Rasping

Yep, still have a sore throat. And now I have a rasping voice to go along with it. Nice. But to be fair, I did pray on Saturday night for Heavenly Father to either lift my sickness enough for me to attend church, or help me know if I was too sick to go, even if it meant I felt worse. At least the rasping voice is hitting me now, and not yesterday.

But in other news, my inspiration has been coming back to my writing. I'm finding my love again and, back in my groove, I'm getting a lot done.

Borderline

I woke up with a cloudy head and a horribly stuffy nose. Mom and Dad went up to the cabin yesterday to bring up a lawnmower and attend a wedding (Probably for one of Mom's cousins- it seems like they're constantly having weddings and babies). When they came home, I had Mom check me over to give the deciding verdict on whether or not I should go to church. I felt like I could function, but I didn't want to get anyone else sick.

I did go, and hopefully people won't get sick because of me. Luckily we have 1:00 church, and I did feel a lot better by the afternoon than I did in the morning. Hopefully this sore throat business will all be over soon.

In other news, we had a lot of people over at our house tonight! Eve and Ange both have their birthdays tomorrow, so everyone got together and we had dinner and cake.

Ange and Eve

Stockton, Jorja, me, and Preston

I don't normally like chocolate cake, but Ange's was pretty good!

Baby Steps of Worldbuilding

Today was a heavy research and worldbuilding day. I've made major overhauls to a lot of the stuff going on in Worth of Ink and have been trying to figure out what feels right. Sadly there's not a lot of tangible material to show my progress, but at least I feel like I'm getting somewhere again. 

My motivation has been burning on low, especially this week since I've still been sick, but... writing is what I want to do. I love it and I could never let it go. It's nice to even be making baby steps.

Terra Cotta Waffles

Mom and Dad told us we could warm up leftover pizza for dinner tonight, but I tactfully asked if we were allowed other food provided we got it for ourselves. Luckily, yes. I warmed up some waffles from the freezer. Much better than that weird pizza from yesterday.

Preston and I played some Rise of Nations today. Preston built the Terra Cotta Army as I was building it, and stole it from under me right as I was almost done. We were quickly creamed by the computers then (Obviously this foolish boy does not know how to use my signature wonder to the fullest extent!), so resigned and tried again. Things went much more smoothly in that game. Maybe it was because I built the Terra Cotta Army.

Pizza of Questionable Quality

My escapades of going through life with a sore throat continued. Jorja has a sore throat too now, and so does Stockton. That's not very fun.

Dad also brought home four boxes of leftover pizza from work. It wasn't a brand I recognized, but I tried some anyway. Instant regret. It was probably the worst pizza I have ever tasted. I had only one slice, and even that was a struggle. Mom and Dad said we would probably be eating a lot of pizza over the next few days since we have four boxes of it. Oh boy.

Doctor and Milo

Well, my sore throat hasn't disappeared yet. Today I decided to talk to Mom about it and see if she had any oils that might help me feel better. She gave me her roller balls for Breathe and On Guard, though I'm not sure they'll be of much help.

Tonight we watched another "Doctor Who", followed by a few episodes of "Milo Murphy's Law". Preston loved it, as I hoped he would. We watched about four episodes, but I didn't want to go any further. There is a ridiculous, blatant, potentially illegal amount of "Doctor Who" references in "Milo" that I feel Mom would appreciate, and I didn't want to continue watching without her. Maybe I can convince her to stay and watch after our next episode of actual "Doctor Who". David Tennant is gone and a new Doctor has taken his place. 

Throat

I woke up today with an aching throat, which wasn't very fun. My hope is that it's just a 24-hour sort of thing and it'll wear off soon enough.

Quiet

Well, all the cousins are gone now. It's just us, hanging out in our house again.

Purple Cast

This morning found Rachel and Mina in Primary Children's for surgery. It went well and Mina managed to come home before church and show off her new cast.

Mina, Grace in the background

Rachel and the girls were able to attend church with us, though everyone except Marie went home early with their mom. We saw them again after church, and then they headed out. Poor Rachel, four girls and one with a broken arm, and no Brett to help her out!

Tonight we watched a "Doctor Who" and "Strange Brew". Both pretty weird shows.

Girls' Night Out For Icecream

I went swimming today! This is actually the first time I've been in the pool all summer. The timing was never right before, and would cross with things like me needing to be out of the sun for two weeks for my hair removal stuff. Jorja had a friend come over, and cousins were there too. Bubs and Ange have returned from their vacation! The house will be a bit quieter now, I'm sure.

