Weekend

June was quite a month!

We're back in California, but I'll get to that.

First, a little window into our Friday evening.

Adam brought two thin crust Papa Murphy's pizzas home (one for today, one for lunch tomorrow!).  I had the oven all heated up and waiting for him.  He set the pizzas on the counter and went to check the sprinklers.  

I opened the oven and started to slide the first pizza onto the bottom rack but accidentally touched my finger to the top rack and burned it and reflexively dropped the pizza.  (I'm calling it reflexively because clumsily and stupidly don't sound as nice.)

Friends, the pizza was face down in the bottom of a 425 degree oven.

Adam came in to my wails for help.  He went into crisis mode and got two spatulas and started scraping the toppings off the bottom of the oven.  A lot of them ended up in the little warming drawer below the oven.  Once he got the oven (mostly) cleaned he thought we should run a clean cycle.  I said no way because it would be too hot and I was, after all, hungry and I thought we should still cook the pizzas.

We closed the oven and turned it back on and started cleaning out the warming drawer.  It was stubbornly in its place and Adam kind of wrenched it to remove it so he could clean it out.  As we were putting everything back together, we realized that a piece had come off that held the drawer in place.  We were lying on the (not incredibly clean) kitchen floor, looking at the warming drawer and it was one of those times when I couldn't figure out just how we got there.

Adam was able to mostly fix it and we got up and started tidying things and I said, "Well, welcome home!"

It was in no way the most unexpected thing to happen over the weekend.

Saturday morning I needed to take my one and only proctored test for my degree.  All the other tests are basically papers to write.  I must have felt anxiety about the test because I dreamt that I had inadvertently cheated on the test.  I didn't know how I had cheated, but I had, and it was stressful.

Friday evening (post pizza debacle), Adam set me up with an external camera and helped me get things sorted for the test.

Saturday morning I studied, studied, studied and tried to be ready.  

About ten minutes before 10:00, the time of my test appointment, I got a text from Braeden.

Anna has been having some health issues.  Amy got here the day after we left and she was leaving and Braeden wanted us back.  (I had offered the day before, if they needed us.)

So I was plunged into high gear.  I talked to Adam and then I said, "But I have to take this test!"  I started a load of laundry and sat down to do the test.

When taking my test my mind would veer into planning how to make the CA trip happen and then I would try to get back to thinking about standards based grading.

Amazingly, considering where my brain was, I passed the test.  

Adam and I mulled over several options.  I could fly, I could drive with Mark, Adam and I could drive together.

We finally decided that was the option.

Adam said he needed to be undisturbed for a few minutes in his office and I kept doing laundry and packing and assessing the fridge and pantry while he got on the phone with his counselors and the stake presidency and the Elders quorum president and got everything squared away for us to be gone.  It was a 5th Sunday and Adam was going to be teaching, but now he wasn't.

I'm so grateful to our ward leaders for taking up the charge.  He finally was able to touch base with the Relief Society president as we were zooming across the salt flats and she was very kind about everything, just like everyone had been.

We were on the road in the 1:00 hour, which was kind of amazing because three hours earlier we hadn't known we were going.

We drove straight through (besides several Maverik stops).  In Wells, we pulled into the pump next to my mom and Marianne who were on their way to Salt Lake City.  Adam snapped this picture and apparently this is how I look when I don't know someone is taking my picture.  My mom's pose is very similar so maybe that is how my grandmothers stood too.  

My birthright.

I was grateful to see them briefly and give them each a hug.

We made it here by 10:30 PM.  We listened to the soundtrack of Hadestown (I cried + I love that show!).  We listened to a shared podcast and started listening to Where'd You Go Bernadette, which I've read, but Adam has not.  Adam listened to his Supreme Court podcast.  

The time passed fairly quickly and I felt grateful to be able to go help and disoriented by the entire month of June.

It felt like we'd just driven that road and we very much had.

So now we're here to help and lift and support however we can.

We're here to enjoy QE.

And that is not a hard gig at all.