Home

We made it home!  

There's snow on the mountain and we turned our heat on.  The season changed while we were away.  

We had meetings at school yesterday and everyone caught up on their fall break adventures or misadventures as it were.

One teacher had stuff stolen from their driveway and another has a mouse she can't catch.  A teacher got married and another moved her two kids into the same room and no one slept all weekend.

We sat huddled around computers, setting goals and discussing, discussing, discussing.  At one point, Alissa suggested we take a walk.  So we went outside and took a lap around the school, which was good to revive our tired brains.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

I keep thinking about the beautiful art we saw in Fort Worth and Dallas.  It was dazzling in both its variety and beauty.  

We talked at school about our why.  Why do we do this?  

It is hard to articulate, but for me it's connected to that art.

We are all so different and we all have our masterpiece to give the world.

I was talking to a kindergarten teacher and we both foremost want our students to feel safe.  Then loved.  Then we want to teach them the curriculum.

I want my students to feel like they can do things.  

I want to empower them to create their own masterpiece.

Weekend

 Friday Adam and I headed to Waco.  I wanted to go to the Silos and it was worth it.  Everything was beautiful.  

I loved walking through the shops and just seeing all the pretty things.

I sent this to our kids.  It was an I Spy game of where Adam was taking a meeting.

Emma returned this zoomed in picture.

We went to a hotel Chip and Joanna Gaines had renovated and had lunch in one of the restaurants.  It was delicious and also beautiful.   This was one of my favorite parts.  I could have spent the day there, curled up with a book.

We stopped off in West, TX for kolaches.  Adam wanted to get some for his friends.  Our next stop, of course, was Buc-ee's.  

It was my second time going there, but it was equally impressive as the first time.  It's a whole cultural experience.  I told Adam that if you grew up stopping at Buc-ee's on road trips and then you moved anywhere else, you would always be disappointed wherever you stopped.

I was the kid who never found their name on anything at a gas station, so this was exciting:

I didn't end up getting the t-shirt, but I got this little tray.

I straightaway took a nap when we got back to our hotel room (against all conventional wisdom a nap in the 4:00-5:00 hour is my favorite) and Adam did a little work.

One of us works harder than the other one on these trips....

The alumni party was at the Fort Worth Zoo.  It was getting dark and we didn't go around too much, but we saw the giraffes, which was fun.

We met up with Wes and Scott, two of Adam's colleagues, and the three of them had already arranged to leave early and go get tacos.  They saw their boss and one of them said, "We'll go whenever you're ready."

He said, "I'm ready."

So they hopped to it and we headed out.  Adam always rents a minivan for just such a time as this.  He loves driving people around.  He'd be a great Uber driver.

We went back to Velvet Taco and had a good time.  We dropped them off at their hotel (with the kolaches) and Adam dropped me off at our hotel and then he went back to the alumni party to help get Hootie sorted.  100% not his job, but he is always the good guy and I'm lucky to be married to someone like him.  Also, can we talk about Hootie?  It's the Sprinter van we took to Seattle a few years ago.  I kept calling it Hootie on that trip and Adam was not super enthusiastic about the name, but it stuck and now I hear all these people talking about Hootie and I feel like I have left my mark on the world.

It's the little things.

Saturday morning Adam was up and gone well before I woke up.  They hold two commencements in the day and I stayed in the hotel during the first one, happily with my book and embroidery.  I tried a little family history, but I was in the 1700s and clueless.

Adam picked me up and we checked out of our hotel and went back to the arena where the second commencement was already underway.  We got merrily waved through all the security checked back entrances and they moved cones so Adam could park in the loading dock area.  He had already made friends with all of them in his easy way.  A peek into the commencement team's job is pretty incredible.  One graduate had a broken shoe and they were on it, figuring out how to help.  Another graduate had her name wrong.  An employee came up to Adam and explained the problem and asked, "Do you know where Megan is?"

Adam said, "I will go look."  I was left with the graduate and nervously hand wringing employee and the guys watching all the screens behind the stage.  Megan showed up and whipped out an index card and pen from her bag and talked to the tech guy to change it on the screen.  I texted Adam, "They found Megan."

He later told me, "I had no idea who Megan was.  I'm still learning names.  I was going to try to find her picture on my phone."

I still loved his helpful posture.  It is one of his defining characteristics.

We chatted with a few more people, then found some seats and listened to a bit of the graduation.  I felt this swelling inside me when they had all the masters candidates stand.  I did that!

It is always very inspiring to go to the graduations.  One of the speakers talked about his wife picking up all the slack with their four children while he worked on his bachelors degree.  He said his whole motivation was those four children.  He said, "Now I don't wear work boots and overalls to work.  I'm business casual."

Everyone cheered.

Wes told us later that when he was handing out diploma covers, one of the graduates had the sash that indicated they were the first generation in their family to graduate college (43% of the graduates were!).  Wes said, "Congratulations on being the first generation."

The man said he was also the first high school graduate in his family.

Wes told him that he had changed his whole family.

I can see why those guys like working at WGU so much.

On a WGU high, I bought a sweatshirt.  One of the guys selling the shirts asked, "Who's the graduate?"

