Weekend-Sunday

Before we went to sleep on Saturday night, Adam said, "Oh, I can turn my alarm off!"

Happy day!  Every Sunday his alarm goes off at 6:15 and it was really nice that he didn't have a 7:00 AM meeting to attend.

At 6:15 his alarm went off.

I was cranky about it.

I said, "You didn't turn it off the right way."

Adam said, sleepily and apologetically, "I did!"

We both went back to sleep and a few minutes later, his alarm went off again.

This time I was even more grouchy, thinking he had pushed snooze the first time.  I said, "Give me your phone!"

Adam, a little more awake this time, recognized that was not the sound of his alarm and realized it was Find My Phone instead.  Mark was trying to get ahold of us.

If I had been more awake, I would also have realized that was not Adam's alarm and I would have recognized the fact that if one of us doesn't know how to use their phone, it would be me, not him.

Mark was south of Nephi, UT, on his way with his friend Marek to hear another friend speak in church.  He had an indicator in his car telling him to check the battery charge.  He wondered if that was a deal breaker for the trip.  Adam told him to make sure he had the car charger and he did.

Then Adam and I both started googling on our phones and saw that it could be the alternator and others lost complete power after getting that indicator.

We called Mark and told him he'd better head home. 

A few minutes later, he called back and he had completely lost power and was stranded on the side of the road.

As Marianne said when I told her, we really set ourselves up when we have kids.

Adam got a tow truck and I found a repair shop in Nephi.

Mark called several people for a ride from Nephi.  Emma was sound asleep and couldn't be roused.  (I have tried to wake her up in person with great difficulty so I can see how a phone wouldn't do the trick.). Mark called Hyrum, but Hyrum was in Nevada.  Finally he got their friend Jimmy to give them a ride.

I hardly know Jimmy, but I will appreciate him forever.

Adam and I were on the way to church when Mark called again.  He said there was no drop box to leave the key.

Not interested in taking an extra roadtrip to Nephi to leave the key, I called the towing service associated with the repair shop and we landed on Mark leaving the keys on the front tire.

Mark said, "What if someone takes it?"

I said, "I wish them luck.  It won't start."

So that was an exciting start to the day and we have a roadtrip to Nephi in our future.

Church was good.  I loved hearing Ruben and Olivia speak and I loved hearing Liliana and Ruben and Marcos sing.  As a bonus, my mom taught Relief Society and I always love hearing her teach.

I will remember forever what Olivia taught me about not missing the other miracles while you are waiting for a different miracle.

After she spoke, I leaned over to my parents and said, "You did a good job with that one."

My mom said, "We did a good job with all of you.  You are all great."

Of course she would say that, but Olivia is pretty top notch.

After church we had a nice lunch at her house and I loved being there with my parents and sisters and aunts and uncles and nephews and nieces and a whole raft of Ruben's friends.  

Adam and I left before either of us wanted to, to get back to Utah.  I never want to leave when I'm there.  

We had a nice drive back, talking on the phone with various family members while we drove.

It's a good life.

Weekend-Saturday

I may run out of time before I run out of retelling.

We went to Nevada this last weekend so everything is compressed this morning.  

It was a very nice weekend though (no mice!).  My dad has been the hero (the role he has been destined to play my whole life) and he stopped up where we think they're getting in and he has emptied traps until the situation is resolved.

I hope it's now resolved.

Our initial plan was to go Friday night, but Adam had a late enough meeting that we decided to go at the crack of dawn on Saturday instead.  (Actually dawn had cracked, but it still felt early for a Saturday.)

After the sometimes frenetic pace of things, it is so nice to sit side by side in the car and just talk.  We didn't even listen to a podcast.  We had one picked out, but we ended up just talking the whole way.

Our little pleasant hill was beautiful.  There are tiny buds on the trees and the tulips are blooming.  The yard definitely still has a wild feel to it and we would love to glam it up a little and revitalize the lawn, but I also love the wildness.  I don't want it too manicured.

We did a few tasks and then went over to Aunt Olivia's and visited with her and Uncle Brad.  It is a gift to have them in the neighborhood now.  We likely overstayed our welcome, but we had such a great time visiting with them.  They gave us a king sized bed (so then we had four king sized beds in our three bedroom house).  We are going to give one to Olivia (sister) but she wanted to wait until Edgar is home.  It feels like I'm deep into a family when I'm there.  We share and trade everything.  Aunt Olivia also gave us an airplane toy for grandchildren that she didn't want.  I said, "What about your grandchildren?"  She said the last one was just baptized.

I had Adam and the Cobian boys (sometimes you have to borrow teenage sons) put it behind the house.

Isn't that cute?  Braeden said the picture looked like the cover of a Midwest emo album.  You see what I mean about it being a little wild.  Marcos moved that tree off the lawn right before we put the airplane in place.  It had fallen down in a storm.  I pretended like I was helping, but that kid is strong.

