Other February Happenings

Here are a few February highligths.  

My cousin Melanie came to visit the Odessa Vore fam.  She is married and has four boys ranging in age from about 15 to 8.  I'm so glad she was willing and able to make all the arrangements on her end to make a weekend trip.  

Mel is positive, energetic, quick to laugh, Godly focused and just a lot of fun to be around.   My dad, siblings and I all really enjoyed hanging out with her over the few days she was here.  I loved hearing all about her boys, her work and she and her husband's plans.  They are very involved in their church and their community.  Her work is part of a ministry that puts on revivals all over the world.  She and Dakota have been looking to move from Portland to Texas over the past few years.  Hoping it happens!

My cousin/her brother, Trent, also drove down for a day while she was here. I only got to see him in a group setting for about an hour, but it was wonderful to catch up. (We had Taco Villa Monday on Saturday at Rosas so we could all be together before he drove back to Austin.)  His boys are Brinley's age, and our kids grew up together.  Max and Mason are awesome young men.  It was fun to hear about Mason's first "real" job after graduation and Max's first year of law school.  I love his wife, Linda, and wish she could have made the visit too.

A couple of poor photos from our lunch:

Aub got her letter jacket.  She was excited.  I was wary.   At Permian High, if they are on varsity for a sport, they "earn" their letter and their jacket.  It's kind of a crock though because somehow the "free" jacket ends up costing at least $200.   I know this will not get worn much and will soon join Brinley and Parker's jackets in the guest room closet.  Oh well.  I guess it's a right of passage.  I am glad she's excited, and I'm proud of her for being moved up to varsity this year. (And she looks pretty cute in these pictures...crazy girl!)

My new order tally thing-a-ma-bopper.  I am marking per order and not per t-shirt.  It's kind of fun to have.  Also,here are a few of the  shirts I've been making this month:

Easter is early this year, March 31st, so I put out our Easter scene at the end of this month.  I put it on our entry way table and walk by it a million times a day.  It makes me happy.   I also added some of the flowers Bri got me to a little vase and set it on the table.  I think I will buy more as needed during the Easter season.

It was my week to be the extra parent as seminary.   Ang and Britney are the teachers, and they alternate weeks.  They are amazing women: faithful, loving, strong, prepared.  I am very grateful Aubrey has the opportunity to be in their class.  Here is a picture I snapped of the breakfast they enjoyed while working on Doctrinal Mastery.  (I think they were missing about half of the class on this day.)

Lft: Sister Angelique Vore, Haley , Luna Head, Aubrey,Riley Avery, Emmerson Ormsby, Max LaSuer, Abraham Pena, Shainea Pena, Ali Crissinger

I love these pictures for several reasons.  1. Kaide loves going down his little slide.  2. It was adorable that he wanted this Paddington Bear to have the chance too.  3. My friend Alma gave him this bear when he was maybe 6 months old.  She was delighted to see him enjoying playing with Paddington. 

Two of my favorite cuties: Aub Daub and Kaide.  Also, I finally hung the temple picture I had framed for Bri's b-day last August.  We were married in the Oakland temple and this is his temple of his youth.  He purchased the print several years ago and had it tucked under the bed.  When I stumbled across it last year, I decided to surprise him by getting it framed.  I didn't realize, but I guess his plan was to one day make a frame for it.  Whoops!  I told him to still make it!  We can transfer to the print when he does.

Kaide has taken to calling Brian Papa, and it's adorable.  He says it so clearly in his little boy voice.  It melts us all.   Brian makes a pretty great Papa!

And to wrap up the month....we were able to celebrate Aub's graduation from Junior Leadership Odessa. 

Gabriel, Eva Garcia, Aubrey Vidal, Emilie, and Aubrey

I'm so proud of Aubrey.  She was selected to take part in Junior Leadership Odessa.  She spent several hours each Monday for five weeks going with the group of teens from several schools in Odessa and learning about our community.  The weeks were broken down into Media and Education, Government and Public Safety, Medical and Social Services, and Arts and Culture.