I said, "Me!"

We left the graduation and went to the Kimbell Art Museum.  It was amazing.  I love a good art museum.  I feel taller after looking at art.

Adam said, "Wes and Scott have to see this!"

He was going back to the graduation anyway to tell his team good job.  He left me at the museum.  I wandered around happily.

They returned and we only had a few minutes before we were taking them to the airport.   Like the teacher, I showed them the Michelangelo and Donatello.  I showed them the Monet which was one of his first exhibitions.  

I love art.

After dropping them off, we checked into a different hotel in Dallas.  It's kind of strange and not as nice as the photos online suggested, but it's fine.

A change is as good as a rest.

We went on a quest for New Haven style pizza in Garland.  They had a two hour wait so we opted for Tex Mex instead.

Today we're heading home and tomorrow I have early meetings at school.

Back to reality.

Grateful Friday

Fall break is going swimmingly.

I am grateful to be able to spend time with Adam exploring a new city.  That is my favorite.

Yesterday morning he worked and I did a little bit of training to be a mentor.  (I never asked to be a mentor and I have all these online courses associated with it and it's a pain, but that's a rant for another day.)

I also did a little embroidery and read.

We had lunch at Chicken Salad Chick with something like 18 varieties of chicken salad.

I used the bathroom and was so delighted with the signs, I took a picture.

I sent Adam to the men's bathroom (it was labeled Chick Magnets) to see if they had signs in there.

In the afternoon we went to the arena where the graduation will be held.  He introduced me to the commencement team and they were very nice to me.  They even gave me an all access pass which went straight to my head.

Adam did a walk through with them and I tagged along and it is a huge undertaking.  I think they are having about 1400 graduates.

One of Adam's employees, Liz, is an enthusiastic Texan and she had created an evening for us.  We picked her and another guy up at their hotel and went to the Stockyards.  A woman from the events team told us, "You have to go watch the cattle drive at the Stockyards!"  and a woman on the commencement team said, "You have to go watch the cattle drive at the Stockyards!"

We assured them we were going.

After all that build up, it was very anticlimactic.

About five cowboys drove about 15 longhorn cattle down the street.

Maybe if I had never seen cattle or cowboys it would have been more exciting.

One thing I noticed was that they all held their reins like Texans.  When I was growing up, my dad would tell me not to hold my reins like a Texan.  So based on that sample size, I guess it's a thing.

We walked around the Stockyards.  There were touristy souvenir shops and high end shops and lots of boots and hats for sale.  It was like Disneyland for Texans.  It was a fun vibe.

We met more of Liz's team and had dinner at a BBQ place.  We lingered and visited for a long while.  

Then we got ice cream.  A guy stopped me on the street and said, "Where did you get that?!?"

I pointed him to the ice cream shop.  Solidarity.  

We left the young to stay and go to the honky tonk and Adam and I gave Liz (who's about our age) a ride back to her hotel.

We're not the staying out late crowd.  Solidarity.

We talked to Braeden and QE and then Emma, which was nice.

Hoping Mark is still among the living.

I love being with Adam.  I love seeing him in his work element and learning more about what he does.

I'm grateful for this life.

Fall Break

Good morning from Fort Worth, TX.

Adam and I flew here yesterday.  I vacation where WGU has events and there's a graduation this weekend.  (I considered graduating because WGU graduates can graduate anywhere, but I decided I was not looking for the hassle.) 

We left from Provo.  Adam is the very king of cutting it close at airports (I'm not, Mark calls it exposure therapy for me).  The ladies at the TSA checkpoint lectured us about being late and then the flight hadn't even begun boarding.

Adam said he wanted to go back and say, "See?!?"

-We rented a car (not from Avis, thank you very much) and stopped at a Starbucks to use the wi-fi for a meeting Adam had.  I stayed in the car and called my mom.

My first time in the Dallas/Fort Worth area besides just being at the airport, it was kind of hard to get a sense of it.  Water towers, mega churches and lots of trees covering the city.  That's about what I saw.  

We checked into our hotel which is the same kind we stay at in California and it reminded me of QE.  The carpet is the same in the hall and it reminded me of her happily bouncing down the hall saying, "Off we go!  Off we go!" because we were heading to the pool.

We walked in the cool evening and I was wearing a denim jacket and it was the first time since last spring that I really needed a jacket and I was glad about it.  We explored a bit and liked what we saw.  Our destination was Velvet Tacos for dinner, which Adam had been to before.  He said we would do a taste test between there and Torchy's a different day.

But then Velvet Tacos was so good, he said, "Never mind, we don't need to go to Torchy's.  This is better."

I said, "Then let's come back here."

I would very gladly get that salmon taco again.

We walked back to our hotel and stopped to use my bird ID app because there was one spot where the trees were brimming with loud birds.  They were great tailed grackles and I googled it and a collection of grackles is called a plague.

I hope the grackles don't find out about that.  It might hurt their feelings.

Today, Adam has some work stuff and in the afternoon we are going to the Stockyards with one of his teams.  

