How it's going

I was talking to Olivia and Marianne called me but I stayed talking to Olivia.  Then Marianne called Olivia on a different phone but we kept talking.  Then I hung up with Olivia and called Marianne and while we were talking Olivia called Marianne.

It was not the first time something like that happened.

***

The main floor and the basement are now put back together.  The upstairs had been mostly put together but I came across a lot of stuff that belongs up there so it's now a mess.  And the garage has a lot of stuff in it still.

I feel like I'm paddling upstream here.

***

When I need someone to tell me to get rid of something, I ask Mark.  His answer is always yes.  Unless it's  Lego instructions.  Lego instructions for days.  And when I told Mark we had too many Legos, he said, "You bought them for me," and he is right.

***

I didn't feel like I had time to stop and do some ministering interviews but I stopped and did a few and I felt good after connecting.  Doing the right thing usually turns out to be...the right thing.  Who knew?

***

We have too many books.

But I want more.

But we have too many.

***

Yesterday I got an email requesting I fill out a survey about how my wrist is doing a year after the surgery.  It asked me to rate the difficulty I had in lifting 5 pounds, buttoning buttons, reaching a high cupboard, things like that.

Wow.

It made me feel super grateful.  Besides the kind of ugly, but I'm used to it by now, scar on my wrist, I don't even think about my surgery.  My wrist is fine.  When I think about all the ways my wrist serves me without complaint, especially in the last weeks, I am amazed.

I think I take this body, that gets tired and hurts sometimes, too much for granted.  It works hard.

And I'm grateful.

Call me Nero

It felt a little like I was playing the fiddle while Rome was burning, but Emma and I organized books by color.

I did it several years ago, with dire results because I couldn't find anything.  This time it is just the fiction shelves.  (And I will probably do it on the YA shelves too.)  I'm going to organize the Newberys by the year they were written.  Why would I do this when there are 12,000 other things crying for my attention?

I don't know.

The heart wants what the heart wants.

Don't worry about those ones tilting on the bottom shelf.  I was going to locate a book end but then I found some more fiction books to add after taking the picture.  No tilting books!

Also, Mark didn't work yesterday (at least he didn't get paid).  I kept telling him to slow down and I'm not an 18 year old boy when we were moving heavy stuff together and he was walking too fast.

He said, "It would be easier if you held that away from your body."

I said, "I don't have enough upper body strength."

He said, "You know how you could get some?"

I'd like to see him give birth three times.  I have strength!  Just not the same as his.

At last

Our painters finally finished and left on Saturday afternoon.  They were here working for 10 solid days.  

They said that we will miss them and that maybe we'd want to have a recording of them working in the house for ambient noise.  Funny guys, but no.  

The house is maybe 60% back together.  I worked diligently on Saturday and my back was aching and I was narrowing in on 13,000 steps (it's nice to have a fitbit; it helps you feel like a martyr).  Adam told me to stop.  I told Adam I would quit at 9:00.

Around 9:30, I was in the garage, getting stuff and Adam said, "It's after 9:00.  You are supposed to be done."

He was mowing the lawn.  Our lawn mower has headlights, if you must know. 

I said, "I decided to work until you're done."

Adam said, "No, stop.  I still have to mow the front yard and you have to stop."

So I did.  Adam came up a few minutes later (the front yard is small).  I said, "It's a good thing I'm a patient person or this would be really hard."

And Adam laughed a lot.  Because I'm not a patient person.  I want to be Samantha in Bewitched and twitch my nose and have everything organized again.

A good part of all the chaos has been that I've gone through things and discarded things and organized things and that all REALLY needed doing.

Here's one of the few rooms that is back to normal.  It makes me feel like I can breathe.

Today is a day to get a lot done!

Grateful Friday

They are supposed to be done painting today.  (They were supposed to be done yesterday but I'm feeling hopeful.)  I am looking forward to putting it all back together.

Wednesday we had lunch with Marianne and Robert and some of their kids.  It was right before sending Hyrum off to the MTC.  He and I shared a creme brûlée and I love that kid.  He's smart and funny and good.  He will be a great missionary.  I'm grateful for nieces and nephews.

Yesterday was cool and rainy.  A change is as good as a rest!  Emma and I took a walk in the late morning.  You can't normally do that in the summer without it being too hot.  It was lovely.

I am super grateful about my tooth.  My dentist was very doomsday about the whole thing.  "We'll see if this works, your body may reject the filling."  "You may need to get an implant, we'll see."

