Braeden

I miss Braeden.  He's been gone almost two weeks and I've had to subsist on text messages and a few brief phone calls.  EFY counselors are busy.

Here's a little update on him though (in honor of his half birthday, which is today).

He's big, which is good news and bad news.  The bad news is that airplane seats aren't super comfortable.  When you luck out with the bulkhead seat, it's noteworthy enough to text a picture to your family.

The good news is that I worry less about him because he's big.  He told me about his first night in San Antonio.  They were staying on a college campus.  It was around midnight and he walked some girl  counselors back to their dorms and then walked alone to his. (At what point do I start referring to people Braeden's age as men and women instead of boys and girls?  I don't know.)  He said it was dark and creepy and he started singing out loud when he was walking past some empty tennis courts and a pond.

I'm glad he's big.  A big kid striding along and singing is probably not going to be an easy target for, say, a kidnapper you know?

On the flight to Texas there were 76 EFY counselors in their EFY shirts.  Can you imagine?  You've probably never met a more energetic and cheerful group.  At least they were all exhausted which probably made them slightly less exuberant.  That many well rested EFY counselors could really overwhelm a Boeing 737.

They took vans to church.  In the ward Braeden was visiting almost all the young men were at a high adventure activity so the EFY counselors blessed and passed the sacrament.  Braeden texted us this (taken presumably before church started).

You and I both know he was raised better than to take pictures during sacrament meeting right?  Right?!?

The next weekend he spent time with his roommate Kinamo and friend Alexa who both live in San Antonio.

They went to the Alamo.

humidity = tight curls for my biggest boy

Also he helped Kinamo teach a primary class and drew a picture in primary which he texted me.

I am including it in this blog post because I recognize fine art when I see it.

His third cousin, Taylor, was in his company the first week.  He'd gone on missionary visits with Taylor's brother, Elder Dahl, when he was home for one of his medical hiatuses.  Their mom messaged me from Florida and said, "I think we need to be in each other's lives."

So we may get together later this summer when Elder Dahl becomes a UVU student.  His dad, Andrew, is my second cousin and his dad, (I think Jim?) is my dad's cousin and his dad, Lawrence, is my grandpa's brother.

Who knows how many third cousins just lurk around and you don't realize it, you know?

This week, Kinamo's little sister is in Braeden's company:

So it's a small world after all.

Here's what I'm glad about today: Braeden is my boy (and he will be home Saturday).  The older he gets the more I enjoy being his mother.  I would say the more I love him, but I don't know.  The love I felt for him has been pretty intense right from the start.

He's Braeden and that's always been exactly who I have wanted him to be.

A word of caution

Some people (me) might refer to Braeden as sentimental.  Some people (Mark) might refer to him as a hoarder.

In either case, Braeden, sweet and nostalgic boy that he is, saves stuff.  All kinds of stuff.  He is the king of mementos.

I got a big plastic bin and decided to call it Braeden's Wife's Problem.  When I was in a mad dash scramble to get Braeden room/museum-of-everything-he-holds-dear ready for guests last week,  I just started throwing things into the bin.

Emma, lyrical girl that she is, decided to name Braeden's Wife's Problem Brianna Wimbledon Perry and then write a limerick in her honor.

Brianna Wimbledon Perry

Liked to drink cooking sherry

She thought it would work

To get hair off her shirt

But poor Brianne's shirt remained hairy

Mark made a suggestion for a new limerick where Brianna was allergic to dairy.

Emma ran with it.

Brianna Wimbledon Perry

Was very allergic to dairy

But she still had some cream

And vomited green

And frankly it was kind of scary

All of this is to to say you may or may not to marry into this family, Braeden's Future Wife.

St. George in July

Or in other words, why do we do these things to ourselves....

Last Thursday we drove to St. George.  It was about 110 degrees there.  We met Scott and Lisa at Pizza Pie Cafe to load up before our hike in the Narrows.  We packed our lunches and readied everything for the next day.

Friday we left early for Zion National Park.  It was a beautiful, hot and sunny day.  After finally finally getting to the hike after a long wait for the shuttle (Zion National Park:  not an original idea), I was hot.

I don't usually enjoy swimming all that much.  To me, you swim to cool off and there are seldom times when I am hot enough that it merits a swim.

This time I was hot enough.

Also, hiking in the Narrows reminded me of Boulder Creek which I grew up swimming in with my sisters and cousins.  Earlier, I was a little nervous about the trip and afraid I would be the weak link (I wasn't) or that it wouldn't be that fun, but it was!  I had a great time.

