This week

The light quality has been different because the air has been smoky, especially in the morning and evening.

The sun, before it sets is blood red.

It's pretty + dramatic but I can't 100% enjoy it because I know that it is because of smoke and smoke means fire and destruction.  I feel for the people who are in the fire's path.

Other things are a bit off too though.

Our van went to scout camp this week and I'm driving Adam's car.  The radio presets are all on the wrong stations and the gas tank is on the opposite side.  My mason jar didn't fit in the cup holder.

It's all a little off.

Mark's room is silent and I haven't heard his laugh all day or heard him rummaging around in the kitchen or asking me "when and what is for dinner?"  His questions on the daily.

There was no happy shift in the day when Adam came home from work last night and even though I tell myself I will go to bed early, I usually don't because it feels different when Adam is gone.

They just left yesterday but I miss Adam and Mark.

I'm glad for Braeden and Emma.  Yesterday I determined to do all the nagging sort of errands that I've been putting off and Emma went with me.

We stopped by DI to drop off a trunkload and dropped off dry cleaning.  I felt noble.

Braeden should be at EFY this week but he's home nursing his terrible cold.  He's been sick for a few weeks and I'm taking matters in hand and bossing him around and forcing him to rest.

The three of us are going to a play later this week. (I've decided Braeden will be sufficiently rested to handle it.)

While we were planning our week, Braeden looked from Emma to me and said, "It's nice to be home with my girls."

Some weeks are a little off but it doesn't mean they're bad weeks.

Emma Jayne

Emma and Braeden recently love the band First Aid Kit.  Emma listens to their songs, then plays them on her guitar and she and Braeden sing harmony.

*

**

Last night Emma asked us all for suggestions for her playlist for her solo road trip she is taking later this week.  (Independence, thy name is Emma.)

Mark (of course) picked Careless Whisper by Wham! because that kid lives and breathes 80s music.

Emma started slowly prancing around the kitchen, singing, "I'm never going to prance again."

I said, "But you're prancing right now."

She said, "For the last time though."

*

**

Emma showed me this texted short story (is that what we're calling it?) that she sent to Vanessa one night.

All of this is to say, I really like that girl.  

Grateful Friday

I've been thinking all week about something I heard in Relief Society on Sunday.  A woman who by any measure has had a tough time lately, said something about how she is trying to be happy every day.  "I am happy in the joy of the gospel," she said.

Amazing.

Being happy is a choice.  That's true.  Sometimes it's a really hard choice but this helps:

It is not happiness that makes us grateful.  It't gratefulness that makes us happy.

David Steindl-Rast

Here are a few of the things I'm grateful for today:

1. This past week is the climatologically hottest week of the year around here (you know, according to a weather blog I read like it's my job).  And the week is about over!

2. I finished the last of my online courses this week!  And they were really pretty interesting.  (I'm excited to be a teacher.)

3. When Stephanie and I were talking earlier this week, I marveled, "Aren't older kids the best?"  She agreed.  I keep liking every stage of parenting more than the last.  This bodes well for my future. (As long as they continue to live within 30 minutes of me.  Is that asking a lot?)

4. I refilled my prescription for my eye medicine this week.  Modern medicine has saved me from going blind.  And also saved Adam from dying that one time.  So thank you, modern medicine.

5. I had the song Moon River in my head all week and Mark played Mexican Radio by Wall of Voodoo for me (because he's a believer in playing another song to replace the one stuck) and now I have that song in my head.  So while I don't necessarily appreciate any song playing over and over in my brain, I appreciate that Mark is something of a music doctor for me.

6. Speaking of Mark, he takes a walk with me nearly every morning.  Even when he doesn't particularly want to.

7. I've been trying (trying!) to translate a birth record from the 1880s which was written in Italian.  I'm grateful for Google Translate.  Technology is amazing.  I'm sitting at my little desk, looking at someone's handwriting and typing the words that mean nothing to me into Google Translate and English emerges!  Miracles!

I'm not great at reading the handwriting and Google Translate isn't perfect.  Also, I have realized the spelling of some words (like January) have changed slightly.  Still.  It's incredible to me that I'm able to get any of it.  And kind of exciting which might sound weird but this is for a man in my ward who I am helping with family history.  And family history research is fun.  Even if it is in Italian cursive from the 1880s.

8. Last night we went to IKEA and bought Emma some stuff for her kitchen in her new apartment this fall.  I love checking things off my to do list.  Check, check, check!

Friends

Friendship is the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words. 

George Eliot

Braeden told me, "I think it's really nice the way you and Stephanie make an effort to let Mark and Gavin see each other."