Not completely quiet, though. Rachel was planning to leave tonight with her girls too. Only, things didn't work as planned. Mina fell off Jorja's bed while the kids were having a dance party downstairs. Rachel took her to the hospital and they found out that her arm was broken. So, she has to wear a cast and have surgery on it. Poor thing. 

Marie's current school is apparently anti-times table memorization. They just don't want kids to memorize simple multiplication at all, and want them to figure things out some weird way instead. Brett and Rachel don't agree with that, unsurprisingly, and have encouraged Marie to work on her facts this summer. She succeeded in memorizing them, and as a reward, Rachel took her and Mina out to Leatherby's. Jorja and I tagged along too with Mom. I enjoyed my usual cake batter Kenny's Milkshake and even got to go in pajamas. What fun! We'll sure miss these guys when they move to Florida.

Mom, me, Jorja

Mina, Rachel, Marie

Lost Puppy

I sent Dad this message this morning-

One of our neighbors' dogs got out and was wandering the neighborhood. Mom brought her in and had me check the dog's collar for a number and then call the owners. As I finished typing the number, a name popped up on my screen. I think it's the lady that I used to visit teach before I moved up to Utah State. She gave a talk in church a little while ago about how when her family first moved here, the dog would escape and the children were very stressed about it, so they said a prayer and the dog was found. She said that now, they don't even bother praying because the dog gets out so often and yet always makes it home eventually. 

She drove down to pick the dog up right after I called, which was really nice. Mom is not a fan of dogs. I'm surprised she held this one so long. She said she was very calm. Of course, as soon as the lady and dog left, Mom insisted on taking a shower because she said she smelled and felt like dog and that it was gross.

In other news, Brett left today. He's being dispatched for the army, if I'm not mistaken. It's something of the sort. Rachel will be on her own with the kids in Florida. But if you were going to be somewhere alone, Florida seems like a nice place. It's easier to coax people to visit you in Florida than somewhere like North Dakota, I imagine! My mom is planning to drive back with them and stay there for a few days. I think they'll like that. Sometime when I don't have school, I might have to swing by too.

Back to Draper Temple

I don't think I've gone to the temple since coming home from college. When I was at college, I only went once since I don't have a car, but was able to snag a ride with Alison. Dad does baptisms Thursday mornings, and Jorja was going with a bunch of her friends (and Mom). I decided to tag along too. It wasn't crowded and we had breakfast at Kneaders afterwards. Nice.

It was Matt's birthday today! He was really nice and spent it with us. His kids sure enjoyed all the cousin love. Rachel and Sam cooked lots of food- hamburgers and cake, mainly, and I think potato salad or something. The smoke alarms went off in the process. In fact, there was smoke everywhere, to the point that we were shepherding kids out front. I was amused at watching Matt cart baby Greg in his carseat out and place him gently on the porch. Fun times.

I also heard that Dallin came back to the states today. Weird to think that all these boys who are my age are returning home. I'm getting old.

Cousin Dogpile

Windy day today. Spent it enjoying the company of Brett and Rachel's, Bubs and Ange's, and Matt and Sam's families. Lots of cousin fun!

New Street Sign

Watched many kids today. Matt brought his batch over to play while he played Dominion, which kept Bubs and Ange's girls entertained. Mom drove Ella down to her dance class today. She asked me to come along to so I could get a feel for the area in case I need to drive Abby down there on Thursday. For the most part, it's the same as going to SLCC the way I did two years ago (Was that really two years ago?)

I was introduced to an interesting street sign in the process. It's a stoplight that, in the morning, allows people to drive one way down a road. In the afternoon, it takes on an X symbol, and its backside is an arrow, allowing people to drive on the same road from the other direction. Interesting.

The sun was right in my eyes on the way home. Sounds like on Thursday, I might have to take my sunglasses for a ride with me.

Treadmills and Sugar Cookies

Lincoln went off to scout camp today. Mom put me in charge of watching Bubs and Ange's kids while she took Stockton to diving. About five minutes after they left, I heard screaming, followed by footsteps running in all directions after they heard me call down to them. I came out to find Ella on the upstairs couch. I asked what had happened and she said she'd just come up a second ago. Hmm. 

So, I went downstairs and walked down the hall to the boys' bedroom. Abby and Millie had both thrown themselves into their beds and covered their heads with blankets, pretending to be asleep, though Millie was letting out choked sobs. I turned on the lights and went to check on her, and asked Abby what had happened. Apparently, the kids were playing around the treadmill when Abby accidentally turned it on at a high speed. Millie had been sitting on it, and got shoved into the wall. She had a friction burn on her arm where her skin had peeled.