Mark is asserting his dominance by T-posing (like all the cool kids are doing) and I'm T-posing right back at him because who is the dominant one?  The one brave enough to go under the cold water, that's who.

I was the first one to get submerged in the water which makes me the Champion Wild Cat according to my sisters.

Lisa came around the corner and saw me in the water and she said, "I thought you said you were indoorsy?!?"

And I am but I grew up swimming in water like that and I was hot.  Two reasons to embrace the outdoors.

The world is a beautiful place and Zion National Park is one of its prettiest spots.

After our day of adventuring we were starving and tired and really enjoyed our dinner at Cracker Barrel.

Saturday Adam and the kids went to Sand Hollow Reservoir with Scott and Lisa and I was back to being indoorsy.  I stayed in the hotel and worked on my online math classes while they played on wave runners.  They helped me pack up the van before they left and here is a text Adam sent me of Mark:

Mark is maybe the only person I know who would drink hot chocolate in July.

Later that afternoon we drove home.  We had foolishly turned our AC all the way off in our house and it was 93 degrees in our upstairs halls.  We are amateurs.

So it was good to be home, but not really.

I slept in the basement.

Old friends

Apparently this is the summer of reconnecting with old friends.  And I love it.  Last week we had dinner with the Hollingshauses.  Wade was Adam were mission companions (twice) in Finland and Wade and Jennine lived in the same ward as we did when we were young married couples at BYU.  We had our first babies while living in that ward together.

After all these years, we met up at their house.  Wade is the department chair of the theater department at BYU and Jennine is a make-up artist.  (They met in the BYU Theater Department way back when.)  She also works on Studio C.  She is responsible for the prosthetics and other fanciness.  It was really fun to catch up with them and hear about what they've done in the passing years and about their children.  (Emma and their son knew a lot of the same theater people.)

Some people are just really comfortable to pick up with where you left off.

Adam and Wade enjoyed reminiscing about their missions.  They spoke more Finnish than I've heard Adam speak in years and years.  They talked about towns and people and places they remembered.  Adam brought some pictures to show that his mom sent him just recently.  Coincidentally they were of his time with Wade.  Wade pulled out his photo album and we looked at pictures of Adam and Wade.  A very young Adam and Wade.

They reminded each other of things they had forgotten.  For example, Wade reminded Adam about the time he wrote a Dear John letter to one of the missionaries in their district in the MTC.  Adam was responsible for picking up the mail so he talked them into canceling his letter at the post office and he delivered it to the elder.  Except it was a Dear John from his parents.  According to the letter Adam had written posing as this poor guy's parents, they were going to move on and thought he should do the same.  When the missionary returned, they said, they could see how it was going and if they were really meant to be an eternal family.

And I guess the kid didn't realize it was a joke at first.  (Didn't he recognize it was not the right handwriting?  I don't know.)

Also, when they were in the mission office together in Helsinki, Adam wrote a letter posing as an area authority (which seems like a naughty thing to do!) and in the letter he said that he (the area authority) was going to be touring the mission and he wanted this certain elder to be his tour guide.  This elder was just about to go home and would have to extend his mission if he accepted the assignment.

Wade said they showed the mission president (who was also a jokester) and the mission president, with a gleam in his eye, wanted to be the one to deliver the letter to the unsuspecting elder.  He agonized about the decision before they finally told him it wasn't real.

These stories about Adam don't surprise me in the least.  I knew him back then.

It's really fun to get together with other people who knew him back then too.

*

**

Yesterday morning I woke up with sore hips and a sore knee (the same dumb knee I hurt a few years ago).  Then I remembered I was going to see Stephanie.  She is a wizard and fixes me.

She showed up in her jeep with the top off because that is just Stephanie in a nutshell.  She said, "I forgot my razor.  Can I shave my legs?"

It makes me happy to have the kind of friends that are kind of like sisters and you lead them through your house to your bathroom and produce a disposable razor and it's the most normal thing in the world.

Stephanie and I have logged so much friendship time together that anytime we're together is a treat and any favor we ask each other is considered done.

We went to our neighborhood breakfast and I rode in the jeep.  Scott said we looked like Thelma and Stephanie Barbies.  I told Stephanie that the jeep made me feel like I'm a lot cooler than I am.

After we'd withstood all the heat and sunshine we could at the breakfast we retreated back here for the AC.  I lay on the floor and Stephanie killed me massaged me while I writhed on the floor.  She is so tiny but so very strong!  And she completely fixed my messed up muscles.

She'll be back to Utah in a few weeks and we promised each other a walk (preferably early morning).  I told her to bring her dog Squire who we used to walk with every day.  He's an old friend too.