And my tooth has been hurting.  A lot.  I went to the dentist and had the bite corrected.  It helped a little.  It still has been hurting.  A lot.

I called the dentist again.  Maybe I need the bite corrected some more?  They told me to go to the endodontist.  

Because my default is often worse case scenario, I was pretty sure it was going to be bad news.  I was pretty sure they were going to say I would need the tooth pulled and I would need an implant.

But.

He had me bite and said, "That is the only place in your mouth where your teeth are meeting!"

He ground away and ground away at the filling.  He said, "No wonder you have been hurting!" (Which it must be said, was validating.)  Every time he had me bite, it would feel a bit better.  Finally he pronounced me as good as new.  And it doesn't hurt!  For the first time in about 2 months.  My. Tooth. Doesn't. Hurt.

I've never loved an endodontist so much (or at all, but still).

Two political science majors

Braeden and Anna are in Virginia right now, visiting her family.  They took a red eye from Phoenix to Philadelphia, where they had an 8 hour layover, then on to Charlottesville.  This is how you travel on the cheap and to out of the way airports.

They are young and in love and hardy.

(I would not look that cute if I hadn't slept.  I wouldn't look that cute if I had slept....)

Running on adrenaline and patriotism.  I would expect nothing less of my two favorite political scientists.

A pinprick

I woke up at 2:30 AM from a dream that I was lying in bed and furniture was falling on me.  Sometimes when I have a dream I wonder, where did that come from? and sometimes I don't.

All is not lost though.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel.  It's a tiny light, a pinprick, but it's there.  They started taping the basement.  Yesterday they prepped the crown molding with an enormous ladder and then about the time they were leaving, the paper they'd taped to the ceiling started to come down.  Two steps forward and one step back.

Also, I found my socks last night before I went to bed.

All is not lost.

Yesterday morning I escaped to Nola's where there are no painters.  I sat in her pristine living room and just let my shoulders drop.  We had what ended up being an intense conversation about empty nests and worries about children.  We both cried a little and she went to get Kleenex.  She returned with two boxes and presented them to me, "Pick your depression color."

I picked the purple box.

An hour later, we went to the $5 movie (Emma joined us).  We saw In The Heights.  I loved it!  Nola keeps trying to talk me into Quiet Place II and I keep telling her that is too scary for me.

The painters tell me several times a day, "Don't stress!"

Does that sound like a person who should watch Quiet Place II?

Still here

I am sure you are as tired of hearing about it as I am tired of living in it.  Mark needed insulin yesterday and we had to parkour to the kitchen (maybe an exaggeration but not really) and dig under the plastic to the fridge.

It is bonkers.

And the more I live in the upstairs (where I am putting everything back to normal), the more I love it. 

White trim is my love language.

In other news, I have no socks.  Zero socks.  How could I lose all my socks?  Good thing it is sandal weather.

Also, here's something: we have a bunny living in our yard.  Saturday it was nibbling on the lawn mower blade after Adam mowed and then it hopped away when it saw me.  Adam said it is living under a red barberry bush.  He said, "I wish it would go away.  Rabbits are destructive."

I said, "I would rather have the bunny than the squirrels."

Adam said, "Only if it would eat the squirrels."

What it comes down to is that we are animal lovers....

The ups and downs

The downs:

Living in a construction zone is not for the faint of heart.  We can't find anything.  Everything's a mess.  Things like that.  Also, we're in a heat wave and it feels like the sun is trying to kill us.  And Mark's had lots of problems with his diabetic equipment.  It is so great when it works and so not great when it doesn't.

We went to IKEA twice during the weekend.  Our house isn't the only thing that's a mess.  Our reasoning skills are a little off as well it seems.  Or mine are.  Adam is my unfortunate sidekick at such times.

The ups: 

The parts of our house that are coming back together make me happy!  It feels pretty and such a relief to be back to somewhat normal (in the third of our house that is somewhat normal).

Friday night we went to a Real Salt Lake soccer game.  Adam had tickets from work to the executive suite again.  Am I ever going to go back to being a civilian at sporting events?  (I don't go to sporting events very often so it's probably fine.)  We invited the Hills to go with us.  Since Adam is the stake executive secretary now instead of in the bishopric, he misses his friend Bishop Hill so it was fun to be with them.  I wasn't really there for the soccer but as a drama mama, it was sort of delightful.  The players would get hurt and writhe around on the grass in dramatic ways and it would seem they needed an ambulance by the way they were acting, then at some juncture, unexpected by my untrained eye, they would hop up and run away, all anguish forgotten.