I took her upstairs and had the story confirmed with Ella. She said that yes, this had happened, and was quite taken aback by my question of, "Why did you run upstairs and pretend you'd been sitting on the couch for ages instead of checking on your sobbing baby sister?" Oh well. Heat of the moment, I suppose.

I soothed Millie by running an ice back up and down her arm for about ten minutes. That helped a lot, but she was still pretty upset. Jorja had offered to make cookies earlier, so I sent Preston down to ask her if she could start now. She came up and got all three girls to assist her in mixing the dough, choosing cookie cutters, and baking tons of sugar cookies. Kept them entertained for about three hours. I made macaroni and cheese for lunch, and Jorja and I tidied up the kitchen before Mom came home. Well, not too bad, overall!

Clark's Return

Off to church! With two benches, there was plenty of room for all of us. My old friend Clark, who is my age, just came back from his mission in Texas, so he gave his homecoming talk today and bore his testimony in Spanish. Should be nice to start seeing my old agemates again.

Four More Kids

Bubs and Ange swung by to drop off Lincoln, Ella, Abby, and Millie just before Mom and I wept off to my hair-removal appointment. We're watching their kids for a week as they take a Church history tour in New York with my grandpa, I think.

So, upon our return from the appointment, we played games and kept them entertained. They really like One Night Ultimate Werewolf.

(K)not a Lot

Not a lot happened today, but I did some writing and watched a Season 10 "Fairly OddParents" episode that came out recently. Did some cleaning and things. Enjoyed being home with Mom and Preston. Talked with some online friends. Showed them a piece I'd written that involved knots, and did some revising on it too.

Colt Expressions

Well, Stockton and Jorja went off to Youth Conference today! Preston and I sort of hung out for a lot of it, just talking and being around each other. And I wrote, of course.

We played a game of Colt Express tonight, which we haven't for awhile. I played as Ghost for the first time, and I actually won!

I managed to be the first to retrieve the $1,000 briefcase, and hold onto it for the entire game. Mainly because there was one round we started with all of us on the roof of the same car. Preston played a punch card, which was supposed to make me drop my briefcase. Mom played a pickpocket, so she could pick it up.

Of course, the way the game works is that you play all the cards, but nothing "happens" until all cards have been played. So after the cards were finished and the story phase was beginning, Preston decided that instead of punching me, he'd punch Mom, because he knew if he punched me then she'd just pick up my briefcase, which didn't help him. Mom was a little annoyed, because she ended up picking up her own $250 coin bag. Not what she was hoping for.

Dad's move in that phase was pretty funny too. He was playing as the character whose special power is that if someone wants to shoot another character and has two characters to choose between, they have no choice but to hit the other person- not her. We were all on the same train car, and Dad decided to sprint away. You can't shoot someone on the same train car as you, so Mom shot him in the back. He was a little annoyed with himself for doing it. It was pretty funny.

Writing, Cookies

Jorja had some friends over and made cookies today. They tasted slightly off to me, but I'm not sure why that was. Oh well.

Otherwise, I did lots of working... trying to pull things together for my stories. The usual.

Emrys on Tuesday

I talked to Mom a lot about my writing today. I'm trying to piece together that Emrys Thistle story. I don't normally tell people about my writing, but since I'm in the early stages, it was nice to bounce some ideas off her. She humored me for a good long while, so that was fun!

Tonight, Linzie streamed, so I got to enjoy having her and Jen around. That was pretty nice. Linzie even surprised me with a quick doodle of Emrys after I gave her the rundown of his story! How sweet.

Working Hard

Not anything really interesting to say. Just writing all day

What I See

As we were walking home from church today, Preston pointed some deer out to me and I took a picture:

Tonight, we gathered as a family and watched "Sixth Sense". It was my first time seeing it. Pretty cleverly done, I thought.

Thistle

Most of the family was out and about today, but Dad made homemade spaghetti for lunch for himself and me. It's been awhile since I've had that!

I also did a rough concept design for a science-fiction character today. Meet Emrys Thistle, a boy with a suit capable of manipulating his appearance at will. He's never taken it off and has no clue what he looks like underneath. He lives in a high-tech city with his punk grandma- a lady who refuses to wear her suit and spends a lot of time chasing after organic lifeforms like spiders and rats. I want her to knit sweaters for bizarre lizard-like creatures and stuff. Illegally, of course. The plot is probably about she and Emrys smuggling them from the city and into the wild, where they can be free.

The working title right now is Thistle Only Take a Sec... I couldn't resist.

