Busy in ALL Things

The view out our front door this Spring is looking real fine. 

I really love our Monday night phone calls with Adren. For some reason, it took me a while to not schedule things this night, but once I put it on my calendar, I keep it open for the most part. Often the kids have things going on, but it is always great to chat and hear how things are going. I just love to hear his voice and laugh and see his face. I love him so much!

Paisley was heading out one night (when I was getting in bed) and I had to snap a pic of her "comfy-casual" motif.

I met up with my ACHF peeps for dinner and a play at the Hale that someone was so kind to donate to us. It was a real fun night!

I continue to work most evenings at the office...

I keep adding little touches here and there and scouring facebook marketplace for deals and it is coming along nicely, if I do say so myself.

We met up with our rowdy bunch for dinner. It was a surprise to see Aaron Luck! I had to chuckle because Kim keeps in touch with everyone and invites everyone. I don't think I've talked to Aaron since 9th grad when we all used to hang out and were all in love with him. I guess they are still friends.

More were able to join at the tail end so we stayed and stayed and chatted some more. Fun people!

 

This little guy is getting not so little any more. But he's still forever my little Zekey bears and I really love hanging out with him and hearing about what's going on in his life.

I was pleased to still have a fridge full of graduation announcements in-between my own kids graduating. Most of these are friends and youth in the stake. All such great people!

Love that Zeke wanted to try on our cap and gown before lending out to Eli's friend for graduation. He'll be putting this on for real before we know it!

Dad is checking out Zeke's yearbook. Zeke and Paisley were in a fun spread all about current fashion, it was so cute to see the photo shoot!

The boys wanted fresh summer haircuts, Zeke wanted to try some highlights so I took them to Dev. Of course, we had a good time chatting and laughing about fun memories and the boys learned some new stories of some fun times. I just love Devron to pieces! Shes the best!

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These guys are so cute, leaving all fresh in their harcuts together. I'm just hanging on to Eli not totally ready to let him be 100% adult, aren't I?

Now that Zeke's all dry, he wanted to see the back!

He felt like it was a bit too short, but it will grow!

Paisley told Jon and I that we were invited to the end of year Girls Golf dinner. We were coming from something else, I can't completely remember, so we missed the dishing up and the "ceremony" had started. We crept over to some empty seats at a table. It was a very emotional ceremony, with the senior girls leaving, the young coaches saying good-by to them, then the senior girls speaking to the coaches, lots of tears. I wasn't expecting that. I could see my friend Kelly in my line of sight looking my way and did. not. dare. make. eye. contact.

I love the Spring Geertsen house. I added new house numbers because ours are now covered up by bushes and it makes it hard to find. It looks great as Jon brings in new mulch, things green up and I can start filling in bare spots. Even though I know I shouldn't because everything will start getting too crowded. Unfortunately most everything I filled in this year didn't make it and it made me so sad!

What a delight to zoom in on Landrie's homecoming!!! It was such an excellent talk and musical number! Those Goulding girls are top notch!

I love this photo of Adren with some of his companions before they all headed home. He has loved these Elders so much!

I take pics of sections of the yard before I hit the nursery so that I don't overbuy and know what I need for the specific area. Also, I just like how things are filling in and coming along. When we first built, we were so exhausted from building, the yard was the last thing we wanted to work on. We both worked full time and didn't have much time. Then with little babies, we just sort of put in things here and there, but we still didn't have much time or energy to do anything with it. I feel like now we are re-doing everything now that we do have the time and energy to focus a little more. I suppose that is why you see older peoples yards looking nicer than young families yards. He-he.

 

I had to send this pic to Jonny when I saw these at Trader Joes. When we were at dinner with friends Nathan and his wife Jodee, I mentioned Yacht Rock. None of them had heard the term before so I had to learn them. This proves it's been around a while. He-he.

More pics of Elder Geertsen from Pres. Gentry's Instagram!

Lindsey doin' her thang.

I am continuing working on the ACHF work space. I work most of the day on Saturday, then take a pic so I can see what I need to do next!

I actually grabbed another gallon of green first and started painting the wall and really did not like the shade of green. I wanted to like it because I was there, it was mixed, I was going! I did not want to have to stop, go all the way back to Home Depot, remix, change rollers- you know the drill. I went to the bathroom and when I walked back in, I just knew it was wrong and grabbed my keys. This green is much better. It's a great green and works very well with the orange on the other side of the wall. Two other gals from work have already painted this green in their homes. I really doubt they would have used that other green!

