What a world

Isn't it disarming when you see a comment on a Facebook post and realize that two people that you know from two completely different parts of your life (and different parts of the country) know each other?  That happened to me today.

It's a small world after all.

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It's also a cold world.

I know I was hot last summer.  I know it.  I just can't remember.

Yesterday, when it was 17 degrees and I was standing on my corner doing traffic duty, I tried to remember being hot.

I couldn't even remember being warm.

I ordered more base layers from Amazon because I can't live like this.

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That is our backyard and those are 100% animal footprints.  It seems like they're maybe having midnight parties out there.  I notice they're avoiding the trampoline though.  A few years ago, a deer ventured onto the trampoline and I'm sure that was a party.

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I read this:

Ships don’t sink because of the water around them; ships sink because of the water that gets in them. Don’t let what’s happening around you get inside you and weigh you down.

I love it and it gave me encouragement after a sort of disastrous session with some third graders and their writing.

I think it could give me encouragement in lots of parts of my life.

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My heart has been breaking thinking of a BYU student who attempted suicide a few days ago.  I keep thinking about it and thinking about the people I interact with and the fact that I don't know what they're going through on the inside.  We never do.

Yesterday, Elder Bednar was already scheduled to speak to the students for a BYU Devotional.  What a blessing to have him address a shaken student body.  Braeden told me about it and I cried, then I told Olivia about it and we both cried (then I told Adam and Mark and cried some more).

It is wonderful to have apostles of Jesus Christ amongst us to comfort and give wisdom.

When tragedy strikes and the only true place to turn for peace is the Prince of Peace, it really makes me appreciate this Christmas season all the more.

I'm grateful for the Light of the world that is an unending source of goodness and light.  The gospel of Jesus Christ bring reassurance to my life.

A weary world rejoices.

Merrymaking rollicking frolicking carrot shaking celebration

When I texted the BYU kids about Sunday I told them we would have a merrymaking rollicking frolicking carrot shaking celebration and whoever knew which book that was from got extra fudge.

Liberty texted back it was from Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree and I hope that girl got enough fudge because she deserved it.

We had a nice time Sunday.  My parents and grandma joined us so we were 13 for dinner.  After an existential crisis about which dishes to use and how to set the table (because I only have 12 Christmas bowls), we ironed it out and the evening went off without a hitch.

After dinner I set my mom to stirring the fudge and put Emma in charge of decorating the tree.  Emma has an eye I trust and a bossy authority her brothers don't question so it worked.

I gave my dad the hooks to manage.

I only took one blurry and incomplete picture.  Everyone was in front of the tree so nicely in a sort of action shot of decorating and I grabbed my phone and in an instant everyone dispersed.

There's Mark with the hooks and Mark II going to get a hook, that's Braeden's friend Anna, then Emma and Braeden and Liberty barely in the shot.  Freja and Zack were helping with the tree too and they all did a great job.

I gave up with pictures so it's not very well documented but we were having a good time.

We mixed four different kinds of fudge:  oreo, candy cane, salted peanut and cranberry pistachio.

Everybody wins with fudge.

The kids stood around the piano singing and Liberty played for them and it occurred to me that here we've been having this amazing pianist to dinner every week and have not utilized her!

(I'm all about exploiting talented people for my enjoyment.)

After everyone left, we ran one more load of dishes in the dishwasher. (I wouldn't let my mom or Liberty wash dishes though they tried.  I am a firm believer in making dishes wait their turn for the dishwasher.)

Then I collapsed in the chair in a tired heap.

Merrymaking rollicking frolicking carrot shaking celebrations can be exhausting.

We Facetimed with Grandma Geri and are excited to see her later this week.

Later in the evening, Braeden texted a picture of his tree that he, Anna, Emma and Freja had decorated:

Emma commented he didn't take a picture of the star so he added this:

I love that Emma and Freja are still being creative together.

Concert going

Saturday night we left a good-natured Mark behind to go to Emma's concert (we sadly weren't able to get him a ticket).

We met Emma beforehand for dinner.  We had a nice chat over Costa Vida then dropped her off for her call time.  We had an hour to kill before the concert and decided to walk over to the library to see if they had any interesting displays.

As a side note, the library is completely unrecognizable to me now.  I like the comfort of the aging buildings at BYU where I know where everything is.  The HFAC for example.  I know where the bathrooms are that most of the concert goers don't know about and it comes in handy sometimes.

Anyway.

We were at the library and my phone rang and Adam shushed me but who knows, maybe it's fine to have your phone ringing in the library now?  That place is different.

It was Emma on the phone.  She said she didn't have her black shoes for the concert.  She asked us to go to her apartment and get them.  We immediately headed there.  Baby girl + distress call = mobilization.  We lamented the loss of our great parking spot but Emma needed us.

