 |
| CA Cushings up in Salt Lake City for Thanksgiving, November 2018 |
Welcome, 2019!
2018 had the lowest number of blog posts, on this format anyways, but that's not an indication of a boring, uneventful year. We had some fantastic, incredible milestones--Rhiannon graduating from high school and finishing her first semester at the University of Nevada in Reno, Wade starting high school and having fun with band, golf lessons, seminary, and lawn-mowing jobs in the neighborhood, Jason taking a new LARGE assignment at work and accepting the call to serve as Bishop of the Ridgecrest 2nd Ward, and my successful completion clearing my CA teaching credential after two years of hard work, and moving to full-time at my projects teacher position. Those were the biggest highlights, and meaningful.
Today I created books for our family with highlights from 2016 and 2017, using many of my posts on Facebook. For the last two years I've felt incredible guilt about not giving this family blog much attention, but it turns out I was just making family history notes in a different format, on social media. I give myself a lot of guilt trips about spending too much time on Facebook, and I'm trying to be better about that, but it was nice today to see a positive of all those posts--in about 10 minutes and a very few clicks, I had two books covering two years done. Technology is amazing! (Now, why did I wait 2 years to figure that out!?)
Over the summer I even dabbled in a different private blog, on WordPress, but since that was only a handful of posts, I'll just copy and paste them here!
Blog post from July 2018:
I started our family blog on Blogger back in 2007 when we began our East Coast adventure. It was the perfect way to capture a bit of our family history and helped me feel like I was doing SOMETHING on that front (scrapbooking just wasn't happening).
Now it's July 2018 and that family blog hasn't been touched for 4 months and when I DO get to it, it's to catch up and post about things that happened a long time ago. I end up feeling guilty and a little more stressed.
I do feel it's worthwhile, though, especially when I get to print out a year's worth of family happenings (note to self: 2016 and 2017 still need to be printed...)
Cushing blog books since 2007
Another reason to keep our little family blog going? It's healthier for me than social media, haha! And why change blog sites? I'm not ready to pay a monthly fee for a domain, but Wordpress had an awesome app (MUCH better than Blogger's!) that would allow me to do quick posts from my phone.
It's also a very exciting and crazy time of change for our family:
Rhiannon will start college next month at the University of Nevada: Reno. 6 hours away.
Wade will begin high school and seminary and golf team and driving! And living like an only child!
I will change from part-time to a full-time position as a projects teacher.
Jason just took on a massive new position at work...and also got called to serve as the new bishop of our ward 2 weeks ago!
Change for our family is constant and scary and fun and joyful. And I still want to capture it the best I can!
Rhiannon graduated from Burroughs High School on June 1, 2018
Blog post from July 13, 2018: Boys' 42-Miler Backpacking Trip
Jason and Wade were gone the last week of June on a backpacking trip with friends from the ward. They traveled to Visalia and stayed the night at Daren and Lisa Hardy's home, then started on their adventure to Kings Canyon and up to Rae Lake. They will need to fill in the details here, but I know they had a fantastic time and enjoyed the company and the views even though the hiking with packs was hard!
Love this group shot and the fact that all are smiling!
Jacob Williams, Scott Hawkins, Kaleb Hawkins, Josh Washburn, Caleb Washburn, Wade (standing in back), Kevin Evans, Ephraim Washburn, Caden Beames, Ben Washburn, Wyatt Porsch, and Jason!
Blog post from July 2018: Pickled Peppers
Jason and I tackled some of our garden produce today--the banana pepper plants have gone crazy.
I'll be making a big batch of pico de gallo, too!
The zucchini are a bit of a bust, though. I finally checked on them today, and, um, I think they're past their prime eating but would make fun targets or something now, haha! I put the bottle of sunscreen there for size comparison.
Blog post in July 2018: Utah Staycation
Last week Jason, Wade, and I went to Salt Lake City for a mini 4th of July staycation with Cushing and Cropper family. Rhiannon stayed home because she had been working her job at the movie theater for just a few weeks. (It was weird without her and we missed her! But we were proud of her for doing a great job on her own, too. We were also thankful for friends, the Litton and Hall families, who took very good care of Rhiannon on the 4th of July, too!) McKaleigh was working, too--we missed her!
