Best Day of Ellie's Life

Ellie has always had a soft spot for anything cute and cuddly.  She's Rocky's biggest champion and is drawn to animals wherever we go. She animals of all kinds (cats, rabbits, llamas, alpacas, guinea pigs, etc), but her favorite has always been dogs.   When she was young, she was known to stop dog owners in parks to chat them up about their dogs, while she played and loved on their pets while they chatted.  She has "Must love dogs" on her list of required traits for a future spouse and has dreams of owning several someday. 

That's why when my good friend, Natalie, announced on Facebook that her sweet poodle mama had just had puppies, I knew we needed to invite ourselves over for a visit.   Luckily they were born right before Fall Break, which meant that we had plenty of open time  for a visit when they were just 2 days old.  

Mia {the dog mom} had just given birth to 11 goldendoodle puppies and it was seriously such a cool experience to be there and watch her gently caring for her large litter.  

Their eyes weren't open yet and they mostly just squeaked and writhed around looking for milk, but they were adorable and so fun to watch.  Ellie was enamored and very much enjoyed giving those sweet teeny little pups lots of love and snuggles.  Not even a pound each yet, they were so tiny they fit into the palms of our hands. 

Natalie's daughters {and a friend} joined the fun and we were having a certifiable puppy snuggling party!  We enjoyed learning all about the process of responsible puppy breeding and what it takes to properly care for a litter of new puppies.  They literally watch them 24/7 the first couple weeks--taking turns staying up all night with them. They also weigh each one of them a couple times a day to make sure they are all thriving and take time to perform some neurological stimulation exercises with them each day as well.   It really was a highlight of fall break for Ellie! 

I should have known this would happen, but as soon as we left Natalie's house that day, I got a full court press that we needed to adopt one of the new puppies.  And it didn't just come from Ellie.  It also came from Cami and then from Glen as well.  

Eventually I said, "yes." 

Here are a few of the reasons I changed my mind {I'm including this here for some future day when I'm overwhelmed with doggy responsibilities and I question my past sanity}:

1.  Rocky is 13-years-old...and the average age that puggles live to is 10-15, which means our time left with him is likely somewhat short.  He is also deaf and sleeps 20+ hours a day.

2. Ellie really really really loves animals 

3.  Ellie is the lone child left at home

4. We are new to the area {again} and still feeling pretty lonely

5. The puppies were responsibly bred and are being very well-cared for

6. Goldendoodles don't shed and aren't normally as high energy as the breeds of Rocky or Kiwi

7.  I read a study about benefits of pet ownership on people's physical and mental health. 

8.  I think I will enjoy having a dog in the house when the kids are all gone 

Soooooooo....I hope I don't regret it, but here's Denali.....

She's now two weeks old and growing soooo fast.  Denali just opened her eyes this week, which adds some depth to her personality. 

 She's snuggly and calm so far and is supposed to end up about 25 pounds.   We'll get to take her home around Christmastime and in the meantime, Ellie is determined to visit and snuggle her as often as possible.  

So what was the best day of Ellie's life?   

First it was meeting the 2 day old puppies for the first time.  Then it was me eventually saying, "yes," to keeping one.  The next best day will be the day we bring her home!   💓💓💓

For Good

The other day I took a trek down to BYU to wish one of my former young women a happy 23rd birthday!    I was surprised when I got there  -but not too surprised- to see that she was roommates with two more of my young women!  I hadn't seen any of them since before their missions and it warmed my heart to hear the amazing things they're all a part of and to see how well they're doing. 

 

I was a broken mess when they called me to serve as young women's president just a couple weeks after Spencer had ended his treatment for leukemia and I worried immensely that I was the wrong person for the job.  Looking back on the 5 years I was in that calling though, I firmly believe that that having this  calling during that period of my life was truly a gift from Heavenly Father to help me along in my healing process and to shift my focus outward again.  It was a steep learning curve for me that brought me outside of my comfort zone repeatedly, but it also brought 30ish amazing young women into my life that inspired and taught me. 

Those young women did far more for me than I ever did for them and I am grateful every day for the love, laughter, and richness they brought to my life at a time when I needed it most.  It has been a joy to watch them grow into amazing missionaries, mothers, students, and overall awesome women who are making this world a better place! 