Emma had said Jackie would be there.  Jackie is her roommate who was decorating cookies when we'd picked Emma up.

Well, Jackie wasn't there.

I texted Emma and Emma texted Jackie and nope.  She wasn't home.

Emma texted, "I should have just sent my keys with you!"  And I realized that would have been a good idea but none of us had thought of it and now there wasn't time to go back to campus and then back to her apartment and then back to campus.  Besides Emma was supposed to be warming up.

When you marry an Adam all your children have big feet.  That's just science.

So I considered giving Emma my black shoes for the concert but they wouldn't fit her.

I texted Liberty.  "What size are your shoes?"

Too small.

We drove to Target.  It's a new little mini Target close-ish to campus and we had never been there before.  I hurried inside to find that it was seriously mini.  There was no shoe department, just some shoes scattered thinly through the clothes.  I quickly scanned the few black pairs.  Wrong size.

A mannequin was wearing black shoes and I got down on the floor to investigate the size.  Too small. I was totally prepared to rip those shoes off the mannequin had they been right though.  I stood up to find a guy staring at me like I was a complete wacko.

What?  You haven't seen a woman down on her hands and knees checking out the shoe size of a mannequin before?

We headed back to the HFAC, out of ideas.  Emma called and was in a complete panic spiral and I told her it was all OK.  "Just go shoeless.  You're in the second row."  They have floor length black skirts and wear black tights.  "It's fine," I told her over and over because being a mother of a child in crisis mode has two facets 1) do everything you can to fix it, even if it means lunacy and 2) reassuring them it's going to be fine.

I asked Adam if he thought you ever reach a point when you don't act like a crazy person for the sake of your children.

We don't know.

We found our seats and were happily in the balcony because we've learned that's the best place to spy our shoeless girl.  (We couldn't tell she didn't have shoes on.)

We loved and adored the concert like we knew we would.  Adam cried more than I did but we had gone straight to Provo right after he was at a meeting with Elder Soares so it's understandable he had an extra tender heart.

At the intermission, Adam stood next to an elderly man and started chatting with him (because he's Adam).  The man asked Adam if he was on the football team.

How old does he think BYU football players are?

The concert was a combination of the four choirs that I love as well as the BYU Philharmonic and a brass quintet.

How wonderful is a world that is capable of producing such beautiful music?

Grateful Friday

I'm grateful Mark is a better driver and way (way) easier to take driving than his siblings at that age.  He was a way (way) harder toddler/preschooler so I earned this.  He is never defensive nor argumentative when corrected, but says a quiet, "OK," and away we go.

I'm grateful I'm almost done teaching children to drive.  Because it is the worst.

I'm grateful for Braeden and Emma texts.  I like getting texts from them.  Braeden sends  funny/interesting/bizzaro NYTimes articles and memes I minimally understand.  Emma sends things like a recent day when she texted us three paintings so we could guess the artists.

Even though I didn't get them correct:

I love that our children are learning things and expanding their minds and sharing their gee whiz stuff with us.  I say this all the time, but I'm so grateful for their opportunities.

I'm also just grateful for those weirdos.  Braeden randomly texted this picture and Emma's response left me wanting to say what?!? and why?!? to both of them but I just went with it.

I'm grateful for snow on the mountain.  If feels like an insurance policy against a dry summer.

I'm grateful for Joan because even though Adam is out of town, the weather forecast doesn't worry me.

I'm grateful Emma was able to score us some tickets to her sold out choir concert this weekend!  Huzzah!

I'm grateful for my job.  It's so fun to be around kids.

I'm grateful that even though the 3rd-4th grade boys that play soccer at recess seem bent on killing me with the ball, they haven't succeeded yet.  And yesterday when I managed to stop the ball that was careening toward me, a few boys threw up their hands in victory and yelled "Teacher blocked the ball!"

I felt like a hero.  For about 10 seconds, but still.  Me + a situation involving a ball + anything resembling victory doesn't happen very often (or ever).

Wouldn't be grateful Friday without a nod towards Adam.  He is the favorite part of every day.

Books I read November 2018 and things I learned

The Visitors by Sally Beauman **

This was about a girl who was visiting Egypt with her governess and their social circles intersected with the archaeologists who found King Tut's tomb.  It was TOO long.  The book was very interesting at times but dragged to an uninteresting whimper by the end.  It felt like the author had three books and tried to mash them together.

Beartown by Fredrik Backman ***

So good.  So crude.  I skimmed a lot of it, especially every time they were in the hockey locker room.   It's about a small town in Sweden (Beartown) and a hockey team and a community rocked by an accusation.

