Stunning

Emma left for school muttering under her breath.  She was not happy with the election results.  I tried to soothe her with talks of checks and balances and she said she wants to move to Canada.

I told her about yesterday's meme about the border being closed and she almost smiled, but she has all the righteous indignation of a teenage girl.

A racist, sexist man was elected so I can sort of understand her angst.

Emma, I'm sure, feels like she has very little in common with the people who support Trump (the uneducated white men everyone keeps talking about).  On this morning when I'm shaking my head and wondering what happened (I would be shaking my head and wondering what happened if Hillary Clinton had won also), I have to take comfort in the fact that more unites us than divides us.

I hope so.

I hope the checks and balances and Constitution and political advisors (tell me there are some good political advisors!) will protect us from crazy.  Beyond that though, I have a bigger hope that I will continue to cling to.

Something to get my mind off the election

Raise your hand if you're scared.

What is going to happen?!?  Will bad happen or will worse happen?

And then I saw this:

So there goes that option....

Instead of dwelling on election horrors, here's something for you:  the tenacity of tomatoes.

I grew a pot of tomatoes on our deck this summer.  They thrived and were delicious.  About the time I moved the geraniums inside and put the potted zinnias out of their misery (the zinnias preferred being planted in the ground to being planted in pots), I stopped watering the tomatoes.  Neglectful, I know, but the tomatoes didn't seem to mind.

Saturday I harvested 10-15 perfectly ripe tomatoes off it's dry and withered stems.  Now it looks like this and who knows, there may be even more tomatoes to harvest.

Also, on Saturday, we were doing some weeding.  (Yardwork in Washington had a much shorter season.  Mostly it was just mushy and rainy and you didn't have to do as much outside.  Also our yard in WA was teeny tiny.  Here, it seems like every time we turn around there's something in the yard needing our attention.  And soon enough there will be snow for Mark to shovel.)

I was weeding in the bed in the middle of the lawn (which sounds soft and comfy like a bed but is really filled with spiky plants because of the deer).  I noticed this:

My best guess is that a squirrel stole a tomato and "planted" it in the rock wall where the squirrels live.

Who am I to interfere with the agricultural urges of a squirrel?

The network

Earlier this week, some kind person in Gloucester, VA sent me this:

I love whoever gave him treats and then sent me the picture.  It makes my day every time I see his face.

Saturday night we had three missionaries over for dinner.  I'm the first to sign up when we have a chance.  Mostly so I can text a picture to their mothers.

Their mothers and I texted back and forth a little.  They said thanks and I said I know, I have a missionary too.

Sunday night we went to Ogden to meet Elder Justesen who is serving there.  His mother is one of the MVPs of Braeden's mission.  She fed him often.  She cut his hair.  She texted me pictures of him.  She let him borrow some pants she was going to send to Elder Justesen when Braeden slid in the mud.  I love her.

She had posted on Facebook about a musical fireside the Ogden missionaries were presenting.  It seemed like a good chance to meet him.  I took cookies.

When we got there, I remembered that Ryan Jenkins, who was born to my friend Lisa when we lived in Connecticut, was temporarily serving in the Ogden mission too before going to the Philippines.  (This is the kind of stuff you learn from Facebook.) I told Adam, "That's Ryan!"

On one hand, I wanted to talk to him and take his picture and send it to Lisa (of course I did).  On the other hand, Ryan wouldn't remember me and would probably think I was straight up crazy.  The mom side of me won.  I got up to walk over to him and then I realized he was talking to Davis!  Davis is Ryan's older brother and he was one of Braeden's best buddies back in the Connecticut days.  Every Friday night either Lisa or Apryl or I (along with our husbands) would babysit Braeden, Davis and Thomas so the other two couples could go out on a date.

I walked up to Davis and Ryan. "Hi, I'm Thelma Davis," I told them.

"Braeden's mom!?!" Davis said.  Ryan had no idea who I was.  I chatted with them for awhile and explained why we were there.  (Davis was there because he's going to BYU.)

Lisa and I were messaging back and forth about the Jenkins boys sighting when I got a text from Rebecca.  She told me where her son was sitting in the choir.  (I already had figured it out--super recognizer.)  I asked Adam, "How did she know where he was sitting?"