If soccer doesn't work out for them, next stop Broadway I guess.

I wished I had some Academy awards to distribute.

Saturday I had the wonderful treat to have lunch with Stephanie.  It was hurried and not nearly long enough but I love my friend!  I miss her.  We caught up as best we could and promised to see each other more when we go to Seattle next month.

Sunday we celebrated Adam in a muted way that should have no reflection on how we feel about that guy. Braeden and Anna were gracious enough to invite us over for dinner.  When every surface of your kitchen is covered in stuff a dinner invitation is a gift!

We played a game around their table after dinner.  It was a new game that Mark gave Adam for Father's Day.  Adam had the rule book in his hand and he consulted it often, like he does.  We sort of figured out how to score but since none of us are very competitive we didn't write the scores down and we didn't remember our scores either.  

We laughed a lot and I looked around the table at our four beloved children and I had two thoughts:  this won't be forever and enjoy this.

I am ignoring late August when 3/4 of them will move away.  You're dead to me, late August.

Grateful Friday

This week I've been super grateful for Mark.  On the days he hasn't been scheduled to work, he has worked very hard.  He has been 100% at my beck and call and he is not only helpful + strong, but he is willing.  My children went through stages of willing but not helpful, helpful but not willing and then now, helpful and willing.  It's like the reward for feeding them all those years.  

He moves stuff and listens to me talk over logistics and then provides strong opinions when my decision fatigue takes over.

I purely hate this.  It's too much upheaval but having Mark here is a big help, except for when he accidentally dropped ten pounds of flour on the floor:

He cleaned it all up and groused the entire time about the poor design of the bin that caused him to drop the flour.  

It was completely on brand for him.

I'm grateful for his adeptness with tools when needed, for his strong arms and for his company.  Also, only a handful of my readers will get this reference but he is a subscriber to the Egbert Load mentality.  When you know you know.  We took some things to my classroom (mostly heavy boxes of books) and he put his arms out and said, "Load me up."

I loaded him up with a ridiculous amount and he kept saying more because he didn't want to make another trip.  He was staggering and panting by the time I was fumbling with my keys at the classroom door but he did it!

And then, he remembered we needed to stop at Walgreen's which I'd forgotten for several days for a row.

I'm grateful for some precious time with that kid.

This is what I mean, Olivia

 I tried to explain to Olivia, who is on the cusp of her only girl going to college, that when my girl was gone, it was like Adam became another son sometimes with Mark and their antics.

Tuesday night I went to a Relief Society meeting (hurray for meeting again and that's a confirmed introvert saying that so you know it was good!).  Adam and Mark were home getting everything on the top floor 3 feet away from the wall.  Adam sent me this video.

He's not wrong

I escaped the house of chaos yesterday to go see a movie with Nola.  She had asked me last week and I was busy and this week I was also busy but I said yes this time.

Sometimes you just gotta say yes.

(Every Tuesday at Water Gardens Theater you can watch the movie and get a small soda and a small popcorn for $5.  Might we do this every Tuesday all summer?  I wouldn't be surprised.)

We saw Witnesses which was inspiring and powerful and not cheesy.  (I thought it might be kind of cheesy.)  In case you aren't in Utah County and it's not in a theater near you, it's about the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon.  

I went away from it feeling like whatever my membership in the Church requires of me, it isn't all that much.

Before the movie and before his doctor appointment (which is why Mark didn't have work), I had Mark help me...wait for it...move stuff.  We packed the living room (which is not getting painted) full of stuff and then put (almost) all the plants on the outside where they are still accessible for watering.

Mark always tells me I have too many plants.  He pushes me along if I ever slow down to examine plants at a store.  He says no like he's the boss of me.

We put all the plants in the living room and I said, "Mark, we have too many plants."

He said, "You think?!?"

Bested

Friday night Adam and I went to American Fork to watch Isaiah and Luke play in a basketball tournament.  It is fun to watch those talented boys and also fun to sit next to Jennifer and Savannah and Boston and also fun to see Enoch's shiny gold Nikes.  I asked him if that was a nod to gold mining in Elko.

After the last game, we chatted for a few minutes outside.  Isaiah, who had just run seamlessly up and down the court like it was nothing, was leaning against the handrail and smiling and if I'd just run 10% that much I would have been lying on the ground, possibly dead.

The coach came out with one of the players and asked if anyone had seen this player's cell phone.  The boys minimally acknowledged that they had not.  Two other mothers and Jennifer and I started helping,  the difference between teenage boys and mothers.  "Where did you last have it?  Have you called it?  Can we do Find My Phone?"