Independence Day

Sometimes I get irritated by all the anger and malice on places like Facebook about politics.

Other times I feel super grateful that we live in a place where people can have different opinions and speak their minds and even be rude if they want to.  No one's going to be punished for disagreeing and that is a blessing.

Disagreement is our birthright.  (Let's just be nice about it?)

Pleasant Grove can do some things really well and one of them is the 4th of July.

Sunday we walked over to the canyon and watched them bring the little flag up the street.

not my photo--see the photo credit watermark

That's the "little" flag, Little Betsy.  The entire thing fits in the blue field of Big Betsy.  And that is a steep street.  The bagpipe players were the real MVPs.

The streets were lined with people wearing red white and blue and little kids waving flags.  There were people on motorcycles, in military vehicles and a firetruck.

Today we celebrate.  Adam's brother Scott and Lisa, Scott's friend, are here staying with us.  My beloved friend Stephanie is in Provo.  She's joining us today too.  There will be the neighborhood breakfast, hot dogs on the grill and the best possible place to view fireworks--our deck.

This morning, by the dawn's early light, I watched the flag unfurl and heard The Star Spangled Banner sung.  I was standing on my front porch.

After I went to sit on the deck and I was admiring the view of the temple which also fills me with gratitude for our country--freedom of religion.

That's when I heard the planes.  They flew over the canyon but then circled around and flew right over our house.

Pleasant Grove knows how to do the 4th of July.

Books I read in June 2018

Real Moms by Lisa Valentine Clark ****

I read this book last month and forgot to include it in last month's post.  I loved it!  I used to read her blog years ago when she had a blog.  It was the same engaging style as her blog plus Emma is friends with her son in real life so it was kind of fun to read about her parenting in that respect too.

Remarkable Utah Women by Christy Karras ***

We read this one for book club and I liked it.  Apparently there is one for every state which I think would be interesting to read--maybe after all the Newberys....

It made for a very interesting discussion amongst Mormon women who live in Utah and experience varying levels of freaking out about polygamy.  There was also some really good insight which is why I love book club.

Lady Susan by Jane Austen **

I decided to reread everything by Jane Austen this summer.  (I'll try.)  I read Lady Susan first because it was written first.  It's by far my least favorite but Jane Austen was a teenager when she wrote it so who am I to judge?

Thin, Rich, Pretty by Beth Harbison ***

Funny and entertaining (although not always great language--warning so I remember that in the future) but I liked it.  It's about three women who met at summer camp as young teenagers and then the story follows them into their 30s.  One wanted more than anything to be pretty, one wanted to be thin and one wanted to be rich.  But it didn't work out like they thought it would.  It was a good book about just being you.

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer ***

This is a Newbery honor book and a book Mark has been wanting me to read it because he loves it.  It's a dystopian book about a clone which is why it took me so long to agree to read it.  I liked the book though.  It was an interesting story with good characters and plenty of suspense.

Touching the Void by Joe Simpson **

This was another book club book.  It wasn't too long and I skimmed it because 1) I'm not super into mountain climbing and 2) I wanted to pass it on to the next lady in my book club.  Besides the skimming, it was a very fascinating story about a man who broke his leg while climbing in the Andes.  His partner thought he was dead so cut the rope that was tethering them together.  (That's a really terrible description of what happened but I'm not great at book reviews even though I persist.)  It didn't look good at all but the man who broke his leg wrote the book so spoiler alert, he survives.  I was at once impressed by human survival and convinced I never want to be a mountain climber.

What's been going on

Last week:

Mark had three days of "roading" at 6:00 AM which almost killed us dead.  How on earth did we survive early morning seminary?

Sometimes I'm so very grateful we live in Utah!  (Release time seminary!)

Roading is part of driver's ed.  Mark went out with a teacher onto the freeway and did brave things like a U turn on State Street.  (That's why they do it at 6:00 AM.  Way less traffic.)

Even though getting up that early almost killed us dead.

The first day of roading, Mark drove to Timponogas High School which is where he needed to be.  Driving with a bleary eyed 15 year old when you just woke up yourself and are nervous about the kid driving anyway is not a winning combination.

Let's just say I was grouchy.

The second day of roading, Adam took Mark and Mark drove and Adam didn't say a word because neither Mark nor Adam are too excitable.

Let's just say I'm the excitable one.

That night, Friday, we invited the Porters to go to MOD pizza with us.  We are maybe going too often.  But they'd never been.  All our other kids were otherwise employed (literally--they all have jobs) so we took Mark and their youngest, Jack, who just turned 14.