Circuits

We enjoyed being at home today, though we stumbled across a strange problem. This morning, all the internet connection in the house abruptly cut off. When we investigated, we found that the washer had quit running, and none of the kitchen lights would come on. It seemed that only half the house had power. It's a good thing the internet went out, or it may have been a long time before anyone noticed.

Mom called Dad and he talked her through how to fix something with the circuits. All was fine for a few hours, until it happened again! Mom had just left to pick up Jorja from softball, but Stockton called her up and asked what he should do. A few minutes later, everything was up and running again. Weird. We haven't had any problems like that since moving into this house, and we weren't running more electricity than normal. No one was playing by the circuit breaker. Huh.

I made it to the Battle Tree in my Pokemon game, allowing me and Preston to battle on the same team against random opponents until late in the night. We also triggered a late-night event to obtain a Cosmog.

I slept in the boys' room tonight. I think Preston liked that.

Square

Well, we packed up and came home from the cabin today! This was the earliest we've ever left. Mainly because we kids caught a ride home with Mom, while Dad stayed behind to deal with some septic tank issues. Specifically, he had a guy coming up to check things out, and certainly wanted to be there to ensure things are in order. Dad advised everyone to move out before all the smell permeated the air, so we scooted while the getting was good.

Mom swung by Square Ice Cream on the way home. It's been awhile since I've been there! I tried the birthday cake flavor, but wasn't a huge fan, so I got a scoop (or two) of mint chocolate chip instead.

A nice cold treat to have when driving four hours in a van with air conditioning that doesn't work.

Last Cabin Day

Yep, we're still at the cabin. Our last full day. We spent it relaxing and enjoying one another's company. I alternated my time between writing and playing Pokémon Sun. And I took this picture out the window, since I thought the view was lovely:

You're a Firework

Ah, the Fourth of July! We left the cabin this morning and headed down south to see some Parry family relatives who were hosting a barbecue. Not only did they have lots of food plenty of shady spaces to sit, but they'd set up a giant slip-and-slide on the hill in their backyard. I went a few times with Anne. It took awhile for her to get comfortable sliding down without riding in my lap, but once she tried it, she loved it! She went with Millie again and again!

We stayed out there for a long time. Then Stockton, Jorja, Preston, and I changed back into dry clothes and spent some time up in the house's cool loft:

Stockton and Preston built a Mario Party board. I played as a pig. Jorja was a chicken. To earn the star, we had to chase the guy in the getaway car around the board until we caught up with him. It worked well and was pretty fun!

Preston also showed me this adorable teddy bear-

Plot twist

After cleaning up the loft, we took a trip to Wal-Mart to get some food and games. Then we split into two cars and drove to see the Melaleuca fireworks show. The parking lot was HUGE! ... More of a field, I guess. They had guys in orange vests waving people to their spots and everything. Then it was a long way to walk, across a canal through a bridge made of a boxcar. Sam's family had been waiting for us, and we found them pretty quickly, so that was great! We settled in and watched the sun set before the firework show.

The fireworks were awesome, and I was glad to see them. Getting back on the road, though, took forever. I rode in the Jeep with Dad, Preston, and Jorja. We were in line for about an hour, barely moving- if at all. It was a long trip home, with lots of music involved. We made it back to the cabin at 2:00 in the morning. But the fireworks sure were lovely.

Animal Sounds

Stockton and Dad hit the road this morning so Stockton could attend his bowling class back in Utah. I found a game of Snorta on the bookshelf and thought it might be fun to teach the younger kids how to play. Last I checked Stockton's very good at Snorta, so I thought they'd think it was cool if they were practicing "behind his back" so to speak. 

The much younger kids (Anne, Grace, Eve) especially enjoyed the animal figurines that come with the game. The snake was missing. Preston checked online to see if there was one that Dad could 3D print a new one while he was at home. No such luck. Oh well.

We played a double foosball tournament today! Brett said it up so the oldest adults were paired with the youngest kids. I was partnered with Lincoln. We made it far in the tournament, but not quite all the way. Considering that I lost against Lincoln yesterday, I was pretty happy to be on his side.

I did get a lot of writing done today, and I pulled to my Pokemon Sun game. I'd set it aside while in college and never picked it up again. I'm only halfway through the game, so there's still a lot to do. Preston had fun battling against me. It was a nice day to do that sort of thing.

Church at School

Sam made a bunch of yummy bread for breakfast this morning! She had various loafs. I had a piece of banana bread, though I liked the cinnamon bread the most.