Jennifer and I went back into the gyms and crawled around peeking under bleachers.  He had already looked there but we declared mothers had superpowers. 

We were hunting and then Savannah came and told us they'd found it.

"Isaiah found it," she said.

"How did you find it?" we asked him.

"I asked the ref," he said, like it was the simplest thing in the world.

Isaiah had shot ten three pointers in one of the games and he is like poetry in motion when he plays.

I think he could have let us as the mothers have this one thing.  Does he have to be good at everything?

Worth the swerve

As a pre-crastinator (my friend Jamie gave me the label), this prepping our house has been sort of causing me anxiety.  I never want to put off until tomorrow what I can do today.  Never. 

But here's the thing.  If I do it all too early, then we are living in a house of disarray before we need to and that causes chaos and anxiety.  Also, with everyone at work, I can't move a lot of the stuff alone anyway.

But here's the thing.  If I don't get everything packed up and moved in time, the workers will show up and there I am scrambling....

Friday I recognized that I had done everything I could reasonably do and I'd better just stop.  Also, as I've been packing and moving, I've realized that since I'm an actual grown up maybe it's time for some upgrades.  I was moving a dresser that was crumbling before my eyes.  I got it on the side of the road when I was pregnant with Emma.  Someone had abandoned it then and I've moved it to six different houses since then so it's no wonder it's giving up the ghost.  I decided maybe I should buy an actual grown up dresser instead of a side of the road dresser.  

Then I was moving my jewelry and I have the jewelry box I got when I was about ten years old and it's not really...adequate...for my jewelry because I like big earrings and bracelets and necklaces.  I had all my bracelets tangled in a dusty basket and I decided it was time for a grown up jewelry box too.

Suddenly I had a mission and a direction for all my energy.  I headed to the store.  

Braeden called to see if he could come to our house and use our garage to fix his rock chip in his windshield.  

I said, "You can do that for free with your insurance."

He said, "Not our insurance.  We have really cheap insurance."

He said Loki was having a spa day because he was also getting a tire repaired.  

(Can I just say I love having a son who describes a day of car maintenance as a "spa day" for his car?)

He was leaving the car at Costco so he rode the bus to where I was like the self sufficient kid that he is.  I was going to take him to our house to wait out the tire repair.  I was telling him about my unsuccessful jewelry box quest and he said, "You should try Tuesday Morning.  They have all kinds of random stuff there."

So we did.  And I found something that would fit the bill.  It wasn't exactly what I wanted but I am inherently impatient.  I told Braeden I was just going to get it anyway.  He said, "You're my mother."

In lots of ways he is my child most like me.  When I explained the tension of get it done vs. wait, he understood.

After I bought the jewelry box, he said, "I feel like I deserve a treat now." (He always feels like he deserves a treat.)  

I said, "OK, what do you want?"

He said, "I haven't had lunch...."

So I bought him lunch.  He told me he'd move furniture later so I felt like I owed him.

We finally got home and he worked on his repair job and I got things ready for him to move some big pieces of furniture. 

I said I was going to leave the (full) file cabinet in my office and let the carpet layers slide it out of the room when they come (they said that was fine) and Braeden said, "What?  I can move that!" He scooped it up and took it downstairs.  He picked up another dresser I had removed the drawers from and said, "This is light!  I can't believe how light this is!"  

I said, "Maybe we can move the cedar chest together?  It's heavy."

He said, "OK," and then picked it up and said, "I thought it was going to be heavy."

I told him no one likes a show off.

He said, "No really, I thought it would be."

I said, "Be quiet." Because it takes my effort to shove it a few inches.

He also moved a book shelf out of Emma's room and then I said, "Can I just talk the basement through with you?"  We went downstairs and I told him my plan to move some stuff outside, under the deck.  He said, "We can do that right now!"  

(That's my boy.)

We took some furniture outside and he would have done more but I figured I wouldn't be able to face the rest of the family if we moved everything out of the basement when they're going to paint the basement last.

My day didn't go as planned and I'm glad.  I didn't know when I woke up that I'd get to spend the day with Braeden.  Not only is that kid sunshine personified, but he's also strong.  Such a winning combination in a son.

I'll get him a treat any day.

Grateful Friday

Last night Adam and Mark went to a Salt Lake Bees game.  There was a group from Adam's work that had a suite.  It reminded me of what never happens at my job.