💓💓💓

Capturing the Stories

If you are reading this blogpost, then it is likely that you already know that I have had this blog for a very long time.  14+ years to be exact.   There was a time when this blog was my main creative outlet  and a major key to my sanity, however for various reasons (moving 3 times, social media, and changing stages of my life to name a few), blogging has taken a back burner in my life the last several years.  Fact of the matter is though....I miss having our stories written down.   My family enjoys going back and reading about cute and funny things they did when they were younger.  Or seeing a recap of a family vacation we went on.  Or checking out their Halloween costumes from days of yore.  

Though my life isn't as cute or funny  without little kids around, I still want to remember these days.   

I want to remember the two crazy weekends when we dogsat Spence's 7-month-old puppy.  Kiwi is like a big sweet bumbling toddler who doesn't know how big she is.  She's curious and can't be left alone for 2 minutes or she'll eat food off the counter, demolish my fall decorations (pine cones are a favorite of hers), chew up a pen, or pee on the rug.   

I also don't want to forget how Rocky and Kiwi sacked out on the end of our bed, while Ellie and I watched a movie.  Glen wasn't too disappointed to be out of town for both Kiwi escapades.  

I also don't want to forget these missionary Mondays when I get to talk with my sweet Hermana who's on the 2nd to last transfer of her mission!!!   I won't lie....I'm getting mighty excited for January 11th to roll around!  

I also don't want to forget the early morning walk Glen and I took in the 35-degree rain/slush the other day.  With all his recent travel and busy work schedule, it had been several days since we'd been able to take our normal morning walk together, and I missed it enough that it was well worth it to brave the cold and wet to have that time to connect together.  Just for the record, I was wearing a winter hat and thick jacket for the walk and I STILL got this wet!  

I don't know if I've mentioned this on here before, but I LOVE mail...especially postcards.  I collect postcards wherever we go and even participate in a postcard exchange group where I send and receive postcards from all over the world.  It's a guilty pleasure hobby for me and I've been doing it for several years.  Someday I'll do a whole post on it, but for now I'll just share this postcard I received this week.  There was only about 1/3 of it left and apparently the other 2/3 had gotten caught up in the machinery at the post office.  Luckily that 1/3 that survived happened to have my address on it and it got delivered in a bag just like this.  

Also, I don't want to forget how deeply I love hiking around here.  Of course I knew there were good mountain trails here, but I also knew we wouldn't have time to do those on an everyday basis, so I had this expectation of boring treeless trails we'd have to walk most days.    I think my expectation was so low mostly because we really loved the hiking trails near our home in Pennsylvania and I didn't think I'd find anything close to home to compare.   But it turns out that we live in a lovely place and I rather enjoy seeing camels, alpacas, horses, cows, goats, and swans on my everyday hikes too.   This view is from a hike we take once or twice a week up to the Horsetail Falls trailhead.  The trailhead is about 2 miles from our house (all uphill), which makes it the perfect amount of challenge for us.  

 This is our life. It's not all that entertaining or interesting, but it's mine, and I'm grateful for that.  

Thanks for caring enough to read.  

Have an awesome weekend! 

The Paper Heart

When I pulled out my fall decorations a few weeks ago, 

I laughed when I found a cute little paper heart taped to our pumpkin door sign.

 It took me a minute to remember where it came from, but when I did it made me smile even more. 

 Here’s the story…

As most of you all know, we lived in the same house in Virginia for 20 years. Moving to Pennsylvania in 2019 was a HUGE leap of faith for us, but we felt strongly that that’s where we were supposed to be, and we went with open hearts, ready to embrace our new community. Six months into our new adventure, COVID kicked in and Pennsylvania locked down hard. We had already struggled to find our footing with the new social landscape of PA anyway and we found that COVID made it infinitely harder. Then our landlords came home from their overseas sabbatical and we found out that we had to move yet again.

That’s where the cute paper heart comes in. In the summer of 2020, we moved to the new house in Phoenixville…just 20 minutes away from our old one….but in a whole new ward and community. Honestly we were feeling quite lonely at this point and pretty discouraged at what our prospects looked like—with almost nothing happening in person to give us the opportunity to get to know people and me having some strained/weird social things going on with the old ward. 