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I listen to a podcast, The Next Right Thing, by Emily P. Freeman.  (I recommend it a million times.)  She recently talked about a quarterly reflection she does.  Each season, she stops to consider what she learned.

So here's my feeble initial attempt to do the same.

Here's what I learned in Autumn 2018:

I absolutely love being in an elementary school.  It is dramatic (blood and temper tantrums and escapees) and loving (I get hugs and compliments and shy waves and big smiles all the time) and so very fulfilling (teaching and watching children learn is my happy place).

It's been challenging to start working outside my home after such a long hiatus.  Even though I only work part time, it's been a full time change.  It's a huge adjustment and has required me to alter my expectations and to do list.

I don't have as much time to read or do other leisure activities.  And that's OK.

(Reading is less OK, but I need to remember how much I love being at school and recognize that I am choosing something else to fill me up.  Everything has a season and I'll have chances to read more--here's looking at you Christmas vacation.)

I like podcasts and listening to the Book of Mormon.  I didn't used to be very good at listening but I'm getting better at it.  I need to practice listening to audio books.  And choose books well.  I was listening to one and realized that when I can't skim over bad language but have to hear it, it feels different.  I started a book by an author I usually enjoy (Liane Moriarty), but I ultimately abandoned listening.  Because I couldn't skim.

I'm learning (and likely still need to learn more) that 90% of the angst I feel is because of my own wrong expectations.

I need to work on that....

Nevada party

One of Braeden's roommates was recently called to serve a mission in the Nevada Reno mission.  We decided to throw him a party.

Because Nevada.

Adam said, "You know how Texans are really into Texas?  Nevadans are really into Nevada too."

It's true.

Emma and I decorated by cutting apart some calendars my mom had made for us with photos taken around their house.

Nevada = photogenic (the horses are too)

Adam said we had to have salad like my mom makes because that's Nevada salad.  (I don't think my mom's salad is necessarily Nevada salad, but Adam loves salad like my mom makes and I never make it because I'm not a big salad eater and even less of a salad maker.)

I created a trivia quiz with prizes! prizes! prizes!  (gold Hershey's chocolate and silver Hershey's kisses in a nod to the gold mines and The Silver State)

Adam did a reprise of his Nevada/not Nevada game using Google images.

(Brian won both games so I'd say he's ready for his mission!)

We ate brownies cut into the shape of Nevada.

After awhile I gave up and just had regular brownie shapes.  Nevada/not Nevada brownies....

We forgot to sing the Nevada state song for Brian!  Braeden and I even had a debate ahead of time about whether we should sing the traditional version (my vote) or the Killer's version (his vote). And then we forgot!

All the returned missionaries did two truths and a lie about their missions.  So now Brian either is terrified or excited.  It depends on how you look at it and what kind of thirst for adventure he has.

Because crazy stuff happens to missionaries.  Adam said it's because you talk to everyone.  Braeden added, "And they tell you everything."

Sam's impersonation of the man who showed up drunk for his own baptism was pretty awesome and Ben told us about fish he ate in Tahiti that was "cured" in a liquid where another fish had been fermented.  He said the worst part was the smell.

There were eleven of us for dinner and turns out we only have ten knives.  Where did the others go?

Adam and I shared a knife.

Because we're in love.

Haul out the holly

Saturday was a day packed with goodness.  We decorated a bit in the morning, went to the temple (with Braeden too, which only makes it better) and then decorated some more.

Adam bought me that picture of Santa the first year we were married.

this little Finnish guy delights me

Also, Emma joined Adam and me on our Saturday errands.  We swung by Walmart so she could buy a small tree for her apartment.  They were $17.99 online and $25 in the store.  All of Emma's pennies matter to her so Adam talked to the store clerk, named Richard. Richard said, "I don't know if I have the authority to do it but I'll try."  He did an override and gave Emma the online price.

When we were leaving, Emma told me how much she appreciated Jolly Old Saint Richolas.  (He did have a long white beard.)

At dinner I told the kids they could have ice cream if they ate some vegetables.  This has been a trick I've employed for about 20 years and I'm not giving up on it, I don't care how big these kids get.

Mark said, "Ravioli are vegetables.  If you can't hunt something, it is a vegetable.  And you can't hunt ravioli."

Then he ate some broccoli (because he wanted ice cream).

We played a new Disney version of Codenames (which was surprisingly hard) and watched Somebody Feed Phil which we're maybe obsessed with.

Adam presented us with the new Christmas bear.

We named her Tea Cup and she was immediately embraced by the sleuth (which is what you call a group of bears--I googled it.)

This is all to say, being here makes me happy.