The months are flying by around here! Over Thanksgiving I was thinking about how life is controlling me instead of me controlling life. One big reason is the other lives I'm so deeply intertwined with and that are interdependent on me for so many things. This is the beauty and purpose of motherhood and family, but I'm pretty sure there are some tweaks we can make somewhere to give me more control over my own life...
At the beginning of November Ceci started training with the intermediate climbing team at The Front climbing gym. She LOVES to climb and is improving quickly, and she is making good friends in the process. She goes twice a week for 2.5 hours, and eventually she'll have competitions thrown in too.
Tennie took a trip to Yellowstone with her friend Lindsay. Being in the wild is always good for her soul.
She and a friend bought one-way tickets to Europe this summer to bike through several countries. She is working as a stage hand and usher, as well as giving plasma twice a week to pay her bills and save what she can. She has planned out her remaining college years with the current plan to apply for the journalism program and minor in Arabic. Her life is full and good!
Adele continues to prepare for the ACT, which seems like an endless and sometime not-so-effective endeavor. It looms heavily on top of her other school work and the stress of college applications. Geoff met Adele's good friend Alexa and her mom in Boston where Geoff had meetings and Adele and Alexa attended a high-school conference for teens at MIT. She loved getting around with Uber and being in Boston with a good friend.
Geoff spoke to some students at Harvard Business School, so they loved exploring the campus a bit.
She and Geoff then drove north to Montreal to check out McGill University, one of Adele's top choices, but a very difficult school to get in to. She loved the city, met with some professors, one of which Geoff met years ago in Argentina and gives Geoff full responsibility for getting him where he is today. It was a great trip.
While they were gone some of us Davis sisters worked hard to help Brittany put on a holiday pop-up shop. She has to urgently go through three consecutive IVF treatments, which is expensive. Over the years she has purchased beautiful, hand-made items from around the world with the intention of opening an online shop one day, but the situation called for a more urgent way to sell her goods. It was a load of work, but it turned out beautifully.
She is a natural artistic director and created a remarkable shop out of her housing development's social room. It looked like a legit boutique! We had a snack bar with pizza and cookies and drinks too. Her many friends came and supported the shop, and then they stuck around like it was a full-evening out. It was really fun and quite successful for the few hours it was open. Geoff's family knows how to rally. They are supportive and loving to the end. Here are the teams that pulled it off...
Adele and Ceci had a photo shoot that came with a modeling class they took. The photographer has a unique style that we don't love (I might post the pictures if the girls will allow me!) But here are a few side shots:
We actually got a lot of good laughs through the whole process.
Geoff spoke at Snow College one day, and he and I enjoyed the drive through remote Utah and meeting the students at this small college. He has quite a life/professional story to tell!
I started tutoring an Iraqi woman in English. I go every Thursday for 2 hours and every other Monday for 2 hours. This has been really fun!
We went to St. George for Thanksgiving, which is always low-key and slow-paced, which many who are pushing hard in our little family were thankful for. Geoff and Adele flew directly into St. George from their trip. Before they got there Tennie, Ceci, Tag and Dooz joined some Dixie College students for night games on campus. Hot cocoa followed the games.
We had Thanksgiving at some friends of my brother Mitch and his wife Joann. They pretty much made the entire dinner and cleaned the whole thing up. No complaints there! We played games at their home a few nights, went to several movies, played card games, watched football and did a lot of Black Friday Christmas shopping. I love a whole weekend devoted to family and gratitude!
Ceci has been playing around with the photoshop app and came up with a possible Christmas card photo (can you tell the person added in? Ha!)
She's also made me travel the world on my bike...
Believe me, there are about six gazillion photoshopped photos on my camera...I'm just sharing a few.
And now we're on to the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!
At the beginning of November Ceci started training with the intermediate climbing team at The Front climbing gym. She LOVES to climb and is improving quickly, and she is making good friends in the process. She goes twice a week for 2.5 hours, and eventually she'll have competitions thrown in too.
Tennie took a trip to Yellowstone with her friend Lindsay. Being in the wild is always good for her soul.
She and a friend bought one-way tickets to Europe this summer to bike through several countries. She is working as a stage hand and usher, as well as giving plasma twice a week to pay her bills and save what she can. She has planned out her remaining college years with the current plan to apply for the journalism program and minor in Arabic. Her life is full and good!
Adele continues to prepare for the ACT, which seems like an endless and sometime not-so-effective endeavor. It looms heavily on top of her other school work and the stress of college applications. Geoff met Adele's good friend Alexa and her mom in Boston where Geoff had meetings and Adele and Alexa attended a high-school conference for teens at MIT. She loved getting around with Uber and being in Boston with a good friend.
Geoff spoke to some students at Harvard Business School, so they loved exploring the campus a bit.
She and Geoff then drove north to Montreal to check out McGill University, one of Adele's top choices, but a very difficult school to get in to. She loved the city, met with some professors, one of which Geoff met years ago in Argentina and gives Geoff full responsibility for getting him where he is today. It was a great trip.
While they were gone some of us Davis sisters worked hard to help Brittany put on a holiday pop-up shop. She has to urgently go through three consecutive IVF treatments, which is expensive. Over the years she has purchased beautiful, hand-made items from around the world with the intention of opening an online shop one day, but the situation called for a more urgent way to sell her goods. It was a load of work, but it turned out beautifully.
She is a natural artistic director and created a remarkable shop out of her housing development's social room. It looked like a legit boutique! We had a snack bar with pizza and cookies and drinks too. Her many friends came and supported the shop, and then they stuck around like it was a full-evening out. It was really fun and quite successful for the few hours it was open. Geoff's family knows how to rally. They are supportive and loving to the end. Here are the teams that pulled it off...
Adele and Ceci had a photo shoot that came with a modeling class they took. The photographer has a unique style that we don't love (I might post the pictures if the girls will allow me!) But here are a few side shots:
We actually got a lot of good laughs through the whole process.
Geoff spoke at Snow College one day, and he and I enjoyed the drive through remote Utah and meeting the students at this small college. He has quite a life/professional story to tell!
I started tutoring an Iraqi woman in English. I go every Thursday for 2 hours and every other Monday for 2 hours. This has been really fun!
We went to St. George for Thanksgiving, which is always low-key and slow-paced, which many who are pushing hard in our little family were thankful for. Geoff and Adele flew directly into St. George from their trip. Before they got there Tennie, Ceci, Tag and Dooz joined some Dixie College students for night games on campus. Hot cocoa followed the games.
We had Thanksgiving at some friends of my brother Mitch and his wife Joann. They pretty much made the entire dinner and cleaned the whole thing up. No complaints there! We played games at their home a few nights, went to several movies, played card games, watched football and did a lot of Black Friday Christmas shopping. I love a whole weekend devoted to family and gratitude!
Ceci has been playing around with the photoshop app and came up with a possible Christmas card photo (can you tell the person added in? Ha!)
She's also made me travel the world on my bike...
Believe me, there are about six gazillion photoshopped photos on my camera...I'm just sharing a few.
And now we're on to the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!