She felt anxious joining a group of peers she didn't know, but she went out of her comfort zone and had a good experience. They visited places like the art museum, UTPB, the commerce building, the Auto Tech building at Odessa College and many more.  She made new friends and learned new things.  I'm grateful for the Chamber of Commerce for the many hours they put in to providing this experience for our future leaders.

B-day/V-day

Pretty great weather for my birthday week and a sunny 71 degrees on my actual birthday....perfect!

I felt very loved on my birthday.  Brian put up the birthday banner, brought flowers, and had gifts for Valentine's Day and my b-day.  Poor guy has double duty each year, but he always comes through.   My kids called/texted/gave thoughtful gifts.   Many friends reached out, sent cards or stopped by with treats and gifts.  I felt very loved and celebrated.

I wish I took more pictures but here are the ones I have from the day.

Aub was home just in time from her Utah trip.  She was excited because she found the best book for me.  She said, "Mom, it sounded just like something you'd like.  It's kind of a self-help, self- improvement type book."  She was Spot On!  I am currently re-listening to Atomic Habits on audible.  The author is always referencing all of these charts and extra materials that are available in the book or online.  I am excited have a hard copy to make use of all the extras and to markup information I want to remember.

Later that afternoon, Aub was barring me from my bathroom.  When I was allowed in, I found this mirror note from her on my bathroom mirror.  It honestly made my whole day, and I left it up for the next three weeks. (Being a Mom of a teen can be rough!  It's nice to be thrown a bone every once in awhile.)  

It's kind of hard to read in the picture, but this is what she wrote: Thank you for making dinner, supporting me, letting me have friends over, being an awesome mom, being a Christlike example, rubbing my back.  I💗U.   Aubrey

Tanner wasn't feeling well so he kept his distance, but Erin and Kaide stopped by with a really fun birthday basket filled with chocolate and pampering gifts and a paint by number kit and a journal with pens.  Wow!  

They stayed and visited for about an hour and magically Kaide let me read to him for a good 20 minutes!  That hasn't happened for months, so it was a fun surprise.  

I stopped by Crumbl for my free birthday cookie.  Kind of ironic that I parked next door at Complete Health.  A few days before I stopped by Nothing Bundt Cake to get a free white chocolate raspberry Bundtini.  My sweet tooth paired with a great deal is match made in heaven.

My parents exchanged Valentines and it was the cutest.  My dad got my mom this Dr. Suess Thing One and Thing Two book and labeled the "Things" as himself or my mom depending on the scenario. 

I found the perfect card from my mom.  On the front it had XOXO in big letters and on the inside, it simply had "Forever."   She doesn't have a lot of words that come out right, but she knows she loves my dad.  She had also written "I love you Steve" on the yellow paper a few days before with Julie, one of the caregivers, so that was perfect to tuck into the card as well.

To wrap up the night, these cute girls had a Galentines night with the older girls for young women.  Happy Valentines Day 2024!

Super Bowl LVIII

We don't really watch tv on Sundays, but the past few years we've made an exception for the Super Bowl.  Usually we are at the Birds, and we just start our Sunday evening gathering a little earlier.  Char had the flu this past week though, so we moved it to our house.  

Bri is from Northern California and his team/the kids' team has always been the 49ers, so they were ready for the big game.  The head coach of the Chiefs is a member of the church, and the quarterback played at Texas Tech.  I think all the males present from Lincoln (age 6) on up interests and opinions about the game and which team they wanted to win..  The females were happy to visit and eat yummy food.  

I wish I took a picture of the food spread because it was amazing.  We had jalapeño poppers, sausage wraps, chips and dips, Cowboy Caviar, homemade bread, fruit salad, chocolate covered strawberries, mini muffins, peanut butter pretzel bites and more.

There was a little more buy in all around with the half time performance. 

Ang, Brit, Ella w/ Gracie, Chris, Megan, Grandma and Grandpa Honey (Shari and John Martine,) Bri standing behind the couch, Hudson, Kaide, Erin & Tanner

Christian is super snuggly and loves his Grandma.