That’s when the dear Latey family swooped in and made sure we knew we were loved and welcomed. I think we initially bonded over sweet sister missionaries starting their missions only a few weeks apart and both getting reassigned to Utah, but the connection definitely went beyond that and they made sure we didn't get lost in COVID anonymity.  They sent us letters, they invited us for socially distanced walks, and one day we came home to our door covered with hearts and sweet welcoming messages.  They didn't let us feel forgotten and it meant the world to us.  

The Lateys are the type of people I aspire to be...not just builders who help people feel loved, but true friends that  listen without judgment and show up when it matters.   

So....we were thrilled to hear they were coming to Utah last week for BYU homecoming and extra glad that their responsibilities as alumni directors for the Philly area didn't keep them too busy to come visit us.     

We had a lovely visit together and enjoyed catching up and renewing our friendship!

And of course we had to share the story of the paper heart with them (which I'm totally leaving up as long as possible)...

 I still don’t know all the reasons why we needed to live in Pennsylvania for two years, but meeting the Latey family was definitely one of them! 

19 years ago today!

 Nineteen years ago today, this little chubster came into the world with a bang.   Born eight days late, early in the morning on the day he was scheduled to be induced, he made sure none of us overlooked this 4th child.   My pregnancy with him had been one of my easiest, but his birth proved to be the most complicated.

  

At some point during labor his heart rate started dropping, thick meconium was present when my waters broke,  and the doctors realized the cord was wrapped around his neck. Everything after that was a whirlwind and though ultimately he was born without a c-section, his APGAR score when he was born was only a 2.  He was rushed to the NICU as soon as he was born and stayed there for a week.     At nearly 9 pounds, he was by far the giant of the NICU, but definitely still had his fair share of issues.  He was on oxygen and had tubes and wires coming out of his head and arms.  It was a very mentally and physically exhausting time for all of us, which didn't end when he came home.   Ultimately he was readmitted to the hospital a few weeks later for lingering issues and a few weeks after that I developed mastitis, which was pretty much horrible too.  

He was by far our hardest baby and toddler, which we attribute to all the poking and prodding he got during his first and fifth weeks of life.   We really just felt like he needed a little extra reassurance that all was right with the world and as such needed to be snuggled and held pretty much all the time. We remarked many times that we were glad that he was our 4th child and not our 1st, or we may not have ever gotten to Ellie.   

With the rough start though....he had a smile that could light up the world and honestly it was that smile that got us through those exhausting first months of his life.   

 

Somewhere along the way, the crying stopped and he turned into a happy, well-adjusted kid.   We are thrilled to celebrate another trip around the sun with him and in honor of his 19th birthday, here are 19 things you may or may not know about him....

1. he was born 8 days late on the morning I was scheduled to be induced

2. he was almost 9 pounds when he was born

3. he had the most difficult birth of all my kids and spent 2 weeks in the NICU 

4. he was by far my hardest baby and toddler

5.  he cried A LOT and needed to be held pretty much 24/7

6.  his first word was, "uh oh" and it was usually followed by throwing something across the room

7.  we called him our "baby scientist" because he was always trying to figure out how things worked or how big a crash they'd make

8.  he one time broke his foot after getting it run over by a full shopping cart at Costco

9.  that foot is still half-size smaller than the other foot

10.  he is the king of board games and usually beats us

11. he will race ahead on family hikes when he's feeling irritated about something

12.  At almost 6'2", he's the tallest Goold by a few inches

13. he'd rather do 1000 math problems than have to write a paper

14.he's the best traveled of all the Goold kids (and recently passed up Glen too) -- 25 countries and counting

15. he's got a fun sense of humor and has never outgrown his love of a good "what if" question

16. most of the way through high school he did ~ 200 push-ups a day

17.  he's a master cookie baker and even makes me delicious gluten free versions of my favorites

18. he loves nature and is somewhat of a bird identifying expert (though he's not as familiar with western species yet)

19.  he has great friends--young and old -- and we are grateful for the light and joy he brings to our family!

Fish, Smoke, Snow, and Leaves

 A letter sent to our missionary 10/10/21:  

*********************************************

Hola Emma Girl!

Don't get too excited, but I think I've set a new record for starting your letter before 8:00pm. Never mind that it's literally 7:59pm, I think you should give me some kind of award or something (or at least eat a cookie for me or something). But then again, earlier does not always equal better (as you know from the goofy letter from a couple weeks ago), so refrain from too much anticipation. 😜

So, what are we doing this week? Eating, eating, and more eating. I don't know why, but suddenly there's good food everywhere and I'm eating it all.    