Adam and I assembled a platform bed for one of the king mattresses and used many of the tools Geri gifted us when we first got the house. We talk about what a great gift it was every time we are there.

Adam mowed and I went to (sister) Olivia's to help her make pasta salad for Sunday.  Marianne and my parents joined us.  We moved to the living room and Adam came over too (he had run out of battery power, not lawn to mow).  I love sitting around and visiting.  It is the main draw of going there.  We went to my parents' and had my dad cut a dowel stick.  They had been at a track meet earlier and my dad said, "You know where my saw is, why didn't you just come over and use it?"

I also know where all my fingers are and I want to keep them there.

Grateful Friday

I am grateful for this beautiful spring weather.  I love the shoulder seasons:  spring and autumn.  They are so lovely and pleasant and made even more lovely by their brevity.

I am grateful we are wrapping up (mostly) one of the big tests.  We still have several to go, but I'll be grateful for what we've done.

I am grateful for Marie Louise.  She brought me Anzac cookies yesterday.  She said they are the American version, so softer.  I didn't even know what Anzac Day was.  It is a day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand to remember World War I.  

I am grateful for Adam.  I could go on and on and I often do about what a good husband he is.  He is also such a good dad.  The other day Emma needed a new tire and he spent a few hours helping her.  They went to a park and did one of their super hard sudoku puzzles that doesn't seem fun at all to me while they waited.  I know what it is like to have a dad who is your go to and I'm grateful my kids have the same.

Speaking of my dad, I'm grateful we're going to Nevada this weekend.  It feels like a lot right now thinking about all the things that need to be done, but I'm always glad we go.

Sentimental + slightly harrowing journey

Yesterday we walked to Orem Junior High to watch Seussical Jr. which their theater program was presenting.  It is always a wild time walking there (crossing 8th North!) and keeping an auditorium full of excited elementary students civil in the minutes leading up to the show.  

Then we walk back and they are all thirsty or have to use the bathroom or wonder what time it is.

But Seussical!  It brought back many many happy memories of when this boy was a Wickersham brother:

He was 15!  And having the very time of his life.

Hearing all the songs brought back all the drama mama feels.  It is so exhilarating to watch kids you love (and I loved his friends too) sing and dance their little hearts out.  And I loved seeing the joy on their faces during the curtain call.

There was one girl who attended Bonneville in the show.  She was in Janelle's class, not mine, but I was excited to see her.  The cast greeted us as we filed out of the auditorium and she shyly said, "Hi, Mrs. Davis."

She had played a very sassy sour kangaroo on stage, but she was just a sweet little girl after all, hoping a Bonneville teacher remembered her.

I do!

We got to see Mr. Dawson, our old principal, who is now the principal at Orem Junior High.  One of my boys threw his arms around him.  This is the same boy who asks me multiple times a day for a hug, or just walks up and gives me one.

I had That Student (I'm sure you can imagine) walk at the head of the line with me and I had an intrepid parent volunteer head up the back of the line.  Every 2nd through 6th grader from our school was making the walk and I turned around frequently and counted heads.  At every intersection, I made sure we had everyone before we crossed.  The Orem police helped us cross 8th North which was very kind of them.  

While we were walking back after the show and students were a little whiny and lagging, things got interesting really fast when four police cars, an ambulance and two fire trucks zoomed past, sirens blaring.  They were heading right toward Bonneville and I felt a brief panic because all that was left there were the first graders and kindergartners.  Our principal was even with us!  But when we got closer, it was not our school, but a nearby house which had been run into by a car!

We kept everyone moving and on the sidewalk (it helped that they were hungry + thirsty + needed to use the bathroom).  When the answer to, "Teacher, I need to use the bathroom!" is "The school is the closest bathroom," they are motivated.

We made it back.  Everyone safe and sound.  Well, everyone except the house....

Work vs. outcome

I love listening to the podcast The Next Right Thing on my way home from work.  Emily P. Freeman is the podcaster and she is one of my pretend friends.

The episode I listened to yesterday (from back in March) was an interview with Parker Palmer.  He said something that resonated with me so much I turned off the podcast to think about it the rest of the way home.

(That happens often when I listen to podcasts, mostly the Follow Him podcast.  I've got to stop and think.)

She was asking Parker Palmer, who is an author and speaker and activist about his vocation and what he wanted to be known for. Here is part of his answer:

I think it resonated with me because it is outcome season at school.  All the high stakes tests are happening.  We will be judged as teachers and as a third grade team and as a school and as a district and as a state by how our students do on these tests.

Gulp.

I am not there to guarantee test results though, not really.  I would love it if they do well (and some of them REALLY won't) but what drives me is the connection I have with them.  I love the improvement they make, the growth I can sometimes tell even though it isn't measurable to anyone else.   I love seeing them want to read and help each other. I love that they begged me yesterday to keep reading aloud to them.  I love when I take away their books because they are reading when they should be doing something else.  They are readers!