Highlights from our Utah trip included:
--staying the night at South Pointe in Las Vegas on the drive up and enjoying a delicious LARGE buffet dinner
--4th of July celebrating with an amazing BBQ, super fun lawn games outside (especially Koob, Can Jam, and hitting giant marshmallows with golf clubs!), and fireworks at the golf course down the street. There were some technical difficulties with the fireworks, so we sat around for a while in the dark and then started walking back to the house, when the fireworks started and we watched from the sidewalk
--a full, fun day at Snowbird! The family ride on the tram up the mountain, bungee trampoline, and the Alpine Slide were some favorites.
--Sodalicious and the mall with Grandma and cousins!
--pizza and bowling night!
--golf for the older "boys" and a super fun morning at Mulligan's playing soccer golf for the rest of us
A major highlight, and final activity of the staycation, was an hour in the Sherlock Holmes Mystery Escape Room down at Gateway Mall. Man, it was a BLAST!!! There were so many puzzles and locks and tricks and cabinets to figure out, but we did it! It was a wonderful team activity!
Here are some pics from the trip, in random order! It was a great week and we loved spending time with family!
July 2018 Blog Post: Bishop Cushing
July 1st was a memorable day.
A week before that, on June 24th, our stake president and family friend, Nate Kimbler, asked to speak to Jason for a moment in his office after our stake council meeting. I assumed it was about building issues or something, but a few minutes after that he asked me to join them and I knew immediately what it was for--he had just extended a call to Jason to serve as the new bishop of our ward.
President Kimbler expressed confidence in Jason and this inspired opportunity to serve. I also expressed my confidence in Jason and willingness to help and support him. I know Jason was shocked and a little shaken by the timing--he had also just accepted a big new change in position at work, and was about to leave for a week on a Young Mens backpacking trip with Wade and others, and then would turn right around to make a family trip to Utah the week after that.
We drove home from that meeting a little shook up and talked about keeping it to ourselves and not even telling the kids until it would be official, anywhere from a week to three weeks, as there would be a process of Jason recommending names for his counselors, etc.
About an hour or two after we got home from that, our doorbell rang and it was Bishop Washburn and his wife. I will never forget the love they showed us with their big smiles and huge hugs, how it was kind of funny and hard not to elaborate in front of Rhiannon and Wade yet. Jason and Ephraim went outside to talk for a bit, and Kimm visited with us inside. It was a wonderful, kind thing for them to do!!
That night Jason and Wade left for their backpacking trip. It was a tender mercy that Jason could quietly talk with Bishop Washburn all that week at the end of the hiking line to help him feel a little more prepared and ask questions. It also took a great deal of effort on my part to stay quiet about it! The boys got back Saturday night and Jason said the bishopric change would happen the very next day, on Sunday, July 1st.
That Sunday was a special day. It was a Fast Sunday, and President Kimbler asked for several of us to share testimony, including Bishop Washburn, Brother Everett Wilson, and then Jason's new counselors Kevin Evans and Bryce Perry, myself, and Jason.
I wish I'd taken notes that day and could remember exactly what was said. It was a wonderful meeting! I do remember that Jason expressed that he was a flawed man but was eager to do better, and that he also invited people to look up from their phones, use those devices wisely, and not stay in the foyer during classes!
I'm grateful for the good men and their families who have paved the way and for the Evans and Perry families and their willingness to serve with Jason now. I'm grateful for our amazing ward, who have reached out in love to both our family and the Washburns.
Bishop Washburn and his family have served with great strength and love for the past six years! Our family has felt the impact of their love and concern for us and are so grateful for their friendship and faith.
Jason said it best in a Facebook post:
If there is anything constant in life, it is change, and this is a BIG change for our family. But we know the Lord is in charge and that He will help Jason, help our ward, and help our family during this time, if we put our hearts into it and trust in Him.