It was nice of him to say but I had to tell him that it was hardly altruistic of me.

I want to see Stephanie.  And also, I love Gavin and want nothing more than his goodness to rub off on Mark.

Yesterday we spent the afternoon with Stephanie and Gavin.  It was easy like Sunday morning (an easy Sunday morning when you have 1:00 church and don't have to go to ward council...you know what I mean).  We threw some ideas around via text of where to eat lunch and ultimately let the teenage boys decide so it was Pizza Pie Cafe.  And let me reassure you, you get your money's worth at all-you-can-eat places like that when you take Mark and Gavin.

We sat there for almost two hours, two parallel conversations going on.  Stephanie and me.  Gavin and Mark.

From there we decided to take the boys bowling but then Paisley, Stephanie's basketball star daughter, called.  We decided to leave the boys bowling and go get pedicures.

In Washington, Stephanie and I got pedicures together a few times.  I've only had one pedicure since I've moved here and I think I learned something about myself.  For me, pedicures are a social occasion.  More fun with a friend.

We chatted the day away just like always.  And I know I've said it before but how I value my friends!  I don't have a lot of really close friends in my neighborhood now and I miss it.  I'm grateful for intermittent happy visits with Stephanie and texts and phone calls with Janet (and I'll see them both in August).

They'll likely never know how much they mean to me.

I didn't take any pictures of yesterday but I have bright pink toenails and every time I see them, I smile and remember.

A difference between men and women

Olivia is the stake YW president.  They do a stake girls' camp every year that she is heavily involved with.  The other day she was telling me about the meetings they had already had planning girls' camp next summer.  She is already making strides in her preparation.

Adam is the ward YM president.  The priests and teachers are going on a high adventure campout next week.  Last night he asked me if I'd sit down with him and talk about the food plans.  He and the other leaders have some loose plans for what they're doing each day that they've come up with in the last few weeks.

He sent out an email to parents with information about the camp and said that they were car camping so bring all the regular things you need for sleeping, hiking, swimming and working (they're doing service too).

It's all so simple.

When I went to girls' camp we made cutesy packing lists, we assigned secret sisters with cutesy pages of instructions, we made cutesy pillow treats for each night.  Every day had a carefully orchestrated topic, every tent had a theme.

It was all so much work.

As much as I'm a planner and as much as I don't like camping, I think I would make a better YM leader than YW leader.

Like I told my counselor back then, I think I'm allergic to cutesy.

Feeling sentimental

Adam's sister, Whitney, posted these pictures on Facebook of Linn, their dad.

Mark looks so much like him!

super blurry not all that great picture of Mark but without glasses, he really looks like Linn

I've been thinking about Mark and Linn.  Linn and Mark.  Mark was a grandpa's boy from the start.  In every picture I have of the two of them, it seems Linn's arms are looped around Mark.

Mark gravitated to his grandpa and always wanted to be nearby.  Whenever he saw Linn, Mark would run at him at full speed, yelling, "Grandpa!"  He'd practically knock him over in his zeal.

Linn was the kind of grandpa any child would love.  Our kids were supremely fortunate to have him while they did.

He was the right blend of loving and fun and gentle and kind.

He left us way too soon.  This is Mark at Linn's funeral and I'm astounded by how little Mark was.

He was so young and has far fewer memories of Linn than the other kids do.  I love the pictures we have of Mark and Linn though.  I love the proof in color.  I can show Mark:  look how much you two loved each other!



I love that Mark at fifteen looks so much like Linn at fifteen.  Mark has steady hands and is good at fixing things, just like his grandpa (like both grandpas).  He is gentle and kind.  He has the same red hair.

I wonder what Linn would think now of this tall boy with the deep voice.  I think Mark would still gravitate to him and Linn would still loop his arms around Mark.

I like to think he is still watching.  I like to picture him cheering on his grandchildren and chuckling at their nonsense and smiling proudly at their successes.

I know someday Mark will run into his grandpa's arms again with a force that will about knock him over.

"Grandpa!"

Utah County, that's where

At church on Sunday, a 15 year old girl spoke in sacrament meeting.  She said that she is on the cheer team at Timpanogos High School.  She said that their cheer squad set a goal to go to the temple for baptisms every month together to promote unity.

Adam leaned over to me and asked, "Where do we live?"

Living here has all the ups and downs of living anywhere, but seriously.  This is quite a unique place.

Grateful Friday

Way out in the land of the setting sun,

Where the wind blows wild and free,

There’s a lovely spot, just the only one

That means home sweet home to me.