Adam said that maybe there was another mother in the audience texting Rebecca with the info so she could text me.  "There's a whole underground network of mothers working together," he said.

And that is when I decided that I'm glad I was saved for these latter days so I could be part of this maternal texting network.

As sisters in Zion we all work together....

After the fireside we found Elder Justesen.  Just as expected, he was very nice and friendly and not at all alarmed by this eager family of strangers who gave him cookies and wanted to meet him.

You guessed it--I texted Rebecca this picture.  I look sort of loopy in the picture but 1) it was the end of a long day and 2) I'm not photogenic at best.

But you already knew that.

Rebecca and I texted back and forth.  She appreciated the picture and the cookies for her son and I felt like they were mere drops in the bucket to repay how generous she was to Braeden.  We decided someday our boys would be friends in real life.

I hope Rebecca and I will be too.

My old nonsense

I wouldn't call my social anxiety crippling by any means, but it's there.  I don't like going places, mostly.  Especially social places.

Last night I had Relief Society and it made me anxious.

Two years ago, when we were new around here, I went to a similar Relief Society meeting and it was horrible.  No one talked to me and I felt super awkward and out of place and I left quickly.

Last year, I just skipped it altogether.

This year, I decided I was going.  (Adam asked why--because it seemed uncharacteristic.  I didn't really have a good answer.  I think it's because I want to be the kind of person that does stuff like that.  I was in Everett.) I signed up for a class.  I paid my money.  I talked to the teacher so she knew to expect me.  I did all of these things so I wouldn't chicken out.

I also had some invitations to deliver to some young women.  That made me uneasy so I decided to do that on my way, while I was already feeling apprehensive anyway.  I stopped by the first girl's house.  It's a girl who sometimes gives me a very tepid response.  Other times she hugs me.  Still other times she completely ignores my existence.  She's one of those people that keeps me guessing.  I rang her doorbell, not at all sure she would answer.  She did.  We chatted a few minutes.  It was even a pretty good conversation.

I felt a bit lighter going back to my car. 

The next stop was a new girl.  Her family just moved in.  Her teenage brother was kicking a ball in the front yard with a friend.  They eyed me very suspiciously.  I asked if his sister was home.  He said yes, so I rang the doorbell.

No one answered.

I rang it again.

The two boys continued to kick the ball but they kept their eyes narrowed on me as well.  Finally, the brother said he'd go get her.

She emerged from the house and was quite friendly.  I introduced myself and she smiled.  I asked her a little about herself.  I asked if she knew Emma.  It was not scary at all.

I went to the church.  Maybe it will be better than I feared, I thought.  I was, after all, on something of a roll.

It was just fine.  I didn't feel terribly out of place.  I know more people now; I had someone to sit by.  I did have one awkward conversation.  A woman said, "Your husband seems very intelligent.  Is he a genius or something?"

I didn't know how to answer that, so I didn't say anything.

She said, "He's really smart.  Are you really smart?  Are you both just these really smart people?"

Ummm.  I could elaborate at quite length all the dumb things I had done in just the last 24 hours.

Finally I said, "Adam's a lot smarter than I am.  He doesn't know all his cousins' names though...."

(So yes, Adam's smart, but so are people who know all their cousins' names.)

It was a pretty nice evening, even though I stumble my way through small talk.  I went home exhausted from the effort.  I also felt a little triumphant.  Any day you do the sort of scary thing you didn't want to do and live to tell the tale, it's a good day.

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

November

I like October.  I like the arrival of autumn and the return of sweater weather.  When November hits though, I am in love.  I love moving past Halloween.  I love that now it's time for THE holidays.  Now I can really get down to the business of getting ready for Christmas.

Because the getting ready is a big part of the fun.

(I have a spreadsheet.)

Yesterday morning I just walked around our house happy.  It was a good day.  The sun was just right and everything was pretty.

that little orange bush makes me smile every time I see it

November is just a nice idea all around.

I went to visit my grandma and that's always a good way to spend a few hours.  She put the fear in me by asking me to help her with tech support though.  I'm hardly qualified to help, but I tried.

I stopped at IKEA on the way home to check out their Christmas offerings and I was disappointed.  IKEA has been letting me down lately.

And I take it a little personally.

