had her work cut out for her. It took over 7 hours to convince my sisters of basic facts about property values, math, and how home equity and market values work. But convince them she did. At the end of seven hours the decision was agreed upon by all FIVE of us to put the lake house up for sale. (Their social media posts would have you believe that they were "forced" by Kirk and I.) It wasn't an easy decision but it had to be done. The lake house is worth a lot of money. It has an incredibly large mortgage. Siblings are unable to work together. My sisters cannot afford to buy it and they cannot keep refusing to disperse the assets and settle the estate. We are at almost 2 years now and I have already contributed almost 30k of my own funds. It is past time to make some hard decisions. There were no winners. Circumstances out of our control brought us to this point. Neither Kirk nor I want to sell the lake house but we also can't live in denial. My sisters don't see it now but selling the lake house is also in their best interests too. They cannot afford it nor its upkeep. (I am grateful for good friends who brought me macarons after a long and difficult day!)
Kirk and I were given the sole responsibility to sell the lake house. (A blessing and a curse.) That included picking a realtor, setting the price, and accepting an offer. Our sisters have first right of refusal i.e. they have 7 days to exactly match a bonafide offer. This is when the month got extremely and unexpectedly hectic because unlike the three of them Kirk and I get @#$% done!! Despite all of the work involved... the right people were finally put in charge. Someone had to rip off the band-aid. Someone had to make the hard decisions. Someone had to do what needed to be done. Doing the right thing isn't always fun or pleasant. Change is hard and doing what needs to be done is hard. Kirk and I have been absolutely vilified for doing so by the majority of our family. (Many of whom asked to be cashed out when the lake property came to them a few years ago! Selective memory!) and other family and friends which made a difficult situation even more difficult. I refuse to be guilted by people who don't want to pay a dime into preserving this *family heritage* but still want limited access. Buy it if you want it. Otherwise I don't want to hear about how sad it is. Yes, it's sad. Life is sad. My mom died. That is sad. My family is destroyed. That is sad. My dysfunctional extended family is destroyed. That is sad. People with no skin in the game but just an opinion. Not sad.
Thus began the process of interviewing realtors, picking a realtor, cleaning and staging the home, and clearing out 7 garages, selling a cargo trailer, photographing and drone videoing the home, and listing the house. And... all of this needed to occur on my week. Yes...in ONE week. This was also a week that our kids were STILL in school for part of it and Tyler was at Youth Conference for the other half of it. Ailey's birthday was also right smack in the middle of it too. This also happened to be one of my most successful months EVER at the store. I sold so many things and really needed to be working on my own projects! It was truly terrible timing but we got it done.
Tyler and I met with several realtors out at the lake and listened to their spiel. Kirk participated via conference call and we picked who we felt would be the best fit... a husband and wife team. Kirk and Meki drove up for a super quick weekend and we all worked our butts off to get the lake house ready to be listed. That including writing a history of the place and Kirk and I being photographed for a newspaper article. Our lake house has some local historical significance.
Add to that it was 100 plus degrees all week long and the lake house has no AC. One day it even hit 115. It was miserable!
We had potential buyers requesting to view the lake property prior to even choosing a realtor. It was insanity! But if I have to be in insane circumstances I will always choose to have Tyler, Kirk, and Meki by my side! Add to this that Beverly ate something weird and was puking all night and necessitated a call to the animal ER. Thank goodness she was fine. Crazy little dog! Also... the night before Kirk and Meki arrived and after a full hot day; we finally jumped in the lake only to have Ailey accidently lock us out of the house. We had to call a locksmith at 9pm to come out and let us in. Again...insanity.
We were so happy to see Kirk and Meki arrive! The cavalry! While stressful and busy we did have some hilarious times! The drone footage is gorgeous! The pictures are amazing! The lake house looked beautiful. And...we crammed in a tiny bit of fun too.
Kirk and Meki left early Sunday morning and so did we. Ailey had to speak in church, Tyler had to conduct, Bryn had a presidency meeting, and I was subbing for my ward's Primary President. Good grief. After church and all of Tyler's meetings we had to run back out to the lake, meet with realtors again as they placed the for sale signs (tears for sure), removed basically all that was left of the items that I inherited, grabbed a quick dinner, cleaned, and closed the place up for three showings the next day. We left at 10pm absolutely exhausted...mentally and physically.
This has been a month of eating ice cream dinners, cereal dinners, sandwich dinners, and the occasional salad. It's been too hot and we have been too tired. Exercise went out window this month except for the very occasional night walk. Again...too hot and too tired. I am feeling the effects and I don't like it. The heat has been so excessive that there were rolling blackouts in certain parts of town to help with the power overload. That has never happened here before.
My calling has kept me busy with multiple stake trainings and planning a day camp for the stake activity day kids. I am conquering my fear of public speaking... all I do these days is speak at various church meetings. LOL. I had my last institute class until September. I am going to miss it!
On the COVID front...we found out that people who have been vaccinated don't have to wear masks at church anymore! Hooray! At the end of the month our idiotic governor finally opened up our state and lifted the mask mandate. We were the first state to shut down and one of the last to open up.
We got our Yum box for the month and the country was South Korea. It was so-so.
We tried:
Cinnamon Sugar Mini Churros: Delicious but seems a weird choice for South Korea.
Banana Choco Pie: Good. Tasted like the Banana Marshmallow Moon Pies that came in the vending machine at the Springville Rec Center when I was in elementary school.
Crunchy Pepero (Cocoa Dipped Biscuit Sticks): Ok. These were like a cross between Almond Roca and Poky.
Sour Grape Chews: Best thing in the box. Tasted like super sour and soft Laffy Taffy but better.
Korean Fried Chicken Balls: Sound appetizing? No. They were not. They tasted like Corn Puffs cereal with hot sauce.
Korean Truffle Potato Chips: So-So.
Choco and Coconut Puffs: Bland. Tasted like chocolate corn puffs.
White Torte Cookies: Bland. The description said that it was a mascarpone cream cookie. Nope.
Korean Strawberry Gummies: Not good.
Custard Cream Cake: Blah.
It was not the best box that we have received but not the worst either. We tried these treats dockside which made it even more festive. LOL.
The lake listing went live at the end of the month. I cried. It is not easy. People don't realize that this isn't a *choice*...whether to keep the lake house or not. It is called reality and unfortunate circumstances. HATRED and VITROL rained down on Kirk and I. ALL DAY LONG. I'm so done.
But to close out the month with some GOOD NEWS... we have our boat back! It is repaired and working great!! On the last day of the month we packed up for a big trip to Utah to celebrate the 4th of July. It felt great to leave all the lake issues behind us for a week!
And...my peonies bloomed and were AMAZING!!
