Weekend

My family returned!  I am grateful to have them both back safely.  Emma had a great timed I am so glad she got to go and see people and that she was so well taken care of by those people.  When someone loves your children, you feel the love and that is all.

Adam was at once impressed by all the Las Vegas over the top-ness (they are totally revamping things for a Formula 1 race and it is sort of a modern marvel), but also so disgusted by the baseness of the place.  He also really enjoyed interacting with graduates.  At one point after the graduation, he was driving Hootie (and can we just pause and appreciate that Adam actually calls the van Hootie even though he resisted the first 10,000 times I called it that) and saw a family walking from the graduation and he knew there was no parking close in the direction they were walking.  He pulled over and offered them a ride and since he was in an enormous WGU van, they didn't feel stranger danger and he was able to give them a ride to their car.    He, at his very core, is a person who likes to help people and I love that about him.

I'm glad he's back.

I spent a good part of Saturday doing all the Saturday things and also getting ready for my party.  I had some teacher friends over and it was so fun.  Our conversation weaved seamlessly between school and our families and our church callings and the science of reading and the temple and school drama and Relief Society and the route for the Halloween parade and scriptures and the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

It is just lovely to have friends who get me on such a cellular level.

Jamie and I talked at length in an aside conversation about motherhood and she is good and wise and I always say she is my life coach instead of just the instructional coach at our school.  When she left (at 11:00!  The party went way past my bedtime!) she thanked me for listening and said that maybe I was her life coach too.

We all need life coaches!

Over the weekend I talked to Marianne (in person) and my parents and Olivia on the phone and that is always the shot in the arm life coaching I need.

Yesterday was a nice day.  It was the primary program at church and I always love that.  We didn't have any Johnsons because they were having a get together on the other side of the family, but Mark came over and we had soup and discussed a doctrinal question I had from preparing for my Sunday School lesson next week. (I pronounced it the way Mr. Collins does in Pride and Prejudice.)

Later we talked to Braeden and he had a lot of good insight for my question and I wish he was here all the time.  He told us about a small miracle he was a part of as Elders quorum president and it made me teary and Adam said, "Don't cry!"  My eyes.  They have flared up again and crying makes them worse.  I told Braeden to be mean to me so I wouldn't cry.  So he tried, but it just made me laugh.  

Which is better than crying.

Today we have the dentist after school, but we've also been invited to a party later (and they said no costumes which so way to read the room if you ask me).  With Halloween tomorrow, today feels like the calm before the storm....

Grateful Friday

I'm home alone and I'm grateful that I don't mind it.  I do miss Adam and Emma so I'm also grateful that I'm not always home alone.  Wednesday, I talked to Adam while I was driving home and I told him that I was going to stop at Trader Joe's just to see what they had and then I was going to go to Joann Fabrics for some embroidery floss.

He said, "Well you are just living the bachelorette dream!"

I guess so.  

Adam is in Las Vegas for a graduation and even though I wish I were with him, I am grateful I am not in Las Vegas.  When Adam called me last night, the first thing he said was, "I hate Las Vegas."

I agree. It's an embarrassment to Nevada.

Emma went to Portland and then Seattle.  She went to Portland for a concert of one of her favorite singers.  It was very kind of Enoch and Jennifer to host her.  I started feeling stressed the night of the concert, thinking about her leaving it alone, late at night, in an unfamiliar city.  She is the most independent person I know and she is a fully grown girl, but still.

Enoch texted me a nice text about how they enjoyed having her and I texted back that I was grateful she had their house to stay at--one less worry for me.  He acknowledged that it was a little sketchy where she had been and he slept better once she got home for the night.  I can't even put into words how loved it made me feel to have my enormous brother standing watch for her.

Geri picked her up in Portland and now Emma is off on an adventure with her.  I'm grateful for the opportunity she has had to see family and friends she loves.

I'm still grateful for physical therapy because it is helping.  It also is taking a lot of time so I'll be grateful when I'm done with it too.

I am grateful for the fireplace in our room.  The temperature took a dip and since I'll be gone all day, it seemed silly to turn on the heat for the hour I'm home in the morning.  I turned on the pilot light and flipped the switch for the fireplace and warm flames sprung to life.  You can't have read The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder and not marvel at that situation.

I'm grateful I get to have dinner with Marianne and Robert tonight!

I'm still grateful for autumn.  I love it and I love looking forward to the holidays.

It's a happy time.

Evaluation

Happily I don't need to be evaluated every year now, but it is still unsettling.  Especially now that we have another new principal, I wasn't sure how it would go.  Every principal looks for something else.