We had fun though!  I don't think I ever watched an entire baseball game before I married Adam (the only one I can think of is one time I was with my grandma and sisters and we watched our cousin David play).  But I like going to baseball games.  I understand what's happening and baseball parks are pretty.

The Bees have a player Jo Adell and every time he was up to bat, I texted Emma Adele puns.

She was trying to work on homework but I think she appreciated it all the same.

I was grateful to spend some time with my boys.

Here's something else:  Braeden and Anna gave us a birthday present of a photo shoot.  We are terrible about getting professional pictures done and I was grateful for such a kind and thoughtful gift.

Mostly these people make me grateful though.

 

Mark was home

Mark wasn't scheduled to work yesterday and I took advantage of the fact!  I took him on some errands (and bought him lunch).  He read an email from USU about housing to me aloud while I drove and I instructed him to put things on my calendar or in my notes on my phone.  

When we got home, he climbed on a ladder and took all the pictures down from our stairwell gallery wall.  (I took a picture first so I can put it back together again.)  Then I set him to disassembling bunk beds.  I walked in the room and he was on a step stool with a screwdriver.  It looked like he was going to disassemble the ceiling fan while he was in disassembling mode.

I said, "What are you doing?!?"

He said, "Tightening this."

One of my favorite things about Mark is that he goes and gets tools and tightens and fixes things without anyone asking him to or noticing it needs doing.  

Also he listens to jazz music while he works.

It was nice to have him home.

And in case you're wondering if we truly need new carpet, we do.

The more stuff I move away, the more obvious the nasty carpet is.

These are the days

These are the days of...

• watering flowers and sending hopeful vibes to the rosebush that Olivia gave me that may or may not be dying
• air conditioning
• going to the school and getting multiple texts from my friends about who is getting the Swig order
• moving furniture and stuff and boxes and wondering why I HAVE so much in the first place
• Emma taking a break from homework to play the piano
• seeing a tiny bunny on the lawn in the early morning
• wishing I had more time to read (maybe when all the home improvement projects are done)
• Pizza Monday and Taco Tuesday
• trying to balance home stuff and school stuff and church stuff
• feeling melancholy about Mark going to college (it's happening.  And soon)
• feeling melancholy about Braeden and Anna moving to California (it's happening.  And soon) 
• feeling clingy about Emma (you can't leave me too!)

It's fine.  I'm fine.  Everything's fine.

Wait

Mark started a new job yesterday at the same company where Braeden has been working for about a month.  It's a moving company and I take credit for training my boys to move furniture.  They have had practice.

While my strong boys are off getting paid to move other people's stuff, I am home without them, moving our stuff because we are getting new carpet next week.

I feel like something went wrong along the way here....

Happy weekend

I only have time for a brief post this morning but I wanted to record the lovely weekend we had.  Saturday we drove to Nevada and spent the afternoon with my parents which was very nice.  My mom and I looked through some pictures for their 50th wedding anniversary soiree that we are having this summer.  (It's actually their 51st anniversary this year but I don't know if you heard?  We had a pandemic.)

I loved the pictures and we found some gems.  For example, a prom picture:

My mom told me she loved that dress so much she wore it to two proms and my dad "didn't mind."

I found this picture of my grandpa, who I never knew because he died when I was 15 months old, holding me.  My mom told me how happy he was when I was born and that makes me happy and also feel like I have a hole in my life because I missed out.

I found this picture of my great grandma (my above grandpa's mother), who I adored.  She always made me feel loved and I remember that pink outfit I'm sporting made me feel glamorous because it had little roses on it.

Saturday night we went to a neighbor of my family where Lili's graduation party was being held in conjunction with other graduates.  It was easy to spot my Davis family.  We were the ones not wearing wranglers and cowboy hats.

I had a delightful time reconnecting with my friend Nancy.  I introduced her to Adam and our kids and I said that she was my cousin but I didn't really know how.  I knew we weren't closely related.  We puzzled over it and had no cell service to use Family Search but then we found my mom and Nancy and I are third cousins once removed.

No wonder we like each other so much since we are so closely related....

We stayed in a hotel in Wells that night because my parents had a full house.  Sunday morning I saw Elaine Swanson at the hotel where she was picking up a friend.  She was my 6th grade teacher and then I was her teacher's aide my junior and senior years of high school.  There are many ways that she formed me as a person and as a teacher and I love her.

Then at church I saw my second cousin MarJanna who I don't think I'd seen for decades.  I was happy to see her.

Reconnecting is a wonderful thing.