Things really went downhill when I got home and the youth activity that was planned unraveled.  I called Adam while he was driving home to rant about All the Things.  Turns out he was giving his friend a ride home from work and was on speaker phone.

So that was lovely.

This same friend is married to one of my YW counselors.  I told Cortney about her husband accidentally hearing my rant and she said he was used to it and would at least now know it wasn't just her.

Because sometimes things make both of us a little crazy.

At least our husbands have each other.

Maybe they can start a support group.  (Maybe they already have.)

But at least I have November.

I plastered the front door with things we're grateful for:

This barely scratches the surface.  It's a good life.

(Besides the times when I'm ranting on the phone to unsuspecting people.)

4 eyes X 2

Emma wanted glasses.  She wears contacts but she wanted an alternative too.  I usually wear contacts but have been wearing my glasses more and more it seems because of my ring ding eye.  (Every time my dad sees me in glasses he is happy.  He thinks they are better for me than contacts.)

I noticed I was constantly cleaning my glasses and it never seemed to help.

Then, since, I'm...you know, super observant, I finally realized they were a bit scratched and the non reflective coating was coming off in spots so that's why they always seemed dirty.  I thought about how long I'd had my glasses and I think it was 10-15 years.

So I decided Emma and I were both getting new glasses.

We picked out our frames and Emma helped me decide which I should get.  I don't really feel like I look that good in any glasses but she bolstered my confidence a little.

That night I showed Adam a picture online of the glasses I had selected.

"Really?" he said, "Did you really get those?"

"Yes...do you hate them?"

"I'm just...surprised," he said.  He tried to recover, but the damage was done. 

I asked Adam, "When I get them are you going to tell me you like my glasses even if you don't?"

He said, "Of course I am."

(He's smart like that.)

I picked them up yesterday. I took a selfie and sent it to Adam.  I told him to practice not being horrified when he came home from work.

He texted back, "They look good."

Because what else was he going to say?

When I picked up Mark from school, he said, "I like them!"

When Emma came home from school she nodded her approval.  I asked Emma if she for sure liked them.  I said, "Your dad didn't seem to like them when I showed him the picture."

She said, "Are you really going to base anything on Dad?"  In typical teenage girl manner she worries very little about her parents' fashion sense.  Probably wise.

I said, "My mom taught me if your husband likes you in red you're a fool to wear blue."

Emma said, "Maybe you shouldn't take your value from a man.  Did you ever think about that?"

So yeah, she's kind of a feminist.

She hurried to take out her contacts so she could wear her new specs without making herself dizzy.

We're two happy kids in our new glasses.

I may look derpy, but my daughter sure is cute!

Books I read in October 2016

Hazardous Duty by Christy Barritt ***

I sort of joined another book club but I haven't gone to any of the meetings yet because the times were changed.  This was a book I read for that book club.  It is about an aspiring forensic specialist who had to drop out of college so is instead a crime scene cleaner.  It was set in Virginia Beach which I liked.

Kiss of a Stranger by Sarah M. Eden ****

Another one from my sort of book club.  I was a little skeptical about this book, I guess because the
title seemed a little cheesy.  I LOVED it though.  The book is about a couple who was forced to marry and then eventually fell in love.  You knew from the first that would happen but it was still enjoyable from start to finish.

The Captive by Julie Coulter Bellon ***

Julie is my neighbor (and friends with the previous two authors).  I got this book from a Relief Society service auction where she gave a few of the books she'd written and some hot chocolate and a fleece blanket.  It was a book lover's basket and I was all in.  I liked this book.  It's about a task force (joint American and Canadian) assigned to rescue a kidnapped diplomat.  It was a departure from what I usually read but I like departures like this one.  There's another book in the series that I'm looking forward to as well.

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown ***

This book was about three sisters.  Their father was a professor of Shakespeare, hence the title and the entire book was sprinkled with lines from Shakespeare.  I enjoyed this book.  I particularly liked how it was written in plural first person.  I think I have a fondness for anything about three sisters since I am one of three.  I loved this:

All we knew was that we were wild and venturesome, and the night was ours, and there was power in the three of us, the Weird Sisters, hand in hand.

I have felt that power of three in my life.  These sisters were very different from my sisters and me but there were a few similarities too.  There are undeniable oldest, middle and youngest sister roles.