Erin & Megan hanging out in the playroom which has morphed from an Xbox/Movie watching room back to a toy room.  Kaide wasn't sure what to make of all of these little kids playing with his toys at his GG & Papa's house.  He eventually settled in.  

Brit, Ella, Hud and Kaide

Me, Christian & Ang (I got a few snuggles!)  And notice my shirt?  I made a 49ers sweatshirt for Aubrey and a friend and had one left over.

Shari & John (Ang's parents)

Hud has always been great with the younger kiddos.

I pulled out a giant coloring sheet that I had on hand.  I created/sold several for V-day and had a mess up on hand.  Megan loved it.

We had a fun family night together, but sadly, we lost a very close game in overtime.

Aub's Utah Trip

Aubrey got to go on her birthday trip to visit Brinley and Lauron in Utah.  She had a great weekend.  I'm pretty sure one of her favorite parts was being on her own, away from her loving mother and father.  She was gone for five days, and we only heard from her when she was flying home and a little panicked on figuring out the airport.  Oh the teenage years....

Brinley writes a weekly letter and so I am going to insert what she had to say about Aub's visit.

"Of course, the most exciting part of the week was Aubrey being in town!! It started off kind of crazy because we all thought she was getting in at 9:20pm – turns out we were looking at the wrong flight and she was actually getting in at 11am. Luckily, I don’thave work or school in the morning, so picking her up was totally doable. The biggest impact was at 4:30am when I happened to check my phone and see the updated flight information. I had been planning on taking my exam later in the day. At first, I had the “oh well, she’ll just have to watch me take my test” attitude, but I couldn’t sleep. I really wanted to make sure she had a good time. So at 4:45am I got up and studied for and took my exam. It actually went really well. The only complaint I had was that my roommate’s alarm went off at about 6am and KEPT going off until about 6:45am. I don’t know which roommate it was, which is a good thing because I was ready to MURDER them. It was a proctored exam (so I took it from home, but I was being videoed on my screen) which meant I couldn’t go get my noise cancelling headphones or anything. It’s probably best that I never find out who just listened to their alarm go off for 45 minutes. In my opinion, if you lay in bed and don’t turn it off it makes you a PSYCHOPATH. But that’s just me. 

Anyway, once Aubrey got into town, I was ready to go. We went to the BYU creamery and then once I got home from work, we went shopping, got In-N-Out (her one Utah request), and then had a game night. Especially after the game night, she and Derek were teasing and joking around with each other and that was really fun for me. 

Saturday morning we had Galentines with Lauron, Charity, Kate Vore, Kate Martin, and Lauron’s friend from HXP. Then we went to City Creek Mall and shopped for a couple of hours. We came home and Aubrey napped (right through a fire alarm), and then we went to the volleyball game in the evening. She was so straight faced the whole time, so I was surprised when she turned to me and said “this is INSANE. I’m just trying to keep my cool here.” Phew. I’m glad she had a good time even if I couldn’t tell all of the time haha.  

Aub said she teased Derek from the get go about being the third wheel.  And at one point they were both holding Brinley's hands.  

Sunday she went to church with me. I taught RS (due to my own bad planning – I forgot to ask someone to teach...) and it was fun to hear all of her comments. We had a munch and mingle activity and then I dropped her off. I had a good time, and hopefully she did too." 

A big thanks to Brinley for sharing the details in her weekly letter.  It was very helpful in piecing together Aubrey's trip.  

Poor Aubrey.  She wore her cute shoes to walk to church on campus.  Brinley said that gave her the true BYU church experience.

Brinley dropped Aubrey off at David and Emily's to spend the next day and a half with La.  Cousins reunited!  On Sunday, I think La showed Aub some of her favorite places around town.  (Lauron moved to South Jordan to live with her aunt and uncle for her senior year.  She had been attending Liahona online for high school, but can attend her last year in person now.)  On Monday, they got in some everyday shopping and some prom dress shopping.  They also went to an indoor rock-climbing place that La frequents.

Aub enjoyed her little vacation: visiting Brinley, meeting Derek, hanging out with La, skipping three days of school, and being parent free.

Trending w/ the headphone placement

Glad you're home Aub-Daub!