Hyrum spoke in church in anticipation of him leaving soon for Ghana to serve a mission.  I was all kinds of proud of that kid.  He will be great and it will be hard and that will make him even greater.

What a good system.

We had a big party after church at Marianne's and I loved visiting with our family.  It still feels like such a gift to live nearby.

We took the opportunity of so many uncles and a grandpa and a cousin to have Adam ordain Mark an elder.  (Grandma Geri joined us via FaceTime).  Here's a picture of the group.  

from left:  Hyrum, Enoch, Mason (Desi's fiancé), my dad, Mark, Tabor, Braeden, Edgar, Robert and Adam

We drove home in the late afternoon and I have a to do list made for a champion today so I'd better get to it.

Death by a thousand paper cuts

Yesterday I sat in trainings for 6 hours.  Six hours.  One chair.  

I was not made for that kind of life.

Until August

 Yesterday Mark and I put my classroom back together.  Here are the new and improved bookshelves:

The bins on the left bookcase are housing series.  The binders will have lots more binders added because I will have a BIG class next year.  I will rotate picture books monthly on the white display shelf.  It makes me happy.  Cheerful and colorful.

I stacked everything out of the way so they can clean the carpets.  I told my mom when I talked to her on the way home from the school that I was done until August.

Kind of.

I have meetings at the school for the rest of the week + next Tuesday.  Later this month I will have a school book club meeting.  And then in July, when all the school supplies are in the stores, I know I will get antsy and start preparing stuff.  

It does feel good to be done with a lot of it though.  

Summer time and the living is easy.

Kind of.

(I have projects.)

Memorial Day

I love Memorial Day.  Our family tradition is to go to some of the cemeteries in the Salt Lake Valley where our ancestors are buried.  My whole life and my mom's whole life and my grandma's whole life.  That's what we do.

This was on my phone when I woke up:

It's impressive to me that Adam remembers it as well as he does (and remembers how to get to all the cemeteries).

We always start in Murray.  

My grandma turned 94 last week!

That's where my grandpa Jaynes is buried along with my grandma's parents and brothers.  Both sides of my grandma's family are buried there and my great great Dahl grandparents are there too.  My sisters are the keepers of the stories and they keep us all straight as we walk around.

There's a cannon there that the kids used to climb on back when I was a kid.  Now it's this landmark we take pictures by.

(I didn't take many pictures but a lot were taken.  I got a few from my aunt's facebook post this morning.)

I was happy to see two of my cousins, David and Shawn (pictured there on the left with their wives who I hadn't met).

Several people snapped this sibling picture and we're all looking at different cameras.  I was happy to see these kids though.

The next stop was the Sandy cemetery.  My great grandparents on the Jaynes side are buried there, along with my great grandma's parents and grandparents.  

My great great great grandma Henrietta crossed the plains when she was 5 years old.  If we ever didn't eat our food, my great grandma would tell us that Henrietta would cry for a crust of bread so we needed to eat.

My sisters and I discussed that it was too bad we didn't have an ancestor who we could honor by not eating quite so much....

Here's a picture of all our big kids who honor Henrietta by cleaning their plates.  Henrietta and David Dowding are buried there.

After that, we went to Crescent.  My great great Jaynes grandparents are buried there.  Ida Amanda is my great great grandmother who died of diabetes, leaving 8 small children.  Olivia took a picture of Mark next to her grave. 

He pulled his insulin pump out of his pocket for the picture.  I told him someday he and Ida Amanda can meet and neither of them will have diabetes anymore.

We took a break for lunch at Golden Corral, which was my grandma's treat.  I sat at the cool kids table (my siblings and their spouses).

Our last stop was the West Jordan cemetery.  My Dahl and Egbert great grandparents are buried there.  All the Dahl graves have tall headstones with DAHL emblazoned on them.  If you know many Dahls, that is on brand.

We like the name.

It's why my sisters and I and all our girl cousins don't have middle names, so we can use Dahl as a middle name once we married.

If you asked me, I would say that I love Memorial Day because of the tradition and memories associated with my dear grandma and our extended family.

The older I get though, I feel increased appreciation for those ancestors we talk about while we survey the carved headstones.  They the builders of the nation.  I can feel my roots go deep deep deep into the Salt Lake Valley and I think about them, almost all humble farmers.  I wonder what they would think if they saw the suburban sprawl that is now the valley where they used to work the fields.  I wonder what they would think of the temples dotting the landscape.  They worked hard and sacrificed and steadily held the line, passing on a heritage of righteousness and faith.

They make me want to hold up my end.