Weekend

About a week ago, we had a plumber at our house in Nevada and my dad went too, because my dad is our very helpful patron saint.  There was a mouse in a trap and it is warmer so it was...gross.

It upped the ante on us wanting to fill any gaps with steel wool that we could under the house.  (I say we, but I wasn't the one that was going to crawl under the house if you must know.)

I talked to my mom on the way to school on Friday and she said our grass was growing.  Adam loves to mow, so I texted him and let him know about the grass.

Then this happened:

I'm a planner except for when Adam dissuades me into something spontaneous.

I went through all the last day of school-ness.  I hugged and was hugged.  I signed yearbooks.  I told them to have a wonderful summer and to come back and see me next year.  I posed for pictures when moms came and wanted to take a picture of me with their child. One mom told me that her son said I was his favorite teacher ever.  He hasn't had that many yet, but it still made me feel happy.

At noon we had a faculty party where we honored the people who were leaving and ate good food and enjoyed each other.  Times like that I feel so grateful to be a teacher at that school.

I stopped by the grocery store for a few things and went home and packed a backpack because we have lots of stuff in Nevada already.  When Adam got home, he put a few things together and we hit the road.

(We stopped at Home Depot for steel wool and screen replacement materials, then we hit the road.)

The lilacs were in bloom!  Lilacs have always reminded me of these lilacs and my grandma.

The yellow roses are my hands down favorite and they have fat buds on them. They bloom in June!

Saturday, Adam mowed pretty much all day.  The battery would die and he would go charge it up and then do something else.  As soon as it was charged, he was back to mowing.  I asked him, "Are you going to mow all 15 acres?!?"

He said no, but that man loves to mow.

We went to the Starr Valley cemetery and met my parents and Olivia and Edgar and Marianne and Robert (and Omar and Carolina) there.  We put lilacs on my grandparents' graves and also on my cousin Amanda's grave.  She died a few months before I was born.  

Marianne, Edgar, Olivia, Robert, Omar, Adam, Me, my parents (Carolina wasn't there yet when we took this picture)

My parents took a horse and buggy to the cemetery--like you do.  Alazon was spooked by something on the way and my mom said she almost fell out.  I think they need seatbelts!  Also Alazon knows how to pose for the camera.

It was such a lovely and fragrant morning!  I stood on the front porch with my Merlin app, that identifies birdsong, and this is what it recorded in two minutes!  

It is such a little slice of paradise and I'm grateful every time I get to spend time there.

I swept and mopped and cleaned bathrooms.  They aren't dirty from people, but from dirt and dust.  Happily it is a pretty small and sparsely furnished house so cleaning doesn't take too long.

We invited my parents to join us for lunch and then I went over in the afternoon and helped my mom with the Herculean task she is almost done working on, sorting through my grandma's stuff.  It has ignited a desire in her to get rid of some of her stuff too.  I was happy to spend some time with her.  I was looking through some buttons that had been my great-grandma Wood's.  (Is there anything better than old buttons?) and I came across several of these:

I googled it to see what it said and it is apparently a Hessian soldier button.  The words are Latin and mean God is our hope.  

Adam had bent the blade on his mower while mowing in the orchard, so my dad straightened it out and he was back in business.  I've never known someone to bring something to my dad's shop that he couldn't fix.

We had everyone over for visiting in the evening.  We now have furniture!  It's from my Grandma Jaynes' house.  

I guess you could say I owe a lot to my grandparents.

My mom had three cookbooks to give us.  There was one from the Wells Ward and it was a cookbook we grew up using.  There was one from the Starr Progressive Club and we all already had it.  There was one from the Bennion 11th ward (my grandma's ward at some time) that none of us knew anything about.  We all wanted the Wells Ward one.  Also, my mom brought a gorgeous red coat she was giving away.  We drew for the books and Marianne won the Wells Ward book.  I got the Starr Progressive Club book so guess what Emma is getting for Christmas?

I also convinced my sisters that the sleeves of the red coat would be too short for them.  Marianne said, "Coat sleeves are always too short, that doesn't matter." (Tall sister problems.)

But I ended up with the coat.

Adam said listening to my mom and sisters and me is like a comedy routine.  He said you always talk over each other and circle back to something and you're having three conversations at once and then your dad joins in.

I always enjoy it.