Things I loved about our little Nevada trip:

1. Cherry Pie Night:  it lived up to its billing.  Plus, since my mom is my mom, we had cherry pie leftovers.

2.  Touring Enoch and Jennifer's new house.  So pretty!

3. Watching Braeden teach his cousins swim lessons.

4. My dad made me a copper straw (because I don't know about you but I don't want to add any straws to the islands of plastic garbage in the middle of the ocean--that sort of haunts me).

I was wearing my Thelma shirt...

...and I explained that growing up I could never find anything with my name on it.

Since my dad is my dad, he engraved my name on the straw!

5. Walking with my mom in the mornings.

6. Sitting on the front porch at dusk.

7. Seeing the proud gleam in Mark's eye when he worked hard one day and was paid.

8. Picking vegetables in the greenhouse and then eating them.

9. Quilting with my mom, Olivia and Liliana.

10. I didn't take any pictures of the sunrises or sunsets but I enjoyed them. (Also I should have taken a picture of the new colt. He is super cute.)

I am grateful for time with Olivia and Jennifer.  Sister time is always the best time.  I'm grateful for my good parents.  They are an anchor in my life.  They are fun to talk to.  They laugh at me, but they love me and that's worth a lot.  I'm grateful that I got to see Enoch--if briefly.  Brothers were a good invention.  I'm grateful I got to see those cute nieces and nephews.  I love seeing the unique ways they shine.

I feel a little cheated that Marianne's family was gone.  What kind of Nevada trip includes Marianne being gone?!?  (They are in Nauvoo participating in the pageant.)

I'm grateful for my boys, who are always a good time.  And I'm grateful to be back home with Emma and Adam again.

Pie

We love The Great British Baking Show.  We love Sue and Mel and Paul and Mary.  We love the quirky contestants and their delicious looking food.  We are anglophiles and we are fans.

Until we aren't.

Sunday night we watched an episode that was Pie Night.  What's not to love?  (Except Venison and Haggis Wellington but hey, I'm not going to judge.)

But then...then?!?  Their last task was to make sweet American pies.  Everyone on the show started disparaging American pie.

And we felt triggered.

We took exception and we started talking back to the TV.  The Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and throwing tea in a harbor may have been mentioned.

Here's the thing about their "American" pie that nobody liked.  It didn't resemble actual American pie all that much.  Pumpkin and peanut butter pie?  You can't just throw a bunch of American ingredients in a sweet crust (and American pie crust isn't sweet anyway) and call it American pie.

You can put a flag on it, but it's not American pie:

This is the pie that won:

It looks more like a tart than a pie, but it won and like Mark said, "It's what the Founding Fathers would have wanted."

After the episode, and gathering up a handful of detritus from the basement because there always is some, I went upstairs and "The Battle of New Orleans" was playing and three indignant kids were marching around, their patriotic hackles raised.

You can mess with a lot of things, but not our pie.

Things got sort of intense.  Horace got involved.  So did a coonskin hat and toy rifle.

The boys and I are going to Nevada for a few days.  My mom said tonight is Cherry Pie Night.  She picks cherries from their tree and once a year it is Cherry Pie Night and we will be there!

Take that Great British Baking Show.  You aren't even invited.

Roadtripping

Last week we went to Denver and it was a good time.

Being in the car with my people is my favorite.  Throw in some beautiful scenery and you have a fantastic time.

We drove to Denver on I-70, which is straight up amazing.  It seemed like every mile brought new loveliness.

At a rest area near Vail we saw this pampered poodle (with great posture).

There's always something to see and rest areas bring a lot of zaniness.

We stopped at a middle of nowhere gas station because we didn't know where the nearest rest area was (it was a few miles down the road).

I was sort of delighted by these signs and apostrophes.  And capitalization.  They are so bad they're good.

Emma and I both loved the food sleeping on this sign:

someone had hyphenated food-sleeping but it had been painted over

(At that same rest area there were 4 signs for the women's bathroom and 4 signs for the men's bathroom--all next to each other--as well as a sign for each with left and right written on them.   Signs!  Never-ending appeal and a look into the workings of someone's mind.)

The reason for the trip (and my festively painted fingernails) was a Mariners game.

We donned our Mariners shirts and walked to the stadium from our downtown hotel room.

Selfie in the mirror so everything's backward but you get the idea.

In the hotel elevator there was another family in Mariners clothes as well.  Solidarity!

Baseball stadiums are endlessly photogenic:

There's a row of seats in the stadium that are purple to mark the mile high line.

Even though we root root rooted for the Mariners, they didn't win.  It didn't dampen our good time though!

The next day we drove back home, this time on I-80 because we were picking Braeden up at the Salt Lake airport.  We coasted into town on the last bit of gas in the tank (it's a 18 gallon tank).

