Weekend

 TOTY

Friday my team met at our house.  Because the blasted bathroom construction (they're working on the 5th-6th ones now) had delayed everything, they were just waxing the halls in the center part of the school--where our rooms are--so we couldn't meet at the school.  We sat out on the deck in the morning, went to lunch, then sat around our kitchen table in the afternoon.

We are all disoriented by going back to school.  Wait, now what?  Luckily we have each other because inevitably one of us will remember what is happening.

At one point I emailed Matt a question and Alissa said, "Tell him the Team of the Year wants to know."

So I did.  And I wrote him that we were never going to not mention the team of the year thing at every opportunity.

His response was addressed:  Dear TOTY.

So, you know, whether ill-founded or not (Alissa and I both floundered a little to remember our school passwords to log into our computers that had been gathering dust), confidence is high.

Dazzled by cuteness

We got our class lists and as I looked at my adorable students' faces on Skyward, I felt excitement mounting.  Hello friends!  We are about to be each others' people for the next nine months.  Last year the second grade was notorious for their behavior problems.  We don't really know who the worst offenders were (we would rather form our own opinions), so looking at their innocent smiles, my team and I wondered what storms were brewing underneath.

Last summer hurrah

To celebrate 30 trips around the sun with each other, I am tagging along on a business trip with Adam.  When we planned the trip back in May, it felt like a really great idea.  Now it feels like a little foolhardy, but here we go anyway.  I have had LOTS of stress dreams about school starting like I always do.  I will have to scramble when we get back to whip things into shape.  Luckily, Adam and Mark have pledged their help and Adam reminded me that when I started teaching 3rd grade again, I was hired on the second day of school and it all worked out.

And I know a lot more about what I'm doing now than I did then.

My modus operandi that has served me pretty well my whole life is to be prepared and know what is coming.  

No such thing as being over prepared!

Yet, here I am.  Question marks abound and I'm taking a trip the week before school!  I'll just call it an exhilarating adventure.

(I'll try to believe myself...)

Hospital visits

Tabor has remarked that they should have skipped the accident and got an AirBnB in downtown Salt Lake and have all of us just visit.

That would have been a lot better idea!

(Not that this accident was anyone's idea.)

Saturday Adam and I drove to Salt Lake City with a stop at Panda Express.  I had asked Tabor if I could bring something from the outside and they are trying to entice Olivia to eat and he said she would like Panda Express.

I said, "But then she'd have to have Panda Express."

I guess some people like it.

We got Olivia some honey walnut shrimp and Tabor fed her.  He offered to make airplane noises, but Olivia declined.  I love seeing my brother shine in this role.  (I wish the circumstances were different.)  He is a beacon of humor and care and love and grit.  He pulled out his pocketknife to cut up the shrimp.  Olivia said, "Is that knife clean?"

I said, "I'm wondering the same thing."

Tabor said, "Of course it is."

We visited with Olivia awhile and I've also enjoyed getting to know her better.  In the context of family gatherings, she is one of the girls, younger than my kids, whose ages I don't exactly remember.  I have seen her in a vastly different way.  I have seen her be strong and funny and spunky when everyone would totally understand if she just sat there and weeped the entire time.

Tabor led us on a complicated route to the orthopedic rehabilitation place where Katie has been moved.  So many long corridors and passageways!  Adam was walking a bit behind Tabor and me and I turned around and he said, "I'm just dropping breadcrumbs so we can find our way back."

Katie impresses me too.  She is just pleasant.  I brought her another book to read (a Sophie Kinsella) and she had already read it, but she said, "Leave it, I can read it again."  It is how she takes everything:  in stride.  (Maybe that's a bad metaphor because her stride isn't exactly going strong right now with her broken femur and ankle.)

We enjoyed our visit though.  Tabor and Katie are good people and have a good family.  They are loved and that is all.  I've been touched by the constant stream of people who call and visit and text.   

It makes me think of this quote by President Spencer W. Kimball:

God does notice us and he watches over us.  But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs.

We're all in this together.