Kitchen Painted: CHECK!

Now that summer is upon us, Ward Girls Camps have started! It has been fun to get plans from all the wards in the stake and hear what everyone is doing. I loved getting this picture from the 6th Ward, our cute Spanish Ward down in Southern Utah!

And here is our Ward, the 5th Ward heading out! Can you spot cutie Paisley as a YCL?

We decided to promote our Africa trip coming up to the general public and give away some of our swag. I grabbed some items around our office that we could give away and got it all styled for our social media. Wouldn't you want to go on a trip with us and receive all of this?

Our supply closet was starting to get out of hand, which falls under my responsibility. When we first moved into this space, I had Riley put up these shelves and I bought these wire shelves and got things somewhat labeled and organized, but things keep getting thrown in here and people keep asking me where things are. While I've been busy painting and decorating, I knew I needed to take a night and get this place whipped into shape and labeled good.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

The next thing I wanted to work on is the giant blank wall in the kitchen. I have these big canvases I painted a while ago that I have in my bedroom that didn't really work out, so I thought I could paint over those and they would at least fill the space. I looked online and found some simple artwork I could paint on them that would work for the space.
 

I think it works fine, and it fills the space and fits the vibe.

And I think it looks kind of cute peeking around the corner and works with the orange wall.

Speaking of artsy and fun, have you SEEN Paisley's room??? Wowsers!!!

That girl is always working away in there and adding things and I just stand in there and take it in and try to notice what new thing she's added and I love that her whole heart is in there. 

Also, real quick- check out how deep the Provo River Trail is! Whoah!

Ok but now back to the office, because this is the summer that I was at the office painting every spare minute. You see, one of our board members, Perry Bratt is having his retirement party at our office and I figure if we are inviting everyone to come see our new space, it may as well look as good as it can, right? Why paint and spruce after? It is kind of nice to have a hard deadline sometimes. No one is putting this pressure on me, by the way. Kent really doesn't care. Most of the people at the office are young and don't have many opinions. When I do ask their opinion, because I want them to feel like their input matters, they don't seem to either have one, or start suggesting wacky things that wouldn't work ;) Ha! Everyone does seem to be happy with what I am doing, so there's that. 

We have this very large back meeting room. It is currently a dingy white with a lot of patched holes. It will probably take about 4 gallons of paint. Riley (a guy that works with us) said his parents have 3 3-gallon buckets of paint they will donate to us. I drove to his parents house with him to look at the paint, it is a basic tan color. It will save us hundreds. Fine. I rallied a group of volunteers to meet me at the office one night to help paint. The paint looked very light for being a tan. We pressed on. We got about one coat all around the room. I said, let's call it a night, we made a lot of headway, that was very helpful. I came back the next day (Saturday) and started putting a second coat on. It looked terrible. The paint was thin, wasn't covering. What was going on? I looked at the bucket, which I should have done before we started, duh. It was a primer. I wanted to cry. I lugged the second bucket out. It was also a primer. I lugged the 3rd bucket out. It was a glossy white paint. No tan to be seen. White glossy paint going on the walls it is! I really did have a cry for a minute. Then I got to work and painted that entire room, two coats by myself in one day.

It's one of those things that just needs to be done, so you just press on and do it.

I finally finished, cleaned up and put the room back together. I even moved those thousand pound filing cabinets somehow all by myself.

Even though it's still white, it does look cleaner, brighter and fresher. At least that is what I tell myself.

And then I added some cute baskets to the walls and they make it look cheery.

We were able to hold our "All Hands" meeting there, which is a big deal because we always have to find another location to fit all of us and it was neat to be able to do it at our own office and it looked all nice and pulled together. I brought some snacks and fresh flowers for the occasion.

And we all had a place to sit and a work table. It was great!

I also found a cute rug and baskets to hide the ugly cut-out on this wall and I think it fits the vibe real nice!

Nice entry!

My manager, Erin is so sweet. She is from Arizona and her younger sister came up to stay with her to enter the MTC. She came to the office with her so she could run her over. I snapped a photo of them before they headed out. Tender!

Speaking of missionaries...

One more project (but not the last) This entry wall is quite large and blank. Kassidy and I thought we could do some art on a tapestry with paint we have on hand. I bought some burlap and we spent about an hour chatting and dipping objects in paint and stamping the fabric. It fills the space and works!

I can already tell this will be a busy summer with lots of projects and so much going on in family life, callings, work and everything else in-between. Sometimes it's like that!