I have yet to meet with him and hear his comments (the unsettling part), but yesterday I had a lesson evaluated.

It went OK.  It felt like everything was going along pretty well, in fact.  Then I noticed that one of my students (one whose behavior only reflects the utter chaos he lives in) was sound asleep.  It was still the 8:00 hour and it was clear that he was out.  

In the absence of any other better ideas, I just carried on with my lesson.  

When my allotted time was up, Matt got up to leave.  He stopped by to get the sleeper, who was supposed to be on his way to special ed.  The sleeper wouldn't budge.  Matt said, "You can either go to special ed. or come to the office.

He groggily said, "Can I lay down at the office?"

Matt said yes and he just let him sleep.  Poor little guy.  And also, he was perfectly rotten all afternoon.

Sigh.

Also, if you feel like you're not quite on top of things, just remember that time that I had a teacher evaluation and a student fell asleep and I didn't notice right away.

America

Yesterday we read a story about some immigrants from Ireland coming to America in the late 1800s.  Immigrate is one of our vocabulary words for the week so I settled in for a whole conversation.

I told them that all of us had ancestors or close family members that were immigrants.  They didn't believe me. 

So I started with Columbus.  Do you know who Columbus was?

He discovered America?

Well, he discovered it for the Europeans.  There were already people living here.  It's like if I came to Bonneville for the first time and I said, "I discovered Bonneville!"

They all laughed.

I grabbed my globe and showed them where Spain was.  I told them about King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel.  I told them about the Nina and the Pinta and the Santa Maria.  I showed them where India was and how Europeans wanted to go there, but it was dangerous.

I showed them where Columbus had sailed and how he called the people Indians because he thought he was in India.

"He wasn't!" they exclaimed.

It was a mistake, I agreed.  I told them about the Mayflower and the pilgrims.

One of them asked, "How do you know all this?"

I said, "I went to school and learned and now you are in school and learning."

They wanted to know how long I had lived in America.  "50 years."

I told them their homework was to find out where their family had come from before they came to America.

They realized they knew some actual immigrants after all.  One boy was born in Tonga.  They have parents from Tonga, Samoa, Mexico, Guatemala, Salvador, and Haiti.

We talked about reasons why someone would choose to immigrate and they had reasons.  They also brought up that some people came as slaves.  We all agreed they didn't choose to come.  My students said that people immigrate because it is safer and there are better jobs and there may be a war or America is where their family is.  Their experience is vastly different than my experience, but I'm glad we're all Americans.  I told them that it made America better to have ideas and art and food and words and traditions from other countries.  They quizzed me on Spanish words and were thrilled by the very few I know.

Of all the things I teach them, high on the list is to value where they're from but also to value each other.  I know my life is enriched by my association with them.  

I also know that I'm not in charge of immigration policy and it's way more nuanced than I understand, but I say, "Come on in!"

Good things: a list

It's nice to have a professional learning day after a vacation.  Well played Alpine School district.  There were lots of teachers yawning, but it was nice we didn't need to muster the energy for students.

Besides it being gentler than school, our day was very productive and I felt good about the work we did.

Physical therapy is helping so much.  So much.

I love hearing Emma play the piano and sing along.  The sounds waft up the stairs and throughout the house and it is lovely.  

October.  It is picture perfect.  Just warm enough.  Beautiful.  Sunny. Colorful leaves.

Weekend

Friday we spent a lovely day together.  We read stories and took a walk and played at the playground and went to our hotel to swim (not me).  QE inherited the Davis genes that make water key to happiness.  She was so cold but didn't want to get out.  She got out briefly and I wrapped her in towels but then she wanted right back in.  Braeden would throw her in the air and she would squeal in delight or she would hang onto Adam's arm and say, "Kick, kick, kick" and kick her little legs for all she was worth.  The nearby shower was warmer than the water (I think the pool was only heated by the California sun).  Mark took her to the shower and sprayed her with the warm water which she loved.  She insisted he keep spraying her whenever he stopped to spray himself.  Anna had been at work during that and when she saw the video she said, "Youngest child, meet only child."

QE rules the roost and we are her very happy subjects.

On Saturday we went to a farm and QE was delighted by the pumpkins and then we went inside to the part where you can pet the animals.  Braeden said he'd pay and Adam said, "I didn't neglect you when you were little to get ahead so I couldn't pay for my granddaughter."

It was only funny because it was patently untrue.  Adam never neglects anyone.   We saw the goats and the pigs and the donkey and the sheep and the ducks and the geese and the chickens and the kittens.  QE supplied all the sounds they made and pointed out all of their water dishes.  Staying hydrated matters and she knows it.