I brought my embroidery.  Like I told Marianne, "Tell me you're a middle-aged woman without telling me  you're a middle-aged woman."  Turns out you can fly with scissors if they are under 4 inches.

Game changer.

Moms

Yesterday my mom commented on my blogpost:  I think your hair is lovely.

Most days it decidedly isn't, but my mom wouldn't believe that.

It reminded me of a conversation I had with Braeden a few weeks ago.  He was telling me that he got his courage up and asked one of his mentors what kind of university he could expect to get hired at, based on his work in his PhD program.

I said, "You should have just asked me."

I honestly didn't know why he needed to ask anyone else.  I know that answer.  Anywhere on this planet would be lucky to get my boy.

Braeden said, "I didn't ask you because you would have said I could get hired anywhere."

I said, "Well, you could."

I could tell Braeden didn't believe me any more than I believe my mom.

Here's the thing I always tell my kids though.  (It's a quote from the show Community that used to be on TV.)

Anyone who spent 9 months inside of me isn't good, they're great!

And if mothers think their children are amazing, it's just about quadrupled for grandmothers.  If QE ever needs a shot of confidence, I hope she asks me.

Because that girl's future is so bright, I need sunglasses.

Curly

 One of my students sat across my desk from me yesterday and asked, "Is it hard to have curly hair?"

Did she mean, "Is it hard to live up to expectations?"

Maybe she meant, "Is it hard to achieve curliness with your hair?"

Or, "Is it hard to walk around looking like that all day?"

Probably she meant the last one.  Sometimes I glance in the mirror partway through the day and I think, "Is that my hair?!?"

Every day is a new adventure.

Weekend

 Saturday morning I woke up crying from my dream.  That's an illustrious way to begin a day (or a blogpost).  I was dreaming that Braeden was leaving home.

I told Braeden about the dream and he said, "Usually when you wake up from a bad dream, you can feel relieved that it was only a dream, but not that one."

Nope.

The reality is that not only has Braeden left home, but his equally traitorous siblings have as well.

Sunday night was no better on the dream front.  I dreamt that my friend, Jamie, and I were in an elevator at school (there isn't one) and there was some kind of malfunction and the elevator tipped over and ended up upside down.  When we were finally rescued, Jamie went to the hospital, but I went back to my classroom because I had left my class alone (while I was joyriding in the non-existent elevator?).

When I woke up from that dream, I realized that the headache I had in the dream was not in fact from being upside down, but from the bump I got on my head when we landed, because I hadn't stayed upside down.

Slowly, it dawned on me that it had been a dream.

I don't know what any of this says about my mental state, but I remember very few of my dreams, so when I remember them, I guess I blog about them....

Besides my wacky dreams, we had a pretty good weekend.  A highlight for sure was going to the Orem temple with Mark to do baptisms.  He baptized and confirmed me.  The temple was beautiful and I loved the way I felt when we were inside and I loved being there with Mark and Adam.

Being in the temple with my children feels like all my dreams (the good kind) are coming true.

Adam and I, after careful deliberation, picked out a new Christmas tree for the living room.  We wanted it fairly tall and quite skinny (but not too skinny) with warm white LED lights.  Knowing what you want so specifically makes such hunts easier and harder, but we finally ended up with what we think is a winner.

I will love festooning it with red and white and straw ornaments.

Speaking of trees, when we were talking to Braeden and QE on Saturday we told them that we were on the hunt for a tree and QE said she wanted a pink Christmas tree.  I sent her this picture.

Braeden said she said, "Another one!" which is exactly what she says whenever I read her a story.  

I told Braeden, "Get the biggest aluminum Christmas tree you can find, Charlie Brown.  Maybe painted pink! Do something right for a change, Charlie Brown!"

I don't think he'll listen to me.

At church on Sunday, Adam got up to close the meeting and said, "Part of my responsibility as bishop is to correct false doctrine when it is taught in sacrament meeting."  There was the slightest intake of air in the room.

Adam continued, "Reddick said the bishop must hate him because he had to speak and he is teaching the lesson in priest's quorum, but the opposite is true."

I think I was the only person in the room who knew Adam well enough to not have a mini panic attack, thinking he was actually going to correct false doctrine right there in public.

Our ward choir resumed practicing yesterday and I went in solidarity with Emma because it means so much to her when people go to choir.

There were four of us who showed up.  We struggled through one of the songs and the choir director said, "That was pretty."

The accompanist, who has what no one would consider a poker face, shook her head no and said, "Maybe it will sound pretty eventually."

It took all my self discipline not to start giggling because I knew I would never stop.

Later in the afternoon I caused chaos on Family Search by messing up some merges.  I couldn't recreate what I had done because I hadn't written down ID numbers in my haste (I always write down ID numbers, but I was rushing because it was time to get ready for dinner).  Silly sad Thelma.  It felt even worse because it was Marie Louise's family I was messing with.

Our dinner guests came and we had a nice time.  After they left, Adam cleaned up the kitchen and I called a Family Search helper.  I explained my folly and she said, "Oh, I know.  I have been there."

So kind.

It made me want to be like that, even when people are hasty with merges on Family Search.