Empty nesters

This week we've been on our own.  Emma has been on a trek youth conference and Mark has been at scout camp with his Nevada cousins (and long suffering Nevada uncles).  Braeden's been the one we've been in touch with the most because he emailed Monday and also we got a text message from my patron saint Rebecca Justesen that included an audio text of him telling me he loved me.  (Why I was saved for these latter days, I tell you!)

Mark was excited to go to scout camp in Nevada.  Emma was sort of dreading trek.  Maybe it was because of her miserable experience last time she went when she got heat stroke.  Unlike her brothers, she's never been overly affectionate.  It indicated the level of anxiety my tough as nails girls felt that she was hugging me long clinging sort of hugs the night before.  I told Adam that I would love to just tell her never mind, don't go.  Stay home.  I also know she needs to do hard things though.  Children + hard things = not easy for the mom.

Adam and I have been saying to each other with sad disbelief that this empty nest is how it will be in six years but we've been wrong.  We've been thinking that since last summer and really now this is how it will be in five years.  Time marches on.

The good news is that I really like being with Adam.

Monday night we went to Salt Lake City and went to the church history museum.  We perused some exhibits and voted on our favorite art in an art competition.  We found a tiny hole in the wall restaurant to have dinner.  It was Afghan/Indian fusion in the back of a little grocery store.  We walked in and the elderly Afghani man who worked there was scolding a shoplifter and pulling things out of his pocket.  To Adam's credit, he just kept walking.  (Ever since he tackled a shoplifter years ago, I've been telling him that is not his job.)

After falafel for me and kebab for Adam, we stopped by to visit my grandma.  That's always a good time.  I want to be like my grandma someday.  That's all.

Tuesday we hit the theater for $5 movies.  We saw Love and Friendship which was funny but also left me a little disappointed.  I am a Jane Austen purist.

Wednesday evening we hosted a party for Adam's primary class.

Other highlights:

We ate fresh tomatoes grown on our deck (I believe that to live and work on a good farm is pleasant as well as challenging--you had to be in FFA in high school to get that reference).

We found a dead snake on our lawn.  It had claw marks and I think a bird dropped it.  In the absence of Mark we decided to leave it and let another animal take it away.  (Mark, by default = animal removal.  He doesn't particularly like that sort of thing but he's youngest so the rest of us pull rank.)

I sent a howler to Braeden via Rebecca.  I told him before his mission that I would figure out how to send a howler if the need arose.  It arose.

Emma came home from trek last night.  She was happy!  She seemed to have a great time and she excitedly told us all about it.  We were happy she was happy and also happy she was home.  I told her it was weird that Braeden was the child we were in contact with the most and she said, "I wished I had my phone!  Every time I used the bathroom I wanted to take a picture of the sign and send it to you."

What can I say?  We bond over bad signs, particularly unnecessary quotation marks.  (Emma's battle cry:  Quotation marks are not for emphasis!)

I handed her a piece of paper and told her to recreate it.

I missed her.  I'm glad she's back.