Also, have I told you that you're going to like our new kitchen? It's not fancy, but it is nice and certainly bigger and more organized than any other kitchen we've ever had. I think you'll enjoy it.

Also, GUESS WHAT?!! I'm finding you some new friends for when you get home. One is named I----- and she lives with her parents in the ward. I don't know her story, but 1. she was homeschooled 2. she's about your age 3. she's very nice. Also, I met A----- today. She lives two doors down from us and she is recently returned from the Vancouver, Washington mission. There's also the BYU student whose family lives kiddy corner behind us who served in the Toronto Mission (she just happened to already be out when COVID went down, so she got to stay), so you were basically meant to be friends one way or the other. We will definitely have a YSA gathering at our house when you get home, so you all can get to know each other. :)

My next mission is to start finding you some dates too.  

Yesterday Dad took Adam, Logan, and Ryan H. fishing on Strawberry Reservoir.

If you remember the weather yesterday, it was COLD, SNOWY, and WET, but they dressed for it and had a successful day. They caught 20+ fish--including a monster big one that Adam caught....

Tonight Dad smoked a few and we ate well (see the eating problem I mentioned above).

YUM!

 

Speaking of cold, snowy, and wet--have you seen this weather alert? 😩😩😩😩😩😩😩

It's funny, because last time I lived in Utah, I was coming from Minnesota and I remembered the Utah winters as pretty wimpy. Now we're coming from somewhere where they cancel everything every time there's an inch of snow and I'm getting increasingly worried that these winters are going to knock my socks off. As it is, I am 10000% NOT excited about a winter storm in October!   😱

I heard that leaves were at their peak this past week, so we braved the cold, soggy weather this week and took a drive through Big Cottonwood Canyon, over Guardsmen Pass, back through Heber Valley and back home through Provo Canyon. The weather in the mountains was a good 20 degrees colder than home and significantly windier too, so we pretty much froze. But we did get some beautiful pictures and I think the bad weather kept the crowds away.

What else did we do this week?  

Adam went to homecoming with his friend, Sydney...

I heard they had a fun time and I found these pictures in the camera roll, so it looks like a success.  

We also found the cutest little alpaca farm about a mile from our house and I think Ellie is ready to be adopted into their family, so she can see this cute little fellow every day...

We talked her into staying home after I promised to drive by at least once a week.  Be sure to remind us and we'll drive you by when you get home too.    It's so stinking cute it's sure to make you smile when you're having a grumpy day! 

A couple last things....

The L---- family (from VF1 in Pennsylvania) came to breakfast this morning.  It was great to see them and I truly feel like they were one of the reasons why we needed to live in PA.   

On Thursday, we went to BYU Homecoming Spectacular.  I sent you a couple videos from it, so you can see that it was AMAZING!!!!    Brian Stokes Mitchell was the headliner and the whole thing was so fun and so well done!   

Spence opted not to come, so we searched for someone to take his place.   Katelin D. was available and  we enjoyed spending the evening with her.  

This month is a pretty busy month.  Next weekend is Ellie's Fall Break and Dad is going on ANOTHER fishing trip with a colleague.  Later Dad will fly to Dallas for a wedding, after which Ellie and I will fly to Austin for Cami's baby shower.  I'm getting so stinking excited to be a grandma I can barely stand it!  I just hope that they end up getting residency somewhere closer than Texas.

Speaking of babies....Dad's cousins (Marilyn's girls) all had babies within a few months of each other and they asked me to take pictures of them when they came to town.  I was SUPER intimidated, but talked Heather into coming along too, and I think they turned out beautifully (thanks to Heather).  It was fun to see them again and meet their sweet babies.   

Jane's baby is P----.  He is about 8 months old.   Stephanie's is C----- and he is 2-3 months old.   Jill's is M---- and I believe she is about 7 months old.   They live in 3 different states currently (Texas, Virginia, and Utah).  

They were all completely adorable ...

And it was fun to see the sisters reunited!   

They sent these beautiful flowers as a thank you gift.  😍

Well, I've definitely set a new record.   I'm wrapping up now and it's not even 9:30 yet, so HALLELUJAH, I might actually get to bed at a reasonable time!  

I hope you have an AMAZING week!  WE love you!!! 

Love, 
Mom