Living on the edge!

We were thrilled to see Braeden again.  Everyone shifted and I slid my seat way forward and he climbed into the backseat.

Back on the freeway, listening to the three children clamor to talk to each other and catch up for lost time and laughing a lot, Adam said, "Hearing that makes it worthwhile, doesn't it?"

And I don't know what "it" he was referring to.  Maybe the "it" he meant was all of it, as in, here, right now, us together?  This is why we do everything we do.

We stopped at MOD for pizza on the way home (of course we did) and then we swung by Vanessa's to pick up Bruiser, Emma's fish that Vanessa had been feeding in our absence.

The hands down most stressful time of the entire week was the drive home up 1100 North which is probably the bumpiest road known to man.  I was holding Bruiser's bowl because of the backseat crammed-in-there situation.

None of the sloshing water spilled over and everyone laughed at my panicked cries the entire way up the hill.

Then it was deck time.  Braeden took this picture and said, "Mark, our feet are back together, like they were meant to be."  Amen.

Grateful Friday

I'm grateful for kids that entertain me.  Making me laugh isn't the only thing they bring to the table, but I love it.  I also love the times when Mark chimes in on text messages.  His messages are few and far between, but worth the wait.

For example:

(Mark's profile picture is one he put on my phone--it's a selfie he took while under the influence of wisdom teeth removal.  I'm not sure why I want to see that every time he texts....)

Adam mentioned he liked my blog post and Mark wrote this:

Adam's funny too.

But I should explain the $3.02.

The other morning, there was a dead bird on our deck, right in the middle of the couch out there.  (Our house is a magnet for suicidal birds who fly into our windows.  It's sad.) Emma and I both decided to get Mark to deal with it.  He stoically did.

He was spending the day with Olivia and I gave him a ten dollar bill.

He handed me the change when I saw him and I said he could keep it because he had dealt with the bird.

So yes, he is a man of means.

Here's a text conversation between Adam and me, which also happened this week.  I had texted Adam about Mark struggling with repairing his bike tire, but then Mark fixed it because that's the kind of kid he is.

And I 100% agree.  He is awesome.  And even if I'd had any takers, I wouldn't give him away.

Camp Thelma

The idea all started one night over dinner at Rumbi Island Grill when I told Carolina I could teach her how to fold a fitted sheet and she sort of swooned because that was the kind of thing she wanted to learn.  I don't know how we came up with Camp Thelma, but that was the name.

Liliana and Carolina were my campers.  I had surveyed them earlier with things they may want to do and they had ranked the list.  (It was all very scientific.)  Tuesday and Wednesday morning we spent time together doing all the things and then the culmination was lunch with Olivia's family (sans Ruben who was at CHIP camp at BYU--I don't know what CHIP camp stands for, but I know it's for cool kids like Ruben who know how to build robots and stuff like that) and Marianne's family (sans most of them--it was just Marianne and Liberty and Morgan who joined us).

I carefully documented our happenings.  I told the girls I would put pictures on my blog and I told them I'd let them approve the pictures first but then I forgot to do that and I'm posting the pictures anyway.

I guess I'm not too trustworthy as far as aunts go....

First we went to the Payson temple to perform baptisms.  Emma joined us because she didn't have to work (Mark spent the day going bowling and to museums with the Cobians.):

the sunshine caused some dazzling effects in the photo....

I loved being in the temple with these three sweet girls.  Anytime I am in the temple with people I love, the normal temple joy I feel is amplified.

We came home and learned different ways to fold napkins and set a festive table for lunch:

The girls chose different ways to do the napkins, hence the variety.

Next was our craft project.

Carolina cutting thread lengths.

Liliana cutting thread lengths

I loved the colors and patterns the girls chose.  They are both artists.

We made these wall hangings for their rooms.

We learned how to propagate philodendrons (they each got a plant to take home):

And how to fold fitted sheets!

What can I say?  There is joy in folded fitted sheets!

I taught them a couple of principles for arranging items on a shelf.  The main principle?  Do what you like.  We cleared off two shelves and they got to choose from whatever they wanted to arrange a shelf.

Mark said I was only doing it as an opportunity to get them to clean my shelves. He also said he was glad we were having people over for lunch so we could have good food for once. Anyone interested in a red-headed 15 year old boy?  I would even deliver him to you.  Free of charge.

Here they are with their finished shelves:

Such cute girls!

Lastly, we did some hand-lettering.

They were good at it like I knew they would be.

After lunch, the moms got to take a grand tour and look at the projects.

Anytime I get to spend time with my sisters is a happy time.  It's no surprise I love spending time with their daughters too.

These are my people.