41 is an odd number

Turning 41 is kind of boring. 40 feels like such a big deal that 41 feels meh.

Sarah went to early morning drivers ed, Henry went off to school, Justin and I dropped off the littles then went to a movie at 9:15am. You'd think we'd have the theater to ourselves but there were four others there that thought it would be a good time to see Twisters. This was the perfect movie to go to since I saw the original Twister for my 13th birthday.

After the movie we went to brunch at Joe's Cafe in Orem then got a cinnamon roll from a new bakery, Sunshine Buns. Joe's was delicious and I would definitely go back. Sunshine Buns was cute but the cinnamon roll looked lame and small. It tasted better than it looked but I wouldn't go to Orem just for one and it wasn't worth $5.

Then Justin had some work to do and so did I making my birthday cake. For dinner we ate Chinese pork belly bites. Healthy? Most definitely not. Delicious? Absolutely.

After dinner I opened presents. Ear plugs, socks, Ghiradelli chocolate chips, mango sorbet, packing cubes, a blu ray player for my bedroom, and a USU hoodie.

Then my parents and Justin's parents came over for cake. I made a brownie bottom vanilla cake with sweeet cream frosting. (If you make this frosting, don't add the second addition of milk and powdered sugar. Just stop after powdered sugar #1. I've made it 3 times and it's delicious but the extra milk and powdered sugar make it too thin. Trust me.)

Then we picked peaches off our two peach trees. We picked these three boxes. Add that to the tub I picked the day before and that's a lot of peaches!

And that's how you turn 41.

I went on a walk last week past my favorite flower bed. I love the symmetry of the design. It makes me feel calm looking at it.

This whole house's landscaping is just chef's kiss.

All inspired I added a few shrubs to our fence line.

On Monday September 16 I finished a goal I had been working on for a couple of years: I walked every street in Mapleton. I don't remember exactly when I started and I don't know how many days it took me or how many miles it was. Soon after we moved here and after walking a couple of miles in every direction from my house I decided to see if I could walk ALL the streets in town. I printed a map and then took the town page by page. I drove to methodically selected locations and walked. Every cul-de-sac, every dead end and even a couple of dirt roads. There was some backtracking and overlapping as it was a challenge to hit even the smallest and shortest of streets. Then I'd come home and mark my paper map with a blue colored pencil. That part was pretty satisfying.

New streets popping up all over town complicated things as well.

On Monday the shortest street was my last street. This is Butternut Way. 

No one lives on it. It just connects two streets between these two townhomes but that's where it all came to a close.

It was in the windy part of town at the mouth of canyon that I don't understand why anyone would want to live. At least the flags are always flying.

To commemorate the occasion, here are a few of my favorite photos I've taken during my walks. I've probably posted most of these before.

 

 

 

Here are my thoughts of Mapleton now that I've seen it all: There are so many beautiful houses and yards, farms, and fields. It's a great place to live. But I am drawn to the view of the mountains no matter where I am. I like seeing how the mountain looks from all parts of town. The areas far west and far south that are recently developed with new streets of new homes do not feel like Mapleton. People are really nice and wave as if they know me even though I've never been on their street before. There are areas I like so much I've driven back and walked them again or gone on my bike.

The other big accomplishment this week (it's been quite a week!) is that I started a job! On Friday I started as a technician in a kindergarten class at my kid's school. It's only 3 hours a day in the afternoons so I get to come home with my littles.

So far it's been fun and hilarious. I basically am a second set of hands for the kindergarten teacher. Prep materials, walk kids to the office, run a center, do assessments, tie shoes. 

Here are some funny conversations just from the first day.

Ty: Your name is die? Like, I'm gonna die?

Me: No, it's spelled like dye, as in dye easter eggs.

The whole table impressed: Oooooh! 

There's a boy I recognized as a brother of James's friend.

Me: Are you Isaac Barth?

Isaac: No! I'm Isaac David Barth.

It's going to take some time to adjust to being gone part of the day and making really good use of my mornings and evenings since I still have ALL THE THINGS TO DO. But all last year I struggled often with feeling like I was wasting time. Some days were so busy but other days were not busy at all and I felt a little lost, bored, directionless. So in some ways last year was hard and in some ways this year will be hard. I'm choosing a different way to be challenged, I guess. 

So now I work in James's old classroom in my old school just down the hall from my two little kids. I see my sister and my best friend (who started as the school counselor this year as well). My neighbor across the street just started there and I see lots of kids and parents from my ward. I needed this challenge to force me out of my comfort zone but I'm already pretty comfortable there. I don't know if I'll do it beyond this year but it's fun to stretch.