After we ate, we went to Steve and Sharon's ward for church. Apparently, their building burned down awhile ago, so they meet in the school gym instead. I wonder what our ward would do if we lost our building.

During fast and testimony meeting, one guy gave a cool talk about driving up to his family reunion, and all the bugs that kept hitting his windshield. It didn't become a problem until he turned a corner and the sun hit. All the bugs lit up, and he couldn't see. Something meaningless became a massive trial. If he would have taken care of the problem earlier, or better prepared for it, he wouldn't have needed to struggle. I thought it was a good message.

The kids played lots of "One Night Ultimate Werewolf", and we had taco haystacks for dinner courtesy of Mom. Jorja's mini KitKats had melted in the car, so she stuck them in the freezer... When they were hard, she let me have a bite:

Stockton and Brett hosted a foosball bracket today. Brett won, with Stockton in second. Mighty suspicious.

Playing against Matt

Matt, Brett, and I played Pillage and Plunder- and I won. I was the only one in a schooner and had a full crew. I tried to fight a merchant, but Brett rolled doubles and it sailed to him. I rolled for the merchant, and it hit him all four times- instantly putting him out of the game. 

Brett showed me his cards a couple of times prior this turn. Specifically, he showed me the four schooners in his hand. He didn't have the money to upgrade, but he didn't want to pass them to Matt. He would discard two cards in order to slip a schooner under there so Matt couldn't pick it off the discard pile. But then he'd draw another schooner! He had six schooners in his hand during the game.

With Brett out, the game was down between me and Matt. Since Matt was still in a sloop and had been knocked down with sea serpents and scurvy and things, I attacked him a turn or two later and took him down. It was fun to win! It's been awhile since we've played a game where victory is earned via attacking, and not merely by having the most gold at the end.

My ship

Brett's roll vs. my merchant roll, against an English Strength 4

Cabin, Drama

Jorja came home from EFY today! She mostly had a good time, and made a lot of friends, though she was really sad to say good-bye to them. Several of them live in California, although a few of them live around Utah.

Jorja in the middle, with many friends

Although she did enjoy EFY, Jorja was bothered all week long by a boy who kept texting her. He's been playing mind games with her for awhile now, telling her he likes her only to turn around and say he likes another girl, and that "he's sorry" and "feels bad for making a mistake" and "won't do it again", and he "wants another chance". 

Jorja keeps telling this kid that they weren't really together, but he's been constantly guilting her, telling her, "Well, I can't believe you actually broke up with me," and such. He also claimed that Jorja had been kissing another boy who had come over to our house, and that he had pictures to prove it (pictures he couldn't produce, of course). And he called Jorja a liar, and said things like he trusts their mutual friend more than he trusts her. He encouraged many of his friends to text Jorja and pester her about why she wasn't responding to him within .5 seconds. He wanted to "rekindle" his relationship with her, despite Jorja telling him that there would never be a relationship between them. Anyway, it was a mess.

Mom sent Jorja off to softball practice, and then she and I walked down to the church for our stake patriarch's funeral. It's pretty sad to see him go, but he was a good man, and I'm sure he'll enjoy many rewards in heaven.

At the funeral, we saw the dad of the boy who'd been texting Jorja all week. On our walk to the church, Mom had said he would probably be there, and she was trying to decide if she wanted to talk to him. I sat on the stand with Mom and sang with the choir, and after the services had ended and people were leaving, I said a quick prayer, "Heavenly Father, there's that boy's dad, and my mom might talk to him about what happened. Please help her make the choice that will make circumstances better for Jorja."

Mom did talk to the dad, gently, about what had happened, and he was very nice and said that he'd touch base with his son. She and I talked about it to Jorja when we got home. This boy has been treating her poorly, and if no one tells him that this isn't okay, he'll just go on treating girls like this. An hour or two later, he sent a text apologizing for his actions and saying that he wouldn't act this way again. I imagine his parents must have asked if they could look through his phone and talked to him about the texts he'd been sending. Hopefully things get better for Jorja from here on out.

Well, we packed and drove up to cabin. We stopped by Grandpa's house to pick up a package for Anne first (Sam bought her a cape, I think), and then we grabbed food from Zupa's. Mom did a great job driving, and although the van didn't have air conditioner, no one overheated. As we neared the cabin, we grabbed some Benadryl for Dad (As well as some milk and candy). He'd been out fixing the lawn mower, but his allergies were getting to him. His eyes were pretty swollen by the time we got up there.

It's nice to be with family again, and I get to sleep in a big bed with lots of blankets tonight. Being at the cabin is always nice. Here's to a great upcoming week!