I love seeing the student who was so paralyzed by anxiety at the beginning of the year that they wouldn't even talk to me has a friend now.  They are inseparable and things are so much better. 

The outcomes come and go.  My attachment to them does not.

One of my boys is the younger brother of a former student who is now in junior high.  He stops by to see me before or after school when he is picking up or dropping off his brothers and I am just so proud of what a handsome and confident kid he is.

They are in my heart.

An even bigger portion of my heart is captivated by my three babies who are fully grown.  Braeden, Emma and Mark.  My work is to be their mother.  I know only too well that if I have hitched my wagon to the star of a particular outcome, I may feel like a failure.

I still want to be their mother though.

Come what may, I'm their mother.

As mother and as teacher, I will focus on what I can do.  I will dedicate myself to the cause.  My dogged trying is the outcome I'm looking for.

It was a Monday

I woke up with a headache (which I resent).  I was about five minutes late for school (which I hate!) but at least Matt was walking in at the same time as I was.

I realized I had before school traffic duty.

My eyes were feeling allergic again, so I looked tearful and felt annoyed by them.

I still had a headache.

We had testing and first the internet wasn't working, then I didn't have a fellow proctor because of a mix up, then my student who doesn't speak any English was supposed to have it in Spanish, but just kidding, it actually needs to be in English.  I had two students absent and testing always feels stressful + a lot to manage.

We're still having intense conversation about next year and it is...intense.  I had a low key confrontation with another teacher and I hate that too.

Everything was out of sorts all day long.

After school we had an opportunity to get a $40 gift card in exchange for completing an hour long survey from a BYU student about our science curriculum.

Almost every teacher did it.

I did not.

I needed an hour to calm the crazy in my classroom way more than I needed $40.

It reminded me of Fried Green Tomatoes, when Kathy Bates character said she was older and had more car insurance.

Same.

Weekend

Friday was the typical situation where Adam and I were tired puddles of exhaustion.  We went to Marley's for dinner and there was a band playing outside and a lot of men in leather jackets milling around the Harley Davidson store that is connected to Marley's.  Adam walked through and looked at some motorcycles.

I can't even list all the reasons that make that a no.

Adam said, "Wasn't it fun in college when you rode behind your friends on their motorcycles?"

I had to admit it was.

Also, such a big no.

We looked at all the shiny objects though and then went home and went to bed like the sensible middle aged people we are.

Saturday was a big chore day.  Adam and I prioritized our list for our house in Nevada and categorized.  We did errands.  We contemplated the future of our deck cushions.  We came up with a curtain solution for a bookshelf in Nevada for when it is fly season.  We get very invested in bizarre projects.

While I did my chores, Adam and Mark tried to wash the robin detritus off the windows.  It wasn't easy and there is still a little remaining.  They used the power washer multiple times and Mark scraped the windows with a dish scraper but it was stubborn. They are thinking some enzyme spray will do the trick.  

We found ourselves at Winco at 9:00 PM, when we finally got around to grocery shopping.  We decided to divide and conquer to make it quicker.  There is a definite stream of traffic at Winco and I went the opposite way to meet Adam in the middle.

It reminded me of when Mark would get kicked out of Smalland at IKEA and I'd have to go upstream to get him.

Yesterday I taught Sunday School.  It makes me nervous every time, but I feel like I am learning a lot.  It is good for me to think about it and talk about it so much.  I immerse myself in the lesson because I don't want to look foolish in front of everyone, but that immersing is blessing my life.

Mark was sick again on Sunday.  He sent me these texts.

It is sobering to think about how vigilant he has to constantly be and to know that sometimes things just go awry despite his best efforts.  

He upgraded to a new sensor yesterday which is awesome because it is way smaller, taking up a fraction of space on him and he said it didn't hurt at all when he attached it.  All of that change and rigamarole messed him up though and he went really high and it made him sick.

Sigh.

I can't even tell you how few nanoseconds it would take me to take that away from him if I could.

Like I told him, God isn't thinking, "Oops...that got away from me."  He knows Mark and what Mark needs. 

This I know.

Marie Louise came over and after a long hiatus we worked on family history together.  It felt so good to be together again.  It's been several years since we worked (she showed me her list that is seven and a half pages long with her tiny handwriting of names of women whose temple work she has completed since we last worked together) and it was amazing to me that some of the names were still familiar to me.  There would be a married couple with record issues we were resolving and I would say, "Oh, that's the one that is related to you. I remember."  They have sunk into my brain.

She insists they're "our" family, not just hers.  She tells me that we're building an army on the other side to help us.  We fantasize about taking a trip to Berkshire together someday where all her family are from in England and we imagine meeting them all in heaven someday.

And she also makes fun of my American pronunciation.  

There's some of that too.

I went to a bishopric training meeting because they wanted the wives and then we had our kiddos over for dinner.

It was a good weekend, but I need a week of school to rest up after it!