We had a great time, because MOD and good friends and marionberry lemonade.  Then we visited their daughter, Louisa, at her job, a Hawaiian shave ice stand.  Jack wanted to go to his very first stake dance which was Saturday night.  He wanted a wingman and Mark, who's never shown the slightest interest in going to a dance, agreed to go.

The third day of roading, Saturday, he finished a little early and we were going to go to Provo to pick up Braeden but we had extra time.  I offered Mark breakfast at Kneader's.  It wasn't open yet.

That made me feel a little sorry for myself that I was out in the world and Kneader's wasn't even open yet.

We had bagels at Einstein Brothers instead and sent each other memes in the car while we waited for Braeden to be ready.

I can't tell you how many times Mark has sent this same meme to me.

The problem is that I laugh every time.

It was so nice to get Braeden back, however briefly.  There's a lot to love about that kid.  Every week I cry a little when he tells me about EFY.  I love to see the ways he is learning and how his empathy is expanding.

It's not all uplifting and spiritual experiences though.  He told us about some boys who got a frisbee stuck on a roof.  In an attempt to get it down, they tied their lanyards (complete with room keys and meal cards) together and threw them up on the roof.  Of course they got stuck too.  They sheepishly went to tell Braeden.  The great thing about counselors who were very recently teenagers is that Braeden didn't get upset (which I can't really imagine anyway) but was sympathetic.  Later he met up with Sam (who is attending summer term at BYU) and Braeden boosted Sam up and Sam was able to retrieve everything from the roof.

I guess a takeaway is when you're a 14 year old boy with bad ideas it pays to know big boys.

It was a family effort to get Braeden turned around from one week at EFY to two weeks at EFY in San Antonio.  I did laundry and Emma and I helped him pack (and I also decided for some reason it was a good day to go through every stitch of clothing that boy owns and have him say yeah or nay.  His closet and drawers were bulging with clothes he no longer wears.)  I would toss things to Emma and she would fold them and Braeden tried to stay awake.  Meanwhile, after mowing the lawn and doing some yard work, Adam and Mark drove back to Provo to return Braeden's room key which he'd forgotten to turn in.  (Braeden's forgetfulness:  a big reason why he can be sympathetic to imprudent teenage boys.)

We took Braeden to the airport and it was fun to all be together for a little while.  You may or may not believe this, but we stopped at MOD for lunch.  Admitting you have a problem is the first step, right?

But Braeden and Emma hadn't gone the last time and Emma hadn't gone the last three times we'd gone and she was feeling slighted.

We can't have that!

Getting Braeden ready culminated in Adam insisting we buy Braeden some new shoes.  Braeden insisted he didn't need new shoes but guess who won that one?  Adam, who never wants to spend money on himself, will always want to spend money on someone he loves who needs something.  At the shoe store, Adam was explaining to the nervous looking salesclerk that Braeden was on his feet all week on college campuses and that he needed sturdy shoes.  The salesclerk asked, "EFY counselor?"  Yes! Then we noticed Braeden was wearing an EFY t-shirt with a big EFY emblazoned at eye level for the guy (he was pretty short).

So I guess we could have led with, "He's an EFY counselor..."

Sometimes we forget we live in Utah.

We were at the New Balance store in Fort Union.  Emma sent me this on Snapchat:

Is she the only one that noticed NB combined with Union Park would become bunion?  And they're a shoe store?  People ought to run their signs by people like Emma.

Also their huge balloon letters on their lawn.  I saw a collection of balloons that read GUESS WHOSE 40?

Um...it's my 40?  It's your 40?  That guy's 40?

After dropping Braeden at the airport we took Emma to the world's biggest Costco.  She wasn't as impressed with it as Mark and Adam and I thought she should be.  I always think it's a fun place to go though.

From there we drove through Sugar House and saw where Adam works (Emma hadn't been before) and Adam stopped at a rug store.

It may seem like a strange choice because we aren't really in the market for a rug but it was an amazing store and Adam is a spontaneous guy with a thirst for adventure that is sometimes quenched by a stop at a rug store.  It was Adib's Rug Gallery in an old converted movie theater.  It was pretty amazing.

not my picture--I found it online

If you ever need a handmade Persian rug and have tens of thousands of dollars to spend, you should definitely go.

Our last stop was the grocery store where Emma sent me this:

One of the delights of modern life is getting texts and snapchats from your kids when you are together and they are slyly noticing and commenting on things you don't notice.

At home, Emma went to hang out with friends and Mark didn't get ready for the dance.  Unlike me and my first stake dance, Mark took zero time with any sort of preparation.  He mostly was interested in the refreshments.

Which surprised exactly no one.