Grateful Friday

I am glad for many things.

I'm grateful for my warm house and sturdy car and lack of traffic/recess duty.

Winter has us in its grip.  I am protected from the worst of it and I appreciate that.  We had both recesses inside yesterday which is kind of the worst, but I'm also glad to keep the kiddos warm and safe.  (I just wish we only had inside recess on days we have PE.  Can that be a new rule?)

I'm grateful for modern medicine.

Wow.  Mark was super sick and he took some antibiotics and improved dramatically.  I'm also grateful for doctors who listen to me when the rapid strep test comes back negative but I say, "I think he has strep."

Because my kids have had strep one or twelve times.

I'm grateful I've been able to stay healthy despite spending my days with coughing sniffling children.

I credit Wellness Formula which is this supplement I take and it wards off illness.  I would be in a multilevel marketing scheme for this stuff.  (Not really.  I will never have a money making opportunity for you.)

I don't know if it is the placebo effect or what and I don't really care, because I'm here for it.

I'm grateful for my students that laugh at my dumb jokes, hug me, doggedly try to pass off their multiplication facts, demand answers when they don't understand, and remind me to send someone for the lunch crate.  (Every day.  I seriously forget every day.)

I'm grateful for one sweet girl who drew Lehi's vision when I had them draw a picture to illustrate our vocabulary word, realized.  These kids are the best.  The best.

I'm grateful we picked Pleasant Grove High School.  We mostly picked it for the performing arts and we weren't wrong.

Les Miserables knocked my socks off.   It was just well done.  Opening night was thrilling and I was for sure wiping my tears when the lights came up but I think most of the audience was also wiping their tears so I was not alone.

When Mark was up on the top of the barricade fighting for the revolution, I kept thinking he should get down and hide behind it.  Another boy was down there handing up rifles.  Why didn't Mark get down and do that?

It didn't matter that my brain 100% knew it was a play.  My motherly instincts wanted him to stop being foolhardy.

I'm grateful for the support of family for Mark.  Last night my parents came to the show, tonight Olivia's family and our college kids are coming.  Monday, Marianne and Carolina and Desi are coming and next week Geri will be here.  The wreath of love that surrounds Mark via his family matters to him and to me.

I fumbled for my phone and was too slow so I only got this one picture. If you're only going to get one picture, one of the two Marks isn't bad.

He hasn't been allowed to cut his hair.  Adam said we'll cut it after the last show.  I said I don't have the upper body strength for that.  That kid has a lot of hair.

Finally, I'm grateful Les Mis has good music.  Because that stuff is in my brain and I still have 5 shows to go.

By the dawn's early light

Yesterday afternoon I felt a little jolt of excitement when I saw they had hung the flag.  You can see the red cover around it across the canyon.

This morning around 6:30, I saw about ten riders go past on the trail above our house, toward the canyon.  They were horseback and carrying flags.

I love living here.

Here's the view out of our front door.

(lots of extra cars in the neighborhood this morning)

Once I heard the cannons and saw the unfurling, I hurried to the back deck.  I remembered this from last year.

They flew directly over our house and no one woke up.

At least I documented it for them.

I'm looking forward to today.  I love living in such a beautiful place.  I love our country.  I love living by Big Betsy in the canyon.  I love living above the line where fireworks are illegal.  I can watch them out over the valley without feeling like I'm in a war zone.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Independence Day

Sometimes I get irritated by all the anger and malice on places like Facebook about politics.

Other times I feel super grateful that we live in a place where people can have different opinions and speak their minds and even be rude if they want to.  No one's going to be punished for disagreeing and that is a blessing.

Disagreement is our birthright.  (Let's just be nice about it?)

Pleasant Grove can do some things really well and one of them is the 4th of July.

Sunday we walked over to the canyon and watched them bring the little flag up the street.

not my photo--see the photo credit watermark

That's the "little" flag, Little Betsy.  The entire thing fits in the blue field of Big Betsy.  And that is a steep street.  The bagpipe players were the real MVPs.

The streets were lined with people wearing red white and blue and little kids waving flags.  There were people on motorcycles, in military vehicles and a firetruck.

Today we celebrate.  Adam's brother Scott and Lisa, Scott's friend, are here staying with us.  My beloved friend Stephanie is in Provo.  She's joining us today too.  There will be the neighborhood breakfast, hot dogs on the grill and the best possible place to view fireworks--our deck.

This morning, by the dawn's early light, I watched the flag unfurl and heard The Star Spangled Banner sung.  I was standing on my front porch.

After I went to sit on the deck and I was admiring the view of the temple which also fills me with gratitude for our country--freedom of religion.

That's when I heard the planes.  They flew over the canyon but then circled around and flew right over our house.

Pleasant Grove knows how to do the 4th of July.

Face Palm

You know I like our quirky little city.  There's no real shopping and only precious few restaurants.  The library is pathetic but I really like the high school.  We are very literally in the shadows of a magnificent mountain range.  The lake is out the window, across the valley.  Sunsets are stunning and for living in a desert, there are a lot of trees and green grass. It is quiet, feels safe, and if you stay away from the outlandish and vitriol political arguments that happen on the community Facebook page, you can pretend it's peaceful too.

There was a hotly contested city council election (part of the craziness on Facebook).  One of the big issues was the roads.  Because they're terrible.  The first time Tabor visited he said he was afraid his truck was going to fall in one of the holes.  I grew up on a dirt road and I can't believe how bad these roads are.

I mostly gave the election a wide berth because civic duty or not, I'm really uninterested in people screaming at each other.  I don't know if the candidates that lost would have done better or not, but yesterday I got the mail and Pleasant Grove broke my heart a little bit.  Here's the letter:

I wasn't sad they were raising our taxes.  I was sad about the grammar.  And maybe it stands to reason.  At the high school, the sports teams are perennial champions, the performing arts are amazing, the math program has impressed me and my kids have been pretty happy with the history teachers.  Emma's French teacher is one of her favorite people in the world.

I haven't been very dazzled by the English teachers....