We stopped at the store for lunch stuff and I bought her one of those little decorative pumpkins because she had been so enamored by the pumpkins at the farm.  She carried it around the rest of the day and called it Pump.  In the afternoon Adam took Mark (who was recovering from the Benadryl so he could survive the animals and their straw) back to our hotel.  Braeden was conducting a baptism and Anna was leading the music for it so I stayed at their apartment while QE slept.  I read and took a nap on the couch so you can see that it was a really hard job.

I read stories to her all day that we were there.  Her favorites are bus bus (Wheels on the Bus), George (Curious George) and this book of art and counting that I brought her.  Curious George stories are not short but she would happily sit through a couple in a sitting.  She started zooming around the room, getting restless.  She said, "Swim."  Then, "Bye bye!" and headed for the door.  Whoever wasn't with her was apparently going to get left behind.

We went out to the little playground in their apartment complex instead.  She loves to hold someone's hand and just run around on the sidewalks, chattering away.  

We went to Red Robin for dinner and took Pump with us.  QE ate an entire hamburger and two servings of mandarin oranges (they are apparently bottomless, just like the fries).  It takes a lot of energy to power that cutie.

At church, when QE saw me she said, "Nana!  Bus bus!"  I hadn't brought the book and that is probably a good thing because it isn't exactly reverent.  Partway through the meeting she pulled her Pump out of the diaper bag and carefully held it.  I am pretty sure she was the cutest little girl there and I'm positive she was the only one holding a pumpkin.

After church we had lunch at Braeden and Anna's and I read her Curious George and she took her nap.  We kissed her and told her we'd see her at Christmas and that caused a little sadness in my heart.  It helped when I remembered that Christmas is coming soon.

We drove back to San Francisco by way of Pittsburg where we used to live in the East Bay.  We showed Mark our apartment and all the things.  It is a pretty spot.  I was feeling pretty good about the amount of time we had for the airport.  I always feel anxious about it and want plenty of time.  Adam said, "Let's drive into San Francisco and show Mark around a little.  It will be fast."

I said, "OK...."

Mark hadn't remembered being in San Francisco because he was little the last time we were there.  Adam showed him where he used to work and we pointed out some of the major landmarks.  My anxiety was rising about the time.  You never know how long returning a rental car and security will take.  It always takes longer with Mark too because of his medical stuff.

Mark told me that Adam was doing exposure therapy for me to help me.  Maybe.  I think some people like to be really early at the airport and some people like to get there at the last possible minute and then they marry each other.

We made it in plenty of time and our flight was even slightly delayed.  Which is sad when you're getting home late.

We made it home and I feel very grateful for time spent with Braeden and Anna and QE and Mark and Adam.  I was also grateful to get home to a cheerful Emma who wanted to tell us all about the music festival she had attended over the weekend with some of her friends.

Grown children are a really great invention.

And now, professional development.  Fingers crossed I stay awake.

Nana life

 

Yesterday we made the trip to California.  I have zero complaints about the convenience of it all because it worked, but we traded the ease of flying into Sacramento and a short drive for the ease of flying out of Provo and the somewhat painful (traffic!) drive from San Francisco.  It was kind of fun to see San Francisco again though.  

We lived there so briefly, it kind of feels like a fever dream, but it was also impactful for the history of our family.

When we got to their house and walked in the door, QE said, "Nana!" which proves that FaceTime is the best invention of this modern age.  I had brought The Wheels on the Bus and she was shaking and squirming with so much delight.  We read it over and over and later when I was reading Curious George to her she jumped down and ran across the room to grab "bus bus" to hold while she listened.  An emotional support book if you will.  It was not very long until I grabbed my phone and ordered her a copy of The Wheels on the Bus (I'm not ready to part with my own copy).  Amazon will deliver hers to their door today.  Amazon is the second best invention of this modern age for grandparents.

Adam said, "Will that take away some of the magic if she has her own book?"

I don't know.  Tomorrow she may have moved on to a different passion, but the board book was $5 on Amazon and she loves it and I love her.  That is Nana math.

Anna was working last night so we didn't get to see her, but she'd made us a delicious dinner before she left.  Braeden is working this morning but we'll go see Anna and QE.  This afternoon, they overlap with their schedules so we will (at zero personal sacrifice) watch QE for a few hours.  Living the actual dream.

I loved talking with Braeden after she went to sleep last night.  He showed us some of the stuff that he is working on.  At one point I said, "You're such a smart boy."  

He said, "You taught me to read."

Yes, but I can't take credit for the rest. 

Children are marvels and then they have children and my heart is going to overflow.